February has only 28 days on the normal year. Amid the nawah in the local dialect, literally means monsoon in Malaysian or heavy & windy weather in laymen English, I had nothing much to share in this chapter of my story I called saturation. The world news either CNN or BBC or Sky News or Aljazeera had one thing in common, the Israel-Gaza issues and propagating their base home stories, wrecked havoc my migraine and ruined my appetite. Akin the ELNG challenge and its political game, had made me more stressful and shrunk my mental stamina. I have tried to complete the book “whatever else ever happened to Egyptians” this month though, but the saturation dampens the mood and the enthusiasm.
Fortunately, the team of Yayasan Yusuf fraternity that I have, my greatest asset that I own managed cheering and boosting me up. The strength and characters that each one of them possessed entertained me with colors and music of life.
Fortunately, the team of Yayasan Yusuf fraternity that I have, my greatest asset that I own managed cheering and boosting me up. The strength and characters that each one of them possessed entertained me with colors and music of life.
The first two weeks was a little bit busy though, turned on by the unchartered training plan and staff movement, and had to drag my leg and soul to Cairo often.
On the 5th of this nostalgic month, I had a dinner with Adnan, the CEO of ELNG, at the Nile restaurant, el Hayu el Saba’ or district Seven in English. It had been quite a long time I stop patronizing the restaurant, the Nile restaurant that fully own by few Thailand students pursuing their religious study at el Azhar, had undergone a remarkable face-lift of the main dining hall. We asked for the typical Thailand and Malaysian cuisine – the nasi goreng kerabu or fried rice with herbs, mixed vegetable, tom yam and Nasi Goreng Pattaya or Pattaya (Pattaya is one of a very popular tourist towns in Thailand) fried rice. The hospitality, the service, the food, and the price were highly commendable. It cost us LE 35.00.
Well, that is not the gist of my story though, what I like to share here is the topic of our conversation that we had during the dinner. It was about education, specifically the essential of mastering the Arabic. We had been taught that the language one speaks in the life thereafter is Arabic; the holy Quran revealed by the Almighty Allah is in Arabic and the common language of the Muslim brothers and sisters all around the globe is Arabic. However, in Malaysia, since hundreds of years ago, the approach the so-called Arabic was through learning the basic of reading the basic Muqaddam vis-à-vis the mushaf of holy Al-Quran. We were not saying it is wrong, but the approach and the methodology are not right. I personally think that, people must be educated on the comprehension of the language, not on how to read without actually understanding the meaning of what he read. We were taught on how to read, write, and comprehend English, since the pre-school level, which had made English as our second language if not mother tongue to few of us – the so-called high-end fraternity. The product of this approach has helped many Malaysians – the Bumiputra and Non-Bumiputra alike, achieved high standard of living, had demonstrated significantly in many aspects, and recognized by the global community.
Now, sad to mention that some Malaysian al-Azhar students are not able to master the Arabic language, which is their medium of study?
Reading or reciting the holy mushaf Al-Quranul Kareem is indeed important, but comprehending what we read is much more important than the reading itself. Nonetheless, comprehending without practicing is futile. Hence, for that reason, the approach need to focus more to understand the fundamentals of Arabic language be it ‘ameya or local dialect or the fusahah or the standard.
The tête-à-tête during the nonchalant dinner became more interesting when we moved on to another important topic , the education system of the Al-Azhar University vis-à-vis the attitude of many Malaysian Al Azhar students’. Well, I am not going to elaborate further the subject that might have boiled up my disposition.
On the 5th of this nostalgic month, I had a dinner with Adnan, the CEO of ELNG, at the Nile restaurant, el Hayu el Saba’ or district Seven in English. It had been quite a long time I stop patronizing the restaurant, the Nile restaurant that fully own by few Thailand students pursuing their religious study at el Azhar, had undergone a remarkable face-lift of the main dining hall. We asked for the typical Thailand and Malaysian cuisine – the nasi goreng kerabu or fried rice with herbs, mixed vegetable, tom yam and Nasi Goreng Pattaya or Pattaya (Pattaya is one of a very popular tourist towns in Thailand) fried rice. The hospitality, the service, the food, and the price were highly commendable. It cost us LE 35.00.
Well, that is not the gist of my story though, what I like to share here is the topic of our conversation that we had during the dinner. It was about education, specifically the essential of mastering the Arabic. We had been taught that the language one speaks in the life thereafter is Arabic; the holy Quran revealed by the Almighty Allah is in Arabic and the common language of the Muslim brothers and sisters all around the globe is Arabic. However, in Malaysia, since hundreds of years ago, the approach the so-called Arabic was through learning the basic of reading the basic Muqaddam vis-à-vis the mushaf of holy Al-Quran. We were not saying it is wrong, but the approach and the methodology are not right. I personally think that, people must be educated on the comprehension of the language, not on how to read without actually understanding the meaning of what he read. We were taught on how to read, write, and comprehend English, since the pre-school level, which had made English as our second language if not mother tongue to few of us – the so-called high-end fraternity. The product of this approach has helped many Malaysians – the Bumiputra and Non-Bumiputra alike, achieved high standard of living, had demonstrated significantly in many aspects, and recognized by the global community.
Now, sad to mention that some Malaysian al-Azhar students are not able to master the Arabic language, which is their medium of study?
Reading or reciting the holy mushaf Al-Quranul Kareem is indeed important, but comprehending what we read is much more important than the reading itself. Nonetheless, comprehending without practicing is futile. Hence, for that reason, the approach need to focus more to understand the fundamentals of Arabic language be it ‘ameya or local dialect or the fusahah or the standard.
The tête-à-tête during the nonchalant dinner became more interesting when we moved on to another important topic , the education system of the Al-Azhar University vis-à-vis the attitude of many Malaysian Al Azhar students’. Well, I am not going to elaborate further the subject that might have boiled up my disposition.
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