last night Brat and i attended the "farewell majlis" of Ustadh Ismaeil. upon looking at the food served, i immediately thought of the "Yemeni chicken & rice" described by Ethar El-Katatney in her blog that penned her Dowra moments.
note to self:- get hold of the caterer named "Mubarak". it is after all dad's favourite, this "nasi mandi".. guess Pakistani's tastebuds gels well with Yemeni's cuisine. my dad will travel across the Causeway for it, though i never thought the one served there was rave-worthy. yesterday however upon eating the dish served at the majlis, i thought, "subhanAllah, taste of Tarim as she (Ethar) described.."
im a Chinese style foodie (thanks to grandma's genes).. i can have fried fish noodle soup every single day so liking spiced rice & chicken with a little yoghurt for "gravy" is quite bewildering.
im glad we went but at the same time i wished i didn't cuz there were alot more men than women but they were as always nice (and mashaAllah knowledgeable) to give us a partitioned and very private area to eat. i finally felt "right". im no longer comfortable in mixed gatherings and may Allah bless Tradisi Halaqah for always providing ladies with our own private space. true muslim men are that respectful of women... mashaAllah segregated gatherings feels SO right..
but as i said im glad we went.. at least we get a glimpse of our teacher before he went back to Tarim. it will take alot more to garner up the courage to speak to him up front on a casual bon voyage basis so we gave the gift we got him to another ustadh to pass to him. heh. on that note, the stack of various notebooks we got him (cuz what is a seeker of knowledge without a pen and paper) has a pasted printed note on each of the 7 notebooks. each states:-
specially for our teacher,
USTADH ISMAEIL AL-KHATIB
we thank you for teaching us great books, The Essentials of Islam & The Ship of Salvation.
we seek your du'a for Allah to grant us the ability to write in good Arabic in the near future =)
may Allah provide you & your family happiness in your days & your nights
AND the companionship of Rasulullah s.a.w. in the good akhirah.
ustadh dapat pegi Yemen belajar kita tumpang gembira!
from your students in Tradisi Halaqah (2010-2012)
full names of Brat & me
31st January 2012
we so yearn for good du'a from learned people alike him and so our full names will shamelessly be stated. heh. i learnt, it is more important the shaykh love the student than the student love the shaykh so knowing how bad my adab of speech & character can get, i'll be cautious and talk to ustadh only out of dire neccessity i.e. my Tarim study arrangements. subhanAllah i have a lot to work on but really, a quieter more restraint me equals a calmer dissapointment-free soul.
i really need to grow up. you know, talk like an adult.. like a good muslimah. think calm, mature & negativity-free speech (read:- tone down the bleedy drama) AND whiny/cute/kiddish is me up to 5 years of age. beyond that, coupled with a current dress size 16 just ain't cutting it. period.
as per Habib Ali Al-Jiffry in Seeking Piety, "wherever fine and pure character is present, religion is present... wherever good character is NOT present, there is no religion and knowledge present... no way there can be piety and religion without good character… no way there can be knowledge without good character."
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