Eidul Adha 1428H

- Unlike last year when there was no formal request, this time around hubby got a formal letter from the embassy requesting him to be the Imam for solat sunat Eidul Adha 1428H. that helped in persuading ICOJ’s President to give him a day off and let a substitute Imam lead the prayer in Asakusa Mosque instead.

- With the absence of the ‘big guy’ of this mosque, Brother Ehsan, (who has gone back to Pakistan until early 2008) hubby had to find a substitute imam on his own, and alhamdulillah the former Imam of this mosque, Brother Mushtaq Zaman agreed to help. We were worried about having nobody to make arrangement for food to be served after prayer, but Brother Mushtaq knows how things work here and is well-known by the policemen in this area (for his role as the former Imam), so that lessened our worry a great lot.

- Not unlike last year, we were fetched by the Embassy’s car, but the yound and charming Hasegawa-san was no longer behind the wheels. We were greeted instead by another older ojiisan chauffeur that morning. We were told that Hasegawa-san has changed profession to be a “barber technician”. My guess is he is now a hair stylist.

- The cheerful ojiisan asked some questions regarding Hari Raya Korban, and so I attempted explaining in rather poor Nihonggo (with the assistance of the English – Japanese dictionary in my keitai) the history of how Allah had asked Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his beloved son Prophet Ismail, and how Ismail had been substituted by a kibash as a sign that the sacrifice of both father and son had been accepted by Allah. The ojiisan finally snapped his finger and exclaimed “I got it! Today there is lamb prepared in the Embassy” (in Nihonggo), to which I smiled and nodded weakly, instead of further explanation on the timeline for ‘korban’.

- The ojiisan’s take on Islam was basically summarized by his statement; “The people at the (Malaysian) Embassy love their family. They want to spend time with their family. They go out to eat with their family, to shop with their family, to sightsee with their family. Japanese people, they love their job more than their family. That’s why in the past 30 years or so, more families are broken. They must learn from Islam. They must learn to love their family more”

- Hubby didn’t lose much sleep over editing the text for sermon, unlike last year when we even engaged Mak’s help to reword, rephrase and rearrange the long 20-pages long khutbah to become just 9 pages. We crossed out stuff that we think is not relevant with the audience in Japan (including stuff hubby does not really believe in) and added a few dose of our own stuff. Basically we added some stuff regarding the importance of being earnest and persevered in seeking knowledge, and in addition to Muslim renowned “tokoh ilmu”, we also mentioned names such as Nobel Prize Winners Muhammad Yunus (2006) and Mohamed ElBaradei (2005), and mentioned in passing how some Malaysians had bagged Diamond and Double Gold Awards at the British Invention Show 2007.

- Small attendance of the solat sunat raya congregation in the Embassy meant that there was a felt hush when the Imam delivered the sermon, unlike last year when I had trouble to hear what hubby was saying amidst all the ‘suara nyamuk’. Oh, and this time around, he did not forget to hold the ‘tongkat’ when he started his sermon (last year nobody passed it to him, so this year, he put it right next to the rostrum)

- We met up with neither Sofea Haruka who could not skip her class that Thursday, nor Faizly, who had a presentation scheduled. Like he said – “saya pulak yang kena ‘berkhutbah’ depan sensei pagi raya ni”

- The attendees of solat sunat raya that morning in the Embassy must had been a record low. My personal estimate put it at less than 200, where else the Embassy had been prepared to serve 400 guests. Unlike last year when they had to cook extra food while it was still being served, this year saw lots of food probably went to waste (even after asking many to tapau the food home)

- There was a combination of factors to explain the low attendance – since it was near the end of year and right before the winter break, lots of students either had to sit for exams or make presentation (if it’s just classes, some don’t really mind skipping them), and those who work are rather hesitant to ask for leaves since long leaves (year end/beginning of new year) are looming quite near in the future. Nevertheless, it was still a ‘sederhana tapi meriah’ celebration at the Embassy.

- Right after I finished queuing up for the lamb, I was called to join hubby being served in the TYT Ambassador’s house. I was rather flabbergasted, but accepted the invitation anyway. That was where we met up with other personal guests of the Ambassador’s – the Brunei Ambassador, and some Malaysians holding prestigious positions in Japan.

- Huzaifah, being the active child that he is, had a near brush with an accident when he went out of the Embassy building on his own. Ida’s husband saved him from crossing the main road and brought the protesting and wailing Ujai back into the main building. Ida herself was busy chasing her twin girls around – who are about Huzaifah’s age. The “terrible two’s” is apt to describe our kids. I was carrying Humaidi with me (using the baby carrier) at all time, so I thought hubby would help with minding Huzaifah more. Only that, hubby could sometimes be too ‘relaxed’ in minding his son, having being exposed to see how ‘carefree’ kids could be in Egypt… Anyway, Ida and Herman, thanks again for your help that day. Alhamdulillah tak jadi apa-apa yang tak elok…

- Instead of heading straight back home after leaving the Embassy, we went to Tuan Syed Nahar’s place in Aoyama, not far from Omotesando. We were driven there by the Embassy car, where we thanked and bid the ojiisan chauffeur goodbye. Tuan Syed Nahar happens to work in the IAEA Regional Office in Tokyo, and was understandably happy to hear his boss’s name (Mohamed El-Baradei is the DG of IAEA) mentioned in hubby’s sermon. He invited us over for makan-makan raya at his place and hubby quickly accepted his offer.

- The apartment in Aoyama is far, far more impressive than the Embassy Staff residence in Kamimeguro, not to mention a far cry from typical Japanese apartments which are often sekangkang ayam in size. I started to worry immediately upon entering their home since I did not bring any toy for Huzaifah to play with. After a futile search for suitable toys, my eldest boy was finally entertained by a container of colorful beads of room deodorant, but despite careful maneuvering and monitoring, still managed to break one of the host’s colorful glass egg. Adusy!

- We returned home after Asar, after being served with nasi Arab and ketupat daun palas, brought all the way from Malaysia by Tuan Syed’s eldest daughter, Nadiah, who had just arrived in Narita that morning to spend an 8-days break with her parents.

- I did not cook any raya food, and hubby’s quick call just before we left the Embassy gave me no time to tapau any food from the Embassy, thus, we ended up having ‘the extra special Maggi Mee Ayam’ that night. What is so special about instant noodles, eh? Ask Kak Lela – her writing sort of inspired me to actualize the fantasy of having ‘special’ dish of instant noodle on Raya… Heh.