HARTA ATAU ILMU?

Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang

Seorang ulamak tersohor iaitu hadrat Hasan Basri rahmatullahalaih  pernah menceritakan bahawa dia mengenali dua orang khalifah dalam hidupnya. Dua orang khalifah ini ternyata mempunyai pendapat yang berbeda dalam mendidik anak 2 mereka.

Seorang khalifah ini telah meninggalkan harta yang banyak kepada anak2nya selepas kematiannya namun seorang khalifah lagi tidak meninggalkan apa-apa harta pun kepada anak2nya kecuali beberapa dirham sahaja.

Beliau kemudian memerhatikan kehidupan anak2 kedua2 khalifah ini selepas beberapa tahun. Didapatinya anak2 khalifah yang dianugerahkan harta kekayaan itu sedang meminta-minta kepada orang ramai.

Apabila dia mencari pula anak2 khalifah yang tidak diberi harta, didapatinya mereka berada di masjid mengagihkan sedaqah kepada para fakir miskin.

Perkara ini tidak menghairankan beliau kerana khalifah yang tidak meninggalkan harta kepada anak2nya telah meninggalkan sesuatu yang jauh lebih berharga iaitu ILMU.

Seorang sahabat saya tidak bersetuju.... beliau merasakan bahawa kedua2nya penting. Apa pendapat anda?

NICE SUNNY DAY!

May peace be upon you.

It is a bright sunny day today, Alhamduleelah. The rain came and like a mop, it wiped away all the haze, well almost all of it. I have never been happier hearing the thunder.

And we could actually see the blue sky for the first time in almost a week. I think everyone in Malaysia is relieved and thankful for the rain. We can breath clean air again!

However lessons must be learnt from this man-made pollution so that it won't happen again. I think we all have had enough of this ugly episode.

THE HAZE

May peace be upon you.


This is the scenery just outside my balcony about 11 am yesterday. The haze has enveloped a whole hill. Believe it or not, beyond that gloomy haze, nestled on the hill are huge buildings.

There are actually a condominium under construction, a few flats and townhouses on the hill. On normal days you could see them clearly.

As all Malaysians are waiting for the haze to end, I wonder why this is happening again and again every year. Why can't we stop it? It is not  a natural disaster, it is definitely man-made.

Many young children, the sick and the elderly are suffering. Even the fittest are feeling the heat.

Come on, I'm sure there is a way to overcome this annoying yet hazardous problem.

The capitalist i.e the polluters are making profit out of people's misery. Bring these companies who practice slash and burn to court and make them pay.  They will stop  because money is everything to them. 

 Save the environment. Save the future of our children and grandchildren. Let us pray and hope for  better days ahead....

WHY IS THE SKY BLUE ?

May peace be upon you.

A boy asked his father why the sky is blue. The father started to explain the scientific reasons behind it..the blue colour travels in shorter,smaller waves through the earth's atmosphere... bla..bla..bla...

No.. said the son. Why is it blue, not black not purple? Who chose the colour?

Hmm....my son, aren't we blessed to have the beautiful blue skies most of the time. Allah chose it as a blessings for us. If we lived on the moon, the sky is black. Just imagine night time 24 hours a day, year in, year out. When we see the blue sky it makes us feel peaceful and tranquil.

Sometimes, we take for granted the natural things around us without once thinking to be grateful
for Allah's blessings.

[Malaysia is having a haze problem blanketing the whole country at the moment. Hopefully, inshaAllah, the haze will go away and we will get back our beautiful blue, blue sky.]

The nasheed Blue Sky is by Brother Dawud Wharnsby.

BENARKAH KITA BERKORBAN ?

Dengan nama Allah Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang


Suatu hari seorang lelaki melihat seorang sahabatnya murung lantas bertanya apa sebabnya.

"Aku berasa sangat sedih. Aku bekerja keras dari pagi hingga malam namun keluargaku tidak sedikit pun menghargai pengorbananku selama ini", jawab sahabatnya itu.

Lelaki yang prihatin itu menepuk bahu sahabatnya lembut,

"Sahabatku...
di dalam pengorbanan tidak ada penghargaan...
Kalau ada perasaan untuk dihargai, maka itu BUKAN pengorbanan.
Erti pengorbanan adalah kita melakukan sesuatu untuk orang lain tanpa mengharap balasan apa2 pun daripada makhluk Allah.

Sahabatku...
Usahlah bersedih...
Bukankah Allah telah berjanji akan membalasi segala apa yang kita buat yang baik atau tidak walaupun sebesar sebiji benih sawi?

Sahabatku...
Bergembiralah...
Percayalah jikalau kita ikhlas dalam pengorbanan, pasti kita diganjari...
Dan ganjaran Allah swt itu lebih mulia dan berharga."

TEASPOON IN MY MUG

In the name of Allah The Most Merciful The Most Beneficent

      Kaneez was a close friend of mine. She used to come to my rented house regularly when I was studying in Cardiff. She was doing her bachelor's degree majoring in history. She was bright and very observant. She was also born with a cleft palate. But that didn't stop her from pursuing her real ambition.

Since our house was near the university campus, it became something like a stop-over for other Malaysian students who lived a bit far away from campus, to pray and to have light refreshments. Somehow Kaneez who is British, fits in well with us.

We used to have countless English tea with her. Little that we knew, she was observing us, the way we drink, the way we talk. She would ask questions that we would have never thought of. For example, she asked why we like to leave the teaspoons in our mugs while we're drinking. Hmm... I really don't know why we do that. But I just realized we do have that habit. Come to think of it, it is probably sheer laziness on our part. So every time I drink tea with a teaspoon in my mug, I will always remember her.

The other question she posed that intrigued us was... when we speak English, do we think in English or our mother's tongue language i.e the Malay language? Another hmm... never thought of that at all. So I just realized that automatically I would think in English when I speak English but... if I'm stuck on a word I would think in Malay and then translate it in English.

I love being with her. She always had fresh ideas and a lot of determination. I was a bit surprised when she said she wanted to read law after getting her degree in History. She actually wanted to be a lawyer. With her cleft palate,I was initially sceptical. But, after seeing her undaunted by any negative views about her ambition, I was ashamed with my scepticism about her. I knew she could succeed in anything she wanted to do.

Unfortunately I lost contact with her. The last I heard about her was that she did succeed in becoming a barrister. I am so proud of you, my friend and I will always remember you especially when I have a teaspoon in my mug.

AMAZING WATER - ICE BENDING

May peace be upon you.

Mind-blowing experiment with chilled water and ice.

Science is amazing! Who says science is boring?  They should do this experiment in schools.

This the real water bending, Avatar fans! Imagine if we could do this experiment in a larger scale. Wow!

THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND

 In the name of Allah the Most Merciful  the Most Beneficent

I really love this photograph of these two little friends. It captured the pure and simple love of two friends. It reminds me when we were young, when we had nothing, when friendship means real friendship, when your friend didn't even care if you have a dime or not.

The most important thing was that we're together and played together. The best days of our lives. When it rained we used the banana leaves as umbrellas. When it's hot, we ran and jumped into the village river. When we got hungry we just ate fruits from somebody's orchard or go to your house or mine and had rice and fried mackerel.Simple yet we felt it was the grandest meal.  Those were the days......

THE SAND, THE SUN AND THE SEA

                Tanjung Bidara , Malacca

May peace be upon you

The best place to be during the school holidays.  The sand, the sun and the sea. Where everybody let their hair down. This is the place if at first you were reluctant, but when you are here, you will always glad you came. Well we had a whale of a time!

Just one thing I do not like whenever I go to the beach or river, the bad habit of Malaysians throwing rubbish anywhere they like. Every time we go there we will pick up rubbish left by these people. These people then stared at us as if we were being sarcastic. But I think deep in their hearts they have learnt something. I hope.

Anyway the warm sea still looks inviting...

                                         Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan

DEATH

May peace be upon you.


I lost a friend to cancer two days ago. I visited him a few weeks before his death. I haven't seen him more than 20 years and seeing him for the first time after all those years in a hospital bed felt awkward. He was surrounded by his family and friends. Obviously he was loved. I felt like a stranger.

After his funeral, my old friends and I had an informal reunion. We were from the same class in college. As we sat together in the dimly-lit restaurant eating 'murtabak', reminiscing our younger years and feeling blessed with our present life, I could not  help but look around....which one of us will be next?

Death seems to pick us one by one. Last year two of our colleagues passed away suddenly only months apart. I was in total shock when my first friend died. I thought she was too young to die. She was vibrant and jolly and the sweetest person you could ever meet. The reality is, death does not discriminate whether you're young or old, whether you're a nice person or not. 

Face it...everyone will die. Someday..somehow. The prophet Muhammad [peace be upon him] said the cleverest of men is the one who always remembers death. The reason is what Professor Morrie said in the book 'Tuesdays with Morrie' written by Mitch Albom "...To know you're going to die, and to be prepared  for it at any time...."

People who are prepared for death, will look at life differently. They will be more involved with their love ones, with life itself. They will try to do good deeds to everyone. They will feel blessed for everyday they wake up alive.

 As what Professor Morrie reminded us, "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live".