I'm Back !

Back in Kuantan that is. I travelled roughly 6500km in 24 hours just to reach Kuantan,but after having journeyed so far and jumped straight back into my fyp i fell that it was worth it. Althrough honestly nothing can replace leaving my family behind fot Allah knows best whatever time period but anyway kuantan has become something like home for me.Never thought that I would say it but there u go-stranger things have been known to happen.

Another big thing is that I have edited and directed my first short film and here is the link on youtube so go ahead and watch it-comment either here or on youtube so that I can know where to iprove myself inshAllah.

A Ramadan Reminder

Anyway this is my last post for the year so Fiamanillah!

I am a clumsy oaf! Now normally I wouldn’t degrade myself but I am not too happy with one of my more recent stunts. I was jumping up and down on my sister’s huge trampoline when trying to show my nephew and niece a special stunt a jumped and landed not to solidly on the trampoline and ended up twisting my ankle. Since then it has been an excruciating journey-and one that has had my 4 year old nephew threatening to poke my ankle if I did something not to his liking.
Now I have been threatened in the past but never bya 4 year old!
However that is not why I am upset –I think that it has to do with the journey that I will be taking inshAllah in a couple of days. Now as described in previous posts AirAsia is not an airline that believe in frills so walking up and down the airplane staircase with a twisted ankle that hurts every time I try to twist my knee is not the way , I imagined my return journey to KL to be.
That reminds me –I have to stock up on chocs and sweets and everything nice before I leave

Okay here is the 101-I finished my exams, worked on my FYP for about 2 weeks and then grabbed a flight down under to visit my family. Now while this may all sound like too much too fast-actually it is –alhamdullillah I am with my family for the first time since my dad passed away i.e. we are together again for only the second time since my dad passed away.

An interesting thing that happened to me while on my way here was –well this was my first time taking Airasia-which by the way is a budget airline. And the funny thing was …you know how normally you have to use a tunnel sort of thingy to get from the airport terminal to the plane well they don’t have this is in Airasia apparently one has to walk to the plane and then board it like the olden days. Now the funny thing was that it was raining pretty heavily –the usual heavy downpour in Malaysia- and the only way we could get to the plane was by walking. So what they did was they provided us with nice, red colored Airasia umbrellas which we used to walk on the tarmac to the plane.

The result-my pants got wet until the knees level. In fact one of the guys next to me was muttering “this is what I paid,$600 for…”.
Let me add at this point I had ordered an International meal –and needless to say I was curious as to what it might be-so I waited eagerly curious and I guess it helped that my stomach was also growling. So when they finally came around to serving the meal and reached my seat I was impatient to say the least. “Sir, may I have your boarding pass to check for the pre-booked meal”..”Aahh…International meal”-Out came a Spritzer mineral water bottle, a kit kat and a very disappointingly tiny box that contained chicken and baked potatoes with some vegetables. A little bit of a letdown on that front!

Actually through I was extremely impressed by the service provided by Airasia-they were only 5-10 minutes late and their stewards and stewardesses were exceedingly polite. Plus it helps that they were much cheaper than any other airline. Well I have been pretty busy since I came here –meeting my nephews and niece- acclimatizing them to say “Haris Mammu” again and by the way I have to say that the weather here in spite of it being summer is pretty nice. I mean I wake up in the morning at times shivering with no fan on-that is better than Kuantan during the rainy season.


Alrite then! Till next time!.. G’day Mates!

Latest in Islamic arts

Qatar opens THE Islamic arts Museum!

This beats the Al Bukhary Islamic Arts Museum flat!-and this was good museum.

Wish I could just hop on a plane and go there asap!

I fell like I should do something more with my life!
I mean something meaningful!
Something that will make a difference!
Something that will be able to give me some benefit in this world and the hereafter!
Something that will give a thrill and money and is interesting!
Something that doesn't involve poking holes into mice or injecting rats with diabetes inducing drugs or spending hours in a lab at odd hours(i.e. 3am) or something that doesn't have to be only money related!

What am I asking for?

I'm asking for a miracle-that will allow me to do something that I will wake up in the morning excited to do and in the night make me happy,pleased and satisfied with my contribution to mankind and the ummah inshAllah(God willing)!

Who knows it just might come my way,knocking on the door and I just might open the door of destiny!-Ameen

Keep praying that inshAllah(God willing) I am guided to the best path!

and Yes I know it looks like I just discovered the BOLD button but know this each of those words has significance.
Each one of those words is a piece in the jigsaw puzzle of life!

Bwahahaha....

I have to wonder…why is it that people always accuse other people of weaknesses they see in themselves. I once while working as a trainer for SLEU heard in a seminar a trainer say something that went like this “other people are like your mirror. What you see in them is at times what you see or don’t see in yourself!”. It’s true ,you know that saying that it takes one to recognize another-a drug addict or a smoker they know another drug addict or smoker when they see one. Sometimes it’s by looking at the way their eyeballs always have a lost stare in them or by the bluishness around their lips-but its there.

I guess that’s why many more people find it today harder to trust people. I mean in societies or in places where one grows up taught that the world is a cruel and hard place to survive in if that same individual were to move or shift to someplace where the world was a soft and kind world the person just would not accept that such a place or such a society really and actually does exist.

So there you go –for all those people out there who truly believe that one person can bring a change or believe that they themselves can make a difference then they will-God Willing. However if they choose to make the world a pplace of haters-an arena of war and hate then let them be prepared to live the short life that we all havesurrounded by deceit ,hate and manipulation.

The dream of Gandhi , Malcolm X , Martin Luther King all started with an individual who stood up and said that they want to make a difference-they want to be heard. Everyone told them its not possible but as a cousin of mine likes to say the very word impossible says I (a)m possible.

It was the dream of the Prophet Muhammad(may peace be upon him) that his ummah would remain united and steadfast and it was and will be God willing. The time when we stand up and say to each other that the only difference between me and you is our level of faith-which we also cannot determine as it is only God who determines that. When we stand up and follow the hadith the says “every believer should want for his brother ,what he wants for himself” and by follow I mean read, recite and most importantly practice. The problem with a few of the people that I have met is that they choose not to do the third step-they just read and recite – this is where I must also correct myself so please do remember me in your doas(prayers)

Well in simple words I have absent from my usual dose of the internet for a very long time and after suffering (as a result of exam and the fyp) from withdrawal sympotoms and depression I have caved in.

I am back with a vengeance.

As I have some time on my hands I decided to put together a video based on a trip that I took for my fyp to get papaya which ended up in us going to genting highlands-ask not how it happened as we all still wonder about how it happened.

Nway here it is:-

The Monkey outside my Window

As the title suggests I have recently encountered a member of the monkey species –not in the jungle –but outside my hostel room/cubicle window-which by the way is in the jungle. Or at least the is what I call it. Observe pictures(taken with my trusty,sturdy and highly sensitive to any hand movement Samsung S760 ) below-

Thank God its not my window he is peeking in!

That is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the last couple of days…oh...and also the Annual Grand Dinner of Sciences Students in my uni –which besides the venue and the food isn’t really worth mentioning except for the fact that it was my first and is InshAllah my last AGD.

Apparently my FYP is going very slowly and not really at all as we have just found out that the 7 months of work that we put in will give us a very small quantity of results and hence we have to redo the whole thing again.

We are planning to go on a road trip all the way to Hulu Selangor (about 5 hours away-one way- from Kuantan) and bring back about a hundred papayas and start the re extraction on Thursday IA. Btw we will have to go and come back in satu hari(one day). Extremely tiring! As that means that for the next 48 hours after bringing the papayas we will have to clean with 70 % alcohol then peel,blend and mix with PBS/distilled water. Followed by incubate shaking them then centrifuging them followed by taking the supernatant and then use it for freeze drying.

So wish me all the best and will update next IA with information about the road trip.

On another note I have downed 5 days of Fast in Shawwal alhamdullillah and there is only 1 more day left.

Fi amanillah!

Also I have written an article(below) for the sciences magazine –erudition and here it is –fell free to comment on it –note : honest comments appreciated.

A common question that I am asked especially from my cousins when I travel back is “Hey what are you studying in Malaysia?’ On the reply that I am studying Bio Medical Science there is a collective sigh that goes around the room which is then replaced by the very common question “…and what is that in English ”and also the other common remark that I get is “…oh well, now that is a mouthful’. Well what is Biomedical Science –honestly the last time that I went back to India I had not much idea so I would cook up images of scientists working on a cure for cancer or better still a cure for a deadly diseases. Movies like The Legend or Resident Evil helped to get the message across.

Well now in my final year it’s much easier to grasp an understanding of what I might be able to offer the job market back home should I choose to pursue my studies in Biomedical Science or a related field. My country is unique as it is not only my motherland but also the motherland of a huge number of industries and also the motherland to one fourth of the world’s population. However before I digress , speaking of industries-India has enough to keep Industrial hygienists, Occupational Health personnel, Safety and Health officers and Pharmaceutical researchers –at this point I should mention that India is world famous for producing generic drugs, even some HIV treatment drugs which are then sold in countries like Thailand and Vietnam-busy and in demand for the next decade at least. Assuming that all the afore mentioned people don’t do their job properly then we have the environmental officers who then take charge. Speaking of the environment India has a lot of pollution so I would be making a valid assumption here saying that they probably would be in huge demand over there as well.

Ahh well at this point in time one just wants to finish and get on with life and see what one can offer the world-so to all those reading this please do remember me in your prayers and au revoir.

Its that time of the year again...

Eid is less than 48hrs away and well this is going to be the first eid that i will spend away from my family in 20 years. So to say the least it will be different. Spent the last few days in the IIUM masjid at night and in the room during the day.

it is 650am right now and my eyes are rolling shut so off i go ...

the article that ahsan is talking about is btw:-

http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=32189467329&ref=mf

The following views are slightly biased as they are based on my opinion and probably may not be understood in their complete context by those who are not familiar with my views.

The world's financial markets are in turmoil.The biggest insurance company in the world had collapsed i.e. AIG , a bank has gone bankrupt-and i thought that only happened to people and companies- and lost 700 million USD in the process and just day before yesterday a bunch of African students were attacked bear the central campus of my university in a series of racial insults and attacks that have been targeted at foreigners and foreign students living in Malaysia.

Not to forget that some members of the administration that are supposed to condone such sort of violence actually then say(as observed in the article above) -that the murderers tried to teach the africans good behaviour by attacking them with metal rods and knives. Well if that is the way to learn good behaviour then i'd run away from it rather than embrace knives and metal rods with open hands.

Racism is becoming a hge problem in todays world especially when we look at it from a globalized point of view and even more importantly a Muslim's point of view.

It is time we all stood up and said NO!

No to generalizing!
No to backbiting!
No to doing things behind people's backs!
No to racism!

FYP

This fyp is driving me nuts at times.

When you are doing work it is very stressful and when you are not doing anything it is still stressful. Well our samples(50%) are missing,how i don't know we put them in the freezer room and the beakers apparently grew legs and hands and opened the freezer door and walked away to God alone knows where.

Just got a drilling from my supervisor and rightly so as my group and I have not done much except for plan and plan without the implementation. Well inshAllah after the Raya(Eid)break which will be over in inshAllah 2 weeks time is when I will be able to start with the biopsy puncture practice and the extraction inshAllah.

A biopsy puncture on a 4 week old mouse-




Also an update on the VDo that I was making I probably can't finish it this ramadan simply because some of my actors have gone missing for the Raya break and I also plan to go missing for the Raya break and hence we will probably release it for the next ramadan inshAllah.

Yaawn...its still 2 hours to iftar and i am feeling really stressed out.

salam this is probably my only update in ramadan -

well life's pretty much the same except that Anwar Ibrahim is probably going to take over(according to him) by the end of this month as PM of Malaysia. Well wether he does or doesn't remains to be be seen

Btw I shud be releasing my first VDo from dariwala productions by the end of this week inshallah

well is time for sahur-so of i go to eat

This was written yesterday btw

Today is the first day of the first Ramadan in my life in which my father will not be alive. This is not going to be an easy task ,to break my fast knowing that I have only one parent left. I think that as time goes on the wound will probably heal however the hole that has been left ,the seat at the table that will not be filled all these are irreplaceable.
Alhamdullillah this month is full of blessings. Today is the first day of Ramadan and I was already ionvited for Sahur/Sahri (early morning breakfast-before the cracka’ dawn) to a friends room who had cooked a delicious aloo aur chicken ka salann(potato and chicken curry) which we had together with bread and garama garam chai(steaming hot tea) and I am invited to an uncle’s(family friend) house for iftar(breaking of the fast-at sunset).
Righto as for the conference –well it was quite interesting but what was fascinating was seeing a hundred or so Muslim brothers and sisters from all over the globe sitting in one room discussing their problems (categorized into 3 main ones-1.) the whole Moral Sanctions issue-also more crudely known as boycott, 2.)The Missionary issue with Indonesia being a case study and thirdly highly fitting for it being a conclusive topic 3.)The political power of an individual with cases like Gandhi and Malcolm X being mentioned and not to forget an extremely fitting example Florence Nightingale-the founder of the nursing profession). It was a rare occasion and gives one hope for the future where people from such diverse backgrounds with such diverse views can actually sit down tighter in one room and try to solve with some suggestions a few of the issues that mainly involve us Muslims and is very close to our heart. I have to say that I feel very blessed with the opportunity to have attended such a conference which was made all the more meaningful simply because it was totally student run and student oriented. It really gives so much more to hope for especially in terms of unity, so much more than the generation just above us.

End of yesterday's blog

being absolutely random agian:a bird just chirped outside my window-it is 7am in the morning

Life as we know it is extremely short. I was just remembering how my father(may Allah have mercy on his soul) was when we first walked into our rented house in BU. He was so happy that we had finally shifted into a house again after living for one and a half years in a condominium. All the space in the new house.Little did he know what would happen around 6 years later.The garden that he used to regularly buy flowers and plants for from Sungai Buloh on his way back from work . Not to forget the sole remaining papaya tree that was left of the many that we had planted(which later I think was struck by lightening or somehow also fell down at the ripe old age of 3yrs). Now the same door that he used to walk in with his two feet, the same door that he ushered many a guest in , was the same door that his body was lifted out off- on the shoulders of men.
Today after that fateful day was I think the first time that I was coming back- at the same time- on a Friday- from Kuantan so all the memories came flooding in again. The MaraLiner bus, the back seat,the bus stop, the whole jenazah process. Pretty much most of it came to my mind today.
Anyway tomorrow is inshallah the first student catered and organized conference from my university which I will be attending inshallah. So hopefully I can come back to the blog and say that 24 hours later I am much wiser and more knowledgeable about the issues affecting Muslims in today’s world.

The weekend that passed was a hectic one. It was going to Gombak campus on Friday evening as the CFS-IIUM Debate League was over the weekend. As part of my requirements for this co circular course that I am taking going for the league was necessary. It was fun Alhamdulillah as it has unis from all over Malaysia and so managed to get quite a lot of exposure. Anyway the thing was that it was being held in the matriculation centre which was where my story of this university began. As it so happened during one of the breaks between the debates I decided to got to my old hostel room and take a look. So I climbed to the fourth floor-which may I add was higher than I remembered, perhaps the concrete stairs had grown in 3 years. The good thing was that I didn’t get lost and stopped right in front of UKC 1-422. So I stared at the door for a few seconds and was wondering whether I should go in or not. As I was staring at the door it hit me, the whole leaving business-I realized it was part of life. To move on-to remember the good times but look forward and build more good times was always necessary. Dwelling in the past never helped anyone, however learning from the past and then applying the knowledge that was harnessed from the past in the future was just as pr perhaps even more important now. To cut a long story short I decided not to go into the room and instead went on to the next debate round.

Muslims have been called by different names all over the centuries. A collection of names which has been changd day by day according to the needs of the ruling powers. For example in the time of the Prophet(may peace be upon him) Muslims were known as Magicians or Sorcerers . Several hundreds of years later Muslims were called Mohammadeans-which while not a degratory term is not accurate as although Muslims do follow the teachings Of Muhammad (may peace be upon him) they do not worship him as do the Christians worship Jesus Christ.

In this day and age Muslims are known by the term of Terrorists or Jihadists. I personally believe that this terminology will also change with time. What Muslims will be called in the future really depends on the mood or the climate of the world. Today they are called terror mongers and killers simply because it is in the interest of a few to call them so. Whilst not denying that a few of them might in their ignorance be terror mongers and killers I would like then to present the argument that which society is perfect. Every society has a few bad apples and this is not a refection of society at large. Hence these “terrorists” and “killers” are likewise not a true reflection of Muslim Society at large.

Thankfully most of the people who have actually met Muslims in real life do not have the perception that the general mass media of the world is polluting that all Muslims are evil.

The talk nowadays is to build bridges all across communities and for that to happen there has to be a certain level of trust between communities and that level of trust cannot be present if one community continually labels he other with not to flattering terms.

By the way Gandhi has a quote “..be the change that you want to see in the world” . Based on this quote I think that its time that we all got to know out Muslims and Non-muslims colleagues/neighbors/friends/acquaintances more . More encompasses more than just knowing their names although that could be a start as well…

Good Luck in your “new orientations” people…

Whenever we are undegoing a test from God then we generally tend to think especially if it is a tough test that no one has previously undergone such a hardship or such a test in the history of man or at least no one in our knowledge has undergone such a test.

Well...



That might be true to a certain extent but then I am reminded of a verse from the Holy Quran that says:


لا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلا وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ رَبَّنَا لا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِنْ نَسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا رَبَّنَا وَلا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِنَا رَبَّنَا وَلا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا أَنْتَ مَوْلانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ

On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith."


And that pretty much sums it up.

I mean that we can go on and on about how much injustice there is the world and how people are not punished appropriately it is at that point that we must realise and remember that we will be rewarded and punished accordingly to our deeds in this world and as muslims we have to show patience and constancy at every turn in our life .

If we stop for a second and remember the tests on the men before us who were not even prophets ,people like Umar ibn Al Khattab ,people like Mawlana Mawdudi and the list goes on.

Just pray that we all remain steadfast on the straigth path inshAllah.(Ameen)

Salam everyone...

It is 2:30 am and I am only at the Literature Review Part part of my FYP Proposal Presemtation and I've spent the most part of the last 3 hours working on it and so far have ended up with only 6 slides to show for it.

phew!

Wipes off "sweat" from brow in the air conditioned 20 degree RC.

This FYP thing is really exhaustiing not to mention the other weekend w my group mate and I spent 9 hours from 2pm-11pm in the lab just for one part of the methodology which is rotavapourisation.

Oh yes btw I am now the proud grandfather of around 70 small mice pups and awaiting at least 100 more pups.


It has been a crazy few weeks in terms of lab work which for the next month or so only promises to increase .

Alrighty then back to the Proposal Presentation.

3:30am -Searching Pubmed foranything related to the antioxidant properties of Zinc and frustratingly can't find anything yet.aargh!

btw am up to slide number 7 and on my literature review now alhamdullillah

4 :50 am- i am now on the methodlogy part which actually leaves me with (including this part) 2 more parts of the presentation to go. btw the coffee has done its work and so far all I have to worry about is my cold and the huge pile of tissues on my desk that might I add keeps growing.

5:05 am -restarted methodology after a couple of minutes break

5:23 am -Going back to hostel from kulliyyah

3 months ago...

Yesterday it marked the first 3 months since my dad passed away and i decided to publish something that I wrote a little while back....

“The weight of the pen is heavier than the weight of a sword”

There is a lack of quality education in today’s society and nowadays there are many seminars,movies and speeches that individually address the lack of a proper education in our society today and I think that is what Islam brought i.e. when it was properly implemented. I mean the fundamental reason for most of the globe’s problems are not rooted in extremism or poverty but rather a lack of the right type of education. That is why I believe that God has put a special reward aside for those who are teachers.

People like my late father.

Just the other day I met a magistrate from Pakistan who turned out to be one of my father’s students. I have also met a Nigerian who was doing his PhD under him and a student from the Ivory Coast , not forgetting the thousands of Malaysian ,Nigerian and Indian students that learnt Evidence, Criminal Law ,Criminal Procedure Code and scores of other legal subjects as well as many life lessons from him. Police officers, Judges, Professors from all walks of life, Government Officials and literally people from all sorts of careers and from all walks of life sent their deepest condolences to my family when my father passed away. On the 11^th of July,2008 it will be 3 months , approximately 90 days since I last spoke to my father and that day still is as fresh in my memory as if it were happening now... for me that day at times can play like a movie ... in front of my eyes as if it were the present.

The call that I got at 2:10 pm from my mum saying that your father has fainted, the call from my brother who was overseas telling me to rush back home as soon as possible. The laptop bag that I grabbed while in the lab working on my FYP and the time later , sitting in the car on my way to the bus station ... telling my group mates that if everything would be okay then I would try and come back in the following days to finish up our Final Year Project which we had just started work on the day before, the last day that I saw my dad alive(10^th of April,2008)...the rushing to the bus terminal(I was there in 15 minutes max from the time that he fainted)...the buying of the bus ticket for the earliest available bus at 3pm for RM 20 which was a slightly raised rate. Being offered the driver’s seat initially as there was no space to sit for such a sudden booking and then moving to the backmost seat. Calling home at 2:40 pm and asking my mum what was happening and remembering that she said that they are trying everything pray Haris, pray and hearing her recite the prayer(doas) loudly on the phone and then calling my brother and asking him to book the earliest flight back home and then sitting on the bus with my heart pounding and praying that my dad would still be alive by the time I got home. Then calling at 3:00pm and asking my sister to pass the phone to Aunty N who was there and hearing from her that they didn’t want to tell me until I reached home but that it wasn’t good news.

Then the call from my brother in law and sister confirming it , followed by a long 3 hour bus ride in which I cried so much but all that the people around me were doing were trying to ignore me and the calls that I made and got-which had me telling people about it.

Those 3 hours were the shortest in my life and they whizzed past like they were a few long minutes. Then reaching the Gombak toll and being picked up by Uncle A I and initially being brought back home and then turning around to go straight to the mosque as the traffic was too heavy.

Receiving the calls from loads of people asking about where the Funeral Prayer(Jenazah) was going to be held and then reaching the mosque, meeting a friend of mine while doing wudu’(ablution) which was then followed by me praying my Asr and then going to meet another friend of mine ,E in the ISD office.

Then waiting for the Jenezah van to arrive and drinking a small bottle of Apple Juice simply because I knew that it was going to be a long night and I needed Sugar in my body and needed it fast as I hadn’t eaten lunch.

At around 6:45 the Jenezah van pulled up outside the mosque lower ground floor and then helping to carry a long white box which was all covered up, into the bathing room.Shaking all over at that time both at the coldness of the room and the fear of seeing my father for the first time since he passed away.

Then Uncle MAM and AQ who had come with the van from the house asked if I wanted to see my father’s face to which I replied in the affirmative.

Taking off the cover which was actually quite light and then seeing my father’s face for the first time after his passing away wrapped in a cotton blue chadder(cloth) and then breaking down initially only to be told by Uncle MAM that my prayers would benefit him more to which Ireplied and slightly rudely as well that I would pray as well. The half smile that was breaking on my father’s face at that time was what I noted and this was confirmed by a family friend ,who later told me that your father was smiling after he passed away , Inshallah this is a correct assumption by all those who saw it.

Covering the mayyit(dead body) with the long box-like cover to await the ritual washing and then having to meet all the lecturers and family friends who had gathered outside the mosque. This was followed by Maghrib prayers and then I met my mum and sister for the first time since it had happened.

It was a very tough moment which was brief as well as I had to go downstairs to aid in the washing of the body which was done by 3 main people ,myself and Uncle AK and another uncle. We were also assisted by the mosque assistants and then later the chief imam of the Mosque.

Then taking the body upstairs to the ante room which was located outside the prayer hall and then the Isha prayer which was a beautiful prayer lead by a Nigerian Imam with a sweet melodious voice Mashallah who later ended up leading the Jenezah prayer as well. Then the announcement by uncle AK in both BM and English- that so and so a lecturer of so and so a faculty has passed away and please pray the Jenezah prayer for the deceased after the Isha prayer (the announcement was made before the Isha prayer),however there was no need to ask anyone as I saw most(99%) of the 300 or so people in the congregation stayed behind to pray the Jenezah prayer.

Then taking the mayyit to the van where I then called my mother and sister to have a last look at my father before we took him to the graveyard. Also at that time an Uncle advised me to ask if he(my late father-May Allah(swt) have mercy on his soul) owed anyone money then to claim it from the family and if he had offended anyone to forgive him. At this point , may I add no one in the crowd replied in the affirmative to either of the afore mentioned questions.

Then going with M bhai and uncle MAM in the Jenezah van to the graveyard and then at the graveyard exiting the van which they had parked as close to the open grave as possible and since this was all happening at around 9-9:30pm they had put spotlights all around the grave so that we could see all around us.

Then getting into the grave initially with my rubber slippers that my friend AA had brought and then removing them and then joined in the grave by E and AA ,with AA at the top part of the grave, which was facing Makkah , and E towards the bottom part of the grave with myself in the centre and then placing our hands underneath my father’s body to lift him.

Lifting him and then slowly lowering him into the grave with our arms and placing him tilted towards his right side and then loosening and opening the strings that bound his body as well as opening the hood that covered his face. After that E and AA climbed out of the grave which was up to my shoulders and then we placed a wooden board tilted side ways to prevent the soil from falling directly on him and also leaving some space where he would have been questioned by the Angels as all of us will be.

At the very end filling up the gaps in between the board and the earth with pieces of hard clay which were wedged in between the sides of the grave and wooden board. This was then followed by using a hoe to pull earth back into the grave and stepping on the earth as it hardened and then climbing out of the grave as it got higher and then piling soil on top with a spade and making a bump which was sticking out of the ground to mark the grave.

We then proceeded to place 2 green plants at each corner of the grave and then sprinkled a few flowers on top and that was officially the end of my earthly life spent with my loving father.

On a side note-That is where we will end up ,in the ground whether we are prepared for it or not. How we live this short earthly part or our lives will determine how we will live the remainder of our lives ,whether we will end up in heaven or hell, eternal salvation or eternal punishment.

You decide!