Norway... an influx of my blog followers

Lately I have been getting huge amount of audience from Norway.

If the trend continues, in 1 year from now, Norway will overtake my home country Malaysia as my biggest audience.

Tracking on a daily, weekly and monthly (current) status, Norway is top of my stats.

Again, I do not know anyone from Norway. I thank you for reading my blog.

It is not my intention to have huge followers. It just amazes me that I have huge followers in a country that I have no friends. This is what technology has proven.

Rasulullah gave dakwah in Makkah, but hidayah came easily in Madinah.

I make a pledge that if Norway become my HIGHEST all time blog reader statistics, I will visit Norway and hopefully meet one of you. I will visit Oslo..

Thank you Norway..

 

Manchester United vs Spurs (away)

I am in London from 25 Nov until 5 Dec 2013.

On the 1 Dec, there is this match in North London, involving Spurs vs Man Utd.

What a match this will be, especially with 2 attacking minded teams. Also with 2 managers having mix season so far.

I wanted very much to watch the match. Apparently, the ticket is very expensive and I have take a short trip to Brussels on that day.

I strongly believe that Man Utd can win this match. A draw is highly probable as well.

This match is very important as to be within touch with the in-form Arsenal. Plus it will be a big boost coming to the busy Christmas schedule.

The weather in London is between 5-8 Celcius.. cold! I always wear the Man Utd cap during my stay in London.

One man came to me and asked "Are you still a believer?"
I smiled and answered "Yes!". I believe that David Moyes is the right person to replace Fergie!

My imam in solat is my CEO

6 Nov 2013.

For the very FIRST time in my entire life, I am a makmum to my No.1 company CEO in salat

It feels really awesome to have the opportunity to be a makmum of  your leader.

I make doa to Allah that my current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will have all the blessings from Allah azzawajal..

Man United vs Arsenal - a game I look forward to..

I always look forward to game between Manchester United against Arsenal.

I have this feeling about Mr Wenger that I consider him being arrogant & snobbish. Yes, I cannot change him, only Allah can do that.

But this is the opportunity to respond in a positive way to put a dent on his huge ego.
2 games stands up

1. Man Utd 8 Arsenal 2 (2011/12 season)

2. But the FA Cup semi-final 1999, where Giggs scored from half-way line will always be remembered as the best MU vs Arse game that I will remember for a long-long time..

What ever the result tonight, I am very confident that MU will give their very best.

My prediction, MU will win with a single goal, but my head says that it could end up in a score draw.

Enjoy the link

Be grateful (shukur)... really awesome

I am going to share with you my most favourite surah in the Quran.
Surah Ibrahim:7.

This ayat explains to us to be grateful to Allah, then Allah (for sure) will increase you..
Increase you in what? Allah does not mention increasing you in what. He just says that (for sure) He will increase you.

Meaning, He (the Almighty) will increase you in unlimited ways, you just have to be thankful & grateful to Allah.

If you just ponder of all that has happened to you, you will surely thank Allah a million times.
Please(x3), have the feeling of gratitude towards Allah & towards other people. Stop complaining, just ALWAYS see the positive side of things.. and you start to be grateful. It is a WONDERFUL feeling

I sincerely plead to my blog followers to follow this video (really awesome!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eThSNtJe7SY

Thank you for being grateful..

My wukuf experience during performing hajj 1422H

I am writing my experience in performing Hajj 12 years ago 1422H. Hopefully those incidences will have effect to my blog readers on the true meaning of sacrifice. It is the story of the day of Wukuf in Arafah and the journey to Mina via Mudza.

The whole hajj began on the night 8th Zulhijjah. We were instructed to wear the ihram and perform the niat at our hotel.

I perform Hajj Tamattuk. We were also instructed to only bring a small bag that consisted of only essential items, such as toilettories and 2 set of plain clothes after our tahlul.

I was on the 11 floor of 11 floor building occupied by my group (KT32). The queue system follows the floor sequence. Meaning the 1st bus will be given to the 1st floor people, followed by the 2nd floor people and so on. Obviously, the bus that I took was the last bus of the lot. The bus departed for Arafah after Isya prayers.

It was not very far from my hotel in Mekah to our camp in Arafah (10KM).

When arriving in Arafah, I took my place in the tent and took my dinner. At around 10.30pm, I prepared myself to go to sleep in my ihram.

There is no bed/mattress in Arafah. I slept on the canvas, in a make-shift tent in the middle of Arafah. It was not confortable sleeping in an ihram, but all these actions were done for the sake of Allah.

Next day, was 9th Zulhijjah, wukuf day.  I spent most of my time in the tent, on the canvas reading Quran & remembering Allah. Wukuf started during Zuhor time until Maghrib.

I heard many people crying, for they seek repentance from their sins in the past. I also cried but only for a while.  I managed to cover 3 juz of the Holy Quran.

After Isya that night 8.00pm, we were all getting ready to move to Mina via Mudza. Again, the queue system followed the building floor and I knew that I will get the last bus.

When my turn to board the bus eventually came, the Tabung Haji people said that our bus broke down. We were instructed to wait for the 1st bus that ferry the earliest people in our group after the bus completed delivering the 1st floor people to Mina.

Arafah is a large desert area. Mudza is also large area of just desert.  Mina is a place divided by hills. There are many hills in Mina. 2 tunnels connect vast amount of tents that forms Mina. Mina is like an oval shape area. Mina is also where the jumrah (stoning) are situated.

3 million people simultaneously take the same path from Arafah to Mina via Mudza. If 30 people can fit into 1 bus, then there were 100,000 buses full of people. That is the volume of vehicle that moved that particular night.

Even though there are 4x2 vehicle lanes towards Mina, but as we approach Mina, it converged into just 2 lanes, making a journey of approximately 15KM taking on average 5 hours.

Back to my story, I knew that the returning bus will come the next day. I knew that the compulsory mabit (spending the night) at Mudza was gone. I stood near the gate watching many buses pass me by.

 I just stood there from 8.00pm until midnight. I became very angry with Tabung Haji for not organizing my trip well.

How come of all people, it was my bus that did not arrive. Have you not got contingency plan? Have you not got a spare bus? You have been handling hajj for many years, and did you not anticipate that problems will occur? I became very angry! But I was helpless. Because I was relative young at that time, I asked them to let me walk from Arafah to Mina.

They did not allow me for security reasons. I said to them, I can take care of myself. It is a straight path. I will never be lost. They still did not allow me to walk a 15KM distance.

Well, from 12am-3.30am, I just could not take it. By that time, I was so tired standing. I sat down, made a lot of dzikir and prayed to Allah. That was the only thing I could do.

I dozed off and was awaken by a loud siren of a patrol car at 4.00am. It was the highway patrol. They asked the organizers, why were these few remaining people not exiting Arafah.

The organizers (Tabung Haji) told the highway patrol, that these few people were waiting for the coming bus to pick them up.

The highway patroller made a call on the radio in Arabic. 10 minutes later, a shoddy old yellow bus came. I have not seen a worse bus than that. The driver was an old Arab guy with a large turban. He must be close to his seventies. I said to myself, if this driver is taking me to Mina on that bus, I am not confident at all, but under those circumstances, I would take it anyway.

The patroller asked each one of us (there were 20 of us) to board the bus. The bus went the opposite way from the way to Mudza. The bus driver drove the bus like a madman.

He took us back to Mekkah using a narrow road instead of the 4 lane highway. I could see from afar many small tiny red lights on the highway towards Mudza.

Those were lights from all the buses on the highway. Then the driver stopped. "Mudza!" he said. He asked us to take small pebbles as this is the area of Mudza.

After just 3 minutes, he instructed us to be back in the bus. Again he drove like a madman and arrived in Mina at close to 5.00am.

The amazing thing was he drove us right to our tent. There were hundreds of thousands of similar tents in Mina, but this mad driver drove us straight to our tent!!

When I entered the tent, there was only 1 bus-load of people out of 10 buses that has departed from Arafah. That bus was the No.3 bus!

Masyaallah, Allah was testing my patience on the night of wukuf! Now I truly realise the value of patience.

Sacrifice = Believe in Allah + knowledge + effort + sabr (patience)

Biggest sacrifice for me when doing hajj, was to be really patient. Believe in Allah, truly He is your Master and He will definitely help you!

You just have to be patient and seek His help with yaqin & make dua. Definitely, you will find PEACE...

Allah hu akbarX 9, walillah hilhamd... 

At the busy city of Surabaya...and my 2 favourite surah in Quran

I was travelling in the busy road of Surabaya that I observed many unhappy people in their vehicle. They love to honk and were very impatient.

They look very tensed. Most of them do not have the smile and peacefulness on their faces.
Now I come to this conclusion, wheather they are from Surabaya or Kuala Lumpur, or any big city in this whole world, they are quite similar in thinking.

They strive very hard to accumulate as much material wealth as possible because, wealth is something that people look up to. It is a form of standard that has been in-build in most societies. The house they own, the car they drive are all part of social standard that have been accepted and they strive hard for. Bungalow and BMW are at the high end. Overseas trip on a business class, using platinum credit card and dining in a 5-star hotel are the benchmark.

No wonder people are always on their toes. Time is what they have little of. Priority time must be allocated to entertaining VIPs (or whoever can help them in their quest). Also they must ensure that they win against their "rivals" be it their competitors or whoever stands between them and what they strive for.

Until they are near their death that they finally found out that what they strive for is not going to follow them to their grave. Then the standard immediately change to rememberance of Allah, sadakah and doing good deeds. If these people are lucky, they will have the chance to make their hereafter better. If not, then let us all pray for Allah's mercy.

That is why Surah 102 (Takathur) & Surah 103 (Asr) decribes the current society problem beautifully in the Quran. The 2 surahs combined together the problem we face today, especially in big cities. These 2 surah are my favourite when performing salat

What is the link between Surah 101 & 104? Hellfire and (scandal mongers & back biters)

What a beautiful text linkage in the Holy Quran. No human can possible create that..ever