How is she different?

Who is she?

She's a believing woman.

How is she different?

She is focused.

Focused upon what?

Upon the pleasure of Allah swt.

A beautiful lecture especially for sisters :)

"The heart and the mind are the most powerful organs Allah has blessed us with.
Never ever give control of them to anyone besides Allah.
Otherwise you'll be hurt and hurt very badly."

the ability to focus indeed
is a big gift from Allah swt,
may He blesses us all with that :)

Rotiman

Kalau si gadis kecil tu ada Rotiman,

Aku ada Pak Chop jual ayaq tebu.

It was 14 or 15 years back...

Pak Chop selamatkan aku dari dikejar dua ekor ayam.

Ye, dikejar dua ekor ayam.

Mai mana dua ekor ayam?

Aku bela.

Arwah mama kata

ayam tu kejar sebab dia sayang.

Aku kata

menakutkan.

=.="

Pokoknya,
aku percaya ada banyak lagi
'Rotiman', 'Pak Chop ayaq tebu' etc
di luar sana.

May Allah bless them :)

Cargas Cafe

Cargas Cafe, Bayan Lepas.
Credits to Aisyah for the photo :)

 

And so this week one quiz has been postponed to this coming Monday which sort of gave some time in this week to breathe and slightly deviate from the routine. Thanks to class rep for making Tuesday afternoon free of classes. Have been intending to go for lunch at Cargas this week. Tinggal tunggu a free afternoon saja and alhamdulillah the free afternoon came.

I had no idea where Cargas is. Asked a certain someone for directions last Friday. Dear you, thank you :) The route seemed easy and I sort of grasped the idea of how to get there. Taaaapi air tenang jangan disangka tiada buaya, panas pagi jangan disangka sampai ke petang kerana tak mustahil boleh hujan di tengahari, rasa macam tau jalan jangan disangka bila cari sure jumpa. Tak jumpa kedai. Been going around the area. Pi mai patah balik semua cukup. At laaaast lepas dalam 4 kali salah jalan, baaaru jumpa despite the fact that there are 4 people in the car :P Seorang pun tak perasan despite dah pass by the kedai couple of times.

And thus, I wanna write here how to find Cargas Cafe once you are already in Jalan Bayan Lepas. Bila dah masuk Jalan Bayan Lepas, you will encounter a police station on your left. keep going straight, Cargas Cafe terletak di hujung barisan kedai sebelah kanan and just before a small jambatan yang tak nampak sangat macam jambatan. The cafe is painted brown. From Cargas Cafe, you can actually see Restoran Payung across the road. Pendek kata, kanan Cargas, kiri Payung. Parking spaces are very limited. Kalau nak parking belakang kedai, bila nampak police station on left hand side, turn right then take the first left into a small lorong. Masuk the lorong and just go straight till the end and you'll see Cargas on your left hand side :) 

Was superduper hungry the moment sampai kedai, so yeah, ambil nasi, ambil lauk, basuh tangan, duduk, takde snap snap, semua senyap and omnomnomnom ^_^

I had kari ikan with ayam goreng. 

 memang A lah for both :)

Bukan masanya

 

Ni kemeja T kakak yang usianya entahlah. Masa kecik-kecik, aku cukup berkenan baju kakak yang ini sebab ada that fluffy thingy. Suka sangat. Dan aku menyampaikan rasa suka tu pada kakak. Pendek cerita, aku mintak dengan kakak (tak malu!). Walaubagaimanapun, bila difikir semula dan rasanya dengan nasihat kakak, tak ada maknanya sekalipun baju ni jadi milik aku. Sebab masa tu, aku 6 atau 7 tahun atau lebih muda dari tu (kakak is 17 years older) dan ditakdirkan bersaiz kecil jadi kalau aku nak pakai masa tu, sudah ala-ala nak macam jubah seluar melepasi lutut. Baju ni lengannya pendek. Kalau pakai masa kecik tu, dengan keluasan lengan baju, it would totally defeat the purpose of a baju. Sekalipun aku ambil simpan, it's much of a lose-lose situation. Kakak hilang baju, aku pun tak boleh pakai. Maka, atas saranan kakak rasanya, aku hold impian aku dulu, biar kakak pakai, nanti bila aku dah besar dan muat baju tu baru aku ambil. Dan sekarang baju tu dah milik aku :) Sedikit lusuh tapi who cares. Ada sikit tertetas benang, aku dah jahit semula.

Bila tengok balik, macam tu jugak sebenarnya hidup. Ada masa kita teringin sangat akan sesuatu. Kalau boleh nak la la tu (la la tu = sekarang juga). Tapi kadang-kadang bukan masanya lagi. Barangkali kita belum sesuai untuk itu atau mungkin belum bersedia untuk itu. Kalau paksakan juga, mungkin cuma merugikan, boleh jadi juga merusak. Andaikan aku alter baju tu agar muat untuk aku pakai dulu, I wouldn't own it long. Kanak-kanak kan cepat membesar. And altering would cost. And it might not look as nice as it is dalam kondisi original. Lepas tu bila dah besar dan baju tak muat, barangkali end up berikan pada orang. Bila own it besar-besar ni, I could wear it for years sebab growth dah slowed down atau sampai plateau, jadi boleh pakai lama. Bila difikirkan, jauh lebih untung. Tapi kalau kau bicara dengan aku masa kecik-kecik dulu tu, terlompat-lompat mahu the baju. Manalah terfikir sejauh tu.

Pokoknya, sabar.

Lebih biasa dari tidak, kita rabun. Rabun pada keuntungan jangka panjang. Keuntungan jangka pendek akan begitu jelas hingga sanggup kita kuat-kuat regang tangan agar bisa tercapaikan walhal jika regang hati kuat-kuat untuk mencapai syukur apa adanya, barangkali gugur sendiri embun dingin yang melegakan jiwa yang kita ternanti-nanti menitisnya yang cuma mengambil sedikit masa.

Dan adakala, bukan bukan masanya tapi bukan untuk kita. Sekalipun pada hemat kita aturan yang kita harapkan itu sempurna, penglihatan yang Maha Melihat itu jauh lebih tajam. Puzzle pieces kehidupan adalah cukup seni. Adakala kita lihat seolah sudah cocok letaknya kalau begitu dan begini. Little did we know, ada rongga halus di lain sisi.

Dalam pemberian Tuhan, ada juga penolakan dan penangguhan, bukan sekadar pengabulan.
Nevertheless, semua tu pemberian.

Wallahualam.

May Allah guide us all.

Ni laksa.

Tak appealing, I know. Bab-bab nilai estetika ni aku fail sikit.

Alhamdulillah the motivation to cook laksa stayed long enough in me that I finally cooked laksa by myself last Aidiladha. The isi ikan sort of sedimented sikit. And the kuah was a bit diluted sikit due to a serious lack of experience and inaccuracy when measuring the ingredients. Ha, dah serupa explanation dalam discussion lab report bila experiment tak berapa nak menjadi. 

Anyways, thanks to stepmom for preparing cabai kering and daun kesum and helped get the ikan-ikan siap siang plus tolong rebus laksa. Dan yang paling important, thanks to Dalilah for the recipe -

1. Ikan sardin 4 ekor (yang besar) - I used ikan selayang
2. Cabai kering 20-25 tangkai
3. Bawang besar 2 biji
4. Belacan 1inci
5. Asam keping 5-10 keping
6. Daun kesum
7. Bunga kantan 3 batang
8. Garam secukupnya
9. Kunyit sedikit

Rebus ikan.
Blend no 2 – 4 dan renehkan.
Masukkan air rebusan ikan dalam periuk bersama blended 2 – 4.
Blend isi ikan dan tulang ikan (berasingan) dan masukkan ke dalam periuk.
Masukkan garam dan asam keping.
Tambah air secukupnya.
Biarkan reneh.
Sementara memasak, beras laksa boleh la direbus bersama-sama telur.
Potong timun, bunga kantan, daun salad dan limau nipis untuk dimakan bersama laksa~

Tak lejen the laksa.  Kira tahap edible for homosapiens. Longggg way to go lah kot rasanya kalau nak sampai level laksa-laksa awesome like some of my fav - laksa Tg Bungah (ada banyak, satu je yang sedap), laksa Pak Ngah Taman Ciku, laksa makcik-rumah-warna-hijau-dan-banyak-kucing kat Bayan Baru, laksa Tokun and laksa Kuala Perlis. Satu lagi yang paling fav - laksa arwah mama yang takkan lah lagi bisa dirasa. Dua tiga kucing berlari, manakan sama si kucing belang, dua tiga boleh ku cari, manakan sama laksa mama seorang :) Laksa Kak Ila, kakak's friend staying in Saudi was very delicious jugak. Had that during last Aidilfitri masa pergi raya kat her house in KL. But then due to time constraint, penghayatan terhadap laksa tu kurang sikit :P Laksa i-dont-remember-nama-kedai kat Sg Petani was quite nice jugak, thanks to teacher Fadh bawak try. Laksa Janggus was kinda okay too but berdasarkan past experience, dia buat aku menangis jadi takmau kat dia. Perhaps aku punya kapasiti menahan pedas tak hebat mana. And I'm pretty sure that there are many many more lagi tempat laksa best-best yet to be discovered :D

Back to my laksa, my first customer was niece - Airina Fatin. Served her a small bowl of laksa and she makan sampai licin, habis all the kuah. So aku assume okay lah tu. Cincai kira, lulus lah. All in all, the process sebenarnya tak susah sangat and perhaps boleh guna creativity untuk alter the taste kasi special sikit ke cemana cumaaa yang super tough nye dan memerlukan 'kap' 'sod' 'ba' 'ro' 'nun' yang tinggi was part nak kasi asing isi ikan sama tulang dia. Renyah jugak nak make sure tak ada significant amount of tulang-tulang tersesat masuk geng isi. Thinking of nak kena perisi sekilo ikan sorang-sorang, aku sangat tak sure bila lagi nak buat laksa :P 

Ainur's kenduri idea

Ainur. Melaka, 2013.

"Maksu, kawen la cepat-cepat"

"Tak ada duit lah, macam mana nak buat kenduri."

"Maksu buat simple je lah. Tak payah letak khemah, susun meja ja kat luar."

"Haa? Hahaha Panas la nanti. Kalau hujan macam mana."

"Kalau macam tu, letak meja kat bawah bumbung depan rumah ni la. Kereta parking kat luar. Pastu yang tak muat, duk la dalam rumah."

"Aishh cukup ka...? Satgi tak muat.."

"Cukuppp... nanti orang ni mai, orang tu balik, muat la."

Life isn't that simple, sayang.

We humans tend to make things complicated with all sorts of desires, assumptions, fear, pride, considerations etc. Some are needed, some not. Nevertheless, it's very very interesting to learn ideas from the simple mind of a child :)

Sweet Escape to Teluk Tempoyak

Cacanon.Dali.Dhiya.Ecah

So yesterday 11 am - 12 pm class was canceled and no replacements were made leaving only one lab session in the afternoon. A sister would like to go over to her uncle's place in Teluk Tempoyak to buy some belacan to bring back to KL to her mom. Since I heard the scenery at her uncle's was superb, nak tag along la apa lagi :D and end up it became rombongan 5 orang satu kereta to Teluk Tempoyak. Tau-tau kelas cancel terus shoot pergi Teluk Tempoyak. It's about 20-30 mins from uni. Kat sini femes D' Seafood Paradise (had a sisters night out here last year) and Restoran Ikan Bakar Adnan Hassan. FYI, Teluk Tempoyak is in Penang. Kerana sebelum ni aku sendiri pun taktau. Baru tau around last year or the year before camtu. Sebelum ni tau 'Teluk Permaisuri' je :D

Cat guarding belacan. Sebenarnya, my friend, Dali, punya uncle ni pengusaha belacan. Sedap katanya and tak cause itchy nose sangat bagi yang tak berapa tahan. So like yeah, alang-alang dah sampai, alang-alang ada, aku pun tak ketinggalan beli belacan jugak. So does the other 3 sisters :D 

Ingat nak try masak laksa. Tak reti pun sebenarnya. Tapi intending nak cuba. This Aidiladha maybe. I hope the feeling of 'rajin' stays. Insha-Allah kalau jadi, boleh lah update again here. Belacan sedap, kalau tak reti masak, tak sedap jugak. Hahaha

The view from kampung nelayan Teluk Tempoyak ni seriously astounding, subhanallah. Tambah dengan bayu laut sepoi-sepoi bahasa. Beautiful! Dengan deru ombak, bunyi air. Mahu saja santai sampai ke petang tapi hidup ni ada banyak komitmen. Ada masa kita harus pilih, antara kehendak dan tanggungjawab. Kalau takde lab boleh la lepak lama-lama :D 

Tapi, itulah, in life, you can't have it all. Belum masanya lagi. Dunia memang tercipta untuk bikin kita rasa lelah. Kalau kena caranya, setiap lelah itu sebenarnya pelaburan yang sudah dijanji menguntungkan di 'masa' yang akan datang. Tapi, jarang sekali kita mau ambil jalan yang 'mendaki dan sukar' seperti yang Tuhan khabarkan dalam surah al-Balad. Kadang tu aishh, sedap aje indulge dalam nikmat-nikmat Tuhan sampai tak sedar lemas. Lepas tu, baru nak tercungap-cungap semput-semput kembali mohon ampun melutut sujud. Taaapi, sadarnya kita untuk memohon ampunan itu kan tanda kasihNya Tuhan :) May Allah guide us all and never let us go astray. Yang paling scary adalah tersasar dan tak sedar. Nauzubillah.

Okay, end of serious talk. Moving on, here's the current 'coolness of my eyes' -

 

Kucing.

.....I got the eye of a kitty...you're gonna hear me meowww....

 Belacan juga mahu sunbathing, tahu!

 

Photos were taken using Sony Xperia ZL.

Of the lab session we should be having in the evening,

I guess the previous post explained it all :D

1.30 - 2.10 pm

1.30 dah. Sempat ke?

Insha-Allah sempat. Nah, hang bawak la, aku tak berani nak pederaih keta orang.

Okay.
-----

Kanan kan?

A ah, tu ikut signboard.

Okay.

Kiri? kanan?

Kanan kot. Eh kiri kot. Ni kat mana dah ni, kenapa aku rasa macam tak biasa lalu ja jalan ni.

Habis tu macam mana ni, pusing balik?

Pusing balik. Pusing balik.

Straight ja?

A ah straight. Lalu Jabil tadi.

Aku tak perasan Jabil.

Ha tu Jabil.

Okay. Eh, weyy hang bawak pi mana ni? Jalan mati.

Patah balik simpang tadi amik kanan. Straight ja.

Ha baru jalan betul. Tadi ter-miss mana-mana signboard kot.

Em tu la kot. Weyhh pukul brapa dah ni...

Tak pa kot lewat sikit. Selalu kan lab start dalam 2.15.
-----

Ni macam mana ni, kiri, kanan?

Aku selalu ikut jalan ni, tapi jauh. Kanan lah.

Okay. Betul ni...?

Tapi aku selalu ikut jalan tu.

Weyyyy.

Takpa kot sini pun boleh.

Okay.

Pi ikut Queensbay.
-----


Hello, Mina, kami on the way, dalam kereta, nak sampai dah. Kejap je lagi.

Lab nak start dah ka?

Dah dekat nak start.

Okay aku nak kemas barang siap-siap. Lab manual...~

Pakai lab coat siap-siap.

Hahaha

Lampu merah.

Mana lab coat aku. Pakai siap-siap la.

Ok jugak, satgi turun terus ja.

Pergh, lawak gilaa.

Doctor on call. Emergency case. Hahaha

Nak bedah patient.

Kalau lambat lagu ni laa....

Sebab tu tak jadi doktor. 
-----

Weyh depa tengok kita kot.

Hahaha

Weyh pak guard tu dua-dua tengok kot.

Sah budak farmasi lambat pi lab.
-----

*berlari naik tangga*

*sampai*

*orang start keluar lab*


dah start ka?

Lab postpone.

Of akhlak and forgiving

SoLLaT, October 1 2013

Alhamdulillah last sunday night untuk kesekian kalinya dapat lagi gather with beautiful sisters, also classmates, for our weekly lepaking in circle reading quran, sharing knowledge, stories, reminders etc :)

Happens to be this time, I was given the task to speak about akhlak. Interesting but a little scary because sungguh if it requires me to have a truly proper akhlak in order to speak about akhlak then I might never speak of it for my entire life. It's something I'm struggling with. Breaking bad habits is never easy. It's like you've blended so well with it that if you were to leave it, it makes you feel like you're pretending to be someone else (or let's blame the devil for that kind of feeling :P). So yeah, I took the challenge. Perhaps ni cara Tuhan mahu ajar aku atau cara Tuhan mahu beri motivasi. And of akhlak, I'm gonna have to specify on something and somehow somehow I feel like speaking about forgiving. Memaafkan. Sebab kita semua ada masa khilaf dan lupa.

Ada jugak terfikir nak tukar topik tapi entahlah, at the end, masih, tentang maaf juga yang aku cerita. Dan apa jua aku bicara, aku harap, aku manusia yang akan paling ingat, moga Tuhan beri kudrat untuk mengaplikasi segala yang baik-baik.

Speaking of akhlak, as mentioned dalam al-Ahzab 33:21, Rasulullah is the best example. His akhlak is part of sunnah. More often than not, we focus much on sunnah macam cara makan, cara minum, menu makan, pakaian and satu lagi yang cukup famous - poligami. Makan minum thingy, tabik springgg if you could follow the sunnah. Alhamdulillah. Soal poligami is a little bit not as simple as many thought but no, not gonna discuss on that. Basically, kita selalu fokus kat benda fizikal. What about adab Rasulullah bila joking, stuffs Rasulullah do untuk bantu isteri and how he try to please them, how Rasulullah cakap dengan people, how Rasulullah jaga hati others, sifat pemaaf Rasulullah...? They're all sunnah as well. May Allah bless us with the ability to contohi Rasulullah.

Having good akhlak sebenarnya boleh spread positive vibes to people around us. Oh ye, akhlak can be said as attitude mengikut nilai-nilai Islam. And it's not impossible to see a not-yet-muslim portraying a beautiful akhlak. Earlier this semester, I went to School of Languages to register for the pronunciation class I wrote about previously. The teacher in charge wasn't there so another teacher, an Indian lady of late 30s or early 40s gitu helped us. I could still remember vividly how nice she had spoken to me and my friend. We were trying to register for Spoken English but the places were very limited so she helped check the availability of places in each and every group for Spoken English. What happened was only one place is available. We wished to not separate so we asked if we could check the timetable for the second group for Pronunciation since timetable group 1 memang tak dapat lah nak follow, clash dengan kelas. And so she helped check and guided both of us very well to register. What makes her different than many was that she'd call us by name and she'd try to mention our names when she spoke to us despite knowing us for couple of minutes. I don't know, somehow, felt very much appreciated. She made my day :D And my lecturer for Pronunciation class, I guess she sort of doing very well in memorizing our names. She remembers my fullname. Was about to laugh when chatting with a classmate during Pronunciation class yesterday and tuptup! I was called by my fullname to answer her question. Mujur dengar. It was the last factor involved in making vowel sounds - rounding of lips! :)

Again at School of Languages jugak last year or the year before, I accidentally left my surat pengecualian during registration for LSP402 English class. Needed surat pengecualian because I didn't sit for MUET. Panic, I went to the office early morning sebelum my classes start (jadual was padat and time tu saja yang free). So, the kakak kerani asked me to speak to a Puan in the office. I should be asking the lecturer at the registration counter, she said, as highly likely the lecturer will be keeping it. Howeverrr, that means I'd have to wait until 9 am at School of Languages while my class starts at 9 am at School of Pharmacy which happens to be at the other end of the uni. Told the Puan as decently as I could about my situation since I wish to not be late for class and what I got was something like - I don't know, that's your problem. I know... Anyway, an Indian lady, the makcik tukang sapu was sweeping nearby and she heard everything. As I turned to leave, she called me and in such a polite manner suggested that maybe I could wait for a while and if necessary, ask my other classmates to let my lecturer know that I'd be late for class due to that matter. Subhanallah. What a chicken soup for the heart.

Inner beauty translates into how we deal with people.

Kalau sebelum zaman Rasulullah, emphasis on beautiful akhlak was there in stories in the holy Quran. Contohnya, story of Nabi Nuh and his son. I think this is more to tarbiyatul aulad stuff tapi tak pa lah. Despite his son not accepting agama Allah and insulted his usaha to bina the bahtera etc, he still call his son by 'Ya Bunayya' which is said to mean 'Oh my dear son'. Imagine kalau kita these days, takyah these days pun, refer citer Si Tanggang je, sumpah jadi batu right away. In story of Luqman al-Hakim pulak, he'd call his son by 'Ya Bunayya' when giving advises.

Of forgiving...bukan mudah. It's about letting go. Susah. Tambah kalau hati masih sungguh pedih. To forgive sometimes feels like to let that person who've wronged us win. We sometimes want them to feel the torture of guilt. Tapi pada masa yang sama kita turut rasa sakit.

"Dendam itu racun yang kita tenggak sendiri,
lalu kita harap orang lain yang akan mati.
Memaafkan adalah penawarnya." -SAF-

Kalau memaafkan itu sukar, memohon maaf juga sebenarnya sukar. Tak semua antara kita sedia untuk menolak tepi sebentar ego yang ada lalu dengan tulus berkata 'Maafkan saya'. Mengaku salah adakala terasa seperti menyerah kalah. Maka here comes the question, mana satu lagi kita cinta - ego atau ukhuwah.

"Dalam dekapan ukhuwah, kelembutan nurani menuntun kita menjadi anak Adam sejati, memiliki kesalahan, mengakuinya, memperbaikinya dan memaafkan sesama kita yang juga tak luput dari khilaf dan lupa." -SAF-

While menyelusuri sipi-sipi lembaran sirah, terjumpa couple of stories tentang forgiveness dan yang sewaktu dengannya. Salah satunya kisah Rasulullah dengan al-Miqdad. Ceritanya lebih kurang like this. Asif jiddan kalau aku missed mana-mana details. Al-Miqdad is one of the muhajirin yang masa sampai kat Madinah takdirnya tak ada yang membantu dia. So he went to see Rasulullah to ask for help. Since masa tu Rasulullah ada a few kambing, Rasulullah asked al-Miqdad and 2 kawannya yang lain to help milk the goats daily and they too can drink the milk. Happens to be one day, Rasulullah came home late so al-Miqdad thought Rasulullah visited some Ansar people and they must've treated him with good dishes so he thought it's kinda ok to drink Rasulullah's portion of the goats' milk. And so he drank. Felt good indeed but that was followed by guilty feeling and the fear that Rasulullah might du'a something against him. When Rasulullah came back, he saw his milk container was already empty so he made a du'a - O Allah, quench the thirst of those who quenched mine and feed those who fed me. Al-Miqdad who was pretending fast asleep heard the du'a and he thought he could take advantage of the du'a so he woke up and went to check which goat was healthy and best to be made meal. Surprisingly, biiznillah he found that the goats seem to can still be milked since it's unusual that the goats can still be milked at that time. So he milked them and brought the milk to Rasulullah. Rasulullah if al-Miqdad has had his own portion of milk and al-Miqdad was like - finish the milk first, finish the milk first. And Rasulullah finished his milk and al-Miqdad, he felt relieved that Rasulullah got his portion and what happened was some sort of funny which made him laugh so hard. Puzzled Rasulullah was but anyway, al-Miqdad told him the whole thing and Rasulullah's reply was something like - This is the Blessing and Mercy of Allah, if you would have awaked your two other companions, they too would have taken the milk to their best of satisfaction :D Imagine if it was us, sentap barangkali. Refer saja kisah batu belah batu bertangkup. Dek anak habiskan telur ikan tembakul, berlari si ibu menyerah diri pada batu. Mustahil kita mau punya akhlak sesuci Rasulullah namun bisa saja kan kita mohon kekuatan untuk mencontohi.

Lagi tentang memaafkan, saat kita memilih untuk tidak mengampuni, sering kali putus segala senyum mesra, panjang bual bicara, tepuk tampar, gurau senda, gelak tawa bersama. Seolah selangkah pada memutuskan silaturrahim. Sangka kita, ah biar dia rasa, biar dia tahu, marahnya aku. Tapi it's a lose-lose situation sebab....

“Pintu-pintu syurga dibuka pada setiap hari Isnin dan Khamis lalu diampunkan semua hamba yang tidak mensyirikkan Allah dengan sesuatupun kecuali seseorang yang bermusuhan dengan saudaranya. Maka dikatakan: Tangguhkanlah kedua orang ini sehingga mereka berdamai, tangguhkanlah kedua orang ini sehingga mereka berdamai, tangguhkanlah kedua orang ini sehingga mereka berdamai.” (HR Muslim)"

Lagi kisah zaman Rasulullah adalah kesan peristiwa Aisyah r.a. difitinah. Marahnya Abu Bakr sehingga he sort of bersumpah tidak mahu membantu siapapun, kerabat sekalipun, yang terlibat dalam menyebarkan fitnah tentang puterinya. Namun, Tuhan tak izin...

"Dan janganlah orang-orang yang mempunyai kelebihan dan kelapangan di antara kamu bersumpah bahwa mereka (tidak) akan memberi (bantuan) kepada kaum kerabat(nya), orang-orang yang miskin dan orang-orang yang berhijrah pada jalan Allah, dan hendaklah mereka mema’afkan dan berlapang dada. Apakah kamu tidak ingin bahwa Allah mengampunimu? dan Allah adalah Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang" An-Nur : 22

Apakah kita tak suka Allah ampuni kita. Barangkali dengan maaf itu, bisa dimaafkan mana-mana dosa lain kita. Apakah kita sendiri tak suka diampun, dimaafkan. Apa bukan tidak beriman seseorang itu sehingga dia mencintai saudaranya seperti dia mencintai dirinya sendiri. Subhanallah. 

Pernah satu hari raut wajah Rasulullah s.a.w tampak berseri-seri dengan menampakkan senyumannya.Tertanya Umar lalu bertanya. Sabda Rasulullah s.a.w: 

“Aku lihat ada dua orang daripada umatku yang mendatangi Allah ‘Azza wa Jalla. 

Yang satu berkata, ‘Ya Rabbi, hukumlah orang ini yang mengambil hak dan menganiayaku di dunia.” 

Lalu Allah memerintahkan kepada si zalim itu supaya mengembalikan haknya.

‘Ya Rabbi’, kata si zalim, “Aku tidak lagi memiliki simpanan perbuatan baik yang bisa menggantikan haknya.” 

"Dia sudah tidak memiliki sisa-sisa perbuatan baik untuk meng­gantimu, lalu apa yang kau harapkan darinya?” kata Allah kepada satunya.

‘Ya Rabbi’, pindahkan kepadanya dosa-dosaku. Biar dia yang memikulnya,” katanya. 

Tiba-tiba air mata Rasulullah mengalir membasahi pipinya kerana mengenang hari-hari yang maha dahsyat itu. Baginda berkata, “Hari itu adalah hari-hari yang maha dahsyat, hari di mana setiap orang berusaha untuk melepaskan setiap beban dosa yang dipikulnya.”

Kemudian, Allah berkata kepada si teraniaya, “Wahai Fulan, angkat pandanganmu dan lihatlah syurga-syurga yang tersedia."

"Ya Rabbi, saya lihat negeri yang terbuat dari perak dan istana dari emas yang terhias indah dengan mutiara yang berkilauan. Apakah semua itu Engkau persiapkan untuk Nabi dan Rasul-Mu, para siddiqin dan orang-orang yang syahid? Tidak, kata Allah. Semua itu Aku siapkan bagi siapa saja yang sanggup membelinya.

"Siapakah mereka Ya Rabbi?"

"Engkau juga mampu memilikinya." 

"Bagaimana caranya?" 

“Dengan memaafkan saudaramu itu.” 

Kalau begitu, aku maafkan dia ya Rabbi.’’ 

"Ambillah tangan saudaramu itu dan masuklah kalian ke dalam syurga yang Aku janjikan.” 

Subhanallah. Kalau itu balasannya memberi maaf pada hari akhirat, apatah lagi jika saat kita masih di dunia pada mana bisa kita cari 1001 alasan untuk tidak memaafkan. Anugerah indah pasti bukan dari amal yang mudah. Memaafkan yang memohon kemaafan sudah susah, apatah lagi memaafkan yang langsung tidak mahu mengaku salah. Suka aku ingin berkongsi seperca lagi tulisan SAF -

"Kita memaafkan, kadang bukan karena si bersangkutan layak mendapatkan. Tapi sebab kita berharap ampunanNya; meski diri lebih tak layak lagi. Kita memaafkan mungkin bukan karena dia layak mendapat maaf. Kita memaafkan sebab berharap dipeluk mesra Allah dalam cintaNya."

Moga Tuhan renjis ukhuwah kita dengan cinta lillahi taala, agar lapang dada terima para teman apa adanya, agar sampai masa nanti bisa berpimpin tangan dalam syurgaNya. Jauh sekali merasa layak ke sana, namun, aku kira, mengharap tiada salahnya.

May Allah bless us all.

NoGAPS 2013

NoGAPS stands for National Gathering of Pharmacy Students. It's an annual event and this year my uni is the host. It's a 4-day event involving pharmacy students from almost all universities/colleges in Malaysia which offers pharmacy course. And for the first time, I had to be a facilitator. Punyalah tak rela.

The registration day arrived and to my fear, only few group members turned up. 3 couldn't make it. 1, due to technical error, she was in another group. 1 is a MyPSA member and apparently was an invited speaker and moderator so he didn't join us much. So 7 out of 15. I was well, slightly, who wouldn't be, demotivated :P Then another one arrived justtttt before the registration period ends. Then another one arrived justtttt when the ice breaking starts. And one more arrived on the second day. Alhamdulillah.

Day 1 - Day 4

They are such lovely people and in contradictory with my paksarela feeling having to be a faci earlier on before NoGAPS started, along the way till the end of NoGAPS I just feel lucky to be a part of my group - Nice Neisseria. Truly gonna miss spending time with them, pulling through the Pharmtastic Race, accompany them practicing for an assigned task till 2 AM etc. There's always hikmah for everything and I guess through being the faci, Allah gave me the chance to meet such beautiful people - Archanaa, Haziq, Winnie, Yeoyo, Hidayah, Sazza, Shima, Jessica, Wei Jiun, Arthini.

There were much more memorable stuffs about NoGAPS. The 'rombongan cik kiah' with fellow committees to pasar malam Sungai Dua, eating laksa in tau fu fah's container, the encounter with a cat who jumped onto my study desk from the window, being that particular someone's roomie, encounter with Kak Ainina after so long, nasi briyani sedap during community outreach project and so many more including falling on stage during a theatre performance during Gala Night because I tripped over a friend's leg, so glad the lights were off at that moment =.="

All in all, am truly glad to be part of NoGAPS 2013 as a committee. Learned much. Experienced much. Breaking walls, building bridges are always fun :) May Allah guide us all in every step we take, may Allah make us all those who pleases Him in everything we do, may Allah bless everyone.

Full story : Pharnomena - NoGAPS 2013

Eid 2013

Atuk (Aug 2013)

Such a late update about eid but I don't wanna give up writing. I'd say Eid 2013 was the most beautiful eid after mama's going back to rahmatullah. For the first time after years, everyone in the family was there. Dearest sister and family came back to Malaysia this year for nearly 3 weeks. They filled the blank :) Love was in the atmosphere. Home felt soooo home.What's even more exciting was the fact that an aunt or Mak Uda as we affectionately call her, staying in Saudi also came back for raya this year with her 4 little heroes. 

For this year's eid, I'm not embarrassed to declare that I made only one type of cookies. It was the nestum cookies I made last year, got the recipe from a classmate, which was alhamdulillah a success and within 2 weeks of raya the few containers of my nestum cookies have been cleared. The kids loved it. It was a very wise choice of mine, I believe, to bake only that becauseeeee sampai harini ada banyak lagi kuih raya haven't habis which came from friends and families who came over or who we visited. Alhamdulillah, our rizq :) Kalau I baked more, I might just add more to that existing pile which is not so favourable. Dear father's comment on the banyak-banyak cookies tak habis was - tahun depan tak payah buat kuih dah. Hahaha. 

As for khatam-ing quran in Ramadhan, Alhamdulillah, khatam-ed with fellow tadarus-mates from last year, only one makcik missing, khabarnya jaga cucu. Others still remain - aunty rosni, aunty salmah, makcik murni yang buat all of us tak kering gusi, mak cik ah and mak cik sham and shilz. The last few tadarus days, kali ni tak feel sangat, perhaps because my heart longed to be home more than almost anything. Kakak hardly can come home, flight tickets aren't cheap, and God knows how much I missed her and thus every single moment with her was superduper precious. You know you really miss someone when you woke up hoping they would come knock on your door even though you know they are somewhere on the airplane on their way back to somewhere far. Well that's what happened to me the morning after kakak's flight back to Florida. Missed how she came knock on my door ajak pergi pasar beli daging etc, how we planned what to do everyday because she didn't have much time here in Malaysia, how she made sandwiches and brought them to my room along with warm water and paracetamol because I wasn't feeling well enough to get off the bed to get those myself, how she made chicken soup for the sick me (well having her around is like a chicken soup for the soul already..haha), how we enjoyed laksa together...ah countless precious moments.

Moving on, second week of raya was more to 'going places'. The plan was made since before kakak arrive in Malaysia. We went to Malacca (it was my first time here!), KL then Taiping. Malacca visit was all about checking out places, shopping and sight seeing. We stayed in a villa in A Famosa Resort. 'We' were 3 families, a couple and the solo me. The place was nice and comfortable. A Famosa Safari? At the moment I might not want to recommend that to anyone but who knows they'll be upgrading it anytime soon. The elephant show was great, I must say, nevertheless. Other than that, we went for a boat ride along the Malacca river which was enjoyable. Met an elderly couple from Sarawak in the boat who sat in front of me. I was sitting with my brother, my niece -Ainur and one Mak Uda's son, Basit (Ainur and Basit are that two homosapiens in the picture below). Everyone else sat quite far from us. Anyway, me and brother went into a conversation with that couple. They were telling their past experiences visiting Malacca and this time they came with their only child who was on his/her semester holiday. The child is currently studying medicine in Russia. We came to a point when the pakcik said that his child is 22 years old. On reflex, I simply said "Oh samalah, saya 22 jugak.". The pakcik's reply to me simply just brought me and brother to a big laugh - Anak saya 22 masih belajar lagi, kamu sudah anak dua.

After the supershort Malacca vacation, we all went to brother's house in Sg. Buloh. The next day we ladies went to that one place most women love to go - Jalan TAR. Shopping. Kakak wanted to get some stuffs. Well, there's no Jalan TAR or anything alike in Florida. Couldn't spend much time shopping though since there are quite a number of plans for that particular day. Later in the evening we went down to some air terjun in Ulu Yam because we promised the kids. And that night was all about visiting people and being visited.

Taiping. That's where my aunt's staying. She has an Avon shop there. Aunt and uncle was in Shanghai during the first few days of eid so they couldn't come over as always. Not meeting is a big no-no. We'd visit them during CNY and they'd visit us on eid. Basically, we'd meet every year at least during those 2 occasions so yeah cannot not meet! So, we dropped by Taiping for a quick visit on our way back to Penang. All this Penang-Malacca-KL-Taiping-Penang thing occurs in 3 days and lebih kurang a half. Rush hour gitu ha. Monday - Penang to Malacca. Tuesday - Spend time around Malacca + Malacca to KL. Wednesday - Spend time around KL. Thursday - KL to Taiping + Taiping to Penang. Friday morning - Kakak's flight back to Florida.

Eid 2013 was filled with so many beautiful stories, countless beautiful moments, precious experiences which....I don't know, sometimes it gets hard to put those into words. Some things are just best felt. Nevertheless, all praise be to the Creator for the chances to experience beautiful moments in this temporary dunya.

Quitting writing

She gave birth to twins last night :)

 At one point, couple of weeks back, I had this feeling of deleting this blog. Sort of lost the ability to write as before. Experiences, they really do have a great impact on one's perception, sometimes emotion and sometimes personality. Experiences, they can change people. And I guess sometimes, experiences can rob one's ability to write (despite the experience have nothing to do with writing). Boleh macam tu? :) It's just that, I guess, at some points in life, things happened which could poetically make you  jatuh terduduk dan fikir panjang what on earth are you doing to your life. Told a friend I couldn't write like before and she was like 'Patutlah you ambil kelas Pronunciation!". 

So, pronunciation class. Choices were limited. Father, sister and bro-in-law was highly recommending Spoken English class as it'll be a good practice. Well, I have stage fright and thus I didn't have the sufficient inclination towards that kind of class that could make me register. And considering my will to write is being like Chipsmore - now you see it, now you don't, I even more feel like going for pronunciation class. Father was being very motivating though. When I was saying I'm sort of afraid I might not do well in presentations, father came with the quote 'Every failure is a success'. Sister was like 'haa tudia, pak keluar quote dah..hahaha'. So influenced by my dearest family members, I decided to register for the spoken english class and guess what, enrolment quota is full. Told them about that and bro-in-law wrapped up the discussion of Pronunciation vs Spoken English with the line - "God has spoken." :P So yeah, I registered for pronunciation class which I know no one else that I know registered for that class. Redah je lah, Khadijah (oh it rhymes! =.=").

Anyway, I decided not to delete this blog. And I decided to try and write again. Suddenly. But I guess this thing about 'me' and 'blogging here' has become much like a friend's theory about resuming a relationship after a break-up - the feeling is going to be different, things won't be the same anymore. But I guess that's a little bit better than totally giving up on blogging here. And speaking of giving up, sometimes...sometimes.. it is the best thing to do which you'll find yourself thanking the younger you for doing so on something or in some cases, someone.

So...yeah, experiences, they change perceptions sometimes. As I grow older (cewah...), sometimes I find myself laughing looking at things I used to write and sometimes feel so embarrassed that I wrote what I wrote and sometimes I simply just dislike very much (hate is too strong) what I've written like maybe months or years before. And who knows maybe 2 years from now I'd find myself disliking what I wrote or how I've written things here now. Well, growing up is a process...though in a way, I sometimes think, if there's a uniformity in my thoughts/perception, that'll mean something like I've reached a stable stage of character development or something like that. But well, life is unpredictable and since I'm living a life so I can be unpredictable as well, no? :P

All in all, I endlessly wish that my faith would stay as strong....or become stronger with time. Because at the end of the day, it's iman that guides us in things we do and of course, the ultimate guidance comes from Allah swt. May Allah guide us all in every step we take.

Bintang-bintang

Banyak perkara dalam hidup berubah apabila usia kita bertambah. Fizikal itu zahir. Aku pilih  untuk bicara tentang sisi mental. Kalau dianalisa (lebih kurang) kembali, kau akan nampak satu evolusi ataupun revolusi yang boleh mengundang pelbagai macam perasaan dan cubaan menilai kehidupan sendiri. Perkembangan dan perubahan itu bukanlah lahir dari pertambahan angka pada umur, sebaliknya dari pengalaman dan proses pemikiran. Namun begitu, pertambahan angka bukanlah tiada arti yang signifikan malah ia pada satu sisi menunjukkan pertambahan jangka masa yang memungkinkan pendedahan diri seseorang pada pengalaman dan proses pemikiran. Melainkan kau duduk dalam satu bilik gelap tanpa berfikir dan berbuat apa-apa (very much impossible), pertambahan angka cuma menunjukkan pertambahan jangka masa tubuh kau berfungsi yang berkait dengan soal kesihatan.

Banyak benda yang dahulunya kau suka, kini tidak. Atau yang dahulunya tidak, kini kau suka. Atau yang dahulunya kau nanti, kini kau takut dan  yang dahulunya kau takut kini kau nanti. Everyone experiences this which is why we can't simply judge people (though most of the time we simply do) because they might like something today which makes you judge them to be person type A today and hate that something tomorrow which makes them changed into person type B while you did not do any follow-up and continue to perceive them as person type A, but that is another story.

Bintang-bintang are always something beautiful to see in the night sky. Bintang-bintang juga melambangkan excellence dari pelbagai sudut. Kalau hotel contohnya, bintang-bintang melambangkan excellence of hospitality dan prestij. Kalau zaman tadika dan skolah, bintang-bintang melambangkan excellence of work. Lagi banyak bintang, lagi bagus dan lagi menggembirakan. Dan cuma sisi bintang yang itulah yang aku kenal sampailah umur sedikit bertambah dan found out bintang-bintang merujuk kepada syarat tertentu. Maksudnya kalau sesuatu perkataan atau ayat itu datang bersama bintang, ayat itu valid dengan syarat tertentu atau statement itu terikat dengan syarat tertentu. Itu masih ok.

Bila aku melanjutkan pelajaran dan memasuki dunia tertiary education, aku lihat satu sisi bintang yang agak menakutkan, at least dalam konteks aku sebagai pelajar. Kalau kecil-kecil dulu mahu sangat bintang-bintang pada kertas peperiksaan/ujian, sekarang bintang-bintang pada statement keputusan exam is one of the things I boleh tahan dread amat juga lah. Kenapa? Sebab maksudnya kena repeat paper.

Hari ni provisional result keluar.

Alhamdulillah tiada bintang :)

Ramadhan

Penaga, 2013

There was the time when Ramadhan is just a month that comes and would eventually go. And me? Not so much affected. Then there was the time when I fast to fill my piggy bank with RM1 coins. There was also the time when I fast because mama said I should and because most of my peers pun puasa.There was the time when puasa is not eating in front of human. In front of human je. There was the time when puasa has to be penuh because barulah namanya puasa penuh. 

There was the time when puasa penuh is just because it's an obligation. There was the time when I accept reading quran as part of tradition during the month of Ramadhan. Then there was the time when finishing quran during Ramadhan is so cool that reading quran during Ramadhan means speeding from al-Baqarah to an-Nas at highest speed possible. Tajwid? Halal ah. Tadabbur? Tadabbur tu apadia?

There was the time when tarawih is....what tarawih? Then there was the time when tarawih is pray and play. Pray sikit, play banyak. There was also the time when tarawih is something to find various reasons not to attend. Like there are better things to do while there aren't. There were times when tarawih is oh-it's-good-you're-going-i-guess-i'll-just-stay. 

Well, everyone have their 'days'. And as years passed, we are brought through many stages in life to where we are today. Alhamdulillah, for again, Allah gave the chance to be in Ramadhan, a month whose beginning is mercy, its middle, forgiveness and its end, emancipation from hellfire. A month full of blessings. My mind kind of picture the blessing like shining coins/points in games like Super Mario in which you have to jump up and down to grab them. They are just there waiting for us to grab. And Ramadhan, in a way, is like three waves with the first being the one which brings Allah's mercy and the next one brings Allah's forgiveness and the last one may take you away from an-Nar. Subhanallah. And it's up to us to open our hearts and let these waves flow in, splish splash here there and everywhere and leave it, if not thoroughly, cleaner than before. May we be able to leave Ramadhan with cleaner hearts and rejuvenated iman. May it be :)

Sayap-sayap patah

"Hidup manusia tak bermula di rahim dan tak berakhir di pusara." -Kahlil Gibran-

Another book. Well, when else I could take the chance to indulge in books without the worry of lab report dah siap ke, journal dah baca ke, info dah cari ke, lecture notes dah print ke, lab manual dah study ke, assignment dah sampai mana dan segala macam inner noise yang mengganggu konsentrasi neuron-neuron kepala yang sedang bekerja untuk susunan-susunan kata yang mahu aku hadam. 

Aku kira Sayap-sayap Patah ini ceritanya rather simple. Tak banyak dialog antara watak. Reminds me much of Stephen King's writing in the sense that inner thoughts are described in detail. Kalau novel Stephen King, rasanya macam-macam yang beliau describe in detail, the situation, the feelings, maka tak hairanlah novel Stephen King tebal amat sampaikan yang pernah aku baca cuma Insomnia, masa tingkatan 3, mungkin, itu pun tak habis, separuh pun tak sampai rasanya. Aku decide untuk tak baca IT sebab boleh tengok movie. Back to Kahlil Gibran's Sayap-sayap Patah, aku kira istimewanya ada pada deskripsi perasaan oleh penulis. Metaforanya hebat. Sukar, mungkin, aku rasa, kalau mahu terjemahkan ceritanya dalam bentuk filem. Dan yang paling aku suka tentang Sayap-sayap Patah ini adalah hakikat bahawa bukunya nipis. 

Dalam nipis itu, masih aku bisa ketemu sejumlah himpunan kata yang menjelaskan banyak perkara. Perkara yang mungkin very ordinary atau hakikat yang very cloudy...

#1 Masyarakat manusia telah selama 70 kurun berserah pada undang-undang korup hingga ia tak memahami undang-undang yang lestari dan lebih baik. Mata manusia telah biasa dengan cahaya pudar lilin dan tak mampu memandang matahari. Penyakit jiwa diwarisi turun-temurun hingga ia menjadi sebahagian daripada manusia, yang kini memandangnya bukan sebagai penyakit, tetapi sebagai anugerah semulajadi, yang diberi Tuhan kepada Adam. Jika mereka menemui orang yang bebas daripada virus penyakit ini, mereka akan melihatnya dengan begitu hina.

#2 Malang sungguh rakyat yang meletakkan kepercayaan kepada orang seperti mereka - serigala rakus yang diperalatkan nafsu untuk membaham negara sendiri.

#3 Kesepian memiliki tangan yang lembut seperti sutera , tapi jemari yang sangat kuat. Ia menggenggam hati dan menjadikannya sakit dengan duka.

#4 Kecantikan sejati adalah sinar yang memancar dari jiwa yang paling suci, dan menerangkan tubuh, seperti hidup datang dari perut bumi dan memberi warna dan keharuman pada sekuntum bunga.

#5 Wanita yang telah dianugerahkan Tuhan dengan keindahan jiwa dan jasad adalah kebenaran yang terbuka dan yang rahsia, yang hanya boleh kita fahami melalui cinta dan sentuh dengan kemuliaan tapi bila kita cuba untuk menggambarkan wanita itu, dia akan hilang seperti asap.

#6 Rupa bentuk sesuatu berubah mengikut emosi dan kita dapat melihat magis dan kecantikan mereka meski magis dan kecantikan itu sebenarnya ada dalam diri kita sendiri.

#7 Kadangkala kemewahan ibu bapa, adalah akar penderitaan anak-anak mereka. Ruang lebar yang si ibu dan si ayah gunakan untuk memastikan kemewahan mereka selamat, adalah penjara gelap untuk jiwa waris mereka. Maha kuasa dinar yang dipuja manusia menjadi jembalang yang menghukum jiwa dan mematikan hati.

#8 Putus asa melemahkan pandangan kita dan menutup telinga kita. Kita tak nampak apa-apa kecuali bayangan kehancuran dan denyut debar hati yang kacau.

#9 Ketulusan membuat semua tindakan kita indah dan bermaruah.

Jemari kesepian yang kuat itu, aku kira, mampu sahaja sebenarnya manusia tepis. Pasti Tuhan tahu bagaimana lembut tangan kesepian bisa merangkul hati hambaNya lalu menggenggam kuat hingga sakitnya mampu menumpaskan sistem imunisasi iman lalu memberi laluan pada kuat bisik syaitan agar berputus asa pada rahmat Tuhan. Kerana sudah Dia berfirman - Hanya dengan mengingati Aku, hati akan menjadi tenang.

Yang #6 itu aku kira, very well said. Seperti lensa dengan penapisnya, begitu juga mata kepala dan mata hati dengan jiwa. Keladak jiwa, keladaklah pandangan. Dan jiwa sendiri ini pun masih perlu pembersihan. Yang #8 pula, itu kena batang hidung sendiri agaknya. Baru kelmarin dulu seorang teman baik kata - Adi..tgk tu. Baru nak start, dah fikir macam-macam...pastu merungut kat aku halfway la apa la :). Haha.

Dan bila baca yang #4 

memang rasa ugly gilaa~

*lari tutup muka*

Manikam Kalbu

 

Sejarah aku dengan novel Bahasa Melayu boleh dikira kontot jugalah. Aku tak pernah habiskan novel Julia tapi Tragedi 14 Disember aku habiskan. Masa aku sekolah menengah, novel yang kira tengah hot masa tu adalah Bicara Hati dan yang sewaktu dengannya. Tak pernah ada kecenderungan nak baca any of those tapi dek jiwa remaja yang tidak asing daripada sikap ingin tahu dan ingin mencuba sesuatu yang baru seperti yang sering para pelajar nyatakan dalam karangan termasuklah aku, aku baca juga satu - Kau Yang Satu. Maka Kau Yang Satu, kau lah yang satu-satunya aku baca dalam kalangan novel-novel genre itu. And that was the only malay novel aku baca sampailahh (not sure kalau ada baca any others dalam jangka masa tu, tak dapat recall lagi) aku baca Hlovate's Versus pada tahun 2011. Not that selain those novels aku langsung tak baca penulisan bahasa ibunda. Aku baca juga. Buku contoh karangan Bahasa Melayu mesti baca punya. Dan aku ingat lagi, aku suka baca buku antologi cerpen kakak aku punya masa sekolah menengah. Kalau tak silap, antologi cerpen yang diorang kena belajar masa tu. FYI, kakak aku 17 tahun lebih tua. Ok mungkin lebih sedap sebut, aku 17 tahun muda dari kakak aku. One of them is Nilai Sebuah Kasih, paling suka yang itu. 

Somehow lately selera dah sedikit berubah ke arah novel bahasa ibunda. Cantik seni bahasa Melayu sebenarnya, if you get the right books. So Faizal Tehrani's Manikam Kalbu. Yang ni member baik kasi pinjam setelah beliau menjadi saksi utama apa yang telah tugasan menulis karangan selama sejam lakukan pada aku dan setelah beliau dengan sabar mendengar rintihan aku. Rintihan sangat~ Aku orang last yang submit. Dan bukan sebab idea melimpah ruah seperti coklat tumpah ke ladang gandum dalam iklan Koko Krunch. So yeah. Maka, aku try baca couple of pages. Boleh tahan menariknya. Tapi tak sempat dan aku tau memang aku confirm tak sempat habiskan dalam masa satu semester, aku request untuk bawa buku beliau pulang bercuti dengan aku. Alhamdulillah harini dah khatam dengan tidak sempurna sebab aku skip couple of pages tapi overall thumbs up jugalah. 

Tengok novel ni mula-mula memang tertanya apekebende yang manikam kalbu nya. Ada benda yang akan menikam kalbu kah. Atau ada sangkut paut dengan jauhari yang mengenal manikam. Rupanya Manikam Kalbu dalam novel ni merujuk kepada tiga subjek yang berbeza. Won't spill the story tapi mahu share 5 of a number of quotes I'd love to remember.

#1 Adapun busana itu cerminnya iman. Cerminnya akhlak, cerminnya tamadun, cerminnya bijak. Tinggi ilmu sesuatu bangsa diukur pada busananya. Busanalah petunjuk dan pedoman kita nak menilai hebat atau tidak, halus atau kasar budaya.

#2 Syarat pertama busana Melayu itu hendaklah pantang membuka aurat. Sesiapa memakai tetapi terbuka aurat, tanda imannya sudah berkarat. Tanda orang yang tidak semenggah, berkain baju berdedah-dedah. Barangsiapa pakai singkap menyingkap tanda dirinya tidak beradab. Adat orang Melayu jati, berkain baju berhati-hati.

Syarat kedua busana Melayu itu pantang kainnya nipis. Apabila berkain baju yang tipis, disitulah tempat setan dan iblis. Apabila memakai baju terlalu jarang, malu tak ada aib pun hilang. Sesiapa memakai akan pakaian yang tembus mata, tanda dirinya dalam nista.

Syarat ketiga busana Melayu itu mestilah pantang ia berpotongan ketat. Tiada boleh sama sekali menampak lekuk atau liku di tubuh. Ingatlah apabila memakai yang ketat-ketat, agama hilang binasa adat. Barangsiapa berbaju sempit, imannya malap, jiwanya sakit. Ingatlah Anakanda Muhammad, tanda Melayu memegang adat pantang dia berbaju ketat. Tanda orang beriman teguh, pakaian sempit memang dijauh.

Syarat keempat busana Melayu - pantang ia mengada-ada. Membuat baju harus sejudu, jangan suka tiru-meniru, supaya tak hilang maruah Melayu. Apabila memakai tahukan diri supaya tak lupa diri sendiri. Kalau memakai elok menurut adat, kelak tiada membawa mudarat. Ingatlah jika memakai elok menutupi badan, supaya tidak disusupi setan.

Syarat yang kelima busana Melayu itu dilarang sekali memandai-mandai, aib tersingkap, malu terburai.

#3 Kreativiti bukan lesen untuk awak merosakkan khazanah budaya bangsa.

#4 Apabila penjajah barat masuk ke rantau kita, mereka bawa masuk sekali fahaman mereka iaitu sekularisme. Fahaman itu ialah fahaman yang memisahkan agama daripada kehidupan kita. Segala-galanya dipisahkan daripada agama, daripada sistem ekonomi, sistem politik, gaya hidup, termasuklah cara berpakaian. Sedangkan bagi kita orang Islam, agama itu satu keseluruhan, apa sahaja yang kita lakukan itu demi Tuhan, demi Allah. Hatta dalam aspek berpakaian, kita berpakaian kerana Allah. Orang Islam memakai baju untuk menutup tubuh, orang Barat memperagakan keindahan tubuh dengan baju. Jadi kalau sempit pun sempitlah, kalau jarang pun jaranglah, kalau terdedah pun terdedahlah.

#5 Takkan awak nak mereka cipta satu busana yang awak dapat dosa bila orang memakainya?

Menikam kalbu juga sebahagian tulisannya.

Meski Dang Nurhalijah tidak berjaya menjadi jurubusana istana dahulukala, rasanya ideanya sampai dan menjadi asas banyak rekaan kini, mungkin dengan sedikit sebanyak evolusi. Dan alasan Mak Cik Zainon berhenti menjadi tukang jahit istana jelas menunjukkan fokus masyarakat kini when it comes to attire/outfits.

A pretty good novel I guess for tukangs jahit and those who aspire to be one :)

Menjadi jargon buat aku, baca jenis-jenis kain, pua lah apa lah. 

Kalau nak boleh relate sikit pun, tang dia cerita pasal olanzepine, terramycin, alzheimer. 

Cewah, gaya macam tau banyak je walhal yang tau, terramycin tu adik beradik gentamycin.

Obviously =.="

The Time Keeper

Pada menanti itu, aku kira, ada banyak hikmah yang sering dek ketidaksabaran kita malas mahu pertimbang. Kali pertama aku jumpa buku ni, harganya lebih RM70. Mula-mula main grab sahaja, for the interest in Mitch Albom's writing. Sekali nampak price, aku terus letak balik kat shelf hoping bila-bila nanti boleh jumpa lagi buku ni dalam keadaan harganya lebih sesuai dengan status kewangan aku. So, the day did came. Found it couple of days back at the same bookstore and the price is nearly half of the price I first saw. Lagi menarik, boleh dapat 50% off untuk second book yang dibeli together with this book. Alhamdulillah.

It is indeed a wonderful piece written about time. I found myself sticking the stick-able bookmarks on a number of pages where great quotes lie. I shall say it's fictionally very realistic and relate-able.


10 quotes to share from The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom :


#1 "Please let me die. I have no wish to go on."

     "The length of your days does not belong to you. You will learn that as well."

#2 ...that holding on to things will only break your heart.

#3 But man invents nothing God did not create first.

#4 It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.

#5 We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have.

#6 ...letting go was natural, embracing God's will

#7 You grab a moment, or you let it pass.

#8 "You had many more years"

      "I didn't want them."

      "But they wanted you. Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be an
       answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future."

       "What's that?"

       "Hope."

#9 Fates are connected in ways we don't understand.




and




#10 "There is a reason God limits our days."

      "Why?"

      "To make each one precious."

Dalam perjalanan menuju abadi ini,

moga setiap detik umur kita diberkati. 

Dari Asar ke Asar

June 21 marks the end of final exam as well as the end of my second year as a student. Alhamdulillah. Planned earlier on with a sister that I'd come over to her place on June 21 and so I came. For the first time I went back home very early after the last paper. Habis-habis paper, balik bilik, kemas-kemas dan terus gerak. Balik rumah, lunch, solat zuhur, get ready then terus keluar.

Where did I go?
It's IPSAH, once again :)
Kali ni bawa keperluan siap-siap, bukan unintended sleepover lagi macam haritu.

So,

#1 Dinner-date at Tanjung Dawai

 

It was great to have that loooooong chat with her. So much to catch up about each other. Indeed life kita semua tak sama. Jalan cerita tiap-tiap kita berbeza. Kadang-kadang tu hampir serupa dengan seseorang to the extent that we thought if we made the same choice as that person we might end up as happy as how we perceive the person now. Tak mustahil tapi lebih biasa dari tidak, kita semua istimewa dengan cara sendiri dan perhaps jalan menuju bahagia kita tu tak sama route. We can predict a lot based on experience tapi soal ketentuan ni Tuhan yang rencanakan, manakan tercapai akal.

While having dinner, dapat satu entertainment free. We sat at the outermost table which is outside kedai. Ada two kids naik basikal passed by us. Satu bawak, satu bonceng. Sambil kayuh, they happily sang - Pok pok bujang lapok....pastu tak ingat :D I can't help but ketawa tengok telatah the two. Noticing me ketawa, tersipu-sipu dua-dua tu sambil kayuh laju-laju.

#2 'Jog' + Breakfast

 

Jog, kononnya. Konon sahaja. Berjalan cuma. Naik turun bukit kecil dalam IPSAH sambil menghirup segar udara pagi. Lepas tu, pekena teh tarik, nasi lemak, roti telur. It was marvellous, marvellous *gaya Jagjeet dalam Upin Ipin* :D

#3 Contemplating where to go next

and while thinking....

 

 

So perempuan.

#4 Cendol & Laksa Jo

#5 Jeti Semeling

#6 PZ cafe aka Kedai Comel

It's just some kedai makan with victorian style deco je sebenarnya. Had some mushroom soup with bread and cake before heading back to IPSAH.

Of travelling - you'll never come back the same. That's what I love most about traveling. It was insightful, the conversations we had, stories she tell. One is about a sister from her happy circle who once lost her husband after few hours of akad nikah to a car accident. By Allah's will, the sister met someone who had been through almost the same situation - her current husband who lost his pregnant late wife in a car accident. And they were tested again with the loss of their first baby during the eighth month of her pregnancy. And now, by Allah's will, they get to be mom and dad to okayy I don't remember how many children they have now :D What crossed my mind was subhanallah, they must be very strong people.

Basically, it was indeed worthwhile driving more or less 50 km to get to her. Syukr lillah for bringing her into my life. Dari Asar ke Asar is because I arrived around Asar which made my first activity - pray Asar and started my journey home right after performing Asar prayer.

To IPSAH and back home safely.

Alhamdulillah. Thumma Alhamdulillah :)