There Is Never Room For Racism

 

By the grace and permission of Allah, I got to perform my Umrah back in January this year. Alhamdulillah.

Indeed, it was also a great blessing that we got to experience Umrah after all the Covid-19 SOPs have been lifted. We were free to move around anywhere with no restrictions and the wearing of masks was purely voluntary.

One of the holy sites that we got to visit which was previously closed was Jabal Rahmah, although I did not climb up the 70m hill, having done so during my last Umrah some years ago.

But it was here that our mutawwif reminded us of Prophet Muhammad SAW’s Farewell Sermon, the Khutbah al-Wada’. Among other things, the Prophet SAW said, “All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white – except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.”

It is a fundamentally important message that says, there is no racism in Islam.

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Kembara Umrah 2023

 

Part 1

Part 2

Food, Glorious Food!: Ambuyat, It's Been A While!

 

Ambuyat for dinner tonight! Alhamdulillah. Ambuyat, or also known as linut, is the Brunei national dish and can also be found in parts of Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan. Drove all the way up to Lutong for this place Selihah Catering, located in a very quiet neighbourhood. The fam never had ambuyat before but they... LOVED IT. 😍😍 The last time I ate it was about a decade ago in Bandar Seri Begawan, the night before the Brunei Half Marathon along with the ntv7 team. I still struggle with the assisted chopsticks though. Hahahaha.

Jalan-Jalan Temerloh, Pahang

Know2 dah sampai Temerloh! The Sundays-only Pekan Sehari is definitely a must-visit for everyone lah. It's only our second time here and we love the vibe (and food prices 😁). The random karaoke singers are a mood killer though. Haha!

Jalan-Jalan Singapore

The last time we were in Singapore was way back in December 2019. We all know what happened in 2020, and we hadn’t been back to the city-state, until this past November.

It was actually a trip back to my kampung JB, but I decided to squeeze in a day in SG as well. And oh yeah, a couple of weeks prior to that, I finally renewed my passport that had been expired for a good few months, so the thought of getting that first immigration stamp was rather exciting, haha.

The original plan was to drive into Singapore as per the last few trips. But first, we had to go through all the new SOPs post the pandemic. Virtually everything has moved online, and yes, that also means no more filling up the iconic white card!

We applied for the VEP (Vehicle Entry Permit) a few days before the trip, but on the morning of our planned day of entry into SG, we were told at the pick-up point that our VEP would only be ready in the evening. Oh, man. But I had a contingency plan in my head, i.e.: to take the bus instead, something we had never done before as a family.

Of course, this was a normal thing for me decades ago as my late mum and I would usually take the Singapore-JB Express bus every time we went over to visit our relatives there. But with my own family, we usually take a flight or drive in ourselves.

But when I mooted the bus idea, it was enthusiastically received by everyone! So, I drove to Larkin Sentral, parked our car there and walked into the busy terminal looking for the bus station.

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