last phase of Ramadhan

Eversince Ramadhan commences, I've been rained by questions and jokes on the act of fasting, mostly from my psychiatric team members if not from my collegemates. Well most seasonal questions like "how long do u have to fast?" or "is it just food, or drinks, or both?" are tolerable, but sometimes jokes like "so u eat like crazy from sundown till sunrise ya?" or "owh, don't u think that's a torture? we do fast in our religion, but not as bad yours" are somehow downgrading. But, thanks to the perfect way of Islamic teaching, instead of smashing back with oh-yeah?-why-don't-you-just-mind-your-own-business(or religion in this case) type of answers, I calmly explained the beauty secrets of this holy month, with hopes that they would buy everything I said. You'll never know just when you're going to be tested like this, so just in case, save some pretty-good answers for the sake of saving our religion from being demoralized, or at least for the sake of saving our own dignity.

Alhamdulillah, I just realized this Ramadhan is going to be more meaningful than the previous ones. For an instance, if last year's Ramadhan I was all speeding up to finish reading the Quran just for the sake of finishing it or coz everyone was doing that, this year's understanding of why do I read the whole chapters of Quran in this month at the first place made my readings more smooth sailing. If last year I went home from eating Pak Cik Yusuf's tandoori in Dublin Mosque with a terribly full stomach and partially closed eyes during tarawikh, this year inshaAllah acknowledging the ukhuwwah I've revised when eating with friends from the same tray made me gained some extra points, though regretfully I still experienced feeling sleepy when praying from overeating

:(

I guess it's good to start training a new habit or even leaving an old bad habit whilst we're still in this month. I found preoccupations with prayers and reading the Quran made me less want to listen to slow soothing songs like I used to do. Time is moving pretty quickly so I have to steal times to get my chore done and at the same time increasing my daily amal, so I have to manage time wisely in order to get those things done. Just imagine if I'd be able to keep doing this for the rest of the year? Me, a bloody old procrastinator. It'd be great to leave the old time title for good don't you think?

Speaking of moving on, being in the fourth year is much emphasized when the new batch of juniors arrived. Oh, they look so cute and little it made me feel just old, so old. In the eid card mum sent me she reminded me about increasing the du'a in these last 10 days of Ramadhan, and don't forget to pray on her and my dad's good health so she could see me settling down with a good husband and kids and working as a specialist someday. Emm, I totally register the first part of advice, but the second one, wow never see that one coming from mom. She even reminded me about my random rant when I was kid on "nanti acu dengan suami acu bawak mak ngan abah pegi umrah tau" (*_*) aku pon da lupa menda tu..Anyway, it shows that I have to grow up and move on with my life, leave the freaking past behind and start putting on great efforts for the better future. Sedarlah Shuhada awak tu dah dewasa...(tidakkk..)

So as we enter the last 10 days of Ramadhan, I pray that we'll be able to taste the night that's better than the 1000 months, the Laylatul Qadr. For some who love staying up at night listening to pop songs on the radio while studying, let's try putting a different flavour to the nights by filling 'em with prayers and reading the Quran. It won't be that hard I promised. Also, as we're still in this barakah month, just send our little thoughts sometimes to our brothers and sisters whose fighting with cold and hunger in Pakistan, and fighting with bullets and freedom in Palestine and fighting for a better home in Acheh, do reach down to your pockets and donate, for inshaAllah every deeds you do will be multiplied in this month.

Lastly, here goes my serial 7's for Niesa who tagged me. Can't believe this game still exists in blogging world. Anyway, for a bit of fun, enjoy.

7 things you plan to do before you die;

1. Serve the people in the medical field
2. Master the Arabic Language and memorize most chapters in the Quran
3. Set up a huge foundation for charity all across the world (well, sungguh tinggi cita-citaku..)
4. Take care of my parents for the rest of their lives
5. Bring them to umrah to fulfill my kiddies promise (how on earth I come to say that I dunno)
6. Travel around the world for charity works
7. Have a beautiful white house by the beach with a loving husband, cute kids and a pet cat to go home to after a strenous day at work (gile kuat berangan..)

7 things I cannot do;

1. Not being a procrastinator
2. Read a fictional storybook till end (never did)
3. Resist to cry each time upon leaving home for a long period (from form 1 till 4th year of college, oh I'm such a wuss)
4. Learn from previous mistakes of being too dependant on other people, sometimes I hate myself for this
5. Make a major decision without second opinions
6. Getting ready to go out quickly, I hate choosing what to wear each time I go out
7. Say 'buayabiawak' rapidly and continously for more than 10 seconds, haha thanks to Izakusha for making me realized about this

7 things I can do;

1. Memorize a song after listening to it once (why can't this happen for the Quranic verses!)
2. Talk to a complete stranger as if I knew him/her before
3. Go out for window shopping and come home with 5 shopping bags
4. Eat cheeses, potatoes and white sauce pastas for the rest of my life (haha)
5. Stay awake for more than 24 hours (hence the dark circles aroud the eyes)
6. Work under pressure
7. Contain my anger within me up to the very point when I'll explode (and that'll usually take quite long)

7 celebrities crushes;

1. Farid Kamil (nice northern accent ^_^)
2. Brad Pitt (am still wondering how on earth he could be an Irish)
3. Jude Law (lovely Brit accent)
4. Adam Brody (I love celebs with curly hair)
5. Nicholas Saputra (more curls)
6. Tom Cruise (nuff said)
7. Viggo Mortensen (I've typical celebs taste I know)

7 often repeated words;

1. baiklah..
2. habis? macammana?? ha? jadi apa??
3. seriusss?
4. ow menn!
5. cis!
6. bisss...(haha teringat Alep)
7. ganggg!

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex;

1. A very good Muslim, a lot better than the average I-pray-5-times-a-day guy
2. Have flaws (flaws make someone special)
3. Wise, clear vision of the future
4. Smart appearance, and being smart need not to be trendy and expensive (coz I'm not trendy and expensive)
5. Know how to get along with people, with fine line of being 'sopan' and 'terlalu peramah'
6. Could at least give a smile to a kid eventhough he has the most stern/fierce face ever (I just realized that today in the bus)
7. Yang senang mata memandang...(and that's very subjective to my eyes)

Roger and out.