Cambodia Relief Mission

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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!!

birthday birthday

Salam...
hoho..i've turned 21 today... believe it or not, i am 21. that's like the legal age to do many things huh? many naughty things?? ekekke...kidding. well..i'm practically an adult now. I can even go out and vote now. cool huh?

the thing here is that when u get older, you're more expected to behave like one. you know, with increasing age comes maturity ..or at least it should be like that. So yeah, here i am, making a birthday resolution that i am SO going to be more matured than I am before.. (don't laugh ppl!) i'll try i'll try.

standing back and looking at myself being 21, how can I NOT be thankful to God ..because it is only with His will that I'm still alive and kicking (as put by a friend of mine) today? The air that I breath and the many wonders that I have at the moment is only due to Him. And of course, I thank my parents too bcause without them, I am just a nobody. Part ( a big part even) of me today definitely was nurtured with love that come from the 2 of them...

Thank u to all who gives their wishes to me.. can't express how much I appreciated them all. If only I can repay all of you, maybe I can't but I'll make doa for each and everyone of you to be successful in life and the hereafter....

Lastly, exams are coming up. In erm 2 days! Ya Allah give me strength to do the exam well, to excel, so that I can go home this summer!! I'll try my best insyaAllah.... pls also pray for me yer...

car-booting

A pink lamp table, 75 p.
A cute purple-pink picture frame, a few pence.
2 wall framed-pictures, a few other pences.
A classic English table clock--50 p!
A fury, cute storage bin... a few pence as well.
A gold-rimmed English tea-set,1 pound.
A 'Cool Facts of Human Body' book,hard-cover, 20 p.
A brown-cream jacket, 30 p.
Soft toy,ehem, toyS actually, 30 p.
A pair of football hand-gloves, FREE (but of no use to me. siapa nak?)
3 magnetic photo frames,50 p.

All that for less than 7 pounds. Not bad, eh?

Oh, I love car-boots.
Makes me happy every time. ;)

baby steps: hello life

1 langkah.
2 langkah.
3 langkah.

3 baby steps.
(Not a baby though.)
Perjalanan bakal bermula.
Every journey begins with a first step, kan?

Make that first step a strong one, a confident one.
The world outside? They say, it's not a bed of roses.
Definitely not.
Banyak ranjau sepanjang jalan (mode : IB Malay A1).

I say...yeah, what's life without its spices?
Me: Taking these lil' baby steps, trying to peek a look at the real world outside.
Seems frightening at times, but there's no use running away from reality.
So many things to learn.
So many more to experience.

So, help me find my way around.
Can't make it on my own.
Can't do it right without others to help.
Because I'm only human.
And isn't sharing equals to caring? ;)

And it is the truth that I seek for.
And I thank Allah I have Him for that. =)

Dengan itu, blog ini secara rasminya dibuka~~~~ [applause2]