The Sanctuary TALES | Teganu Kite Revisited....

Myself, Johan, Adreana and Nadzru went out at 1 am to the beach just beyond the horses paddock to watch turtles laying their eggs.

There was sign of turtle landing but quite premature because 'it' made a beeline in the sand back to the sea, presumably the lights coming from our veranda was  deemed by it to be not ideal  and safe place to lay its eggs there.

Turtle landings are from the months of late March to early October in this part of  'Teganu'

The local WWF people have parceled out the beaches into one kilometre strips and tendered out to locals at around 5 to 6k RM per kilometre. 

This saves WWF a lot of money from having to have local 'guards' to patrol the beach as the problem will always be who watches over the 'guards'...and also who watches over the watchers of the guards...

[.which reminds us of the problem and antics in Putrajaya .......we are still very much 'third world' anyway!! ]

Each landing usually bears about 80 to 100 eggs, some to be sold back to Gomen at 5rm each. At the big 'pasar' in KT, turtle eggs are been sold at 10rm each. Each 'tender holder' is required to sell x amount of eggs per season to a local govt hatchery at Penarik, about 4 kilometres away from my place.

------x

On the crocodile story, my Hamzah went out again last week spear fishing  at 2 am at the ' alur' behind our house. He was met with a 4-foot long crocodile who was more aggressive than the  '2- foot' ikan toman' he speared but failed to 'catch', a month ago. [' ikan toman, people find in Kenyir, not in brackish water in Merang', I remember telling Hamzah at that time... ]

It's eyes shoned back at him, reddish in colour. Very distinctively 'crocodile'!

" Dakto, boleh ko anok boyo dulu jadi besar macae ning dalae tigo minggu? ", he asked me curiously, the next day.

" Mung ning beto macae bendul la Mezah!.....tu lah abe dio !...belum juppo mok dio lagi! "

[ you are as straight as a 'bendul'.....that is its brother!...wait till you meet it's mother! ]

That would stop my Hamzah from midnight fishing for the next  2 weeks at the most!
....and concentrate more at his work.
Al Qalwa is long overdue.

A Close Encounter in Teganu Kite.....

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2016/02/a-close-encounter.html

Muslim apologists...........

Friends, Dato and Tansri,

In my day to day readings and intercourse I have come across many prominent Muslims who are 'apologists' for the ugama.

They come in many forms: the Marina Mahathir/SIS /g25 types who reveal their utter ignorance of their ugama publicly; more dangerous to the ugama, the socalled liberal scholars , and liberal ulama who are wetting their pants trying to bend backward to the incessant Western howlings on issues like lgbt , human right etc and etc [ see Tariq Ramadan et al who want to relook and reinterpret the Qur'an to allow for more convergence with modern secular values, Kassim Ahmad et al and the quranist group  who are totally lost!]; and finally the outright ignoramus on the religion  but given space and time in the media, people like zurairi  of Malay Mail dan mereka2 yang sewaktu dengan nya .

In essence despite this being what we term as the American century, 

we as an ummah have been dominating the world for  13 centuries!!! : from 711ce to 14th century in Spain and Portugal; from 14th century to 20th during the Ottoman's time....right from the balkans , almost up to austria and moscow in the north and west , up to a big part of china, and into mughal india, including all the stans of present day russia!

sir!,  before we stoop too low, let us have some sense of history and numbers!

We are 1.6 billion and increasing.
We have 13 centuries of world dominance behind us...yes we dragging our feet this century, accepted!

We should not apologise and be 'bullied' and cowed into changing the texture and shape of our ugama by a civilization that is hardly one century old and already showing  serious 'cracks' in the wall.
No! we do not go to war with them...we are  peaceful....but when we are  trodden we should not accept that hands down.

There was a time in the history of the Muslims when one Muslim lady got raped in Belgrade, the Ottomans will be massing their troops at the Austrian border.

Do listen to tj winter's thot and perspective on our present dire need to have collective 'ridha'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0_WD-fpEQ

dr nik

...................................

Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2016 1:06 PM

from: azmihamzah@terangbulang .com
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Subject: Re: before we move on to surah luqman.........tj winter aka abadal hakim murad on 'ridha'

nikhowk,  why do you as a good muslim demand so much of others and so little of ourselves? the non-muslims do not owe any obligation to be kind, generous or supportive. we ourselves will have reboot our affairs and reset the course of muslim societies. other societies have given themselves the facility and capability to bring change and alter their collective fortunes. we muslims have, by and large, not found the way to do so. as painfully demonstrated within our own beloved motherland of open wounds. salam, azmi.

________________________________ peace!

Azmihamzah

............................................

ts wan ming,

aah ts , when you refer to our motherland that is our  collective 'pain in the ass....'.
i have been more than vocal on this motherland...that  you have not seen me yet behind bars, is a wonder.

but as far as the middle east is concerned i have no apology for my stand.
i  do not have to wait 10 years for the chilcot report that now rapts blair on the fingers!.
bush, blair, donald rumsfeld and general collin powell.....all of them should be tried at the hague and if found guilty, hanged!
hanged them upside down!....and shot.

the iraq invasion by bush senior started them all, but even well  before that..
a fact is a fact, ts 
even in peaceful malaysia, you start arming 0.2 percent of the dissenting population, and encourage dissent via the media and give lope sided reports,, there will be absolute chaos in no time.

just how many decades the west had been playing this game in the middle east, if i may ask you, ts?

decades and years of media misreporting; support of disparate groups to further their economic agendas; blatant invasions of the islamic diaspora and interventions; covert and non-covert military actions; un sanctioned and non un sanctioned blood letting in muslim countries; dacapitation of saddam, and ghaddafy......etc etc and etc and etc in the name of democracy.

isis is an aberration of islam, accepted.
a gross aberration of a peaceful ummah that preach 'SALAM', i must say.
but if you are 1.6 billion, there are aberration both at the extreme left and right of the spectrum.
...and there is no 'papacy' in islam, to influence  against this drift.

sorry, there used to be 'the grand mufti of egypt', having some semblance of that role at least in passing some 'fatwas', but post morsi, even the legitimacy of this once august  institution has gone down the drain along with the 'generals'.

if a group of young muslims blatantly and wrongly at that,  choose to interpret that the west is now openly at war with islam, there is very little anyone in the main body can do or influence, especially now.

the west approach to muslims must certainly be more nuanced that what they are doing now. 
for decades the relationship has been too lop-sided.

a whole group of new leaders need to relook and reboot their approach.
if they need help, ask the muslims, not the neo-cons in pentagon or white house.
violence, does not matter whether it is un-sanctioned violence or non un-sanctioned violence, begets more violence. 
the massive collateral damage are millions of civilians and children.


back to blair et al......
an ass-hole is an assehole , whatever you choose to call them.
blair is an absolute asshole!
along with bush, donald rumsfeld, colin powell and dick cheney.
they are war criminals, involved in genocide of millions and millions others displaced for decades.
a spade is a spade...to me.

locally , we need to get rid of all our local 'ass...' and not consider things as business as usual.
you corporate top guns of course may look at thing more pragmatically!
but having said all this, you do have some point though..
just listen to nouman ali khan here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYJscLEhpEU
he shares your point.
but if you listen closely to nouman towards the end, his premise is actually different from yours.
you are almost apologising.


dr nik howk

Two Different Worlds....'never shall they meet'

It all started when that self proclaimed secular humanist, Zukariapakahnamadiadah wrote a piece in the Malay Mail recently on the 'fatwa' of Dato' Mufti of Pahang, or was it something else, some thing on 'imam muda'....I have forgotten the actual article, but imam,ulama and muftis are Zukari's favourite punching bags, and for a 'cari makan' fellow, I must admit , he does write fairly well, His english at least, though I do not seem to have the time and patience for people like him. On matters touching on the ' Ugama ', he  writes rubbish  and without wisdom most time at least from my from my perspective.

This dato friend of mine sends an email to rub me in between the ribs......
and OOUCH !..my ribs are fairly sensitive and tender these last 10 days of the Ramadan.

..............................................................................

From: dhm@chrishichens.uk
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 1:51 PM
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah
Subject: Sorry seems to be the hardest word — Azru

This article is NOT from your hated Zukari.   It is from another Malay Muslim journalist. The clarity and precision (and a sense of irony) of the prose reveals that he is reasonably well educated.

Would you "rubbish bin" him as well?

Selamat berpuasa.

https://shar.es/1l

..................................................................

On 27 Jun 2016 17:10, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

this fasting month when we are hungry and thirsty, good breeding  ground for malay muslim apologists, i can see that......
i tend to spend better time with my qu'an and getting my friends understand the qur'an better dato.
have you read the qur'an lately dato or it is also below you?

....................................................................


 From: dhm@chrishichens.uk

Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 10:39 PM
To: Nik Isahak Abdullah
Subject: Re: Sorry seems to be the hardest word — Azru

When one cannot answer the question, one changes the subject. Sigh. Would that be possible in Med school exams, Doc?

...............................................................

On 28 Jun 2016 08:23, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

we are both beyond med  and business school exam dato
we are both in what the brits call, our 'last inning'

when do you last read the qur'an, if i may ask you?
when do you last pray earnestly?
where are you going after this ?
what are you here for?

FORGET about the likes of azru and zukari, they are young punks still wet in between the ears.
ahh! how wonderful! the arrogance and exuberance of youth.

where are you going after this dato? if i may ask again
you think you wil be fairly safe and comfortable in that 6' by 3' hole in the ground?

   or perhaps you think it is academic because you will just be dust and bones! 

...........................................................................

from dha@chrishichens.uk

You are right, doc. We are beyond university lectures, research, Term papers, tutorials, debates, exams and viva voce. We are now in real life, in the Age of Enlightenment. No longer in the Dark Ages.

We are persuaded to think on the basis of reason and evidence: To be good, kind, honest, charitable, and work in solidarity with our fellow human beings.

If God is Merciful and Compassionate, l have no fear of death. I do not, and cannot, live in terror of Hell. I have, l think, lived an honest and decent life. I fear no religious bureaucracy on earth. We all have eyes to read, an 'akal to think. 

Life should be lived to the full, in appreciation, in doing good, in reading, and educating others to think, to be curious, to do good in human solidarity.

I think life should be lived well,
In kindness, not in fear of Hell.
It would be sad and a great error,
To opt for management by Terror.

....................................................................................

On 28 Jun 2016 12:25, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

dato,

omg! you sound like the late christopher hichens himself to me just now...

   the mantra of the secular humanist par excellence, who does things only and only for goodness sake; god is outside the equation; who does not believe in a tomorrow after today. 
pompous arrogance of the first kind! God, in one part of al baqarah calls you guys , 'deaf, dumb and blind '.

a pity we cannot visit and ask hichens how he personally 'is' doing now.

one sufi luminary, hasan al basri, long dead by then,however was asked, in a 'dream' by his equally illustrious sufi friend, and his answer echoed what al ghazali had said in 'real' time':

''my friend, in my position now, you can forget about the lenghty philosophical intellectual discourses and existential discussions we had had before. the levels and levels of worship.

    what seems to count is that lowly, lonely two or four or 6 rakaats that one does..in the wee hours of the morn! ''
       

but of course dato you are very much a worldly man who only 'sees the elephant  in the room' in front of you.

the 'unseen', is alas, not there.....

.........................................................................

29/ 6/ 2016 :

from today both the good dato and myself, we have reached a gentleman's aggreement:
i stop sending him 'naughty little bits about the qur'an', and he stop 'ribbing' me with articles about 'how bad we muslims are'.
a 'hudaibiyah treaty' of sort. 
the truce may last 3 days perhaps!

Levels and Levels......

Friends, Dato and Tansri,

One Abubakar al Khattani and Abu Hasan ar-Ramli asked a tok guru and Shaykh, Abu Said al-Kharraz:

"Please tell us the stations in our journey to Allah? ".

al-Kharraz answered, " It has to start with repentance, repentance and repentance.....", and he went on,

" after this station, one moves on to khauf [ fear ]. From the station of khauf one move on to raja' [ hope ].

From the station of raja' , one move on to be a 'solihin' and 'solihah'.
Then, one gets elevated to being a mureed.

From being a mureed , one moves on to the next station, a state of  
ta'at, [ in complete obeyance ].

From complete obeyance one moves on to the station of mahabbah [ a state of unqualified love ]. 

From this station the next station is rindu [ 'lovesick' ].

The penultimate station on schedule is a steep hill to climb, leading to walliallah [ allah's friend ]

The last and final stop for the mere mortals is the station of the 
al-muqarrabin [ the one near to HIM ]

[ excerpt from haqq' iq at-tashawwuf, shaykh abdal qadir isa, [ circa 1920 - 1991 ]

Another sufi shaykh, al-Junaid al Bagdhdi, sultan al awliya of all shaykhs of his time, ten centuries earlier,  was asked a more direct and personal question by his fans:
" Shaykh, how do you achieve your current stature and state? "

" By staying under that staircase for over thirty years!..." , alluding to 'istiqamah ' and 'sabr' in doing the necessary 'legwork' a traveler had to undergo before they reach their status of a sufi saint. The 'legwork' is zikrullah, zikrullah and zikrullah and zikrullah, and good behaviour manners and adab...years and years of remembrance, total dedication  to the hala and the haram,and 'hablu minal llah' and 'hablu minan nas'.

At my personal level, being without a tok guru for decades, I have been oscillating, back and forth, back and forth, like a yo-yo, between the 3rd station, khauf, and the 4th station, raja' .

I get my occasionally 'endorhin high'  when on the rare occasion, when allowed to leapfrog to  a state of mahabbah, not stopping at the station of mureed and ta'at! 
This transient abberation in the order of things and adab is not long though. 
As fast as I get to that stage, I percolate down back to the station of  khauf [ fear ] and raja' [ hope ].


When you have been in this 'business' for some years now like i do,  the spirit is ever willing, but the flesh occasionally rebel! Waking up at 4 am in the wee hours of the morning  can be done for a period of two weeks, at the most three, but is a difficult proposition if it is to be done daily , seven days a week, 54 weeks in a year, come vacation  or working. 
This is in the realm of 'hubluminallah'. Beyond this come 'RINDU'. 
One cannot fake it.
Mere mortals like you and me, we fall back to where we are.

At my age now, I wish I can turn back the clock by 20 years. Then a decent Tok Guru would have entertained me and lead me by the hand over those slippery 'slope'.

Now, at 64, I am already afflicted by phd  [ 'permanent head damage' ], and no tok guru or shaykh, in their right mind, would want to waste his precious time and emotion  to 'teach an old monkey like me  new tricks'. So here I am permanently bivouked at station, hope.

...and to make things straight for the record, it is not just the lack of a 'mursyid tok guru'.
the potential student is also mainly at fault, not wanting to remove his cloth of egoism!
it is much a problematic student than the lack of tok guru.
i am to be blamed!

I guess there are many many millions like me.

In our thirties we have more than a passing interest in things 'tassawuf' but over the years we are too choosy about which  tok guru we go to. 

Central , from our perspective, rightly or wrongly, I think is , our reluctance to 'lose' our personal 'soveriengty'' to just any charlatan tok guru.

And currently there are just quite a number in the 'business'.
Bad and wrong 'tok gurus' can oftentimes be worse than no 'tok gurus' at all!
At the end, while waiting for the 'murshid' tok guru, we 'missed' the boat........
A problem of being too careful.

But insyaallah , even the station of hope is good enough.

Allah hummakh tim lana bi husnil khatimah , wa la takh tim alaina bi suul khatimah!
[ oh allah, grant a good ending to our lives and don't let end our lives with bad ending....]

Dr Nik

A similar article in the blog :

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2015/11/three-stations.html

The Sanctuary TALES | Close Encounter in Teganung Kite'.....

Hamzah and myself, we were paddling our canoe around Terusan Pulau Besar yesterday at dusk. Pulau Besar gained its notoriety some 30 years back in the 80's when the post Vietnam war Vietnamese refugees first landed in Teganung in huge numbers. The then Minister of Defence, Dr M wanted them shot at sea. The numbers swell to the point finally all of them were transferred to an off shore island, Pulau Bidong.

Terusan Pulau Besar enveloped Pulau Besar between the raging South China Seasea, separated by a thin strip of sand, and the muara of Sungei Merang. It's water is murky and dark, typical of all mangrove swamp within the Setiu basin.

Both of us know that there were incidental sightings of juvenile crocodiles, three to four feet in lenght,, basking in the noon sun ,on the bank of the  abandoned almost completed massive club house and twenty or so abandoned exclusive bungalows near The Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary happened to be a small piece of heaven on earth, on that thin strip of sand,[ opposite Redang Island ],sandwiched between the raging South China Sea  in February, and a small 'alor' called Sungai Telaga Papan, and shortly joining into the dark calm water of the Terusan Pulau Besar, at  Pantai Telaga Papan, Merang, Teganung Darul Runtuh.

[ why Darul runtuh?......Everything in Teganung are in a state of possible 'runtuh', from the stadium, the masjid and even the yet to be opened Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. I do not foresee any possible drastic  change in this state of affair until we send one or two present or past numero uno of Malaysia behind bars! Only then will there be a change of our paradigm of governance and accountability,  hopefully percolating from the top down. But of course this is another matter worth writing a post doctoral thesis on. But who is going to write and act on this. Our professors in the universities are at present 'kangkong' professors!. Our AG and IGP, nothing to shout about! Both extreme example of mediocrity.....this is a digression, of course, an important one for me at least, otherwise I end up shooting some blokes somewhere. ]

Three weeks earlier while passing a group of fisherman manning and repairing their boats on the river bank, I jokingly asked whether 'there is anything big' in the water. One of them shouted back, in local Teganung/Kelantan linggo:

'kalu demo rasa gedeguk, tu jolo lah!'. [ if you feel something bumping your canoe from underneath, that is it! ]

Hamzah and myself, we took that as a joke and carried on, but not for long. After about half a kilometre around the terusan, we turned back. The water looked too murky and still, to our liking.

This time on I told Hamzah we were going full scale around the island and explore further. We planned to go round the island and head back to al Qalwa in a round about fashion. But when we reached the deepest segment of the terusan, furthest away from our pondok, about one kilometre, we  notice a school of fish jumping out just suddenly over the surface.

'Ada benda besar ni Dakto!.......', Hamzah , my Pattani carpenter/builder muttered softly but with some anxiety and panic . Understandable. He was paddling behind while I was  in front in the 2-men canoe. He was in a position of watching my back while his was fully exposed!

Just shortly after that I felt the canoe  being shakened badly and grazed from below. Just to reassure myself, I shouted to Hamzah,

'Guano demo nih Mezah tebolah sangat nih?!' [ why!,, why are you so clumsy, Hamzah? ]

' Tidok ambo Dakto!' [ not me Doctor! ], Hamzah answered, and I could detect  a sense of panic and urgency in his voice. He must have been thinking on the same line as me.

Both of us looked back and saw a bronze hump separating two icy eyes, surfacing to the left of our canoe, some 40 feet away.

The snort to the eyes was about 2 feet something!

'OMG! This is the infamous estuarine crocodile, the ' buaya tembaga',...and they don't get to this colour unless they are fully matured', I thought to myself from my previous reading  about estuarine crocodiles found near Sungei Linggi in Nogori, Endau Rompin in Johor and Sungai Kinabatangan, Sarawak.

Both of us , we did not have the time to say any prayer at that moment . We just paddled hard and fast towards the river bank.

Up till now I still cannot fathom why the croc did not come back to make a second 'pass' at us or at least  'ngap' poor Hamzah from the back, since our canoe is quite flat and we were sitting ducks!
It has the speed and the ability and natural instinct to do just that .
That is just in its gene.
That  would have toppled the canoe easily.
But it did not!

Was it my solat Tahajjud and  solat Tasbih the night before or was it the size or the lack of size of the croc that prevented it from coming at us for a second pass .
Probably both I think.
Anyway it is nice otherwise both of us would had a different 'address' by today....
HE is not yet ready to see both of us or rather we, in our varying degrees of heedlessness, are not yet ready enough to be presented to HIM. It is a mercy and rahmah from HIM for the 'delay'.
Mashaallah, al Hamdullillah.

Over dinner that night Hamzah confided to me ,
' Ambo dae Jani, sokmo senok perok bilo Dakto ajak kito gi main kanu...'
[ Myself and Jani, we get lumps in our tummies when Doc invite us to go canoeing..... ]

That reminded me of a poem we standard six pupils used to commit to memory some 5o or so years back. The Charge of The Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson, a poem on an actual happening and 'bungling' due to a gross miscommunication during the Anglo-Prussian War of 18something :


" Forward, The Light Brigade! "
Was there a man dismay'd
Not tho' the soldier knew 
Someone had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die. 
Into the Valley of Death,
Rode the six hundred.

" OK Mezah dae Jani, lain kali kito gi main di Kenyir atau pong di Sungai Paka  atau  Sungai Teganung. Sana ambo dengar tak dok boyo! kito bolih main sining tapi tok leh lepah dari club house.",

I tried to reassure both of them.
I am not sure that is enough reassurance for Hamzah and Jani.
From their perspective,The Boss is always right, even when he is wrong!

I love Teganung.
Teganung Kite'.

Still water runs deep.......200 metres beyond these boats is croc territory.

Pedro, retired ex-polo, Dr Nik, retired, ex endurance rider....

Old man and the sea.....

A one kilometre horse, a show horse,or an endurance horse, it is all about working on the 'mind'......working on Pedro to not fear the wave!

OMG!...I am getting prosperous!

The raging sea in mid February

The Sanctuary.......far from the maddening crowd in kl; far from the national clowns of ntr,pandi and nazri; just the wind,the sun and yourself. 

Beneath this calmness lies a secret.....

 

Some photos of The Sanctuary : work in progress.
http://translandjourney.blogspot.my/2014/09/toyota-land-cruiser-hj-47.html

Of Cycling Tales; Allahyarham Ahmad Ramli Zakaria in Memorium and Long Haul Air Travellers' Dilemma...

From: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah <drnikisahak@hotmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 8:19 AM

Friends Dato and TanSri,

I came home from a short sojourn at my  holiday pondok, al Qalwa,  Pantai Telaga Papan ,Teganung Darul Runtuh, to be told by my wife that i just lost a long time  good friend since University days, allahyarham Ahmad Ramli Zakaria, ex RMC, ex Malayan Banking, ex gm Saujana Golf, avid international long distance cyclist, a 'budok Tumpat original from Kelantan'...all thrown into one.

Li, as I fondly call him, was as fit as a fiddle, cycles 80 to 100 km a day on his many international forays.
I am supposed to cycle with him in New Zealand  in the not too distant future, as and when I retire and have the time to take up the hobby, I told Li, some years back. 

He was just back from a ten day cycling trip to Kerala, India, when, as the story goes, he noted some non painful swelling in both ankles. On day six after returning back, while doing some window shopping in  a mall in Shah Alam, he 
developed sudden shortness of breath, and was admitted to a nearby medical facility.
He succumbed to his short illness in the hospital.

With the eye of a 'medical detective' and the wisdom of hindsight , I think my good friend and confidante died of what we call 'massive pulmonary embolism'  ie  blood clots coming from the deep veins mainly in the calves and both lower limbs, clogging up the two major arteries of the lung, right and left. Deep vein thrombosis [ DVT ], is a well known sequalae of long distance air travel. It is about 'relative immobility' in a confined space, especially in prolonged sitting position.

         
           
           This to me is the long distance air traveller's dilemma commonly known as the 'economy                  class' synfrome. Now with the ease of long distance travel and the 'everyone can fly' 
            regime, I will coin a new term here, ' Air Asia class' travel.

All travellers flying at whatever class are prone to this.
But my gut feeling is that 1st class travellers probably less prone than business, and businesss less prone than air asia class...but this is just a personal gut feeling, not supported by any double blind study. Difficult to study and have double blind randomised study anyway in a situation like this.


In Li's position i think his problem is compounded by the long period of riding in India, which would have contributed to a position of 'relative dehydration'.
This, with relative immobility in the Air Asia class  could well exacerbate DVT.[  Li took an Air Asia flight, ....TS Tony Fernandez, also ex RMC, may not like this, but this is just generalization tan sri, ] 


'What do we do then Doc? you may ask...'
At our age and in this age of 'everyone can fly' ,no travelling is not an option!
I myself  almost always travel economy class or worse still Air Asia class! 

         Cramped like sardines!!!!!

I will always try to get an aisle seat
If i travel with my wife , she will always occupy the seat near the window [ I am naughty, I must admit... ]
I pace the floor every  30 to 45 minutes from one end of the plane to the Club class.

Thanks also to my 'prostate' problem which requires and give me the need to go to the loo often. While sitting, I try periods of isometric exercise in volving my calves and legs muscles...period of contraction and relaxation, contraction and relaxation....
I dont take 13, 14 hours flight nowadays. I try to split my journey. Dubai is a convenient place to stop. So is Jeddah and Makkah!
It is rather too late for all of us to be PM or Ringgit Malaysia who can of course travel on executive private jet!


Of course there is an escape clause in any advisory.
Kalau DIA nak ambil you, ko' mana mana pun DIA ambil you juga'.

May Allah place my good friend and confidante amongst those HE bless
Al Fatihah.

dr nik

..............................................................................


          qim,

innalillahhiwainna ilai hirojiun.
takziah to you, your brothers and sisters and  your mum on the 'untimely ' demise of your dad..
uncle nik was in teganung when he died and only come to know about his demise on tuesday
your late father , as i recall is as fit as a fiddle. 
cannot be a heart attack. unlikely..

i remember seeing your dad some three years ago , just after a ride and an oversea trip , with similar complaint of  ANKLE SWELLING.
we looked hard for telltale sign of dvt in the calves via an ultrasound sound doppler examination. it was not there  then.
on hindsight we are probably looking at the tail end of things at that time which did not progress, or was self limiting. 

innalillah hiwainna ilaihirojiun.
uncle always share this with your dad in conversation as well as in emails the rather morbid [ to some ] perception that
that we, clever muslims , always live in two worlds, one foot in the here and the other foot in the afterworld. it is not at all a morbid perception, it is a healthy one .

insyaallah, your dad will be amongst the blessed.
al fatihah

uncle nik

..............................................................................................

         From: Rqim

Sent: Wednesday, February 3, 2016 2:44 PM
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Subject: Re: innalillah hiwainna ilaihirojiun......ahmad ramli zakaria,ex rmc

Salam DR Nik, 

Thank you for your kind words and the in depth explanation on his DVT condition. The cause of death in papers released by demc is unknown and i think your explanation below made alot of sense to me.

My late father suffered shortness of breath and was sweating for a short while before he passed on and by his side was my mother- the love of his life. I am forever greateful for he did not suffer a long illness and our memory of him will always be of someone healthy and always in good spirit. Syukur for that

I would also like to thank you for having been a great friend to my late father and even my late grand mother. You will always be his to go to person when it comes to medical questions.He will be missed and not forgotten. InsyAllah

May Allah grant him Jannah and ease the pain of those he left behind.

My regards to cikgu, Nadzru and the rest

Raqim & family

...................................................................................................

My friend Li was a health nut.
He introduced me to scuba diving some 20 years back.
When I moved on to long distance competitive equestrian, Li took on Big Biking until he and mrs had a near fatal accident somewhere in Negori Sembilan darul Khinzir area. I  still can remember him telling me he and his mrs were transported to a nearby hospital bundled up at the back of lorry full of al khinzir by a good samaritan farmer. 
This nasty experience having to share the same transport with a load of al khinzir changed him from a big biker to the relative safety of cycling......

cycling tales are all about his riding exploits and oftentimes deep philosophical but simple approach to the big picture itself ...life.

 We, all his friends will sorely miss him.

http://www.cyclingtales.blogspot.my/


The French saying, 
Cest du Qui Direct....It is human to plan, God Directs!



PS :

Thinking about Li's case brought me back 4 years ago to allahyarham Shamim, Senior GM of Malaysia Airline, a superb marketing man, another friend and patient of mine.
Unknown to me he had planned to have a knee op at Pantai Medical. Just three days before the op, he flew to London, flying 1st class to watch MU- Chelsea Final . Flew back on the next flight to KL, and 'into bed' for the prolonged immobilization , as usual that follow any post knee op.
The next thing I came to know was news in NST of his demise, just on the day he was about to be discharged from Pantai.

I was very sure he had DVT, followed by massive pulmonary embolism.
Not a heart attack.

Another question you may ask...''Is there any preventative medication to take before  and during a flight? "
The answer would be apolitical one..yes and no.
Firstly NO.
Secondly YES, if your doctor is willing to use the new blood thinning medications like PRADAXA or Xarelto, on an 'off label' basis. No actual study yet but just an extrapolation of their current usage in almost similar situations.
The risk? possible bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract or brain....... quite remote since one take only for 2 days, but possible.

A Young Lady's Dissenting View, G25, Ulama' Bashing, etc and etc.....

http://tafseerkoran.blogspot.my/2013/02/surah-al-furqan-criterion-25why-him-why.html

friends , dato and tansri,

by nabi's own admission, near the end of time,  we are 'gone cases'!

' oh my rabb, my nation, they dont listen to the qur'an ...' [ 26 : 25 ]

a dato paduka patient  of mine the other day confided and asked me,

'doc, what do you think? ...i have been asked to join g25. i am a pensioner. i want to contribute.'

' dato....i am relatively ignorant about the fekah of this. you should ask qualified people like dato mufti harusani etc and etc.

i am sure they are knowledgeable and god fearing enough to give you an honest answer, not necessary to be a politically correct one... 

but if you want my gut feeling,...... don't.

there are many ways people in your high position can contribute.

drawing 'lines in the sand' on important aqidah issues you are not familiar with at your age should not be one of them.

you dato' will be asked to explain in your later life

you will not at that time be able to hide behind any skirt or sarong!

you guys will all be naked! '

we move on to ayat 20 to 23.

dr nik

..................................................................................................................................................

From: Rej...@no.com.my

Date:14/12/2015 1:41 PM (GMT+08:00)

To: drnikisahak@hotmail.com

Subject: FW: let us get back to basic......surah al furqan, ayat 20 to 23

I must say that I disagree with you, Dr Nik, about your advice to the Dato patient of yours with respect to him joining G25.

We are accountable for ALL of our actions and if retirees who can contribute to society are silent for fear of the after life then our society will remain ignorant. 

Surely ignorance and lettings things deteriorate in front of our eyes are worse in the eyes of the Almighty?

...................................................................................................................................................................

From: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 4:50 PM
To: Re...@no.com.my
Subject: Re: let us get back to basic......surah al furqan, ayat 20 to 23

Re..,

the dato paduka friend and patient of mine can agree to have his name signed in between the dotted lines

i agree. 

but with a proviso. 

a very big proviso.... he must know his ' ugama'  well enough to ' draw lines in the sand '..

if he, like so many of us, are still stuck at the 'ablution phase' of his ugama, it would be better to remain quiet. 

for his own posterity.

matters touching on religion , one cannot just 'play ,play'.

earlier in the surah we touch on an ayat that says to the effect ' some clowns may think what they say are inconsequentials, but that inconsequentials  may land them in jahanam so deep that 50 years of brisk walking may not reach the top end or the bottom end '

jmho

dr nik

.................................................................................................................................................

---

From: Rej..@no.com.my
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 5:13 PM
To: drnikisahak@hotmail.com;
Subject: RE: let us get back to basic......surah al furqan, ayat 20 to 23

Hi Doc,

I understand that we of course should not be providing wrong information especially if we are not proficient in matters of agama and I agree totally with that. However, contribution to society of differing opinions is generally healthy and should be encouraged as I believe knowledge seeking should be a pillar of our approach to Islam which I personally think is missing from our society. We are too scared to ask the right questions to ulamas and scholars who at the end of the day are deeply entrenched within the corrupted system of government. Corruption is a sin which too many of us are blind to and I think this is plainly wrong. Our future generations of Malay muslims are more concerned about being covered but have no qualms in taking bribes, surely this is not what Islam is all about. If your patient is willing, he should be encouraged and not scared away. Will you sit by and let a Firaun take over our country?

.....................................................................................................................................................................

-------- Original message --------

From: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Date:14/12/2015 6:12 PM (GMT+08:00)

To: rej...@no.com.my

Subject: Re: let us get back to basic......surah al furqan, ayat 20 to 23

i can agree with you in part ....

corruption is certainly the biggest issue in malaysia now and for decades. there is total lack of political will to overcome it. and why not....... the chinese survive on it. 
it is there in their blood. 
there is no word like 'corruption' or 'heaven' or 'hell' in their vocab. 

the political malays in amenu are addicted to it. 
from top way down to the bottom. 

if a leader'songlap' 2 billion rm something and can escape with it , we cannot blame the ulama. 

they have enough problems on their plate already, to address this problem.
we are all to be blamed.....typical 'malaysian tidakapathy'

malaysia is very lucky to have resilient, peace loving and resourcefull people.

in some other countries the leader would have by now being 'castrated' or something.

unfortunately we are run by  a whole bunch of morons, daylight robbers and pirates!
just look at the clowning going on in dewan raayat! 
we may have klcc and putrjaya with gleaming super structures but we are still bloody third world and too feudal for this 21st century, that i agree.

and i say it again , we deserve the shit we deserve., because we continue to vote these clowns in, year in and year out.........
even if i wake up my wife at 3 am , she will  mutter out, " amenu, amenu, amenu...oh darling, it is you! i was thinking of amenu.''. 
i think same thing also happening with my two sisters who are full professors in their own right.
" amenu..amenu amenu...zzzzzzzzzz"

we can forgive if a visitor from planet mars now goes off with the impression that planet earth is actually a green planet with  water and oxygen and everything but , zombies inhabiting it .....yes, if his spacecraft happened to land in this part of the word.
we are behaving like brain dead people. 
all of us , malaysians.

but to  get back right on track in this discussion to g25, , back to the problem of unnecessary ulama' bashing by all and sundry, by the very people who should know better.

try put yourself also in harrusani's et al shoes and you can appreciate their predicament.

take the case of the yoga fatwa several years back.

they can spend days discoursing on it , calling several interest groups  who have knowledge[ of course not necessarily calling clowns like zur...tan, who from her comment, one can surmise she know next to  nothing about her ugama, and our sisters in and out  islam etc etc and etc]

at the end of weeks of discourse they will have to come with a short advisory.......yes or no.

if they say no to yoga, they will bear the wrath of zur...tan, zaina apakahnamadiadah  et al. 

if thy say 'yes' to yoga they land up at the bottom most part of hell. even chaps like richard dawkins and his friend, christopher hichens, atheist numero uno, will be higher than them and staying in relative air conditioned 'rooms' compared to positions reserved for false scholars and errant muftis.

we have to pity them.

for the salaries they draw, their responsibilities are awesome.

they become punching bag for everyone.

the relative safety for my datuk paduka friend is to be non-commital.

jangan pandai2. 

leave this 'drawing of lines in the sand' to people who think they are ' kebal' to withstand '1000 degrees centigrade of temperature and willing to bounced deep into hell and on reaching the bottom which take another 70 years, will bounce back up , another 70 years of bouncing , to be faced and clobbered by malaikat guarding the entrance, bouncing to and fro in limbo'

what i describe can be literal, figurative, allegorical, elliptical or all the above at the same.

our life beyond this life is totally beyond us but, but it is more real than this one!

nabi onced told us , ' we are living in an allusion, when we die, only then,we face reality...', or something to that effect.

contribute to soceity by all mean , but when come to ugama.....leave it to the discourse of the ulama.

malaysia is definitely not going to chop off people's hand or stone people to death just about now or even in 200 years time, i am sure.

but when people like g25 raise a dissent,, they are opening up  islam to be debated by the gallery , 90 % of which are essentially secular and ignorant.

g25 should know better , since they claimed themselves to be muslims.

allahualam

...................................................................................................................................................

Date:14/12/2015 6:12 PM (GMT+08:00)

from: hkassim@yahoo.com, 

to :rej...@gmail.com, drnikisahak @hotmail.com

Subject: Re: let us get back to basic......surah al furqan

Doc,

Sorry to barge in but your discussion touched a raw nerve in me!

Talking of corruption I do agree that we Muslims should be concerned w ppl taking bribes and taking rakyaat's money. I thought G25 should be more concerned w corruption but what do you expect from ex-Govt service personnel. 

I heard some stupid Umno member (cant remember who) has the gall to suggest that "Allah puts Najib as our PM".  What stupidity..sorry to be judgmental but bodoh punya Melayu.

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

from  : drnikisahak@hotmail.com

to : hkasm @yahoo.com

Marm,

first and foremost i agree with you 100 %.

as i have said earlier, malaysia is very lucky, its people are both resourceful, resilient and sabr....

if the country is to depend on its leaders, we would be long bankcrupt.

we are run by  a bunch of faceless morons, robbers and pirates!!

tak ada malu, maruah , and some would go further as to say, tak ada ugama...

to make matters worse, we have kangkong professors, kangkong journalists and columnists, and even recently, kangkong ulama' cum politicians from teganung, and even kangkong g25, kangkong igp and kangkong ag's office, very kangkong this last one.

like you i also wonder where have all the brilliant ex ambassadors, ex dg's , millionaires and billionaires and corporate wizards, gone to?
have they now in time of dire national need and dire emergency become just  like lizards and termites  disappearing into the wood work?
all here just only for the 'cari makan'?

shame on all of you guys!
expecting a tired old   retired ex statesman, octogenarian at that, and a twenty plus housewife from  langkawi to 'rock the boat', a boat full of shameless pirates and highwaymen. clowns who have no respect at all for rule of law, not an iota of  maruah and shame!

yes, friends, dato and tansri...shame on all of us!

no 'amal makruf and nahi mungkar'.

very sad.

dr nik

ps :

just as i was wondering how to connect the dot between tghh's official stand on publicly wanting to 'sleep with his previous enemies', and his now ailing divided party's future aspiration, doc rosli of harakah suddenly walked into my consultation room with his mrs.

'doc rosli, i cannot help but think that,  indeed your boss is not  in his early alzheimers....and if you can allow me to be generous , i propose tghh is more 'intelligent' and wise than what  the young turks in his  party  are willing to consider.

it is possible that tghh is looking beyond najib, beyond 'time'. he is probably thinking that amenu may not sustain for much longer these ludicrous antics  from their numero uno, that some bright young spark within the party will say enough is enough, and take the challenge.....ts my , from the look of it ,does not seem to have the wit and the brain power to sustain a challenge. he does not look clever so far, in all his actions. it has to be someone else.'

" yes, it is possible doc nik...my boss thinking that way..come to think about it it sounds plausible! "

' but doc rosli, there is a proviso in this line of thinking....,it assumes amenu can self correct itself. to me this look like an impossible gargantuan task. the ludicrity now is bordering lunacy.
but to be generous again to your boss, it would not be entirely his fault. even our nabi made some strategic mistake in posr badr war when he agreed with the consenses, first put forward by abu bakr, in bartering the 70 prisoners of  war for cash. umar just wanted them to be put in a hole in the ground and be collectively  burned alive.......i think doc rosli, you guys in pas has underated tghh greatly. that old man trust his 'fihrasat'.

even if his ijtihad is wrong, we all have to look at the other side of the equation........ i have a feeling he did not trust his young turks having the brain power to contain the bludgeoning dap within pakatan......and the pkr boys are too secular to even help pas here.....at the end of the day it may not be to the ummah's advantage...'

" doc nik, you should be in politics.. "

' no doc rosli, in my fihrasat, it would be more difficult to go to jannah as a politician. i would rather be rather just sell panadol as i am doing now'.

" by the way doc, how is my heart and diabetes...? " 

' excellent doc...your hbaic , i give Aplus today!'