The Du'a of Prophet Musa
Origin of the Du'a of Prophet Musa(Alaih Assalaam/upon him, peace) (to gather strength to face the Pharaoh/Fir-aun): Surah Ta-ha


20:25 (Moses) said: "O my Lord! expand me my breast;

20:26 "Ease my task for me;

20:27 "And remove the impediment from my speech,

20:28 "So they may understand what I say:

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Additional link(s):
Du'a from Quran : http://www.islamic-paths.org/Home/English/Prayers/Quranic/28-16.htm#Top_of_Page

Du'a of Rasulullah (saw) for Umar ibn Al-Khattab
Rasulullah (saw) prayed for either of the two Umar (Umar ibn Al-Khattab or Umar bin Hisham (Abu Jahal)) to accept Islam. His prayer was answered; Umar ibn Al-Khattab soon embraced Islam.

The earliest verses of Qur'an heard by Umar ibn Al-Khattab was from Ta-ha:

Ta-ha ayat 1 to ayat 16:


20:1 Ta-Ha.

20:2 We have not sent down the Qur'an to thee to be (an occasion) for thy distress,

20:3 But only as an admonition to those who fear ((Allah)),-

20:4 A revelation from Him Who created the earth and the heavens on high.

20:5 ((Allah)) Most Gracious is firmly established on the throne (of authority).

20:6 To Him belongs what is in the heavens and on earth, and all between them, and all beneath the soil.

20:7 If thou pronounce the word aloud, (it is no matter): for verily He knoweth what is secret and what is yet more hidden.

20:8 Allah. there is no god but He! To Him belong the most Beautiful Names.

20:9 Has the story of Moses reached thee?

20:10 Behold, he saw a fire: So he said to his family, "Tarry ye; I perceive a fire; perhaps I can bring you some burning brand therefrom, or find some guidance at the fire."

20:11 But when he came to the fire, a voice was heard: "O Moses!

20:12 "Verily I am thy Lord! therefore (in My presence) put off thy shoes: thou art in the sacred valley Tuwa.

20:13 "I have chosen thee: listen, then, to the inspiration (sent to thee).

20:14 "Verily, I am Allah. There is no god but I: So serve thou Me (only), and establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise.

20:15 "Verily the Hour is coming - My design is to keep it hidden - for every soul to receive its reward by the measure of its Endeavour.

20:16 "Therefore let not such as believe not therein but follow their own lusts, divert thee therefrom, lest thou perish!"..

Source:
Radio IKIM (Seerah Rasulullah series:Saturday&Sunday:9.15pm)

Redha

1:1 In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

...pleased (redha) is ALLAH with them, as are they (redha) with HIM...

Surah At Taubah(Repentance)/Al-Baraah(Freedom)Immunity : Ayat 100

English (Yusuf Ali):
9:100 The vanguard (of Islam)- the first of those who forsook (their homes) and of those who gave them aid, and (also) those who follow them in (all) good deeds,- well- pleased is Allah with them, as are they with Him: for them hath He prepared gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein for ever: that is the supreme felicity.

May ALLAH always GUIDE me in the right path, so that he be pleased (redha) with me, as I am (redha) with HIM...

Hectic
The past two weeks had been very hectic. Had to spend 10 to 12 solid-hours at office {Lunch at 4.30pm}. Progress meetings, briefings,seminars during office hours, and writing minutes, briefs and preparing reports/lists during non office-hours. Everybody and everything screamed for top priority. " Just 3 items, please put out my minutes, first". Yea, but I have 70 top priorities to deal with before your meeting...Hmm.
Sometimes you have to become reluctant logistic manager. Sometimes your colleague have to morph into traffic controller. There's no realreward in it. Just to get the work, done. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Despite that, manage to finish reading Sri Diah's KL dimana Suamiku (KLDS) after one month's late night reading. {Curi baca before going to sleep. Some books are to be read when we are alert. Some when we are drowsy}. If we take Natasya's plight in KLDS too seriously, the stats for Andalusia will manifold, hah hah. Me, Mr Right hasn't found me, yet ;). Some (marital) challenges (for the unmarried as well as the married ppl) are meant to be overcome. The limited time endowed upon us must be put to good use. Then there'll be no regret.
MBA managed to poison me to buy KLDS. Well, it's the rebate money and had to be spent at the Koop anyway.
RM174.99 spent on one Biology book {Now my physical science collection is complete; Physics -which Angah can occasionally borrow to prepare her teaching material, Chemistry - which Pokchu borrowed during his Matriks day and Biology for his current endeavour}, Hadiths berkaitan Taharah (hygiene), Fiqhus Sirah, and of course, KLDS.
Can't wait for the approaching weekend. Heard there's going to be sale on Friday at JJ ; 50% - 70% discount , for members only 8( . KL , mana fulus extra-ku... . Well its more fun to spend time at MakLang's kenduri...

A Bend in the Road
by Nicholas Sparks


Finished reading on Sunday morning. Unfold from two perspective; the third person - the narrator, and the first-person- the murderer turned healer. Moral of the story; sometimes you forgive, but you don't forget. Ranked second from the three books that I've read:
1) Message in a bottle
2) A Bend in the Road
3) Nights in Rodanthe

Tried very hard not to jump pages.Succeeded.

Feels Like Hari Raya
Today's driving's ultra hyper smooth; just 35 minutes to reach my office. Feels like driving thru a deserted city on the first Eid Fitri.
Where have all the drivers gone ? Usually Saturdays are packed, too. But not today's Saturday.
Reminds me of my younger bro (Mr Barney's papa); Fresh Prince, oops that was his pre-marital nick / Uncle Phil, oops too XL/PRamlee {ahh...very apt}. PRamlee loves to dispense his wisdom (just about everything; computing,driving,servicing cars,which prepaid SIM card to use when island-vacationing locally,everything!) every now and then.
During Eid the year before previous, PRamlee drove us (Bapak+Mak+myself) to Shah Alam via Sg. Buloh-Subang. The road at the residential area near the Stadium was so deserted, that you could drive in reverse gear,zig-zagging for as long as you wanted {without damaging your gear box, of course}. There he dispensed a few driving maneuver one could only pull during {first} Hari Raya {in a deserted place}. I think you can guess lah.
PRamlee loves to make U turn in the smallest possible space (just like any man-driver would do with any wira -sized car), he'd just squeeze (himpit)to the side and swing. I'm not sure whether his current Japanese car is lowered or not, but the previous one behaved like a platypus; kept suduingbulldozing forward, and to the driver in front would felt like he's being tail-gated.
Sometimes I'm a devil (which pygmy possum driver isn't ?), too (according to my sister; a kelembak driver).Well, she's no exception, either.

P/S: Just love to see (again, and again, and again...) one lowered white Atos with blue dots passing thru. Reminds me of an armadillo.

Wet Friday
Driving to work in drizzle, this morning. Somehow the raindrops make the mild road congestion a bit bearable.
Didn't feel like waking up this morning. These past few days felt like I'm living in between high temperature on my left and low temperature on my rights. There's occasional sharp pain at the tip of my toe and on my knee. The nights are too damn cold; had to wear thick sock to sleep. Mr barney, the little bundle of boundless energy slapped my face when I tried to sleep early. I knew you were afraid to be left alone Mr barney, but there're yai and nyai to play with.
Suffered one of the worst head-ache yesterday. The occasional cough sent tremor to my cranium.
After I got back from work, asked Mak to place her back of hand near my neck. Asked her if there's any temperature rise. That's what we always do when we are feeling down; in a way asking for sympathy, understanding,attention, whatever.
Mak said it's normal that when someone we love left, he/she took a little piece of you with h**. Eventhough our mind are denying the pain, our body will show it in some way or another. Even my stronger sister, Angah is down with fever.
Worklife is too damn hectic this week; daily meetings, seminars,appointments,etc. I'm reminded of a Thai professor philosophy. Even though you want to be an easy going person and don't like (office)politics sometimes you have to deal with technical politics - in getting commitment fullfilled from your peers, in getting coorperation and getting the instructions followed (and excuses reduced) by your anak buah and getting resources (fund,floorspace,reminding h** the procedure to follow,empowerment) from your superior.

Life can be made easy.

Just semile; any ever-gracious Thai would say the English word in Thai lingo.

URL
http://smile.cpe.ku.ac.th

Supir
4.30 am : Mak woke me up. Still groggy. Felt like sleeping till 6.30 am. Ah, now remember; got to pick up Pokchu, my kid-brothter at Hentian Putra. He's on his one-month break from KUSTEM.
5.20 am : reach the entrance to HP Multi-level Parking. Yikes!, some j****ss parked h** WE1** banger with protruding rear blocking half the entrance. Come on lah, if you can't tuck your banger nicely out of the way for others to enter the parking area, leave ur banger @ home and take ur brain wid u!
6.17 am: Reach SU. Solat.
6.41 am: off to work.
7.20 am: Pass thru the traffic light near C*L**X Damansara Damai. Phew!! this is the feeling of getting stucked in a traffic-jam; not a nice feeling. (Definitely not to be repeated)Usually leave for work around 6.15++ am (but no later than 6.25 am) and reach U* a few minutes past 7.00 am.
7.55 am: Reach F* and done with parking.
8.02 am: swipe smart-card and clock-in for work.

*Supir ~ Chauffeur

Ambengan
Yesterday's Tahlil for my late Makwo was accompanied by Ambengan ; a dry but coriander-and-cummins-fragrant dish in a huge rounded tray.
After the Tahlil, the women would take a peek on how the male guests react to the dish (quite hilarious). Some just melopong while the 'wise' one would divide the dish into equal portions and transfer it into plastic containers laced with banana leaves (in the old days newspaper laced with banana leaves carried in large clean cotton hankerchief) to take home (berkat)for the love ones. The guests were suppose to share (eat) the remaining together. Another symbol of berkat.
Reminds me of my late nyai who used to prepare mee siput fried with black pepper as one of the nasi ambeng dish.
Reminds me of my childhood, where my sister, my two brothers and I would put a large portion of white rice, vegetables and lauk on to a smaller rounded tray perched on an overturned wooden lesung Bapak made. We gathered around the dulang and enjoyed (we call it makan-duri short for makan khenduri) the meal to the last grain of rice.

More info on nasi ambeng:
1)http://fajaronline.tripod.com/onlinelog/20mei.htm
2)http://www.danchan.com/weblog/harimauj/45061
3) wkdin juga ;)

Who wants to be a millionaire ?
(Quoted from Zikrah on RMKL)

If you are posed a question:

How many gates are there to Jannah ?
A. 6 gates
B. 7 gates
C. 8 gates

And if you choose a life-line (to help answer the question) by contacting somebody anywhere in the world, who do you contact ?

An engineer who's not aware of the related hadith?
An engineer who's aware of the related hadith?
A person who read hadith ?

RIYADH_AS_SALIHEEN/BOOK9/CH185:THE MERITS OF ABLUTIONS(WUDU')
1032. `Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Whoever of you performs Wudu' carefully and then affirms: `Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahu Wahdahu la sharika Lahu, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa Rasuluhu [I testify that there so no true god except Allah Alone, Who has no partners and that Muhammad ((PBUH) is His slave and Messenger],' the eight gates of Jannah are opened for him. He may enter through whichever of these gates he desires (to enter).''
[Muslim].



Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith Number 644:SAHIH BUKHARI
Ubadah bin As-Somit r.a reported:
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: Those who testifies/affirms (recite the shahadah):

`Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahu Wahdahu la sharika Lahu, wa anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa Rasuluhu

and that Isa is Allah's Slave and His Apostle and His Word (KUN) which He bestowed on Maryam and a Spirit created by Him, and that Paradise is true, and Hell is true, Allah will admit him into Paradise with the deeds which he had done even if those deeds were few." (Junada, the sub-narrator said, " 'Ubada added, 'Such a person can enter Paradise through any of its eight gates he likes.")

Related URL:
1) http://hadith.al-islam.com/Bayan/Display.asp?Lang=mal&ID=14
2)http://www.dartmouth.edu/~alnur/ISLAM/HADITH/RIYADH_AS_SALIHEEN/book9.htm
3)http://www.dartmouth.edu/~alnur/ISLAM/HADITH/RIYADH_AS_SALIHEEN/book9.htm#CHAPTER%20185
4)http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/sunnah/bukhari/055.sbt.html#004.055.643