Bad start, bad day.

One of my reason having this blog is to improve my writing skill and eventually I started to write in English. I am not trying to be a smart-ass but could someone tell me what is the other method that I can use to improve my English?

In order for me to be able to write well in English, I start to read english books, listen to their conversation and try to think using english words. As it is today, I have started to think english words when I'm trying to write something. But I have lived 20 years as a Malay and it is my primary language. Of course my english is still not perfect. In fact I know my english might be like a rubbish to some people especially when it comes to grammar. I admit that.

I dont give a shit about what people actually think about my grammar because I know I'm still learning. I'm struggling to be exact. However, hearing words from one of your brothers about trying not to write in english because your english is rubbish is really make you feel something that you didn't know you can even feel.

It's not like I anti with people criticise me or commenting me but yeah, hearing people say that you should only write in english only if you good at it is not something you want to hear actually. It's alright if someone say to you your grammar is bad, you might need to improve on that part but to the extend saying you should stop write in english, wrong advice mate.

Anyway, I dont really care about it anymore. I'll just keep write in english because everything need a practice. Just like to be excel in ibadah, you just have to practice to reach the level of enjoying and feel like a freedom when you do it.

Roger and out.

Efforts is what matter.

Bismillah.

Being an engineering student teaches me a lot. Probably the same case to other courses as well. But one thing that I have learnt in engineering is how to work with limited resources.

You have an assignment that required certain softwares but you do not posses it?

Simple, you just have to accomplish it without using the software.

You have to make a project but the budget is not on your side?

You just have to work on the project to fit with your budget.

And recently, I just found a game for android users which called Apparatus and I told you guys, it’s a must game for engineers, Mechanical engineering to be exact. For this game, you have a ball located somewhere on the screen and your mission is to build a mechanical instrument using the resources that provided to move the ball into a basket. It’s really cool and mind challenging.

My point here is not promoting the game (not like I got an incentive if people play the game anyway) but my point is being an engineering student really helps me to think creative and try to solve the problem with the available resources.

Having said all of this, it actually makes me think about how our life works. Life as a muslim of course.

“Kalaulah aku ada duit banyak macam dia, mesti aku dah tolong orang miskin kat dunia ni”

“Dulu parents aku tak ajar pulak pasal benda2 islam ni. Dia tu lainla. Parents orang usrah”

“Kalau aku tak ambik course aku sekarang yang mega busy ni, aku rasa aku da involve da dengan aktiviti-aktiviti usrah ni”

“Kalau aku gempak buat video, banyak da siap video untuk umat Islam nih”

“Sahabat dulu boleh la iman diorang mantap, Nabi ada dengan diorang. Kalau la aku hdup masa tu kan best”

And the list can go on and on. Trust me.

We can obviously say all this stuff and no one actually want to stop you from ranting about how bad your life is. No one actually cares.

The last statement is the best. The one that says that might be forgetting that by living with Muhammad S.A.W. doesn’t guarantee you will become sahabah. You might end up being the Abu Jahal instead! And the same thing applies with other situations as well. Who can actually guarantee he will become the hamba yang bersyukur if he is given the situation that he wished for?

One thing for sure is Allah will not ask us in akhirat about what will we do for a given situation. What Allah will ask is, what have you done is your given life? No matter how shitty your life is or how good your life is, what Allah care is how do you make use of what’s given in your life to accomplish our mission as a human in this world.

But Allah is not mean. Allah is fair to all his slaves;

Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people."(2:286)

And of course Allah will not only see the end product like human does, He will actually see what kind of effort that we put on it. If we failed to accomplish a certain task, e.g. try to make dakwah to our friend and he just doesn’t want to listen to us, and Allah see that we put enough if not extra effort on it, for sure Allah will reward us.

So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens. That [is the command]. And if Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them [Himself], but [He ordered armed struggle] to test some of you by means of others. And those who are killed in the cause of Allah - never will He waste their deeds. (47:4)

In conclusion, as a human we can’t run from problem and imperfection in our life. There will be obstacle here and there. And being a human, we can make a choice whether to make full of the imperfection in our life to fulfil our goal as a slave or we can just sit down and whining about our problem in life. You are free to make the choice as it is your life but bear in my mind that even though it’s our life but it’s own by Allah and always remember that our choice will determined us being in heaven or hell.

I am a Palestinian from Malaysia.

Bismillah.

Junior: Eh, bile eh nak beli tiket balek Malaysia? Sekarang dah ada offer ke?

Penulis: (tersenyum) Relaxlah bro. Awal lagi ni. Tak habis 1st sem lagi dah fikir balek dah ke?

Junior: (Tersengih-sengih) Tak de la. Bosan la duduk UK nih. Rindu Malaysia ni. Makanan, family and cuaca obviously.

Penulis: Haha, fair enough. Selalu orang beli time bulan 2-3 camtu kot. £550 tu kira ok dah harga tu. If you got cheaper than that, that's a bargain. Oh, £550 tu dari Manchester.

Lucu hati saya bila perbualan ini berlaku dan setiap tahun perbualan ini akan terjadi. Malah saya rasa mungkin ada sesetengah pelajar yang sudah mula memikirkan untuk pulang ke Malaysia sebelum mereka berlepas dari KLIA lagi.

Walaupun sudah membiasakan diri di UK, rasa rindu untuk kembali ke Malaysia tetap tidak hilang.

Walaupun UK menawarkan 1001 kemajuan yang mungkin tidak terdapat di Malaysia, perasaan rindu itu tetap ada.

Walaupun UK menawarkan pengangkutan awam yang lebih efficient berbanding ktm dan bas di Malaysia, rasa rindu tetap menebal di hati..

Walaupun UK menawarkan harga anggur dan epal yang lebih affordable, rasa rindu itu tetap ada.

Baik yang junior atau senior, sama sahaja ragamnya.

Mungkin secara fitrahnya, manusia memang ingin pulang ke tempat asal mereka walaupun sebentar. Atas sebab yang sama, rakyat Malaysia tetap pulang ke kampung masing-masing pada hari raya walaupun masing-masing sudah mengetahui yang mereka berkemungkinan tinggi akan terperangkap di jalan raya.

Namun, pernahkah kita mengetahui atau mengingati akan nasib saudara kita di kem pelarian Palestin di Lubnan?

Atau nasib saudara kita di Gaza atau Tebing Barat?

Mereka juga manusia sama seperti kita.

Mereka juga sering merindui akan kampung halaman mereka sama seperti kita.

Tetapi mereka dinafikan hak mereka untuk pulang ke tempat asal mereka!

Cuba kita bayangkan apa yang akan kita buat sekiranya permohonan untuk pulang beraya kita ditolak dan terpaksa bertugas di pagi raya?

Kita akan sedih dan sesetengah orang akan menangis kesedihan tidak dapat mencium tangan ibu di pagi raya.

Tetapi harus diingat kita masih berpeluang untuk pulang ke kampung halaman pada tahun hadapan atau mungkin minggu seterusnya.

Pelarian Palestin sudah berada di tempat buangan lebih dari 50 tahun!

I don't think we can actually imagine how they felt for the past 50 years.

On top of that, being in refugee camp in Lubnan is not like us living in UK.

Tahukah anda, pelarian Palestin di Lubnan diharamkan untuk bekerja dalam 72 jenis pekerjaan?

Tahukah anda, pelarian Palestin di Lubnan tidak diiktiraf sebagai rakyat Lubnan walaupun lahir di Lubnan?

Tahukah anda, pelarian Palestin di Lubnan tidak dibenarkan untuk memiliki sebarang property di Lubnan?

Tahukah anda, pelarian Palestin di Lubnan tidak dibenarkan untuk ke selatan Lubnan walaupun hanya untuk melihat tanah air mereka yang dijajah?

Tahukah anda, banyak lagi perkara yang dilarang atas mereka oleh kerajaan Lubnan?

Cuba bayangkan, bagaimana perasaan kita sekiranya Malaysia dijajah dan kita terpaksa lari ke Thailand.

Kemudian hak kita sebagai manusia dinafikan.

Apa yang akan kita buat?

Dan orang-orang yang menggelar diri mereka saudara kita tidak memberi kita bantuan yang amat kita perlukan.

Apa yang akan kita rasa?

Seorang muslim adalah saudara bagi Musim yang lain, tidak boleh dia menzaliminya dan menjerumuskannya ke dalam kebinasaan

-Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Mazhalim, hadis no. 2442.-

But, talk is cheap.

Semua orang boleh menulis di blog.

Semua orang boleh bercakap tentang masalah ini.

We need to walk the talk!

Untuk itu Misi Kasih Palestin, Sheffield Malaysian Student Association, PMPMS dan KuSheff telah bergabung untuk menjayakan sharing session oleh Dr Zin Kandar yang pernah ke Gaza sebanyak 2 kali. Program ini juga bertujuan untuk mengumpul dana yang akan disalurkan pada pelarian Palestin di Lubnan untuk membantu mereka yang basically tidak mendapat bantuan dari mana-mana pihak.

Do spend some of your time and attend this session. Please don't forget to bring some extra money to infaq for our brothers and sisters. And if you want to infaq right now, you can always do that by referring to this web.

Aerospace engineering, an anecdote.

Bismillah.

Last week probably one of the busiest weeks in my schedule this semester. I got almost 3 hours of lectures everyday (usually its only 2 hours per day for me. lol) The reason for this hectic week is because we got an external lecturer who will give us a little peek of what an airworthiness engineer job-scope and how to get there.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people who read this article don't have a tiny clue what airworthiness engineer is. Even me, the one who's taking Aerospace Engineering, only know about the existence of this type of engineer after those sessions. Basically airworthiness engineer is the filter between the airplane company (Airbus, Boeing and etc) and the authority. So in order for a plane to be allowed to fly, they have to get a certification from the authority and airworthiness engineer is the one that is responsible to ensure the airplane gets the certification.

To become an airworthiness engineer is not an easy task to be honest with you. You have to have a complete understanding of an airplane (seems familiar? yeah, I know it a bit similar with being a true Muslim where you have to have a complete understanding of Islam rather than only a part of it). By saying that, it means that you must not only have a good understanding of certain part of aircraft (say aerodynamic, propulsion, avionic and etc) but you must have a good understanding of the each part and let me tell you guys, there are lot of parts in an aircraft. Not only you have to master each field of aircraft, you also have to have a good communication skill and soft skills as well (now it started to feel like it kind of similar with being a dai'e/preacher).

I told you guys that it is not easy to become one and it takes like 10 years of experience to be a airworthiness engineer and I guess that's also the same with being a true muslim. You can't be a true muslim in just one month or even one year. There are lot to learn and experience. But the question is, just how many of us want to learn and experience all the things in Islam?

And some of the Muslims have spent 5-8 years learning about Islam in deep, maybe they graduate from one of the top university like Al-Azhar but they still lack in communication skill and soft skills. By lacking this two important skills really affecting them from being a dai'e. Just look at the reality. Just how many those who call themselves ustaz/ustazah/imam in Malaysia really have the ability to change those people around them?

On the other hand, there are some peoples who specialize in different field from Islam (engineer, doctor, etc) but still manage to learn about other aspects of Islam and not just know how to pray and fasting! And they also have those two important skills to be a dai'e. That my friend, what we call quality!

One difference though between being an airworthiness engineer and being a true Muslim, is that one is by choice and the latter is not really a choice, for a Muslim it is. As an engineer you can always choose to gear up your game and get such a prestige type of job or you can just stick with your job and get well-paid for it. As a Muslim, who believed in existence of heaven and hell, it's not really a choice, in fact it is a must! We have to gear up our game and head to be a true Muslim and a dai'e as well (being a true Muslim and dai'e is not a sequential event. It just like chicken and egg story. We never know which one coming first but both of it exist.).

I'm not trying to be strict or harsh by saying as a Muslim we not have a choice but it is in the Quran afterall;

And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" Allah said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know." (2:30)

The road to glorify Islam in this world is not easy.

The road to glorify Islam inside each person is even harder.

I never said it is easy.

Nobody does.

But believe me,

Being in heaven = worth the hardship.

disclaimer : Im not saying all of ustaz/ustazah/Imam bad at spreading Islam in Malaysia.

Sekarang musim bola.

Bismillah.

Sekarang musim bola.

Gara-gara final sukan SEA di Jakarta.

Kawan yang kaki bangku pun naik teruja.

Apatah lagi saya yang memang hebat main bola.

Tetapi kali ini bukan niat saya ingin bercerita tentang Malaysia vs Indonesia.

Tidak banyak pun yang hendak diceritakan tentang permainan yang mendebarkan kedua-dua penyokong.

Bukan niat saya juga ingin menceritakan kehebatan diri sendiri bermain yang tidak tumpah seperti Cristiano Ronaldo.

Pembaca boleh melihat sendiri bagaimana hebatnya Ronaldo dan itulah saya.

Niat di hati ingin bercerita tentang kisah dua pemain Barcelona.

Seorang sudah keluar dan seorang masih bermaharaja lela.

Namun kedua-dua masih mendapat tempat di hati para peminat bola.

Ronaldinho dan Messi pemain yang saya hendak cerita.

Ronaldinho seorang yang laju dan penuh dengan gerakan muslihat yang bergaya.

Membuat penonton terbeliak mata.

Apatah lagi pasukan lawan yang hanya mampu ternganga.

Namun kehebatan hanya bertahan 1-2 tahun sahaja. (around 2006)

Messi pemain yang kecil dan lincah sekali gayanya.

Skill yang dimiliki biasa sahaja.

Hanya bergerak lincah dicelah-celah pertahanan sambil bola seolah-olah melekat di kaki.

Namun Messi tidak pernah gagal menyerlah dari 2008 sehingga kini.

Dari kaca mata manusia sudah pasti Messi lebih berharga berbanding Ronaldinho.

Gayanya biasa tetapi bertahan lama.

Sedangkan dari pandangan mata manusia yang hina pun lebih gemar pada konsistensi,

Apatah lagi dari pandangan yang Maha Esa.

Amal yang sedikit dan biasa lebih digemari Allah.

Berbanding amal yang banyak tetapi sebentar cuma.

Masih ingat kisah Ronaldinho dan Messi?

Pemain bola sepak sehebat Messi pun masih perlu datang ke pusat latihan.

Apakah pusat latihan kita untuk mengekalkan konsistensi amal?

Usrah cara saya.

Cara anda bagaimana?

Jangan menjadi Ronaldinho yang hebat tetapi terkulai di tengah jalan kegemilangan.

Dark

While i'm still a kid, i used to be afraid of a dark places. But it's normal wasnt it? Lot of stories being told about how scary dark places is. Sometimes there will be a white figure appear in front of you and sometimes some scary thing will creeps coming to you. Scary wasn't it?

Even without those stories, i still think the feeling will still be there. Even after this many years and i know all the stories are made up to scare children, i still got some lingering feelings when i have to go to a dark place alone. But ego as a man always help me facing those situation.

From all of this, it make me thinking what is actually I am afraid of? Is it the darkness or something else? Or is it just feeling of being alone that afraid me?

I will never know for certain. I only know the feeling is there which make me think that this feeling is a nature for me and maybe a nature for human being. Which bring me to think that perhaps what i really afraid of is not the darkness but the unknown is what scared me.

You will never know what hiding in the darkness. It might be a dangerous animal, a poisonous insect, a ghost, a criminal or maybe nothing in there.

And god, in my case Allah knows well our nature. Well He is the one that created us afterall. Allah stated that in rukun iman that we have to believe to the unknown thing (perkara ghaib) . The idea is that we will afraid to the unknown and result in us obey to Allah.

However, even the idea sound so beautiful and practical there are lot of people still not afraid of Allah. They still not afraid commit sin even though hell and heaven is the unknown thing that by nature we afraid of. Even angels are always following us around every moment and we really don't know about them but crime are still everyday.

What happen?

Human should be afraid of the unknown by nature.

It still unknown for human about their ending. Either heaven or hell.

It still unknown for human WHEN they are will die.

It really puzzling me what really occur in other people that did not afraid of the BIGGEST unknown in their life. Instead they really afraid about insignificant matter like who will they married to or what kind of job they will get after they graduate.

It's not like i'm not thinking about the same thing but to think about insignificant stoff until forgetting much more important stuff is not making sense at all!!

Fair enough. They might have their own problem or they are just being ignorance.

Note to myself;
Never told a ghost stories to my children instead told a story about the REAL BIG unknown to them.

Testing

Yeah, just got a new phone. I might, I repeat, I might be able to post regularly after this.

Oh I love creating excuses.