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)

Halal Sustenance

Photo from Google

O ye who believe! ...... And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty, for Allah is All-knowing, All-wise. AlQuran 9:28.

Some years ago I was called to pay respect (a ziarah) to a family friend’s sister who passed way that morning. When I reached the house, I met the husband of the deceased, a new convert/ revert. After a few courteous exchanges, he recounted to me that his wife passed away due to breast cancer. For more than 2 years (when the cancer got really bad), he have not heard any ooh, ahh or anything of that sort from his wife.. not a word of complain or a sigh of pain.

That early morning during the heavy bout of pain, she asked the husband about an old man.. The following were the approximate conversation between the couple..

“What old man?” was all the very sad husband could muster.

“Oh, that old man that wore a long white robe and white turban and came to visit me just before Subuh (dawn).

“What did he want or said to you” the husband queried

“ Oh nothing. He said he wanted to invite me to his place”

The husband said he searched high and low for the old man to the point that he nearly missed to be at his wife bedside when she drew her last breath on this earth..

“You see” the husband continued in very sad tone “ I am a new revert (muallaf was his exact word) .. if not maybe I would have known that she is going to see Her Maker very soon.”.

A few months later, her mother died of stomach or colon cancer. I was not around to pay her my last respect.

On that particular weekend, I was back in KL and I made it a point to stop by and have breakfast at a small road-side stall that belonged to the deceased father / husband. It was rather early, there were not that many customers and the old man stopped at my table to talk to me. He recounted the two recent deaths of his daughter and his wife. After some nice words of condolence from me and some religious word/messages from the old man.. I did manage to frankly converse with him.

“I have a rather personal question to ask.. so if Pak Cik (Uncle) do not feel like answering .. please do not say anything”... Me and my big mouth starting to pry.

The Old man said “ Please ask.. I would answer if I can” .

I relate what has transpired between me and his son-in-law when I pay my last respect to his late daughter and said” I believed your daughter and wife were very good Muslimah.. it is rather puzzling to me that they passed away in the manner that they did.. You see.. I heard that Allah in his Grace/Mercy may inflict terrible pain to take away the sin of his servants.. sometimes He took away the bad/cancerous part of our body to cleanse our sin or the meat that grew from our bad sustenance(rezeki).. To have two deaths from cancer in a family spells something is not very right... is it the food ?( the moment I realised that those words have left my lips.. I started to wish that I was thousand meters in the sub-surface together with those drilling bits that were used to drill my exploration wells.. . my!... do I have to hit some raw nerves.. me and my super big mouth.

"I believed you are right, son! " the old man interjected, leaving me with my mouth gaping a huge “O”.

“Some years ago, I opened a reasonably good restaurant in an upcoming town J Jaya.. selling the normal mamak-fare and serve no liquor. There were two other restaurants nearby which serve liquor. Every time a non- muslim customer or group of customers stopped by at my restaurant he or they will ask if I sell liquor. On my negative response, he or they will go over to the other two restaurants. This continued for three months. J Jaya was a new thriving township, the number of people there then were not that many.. thus I have suffered some financial loss that if allowed to continue might have forced me to close shop within the next two or three months. When I finally succumbed to the pressure and started selling liquors, those who sneered at me for not selling liquor earlier became my staunch supporters bringing their friends and families to my restaurant. Within a few weeks, I started to recover most of my previous losses" he told me in a rather firm voice.

“Those were the money that I used to provide my family , I have since sold the restaurant, (after I have bequeathed the right to sell liquor) on hearing that my late daughter has contracted breast cancer. My late wife’s cancer was detected almost immediately after I sold the restaurant. I then opened this roadside stall close to my house, although I did not make 1/4 of the money I used to make on that restaurant, I am happy that at least I know the money is halal” he continued.

"I have regretted my previous actions and has since really repented (taubat nasuha). .. but it is too late.. I have already lost the two ladies that I loved very much” he lamented.

“ Now that you have repented, maybe you should keep the story of you selling liquor in your restaurant to yourself.. Allah might have forgiven you on that issue, recounting it over and over might undo your repentance. You might be late with your repentance with respect to the two ladies but Allah has more or less cleanse them both, preparing them for a meeting with Him .. I am sure they have been amply rewarded for their patience and perseverance (sabar). My Allah bless them both and guide us to the right path” I quickly chipped in.

The old man said “Ameen” and quickly moved away to serve his other customers.

Bubur ‘Asyura

To cover up my inability to put up a good entry and also to put up an entry on Trengganu food (“pape” in Trengganu speak) to fulfil the request of the more well known blogger, Wan Hulaimi aka Awang Goneng of "kecek-kecek" and “Growing up in Trengganu” fame . This entry is also put up to share the “pape” with some of the more appreciative readers/followers.

As today is 30^th of Muharram, it is perhaps appropriate for me to scribble whatever I know of Bubur ‘Asyura as a follow up to my last post.. Hari 'Asyura.

The family of my BIL came to grace my house in Taman Bukit Teratai, Ampang for two days after attending his in-law’s wedding in Klang on Christmas. My BIL's wife and my better half then decided to try their hands at making bubur ‘asyura with consultation of my MIL (who can no longer make good use of the kitchen). The preparation of the bubur ‘asyura commenced at 3 p.m. and finished at about 9 p.m. Due to some problem with the hand phone only one picture can be up loaded much to the dismay of my other half.. The picture of bubur 'asyura does not looked to good.. nampak dok comei or beluah (Trengganuspeak) or berlumuih (Northernspeak)

Ingredient for Bubur 'Asyura:-

500 gm of rice

500 gram of coconut milk (santan)

The following ingredients are in unspecified amount.. your choice (secukup rasa) really

Molasses (Gula Melaka), salt ( garam), sweet potato (Ubi keledek), corn (jagung) and red beans (kacang merah)

Meat (daging)or chicken (ayam) or fish( ikan) as you wish - the amount is also unspecified

Spices for bubur ‘asyura are:- Malay name is also put up in bracket to avoid confusion.

10 bulb of shallot (bawang merah)

6 ulas garlic (bawang putih)

1 inch of ginger (halia)

0.7 inch of galangal (lengkuas).. many thank to CiS.

2 table spoons of "grated coconut, dry-fried and finely grounded" (Kerisek).. many thank to CiS

1.5 tablespoon of coriander (ketumbar)

1 tablespoon of fennel seeds (jintan manis)

Making of bubur ‘Asyura

Cook rice as if you are cooking porridge.. only this time.. the porridge should be very smooth( meaning to say you could no longer see any large grain of rice). Spices should be properly pounded/grinded and mixed till properly blended. The blended spices are to be poured into the rice porridge. The coconut milk, sweet potato, red bean, corn and either meat or chicken or fish will then be added. The mixture will need to be continually stirred until remaining amount is about half of amount you started with (some 4 to 5 hours). The bubur will be put in a container to a thickness of about one to two inches to cool off.

Topping

3 kembong fish that are boiled and it content taken

The fish content will be pounded with half inch of ginger (halia) , 4 or 5 bulb of shallot(bawang merah)and 1 teaspoon of fenugreek (halba)

100 gram of coconut milk and a pinch of salt will then be added to the mixture and fried without oil.. until the mixture is properly blended.

Pour the topping onto the semi hardened bubur (cooled), the bubur can be cut into 2 inches by 3 inches by 0.5 inch portions.

I would say that the outcome of the attempt or bubur ‘asyura tasted almost similar to what Ayoh Wang has eaten in Pulau Duyong and Kuala Trengganu. .. The recipe put up here is after serious consultation with my better half...

Here is hoping that you find the entry of some use.. have a good day