Umar

Emm...through my friend’s blog, I always listen to nasyid. He has good collection of nasyid in his radio blog. One of my favourite is "Aku Hanya Umar". When you read and digest the lyric, it’s all about the famous Caliph Umar. Caliph Umar is the successor of Caliph Abu Bakar.

AKU HANYA UMAR

Sebelum disapa sinar iman,
kau bagaikan singa yang mengganas,
membunuh anak perempuanmu,
tanpa rasa belas dan kasihan,
dipandu hati sekeras batu,
jahiliah yang menyesatkan.

Bila nur al-quran menusuk ke jiwa,
lunturlah segala keangkuhanmu,
berubah dan beralih arah mu,
terbentur segala kekejaman,
menjadi wira miskin nestapa,
membela yang tak berupaya.

Tidurmu dirimbunan tamar,
tenangmu tiada tercalar,
berbantal lengan tanpa pengawal,
berselimut embun keimanan.

Di malam yang hening,
meratap menyesali diri,
pada dosa kealpaan,
dibasuh dengan air mata,
memohon keampunan tuhan.

Engkau khalifah berjiwa hamba,
mentadbir tanpa singgahsana,
menghina diri dihadapan Allah,
kemuliaan diri manusia.

Mulia hidup bersulam taqwa,
mulia mati mu kau syuhada,
pergi rohmu ke alam tinggi,
terbang menuju ke syurgawi.

Aku hanya seorang umar,
kemuliaanku kerna islam,
semua ke syurga kecuali dia,
ku bimbangi dialah diriku.

Hati sekeras batu,
berubah menjadi selembut air,
jadi teman kebenaran,
jadi musuh kepada kebatilan.

Kelengkan - keringkam

When I was in Kota bahru, me and my parents went to Istana Jahar, which houses the Museum of Royal Traditions and Ceremonies. This unique palace was built in 1887 by the then Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Ahmad (1886 - 1889) for his son, Long Kudin who succeeded him as sultan. The name Jahar was taken from the tree that stands at the entrance, also known as 'Flame of the Forest'.

But what attracted me most were the fine display of songket from Malaya as well as Bali, India and Sumatra. There are selendang known as kelengkan. It’s quite a surprise looking at this selendang kelengkan. Kelengkan reminds me of keringkam, the traditional selendang of malays in Sarawak. It’s almost the same as what we have in Sarawak. It’s also from gold thread. In fact the name sound alike. I took a photo of selendang from my mum collection. Red in color is belong to my mum, she wore it during her wedding and the dark brown belong to my late grandma. Sarawakian call this selendang as tudung keringkam.

Touching

It was Sunday. I watched a movie called Christmas Shoes aired by TV3. It is a good movie but yet very touching. I just couldn't stop myself from being so involved with the storyline. I feel kind of stupid for being emotional after all it’s just a movie. It is a good movie indeed, great movie with all good family values.

Here is the synopsis;
He didn't know he needed a miracle, until one happened.
Robert Layton (Rob Lowe), a successful attorney, is on the brink of losing his marriage. Nathan Andrews (Max Morrow), an eight-year-old boy, is about to lose his young working-class mother (Kimberly Williams), to illness. When Robert crosses paths with Nathan on Christmas Eve, Robert's life is changed forever. Something as simple as a pair of shoes was going to make all the difference in the young boy's life. And by helping Nathan, Robert realizes the true importance of family, faith and love.
http://www.cbs.com/specials/christmas_shoes/story.shtml

Actually this movie was adapted from a novel wrote by Donna VanLiere,the New York Times best-selling author.

Prunus armeniaca

A few months ago, Safuan, a friend of mine sends me herbal medicine from Cairo. He also send fresh apricot or known as Al- Barquq in Arabic through his friend whom returned to Sarawak. Actually I don’t even know how the fresh apricot looks like because what I am familiar with is dried apricot. The scientific name of Apricot is Prunus armeniaca under the family name of Rosaceae.

This fruit is believed have originated in China, where it has been cultivated for over 4,000 years. It was introduced in Europe during the time of Alexander the Great. In Middle East, apricots were very popular for their taste as well as for their invigorating perfume.

The best thing about this fruit, it is classified as food of heal. There are lots of medicinal values can be found from this fruit. It is beneficial in the treatment of Constipation due to high of cellulose and pectin contents. Besides that it helps people suffer from anemia in account of high content of iron in this fruit. It is also good cooling drink when the juice mixed with honey.

Busy-eventful-occupied

Assalamualikum friends…. Sorry for no updates for long time. At first I thought I will enjoy this 3 months semester break. Free myself from busy life dealing with lectures and students. But it’s totally out of picture. I hardly find times for myself, works seem endless. New semester begin soon but my notes have not ready yet. There is a lot of administrative works to deal with.

You may have heard the saying,

"If you climb to the top of the mountain but haven't enjoyed the journey, then it wasn't a successful climb."

Am I so busy climbing to achieve my goals that I was missing out on the views along the way? I guess I am. Maybe I should pause for a moment to reflect on my busyness; not only about what I am busy doing but also how I could be doing things differently – with less effort and stress, and with more ease and fun.
I hope after this, I’m moving forward, rather than away from, a more enriching and enjoyable life.