On Friday Prayer

Picture is courtesy of penacindaipelangi.blogspot.com

I was at Masjid Pakistan, in Chow Kit area, KL, one Friday umpteen years ago.. there was an Ustaz who gave tazkirah in Urdu and a man translating all that was said to Bahasa Malaysia and I still remembered clearly the story that was being translated.

Moses (pbuh), in his tour to propagate Allah's religion, came to a group of people praying, remembering Allah and reading Torah etceteras.

He asked someone in the group “who are you ?”

“Oh..we are people of Moses” came the reply.

“How long have you all been here doing these good deeds in this place”

“We have been here for about seventy years”

Moses was very pleased to know those people has been following his teaching and has been performing good deeds for seventy years.

Then Allah (In His mercy) sent down an angel to tell Moses that there will be an Ummah, they will perform one deed and will be rewarded equivalent to what his people performed in seventy years.

Moses asked the angle who is the Ummah and what is the deed that is so amply rewarded.

On hearing that the Ummah is people (follower)of Muhammad and that one deed is Friday Prayer.. Moses asks the Angle to seek Allah’s permission to allow him to be a follower of Muhammad for 2 Fridays (8 days ?!).

The Angle came back and informed Moses that his wish/request was not granted as he was supposed to lead a group of people himself and Moses will be the first among his people to enter the Paradise…

Allah knows best (Wallahua'lam).

I relate this story to a friend who seldom go for Friday prayer.

His immediate respond was“Oh good !.. Now all I have to do .. is to go to Friday prayer twice.. then I will be receiving a reward equivalent to 140 years …”

The Trengganu phrase “Doh nok wat guane? (what can I/we do ?) ” immediately came to my mind then.

Have a good day.

A morning in Kuala Dungun

On the weekend before CNY, I went back to Kuala Dungun.. to proceed with visits to my mother and sister in Seberang Baroh, Kuala Trengganu. We reached Kg Sungai Udang late Friday night and have a disturbed sleep (albeit a welcomed disturbance – the arrival of the two Sisters IL and their families).

On my way to buy breakfast the morning after.. it was rather apparent to one that Dungun have lots of buildings with new or good fences.

“It look like Dungun town can be called Bando Pago Lawo (town with nice fences) “ one made a passing remark.

“It can also be called Bandar ‘jalan dok siak siak’ (a town of unfinished road)” came a rather sarcastic response.

“Maybe our.... ‘panda wat jalang dang bangunang je’ (only knows how to make road and government buildings)” came another equally caustic rejoinder.

Then came a sort of historical reminder that led to those remarks.. When BN was in control, the Adun was Former school teacher who was keen to develop the Sura area to the extent of neglecting Kuala Dungun. Pasar (wet market) Dungun, in the vicinity of Complex Lembaga Ikan, used to be opened till late afternoon. The Dungun wet market that was then moved to the present location some 200m away.. was only opened till about 1 p.m. (no longer sustainable as the atmosphere are not that conducive.. not too popular a location ?!)

Dungun Bridge taken ( permission is being sought) from terengganuhebat.blogspot.com.

When PAS took over Dungun.. the focus was shifted back to Kuala Dungun.. with the building of the bridge that connect Kampong Seberang Pintasan (Teluk Bidara) to Kuala Dungun town being in progress.. When BN won Kuala Dungun seat, the town has seen more encouraging development.. The renovation of roads.. mostly to include monsoon drains can be seen throughout the years (at least some 8 years for Jalan Tambun/ Jalan Yahya Ahmad, if my memory did not fail me)..

That week the said road was still under some other form of renovation (widening and putting up drain system), a few unused buildings of past were now being made use of (refurbished?) – a museum and 'balai bomba dan penyelamat' are two examples. Few old two-storey wooden shop-houses facing the Komplek Lembaga Ikan have been renovated, while some have been pulled down to be replaced by new brick shop-house.. my better half has remarked that it seems like the owners (mostly Chinese) are very confident about the development of Bandar Kuala Dungun.. a good sign I supposed… but the wooden shop house do have some esthetic historical/ nostalgic value, non!?.

I did managed to patronize the new Sungai Udang mosque at dawn that morning. The ustaz (teacher) there gave a short 30 minutes tazkirah. There were many hadiths that has been said and poor yours truly remembered only one hadith..

Narrated Abu Dhar: That he heard the Prophet saying, "If somebody accuses another of Fusuq (by calling him 'Fasiq' i.e. a wicked person) or accuses him of kufr, such an accusation will revert to him (i.e. the accuser) if his companion (the accused) is innocent." (Book #73, Hadith #71)

The teacher did mention that we muslim should be careful not to accuse people of zina (fornification) because if the accuser cannot find four just witnesses who saw the action… “similar to that of a sword entering its sheath”… then the accusation will revert to us… How to find four "just witnesses" is a rather mind boggling exercise, at least to my mind..

Well I supposed it applies to any other accusations as well, there is a need for us to bring our witnesses to support our accusation on that day at least...

Now that scares me no ends.. for I have read many a “berbau politik” blog across both divide that use strong accusing words such as aljuburi (sodomiser?), pemabuk (drunkard), penzina ( people who commit fornication), pembohong (liars) etcetera.. By reading.. am I also a party to …

May Allah bless us all with his AlMagfirah and ArRahmah sokmo sokmo (always)

Chölök and Api Läk

This entry is a variation from my other earlier entries, written partly in jest, to promote Trengganuspeak.

I have read an interesting entry from a fellow blogger, Anak si Hamid (Puan Maznoor Abdul Hamid) on safety matches , you can read it here. I always found her writing interesting and inspiring and as a mark of appreciation I am sharing with you small Trengganuspeak snippets on the subject.

In Trengganuspeak the safety matches is called chölök. I believe it is partly due to the fact that when you want to lit the match..i.e. you strike it against the box (CHEH in Trengganuspeak).. it make a sound ..CHÖ .
then in order to make it ..lit.. you have to let it be for a while ( trengganuspeaks for " let it be" is LÖK )
hence the name of safety matches : Chö Lök or just chölök.

Safety matches in the 60's, were relatively expensive.. a box of matches shown below will cost you 5 cent then, when 600 gram (1 kati) of flour and sugar prices were only 15 cent and 25 cent respectively.
.
the picture is from Anak SiHamid blog (with permission)


Due to the relatively expensive price of safety matches then, we have this puzzle in Trengganuspeaks (with translation) which I used to share with my peers at workplace..
The three liner puzzle (no prize for getting it correct though) goes like this..

Oh kayya krajéång ök, ---- oh the government is so rich.. eh
Api dalang makkuk.. ------ (you have) the fire in the bowl..
cheh bööh..cheh bööh - -----(you) lit it up & blow it off..(you) lit it up & blow it off)

The question is Who or What is this Trengganu guy refering to...

There are still some friends who on seeing yours truly and will immediately shout across the room "Krajéång" :))

My mother, the other day, quote this pantun which she had heard from her brother( who was very young then) some 60 over years ago , here is the pantun.. without translation though ;)
(you will have to excuse me if it is not your liking though).

Cheh, cheh chölök
Cheh chölök tteppi telagê
Hök dia belök
Dök ccayyê cubê bukê.

OOPS! this is written in JEST :)))
and this time around, I am not asking anyone to guess anything!

Oh, by the way what that Trengganu guy was refering to is a "light house".

The "light house'" - in Trengganuspeak is API LÄK. This is my understanding, partly due to the fact that, as far as I can remember my friends in Pulau Duyong, Kuala Trengganu called Pulau Che Kob (in close vicinity of Pulau Duyong) which housed a light house as Pulau Api Läk.

Have a nice day!