Aku Bermonolog Di Alor Setar

Jam di sepertiga malam

Mata masih tak terpejam
Otak masih sedar
Walau tubuh kurang segar
Mengapa malam ini
Sukar hendak beradu
Mungkin kerna tiada teman setia di sisi

Semuanya berputar-putar
Bermain di kotak minda
Minta dan minta lagi dicerna
Tentang kenangan dan pengalaman
Juga bagaimana masa depan
Cita-cita dan harapan

Kalau bisa diulang waktu
Itu dan ini hendak diperbetul
Pada keputusan yang kurang tepat
Yang silap dan khilaf
Bukan hanya sekali dua
Kekadang ada yang terus diulang
Umpama jatuh ke lubang ular berkali-kali

Kenangan lalu mengusik jiwa
Mencuit emosi dan naluri
Mengenang peluang lalu yang dilepas
Harta dan wang yang dilebur
Pada emas masa yang dibiar berlalu
Walau ilmu kurang di dada
Ingin saja kuputar jam kuning itu

Aku hanya insan lemah
Yang tipis imannya bak kulit bawang
Sedarilah wahai diriku
Tuhan telah tentukan perjalanan hidupmu
Jika tiada di sini mungkin ada di sana
Mungkin masanya belum tiba
Semua penuh dengan hikmahnya

Yang susah ada senang
Dalam tangis ada tawa
Di sebalik gagal ada jaya
Mungkin hikmahnya masih terhijab
Bila tuhan mahu menguji
Menduga imanmu yang nipis

Percayalah nasib bisa diubah
Kapan kau usaha berubah

Kupohon ilahi restu dan doa
Moga selalu diperkenan
Usah didesak mahu segera
Minta dibimbing ke jalan benar dan redha
Tiada yang berkuasa selain dirinya
Sedarlah yang sekalian berlaku
Hanya asbab dari Maha Kuasa
Sebagai peringatan dan pengajaran
Semoga dirimu lebih bersyukur
Kepadanya sentiasa akur

Nukilan oleh Benhashim

Ustaz Kata - Bulan Ramadhan Di Penghujung

Assalam

25 Ramadhan 1437H

Alhamdulillah di bulan Ramadhan sempat mendengar siri tazkirah daripada ustaz-ustaz di surau taman. Menjadi kelaziman untuk slot tazkirah dimasukkan dalam aturcara malam di masjid/ surau samada sebelum, selepas 4 rakaat atau selepas selesai Solat Tarawih. 

Syukur Allah masih berikan nikmat hidup dan kita semua sedang melalui fasa akhir bulan Ramadhan kareem ini. Fasa ketiga dan sepuluh  hari & malam terakhir. 

Ustaz kata sepuluh malam terakhir di bulan Ramadhan adalah keutamaan yang sangat utama kepada muslimin dan muslimat. Di waktu inilah kita semua digalakkan mencari malam Lailatul Qadar. Digalakkan ajak seisi keluarga. Niat tu hendaklah diselaraskan dengan amal ibadat juga. Ustaz tambah lagi supaya fokus kita sentiasa perlu kuat di sepuluh malam terakhir ni dan jangan terkesan dengan amalan kita pada 20 hari sebelumnya. Di waktu inilah kita dinasihatkan untuk melakukan qiamullail. Amalan utama yang dituntut adalah solat-solat sunat, memohon keampunan, memohon hajat kepada Allah Taala, tadarus dan tadabbur Al-Quran dan berzikir. 

Tertarik dengan ilmu yang ustaz ajar malam tu. Dari segi istilah kata 'lailatul' (ada ta' marbutah') membawa maksud keseluruhan malam berbeza dengan kata 'lail' (contohnya seperti dalam surah Isra') yang membawa maksud sebahagian malam. Ustaz sampaikan yang keberkatan lailatul qadar adalah sepanjang malam sehingga terbit fajar dan amalan kita insyaAllah dihitung dalam tempoh waktu tersebut. Sekiranya terlajak tidur sehingga ke subuh, masih ada masa untuk memohon keampunan dan doa sekiranya ianya malam itu jatuhnya lailatul qadar.  

Ustaz kata lagi sesunggunya nikmat Allah tidak terhitung dan ustaz membacakan satu potong ayat Surah An-Nahl ayat 18 seperti berikut:

Maksudnya: Dan jika kamu menghitung-hitung nikmat Allah, nescaya kamu tak dapat menentukan jumlahnya. Sesungguhnya Allah benar-benar Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang.

Sangat tertarik bila ustaz memaklumkan kata 'nikmata' dalam ayat tersebut adalah bersifat 'singular' bukan 'plural'. Ini bermaksud setiap SATU nikmat Allah contohnya mata, hidung, telinga dan sebagainya. Setiap SATU nikmat Allah adalah tak terhitung jumlahnya. Besarnya nikmat yang Allah berikan kita bagi setiap satu dan apatah lagi secara keseluruhannya. Subhanallah..Allahuakbar.

Ustaz juga menasihatkan supaya kita semua memperbanyakkan membaca Sayyidul Istigfar di bulan Ramadhan ini terutamanya sepuluh malam terakhir. Terkedu juga aku dengar ayat tu sebab aku pun tak tahu apa tu Sayyidul Istigfar. Yang aku tahu Sayyidul Ayyam (penghulu hari). Lepas google baru la dapat tahu. Inilah Sayyidul Istigfar dan moga-moga kita mengamalkan ayat ini (Ihsan daripada encik google):

Nota Kaki: Siri 'Ustaz Kata' di blog ini adalah sesi peringatan khususnya kepada penulis dan moga-moga bermanfaat kepada para pembaca lain. Sekiranya terdapat kesilapan dan fakta yang kurang tepat, bolehlah membuat teguran membina di ruangan komen semoga kita semua bermaanfaat daripadanya. Sesungguhnya yang baik itu datang daripada Allah, dan yang kurang baik ini datang daripada hamba yang daif ini. 

Down Memory Lane - Big River @ Sungai Besar

It's Big River in the headline. It's Big River be the critical factor that will be an indicator for future political landscape in Malaysia. It's Sungai Besar indeed the place where I was born. 

By-election for Parliament Sungai Besar just round the corner. 18th June 2016 is the day. P93 is the number. It will stage three corners fight between BN vs PAS vs PAN. The so-called outsiders YB Dr Rani of PAS and Azhar Abdul Shukur of PAN clashed with the so-claimed insider YB Budiman of BN. It is interesting episode as the by-election at Sg Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliament seats came after landslide victory of BN in Sarawak Election. BN leaders told the reporters that BN will use Sarawak winning template in these two by-elections. What are the winning 'templates' they are referring to? Curious and suspicious minds would wonder. My personal view that the chance of winning for BN may slim since Sarawak and these two places are different in demography and sentiments. Last GE13 saw Arwah TS Noriah Kasnon won with small majority by 399 votes. My take is PAS will be winning when I considering the easily approachable, moderate in nature and performance of candidate YB Dr Rani. He also can be seen as true mature and friendly in political camaraderie for both political divide. While PAN candidate has the blessings from PR and TDM in tandem with Citizen Declaration which TDM has initiated. 

While it is interesting to see the end result next Saturday evening, it was tragic indeed for the incident occured that lead to these two by-elections. Both arwah YB Sg Besar and YB Kuala Kangsar involved in the helicopter crash at Sarawak on 5 May that claimed their lives together with the pilot and all passengers onboard. They were all at Sarawak for BN campaign. And then come out the love story of TS Noriah and her 8 months husband who also died from the incident. It is really touched the hearts. Both were in love during school time and their intention to marry young was opposed by the parents. Both decided to take their own separate ways, pursued further studies, married to others, have children and later both divorced with their former spouses. They eventually met last year, love was on the air again and they tied the knots this time. Only God knows they only given 8 months to experience wonderful life as legal couple. Such a memorable stories. 

                  A picture worth a thousand words. 

And for me, Sungai Besar is close to my heart. It was the place that my beloved mother given birth to me. The place that was inked in my birth certificate. My family and I spent there approximately 1 year after my birth before moving out to Segamat. Although I'm used to mention that I am Johorean to others but I'm still original Selangorean indeed. Deep down in my heart. Haha. Somewhere in 2013, I exploring again the place with my families and it's my mother intention to see the house where I was given birth and to track old neighbours. Alhamdulillah both intention fulfilled. And after quiet some time, I revisit the memorable house at Taman Berkat Sg Besar. And I'm walking down to memory lane. 

          My place of origin and memories retain.

Suatu Sore di Awal Ramadan

Duduk menyendiri

Di dalam kotak kamar

Memandang ke langit sore

Biru ke jingga warnanya

Indahnya alam ciptaan tuhan

Apakah nikmat Allah yang aku hendak didustakan

Tiada....

Bertemu lagi dengan bulan kareem

Ahlan wasahlan alaika

Membuat aku muhasabah

Sedar akan pantas masa berlalu

Amalanku masih seperti dahulu

Bagaimana aku mohon doa restu

Daripadamu

Ya Ilahi...

Ingin aku sematkan di dada

Ingin aku bertekad

Supaya anggota badan mudah dan ringan

Mengikut apa yang disemat 

Dalam azam Ramadan

Mengganda-ganda amalan mulia

Di waktu siang dan malam...

Berpuasa hanya untuk mendapat pahala

Solat wajib, sunat dan berjamaah

Tadarus quran dan tadabbur

Dengar catat ilmu ustaz dan da'i

Semuanya untuk mencari keberkatannya

Tahajud di malam hari 

Mencari-cari di mana malam lailatul qadar

Bermula usaha di awalan bukan hanya di akhiran

Selalu mengangkat tangan meminta rahmat Allah

Menginsafi saudara yang tidak bernasib baik

Terus mengurus nafsu yang meluap

Dalam membentuk madrasah Ramadan...

Semoga daku

Isteriku, keluargaku, rakan-rakanku 

Dan semua umat Islam di serata dunia

Diberi hidayah dan inayah Allah

Untuk melunaskan amalan

Untuk menitis air mata keinsafan

Yang selama ini selalu tertangguh

Dan moga-moga terus istaqamah

Di antara dua Ramadan.

p/s: Moga puisi ini menjadi penguat semangat untuk kita melalui madrasah Ramadan dengan jayanya dan mendapat keberkatan daripada Ilahi. 

Benhashim

1 Ramadan 1437H

6 Jun 2016

PMP - Am I ready?

It was busy month for me in April 2016. Total outstation duration has ate me 2 weeks of time. While a week I spent my time at Midvalley the largest mall in Malaysia. But I was not on shopping spree motive indeed.
It was on full weekdays i.e 5 days times 8 hours of course session. This time mission is to fulfill 35 hours of Project Management Professional (PMP) training as a eligible ticket to sit for PMP exam. I have been 3 years not undergone any training and this time is my own initiative enroll for training under 1MGRIP scheme. And it has been a very long time since graduation that I am not going for true academic session i.e learning thru acedemic books. This time using Project Management Book of Knowledge PMBOK 5th Edition by Project Management Institute.
Most of training participants were from IT background while I was only from MRO background. The trainer is indeed experienced and certified PMP by the name of Dr Collins. He was one of a few persons I knew which not using smartphone and have no social media interfaces. Two new key words which always been repeated through out the classrooms was 'scope creep' and 'progressively elaborated'. 

The course is adapting PMBOK as reference and standard for project managers. Some may applicable and some may not based on the organization you are working on. It has refreshed me on some related undergraduate subjects during previous university time. Just to name a few: the Ishikawa diagram, the block diagram and the critical path method.
Based on PMBOK there are five process groups namely Initiating, Planning, Executing, Control & Monitoring and closing. While there are tens of knowledge areas which are as follow:
- Integration
- Scope

- Time 

- Cost

- Quality

- Human Resources

- Communications

- Risk

- Procurement

- Stakeholder

To date I have completed registration as PMI members and qualified the mandatory requirement for PMP exam. The exam fees also been settled. Now it is about scheduling the exam slot and I am targeting it somewhere in July 2016. Some say it is real hard to pass for the exam for 200 questions in 4 hours. And some say it is very little chance for those who have experience for more than 10 years to pass the exam first time because of the tendency of selecting answer based on work experience instead of PMBOK reference. Whatever they say, I am determined to double up efforts for preparation and pass the exam for the first time and with flying colour. Sounds very confident indeed. Haha. Why PMP certified?  For me, it is indeed added value for someone like me working in project management environment. And the other reason is I would like to running....

p/s: The song may not relevant to the reason but I real like the song. Enjoy it..

Lahad Datu (Not Lahat Datuk)

On 21 April 2016, it was my second time visit to Lahad Datu. This time around using land from Sandakan. The previous visit via land from Tawau. Both land journey was interesting indeed for me seeing places. Oil palm trees and small scattered villages were the spots during the journey. Uneven surface roads with potholes were not something abnormal to be experienced which impact can be a little bit minimized when using four wheeler. It was chatting sessions with my friends onboard car journey as sleep will only shaken you to wake up.

Rewind to 2013 when Lahad Datu have been headlines nationwide. It was Sulu intruders entered the small city with the aim to claim so-called their rights and land in Sabah. It was learnt that the self proclaimed Sultan Sulu was the man of mastermind. The episode goes with the counter-strike by Malaysian armed forces to their hideouts and fortress in particular at Felda Sahabat. For the first time in my life, I saw the nation military assets were used and their personnel were tested their capabilities to face real threats, not just ordinary exercises they often do it. A few of armed forces were killed in the strike while it was claimed in the media that the intrusion and stand off was over after the military strike. The after-effect however continues till today. Malaysians were kidnapped for revenge and money ransom and a few was killed. 

The after effect of intrusion had caused government established ESSCOM to coordinate the pre-emptive measures for security and safety of Malaysia sovereign in particular Sabah and its citizen. My friends share me his views on after effect which he refers as 'hikmah' over the incidents. At least the worst condition of road in Lahad Datu was upgraded by government. Other main facilities also been established and upgraded. Almost during my trips to Sabah I can easily seen the hardships and difficulties of the rakyat. Be it at towns and village areas. They living in not good condition. Some children mess around during day and night and begging money for eatings claims. Some kids below 7 years also can been spotted playing around at streets in town at midnight. I can concluded their state of hardship is far worst than those poor peoples in Semenanjung.

Masjid in Lahad Datu town

The last Lahad Datu area before I will be in the air again is definitely the airport. I was shocked to see the domestic airport which located next to main road. It was the smallest airport I have been. My friends there are other smaller domestic airport in Sabah and Sarawak which only can cater for Twin Otter aircraft. This short runway at Lahad Datu only accommodate for the fly of ATR 72 craft the maximum size. I clocked 26.6 seconds for duration from the aircraft start accelerate until take off, roughly 4 seconds faster than other measures I took for the particular aircraft that may marks that runway is real shorts.

 Airport building

Departure hall

 Boarding the flight

The short runway

It might be next trips to Lahad Datu again in the future. And I can again explore further the place. I can still remembered being scolded by my former boss due to wrong spelling of Lahad Datu as Lahat Datuk. Haha. That is memory.

Bye-bye and see you next time LD