Month: April 2015

Honouring Children.

cbko

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

23rd April is a holiday in Turkey, and it falls on Thursday this year, which, when added with exam week gives you a long weekend.

It’s called Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı or National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. Everyone was excited in class yesterday (for the long weekend of course). Then, out of curiosity I asked our hoca (prounounced as ho-ja, chicher as we say it in Brunei) why is there a festival for children. The celebration is quite massive I would say. So many activities will be carried out, like literally almost everywhere. The answer is quite heart-warming, honestly speaking. It’s a gift from Atatürk to the children of Turkey. Our hoca further explained that because the children are the future of the nation, so a day off to celebrate them was established.

“This national day (23 April National Sovereignty and Children’s Day) in Turkey is a unique event. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.” [source]

It is pretty impressive that children are respected to this extent here. One day of festival from one end of Turkey to the other end. I even heard that the Princes’ Island is only open for children today. I’m not sure whether this is true or not. But still isn’t that just cool?

Most of us know that  the children are our future, but in all honesty I don’t really see much effect from actions taken to brush up the future leaders who lead for real, who will make real progress and improvement, not just enjoying the thousands dollar of cash flowing into their bank account. The level of Sami’na wa Atho’na in our culture is quite worrying, though the Atho’na part is most of the time involuntary. Development can never be done when the fresh ideas that come from current generation are silenced, taken for granted, or preserved for snacks (read : jaruk) and questions are left unanswered just because they “are not worth answering”.

Turkish youth are nationalistic, brave, and they know how to speak up. And the best part is most of the time, they are heard and taken into account. When the hot water dispenser in our floor was not working and some of the Türk girls were going crazy because they couldn’t get their çay fix, they provided a portable one for us to use first before they could get the repair done. And imagine as a person coming from a place where even protests are non-existent, let alone riot, to see the tear gas tank and abang-abang polis waiting right outside of the campus compound already gives me chill. They usually do protest during exam season. I thought it was because sometimes they do protest because they don’t want any exam (illogical, I know, but that’s what I heard), but recently a senior explained that it’s actually because they will do protest if they are not satisfied with the exam question. And you will never know to what extent will they go.  My view might be wrong as it’s only my 6th month here, but that is what I see. These characteristics of Turkish youth, in my opinion, could be the result of the amount of respect the country has given to them.

All in all, I’m quite touched how this sunnah of honouring children is upheld in a country which by constitution is a secular country. Of course Rasulullah SAW did not specify any day to celebrate children, but the Children’s Day is still an excellent effort in shaping the future of a nation. It also should remind us of the sunnah Rasulullah SAW has left us with. Çocuk Bayramı Kutlu Olsun!

For myself first and foremost.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

I can’t really remember when I started to realise that writing is one of my strengths… well minus my so-not-girly handwriting. Back then in school, you know how the questions for language (Malay and English) are right? In that list of questions I have a high tendency to choose creative writing over factual/academic writing. I joined competitions. I found joy in creating stories and connecting the words dramatically, be it in English or Malay. I enjoy putting things into words.

As for blogging I started around 2008 or so. I was just a kid, and blogging was kind of the in-thing. Don’t ask what were the things that I put in there, but they were definitely not something you would expect to come out of me. Even thinking about it makes me embarrassed sometimes. It has been safely deleted. But despite of all the foolish things I said, I actually enjoyed typing down my daily activities, new things I discovered, dissatisfaction and so forth.But despite of all this realisation that I have quite an ability to write, I never actually felt really passionate about it. All the competitions were just for the sake of joining and winning and trying out my luck, which most of the time, I was considerably lucky.

I’m not sure if it has developed into a passion or not, but recently I do feel some kind of relief when writing, especially on my journal which I just started after coming here. I started fresh with blogging around 2 years ago, which I failed to consistently write at first but I have overcome it after coming here, too. And not forgetting the success of “Kuadratik” (nerd aleeeert!!) Alhamdulillah.

As time passes my preference in the way of expressing my thoughts and ideas is expanding. Now, I am more into advocating in making the most out of life. We have a time limit to be in this world, which no one knows except for Allah, so why not make it more meaningful and presentable to Him in the Hereafter?

And in my current work I pour them all out, but as I am re-reading it I see that everything that I say is thrown back to my face.

“O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do.” [As-Saff : 2-3]

 
And then I realised that actually we all know a bit of everything. We know how important it is to focus in our prayer. We know that prayer is an obligation upon us Muslims. We know the importance of sincerity. We know this, we know that. But there are things that we know but we don’t practice, that we deliberately ignore on many unreasonable stances.  Or it’s just seated at the very back of our head, waiting to come out.
So, everything that I said, is not merely me reminding everyone else, but it’s a way of reminding myself, too. In the end, and in truth, it’s me who needs them the most, a normal human being, still trying to strive and struggling to remain on His path.
May Allah forgive us.

The blessing of health and time.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Spring has finally bloomed, and I got the chance to visit Gulhane Park last 2 weekends. I was actually meeting a fellow Bruneian who happened to be studying in one of the madrasahs in Istanbul. I chose Gulhane Park because I expected the tulips to have started blooming, And they did! So we spent that afternoon enjoying the flowers and scent of spring, updating each other about things happening since we last hung out together. The day went well  -until that night I started having fever.

Not only that, I developed quite a bad cough as well, and for the whole week I was sick and I had to stay in to rest. It took around 3-4 days for the fever to completely go away, and currently my cough is not driving me crazy anymore. But I’m still in the process of dezombifying myself after the Sick Week, because falling sick has disrupted my physical and mental system from functioning normally. My plans for the week were badly shifted. My mind wandered more than it usually does, and then at one point I missed being healthy again.

It reminded me of the hadith by Rasulullah SAW on time and health. Time and health are indeed deceiving. We rarely realise their presence until we lost them. As I was resting, too hot (literally) to do anything, coughing my chest out, things i was supposed to be doing and things i had been wanting to do were doing somersaults in  my head, and I started to wish I had done them earlier at the time when my health permits. But I was too late.

Take care of your time and health whenever you can, because once gone, it’s not something you can easily regain.