Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xing Nian Kwai Le, and.. ok u get what i mean.. heh.. to all Chinese people, hope u had fun visiting ur family members (although i had a few people saying they weren’t looking forward to them), and for those who don’t celebrate, hope ur enjoying ur two days break.. im definitely enjoying mine so far.. pretty relaxing, i must say.. well, not that i went to the beach or anything (it seems those who do not celebrate Chinese New Year are flocking there today).. all me and my family did today was to go for a religious seminar on ‘menghalusi solat’ in the morning, and visited my granduncle and family for Chinese New Year (my nenek is Chinese)…

at 8 am in the morning, we went to Masjid Darussalam to attend a two-hour seminar on solat and how to perfect it.. i swear the title on the book given to us was “Saham dalam Solat” or something like that.. heh.. basically, the seminar was not about teaching people how to solat, but more like delving deeper into this particular pillar of Islam and teaching us how to pray PROPERLY, as well as the benefits of praying (imagine peeling solat layer by layer from the physical aspects, to the theoretical and spiritual aspects).. and since Nabi said we should always share knowledge even as small as a seed, i shall share some of the things i learnt

1) when u want to niat ur prayers in ur heart or mind (whichever works for u), u don’t have to say the long version of “Sahaja aku sembahyang fardhu Zohor 4 rakaat tunai menghadap kiblat…” and lalala.. ur takbir would be so freaking long then and u would be out of breath.. its sufficient to just niat “Aku sembahyang fardhu Zohor”… !!!

2) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim is actually part of ur Al-Fatihah, so u HAVE to say it.. and ur Al-Fatihah must be audible at least to urself.. (itu suara mesti kasi keluar dah!)

3) ur sujud is the time when u are the closest to God..

4) when u pray, u are conversing with God..

5) praying insults syaitan..

6) the spot where u sujud, will cry for u when u pass away later, so the more spots ur pray at, the more pieces of the earth there will be crying for u.. so let’s say u go to a mosque to pray Zohor, u pray Tahiyat Masjid at one spot, pray sunat at another spot, pray the fardhu at another spot, and pray sunat again at yet another spot, that makes it 4 spots altogether for just one time of prayer.. and what’s the big deal about these spots crying for u? well, the earth will be the one u return to when u die, and it will be the one crushing ur bones rite, so if there are pieces of earth crying for u, they will actually pray for u to be released from the azab from kubur..

7) there is this syaitan who is sent specifically to us to distract us and make us speed up our prayer, his name is Maswah..

after praying Subuh and Asar, make it a point to selawat to our Nabi 10 times.. it will give us the right to get his syafaat later during kiamat.. ok im not really sure what syafaat is but i think its something like being saved by Nabi?

9) solat also contains some sort of Haji inside it, cos during Haji u are going to Baitullah (rumah Allah), and during solat, u are going to meet Allah.. in fact its better than Haji cos out of all the other pillars like puasa, zakat, and haji, solat is the one that brings u the closest to God..

10) extending point number 9, bcos solat is the ibadah that brings u the closest to God, by doing it He will grant u ur prayers..

11) during one of the Islamic battles during Nabi’s time, the soldiers were going to war and fulfilling their prayer obligation at the same time.. how did they do it when they were fighting a war? well let’s say there were 5 rows of soldiers praying at some desert or camp or something, there would be 4 rows of soldiers praying facing the kiblat, and the last row of soldiers would face the kiblat during their niat and after their takbiratul ihram, they would turn 180 degrees, hence turning their back towards the kiblat and pray in the complete opposite direction.. that way, they get to look out for enemies.. its allowed under those circumstances cos its darurat..

12) now the benefits of each solat fardhu:

Zuhur: it was the time when the hell of Jahannam was lit.. all ur sins will be cleansed as if u had just been born out of ur mother’s womb (which was the time when u had no sins at all)

Asar: ur body will be protected from touching hellfire..

Maghrib: all ur prayers and hajat will be granted..

Isyak: Nur (cahaya) will be lit in ur kubur and during Hari Kiamat..

Subuh: u will be freed from hell and from being a Munafik..

pretty enriching, huh? i was pretty enlightened by the end of it.. oh oh oh! i saw that guy from the Unsangkarables attending the seminar too! the really skinny dude.. hehe..

anw, after that, we went to my grandma’s elder brother’s (erb) house for a Chinese New Year visit.. it was SOOOOO weird to see the part of our family that is from another race.. they were really friendly and hospitable, but it was bizarre knowing that my nenek has Chinese siblings who look so much like her, and has Chinese nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews.. they look Chinese, they speak Mandarin, they dress differently, they play mahjong.. wow.. the photos would hopefully reflect how bizarre it looked..

that’s nenek’s elder brother..

and that’s my nenek with her sister.. it’s really scary how they look so alike, they are almost like twins, only one is in baju kurung and speaks malay and cooks nasi lemak, asam pedas and lalala, and the other wears blouse and pants (my nenek NEVER wears blouse) and speaks Mandarin and has coloured eyebrows.. but she gave me a pretty fat ang-pow so i shan’t complain..

i guess these would be my distant cousins..

but these, are the cousins im more familiar with:

and that’s my favourite guy.. the guy carrying him is my brother..

so anw, have another great holiday tmr, guys.. Gong Xi Fa Cai once again!