Holiday at Terengganu

We stayed at Kuala Terengganu, the capital for Terengganu state for one night at a nice hotel known as Seri Indah. Compared to the very basic little 'hut' at Pulau Kapas, this hotel was luxurious with large rooms, large beds, coffee and tea facillities and a swimming pool. It was also right next to Batu Buruk beach.

The beach at Terengganu was different from Pulau Kapas. It was an open sea and the waves were strong. No one dared to swim there due to the waves and the sharp sloping sea-bed. However, it was as beautiful and there was such cool breeze. We went to the playground, played kite by the beach, the kids rode on horses and best of all, there was an A&W near the beach. Cool!

The only drawback was all the mat-rempit lepaking at Batu Buruk beach. Mat rempit are like bikers except they are the low class bikers NOT the Harley Davidson kind of bikers - usually those from high powered jobs like bankers and CEO of companies. Mat rempit are like the cheap-O bikers and it wouldn't be such a bad thing if they were only interested in their bikes but unfortunately, it is a culture that involves things that are haraam like trophy girls, illegal races and menace on roads and sometimes even theft and crime.

It is quite sad to see the Muslim youth wasting their time and lives away...but in some ways, it is a failure of the system and a failure of promoting awareness of Islam. The youth needs a purpose and today, we are so quick at blaming the youth and labelling them a lost cause but look at the youth in Tunisia and Egypt...all they needed was something to fight for. Why do we deprive our youth of their true purpose, which is to be the carriers of da'wah...beacon of Truth and justice. The first Muslims during the time of the prophet (saw) were youth and they were strong and passionate; they embraced the cause of Islam with all of their hearts...

So, that was Terengganu. We drove along the coast and I kept stopping to look at the beach and the crushing waves and wishing that I could stay a few more days...a month, a year or maybe forever in Terengganu. The Sea, the cool breeze and the people were so nice. I could truly be myself there. I was like jumping up and down on the beach singing :"I love it here" and nobody even cared. The best thing was everyone spoke with a different slang so, nobody cared that we were different. You would think a cosmopolitan city like KL, people would be more open minded but we get so many stares from people and when I speak to my children, it is like people look at me with such judgemental looks but in Terengganu, everyone spoke funny and it's great. I love it that they add a 'g' after each word like 'depan-g'. It's sooo cute!

I love Terengganu...it makes me happy just thinking that Terengganu is just 7 hours drive away.

At Pulau Kapas (Cotton Island)

It was wonderful being at Pulau Kapas for 3 days and 2 nights. For that short period of time, I did not have to worry about anything...I left technology behind and only enjoyed sand and sea.

When we decided to visit Pulau Kapas, some people thought it was a crazy idea since the Japanese earthquake had just happened and the devastating Tsunami. There I was taking my whole family to a little island in the middle of the South China Sea but the only thing I could think of was...the ayat in the Qur'an that says "Wheresoever ye may be, death will overtake you, even though ye were in lofty towers." 4:78. Hence, it is not death that we should fear but rather I fear the meeting with my Lord having not prepared anything for it. What have I done in this life that would constitute 'striving in the cause of Allah'? That is my true fear...

Pulau Kapas is situated only a few kilometres from mainland Peninsular Malaysia on the East Coast, off Terengganu. It is a small island and will probably take only half an hour to walk around the island if one could. Unfortunately, one could not due to the rocky coast. The main sandy beaches face the mainland and are protected from the strong waves. Pulau Kapas is a coral beach and on a bright sunny day, the water is clear blue and you may even see the coral sea life. The island is so tiny...I wondered to myself whether the re-establishment of Khilafah would have any impact on it.

We stayed at Makcik Gemuk Chalet Resort (translated as Fat Aunt). The lady who took our bookings and the owner known as Makcik Gemuk were very friendly and nice. She seemed to have an endless supply of young men working at her Chalet and most of them were probably her sons, nephews, friends of sons etc...They seem to be spending all day just chilling at the beach, taking tourist on boat rides, playing volleyball and kayaking. It was such a chilled-out life that I wish I was living like that.

To get to Pulau Kapas you have to take a boat from Marang Jeti. It was raining when we got there but we braved the rain and waves to cross to Pulau Kapas. As soon as we got to the island, the kids headed straight for the beach and we spent most of our time on the beach, swimming and making sand castles. My babies were truly enjoying themselves, rolling on the sand and screaming with laughter. Yet...as I stood there and watched them, I felt so happy but there was a slight constriction inside my chest...I saw a flashed image of a girl not more than 14 years old crying and screaming as she suffered the lost of her family. This image that I've seen many times on TV and the internet was a girl in Palestine. She was having a picnic with her family at the beach in Gaza, hoping to have a moment of peace away from the nightmare of her daily life under Israeli occupation...and as they sat there hoping to enjoy a family outing, they were shot at out of spitefulness and hate! I looked at my babies...they were smiling, laughing without a care in the world and I thanked Allah for His blessings but I did not want to forget what was happening on the other side of the world.

Then, the next day as we sat on the beach again we heard the sound of a jet-fighter thundering past. It came from a nearby Malaysian Royal Air Force base. We looked up admiring its elegance without any fear and my mind drifted to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya...I wondered what thoughts and emotions do they have when they hear that sound..

Three days...Pulau Kapas is beautiful like a Paradise Island. Just sitting there staring at the blue sea, feeling the cool breeze and it took my mind away from the frustrations and irritations that I've been feeling recently about being here in Malaysia, it reminded me of the reasons why I returned...

We left Pulau Kapas on the 3rd day and headed to Kuala Terengganu. I just didn't want to come back to KL.

Sometimes disatisfaction is legitimate and sometimes it is just my weakness...

Every morning on my 20 minutes journey to work, I would see a flock of birds in the sky and they always fly in a pattern. It is beautiful. It reminds me of the beautiful hadith that says "If you all relied on Allah with due reliance. He would certainly give you provisions as He gives it to a bird who issue forth hungry in the morning and comes back full"

When I went back to London for a little while...I was able to directly compare my life in UK and my life in Malaysia. There were a lot of pros and cons but I realised there were many things and people that I missed in UK. This is no surprise as I spent so many years of my life there. I never felt that I was a 'foreigner' but instead I felt that I was part of a growing Muslim community in Britain who have chosen to practice Islam and to hold on to the values of Islam despite being bombarded by daily accusations of being 'extremist' and 'terrorist'. I felt that I was contributing to the society with my medical skills and I wanted to help the people as much as I could because that is what Islam expects of me. To me, my identity was as a Muslim. I was not anything else, my race, my colour, my language didn't matter. I am what I am in my race, my colour and language because Allah made me that way but it had no bearings on who I am, I am a Muslim and that was enough. My strength was Islam and my confidence came from Islam.

We can learn so much from every community and pick the best characters from them. When I came back to Malaysia, I started to compare the life even more...and although I believe my conclusions have been correct but I was forgetting one thing...that Allah puts us where we ought to be. Yesterday, I spoke to some students and talking to them about motivation and Islam reminded me that I have been sent here for a purpose, which is to pass on whatever little bit of knowledge that I have acquired, that I ought to be grateful for everything that Allah has given to me.

I have learned so much from the community here too...the true meaning of tawakkal, believing in Rizk and ajal. The overwhelming love and affection for Islam...and gratefulness.

Alhamdulillah

Change can only happen by the people

Driving to work this morning, I started thinking about the relationship between driving and mentality. It took me almost 2 hours today to get from Ampang to Shah Alam. Every route that I wanted to take was chocker block and so finally I succumbed and crawled with the traffic. It transpired that there were a few accidents causing some of the traffic jam. It is no secret that drivers in Malaysia drive erratically. To me, it is a reflection of immaturity in thought. For example, what would motivate a driver to speed, cutting up other cars just to hit a red light? Why would one tail-gate when there's a massive truck right at the front of the car that you are tail-gating?


So, it is about mentality and culture. Every society has its own culture and the people living in that society share certain thoughts and feelings that are common to them. For example, in Britain where I lived for the past 17 years, the drivers share a common thought such as 'giving way'. When you indicate to maneuver, the other driver will give way because that is the right thing to do. To them, that is how a civilised person should behave and it is expected of everyone. There is no need for the government to introduce that idea in the school curriculum or to put sloganistic posters on billboards. Rather, it is the culture of the people. The people drive in a certain way because they believe that is the right way to behave. 


It is like the recent Egyptian revolution. After the revolution and the toppling of Husni Mubarak, the people came out and cleaned their streets, they had civilians managing traffic and in Libya, it was reported that in Benghazi when protesters took control of the streets, people started driving more responsibly. We can learn a lot from the revolution in the Middle East and one of the things for us to understand is that government do not change the people, it is the people that can make the change.

Governments can only 'wave a stick' such as giving fines, punishment, imprisonment or in some places through torture. Yet, they still fail to change the culture and mentality of people. They may make them obey the law but the ideas of people are not changed and from what we have witnessed in Libya, even the threat of bombing and mass execution have failed to convince people.

People change when they want to change and it is the people who make the change. the best society is the one that can regulate itself and there is no better society than the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the time of the sahabah in Madinah. The people of Madinah regulated themselves through taqwa (the fear of Allah). Hence, they do not commit zina because of their awareness of Allah. They do not steal, drink alcohol, harass women because they knew that was wrong. The function of the Islamic state was not to punish and to dictate people but the function of the state was to facilitate the people in fulfilling their obligations and avoiding the haraam.

For example, the state has a duty to collect and distribute the zakat. Hence, it makes it easy for people to fulfil their fardh by collecting zakat. It also makes it easy for people to fulfil their fardh by distributing the zakat. The state has a function to find all those who are eligible to receive zakat and to ensure that they receive their due. Islam's punishment for certain crimes are severe but the state's function is not to spy on people trying to 'catch' people in the act rather, its function is to make it easy for those who want to repent to receive the punishment in this life because to be punished in this life is an expiation for the punishment in the hereafter. This is why throughout the implementation of hudood under the Islamic state for over 1000 years, there were only 300 recorded cases of thieves having their hands chopped off. We know this statistic is true because the Islamic state was one of the first nations to keep an accurate record of all court cases. We also know the story of the women who came to see the Prophet (saw) asking to be punished because she had committed adultery.


A society that is elevated in its thinking especially by the Islamic ideas will be able to produce a productive self regulated society. This was evident during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) when he was the head of state in Madinah and the khalifs that came after him. Whenever the Khilafah conquered a land, it elevated the people and turned the city into a place of knowledge and worship such as Baghdad in Iraq at the time of the Abbasid, Istanbul (Constantinople) in Turkey at the time of Uthmaniyah and Granada in Spain. Driving in Malaysia is only an example of a reflection of the people's mentality and culture. The people need to realise that change must come from themselves and the people who have realised must try to convince others.