Tuesday, May 31, 2011

On deen and right sources in learning

The 3 sheikhs visited IIUM main campus today.Dr Azman's Quranic class was hijacked for the talk at 10 am but students (from Muslim minority countries) appreciated the 1 hour session as Sheikh Al-Hares spoke on the importance of knowing Arabic to understand Quran and the danger of relying on translated works (like Yusuf Ali is bad news, OK? Most mosques in Australia have withdrawn copies of Yusuf Ali cos' his translations are off on a tangent..kufur in many..I love Yusuf Ali..cos' of the many references he has in his footnotes of things literary and philosophical).

The Sheikhs read doas twice at CERDAS..so maybe we'd get our first million soon.Haha.
Bro. Nasser performed nasyeed ..ahh..so mengasyikkan dan memilukan...I don't have to know what the nasyeed meant..it's so melodious..

A student from a Communist occupied country said while the religion advocates both male and female to learn, read Quran, etc..it is very difficult to do that in her country..people go to jail for reading Quran.Almost in tears, she asked the Sheikh what best solution would he offer to overcome such a situation.

I was teary too..here we are ...free to read the Quran and yet...so malas to do so...we take our religious freedom for granted in this country...

Sheikh said a lot of people could still practise their religiosity but practising it quietly.No excuse not to do, huh?

Another student came fwd and congratulated us for such quality prog.Sapa yang kata CERDAS tu nama macam sekolah kampong? :)) We are INTERNATIONAL, babe. :)

Monday, May 30, 2011

What are friends for

My zikir story isn't done yet.Let me share with you last night's event.

Dr S rang to say she would not be able to make it cos' she felt so unwell.She doesn't live too far away from my place so I told her I'd pick her up. What are friends for.

The zikir group and Dr P arrived while I was on my way back from picking Dr S from her apt.Mek and Nik dah kalut tak tau apa nak buat (Nik hadn't met any of them before). I told them just get the prayer mats out, get the group to pray Maghrib dulu, etc.

Masa kita arrived tu, depa tengah solat berjumaah.Hmm, nice.
Lepas tu depa started the zikir.Mat Salleh tu (lupa nak tanya nama dia!) suruh tutup lampu except lampu kat garden..wah..macam Sheikh Nazim kaa? I hear depa ratip dalam gelap, campur laki perempuan...

But in our session, the women duduk one side, men satu side (but berdepan2) Mungkin that's why the guy suruh tutup lampu.Supaya dapat FOCUS.haha.

The zikir went 100 times (no glossy mags to flick this time).Sekali sekali Sheikh tanya ada sapa2 rasa apa2? panas? sakit2? pening? nak muntah?a few hands would go up.Then sheikh would come and baca atas kepala dia and sembur2: puh puh...haha..quite funny watching him do this..

Lepas tu yang lagi funny is episode nak sembelih jin...wough..guess who was the first calon?

ME! Sheikh said come Sister Faridah, you sit here. Lepas tu he serkop my head dgn kain semayang I.tak kasi warning ..terus serkop.Then terus grabbed my head from behind and started to slaughter my head dgn tangan dia.Wough! Drama Queen mesti scream.haha.So that Sheikh is happy and Queen pun happy, kan? It was a performance, really.Like all rituals. :)

Tapi sakit betullah! He knew which side to slaughter (my left which was giving much problem to me)

Dgn izin Allah, my leg pain hilang! (or not as bisa as the nights before).

What is going on, HONEY???
Hopefully I'll be OK for my umrah trip.Will need to walk a lot nanti.

Friday, May 27, 2011

zikir group

A good friend of mine rang pretty late and asked if I wish to join a zikir group from Australia. It's part of our healing process.I jumped at the invitation and took Mek and Mak with me (tak jadi keluar dinner at Rebung ke Mebung kaa..Top Hat kaa Mop Hat kaa).

2 Arab sheikhs (they just came back from Canada) and pembantu Australians mereka chanted some zikirs on me and my friends (we were asked to hold hands).100 kali (panjang zikirnya).I was so bored...so nampak special edition buku kawin William and Kate..I was flicking through the glossy pages and admiring quietly some of the baju the guests wore..then tiba2 one of the Aussie guys tutup mag tu dgn tikar semayang...kantoi! (the rest laughed AT me) Haiyo!

But you haven't heard enough...My friend was the host..she was asked if she had olive oil sebab nanti olive oil tu kena minum and sapu kat badan at least once a day.My friend pi ambik olive oil yang orang guna utk berasmara! Haha.I could not help laughing (my fren ni single mom..jenis yang innocent).I told her...yang ini tak boleh minum.People use this for dot dot dot.The lady from Germany laughed the loudest! The guys were still doing their zikir.The women could not sit still.

Oh what a night! I love my friends.Kita ni tak sihat but we are happy. :))
We'll have another meeting at my house before those guys balik semula ke Sydney.Mek kata my healers very da international.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

home sweet home

Touched down around 5 pm at KLIA.Brunei was good but home is home.
Ada accident menghala ke KL from KLIA but my taxi driver was clever in getting a short cut so it wasn't a long wait for us.Masa dia dok jumped queue tu, ada la another car of north africans overtook his car..the taxi driver said, "Ini negro..manyak jahat."

Haha...welcome to the land of racism of all sorts!
I go back to work tmrw...am still exhausted..but meetings (with the Kull, with clients). Penat doh.

Mek is in town.Dia ajak I keluar dinner with Mom besok malam.Z would be home too.Mek nak pi Rebung.I hate Rebung.I nak pi Top Hat.Mek said mak likes malay cuisine.We'll see besok.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Salam from Brunei

I touched down around 8 pm.Ramainya warga IIUM on the flight...some are flying to the UK (transit in Brunei), others are attending a conference at Uni. Brunei.

Suib and family fetched me at the airport.It's a different hotel than the last we stayed in.Better and dikelilingi oleh shops (my eyes sparkle at this.Haha).But internet use kat hotel ni leceh sikitlah.So do not expect daily updates (unless I'm so bored and have ntg to do).

Busy days ahead.Need to buy some local books before I start talking to the writers.

Suib was telling me how Brunei government bagi byk incentive to those yang hafal Quran (Brunei wants to be negara zikir..isn't that something? The first hafiz dapat BND100K and student hafiz dapat s/ship some BND2K a month.Oh wow!) Sultan jaga makan minum rakyat dia (ayam yang diimpot dari Msia pun are closely monitored..they have org dia jaga penyembelihan di Msia..penyembelihan ayam mas di Msia utk export ke Brunei dipantau oleh org2 Brunei sendiri.Begitu juga those done in Australia/NZ.Hotels semua halal..no arak..)

Bagusnya pemimpin mcm ni...

Friday, May 20, 2011

Meeting old friends

What happens when you meet friends you have not seen for years?

With the ladies, they first scream, then they hug.Smooch, smooch kiri kanan (I know guys love watching us do this.Haha.Once at a viva exam, a group of old girlfriends met in so many months.A guy was waiting and was disappointed the smooching episode didn't take place.He admitted, "I was waiting...")

Anyway, I met some of my Uni. of Waikato alums of the 80s at a dinner hosted by the uni at the NZ High Comm's home (new High Commissioner).Kita punya VC of 6 years old has done a lot to put the uni on the map.The former NZ PM is our Chancellor (Jim Bolger).His wife very friendly.I boleh panggil dia mcm ni Oh Mrs Bolgerrrr...(masa nak ambik gambar..and she comes running...)

I thot I put this on record.The pics will come later.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

the reiki man

I saw him last Sunday (recommended by a fren called K).She said this reiki man (who comes once a month from Ipoh) could do "magic".Haha.I hear that too often now.I went anyway.

He said,"oh..awak masih ada gangguan..saya tlg buang". Lepas tu kasi ubat2 "aura" (in the form of homeopathy pills to re-charge blocked energy.He is, after all, the reiki man).

I went back to where I began (sakit mcm mula2 kena: tak boleh tidur, woke up in pain).Before that my sleeping pattern was OK (slept through the night, no more mimpi2 hantu/nightmares).The only comfort now is, I can go back to sleep.Before, kan...sampai ke pagi.A lot to bersyukur for, actually.

Today Kak Mah gave me a number. :) Gonna call this Haji.

My sister said I'm a healer junkie.Maybe I'm collecting materials for my short stories.Who knows what would come of this.

Stay tuned.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Uncle Kong's Funeral

Uncle Kong tu my Chinese neighbour yang meninggal 2 hari lepas.

Semasa hidupnya, dia sangat ceria..ada hari2 tertentu dia akan berkaraoke lagu2 klasik Cina (suara taklah macam Andy Williams).Kadang2 jiran2 tak larat juga tapi biasa dia bernyanyi waktu org pi kerja.

Kalau raya Cina, dia mesti buat lion dance.Kita tompang tengok percuma je.

Hari ini, di hari penghabisan keluarga mereka nak say goodbye, ada marching band disewa khas (2 hari lepas music Cina mcm lion dance tu).Hari ni, lagu2 orang putih.Kami semua terhibur (I pi kerja lambat sebab nak warm up my legs dulu).

You know what?
I cried!
Sebabnya terharu anak2 dia all out nak show their love for their dead dad.I think he was a good dad (bila keluarga dia berkumpul, anak2 dia diizinkannya park depan rumah kita sesuka hati mereka.Haha.Bila Nik tegor..sebab keluarga kita pun dtg juga nak park kat situ..dia akan kata dgn senyum manisnya "sorry! sorry ah?" dan aleh kereta).

Yes, funerals are about what happens to the loved ones you leave behind..how do they cope..what do they do to express their love, regret and all that jazz.

I see that before my eyes.Anak2 Uncle Kong going all out.The death was so sudden for them (anak from USA pun bergegas balik tapi ayah dah dalam keranda).

Sekian laporan live dari rumah saya.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Z is 19 today

Anak dara saya menyambut birthday-nya yang ke 19 hari ini.Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki, bertambah iman dan ilmu yang bermanfaat dan boleh dimanfaatkan oleh orang ramai.

Dia di kolej sedang sibuk buat exams dia (leading to A Level exam.Markah2 tahun ini boleh dikira utk exam sebenarnya tahun depan so the pressure is on).We will celebrate on Saturday with her at her college, InsyaAllah (sebab exam still on..tak leh balik rumah).

19 years ago, start at midnite I was in labour already.Masa tu tak intense and I told the nurse: oh is this what the fuss is all about? Tak sakit pun!"

Nurse tu kata, "You wait."

And true enough, 6 hours labour ...towards the end rasa macam nak mati sakitnya.I had my eyes close all the time sampai Z lahir at around waktu suboh May 11.I opened my eyes kejap to peep at Z then closed them again till they wheeled me back to my room.Nurse tu sampai cakap, "Ma'am, you may open your eyes now." Haha...I was afraid I might change into a pumpkin after delivery! Tak berani buka mata to see a new world.

Nik said Z was in a sac and the doc had to cut the sac open to keluarkan dia..and she was sucking her thumb! Lepas tu she smiled at her dad (kalau Dad dia tak exaggerate lah but he swears this was what he saw in the labour room)

Z is anak doa.I had problems conceiving and when my uncle (an imam at the kampong and his doas always dimakbulkan Allah..people went to him for doas..he's that good) went to do his umrah one fine year, we kirim doa for a child.

When I conceived for the 5th time (didn't know it till we got home from the UK..yeah..Z was conceived in London and no wonder I was so 'car sick' when we were touring Europe.Rupa2nya pregnant!) and I had the usual signs of having a miscarriage, I had given up..thinking ah..this is yet another episode..

But my gynae said, "hey, there's heart beat here!" (in the previous pregnancies, the heart beat wasn't there at all).
We were like hah? oh wow..
I was bedridden and after 3 months, looked like the pregnancy was OK.Didn't have much of a problem except I was eating a lot! By 9 months, I was your tong deram.I cringed at the reflection I saw in the mirror.

And then May 11, Suboh ..Z was born..what a joy! what a beautiful baby!
It was easy raising her since birth (she slept with the maid for a year...haha).

Well gal, Ibu and Papa doa that you will not change so much now that you dah jadi a young adult.Jangan ber-boi-fren till habis belajar (this is what my mom told me.Haha).

Have a great day and never forget to bersyukur all the time.See you Saturday (my gal stalks my blog).

Monday, May 09, 2011

Saying goodbye to Kak Pah

Kah Pah is not my imaginary friend.haha.

She and I went back a longgggggggggg way..before Z was born.We used to teach at Matric in the late 80s (before I left for Liverpool to do my Master's). Between her and me, we have almost 30 years between us.She was trained at Kirby.A beautiful lady who never married (her love story mengalahkan filem Hindi...very sad.I wish I could share all of it but takut kena saman.Haha)

Kak Pah is moving back to JB (her hometown).Yesterday was my goodbye to her.We went out to lunch at the Curve, eating pancakes and lamb chops.She said she didn't know me anymore (punya lama tak jumpa).I said I'm still the same, always in a rush but would still make time for good friends.And we talked of old days.The people we knew, the common interests we had.It's hard saying goodbye to someone you know and one who knows you so well.Kak Pah and I pun kuat bergadoh (marble headed women!)I remember her joining me in London in one of my conference trips.We were discussing a topic.As always, she would (or I would) take a different take.Lepas tu kita 'gaduh'.Haha.But lepas tu baik balik.That's Kak Pah for you.People think she's my mother.

Well, Kak Pah...thank you for your friendship, arguments and debates (semalam I saw a book on Saddam Hussein on her coffee table: the book featured Saddam as a thinker.Mana dia dapat buku tu pun I tak tau.She said she'd had it long before the 1st Gulf War and that she thought highly of Saddam).

As a student of History, her interest in so many things fascinates me.This is one friend who never bores you.

Kak Pah, we will miss you.
But I think we'll make that trip to JB one of these days and say hello again.Take care and God bless.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Seha, Shuib and Freedom

For my younger readers, you'd be too young to remember Freedom, satu kumpulan musik yang mempunyai sepasang penyanyi yang sangat luarbiasa waktu tu : Seha and Shuib.

Seha meninggal beberapa tahun lalu sebab kanser.A real beauty and a real talent.Shuib has stopped singing.Sayang sekali.

My fav is Mulanya Di sini.I didn't know Freedom's love songs yang lain2nya sungguh tragik.

playing mom

It's Makoto's first day today..there's the ELS registration to do, ID card to be sorted out, accommodation matters, visa, etc etc.

I had to show him how to do this and that.We took a ride to KL tompang Nik ( I malas drive).From there naik monorail and then LRT to KLCC.You know I don't take public transport, kan? I must have looked so lost ...but people were so helpful.They treated me like a tourist.Haha.I could not believe Msians are so kind! I must have this muka kesian look on me.

Lepas dropping Makoto at ELS and talking to Douglas on arrangement kita nak share profits, I pi jumpa Wak for foot reflexology (my spine and leg were aching!).Wak is my long time blind masseur and Allah gives him this ability to heal like no one else could.You tau, all my pains went away after my one hour session with Wak? God bless him.

Then I took a cab home.Cost me a bomb.Then went back to KL to pick my new son.Kerja gila, kan? Balik ke IIUM, sorted what needed to be sorted out.Went to pick Habib.Long is in town and Habib had to work on her prob. pulak.

So long day.
Makoto will live on campus next week.He needs to improve his Arabic and learn Islam.Campus life will be good for him.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Bradley Cooper is the new Brad Pitt

from the movie "Limitless" with de Niro
r/ship tak pernah kekal lama
was romantically linked with aniston for a while



Hari ni dok melayan anak dara saya (bonding time).

Ada pulak anak teruna baru datang so kita pi tengok wayang kat One Utama.Limitless.Pilihan suami.Dah tanya ada violence ke tak, he said no, takda..ini cerita kelakar.

Nasib Bradley Cooper hensem (half Italian half Irish OK?).So the movie (which promotes drug abuse!) was bearable with the Cooper element.Haha.But ada juga violent scenes (I was like closing my eyes much of the time, asking Z what happens now..dia buat apa sekarang, etc etc)

Nik and Makoto suka sangatlah movie tu (one scene has a special package for Cooper which says urgent.So he opens the package: dalamnya ada 2 pasang tangan yang sudah dikerat..satu kulit hitam, satu kulit putih which belong to his 2 bodyguards.Yewl...ngeri!)

This is the kinda movie Hollywood comes out with these days...

Next time I will be the one who will decide which movie to go to (romantic comedy with hugh grant or jennifer aniston.)

But dinner was good.And the thai massage that came after that.Heavenly.

ceramah agama

I must share this with you.

Last night, we (me, Nik and Makoto) went to listen to Imam Imran Hosein's talk at the surau.Ramainya orang! And what was more surprising, anak2 muda yang mukanya bersih dan beriman.

I asked a guy near me, "where do these young people come from?"
He said he could not answer that (either dia tak tau atau he's part of the group and not telling.Haha).

So the good old Imam was telling us pasal the spreading of power (military) of the zionists, that the kecoh2 in the middle east memang dirancangkan (I told you so!) so that the seemingly kebangkitan Islam would be reason enough for tentera musuh to validate their military expansion atas dasar security and self defense against terrorism.The Imam quoted hadith and verses from the Quran to support his theory (of conspiracy).

A lot of questions from the guys during Q&A.I didn't want to embarrass him with my questions so I went to him after the talk when there was a smaller group (of men again). There I asked him: aren't you over-rating the strength of the Yahudi? It's as though the Muslims are not capable of taking charge...instead of submitting to the threat of the zionists, why can't we think of what to do next and be positive for once? We cannot be talking about the stagnant state we are in all the time..what are the ways to move forward, etc etc.

Lama juga dia termenung nak menjawab then he went on the old record: I do not see any Muslim leaders rejecting the current financial system, (I kata maybe at the same time, we should also be thinking about working on our science and technology..think of innovation..and not think that the financial system is all there is in life to save Islam..)

Tapi he continued to speak on pasal duit, hahaha.
I also do not agree with him attacking Harun Yahya like that.He may not agree with Harun Yahya but Harun Yahya cannot be wrong all the time (he's a well-respected writer with lots of followers in the Muslim world).It's OK to difffer in thoughts..attack the ideas NOT the man.

But I still like the good old Imam.Bought his travelogue book (siap dapat autograph dia dedicated to me..I told him to write "For Faridah" in the book.Heh).Hubby bought Jerusalem in the Quran (asked the Imam to write Nik's name too.He asked Nik what? Pandai pulak dia! I said Nik Affendi.He said ahh..so he's from Kelantan.Hmm alahai,he's gone local!)

Must catch Harun Yahya pulak.There's a write up saying he's schizophrenic.Macam2lah.