Dear God,
Today is the second last day of 2009 and I would like to thank you for all these:
Thank you for all the blessings that you've showered upon me
that had made realise that I'm a very, very, very lucky girl.
Thank you for all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful people that you've sent in my life
whom had taught me what kindness, forgiveness and uncoditional love are all about.
Thank you for all the bad things and failures that I have to go through
that had made me stronger, wiser, better.
Thank you for all the dreams that had come true,
for all the prayers answered AND unanswered,
because I know for sure now that you won't give me what I really want
but what I really need instead.
Thank you for giving me a good brain, a good heart, a good health, good 'rezeki' AND good teeth.
Thank you for giving me the ability to breathe and to think, to sleep and to sing, to cry and to laugh, to love and to let go.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
YOU, are indeed EVERYTHING.
The rest, well, they don't really matter.
xoxo
**********************************
A PRAYER
(by Anggun Cipta Sasmi)
Thank you for blessing the road I walk on
That I’m walking on
I’m sorry for every mistake I fall on
Can’t help but fall
You’ve changed this heart in me
And I know, I can always count on you
To give me the signs
In the wind on my face
Each time I try to run
From the sight of your grace
From the wrongs I have done
You shine down your light
Each time I need a guide
I say to hearts in despair
There’s an answer to a prayer
Give me true love in my life, a peaceful mind
Save me from harm
Pull me back if I ever try to walk away
Don’t let me stray
You’ve changed this heart in me
And I know I can always count on you
To give me the signs
In the wind on my face
Each time I try to run
From the sight of your grace
From the wrongs I have done
You shine down your light
Each time I need a guide
I say to hearts in despair
There’s an answer to a prayer
Say to all hearts in despair, there’s an answer to a prayer
You’ve changed this heart in me
And I know I can always count on you
To hear my prayers
You shine down your light
And I know there’s an answer to a prayer
You shine down your light
Each time I need a guide
I say to hearts in despair
There’s an answer to a prayer...
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Haiku - Part I
Bulan sembunyi
Di balik tirai bintang
Merentas malam.
Lembut sang bayu
Bak sayap bidadari
Menghembus sunyi.
Engkaukah itu?
Muncul menghulur tangan
Memimpin daku.
Bertatih langkah
Namun tetap ku gagah
Menuju cahaya.
-nly-
December 16, 2009
*Image credit: 'Starry Night Over The Rhone' - by Van Gogh
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Legends of Granada (Continued...)
*Taken from Don Quijote's website (http://www.donquijote.org)
Secret chambers, revengeful massacres, imprisoned princesses, palace ghosts, and fragrant gardens… many of Granada’s spots tell the story of legends and fables, turning it into a magical city.
THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH
There is one popular legend that relates how Boabdil, a pacifist and the last king of the Moors, surrendered Granada without a fight to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain in 1492. The Catholic monarchs exiled Boabdil and immediately hoisted the banner of Christian Spain above the Alhambra, marking the end of the last Moorish city of Spain. Boabdil began to weep as he handed King Ferdinand the keys to the city. His mother Ayesha, in disbelief and anger, reproached him for his tears by exclaiming:
“You do well to weep like a woman for what you failed to defend as a man.”
It is not at all difficult to understand why poor Boabdil wept. The tears he shed were his realization that he was going to abandon paradise on Earth. So when Boabdil paused at a mountain top to glance one last time at the beautiful city he had lost, he sighed.
HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES
The Hall's name derives from a tragic legend in which 36 members of the noble Abencerrage family were invited for a banquet at the Alhambra palace by the Sultan Abu Al-Hassan (Boabdil’s father). The Sultan wanted revenge after finding out that Hamet, the chief member of the Abencerrage family, was courting Zoraya - his own favourite concubine. During the banquet, he had his guards come into the intricately carved hall and cut the throats of every member of the family. Afterwards, the victims’ heads were thrown into the fountains. Legend holds that the stain visible at the bottom of the fountains today is the blood left behind as a permanent reminder of the horrible massacre.
THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER
Don Vincent was a student in Salamanca, who enjoyed travelling around villages during the summer, playing his guitar and singing for money. He once arrived in Granada on the eve of St. John. Noticing a fully armed soldier standing guard who went unnoticed by everyone, Don Vincent asked him who he was. The soldier replied that he had been taken prisoner in an attack against the Moors 300 years earlier. A spell had been cast upon him to guard a Moorish treasure and keep it from falling into Christian hands.
He was only temporarily freed every 100 years, on the eve of St. John, when the spell allowed anyone to see him and free him. The desperate soldier promised Don Vincent half of the treasure in exchange for his help. His quest was to find a fasting priest to call off the spell and a pure maiden to open the treasure chest. Setting out and willing to help, Don Vincent found an unfortunate insatiable priest and a chaste girl. The priest did his best to ignore his insatiable appetite.
Once Don Vincent, the priest and the girl reached the foot of the tower, the vault appeared. Once inside, the spell seemed broken. As Don Vincent began to fill his pockets with gold, the gluttonous priest ate some fruit. In the glimpse of an eye, Don Vincent, the maiden and the priest found themselves outside of the tower. St. John’s Eve was over and the spell wasn’t undone… the priest had eaten too early!
So, the legend claims, the soldier remains imprisoned in the tower, where he can still be seen guarding the treasure of the Alhambra…
Secret chambers, revengeful massacres, imprisoned princesses, palace ghosts, and fragrant gardens… many of Granada’s spots tell the story of legends and fables, turning it into a magical city.
THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH
There is one popular legend that relates how Boabdil, a pacifist and the last king of the Moors, surrendered Granada without a fight to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain in 1492. The Catholic monarchs exiled Boabdil and immediately hoisted the banner of Christian Spain above the Alhambra, marking the end of the last Moorish city of Spain. Boabdil began to weep as he handed King Ferdinand the keys to the city. His mother Ayesha, in disbelief and anger, reproached him for his tears by exclaiming:
“You do well to weep like a woman for what you failed to defend as a man.”
It is not at all difficult to understand why poor Boabdil wept. The tears he shed were his realization that he was going to abandon paradise on Earth. So when Boabdil paused at a mountain top to glance one last time at the beautiful city he had lost, he sighed.
HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES
The Hall's name derives from a tragic legend in which 36 members of the noble Abencerrage family were invited for a banquet at the Alhambra palace by the Sultan Abu Al-Hassan (Boabdil’s father). The Sultan wanted revenge after finding out that Hamet, the chief member of the Abencerrage family, was courting Zoraya - his own favourite concubine. During the banquet, he had his guards come into the intricately carved hall and cut the throats of every member of the family. Afterwards, the victims’ heads were thrown into the fountains. Legend holds that the stain visible at the bottom of the fountains today is the blood left behind as a permanent reminder of the horrible massacre.
THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER
Don Vincent was a student in Salamanca, who enjoyed travelling around villages during the summer, playing his guitar and singing for money. He once arrived in Granada on the eve of St. John. Noticing a fully armed soldier standing guard who went unnoticed by everyone, Don Vincent asked him who he was. The soldier replied that he had been taken prisoner in an attack against the Moors 300 years earlier. A spell had been cast upon him to guard a Moorish treasure and keep it from falling into Christian hands.
He was only temporarily freed every 100 years, on the eve of St. John, when the spell allowed anyone to see him and free him. The desperate soldier promised Don Vincent half of the treasure in exchange for his help. His quest was to find a fasting priest to call off the spell and a pure maiden to open the treasure chest. Setting out and willing to help, Don Vincent found an unfortunate insatiable priest and a chaste girl. The priest did his best to ignore his insatiable appetite.
Once Don Vincent, the priest and the girl reached the foot of the tower, the vault appeared. Once inside, the spell seemed broken. As Don Vincent began to fill his pockets with gold, the gluttonous priest ate some fruit. In the glimpse of an eye, Don Vincent, the maiden and the priest found themselves outside of the tower. St. John’s Eve was over and the spell wasn’t undone… the priest had eaten too early!
So, the legend claims, the soldier remains imprisoned in the tower, where he can still be seen guarding the treasure of the Alhambra…
At the top of Asabika, I lost my heart...
I'm currently doing a research on the former Islamic Kingdom of Spain as it is going to be the base for my work-in-progess novel (yes!!!). Am truly excited about this project and I hope I will have all the discipline, courage and determination to ensure that the book will finally materialise, one fine day (insya-Allah...) Can't tell you yet what it's all about, but all I can say for now is that the novel is going to be part-fiction and part-history, and I've already imagined the whole book as something really lush, enchanting and ethereal. :):)
Anyway, here are some of the materials that I found on the Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East website (http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/Sec5.htm). Am putting it here as a reference of sorts.
ISLAM IN SPAIN
By the time 'Abd al-Rahman reached Spain, the Arabs from North Africa were already entrenched on the Iberian Peninsula and had begun to write one of the most glorious chapters in Islamic history.
After their forays into France were blunted by Charles Martel, the Muslims in Spain had begun to focus their whole attention on what they called al-Andalus, southern Spain (Andalusia), and to build there a civilization far superior to anything Spain had ever known. Reigning with wisdom and justice, they treated Christians and Jews with tolerance, with the result that many embraced Islam. They also improved trade and agriculture, patronized the arts, made valuable contributions to science, and established Cordoba as the most sophisticated city in Europe.
By the tenth century, Cordoba could boast of a population of some 500,000, compared to about 38,000 in Paris. According to the chronicles of the day, the city had 700 mosques, some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators, and book binders. Cordoba also had some 900 public baths, Europe's first street lights and, five miles outside the city, the caliphal residence, Madinat al-Zahra. A complex of marble, stucco, ivory, and onyx, Madinat al-Zahra took forty years to build, cost close to one-third of Cordoba's revenue, and was, until destroyed in the eleventh century, one of the wonders of the age. Its restoration, begun in the early years of this century, is still under way.
By the eleventh century, however, a small pocket of Christian resistance had begun to grow, and under Alfonso VI Christian forces retook Toledo. It was the beginning of the period the Christians called the Reconquest, and it underlined a serious problem that marred this refined, graceful, and charming era: the inability of the numerous rulers of Islamic Spain to maintain their unity. This so weakened them that when the various Christian kingdoms began to pose a serious threat, the Muslim rulers in Spain had to ask the Almoravids, a North African Berber dynasty, to come to their aid. The Almoravids came and crushed the Christian uprising, but eventually seized control themselves. In 1147, the Almoravids were in turn defeated by another coalition of Berber tribes, the Almohads.
Although such internal conflict was by no means uncommon- the Christian kingdoms also warred incessantly among themselves- it did divert Muslim strength at a time when the Christians were beginning to negotiate strong alliances, form powerful armies, and launch the campaigns that would later bring an end to Arab rule.
The Arabs did not surrender easily; al-Andalus was their land too. But, bit by bit, they had to retreat, first from northern Spain, then from central Spain. By the thirteenth century their once extensive domains were reduced to a few scattered kingdoms deep in the mountains of Andalusia - where, for some two hundred years longer, they would not only survive but flourish.
It is both odd and poignant that it was then, in the last two centuries of their rule, that the Arabs created that extravagantly lovely kingdom for which they are most famous: Granada. It seems as if, in their slow retreat to the south, they suddenly realized that they were, as Washington Irving wrote, a people without a country, and set about building a memorial: the Alhambra, the citadel above Granada that one writer has called "the glory and the wonder of the civilized world."
The Alhambra was begun in 1238 by Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar who, to buy safety for his people when King Ferdinand of Aragon laid siege to Granada, once rode to Ferdinand's tent and humbly offered to become the king's vassal in return for peace.
It was a necessary move, but also difficult - particularly when Ferdinand called on him to implement the agreement by providing troops to help the Christians against Muslims in the siege of Seville in 1248. True to his pledge, Ibn al-Ahmar complied and Seville fell to the Christians. But returning to Granada, where cheering crowds hailed him as a victor, he disclosed his turmoil in that short, sad reply that he inscribed over and over on the walls of the Alhambra: "There is no victor but God."
Over the years, what started as a fortress slowly evolved under Ibn al-Ahmar's successors into a remarkable series of delicately lovely buildings, quiet courtyards, limpid pools, and hidden gardens. Later, after Ibn al-Ahmar's death, Granada itself was rebuilt and became, as one Arab visitor wrote, "as a silver vase filled with emeralds."
Meanwhile, outside Granada, the Christian kings waited. In relentless succession they had retaken Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville. Only Granada survived. Then, in 1482, in a trivial quarrel, the Muslim kingdom split into two hostile factions and, simultaneously, two strong Christian sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, married and merged their kingdoms. As a result, Granada fell ten years later. On January 2, 1492 - the year they sent Columbus to America - Ferdinand and Isabella hoisted the banner of Christian Spain above the Alhambra and Boabdil, the last Muslim king, rode weeping into exile with the bitter envoi from his aged mother, "Weep like a woman for the city you would not defend like a man!"
In describing the fate of Islam in Spain, Irving suggested that the Muslims were then swiftly and thoroughly wiped out. Never, he wrote, was the annihilation of a people more complete. In fact, by emigration to North Africa and elsewhere, many Muslims carried remnants of the Spanish era with them and were thus able to make important contributions to the material and cultural life of their adopted lands.
Much of the emigration, however, came later. At first, most Muslims simply stayed in Spain; cut off from their original roots by time and distance they quite simply had no other place to go. Until the Inquisition, furthermore, conditions in Spain were not intolerable. The Christians permitted Muslims to work, serve in the army, own land, and even practice their religion - all concessions to the importance of Muslims in Spain's still prosperous economy. But then, in the period of the Inquisition, all the rights of the Muslims were withdrawn, their lives became difficult, and more began to emigrate. Finally, in the early seventeenth century, most of the survivors were forcibly expelled.
Anyway, here are some of the materials that I found on the Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East website (http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/Sec5.htm). Am putting it here as a reference of sorts.
ISLAM IN SPAIN
By the time 'Abd al-Rahman reached Spain, the Arabs from North Africa were already entrenched on the Iberian Peninsula and had begun to write one of the most glorious chapters in Islamic history.
After their forays into France were blunted by Charles Martel, the Muslims in Spain had begun to focus their whole attention on what they called al-Andalus, southern Spain (Andalusia), and to build there a civilization far superior to anything Spain had ever known. Reigning with wisdom and justice, they treated Christians and Jews with tolerance, with the result that many embraced Islam. They also improved trade and agriculture, patronized the arts, made valuable contributions to science, and established Cordoba as the most sophisticated city in Europe.
By the tenth century, Cordoba could boast of a population of some 500,000, compared to about 38,000 in Paris. According to the chronicles of the day, the city had 700 mosques, some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators, and book binders. Cordoba also had some 900 public baths, Europe's first street lights and, five miles outside the city, the caliphal residence, Madinat al-Zahra. A complex of marble, stucco, ivory, and onyx, Madinat al-Zahra took forty years to build, cost close to one-third of Cordoba's revenue, and was, until destroyed in the eleventh century, one of the wonders of the age. Its restoration, begun in the early years of this century, is still under way.
By the eleventh century, however, a small pocket of Christian resistance had begun to grow, and under Alfonso VI Christian forces retook Toledo. It was the beginning of the period the Christians called the Reconquest, and it underlined a serious problem that marred this refined, graceful, and charming era: the inability of the numerous rulers of Islamic Spain to maintain their unity. This so weakened them that when the various Christian kingdoms began to pose a serious threat, the Muslim rulers in Spain had to ask the Almoravids, a North African Berber dynasty, to come to their aid. The Almoravids came and crushed the Christian uprising, but eventually seized control themselves. In 1147, the Almoravids were in turn defeated by another coalition of Berber tribes, the Almohads.
Although such internal conflict was by no means uncommon- the Christian kingdoms also warred incessantly among themselves- it did divert Muslim strength at a time when the Christians were beginning to negotiate strong alliances, form powerful armies, and launch the campaigns that would later bring an end to Arab rule.
The Arabs did not surrender easily; al-Andalus was their land too. But, bit by bit, they had to retreat, first from northern Spain, then from central Spain. By the thirteenth century their once extensive domains were reduced to a few scattered kingdoms deep in the mountains of Andalusia - where, for some two hundred years longer, they would not only survive but flourish.
It is both odd and poignant that it was then, in the last two centuries of their rule, that the Arabs created that extravagantly lovely kingdom for which they are most famous: Granada. It seems as if, in their slow retreat to the south, they suddenly realized that they were, as Washington Irving wrote, a people without a country, and set about building a memorial: the Alhambra, the citadel above Granada that one writer has called "the glory and the wonder of the civilized world."
The Alhambra was begun in 1238 by Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar who, to buy safety for his people when King Ferdinand of Aragon laid siege to Granada, once rode to Ferdinand's tent and humbly offered to become the king's vassal in return for peace.
It was a necessary move, but also difficult - particularly when Ferdinand called on him to implement the agreement by providing troops to help the Christians against Muslims in the siege of Seville in 1248. True to his pledge, Ibn al-Ahmar complied and Seville fell to the Christians. But returning to Granada, where cheering crowds hailed him as a victor, he disclosed his turmoil in that short, sad reply that he inscribed over and over on the walls of the Alhambra: "There is no victor but God."
Over the years, what started as a fortress slowly evolved under Ibn al-Ahmar's successors into a remarkable series of delicately lovely buildings, quiet courtyards, limpid pools, and hidden gardens. Later, after Ibn al-Ahmar's death, Granada itself was rebuilt and became, as one Arab visitor wrote, "as a silver vase filled with emeralds."
Meanwhile, outside Granada, the Christian kings waited. In relentless succession they had retaken Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville. Only Granada survived. Then, in 1482, in a trivial quarrel, the Muslim kingdom split into two hostile factions and, simultaneously, two strong Christian sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, married and merged their kingdoms. As a result, Granada fell ten years later. On January 2, 1492 - the year they sent Columbus to America - Ferdinand and Isabella hoisted the banner of Christian Spain above the Alhambra and Boabdil, the last Muslim king, rode weeping into exile with the bitter envoi from his aged mother, "Weep like a woman for the city you would not defend like a man!"
In describing the fate of Islam in Spain, Irving suggested that the Muslims were then swiftly and thoroughly wiped out. Never, he wrote, was the annihilation of a people more complete. In fact, by emigration to North Africa and elsewhere, many Muslims carried remnants of the Spanish era with them and were thus able to make important contributions to the material and cultural life of their adopted lands.
Much of the emigration, however, came later. At first, most Muslims simply stayed in Spain; cut off from their original roots by time and distance they quite simply had no other place to go. Until the Inquisition, furthermore, conditions in Spain were not intolerable. The Christians permitted Muslims to work, serve in the army, own land, and even practice their religion - all concessions to the importance of Muslims in Spain's still prosperous economy. But then, in the period of the Inquisition, all the rights of the Muslims were withdrawn, their lives became difficult, and more began to emigrate. Finally, in the early seventeenth century, most of the survivors were forcibly expelled.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Shakira at Oxford
Amazing speech by my favourite mega-star Shakira, who spoke about the work of her charity, Barefoot Foundation at Oxford University's world-famous Oxford Union on December 6, 2009.
Fluent, eloquent and with tonnes of substance, she talked about the importance of education to underpriviliged children. *Kindly take note that Shakira only learned to speak (and write!) in English barely a few years ago - and just look at how GOOD she is!. *Malaysian artistes, do take note!*
Fluent, eloquent and with tonnes of substance, she talked about the importance of education to underpriviliged children. *Kindly take note that Shakira only learned to speak (and write!) in English barely a few years ago - and just look at how GOOD she is!. *Malaysian artistes, do take note!*
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Keep The Faith
I find it really weird (and ironic) that a lot of Muslims out there in Malaysia could get so defensive about their religion YET remain so ignorant about what Islam is all about at the same time.
They might pray five times a day, yet they don't know the meaning of the Qur'an verses that they're reciting - not even a single word.
They fast, yet they don't solat.
They solat, yet they 'mengumpat'.
They cover their hair, yet they flash their cleavage.
They keep their 'goatee' in a bid to follow the Prophet's sunnah, yet they try to hit on non-Muhrim women while their docile wives are looking after their kids at home.
And they are quick to label others who are not like them as 'kafir', and the uncovered women as 'sluts' who will fill the slots in hell in the Afterworld.
Or to quote a friend of mine about her ex-husband: "Oh dia tu, kalau kena pilih antara perempuan yang tak pakai tudung tapi baik & tak tinggal sembahyang, dengan perempuan yang pakai tudung tapi mengandung anak luar nikah, he will still pilih the one yang pakai tudung tu."
That's how shallow people can get.
Religions, I noticed, have become more about rituals and appearances, rather than what it's supposed to be: FAITH.
As much as rituals are important (solat, fasting, paying alms, performing the hajj, etc), faith is indeed the core that underlies all these rituals.
Without faith, the rituals would become MEANINGLESS.
After all, there IS a difference between a 'Mukmin' (a man of faith) and a 'Muslim' (a man whose religion is Islam).
You can be a Muslim yet NOT be a Mukmin, but if you're a Mukmin, then you're definitely a Muslim.
To me, a person of faith is a kind, considerate and loving person.
And rather than use the term a 'God-fearing person', I'd rather say that a person of faith is a 'God-loving person.'
Plus, God, in all His Glory, is kind, compassionate & loving.
Jika tidak, masakan kita memulakan membaca al-Qur'an atau melakukan sesuatu dengan kalimah: Bismillahirahmannirahim (Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang.)
Out of his 99 names in the Asma-ul-Husna, these two were the ones chosen for this sacred sentence.
Speaking of faith, I strongly believe that you would only appreciate your faith/religion once you've done a deep study on it, as well as on other religions as well.
Truth be told, even though I studied in Islamic boarding school previously, I only learned to appreciate my religion after studying the sacred texts of other major religions during my university years in the US.
That being said, I believe ALL religions promote peace, love and harmony among all of mankind.
So, let's just pray that everyone of us will learn to respect each other, by learning FROM each other and learning ABOUT each other.
After all, ignorance is cancerous.
'Lakum dinukum waliyadin (To you, your religion; and to me, mine.)'
- Al-Qur'an, 109:6
They might pray five times a day, yet they don't know the meaning of the Qur'an verses that they're reciting - not even a single word.
They fast, yet they don't solat.
They solat, yet they 'mengumpat'.
They cover their hair, yet they flash their cleavage.
They keep their 'goatee' in a bid to follow the Prophet's sunnah, yet they try to hit on non-Muhrim women while their docile wives are looking after their kids at home.
And they are quick to label others who are not like them as 'kafir', and the uncovered women as 'sluts' who will fill the slots in hell in the Afterworld.
Or to quote a friend of mine about her ex-husband: "Oh dia tu, kalau kena pilih antara perempuan yang tak pakai tudung tapi baik & tak tinggal sembahyang, dengan perempuan yang pakai tudung tapi mengandung anak luar nikah, he will still pilih the one yang pakai tudung tu."
That's how shallow people can get.
Religions, I noticed, have become more about rituals and appearances, rather than what it's supposed to be: FAITH.
As much as rituals are important (solat, fasting, paying alms, performing the hajj, etc), faith is indeed the core that underlies all these rituals.
Without faith, the rituals would become MEANINGLESS.
After all, there IS a difference between a 'Mukmin' (a man of faith) and a 'Muslim' (a man whose religion is Islam).
You can be a Muslim yet NOT be a Mukmin, but if you're a Mukmin, then you're definitely a Muslim.
To me, a person of faith is a kind, considerate and loving person.
And rather than use the term a 'God-fearing person', I'd rather say that a person of faith is a 'God-loving person.'
Plus, God, in all His Glory, is kind, compassionate & loving.
Jika tidak, masakan kita memulakan membaca al-Qur'an atau melakukan sesuatu dengan kalimah: Bismillahirahmannirahim (Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang.)
Out of his 99 names in the Asma-ul-Husna, these two were the ones chosen for this sacred sentence.
Speaking of faith, I strongly believe that you would only appreciate your faith/religion once you've done a deep study on it, as well as on other religions as well.
Truth be told, even though I studied in Islamic boarding school previously, I only learned to appreciate my religion after studying the sacred texts of other major religions during my university years in the US.
That being said, I believe ALL religions promote peace, love and harmony among all of mankind.
So, let's just pray that everyone of us will learn to respect each other, by learning FROM each other and learning ABOUT each other.
After all, ignorance is cancerous.
'Lakum dinukum waliyadin (To you, your religion; and to me, mine.)'
- Al-Qur'an, 109:6
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Jottings
Child/Woman
Angel/Demon
Shy/Brazen
Our faith is our salvation
Without it
You know we'll get burnt.
Angel/Demon
Shy/Brazen
Our faith is our salvation
Without it
You know we'll get burnt.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Sleeping With An Angel
Real McCoy, which used to be HUGE in Europe & the US back in the 1990's, was more well-known for their Eurodance brand of music that some might found a tad kitschy!;)
That being said, I personally found that their album: "Real McCoy - The US Album" (which was constanly playing on my CD player when I was studying in Eugene, Oregon) really kick ass! Coming from someone whose music taste leaned more towards the alternative side at that point of time, it was really kinda weird to recall that I actually DIG Real McCoy, heh!heh!
And this, is my favourite track from the CD. The female vocal part is just HEAVENLY. (*Too bad they didn't have an official music video for this track, uhuk!)
'I'm sleeping with an angel
She makes me feel so good;
I'm sleeping with an angel
I never knew I could...
For I've done too many wrongs
Sung too many songs
To be sleeping with an angel
Sleeping with an angel...'
xoxo
That being said, I personally found that their album: "Real McCoy - The US Album" (which was constanly playing on my CD player when I was studying in Eugene, Oregon) really kick ass! Coming from someone whose music taste leaned more towards the alternative side at that point of time, it was really kinda weird to recall that I actually DIG Real McCoy, heh!heh!
And this, is my favourite track from the CD. The female vocal part is just HEAVENLY. (*Too bad they didn't have an official music video for this track, uhuk!)
'I'm sleeping with an angel
She makes me feel so good;
I'm sleeping with an angel
I never knew I could...
For I've done too many wrongs
Sung too many songs
To be sleeping with an angel
Sleeping with an angel...'
xoxo
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