The value of a muslim woman

Entering the driveway of a big building in Kuala Lumpur, I saw a woman puffing away smoke from her cigarette. It was lunch break and she chose to relieve her tension by smoking. The picture of a woman smoking is something difficult for me to swallow. To the western culture a woman is at par with the man and shouldn't be treated any differently. To the muslim culture, a woman is very special and thus should be protected and taken care of. To us a woman is someone who complement the man, not a rival.

Men and women are created differently either biologically or spiritually. Men are muscular and women has womb. Men are tough and women are soft. Men seldom shed tears but women are very generous with tears. With their muscles, men are good at earning income. And with their patience, women are good at raising kids. With all the differences, women do not need to compete with men. What they need to do is supplement and enhance men.

In Islam, a virtuous woman is someone who only display her beauty to her husband, not just to anyone on the street. Therefore she wear her veil or hijab. The veil will also protect her from unwanted attentions from men. A virtuous woman is someone who smile to her husband when he comes home from work and cook for him. Not because she is a slave but because a labour of love is highly rewarded by Allah. She has a choice not to cook but if she choose to cook she is booking a place in heaven. A virtuous woman is someone who don't talk freely just to any man on the street because she value her parents' or husband's trust on her. She always remember her position as a daughter or a wife.

A muslim woman is always protected by her guardian or wali. The wali is her father if she is single and her husband if she is married. In short a muslim woman is highly valued. I am a muslim woman and I am happy knowing that my husband and my sons are responsible towards me no matter what happen.

May Allah bless us all.

A visit at the hospital

I roamed around the hospital looking for my student's bed. The news I got is Ehsan (not his real name) is paralyzed. So I asked the guard the ward for the orthopedics patients. Looking at the name chart, I found his bed's number. As I walked to his bed I can see he was smiling at me. Happy to have visitor. Being bed ridden, a visitor is a blessing to cheer up the boring day.

It all started from a joke he said. He was playing around with his friend in the school's toilet and his friend kicked him at the back of his waist. Back home he started to feel the pain until he can't lie down due to the pain. An inspection at a hospital found there's nothing wrong with him. So he stayed at home and skipped school. One morning he found himself paralyzed. His mother took him to another hospital where a MRI shown that there's a small rupture in his backbone and his spine was full of pus. He was immediately taken to the operating theater.

His mother lovingly put some food into his mouth. She often mentioned Allah's name. What a pious and strong woman she is. Ehsan weight over 80 kgs and just to reposition him in bed is an arduous job. I literally found that out myself. He said he could only move his two hands but he is paralyzed from waist downward. But I saw some movement in his legs so I started my regime of drilling. I asked him to 'move' the muscles of his legs and fingers using his mind. I kept on pushing him until I saw the pillow underneath his legs moved. Then I supervise his exercise using his hands' fingers. He could move them better now. His mother was pretty excited. That was the first time she saw him controlling and moving his legs and hands like that. A major leap. Seeing Ehsan was already tired I told her to keep up the regime of exercise.

I said to Ehsan that maybe Allah destined this to happen to make him ponder and reevaluate his life, his love to his parents, and everything else. As I remember, Ehsan was one of my most problematic students two years ago. He never have any exercise book and was always rooming around the school instead of staying in class. After giving some token to his mother to lessen the burden I left.

Seeing Ehsan I am reminded of all the blessing that Allah has bestow upon me and how I always forget to say thanks to Allah. Thank you Allah for all the blessing, for all the knowledge, for all the experiences that have make me a lot wiser. Thank you for everything, every moment and every second. Alhamdulillah.

May Allah bless us all.

Spectacles

So many things to do. How do I manage my times? Everyday when I wake up, I must have a list in my head of what I should achieve on that day. Weekends are usually dedicated to family. Weekdays are for my job as a teacher. This is the third day of a 9 day school holiday. I'm still not done with marking the students' exam papers. Try as best as I can but I'm always a bit slow at marking papers.

My two kids are recuperating well from their tonsil removal operations. After about 10 days they started eating solid food without feeling pain. Lately we eat outside a lot to spice up the kids' appetite. My husband and I are more concern about little Aiman. Now we can have our peace of mind.

But I noticed that his school books are bare from writing. Like there's something wrong. When I asked Aiman, he said he can't see properly since he is sitting at the back. Oh maybe a minor short sightedness. So two nights ago we took him to see an optometrist. Upon check up, she said the power of both his eyes is a whooping 225! She said Aiman must had the problem for a long time already. I was shocked. We never notice his sight problem. And being a small kid, he never complaint. Luckily I notice his problem from his school exercise book, Alhamdulillah. Tonight he will get his spectacles and he is supposed to wear it all the time to make sure his power won't increase drastically.

May Allah bless us all.