The effects of technology

The facebook group was just recently created about two weeks ago. It is a platform for the students of my school who are interested to increase their Islamic knowledge to share reminders from the Holy Qur'an and Hadith. The effect is like a whirlwind. It reached its 100 members yesterday and is fast growing. The kids put up a lot of reminders.

I had some very tough years before trying to build pious students group - trying to follow the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (p.b.u.h), in educating his Companions. Some sitting will see a big number of attendance but most of the time only a small core group members will attend. But that doesn't bother me much since I know Allah will not ask me how much I have achieved but rather how much I have tried. What I can achieve is in the hand of Allah. I am just a vehicle. It is Allah that moves people to change. But I have never imagine in my life with the use of technology (i.e. facebook) things can spur up like this.

Accidentally I also bought an iPad two weeks ago. I bought Qur'an Explorer apps. Then I bought apps for Qur'an Tafseer. Then I discovered iBooks for all kinds of Islamic books. This mean beside being my personal reading, I can now take a single device to help me in each sitting with the kids.

May Allah help me in my conquest to seek His pleasure.

Passing through life

While waiting for my turn to see the doctor, I talked to a lady sitting beside me. She came with a daughter. Her husband has died a few years ago and she supported her family with doing small business. Her eldest son died in a car accident, the second one studying in a college and her daughter that she brought along that day is a disabled lady. She told me how she has to work hard to support her college son and her disabled daughter. Every time her college son goes back to college she will equipped him with dried mee, milo drink and biscuits for breakfast before going to class. She lamented about her life. That's when I felt I needed to clear the air for her. I told her that thank to Allah, her daughter is a disabled person. If she is born smart, then she would be studying somewhere now and leaving her alone at home.

Sometimes we didn't see the blessing that Allah has bestowed upon us because we are being negative minded. We lead our life grumbling about a lot of things and thus we are missing a lot of fun. All my life I have been trying to be a positive person and I am still struggling with it. Trying to channel my energy to doing something that I can do to improve the situation, instead of complaining about things that I can't change. To focus on other people's strength instead on highlighting their weaknesses. To forgive others sincerely instead of letting the anger burn me from inside. To improve the quality of my work instead of complaining on how much I have to do. To do the household chores with a lot of love even when my kids are not helping me. Ya Allah, thank you for all the blessing You bestow upon me.

May Allah bless us all.

lament - expression of regret or disappointment; a complaint : there were constant laments about the conditions of employment.

Parenting

Time seem to have fly so fast. We sent our first child to his first formal school in 1997. He was seven years old then. Today, the first day of 2012, I am sewing Aiman's school uniform to shorten its length. Seven years old this year, he will start his first formal school next wednesday. A 15 years gap from our first child. It's like the second phase of our parenting life. Three of my kids are already in various universities. My forth child will start her last year of schooling with Aiman.

Some people measure the success of parenting with how good the kids are in their academic life. To us that is the secondary part. The first and foremost criteria of parenting success to us is how good a muslim they are. Are they setting good examples to their friends without having to preach, for actions speak louder than words. Are they performing their prayer in congregation instead of praying alone? Do they say their prayer and sit down to eat? Are they reading the Holy Qur'an everyday?..............

From time to time we have to remind them again the same things that we always reminded them of in the past. For we human always err (make mistakes) and we always forget. Dr Fadhilah Kamsah, a well known motivator, said we have to remind our kids at least 200 times before they can remember. And in most cases we haven't reach that 200 time limit yet. So we will always be patient and keep on reminding. May Allah ease our job as parents. We will be asked by Allah in judgement day wether we have done our best as parents.

Ya Allah. When we pass away let our children remember to pray for us everyday. Amin.

May Allah bless us all.