Yesterday, Ms aRa had shared with us how beautiful animals are, even when they are just drawing

Believe me, when I tell you that, not many people can see the beauty in them. In fact everything there is in life is beautiful. We just need to know how to see things.

Let’s take a pencil for example… How do you see a pencil? This is what I think when I see a pencil. (Most of the time)

1) What it’s used for?
Writing.. with writing comes reading which according to Islam is the foundation of all knowledge. (Remember Iqra’?)

2) How it was made?
Apparently some wood, and carbon. which I read somewhere, that carbon is one of the most basic element found in everything. hm the pencil and I may be not that different after all

3) What will its future be like?
It will get shorter and shorter.. and when it’s no more useful, it will be thrown away. Suddenly I remember the autobiography essay written in Primary School. “Saya Sebatang Pensel”. I’m sure you too must have written the essay.

Life is also like that, it will not get any longer, and with time… it will be end. When the pencil are thrown away, nobody remembers it.

4) Why is it straight?
Only the pencil makers knows exactly why, but we can only assume that straight pencil will be easier to use. The same goes to our life.. Only our creator knows our true purpose, and the reason we are what we are. The pencil will never know its purpose if he asked me, since I am not its maker.

5) What inspire the first pencil maker to make pencils?
Maybe first they used charcoal, and when it is too hot, they wrap it with leaves and wood. I don’t know. but it is always inspiring knowing how people were inspired.

/end list

I can write endlessly, (near endlessly) about pencils. And what other things we can relate to it. This is in my opinion, the best way to view things. Not just by looking at the pencil and only saying, “that is a pencil”.

We need to go beyond our sight, and see the beauty of the pencil. And if you notice, almost everytime, it will come back to Allah, our creator. Which is exactly why, He said “To know Allah is to study His creation”

- I wonder -
Anything else you can add about pencils?

——— Personal Note ———–
“Saya sebatang pensel” (I’m a pencil) is somehow the most popular essay to be written when I was 12. At the time, an essay was supposed to be 80 words minimum. And it was then very hard to comply to that.

I’m not sure what can I wrote now in 80 words hehe

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As everyone would have known, today is Awal Muharam. A new year in the Islamic calendar. I’m very sure most blog will blog about it anyway. There are so many things we can talk about to appreciate and learn from the event. We can talk about how the Prophet Muhammad had taken the journey to Madinah, and how it translate in our life as a new beginning of our life. Believe me.. there’s so many lesson we can learnt from it.

One other thing we can learn from the great event is to be brave making changes.

I think most of us will agree that making changes is one of the hardest thing to do. We are comfortable with our current practice, and even though there are problems, we are more afraid of the problem that may arise after we make the change. A little abstract?

For example, Ali is working with an Oil & Gas company, he is however major in Computer Engineering. He is not happy with his work but at least the salary is paying his bills. Then a computer company offered him a job, will he make the change. A logical answer would be yes.. But, Ali will have a dilemma to choose from his dream or his comfortability.

If he choose the company, who knows he will end up with very low benefit and more works. But it will be a dream come true. If he choose to stay with his current company, he will have his stability but he’s not enjoying his work.

Sometimes in life, we will have to be brave to change. I’m not saying we should all quit our job and hunt for our dream. Maybe instead of Roti canai every morning, we can try half boiled egg. We may not be full, but it may be a healthier choice.

In short… when you are stuck with choice A and choice B. And you know for sure that choice B is better in every aspect. And the one thing that holding you back is because you are more comfortable with A, Choose B.

Life is all about making decision, there are no right and wrong decision, only shorter or longer route to achieve your aim.

- I wonder -
Have you ever made a difficult choice in life?

————- Personal Note ————
I wrote this dedicated especially for me. I like being comfortable with my life. If I was at a restaurant, the chances that I order iced Milo is almost 100%.

Starting this blog is actually a very big thing for me. It’s my way of trying to change. If not.. isn’t it more easy just to read blogs

Happy new year everyone!

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Summary – Find that joy and excitement

Aidil Adha is approaching. InsyaAllah it will be celebrated here in Malaysia on the 20th of December. Aren’t you excited?

How many of us are actually excited about it? Counting down the days.. or planning what to do on that day.. I’m quite sure that the answer is just not many.

I wonder why? Why can’t we be excited on the day we are actually supposed to be excited? One reason I can think of, is that we had outgrown the celebration..

During our childhood, Hari Raya is always our happiest day. There’s so much to do, with new clothes, firecrackers, the “Duit raya” etc. Now that we are older (ehem to DaPocket), all those things that excite us no longer have any effect.

New clothes might have some effect but if we are short of cash, buying new clothes is just out of the question. firecrackers are now just for the kids, and adults going around asking for “Duit raya” is frown upon in some culture

It is true that we had ourgrown the excitement from all those things. It is unavoidable. This is where we can go wrong, Never leave it like that. We now need to find another way to enjoy our Hari Raya.

If previously we are happy wearing the new clothes, now find that joy in seeing our children wearing new clothes, Walking around handsomely/beautifully like a model, smiling all the way. If that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will

Again.. We have to look for the excitement. It will never come looking for you. An example to illustrate is a husband and a wife. One day they will feel like there’s no spark in their love life. They are so used to each other, they didn’t feel the passion and heat like when they first in love. Do you think they should just let it be? or start having affair? Of course not.. They should find out how to heat up their relationship, maybe a second romantic honeymoon
or a simple rose by the bed

- I wonder -
How do you enjoy your hari raya? Maybe you can share it here…

———— Personal Note —————–
Today I will be going back to Bangi after work, My living-like-a-bachelor day is over. And starting from tomorrow until 25th, I will be on leave (from work.. not from blogging hehe)

What I love most about Hari Raya is when I am able to get together with my two brothers, the mama and the maktuk that is all I need for my Hari Raya

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Summary – Appreciating Islam

One thing about me, I easily remember stuff. But another thing about it is that.. most of the time, that stuff does not really that important. Those important ones I forget hehe…

I remember one line from the movie “Incredibles”. You know the cartoons. The bad guy actually said – “When everyone can be superheroes.. nobody will be one” or something like that la. (let me try to give you the excuse why I watched the cartoon… My niece and nephew totally love the cartoon, so everytime they watched, I watched.. sometimes it’s the other way around hehe)

I think that line has some truth in it… Let say, everyone on earth is given one million dollar each. We can all say that we are all millionaire. But the truth is, nobody cares anymore at the time. Everyone is a millionaire. The fact that we are all given the money makes being a millionaire is worthless. We really are still a millionaire, but the thing is nobody will see and appreciate that anymore. Unless of course, we earn that million dollars than we will know the actual value of the million dollar

So if we say that we are unique. I believe everyone in the whole world think of himself as unique, don’t you think? If that is so, then according to the quote, nobody will be unique. Truthfully we are still unique, but the thing is nobody will see and appreciate that anymore.

So.. who must appreciate us when we become millionaire, or when we are unique? No other that ourselves. We are the one who must recognize and appreciate what we are or have, especially what we earn. Other people can say what they want.. it should not matter. You are what you are, you earn what you work on..

So guys.. any other thoughts to add?

I guess maybe that’s the case with all the muslim in the world. Most of us are all born muslim, so maybe for some, we don’t appreciate us being a muslim. We acted like Islam is just some title we have. I really respect those who embrace Islam willingly. For them, Islam is the only valuable things in their life. Directly the opposite to most of us. *sigh

I pray to Allah so that the mrs and I will be given the “hidayah” to stay committed in Islam and so that we will never forget to be thankful to Allah for having Islam as our way of life.

———– Personal Note ————
Have you ever day dreaming (berangan) of having a million dollars? I have… but why ya? it usually end up the same way as any other people, it usually started with
- settling the bills and debt
- buy a car, buy a house, marry
- perform Haji
- go travelling

Nobody want to buy an Island? or build that “Airwolf” (the high tech helicopter) etc.

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Summary – How “Puasa Enam” helps

I think most of us know the cause of this nationwide illness. It’s the over-consumption (Sumbat) of food during Hari Raya, don’t you agree? During that day, we usually will eat “slightly” more than our average.

But I’m not going to write about this… It’s on how Islam had offer the solution for this

First of all, I would like to say that this idea is not from any hadis or Quran. It’s entirely from my observation. And thus it is not to be taken as the ultimate truth.

We are all familiar with “Puasa Enam”. In Islam, after we had performed the 1 month fasting, we are given the gift of Eid or “Hari Raya”. However, it is very recommended to start back fasting on the second day of Syawal for 6 continuous days or any 6 days of Syawal. What’s interesting is how it is so VERY RECOMMENDED to perform that 6-days fasting at the SECOND day of Syawal.

It is my belief that a hidden benefit of that is to introduce food in an orderly manner. The scientific term for it is to avoid “Surprised-Stomache” (perut terkejut hehe). In addition to that, our Hari Raya food is famous for its rich in fat and cholesterol. (ya ya blame the food )

In short, there is a hikmah why “Puasa Enam” is VERY RECOMMENDED to be done at the earliest of Syawal. And I believe this is it. So have I done my “Puasa 6″? hm apparently not yet, if not I must be healthier. Let’s

So enough about that… how’s everyone’s Raya? Care to share your big day here?

————–Personal Note————-
The songs of Raya is still playing inside my head. My favorite Raya song would be that song sung by Anuar Zain when he was still a kid, Aiseh I forget the title.. but the song is playing in loop in my head. And I have no way to stop or pause it. To make things worse… it is looping with only a few line Still I can enjoy the song… it’s the Raya spirit (or I am forcing myself to believe that huhu)

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Summary – Lailatul Qadar, another POV

We had reached the third phase of Ramadhan. It is popularly connected with one of the greatest gift from Allah himself to us, the Lailatul Qadar.

As a quick introduction to Lailatul Qadar, this night is one of Allah’s secrets. One night in the whole 30 nights of Ramadhan will be chosen by Him and whoever strive to perform “ibadah” that night, will be awarded the same “pahala” as performing “ibadah” for 1000 months.

That is more than 83 years. I’m not sure exactly how Allah will reward that person. But simple logic (within my limited mind) believe that if I perform one “solat sunat” that night, it will be equivalent of me performing one “solat sunat” every night for more than 83 years.

Imagine if we strive every year to find that lailatul qadar, and perform that one “solat sunat” in that night. And imagine we can get hold of this lailatul qadar for 40 years of our life. That would equivalent of us performing one “solat sunat” every night for 3320 years

There’s so many things we can talk about lailatul qadar. The malay myth of how water will freeze that night, some ignorant folk even stay up that night to see miraculous thing and try to capture it so that their wish is granted.

We can discuss how certain “ulama” had even predicted lailatul qadar based on the day of the first of Ramadhan. Personally, I think this is just a mere conclusion based on experience. Even Rasulullah didn’t disclose the exact date and only specified the range of the nights. And we must not forget, the actual reason lailatul qadar is kept a secret is to motivate muslim to perform “ibadah” the wHOLE month.

It would be very wrong if we aim to find that night and perform all the five solat (Subuh, Zohor, Asar, Maghrib and Isyak) with the intention not having to pray a single day for 83 years. (silly)

We can talk about all that… but what interest me is this

If any “ibadah” we performed in that night, will be rewarded as if we performed it for 83 years, how about if we commit sin that night? What if that night, we stayed up all night talking about other people (mengumpat or fitnah)? What if that night we scold our parent and hurt their feeling?There is no “hadis” explaining this. But I have to say that it is so much easier to commit sins than performing “ibadah”. We need to be very very very careful this time of the month.What do you think? Or maybe you know anything else about Lailatul Qadar worth sharing here?

————–Personal Note————-
I’m not sure whether this is true or not, but I once heard that the next morning after Lailatul Qadar, we can even look at the sun directly. This is because all angels are flying back to the sky that the sun’s brightness is reduced. Again… I’m very not sure whether this is true or not. But when I was in form 2 and 3, I had to travel to my school very early in the morning. And I can assure you that there will be one morning every year in Ramadhan that the sun is very beautiful and I can stare at it for a very long time. At the time, I really believed that lailatul qadar was last night and I had missed it.  

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Sumary – If done correctly, it can even shed a few kg of you.. Here’s how

Why is it that some people is more energetic during Ramadhan, while another is weaker? The answer to this very question will help us to not only become fitter but we may be able to lose weight in the process, insyaAllah.

The answer is “Sahur”. People from Kedah call it “Soq” . There’s a reason why “sahur” is very recommended to people who fast. In fact, that’s the only difference from our fast and the non-muslim’s fast.

Let me try to explain it.. We all know breakfast is the most important meals of the day. Yes it provides us more energy to start our day, but there is another secret to it. Breakfast actually gives signal to our body that we are not in starvation.

You see, our body is very clever. When we are starving, the body does not react by burning more fat. It actually react by lowering down its metabolism and burn less fat to preserve them. That is why we are often weaker when we are hungry for a long time.

So Sahur, will indirectly signal the body that we are not starving ourself. And thus the body’s metabolism will switch to normal mode. Which means it burns more fat and giving us more energy to start the day. Thus we will be fitter and stronger the whole day. And since the metabolism rate is not slowed down, more fat will be burn and eventually the weight loss (Of course other factors must be taken into consideration, such as exercise, type of food etc)

So guys.. it’s already half a month, Any weight loss or gain? 

Note : The intention to fast is never supposed to be about weight loss. It is our very own bond with Allah, since no one will ever know we’re fasting or not except Him.

————–Personal Note————-
Waking up for sahur is very challenging indeed. During my childhood, I even have some stages that will occur before I completely aake for sahur. My grandmother will wake me up by calling my name. That almost certainly will not work. She then go very close to me (visible distance) and again call. This time, I will reply by giving some sort of protest that I don’t want to sahur. She know this too well and start nagging with high frequency voice That should wake me up. And I protestly walk to the dinner table and eat my sahur.This happen almost every night, and almost everyday.. I will feel grateful to her for patiently wake me up. if not… *sigh

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We all know that Syaitan are our greatest enemy. They had sworn to sway us away from the Islam and Iman. If there is any bad things we do, we often associate it with the Syaitan, whispering in our heart to push us do the sinful thing, like “mengumpat”, stealing, and even killing. Syaitan is of course blamed for every bad things happening in the world.

That makes me wonder, Isn’t it during Ramadhan, all syaitan are chained to protect human from being tempted? Why is it, that nothing had actually changed. Just look into our heart, we ourselves can do sinful things during Ramadhan, like “fitnah”, “mengumpat”, even neglect the 5 solats. Look around us, we can see people proudly not fasting, innocently walking during Friday prayer, and some even go to the extreme such as raping and killing. Can we really blame Syaitan for all this?

I definitely agree that syaitan is the one who whisper to us, tempting us to do sinful things. and I agree that they are human’s enemy till Judgement Day. But how can we explain the sinful things we do during Ramadhan? Desire? maybe…

My opinion is, syaitan nowadays has an easy job. What they do is just to plant a seed in our heart. That seed can be as little as some white lie (bohong sunat), or rushing after solat etc. All those things that we normally think “not a big deal”. The seed buried deep inside our heart, by mean of we keep doing all the minor things (makruh) like solat at the end of the period, reciting alfatihah in a breath time. We keep doing it, and thus the seed grows.Until one time, we no longer care what is makruh and what is sunat, If we don’t realize this, the time will come when we no longer care what is haram and what is wajib. To make things worst, not only we are like that, we try to persuade our friends to act the same. What difference then between us and syaitan?Basically we can see ourselves, syaitan’s work is very easy. Maybe we should learn more about Islam, knowing exactly what is makruh, what is sunat. If we take the time to learn about makruh and sunat, I believe abiding wajib and haram will comes naturally. Let’s give those syaitan a challenge shall we?

What do you think? any other insights you might notice?

————–Personal Note————-
When I wrote this, I feel like the words are actually meant for me. I admit, I am not a good muslim. I never pray at the beginning of the period, I rarely “sedekah”. And it’s been a long time since I go back to learning all this Feqah. So this writings are more like a reminder to me, A reminder that I know and still I don’t care. Ya Allah, please make me a better person

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A very good day to all of you… The sun is .. well not shining, it’s about 1 am in the morning. Tomorrow we will be performing the 8th day of fasting.. so like my friends Yanz asked the other day in the shoutbox, “Siapa tak puasa, angkat kaki”. I’m still not sure whether she meant to raise up a leg or to “cabut”

I don’t know about you, but every year, I see more people not fasting, and they are not embarassed about it. When asked, they just say that they feel weak if they fast.

That seriously puzzled me, “what do they expect?” We change our lifestyle, of course there will be some change in the way our body react. The first few days are always the hardest. Then our super adaptive body will not only be as normal, it will be better in term of health.

The first war in Islam, which is “Perang Badar” happened on the 17th of Ramadhan. 313 Muslim warriors were fighting about 1000 Quraisy warriors and they won. If muslims can actually performed the fasting while at a war (a fight between life and death), why we cannot fast when we are just doing our light job. We were even get paid for that. Did the muslim in “Perang Badar” get paid?

Most of the time, we even used this fasting month as an excuse to get lighter job. I know my foremen are.. Luckily the indian foremen are very understanding and offer to do heavier job. It’s very embarassing to me, that when they are actually not fasting, but demand the lighter work.

What I’m saying is, we are fasting.. expect to experience some hardship, some hunger and thirst. Don’t whine about being hungry.. That’s just wrong.

Knowing this, I like to expand the idea to all things in life. When we started to work.. we need to expect that we are going to actually do some work. Don’t be like my foreman… Some of them, when asked to do certain work, they insist that this job must be done by another foreman. This is not supposed to happen. we were hired to work, and so we must work. Period.. By the way, off topic, the foreman finally give in and do the repair I asked him to do.

Another example, is when studying.. We must not whine on the need to study. We are student, and we must expect that they will be a lot of studying involved. So.. all we need to do is to study. Yes, sometimes the work overloads, that we can whine. but not about the need to study.

So when we are fasting… please expect to suffer some hunger, thirst and maybe fatigue. Please also expect we are going to be tested, people inviting us to “mengumpat” maybe, or tv shows showing all those sexy girls. It is when we rise beyond this challenge that Ramadhan will bring out the best in us

Any other similar examples happening in your life, please share ya

————–Personal Note————-
The day is a bit hot now.. I have to admit that sometimes I have this thought in my head to break the fast. What I do, everytime that idea comes, is to think about how Rasulullah, tied rocks to his stomach just to ease the hunger. Immediately feel ashamed of having the thought. How about you? How do you overcome those urge?

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When people say Ramadhan or “Bulan puasa”, what are the first things that come to our mind? I try this question myself.. and these are the answers that first come to my mind.

1) Breaking fast with family

I enjoyed this so much.. somehow it will always be last minute, and things will go in a rush. My family often break our fast on the floor in the living room because of the extra space. We can see people going to and fro from the kitchen bringing food. When all the food is served, we will all see with awe the varieties of food, and usually end up with a silent pledge to buy fewer food the next day. (of course it will only be a pledge). And another fact amazes me is how the last 10 minutes are the longest minutes in the entire history of mankind … everytime!

2) Bazaar Ramadhan

For those who have no idea, it is a place where all kind of food will be sold especially for breaking fast. You can see some of the most exotic food and “kuih” there. Legend has it, that once the time has come to break fast, all food will be FOC. heheh but this legend had never been tested simply because I never want to break fast there

3) Morey (pronunced Moray), “Malam Tujuh Likur” etc

/end answer

Truthfully, I loved everything about Ramadhan especially the above. And I have no intention to ask you not to love them… This is our culture, if we don’t stand up to it, who will?

That’s when it occur to me, that I remember Ramadhan only in its cultural form. Ramadhan is actually an “ibadah” (worship), but instead of remembering all the blessing and forgiveness in Ramadhan, I had choose to remember the cultural side of it, which is all the answers above.

We don’t remember Ramadhan as the month we should double all our “ibadah”, cry for fogiveness in the silent night, trying to earn that Lailatul Qadar, or the month where we should train ourselves to be better, and most importantly to continue the better state after Ramadhan.

It’s actually good that we had integrated our culture with Islam. That’s the beauty of Islam.. But the danger will come, when the cultural side had already overwhelmed the true nature of is, we no longer see Ramadhan as an “ibadah”.

What do you think? how do you remember Ramadhan? cultural or from Islam POV? Personally… I still like to associate Ramadhan with our culture I think, it’s still ok provided you know what Ramadhan actually is.

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