Langkawi short island tour

.

Langkawi Sky Bridge

Thank God for making me involved in ICONT 2009, otherwise I would not have the chance to be here again in the beautiful island of Langkawi. My first and last visit was in 1995. I was so impressed with the tourism development, just so upbeating. Dataran Helang, Pantai Cenang, Langkawi Cable Car to Mount Matchincang, Langkawi Sky Bridge, you name it - they really have the wow factor.

Overall I like Langkawi Cable Car and Langkawi Sky Bridge the most. Having queued for more than one hour, to be on top of Matchincang, it was just breathtaking. No doubt, this is a must visit place in Langkawi.

And not least I would like to thank Rosli for being my partner in this wonderful tour.

ICONT 2009 Langkawi

.
International Conference on Nanotechnology - Research and Commercialization (ICONT 2009) was held in Langkawi on 14-17 December 2009. I was appointed as MC. Nice experience, alhamdulellah.

The most memorable photo shoot

Celebrating Eid al-Adha at Workplace

.
Eid al-Adha was celebrated on Friday, 27 November 2009 in Malaysia. Eid al-Adha celebration may not be as huge as those held in the Middle East but still significant in many ways. Many of us including me 'balik kampung' (return to hometown) for celebration.

At my workplace, an activity has been organized by Kelab AMREC for commemorating that important event in Muslim Calender. It was held on Monday November 30th, when most of us returned back to work.

Meat cutting was done in the morning, followed by cooking and finally big meal at lunch time. I enjoyed the food, it was delicious. This time I maybe a photographer, next year I may hold the cutter, inshaAllah...

Sudirman, Bakri, Nizam (Tomok) and Yazid are busy cleaning the internal organs

The ladies cut meat into smaller pieces

My friend Nik and others

Ridhuan: Last day in AMREC SIRIM

.
I don't remember when Ridhuan joined AMREC SIRIM, perhaps early this year. Regardless of the date and time he joined, he is now leaving.

People come and go, but the legacy remains, that's what most people say. More popular as Weng, I regard him as a talkative, happy-go-lucky, funny and friendly kind of guy.

Ridhuan will be joining National Space Agency (ANGKASA) this December. I don't have much to say in here, the best words could probably 'Good luck' and do keep in touch.

Here are some pictures taken at the last hour of the day:

The 3rd floor

Smile under the blue sky

Conversation between two good friends
Weng, "Matanya membuatku terpesona..."
Firdaus, "Ha.. kantoi! Patutla projek tak siap"
(Sorry no English translation)

Model of the year, eh?
(I think they can be the cover of People Magazine, December issue. What say you?)

Chester short night visit

.

Chester was founded by the Romans in the 70s AD as a fortress during Roman expansion northward European region. I was so fortunate to be here since Chester is a very famous ancient city in UK. It has ancient defensive walls, not just famous but also the most complete city walls in Great Britain. Thanks to Mr Paul Micro Materials for taking Mr Amin and me here.

Although it was a short night visit, it was worth it. I managed to take many good pictures. My old Nikon Coolpix L12 really did a good job.

The famous Chester canal

View of canal from the city wall

Sometimes in Wrexham

.
No story, perhaps let the pictures speak. Here, some pictures in Wrexham:

Entering England: Just above the English sky

Peace and quiet Wrexham at night

Walking in Wrexham town during the day

Prof Ben Beake and I near Wrexham hospital

Belmont Hotel - The hotel where I stay

Found Proton Satria Neo near Wrexham Industrial Park

With Denise and Micro Materials engineers

My first day in UK

.
After a long 12 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam, 3 hours in transit, Mr Amin and I finally arrived in Manchester at around 8.30 am.

Soon after we're done with the immigration, I saw Wayne, the taxi driver, was waiting for us at WH Smiths shop. Everything seemed to be going exactly to plan, alhamdulillah. He immediately took us to Belmont Hotel in Wrexham, Wales, almost 60 km away from Manchester. I like the country side, the view was just fantastic.

In front Belmont Hotel

Cool weather and windy, love it! Temperature ranges between 8 and 13 degrees Celsius, but can fall below 8 degrees at night. To be continued...

Metal spoon degrades honey's nutrients: Just another pseudoscience

"Son, don't use use metal spoon with honey", that's what my mom told me. Some of my colleges tell me the same thing. They say metal spoon will leach out honey's nutrients. But how? To me this kind of ruling is interesting but without scientific evidence, one like me will definitely have a hard time to believe.

When I browsed the internet (I googled in English and Malay), this kind of belief is more prominent in Malay internet discussions rather than English. Having read those, I could not find any scientific evidence mentioned.


To me some of the 'pesanan orang tua-tua' (old wives' tales) are highly arguable. But it doesn't mean that I disregard them totally. I still have faith on some particularly those proven by science. Unfortunately this honey-metal spoon thing is far from fact. A trusted website considers this a myth. Test your knowledge about honey in this website:

[BENEFITS OF HONEY.com]

If you feel the above website doesn't favour you, no need to argue. Believe what you believe. For me, until I observe scientific evidence, I may consider this honey-metal spoon thing as another pseudoscience, nothing more...

Bachelor Iftar at Taman Mutiara

.
Yesterday was a great day for me and my housemates, Khairuldin and Shams, when eight of our colleges came and broke their fast at our rental house. We prepared fried noodle (courtesy of Shams al-Thani), water melon, cold drinks (courtesy of Tengku Kudin), wet and fried popia, satey and karipap (curry-puffs). This was the second after the first closed iftar we did last year.

The spirit of iftar was further realized when my colleges brought plenty of food with them, even though we expect them to bring only their mind and body.

Enjoying our meal before prayer congregation

The weather was so hot that evening but no one was complaining, alhamdulellah. Really, this was the spirit of iftar.

Among all the food I ate, I enjoyed fried noodle the most. Cooked by the creative hands of Shams, I think he cooks far better than the girl next door. By the way, I can cook too, but of course not more than the famous instant noodles, hehe...

Guys, thanks for coming. May Allah bless you people. Barakallahu feekum.

From left to right: Asri, Azmir, Firdaus, Ridhuan, Muzaffar and Jaber
(Married - 2, Bachelor - 4, Still available - 2)

Mutiara Hadis UiTM

JOYFUL NEWS to my Muslim brothers and sisters in Malaysia

Hard to find Saheeh Hadith (authentic hadith) in Malay (Bahasa Melayu)? Not anymore! If you are really looking for authentic hadiths in Malay, do not hesitate to go to this website:

Koleksi Hadis Sahih UiTM
(UiTM's Authentic Hadith Collection in Malay Language)
http://sigir.uitm.edu.my/webhadis/‎

UiTM Mutiara Hadis web portal

I have been looking for the noble Malay translation (database) for so long. In fact, there are a few Malay-Malaysian and many Malay-Indonesian translations available in book stores, however, due to some differences in the vocabularies and word structures, the Indonesian version may not be easy to comprehend, while the Malaysian translations are scarce and hard to find.

I really want to thank Fakulti Teknologi maklumat & Sains Kuantitatif (Faculty of Information Technology & Quantitative Sciences), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and those involve in this Mutiara Hadis authentic collection (IRDC, Pusat Pendidikan Islam UiTM, FTSM UKM, Saba Islamic Media, JAKIM, etc.). Whether you realized it or not, you guys had made such a great contribution to the society. May Allah bless you people...

New 50 ringgit note

Today at an ATM in Taiping, I was shocked when the machine dispenses out a different design of 50 ringgit notes. I wonder whether they were fake because there was no golden jubilee celebration logo (commemorating Malaysia's 50th Anniversary of Independence) on the reverse side of the notes. After successfully depositing the new notes into an ATM, I have no more hard time believing that they are real.

Obverse side (Release on January 2008)

Reverse side (Release on January 2008). Take note that the golden jubilee celebration logo is placed on the top right (This logo is no longer available in the new release)

I heard about the release somewhere last year and have seen the design of the fourth series in Wikipedia however I wasn't aware with the fresh new design which was released recently. I think the new design is interesting.

This is the press statement from Central Bank of Malaysia:

Bank Negara Malaysia Issues New Design RM50 Banknote

Bank Negara Malaysia today announces the issuance of the new design RM50 banknote from 15 July 2009. This new design of RM50 banknote is the first denomination of the Fourth Series of Malaysian currency notes which will be replacing the existing series in stages.

The earlier new design of RM50 banknote was issued in December 2007 to commemorate Malaysia's 50th Anniversary of Independence. This current series will no longer have the logo of the country's golden jubilee celebrations and will have, enhanced security features.

Source: Bank Negara Malaysia

When transboundary haze hazing our way...

.
Haze in Malaysia is now an annual phenomenon. Malaysia no doubt is a new industrialized nation but factories and vehicles alone are not sufficient to generate the smokey haze. Satellite images from NASA confirm the occurrence of burning forest in many locations in Sumatra Indonesia. So it is a transboundary issue.

NASA’s earth observatory reports on the seasonal fires currently burning the forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In the image above you can see hot spots detected using the infra-red heat emissions of the flames

Many entities blame individual farmers and commercial timber and plantation companies for causing the haze, rendering the search for the culprits or so-called fire starters. But the common question who starts the fire never solve this yearly problem. My question is what happened to the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution signed by ASEAN countries in 2002? We Malaysians suffer more than any other ASEAN members. How many years more should we wait before this problem solve?

The smokey forest of Riau, Indonesia (Source: Greenpeace)

Interesting polyglots...

.
I always admire those who speak more than four languages with high degree of proficiency. To me these people are amazing. I observed many European sport celebrities speak easily three-four languages. For instance, Roger Federer speaks German (mother tongue), English and French with high level of proficiency. Novak Djokovic speaks Serbian (mother tongue), English and Italian fluently and quite good German. Siblings Marat Safin and Dinara Safina speak Russian (mother tongue), Spanish and English. The question is how do they do it?

At the moment, apart from Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, I admire Luca (Italian), Stuart Jay Raj (Australian) and Abou Jad (American) for being multilingual. No hard time believing, just watch these videos:

Luca speaks fluently eight languages (Italian, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Swedish and Russian)



Stuart Jay speaks fluently English, Thai, Indonesian and Mandarin. He also speaks a few European languages and not least sign language



Abou Jad speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French and Lebanese Arabic)

I hope one day I can be like them. Currently I speak Malay (mother tongue) and English quite fluently. I also speak Jordanian-Palestinian Arabic and Bengali (Bangla language) but with low degree of proficiency. I used to learn French and Spanish in the end of 1990s but never practice (sadly). I hope to see improvement in my Arabic by the end of this year. I hope by Allah will I can. InshaAllah...

Secret Recipe

.Although Secret Recipe has established its brand name since 1997, I only knew about it when I moved to Kulim to work in a research organization in 2007. Only in 2009 I bravely hop into this cake cafe. Although Secret Recipe is more popular for its cakes rather than its food varieties, I still can see many customers have pasta or chicken recipe for their main course.

The first food I ate was Cordon Bleu Chicken, in which I had in Tesco Taiping. It got cheese stuffed in it. Interesting taste and not bad after all.

Cordon Bleu Chicken

I am not a fan of cakes to be honest. I used to hate them because some cakes taste 'so eggy' and the icings are just too sugary. The popular chocolate cakes sometimes taste 'so spongy'. But Secret Recipe had twisted my perception. Their cakes taste incredibly delicious make me feel like on top on a mountain. Sounds exaggerating but it's true.

So far I had tasted Chocolate Indulgence, Chocolate Strawberry, Chocolate Banana and Chocolate Chip Walnut. I may want to try Lemon Cheese and Hazel Cheese next time.

This is how I graded Secret Recipe:
Main Course Chicken - Taste: Good / Price: Reasonable
Cakes - Taste: Excellent / Price: Reasonable
Iced Blended Coffee Beverages - Taste: Good / Price: Expensive
Soft Drinks - Taste: Ordinary / Price: Very Expensive

Secret Recipe has been awarded 'THE BEST HALAL RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR' in 2005. Thumbs up to Secret Recipe! Halal is important for us and please maintain it. However I do hope Secret Recipe can knock down the price of their beverages to something more reasonable. What say you?

With Sudirman and my housemate cum food expert Shams at Secret Recipe Kulim
(Photo taken by Khairuldin)

My Toshiba Notebook WEI Score

.Yesterday I upgraded my RAM to 3GB (from 1.5 GB earlier). I replaced my 'extra' 512 MB RAM with the 2 GB. I wonder how's the performance like since the two RAM sticks are of different capacity (1 GB + 2 GB). Some computer experts consider this as having two different legs that will impair the computer performance. Well, is it really true?

I'm using Toshiba Notebook model Satellite M200 and this was my Windows Experience Index Score after upgrading to 3 GB RAM:

The detail of my Toshiba Notebook System (as on 20 June 2009):
Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz
Memory (RAM) - 3.00 GB
Graphics - Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Gaming graphics - 358 MB Total available graphics memory
Primary hard disk - 91GB Free (143GB Total)
Operating System - Windows Vista (TM) Home Basic
Antivirus - Kaspersky Antivirus 7.0 (Licensed user)

Although my Base Score only improved by 0.1 from the previous 3.4, I really feel my Notebook works much faster than before. The start up and refresh rate are relatively faster. Of course the Windows Experience Index off trust me a little bit, at least it tells how my notebook performs rather than not knowing at all.

By the way, I still wonder how the dual channel rules apply and works best using two identical RAM sticks...

Beauty: Love the natural

Is it so important to look beautiful? How attractive is gorgeous? How do you rate one's degree of beauty?

Different people always have a different view on beauty. No matter how much they try to put it into words, it will end up subjective, although describable.

In today's world, the need of looking beautiful has been a sense of obligation since a lot of people can be persuaded into believing that 'everybody can be physically beautiful' by the beauty industry, although their new look might just as plain as pikestaff or worse than the anticipated. Once ones bought the idea of 'looking gorgeous' by just putting layers of makeup, thick foundation or beauty cream, they may end up losing appreciation on their own natural beauty. People won't judge if celebrities, models and makeup artists are the ones who embraced the artificial because that's what beauty business wants them to be. But if the one that supposed to be a role model in religion, the one that clearly understand that religion denounces excess in beautifying oneself to the extent of altering one’s physical features as created by God, is the one who fails badly on stage. How can we put respect on what she preaches? I saw many the so-called 'ustazah' (female religious scholars) wear thick red lipstick and heavy makeup for accommodating the need of a TV show. I'm sure these ustazahs were never forced to wear such by the producers. It's their choice as they can choose to look more natural from the very beginning. If ustazah fails, how about non-ustazah and the rest of ordinary people?

I do blame cosmetic companies, fashion magazines and media for portraying the 'perfect skin' and 'perfect look' since not just because they make believing in artificial beauty, they might also impose hardships to those who embraced the lifestyle of 'biar papa asalkan bergaya' (translation: let be in style although we're financially unfit). It is a fact that many modern celebrities have their nose, cheeks or boobs done in order to look physically attractive, which is very wrong from the religious perspective. But to make oneself looks more doll-like than human, it's just too crazy to believe that it's real and there are people doing it!

Going artificial is a choice. There is no such thing as 'perfect skin' and 'perfect look', no matter how much makeup you put on, no matter how many surgeries have you undertaken. You'll going to notice the defects one after another. It is a fact that everybody wants to look physically beautiful, whether you are a woman or a man, who doesn't? But why to look for artificial beauty? Just be yourself. Remember being human is the most beautiful things God ever gave us. Have a heart, that's make you beautiful.

"I LOVE NATURAL BEAUTY"

Everybody has their own beauty. Just be proud of it.

Badminton Tournament: AMREC Closed

.

Sudirman-Khairul Shakirin vs Bakri-Izha

Based on the original plan, the closed tournament should be held on May 11-12. After almost two weeks of postponing, the closed event was finally realized yesterday.

Randomly selected, I was assigned to Group A. I was partnering with Yusli in this solely men's doubles event. Interestingly we were drawn to meet Juri Che Hat and Khairul Shakirin. The good thing is we won 21-12,19-21,21-16. Tough match though. Thanks to my partner Yusli for covering some parts of my weaknesses. The most shocking result came out at the beginning of the match. Believe it or not, the formidable pair of Sudirman and Khairul Shakirin were upset by Bakri and Izha in straight game! What a match!

It was a mix fortune for my housemates. Khairuldin who was partnering with Khairul Nizan (aka Oun) lost to Lokman and Nizam in rubber sets. On the other hand my other housemate Shams, with his partner Cupin, were regarded as an easy prey by many, won over Mat Leh and Anas in rubber sets, another upset of the day. So never underestimate the underdogs!

Overall my team (Group A) was beaten by Group B in a close tie 3-4. Nothing to lose. We really enjoyed the game.

Overruled.. supporters are too close for comfort

Top seed, Sudirman@Lee Yong Dae and Khairul Shakirin suffered shocking defeat..

Last snap before going back home

Now I can sign in yahoo messenger

.
It has been a while since the sign in problem began in December 2008. Fed up with YM 8.0, I upgraded to YM 9.0 Beta. Still all my sign in attempts failed. My last try could probably in the month of February this year.

Today, without any intention to chat or check my off line messages, I opened my YM. I couldn't believe I just signed in my YM!

Does this mean that I'm into YM again? Well, my answer is NO! I don't feel that YM is as hot as before. In addition I still doubt whether this will be consistent. Sorry Yahoo...

Air mineral + Holy water... (Good article)

.
Suatu artikel yang sangat baik berkenaan Holy Water di dalam masyarakat Melayu yang ditulis oleh Sdr Firdaus di dalam blog beliau pada 10 Februari 2009 [Link ke blog asal].

Pada hari ini sekiranya ditanya orang-orang melayu di malaysia "apakah itu holy water," nescaya majoriti mereka akan menjawab ianya satu jenis air yang digunakan oleh mubaligh2 kristian untuk memurtadkan orang2 Islam.

Mereka yang meminum atau terminum holy water akan kelu lidah dan tidak boleh mengucapkan 2 kalimah syahadah.

Kisah ini kelihatan seolah2 "mutawatir" kerana ia disebarkan di merata-rata termasuk di internet, sms, dan di masjid2 dan surau2. Ini menyebabkan majoriti masyarakat melayu menganggap ianya benar, sedangkan kisah ini tidak diketahui dari mana sumber asalnya.

Malah terdapat juga email2 yg disebarkan yg mengatakan mineral water berjenama ***** mengandungi holy water... ia seolah2 menjadi satu strategi untuk mensabotaj perniagaan orang2 tertentu.

Suatu masa dahulu, saya dan rakan2 selalu ke gereja untuk menghadiri "usrah" agama kristian. Hampir setiap minggu kami ke sana. Kami telah makan dan minum segala yang dihidangkan selagimana pada zahirnya makanan2 tersebut adalah halal.

Namun, kami masih lagi kekal dalam akidah Islam. Kami merasa lebih menghargai keindahan dan 'kelogikan' agama Islam jika dibandingkan dengan agama lain. Malah, kehadiran kami di sana cukup memeningkan kepala pihak mereka yang sedang berusaha dengan cukup gigih untuk mengkristiankan kami.

Mungkin mereka 'terlupa' memasukkan holy water dalam makanan dan minuman kami.

Upacara pembaptisan menggunakan holy water

Pada hari ini kita dapat melihat seolah-olah masyarakat kita dididik untuk percaya kepada khabar angin. Kemudian khabar angin itu disebarkan sehingga setiap orang memperkatakan tentang khabar angin tersebut. Lalu, masyarakat menganggapnya seolah-olah "mutawatir" sedangkan khabar itu datang dari hanya satu sumber, atau tidak diketahui dari mana sumbernya.

Ini berlaku dalam pelbagai isu termasuk isu agama, politik, isu semasa, hiburan dan sebagainya.

Sebagai seorang muslim, kita seharusnya mendidik diri kita untuk kritikal terhadap setiap maklumat yang kita terima.

"Hai orang-orang yang beriman, jika datang kepadamu orang fasik membawa suatu berita, maka periksalah dengan teliti, agar kamu tidak menimpakan suatu musibah kepada suatu kaum tanpa mengetahui keadaannya yang menyebabkan kamu menyesal atas perbuatanmu itu."

[al-Hujurat 49:6]

Dalam isu holy water ini, cuba kita berfikir secara kritikal...

1) Adakah Allah tidak adil?

Seseorang hanya boleh murtad hanya kerana terminum holy water, lalu diazab oleh Allah di neraka. Ini bercanggah dengan ajaran Islam. Firman Allah:

Katakanlah: "Hai manusia, sesungguhnya telah datang kepadamu kebenaran (Al Qur'an) dari Tuhanmu, sebab itu barangsiapa yang mendapat petunjuk maka sesungguhnya (petunjuk itu) untuk kebaikan dirinya sendiri. Dan barangsiapa yang sesat, maka sesungguhnya kesesatannya itu mencelakakan dirinya sendiri. Dan aku bukanlah seorang penjaga terhadap dirimu".

(Yunus 10:108)

2) Holy water hanya ada di Malaysia?

Kisah gerakan kristian bagi memurtadkan orang2 Islam dengan menggunakan holy water ini hanya boleh didengari di Malaysia sahaja.

Malaysia bukanlah negara besar. Sekiranya cara ini efektif, mengapa ia tidak digunakan di negara2 lain? Mengapa kisah ini hanya tersebar di sini?

3) Amerika tidak perlu bom Iraq.

Amerika telah membelanjakan bertrillion USD bagi menakluk Iraq dan Afghanistan.

Sepatutnya, mereka tidak perlu melakukan semua itu. Apa yang mereka perlu lakukan hanyalah memasukkan holy water dalam empangan2 di Iraq, lalu semua tentera, rakyat dan pemimpin Iraq memeluk agama kristian. Oleh itu, tentera2 amerika boleh masuk ke dalam Iraq dengan aman.

4) Orang Kristian tidak cerdik

Kisah2 orang yang murtad disebabkan oleh holy water yang tersebar hanyalah berkisar tentang orang2 Islam biasa.

Seharusnya orang2 kristian mensasarkan kepada orang2 Islam yang besar, terutama dari kalangan para ulama. Mungkin mereka hanya perlu memasukkan holy water ke dalam minuman atau makanan Yusuf al-Qaradhawi, Said Ramadhan al-Buti, Wahbah a-Zuhaily, Harussani dsb, kemudian berkata "Tengok... you punye scholars pun dah masuk kristian.. you bila lagi??"

5) Bagaimana pula paderi2 yang memeluk Islam?

Sebagaimana yang kita ketahui, terdapat ramai bekas2 paderi kristian telah memeluk Islam. Mereka telah pun minum bergelen-gelen holy water.

Namun, lidah mereka masih lagi tidak kelu mengucapkan 2 kalimah syahadah. Malah, tidak kurang juga dari kalangan mereka yang telah menjadi pendakwah2 Islam yang hebat!

Banyak lagi kecelaruan dalam kisah holy water ini.

Saya berasa sangat kecewa kerana sehingga hari ini saya masih lagi menerima email2 tentang dakyah holy water ini.

Berhati-hatilah sebelum memforwardkan email yang anda terima. Mungkin niat anda baik. Tapi ingatlah hadis Nabi SAW berikut:

“Cukuplah menjadi satu dosa bagi seseorang

yang menceritakan segala yang dia dengari

(tanpa mengkaji benar atau tidak)”

[Sahih Muslim, 5]

Link ke laman blog asal [LINK].

Saya ucapkan terima kasih kepada Sdr Firdaus di atas penulisan beliau yang sungguh bernas itu. Semoga Allah memberkati Sdr Firdaus.

Air mineral + Holy water... Cerita layu.. Aduhai Melayu...

Pernah tak anda sama ada menerima, membaca atau mendengar cerita tentang air mineral yang dicampur dengan holy water?

Pertama kali saya mendapat maklumat ini adalah melalui sms yang dihantar kepada saya pada tahun 2008. Kemudian dihantar lagi ke email saya pada tahun yang sama. Topik hangat katanya. Minta seluruh umat Islam berhati-hati, katanya sesiapa saja umat Islam yang terminum air mineral ini, nescaya dia tidak dapat mengucap dua kalimah syahadah.

Aduhai Melayu... bilalah engkau nak berubah? Benda macam ini pun mudah sangat percaya tanpa usul periksa. Pergilah periksa dulu dengan Jabatan Agama atau pihak berkuasa yang bertanggungjawab.

Bila saya buat search di internet, rupanya cerita tentang air mineral yang dicampur dengan holy water ini telah terbit dan disensasikan semenjak tahun 2006 lagi. Oleh kerana ramai yang tak tahu maka cerita ini berulang terbitlah secara tidak berjadual ia di blog-blog bebas khususnya blog orang M pada tahun 2007, 2008 sampailah sekarang ini 2009, pun masih terbit lagi.

Pada tahun 2006, terdapat tiga (3) jenama air mineral yang dikatakan dicampur holy water:

1. Al Barakah
2. Al Mansur
3. Bestari (ada yang kata al Bistari)

Petikan dari sebuah blog bebas (2007). Sila lihat bilangan paderi dan jenama air mineral

Bila masuk tahun 2007, 2008 dan 2009, macam-macam versi pula muncul. Ketakseragaman cerita tersebut boleh dilihat dari jumlah paderi dan ejaan jenama air mineral itu.

1. dari 19 orang Paderi menjadi 1900 orang Paderi
2. Nama jenama air mineral al-Barakah menjadi al-Baramkah, al-Mansor menjadi al-Mansori dan al-Bistari menjadi al-Bistaria.

Petikan dari sebuah blog bebas (2008). Sila lihat bilangan paderi dan jenama air mineral

Kini yang terbaru, jenama yang didakwa telah dicampurkan dengan holy water yang pada asalnya hanya tiga, kini telah bertambah menjadi 6-7. Anda boleh memeriksa sendiri perkara ini. Apa yang menggelikan hati adalah jenama yang disalah eja itu dijadikan sebagai jenama tambahan. Aduhai...

al-Barakah, al-Baramkah, al-Mansor, al-Mansori, al-Mansur, Bestari, al-Bistari, al-Bistaria, al-Mubarakh, tidak kurang juga Waterco..

Petikan dari sebuah blog bebas (2009)

Sebenarnya holy water tidak mempunyai kuasa apa-apa. Sekiranya holy water itu sangat berkuasa, sudah tentu tiada seorangpun paderi Kristian yang memeluk agama Islam. Buat homework, berapa ramai orang Eropah dan Amerika di kalangan penganut Kristian yang beralih kepada Islam semenjak peristiwa 11 September?

Kalau holy water benar-benar berkuasa, maka seluruh penduduk dunia pasti menjadi Kristian. Curah saja holy water di kolam-kolam bekalan air seluruh negara.

Kalau benar-benar mereka nak sabotaj umat Islam secara yang demikian, tak perlu tunggu jenama Bestari, al-Barakah dan al-Mansor. Jenama-jenama lain banyak lagi seperti Spritzer, Cactus dll. Nak senang lagi campurkan saja dalam Coca Cola, Pepsi atau apa-apa jenis minuman yang lain.

Lagipun sehingga kini tiada gambar botol air mineral berkenaan muncul di internet atau di kedai-kedai di kawasan yang dimaksudkan. Kalau ada gambar botol air mineral dari jenama tersebut, sebarkanlah gambarnya. Sedangkan gambar orang buat maksiat boleh dirakam, masakan gambar air mineral tidak boleh?

Ramai orang Melayu masuk Kristian? Ya betul, perkara ini telah lama berlaku. Bukan salah holy water tetapi salah orang Melayu itu sendiri yang mengabaikan agama Islam.

Cerita orang tidak dapat mengucap dua kalimah syahadah setelah masuk Kristian, itu cerita lama, telah lama saya dengar ketika saya remaja lagi. Tapi saya yakin sekiranya ia berlaku, ia disebabkan oleh orang itu telah mendapat laknat Allah disebabkan kebobrokannya menolak Islam. Cerita tidak dapat mengucap dua kalimah syahadah disebabkan holy water mungkin direka untuk menutup kelemahan diri sendiri dan keluarga. Wallahu a'lam.

Setakat pengetahuan saya yang tak seberapa ini, tiada air yang boleh memudaratkan manusia kecuali air yang tercemar.

Malah air sebenarnya boleh dijadikan ubat dan penawar apabila dibacakan dengan ayat-ayat Allah (sila rujuk perubatan Islam).

bersambung...

Alert! Mexican Swine Flu on the rise!

I am sad to hear more than 80 people had died in Mexico due to swine related disease. To date, the Mexican government reported more than 1,300 suspected cases related to the virus that involves both human and animals, which indirectly signaled danger to the world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, the swine flu is highly potential to become another pandemic. United States, the north Mexican neighbour, reported 11 or such cases mainly in the state of New York, followed by Kansas and California. So watch out everyone! It can spread to our countries at any time from now.

As a Malaysian I am worry because swine industry is quite visible in my country. The first pandemic, Japanese Encephalitis, has outbreak in Malaysia in 1998-1999, followed by Nipah within the same year. Therefore the second or third pandemic due to swine related disease is not impossible in this country.

I beg you Malaysia, please phase out pig farming from our country... please before it's too late!

Sipadan Island

Sipadan Island is small but very beautiful. Located in Sabah, East Malaysia, was voted the third best diving spot of the world in 2008 by Scuba Travel UK and rank no. 5 in Skyscanner in March 2009. If you think of going there, think of going diving too.