Mushrooming of sports fields in Brunei schoos

I should be asleep by now if I plan to wake up really early. But shouldn’t you only sleep once you’re tired and sleepy? There are certain things in life that I can never figure out. Ah well…

Why are all the schools in Brunei building running tracks and all that jazz? It’s good to have the facilities to encourage Bruneian students to do sports. However, are other things such as money allocated to purchase teaching aids and other audio visual equipment, or the maintenance of schools sufficiently available? It’s Iike a choosing between important and necessary.

During the old and younger days, we would walk to a nearby field to do our sporting activities. It would be on that one day every week. Wouldn’t it be more economical if one sports field was built per catchment area where the nearby schools could go to – just for the timebeing? Hmm..maybe the Brunei infrastructure isn’t helping much with walking or travelling beyond the school compound?

Ahh..all that money on sports fields. I hope it’s worth it.

Life is like a jungle

Inspiring quote of the day:

“How can I live with myself when I know that I’m committing a sin everyday?” – Sz

Ever wondered why committing sins sometimes come so naturally? Ever wondered why we feel lazy to establish salat? Ever wondered why it’s just so easy to swear, cuss and get angry?

How often do we commit sins in a day and just shrug it off? Ever little sin we commit without repentance is like a black dot that gets stuck on the heart. The more we shrug them off, the more the heart becomes concealed. A heart that is concealed will not be able to see The Light or Guidance from Allah…nor would it ever feel true contentment. What is there to life when there’s no guidance? Imagine being stuck and lost in the jungle without a clue on how to survive. Where is the joy in that?

Dreams, disappointments and the right route

Sometimes we have our heart set out on something. We’d arrange and rearrange our lives to prepare for its “arrival”. A boy who you thought you’d get married to…a dream job…or the results of a thesis paper.

But what happens when things don’t turn out the way you had hoped for? What then?

It’d be hard not to feel disappointed or discouraged…and maybe hurt too. But that’s life. It often takes us by surprise. Something that may appear so good and fitting for us may not actually be that suitable for us. And something that we never really considered may actually be the best thing for us. What do we know? We can only see as far as the horizon. We could guess what could be beyond that, but we can never be sure.

So let us not let our disappointments discourage us for moving forward. There will always be an alternative route, and that other route might actually be the best for us.

Cinta dan Syukur ku kepada Mu

Alhamdulilah…alhamdulilah…alhamdulilah… Segala puji bagi Allah keatas segala kebaikan dan nikmat yang telah dikurniakanNya.

Alhamdulilah kerana telah mengizinkan kitani untuk masih bernafas. Allah telah merezekikan masa supaya kitani dapat menambahkan lagi bekalan untuk di akhirat.

Alhamdulilah kerana telah diizinkan olehNya untuk beribadah kepadaNya. Jikalau Allah tidak menghendakinya, dahi ini tidak akan berupaya untuk sujud dan bertasbih kepadaNya.

Alhamdulilah kerana telah menggerakkan dan membuka hati-hati yang telah lama berada dalam kegelapan jauh dari nur Allah. Sungguh sayang Allah kepada hambaNya, walaupun kitani seringkali ingkar kepadaNya.

Ya Rabb… Ya Rabb… Ya Rabb.. Engkaulah Maha Suci, Maha Agung, Maha Luas rahmat & pengampunanMu. Tetapkanlah hamban-hambaMu ini thabat di jalanMu yang haq. Tetapkanlah kami dalam kemanisan iman. Tetapkanlah kami dengan cinta & taqwa kami terhadapMu sehingga penghujung hayat kami.

Amin… Amin… Amin…

Tahun Baru Hijrah: A brand new you

Sometimes I feel as if I want to just lock myself inside the house and never go out. Or maybe cut off all ties with everybody  in the past. All this being done with the fear of having my history coming back to haunt me, or the discovery of my old and nasty skeletons in the closet. So many things to fear, so many things to hide. Mun inda bedusa, inda kan betapuk kan?

But these thoughts remain as mere thoughts. Imagine me staying put inside the house for so long. If I don’t drive myself crazy, I’d drive the people in this house crazy. Now, we wouldn’t want it to go either way now do we? Of course not!

All of us make mistakes. I, for one, realise now that a lot of things I did back then were wrong (most were EXTREMELY wrong). Tau sudah salah, tapi buat jua masih. Now, I realise that maximising pleasure and minimising pain was not a wise ideology to go by. I realise that being young doesn’t give you a ticket to be reckless. I realise that the soul and the very core of my being were never satisfied with all the short and cheap thrills.

Alhamdulilah. When Allah could’ve just abandoned me and left me with my misguided ways, He didn’t. He ALLOWED me to feel remorse for my sins. He ALLOWED me to stop wasting my life away. He ALLOWED me to comeback to my nature, my fitrah. I wouldn’t have been here, and be at this point in life if Allah hadn’t allowed this for me. Indeed, Allah is Most Merciful. Allahu Akbar!

So the moral of the story is, there is always time for us to make taubat to Allah. No matter how far or extreme we’ve gone in life, Allah will always be there to give us His Mercy and Forgiveness. As long as we’re still alive, and it’s not Qiamat (yet)…we still have time.  Never feel that we’re not worthy enough to make sujud to Him. Don’t feel that we’re not worthy enough to make taubat to Him.  Although there maybe that feeling of, “but what if I won’t stop *insert funky activity*”, don’t let that stop us from coming back to Our Creator. We may never actually live long enough to actually step into the club, or have that one drink…or things may come our way that would prevent us from committing that one maksiat (or ALL maksiat!). Kalau kitani ikhlas and banar-banar bertaubat, minta pertolonganNya dan petunjukNya, insya Allah He will guide us and keep us on the Right Path.

Insya Allah, we’ll be stepping into a new Hijrah year. In conjunction to this new year, let us all seek forgiveness from Allah for all our sins. Sama-sama tah kitani rasa menyesal dan bertaubat keatas semua ulah-ulah and perbuatan-perbuatan kitani yang terang-terang berdosa. Let us all have a fresh start. Gone with the old, and in with the new. I would also like to seek forgiveness to all my family and friends. Please forgive me if I have wronged you in any way intentionally or unintentionally. I’m sorry. This imperfect human being will always remain imperfect. And all my wrongdoings come from my very own weaknesses.

May this new year be filled with barakah and hidayah Allah. May we become the mu’min who have constant iman and taqwa in their hearts. Amiin.

Menghitung dosa

Sometimes I can’t think of anything to write.  I often have a lot of things to say, but they hardly get blogged. Why? High response effort!

Anyway.

Earlier this week, I went up to Bandar to hand in my application form. At some point during the journey, I heard this song playing on the radio:

Here’s the chorus:

Tangan berkata apa dilakunya
Kaki bicara kemana ia melangkah
Mata bersuara apa pandagannya
Telinga bercerita apa didengar

Tiba nanti masa
Mulut tidak terbuka
Tiada berkata
Hanyakan mendengar
Tubuh Bersuara saksi berbicara
Amalan semata

Boy~ when I hear this, scared hantap I was!

During this very brief life of mine, how many times did I touch people who were not halal for me? How many times did I go to places that were not beneficial and/or hotspots for maksiat? How many times did I see images of people who were performing zina or exposure of aurat (ranging from light to heavy)? How many times did I intentionally or unintentionally listened to sexually themed songs or listened to gossips? How many times did I use my mouth to cuss, swear, and talk nasty about people?

Too many times. Far too many times.

Sighs.

Ya Rabbi, Ya Ghafur..ampunilah hambaMu ini yang telah banyak mensia-siakan hidupnya dengan melakukan dosa terhadapMu, Ya Allah.

Good things don’t come easy

Good things don’t come easy. We can’t expect to pass an exam if we just enter the exam room without revisions. We can’t expect to have a meal in front of us if we don’t have it prepared. We can’t expect to have money to spend if we’re not making earnings.

Same thing applies to the fundamentals in life.  To attain Allah’s redha, pahala di sisi Allah, His Jannatul Firdaus and the goddies that are up for grabs in this dunia and akhirat requires effort. Tons of effort and sacrifice.  So how much effort are we willing to make to do what really matters? How much are we willing to sacrifice to help us in this ‘race’ before we reach the finishing line?

 

Eid Mubarak.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha.

Islam in Brunei and masajid…only?

Negara zikir or not, the package that comes with la illa hailallah muhammadur rasullullah should always accompany us wherever we go…whether it be Brunei, UK, Australia or Mecca. It’s not about the country and its rules and regulations (e.g. Brunei with its MIB concept), but it’s about being a Muslim.

Islam is syumul – holistic. Islam isn’t just in the masajid and in tahlil arwah. Or in solat hajat and akad nikah. But there should also be Islam in our daily social interactions, education and entertainment (amongst other things). But how often do we remember Allah and the teachings of Rasulullah SAW when we’re talking to our girlfriends, or colleagues? Or when we’re shopping, teaching, or organising an event?

Bukan hendak berlagak alim

 

“…Demi Allah, abang Rusman, saya tidak mahu mengajar atau berlagak alim. Saya hanya merasa perlu untuk meluaskan pesona kebenaran sesuai dengan ajaran Islam. Kerana, jika saya mendiamkan, saya yang kena dosa. Tahu, tetapi tidak memberi tahu”

 

- Tahajjud Cinta, p.36, Muhammad El-Natsir

Insatiability

Can never have enough shoes, handbags or make up? Can never have enough of TV, video games, and sneakers?

Why?

We can never have enough of what we don’t really need.