Al Waraqah Ar -Raabi'ah...=>

salam...

Dear GoodOldLovedBUddy,

Afwan i've not written to u for quite some time...

1stly,Eid Sa'eed...taqabbalallaahu minnaa wa minkum!!!

my letter this time will be a very short one 'cos i've only a few mins left of

my 'internet' time this week...(i got carried off talking to mummy & family dearest)..

'Eid here is just a one day affair...

We went for solat 'eidul Fitr @ Jame' Badar...about 15mins away...

best,ah...the khutbah was nice...the imam said that

a sign that our amalan during Ramadhan has been accepted by Allah

is that we get to continue(istiqaamah) in whatever we did then.

i cried quite badly aft the khutbah(about a lot of things,mind u,one

of them being the thought of

me missing family-going-out-together time in Singapore)...

tapi...tulah namenye perjuangan...

We means me,my housemates,& Kak Lin & husband & the Jordan girls...That's right!!We were honoured by a visit from the 5 girls studying in Jordan(memang ade 5 S'porean girls only over there))...

We reached the mosque quite late....Very Late actually!!!As we exited the vehicle,we heard the imam starting takbir...all of us ran all the way into the mosque....'Best' tau,pagi raya lari2...hehe...

'Eid morning here doesn't feel like an 'Eid morning in S'pore...here.everybody is dressed in the same black-blue-brown-white colours...according to the seniors,the women ade baju cantik2 kat dalam...but wallaahu a'lam...cos takde org pulak yg bukak 'mantho' dorang kat Jame'...Oh well...

Later,we went to eat nasi minyak(sedap & enak) @ rumah Kak Mon & Jalal(their parents came here for Raya)...

We relaxed for the rest of the day...lazed ard...pergi cafe call2 org...(the internet connection was soO bad on that day as i suppose the whole of the muhaajiruun in Syria were calling people in their homelands...

@ night:We started cooking full force...(for the S'poreans' trip to Tayyibah)...we akhawat cooked Rendang,Nasi Empit,Ayam Masak merah & pancakes....best sangat,macam rewang kat kampung!!!

Most of us slept ard 3 am that day(or shud i say,the following day)...but nasib baik we caught some shut eye during the journey(ard 1 hr) to Tayyibah...

*A funny thing: Syrians see 'Eid,from what i observe,as just another public holiday to enjoy...

we saw them walking on the streets with their families...also,funfairs sprang up everywhere then...tapi style!!the things(eg merry-go-round,viking) were all manual!!!that means,budak2 naik,abg2/bapak2 tolak kan!!!cute kan???i felt like riding one too,tapi malu...da besar katekan...hehe...=>

اللهم تقبل منا صيامنا وارزقنا الاستقامة ما بعده!!!!!

till my next letter,

wassalam.=>

*p.s:that pic has nothing to do with "eid...just a pic of the road...

=>

Salaamun ‘alaik,
Yaa GoodOldLovedBuddy,

How’re ur last days of Ramadhan coming along???may all of us be of the faa-iziinal maqbuuliin…ameen!!=>
As promised in my last letter,I’l tell u about e tarawih prayers in Syria…
((caution:everything I’m gonna write down is totally based on my own opinion—
pls keep in mind that I prefer
*tarawih prayers which are not too fast-this means I get to read all the 3 tasbihs in ruku’ n sujud,
*tarawih prayers in which the imams finish reading 1 juz/ nite,
*tarawih prayers in which the imams read with a nice tune..hehe…so dapat enjoy!!))

My housemates n I like to go to different mosques to try out each one n find the ones we like…so far,hati ni da terpaut @ Jame’ Naabulsi…it has a combination of all 3 factors I look out 4..
Anyway,I found out when going to some mosques-quite shockingly-that quite a number of them read only one ayat per raka’ah!!!literally one ayat,as in ‘Tabaarakal-lazii biyadihil mulku wa huwa’alaa kulli syai-in qadiir’4 one raka’ah..hehe…style,kan???
For example also,@ jame’ Buuthii,during the whole 20 raka’ahs,the imam only read a total of 3 pages from surah Al-kahfi….wen I asked the reason from one of the seniors,she said that they follow a qaul in Mazhab hanafi which holds on to the aayat:
((Faqra-uu maa tayassara minal Qur-aan))-((Read what is easy from the Quraan))….
Wallaahu ta’aalaa a’lam!!

I also went to jame’ Maqam arba’iin where the imam leads the prayer as if tengah lead perang!!hehe….betol!!berkobar-kobar die bace/….takbir macam takbir perang…bace surah w/o any tune….& cepat giler!!!!(in 45min,we finished ‘isya’,20 tarawih & witr!!)…nice experience,ah,although I didn’t get to feel the relaxing ‘aspect’ of tarawih,as its name suggests…

I also went once to ifthaar & tarawih @ jame’ Umawi,a.k.a Omayyad Mosque…yup…the very mosque we learnt about in Sejarah islam in Sec 3…the great mosque built during zaman Khalifah Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik during zaman pemerintahan bani Umayyah…it is very beautiful,ancient-looking and has half of it with Islamic-looking carvings while the other half has Cristian-looking carvings(as the Cristians once took over it).
Anyway,ifthaar there was best!!!
we were ‘marshalled’ by workers wearing uniforms called-Maa-idaturrahmaan(The feast of the Most Gracious) to our ‘seats’… in the mosque courtyard -on the floor-around hidangan makanan arab….we actually even planned to bring a s’pore flag as ifthaar @ Omayyad Mosque appears on Syrian TV every day….hehe…tapi tak jadi...=>
Ifthaar beneath Allah’s sky(we cud see it changing colour,from blue to darkness) was amazing,Subhanallaah!!!
Thje tarawih there was the usual one/two ayats per raka’ah from Surah Maryam.

So,as of now,I’ve been to 11 different mosques…the rest of the days, I go to jame’ Nabulsi….
Nabulsi pon best as there is dars(like blajar ugama) after the tarawih prayers.
The topic-Law in the Quran….
not laws as in haram n halal,but laws as in-Allah says in Surah An-nahl ayat 97
من عمل صالحا من ذكر أو أنثي و هر مؤمن فلنحيينه حياة طيبة
(Whosoever does good be he male or female and he is of the mu’minin,we will give him a good life)
So Allah has made a law which says that who does good,he’l get a good life…
So,if a person doesn’t do good,he’l never ever get a good life….
There are many such ayats in the Quran!!!,with ‘Fi’il Syarat n Jawab Syarat’,only I never really noticed before…so,Imam Ratib Nabulsi touches on a topic per day,eg:the laws of Rizq,the laws of Nasr,etc….exciting sangat2!!!
If I have time,i/allah I’l tell u some of the contents of these Dars biiznillaah….

K,la,dear, I gotta run….since ‘eid is coming,I wanna say- kullu ‘aam wa nahnu bikhair!!!

p.s-i like this zikir(learnt it here in Syria)-
يا حنان يا منان, يا ذا الجود و الإحسان, ثبت قلبنا على الإيمان, نرجو عفوك و الغفران,
May all of us get ‘itq minan naar…ameen!!!و اجعلنا من عتقاء شهر رمضان

p.s:the above pic is a pic of the courtyard of the Omayyad Mosque...cantik,kn???=>