Questionnaire

We had a questionnaire session during our English class this week, as an activity to ‘get to know one another’. Each of us must ask each of us in the class at least one question and we had to present the results. 50 questions asked by and to 50 students.

I chose two simple questions to ask. A question that would not require me to interact too long with the interviewee. “Is physiology your favourite subject?” and “Are you left- or right-handed?”

I was asked 50 different questions. Some of them were superficial, and some were deep. I tried to answer honestly, not trying to be too philosophical or theoretical. I established a protagonist (everybody else) and an antagonist (myself).

“Who do you prefer to marry: someone younger, older, or of the same age?”
“I’m indifferent. We’re all going to die one day.”

“What makes you upset?”
“Myself.”

“What is your dream?”
“I want everyone to be happy.”

“What would you do if today is the last day of your life?”
“I’d be good to everyone.”

Ah, general answers. Good and happy are subjective, right?

Good is what decreed good by God, and bad is what decreed bad by God.

But that last question — memang sangat menyentap. Deep.

FPSK

Alhamdulillāh.

Thank you my Lord for giving me another chance to live as Your servant.

I am aware of Your bounties and I am aware of my sins;
Forgive me my Lord, for there is none who can forgive me but You.

Āmīn.

Relativity of Time

People (including me) would rather spend four hours doing random things on the internet than four minutes of istighfar while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

It’s only for four damned minutes and we are complaining; why not lament our lost four hours?

As Ronald Weasley said, we really need to sort out our priorities.

Human beings can be dumb sometimes. Intelligence is the quality possessed by those who plan their death i.e. prepare for the Hereafter.

Dunya is deceptive. Yet, it is also mazra’atul akhirah.

O Allah, guide us.

/aaiz

Persevere, Ilman!

My blogging has been stagnant for quite some time.

Assignments, quizzes, tests, reports—continuous torrents of these are making me more and more selfless. Less and less human. More and more robotic. It’s not unfrequent that I thought of running away. It’s not just one or two times that I questioned myself: Am I enjoying this? Do I really love this life?

Sem. Break = Books & Photography :)

Assalamualaikum~

Alhamdulillah, I survived the first semester of Tamhidi USIM. After five months of roller-coaster life, the time I've waited for since the start of the semester has come... the semester break! And on top of that, my one-month holiday kicked off with two killer programmes: KL Photography Festival and book-shopping~! :D

“Easy for you; you’re genius.”

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

To be frank, I have received the titular reply numerous times from my friends. And it is usually when I ask or advise them to do things which, more or less, contradict their ‘common sense’ on the factors of success. Alas, ‘common sense’ is never the absolute measure of truth; and in this post I shall reveal the irony behind the phrase.

Alhamdulillah.

Salaamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

Alhamdulillah. All Praises be to Allah, the Lord of All Worlds who created you and me.

Today, I have two happy news to share with my readers :)

Great Post-SPM Life!

Salaamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

Today is March 7th, 2010. Exactly one month after Jatidiri ended. My life has changed quite a bit after the camp. Maybe it's just because I'm not a school student anymore, but I'm totally convinced that my post-SPM life would be very different without Jatidiri.

What Jatidiri Means to Me

Salaamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

I've been yearning to write this post since I came back on 7th February, but I just couldn't. First, maybe because it's in English, and second, I am a bad summarizer, therefore to contain 47 days of great experiences into one single post is too much for me. Do I need to mention the writer's block? In this post I'll just grab keywords here and there which pop up into my mind when I think of Kursus Jati Diri dan Kesukarelawanan Remaja 2009/2010 (JATIDIRI) - the best camp that I have ever attended.

2-Month Hiatus

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

I've a really sad announcement to make: I maybe wouldn't be updating this blog for two months. A few hours later (10:25 AM), I need to fly off to Kelantan to attend a course named Kursus Jati Diri dan Kesukarelawanan Remaja organised by HALUAN, an NGO. But still, the course insya-Allah will be filled with things so valuable to me. So, I need to take this lift. And I won't be updating my Markaz as promised in the last post. To my valuable readers, I'm truly sorry. Please do read my previous posts … and read my family's and friends' blogs yeah!

*At-Taqwa is finished — Alhamdulillah!

Wassalam~

Do Judge Your Book by Its Cover

Salamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

People always say: never judge a book by its cover. Well, this is true—the cover does not necessarily reflect the contents of a book. So we, who have known this, should never judge something by only its outward appearance. Yeah, never judge a book by its cover, but always judge your book by its cover. Don't get it? Continue reading.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Zakiy-chan!

Salamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

Was he not in my mother’s womb before he was born, I’d say he’s a gift that Allah bestowed upon us from the heavens. And that happened exactly 13 solar years ago. With these hands I hereby craft a post, made of love and brotherhood, to a cute little someone, who has always made us cheerful, who had saved me from the boredom of being alone: I dedicate this post to my li’l bro, Ahmad Zakiy Mohsin.

Life is Making Decisions

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

Once, a Muslim American motivator told us: life is making decisions. You and I have met countless choices since the beginning of our consciousness. And, you and I have made countless decisions for every choice that we face. The question is: on what basis should we decide when we face these junctions in life? A more interesting question is: do we really have the choice in making decisions? More after the jump!

It Ain’t What We Learn!

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

SPM is near—less than one month away—so does the year-end exam for First to Fourth Formers of IKISS. What do you think the most appropriate thing a student should do at times like these? Be prepared. Yes. However, with what kind of preparation? Study, revise and practise? Heh, tis not that man… What we have in our heads contribute nothing, not even one-percent, to our success in the examination. So what is the real thing a student must do prior to the exam? More after the jump!

SPM Trial Results

Salaamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

Alhamdulillah, we meet again. I got a lot to write as a lot of things have happened. However, I guess I'll make 'em short and post 'em in one go. From the trial results to At-Taqwa, this post tells my life for these past weeks.

The Last Halaqah

Salaamun 'ala man ittaba' al-Huda.

Last Friday, I didn't went to school for various reasons. Despite that, I still begged my father to send me to school after Maghrib. Why? Because that night was the night of our last Halaqah for our school days.

My Eid Photos!

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

It’s this time in the year again! Eid pics! This journal post is dedicated just to that … I don’t think I like Facebook for storing my images, though. So my kith and kin, head to my blog for my version of Eid al-Fitr!

Someone died today.

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

Today is Friday. It’s the Eid holidays so Zakiy and I went to Jami’ Ar-Rahimiyah for the Friday Prayer. Everything was normal until, after the post-solah du’a, the Imam announced that we were going to perform the janazah prayer. A woman died; I heard from the people talking that she is a custom’s daughter. Inna lillah wa inna ilaihi raji’un.

And so we went to the front to perform the prayer. It kinda makes me sad. A sizable congregation was there performing the solah, but even a lot more just left the mosque, not even bothering to perform the solah which takes less than three minutes with no bowing nor prostrating. What has happened to our society?

Eid Mubarak, minna!

Salaamun ’ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

I guess I’m a bit late this year to wish “Selamat Hari Raya” to all my blog readers specifically and to all Muslims generally. So, Selamat Hari Raya! To quote the traditional Islamic greeting for every celebration, kullu 'aam wa antum bikhair. It means, may you be in wellness every year. My Eid this year is not so much different this year compared to last year, except that I now own a DSLR and I still don't get angpau from Ummi and Abah yet! :)

Eid al-Fitr means celebration of fitrah. Fitrah on the other hand, means “the original state”. This Eid is to celebrate the return of a Muslim to his fitrah; his original state of creation. Man, and all other creatures, originally submit to the decree of Allah. However, Allah has honoured man by giving him free will. This free will, other than being an honour, is also a tribulation. Man can choose whether he wants to stay on his fitrah as all other creatures in this universe do, or deviate from God's path and become astray.

Spring Cleaning

Salaamun ’ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

Eid Mubarak, everyone. Do you notice anything different about my blog today?

Totally. I did a total redesign of my blog. I even deleted all my previous posts. In the spirit of Eid when people were busy doing house-cleaning, I decided to do some spring cleaning on my blog. My previous posts— some are good but a great deal of them are junk. So, after making a backup, I cleared my blog. Don’t worry, they will be posted back on this blog — once I edited them. :)

More design rationale after the jump!