My Second Umrah-23-31 May 2009

Alhamdullillah and InsyaAllah,
I should board the 1520 flight from KLIA to Jedddah today.
My good friend Major Ramli Othman, the CEO of TH Travel, instructed his GM to hand deliver my passport and visa plus the air tickets to me last night at home.
Somehow they managed to process the whole thing and that is why i am going on my second Umrah today.
Ramli too will be on the same flight and and he is still on a mision to negotiate the atrocious new rates for the accomodation package during this year's Hajj. I am just going to 'tumpang' his room and a little bit of his priviledges.I only paid for my air fares.
Most probably i will spend about 2 days in Madinah and then off to Makkah.

I am blessed that since my first Umrah last month, my life has been fast paced and according to another good friend of mine Mazlan Omar, i am too fast for him!!
Actually, i am being blessed and my life has truly taken an accelerated change.
Alhamdullillah.

Well, i told him that it was not so, and that it is only now, nearing my 53rd year on earth that i am just somewhere near, within his sight and that all these years, i have been in the shadow of my own doing.

I know a few others like Charlie Yeo who thought that how come, only now,that he sees me in a sort of 'top form'....

Well that goes to show that in as much as we were friends there are many things that we do not know about each other.
It is only now that we are seeing each other more often than last time, and the best part is that we are discovering that it is a good thing.


I hope i will have another fulfilling Umrah like the previous one and my wish and doa is the same as the last one....no additional request....

I will SHARE my experience once i come back next Sunday.

Just to Share-My Friday Morning Thoughts

(I wrote this to my ESQ 165 Alumni E-list this morning)

Since FRIDAY is the King of all days, i am inspired to jot down my thoughts after subuh on Friday.

I am also on a crusade of a sort to make FRIDAY, the public holiday of my country Malaysia, because i believe that, by ignoring FRIDAY as the most reverred day in Islam, we might have been disillusioned from the true path and that might be one of the reasons for our unsettled life, even though we have been blessed with abundance with everything in this beautiful country of ours.

This is my small contribution to my faith, InsyaAllah.

Dear all Alumni members,
Assalam mu alaikum WarahmatuAllah hi wabarakatuh
Salam 165 and Salam Semut/Gajah
Pagi....

Since Friday is the Islamic King of all the Days, i would like to share with you all some of my Thoughts on this auspicious morning:

I know that many of us have written here on this E-list some postings about life and some motivational examples.
There are some that also post some politically inclined messages on events and things that were organised by some political parties.
There are some that post certain general informations .
There are some that just re-post from others..

Whatever it is, all of us wants to SHARE a little bit of what we have and in this E-list we are sharing information.
This, i believe must have been done through our ESQ traits of SHARING.
This is a good habit and i hope some of us do not over do it.
More so, that we have been through the ESQ experience and we pride ourselves as having ZEROED our MIND.
Anyway since we are humans, we are not absolved of making mistakes.

Hence in ESQ, we are encouraged to RECHARGE.
I know that i am one of the culprits that has not been attending regular recharge and i have also not managed to be able to volunteer as an ATS.
(Sorry Brother Razib and Puan Marhaini)
But, the thought of it has never vanished from my mind and i will endeavour to do in in the near future.

My ESQ experience during the Pioneer ESQ Training in Malaysia at the Palace of the Golden Horses in 2006 is still fresh in my mind and the beautiful melody of Asmaul Husna, the ESQ Version is everlasting in my life, such so that when i hear it on Astro, i will stop all activities and just listen to it.
The CD and casette in my car is permanently there, and i have had to get new ones because of over used!

I have followed in earnest the deliberations about some minor misunderstanding of ESQ and the various comments. I too have made my own comments.

Since, the first foray into ESQ, i have had not a single doubt.
I have found it to be enlightening and thought provoking.
I have found it to be so simple that, it answers most of my questions.
I have found it as a tool to learn more about my Islamic faith.
It is a sort of catalyst or Ajinomoto in my religious discovery, which has been otherwise quite stale.
(Ajinamoto is a taste enhancer and what i mean here is that, after ESQ my quest for more Islamic knowlege is quite apparent.)
I do not want to bore you with details but suffice to say that i have had a fulfilling Umrah from 4-12th April and i will be performing my Hajj obligations in November this year, InsyaAllah.
All these are happening in my 52nd year of existence.
On reflections, i am very slow and i should have done all these in my 20's....

I can vouch that ESQ has made a difference in my life, and it has surely made me more hungry to find out more about my Islamic faith which i inherited or was born into.

Sometimes i envy those that Converted or Reverted into Islam because they did it out of their own free will and not out of default.
Anyway this can be another topic for my future Friday Morning Thoughts!!!!

Today i would like to share with you my healthy habit of Cycling.
I am staying in Putrajaya at Presint 16, i.e behind Taman Warisan Pertanian and in the area of Alamanda.
I have a small group that cycles regularly and we call ourselves The Putrajaya E-Riders or PERs in short.
The E in PERs initially denotes EASY, but after a while our cycling activities becomes EXTREME too..
Anyway, we have a blogspot at kayuh.co.cc.

Our cycling activities are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday Nights starting at 9.30 pm at the Putrajaya Mosque. We normally spend about one and half hours and sometimes cover about 30 over km..
We try to ensure that we go back home by 11 pm on weekdays.
Only on Friday do we encourage Teh tarik after the ride.
On weekends we ride too.
On Saturday Morning and Sunday Morning we start at 8.00 am from Taman Warisan Pertanian.
We normally try to go off road in our mountain bikes and try to finish off by 10.00 am.
Sometimes we go and ride away from Putrajaya on Saturday.
Members of our group comes from all over KL and Selangor and they comprises a diversity of professions and background but with a passion of cycling either road bikes or mountain bikes.

I would like to SHARE this healthy lifestyle with my ESQ Alumni, because a HEALTHY body, promises a more stable MIND, and ultimately promises a PERFECT way of life which is after all ISLAM, because it is the MOST Perfect Way of Life.

So keep Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

Azudin O Fuad, Lt Kol retired.
ESQ Alumni 1(2006), KL

I wore the T-shirt that my daughter gave me around Kaabah

OP Jamal Nasir and me showing our crown