Family Ties ~ Mengeratkan Silaturrahim & Menjalinkan Ukhwah

Do you keep close contacts with your brothers / sisters or relatives? Do you think its necessary to do that? Or do you think you can live 'alone' in this world?

We certainly think that keeping close contacts with brothers / sisters and relatives is VERY2 important....and it is necessary that we do just that...Michael Jackson sings 'You're Not Alone'....and Liverpool fan sings 'You'll Never Walk Alone'...nobody wants to live alone! Living alone is just not 'human nature'. Furthermore, mengeratkan silaturrahim dan menjalin ukhwah di antara kita adalah amat dituntut oleh Islam.

However, intentions without action will not bring us anywhere, will not change anything....so there must be serious actions,serious efforts, serious commitments and honesty to achieve the noble objectives of keeping us together...there will be many challenges but also non material rewards.

One of the things that we do was to join the website Geni.com and found it to be a perfect tool to gather our relatives, create family trees, create a better understanding of our relationships, knows who is who, share events and happenings, photos, videos etc...it also promotes a healthy use of the ICT....the free ones has limited features but good enough for a start.

In the past (and we still do), we took the trouble of organizing or helping to organize family gatherings...the Gombakclans had their family gatherings annually...Pangkor in 2008, Kertih in 2007, Putrajaya in 2006, Bora Ombak in 2005, Gombak in 2004, Klang in 2003...it got better, bigger, further and costlier!!

Before leaving for Pangkor ~ 19 Dec 2008

At Pangkor Village Resort ~ 19-21 Dec 2008

At Kelab Desa Rantau Petronas, Kertih ~ 8-10 Feb 2008

At Putrajaya Club ~ 2006

The Basir Khans, however had a much slower start, had their first gathering in 2008(Syawal 1429H) in Kuala Pilah...good start although there were many challenges and obstacles.

At Nenek's House, Kg Gemuruh, Kuala Pilah ~ 26 Oct 2008

At Kompleks Rakan Muda, K. Pilah ~ 25 Oct 2008

Sometimes, in order to make things happen, we just need to take the lead, be the initiator, build the spirit and take that step.

We will continue to do what we do...as long as it is good for the family, good for the relationship... as long as we enjoy doing it, as long as we have the ability to do it and as long as Allah swt gives us the opportunity to contribute.

Not for money, not for status and certainly not for popularity..purely for the value of the relationship...hanya kerana Allah Taala.

Baginda s.a.w. bersabda: "Tidak ada perbuatan hasanah yang lebih cepat pahalanya daripada menghubungi keluarga dan tiada dosa yang layak disegerakan pembalasannya di dunia disamping siksanya kelak di akhirat seperti putus hubungan kekeluargaan dan berlaku zalim aniaya."

Khatam Al-Quran ~ Thaqif & Ewein

Majlis Khatam Al-Quran for Thaqif and Ewein was held on 27 June 2009 (...which is also IQ's birthday). Thanks to Ewein's parents who were kind enough to invite Thaqif to join the event. I still remember few years back when I asked Ewein to join my kids mengaji at home. Ewein stays close to our house. Since then, both of them mengaji under the supervision of several ustazs, Ustaz Nuri, Ustaz Am and Ustaz Fazrin. Their ustazs are all Al-Hafiz who pursued their studies in UIAM and they are all from Kelantan. They have been teaching Faiz, Thaqif and Ewein diligently how to read Al-Quran the right way with the correct tajwid. Seeing them mengaji made me felt so inadequate that I decided to start belajar tilawah from Asas 1 at UIAM. So far I have completed Asas 1 and Asas 2 and am glad to be able to proceed to the next level, Kemahiran next semester. Infact, Dini was attracted to learn tahfiz when she learn Al-Quran from Ustaz Nuri. She is now studying at Maahad Tahfiz Sains, Tanah Merah and Ustaz Nuri is one of her teachers.

We only returned from Umrah for 2 days when majlis khatam was held. So, we did not help much with the preparation. I was sick with fever that I could only watch my aunties and cousin prepared for the event, but I managed to get each of them a lovely jubah from Mecca for them to wear. Everything went well with the marbahan group and their recitation was good. Thanks to all the Ustazs who have coached them so well. Our sincere thanks to Amelia and her family for organising Majlis Khatam Al-Quran for Thaqif. They still continue mengaji with a new ustaz, Ustaz Fatihi, a UIAM student who is also a hafiz from Kelantan. I hope they will not stop learning Al-Quran and use Al-Quran as their sole guidance in life.

Thaqif

Thaqif and Ewein

Thaqif and Nyang

Rubeeyah Talapa-Alen @ Nenek

Rubeeyah or fondly known as "Nenek" has been our maid for 12 years. We were introduced to her by an indonesian maid who worked with our neighbour when Faiz was born. That was in 1997. We were so relief when we found her because we don't have to go through the hassle of going through an agent to get a maid. We did everything ourselves and along the way, learnt the process of getting a work permit for a maid. It's so much cheaper and less headache.

Nenek is brave, terrific, an excellent cook and a great gardener. She did everything for us, taking care of the house and garden, looking after our kids and cook real good food for us. You just name it, thai food, kelantanese food, masak kampung etc. She has great passion for cooking except for western cuisines and baking. But that is more than enough for us. Whenever Dini is back, she will cook her favourite dishes, ikan patin masak tempoyak, ikan keli masak cili and ikan terubuk bakar. We will miss her cooking during this coming ramadan, daging bakar, ikan bakar, puteri mandi, lompat tikam and biji nangka, just to name a few. We have beautiful garden and compliments all go to her. She has green fingers and love plants. We have no worry leaving the house whenever we go out or balik kampung. Infact, we trust her with our kids when we both go on our holiday. We left our kids with her for 2 weeks when we went to umrah recently. Everything was in order on our return.

We visited her home in Yala Narathiwat some years back and stayed there for a couple of days. We truly had a great time and were touched with the hospitality extended to us. Her father, step mother and family members treated us so well that we told them we would visit them again. Last year, we brought her along to visit Egypt and performed umrah. It's just a token of our appreciation for all the good deeds that she has done to us.

She finally said goodbye to us last sunday. Thank you nenek for all the things that you have done for us for the last 12 years and forgive us for our shortcomings. Semoga Allah swt sajalah yang dapat membalas segala budi baik nenek. Jasamu sentiasa kami kenang.

At a beach in Songkla

At kampung Nenek in Yala, Narathiwat

IQ and Nenek's father (in kain pelikat)

Nenek inaugral flight to Cairo

At the Spinx

At Pyramid, Giza Plateau

Mum, me, Dini, Aunty and Nenek at Masjid Nabawi

Ladang Unta, Hudaibiyah

Nenek and Adik

BBQ at home