REMINISCENCE

Seven of the trainees that I interviewed last year 'graduated' from the Shelter Homes in this month of July. I saw them left with tears of joys and with hope that they will have the strength to face the world again. To be able to put into practice of what they have learned here and to be steadfast in their amals. But the main concern is for them to have the support from their closed ones. I admit that I'm so worried about them......after a year, they have become like my own children/sisters. I love them all and I know they love me back.

They 'graduated' with flying colours. Some of them came in not knowing a single alphabet of the Holy Book, never heard of the word Dhuha, Tahajjud is so alien and none of them has been doing the obligatory prayers regularly. Yet,when they walked out of this House,all of them khatamed the Qur'an at least twice. One left me speechless with astounding 12x khatam, that's once every month....and she was the one who, during interview, thought nobody prays regularly just because her parents do not. Alhamdulillah, all of them have such a high spirit to go back to their family to do da'awah amongst their parents and siblings.

When they first came in, all of them had this mindset that they were being punished and have this gloomy looks about them. It is very uplifting to know that they now felt they were lucky to be chosen to spend a year at this House. It was a sign that Allah still loves them, guides them to taubah and then learn how to be an appropriate servant of Him.

They have changed my perspective. I'm sure you still remember Adik...we always looked at them with disgust, those mat/minah rempits, who surrounded our cars when we stopped at traffic lights on our way back home from our swimming sessions. The session finished at 7pm and we were always rushing home so that we wont be late for Maghrib. ( Abah is all for us to go swimming on condition that we must be home before Maghrib azan) As we were going home, they were coming out.....and I used to tell you that they came out with syaitaan as those wretched creatures do come out at dusk. We looked at them as if they were absolute rubbish. I even sometimes prohibited you from looking at them....

It all changed when I started working with them. After I know their stories,their sufferings,their anguish......they are all the victims. Of what,you may ask.....I learned not to point fingers at their parents, friends or school or whatever I assumed before. I honestly learned and believed the fault lies on all of us, the ummat who has abandoned the work of Da'awah. I found the finger actually pointing at me!!

Nowadays I see them, those problematic teenagers, with different eyes, the ones with sympathy, empathy and guilt, especially guilt because I couldnt reach out to them. Those girls  think the guys really care about them, love them and make them happy,in short,what they crave in their teenage years. It is always too late when they finally realised that the guys are really just after one thing. So, they end up at the House, some being pregnant and some are not, but broken nevertheless. All of them come from unhappy family where they do not 'talk' to their respective mothers. All mothers who came in during the interview told us the same old story. Their girls are so quiet at home, never confide in them,thus seemingly have no problem whatsoever, and they just couldnt believe it happen to their girls......

I would come home and hug you Adik, and make you promise that you will always treat me as your best friend to whom you could tell absolutely everything....and you did promise, so, ingat ye!!

I now teach you , Abang and Adik, not to look at them teenagers, with hostile look anymore. They are to be pitied, they dont have the opportunity to experience good childhood where the parents really obey the commandments of Allah according to the sunnah of our beloved prophet. Let us start in our own home. Let us create the environment of Iman and Amal in our home,then our village, our country and in the whole world. Let us all be the dai'e of Allah. 

Please Allah, choose us, despite all our shortcomings and sinfulselves.(ada ker perkataan ni?).

I now ask you to pray for them, pray for Hidayah.....InsyaAllah, if we sincerely pray for them while asking forgiveness from Allah for our  own weaknesses, they will, one day, find the lights....

TIME TO CHANGE....

That's what Abang said few days ago...(I think you got it from one telco advert.) And it made all of us smile. Abang, the one who rarely make a statement or say big words.....

What's going to change now Abang? I admit that I'm a bit apprehensive....

From Mama's observation, you have began to be more adventurous in your eating habit. Infact, those words were uttered during a meal when you decided to try out new dish. 

Eversince you started eating, you have been a picky eater. Not difficult or fussy, just picky. You went through a phase of 'white food' only where you would only eat food that has no colour or just white, like clear soup, rice , egg minus yolk etc.

Then, came a phase of peanut butter and jelly sandwich or PB & J sandwich as you called it. This had to travel with us wherever we go...Even when we stayed in a hotel with a buffet spread fit for a king, you would still insist on your PB &J sandwiches.( many of our relatives would remember this as those jars would always appear whenever we dropped by at their place) 

 As you grow older, it gets easier but you are still very predictable in your eating habit. When we eat out, it will always be roti canai telur for breakfast and if it is dinner, fish and chips or nasi goreng. And the drinks, it always iced milo. We dont even have to ask you, but Abah, in his constant effort to lure you into trying new dishes, would always let you read the menu and ask you to order despite knowing ....

As for Adik, hemmm....she will scan the menu up and down and order the one with the strangest name. In our recent trip, while Abang stick to his iced milo, Adik would order es gaul and soda gembira....and gobbled up otak sapi  and the likes!!

(Mama went bonkers over es alpukat read avocado and Abah over jus sirsak read soursop)

Lately Abang has been eating a lot....he would eat the most rice/bread/pasta compared to all of us, even more than Abah. And grows taller and 'fuller' at a speed....

Last month, we had to bring you to the tailor again for your school pants as the ones made in December last year dah senteng....

You are still not eating seafood save fish. While the three of us would enjoy prawns ( esp Adik) and squids or cockles, you would blissfully eat your rice or bread with serunding daging. Thank God for those serunding.....

Come to think of it, I think you do have a healthy eating habit. You eat a lot of carbohydrate which is good for a boy your age and you dont like food high in fat and sugar (except chips and akok). And we should stop asking you to try those seafoods we like so much as they are not exactly a healthy choice, are they?.

I think I should just let you eat whatever you like. Oh, more veges please, and fruits too....As for veges, I'm ever so grateful that both of you, Abang and Adik, seems to like sayur kampung more,the likes of okra, long beans, brinjals and petola which I could easily get at the farmers market, organically grown. Abah himself is growing some okra in our backyard now and some kacang botol are at productive stage, growing wildly on the chain- link fence also in our backyard. Not mentioning many ulams that Mama grows....

Fruitwise, I' m not worry at all for Adik, but I think Abang does not eat enough fruit because you cant be bothered to peel them, betul tak Bang? Kalau Mama suap, banyak je makan....You eat bananas if I cut it up and sprinkle on your morning cereal, but wouldnt eat them on their own. Your favourite fruit at the moment is red dragon fruit.

All in all, you are doing fine as far as eating is concern. And as a charmer,you are very good at ambil hati Mama. According to you, whatever Mama cooks always taste better and Mama makes the meanest lasagne in the whole wide world...but, when it comes to fish curry, it seems that Tok Su's is still better than mine!

Other changes that I would like to see....

*Spend less time in the bathroom

*Play less....

*And this is important; please,please...no more buat pe'el as you always do upon waking up from sleep during a journey,be it short or long...esp when we are actually arriving not at our home!! Enough of it la Abang, you are so big now....buat malu jer!

*More responsible in carrying your inhaler and nasal medications wherever you go,just in case.....

And actually, banyak lagi, but Mama dah penat ni and Makcik Zila is here to clean the house, so I"ll just stop here.

Oh,just one more thing, I notice that you are more 'vocal' in expressing your thought nowadays....few days ago,walking away from me, you said,"Mama,you have a short fuse and fond of berleter"....!!! OUUUCH....this is one of the things i hate when you change......

HOME SWEET HOME

Surabaya from our 18th floor hotel room

 

There's no place like home,honestly!!
It"s soooooo GOOD to be home!! 
That's what all four of us agreed upon. Even after staying in not one but two five star hotels in a span of five days with all the comforts and luxury, the smell and sight of this home is more pleasing to us . 
Mama fell down straight away on much missed bed, Abah went to check up on his beloved orchard while Abang and Adik fussed over Grey and her litters. How we miss all of these......Grey was so excited to see us and cannot wait to get into the house after having to stay away for 6 days.

Our trip to Surabaya was good, Alhamdulillah. Even the delay of the flight home was good. We missed our flight to KB due to it but we got to go to Mak's house because of it. See, if anything befalls us and we accept it with redha and say Alhamdulillah 'ala kullihal...good things are bound to happen despite the misfortune.

Mak Su Pah and family were there as well and in the morning Cik Ni came to breakfast with her troops. Not forgetting Kak Aishah...it was like raya at Mak's house. Its good that we could meet Mak and family as they are not going to balik kampung for coming school holidays, not even for Abang Long Anas's wedding.

Abang and Adik are a few shades darker, no thanks to hours of enjoying splashes in swimming pools. The pool at Shangri La was more enjoyable than the one at Marriott, with its water slides and deeper pool. Even Mama got to swim as well as we practically had the pool to ourselves despite school holidays in Indonesia. (lalala...mama got to try out her burqini...very practical and so sopan one!! definitely recommended!! ) 

Adik, being a museum addict, were so happy that a visit to one of so many museums were included in the itinerary and Abang made everyone wondered how he could finished FIVE helpings of Nasi Padang! It was our ' one million meals'....(million rupiah that is....for 30 of us)

You missed 3 schooldays....must catch up on homeworks.

I hope all these trips and travels overseas since you were 3 and 5 will benefit you, broaden your horizon. I hope it made you see how vast the universe that Allah has created when we come across different faces, different languages but yet when you (esp. Abang) go to the mosques you see people come together to pray to the same God. I also hope you could appreciate the life that Allah has granted us, be thankful all the times. 

Most importantly, I hope you do observe the routine that Abah has set every time we were to start a journey. Abah will print out the prayer time of the place we are going, checking out the nearest mosque to the hotel we are staying, making sure every one has a change of clean clothing in the hand-carried bag for prayers in case the one on us are soiled. It should make you realise how important our daily prayers are. To know the exact prayer time is so very important . Unlike our home where we can just rely on azan from every corner of our kampung, in a non muslim country you will have no idea of the prayer time if you come unprepared. It gets more complicated in 4 seasons country esp during winter and summer .......

Anyway, congratulation to both of you for not missing any solat in our recent journey, not even the 4 am fajar solat. Abang even went to the mosque a few times.

You see, by traveling, we get to practise our knowledge and get rewarded by Allah in doing so. I know just how much you two enjoy doing the jamak/qasar...... you learnt from Abah how to look for the kiblat direction on the compass and you got to pray on the plane on our way back from Mecca last time, remember? Not forgetting the masnun do'as that we get to recite on many occasions......

All in all, I hope it will deeply instilled in you the importance of guarding our solat, doing it on time,( in a congregation for men) and not just doing it....

BUT, as for now, I dont think I want to go anywhere faraway from home anytime soon...... I loooove being home!!( But Abah still has to go to Bangkok next week.....)