Organic garden

For some reason, I was chosen to be in the school's organic garden's committe. Maybe because my house is a living example of go green living. Even though my name seemed to be in almost every new committee being set up recently, I took it positively. Beside, I just love plants.

First we went to a nursery that's giving discount because it wanted to relocate to a new site. My fellow teacher picked up most of the organic plants. That's her specialty. Yesterday we planted all the plants in the plot that was specially set up for this project. Three of us were supposed to decide on the landscaping but in the end I was the one who made most decision since I was there first. The workers of the school were great help. So were some students from the Environment Society. 

I love nature. They come straight from our creator. Nature gives me peace. Nature makes me forget about the things that I haven't get done yet. Nature is a great source of inspiration. 

May Allah bless us all.

Usrah

Seeing my girls progressing with me makes my heart flourish with wonder of the greatness of Allah. My weekly usrah session with them this year witnesses attendance from 50 to 110 students, a number that I can only imagine the last two years when I have around 5 girls only on every sitting. Allah send the five girls and Allah send the 110 girls. Allah will only ask how much I have tried and not how much I have achieved. So the attendance of only 5 girls the last two years didn't bother me much. Hardship in the beginning is the sunnah or the way of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (p.b.u.h). 

I can see the progress of my girls in the way they take care of their hijab or clothing, in the way they talk, in the way they carry themselves. And the updates they make in the FB group specially created for them reflects their determinations to follow the way set by Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). 

To me handling the usrah session weekly is more to give reminders to myself. For Allah knows how much I need to remind myself. When I was about to talk badly about other people I will be reminded of myself reminding the girls not to talk badly about other people in the usrah session. Ooppss.. I should follow my own advice first. When I do research to prepare for the usrah session, I'm gaining new knowledge. Gaining khowledge is compulsory for every muslim. When I always talk about doing everything for the sake of Allah, I find myself trying hard to take care of my niat or attention. So I grow and progress with my girls.

May Allah bless all my girls.

May Allah bless all of us.

Right brain students

I was given new 2 classes in the middle of April. The last two classes. As a teacher who had a master degree in education, I taught the classes with  a strategy. Mind map notes everyday. To teach weak students we can't teach each item separately. Mind map makes students being able to see how each part is connected to the others. Mind map makes the students being able to see the whole picture.

I asked them to use different colours to light up their notes. To use their own creativity to come up with different types of mind maps. Today, as promised, I rewarded students that have creative mind maps. The kids surprised me. One girls have mind map in the ocean with fish and bubbles. Another girl have trees that have the name of the topics inside the leaves. One boy have geometric pattern as the background. And my subject is Perdagangan or Commerce. Hardly the subject that you connects with art. 

All these confirmed what I have learned while doing my master degree - weak students are good at visual spatial intelligence. You can say they are right brainer kids. We can only reach them and make them understand if we utilize their right brain. 

May Allah bless all my students. 

May Allah bless us all.

Who? Me?

"You are always cool". Me cool? In what way? "Well, you always do your work quietly no matter what happen". I guess so. I don't want to get mix up in a gossip and leaving my work in order to hear the latest in the grapevine. Muslims are forbidden from spreading bad mouth. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (p.b.u.h), regards bad mouth like eating the flesh of our own brother. But being a weak human being, I sometimes found myself doing the very same thing. May Allah forgive me.

"Come and eat with us". I just mumbled that I need to finish my work first. Then my friends commented that I am the type that do my work seriously. Well, yes. Our work is our ibadah, something that will give us reward from Allah. Therefore we must perform our work to the highest quality.

Every night when I go to sleep, I like to think that everything that I have done on that day is beneficial for both me and everyone around me. That I have not been selfish on that day and just think of myself only. That I have cook dinner for my family even though it is tedious. That I have suppress my anger over everyone and try to rationalize why people do what they have done - there must be a reason to everything. That I have forgive everyone on that day. Let me sleep in peace for peace belongs to every muslims that trust themselves upon Allah.

May Allah bless us all.

grapevine - informal used to refer to the circulation of rumors and unofficialinformation : I'd heard through the grapevine that the business was nearly settled.

bad mouth - criticize (someone or something); speak disloyally of : no one wants to hire an individual who bad-mouths a prior employer.

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.