Eid Giveaway! Free hijab, pin, and halal snack!

Alhamdulillah my website is finally up and running. For those of you who didn't know, I've been selling hijabs and accessories, as well as halal snacks and candies.

I'm having an Eid Giveaway inshaAllah, to enter just sign up for The Souq's newsletter on the website, but do so before the deadline!

www.SHOPTHESOUQ.com

Spread the word like buttaaaa =)

**New Hijabs, Pins, Gummies and Other Candies!**

I've finally gotten the new items for my little online souq

They include:

• New hijabs! (pashminas, shaylas, amiras, and square hijabs)
• New hijab pins
• Candies: Halal Starburst (Original and Strawberry Mixed flavors) Halal gummies (variety of flavors)
• Chocolates: I've added a few chocolates which are not native to the US, so it's something sweet to treat yourself to! ;)

Check out http://souq.shutterfly.com for the products, information, pricing, and how to order.

Keep checking on and off too, I'll be adding items periodically over the next week. If you want me to hold something for you (at a negotiated and reasonable amount of time) then I am willing to do that too.



Now this brings me to something else. On my page where my hijabs are, I don't really have product numbers or anything... so when someone emails asking about/wanting a hijab, it usually goes like this:

Sister: I love that purple hijab! Can I have it? Please get back to me with the total cost with shipping, this is my postal code *****
Me: Oh.. uh.. which purple one?
Sister: The one with the fringes
Me: There are 3 with fringes
Sister: It has sequins also
Me: There are 2 with sequins...

Okay so maybe I need to add product numbers or... ohhhhhhh! I should name them! Isn't that what other sites do? I'm not good at that stuff... I'll probably just name the hijabs with the little Arabic I know... LAHM (meat), MIL'AQAH (spoon), MA HADHA (what is this?), MUSTASHFA (hospital), and a whole bunch of grammar terms like mudaf/mudaf ilayi, jumlah ismiyyah, mubtada/khabr, fi'l/ism...

Orrrrr, I can give them really awesome names that I wouldn't be able to give to my future kids... like Shaniqua, Xavier, Gwendolyn (really not awesome actually), Lorenzo... aw how I'd love to name a hijab Lorenzo!!

Okay so maybe finding a way to better differenciate the hijabs isn't that hard. Please don't feel ashamed to email me and say that you'd like to purchase 'The Meat Hijab', 'The Lint Hijab', or
'The Hairy Hijab'... they're just creative names.. that's all! ;)

**Running Out of Halal Skittles**

As most of you know I've been selling halal Skittles and other halal goodies we don't get in the US, as well as some hijabs.

A lot of you told me you were interested but have been lazy in contacting me to settle on an order. Now is not the time to do that! I only have 30 packs of Original Skittles left, and 10 packs of Sour Skittles! My gummies, Starbursts, and marshmallow cookies are all gone, except for 1 pack of coconut covered marshmallow cookies *mmm*

So if interested, please email me before they're gone, I don't know when I'll get more. I do ship anywhere in the US and Canada. I also have some hijab pins, which are 10% if you order 3 or more! For pictures of the hijabs and pins, and even the candy, that I have go to http://souq.shutterfly.com/

Feel free to email me at lazeena.hosain at yahoo dot com with any questions or if you want to place an order!

JazakumAllahu khayrun!

A naseeha no no

I teach 4th grade at the local masjid's Sunday school alhamdulillah. I recently got permission by the administration to sell my halal Skittles and candies there during the kids recess and snack time.

After Dhuhr salah when I put my huge bag of Skittles down to put my boots on a sister in her early 30's comes up to me.

"Sister, I'd think by the way you dress - " *points to my niqaab* " - that you'd know Skittles are haram!! How can you bring those into a Masjid?"

"These are halal Skittles... what does my clothing have to do with candy... " *fake giggle*

"I mean, you dress super religious so from that you should know these things. But Skittles are haram you should check the ingredients, there's pig in them. You know here in the US we have to be very careful of what we eat, there's all types of things in these foods.."

"Yeah, you're right.." I tell her thinking if she only knew I had a blog dedicated to halal and haram products! haha. "These are halal though, they're gelatin-free," I told her.

"No they don't make them halal!!!!! They all have PORK! You know, PIG! You're not listening!!"

No! YOU'RE not listening! I was getting irritated... mainly because she was getting loud with me and in front of other people, and her own kid! "Actually, the ones made for the US contains BEEF gelatin, not pork. These are made specifically for the Middle East, they don't even have at least halal gelatin in them, they are gelatin free... they use vegetable substitutes."

She looked at me confused, "No I don't think so!"

"... And in the UK their Skittles used to be halal as well, they were Vegan-friendly until they started using E120 in them, a coloring taken from insects..."

She stared at me blankly. "Oh.. well.."

I went into the bag and handed her a pack, "See, read the ingredients..."

She read them and nodded and handed the pack back to me, "Hmm.. well... I'll have to look into that... something's not right."

?!?!?!?!?! Why do people have to ALWAYS be right even when the proof is right in their face! She looked at me as if I created the wrapper myself and filled haram Skittles inside! haha. Why can't people just admit when their wrong?

I just hate when people look at niqaabis or any other Muslimahs and based off the way she dresses assumes the sister is, or at least thinks she is, a perfect Muslim or know it all. Not only that, but they jump at them when they think they see something wrong. It's sad when people get all nasty and think they're so smart and try to make someone look bad in front of others. This isn't Islamic at all.

Allah knows best her intentions, but if she really wanted to give me 'naseeha' regarding the Skittles she wouldn't have told me in such a demeaning manner in front of so many people and kids. Not only that, she wouldn't have been rude when I tried to explain myself either, cutting me off and not listening.

Some people like to right wrongs just to show they're right. Please think twice when you think you see something wrong and try to give someone advice. Be sure to be gentle with them and pull them aside. Don't be harsh and ridicule them in front of others. First investigate the situation before assuming the worst of the person. It doesn't matter how a person is dressed, everyone still has learning to do and everyone is in need of help once in a while.

I don't know the source of this story, if it is true or not, but indeed it holds a good lesson inshaAllah and I just thought of it as I was explaining how we should give naseeha... here's the jist of it...

Once the grandsons of our beloved Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam, Hasan and Hussain, radiAllahu anhuma, saw an elderly man making wudu. After watching him they realized that he was making wudu incorrectly.

The two brothers wanted to correct the man, but didn't know how. He was older and they didn't want to offend him, being so young and correcting him. They came up with an idea of how to teach the man proper wudu without being direct.

They went over to him and told him they were in a disagreement over who performed wudu the best and they wanted him to be the judge.

The bedoin watched the two kids perform wudu, and in watching, he himself came to learn his mistake(s). He thanked them and told them that he did not know the proper way to make wudu until the two of them had come over and showed him, subhanAllah.

MashaAllah this is the way to give naseeha. It is not an easy thing to do. As open as we should be to constructive criticism, it is only understandable that a person may take offense to being corrected if it's not done in a gentle manner.

Just imagine how I would have felt if I did have haram Skittles? It already upset me the way she spoke to me even though I wasn't doing anything wrong. I would maybe even be mad and probably close my heart to her naseeha anyway. That of course wouldn't be the right thing to do, but as humans these are tendencies we do unfortunately have.

I'm Selling Halal Skittles, Gummies, and Hijabs!

Attention candy and hijab lovers!

I'm currently selling halal candies and hijabs, items include ---

-Halal Skittles
-Halal Skittles (Sour)
-Halal chocolate marshmallow pies
-Halal Coconut mallows
-Halal gummies (worms, tropical gummies, peach rings, gummy bears)
-An assortment of hijab pins (clay and swarovski crystal ones, regular straight pins as well)
-Some beautiful pashmina styled hijabs... some plain and some with sequins

There's something for everyone! The mosiac shows a little of what I have =) plus my photography skills- woot woot! Okay, just kiddinggg! lol



The Skittles are packs between 30 and 37 grams, they go for $2.25 each. Gummies range in price, a little cheaper than the Skittles. I have hijabs ranging from $8 - $14, and pins start at around $1!

I live in Jersey, this is open to anyone in the states and Canada. If you're overseas and dying for something - we can work something out!

If interested I have more detailed pics of everything I'm selling and can send them to you, just shoot me an email at lazeena.hosain @ yahoo.com (take out the spaces) and make sure you give the email a subject, something pertaining to hijabs/candies for sale. I get a lot of spam and delete them without opening them so I dont want to confuse your email for that! Shipping costs of course are on you - I'll calculate the price according to weight and we can go from there.

When you do email me though, I ask that you just list your name, country/state/province with postal code, prefered payment method (check/paypal/WU) and what you're interested in.

I have limited quantities so act fast!

I'll have pictures up of items already sold, still let me know if you're interested in it. I can try and get them back again for you, or just so I have a general idea of what most people are interested in! This would be helpful because once I'm sold out I'll be re-stocking again and if there's nothing you like the first time around, maybe there will be next time =)

JazakumAllahu khayran!