a fleeting stay ...

Today marks the end of Rabiaa's mourning period. She had completed four months and 10 days or 130 days of grieving, the stipulated period for expressing sorrow for Muslim widows.  The death of her husband on Dec 30, 2020 was expected  but it still came as a huge shock to her. It was too sudden, she felt. Yet  observers would not agree. Her husband became bedridden in mid-November after a collision between his big bike and a car which had come from the opposite direction after taking an illegal turn.  In addition to being bedridden, Anwar, lost his voice which was the direct result of the  brain injury he had suffered after the accident. He was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. How does Rabiaa feel now? The pain is bearable but the memories remain as vivid as ever. She is still unwilling to clear up all of her husband's things and some items remain in their original positions as before he became bound to the bed. His belongings connect Rabiaa to Anwar and sh...

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...

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 g...

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 t...

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 .

Two weeks of merry-making to usher in the year of the Rooster. Picture by Jehan Mohd. 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 o...

  Dec 31, 2014, the last day of the year and the end of my one year stint at The Rakyat Post , an online news portal. Educational is the best way to sum up my year at The Rakyat Post. Leaving your comfort zone is intimidating at first; it has a steep learning curve. But now I wish I had done it sooner and the whole exercise reaffirms my motto: “learn, learn, learn”. Einstein was spot on when he said, “Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it”. When I left the New Straits Times to join The Rakyat Post on Jan 3, 2014, I didn’t know what to expect. Nelson Fernandez, also known as Mohd Ridzwan Abdullah, had invited me to join him at the website this time last year. Nelson Fernandez at his office at The Rakyat Post He was charged with assembling a team to provide content for the portal. And I am glad I said yes. Switching from traditional journalism to online journalism is challenging, as anyone who had m...

Guest blogger and journalist Jehan Mohd mourns the loss of sense and sensibility in the days leading up to what is turning out to be Malaysia's biggest general elections yet . The circus is back in town, nope, sorry, it's just the latest general elections around the corner. Where have all my cat videos and baby pictures gone, or rather, what has happened to all my friends whose cat video and baby picture posts used to fill my Facebook (or, simply FB) wall?   Instead of the varied interests and quirks that make them individual people, they seem to have been overwhelmingly swept up in election fever. Granted the build-up to this general election has been incredible — people have been anticipating an announcement of the dissolution of parliament leading to the event since last year. When parliament was dissolved last month, suddenly everyone (or at least the ones who load status updates regularly) was talking about the elections. Election fever is her...

As this is Labour Day, I want to reflect on a four-day week scenario. The shorter week with Fridays an extra day off will mean more me-time for me. I want the extra hours for myself to do something for my own enjoyment: read a book, visit the shops or catch a movie and enjoy an ice cream. I find it difficult to do these things now because of the five-day week, from 10.00 to 18.00 or longer. The weekends are usually reserved for maintaining contact with family members. Working shorter hours would be a dream come true for me. Is that a viable proposition? This article argues the need for a four-day work week. Enjoy your holiday. For Labour Day history click on the following: * Annual public holiday * Wikipedia

Niiya celebrated New Year's Day with a sense of foreboding that 2013 would be a sad time for her. And the tragic events of the first three months indicated that her misgivings were justified. First, she lost her beloved sister to cancer. Then, her sister-in-law had to undergo an operation to save her spine. Later, she learned that her former superior had battled cancer for four years before succumbing to the dreaded disease last week. A beloved cousin brought news that her husband has third stage liver cancer. Death seems inevitable. Who's next? Nobody could predict death. People joke about it, pass cynical comments and offer views on the subject. The only certainty is that sooner or later it will come for us. The following passage puts it aptly: “It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it h...