the short wanderer

"Manusia kini lebih banyak termenung daripada merenung." Kata Ustaz Zahazan, dalam bukunya 'Himpunan Kisah Benar Tapi Pelik: Mendidik Ummah di Taman Kisah'. Daripada kitab-kitab sejarah yang muktabar, malah di dalam al-Qur'an yang kita baca sehari-hari pun, ada banyak ayat, peristiwa serta kisah yang bukan saja boleh memberikan rasa kekaguman dan keinsafan kepada insan yang membaca, tetapi juga menuntut kita supaya berfikir dan melihat dengan teliti (dengan kata lain, mengkaji) peristiwa-peristiwa ini untuk kita ambil iktibar dan pengajaran daripadanya. Namun, pada masa kini manusia tidak tertarik malah bersikap acuh tak acuh terhadap 'kisah-kisah teladan' ini walhal itulah yang terbaik untuk dijadikan pedoman dalam kehidupan. Daripada 38 kisah yang dimuatkan dalam buku setebal kira-kira 200 muka surat ini, ada satu kisah yang menarik perhatian sebab sangat relevan dengan situasi semasa. Tak seperti kebanyakan kisah lain yang ada menceritakan peristiwa lua...

Last month, I was supposed to meet up with someone for a catch up session. I have talked about her  in my blog before; she is a lovely lady, half Malaysian half Irish, who is working at the library of my institute for... I'm not sure how long lol shame on me XD Her name is Safina but I call her Kak Fina, because... that's just what Melayu people do 😂 I can't recall a moment that we don't chat whenever I bumped into her at the library - even when she had someone to attend to at the counter, she'd always look for me in the library after she's done with her 'customer'. She always asked me how I am doing. Well you know, when it comes to people that I'm not really close to, the answer has always been "I'm good". But since she has passed that 'boundary of strangers', my answers vary a bit from time to time (I think, lol). When I was not feeling really good about something, I would tell her, " Oh well, x happened, and I'...

I don't know how to exactly write this post, I don't even know what to start it with. I hope this makes sense, well at least I hope at the end, you'll get the message that I intended to deliver. I was watching the 18th episode of Bones Season 8. It was the scene where Agent Booth interrogated a prime suspect of a murder, who was an RUF (Revolutionary United Front) general - the man responsible for recruiting thousands of child soldiers in Sierra Leone during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The suspect wasn't admitting to be the person the FBI agent claimed he is. So Booth then said, "Okay, so here are your choices..." "You either confess to this murder, and you're tried here or... we deport you back to The Hague,  where you have to answer to 17 counts of crimes against humanity ... for which you've already been indicted ." By the time Booth said 'crimes against humanity' , my chest hurt and my heart just broke, and by the...

'Ulul Albab' , satu frasa yang tak asing lagi bagi aku sejak melangkah ke alam sekolah menengah - salah satu misi/visi alma mater aku selama lima tahun itu adalah untuk ' melahirkan generasi ulul albab, yang cemerlang dari segi quranik, ijtihadik dan ensiklopedik '. 'Ulul Albab' yang disebutkan sebanyak 16 kali dalam al-Qur'an ini membawa maksud "golongan manusia yang menjadikan kisah silam sebagai pengajaran dan iktibar untuk memperbaiki diri dan meningkatkan taraf kehidupan supaya mereka mencapai kejayaan dengan petunjuk Ilahi". Salah satu ayat al-Qur'an yang menyebut frasa 'ulul albab' ini ialah ayat 111 (ayat terakhir) surah Yusuf: Sesungguhnya pada kisah-kisah mereka itu terdapat pengajaran ('ibrah) bagi orang-orang yang mempunyai 'akal (ulil albab). Al-Qur'an itu bukanlah cerita yang dibuat-buat, akan tetapi membenarkan (kitab-kitab) yang sebelumnya dan menjelaskan segala sesuatu dan sebagai petunjuk dan rahmat...

Helmut Schmidt once said, "The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement." At this point I wish somebody can actually tell me how well or how bad I have improved on my writing skills after pursuing my fairly inconsistent part-time career as a blogger for almost 20 months. If I am to assess myself now, I would say I don't think anything have changed much ever since. I started blogging with the thought that practice makes perfect; that the more I write, the more I will get better in putting my ideas together and translate them into words. It is not entirely wrong, but I guess I need to take a step back and give myself a deep thought on how to really improve writing skills because merely letting myself write doesn't seem to be the ultimate answer to advance my existing skills. Recently I have been reminding myself that one of the invaluable 'hows' is reading - reading is the key to knowledge of everything, and it's through reading that I w...

While being in a state of deficiency put you in an endless state of worry, being put in the position where you feel fairly sufficient can do nothing less. The day my A-level result was announced was one of a kind. I have never cried when I got my UPSR, PMR or even SPM result, but my A-level result day was a whole different story. That's when I found out that being grateful when things have been fine  and when things have not been going well are definitely two very distinctive feelings. Something that is gained through the harder way is certainly appreciated way more - well at least I guess that explains the tears I shamelessly burst on June 10th last two years. I then started to question, have I expressed my gratitude ample enough for all the times I have been blessed with the 'gifts' - either to excel academically or in life generally - all this while?  In a hadith narrated by Imam at-Tirmidzi, Rasulullah s.a.w. said: Whoever looks at the world by looking at ...

By looking at the title, I bet you would know that I am here to complicate stuff (again). Bear with my not-so-philosophical journey of seeking, not solutions to problems, not answers to questions, not even an offender for a crime; just some insights for a deep thought: an identity that can at any time be at the risk of getting lost. One day around a month ago, I was sitting in the lobby of UCL Institute of Education (IoE). I was reading through my essay and making some final amendments before sending it through Turnitin, when a lady who was sitting beside me frankly asked me and another guy who sat at the corner a short but very precise question. "What is good about being a student here?" I took my hands off my keyboard, but my eyes weren't off the laptop screen. 'What an ironic question,' I thought to myself. I have a feeling that I did unconsciously gave myself a cynical smile, which I hope none of them would have actually realised. But.... Why did ...

Dalam suka, ada gelisah di dalam jiwa Dalam gembira, ada sendu di hujung tawa Dalam diamnya lisan, ada hati yang berbicara Dalam doa, ada rindu menjemput hiba Dalam kita mengatur langkah ke penghujung semester atau penghujung tahun ni, dengar cerita biasanya ramai yang dibelenggu dengan ujian-ujian yang menggugat ketahanan jiwa raga dalam meneruskan kehidupan. Mungkin, aku juga tidak terkecuali. Ada masanya, hati terasa bagai tak mampu lagi untuk bertahan, kaki terasa tak mampu lagi untuk melangkah, tak ada lagi daya untuk memujuk diri untuk bangkit kembali. Impian yang dahulunya membakar semangat seakan sirna dikaburi halangan tanpa henti, tak kiralah dek masalah kerja yang kelihatan seperti tiada penghujungnya, masalah emosi yang tak seimbang dari hari ke hari, atau masalah yang sebenarnya bukan masalah tapi kita yang melihatnya sebagai satu masalah. (Ha cemane tu 🤔) Sebagai seorang insan yang tak berpengalaman dalam bab-bab bimbingan dan kaunseling ni, ak...

Pada satu hari dekat rumah, aku ada tengok satu cerita ni, pasal seorang lelaki yang baru belajar solat sebab nak masuk 'Pencetus Ummah'. Tapi, nak dijadikan cerita, ada beberapa perkara yang berlaku yang menyebabkan dia membatalkan hasratnya untuk masuk rancangan realiti TV tu. Satu malam, selepas dia solat maghrib dengan adik dia, adik dia tanya... "Abang tak masuk Pencetus Ummah kan? Kenapa abang solat?" "Sebab... abang nak ketuk pintu." "Pintu apa?" tanya si adik. "Ada tempat yang abang nak pergi lepas abang mati. Tempat tu cuma orang yang tak sombong dengan Allah je boleh pergi." jawab si abang. "Orang yang sombong dengan Allah tu macam mana?" si adik bertanya lagi. " Orang yang tak solat, orang yang tak puasa..." kata si abang, cara mudah nak bagi adiknya faham. "Oh...jadi abang solat, nak ketuk pintu apa?" "Syurga!" jawab si abang, ringkas. Ada sen...

"Time is.... very slow for those who wait, very fast for those who are scared, very long for for those who lament, very short for those who celebrate. But for those who love, time is eternal ..." - William Shakespeare Semenjak dua menjak ni, ramai orang bercerita kisah hidup. Kebetulan, 'reading assignment' minggu ni pun semuanya berfalsafah, adui.. Jadi mintak maaf awal-awal lah kalau ter-jiwang pulak post ni haha Ada orang mengadu, dia rasa 'insecure'. Ada jugak yang mengadu pasal kawan. Tak pun, pasal family . Yang lain, pasal kerja. Kisah ' student ', biasalah, pasal exam , pasal internship , pasal assignment , pasal kerja mungkin kalau dah final year , pasal duit, pasal....(dan sebagainya XD) Kenapa sebenarnya dengan kisah-kisah ni? Kisah ni, nama lain dia, masalah hidup. Masalah hidup ni, tak kiralah apa konteksnya sekalipun, memang akan mengganggu fikiran dan tidak mententeramkan jiwa. Tapi, pernah tak terdengar atau ternampak a...