It is a small village in the kecamatan of Tambusai, Kabupaten Rokan Hulu in the Province of Riau, Sumatra. During the Padri Wars of 1830's , Tuanku Tambusai (aka known as Fakeh Hj Muhammad Salleh ) fought the Dutch forces together with Imam Bonjol and Tuanku Rao in West Sumatra and in Northern Sumatra .The last defence was in Benteng 7 Lapis,Daludalu which fell in 1838. He escaped capture and came to Malaya. He was buried in Rasah in 1882.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Facing A Difficult Situation Requires Inner Strength
It is amazing how I have been able to face the challenges that come my way at this stage of my life, when I thought that retirement is a breeze. I retired in the year 2000 and then put in another five years as Member of the Public Service Commission whose job is recruitment of young and not so young hopefuls who are keen to be public servants or in plain language, to become Government Servants.
Since the end of last year I have been plying up and down the highway from Kuala Lumpur or precisely from Petaling Jaya every weekend to Seremban to take up my duty as the eldest son in my family to look after my father who is in frail health and who had been in and out of hospitals for more than a decade. He is now going to be 91 years old this coming August. We had a helper to assist in looking after him before but the last one bolted away and we felt that enough is enough, so we did away with looking for a helper to assist my sister who is the one taking care of my father. My other two siblings chipped in to take over my place whenever possible.
But so far I had experienced a trying time not only helping to care for the elderly but am facing another problem at hand with regard to my youngest son who is struggling to complete his course in medicine in Ireland.
Recently he had to repeat his fourth year as he had not been able to cross the hurdle in his exams and assignments. My eldest son flew over last September to find out what was the problem and managed to put him back on track and I negotiated with his sponsor for the continuation of his sponsorship, who fortunately allowed him to repeat.
However I learned recently that he had again stumbled even before the exams started in a week's time from now, and quickly got in touch with officer on the spot to keep me posted on the situation. At the same time an effort is made to get some assistance on traditional platform from an Ustaz in Seremban who had the experience in treating students who were facing similar situation now and in the past. If this is another trial and tribulation that I and my family is being faced with, an ingredient which is critical to have is the patience and forebearance and level headedness to render whatever help we can to have him back on his feet again. Thus inner strength is the factor essential to see us through the difficult times. I only supplicate to ALLAH that we could go through this trying period with grace and calmness and hope that ALLAH shall bestow His Mercies and Blessings to see that we shall overcome the situation with steadfastness, InshaALLAH.
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8 comments:
Akhi AHS,
By mistake my following comment was posted against our friend Norzah's entry.
AHS,
I ca imagine how stressful we as parents when something does not go as planned with our loved ones. If it is within ourselves we can find solace from AlQuran etc , hard with our loved ones. I think the poor boy is experiencing some kind of pressure, may be an imaginary one for that matter, within himself. Is there no help from those in the Malaysian Students' Dept for UK & Irelands; a friend there may halp.
How careless of me and I am sorry.
PakCik,
I am on tab with the Attache who is representing JPA at our Embassy in Dublin. I am also doing my best to make arrangements to fly there InshaALLAH in mid-June.
I sympathize with you on the problems you face re your dad and son, Akhi, but they are the problems that test our inner strength and faith in Allah's Magnanimity and Wisdom. Have confidence in His assurance the the end of everything is always better thsn the beginning ( Walal akhiratu khairu lakaminal ula - Surah Waddhuha). Ours is to keep trying to do the best we can and pray that He will fulfill our hope. I can only help by joining you in the prayer so that your dad will continue to enjoy good health and your son get through his examination successfully.
Akhi,
My profound gratitude on your esteemed prayer and it is the support from close friends which gives the impetus to trudge on in difficult times. Once again, I express a thousand thanks.
Dear Hal,
I'm back now. Am reading through the latest postings of those I used to before.
(Regret I couldn't attend the second tahlil)
As for your boy, the fact that he is away overseas is already good grounding to be more on his 2 feet. A little more resolve and time together with the firm support your whole family is already giving him should pull him through.
We extend our prayers and he would muster his strength naturally.
Salam
Hank
Hank,
Thanks for the kind thoughts. Haniff is probably jaded coz of the long haul. I am going there soon to put things in perspective. The Malay community support given is enormously more than adequate to get him back on track. Indeed it is Allah's test on my resolve and forbearance.
Tuan Haji,
Happy you are back blogging!!
However sad to note about your son's problem.It is true a difficult situation requires inner strength.My family prayers that your family and goodself overcome the gloomy cloud with sunshine and happiness soonest.
fish
Dato',
Thanks for your kind thoughts and in fact it is such things that bring you closer to ALLAH. According to this Ustaz who is a friend said that success is when you have gone six feet undeground and not when you are still alive. Just reflect on it and how true is his statement. When I lowered my late father's lifeless body into his grave, it struck me that what he said is strikingly true.
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