Memory: brother Kurnia and brother Idris 2010

Assalaamu'alaikum wa Rahmatullah!

Always forgotten about these pictures although had been thinking to keep it here last time. This computer can't extract these pictures from the archives as the license is expired. Luckily that they are still there in my mail sent box. I think these pics were taken around late October of 2010 when I was in first semester doing this master. These brothers whom are brothers Kurnia and Idris are among earliest people whom I know when I returned back to USM. We live in the same hostel which is hostel in Bukit Gambir area. They are friendly guys but I just feel shy out of them due to my Chinese accent sounds weird. I dun feel shy to brother Idris since he's from Western China himself but just feel shy to non-Chinese inhabitants who also are the member of hostel's musalla congregation in which most of them are Malays.

I speak in Chinese with one of my classmate too, which is sister Ong. She's a non-Muslim though but she shares same faith with previous me last time. I don't consider myself as different from Chinese or Indian whom most Malays consider as 'immigrants' while we are the same Malaysian, haha. We have other Malay classmate which is Has but I don't feel comfortable with her.    

Bukit Bendera

 Penang view from Bukit Bendera

Black fur monkeys.

Brother Kurnia and brother Idris. Hope to see you again brother Kurnia. Thank you treating me fried noodle at Bukit Bendera. I will always remember that. Just feel sorry because I am a citizen of the host country who should honor both of you but it turns out that you honoring me, haha. I didn't get the chance to treat you. I am sad. Usually I would do that when people don't see me but both of you were right in front of me.

Penang Botanical Garden

 Monkey motherly love to its child.

Naughty monkeys. I am afraid of these primates, hahaha.

Lotus pond.

Short jungle trekking.

It was actually the idea of brother Kurnia. He suggested us to go for some sightseeing visiting places like waterfall or seaside something... to fill our free time during holiday. But it turns out that brother Idris had earlier explored Penang Botanical Park and most of places in Penang. I feel quite embarrassed because I had been here for about three years during my bachelor and I never went out from USM compound after our freshman, hehe. I just went out to Georgetown with our bachelor classmates during bachelor first semester, and few times to Sungai Petani either alone or with my classmate and only friend, Amir. Another one who sometimes accompanied us is Apai who lived in the same hostel with us but I wasn't really close to Apai. He's close to Amir.  

I think brother Kurnia has a great skill in photography because most of his pictures look good. Those monkeys were taken by him. Pictures taken by me always have that blurry image because of the wiggle, lol. These are the only pics that I have for these respective brothers since I tried to avoid people when people start to realize my existence although I wanted to hang around more with them. Feel not comfortable when people coming close to listen what language that I used when talking to brother Idris especially those Tabligh kids. Maybe they never have any experience mingling with non-Malay compatriot while in schooling time that made them feel strange? What is wrong when we speak other languages? I guess in Malaysia there is nothing to be surprised of because we adopt multiculturalism. If those from Indonesia or France feel weird, I still can accept it because they do not adopt multiculturalism to the extend like what is happening in Malaysia. I always see Malay or Indian speaking in Hokkien Chinese in Penang and I don't think that it is a peculiarity.

Please help to pray for brothers and sisters in Xinjiang and other Muslim majority provinces in China. I think brother Yunus whom I came to know in Bengal mosque is a Hui from Xinjiang. I wish their well-being and hopefully they could observe Ramadan fast without any problem. Avoid conflict with authority if possible, pray for the authority to also receive mercy and guidance from the God, insyaAllah. Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Just Moved to the New Room

Assalaamu'alaikum!

I had just moved to the new room yesterday morning after several times climbing up the office for hostel asking for the new room's key because I can not stand the new roomate that the office had placed with me. He is actually from Gaza. 

Most of the Palestinians that I met are actually quite arrogant in some ways, nationalists (secularists) although they play 'aleem like an 'ailoum (Yemeni dialect for ulama) in front of me where I can easily detect that from the way they talk, and they can not understand tasawwuf way of thinking although Imam Syafi'ie himself came from Palestine. I can not stand this kind of people so I moved away, might be he don't like me and I don't expect people to favor me because I understand the reality of the world is not like what we think or want.

Last time, I had two other roomates. The first one was also a Palestinian from Gaza whose name is Muhammad Sabhan but I think that he is a nice guy and I was comfortable with him although we seldom talked.  He moved out once his family arrived in order to live with them. I did encouraged him to bring his whole family here if he thinks that it is not safe for them to live in their territory.

The second one who came in after a while I was alone in that old room was an old Indonesian uncle that had molested me until I had to seek refuge in musalla and the office didn't want to take people's safety into their consideration because they just don't care. They only care about themselves. I reported him, and later he went out of my room.

And this recent one, whose name is Abdul Jawad. A blue eyed guy with red hair who is pursuing his Phd in English Linguistics. I am not impressed with his appearance at all because I don't look at outer appearance and I believe Allah only judge us according to our level of fear to Him not because of our eyes are blue or how fair our skin is. This guy is going to finish his viva this end of March but I can't stand him anymore. 

I do understand Arab's culture and I am familiar with it because I had performed Hajj with my mother before. I read Arabic books when I was in secondary school and we have evening classes for Islamic education like other kids in Malaysia in the evening. This guy in the beginning he entered my room had asked me whether I am a Muslim or not. And certainly I felt uneasy with his question. If he thinks that I am a non-Muslim, why did he continue to bring in his stuffs into my room? He could just change to other room because he is a Phd student, unlike me who is a master student who can't choose my own roommate and has no contacts in here at all except for an ex-colleague who is now my senior and he also has his own life.

Before I went out from the room, he had offered to help me but he never apologize for causing me uneasiness like offending me when I listened to Quranic audio from my computer although I had tried to use the headphone and minimizing the sound because he said that I was disturbing him studying for his viva. Also when he want to pray, he told me that he wants to pray and turn down the volume or mute it when I was about to do that. 

I was there before him and I never did the things that he did to me. Even to other roommates, except to my second year degree roommate. I will always have to apologize to him. In fact I tried to be polite as possible as I can and I borrowed my friend the headphone for my prayers (recitation of Quran). I only chant the Quran in my heart while listening and doing my homeworks unlike when before no one being my roommate. 

When he listened to Umm Kalthum in the middle of the night, laughing out loud to videos from his computer shouting "mustahab" (lovely) and turning on the big light when I was sleeping. I never complained him at all. I understand he might want to have his leisure time and releasing his tensions after poking his nose in his thick book but he did not tried to understand others. 

I can't tolerate this type of people where they expect people to cooperate with them but they did not do the same. So, I packed all of my stuffs and writing the letter to the office saying that I want to urgently change the room. But I had to wait for about two days in order to get the keys because it was interrupted with the campus election amongst degree students. I sleept everywhere that I can in the night and thanks to musalla, it is a refuge for me. I went to the class on Tuesday without any preparation with my files and papers scattered all over.  

When I was about to bring all of my stuffs out to my new room, just in the opposite lane of my old room. Abdul Jawad offered me his hand but I refused. He said he will be there for few weeks and it would be worthless for me to move out but I don't want to keep having problem with new temporary roomates anymore. I hope that he is happy for these few weeks before his viva and wishing him good luck.

Alhamdulillah, all praise to Allah. Now, I am in the new room.  Haven't got the chance to clean up the things  yet but I had bought few things like floor cleaner yesterday's noon because the floor near the window has some spots of bird defecates. Also piling up papers and boxes left by previous inhabitants and put them into a large garbage bag.

I suppose to stay with a Malaysian roommate but I can see that the other side is vacant when I came in until now. Only with little stuffs indicating that this new roomate is not always here. Guess he might be somewhere in his hometown. 

I hope that this new roommate is not like that troublesome Abdul Jawad. For the time being, I could have some privacy and I will use this opportunity to finish everything that being postponed due to my previous problem with the roomate including finishing my assigment about set-aside policy of europe and sending it before Friday evening to the lecturer, insya-Allah!

Allah bless prophet Muhammad (saw), Allah bless his companions, Allah bless his family members, Allah bless all of our faithful Muslim brothers and sisters. Grant us Your love and make us loving each other in the way to see You. Allah please grant us good akhlaq (morality). Allah grant us politeness. Allah grant us the faith in You. Amin!