ruben, an australian, was born an atheist. he came to a point of life where he was faced with many challenges and realised that he needed a strength, a belief, that would guide him through his darkest days. he began exploring different religions - christianity, catholicism, hinduism, buddhism, but none of them appealed to him.

one of his close friends, who was a christian, told ruben to list all the religions he had investigated. after rattling the list, his friend asked, "what about islam?" ruben looked at him appalled and said, "islam?! they are terrorists! i'm not going to investigate their religion! they are crazy! why would i even look at their religion!"

but ruben found himself walking into a mosque one day. he strode across the prayer rugs with his shoes on and walked straight in front of a guy praying, who was about to perform the sujud. he nearly stepped on that guy's head.

ruben looked over and he saw this huge guy walking towards him, with a long beard and his abaya. ruben thought he was going to die, however, abdul hamzah's first words to ruben were, "g'day mate! how you're doing?" his friendly and warm gesture took ruben by surprise. he was treated really warmly by the brothers in the mosque and they served him tea and biscuits.

so ruben found himself coming back to the mosque and exploring islam. each time he asked a question, the brothers will refer to the quran and tell him the answer. this made ruben frustrated as he perceived that these brothers had no opinions of their own. so he asked them what were their opinions on the matter. one of the brothers replied, "how can i have my own opinion when this is the word of God?" that really hit ruben.

one night, ruben decided to make his leap into the faith. at that point of time, he had explored islam for 6 months. he brought home the quran (tafsir) and decided to read it. however, he felt like he needed a sign - any sign from Allah, to show that islam is the path he should take. he hoped for a bolt of lightning, a flicker of the candles, or something- just a small sign, but absolutely nothing happened. he felt disappointed and told himself that he would give God a second chance to prove. again, nothing happened and he felt terribly disappointed.

he felt that islam was not the religion he was looking for.

ruben turned the quran to where he stopped reading, and the very next verse he read was,
"for those of you who ask for signs, have We not shown you enough already? look around you, look at the stars, look at the sun, look at water. these are the signs for the people of knowledge."

subhanAllah.

footnote:

ruben, who adopted the muslim name abu bakar, filled his speech with much humour. it was really entertaining to listen to him. check it out!

click here for the video part 1
video part 2

less than a week abandoning this space and i am already missing it. i just feel a certain emotional attachment to it just because i have poured out so much here throughout the years. i feel that i cant really express myself on tumblr and i see it as merely a space to reblog those pretty and inspirational pictures, as well as short random thoughts and notes. i can see that i am not leaving this place anytime soon.

anyway while i was eating polar's sugar roll cream cake, i got reminded of the abundant hay rolls lying on the gorgeous rolling hills of adelaide, australia. i wish that there was a holiday destination i could look forward to so that it could spur me to study for the upcoming exams. i hope i will get the green light to go for the kl trip with nurul. at least there is something to look forward to - the pigging sessions of 'non-halal' food and of course, shopping!

well, that can wait.

i feel that linguistics this semester is harder than last semester's. for this module last semester, it was more of having to grasp only one concept thoroughly and apply it to other situations. not much memory work is needed, as long as you know your fundamentals. this time, there is so much more memory work for countless of definitions and explanations.

it feels like im studying for biology, which i totally suck in. seeing that last module was easier and i managed to only scrap through a B, i should be nervous about this wednesday's paper.

hello beautiful people.

i have a tumblr now and it seems more flexible for everyday random thoughts and postings.
i feel that i do not have to write coherent and proper long sentences when i post something up there, as compared to this space.

while i see myself leaning towards tumblr, i love this space too much to leave it alone.

i guess i will still be blogging here if there is a need to rant or invoke my words.

i am afraid that i will lose my flair if i stop writing altogether.

check out my tumblr for my random thoughts, pictures, postings and all pretty things that inspire me.

or you can also ask me anything and i will try to answer your questions.

have a great night.

love, syaz.

“You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She’s not perfect - you aren’t either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t change her, don’t analyze and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there.”

—	Bob Marley

today officially marks the last day (for the month) i can afford to watch tv the entire night, surf the net for hours without feeling guilty and pretend i have nothing to do.

bring it on.

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite."

— William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

you know it is simply disappointing,

when you realise that you love this person with everything you've got,

more than he could ever love you.

.. and he knows that.

We all need somebody that we can lean on

When you wake up look around and see that your dreams gone

When the earth quakes we’ll help you make it through the storm

When the floor breaks a magic carpet to stand on

We are the World united by love so strong

When the radio isn’t on you can hear the songs

A guided light on the dark road your walking on

A sign post to find the dreams you thought was gone

Someone to help you move the obstacles you stumbled on

Someone to help you rebuild after the rubble’s gone

We are the World connected by a common bond.

match boy and stick girl in love

Stick Boy liked Match Girl,

he liked her a lot.

he liked her cute figure,

he thought she was hot.

but could a flame ever burn

for a match and a stick?

it did quite literally;

he burned up pretty quick.

- tim burton

the melancholy death of oyster boy and other stories

its something everyone needs ..

a friend - true and through.