Kampong Yayasan Al-Jenderami

                                           Masjid Kg.Yayasan Al-Jenderami


On Sunday 18 December 2011, I was invited by a cousin of mine, whom I called Zai for short to a maulid at his new house in Jenderam Hilir near Dengkil, Selangor. He told me on a few occasions about his dakwah centre in Jenderam Hilir and said that I should know his Chairman of the Al-Jenderami Foundation because he is also a retired senior civil servant.
As Allah S.W.T. wills it, I finally made my way to Jenderam Hilir using my GPS and thus on that Sunday I found the location of his kampong without difficulty.
As the route to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya is familiar to me, the drive only took me just slightly less than an hour as the sunday traffic is fairly clear along the way. Now many taxis going to KLIA are plying through that route as it avoids the toll to the airport.
When I arrived at the Kampong, it does not look like the traditional village but saw many of the houses are fairly new and built around a mosque which is shown in the picture above. The dakwah centre is situated adjacent to the mosque and the terrain is generally undulating.The road within the Kampong is typically narrow, just fit for a car to pass by.
As I approached Zai's house which is near a steep enbankment, I was directed to turn into the left sharp turn descending into his house lot and saw him at the entrance guiding me to the temporary parking next to his house lot which is empty.
The maulid has started at about half-an hour earlier and I met my cousin Cikgu Nordin, the elder sibling of Zai seated at the porch entrance on a mat. So I joined him and followed the group who are mostly dressed in the jubah and serban in reciting the maulid-rasul. It was accompanied by the arab drum and sounded much louder than the ordinary one which we see used by the kompang group.It was an experience because the normal maulid that I used to follow in Rasah more than 40 years ago was without the accompaniment of the arabic drum even though the leader then was the late Habib Omar Al-Attas who originated from Hadramaut.
After the maulid was over, the congregation was invited for lunch and after that I met the Chairman of the Al-Jenderami Foundation who was in PM's Department together with me, but he was the Secretary to the Cabinet Division and I was in the Legal Affairs Division. He seemed to be well connected with the place and told me that he is learning from a Tuan Guru at the centre the rudiments of Tauhid,Feqah and Tassawuf all over again. He has sold his house in Petaling Jaya and shifted to Kajang so that he is nearer to Jenderam.
It is good to see him being involved in going back to be learning the basics from the 'kitab kuning' direct from a Tuan Guru which is a rare thing nowadays.

Radio Pencen

As an ardent fan of Radio Pencen which is singularly managed online by a colleague of mine who is a diehard broadcaster and once served with me at the Unit Penyelarasan Pelaksanaan in PM's Department in the late 90's, I feel it would be doing him justice to highlight his yeoman's service in still entertaining his audience of mainly pensioners and friends.
Tengku Ali Bustaman a.k.a. as Pokku had been a veteran broadcaster with RTM and of late he has not been in the best of health but despite that he never stopped this online radio. You could listen by going to the website, http:radiopencenfm.listen2myradio.com/ and it goes on air daily from 9.00 am till midnight with short breaks for meals and prayers. You can also make requests on your favourite oldies,especially after 9.00 pm for your easy listening.
So please enjoy Radio Pencen.

Wedding Feasts

It is the norm that when the school is closed for the long holiday at the end of the year, I receive a good number of invitations and sometimes I have to it a miss owing to the clash with some other important commitment.
But there is one which shall remain in my memory because I almost go to the wrong one due to the close proximity.
My classmate during my schooldays in KGV Seremban invited me to his son's wedding feast which was held in an open field right in front of his late mother's house. I would normally come early especially during this rainy spell. However I found that many had the same idea and what made it worse there was an IT festival held at the Sports complex nearby which made the road to his house very congested. I parked my car at quite a distance and walked to his function.
As I was walking towards the rows of tents near the house, I realised that they are not situated at the open space but smack in front of the terrace houses. My son called me and said "Abah, you going to a different person's function" and pointed out to the sign which showed a different name. My wife also laughed at my mistake,which was averted in time.
When I arrived at the friend's function I related the story to my sister who was there earlier helping out the host. Otherwise I would have wondered why the faces of the hosts looked different. Then I later learned that they were supposed to have the feast not at the same time to avoid the confusion because of the close proximity but somehow the neighbour decided to have it at the same time so as to avoid the rainy spell.