Read the red announcement up there? I have time right now, so for today, it is not applicable.
Ramadhan is the time of the year where everyone gets to be a little nicer than before. Ramadhan is not just hunger and thirst. Obviously, it is much more than that. Take simple things for example, you lie during Ramadhan, you'll feel the guilt that you might not have felt on other months, and you might even apologize for that lie. When you want to be angry, you restrain yourself from being so. You like to stare at pretty girls, but on this fasting month, you keep your sights away from the sinfuls. None of those will batal your puasa, but there's an inner encouragement that you avoid yourselves from these tiny ungood things so that you can be a better person after this training camp.
Going to the mosque is never easy. Even if you have sufficient time and transportation at your disposal, you might not want to go because it'll make you look too religious. But in Ramadhan, everyone goes to the mosque, so why don't we? The bonus thing is everyone does it, so when you perform your tarawih, you don't really look like you're trying to be too religious. When you want to read the Qur-an, it is much easier on Ramadhan. You're just capitalizing on the overwhelming bonus rewards offered by Allah on this blessful month.
This is a chance for everyone to stop doing sinful things, or even to stop doing worldly things, even if they're not that sinful. I am an avid music fan. I listen to music on any emotional state; sad or happy, boring or fun. I don't think listening to music is sinful or evil, but I have underlined it to myself that music can be evil on two occasions. First, if you love a song so much you keep listening to it and it got stuck in your head during your prayers. When you recite al-Fatihah with a certain song running on the back of your head, then that song is evil. I should start deprive myself from overplaying that song. The second situation is when I'm driving, or doing anything at risk of dying, and I'm singing a certain song at that time. When I drive alone, I always recite the two-phrase shahadah and say nothing else after that, so that if I die in a tragic car crash, the two-phrase shahadah will be my last words before I die. However, when I drive alone, I also put on my favourite CD very loud. I will try to hold myself not to sing along, but some songs are too good to resist.
So, during Ramadhan, I will always try to deprive myself from listening to songs. It is not sinful, but it is worldly, keduniaan. There is one engineer at my place who always plays songs at his PC while working, but when Ramadhan comes, the playlist quickly converts into recitation of Qur-an. That is an example to be followed.
OK going a little wayward here. A very quick review on football. Coventry City beat Manchester United in the Carling Cup, good, but what's great for them is that they won it at Old Trafford, regardless of the team they beat is a second string. I've always wanted to praise Messi, he has played incredible football during the Champions League midweek and Barca's recent La Liga victory. He is indeed a pleasure to watch, probably will eclipse Ronaldinho. New Straits Times and The Star both have weekly pullouts for football, but I have been prefering NST's EPLPlus because they feature more articles written from England, whereas I hate The Star's Football because they have the same critics writing two or more articles, and worse, the critics are very biased. I hate to name them, but if you read it, you'll know who. But now, they have John Dykes writing for one column, which is great. Now there's spark to that pullout. You should read his column for this week, it is great.
Ramadhan is the time of the year where everyone gets to be a little nicer than before. Ramadhan is not just hunger and thirst. Obviously, it is much more than that. Take simple things for example, you lie during Ramadhan, you'll feel the guilt that you might not have felt on other months, and you might even apologize for that lie. When you want to be angry, you restrain yourself from being so. You like to stare at pretty girls, but on this fasting month, you keep your sights away from the sinfuls. None of those will batal your puasa, but there's an inner encouragement that you avoid yourselves from these tiny ungood things so that you can be a better person after this training camp.
Going to the mosque is never easy. Even if you have sufficient time and transportation at your disposal, you might not want to go because it'll make you look too religious. But in Ramadhan, everyone goes to the mosque, so why don't we? The bonus thing is everyone does it, so when you perform your tarawih, you don't really look like you're trying to be too religious. When you want to read the Qur-an, it is much easier on Ramadhan. You're just capitalizing on the overwhelming bonus rewards offered by Allah on this blessful month.
This is a chance for everyone to stop doing sinful things, or even to stop doing worldly things, even if they're not that sinful. I am an avid music fan. I listen to music on any emotional state; sad or happy, boring or fun. I don't think listening to music is sinful or evil, but I have underlined it to myself that music can be evil on two occasions. First, if you love a song so much you keep listening to it and it got stuck in your head during your prayers. When you recite al-Fatihah with a certain song running on the back of your head, then that song is evil. I should start deprive myself from overplaying that song. The second situation is when I'm driving, or doing anything at risk of dying, and I'm singing a certain song at that time. When I drive alone, I always recite the two-phrase shahadah and say nothing else after that, so that if I die in a tragic car crash, the two-phrase shahadah will be my last words before I die. However, when I drive alone, I also put on my favourite CD very loud. I will try to hold myself not to sing along, but some songs are too good to resist.
So, during Ramadhan, I will always try to deprive myself from listening to songs. It is not sinful, but it is worldly, keduniaan. There is one engineer at my place who always plays songs at his PC while working, but when Ramadhan comes, the playlist quickly converts into recitation of Qur-an. That is an example to be followed.
OK going a little wayward here. A very quick review on football. Coventry City beat Manchester United in the Carling Cup, good, but what's great for them is that they won it at Old Trafford, regardless of the team they beat is a second string. I've always wanted to praise Messi, he has played incredible football during the Champions League midweek and Barca's recent La Liga victory. He is indeed a pleasure to watch, probably will eclipse Ronaldinho. New Straits Times and The Star both have weekly pullouts for football, but I have been prefering NST's EPLPlus because they feature more articles written from England, whereas I hate The Star's Football because they have the same critics writing two or more articles, and worse, the critics are very biased. I hate to name them, but if you read it, you'll know who. But now, they have John Dykes writing for one column, which is great. Now there's spark to that pullout. You should read his column for this week, it is great.
How I wish I could write something intelectual, like u do. *sigh*
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