ALLAH knows best

Isnin ni dah start mid-sem exam. Huhuhu..macam mana ni, study pun tunggang-langgang. Bila tengok balik notes, mulut automatik ternganga..terkejut. Hati pulak tertanya-tanya, "Bila masa aku belajar pasal benda ni, lecturer ada ajar ke masa dalam kelas?"

Maknanya apa tu? Ohoo.. bak kata Saiful Apek, "Takde maknenye!"

Sape suruh study last minute? Sapa suruh tido dalam kelas? Tak ada maknanya baru nak menyesal sekarang. Yang penting, guna masa yang berbaki ni seoptimum yang mungkin, bukan semaksimum ya! Optimum bererti tak perlu study 24 jam tapi peruntukkan beberapa jam sehari untuk study secara berkesan. Caranya? Terpulanglah. Yang pasti, target kena ada, selalu usaha dan berdoa sentiasa. Allahumma najjihna fil imtihan fid deen fid dunia wal akhirah..Ameen ya Rabbal 'Aalamin!

Friends,
ALLAH knows what's best for us
So, why should we complaint
We always want the sunshine
But ALLAH knows that there must be rain
We always want the laughter
And the merriment of cheer
But our hearts will lose their tenderness
If we shed a tear

ALLAH tests us often
With suffering and with sorrow
ALLAH tests us, not to punish us
But to help us meet tomorrow
For the growing trees are strengthened
If the withstand the storm
And the sharp cut of the chisel
Gave the marble grace and form

ALLAH tests us often
And for every pain ALLAH gives to us
Provided we patient
Followed by rich again
So, whenever we are down
And whenever we feel
That everything is going wrong
It is just ALLAH's way
To make our spirit strong...

Excited!

Archery. The word sounds quite interesting the first time it knocked my eardrum. I never thought that one day I’ll be getting involved with it. During this third year of study, most of students in IIUM Kuantan campus (except medical and dental students) have to join any one of the skill-based activities offered by the university. It’s good since the academic life is getting tougher and harder at this stage. So the outdoor activity becomes a mean to release the burden of stressful mind. Volleyball, tennis, netball, basketball, recreation, and archery are to name a few.

Aha, archery! I really adore this one since it is one of the sports recommended by Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. besides horse-riding and swimming. There is no horse to be rode here and there is no swimming pool in the campus to swim in (there's a lake here..but only for fish to swim). The only one accessible is archery because the equipments are there to use though the numbers are very limited and the coach is there ready to teach. So, here I am with my classmates, a male and 13 females (girls' power!), ready to learn this skilful activity.

From the first practical session, I came to know that physical strength is very important for an archer especially the arm since it is most used-limb. However, physical strength alone is not enough because an archer also needs mental strength which for me it is far more important than the physical strength. You’ve got a bonus if you can control your mind and keep it in focus before, during and after you release an arrow. The focus for the aim will help you to reach the target.

To complement physical and mental strength, archers need to have the technical and tactical strength too. Technicality is vital when it comes to the archery equipments while tactics are still needed even though the target is stationary since there are many other things which can stray the arrow pathway. Combining these four strengths, one already has a chance to get the highest point in any competition provided that they are very skilful.

A question arises here. How to be skilful? My coach said, “Do the things repeatedly and correctly. Archery is nothing but a repetition of the same action” Yup, it’s absolutely true. When you experience something at the first time, you’ll surely know how to face it the next time. What more if you keep facing the thing for the umpteenth of times. Indeed, experience is the best teacher!

Routine

Today, I edited my daily planner. I have gone through it yesterday but I did it again today. Planner has become the closest friend of mine since the first time I was introduced to it three years ago. Although the physical appearance of the planner changes every year, the function is still the same and I have to admit that my life would be a bizarre one without it. This is because, being organized and systematic are the most important things to me. To accomplish this, I need the help from my ready-to-lend-a-hand planner. Besides being a planner, it is also my organizer.

I concur with the quotation, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Be the strongest man you are, but if you do not plan your step carefully, you will lose the battle. If we just do what we feel we want to do without organizing our life suitably, the satisfaction would not last longer. Even though we got what we want, we may lose it in any second. Since life is full of surprises and unpredictable things, it would be much better if we prepare ourselves by being well-planned, organized and systematic. At least, by doing this, we still have the back-up plans, let’s say, if the thing that we’ve planned did not work as it was suppose to be and suddenly we faced a catastrophic failure.

We still can direct our mind to think rationally and start gathering the next steps, rising from the failure to grab the future success. However, if we are disorganized person, probably we can’t even think of how to get up from fall. So, how can we open a big leap and be able to run after the victory?