How it Began - Journey to Hajj

I think Jemaah Haji 1441H would be receiving their invitation letter for Hajj sometime this month. I say 'I think' because we (well actually Ibrahim) got his invitation letter 3 days after the official deadline to respond whether to go to Hajj or not (hence our Hajj journey did not begin with the same timelines as other jemaah) Why is this? Panjang ceritanya..but here goes because this is ultimately the beginning of our Hajj journey.

It was the 3rd week of Feb 2019. On the way to solat jumaat Ibrahim gets a call from Tabung Haji. It seems that Ibrahim & my in laws turn for Hajj was up but TH had not received a response from anyone. The TH officer actually went to my in laws' house to personally pass the offer letter & get a response (we were not home then, hence the call). Kudos to TH for their effort, if your name is due, they will surely make sure you are made aware of it. Sebenarnya, in our early years of marriage we did check when our giliran was - I registered when i started working & was scheduled for 2050++. Ibrahim's account was a child's account, dad-in-law registered for him & we found out then that his giliran would be in 2019. But we never really prepared for this i.e. did not go to any kursus haji/regularly update our TH account. As far as we knew, if a husband was called for hajj, it was not a sure thing that his wife can successfully appeal to follow but if a wife was called, the husband can automatically go as mahram. So I had a dedicated Takaful plan for Haji (Mabrur by Etiqa Family Takaful) which would give me enough cash value for the both of us to perform haji via a private travel agent in 20-30 years hence we always assumed that if Ibrahim was called for Hajj in 2019 we wouldn't go if I could not go. We mentally prepared ourselves to go later (20-30 years).

But since Ibrahim got the call (perhaps both literally & spiritually), the feeling to go for Hajj became really strong. As the call came after the official deadline had passed, Ibrahim had to send an appeal for his giliran to be reinstated - if his appeal is approved, only then will TH consider the appeal to bring me along! We submitted the appeals immediately & anxiously waited for an answer. I still remember clearly getting a call from TH Damansara not even 3 weeks after that Ibrahim's appeal was approved (he did not pick up his phone so they called me). I asked them 'Bagaimana dengan rayuan saya, bila saya akan dapat jawapan?' They said just wait, if I dont hear anything by end of Ramadan (early June) it means my appeal is unsuccesful. Two days later they called me and said come and pick up your offer letter, your appeal is approved.

The feeling was indescribable...so began the butterflies & excitement :) Okay this post is long enough & walaupun takde sangat tips/benefit I feel its important to share this because believe it or not, when I told some people about my Hajj invitation - they had the audacity to ask me 'Macam mana boleh dapat? Ada family ke di Tabung Haji?' 🤬So untuk yang tertanya-tanya, the answer is simple - it was Ibrahim's rightful turn & I was lucky enough to be able to leverage on it :)

I will share in my next posts what was stated in the offer letter & what had to be done when choosing to accept or decline the offer (medical check up, payment etc).

Till the next post. :)

With Love,

Azreen

The Heat Is Making Me Miss Mekah!

It's been a pretty hot couple days recently and I was reminded of the first night/day of being in Mekah during Hajj last year (magad dah jadi cerita tahun lepas!).

Hajj season was in August - peak of Summer with temperatures expected to be as high as 50 degrees Celsius. If you read up on former jemaah's haji experiences, the hot weather equals to hot water from the taps/shower/bidet especially in Arafah/Mina camps, 'barely there' airconditioning in the room etc. I take my showers cold so Ibrahim would tell me to 'prepare' by taking 'hot showers' in the months leading to our Hajj journey. My mom in law also reminded me to not be bothered by the heat too much i.e. jangan sebut panas/dont complain.

One of the many contraptions we brought..really helped when it was stuffy

On the night I arrived my hotel in Mekah (Room 1009, Amjad Al-Bait 😍) it was so hot! And when I showered, the water was scalding hot! At that moment I was like, oh no, all the accounts of former jemaah haji were true! My room mates & I (4 of us in total) were just settling in, it was almost midnight so we all just slept without any complaints. I remember telling Ibrahim that my room was hot & considering the reminders that one should not complaint while you are there, I was resigned to the fact that I would be sleeping in sweat for the next 35 nights.

The next morning we performed our umrah/tawaf qudum & I wore a white jubah which meant I had on many layers of inner/leggings & tudung & telekung. After the umrah, I had a shower (again with hot water, it was around noon), and was preparing to rest before lunch - then I had a nose bleed. The heat was getting to me!

Finally one of my roommates spoke up, questioning why was our room was so hot when our husbands' rooms (next to ours) was cold. So we asked the front desk to send someone to check our aircon. Turns out it was out of gas, they filled up gas & voila - we had a cool room the entire stay :) And the hot water in the bathroom - turns out the heater switch was on (it was not in a visible location). I switched it off & yes, we had cold/room temperature shower after that. 😂 (On my flight back home to Malaysia I did learn that other jemaah had the same hot water issue & most likely were not aware that they could switch off the heater).

Apart from this first day experience our living conditions were smooth throughout the entire trip. Don't complaint or be open to challenges/difficult/less than favourable situations are standard & good advices for anyone going to Hajj..but it doesn't mean that everything has to be taken as it is. The hotel staff are generally very helpful & love Malaysian jemaah so if there are any issues, you can have them addressed accordingly. If you have room mate issues, you can also have counselling / mediation sessions with counsellors provided by Tabung Haji.

In front of our Mekah Hotel

Okay that's all..I hope i can document my Hajj journey before the Jemaah for 1441H depart ..😅

With Love (ifyouknow,youknow :D)

Azreen

The Best Example

I attended a Masterclass for Islamic banking leaders recently. Heavy stuff discussed. The central theme was on ethics and integrity. Something so fundamental to being a Muslim, but in our pursuit of our daily life/working for profit, do we lose or compromise bits of our integrity/values? No definite answer of course.. meant for us to reflect, and be answerable to our ownselves.

One of the pointers shared was that if we feel that we are losing our way, come back to the Quran and and Sunnah. Reacquaint ourself with the guide Allah gave us, the Quran. If we are facing a problem, look at our surroundings. There is much to learn from nature.

Sharing here a video played during the course. How a bird-watcher/enthusiast, helped his company improve their trains by taking heed of the features of birds. SubhanAllah. Seriously, may we strive to be people of success - by learning from what is best, Allah's creations.

Sincerely,
ASH

Closure (with HIMYM)

Magad. Getting myself to start blogging/writing again has been tough. I blame it on a mix between laziness, distraction (with social media apps duh), busy with work and studies (yes i resumed working this year on a contract basis + am about to enter my final semester of LLM this September inshaAllah).

So why am I writing now? Two reasons:

1. I recently applied to be a writer for Have Halal Will Travel lol. After submitting the application there was an instruction for me to email links to previous works of mine/sample writing. Krik krik. Obviously I didn't have any sample 'casual' writings so bye bye HHWT (hence this realisation that I gotto blog if I want to try out for such positions again).
2. Netflix has HIMYM! So I rewatched the entire series - and I now have a different perspective on its finale! So yeah, didn't know who to share such views with (Ibrahim has the final season to go) hence will be expressing my views here (don't continue reading this post if somehow 4 years after the show ended, you've only decided to watch HIMYM). 😋

The first time I watched the anticipated HIMYM finale, I was livid!!!! HOW COULD THEY KILL OFF the mom & for Ted to finally be with Robin! The mom was perfect for Ted - they loved all the absolute same things, and Ted deserved a happy marital life! 😡😡😡😡 Now that I have watched the series again, I guess the ending does that make sense, it is the best ending for Ted. Why?

1. Robin has always been 'The One' for Ted - the scene of them sitting in the rain in Central Park after digging up for Robin's necklace.....absolutely heart-wrenching! 
2. The MOM (Tracy) actually already met her one (Max)..but he died. Ted was the one to come after Max. So technically Tracy had 2 loves of her life (Max + Ted) and so did Ted (Tracy + Robin).
3. Ted wanted kids, Robin did not. It would have never been a happy marriage. So for them to hook up once Ted got the whole living in suburb with kids thing out of his system, it made sense.

I feel like I have better closure with this series now. Lol. Trying to get a hang of returning to 'my blogging self' where I would post random thoughts I had - true to my very chatty and expressive nature but at the same time, I want to be a better blogger - who gives informative and beneficial posts. 👐💓

Here we go again (inshaAllah)! 😊

LOML & me as happy as can be

Oh Em Gee

I just realised that i placed this blog's url on my Facebook profile 😲😲
Of course there have been no views..but still!

Resuming blogging made it into my 2017 resolution - obviously that was not achieved.

So we shall see..will I start writing again in 2018?


Sincerely,
ASH

What's too Extravagant?

Not long after I wrote my previous post, Bayyinah Institute came up with a new video under their 'That's Messed Up" series entitled 'What's too Extravagant?'.  Subhanallah, guidance and lessons from Allah swt comes in mysterious ways..I might have erred in my previous post, so here comes a video with messages to enlighten me and set things straight. 

Some of the key messages from this 13 minute video are as follows:

1. Can Muslims enjoy our wealth?

•  Yes we can! Examples were given of how our Prophet (saw) did enjoy wearing foreign clothes and an Arabic kind turban (likened to a crown!)...his Companions were also very wealthy men, in fact if you were to visit Makkah and Madinah, you would be able to see buildings/properties belonging to his Companions still available. Their richness was out of this world, but what they did with their wealth is what mattered. 

• Extravagance is a personal judgment call, it is not a fixed standard in society. Spending habits of people earning $30,000 a year cannot be likened to that of those earning $1,000,000 a year. So spending within your means is key. You will not be cursed for eating good food or wearing nice clothes provided it is within your means and that the money spent was earned through proper/halal means. However, do not take the example of Qarun (the very wealthy person in Egypt) who used to display his wealth in front of the Israelite slaves. That is extravagant. 

I dont' know....in this time of age where everything is shared on social media, can we really be honest with ourselves that we upload photos for the sake of purely sharing (and not showing off) and that there wouldn't be anyone who might feel bad after seeing our photos? Have you ever caught yourself saying things like "How nice, I wish I could buy that too... or She is so lucky, she gets to travel to so many nice places" after coming cross photos on your timelines?

• Equal distribution of wealth in society is ideal. There is nothing wrong with becoming wealthy, but ultimately we will all be questioned about what we did with the wealth granted to us. There is also the question of should charity be only a thing for the wealthy? Some of the 'enticements' used by MLMs or insurance/unit trust/whatever sales related industry to lure in new recruits is 'Dont' you want to be rich? Don't you want to earn more money? You can help your family and do more charity with more money....' (I am part of the takaful industry so I can attest to this) I have never quite agreed to this statement. I don't think that wealth should be a measure for one's ability to donate. As per the example given in Ustadh Nouman's video, billionaires or poor people or working class individuals, we all have the same thing..the same heart. We will be judged on that and not on our material wealth. A person who donated $1 from the only $10 he has left has given up 10% of his wealth for charity... vs a person who donated $100 when he has $100,000 lying around in the bank, only gave up 0.1% of his wealth. Quality over quantity.

• Though equal distribution is ideal, it doesn't mean that everyone should be the same..or that everyone should be of the same standing. The beautiful example from the video was that, we are all made from dirt..all human beings are made from dirt. And rain/water (guidance from the sky) comes down to resuscitate us. Just like the diverse plants/flowers that grow from the dirt, we all 'grow and live' different lives. All beautiful in our own way. The earth would not be as beautiful as it is today if only one kind of flower grew. 

If you have the time, please watch this video. Short but had so many simple reminders for us, inshaAllah.

Sincerely,

ASH

Was the meal worth it?

I just came back from a family holiday to Perth, Australia last week. There were 9 adults and 1 toddler travelling together, we all stayed under one roof in a beautiful homestay and went to and fro in a 12 seater commuter van. As fun as it was, I couldn't wait to go home and have my 'hermit' time. I have been (sort of) working from home for almost 2 years this month, so I have technically been living a life of an introvert - pretty minimal interaction with people, apart from clients, family and the little colleagues that I have. I told my husband I like staying at home and didn't feel the need of having to go out and meet people so much. Though this may seem like a quality of a good wife (I wish!), he didn't quite agree - he told me I have to go out and meet people, interaction will give rise to the opportunity for 'sharing knowledge with one another' and strengthen our silaturrahim (bonds of brotherhood). 

Well as fate would have it, I got myself another reason of why I had to 'be outside'. Allah swt has granted us akal/the faculty of mind so that we can think, we can reason, we can differentiate right from wrong. What could better work as stimulus for our mind than the physical world we live in. I had my lunch at Coffee Bean earlier today, and spent RM 30 on a lasagna and iced chocolate mousse latte - considered it as a treat since I just received my proofreading paycheck. The I went to the fruit shop to get some fruits...outside the shop was an elderly Chinese man, squatting and going through the rubbish bags in front of the shop for recycled paper. :( :( I gave the old man RM 10, and he replied with a thank you while putting both hands together as a sign of gratefulness. I went back to the car and here I am in front of the computer still thinking about the old man - where is his family, how long has it been since he has eaten, why is he still working? My RM 30 meal feels so undeserving - I feel bad for having a pricey meal. Some may argue that we should not think too much, that we have a right to spend as we wish because we worked hard to earn money...bla bla bla... If I did not bump into that old man, I would feel the same...but I went out today, and met someone who was struggling to make ends meet. How can I then feel that it is okay to spend so much on 1 meal, when the same amount could probably last him a few days worth of meals?

2015 seemed to be a hard year for many (economically) based on what we all saw being reported in the news. We saw a lot of price hikes in different areas - marginal effects to some...definitely major to those earning minimal income. This story from the time of Umar al Khattab r.a came to mind, and I've been meaning to share it for quite some time now -

Umar's Care For The Poor

It was the year of the famine. Umar took pains to ensure that adequate relief reached all people, and that there were no persons in the city who went to sleep hungry.

One night as usual Umar went on his round. He was accompanied by his slave Aslam. As he strolled from street to street all was quiet and the people seemed to be asleep. Umar thought to himself, "Thank God, there is no one in this city whom the famine has afflicted."

Then as he turned a corner he saw a cottage where light was burning, and from where the sound of the weeping of the children was heard. Umar went to the cottage. He saw that the lady of the house was cooking something on the hearth, and the children were crying.

Umar knocked at the gate, and addressing the lady of the house Umar enquired why were the children crying. She said that they were crying because they were hungry. "And what are you cooking", asked Umar. The lady said that in the kettle there was only water and stones. That was to while away the children that food was being cooked for them. She hoped that exhausted the children would go to sleep.

Hearing this tale of woe, Umar felt guilty. He had thought that because of the arrangements made by him, no one was afflicted in the city and here was a family which was starving. Umar said to the lady that he would arrange relief for her family immediately.

Umar went to the Baitul Mal. There he put the necessary provisions in a bag and carried the bag to the cottage. His slave insisted that he would carry the bag, but Umar said that he would carry his burden himself. Umar handed over the bag of provisions to the lady. Umar sat by the hearth and helped the lady cook the meals. When the meals were ready the children were awakened and served with the delicious meals. As the children ate to their fill and were satisfied they smiled the smile of happiness. Seeing the destitute children smile Umar also felt happy.

Umar enquired of the lady whether there was none to support. She said that the father of the children had died, and there was no body to support. Whatever little was in the house had been gradually used up and they were starving since the last three days.

Umar asked the lady why she had not brought her distress to the notice of the Caliph. The lady said that in spite of her poverty she had some sence of self-respect and she could not go and beg the Caliph for any favour. She added that it was incumbent on the Caliph to ascertain that there was no one in his charge who was starving.

Umar said, "You are right. Please excuse me for the remissness in the past. For the future it will be my responsibility to see that your wants are satisfied."

And when the lady realised that the man who had come to her relief was the Caliph himself, she felt satisfied that the Caliph had discharged his onerous responsibilities creditably.

The messages I got from this story are:

1. Real Muslim leaders take care of the welfare of every member in society. For those who knew, Umar al Khattab did not live in a palace or grand residence. The Caliphs (and of course Rasulullah saw) did not live a life of wealth or extravagance. It was unthinkable to live in luxury if there were people suffering.

2. While it may be easy to shift the blame on the leaders/government for not helping the poor, I think that everyone has equal responsibility to help alleviate financial burdens of others in need. It could be our neighbours, our colleagues or even the makcik cleaner at our office. :)

Thank you.

Sincerely,

ASH