Stories from Makkah & Madinah - The crying children.

(Actually there are not too many stories to tell.)

When I first went to pray in Masjid Nabawi, I experienced something new.

The prayer hall, was always full. Before prayer, you hear a constant hum - a combination of these hundreds of people reciting the Quran or talking to one another within the prayer hall. As soon as prayer starts, the hall is silent from voices but now the sounds of crying children/babies would fill the hall, as their mothers started to pray and leave the babies by their side or in front of them. Some of these cries continued to the end of solat. I was thinking, if this happens in Singapore, the mosque will probably get a few letters banning children and babies from the mosque so as not to disturb the jemaah. :-\ But here.. you fight for your own khushyu' Live with it.

After one of the prayers, on the way to Masjid Nabawi exit, and there are a lot of people sitting around the exterior part of Masjid Nabawi.

I noticed a mother seated on the floor with a, probably, 2 yr old child. The child was crying on her lap quite loudly and the mother was trying to calm the child down. As I was still looking at them, walking, suddenly I saw something small and hard being threwn at the mother and child. I was surprised and looked around, trying to locate the person who threw it at them. How can they just throw things at people because the child is crying?? Could it have been a mischievous boy?

The mother was also of course surprised and felt around her trying to locate the thrown thing. She picked it up in her hands and she saw that it's a sweet. She looked around and so did I. Then we noticed this old woman who is also seated on the floor 3-4 meters away from them, smiling and gesturing to her to let the child have the sweet, go on, let the child have the sweet. Apparently she was the one who threw the sweet at them. :D

The mother thanked the old lady and gave the child that sweet. In the midst of surprise and getting the sweet, the child had stopped crying.

And I was thinking.. astaghfirullah, how easy to think bad thoughts first - and it turned out to be a sincere, concerned act.

I must practise my husnozon (to think of the possible good intention) in any event.

The spirit of truth.

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak; and he will disclose to you what is to come."

John 16:12-13

Who said the above? and who is the Spirit of Truth?


It is said to be the words of Isa A.S (Jesus Christ) - as indicated in the Christian Bible today. As Muslims who believe in the Last Prophet Muhammad SAW, we of course believe Isa A.S. was referring to Muhammad SAW.

Actually that verse came to mind, because I suddenly felt and thought of something along the same line. I think it is a lesson also for us. I guess sometimes, we have to learn to control what we say to others in person. Some people may not be ready to hear everything we want to say or share.

A dummy-proof example would be, I cannot explain about the bad economics of the world, and about economic hitmen and how the world is dominated by the the wrong people and how we should support local and small businesses - to a 4 year old child.

Or sometimes, we cannot share EVERYTHING because not everyone will feel or see things as we do. And we would seem odd to them, and we might just drive them away.

Or, the information may just be a bit too much for a person to bear in one single sitting or within a period of time. Sometimes, information are best shared over a long period of time. This is also as what I understand, from what is taught in the Qur'an:

سَنُقْرِؤُكَ فَلَا تَنسَى
إِلَّا مَا شَاء اللَّهُ إِنَّهُ يَعْلَمُ الْجَهْرَ وَمَا يَخْفَى

"By degrees shall We teach thee to declare (the Message), so thou shalt not forget,
Except as Allah wills: For He knoweth what is manifest and what is hidden."

Al-A'la 87:6-7

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْلَا نُزِّلَ عَلَيْهِ الْقُرْآنُ جُمْلَةً وَاحِدَةً كَذَلِكَ لِنُثَبِّتَ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ وَرَتَّلْنَاهُ تَرْتِيلًا

"Those who reject Faith say: "Why is not the Qur'an revealed to him all at once? Thus (is it revealed), that We may strengthen thy heart thereby, and We have rehearsed it to thee in slow, well-arranged stages, gradually."

Furqan 25:32

(Translations by Yusuf Ali)

We need time to absorb information, to change mindsets and to bring ourselves to the different levels of understanding and perspectives.

There are times I feel like "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" Hopefully, insyaAllah I'll be intelligent enough to know how best to share my thoughts and feelings with close ones. Aamiin.

Tired

Sometimes, I feel like dah tak kuasa nak layan kerenah dunia* Always making life more complicated. If it's simple and straight-forward, it cannot be good. It has to be complicated so as to appear impressive.

People don't want to wait 5 seconds. It's too long. They'd rather spend thousands to remove that extra click. They want to save steps and time. They still have no time.

They don't want to listen anyway. They can have it their way. It is a waste of time. So look at it as a source of income.

:/

*I don't know how to translate that to English, without losing the EXACT feel of that sentence.
Language shapes how a person think and feel, don't you think? The availability of words to describe a situation or the grammatical sentence structure somehow shapes how a person think and feel. Wouldn't that, then means that the more languages we speak, the more broad and vast our mind may be. (?)

Banks still at it

Wow, six years ago, I was complaining about it. Now, I'm complaining some more, but now I've become ruthless(?) to them.

I started responding the way I do, about few months back. At that time, I was really TIRED and I was just about the leave the office when I received a call from an unknown number.

Nowadays, most of the time, unknown numbers means banks, insurance companies or spas. So anyway, that evening I was very irritated and I picked up the phone and true enough it's the bank.
Again, they are asking me to take a loan.

Caller : We are calling from XXXX representing XXX Bank (why don't the bank call us themselves?) and we'd like to offer you an attractive loan at a low interest rate of xxxx

I : Why would I need a loan??

Caller : Oh, because it's on offer now, if you take now you enjoy the low interest rate...

I : But why should I take a loan? I don't NEED the extra money desperately now. I am quite happy having no debt to settle and you are asking me to get into a debt???
I don't think it's nice to ask people to get into a debt. They have no problems and you are asking them to get a problem. This is not a good thing to do, you should seriously consider changing your job. You are suggesting to people and coercing them into getting a problem. If they really NEED the loan, they will GO TO THE BANK to ask for the loan.

Caller : Sorry to bother you ma'am. It's okay if you don't need it. Bye.

This works. At the same time a wake-up call for them to STOP ASKING PEOPLE TO TAKE LOANS THEY DON'T NEED.

Usually, I'd be the one saying Bye... bye... bye.. and they'd still go on rambling. This time, they said 'bye' and quickly hung up. :p

Just now, one more.

cotton candy clouds

Wouldn't learning about clouds be so much more fun and easier if the names of the clouds are made simple like 'cotton candy clouds', 'the wave', 'the grand puff', 'fishy cloud' etc, as opposed to 'cirrocumulus stratiformis', cirrus uncinus, altocumulus translucidus. They are such a mouthful and it could have easily have been a name given to an animal instead.

Those mouthful names mean nothing. They are just a nuisance to learning. The point of learning about clouds is to identify it's characteristics, what it means to us, what we can expect when we see these kind of clouds. But all those points are lost in just trying to memorise the spelling for the I-suspect-there-is-a-conspiracy-to-ensure-that-not-many-will-KNOW-how-to-spell-it kind of names.

Man. Always making things difficult for ourselves.

BUT, who says WE have to really know those names? I'll just learn about the clouds itself and ponder about these Creations - not the man-given-name.


p.s. This reminds me of how simple the ideas presented in the Qur'an are, for easy understanding.