It's A Still Grey Morning

Assalamualaikum! Hello you people out there! Are you experiencing what I am experiencing right now? The weather this morning is very still and grey. There's no wind or breeze blowing and the sunlight is blocked by a very thick blanket of fog in the sky. I could not see the clouds or any patch of blue sky, I could only see a very grey sky. The atmosphere gives a rather unpleasant feeling! I fear that there is something happening. I always have a fear of calamities like the Tsunami, the volcanic eruption or something like that is going to happen when I experience this kind of atmosphere. Remember the two years ago December Tsunami? There were signs that some big calamity was going to happen. Animals have six sense and know it earlier than us human beings. When I look at the sky, I have the feeling that there is a volcanic eruption somewhere nearby. May the Almighty helps us and save us from danger and disaster!And He the AllKnowing knows when to punish his creations! May we be protected from God's wrath! May we always do the right thing that He expects of us as His faithful servants! Ameen!

Guiding Your Young Children

Assalamualaikum! Lately we have been busy interviewing applicants and their parents for admission into our school. Our school is an integrated Religious Tahfiz school complete with academic subjects and co-curriculum. It is a full boarding school (www.mtaqsa.com)
We are happy to note that many young parents now are concerned about their childrens' future. Hence they come to seek our advice even when their children are still very young. So we give them some counselling on how to prepare their young children to be chanelled into a school like ours. We consider this as part of our dakwah so that each family will at least have one Al hafiz (person who memorises and recites the Al Quran)
For your information our school accepts students who have passed their UPSR with 4 and 5 As. For those with lesser As, they have to show their other strength example, exellent PSRA results or very proficient in Al Quran reading etc.
So far we have accepted a number of exellent students for the new intake. However there are some parents who are keen to send their children to our school, but we could not accept them due to 3 reasons. Firstly, there are cases where children scored 4 or 5 As and able to read Al Quran, but upon interviewing, they showed no interest in the Al Quran. Secondly the chilren have good academic results but not much exposure with the Al Quran, as such they could not read Al Quran well.Thirdly, the children are very poor in acdemic and we consider them not able to carry the heavy load of this kind of integrated education.
So if you are a young parent and you do want your children to be educated religiously, well versed with the knowledge of the Al Quran, you must expose them young to Al Quran the religious education. You must keep telling them what you would like them to be when they grow up and why its good to be as such. The love for Al Quran and the religious practices like doing the solat must be well ingrained at an early age. You must also encourage them at a young age to pick up an ambition to be a somebody or something but you must not force them. Let them say what they want to be and allow them to change their ambition as they grow. When you see their interest and talent in certain area, you support them by giving encouragement with good words and related books and toys!
We have 9 children and all of them have achieved their ambition or along the right path walking towards their ambition. None of them has the ambitions forced upon them! As a young parent, we did give the our children some minimum religious education. However we did not realize the importance of religious education until we were given the 'Hidayah ' that our children had to be educated in the religious subjects and Al Quran in depth.
Alhamdulillah we managed to steer the course of their education starting with the 5th child Lia who is doing Medicine in Jordan,6th child Yanna who is doing religious studies and Arabic in Cairo, 7th child Aly InshaAllah will be joining Yana in Cairo to do Al Quran studies, 8th child has talent in music playing the saxaphone and has great love for animals (so you can guess what he will be), 9th child youngest daughter Husna has achieved 5As in UPSR and a Mumtaz (exellent) in PSRA recently and of course she'll be joining our school! I am just writing this to share with you my experience and to show the importance of guiding the children at a young age. May Allah grant you the wisdom of guiding your children along the right straight path! Ameen!

Of Dengue Fever And Convocation!

These days in Shah Alam, the authorities has declared WAR with the mosquitoes. Every evening the MBSA does the fumingation.The fog is so thick that you may think that we are at war! Danger! Danger!Dengue fever is on the rise. On our road, almost every other house had a case of dengue. In my house the first victim was Kin. Luckily,she had it not too bad and after a week she recovered. Then Aly became the second victim that was a week ago. After 3 days of suffering I took him to the local Pusat Kesihatan! Aly had it real bad!His blood pletlet count was 200, the next day 150 and the 5th day we went again for the blood test it went down to 76!It was then considered alarming by the doctors at the government's Pusat Kesihatan that they decided that he should be hospitalised. It was at 2 pm when we were referred to Klang hospital. We rushed to the hospital through the Emergency Entrance, however upon arrival we were asked to register and to wait for another examination. It seemed that the hospital was full and they were not sure to admit Aly until they would examine him again. The waiting made me upset and I decided to take my son home, to take him to a private clinic later. Since he had not been able to consume any food or water because he vomitted several times and he also had 'cirit birit'. I was concerned that he was dehydrated and I asked whether Doc at the private clinic could give him a drip. Doc said she could do so but on reading the low pletlet count adviced that Aly be hospitalised. She kindly made several phone calls to see if any of the hospital would be able to admit my son and that was at 8.30 pm. She found out that Hospital Sungai Buluh, Selayang and anorther were full. Then she phoned somebody at Hospital Putra Jaya said that they would be able to admit my son. Feeling a little relief we drove as fast as possible to Putra Jaya. We arrived at the hospital about 9.30 pm. Alas when we went to the emergency admission, the attendant said that no way my son could be admitted straight away. Aly had to endure another painful proceedure of drawing blood for the blood test! And all this while from morning Aly was weak, in pain and could hardly sit! The attendant informed us that they will only admit him if the blood test, show the pletlet count below 50! You can imagine our frustration! I then begged the attendant to give my son a drip. He obliged and put Aly in the emergency section temporary bed. They then gave him a 500 ml drip. By then we were tired,hungry and sleepy. Aly was sleeping when we decided to go out to find food but at nearly midnight we could not find any food to buy in Putra Jaya. As we were contemplating what to do next, my daughter who was at Aly's bedside called us to say that Ally has been discharged by the doctor! His pletlet count had risen to 80! So we happily took him home, bought some Mc Dees before arriving home 12.30 am. AND the next morning was Ude's Convocation! I was too tired that I was reluctant to go. However thinking that it was Ude's BIG DAY, I decided to go after all! Of course I was happy to be witness Ude receiving her scroll for a Degree in Interior Architecture! We are proud of her achievement and patintly waited to be photographed with YB Tan Sri who had earlier handed Ude her scroll. Wow! What a busy Week! Alhamdulillah Aly is getting better though not fully recovered yet.

It's A Cool Morning!

Hello everybody! Today I'm experiencing a very cool morning here in the Klang valley. As I am typing this, cool breeze blows into my upstairs hall cum work area. I was thinking what to do this morning when suddenly I remembered that I had not been updating my blog entry. My friend Maz had commented on this while we were chatting at my house few days ago. I was suprised that she has been following my blog. Then the other day one of my staff made the same comment and told me that he is one of the silent reader too. Thank you all of you silent readers out there, if you all had made known to me that you are following my blog then may be I would have been more 'rajin' and would have made more frequent entries. I am quite pleased today having completed a big task last night, ie I had successfully made a big pot of 'acar buah' again. This time,I had made it because I had promised a friend who had made a confession that she simply loved my acar buah which she said she had licked to the last drop. So when she announced that she will be going to Makkah, I spontaneously announced that I will make the acar buah for her to take along! After many days contemplating at last my mission is completed. Today I will send a big tub to her, Insya Allah.
Talking about going to Makkah, I had made the pilgramage with my husband nearly 20 years ago. I could recall the years easily because during that pilgrimage I was carrying Yanna in my womb and Yanna is now 19 years old! Many would ask how could I be pregnant when doing the Haj? Tabung Haji would not have allowed that! Yes! but this was years ago when people like me who had dreamed of carry a baby while doing the Haj could beat the authorities' rulings! I was he, he, clever, I got pregnant after the Tabung Haji Tests! Those days they made the tests months ahead before the Haj, he, he he. So I was six months pregnant with Yanna when doing the Haj. And mind you it wasn't easy.My worst fear was being crushed in the crowd or stampede.The best part was I had no period problem to disrupt my ibadah, then also I my doa for the baby I was carrying makbul in many aspects. Alhamdulillah all's well that ends well. May my friends who are embarking on the Haj be safe and obtain a Haj Mabrur so that when they come back they will be a better person. Ameen!

Flowers In My Gadern And The Bees In My Hive

Assalamualaikum! Alhamdulillah today I'm feeling good as my health is improving. So I feel like writing this entry to share with you something. In my gadern, there are 5 flowers of which 4 are blooming and in my hive there are 4 macho bees of which two are ready to buzz away. For sometime now I have been waiting for suitable bees to approach my gadern but up till now there's no sign of the bees yet. So I turn my attention to my next job is to look for suitable flowers for my bees. And believe me its not an easy task! Fortunately after 2 years on the prowl and looking around I recently saw a flower which looks and smells ok to me. She is of a good local variety, though the origin is not local its close enough. Our establishment and the responding side will be having a prelimenary meeting soon before the Big Negotiation begins. In the meantime we all pray that things will work out well and we will have a happy ending. As for the flowers in my gadern, I am still looking out to the horizon praying that one of these days some good specimen will come by ! He, he, he. Write to me if you think of some possiblities but have little guts to come flying by! Just be sincere and honest and of course of the acceptable variety !