Marhaban Ya Ramadhan

Allahumma Sallimnee Li Ramadhaan Wa Sallim Ramadhaana Lee Wa Sallimhu Lee Mutaqabbala (Kanz-ul-ummal)

“O Allah! Safeguard me for the Month of Ramadhaan (by making me see the Month of Ramadhan healthy and fit),and safeguard the Month of Ramadhan for me (by making the conditions in it such that I can take maximum benefit from it) and accept it from me.”

Ramadhan Bakal Pergi

Rasa baru lagi ianya datang. Seolah-olah kelmarin, mendengar pengumuman penetapan tarikh berpuasa di tv. Tapi sekarang ia bakal meninggalkan kita. 

Terasa masih belum cukup melakukan amalan di bulan yang mulia ini. Masih banyak yang mahu dilakukan. Masih belum penuh kantong yang mahu diisi dengan segala amalan yang bakal menjadi bekalan di sana kelak. 

Sedih dan sayu rasanya dengan perginya Ramadhan. 

Namun, semuanya yang bermula pasti berakhir.

Cooking with Love

All these cooking and cake making without any doubt gives one some kind of a satisfaction. It feels great when the food is all finished and all the hard work of slogging in the kitchen is appreciated.

However, doing all the chores by yourself is no fun. Trust me when you have to do EVERYTHING from peeling the onions, cutting vegetables right till clearing the dishes, urggghhhhhhh PENAT!!! We do not have a maid anymore. The last one left - seperti biasa lari or in their lingo kabur; mana she went entah and I am not at all bothered to know what happened to her. This is not the first time I am faced with such a situation. Last year, I went solo in the kitchen during Ramadhan. And the situation is the same still this year. Tapi this year, umur pun dah meningkat, maka kepenatan itu pun bertambah.

Last year however, due to my new work assignment and its ridiculous hecticnes, I wasn't able to prepare much of food for our breaking of fast. There was this one kedai makan which we always frequented for our meals during the non fasting days. So obviously food for our breaking came from their kitchen. 

This year alhamdulillah, I'm quite relieved that I have more flexibility at work. Deliverables are manageable and during this fasting month we were allowed to take off early. If the roads are really, really okay (and it has been that way these past few days) I'd be pulling in to my driveway by 5pm!! Terkejut neighbours bila melihat I'm home when the sun is still bright. And what's most delighting is that I have time to cook!! 

Jadi....dapur itu sudahlah muka berasap. Simple dishes like soups, fried noodles and some lauk pauk would feast the hungry ghosts ones at home and it gives a real nice feeling when everyone is home having meals together. 

Sekarang sudah agak berkurangan ke Ramadhan Bazaar to buy food. It's not that I do not want to support these seasonal mushroom like sprouting small traders in making it big at Ramadhan. Most of the time juadah from them are rather disappointing. Not fresh, tak cukup rasa and price yang ditetapkan adalah sangat tidak berbaloi.

Early this morning at sahur, when I gulped down the dry and not-so-nice kueh kochi (bought at the Ramadhan Bazaar) my high hopes were shattered. Sebabnya? TAK SEDAP!!!

Oleh itu, akan adalah project "cuba, try, test" this weekend (kot??). Must attempt to make these sweeties – a must have for berbuka when my late grandmother was around.

Ohhh.....could just taste the sweet filling melting in my mouth. 

Kena buat jugak ni!!

Anyone remembers this batu kisar tepung? Then tepung beras kampit was no avail. To make the sweet kuehs, one would have to soak the beras pulut and later use this grinder to get that milky batter. (picture taken at a cousin's house in Air Pa'abbas, Alor gajah Melaka)

This kukur kelapa is used for shredding coconut from its interior. One needs strength to sit on this low benches. But actually, one has to learn how to use it. Tak betul cara guna, takut muscle pull akibat nya! (picture taken at National Museum Singapore)

 

Most important for kueh kochi is its sweet fillings - the inti. The coconut must be fresh and to use the best brown sugar - gula enau from Juasseh, Kuala Pilah!

Pekan Juasseh....where one finds gula enau, chendol, biskut Azan and that out of this world rojak mamak Ali Kutik.

Ramadhan Kareem

Allaahumma innee as’alukal jannata. 

O Allaah, I ask you for Jannah[Paradise].

To all readers of Sembang

May this Ramadhan be the ultimate life changing experience for all of us.
May it increase us in our Iman and Taqwa and be a source of nearness to Allah.

Ramadhan Mubarak. Wishing you a blessed Ramadhan!

Ramadan Day 2

Syukur kehadrat Nya kerana dipanjangkan usia untuk berjumpa semula Ramadan tahun ini. It's our second day of fasting today. Puasa ke? Alhamdulillah, I am. It is my hope dapat menjalankan ibadah rukun Islam yang ketiga ini dengan sebaik sempurnanya. Same goes to all Sembang readers, family and friends. May you be rewarded the pinkest of health untuk melakukan yang terbaik di bulan yang penuh barakah ini.

I was at the clinic this morning. Huh? Visit to the doctors again? Apa cerita lah kan? Just for the record, I also had doctor's appointment last week. In fact I was on MC for two days, even No 1 Boss was worried and No 2 Boss sent a BBM asking of about me. Don't worry lar Boss, I'm not pregnant, if that's your concern although I am so green with envy upon discovering that we are entitled to 300days of maternity leave sepanjang our service in the organization.

Anyway to cut the story short, there was nothing major, major wrong with me, well that's what the doctors concluded after the test results were out. I must say I did cause some panic in Abe (ohhh bila eh last he accompanied me to the docs?? Masa deliver Nissa?? Nahh...I'm just being cruel) when I told him that I received a call from the doctor wanting to discuss results of the tests done so much so that he took half day today. So sweet lah kan.....tapi if ikut kan I (read: the egoistic me) ....tak de masalah nak sorang-sorang je jumpa doctor tu.

These days one can never be too complacent - with the kind of life style we lead and stress level that we have to put up with, jadi kena lah buat segala tests yang perlu. But it was somewhat an anti climax pun ada. There I was thinking of all the probable cause to my sick spell, and it was concluded that some strong antibiotics would do to help. Nonetheless, syukur, syukur sangat-sangat. Alhamdulillah.

After the clinic, I drove all the way to Cyberjaya for a meeting. Looks like there will be more trips to this city in the future. It's almost official now that I will be assigned to a new project which is based in Cyberjaya. Mixed feelings about this actually. Excited about this new assignment but at the same time sedih nak leave colleagues in the present office. We've been together though thick and thin and now some of us will be heading separate directions. It feels so like a family now, but we just have to make this sacrifice. Tak pe lah...it's for the good of the team
jugak.

Someone sent out this SMS yesterday. "Sedih and happi if combine jadi apa?" I replied, "Tak tau nak kata." She wrote back, "Sepi."

Ohhh that's gonna be so, so true........

Ramadan Kareem

May the spirit of Ramadan illuminate the world and show us the way to peace and harmony.

May Allah shower his blessings on us all during this Ramadan and always, InshaAllah.

Selamat Menyambut Ramadan to all Sembang readers, family and friends.

Sent from my iPad

Berakhir Nya Ramadhan

Last Days of Ramadhan

It felt just yesterday that we ushered Ramadhan. It's about to leave us soon. MashaAllah time has flown so unnoticed. Juggling between work demands and family expectations all have made the clock tick faster. And it's already September; enter the last quarter of 2010 and soon it will be time to wrap up 2010!!!! Cepat nyaa....and what happened to the whole 365 days???

Anyway.....by now many are doing their last minute preparations for raya, I'm sure. Saw updates on traffic in the city on FB earlier. Many reported that roads heading into the city are packed - a sure test on drivers' patience on this humid fasting day. Nope....no going out for us today. We are staying away from any malls, Jalan TAR and even Kompleks PKNS which is less than 5 mins drive from home. As Abe put it....dari April shopping raya...tak kan tak cukup lagi?? Of course dah cukup...and if tak cukup pun kira dah cukup lah tu.

Like the previous years, our Raya preparation is always modest. Nothing much on the house. Since the curtains are still nice we felt that it was of no necessity to get new ones. Got the maid to bring them down and washed them. Dah bersih, gantung semula....settle.

No new furniture addition to the house too. I feel we already have enough and certainly do not want to clutter the space that we have. I just need the girls to clean up their room and the house is ready for Raya.

Ohh.....yes the other important thing I need to do is apply my Raya leave. Berapa hari nak cuti??? Emmpppp....macam biasa lah, a day before raya and will probably add one more day on Monday. Kasi chance pada budak-budak cuti lama di kampung....boss start kerja awal tak pe. Boss every two weeks pun balik kampung ;)

And I must remember to bring out the Raya money packs. Tak mau jadi like last year, last minute isi pack in the car while traveling back to Kuala Pilah. This year no can do that coz the journey heading back to KP will be faster (hopefully) with the opening of the Seremban - Kuala Pilah straight road.

Have a good week ahead folks. And to those who are already traveling home - drive safe, have ample rest and exercise safety at all times. Have a terrific time di kampung masing-masing.

Wishing you - Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin (if I don't get the opportunity to bersiaran before raya again).

Rezeki Ramadan

Whilst it's very common amongst some of my bachelor staff, I have never done it before - iftar at the mosque. When asked if the food is good, their reply would be, "Used to be better last time. Now barang mahal, so portion is smaller."

El Mursi Abul Abbas Mosque, Alexandria, Egypt

Well, I told them that they should be thankful as there are Hamba Allah who are generous enough to sedekah iftar to them. Cukup memadai untuk melepaskan rasa lapar dan dahaga ketika berpuasa dan free lagi; they should all be so bersyukur.

Each night before the start of terawikh prayers at the Shah Alam mosque, we see cleaners dutifully performing their tasks at cleaning the mess from the earlier iftar. Loads of rubbish in black garbage bags are hauled onto their lorries for disposal. I believe the SA mosque has its program for iftar with orphanages, old folks homes, government offices and also the ordinary public. All I believe are sedekah from individuals and organizations. Alhamdullilah.

Ayoubids design at El Mursi Abul Abbas Mosque. Minarets are 73m high.

One would know if there was a "berbuka besar" at the mosque when the car park is all full, and lines of vehicles parked haphazardly along the roads - resulting a bad crawl for jemaahs like us who head for terawikh. The management of SA mosque has no doubt deployed extra hands at manning the traffic, but you know how it is with our people lah - puasa or no puasa.

Anyway, that's the least of my irk. What bothers me most is when I see many of those who have gone for iftar at the mosque earlier are making their exit at the call of the azan. Ohhh....orang berlumba-lumba nak gi solat and dia berlumba-lumba nak pulang, and to the mosque just for the free meal?? Regrettably, this is what I see happening at the SA mosque Ramadan after Ramadan....sigh.

Interior of the mosque

I am refraining myself from elaborating my thoughts and comments on what I saw. Biarlah apa yang dilihat dijadikan iktibar only onto myself.

The mimbar

Note to myself - Yang baik itu kita jadikan tauladan dan yang buruk itu dijadikan sempadan.

~Kelebihan Memberi Makan Ketika Berbuka Puasa Diriwayatkan daripada Zaid bin Khalid al-Juhaniy r.a katanya: Rasulullah s.a.w bersabda: "Sesiapa yang menjemput orang yang berpuasa untuk berbuka, dia akan mendapat pahala sebagaimana pahala orang yang berpuasa itu tanpa mengurangkan sedikitpun pahala orang yang berpuasa tersebut."~

Ramadan Day Five

The weekend is finally here. What a bliss not to be rushing home from work and taking the day easy. I was at the market earlier and looks like other folks are pretty laid back too - taking their own sweet time at choosing fresh supplies for their upcoming week consumption. Unlike last Sunday, the hurried faces were more relaxed today; stopping to exchange friendly words as they picked their likes. Must be hikmah dari Ramadan and the fasting that we are observing.

So, what shall it be for iftar this evening?? I'm googling recipes for fresh ideas on what to prepare for iftar this evening. Rule of thumb is - something easy, recipe yg boleh campak-campak je bahan-bahan nya. There are only five of us at home now. Faris has not come back since the fasting started. Looks like our young man is so busy with school coz every time we call him, he's either in the chemistry lab or on the way to class. Well, "busy" is good news to both Mama & Daddy here. One evening just before iftar Abe called him and he said he was already seated at McD waiting to berbuka. Guess that's how it is now with our youngins - McD, KFC, Starbucks are so synonym with them.

My sister TM and hubby left for their Umrah last Friday. I was at KLIA for a quick send off. They must be in Madinah by now. Mom is at her place menemankan her children. From time to time, I check her lil ones' FB status to see if they are alright. Senang kan....nak tau khabar, check je kat FB...how convenient it is now as compared to the ways and means to mengeratkan silaturahim during the nonexistence broadband era.

Other updates? Well, pretty much the usual Ramadan routines; iftar, terawikh and the challenges (still) at waking up at sahur - both for yours truly (me so not morningggg personnnn!!!) and the girls.

Yesterday's iftar - tomato & mushroom prawn noodles

Till my next posting, enjoy your Sunday and have a good iftar :)

Ramadan Day Two

Salams. It's our second day at fasting today. Alhamdulillah, things are smooth sailing both in the home and office fronts.

Of course there are still little challenges; like the many, many times of calling out to the kids to be up for sahur plus braving inconsiderate drivers cutting queues at the already chocked roads during the traffic rush back home for iftar.

Time and time again I remind myself to be patient and be thankful with this beautiful life.

Syukur.

Note to myself - Kelebihan Solat Tarawih Malam Ketiga

~Para malaikat di bawah 'Arasy menyeru kepada manusia yang mengerjakan solat Tarawih itu agar meneruskan solatnya pada malam-malam yang lain, semoga Allah akan mengampunkan dosa-dosa mereka.~

Ramadan Mubarak

Ku mengharapkan Ramadan
Kali ini penuh makna
Agar dapat kulalui
Dengan sempurna

Selangkah demi selangkah
Setahun sudah pun berlalu
Masa yang pantas berlalu
Hingga tak terasa ku berada
Di bulan Ramadhan semula

Puasa satu amalan
Sebagaimana yang diperintahNya
Moga dapat ku lenturkan
Nafsu yang selalu membelenggu diri
Tiada henti-henti

Tak ingin ku biarkan Ramadan berlalu saja
Tuhan pimpinlah daku yang lemah
Mengharungi segalanya dengan sabar
Kita memohon pada Tuhan diberikan kekuatan
Ku merayu pada Tuhan diterima amalan

Selangkah demi selangkah...
Dengan rahmatMu oh Tuhanku...
Ku tempuh jua

Raihan: Harapan Ramadan

Quiet Your Mind

Came across this subject for thought while doing research on the Net the other day.

To boost your Ramadan spirit try doing this : Quiet your mind, turn off the...

TV, Internet, radio, hand phone, iPod, etc. Not for the entire day, but for at least 10 minutes a day. Find a quiet place, close your eyes and connect with Allah. At first, your mind will swirl with the useless and not-so-useless info in your head. But force it to think of three things in these few minutes:

~ Allah
~ your purpose in life
~ are you living your life on purpose?


Try this every day in the Ramadan month if you can. If that's not possible, try it at least three times a week.

Summer of 83

The streak of hot and hazy days in the past week is indeed a test of one's determination at performing the fast. I drag having to go out at midday as it would be blazing hot and by the time I get back into the office, I’d usually end up with a splitting headache. It’s a wonder how those construction workers cope with the heat. I would have melted away in just minutes, that’s for sure.

Funny though, how the present differ from those days when I was a student. Being out in the sun was never a problem and didn’t have much effect on me. I could walk half of Seremban town and still had the energy to pay netball till late afternoon. In fact during my first year of studies in the States, fasting was observed during the hot summer days.

It was the summer of 1983, our first experience berpuasa di perantauan. Had mixed feelings actually and the “scary” fasting stories our seniors told us didn’t help much. The seniors told my friends and I that fasting was longer than back home. We wondered how it would feel fasting for more than 10 hours as Imsak was at 4.00 in the morning and iftaar was at 8.00pm. Fuhh….lamanya nak puasa tu, we thought to ourselves.

Lake Mendota Terrace...place where we lepak-ed a lot, fed the ducks, went boating and also "pak-taw" a lot here too :-)

Then when we actually started fasting, it didn’t feel as bad as how it was put to us. Tak terasa pun the long hours of fasting. Of course we had classes to attend since most of us were enrolled in summer school and masing-masing pulak took like the most number of credit hours we could (which could be a killer to the CGPA if you just bummed around and played Frisbee all summer long).

My summer time routine was class from morning till midday. Then I’d rush home on my bicycle to catch my favourite soap, General Hospital on tv. Lepas tu gi library and bila dah selesai with the assignment baru lah balik apartment and terkial-kial fikir nak masak apa for berbuka. On days when classes were not so mind boggling, ABE (who masa tu baru nak men-tackle I) and I would walk to the University Square and go watch an afternoon matinee. Jalan kaki tu…pulang balik like almost 2-3 km. There were also times when we would lepak by the lake and fed the ducks. Punyer lah so free and easy nya life back then. It was study, lepak, makan and study lagi.

Ice cream...the biggest temptation during the fasting

The average temperature during summer days in Madison, Wisconsin was 36˚C and at times it even went to as high as 40˚C. It was hot and dry and if we were not determined at fasting, mau hanyut. Nak-nak bila tengok most of the folks around us were merrily slurping away. Hai sabar je lah….

I must say that was a very memorable summer for my friends and I. Not only we became closer as roommates and friends, through the ups and downs of the summer days, but also experienced the toughest will power in upholding our faith and worship towards God Almighty.

Nissa's Raya Cards

It’s 23rd Ramadhan today. Raya is slightly more than a week away. Radio stations have started airing the evergreen Raya songs of M.Nasir, P.Ramlee, Rafeah Buang, Sanisah Huri, Uji Rashid & Hail Amir, just to name a few. Once in a while, I'd hear some rather weird sounding Raya songs. Bila dengar betul-betul, ahh they are tunes dari negara seberang. With the influx of Indonesian singers into our music industry today, I guess, it’s inevitable that this happens. But my personal favorites are still those which I could associate to my budak-budak school days.

Synonymous with Raya songs are Raya cards. I have stopped sending Raya cards a long time ago. I blame my not so nice handwriting these days (due to doing more typing than pen on paper scribblings) coupled with my laziness in organizing the required stationery as reasons for my not sending any more Raya cards.

My oblivion to Raya cards came to a halt about a week ago when Nissa showed me a Raya card she received from one of her friends. She asked me if I could get her Raya cards to balas her friend’s card. Ummpp….it’s been ages since I last bought Raya cards. Nak beli kat mana eh? Memory Lane ade kot…

So Mother and Daughter dengan confident nya walked into a Memory Lane outlet in Subang Parade and canvassed the display racks for them Raya cards. I told Nissa to pick the ones she liked and show them to me before we head to the cashier counter to make payments.

As she browsed through the cards, she picked one sweet floral card which had the words “Kepada Kekasih Ku” written on it. Almost immediately she popped me this question.

“Mama, kekasih tu apa?” asked Nissa innocently. Haiya...ni yang malas nak bercerita panjang lebar dihari-hari berpuasa, dihari-hari yang tekak dah dry up ni. I was somewhat lucky as a simple explanation about love and loving someone did the job.

Then she picked up another one. “Kepada Suami Ku” were the calligraphed words on the card. This time she made a different remark pulak. “Suami and isteri are supposed to stay in the same house kan, Mama…so kenapa need to send Raya card pulak?” Alamak…lagi mau kena cerita lah pada ini budak.

I told her that not all couples are fortunate enough and are able to stay together under the same roof. The husband could be working in Kertih, working on an oil rig (thanks to the old friends buka puasa outing last week, I came up with this brilliant example) and the wife could be in Melaka, so it’d be very thoughtful to be sending each other cards. She then responded, “Hantar email je lah. Can say more things, and have animation, music or send sms, even cheaper.”

Nissa has made her point actually. But why on earth were we in Memory Lane and choosing cards for her friends, beats the daylights out of me. So, I hurried her into finalizing her choice of cards, paid them and headed back home.

That night, we both sat and painstakingly (only I felt this, nak terlelap memasukkan cards ke dalam envelopes dia) organized the writing of the Raya cards. She enjoyed it of course. With so much enthusiasm, she took out one card after the other and wrote her friends’ names on them. She asked me what if her friends didn’t reply her cards. I told her to do this with sincerity and don’t harapkan balasan. Then her face changed and showed little sadness over my statement.

Not wanting her to be disappointed over the hard work, I dengan bangganya perturunkan an old trick I used during my Raya-card-sending-days. Told her to try this pantun dua kerat.

And with that Mama dearest telah shared this overly used (and abused) pantun dua kerat.

Pecah kaca pecah gelas
Sudah baca harap balas

Let’s see if any of her friends get the message yah….

Teraweh Tonight

I was excited about going for teraweh prayers again tonight. Went on the first night then had to stop for couple of days. Tau-tau je lah masalah orang perempuan ni. On the first Ramadhan night, I did my teraweh in Seremban, where the practise is to do only 10 rakaats of teraweh followed by the usual 3 rakaats of witir.

The big blue mosque in Shah Alam, however, does it differently. In fact many mosques and suraus in Selangor do 20 plus 3 of teraweh and witir respectively. "Ohhh....so lama," moan some folks. Yes, memang banyak rakaat nya but believe me tak terasa pun. When I first did all the 20+3 rakaats, berpeluh jugak. But as the saying goes, alah bisa tegal biasa.

Last night's Teraweh prayers was led by the Imam, Uztaz Mustaffa, a hafiz who recited the ayats from the holy Quran with brilliance and beauty. His lagu when reciting the ayats sounded like a lullaby calling towards full submission to God Almighty.

Ohh...syahdu nya rasa di hati....

Iftaar with Orphans

The idea of doing breaking fast with the orphans came about during last year's Ramadhan. We (my Haj group of friends) were at a family berbuka puasa and the Pak-Pak Haji were the ones who mooted the idea. Unfortunately, it was way towards the end of Ramadhan when we met and there wasn't enough time to make the necessary preparations.

The strong men of the "project" Tn Hj Saiful (standing), seated L-R Tn Hj Kamalul, Tn Hj Jamil, Tn Hj Zul & Ustaz Hj Din. Not in picture Tn Hj Nasir (who had dropped by earlier)

Shukur kepada Allah SWT, this year, our group dipanjangkan umur, diberikan kesihatan yang baik dan dimurahkan rezeki to realise our earlier plans. The group proceeded by doing homework on which orphanage to select for the Iftaar do. Upon screening the list, we finally decided on one home in Seremban. The home, Rumah Anak Yatim Darul Aminan is an orphanage run by a generous couple, Tn Hj Kamalul and Pn Rozita for the past few years. The home houses 46 children, 22 girls and 24 boys, aged between 1 - 17 years.

Buffet berbuka for the children

Each child has a story to tell. Some have lost both parents, while the slightly more fortunate ones still have either a father or mother. There are also children whose families could not afford to support them due to poverty or physical disabilities of the bread winner in the family.

It was a simple do yesterday evening. The program started with tazkirah followed by Iftaar together. It was solat Maghrib berjemaah after that. After the solat, we indulged in the delicious masakan kampung prepared by the caterer. One of the dishes, tulang masak lemak cili api was mind blowing!! Ohhh...sodap eh!!!

Pengat at morey

The Ustaz led the Isha and Teraweh prayers soon after the makan. The caterer prepared pengat sago and pisang for 'morey'. Macam tau-tau pulak caterer ni yang pengats are my favourite. I finished a good helping of the pengat pisang. So much for wanting to diet during this fasting month, semperna nak meraikan the orphans, tak pe lah.

Children eagerly waited for their goodies

Sepatah dua kata from ayah, Tn Hj Kamalul on behalf of the children.

Pemberian sumbangan to the children

Three brand new PCs for the children's usage. Consider these present raya yer :-) But must promise to put them to good use.

Before we left the children, we handed each one of them sedikit sumbangan to cheer them up for the Ramadhan days ahead and also the upcoming Aidil Fitri. We hope our sedekah ikhlas to the children has managed to uplift their spirits and inspire them in this holy month. InshaAllah....