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Friday, November 28, 2003

Salam Aidilfitri

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri
Maaf Zahir Batin
Semoga silaturahim sesama kita berpanjangan.

SK sekeluarga menyambut Hari Lebaran dgn penuh kesederhanaan. Rumah terbuka kami bersama 2 lagi keluarga Kelantan di sini Alhamdulllilah berjalan lancar dgn kunjungan tetamu pelbagai bangsa & 'nationality'. One whole lamb and some chickens plus curry mee & raya cookies were on the menu.

Have to go now. We are going off to London for a short raya excursion for 2 days.

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir Batin

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Al-fatihah: Dr. Alijah Gordon(1929-2003)- A true Fighter of Palestinians Right

Malaysiakini today (10:49am Wed Nov 19th), 2003 reported that:

Palestinian rights activist dies

Palestinian rights activist Dr Alijah Gordon, who died at 11.40pm yesterday at the Gleneagles hospital in Kuala Lumpur, was laid to rest this afternoon. She was 74.

Her remains were taken to the AU 5 Muslim cemetary in Lembah Keramat following afternoon prayers at the Masjid Baitul Aman.

Some 400 people attended the funeral, including Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, former National Unity and Social Development Minister Zaleha Ismail, former Ulu Kelang state assemblyperson Fuad Hassan and Abim president Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman.

Gordon, an American by birth, gained Malaysian citizenship this year and was awarded with the honorary title of ‘Dato’‘ in recognition of her devotion to the Palestinian cause to which she had given the best part of her life.

Several weeks ago, she had suffered a relapse of pneumonia, following which she had not been able to talk or breathe normally, according to her close friend Farish A. Noor.

Fiery views

Gordon was trustee of a Malaysia-led Palestinian trust fund set up in 1988 to improve the lives of Palestinians, in particular children. She was a driving force in channelling humanitarian support from Malaysians to Palestinians.

Under her supervision, the fund built a learning centre in one of the Lebanese refugee camps, sponsored hundreds of Palestinian orphans and disbursed emergency support to Palestinians living in occupied areas.

Gordon later headed the Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI).

Born Shirley Doris Gordon, she was a scholar, historian and socio-political activist who was never far from controversy because of her strong opinions against social injustice.

Gordon’s fiery views in support of dispossessed Palestinians first found their way into the media when, in 1953, she participated in a televised debate in New York with Abba Eban, who was later to become an Israeli minister of foreign affairs.

Her outspokenness cost her a doctorate scholarship in the United States but it attracted the attention of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council which later awarded her a research scholarship in the country.

She published several books during her career, including ‘In the Time of the Mishmish’, a work based on her experiences in Egypt, as well as the first part of her autobiography ‘On Becoming Alijah’.

She also edited ‘Palestinians Speak’, a book about the experiences of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon.

Semoga Allah mencucuri Rahmat ke atas Roh Beliau. Moga2 Srikandi Abad baru meneruskan perjuangan Menentang Kezaliman Yahudi & Zionis Laknatullah.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Selamat Menyempurnakan Ramadhan..

Selalunya, ketika menetap di M'sia, SK & keluarga sudahpun berada di Kelantan utk tempoh waktu minggu terakhir sebelum Ramadhan.. SK teringat semasa bekerja di Penang dulu, 'boss'mulanya hairan kenapa SK mesti memohon utk bercuti mulai seminggu sebelum Syawal. Kemudiannya, mereka faham benar dengan permintaan SK itu... awal2 puasa lagi SK akan beritahu... 'I will be away starting of a week before raya'.. Alasannya, 'this is my tradition..I must spend final week of fasting in my hometown...We Kelantanese ppl are different..Don't worry I will cover for the product engineering team during Chinese New Year'...

Alhamdullilah, SK tak pernah ralat rasanya dapat bercuti panjang di akhir Ramadhan ..mulai tahun pertama kerja sehinggalah ke hari ketiga Syawal..(kecualilah satu atau dua tahun bila sekolah tempat j mengajar hanya mula bercuti 4-5 hari sebelum raya)SK memilih begitu kerana ingin menikmati nikmat berpuasa tanpa sebarang gangguan atau terpaksa memikirkan beban kerja..Tahun ini adalah tahun ketiga SK & keluarga menyambut akhir ramadhan di UK... SK sendiri masih lagi belum dihinggap demam raya.. SK tidak gemar memutarkan lagu2 raya seperti org lain... Tahun lepas kami menyambut Syawal dgn kedatangan ahli keluarga baru, baby F yg ketiga itu baru berusia 2 bulan... Tahun ini kami diserang virus dimana J sudah seminggu demam, Baby F sudah beberapa hari demam panas..

Kedua2nya sudah beransur pulih, J mula bekerja kembali pagi tadi, baby F sudah mula senyum. Sk sendiri baru sahaja keluar dari hospital mlm tadi setelah berkunjung ke Accident & Emergency malam sebelumnya. Alhamdullilah, virus hanya menyerang selaput luar jantung SK. Dalam bahasa perubatan, SK didiagnoskan menghidap pericarditis due to viral infection. Setelah didatangi empat doktor & atu consultant, diambil darah sebanyak dua kali, ECG sebanyak 2 kali & X-ray dada, SK dibenarkan pulang ke rumah mlm tadi & dinasihatkan agar berihat .

Pagi tadi waktu bersahur, SK mendapat sms dari sahabat zaman persekolahan, NJ seorang pengurus di sebuah syarikat telekomunikasi dgn ucapan 'Selamat Menyempurnakan Ramadhan'. Thanks a lot NJ for reminding me to strive for Ramadhan benefits. Entah kenapa hati kecil masih belum terdetik & dihujani perasaan ingin menyambut syawal... moga2 lambaian syawal bakal menyinggah di sanubari ini.

Selamat Menyempurnakan Ramadhan. Moga2 keampunan Allah menjadi hadiah di hari lebaran.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Berakhirnya Satu Penantian...

Hari ini, berakhirlah satu penantian buat Sang Kelate (SK) di pulau imperialis ini. SK terpaksa menunggu lebih lima bulan utk bertemu pakar orthopedik utk pemeriksaan sakit belakang & lenguh2 tubuh yang berpunca dari scoliosis. Sebenarnya scoliosis ini telah menjadi sebahagian drp hidup ini mulai dari pertengahan umur remaja lagi. Bagimanapun SK mula mendapat diagnosis yg tepat setelah terlibat dalam satu kemalangan jalanraya semasa bertugas di California. Masih teringat pertama kali bertemu pakar orthopedik di Folsom, CA pada tahun 1995-96, beliau mengakui bahawa beliau tidak mempunyai kepakaran yg cukup utk memberi penilaian yg tepat tentang scoliosis ini. Lalu, SK dicadangkan menemui pakar orthopedik yg lain yg kemudiannya juga mengakui bahawa beliau juga bukanlah pakar yg sebenar, menyebabkan SK diminta bertemu pakar yg ketiga. Sayangnya, tugasan SK di sana berakhir sebelum menemui pakar yg ketiga ini. Dipendekkan cerita, SK agak puas hati menerima penjelasan dari seorang pakar orthopedik tempatan di Pulau Mutiara (Dr Chaudry di Adventist Penang) sekembalinya di Malaysia di mana SK dicadangkan utk rawatan physiotherapi. Semasa di California sebelum itu, SK juga mendapat rawatan dari seorang chiropractor.

Hari ni, setelah menemui pakar orthopedik yg pertama di UK, SK juga telah dicadangkan utk menjalani rawtan physioterapi. Teruk sungguhkan perkhidmatan kesihatan NHS di negara yg kononnya maju ini.Alhamdullillah, kalau hendak mendapatkan rawatan physiotherapy persendirian, memang tidak mampu utk membayar sebanyak 20-30 pounds setiap sessi.

Hari ni juga, SK sekeluraga juga dikejutkan dgn kehadiran bungkusan dari Tanah Melayu yg telah dihantar lebih 7 bulan lalu akhirnya sampai juga. Biasanya ia hanya mengambil masa 2 bulan sahaja & agak banyak jugalah makanan yg sudah rosak. Hari ini juga, SK mendapat kad raya pertama bagi tahun ini. Agak mengejutkan,bila kad dibuka terpampang nama Pak Lah & tandatangannya. Inilah kali pertama dapat kad dari pemimpin teratas negara tercinta. Kad maya pertama juga diterima hari ini dari keluarga HK yg bertugas di Nokia Atlanta US. SK sendiri belum berkesempatan utk menghantar sebarang kad raya atau kad maya raya. Selalunya SK hanya menghantar utk ayahbonda & keluarga di KB, keluarga CR di Kelana Jaya & beberapa kenalan rapat yg sudah terpisah jauh terutamanya di US. Selalunya SK lebih gemar menalipon sahaja rakan2 di M'sia bila menjelang hari lebaran. Entah kenapa tahun ini, mood utk beraya masih belum ada.... moga2 hati ini berubah utk berbalas ucapan menyambut hari kebesaran ini bila harinya makin hampir. Esok harapnya berkesempatan ke bandar L utk mencari kad2 kosong yg boleh diubah menjadi kad raya. Harapnya masih sempat kad tiba sebelum hari lebaran terutamanya utk bonda tercinta.

Selamat Menyambut Cuti Hujung Minggu. Esok Jumaat bermulalah cuti hujung minggu di Kelantan.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Buat sahabatku D,
Kehidupan ini penuh dengan pelbagai cabaran dan pancaroba. Aku pasti engkau telah begitu mengerti tentang kepahitan dan aku tahu engkau telah menempuhi seribu satu macam dugaan sepanjang engkau hidup di bumi Tuhan ini. Percayalah, segala kepahitan itu adalah kerikil-kerikil tajam, sekadar untuk menduga kita, sang musafir yang cuba mencari jalan pulang.
Tidak siapa pun yang tahu akan isi hatimu tapi aku tahu, engkau tabah untuk meneruskan perjalanan hingga tiba ke destinasi yang engkau impi-impikan. Biar goyah, jangan sekali-kali engkau rebah. Jangan sekali-kali engkau mengalah. Aku tahu engkau punya kekuatan mental yang kental untuk menghadapi persimpangan dillema ini.
Aku pasti ingatan engkau masih utuh dengan kata-kata Plato bahawa insan yang berjaya bukanlah mereka yang paling gagah mahupun yang gah dengan material tapi mereka yang benar-benar berjaya adalah mereka yang tegar akan kebolehan diri.
Engkau punya kekuatan dan kebolehan.
Teruskan melangkah. Usah engkau berpaling lagi.

Sahabatmu.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

WHAT IS LIFE?
by Abdullah Quilliam

What is our Life?
A breath, a moan, a sigh,
A laugh, a smile, a cry,
A storm, a sob, a calm,
Tumult, some joy, some harm.
An earthly moment brief,
That longs for some relief
And freedom from stern strife,
Such, ever such, our life.

(21st July, 1907).)

Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam (1851-1932) wrote books, plays, and novels, as well as translating texts from Arabic, Persian and Turkish. He was also among the most respected Muslim poets of his generation, writing in both Manx and English. His style is redolent of Tennyson and Wordsworth, with occasional shades of Emily Dickinson, an important influence on British Muslim verse in the late Victorian period.

Abdullah Quilliam, Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles. He is a widely known Liverpool solicitor, and has been associated with the Mosque since it was established in 1887, being a convert through study and conviction after a voyage years ago to . His journeys to the East have been numerous, and he is frequently sent for by the Sultan of Turkey to undertake special missions, or for the purpose of consultation.

Read more below:

IN AN ENGLISH MOSQUE
(Pall Mall Gazette, London, 10th November, 1906.)

The mosque at Liverpool is the place of worship for a comparatively large resident membership, as well as for the thousands of Mahommedans – merchants, sailors, travellers – who pass through the port in a steadily flowing stream of brown humanity. It is unromantically situated, and is not imposing. It has no grand dome, no graceful minarets. It is a converted mansion, and has a poor-law establishment as a near neighbour. So it is that the cry of the muezzin, calling the faithful to prayers, echoes in and around a common-place street, heard by the unbelievers of West Derby Road, Liverpool.

Yet not only those within the mosque is gathering a small assembly of Mahommedans, a few of them in Oriental garb and all shoeless. Muslims, when they enter the mosque, take off their boots and leave on their head-covering. In a room set apart for the purpose they wash their hands and feet, and then they make their way to the place of prayers, a thickly-carpeted hall having little decoration beyond texts from the Koran inscribed in Arabic, but having its bare outlines softened in the dim religious light.

Here the believers make their devotions, seating themselves tailor-fashion on the floor behind the sheikh, and facing the east. Now they lie prostrate, their faces to the floor; anon they stand, stretching out their hands in supplication. Silent they are first, but just now the Sheikh murmurs “Allah, Allah, Mahomet,”, and the chant is taken up in low tones, which gradually swell until all is fervid excitement.

Again the Sheikh reads from the Koran. His Muslim brethren sit silent and reverent. Later, when the service is nearing its close, they place their hands on their laps as they wait for the divine blessing.

Even we English people, were we to look on these ceremonies, might feel some of the influence of the mysterious East. The Sheikh, in turban and flowing robes, perhaps with his many oriental orders, flashing on his breast; the congregation, now thrilling with strange emotion and again stolid with all that constitutes Oriental impassivity; the half-light, the mystic inscriptions – these things take the beholder in imagination away from the prosaic world without the walls of the Mosque, and he sees the blue sky, the white domes, and the stretching sands of warmer climes. Yet all the electric cars go clanging past the doors, and all around are the conditions which go to make up the things of ordinary English life.

The Sheikh is an Englishman – Abdullah Quilliam, Sheikh-ul-Islam of the British Isles. He is a widely known Liverpool solicitor, and has been associated with the Mosque since it was established in 1887, being a convert through study and conviction after a voyage years ago to . His journeys to the East have been numerous, and he is frequently sent for by the Sultan of Turkey to undertake special missions, or for the purpose of consultation.

The Muslim Institute in altogether comprises rooms for members, schoolrooms, a small museum, library and reading room, and also a small lecture hall, which is used mainly for club meetings, etc. There is also a large lecture hall, for prayers (Teki). It seats some 220 people. The Medina Home, not far away, has about a score of children who are being brought up as Mussulmans. The whole institution has about 200 members resident in Liverpool, but during the course of a year the Mosque is visited for prayers by thousands of Muslim sailors and other travellers who come to the great seaport. Congregations in winter are good, and consist of a surprising number of English people in addition to others. Quite a large proportion of the membership is constituted of Liverpool folk, born and bred.

Monday, November 03, 2003

RAHMAN? Opss.. it is RAHMAT...

AFP reported that Pak Lah broke into tears at the end of his his maiden speech to parliament as he called on Allah for guidance and inspiration. I am so touched by his humbleness..When I met him last June, he was as humble as before and treated us like a father giving advice to his kids. I do pray that Allah will give HIS guidance so that Pak Lah will strive his best to bring Malaysia to a new era without forgeting his huge 'amanah' which will be question in the lifeafter.

Have you guys heard abt RAHMAN theory where Malaysian Prime Minister name will start from R, A, H, , M, A and then N... Now the first five does follow it.. what abt the sixth one? Lots of people do predict this will happen when N will be chosen by Pak Lah as a man next in line..However, Pak Lah keep mum abt this until today even lots of people do say that the lastest Tun did prefer N to be next after Pak Lah... My source told me that Pak Lah is not that happy with those kind of gossiping... even close aides to Pak Lah does not have a clue what will happen in near future.. Other people say that M, the other vice president from Johore is being prefered by Pak Lah..
I kind of like this guessing game... after my lenghty [hone conversation to a veteran UMNO researcher ,who devoted his life to UMNO, I tend to agree what there is high possibility that maybe Pak Lah will make a surprise by not electing either N or M but rather choose someone from my state TR... if this happen it will be RAHMAT not RAHMAN.... In Islam, RAHMAT is a beloved word... after all, who knows my prediction will be right.. just wait..I really wanna tell more abt this but I have to stop now

I have to end this soon since I will be leaving to Aintree in 10 mins time.. will be a long day where I will be having iftar away from family.. Ja did 'bekalkan nasi dgn sambal udang & telor.. hope to find a microwave there..

Selamat Berbuka... It will be a lonely iftar for me today.. dah nasib perantau

sang kelate

Sang Kelate is a Kelantanese citizen who is born and bred in Kota Bharu. He loves to share his humble thoughts & exchange idea with the readers.

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Malaysian Citizen