Jaulah Usrah to Kuala Pilah

There was I, in Kuala Pilah for 1 day during Chinese New Year break. Alhamdulillah it was such resplendent time I had at my naqibah, Kak Akmar`s homestay located at Kuala Pilah. This idea of having jaulah was mooted by her during last usrah session, which she said our usrah meeting should be mobile, rather than sticking at one place only. We should take turn to hold usrah at our house if we could, or at somewhere else besides Surau TM at which we hold the usrah session regularly.

Thus, originated from it, Kak Akmar had invited us to join her and her family at her homestay for the next usrah session. Only 4 or us were able to make it : Me, Efa, Kak Iza and Ain. Riding Efa`s car, we departed at 5 on Wednesday and took PLUS highway, which was against Kak Akmar`s advice to take LEKAS in order to avoid heavy traffic which she said started at Seremban R&R. Well, I and Efa tried to take that highway, but we couldn`t figure out how to get into LEKAS from Efa`s place! haha. But Alhamdulillah it wasn`t a bad decision though since the traffic wasn`t congested badly, except near the Seremban R&R , but that was due to accidents happened along the highway. You know, we were shocked to see there was not 1 accident involved, rather, there were like 4 of them starting from area close to the R&R. So we were stuck for only 15-20 minutes i guess. Not bad. 

We arrived at the homestay at 930pm and we learnt that Kak Izza and Ain arrived only seconds before we did! So we`re not really missing the bus. ALhamdulillah except from deviated 300m away from Kak Akma`s place, we did not get lost throughout the journey. Wow, upon reaching the homestay, which was named Teratak Akhma, I was amazed to see how beautiful, spacious it is! It has a mini lake in front of the house and there was a kayak for the guests to use it! Very beautiful MashaAllah. It also has basketball court and ping pong table, and not to mention the must-be item, which is the barbecue stove at the back of the house. Further info can be checked here : http://teratakakhma.wordpress.com/. I would recommend so much those who would like to find a homestay at Kuala Pilah due to various occasions: berangguh, vacation, team bulding, mini retreat, you can choose this homestay. So worth it! Beautiful and peaceful. 

So over the night , we had barbecue and chatted with each other. Kak Izza and her sister Ain are very friendly and bubbly. A lot of stories were shared from each other and I would say I was enjoying that night so much..but only with a little regret that we couldn`t eat much food since my stomach (me and Efa`s) already partially full with Roti John, which we had when we stopped in the middle of the journey due to suffering from unbearable hunger hehe..if only we knew that there was so much to indulge in at the barbecue, we would probably not stop and eat hehe..but that`s fine. 

The next morning, after having breakfast with friend Mee Hoon and cake (well they celebrated their parents`s 30++ anniversary..so sweet!!) , Kak Akmar conducted the usrah session inside a mini hut next to the house. Well this is supposed to be the main reason for our journey there. Those barbecue and slept over were only side activities , huhu. The usrah content was about by  Fi Thilalil-Quran (In the Shade of the Qur`an) Sayyid Qutb. Well, I have heard of his name before, but wasn`t really paying attention to who he really was, what contributions he made, what he went through his life, and what masterpieces that he had produced. Well, he is    actually an Egyptian living in the same era of Imam Hassan al-Banna, the founder of Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwanul Muslimeen) in Egypt. Kak Akmar told us about his little background history and how he got to the point to produce the Tafseer Fi Thilalil-Quran. Then she further dwelled on the introduction of the book and its meaning. Beautiful content and perspectives I would say upon deciphering through the Mukaddimah section. According to Kak Akmar, this kitaab, if we manage to get hold of its essence and meaning, it should be sufficient enough for us in truly understand the quran with our hearts, and essence of what Quran is about. Allah knows best. 

Our usrah session went for almost 3 hours huhu, well that was because we deviated into lessons learnt from ISK and other stories. Then at 145, we ended the session. After taking our lunch with the left over food that we had for the breakfast, we departed back to KL. It was a little exhausting but interesting!

Story of Jin

I regularly attend the weekly Friday lecture delivered by different Ustazahs at HQ Building. All of them are really good, mashaAllah, especially Ustazah Faridah Hanum. Hailed from Singapore, i think she is full of wisdom. I like her talks so much! Alhamdulillah.

The topic presented by her during last week`s session was tafseer of Surah Jin. You know, i remember one of Ustazs told me that there are two topics that always successful in grabbing full attention from the audience: Nikah  and Jin (World of the unseen). So the topic of Jin , and unseen world, I couldn`t agree more that it really makes us glued to our seat. There are many new knowledges about Jin that I have acquired from the talk. Previously, I only get to know more about Jin from lectures given by Ustaz Ismail Kamus.

Jin, shaytan , iblis belong to the same category. They are all made from fire. You know fire consists of different colors: hottest being green, followed by blue, yellow and red. The trio are made from different colors, but the root is shared. Iblis is on the top leadership rank for all three and in fact, it used to be the leader of all angels before it decided to go against Allah`s order to prostrate to Adam A.S. Iblis is still alive  until now since Allah has granted his special request to remain alive until the day of judgement.

Read more »

"I Want to Repent but..." by Sh.Suhaib Webb @ KGPA

Sheikh Suhaib Webb was in KL last week.It`s glad to see him coming over to Malaysia again after he made his previous visit a few days before Ramadhan 1432H started(at least his previous talk @ KGPA). Sheikh mentioned that Malaysia is his second home since his wife is a Malaysian and thus he would frequently offer visits to Malaysia to see his in laws. As Malaysians, it is true blessing and advantage for us to be able to have him giving talk during his stay here for holiday.I guess he was left with only limited time to spend with his in laws here since his schedule was pretty hectic as he had to deliver a few talks here and there around KL. However I hope he has managed to use the limited time as fulfilled as possible with his in laws.

While I was in the US, I wasn`t really big fan of him. The only lecture that I listened to delivered by him was the series of The Wives of the Prophets pbuh. It is really a captivating lectures of history of our Ummu Mukminin. But now,since he is the only scholar hailed from US who has made regular visits to Malaysia and delivers talk here, I have started to know more about him, and now Alhamdulillah I have become so eager to attend more and more of his talks whenever I get chance, inshaAllah. The content of his talks are full of wisdom and easy-to-grab points and he would also elaborate it in related analogy that makes me couldn`t agree more with him. He also sheds lights on matters that we, perhaps already know, but due to our ignorance, not putting much thought about it.

The talk of "I want to Repent but.." was about repentance,

Read more »

Ini Sejarah Kita January 2011 @ Masjid Abu Bakr Bangsar

Our usrah group finally got a chance to participate in an awareness program titled "Ini Sejarah Kita" or ISK,in its abbreviation, held at Masjid Saidini Abu Bakr, Bangsar. My first thought upon hearing the program title was that it is indeed catchy as i thought the content would be what is usually delivered in regular usrah: the need to draw closer to Allah. However, i was wrong. Indeed the title speaks the truth for the content: the history of islamic empires, its glory and how once a big empire finally collapsed. I was excited to listen more to what was laid down in schedule.

ISK is an initiative by a few students belong to Majlis Syura Muslimin back in UK with the aim to create awareness among students (of course muslim) about the great of Islam empires we once had and how we should be proud of and strive to try to redeem back the flourishing period of Islam. Well, basically the content of Islamic empire history is no difference from what was taught in History class back then in Form 5, except with more extra stories. For those who are History savvy, or history passionate,they wouldn`t feel much excited, but for those who only remember words umaiiyah, abbasiyah, turki uthmaniyyah like me(hehe) , the content delivered was mesmerizing,enlightening,captivating and full of awe! Felt like i was learning the history of Islamic empires for the first time huhu.

Kak Shahira, the presenter did a really good job in delivering the to me, a very heavy subject. Her words came out from mouth like water, flowing smoothly, and full of confident, for 2 consecutive hours! Hat off to her! As what my friend, sher said she must have really deep interest in history for her to be able to talk so eloquently about Islamic history. I couldn`t agree more. She started off with the graph of Islamic empire`s glory.

Actually, according to Kak Akhmar, the content is excerpt from Hassan Al Banna`s book, hmm I forgot the title, but these students analyzed and summarized the contents then they came up with the graph as above. We started off with Umaiyyah kingdom, for 90 years, during which Islam spread so much to Spain, North Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and even to little Asia. Then Bani Abbasiyah took the reign after Bani Umaiyyah collapsed. During the reign of this empire, there was abundant activity translation from Latin`s hidden knowledge of wealth into Arabic for them to study further. All kinds of ilm: Math, Science, Physics, Chemistry, etc were deeply studied and researched further by renowned Muslim scientists: Al razi, Al Farabi, Ibn Sina, u name it. Islam had flourished so much during this period. According to kak Shahira, the most famous job during the period was translator. Then after hundreds of years, Islam empire was attacked by armada from Monggol in 1258 M. Then from that on,the empire started to decline badly before Turki Uthmaniyyah created a little hike of glory of Islamic empire. During this period, we had Constantinople (Istanbul)conquered, and the lucky man who was responsible for the conquer was Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh. Rasulullah was quoted in a hadeeth as he said: Sabda Rasulullah s.a.w. ketika menggali Parit Khandaq; “..Constantinople (kini Istanbul) akan jatuh ke tangan tentera Islam. Rajanya adalah sebaik-baik raja, tenteranya adalah sebaik-baik tentera……”.

I think that`s all i could summarize. I am posting here a video on Islamic empires below.