The Not So Secret Ways To Ace Ramadhan

[Copy pasted from my other blog since I'm closing the other one down]

Alhamdulillah, we have entered the month of Ramadhan. I hope everyone is still in their highest state of motivation. For Ramadhan, I would love to share something exciting and beneficial.

Ramadhan is the month of revelation. The first revelation began during Prophet Muhammad S.A.W’s seclusion in the cave of Hira’ by the angel, Jibril.

RECITE IN THE NAME OF YOUR LORD WHO CREATED. CREATED MAN FROM A CLINGING SUBSTANCE. RECITE, AND YOUR LORD IS THE MOST GENEROUS.WHO TAUGHT BY THE PEN.TAUGHT MAN THAT WHICH HE KNEW NOT. [96:1-5]

It is a very important month in the Islamic calendar. It is the month of Barakah and we are at a loss  if we fail to optimise this month to improve ourselves.

By improving ourselves and acing Ramadhan mean doing things to our own capabilities, doing the small easy things that will add up to a lot by the end of Ramadhan. It’s all about our effort. It’s a good reminder to not compare yourself to others but compare yourself to who you are yesterday or what you did the last Ramadhan.

“Ramadhan is not a temporary increase of religious practice, it is a glimpse of what you are capable of doing everyday.”

— Bint Shabbīr (@tahsinaaa) June 9, 2016

So, here is a big list of ideas of what you can do or what you can improve this month that I have learned.  You might know or already practice some of these but here it is anyway! It is never too late to change. Choose some to your own abilities, stick to it and most importantly, stay consistent.

Read and Reflect on The Quraan Daily

As it is in fact, the month of revelation, it is important to start reading the Quraan daily. Gain something from it through reflections. Start by learning to appreciate a small phrase of the Quraan and ponder upon how you can take the lessons you received to good use in real life.

Memorise a Surah

You might want to review a Surah you had once memorised or memorise an entirely new Surah. For example, making a goal to memorise all the Surah on the last Juz of the Quraan. You might not necessarily finish this by the end of Ramadan. So you might want to extend your goal beyond Ramadan. All the best!

Perform Taraweeh

It is in fact, one of the beauties of Ramadhan. It is a sunnah that you can only perform in Ramadhan. Even if you are not able to perform the whole 20 Rakaat, you might not want to miss this sunnah entirely. Try it for your own benefit. To gain a fresh new feeling and motivation each time, you can try performing it on different Mosque or gather you friends and family to do it with you.

Avoid Overeating

Ramadhan is not the month to make excuses for being lazy. I understand that the first few days will be the hardest as your body tries to adjust to the new pattern. However, you should be familiar with it by a few days. If not, you might want to review your food intake. You might have overeaten or consumed too much fatty or oily food. These can make you groggy in the morning and lower your energy by a lot. You’ll end up napping the whole afternoon until Maghrib. That’s not a good thing.

Make more dua’

Ramadhan is full of blessings. Make the most dua during Ramadhan especially during these times:

May your supplications be accepted by Allah. Ameen.

Recite More Istighfar

Istighfar is seeking forgiveness of Allah. It is a powerful dua which contains countless of benefits. Even the prophet himself recite Istighfar a hundred times a day. Masya Allah.

Fix Your Entertainment Habits

You might have bad entertainment habits such as listening to music, watching dramas and movies (Just like what I love to do, unfortunately) or playing games that take up a lot of your time and to be honest, are not actually that beneficial for you.

So the goal for Ramadhan might me to lessen these habits. Instead of listening to pop music (I’m admitting myself), try to listen to nasyeed, selawat, quranic audios or Islamic music. For example, listen to Mishary Al Afashy recitations, Maher Zain, or classic malay nasyeed that I love such as Hijjaz, Rabbani and Raihan. It’ll definitely boost your Ramadhan mood. Another example would be watching Islamic based movies such as 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropah or Ketika Cinta Bertasbih (It’s still Islamic based) and watching Islamic videos on Youtube such as Nouman Ali Khan’s videos. There are endless of Islamic entertainment that you can easily find nowadays.

Fix Sleeping Schedule

As I said before, Ramadhan is not an excuse to be lazy. Make Ramadhan as a time to fix your sleeping schedule. Wake up an hour or minutes before sahoor so you can pray Tahajjud first. It will energize you and bring up your appetite to eat sahoor. In the morning take short naps before asar for about 20 minutes. This is called a power nap and brings you many benefits (Don’t trust me? Search it up) More than that will make you feel groggy so stick with less than 20 minutes!

Perform More Sunnah Prayers

There are so many sunnah prayers that we often forget that it even existed. Take, for example, Rawattib, the prayers before or after obligatory prayers or Dhuha, the morning prayer (After Isyraq, the sunrise prayer and before Zuhur).

The Prophet (saws) said: “Whoever regularly prays the two rak`ats of Dhuha, his sins are forgiven even if they are as numerous as the foam of the sea.” Narrated from Abu Hurayra by al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majahm and Ahmad.

Imagine what benefits we might gain from praying Dhuha this Ramadhan.

Be Thankful

Give all praise to Allah. There are endless of things to be thankful about. From the food we eat, the company we have, the strength we have, loving parents, shelter and that you are still given the chance of life to reach this year’s Ramadhan. Make everything you do for Allah’s sake so that you will not go astray from your intentions.

Do not miss Sahoor

You might feel like you can make it without sahoor but you’ll have less energy the next day and hence, you cannot optimise your Ramadhan as much as you can. Eat something and drink sufficiently even just a few pieces of dates if you feel super lazy to get up.

Let me share a story about my sahoor a few days ago as a lesson for everyone. So the gap between breaking fast and sahoor is only about 4 hours in the UK. I was still a bit full for sahoor but I still ate a small meal. Then towards the end of sahoor, I drank about 4 to 5 glasses of water all at once! After a few minutes, I feel sick in my stomach. I was desperate to throw up but I couldn’t. I was sick the whole fajr. The lesson here is please please drink slowly, stay dehydrated in between maghrib and fajr and not push yourself to drink all at once after your meal.

Give Sadaqah

Practice the act of giving. Lessen the burden of the less privileged by giving sadaqah. You’ll find donation boxes in mosques and even shops nowadays. There are also big organisations handling donations for Syrian victims and refugees, building homes and schools and also donations to feed the under privileged this Ramadhan such as Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT) and Islamic Relief. 

Have good company

Gather friends and family. Cook for them, sit around together and have a wonderful time. Stay away from bad influence. Focus on your intentions and refuse nicely if there’s anything that you do not want to do. Surround yourself with positivity and bring it forward to the next month, insha Allah.

Start learning Arabic

Since this is the month of the Quraan, why not start learning the beautiful language of Arabic. There is an easy step by step lesson pack that you might want to try by Bayyinah TV. I’ve watched a few videos where Nouman Ali Khan teaches her daughter (I have the same name as her daughter, hee) Arabic and you just follow along. If her cute daughter can do it, so can you!

Control your anger

Especially if you have any anger issues. It is a perfect time to start controlling your anger. Think before you talk and act. Recite Istighfar, take wudhu and just turn away from anything that has heated you up.

Make Amend With People

Make amends with people who you might have hurt before and also forgive those who might have hurt you before.

Here’s a cute diagram I made to summarise this post. Feel free to share it.

There are many other things that you can do this Ramadhan. These are the few things that I have learned as a reminder especially to myself and as something that I would love to share with everyone. If you have successfully done some or most of these, bring it beyond Ramadhan. If Ramadhan is a lesson, beyond it will be your real life test. If there are any other things that you would love to share with me and add on to the list please comment below! 

Have beautiful Ramadhan full of blessings everyone!

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Remember Thrilling December ( Miri - Johor - Singapore )

Spent my second winter break in Brunei, again. This time, we (my family and I) went on a trip to Miri, Johor Bahru and Singapore!

The traffic was smoother than expected. It took about half an hour to cross the border to Miri, Malaysia which is good. As we were a group of really hungry people so we stopped at Banana Leaf restaurant, at Centrepoint, Jalan Kubu before we checked in at Meritz Hotel. Meritz Hotel is in the same building as Bintang Megamall. It is a famous shopping centre for the Bruneians in Miri. Bruneians are everywhere here.



 The next morning, we had our breakfast in this hotel and I can say now that, compare to all the other hotels that I will share about after this ( we've been to many hotel!). This is the best hotel breakfast that I had. The buffet serves all the different breakfast that you can possibly think of. English breakfast, Malay breakfast, just cereals, salads and fruits.

We filled our empty stomachs with all those food before we head for Miri airport. Miri was enough for then as we have a flight to catch to Johor Bahru, the other side of Malaysia. We were excited because it was Hakeem's and Aleesya's ( 2 youngest siblings ) first flight ever. I think I was more excited than they were. The clear blue sky was so calming. I sat back and enjoyed a novel while listening to songs from my ipod. Hmmm.

                    

 We arrived at Senai International Airport, Johor Bahru and immediately spotted Subway. I was really hungry because I just bought a small packet of seaweed on the flight which were not satisfying but we have to immediately took a taxi to our next hotel, Tropical Inn Hotel. We got a room on the 17th floor which have an awesome view of Johor as well as Singapore because Singapore is just on the opposite side of a river that cuts Johor Bahru from Singapore. That is where we are going next the next day.

Anyway, this hotel consist of a bedroom and a living room. I slept alone on the living room that night. I had a really good sleep on the couch. I think that was the nicest sleep I had on this holiday as I was always the one sleeping on the floor ( eldest sister problem ).



That night, we went out for supper on one of the food stalls at Jalan Stulang Laut which is famous for their seafood dish. We ordered crabs, fish, vegetables and Otak-Otak. 'Otak-otak' are fish cakes cooked with spices and wrapped inside a banana leaf which is a specialty in Johor.

On one of these food stalls(not the one that we were at) there was an aquarium of frogs. It's a chinese restaurant. The frogs are sparkling clean. But, I don't want to think deeply about what they do with them.







After that we went to City Square, a big mall opposite to Johor Bahru Central. We went on a stroll on the level 1 and 2, bought pretzels from Auntie Anne's ( mine would be cinnamon sugar flavour, my favourite) then walk back to our hotel, ready to collapse into a deep sleep.


We woke up at 6 for Subuh then I continued my novel until I fell asleep. Again. So what was I reading that switched on my reading mode early in the morning? It is my first Malay fictional book that I have ever read. Magis by Ramlee Awang Murshid. I'm used to reading English Fiction stories, I didn't realize Malay novels are just as interesting. I think I'll be a fan of this author from now on.




At 7.30 we were woken up by my dad telling us that if we start our journey to Singapore at about 8 a.m, we can cross the border about 9.30 or earlier. If later, there will be a massive traffic jam. So sadly we skipped the free breakfast in the hotel but we crossed the border early avoiding the traffic jam. Since it was Sunday, we were told that usually there will be traffic jam around noon. We used a private taxi that brought us straight to our hotel, RELC hotel, Orchard road.

Orchard road is a stretch of road that is lined up with shopping complexes. This road is the equivalent to Oxford Street in London. There are modern shopping centres such as ION that sells expensive brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton. Those type of brands. There are also older shopping centres such as Far East Plaza which have more affordable clothes and serves Malay food.





ION, Orchard Road



That afternoon, we went to World Resort Sentosa. First stop, Universal Studioooo.........'s big globe. We didn't go in. Haha. We went there another day. Then, we went to S.E.A Aquarium which claimed to be the world's largest aquarium by the Guiness World Record. Well it is definitely larger than the aquarium I visited in Hull. After the Aquarium, we ate at an indoor food stall where there are only 2 Halal restaurants. It was so hard to find a place to sit. Next, my 2 siblings and I went on a ride on the Skyline Luge. First, we sat on a toboggan which brought us to some place else. We then used a "go cart" that moved by itself down the hill back to the place where the whole thing started.

We went for a stroll around Sentosa Island. We had a choice between Siloso beach or Palawan beach. We chose Siloso. There, I ate my first fresh coconut ice cream from Co+Nut+Ink. It was heavenly! I would love to eat more of those however it was too expensive.

That night we went to visit our auntie who is currently staying in Singapore to undergo chemotherapy in general hospital, Singapore. After ordering food from a restaurant in Far East Plaza, we went back  to our hotel. That was the end of the very tiring 3rd day.




4th day, 2nd day in Singapore

Bright and early, we went to check-in on our next hotel in Geylang. Hotel 101. We didn't even take a look at our room because the environment was...... bleghh. It was so inappropriate for us especially for the children. We rushed to find another place in the centre of Geylang where there are many malays. We found a hotel, Hotel Tristar. It is in one building with a Malay foodcourt, Mr Teh Tarik. During the check in process, we met Imam Muda Asyraf and his family who was also checking into that hotel.

That day we went to Gardens By The Bay. It is the place where they preserve plants from all over the world. including Baobab tree. There is this one building with waterfalls in it. It is actually from a building of about 7 floors high and we can go by elevator to the top and enjoy the view. You can see the unique building, Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer from up here. We even enjoyed eating Satay By The Bay. It is a must go place in Singapore!

Food, food, food.

We ate lunch at Haig Road Market, Geylang at another malay food court. There is this one stall which sells Putu Piring. We joined the long queue just to try it. It was worth it.

That night we went on a stroll around Orchard Road. It was really busy as it was Christmas Eve. We have to go through shops just to avoid the crowd.

5th day, 3rd day in Singapore

This is our last day in Singapore. Where did we go? Universal Studio ofcourse! There was a very long queue at the ticket booth but we managed to pass that. 

This is the map to the Universal Studio. Ezzat and I went to all the extreme rides! I think the most extreme will be the The Revenge Of The Mummy ride. It is indoor, dark and fast. I love it!! But my favourite rollercoaster ride goes to Transformers 3D ride. It was more like 4D. As we put on our 3D glasses, we sat on a car which brought us through a dangerous city with some robots trying to destroy our car. We were crashing into buildings,robots and cars. ( Sorry for my bad "Transformers vocabulary". I never watch the movie). One moment we were falling vertically from a really high building. It feels so real. Wheww, my favourite ride ever!

There were very long queues for every rides. We have to wait for about an hour for some rides which only takes about 5 minutes. However, all the rides are thrilling and enjoyable ( That is my opinion.I love all these extreme rides ). I had so much fun,  I was too tired to walk after that. My legs are all shaky from all the wait and walk.

Since, it was our last night, I have to push myself. My parents brought us to a large shopping complex, Mustafa located in ethnically rich, Little India. This Shopping centre is open 24 hours! That is what was unique about it.

That night we ate at Mr Teh Tarik food court on the ground floor of our hotel. I ate Mee Soup with Fish Balls which I thought were really nice or was it because I was hungry?

Mee Soup Fish Ball with The Tarik Ping 

The next day we went back to Johor Bahru by crossing the bridge that joins Johor to Singapore again. The traffic was clear. Lucky us.

That day we checked in to our hotel, The Zon Berjaya Hotel which is next to the food stalls ( that have frogs in it ). The room was upgraded to a really luxurious room because we were waiting for too long for our real room to get cleaned up and we have to go to Legoland fast! 

So our next stop was the Legoland. It was opened in 2012 so it is quite new. First I spotted the Lego themed hotel. Ezzat and I got really ecstatic to go on rides again. We went to all the extreme rides we could find. Universal studio's ride are better but the queue are so much shorter we still have so much fun.There are Lego recreations of famous landmarks in Asia including Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Brunei. They were really cute!

The next day, we fly back using Air Asia to Miri. Take our car in Miri, then head straight back home. That was my 7 days trip to Miri, Johor Bahru and Singapore!

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Offers In Hand

There goes a very busy week in school and I deserved a really good weekend and so I did.

It has been a really crazy academic term. We start to receive university offers and interviews. (For me, 2 more offers to wait for!!) Our school really did a really great job and I praise them for doing so well in helping with my UCAS and everyone else's. 95% of upper six students sent off their UCAS application by now (end of November) and in my tutor group ( Registration class in other words), all of us have received at least one offer. My tutor exclaimed how rare for a school to obtain this kind of achievement. I agree :) People are also starting to get interviews from really top universities like Oxford and Cambridge ( I did not apply for these) Some of my friends got it. So I become the very proud friend and the supporter all the way. 

But I guess everything doesn't stop there after getting all these offers. Offers come with conditions, me pursuing my studies in the UK next year also comes with academic conditions so I have to work extra hard not to let myself and others who supports down. 

Okay. This is a fact. Most people in my school don't know where Brunei is and yes I am used to that by now. I told them about Borneo island and near to Malaysia but they still are clueless. I have to bring my planner with the world map attached to my class tutor to point out where it is. Surprisingly at last, my Further Maths teacher knows where Borneo Island is. At least someone knows. To clear this confusion I will have to point out where Brunei Darussalam is.

Yes it looks really tiny but at least it can fit 400,000 people and it is still peaceful :)

On Friday night, I watched Hunger Games : Catching Fire that kept me on the edge of my seat for the whole movie because it was awesome. It was the premiere show in Harrogate so it was rather interesting. People were coming in really early to get the best seats and it was rather hectic because everyone was seriously excited, chattering away before the movie even started.The half an hour advertisement however spoiled it. I've read the first book before and continued until the first part of the second book. I brought the book as it was suppose to be read during my first ever flight to the UK and I ended up being swallowed by sadness listening to Westlife songs "My Love" ,"Seasons In The Sun" and watching some movies for the whole 16 hours. I think I'm going to read the last book of Hunger Games : Mockingjay because I cannot wait until 2015 to know the ending. Who can? and why does it have to be split into two parts? 

On Saturday Afternoon I spent the whole afternoon and night watching my latest favourite korean drama "The Master's Sun". Thank you to my friends in Brunei who recommended this drama because it is just beautiful. This might be the first korean drama I fully watch this academic year so don't scold me for anything yet. Haha. It's genres are horror and comedy which doesn't seem to match well but in this drama it does. The horror is mostly on the first episode. I'd grown immune after that because the storyline is amazing and the multiple funny scenes got me. The main actor and actress are so hilarious that it was so hard to try not to laugh (especially during the night, because it might bother the others). I really like the main actor, So Ji Sub's voice is what I will always tell people who talks to me about this drama. 

Fictional dramas , movies and books are my absolute area of favoritism. 

On Sunday Morning, I went to The Deep, in Hull which takes about 2 hours from Harrogate. It was a school trip. The Deep claimed to have 3000 fishes. As what I saw on the internet, the building looks like ship and this reminds me of N.E.M.O centre in Amsterdam. That was one of the reason we signed up. However, it was rather disappointing because we had seen better aquarium centre such as in London and Kuala Lumpur. It felt like it was a really small building from the inside. We took just 45 minutes to go around and I ended up continuing my drama on my phone. Thank you The Deep's public internet. I wish we can go around Hull but we didn't. We stayed in The Deep and arrived back at school around 5.30pm. In Harrogate it was already pass Maghrib so it was really dark. We basically went on a day trip!

Let me share about the sport that I do for Games ( Sports period ) this year which is golfing in Rudding Park. This is a new experience for me. There are only 6 people and it takes about 15 minutes by bus from school to Rudding Park. We always have golf on a Wednesday afternoon. We have a coach to give lessons and guide us through different steps and different type of clubs each week. After a few weeks of lessons we are now able to play on the real golf course. 

On a windy or rainy day we have to stay indoor so I was amazed by the golf simulator which let you play indoor golf. It is more like Wii but you hit real golf balls using real clubs with nets to catch it. Something like the below image, but less professional looking. We are then able to know the speed of the ball and how many yards it travels just by playing indoor! If I can, I would like to bring my parents to play golf one day. The only place I can think of is Empire Hotel Golf Club. Sounds expensive to be honest. *Sending hints to Brunei*

That is all for now :)

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My Personal Shock Attack

I was curious about why I suddenly listen to Malay songs and watch comparably many malay movies in the United Kingdom. Before this, in Brunei, I always listened to english songs and seldom watched Malay movies. My Ipod was full of English songs now I deleted most of my songs and replaced it with Nasyid and Malay songs (some are quite cheesy, to be honest).

The next big thing is that I start to read Malay novels. When we come to think of it, for a girl who read Harry Potter books almost everyday and other fiction english novels, reading a romantic malay novel is shocking. Hah!

My mother is a big fan of Malay novels. In Brunei there are shelves of Malay books and since I was small I commented that I will never read those books and I remember my mother said that I will when I get older. Oh no. So I'm old now?

I think it is just a sign of maturity and honestly, missing Brunei and the malay culture. I thought it's just me but I asked a friend of mine from Hong Kong her opinion. She understands because she also listen to more Cantonese songs than when she was in Hong Kong. Pretty interesting.

There was a time when I did watched a lot of malay movies and that was when I was still in primary school. Movies like Senario, Mr Cinderella, Soal Hati, gila gila pengantin and many others. I just watched Soal Hati again last night and thought it was a really good movie and I wonder how I really understood the whole story line in the year 2000. I was just 5? Huh? Maybe I watched it a few years later. That makes more sense.

Since this post is about my recent love craze of the malay entertainment let me share some books, movie and songs that I encountered. Haha

So last night I watched Soal Hati online and noticed how skinny and good looking Afdlin Shauki was back then. His soft voice was a charm. For a movie from 2000, the acting and story line is far better than some movies now. I couldnt find ' Soalnya Siapa' which is the sequel of Soal Hati. Now I'm frustrated.

"Tanpa keberanian mimpi tidak bermakna"

The first Malay novel I've ever read : Adam & Hawa by Aisya Sofea. I bought the eBook version and I totally loved it. I watched 1/4 of the drama. It was a really good drama but I just wasn't able to finish it yet. Surprisingly there is a continuation for the novel : "Dekatnya Cinta". I think this will just elongate the drama that already goes on for 8 years in the first book. They will have to deal with more dramas and dramas again?! Although I can see how frustrated I will be but I still bought the eBook so that I can read on the plane back home this December. Woop

        

The weird thing about my Malay songs are that I listen to more cheesy songs. This is just my "Recently Added" playlist........ ( ignore Monsters University. Haha)

I used to make fun of my cousins who listens to cheesy songs. Karma or what. Haha. I'm just being cheesy nowadays. Other than watching Malay movies, I turn to watching sad and depressing Korean movies. I watched 'Miracle in cell no 7' and 'Moment To Remember' which I ended up with a towel (bath towel) of tears. Miracle in cell no 7 just illustrate injustice in this world! The father daughter relationship tears me apart, broke my heart and makes me miss my dad.

According to my countdown : 21 more days till Brunei. I will do my best to fill up this 21 more days not by procrastinating but inshaAllah doing useful things, good deeds and revisions! I can't wait to sit on the new 787 Royal Brunei aeroplane and experience myself the claimed "bigger space" and the updated tv screen.

GO ROYAL BRUNEI!

Assalamualaikum :)

  

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