Monday, May 26, 2008

The End?

My family is here! Alhamdulillaah! Wohoo! I can't remember being as excited as i was at the airport last week, waiting for my family. It was a good feeling. Hehe. It's just so damn nice to see them again. For the pictures, it will be uploaded on Facebook; i shall inform you guys when it's available.

Pardon me for my few (and short) entries these few days; it's family time.=)

I do still go for classes, so i meet up with my fam after school. I've brought them to my place and introduced them to my friends too.

Oh we spent the weekend in Paris. It was brilliant. The Eifel Tower looks a bit ugly in the day, but redeemed itself at night! Haha. This is due to the lighting and all. It was truly magnificent (at night), and a romantic place (at night). One guy in Paris was so damn impressed by my brother's command of the language. I must say i felt immensely proud, silently of course. I won't tell him that because he will gloat non-stop! Haha. And i can afford to put this inside my entry only because he doesn't read my blog!

And, my brother's ability to speak Arabic had never been more useful. In Paris, the Muslims mostly spoke French and Arabic only, hence to find halal food places, we mostly relied on my brother. Even in Amsterdam, he put this ability of his to good use, though most people here do speak English.

As for Man U winning the Champs League, it signals the end of my blog. However, i have a request directed to the Man U fans who patronise my blog; 2 in particular, my trueblu2 friends, Ashraf and Badrul. If you all were to be kind enough to let me have this blog until i get back to Singapore, i would appreciate it. If not, then this would be my second last entry, before i wrap up with a final one.

I hate John Terry.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

As-Salaam, Qoblal Kalaam.

*Firstly let me just say this entry is inspired by an entry from Rizhan's blog (one of the few meaningful blogs around),and even the title is copied from the said entry*

Assalaam, qoblal kalaam = Give the salaam before you speak.

Allow me to share with you guys a very beautiful hadith (hadith sohih narrated by Imam Muslim by the way), in which I think Islam is implicitly summarized.

Rasulullaah s.a.w said:
"All of you will not enter paradise, until you have faith. And all of you will not have faith, until you love one another. Do you want me to show you a way, by which you can love one another? Give the salaam."-aukama qal.

I think this hadith clearly shows what Islam is all about.
1) Love.
2) Peace (salaam).
Beautiful.

So people, let us make it a habit to greet one another with the salaam before beginning any conversation. There's nothing wrong in answering our phones with the salaam, there's nothing wrong in beginning and ending our msn conversations with the salaam, and there is definitely nothing wrong in greeting a fellow Muslim with the salaam when you see him/her, regardless of whether you know that person.

Also, apart from viewing it as an ibadat, we should also view the salaam as a trademark of us Muslims. We all do so many things that are unislamic, so let us try to do the simple things that characterize a Muslim; giving the salaam is as simple as it gets.

Just to share, I taught my Romanian friend the salaam, and she proactively ended our conversation with the salaam. Haha.

Another thing mentioned in the hadith,"And all of you will not have faith, until you love one another." So people, please. The Prophet s.a.w could not have put it any more clearer, you HAVE to love your fellow Muslims to enter paradise. Period.

So if before this we have segregated among Muslims due to differing ideologies, if before this we have slammed others' ideologies because they are "wrong" and we are "right", if before this we have behaved irresponsbly and spread hatred among our fellow brothers and sisters, if before this we hated other Muslims just because they do not zikir in a group, if before this we condemned other Muslims because they celebrate the Maulud, if before this we have used terminologies to describe others which they find offensive, it's time to mend our ways. Love your fellow Muslims. Not your fellow sufis, salafis, shiites, Syafiites and whatever other ideologies there are. But love your fellow Muslims. Because last i checked, Rasulullaah s.a.w came to spread Islam; not Sufism, not Salafism, not Shiism. Islam. This is provided you want to enter paradise, of course.

So people, let us all start together, by beginning/ending our conversations with the salaam; be it with our parents, siblings, friends, girlfriends/boyfriends (or even our non-Muslim friends if possible), be it on msn, on the phone or in person.

And i guess it will be appropriate to end with, Wassalaamualaikum. =)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Chronicles Of The Impostor: Ep 2 ~ Read between the lines.

My sincere apologies to everyone, that i haven't been updating my blog as often as i should.

You all would know by now, I'm doing 4 mods this block, thus been really busy with school.




Furthermore, my family is coming next week insya Allah, so i have to slog now, before enjoying later!

And, i might be missing a few classes, so yar, now have to study hard first.

Considering that, i realized i had to put up this entry asap since I honestly do not know when i have the time to blog again.

Intelligent, is a word i often use to describe my audience; hence i have no doubts whatsoever that you all can decipher this message. =)

Friday, May 9, 2008

Pesta Pantun.

*Today's my 100th day here, and in light of the recent developments on this blog,I shall try to summarise my time here in poems, or rather, 'pantun-s'. And, I shall also reply to the unreplied comments from the previous entry.*

Sebelum apply prgramme SEP,
Costs yang diperlu, beribu-ribu.
Aku pun wonder, "Mane nak dapat duit macam gini?"
Nasib baik, kakak aku sayang sama aku!

1oo hari sudah di sini,
Alangkah bahagia kehidupan ini.
Sungguh tenang, sungguh gembira.
Kawan-kawan pula, dari pelbagai negara.

Terlalu bahagia, berada di sini.
Separuh hati, tidak mahu pulang kembali.
Jikalau tidak, kerana mereka yang dikasihi,
Sudah tentu akan stay di sini.

Ibu bapa, yang dicintai.
Adik-beradik, yang amat dikasihi.
Saudara-mara, uncles dan auntie (s).
Sangat sangat, sangat dirindui.

Furqan dan Maryam, dekat di hati.
Sekapur Sireh, selalu diingati.
Shaza juga tidak dilupai,
Dan juga, sesiapa yang ke blog ini!

(My Replies)

To Mas'uud:

Wahai Mas'uud, mengapa cakap begitu?
Janganlah bohong, janganlah tipu.
Kita semua, memanglah tahu.
Dalam semua, kau yang paling rindu aku!

To Badrul:

Bergerak ge giri, ge giri pusing.
Ge giri pusing, sambil membuka topi.
Wahai Cik Badrul, janganlah bising.
Lebih baik diam, sebelum kau kena maki.

(jokeng jokeng, but seriously)


To Jen:

Goyang goyang, kepala goyang.
Salah goyang, masuk longkang.
Performance dikir, sudahla tentu.
Ape lagi,kat wedding Ayu!

To Ayu:

Wedding dalam, 2 bulan lagi.
Insya Allah, kalau takde ape-ape hal.
Eh kau ni, dah hampir jadi isteri.
Jadi sudah, jangan nak menggatal!

To Kak Nana:

Jerome memang belum berpunya,
Tetapi nampak gaya, semua inginkannya.
Memanglah die, idaman dara.
Sayangnya bukan, dari darah kita! (I'm sure you know what i mean!:p)

To Takcakapbesar:

Wahai saudari, nantilah dulu.
Jangan kelam-kabut, jangan terburu-buru.
Jerome belum, berminat kat sesiapa.
Nanti kat Amsterdam, silalah cuba! :P

To HR:

Makan maggi dengan biskut.
Yang penting kenyang, tak sakit perut.
Wahai HR, kau perasan asal?
Takpelah aku percaya kau, KaWan-Nye pasal!

Come on people! I'm waiting for yours!

Monday, May 5, 2008

A day at the carnival.

As promised, here are some of the pictures of last Monday, when I went to the carnival with Jerome.

Jerome.


I guess this guy needs no introduction. Hehe.


The first ride we took, the one that made me vomit.







And yes, he took a pic of me vomitting. Bloody hell. Haha.


The ride that got me higher than ever. Did i mention i have a fear of heights?









Other pics...




A very nice church.



Oh by the way, they have these sort of urinals in public. Sometimes, it's just a covered booth and you just pee on the floor. So the next time you come to Amsterdam, be careful what you step on...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Dedicated to my Dear Cousin.=)

I did check out the Indon restaurant in the link my cousin, Kak Nana, gave me. And we did go there earlier today! So yar, the least I could do is write 1 entry for her. :p So here it is.

The pics of the place.





It was at the other side of the city lah! Near the countryside! Haha. But worth the trip. And yar, along the way, managed to catch a couple of nice pics. Hehe.




And oh, a pic of the mosque I went to.



That's about it for now. Thanks again, dearest cousin. =)

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Queen's Day.

Wednesday was Queen's Day here, so it was a holiday. It is to commemorate the Queen's birthday; joke is, 30the April is not her birthday! It is the previous queen's bday, the current one's is in winter, so she doesn't want to have the celebrations then, so yar, she chose to keep the old one. My Dutch friend said it would be interesting to see what happens after she retires next year and her son takes over; whether Queen's day will be 'King's day' then and whether the date will be changed. Oh well.

Anyway, the Dutch have massive celebrations on this day. They paint the city orange! All major roads are closed as people take to the streets, and set up flea markets almost everywhere. People sell everything and anything. Everyone was partying all along the streets too. So yup, here is my day, expressed in pictures (since my hp is up and running!).


Everyone was feeling patriotic,I was no different.



I decided to blend in soon after.










Oh, on Monday, i went to a carnival with my American neighbour, Jerome. My handphone was still spoilt then, so couldn't take photos. Jerome did though, and as soon as he passes me the pics I'll upload it here. In the meantime, these are the rides that we took.

I still feel dizzy, just by looking at this.





And other pics...





With a random guy on the street.


On the street.


I'm sure many wish we had this 'sign' in Singapore.


After a day in the busy are of the city, we decided to go somewhere nice to wind down.






Yup. Very very nice few days for me. Superb actually. These are some of the best days of my life.

On another note, Pool fans, where art thou? All 6 of you, please show up. I was gentleman enough the last time; time for you guys to return the favour. I'm waiting. Tick tock.