Madame Blossom's Book of Poems

Sunday, September 30, 2007

2nd half sep pictures

kaifa hal? wa kaifa imanukum?
(how are you? and how's your iman?)

I hope it's ok for the 1st and improving for the latter.

been busy in Ramadhaan, but regretfully not busy enough with deeds for the soul.
may i improve in that area, especially in the coming last 10 days.





happy birthday cik alin, cik yan and dadha.
and syabas to our team for the very good debate last saturday.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

From the dead comes the living.

I was 'rummaging' through the stuff on my thumbdrive, when I came across this note that I had.

It was from a bbc news in 2004, a story about how forests needs the dead, decaying trees, in order to keep itself healthier.

A WWF report, Deadwood - Living Forests, says a third of forest-dwelling species rely on dead or dying trees, logs, and branches for their survival.

It says: "The removal of decaying timber and old trees from Europe's forests has led to a drastic decline in species such as insects, beetles, fungi, and lichens.


...and how I was reminded on this verse from our Quran.

"Thou causest the night to gain on the day, and thou causest the day to gain on the night; Thou bringest the Living out of the dead, and Thou bringest the dead out of the Living; and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou pleasest, without measure."

Al Quran, Ali Imran 3:27


Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding,

Al Quran, Ali Imran 3:190


May we be one of the men who understands. Ameen.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

grapevine, short one

during iftar tadi, hadi popped a small suji into his mouth and crossed his eye and made a funny face.

Nadhrah who was between hubby and me, with her mouth full, pointed to abang and commented.

So i laughed, and told hubby.. 'See lah.. her vocab.. quite vast eh?

Hanaa: what did she say?

Me : She said, abang macam selengeh...heheheh.

Nadhrah : Tak.....Nadhrah cakap, abang makan semua.

Eema: selengeh tu apa?.

*******************

Well, taking that opportunity, it was a good time to learn something, together with the kids:

You see, even in this so short a distant, the story can totally change from 'abang makan semua' to 'abang macam selengeh'.

So, always be careful, when you relate (IF you HAVE to relate) what someone says. If you're not sure, say you're not sure.

That's how reliable narrators of hadith sohih are, very extra super careful when they relate hadiths.

*iftar = break fast
*abang macam selengeh = bro is like a... err.. 'nincompoop'
*abang makan semua = bro ate it all

Saturday, September 15, 2007

..almost

INT HOME NIGHT
after iftar..

HADI

... alah.. ibu.. can i please get 1 'good deed' sticker? Hadi da layan nadhrah, layan eema... and i ALMOST gave hanaa my mars (chocolate).




MasyaAllah..
and i ALMOST gave him the sticker.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Ramadhan, setan diikat......right?

Kita SLALU dengar kan.. time bulan puasa, syaitan2 semua dah kena 'ikat'. Abis, kenapa masih ada orang buat maksiat dalam bulan ni? kenapa kadang2 kita pun ada terbuat maksiat dalam bulan ni?

I'm very much attracted to what ustaz hasrizal has to say about this on his site Saifulislam.

yeah..now i understand.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

the fragile earth

..so, I'm still thinking about that earthquake kat sumatra.
when i thought about how fragile our life is... i'm also reminded of how fragile the EARTH is.

We must have noticed kan, that natural disasters are more frequent now. What with the extreme weathers, tornadoes and the earthquakes. The earth IS extremely old.

Geologist thinks that this earth is 4.5 BILLION yrs old!
Man, dari zaman Nabi Adam AS.. start to live on this earth cuma approximately 4000-5000 yrs ago (...no darwin, our forefathers were not apes or monkeys).

If the earth's age is compared to the 24 hours of our time, man only started living on the earth, approximately in the 1/10th of the last 60th sec of the 24hours.

Amazing kan? Subhanallah.

And some men THINK that they are so smart and so important in this universe, when they are only here in the last second.

Oh.. and in the later half of this last second also.. men managed to start destroying the earth AND themselves e.g. depleting natural resources, making a hole in the sky, monopolising wealth and resources, stabbing one another's back to get to i don't know where they think they are going. Aren't we one very confused and kecoh kind.

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth."
They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?"
He said: "I know what ye know not."

Al Quran, Al Baqarah 2:30


Ya Allah, yes, indeed You know best.
Save us and our souls in this life and in the Hereafter.
Ameen.

p.s. by the way, another one hit it about 5.48pm just now. :(

Ramadhan tremors

There were some last minute preparations done for Ramadhan. Like dah bertahun, i wanted to put up a chart, for the children, to mark the ibadahs they've done.
So finally yesterday i managed to do one and put up. They were excited - semalam lepas terawih aje.. semua da excited to stick on a sticker under their name.

I also wanted to make some resolutions for myself. but i think tak payah banyak2 plan.. or hmm.. maybe it's better to jot down personally - just to take note. But I shouldn't put too high expectations on myself too. Realistic goals. Something like last year.

But this year, what i can improve on.. is my relationship with my jirans. I'm the typical working malay woman yang tak campur orang sangat. Keluar kelam kabut (biasa lah.. asik lambat).. balik pun . kalau jumpa jiran.. i'm not in the mood to, u know.. talk long long.. just smile and go, or just ask the obvious question like 'baru balik?' (Ya LAH! tak kan da lama balik, abis diri kat lift lobby dari tengahari tadi kan??) InsyaAllah, ingat nak improve and be more approachable.

Oh so kan.. just now i was saying i did that chart right.. so semalam tu.. as i was drawing the lines on the chart to put the dates and their names, i thought i felt giddy.
I felt the room shook gently and rhythmically. I was resting my arms kat katil, as I sat on the floor - and i saw my arms also shook. I thought perhaps Eema was under the bed and shaking it.. but it couldn't be so constant.. I walked out. Walked back in.. still felt the same. I was already thinking.. perhaps I SHOULD go to the doctor pasal, dari petang leher pun ada rasa strained sikit. I rested a short while and continued.

Then Rus, came and asked me.. 'kak, tadi rasa goyang tak?' 'Yes!' 'Ada gempa mungkin, kak..'
A while later, we saw the news on RCTI (ke V). True, there was an earthquake kat Sumatra. Imagine the intensity, at the scale of 8.4 And the quake was on the coast of the other side of the land, further from Malaysia and Singapore. And yet, we felt the tremors.

This is the first time ever, i've felt some effects of an earthquake.
MasyaAllah.. how great the tremors were.
How fragile our lives are.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun.
Verily To Allah We belong, and to Him we will return.

Can't imagine what those people in Sumatra feel, and what they go through.
May Allah SWT give them strength and patience to go through it, and may we not experience them at all. Ameen.

What a start to Ramadhan.

Anyhow, May we face the month of Ramadhan with a whole lot of iman, ibadah, patience and sincerity.
May we be better Muslims. Ameen.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

preparation for Ramadan

only today left.
before Ramadan starts tomorrow night, where we'll start the Qiyam Ramadan a.k.a. Terawih.

I want to go look for the lampu lap lip - today kalau boleh. I was looking for a particular design last year -



but da abis. I was too late.

actually i usually start turning on the lights on the night of Ramadan.
i want to sambut the month of Ramadan on a joyous note - so that my children can also feel the excitement too.

It's the month of many returns, the month where we can earn much more (pahala.. and money, if u don't eat more than u do in other months - ironic right?).
And normally, in this month, the urge or feel to do good deeds and ibadah seems to come more easily. So, better take full advantage of it.

It's time to make a date with Allah SWT.
Take out the Quran (yang hopefully tak berabuk).
Do your Qiyam Ramadan every night.
If u feel like u cannot sustain 20 every night - do 8 - important thing is to sustain.

So, let the countdown begin.
And hopefully i can get that thing soon. ;)

Sunday, September 09, 2007

bakal doktor haiwan...

i'm sure some of you all may have gotten this email, that has made quite a few rounds. I received it like 3 times already.

In it, are quite a few pictures of a few muslimah girls in tudung, having their picture taken in a pig's pen, and in some pic, holding one.

Do you know that it's dosa? to be distributing this email, when we know that the intention is to 'humiliate' these girls?

I'm not very sure about the intention of the originator of this email. The girls ARE quite attractive and perhaps future vetenarian. Alhamdulillah. Maybe nak tolong cari kan jodoh?

So what is the big deal? Salah ke diorang pegang babi?

So ok, kita TAK boleh MAKAN babi, but there is no hukum on touching or holding one. Tak haram, tak dosa. Lain lah kalau u masak nak kasi kawan u makan.

Else, if it's just touching a pig for whatever reason other than abetting a person to EAT it, there is no larangan. Lepas pegang babi or anjing, as you may know, just wash yourself accordingly - according to hukum syara' that you berpegang with. Anyway, memang pegang binatang APA pun, you're suppose to wash yourself after that. It's not hygienic to touch food right after touching a cat or a rat.

Soal geli or tak geli - tu perasaan masing2 and has got nothing to do with hukum syara'.

So in this whole situation, siapa yang salah? My ustaz said, kalau pun seorang tu buat benda yg jelas haram sekalipun, Islam suruh kita TUTUP keaiban saudara kita dan menegur dgn cara baik. Bukan dgn mengedar-edarkan gambar yg seperti ini ke mana-mana = mendedahkan dan memalukan org berkenaan.

Actually somebody did ask ustaz haniff about this before, and this is his reply.

pekerjaan doktor haiwan adalah satu pekerjaan yg mulia. merawat babi, anjing dan segala keturunannya yg sakit dapat pahala besar di sisi Allah taala.

bahkan, mendiskriminasikan babi dan anjing dari mendapat rawatan = dosa.

dalam sebuah hadis menceritakan Allah mengampunkan dosa seorang pelacur kerana memberi minum anjing yg kehausan* = takkanlah ubatkan babi dan anjing yg sakit dapat dosa kan?

cuma lepas rawat tu sucikanlah diri. tapi ttg sucikan diri bukan hanya lepas rawat babi dan anjing, lepas rawat apa jua binatang pun kan kena sucikan diri gak?


* the hadith mentioned by ustaz is the following :

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "While a dog was going round a well and was about to die of thirst, an Israeli prostitute saw it and took off her shoe and watered it. So Allah forgave her because of that good deed."

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 673


May we all be guided. Ameen. :)

Friday, September 07, 2007

the drive

no music, no voices
just the wind, and the road.
and a view of Allah's great creation.
Subhanallah.

Let the mind wander
and the heart feel
Shut yourself
from everyone
and everything

enjoy the drive.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

red eyes

one by one..
kena sore eyes
started with hadi
then hubby
then nadhrah
then bibik rus
then hubby's bro id
then baby rushda
then eema

now, only dadha, hanaa and I, are the only ones left with beautiful normal eyes. (but as i'm typing this, the left eye feels a bit funny leh..)

anyway..the weekend, which somewhat spilled over to monday, were filled.
pics from last, last weekend and last weekend.
(ya la.. last week takde moood nak upload gambar)