just realize that i just only recite few of the same verse over-and-over-and-over-again through all the raka’at

feel bit weird (read: ashamed), that my little kid recite more fluent other verses than i am

let’s go back to square one, from Al Insan (man) to An Nas (mankind), recite by Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the Imam of the Grand Mosque

ripped mp3, ID3 tagged properly (hopefully), small bitrate (128kbps),
small enough to fill your iPod or cellphone, here

been a while since the last post, so what to write in this good month?

maybe to share this nice application for you phone, the azan times for mobile phones

it’s a java based apps, if you own a Nokia (with the S60 engine) it will runs okay,
or see the full list of compatible phones here

it’s pretty accurate (if you set the parameters right). below showing the jakarta time:

]]> http://meena7241.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/utilize-your-mobile/feed/ 0 bashlogin http://meena7241.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/hightech/ http://meena7241.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/hightech/#comments Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:23:00 +0000 bashlogin http://meena7241.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/hightech/ Continue reading →]]> A German guy behind the Jamarat

Premiere on Discovery Channel, last night (16 dec 2007)

Discovery Channel – Revealed : the Hajj

the answers of a curiousity from last year
wireless communication, digital integrated CCTV networks, airplane every 2minutes, crowd dynamics, logistic infrastructures, mega structures, counter terrorism, emergency medical unit etc

Missed it? just watch the re-run (WIB schedule here) .
Ignoring DSC’s copyrights, here’s a snip on Youtube:

(or direct link here)

And the torrent juice for the full mpg documentary, here : link

—

Links & pictures

• Wired Science http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/01/safety_on_the_j.html
• Technical papers of the Jamarat http://www.trafficforum.org/crowdturbulence

–

siapa bilang cari duit susah?

look at these guys,
only working for 14minutes and 32seconds, got paid a total cash prize of Rp 25million… nice! and it’s not even 8am yet!

He already gave us a perfect tools to have a wealthy life in this world

our legs, arms, brain, the whole body and soul, so what more can you ask?

so stop whining! get off the bed and start to move, just do it!

ain’t life a grand?

so what’s the prize for me?

..alhamdulillah… to be able to breath the 6am sunday-morning air of Jakarta, to run and hang out with beloved friends

…. that’s the precious price for me

see you in the next 5K ! (btw…rokok gua mana..? balikin woy!)

Bersyukurlah buat yg sedang sakit (atau yg masih bisa merasakan sakit) hari ini

Artinya, Anda masih hidup, karena hanya orang hidup yg bisa merasakan sakit

Be grateful when you got sick

Why? Got sick, means you are still alive. Because only a living-being can experience sickness

Langkah selanjutnya adalah : Anda harus berusaha agar cepat sembuh
(agar anda tetap hidup dan bisa merasakan sakit lagi di kemudian hari, dan semakin menghargai hidup)

Next step is : how to get well soon (?)

(so you can be alive again and then experience sickness again in the future, and then you will value and appreciate life more)

Semoga sehat selalu, dan selalu mendapat berkah dan rahmat-Nya
(wa-rahmatullahi-wa-barakatuh)

Good health to you, always,
and may HE always bless HIS barakah & rahmat to us all (wa-rahmatullahi-wa-barakatuh)

yes, you bleed just to know you’re alive… (Iris – Googoo Dols)

Finally I decided to write this down

By no means of being the righteous or anything, as only human, please correct me if i wrote something wrong

Long posting (read it carefully)

Few months back, I conducted a verbal survey with:

• 20 correspondents
• 19 are Moslem from birth, age all above 30, all have a steady income
• 3 are not married yet, 4 female, 16 male
• 2 already taken the journey

all are my friends, survey over a friendly verbal conversations.
I asked them one direct question:

• “When will you take the  journey (again)?”

18 of them quickly responded with these answers :

• “when i’m ready, maybe..”
• “i don’t know…”
• “when i’m (spiritually) ready, maybe…”
• “when i have enough money…maybe”
• “maybe when i’m XX…” (stating a number of a certain age)
• “maybe after i got married..”
• “maybe in about xx years from now…” (stating a certain number of year)
• “after my kid is xx years old..maybe” (stating a certain age)
• and other similiar maybe-answers

in my opinion, YOU SHOULD AVOID AND OMIT that “maybe” kind of answers..

Why? I will answer with an in-direct approach. Read on.

First try to answer these (five) questions.
It’s not a trick questions, just answer it, as if we’re having a verbal conversation right now

Answer the questions below with an exact answer of “TIME”

• Question 01 : When will you recite the Syahadah after this moment?
• Question 02 : When will you do your next Shalat after this?
• Question 03 : When will you do the your (next) Ramadhan fasting?
• Question 04 : When will you pay your (next) Zakat Fitrah?

I am really sure, you can respond those questions quickly with an exact time as the answers

Am I right?

Your answers most likely will be like :

• Answer 01: I will recite my next Syahadah, in my next sholat
• Answer 02: I will do my next sholat, by this next sholat-time
• Answer 03: I will do my next Ramadhan fasting, by this next Ramadhan
• Answer 04: I will do my next zakat, by this next end of Ramadhan

So here’s the last one (the punch line question)

• Question 05 : When will you take the (Hajj) journey?

And your answer is: … most likely you will halt with a hesitation before answering it …

Look closely, those five questions are the “Five Pillars of Islam” (Rukun Islam in bahasa indonesia)

WHY is your answer (for the last question) is different from the previous four? Why it should be different?

Let say it’s 16.30 right now, you will answer with :

• “i will do my next sholat magrib after the adzan, by 17.50″
  or
• “i will do my Ramadhan fasting by this 2007 ramadhan”

uh okay…

Then, (what if) by 17.49 your got called, your sister got an accident and now in critical condition in the ICU

or by one day before ramadhan you are in critical condition in the ICU

Be realistic and be honest here :

• will you still do your shalat magrib at the exact time 17.50?
• will you still fasting at the first day of Ramadhan?

NO. Big change that you will not.

If you answer yes, you such a naive-hypocrite person.

Now, back to the issue:

“Why is your answer (for the last question) is different from the previous four?”

Look closely this equation:

• A ≤ x ≤ B
• A = “…after the adzan, by 17.50″ = your statement = your intention to do = your ni’at
• B = 17.50 = planned execution time of your ni’at
• x = ?

So… what is x ?

• x = time and space between Point A and Point B
  
• x = you might score a big luck within this period
• x = or you can die within this period
  
• x = is out of our control
• x = ANYTHING can happen within this period

So, the next time somebody ask you…..”WHEN WILL YOU TAKE THE JOURNEY?”
just simply answer with confidence :

• “(bismillahirahmanirahiim)..Insya Allah by THIS next Dzulhijjah!”

And Insya Allah,
all the creatures of heaven and earth will shouts answering your prayer with a big “Amennn..!!”

ain’t that nice ..

Have faith.

ANYTHING can happen between Point A (now, this second) and Point B (the next hajj-season, the next Dzulhijjah)

Have faith.

If you answer differently, then i said, you don’t have full faith to the basic Five Pillars

Have faith.

and … rock on..!

(flames/comments/verbal discussion/etc are very welcome)

this will be a short controversial post 

in my opinion… the term ‘coincidence‘ is for people who do not think (aka. stupid ignorance)

there are no coincidence, everything happens for a reason

travel back in time, try to count how many occasions you called coincidence,
were actually just a free-gift for you (from Him)

you turn left, to later realize there’s a traffic jam on the other intersection
or
you went home earlier, to later found out that something about to happened at your house or something like that . . .

still say it was a coincidence?… 

(i told you…this will be a short controversial post)

love you all & have a good friday there!

if God had a name, what would it be?
and would you call it to His face?
if you were faced with Him in all His glory,
what would you ask if you had just one question?

and yeah God is great, yeah God is good

what if God was one of us?
just a slob like one of us
just a stranger on the bus

if God had a face what would it look like?
and would you want to see?
if seeing meant that you would have to believe
in things like heaven and the saints and all the prophets

(tunes by Joan Osbourne, One of Us, 1995)

• 8 may 2002 – 15 march 2007, nearly 5,
  bintang dewantara, beloved son of my cousin
• 14 march 2007 – 14 march 2007, zero,
  siti nurjannah, beloved daughter of Masuri (one of NRD‘s big family)
• 03 nov 1932 – 10 march 2007,
  beloved parent of Nur Kristanto (one of NRD’s big family)
• __ ___ 19__ – 20 march 2007,
  beloved mom of Aldrin Tobing & Christian Tobing (two of NRD’s big family)
• __ ___ 19__ – 20 march 2007,
  husband of my Nek Ros, one of the elder in my big family

rewind few weeks back

• __ ___ 19__ – 16 feb 2007, one of our neigbour at jalan Bangka
• __ ___ 19 __- 23 feb 2007, mother-in-law of my mother-in-law brother (ribet, eh?)
• __ ___ 19 __ – 2 march 2007, beloved father of a friend of my friend (ribet, eh?)

hearing three-consecutive-friday-obituary… (16, 23, 2)
zero? 5 years? or 65 years? or 72 years? we will never know

Bismillahirahmanirrahiim, Dear God, we’re down on our knees
praying and begging with whole hearted, to You and to You Only

by saying Your Name and Your Name only
Ar Rahman…the Most Compasionate, Ar Rahim…the Most Merciful

… please forgive us for all of our sins
… from our birth, up to this moment

by saying Your Name and Your Name only
Al akbar..the Allmighty, Al Khaliq…the Creator
the ruler of Heaven and Earth, Al Qawiyy..the most strong

… please give us strenght
… please give strength for the family, who got left behind
… please give strength for the family, who got left behind

by saying Your Name and Your Name only
Al Muhyee… the creator of life, Al Mumeet the giver of death

… please do not take our life in the state of impurity and sins, like this moment
… please take us from this life, only in a state of our husnul khatimah
… please re-unite us all with our parents, brothers, sisters, friends
and all of our beloved one
in the after life, in your Jannah .. in Your Heaven

by saying Your Name
to You and to You only we ask for forgiveness

Ameen…

tidak ada istilah “terimakasih” / no terms for “thank you”

jumat kemaren ada yg mampir, setelah 20+ tahun gak ketemu
sekarang dia kerja di bidang ‘linguistik’ (jadi urusan bahasa emang maenannya)

this is fun, last friday, i met someone (that i haven’t met since 20+ years ago). now he works in a field of ‘linguistics’ (so language IS his playground)

ngobrol kiri-kanan, ngalor ngidul, semua di obrolin sampe ke satu topik ttg bahasa dan istilah dari aceh yang menarik:

to fill the 20+ years gap,we talked about almost everything, exchanging stories etc. then one interesting linguistic topic raised, he said:

aslinya di aceh, tidak ada kosa kata “terimakasih”

kalau pada situasi yg biasanya kita bilang “terimakasih yeeee..” mereka selalu bilang “alhamdulillah” atau “syukron alhamdulillah”

originally, there is no “thank you” terms in Aceh language (and culture)

instead, in occasions when we usually said “thank you”,
they use the terms “alhamdulillah..” or “syukron alhamdulillah”

hmmm…jadi kira kira kasarnya seperti bilang:
hmmm…so…hyperbolically, it’s like saying :

..saya kagak berterimakasih sama elu koq, tapi saya bilang puji Allah, yg ngasih barang ini ke saya, (kebetulan) lewat elu..”

“(no) i’m not thanking you for giving me this, but instead..
i’m praising HIM (God) for giving me this (thru you) !”

it’s a very interesting culture, a very beautiful mind-set,
and IMHO…it is a very correct way to express any kind of gratitude

to always remember, all comes from Him (and Him only)

alhamdulillah = praise the God (Allah) = segala puji hanya bagi Nya (Allah)

• alhamdu = hamd = praise, add the al for ‘all’
• li = to, towards
• Allah = (do i have to explain more?)
• @wiki (english) or @wiki (indonesia)
• Aceh = @wiki(english) or @wiki (indonesia)

thank you….uhm..i mean….alhamdulillah, for dropping cicik, the-aceh-dude, at my office last friday…

(btw, awas pak..jgn sampe jingkrak2 sendirian denger roxanne-nya…)