so much for kicking back

Well here I am on the very last weekend of my holidays. Hm..this one-week break has been nothing but a disappointment. Hours and hours spent on PS3, watching anime, and other unproductive activities that at the end of the day I'd regret doing. I could not get a single thing done from my work list. Wait, I don't even have a work list to begin with. Great. That's it then. So much for a wonderful break I guess. And yet here I think I can make these last days count. How? Lets see. Oh, I can at least get my brain ready for the kick-off, or clean up my room, or get my laundry beautifully done. Of course I need to also reset my biological clock to default since my circadian rhythm has gone haywire now. My system can no longer tell if it is daytime or nighttime. Well what else would you expect from a prolonged period of sleep deprivation? As a result, I ended up being nocturnal.

Come to think of it, it seems that my whole life has been reduced to an awful period of laxity. Days and nights passed by in waste. This is certainly not the state one would want to die in. Rasulullah saw once said in a hadith, more or less the meaning;

"The dwellers of Jannah will not regret anything except the time they spent in this world without the dzikir (remembrance) of Allah swt."

Looking at this, I can't help wondering how much the dwellers of Hellfire will regret on this Day. And thinking how much time I've wasted so far simply increases the intensity. Only on that day will we realize how precious a single second in this world is. Believe it, on the hereafter scale even half a second of this world counts a lot. Well, of course we all want to improve for the better. I always wanted to occupy my time to the maximum. But to do this we need strength, and this strength comes from iman. And definitely my iman still hasn't reached the level at which I can significantly avoid the irrelevant. So until then I need to work on my iman even more, and you guys too insyaallah. =)

Wallahua'lam

eidul adha @ rochester

Wah..byk juga muslimah di belakang tu rupernye..
(I didn't get to sneak a look)

Imam Syafiq - designated imam at ICR

Chak!

Wae and his acquaintance

Mael listening to the khutbah with full attention

Oops..who's that? The one in red..=)

Pictures courtesy of DemocratandChronicle.com

the long-awaited khuruj

I'm supposed to be studying for tomorrow's Genomics final now but I just couldn't resist the urge to write this entry. I'm thrilled. This month's khuruj is gonna be a lot of fun because Farouk and Omar are joining us too. It's been a while since the last time we went on khuruj together. I really miss those days when we had many youngsters in the jama'ah whenever we went out on khuruj. But the only problem now is we still need an adult to come with us. You know, when it's all kids (I consider myself a kid too) and no adults it'd be hard to keep everything under control. It would be all play and fun and no learning. So we need someone who can hold the jama'ah together, who are superior to us in age, and he does not necessarily have to be the 'amir of the jama'ah. We were thinking Br. Intikhab would be the best candidate. If he can join us then the jama'ah is complete. But in case we can't get him to go, Br. Gungor said he would go instead.

We were discussing about our khuruj destination at mesyuwarah just now. Br. Gungor said that Syracuse won't work for us this time since they have an Eid activity at the masjid over the weekend. There will be a lot of people at the masjid and our going there would just add to the hustle. So Br. Gungor called Br. Ghazanfar of Buffalo markaz and asked his opinion as to whether we should go to Buffalo and merge with a jama'ah there or postpone our khuruj until next week. And he said if there are brothers who are ready for this weekend just let them go, don't stop them. He suggested us to just come over to them and they'll accommodate us in a jama'ah insyaallah. One good thing about Buffalo markaz is there is at least one jama'ah going out from there every weekend. Hm..lets pray so everything will work out just perfect. I've been looking forward to this khuruj since I skipped my khuruj last month. It's time to compensate for that. =)

Salam

cheer me on

These few days have been tough.
I only have myself to blame of course.
Just a few more days to go and
I seem to have lost my study spirit.
Dunno how to get it rekindled.
Come on self, you can do it.
Regroup! regroup! regroup!
Please get thru these critical seconds alive.

penat

Ya Allah. Penat giler harini. Inilah akibat suka menangguh kerja, badan sendiri yang sakit. Cell Phys Report yang sepatutnya mengambil masa seminggu untuk siap (dengan berkualiti) disiapkan dalam hanya satu hari. Tak sampai pun sebnanye. Bila fikir pulak pasal Genomics lagi lah tambah pening. Harap semua berjalan lancar. Minggu last ni rase lame semacam je. Seperti orang-orang lain di RIT, aku pun dah tak sabar nak cuti. Tapi bila dah cuti tak tau nak buat ape pulak. Minggu depan minggu kitorang keluar 3 hari. Bagus pun, bulan lepas dah burn khuruj pasal exam. Harap kali ni semua berjalan lancar dan rapi. This week has been rough. But I can still manage a smile..=) (see?)

Salam.

qualities of sahabah: one

Assalamualaikum

I was thinking about what to put up as my latest entry, and "the six qualities of sahabah" came to mind. So..lets do a quick muzakarah on it. =)

Allah swt has placed the success and happiness in this world and the hereafter in the complete religion. The complete religion is the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad saw, but at this time people still don't have the strength and ability to practice the religion completely. The companions of Prophet Muhammad r.hum had succeeded in practicing the complete religion because they had sublime qualities in their life. These are essential points in Islam, prescribed by our masyaikh (scholars) which if we can incorporate into our life, will make it easy for us to practice the entire Deen. These qualities are not the complete Deen, because the complete Deen is contained within The Holy Quran and the hadith of the Prophet saw. But by bringing these qualities in our daily life, practicing the rest of Islam will be easy for us insyaallah. So, the six qualities are;

Firm belief in the kalimah La ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah

Solah (prayers) with full devotion & concentration

'Ilm ma' dzkir (knowledge with remembrance of Allah)

Ikramul muslimim (serving muslim brothers)

Tasihun-niyah (purity of intention)

Tafriqul Auqot (sparing time for deen)

1) Firm belief in the kalimah La ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah

This sentence is the kalimah of iman (faith). If there is an effort of iman, our iman will increase, but if there is no effort on iman then our iman will go down or even damaged. Each act of worship ('amal) will be accepted when it is based on iman. Iman is a force that can drive a person to obey the commands of Allah swt, by the way of Prophet Muhammad saw. If there are defects in the 'amal, they may be pardoned directly by Allah or through intercessions (syafaat.) But if there are defects in iman then Allah swt will not forgive. The confession of iman is uttered on the lips but reality is found in the heart. Minimum of iman is the iman that can drive a person to obey the commands of Allah SWT by way of the Prophet. Iman of the size of an atom will be rewarded ten times the world and everything it contains. Maximum of iman is the iman that is not affected by atmosphere and conditions.

How to acquire the reality of iman:

* Preach the importance of iman.
* When there is talk about iman, we listen with tawajuh (full attention.)
* Changing the worldly talks to the talks of iman.
* Pray to get the reality of iman.

When someone says the kalimah "La ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah" then he must remove all the beliefs in creations and materials, inserting the one belief in Allah swt and changing his life by way of the Prophet as whole.

When a person works on his iman consistently (with istiqamah), then his iman will get stronger and he will be able to perform all the commands of Allah swt and the sunnah (teachings) of Prophet Muhammad saw and at this time the religion in him is complete, and if he died before reaching the target of complete iman, then Allah swt will raise him with those people with complete iman.

Translated & edited from: original source

Wallahua'lam

Cell Phys to Rustic via Walmart

Over with Cell Physiology lab. To Rustic Village, four of us in the car. We offered Br. Talhah a ride but he refused, saying that he wanted to take the bus with his other friend. Never mind. We stopped by Wallmart on our way home for a quick shopping. Since I didn't have anything to do here, I just wandered around until my housemates got everything they needed. They got in the line for self-checkout. I knew it would take them a while, so I decided to wait at a bench near the checkout counter. This was when I saw Br. Irfan dashing in. I was about to greet him but then stopped when I noticed he was in a hurry. I got back to the bench, sat, and began daydreaming.

I was halfway to the moon when someone suddenly caught me in a hug. It was Br. Gungor. (I wish it had been a girl instead~) He was with his two sons, Omar and Ismail, who seemed to me more like his bodyguards (both of them have a tall and sturdy build.) Br. Gungor is a Turkish American who works as a General Manager (GM) at an HSBC branch here in Rochester. Pretty cool profession I must say. His other son, Adam, is at UB (University at Buffalo, NY) now doing his Bachelor's degree in Medicine. I never asked how long he has been here, but I can tell from his flawless American he has lived here for ages. He's been spending time with us in jama'ah pretty regularly and in fact he is our 'amir for this month. It feels kinda weird that I know very little about them despite having been with them for over one and a half years now. I should open my mouth and ask more.

Home! (unproductive portion of the night you don't want to know about)