Loud Music On the Streets

Last Night, Anwar, Ramdan and me went to sempang bedok and had early sahur. Around 12midnight we decided to go back to the mosque and head towards my car at the carpark. Together we decided to do something to get the attention of probably everyone there in Sempang Bedok. And trust me we managed to do it!!! What did we do?

Well, i wind down all my car windows, turn on the volume to its maximum and played Hari Raya songs. Hahahaha! So you can really see the heads of all the mamats moto and minahs turning their head to see where the loud song came from. hehehehe! Not enough! We head down towards Geylang where the crowd is, hehehehe. Stupid, but its fun.. who cares!

"Iwan Oh Iwan" by Nurhayati

Another story about me, written by a good and close friend of mine Nurhayati. Enjoy & Comment!

I was talking on the phone with Iwan the other night. It has been quite some time since we chatted. It was nice, conversation flowed easily as normal. We were giggling and gaggling like mad as usual. Then at one point of the conversation, he told me about the gal who wrote about him in her blog. After giggling and gaggling further, we decided to write something about each other in our blogs, just to irritate each other. he even came up with some opening lines which were so funny, we end up laughing even harder.

Iwan is the pet name we gave him as I remembered that back then there were a few Ridzuan's in the group. So we decided to use pet names for them so as it is easier to identify them apart.
We were not close back in poly. I know him by face and talent (he has a wonderful singing voice), and he knows me as a friend of a friend. We only grew close only while he was in NS, and me already working. Actually when we found out that one of my god-brothers is his uncle, then we grew close. And the mischief that we did... hehehe. Pity abg Zai has to tolerate our nonsense and our fail attempt to matchmake him wif one of our friends.

We were the prepeptual bachelor and bachelortee of the group. Never feeling pressured when others in our group started pairing off and stuff. We always know that we can always count on the other to go to a function together, have a great laugh, without having a partner. He is one of the rare guys which I feel safe with, which is a compliment to him.

One thing I find very enduring about how he got so irritated with me about my sense of direction. I forever getting lost. After an incident of me getting lost in tampines, my own hometown, he dropped the bomb, "Sudah, next time you just wait for me kat the bus stop, i gi fecth u." hehehe.

I remembered when he was down about the certain someone who irritates me whenever i hear her name for being mean to him, I was on the phone with him often to cheer him up. I mean to nag as well. hehehe. We always turned to each other for advice, as we believe that we could always give honest opinons to each other. He was like my male mirror, telling me his honest opinons through a male's eyes.

Iwan is a self-less person, helped me alot back in those days when grey clouds loomed over the sky. I also remember our trip to Toa Payoh to buy shelves for my class. I remembered on the way back he asked me,"Yati, u tahu mana the new Irsyad will be?" Dengan sardine I jawab,"Tahu... kat Bradell" Hearing my remark, he shake his head," you sebenrnye tak tahu kan... itu kat depan mata lah". He pointed to me the construction site in front of us. We laughed, coz obviously my sense of direction has not improved.

I remembered when I went to Abg Zai's wedding with Jufri. Iwan tried to talk to Jufri, even carried Jufri. BUt that little boy just totally acted dumb and ignored him. Poor Iwan, buat penat aje u layan dia.

That night conversation brought back alot found memories of my dear friend. I always like to refer him as a teddy bear. Always fun, loving and kind. Except when it was his turn to nag at me...hehehe.

I hope our friendship will remain intact as we are moving into different things in our lives.

.....The End.....

Befriending The Folks 2008

I am an alumni member of NurIkhwan, a student body in Temasek Poly which is also known as TPMSS back in year 2000, that time I was a member, still studying in TP. Even though it has been nearly 5years since I’ve had already graduated from TP, TPMSS/NI will forever be with me in my heart. There are just too many fond memories that is impossible for me to forget. That’s why, no matter how busy I am working, I will always try to make time for its activities.

Last Saturday proves to be one of the days in Ramadhan that I won’t forget. Why? Well in my previous post, I was telling you all that I am looking forward to last Saturday’s event organized by my friends in NurIkhwan. It has already been 4 years in a row that we had this BTF project in Chai Chee. What is BTF? It is an acronym to Befriending The Folks.

What made it more special is because, my brothers from Al-Fataa, En-Naeem Mosque youth group, manage to join me in this community project. It’s a double joy for me. Meeting up with my juniors was indeed wonderful and being able to bring my youth group along was great. We managed to clean 10 old folks homes in Chai Chee that day. That achievement is admirable.

What more can you ask for…. Putting smiles into each of these folks in Ramadhan is a wonderful experience for us all. I’m sure all of us had learnt something valuable from this experience. All of us will grow older day by day, and what lies ahead is something that we will never know. Who’ll be there to take care of us when we are old? Will you be lonely? Don’t you have kids? You do… Where are they?

May Allah shower His blessings and love to us all. Ameen.

Ramadhan Experiences

Salaam Brothers & Sisters, how's your fasting and ibadah this Ramadhan? Hope everything goes well for all of you. Alhamdulillah, i wish all of you the best and my prayers for you that you'll be better Muslims than you are in the previous Ramadhan.

As for me, lot things have happened around me, though it doesn't involve me, but it does effect me spritually and emotionally. It is not easy working in a mosque. It requires lots and lots of patience, the challenges and obstacle that you’ll face here is double than what you get outside. This is truly based on my personal experience. Well, an Ustaz ever told me this “Wan, as we are moving closer to our Creator, the test is greater, go through each test with lots of patience and iman, trust me, you’ll grow to be a better Muslim.”

Working in a mosque does open my eyes to see and experience myself how working with the community is like. Not everything about working in the mosque is bad; there are lots of great and wonderful things to talk about too.


First Day:

First Day of Ramadhan, everyone came into the office, quiet, restless, weak and sleepy. Just two hours sitting and working on the desk, you can see everyone trying hard to keep themselves awake, putting a toothpick in between the eyelids might help i guess, hehehehe, in the end, hmmm whats wrong in taking a 5 minutes powernap, hehehe yeah rite, and some even took 15minutes. Who? Ok ok, it’s me, I admit. Heheheh……

The volunteers are busy preparing Ramadhan porridge for the jemaah. This year En-Naeem is giving away four huge pots of porridge!! And like many other first day of Ramadhan, everyone would be rushing to get porridge from mosques till its very last drop. So, usually by 5.30pm, there’ll be no more porridge left.

So, one 'pakcik' (uncle) came to collect porridge, too late that is, only to be greeted by four empty pots. We apologise and told him to come another day, and we told him to come earlier. He got so frustrated and said this "I've been regularly donating to the mosque, can't even get a packet of porridge!" Astarghfirullah....... So are you expecting something in return for every cents you donated the mosque or what! What a comment!


Zakat Fitrah :

Everyone understands that the payment of zakat and zakat fitrah is obligatory upon those who can afford it. Among other things, zakat purifies wealth and its owner. Until the obligation to pay zakat is met, it must be understood that the person is keeping what rightfully belongs to the poor and needy and other recipients of zakat categories or beneficiaries. Alhamdulillah, i will be an amil zakat again this year and is authorised to collect zakat harta and zakat fitrah from the jemaah. This year's zakat fitrah is priced at $4.50 and $6.50.

I was touched one day by an old man who came to me to pay his Zakat Fitrah. His face seems very familiar, when i continue to look hard then i realise that this man used to appear on TV during Ramadhan, being one of those family who receives zakat money monthly to help them as they were considered to be under one of the zakat beneficiaries, Miskin. He is blind, his wife is half-blind and they are poor. I'm touched to see someone like him that earns very little income, understand how important it is to perform Zakat. The little income that they had, they willingly shared part of it by performing their Zakat.

Looking at them, those who can afford to do Zakat but prefers not to, should be ashame of themselves.

I'm certain that if people in the Muslim Ummah carry out their zakat obligation faithfully in obedience to the Commands of Allah, there will be less poverty in society.

Alhamdulillah, may Allah continue to bless us and guide us through the obstacles during this month of Ramadhan. May Ramadhan this year make us better Muslims. As for me, i'm certainly looking forward to this saturday's community service with my juniors from NurIkhwan cleaning 10 homes in Chai Chee area for the old folks. On the 19th Sept, there'll be Youth-In-Charge programme for the mosque youth wing Al-Fataa. On the 20th to 21st, there'll be Iktikaf Camp, Nuzul Quran, Malam Lailatul Qadr, Qiyammulail........ lots more.

Brothers and Sisters, please Dua' for me. May Allah give me guidance and the strength to perform ibadah in this Holy month of Ramadhan, Ameen.

MEGA Briyani Amal 2008

MEGA BRIYANI AMAL 2008

Just 2 weeks ago, i was busy handling one of the major fund-raising projects this year which is the "Mega Briyani Amal 2008". Yes!! It is damn tiring!! But, nothing beats our spirits that day. Everyone was busy with packing, cooking, chopping, dicing, delivering and many more. Everyone enjoyed themselves that day, laughing, joking, talking and working together as one whole team.

My personal thanks to my project team and all lpm and staff of En-Naeem Mosque.

To my dearest group of volunteers from Khalifah, An-Niswa and Al-Fataa, thanks.

To my assistant, Juliyana, you've done a great job.

Alhamdulillah! In total we managed to raise $38840.50 for the mosque. Hopefully the mosque debts of $250,000 can be settle off by end of this year. Please pray for us. Thank You.

Ramadhan Kareem

Assalamualaikum to all my beloved brothers and sisters in Islam, wishing you all Ramadhan Kareem. May Allah accept all of our prayers and good deeds and forgive us from the sins that we've done.

Alhamdulillah, Ramadhan this year for me had been good so far. Terawih in the mosque, meeting my old friends, work hand-in-hand with the volunteers, pack porridge for the jemaah, preparing for iftar, so many things, so much love, so much bonding, May Allah bless us all in this blessed month of Ramadan.

We should think of others that are less fortunate than ourselves on this beautiful day of Ramadan (Ramadhan) Eid. Not everyone has such a wonderful day. It is a day of celebration, but take a moment to stop and think of those who are less fortunate than ourselves by following the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

To my dear friends, happy fasting!