Al-Infitar

When the heaven is cleft asunder,
And when the stars have fallen and scattered.
And when the seas are burst forth.
And when the graves are turned upside down.
A person will know what he has sent forward and left behind.

O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous?
Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion.
In whatever form He willed, He put you together.

Nay! But you deny Ad-Din
But verily, over you (are angels) to watch you,
Kiraman Katibin -writing down,
They know all that you do.

Verily the Abrar (pious believers) will be in Delight (Paradise),
And verily, the Fujjar (wicked, disbelievers) will be in the blazing Fire,
Therein they will enter and taste its burning flame on the Day of Recompense,
And they will not be absent therefrom.

And what will make you know what the Day of Recompense is?
Again, what will make you know what the Day of Recompense is?
(It'll be) the Day when no person shall have power for another, and the Decision, that Day, will be (wholly) with Allah.

(surah al-Infitar)

the pakcik African story

Salam
sometimes we just never realize how lucky we are. I know it sounds really cliche but, I just can't stress more, how true it is!! I just had one of the most interesting chat with this pakcik who is an African and he is now working as a Security Guard/warden in the flat we're living in.

"Hye, can I collect my package?"[that was why I was there in the first place anyway, to collect a package that someone sent me.. hehe]

[Pakcik African searched for the package and handed it to me]

(Pakcik African membuka cerita)
"You know, it's been a while since I last saw my family. I think it was about 6 years ago."he said.
"Really? Why is that?" I wanted to know more. [although actually I did know half of his story already....]
"Well, I had to leave my family back home. I need to find money here...in a foreign country...away from my family. If not, they would die of hunger...of starvation..."he looked so sad at that moment.
" Oh...em where are you from?" I asked.
"From Zimbabwe.. It is hard living there now.. our people there are suffering.. and 80% of the people are unemployed...because they would not allow us to work.. The only job there, is to be in the army , or the police, and what the police do is beat the people.."
"Oh..." Images of the film 'Blood Diamond' suddenly came to my mind... same setting, so clear in my head I can imagine all of it going on in real life.
"Even my son, well..he has a pHD, you know. But he's not allowed to work there.. in his own country! So then he wanted to go to South Africa to start a new life and work there, but his passport was taken away by them..."Now I can almost see some tears forming in his eyes..
"And so now, he's just there, walking around with no work to do. And here I am, working for him, and for all my family back home..And can you imagine not being able to see your family for 6 years? " he continued.
"Oh.. " I was lost of words by then.
"And here in this country, they know how to take advantage of someone like me. You'd see me working on holidays, on Sundays, at night..right? When those times, other people are away with their family..when they're sound asleep. This is what we have to face working in a foreign country."
I nodded.
"And if you see other foreign people here, if they want to get a job here, it is very difficult. Even though they have better qualification than the local here, it is always harder for them to get jobs....so, remember, you must go back and work for your own country.. where people don't take advantage on you...like what happened to me.."
I nodded again.."It must have been hard for you.. How long will you be working here then?" I asked.
"I don't know,when things are better back home I guess. It must become better one day, I know."
" I hope so too, that everything will be allright one day.." I said.
" Yes, yes I hope so too.I miss my family very much.. "
"And I hope you'll be strong for now," I offered.
"Yes, yes, thank you.. it's just a matter of time." He glanced at his watch." Ahh, oh well, it has been very nice talking to you. Thank you for listening..."
I smiled.."Em.. yeah, thank you to you too. For sharing.. "

And with that, I grabbed my parcel and headed back to my room. So that's just my point. Many people out there are actually suffering, they face difficulties and hardships every day to survive. But how about us here? Do we wake up finding that there's nothing to be eaten this morning? Or do we wake up in the mornings to the sounds of bomb or gunshots? Do we wake up worrying whether it's gonna be our last day to see our closest family member? We don't, do we? Instead each morning, we wake up in our nice bedrooms, safe houses, and perhaps the only thing worrying is what to wear to school/university today. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. But have we ever really takes some time, and be very2 grateful for what we have today? For the peace that we are living in today, for every little tiny thing that we usually takes for granted today? What we have today definitely comes from the blessings of Him, the Almighty, so are we thankful for all of those?

And being the fortunate ones, do we only listen to the stories of the people in distress and say," too bad, dah nasib diorg mcm tu nak buat mcm mana.." That is not enough isn't it? There are definitely many things, even little things that we can do, that makes such a BIG difference in their lives. We can send our doa to them...especially to our brothers and sisters in Palestine, for example. And we can definitely donate some money to them , never mind if it's only a little. Because when many people each do their part, the total can be a lot!

And some last note: Do come and donate for the Cambodians in the Cambodia Relief Mission. They really need our help.. Contact me if you're willing to do so...right? :D and I think I'll post another entry altogether about the Cambodians later.. Allrite c ya!
Salam

you've got guts?

Then you should go to Alton Towers, about one and a half hour bus ride away from Leicester. Well, at least now I have something to say when I promote ppl to come to Leicester ;p.

The rides were good, and yeah, this is coming from a scaredy-cat like me. Haha.. halfway down the rollercoaster and I would start regretting my decision to go on it. "Why on earth did I get on this thing?" And I felt like yelling at whoever invented this roller coaster thing."Jahat btul sesapa yg cipta benda ni!!Arghh!!" Hahah. Take the Oblivion for instance. Well, that's the world's first ever vertical roller coaster ride for you. Damn that was scary!! And Rita, the queen of speed. Another fast roller coaster, urghh they say even faster than the Ferrari. terbalik2 some more.. Haih..good thing I didn't throw up or anything. But yeah, once you get off it, it actually felt good.



I would have screamed out loud just for the thrill of it but I felt somehow 'safer' zipping up my mouth and stifling that scream. Screaming makes me more scared laaa.. And the others were all laughing at me because I would just sit there, head down, eyes shut, all quiet. Haha if only they knew how my heart was pounding , and how I thought I was just gonna die then and there..
gulp..
well then that was officially the scariest thing that have ever happened in my life. Yup those rides in Alton Tower. Cause it felt like falling down without anything to support you. It felt like dying.

Hmm.. I was scared because of the fear of death. Then... how would it be when that time really come? When death really comes and takes me away from the face of the earth. When my soul would be free from my body ? And when the time finally arrive to come and face God, the Almighty? (Muhasabah sebentar .. tak cukup amalan lg!)... We'll never know when our time is due, kan? Better start thinking on how to tingkatkan amalan lg ni!!

salam for now...

Cambodia Relief Mission

Please visit : http://cambodiareliefmission07.blogspot.com

The sealed nectar : HOW were the Arabs before Islam?

So I'm in the midst of a really good book. The Sealed Nectar. Care to listen to some of the insights I got from the book?

Well, in order to know how the presence of Islam and the messages brought by the Prophet Muhammad has changed a nation (the Arabs especially) as a whole, there is a need to know how a particular community was before and after they received the message. Therefore, the book start off explaining in detail how the Arabs were in the first place.

It is true that they still believe in the religion of Ibrahim, who was their great great ancestor who rebuilt the Kaabah after Adam. They still take Allah as their God, but there were a lot of additions to the practise of their faith as many generations had passed after Ibrahim and Ismail...and as time passes, there were a lot of fabrications and designations to the real truth brought by these prophets. They started to worship idols, and thought that these idols were able to act as a medium to communicate to Allah.... all this started with a man...Let me extract from the book regarding this matter:

" ...However they still maintained fundamental beliefs such as monotheism ..until the time when a chief...'Amr bin Luhai came back from a trip to Syria. He was renowed for righteousness, charity, devotion and care for religion. In Syria, he saw people worshipping idols, a phenomenon he approved of and believed it to be righteous since Syria was the locale of Messengers and Scriptures. He brought with him an idol (Hubal) which he placed in the middle of Al-Kaabah and summoned ppl to worship it. "

Ah-haa..so that's how it all started. Anyway, they would give offerings (crops, cattles) to these idols and practise superstitious beliefs, believing in omens, and many more unnecessary practice that they thought would bring them closer to God. (???) Oh, how astrayed they were kan ?! Also, in terms of marriages, there were four types of marriages at this point. Would you wanna know? Em u need to read it for urself in this book pls! Tp byk la yg pelik2 di situ.. One of it being many men (less than 10 men) would have sexual relationship with a woman, and then when the woman got pregnant and give birth to a child, she can just point to one of those men and would say: 'I have given birth to a child and it's your child!' (pointing to one of them)..pelik juga di situ... There was also prostitutions among the woman..and as the author pointed out ,
" the woman was a marketable commodity and regarded as a piece of inanimate property."


Oh also, this one's famous. Of course there were people of some tribes who murder their infant daughters out of shame and out of fearing that they will not have enough to feed the baby. But then Allah anwers this in 17:31.. "And do not kill your children for fear of of poverty. We provide for them and for you."

What more, people of different tribes were constantly fighting with each other, conflicts often arise and wars often happened. Can you imagine, they can only live in peace with each other during the 4 prohibited months (ie bulan2 haram: Muharram, Rejab, Zulkaedah and Zulhijah) in which it is the only time they can practise their economic and social activities...[sigh]..In the other months, wars and fights would erupt. Yeah, they were all looking for power and and were greedy for wealth..

So, basically these people were in total darkness. They were ignorant and their minds were paralyzed. It is only with the Message of God brought by His Messenger Muhammad that they were brought to light. But it was not easy, definitely, not for the prophet, his sahabah, and all the early converts of Islam. They needed to be steadfast in practising their religion .....

And all that, for another entry altogether... SalamMmm... ;)

the sweet smell of freedom

Alhamdulillah, all the exams have finally ended. It was definitely one of the longest 3 weeks ever in my life. But I'm just glad it's over. Can't really say how I did, but I'm just praying to Allah that He will help me, and help us all. Now it's time for tawakkal saja....

Since I have finally tasted the air of freedom, I have now figured like.. a zillion things that I'm going to do now. For a start, perhaps finishing those novels that I bought at the carboot is a good idea. And I really wanna finish the book on the Prophet's biography: A Sealed Nectar, too. Never really got a chance to finish it, and people have been saying that it's one of the best book ever written about the prophet PBUH.

InsyaAllah, if everything goes great, and if I get to go back home ( yup...to be more specific: if I pass all my exams), some very super special projects are waiting for me at home. One of it is the Cambodia Relief Mission 2007, happening around the end of July. This is a special relief mission project organised by the Islamic Medical Association Malaysia (IMAM) of UK-Eire where about 20 medical students make a special trip to Cambodia to serve the local community. We're planning on doing mobile clinics, 'sunat'ing kids, health talk, and some others, for about emm..2 weeks. Can't wait for it! Am really anticipating these experience ...think about all the people that I'll be meeting, all the doctors that are going to be involved, and the experience of working with other med students. It's going to be great!!

I am now just going to make some more research on Cambodia, to have a feel of what it is like. So far, I know that there are Muslims there, but most of them are living in poverty. The seniors who went last year even said that some of the children can be seen around the village without any clothes to wear. And the people of Cambodia have been suffering from drought in the last few years, making their economic even worse. And if you look at their history too, this country has been experiencing civil war previously, that has affected many lives and their country as a whole. Well, so yeah, you get the idea. So, I'm just going to finish some reading and probably post more about it later..right...

-meanwhile, was blog-hopping and found this really sweet poem, just thought I might share it here =D -

A prayer

"O’ Allah, Dear Love,
Soothe burning hearts with the coolness of faith,
Give peaceful slumber to the restless,
And serenity to disturbed souls,
Guide the confused ones to Your light,
And those that are astray to Your guidance,
Remove evil whispers from our hearts,
And replace them with light,
Destroy falsehood with truth,
Crush the evil plots of the Devil
With Your Army of Angels,
Remove from us misery, affliction, and anxiety






Dah tak ingat which blog was this taken from (and without permission somemore!)....hihi thanks yeaa~



SalAm.... ;)

-exam season-

it's that time of the year again. ie the most torturous 3 weeks of the 2nd sem at med-school! oh well, it's the examinations season again, it is that time when medic students don't get enough sleep, not enough food, not enough sunshine (reason: mobility is usually restricted, only in the house or in front of the desk or....on the bed?)...walking around like zombies trying to memorize every minute detail, word-by-word of the for example, the clinically oriented anatomy book, which is like 2 inches thick. so now it's time to scream : aaaaaaaa. ok sorry. won't do it again.

Well, at least we're half way through. Just finished the musculoskeletal exam, yes..THE musculoskeletal exam, the one and only. the most 'beloved' subject of them all, reason? This is when you fill whatever brain cells you still have in the brain with details of what's inside your arm, your hand, your legs. a lot of memorizing for this. Cram everything inside the brain. (Screams again) Oh ya Allah, forgive me when I whine...

But honestly, I think I do enjoy learning these subjects, apart from the needing-to-memorize every-single-thing part. It is really, seriously amazing, how the body is being made into what we see today. Underneath the skin, there are so many structures and details that may be small, but has so much importance to the whole system. And it's really fascinating that each of our movements..in the arms, fingers etc has its very own individual system, eg to flex or to extend etc. But most of us tend to take these for granted, we never take some time to actually think of these wonders, and to be grateful for these little things. And to think of how great the Creator is for all of these? No man can ever do this, can we? It just shows how small we are compared to Him. So have you or me, take some time today to reflect on all this, to do some muhasabah? Are we grateful servants or are we taking all these for granted?

"Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you deny?" --ArRahman

2 more written papers and 1 OSCPE to go. It is only in Allah that I pray that I will be given strength to go on, pray to Him to let me excel in these. Do make prayers for me and for the rest of leicesterians.... caiyok!!