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)

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.

This year I have been trying my very best to make sure that Islamic Impressions is ready and prepared for this Ramadhan with an entirely new range of products. In fact, in the process my friends and family labelled me “The new age Ibn Battuta”. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was a famous Muslim traveller known for the account of his travels and excursions around the Islamic world.

So what’s in store for you at Islamic Impressions this upcoming Ramadhan? To start with, we have an entirely new range of premium attars and perfumes from the finest perfume companies in the Middle East including Al Haramain, Asghar Ali and Swiss Arabia. We also have a new clothing range for men and women soon to be unveiled, as well as lots of children gift items and so many house decorative item never seen in the UK before. You will have to see it to believe it.

Our latest extensive range of new products has come from all parts of the world including India, Bahrain, China, Dubai, Sharjah, Pakistan, Turkey, Mauritius. I have had some of the most amazing experiences and would like to share some of them. In China, for example, after a hard days work, I experienced the world famous blind man’s massage. I had heard before that when a person looses one of his senses his others are heightened, and this experience was a prime example of this. It was like he had magic in his hands. If you are ever in China, the blind man’s massage is a must do, however I wouldn’t suggest the sleeping coach as it is a very tiring experience!

On my trip to Turkey I had an amazing experience which I would to tell you about. Just before a business lunch the owner of the restaurant bought out a Pakistani and Turkish flag and, as many of you may know, I am not nationalistic at all. They treated me like royalty and actually made me feel quite uncomfortable. However, when I asked what this was all about I was told how much the Turkish people love the Pakistani’s and how we are their true brothers. They then explained that when Mustafa Kamal was destroying the Islamic Khilafah in Turkey (the Ottoman State) the Muslim women of Pakistan took off their gold to send their men to defend the Khilafah. To this date they respect this action which demonstrated the bond and unity of the Muslim Ummah.

I also spent time in Mauritius which I can confidently say was one of the most beautiful and friendly countries I have ever visited. In Dubai, in the midst of my meetings with Al Haramain they insisted I star in their latex TV commercial. Below you can find a video of this. I’ve also included some pictures of my time abroad to share with you.

Feel free to post any comments inshallah.

Aqib

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)

Islamic Impressions has produced and launched a new range of Quran CDs featuring the recitations of some of the leading Qurra of the World, including Sheikhs Sudais, Shuraim and Alafasy. The CD titles include Mixed Surahs, Juz Amma and the Full Holy Quran. While the recitations are in Arabic, some of our titles also come with English or Urdu translation. These CDs have been professionally produced in cutting edge studios and are attractively packaged. Prices start at a very reasonable £3.99, and we hope to have many more high quality titles available soon inshallah.

(the Islamic Impressions team)

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)

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)

As many of you know, our inaugural Islamic quiz was recently held on our website- and Alhamdulillah it went down really well! An announcement of the winners will be made by Thursday evening, inshallah. If you happen to receive a prize notification email from us, please do reply and make sure you follow the prize claim instructions accurately!

Jazakallah Khair,

(the Islamic Impressions team)

Whatever the occasion, for that special someone Islamic Impressions will always have an answer… And with a ‘price promise’ that we won’t be beaten on price by any other High Street retail Store, you can put a smile on someone’s face today!

Who says that quality, good service and professionalism come at a cost? We at Islamic Impressions believe in offering our customers good value for their hard earned money, especially in the tough economic times we are in. So we are going to put our money where our mouth is and make a promise to you that Aqib Hanif (our director) will PERSONALLY refund out of his own pocket any difference in the price of a product if you can produce a valid receipt for the item bought within the last 28 days!! This price challenge is made with full conviction that Islamic Impressions CONTINUES to set the benchmark in Islamic Shopping in every way, including price! Visit any of our retail store outlets and see for yourself!

Islamic Impressions- Setting the benchmark in Islamic Shopping

(Offer excludes the Islamic Impressions Online Store)