Life | Notion | Future

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم We need pain, sometimes at least.  It teaches us how to be grateful. It builds empathy in our souls. It deletes some of our sins. It restricts us from doing unnecessary things. It reminds us to the Creator.  It brings us back to where we should go. حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم When things do not go very well, one of the things I would do is to sit on a chair in front of my table and open the book Riyadhus Salihin with explanation by Ibn 'Uthaimin. One of the most beautiful books I have in my bookshelves. Just search for any title, insyaAllah it will be found in that book. Al-Imam An-Nawawi has collected and arranged Al-Quran verses and Hadith in a very nice way. This is also one of the reasons why I love Egypt. The Arabic language and the books. Everything is there. What is needed is to go, buy and read. I open the chapter of Prayers ( كتاب الدعوات) . The very first verse was from Surah Al-Ghafir verse 60, followed by Al-A'raf verse 55, Al-Baqarah verse 186 and An-Naml verse 62. Reading explanations of these verses was enough to build some tears and to at least remind this rocky heart about the immensity of His mercy. He always hears our prayers. May everything goes with ease.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم This year winter break is one of the 'shortest' break I have ever had. Class has just started while my break seems just about to begin. What a break. Too many unexpected yet significant things happened. A break that more or less shaped and built my maturity. I met several mature guys. One of the prominent traits that can be seen in them is al-haunu(الهون) which means calmness and tranquility. Calm in every actions away from premature decisions. As experience has taught them, rushing never results prosperity. They say ; بالهون بالهون (be calm, be calm) Truth will inevitably prevail. Let time decide the moment.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 2016 is a new year for a new hope to learn and be better. Two years remain before going back for good. Who can deny the pleasure of going back to Malaysia where you can have family and relatives around, and the vast room available to serve the community. On the other side, the remaining time for preparation to be competent enough before jumping into the real situation in Malaysia is being less. To be productive every day is just too tough. It is between happiness of going back for good, and fear of not enough time to prepare.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Education is a word with very sophisticated meaning. The Arabic word is tarbiah but the meaning is much wider than just education as in breeding and upbringing. When education is important, stuffs related to it are also important. They include the teachers, curricula, methods and not less importantly the place where the process occurs. If the education of a particular community is good, most surely the condition of the community will be good, so does the opposite. Since the very first revelation as regard an order to read ( iqra' ), it should arouse us to focus and plan our life to fulfill the order. Referring to the method used by our prophet s.a.w, particularly the murabbi-mutarabbi relationship, it seems that nowadays' system is not very close from what our prophet s.a.w has shown. One of most apparent attitudes shown is his very close relationship with the companions. He knows very well what he should give to each and every one of them. Di...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم It is amusing, honestly, to be beneficial and do good things as dakwah, usrah, community services or whatever we might call them. Especially when we have good friends around us sharing the same feeling, being happy and grieve together. It is, indeed, an ultimate satisfaction when we cannot do nothing than only sleep right after going out doing all those things because of tiredness. A worth tiredness I would say. What I mostly am afraid of, however, is the reason behind all those doings. I am afraid that I would stop when there are more 'interesting' things to do. When I have many things to lose. Wife(s), children, jobs, money and family. Undergraduate-study period is a honeymoon period with ample time to do many things. I just need to study, maintain sufficient results and regularly call parents. Not so much to lose. It is not that we do not know the compulsory of doing dakwah, but the abundant of responsibilities, which are also obligatory, ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم They say, technology connects people. They also say, world nowadays is at your fingertips. They also add, world has no more border (actually world had never had borders, post-world war I that created the borders). Everyhting seems to be very close. News from very isolated places can be reached easily, even complete profiles of people we never met can be found. Before all those technologies, did people being apart? Our ancestors were actually really close to each other. So many traditional practices inherited from our predecessors like amalan ziarah , balik kampung and rewang clearly showed how intimate they were. Even without television, smartphone and social media, the relationship and brotherhood between them seemed very good. Since they were not busy with technologies, they tended to interact with nature. To describe something, they needed to do it in words. There was no cameras to show the actual pictures. So then we hear a lot of proverbs or...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Being a rider is not just owning a motorcycle. It is not just driving it, yet more than that. When we own something that needs a quite big amount of money like a motorcycle, we actually put ourselves into a responsibility. The real game begins after buying it, not before that. Every week, it needs to be cleaned and washed. Petrol has to be sufficient. Its oil has to be changed monthly and many more things to be done. So the real life I have as a rider is not just like others typically might see. Only a rider can understand the life on motorcycle. Despite having advantages of going from one place to another easily, and the chance of not being musyrif, all those enjoyments come with risks. Roads in Egypt especially are very unpredictable. Holes, oils, water and sand are present anywhere. The traffic is highly risky. Sharp eyes and agility are must-acquired skills to survive on Cairo's roads. I believe how expert the rider is, he must have experienc...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم For me, the biggest challenge in dakwah is to face people with different kind. Everybody always has particular preferable kind of people. In dakwah, we need to face all people regardless their types. And to be a good muslim, we have to be patient. Some are easy to be managed, some are moderate and some are very troublesome. Since I was not raised in comfort, somehow it makes me feel hard to face a pampered kind person that is very sensitive and always playing with emotions. I here am talking about men, not women which of course decorated with even more emotions. But then the wrong is always needed to be sent back to the way I am dealing with them. It is of course not an easy thing. Ego has to be put aside to give way to heart to take its place and accept everyone as he is. 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Children are innocent and they are very honest in doing anything. Their thoughts are away from modern contamination. That what makes dealing with them very amusing. I met this one little girl undergoing dialysis theraphy. She gently greeted me despite being apparently lethargic. Another one I met was sarcoidosis suspected little girl happily playing around hospital ward and smiled each time I gave "come here" sign. What a pleasure being kids. They do not have much to think.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Afternoon nap often gives me weird dreams. Few days before, I had a patriotic dream. What does that suppose to mean? It was just very random. In an unknown location, there was this one middle age girl asked me, "How do you contribute to your country?" I answered, "To serve the people and country as a kind of reciprocation for everthing they have given me." It woke me up and made me think for a moment. That is how my life should be. Serve people and be beneficial to others.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Childhood memory always becomes very nostalgic and amusing each time it crosses my mind. Living as  budak kampung was a very missing moment. Without getting busy with social media made friends and neighbourhood important and significant. Weekend was the most awaited time to play and do silly things. Ah.. what a memory. I miss my childhood friends. We spent a lot of time together. The budak kampung generation in this village is no more present. Many new family migrating to this village, cutting trees, burrying lombong , building new houses. Our playground are no longer exist. The new generation's relationship is not like us before. They do not even know who live next to their houses. Everybody settles in the house, busy with facebook and whatsapp. Surau is only filled with above-50's generation. A very sad yet real fact. What makes me sadder is that when I meet my childhood friends, besides calling me ustaz , they have been different. We...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم A very dangerous yet prevalence disease in social media which is generalization. Taking from a single doubtful source is not the way to judge someone. It must be otherwise taken from different trusted sources. The most untrusted source is something originated from an opposition of a party about the opposed party. Do not always trust what is told about UMNO from PAS and vice versa. In this case, judging people, we need to be very particular. Have a sound mind away from any inclination to a particular party. It is almost impossible actually to have nil inclination, but it needs to be controlled as to not being bias and to be rational enough. That is what a truth seeker does. No matter from where it comes, truth is always truth. A good way of delivering facts is perfectly shown in Al-Quran. When it named a group with a particular name, it did so by limiting people included in the group so as to not putting someone in the group he or she does not belong ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Before facing or dealing with a foe, the most important thing is to make sure that the foe is a real foe, not a misinterpreted one. A foe must be comprehensively defined as to not discriminate anyone. The worst definition of a foe is anyone who is different from us in any means. Like the famous ex-American president George W Bush said whoever is not with me is against me. This kind of notion will just make one having no friends. After finely determining a foe, the point of argument should be ensured. Both parties need to understand the same thing so as to not fighting for different reasons. It is very common to have an argument resulted from different understanding of a particular issue. Like a group of men describing a box seen from different angles. Each sees it from different sides and keeps saying he is right. The truth is everybody is correct in what they see. Then to see if the point of argument can be solved or be ignored. Some disputes are not wo...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم It is the time to change our communication skill to a better one. As everyday we are inevitably going to face people and need to be comunicated with each other physically or verbally, communication is always needed to be improved. The basic general concept for me is to speak good or remain silent just like what the prophet has mentioned. This is the simplest way of improving communication. For example, it is just unnecessary to give an unpleasant comment early in the morning on a person who wears new shirt. His whole day may be affected and he may loose his positive mood. The easier, better way is to just say nothing. Or to sarcastically pointing in public, someone's inability to do things that he or she should have get used of like speaking in Arabic after 5 years staying in Egypt. Those are just unnecessary things without significant reasons to be mentioned. As words of wisdom sounds, words are sharper than swords. It really is. By just changin...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم In doing anything, being moderate is always the best choice available. In medicine, everything has its normal range value. Respiratory rate should be between 12 to 20 per minute to be considered normal. Less than that is called hypopnea, on the other hand hyperpnea if exceeds 20. So does body temperature, blood pressure and pulse. What doctors need to do is to memorize the normal range and to examine patients if their body systems exceed the normal range. However, extremes are present in any community or groups. The only reason is they have no idea as regard the normal moderate behavior they should practice. So instead, they go being extreme. Sometimes, these people are just blindly following their leaders. It is not their fault, some people are born to just be followers. To be moderate, one should know what is normal and what is not or extreme. How can we say a particular action is extreme or normal if we do not know the opposite? In medical school,...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم It is still summer in Egypt. Current temperature is 36 degree celcius. And it is still Eid, streets are quiet from sounds. Usually I can literally hear car horn sound every 5 minutes. It is really unusual. Summer reminds me of a ghazwah (military expedition) called Tabuk, happened in 8th of Hijrah. Although no real fight occured between Islamic troops and Roman, it did play a great role in the history of Islam. If we go seeing date farm during this time, we would notice every single tree is full of dates without any exception. For the people who depend on dates as staple food, it is a big challenge to go for an expedition at this time. The will to sacrifice makes this ghazwah one of the most important event in Islamic history. There was a group of people at that time who did not take part in the ghazwah. They were not actually refused to join, but feeling hard to leave their farms. These people were not ordinary people. One of them was Ka'ab bin Male...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم We all know and hear a qoute saying 'do not work hard, work smart'. It is obviously not easy to do. Work hard is much simpler than work smart. We do not need to think much, just have extra effort and time. To work smart, it needs more than that. Sometimes we do not find an exact ways or formula to do it. All we need are creativity and courage. Smart people work and make decision wisely away from being driven by emotions and society's expectation. They free to do anything. Nothing but themselves control the direction.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم In any circumstances, rushing never be good. Even in a situation where a decision is needed immediately, rushing still does not have its place. I never believe that I have matured enough to make big decisions and to lead a family. But some decisions I believe that I have made them after being finely discussed and maturely consider all the pros and cons. This time, however, I have been quiet rushing, in making a big decision, although I thought it was good enough. I still could blame some parties for indirectly pushing me. Still learning to be a mature guy. It is undoubtly not easy. May all my premature acts do not leave permanent dissapointments to the people who were involved in the situations. Rabbi yassir.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Following the norm of a developing country, political stage of my beloved Malaysia is getting hotter and hotter. To make a transition from a stage to a higher stage, instability is inevitable. Historian would not find it interesting to write a journal about Malaysia history if the story line was very simple and predictable just like the Sinetron drama. Just imagine if PR was stable and PAS had no conflict with DAP, General Election 14 result would be very easy to predict, and if a movie was made from it, surely no place for it in the box office. Conflicts and confrontations are normal processes in achieving bigger things. Especially the aim is to build an Islamic nation suitable and inclusive for everybody regardless their races or religions, the tribulations should be more challenging. These conflicts also have revealed the true colors of many people who were formerly hiding in suits of any forms as in robes, turban, songkok or tuxedo. It is easier ...