When Going Abroad

We are taking a winter break and will be travelling Insya Allah. I thought of putting down some reminders for them in their excitement. May we not bring back things that do not please Allah.

I thought of sharing this story with my children (taken from Ar Raheeq Al Makhtum; The Sealed Nectar).

The story is about Amr bin Luhai. He is the chief of the tribe Khuza'a. He was also known as one of the righteous person in Makkah in his time. Do read on.

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Most of the Arabs had complied with the call of Prophet Ishmael alaihi salam, and professed the religion of his father Prophet Abraham alaihi salam. They had worshipped Allâh, professed His Oneness and followed His religion a long time until they forgot part of what they had been reminded of. However, they still maintained such fundamental beliefs such as monotheism as well as various other aspects of Abraham’s religion.

Until the time when a chief of Khuza‘a, namely ‘Amr bin Luhai, who was renowned for righteousness, charity, reverence and care for religion, and was granted unreserved love and obedience by his tribesmen.

One day, he came back from a trip to Syria where he saw people worship idols. This is a phenomenon he approved of and believed it to be righteous since Syria was the locus of Messengers and Scriptures.

And then he brought with him back an idol (Hubal) which he placed in the middle of Al-Ka‘bah and summoned people to worship it. Readily enough, paganism spread all over Makkah and, then, to Hijaz, people of Makkah being custodians of not only the Sacred House but the whole Haram as well. As a result of this, a great many idols, bearing different names, were introduced into the area. [Mukhtasar Seerat-ar-Rasool p.12]

An idol called ‘Manat’, for instance, was worshipped in a place known as Al-Mushallal near Qadid on the Red Sea. Another, ‘Al-Lat’ in Ta’if, a third, ‘Al-‘Uzza’ in the valley of Nakhlah, and so on and so forth. Polytheism prevailed and the number of idols increased everywhere in Hijaz.

It was even mentioned that ‘Amr bin Luhai, with the help of a jinn companion who told him that the idols of Noah’s folk – Wadd, Suwa‘, Yaguth, Ya‘uk and Nasr – were buried in Jeddah, dug them out and took them to Tihama. Upon pilgrimage time, the idols were distributed among the tribes to take back home. [Bukhari 1/222]

Every tribe, and house, had their own idols, and the Sacred House was also overcrowded with them. On the Prophet’s conquest of Makkah, 360 idols were found around Al-Ka‘bah. He broke them down and had them removed and burned up. [Mukhtasar Seerat-ar-Rasool p.13-54]

Polytheism and worship of idols became the most prominent feature of the religion of pre-Islam Arabs despite alleged profession of Abraham’s religion.

Listen to this: Traditions and ceremonies of the worship of their idols had been mostly created by ‘Amr bin Luhai, and were deemed as good innovations rather than deviations from Abraham’s religion.

I wrote down my lesons from this story in the other lollies' site. Read HERE.

Do share what are the lessons you derive from this story so we can help enrich one another.

Winter Break

The school will be off for two weeks by this Tuesday. I will be taking a break too.

We will be going to Dubai this Tuesday to visit so many blogger friends there, Insya Allah. Will be driving and staying over at Elisa's from the defunct elisataufik.blogspot.com. Hoping to meet Ruby from maknenek blogspot. Thetha from anamcarathots blogspot, blabs from blabarella blogspot and of course nazrah from nazrahayu blogspot. All of the blogs are defunct or almost defunct. hahahhahaha. But the person are functioning extremely well!

So I am staying until Wednesday and then will be flying off somewhere else. he he. We will, insya Allah fly off to Iran. :D.

So this is the plan and as usual I will put a map.



So like I said, I will be flying to Tehran from Dubai, Insya Allah. Immediately the next day we will drive to the north and our stop will be in Dizin - ski resort. Main snow and perasan boleh ski walhalnya tak boleh. I am still praying the snow is good enough.



We will overnight there. And the next morning will travel further north driving along the Caspian sea and stopping at wherever that is worth to stop. Which is plentiful.



And the next day we will travel even further north to visit and stay at the village of masouleh famous for their charming village by the hill.

Will then go to Zanjan and visit Sultaniyeh and its famous 'washing room."



If Allah permits, we will then move even further to the North to the town tabriz. and Insya Allah to visit its Bazaar and other things. But my main highlight will be the village of kandovan, the kapadokkya of Iran.



We will then fly to Esfahan, the jewel of Iran. This is my lover's main interest.



We will end the Iran trip back In tehran and visit their famous museums Insya Allah before flying back to Dubai and spend sometime with good friends over there.



We hope to see some of the beautiful sceneries there and even more.

We ask Allah to protect us during the journey and the journey will enrich our experience and will only increase our eeman.

Adik Beradik

Haziq shares the room with Jack while Sya sleeps on her own. That's the plan.

But sometimes jack is found in Sya's room. Sometime Sya is found bunking in with her brothers. And sometime to the annoyance of haziq, he sleeps in Sya's while the other two cramped in Jack's small bed.

But now they have a plan and both of them told little jack to sleep with me instead. So they could have privacy in their rooms.

I don't mind Jack sleeping with me. I do miss his presence. Lover is annoyed though. But still say yes and send him to our bed when Jack ask for his permission.

And this was tonight. Each of them told jack to sleep with me. Of course I told the two of them off for sending jack out of their rooms.

Anyway, before he sleeps, I read with him the story of habil and Qabil. A simple one with pictures to colour. And when come the part that Habil got killed, Jack began to look sad.

And when we finish it with Habil being buried, he cried.

I was not expecting that.

I hugged him and reminded him that he has brother and sister who loved him.

Ooooppss I forgot, the two just send him out of their rooms.

Haziq was already feeling guilty when I told him off earlier. And when I called the two of them, and when they saw him, they hugged him and treat him like a baby until a smile came back to his face.

Then Haziq accussed me of purposely chose this story tonight.

Later I told Jack that Allah tells us stories in the quran for us to take lessons from. I cried, I told Jack, to many stories because of the lessons that I derived from some of them. Understandably that you cried in this one. Allah wants you to take lesson from this story. jealousy. Siblings rivalry. Fear of Allah. I didn't use these big words though.

I ask Allah that my children will continue to love each other for the sake of Allah even without my presence. May they live their life in taqwa.

Quiz

The New President of the ASS (the Malaya association that i was the editor for in 2006-2007) asked me to participate in a quiz for the Qtar national day. The quiz is for the non-arab expats in this country.

Hmmm hmmm hmmm.

Punyalah banyak hmm, finally I did agree to it. I don't know why I agreed. Whereas I know I have exams and TONNES of unfinished work this week. Sedikit menyesal pun ada.

But I went on anyway along with nine other team members who are more knowledgeable than I am. He he. We had to read up the history of Qatar. How it was found, formed and general knowledge.

The quiz was held last night. SOme written questions and some verbal. Thankfully it is team work effort. Kalau sorang-sorang mati kot.

The other countries that participated were India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Phillipines and I cannot remember the other one.

I haven't read anything factual as much as this in a few hours. To the extent I can now recite to you the country's national anthem. I can also list down the rulers of this country since 19th Century.

Kepala pun tepu.

Once in a while I would disturb one of the participants and discuss through. I think that was helpful. Talking helps?

Anyway the important thing to tell you is WE WON! He he. Cash plice woooo!!! QR5000 for the group. QR500 seorang. Alhamdulillah

Penyesalan yang sedikit itu tadi nampaknya sudah hilang.

Siapa nak kasi 500 ya tak?



Page 3, the Peninsula, 17th December 2010.

In case you are looking for me, I am right at the elbow of the quiz master.

Bakar Semangat

Subhanallah! I am feeling overwhelm. It's like I am chasing things but it always slip off my hand.

Perhaps the lessons are getting tougher. And Subhanallah things are always piling up. One will always be busy. And one will get busier and continue to be busy.

This is what I said to the girls in the teenage group that I handled before (not anymore). they didn't believe me. They think that their busy studying for exam is the ultimate busy of their life. Ever!

And I smiled at them for I have eaten loads of salt and I know that these girls whose life are in the best comfort life can give. Chaperoned everywhere. Kerja rumah pun minimal. Schooling international. Busy?

They wouldn't know they will get no less busy than what they have.

So many knowledgable people have attained the best of family life, the knowledge of the deen and the knowledge of dunya and can still manage their life. Do they have 24 hours like me? Allah Mustaan. May Allah put barakh in my time.

In short, take care of your time. take beneficial knowledge. Because dunya will get busier. make time, then you will have time.

Anyway, just something to burn the semangat for me. The comment says it is a funny video.

Then why am I crying?

The Day the Horns Honk!!

Qtar won the bidding to host the World cup in 2o22!!

They won hands down against Korea, Japan. The States and Ostrolia.

These are the number of votes
First round
Qatar 11
South Korea 4
Japan 3
US 3
Australia 1 (eliminated).

2nd round
Qatar 10
South Korea 5
US 5
Japan 2 (eliminated).

3rd round
Qatar 11
US 6
South Korea 5 (eliminated).

4th round
Qatar 14
US 8.

I petik from one of my facebook friends who said he takes it from Reuters. he he.

And Qtar ran wild the very night and the following. Horns echoed everwhere. people honked their car horns. People blow the vuvuzela. People dancing on their car. Sitting out of the window of a moving car. Driving crazier than normal. Accidents too.

The first ever Middle east country will host the W0rld cup! Wow!



Anyway the truth is I was actually hoping that Qtar wouldn't win the bid. I have been through the experience of this country hosting a smaller event that World Cup which is the Asian Games. And the havoc the country runs into was a burden to people like me.

The house rental would go sky rocket high. Seriously during the time of the Asian Games, they even rent out houses which was build from gypsum for thousands. This year the house went down a little bit making normal houses more affordable. But with the coming sport event, I speculate the rents would go up.

Why just this morning we went to scout a house for a friend, and the same house we asked before has increased by QR2000 and upon questioning, the owner said, "It's the Games."

And they will get the experts to build the nation so they can spend billions on making the event. Experts selalunya mat salleh who will put up high demand and high perks and affording all the good houses. reflecting back in the year 2006 during the Asia Games. We were left with partitioned houses paying 10k at that.

The grilled chicken now cost QR4 more than yesterday.

I wonder also would this country be ready for the ripple effects that come with the events. Woman in little fabric. Booze. Mingling.

The general ruling in this country is that woman are not allowed to wear skimpily and everyone should obey this. When I came in 2005, people were more modest. I have heard of the locals would tell the women off for dressing too tight, too low and too short. Nowadays people do not seem to mind anymore. We'll see more of this or less of fabric in 2022.

Up to 2010, alcohol cannot be drunk in public.

I don't know how long will I be in this country. Would I even be here in 2022? I would be 50!! Would I even be alive?

But for now, I'll probably observe what this country will have to go through to be among those who host the world's most watched game.

And I suppose congratulations are in order. Hope it doesn't kill us too fast.