Subhan Allah wa bi hamdihi

These are hadith from Sahih Bukhari, from this website. If only we open our hearts to the compassion and mercy of our Al-Mighty, Subhanallah. Wouldn't we be such losers not to know how easy it is to earn His love, mercy and compassion. Amin amin ya rabbal alamin.

Volume 8, Book 75, Number 414:
Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "Whoever says, 'Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi,' one hundred times a day, will be forgiven all his sins even if they were as much as the foam of the sea.



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Volume 8, Book 75, Number 415:
Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "There are two expressions which are very easy for the tongue to say, but they are very heavy in the balance and are very dear to The Beneficent (Allah), and they are, 'Subhan Allah Al-'Azim and 'Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi.'"



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Volume 8, Book 75, Number 416:
Narrated Abu Musa: The Prophet said, "The example of the one who celebrates the Praises of his Lord (Allah) in comparison to the one who does not celebrate the Praises of his Lord, is that of a living creature compared to a dead one."

Longest Ramadan Buffet

I brought mom and dad to JB and decided to break fast at Danga Bay, under a white tentage that claims the longest Ramadan buffet in that area. They claim to have 88 dishes, however, at 6.30 pm they have not even put all the dishes out, probably only about 60% of the dishes were out. They also stagger or delay topping up some food for fear that it will be gone too soon too fast. Eventhough on every table there was a notice that a surcharge will be levied for leftovers, the customers still pile up their plates incessantly. And at the end of their break, there were many leftovers on the plates, and no charge levied. I believe the singer Mawi and his wife was there too but I was not too sure, as there was no fanfare to welcome him or anything. We ate in small portions, and even then we can't try all 88 dishes, if there were 88 dishes. There's just too much to digest in one sitting. We were mostly thirsty than hungry. We hopped over to the shopping centre to perform our solat, and later we headed to Singgah Selalu for my craving of lemang that I could eat for sahur. Last week, the lemang cost us RM8 but this week, they increase the price to RM10 for just one bamboo of lemang. After our car wash at Restoran Banafe which is opposite New York Hotel, we headed home via the Woodlands Causeway. The car wash at Banafe was only RM8 instead of RM15 at Singgah Selalu. The price in JB is really on the increase, isn't it?

The Night of Power

In the last ten nights of Ramadan, it was mentioned that one of the nights could possibly be the Lailatul Qadar. We do not know exactly when, but it was known to be an odd night. It is a night where one hopes that one's prayers would be answered by Allah swt.

Al Qadr

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful


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إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ ﴿١﴾

1. Verily! We have sent it (this Quran) down in the night of Al-Qadr (Decree).

وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ ﴿٢﴾

2. And what will make you know what the night of Al-Qadr (Decree) is?

لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ ﴿٣﴾

3. The night of Al-Qadr (Decree) is better than a thousand months

(i.e. worshipping Allâh in that night is better than worshipping Him a thousand months, i.e. 83 years and 4 months).

تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ ﴿٤﴾

4. Therein descend the angels and the Rûh [Jibrael (Gabriel)] by Allâh's Permission with all Decrees,

سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ ﴿٥﴾

5. Peace! (All that night, there is Peace and Goodness from Allâh to His believing slaves) until the appearance of dawn

Beef Kofta

Doesn't look impressive isn't it? I wanted to attempt a thick curry but without coconut milk or evaporated milk, and ended up trying to make this beef kofta. However, I improvised it so much, that it became a bit sour maybe because I had added too much tomatoes and tomato paste. Would try again some day, maybe someday...when I feel more energy and more in mood to cook.

Sunset at West Coast Park

Beautiful, Subhanallah!

Tossing and sleeping...

At about 29/30 weeks of my pregnancy, I'm feeling tired and extremely sleepy all the time. Apart from tossing between the two books - one on baby, the other on Islam and religion, I could barely digest both of them. The thing is eventhough on days that I am not fasting, I still wake up for sahur, for the sake of hubby and Afzal. After sahur and solat subuh, I zonked back on bed, if it's even for half hour just to catch up on much needed sleep eventhough I had gone to bed at 8.30 pm the night before. When I woke up, I felt like I could still go on sleeping. My shoulder is aching, and my hands and feet felt like they are in need of some kneading and moulding.

I wish my baby in my tummy is having a good night sleep too cos if he is not sleeping right, I don't know if he is sleeping tight, and I don't want his sleeplessness to affect us later.

This Ramadan, I have been struggling with my fasting, not because I cannot 'tahan' but because I fear that baby will be underweight and that I'll get another scolding from the gynae. Afzal, on the other hand, has been very good with his fasting and solat, Alhamdullillah. I'm really proud that he has been doing his solat eventhough when we were not at home to monitor him.

Eventhough it is a one week school break, Afzal still goes to school for 3 days for his conversational Mandarin lessons, and when asked what he learnt, he conveniently said he forgets. But yesterday evening, he was spouting, "wa sher ma lai ren" (I am Malay). Other than that, we gave him his Nintendo game to play with apart from his fixation with facebook and computer-related games. He has also told me to print some primary four maths problem sums. He wants to try and attempt some of it. I think he is doing rather ok with his maths, but his other subjects could further improve.

With hari raya coming, I have not done anything yet. Except for some cookies that we bought at Simpang Rengam, Johor, I have not bought other stuffs. No baju raya for me this year, as I will not fit into one and hubby has also decided to just dorn some previous years' raya outfits. Only Afzal will have a new baju kurung this year. I have also not bought the cookie containers, not gotten a mattress for the Queen size bed in the other room, not packed my bag for the hospital, not bought any baby's stuff, not even think about what to cook for raya.

I'm totally zombied this year.

Understanding Islam

I bought this book when the author came to town but only managed to complete it last night, due to my own procrastination. It is very factual and insightful, even to a Muslim like me, whose knowledge of Islam is rather incompetent in many ways.

To a certain someone who was disillusioned about terrorism and feel that Islam is at fault in many ways, I can only say, read this book, especially the three chapters on Jihad. It was clear and succint, and even help to clarify the many questions I have in my own mind.

And contrary to media attention, Jihad is NOT defined as Holy War. And of course, this book is not just about jihad, but present the basic tenets of Islam in very easy to understand ways.

Well I can only say, read this book - Understanding Islam: A Guide for the Judaeo-Christian Reader by Jerald F. Dirks, cos only if you seek knowledge, then you will understand and make informed decisions.

For more information about the author and his books, click his website. For a detail account of his journey to Islam, click here.

The unofficial judge resides again

I did my own review of Anugerah 2007 and thought of doing it again after Anugerah 2009 last night.

Singapore-bred Sarah Aqilah won. Personally, it was a no-brainer decision, I believe even for the judges.



Based on their performance last night, you could literally put the four finalists, Chirul, Sarah Aqilah, Wawan and Kunjung on a spectrum of good to not-so-good, and the spectrum would be lined firstly with Sarah - the best to Kunjung, Wawan and Chirul - the least, without a shade of doubt.

When I first heard Chirul sang, I think he had a very unique and interesting voice. Even judge Zulkifli from 2 by 2 agrees with the unique tone of his voice. Having said that, he does lack in commercial value, and somehow does not seem to have confidence in his own ability to sing. Void of emotions and passion in his rendition, his singing seems lacklustre and 'lazy' at times, somewhat lost in the power-charged vocals and performance of the other finalists.

Wawan - I think he found his niche - wide open mouth and all-over-the-place- movement of his legs a bit ala Ferhad, but clumsy. Not sure whether he wants to be a rocker or a broadway performer, but performing ala broadway was definitely out for him. But he is an entertaining performer, and if he so wishes to 'perform' he should brush up his skills in some tuned, better choreographed and a bit more stylish dance steps or movements. Otherwise, he looks fuddy-duddy. His vocal prowess is in rock songs whether hard or rock ballads and I think that's where he could go far and command stage presence, which I kind of think he relishes the use of the stage a lot.

Kunjung - love her vocal capability and her stage presence. Personally, she is already a singer to boot, but she would not win Anugerah 2009 simply because she is not born and bred Singaporean. But nationalistic sentiments aside, Kunjung's package is not of the girly lass or sexy sweet young thing that is so part of this industry but then again, she is a great singer and will be much received by Singaporeans if she had earned her prize back in her own hometown.

Sarah Aqilah, well, slim, pretty, marketable and has the voice. What more can you ask for in this type of industry? Our music industry in Singapore is so lacking in such slim pretty lass with the big voice and suddenly here comes Sarah Aqilah. Most of the lasses here that have big voices also comes in big packages, I mean sizes, and though it is NOT wrong to believe that talent is what it should be, the reality is, it is NOT the case. Sarah Aqilah's strength seems to be in slow ballads with the high pitched chorus or ending ala Ziana Zain, but I wish to see her in other renditions and genres as well. She also needs a better makeover of her hair as well as rebranding herself to continually rise in this industry. But please, please do not brown or blonde the hair too much like some other singers have done. It just seem so unsexy and unappealing. Keep it black and sassy. I believe she will be one Singaporean Malay singer that could go a little farther than where the rest of our female singers were not able to venture to if she continues to rebrand, reimage, and reposition herself in this industry.

And so the unofficial judge rests...

Part 2 of good riddance!

I used to have loads of containers of these - containing my era in television production, even manual like the "basic television production course" when I first started my career with tv production to scripts of various dramas and variety shows, to newspaper clippings of whatever news that made it to the papers regarding the shows or the celebrities. I have since downsized my stuffs to only one container load, but I am going to get rid of this container load as well. It's time to say goodbye to my past era, and move on... as the saying goes again, "the value of me is in me, not in my stuffs"....

Goodbye to old stuffs...!

This is the first part of my 'getting rid of stuffs' - my loads of vhs tapes, in which some have turned mouldy and I am not going to be sentimental about it. These are tapes of the shows that I have produced - namely sandiwaras (yes even from sandiwara eras), Malay dramas, Fashion Unlimited, The Home Show, Anugerah, Pesta Perdana, Teater Komedi, Hari Raya Shows and the list goes on. I am going to embrace the saying that "the value of me is in me, not in my stuffs." Goodbye to old stuffs...!

Mountain Bread

I discovered this mountain bread while at Cold Storage. It's a thin layer of dough that is made from organic wheat, so it feels healthy. I bought the bread and created my own filling. So here is my shawarma-inspired mountain bread. The filling I had was capsicum, chopped tomatoes and cucumber, sliced lamb and cheese wrapped in mountain bread and I heated it in my toaster oven. Yummy! Even my little boy Afzal loves it.

Toasted Omelette

I got this simple idea from the internet, and I decided to try it out this morning. I had eggs beaten with salt and pepper. I added chopped tomatoes, sausage and roasted potato (from two days ago), and I toasted them all in this sandwich toaster.



And the verdict is great. Hubby likes it, and one omelette toast was quite filling already. I had it with chilli sauce. Not bad for something quick, fast and deliciously healthy, I hope. I'm sure I can experiment this further with other fillings.



So this was my breakfast morning...!

My healthy dinner?

This is what I had last night. My concoction of pasta with olive oil, garlic, crushed peppers, chopped boneless chicken and squid rings. I added the roasted vegetables from dinner the day before. I know pasta is high on carbo, but this was like my only carbo (I think) that day. In the morning, I had a wholemeal sandwich with roasted vegetables + 1 chopped sausage + low fat cheese toasted, and for lunch, I had yong taufoo with tom yum soup.

Hopefully it's healthy enough since I have to be on a low sugar, low carb diet due to my pregnancy.