The Reader

Pesan Ibu Ku

Hari ini saya bersama ibu...Beliau menolong saya untuk mengambil gambar2 bunga di taman sebelah dapurnya. Beliau sangat gembira melihat kecantikan gambar bunga2 beliau tanam dan jag.Disamping itu dia berpesan apa yang saya perlu urus dan laksanakan jika beliau meninggal dunia.Maklumlah beliau pesakit lemah jantung dan berusia hampir 80 tahun.Saya terima amanah tersebut dan memeluknya.Ibu menangis dan saya sebak..Bersama ini saya sertakan sketsa pintu masuk dapur ibu saya.Made With Paper



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200 contractors failed?

> More than 200 contractors who failed to complete projects under Rumah Mesra Rakyat 1Malaysia affordable housing for the poor have been blacklisted by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB), reported Kosmo!

The contractors will not be invited again for any other projects by SPNB, said its chairman Datuk Idris Haron.

To date, 12,889 of houses under this scheme have been built at a cost of RM1.2bil.<

If 2 out 40 students failed in a class is normal,but if 38 out 40 student failed,then we must deeper-at the teacher,the school etc.

Reading the above report,may I request SPNB to look at how the projects were packaged and implemented.It is sad and alarming to hear this news!200 contractors is a big number and from my experience,it has got something to do with total project delivery system being adopted and used-especially payment.Of course, the blame went to the contractors first.But who appointed the contractors?

ICE: In Case of Emergency

We never know when we'll need emergency medical attention. Afterall, that's the definition of an emergency -- an event that we haven't planned for.

For those who have medical conditions that could affect the kind of care they need, there is an extra element of fear thrown in to an emergency situation. If you have diabetes, or a heart condition, or any type of chronic illness, and the emergency would render you unable to explain the problem to medical personnel, they would not know to account for those problems, and it might jeopardize your ability to be treated or saved.

What is ICE?

via patients.about.com

Let us do it NOW for our own sake..Don't delay,you may forget it.

Being creative..

Being an engineer,I love to see the creative designs by architects and artists.Their works are beyond my ability and capacity.However,I love to imitate their creative nature and skills...

I have been working in engineering and management positions in the last 35 years of my adult life and things are getting bored.I have got to do something new/different.Hopefully,I can participate in green technology in construction as an extension of my professional work and at the same time to keep me fresh with new creative thinking,I get myself involved in photography and sketching.

This morning,I combined the two technology-digital sketching with HDR effect on my sketch.Below is the outcome..

Jom Ceria

Well done to the sponsors/organisers...The event encouraged thousands of people from all walk of life to come to Putrajaya and walk 5km and cycle 12km.My group did a 15km ride.

The PM called for the youths to spend more time outdoors than watching thier electronic screenn for hours.This,in my opinion,also applies to my peers-those in their 50's and 60's..

Have a good weekend,folks:-)

Have a good weekend folks and get drown in all your activities for this weekend.Put aside all your work until Monday next week.Okay?

The best of people..

I have posted this tazkirah about ten years ago and again I post it today as a reminder to me and my fellow muslims:-

A man stood up whilst Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was on the minbar and asked:"O Mesenger of Allah,which of the people is the best?"

He said:"The best of the people are those are most well-versed in Qur'an,those who are most pious,those who most enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil,and those who are most respectful towards their relatives".(Reported by Ahmad and al-Tabarani).

There are five criteria mentioned above. Just check ourselves against them?Are we qualified to be the best ummah?The reality manifest itself...

Many of us muslims are capable of doing good deeds but only a few are capable to speak against evils or prevents the evil deeds.

Another Hadith:" The fear of people should never prevent any of you from speaking the truth when he sees it or pointing out its importance.Doing so will not hasten one's appointed time of death or lessen one's rizq".
(Reported by Ahmad and Abu Dawud.

May Allah forgive me and my fellow muslims for our failure to follow the sunnah.

Posted on 22/8/2003

Link to On Lies.

Interview: Shaik Abdal Hakim Murad

Let me share this interview with my readers.Here is the link.It is a long article but worth every second reading it.. Here is the last few paragraphs:-

And where do you place yourself in all of it?

I’m simply an academic of Cambridge and I try my best to be involved in various projects on the local as well as the international level but it would surprise me that many Muslims in the UK have ever heard of me. I guess they know my brother a lot better since he’s a famous sports journalist.

Quite a modest answer, considering your standing among the international ulama. Your position might even surprise certain people since you’re an English convert who places himself within the Sufi tradition. Yet you’re not the first highly respected scholar I spoke to whose teachers have been Sufis so, by now, I came to the conclusion that Sufism isn’t at all such a ‘marginalized’ aspect of Islam as people often claim.

That’s true. If you look at the Ottoman Empire, for example, nobody ever was ‘against’ Sufism. This concept of Islam being anti-Sufi is there because of Saudi puritanism. But that’s a very recent evolution. And even Saudi Arabia is full of Sufis.

If you have not seen the saint, you have not seen the sunna.

But it's above all important to remember that it’s not so much about Sufism itself. Sufism is just a name. The ultimate proof of the religion is the saints. They are the miraculous expressions of divine love. As such, the saint in Islam is the one who shows you the greatness of the prophet because his life meticulously conforms to the last detail of the sunna out of total love and surrender. The self is gone and only the prophetic form remains. The dignity, the ancient wisdom, the selflessness, the love for others… you see it in the prophet and you see it in the saint.

So the saints remind us that religion is about consciousness and remembrance now and in every moment. They remind us that it’s about constantly being in God.

When you see them, you discover what love is really all about. Our culture sings about love endlessly because it actually doesn’t have any of it. It became the basis of our society but it’s a kind of coitus interruptus: the slogan of ‘love is all you need’ is everywhere on the covers of magazines, in music and soap-opera’s but it’s not really there. People need it, they have the yearning, but nothing is giving it to them so they're sort of endlessly trying new things.

A saint is beyond that sort of narrow minded egocentrism and shows us what real divine love is about.

Could I conclude then that the true spiritual authorities in Islam, according to you, are in fact the saints?

Like I often say: “If you have not seen the saint, you have not seen the sunna.”

 

 

 

I lost a reader..

I knew him since 1972 when he and his wife came to live at my kampung(village).In September,1973 I left for Sheffield England to do my degree in civil engineering and when I graduated and came home,he already completed his PhD thesis and went home to Holland.

Fast forward to the age of Internet,he managed to locate me about seven years ago.He and his wife came twice to Malaysia to visit my family and my kampung.Last year,I returned his visit and stayed at his house in Leiden,Holland for five days from 26-30 April,2012.

We said good  byes at Leiden Railway station and it was the last time I saw him in person and alive.He passed away on 17/3/2013.May he rests in peace..

For your information,he reads my blog posting everyday for the last seven years...Thank you Guus and I lost a reader..and a dear friend.

Here is Guus reading maps in his boat..

 

Sketch:Tulips field in Holland

About a month ago,I tried to sketch a tulip field I saw when my friends Guus and Marjolein took me to visit the most colourful fields in the world.We travelled from Leiden to Kuekenhof and we stopped some where near the most beautifil tulips garden in the world.I have a field day taking photos with my hosts.Thanks Guus and Marjolein!

via adib.typepad.com

Last night I received an email from Marjolein about the death of my dear friend Guus Liebenstein.He passed away on 17th March,2013.I visited him and stayed in his house for five days(26-30 April,2012) in Leiden,Holland.Thanks Marjolein.This sketch was made last January,2013 and dedicated to him.He emailed me that he liked it very much and wanted to frame it.Thanks Guus and good bye..May you rest in peace.