A little bit more that I should add：
- I think Faizly will make a fine husband to one lucky girl ine day insya Allah. For iftar on Khatam Quran day, he came to Asakusa to take care of a lot of things – preparing ayam masak merah and telur dadar mainly, and taking care of stuff otherwise including being Ujai’s babysitter every now and then. No thanks to me (who burnt the dish a little bit while Faizly was frying the telur dadar elsewhere) the ayam masak merah went a lil bit haywire – some said it looked like curry, others commented that it tasted like rending. But tengik or otherwise, it still tasted ok, alhamdulillah.
- The only time my family went out for iftar this year was when Encik Jasri, the current student counselor in Malaysian embassy came to take us out for a treat in Shagorika restaurant in Asakusa. Prior to that I had had my iftar outside a few times when I couldn’t be back home by Maghrib, but hubby had never had his iftar away from the mosque. Encik Jasri visited us a few days before Eid, to enable hubby’s friend, Ustaz Jalal from Jakim who was on one-month official duty in Japan, meeting us as well as to ask hubby for a favour. He asked if hubby could be the back-up Imam for Eidul Fitr prayer in the Malaysian embassy, which hubby had to decline since he was supposed to lead the Eid prayer in Asakusa. As for Eidul Adha, hubby would consult the ICOJ big shots and will get back to Encik Jasri later. Turned out that ICOJ actually managed to find a Pakistani imam to lead the Eidul Fitr prayer in Asakusa mosque – which we only learned about the night before Eid. Although a bit upset by the late revelation by ICOJ, hubby was relieved anyway, since the Eid prayer was done in accordance with the Hanafi custom rather than Shafie custom…
- Received one Nihonjin guest who wanted to pay Fitrah at 1 o’clock in the morning 2 days before Eid. She became a Muslim in Malaysia, when she was given the opportunity for a one-year overseas posting by her company. She is still in touch with her Malaysian adopted family who introduced her to Islam and even said that she wish she could live in Malaysia. But the exchange rate is not in her favour right now since she also has responsibility towards her parents. I asked her why didn’t she go and pay fitrah in another mosque not far from where she works, her answer was – the people there are not friendly, therefore she prefers not to go there. She said that the people there probed about a lot of things she prefers not to discuss, such as why is she not wearing the hijab, when is she going to pray five times a day at allotted times, bla, bla, bla…
- It wasn’t the first time I heard of such thing in Japan. Another Nihonjin friend of mine once remarked that the people at that particular mosque are rather “kibishi” (strict, rigid), thus she doesn’t feel comfortable going there. I was surprised to learn that compared to born Muslims, sometimes, Nihonjin muallaf could be harder on their fellow muallaf. I thought, being new Muslims themselves, they should be able to understand the trials and tribulations their fellow new Muslim has to undergo, and thus be more understanding and supporting instead of the other way round. A sad thing really.
- Oh, by the way – that 72 year old pakcik mentioned in the earlier post – he has yet to return to the mosque. One of the regulars for terawikh in our mosque said he believed the ojisan would never return – he just wanted some instant easy cash… Well, we never know, kan…
- Hubby got plenty of duit raya this year, alhamdulillah. Huzaifah got 1000 yen and RM10 so far. I didn’t get any. What I got instead was an eye infection upon waking up on the morning of Raya kedua. It was so painful and my right eye sight became so bad that I had to wait until around 4 o’clock before I was confident enough to cycle to a clinic nearby. Since then, I had gone for another check-up and my right eye seems to do okay now, alhamdulillah.
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