Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there, always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.
To abandon all that He has fashioned
And hold in the palm of my hand
Certain proof that He loves me—
That is the name and the goal of my search.
-Rabi´a al-Adawiyya
A few portraits taken around the symposium held by the PPIM at the embassy.
went for a little bit of outing last sunday. the sun was pretty but we were misled to have believed that it was ok to play with the snow outside. we barely lasted 30 minutes.
Alhamdulillah, semalam sempat beraya haji di embassy setelah berjaya meminta cuti dari kelas surgery. Apa yang best raya tahun nie ialah ada korban 25 ekor kambing biri-biri. Too bad we’re in the final year already and there’s already talk about slaughtering cows for the next raya korban, Allah’s willing. Takpe lah, tahun depan raya haji/korban dengan family dekat Malaysia pula insya Allah.
Alhamdulillah minggu lepas bertempat di rumah seorang member telah diadakan sedikit upacara makan-makan untuk berta’aruf dengan pelajar-pelajar 1st year yang baru sampai.
1st year yang baru sampai semuanya fresh-fresh, muka innocent dan malu-malu kucing. (duhh, nak tambah lauk tambah je la).
Seperti mana bayi yang baru lahir ibarat kain putih yang dicorakkan oleh ibu bapanya sebagai nasrani, yahudi atau muslim, begitulah juga kehidupan yang baru dimulakan sebagai seorang pelajar medic di bumi bekas Soviet ini. Ikut la korang nak corak kain korang jadi bermotifkan batik alam sekitar ke, nak bagi tumpah sos cili ke, atau nak main cat-cat water color ke semuanya terpulang kepada kematangan diri masing-masing nak bawa hala tuju hidup nie. Kita boleh pilih nak jadi seorang student yang study tak ingat dunia sampai tak keluar bilik, atau kaki ponteng kelas sebab ketagih main game, atau mencari awek yang tak boleh dipisahkan dari korang sampai nak ke tandas pun berdua.
Namun oleh sebab kesemua pelajar-pelajar yang datang ke sini boleh dikatakan golongan terpilih memiliki track record academic yang baik, maka pilihan terbaik ialah memilih untuk mencerdikkan hati untuk sentiasa memikirkan tentang orang lain instead of diri sendiri. Enam tahun merupakan waktu yang lama, cukup untuk menentukan arah tujuan hidup sampai ke mati. Maka seorang muslim yang mengikuti jalan ini insya Allah tidak akan terkeluar dari rahmat Allah walau apa pun yang terjadi:
Hai orang-orang yang beriman, bertakwalah kepada Allah sebenar-benar takwa kepada-Nya; dan janganlah sekali-kali kamu mati melainkan dalam keadaan beragama Islam. Dan berpeganglah kamu semuanya kepada tali (agama) Allah, dan janganlah kamu bercerai berai; -Ali Imran 102,103
Salam.
it’s no longer appropriate to be wishing people selamat hari raya because we’re well into the month of zulkaedah now so this is just a post to remind me of the kindness of the folks good enough to have invited me to their open houses. i am sure going to be missing celebrating the raya with friends at a country faraway. (yeah, i know~ it’s the thing you get when you’re in the final year when you just have to be nostalgic and sentimental to just about anything possible).
the final three pics were taken with raimi’s camera at the ppim-kelab umno open house at the embassy that we all helped to organize.
all the pictures above were taken with a friend’s panasonic lx3 compact camera. while i’m no stranger to lugging around a heavy piece of camera equipment to class while pretending to be as discreet as possible for my self-proclaimed street photography, the experience of using a compact for such purpose is indeed a breath of fresh air. all the pictures above are jpegs direct from the camera (except the ones with a little bit of sephia tones are all tweaked a little in adobe lightroom). I was pleasantly surprised that a compact as such can produce wonderful jpegs comparable to that of a dslr.
i think it’s true that a great camera is the one that you have with you all the time.
these are some of the scenes that i captured on our way to an oncology lecture which is located near a metro station called ploshad ilica. it’s a 5-days cycle and we usually have our lectures at another hospital in Kashirskaya but today’s an exception.
the mayor of Moscow Yuriy Luzhkov promised that this winter snow isnt falling on Moscow because apparently they have spent certain huge amount of taxpayers money to put some chemicals in the sky in order to do so. it’s nearing the end of October now and this piece of news made me doubt whether or not during this time of the year last year snow had fallen on the moscow ground. winter in moscow isn’t a 3 months affair like in other places. the majority of my life here in a year’s time takes place when the earth is covered with white snow and going out always makes you think twice and a source of concern if you’d catch cold along the way.
But I enjoy the beautiful autumn (or pseudo-autumn if you may call it so) this year. i know i will miss moscow when i return to Malaysia soon to serve my country. no matter how cruel life can treat you here, it always reminds me of how Allah is guiding each and everyone of us with every single turn of event as long as we keep having a good faith in Him.
(ok, now I know my english is getting a little bit rusty)
Hampeh betol tengah minggu yang mencetuskan jiwa kefuturan.
Kepala ni nak kena ketuk banyak kali untuk selalu diingatkan kenapa jiwa ini bernafas, kaki ini melangkah dan perut ini diisi.
Bingkai kehidupan
Mengharungi samudra kehidupan,
Kita ibarat para pengembara
Hidup ini adalah perjuangan,
Tiada masa tuk berpangku tangan
Setiap titis peluh dan darah,
Tak akan sirna ditelan masa
Segores luka di jalan ﷲﺍ,
Kan menjadi saksi pengorbanan
Allohu ghoyatuna
Ar Rosulu qudwatuna
Al Qur’anu dusturuna
Al Jihadu sabiluna
Al Mautu fi sabilillah, asma amanina
ﷲﺍ adalah tujuan kami,
Rasulullah teladan kami
Alqur’an pedoman hidup kami,
Jihad adalah jalan juang kami
Mati di jalan ﷲﺍ adalah,
Cita-cita kami tertinggi.
