Cycle of Life

Do you still remember Lion King? The story about the lost lion cub, Simba, searching the meaning of life and fight to claim his thrown as the only heir in animal kingdom. Simba fight to uphold tradition and sustain the true cycle of life.

The story today is not about fighting for rightful position (eventhough I'm thinking about it), but to tell you my family history to show that life is about a cycle.

The boy in uniform is the famous Tah Hong Ming. An actor which appear in Yasmin Ahmad's short film that shown in national TV again and again to promote 1Malaysia campaign (before the idea of 1Malaysia has been brought up by our Prime Minister). The boy in orange shirt is not so famous, Mohd Alif is my own nephew. They look alike ey? But we don't have any trace of lineage from Chinese family, so does Alif's mother. To have a nephew with Chinese look is quite cute and to add he always pretending that he have the smile of the famous Tan Hong Ming.

So my brilliant in IT brother and an artist (Alif's father) superimposed this picture to show how similar they are. I have to agree for what they said after seeing this picture.

How that can relate to cirlce of life?

Well, 30 years ago when my brother (Alif's father) was a young boy, at the same age of Alif he too have this Chinese look which is so unfamiliar among our siblings. Well, we have typical Malay looks with some additional of Arab flavour. Because of his looks, he was consistently teased by my uncle and aunt. They called my brother as Hai Hong. We do not know what is the meaning of Hai Hong, maybe what my uncle and aunt mean that, he looks like typical Chinese son, not from a Malay family. My brother on the other hand was so upset with this calling, Hai Hong. He felt that he was not belong to my family due to his unconventional looks.

Years past by.

His first born child is a son, and his name is Mohd Alif. He's too looks like typical Chinese boy. The ironi, the name of Tan Hong Ming.

Well, life is about a circle. We should uphold the tradition, so the world will be in harmonious balance right?

:)

p/s: I don't think Alif upset when we called him Tan Hong Ming. He seems to like it as Tan Hong Ming is so famous. Maybe he think he is famous too. Well, Alif is actually famous in our family, no doubt about it. And he share the same birthday date with our late father. After two years Alif was born, our father passed away. My father was born on 1932 and Alif's 2002. Looks like the cycle has begin. We pray that he will gain the same talent, intelectual capacity, good heart and true servant as our father, his granddad. InsyaAllah.

Honesty 2

Is it very hard to be honest this day?

Will honesty bring harm to person who want to engage with this moral attitudes?

Being honest, while others are not is suffering. To witness colleagues score in tests and exams with flying colour eventhough they don't deserve it is annoying.

So will those who honest will remain honest?

My friend always remind her students to think twice if they have guts to cheat. They get marks for the effort which they don't even do. In economic practice it is kind of riba' (rasuah) or in English term they call as usury.

What is riba' then?

Riba' is an act of sins, in Islamic tradition the sin has been group into 10 biggest sins.

But will people listen to this? No, they will not, because everybody in this whole world involve in riba' whether they realise about it or not.

But to think you will make a living from immoral act is kinda scary. To think you will give your wife and kids from your earning, that is nightmare.

I always reflect to elders whom have been given good life and happiness. They are not rich, but they live in traquility. Their children and grandchildren do well in their life. When I do simple research on how they can manage this, the keyword is to earn money from righful source. In Islam, rezeki yang halal.

Rezeki nowadays, that form your blood, circulate throughout veins and organs are not halal anymore. When there are a lot of news regarding abandon baby, that is actually curse to our society. When peoples are killed, rob and all of the misery that happen without we can ensure when all of this will end, that too is a curse. Why this happen? Because people now live from rezeki which is haraam.

My respected friend always regard cheating is an unmoral act. She condemn the act and to all who are please with it and consistently repeat the same act.

And she is a teacher.

To me, condemnation is justify to those who commit with this sin. The worst is yet to come when they give money from their earning to their parents, wife, children and family. The earning is not halal (if they fail to repent). They will be condemn by for those who strive with sincerity. The worst of all, they will be condemn by their teachers. Their teachers will not pray for them, will not please with them, will not approve their knowledge to them.

We need a better society to live in. You need a better society for your children and grandchildren to live in. To start, be sincere to yourself, friends and your teachers. That will bring justice to all.

Don't even talk about how bad the world you live in right now, if you just can't be sincere to yourself.

Don't let your teacher condemn you, you will never succeed, here and hereafter.

The worst, don't let you future wife and childrens condemn you, for the reasons they don't know, but you on the other hand knew it very well.

Just be honest.

(gambar diambil dari warung diskusi, Diskopi)