Ar Rum : The Romans

It some how have been a trend lately, or better yet, this past century, that us muslims are eagerly facinated with weird objects even remotely related to Islam that we would consider as a miracle of Allah.

Let me give u some example:

Fruits with the name of Allah on it. Clouds forming “the eye of god” said to have been seen after the earth quake in Padang. Sajdah standing up in masjids. Babies with ear lobes in the name of Allah. Trees forming the sentance subhanAllah…etc. Just google it up.

Ohh…and Micheal Jackson supposely converted into Islam.

SubhanAllah (all praised be to Allah) if these things were real. But i bet some are just pure adobe photoshop hocus pocus…especially the conversion of MJ. (LOL)

My point of writing this article is not to deny those ’signs’ posted up on the internet the past century…but to clarify to all muslims that we don’t need weird miracles to proof and to contemplate on the existance of Allah and the truth of Islam…all u need to do is get out of your room and look at the sky, the trees and for some of us go to the perinatal unit and look at all the babies delivered. Allah! told us to do so….

ar-Rum:24 — And of His signs is that He shows you the lightening causing fear and aspiration, and He sends down rain from the sky by which He brings to life the earth after its lifelessness. Indeed in that are signs for a people who use reason.

As simple as the planet earth is “the signs” given by Allah for us.

I know i’m the last person that deserve the right to write such article, mainly because my Islam is probably only 0.01% of what it should really be. So it’s up to you to accept it or not.

As i’m an avid fan of national geographic magazines, i’m always astonished that these khafirs (non muslims) are the ones that “…use reasons” and look at “…the signs” from Allah.

My favorite example would be an article on the redwood forest in california on the October 2009 edition.

- this picture is a mosaic of  84 different pictures-

These trees are 1500 years old…that’s as far as jesus right?? i think. Probably older..probably Noah built his big boat out of these trees.

In said article, they also mentioned how prolonged logging have distroyed the forest and now it’s only 1/3rd of what it use to be. This reminded my of another surah…

ar-Rum: 41 — Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by reason of what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of the consequence of what they have done that perhaps they will return (refrain).

Logging in the redwood forest have been overpowered by “Corruption..throughout the land..” and it has contributed to the ever popular global warming “…consequence” of “…what they (we) have done…”. SO..are we going to “…refrain“????

How come Al Gore figured it out??!!

So why strain your eyes to look for said miracles right?? why boggle your mind to figure out if MJ really did convert or not?? We always seek for great big things to feel great and big…it’s the small everyday ones that we always forget!!

Pleasee pleasee correct me if my interpretation of the quranic verses are wrong. But the Quranic knowledge – like the universe — expands and should always be seek in light of new age knowledge and discoveries.

p/s: arni, if u’re reading this, u’re right! internet did destroy traditional media. NatGeo magazine can be read online without having to spend a dime. But the smooth silky shining paper with bright colored photos and sweet smell of print is worth that extra dollar!!

Blackberry killed social life

Let me tell u something about the rave everyone is having on BBs. It’s really annoying how people can meet up for dinner and still be on their BB, facebook-ing. I mean, hello!! Isn’t the whole point of FBs is to have a social network when u’re away from friends…so what the hell is the point of getting together then??!

 

The most annoying scene is when a family gets together and their children are busy BB-ing while their parent wonders away not knowing what to say to their children. HOW DISRESPECTFUL can they be?? Worst if the parent too are busy BB-ing. Trust me, when my family get together I’ll tell off any of my family member that’s busy BB-ing or on any other electronic devices for that matter!

 

 

 

 

“Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking, all electronic devices especially those that are FB compatible should be switch off at all time!!”

Picture this, a group of girls goes out for a movie, 2 of them have BBs while the other 2 don’t. The 2 girls with the BBs are busy FB-ing for god knows what, only pausing to talk to the other 2 girls for a second and to snap a picture or two… so they can post it up on FB via mobile download and tag their friends. In utter annoyance one of the girls without the BB suddenly yelled… GET THE HELL OFF YOUR BBs!!! IF I WANTED TO CHAT WITH U ON FB I’D DO IT AT HOME, WHY BOTHER GOING OUT BITCH!!!!

Some of the crackberry quotes i got from the internet (on my pc, not BB):

In any event, even if I hadn’t already been convinced that these things are addictive toys that slowly take over lives (in effect, Tamagotchi on steroids)…

a new study has discovered that 35 percent of CrackBerry users–specifically, traveling executives–would pick their phone over their spouse

Lastly,… would I want a BB?? Yes please!

Eid Mubarak!

Alhamdulillah, another year celebrating Eid at home..and this time and full fledge one week. As usual started eid with Eid prayers at the Surau As-syakirin and coming back home to a delightful breakfast consisting of chicken rendang, pulut kuning, lemang, nasi impit, kuah kacang and nina’s cakes.

Afterwards we took our family photo, this year managed to have it with the entire family thanks to the new tripod I bought at a discount.

And as usual the 1st person to arrive is my neighbor, aunty liza and family. Her annual stop for breakfast before they travel back to banting.

And as usual dad’s old friend came, and other neighbors follow suit. The usual introduction will be “this is my dearest oldest friend, since PD times, since the kids were still small”.

Ashraf’s friend and his family also came. We only meet them ones a year and they wait every eid to taste my sister’s cakes. They r my favorite family to date!

Ashraf’s brother n Chinese sister in law came with their son and niece, logan n girl-girl. So did ashraf’s aunty n cousin. And it suddenly became is multi cultural event where Chinese, Indian and malay were a family.

 Everything was pretty much THE USUAL….but you can’t help but enjoy the moment. Espacially when this boy got hot!!

More cousins, uncles and aunties came….

 

 I was ohh so tired that I slept of with my baju kurung….but woke up the next morning to a CLEAN house. Mum is a real miracle worker!

 On the 2nd day of eid we went out to Busu’s house and said good bye to my cousin from penang who’s taking a flight to Brisbane for her pHd. On the 3rd day, we had breakfast with another cousin family from penang. Mum cooked mushroom soup mee… (easy and delicious!)

 On the 4th day, as the whole family was worn out from cooking and dish washing, I said…hey, let’s just buy pizza, it’s just the same old buddies from high school! But to our surprise, 2 other families came one after the other. So another round of fast food was bought. A very atypical Raya dish, which surprisingly enjoyed. Beats the usual lemang n rendang.

Family friend from PD

 Day 5, another family friend from PD.

Day 6, went to din’s for his open house. His nasi tomato was the bomb!! Enjoyed meeting up with old friends from London..liza and shake.

Day 7, cousin’s wedding in banting.

Anywhere between day 4 and 5, I lost my voice. “Nailaa, can u call Kate, I think she stole my voice!”

Lailatul Qadar

Tsunami Watch Lifted

Tsunami watch lifted…

The quake was reconfirmed to be at 7.0 mag.

red dot marks the epicenter!

Some of the photos my friend took…sempat jugak!

Life goes on as usual…pray that there will be no recurrents..

Breaking News

Today at about 3 pm there was an earthquake in west java. (My second experience here)

I was at the hospital’s ENT clinic, and barely knew what had happened except to follow everyone running down and hearing ladies screaming “Allah hu akbar”.

Alhamdulillah this isn’t the epicenter and so nothing bad happened…and we could still laugh about how all of us was in panic afterwards.

The quake was measured at 7.3 mg.

I went on facebook and traced how many post were made about it..apparently up to 45 minutes ago people were already posting up comments about it. Now it’s only 4 pm….

A tsunami watch is in effect….

Pintu

(Here’s a summary written by my father of an Usrah given by Utz. Kariman today)

Kenapa Nabi Muhammad SAW bersabda”

“Bila tiba Ramadan Pintu Syurga di buka, Pintu Neraka di tutup dan syaitan di belenggu”

Hadis ini hadis shahih riwayat Bukhari dan Muslim(?).

In mungkin memberi makna bahawa pintu syurga di tutup, pintu neraka di buka dan syaitan bebas di bulan2 selain ramadan!

Kalau benar, ia bercanggah dengan firman Al Zumar (39) ayat 71 dan 73, di mana Allah berfirman

Dalam ayat 71

orang2 kafir akan di bawa ke neraka jahanam berdoyong doyong daan apabila mereka sampai di neraka, dan pintu pintu neraka di buka………..

Dalam ayat 73

Orang2 yang bertakwa kapada Tuhan mereka, di bawa ka surga berdoyong doyong dan apabila mereka sampai pintu syurga telah di buka untuk mereka dan …….

Lihat rangkaian kata “Futihat abwaabuhaa”. Ayat 71 tidak ada “wa” sebelum nya walhal ayat 73 ada “wa” sebelum nya . Ini memberi makna pada ayat 71, pintu neraka hanya di buka bila orang2 kafir sudah sampai di pintu neraka, walhal ayat 73, bermaana pintu syurga telah terbuka bila orang2 takwa sampai di pintu syurga.

Ini Nampak macam bercanggah dengan sabda rasul SAW. Tidak mungkin sabda rasul SAW bercanggah dengan ayat Quran.

Apa yang sebenarnya nabi maksudkan Ramadan dan puasa mengajar kita menjadi “ikhlas”. Kerana ibadah puasa di buat tidak siapa yang tahu berlainan dengan ibadah2 yang lain, saperti solat, haji, baca Al Quran, bersedekah, berzakat, korban, akikah, zikir dan lain. Keiklasan beribadat mungkin tercemar kerana bila orang tahu, kita mungkin “riak” (riak ialah syirik; membuat ibadah bukan kerana Allah tetapi kerana manusia, seperti bermegah megah dan lain). Hanya puasa sahaja ibadah yang tidak di ketahui orang dan mengajar kita melaksanakan nya dengan ikhlas.

Kerana ikhlas lah yang membuat syaitan tidak dapat mengasut kita (di belenggu) saperti firman Allah dalam surah Shaad (38) ayat 82 dan 83, dimana iblis berkata “ Demi kekuasan Engkau (Allah), sungguh aku (iblis) akan menyesatkan mereka semua (manusia) (82) kecuali hamba hamba Mu yang mukhlashiin (orang yang ikhlas).

Maka syaitan sentiasa terbelenggu pada mereka mereka yang ikhlas. Antara cara2 mendapatkan ke ikhlasan, membuat ibadah tanpa di ketahui orang, tanpa meminta balasan walaupun terima kaseh. Saperti Qiamullail (solat malam) berseorangan dengan khusuk.

Kesimpulannya, bagi mereka yang beribadah dengan ikhlas, syaitan tidak akan dapat menyesatkan mereka (syaitan di belenggu) dan mereka jauh dari neraka (pintu neraka tertutup bagi mereka) dan mereka di masuk kan ka syurga (pintu syurga di buka bagi mereka). Puasa Ramadan mengajar manusia beribadah secara ikhlas kerana tidak siapa yang tahu sama ada seseorang itu berpuasa atau tidak kecuali Allah. Ini membuatkan ibadah itu di lakukan dengan ikhlas kerana hanya mengharapkan pembalasan Allah semata2 . Oleh beribadah seorang seorang saperti solat sunnat, sedekah sembunyi2, tolong orang tanpa di ketahui oleh orang termasuk orang yang di tolong, melatih kita bersikap ikhlas beribadah pada Allah SwT.

One step forward, 3 steps back.

What horrible things i had to endure….. All i want and needed to do was study, get my degree and go home. I guess it isn’t as simple as it sounds.

I have to admit that i did have that prejudice reaction when i heard i had to come here for my medical degree. Supported by the bad conditions that ‘welcomed’ me at the shanty university town, i despised this place and had a really bad 1st year. It went by like pulling off a bandage – fast and pain-full , after awhile i started to get used to it. Keep my eyes on the price i’d always tell myself.

Until…one day, came a bad news. The ambalat issue. Some rotten piece of area located smack in between malaysia and indonesia. Both countries claiming it as their own. As a patriotic malaysian, none of us gives a damn about it saying that it was none of our business (because most of us was too busy feeding our own big fat stomach) and we should let the politician handle it, like they always do. As a patriotic Indonesian, the students post up signs on campus wall saying “ganyang malaysia” (bash up malaysia) and “maligsia” (thief-sia).  Ironic right, the difference between the two response?

I spent 4 years in that “shanty town” which was actually developing quite rapidly i might say – owing to the burst of students (including malaysians) that was sattlingthere. Imagine … 1st year : one way trip with the “angkot” (local transport) cost rp500 (< 15 cents) and 4th year: one way trip cost Rp1500, that’s 3 fold increase in 3 years! Now there’s a mall, a cinema and a wider road…and plenty of opportunity for the locals. (a cowboy town smack in the middle of route 52).

After that 4 years i figured 2 more years will fly by without any prejudisme. I guess i was wrong. At the point when i move to the hospital, more and more anti-malaysian news came up. Suicide bomber, “half blood princess” Manohara (more famous then the bomber mind u), tarian pendet (balinese dance) and many more.

Again, Malaysians, including us here couldn’t be bothered about it.

1. The suicide bomber, even if he’s a Malaysian, he’s in Indonesian soil and in Indonesian’s jurisdiction, the malaysian police force can’t actually get in the Indonesian border and arrest this guy. They are too busy anyway – blocking the highway because of “tomorrow’s” demonstration. (Opps!)

2. Manohara. Is she even indonesian in the 1st place? ( i tot she was a britt).  We Malaysians don’t care about royalty!! unless it’s Prince william, princess diana or during malaysian royal’s birthday —  to get “Datok-ship”. And mind u, we have 11 royal family (ELEVEN!). I only know Raja Petra Kamaruddin (because he’s a political activist).

No matter how much i hate to discuss this… every day there will be a person that will  bring it up. Prejudice against us students in the hospital. It always feel like when i’ve accomplished something great in my life (to graduate bachelor of medicine in this case), i’d only drop back to square one, where ppl despise and ridicule me. ONE STEP FORWARD, 3 STEPS BACK.

I remember this very wise man from Ponorogo (near solo) said, “If u had  painted a wall white, and really worked hard on it, if there was a speck of black on it, people will always notice that black spot and not bother on how hard u had worked on that white wall”. God bless him!

This only reminded me of a verse in the Quran (I forgot which)…God said people who does good will be relieve of THE MISERY OF THE WORLD when he dies. Even god knows this world is just one big misery…i wonder why the aethist don’t realize this. What a waste if u’d work so hard in this misery-full life and died and get nothing in return.

Alamak…dah melencong. Ok, back to the topic.

I remember there was this time when i had a discussion with a political rep. from malaysia about medschool here and how i think it’s still improving but needed more time to get it right  i suggested we stop student coming here if we want maintain our doctor’s quality (being over ambitious as usual). “Ohh no, we can’t do that”, said the political rep. from malaysia, “We’d ruin our malaysian-indonesian ties, we wouldn’t want that!” 

This nice guy were worried about political ties, and here we’re battling about who’s the rightful owner of BATIK??! (i rest my case)

Sparking an international conflict will only blind u of what’s really happening nationally. It’s a nation wide conspiracy to bring chaos and to hide what is really going on internally. <– this is really what’s happening in malaysia AND indonesia.  

No matter how much i wish i could go home asap…i’d always pray that god will make me return and truly give back what i got staying here for 6 years. All the ibu-s and bapak-s that had help me realized who i am and what this world is really about. No such thing as “the grass is greener on the other side”. All the ibu-s and bapak-s that had to travel 6 hours to get to the hospital only to wait another 6 hours to meet the doctor for 5 minutes…only to realize they haven’t settled the ASKES (health insurance) documents and had to pay for the medication. No such thing as “mankinds right to healthcare”.  I know i can’t change it, but at least… maybe join our annual ‘free palatoplasty’ (for cleft lip) trip to indonesia and probably enjoy some backpacking around sumatera while i’m at it (to support indonesian tourism that is! hehe).

I end this post by quoting Dr. Haryati Baitun:

“So, for the sake of peace and love (lebay…), the next time someone asks me “Kamu orang Malaysia ya?” I’m going to say “Nggak, saya cuma orang yang biasa-biasa aja, yg bercita-cita untuk berkeluarga dan memiliki 3 ekor kucing satu hari nanti.” Titik!”

Ohh..and another quote by Dr. Azura:

“makan indomie bile kat bandung dgn kat malaysia rasa lain.nape ek?best lagi bile makan kat bandung.huu”

In response to:  Kompasiana.com

This article is in no way an insult to any malaysian or indonesian in particular. If u feel insulted, please leave a comment and i will apolagize directly. thank you!

Ramadhan Mubarak!!

Wishing everybody Ramadan Mubarak. Thank Allah we get to go through it again in this life time.

Like a new year, i usually make a resolution of what i’m going to achieve in this year’s Ramadhan. All involving ibadah of course. But add in the daily hospital routine and exams after 3 weeks, the question is, will i make it??

Spirit is usually up in the 1st week…but constantly deteriorate as it goes by (espacially when i know it’s almost time to go home!!), when as a matter in fact it should be the opposite way.

I guess this is the time when people get their dusty Al-Quran out of the shelves and vaccuum the masjid’s carpet from half inch thick dust or are they already busy thinking about what to make and wear for EID?? lol

Bless is this month…not everybody get to feel it’s true spirit.

Xanax nation

(this article is dedicated to my mother)

 

Have you ever woke up in the morning feeling like tones of stones were pounding down on your chest? Even getting up in the morning, get dress and do simple daily activities were a real challenge. Did you ever look at something in particular and start to burst out in tears? Have you ever been in a phase where u just can’t get a good night sleep or some even sleep constantly with that heavy feeling at the instant you open your eyes? Have u ever feel like a sword is pierced up your chest or the feeling of a whole apple was stuck up your throat? The feeling of everything u did was wrong and worthless. Have you?? You have?? Try having it everyday for 360 days of the year!

 

That’s a medical condition known as ‘depression’ some with and some without manic episodes. Some with and some without suicide tendencies. They are so many forms and not everybody who looks sad and pathetic can be diagnosed as having depression.

Without us realizing it our community today have seen a rising number of depressive illness. ”Yang orang dulu-dulu panggil orang gile tuhhh”, ”org dulu-dulu”?? i think nowadays there are still people who think that way, worst still if they have the idea of a supernatural having anything to do with the odd behaviour. How shallow is our community??

The one person that would know most (from the inside) about this is my mom. Having to deal with people having depression seem to be a major role in a life without even her noticing it. How incredible that Allah gave her the ability to understand about this disease even without having to undergo years of specialistic studies.  

Medically, depression is said to be due to some inbalance in the brain’s hormone, mainly dealing with serotonin. What??! exectly! I have no idea. Haven’t been in my psychiatric rotation yet, in 2010, insyAllah. hehe

Mummy have been dealing with people in depression since even before i was born. It was in people within our family (It is said that depression is hereditary). I believe her support and understanding was the best medication for those who had depression. Beats xanax and proxac! That’s why if anyone who comes up to me and say that they have symptoms of depression (up till now, sooo many actually), i’d say “Go and talk to your mom!!”, in a nice way of coz. For that matter, if it’s not your mother, a family member would do. Who would understand you better if not those people whom watch you grew?

Mummy endured times when even she felt like she couldn’t breath, sleep or eat while caring for them. The one thing she told me was she remembered that there was a point she kept on Dzikir asking Allah for help that when she woke up, she woke up still Dzikir-ing, subconciously.

This is why when you’re dealing with patients with depression, it’s not just them that needs the treatment, it’s also the people around them. Depression is like an infectious disease and can either break a family apart or bring them even closer together.

I wouldn’t, in my life time, use it as an excuse to justify / acknowladge any bad situation i am in. It should be something to be fought off not encouraged. I remember reading a book by Paulo Coelho — “The alchemist” which tells a story about a boy’s journey to look for a treasure and it brought him to this alchemist…here’s their conversation.

“my heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, “It doesn’t want me to go on”. “that makes sense,” the alchemist answered. “Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dreams, you might lose everything you’ve won.”