Their Tomorrow's Marriages

His siblings are all trying hard to find a wife for him.
When he was asked when he will be getting married, his immediate reply is usually, 'tomorrow'.

Successful in his career, he has more than enough finance for reasonable dowry.
Yes!
Even if that tomorrow is really tomorrow, the next day, he has no qualm of footing whatever reasonable bill that will come with that reasonable 'tomorrow's marriage'.

Yes, definitely he wants to enter the marriage world.
But he's patient enough to play the waiting game, even now entering his 40s.

A number of anon female callers had several times wanted to talk to him, to know him better, to get closer to him, and his closely-knit family.
But he had warned the maid not to ever pass the phone to him.
After much introduction, one after another girl, by relatives and friends, none seemed to be what he usually saw in his dream.

Yes, he had often dream of seeing a girl, wearing black but glittering all over, bangled arm-length, chaperoned by her mother.
In his dream, both mother and daughter were usually doing their shopping at and around Mustafa Centre in Serangoon.

No, he is not keen about the jewellery that adorned the girl's arm.
But he wants to know who the girl is, that often appeared in his dream. 

"Move on, it's only a dream."
The big sister had often reminded him.

"No, I know, the girl will surely appear. 
She's somewhere now."
The big sister is definitely worried about the brother.

The sister often told the brother of a man who often saw a very beautiful girl in his dream.
For many years, his mother was made to wait anxiously for her to meet her future daughter-in-law while her son lived in his dreamland.

When the actual day (actually it's mid-night) came, for him to meet her, he brought his mother along.
To recognise the girl, she was said to be the only person sitting at the bus-stop nearest to his flat in eastern part of Singapore.
She will be noticed with her fresh yellow, fully blossomed ylang-ylang or cananga (kenanga).

If he was to smile at him.
His smile is the indication that he accepts her into his life.
If not, then she will walk away.

Beside reminding her son, the mother prayed hard that her son will change his mind.
The mother prayed hard that his son will not smile at his dream girl.
It's OK for her to wait longer for another prospective daughter-in-law, not this very beautiful dream girl. 

The mother knows, never in the world, that there is known to be any ylang-ylang or cananga (kenanga), its petals are fully blossomed.
Maybe, just maybe, it is planted in the world where mere mortals are not living in.                             

That Penanggal At The Window

"Balik, balik rumah engkau." 
Zah would often said to the penanggal whenever it looked into her house through the window.


"Tak takut Zah?"
I asked, during one of those many conversations of the unwelcome guest.  

"Taklah, sebab dia mesti balik pada tuan dia dengan usus dia yang panjang berjela." 
I could not believe that could take place in Singapore now.  

Penanggal is said to be a female vampire but with only its upper body.
From chest downwards, it's said that its long intestine is exposed and left dangling.

****** 

"Emak ngantuk tau. 

Tiap-tiap malam kena ikut bapak engkau. 

Dah jadi macam pontianak pulak tiap-tiap hari balik tengah malam." 

Zah scolded her daughter during one of those night as she had to follow her husband to Marsiling MRT station every night, to fetch her home from her second shift work.

It is understood, as Zah needed her sleep.
She had to go to school the next day.

The daughter was quiet through out that home journey to their flat in the northern part of Singapore.

****** 

Zah's policeman son was about to enter Qur'an reading competition.
So he often checked his reading with the Qur'an CD at home.  

"Jangan bukak orang ngaji tulah. Aku tak suka." 
The sister insisted that she dislike hearing Qur'an recitation.

The brother was using his strength to stop his sister's hand from reaching the player. 

"Dah kenapa dengan engaku? 

Kena rasuk hantu ke apa?" 

The brother was surprised with the sudden change in his sister.
Never had he heard that she dislike the Qur'an.  

"Aku dah cantik kan? 

Dah lama aku nak cantik..." 
As the sister was doing model-like act infront of her brother, he then suddenly remember that there was one night when he was talking to his uncle at 1am at the void deck, he saw a female figure who was lingering around them.
Although he found it odd for female to be alone in the wee hour, he did not think much about it.

When his uncle rode away, and he was reaching his second floor home, she was with him in the lift.
She exited the lift before him and was walking ahead of him at the corridor...

The brother held his sister tight, blast the player louder, and recited verses of the Qur'an that he could remember then.
He remembered the penanggal, the unwelcome guest that appeared almost every night at his window.

****** 

It was later found out that the night the mother scolded the daughter, the penanggal was already in her body. As she was unable to perform her daily prayers that week, her body was easily accessed by the evil vampire.

Zah had noted the changes in her daughter few days earlier before that scolding night.
The daughter wasn't herself.
She was more reserved, unlike her bubbly nature.
She cooped up in her room whever she was at home.

After the girl was healed, she asked to be permitted to stay in her grandmother's house.
Her jumbo flat, overlooking higher ground, there was once, an elderly Chinese man, hanged himself at the tree that can be seen from the window.                   

Those Former Occupants Of New Homes

I was in Bertam, Penang recently.
The house owner had just moved into that new estate, which still has oil palm plantation to its right.

I like the house as housing price is cheaper in Penang than in JB and, it is the second house I saw, with space for air well, designed to promote ventilation.
The first time I saw a house with space for air well belong to the famed Singapore potter, Iskandar Jalil in Kembangan, whom we just visited this Eid.
He doubled the space usage for indoor gardening.
The Bertam owner doubled the air well space area too, but as a guest room.

She moved into the house just for a brief period before she decided to return to JB.
The house is now without its occupant.

According to her, she often saw the sight of an old man walking across the house.
At times, she would heard loud banging at the rear door, the kitchen area.
Even when she asked her mother for companion, the loud banging continued.

A number of residents had almost the same experience.
They would see the old man all over the place, sometime, on the street too.

******

For her, the first-time owner of a new home, for me, it is not unusual for such sighting.

During the late 70s and early 80s when we just moved to Bedok, a new housing estate then, a woman once said that she was about to go to the kitchen after midnight when she saw her empty baby's cradle, which happened to be in the kitchen, being swayed by a Chinese man with one hand.
His other hand, grasping his little hair that was holding his severed head.
That is to say, the Chinese man swaying the empty cradle is headless.

Bedok was said to be the execution and mass grave area for many, not only anti-Japanese groups, but those innocent civilians too.

A workmate in the 80s, Mary, living in Bedok too, had to ask for morning shift.
Whenever she was to start her work in the afternoon, and was home around 10pm, she would see a monk in a saffron yellow robe, sitting cross legged, perching on the wall of the topmost corridor of her block of flat.
Her husband, despite walking her home once she alighted the bus, was unable to see the monk.

According to the temple medium she went to, the monk she saw, used to appease the wondering souls that were tortured and died, but without proper burial.

****** 

We were house hunting about two years ago, when my husband decided to bring me to a new housing estate, with beautiful houses but few takers.
The price in that particular area was brought down, lesser by 30%.
Although similarly built, houses in the eastern side of the hosing estate were almost 100% occupied, even without the 30% discount.
But the western part of it...

As we approached, the place was sombre and eerie like feeling crept in.
That is usual, said my husband, as the area, apart from the new housing estate, was fully vegetated, with shrubs and trees.

"That's the row of houses that I mention..."
said my husband.

Before he continued, I interrupted,
"I don't want to live here. I'm seeing coffins, not houses..."                             

Calling Of The Penang Bridge

"Where will I be if I were to jump off Penang Bridge? Heaven or Hell?"
She asked me this afternoon.

As her husband was approaching the 8.4km bridge, she started to have difficulties in breathing.

Daily activities kept rewinding in her mind:
Wake up early morning,
to the baby sitter to send daughter,
to work,
evening,
fetch daughter,
go home,
and the cycle continues forever...

How to run away from the cycle?
A lady suddenly appeared in front of her, pointing to the sea,
jump off the bridge...

Something black in her head press her with great pressure that it affected her breathing.
How to overcome the breathing difficulties?
Somebody had placed a knife on her chest,
commit suicide...

The cd in the moving car on Penang Bridge which was reciting Yaasiin made her hair stood up.
It gave cold sweat and goose pimples all over her body.

She was only herself when her husband azan, calling for prayer, loudly into her ears that she vomited, according to her, her saliva, but as thick as gum... 

The Wonders Of Aayatul Kursi

I have had my daughter in early 20s.

During my confinement period, I used to dream of an extremely thin vampire,  pontianak, craving for my blood.
All the time whenever I suddenly woke up from having such dream, my mouth would still muttering Aayatul Kursi.

I had blogged earlier that the house that I rented during the 80s, its Javanese owner is said to possess a bad spirit right up until her death.

She refused to look at me even on her death bed.

But my then neighbour, who was with me visiting my landlord in hospital, when she held the old lady's hand, it was as if a very strong surge of current flowing into her body.
From then on, it was a long three-year battle of treatment from seeing her very own mirror reflection just skeletal frame without flesh and skin.

******

After I get to know and understand sickly S closer, beside the prescribed  medication and the varieties health supplement she consumes daily, I encouraged her to find alternative treatment too.
That was more than ten years ago.

Her cave-in shoulders, acute asthma and other ailments is a great concern for me.

******

S is learning Qur'an reading from my friend.

Although her husband is a well known figure in the local community, S is a  reserved individual, not opening herself to others, shy of others knowing and discussing her state of health.

It affects her head too.
She is extremely slow, that is fine.
But she is shy to let others know.
So she would go to my friend's house after others left.

My friend has great concern for her too.
She too encouraged her to find alternative treatment that GOD Willing, will improve her health, and her Qur'an reading.
She is still at the first few pages of the Qur'an when others had completed the whole Book and had started all over again.

After weeks of persuasion, at long last, S agreed on the alternative treatment.
But on condition, no one is to know of her undergoing such treatment.

During the first treatment when Aayatul Kursi was read to her, she put out both hands, and another voice in her suddenly shouted and demanded: "STOP!!!"
S said she felt extreme heat in her body...

This morning, when I called my friend asking about S, she is delighted.
GOD willing, S will very soon catch up others with her reading...                         

Purge Them Out !

 

Indeed, it is from Solomon, and indeed, it reads: 'In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,

Be not haughty with me but come to me in submission [as Muslims].' "

Source: Qur'an.com

******

Ustaz recited the above two verses from Surah An-Naml (Ants) in getting rid one of the stubborn jinn in his patient's body.

The patient is a young 24-year old mother, who suffered severe depression that needed strong medication.

She admitted of readying herself anytime, to be admitted to mental institution.
She admitted to have gone mad.

Her depression reached the most critical period when she received the news of her father-in-law's death four months ago, in June.

At that time, she said, she was no longer herself.
Her shrouded-in-white soul was dangling in thin air, she was seeing death all around her.
Worst still, she felt her plump body seemed weightless as she felt her feet were not touching the ground.
She was floating, not walking.


Although at the last count there were 14 jinns that were purged out of the patient one by one over several days, not all were stubborn, though.

******

This afternoon, an ustaz on television recited the same two verses forcing out a jinn called 'Asyik, from staying in a married woman's body.
'Asyik is known to like, idolise and love human beings.

The 'Asyik in the woman's body admitted to have fallen in love with her, and have had ten children with her.

According to the woman, she used to hear a voice saying 'I love you' in English, and they used to communicate with each other...          

Visually Impaired Guiding The Normal Being

"You like writing?" 
asked Ustaz two days ago.

"Of course I do."

"Then write about my experience of healing others."

"Ustaz, the Internet connection at my place is really bad. 
It is one of the reason I'm now taking a break, eating many kitkats during that interval."

"Never mind, let it take its own sweet time and you can prolong your time too.
I thought of compiling my experience into a book.
But since I can no longer see, you take over from me."

"InsyaALLAH..."

******

I used to hear Ustaz's name since more than twenty years ago and heard him giving tazkirah (reminders) from the surau in our then neighbourhood.
From my house, I would follow his tazkirah as it struck deep in my heart.
But for some unfavourable reason, his position was replaced by others...

******

It all began when I called a friend informing her of my intention to make an Eid visit to her house.
Instead, she directed me to Ustaz's house where a healing process was taking place.
After more than twenty years of 'knowing' Ustaz, it was only during the recent Eidul Fitr that I saw his face for the first time.

I was following Ustaz's Qur'anic recitation closely during that first meeting.
After several times seeing Ustaz called out for the patient's husband to assist Ustaz placing his hands at several parts of the body, I thought he was just being courteous.

But it turned out that Ustaz is blind.
So Ustaz is a blind hafiz, a person who memorise Qur'anic recitation with all It's words etched in his heart.

******

During these trial periods, rendering moral support, especially when I was asked, is the least I am able to do to a good family.
So I often accompany them to Ustaz's place...

"Ustaz, I want to learn from you."

"Alhamdulillah, another person for me to pass on my knowledge." 
Thank GOD, Ustaz was delighted, never hesitated.

****** 

"Did I ever see Ummie before?" 
Ustaz asked his neighbour.

He became blind after an eye surgery went wrong performed by those not supposed to do it (need to check out with him when was that).

"Never."
His neighbour, a friend of mine too, answered him.

Although my husband and him used to meet, it was precisely the very reason that he had never seen me, that I wanted to be his student.

But, at the back of my mind, I felt ashamed that although Ustaz, his eyes may not be able to see the Qur'an, but his heart is crafted with 114 Chapters from Verses of the Al-Qur'an.