Ramadan 2019

Most of the time, I baca Quran (sambung from last Ramadan). Target nak khatam this year (I read sekali dgn tafsir ..tu yang lambat sikit tu but loving every min of it). My fav is Surah Yusuf..susah nak let go once you read it. Ralek baca kisah Nabi Yusuf, ayahnya dan adik beradiknya yang pendengki.

Kisah Nabi Ibrahim pun best. Allah mentions him so many times. Indeed Nabi Ibrahim ni byk ujiannya..dia terpaksa "menderhaka"dgn bapanya, lawan pemerintah, kena bakar dalam api. Like wow..pas tu ujian anak nak kena sembelih..patutlah dia disebut dlm solat kita..datuk nenek moyang Nabi Muhammad juga.

And I found this ayat (cuba cari balik dah tak jumpa but I think it's in surah Al Isra) pasal Allah kata kita kena sedekah but jgn bagi semua sampai kita takda apa2. Shocking! Sbb my mom pun ckp mcm tu dulu. Then yesterday at Icliff leadership workshop I attended, the facilitator ckp dlm dunia ni ada 3 jenis manusia: giver, taker, matcher and asked sifat CEOs dan losers. Teka sapa yang ada di atas dan siapa di bawah? I said matchers di bawah..he said no...givers. Then asked sapa di atas. I said givers. Betul!

So macamana givers ada di atas dan di bawah? Givers jenis bawah tu yang Quran dok sebut: jenis yang bagi segala2nya sampai mrk tinggal gigi dan gusi.Itupun kalau gusi and gigi boleh bagi, dia bagi. Givers yang di atas akan bantu orang, guide, bagi reta, duit, support tapi akan fikir juga masa depan dia.

Isn't it amazing? Byk lagi kalau you baca tafsir, you mmg can relate to your life. Now I'm like tak sabar to have my dose of Quran after solat. Quran berwarna yang Dato Hishamudin Karangkraf sedekahkan kami tu memang bagus cos'you can set your target..hari ni nak habiskan warna ni..minggu depan warna itu.Dia macam race with time.

Cambodia again

My 3rd trip to Phnom Pehn  was a rushed one. Dato H texted me about getting an invitation for iftar with Hun Sen. Qatar hasn't gotten back to me so I thought pi la meet Hun Sen kot2 his gomen can help our projects there.

So we roped in the other 2 and off we went on the same flight. Kerja ni semua belanja sendiri. Dato H bawak a new member so ramai juga la jadinya. First day Ramadan berbuka buah kurma in the  van and only an hour later (traffic jam) baru dpt makan Thai near our hotel.

Besoknya we had some time to look around pasar kuning but I dah tak ada mood nak berjalan2 sbb panas sgt. Mana2 pi nampak org jual air kelapa and air tebu. Prof M and I decided to balik awal on the Tuk Tuk. Then I just slept till almost time to go to the Convention Hall.

Mak ooi..5000 guests and Hun Sen fed us like Kings and Queens. Sedap betul makanannya. There were other VVIP guests from IDB, Mufti Wilayah and Chairman Mawp pun ada. Like the whole world was there (Muslim organisations) The Muslim community loves Hun Sen sbb di baik dgn mereka. I was being pushed by reporters masa berdiri nak greet him (we got to be pretty close to his laluan).Nyaris tak tersungkur. But gitulah kalau pemimpin disayangi rakyat. Kalau Bossku...takda la gamaknya. Heh heh.

The guy from IDB Jeddah was very philosophical. He said we must be like Makkah in doing good..always start with the individual (not Madinah..the community). Amboi, first time I dengar ni. Quotable.

Youth conference

I was all charged up yesterday at Al Sharq Forum. Tun M was there again and cerita Dato Vinod Sekhar on realising money was just coloured papers really touched our hearts. Kisahnya when he was 16, following his mom buat community work. While waiting for his mom to finish her power meeting, he befriended a down-syndrom child named Philip. Then as days went on, he realised duit kertas dia dok kena curi. He got very angry and told his mom tak guna buat baik dgn orang jika balasannya mrk mencuri duit kita (or stg to this effect). Mak dia cuba tenangkan dia but he was determined to catch the thief.

On his last day, Philip called him.Kata nak tunjuk stg. He went to see.Philip tampal kertas2 on manila card to say goodbye for him knowing he was leaving bck to his boarding school nanti. Vinod tengok di celah2 tampalan tu ada duit2 kertas dia yang dah digunting dan digam. Philip said I ran out of coloured papers so I took yours..I hope you didn't mind?

Vinod said it took a young boy to teach him the real value of money..that it was just a coloured paper..ada warna biru, hijau, merah...

I nak ketawa pun rasa mata dah berair. A good story.

Rector tak dtg so I la wakil uni. I sat next to Menteri Sukan dari Somalia..muda benor..tua sikit dari Syed Sadiq.Graduated from USIM.And I met Mariam from Tunisia. She janji nak introduce me to a scholar who works on Islam and feminism. I'm willing to swim oceans and climb mountains for this (tipu! nak jalan pun terhencut2)

And today was another day but I am still jetlagged. I tak jadi stay the whole afternoon.Balik office after lunch to do some work.

Wadah and I signed MoU, standing up cos' there was very little space if we sat on the chair.I think we looked funny but mrk ni professional semuanya. Selamba rock je. Some people have beautiful eyelashes.haha

https://www.ted.com/talks/wadah_khanfar_a_historic_moment_in_the_arab_world?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare