The Present, the Future and In Between.

There are a few things that are for sure in this world. Death is sure, heaven and hell are sure, judgment day is for sure and a few others but there are plenty other things that we don’t know for certain. For example, we don’t know if we’ll ever see tomorrow or the next few hours or the next few minutes or a few seconds after this. So, why do we, human, plan as though we’re definitely sure of what’s going to happen next.

My English teacher once said, ‘Don’t take things for granted”. Can’t agree with her more I guess. Normally, as in most of the time, we get too comfortable with ‘happy times’. Like when we’re doing well at something, we have the feeling that we’ll always be great without any dip in form. Life’s not that way. It’s like what people say, life is like a wheel. Sometimes we’re on top and sometimes we’re down below. Making someone or some other party as our scapegoat isn’t really the best way to deal with the down-the-wheel period. After all, only losers make excuses.

As far as I know, people often learn from failures more than they could ever benefit from success. So, instead of pointing fingers, why not we look in the mirror and ask ourselves where did we do wrong. Simplest example, if we (in this case: I) don’t get mumtaz(excellent), why didn’t I try harder? Why didn’t I spend more time on my studies rather than wasting my time on numerous futile matters? Maybe, just maybe, the question was too hard or the professors were too strict (stingy) or the University purposely don’t want us to pass the exam so that we’ll have to repeat the year and pay a year more fees but why not we blame ourselves on not making those difficult questions easy for ourselves? Why did we give the professors to utilize that strictness? People will try hard to bring us down, don’t give them the opportunity to do so.

We got to prepare ourselves mentally and physically just in case we face failures. No one stays at the top forever. Just look at how Libya’s and Egypt’s dictators, after 40 odd years, the former, and 30 plus years, the latter, they were eventually ousted. We can’t expect life to be easy all the way. Troubles and problems will stand in our way to success and if we stop just because of one tiny barrier then we’ll never know what might’ve awaited us behind that barrier. Dreams are beautiful but life…? Well, not so much but life is true and dreams are just dreams unless you, I mean we, try to turn it into a bright future.

Speaking about future, many of us regards a good future as a life with lots of money or living happily with our future wife and kids, or being a leader of certain nation or at least a big business company. Well let’s ask ourselves one simple question. If we try so hard, day and night 24/7 studying for exams or working to earn some amount of money or having a beautiful wife to build a happy family for a life aged 60-70 years give or take, how much effort do we put on an eternity life? A life without death when you either go to this blessed place or that cursed place. If we can sacrifice our break time for work, why can’t we take a few minutes from our work time for our daily prayers so that we could pray right on time and not at the eleventh hour? If we can spend the whole night reading books without sleeping just for the sake of getting good results in our examination, why can’t we wake up a few minutes before fajar for tahajud?

P/S: I’m about to enter my third year as a medical student. Simple task for you, PRAY FOR MY SUCCESS ^_^

~Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery,

If we don’t remember Allah the Almighty, our life will be in misery. ~

Sonnet 1

The sky is blue, the sea is too,

He is The Creator of me and you.

Life’s a surprise, life is short,

You want paradise? Obey your Lord.

Always remember Him even when you’re at the helm,

Fulfill His orders without even thinking of questioning them.

When He calls for daily prayers, don’t say you won’t,

Because He can see us, even when others don’t.

We’re happy or sad, we’re frustrated or glad,

He understands us better than our dad.

So, why ignore Him when he never fails to remember us?

Recite the Quran and the Dhikr even when we’re on the bus.

He told us that our enemy is syaitan,

So why follow him? Haven’t we read the Quran?

He sent us Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as our guidance,

So why are we not following his (peace be upon him) footsteps? Isn’t that nonsense?

This poem is for me and you,

But reading the Quran is a better thing for you to do.

Move on

Sadly that my second year’s result was slightly worse than last year. I thought failing to get mumtaz during my first year was disappointing enough. Little did I know that my second year would be more frustrating. But at the same time, I feel really grateful to Him. To be honest I don’t think I even deserve this kind of result. It did crossed my mind that I might need to study for dur thani(reseat paper). True, the questions were unsurprisingly hard but why should I blame the questions for being so hard when I should’ve blamed myself for not making them easy.

I’m no longer a secondary school student. I’m a second year undergraduate student. I should’ve spent more time studying than wasting time on useless matters. Who said a medical student can’t play? But at least I should’ve made sure my studies weren’t left unattended. How many more failures do I need to suffer?

Why should I leave my revisions at the very last minute? That’s a lame secondary school mistake. During my secondary school years, and this includes every single school in my country especially Sekolah Berasrama Penuh, I find that their focus were on how to help student score in their examinations. For me, that shouldn’t be the case. The objectives of learning should be that we really understand the subject. Not just memorising the facts for examinations and forget them the moment we leave the examination hall.

I mean, especially those who study in professional field (and not just doctors), what’s the point of getting good grades if you yourself have no idea what you answered in the exam? We’re not gonna operate patients by answering questions. We’re not gonna build any kind of building by simply circling A, B, C or D on a multiple choice question paper. We need to really understand the subject well. We’re not studying just for the sake of good grades. We are the future doctors, engineers, scientists and more importantly, we’re the leaders of the future generation. If we who are studying in a professional field can’t get serious, are we going to depend on someone else (no offense on those who aren’t in a professional field of study) to plan our future.

Success doesn’t come just like that. It needs sacrifices, efforts and determinations. However, don’t force yourself like studying till late in the morning and imagining failures that makes your life goes miserable. Just try your best and prepare yourself to accept whatever the final result is. This is a reminder for myself especially and to those who are reading this. Easier said than done it is though.

P/S: Someone taught me this doa that I find really interesting:-

Ya Allah, andainya kejayaan dalam peperiksaan ini akan mendekatkan kami kepadaMu maka Engkau anugerahkanlah kejayaan ini kepada kami. Tetapi andainya kejayaan ini akan menjauhkan kami daripadaMu maka Engkauh jauhkanlah kejayaan ini dari kami sejauh-jauhnya.

N.B: The term ‘kami’ is used so that we don’t forget to pray for our friends too.

Ya Allah, permudahkanlah kami untuk ingat dan faham apa yang telah kami pelajari. Amin.

Anak Muda di Rantauan Tak Semuanya Pulang ke Desa

I guess it’s still not too late to wish everyone a blissful Eid ey. Well just so you know that this year is the very first time I celebrated Eid without my family. It ain’t so bad though. At least I have my friends here with me. Honestly, celebrating eid in Egypt feels no big difference compared to celebrating it in Malaysia because the huge amount of Malaysian students in this country. There are plenty of open houses and we still get the chance to eat Malaysian cuisine such as rendang, kuah kacang, nasi impit and numerous types of kuih raya. I think, apart from the fact that we’re celebrating eid without our family, the only regret is that we don’t get duit raya from anyone here.

On the 1^st day of Syawal, my friends and I went to ARMA(Asrama Rumah Melayu Abbasiah) to pray Solat sunat eidulfiti there. For those who don’t know, ARMA is like the Malaysian hall in Egypt. We took a cab and arrived at ARMA around 7 a.m. plus and around 8 a.m. we prayed and listened to the khutbah(sermon). After that only were we allowed to enjoy the foods. ARMA was flooded with Malaysians so we had to queue up. I didn’t even have the chance to taste the rendang there. Well at least I got the satay.

Later that night, my housemates and I made nasi impit, kuah kacang, rendang and kuih cornflakes. Well actually Shamil was the one capable of doing all those dishes. The rest just helped a bit. Quite awkward it was because usually people cook for eid before eid but us? We cooked after eid. Shamil said, “biasalah, raya perantau” and I added, “raya perantau bujang ah”. Long story short, everything was a success (based on bachelor’s standard of course) although the kuih cornflakes were made without its cups and some of the nasi impit were a bit too soft.

Celebrating eid in Egypt isn’t so bad. We have many open houses between Malaysians. It feels almost like home. So, to those who study in Egypt but still hasn’t the chance to celebrate eid in Egypt, I think you guys should try it. Besides, when else would you get the chance to experience the feeling of celebrating it without your family if not while you’re thousands miles away from home?

Roses are red violets are blue, forgive and forget, we're all human too.
Wherever we are, whatever we do, don't forget to pray that He'll bless me and you.
Life's a surprise, life is short.
You want paradise? Obey your Lord.
Not just in Ramadhan, not just on Friday.
... Tapi dalam apa jua keadaan, tak kira gembira ke sedih ...