4M

There were many memories to choose from when I sat down to write about 4M.

There are 12 Form 4 classes in my school and 4M contains the creme de la creme. These smart kids might be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when learning their science subjects, but unfortunately the same eagerness wasn't extended to English and other subjects "lower down the hierarchy". Thus, trying to capture their attention, fuel their imagination and gain their respect was no mean feat.

However, when the students did become engaged in the tasks assigned, MAGIC happened.

One such instance is the Activist assignment I'd written about. Another would be when the students dramatised the short story 'The Fruitcake Special'. The students got into groups of 8, with every one in the group having a role to play.

First, the students adapted the story into a script. Most of the groups modified the story to make it even more funnier. Then, they practised, practised and practised (after school) for 2 weeks or so. Every group was trying to outdo the others and was being very secretive. They would stop rehearsing whenever I passed by Pondok NILAM or elsewhere in the school compound where they held their practice.

Oh, the suspense and anticipation in the build up to Presentation Day!

The day finally arrived and all 5 productions didn't disappoint. The effort that went into the assignment was obvious from the execution of their plays, the costumes they had on and the props that they brought along/made themselves.

The extrovert students were given the platform to shine and I was bowled over by their talents. But it was the quiet, timid students who made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Performing in public must have terrified them and it was evident how nervous they were. But performed they did and it was wonderful to see them emerge from their shells.

I love the diagram below and I hope that all my students will take the message to heart :)

Saigon Trip

A Hungry Beginning

One of the most memorable passages from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is when Gandalf was looking for someone "to share in an adventure". He lamented that it was hard to find anyone up to the task.

Bilbo Baggins replied, "I should think so - in these parts! We are plain, quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't see what anyone sees in them."

Funnily enough, on Dec 7, 2012, my Vietnam adventure started off exactly with my having to miss my dinner. My flight was supposed to take off at 2050 but it was delayed to 2230. It was a brief delay so most people took it well, barring a few ruffled and disgruntled travellers.

While waiting for the revised boarding time, my mum and I prayed Isha and had some hot chocolate afterwards. While sipping the lovely hot choc, I was feeling smug because I didn't "sweat the small stuff" and was spending the time pleasurably.

When it's time to board the plane, we were told that our flight was delayed yet again (!). The plane would only arrive at 0000 and even then we would have to wait some more before it could take off to our destination.

By then, I wasn't feeling so smug anymore. This was the uncomfortable part of adventure that Bilbo talked about. And this was when I started to visualise my warm, comfy bed and wonder why I had signed up for the trip in the first place.

The neither-here-nor-there state we were in made everyone restless and anxious. No hot choc could have placated me then.

We finally took off for Ho Chi Minh City at 0050, four hours later than originally scheduled. The whole episode made me realise that I'm not as patient as I thought I was.

Inalienable Rights to Life and Liberty

We visited many places-of-interest on our first day in HCM but the two most memorable were the Cu Chi Tunnel Complex and the War Remnants Museum.

At Cu Chi Tunnel, we learned about the ingenious guerrilla tactics employed by the Viet Cong that stupefied the technologically-superior US Army.

Meanwhile, the War Remnants Museum has everything related to the Vietnam War on display: the pictures, the tanks, the planes, the shells, the torture chamber, etc.

You need a strong stomach to take in the pictures, especially the heart-wrenching ones that show the malformed victims of Agent Orange. The exhibition, for me, drives home the point that war is senseless and especially heinous when it involves innocent civilians.

Amidst the horrific images of war, an excerpt of the US Declaration of Independence was put up. It reads:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Sadly, these "self-evident truths" are disregarded, again and again, by those who profess to uphold them.

Malaysian Invasion

By the second day, I realised just how many Malaysians there were in HCM. They were visible everywhere; at all the tourist attractions, the night market, the halal restaurants, the hotel lobbies, etc. Malaysians have positively invaded the country!

Day 2 was spent doing touristy things which was fun! We rode a boat and a sampan, sampled local fruit, listened to folk music, did a LOT of shopping and watched a water-puppetry performance.

We got used to seeing so many motorcycles on the roads and the crazy traffic rules the Vietnamese seem to adhere to. I know that's rich coming from a Malaysian but I came across a T-shirt that corroborated my view. The simple design featured a traffic light with the caption:

Saigon traffic rules:
[green] I can go
[yellow] I can go
[red] I can still go

Even the bus that got us around made some spectacular maneuvers that left us shaking our heads in disbelief. My favourite has got to be the three-point turn it accomplished at a particularly busy intersection.

Kalau ada sumur di ladang

Our 4D3N trip (with POTO Travel & Tours) was very enjoyable and a large part of that was due to our tour guide, Mr. Le Van An, a Saigon native.

Mr. An was very helpful and accommodating. Besides having good command of Malay, he surprised and tickled us repeatedly when he talked about Dato' Siti Nurhaliza, Tongkat Ali and other Malaysia-specific things.

The clincher came when we were about to part ways. He recited the whole length of the pantun:
Kalau ada sumur di ladang
Boleh saya menumpang mandi
Kalau ada umur yang panjang
Boleh kita berjumpa lagi.

Heroes (Part 2)

Last Tuesday (Nov 20, 2012), I attended the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission - Hearing on Palestine. According to its programme book, KLWCC is "an investigation body empowered with jurisdiction to receive and investigate complaints from victims of wars and armed conflicts in relation to crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other like offences as recognised under International Law".

The hearing got off to a slow start. Maybe I was too influenced by the numerous courtroom dramas I had followed over the years... but the proceedings weren't as dramatic as I had imagined it to be.

There were no smooth-talking, immaculately-dressed lawyers a la Will Gardner or Harvey Specter, charming the audience with brilliant and witty arguments. In fact, most of the time, the prosecutor just went through the statutory declarations made by the witnesses.

The language barrier compounded the struggle I had in trying to stay focused. The use of interpreter disrupted the flow of exchanges and caused some things to be lost in translation.

There were 4 witnesses that day and they told the commission horrific tales of:

• massacre
• unlawful imprisonment & the ensuing (physical & psychological) torture
• injury from prohibited weapons
• illegal land appropriation
• impossible living conditions (water cuts, checkpoints that severely restrict movements, etc)

These are the things we've all read before but hearing them first-hand had a deeper impact on me. The witnesses also underlined an important point; that as outrageous as the recent escalation is, this conflict and their sufferings have been going on for decades, not days.

The Israeli government has very systematically made their lives so unbearable that many commentators have described Gaza as an open-air prison.

And because the Palestinian land has been encroached upon, year by year, a witness candidly remarked that Palestine is no longer a viable country as it now closely resembles isolated ghettos instead.

There are 2 quotes that I particular remember from the hearing. The first came from Mr. Nabeel Al-Issawi who was wounded by a Dum-dum bullet (a bullet that expands upon impact, causing more severe wounds). Nabeel had to undergo multiple surgeries and his recovery took months. The prosecutor asked Nabeel whether he knew that the use of Dum-dum bullets is prohibited in international warfare.

He replied matter-of-factly, "Probably everything they [the Israeli forces] use is illegal. But they are above the law".

The other quote came from Mr. Jawwad Issa Musleh. He's my favourite witness for several reasons. Firstly, he didn't use an interpreter, so his replies were instantaneous and he articulated himself very well. Secondly, the story he related was nothing short of incredible and inspiring.

Mr. Jawwad had been imprisoned by the Israeli forces on 8 different occasions. The first occasion was when he was only 15 years old and that detention lasted for 20 months. He was just a regular teenager then, uninvolved in any political or resistance movement. But he was taken away from his family all the same.

A few other boys from the area were taken too. He suspected that young boys were targeted precisely because of their non-involvement. It was a tactic to scare them off the resistance movement for good.

But incredibly, the OPPOSITE happened. In prison, he met older Palestinians who taught him a lot about the history of the country, about its struggles, about the occupation, the resistance, etc. He likened his prison cells to a university because he learnt a lot there.

In his statutory declaration, he said, "The Israelis think that they can kill our souls and patriotism when they send us to jails. But they didn't succeed".

X X X

The commission will submit its report in 3 months' time and a charge may be filed.

But will it achieve anything? The atrocities committed against the Palestinians are already well-documented but the Israeli government has gotten away with their crimes time and time again.

But despite the improbable odds, every witness and attendee of the hearing fervently hopes that something will come out of it; that justice will finally be served.

X X X

I didn't go for Day 2 of the hearing. You can read snippets of it here.

I originally intended to write more about the Heroes Conference in this entry, hence the title (Part 2). But the witnesses made such an impact on me that I felt the need to put it down in writing.

You cannot help but admire the witnesses because even though they have gone through so much, they don't come across as hapless victims. On the contrary, they embody the words strong-willed, brave and resilient.

Mahmoud Al-Sammouni, for instance, spoke with such confidence that belied his young age. Testifying about the massacre of his family in front of hundreds of strangers in a foreign land must have been an unnerving experience but the 15-year-old carried himself most admirably.

Thus, I couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed below:

Heroes (Part 1)

We crave heroes. Thus the proliferation of superhero movies on the big screen in recent years.

I guess the idea of a person or people with extraordinary abilities that fight for justice appeals to us. These heroes are able to set the world right with their superpowers -- something that we mere mortals cannot do.

So we extend our search for heroes far and wide. We search for them everywhere; on football fields, in reality shows, on the concert stage, in war-torn countries, etc.

But the thing with contemporary, living heroes is we don't know how their stories will end.

Take Greg Mortensen for example. He was once celebrated for building schools for girls in remote areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Girls that hitherto had no access to education. But in 2011, an expose by Jon Krakauer revealed that he may have misappropriated funds from his organisation, the Central Asia Institute and fabricated stories in his two best-selling books.

It's not wrong for us to look for heroes amongst contemporary figures but as Myriam Francois-Cerrah puts it, we must be careful not to let our idealisation lead to idolisation. "We want to be inspired but we must be discerning".

Last Tuesday (Nov 13, 2012), I was reacquainted with heroes of the highest pedigree. Heroes whose deeds and achievements continued to be a source of inspiration, hundreds of years later:

• These people experienced unimaginable hardships; They went without food until they had to tie rocks on their bellies to alleviate the pangs of hunger.
• They protected the Prophet (pbuh) until they were covered in dozens of wounds from swords, spears and arrows.
• They lived a simple life. Some wore tattered clothes even when they held positions of power.
• They truly strove for the deen with their wealth and their lives.
• They personified the phrase sami'na wa atho'na (we hear and we obey).

MashaAllah, they were not ordinary human beings. Their unwavering faith made them extraordinary -- worthy heroes that we should strive to emulate.

To quote the line from the conference's leaflet:
"In a world where we are inspired by everything else, the time has come that we be inspired by those Allah SWT chose. The Muslim Heroes."

Convoluted

I once wrote 'convoluted!!' on a student's essay. Several weeks later, on another test, the student produced a much better piece of writing. I commended him on the improvement.

"So my writing's no longer convoluted Teacher?" he asked.
I laughed, "I can't believe you still remember that word!"
"Of course I remember it. It's a very hurtful word Teacher!" he replied.

X X X

The whole thing reminded me of Taylor Mali's poem:

"I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face"

How true.

Students from the end classes (who are used to getting Fs) feel so proud when they (barely) pass while students from the front classes look so indignant when they receive anything less than an A.

But different people react differently to the proverbial slap in the face. Some are motivated to do better and ask how they can improve while some look so cross and feel that they are hard done by.

X X X

Just before the school holidays, I experienced the latter reaction.

I didn't handle it well; I wasn't able to reason things out and as a result, both parties felt utterly miserable.

I was sad. Incredibly sad for 2-3 days. It seemed like such a small matter; and really, I should have thicker skin... but I felt sad and a bit affronted that my professional judgement was questioned.

It seemed like, to them, it didn't matter that I had a college education, that I've been teaching for 4 years, that I've marked hundreds of essays --- I was wrong and they were right.

So after mulling over it for days, I came to the conclusion that we all need to have more humility.

For my part, I have to admit that I'm not 100% consistent and impartial (though I try to be). So there's a possibility that I was being overly harsh on them.

Further, maybe I didn't put across my feedback/criticism as diplomatically as I could have. Maybe the criticisms were more destructive than constructive. Maybe my feedback should be more like Paula Abdul's and less like Simon Cowell's.

And though I've taught for some years and have marked countless essays, I still have much to learn. It was arrogant of me to assume: "I know better".

For the students' part, I want them to know that high expectations lead to high performance.

Yes, they're good but not that good. They can do BETTER.

Moreover, they shouldn't compare themselves with those of lower proficiency. In this increasingly borderless and more competitive world, their standards should be higher.

X X X

So, the next time we are slapped in the face (figuratively of course!), let us take a step back and assess the situation with some HUMILITY.

3I & 3H

Years ago, a sister of mine often talked about her favourite lecturer, Mr. K.

Mr. K had such a strong command of his subject that he would only bring one marker pen to his lectures. He didn't need to refer to any books to aid him in explaining theories, answering students' queries, solving tricky questions, etc. Now, that's what I call mastery of content knowledge.

In contrast, I remember my first year of teaching, where I would go to classes armed with textbooks, grammar workbooks, the dictionary, handouts of filler activities, etc.

I felt that I needed to equip myself with all kinds of materials to cope with any possibilities that might arise.

I often second-guessed myself too. I couldn't stick to one lesson plan. Whenever I came up with one, I would poke holes into it:

"It's not interesting enough!"

"It's not challenging enough!"

"You're going to bore your students to death!"

So in the end, I often stood in front of the class, armed with STUFF, but having absolutely no clue of what to do.

I think, in this respect, teachers are like homemakers; teachers worry themselves sick about lesson plans as homemakers do about what they should cook for dinner.

Homemakers do not only want to put dinner on the table, they want the food to be delicious, nutritious, special and prepared with lots of love.

Similarly, teacher do not just want to enter the classroom and say "turn to page so-and-so and do the exercises". They want the lesson to be interesting, challenging, inspiring and pitched at the right level.

Sadly, our efforts went unnoticed and unappreciated most of the time. Kids are glued to their computers when they're called to dinner and not all students would do the work assigned to them in class.

X X X

In 2012, I achieved a breakthrough of sorts. I was beginning to figure out and be comfortable with my teaching style. Of course it needed further refinement but the foundation was set and I was gaining confidence day by day. I even noticed that I had begun to march to class with a little bit of swagger. Haha.

[So for struggling beginning teachers out there; take heart. You'll get there eventually!]

However, at the end of March, when I was assigned 5N, some of that confidence dissipated away. Remember what I said about not having a clean slate?

Well, when I first entered 5N, I felt like I was transported back in time when I was still that hapless teacher. My swagger was crippled and whenever I was heading to Block E, I would break out in cold sweat instead.

But things worked out in the end. I just had to learn to trust my abilities and believe that I have valuable things to impart.

I love the quotation below taken from the book See Me After Class by Roxanna Elden (which I strongly recommend to all fellow teachers):

"On a bad day, I remind myself that when I look back on my own experience as a student, I don't remember specific lesson plans. In the end, we remember teachers, but the individual days  fade into the background. Forgive yourself for those rough days and bad lessons, and keep trying - because that's what the kids will remember"

X X X

I planned to talk about my Form 3 classes in this entry but ended up writing the above paragraphs instead. 

So, let me start over:

The Form 3 students that I taught this year are quite weak in English (with a few exceptions). Marking their essays was a torturous experience and it was a struggle to get them to do any work in class.

3 Intelek was the noisiest class I had this year. They were also the funniest. The naughtiest boys in that class also happened to be the friendliest ones when I met them outside.

They would smile and greet me enthusiastically whenever we crossed paths, oblivious to the fact that they drove me nuts in class!

3 Harmoni boys were roughly the same. So to preserve my sanity, I just concentrated on the conscientious learners (read: the girls) in class. 

An incident that involved 3H that I'll never forget was when they had to fill in a form evaluating me. I wasn't supposed to administer the evaluation myself but the teacher-in-charge was facing a looming dateline, so he told me to get 5 students from the class to assess me.

Let's disregard the invalidity of the exercise for a moment.

When I read the criteria they were supposed to assess me on, my heart sank. The criteria were:

1. Menepati masa (Punctuality)
2. Berpakaian kemas dan sesuai (Appropriately-dressed)
3. Mengajar dengan suara yang jelas (Has a clear voice)
4. Menggunakan bahasa yang mudah difahami (Uses comprehensible language)
5. Sentiasa membimbing murid memahami pelajaran (Guides the students to understand the lesson)
6. Ada menggunakan alat bantu mengajar (Uses teaching aids)
7. Menyemak dan mengembalikan buku latihan murid (Checks & returns the students' work)
8. Mengawasi disiplin murid dalam kelas dengan baik (Has good classroom management)
9. Mengambil berat tentang kehadiran murid di dalam bilik darjah (Is particular about attendance)
10. Sentiasa memberi peluang kepada murid untuk bertanya (Gives students the opportunity to ask questions)
11. Mementingkan keceriaan bilik darjah (Emphasises classroom cleanliness)

Half of the criteria listed weren't really my strong points. If they had included things such as: 'Has good rapport with students' or 'Exhibits empathy', I might stand a chance of scoring better.

But surprisingly, when I collected the forms, all of them gave me mostly threes or fours (the instrument uses a 4-point Likert scale).

I knew that I didn't deserve the marks given but was deeply touched that the students liked me enough to overlook my faults. :')

I'm reminded of this quote: "Your students will not remember what you taught them... but they will remember forever the way you made them feel.”

So, teach your students and love them!

5 Nekad

Today I had a workshop with 5 Nekad & 5 Waja. What was supposed to be simple exam practice, turned out to be something quite different.

Teaching the front classes is akin to facing a firing squad. While they were working on the SBP Trial papers, they shot me questions relentlessly.

"Teacher, what does 'interval' mean?"

Other words that they asked me to define were:

kept vigil
vigilante
sodomy (!)
prosthesis vs. prosthetic
riddle with shrapnel
makeshift

Half of the words were from the text they were working on. The other half? God knows where they came from.

It felt like being in a bad reality show (So you think can teach English?), where failing to answer the questions would result in being named and shamed as an incompetent English Teacher.

You know, it's one thing to know a word, it's quite another to try to EXPLAIN it to others. And contrary to popular belief, English teachers are not walking dictionaries (or at least not me).

But to refer to an actual dictionary to answer their queries would have been to lose face. So I employed one of the 3 strategies below:

1. Find a synonym (e.g. interval = intermission)
2. Find a Malay equivalent
3. Use the word in a sentence

Only after I had given it my best shot, would I surreptitiously refer to the Merriam-Webster app on my phone to check the accuracy of my answers.

But there came a time where I had to surrender and admit: "I have no idea".

At the end of the workshop, Yan Jhong asked me what the phrase "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion" meant.

I'd never heard of the idiom before so there's only 1 thing I could do then: I googled it.

X X X

The above narrative was just one of the many memorable moments I shared with 5 Nekad.

I took over the class at the end of March this year when Pn. Mohana was transferred to another school. I wasn't too thrilled about it at first. My plate was already full, yet I have to be a class teacher too??

Plus, I had taught some of them before. I was a hapless newbie then. I made a lot of mistakes. That's why I prefer to have new students every year so that I can start off on a clean slate.

But teaching 5 Nekad was the opposite of having a brand new slate. This slate was not only old, it's also cracked and worn.

But Allah is the Best of Planners. After spending so much time and effort in keeping their affairs in order (taking their daily attendance, writing them testimonials, meeting their parents, tracking their academic performance, etc), I cannot help but be emotionally-invested in them.

I guess I've grown very fond of them. They are funny and they make me laugh all the time. They make absurd remarks. They have curious minds. They question and challenge new information which lead us to have stimulating discussions.

I know that I'll miss them dearly. I'm never sentimental when I'm in front of them but if they happen to read this, I want them to know that being their class teacher has been one of my main highlights of the year.

They also taught me that having a used and cracked slate isn't so bad after all, provided that you work hard at mending it.

Hockey

The end of the 2012 school term is drawing nearer, which makes me feel more introspective than usual. I plan to write about the classes that I teach and some of my best memories of the year.

I'm going to start with hockey. I've written about it previously but this entry has to do with a special training session that we had with a national player; Izzat Rahim.

Izzat Rahim was not only part of the Malaysian contingent to the Road-to-London tournament, he also happens to be Cikgu Safrina's kid brother.

My students were so excited when he came on Apr 21. I was excited too because we would finally have a proper session after weeks of aimless and structure-less training.

After the session, the boys took pictures with him and asked him to autograph their shirts/shoes/hockey sticks. It made me happy to see my students happy :)

The next day, a student (who was more into football than hockey) asked me; "Teacher ajakla pemain bola Malaysia datang" (!)

I was flattered that he thought my social network was so far-reaching (it was a gross overestimation). But no, sadly, I don't have K. Rajagopal nor Ong Kim Swee on my speed dials.

X X X

It's tough to be in charge of something that you haven't a clue of. But teachers are asked to do so all the time. So if you happen to be good at something; be it hockey, debate, choir, choral speaking, drama, chess, zapin, photography, painting, whatever, do consider coaching students in a school nearby.

You'll discover that mentoring young minds is immensely satisfying. As William Butler Yeats said; "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire". You just need to light that fire in them, nudge them into a certain direction, and watch them do wonders.

Of Backbiting

We've all come across people whom we just cannot get along with; People who are too domineering to the point that they act like bullies; People whose aura is thick with negativity; People who do not play nice with others; whose harsh words wound us and may even have made us cry.

What do we do when we come across such people? We can try distancing ourselves but what if we have to work in close proximity to them? How should we react when we become victims to their tirades or tyrannical acts?

X X X

It happened to me and I did something that I was not proud of: I backbit.

At first, it was just to mengadu to a trusted friend ("I had a horrible day. You know what happened to me?...") but the conversation naturally evolved into a full-fledged backbiting session.

All that person's past mistakes were excavated, dusted off and put under the microscope so that after thorough analyses, it could be proven, beyond reasonable doubt that: "Yes, that person is horrible. Everyone knows it".

X X X

The thing is this method of coping provides only temporary "relief". It's not even real relief because we feel lousy about ourselves for stooping to their level.

Plus, we can never justify our backbiting by saying we are merely stating facts because the Prophet (pbuh) taught us that: "If what you say about your brother is true, you are guilty of backbiting, but if what you say concerning him is not true, you are guilty of slandering him." [Reported by Muslim]

Further, we can never be fair when we backbite. We either:
1) exaggerate our injuries to gain more sympathy and to vilify our aggressors. OR
2) we understate our injuries in order to appear martyr-like. However if our listeners fail to comprehend the gravity of the situation, we change tack and resort to tactic#1.

We just can't win. We just damage our characters instead.

X X X

So how do we vent our frustrations then?

We complain to Allah.
It sounds so cliche but it's true. Allah alone knows our troubles. He's closer to us than our jugular veins. We need not exaggerate nor understate our cases before Him because He knows our predicaments EXACTLY. Thus, complaining to Him will give us the greatest solace.

It's hard to be patient when we were hard done-by. But resist the temptations to backbite "for Allah is with those who patiently persevere"

A Celebration of Mercy

Lately, my news feed has been inundated by responses to the infamous film, 'Innocence of Muslims'. Public figures, organizations and individuals have been working on overdrive posting statuses, videos, articles, commentaries, etc as a response to it.

Unsurprisingly, this whole episode has bewildered the onlookers. The non-Muslims are asking themselves why are we getting so worked up? Why is this thing blown way out of proportion? Why can't the Muslims just get over it?

Personally, I haven't watched the film and am not planning to. Ever.

But the reason I keep on sharing others' responses is because I found them to be inspiring. Ironic isn't it? A film that's supposed to defame the Prophet (pbuh) has actually opened the floodgates to responses celebrating and honouring him.

It's exactly like what Br. Nouman Ali Khan said;
"They can't hurt the Prophet. They can't take away his honour; It was given from the sky. It was given from Allah. Nothing on earth can take it away. No article, no cartoon, no film, no speaker, no hate speech, no form of "art" is going to take away the dignity of our Prophet (pbuh)."

Reading and viewing the positive responses have made me love him more. These are some of my favourites:

1) Hadith of the Day Status:

I know a man who lost his parents but refused to be called an orphan. He was man enough to love a strong woman years older than him, worked for her and made her stronger, opened his heart to her, shared his fears to no one but her. He was romantic and was faithful to her till her last breath. Cleaned after himself and sewed his own clothes. He was good looking, courageous and fearless. He never judged anyone on their pasts or looks, and was moderate, open minded and tolerant. His neighbor was Jewish and his cousin-in- law was a Christian priest. Beaten and exiled when he was helpless, he was merciful when he became stronger. Intelligent, wise and a hard worker, he built a long lasting nation out of nothing in the last 20 years of his life. He had no parents, but loved his daughters and grandchildren. His last will was "Be good to women". This man was a mercy for all mankind, this is my Prophet Muhammad Peace be Upon Him

2) Boona Mohammed's status: "They insult our Prophet with the things that they say but we insult our Prophet by not following his way"

3) Br. Phil's video:



4) Kamal Saleh's video:



If you took the time to view the videos, you'd get a glimpse (just a glimpse) of how great of a man the Prophet (pbuh) was. How beautiful his teachings are. He truly was sent as a mercy to the 'Alamin. To quote Br. Phil; "Why you don't all just LOVE him, to me, it's a mystery".