Tinta Kata!

We’re having a trip to Sungai Pisang (Banana River?) this morning. And frankly, it is a fantastic event. Located 5 to 6 KM from IIUM, it is a nice spot of waterfall which is great and fascinating. It is about a week ago when Syarief having this thought that we should spend our time together, go somewhere for picnic and such. And he chose Sungai Pisang. I am really excited since me and Abu Zubair are planning to go there for about a month, and we didn’t got a chance.

So, this morning, we met at the front of Admin Building of IIUM. It is about 25 people of us (sorry guys, too many to name), altogether. We depart somewhere around 9 AM, and we stop for breakfast nearby Masjid Zakaria, before going to the Gombak Pump House. It just took us around 10-15 minutes to arrive.

And this is the adventurous part. From that Pump House, it took us around half an hour of trekking along the river to reach Sungai Pisang. It is quite challenging, since there are a lot of vines and stump. And the trekking path is (so) small. Abu Zubair and I are falling behind since we started our trekking a bit late compared to the others (plus, I’m busy taking pictures). So, knowing that we’re lacking behind, we ran (yes, indeed we were running) through the forest. The nicest part is that it is challenging with the vines and dead trees across the path; and all sort of thing, feeling like we’re competing in the Iron Man challenge, jumping here and there. It took us somewhere around 15-20 minutes to reach the waterfall. Masya Allah. It is nice, really. Knowing that there are places that beautiful that still haven’t been flawed by the hands of human being, it is a pleasant view.

We swam, having fun, bashing Masri in the water for more than half an hour. And then we stop to hear taujihaat from Syeikh Aiman ad-Daqqaq. A nice and comforting speech. Syeikh reminded us that we should be thankful to Allah for putting us in the comfort of Islam and Iman, and comfort of following the Sunnah. We should be thankful to Allah because we’re not among the Khawarij, Mu’tazilah, Rafidhah and all other cults that inherited the way of Salaf al-Dhallah. And he reminded us to give our intention to stick on the path of Sunnah, because the essence of the fikrah is to follow (ittiba’) and stick (tamassuk) with the teaching of al-Quran and al-Sunnah, inner and out.

There are a few questions raised after the speech, most of them related to the prayers. Right after the Q&A session, we went for lunch. Our cook/chef/quartermaster of the day, Man (his name is Man, not man in sense of adult human male) prepared a nice food (which I didn’t get to eat). Thank you very much.

We leave the place after 12 PM. This time we took different route. Not as challenging as the first, except when we have to climb that stiff hill. This second route took us to a journey (of course we have to walk) along Karak highway. The journey is shorter, but I like the first very much. We arrived at the Pump House after 20 minutes of journey. After changing our clothes, we leave the place and set apart.

I’m looking forward to go again. Nice journey and relaxing moments with a thousand of good memory to be carved towards the path of life.