Spreading the Word

Coming to the end of the term, we bid farewell to our teachers. My teacher, in her terharu mode said, "I don't know what good that I do in my life that I have students like you."

To the contrary, it is what did I do good in MY life that I am blessed with teachers like them.

Masya Allah. How these ladies spent their time to spread the word amaze me. They go all out to teach and do activities. Really really all out. So much effort not only the routine lessons but other activities too. And they are not even paid. All voluntary work. And yet they do work like as if they are paid.

And mind you many of them were actually getting big pay in good international schools but instead chose to do this. Alhamdulillah that they are bestowed with rizq through their hubsands.

Sometimes I would ponder on their daily schedule and I wonder how they fit in everything. One of my teachers seem to go everywhere every day of the weekdays teaching. And some slots for activities on weekend. Either for adults and the kids. And still have time to go for their own lessons. Many of them have children. One I know has TEN with one toddler.

And everytime she gives a lecture or introduce something, it is always well researched and exciting. And she never stop at routine things. Always churning something new. Psstt something exciting for young girls coming up this summer break.

And the rest of the teachers...needless to say. Many are willing to spend their time and effort and money soemtimes just so they can spread the word.

And you know. They don't really need to do this. They don't really have a need to teach the non arabs like me. They can be around their own community which makes communication easier and perhaps less work. For many years they have spent time to make sure they are pulling in the muslim non arab community to learning the deen. And now the fruits are blooming. The government also realise these need to educate the non arabs and do daawah to the non muslims. I have never felt true sincere daawah before. (another entry perhaps).

The only thing which I think perhaps that did not come as full success with what the teachers want. At the start of the programme, they are trying to make each person present something about the deen in the class. But then she has chicken students like me who coward away whenever she ask for volunteers.

Have I ever mentioned before that I assumed those who practice the deen are lembik? On your face now Lollies. If I think I have strength try lah and do the same like all my teachers!

May Allah shower all my teachers and all teachers who teach good ilmu with barakah for all their effort.

What Free Time?

Apparently I have exam this coming Thursday.
Subject : Funeral rites.

And I need to submit the answers to a telequiz by Friday.
Subject : Tawheed comes first.

Status : Just read a bit.

But but but it is school holiday this coming Wednesday. meaning I don't have to go around driving them which usually takes up about three hours everyday. Yabedabeduuuu!!

Ok nak baca notes dulu.

What to do? : Books

I remember I am always complaining that the books here are so expensive. That I refrain from buying books. That I would go back to Malaysia and buy stacks of book and lug it back here.

But perhaps it was one of the incidents that I discovered cheap good books in this country. Hmm that was back in March 2008 (it's so good to blog. You can keep track of time). Man that wasn't so long ago.

But anyway, since than, I begin to collect reasonable cheap books found in certain stores and books exhibition they have here. By the way, Rawn@k over here, where I bought the books back in March 2008, seem to run out of books now. Oh well there is always Q@tar Guest centre and perhaps J@rir (equivalent to MPH). J@rir islamic books are still cheaper than the one in MPH.

And now I have books full on the shelf that I have not read perhaps half of them. :O So much of complaining. :P

Sooooo I am thinking (thinking thinking only?) that I should now list my books according to subjects. Fiction : adults and children's, Reference books - encycloepedia, fact book and such, tawheed, Fiqh, Manners, Quran, hadith, children Islamic books, Prophets, Sahabahs and general reference books. Perhaps if I do this I wouldn't buy the SAME books of the SAME title and the SAME author even though they have different cover. :P

I have started this morning by rearranging the books according to the subjects. Insya Allah by doing this, it will help the cataloging process clearer and not to mention to distribute the book weights on the shelf for some rack are looking heavier than another.

Now to catalogue them is another task altogether. Hmmm let us all look at Haziq. Heh school holiday project for him don't you think? A good practice on excel also. Yesss!!

And then we have the papers too. You know the one I get from school. Alhamdulillah I usually punch holes in them and file them accordingly. But there are those downloaded articles, ebook and such that I have neatly organised them in the computer. Some I printed and filed. Some still in the computer waiting for moment to be read. Don't know when though. :P

Now now now. I feel like making a schedule of which book to read first. Overwhelming!

And yet drooling over more books still.

Too Much Free Time

Summer is coming. Holiday is approaching. Things are slowing down. The only thing rising now is the temperature. Hitting 50C now and then.

I have finished my arabic and tajweed class. Meaning I have Monday and Wednesday free.

The Malaysian ladies' usrah group that I frequent has also stopped. Meaning I have my Sunday mornings back.

The only class left now is the general lecture class on Thursday.

And sometimes the family usrah on Thursday night.

But compared to before, I have four out of five weekday mornings free.

Yayyyy. Can do so many things that I wanted to do before but cannot do.







Err tapi mati akal lah what to do.

Err errr errr

ahah! clean up the kitchen cabinet first.

Under Dressed

I am thinking that perhaps to encourage myself to properly cover up, I should get more of those figure-following clothes.

---

I have been feeling a bit under dressed lately. Can you imagine that? Err ok you don't have to answer this.

lately I am beginning to attend functions only for ladies. And when the ladies who are seriously covering up have parties, they go all out with blink blinks and make up and the whole thing. They are not arabs by the way. Just a bunch of God fearing muslimahs.

And man, I am feeling a bit under dressed. :P

Zachary Is Five

Zachary turned five on the 7th June. Cepatnya cepatnya.

Hmm let us see what is he up to now.

He doesn't sleep with us anymore. But having said that, he asked to sleep on my bed last night. *puzzle but suka jugak*. And he went to sleep on OUR bed rather than his bed which by the way is still next to mine. (He has two stations, one in mine the other is with Sya). The one in my room is reserved for anyone who demam. They have the "privilege" to sleep with us.

He is happy at school with some established friends. No more crying.

He can read and loves to show off.

He is into addition now and claims that he can add up to 17.

Sometimes he doesn't want me to kiss and hug him in front of his friends which I don't care.

He has a good friend. The name is Chilli. He takes him everywhere. Chilli is genderless. Chilli went with us at umrah and nearly got lost. To the concern of everyone including the Faths.

When Zachary prays, Chilli will pray next to him. On a prayer mat too (my small table mat). Complete with a sutrah!! I cannot stop laughing at this, The sutrah is usually a small mineral water bottle.

Sometimes Zachary insist on going to the mosque with his ayah and abang. He believes that it is such a happy thing to do. Once he insist to go for Friday prayers. I suppose it was a bit too long for him. And I also have the suspicion that lover was not very accommodating. So now he would usually tag along for maghrib. Somehow I think he just wants an excuse to wear his thawb.

He claims he can memorise many surahs. He has his own Juzz Amma Progress chart. I know that he can continue the last bit of the verses in many surahs his sister is memorising. With that he put a star on the chart himself.

I am still threatening him with my breastmilk and sometimes he threaten to bit me instead.

I know I am slightly "lembik" with him. But he was not spared when it needs to of course. The other day, ceh ceh ceh keluar example tu, he championed over his siblings on a can of pineapple drink (lover! why do you bring all this drink home??). Then Haziq found a chocolate drink terselit somewhere. Zachary still holding on to his can rush to grab the chocolate drink also. And I got so angry. And told him off. And then I told him to make a deal with his brother in whichever way both of them can come up with. He got the chocolate drink and Haziq got the pineapple drink. But they need to leave some for each other. The latter one I added to the earlier agreement made by the two.

Baru cakap sikit aje nak nangis sedu-sedu. Leceh betul.

Oh well. The siblings adore him regardless he wants to be his boss. He copies his brother and gaduh mulut with his sister. He always hugs me and lover for no reason and tries his best to be fair between us two.

He is growing too quickly. Soon there will be no little one in this household. Gomol dia cepat!!

Relevant reads
Zachary is One
An Interview with a two year old Boy
Looky who is three
When Zachary Turns Four

Progress Kelas 08/09

So kelas arab and kelas tajweed aku untuk sessi 08/09 sudah pun tamat. Next week dapat certificate Insya Allah.

The marks are oklah. Tak 100% though. Dapatlah 99.5% huhuhu :P

My teacher was saying sebabnya kita ni non arab and tak ada kawan arab, so susah sikit kita nak betul-betul develop our skills. I said to my teacher, you know sometimes when we do try to speak to the arabs, most of the time we do not understand more than half of what they are saying. Either they speak too fast or we are still lacking in vocabularies. But I also suspect that this vocab issue is also because the arabs speak in dialects. Arabs from Egypt talk differently than the locals from Qtar and also different from the ones in the greater Sham (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon). Even within Sham they have different dialects. And definitely different than the arabic I am learning.

I was talking to one guy the other day and when I answered him, he immediately said, or you are speaking fusha الفصحى arabic (classical arabic). Tak tau nak rasa bangga atau disheartened. In a way relieve lah jugak sebab boleh perasan sekejap yang tadi tak faham dia cakap bukan pasal tak terer bahasa arab tapi pasal mamat tu tak cakap fusha.

But looking back at the intention of learning arabic. Mainly is to understand the language of the Quran. So Arabic dialect does not seem as important then.

Walaupun my advancement in arabic taklah hebat mana. But Alhamdulillah, I can see the Quran in different view.

Have you tried those 3D pictures where when you stare at it for sometime, another picture will form. Well I like to use this analogy. Because suddenly you see the significant of the letters in the Quran. And I do mean letters rather than word. because arabic words play around a lot with letters like ya at the beginning or ta at the end or ha with dommah at the end or ha with a mad alif. It is like knowing what "ed" for past tense, "ing", adding an "s" except that arabic language is richer. And knowing that makes a different on how you understand the verses.

And when we are listening to the imam and suddenly we find that we can understand just a verse of what he is writing, not because we have memorised it, but because we know what it means. The feeling, I don't know how to describe it, it goes straight to heart. It is nothing like memorising the meaning. It is knowing them. And itu pun belum betul-betul lagi understand the tafsir and all. Alhamdulillah.

Knowing some arabic definitely help me in memorising some surah better. It is somehow not the same as looking at the translation. But I still need translationlah of course. But having said that, memorising has also helped me in my arabic exams. Being lazy as I am, I did not do much revision. Alhamdulillah in the exam, the question asked for some opposite words for "night" (laila. ) and "before" (qabl). I think I know that from the quran. Kih kih kih

I wonder how my friends are doing in their harfiyah class. I am sitting here with envy for I am sure they know more words in the Quran than me because I don't have the opportunity for harfiyah here. Way to go guys.

I see people in the Haram reciting the quran and crying their hearts out without having to refer to the tafsir.

And I just wonder will there ever be that day for me.