Repent before death

One of the prayers that I learn in school was this: (Doa Selamat)
'O Allah, we ask of You... and sincere repentance before death'

As we sleep everyday, we should remember that sleep is a sister of death. This is the time when Allah lift up the soul from our body. If we were destined to live another day, the soul will be returned to the body, otherwise, we will meet the end of our time in this world.


The point is, it is wise upon anyone to take account of himself everyday and do sincere repentance, especially before sleep. This is the conclusion of our day, and wise person should always keep track of where he is heading. Yes, we all have this big dream of entering paradise, but are our actions helping us to achieve that dream?

It is tempting to postpone repenting. Even in business and work place, we see that those who delay in taking actions will be left behind. Similarly are those who delay his repentance.

One example was brought forward by one of my friend, and it goes like this:

A student met a Sheikh and ask him to teach him. The Sheikh agreed and took him for a brief journey. At the beginning of the journey, he ask the student to pluck out a budding seed from the ground. He did just that and they continue the journey. After a while, the Sheikh then instruct him to uproot a handful of grass. Obedient to his instruction, the student did accordingly but with a bit of struggle, and there are some marks on the ground as well. After that, they continued the journey until they saw a small tree, about two feet tall. Now, you know what's going to happen. Yes, the Sheikh again instruct the student to uproot this tree. Of course, this time, he put a hefty amount of energy to take the tree out, as the root is deeper and the trunk is harder. He needed a hoe to do this job. Alhamdulillah, after a hard effort, he managed to uproot the small tree. And this time the soil is more scattered. Does the story ends here? Not yet...next they came across a huge tree. And you guessed correctly, the Sheikh again ask the student to pluck this tree out. He sighed, but determined to do as instructed. This time, he needs more powerful tool. And more men power, so he hired some workers to finish the job. (pakai jela bajak, kan?)...to cut story short, he managed to uproot the big tree....and of course with much much more difficulties and spending. OK, there should be an ending somewhere right? right, I'll stop there. So, the student, drenched in his own sweat asked the Sheikh, what's the meaning of this journey?
The Sheikh said that the plants that the students uprooted are like sins. At the early stage, it is really easy to get rid of it. But if a person delay his repentance, the sin will grow more and more, until it is very hard to take it out from someone's life. He will face more struggle to get himself out from the sins and as a consequences, there are also more scars left.

Moral of the story: Don't delay! Shaitan will promise us long life and persuade us to indulge more in sins. But Allah also sends reminders to do good and stay away from evil on top of warning us that Shaitan is our open enemy. In the end of the day, he'll go away from us as soon as we involve ourself in sins. He will not help us if we were doomed to eternal fire, as he's also incapable of absolving himself from the fire.

Adelaide trip note

We had a trip to Adelaide last two weeks. It were just the three of us in a car. We booked a small Hyundai Getz to Avis, with a discount of one day free. To our surprise, they could not provide us the car, and instead rent us a Mitsubishi Lancer, with the same price. Alhamdulillah...

It was a smooth drive all the way. We had to stop a few times on the way for solat and also to look after Yousuf and having some powernap. I am grateful that my wife can also drive long distance. She gave me good time to rest, and we can save time.

The actual purpose of this trip was Kak Lang's wedding. When I saw the groom, I thought to myself that I have seen him somewhere, but I can't recall that time. It turns out later that he's the elder brother of my junior in Sheffield Uni. Ah, what a small world.

Thesis Masterplan

Today I was again reminded about my thesis masterplan. It has been told to me even at the start of my PhD journey that a masterplan of my thesis is something that I should always have in front of me.

I think it does a big help actually when I have it with me. The masterplan will guide me of where to put each and every work that I do into its proper section within the thesis. Without it, I will have a big trouble navigating myself back to the bigger work that I have two do and accomplish at the end of my candidature.

Sometimes it is so discouraging when the supervisor tell me to do something which are 'not related' to my work. But on the contrary, they usually tell us of what to do so that it could be writen somewhere in the thesis. So, everytime I have something done, I should always relate it to my masterplan thesis.

Yes, we do get things changing everytime, but at least when I started with some simple structure of my thesis, this shabby looking draft masterplan is easier to be converted into a much more matured thesis than to convert from a total blank page.

From now on I will look at my thesis masterplan more often, and keep track of my work accordingly.

Yousuf was so excited in reading his new book.