the traveler

i love travelling a lot. one of my bucket list is i want to travel to all of the country if its possible (maybe israel will be impossible... sigh... btw, im not saying im supporting israel here...)... if you look at the brighter side we have many islamic historical sites in jerusalem.. so, i think if we were allowed to go there it would be a great honour for us muslims to learn history with our own eyes.. previously, i have asked my friends about their opinion regarding traveling.. well, most of them said it depends on what is your intention going there and some of them said it is not right because it is somehow wasting your money.. during my last trip to jakarta, i bought a book in LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) entitled 'the quran and i' by Anas Zubedy... it was an interesting book... in his book, he tried to relate his life experiences with the quran... i think it is a good way to get ourselves closer to God by trying to understand what has been taught in the holy quran... i was addicted to the book when i first read it... never in my life i can read a whole book in less then two days.... if you have read this book, i refer to chapter 9 entitled 'the traveler'.... after i read it, it comes to sense that traveling has been mentioned in the quran for us human beings to observe God's creation...

Say: "Travel in the land and see how He originated the creation, and then Allah will bring forth the creation of the Hereafter. Verily, Allah is able to do all things.'' (29:20)

Some people said that only by seeing the nature will you know how great is God but for me, it is more than that. for example if you travel to China and Europe, you will see two different civilizations in which each of them is unique in terms of how do they look and how do they manage their civilization. Anas Zubedy has mentioned three kinds of traveler in his book which is the empty traveler, the physical traveler and the real traveler.

The empty traveler

These travelers are never prepared. in fact, these people are not travellers at all. they go or leave empty, and return with less. e.g: overspending thair financial resources due to lack of planning.

The physical traveler

These kind of travellers are those who have prepared themselves physically and have ensured the material needs are well taken care of. unfortunately, they probalby had forgotten to bring along the three most important things; their brains, hearts and souls. they are the ones who love taking many pictures... with themselves as the main subjects... but, the problem is that they never did appreciate the real beauty of the place just by simply looking and feeling deeply for the moment.

The real traveler

A real traveler in Anas Zubedy's perspective is those who are physically, mentally, emotionally and sprititually prepared. they read and try to find out about the places that they are about to experience (not just visit). they went with a full tank and came back with a bigger tank that cries for more. their tanks are forever enlarging.  THEY ARE TRAVELERS!!!

i have to admit that i have never been an empty traveler before but i used to be a the physical traveler. after travelling a few years, i have learnt that a real traveler is the one who will get the most valuable experience. so from that moment, ive decided and became a real traveler until now. so for whoever who came across my blog or have read this post, i just want to say travelling is the best way to get valuable experiences in which you can apply it to your daily life. in the malay proverb; jauh perjalanan, luas pemandangan... 

CREDITS TO ANAS ZUBEDY

eurotrip 2009

on sunday 8th of march, nabil called me in the middle of the night. he told me that air asia held a roadshow within kuala lumpur and selangor to announce their new destination which is london. i was interested hearing all those stories told by nabil regarding the roadshow. he told me to do some research about UK and join him in the next day. we made a deal that night that if i win i must bring nabil for the trip, and vice versa. i made some homework that night about UK. i have never memorize the name of the prime minister of UK in my entire life and now i have to memorize it for the sake of winning the competition.

in the next day, i drove myself to subang parade and met nabil there. we reached there quite early, two hours before the roadshow started because we were so excited about the prize. after two hours of waiting, we went to the main entrance of that shopping mall to catch up with the roadshow. so for the first round, i have memorized most of the answers based on questions gave by nabil last night. i manage to answer the question correctly and move on to the next round. unfortunately, nabil didnt answer correctly and the chance to win the prize is less. since not many passed the 1st round, we all move to the 3rd round. out of 14, i am among the lucky 5 who picked the key correctly. then, out of these 5 ppls, an old lady managed to get the right key and she got the ticket. i was so depressed at that time.

me and nabil arent quitting. we followed them to the next destination, taipan. this time, me n nabil have successfully proceed to the 2nd round. in the 2nd round, you have to get a great applause to proceed to the 3rd round. me n nabil gets the great applause n we moved on to the 3rd round. in the 3rd round, nabil was eliminated as he chose the wrong key. me n a middle aged indian lady chose the right key. the lady had twice the chance of picking the right key with the probability of 1/2. i was so nervous at that time and i felt my heart pounded faster and stronger. at last, i manage to get the right key and only god knows how happy i am at that time. i was so happy n nabil jumped happily. we took some pictures and went back home.

we have come up to a plan after 1 month of research about europe. our plan is london-leeds-manchester-liverpool-bristol-prague-rome-venice-paris-oxford-birmingham-london for 1 month.

introduction

First and foremost, praise to Allah for his continuous blessings. As we live, we are breathing his air, consuming food gathered from his land, walking on his ground and every single discharge from the sinoatrial node (pacemaker) comes from Allah but sadly none of us are aware about it. So before i start to compose anything, let us ponder what we have done previously to show our gratitude to Allah. We are so busy conducting our daily lives that we forget who is really in charge, and from where our sustenance comes. In the Quran, Allah says, 

"Therefore remember Me, I will remember you, And be thankful to Me, and do not be ungrateful to Me." [Qur'an 2:152]

"And He gives you all that you ask for. But if you count the favors of Allah, never will you be able to number them. Verily, man is given up to injustice and ingratitude." [Qur'an 14:34] 

So, let us all be a grateful servant of Allah for we are weaklings who need help from him. I think that is all for my introduction to my blog.

To my fellow brothers and sisters who came across this blog, guide me as i am the lost traveller who seeks the righteous path.

Salam.