Yusuf ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Muhammad Yusuf .  Born February 2014

He has a sister. 25 days old today. Zulaikha.

He also has an older sister. Sarah. About three years older than him.

~:~

For two weeks Yusuf was with Mak Lang. To give space to his Mother to recover.

Mak Lang has a large MPV to meet the needs of her big family.

Yusuf thinks his Dad's car could also be bigger. As big as Mak Lang's.

Yusuf: Ayah belilah kereta macam ni.

Ayah in jest: Banyak duit kau.

~;~

A few days later. Pak Lang was having a playful conversation with Yusuf.

Pak Lang: Yusuf, nanti bagitau Ayah bayar 50 ringgit sehari kat Pak Lang jaga Yusuf.

Yusuf: ... 

[Diam for awhile. He does not understand the value of RM50. But he knows that Pak Lang is talking about money].

~:~

Moments later they moved to the dining table.

Mak Lang, Pak Lang, Yusuf, Kakak (Anak Pak Lang & Mak Lang) were getting ready to eat.

While seated Kakak heard Yusuf uttering softly to himself.

"Nanti Mail cakap, banyak duit kau"

Pak Lang asked Kakak. What Yusuf said. And Kakak repeated.

They laughed. Of course.

Mail is Ismail. Yusuf's Ayah. Others refer to Ismail as Mail regularly in front of the children. So Yusuf picked Mail as an option for Ayah.

~;~

But as I heard this being narrated, I too laughed. Initially.

Then I felt like crying.

I was wondering what could be in Yusuf's mind as he uttered those words.

Was he feeling sorry for himself.

I don't know. 

And I would never know.

~:~

Our family is straight talking industrial family. People of industry. In contrast to people of politics (who has diplomacy) and intellectuals (who think before they speak).

~;~

At 3 plus years. Yusuf is learning to make connections. A pattern linking the concepts of:

 Money. Ayah. And Possibilities.

~:~

While parents, uncles and others around a child may be jesting, the child is processing the incoming utterances and actions in his or her own way. 

Yusuf at 1 year plus. Demam.

Yusuf. Yusuf kecik lagi. One day you may come across these written words. You may not remember anything. Mak mbong may or may not be around. 

But know that. Mak mbong loves you. You are named after our Beloved Prophets, Muhammad Salla llahu 'alayhi wasallam and Yusuf  'Alayhissalam. Whose life story is our inspiration towards understanding family issues, virtue of patience and forgiveness. 

May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala protect you in your lifelong journey.

Memorising ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This is the story of Imam Al-Ghazali (Rahimahullah). About the virtue of memorising.

Memorising his lessons was tough. And he was not too keen either. Instead he took copious notes as he listened to his teachers.

This story tells how an incident brought him to the realisation that MEMORISING is truly a learning process that must be respected and one must train oneself for it.

The following screen captures from a PDF version is available in my laptop. 

Briefly it is about how Imam Al-Ghazali was robbed during a journey home. After years of studying. 

He was very upset about the loss of his study notes, that he followed the robbers and beg them for the return only of his notebooks.

The chief robber asked why the notes were important. And Imam Al-Ghazali explained that the notes were from his years of study, leaving his country, to hear, write and learn knowledge of great teachers.

The chief robber laughed at Imam Al-Ghazali, saying "How can you pretend to have learned their knowledge, when I have taken them and stripped you of your learning so that you have no knowledge?"

The chief robber then asked his people to return the notebooks back to Imam Al-Ghazali.

And Imam Al-Ghazali said that 'this man was sent by God to teach me'.

As he was not emphasising Memorising as a requisite in his learning, he realised that he almost lost whatever understanding and knowledge he had compiled in his study notes.

The robber was only a tool.

Allah Ta'ala sent him to teach Imam Al-Ghazali a lesson for his remiss.

Imam Al-Ghazali then spent the next three years of his life committing to memory the lectures that he had learned from his teachers.

~:~

As a learner we have at our disposal a variety of learning strategies to acquire knowledge.  Memorising is one of the most difficult strategy as we age.

But for the young, it is a valuable innate skill that should not be passed in loss.

Some of us may think memorising is not a worthy skill. 

This is because we link memorising to regurgitation during examination. This is truly a misunderstood purpose of memorising.

Memorising makes higher order thinking and concept elaboration easier. Because we have in our memory bank the knowledge capital to support our complex thinking and generating learning process.

~:~

Rabbi yassir wa la tu'assir. Rabbi tammim bil khair. Rabbi zidni 'ilma. 

Motivation ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

All you need is a two letters prefix. And you are de ... motivated.

Sounds simple. 

Just a literary manipulation. 

Freire said. 

Demotivation is a vision that has lost its bearing. And this is more complicated. Vision is what moves us.

Vision of better things moves us to plod on through whatever life processes that we have to go through.

Loss of vision is a sad thing.

But if one recalls that this life is temporary

then

Vision of akhirah moves us to goodness.

Inshaa Allah

Maryam ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

... my Beloved Niece. 

My Child

Beyond the sea

She had her wonderful wedding occasion in April 2016.

6 months later ...

In October 2016 I received news of her husband's passing in a mishap.

How do you console a grieving young heart?

~:~

Bismillahirrahmanirraheem

It's been a year since. 

I have kept the short entry above in the blog's memory box. 

I don't know why. 

But today. 

Something triggers my visit here.

Maybe despite the sad start ... It's the right moment to say Salam to everyone. Again.

Assalamu'alaikum

Dear All

May Sparkling Tranquillity reign in our heart.