Hold Fast

To God was his call, and those who hold fast to him hold fast to a rope that shall never break. Baginda mengajak umat ke jalan Allah. Maka sesiapa yang berpegang teguh dengan ajarannya, bererti ia telah berpegang teguh dengan tali yang kuat yang tidak akan berputus. Verily, God and His angels send prayers upon […]

Unbelievable Advice

      One day Mullah Nasruddin entered his favorite teahouse and declared, “The moon is more useful than the sun”. An old man asked, “Why Mullah?” Mullah Nasruddin replied, “Because we need the light more at night!” You can always count on the famous, well-traveled Mullah Nasruddin for unconventional wisdom.  Hoja Nasruddin tales are […]

The Year in Chickens

The last two weeks saw a number of milestones pass for me.  20 years as a muslim. 10 years in Malaysia. 10 years running this website.  6 years of keeping chickens! In Malaysia, my first personal encounter with chickens beyond the dinner table was over 12 years back, when a  neighbor’s rooster attacked my firstborn […]

International Poetry Translated

If you’ve enjoyed my feeble attempts to translate Malay poems and songs over the years, perhaps you’d like the Poetry Translation Centre.  Contemporary poets of Asia, Africa and South America are translated into English by a two-step process: a native speaker translates the words literally, then the poets of PTC render it in poetic English. […]

Glyphs of Warding, Icons of Doom

I got in a car accident a while ago.  Everybody’s fine, no injuries at all; quite a blessing considering I had the entire family in the van.  A trio of young roosters were taking their daddy’s Mercedes out on the town of a Saturday night and were blatantly at fault. Around here, unless the accident […]