baby, Life, Love, Writing

Writing update

Raidah Shah Idil

So it’s been a while. And yes. I’m PREGNANT. Again. Yup, baby #3, alhamdulilah, due this September. Please make dua for me, baby, my 15 month old and my almost 4 year old. We are gonna be in for a partayyy with 3 kids under 4.5!!!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/4ewqgq/yeah_its_party_all_night_on_weekend/

I’m working on my first novel – a YA multi-generational family mystery with a backdrop of Malaysian magic realism. Have I finished planning it? Nope. Because I am a panster, with a vague novel outline. SO I kind of know where my novel is headed-ish. I’m 28,389/60,000 words in, so I’m almost 50% in! PRAY FOR ME TO FINISH THIS BEFORE I GIVE BIRTH. Plz. Thanks.

So my plan is to keep at 500 words a day, and I either write in the mornings when my eldest is at preschool, my baby is napping, or in the evenings when my kids are asleep. I’ll keep the word count update here, to keep me going too. Once I’m done, please let me know if you’re keen to be one of my beta readers 🙂

Dictation is my friend! It’s kind of hit and miss with the dictation function Google Docs. What dictation software do you use your on iPhones? Do share.

Islam, Life

Prayers for Christchurch

Raidah Shah Idil

I cannot sleep.

I think of my sleeping daughters, my husband, and my family living in the West. I think of the families in Christchurch who quickly kissed/hugged/salaamed goodbye before attending Friday prayer, and then wept goodbye when they buried their loved ones. I think of gunfire and screams shattering Friday prayer, and the blood of men, women and children splattering over walls and soaking into carpets.

My heart breaks and rages over this tragic culmination of the rising tide of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiment. For those who ask for proof of the harm of Islamaphobia, I give you today’s bloody carnage.

Murder is what happens when people choose hate over love, and forget what it means to be human.

Please support the survivors of the Christchurch mosque shootings, and share it with your loved ones.

Pray for the families who have buried their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, daughters and sons. Pray for humanity. God help us all.

Islam, Seekers Guidance

“Dear Ustadha Raidah” podcast is live!

Raidah Shah Idil

I’m so excited to share that my podcast series, Dear Ustadha Raidah, is live! Please tune in, and share it with your friends and family.

I’ve been quietly recording my podcast episodes at night, while my daughters are asleep. Alhamdulilah, for the most part, they haven’t been waking up much! This is also why a 60 min podcast is a bit beyond me, at this stage of my life :p Please make dua for me, my family, SeekersGuidance, and remember to donate to support this podcast series. Please rest assured that what you donate, in part, does reach me ❤ And woo, thank you for funding my life!


Islam, Life, Love, Prophet

My letter came second in the Letter To The Beloved ﷺ competition!

Raidah Shah Idil

Alhamdulilah, my letter won second place in the Letters To The Beloved competition! I am so surprised, so grateful and a little embarrassed. You can read it here, alongside the incredible winning entry and my friend Lina Abdul Wahab’s heartbreaking third place entry.

My deepest gratitude goes to Letters to the Beloved ﷺ team, Rabata, Sanad Collective, and especially to Anse Tamara Gray bringing my letter to life with her warm, heartfelt recitation ❤ I hope to read it to my daughters when they’re older some day. You can listen to the recording here (scroll to 26 min). I loved hearing from Anse Tamara, as always, and was really moved by Brother Ali’s talk (48 min). He acknowledges the role of women in understanding Prophetic love.

I would love to say that I wrote this letter with a warm cup of tea at a quiet cafe – but I didn’t. I wrote it in my bedroom, in quiet snatches while my daughters were asleep, over several nights. (I try not to have tea close by because I could spill it on my MacBook Air in my chronic tiredness – as I have done previously!!!) I edited it a couple of times, and then sent it just in time for the deadline lol. This is my modus operandi, these days :p

If you’re an exhausted mama, I hope my letter brings you some comfort. If you’re an exhausted mama writer, then I hope my letter shows you that what we lack in time, we make up for in other innumerable ways – and God, in His Mercy, fills in the rest.

If you haven’t already, please read the different letters from past competitions. I’m blown away by what the children have written, especially! And maybe, just maybe, you can set the intention to write your own to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). His blessed heart and soul is connected to ours, even when we forget.

Life, Permaculture

Grow your own veggies workshop at @urbanhijau this Saturday!

Raidah Shah Idil

In less than a week, Irfan will be running a workshop at Urban Hijau! He has a talent for breaking down permaculture topics into easily digestible nuggets e.g. “Grow what grows!”

If you’re interested in growing your own fruits/veggies/simple herbs, and wondering how to make your own compost, then this workshop is for you. Please spread the word, and sign up before all participant spots are filled up!

baby, Beauty, Writing

“The Healing” is published!

Raidah Shah Idil

I’m thrilled to start off 2019 with my latest creative non-fiction piece, published by Lunch Ticket, as part of their Amuse-Bouche A La Carte series – The Healing. Thank you to the wonderful Lunch Ticket team, for giving my stories a home. I first read Adab at Seksan 🙂

I hope my stories speak to you, especially if you’re an exhausted mother of two (or more) little ones. It does get better.

I vividly remember submitting this 2 am, after yet another night of broken sleep. I’ve come to realise that these exhausting early years of motherhood have given me a kind of creative haze and lucidity – I am both slowed down and sped up. It’s like quicksand and slow motion film, all in one. Do I make sense? Ha. Who knows.

Beauty, Islam

Letters to the Beloved ﷺ

Raidah Shah Idil

And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds [Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:107]

Keen to explore a writing exercise that is also spiritually elevating? Please sign up for the wonderful annual opportunity – Letters to The Beloved ﷺ

I love how this competition is open even to children, up to age 8. That’s how we can grow a more resilient, more compassionate and more forgiving generation of Muslims. By tying their hearts to the Beloved.

This reminds me of the stories I tell my daughter about Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him). I hope to tie her heart to him, so that he will come alive to her, from this young, and for the rest of her life.

Islam

Spiritual Abuse workshop by Rabata

Raidah Shah Idil

Register at ribaat.rabata.org before Dec 16th

I’m so thrilled to share this exciting workshop. It’s so timely, and so necessary. I absolutely love the majority of female scholars teaching this course ❤ Let’s empower ourselves and our communities with knowledge on how to spot spiritual predators, so we can protect ourselves and perhaps even stop them from causing so much harm. Click here for the registration link.