of fortresses and fending enemies

salam. so. how have you been? :)

a trip. a travel. a runaway from the cold, dark, gloomy feel of winter. an escape. or ESCAPEE~ (as Dory in Finding Nemo) from the horrendous nightmares of OSCE.

MALTA

Alhamdulillah. was a good trip overall. with me lovely housemates. NF kuasa dua. (NF1 & NF2). hihi 

i think i went a bit manic over there, a lot of giggling. which i rarely do in public. kihkih.. how could i resist, the housemates has infected me with the giggling virus.

I think I learnt a lot going there. About myself. About friends. About Allah. About Allah's creations. 

Basically a bit about Malta. It's a small island in the Mediterranean.  Their national language is English and Maltese.  Malta apparently had been invaded by a lot of powers, dating back from the Ottoman empire, to Italy, to America and lastly Britain. Valletta is the new capital where it is surrounded by a 14 feet thick brick wall which served as a fort back in the days.  Going on the sea cruise it's really astonishing to see the structure from water and thinking at the time at how amazing Allah has equipped mankind with the skills to bring hard land into towering structures. 

Basically in Malta there are 350 churches so people would visit one church every day for a year.  and there is also one mosque in Malta. Here's the catch, Malta was under the Muslim reign for 200 years until the Ottoman empire went down and was under British government for 170 years.  so, I'm wondering what happened to the other mosques?  Anyway, I was very amazed at how Islam spread during those days.  Honestly speaking, I wouldn't have imagined there existed an Island called Malta before.  For my own consolation, it's absolutely tiny if you look on the map.  Like a little dot.  But Islam still managed to get to the dot in the middle of the sea where there exists humans.  MashaAllah, their passion of spreading peace.  And to this day, there are a lot of Arabic words used on the island, for instance, the place where we stayed was called Sliema, which is short for Tas-Sliema, which means peace or comfort, and also the addresses is Tariq bla bla..which in Arabic means road.  I'm not quite sure about the Muslim population in the country though, I don't think it's that many since I didn't manage to see any locals wearing hijab throughout our stay, which is quite a shame since it is really a very very calm and soothing place to live where you can barely see any litter on the road.  the view is so amazingly beautiful mashaAllah.  I might consider living there someday, if I end up a spinster, I might just settle down in Malta and open a Malaysian seafood restaurant or coffee shop for tourists.  Maybe open a surau if I manage to collect a lot of money.  okay, I'm drifting away.  

Another thing that caught my interest was apparently Malta is known to people studying language, which is quite understandable with all the mixed cultures and heritage.  The lady in our hotel who prepares breakfast for us says she sometimes hosts foreign students.  She can speak English and 1 or 2 other languages but could understand 12 languages.  Whoah! Amazing mashaAllah.  Suddenly I feel like sending my children to Malta to learn languages. I used to ask mama to join Mandarin class but painting lesson and taekwondo and swimming lesson, no way hosey. jdlah impian utk anak2. baiklah. sekian.

p/s: the song -> in taxi on the way to Malta airport.a rainy day on the last day
-nadmj-

of a reminder

bismillah,

how have you been? Alhamdulillah, I hope you've been good. :)

last weekend, I went to Cardiff to listen to ceramah by Ust. Aziz, on insan rabbani, bukan nowseeheart atau hijaz.  and as I was writing points in my notebook, the sudden realisation just dawned on me,  nearly all the pages in my book were filled up with jotted ink, but have I, myself practiced the knowledge I have printed down on paper?

It's quite frightening, to actually have a look inside and ask myself that question.  I think partly because I'm afraid the answer to that would be a disappointment.  Have you ever seen the cartoon 'pinky and the brain'? If you haven't, the tall mouse is called Pinky and the short one is Brain.

so I'm imagining all the ilmu is piling up in my book and if we subtitute the book as my brain, I would be the character Brain.  with quite a remarkably disproportionate head.  but anyway, the point being, with all the ilmu I'm learning, am I taking away something practical that I can do and actually apply in day to day life? hmm, what do you think? (okay, so maybe some of the ilmu is more of moulding one's thinking as opposed to demanding physical actions)

oh, just before I forget, kebajikan was part of the point in Ust's talk.  so AJC? grr.. exams? grr.. life? grr.. turning 24? grr.. baiklah, mari beristighfar and take one step at a time. sorry for the drama queen moments, this is what you get for making your blog an electronic diary. don't get me wrong, I'm not mad, and insyaAllah everyday I am appreciating life and the opportunities Allah has bestowed on us.  :)

i've just finished 2 weeks at my 2nd GP surgery.  So far GP land has treated me very well Alhamdulillah.  here's some photos.

my usual parking spot

main entrance

GP's waiting area

next stop? OSCE's on Tuesday. 

اللهُمَّ لا سَهْلَ إلا مَا جَعَلتَهُ سَهْلا وَ أنتَ تَجْعَلُ الحزْنَ إذا شِئْتَ سَهْلا
Allahumma la sahla illa ma ja’altahu sahla, wa ‘anta taj-alul hazna idha shi’ta sahla

O Allah! There is nothing easy except what You make easy, and You make the difficult easy if it be Your Will

-nahdiya

of some unwinding

"the one who failed is the one who never even tried"

went to Ask Dr Clarke today & merasai sedikit sebanyak life as a Cardiff Medical Student..kihkih..for a few hours je pun. and enjoyed it Alhamdulillah since we all went together (me, hani, farihin, mus).

tomorrow: GP lagi. becoming a bit bored of just sitting and waiting. and of doctor's picking my brain. (even if it's not a good brain to pick on ;p)  oh well, who said being a medical student was easy?

ok, nak tdo, Assalamualaikum.

-nad
just drove back from Bristol to Bath,
11.23pm Royal United Hospital, Bath.

of 2012

bismillah. 


ok, baiklah, mari kita berhenti dengan sedih2 dan depress di kala musim2 winter yang cepat benar gelapnya..hehe.


Alhamdulillah Allah bagi kita nikmat untuk hidup dan melihat calendar bertarikh 2012. 
aduhai, selalu je tahu kan masa kita ni bila-bila Allah boleh tarik, jadila sempit, sempit masa, sempit dada.  dan kalau Allah nak habiskan terus masa kita, jadila kita tidur yang lama tu, yang sampai berbunyi sangka kala yang kedua baru kita bangun semula. innalillahiwainnalillahi raji'un.

Kadang-kadang fikir sendirian time2 cuti ni, mengapa saya rasa sungguh la kosong jiwa ni, sungguhla kosong bila tak ada usrah ni, bila tak ada pengisian jiwa. Dan lebih teruk lagi bila rasa nak beramal tu ingat daripada berusrah je yang boleh dapat pahala..

aduhai, sebenarnya Islam tu sangat luas kan ruang ibadatnya. Kenapa tak vacuum rumah wahai cik nad? bukan ke "an-Nazhafaru minal iman"? Kan boleh dapat pahala juga tu?

dan untuk diri yang termotivasi untuk study ni, sila la, sbb kan Allah sayang hambaNya yang berilmu.

"Kelebihan seorg 'Alim (ilmuwan) terhadap seorg 'Abid (ahli ibadah) ibarat bulan purnama terhadap seluruh bintang." (HR Abu Daud).. hihi tiba-tiba rasa special pulak. :)

"Barangsiapa merintis jalan merintis jalan mencari ilmu maka Allah akan memudahkan baginya jalan ke syurga." (HR Muslim)


اُطْلُبُوْا العِلْمَ وَلَوْ في الصِّينِ
“Tuntutlah ilmu walaupun sampai ke negeri China.” (ada pendapat mengatakan ni hadith dhaif tapi gist dia masih baik kan?)

baiklah, saya akhiri nota kali ini dengan ucapan, Malas, malas go away! Mari study lillah! :)

 
hihi, pics Malam Secreto de Amor dan sesi menghabiskan daging korban. 
Muax, 
nad