If God wants it...?

I had my Sudanese Arabic class tadi.. selepas almost 3 months bercuti. Sigh. My last class was in June. Camna nak pandai cam ni?

Well anyway, I love my Arabic classes because I get to discuss stuff with my Ustaz Ibrahim. And today, we discussed 2 things:
1. How to spell "insya Allah"
2. Should we say "Salam" or "As Salam"

I found this on Facebook a few months ago and was intrigued. Does it really matter if we write "insya Allah" or "in shaa Allah"?

Apparently, it does. If you are writing in Arabic. When you write it in Arabic, write it this way:
Alif-nun (space) Shin-alif with hamzah (space) Alif-lam-lam-ha

Alif-nun means "If"
Shin-alif with hamzah means "wanted"
Alif-lam-lam-ha is "Allah"

Hence, "If Allah wanted it.." (Or "dengan izin Allah")

However, if you combine the alphabets..
Alif-nun-shin-alif with hamzah, this means "to construct" or "composition"..
Which is totally a different meaning together. Kan?

So I asked:
If we were to 'roman-ized' it, how can we write it?

"It makes no difference if you write insya or inn sya," says Ustaz Ibrahim, "as long as the pronunciation is the same".

"However, it is best that you put the space in between.. so that people say it correctly," he added.

Which means that, it's better if you spell it as 'in shaa Allah'. So there. Now we know. Heheh.

And then I asked another question: Should we write "As salam" or "Salam" when greeting someone?

Kata Ustaz Ibrahim, when you say "Salam Ahmad", it means "Hello Ahmad". Sebab "Salam" just means "hello", or an informal greeting.

"As salam" means "The Salam".. and this usually refers to "The Salam - peace be upon you". Although Ustaz Ibrahim did say that if you're thinking of writing "As Salam", you might as well complete it with "Assalamualaikum" (which means "peace be upon you").

Tapi yes.. both could be used.

So there. Ni, just for info je lah. Sebab ramai sangat orang bijak pandai di Facebook.. padahal, bahasa Arab pun tak reti. Oh well.

Anyway, another massive sandstorm hit Khartoum today. Taklah massive sangat.. but flights were delayed due to the sandstorm.

Picture below taken by one of the GNPOC staff.

View of Khartoum (and the Nile River) from the GNPOC Tower (which is one of the tallest towers in Khartoum).

 Oh. And then the Government issued a statement kata minyak naik lagi 20 sen. So Ron 95 is now RM2.10 instead of RM1.90 per liter. And now, petrol for my 40-liter Zarif will increase by about RM8.00 per full tank pump.

Ramai yang mengeluh. Ada juga yang kata, ala.. 20 sen je. Tapi ramai yang tak sedar the domino effect of this oil hike. Harga minyak naik, harga makanan dan barang-barang pun naik. Sebab harga minyak naik means logistics cost pun increase jugak.

And then ada yang kata our petrol is still amongst the cheapest in the world.

True... in Europe, petrol is almost about 1 euro plus per liter.. which is roughly around RM7 per liter. So what is there in RM2.10 for petrol in Malaysia kan?

Tapi we don't earn in Euro. We earn in Ringgit Malaysia. If I earn in Euro, I would say that our petrol is so blardy cheap sebab RM2.10 is only about 0.50 Euro. Kan?

Hakikatnya, our inflation is so high. You can't get much with RM50 these days. But you can get loads of stuff with 50 Euro. So, sangat lah berbaloi if you work in Europe and earn in Euro. Kan?

Sigh. Apa-apa lah.

Malas nak fikir. Nite nite. xoxo