..Breaking Away for Better Tomorrow

June 24 witnessed the farewell of all my 5 kids with their school – teachers, friends and staff. No words could really describe how the ambience was. Ultimately, only Allah swt knows how their feeling then. They’d tried to hold their tears and macho, but were eventually defeated by the strong bond and the camaraderie they had built together since their presence in the school three and half years ago. Each one of them had beautiful stories to share and indeed had gained significant experience that will definitely enrich their life, InsyaAllah.
I remember their first steps, when they first landed their feet in the British School of Alexandria (BSA)in November 2006, came and grown up from purely Malay medium school, they had no single clue of how to interact with their teachers who came from various parts of the UK who speaks different English accent and on how to network with their schoolmates composed of 23 nationalities? Alhamdullillah, with their courage, optimism and determination, they managed to cope with the system – teaching methodology and approach, environment and other changes smoothly. Afi and Muhammad Afiq concluded their high secondary phase of their school life this with significant achievement and contributions. Muhammad Aiman and Afiqah grown up and well in sync with the Brit system, speaks and writes good English. Muhammad Asri was in Year 10 and will sit for IGCSE examination next year. Based on his teachers comments, I must say, he has performed well last year. Alhamdullillah. Well, keep it up! Whatever successes that you had achieved, came with hard work. NO, that is not it…it is not the end of the whole thing yet, it is indeed the beginning of the long bumpy and winding journey ahead.
Guys, I know how is the pain like when we try to breaking away from our comfort zone, but people comes and people go, it is inevitable. As I used to mention, nothing is permanent in this world, none of us will stay physically together forever. Hence, let us face the fact of life and gear ourselves for the next chapter of our story of our life. The richness that you had gained from the BSA while leaving in this beautiful country called Egypt is an added advantage for you to become more better person (from Allah swt perspective) than yesterday that will help you to contribute to the community as a caliphates in bringing them to the right path.
Rite on dudes…just do whatever good things that you want to do and be whatever you want to be, I will give you my fullest support, but do it for Allah Rabbul Jalil.

Pre Farewell by 2nd Year Medic Alex

At this point of time, we are still not sure when exactly we will depart this country for good. But, this 2nd year gorgous sensible kids were kind thoughtful enough organizing a pre-farewell dinner, in my term, for us. Humairah said, they have decided bidding us earlier farewell in case they would not be able to meet us after their final term examination next week and subsequently flying back home for the summer vacation. Earlier they informed us not to prepare anything; “just relax and give us your time” exclaimed Humairah happily assuring us. Each one of them prepared scrumptious dishes and mouth watering desserts. The main dishes, Nasi Tomato and Nasi Khabsah were mastered by Humairah. The decent deligent Lokman Dato’ Bazlan prepared us Ayam Tandori. The petite Hana Yasmine, joined by the loquacious Athirah came up with a delightful Italian dish lagsana. The cute adorable Sabrina produced the famous Malaysian Batik Cake and the attractive Nas cooled us with her caramel pudding. To complete the fiesta I sponsored Juyhana fresh fruit juices and the Egyptian water melon.
We were really spoiled by all the foods and pampered by their jovial hospitable treat. To Humairah, Sabrina, Nas, Athirah, Hana, Che Ah, Lokman and M Fikri; zillion of thanks for the superb touchy treat and wish you all the best for the coming and examinations. May Allah swt give His Blessing, Grace and Mercy for your future endeavour, venture and journey….
The more you give, the more you will get. The destination of our journey in this world in the journey itself.

... like Pencils

• Everything you do will always leave a mark.
• You can always correct the mistakes you make.
• What important is what is inside of you.
• In life, you will undergo painful sharpenings, which will make you a better person.
• You have different colors, shapes and brands, but our roles are equally important.
• To be the best pencil, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you. The photos were taken by my D90 in my house and at the Alexandrina Bibliotheca .

Summer is Coming, Alexandrians are Exciting

Yes, its summer. Alexandria, the second largest city and country’s largest seaport with about 4.1 million inhabitants located on the northern part of Egypt, will be crowded with people – Egyptians (from other part of Egypt) and foreigners alike. Some of my Egyptian-Alexandrian friends claimed that the population will be increasing by a million. It is hard for me to believe though, but the fact is that, since the last two weeks; traffics on the 20 kilometers four lanes coastal main road was unusual; shopping malls were crowded with different faces, shapes and characters and the famous spectacular corniche were busy with activities round the clock 7 days a week.
Why? I mean why this massive exodus, if I may say?To me some of the main reasons are, Alexandria has very pleasant summer ambience and its beaches are very charming with all necessary facilities for people to swim, wade and play. I am pretty sure there were few other reasons that had lured people in the past spent at least a month at this city founded by the Alexander the Great in 331 BC.

The Alexandrians are very exciting - Summer time is just like the sky pouring them with gold. Apartments will be highly demanded by local and foreign visitors as hotels will definitely full house. The landlords (not all of them), therefore, will increase the rent ridiculously based on what they say – supply and demand rule. Certainly, they are right, but slaughtering innocent and desperate visitors is not acceptable to me. Shop owners of all sorts, will be smiling. In short, businesses are booming drastically during summer. As for the seven of us, this is going to be our first time spending full summer time in Egypt.
NOTE: The above photos were taken by Afi. Thanks to him.

...their Last Day in Alexandria

After bidding their farewell at one of the Four Seasons’ ball rooms, we adjourned to Fresca Restaurant just outside the hotel. We continued our unofficial meeting until almost 02:00 am in the morning. Both of them, Adnan and A Zaidi were reluctantly to leave the place and were still very energetic amid the pleasant breeze freely conditioned by the Mediterranean Sea.
Alex at his usual habit, albeit the odd hours, the street was still busy with all types of vehicles and people from all walks of life. It was a kind of entertainment, as most of us claimed. Could not imagine if we were sitting there alone?!

During the 3 hours ‘meeting’, we observed one near-miss and an accident happened about 200 meters from us. That was usual!.. claimed by ASI who sponsored our drinks. Thanks to him anyway. To Adnan and A Zaidi, thanks for the camaraderie that we had since 2006 in this beautiful piece of land call Egypt.

The above photos were the courtesy of Mustaffa Mahat – A Zaidi’s Successor, which I received today. Hence, the delayed entry. Nice indeed.

The Pinocchio - Their Last Show Biz at BSA

Ayman, as Jack in the Box during the Key Stage 2 presentation Pinocchio. That was his last show and action at the British School of Alexandria (BSA). 4 years ago, in November 2006 when he first entered the BSA, he could hardly speak and write a simple sentence in English, let alone the listening part. Alhamdullillah, mainly due to his enthusiasm and jovial character, I think, he was able to cope with all the English thingy convincingly. Apart from that, his stage-fright, inferiority complex, and pessimism had been dramatically reduced. Hence, his level of confident has obviously something that can be proud of. Keep it up Ayman and all the best. Hope he will excel further when he continue his school in Malaysia.

Akin to Ayman, she has shown and demonstrated a great progress or impressive improvement since the past 4 years at the BSA. Despite the youngest in the family, she is not only smart but matured in her character and thinking. She has a lot of good friends, especially the twin Donia and Dina, whom she is going miss dreadfully. She played as a supporting actor during the show and she performed well, indeed.

All of us were there during the presentation to give our moral support and in a way a recognition to both of them who had spent weeks of hectic preparation, etc. All the photos were taken by Muhammad Afiq. Thanks - that was what brothers are for.

Ibrahim Adham Rahmatullah Alaihs' Advices

Why our supplication is not accepted by Allah swt?
1] You know Allah swt but you don’t obey Him
2] You know Rasullullah saw (peace be upon him) but you don’t follow his sunnah
3] You know al-Qur’an but you don’t work by al Qur’an
4] You eat Allah swt’s nikmah but you did not shukur
5] You know there is paradise but you did not ask for it
6] You know there is Hell but you did not escape from it
7] You know there is Syaitan but you did agree with him
8] You know there is death but you did not prepare for it
9] You pray jenazah but you did not get lessons learnt from it
10] You did not do anything with your bad things but you are busy with others’.

I found the above at Sultan Ibrahim Adham rah a @Jableh, Syria

Self Improvement Tools

Latest books collection on our shelf – just to keep myself updated with the latest terminologies, strategies, formula and philosophies (in case any) of the prominent writers, thinkers, economists, etc., such as, Dr. Stephen R Covey, Bob Nelson, Mark Wilcox, etc. The recent economic meltdown was in a way an opportunity for many writers to produce many management books, which flooded the market or bookstores like the monsoon rain showering the tropical rainforest that is already green and fertile. It is very interesting though, most of their points, contents or formula, despite a mere ‘face-lift’ of the old paradigm had attracted many fanatic readers sacrificed their saving to learn new formula to face the uncertain economic situation and new challenges. Honestly, I have not even neither touched nor read any of the three books.

The Minaret of Prophet Isa Alaihis salaam

One of the important structures of the Ummayad Masjid, located at the north side of the Masjid or on the left side if you enter from the main entrance (from Souk Hamidiy), is a minaret claimed to be by many scholars that Prophet Isa a.s. will descend back on earth towards the end of this universe.
Muslims believe that Prophet Isa a.s. did not die on the cross, but Allah swt raised him to heaven and he will return one day to fight and defeat the Dajjal. According to a Hadith, he is on the second heaven. The Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) mentioned; "During the Me’raj (Ascension), I met Isa a.s. on the second heaven. I found him of medium stature, reddish white. His body was so clean and clear, that it appeared as though he had just performed ablution, cleansing of the entire body." In another Hadith, Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) mentioned to the Jews that; “Prophet Isa a.s. is not dead, he will most surely return to you before Qiyamat (the Dooms Day)."

It is also described that the physical features of Prophet Isa a.s. resemble the famous Companion Urwa bin Masoodi ra. He will be of average height and red and white in color. His hair will be spread to the shoulders, straight, neat and shining as after a bath. On bending his head, it will seem as if pearls are falling. He will have armor on his body. He will be wearing two pieces of cloth light yellow in color.

The above three photos are the view of the minaret from three angles and time, which I took during our backpacking trip to Syria in early April this year.

Ta'lim : Part XVIII

Kathir bin Qais narrates:
I was sitting with Abu Darda radhiyallah hu anhu (ra) in a masjid in Damascus, when a person came to him and said; “O, Abu Darda ra, I have come all the way from Madinah to learn one Hadith from you, as I understand you have heard it directly from the Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him).”
Abu Darda ra: “Do you have any other business in Damascus?”
The Person: “No.”
Abu Darda ra: “Are you sure that you have no other work in Damascus?”
The person: “I have come to this place with the sole purpose of learning Hadith.”
Abu Darda ra: “Listen. I have heard the Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) saying; ‘Allah eases the way to Paradise for one who traverses some distance to seek knowledge. The angels spread their wings under his feet, and all things in heavens and earth (even the fish in the water) pray for his forgiveness, The superiority of a person processing knowledge over a person doing worship is a the superiority of the moon over the stars. The Ulama are the inheritors of the Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him). The legacy of Prophets Alaihimussalaam is not neither gold nor silver. Their legacy is knowledge. A person who acquires knowledge acquires a great wealth.”
Abu Darda ra is foremost among the Companion who possessed very sound knowledge in religion. He is called ‘Hakim ul Ummah’ – the Sage of Islam. He once said:
“Before Islam, I lived on trade. After accepting Islam, I tried to combine the service of Allah swt with my business, but I could not do so. I therefore gave up business and devoted myself solely to the service of Allah swt. Now, if I have a shop at the gate of a masjid and have no fear of losing a single Solat thereby, and even if the shop gives me daily profit of 40 dinars to spend the whole lot in the path of Allah swt, even then I am not willing to turn business.”
Somebody inquired the reason. He replied:
“Because of the fear of reckoning.”
He used to say:
“I love death, so that I may meet Allah swt. I love destitution, so that I will be meek. I love sickness, so that I will be pardoned my sins.”
In this story, we find a person travelling all the way from Madinah to Damascus for the sake of one Hadith. This was not at all hard for those people. Sha’abi rahmatullah alaihi is a famous Muhadith of Koofa. He once narrated a Hadith to one of his students and said:
“You are listening to this Hadith while sitting in your home town. People had to travel all their way to Madinah for even less important things, because Madinah was the only of seat learning in those days.”
Saeed Ibnul Musayyab rahmatullah alaih is a famous Tabi’ee. He says:
“For each Hadith that I have learnt, I had to travel on foot for days and nights together.”
Imam Bukhari Rahmatullahi alaih (Rah a) was born in the Islamic month of Shawal 194 A.H. He started learning Haditf in 205 A.H. i.e., when he was only eleven. He had memorized all the books written by Abdullah bin Mubarak (Rah a) while he was in his early teens. After collecting Hadith from all the learned men of his own locality, he set out in 216 A.H. in search of further knowledge. His father died and he could not leave his widowed mother alone. He therefore took her with him on his long and strenuous journey to Balkh, Baghdad, Makkah, Basra, Koofah, Asqalan, Hims and Damascus. He collected all the available Hadith from these seats of learning. He was accepted as an expert in Hadith, while he had no single hair on his chin.
Hashad (Rah a) and one of his Companions said:
“Bukhari and we two used to go together to the same teacher. We noted down all the Hadith that we learnt, but he wrote nothing. After many days we said to him, ‘Bukhari, you are wasting your time.’ He kept quiet. When we admonished him again and again, he said, ‘you are now annoying me too much. Bring your notes.’ We brought our notes, which covered about 15,000 Hadith. He, to our utter amazement, recited all those Hadith by heart.”