Islamic Impressions wins “Best Islamic Business of the Year” Award

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah we were nominated by various businesses and community leaders for the above award. The Award was presented by the Mayor, local MP, Police Commander and the joint Masjids Committee in Walthamstow on the 7th of December.

We would like to take this opportunity and share this award with all our customers and to say: Jazak Allah Khair for all of your support through the years. We acknowledge that without your on-going support and help, we wouldn’t have reached this far – so from the bottom of our hearts we thank you all.

Warm Regards,
From the Islamic Impressions Team

If our existence only has meaning through the worship of Allah then how can we ever be successful? We cannot physically worship Allah all the time as we spend much of our time performing mundane duties such as sleeping, working, playing, bathing etc; and spend very little of our daily routine specifically on worship Allah(SWT). There are only twenty-four hours in the day and most of it is taken up by these chores. So how can we compensate for this lost time?

Once the compulsory and supererogatory duties have been established, Allah (SWT) will accept any act done purely for His sake as an act of worship so long as it is in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Allah (SWT) says: “My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the obligatory (religious) duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw closer to Me with the optional works so that I shall love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask (something) of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about (seizing) the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him.” (Bukhari)

Allah (SWT) has also provided windows of opportunity to seek His pleasure and reward for those with insight. One of these is of course the blessed month of Ramadan including: the last ten nights and the Night of Decree (Lailat al-Qadr). During Ramadan the rewards are multiplied; the Night of Decree alone confers the reward of over a thousand months (80+ years) upon the ones who observes it sincerely. Another prerequisite is to gain the Mercy of Allah as the Prophet (SAW) said; “Your actions will not save any of you.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, not even you?” He replied, “Not even me, unless Allah were to envelop me in His Mercy.” (Bukhari)

We are all reliant on the Mercy of Allah. So how do we make ourselves worthy of Allah’s Mercy?

My Mercy extends to all things but I will prescribe it for those who have Taqwa. [Q7:156]

Acquiring Taqwa is the ultimate aim of fasting in Ramadan as Allah Says, “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may receive Taqwa(Consciousness of Allah).” [Q2:183]

Taqwa is to act in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah out of the hope for Allah’s reward and fearing His punishment. If Allah accepts the fasts of Ramadan, He will embellish the fasting person with Taqwa which will in turn earn Allah’s Mercy and ultimately Paradise. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “Taqwa is here,” and he pointed to his chest. (Muslim)

So fasting sincerely satiates the hearts with Taqwa. This illuminates the believer to such an extent that he is comfortable to have his deeds laid bare for all to see (as he has little to be ashamed of) as Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz (ra) said, “If he put all his thoughts and desires in his heart on a plate and then wandered around in the market, he should not feel ashamed of anything there”

Our fasting and approach to Ramadan should be well underway in Sha’ban as the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) would fast more in Sha’ban than any month (other than Ramadan). Aisha (raa) said: “The Messenger (SAW) used to fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and not fast until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allah fasting for an entire month except in Ramadan, and I never saw him fast more than he did in Sha’ban.” (Bukhari)

This will also help us to ease our way into the dedicated acts of worship and self-sacrifice needed in the proceeding month of Ramadan. One of the companions (raa) said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah, (SAW) and said: ‘Stick to fasting, as there is no equivalent to it.’ Then I came to him again ad he said: ‘Stick to fasting.’” (Ahmad)

After painstaking months of research and development by the grace of Allah we are happy to announce our new range of seven different Honey fusions – all inspired by the wisdom of the Sunnah.

We have used various ingredients mentioned in the hadiths and fused them together with Honey to create some fantastic new products; which are not only good for your health and great in flavour but most importantly are a Sunnat of our beloved Prophet (saw)

All our Honeys are 100% natural, pure honey which retains all of the good bacteria that is so beneficial to our health.

Why not try our Pomegranate syrup and Honey for example?

Health benefits of Pomegranate are innumerable; apart from being healthy, pomegranate is delicious too.

Pomegranate consists of antioxidant, antiviral and anti-tumor properties.

It is said to be a good source of vitamins as it includes vitamin A, C and E as well as folic acid.

This fruit consists of three times the antioxidants of green tea.

Pomegranate is said to be a powerhouse of health.

Islamic Impressions are at present working on some other great tasting fusions and we will be releasing details of these in the near future, Inshallah.

Assalamu-alaikum Warahmatullah,

In the April web competition we asked 3 simple questions based on Islamic culture. Top prize was a jilbab or jubbah of your choice from our range, second prize a CD or DVD of your choice and third prize was a hijab or Palestinian scarf of your choice.

Alhamdulillah, the following people got the answers right and were drawn as winners:

Gold Prize winner

Atif Mahmood

Silver Prize Winners

Syed Ahmed Raza
Zainab Hussain
Khalil Dewan

Bronze Prize Winners

Mahmood Akhtar
Anisah Mahmood
Farhat Kiani
Nur Hazwani Nadirah Ramli
Rubina Memon
Mohammed Subhan Hussain

Congratulations to the winners and jazakallah khair to everyone else for participating in the competition!

Wasalaam

(the Islamic Impressions Team)

Assalamu-alaikum Wr Wb

For those of you with access to Sky channel 813, Islamic Impressions has launched its latest TV ad in our campaign. This March we are boldly making a price price promise to all our High Street customers, we are confident that we will never be knowingly undersold for any of our products. Aqib himself (as Director of the company) will personally refund the difference from his own pocket if the same item can is presented in store with a valid receipt issued by another Islamic Shop showing a cheaper price! Here’s the ad- enjoy!

(the Islamic Impressions team)

The inaugural Islamic Impressions Quiz ended recently and Alhamdulillah we have some prizes to distribute!

Almost 500 people participated in just one week. We asked what the age of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was at the time of first receiving revelation. The correct answer is 40, which most people got right. After conducting the prize draw, we are happy to announce that our gold prize winner for February is…. Sister Farzana Khatoon from Stoke! Sister Farzana wins the £50 e-voucher, many congratulations to her.

Our Silver winners are Aicha Achhab-Kandili from the Channel Islands, Sister Taiyiba Iqbal from London, Sister Zahra ansari and Khalifa Deen from London. All of these individuals win £25 e-vouchers, redeemable on our website for all our Islamic Products.

Our bronze winners are Abdul Munaim, Homaira Rahimi, Sabiha Ali, Idil Yussuf, Faisal Nazir, Ibrahim Kashim, Mahera Malik and Nosheen Abid.  They each win £10 e-vouchers.

We at Islamic Impressions had a lot of fun running this competition and we know that our participants did too. We have received good positive feedback and advice on how to improve the competition to make it even more exciting, inshallah we will take this on board for the future.

We would like to thank all our participants, Jazakallah khair for entering the competition and for those who didn’t win- better luck next time, inshallah!

Stay tuned for details of the next competition, and if you haven’t subscribed to our mailing list do so in order to be kept informed about competitions, store news, product announcements, vouchers and sales.

(The Islamic Impressions Team)

The Great Islamic Impressions Online Competition

You’ve got to be in it to win it! The big Islamic Impressions online competition is here. For your chance to win an amazing gift voucher worth up to £50, simply visit our competition page and answer a multiple choice question that is based upon the Islamic culture. Once the draw is closed, we will randomly select the winners who can redeem their vouchers on our website!

Winners will be announced on our website blog and in our social network. There are lots of prizes up for grabs, so what are you waiting for? Log in and enter the big Islamic Impressions quiz today!

I recently attended the Pakistan Young Leaders Conference 2010, held in the World famous Oxford University. This event aimed to bring together the brightest University students and alumni of British Pakistani origin in order to discuss and bring forward solutions to some of the problems faced in Pakistan today. The event was attended by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who addressed the Oxford Union and answered questions on a number of burning issues that Muslims of Pakistan find highly contentious including the presence of blackwater mercenaries in Pakistan, US drone strikes in Pakistani territory, and the controversial new Accountability bill.The 2 day event culminated in the adoption and presentation of the best ideas in the final session, which was hosted by famous Pakistani journalist Talat Hussain and broadcast live to Pakistan on the Aaj TV network.

I participated in one of the committee sessions and found the discussion with young Pakistani students very interesting, and, I have to say, encouraging for the future. It seemed that the majority of Pakistani students currently studying in Britain have great concern for their country and sincerely want to do something to solve the country’s problems. Moreover, they are hard working and talented and possess a passion for Islam and a desire for true and comprehensive change within society. May Allah protect the Muslims of Pakistan and keep the country unified despite the great efforts of foreign powers who wish to destabilize it, and may Allah protect the Muslim youth of Pakistan and make them a force for good in Pakistan.

Aqib

On Saturday 16th January Islamic Impressions was invited to the first ever ILM day awards organised by Islam Channel. Understanding the significance of the occasion, we duly obliged by sending a senior delegation to this landmark event.

llm Day is a national competition organised by Islam Channel in recognition of the necessity to encourage talent amongst Muslim youth and to promote progression in their lives through education and other constructive interests. Its aim was to celebrate, nurture and empower exceptional young Muslim achievers, enabling them to inspire and serve as role models for other young people in their communities.

The visiting team consisting of Aqib (company director), Sheraz (co director), Muhammed (CFO) and Zain (Operations Manager) attended the gala awards ceremony in the Hilton Metropole on Edgware road where they were introduced to many young and talented Muslim achievers.

Company director Aqib commented “being a recognised community based organisation that helps promote education within the Muslim community, the Islamic impressions team have attended to show their full support for this great event”

Sheraz remarked “It’s very inspiring to see so many high achieving Muslim youth, it just goes to show with a little hard work and Tawakal in Allah anything is possible, I hope these brothers and sisters realise they now have a responsibility to encourage other young Muslims to follow in their footsteps.”

After maybe too much Lamb Korma- and definitely too much gajar halwa- the team left full of encouragement that contrary to stereotypical images in the media, we Muslims do have many shining examples from our youth who not only stand firm in their deen but also work to achieve good things in the dunya!

We actively encourage all Muslim youth to work hard and with sincerity to become shining beacons within their communities and to prove that Muslims can participate and become successful in the West, without having to compromise on their Islamic values.  

 

 

 From left: Brothers Zain, Aqib, Sheraz and Muhhammed arriving at the Ilm day Awards.

 

Aqib congratulating Zuhair Anwar on his A Level Ilm award

 

Sheraz congratulating Sami Mirza on his degree Ilm award.

 

Assalamu-alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu,

Recently we all heard about the earthquake in Haiti that has lead to great loss of life. Our friends over at Muslim Hands have mobilised and are on their way to the region to assist in the relief efforts. Here is what they have to say on the issue:

Following the devastating earthquake which hit the Caribbean island of Haiti late Tuesday evening, Muslim Hands have two British NGO workers due to arrive on Friday 15th January on the ground in Port au Prince, south west of the worst affected area in the earthquake zone. Muslim Hands have launched an emergency appeal to tend to the victims and Mr Arslan Nusrat (senior projects manager) and Mr Irfan Akram (UK fundraising manager) will mobilise aid teams, report the situation from the zone, speak with survivors of the earthquake and provide an ‘on the ground’ perspective. They are available to comment on the situation for survivors, the struggles facing relief teams and the longer-term implications for the people of Haiti.

With few NGOs able to access the affected area, Mr Irfan Akram and Mr Arslan Nusrat are available for comment and interviews can be arranged via MH London office.

For more information, visit www.muslimhands.org

Aqib