They Are Ill, Hungry And Thirsty

On The Day Of Resurrection:

"Son of Adam, I fell ill and you did not visit ME."
"Ya ALLAH, how shall I visit YOU when YOU are RABBUL 'Aalamiin, LORD of the worlds?"

"Did you not know that My servant so-and-so had fallen ill? 

Why didn't you visited him not? 

If you did, You would have found ME with him." 

"Son of Adam, I asked you for food and you did not feed ME."

"Ya ALLAH, how shall I feed You when You are RABBUL 'Aalamiin, LORD of the worlds?"

"Did you not know that My servant so-and-so asked you for food? 

Why didn't you feed him? 

If you did, you would surely have found the reward for doing so with ME." 

"Son of Adam, I asked you to give ME a drink and you did not give ME." 

"Ya ALLAH, how shall I give a drink when You are RABBUL 'Aalamiin, LORD of the worlds?"

"My servant so-and-so asked you to give him a drink and you did not give him a drink. 

If you did, you would have surely found ME." 

- Hadith Qudsi. 

The Wise Man's Donkey

A farmer took some grains to grind at the mill.
After grinding, he loaded the heavy grains on his donkey and started his journey home.

Nearing his best friend's house, a wise man, the donkey began limping and dropped to the ground.
The farmer knocked on the wise man's door, asking the wise man to loan him his (wise man) donkey, for it to carry his load for the rest of the journey.

The wise man treated his donkey well.
He made a promise to the animal, never to mistreat it.
So he told the farmer that he did not have any donkey.

As soon as it was said, the animal's bray was heard.
The farmer overheard the braying, and insisted on borrowing the wise man's donkey.

The wise man was angry, and scolded his good friend.
"Don't you know that donkey is the most stupid animal on earth?
Everybody knows I am a wise man. They listen to me.
We have been friends for fifty years, but you don't listen to me.
You listen to the donkey."

Another Vehicle Was Stolen

I am always grateful that everyday, around 1 to 2pm, there is always a Balai Polis Bergerak, sort of mobile police post, passing by my house.
The policemen on wheels usually make their rounds, around the neighbourhood, while most people are indoors having their lunch, or taking their afternoon nap.

The owner of the provision shop in front of my house was twice robbed of their earnings.
The second time, his hand was severed, almost totally chopped off by the robbers.
Since then, the shophouse was always grilled.

A 24-hour restaurant at the corner of the street was also robbed.
Although the sign 'Restoran Kassim' is still displayed, it has since shifted its business to a nearby shophouse along a busy road.

My children had their motorcycles being stolen too, but not at home.

My son had his bike stolen at the parking lot of Giant Plentong.
Earlier on, when he was still studying, his bike was stolen in the gated compound of his friend's house in Shah Alam, in the month of Ramadhan.
Someone, using machinery, lifted it out of the compound during sahur time.

My daughter then sent her motorcycle to his brother, as he needed it more than her.
She had once had her bike stolen too, while parking at the U surau where she is still studying today.

****** 

This evening around 6.30, while I was transfering a plant to a bigger pot, a worried looking man was seen frantically running up and down the road.
With a flimsy paper, like a delivery invoice or quotation, in his hand, I assumed he was looking for the right address.
I kept seeing him walking neither here nor there, but at the extreme opposite side of the road where I was.

When it was 7, about time that I retreated, he suddenly walked in front of me.
He knew I was observing him all these while.

"Lori saya kena curi." 
Then he hurriedly ran and walked away.

His lorry was stolen.
All I can say to myself, pity that deliveryman and lorry driver, for wanting to earn an honest living...                 

Wasn't It 'Abdullah Al-Mubarak During The Haj?

Turkish descendent 'Abdullah bin Al-Mubarak, born 118 years after hijrah, was entering Kufa in Iraq.

On his way to Makkatul Mukarramah to perform his haj, he saw an old woman sitting on a rubbish-heap plucking a duck.
It occurred to him that it was indeed a carrion, dead and rotting, not fit for her consumption.
He stopped his mule, and asked the woman if the duck is slaughtered or already dead.

When she answered the latter,
he asked, 'then why are you plucking it?'
'So that my family and I can eat it,' was her reply.

'Abdullah Al-Mubarak told her that ALLAH Subhaanahu Wa Ta'aala forbid carrion consumption in a country of abundance.
The woman kept chasing and shooing him away, for being a busybody .

After a long exchange of words, he asked the whereabout of her house.
He then left the spot, and rented a proper lodging for him to stay.

At the rented lodging, he then approached a man.
He offered the man some monetary reward if the man accompanied him to the address given by the woman that he had earlier met.

Once reaching the place, 'Abdullah Al-Mubarak requested the man to knock at the door with a stick that he had.
The woman asked who was at the door.
When 'Abdullah asked her to open the door, she partially opened it.
He insisted that she opened it wide, all the way.

He got off his mule and hit it with the stick that he had.
The mule went into the house.
Then he said to the woman that the mule with all the provision on it, money and clothes are all hers.
For this world and the Next.

'Abdullah Al-Mubarak stayed behind.
He did not proceed to Makkatul Mukarramah, until the haj season ended.
He returned home when all pilgrims had returned after performing their haj.

****** 

Some of his country folks went to greet him.
They congratulated him for accomplishing his haj.

He told them that he was down with illness and did not go on haj.
But one of them said,
"Subhaanallaah!
Did I not leave my goods with you, while we were at Mina on our way to 'Arafah?"

Another person said the same thing.
He turned to them saying, he did not know what they were saying.
Once again, for himself, he did not go on haj that year.

*** 'Abdullah Al-Mubarak dreamt that someone was telling him,
''Abdullah, rejoice! for ALLAH has accepted your sodaqah.
HE sent an Angel in your form, performing the haj for you.'"

Chasing The Truth

 
Chasing the truth: Anti-graft activists (left to right) Ronald Rofiandri, Apung Widadi and Roy Salam present their findings on irregularities at several House of Representatives’ renovation projects during a press conference at the Indonesian Corruption Watch office in Jakarta on Sunday. (JP/ Jerry Adiguna) 

Source: The Jakarta Post - Sunday January 15, 2012

Placenta, Anyone?

As appeared in Saturday's Star,

the above 35-year old accounts manager Mandy Chong, from Petaling Jaya, had in May last year, paid RM8,180 for four injections.
An assistant administered the injections, not a doctor, on her buttocks with what the beauty centre she went to, claimed to be sheep placenta from New Zealand.
The beauty centre spoke highly of the product during her treatment.

But when the injected area started swelling, she could not bear the pain.
She then went to a specialist hospital and discovered they had actually injected silicone.
She had to spend over RM15,000, double the amount she paid the beauty centre, to rectify the damage caused by the beauty procedure.

Since October last year, she had made six attempts to contact the beauty centre for a refund but was ignored.
She had been unable to work for over a month after the operation, as she is still suffering from pain.
She fears further side effects as doctors said the silicone has entered her bloodstream and there may be long-term effects.

In response, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, in cautioning the public against going for such treatments.
He said, the ministry’s National Phar­maceutical Control Bureau had not approved the use of any injectable placenta products.
As of now, only 31 oral health supplement products that contain placenta, 3 from deer and 28 from sheep, are registered with the bureau.
None of them are injectable.

******

It is known that not too long ago, the rich used to go to Switzerland to have US$20,000 placenta injections.

Placenta, found in the inside layer of the womb, helps foetus get its food.
Because of its nutritious qualities, placenta is hailed as an excellent skin healer, stimulating cell renewal function in the body.
Cell replenishment function helps to slow down the human aging process.
The once every two years injection in Switzerland, is known to have dramatic effect, in maintaining anti-ageing benefits and enhancing quality of life.

When used for skin care products, pig and human placenta are biologically similar to the human skin.
Studies had shown that the use of human and pig placenta extracts benefit the users.
But issues have been raised where Muslim consumers are concerned.
For them, it is sheep placenta, or more commonly known as ovine placenta.

Placenta usage strictly for the rich?
It used to be.
But today, the usage are for people of all ages and races.
There are plenty of placenta-based natural skin care products, from wrinkle creams and facemasks.
Users claimed it produce wonders for the skin.

******

Can the placenta be eaten? No? Yes?

Once, a father, after visiting his wife in hospital, brought home his baby's placenta meant to wash and bury it. Local culture greatly believe that the placenta needs proper burial.
But, his grown up daughter thought her father had bought organ of an animal.
Without giving much thought to it, she boiled, fry and cook for the family.
When the father asked where she bought the meat from, only then they realised they were eating the baby's 'friend'.

In April 2006, 43-year-old Tom Cruise told a magazine that he was going to eat his baby (Suri)'s placenta. 27-year old Katie Holmes was about to deliver their baby anytime.

In 1998, chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall fried a placenta with shallots and garlic.
He served it to the baby’s parents, along with other 20 guests.

During my earlier days in JB, a sister admitted that whenever she delivered her babies, their placentas would be buried.
But their umbical cords were cooked together with porridge, for their (at least ten) children's meal.
No rivalry, she said.
But as I see it now, after the mother had passed away, all of them are no different from other children who did not consume umbical cords of their siblings.

Of Clay And Polong

I had, on many occasions, told Tina*, to 'berbakti pada tanah', do some good to the earth that we step on everyday. 

'Macamana?' she asked, 

'Macam tanam pokok, cabut rumput, sapu, bersihkan halaman rumah.'

'Kenapa?' she was curious at my suggestion.

'Kita ada interaction dan buat baik pada makhluk TUHAN yang tak pernah buat dosa, dia do'akan kita. 
Makhluk yang tidak ada dosa, do'anya cepat makbul.'

******

My curiosity with the soil arose when I was in Bantul, Indonesia, after an earthquake.
After the sun had set, some traumatic old man and woman, barefooted, would climb up higher ground to spend their nights, sleeping among the graves.

Their close interaction with mother nature, walking barefooted, pricked the inside of me.
No wonder all of them are slim, no one store excess body fat in their bodies, unlike my civil servant relatives, whose sandals and slippers kind of creating that 'modern looking societies' - excesses in the body.

Mother earth will extract the 'unwanted' and toxin trapped in us.
That's the reason why in religion, we are needed to use clay, 'tanah liat', when in contact with 'najis mughallazah'.

Many written articles I've came across, about those cancer suffers who has had their miracle cure, when they  spend their time doing gardening, sitting or lying on open fields...

******

Last Christmas, Tina's family was out.
Her mother brought her sister's family from Perak, picnicing  at Desaru.

Tina called, asking me to accompany her.
She was being followed by polong the night before.

To entertain that family from Perak, they all went to Danga Bay for dinner.
Her uncle was smoking his cigarette.
Somehow, a stray polong, disowned by its owner, followed the trail of the cigarette smoke.

It aimed Tina amongst all, in her uncle's company.
Since many of the creature's friends are in Tina's body, the weakest among all, it followed her home.

Polong owned by someone, is said to be fed with blood.
But the strayed ones, I'm not sure.

Tina was possessed at 1am, and was sent to seek for a cure at that wee hour.
I've been blogging a lot about Tina, sincerely not to shame her, but to share the first time experience of being in an entirely different world.
Things happened are all an eye opener for me, realising the vastness of GOD's creation.
The realisation in me, being handicapped, with almost nil knowledge of HIS, makes the need in me more, to study more of his other beings.

******

The healer took some clay and rub on Tina, who was still under possession.
She scolded him, saying she's made of fire, and nothing will make her compromising herself with the dirty soil.

When the real Tina came around, she was asked to 'mandi selut', cover herself with clay, or any clean earth, it does not matter.

The topic of 'berbakti pada tanah', doing good to the earth we step everyday, now make sense to Tina.
But whenever she was covered with soil, there is an usual great resistance from the inside of her, always fighting with her inner self, often she found herself grasping to breathe.

Praying for the day when all those unseen beings will go away.    

And We have certainly created you, [O Mankind], 

and given you [human] form. 

Then We said to the angels, 

"Prostrate to Adam"; 

so they prostrated, 

except for Iblees. 

He was not of those who prostrated. 

[ Allah ] said, 

"What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?" 

[Satan] said, 

"I am better than him. 

You created me from fire and created him from clay." 

- Al-A'raf: 11 - 12