A lesson about death

In the late afternoon today, Nyai, 88 years old, fell, when she was trying to sit on the chair. We were all at Wak Jay's son, wedding, at the void deck. The back of her head must have been hit by the leg of the toppled chair and it was bleeding quite profusely. It became quite a scene, because there were some panic. The bridegroom called for an ambulance which took her to the hospital. I followed in my car.

I'm still thinking about what happened at the hospital.

It's not about Nyai, she's fine Alhamdulillah. The doctor gave her an injection, and stitched up the small cut, and she has since been discharged.

It was what we, Cik Alin, Kak Noor and I, saw at the A&E area, while waiting for Nyai to be treated.

A crying mother was being consoled by her relatives and then there was another family a distance away, also crying. We later found out from overhearing the discussions by the family and friends that a young man and a girl, had been involved in an accident. The girl's condition was very bad, she was unconcious when we saw her being wheeled away. The boy, didn't make it. He was only 23.

There were so many youngsters there, hanging around the A&E area, friends of the victims, I suppose . Of the many friends who were there, some appeared sad, some looked concerned, some were in discussion, probably about the accident, and there were some who looked like they were just in another normal gathering.

I wonder what's going through their minds. This afternoon they were just chatting and joking with him. This evening he is dead. When the time comes, we just go. There is no running away from it.

"Wherever you may be, death will overtake you - even though you be in towers raised high...."
An-Nisa 4:78

The friends looked sad. Yes, they lost a friend. But it's sadder and shuddering to imagine what would be his recompense after his death. Will he get good rewards? Or will the punishment of his Lord await him in his grave? There is NO MORE turning back. Whatever's done, will now be accounted for.

"Say: "The Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls: then shall ye be brought back to your Lord."
If only thou couldst see when the guilty ones will bend low their heads before their Lord, (saying:) "Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard: Now then send us back (to the world): we will work righteousness: for we do indeed (now) believe!"
As-Sajdah 32:11-12

Ya Ghaffar, don't make us and our children and our loved ones, be amongst those whose heads will be bent low, out of guilt and shame before you.
When the time has come for us, please let us die in Iman and in a state truly virtuous. Please forgive us, our many sins and save us from the punishments in our graves, and save us from Hellfire. Ameen.

Going on dutch

A few days before my colleague's last day at work, we went for lunch at Swensen's, to.. err.. celebrate?.. commemorate?.. or just have our 'last lunch' with her. We agreed to go on dutch. I was planning on not eating too much at Swensen's. I don't quite like the feeling of being too full. I thought I would just order Fries and Waffle with vanilla ice cream. Ok, that won't cost much.

However, when I was there, I felt some kind of 'internal mental pressure' to order a full meal. I wanted to avoid all the questions like 'why eat so little??'... 'you're ordering only THAT??', 'Aiyoh.. no wonder u're so small!' I was not in the mood to justify my lunch. I decided to go with the flow. Ordered a set lunch meal. Did my very best to finish it, up to the point where the mere thought of food makes me feel like puking. Then I hated myself for feeling too full.

When it was time to pay for the 'dutched' lunch, the payer divided the whole bill equally by (the number of people who attended, less the girl who resigned).
Hmm.... if I had ordered only fries and waffle - I would have been at the losing end. I'd still have to pay for someone's full meal.

Going on dutch. This term does not spell out the 'dutching' part clearly. How do you share the cost? Do you share it equally or do we pay for what we eat? If we are to follow our Islamic Mua'malat Rules - all terms and conditions must be clear to all parties - so as not to let anyone be at a losing end, unless he is CLEARLY aware of it and agrees to it.

So I started to mentally draft out... or now blogging, the furu' of Going on Dutch.

1. Going on Proportioned Dutch. (GPD)
This is where, the bill is shared in accordance to what the person ordered. The person would also still have to pay for the service charge and taxes that comes with the total bill. So the formula for each person would be.
(Cost of each person's meal/ Total Cost less taxes) * Total Costs with Taxes.

According to the ulama of 'Going on Dutch' (mua), - this type is most preferable.

2. Going on EQUAL Dutch. (GED)
This is where the whole bill, including taxes, will be divided equally amongst attendees, no matter who ordered what. So even if the person goes there to have a bowl of soup, he'd still have to pay part of someone's bigger meal, or more unfortunately a glutton's meal, if there were any in the group.

According to the ulama, this type is obviously not preferable.

3. Going on proportioned Dutch, less the person being treated for lunch by others. (GPD plus)
In this category the person will pay for his own meal, and the equally shared proportion of the treated person's meal, plus taxes.
The formula is a bit more complicated.
[(Cost of each person's meal + (cost of treated person's meal / (no. of pax - no. of treated person)) / Total Cost less taxes] * Total Costs with Taxes.

According to the ulama, - this type is 'harus' or allowed.

So there you have it.. Mua'malat on Going on Dutch. And if any of you ask me to go on dutch - kindly specify the furu'.

Jerry Maguire on IT Projects

Sometimes I feel like Jerry Maguire when I go emailing my moral thoughts or sharing best practices with my colleagues and bosses. I used to do that once in a while, but now I've mellowed down A LOT, in fact I've totally stopped. I've decided to keep to myself, doing the work allocated to me, and not get involved in other discussions that I'm not put in charge of.

Answer only when being asked. Do only when being tasked.

I don't want to end up like Jerry Maguire. I'm not ready to lose my job and start my own business - although I would very much like to. Start a business, that is.

There is also another reason why I stopped. I realise it doesn't make a difference. If anyone really wants to improve, they would be going out of their way to find out how to and do it. They don't need to be pushed. But if it's just not in their heart to do so, you can send them to courses and seminars costing the company thousands of dollars and it still doesn't make a difference. It's the same whether you send them or you don't. Hmm this sounds familiar... yes.... teringat pulak satu ayat Quran..

As for the disbelievers, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.
Al Baqarah 2:6

Subhanallah, how it fits.

Well, back to the topic.. the reason why I thought of this matter, is.. I came across the following that I sent to my colleagues and our vendor, when we were starting a project .. (yup I'm still spring cleaning emails..). These are really good and real points to note on, for IT projects, and non IT projects. And in our project, we did all the 'don'ts' and ignored the 'dos'.

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=

Dear ppl,

I have recommended this book to some of you. The book is called "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick P Brooks.

I know at this time, nobody has the time to read books, or even have time to have a proper meal or sleep!! :( I've managed to find this compilation of 10 good messages you get out of the book which is so relevant to ANY IT projects.

It is more important to us now than ever. Some of the points may need you to read the book, in order to understand further - but you may also ask me personally - if I can still remember the details of that section.

But anyhow, let's keep up to what's expected of us and the schedules! Me included...

From Frederick P Brooks in "The Mythical Man-Month"

1. More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined.

2. Failure to allow enough time for system test, in particular, is peculiarly disastrous. Since the delay comes at the end of the schedule, no one is aware of schedule trouble until almost the delivery date.

3. Brook's Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it even later.

4. .. He found that his programming teams were missing schedules by about one-half each job was taking approximately twice as long as estimated. The estimating error could be entirely accounted for by the fact that his teams were only realizing about 50 percent of the working week as actual programming and debugging time. Machine downtime, higher-priority short unrelated jobs, meetings, paperwork, company business, sickness, personal time, etc. accounted for the rest.

5. The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. The only question is whether to plan in advance to build a throwaway, or to promise to deliver the throwaway to the customers.

6. When one hears of disastrous schedule slippage in a project, he images that a series of major calamities must have befallen it. Usually, however, the disaster is due to termites, not tornadoes; and the schedule has slipped imperceptibly but inexorably. Indeed, major calamities are easier to handle; one responds with major force, radical reorganization, the invention of new approaches. The whole team rises to the occasion.

7. It is more important that milestones be sharp-edged and unambiguous than that they be easily verifiable by the boss. Rarely will a man lie about milestone progress, if the milestone is so sharp that he can't deceive himself. But if the milestone is fuzzy, the boss often understands a different report from that which the man gives. To supplement Sophocles, no one enjoys bearing bad news, either, so it gets softened without any real intent to deceive.

8. Sharper milestones are in fact a service to the team, and one they can properly expect from a manager. The fuzzy milestone is the harder burden to live with. It is in fact a millstone that grinds down morale, for it deceives one about lost time until it is irremediable. And chronic schedule slippage is a morale-killer.

9. The project manager's chief daily task is communication, not decision making; the documents communicate the plans and decisions to the whole team.

10. How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time.

Enjoy the week ahead! =)

It's over..

I still cannot get over my selengehness!!! I don't know WHAAAATTT I was thinking! No doubt this paper is the most challenging. But still, no reason to be all clumsy about it! Paper ni suruh buat 4 out of 5 sections, aku buat 3. And this paper is from the same very-nice ustaz soberi whose paper last year pun I did a similarly selengeh thing - but selengeh yang tak memudharatkan myself like this time .. last year it's do 3 out of 4, and I was happily doing the paper, forgot about the instructions and did all 4 sections. Tu da over confident sangat.

And this year.. out of the 2 balance questions that I DIDN'T choose to do.. one of them I'm sure I could have got half the answers correct!! and that equals to at least 5 precious marks!!! I didn't realise my selengehness until we discussed the questions right after we handed in the paper when time was up. Man! I felt like running to the front to get my paper back and scribble the answers....for a moment there I felt like Mr Bean.

AAAARRRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!

*deep breath*

But now, it's over. I think maybe.. just MAYBE, I can at least pass the paper. I hope.

Pink, Teddie, Baby Nur, Mariam, Titah, Wardah and me, we made our resolutions to start revising and study our subjects early in the next semester, and not wait for the last minute to sumbat everything into our brains. Well actually, we make this same exact resolution after every mid and final semester exams. Okay but this time we must ACTUALLY DO IT.
.......ok!............ do it......... yes.

ANYWAY - Alhamdulillah, this semester is OVER and I guess I did generally ok. Now, I can read other books without feeling the guilt of not reading my course materials instead. The feeling is great.. and if not for my selengehness, the feeling would have been better.

Authenticity

I was springcleaning my email at work, deleting old emails, which were suppose to be deleted a year ago, when I came across the following email, (names and message have been changed to protect the identity of the person(s), so as not to break any of my company's ISM - Internal Security Management rule.)

"Dear Peter,

Doris say, Harry say, Michelle say that Mr John Doe will have the cake and eat it too. "

You see.. this is what we refer to as 'chain of narrators' when we talk about hadith. It's non existent nowadays, except for what I found in the above email. Even then, it was laughed upon when my colleagues read it, if I remember correctly.

But they don't realise, that it can help verify the content of the message. The person, listed in that chain of narrators, will surely correct the content, if they find that the final narrator, have actually misunderstood his/her original message.

In the above email, the 2nd and 3rd narrators (i.e. Doris and Harry) were being copied in the email. Now even though Michelle was not in the CC copy, Harry, who would be reading this email, if he was really working, would be ensuring that he is being quoted correctly, especially when it is quoted that he quoted someone else.

Ensuring authenticity is an important task, that is not deemed as important or perhaps always overlooked, in the current westernised world. We don't have standard work flows ensuring authenticity.

Yup, I'm still very much amazed by the authenticity and how and how much Muslims do, to ensure it in our religion, Islam.

Al Quran is authenticated, as Allah SWT promised. Many a great Muslims memorise the Quran and any mistakes in print is always spotted.

Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian.
Al Hijr 15 : 9

As for hadiths, previous scholars have helped us do so (as I mentioned before), by studying the narrations and the narrators, and making classifications of those authentic, not very authentic and false ones. Read more about the Science of Hadith >>

Sohih Bukhari is said to be the most authentic book, after Al Quran. Imam Bukhari, sacrificed and worked very very hard in his lifetime in his effort to consolidate only authentic hadiths. ('work very hard' NOT in modern day context, where walking up 2 flights of stairs is considered hard work!) And it is said that before each single hadith is added into his collection of hadith sohih, he would do the 2 rakaat prayers, asking for guidance from Allah SWT. May Allah bless him and reward him for the tremendous effort.

SO, after all these, how can any of us, still doubt or not feel strongly about the truthfulness and greatness of our religion??

Allahu'alam.