If You Only Knew

You made the effort of finding the timing of prayers.
You somehow learnt that Fridays are the days where men go to the mosques for their congregational prayers.

You thought killing 50 Muslims would stop Islam.
But you didn’t know that what you did probably made them martyrs.
Bet you didn’t know that you had single-handedly raised the statuses of our brothers in the eyes of their beloved Creator with his actions. And how, through your actions, they will be raised as the most righteous and pious of Muslims.

Perhaps you didn’t know that doing what he did, at the time and place he chose, it actually meant that the last words that escaped the victims’ lips were probably words of remembrance and praise of Allah. Which is a noble end many Muslims could only dream of. 
And perhaps you didn’t know, but what he did would almost guarantee them paradise as they died a shahid death.

You didn’t know you unwittingly showed the world how Muslims welcome, with open arms, even people like yourself into our mosques, which is our second home. 
And that you showed that our mosques have no locks or gates, and are unguarded because everyone and anyone is welcome to join and be with us.
And that you let the world see the powerful image of a man he injured, lying on back on the stretcher with his index finger raised high, as a declaration of his faith and complete trust in Allah.

And oh you brought the Churches and communities together to stand with us Muslims with rallies, vigils, observances of silence.
And you made countless New Zealanders come out of their homes to visit the mosques nearest to them with flowers and beautiful messages of peace and love.

Sure you have broken many, many hearts and made the world weep. You left a huge void.
But what you did also had also brought us closer together. And it has strengthened our faith and resolve.

In the coming weeks, more people will turn up in the mosques - a place you hate so much - and show more sympathy to Muslims and refugees whom you hate so much, fortified by the strength in their faith, and inspired by their fallen brothers and sisters.
In the coming weeks, more non-Muslims will turn up at the gates of mosques with fresh flowers and beautifully handwritten notes. They may not have known previously where the mosques in their area was. But now, they do. All because of you.

You may have achieved your short-sighted aim of intended destruction, but you have failed to incite hatred, fear and despair in all of us. 

And while I understand that it may have been your objective, I hate to say that after all of that elaborate planning, and the perverse and wretched efforts on your part, you still failed to drive a divide among the the Muslims and non-Muslims in the world.

For that, I can’t say that I’m sorry. I can only feel almost sorry for you instead for failing.

Because the Quran was recited in the New Zealand Parliament.
The azan was called across the country.
The Khutbah (sermon) was aired on television and also attended to by others.
The Hadith was read by the Prime Minister.
The hijab was donned by New Zealand women.

The cowardly act you committed only brought all of New Zealanders out as a nation which stands together with the Muslim community in time of need and made everyone united, stronger and more loving.

Now, if only the rest of the world can emulate the New Zealanders and treat others who consider their country as their adopted home no matter their religion, race, faith, colour as one of themselves. The little Kiwi nation can shame the rest of the world.

The Trip That Almost Didn’t Take Place

I had planned to visit my niece in Kota Bharu and after pondering over the calendar and asking her schedule, decided to visit her on International Women’s Day. I reluctantly decided to fly cattle airline because of the cost factor and decided to fly out on Friday afternoon.

I had to bring dad to Hospital Ampang for yet another check-up (February had been a challenging month. Maybe I’ll share that in another post) and it was a long drawn-out wait, first for the doctor, and then at the pharmacy. I was even told to go have a drink at the cafeteria first as the pharmacy was still waiting for the doctor to key in the medicine in the system before they could dispense it out. After some time, our number was called only to find that they wanted us to go up and inform the clinic that one medicine had yet to be entered into the system. I was not best pleased and hurried up to see the clinic counter where I was directed to see the doctor directly. All in all, it took way too long.

We finally left the hospital and I reached KL Sentral at 12:15, in time to board the 12:30 bus to KLIA2. We arrived an hour later but ditsy me overlooked to notice the boarding time. I knew my flight would depart at 14:20 and thought I had ample time to perform prayers. Well, when I left the prayer room, it was close to 14:00 but what with the queues to check our boarding pass and security clearance, it only dawned on me that I was running late. I ran to the gate and my goodness, the gates never seemed so far before (and my gate was changed from K12 to K18 so it was even further down wtf) but of course by the time  I reached the gate, the door was all locked and the boarding gate was empty.

I sat to assess my options. OK, there was another cattle flight after 16:00 or so but it would cost a whopping RM404 or so. And there was one by MAS costing RM434 or so. I next checked Malindo and there were two flights, one at 16:00 and another at 17:40. But my, the website was crawling. I then decided to return to the city and make my way to Subang Airport and buy my ticket on the way.

So I headed back (and maybe it was just me but the trek across the terminal seemed shorter compared to when I was trying to get to the blasted gate) and took KLIA Ekspres (gulp, karchinggg again!) back to KL Sentral. I finally managed to buy my Malindo ticket online. I chose the 17:40 flight as I doubted I would reach Subang SkyPark in time (I still had to check in at the airport and couldn’t check in online as the flight time was less than four hours). From KL Sentral, I decided I had enough time to take a bus which I did. It took a good hour to reach Subang SkyPark and I quickly went to check in for my flight.

I overheard the lady in front of me commenting about her flight being delayed to the bloke at the counter so when my turn came, I asked if the 16:00 flight was delayed. He said yes and I was relieved that I chose to fly the 17:40 flight. I only had some cereal for breakfast, a curry puff in the cab travelling from the Hospital and a small cereal bar thus far so decided to have some burger at KFC.

After that very late lunch/tea, I cleared security and went in to the boarding area. I was shocked to find that it was pouring torrentially. It was a good thing I arrived at Subang SkyPark when I did. Any delay and I would have to run in the rain from the bus stop to the terminal building. And similarly, I was glad I didn’t fork out money to ride SkyPark Link as there’s no shelter from the train station to the terminal.

My 17:40 was delayed to 18:00 then to 18:30. The rain raged on. A few other flights were also retimed. Finally, there were two flights to Kota Bharu: the first leaving at 18:20 and mine leaving 10 minutes later. The rain eventually eased and stopped and we were able to board. We finally took off at 18:50 and landed at Kota Bharu airport 65 minutes later. My niece was already waiting and we called for a Grab ride.

We had dinner at one restaurant near the market. I had eaten there twice before but was less than satisfied with the food this time. We then walked to ParkView Hotel, a budget hotel about ten minutes’ walk away. There were a few stalls set up along the road, something like a night market but mainly selling clothes.

We reached the hotel at about 21:30 and after checking in, I freshened up, performed prayers and hit the sack. It had been such a long day after all.

On Saturday, I woke up to find the tap dry. There was no water in the hotel! I went out and one of the staff confirmed the water supply got cut off since around 04:00. She offered to get me a bucket of water for me to perform ablutions. Funnily enough, the house below the hotel had water supply. I told her to just get a half-pail of water as it would be too heavy to lug the water up the stairs.

There was still no water at 07:45 so I had a quick bath with the water in the pail (now a quarter-full) and then my niece had her turn. We then had breakfast sans hot drink as there was still no water. We checked out at 09:15 and went to Mydin to get some water. Then we headed to the market. I wanted to look for some prayer attire and meat floss while Akak wanted some fish crackers. We spent more than an hour at the market.

We walked briefly around the ground floor of the market which sells local produce before going to a restaurant to have early lunch. After lunch, we walked to the bus station stopping en route at an alley where there are colourful murals spanning the buildings on both sides of the alley. Funny that I never noticed this alley before in my previous trips.

We reached the bus station at 12:45 and waited and waited. 13:00 came and went and no bus no. 9 came. I finally asked the bus counter and was told the bus broke down. So we sat on until the 14:00 bus pulled up at a quarter to. My niece went down first and I got down at the airport about two km later. I went out again to get some mineral water at a grocery store across from the airport before re-entering the terminal. I went through security check and on to the boarding area – no way was I going to miss my flight again! I performed prayers and then waited for about 20 minutes before we were called to board.

We landed at KLIA2 at 17:01, about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, but the passengers sitting in the seats before me sure took their time getting up. I hurried through the terminal and boarded the 17:30 SkyBus back to KL Sentral.


Until my next trip to Kota Bharu then.