Six years of primary school in Alor Setar. Five years of boarding school in Seremban. A three-month stint of National Service in UUM, Sintok. One year of Matriculation College in Changlun, Kedah. One semester of Uitm in Shah Alam. Two and a half years of Uitm in Jasin, Melaka. A five month internship in Shah Alam. And all Ikram wanted after fifteen and a half years of his life studying, assignments, projects, reports and exams ... was a break. And, subhanAllah ... his break came in the form of an invitation for a holiday in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Ikram was quite apprehensive of accepting as he hardly knew Ismahan, an ex-student of mine 26 years ago when I was teaching in KL. Although he had received an offer to pursue his Masters from his university, he could not make any decision. He had never planned to further his studies. He did not know what job he could apply. Thus, with a ski holiday and a Manchester United (his favourite football club) match dangled before him by Ismahan, he decided to accept. As he was still in his last few weeks of internship, the reality that he was going to fly halfway across the globe to a very unfamiliar country and to people he hardly knew did not hit him yet.
This was going to be his first overseas trip (besides driving into Thailand) and alone. He was confident and self-assured that he could do it. Besides, he justified that he practically went everywhere alone - boarding school (after Akmal had completed form Five), Matriculation college and university. The internship stint at a travel agency built up his confidence as he had to deal with booking, checking in luggage and being part of the team overseeing the preparation of organising an overseas tour. Thus, he did his own preparation with Mum's support and encouragement all the way. He booked his own tickets, applied for his international passport (for the Thailand trip, he only needed a border pass being a northener), shopping for the suggested items, converting his pocket money into pounds, packing and finally leaving .....
When I asked him how he felt about everything, he felt that it was all happening so fast (6 weeks). At times he was afraid of the unknown. Sometimes. disbelief ... as his own friends exclaimed - What??? Really??? Overwhelmed and surreal. Excited, definitely. With all the apprehensions, he was actually looking forward to start an adventure on his own. Alhamdulillah ... everything was easy and smooth by the grace of Allah ... and he is now in Manchester for a month's break.
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| Checking in and finally ... leaving for the unknown ;-}} |
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| What was served during the flight - he requested for Muslim meals |
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| His impression of Heathrow airport - huge but easy to find his way |
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| The multi-faith room at the airport. |
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| Old Trafford - he has tickets to watch a Manchester United match before he returns |
I can only hope and pray that the ladies (Ismahan and Sharizan plus their families and friends) will get along and accept him thus, building and strengthening the "ukhuwah" among them. For me. For them. For us. Being an easy-going guy and accepting whatever comes his way, this is Allah's plans for him. Maybe it is just the small part of a picture He has planned for Ikram. We have never planned it and it never crossed our minds that this will happen ... yet with the grace of Allah, it did. So, my advice was just to be himself, have an open mind and make the best of the situation. See the world and what Allah has to offer. I will update this post when Ikram returns. Do pray for his stay there ... Aamiin.
