Junction

Sometimes when we are in a junction, Allah will show us other options. Then it's a matter of making our choice. Always ask Allah to guide us in every step of our life for Allah knows best.

Bond of different kinds

I have been a week now in Paris. With my youngest son, Aiman. Wherever I go, he'll go too. He's a very independent son. He can prepare his own drink, get his own food, learn a few skills to survive like learning to surf the internet for games to entertain himself. But he's emotionally attached to me. Very much so.

On one metro train trip in Paris, even though my husband asked him to sit beside him, he refused and prefer to stand up beside me. Walking on the street, he feel safe if I'm holding his hands. But if my husband is the one that's holding his hand, his eyes are always wandering around making sure that I'm in the vicinity. I only realized this during this Paris trip. The bond between a child and his/her mother is sometime have to be seen to be understood.

I'm glad for this trip. I get to be with my husband. He's assigned here in Paris for a two months stint. The initial agreement was for me not to follow him to save money for the kids' college cost. That agreement last until the first day my husband arrived at Paris. In our first telephone conversation, I make a joke of going to Paris since my husband got a much bigger and spacious apartment hotel. Too lonely to stay alone. To my surprise he urged me to make all the preparations necessary to go there whenever possible. That end my misery and bout of cry period for being left alone in Malaysia. I guess the bond between a husband and his wife is sometime have to be seen to be understood too.

I know my kids back in Malaysia missed me. Especially my girl. She's coming home from her boarding school today. Meaning she get to get in touch with me through the internet - Skype, yahoo messenger or FaceBook. Maybe girls or female in general, are more expressive of their feelings. I wonder if my boys are missing me as much as my girl. Are you boys?

And I miss my mom and dad too. And my mother in laws. And my sisters and brothers. I hope they are doing well.

It's not the physical distance that matters the most. It's how close we are with each other in our heart. And I would like to think that Allah and his messenger, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the closest in my heart. For I love everyone that I love because of Allah and his messenger.

May Allah bless us all.

vicinity - the area near or surrounding a particular place

stint - a person's fixed or allotted period of work

bout - a short period of intense activity of a specified kind

My viva session

My viva session went smoothly. After I presented my thesis, questions keep coming in. Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, I can answer all questions smoothly. I noticed that all the questions are just questions on technicalities. No major problems with my thesis. The whole session took less than one hour. I will be granted a master degree provided I made all the amendments suggested by the panel.

After I performed my zohor prayer, I prostrate to say thanks to Allah. That is when I realized that I have been quiet ungrateful at times. Being unsatisfied with a lot of things, I forgot that Allah has given me a lot of things that other people don't have. So why should I be unsatisfied with my working environment for example. Ya Allah, please forgive me for being such ungrateful servant at times.

Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah. May Allah bless us all.

My products

I was on my way to the staff room. It was still recess time for form 3 students but the two boys were already outside the staff room waiting for me. "Teacher, next period is our maths class. Please come in early. We want to learn". Then hurriedly they went to their still empty class. The two boys have never passed their maths test before. But this year I'm expecting them to do well in maths for the first time in their life. They are smart boys. They just need coaching, guidance and the most important ingredient of all - the believe that they can do it and do it well.

I have declared in the class that after the coming march test (the first test this year), I will choose 8 top students (based on March test score) to be the mentors in the class. These privileged students will have special extra class with me and they will learn every topics prior before the topics being taught in class. So in class they will help me by going round from group to group teaching them. So there will be many 'teachers' in my class. Many students want to be in that elite group. And the two boys are top in the list.

As I groom my students to change their self concept from "I'm not smart" to "Hey, I can be smart too", I'm still amazed at the transformation that's happening in front of my eyes. One of the boys has a smart twin brother. I make him believe that he can beat his twin brother too. He just has to work harder and I'm here to help him to achieve his mission.

We teachers don't make 'much' in terms of money but we built the nation by building the people. We don't build the sky scrapers but we build the people that build them. I fell in love with this career right from the beginning even though being a teacher has never been my childhood dream. Every day I can see my 'products'. They are everywhere doing all kinds of things.

May Allah bless all teachers. May Allah bless us all.

Just jump that hurdle

One of my most regret is when I'm overcome with dissatisfaction over a matter until I become grumble some. Complaining about this and that until I forgot to be thankful to Allah; to put it mildly. I will forget that behind every hardship there is lesson to be learned. New skills to be acquired. New strength to be achieved. New doors to be opened. New area to be ventured. New experience to be gained.

No matter how unfair things seem to be, believe me that there's a lot of things in store for us. Good things if we are patience enough. We just have to trust that Allah is always fair to us. That Allah is always with us no matter how hard the road seem to us.

Just jump over the hurdle and reach that finishing line. If we turn back we are going to waste our time, youth, effort, strength. Just go on. Push ourselves. Cut off all the complaints and grumbles. At the end of the day feel proud to emerge as a fighter even though we might not emerge as the winner. Winning is not everything. It's trying our level best that counts.

If we can't be the best, be one of the best. And do it whole heartedly because that's one condition for it to be considered as ibadah and we will receive our rewards or pahala from Allah.

May Allah bless us all.

Ya Rasulullah

Today is 12 Rabiulawwal in the calender of hijrah (Islamic calender). It's Prophet Muhammad's birthday, peace be upon him (pbuh). It's no ordinary birthday because it marks the birth of world most famous person. President Obama is world famous person but will his name be remembered 500 years from now? Not anywhere near Prophet Muhammad's name (pbuh).

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has set the best example as a son, husband, father, employer, neighbour, war leader, head of a country, just to name a few. This makes him the best prophet ever sent down by Allah. Being the last prophet after prophet Isa or Jesus Christ, the revelation given to him in the form of Al Qur'an is the most complete as compare to Torah given to Moses and Injil or Old Testament given to Jesus Christ. While Al Qur'an originality is protected by Allah himself, Torah and Old Testament have been rewritten by the rabbi and the pope quite a few times. For that reason alone the two religious books are deemed as unholy anymore. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said that even if the two books are still pure, when Al Qur'an is being sent down the two books are absolete already.

As a good muslim we must love Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) more than anyone else. Many people fear death. To me 'death' does not mean my ties to my loved ones are severed but rather it means new door is opened. The door that allows me to see Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) directly now. Those that I left behind will be taken care of by Allah. I look forward to that moment everyday. May Allah forgive all my sins and accept me as his pious servant. And may Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) accept me as his follower and give me his syafaat or help during the day of judgement.

May the celebration of Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) birthday will make us know him and love him better. May Allah bless us all.

rabbi - Jewish scholar or teacher, esp. one who studies or teaches Jewish law. A person appointed as a Jewish religious leader.

severed - divide by cutting or slicing, esp. suddenly and forcibly : the head was severed from the body | [as adj. ] ( severed) severed limbs. Put an end to (a connection or relationship); break off : he severed his relations with Lawrence.

My hobby

In the new time table two of my maths classes were given to other teacher. In replacement I was given two new classes that in terms of ranking are better than the previous two. By right I should be overjoyed but I'm not that excited. In the one month I had been teaching the classes I have build rapport with the students. Always reminding them to think about ten, twenty years from now what are they going to ride. An old Honda motorbike or a Honda Accord, it all depend on how much they are focussing in class. I stopped by one of my old class to return exercise books and they were asking me to teach them back. It's not as easy as that. Life has to go on.

I taught my two new classes today for the first time and it looks like they are hooked. Slowly I guided them until they come out with the formula of sum of interior angles for any polygons, instead of just giving the formula straight to them. When students are guided into the process of 'why', they don't have to memorize the 'what' because they understand how they formula was developed in the first place. There were much excitement as I gave them from 10 seconds going down to five seconds to calculate the sum of interior angles for a few polygons. There was an air of easiness as I always put up spontaneous multiple choices questions for them to pick up which one is their preferred answer. An air of easiness as I always remind them it's ok to make mistakes as it is part and parcel of learning process. Those that got the right answer would clapped their hand in happiness. This is what I called learning environment. Students don't have feeling of fear or threatened.

No matter what is our job we must do it whole heartedly. A job is a burden is we don't like it but a job can turn into a hobby if we love it. So make the right choices.

May Allah bless us all.