Eventful Days in February

15^th of January was the birthday of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). Well, the dates vary if you are using the Gregorian calendar.  The Muslims also use the Lunar calendar and the prophet’s birthday is actually on the 12^th of Rabiulawal. Nevertheless there are some controversial issues concerning the actual dates.  Anyway, the prophet didn’t ask the Muslims to celebrate his birthday as such but the significance of the date reminds the Muslims of the prophet’s struggle and his traditions and at the same time strengthens our believes in our Deen. Incidentally, 3 days earlier than that; 12^th February is remembered by us as the day a great ‘mujaddid’ or reformer, As –Shahid Hassan Al-banna was shot to death. He was an Egyptian and his fight to uphold the Muslim traditions during the notorious Gamal Abdel Nasser regime is much acclaimed by most practising Muslims. His struggle continues to this day by the organisation that he formed nearly a decade ago; the Muslim Brotherhood. And incidentally, a day earlier than that:11^th February saw the fall of the regime which has been oppressing the Muslim Brotherhood almost since its inception. Yes, Hosni Mubarak has finally succumbed to the power of the Egyptian people! Allahuakbar! (And at last Adik is home – for a short holiday I hope. He has exams in July.. ) Have a listen to a beautiful nasyeed about  the Prophet (peace be upon him) titled Al-Muallim or The Teacher by Sami Yusuf..

Adik and Cairo

Quite an eventful week.. Started with what is happening in Egypt now. When they started the demos to oust Hosni Mubarak, my first thought was, oh no my baby's there! We started to call him almost every night just to make sure he's ok (telephone bill's atrocious!) Then things started to get worse and there were curfews and clashes between the demonstrators and pro-Mubarak.. only then did the Malaysian government started to talk about evacuating the Malaysians in Egypt; Cairo and Alexandria in particular (most are students, about what, 14,000 of them?) Anyway Adik's in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia now, in transit before flying back to Malaysia. Things are less critical in Cairo now but I do hope Mubarak would just GO and give the power to the people! Egypt's a great country, rich with history and a nation of prophets..

Here are some pics of our travels to Cairo 2 years ago..

Adik and his sister with camels we used to ride around the pyramids

Adik posing in front of Abbasiah Malaysia Hall

As tall as the pyramid..

Shopping for trinkets in Khan Khalili (ignore date-something wrong with the camera datings)

Kak Lang at Azhar mosque (ignore date - sigh..)