Congratulations!

I'm so very the hearteneed to see the results of this year's PSLE! In general the Malay community faired well! and what is perhaps even more commendable is that our primary sixers from the madrasahs also did well! the top from madrasah is from irsyad and he scored a whopping 260 lah! superb! with that kind of score and the number of subjects he takes, he can easily show a candle in front of all the other secular peeps and be proud. 

on a more serious note, the greater than national average performance is really crucial, because years ago the kerajaan wanted to close madrasahs should they not be able to make the cut for PSLE. and the respected ulama like almarhum ust syed abdillah al jurfi and ust hasbi bin hassan fought so much to have madrasahs able to continue with p1 intakes, something that is really needed in today's age. When they do well in PSLE, they are actually repaying the efforts of those ulama. 

260. 258 from maarif, excellent! they all beat me ;) and if this trend continues or even improves, we can expect stellar results even in O levels! In fact I won't be surprised if they produce straight As,behind you all the way! all that they need to do is ensure that what needs to be done is done, make sure they UNDERSTAND the concepts, don't just purely memorise, and save LOTS of time by simply paying attention in class, and delight with ecstatic fun and praise of God when  you do understand a particular concept.  Keep a list of points that always bug you, those points that always elude your understanding, or those points that are very commonly used in exams, in a sheet of paper - and drill it often. SUMMARISE points and minimise words, on condition that you already understand them, and surprise surprise, an entire O level syllabus can be squeezed in 2 sides of an A4. Look through all questions of practice exam papers, and to save time, just go through the answers in your mind, then check whether correct,if wrong then seek to understand, that way you can complete an entire paper in less than  30 mins instead of 1hr30mins - (if it's for practice's sake, why tire your hands with so much writing?) That way, even when nearing the exams, you can have free time to breathe, lepak, movie, video games, or even regularly attend night classes in mosques. Don't let your work pile, don't procrastinate, look at it this way, sooner or later, if it has to be done, it has to be done, procrastination is from Satan. 

I am very fortunate that my mum adopts the Own Time Own Target concept; 

she only has 3 big general rules for me;

 

1)don't compromise your religion, faith & akhlaq

2) don't compromise your studies (duniawi and ukhrawi)

3) Be physically safe, stay away from trouble

though i haven't tried, i suppose the big freedom comes with equally big penalties if the preconditions for big freedom is/are compromised. 

then whatever else i want to do,be it lepak at kedai kopi with friends till wee hours, it's a "lantak engkau";)

and i kinda told myself already that one day when i am a dad, i will grant my children that same freedom, see, I'm Mr Welfare ;) I just don't like being authoritarian and unreasonable in punishing. I will engage in rationale discussions with my children if they were to make a mistake and convince them that what they do is really wrong, and therefore deserve appropriate punishment. These discussions can sometimes get very long, and if they say i membebel, then i tell them they are being unreasonable and demagogic as to dismiss an argument without having rationally refuted it, and if they rationally refuted it (eg valid excuses), then good. Quran exhorts us to be rational, logical, and to avoid bias and to seek truth for what it is. 

Al-Haqqu mir rabbik, fa laa takuunanna minal mumtareen!

Truth is from your Lord, so do not be among those who doubt!

Rest assured, I won't punish for no reason. 

of course she once in a while does want to know my whereabouts etc, and i understand it is all purely mother's love and a real practical concern, nothing intended to make my life miserable.

I understand that she doesn't want to be the last to know if ever anything tragic like an accident were to happen, that would be bad, agreeable? See, everything should happen for a good reason, not simply making others' lives miserable. 

Maa khalaqta haazaa baathilaa, subhaanak! 

You did not create these in vain, Glory unto You!

so much freedom lah, no fixed timetables at home, no curfews ever, can go for late night movies lah, sleep over at friends' place etc. But just bear in mind that what needs to be done, has to be done. i don't believe in having a very rigid timetable at home, flexibility must be granted to accommodate the current,varying circumstances, for example if more needs to be focused on maths, then so be it. Cost-Benefit Analysis. 

In Islam, there is no such thing as Fragmentation Of Knowledge, that is the view that the physical sciences and maths are purely duniawi subjects having no implications whatsoever on one's religion and faith. Such a concept is from secularism, not Islam. Islam views all true knowledge, truth as coming from God, and true enough, even the most celebrated Western Scientists delight and marvel at God's incomprehensible Greatness and Ingenuity when he studies the Signs of God in this world ;) So as long as you are a muslim, you must master BOTH ukhrawi and duniawi subjects, regardless whether or not you are from madrasah, period. Then we will gain back our respect, value and worth from the entire world. When Islam fluorished, not only was Syariah strong, so too was Tasawwuf, the languages, the sciences (physical and Islamic), basically every field of knowledge...May God guide us all, amin!

another note, i received news that Sidi Faiz was recently hospitalised, May God grant him a speedy recovery, amin! Our du'as for him, insyaAllah.