The usage of the term MasyaAllah vs Astaghfirullah

I need a quick break peeps...hence, I need to write something here *happy*.

As a Muslim, it is our responsibility to share what little knowledge we have with each other. I'd like to do my bit today by sharing the correct use of the phrase “MasyaAllah”. I can't help but notice that some of us, Malay Muslims especially, are using the phrase in a wrong context. MasyaAllah by definition means “Allah Maha Agung”.

More than a decade ago an Arab woman said this to me upon seeing my wedding ring “MasyaAllah, what a beautiful ring” (she was just trying to being nice of course. My ring is an ordinary ring by the way, but that’s not the issue here lol!). That was when I realised that I was using the term incorrectly more than half of my life. The correct instance to use the phrase is when we see something nice or beautiful, like the nice Arab lady did. For example, we say “MasyaAllah she is such a beautiful baby”, or “MasyaAllah! what a nice home you have”, and NOT when we see something bad or unfortunate.

Instead, “Astaghfirullahal’azim” is to be used when we see something of a bad nature, met with an unfortunate incident or see something awful. By definition it means “Aku memohon ampun kepadamu Ya Allah”. For example, when we see an individual did something very bad, we should say “Astagfirullahal’azim” and not “MasyaAllah”.

JazakAllah.

10 things I love about Malaysia, really!

I was ‘browsing’ the newspaper earlier today (yes, these days I opt to browse the news instead of reading them) and came across an article written by a guest writer. She wrote about 10 things she likes about Malaysia, which includes the architecture, the food, the weather, the people and the other customary 10 things that people would write about. Then I thought, hmmmm since I need to ‘warm up’ my brain perhaps I should write something like that too. So, here it goes...

10 things I love about Malaysia, really!

1. The weather (I know it’s cliché but I just have to say that I love it!): Although people generally hate the hot & humid Malaysian weather (including my other half), I would not trade it for anything, ever! I simply hate cold weather, esp. during winter. My body was not built to withstand such extreme coldness; hence, the Malaysian temperature suits me just fine. I super like the weather here.

2. The convenience: Malaysia may be one of the few countries where a family earning less than RM3K a month can afford to have a live-in maid, or have part-time cleaners come and clean up the house once or twice a week, have a handy-man to come and fix things up in the house as and when necessary, etc. I used to call them up just to change my light bulbs or to move furnitures around, amazing eh? (Well, in my defense, my ceiling is mighty high and my furnitures are mighty heavy) It's either Malaysians are too rich to do this ourselves or help is too easy to get, not to mention help is cheap too. All thanks to the heavy influx of illegal immigrants into our prosperous borders. It’s a love-hate situation, don’t you think? (Note: for the record my maid is a legal one)

3. The abundance: Think what you want, but I think it’s so easy to make a few bucks here. Not-so-good nasi lemak sells like hot cakes in the morning by the road side, karipap, kuih or anything that can barely be eaten sell like hot cakes by the road sides too (these days the Indons are venturing into this business, what happened to us Malaysians? Perhaps everyone sudah kaya but me kot), pirated DVDs business turn some to very rich businessman, ali baba business has turned some lucky Malays to millionaires, even illegal money lending makes good business here too. Today The Star reported that Malaysia is "foreign beggars’ heaven". They are said to be able to reap up to RM8K a month from begging on the street *terkezut beruk*. Need I say more?

4. The safety: You may think that Malaysia is no longer a safe place to live in but I beg to differ. Today, we can still send our kids to school relatively worry-free - we need not worry about our kids being killed by some kid/individual who ran amok at school or worry about kids carrying guns to school. We also don’t have extreme act of Mother Nature occurring in our land - no volcanoes to erupt, no earthquakes to bring buildings to rumbles, no major flooding to sweep away lives before your eyes. Alhamdulillah.

5. The political antics: Wouldn’t you agree that the Malaysian political scene injects a daily dose of humor into our lives with their bickering? I find them to be humorous (this applies to ALL). What a bunch of jokers they are! BUT, we can’t ignore the fact that we enjoy political stability here. No one is killing each other freely because of their political differences (yet). Alhamdulillah.

6. The wealth: Malaysians are darn rich! Thousands can afford to sip a cuppa of RM10 coffee everyday (everyone I know but moi). They buy designers items like I buy bread from the convenience stores. Luxury cars that cost more than my house roams our roads freely. I have friends who own handbags that cost RM20K each *gulp*, neighbours who drive cars that cost almost a million ringgit, need I say more?

We have yet to hear serious cases of Malaysians losing jobs due to recession (some did BUT it’s not a significant number like in other countries). People are still making lotsa moolah every day here (again, everyone BUT me). Even in America, people are losing jobs every day as we speak.

7. The melting pot: We have everything we want here. Just name it and I’m sure you can find it. Feels like going Italian for dinner? Fret not there are plenty of authentic Italians and also the not-so-authentic ones in town, Arabic food, Mediterranean, Vietnamese, etc. from fine dining to road side stalls. Apart from food, we also have places of interest that covers almost all but a snowy mountain – beautiful beaches, rainforest, historical places, wild life, etc. Malaysia is a mini wonderland on its own.

8. The caring society: I bet only in Malaysia when an accident happened on the road/highway, everyone slowed down to look (I mean everyone from BOTH sides of the road)...teeheehee. We care so much that a little road accident can cause a 3km jam on both sides of the road (mind-boggling isn't it?). Jokes aside, we can’t deny that Malaysians are a bunch of caring people. We help people in need ALL the time. That explains why individuals/ organisations who want to build masjid, orphanages, schools, etc, came all the way from Thailand, Cambodia and even Afghanistan to collect donations from us. We are way too generous when it comes to charity, don’t you agree?

This caring attitude goes around in the neighborhood too. Two years ago when my next door neighbor passed away, I’ve witnessed a society that works efficiently in time of need. When the grieving wife was still in the hospital with the body of the deceased, the people in the neighbourhood was already camping in their house setting up tents, making arrangement with the masjid and the authorities without being asked to (and these are working citizens – everyone took the day off to attend to the burial arrangement including my dear hubby). It works so smoothly like a system was already put in place. The family of the deceased didn’t have to do a single thing, everything was taken care of by the neighbours. I’m glad that I chose to call this place home.

9. The festivities: We celebrate so many festivals all year round. We even have TV commercials that would bring down tears to our face during each festive season (I bet this only happens in Malaysia). Even the durian season is celebrated like a festivity by us Malaysians. We celebrate everything and anything with makan2 - for crying out loud there are even national level makan2! Malaysia Boleh!

10. The heroes: we have heroes in almost all categories – Ibu Mithali, tokoh Maal Hijrah, national astronaut (or Malaysia’s first space tourist, no?), tokoh kemerdekaan (did you know that there are actually a number of them? I only knew about this today ahaks), sports champions, sasterawan negara, biduan negara, and lots more. We celebrate them heroes with so much pride and attribution, and we look up to them as good examples to the society. These days we even have icons for young Imam. I like the fact that the general Malaysians (I hope) are moving towards spiritual fulfillment, a commendable shift from the Akademi Fantasia mentality. Alhamdulillah.

Now that my brain is all warmed up (woot! woot!), I should go back to work! I say writing from your heart is practically effortless and FUN but writing for others need lots and lots of reinforcement (and gallons of cheap coffee)...sigh!

Working hard for the money

I need a short ‘vacation’ from my so-called ‘work’ (read: in desperate need to blog!).

Currently, I’m working my tail off to complete 2 writing jobs at a time. The first one was supposed to be completed long ago but due to client’s delay in feeding me with some information, my job is temporarily held back (totally NOT my fault ok!). The ebook on the other hand is in full gear. I was given until Raya to complete it. So far I’ve only been able to complete 2 chapters out of 7, even then I still have plenty of fine tuning to do...urghhhh (I can do it, I can do it, yakin boleh!).

Is it only me or puasa somehow decelerated our speed significantly (brought my momentum to a halt is more like it actually!)? Can I blame it on caffeine? I usually need coffee to perk me up and it’s now holding me captive - not being able to sip a cuppa in the morning shuts my brain down totally *sigh*. Sometimes I’d spend hours just staring at my notebook screen blankly. My brain seems to automatically switch itself to hibernate mode during day time for the past 7 days. Perhaps my brain wants to puasa from thinking too...ROTFL!

Thus, I have to resort to working at night. These days I started working after Terawikh prayers until about 3am. Some days I didn't sleep a wink till Subuh (percayalah). Because of this new routine my sleep pattern has totally gone hair wired. On normal days I’d go to bed at 3 or 4am *yawn*, woke up for sahur at 5.15am, perform subuh prayer and go back to sleep till noon (yup, I sleep till noon every day. My late grandma would nag me to death if she was still alive today *missing my Tok terribly*). Hmmmm...the things we do to cari makan eh?

Should I complete this job successfully; I would add another achievement in my resume - I have done a few brochures, a coffee table book, a website, lifestyle writing for magazines, newspaper advertisement and insyaAllah an ebook soon. I’m so darn proud of myself, yeay! Next, I hope to write a fiction (been saying this for years now teeheee)...yakin boleh!

I say doing thing you love is extremely fulfilling, it’s even more rewarding if you get paid doing it!

Sophia the Diva

My little diva is now officially my no. 1 companion, taking over from her sister who reigned as my loyal companion until last year. She has since opted to stay home unless she gets something during the trip *sigh*.

Where ever I go, the little diva insists on tagging along. At times I have to sneak out of the house quietly so that she won’t see me leaving, otherwise she would cry her lungs out trying to make a point. She knew that when I see her cry, my heart will melt and she’ll get her way. Nevertheless, she always wins with her cuteness to say the least. The funny thing is the second she gets into the car, she would put on her sunnies and keep it on until we reach the destination. Just like momma...ahaks!

I just HAVE to post these new pix of her taken today. Ladies and gentlemen, meet glokalmama junior...






I say kemana tumpahnya kuah kalau tak ke nasi...ehehehe

Customer service

I am really tied up with work commitments plus cooking 'obligation' for buka puasa, but I just have to blog first. What can I say, I’m hook on blogging. Some people are shopaholic, workaholic, alcoholic and whatever ****lic but I guess I’m a BLOGGAHOLIC!

Actually, I have a confession to make, one that may potentially damage my reputation for life *gulp*. Yesterday I made my way to Giant Shah Alam with the main intention of sending baju kurung material via courier service back to Alor Setar to be tailored for my 2 daughters. Upon arrival at the Pos Malaysia counter (that was packed with people like a sardine can) I was expecting a huge signboard that says something like “For courier services, please queue here” or something to that effect. To my dismay, there was no signage whatsoever. There was a counter that looked like a courier service counter but it was closed. There was no enquiry counter and no signboard to direct me on what to do (I think by now you have figured out that I've never done this before *shy*). For the first time in my life, I felt so LOST.

Not knowing what to do, I did what any clever wife would do – call the husband pronto! So I called my darling hubby and made the confession. I said plainly “Yang, I am at Pos Malaysia now and I just don’t know what to do.” His first reaction was, as you’d expect it, he laughed. After a quick ‘consultation’ with him I came away with the impression that I should use courier services other than Pos Malaysia. There I was trying to support the government but I was turned off by the lack of customer service.

When I was young and studying in a foreign land, I didn’t have any problems whatsoever in finding my ways to do things and to get from point A to point B. I certainly knew how to courier souvenirs back to my mom & family. I travelled around the country (and even crossed the borders) by car with just a map in hand and never got lost, well almost. Only once when I was driving my 2 girlfriends in LA and we almost got lost (well it wasn’t so bad actually, I just missed a turn and kept going round and round in a circle for a few minutes). Fortunately for us a police patrol car stopped us and offered to help. Somehow he knew that we were lost. It was like MAGIC! That got me thinking, when will Malaysia ever be at par with them?

I say customer service is the underlying force that drives a company or a country. It defines you as a company/ country or even as a person. When I was working in a retail industry many years back (and it was fun working in retail environment except for the over-demanding boss!) I was doing PR and Customer Services. Of the two, I actually like Customer Service more. *Trying not to over-rate myself and sound boastful* I handled the complaints like it was my own problems and over the years I have unsatisfied and sometime angry customers so satisfied with the way I handled their cases that they sent me gifts and even wrote letters of compliment to the management.

The rule of thumb is, you must acknowledge your customers first (this shows that you care) and bring yourself down to their level. If need to, lower their expectation because the higher their expectations are the more frustrated they get. And when they get more then what they had expected, they’ll be ecstatic. Then you can turn a disgruntled customer to a one very happy customer.

Speaking about happy customers, I have 5 customers to please today. Hence, it’s time for me to get to the kitchen and prepare food for berbuka, although I wish to expound more on this subject. Next time perhaps eh? Today I’m cooking kari kepala ikan, kerabu perut&taugeh, fried chicken with cili padi, and kuih sago. I hope I will have 5 very satisfied customers today.

I wish you selamat berbuka puasa & may our ibadah mendapat barakah, insyaAllah.

Ampunkanlah dosa-dosa ku

Do'a malaikat Jibril menjelang Ramadhan “Ya Allah tolong abaikan puasa ummat Muhammad, apabila sebelum memasuki bulan Ramadhan dia tidak melakukan hal-hal yang berikut:
* Tidak memohon maaf terlebih dahulu kepada kedua orang tuanya (jika masih ada);
* Tidak bermaaafan terlebih dahulu antara suami isteri;
* Tidak bermaafan terlebih dahulu dengan orang-orang sekitarnya”

Justeru itu, bersempena bulan Ramadhan yang bakal menjelma, ku susun sepuluh jari memohon ampun dan maaf di atas segala kesalahan, baik yang tidak di sengajakan mahupun yang di sengajakan. Halalkan juga segala makan dan minum ku dan keluargaku. Sesungguhnya telah ku ampunkan segala dosa2 mu keatasku (jika ada), dan juga telah ku halalkan makan dan minum mu (jika ada).

Semoga kita mendapat keberkatan dari-Nya di sepanjang Ramadhan yang mulia ini, insyaAllah. Selamat menyambut Ramadhan al-mubarak.

Permudahkanlah...

As we are preparing to usher in the holy month of Ramadhan with much enthusiasm, I am getting another project to complete, Alhamdulillah - this time to write an e-book which will be marketed via the internet worldwide *takuts, seram & yang sewaktu dengannya*. I have never participated in such project before hence I am quite anxious about the whole thing.

Can I do it? The cheerleader in my head is saying “Yes I can!” But sadly, I am facing difficulties managing my time between completing the other project and starting with this new one. Timing-wise, I'm in deep s**t, plus it's gonna be Ramadhan pretty soon. Where do I find the time? Urghhhh. Perhaps I should sacrifice my sleep, lock myself up in my office and force myself to work *woot! woot!*. Unfortunately, although it may sound like a brilliant plan, one can’t force oneself to write. You need inspirations to write, otherwise you’ll write rubbish, especially for an amateur like moi. Ya Allah ya Tuhanku, permudahkan lah segala urusan hamba-Mu ini...amin.

Okay...enough of rubbish for today. Need to switch my mode to ‘working’ – nak cari makan, nak cari makan...*my new mantra*.

I say there is no such thing as good or bad timing. We just need to make the best of every situation and be forever thankful to Allah. A friend recently posted this on her FB status “In life we may not always get what we WANT. We may not always get what we NEED but we get what we DESERVE because Allah s.w.t. always gives us what is the BEST”. Allah Maha Kaya...

Sayangnya Allah pada wanita

A friend recently posted this on her FB wall (the positive aspect of FB). A very good reminder for us all, especially women...

1. Wanita auratnya lebih susah dijaga (lebih banyak) berbanding lelaki.
Benda yang mahal harganya akan dijaga dan dibelai serta disimpan ditempat yang terselamat dan terbaik. Sudah pasti intan permata tidak akan dibiar bersepah bukan? Itulah bandingannya dengan seorang wanita.

2.Wanita perlu meminta izin dari suaminya apabila mahu keluar rumah tetapi tidak sebaliknya.
Wanita perlu taat kepada suami, tetapi tahukah lelaki wajib taat kepada ibunya 3 kali lebih utama daripada kepada bapanya?

3. Wanita menerima pusaka lebih sedikit daripada lelaki.
Tetapi tahukah harta itu menjadi milik peribadinya dan tidak perlu diserahkan kepada suaminya, sementara apabila lelaki menerima pusaka, dia perlu/wajib juga menggunakan hartanya untuk isteri dan anak-anak.

4. Wanita perlu menghadapi kesusahan mengandung dan melahirkan anak.
Wanita perlu bersusah payah mengandung dan melahirkan anak, tetapi tahukah bahawa setiap saat dia didoakan oleh segala makhluk, malaikat dan seluruh makhluk ALLAH di muka bumi ini, dan ingatkah jika dia meninggal dunia karena melahirkan adalah syahid dan syurga menantinya.

5. Wanita wajib taat kepada suaminya, sementara suami tak perlu taat pada isterinya.
Di akhirat kelak, seorang lelaki akan dipertanggungjawabkan terhadap 4 wanita, iaitu: Isterinya, ibunya, anak perempuannya dan saudara perempuannya. Ini bermakna, bagi seorang wanita tanggung jawab terhadapnya ditanggung oleh 4 orang lelaki,iaitu : suaminya, ayahnya, anak lelakinya dan saudara lelakinya.

6. Talaq terletak di tangan suami dan bukan isteri.
Wanita dikatakan sukar mengawal emosi. Seorang wanita boleh memasuki pintu syurga melalui pintu surga yang mana saja yang disukainya, cukup dengan 4 syarat saja, iaitu: solat 5 waktu, puasa di bulan Ramadhan, taat kepada suaminya dan menjaga kehormatannya.

7. Wanita kurang dalam beribadat kerana adanya masalah haid dan nifas yang tak ada pada lelaki.
Seorang lelaki wajib berjihad fisabilillah, sementara bagi wanita jika taat akan suaminya, serta menunaikan tanggung-jawabnya kepada ALLAH, maka ia akan turut menerima pahala setara seperti pahala orang pergi berjihad fisabilillah tanpa perlu mengangkat senjata.

I say who are we to argue this? We should be happy to have been born a female. Alhamdulillah...

The axis of evil

Not taking your bath for days, forgetting to eat and not getting enough sleep lately? If you have these symptoms, you are addicted to Facebook. Pheww...that’s all I can say. I’m not an addict hurray!

There was a very interesting article in NST yesterday, Sunday spotlight section, page 12, about a newly found mental health disorder – Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD). In specific, “it’s a brain disorder as a result of neurochemical dysfunction where normal behavior becomes abnormal”, comprende? *acik blur kejap*

My two elder kids have their own FB account but they are only allowed to use FB during weekends. Thank God that I’m home all the time, hence, I could really enforce this rule at home. If I was away working full time, I know there is no stopping them from indulging themselves with the internet 24/7. Kids will be kids. I hope and pray to God that mine won’t turn into internet addicts. We’ll never know what they will find and see in the internet. If I could turn back the time and change 1 thing for the good of mankind, I’d destroy the internet. I’m not kidding y’all, it’s the mother of all evil. Last few days, TV3 interviewed some kids who were involved in free sex and they claimed that it was the internet that has got them started. Need I say more?

For people who are no longer in the kids category like moi *ehem ehem* internet may have more advantages in terms of seeking knowledge. It makes it easier for us to access information. These days, when I feel like cooking something but don’t know how to, I just google-ed and voila! And this is just some of the many good examples. But it has also reported to turn some people’s world upside down. I wish to reiterate this again - internet is the axis of evil!

Moving on to Facebook. I have to admit that Facebook has its good and bad. If you’ve been following my blog from the very beginning you’ll notice that I have said nothing but praises about Mark Zuckerberg. Thanks to him I have managed to trace long lost friends and keep in touch with friends from across the globe. Thanks to him too I’ve met many interesting people whom I now call friends. I have also learned a thing or two from FB – learned new recipes, learned new doa, gained new facts about our religion that I didn’t know before, learned that there is a cheaper way to shop *smiling away* and lots more. Two thumbs up for FB!

But, like everything else in this world, good thing always come with its drawbacks – just like sugar and spice. Over the years, I came to find that FB could be an agent of destruction too. I am going to say something that is so unlike me – here it goes...perhaps this is one of the Jewish agendas, memutuskan silaturrahim sesama ummat Islam & meruntuhkan ukhwah. They have been very successful thus far. Two thumbs up Mr. Zuckerberge! I am determined *God help me* to use less of FB from now on. The keyword here is LESS, not stopping altogether okay – I’m too drowned into it to stop - now I know why it’s so hard for smokers to quit smoking *gulp*. I vow to be an FB tegar no more. So friends, if you don’t see me in FB often, it’s not because I don’t care, I still love all of you the same okay...muahhss.

Meet Mark Zuckerberge, a young and (obviously) smart Jewish man who founded Facebook while attending Harvard. He is currently the youngest billionaire in the world with a net worth of USD4billion, all thanks to FB...and all of us too. We helped made this guy rich!


I say the pen is mightier than the sword, or rather in these days and time, the keyboard is mightier than the sword. Wallahuwa'lam.

Doaku

A reminder for myself, a doa to recite 17 times a day without fail.

Robbighfirli (Tuhanku, ampuni aku), Warhamni (sayangi aku), Wajburnii (tutuplah aib-aibku), Warfa'nii (angkatlah darjatku), Warzuqnii (berilah aku rezeki), Wahdinii (berilah aku petunjuk), Wa'Aafinii (sihatkan aku), Wa'fuannii (maafkan aku)