One time a scholar asked one of his students, "You have spent a long time with me, what have you learned?
He said I learned eight things:
First, I looked to the creation. Everyone has a loved one. When he goes to the grave, he leaves his loved one. Therefore, I made my loved one my good deeds; that way, they will be with me in the grave.
Second, I looked to the verse, 'But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust,' and, therefore, I struggled against my desires so I could stay obeying Allah.
Third, I saw that if anyone has something with him that is worth something, he will protect it. Then I thought about the verse, 'That which you have is wasted away; and that which is with Allah remains,' therefore, everything worth something with me I devoted to Him so it would be with Him for me.
Fourth, I saw the people seeking wealth, honor and positions and it was not worth anything to me. Then I thought about Allah's words, 'Lo, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most aware of Allah,' so I did my best to become aware of Allah in order to nobility in his sight.
Fifth, I saw the people being jealous towards each other and I looked at the verse, 'We have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world,' so I left jealousy.
Sixth, I saw the people having enmity and I thought about the verse, 'Lo, the devil is an enemy for you, so take him as an enemy,' so I left enmity and I took the Satan as my only enemy.
Seventh, I saw them debasing themselves in search of sustenance and I thought about the verse, 'And there is not a beast in the earth but the sustenance thereof depends on Allah,' so I kept myself busy with my responsibilities toward Him and I left my property with Him.
Eighth, I found them relying on their business, buildings and health and I thought about the verse, 'And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, He will suffice him,' therefore, I put my trust only on Allah.
Abu Mas'ud 'Uqba ibn 'Amr al-Ansari al-Badri reported that the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), said, "Anyone who shows the way to something good has the same reward as the person who does it." [Muslim]
I have no intention to write about Palestine when a lot of others have done so. I have no words to say about the act of barbarian and the cruelty of Israelis. It was until I heard somebody said nothing will change anything. What difference do we make? None, not significant at all and we will be laughed by the Israel’s allies. This somebody referred to the efforts done in helping the Palestinian issue (the solat hajat, dozens of rallies, demos, strikes for the Gaza issue and boycotting Israeli’s product). I feel so helpless for not being able to do anything to stop the Israelis madness, more helpless when I heard somebody said like this. I will respect his opinion if this somebody disagreed with the idea of boycotting the Israeli’s product but when it comes to solat hajat….I’m sad, upset, indignant and a bit emo on this matter. His words reminded me to Baba in the Kite Runner. In my really humble opinion at least they make efforts to help our brothers and sisters in Palestine. What did we do? Standing here doing nothing and mumbling who is right and who is wrong, who is stupid and who is not. Does it change anything?, definitely not. Does it significant?, totally not because we don’t contribute anything so definitely nothing will change anything . If you don’t want to make any effort, don’t criticize others who tried. If you can’t stop drinking Coke, please don’t stop praying and doa for ourbrothers and sisters. Don’t you believe in doa?. The strongest weapon of all, but only for those who believe. If you can’t throw a bomb to Israel, please throw a supplication to Palestine, will you?. Don’t just standing here and criticizing while hundreds of our brother and sisters are butchered. Pardon me. I’m furious not only to the Israelis but to those who don’t believe in effort and doa
Believe in doa my friends. Doa is the strongest tool of the believer but perseverance is necessary when we made our doa. My friend, N in Durham wrote that she was afraid that the major sins done by the ummah around the world has led our doa to be hijab from been granted. But she does believe in the power of Ar Rahman and Ar Rahim to His ummah. I remembered when I was Mecca, there was one TH ustaz told me make doa as much as you can even how sinner you feel you are. Never doubt in the power of Allah. He hear our sincere doa to the Palestinian. Allah knows the best in terms of benefit or harm for the individual and ummah. Thus, Allah may Delay or Deny our request if it may not be of benefit to us and the Palestinian (even we think our request is the best solution for the Palestinian & jgn berprasangka dengan Allah). Our dependence is only for Allah. Hence, we should always pray to Allah for the best option in Allah’s view.
I got an intranet email inviting all the lecturers for Solat Hajat in Pusat Islam with a poem written by ustaz Wan. A good effort Ustaz Wan in reminding others to Solat Hajat! Sorry for posting your poem without acknowledging you first.
Bertuahnya Palestine, Sungguh
Sahabat, telah kita lihat betapa
Bertuahnya Palestine Padanya tapak Qiblat pertama umat Islam, site utama pada ketikanya, buat menghadap Yang Punya Kuasa Menjadi Ardhul Isra' perjalanan alam paling kilat dari al-Haram ke al-Aqsa Menjadi check point Mi'raj Nabi, the one and only kembara alam angkasa, bersua kekasih sang penguasa bukan fantasi , realiti Bertuah juga Palestine Menjadi lambang aqidah umat Punya masjid ketiga ganjaran terbesar ibadah padanya Jadi kecintaan bangsa-bangsa besar kurang ajar Jadi master plan Israel Kubraa , The Great Israel kata mereka Jadi penjara dinding terbesar alaf kini (hey, bukan penjaralah, pagar keselamatan. Ooo)
Kawan, telah kita tonton betapa
Beruntungnya Palestine Selama enam dekad dan setahun dan bertahun-tahun lagi dunia tidak pernah berhenti mengintai, menjolok mata telinga dan deria bangsanya Selama enam dekad dan setahun dan bertahun-tahun itu , dari sebuah negara merdeka menjadi hanya dua lajur tanah kecil sekangkang kera, bangsa laknat tidak pernah jemu merobek Palestine Dan selama enam dekad dan setahun dan bertahun-tahun itu jugalah kental jiwa dan semangat ( hanya itu pun yang mereka ada ) tidak pernah gugur dan runtuh seperti gugurnya para pejuang ganas mereka (di mata dunia) yang meninggalkan nama dan jiwa pada pewarisnya umpama runtuhnya istana pelarian mereka yang hampir tinggal puing-puing berpusing-pusingan Kalau hari ini seorang Yasin, Rantisi, 'Ayyash dan Rayyan gugur dibom berkecai badan berterabur di tanah hari esok entah sepuluh, seratus, seribu dan berapa ribu lagi Yasin, Rantisi, 'Ayyash dan Rayyan yang baru lahir tumbuh berdiri menegak berlari menanti untuk dibom dan dibom lagi
Beruntung juga Palestine Anak bangsanya sedari umur sehari sudah kenal ombak peluru dan mortar sudah kalis bingit suara segala macam bom dan meriam sudah tiada lagi beza airmata sedih dan peluh gembira Anak bangsanya berjuang kerana ingin mati mempertahankan pertiwi sedang satu bangsa lain berperang kerana takut mati dan dihambat lari Anak bangsanya pengganas bersenjata lastik, batu kerikil dan kadang-kadang sepatu ditakuti satu bangsa budiman menggalas beban segala macam persenjataan bekal mempertahankan diri
Beruntung sungguh Palestine Kerana sejarah penjarahannya mengajar kita tentang satu bangsa pengecut yang berubah menjadi kuasa dunia - ingatkah kita, bagaimana bangsa inilah yang menolak untuk berjuang di Palestine bersama Musa AS kerana takutkan ancaman laskar perang yang sama handal atau lebih gagahnya daripada mereka yang tidak pernah diceritakan Tuhan , perhatikan siri 71 hingga 74 ayat -ayat Allah pada al-Ma'idah. Harus sekarang ingin pula mereka memilik Palestine , tau kenapa ? Kerana kekuatan ketenteraan antara dua bangsa ini lagak kejauhan langit bumi -
Bertuah juga kita saudara ...
Kerana kita ada dua pilihan Satu pilihan untuk rasa tenang, senang dan bersenang-lenang ketika Palestine hampir seluruh watannya dijarah, diratah - hah, semalam ada kepala anak kecil tertonjol keluar dari runtuhan istana Palestine, masih panas merah segar dagingnya - Alah, biarlah, bukan kat kita pun Ehh, kesiannya , tukar channel lain pulak ! Isy, jahatnya Israel, tak ada orang tolong depa ka ?
Bukankah mereka ada waris bangsa penguasa-penguasa kaya-raya Arab pesisir dan sekitar? Pohonlah bantuan ( hahaha... saudara, sudah tenggelam mereka dalam emas hitam, sudah terlena mereka dalam shopping mall yang hanya perasmiannya saja menelan ongkos berjuta, sudah terkesima mereka dalam arus dunia yang mudah enteng dan percuma untuk mereka )
Kata kita pada untungnya Palestine apa ada pada Intifadah , hanya kerja sia-sia tanpa faedah atau entah apa ke jadah apa untungnya Istisyhad , hanya teknik berani mati orang-orang tidak sihat apa gunanya lawan, baik berdamai jadi kawan
Kata mereka pada ruginya Israel Kan Tuhan dah kata : Yahudi dan Nasara tidak sesekali bersikap redha dan berlapang dada dengan kamu sehinggalah kamu mengikut jejak langkah dan telunjuk mereka
Kan bonda dan moyang kami dah kata : Biar airmata darah sekalipun, biarkan Zionis membontoti kita tidak mungkin sekali
Dua pilihan untuk ada rasa empati seperti sabda Nabi ; Tidak sempurna iman seseorang kamu jika dia tidak mengasihi saudara seagamanya seperti dia mengasihi diri mereka sendir i -
benar, saudaraku kebutuhan sokongan dan semangat benar, muslimku kehilangan rasa dan nikmat
Sebutlah apa saja Solat hajat doa , kecam boikot sekat halang , zakat derma sumbang lebihan, Ia pasti hidup di atas mayat sengsara mereka Ia pasti segar di atas gelimpangan derita mereka Bukankah baginda kita berpesan , senjata paling ampuh orang mukmin adalah doa yang tulus mulus Lalu ketulusan apa lagi yang kita butuhkan untuk menadah tangan , mengamin dan meraup tangan bersih kita memohon limpah sejahtera dan selesa mereka dariNYa, kalau pun tidak untuk kekalahan al-Yahud durjana ?
Muslim Usah bercerita tentang kedajalan Zionis meratah dengan penuh nafsu serakah Usah berdilema tentang kebuntuan PBB menyelesai telingkah Usah berteka tentang kelesuan OIC yang sekadar boleh berkata oooh i see Usah berdendang tentang lagu sendu Palestine yang menangis dalam ketawa rezeki syahid Namun koreksilah fasal kedunguan kita yang ada hati rasa dan nyawa tapi tiada jiwa deria dan iman sekadar
Kawan, sahabat, saudara, muslim, mukmin Tugas membebas al-Aqsa bukan hanya rutin al-Ayyubiyy , bangsa Arab, warga dunia semata Ia harus jadi amanah utama aku, engkau dan hambaNya Berkejarlah di hijrah kerana hanya hari ini kita ada waktu Jangan biar sehingga kita tiada punya minit untuk berteliku dan menyeru kerana bahananya sudah tiba ke muka pintu Firman Rabbul 'ibad : Takutilah kamu akan fitnah dan bala bencana yang tidak Allah taburkan ke atas mereka yang zalim sahaja (tetapi juga mereka yang bertaqwa) dan ketahuilah sesungguhnya azab Allah teramat pedih
u one 10 muharram 1430 070109 intelek
We may think we are not significant at all in taking the effort to help Palestine but believe me my dear friends, everybody is significant in our own way if we have sincere heart in helping our brothers and sisters. Open your heart, your mind and play our role, stop complaining and do something. Nothing will change anything unless we started to do something.
"It is the littlest people who are capable of the biggest sacrifice", (Lord Tennyson, 1870)
This may be the longest emo entry I ever done, but I need to go back to part of my jihad-study while praying for our brothers and sisters on the other part of the earth-Palestine for their safetyfrom the hands of the evil Israelis.
It is already a year since I started to do my Phd using the route of coursework and dissertation. Not much progress and achievement but Alhamdulillah I finished my 24 credit hours without any problems even though I don’t know how many times I sighed. Sigh
Resolution
I have to finish my 8 credit hours of coursework without fail, take my 3 comprehensive exams and hopefully I pass it without any problems in any papers. (Comprehensive exam is a qualifying exam which is always a bottleneck to proceed for thesis writing). Hopefully, at the end of the year of 2009 I manage to finish my proposal.
My Self
Achievement
Not much progress too in myself except there were few Insaf things happened and new things that I learned. The main progress that I manage to achieve is that gaining weight. Never really bother about it before, as I always proudly said I can lose weight easily. It was until my brothers started overdose mocking about it. They were teasing me and sounded like beauty consultants asking to reduce few kilos and do a lot of exercises. Ayoo.. brother I’m not fat, just out of my ideal weight. (susah dapat abg yg over conscious about your appearance)
Another bad progress is that I’m addicted to Nescafe and the tarik which I think the main contributor to the weight gain. My Nescafe intake in a year during the day has doubled. At first the intake was just for me to stay up but now my morning started with Nescafe and without it I’m sleepy.
Resolution
I will buy exercise equipment – treadmill. I must admit I’m lack of exercises and really lazy to do it. Got fully support from my brothers to buy that equipment as we surveyed the price and the functions of treadmill in the shopping malls. I’m going to buy the one in Fitness Concept in Alamanda. We got an offer price for a quality treadmill. Anyhow, my fifth brother is really skeptical whether I will do my exercise with or without my fitness equipment. He bet that the longest that I will exercise using the treadmill is only a month.
Cut my Nescafe and teh tarik intake
My family
Happiness
We have a new member of the family when my brother got married on last May. So, I got another SIL and another member to join in our family vacation.
Sadness
My father got stroke attack in the middle of Ramadhan. My siblings took turn to look after him and taught him to do physiotherapy and once a while brought him to the beach as people said it is a good treatment for him. Alhamdullilah he started to walk again.
My 10 years old nephew (Syafiq) was diagnosed with bone cancer. A fragile boy (who always cry) was shocking me as he was strongly gone through and finished a set of chemo therapy ( 1 Set consists of 7 cycles and take about 5 months subjected to the patient’s health condition). I remembered the day when the shocking news broke to us, me and my sister took a flight to KB as he was transferred to HUSM. When the doctor want to explained about the cancer what should we anticipate, he bravely said that “ I don’t want to listen anything, just remove “thing” in my thigh so that I can go back to school” and he continued reading his favourite Harry Porter book without saying anything else or looking at the doctor. He didn’t cry but my brother ( Syafiq’s father) was emotionally cried. Besides chemo, he also went to the alternative cancer medication. Now, Alhamdulillah he is 70% recovered and has to go through another set of chemo theraphy.
Hope
Just pray for Allah that all my family members are in a good health. I know all of them are so strong going through the difficulties but I think should say Be Stronger, Boys!
We planned another vacation in thend of 2009. My brother proposed Taman Negara but I disagreed because I don’t think it is suitable for the children. We really hope that Adi ( my brother ) and his family members including Syafiq can join us too this year.
It was a long holiday and I went for our family vacation. Last year Langkawi was our destination but this year we went to Malacca. We headed to Malacca at 8.30 a.m from my house and arrived there at about 10.30 a.m. We stayed in Bidara Puteri Beach Resort. It is a little further from the town but near to Hang Tuah graveyard. This is a resort cum service apartment and so beautiful with the sea view of the straits of Malacca. I was acknowledged this resort was once the four star Mutiara Melaka Beach Resort and it was under management of one of the leading institution in Malaysia. We got 30% off as my sister is a member of that institution. Even though, it was a beautiful resort apartment that we rented but I think it was slightly not well managed. One of the workers there told me it was due to the high overhead cost of maintaining the resort ( not sure whether it is true or not) when I asked why there was only one lift operated. However, the lift issue was not a big issue as the scenery was beautiful and suitable for our vacation since my father was not fully recovered. Despite, the minor problem of the service in the resort, I should say it was a nice place to sit and relax and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the morning and evening. I enjoyed watching the activities and walking along the beach.
We were so lucky to get that place to stay as it was fully booked during the long holiday and in conjunction with the Christmas Open House in PortugueseTown. We didn’t realize that Malacca held an event for Christmas until we tried to book the hotel and most of the hotels were fully booked. It seemed a lot of Singaporeans went here for a long holidays.
Not much activity was done during this holiday as our movement was restricted with my father’s condition. My father enjoying reminiscing good old days when he was in Malacca. However, I think this was truly a vacation, as I always argued about the definition of vacation with my siblings. As for me a vacation means having a good time sleeping or waking up a bit late from the usual days, relaxing, enjoying and indulging yourself in the hotel/resort, do a few activities or sightseeing that you can if the time permit. As for my brother a vacation means sightseeing and visiting places and go back late at night to the hotel and sleep. Whatever, definition it is, I enjoyed our family vacation this year.
Sorry Is for borrowing your words. Yes, boring tahap gaban. Not because I have a lot of works to do or don’t have any works to do at all. I have few works to be done especially preparing the progress report to the sponsorship and the university, and studying my comprehensive exam but the productivity it is at a very low level. Really low. Sometimes, I miss the time during my exam which I felt 24 hours was not enough for me, which I felt like heartedly wanted to watch the television but I couldn’t do that or I really wanted to sleep but I was afraid I might not finish the work.At that moment my brain worked very well or sometimes can be overloaded with information and I got stuck. (That was the reason while I rambled in the blog). However, I felt really productive and using my 24 hours effectively. Felt really occupied for being busy.
As I was so bored, my friend suggested to read the novel by Khaled Hosseini. She said it was interesting, touching and full of emotions. She cried while reading the story. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I read a novel. Maybe it was eight years ago. Since I was really awe listening to the story from her I drove 35 km to get this RM35+ novel. However, people see things differently, I think I beg to differ a bit from my friend especially in assuming Amir was a hero in the novel. There are also few things that I'm totally disagree with the writer.
The Kite Runner, I must admit is very well written. The expressiveness of the characters and the vocabulary produced a book that was easy to read and not at all dull. Most of the story happens in Kabul, Afghanistan. Parts of it before the Soviet invasion when Afghanistan was a secular independent state. It gave the pictures of Afghanistan from the writer’s eyes. He portrayed Taliban as cruel and gave the expressions of very bad Muslims in a very wrong Islamic faiths
The story didn't made me cry like the person who sugested it (he3x) but I felt pity for the characters in the novel and for everyone;
I’m pity for Hassan for being Hazara. He has been lied for his entire life about who he was, his lineage, his heritance.He died for not knowing his real father, without realizing his master was his blood brother. I’m pity for his sacrificial love.
I’m pity for Amir for being such a coward. I'm pity for his betrayal to Hassan and anything he would do to win his father’s heart. I’m pity for the guilt he had to suffer in his life after betraying Hassan. I’m pity for following his Baba to have secular minded and didn’t really understand what against the Islamic faith.
I’m pity for Amir’s father (Baba), who was a secular, who exercises the opposite of what Islam teaches as he thought the faith of Islam couldn’t save Afghanistan. I’m pity for him as he taught his son (even it was indirectly) went against Islamic faith. (e.g he taughtAmir to drink to celebrate the graduation day or went against the words from Mullah (some sort of Ustaz if I’m not mistaken). I’m pity for people who has dad like Amir’s. I’m pity for his strong principles, for his pride and honour but eventually he doesn’t have any guts to stand for his mistakes, and admit it. I’m pity that he stole other people's happiness and pride for his own pride and honour.
I’m pity for the poor Afghans which could not escape from the war and had to protect the families by themselves. I’m pity, they had to suffer in their homeland. I’m skeptical for the rich (people like Amir’s father) who always ran away and leave the country behind to save their lives and belongings.
My friend asked me to watch the movie as she said it will capture our heart than the novel. The trailer seems interesting but couldn't find the CD. I was informed the movie was banned in Afganistan due to the social reasons. If I found the CD I think I might watch it if I'm in the state of boring tahap Ultraman Taro.
If we familiar with "Human Capital" as a topic in labor economics, we will know how to measure our leisure hours effectively. One of them is time we spend for shalah (praying).
Let's say we have been praying since we were 10 years old. We sleep 8 hours a day (=1/3 of 24 hours). If we were 70 years old, then the time we spend sleeping would be 70*1/3 = 23 years
If the prayer time we spend is 5 minutes, then 5 minutes x 5 prayers = 25 minutes (let say 30 minutes/day); and within a year, 30 minutes x 365 days = 10,950.00 minutes = 182.50 hours = 7.6 (let say 8 days of prayer time in a year) ……. What a shocking fact!!! Suppose we just realize that we have so short a prayer time (8 days in a year) to remind ourselves of remembering ALLAH.
Let's calculate how much we spend effectively out of our supposed age (70 years). The formula will be the supposed age minus the time for sleeping minus the age when we start praying (70 - 23 - 10 = 37). It means, out of 70 years, we effectively spend only 37 years, but mind you, that is not the time we spend for shalah, because for that we just need 8 days in a year. Thus, within 37 effective years, we spend only 296 days (roughly 10 months), i.e. 37 x 8 = 296.
Therefore, assuming we always perform the five obligatory prayers, within 70 years old, we spend only 10 months for prayer time; what about the rest of our age, the 36 years and 2 months?
