Smile

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

Its hard to predict somebody's mood first thing in the morning, especially if that somebody is someone you are fond off, but all doubts are cast away, once that person smile... :) Alhamdulillah..

Smile is a forgotten sunnah.

Here is a a story of the sahabah which I think many of us knew.

Whenever Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) saw the Prophet he would find his blessed face as bright as the full moon, and whenever he (peace be upon him) gazed upon Anas, he would smile. Every encounter was met with a smile which caused the heart of this great companion to be greatly affected – so much so that he felt that he was the most beloved to him. Naturally he wanted his thoughts confirmed, so he asked the Prophet as to who the most beloved person to him was. The Prophet replied “Abu Bakr.” Hoping that he would be the most adored to the Prophet after Abu Bakr, he repeated the question and to Anas’s surprise, it wasn’t him but instead Umar. From this simple act, the Prophet was able to make Anas think that he was the most beloved person to him. It was with these small but greatly effective gestures that did not take much effort that made the Prophet so beloved to all people of his time. In fact, Abdullah ibn Haarith (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I did not see anyone who smiled more than the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).”[1]

Smile is contagious, keep on smiling :)

http://www.islam21c.com/spirituality/242-smiling-the-forgotten-sunnah/

Wassalam

Of Scholars, Hijab and Arrogance

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Pardon me for the value-less post previously. It was spur of the moment. Having been here alone, there is not many outlet that I can share my feelings, so ya, pardon me for that :) I thought of deleting it, but hey, nobody reads this but me, and the fact that I was happy for that one particular moment, I think I should not delete it. Let it be a memory, and this blog will remind me later should I loose my mind, or my memory..hehehe..

Back to the actual things that I wanted to share today. These past few days, there has been some incidents that has made me a sad Muslim. I have been following few scholars from the West, reason being is that I think their delivery are more in tuned with my thinking style. I have nothing but high respect with the local Malaysian scholars, but sometimes, when they speak, they carry more of a Malay mindset rather than Islamic one, I would not delve into details, just saying that their style does not suite me. Ok, about the western scholars, I was shocked to see Br Yusha Evans sharing a link that states 10 reasons why people should not follow Imam Suhaib Webb. I went through the list, and all of the things mentioned paint a bad picture of Imam Suhaib.

I respect both men, Br Yusha for his quest of truth, and Imam Suhaib due to his vast knowledge of tafseer. Days apart, Imam Suhaib issued a statement to refute one of the item, and his reasoning seems valid. But what makes me sad is, these two gentleman are good scholars to begin with, and to let the dispute came out in the open, its just not right. I see points in both sides and I pray to Allah that both of them are protected from any further slander. To me, Br Yusha is like Umar al Khattab, he is stern in his words and action and he is not about to keep quiet if he sees something that is not right. I hope Allah soften his heart and clear whatever misunderstanding that he has with Imam Suhaib. It really makes me sad to see the cyber war that has been going on between these two camps.

Second is, a long time friend, she has reached a certain goal in life, and as a result, she decided to put on the hijab. As a friend we were definitely very happy. The thing is, she is now on holiday, and we see pictures of her slowly loosing the hijab. We started to raise question among our small circle of friends and I decided to message her privately. I just want to find out why and remind her she needs to look inside, find out why she put on the hijab in the first place. Maybe the way I asked the questions intimidate her, she quickly became defensive. And for her to say that I woulds not understand how difficult it is for her to put on the hijab, it makes me even more sad. We all have challenges in being a good Muslim, it might not be about hijab, there are a lot of other things and temptations that is ever willing to drive away from the straight path.

She was mentioning, the more people push, the more she won't do it, as if telling me to shut my mouth and she has the right to do whatever she wants. Its sad, really, it really is. I asked her to seek the strength from Allah SWT. We face challenges day in and day out. We fall and get back on track most of the time, but we should never close a door for somebody that is trying to remind us. Maybe I am reading too much into this. I don't know. I have said my piece, its up to her how she wants to take it. I pray the best for her, and if the question of hijab is so sensitive to her such that she does not want any reminder at all, so be it. I know she will come to her senses, and I hope its not too late then. We never know when our time is due in this world.

I had a chat with a non Muslim last few days. He was born a Christian, but according to him, he and his family were not really practicing it, and he was amazed at me and another Muslim that has been fully observing what Islam requires us to do. The conversation went on, and somehow I mentioned to him that Islam consider everybody are born as Muslim, but the way they were brought up makes them a non-Muslim, as we should call them, the not yet Muslim. So when the not yet Muslim returned to Islam, we called them revert, instead of convert. His reaction to this idea took me by surprised. He said, that is an arrogant statement, are you saying that you are right, everybody else is wrong, they just don't know it yet? I was dumbfounded, when he put it that way, it does sound arrogant. But that was not what I meant, shoot, I said the right things, but he took it the wrong way, maybe its because of the way I said it. Allahu akbar..... I need to read more, I need to correct his perception, and in order for me to do that, I have to be well equipped. May Allah make it easy for me.

Till next time, (bila nak update pasai kebun ni..hehehe...)
Wassalam.

You

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh..

You, thank you for eating my cupcake.
Thank you for agreeing to be my guinea pig for the next 3 years InsyaAllah.
Thank you for giving me the chance to do that to you.
Thank you for not asking why when I asked you to become the victim of my experiments.

Thank you, I appreciate it when you say you'll look forward to the next experiment. That just made my day. Thank you so much :)

Wassalam.

The worst place to work

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I came from a  company called Shell Refining Company in Port Dickson, we are in the downstream business. For the past 5 years, downstream business were under scrutiny due to depleting resources and many other constraints. The company tried to promote the motto "A good place to work" in order to keep the morale high. Though we may not enjoy the benefit as much as the people in Upstream, we enjoy the company nonetheless. Bonus were not that high, cost being slashed, forget about the additional benefits that the Upstream colleague enjoyed, we never get to experience that. Travel is restricted, and most of the trainings are in house. But because of the people, we enjoyed our work, we cherished the camaraderie, we helped each other, and somehow despite the lack of resources, we can always count on each other. We went through the thick and thin of the industry when the crude price record an all time high and we were being penalized for the slightest glitch possible.

Now, I am here, an Upstream company, you can say that I am enjoying all the monetary benefits, but honestly if I can come up with a motto, this particular company, SPDC, based on the people's attitude, can be called "The Worst Place to Work". Its a big organization, and as a friend said, these kind of set up leads to inefficiency, very true. One project involved soooo many people, but still the work was far from perfect. Common issue that I found here:

1. Meetings NEVER start on time. (Well maybe once for the past 8 months that I am here)
2. People have commitment to stay put in a session until the end. A workshop, may start at 8am, they will come at 9am and by 11am they will be going out again, saying they have something else to attend, and that is the last of seeing them, and yet, they claimed that they are involved in the project.
3. They have serious commitment issue, no MOM with action party has ever been circulated. Nobody takes responsibility, but many would claim they have done this and that. To me that is b*llsh*t.
4. They also have compliance issue, few times we get request to do work that is meant to retrofit a certain design that does not meet the standard, helloo.....there is design basis in DEP, use it, you did not even use DEP , now you are asking us to do all sorts of things to cover your ass. There is specific project guideline, with proper Technical Assurance sign off to make sure all are in compliance, but how come it gets to this stage? What is this Technical Assurance doing? His signature is all over, the documents, which clearly does not meet the standards. WTH??
5. The people will only commit to meetings if it is being held in hotels, then you'll get people that was not involved in the work, attending it full time. WOWW!!
6. Every meeting that dragged on to lunch time, no lunch would be provided. I was told each employee were given pocket money for lunch, and yet the complaint about the meeting that does not serve lunch, once the topic is opened, they can drag on discussing (complaining) about it for a good 30 minutes.

Seriously, if its not about the money, I don't think anybody (non-Nigerian) would stand working here. I am here for the experience, in terms of work scope, I am learning a lot. But I think I learn more of how to control my anger here. SERIOUSLY.

Life in the RA on the other hand, is a bliss. So that is the main trade off. 

Guess this update comes much earlier than anticipated....huhuhu...next one will definitely be about garden, till then, Wassalam. :)

Belated Hari Raya in Port Harcourt

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

As usual, I will try to have a small makan-makan to celebrate friends for Raya. This year, though its now way past Syawal, I still want to make it happened, plus the fact that I have just moved into the house, makes it a double celebration!! :)

The menu is simple, rendang ayam, lontong (with instant nasi himpit that I brought in my container) and various kuih raya. I did made Puding Jagung, but it does not turned out the way I want it. However, there is one kuih that I introduced to the Port Harcourt community, buah melaka, and its a hit!! :)

No pictures of the food though as I was rushing back and forth and I was practically everywhere.

Here are some of the pictures of my guests.

Latha and Theresa

More ladies :)

The guest that preferred the other side of the couch

Andrea, Rafael , Robert

That's it for now, next update maybe on my garden, insyaAllah :)
Wassalam.

Itaú - Mostra tua força Brasil (Clipe Oficial)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...



We came back from Brasil on the 7th of July, straight into the fasting month, and the I went back to Malaysia for raya. Hence, I did not really have the chance to sit down and share much about Brasil. Well, let me start with this one. Itau is one of the main sponsor for the Brazil FIFA World Cup 2014. This commercial has been on loop all throughout the TV stations, and we like it very much, to a point p cari kat YouTube and singing along with it.

The tempo is uplifting, I would vote this to be the official world cup theme song, hundreds thousands of times over that ridiculous Pitbull song. :)

I'll update more later, till then wassalam.. :)

I'm Home!!

Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

Alhamdulillah, I am no longer homeless..hehehe.. After almost 8 months staying in the guest house (well, tolak maybe close to two months of accumulated leave travelling all over), I have finally moved in.

This the picture before I moved in.

Some pictures in the course of moving...

These two gentlemen helped me assemble some of the small stuffs, the big ones were put together by the packers.

Since both of them did such a great job, I decided to cook some authentic Malay food for them. :)

Jogo de americano (place mat) comes all the way from Brazil.

Pajeri Nenas

Ayam Goreng ala Nyonya

Landon and Wai Kiong

Me and Landon

I am fully settled, I guess..hehehe.... This Saturday, I am having a belated Hari Raya do for the people that is still remaining in RA. They left when the summer starts, but with the Ebola outbreak, only staffs returned back for work, the families are all not returning. Until when, we don't know. Even the school is not re-opened yet. Tentatively they are looking at mid October to resume the school session, but if there is new outbreak, or more fatalities, it will definitely be delayed.

We'll see. As for us in the RA, chances of getting is quite low as we are not directly exposed. Anyhoo, I'll update more. Till then, wassalam.