On the right: Aceh Kid. On the Left: touched.



feel the rain on your skin. no one else can feel it for you. only you can let it in. no one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips. drench yourself in words unspoken. live your life with arms wide open. today is where your book begins. the rest is still unwritten.


live your life with arms wide open.


Many a times people asked me, "hey Fai, how's life?". The honest tendency is to say, "Oh you know what? Life sucks man. It bores the shit and screws the piss out of me so much i feel no better than dyin'." Then again, upon reconsideration and after one long breath, I would always reply, "Life is Beautiful." So so much beautiful that each day i embrace the unprecedented possiblities with arms wide open. I take pride in the work i do, i love the people around me. Life is like rain. People complain when there is rain, yet when the heat of the sun scorch them silly they complain yet again. We never did once realise that with rain, deserts spring to life and rivers flow. Civilisations grow and man thrives. That is it with life. People take it for granted, as cliched as it may sound, yet they never realise the beauty and majesty of a gift so tenderly granted by God. How difficult it is to bring forth life, how a painful 9 months it was, yet people waste it away in a slash of the neck.


Time. another blessing to mankind. like life, time trickles down the flow of waste and ignorance, sometimes in drips and at other times in torrents. sometimes i wonder, where on earth did my time go? I recall my brother farhan from fmsa telling me yesterday, "Maybe that was why the time machine was thought of. As much as people want to get into the future, they want to be back in the past and relive the times that they had. For one moment in life passed will never ever occur again." Cherish the time that we have and above all, above them all, cherish the love that you get from the ones around you, from those that you in turn love back. Like i said, i wondered where did my time go? after all the procrastination and fooling around, i do wonder where the rest of my time come from.


You see, time flies when we have fun. No i dont mean that time becomes shorter when we make full use of it, but time became more in a period of time. Like for instance, cus i know this sounds like some philosophical gibberish (or more like some bullshit) to you, this is what i mean. In 24 hours, when we do house chores or home work, time seems to be like dragging, you know? like it takes years to finish the work. But when we have fun, time seems to fly. Like in the same twenty four hours we do things like, say, go to the theme park. Seems like just five minutes have passed but you actually spent one whole day at Escape. But in a third instance, time EXPANDS for those who spent it for the sake of God. Like in one twenty four hour day, like any usual day, we go to Mosk, meet up with friends to discuss the latest yoth project that we initiated, pray along with friends in congregation, listen to talks by a Scholar, attend Usrah, do homework and preach the words of God. We do so much, in a day, it seemed that what could only have been done in one week, was in fact covered in one day! This illustrates the verses of the Lord in Eventide:


In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.


By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.


[The Holy Quran - Eventide 103: 1 -3]


One fine day after congregation (jum'at prayers) at Sultan Mosque with bro Ashraf, we went along arab street to look for food. Before settling at the Moroccan Cafe, we entered Al-Wardah bookstore (correct me if i got the name wrong) and boy was i elated to see so many books. There was this one book which caught my eye, it was this book on the Museum at Turkey, which displayed some of history's greatest artifacts, like the renowned staff of Moses, with which Moses (peace be unto him) parted the red sea, the embalmed forearm of John the Baptist (Yunus AS), the turban of Joseph (Yusuf AS) and the mantle of Muhammad (SAW), which inspired an Arab poet of the past to write a song based on the Holy Mantle, a song which you can view at Bro Mohksin's blog http://fadhixz.blogspot.com .


But the book wasnt the point of this post. The thing was, Bro Ashraf and I encountered this man in the bookstore, a white Australian man, whose name i dun even know. He preached to us the words of God, and recited off the Quran with such elegant fluency and made us realise the true message of Islam that I began to feel so belittled for a while. His strength in his Faith was so immense that he inspired me to pursue more in life than just all the bullshit that we've been after. My life isn't about the materialistic. It's about the intangibles that im after. That white man spoke so much in twenty minutes, and had to leave soon. After exchanging handshakes, we greeted the salam and he was gone even without me getting the chance to ask his name.


Bro Ashraf introduced me to FMSA, (Fellowship of Muslim Students' Association). After Camp Itqan (which my previous post was all about) Ashraf asked me, Raudah and Kamal to help out at the Youth's events. I was addicted to helping out at the volunteer works. Once after the encounter at the bookstore Ashraf asked me to help him out with a couple of admin work (more like laminating certificates) at FMSA on friday nite. i was still in my school uniform, and when i reached the place in eunos, i was really excited mainly because ive heard so much about FMSA but never ever been there or been in any of their events before. Bro Mohskin, Sis Shamsydar and Sis Farz are some of those i know in FMSA. when i reached there at about 7 plus, i was introduced to Bro Alfian and Sis Siriana. They were great people and i helped em out till 9 plus, before making my way home. That, ladies and gentlemen, was my first chapter in my Life at FMSA.


The second time i got there was more of a coincidence, nothing planned. Initially Ashraff and I thought the meeting for the Mission Aceh project Committee was at FMSA. So after meeting up with Ash after school at hougang, we made our way to FMSA. on the way there, i reconfirmed the venue with Alfian but so happens that we got the venue wrong, supposed to be Change Alley at Raffles. Darn, so we just proceeded on to FMSA, and there we waited for Alfian to reach so he could brief us on what transpired at the meeting. While waiting, the usrah (or in laymen's term is family in arabic) was happening so ash and i joined the brothers and we sat down to discus the latest issues around. I was the newest member there and i integrated so easily i felt at home. the bros were warm and we talked away about issues and projects. that was my first ever usra and i was glad that i was addicted to it.


Yesterday was my third time there. At school we had this interhouse games, which i was furious about mainly because when my house (phobos) fought with triton in touch rugby, there was this gurl who was shouting commands from the side of the field when she wasnt even involved in the game at all, just a substitute for triton house. then the phobians were damn irritated by her and when triton oh-so gloriously won the damn match she was the first to scream and shout her head off that triton won. the phobians hate her. grr. at 6 i bathed after all the sweaty games i played for phobes, and made my way down to eunos again towards FMSA for another usra session with the big boys. since ashraff was busy cus he just started school at uni, i went there ahead of him and was warmly greeted by farhan alfian and bro zul. after quite some time the usra finally started, and this time the issue we discussed was on brotherhood and friendship, something i hold dear to myself. it was cool, but since i gotta be home before it was too late at nite i made my way from the ongoing usra at almost ten. the guys usually end it very late.


On national day this year, rather than slacking at home or mugging for promos or even watching the parade, i was at masjid khadijah helping out with FMSA's fund raising project. almost 4000 packs of briyani was made, and i was with the guys peeling onions and all, squeezing lime juice, sweeping the floor on the eve of nat day. on the day itself, i was with the shipping team who transport the packed briyani from packaging counter to outside the mosk for the customers who bought the coupons to come and collect their briyani. it was quite hectic as more and more of them came and soon we were loaded with work. raudah was at the 'fanning counter', fanning the packed briyani cus u can only close the container when the rice is about cool, and kamal and i were the shipping buddy. heheh. kamal was also the dalcar man cus he packed the curry into the small containers. it was a messy business. after a tiring day, the four of us raudah ash kamal and i scooted off to masjid khair at god noes where it is to send the briyani to some of the ppl at mosk. after that we went to some mall (God, faizal, u suck at places) and we hang around there cus ash needed wireless connection at Mc's to access his laptop so he could register his subjects into his uni's website. yeah. and soon after the four of us parted, with kamal and raudah heading home and ash and i towards tampines to watch tokyo drift with ustaz fyrooze at Century Square. tokyo drift rawked la.


on the 11th august, 2 days after nat day i tagged along the aceh kids entourage around singapore. i was eager to follow them mainly because i wanted to see the aceh survivors for myself. i was at the tamp library in the morning to read up on some stuff while waiting for ash to meet up with me at the interchange before proceeding towards sultan mosk for congregation. after that, the aceh bus arrived and we were greeted by the mosk's official and we had our lunch there. we then went to the malay heritage museum, and then went to asian civiliation museum. it was kinda fun. after that we walked along the singapore river at raffles place and just had some sight seeing before the guys went to watch the national day fireworks.


on the saturday the aceh kids went to the science center and boy was it fun. i became the "father" of one of the kids, Agus for the day and showed him around the science center, explaining to him the science behing the optical illusions and eye-catching experiments. it was great to feel close to the 12 aceh kids. they were just like us, and from what i heard some of them lost all their family to the tsunami, while others, like a six year old gurl was found roaming the streets after the tsunami. the fortunate kids went to singapore and i felt attached to them soon after. at about after noon, the lot os us comprising the 12 kids, 5 aceh teachers, volunteers from NTU, Darus salam youth and FMSA, about thirty to forty of us took the bus to holland V mosk. after a short performance by the grannies there (which was very good choir performance by the veterans of the mosk!) the aceh kids presented their own dikir barat performance. and gawsh it beats the dikir barat of singapore. after lunch at that mosk we went on to Sentosa, at about four plus. the kids went to underwater world, merlion and that jazz, but the volunteers went to slack at the beach. bro Mohksin, sis feedza sis mashita and sis filza and i went to the breakwaters and sat there, talking. it was a picturesque sun set and was fun.


the sunday when the aceh kids were supposed to depart for their homeland, we went to ECP and had some fun rollerblading and cylcing. after a short while, the whole biiiggg groups of us bussed our way to the airport and then we had our last few talks with the aceh kids. they performed one last time at the terminal, and after a sad song sung by the whole group, and ppl start to really miss the kids, i felt attached to them. this gurl of thirteen, named Ella, sorta liked me, and i found it touching. she was a brave soul, and was perky as well. she told me to send her a picture of me once she got back to aceh, and i was kinda missing them already. soon after they went into the departure hall, everyone kinda got sad and some cried. they waved while the volunteers watched them from the glass windows, as the kids got checked at the cutoms. after they left, sister fariheen told me. "you know what faizal, ella told me to tell you she hated u for winking at her, like it was disgusting and bad to do that. but she said that she kina liked you." oh no faizal, you made an aceh survivor like you! baad boy, faizal, bad boy.


after so much reminiscence, i realise that my life, with the time that i spent on the path of God, is so so much beautiful. yes true, promos is killing me, yes true, school life and the politics behind council was darn stressful, yes true the teachers were being one helluva pain in my ass. but all this i took with a smile on my face, and with God's strength which i invoked everyday through my constant prayers to Him, i braved the harshness of life, and took pleasure in overcoming the challenges that man made for himself. my results start to climb, and i was elated to get 2 A's for economics, and was the only pass in class for GP. i like to see others take lead from me, and i would like to outreach and touch the lives of others. like the aceh kids whom ive met and left a print in their souls, i want to reach into the depths of others and inspire them and light up a small ember within their hearts. through the faith i have with my Creator, i will each day try to the best of my human abilities to change others. i want others to see life as a beauty and gift from God.


more photos can be found at mashita's blog http://www.ita-mania.blogspot.com/




















the lil birdie who broke its wing that i found at sentosa.
















from the back: Me, Mohk, Filza, Feedza. Taking picture: Mashita.

















From Left: mashita, feedza, me, and teachers from aceh.


Live your Life with arms wide open.*

10:57 PM
burn! - 'cus the lovers of God are ablaze.
_______________Guidaci Sulla Retta Via 1:6_______________

time clashes and fate crosses, and sometimes they bring a friend or two and these are the people that make your life worthy of living.


Friday 14 July 06, went to SAJC invest with daryl and mereith. tho it was at church (or cathedral tho i cant seem to find any difference in both) it was kinda scary. one thing was the school was very religious based. lol. scary. enuff said about SAJC invest. oh btw met Swati and Ansley with skirts getting ever so shorter. seemed to enjoy life there, both of em. good for them..


as for me after the invest went to mosk for congregation. lol, the irony of it. morning attended church afternoon mosk. clashes. hmm, after which waited at TM for eugene to reach and the both of us went to watch Pirates 2. lol. chris and raymund was supposed to be there but PSed us. lol. Pirates rock. and the stupid guy in the movie mentioned Singapore again, and the whole theatre like woooo-ed. ahahks. and yeah i so cant wait for the third movie. It's Cap'n jack Sparrow, by the way.


Rushed home soon after mainly cus i hafnt packed bag for the night's camp. after a quick prayer i left home with my rugged camp bagpack. took the bus from across TP to reach Alkaff Mosk, and boy, i initially felt that its gonna be fun the camp.. but i was wrong. IT WAS PHENOMENAL.


one thing was, the moment i reached the camp i was like the fourth person there, and after registration and waiting for my mosk mates to come i finally caught up with bro Ashraff, whom i met only twice before. or once, when Bro Mohksin intro-ed me to him during Qiyam at the same mosk a few months back. we met and soon we were chatting non stop.. abt things and all. camp Itqan (which means perseverance and dedication in arab) comprises of leaders from varrious mosks, and the one i attended was the 21st batch.


I meet another fabulous kid by the name of Kamal and at that moment in time we din talk much..


camp soon started and the motivators that ran the camp, both Ust Hassan and Pak Uteh, which of course isnt his real name, introduced himself..


i dun really wanna get into details abt what we did at the camp, which taught us valuable life lessons, what ITQAN means really, (Integrity Teamwork Quwwan Ambassadorship New-age), how to love God and love your parents more.. how to preach God's holy word to the rest, how to think outside the box, how to.. this is nuthing compared to what i really truly learned.


i learned: that God's perfect world isnt perfect after all, and we came with a purpose. To relive Adam's original role as an Ambassador of God to this world. I learnt that Language is what separates man from beast. That God taught language to Adam and not to even his Angels. I learnt that friends can come in any forms and never to judge the book by the cover. Believe in youself because you know you have a role in this world, and in the hereafter. Learn to always draw lessons from the Quran cus no matter how old it was first written, it still applies to today's context. a very dynamic and everchanging scripture. i learned that we can be better people if we want to. and last but not least, i learnt better how to treasure my friends.


on the last day of camp, tho we met just three days ago, and that i knew almost no one from the bunch before mainly because we came from different mosks, the camp motivator played this song called "doa perpisahan by the brothers" or in english, is The Prayer for Separation. Boy the lyrics made all of us cried as we linked arms and swayed to the melodies of the soulful song. he played it a second time as we demanded an encore, and more poeple cried.. even the toughest of guys..


i met Psyful from this camp and boy it was a Light from God that he was. Psyful taught me alot about life in many different ways that ive never expected before.. a very intellectual person blessed with the gift of speech this guy made my stay at Itqan worthwhile.


i met like i said for the second time, Ashraf who became our Camp Amir, and another gorgeous soul whose friendship i brought away with me after the camp. his ever so patient character and top-notch leadership led the camp and paved it for all to tread upon. one day i will see him as one who will make a big difference to many others.


i met one of the joyous bunch of kids that ive ever met.. isa ahmad rashid ishak zikry asap just to name a few..


i met a couple of very lovely gurls like Hamizah Muslimah Fairuz Raudhah NurulHuda Mashita and many more.. the spirit within us never dies.


last but not least one of the reasons why God put me in this camp, is to get to know this fabulous kid Kamal. One thing of many, is that we share so many common traits from email address to what our moms work as. freaky but he said im his other world him. lol. will be meeting up 2august to catch lady in the water with ashraf.


Oh Lord savior of souls and sustainer of life, I beseech you to forever keep this bond amongst thy servants strong and lasting. Let this be not the last time we meet for it would then be such a waste to let friendships go astray. let none of my brothers in faith part from me in heart and in spirit, but enstrength the bond that thou hath made in thy holy presence between every two souls. put not one in thy paradise without the other, for in thy Holy Name o Lord we live and we love, and for you my Lord we be your ambassadors, upon this earth we shall rock. Ameen.






me reciting the Verses and in the background a story about Moses and Pharoah.






kamal and i. long lost brothers found again.






the balloon game. fantastic fun.






balloons. oh i love the sound it makes when it POPS.






supposed to find balloons scattered everywhere with the help of a leader. all of us blindfolded cept him. ahahks. spot me.






thats a fellow itqanian playing this game.. supposed to put our fourth finger into this box and guess what was inside it. tho the man in blue made fake animal sounds it was obvious that the thing inside was a fork, tho took us half an hour as a group to guess that correct. boy the most ridiculous of things we thought of was a barbie doll with spiky hair. XD






one of the many meals we had. boy the food were delicious. smacks lips.






Food, one of God's best Gift to us.






the paper planes we were suuposed to craft. lol my group's plane is number four from here. cant quite see. thank GOD.






ustaz Hassan one of our motivators






pak Uteh (tho till now i still duno his real name XD) another of our fabulous motivators.






after a whole long day.. everyone beat. took chance of every possible break to sleep. even on the floor.






one of the many song sessions we had.. most are touching.. others made even the biggest boys cry.






Family Itqan21 Murshidin. The people i hold dear to my heart. we rocks!






main Prayer Hall where i beseeched and implored my best Friend my Lord.*






picturesque. light shining upon the minaret of the mosk.

3:37 PM
burn! - 'cus the lovers of God are ablaze.
_______________Guidaci Sulla Retta Via 1:6_______________

Hey there people. Im currently building my post for Pre U Sem, so meanwhile, enjoy what i have to tell you for now! since you are complaining about my dead blog, and yes Aishah, I AM not sleeping, just having too much time on other stuff, i have finally sit down to put up a post. XD here goes!


life goes on, like nothing happens, alike the troubled waves of the oceans wide, as they carry a message in a bottle, floating endlessly on the sea of life.. i am the message, and my life, the bottle. You are, my oceans wide.


The past month has been the harvest period. why so, u may ask. reason being, the past month was so ripe with fruits of my labour, so fulfilling that i feel great to be the lucky farmer who has waited long for his crops to mature, and now here i am remeniscing on the good times i had.


first week of june, i had pre u sem. second week i had LTC, and i made more friends, learnt more, lived more. third week i had a mosk camp, one organised by the Pasir Ris Mosk Al-Istighfar, and boy was it enriching. got to know a couple more people and they were a bunch of really great kids. went there not as participant but as facilitator. just last week, on youth day i along with my Mosk family organised a youth camp at Ghufran and heh, tho it was sorta slacky, i loved it. why u ask? cus i met two more ppl in my life namely Adibah and Hilmi, two gorgeous souls whom I would never have made friends with without the camp. and i too, learnt to appreciate and understand friends that i have known, more, and in depth.. like for in stance, i would never had guessed Mohksin would sacrifice his dignity by friendship dance-ing with me to demo to the smaller kids. and helfi makes a good crap pertner too! aishah, raudah farz and more.. i love them all. <3 next week, ill be heading to yet another camp, called the Itqan and i hope to learn more and make more friends and realise my fullest me, my fullest potential in all these camps that ive been to. You can help me, and only You m'Lord.


spent quite some fruitful time with my councillors, and yeah, by now dear viewers, you would know how much i treasure friendship and why i always put it at the top of my list. spent time revising midyears with chris at times at the long johns, and just a few days back went swimmimg with him, altho we did ask the rest to tag along, and after so much floating around and drinking chlorine we went to catch Just My Luck on the bigscreens and played House of Dead4 at the arcades.. quite fun. especially the part where we ordered extra cheese for cheesefries at KFC. also, went watch Superman returns (I LOVE LOIS LANE AND SHES MINE) with my beloved Ben Diana and Ariffin.


yesterday, after a short meeting on this new humanitarian project that my fityan peeps embarked on, i went gymming with mohksin, and yeah we cld spend some time together crapping.. been quite a while i last saw him, apart from the Ghufran camp where he taught lil kiddies how to dance to Friendship Dance. lol. spent abt two hours at the gym, and now my arms feels like lead and my chest like the inflatable fake superman costume they stupidly feature on tv. im aching mohk! XD oh next time, we race okay? XP


there's something else i wld like to share with you all before i wrap things up and finally get to bed. i had pneumonia in primary one, and it was kinda tough. pneumonia is actually an inflammation of the lungs, so once in a while when i pant or run too much there wld be this lil pain in my chest like fire burning in your throat kinda feel. tho i recovered years ago, this could relapse and since the last time, i have learnt to put it behind and live life like it was meant to be. thus i failed my 2.4 km run for napha test each year, never getting aniwhere less that 15 to 16 minutes. till one day in sec sch i finally scraped past PASS in sec four and i was the only one on earth to celebrate this joyous feeling i had. tho getting a gold for most people is peanuts, getting a pass is already like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me - i was blessed. then comes JC, and the big guys say i cant get lower than silver if i dun wanna train throughout the year when everyone else gets to play games. so the PE lessons preceding the NAPHA i took the chance to hone my running skills, and to my dismay i always scraped past pass. again. just 14 minutes. then came the actual day, and when everyone on the track was tying their shoelaces and getting ready to run once they hear the teacher's whistle, i stood straight and looked at the horizons and said out loud, abit stoically, "IM GONNA GET SILVER". and everyone was like, looking at me and wondering why on earth i was acting funny. i was that determined, and i could only here that four words screaming in my head throughout my 6rounds.. and nothing, not even the cheers and jeers of my classmates could drown out that sound. i ran and ran and i ran even faster, and i couldnt stop, i knew 12 minutes of pain was better that half a year's worth of training. its all in the head, and the next thing i knew there was fire in my lungs even when i finally passed the end line with timing of 12.33 minutes. i was the happiest kid you could ever come across that day, and like i said, when silver is nothing for some ppl, it made me grin from ear to the other throughout the whole day, and since then i learnt that the power of the human mind far supercedes that of the human body. a lesson learnt, and a lesson you too, shall learn.


till next time then. and anything in between let it not pass without God's Blessing and Guidance.


peace.

11:19 PM
burn! - 'cus the lovers of God are ablaze.
_______________Guidaci Sulla Retta Via 1:6_______________