tentang hari ini.

firstly :
HAPPY BiRTHDAY TO MiRA~
anda dah tua, sila jangan buat-buat muda okeh XD

secondly :
test ME315 adalah tak konfiden, tapi tidaklah se-hell-ish yang disangkakan.
harap dapat markah yang decent jugak laa.

thirdly :
oh lupa, untuk Wafiq -- nanti bila akak call, ko kena ceritakan camne ko nyer interview berlangsung Isnin ari tu!! tak kira camne.

and then :

borak ngan stranger sampai 1-2 jam.
ni yang nak diceritakan.

*koff*

it was random - sebenarnya, lepas je kelas Thermo, nak pegi keluarkan duit untuk Village relicensing ngan sewa rumah. tapi on the way ke Bronco Student Center (BSC), ada sorang lady ni, tegur aku siap bagi salam. aku pun cam terkesima (ye bahasaku mula menunjukkan belangnya) jap, then nak jawab balik pun slow je, pastu aku kata "Hi..."

the lady : "Hi -- I was just wondering, did you go to the Jesus debate some time ago?" (ref : quarter lepas CPP ada anjurkan debate about 'Jesus : Prophet or God?' with Muslim and Christian representatives from renowned status)

me : "Yeah, I did..."

the lady : "What did you think about it?"

me : *sebab tak biasa bercakap ngan orang, i was extremely awkward* "It was...good..."

then the lady, introducing herself as Cynthia (around 40 years old maybe), explained to me that she is a Christian but studies (did? still? not sure) about Islam and Quran. pastu dia tanya aku sort of like : "What do you think is the difference between Christianity and Islam?"

me : *still being awkward, and naturally can't think straight when approached suddenly* "Eh?"

the lady/Cynthia : "You know, we worship one God, and we have the words of God..."

-- and she told me about sacrifices to repent for sins. like in Christianity, Jesus (Nabi Isa) is said to have been cruxifixed/killed/sacrificed for the sins of his people. and then she mentioned about Abraham (Nabi Ibrahim) sacrificing Nabi Ismail, and also about Moses (Nabi Musa), and about the Jews having sacrifices too. in short, she said that in every religion, or at least in the times of prophets before Rasulullah, there has been sacrifices made as a way to pay for sins, and she asked me about what the sacrifice is in Islam. she means, if God is unchanging, then there should be sacrifices in Islam too, as a way to pay for sins.

bila ditanya camni, aku tau aku kena balas something, tapi sebab ilmu yang ada berapa kerat je, dan sebab takut misleading, maka aku pun kata : "...there's something for me to think about."

i didn't mean to show that we Muslims are weak, or could not provide a satisfying answer, but really, honestly i couldn't find anything to answer that. i know there's an answer, it's just that i don't have it. Cynthia isn't saying that Islam is no better than Christianity, in fact she herself said that she's looking for an answer and to clarify things. she's open-minded and patient, and i kind of enjoyed listening to her.

she's a pathologist, and she told me that it is the realization that we're all going to die some day is what made her think of the reason to live, and what are we going to do while we live. she told me about some other stuff, about her father who had passed away about a year ago, and how she was supposed to follow her father to his work in Saudi Arabia after many times of saying no due to her busy schedule, about the Persian 2-week-festival of new year and celebrating the arrival of spring, about her wanting to go to Islamic countries.

in turn, i told her (some stuff) about Malaysia, how it is a multi-cultural country, how our food is the best food in the world, how there are a lot of beautiful islands and beaches, how it's easy to go to those beaches due to our smaller-sized country compared to US.

there are some other things she asked too about Christianity-Islam similarities and differences, other than about the sacrifice -- but i'll continue in the next post.

thanks for reading.

to be continued in tentang hari ini : part 2.