My 8 hours diary..

Assalamualaikum wrt..

I am working 2 shifts back-to-back now, that means 8 hours straight from 12am to 8am..I don't know if I could manage it, but I know somehow I should. I don't want to make the hours go by empty, so I decided to make it beneficial by jotting down what I did and share it with you guys...Mind you, that these aren't my usual routine. The intention of this sharing is purely to encourage myself to be productive and to benefit everyone who read this post..and yeah, I'm also trying to stay awake...

so here goes...

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12.13am - Arrived to work. yeah..13 minutes late. I was lucky enough to get to go to work by car tonight, a friend was nice enough to lend me her car (actually she did not enjoy parking it at the garage, so she let me use the car instead. hehe). Unlucky for me though, only a few seconds away from Hank Ingram (my workplace), suddenly I saw in the rear view mirror, a glance of the unpleasantly familiar flashing blue light. Dang right it was the po po..Winding down my mirror, a young female police officer flashed her torchlight towards my face and said, "Ma'am, your brake light wasn't working. Can I see your license please..". With a sigh of relief, I handed my license coolly. The reason was expected, but the timing of such occurrence was not looked forward. I was late for work! But thank you Allah, I got out of the situation financially unharmed =)

(p/s: to the owners of the car, jangan marah eh I cerita ni kat sini..I love you girls so much la..=D)

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12.30am-1.00am - Facebooking

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1.00am-2.20am - I was blog-hopping from one blog to another. And I found this posted in one of my friend's..It's a khutbah delivered by my all-time favorite sheikh, Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. It was breathtaking as usual..

Some notes that I managed to jot down:

If you ask people what they want the most in life, they would say - Happiness. When we felt uneasy, have problems in life, we have to turn to Allah by worshiping Him, not turning to dunya. For example, when we came back from work and stressed out, we usually turn on the tv, get into social talk, or even backbiting, or visit other people. The things we did, might be haraam might be makruh..Compare this with the sirah of the prophet SAW, when problems afflicted him, he would RUSH to stand up and pray. He once said to bilaal "..oh Bilaal, we want to taste the sweetness of the prayer, do iqaamah quick..".

Once, Hassan Al Basri said, "..Seek happiness in life with one of 3 things - recitation of quran, zikir to Allah and in the solah. If you still do not find happiness, then the door of happiness has been shut for you, there is no other place to attain happiness..".

"There is a jannah in this world, the only way to enter jannah in the hereafter, is to enter the jannah in this world, and that the jannah in this world is the worship to Allah.."

[13:28] "Only through the rememberance of Allah, do hearts find rests.."

When we do good deeds, we are happy. ex: after we fast, after waking up for fajar, after reciting quran -- we tasted happiness. And the converse is also true - when we do sins, (and we always do), we feel that we become farther from Allah, changed our relationship with Allah. The only way to reach tranquility is to worship Allah.

Why do we let the world to seduce us? How many lectures, khutbah and nasihahs have to be told, so that we know? Tomorrow will never always arrive, what else do we need to convince us? How can we ask Allah for help when we don't deserved to be helped? For the sake of Allah, we must change, NOW, because we don't know if there is tomorrow...

We have to ask ourselves, "..what am I doing here? Allah SWT has given me 30, 40,50, 60 years to live." Ponder then act. Improve your life to be better. Only then we will reach tranquility, insyaAllah...

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2.20am-2.45am - A few minutes before I found the video, I read this article in Suhaib Webb's blog, the post was about 'How to Taste Sweetness in Solat'.. http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/how-to-taste-the-sweetness-of-prayer/comment-page-1/#comment-15183

It was so reflecting and coincidently relevant to the video, I encouraged all to read it. An interesting story I excerpted from the article:

The Story of the Ansari and theMuhajir

In the sunan of Abu Dawud, it is narrated with a hasan (good) chain that in one of the battles, the Prophet ﷺ appointed two guards, one from theMuhajiroon and one from the Ansar. At one point, the Ansari got up to pray while the man from the Muhajiroon reclined in order to have a nap. A man from the mushrikeen(disbelievers) who was close by saw this, and fired a small arrow at the Ansari who was praying. It hit him, but the Ansari, with some difficulty, removed the arrow and continued praying as the blood seeped from him. The mushrik, upon seeing this, fired another arrow. The Ansari was able to remove it also and continued praying. However, the Ansari could not stand the pain of the third arrow and fell into rukoo’ (bowing) and sujood(prostration), and this is when the man of the Muhajiroon woke up, seeing his friend seeping with blood. Upon seeing this, the mushrik fled. “SubhanAllah! (Glory be to Allah!) Why didn’t you alert me when he first hit you?!” the Muhajir exclaimed. The reply of the Ansari was, “I was reciting a surah (chapter of the Qur’an) that I love, and I did not like to cut it off.” Allahu Akbar (Allah is great!) Imagine this person’s state in the salah(prayer).

I was also listening to this song (over and over again =P) when I read the article.. I was currently addicted to the song..(janji tau jangan gelak bila dengar..=P)

hehe =D

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2.45am-3.00am - Facebooking again..

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3.00am-3.45am - doing absolutely nothing....can't stop yawning . ok dah penat. but just half way way through. how lah? =P

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3.45am - I decided to browse through some universities' website while listening to nasyid songs.. (mostly Mirwana's =P..I wish I have their new album...hmm..)

I also found this article from a friend's FB (ops..FB again =P). It's about 'Signs of the Munafiquun'. A must-read article. Short, sweet and a bit scary I guess...let's go through the checklist: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~baba/impiman/series10.html

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4.40am - A friend at the other side of the world was kind enough to let me join an usrah online yang dia attended. dengar through skype dia ajelah tapi..in the beginning, they discussed Surah Al-Mursalat [77:1-end]. Later, they were talking about 'Hizbullah yg sempurna dan lengkap'....quite a heavy topic for me..usrah peringkat tinggi ni..=P.but anyhow, I gained something from the session.

My messy note:

Ciri-ciri hizbullah: [Al-Maidah:54], ciri-ciri kepimpinan (sama seperti sifat Rasulullah)- Siddiq (membenarkan), Amanah, Tabligh (menyampaikan), Fatanah (bijaksana-softskill), ciri-ciri ahli syura: pengetahuan menyeluruh dgn kitab Allah dan sunnah disertai kesedaran dan pengalaman semasa. ciri-ciri tentera Allah (jundullah): kefahaman, taqwa (tasawwuf, tazkiyyatunnafs), taat (haraqi). Pemimpin bertanggungjawab memimpin ke arah kefahaman.

Kisah Hatib bin Abi Balta'ah, sahabat yang mendedahkan rahsia jemaah- menulis surat kepada kaum Quraisy di Makkah memberitahu perancangan Rasulullah s.a.w. untuk menyerang kaum musyrikin Quraisy secara mengejut. Ijtihad pada waktu tu tak melabel dia sebagai munafik kerana niatnya bukan utk menghancurkan Islam, tapi melindungi ahli keluarganya dari kaum Quraisy.

the complete story can be read here: http://usahmadawang.blogspot.com/2010/02/hatib-bin-abi-baltaah-sahabat-yang.html

There were lengthy discussions that I didn't jot down, either I didn't catch it, the contents were too confidential or simply I was too lazy and too sleepy to type it in...=/

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6.20am - My eyelids were getting heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier......("~_~). Chatted with mom and friends to avoid sleeping...

7.36am - As always, the final hour always feel like the longest one. hmm...

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8.00am - DONE! Alhamdulillah! =)

Istikharahlah kamu..

Often, we have to make major life-changing decisions: to change career or not, to go to graduate school or not, to move out or not, to get married or not..etc.

Istikaharah means to ask Allah to guide one to the right thing concerning any affair in one's life, especially when one has to choose between two PERMISSIBLE alternatives. Solat Istikharah is a sunnah. It is a prayer that one may pray if one must choose between two choices: it is two non-obligatory rakaat (that can be recited separately or in combination with the regular sunnah prayers or the prayer for entering the mosque[....]during any time of the day or night, and to recite therein whatever one wishes of the Quran (any surah) after reciting the Al-Fatihah. After the two rakaat, one praises Allah and sends salutations to the Prophet 'aSAW and recites the following doa:

The description of Salaat al-Istikhaarah was reported by Jaabir ibn ‘Abd-Allaah al-Salami (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said:

“The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to teach his companions to make istikhaarah in all things, just as he used to teach them soorahs from the Qur’aan. He said: ‘If any one of you is concerned about a decision he has to make, then let him pray two rak’ahs of non-obligatory prayer, then say:

(O Allaah, I seek Your guidance [in making a choice] by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power, I have none. And You know, I know not. You are the Knower of hidden things. O Allaah, if in Your knowledge, this matter (then it should be mentioned by name) is good for me both in this world and in the Hereafter (or: in my religion, my livelihood and my affairs), then ordain it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if in Your knowledge it is bad for me and for my religion, my livelihood and my affairs (or: for me both in this world and the next), then turn me away from it, [and turn it away from me], and ordain for me the good wherever it may be and make me pleased with it.”

(Reported by al-Bukhaari, 6841; similar reports are also recorded by al-Tirmidhi, al-Nisaa’i, Abu Dawood, Ibn Maajah and Ahmad).

An-Nawawi holds that "after performing the istikharah, a person must do what he/she is wholeheartedly inclined to do and feels good about doing and should not insist on doing what he/she had desired to do before making the istikharah. And if his/her feelings change, he should leave what he intended to do, otherwise he/she is not completely leaving the choice to Allah, and would not be honest in seeking aid from Allah's power and knowledge. Sincerity in seeking Allah's choice, means that one should completely leave what he/she him/herself had desired or determined."

Sources:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6011623/howtopraysalatulistikhara, http://www.muslimconverts.com/prayer/How_to_pray_istikharah.htm

LIfe is ahead, why look behind?

CHOICES OF LIFE

(written by: Tamara Lesley)

If you were to peer into a looking glass

What would you choose to see?

A lifetime of many pasts, or a future of certainty?

My choice whould not be of the past,

Why look behind me?

I'd wish to see my life of uncertainty,

I'd have many choices to change my past

And who I used to be.

I'd strive for adventure in my life and

Happiness I choose to see.

For in that looking glass of time,

Much knowledge would I find;

Success and earnestness,

for life, I choose this time.

Many struggles ahead may lie,

my choice I have made clear.

Until my dying day,

I choose the life of cheer.

"Being trapped in the past is a biggest deterrent to being productive... past mistakes, past failures, past emotional turmoils that you can't resolve... here's a quick tip: when the past haunts you, take it as an opportunity to remember Allah's favour upon you that He got you out of that situation/Issue, instead of beating yourself down on things you can never change.." - quoted from Productive Muslim

Alright, here goes! =)

Time to change to a new layout! =)

oh yeah..I'm loving this one..call it anything you want..'girlish', 'too flowery'..I love flowers and I always do. A friend call me 'awek bunga' once, and so be it =)

And yeah, I hope Spring will come soon...