Stressed...

I haven't sat for an exam for ooh.. ages but yesterday I had to sit for one. For about a year now I have been attending a Tajweed (which is the knowledge and application of the rules of recitation of the Quran so that its reading is as the Prophet Mohammed's [peace and blessings be upon him]) class almost every week. I missed a lot of classes though when I went for that holiday in Australia a couple of months ago... and also when we went for the umrah and the Cairo trip last April. Thus, for a day or two before the exam (always the last minute cramming..) I was almost stressed out - trying to understand and memorise the rules and their applications... And talk about being super-stressed; yesterday morning at the start of the exam, I found myself staring in horror at the question paper handed out... OMG, I couldn't believe my eyes, it was in Jawi! (By the way, Jawi is an Arabic alphabet for writing the Malay language.) I don't remember ever learning Jawi at school because my late (Allahyarham) father sent me to English Medium school (at the time..eons ago..) and everything is 'Romanised'. But somehow I did learn how to read Jawi somewhere along the way, Alhamdulillah, (usually takes me about twice the time to read things in Jawi...) though writing it is certainly out of the question! I'll make a mess of the spelling (and the fact that they kept changing the rules didn't help) Anyway, as I was about to pass out, I gathered my wits about me and consoled myself to the fact that they were multiple-choice questions and I wasn't required to write any Jawi! Well...anyhow, I think I did all right, Insha allah, even though I didn't get all the answers correct! I think it's a good thing that we have exams for this subject because it makes you study and learn seriously and thus remember the rules... So... stress is not always bad, people!

The Jawi script..

Pictures of my classmates and I doing our exams at the Institut Quran (IQ):