the eggs-pert

"You can just turn on whatever radio station u want to listen to, it's OK" I said to the chinese cab driver, who just turned on his radio to a Malay station.

"Really? You don't want to listen to radio?", the cab driver asked

"No," I said.

"You listening to MP3 ah?"

"Yes.."

"It's no good you know, listening to MP3 too much"

"Really? why?" I asked him, expecting him to talk about how listening to mp3, long and loud, can damage your hearing etc.

The driver explained, "you know, the man who got killed by a tree at MacRitchie Reservoir? - i think ah.. he was listening to the MP3 player. that's why ah he couldn't hear the sound of the branch, before it fell on him."

"WHOT?! oh?.."

Well, basically after that, he just went on to talk about a lot of isu-isu semasa.. jumping from one issue to another, like a frog leaping from one lily pad to another.

MP3 ->(mp3s bad for you because)-> falling tree branch -> (ppl should learn how to survive in nature, like boy scouts) -> govt cautioning ppl on dangers in public facilities (it does not cost much to put up signs rather than waste money on other things) -> MPs printing monthly brochures a waste -> (govt can help the ppl more monetarily) -> GCE O levels fees increment. Then, we reached my place.

But the part about the mp3 player and the falling tree.. I was thinking.. it was raining quite heavily, i doubt that the man could have identified the sound of the falling branch.

OR

Even if that man, had heard some sound of a falling branch, the natural reaction would be to look up, and then, by that time, it's probably too late to run.

OR,

He could have heard the sound, and he reacted by running - but it may be right into the spot of the falling branch, cause i don't think our hearing is good enough to even locate the exact location where the sound came from.

In conclusion - it is already decreed, that that man, will die at that spot, at that moment, by a falling tree branch. If Allah has decreed so, nothing at all can change that.

قُل لَّوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ لَبَرَزَ الَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَتْلُ إِلَى مَضَاجِعِهِمْ...

..Say [unto them]: "Even if you had remained in your homes, those [of you] whose death had been ordained would indeed have gone forth to the places where they were destined to lie down."..

Al Quran, Ali Imran 3:154