Sometimes It's the Little Things....

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم
First things first, I would like to thank you all for giving such an extensive response to my cluelessness to make the decision to either stay at Al-Amin or go to MRSM if I eve get the letter. For now, my decision is to go to MRSM. If you're asking why, it's for the the future. It's with a heavy heart I choose to leave Al-Amin but sometimes I have to think for the future, Al-Amin sadly doesn't give scholarships and frankly today, going to a university isn't cheap.

Okay, moving on to my post.
I'm sure some of you may have heard this story, I got it from my Umrah trip.

A student of Imam Malik once dreamed of his teacher. The student asked Imam Malik whether he is in Jannah or Naar. Imam Malik replied he is in Jannah. The student asked him oncemore; "Did you go to Jannah because of your deeds?".
Imam Malik answered "No, I did not go to Jannah because of my deeds, but because of Allah's mercy. One day when I was writing, a fly perched on my inkpot and drank the ink, I wanted to swat it away, but out of sympathy I held back and let it go. Allah had seen me do this, and rewarding me with Jannah with His Mercy. "

So that's the story. There's nothing much to say here as the story is very straightforward, but I want to wrap up the post. Okay here it is; Sometimes, it's the little things that we do out of compassion and never thought of it as a deed, just something nice to do that get the big thumbs up from our Lord. So to you reading this and I, let this be a lesson, be good at everything and hope for Allah's compassion, even in the little things that we do.
السلام عليكم

The Da'ie Ummah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم
It's been almost a fortnight since I last posted. Been busy cleaning up the house since my house is being renovated...inside out. So I've been kinda busy. 
To date, the poll I set up is now the majority wanting me to go to MRSM. InsyaAllah, I'll be taking my entry test on the 10th of December, so I hope you all pray for my success and other Al-Aminians who applied for MRSM *wink*. 


First and foremost, I would like to thank my old friend, Ahmad Nabil bin M. Noor for reminding me of this subject about our ummah, the Da'ie ummah.


So far as I know, and I know very little, every ummah before the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahualaihiwasallam was always guided by a Nabi or a Rasul and after a Nabi or Rasul was taken by Allah or killed by his own ummah, that ummah goes astray from the Right Path because there are other Nabis and Rasuls to do the job of doing da'wah to the people after the previous Messenger was taken by Allah. All except the ummah of Muhammad Rasulullah (pbuh). 


Muslims of the world today, dominating other religions by numbers of followers. After our Rasul was taken by Allah, the Sahabah carried on his teachings and after Uthman, an Islamic Empire exists. Not long after, about a few centuries after the Khulafa' Ar-Rasyidin. the Golden Age of Islam emerges. Notable names in the Muslim society begin to pop-up in the fields of Science and Mathematics. Whether it's Al-Biruni or Ibn Sina, they had contributed to the world with new knowledge.


How could this happen? This happened because at the time, the ummah was strong, their faith were secure and firm and they fulfilled the duty of a Khalifah magnificently because there are no other people to hold that responsibility, the responsibility of doing da'wah because Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was and is the Last Prophet and the mission of spreading Islam to the world isn't complete.  


How did they do this? They did da'wah not only by talking, preaching to people and spread the truth of Islam, but also through their actions. Their actions speak louder than words, their character was pleasing to everybody and what they said, they did and caught everybody's hearts to embrace Islam.


But, how about now? Today? Where has the empire gone? Where has the character gone? Where has the ummah gone? Being the Da'ie ummah doesn't mean going to a crowd and preach to everybody. It doesn't mean you have to give lectures about Islam to everybody you see. Today, it's more appropriate to preach by actions, show Islam is perfect for everybody. Show that Islam is the perfect Deen, way of life. Like now, I'm doing da'wah, I'm 15 years old and I do da'wah to the world through this little contraption called a computer. 


So, as the Da'ie ummah, and the Last ummah, we must build our character to be the character of the Qur'an or as close as it could be and at the same time, build others, together we can build the ummah again to it's former glory.
السلام عليكم

Tips to Shape Your Akhlak.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

It's been a while since I've posted anything other than stories of my life. I'm not perfect but I'll do my best.

These tips that I'm going to write is written in Ihya' Ulumuddin, a very famous writing of Imam Ghazali being a very famous scholar, I'm sure we'll have benefit following it.

1. Find a teacher that can really guide us. The teacher must be pure of heart and steady in faith. The teacher can see our flaws and weaknesses and able to give guidance on the matter and that can help to repair the flaw.
2. Befriend with somebody who is good willed and steady in faith. This friend can help us to shape our character for the better and we can sincerely accept his/her advice. This is the path followed by famous Muslims before. Saidina Omar al-Khattab once asked Salman al-Farisi, "What weakness do you see in me?". Salman al-Farisi replied with two weaknesses in Omar and Omar accepted it. 
3. Benefit the negative comments from the enemy. Actually, a man can benefit more from the comments from the enemy about his/her flaws than from the praises received from friends. Individuals usually count the critics from the enemy as worthless views contradicting individuals who likes to benefit from criticism.
4. Learn from others' weaknesses. In interactions, at times we find the negativity and flaws in the character of the person. At the time, we must view the discovered weakness of the other person as our own and must be improved. Make others as a mirror of ourself for a mu'min is mirror of another mu'min.

So that's it. I hope we can all benefit from these tips given by the famous scholar Imam Ghazali and become better muslims.

السلام عليكم

Congrats for MPIkhwanul15

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم
It's been quite a while since I updated my blog. Been quite busy with the Form 5 Farewell Event (literal translation). Alhamdulillah it was a success even though it started off quite roughly, the rest of the event went on smoothly (I didn't sit down properly throughout the event, Mu'az's day was even more chaotic). So to all Form 3 2009 Al-Aminians, I say congrats for the successful event, and keep it up. 

I'll borrow this:

The 'Ganu' Experience

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

Sorry for the late update. I didn't have the time to post this after the trip, but seeing as just about everybody is writing about the Terengganu trip, why not join in.
I'm sure my story will be almost the same as the guy next to me, but I'll write anyway.


First day (more like night), 5 Nov.


I arrived at school around nine o'clock, by the time pretty much everybody has showed up, and in no time we were to assemble at the masjid for a briefing, and split into two groups.
I was in Group A, and were to board Bus A. At first my bus wasn't exactly boring,with all the settling in and music and stuff...and then when we stopped at the first Petronas station, and packed our "supplies", after the a couple of hours, everything went silent. I know I wasn't asleep because I was chatting with Alif, so there wasn't anything interesting to say this part of the journey. After around twelve, we snoozed. 

_____________________________________

Second day, 6 Nov.


Okay, here is where the fun the begins. I awoke around 4.15, finding myself at Tengku Zaharah Masjid or more commonly known as the Floating Masjid/Masjid Terapung. We were initially waiting for Bus B to arrive as our bus was somewhat faster. After a while, Bus B arrived, and since it was close to Subh prayer time, we went to the masjid to perform the Subh prayer. The imam read a full surah on both rakaats, the first was the Surah As-Sajdah, and the second was Surah Al-Insan. I pitied the ma'mum, as the majority were the elderly. Even the man in front of me prayed in the sitting position on the second rakaat. 
Then we were on our way to our home stay. Around six in the morning we arrived at a Petronas station, in Tok Jiring. At first we were clueless, wondering where the home stay is, many made jokes that the station is the home stay and to our bewilderment, the answer was it was at a tiny home estate at the back of the petrol station. To me at first, it wasn't as I expected, but Alhamdulillah it was better, a single-storey terrace house. For us boys was reserved three houses, so after a bit of playing with numbers, it was 14 people per house. Many jaws dropped. Soon after we settled in, it turned out quite comfortable even with so many people in a house.
 After everybody washed up a bit and changed clothes and had breakfast (Nasi dagang, a must for a traveler in Terengganu to try), we headed to TTI or Taman Tamadan Islam, or Islamic Civilization Park (literal translation). To our dismay, after RM10 flew away, it rained. It was a let down, but we still went out in the rain. Most of the boys rented bikes, and went on a "patrol" around the park. Al-Hafidz and I, went the old-fashioned way; by foot. Sure we were soaking wet, but it was an awesome experience. It was very nostalgic to see the Masjidil Haram and Masjid An-Nabawi replica. The Syrian masjid/fortress was very interesting, with being built on a hill and doubling as a fortress, it was a nice sight. After getting soaked to the bone, we headed to the restaurant to dry up (we were having lunch at Batu Burok Beach). Because the restaurant has a/c Al-Hafidz, Isyraf and I were shivering like.....something shivering really bad. To warm up, we bought some hot drinks. The hot drinks were really hot, good thing we were cold. Haha....Lunch! "Batu Burok Beach we meet again" popped in my head. It was a very familiar sight. Here I fulfilled my promise to return Alif's favor for buying me snacks on the way to Terengganu. We both bought Nasi ayam, and it was really quick, I suppose they pre-cooked it. 

All of us were shivering, and was kinda hard for me to eat, with the not-so-firm grip. All in all...9 ringgit flew away. 
Up next we went to Noor Arfa Craft Centre. 

It was kinda boring as I've been there before (I go to Terengganu almost annually), and the clothes were way to expensive to be worth buying. So I left NACC empty-handed. 
That night we had a BBQ. 

At first I just watched Arif grill the chickens, then I joined. I'm sure this time I did it right, with the help of Arif  and Isyraf (Thanks!). The lucky draw was exceptionally frustrating; my number was 57, and 56 and 58 were called, but not 57....grrr.....
After we were done I returned to As-Salam 4, smelling smoky and chicken-y and after a quick change (I was smelling like grilled chicken!) I went to bed.

_____________________________________

Last day, 7 Nov


Around 5.15 I woke up and found Mu'az and Al-Hafidz already awake. When it was near Subh, we tried to wake up everybody, the few who didn't got the huge voice of Mu'az calling out: "Bangunlah!". After breakfast we packed up as we were checking-out and headed to Payang Market/Pasar Payang, nothing much to say, bought a long sleeve t-shirt, short sleeve t-shirt and a shirt. 
Terengganu Museum. There was a lot to see, my favourite were as labeled "pickled" animals, like "pickled" snake, "pickled" dolphin and "pickled" dugong. After a bit of scouring I exited, and then (I'm getting tired typing) we went to Batu Burok Beach again for lunch.
This time I bought a plate of sizzling noodles.....and then we were off to Gombak.
On the way we stopped by at Losong to buy keropok lekor, and perform Maghrib and Isha' prayer.
Bus B broke down on the way out of Terengganu, at Lanchang, Pahang. They said the bus's brakes broke down, when you're on Karak Highway, that's a reaaallly bad thing. So after we arrived at Gombak (1 in the morning), Bus A rushed to Lanchang to pick them up.
Ok...so that's about it...

السلام عليكم

The Magic of the Qur'an

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

So, it's been a busy week, with everything. Meetings, meetings, good thing I wasn't involved in the Prefects Feast, if not, I'll be having half of my day in this week at school, but this isn't what I'm posting today.

Okay, I guess the title reveals it, so I'll go straight to the story. So, yesterday, Nafis told me about an awesome qari', his name is Muhammad Taha Al-Junayd. Even though he's just a teenager he has a spectacular voice, and his Qur'an recitation is, MashaAllah, magnificent.

So the post is now dominated by a video of his recitation:

Life Post-Exams.....

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم
Okay...let's review.
There's just one thing that registered; all exams are OVER!
It was a very memorable day, it was like being in 6th grade all over again, having the knowledge that you've finished every exam that is waiting for you that year...are all done, except it's with different people.
On the last day (21 Oct) we were brought with a surprise pleasing or not, it's up to you; every bit of the remaining days of school for us was planned with something and it was the first time this was done:

22-23 Oct  
Mukhayyam at Alang Sedayu.
26 Oct
Nasheed Competition
Musabaqah Tilawatul Qur'an (Qur'an Recitation Competition)
27 Oct 
Futsal and Basketball Tournament.
5 Nov-7 Nov  
Field trip to Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu.

Okay, so I went through the first thing on the list yesterday and I'm gonna tell it to you how it went.
( Firstly I want to apologize for the absence of photos, my camera was kinda broken throughout the whole thing, I swear to God it was.)
We grouped at school and were briefed in the upcoming events awaiting us. I'll just tell you on the way.
Alang Sedayu isn't far off from school it's about a 15-20 minutes drive, in fact I've been there, including this, 4 times but the fun hasn't really worn off.
After we settled in, we went jungle trekking. It was a very familiar course but with very different fillings. This time we were supposed to read the whole chapter 29 of the Qur'an or at least a half of it as we go trekking. I suppose it's because it was post-PMR, I was very,very,very jolly. I even have a spring in my step. In the tunnel, we were suppose to play something to show saleemul aqidah, or soundness of faith. We were asked to step on the rim of the tunnel and fall stiffly, very stiff, like a board, no bending and you're friends must catch you. Proudly I say my facilitator said my fall was the best :) So going on...we arrived at the much awaited waterfall. We had tons of fun as the girls waited :-P (They went in after we got out of the pool forcibly.) 
There was a kind-of-a-meadow above the pool, so we done our Zuhr prayers there. There the facilitators hid our items that we're suppose to guard (they asked us to give them the items) and what else? Find 'em.
Then we went to back to camp.
Then our barbecue began...barbecue! barbecue!...I helped roast the sate (sorry you guys if you ate mine and it tastes not to your liking) and we ate last.
Bla...bla...bla....Maghrib prayers...
A little reminder by Ust./Brother Syarif, I fell asleep accidentally...sorry Brother Syarif!

Next day, I did the first shift of night-guard. Nothing to say...
Morning, after a bit of stretching, we played a game. We had to catch the opposing team's 'tail' while both teams hold each other in any way as long as the bond isn't broken. We lost, twice...what a blow.

Then, a KBM motivator, Abang Bai, we had a little motivation to do good things in our holidays.
Bla...bla...bla...and the end...That was all.

A Tale of PMR

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

Since everybody's talking about PMR, I think I'm gonna tell mine too. 

Okay, I think it probably went okay. I'm sure I aced English (hehe....I can get overconfident now...) but I don't know about Bahasa Melayu Paper 2...when I was writing Section C, the story sounded good, but after we were dismissed, I sounded like....I don't use swear words but it rhymes with rap. Ironic...I'm a Malay and I'm worried I can't ace my own language....I mean what's with that....

Okay, moving on...Science...dunno about the written one...many said it was tough, maybe it's because you gotta use your brain and not the textbook, but I think I can manage it...(I hope you all too). History....well it's history, and I'm not good with you-have-to-memorise- it kind of facts. One error on the date and you're on to something else, but one that repeats history is a fool isn't he? 

Living Skills...I didn't expect the Accountancy questions would have been that easy...and aaahh...the creme de la creme, Arabic. It was manageable but tough...and soon enough I was doing this;

Good thing the word register actually helped this time, unlike in the Trials. 

Many said it was easy, I kinda agreed even though it was stressing. 

Okay, that's my story.

How to do Da'wah Today.

بسم الله الرحمن والرحيم

,السلام عليكم

So here comes the second post. I think the title says it all doesn't it? Da'wah today....

Don't go snoring just yet, if you're going to, get a cup of coffee.

Okay, da'wah. I trust that whenever you hear this word an image of someone giving a sermon will pop up in your head, right? Well that's the traditional way to do it, but what about the youth? Like us? I seriously believe you don't want to hear a boring sermon....a very boring, droning sermon...unless they spike it up with humor, that always works. 

Today, however, there is a new way to do Da'wah; with music. That's right, music.

I'm not saying with rock and roll or anything, just the pleasant kind but you guys obviously know this, but I'm just reminding just in case you forgot.

There's been a lot of examples; like Sami Yusuf, Yusuf Islam, Raihan...all three of them reached a global level, and it works. So if you think you can't give a good, interesting sermon and not bore people to sleep (I don't think I can, haha), try music or the other method; indirect, video sermons, actually more like talks.

Like this guy; Ali Ardekani.

He is one of the quite many YouTube celebrities, having millions of viewers every time, and he teaches Islam to the world by using humor, and people love it.
So brothers and maybe sisters too, who have a great sense of humor, please, try spread the word of Allah....show them the true the true Islam, not the stereotype the West made them think, the terrorist thing...they don't know Islam is a very peace-loving religion.


,السلام
i.am.a.khalifah

A New Leaf : Pilot Post.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

Perhaps all of you are thinking why did I change blogs?

Well, I'll answer that; I wanted a new start, a new theme, a new name that really reflect what I want to say to all of you.

And then I bet you guys thought; '"You already changed like three times already! What's the difference this time?"

No? Then, thanks, this time it's gonna be permanent, I'll make sure of it. Sure there's gonna be few template changes but my title and screen name won't.
So, InsyaAllah, I'll start anew from now on, in this blog.

,السلام
i.am.a.khalifah.