The Quickest 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur

 إِنَّا للهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ 
“We surely belong to Allah and to Him we shall return”

It all happened so quickly. I was home alone and fast asleep when the phone rang. I didn't wanna get out of bed. It's my off day. Let me sleep, I thought. How selfish of me. A few minutes later, I received a flood of texts from my mum with the message that my uncle was pronounced dead an hour ago. Inalillah. 

I sprung out of bed immediately and switched my laptop on to search for a flight. Two hours later, we were at the airport on the next flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was my first time booking a flight on such short notice and it was also my first family death out of the twenty three years of my life. Overwhelming was an understatement, but my feelings aside, I was more concerned with how my relatives were handling it.

My uncle was a good man. A father, a mentor, a man with a big post with a big company in Malaysia, always travelling and always with his family. He never spoke a lot but he was always there to help everyone out. Everyone around him relied on him, he held a really high position at his company, and he held a lot of responsibilities both at home and work, but he never failed to deliver and loved his family endlessly. Al-Fatiha for my beloved uncle, Abdul Rahman.

I expected my aunt to be bawling her eyes out but she stayed composed as my mum hugged her when we arrived. What can I do? Allah wanted it this way. He's in a better place, she said. Masya’Allah. I could hear her voice quiver every time someone asks how she was, but never once did she crumble or break down and cry. Maybe in silence or in solitary, but to be able to remain strong in front of all her relatives and children, in that moment, Allah has given her so much strength to get through this.

The atmosphere at the mosque is completely different as compared to the atmosphere in Singapore. The community here is so close knitted, they get together after Thursday night tahlil to prepare a huge portion of food, from porridge to noodles to tea, and then give it out for free to those at the mosque. I was clearly a foreigner but yet the aunties there were all so friendly and welcoming, I felt at ease.

This was probably the fastest visit to Kuala Lumpur in my life. While it was unfortunate that we travelled due to a sad reason, I’m still glad we had the chance to be there for our relatives and even managed to get a few of our favourite foods there too. I even got a chance to buy my favorite street food — Malaysia's version of Old Chang Kee that comes with sweet and spicy sauce. I also bought a Lang Leav book at the airport and am already halfway through it while on the flight back. A really good read!

I had a few hours before my flight, so I got to check out the prayer room at KL International Airport and performed mu prayers before heading back to Singapore. That always calms my nerves down. If there's one thing I like about traveling is the chance to check out and pray in the different prayer rooms around the world. 

Thank you for reading until the end. Stay safe always.