The Reader

Al-Fatihah

Al-Fatihah for Datuk Ishak Baharom who passed away this afternoon.May Allah's blessings on his soul and accept him in His Jannah.May I record my personal thank to him for coming over to our surau a few years ago and I am deeply grateful to be one of the listeners of his kuliyyah.

PS:

Let us ponder on the Hadith below from Sahih Muslim:

‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-’As reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:

Verily, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the people but He takes away knowledge by taking away the scholars, so that when He leaves no learned person, people turn to ignorant as their leaders; then they are asked to deliver religious verdicts and they deliver them without knowledge, they go astray, and lead others astray.

Below is the news from Utusan.Here is a link to a video where he delivered his kuliyyah relating to tsunami flood.

Bekas Mufti Selangor meninggal dunia

30/01/2008 5:51pm

Datuk Ishak Baharom meninggal dunia di Hospital Sungai Buloh tengah hari ini.

SHAH ALAM 30 Jan. - Bekas Mufti Selangor, Datuk Ishak Baharom, 80, meninggal dunia di Hospital Sungai Buloh tengah hari ini selepas hampir 21 jam dirawat di unit rawatan rapi (ICU) hospital berkenaan.

Timbalan Pengarah Perubatan Hospital Sungai Buloh, Dr. Khalid Ibrahim berkata, Allahyarham meninggal dunia pada pukul 2.50 petang akibat pendarahan dalam kepala.

Beliau telah dimasukkan ke hospital tersebut pada pukul 6 petang semalam.

Jenazah Allahyarham akan dikebumikan esok.

On the GUiT Trail on Galeri Perdana

If you have read the book Growing Up in Trengganu(GUiT) by Awang Goneng@Wan A Hulaimi,or have heard about it,please watch the RTM-1 TONITE at 8:30pm.Kak Teh(his wife) made the video herself and Jejak Awang Goneng will be aired for four consecutive nights.For more info,please read her blog.

May I wish Awang Goneng and Kak Teh a nice and safe flight 'home' to London tonight.

Simplicity in Design

Trek details
Originally uploaded by Adibi

After this morning ride around my neighbourhood,I took a camera to take photos of special parts of my bike for my own record as they are still new.(and clean)
One thing that I was impressed is the brake mechanism.It is nice to see and to touch,easy to use,dismantle and re-install.This reminds me of the design of iPod-nice to eyes,good feeling to the touch and very easy to operate.I don't need to be a computer hacker to add songs and play the music!

I am no expert to elaborate the good design criteria, but I observe that simplicity is the key denominator to the successful sales of consumer products.

Another product that I love to use is moleskine notebook.It is a very useful and felxible analogue "PDA" for me.No virus can create havoc inside it and it never runs out of battery.( except when all the pages are fully written).Anothet reason why I use moleskine notebook is because it makes me write and it keeps me writing...

Can you share with us your personal experience in using products that have 'simplicity' built-in their designs? Thank you.

Reading@MPH Bangsar Village

I have heard of Tunku Halim before  from Awang Goneng website.He is the author of 44 Cemetery Road;the best selling book among his work(according to him).I have no comments about his novels because I don't like to read about scary stuff.I like thrillers but not about cemetery or anything related to it.However,I do visit cemetery often-ziarah kubor my father and my relatives.

Any of you have read Tunku Halim's novels?Please share with me your thoughts.

Last but not least,I must congratulate Tunku Halim and MPH for promoting local writers. By the way,according to Tunku Halim,he is a lawyer by profession,got his education in England but now lives in Hobart,Australia. And that reminds me of Awang Goneng;a lawyer but lives in London.

Hard of hearing..

When we cannot hear properly,we have to see a doctor or an ENT specialist.Something has to be done to the ears to enable us to listen properly.

How do you feel when your children are not listening to your advice? They have perfect ears but yet they are not listening.Most of us will get disappointed and angry.When I was small and busy playing with my friends(almost magrib time),my mother came,not a word said, just got hold of my ear and pulled me home!We lose the sense of time when we are in the state of play...

The question now is who is going to pull your ears and my ears if we are not listening???

Most of us have heard the expression ,"If only I listen...". But by the time we said that, something regretful has happened.Many a time,we were not listening.

Most of us have ears,but somehow and sometimes,we don't listen to Allah swt and The Holy Prophet.We are no better than our kids who refused to listen to us! Why?

According my guru,Dr Ali Saripan,he quoted the following ayats:

Here is the reason.It has got nothing to do with our physical hearing but related to our maknawi of hearing.

[2:18] Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return (to the path).

Allah swt firman in these ayats about people who refused to listen:

[2:171] The parable of those who reject Faith is as if one were to shout like a goat-herd, to things that listen to nothing but calls and cries: deaf, dumb, and blind, they are void of wisdom.

[17:97] It is he whom Allah guides, that is on true guidance; but he whom He leaves astray, for such wilt thou find no protector besides Him. On the Day of Judgment We shall gather them together, prone on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf: their abode will be Hell: every time it shows abatement, We shall increase for them the fierceness of the Fire.

[39:18] Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.

Please take some time to ponder....

To improve our 'listening', the guru advised us to listen more to Al-Qur'an,the Sunnah and The Ulama by reading the Qur'an,attending majlis ilmu and reading religious books.

Then only we recite,"Wasami'na waato'na.."..We listen and we obey.

Getting paid for being a loser?

Sound easy? Of course,it is much easier to lose than to win.In any competition,there is only one winner,the rest are losers of different degrees.

UK government is going to pay her citizens if they lose weight! Here is the link to the article.Using simple arithmetics,it is cheaper to pay the over-weights and obese people to lose their weighty problems than to provide health-care services as a result of being fat.

I don't have  statistics for obese Malaysians but I am looking at one of them right in front of me now-bulging out and cause unnecessary stress to my backbone.I am one of them! When I go shopping at pasar malam or at shopping complexes,I see many,many fat people-very seldom I see thin Malaysians. As they say,eating is our national pastime.So, what else could we expect?

The political thermometer is moving to the 100 Deg F now.If I may suggest to any political party to include in their manifesto that if they are elected,all fat Malaysians call claim cash redemption of RM1,000 per kg of weight lost;-) That will turn our playing fields full of people -just like pasar malam now!

On personal note,if I may suggest to the government,all capital cost of sport equipments(like buying a bicycle as an example) that could help Malaysian tax payers to become healthier,will be given a full tax rebate.

New s from Telegraph:

The battle over Britons' bulging waistlines

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/01/2008

Have your say    Read comments

The Government has tried reasoning with us about our weight. It has tried frightening us. It has even tried threatening us. All to no avail.

Britons just keep getting fatter: by 2050, only 10 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women will be the right weight for their height. So now there is a new idea: to fight greed with greed.

Those who try to lose weight will be offered motivational interviews and access to health clubs; those who succeed will get trophies, fruit baskets, vouchers or even hard cash.

We hope that these incentives do the trick - not least because of the tendency of the authorities to resort to coercion when persuasion fails.

It is easy to imagine the criminalisation not only of unhealthy food, but of the sedentary lifestyle itself - televisions that can only be powered by treadmill, or sofas that deliver periodic electric shocks. The war on waists has only just begun.

Log Book

Do you have a log book for your car,motor-cycle ,a bike and a camera?I do except for motor-cycle because I don't have one.The first time I came across a log book for a vehicle when I joined JKR in 1976.What do I write in the log book? Well,I record the hardwares particulars,any additions and repairs done and also the  activities involved.

My latest log book is for my bike.To date,only two pages got written with my records of rides.Later on,on weekly review, I hope it will be my scorecard that will motivate me to write ride more kilometres for my own good.

Here is a short note of what I did this morning for my own record:

I planned to have a business lunch with my friends today, but suddenly I got to know that the government has approved a public holiday for Thaipusam today.So,I took the opportunity today to practise my cycling.You know,the new bike has its way of telling me to get out there for a ride;-)

A young mountain biker from Ampang recommend that I try the trail at Taman TAR.He said it is one-third flat,another one-third uphill and the rest downhill.The last part attracted me the most.So off I went this morning...

To arrive at Taman TAR,I had to cycle about 4km from my house and it took me almost 20 minutes.As I approached Taman TAR (along Jalan Kolam Air) next to Craven Cafe,I realised it is a long gradual climb to enter Taman TAR.When we are driving,we seldom realise(feel) the additional power needed to push our cars uphill.However, you will know when you are climbing when you are pedalling a bike!

What sacred me most is I may not have the energy left to cycle home after going through TAR trail.So,I chickened out and decided to come with my car next time.I need more practice for the stamina.Better safe than sorry..

Ride statistics:
Odom 9.83km
Max speed 25.8km
Move ave 12km/hr
Mov time 49 minutes.

Time for our neighbours

Do we have time for our neighbours? From Islamic perspective,there are three levels of 'hak' neighbours on us.Top on the tiers is the neighbour who is our relatives and muslims.Second is the neighbour who is a muslim.Third is a neghbour who is not a muslim.Everyone of them has 'hak' on us as their neighbour.

This morning after solat subuh at our surau(mosque),the imam informed the jemaah (congregation) that a neighbour has passed away last night.He invited the jemaah to attend a tahlil immediatelly after the solat.I counted there were 12 of us during the solat, but only 6 of us were there at the house of the dead neighbour! I know all of us have our work to do,but at least we should give priority when our own neighbour passed away...

It is not easy to be a good neighbour but my next door neighbour now has two barking dogs.I told her that I cannot stand the noisy barking dogs but she loves dogs more than her neighbours! My patience is running low...

Book signing @ MPH Midvalley

Below is a photo that is worth more than a thousand words..Btw,my notes and other photos are posted here.

..jangang dok berebuk gak...Awang Goneng belum nok kelik ke London lagi;-)

Here comes my Black Rider..

After long deliberations and hours of consultations with the experts and experienced users,finally I made a decision to replace my old Haro bike which I bought many,many years ago.As shown on the right,it is a Trek 3700 16".

I forgot when was the last time I stopped riding a bike...it must be at least three years ago.I hope I still remember how to ride it again;-) This morning,I will try riding my new Black Rider around my neighbourhood before I can join other mountain bikers at their off-road rides.

Why do I need to ride a bike at my age? Honestly,I need some fun to motivate me to exercise. I can't run like before anymore,so I do brisk walking with my wife or my friends.

One thing I love about mountain biking is going downhill.The cool gushing winds hitting my face and chest...It is my second chance to be a kid again before I am grounded.

Note: I name this bike Black Rider;like wise my Myvi car Black Beauty and my Nokia 6600 mobile phone Black Boy.