The Reader

Some birds...

Some birds in certain locations are really lucky.They can live in a double storey-house just like  the one shown above.Not only that, they have a lot of food to eat.However, the majority has to build their own houses and have to fend for themselves. In the  human communities, millions are still homeless in their own countries...

Tea to remember

First,let me thanks to Honeytar for the tip.Otherwise,I would not have the opportunity to savour the tea and scones at Bharat Tea House this morning.My first visit to Cameron Highland was in 1987.Yesterday was my second visit after 18 years! And of course it changed so much...However,the road is still bad,but the road is being improved.When I checked out of  the hotel(located at 5300ft above sea-level) the temperature was 19.7º C this morning.

Yesterday afternoon,I went on tea shopping spree-with a few boxes of Blue Valley tea and Cameron Valley tea.And my wife had also bought a colourful china tea set.Both of us came home smiling:-)

The photo above shows where we had tea at Bharat Tea House.In the backgound is the vast tea plantation.My apologies for not being able to show the tea and the scones because my camera's memory card immediately became full after taking the above photo.

You can view other photos I have snapped here.

PS(19/12/05)-Here is the missing photo.

Rejection and Arrogance

7:40

To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُواْ بِآيَاتِنَا وَاسْتَكْبَرُواْ عَنْهَا لاَ تُفَتَّحُ لَهُمْ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَاء وَلاَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى يَلِجَ الْجَمَلُ فِي سَمِّ الْخِيَاطِ وَكَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُجْرِمِينَ

Last Saturday, our masjid invited Dr Ali Saripan Al-Hafiz to give a kuliah subuh.He was armed with a notebook and a projector.A screen and a white board were provided by our masjid. He showed us two ppt slides-the first is the above ayat and the second a graphic picture of a camel and a needle.

He took about 45minutes to explain the above ayat with a few examples from the Quran.IMHO,the usage of multimedia tools are quite effective in conveying the message.The slide of the camel and the needle stuck vividly in my mind even though it was shown almost a week.Words can be easily forgotten even in less than a day.

Referring to the above ayat, I must be very careful what goes on in my mind and qalbu,what I talk and write and what I do so that I donot commit any acts of rejection and arrogance.I must seek Allah swt helps all the time,so that I remain His obedient servant.Obedience is an act of worship.What about rejection?

IMHO,one of the main reasons why we reject the command of Allah swt is because of our arrogance.Our arrogance may be bigger than the camel and our little knowledge is smaller than the hole in the needle.There is NO WAY the camel can get through the hole in the needle.The simile used by Allah in the above mentioned ayat means that if we 'reject His signs and treat them with arrogance',we shall never enter Al-Jannah.

Here are a few ayats he qouted while discussing the above subject:
7:40,2:32,7:22,20:25-28,2:286

Note: I will not be able to respond to your comments in the next 36 hrs because I am on the way to have Blue Valley tea with some scones at Tanah Rata,Cameron Highland.

Bloglines

A few days ago, my friend asked me how do I read others' blogs? Well,I told him that I have to go and click on the hypertext at my blog.Sometimes,the effort was wasted because the blog has not yet being updated.So, he advised me to use Bloglines.

Yes, I agreed with him that using bloglines make my blog reading more organised and much easier way than what I have been doing before.

Lesson learned:

Technology is readily available,but people are not aware of it or they refuse to learn new things because they were more confortable in what they have been doing.

If you wish to subscribe to my blog,here is the URL: http://adib.typepad.com/blog/index.rdf

A little sensitive?

This morning I have to push myself to a 'torture chamber' for 90 minutes.I tried to avoid and delay the best I could, but when something goes wrong, I had to surrender myself to my dentist. Dr K is a very nice and patient lady.She has been my dentist for more than ten years.My dental report card is about 4 pieces thick.

During the 'repair job' in progress, at least I groaned five times when some instrument hit or touched my sensitive nerves.When I gave a pain sign, she said,"A little sentive..".I just hold back my pain,pretending to be a strong man.I did not cry,but somehow, some tears came out.

Imagine I have to keep my mouth open most of the time.When I was too tired keeping my mouth open, I almost fall to sleep and almost bite my dentist's hand;-). Joking aside, I felt scared most of the time(anytime my sensitive nerve can get hurt),especially when  the doctor was telling her assistant to put the "sucker" into my mouth,asking for a "plugger" and the noise of the drills reminds me of the jack-hammer breaking the concrete pavement on the roadside. In my mind,I perceived it as mini construction work taking place right in my mouth!

At the end of 90 minutes,I was given a mirror.Looking at the mirror, the fear was gone from my face and I can afford a smile-with clean and all cavities-filled set of teeth.

To Dr K,I hope not to see you this year.Anyway thanks Doc for the job well done.

Bad day..

Everyone of us has his/her own bad day;and today is my turn.

First, I went to ATM to get some money.The machine informed me that only RM10 notes are  available.I pressed okay, but nothing came out. The other one next to it is not functioning at all.Then I have to drive all the way to another ATM machine at the bank-about 1km away.After a few minutes in the queu,I got my turn and pushed in my ATM card and everything worked fine until the time the machine was about  to dish out the cash.Suddenly the machine made some noise and then I saw a notice: Device failure!

If there was no one around, I could have punched the machine.I was angry at the level of service given by my bank. So I told myself,stay cool and be patient and I will go again  this afternoon.

When I arrived home, I received a call from someone with bad phone manners.That's it-enough for a day.

After 'asar prayer, I am taking my wife  to a late afternoon tea with some scones to ease my tense nerves.

A little celebration..

While waiting for my wife doing her weekly grocery shopping,I went into Strudell and ordered a peppermint tea and bread pudding.I need this solitary ceremony to think and to reflect.By the way,this happened to be the 10th annivesay of me being online and also by sheer coincidence the 5th anniversary of my palm users community mailinglist (palmx) which has more than 500 subscribers.Another successful mailinglist that I was involved is my almuni(SDARA),which I set up in 1998 and it is still running.Alhamdulilah.

Let me quote a Chines proverb:

Anyone can open a shop, but not everyone can keep the shop open.

I owed the success of the above mentioned mailinglists/virtual communities to my fellow moderators and the members.

Here is another reason why I celebrate:

Most of the time,when I need to install or configure something in my computer I will ask my son to do it for me.However,yesterday I made a small personal achievement. I managed to get all my emails(mac/streamyx/news and blogs using RSS/gmails) into one email client called The Thunderbird from Mozilla.And this I did it all by myself and this called for a small celebration especially for someone in my age group;-)

Buying a book

One of my personal projects is to inculcate the reading culture for all my children. Some of my friends confided in me that it is difficult to get their kids to read books.I know it is not easy, but we must keep trying by showing good examples.If we ourselves donot read books, how do we expect our kids to read books? Similarly with the reading of the Qur'an.

Personally, I must buy at least a book a month,either for myself or my family members.It is good to buy books to give away as gifts to our friends.

Let me quote Desiderius Eramus:

When I get a little money,I buy books.If there is any left over,I buy food and clothes.

Happy reading to all...and let's make July as the Reading Month for Malaysia a success.

Macfest July,2005

Malaysian MacUsers Group is organising the above event TODAY.You are kindly invited to attend.For details,click here.I attended the last one at Ikano Power and it was fun and informative.

PS:Below is the photo of a demo at the gathering of using powerbook to watch TV alive and to save the recording by Azul.

A demo of music making by Charlie.

Al-Qamar

Only this morning I noticed/read a sms from Datuk Dr Jemilah  about the special event of the moon.It was sent by her at 11.24pm last night but I was asleep at that time.The sms says:"Watch the moon now.Its direct axes with the sun.Occurs once every 40 years."It is indeed a beautiful sight to behold!!!". The moon is full(today is 15th Jamadilakhir).

The moon has special glows around it.Many a time,Allah swt reminded us in the Qur'an to look and ponder at His creations,and most of the time we didnot bother to look and appreciate and witness the greatness of Allah's creations.The things of beauty come from The Lord who is The Most Beautiful.Subhanallah.

Note:My photo was taken at about 7am.It may appears as the morning sun to someone who just woke up;-){The actual thing is many times more beautiful and elegant than what  my amateur photograhy could capture}.My apologies and many thanks to my dear friend Dr Jemilah,President of MERCY.On the event occurence once every forty years,I have yet to confirm with experts in astronomy.If anyone has knowledge on this subject,please comment.

Below is another photo I took at about 6:30am using my handphone camera(Nokia 6600).Just compare the brightness of the street light on the right and the moon on the horizon: