WHEN THE MOORS RULED EUROPE

This short documentary describes the glorious rule of Muslim Moors in what is now Spain. A forgotten history is remembered. Kak Jua was totally right. We should have watched it before going to Spain.

ALHAMDULILLAH

I just got meself a summer job! And credits to Elly for advertising the vacancy in the mailing list, and for having recommended me for it. And most of all, I cannot help being thankful to Allah. How brilliant has He arranged everything for me. Just nice. School summer holiday has just started so I do not have to pick up Kak Ita's kids anymore. And three weeks volunteering at the shop has been marvellous - a bit dissapointed though since I am just improving my skills operating the till, and I am quitting it in a couple of days.

When I pay for stuff that I shop for, most of the times, I will hear this:

"Here's your two pounds change and your receipt. Thank you"

or

"I'll put your receipt in the bag, and here's your two quid change"

In the past two days, I had a chance to imitate that. *wink*

Back to this new job. It is a position as a notes summariser in a GP practice. I hope I will be able to cope myself with the tasks and hopefully it would not strain my eyes so much to sit in front of the computers for long hours. The best part is, that the work at least has something to do with my course. Would give me a very relevant experience indeed.

Alhamdulillah.

GREY'S ANATOMY

I did a bit of packing today and I found a square note which I wanted to throw into the bin but the scribble on the paper seems very meaningful to get rid of that way, without saving it somewhere so I thought of saving and sharing it here. The quote was from a patient with heart problem in Grey's Anatomy (can't recall his name). He said:

"I believe in heaven. If I have to choose between
this life and one in heaven, I choose heaven."

I must have found the quote rather important or interesting or full of meaning that I jotted it down on a piece of paper and pinned it on my small notice board and never took it off whenever I was cleaning out the unwanted notices on the board.

May Allah lead us to the straight path in this life, for the best rewards in the next one.

COUNTING DAYS

Today I went out with Kak Nurul to accompany her shopping for the arrival of a new baby girl insyaAllah. It turned out to be her accompanying me instead. It is summer sale in almost every store and I just had to control myself from spending too much. It was a tough determination to accomplish; a couple of skirts won't kill, will they? ***Hey, it was a bargain after all. Buy one get one free after 50% reduction*** ;-P

I had a nice day out with Kak Nurul really. And shopping for kids' stuff were so much fun. They were all so cute, more like you are playing with dolls, trying to fit the nicest dress for them, and comb their hair, and made them wear some accesories. *teringat selalu main anakkan (patung kertas) zaman kecik2 dulu. 20 sen je satu*. Anyhow, I really wish Fatin and Danish are here. Miss my favourite baby boy so much. Shopping would be much more fun if they were there!

Danish celebrating his first birthday in Malaysia

(without Auntie Iffa?? How could you??)

I thought I would go to the charity shop and do some work as usual. But I did not. I was so damn tired and did not dare to leave Kak Nurul going back on her own so I took the same bus as hers going back home. She is 36 week pregnant, and Danish was born when he was 36 weeks gestation, so it was quite worrying to let her walk alone. After performing my Zuhur prayer, I fell asleep and woke up at only half seven, so I urgently prayed Asar and ate my dinner before going to halaqah.

It was not my first time to fall asleep in the afternoon this week. It was my third time already. It was probably due to the summer weather which kept getting warm each day. Except today, it was raining for a while in the morning so the weather was just nice today. Not too warm and not too cold. Hehe, complaining the weather. Reminds me of a conversation with Farah - we are becoming more British now, always complaining about the weather.

And I won't blame the weather really. I have been out a lot, and I spent two days of the week for ice skating and beach (had fish and chips at tynemouth twice already in this week - fish and chips: still, so typical British). Ice skating was so fun, but it makes you tired. Or probably because I do not really know yet how to skate. Glad that for my last session I do not have to complete one round holding on the wall before gaining the confidence to go to the centre of the rink. I think to play tennis is much harder, although ice skating is similarly tiring. Especially for the brain. Probably because I was using up most of the energy being very conscious and trying very hard not to fall. A brilliant exercise for the cerebellum (?) I bet. Also, it so teaches me to appreciate how well has Allah created the world, that I do not have to walk on the ice, God I am so thankful for that. I just couldn't imagine wearing ice skating shoe all the time, it must be killing my feet in silence!

Ok. Back to today's activity. The halaqah. We were discussing about the tafsir of surah al-Maa'un and continued with our last unfinished topic from last week's usrah, the first element of Arkanul Bai'ah, to have a deep understanding of Islam as a way of life. I cannot recall why, but Kak Eleena mentioned a story about the pious man and a dog. For those who have not heard of the story, here goes story:

" A man was walking on a desert and he was very thirsty. He found a well and went down into it and drank. When he climbed up and came out of the well, he saw a dog, panting and eating earth out of thirst. He thought that the dog must be as thirsty as he was. so he went back down into the well, and using his shoe as a bucket, he filled in the water and then held it in is mouth until he climbed out. Then he gave the dog water."

It is a true story from a hadith (sahih bukhari and muslim if I am not mistaken) and the prophet stated that Allah had forgiven the man his sins because of his kindly act, and he will enter the paradise due to that.

Moral of the story; always be good, even to animals or plants, we are all the creations of Allah. Even dogs. Also as a reminder for myself who does not like dogs that much (I have my reasons, experienced running for being chased by dogs for quite a few times. Hehe, fell off once - shame on me!). True that for us muslims, when the dog is wet or for their faeces, we have to clean it with our "special" way. That is using one part of water from clean soil, and 6 parts of clean water (eg tap water, or rain). It sounds hard, but it is not that difficult when it comes to times you have to apply it. Reminds me of a conversation between a dog and a cow that I got as an instant message long, long time ago:

LEMBU: Hai anjing, apa habaq? Macam ada yg tak kena je?
ANJING: Aku tengah tension nih. Mau je aku gigit manusia tadi.
LEMBU : eh? kenapa?
ANJING: aku lalu tepi dua orang mansuia lelaki dan perempuan yg sedang berkepit. Tetiba si lelaki terperanjat dan terus melompat dan berkata "hoi anjing, pergi jauh2,najis!".
LEMBU: Ya, lah.ko kan haram. Najis tahap berat bagi manusia. Biasalah tu.
ANJING: Kalau aku najis sekali pon, kalau dia tersentuh aku, boleh disamak. Yang dia sentuh dan raba2 awek dia tu apa? boleh ke nak samak dosa?
LEMBU: Betul tu. Memegang wanita yg bukan mahramnya tanpa ikatan yg sah, lebih dahsyat kenajisannya daripada memegang ko anjing,malah tak boleh suci sekalipun di samak.
ANJING:wah.. ayat ko memang power la... manusia kena ubah pepatah "Pandai macam LEMBU"

Thanks to Lembu for making a clear comparison between halal haram and najis. Najis does not necessarily haram. Vice versa, haram does not necessarily means najis. Sometimes we take things for granted. Sometimes we like to complicate simple things.

So there goes another day of my summer holiday.

SERBAN

Interesting. While the muslims here are fighting for the right to wear Hijab in school, we have the serban issue in Malaysia:

1. Pelajar ditegah berserban -- Bukan sebahagian daripada pakaian seragam sekolah - Hakim
2. Serban: Islam tiada penghormatan apabila Mahkamah tolak rayuan

Hmmm...

ME IN THE SUMMER

Already a month of summer holiday. And surprisingly I do not spend as much time at home as I expected.

1. I sometimes picked up Aisyah and Azri from school (Luqman as well, but now that he's gone back to Malaysia for good really miss him, and Nasya too). And I've got their house key with me. I slept there a few times before Kak Ina moved into Ija's room. So that is my third home I guess.

2. And I've got a new temporary housemate. Not that Kak Ina is gonna stay there for a short period of time, but it is me that need to pack up my things and move out since I have given up the room to Zalehani. Too complex explanation for why have I given it up, so I better not start writing about it. But alhamdulillah, insyaAllah will be moving out into Kak Jua's (yeay! Jadi housemate Kak Jua yang comel!) --> Duk Fenham jugak akhirnya.

***Panjang umur Kak Jua, I had to pause for a moment to answer her call***

3. And I went to ISLAMEXPO which was being held at Alexandra Palace in London for four days - I only attended three. It was great and I got to know Nor, my Singaporean usrahmate while I was there. So sad that she has left for good as well, right after the expo. So, ISLAMEXPO...Most of the talks were about things that we might have always been discussing while having our tea or lunch break, or while watching the telly, or while in the bus. Palestine and Iraq issue, 7 July and September 11, Islam and terrorism (?) etc. There was one talk about Islamic school, questioning whether it is a vessel of integration or isolation. Hmm...interesting topic although they only mentioned about having Islamic faith school here in the UK. We are so lucky to have 54 (I guess, in 2001) SMKAs in Malaysia, and not to mention that all the school will have Islamic lesson as a particular subject on its own to expose the kids with the history and basic knowledge of Islam. In contrast, it sounds very hard for muslim parents here to ensure their kidsto grow up within an Islamic environment. They will need to send their kids to extra classes provided by the masjids or any Islamic organisation to gain knowledge on Islam.

And there were exhibitions and shops too at the expo.

4. I applied for paid jobs but I was being rejected for at least three times by now. Hopefully something will turn up later, although I am not that much in need of a job really. So, I am currently volunteering at a charity shop, British heart Foundation. It is quite nice. Meeting some new people and learning some new tasks - at least when I evaluate myself before I go to sleep, I do not have any regret about spending my time at home doing particularly nothing useful at all.

Everything works out fine, and I am expecting to see my Kelana Convoy friends this weekend (so called coz I met them during the trip).