winter quarter closes down

Alhamdulillah..Finals are over (yeay!), though they didn't really go as I'd anticipated..(-_-") Hm..the snow is not showing any signs of clearing up or even receding. One of my professors assured us that the snow would go away in a week or two, and this was two weeks ago. Guess what..the snow is still there, even more than ever. Well, we don't really 'know' things. We may be able to predict and plan but we don't decide what will happen. Anyway..as decided in mesyuwarah a few weeks ago, this weekend we three Malaysians are supposed to be going to Syracuse for our three-day khuruj. But the thing is we haven't got any updates on this, since we haven't been to the masjid for quite some time now. I guess this exams thing has got us pretty much caught up in worldliness. There might be no elder brothers left to go with us this time since most of them have spent time in masthurat jama'ah last week. Although we ourselves have been in contact with this effort for quite a while, and are 'experienced' enough to handle things on our own, we still need an elder brother to kind of supervise us over there. There might not be problems with doing the 'amal and everything, the issue here is how to deal with the management and to get around when we are there. After all, we're still youngsters who are hasty and lack wisdom..hehe. We'll see how it goes later today.

P/S: One-week break ahead, what to do? I don't want to end up wasting my holidays as I always did.

quickie

Pejam, celik, celik, pejam..dah habis Winter quarter. Memang bagus sistem Quarter nih nak dibandingkan sistem Semester, swift jer..budak-budak tak sempat nak malas dah habis. Tapi kes aku lain sikit, aku tak sempat nak rajin quarter dah habis..hehe. 3 finals minggu depan, lepas tu insyaallah nak setelkan masalah tiket yang dah terbengkalai, kalau tak Nadzmi balik sorang-sorang la jawabnyer. Risau pulak nanti kalau dia di apa-apakan..haha. Nadzmi ni dah jadi housemate aku sejak aku mula-mula masuk INTEC dulu, sebelum aku kenal usaha ni, dah 4 tahun pun. Memang kamcing, dia tau perangai aku aku tau perangai dia. Aku doakan yang terbaik untuk dia dan kawan-kawan aku yang lain. ameen.

Sedikit update usaha tempatan, hujung minggu ini, bersamaan sekarang, beberapa brother keluar ke Buffalo dalam jema'ah masthurat, atau dalam bahasa inggerisnya, ladies effort. Jadi brother2 yang dah kahwin and ade family tu jela yang pergi, yang belum kahwin tu kenalah tinggal kan..(kesian) Lagipun kitorang nak kena bersedia untuk final exams ni. Aku pun tak berapa nak faham usaha masthurat ni macam maner, tapi yang aku tau usaha ni memang sangat-sangat halus dan sensitif, yelah melibatkan kaum perempuan kan. Time mesyuarat halaqah beberapa minggu lepas ade jugak bincang pasal usaha masthurat. Time tu ada sorang brother bacakan tertib yang dikirimkan terus dari Nizamuddin. Kitorang ni dengar-dengar macam tu je lah, maklumlah belum berkelayakan..segan pulak nak bersemangat sangat..=) Tapi rumusan yang aku ingat dari mesyuarat, bukan semua couple layak untuk keluar jema'ah masthurat..banyak faktor yang perlu diambil kira sebelum satu pasangan ni boleh dikatakan layak keluar jema'ah masthurat. Tu jelah yang aku tau, bagi sesiapa yang lebih tahu dialu-alukan untuk tambah.

Itu je kot. Tak boleh panjang2 sebab nanti tak jadi "quickie" dah. Bagi sesiapa yang tengah bertungkus lumus baca buku atau powerpoint slides tu, selamat membaca ye. Assalamualaikum.

loves to LOVE

Don't get too attached to worldly loves..for they are transient and filled with disappointments.

Only one love is worth giving everything for..the love for The One who loves you the most.

None loves you like He does..=)

p/s: nasihat untuk diri dan semua

dia kekasih Allah

Malu rasanya mengatakan cinta

Kepada dia kekasih Allah

Kerana dia insan mulia

Sedangkan diriku insan biasa

Selagi upaya ku turuti ajarannya

Apa terdaya ku amalkan sunnahnya

Moga di dunia mendapat berkat

Di akhirat sana beroleh syafaat

Sesungguhnya apa yang ku dambakan

Adalah cinta Allah Yang Esa

Kerana cinta kepada Rasulullah

Bererti cinta kepada Allah

Rasulullah kami umatmu

Walau tak pernah melihat wajahmu

Kami cuba mengingatimu

Dan kami cuba mengamal sunnahmu

Kami sambung perjuanganmu

Walau kita tak pernah bersua

Tapi kami tak pernah kecewa

Allah dan rasul sebagai pembela

(Extracted from: "Dia Kekasih Allah" & "Rasulullah" by Hijjaz)

mementos from His path

I've met a lot of great people up to this point in my life, and all these great people have a share in making me who I am now. As much as I can, I'm trying not to forget about them..and one way to realize this is to write special accounts on them here in this blog. These are some that I could think of for now;

Br. Pilot
Have you met a pilot in person? Unless one of your relatives is a pilot, meeting one in person sure is a big deal, isn't it? Not only did I meet one, I even spent some precious time with this guy. (and this is a Malay pilot I'm talking about!) OK. This happened when I was spending time with a jama'ah whose 'amir was a Singaporean. Mael, Wae, Ramli and a couple more students from INTEC were in this jama'ah too. I joined them a bit late though, thanks to my poor planning. This pilot guy..well, he was tall and sturdy, bright-skinned, and good-looking too. It was his home village we were spending time at if I'm not mistaken. When it comes to sharing experiences, he was not stingy at all. He said in all his years of being a pilot, he has faced all kinds of evil temptations (wah..evil tu..) And trying to stand up against them, many of his friends have fallen face-down. He was very grateful that Allah swt was keeping him in the right path. One thing about him that impressed me was that every time he listened or read about stories of the sahabah, he would weep a lot. His heart was really affected by how these great people were willing to sacrifice everything in the cause of Allah and His Rasul, especially the parts when they had to deal with so much opposition from the musyrikin. Indeed, these are the stories we should be reading to our wives and children (bagi yang dah ade lah). We only had a few days together before we had to split up upon going to the next masjid. (p/s: To whom it may concern, you guys may add to the story or even correct it..this was a long time back that I've forgotten much about it).

Ubai, Fauzan and Ehsan: The Huffaz Trio
This took place in Negeri Sembilan. These three young men are among those many fortunate youth who have been honored as the people of Quran. They were 16, 17 and 18 years old respectively. Being huffaz, they have the entire Quran sealed inside their chests. Having them in the jama'ah was a blessing really. Thanks to them, I had much of my tajweed checked and corrected. But those three can be quite a handful on occasion. Well, being 'grounded' in the madrasah with all these tight routines, going out on khuruj was sure an opportunity to kick back and relax. To them khuruj was a means to freedom. On the other hand, khuruj to me is my madrasah, mobilized madrasah. =) Anyway..that wasn't a big deal though..after all, they were still kids. But no matter how much relaxed they might seem, they never left their Qurans aside. They always kept these small Qurans with them and would refresh their memorization whenever possible. Throughout the 40 days, I must admit that the traces of their routine did get into me somehow. Apart from the prescribed 'amal that we were supposed to observe, we did a lot of fun-but-legal stuff together as well: from taking a dip in the river to being out in the bushes looking for durians...but the best part of all was we being like brothers to each other. They all had intention of going on to their 'alim courses soon. Ubai was mentioning Pakistan, Fauzan and Ehsan were weighing up Indonesia and the UK. I send my best du'as for them. Hope they won't forget about me when they all have become great 'aalim in the future. Looking forward to seeing them all as full-fledged 'aalim. At least I can brag a thing or two about having spent some time with them..haha takdelah..

p/s: May Allah swt reunite us back in the best of ways..ameen

surah 'Abasa

Yet another powerful, emotion-filled recitation by Sheikh Muhammad Al Luhaidan.
He has a God-gifted talent. It just melts me down each time I listen to his recitations.
Look him up on YouTube! =)

"weather-sick"?

What a relief! As soon as I got my presentation done, it was as if a 1.5-ton rock has been drawn off my head. I felt so light. The presentation went well I guess (Judging by the number of people who were still awake upon wrapping up the slides). Last week was super hectic. I spent the first three quarters of the week getting ready for exams and the last quarter of it working on my presentation and review paper. It's been a while since the last time I got pushed this far. At this very moment, if I flapped my hands up and down in a rapid motion, I would go floating in the air (exaggerating). So this week, it's lab notebook time! Lucky that I'm taking just one lab, so the labor is not as burdensome as taking 3 labs at once (past experience). Worldly things always bring butterflies in your stomach. The only thing that can bring peace to the heart is religion. Only by remembering Allah will the heart find true peace.

"...Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest!" (Surat Ar-Ra'd: 28)

I've got a problem waiting to be dealt with: the delay on the purchase of my flight ticket. All thanks to HSBC for denying me my ticket home. The secure code thing is making me sick to my pancreas. I don't recall having such an issue the last time I bought my ticket online. The worse part is I don't feel motivated at all to try to resolve this problem. I'm going back to Malaysia a little late this time to make way for the Summer classes I'm planning on taking. I learned my lesson from my last homecoming. Last time I went back for the entire break but ended up not knowing what to do at home. There was still much time left over even after I did my 40-day khuruj. I could've gone for 40 days twice and still had enough time to get bored. Hm..I've been going back every year now. I'm not homesick. Each time the freezing winds outside pierce through my body, the first thing that pops into my mind is "Malaysia!" That makes me "weather-sick," huh?

p/s: May Allah swt make our dealings easy. Ameen.

the status of a muslim

Still dealing with the remnants of my fever. I need to get better before my presentation day this coming Monday. I wonder why I feel all worked up about this presentation thing. It's not that I've never done a presentation before. Oh..Perhaps my endocrine system has got a little shaky from the fever that the wrong hormones are being secreted at the wrong amount. Hm..that sounded plausible. Anyway..I've got the essential part of it done, so now I can slow down a bit and get back to my default pace. Smile..

Let's see..Since I don't really have anything to write, I'll keep it really short this time. Short yet concise.

At Maghrib time yesterday, when reading Muntakhab Ahadith, I ran into this hadith that tells about the blessings behind being ill or sick. Nicely timed!

Dari Abu Hurairah ra. meriwayatkan bahawa baginda Rasulullah saw bersabda: "Barangsiapa demam satu malam, kemudian dia bersabar dan dia redha kepada Allah akan keluar dosa-dosanya sebagaimana dia baru dilahirkan oleh ibunya." (HR Ibni Abi Dunya, Targhib)

So, this leaves us no excuse not to smile even when we are sick. For a Muslim, it's always a win-win situation either he/she is sick or healthy. This is the sheer mercy of Allah swt on us the believers. Allah swt has put us in an elevated rank over the entire creation in general, and the entire mankind in particular. We need to work extra harder to live up to the status then!

So, whenever you fall ill..remember to smile, even for once. =)

p/s: Indeed, Allah swt looks at us with his mercy. If He swt looked at us with justice instead, we would've long been destroyed due to too much corruption.