Virus of death

I'm not kidding that this virus is almost like H1N1 except that the virus didn't affect human being as much as it affects animal. The victims are cats and dogs. I don't know what this virus is called yet.

Anyway, almost all of my cats died from the virus. The first death was perhaps on 3rd Dec my Panda; the mini cat. Next, was its mother on 10th Dec my birdy sound Mok. 5 days after the death of its mother, the other three mini kitty follow suit as they didn't have enough antibody to defend themselves from the diseases. The three mini kitty were Mei; the white cat, Nia; the spot nose cat and Oren, the round face cat. It really makes me sad to see them dying. However, I'm glad that at least they rest in peace and we shared moments of happiness.

The symptom that I noticed occurred were :

1) Strange behaviour from my cats

a) They went to the toilet (I wonder if they want to cool themselves)

b) They were not active as usual (They sat quietly and don't respond to my call)

c) They hardly eat (They just drink water)

2) They fell ill

a) Fever

b) I noticed there's bubble on their mouth

The veterinarian told mom that it is the virus season. I want to find out what the cause is, the solution so that I can prevent it from happening, more symptoms and etc. To those that has pets, take care of them well. I'm glad I still have another one surviving cat, Kur. Nevertheless, one of her siblings, Kem had disappeared the moment he found out the mini kitties exist. I hope he's alright. InsyaAllah.

Nagareboshi = Shooting Stars

Truthfully, today is my first time watching shooting stars or meteor shower like what a friend of mine told me. While I'm typing, I'm sure the Penangites are still counting the number of stars. We'll see the news tomorrow to see the total number of stars. Currently, it's up to 564 stars! I'm glad I can see it from my home. The stars shoot out throughout the sky!! Thanks to a friend of mine that remind me of it. Thank Allah that I slept earlier and longer than usual to see this breathtaking scene! Hopefully the stars would come over earth again ^_^!

By the way, Happy birthday Mum!

Nov Recap & Kerabi, Thailand

Let me just recap some of the major events that happened throughout this month. After Final Exam was over, I could feel the tension rapidly cease away from my shoulder. It's time to celebrate with TDP dinner!! The dinner was splendid especially the "udang galah" that were juicy and mouth watering. I couldn't help for more!!

Then, it's time for raya haji. Well, my family went to "kampung" at my dad side so I stayed home and celebrated with my friends in the morning, alone in the evening and with my family at night. It didn't sound too lonely at least. I'll be facing the same situation in the next few years perhaps so I'd better be prepared.

Of course, with the upcoming Harry Potter 7 Part 1 on the loose, who would want to miss it. The movie was awesome! I liked the part where there's multiple Harry.

Nevertheless, all those sweet happiness vanished once I heard that my grandma was in critical condition. My family and I went to a hospital for a visit. Grandma looked really sick. The doctor examined her condition and said that her brain is shrinking. Mum explained that she had a stroke before back in 1995. I'm horrified at grandma's condition and felt guilty about leaving her. Her hands felt cold and that's the first time I'd ever held a dying hand yet I had to leave.

That night we met our long lost relative that lived at Padang, Indonesia. Surprisingly, grandma had lost contact with them for almost 70 years. Grandma migrated to Malaysia when she was young. Our relative worked as a maid in one of the most respectable leader in the old days. She invited us for dinner and showed us grandma's family pictures. There she was around 25 years old I think. Hopefully, we can get in contact with the others too.

The very next day was our flight to Kerabi, Thailand. Thankfully, the hotel that we're staying was a muslim hotel so we wouldn't had to worry much about halal food. However I was being extremely caution with food. I did not dare to take chicken meat for fear of it might not be halal. Thus, for four days I've been eating shrimp and tom yam seafood. Back in Malaysia, I got so sick of chicken now I'm so sick of seafood. I'm still glad that I can enjoy both food unlike others.

Anyway, mostly we went out at night for shopping at Aonang. Then, we snorkeled in the clear view of the sea. Although I almost drown since the goggle that I wore was loose, I managed to get used to it. The fish were very playful and cute. Nature is just amazing! I can't describe it in words!!

After that, we went for an elephant ride. My siblings and I got to ride a huge elephant while mum and dad got a 27 year old elephant which is smaller than the one we're riding. It felt like riding a galloping horse especially when it ran. We had to hold on tight or we could be thrown out of our seat. Well, our elephant's guide was quite strict with it since it always ate whatever food came to its view. That elephant could eat up to 200- 300 kg of food per day. That's a lot of food!! The most special event was that I got to ride a baby elephant. I hold on to its chain tightly when it stood up. It was scary but I got the adrenaline rush at the same time!!

We also went to waterfall at National Park. There are 3 levels of waterfall so my dad, brother and I decided to explore the highest waterfall. The pathway was easy in the beginning but it became treacherous the higher we go. I felt that we did rock climbing with no safety harness and that was really awesome!! I almost wanted to glue myself on the rock when I went through steep paths. Believe it or not, my knee was shaking when I went back going down all those paths. However, the sweat and exhaustion paid off once we reached our destination. The waterfall was great, the water is clean, cool and rejuvenating!

On our way home, we saw a really tall guy almost 3 metres in height. WOW! He looked like giants except that he isn't fat. Well, there are lots of people in this world and I'm seeing only little of it. The whole journey was thrilling. Thank you!

D 4 little cutey ;p

It was definitely "good news" as my brother had said "Mok had given birth to three kitten. No, wait! Make it FOUR kitties!"

Sure enough when I came back home, I saw them sleeping under my bed. Oh dear, that's not such a good idea. Of course, Mok was watching me intently as I might be an intruder. So, I gave her a sniff of my hand and she somehow allowed me to pat her babies. Hehe..they're so cute! One of them had some marks on its left eye and another one on its nose. The other two have distinguishable colors. Since they're under my bed I guess I could keep an eye on them but I was wrong.

The next morning only two kittens were found under my bed. The other two must had been removed by Mok. I tried to interrogating with her nicely but she made no response. She just ignored us as usual. Well, I hope they're alright wherever she's hiding them.~_~

This morning my sister exclaimed that there're lots of kittens under my bed. Yes, they're back!! Sheesh, Mok is making me worried for no reason. They're asleep in one line and making no noise whatsoever. Well, we're going to have a lot of responsibilities taking care of them. From toilet train, to feeding time and no scratching home furniture! I guess my upcoming 3 months holiday aren't too boring. Anyway, final is only for another week. All the BEST!

Marriage Of Pre-Islamic Arabian Society

I read The Sealed Nectar by Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri and came across Arab society before Islam. Basically, there's 4 types of marriage before islam came to Arab society. The first is the present day marriage which a man give his daughter after a proposal from a man with a dowry that has been agreed. Second, is a man would send his wife to cohabit with another man. Later on, if the woman got pregnant he would choose whether or not to be with her. Third is a group with less than 10 men would have sexual intercourse with a woman. Once she conceived and gave birth, she would send for these man and pointed out to the father of her child. Lastly,any number of man can sleep with a woman. She would put a flag at the gate of their house to invite in anyone who like. If she conceived and got pregnant, she would collect these man and a seeress would tell which is the father of the child. When Islam came, all kind of marriage were prohibited except for the first one.

I decided to explore the third kind of marriage for Fiqh subject so I Google polyandry. Polyandry is a a woman married with more than one man at the same time. It's totally prohibited in Islam unlike polygyny which a man can have one, two, three or four wives at one time. Logically, it's not relevant enough for a woman to point which guy she was with to be the father of her child. If that is the case then what about doing DNA test to verify who the father is? DNA test is not as easy as it looks. The test would take weeks or years to obtain the result officially. If it's that easy then I wondered why some of the crime cases had not been solved yet? Then, a conflict would arise regarding the child's name. Which dad's name should the baby have? After all, the DNA test is not complete yet. Another problem is the time spent for a wife to be with each husband. Naturally, a woman would have her menstruation cycle. If it is one of her husband's nights to be with her when she's period, obviously it would not be fair for him unlike other husbands.

In short, there are tonnes of issues regarding polyandry. It would be difficult for a woman to handle a lot of husbands at one time. Thus, Allah had prepared us the best medicine which is polygyny that are very suitable with human nature. Of course, there are still a lot of aspect that need careful attention for a man to have more than one wife.

Talk or not talk?

Nouman Ali Khan's lectures are really astounding! I mean, he always relate it with issues that I admit, I also have that particular problem haha.. One of the thing that I would like to highlight is when he mentioned about wasting time. There are two ways of wasting time which are in term of speech that has no benefits at all and doing other things that also have no benefits.

Speech in other words are like chatting, small talk or just cracking jokes. It's ok when the jokes aren't too lengthy but it's a problem when I'd spent half an hour on it. Then, when I hang out with friends or just went back home, the journey I made is already a waste of time. Well, all I did was either listening to music or I just staring on my shoes. I'd probably memorized the pattern of it already haha..

Another problem he addressed was on the 'virtual reality' that we spent so much time with it. I like it when he said that "I got e-mails from men and women that I have no idea of who wanted to be friends with me on facebook. I don't want to be your friends on facebook, leave me alone!" Somehow, I agreed that not all 'friends' in fb are really my friend, especially when they used nicknames instead of real names which is even more confusing.

To take out this virtual reality is definitely a challenge since hardly a day went by without me checking my emails or fb. hm.. The best I can do is not too spent too much time on it. It's best that I refrain myself from engaging with useless talk too. Honestly, it gonna take a lot of effort. ~_~

tonic immobility of the shark!

Tiger shark

Mike was really awesome!! He communicated with sharks by stroking their snouts. The idea was to test the tonic immobility on sharks. I remembered when I stroke my cat's head she would keep still and asked for more. That's what he did to the lemon, reef, tiger and great white sharks. It's incredible the way those sharks would go limp and relax while he patted them.

Reef shark

He would stroke a reef shark and it suddenly went quiet. When he released his hand it quickly moved away from him. The interesting part was that it wanted his touch again. He patted the shark one more time until he could positioned the sharks vertically and it was very still until he let go of the shark.

Click here to see the video.

Great white shark

Obviously, not all sharks would go in a trance state like that. The female is more responsive than the male. The lemon and reef shark are easier to response than the tiger and great white shark. The great white sharks are more in control than the others since it allowed Mike to swim with it.

lemon shark

Overall, tonic immobility is also another way to understand the shark behavior. It proves that sharks weren’t as vicious as we thought they usually are but there’s a docile side of them too. Hopefully, I could get close to them as well. I can't help it, they're such a fascinating creature!!

Burn Quran??

I personally disagree and dislike with Terry Jone's announcement when he stated that they wanted to have a "Burn Quran Day" as a commemoration with 9/11 incident. That's an absurd way and it can upset the world peace.

9/11 is the day for others to remember the victims of the collapse WTC. Even some of the family members victims disagree with the plan. We as a muslim, we love Jesus Christ too. We believe that he is a man born from his virgin mother, Mary and he is sent to his people to tell them to worship the one and only God. God neither give birth nor being born.

Sometimes, we believe news that we hear and news that we see without searching the depth of its truth. Until now, there is no evidence that the 9/11 was caused by muslim. You can find it in websites yourself to search for the truth. After all, televisions and newspapers aren't our only source of news since a lot of it are just rumours.

Wether we are Muslim, Christian, Buddha or Hindhu; each religion teach us to be good to others. Some of the basic things like you need to respect your parents, love the young ones and help the poor should be applied in our daily life no matter what religion a person is. Some may be atheist yet they still respect their elders.

We can't rely much on the media to help us understand one another religion as almost all of it focus on entertainment. Thus, I personally went to a talk on "Friendly Comparative Religion" (FCR) that discussed about other religions. I hope that I'll be able to know them better when I want to interact with them.

Overall, the issue of burn Quran is not the best way to solve the core problem which is the building of mosque at Ground Zero. It can disrupt the peace that our forefathers had built. We should understand one another in a peaceful way so that we can find the best possible solution to this problem. InsyaAllah.

Nuzul Quran

The moon last night was breathtaking! I just realized that it has been the 16th day of fasting! Of course the moon is always the brightest at the 15th day of every month of Islamic calendar.


The upcoming 17th Ramadhan is a day to remember that the Al-Quran was given to all mankind little by little to Prophet Muhammad S.A.W for 23 years. From the ancient times, millions of Al-Quran had been published. What really matter here was not that the quantity of Al-Quran that had been published, but it is the message that Muslims understand from Al-Quran. I myself admit that I had recently read the translation of Al-Quran. I only read through it so I literally understand some of the contents. However, it is a sad realization when a lot of our friends here hardly read Al-Quran let alone tried to understand them.


The lack of enthusiasm of our community to educate our youngsters on religious belief could be one of the factor that cause all the sickening behavior of human kind. Do you call him/her human when they killed their own baby? Even animals would have sympathy on other species even though it is in their nature as predator to kill their victims.


It is about time that we forget our differences and focus our energy on Islam. We should stay united and not fall apart. We must also hold on strongly with Al-Quran and As-Sunnah. InsyaAllah.

Sympathy from animals~

I tune in some NG and surprisingly I saw a unique prey predator relationship. Rather than the normal wait and go for the kill tactic the animal usually do, it turns out to be a different attitude they portrayed.

1) A crocodile viciously wounded a small impala and apparently a hippo tried to claimed its prey. It seems that the hippo is eating the poor deer since it put its mouth on the deer's head but it actually tried to revive it. Unfortunately, the deer perish due to its fatal wound.

click here to see the video

2) A killer whale was tossing a seal as it was playing with their food. After a while, it can be seen clearly that the whale was saving the young seal since it pushed the seal back to safety of the land.

3) A leopard killed a baboon and dragged its food on a tree. A baby baboon appeared out of nowhere. Mercifully, the leopard took the baby under its wing and tried to keep it safe and warm against the cold night air. Nevertheless, the baby did not survive in the next morning.

click here to see the video

I was astounded with the sympathy and moved by the animals behavior that they still posses some kindness in them. It's something that I could reflect in my life. Sometime I feel sad when people are brutally murdered when they still have the capacity to think of the best possible solution, yet they choose death. Hopefully Allah will guide us all to a better path. InsyaAllah.

Alhamdulillah IELTS had pass!

After waiting anxiously for IELTS result, it finally came out on 13th August 2010. I felt calm before checking my results thankfully since I was fasting. Alhamdulillah, I passed the minimum requirement. Thanks to my Creator, loving family, supportive friends and my hardworking lecturers.

To those who may be taking their IELTS, there might be some useful tips I can share with you.

Before going to the test:
1) Make sure you really know where you will be taking it.
2) Make some preparations by answering previous tests.
3) As for me, I watched english movies without subtiles to improve my listening ability ;p

During the test:
1) Have a breakfast and just relax.
2) Bring your IC.
3) No need for pen since they provide you with a pencil and an eraser.

After every test:
1) Forget the last test you did and focus on the test at hand.
2) Be positive
3) Tawakkal

Another secret I would like to share is that "If you think that something will be hard to solve then it will be, but if you think it is easy, then it will be easy for you." InsyaAllah. Good luck for IELTS!

End of Syaaban = Start of Ramadhan

The most holy month in Islamic calendar is the month of Ramadhan! Ramadhan is very special as during this month the gates of heaven are open while the gates of hell are shut. Even the devils are bound. Thus, it is a great opportunity to use this month to mend ourselves from all sins we had done.

It is compulsory for the muslims to fast for a month in Ramadhan. We cannot eat or drink from fajr until maghrib. We should also control our desires and we are encourage to do good deeds. Some of them include reading Al-Quran daily, help the needy, be thankful to Allah, associate with ulama, do extra prayers and evaluate ourselves before going to bed.

We should not just be charitable in Ramadhan but also in any other months. Let's cleanse our heart, body, mind and soul. May Allah bless us all. InsyaAllah.

Animal Sonar

It's amazing to discover that the ocean is full of sound just like being in the middle of a busy city. There's a unique way for animals to communicate with each other and that is through sonar. Sonar is a system in which objects are detected by sound waves. These waves are very high in frequency and are called ultrasonic. Ultrasound waves have frequencies above 20 kHz. Few animals can hear ultrasonic waves. Some of the animals that can hear them are dogs, cats, porpoises, rodents, whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and bats. Let’s have an overview on how some of these animals use sonar in their daily activities.

1) Oilbirds and some species of swiftlets are known to use a relatively crude form of echolocation compared to that of bats and dolphins. These nocturnal birds emit calls while flying and use the calls to navigate through trees and caves where they live.

2) All whales are capable of making sounds, and maybe of ‘singing’, but only the toothed whales can use sonar. The information they can glean from these reflections allows them to ‘see’ through murky water and in the dark. They can even see into the sediment on the sea-bed, and probably into one-another.

3) Bats emit ultrasonic sounds ranging from 20 to 100 kHz. The sounds are emitted through the bats' mouth or nostrils and are aided by a complex flap-structure to provide directivity. The echo that returns from such emissions enable the bats to pick out tiny flying insects from some distance. The bats can also determine the size, location, density and movement of an object. Thus, in a dark cave with stalactites and stalagmites, bats can find their way home easily.

Overall, sonar system are very useful to animals as it help them to navigate their way, detect preys and communicate with each other. The creation of Allah is indeed beyond human advancement. We are still new to this sonar system yet the animals are an expert user. Hopefully, with more observations, research, and creativity we'll be able to learn more from these marvelous creatures!

Ant and pitcher plant

I've seen ant and pitcher plant but I didn't know that they can work together. Last July, there's a flower festival in Putrajaya and I saw all kinds of flowers and of course pitcher plants. Surprisingly, there wasn't any weird smell emanated from them. Well, I guess they haven't had their meals yet. If they did, they'll produce some kind of enzyme to drown and digest the insects.

The next day, I watched a discovery about ants and it's indeed an exciting creature of God. There are 10 000 species of ants and another 10 000 more are waiting to be discovered. The ants body parts are divided into 3 sections; the head, abdomen and tail. An ant have 3 pairs of legs attached to its abdomen. Surprisingly, the spincer are multipurpose as ants can use them as scissors, to pick up food or as defense. The antenna can detect chemicals so it is easy to find ants' way home after a long day of labour. I learned about the way they feed like some kind of a "kiss" since they always eat their food in a form of fluid.

Apart from that, the ants have their own professional job. The workers or army usually sterile female that tends to the household chores from taking care of the eggs until those that provide food for the colony. The Queen's job is to lay eggs while the male ants have one sole purpose; that is to mate with the future Queen. After that, they died and a new colony is born.

When I Google about these two I found out that they have mutual interactions. The Camponotus sp. ants obtain food and nesting sites while preventing the accumulation of excess prey in Nepenthes bicalcarata.

The ant systematic community are so fascinating that I sometimes wonder even if small creatures can live together why not us? The answers are within ourselves.

The eagles' land

It seems that my holiday are almost done. Only a week left before I'll go back to BMI so I'm not going to miss another visit to Langkawi. Actually, I've been postponing the trip 3 times already which was really frustrating so I appreciate it very much that I managed to be there this time.

The sandy white beaches were awesome! The waterfall was crystal clear since I could see fish swimming in it. The best thing about this vacation was that I actually went for para-sailing. It was amazing! The parachute was strapped on my back, the boat sped up and the next thing I knew I'm flying! The view was breathtaking. My feet just dangled in air so I need to keep an eye on my shoes just in case they slipped off.

Unfortunately, a lot of my friends have been there a few weeks earlier so it's just me and mum travelling together. Sometimes, I felt sad watching the beautiful place unmaintained since Langkawi captured the ancient feeling of nature. The green forest are perfect to escape from busy life. I noticed some tiles were missing at Dataran Lang (Helang= Eagle). The garden seems unkept. The usual place I've been to seems to be underconstruction.

Hopefully, Langkawi will continue to protect the wilderness and maintained the investment from local and foreign tourist. It's a treasure beyond measure. InsyaAllah, if I have more opportunities I plan to visit there again.

Hadis rasullullah s.a.w

Dalam satu riwayat dari Jabir bin Abdullah ra sabda Rasulullah saw:

Apabila datang hari qiamat dan orang orang yang berada di dalam kubur dibangkitkan maka Allah swt memberi wahyu kepada Malaikat Ridhwan:

" Wahai Ridhwan , sesungguhnya Aku telah mengeluarkan hamba-hamba Ku berpuasa ( ahli puasa ) dari kubur mereka di dalam keadaan letih dan dahaga. Maka ambillah dan berikan mereka segala makanan yang digoreng dan buah-buahan syurga."

Maka Malaikat Ridhwan menyeru, wahai sekalian kawan-kawan dan semua anak-anak yang belum baligh, lalu mereka semua datang dengan membawa dulang dari nur dan berhimpun dekat Malaikat Ridhwan bersama dulang yang penuh dengan buah-buahan dan minuman yang lazat dari syurga dengan sangat banyak melebihi daun-daun kayu di bumi.

Jika Malaikat Ridhwan berjumpa mukmin maka dia memberi makanan itu kepada mereka sambil mengucap sebagaimana yang difirman oleh Allah swt di dalam Surah Al-Haqqah bermaksud

"Makan dan minumlah dengan sedap disebabkan AMAL yang telah kamu kerjakan pada HARI yang telah LALU itu."

InsyaAllah kita perbanyakkan lagi amal di dunia dan di akhirat. Sampaikanlah hadis ini kepada saudara seislam kita.

Fun debate!!

Firstly, I admitted that debate was exhausting. Nevertheless, it was a challenge to be more persuasive than usual.

My team went to RCMP for Unikl Presidential Cup 2010 for three days. In short, we managed to get into quarter finals which we were defeated by my own juniors. Well, the lecturers like them and only one professional judge like us. Anyway, I enjoyed the tournament tremendously and I owe that to my teammates, friends and teachers.

Unfortunately, I would not be able to join them next year in MFI. However, I might join the Australs for fun!

Banana

A banana a day keeps the doctor away!

I received an e-mail from a friend posting about the benefits of banana...Do you know what it is?

1) It can help to reduce anemia, depression, stress and strokes.

2) It reduce the irritation of mosquitoes bite.

(Funny, I've been bitten by the same creature all over my face! I hope it works.)

3) Banana help to prevent the addiction towards smoking since it help to reduce addiction in nicotine.

4) It contain far more nutrient than apple.

5) It help to reduce PMS!

There's a lot more advantages of banana. Do Google it yourself. You'll be surprise!

Go for hols

Let me just brief last months holidays. First, I went to visit a friend in Sabah, my roommate.

It was an exotic place especially the Mount Kinabalu. I went from the warm splashing sea, to the cool river and to canopy walk.

Next, I went to Pulau Redang. Obviously, I got sunburn but I don't mind the shade. The fish are very friendly since I can mouth feed them.

The steep price for that day? I'd just dismantled my camera so, please don't bring your camera underwater if it's not water proof.

The rest, I spent time with family and friends.

So, what next? I can't wait to find out.

Let's not waste a day even though I did that quite a lot. ;p