No more teeth chattering.

Bismillah,

There is something that I would love to share with my readers, no matter visible or invisible readers, all of you are dear to me. Probably some of you have heard about what I’m going to tell here, some may not. And for those who are not, this entry could be a precious knowledge especially if you are going to travel or live in a four-season country.

…

I went out to the city to have lunch and sightseeing. Then, I was looking for a mosque and found one but without a proper place for the women to make wudu’ since there is only a small place which is outside the mosque, without walls and ceiling. Two things popped out of my mind:

1)   How am I going to make my wudu’ out here? It’s freaking cold and I'm shivering. I’m not sure if I could stand the cold of minus temperature (-0°C) without my coat, gloves and sock during wudu’.

An example of an open wudu' place

2)   How can I take off my hijab to make wudu’ in this very open and public area with cars passing around me, and with a man who were making his wudu’ at the same time?

This is crazy, I told you. The question marks are all around me. I went blank. Ya Allah, I’m asking you to make this easier for me. Give me some guidance. Please… Please… Please! (-_-‘)

Then, there was two young ladies with hijab walk passed me. Alhamdulillah! I hurriedly walk towards them to ask them for help. I mean they probably can help answering the doubt in my mind. Alhamdulillah again, they showed me the way to other place where they have a proper place for women to make wudu’ and pray. =)

…

Living in a foreign land is not that easy when you are not familiar with the city and you don’t know where to head when you need to get something done especially regarding fulfilling the obligation as a Muslim. I knew that I need to do something. There is got to be other way or a better way to this. I need to ask someone who knows or maybe read articles from the internet, anything that could give me answer. I had to and I wanted to know if there is.

Islam, the religion of ease.

"Allah intends for you ease, and does not want to make things difficult for you" [2:185]; and "Allah does not want to place you in difficulty" [5:6].

Allah is the creator of mankind and therefore knows his nature more intricately than mankind itself. Therefore Allah has chosen for us a religion best suited to the nature of mankind. That’s what I always tell myself.

All praises to Allah. I found this articles regarding rukhsah (relief regarding dispension). Basically it is a way in which one is considered to get the relief in difficulties. This relief can be in many ways in performing ibadah (obligation) and there are conditions that you need to fulfil in order to qualify for doing rukhsah. For my case, this is a relief in performing wudu’ during winter.

Wiping over khuf/socks

Khuf
 (http://bungadaffodil.blogspot.com/)

Have you heard of it? Honestly, I never heard of the word ‘khuf’. But I do know that there is a relief for not having to take off your shoes or boots for wudu’ during winter. Okay, khuf it is actually socks made out of leather as you can see from the picture above. However, it is permissible to replace khuf with socks, since they are not many people wear khuf nowadays as long as it fulfil certain conditions such as the socks must be strong enough to enable walking in them without tearing and etc.

So, now when I need to make wudu’, instead of washing my foot, i wipe my socks. It is very helpful since I don’t have to take off my socks when it’s really cold. Furthermore, I don’t have to twist my back trying to wash my feet in the sink at the washroom with everyone staring anymore. Cool huh? =) 

“The easiness of Islam is felt in all of its commandments. Some people find this or that commandment hard to follow but this does not mean that the command is in itself hard; often it is the person who is the cause.”

  www.saaid.net/islam/3.htm

Everything seems so much easier now. Alhamdulillah. Islam is a deen of practicality. It is really a way of life. Sometimes it is us who makes it hard when it is actually easy. Maybe it’s because we don’t really have the intention to learn more of Islam. And we feel hardship in following those obligation, some of us started to choose the easiest way which is to abandon solat/pray. Na’uzubillah.  

Now that we know, I’m pretty sure that either travelling or living in a four season country will be easier and above all, our travelling is blessed by Allah, InsyaALLAH. =)

Good day, everyone.

p/s: What to write next? You tell me.