Ya Ayyuhal Walad........ [ Oh My Dear Son ]

 Oh My Dear Son,

You ask Papa what do we do next? We are now beyond 'Puasa Enam'

Well, my dear son,

At you relative young age, you still have long to go. If you continue the fervour you did the last 10 days of Ramadan, you will end sooner than later a 'burnt out' chap.

I advise to 'DE-ESCALATE' ie if for example you are doing, like Papa, the al-Ghazali's weekly wirid in a day, say at 500x each quantum, de-escalate to ay a hundred time each, or 200 , over the whole day.

Maintain your obligatory prayers as before and try to at least do it once a day at our local mosque, say, Magrib, Isya' or Subuh

 want to be permanently

In short, my dear son, choose whatever wirid you like, spread it out over day but start with CASH early in the morning, well before Subuh prayer, if you are a wee bit lazy, give a longer post Subuh wirid.       Add a wee bit of daily quran, this is best!!                                                                                                   If you guys want to be permanently head damaged like Papa [ PHD }, go to my library and start reading Hamka's Tafsir al-Azhar, 2 to 3 pages a day.

Whatever you do, the accent is ISTIQAMAH.                                                                                             Berdikit dikit dulu, but amplify the volume with the coming years.

At Papa's age , and people Papa's age, when the 'house is already saying goodbye, goodbye,... and the grave is welcoming' , we have no choice but to 'ESCALATE'

I would still do my al-Ghazali wirid full: the weekly plan complete in one day, x1000 each quantum; still wake up say one hour or one hour and a half before Subuh, [ no longer at 1 am ] and inter-sperse the tahajud prayers  and tasbih prayer with the wirid, probably covering half of the wirid before Subuh, and the rest between breakfast time and lunch, at every nooks and corners available during Papa's morning hours at the hospital..

THe rest of the day, I have the other favourite such as Nabi Yunus's doa and wirid; some favourite asma al-husna....and the greatest zikr of all :

" La ila Ha illa hu wahdahu Laashari kala' lahul mulku wala hul hamdu wahuwa ala kulli shai in qadir "

x100, x500 or x1000....tengok keadaan. Papa could easily do a thousand in the pool at KGNS.

Mixing the profane and the sublome , so to speak.

The Haj people mostly recite just this at the field of Arafah during their Wukuf time.

There is a well known hadith which alluded to this wirid being 'the tress and beautiful plants that you plant in heaven.

" ....your estate in Jannah is a vast open plain, stretches far beyond the horizon. A cool place. This wirid will be the trees that you plant for your garden in Jannah...", or some thing to that effect. I could not recall the hadith exactly, but off the cuff , it alludes to that/

Please do check the authenticity of the hadith. Papa  has wild imagination oftentimes. I read to much during your age. 

At school in KB in the 60's, papa used to cycle from Jalan Teliput into down town KB to visit Carnegie Library,  to read philosophical works of Scopenhaur, Jung, Freud., of which Papa that time could not comprehend a thing Even read the works of evangelicals like Dr Norman Vincent Peale..

Then after having my morning fill, cycle back to prepare for afternoon school session at the world famous Sultan Ismail College. Papa probably was in form 2 or form 3, then. at MCKK, I was introduced to Bertrand Russel.

In later life graduated to al-Ghazali, Abdal Qadir al-Jilani, etc and etc.  & not forgetting Hamka's Tafsir al-Azhar.

So now , all those years of  'junks' are just creeping out!!

Enjoy. your life to the fullest my son, but, always, always, the BILLAH & LILLAH, must be there in the background and foreground.

Enjoy life to the fullest, my son, but the BILLAH & LILLAH must always be there all the time.

5 Best Things To Do On Laylatul Qadr | Dr. Omar Suleiman....................

Ru, Sha , Jo, Nina & Yazman,

This last 10 days oF Ramadan is Laylatul Qadr territory. If you are in Makkah now, it would be impossible to enter the Haram even if you arrive 2 hours before Magrib. One can say what one likes with respect to the Arabs in general, but Laylatul Qadr is very serious  'business' in the Arab world.

They know their Quran.

As the good Shaykh Suleiman above mentioned in passing, in the last 10 days you do the same as what you have been doing everyday : Solat, Zikr & Quran. But just increase the volume.

Papa will add, but x10 more in term of volume, and do it mostly in between Magrib & Subuh.

If you have to sleep, sleep very little. Try sleeping just after the Terawik prayer before 9.30, then wake up at 12 and start work!! Of course the best is to iktikaf fully in the masjid the last 10 days.

But we all work

That remains a reality  nowadays. We work.

Papa's personal modus operandi has now changed a wee bit from what Papa advised you guys some 5 years back. I have adopted Imam al-Ghazali's recommended weekly schedule, UNTRUNCATED, AND COMPRESSED,  into half a night, as my daily zikr.

Starting at 11 pm, or on the dot at 12 am, on waking up, take ablution, and do his 1st zikr:

1...." ya Allah, ya Allah, ya Allah..." [ or Allah, Allah, Allah...]     x1000  .....less than 20 minutes

2...." La ila haillallah "       x1000   ........approx 24 minutes

One cycle of 2 rakaat Tahajjud prayer.

3...." ya Hayyu ya Qayyum "    x1000      ......less than 20 minutes

4...." La haw la wala quwwata illa billah "    x1000     ....approx 22 minutes

2nd cycle of Tahajjud prayer.

5...." Allah humma solli ala Muhammad  wa ala ahli Muhammad " , or interspersed with slightly elongated versions, occasionally, if you like,             x1000      ......approx 25 to 35 minutes, if you intersperse with the elongated version, and longer if you do like the one in the last rakaat of our solat.

6...." Astagfirullah, astagfirullah, astagfirullah "   x1000      ...... only 14 minutes

[ but I usually do the whole, longer personal version taught to me by an Indonesian Shaykh, Shaykh al-Mendalingi, [ from Mendaling, Sumatera ] given ijazah by the Saudis to teach in the Haram in Bahasa Indonesia., Papa met al- Mendalingi in the Haram while leading the Medical Haj Mission in 1984 :

" astagfirullah hal Azim allazi la ila ha illa huwal hayyul qayyum wa atu bu ila'  rabbir firli waliwa liddaya wal mukmini wal mukminat ".

Tak sampai hati Papa tak berdoa UNTUK kedua orang tua Papa. Itu saja Papa boleh doakan dan buat kepada kedua yang tersayang buat masa ini.  This addition does not take long anyway....Allahualam.

Kalau betul ilmu yang di-perturunkan olih the good old shaykh itu , betul lah. Kalau tak betul, tak rugi..

Ini Papa punya philosophy. , 

Tak perlu debat dengan sesiapa benda amalan seperti ini.

Dalam hal ugama, children, please avoid those 'tok gurus' with blinkers.

Just too many of them around nowadays.

They will take away the sweetness of berugama, especially in your later lives.

Followed by 3rd cycle of 2 rakaat Tahajjud prayer.

7...." Subhanallah wa biham dihih subhanallah hil Azim "       x1000      ....approx 30 minutes.

Followed by 4 rakaat of Solatul Tasbih dalam 2 salam. [ 20 minutes ]

Between 5 to 5.30, when you guys joins Papa for Sahur, I listen to al-Basit on the net with direct transliteration by Pickthal [ excellent video ]. Or read the Quran. I love listening.

Between 630 am to 830 m, try to get a short nap before going to work in SJMC Hospital.

Another short nap after Zohor.

In between Asar and Berbuka,

8.... " La ila haillallah hu wahdahu la sharikallah lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu yuhyi wayumit wahuwa ala kulli shai in Qadir "       x1000        ........approx  70 minutes,

&

A potpourri of other short wirid, in between 'nook and corners' while at work, and while waiting for Berbuka :

1. Rabbana atina fiddunya...

2. Allahuma innaka affuwun...

3. Doa dan wirid Nabi Yunus

4. Some favourite asma al Husna, esp " ya Latiff ", " ya Salam "

5. " Hasbunallah wani' mal Wakeel "

6. " Subhanallah wa bi hamdih astagfirullah wa atu bu ilaik "

Pokoknya children, dont leave any " space " unfilled this last 10 days of Ramadan.

IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE 1000 BULAN. 

IT IS ABOUT BEING CLOSE TO HIM.

Papa view the annual Ramadan month as a great OPEN UNIVERSITY for all humanity.

The last 10 days is Allah's gift to Mukmin.

And after the Ramadan, we will certainly percolate downhill  a lot with our zikr volume almost certainly, to just a mere fraction of what we are doing now, ...it is very OK.

With a lot of istiqamah, Insyaallah, we go up a couple of  planes higher in our relationship with HIM, from previous years. It is stepwise like climbing a staircase.

Next year up another staircase, until constant  zikrullah, in your ripe old age no longer becomes work.

It will be pleasure, insyaallah.

ITU SAJA MEANING HIDUP INI.

WE WANT TO BE CLOSE TO HIM.

We dont want to remain static, like a man running on a threadmill, year in and year out, not going any where.

Ru, Sha, Jo Nina & Yazman,

LAYLATUL QADR IS DOWABLE,

GRAB IT.