TRIPLETS plus ONE

My kids | Malaysia Children Photography

mOmmyofTRIPLETSplusONE — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:34:14 +0000

Yay, my nausea is getting better. But it has not made its total dissapearance. Im still having problem with eating and such. But i notice that i will tend to eat whenever i go majlis orang. Hmm, kena attend more majlis ni, but prob is im not in the mood to socialize n miggle around.

Anyway, since i havent update my blog lately with photos of my kids, decided to put random photos of them today.

athirAh pantang nampak air nowadays. sedar2 u’ll hear noises in the bathroom, she dah bukak all her baju and already in the shower. and most of the time she’ll be busy scrubbing the toilet bowl too. And there will days that someone will be very unlucky coz she ended up using org punye toothbrush! she used the toothbrush for hard to reach corners,so smaller brush easier to reach.so now all toothbrushed need to be placed high above the bathroom cabinet

the minute any of the door opens, she will run out cari air kt luar pulak. if the pool ade air takung cinonet setakat air hujan pun she will jump in. or even if its air they main smlm yg penuh dgn rumput rumpai, she will still jump in

hArith is really into football now. i do feel that he looks like a big boy in the photos below. bday diorang the other day he dpt goal post, so syiok petang2 training bola with the dad. i have yet taken any photos of him during his training session with the dad.

hArith pulak pantang dapat garden hose, he’ll be either busy watering the plants or washing the car. Hmm maybe one day we can open up car wash for charity…hihi

he is very thorough in washing the cars. mmg boleh melambung bil air. satu tayar ntah brapa lama die basuh.

and prob is when he starts washing one car, he’ll go to the next car. ended up nak wash 3 4 kereta. imagine how long that takes. and will ended up screaming crying when we call it a stop.

and this boy, im having problem to get him to brush his teeth. tgk lah gigi die…

and this boy can really eat. well talking about eating habit, alhamdulillah all my kids can really eat. and i need not worry about them getting hungry coz sume dah reti cari food sendiri. athirAh has no problem panjat cabinet amiq biskut. or even panjat cabinet bukak periuk nasi to take rice. if takde lauk pun no prob, she’ll be happy to eat just plain rice. uZair on the other hand, will panjat his high chair as an indication “i want food”. my kids have in between snack quite often, fruits lah, biscuit and such. and the best part im happy with them is that they have no prob eating veggie. they even take spicy food

look at uZAir, sempat lagi nak makan before joining the bro and sister splashing water in the “pool”. the minute he saw bro n sis were outside, he quickly run out with his bowl of cereal (without milk)

Homeless being highlitghted in the newspaper

mOmmyofTRIPLETSplusONE — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:59:08 +0000

I know, ive been talking alot about homeless. Despite the terrible nausea, i decided to sit down and write an entry. Quite sometime back i received and email from someone who didnt quite agree about the food distribution. i wanted to reply to her by email personally but somehow my kids with their super fast fingers smash the keyboard and zass, they deleted it. didnt manage to retrieved her email.

im in no position to really respond to the comment coz i dont go out every week. but the few numbers of night i went out was enough to teach me a lesson, not just me but also my lil kids. they no longer play with their food whenever we remind them about the homeless. they take care of their things better now after realising how fortunate they are. That was what a 3 year old boy saw with his own eyes.

Recently, the newspaper highlighted about the homeless, not just the adults but also the homeless kids, they are as young as 10 years old, left roaming in the city of kl to defend themselves. along the way they ended up becoming drug mules for the adults as they needed money.

Thos who didnt get hold of the newspaper, here are a number of link written in the newspaper, i took it from the Star online:

Sadly, when we talk on homeless, ppl have the mind set of those beggars, drug addicts sleeping at the roadside. yes these scenario exists but as what the newspaper also mentioned:

“These homeless in the capital city are not all beggars or vagabonds. In fact, many of them hold jobs during the day.

However, they do not make enough to pay for houses or rooms and find it easier to make ends meet by sleeping on the streets.

There are no accurate figures on the number of homeless people in the city as only a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are aware of their existence.

Many do not even look shabby and a few even have cell phones and dress well.”

“DRESSED in a polo T-shirt, long pants and leather shoes, Amran’s appearance can be deceiving. His fluent English also makes it hard to believe that somebody like him can be homeless and living on the streets for the last 30 years.”

In the New Straits Time recently highlighted on homeless kids

“Several hundred teenagers are living in abandoned buildings in Kuala Lumpur. They roam the streets, robbing and prostituting themselves to survive. One couple even made a sex tape for sale. Shockingly, the parents of some of these kids know what they are doing.

THEY are unwanted, neglected and shunned by their parents and society.

These teenagers, aged between 14 and 18 and numbering several hundred, live on the streets, exposing themselves to the underground activities thriving in the hidden parts of this city.”

I cant remember was it NST or Star that i read few days back ( n cant seem to cari it online) those homeless kids are rather bright, one of them left home age 12 after obtaining UPSR 3 A’s 2 B’s while another gal left after PMR who obtained 5a’s 3 b’s. The form 3 gal left coz father was abusive.

I had my very own up close n personal experience with homeless children. I was on an assignment for my undergrad, i managed to contact a lady from an NGO to bring me to the homeless kids. Accompanied with 2 other uni mate, we met the lady at the bridge near The Mall at 11:45pm. As i approached the lady, who was already with few kids, the lady salam me and whispered “y are u wearing tudung? you gonna scare these kids?!!!” and i was speechless, i did inform her i was from uia, couldnt she foresee we will come with tudung? anyway, i came out with a story quickly for the kids. The 3 of us were problematic children, being sent to a special programe by Social Welfare and we were suppose to be at Kem Ibadah but we ran away from the mosque, hence the attire.

The lady ajak the kids and i to lepak at the mamak, the ice breaking session went pretty well. I asked them how do they survive in the city since its been a year we’ve been off the street. So they told us their story. The youngest was 9 years old. Among the stories, dad remarried and stepmom refused to have him around, sexual abuse/ physical abuse parents, poverty, parents pass away and no relative willing to take them in since relatives pun kais pagi makan pagi.

The were dressed nicely, i asked them where do they get their shower? They go to the public toilets but if they have extra funds they will take up those RM50 hotel room to shower and have a good rest. Money? they steal handphone mostly. What was their tactic? they said usually kt mamak, ppl will placed their handphone on the table and busy reading the newspaper, especialy those who read and put up the newspaper, it will block them from seeing their handphone on the table, that’s when they take it. THey would then sell the handphone at various shops. They said, these shops knows we steal it so we dont really get a good ammount for it. But watever amount we get, we will share it. Any “income” of the day will be shared with everyone, for food mainly. If there’s extra money, they’ll buy new baju at chow kit.

If they dont “earn” anything what do they eat? They will walk at the chow kit area, grab one or two fruits quitely frm the vendor. Most stalls vendor will are busy with customers, they dont notice these kids grabbing one or two fruits (i.e apple, mango, oranges) Or they will go to back alley of restaurant to ask for extra food.

Where do they sleep? Under the bridge at The Mall.

While we were busy talking, the lady left us. Of coz we were panic. How could the lady sukehati tinggalkn kitorang. We were running out of topic, good thing one of my friend (my cousin actually) was like a moving jukebox, we talk about music and the kids started singing to all the song we mentioned. My cousin pun ikut layan nyanyi, segala lagu lah, dari rock zaman 90-an pun diorang layan. It was almost 2am already. We spend another 30mins or so and i came out with the story that we really have to get back to the mosque for the Kem Ibadah before the facilitator/ustazah wakes up for the qiamulail programme. We told them qiamulail starts at 3am so we have to rush and sneak in the mosque again. Pheww, lucky thing we went back in one piece. We sempat walk with them along the kaki lima kedai2 kat KL, diorang sempat lagi tunjuk men and prositute going to the hotel rooms and all.

Few days later, i went to Jabatan Kebajikan for further research, wah diorang trus deny my story, blum dgr lagi waht i have to say. I just mentioned the word homeless children, and the lady was denying it. She said those sume illegal imigrant, from mynmar, and bangsa2 lain. tu sume sindiket. she said, we do our rounds up quite often and never see locals.She just refused to listen to my story. She said i should come again another day, she will put aside all papers and articles for me. But as day passed by, i kept calling her she refused to answer my call. mcm2 alasan her colleague kasi.

And after the NST highlighted on these children, among the respond gov gave was

“We need to check on this. We need to find out who these children are, whether they are locals or if they are children of those who are not from here,” he said.

It is sad to see such kids going through all this. A 17 years old couple even record their sexual activity and sell it to earn money.

Triple Celebration 2010

mOmmyofTRIPLETSplusONE — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:44:20 +0000

*warning! lotsa photos involved in this entry

It has been a month plus since we had the celebration. I really have to start doing a post on it before i lupe the things that had happen. This post might not be in the proper sequence since i really cant think straight especially after going through the photos. I really dont know why this time around, my pregnancy really anti the laptop and going through all the photos just make my nausea worst.

So where do i start? The preparation i guess. Well i cant remember how long it took me to prepare. But based on the email of graphic design that i received for the birthday theme, it was on the 2nd May and i dont remember printing it straight away and cutting it . Well, i used the trial version of adobe acrobat, and the trial is only for 30days, after the birthday my trial version was still valid, so i guess i did it all in less than 30 days. Yes there was certainly lots of priniting and cutting to do. I used up the whole ink catridge ,coloured as well as black n white. and of coz lots of papers involved . Anyway, the graphic design was done by Partiesbyhardie . i requested for the theme and also came out with the idea of boarding pass as card invitation.

Among the decoration made using those graphic designs were for the straws, cupcake topper, and table centre piece

The 4 pictures below credits to lana from her facebook, she came early and managed to snap photos of the deco

besides cutting the papers, i bake the cupcakes and cookies. sorry no fancy creamy cupcakes as syauQi said that will only caused mess and such, leceh budak nk makan, so just simple cupcakes and cookies for kids AND parents to munch. I wanted to make the “burger cupcake” myself but i doubt it i have the time so i requested my reliable trusted friend Fadd to do it. I told her how i wish to have it and gave her the link of the burger so she knows what i was talking about and wallaaa, she came with trays of burger!

those who wants to order this yummy burger im pretty sure she’ll be more than happy to accept orders (wahh i lak yg sukahati confident she takes order, hihi)

Other decos involved were…

signage

table centrepiece which was various “pattern” of roads with choc cars and cupcake toppers as road signs. I had the idea but due to terrible “gastric” (yes back then i thought i was having gastric but few days b4 the bday i came to know that i was pregnant, hence the no appetite in eating and caused empty stomach / gastric). so i rely on my another trusted friend Alia to help me out with this. Pagi tu she came over, we potong the sterofoam and tampal the roads,rumput cucuk signage and we place the choc the very last min takut ended up my kids makan)

balloons of coz, to fill up the sitting room as well as ikat at the chairs outside

oh, i also made photobooth but i think i didnt place it strategically, it went unnoticed by most people sadly, jenuh nak potong carboard tv and get it painted. mayb sbb it didnt stand properly tu org tak notice (i want to blame syauqi on this, hahaha *evil laugh* sbb each time bgtau he will say nanti die pegi hardware shop tp tak pegi2 pun) nway here’s the big red car

and a photo of mak2 budak since budak2 syok main mende lain, so mak budak amiq gmbar

photo credits to yaya

and the “main wall” was done that morning. i had my skool friends, the twins who came over pagi to help me with the last min thingy

cakes were done by ayannmama.blogspot.com i requested for such cake, the elder 2 to have 3 tier as a symbol they turned 3 and uZair had 2 tier as he turned 2 years old. surprisingly yesterday we were talking about cakes and hArith still remembers that he had car on his cake and uZair had trucks while athirAh had princess on it. see, syauQi…who said they wont remember a thing! hihi (hint hint, sila approve next year punye bday party..haha)

My sister and i sesat went we wanted to collect the cake, spend an hour plus on the road, then baru teringat candle tak beli lagi. it was already 3, my tummy was empty trus pening coz i think gas dh naik kepala, almost vomited in hanah’s car, pheww lukcy thing i didnt. when we reached home few guests already arrived.

i had a very quick shower and set things up. few things were still not yet done. i didnt do the food labeling yet. and didnt set up the activities booth properly. i didnt have siganage for it, thus nobody knows wat was on the table. but i guess everyone was pretty much occupied with other things thats why it was unnoticed. i had homemade finger painting, homemade playdough and also DIY cupcakes. The cupcakes were already ready, for the kids to put their own icing.

My bad, i cant expect ppl to know wat is wat without any label/signage. See the dough was still in the tupperware,obviously ppl were cluless wat was it. i was suppose to bring out the shapes and all for kids to play with the dough but i forgotten. (see photo below). beside the scissors were the icing for the DIY cupcakes. And i was suppose to bring out aprons to place it there so kids can look like lil chef but again i miss out on that. Had 5 aprons ready but didnt bring out, aiyoo.

photo credit to hanis

Then again, as i said mayb all kids were very much occupied that they didnt bother to explore this section.

i dont have any pics of kids in the sanpit n trampoline. managed to get photos of the sandpit from lana, thanks again lana. Wah lana’s boy dah macho conquer the sandpit. last year he was screaming when his mom got him to touch the sand, he graduated from his OCD aight lana? bravo! looks like u can have more diving trip lana while hQ enjoy the beach!

Before the party, we rushed to curve to get more sand to replenish the sand that my kids been throwing out of the sandpit. bought 3 new pack but my gardener didnt undestand my instruction, he didnt bukak all 3 pack and isi the sandpit. instead he place the pack tepi sandpit. sorry kids if the sand tak cukup for u all to bury ur hand and kaki

And since the theme were vehicle/tranportation, we had the “racing car”. again the wheels were last minute glued so it didnt stay well, tecabut habis tayar, aiyak.

most of the kids malu2 to join the race. if u notice the cars number plate were after the kids innitial and age, we had AH3, AZ3 and AU2 . syauQi asked me asal old skool sgt number plate, zaman bile punye keta from Perak ni, haha.

Besides having the inflatable bouncer and big ball in the air, we had the mini pool. but i guess kids were very smart, despite it being covered, twice kids went it before time.

my boys were supposed to wear their 3/4 white pants with that shirt but hArith insists on wearing jeans for both of them. i was afraid die panas, tp nak jugak pakai jeans.

kids were already eager to jump into the pool, uZair was asleep..had to wake him up to have the cake cutting session before all kids get wet. he was lil cranky of coz, woke up so early in the morning to help/busybody with the preparation and ended up knock out the minute guest started coming.

And sorry peeps, i made all of you sang the bday song 3 times. I really love the look on hArith’s face when ppl sang the song for him. He was delighted! Thanks to hanim from pinkertonic for capturing that lovely moment! PRICELESS!

muka hArith masih teruja!

not only his cake, the other 2 punye cake pun hArith beria nk tiup

and uZAir was still half asleep refused to stand on his own,

my brother kate the kids baju make them look like circus trio, haha

and after the cake cutting, all kids were ready to get wet.

the pool cover pun tak sempat remove betul2, all kids dah jump in.

and the peak was the Kamikaze Blast i guess…here’s hArith doing the demo

and here’s syauQi doing the demo on athirAh , “what if” ur child doesnt want to run and skid on it?

here’s the answer…throw her!

yes, if your child does not want to run n skid, you “throw” him/her instead…hihi

and after seeing athirAh’s happy face being “thrown”, other parents were confident to allow syauQi to “throw” their kids too

Kids were queueing up for their turn to be “thrown” by syauQi.

while the Kamikaze Blast were going on, my sister came with a pail of water balloons!

while busy throwing water ballon, i had a surprise visit by my aunt and family all the way from kg Pontian, if kawan ade istilah bestfriend, ni my bestauntie. every week sure call borak2. kadang tu a week smpai 4 5 kali call!

uZair was fully awake when he saw the water play, he was very much occupied with the water sprinkler

among other photos to share,

kids were enjoying the swings

the transportation theme also include water vehicle,

we had trouble getting athirAh out of the water. It was already gloomy (but alhamdulillah it didnt rain, despite it being very very gloomy, heard there was puting beliung in kota damansara, all pokok besar tumbang akar tercabut). athirAh actually jumped again into the pool after we brought her into the house. so ended up i had to inflate the pool and buang the air, but she was enjoying to the very last drop of the water in the pool

hAppy faces of the parents seeing their kids happily enjoying the day

this photo taken by yaya’s husband, husband die jadi paparazi snapping away bini munching cookies, hihi

among the things that i forgotten and need to take note for future reference (some i’ve mentioned though)

proper label/siganage for activity booth
i wanted to decorate the kids eating table but seriously i was running out of time, tgk lah meja tak berlapik pun. i wanted to serve the cupcakes, “burger” on the kiddies table so it is easily reachable for them. i wanted to make a road like on that table too and place the choc car on it.
syauqi lupe to on the bubble machine, it was nicely placed up at the corner but he didnt on it. penat je rush gi toys r us
instruction to fill up the sandpit was not understood by the gardener, next time kena double cek
almost forgotten the steam hotdog, half way tru the party baru kelam kabut suruh syauqi steam kan.
kids were looking fwd to jump into the pool, rushed for the cake cutting session till i forgotten to ensure all family members were around. My sis Hanah was not there during the cake cutting as she was busy filling up the water balloon at the back
i wanted to make a “black carpet” from the gate toward the garden. yup instead of red carpet, i wanted to have a black carpet representing road (in accordance to the transportation theme) to lead to the garden. but tak jumpe those cheap carpet nipis zaman dulu sek gune tuk surau.
this banner was only put up half way tru the party. (again pics credit to pinkertonic)
should have place the photobooth at a more strategic place, despite the signage it went unnoticed by majority, ke sbb my photobooth takde rupe photobooth ? *sob*sob =(
and most importantly, to let my family members know what i have in mind. that was the prob, each tim emy mom tanye this and that i just didnt have the energy to tell her my plan. so camane nk expect them to help with the final touches. but of coz they already did their part ALOT =) Thanks to my mom and Hanah. and Hanah dah risau nanti by the time anak die punye bday we all dah tak kose nk buat party..hahaha. n notice the “traffic lite” by the door? sadly we didnt have enough “tiang” to have a traffic light for uZair.

and of coz a BIG THANK YOU to En Ahmad Syauqi for approving my kertas keja and belanjawan to have a birthday party this year. although he was NOT part of the commitee print and potong bagai, he actually said this when he saw me cutting the papers n all

him: i penat lah

me: asal u penat, bukan i suruh u potong ke ape?

him: seryes, i penat tgk u prepare! potong lah, glue lah…brapa byk tah kena potong

(especially the goodie pack, die suruh i beli je those plastic party pack, and i kept telling him, “eh bukan i suruh u tolong i pun, and again he replied “ye lah…tapi i penat ah tgk u prepare”)

lupe nk amiq photo of the goodie packs individually and the crayon roll was suppose to be in a proper plastic bag with a thank you note tp again, running out of time. n hope i didnt miss out anyone, informing the parents that some of the chocs in the goodie pack contains nuts incase ade yg allergic to nuts
the crayon roll was sewn by Neeza from www.neezaneedles.com . oh yes, how i wish im good at sewing straight lines and sew it myself, hihi. good thing Ikea ade stock those vehicle printed material to match the birthday theme =). parents you can put the crayon roll in ur handbag and whenever u eat out, while waiting for the food, kids can be occupied with colourings
n opss, i think i miss out on few invitation. as i said prior to the bday i “gastric” mmg tak larat buat pape. lupe nk email few ppl nk invite. sorrryyy

Thanks everyone for spending your Sunday with us for the TRIPLE Celebration 2010. I really wanted to to send a Thank You email to everyone individually but blame it on my hormone. i just couldnt sit down infront of the pc/laptop. thats y it takes me a month plus to do this entry

My kids, hArith especially was very very happy, especially when he saw his skoolmate

hmm, so what should we have next year? any idea? takkan waterplay lagi. wahh confident next year dpt approval lagi…hihi

Again, THANK YOU everyone. sorry for the short coming, i didnt get to chit chat with all of u. sorry if ade yg tak cukup tempat duduk and all. i think i had about 50 kids sbb we had almost 55 goodie pack and sume licin habis.

Hope u all had a great time =)

*and oh my dad made a surprise trip back for the bday party! my dad kena posted in Jeddah since last year, and tomorrow my parents will be back for good, hooray. i’ll have xtra hands that is!

**photos credit to Hafiz from Wow photo. but i had to put my watermark sbb tanak org main cilok sebarangan. i dont have any other watermark besides that. so again, photos were by Hafiz unless stated otherwise

Sound asleep

mOmmyofTRIPLETSplusONE — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:15:59 +0000

I just hv to share this,athirah found a new spot to sleep.we were driving my parents car n there wasnt car seat in tat car.she was enjoying the freedom of moving about depan belakang,had to hold her frm going infront sbb kacau syauqi driving.
and suddenly she started panjat belakang lak,since that kept her still,i let her be, she was enjoying the music coz speaker was close to her,few mins later,there was silent,no rambling from her,i turn back n saw her nicely asleep. die ingat caravan ke kot ade ngam2 bunk for her,haha

she slept through out the journey frm damansara to sjmc

Of World Cup, Shaaban and Ramadhan

mOmmyofTRIPLETSplusONE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:38:41 +0000

i’ve been wanting to make an entry bout my kids bday but unfortunately my head spins each tim ei wanna go tru all the photos. gonna take some time till i have the strength to do so, insyaAllah.

Meanwhile i wanna share with you an email my brother gave me. He just got back from South Africa yesterday to watch the World Cup. No, this is not about the Paul the octopus . Hope you can take a min or two to read through it. May Allah give His blessing and guidance to all of us, insyaAllah

Assalamualaikum,

How’s everyone? I pray Allah’s guidance is upon all of us and He
blesses us with all that is good.

What did you guys think of the World Cup? I’m sure it left as quickly
as it arrived. Conveniently I was supporting Spain:D

As some of you know, alhamdulilah I managed to experience the world
cup fever in South Africa and it was definitely an experience to
remember. It’s obvious that there’s many aspects of it that, as
muslims, we don’t agree on. Be it the wastage of money, alcohol
consumption, heedlessness or the amount of time it distracts us from
our responsibilities.

But back to our daily lives, I believe as muslims we are obliged to
take lessons and learn from it. To use the teachings of Islam to study
history with wisdom. Then use history as a yardstick to measure our
progress, rather then be stuck in the glory or failing of the past.

Many lessons can be extracted from the world cup. South Africa held a
hugely succesful world cup. Much was said before the event started.
South Africa had a reputation of a country rife with racial tension
and discrimination. A third world country naysayers were saying doomed
to fail under the limelight. But as the final curtain comes to a
close, everyone can see it was an event to be remembered, one of the
best runned world cup ever perhaps. And we can only see that it only
comes with detailed planning and investments. They invested billions
into infrastructure and many man hours. From the state to the
volunteers to the residence, everyone put in their share of work.
Logistical planning was a nightmare especially since S Africa is only
a third world country. It needed to practically built brand new
stadiums, transport infrastructure, and plan for each detail of
hosting world cup. As you can attest now they pulled it off and the
fireworks display at the end of the final proved to be a fitting end.

As we approach Shaaban and Ramadhan, it’s important for us to
reevaluate our planning for it. Do we want to have a successful
Ramadhan? Do we have a plan in place? It starts with Shaaban, the holy
month where we start to prepare ourselves physically and spiritually
for hardship of Ramadhan.

We saw Spain lifting the cup the first time in history. I’d say it was
a deserving victory for them as they played some of the most
entertaining and consistent football. I’m certain it came with
preparation. They ply their trade at one of the best leagues in the
world, harnessing their skill through good competition and company.

Just like it, it shows the importance of the crowd we mix around with.
Our prophet S.A.W warned us to always keep with good company as we are
upon the religion of our friends. So we need to check ourselves and
see if our friends are bringing us closer to Allah or otherwise.

Spain also had a good coach who displayed his tactical acumen and
courage. He got his tactics and selections correct, even leaving out
the hugely popular but under performing Torres for the semifinals and
the finals.

We saw how the french team went into complete disarray under their
coach. The vastly talented team disintegrated into chaos through
rebellion of their captain. Immediately we saw the effect on the
pitch. They left in disgrace, the wrath of their whole nation behind
them. Showing the importance of the management and coaching team.

For us, we need to see who our teachers are, who are guiding us,
whether it’s in accordance to Quran or the Sunnah. Whether we have the
right teacher to teach, befriend and guide us on the correct path.
Whether we have a healthy relationship with the Quran or not. It also
teaches us the importance of communication as the french team brought
the whole world into their internal feud. The spanish team was mainly
from Barcelona(without Messi) so we could see the special togetherness
within them that brought them their success. Unity of the ummah is of
utmost important as we all know. It’s one of the most integral part of
our ummah.

And we know at the end of the day, regardless how well you are
playing, it is Allah who decides as He wish. Teams like Germany played
well, Argentina was the overwhelming favourites but it is Allah who
will permit the winner.

Regardless of our talent or experience, we must always pair our effort
with constant dua and remembrance of Allah. It comes in hand in hand.
On our part it is our effort and resolve, we leave the matter of
success to Allah. As we are rewarded for our effort, inshaAllah with
the correct intention, our success will be in the Afterlife,
regardless of what happens in this transient world. It is Allah swt
who decides who He honours.

So as the team progressed and the world cup comes to an end, we see
it’s all about organisation, about planning, about resolve, about
collaboration between groups and people. I saw inherent in everyone,
the quality that we can work together, we can live together regardless
of our background if we share a common goal. We are talking about
South Africa who only 20 years ago had the apartheid system in place
and they could put their differences aside to host and enjoy the world
cup together. A country with many ethnicity and 11 official
languanges.

I saw the spirit of the humanity in beautiful colours. The fan walk in
Cape Town, the route of around 2.5km from the train station to the
stadium had a reported volume of 300,000. It was an amazing
electrifying atmosphere. People from all spectrum of lives came
together to enjoy the environment. I saw tablighis, maulanas, hijabis,
non hijabis, non muslims(not scantilly clad because it was winter!)
and fans from all over the world. Everyone was just enjoying their
time, getting along with each other and soaking up the atmosphere. I
know of families who just came out for the walk and then return home
for the match. It was such an uplifting experience that puts aside
whatever differences that we have with each other.

For the opening match, since it was on a Friday, the muslim society
organised a jumuah solah on an empty field near the stadium. The
attendance was so overwhelming it overflowed out of the field. Men and
women came in their bafana bafana colours, some with flag coloured
hijabs and the field was overflowing with people. It was especially
memorable since women overthere don’t usually go to the masajid for
friday prayers due to the lack of space.

There were concern that South Africa was unsafe but mashaAllah there
were polices everywhere. Every one of them were happy to help you out
and guide you to the places you want to go. They were like tourist
guide in police uniforms.Together in enjoining good and forbidding
evil, even the most notorious of places can be a secure place.

So Shaaban is our opportunity to start planning for Ramadhan. We need
to create the buzz for Ramadhan so that when it comes, we are ready to
receive it’s bountiful blessings. We need to start talking about the
virtues or Shaaban and Ramadhan to each other. Remind each other of
the Sunnahs. Do voluntary fasting together with friends, encourage
people to do good. If they have trouble waking up for subuh, call and
remind without being judgmental. Go to mosque together and remember
it’s a colloborative effort of all muslims. Bring out the Vuvuzelas,
the jabulanis, the flags, the banners of Ramadhan. I don’t mean it
literally but you know, our Quran, attires, banners, Cds or whatever
it is that we can to create that buzz. Let us feel the atmosphere of
Shaaban and Ramadhan so that at the end or Ramadhan we are among the
succesfull ones. The ones lifting the trophy and enjoying the fruit of
success.

As I left South Africa, everyone was saying how they feel sad that the
world cup is coming to an end. Let’s make sure that we feel the same
towards the end of Ramadhan.

Just in the space of a month, the world’s view on africa seems to have
changed. From a country known languishing in myriad of issues like
poverty, HIV infection, languid infratructures and high crime rates to
a country beeming with hope and potential. Let’s make our Ramadhan our
month of change and paradigm shift.

Make Shaaban and Ramadhan a process to attain taqwa, which will lead
to charactor refinement. With superior character don’t you think we
can live together in a better world? InshaAllah by being better
people, we’ll be equipped to serve, provide and engage to form a
better society. We ask Allah to give us taqwa so that we will be
better people Ameen.

Shaaban is our training ground for Ramadhan. Remember that the
accursed Shaytan is tied in Ramadhan. It only means that he will be in
overdrive in Shaaban, calling us away from our ibadah, so that in
Ramadhan we are already in autopilot to neglect Allah and our duties.
Shaytan will create emnity in any way. Shaytan will use females, TV,
celebrities, games or whatever ways he can to deceive us. We ask Allah
swt to protect us all from it.

So in Shaaban there’s many practical things that we can do.

Start our voluntary fastings on Mondays or Thursday, or the 13th,14th
and 15th of the lunar month.

Start eating less and drinking more.

Sleep slightly earlier so that we can wake up slightly earlier to
acclamitise for sahur.

Remind and motive each other. Talk about the virtues and merits of
Shaaban and Ramadhan.

Attend pre Ramadhan courses to cover the fiqh of fasting. Review the
fiqh of prayers to enhance and perfect our prayers.

Set a new goal for Shaaban and Ramadhan and share it with others so
they can help you achieve it. Create a vision that we want to achieve
in inspire us to be patient.

Increase our zikr and shukr to Allah for all his blessings. Be
grateful for Allah swt who’s given so much yet ask in return so little
from us.

Start voluntary prayers before sleeping to acclamatise for teraweh.

Exercise to be in better physical condition. We can do more ibadah if
we are in a better shape.

Check within ourselves on our discipline and organisation of our daily lives.

Reduce watching TV, using our computers for unnecessary endeavours and
hanging out.

Let’s make this Ramadhan one to remember. We can emulate the same
fervour, the same excitement that we put to the world cup to our
special month. Put the same passion that we had in cheering for our
teams, for staying up late into the night to watch the games, into
talking about our favourite players and their profiles, into team
tactics and their blunders. With all the buzz going around, we get
those who usually don’t watch football suddenly become temporary fans.
Let’s start talking about our prophet pbuh, his companions and stories
that would uplift our spirits. Let’s make our intention and start
planning and lay down the infrastructure now to reap the benefits of
Ramadhan. Start early because change is not meant to be forced or
rushed but nurtured. Like they say in Khosa languange, it’s Ayoba
time!

Lastly we make dua that Allah allows us to meet Ramadhan this year,
give us the guidance to fully benefit Ramadhan. May He accept all our
ibadah and let us meet Syawal with increase taqwa and all our sins
forgiven.

Obviously I’m addressing myself first before all of my friends that I
care about. All that is good is from Allah and whatever error from
myself and the accursed syaitan.

Humbly,

Khairul

Wallahu’alam