A Letter on Preparing for Death

Subhanallah wa astagfirullah.
I cannot not share this important letter written by Imam al-Ghazali called Sharh as Sadr

Link:http://www.virtualmosque.com/personaldvlpt/character/a-letter-on-preparing-for-death/


An excerpt:

The phrase sharh as-sadr is a common Arabic expression used to refer to a spiritual expansion of the heart or chest that gives rise to inner enlightenment, tranquility, and relief from anxiety and worry. It is a phrase that is used in a number of places in the Quran. When going to face the Pharoah and convey to him the message of Islam, the noble prophet Musa (`alayhi as-salaam, peace be upon him) prayed to Allah, “My Lord, expand for me my chest, ease my task for me, and remove the impediment from my speech so that they may understand what I say” (Qur’an, 20:25-28).In reminding the Prophet ﷺ of the great blessings He had bestowed upon him, Allah says, “Have we not expanded for you your chest?” (Qur’an, 94:1)

Imam Al-Ghazali entitled his letter Sharh as-Sadr because properly preparing for death is a means of attaining that spiritual expansion, illumination, and comfort. May Allah make us among those who experience that state, and who ready and beautify themselves properly for the journey to His Divine Presence, Ameen

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The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about sharh as-sadr and he said, “It is a light cast into the heart by which the chest is opened and expanded.”
He ﷺ was asked, “Is there a way of recognizing one who possesses that light?”He ﷺ responded, “Yes. [Such people can be recognized by their] indifference towards the abode of delusions [i.e., the life of this world], their constant turning towards the abode of eternity [the hereafter], and their preparation for death before it arrives.”He was asked, “How does one prepare for death?”


He ﷺ said, “Those of you who remember it the most are the best prepared for it.”

Tongue twisters

Tongue twisters from CNY celebration Radio Rosak game yesterday.

1. Love is a feeling that you are going to feel a feeling that you have never felt before.

2. While we were walking, we were watching the window washers wash Washington's window with warm washing water.

Try it!

20 catatan Imam Ghazali (1)

1. Ibadah dan pengetahuan sambil makan haram adalah seperti konstruksi pada kotoran. (Imam Al Ghazali)
2. Belum pernah saya berurusan dengan sesuatu yang lebih sulit daripada jiwa saya sendiri, yang kadang-kadang membantu saya dan kadang-kadang menentang saya. (Imam Al Ghazali)
3. Barangsiapa yang memilih harta dan anak – anaknya daripada apa yang ada di sisi Allah, niscaya ia rugi dan tertipu dengan kerugian yang amat besar. (Imam Al Ghazali)
4. Barangsiapa yang menghabiskan waktu berjam – jam lamanya untuk mengumpulkan harta kerana ditakutkan miskin, maka dialah sebenarnya orang yang miskin. (Imam Al Ghazali)
5. Barangsiapa yang meyombongkan diri kepada salah seorang daripada hamba – hamba Allah, sesungguhnya ia telah bertengkar dengan Allah pada haknya. (Imam Al Ghazali)
6. Berani adalah sifat mulia kerana berada di antara pengecut dan membuta tuli. (Imam Al Ghazali)
7. Pemurah itu juga suatu kemuliaan kerana berada di antara bakhil dan boros. (Imam Al Ghazali)
8. Bersungguh–sungguhlah engkau dalam menuntut ilmu, jauhilah kemalasan dan kebosanan kerana jika tidak demikian engkau akan berada dalam bahaya kesesatan. (Imam Al Ghazali)
9. Cinta merupakan sumber kebahagiaan dan cinta terhadap Allah harus dipelihara dan dipupuk, suburkan dengan shalat serta ibadah yang lainnya. (Imam Al Ghazali)
10. Ciri yang membedakan manusia dan hewan adalah ilmu. Manusia adalah manusia mulia yang mana ia menjadi mulia kerana ilmu, tanpa ilmu mustahil ada kekuatan. (Imam Al Ghazali)
11. Hadapi kawan atau musuhmu itu dengan wajah yang menunjukkan kegembiraan, kerelaan penuh kesopanan dan ketenangan. Jangan menampakkan sikap angkuh dan sombong. (Imam Al Ghazali)
12. Ilmu itu kehidupan hati daripada kebutaan, sinar penglihatan daripada kezaliman dan tenaga badan daripada kelemahan. (Imam Al Ghazali)
13. Yang paling besar di bumi ini bukan gunung dan lautan, melainkan hawa nafsu yang jika gagal dikendalikan maka kita akan menjadi penghuni neraka. (Imam Al Ghazali)
14. Kita tidak akan sanggup mengekang amarah dan hawa nafsu secara keseluruhan hingga tidak meninggalkan bekas apapun dalam diri kita. Namun jika mencoba untuk mengendalikan keduanya dengan cara latihan dan kesungguhan yang kuat, tentu kita akan bisa. (Imam Al Ghazali)
15. Sifat utama pemimpin ialah beradab dan mulia hati. (Imam Al Ghazali)
16. Kebahagiaan terletak pada kemenangan memerangi hawa nafsu dan menahan kehendak yang berlebih-lebihan. (Imam Al Ghazali)
17. Kalau besar yang dituntut dan mulia yang dicari,maka payah melaluinya, panjang jalannya dan banyak rintangannya. (Imam Al Ghazali)
18. Jadikan kematian itu hanya pada badan kerana tempat tinggalmu ialah liang kubur dan penghuni kubur sentiasa menanti kedatanganmu setiap masa.  (Imam Al Ghazali)
19. Pelajari ilmu syariat untuk menunaikan segala perintah Allah SWT dan juga ilmu akhirat yang dapat menjamin keselamatanmu di akhirat nanti.  (Imam Al Ghazali)
20. Menuntut ilmu adalah taqwa. Menyampaikan ilmu adalah ibadah. Mengulang-ulang ilmu adalah zikir. Mencari ilmu adalah jihad. (Imam Al Ghazali)

Sumber: http://lapatuju.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/kata-kata-bijak-imam-al-ghazali.html

Sims is fun. Ceh.

Alhamdulillah. Akhirnya....
Akhirnya mula jatuh cinta dengan Sims.
Teehee.
And I'm just loving the team I have here in Northampton
Layla, Mike, Kim and Krish- they lots are fun :)

We always have simulation scenario or Sims in every block.
Where we got manikin, which are set to breath or sound or verbalised like a sick patient. You can actually see the dada turun naik, you can feel the pulse, you can hear noisy breathing etc.
It's amazinggg...well, the manikin is. I know I know..I'm still jakun and amazed even after these 5 years ;) 

The tricky bit is- we needed to assess the acutely unwell patient and treat accordingly.

Everytime we got simulation,
I would feel so sick and scared.
I knew I would be acting so awkwardly. Like my mind would turn blank.
I've learnt A to E assessment, I've learned Immediate Life Support (ILS), I've learned how to treat some emergencies, all in separate sessions. 
And boom, when it's all in one integrated scenario, I erm erm erm., I boom as well. 

Right, I know I got to assess the Airway first but when do I take history? lalala.
Itu belum masuk nak treat the conditions, terus facts, and algorithm jatuh terbang and terjun ke dalam lautan.

But :) 
Today Allah gave me a nice surprise.

I think Allah knows that I need His pujukan.
Before I started mine, I told Him.
"Oh Allah, I know that I don't like this simply because I'm bad at it. If you can make me slick at least this time around, maybe, maybe I'll be less nervous and I'll grow to love learning from the session?"

And He actually me gave anaphylactic shock scenario! And I'd just read it yesterday.
Alhamdulillah thumma Alhamdulillah. Hee..

Terkedu bila Vicky and my colleagues said "you were really good and so calm".
Vicky said what I can improve on is, to give half of the pre-filled syringe of Adrenaline first, rather than all and give the rest if patient hasn't improved. "But you gave IM, so despite giving whole syringe, it's still fine, that's the bonus and most important!". Okay Vicky, next time, I'll give half the syringe :)

Phew, it was just mindblowing.
Kalau lah Allah tak takdirkan baca semalam,
I wouldn't remember 0.5mg salbutamol nebs, 200mg hydrocortisone IV, aynd 10mg chlorpheniramine IV. Well, with my gold fish memory.
Super terharu dengan my Al-Lateef.

And Alhamdulillah, when the patient gets cardiac arrest (which was a part of each scenario), it was PEA (pulseless electrical activity), non-shockable, which I am more comfortable in treating and injecting adrenaline for, compared to treating any shockable rhythm. 
(Okay I know I know I should learn and start being comfortable with treating shockable rhythm too)

Memang Allah tolong sangat..
Terus rasa nak wink kat langit.
"Allah, thank you!"
:) He knows. He just knows that I need this boost of confidence.

Thank you Al-Lateef!


p/s: Suddenly I love cardiology so much. Cardiologist in the making? :P Terus.
Dr Sandilands mesti bangga kalau dengar tutee dia cakap cam gini.
But serious ni.😎🙊

Funny bit was when I was asking my nurse,
"Krish, the patient's wheezing and Sats getting worse. Can you please get me 0.5mg with the nebs mask from the drawer please". And Krish was looking at me, the patient, and the clock for a good 10 seconds.

And I was stunned abit, "Err Krish?" and I repeated my request.  Everyone was laughing at that time. Apparently he was counting Respiratory Rate

:P 


Anyway,

Doakan saya terus semangat study!

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Nana's notes:

Sharing some tricks I've learned from today's session with Vicky and friends:
1) Talk to patient. Airway patent if they are talking.
2)Ask the nurse "can you do me a set of obs please"
3) Now, your job is to take history quickly (SAMPLE mneumonic) before the patient gets too unwell to tell you anything.
4) sambung B, C, D, E if there's anything left undone

so kiranya the quick history sort of under Airway.

It's a call

Sharing some of the many gems from a wise person Allah has sent to me:

"As muslim we have the best reason to be the best in any field that we choose to be in. Reason to be Allah's khalifah and as our way, an ajz, a servant to serve their Lord. It's also a way for us to understand his attributes as we are only given to chance to feel a small percentage of His attributes such as al Jalil, the most beautiful. Even the most beautiful creation on earth is only a fragment what lies in the hereafter."

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To understand His attributes.

I like that.

No more narcissistic reason or intention.

When you shift your life direction from a self-centred life to a God-centred life.

That is how you can stay guided.

And stay safe from your lower self.

The Philosophy of Slowness

Have you forgotten about the philosophy of slowness.
How a baby takes 9 months to develop in the womb,
How a tree takes years to grow to be able to provide shade.

Have you forgotten the beauty in slowness,
Have you forgotten how it is indeed the key,
Where growth is let to happen at one's core, slowly yet fully.

Indulge and Grow.
Immerse and Glow.

Turn

Dear Nana,
Why are you turning more and more into the old you.

Tony Robbin's 10 minutes Morning Ritual

Every morning, you need to have 10 minutes to prime yourself before you start working on your beautiful day, beautiful life.

1) Gratitude
Spend few minutes to express gratitude. Gratitude helps suppress feelings of fear and anger, the two emotions which mess us up the most.

"You can't be grateful and fearful simultaneously."
"You can't be grateful and angry simultaneously."

2) Outcomes
Tony spends 3 minutes to think about 3 outcomes that he is committed for in the next 6 months and imagine them fulfilled  and well done.

3) Love
Think "how do I love more".
Love is actions.

and dearies, we got our morning rituals sorted by our ultimate Life Coach Allahu Allah. It's just that we've lost the presence of the soul as our body stands, bends and prostrates.
Dear soul, come. and lets get primed.

Business

He was talking business.
And you still play.

Inspiration

Yesterday, we had Medical School Day. As was the case last year, the speakers were amaaaazing.

What I've learnt is,
1) let no one stop you from doing what you want to do. 
2) Do your basic job well. 

One of the speakers is the former President of the Royal College of Physicians. Such a person with a calibre, she is. And gosh, she's so humble. and yes, it's a she.

Professor Dame Carol Black (DBE, FRCP, FMedSci) told us how she was fat, can't do this and that when she was at school, had low confidence. But she said surprisingly she was selected as the Head Girl. Every time she told us about her election onto any post, she would humbly said I was given the opportunity to learn about yadayada. 

She started medical school day when she was eight years older than her medical school friends. That was after she completed her Bachelor of Arts. People asked her, do you not mind starting the degree so late, being 8 years older in average from other people. Most people encouraged her to pursue her career in teaching History (if I remember correctly). 

She said, "well, I am already and always 8 years older than them. I might as well being 8 years older whilst doing Medicine." You're so coool, prof! 

From her story, many of the posts she had was offered to her, came without her expecting it. And she said she was grateful of the chance to learn so many things. She said do not give up. There are many posts which she applied for which she did not get, yet there are also many that she got. She said, "when one door closes, other doors will open"

She was clear in her intention to serve. That is the basic foundation that us doctors should have. She mentioned a quote, whatever it is that you aspire to do, if it's not going to be useful for your patients or the family of patients, it's a waste of time. To me, she uses every small opportunity that she has to serve and does it at her very best.

On one of her day as a doctor (if I'm not mistaken a junior doctor), there was a patient who came in with Scleroderma. Little was known about the disease. She said to her senior, "I met this patient yesterday, and I am sad that I don't know how to treat this patient". So guess what she did next, she did a small clinical studies of patients with scleroderma. Later, she bought a laboratory to study the treatments for the condition, and now it's a a national tertiary referral centre for patients suffering from the illness and is the major European centre for clinical research into the disease

She showed to me how, you should be clear and sincere in your intention to help. Start doing regardless of how small the effort is, and do your very best. There are just so many things that inspired me but I got so many things to revise now haha. 

I'll end this with a story she shared,
a friend of her named Rebecca had 4 children and was doing a research in Cambridge. She was moving towards professorship yet she was saddened by the fact that she was completing it 7 years later than other people she initially started with. Caroline said, "look, it doesn't matter. What's most important is, you get there. Other people do not have the commitments you have"

In the end, you live your life. You aim for the best and strive for it. Take your time, skate through in your own pace. Chill.

I'll get there, Prof. I want to join you in making changes to the world. Medicine will be my niche.

Love

"Allah suka dengar ayat-ayatNya dibaca"

Maka
Dendangkan.
Biar ikut seiring nadi.

Ar-Rahman

Alhamdulillah. There's alot to be grateful for.

Moga Allah redha.