My MUET Warriors!

These guys are the bravest of the bravest who never seem to stop trying to give their all in order to achieve what is best for them.  These guys are my form six students from the 2010/2011 batch.  These are the same guys who have left quite an impression on my colleagues.


This morning, Saturday the 19th of November 2011,  these guys are now actually sitting for the Malaysian University English Test for the second time.  I tip my hat off to you (not hat actually, but songkok!) for having the tenacity and determination to take this examination yet once again in order to fulfill you future dreams.


Frankly, I have never liked the idea of being with my students right before they enter the examination hall, but today I made an exception because these students, in retrospect, have left an impression on me, too.  So, as all the students and I raised our hands and listened to Mustafa reciting the prayers, my heart turned into soft putty and started to melt, wishing that I could be with my students when they answered the questions.  I wished that I could be there all along.

But, alas, as the boys held my hands and shook them in respect; and as all of them walked silently into the examination hall, I recited my own prayers in my heart.  Let this group of students, who seem to persevere and who know not the meaning of surrender; let them be successful and may Allah guide you in your quest to be the best! Amin.

Befriending Yassin.

I suppose it's the age thing that's catching  up with me lately because I seem to find it more difficult to relax or feel at peace especially when there are things that are bothering me or things that I can't get out of my mind.  Just last night, my wife told me that I screamed in my sleep.  I was probably having a nightmare about all these things that are worrying me.

I suppose it all comes with the responsibility I carry as a father of three children; one studying in his second year in a local university and the second, a daughter, who is today, as I am typing this entry for my blog, is sitting for her all important SPM examination.  I seem to feel weighed down by so many questions pertaining to the situations they are in; have they eaten well before they sat for their examinations?  Or how well will they do in their respective examinations?  Or will they be satisfied with their performances?  All these questions and more, I dwell upon with a heavy and worry heart, so much so that I need all the spiritual help I can get to calm my wary nerves and emotions.

There is nothing more calming when I take time, any time I can find, to read the Surah Yassin.  There are at least forty benefits of reading this surah which include those who feel afraid will find their fears all diminished and also those who read this surah will find solace in what they see.   Our Prophet has told us to read the Yassin because in it contains many barokah.

I pray that Allah gives me strength with every breath that Allah gives me and every step that I am allowed to make on this earth.  Give me the strength to pray for my children and my family, because everything I do, with Allah's will, is all for them.

SPM 2011

14th November 2011 will see another batch of my Form 5 students sitting for their life-changing examination; that is the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.  I say life-changing because being such an important examination, it touches and affects each every individual within its vicinity, whether directly or indirectly.

The first group of people who will have their life altered by this examination is without doubt the students sitting for the exams themselves.  Everything that they have studied (or not!) for the last two years, will be manifested here.  It can even be considered an accumulation of all the knowledge these students have gathered in the whole eleven years or so of school life.  It is this examination that will prove that they have gathered that knowledge to its full potential or otherwise.  And it is this examination that will be the stepping stone to what important things these students will do in the future.  Will they pursue tertiary education?  Will they join the rat race?  Will they dwell on the past thinking that they could (and should) have done better?  All will be revealed when the examination results come out next year.

Another group of people who will be affected by these students performance is the teachers who have taught these students for the past two years.  The students' performance will determine the workload that will ensue the following year when the results come out.  It will determine the level of praises (and criticisms!) that they will get from the people who sit in their comfy chairs and air-conditioned offices.  And it will determine whether the teachers themselves can sit back in self-contentment or pick up where they left off and start aiming for the stars (or in this case, STAR!) all over again!

And finally, not forgetting the all important group of all and that is the parents.  Like me, who has a child who will be sitting for the examination tomorrow, hopes are high and prayers abound for the offspring's success; quiet in personal meditation that the child will be calm during the examination; her thoughts clear and her memory laden with all the knowledge she has accumulated, at the ready to be dispensed with according to the questions in the examinations.  Rest assured that as a father (who has his masculine ego to look after!), his prayers for his daughter's success (and all his children in fact!) even though more subtle and less conspicuous, are indubitably non-stop and always straight from the heart.

Aidil Adha : A Sister's Sacrifice

As a young girl, she had already started to make sacrifices whether it was out of her own choice or forced upon her by others.  I remember the day when the form three examination results came out, and she did not do well in it, nothing was done for her in order for her to continue her education because at that time you could not pursue your form four if you did not do well in your form three examination.  Contrary to what is going on today, where any Tom, Dick and Harry can enter form four, even if you fail all the subject in form three!

She was not even sent to learn any kind of skills like sewing for example because back then the daily school just didn't have any provision for the study of living skills in upper secondary, and I suppose my father was not financially equipped to send her to a private school!  And so, my sister was forced to stay at home and spend those early years of her life becoming my late mother's assistant, when other teenage girls her age were busy studying in school or chasing boys or both. She cooked our food, she cleaned the house, she washed our clothes (by hand no less!) and other household chores a person twice her age would normally do!

But her biggest sacrifice was when she helped to care for our ailing late mother until the very end (almost, because she had to care for her ailing husband next, until now!)  There was never a moment that my heart did not cry out for her every time I met her, always the giving person; tending to my late mom's every need (and my dad as well!) including when nature called, preparing the meals (separate meals for mom and dad!),  washing the clothes right up to feeding the many cats which she adored; and the days would end by her sleeping in the small room (if you can call it a room!) and on a rickety old bed!  On top of all that she also had to care for her growing son!

I never shared the grouses that people made about her not really sweeping the house or doing the dusting, because, I think, after doing all the housework, she wouldn't have had any energy left to do anything else.  Plus taking care of my late mother was a full time responsibility which she shouldered on behalf of all of us.  

This was the young girl who was not liked by my father; this was the girl who bore the brunt of our father's anger when ever he was angry, but, with the Grace of Allah, this is the same person who have sacrificed herself for about five years to care for our late mother and indirectly, our father too.  Something which my other five siblings and I would have found difficult to do!

I am writing this only on my behalf and I know I can never repay all the kindness you have done for our late mother.   And so today on this auspicious Aidil Adha, as I do every time after I solat, I raise both my hands and pray that Allah bestow upon you, my dear sister, all the blessings, for only Allah can repay you with rewards unbeknownst to either of us.  Thank you, An, for being my sister and thank you Allah for giving a sister like her to me!