carrefour

Salam,

It's 2am. I just reached home from Maadi. Had a very looooonnggg day today.

Went to talaqqi from noon till Asr. Today I finished a bit early, so I decided to go Maktabah Darussalam to check out on some books and hopefully find the books I've been looking for. I enjoyed my walk for 15 minutes, passing by my faculty in Al-Azhar and saw the book shop full of customers.

I entered the shop and began browsing through the books one by one. Ahah! found one! Got a little excited. Ahah! found another! and another!! oh wow! This is quite unusual. I've been here a few times, and today I finally found some. Alhamdulillah.

Which book? Oh, I've been searching for Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi's translated books. I am going to find and buy all his translated book, before buying his full list of other Arabic books, ranging from his fatwas and ideology on creating a better Muslim community. Same goes for Dr Ramadan Bouti and other famous Islamic scholars.

Why look for translation instead of the original book? First, translated books by these famous contemporary Islamic scholars would mean that the book is widely use around the world, a must to read. Second, I can simply share the book back home in Singapore with anyone, not everyone can read Arabic you see. And third, I am still going to buy their non-translated books too. insyaAllah. :)

So I spent about S$55 on eight books and two Mashaf Tajwid. Very cheap indeed. Hopefully I will be able to finish up reading all these wonderful writings soon. Oh, oh. I also have a full collection of Harun Yahya's ebook in PDF! ready to be shared.

The sound of call to prayer filled the shop indicating it's time for Maghrib. I end my book hunt and went to Gamie' Al-Azhar to do my prayer. As I was praying, a policeman got very close to me, his feet and shoulder touched mine. I wasn't sure whether he wanted me to be his Imam, or was just praying alongside with me. Later I found out it was the first. The difference! Back in Singapore usually you will get a tap on the shoulder! heh.

Travelling back home was quite tiring, the traffic was really bad. Took me twice as much time than usual. The seven seater Peugeot cab I took for my first half of the journey back home passed through cemeteries. It's a very, very dark small alley between a long stretch of cemeteries. If I'm in Asia, this would be quite scary. But here, they don't believe in ghost, just Jins. Really, you won't feel frighten anywhere you go, even how alone and dark it is. Interesting.

Before I reached home, a friend called in need of my help to bring her to a clinic, and another friend to a tuition but was cancelled. So I head back home, rest a bit, pray and went out again to the clinic. There were two of them.

We went to Taisir Clinic, but there were no specific doctor to examine specific sickness that we need. He would only be available tomorrow at 7pm. You see, unlike Singapore Polyclinic, the public clinics here are made up of a few doctors treating only specific illness. Doctor for eye, doctor for ear and nose, doctor for stomach, doctor for bones, doctor for wound and scars, and so on and so forth. There's a lot of departments! And and you'll have to pay first before consulting any of these doctors. Public clinic will cost you about 20 EGP (S$5) depending on your sickness, but private hospital can reach up to 100 EGP (S$25) just for consultation!

And so the three of us went to Markaz Rabaah, a clinic near our place. Unlike the previous clinic, the queue her is quite long. So we paid and waited for some time. Then I remembered, my house mate too need to go to the same clinic to have his Hep A check up. I asked him to come along and join us. While waiting, I got to know the other friend was also ill, having a back problem. In the end, everyone went for consultations! Except me. One consulting a doctor from ear and nose department, another in the stomach department and the other in the bones department. hah!

We felt very hungry after all those waitings and consultations, so we decided to eat. After dinner, my room mate came and join us with a car. Someone he was driving for rent the car till next morning, suddenly "Carrefour?". "Eh, Jom ah! Jom ahh!" and off we go...

I DROVE! Drove all the way there and back again. Been wanting to drive there since... forever! Hee. Alhamdulillah. It's a less than 40 minutes drive from home. We shopped a lot at Carrefour. I only bought five stuffs but it already cost me 80 EGP (looks a lot but it's only S$20)! And it's all food! Vitamilk, Nestle Lion Cereal, Skimmed Milk, Stuffed rice with meat (arab dish) & Chicken Kofta! Bought those I really wanted try, before going back to Sg. One of them even bought a 3-in-1 HP printer for only S$65! Cheap!

We sent everyone home and returned the car. Had a wonderful time together. Cherish your ukhwah k everyone.

Just an hour plus before Subh. Harap-harap tidak terbabas!

I've already asked for my flight ticket home. Yes I'll be home real soon.

Doakan. Jazakummullah kheir!