DESIGN

Same, Same But Different

About Our Eid & Us

There wasn’t supposed to be another ‘Eid’ post today but hey, the kids are still in Eid mode around here!

One of the best parts about Eid, for me, is receiving photos from friends and family around the world. We have family in the UK and in Indian Occupied Kashmir, basically evenly spread across the time zones! This year I had an adorable new family sharing their photos with me … you will never guess who.

So, not many of you know this but Aiysha and I have never met! Yes! we started Mamanushka together having never met in ‘Real Life’! It makes for a great story, one you love to bust out at the dinner table! But you know what? We most certainly have met~ in the Realm of Souls. If you think I am just trying to be dramatically poetic think again.

A’isha (the beloved wife of the Prophet) narrated that he said:

“Souls are troops collected together and those who got along with one another (in the realm where souls existed before entering physical bodies in this world) will have an affinity with one another and get along (in this world).”

(Bukhari, 3158; Muslim, 2638)

You know when you meet someone for the first time (even if it’s “just” online) and you have this instant connection? like you always knew them and could talk to them forever? Well, now you know – it’s a Real ‘thing’. Your souls recognised each other as long lost friends. The first time I read that hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet) it really blew my mind.

So Aiysha and I, we have have these funny little similarities and differences between us. One of these which we joke about is our ‘life swap’ style story : She grew up in North America and moved to the UK after marriage and I grew up in the UK and moved to North America after marriage! We constantly see the hilarity that this brings to our world view. Her adorable daughter learns to make elderberry flower cordial at school while my kid is learning to make apple sauce!

We loved sharing our fun Eid moments with each other for this first Eid ‘together’ so to speak! Here are some if you’d like to see…

UK: “Mama, I hold the sun in my hand”

USA: And across the atlantic this little one was holding the moon! (what a sweet coincidence!)

UK: When hubby decides to carry it all! (even your purse)

USA: I take this same shot every year on every Eid! . Doesn’t everyone with kids have a photo like this? (Aiysha evidently proves my point)

UK: Homemade gift wrapping on the day of Eid! And you thought you were late doing it the night before!

USA: When one of the Eid gifts your two year old asked for was a happy-burday-to-you-cake (I talk about her love of celebrating any occasion with cake and candle here)