Wednesday, September 24, 2025

The Arabic Store That Warms My Heart


Last year I found out that there's an Arabic grocery store near our favorite restaurant. So every time we go and dine in at that particular restaurant, I take that opportunity to buy something from that Arabic grocery store. 

I can say that going to that place somehow heals my heart, which is longing for Makkah and Madinah. The smell, the vibes and the items there definitely make me smile from ear to ear. Seeing almost everything sold there with arabic text on it is definitely heartwarming. 

I don't intend to write a lot here, just wanna share the photos I captured a few days ago. So, let the pictures talk! 😄 

didn't expect that the price is only rm13 ++

planned to buy this to eat with plain yogurt but next time insha Allah

would definitely buy this if we don't have one at home

banana milk. yummy!

a must-buy item for a milk lover like me

powdered vanilla. already have one at home.

my first time seeing baking soda with arabic text on it

not sure what's this

snapped a pic coz it looks interesting 

cute cookie

gonna try this later insha Allah. 

love the packaging. <3

will come again insha Allah

so i bought these 4 items. ♥️


That's all. Bye for now!

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Tawbah; from 11 Years Ago

the picture i edited 11 years ago for my business: sajidahijab60 (later changed to elsajida)

So Facebook reminds me of this post I've written exactly 11 years ago; 21st September 2014. I'll share it here. 

*****

Bismillah. 

Whenever we think about all the sins that we’ve done, do our hearts ache? Do we feel remorse when we recall the mistakes we committed a long time ago? 

Hopefully we do. And it will be better if the pain we feel leads us to crying and wailing to Allah, pleading with Him to forgive each and every sin that has been written in our books.

We might forget certain sins that we’ve done, due to the countless number of them, but truthfully, Allah never forgets. He remembers every wrong deed of ours, no matter how long we’ve been drifted away from all the black days of ours.

Among the conditions of the tawbah to be accepted is for us to feel regret. And one way to prove that we really do feel regret about our sins is by having the pain residing in the heart. 

Wallahi it’s not easy to have such a feeling. It’s hard for us to honestly feel contrite about our past sins. It’s hard, but not impossible. The fact that you feel like repenting is already a sign that Allah wants to forgive you.

We really need to remind ourselves to have a correct understanding of how to repent. Don’t ask whether Allah will accept our repentance, rather, ask ourselves whether we’ve repented correctly.

He is waiting for us to return to Him. He is very happy when we want to return to the right path. May we all gather under His mercy one day. Amin.

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Growing Up Together; My Big Sis and I

Can’t believe it has been almost a year since I last wrote something here. I do have so many things to write, but I rarely use my iPad. Why does it matter? Well, because for blogging, I still and will always prefer typing on keyboard rather than keypad, hence the iPad.

So today is my big sister’s birthday and I guess I finally have a strong reason to find time to write something here. She’s four years older than me and that means she turns 42 this year. Alhamdulillah. In my birthday wish for her in our family group today, I did mention this sentence: “terima kasih jadi kakak yang sangat baik” coz she definitely is! Allahumma baarik.

Me & elder sis. Terengganu.

I can still remember how she never felt that it’s embarrassing to bring a little sister everywhere she goes to hang out with friends. To think of it, it’s actually funny that she brought me along with her even to meet her besties at their homes. You can ask me about them, I know their names, their details and even their siblings’ names. 😂 

My sister was such a chatty person (with someone she’s comfortable with) and that’s why she talked about literally everything to me. I remember when we were during primary school, mom used to scold us for kept getting carried away with our crappy conversations and delayed our prayers because of that. Astaghfirullahal ‘adzim. 

As I get older, I realized that what my sister did (bringing me everywhere) was something very thoughtful and amazing. It was something that I never see her friends did. And I myself never did that! 

The day she got married. ;’)

Well, as for me it’s because me and my younger sister has a huge age gap between us which is; 14 years. I was already staying in a hostel when she was born hence the bond we had wasn’t as close as what I had with my elder sister, unfortunately. 

Back to my elder sister, I think one of the reasons we are so close is because we’ve spent many years living in the same room. She’s my best friend and she’s the one who understands every lame joke I make. And as millenials, we enjoyed watching a lot of TV series & movies in every language possible; Malay, English, Chinese (Singapore/Hong Kong/Taiwan), Tamil, Hindi, Japanese, Indonesian. 

Sometimes when we loved a movie so much, we would watch it again and again till we memorize the script by heart and would act as if we were the main characters. 😂 We enjoyed watching our favorite shows on TV, VCRs, and CDs. And not to forget, we spent a lot of time too, listening to the radio at night as well as our favorite boy bands’s cassettes. 

Little sis, big sis and me. <3

Oh how I wish I can go back to those times for a while. They were perfect, because all siblings lived under one roof and our parents were with us, healthy and strong. 😢 Little did I know that getting older somehow means you’ll miss your past even more and it hurts. 

I still have so many things to write about me and my sisters but I guess I need to stop here for now. Hopefully this post won’t be the only post for this year. 

Well, till we meet again. ❤️ 

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Hatiku Tertinggal di Istanbul.

Bismillah.

Kebelakangan ini, terlalu banyak perkara yang mengingatkan saya kepada negara Turkiye, lantas membuatkan hati ini sangat rindukan tempat itu, khususnya Istanbul. Terasa ingin catat sesuatu tentang kenangan berada di sana setakat yang saya ingat. 

Ketika berada di Istanbul, saya tak ada kongsikan tentangnya di mana-mana platform social media milik saya. Sekadar tersimpan dalam handphone dan kamera.  



Tapi tak banyak gambar yang masih ada. Video? Langsung tak ada. Kamera yang saya gunakan untuk ambil gambar di sana rosak & gambar tak dapat retrieve. Yang dalam handphone ada sedikit, tetapi qadarullah, handphone tu pula dicuri orang. 

Dalam handphone suami juga tak ada gambar atau video kerana ketika itu, suami lebih memilih untuk menikmati realiti dan melakarnya dalam memori, bukan teknologi. Lagipun baginya, cukup saya seorang yang ambil gambar  

Kami ke sana pada 12 April 2014, ketika musim bunga di Turkiye. Sebenarnya Turkiye adalah sebagai persinggahan dalam perjalanan kami menunaikan umrah. Jadi kami hanya berada di sana selama 4 hari.

Those dates. <3

Tak puas rasanya tapi syukur Alhamdulillah dapat juga merasa berada di negara 4 musim ketika usia sudah dewasa. Walaupun saya pernah tinggal di UK tetapi sedikit pun saya tak ingat tentangnya memandangkan waktu itu saya belum pun mencecah umur setahun. 

Saya masih ingat lagi, ketika kapal terbang hampir mendarat, suami pesan kepada saya yang lebih kurang maksudnya 

"Appreciate the moment when you step out of the airport, the moment of being in a foreign country for the first time. Embrace your first ever experience of breathing the air of a four-season country. The feeling is precious."

Suami saya dah banyak pergi ke luar negara semasa zaman bujangnya. Jadi tahap keterujaannya ketika kami ke Turkiye tidak setinggi saya. 

Antara momen yang membahagiakan saya & tersimpan rapi dalam memori ketika berada di sana (tetapi tiada gambar) ialah:

1) pertama kali keluar dari Istanbul Airport dan merasa kesejukan luar negara. (Musim bunga tapi tetap sejuk sehingga bibir kering dan sedikit merekah).

2) pertama kali naik bas di atas jalan kota Istanbul, dengan pemandangan kiri kanan yang mesmerizing, sedikit berbukit dengan kelihatan masjid berkubah indah dari kejauhan. 

3) naik feri untuk pergi ke Turkiye bahagian Eropah, dapat turun bas dan berjalan dalam feri, menikmati pandangan langit biru yang sangat cantik dan pertama kali dapat tengok burung camar (seagull) dengan jarak dekat. 

4) naik kapal merentasi Selat Bosforus. Tour guide (Ahmad) cakap, kalau kamu beruntung, boleh nampak dolfin. Waktu tu saya terus berdoa untuk diberi peluang tengok dolfin dan Alhamdulillah ada 3-4 ekor dolfin yang berlumba-lumba di sekeliling kapal. Pemandangan deretan rumah agam di sepanjang selat juga terasa seperti dalam mimpi. It was so surreal. 

5) Dapat menjejakkan kaki dalam Aya Sofea. Waktu itu ia masih belum jadi masjid. 

6) Ada satu kenangan agak rare, iaitu lelaki tempatan yang kami temui dalam Aya Sofea (dia tertarik nak bergambar dengan anak saya yang ketika itu berumur 2 tahun lebih), kami temui juga dia di Turkiye bahagian Eropah keesokan harinya dan kami bertegur sapa (dia cam anak saya). Sebenarnya bukan lelaki itu sahaja yang tertarik & nak bergambar ketika melihat anak saya, agak ramai orang tempatan yang berbuat demikian. Saya agak, sebab anak saya pakai tudung dan di sana mungkin ketika itu ia bukan satu kebiasaan bagi mereka untuk pakaikan tudung untuk anak perempuan yang masih kecil. 

7) Pemandangan jalan kecil belakang bilik hotel kami yang saya sangat suka. Jalan yang sedikit menurun bukit, dengan pintu-pintu rumah yang cantik beserta bunga di sana sini dan kerusi meja kecil untuk berehat di luar. Ternyata saya jatuh cinta & rindu untuk berada di tempat sedemikian sekali lagi. 

Dah agak panjang rasanya saya menulis. Saya akan kongsikan gambar-gambar di sana yang masih ada dalam simpanan. 














That's all. Ada sedikit rasa tak percaya yang after 10 years barulah saya berkongsi tentang pengalaman berada di Istanbul. Semoga ada rezeki untuk ke sana lagi. Amin.



Saturday, July 20, 2024

My bookish journaling story


As far as I can remember, I was a sticker hoarder when I was 10 years old. I even had a few sticker albums. And one of the reasons why I was so into stickers at that time was; my childhood bff had the same hobby. 🥰 

Fast forward, being a form 4 & form 5 student in sekolah agama with many tazkirah sessions made me someone who loves to write in notebooks (to jot down tazkirah takeaways) hence the urge to buy them again and again.  

And when I reached my early adulthood, I've fallen in love with writing whatever I have in mind, be it in diaries or blogs. I've found my happiness in spilling out my thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences, and almost everything. The secret stuffs would go straight into my diaries 🤫 and the ilmiah stuffs would be published to my blogs.

Let's cut the story short; when I was 27, I started my own hijab business with the tagline "empowering muslimah". My goal wasn't only to sell but to inspire other muslimahs and encourage them to be proud of the muslimah 'label' that they have, as well as to keep on trying to be the best version of themselves. 

Since then I realized that I love everything about muslimah including the merchandises, stationeries, stickers and such. 

Books? Hmm where should I begin... In short, growing up has brought me to the path where I am constantly in need of reading. To conclude, let me just say that the book journaling IG that I've created is a comfort space dedicated for the little me, teenage me and current me. 🥲  

I have many IG accounts and most of them are work related. So to have this kind of account simply to celebrate a part of myself feels so good and for me; it's an act of self love. ♥️

p/s: my bookish journaling ig: instagram.com/sajidajournals

I write journal only for the fiction books I've read.

My favorite view. 



Friday, March 1, 2024

Biarkan Hati Turut Merasa

Pernah tak rasa macam, taknak scroll social media tentang Gaza sebab taknak sedih atau broken bila tengok apa yang berlaku di sana? 

Saya akui saya pernah rasa macam tu. Tapi ada satu post ni dia cakap sesuatu tentang perkara ni. Katanya; jangan elak dari tengok. Let our heart feel the pain, let our eyes shed tears, let their stories shatter our hearts. 

Kenapa?

Satu, sebab kita satu umat satu jasad, jadi kita perlu turut rasa kesakitan tu walau takkan 100% sama dengan apa yang mereka rasa. Juga untuk bina empati terhadap saudara kita di sana yang sedang mewakili kita untuk berjuang lawan musuh. 

Dua, sebab hati kita ni akan semakin kuat bila ia hancur & bila ia lalui sakit demi sakit. Hati kita takkan jadi kuat kalau ia tak diuji atau bila kita terlalu cuba untuk jaga dia dari sebarang rasa sedih, kecewa dan sebagainya. 

Bila hati hancur, ia akan cuba bina kekuatan semula untuk bangkit. Dari situ kita belajar untuk bina hati dan dalaman yang kuat. Biarkan airmata kita terus mengalir untuk Gaza, untuk Palestin. Memang selayaknya airmata kita dikeluarkan untuk mereka. 

Perjuangan ini bukan perjuangan mereka sahaja, tetapi juga perjuangan kita. Selain berdoa & jihad al maal (jihad dari segi kewangan untuk bantu mereka terus hidup), kita juga perlu turut terkesan dengan derita mereka. 

Bukan maksudnya kita sengaja menyakiti diri atau menangis meratap sehingga terabai apa yang sepatutnya kita buat, tapi dalam hati kita perlu ada rasa terkesan dengan apa yang terjadi dan perlu usaha untuk sama-sama berjuang mengikut kemampuan yang ada. 

Free Pal3stine.



Wednesday, January 24, 2024

That low-key life.

It's interesting to see people yang choose to do job yang memerlukan mereka expose diri publicly tapi personal life mereka very private. 

I mean, people can see the works that they do but can hardly see them uploading stuffs related to their personal life on their social media. 

For me it's empowering sebab dia letak boundaries tu, and it's kinda attractive.

I aspire to be like them. Not in term of buat kerja yang require me to expose myself to public, but in term of staying low-key in life. 

Walaupun I update my social media here & there, I am trying my best untuk make sure the content that I share is only related to my work or at least things that don't reveal much about my personal life. 

I am at that phase where I feel it's better if people don't know much about me, including my real name, husband's name and daughters' names. Bukan rahsia, yang tahu, tahu. Yang tak tahu, tiada keperluan untuk tahu. 

To be honest, it's challenging though. Sure I am not the type of person yang biasa share gambar personal in my social media accounts, tapi my 'problem' is; I love writing. Sometimes banyak menulis sampai tak sedar tertulis tentang perkara yang tak perlu ditulis pun. 

So far I can say that I've tried my best to make sure no one really knows about the big things that are currently happening in my life, the challenges I am facing, the difficulties I have to overcome, the big tests I have to deal with since many years ago, and so on so forth. 

Ada masa bila tertekan, terasa juga mahu luahkan di social media tapi, I know I will regret it so I don't. Thanks to Him and thanks to journaling. 

Anyways, I hope I will see more and more growth in me regarding this. 

p/s: copied from my X account hence the caca marba in the languages I use. 


Stadium JDT