Nujoom

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

By the sky containing the constellations (85:1)

Nujoom are the stars. Constellations are groups of stars.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (SHY) related a conversation he had with a pilot in the pilot's cabin during a flight over the USA.

SHY: If the instrument to indicate direction fail, no GPS no nothing, how would you find the direction.

Whereupon the pilot turned off all the lights in the cabin. In complete darkness SHY looked out to the sky flooded with stars. And the pilot said:

We still have the stars.

~;~

SHY said that the verses in Al Quran Kareem are like the stars. Those who delved into the Holy Quran will find guidance in it.

Much like the constellations of stars that provide guidance to earthly travellers, the Holy Quran provides guidance to spiritual travellers. 

~;~

In the end, Allah Ta'ala guides our path and our heart. The darkest time of the night is just before fajar. If we are patient, soon fajar breaks and darkness lightens. So never despair from the Grace of Allah Ta'ala. So give good news to people with patience.

May Allah Ta'ala have mercy on all my teachers. 

Real and Virtual. 

Ameen Ya Rabbal 'alameen.

Liza

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Today I will start to put into words the many memories of beautiful people that have touched this short life.

Yes. 

In retrospect it is truly a short life. 

Years have just gone by and there are not too much left I am sure.

~;~

Liza was my help bee. In Brunei Darussalam. 

She was a Filipino. She told me her mother was a Muslim from Mindanao. She came to Manila to work and married her father, a Catholic.

~;~

Liza lived in Bandar Seri Begawan, staying in a rented room along with her sister, brother-in-law and some female cousins. It was a small room. It looked very crowded to me. But I understood the main purpose for their being in Brunei was to earn and sending their earnings back to their families in the  Philippines. 

They were young and full of energy.

Liza came almost every Sunday to help me. She took the bus from Bandar Seri Begawan to Tutong where I lived. About forty minutes. By 8.00 AM she would be calling out to me to throw the house key from my bedroom window on the second floor to her.

She would let herself in. After asking about her welfare and showing what needed to be done I left her. She would then be busy as a bee. 

Hand washing all my clothes. 

She would only use the washing machine for heavy items. Towels. Bed sheets and pillow cases. Everything else by hand. And was she a fast bee. 

Then the vacuuming and mopping. 

It was a huge double storey house. The Government's provision. 

I lived alone. 

But I used every room and every corner for different purposes. 

Didn't they say that one should not leave any room or corner unattended, then something else would come and reside there. 

I had three radio/tapes running at various time through out the house. 1 upstairs in the family area (although I had no family then). 1 in the big living room downstairs. And 1 in the kitchen. I use them to listen to Quran recitals.  

Truth be told having Quran recitation where ever I was in the house gave me a lot of courage.

I love Liza. 

She kept every inch of the house clean and tidy.

Working through the house sincerely.

No instructions needed. She just knew what needed to be done. And did it extremely well

By 10 in the morning I would be down to prepare some heavy brunch for the both of us. We would miss lunch. Because by 4.00 PM I would be sending her back to Bandar Seri Begawan and I would give her early dinner on the way in Bandar. These were special treats for her.

I miss Liza. 

When I left Brunei she was the last person to meet me as I passed on my Passport to be checked before leaving the public lounge. She was late. And she was running. Calling me at the same time "Kak Hajjah, Kak Hajjah".

Just a minute or two more and we would have missed each other.

Those were not smartphone days. And  I was not much into photography. I don't have a photo of Liza. 

But I have a beautiful vision of her.

Unity

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Unity

Don't hate one another. Don't envy one another. Don't turn away from one another.

la tabaghadhu wala tahasadu wala tadabaru

Unity

The above is part of the following hadith of the Prophet  صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم (ṣallā llāhu ʿalayhi wasallam)

Anas ibn Malik (radhi Allahu anhu) reported: 

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: 

لَا تَبَاغَضُوا وَلَا تَحَاسَدُوا وَلَا تَدَابَرُوا وَكُونُوا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ إِخْوَانًا وَلَا يَحِلُّ لِمُسْلِمٍ أَنْ يَهْجُرَ أَخَاهُ فَوْقَ ثَلَاثٍ

Do not hate each other, do not envy each other, do not turn away from each other, but rather be servants of Allah as brothers. It is not lawful for a Muslim to boycott his brother for more than three days.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5718, Grade: Muttafaqun Alayhi

~:~

A reminder as I was listening to Shaykh Hamza Yusuf syarah discussing the life and work of Imam Al-Ghazali (rahimahullah)

la tabaghadhu wala tahasadu wala tadabaru

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.