I
was with Abang and Ecah waiting for our turn to be with my late
father ; who was then hospitalized after suffering a stroke;
when a voice talking over the phone in Arabic caught my ears. I
turned around expecting to see an Arab man. To my surprise, the one
talking was a Malay guy! “ How wonderful, “ I said to myself, “
A Malay guy speaking fluent Arabic! This is
awesome!” . I continued to listen even though I could not
understand a word. Later, I went home and totally forgot about “
the Malay guy who speaks fluent Arabic.”
That
night, I came back to stay with Abah
since Mom
needed some rests. What do you know! To my surprise, I saw the guy
again. What a coincidence! His father also suffered a stroke and was
placed a bed away from my father. Later, I learned that he was an
Ustaz and
in the midst of completing his PHD
studies overseas. This time around, I was able to get to know him ;
from far. He was always at his father's side, day and night.
Sometimes, when he was not nursing his father, he would recite the
Holy Quran
to him. There were also times when I saw him sitting there,
merely looking at his father. Whatever his thoughts were, I was
sure they were about seeing his father back on his feet again; the
same prayers I had for Abah.
Finally,
came the day when his father was discharged from the hospital and
that was the last we heard of him.
Abah
was also discharged a few days later. Sadly, Abah
passed away peacefully two months later on 28 December 2011. It
had never crossed my mind that 2011 would be the last year I got
to wish abah “Happy Father’s Day”….. May Allah
swt place Abah amongst the Solehin.
AMIN.
(p.s.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY .)
