Thursday, 30 June 2016

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. 








Wednesday, 15 June 2016

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.



Monday, 6 June 2016

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








Friday, 3 June 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

Thursday, 7 April 2016

Ustaz Kata - Bulan Rajab

Assalamualaikum

Alhamdulillah, hari Sabtu lepas berkesempatan datang kuliah kat surau kariah. Tajuk kuliah yang diutarakan oleh Ustaz kali ni berkenaan dengan Amalan bulan Rajab. Sedar tak sedar kita akan berjumpa dengan bulan Rajab pada hari Sabtu ni 9 April 2016. Ia juga secara tidak langsung mengingatkan kita 'Ramadan just round the corner'. Tak lama lagi dah. 

Di mukadimah kuliah, Ustaz membacakan ayat 36 Surah At-Taubah seperti di bawah.


Berdasarkan hadis dan tafsir alim ulamak, Ustaz kata Rajab adalah satu bulan daripada empat bulan yang dimuliakan seperti ayat di atas. Tiga bulan yang lain adalah bulan Zulkaedah, Zulhijjah dan Muharam. 

Ustaz mencadangkan sembilan amalan yang boleh dilakukan dan diperbanyakkan di dalam bulan Rajab:

1. Meraikan kedatangan bulan Rajab dengan amal ibadat.

2. Solat sunat

3. Puasa sunat. 

4. Salawat. 

5. Istigfar. 

6. Qiamullail.

7. Sedekah

8. Zikir

9. Baca Al-Quran. 

Pesan Ustaz, amalan yang dicadangkan adalah bukannya bertujuan mengagungkan-agungkan bulan Rajab, tetapi adalah sebagai sumber bekalan amalan di akhirat kelak dan sebagai persiapan kita menuju ke bulan Ramadan. Ustaz kata terdapat sesetengah alim ulamak menyandarkan fadhilat amalan-amalan utama berdasarkan hadis-hadis palsu dan bertujuan semata-mata mengagungkan bulan Rajab. 

InsyaAllah, marilah kita sama-sama memperbanyakkan amalan-amalan di bulan Rajab seterusnya di bulan Syaaban dan Ramadan untuk mendapat rahmat dan pertolongan daripada Allah. Dan moga-moga kita diberikan kesempatan dan hidayah Allah untuk terus konsisten di bulan-bulan lain sepanjang tahun, InsyaAllah.

Ahlan-Wasahlan Ya Rajab. 



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. 








Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Oh My Malaysia

Oh My Malaysia. I love my country and so do I believe the rest of rakyat marhaen. This is the land I was given birth, growing up as a man and evolving as a human. The land I belong. The land that all races are sharing as granted in constitution. The land we are all belong. 

With the sense of belongings spirit, we are equally have the rights to say. The political landscape of late is prone to the uncertainties and unexpected. One time enemy can be friends and vice versa. I personally worry with what's going on in Malaysia. I'm not too fanatic to anybody neither I'm true politics analyst. But the news watching, the books and social media reading are my hobby and politics become my subject of interest.

The battle between the BN government and the groups opposing them seems no full stop to-date. I would rather use BN government instead of PM as such organization in majority back and support the PM. Some of them are merely apple polishers indeed. Truthfully, in the beginning I am fully supported all initiatives and transformations introduced and being implemented by the government, eventhough sometimes get confused with all the fancy short terms or acronyms used (ETP, EPP, NKRA, NKEA, 1M derivatives etc). Deep inside in my heart as normal citizen eagerly to see the prosperous Malaysia as true developed nation in 2020 as surely I will benefit from it. With the well-gong projects on the blueprint, I can't wait to experience the MRT, road traffic hassle free and hopefully bullet trains. While most importantly, the living to becoming more comfortable, convenience, affordable and easily can move around the country without fear. Insights tell me that the government have all that needed to propel forward. Comes to infamous topic of GST and the removing of some main subsidies, I opined that the present government have the strong political will that the previous government so fear of. Hat off. With the transformation program been laid off, we heard and read the good news of FDI flowing in continuously. Big China and Giant US invested in the country. Some acquire large shares of Malaysian companies. While the news of Malaysia conglomerates investing in other countries and taking part in overseas project are no more abnormal things to be heard. Proud of Malaysia. Participation of Malaysia in TPPA was illustrated as catalyst to become high income nation and developed country. 

All of the success stories of the present government portray Malaysia is on track to becoming developed nation by 2020. But are we really? Are we ready? Difficult question and most answers given will have political drive attachment. Rest assured, any government in the world can't run away from the problems and challenges. So do Malaysia. Some of the problems were happened and some were created, while some were internal and some were external driven. The in-control and out of control factors. Malaysia was tainted negatively worldwide with the accusations on infamous 1MDB fiasco and 2.6B. This is issues of integrity whereby any weak answers and flip flop explanations will surely expose more. Either related directly or just coincidences, a few Malaysia institutions were affected with the changes and removal of key personnel linked to the probe. Some claimed they were made in purpose. TSMY was axed as DPM and was suspended his No 2 position in UMNO. No surprise if he will be sacked from UMNO, sooner or later. Former premier TDM quits UMNO for second times in the history. On the peak of event, citizen declaration was launched on 4th March 2016 with TDM on the helm, in history that saw collaboration with the oppositions with the likes of Lim Kit Siang & Mat Sabu, with main agenda to bring down the PM and his loyal politics partner. First congress was held on 27 March 2016 at Shah Alam. What a surprise move by TDM and many still not believed. He is the man who believe every exit is an entry to somewhere else. 

I was once in the state that would like to ignore this politics matters as it was anti climax, the way I seen. Same like watching the boring film, the plot of story gets hiking up, idle for long time and then going down. But with the current situation, I would like to stay on for a while as the story start to picking up again and this time it might arrive to the peak. And it might not. My hope that regardless what happens, the nation and its citizen would not live in the fear modes. 

To think TDM comeback and fight due to personal reasons sometimes not to my personal logics extent. With 90s in age, why he really want to waste his remaining times going to the streets unless he is really thinks of the nation's future that he has put milestone. His 2020 legacy, of late been said is unable to achieve by some of government backbenchers. I will be very sad in Tun shoes to hear that. To think his comeback to make his son back on right path as future PM also seems nonsense to me. While some say his fight for his cronies businesses. Only god knows. TDM was also been portrayed as the man who succesfully brought down the predecessors and successors of Malaysia Prime Minister (except Tun Razak and his son - maybe not yet). He was also perceived as the man who shattered the dreams of most his DPMs during his tenure of PM. Anyway, these were only perceptions and assumptions mostly by peoples opposing him. Regardless what happens, I still have deep respect on him for his great contributions to this nation. The contributions that can be experienced realistically by me.  

I reckoned both TDM and PM are the real politics strategist. They both know how to play the game and move next. Seems like PM has learnt enough and well know his former boss. It is not easy to predict the game-changer. Who will lose and who will win? Rakyat marhaen surely get affected. 

In the same time, I would like to salute to both sides of die-hard supporters and backbenchers. We can see the loyalty values of them. Media is the medium to support this, be it in the mainstream media and social media. The cybertroopers are working very hard, some say they are paid handsomely. Some contents with solid proof and some only half-baked cookies. Defensive and offensive in nature. Facts and speculations in justifications. The perceptions created. I am really enjoy the readings.

I read both sides of version. Very interesting. Allegations were countered back. Some with strong proof. The data were collated, compiled and flashed made to infographic. Some made sense. The government cybertroopers seems have improving, they counter faster and with data. 

Some data can be manipulated to one's advantage. The master spinners spin data. Some part of statements were omitted when they were published. These are really happened with the bottom line agenda for political leverage. An excerpt in CSI drama series tell us 'people lies, follow the evidence'. That's true indeed. But some evidences were compromised and contaminated. 

The rakyat marhaen like me only want the nation with good shelter and shields from the weather uncertainties. Some quarters do not even bother the s**ts going on. For me, nothing else would matters if the authority can provide the following:

a. safety and security of nation and citizens.
b. freedom to exercise own religion teaching.
c. guarantee of jobs.
d. increased buying power.
e.firm and no apparent flip flop of government decision and statements.
f. principled government.

Do I feel that above requirements are fulfilled right now? What about others? What about the other layer of citizen who face difficulties to make ends meet everyday? What will the Gen Y thinks? What about the baby boomers? The answers lies with us. The answer will indicate our stand towards current situation. The answer that will translate into ballot box. For baby boomers and Gen X, pls provide two sets of honest answers, now and the then TDM era. Bottom line, problems to be solved and confidence to be stored. Respect to be earned not demanded. Integrity and transparency to be uphold.

Politicians are the man with ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next years and to explain afterwards why it did not happen. That was according to Winston Churchill. Politicians are human. We are all humans. PM, TDM, TSMY, LKS, government, oppositions were ain't god. We are not perfect and we making mistakes. We are not infallible. Be honest and throw away the hypocrites. Sometimes it is worthwhile to leave rather than to stay. To fight rather than to liptight. And for the fighters, the harder the conflict the more glorious of triumph. And I pray for the better Malaysia ahead. 

The cool and good old days