A letter for Fateh

Dear Fateh,

It is amazing how time flies, I can't actually believe that we are now reaching 30 weeks mark! Another 10 weeks more or less before I could cuddle you in my hug and see your face insyaAllah. Okay...okay I admit that I actually cheated because I had a sneak peek of your chubby cheeks during our check up last 2 weeks. But who can resist???

I went to the scheduled check up alone this time as dad was offshore attending his job. Although I promised him that I would wait for him to be around for the check up, but I just simply can't. Life was hectic during that week and mummy was a bit depressed being left alone at home, so I was worried about your well being. And when I am worried, I seem to feel that your kicks and punches lessen and were not strong enough to comfort me. So, I decided to proceed with the check up that week. (It is a strong and reasonable excuse, right?). So after asking permission from daddy through email, I drove all the way to Kuantan after Fajr prayer. (Don't tell others that mummy was actually missing you so much, that I can't bear another week of waiting to see you..hehe!)

Mummy arrived at the clinic around 8.30 a.m, about half an hour later than usual. I thought that we were going to wait long but alhamdulillah we managed to be the third in the queue. Mummy spent the time waiting by having breakfast, finishing a few chapters of my novel and browsing the internet (was actually updating daddy about our what we are currently doing..huhu!). The visit definitely didn't feel the same when daddy was not around. I felt like I am a single, lonely mummy. I wished that he was there. I felt like I need to compensate for his absence so I made the doctor saved all your scans on CD for dad to watch when he's back onshore.

Then, it was my turn. The doctor offered me to have a 4D scan and of course I would never reject such opportunity. (That was why I'm there though...huhu!) During our last 4D scan you were very shy and kept hiding your face under your arms and even your feets! This time, I had sweet drinks and heavy breakfast before the check up, with hope that you would get the sugar rush and ready for action. But nope, you were having your morning nap and was seen sleeping peacefully this time. Cuteness! There are a few times when you yawn and stretch, but then you went back to sleep. We tried to wake you up but to no avail..huhu! I love you anyway, son.

The most important thing is that you are growing up healthily. The doctor later measured your growth and alhamdulillah you are as healthy as you can be. For the first time, I heard the 'swoosh...swoosh' of your heartbeat and it was an amazing relief. You were weighted around 1.106 kg that week. Alhamdulillah, I could only thank Allah for taking a very good care of you. Upon looking at your face, I thought that you copy everything from me, and the only looks that you take from Daddy is his nose...hehe! (Of course, Daddy would not agree with this statement).

Alhamdulillah... alhamdulillah... thumma alhamdulillah. I prayed that Allah will not only grant you with the beautifulness of Prophet Yusuf, but also complete you with the goodness of akhlak and the wiseness of Luqman. And I wished I had all the strength and have whatever it takes to be a good mother to you...ameen.

Much love,

Ibu

The story of Prophet Muhammad (Part 1)

I'm back with the cuteness from OwhSoMuslim website! hehe! (Owh how I love this website and hope it stays long enough for me to share with my son!) In celebration of Maulidur Rasul here presents the Story of Prophet Muhammad!

As a Muslim, it’s an obligation for us to get to know and love Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) even if he’s no longer around with us. In fact, by reading and getting to know about his life, hard work, achievements and dedications towards Allah and his ummah, it will insyallah increase our deen! In this article, we will learn the basic things about his childhood and the earlier years before he was appointed to become the last Messenger.

1. Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) peace be upon him as we all know, is the last Messenger of Allah to us mankind. He was brought to us to bring us out from darkness into light, and that is very true masyallah! To love him, we should and ought to learn more about him and how he lived his life. And to love is not only enough, we should also practice the guidance and examples he has shown us. He is after all, our love, idol, and the man we look up to. :)

2. Let’s learn about his lineage! Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) was the son of Abdullah ibn Abdul Mutalib from the tribe of Qurash, and his mother was Aminah bint Wahb from the clan of Zuhr. His lineage traces back to Prophet Ismail (a.s), son of Prophet Ibrahim (a.s).

Related hadiths: show

• Narrated by Waatheelah bin al-Asqa (r.a): The Prophet (s.a.w) said :“Indeed Allah choose the tribe of Kinanah over other tribes from the children of Ismail; He choose the Qurash over other tribes of Kinanah; He choose Banu Hashim over the families of the Qurash; and he choose me from the Banu Hashim” [Muslim # 2276]
• Narrated by Abu Hurairah (r.a): The Prophet (s.a.w) said: “I was sent down from the best of all the generations of the children of Adam, generation after generation until I was in the generation in which I was sent” [Bukhari]

3. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) was born in Mecca on a Monday morning, on 9th of Rabiul-Awwal in the year of Elephant (571 A.D). His Grandfather, Abdul-Mutalib, named him Muhammad son of ‘Abdullah!

4. Back in the old days, it was the general custom of the Arabs living in towns to send their babies away to be breastfed by other women and for them to grow up in the desert for them to develop better characteristics, speech and mannerism. The Prophet (s.a.w), as a baby, he was entrusted to Haleemah bint Abi Dhuaib to be his foster mother. He stayed with her until he was 4 or 5 years old.
During that stay, a miracle incident happened to our beloved Prophet! Angel Gabriel (or Jibril) came down from Heaven, opened The Prophet’s chest, took out the heart and washed it masyallah!

Related hadith: show

• Narrated by Anas(r.a): “Gabriel came down and opened his chest and took out the heart. He then extracted a blood-clot out of it and said, “That was part of satan in you”. And then he washed it with the water of zam-zam in a gold basin. After that the heart was joined together and restored to its place. His foster family rushed to the Prophet (s.a.w) and found him standing up, found him all right only his face was white” [Muslim 1/92]

5. As a little boy, The Prophet was a shepherd over a flock of sheep which belonged to his people. It was not very joyful for the Prophet as he was an orphan and several family members passed away during his childhood. His father passed away before he was born, and his mother died when he was 6 year old. His grandfather, Abdul-Mutalib took care of him, and after he died, his uncle, Abu Talib, took care of him. He was only 8 years old then.

Related hadith: show

• The Prophet (s.a.w) said: “Every Prophet commissioned by Allah was a shepherd over a flock of sheep”. His companions asked him: “Even you, Oh Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Yes, I would take care of a flock of sheep for the people of Mecca”. [Bukhari]

6. As he grew up to be a youth, he became involved in trading as his profession, dealing in sale and purchase of cloth and other items. He used to travel, taking caravans of camels for the trading transactions. He was acknowledged by the Meccans as truthful, honest, dependable, sincere and reliable, who always kept his word and never spoke a lie.
For all these noble qualities, he was known amongst his people as Al-Ameen (The Trustworthy) and As-Sadiq (The Truthful).

Related verse from the Quran: show

Cuti Tahun Baru Cina

Salam...

Menghabiskan cuti Tahun Baru Cina di rumah emak di Kuantan. Making up quality time with family adalah juga satu tanggungjawab yang tidak boleh dilupakan walaupun dalam kesibukan tugas-tugas seharian dan tanggungjawab dakwah. Hari-hari biasa waktu dihabiskan di tempat kerja, hujung minggu pula sibuk menghadiri program tarbiyah. Siapa kata balik kampung ialah masa bersenang-senang? Keluarga juga memerlukan perhatianmu, kepada mereka juga perlu disampaikan mesej yang selama ini kau serukan kepada orang lain. Bagaimana mahu menyampaikan kalau diri kita jauh dan hanya telefon menjadi penghubung?

Saya berada di Kuantan sejak hari Rabu yang lepas kerana menghadiri temuduga sebagai Guru Bahasa Inggeris dengan SPA Pahang. Dari bual-bual dengan calon temuduga yang lain, katanya calon yang terpilih akan bekerja sebagai guru di sekolah-sekolah agama di bawah pentadbiran Majlis Ugama Islam Pahang (MUIP). Perkhidmatan adalah secara kontrak dan latihan perguruan perlu dihadiri semasa cuti sekolah. Menarik juga! Suatu peluang yang meletakkan saya lebih dekat dengan lebih ramai mad'u. Kerja sekarang sebagai jurutera projek juga lumayan alhamdulillah, cuma setakat 6 bulan saya bertugas di sana, saya semakin merasakan kerjaya sebagai jurutera semakin jauh dari diri saya. Kenapa? Huhu... entahlah.

Saya dan Abah tiba lewat setengah jam daripada jam 8, meletakkan saya pada giliran ke 10 daripada 10 orang calon yang hadir. Temuduga hanya akan bermula pada jam 9. Setiap calon di temuduga lebih kurang setengah jam seorang. Alamak... alamatnya, tengahari atau petang lah baru selesai. Abah bersama saya menunggu, hendak balik ke rumah, ada pulak kereta yang tak bertanggungjawab menghalang belakang kereta kami. Hadoi! Kasihan tengok abah. Mujur ada juga teman berbual dia di luar. Saya hanya berharap temuduga ini selesai secepat mungkin. Rasa memulas di perut datang dan pergi. Pergi ke tandas, tidaklah pula rasa nak membuang hajat. Adakah ini contraction????? Cepat-cepat telefon emak di rumah bertanya. Emak kerisauan, lalu disuruhnya kami cepat2 ke hospital selepas temuduga. Jangan masuk tandas dah, kata mak. Nanti lain pula yang keluar. Oh, mula-mula tadi tak cuak sekarang sudah cuak pula.

Dipendekkan cerita, saya gagal temuduga. Haha! Sebaik saja tiga orang panel penemuduga membelek fail peribadi saya, terus saja disuruhnya balik. Katanya saya overqualified, maka beri saja peluang ini kepada orang lain. Tambah lagi katanya, tidak berbaloi kelulusan saya dengan kerja yang ditawarkan, hanya akan membazirkan potensi sahaja. Walaupun hati saya melonjak-lonjak nak jadi guru, tapi niat itu terpaksa dipadamkan saja kali ini. Memang tak ada harapan langsung, dah kene reject awal-awal.

"Tapi saya memang berminat nak jadi cikgu encik," kata saya memohon simpati.

"Kalau betul berminat pergi ambil DPLI, baru tinggi sikit gajinya. Berapa gaji awak sekarang?" tanya ketua penemuduga yang sudah memutih rambutnya.

"2***"

"Hah... dah dah jangan buang masa awak kat sini. Awak tau tak gaji kerja ni hanya separuh gaji awak tu?"

Maka saya pasrah. Selepas ucap terima kasih, saya keluar mendapatkan Abah yang sedang menunggu. Abah bertanya tentang temuduga saya lalu saya ceritakan padanya satu persatu.

"Tak apalaaah... paling kurang dapat pengalaman," kata Abah tersenyum.

Kami terus saja pulang ke rumah selepas itu. Saya berkeputusan untuk tidak ke hospital kerana tentunya Dr. S sedang bercuti. Tak mahu jumpa doctor on-call yang lelaki pula nanti. Mungkin perut meragam macam ni sebab penat dan tertekan dengan kecuakan nak bertemuduga kot. (Membazir tenaga je cuak... hukhuk!). Sepatutnya saya terus pulang ke Kerteh sebab dah berjanji dengan Muhammad mahu ke Besut menghadiri program tarbiyah pada cuti kali ini di sana. Tapi emak tak benarkan, katanya perlu rehat cukup-cukup. Dah masuk trimester ketiga jangan banyak sangat berjalan, kata mak. Bila-bila masa saja si kecil boleh buat suprise appearance .

Muhammad balik Kuantan pada petangnya. Dia pun tak dapat ke Besut atas sebab-sebab tertentu. Mengenangkan nasihat emak, maka waktu di Kuantan di habiskan dengan melengkapkan barang-barang untuk menyambut kedatangan si kecil. Hehe! Dah lama tunggu nak shopping ni tapi asyik bertangguh atas alasan nak tunggu trimester terakhir. We never know when will the little one decides to pop out (by Allah's will). Jadi perlu bersedia jiwa dan ragalah kan. Produktif la juga kami, dalam masa dua hari sudah 80% barang-barang si Fateh berjaya di beli. Warna tema tentulah biru (seperti sangat yakin akan kelelakian beliau). Tambah pula ada CNY sale, maa lebih meriahlah pembeli belahan kami. Ini semua atas saranan kakak Perlis. Jika tidak, pasti saya akan lupa akan kewujudan sale ini. Terima kasih, kakak!

Masa shopping bawa si Hadiff supaya pershoppingan tidak bosan. Tapi rupanya tersilap perhitungan sebab separuh masa di shopping centre terpaksa di habiskan dengan mencari dan mengejar beliau di celah-celah rak baju. haih...! Si Hadiff kegembiraan sebab sempat tengok tarian naga yang buat persembahan di lobi shopping complex. Siap nak ikut si naga tersebut balik rumah oh!

Saya takde gambar budak Hadiff tgk tarian naga tapi rupanya lebih kurang macam nilah

Sekarang back at home in Kerteh. Muhammad sedang sibuk bertukang membetulkan pintu bilik yang dipecahkan sebab kami terkunci dari luar beberapa minggu lepas. Haha! Saya pula kepenatan dan kemengahan. Ruang pengembangan paru-paru telah diambil alih oleh si Fateh sejak satu dua minggu kebelakangan ini. Jadi ibunya mudah kelelahan. Okaylah mahu berehat sekejap. Wassalam