a nice,funny story i would like to share. enjoy. Four Men entered a mosque and each busied himself in salah, humbly prostrating before Allah. Each one said the "Allahu Akhbar" after first having made his intention, and began to pray with humility. Meanwhile the Mu'adhdhin came in and gave the call to salah. The first man blurted out to the Mu'adhdhin, "Are you calling to the prayer? Are you sure it is the right time?" The second spoke on the spur of the moment, "You have wasted your salah by speaking during prayers!" The third retorted, "Why did YOU speak? Tell your OWN self how to behave!" The fourth mumbled, "Praise be to Allah! I wasn't a party to their arguments." Thus all the four broke their salat and wasted it. The fault-finders went more astray than the one who made the original mistake. moral: correct yourself before correcting others.

Assalamualaikum, sorry peeps! it's been a long time since i've contributed to this site. so now, i want to propose something. let's revolutionize this site. how? easy! we improve our inputs by simplifying them! have'nt anyone realized that our entries in this blog is just sooooo LOOOONG!! please people, make it SHORT, SIMPLE AND SWEET! i strongly believe that it would be much better that way. let's revive this site and continue the MARESMART SPIRIT!! haha (i fell like a cheerleader la pulak.) yours truly, SYUK! p/s: tak pe eh nak mencapub skit..hehe have a nice day peeps!!

This link forwarded by a friend opened up a new (re)evaluation of beauty and self-esteem on my part. The preconceived definition was reexamined, and it is somewhat disturbing when you find that your expectations do not match the general concensus. That is neither to say that I have a skewed view of beauty nor an exalted one. Upon casual observation, I still find the attractive attractive, and the less so as they are. But the root of the problem in the study of connection between of beauty and self-esteem, is that, to me, there should not be one.

In the videos forwarded, and in the countless links and forums that followed them, the general opinions expressed hover around the idea to tell these girls that they are beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with their body, face, freckles etc. Note the use of the word "girls", because this problem clearly addresses the female population mainly and directly, and their male counterpart indirectly. My objection to these ideas of accepting beauty (or ugliness as beauty) is that it has a smack of delusion and dishonesty. Understandably, we should not blatantly go along with the convention of beauty in popular, media or in the social circle, but more often that not, these opposites of popular beauty : too skinny, obesity etc are symptoms of uglier problems. Saying a fat kid is beautiful without the right follow-up would mean that he does not have to shed those pounds. And to tell an okay looking girl that she is super hot without the right clarification might lead to vanity in forms of overt amateur modelling activities.

Are we too insecure as a society to say that there are some forms of womanhood that are not acceptable? Are we trying to solve this problem by denying that ugliness is ugly, and try to get rid off that word from any definitions of appearances? Should there not be absolutes just so we won't have relativity?

These small white lies we tell these girls mask the underlying disease of actually associating the worth of someone with their looks. Would we not be better off without that very connection? Would it be more liberating without the beauty=value equation? Self-esteem should not be about being happy the way you look, but about not even thinking about it, because it has nothing to do with your self-esteem.

But of course we should not be that idealistic in defining the solution. Of course we can't change the society's tendency to judge appearances, both on others and in themselves. Men being the pigs that they are, and women, being the sows that they also are (yay equality!), could not help but initially decide based on visual merits. As individuals, a very very high percentage of us decides everyday what to wear, how to look, what could we change about our appearances, because we could not fight our very own judgemental demons. Do we not judge the compatibility of a couple based on their looks all the time? Do we not say that the new girlfriends of our exes are ugly? Do we not put only our best pictures on display?

After much rambling, it would be helpful to state that the point of this whole entry is that the final destination should be the complete elimination of the connection between a person's worth and their looks. This "beauty comes from within" cliche, although absolutely true, without proper usage, would not adequately address the problem. Don't simply blame just the male population or the media for setting these absurd definition of beauty, because they are the effects, not the cause, which is our inherent tendency to judge. Let us also be free to call uggos uggos, not because we are being mean, but because that's the way it is. In an ideal, honest non-pc world, we should be able to go up to a girl and say she is fat or ugly, but that does not mean anything other than she is objectively not skinny and pretty. As darkness is just the absence of light, beauty is the lack of ugliness.

Without a doubt, these campaigns for real beauty are noble in intent, but I still feel we are settling for second best. Hopefully, this is just the first step towards the ideal solution, and a quick fix to solve the immediate problem because even as (if we want to) we are trying to abolish completely the beauty=self-worth connection, people are emotionally and literally dying. As always, we could be part of the solution, and in this case, by supporting these campaigns, just because they are the ones that actually try.

Oh ya. Raya dah dekat. Di sini ada panduan serba ringkas dan peringatan untuk mereka yang menyambut Aidilfitri setahun sekali. 1.Pada yang pulang ke kampung, menaiki apa saja; berhati-hati di jalan raya. Jalan raya sudah muak bermandikan darah-darah anda. 2.Ketika sampai di kampung, pastikan anda memanggil saudara-mara anda dengan gelaran yang betul. Lama tak jumpa, nama pun dah lupa. 3.Biasanya, bagi orang Malaya, malam raya adalah masa untuk bersuka-sukaan. Selain berteleku di depan tivi, mercun juga adalah satu pilihan. Di tempat saya, polis membekalkan mercun. 4.Pagi raya; sembahyang raya masih dua rakaat. Macam tahun lepas. Khutbah raya lepas sembahyang, jangan bangkit lekas. 5.Kepada yang ingin melawat kubur selepas sembahyang, pastikan anda meratap di kubur yang betul. Jangan silap kubur. Al-Maklumlah, raya setahun sekali, melawat kubur pun setahun sekalilah juga. Ucapan raya? Ehem-ehem-ehem.. Selamat Hari Raya `Idul Fitri kepada keluarga dan saudara mara di Malaysia. Tidak dilupakan juga kepada semua warga MRSM Taiping, KMB dan kepada penaja saya, MARA. Maaf fizikal dan mental. p/s: kepada yang beraya di perantauan, lemang dan rendang lebih sedap dimakan di Malaya.

Salam Ramadan to all, Ramadan is reaching its end but we should not forget about it as we are in the third phase of Ramadan which is the last 10 days of Ramadan. Yes, some of us might feel happy bacause Syawal is coming, meaning Hari Raya Eidul Fitri is about to be celebrated. Unlike the companions of our beloved Rasullullah(PBUH), where they cried each time Ramadan reached its end. (When will I ever be like them...) I believe that talking about our 'ibadah' in this holy month should be our main concern right now. After all, just a few more days are left for us to enjoy Ramadan. The message here is, don't let go the oppurtunity of getting the blessings in Ramadan.I know I did and I hope to remind you not to do the same. So, lets hear this song to remember Ramadan. I personally think its a very cool video clip. It will be better if it has subtitles in English or somehing. I think they are Turkish, those people in the video. What do you think? Ramadan Kareem...Hope you enjoy Ramadan.

Pernah tengok barang dijual (selalunya makanan) tanpa penjualnya berada di tempat yang sama? Selalunya penjual hanya menyediakan bekas untuk mengisi wang di tepi barangan tersebut. Dan barangsiapa yang hendak membeli cuma perlu mengambil barang tersebut dan meletakkan wang di dalam bekas yang disediakan. Di KMB, pemandangan ini biasa. Sangat biasa. Kerepek, nasi lemak, sosej dan lain-lain adalah antara makan yang dijual dengan cara pemasaran sebegini. OK, tapi bagaimana dengan pelanggannya? Maksud saya, kita bercakap soal kejujuran. Sejauh mana para pelanggan (kamu) boleh dipercayai? Ataupun dalam bahasa kasarnya, "Kamu ni boleh dipercayai ke?" [Maaf, masih soalan ini] Jujurkah kamu? Jawab tiga soalan ini. 1. Kamu sedang memandu kereta pada pukul 2.30 pagi dan apabila tiba di suatu simpang, lampu isyarat menjadi merah. Tiada kenderaan dari arah lain. (Depan, kiri, kanan atas dan bawah) Soalan: Kamu menekan pedal minyak atau pedal brek? 2. Kamu menjumpai sekeping not 50 ringgit. Tiada orang di sekeliling. Soalan: Duit itu akan berada di poket kamu atau di tangan kamu? 3. Guru kamu tidak masuk ke kelas kerana suatu urusan. Beliau (cikgu kamu) memberikan tugasan untuk dibuat ketika waktu kelasnya tanpa kehadiran beliau. Soalan: Adakah kamu membuat tugasan itu dengan darjah kesungguhan sama seperti kamu membuatnya dengan kehadiran guru itu? Nota: Ini cuma soalan. Ini bukan kesimpulan.

So, after about more than 2 weeks being in Egypt, I've finally have the courage to go to the cyber cafe to use the internet. Well, the Arab's quite scary and most of them like to cheat the newcomer. I don't often take picture as it will make people know we were new and some places are forbidden to take pictures. I don't want to end up in the underground prison in Egypt... Now, lets start with the first day we arrived in Egypt. The airport is really... err... simple... far away from the standard of KLIA.. that make us miss Malaysia (haiya, so early eh?)

Posing budak comel... kui3. Unsystematic Airport.

After that we were brought to the Dewan Malaysia Abbasiyah Kaherah (DMAK) for our stay before move out to our house. Fr the MARA student, before going to Alexan dria.

Dinding DMAK

Depan air pancut DMAK

Kafe a.k.a mat'am DMAK. Notice the 'kad raya' at the pillar behind them? That's for RTM mock raya recording. This year salam perantau dari Mesir.. Ngeh3

During our stay at the Cairo/Kaherah, the senior brought us the interesting places around Cairo. One of the thing that I like about Cairo is their juice are cheap and delicious. Ade air tebu, ari mangga, straberry etc. And noted that they are pure fruit juice, xde tambah air... Bestt....

Makam Imam Shafie. Notice the shipe-shaped iron on the kubah? Usually kita letak bulan kan? Ni special letak bahtera, melambangkan Imam Shafie penyelamat manusia dengan ilmunya.

Kubuh Salahuddin al-Ayubi (kalau tak silap) di background. Sebelah die Masjid/Madrasah Sultan Hassan yang dibina sebelum zaman Parameswara. Masjid/Madrasah ni hampir mengbankruptkan kerajaan Mesir pada zaman tu... Dalam Madrasah ni ade kelas 4 mazhab, tapi sekarang dah tutup.

Kubu Salahuddin al-Ayubi

We also visited the Cairo university as some of the JPA's students going to study there. On the way, we visited one of the the senior's house

Ugly, old and ancient stairs like Hogwarts. But Hogwarts got caretaker with Mrs Norris.

Secret message at senior's house

These are the situation at the Cairo. Alexandria (Alex) is much better. The moral of this story is i think that our leader have lead the country quite okay. Lucky Malaysia is more beautiful with the nice building.... Egypt money quite old and dirty.. have a bad smell (the small money only) ENd.

Dua bulan lepas: Ketika minggu orientasi, ketika mendengar ceramah yang _ _ _ _ _ , aku berkenalan dengan seorang rakan Malaysia yang bukan Muslim (Kristian). Hye. Saya al-amin, dari MRSM Taiping. "Oh, hye. Saya Will (bukan nama sebenar). Sapa nama awak tadi?" Al-amin. "oh. Al-amin.. Awak ni boleh dipercayai* ke?" Aku diam. Emosi tiba-tiba jadi tak stabil. Tapi, selamat aku rasional sikit. Aku percaya yang dia tu bergurau. Aku percaya. OK. Kembali ke bulan ini. Pope Benedict XVI berucap di sebuah universiti baru-baru ini. Ucapannya itu sedikit sebanyak menghina Islam. Dan aku kembali terfikir. Tiba-tiba aku jadi tak percaya. * al-amin maknanya yang dipercayai