Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Life & Death

It's Wednesday. After a week attending the TIDE 26 course (kat Genting...!), classes resume as usual. Morning - Contemporary Issues in Sunnah Studies. Third Issue: Hadith Ahad Hujjah Dalam Semua Perkara termasuk Aqidah. We discussed the evidence to support the claim that single-narrated authentic hadith is accepted as fact in Aqidah...

After class, directly went back to office. Final touch (konon!) for my presentation this afternoon, on Ibn Hazm and his methodology in Comparative Religion. Dah dua minggu postponed ni (satu water-crisis, then kena attend TIDE...). Tomorrow pulak ada midterm - Islamic Critical Thinking!

About 2.20pm, the slides for the presentation was ready. Went to make some copies for my colleagues at the Dept. offce. All of a sudden, a very shocking news came to us - our beloved Deputy Dean died! I just visited him on Monday after coming back from Genting...

Cause of Death: Dengue
Age: 47

Inna lillah wa inna ilayhi rajiun...
The faculty was quickly deserted. All went to pay the last respect to their colleague. I suddenly recalled my relations with him. He was with me during my interview session - to be formally accepted as a staff of the university, and how he commented my strong argument - that the other panels told him that I hold such a very orthodox view of Islam... How he lead my group during the last IEP program in Kuantan, and he was my partner during one of the game sessions.

Thinking of him as my friend of the same religion, I've decided to visit him, and waited until the funeral was completed. It rained a bit, and as the imam finished reciting the doa, the call for Maghrib filled the air.

That night I couldn't focus on my study for midterm tomorrow. Terpaksalah tidur kat masjid... cari ketenangan la konon!