Al-Qadr (Ramadhan reaching to its end..)

Pejam celik-pejam celik dah 23 hari puasa. Something to reminds us by whats left of Ramadhan,

Tafsir:
Sahih International

1. Indeed, We sent the Qur'an down during the Night of Decree.
2. And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree?
3. The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months.
4. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter.
5. Peace it is until the emergence of dawn.

Malay

1. Sesungguhnya Kami telah menurunkan (Al-Quran) ini pada Malam Lailatul-Qadar,
2. Dan apa jalannya engkau dapat mengetahui apa dia kebesaran Malam Lailatul-Qadar itu?
3. Malam Lailatul-Qadar lebih baik daripada seribu bulan.
4. Pada Malam itu, turun malaikat dan Jibril dengan izin Tuhan mereka, kerana membawa segala perkara (yang ditakdirkan berlakunya pada tahun yang berikut);
5. Sejahteralah Malam (yang berkat) itu hingga terbit fajar!

p/s: semoga diberi kesempatan di malam-malam terakhir ini...insyaAllah..

Ramadhan memories

picture ehsan pakcik Google

Its another Ramadhan, a chance to redeem ourselves, grab all the opportunities to be closer to the maker. Used to be its all about 'makan'. When I was young, my mum used to make all sorts of kuih, me and my sisters will be the messengers, running up and down the flats, trying to deliver most of it to the neighbours. On certain days we just pushed the dish to each other sebab dah penat lari turun naik, to the point we keep track sape yang tak hantar lagi....kids..;)

First time away from home, I was in uni, iftar with friends was a new experience, tambah lagi lauk yang kureng...(the company that makes it all worth it). We have to tapau lauk sahur at some 1-2 in the am, or wake up at 5am, walk to the dining and eat there. Lucky for me, my roomates was the type that could not missed a meal, so I have friends in the wee hours.

When I started working here, we gather all the singles and go to the bazaar together, even rotated as to whose places we are going, but sometimes you just could not avoid buka puasa sorang2. Which reminds me, there is one time, I have already promised another girl nak buka puasa sesama. She was stuck in the office and asked me to buy her some foods, and decides later on where to eat. It turns out she was working with this dude R, a weekend hubby (meaning not staying with the wife) and he ask us to join him and another colleague, Z (who is also a weekend hubby) for iftar. So we went to Z's place.

Buka puasa, makan, everything normal, then we went back home solat and all. After that only then I realized, if ever (god forbid) orang buat serbuan waktu tu, sure kitorang kena cekup berkhalwat dengan suami orang..serious!! Hahahaha... thinking back we sure never really considered that ;p

Starting from last year, I have a housemate ;) so most likely I am not alone. New resolution, not to spend too much on food for iftar. I know hotels in KL is booming with Ramadhan buffet promo, and I used to be the one that went out looking for these as well, but worth to ponder, is our ibadat as much as what we spend on iftar? (ade yang terasa ngan statement aku ni..hehehehe..)

So Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan people, semoga Ramadhan kali ini makin bererti buat kita, insyaAllah...

p/s: suke tengok Upin & Ipin berpuasa.. :)

Diamonds & Memories are Forever...

6th July 2010

Our last day in Cape Town!! For the last day, we managed to squeezed in few more main places to visit...(haha..sempat lagi tu..). It was drizzling when we went out and not far from the house, we spotted rainbow!! The background is Table Mountain.

About 5 minutes from our house, stood the Afrogem factory. I actually planned for one diamond factory tour, but since the company did not reply my email, I decided to let it slide. We pass by this factory everyday and spotted the Free Tour signage and decided to give it a try on our last day. We were taken to the manufacturing floor where all the jewelleries were made.

Ija bought few stones (nice cut btw) since the jewellery design is just asi-asi . But the stones are real bargain. For a total of 4 stones that can be made into one ring,one pendant and a pair of earring, she only paid less than RM 1K.

We target to go to The Bo Kapp Museum, but it was dissappointing. The museum sopposed to show the history of Muslim in Cape Town, I expected to see the items that was brough together by all these slaves from all over (maybe cooking utensils from Indonesia probably since Dutch did transport most of the Muslim slaves from there.) But what we see was just a house, with not much artifacs, the best that they have is posters showing how Bo Kapp used to be during British colonization. The second house link to the museum gave more about Islam, but still not much. I noticed that they emphasize much on the religious leader and some places where this leaders were buried was dedicated as shrine. We came across one shrine at Robben Island.

One old man that was manning the place was kind enough to show us one of the first mosque in Bo Kapp. This is after I asked him why all the mosques was locked when we tried to go in the other day. I could not get straight answer from him, but good enough we made way to the mosque, Auwal Mosque (est 1794). It was not even Zohor yet, so nobody was around, but it was not locked. The old man passed us to one young man that is studying inside the mosque. This young man, Sayed, is a Muslim revert, we spoke quite a while and from him I found out about the true Islam in Cape Town.

Although there is a big population of Muslim people in Cape Town, they are still looked down upon by other religion. This is because the Muslim youth is not living the Islamic ways. They partied and drank like nobody's business and some even got involved in crimes. Eidul Fitri is not gazetted as public holiday, but mostly the bosses acknowledge that their Muslim employee need that holiday and it was arranged internally within the organisation.

There is no objection from the government to practise Islam, but the Muslim community is not strong yet, they have no say in the cabinet. Probably that is the reason why it is so hard to find musolla in the shopping centre although the halal certificate is all over their fast food joint.

I wanted to know more and I think I can spend all day talking to that boy, but we planned to go to the Castle of Good Hope before 12pm. So we have to leave.

We got to the castle 5 mins before the ceremony begins. At 10am and 12 pm everyday, there is guard exchange ceremony that took place in the castle. We stayed until the ceremony is over and took a tour on our own (for guided tour, we have to wait and since we are running out of time, we just strolled by ourselves)

We bought lunch at one of the fast food in the area and took taxi home.

We did some last minute packing and managed to say goodbye to the lady in the cafe, Browyn. There were a few nights that we had dinner at this cafe, my favorite was tomato and lentils soup with toast, yummeh..no pictures though as we mostly forgot to bring the camera when we went out for dinner. The white lady is Stacey, the house admin, she helped us with all the day trip, taxi and safari bookings.

The taxi came at 3pm, we have to check in at 4.30pm. The airport is just 30 mins away but since we want to settle some tax refund, we decided to go early.

While waiting for check in, we had drinks at Mugg and Bean as our farewell bid to Cape Town.

It was showing repeat of Spain vs Paraguay.

We departed 2 hours before the Netherland vs Uruguay kick off, when the plane passed by Green Point Stadium, there was an undescribable feeling inside me. Definitely a memorable journey and I highly recommend to all those nature lovers out there, Cape Town is a must visit place, beautiful and will instantly takes your breath away....(macam nyanyi lagu pulak...hehehe..)

Me and My Big Mouth

I am very introvert, would not open up to new people. Am more vocal here in the cyberspace. I would only voice to people that I am comfortable with. And beneath my thin lips, more often than not, I may have hurt other people. Those who are close to me would know that I meant no harm, no pun intended.

I was in this thread in FB, all of it ex-ROTU gang an time after time we would say hi to each other and inform about the latest happening in our lifes. One of the guys just got married and he was sort of telling people how good it is to be married, and keeps on asking the juniors to quickly get married. If it is just one time, I don't think I would be very annoyed, but he keeps on repeating it and the tone of 'ke best-an' kahwin is more the *** part rather than marriage as a whole.

So me and my big mouth (or rather my itchy fingers), started responding to the thread...

There it goes, the commotion for the day...in a way I feel bad having written all that, but I really feel that we should be constantly be reminded of the intention of marriage in the first place ;), at least from Islamic perspective.

Blasphemy Most Foul

I received this via mail last week, but only decided to put it up after the recent attack on 3 churches in KL-S'ngor. Not only that, the government has granted RM 500K to help rebuild the church!!!

And what do we Muslims get in return? More bad names and more violence act added to our resume.

This all originated from the grant of using Allah's name given to Herald Wekly, and obviously government is way too late in doing the damage control. Many angry Muslims are roaming the streets and the one that could not control their anger resorts to all the acts just to prove their point.

Blasphemy Most Foul

In the days leading to the decision of the case brought by the Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop applying to use the word Allah in the Malay version of the bible, the Muslim community sat muted whilst being schooled by the non Muslims on their own religion. At the helm of this muted movement were politicians including their ulamas, political alliances and Muslim intellectuals who all agreed that it is permissible for the use of the word Allah in the Catholic weekly Herald publication.

The first effect that we shall see from the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court dated 31.12.2009 allowing the Church to use the word Allah in their Malay language publication is the birth of Allah’s son. From now onwards, the Christian God in this new publication shall be referred to as “Allah” and Jesus Christ as “Anak Allah”.

The Muslim calendar, ie the Maal Hijrah for the year 1431 shall be well remembered by all Malaysians as the year where the trinity of Allah accompanied by “Anak Allah” shall be celebrated in the books of the Christians in the mother tongue of the largely Malay muslim populace and marked by the lunar eclipse event.

In Surah Al Ikhlas, verse 1-4, Allah says ‘ Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; 2. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. 3. He begets not, nor is he begotten; 4. And there is none like unto Him.

For the unlettered and unschooled in Islam, verse 3 simply means that Allah “does not give birth”, nor is “Allah given birth to”. It is incumbent for all Muslims, both lettered and unlettered, to uphold the sanctity of the concept of monotheism in Islam and never to allow Allah to be portrayed as having the attributes of a human being, the ability to beget a Son of which the echelons of the political community using Islam as their brand name in Malaysia have so easily facilitated and consented.

Those responsible for allowing this event to take place shall have to answer in their graves and in the hereafter for committing the greatest of all sins, “shirk” or polytheism of the highest degree. No argument can justify the usage of “Allah” and “Anak Allah” in any kitab here; yet those in a position to prevent this occurrence has shamelessly come to the defence of The weekly Herald to teach us how to pray to our ONE GOD.

What is the rationale for using the word “Allah” in the Christian books and how does this promote racial integration or even “One Malaysia”? If anything, this event draws the divide between the races even more. It is a deep shame that we have to live with for the rest of our lives, losing a battle that need not have been fought at all. It is not the fault of the Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop that we lost our pride and identity, we are our own doing. The pride of our community today fell due to treachery by those who fought and won political battles using the name of Islam. In the Quran, Allah warns us most of all against people who sell their religion. Allah says in the Quran, “..do not sell my religion for a paltry sum..”. In this case before us, the situation involved is even worst, they sold their religion for free.


Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar
Presiden
Persatuan Peguam Peguam Muslim Malaysia

As a Muslim, I could not agree more with this guy.

Dakwah??

Da‘wah (Arabic: دعوة‎) usually denotes preaching of Islam. Da‘wah means literally "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation", being the active participle of a verb meaning variously "to summon, to invite" (whose triconsonantal root is د ع و). A Muslim who practices da‘wah, either as a religious worker or in a volunteer community effort, is called a dā‘ī, plural du‘āt. A dā‘ī is thus a person who invites people to understand Islam through a dialogical process, and may be categorized in some cases as the Islamic equivalent of a missionary.

I have never thought that I will be part of it. Back when I was a child, da'wah has always been associated with extremist, a group that called themselves Al-Arqam, or the tabligh people. These people either locked their wives at home while they go out on a mission, or let the wifes fend for themselves and the family, while they will go away for months in the name of jihad.

I got the concept all wrong. That is not all about da'wah, there is more to it than just the male went out and preaching about Islam while neglecting their utmost resposible besides Allah, their family. I see the bigger picture now, and actually proud that in a way, I am in it.

Remember when I mentioned about the Ramadhan program? Well, we had a discussion abouth Hadith 40 by Imam An-Nawawi every Friday. And for yesterdays' session, I prepared the slide. Its not that I know about it, just few things that I copied and pasted from the net. We talked about the first and foremost act of all action 'Niat' which is intention, purpose why you are doing certain things.

In Islam, everything that we do must be because of Allah, and as a bonus, the act can be done for other purpose. For example, you study because of Allah, and also because of knowledge, so when you put the intention as to study because of Allah, it becomes an ibadat and InsyaAllah if the study process is done as recommended in Islam, you will be rewarded later (apart from gaining the knowledge).

There is another part to niat, which is the intention to change for the better (hijrah). If all are done because of Allah, we will InsyaAllah be granted the better change that we intended for in the first place. Everything must have a sense of purpose, and this hadith tells us, to whom the purpose should be in the first place, the mighty creator Allah S.W.T. All that we gets apart from that just bonus.

I hope I'll be strong enough to start influencing people that I care (family and friends) towards living a blessed life as Islam always wants it. InsyaAllah..

Halal Meat

In the spirit of being Malaysian (not 1Malaysia), I'd love to share this funny video on 'halal' meat ;)

More of these from http://15malaysia.com/films/

Another one that I like is the Potong Saga

p/s: two thumbs up for me knowing how to embed video (says IT blind gal)

Zakat Fitrah

We've learnt this in school. Yet we memorise by heart for SPM on all the hukum and benefits of Zakat. Somehow not all of us truly understands and practice what we learnt back in school.

This year, I am paying the zakat for the family. since I am the breadwinner now. So I started to google how much am I supposed to spend for Zakat Fitrah. It turns out in the blogosphere, how much the rate, is actually the least of a concern. Its actually how the rate is calculated and the impact it makes in our ibadah.

From here onwards the post will be in BM.

Kita berpuasa sebulan pada bulan Ramadhan sebagai memenuhi Rukun Islam yang ke -4. Rukun Islam ke-3, kita wajib membayar zakat (fitrah yang paling asas, diikuti zakat pendapatan, zakat harta, wang simpanan, dsb..)

Zakat fitrah wajib dibayar setelah terbenam mentari Syaaban hingga ke sejurus sebelum Solat Sunat Aidilfitri. Ada yang berpendapat, jika ini tidak dilakukan, pahala berpuasa selama sebulan akan tergantung antara langit dan bumi...Persoalannya bagaimana jika zakat yang dibayar tidak cukup hisabnya?

Contoh, kadar yang ditetapkan tidak mengikut harga terkini makanan ruji sesuatu tempat itu. Harga beras di negeri A ialah RM2.80 sekilo (purata), maka mengikut hisab

Nilai zakat = 2.7-2.8 kg nilai makanan ruji;
= 2.8 kg x RM2.8 / kg
= max RM 7.84 satu kepala.

Tetapi negeri A hanya mewajibkan kadar zakat pada tahun itu sebanyak RM 7 satu kepala. Bagaimana dengan baki RM 0.84 satu kepala yang tidak dibayar? siapa yang akan menanggungnya?

Something worth to ponder about, as those who are paying is responsible for the rest of the people he/she is paying for.

Basic info of Zakat Fitrah. Source : here

Holy Month is Coming....

As I am updating, it is less than 24 hrs to Ramadhan. In fact, the ibadah starts tonight with the first Taraweeh. This year, I vow to make extra effort to complete as many as I can. Even when I have iftar outside.

The muslimah in the office are having special session during lunch time, we are having strings of activites such as tadarus& tafsir, and also session to discuss certain hadith from Hadith 40 by Imam An-Nabawi.

Hopefully this Ramadhan, I will be able to utilise my time wisely, improve my ibadah and make the biggest investment for Qiamat, insyaAllah..

Tonight my sisters and I are going back to SP, the celebrate the first day of Ramadhan with the rest of the family there. My mum ordered sugar stock, as she could not get any in SP (it is that bad...) I managed to get 6kg in Seremban (lucky had 2 colleagues with me to pay for the extra 4 kg). PD is also having stock out situation of sugar. I will continue 'sugar purchase' ops in KL before we depart tonight....I am so feeling like sugar smuggler right now...hehehe...

Anyhooo....wishing for a safe journey and anybody who is reading this a blessed Ramadhan ahead.

Semoga kita berjaya mempertingkatkan amalan di Ramadhan ini, siapa tahu bila lagi akan bertemu Ramadhan yang akan datang.... InsyaAllah....

Promo poster for the activity from Dr.K

Coretan Untuk Bakal Suamiku

Found this in a fren's blog....

Assalamualaikum wrt. wbt.

Untukmu, Bakal Suamiku….

Tangan ini mula menulis apa yang telah dikarangkan oleh hati ini di dalam kalbu. Aku mula tertanya-tanya adakah aku sudah seharusnya mula mencari sebahagian diriku yang hilang. Bukanlah niat ini disertai oleh nafsu tetapi atas keinginan seorang muslimah mencari sebahagian agamanya. Acap kali aku mendengar bahawa ungkapan “Kau tercipta untukku.”

Aku awalnya kurang mengerti apa sebenarnya erti kalimah ini kerana diselubungi jahiliyah. Rahmat dan hidayah Allah yang diberikan kepada diriku, baru kini aku mengerti bahawa pada satu hari nanti, aku harus mengambil satu tangungjawab yang sememangnya diciptakan khas untuk diriku, iaitu dirimu. Aku mula mempersiapkan diri dari segi fizikal, spiritual dan juga intelektual untuk bertemu denganmu.

Aku mahukan pertemuan kita yang pertama aku kelihatan ’sempurna’ di hadapanmu walaupun hakikatnya masih banyak lagi kelemahan diri ini. Aku cuba mempelajari erti dan hakikat tanggungjawab yang harus aku galas ketika dipertemukan dengan dirimu. Aku cuba membataskan perbicaraanku dengan lelaki lain yang hanya dalam lingkaran urusan penting kerana aku risau aku menceritakan rahsia diriku kepadanya kerana seharusnya engkaulah yang harus mengetahuinya kerana dirimu adalah sebahagian dariku dan ianya adalah hak bagimu untuk mengetahui segala zahir dan batin diriku ini.

Aku khuatir amalanku bukan sebulatnya untuk Rabbku tetapi untuk makhluknya. Aku memerlukan dirimu untuk menghindari fitnah ini. Aku khuatir kurangnya ikhlas dalam ibadahku menyebabkan diriku dicampakkan ke neraka meninggalkan kau seorang diri di syurga. Aku berasa bersalah kepada dirimu kerana khuatir cinta yang hak dirimu akan aku curahkan kepada lelaki lain. Aku sukar untuk mencari dirimu kerana dirimu bagaikan permata bernilai di antara ribuan kaca menyilau. Tetapi aku pasti jika namamu yang ditulis di Luh Mahfuz untuk diriku, nescaya rasa cinta itu akan Allah tanam dalam diri kita. Tugas pertamaku bukan mencari dirimu tetapi mensolehahkan diriku. Sukar untuk mencari soleh dirimu andai solehahku tidak setanding dengan ke’soleh’anmu. Janji Allah pasti kupegang dalam misi mencari dirimu. “Lelaki yang baik adalah untuk wanita yang baik.“

Jiwa remaja ku ini mula meracau mencari cinta. Matang kian menjelma dan kehadiran lelaki amat terasa untuk berada di sisi. Setiap kali aku merasakannya, aku mengenangkan dirimu. Di sana engkau setia menunggu diriku, tetapi di sini aku curang kepadamu andai aku bermain dengan cinta fatamorgana. Sampaikan doamu kepada diriku agar aku dapat menahan gelora disamping aku mengajukan sendiri doa diperlindungi diri.

Bukan harta,rupa dan keturunan yang aku pandang dalam mencari dirimu. Cukuplah agama sebagai pengikat kasih antara kita. Saat di mana kau bakal melamarku, akan ku lihat wajahmu sekilas agar mencipta keserasian diantara kita kerana itu pesan Nabi kita. Tidak perlu kaya seperti Nabi Sulaiman dan wajah tampan seakan Nabi Yusuf, cukup cuma akidah sekuat akar, ibadah sebagai makanan dan akhlak seindah budi.

“Kahwinilah isteri kerana empat perkara; keturunan, harta, rupa dan agama. Dan jika kau memilih agama, engkau tidak akan menyesal.” Jika aku dipertemukan dengan dirimu, akan ku jaga perasaan kasih ini supaya tidak tercurah sebelum masanya. Akan ku jadikan syara’ sebagai pendinding diri kita. Jadikan akad nikah itu sebagai cop halal untuk kau mendapatkan diriku. Biarlah kita mengikuti nenek moyang kita, Nabi Adam dan Siti Hawa yang bernikah sebelum disatukan agar kita dapat menikmati kenikmatan perkahwinan yang menjanjikan ketenangan jiwa, ketenteraman hati dan kedamaian batin. Doakan diriku ini agar tidak berputus asa dan sesat dalam misi mencari dirimu kerana aku memerlukan dirimu untuk melengkapkan sebahagian agamaku.

Dariku, Bakal Isterimu…..

My comment...touching, bet many woman are feeling this day by day....

Sempurnakah Iman Kita?

I have been through a lot these past few months, from personal to career and even my future. I am swamped. To take my mind off some things, I have started attending this usrah and that takes up my Ugly Betty slot, its OK, I can watch the re-run.

So far I've attended 3 sessions and when I started, I promised myself, if this forum ever got political, I would do my best to block out what others are saying, and focus on what really matters, keeping my faith strong and learning Islam.

Nowadays people tend to loose sight and finding excuses to mix the two. No doubt that Islam and politic are interrelated, but in Malaysia, people are confusing between the two. Religion is being manipulated in politics and I don't fancy that.

More often than not during the usrah we were debating, and keep on making references. Always the case the sentence would sound like this..." Bagi mereka yang tidak sempurna imannya....."
I started to ask myself, is it really 'mereka'? or is it 'kita'? I always believe that my 'Iman' is not perfect and can never be no matter how much good deeds and 'ibadah' that I do it can never be. And that is why, I am still required to continue my 'ibadah' and in the hope that it is accepted.

Many people (some religious ones) have the 'holier than thou' attitude. I have a feeling that sometimes during the usrah these behaviour surfaces. If I stick to my hardhead stigma, I would have walked away but I know my intention is to learn and I will stick to that. Just have to keep reminding myself not to fall in the grey area. Always be true to myself and stay grounded.

InsyaAllah.

Let's Read the Quran

I have been so self indulged lately, till I forgot the spiritual side of myself. Am at this workshop at work and managed to surf blogs that I have been neglecting recently. Stumbled upon this campaign by MM and I deserve some slap in the face, yup definitely deserve it.

I am reminding myself to take time and make use of it more wisely, learn and truly understand on the hidden treasure in the Holy Quran. I used to read on weekly basis, back in Uni days but now I sort of drop off the routine from my daily to-do-stuffs. I don't have a tafsir with me, but I'll begin reciting again. Well it takes small steps before a big leap.

Ya Allah, give me enough strength and willpower to keep this resolution. Give me endurance to stay on your track, and give your blessing in what I intend to do...Amin..