Sunday, January 10, 2010
My recent birthday
The cake that my wife baked for my birthday (jimmaaattttt!!!) -
Sooodappppp!!!!! (Delicious)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
A must read article by my good friend
This article is written by Radin Ariff, a PhD student in Stirling. He is doing a thesis on Takaful/Islamic Insurance. A Central Bank of Malaysia officer. He was my former university classmate. He is also an avid and excellent photograph.
Sometimes, I dont get it. Why people wants to over react on this kind of matter. Cant they just be patience on this matter? Everybody is looking for a solution on this matter.
Anyhow, read his article. I really agree with his statement. I hope it can bring some sense back to these people.
Of Building Bridges and Burning Churches - Lessons from Prophets and the Companions
With the recent news on burning of churches in Malaysia, I just had to say something on this.
I was a keen student of Islamic Constitutional Law as an undergraduate at the IIUM. One thing I found out was about the rights of a non-Muslim in a Muslim country. Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah (Islamic Constitutional Law) is of utmost importance - because the Constitution is one legal document which guarantees the rights of citizens of an Islamic state. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) upon his hijrah to Medina, set up an Islamic state and introduced the Constitution of Medina, the world's first written constitution. Among others, the Constitution guarantees religious freedom to the Jews of Medina and the protection of Jewish tribes. If the Messenger of God could do it, why can't we in modern times. Some things to ponder on: "Not only does Islam give the freedom of religious freedom to non-Muslims, its tolerant law extends to the preservation of their places of worship. God says in the Quran: “(They are) those who have been evicted from their homes without right — only because they say, ‘Our Lord is God.’ And was it not that God checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of God is much mentioned (praised). And God will surely support those who support Him (meaning His cause). Indeed, God is Powerful and Exalted in Might.” (Quran 22:40).
The Muslim caliphs used to order their military leaders who went on military campaigns to take steps to guarantee this matter. The first example is the command of Abu Bakr to Usamah bin Zayd: ‘I command you to do ten things: kill no woman, no child, nor an elderly person; do not cut down fruit trees, or vandalize homes, or wound a sheep or camel except if you must eat it; do not drown a palm tree, or burn it, do not be treacherous; do not be cowardly; and you will pass by people who have devoted themselves to monastery life; leave them alone to their devotions.’ The second example is the treaty of Umar ibn al-Khattab with the people of Iliya of Jerusalem: ‘This is the security given by the slave of God, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, to the people of Iliya: they are guaranteed the security if their persons, possessions, churches, crucifixes, and everyone within, whether sick or in good health, as well as everyone in their community. Their churches will not be occupied or demolished, nor will anything be taken from them: neither furnishings nor crucifixes or money. They will not be forced away from their religion, or harmed because of it. They will not be occupied by the Jewish settlers in Iliya.’ As a result, since the era of the rightly-guided caliphs, Jews and Christians have held their services in freedom and security." source - http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/380/ May Allah purify our hearts and minds and take us to the right path. Wassalam.
InsyaAllah.
Sometimes, I dont get it. Why people wants to over react on this kind of matter. Cant they just be patience on this matter? Everybody is looking for a solution on this matter.
Anyhow, read his article. I really agree with his statement. I hope it can bring some sense back to these people.
Of Building Bridges and Burning Churches - Lessons from Prophets and the Companions
With the recent news on burning of churches in Malaysia, I just had to say something on this.
I was a keen student of Islamic Constitutional Law as an undergraduate at the IIUM. One thing I found out was about the rights of a non-Muslim in a Muslim country. Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah (Islamic Constitutional Law) is of utmost importance - because the Constitution is one legal document which guarantees the rights of citizens of an Islamic state. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) upon his hijrah to Medina, set up an Islamic state and introduced the Constitution of Medina, the world's first written constitution. Among others, the Constitution guarantees religious freedom to the Jews of Medina and the protection of Jewish tribes. If the Messenger of God could do it, why can't we in modern times. Some things to ponder on: "Not only does Islam give the freedom of religious freedom to non-Muslims, its tolerant law extends to the preservation of their places of worship. God says in the Quran: “(They are) those who have been evicted from their homes without right — only because they say, ‘Our Lord is God.’ And was it not that God checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of God is much mentioned (praised). And God will surely support those who support Him (meaning His cause). Indeed, God is Powerful and Exalted in Might.” (Quran 22:40).
The Muslim caliphs used to order their military leaders who went on military campaigns to take steps to guarantee this matter. The first example is the command of Abu Bakr to Usamah bin Zayd: ‘I command you to do ten things: kill no woman, no child, nor an elderly person; do not cut down fruit trees, or vandalize homes, or wound a sheep or camel except if you must eat it; do not drown a palm tree, or burn it, do not be treacherous; do not be cowardly; and you will pass by people who have devoted themselves to monastery life; leave them alone to their devotions.’ The second example is the treaty of Umar ibn al-Khattab with the people of Iliya of Jerusalem: ‘This is the security given by the slave of God, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, to the people of Iliya: they are guaranteed the security if their persons, possessions, churches, crucifixes, and everyone within, whether sick or in good health, as well as everyone in their community. Their churches will not be occupied or demolished, nor will anything be taken from them: neither furnishings nor crucifixes or money. They will not be forced away from their religion, or harmed because of it. They will not be occupied by the Jewish settlers in Iliya.’ As a result, since the era of the rightly-guided caliphs, Jews and Christians have held their services in freedom and security." source - http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/380/ May Allah purify our hearts and minds and take us to the right path. Wassalam.
InsyaAllah.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
16 December 2009 until 7 January 2010 - I got so busy I forgot about my blog
Since I got back from holiday, I got so busy that I had no time to really update my blog. I even had to spend my the first half of my birth day last year in the office!! My trial will resume again end of January 2010 and it is scheduled to end at the end of March 2010. So just imagine how hectic it is.
Even just now, I just finished helping my boss to do some admin and HR work for him and it is 3.30am!!
Time and time again, I wanted to update my blog and say sorry to my friends - Ludo in Brugge and Fanny (in Switzerland) for not being able to meet them during the holiday. So, Ludo and Fanny, I am so sorry for not being able to meet you guys. I will make it up soon as most probably I will be in Europe again between April and July this year.
Last week, we had a visitor from Malaysia. We just love having guests at our house so we invited them to our house for a Malaysian meal...they came. They were so happy as they said they have been eating banana, bbq meat, ugali (made of maize - a staple food for the locals) and other local food since Christmas.
I miss Malaysia so much...but then, I really like the village/kampung life in Arusha@Kilimanjaro. There are not many cars = less traffic jams and no toll to pay!! I can have live chickens at my house...I can still find easily ayam kampung (village chicken)...there are so many basikal tua (the old black bicycles that already extinct in Malaysia)...I dare to say Arusha@Kilimanjaro is like Malaysia at least 25-35 years back...so kampung, life is slow here...I am like in this comfort zone that has its own charms. No, I do not want to change my citizenship or even make Arusha@Kilimanjaro my other home...it is just that it is so peaceful here...no malls or Giant to go during the weekend...no broken things (like shoes, bags, chairs, etc) to be thrown away because everything here can be repaired for a small fee, call me cheapskate but it does not make sense just to throw away things if it can be fixed...one day I even had my broken cuffling to be attached again!! Just imagine if you still can do that in Malaysia...heheheh, I am confident all these towkays will get bankrupt in no time.
I have so many pictures to attached to my "Holidays" stories in this blog but I must use my wife's laptop...she is using an ibook so storing and downloading pictures are much much easier.
Did I tell you guys we had spent Aidilfitri/Eid Fitr here in Arusha@Kilimanjaro for the past five years!!! Celebrating it here is not like in Malaysia...Malaysians celebrate it the whole month as many claimed they fast for the whole month and it has became a tradition. For the whole month, some of my friends had to attend open house almost everyday and sometimes 2-3 houses per day.
But last year was the best so far for us...u know the Arushans celebrate it on the first day only and worst, no circus show in TV (remember the good old days in Malaysia right after the prayer, the kids even the whole family would be sitting infront of the TVs watching the circus show...it was like the climax of the Eid, hehehehe...
Anyway, last year, a circus organizer chose Arusha to be their next stop just before Eid Fitr/Aidilfitri...so we watched circus but this time it is a live show!! No more circus in TV. Then Arusha hosted this Commonwealth Parliaments Meeting for one week after Eid Fitr (around 70 Malaysians came, the biggest number of Malaysian so far to come to Arusha)...so we celebrated Eid Fitr with many Malaysians (around 15)...
Got to go. Will continue later.
Even just now, I just finished helping my boss to do some admin and HR work for him and it is 3.30am!!
Time and time again, I wanted to update my blog and say sorry to my friends - Ludo in Brugge and Fanny (in Switzerland) for not being able to meet them during the holiday. So, Ludo and Fanny, I am so sorry for not being able to meet you guys. I will make it up soon as most probably I will be in Europe again between April and July this year.
Last week, we had a visitor from Malaysia. We just love having guests at our house so we invited them to our house for a Malaysian meal...they came. They were so happy as they said they have been eating banana, bbq meat, ugali (made of maize - a staple food for the locals) and other local food since Christmas.
I miss Malaysia so much...but then, I really like the village/kampung life in Arusha@Kilimanjaro. There are not many cars = less traffic jams and no toll to pay!! I can have live chickens at my house...I can still find easily ayam kampung (village chicken)...there are so many basikal tua (the old black bicycles that already extinct in Malaysia)...I dare to say Arusha@Kilimanjaro is like Malaysia at least 25-35 years back...so kampung, life is slow here...I am like in this comfort zone that has its own charms. No, I do not want to change my citizenship or even make Arusha@Kilimanjaro my other home...it is just that it is so peaceful here...no malls or Giant to go during the weekend...no broken things (like shoes, bags, chairs, etc) to be thrown away because everything here can be repaired for a small fee, call me cheapskate but it does not make sense just to throw away things if it can be fixed...one day I even had my broken cuffling to be attached again!! Just imagine if you still can do that in Malaysia...heheheh, I am confident all these towkays will get bankrupt in no time.
I have so many pictures to attached to my "Holidays" stories in this blog but I must use my wife's laptop...she is using an ibook so storing and downloading pictures are much much easier.
Did I tell you guys we had spent Aidilfitri/Eid Fitr here in Arusha@Kilimanjaro for the past five years!!! Celebrating it here is not like in Malaysia...Malaysians celebrate it the whole month as many claimed they fast for the whole month and it has became a tradition. For the whole month, some of my friends had to attend open house almost everyday and sometimes 2-3 houses per day.
But last year was the best so far for us...u know the Arushans celebrate it on the first day only and worst, no circus show in TV (remember the good old days in Malaysia right after the prayer, the kids even the whole family would be sitting infront of the TVs watching the circus show...it was like the climax of the Eid, hehehehe...
Anyway, last year, a circus organizer chose Arusha to be their next stop just before Eid Fitr/Aidilfitri...so we watched circus but this time it is a live show!! No more circus in TV. Then Arusha hosted this Commonwealth Parliaments Meeting for one week after Eid Fitr (around 70 Malaysians came, the biggest number of Malaysian so far to come to Arusha)...so we celebrated Eid Fitr with many Malaysians (around 15)...
Got to go. Will continue later.
Disneyland Paris
Dreams do come true!!
At last, my wife and I set foot on one of the three Disneylands in the world. Disneyland Paris.
We stayed for 3 nites in this hotel apartment about 5-10 minutes from DP.
Our kids (especially Irfan) met Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Daisy, Monster, Gennie, Goofy and other characters!! Did you know that Disneyland just bought Marvel for few billions bucks!! So this year we can see all Disneylands in the world displaying all the superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four, etc...
BUT we had to endure the cold weather. The good thing about coming to DP during winter is that there were not so many people so we did not spend so much time queing up.
You know what, the Europeans just could not believe their eyes seeing us having 3 children!! It is like 3 children equivalent to 10 or 15 0r 20 children...they said having two children are the maximum...and when I saw many of them rather having dogs than children...I think I can understand...dogs always listen to the their guardian, they do not wear diapers because they can poo anywhere they want and nobody will get angry...they do not to be schooled from age 7 till 25...do you see where I am going?
Anyway, I will post some pictures soon...
At last, my wife and I set foot on one of the three Disneylands in the world. Disneyland Paris.
We stayed for 3 nites in this hotel apartment about 5-10 minutes from DP.
Our kids (especially Irfan) met Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Daisy, Monster, Gennie, Goofy and other characters!! Did you know that Disneyland just bought Marvel for few billions bucks!! So this year we can see all Disneylands in the world displaying all the superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four, etc...
BUT we had to endure the cold weather. The good thing about coming to DP during winter is that there were not so many people so we did not spend so much time queing up.
You know what, the Europeans just could not believe their eyes seeing us having 3 children!! It is like 3 children equivalent to 10 or 15 0r 20 children...they said having two children are the maximum...and when I saw many of them rather having dogs than children...I think I can understand...dogs always listen to the their guardian, they do not wear diapers because they can poo anywhere they want and nobody will get angry...they do not to be schooled from age 7 till 25...do you see where I am going?
Anyway, I will post some pictures soon...
Friday, December 11, 2009
Brussels
Brussels' weather is more or less similar to London.
Brussels is more quiet during weekend. Its people love to go out of Brussels during weekend and infact many of them live outside Brussels. My friend works in Brussels but she does not live in Brussels. It may sound ordinary to us BUT she cycles everyday to work, even her partner. They said they took an average of 40-50 minutes to cycle to Brussels from their house...to us, they can do that because Brussels is not hot like Malaysia...
Do you remember last time there was a Minister suggested to build air-conditioned walkways for train/lrt passengers...for instance, from Masjid Jamek station to Wisma Yakin, they will be a covered walkway fully air-conditioned...fuhhhh...no more smelly armpits!!
Brussels is like it is designed for kids!! There are many entertainment parks and museums just for kids. Kids ride the train for free during weekend. Their train system is less complicated than Paris' and London in other kids friendly or stroller friendly if you want to say that.
But my other half did not like Brussels...I did not tell her I like Brussels for some reasons known to me, heheheheh
But one thing for sure, it has one of the worst Indian restaurants I ever encountered.
Will post some pcitures on our Brussels trip soon
Brussels is more quiet during weekend. Its people love to go out of Brussels during weekend and infact many of them live outside Brussels. My friend works in Brussels but she does not live in Brussels. It may sound ordinary to us BUT she cycles everyday to work, even her partner. They said they took an average of 40-50 minutes to cycle to Brussels from their house...to us, they can do that because Brussels is not hot like Malaysia...
Do you remember last time there was a Minister suggested to build air-conditioned walkways for train/lrt passengers...for instance, from Masjid Jamek station to Wisma Yakin, they will be a covered walkway fully air-conditioned...fuhhhh...no more smelly armpits!!
Brussels is like it is designed for kids!! There are many entertainment parks and museums just for kids. Kids ride the train for free during weekend. Their train system is less complicated than Paris' and London in other kids friendly or stroller friendly if you want to say that.
But my other half did not like Brussels...I did not tell her I like Brussels for some reasons known to me, heheheheh
But one thing for sure, it has one of the worst Indian restaurants I ever encountered.
Will post some pcitures on our Brussels trip soon
Sunday, December 6, 2009
London
London is full of Malaysians!!
But the weather is horrible. Cold, windy, raining and not much sun.
And I thought UK is facing an economic downturn. Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus area were full of people? shopping like there is no tomorrow!!
Another thing is never bring your baby stroller to the metro station because they are not stroller friendly. You ended up carrying your stroller most of the time in almost all the station.
I have so much to tell about London but the keyboard that I am using now is the french keyboard.
Be back later with more updates.
But the weather is horrible. Cold, windy, raining and not much sun.
And I thought UK is facing an economic downturn. Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus area were full of people? shopping like there is no tomorrow!!
Another thing is never bring your baby stroller to the metro station because they are not stroller friendly. You ended up carrying your stroller most of the time in almost all the station.
I have so much to tell about London but the keyboard that I am using now is the french keyboard.
Be back later with more updates.
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