The Reader

Happy New Year,2005

To all the readers of this blog,may I thank you very much for coming almost everyday to read my postings.And also my thanks to those of you who took time to write your comments and feeback. Overall, I have been a regular writer for the last one year,isnyaAllah I will try continue to do so in the coming years...

Although the year 2004 will close with  a sombre note for all of us Malaysians and may be the region due to tsunami attacks, we must be grateful for all the good tidings we have received for the last one year.Alhamdulilah!

The Malaysian agenda for today is a Day of Prayers. Let's do it in our own way...

Good bye 2004 and Happy New Year 2005  to All.
PS: We had solat hajat after Friday prayers. The Imam referred to two ayats:
1.Surah al-Ankabut,ayat #2:   Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, "We believe", and that they will not be tested?

2.Surah at-Tawbah,ayat #51:    Say: "Nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed for us: He is our protector": and on God let the Believers put their trust.

Note: Here is what I wrote last year,2003.

A Time to Reflect....

Soon, the year 2004 is coming to an end. Usually,Malaysians will hold celebrations to usher the new year. But not this time. It is time to grieve.The nation had just got a nightmore from the tsunami attack last Sunday 26th Dec.,2004. The Prime Minister had called off all government sponsored year end celebrations and I believe the private sector will follow suit. I am happy to note that caring Malaysians are donating millions of ringgits to the Tsunami Relief Fund and some Malaysians have gone to Acheh to help our badly hit neighbours.

I am happy to note that our Prime Minister also called for all Malaysians to offer their prayers tomorrow instead of having the usual new year celebration.If I may add, it is also a time to reflect of what we had done for the last 12 months.....

When all is well, many of us forget to pray or pray less.It is the very nature of our qalbu(heart) and being human. We are called 'insan' (from the root word nisiyan),which means forgetful. We are all forgetful, the only difference is the degree of forgetfulness.

The Qur'an tells us:

{{ And when some hurt touches man,he cries to his Lord[Allah alone],turning to Him in repentance,but when He bestows a favour upon him from Himself,he forgets that for which he cried for before,and he sets up rivals to Allah..}} Qur'an 39:8

High blood

My friend,who is in late 40's confided in me yesterday that he was just  confirmed with high blood pressure by his doctor . His bp is 140/105 and and he is now under medication.He looked very worried and I don't blame him for that. Well,the news is nothing special because high bp is so common nowadays. It is only NEWS when the person affected is YOU.

After meeting him, my memory flashed back to a few years ago when my own uncle in his late 40's got a stroke.It was so bad that he could not talk properly until today and when I asked whether he could read Al-Fatihah in his solat, he cried because sometimes he could not recall.Three years ago,another friend who had a busy week interviewing people for his multi-national organisation suddenly got a stroke. His bp shot to 180 and he went into a coma with a blood clot in his brain. Three days later, he passed away...

High bp is very dangerous. Most of us know what are the causes and the ways to prevent it;the only thing is we don't take heed of it. As usual, when it happens, then it is too late.

By the way, another friend of mine has a low blood pressure problem. That is another problem.

I wrote this note as a personal reminder to me and to you who read my blog.

The earth trembles...

At about 9am this morning, I called my brother-in-law in Kota Bharu,Kelantan. He told me  that he was moving his patients to the ground floor of HUSM.Then only,I knew about the earthquake,which I did not feel anything even though I live in Kuala Lumpur.

The magnitude was about 8.9,the highest since 1964( I was too young to know or to remember anything around that time).Here is the link to its scientific data.Only last two weeks we had big flood in Kota Bharu(with more than 100 years return period). Luckily, it happened on Sunday morning,otherwise a few of my friends who work in some tall bulidings in Kuala Lumpur will be scared to death due to building's vibration. More news here and photos here.

Another thing that I first heard in my life time is this particular earthquake has affected the rotation of the earth.Just imagine the magnitude of the force that is needed to do it!

May be the "Mother Earth" is sending a message to all of us...There were too much violence on the surface of the earth;the middle earth can also be violent as well.

P.S:Reading the news this morning(Monday 27/12/04), I just wonder if we could have minimise the loss of lives if we were to have a proper monitoring and warning system?By the way, Penang is too close.It was reported that the waves travelled at the speed of a jetliner!

Palmx BTM Family Picnic

About more than four years ago, I set up a mailinglist with a few friends who have palm pda.The number of subscibers today is more than 400 and we are quite an active egroup.At the same time we also meet at least once every two months.

If you happen to have a pda or interest in pda, you are most welcome to our annual gathering as mentioned above. The acronym BTM used to stand for Black Thing Meeting when most pda's those days were black in colour;-) Now, it means more like Beaming,Talk and Makan when we meet.Here are some of the pictures.

For details of this event,please click here.

Note: PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant.The photo was taken/edited by Dr Azmi.
My experience in using palmOS pda is recorded here.

What kind of people does Allah love?

As muslims and muslimahs,what is greater than the love of Allah for us? All of us want it, but how do we go about getting it? How could we receive His love and mercy if we continue doing things against His commands?

Just look at the last seven days(many of us have short memory)-what are things we did that earned the pleasure of Allah swt and compare that with what we have done to earn His displeasures? Then we know where andwho we are.

IMHO, I must love Allah first, then only I can seek His love,insyaAllah. What can a humble servant offer his Lord who has everything and does not need anything? Nothing except surrendering  himself to the wills and commands of Allah-his ubudiyyah.

Ibn Taymiyah in his book Al-Ubudiyyah list down the following ayats regarding this topic:-

"...Allah loves those who act right."-(al-Imran 3:76)

"...Allah loves those who do good( or are kind)-(Al- Baqarah 2:195;al-Maidah 5:13)

"...Allah loves those who are are fair (and just)-(al-Hujarat 49:9;al-Mumtahinah 60:8)

"...Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure  and clean.-(al-Baqarah 2:222)

"Truely Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle array,as if they were solid cemented structure".-(al Saff 61:4)

"...Soon Allah will produce a people whom He will love as they love Him..."-(al-Maaidah 5:54)

and

"....those of Faith are overflowing in their love for Allah..."-(al-Baqarah 2:165)

Reading the above ayats, how could we have the love of Allah if we don't do something to earn His pleasures?

Doggy nuisance

Two days ago, I was seduced to take up cycling again as a morning exercise.It has been months since I wanted to exercise by cycling but I kept on postphoning because of my knees problems. Now, my knees feel okay so I took the challenge. It was a nice  feeling -the cool breezing morning air.

This time, I took a detour into the adjacent neighbourhood. While I was enjoying my cycling, suddenly a dog chased me. Imagine an old man with wounded knees pedalling furiously running away from a fierce dog!!! Luckily , that naughty chap gave only a short chase. I was almost out of my breath...

Lately, may be due to so many house break-ins, a few of my neighbours starting having dogs.One of them has two dogs! Every time someone walks by, a few dogs start barking. When one dog barks ,the rest will follow. It is a real noisy,not to mention a few irresponsible dog owners let go their dogs out side their homes. One or  two have made the habit to shit in front of my gate!

What should I do?

Old songs..

Old songs remind me of my younger days...especially to a few places that I have lived and growed up.The people that I have met....A few of my favourite old songs to-day are THE songs when I was young. I am pleasantly to suprise to note that my teenager son also love to listen to those few evergreen old songs and not the other way around for me.

Here is one of my favourites-Download semalamdimalaya.mid
Thanks IO for the audio file. I am still collecting old songs for my iPod.

IMHO,great songs are never old.

Sa'd al-Ghamidi

Some time back, a few people had contacted me via email to get the Holy Qur'an Recitation by Sa'd al-Ghamidi.I was looking high and low for it and yet I just could not get it. However ,last week,through the effort of one of the readers of this blog,he has discovered the relevant URL. Personally, I have the whole Quran in my MP3 player. It took about almost 450MB of storage.My special thanks to Mr R.Jazakallahu Khairan.

WBB

To-day, I am connected to Internet via Somaport 300-a wireless broad band gadget provided by Jaring.I hope it is going to be better than my Telekom streamyx. In the next three months, I will decide which one I will keep,but one has to go.I can't afford two BB's.

Fo details on Jaring BB,click here. Info on UK BB here