a fleeting stay ...

In the spirit of New Year resolutions doing the rounds, I have a story to share. My friend Rabiaa Dani gave up making resolutions a long time ago. She found it hard to keep her promises made at the start of each year. The issue had given her a lot of grief over the years. Frustration ensued when her New Year resolutions went out of the window, often culminating with her beating herself up.

The first few days were good but she would falter after the first week. She felt bad about her lack of willpower and would feel depressed and unworthy of respect or value. So she decided that she would no longer make them. However, unknown to her, she would review this decision at the end of 2017.

What happened? Rabiaa and her husband attended a talk by Ustaz Dato' Badli Shah bin Alauddin at Komplex Darul Baraqah in Manjoi, Ipoh, Perak on December 28, 2017. The Ustaz from Pahang is one Rabiaa's favourite preachers and she hardly misses his religious talks on television. This was the first ti…

People rarely get second chances. When we make a serious mistake we seldom get an opportunity for a do-over. Those we have hurt will remember our transgressions for a long time. Maybe forever.

Published accounts remind us of the agony of former prisoners and rehabilitated drug addicts who are denied jobs, housing and other services on account of past convictions. They want desperately to clear their records of past crimes however minor these might seem. They want to take a path towards a new start that will help them improve their circumstances.

Quite simply, they need a second chance. They want to have a shot at a normal life.

But there are conditions attached to the privilege of being bestowed a second chance. Offenders must take full responsibility for their actions and honestly regret what they have done.

Islam's concept of taubat  (repentance)states that wrongdoers must demonstrate sincere remorse, sorrow and guilt, promise not to repeat their mistakes and do good deeds as Al…

Police say they have solved the fatal tahfiz school fire case following the arrests of seven teenagers connected with the deaths of 23 people including learners as young as six years old at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz centre on September 16, 2017. The suspects had allegedly set fire to the tahfiz centre in Jalan Keramat Hujung, Kuala Lumpur after a name-calling incident between them and some pupils of the school. Apparently they had used two cooking gas cylinders and an accelerator to set the three-storey building on fire early Thursday morning.

Police are investigating the case as murder and causing mischief by fire. Police had picked up the suspects between 6.30pm Friday and 2.30am Saturday at different locations in Datuk Keramat, thanks to leads from CCTV recordings and initial forensic evidence that suggested foul play.

It is tempting to believe that the case has been cleared up, but in reality many factors promise to complicate the issue. The Keramat tahfiz tragedy is the …

The tragic deaths of more than 20 pupils and teachers at a religious school in Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have evoked anger in many Malaysians. They lost their lives in a fire which had gutted the top floor of Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah on Jalan Keramat Ujung in the early hours of September 14, 2017.

As is the case with other disasters, social media was quick to share videos and photos which many said had infringed on the privacy and dignity of victims and their families. Urgent pleas to exercise restraint seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Sadly, many do not reason entirely from facts and this is part of the way the world works now. The question is, what is the best way to deal with this situation?

That is why I am grateful for this article .

Bloomberg's piece on young Chinese celebrating the Lunar New Year outside China for shopping and sightseeing resonates with the actions of some Malaysians who belong to different ethnic groups. The article describes the trend among some Chinese notably the younger adults, who eschew the traditional pilgrimage back to their hometowns, preferring to spend their seven-day festive break, also known as Spring Festival, exploring the world rather than feeling miserable at home. This will allow them to "bypass the mobs, clogged roads and subways, lousy customer services as well as boredom" -- features, the Bloomberg article says, "mark holidays at home". Their favourite destinations are Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia and "outbound travel for the holiday break is expected to top a record six million passengers". "Rising incomes and an expanding network of international flights" are driving the craze among the young Chinese.

Statistics are no…

I read recently that living in a neighbourhood with trees lining the streets has benefits that are not easily understood.

A Canadian study has found that people who live on a tree-lined block are less likely to report conditions such as high-blood pressure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Maybe it is the cleaner air (thanks to the trees) that makes people want to go out and about or it could be due to the "poetry-inspiring aesthetic beauty" of trees that motivate people to want take care of their health.

I completely agree with the above.

But my friend's current problem with a neighbour whose passion is planting trees makes me wonder if Malaysians have gone overboard in responding to the call to plant trees around their homes.

Rabiaa Dani is upset that the neighbour did not ask her permission to plant a mango tree in a space enough for one tree on her side of the kerb. He had pulled out the palm tree she had planted earlier replacing it with the mango tree, a favou…