Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity

My biggest insecurity! Hahaha. Weight scale isn't really my best friend. Tried few diets, went to the gym and I ended giving up. I love my self, I love myself, I love myself. Okay I can't say anything more, this is totally my anxiety. And to those who ever make jokes of me, please look at the mirror first, ARE YOU THAT HANDSOME that you can laugh at other people?

Okay emotional. Haha. Thanks for reading. :)

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Maher Zain - Sounds of Light Sydney concert 2010

Maher Zain. I bet everyone should have known this man by now. It's his song Open Your Eyes and the story of how Ruben Abu Bakr embraces Islam in the video <Open Your Eyes> touches my heart deeply. Click on the link to watch the video. It only takes 6 minutes, do watch okay friends? :)

The song is about seeing the life and the world differently. No matter how tough the problems we are facing, how depressing our lives might be - just look at the world around us. OPEN YOUR EYES and see the world. The green leaves, blue skies and all living things around us. In fact inside us; our beating hearts. Aren't they amazing? Can't we just be grateful enough?.. And the story of how Ruben Abu Bakr embraces Islam really makes me shiver.. All the miracles of Allah are in front of us, can't we just be grateful enough?

The first time I watched this video was somewhere early last year.. And I immediately fell in love with it. I cried a tear watching it, reflecting all my ignorance towards Allah and His beautiful world.. May He always shower His love and mercy upon us all..

Then I started to listen to all of other Maher Zain's songs. Beautiful lyrics. He really opens my eyes and affects my life. Striving to be a good person, a good Muslimah. InsyaAllah.

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

This bloke is truly inspiring!

He's my senior at Macquarie Uni. Reasons for him being an inspiration?

He keeps reminding me to prioritize. To know which work is better done earlier or later. He always gets good grades and that's a result of his effort. Well-known for completing assignments earlier than the due date; as he says to me - it is like a reward by finishing assignments early. He has like 7 drafts for his assignments! Me? I don't have time for even 1 draft. Yeah last-minute work, you got it right.

Usually after Subuh he won't get back to sleeping yet he does revisions. However he is not the nerdy-all-the-time-with-books-type (tapi boleh kata sedikit skem lah hehe) as he knows how to enjoy and have fun too but he knows the limit.

The first thing that I notice about him is his soft-spoken-ness and modesty. Although he is the High Distinction
kind of student, he never boasts about it. Yet he always refers everything back to Allah by saying Alhamdulillah. ... *** "Jangan lupa nikmat iman dan Islam" - an advice he gave to us before he left Australia for good last year. I bet he doesn't remember this one, does he? Hmm. Although he said it not really seriously but I believed he meant it.

He teaches me (indirectly, that is) that good things don't come rolling. There's a price to pay - and they are called 'effort'. A personal inspiration to me, as his existence proves it is not impossible to achieve success, be organized and have good attitudes. At the same time to always be thankful to Allah and be a good Muslim.

To Farouk: Thanks for being a good friend. Sorry if I tell out too much info about you. You inspire me alot! :)

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

SKYDIVING!

I wanna do this like seriously! But at the same time... I don't really have the guts. Err.

They have it here in Sydney and I have few friends who would like to do it as well. I want to but deep down I'm scared!

Guess why I wanna do it badly? So that one day I could say to my children - "Mom jumped off a plane before!"

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

I simply cannot imagine my life without him. He's a true inspiration, an idol, that one should adore.

He's Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him.

I can't imagine my life if he wasn't sent by Allah to guide us, to be true Muslims. Prophet Muhammad teaches us about Islam and asks us to follow the Quran and to live a life as a Muslim. Although he lived hundred years back, but his teachings remain as a guide. Without him fighting for Islam back then, will I be here - standing, breathing, living my life as a Muslim?

I know that there is still a lot for me to learn to be the perfect Muslimah but Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I was born as a Muslim, am still a Muslim and will always be a Muslim, a true Muslim, insyaAllah.

Nevertheless.. we sometimes forget him although the Prophet until his last moments on earth never forgets us.. We need to remember that Prophet Muhammad is the one who has the syafaat to save his ummah from the hellfire on the Judgement Day, provided we are the believers and never set up partners in worship with Allah.

Say the selawat always. May we be among those who get the syafaat... InsyaAllah...

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ

Allahuma Salli ala Muhammad wa ala aali Muhammad (SAW) 

which means 

May Allah send His praise upon Muhammad and upon the Family of Muhammad

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

 I just came back from Adelaide for a nice short getaway so that kinda explains my absence here. *wink*

So, day 13. A picture of your favourite band or artist.

COLDPLAY!!

Good band, good songs. I just adore them muchoz. I am all head over heels for them cause their songs are just amazing with deep and meaningful lyrics and their live performance is cooolll. My favourite song always and forever - Yellow. The song is like .. magic. Sad or happy, it just fits. I just think it's cool how when you listen to a song, you need to think awhile what it means and interpret it your way; like you 'own' the song.

If they were to perform anywhere near me, I would definitely go! :)

Day 12 - Picture of your favourite memory

Nyah at the back, me and Atak at the front
- 1994 - 

Childhood time definitely!

I miss the carefree joys of childhood.. Just play and play and play, nothing else to think of! 

I remembered playing dolls with my childhood friend Aida (wonder where she is at now), fought with my neighbour Kak Rina and Lina to see who got the slide first, played rounders every afternoon and picking up biji saga at the school's gate during recess time.. During my time, the slide at the playground was made of woods and it was realllly high. Unlike now where it is just slightly above the ground and is plastic-based - BOOO! I always went up the stairs and pretended like I was about to get on an air plane. I loved playing the swing too. I remembered this one incident at my kampung in Ipoh, where I was wearing skirt and played the swing. Then the wind blew off my skirt and I fell down because I let my hands off the chain to cover the skirt. P/S: Kids, please don't wear skirts to playground, okay?

Time grows, so do people. I do miss my childhood time but I am happy being an adult. It's my time to contribute to the world.

Solat.

Hectic week I must say! Nevertheless, Alhamdulillah I managed to settle few things on time, which of course I'm referring to assignments. Sigh. Despite the busy week, a few things cross my mind which leave me wondering, one of it is regarding our responsibility as a Muslim to pray 5 times a day.

No matter how busy we think we are, we can never leave the responsibility; to pray 5 times a day. In the Holy Quran it is mentioned that ..

"... And seek (Allah’s) help through patience and Prayer. But this is no doubt very hard, surely difficult except for the humble" (Al Baqarah 1:45)

"Dan mohonlah pertolongan dari Allah dengan sabar dan solat. Sesungguhnya solat itu amatlah berat kecuali bagi orang-orang yang khusyuk" 

Why do sometimes we feel that it is too hard for us to spend at least 5 minutes of our 1440 minutes (24 hours) of life in a day to pray? Why does this happen? Why do we think that other stuffs are more important than praying? Let's recap back the story of Isra' Mikraj.. The initial order from Allah was Muslims were supposed to pray 50 times a day, but our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) asked for less as Prophet Musa (Alaih Assalam) told Muhammad pbuh that his ummah would not be able to do it. So our beloved Muhammad pbuh went to Allah swt 10 times which leaves us with only 5 times a day.

Why 50 at the beginning? This is obvious. The reason of our creation in this world is to worship Allah and to do whatever that pleases Him. Nothing else matters. So He creates us to pray to Him. Thus, people will be busy praying all night and day as this is what Allah please... However, people become civilized and globalisation+modernisation come in, making people have a lot of other things to do. For example as uni students we need to study to get knowledge, work to earn money, businessmen have a business to look out for and etc.. These are actually 'side things' to keep us moving in the world. The sad thing is.. as days go by, we forgot the initial reason of our existence in this world which is to obey Allah. 

I'm not saying that we have to stop everything that we are doing and spend our whole lives just praying. In fact every 'side things' that we do is actually an Ibadah if we do it because of Allah, because all we want in this world is to get His blessings. What I'm trying to say is.. We should reflect back the purpose of our lives in this world.

The first thing that will be judged at Yaum al Mahsyar (padang Mahsyar) in Hereafter is.. our Solat. It is only 5 times a day and it is THE KEY that differs our path. Either to Heaven or Hell.

So, is our solat enough to bring us to Heaven? ...

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

I honestly hate those three words. They appear like zillion times in my EDUC 371 assignment and I .. TRULY. HATE.THEM.

Enough said.

Day 10 - A picture of your most treasured item

My one and only favourite brooch!

I've been wearing this same old brooch for the headscarf since I entered maktab around mid-2007. I do own few other pretty brooches that people give as gifts but this particular one is my favourite for a reason I don't know why.

It doesn't have a beautiful design and I actually kinda forgot where I get this from. Very high sentimental value I would say. An item I treasure most!

This one rang a bell about my childhood days where I had a little brooch with a big red flower on it which I wore on the neck of my school's baju kurung. That one was really a favourite cause although the flower was already tercabut from the pin, I kept on continuing using it until the pin became rusty then only I changed.

Maybe it's because I don't enjoy familiarizing myself with a new thing again and again so I stick to one until it gets lost. Really hope this one would last! Haha. But the pin at the back macam nak patah dah sebenarnya..

Day 9 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Day 9 - A picture of  the person who has gotten you through the most

Mi mama! :)

Mak on the right side, with Opah..

She got me every time when I feel down or sad or frustrated, she just knows best! Just hearing she says 'Hai Min' on the phone, could already make me teary. She knows everything though I don't say a word to her. And she knows too whenever I have a crush on someone.. Err. :P

I'm sorry for every stupid thing I've ever done.. I still remembered you once chased me around the dining table with a hanger in your hand.. I was around 8-9 years old and couldn't quite remember what I did that time.. but I knew I pissed you off terribly.. I'm sorry.. For everything that I've done that make you sad.

You mean the world to me. Love you Mak.
See you in few months time. Don't miss me too much, okay? :)

Just a little sharing with all of you. From the Holy Quran:

( Al- Isra’17: 23 )

Maksudnya: “ ... Janganlah engkau mengatakan keduanya ( ibu bapa ) perkataan “ ah ” dan janganlah engkau membentak keduanya, dan ucapkanlah kepada keduanya perkataan yang baik.”

Day 8 - A picture of your hero / knight / heroine

Shrek and Friends! 

I am a big fan of Shrek movies!! :) :)

Why Shrek? He is an ordinary being (okay put aside the ogre blood in him).. Which I can relate a lot to humans. He is just a being with normal feelings; high egocentricity, couldn't care less about others and yeah he is ugly, some would say but I think he looks just fine. Cause that's what unique bout him. 

Nevertheless, the thing I adore bout him is.. Hidden underneath his negative attitudes, there lies a person with a beautiful heart in him. His motivation in life is his love towards his family and friends.

Gingy, Donkey, Puss in Boots and Shrek (with Woody) - my collection

Go watch all 4 Shrek films. You'll know.

Day 7 - A picture of the person you do the silliest things with

I wouldn't really say stuffs that I did was the dumb-kind of silly. They are more to cute-kind of silly. Err get what I mean? Anyways.. Here they are.. :)

The Hawtties!

Day 7 - A picture of the person you do the silliest things with

Us - the all-grown-up version (2011)
from left: Zati, ME, Dyl, Aida, Jaja, Nana and Iylea

Yeah the name was kinda gedik, but that's what we call ourselves, whether you liked it or not. Hahaha. Gedikness alert!

We were besties in Matriks K.Pilah, all the way from 2006 until now. We did lotsaaaa silly stuffs together but the one that I truly remembered was an event that took place back in 2007 - on the 15th of February. 

We were lepaking in my room (at the hostel) on the afternoon when suddenly a super brilliant idea came - to have our own post-Valentine's dinner party. So we divided tasks amongst us and I handled the room err excuse me the dinner hall decoration and menu for that night.

What we had that night was amazing.

Around 8pm the party started, lights were switched off and only tealight candles were lightened up. The guests (us!) walked on the red 'carpet' (made from a red-netted piece of cloth I found out of nowhere).. from the room door to the dinner place  - which was just about 5 metres away. Hehe. And.. Okay we actually ate on the floor. =_='.  

All of us needed to wear a wrist band each, to indicate us as the VVIP guest, as in the picture below. The flower-like shape was made of facial tissue and the same netted clothes as the red carpet were used to tie them up on our wrists.

Not so matang (2007)

The menu? Mihun goreng dengan lauk sardin which I ordered from Makcik Cafe A. Hahaha. Simple, yet 

delicious. For students like us, it was great enough to have sardines for dinner.

We also had award give-away. Each of us received an award according to our personality.. 

1- Jaja got herself the 'Miss Kasih Sayang' for she was the most caring and loving person in the group - ala2 mak-mak gitu..  

2- Dil- Miss Sleeping Beauty as she loved to sleep :P

3- Aida the most rajin person - Miss Workaholic.

That's all I remembered.. Sorry guys and girls.. And my award? Hehehe. I was given the title 'Miss Hawt '- for a reason which I still couldn't figure out why until now. Hahahaha. I didn't make this up, really. :P

Kinda silly and impromptu, but I treasured those moments lots.

See you tomorrow. :)