The Reader

Less asked questions..

It is the question to our purpose in this life.I could not remember when was the last time I did and really contemplate on it.Going back the last five decades of my life,I only remember vaguely that I did it some time ago.To the contrary,I asked my wife what is for dinner tonight,almost everyday.

First,let me thank to Allah swt for giving me the chance again to attend a kuliyyah on this fundamental questions of our very existence.This question has been asked and answered for centuries by the great philosophers and thinkers.The same questions but many different  answers.Ordinary mortals like me only read and try to understand them,sometimes.

About a month ago,our teacher Prof Dr Hashim Minhat gave a tazkirah at our masjid on the purpose of our lives.Thank you,Prof for the reminder because most of us have forgotten about it.Most of us think we know where we came from,why are we here on this planet earth,and where we are going after our death.

It was a one hour lecture to remind us of our purpose in this life.I cannot write them all here to share with my fellow readers, but my purpose is to provoke your mind to think about it and seek the answers from the most qualified source.From my humble understanding, the Creator,Allah swt only knows the purpose of our creations. The created beings are here to serve their Master who created them for a purpose.Just look at the millions of computers being invented and manufactured.They have some form of 'intelligence' to do something, but do they know what is their purpose of existence? Similarly,only Allah swt knows why He created us and to know the answer,we must seek from the Revealed Knowledge and not from our human thoughts and experience.The Revealed Knowledge comes from Allah swt himself though His Prophets. And the last prophet is Muhammad S.A.W and the book is The Qur'an.

During the lecture, the good professor talk in length about the subject matter and quoted many relevant ayats fro the Qur'an.My apologies that I am not able to write all them down here but below are a few ayats related to our Ubudiyyah-the purpose of our life. For details of what is Ubudiyyah,may I invite you to read the a book written by Sheikh Ibnu Taymiyyah on the subject matter:

[10:31] Say: "Who is it that sustains you (in life) from the sky and from the earth? Or who is it that has power over hearing and sight? And who is it that brings out the living from the dead and the dead from the living? And who is it that rules and regulates all affairs?" They will soon say, "Allah." Say, "Will ye not then show piety (to Him)?" [10:32] Such is Allah, your real Cherisher and Sustainer: apart from Truth, what (remains) but error? How then are ye turned away?
[2:21] O ye people! Adore your Guardian-Lord, Who created you and those who came before you, that ye may have the chance to learn righteousness; [2;22] Who has made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain from the heavens; and brought forth therewith fruits for your sustenance; then set not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth). [2:23] And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.

Book: Higher Ground

Remember Tsunami 2004?

From my friends who were initially involved in providing assistance to those affected by the tsunami,there is a lot of work in progress to get the people of Acheh to re-build their lives...When a disaster happens,many heroes will rush in,but after some time,only a few are left to do the balance of what need to be done.This world of ours has plenty of opportunities for anyone of us to do good to others.No need to go far;sometimes it is just next door or in our own kampung.

Yesterday,while browsing at a bookshop(which I usually do a few times in a week),I came upon this book with the title Higher Ground.Let me quote the following:

Higher Ground tells the stories of sixteen children,from different parts of the world,who lived through the 2004 tsunami.Best selling children's authors recount powerful tales of tragedy and fear but also of courage,hope and survival.

What lessons can we all learn from this great and devastating event?

Note: For details of the book,you can see the left side of my blog.

Cleaning tools

  Cleaning tools 
  Originally uploaded by Adibi

With time,many things get dirty..

The same thing goes to my Tre0680 mobile phone cum PDA.I noticed that the photos taken are dirty.While going through my gadget drawer, I discovered a free gift of cleaning tools given to me when I bought my camera about a year ago.Immediately,I opened it and used it to clean my Tre0680.Now,my photos from my mobile phone look cleaner.

The same thing applies to our lives...we do need to take some time to do some cleaning.

Kueh Nyonya

  Kueh Nyonya 
  Originally uploaded by Adibi

Just look at the bicycle and the basket on the left side of the photo!

I don't see this bike and basket ,anymore except at shopping complex to attract customers .This photo was taken at GE Mall Jalan Ampang,KL and located on the LG next to a hardware shop.Every time I go there,I will try drop by to get some nyonya kueh.

How I wish someone could do the same thing for kueh-kueh from Kelantan like akok,bahulu,tepong kelosong ,koleh lemak,tepong beko etc-among my favourites.

If you wish to see some nice photos of the above,please check Pak Zawi's blog.

How I lost my temper..

Have you ever lost your temper? If you haven't, either you are an angel or a very,very patient person.During the last five decades of my life, I have encountered a few situations where I lost my temper.So,I am a patient person but not very patient.

How much can one endure rudeness,noise and stupidity? You will only know when you arrive at the break point.In my case, the outcome is either vocal or physical or both!

Most of my kids are grown ups and young adult.They are either working outstation or live away from us.On weekends, they come home to see their parent.I always take this opportunity to have good dinner and a nice ambiance to talk with my children.

Last night, we went to a Thai restaurant.I gave  it a 4-star rating.The average cost per head is also about RM40.After we ordered our dishes,the restaurant lights went kaput and all of us were in the dark.All the other shops nearby have their electrical supply.I found out later that one of their electrical equipment had caused the failure.What irritated me was that they kept using the faulty equipment and the power supply was cut off not once but three times!When I asked for the candle(trying to be thinking positive,I wanted to turn my no electricity dinner into a romantic candle light dinner), the waiter said we don't have any!

The above incidence push my 'mercury' up by one cm.

When the food arrived,we started eating and having family conversation. Then entered two young families with five kids below seven years old.The couples took two tables about 5 metres away from us.Then, we have a very noisy 'entertainment by the kids' that had managed to turn the space in front of us into a playground. The noise was so loud that I can't hear what my son was talking one metre away from me.My 'mercury' again moved up another cm.It almost as hot as the campaign for the coming general election.

While having dinner,I began to talk less and remain quiet. My wife noticed that I was angry.When she looked at me,I asked her whether we should come and eat here again. She replied NO! That answer confirmed that I was not alone in getting hot and angry.

I was trying hard not to lose my temper ,so I stopped eating and took out my notebook to download my feelings on papers.

Later, when I wanted to continue eating the steam fish, I felt that it is getting cold.So,I humbly requested the waiter to heat up the plate. She said that she can't do that because the plate may break.That answer really made me angry and my 'thermometer' went bust!

Arab St Revisited

This weekend I was in Johore Bahru for business and took a few hours to visit Singapore.This time, we had dinner of a special murtabak at Singapore Zam Zam restaurant,located at Arab St and near Masjid Sultan.I could not remember when was the last time we were there, but I did remember going there once with my mother in late 70's( when one Singapore dollar is about RM1.20) and another time when my youngest kid was a baby.Now,he is 18 years old.According to my wife's memory(mine has faded away), the last we were there was 14 years ago!

One thing I could not forget is the murtabak!The taste is almost the same as it was decades ago and I love it.Yesterday,I ate it again and it brought back memories...

Below is the map and the photo I took using my Treo680.

View Larger Map

Don't forget to zikir

	Yusuf Ali translation	Arabic script
43:36	If anyone withdraws himself from remembrance of (God) Most Gracious, We appoint for him an evil one, to be an intimate companion to him.	وَمَن يَعْشُ عَن ذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَنِ نُقَيِّضْ لَهُ شَيْطَانًا فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ
43:37	Such (evil ones) really hinder them from the Path, but they think that they are being guided aright!	وَإِنَّهُمْ لَيَصُدُّونَهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ

 

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7:205	And do thou (O reader!) Bring thy Lord to remembrance in thy (very) soul, with humility and in reverence, without loudness in words, in the mornings and evenings; and be not thou of those who are unheedful.	وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعاً وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالآصَالِ وَلاَ تَكُن مِّنَ الْغَافِلِينَ

 

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Two days ago,we were reminded by our guru,no matter what makam of knowledge and obedience to Allah swt, all of us need reminders especially to perform our zikir.How do we ensure that we don't forget? One of the ways is to allocate a time for zikir in our daily/weekly schedule.InsyaAllah,it will work for you.

Pockets of Time

How do you get time to read a few books in a month and at the same time writing your blogs?,asked a young man.Well young man,nobody has time for anything or anyone if we do not allocate time for it.By the way,my thanks to Allah for the reading and writing habits I have developed or acquired over the years. Every time I go out of my house,either for business or pleasure,I always take with me a book for me to read.Somehow, there are small pockets of time will be available for me to read;either waiting for my wife going shopping and waiting for friends who keep coming late for appointments or waiting for the meeting to start. There are always small pockets of 'free time' available between our daily life schedule-either to read book or Qur'an or to write personal journals in our expensive moleskine notebook or cheap 'Buku 555'.

I must confess that I love electronic gadgets.My wife told me that if I were to buy her gold jewellery instead of Garmin GPS,iBook,PC,Palm Tre0680,EeePC etc,etc,her neck and both her hands will be covered with gold!She was right...now gold is very expensive.That is a good excuse for me to buy gadgets instead of gold or diamonds;-)

The above photo shows the latest ultraportable pc-called EeePC 701 and on the right is the old(not produced and not supported anymore) Psion Netbook.Some time in 2005,I used Psion netbook (very ggod keyboard and light) for my writing while I am on the go but somehow due to some technical reasons,I abondoned it and got back to my iBook.This portable pc is quite heavy for my old shaky shoulders ,so I only write at home -most of the time.If I have something to write,I will write them in my paper notebook.

A few days ago,I bought an EeePC.It default OS is Xandros Linux.Some techno-savvy users will also be using other Linux flavours like Ubuntu,Kubuntu,Xubuntu.I got a big laugh at myself because these words are foreign to me.I know Timbuktu and Honduras but I never been there;-) Joking aside,I found it quite a good travel companion for me.It weighs less than 1kg and can go easy into my man-bag without getting noticed that an old geek is walking around with his Linux pc.Now, I can write more often-as often as the time and connectivity available to me.

LTdL-2008

Today,I am too tired to go to work because my weekend was full of 'work'-attending seminar the whole day on Saturday and shopping for my mother and watching LTdL on Sunday.So,today,I hereby declare myself a non-working day(un-official holiday)...may be to catch up with my reading.

To digress a bit,I can't help myself from entering Payless Bookshop at Ampang Point.It is selling old(about 5 to 8 years old) hardcover books -3 books for RM18!My new interest in Paris/France led me to buy The Last Time I Saw Paris by Elliot Paul(1942) and Coastliners by Joanne Harris(remember Chocolat?).

I was very tired but I dragged my legs to be at the junction of Jalan P Ramlee  and Jalan Ampang and arrived around 4pm.As like last year, there were more photographers than spectators lining the road.The event this year is not much different from last year but I love to see the actions and prefer to be there and not watching the TV.From my observations, this cycling event did not get much attention from the public.There were kilometres of empty space along the roads but most Malaysians were shopping in the KLCC or Pavilion nearby.

By the way, you can see some of my photos.

For details of the race result,click here.

Alumni Mini Seminar

Yesterday,I attended one-day seminar organised by a member of our school alumni so that we can gain some knowledge from our friends who are SME(subject matter experts) in their respective fields of specialisations.The photo on the right shows the attendees in deep thought while listening to the speaker.It cost only RM60 person at Residence Hotel,at Uniten.

Four papers were presented covering Intellectual properties,Airbus 380,Speed Reading and Project Management.After lunch, we have a DC(Deep Discussion) on a topic entitled The Impact of Early Education in Human Capital Development.

From the DC,I made the following conclusions:

1.We had undergone different types of upbringing.It depends on who are our parents and the environment where we live.
2.Our early upbringing before going to schools and during primary schools had bigger influence on our characters.
3.Our parents had more time with us than we have time for our children. Nowadays, kindergartens have more influence than parents who are working.
4.More allocation of fund/resources are needed from the government for early education.It is cheaper to pay now than to pay later.ROI is much better in early education.
5.Parents need to be educated about parenting and should pay more attention when their children are growing up.
6.When it comes to 'aqidah( belief) in our religion,my late father never delegate or abdicate to anyone as far as his children is concerned.If we are not capable,then only we can delegate to someone but only responsibility and not accountability.

Note: The photo above was taken from sdara website by Dr Khairun Nazar.

Below is a photo taken by Mohd Shah during our DC: