have a blessed ’id al-fitr. may god accept our fasts and all acts of worship, and forgive us.
god is great, god is great, god is great, there is no deity but god
god is great, god is great, and praise is due to god.
this month is approaching its end. oh my, this is the best ramadan i’ve ever had. the blessings of saints shower this month.
many good things have happened this month. our family getting a car, my wife and son obtaining their pr, me finally (yes, finally!) having my thesis penetrating through the school’s gate (well, almost. i’ll do the administrative errands within the next few days)… should i also include me losing 6 kilos of fat? 
i ask for the intercession of the saints of god and their support. madad…
what’s been happening?
i’ve been busy working. since february this year, i’ve been working as an analyst programmer for linfox armaguard. in addition, i’ve revised my thesis (i know, i know, i already submitted it to the school, but i was required to buff it with more stuffs), and i’ve re-submitted it to the school about two weeks ago. but anyway, i went on with my life, partially…
earlier in 2008 (or was it the end of 2007?), i wrote a new song, “summer rain.” i haven’t got time to record it yet. while on the topic of music, i twisted my right thumb a few months ago. the pain was excruciating. recovering took a while… well, actually, it’s not back 100% yet. i still occasionally feel the pain, although it’s not bad and not hindering me from doing most things, and best of all, it doesn’t make me sad. 
my second bro has also taken bay’a to the sultan of saints, through shaykh mustafa haqqani, shaykh nazim’s representative in indonesia. he has also enjoyed the presence of shaykh hisham during the shaykh’s recent visit to indonesia (bahasa indonesia).
my family and i had a nice trip to ruffy and euroa (and unexpectedly, shepparton. more on that later) to fulfill an invitation from shaykh abdul wahid to gather at his house for nisf sha’ban. we also met the sydneysiders there. daud had an accident while we were in euroa. he fell from the chair and it caused a little cut on his lower lip. we ran him to a clinic in shepparton with the help of motaki and amatullah. to our relief, it wasn’t a serious wound. it recovered pretty quickly.
recently, in front of my house, there’s been a white ford fairmont (built in the 90s) parked everyday. big thanks to the big chief and siraaj.
and just yesterday, my wife and son obtained their pr visa. so, the circle is now complete. we’re all permanent residents of australia.
alhamdulillah we had our third anniversary. it feels like yesterday that i’ve been married with my lovely sweetheart. alhamdulillah God…. we’re so happy. hopefully we live happily ever after with our children, dunya and akhirat.
yesterday my sister took bay’at through shaykh hisham… alhamdulillah… i hope my brothers and my parents will take bay’at as well next year amin….
last friday up to monday, the naqshbandi haqqani murids of sydney and melbourne flocked together in the melbourne zawiya [map].
it was a great, long weekend with (almost) non-stop zikr parties, in various forms: the ultimate khatm khwajagan, hadrah, whirling, and so on, including fixing the zawiyah gate. the sydneysiders started coming on friday. there were some reading sessions. the first one was the biography imam bahauddin naqshband as written in as-safi’s “beads of dew from the source of life”. the second was the biography of imam ja’far as-saddiq as written in shaykh hisham’s “the naqshbandi sufi way: history and guidebook of the saints in the golden chain”. if my memory serves me correctly, that was followed by the biography of shaykh sharafuddin ad-daghestani from the same book. we had khatm khwajagan everyday (except monday, when most sydneysiders had flown back home). saturday evening was extraordinarily crowded, as many usual melbourne frequenters also came. on sunday, we had a barbie. my wife cooked some food for the first three days. and of course, everyday was filled with zikr, zikr, and zikr.
i felt rest in my heart throughout the activities. i didn’t actually want to occassionally leave the zawiya, but it wasn’t realistic to do so. even the atmosphere gave me such an extraordinary comfort that i kept attracted to it. in the past, when i still involved myself with some other islamic sects, sometimes i also joined get-togethers. but it was different. with fellow spiritual sunni muslims, i feel love, not politicised religion (you can guess which sect this is) nor finding faults in other people (you almost likely know which sect it is). and that was exactly what i felt. i saw noone at all with dark or gloomy aura. here, it was just working together fighting the ego and seeking the pleasure of god and his messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), asking blessings from god through his messenger through the saints, and particularly through our master, the king of saints.
support us, o, our truthful master…
(it’s been a while i don’t blog… somehow my blogging frequency keeps dropping… i’ve been so busy… but anyway…)
rabiul awal mubarak! in a few days, we’ll celebrate the birth of the most perfect man, the light of creation. (traditional) muslims everywhere, regardless of their school of jurisprudence, order of self purification, and creed, celebrate this.
somehow, it just bugs me when a community/association/whatever form of congregation says they’re celebrating it, yet not reciting any single mawlid text, such as ad-daiba’i’s. they choose to just do it by entertaining their intellect only. i know, at least, it’s better than saying that it’s innovation. it’s somehow “not that traditional.” it feels like celebrating a birthday party with only speech and discussion. so dry.
ah well… i’d better just prepare for the celebration held this weekend at the zawiya… the traditional way, and open for all human beings! “ya nabi salam alayka, ya rasul salam alayka, ya habib salam alayka, salawatullah alayka.”
tomorrow, a piano will arrive at my home. well, it won’t be technically mine. it belongs to the melbourne naqshbandi haqqani zawiya, but sort of being lent to me, as habib hazem ordered.
it will be a challenge for me, as i’ll have to play to accompany liturgies of remembrance of god. not that i mind. i’ll be delighted to do that. it’s just that i’ve never really done that. well, my songs typically have the spiritual dimension, albeit more personal. and this time, well… i don’t really know how it will turn out. i’m going to do an act of serving god, so i’m asking for divine inspiration for him through the guidance of his most perfect prophet muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, through the guidance of the masters of the golden chain, through the guidance of my living masters, mawlana shaykhs nazim, hisham, and adnan, may god sanctify their secrets.
last but not least, a big gratitude goes to sandra for the piano.
yesterday, i was initiated by shaykh nurjan mirahmadi into the naqshbandi haqqani tariqa (sufi order). by undergoing the bay’a (initiation) process, i take shaykh nazim adil and his deputy shaykh hisham kabbani and shaykh adnan kabbani as my shaikh. the bay’a took place at around 11 pm (utc+7) in taman ismail marzuki, jakarta, indonesia.
therefore, i’m no longer “floating around” murshid-less.