Terawih

Tadi, we had buka puasa function at the Malaysian Ambassador's residence. Ntah kenapa, just seeing all the Malaysians berkumpul made me feel so proud. We are more than 7,000 km away from our home country... yet we're still very much Malaysian. We spoke Bahasa Melayu, we took pictures at the flag pole, we ate Malaysian food and we dressed like Malaysians.

Nothing beats Bahasa Malaysia, Jalur Gemilang, makanan Malaysia dan baju Melayu kan? :)

Well anyway, we completed terawih malam ke-10 tadi. Alhamdulillah. Cuma yang agak terkilan, I was the only girl yang semayang terawih berjemaah tadi. Some did ask.. kenapa tak buat terawih je di rumah..

Well.. for me, what makes terawih special is the 'berjemaah' bit. Yeah, you can always do it alone at home.. tapi nothing beats gema bila baca tasbih beramai-ramai.. and bila Bilal berselawat dan kita menyahut selawat itu..

So yeah. If I were to sembahyang terawih, I'd prefer to do it berjemaah. Sama lah macam sembahyang tasbih. I'd rather do it berjemaah sebab if I were to do it alone, I would definitely lose count of the zikir.. :)

Anyway, rasa rugi pulak kalau I tak semayang terawih berjemaah tadi.. so I semayang lah jugak with all the men walaupun I sorang je pompuan yang tinggal tadi..

Bersantai di luar rumah Dato' Ambassador sementara menunggu waktu berbuka puasa

Pantang nampak bendera Malaysia.. hehe. Proud to be Malaysians, yo!

Suasana meriah di rumah Dato' Ambassador tadi

Semayang terawih berjemaah.. all men.. AND ME! :)

Ilham.. while waiting for Isya'

Dato' Ambassador memberi ucapan

 Alhamdulillah, this year's Ramadan is definitely different than the previous years. Kalau dulu, letih mama and ayah nak pujuk pi surau for terawih (usually I only do terawih for a few nights.. tu pun on special nights.. I would look through fadhilat semayang terawih malam tu before deciding nak pergi ke tak), tapi tahun ni, rasa sayang nak miss terawih. And Alhamdulillah, I've not missed a single night. Yet. :)

Tapi itu yang memang selalu kita doa kan? Moga Ramadan tahun ni, lebih bermakna dari tahun lepas. Dan moga kita akan bertemu lagi Ramadan di tahun hadapan, dan moga Ramadan tahun hadapan akan lebih bererti dan bermakna daripada Ramadan tahun ni, Insya Allah... :)

Speaking of terawih, I am always in awe of parents yang bawa anak-anak kecil mereka ke surau for terawih. Insya Allah, when I become a mum, I want to expose my child(ren) to the masjid dari kecil jugak.

Cuma tu lah.. kalau nak biasa kan anak ke masjid, bukan hanya waktu Ramadan for terawih. We can always bring the kid to the masjid when there are less people.. so as to train them to behave bila di masjid.

Angan-angan lah. Heheh. I sendiri malas nak ke surau. Kalau takde ceramah or terawih, I takkan ke surau pun.. walaupun surau hanya about 50m from the apartment.

Oh.. anyway, I miss Qis lah. Kalau dulu, she would be my surau / semayang partner. Now that she's back in Malaysia, I am often alone. Madam-madam yang lain semua sibuk jaga anak, so agak susah nak ke surau... :(

What to do.. I am, after all, the only single Malaysian girl working in Khartoum! :(