Book Review #2

Book #1

Translated by Muhammad Huzaifah
RM 33.00
Al-Hidayah Publications Sdn. Bhd.

First of all, how do I even begin to describe this book? Okay, this book is actually a translated version Al-As'ad Al-Mar'ah Al-'Alam by Dr. Aidh Al-Qarni. In case you didn't know, Dr. Aidh is actually a Saudi Arabian philosopher and he's good at mastering Arab literature and Arabic language thus explaining why he's good at mastering Quran and Hadith. Dia adalah seorang pakar sastera Arab dan mahir dalam bidang tafsir Quran dan Hadith. He has memorized Syarah Bulughul Maram and so on. 

Ok, about this book. 

As you can expect this book contains almost 130 advises(?) for women (?) I guess. Actually, there are 13 chapters and each chapters contain 10 sub-chapters. So, all total 130 advises. Let me tell you, all the chapters are completely randomized and has nothing to do with other chapters. Can you imagine? To memorize and follow all 130 advises is really tough! I think that one of the reasons why this book has (SPOILERS) bookmark ribbon. So that you can mark which advise that you already did and hasn't done. Second of all, all of the sub-chapters (?) in this book are really short and makes me wonder; what's the point that he's trying to tell me? So, it makes me has to reread it all over again after this and so on. Which means, I can't stop reading this book completely and just that. I have to keep reading it and follow it until I completely legit follow all the 130 advises. 

TBH, the advises are not that hard to follow. It's easy to understand and most of the advice are about properity. Like Islam did not encourage you to empty your husband's wallet, and etc. Since I'm not the materialistic type, I found those to be quite underwhelming and it's funny that women are mostly associated with living their life thinking about money, and talk a lot of unnecessary stuff! (I forgot to mention about that) But other than that, this book is great, and it helps me a lot. 

Moving on! Why I like this book:

1. Writing style and languange. 

As you can expect from pakar sastera Arab, Dr. Aidh, use pendekatan nasihat dan memujuk. It's very sweet and I feel like Dr. Aidh is a sweet talker and knows how to play with words. (I did not meant it in a bad way ;)) Since he is a master at Arab literature, there are multiple poems that he wrote and those poems bought my heart. Reading those poems makes me encouraged to learn Arabic literature as well. 

2. Not cringey

This is the most important part. All, women's self-help book sometimes tend to be cringey *cough cough Henshin Muslimah* because they use sweet words to buy your hearts. But since Dr. Aidh knows how to play with words and an Arabic literature master on top of that, this book didn't sound that cringey at all. It sweets, but at the same time, it's not cringey, so kudos to him. 

3. This book is cheap

This book is cheap despite it's in hardcover and has (SPOILERS) bookmark ribbon. 

So yeah! I would rate this book 3.9/10 because of 130 advises that sometimes are not for me. Don't get me wrong, this book is great and all but not as great as the book I used to rate 4 or 5. Totally recommend this book for all married women out there. 

Link where you can buy it online: http://www.mphonline.com/books/nsearchdetails.aspx?&pcode=9789830996219 <- cheaper ver

http://www.hidayah.com.my/index.php/our-products/wanita/jangan-bersedih-jadilah-wanita-yang-paling-bahagia-detail <- the one I owned

http://www.hidayah.com.my/index.php/our-products/motivasi/jangan-bersedih-jadiah-wanita-yang-paling-bahagia-detail<- the cheapest ver

Book #2

Transklated by H. Muhammad Yusuf Sinaga, Lc. MA
RM 22.00
Pustaka Ibnu Kathir Sdn. Bhd.

I'm gonna try my best to not sound like a child here. I love this book. It's great. It has this sort of aura that influence you based on your feelings. For example, there's one part I'm not agree in this book and I almost give up in reading this book. But I'm so glad that the writer mentioned he also did not agree with the points. This book actually is book 3 out of 4 books Dr. Ahmad Syauqi wrote. I never expect anything from this book TBH. It pretty much explains why Islam did not allow it believers to eat pork, to keep a dog as a pet and so on. It also explain the disease and how to cure it very well. For those who don't know, Dr. Syauqi is an Egyptian doctor, he's from Egypt and he sort of run an experiment of why Islam said this is Haram based on science and medication. He explain everything in this book. I highly recommend this book to everyone. Read it, you can also use it to explain your non-Muslim friends why Islam did not allowed this and so on. Amazing book, except it is translated to Indonesian language. So there is a difference in language, for example asam laktik is asid laktik.

  4.2 for this book for it greatness.

LINK TO THE BOOK: http://www.mphonline.com/books/nsearchdetails.aspx?&pcode=9789671075661

Let me know what's your thoughts if you read these books [^^]V

Cerpen Adaptasi Drama/Filem RANTAI

Gerimis masih membunyikan senandungnya. Dia masih cuba untuk terkapai-kapai bangun. Bau hamis darah kuat menusuk ke dalam hidung. Badrul mengerang kesakitan. Sakitnya dipukul tadi masih belum hilang. Dia menggagau jalan raya. Cuba untuk mencari sesuatu supaya dapat menyokongnya untuk bangun. Seperti biasa, dia dipukul lagi. Kali ini kerana kegagalannya menghantar barang ke tempat yang dimaksudkan. Dengan penuh payah, Badrul cuba untuk bangun. Membela nasib diri. Meneruskan hidup.

Matahari memancar cerah. Teriknya ibarat seorang guru yang mendenda anak-anak muridnya. Begitu panas sekali, dan panas itu mampu membakar seluruh penduduk Kampung Seri Bitara ini. Badrul mempercepatkan pemanduannya. Sakitnya hati tadi masih dirasa. Pedal minyak dan stereng kereta yang menderu laju itu masih belum dapat menghilangkan amarahnya. Sampai rumah nanti siaplah budak itu, desis hati Badrul.

Setibanya di rumah, bagai orang mengantuk disorongkan bantal matanya tertancap pada sebatang tubuh langsing yang memberhentikan basikalnya di dinding rumah. Amarah yang sememangnya tadi tersimpan dalam hati kian membara. Badrul menghempas pintu kereta dengan kasar. Pantas tubuhnya meluru ke arah Izzah, anal daranya. Pantas tangannya mencengkam rambut anaknya. Memgaduh sakit Izzah apabila rambutnya dicengkam sebegitu rupa.

“Kau pergi mana tadi?” soalnya sambil mengetap gigi. “Pergi mana pula ini ayah? Izzah tak pernah pergi mana-manalah!” Dalih Izzah sambil tangannya memegang tangan Badrul yang mencengkam rambutnya. “Kau jangan bohong. Habis itu, tadi apa yang kau buat dengan Hariz?” Badrul mendekatkan wajahnya ke telinga Izzah. “Itu Hariz nak tolong Izzah bayar dekat kedai Ah Keong,” balas Izzah, tangannya masih memegang cengkaman Badrul di rambutnya. “Kau jangan nak memalukan aku.” Nada suara kian diperlahankan. Memalukan bapa apa, bapa yang memalukan diri sendiri, desis hati kecil Izzah. Dia tak menjawab. Bimbang ayahnya melakukan tindakan melulu lagi. Badrul mendengus sebelum melangkah masuk ke dalam rumah.

Bunyi enjin kereta di rumah Badrul menimbulkan tanda tanya di hati Badrul. Dia melangkah keluar dengan muka kelam. Kelihatan Saad, ayah Hariz keluar dari perut kereta dengan muka serius. “Kau kenapa?” Badrul mendabik. Saad, masih dengan muka tenangnya cuba memegang lengan Badrul. Mengelakkannya daripada melakukan perkara yang tak sepatutnya. Badrul masih berkeras. Tangannya menepis pegangan tangan Saad. Dengan pantas dia menumbuk Saad.

Saad mengelak. Dia cuba menendang Saad, pantas Saad memegang kakinya. Badrul masih tidak berputus asa, dia cuba menghalakan penumbuknya ke dada Saad. Saad pantas mengelak lalu dia menumbuk perut Badrul. Satu tumbukan di perut sudah membuatkan Badrul tersungkur. Dengan badan kurus kering ibarat penagih dadah itu, mustahil Badrul boleh melawan.

“Aku dah cakap, aku datang sini nak memberi amaran. Jangan  dera Izzah tu. Kalau kau tak mahu bela dia, serah pada aku je.” Kata-kata Saad itu mencabar ego Badrul. Pantas dia bangun untuk menumbuk Saad tetapi dia menumbuk angin. Kesan tumbukan Saad tadi masih membuatnya terhuyung-hayang. Badrul tersungkur.

Badrul cuba melawan. Namun tidak berjaya. Dia tersungkur lagi. Kali ini mereka menggunakan kayu untuk memukulnya. Badrul yang hanya melawan dengan tangan kosong tidak mungkin boleh menang. Lalu dia tersungkur.

Izzah mengeluarkan seutas rantai. Itulah satu-satunya rantai mutiara asli yang masih bernilai. Rantai itu dihadiahi oleh arwah mak kepadanya. Izzah senyum sendiri. Memandang rantai itu, membuatkannya teringat pada arwah mak. Bunyi bising di luar refleks membuatkannya menyimpan rantai itu ke tempatnya semula.

Ternyata dia lambat. Badrul sudah berdiri di depan muka pintu biliknya. Badrul lalu menyentap bekas rantai milik Izzah. Izzah terkesima. “Kau simpan rantai dalam ini kan?” soal Badrul sambil tangan terus menarik bekas rantai tersebut. Izzah cuba melawan. “Ayah nak buat apa dengan rantai ini?” soalnya. “Beri pada ayah.” Badrul masih menarik. Apalah dayanya tenaga perempuan jika hendak dibandingkan dengan tenaga lelaki. Badrul berjaya. Rantai itu kini berada di genggamannya. Izzah tersungkur.

Keesokan harinya, Badrul membawa rantai itu ke tempat pajak gadai. Wang seribu dua ratus ringgit telah berjaya diperolehinya. Dengan senang hati, wang itu dibawa ke gerai Muthu. “Muthu! Roti canai telur satu! Kopi ‘o’ satu!” Jeritnya penuh bangga. Tidak dipeduli langsung mata-mata asing yang memandangnya penuh curiga.

Setibanya di rumah, Badrul memarkirkan keretanya di tempat biasa. Alangkah terkejutnya dia apabila kereta Saad di rumahnya. Tanpa berfikir panjang dia terus meluru masuk ke dapur. Sasarannya ialah satu; Izzah.

Izzah yang sedang menggoreng cucur pisang di dapur nyata terkejut dengan kehadiran bapanya yang tidak diduga itu. Badrul menolak Izzah. Jatuh tersungkir anak dara itu ke tanah. Kuali dilempar ke bawah. Langsung dia tidak hiraukan kesan perbuatannya itu.

Mungkin selama ini dialah yang jahat. Malang tidak berbau. Tangannya terkena api. Habis badannya dibakar api. Izzah terkesima. Pantas dia melarikan diri ke ruang tamu. Meminta tolong Saad.

Saad yang mendengar cerita Izzah hanya mampu menyelamatkan Izzah. Padan muka Badrul, desis Saad. Selalu mendera Izzah. Kali ini biar akulah yang menyelamatkan Izzah, desisnya. Dia membawa Izzah pergi dari situ. Pergi dari Badrul yang rentung.

PS: I was always wanted to write a cerpen, so when I did I know I had to post it here. It's not gonna be REALLY good, I know.