A Visit to Alhambra

Today we followed a 3.5 hours guided tour of the Alhambra in Granada - a palace, a fortress and a mini city of the Nasrid Kingdom, the last Islamic kingdom to survive in Andalusia before it finally fell in 1492. Cordoba, the former capital of the Umayyad Dynasty had fallen a long time ago whilst the surviving kingdom could only retain the city of Granada and the area to the south.

Alhambra is the primary reason why people comes to visit Granada. Inside one could find an incredible reminder of the glorious Islamic period in the past. The buildings are full of beautiful Islamic design and calligraphies decorating the walls, pillars and ceilings.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200604/alhambra/default.htm

Following a guide is the best way to learn the history and the many intricacies and details of the Alhambra itself. The place was quite full with lots of tourists today and yet this is not the peak season. We only booked the trip a week ago. Everything was done online. The tour in the end lasted for 3.5 hours.

http://http//www.viator.com/Granada/d554/the-alhambra

The place is always portrayed as a place of exceptional beauties - water fountains, glorious and most modern traditions of its time, music and art of exceptional beauty, and advanced knowledge of science and technology far ahead of the rest of the Europe.

However the beauty stops there. Visiting this place will give you a mix of pride and sorrow. Pride in seeing the amazing Islamic calligraphies and amazing relics of a great Islamic empire before. But also sorrows knowing that these are just relics and that the decline of the empire was due to the weak ummah and rulers. In reality, the histories are ones of bitterness and great tragedies. How tragic it is ....that Andalusia has now forever forgotten and only remains in name. The glorious Islamic empire that existed on this land for more than 700 years, ruled by Caliphs and Sultans was defeated, destroyed and gone forever. No place on earth has suffered a greater fate than Andalusia.

Once upon a time in Andalusia

Our first leg in Andalusia is Granada where we are spending two nights there. Granada is on the foothill of snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains. This was one of the great cities of Islamic Spain that was ruled by the Umayyad Dynasty 700 years ago. It was also the capital of Al-Andalus or better known as Andalusia, the last Muslim kingdom, that fell to Spanish forces in 1492. Nowadays there are about 20,000 Muslims in the city but 500 years ago it was in millions. And only recently i.e. 5 years ago that Azan could be heard again from the city after an absence of over 500 years.

Trips like this re-ignite our interest of past histories. Reading through the guide books and literatures, Islam reached the shore of Spain when Tariq ibni Ziad arrived in Gibraltar in 92 Hijrah or 711 AD and named Spain as Al-Andalus or better known as Andalusia. Islam then ruled Spain for nearly 800 years from 711 till 1492. During that period a big palace called Alhambra and a grand mosque in Cordoba was built and remained as the main relics of those great era.

But this trip to Andalusia brought me something that I only realised now. For the many trips I made to Syria and the many visits I made to the Mesjid Umayyad in Damascus, I only realised now how great the empire was at that time. Today in Andalusia, 4000 Km away from Damascus, I am standing at the westernmost extent of the vast Umayyad dynasty that existed nearly 1300 years ago. When Damascus fell to the Abbasid Dynasty, Andalusia became the exile capital of the Dynasty. The Abbasid Dynasty, supported by Shias, defeated and killed the last caliph of the Umayyad; Caliph Marwan II in 750 and established a new Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. In the meantime, Abd-ar-Rahman I, a surviving grand-son of the last Umayyad Caliph fled Damascus, on the run from persecutors for 6 years before arriving in Spain. There he was well received by the remaining Umayyad clan (Syrian) and he became Emir of Cardoba.

The Umayyad Caliphate in Spain or Iberia however came to an end on the 2 January 1492 with the conquest of Granada. The last Muslim ruler of Granada, Muhammad XII, surrendered his kingdom to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs. This event marked the end of Muslim rule in Spain, and the end of the last Umayyad Caliphate. Ironically this was also the year when Spain expedition led by Columbus found the New World - Americas.

To get around, we are renting a car for the stay. Tonight we went to the centre of Granada and had dinner in one of the recommended restaurants. The owner, Mustafa, is quite a chatty guy. He has ran the business for 11 years now and this was the first time he has a customer from Brunei!
http://www.rest-arrayanes.com/

The centre of Granada is full of halal restaurants especially around the Plaza Nueva area.

Jejak Rasul

The best deal to Spain is by flying from Brussels. So there we were early this morning leaving home before 6 am for the 2 hours drive to Brussels airport to catch the flight.

The flight brought us to Madrid before catching the short flight to Granada. Madrid airport is quite enormous, said to be the 11th busiest in the world. It's not surprising as Spain receives the most number of foreign tourists annually - some 50 million of them. And most of them either pass through Madrid or Barcelona airport - the country's main gateways.

A Raya Gathering

Last night we invited some friends from Brunei for dinner. It was nice to reconnect again. Today we were invited to a Hari Raya openhouse and this time was hosted by our new Malaysian friend (Family Akmal) who lives in Wassenaar. Indeed the lesser the people are the closer the community has became. We had a bit of a journey finding the house. We completely ignored our GPS Tom -Tom and headed for the centre of Wassenaar. Only then we realised his house was actually quite closeby to ours - less than 5 minutes away!

Wassenaar is a place where there is a large expatriate community of diplomats and business people lives. This is largely because of the location of international schools here such as the American and the British Schools nearby in Voorschoten. Most of the houses are quite big and have nice and large compounds, ideal for hosting an outdoor function. The Hague where most of the embassies are located are just a few minutes drive away.

Today our youngest also came along. The only reason is because his friend was also planning to come as well. His name is also Faris and they are in the same year group - Year 7. It can be quite confusing for the teachers. The kids are now on their mid-term break which starts today. We are planning to do a 'jejak rasul' during the break - watch the space.

Rumpun Nusantara

There are only a handful here - the small community of people of Nusantara. Nonetheless it is quite pleasing to see many from our region working with the many international companies based here.

Today (Sunday) we were invited to an openhouse of one of our Malaysian friends (Borhan family). Because houses are sought through openmarket when a family arrive, our houses tend to be far apart and spread all over The Hague or nearby The Hague in Voorschoten or Wasenaar. The community though is getting smaller with many have gone back or moving to other places.

Here are some photos from Sunday. Last photo is when missus had an invite previous days. Photos are courtesy of Muna. We brought a camera but it wasn't doing what it was suppose to do.

Autumn Leaves

Today is T-Shirt weather - quite warm at 18 Deg C. The sceneries outside are quite breathtaking, the leaves everywhere seem to have gone through a makeover as if someone has put colours on them to brighten up the place.

The big thing on everyone's minds here right now is the financial crisis. Some in the office are quite nervous. With so many banks going down, companies struggling to borrow money and many businesses really struggling. It just feel gloom and doom. Some simply shrugged it off - stating that the stock markets are actually much higher than pre 9/11.

Amidst all these, I read in the paper that interests in Islamic finance are on the up. Islamic instituitions are not affected as much as they do not face the same credit crunch faced by conventional banking system. When one purchase a house, you put say 20% while the bank contribute the rest. You pay the rest through buy back in the form of rent until it is all covered and your share increase. As owner of the property, the bank faces risks associated with property ownership. This is a situation that does not exist under an interest mortgage, where the bank never actually owns the property. The fomer is somewhat a fail safe system where the bank is more involved in the business rather than just simply lending out money.

Pushing the Limit

If you are into Formula 1, you would immediately know what this photo was about. It's Felipe Massa speeding off from the pitlane with the heavy fuel hose still attached, leaving three crew members tumbling down and the others staring at oblivion and now thinking the world championship is quickly slipping.

The excitement about Formula 1 is that everything are being pushed to the limit. In this case it was a new technology - an electronic system which signal the driver to speed off was introduced to replace the traditional lollipop man. The new innovation failed spectacularly. The boys from Woking aka McLaren Mercedes are smiling when they saw this. The championship is for them for the taking. Three more races to go. Tokyo, Shanghai and Sao Paola here we come.

Raya Cards

Hari Raya season is definitely coming to a close here. Before it's too late we would like to thank everybody who have sent us their greeting cards this year. We really cherish your thoughts and kindness.

It has been very quiet so not much to write about. I had my eye check up today, 4 months after the laser procedure. It has been a success. Right eye was zero, left eye was -0.25. As it was a PRK procedure, hopefully the left eye will improve further to perfect vision with time.

http://paulaland-paulaland.blogspot.com/2008/06/to-lasik-or-not-to-lasik.html

On the weather front, this week has been gorgeous, a bit cold but it has been sunny. The kids are now back on their bikes to school. It was a far cry from the weekend when our eldest went out on a camping. She and four friends had to endure non-stop rains, walked 18 km with fully laden backpacks, set-up the tent in the middle of a countryside, prepared and cooked for an invigilator who turned up at the given location coordinates in the evening, and later slept in the tent when the outside temperature was hovering around 3 Deg. C ! Sounds terrible.

Sunday in Brussels

It's a 2 hours drive in the rain and 2 hours drive back in the rain again. We spent Sunday in Brussels today attending an openhouse at one of the embassy staff's house somewhere in the wooded Waterloo district. It has been raining all week and every time we look at the satellite photo there seems to be a giant cloud always lingering above the whole country. Its like we are in a big washing machine, washed, spinning and tumbling. Sometimes we feel like we are forever in the final spin

Anyway back to the openhouse, it's nice to see many Bruneian faces there and what a crowd. It is a more lively scene there with the presence of a large Asean diplomatic community.

The Ambassasor also hosted an openhouse the day before but we could not make it. But it was quite nice to see his excellency and his family today as well as all the other Bruneian families.

Hari Raya Greeting

Before everybody back home and elsewhere embark on their long Hari Raya holiday and attending or hosting raya open house, we just like to send our Hari Raya greeting now before it's too late.

Seeking your forgiveness, your prayer and your blessing in this holy month. We also pray for good health and happiness to everybody, and the great blessing from Allah. May Allah praises and rewards you for your ibadah during the fasting month. And lastly hope you all will enjoy the togetherness with families and friends during the raya celebration.

What Else Don't We Know

After the recent scandal with melamine use in some food products, what else don't we know. Apart from the melamine abuse, there must be many other things out there that are still waiting to be exposed. It is so difficult to detect these things and if not for some sickness and fatalities in China this particular one could drag on for years unnoticed.

The best thing to do is to limit on intake of processed products and start consuming more fresh products or fruits.

50 Golden Years

Without any doubt the most majestic building in Brunei and is 50 years old this year - Mesjid Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien.

Here, it's a lazy weekend with nothing much to do. Apart from watching live football and F1 during the day. Being still in the fasting month, this is not the time to do any long trip or a weekend escapade. End of Ramadan though is just around the corner. The month has gone very quickly and soon it will be back to normal routine. Gladly for us it has been one of moderation as far as food intake is concerned, shedding a few pounds or so along the way. First day of Aidilfitri has been set to fall on 1st October here. That might coincide with Brunei if the moon is sighted on the evening of 30th September.

We paid the Zakat Fitrah on Friday yesterday. The amount is set at 7.50 Euro per person. For the Indonesian mosque here, the collections are directly sent to Indonesia where it is more needed. As for Zakat Harta, we paid it whilst we were back home last month. We nomally do it every beginning of Ramadan so as to remind the passing of the calendar year.

Rumah Kapal

Cycling along the many canals here, one could easily come across concentrations of houseboats. The one in the photo is amongst the few that we could spot in The Hague. It's different in Amsterdam where it is said some 2400 families live on houseboats.

More often than not, these houseboats are connected to the utility services, such as running water, electricity, telephone and cable-tv. They even have provision for rubbish collection.

The one in the photo is a houseboat which is designed solely for housing purposes. The base is built on square hulls out of steel, nowadays mostly out of concrete. The other kind is where houseboats are built out of old cargoship. This type can be use not only for live in but as well for moving around.

Train Alone

Today our 11-year old boy took the train on his own to go back from school. The sisters have extra school activities so they had to stay back in school. We were a bit worried but Ish seems to understand the train system quite well.

Most trains have two levels, the kids prefer to sit in the upper level. The fares are quite reasonable, costs about 3.30 Euro for a single return.

Workwise, it has been quite busy lately. Working through lunch and tea breaks, it more like a 10-hour work shift during this fasting month. My colleagues are actually quite sympathetic but heavy workload means things have to be done regardless.

Night Racing Here We Come

This weekend will see the first Formula 1 night race. The main reason behind it is to retain the same European TV time slot like most other F1 races which is at 2 pm here. Other F1 races in the Far East and Australia are shown at odd hours or they coincide with evening prime TV slot. And F1 money men could not afford to have another one like that as that's not good for the sponsors. So good for Singapore for coming up with a great innovation to make the F1 more exciting.

I would love to see the race if I were in back home. The last time we watch F1 was in Sepang in 2006 with the kids. But watching a race in Singapore, a place I stayed over 4 years, would be a fantastic experience especially as it is set around the Marina Bay. There are 15 grand stands which will allow up to 100,000 people to watch.

Hotels are quite expensive though. I just checked the hotel rates - most 4 to 5 star hotels are charging $3000 to $5000 for 3 nights! They are making a killing as lots of corporate sponsors will fork their money to entertain their clients. I imagine a lot of our countrymen will also benefit from some 'sponsors' in one form or another. Tickets are reasonably priced from $168 to $1,388, the top end is at around $6000.

Who will win. If it rains obviously will be Hamilton. If not will be one of the Ferrari. I hope it will be a real race this time with is no interference from the F1 powerful people or new rule and regulation suddenly appears.

The Fall

Autumn is coming. Roads and pavement are now littered with dead leaves. The transformation seems to be quite fast, just last week it was still green and the road sides are clean. But with the persistent freezing nights, the trees could not bear anymore. Shades of browns and orange start to colour the trees. Slowly one by one leaves are falling down.

Even with these massive amounts of organic rubbish, nothing is burnt here. Truck with a huge "vacuum cleaner" regularly makes its round and picks up the autumn leaves. These leaves are then transformed into something very useful - organic compost.

Traditional Houses

Many of the towns and villages here still retain their traditional buildings. The government seems able to manage urban progress and yet retaining its heritage. Although these buildings have now been tranformed into shops and other businesses, they still retain the same century old traditional character. In fact most of the buildings were built as far back as the 17th Century. And what really striking is that most of these buildings are in miniature. And it's not surprising to find stairways in these buildings to be quite narrow. Squeezed alongside canals, these traditonal buildings really make a spectacular Dutch landscape.

It's a very busy sports weekend. Everyone's eyes are on the Ryder cup. This year may not going to be the fourth time win in a row for Europe. Unless the Americans are back to their self destructing mode again. Talking about the Americans, yesterday the US government announced a 700 billon dollars bail-out to rescue the current credit and mortgage crisis in the states. What an amazing amount - really mind boggling. Also just before the weekend saw a massive jump in the stock market up 8 to 9%, the biggest jump ever in a single day, helps to boost back confidence. Hope everything is back to normal now.

A Pink Bike

The beauty with cycling here is that one could park and locks one's bike at any place as long as it's not moving. That goes to any lamppost or standing structure. It is probably illegal but would be difficult to stop people from doing that. It's understandable when most of the proper places to park bicycles are always full.

But then cyclists here are not entirely immune to letter of the law. Last night we saw police were on the look-out for those who didn't switch their lights on. That's a 20 Euro fine. Even cycling in the wrong lane would land you with the same amount of fine. I even heard a cyclist got a speeding ticket! I can't imagine how is that possible.

Saturday in Town

It's the weekend - really have been looking forward to it. It has been hectic at work lately and for the kids quite a trying time with the long fasting hours. Hari raya is just around the corner but it will coincide with a week of big meetings and obviously for the kids schooling as normal. So no chance to take a day off or so for the big ocassion. It will be another of those quiet hari raya. In previous years when there were more of Bruneian here, we did organise a few gatherings and takbir. But now there's only a handful of us here and everybody seems to be spreading out their wings during that time.

Back home, we could imagine everybody are now in full gear to prepare for the big ocassion. Looking at the news back home, there are now more and more people going out to break their fast on a regular basis. Why not when looking at what's on offer. We read that Rizqun itself has 500 seats to cater for that. Indeed the culture and way of life in Brunei has changed quite a lot.

Yesterday we cycled to town mainly to buy camping gears for Fiz who is going on the Duke of Edinburg's award. It's a well known scheme, ranging from bronze, silver and gold level. Fiz is starting on the bronze and she has chosen walk and camping expedition going out next month in the middle of possibly cold period. The basic gears are the 60-litre backpack, almost arctic weather rated sleeping bag for the cold nights, hiking shoes and all sort of camping stuff. At the end they all add up to quite a lot of things to carry in the back. It will be quite a challenge but worthwhile experience for her.

Reducing my Carbon Footprint - 5 Months later

Yesterday the draw bridge was up again on the way home. The sight was awesome - this little piece of engineering allows the century old interconnected river and canal system in the country still being used either for leisure or carrying goods without being hindered by the modern addition of roads and bridges. Sometimes one could see large barges whose sizes almost the width of the canal itself carrying bulk materials. And it is still actually possible take a boat and ply along the canals and go around many parts of the country. Like in Kampung Ayer, some people here 'lives' on the water. Their dwellings are made up of boat or floating houses and are normally found along one of the quieter canals.

The last time I used the public transport for work was nearly half a year ago. With about 100 km clocked in a week, I have now cycled just over 1,400 km! That's huge and that's my bit to reduce my carbon footprint. Now with the cooler weather, with the morning temperature at around 8 Deg. C, the kids are no longer using their bikes to school. Except for Fiz, our eldest, she still cycles every now and then.

The Meltdown

The stock markets are tumbling down. A few renown banks have gone down under because of the credit crunch. Huge amount of money are being pumped in by federal banks to rescue and stabilize the market. But the sign has been for sometimes now, banks are taking too much risk and ending up with credit bust. Now every investors will have sleepless nights. The stock values continue to rapidly diminish. The only winners are the few hedge funds which gamble and earn when the market is down. Quite complicated but these people earn big time from the misery of others. How cruel could that be. The Euro is also at its lowest for a year now. Not expecting a recovery for sometimes yet.

Last Summer Days

The leaves are now starting to wither. The streets are becoming littered with dead leaves. Although the sun is still shining, the temperature has became a lot cooler nowadays. This scenery we took yesterday is nice to see, before everything will become brownish and dull in the coming weeks once Autumn starts to properly set in.

When we were back home, we were told the August month here was quite wet. In fact it was the second wettest August month ever recorded in Holland. We definitely could see the evidence as our lawn was in a messy state with overgrown grass. Our first attempt to cut the grass resulted in our 12 year old electric mower to call it a day. So we have to buy a new one last week to get the business done. Back home one could call professional grass cutters and get it done at around 20-30 dollars. Not here, with the high labour cost, everything is better done ourselves. After all it is always good to do a bit of gardening and do things yourselves.

14th Day

What else could we find in the market? The choices of dates this year are quite disappointing. There seems to be only Tunisian and Iranian types available with a noticeable absence of Jordanian dates. We have not been to the bigger weekend market in Beverwijk which is more like an Arabic souk, they are lot more choices there as this market caters more for the Middle Easterners.

The fasting month is now almost halfway - although last night we could see it was already full moon. Today is the 14th day of fasting here. The month has gone like a breeze. The terawih prayers at the mesjids here are only 8 reka'ats.

For the occasion like previous years, the mesjids here normally invite imams with excellent Quran recitations to come to Holland during the month. For the Indonesian mesjid, they come from Indonesia and they rotate between the few Indonesian mesjids in Holland. With Isya only coming in at 9.45 pm, Terawih prayers only start around 10.15 and finish just before 10.45 pm.

Omega-3

Yesterday was market day. It's always quite fun to go to the weekend market as one could walk endlessly amongst the hundred of stalls and be spoil with choices. And you are also bound to meet somebody you know. There are many choices of fish here, itself a big industry in Holland. A quarter of all fish is landed by the national fleet. The remaining three-quarters are imports. Eighty per cent of all fish is sold abroad which makes the the country one of Europe's few net exporters. Imports are currently some 1.3 billion euro, whereas exports generate over 2 billion euro, going mostly to European countries on her doorsteps.

The Netherlands has eleven fish auctions where fresh fish is traded weekly. Then there is the processing industry where the fish is filleted, breaded, conserved or processed in one or another way before it is offered to the consumer. Across the country there are approximately 400 companies involved in such processing and further trading.

Talking about the goodness of eating fish, it is said that we should eat fish in order to diminish the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Oily fish in particular, like mackerel, herring, eel, salmon, smoked herring and halibut are good for the heart and the arteries. Fish, especially oily fish, contains omega-3 fatty acids. These unsaturated fatty acids have a beneficial effect on the heart and the arteries. It is said that as little as 0.2 grams of omega-3 fatty acids a day can reduce fatal cardiovascular conditions by 30%. In addition, the omega-3 fatty acids increase the lifespan of people who already suffered a cardiac infarct. Eating fish twice a week is already enough to provide the required amount.

The other bit is that oily fish increases intelligence of children. We know many parents back home in Brunei do insist their children take a spoonful of omega-3 syrup everyday. It is said research confirms that poly-unsaturated fats stimulate the development of the brains of small children and improve their eyesight, especially the unborn child, because these fatty acids play an important role in the formation of the brain tissue and the retina.

Talking about Food

When we were back home last month, what is becoming a norm during family function nowadays are the serving of traditional cakes. They really look nice. Not sure whether the ones in the photo that we took are all local traditional cakes but one things we always wonder are their names. We can probably name one but not all. Any clue?

Away from food, in the past few days, there were a lot of disaster happening worldwide - flooding in Bangladesh, Hurricane Ike, landslides and so on. One 'disaster' that had all the kids in school talking about was the Big Bang experiment. Some scientists argued that it would lead to a major disaster, which eventually didn't happen, if the experiment was to go ahead. The experiment costs 5 billion pounds and 10,000 scientists, a big investment considering hundred of millions of people are still living below poverty line around the world. However the spin off from the technology could be tremendous to the future generations. Watch the space.

One thing for sure that will come back with a big bang this weekend is the premier league. There are two big games coming up - today between Liverpool and Man U, followed by Man City against Chelsea. With that comes a host of new signings making their debuts - Berba, Robinho amongst the big names.

Middle of Ramadan

Back to the thick of things again. It's been a week since we were back in Holland. Every body are back to their routines - the kids taking their daily train to school and me cycling to work - that's 19km everyday. In fact nothing really changed even though it is the fasting month. The kids refused to skip their PE lessons, which sometimes run for 3 periods, and just braving through with empty stomach. The current cool weather does help. My bicycle rides are now a bit slower, taking 50 minutes each way. Work finish just before 6 pm, enough time to cycle back and have the iftar which is now just after 8 pm in the evenings.

There's no gerai ramadan to go here, unlike back home where there seems to be sungkai offer everywhere - that we envy! The only respite here are the few Turkish and Moroccan food outlets in town.

Back to Pedal Power

There was a gap in the weather window when the sun suddenly came out. Off we went to the supermarket to get some goodies for the breaking of fast. It is a much simpler affair here in terms of what are spread on the table. The things that the kids are really looking forward to and has appetite for are the dates. We seemed to be struggling to get a good one here for now - there are quite a number of varieties but not the one that we use to buy during the last Ramadan. Admittedly the one from SupaSave was a good one - imported from Tunisia. Not sure how the Kurnia dates taste - didn't get that one.

Monday will be back to work. Will try to cycle the 9.5 km journey to the office. Fiz thinks that 's suicidal.

Cahaya Islam di Belanda

The only Indonesian Mesjid in The Hague is the Al-Hikmah. Formerly a church, bought at a cost of 600K guilders 10 years ago which was equivalent to B$500K. Nowadays the value of the asset is probably reaching 4 to 5 million Euros. Here's an article written by Republika, an Indonesian paper, regarding the mesjid, written back in 2000.

Semburat Cahaya Islam di Belanda

Republika, 04 Feb 2000
DEN HAAG malam itu menggigil dalam suhu udara 3 derajat Celcius. "Inilah masjid kita," kata M Chaeron, mantan Ketua Persatuan Pemuda Muslim se Eropa (PPME), kepada Republika di Den Haag. Dari luar, bangunan itu tidak mirip dengan masjid umumnya. Rumah panjang bertingkat dua, tanpa kubah. Suasana masjid baru terlihat ketika masuk ke dalam. Ada mihrab dan bentangan sajadah. Masjid Al-Hikmah di Heeswijkpein, Moerwijk kota Den Haag itu awalnya adalah gereja Immanuel.

Pada akhir 1995, di saat umat Islam Indonesia berupaya keras mengumpulkan dana untuk mendirikan masjid -- setelah musholah Al-Ittihad tidak dapat lagi menampung jamaah yang terus bertambah -- Probosutedjo, pengusaha Indonesia, membeli gereja tersebut dan mewakafkannya atas nama kakaknya RH Haris Sutjipto, yang wafat di Leiden, Desember 1995 setelah dirawat di kota itu. Masjid itu diserahterimakan Probo untuk umat Islam pada 1 Juli 1996.

Mengapa gereja? Untuk mendirikan bangunan baru di Belanda tidak mudah, sementara ketika itu banyak gereja yang tidak lagi difungsikan dan dijual kepada umum. Menurut Ahmad Nafan Sulchan, salah seorang pendiri PPME, masyarakat sekitar gereja lebih senang gereja itu dijadikan masjid daripada digunakan untuk kepentingan lain, diskotik misalnya.

Gereja Immanuel itu kini menjadi masjid. Lantai bawah digunakan untuk pengajian dan kegiatan remaja Islam. Lantai atas untuk shalat. Pada Ramadhan lalu, masjid Al-Hikmah dipenuhi warga Indonesia, yang diperkirakan lebih 5.000 orang.

Back to Bicycle Country

Arrived safe and sound yesterday. The flight was full. We had our Sahur on time just before 4.30 am, 2 hours before landing. The good thing about MAS is that there is a dedicated prayer area in the plane so one does not need to miss prayer during long haul flight. It's located between business and economy class, spacious, and all you need to do is to ask the aircrew and they will set up the area so that it is properly enclosed with curtain. Not sure whether other airlines do that. Apart from that of course the food is always good.

Temperature on arrival was in the low 10's degrees C. The cold temperature was the first reality check that we indeed have arrived back to cold Europe. Luckily no major drama at the custom -our luggage was full of goodies from back home.

Sungkai was at 8.30pm last night. Realising that Ramadan is moving 2 weeks ahead every year, the next few years will see breaking of fast at much later hours - not a good time to be in Europe then.

Today it was raining almost throughout the day. Although the temperature was not that low but the damp condition makes it quite cold. It is after all autumn. The whole things slowly becoming more greyish and bleak. Everybody now looks oversize with their big coat. And today the kids were back to school. All three are now in the same senior school, making things a lot simpler to handle.

Back on the Move

Today we are flying off. We are transiting at KLIA, staying over at the airtel hotel, a much needed resting place before catching the main flight 7 hours later. Right now still waiting for the connecting flight, there is a slight delay.

We had a bit of a shock when we checked in at Brunei airport. MAS, unlike RBA, nowadays only allows 20 Kg without giving an extra 5 Kg allowance. What is a bit odd is we got that 5 Kg from MAS on the way to Brunei.

We opted for Pan Pacific Hotel next door for Sungkai. Eating outs here in KL are generally quite expensive compare to Brunei. At Pan Pacific, the buffet cost RM90 per person which is more expensive than at Empire Hotel back home. It would be hard to find any cheap buffet offers here that you could easily find back home where buffet ranges from $5 to $20 per head.

Looking around at the restaurant, it was quite surprising to find that many people came here to have their sungkai, a place which is quite far away from any residential area. In fact the place was full.

First Day of Ramadan

The whole family came and had sungkai in the main family house. Later we performed the evenings and the Terawih prayers together at home, it was good to see young children also joining in and for some learning the prayers for the first time. Tomorrow the place will be very quiet as everybody headed home.

As always in the month, tedarus began at the local mosque. There isn't a big group here, the same faces like every year. Indeed it's a stark contrast compare to the the big crowd that throng the Istana every night. If only a fraction of those would come here that would already make a huge difference.

Today we only did one Juz. The idea is to do two khatams or completion of reading the whole Quran during the month. Apart from that, the Imam who is a Hafiz is also reading the Quran during the Terawih prayer.