Saturday, September 01, 2007
Life Lessons
19 Sya’ban 1428H

There always seem to be so much things to share when I’m offline. But now that I’m in front of the monitor, I hardly know where to start. Hmm.. perhaps I should start about the place I now called Home.

Also known as Bait Akhawat (“Sisters’ House”), my home is situated slightly uphill, near a long stretch of market and about 10 – 15 mins walk to the Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro University (more commonly known as “Abu Nour”). Most other Singaporean students (to date, there are almost 70 of us here in Dimasyq) also reside in this area. One interesting thing I’ve discovered here is that most of the houses seem dirty and derelict from the outside. Ada yang macam kene bom daa… but the interior are actually very neat and nicely decorated :D The residents of Bait Akhawat are 10 sisters (including myself. all are S'poreans except for one sis who is from Russia. we also get regular visits by 2 sisters from Holland), distributed into 5 rooms. There’ a mini, steep staircase at the end of the passageway that leads to a cosy hall above, where we normally have our meals, iron our clothes or watch the TV.

Hamdan lillah, they are all nice sisters :)
True as they said, when you’ve spent your days with someone then you’ll discover his/her true characters. It’s also true, like how some seniors have advised us beforehand, that we should learn to tolerate others’ not-so-pleasant behaviours. This truly demands a whole lot of patience. At the same time, you also have to realize that you yourself have to be disciplined, well mannered, and avoid involving in conflicts with your housemates. Also, we have to be self-reliable. A good example was when I had to prepare the dishes for last Thursday all by myself, despite not feeling well on that very day. Hamdanlillah, in the end, I still managed to cook the rice and prepare the 2 dishes (my favourite telur goreng masak kicap – suker! And lauk bening yang letak suun+kentang+tahu kering tu… nikmatnye dapat makan sup~).

thanks to Mardhiyah who helped me to shop for groceries as I was not feeling fit enough to walk up and down the hill to the suuq. And also for helping me to lit up the stove (ni yang jenis kene bukak gas, then nyalakan mancis. Org takut bab nak ano mancis tu. There was once when I tried to light up a candle in the room, then when the match eventually lit up, I quickly let it go…
And down it fell on the mattress!! Nasib baik sempat padam sebelum terjadi apa2… huu~ merepek kan? Tsk.)
One thing for sure, living in Syria makes my friends and me appreciate Singapore more. For instance, in Singapore, we hardly experience blackout, let alone shortness of water right? Here, every single day, the government will purposely cut off the electricity supply for a few hours, usually during the day, and also cut off the water supply for even longer hours as Syria has a very limited water supply. That explains the dozens of bottled water we place near the fridge and the water in the 10 or so pails in the washroom (nasib baik bilik air dia besar). Sediakanlah air sebelum air habes ;)

The next reason we appreciate S’pore is none other than bcause…


there’s Mom! ALL of us anonymously miss our mothers soo much.

Mak, orang rindu masakan Mak. Sangat2. lauk ketam yg mak masak hari tu masih terasa2 lagi dalam mulut. Semua lauk yang mak masak menjadi. teringat lagi Mak pernah tegur org pasal masak letak minyak (dan garam) sikit sgt. (“patutlah lauk tak sedap, letak minyak sikit sangat”) hehe. Masa org masak hari tu, org pun letak lah minyak n garam lebih sikit. Betullah cakap mak, lauk jadi sedap! Hee…

orang rindu ayah jugak. ayah selalu suka belikan makanan pastu kitorang makan ramai2 kat rumah...

Not only cooking-wise, but also our mothers’ tender love, care and concern.

Mak jangan risau, org masih amalkan petua2 n nasihat2 mak dulu. Org tak mandi waktu malam, orang tak makan sebelum mandi, etc etc. oh! And org makan. Kat sini makanan dia sedap2. ada MACAM2 coklet mak! Org dah ada satu kotak coklat kat dalam bilik. Sedaaaaap nah satu coklet ni mak. Sekarang ni pulak org tgh kemaruk makan halwa. Pun ada MACAM2 manisan kat sini! Ada satu ni, dia macam puff gitu, dalam dia ada macam bende ni rasa mcm mix of kentang + ubi. Very creamy. Lepas tu disaluti gula cair gitu. Orang makan pun lagi sikit nak cair Mak pasal halwa tu mmg sedaaaaaap nah sgt. Subhanallah!

Ok ok, mak jgn risau, selain makanan2 ringan ni, org pun ada mkn makanan2 yg “betul” (mcm roti, nasi). Btw, kebab kat sini dorang panggil “Shawarma”. Bolehlah tahan. Ada tempat sedap, ada tempat kureng siket.

Moving on to my studies, I’m now left with the written entrance exam on this coming 22nd Sept. the oral exam was on last Monday, right after the registration. Of course, we were shocked as we were informed that the test will be on a separate day… but oh well~ As the President of D’MASYQ (Dewan Mahasiswa Singapura Damsyik, Syria) once said, the rules and regulations in an Arab country can change every 4 hours. So just expect the unexpected, no matter how unexpected the thing turned out to be. Heh.

Nevertheless, I’ve tried my best to answer all questions, including some challenging ones like the one on Ta’assub Madzhab. Nahu semua habis berterabur~ takpe Khadijah, If ALLAH Wills me to be a student at Abu Nour, I will, biidznillah. The registration and entrance exam for Takhassus Fattah will take place this Sunday, 2nd Sept. cepat kan? *Gulp!*

As part of our preparation, my friends and me (8 of us ) attend an Arabic lesson 4x per week (there are 24 lessons in total). The Anisah (here, we address the female teachers as “Anisah”) is superb! –language-wise, knowledge-wise (Lughah, Nahu, Geography, Hadith, Qur’an, Sirah, etc.), n she also seems to be very experienced. Lembut pulak tu. Senang tersenyum :) I wish each lesson could be extended to more than 1.5 hours. Also, my friends n me attend the dars at the various jami's. From there, we get the opportunity to listen to the contents of the delivery by reknown shuyuukh (the Syeikhs) and to familiarize ourselves with fast Arabic conversations (cara dorang susun kata2 indah sangat! N mesti ada je diseltkan du’a2…). In addition, we are also able to interact with the other jama’ah, most of whom are Arabs, thus training ourselves to speak n understand Arabic as well, esp the Syrian colloquial Arabic.

E.g. “leish” is “limadza”, which means “why?”, “addish” is “kam”, which means “how much?”, “shu” is “madza”, which means “what?”, “wein” is “aina”, which means “where?”, and “shuub” is “haar”, which means “hot”. Interesting, isn’t it? Many terms are simplified. Here, “yes” is “eihhh” (bahasa dorang lembut n meleret2 siket) , and instead of saying “la” to mean “no”, one can simply raise both eyebrows to deliver the message. CoOL habes~

I think that’s more than enough for now. To those who have been remembering me in ur du’a, jazaakumullahu kulla khairin.

To myself, ingat Khadijah, kene banyak bersabar… byk berfikir sebelum bertindak dan mengeluarkan kata2… dan asuh diri dan hatimu agar lebih tabah dan cekal agar tidak mudah terguris, tersinggung, geram atau marah. Kene jadi kuat. Jangan mudah sangat menyerah kalah dengan air mata…

To my beloved family and dear friends, although it’s hard for me to keep in touch with you all, ALLAH Alone Knows how much I treasure each and everyone of you. Dearly, deep down this Heart of mine. May ALLAH select us to be among those to reside in His Jannah. Ameen!

:)



 
posted by .:Mujahidah Khadijah:. at 9/01/2007 02:34:00 PM | Permalink |


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