The Reader

Ahlan Wasahlan Ramadhan

In a few days time,all muslims/muslimah all over the world will fast in the coming month of Ramadhan al-Mubarak. May I take this opportunity to wish all my fellow muslims/muslimahs  a blessed Ramadhan. Let's du'a and plan that this Ramadhan is better for us in the context of our ubudiyyah compared to the previous Ramadhan. All the hotels in towns are well prepared to 'celebrate' Ramadhan with special offers of good and delicious foods to break our fast. That reminds me of what preparations have I done to welcome and to do during the coming month of Ramadhan al-Mubarak.

Talking about celebration of ibadah,I only experienced once ten years ago when I was in Makkah and Madinah during Ramadhan. How I wish I could be there again.To I.N,may you enjoy the festival of ibadah in Makkah and Madinah in the coming Ramadhan.

By the way, what had we done in the last Ramadhan? Just write them down and go through the list.Then, write also what we could have done.After that eliminate those that we should not have done and prepare a new list of what we want to do in the coming Ramadhan.When Ramadhan arrives,just do what we plan so that we won't regret when Shawal comes.It is better if we can keep the todo list as a scoreboard. As individuals,we find greater difficulties to do certain forms of ibadah.To make us easier,it is better to participate in the activities hold at our masjid/surau.So, get a copy of the masjid/surau Ramadhan programme and incorporate that into our daily activities. Along the journey, we will be fighting with our nafs and may Allah help us all along the way. If we walk to Allah,Allah will come running to us.

The road map of fasting is the same for all of us-we start with sahur and end with break of fast at magrib time. However, the journey is different for everyone of us.It depends on the level of our taqwa and our amal. What we do spiritually and phyically wil make the difference.

Just imagine more ONE BILLION muslims/muslimahs all over the world will be fasting for a whole month as an ACT OF OBEDIENCE to their Rabb! I would be very happy to be one of them,insyaAllah.

SELAMAT BERPUASA.

Newspapers corner

  Sudut Akhbar 
  Originally uploaded by mohdadib.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only place that I know of in Kuala Lumpur where daily newspapers are displayed on the notice board for anyone to read.

My congratulations to the management of MARA building!

SPAMMED!

Someone out there has decided to turn my blog into a porno website.Two weeks ago, my tag-board was spammed and yesterday and today my comments section was flooded with 'comments' invitations to porno websites.

So ladies and gentlemen, I have no choice but to moderate all comments sent to my postings. Just bear with me a few hours before your comments get published.

My apologies for the unnecessary inconvenience.

Curve space frame

As an engineer by training,I love to see  steel space-frame as as shown in the photo as above.And  at the time, I am trying my hands using my Black Beauty(Lumix FX8) to capture the the work of art by my fellow architects and engineers. As we use to say ,architect's dream is engineer's nightmare when the structure involved complex engineering calculations in design and construction methods(this reminds me of the terms eigen values and eigen vectors).One famous example is the Sydney Opera House.

During my last visit to Sydney in 2000, I stood and gazed at the magnificient shell structures of the Sydney Opera House. It is not just the external beauty the captured my eyes, but the also the ingenuity that challenged my intellect and the courage to do that touched my heart.

By the way,Sydney Opera House has a colourful history.

Black Beauty

Today,I went shopping for a portable camera. My Olympus 750 Ultra is too bulky for me to carry around while I am travelling or moving about in town.After consulting with a few friends and checking with my wish list and budget, I ended up buying this Black Beauty aka as Lumix FX8.

I hope from now on I don't have to depend on the camera built inside my PDA Treo 650 which many a time has given me blurred pictures.Here are the links to my online albums: mostly taken by camera and mostly taken pda.Some of the photos I also upload to Flickr due to its special feature that shows random photos in my blog.

For those of you who have online photo album,please let me know the URL's.

Novel: The Broker

All waitings are longer than the real time taken.The best is not to wait,but when we look forward to something,the time taken seems to be longer...This may confirm that time is relative.

By the way, when the hardcover copy of The Broker was out, I did not buy it because it is too expensive.Last night, when I dropped by at MPH Bookshop,I saw it in softcover-so I grapped it.As a fan of John Grisham,I read most of his novels.The recent one was Skipping Christmas.It was quite interesting and hilarious.

Books are not cheap in Malaysia.However, if we are willing to wait,we can buy cheaper at used bookshops or even renting the books.Of course,the free ones are at the public library but most are out dated or not easily available.To me, I am willing to buy the books I wanted to read because I like to keep them for my personal collections.Certain books I bought two copies-just to lend to someone who needs the book( eg. Don't Be Sad).One word of caution if you lend a book to a friend-please keep a record.Two of my good books are missing-I forgot to whom I lent and those who borrowed my books have forgotten to return.Some books I bought the softcovers first and then the hardcover copies when they are available at a very discounted price.Then I keep the hardcover and give away the soft cover.

If you like to give away book for free,please join the Malaysian group of Bookcrossers and if you love to talk about books and bookshop,please join Malaysian Bookcafe.

Note: the photo shows our first meeting,taken by Prof Nordin.

Congratulations to IWK

I just came back from the 17th Annual Dinner of Malaysia Water Association(MWA) at KLCC Convention Centre.May I take this opportunity to congratulate my friends in IWK for the efforts taken to improve our sewerage system that earned the MWA prestigous management award as an organisation.

Very few of us are willing to be involved in the "shit" business but someone have to do it.To-date, I observed that you guys are doing well to put the company in the right shape and also doing to your level best to improve about 7000 treatment plants and more than 1 million septic tanks all over the country.I know some of us consumers are still not happy with IWK services but considering the amount of work and the nature of waste water treatment complexity and public apathy in this industry,I still agree that you guys deserve to receive the MWA Management Award for the year 2005.

Congratulations to IWK.

Shining empty chairs

This phot was taken using my Treo this morning around 8:45am.The chairs appeared to be lighted by the bright morning sun.

The spider's house

29:41

The parable of those who take guardians besides Allah is as the parable of the spider that makes for itself a house; and most surely the frailest of the houses is the spider's house did they but know.

مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَوْلِيَاء كَمَثَلِ الْعَنكَبُوتِ اتَّخَذَتْ بَيْتًا وَإِنَّ أَوْهَنَ الْبُيُوتِ لَبَيْتُ الْعَنكَبُوتِ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ

None of us would seek refuge against the elements in a house built by a spider,and yet we feel safe and comfortable when we have a lot of money,or hold high position or a friend of powerful man.All these are false guardians.Nothing can protect us in this world and the hereafter other than Allah swt.

Just watch our hearts(qalbs) so that we do not fall into the traps of shirik.

It made me think..

My youngest son is in form four now.Off and on, he asks me a few questions on additional mathematics when he found some difficulties in understanding the concepts.My experience told me that there is a big jump from mathematics or I would say arithmatics of the lower secondary schools to additional maths.I told him that he should not worry so much if he does not really understand the meaning of certain mathematical concepts/processes.Just learn how to do them first.With time, understanding will creep in.

Personally, I faced the same problems when I was in my son's shoes.I could do most of the mathematics in form four, but I only understand them when I was in form five.Mathematics at form six(or A level) is also another quantum leap when it comes to real understanding.When I was in the final year in my engineering degree course,I asked my mathematics lecturer,"If I don't understand this subject(mathematics of variations/transformation theorems)),can I become an engineer?".He replied," You engineers  need not undertand what we mathematicians conceived,just learn how to use them".In another occassion, I did not follow the sequence to arrive at Castigliano's Energy theorem,he asked me to do intellectual hop ,step and jump!

Well, my son-this is a process that one has got to go through,unless you are very brilliant.Ordinary folks like you and me have to bear this burden in order to seek knowldege.Knowledge only comes with the arrival of meaning.

Last night, my son told me that learning additional mathematics really makes him think.How glad and grateful I am to hear that statement from a young boy of 16 years old.A lof of people have good and higher qualifications these days, but not many can think on their own.