Rayed and I had our British wedding yesterday.

I got called out of work today by my daughter "Imane's" school.
She had a very bad nose bleed and they could not stop it.

I rushed from the office to her school and thankfully it had stopped by the time I arrived. However they advised me to still take her to A&E as it had bleed for almost 30 mins and her eyes were rolling back in her head as she was bleeding.

We got seen pretty quick but the doctor was SO RUDE. He basically looked at me as if I was wasting his time. When Imane became a bit of a drama queen when he tried to look up her nose, I could see him rolling his eyes in disgust and he then told me to take her outside to calm down for 30 mins.
SHE IS A CHILD, 5 years old, HAVE PATIENCE..really this doctor really peed me off. I eventually grabbed the tool out of his hand and let Imane see it would not hurt. He then got to look in her nose.

He said it is caused by her picking her nose and sent us on our way with a prescription for antibiotics. But I am sure 30 mins of heavy bleeding would not be caused by a quick nick during a nose pick session.

I have rest of day off work so will study. Imane is ok now and is busy watching Cartoon Network

We finally got married in the Mosque
Our marraige was at Al Quds Mosque in Brighton with just us, two witnesses from the Mosque (one a British Convert), the Imam "Muhammed" who is just so sweet and some old guy who popped in for a cup of tea and to find out about Islam (we let him stay for the ceremony).

Afterwards Rayed and I walked into town in the wind and rain and bought cakes from Marks and Spencer.
Our Big wedding (the UK Civil one) is on 18th December so we also have that to look forward to as well.

So much has happened the past few months.
I met a wonderful man in July who's family are based in Sharjah UAE and hail from Gaza in Palestine. He studies at Bournemouth University here in UK.

We are getting married on the 18th December 2009 at Brighton Register Office at 12.45pm and will also be having an Islamic Marraige service in the next few weeks at a mosque here in Brighton.

My fiance's name is Rayed and he is the most sweetest person ever.

I would not like to live in UAE now because it has been taken over completely by the western world and its influence.

Anyway, how I became a muslim is as follows.
The night I first arrived in UAE at the begining of the 1990's, I heared the call for prayer for the first time, it was the early morning prayer and I found the sound so beautiful. I stood on my balcony and all the hairs on my arms stood up and I began to gently cry, a happy cry not a sad one. I was very confused as to why I got this reaction but the feeling to cry and the hairs standing up every time I walked past a mosque at prayer time continued for most of my life in UAE.

I was surrounded by local friends and quickly became immersed into the rich culture and customs of the Emirates. Omran taught me a lot about his country and how to behave, act etc and I grew to love it. Everyone called me "The British Bedouin".

One evening I was watching Saudi TV and was watching a station that was showing prayers being said at Mecca. The sound of the Mulla reading the koran was so beautiful it made me cry, I must of cried for 2 hours straight and had no idea why. I thought I had gone crazy. Suddenly the phone rang and it was one of Omran's dear friends "Nabil Al Dowais (who has now sadly passed away). He heared me crying and said "LouLou Habibi, what is wrong, why are you crying" (LouLou was my name before I converted to Islam and changed it to Tahani).

I explained to Nabil that I was watching some religious guy on the TV reading Koran and it was making me cry happy tears and I did not know why.
Nabil laughed and said "Habibi, wallah you need to become a muslim, tonight is Laylat Al-Qadr
( لیلة القدر‎) and if you feel tears of joy then you are ment to be a muslim. He then continued to tell me about Laylat Al-Qadr that it is the anniversary of the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

I was later given an English version of the Koran, so at Ramadan one year I sat and read the entire Koran page by page. At the end I knew that Islam was for me, but I still felt like I needed more time to be 100% sure it was what I wanted. I know how easily it is to rush into something you think you want but in the end its not really what is good for you.

Finally in October 1999 I asked Omran to arrange my conversion. My one and only British friend "Fay" wanted to convert also, so Omran spoke with our dear friend Sheikh Hamdan Al Sharqui from the Fujeriah royal family who arranged for us to visit his local court and together Fay and I converted to Islam side by side. We said our Shahada and chose our Islamic names.
I chose Tahani which means "Congratulations" and Fay chose Bedour which means "Many Moons".

The Shahada is as follows




































Once I converted I ended my long relationship with Omran. I could no longer be with him because I needed to try to go forward with my Deen and find a suitable husband. Omran was heart broken and he never really stopped loving me. I honestly believe he loved me right up until the day he died on 21st June 2005, but I could not go forward with my religion until our relationship ended.

In January 2000 I moved in to live with an Emirati family who were friends of mine and Omran's on a huge farm in Al Awir. My friend Abdul Elah lived there with his second wife Kauser who was from a very important political family in Pakistan. Her father is Pir Pagara also known as the King Maker. I lived there for over a year and it gave me time to get my life back together.
So that is my story of my conversion.

This is my first ever post on my new blog.
I have so many memoirs of my life in the UAE that I thought this the best place to share them as when I feel like sharing.

Right now in my life I am raising my 5 year old daughter Imane alone and have been since I left her father in July 2004 and came back to the UK. I work for local government in Housing Management and our life is pottering along ok, considering the terrible situtation we came back to in 2004, I think I have done amazingly well to get our life so back on track.