The Tree Shrew’s Bananas

Here is the story.

Around my house, there are some banana trees. Every once in a while, the super duper helper would harvest the bananas and put it at the kitchen door exit. She would then take her time to make lepat pisang (mashed bananas??? I’m not too sure what it is in English), kerepek pisang (banana biscuits??? Boy, I’m having trouble translating the kind of stuff you make with bananas tonight! It must be because I have to sit for an exam in nine hours time! Haha) and some other stuff that you can make from bananas.

Apparently, from the day she brought in the bananas, there is one tree shrew that would visit the kitchen and take a banana as its meal. 

From what I was told, the tree shrew would drop by, take a banana and happily go and enjoy its fruit of labour elsewhere. It will come again for some more as and when it was hungry.

The super duper helper managed to utilize all of the bananas within 3-4 days. So that means the tree shrew was able to enjoy the bananas for three to four days.

On the fifth day, there were no more bananas for the tree shrew in the kitchen.

I am assuming the tree shrew must’ve got into the kitchen and went around looking for bananas and failed to find any.

Disgruntled, the tree shrew left the kitchen.

On the way out, the tree shrew pooped in the middle of the kitchen exit.

*well, it wasn't this much though*

You might think that it was a cute way to say “thanks for the bananas. I really enjoyed it. My tummy feels so much better now. Here’s some proof that the bananas helped my digestive system… urgghhh… there you go! Thanks again!!”

But I don’t think so.

You want to know why? Because it went to my helper’s room and pooped there as well. Hahaha!

I think it was a way to say, “Hello Ms. Super duper helper! You didn’t have to finish up all of the bananas in four days you know. You could’ve left some for me. I was really enjoying the bananas! I saw you mashing my bananas to make all those junk stuff! EWWWW OK! Is that how you humans eat??? Bluekh! Since you are responsible for finishing all my bananas, you can clean my poop!!! urgghhh!!

Ha! Take that!”

And then it quickly skipped to the super duper helper’s room and said,

“urgghhh! Ha take that as well!!!”

HAHAHA!

I can just imagine the angry tree shrew pooping its revenge all over the house because of some missing bananas!

Oh well tree shrew, I’m sure there are other stuff to eat around the house right?

You take care now.

Blog adjourned.

Understanding Faraid

Faraid is the Islamic Inheritance Law. Faraid is an Arabic word that literally means a share that has been predetermined. Predetermined by God of course.

Faraid itself is a complex subject. It is superbly comprehensive and very interesting. As all properties in this world belong solely to Allah and He has given us the mandate to utilize it as his agent when we are alive, naturally, when we die, His property should be distributed back into the economy according to how He wants it to be.

I was lucky to have taken this subject back when I was an undergraduate at AIKOL in IIUM. Back in 2003, my lecturer, Dr. Ungku Fadzil, gave my class a systematic way of understanding faraid with complete notes. (Thank you Sir! Your lecture and notes rock!!!) Alhamdulillah I scored an A- in this paper. I still have the notes with me and have been referring to it every now and then. Last semester break, I managed to sit down and rewrite the notes again as the old one was old and the paper looks like it’s about to disintegrate anytime.

Faraid is part of my studies for Wealth Planning and Management this semester. Having some background in faraid, I asked some of my classmates if they wanted to have a discussion on faraid as a preparation for the exams. I thought the group was going to be around 5-6 pax but almost 25 of my friends turned up for the tutorial!!!

I got up way before Subuh to prepare myself for the class. I knew it was complex and I wanted to make sure that I manage to clarify instead of confuse them even more.

The tutorial started about 2.30pm and ended around 5.30pm.

I started the class by saying that the authority for faraid can be derived from the Quran and Sunnah. Saydina Ali (ra) then gathered the authorities and developed a more systematic approach to the subject. He was like the grand master of faraid (after the Prophet that is!). He was so good that if you mention to him that you have received say so much of the property, he can calculate backwards and tell you who else survived the deceased person and if what you got is right. In other words, he is an expert in faraid. Unfortunately, I cannot do that. So I cannot be regarded as an expert in this field. Haha.

3 hours of writing all the formulas on the whiteboard, explaining the fractions, conditions, groups, impediments and circumstances surrounding the distribution of the praepositus (or deceased person) is one difficult task. I was jumping from one end to the other showing why a grandfather will block the great grandfather or how a son’s daughter will need a great grandchild to turn her into residual heir or else she won’t get anything and how two daughters will block a granddaughter from inheriting.

What I learned in four months was summarized into a three hour lecture!

It was a very heavy subject and to cramp it into 3 hours really drains your mental health.

But Alhamdulillah I think the class went well. My classmates asked questions and we discussed the answers. Alhamdulillah I managed to answer all of the questions and am quite sure that I was right about it even though some answers trickled into my mind towards the end of the class. At first I said that I am not sure of the answer as I just cannot recall the answer. Then as I continued explaining other points, I felt like God twitched a part of my brain and opened one door inside it where all of the answers are there. The answers came to me like someone had just said it to me out loud! 

Fantastic feeling I tell you!

It was indeed a very satisfying experience for me. 

I never knew that I enjoyed teaching this much. I felt like I managed to lift all of the preparation that I did from morning and passed it all to my friends in the class at the end of the lecture. All of the exhaustion that came from the preparation and the lecturing was so worthwhile at the end of the class.

Faraid is indeed a very important subject in the overall of wealth planning. The Prophet said:

“Learn Faraid, and teach them to people; for it is one half of knowledge and it will be forgotten and the first to be taken up from my community”

I hope the class yesterday could comprehend faraid and attempt to answer the long essay in the final exam next week. (Although I do apologise if you could not understand my explanation. This is my first attempt in lecturing about faraid...)

If any of you taking Wealth Planning and Management this semester is reading this post, GOOD LUCK!!!

Blog adjourned!

Knight Rider Provisions

Yes!

I’ve completed both of my assignments! My second is assignment was about the importance of rider provisions in family and medical takaful.

When I first got the question I was like, “What in the world is a rider provision?” So I asked around some friends to see if they know about rider provisions. Most of them were just like me. They don’t have a clue what a rider provision is.

*Apparently, Knight Rider has nothing to do with a Takaful Rider Provision*

That means I had to start from scratch to understand about rider provisions. This led me to run through my takaful plan thoroughly. As I read and read and read, I finally understood that a rider provision is an additional supplementary benefit to the basic coverage that I get in my insurance plan.

In Islam, we cannot insure life. This means there is no life insurance. Takaful however provides for a family takaful. It covers death benefits to the participant’s family members. That is all that the basic family takaful plan does. Thus if you want to include coverage of hospitalization, weekly indemnity, disability provider etc, then you need to add some supplementary schemes to the basic family takaful plan that you have. These additional supplementary schemes are also known as rider provisions. They are not for free. Comparing the fact that you do not have to take so many basic policy to suit your needs but instead add on some payments for the extra coverage, rider provisions can be relatively economical.

Since there are no text books which explains the importance of rider provisions, students had to think on their own for this paper.

At first, I didn’t quite like the topic. Then after understanding the question and what the lecturer wanted, I thought that this was actually a really interesting assignment.

It really made me think and be very critical in seeing the importance of rider provisions. It also made me scrutinize my takaful policy and now I actually know in detail about my insurance plan.

Although this can be regarded as one of my shortest assignment (I only managed to write up to ten pages) but I think it is quite comprehensive in the sense that I (think) I covered all of its importance.

Now I can focus on the text books for the finals which is coming at the end of this month.

Two subjects!

I hope I can nail it this time!

Insha Allah!

Blog adjourned

An Island Retreat In Between Assignments

*Mr. Star Fish going back into the sea*

Hello again people!

I’m supposed to start on my assignment now but the urge to do something else has gotten the better of me. It happens to most of us right? When you have to do something that tops your priority, other less important issues seems too tempting and will attract your focus and attention.

Which will lead to the procrastination of the more important task and ultimately, we start to wish we could have more time in this world.

Well, this short semester requires me to complete two assignments. I have completed one and have not even started on the second.

The first one is rather interesting. It is about the American Constitution. According to the American Constitution, the Government is prohibited to do or not to do anything which promotes religion. In other words, the government must maintain its neutrality towards religion. This may be interesting to the readers coming from the States.

During the 2008 economic crisis, AIG was having some financial difficulties. The US Treasury Department decided to bail out the AIG Group. This led to them owning a huge part of the AIG’s equity. Amongst the subsidiaries of AIG were some companies involved in Shariah compliant businesses.

Mr. Kevin J. Murray, a tax payer and an ex-marine, thought that the bailout by the US Treasury Department was unconstitutional as it promoted Islam (since AIG’s Subsidiaries were involved in Shariah compliant business.)

So I had to do a lot of research on the American Constitution, particularly the Establishment Clause which prohibited the promotion of religion, case law, legal journals (all this from the ever handy www.lexisnexis.com) online news reports etc.

Very interesting. I like. I think I managed to simplify it to be as simple as possible.

The second assignment is rather straightforward. It is so straightforward that I’m already stuck before starting anything. I am supposed to identify and discuss the importance of Rider provisions in family and medical takaful contracts. I’m having a tough time trying to think of an interesting way to do it. I have the draft outline prepared and approved by the lecturer. (Actually I do that for all my assignments so that I don’t beat around the wrong bush!) I guess I’ll just have to write something and hope for the flow to trickle in as I progress.

I guess this sidetrack is taking more than it is necessary for me to clear my mind and to start my writing mode engine.

*Alisha telling me how happy she was playing with sand**

By the way! I just got back from a beautiful holiday with my mini family and in-laws (which includes F-i-L, M-i-L and S-i-L… tak ramai pun…) at the Berjaya Beach Resort in Pulau Redang. I seem to think that Berjaya Beach Resorts around the world is really interesting and very comfortable yet affordable. The staffs are locals which means that it provides good job opportunities to the locals too!

Alisha enjoyed herself the most! A real fun baby to go holidays with, Alhamdulillah.

*Alisha posing with her beach toys*

*The Pulau Redang Beach Model showing how beautiful the sand is there*

Pictures are posted on the Bride’s Facebook but I have shared it on my profile as well.

Pulau Redang Beach is EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL!

The sand is literally as white as snow and the sea is as clear as a swimming pool!

I managed to bury Alisha up to her waist and hoping to see her struggle to wriggle her way out, but I was wrong. She practically enjoyed being stuck in the sand as she was then able to stand and play with sand all around her! Haha!

*An unhappy Alisha in the bus back to the airport. Somebody does not want to end the holiday!*

Funnylah you little girl!

I brought my S-i-L's cool lime Dell Netbook with some hope of doing some of my assignment but the wonderful breeze and scenery managed to block any thought of doing work there. haha.

I better start back on my assignment.

Blog adjourned.