🗺️ Team Muawiyah: Exploring Perlis, 27-29 January 2025 🚗

Though this was my 3rd time in Perlis, this was the first time we drove here and really spent time exploring and sightseeing this beautiful state. Here are some highlights of our visit featured here: 

🌴 Tasik Melati - scenic lake with nice Chinese-style architecture walkways. Great for a run! 

🌄 Wang Kelian lookout point - the very definition of "chillout" place, situated at north tip near one of tjen Thailand borders, with breathtaking lookout point overlooking Bukit Chabang and Tasik Tasoh. Awesome chillout point, very windy with stalls (important: brewed coffee ☕). Can spend hours here! 

🛥️🚣 Tasik Tasoh - boat ride over the lake, where boats park overlooking Bukit Chabang in the background for a photo. Tasoh also has boating activities like kayaking and sail boats. 

🏃Denai Larian - Park across Perlis river, with a 3km Running track, rope bridge, a really nice playground with lots of bars. Excellent family workout place. 

🗻🗻 Bukit Chabang Mari country house - nice little hangout place with the family overlooking the twin mountains of Bukit Chabang, with a mini petting zoo and lots of little goats to play with, a huge open space, and a slippery climbing spot to challenge the little climbers. 

🏞️ Gua Kelam + Hujan-Hujan Campsite - one of the highlight tourist spots of Perlis, and definitely one of my favorites too. Beautiful landscape with cave formations, lush trees and river with lots of fun spots to take a dip. Everywhere you look lies a beautiful photo! Perlis is full of healing spots, but Hujan-Hujan area one is by far the best of them.

Other things we love ❤️:

🕌 So many mosques, everywhere! It may be a small state but there are abundant, comfortable and well-built mosques

🐟 Ikan Bakar +ikan Keli: puas makan!

Would love to come back again for more. Jom pakat mai lagi Perlis! 

Time to plan family trip post PISC2026 😁

Denai Larian @ Kangar, Perlis

 Denai Larian - Pengkalan Asam. A Runner's dream in Perlis

After a weak-long cheat day 🧐🤔, it was high time to strap on my running shoes for a post-Fajr run - a quest that brought me to one of the most unexpected, pleasant surprises of Perlis so far: Denai Larian.

An awesome track across Sungai Perlis, with a 3km jogging track loop over the river (for a total of 6km each round), and extends out to the scenic mountainous paddy fields at the back for one of the most breathtaking city runs I've experienced here in Kangar.

Not only that, but the park itself has some awesome distinguishing features that make it so unique: a rope bridge (jambatan gantung) , huge playground areas for kids, and my favorite part: an outdoor workout space with lots of pull up bars and dip bars🔥💪🏽.. Now, that's my jam 😁

Muawiyah Learns a New Skill today : Kayaking

Soon-to-be-7yo Little Man insisted to ride his own kayak by himself. Even though it's his first time kayaking.

Masha Allah surprisingly, he did really well, with minimal supervision. After the initial struggle and getting the hand of mastering the inverse motions (pulling back moves you forward), he picked it up quickly and was 100% engaged and focused for the entire 30 minutes.

Admittedly, initially we were a bit worried about him handling the kayak by himself and I wanted to share a kayak with him, but he was determined to go solo. And indeed, he proved himself fully capable.

As parents, we have to learn how to balance out our protectiveness and trusting in their abilities to provide the space for them to grow and to thrive.

Well done, Little Man. High five 👋🏽

An introspecive: “Family Life Guided by Qur’an” Forum, PISC Perlis International Sunnah Convention 2025

 

If there were two of my teachers who impacted me the most I would confidently say: Sheikh Hussain Yee, and Dr. Bilal Philips. 

And here I am, in 2025, sharing the stage with them, as a moderator for two of the most important educators of my life. 

SubhanAllah, it was such a huge honor, humbling and a surreal experience. It never crossed my mind that one day I would have an opportunity to sit with them together in one seating, let alone share a conversation about a topic which I am deeply passionate about: Nurturing a family life guided by the Qur’an. 

Both Dr. Bilal Philips and Sheikh Hussain played pivotal roles in shaping who I am today in different ways, and it is through them that Allah had provided guidance in two important areas of personal development: character, and knowledge. 

When I first attended his classes back in 2008, Shaykh Hussain Yee really opened up my eyes about our attitude towards the sunnah, constantly reinforcing the importance of adab (etiquettes) and practicing ihsan in all that we do. He constantly emphasizes developing strength in character to stay true to our principles, develop our resilience, to lead by example, rise up to our manliness by taking care of the people around us, and ikhlas in all our actions: do your actions consistently, even if no one gives you credit or appreciates you for it.

But one particular aspect of Sheikh Hussain character that left a long-lasting first impression on me was how he treated children. I noticed that he was always so friendly and joyful to kids, would spend time talking and listening to them just as he would any other grown-up, bearded adult. Before that, I have never met an ustadz who behaved like this with kids. Back then, my experience was that other Ustadz were often fierce, strict and not-so-nice to children, often seen as if they view children like a nuisance. But Sheikh Hussain treated them with kindness and respect, and you could see it in his actions that he was treating them like future leaders instead of a nuisance, and that inspired me, because I love kids!

Later on, as I learnt more about the biography of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ , the sunnah and hadith of how merciful he was to children, it was clear to me that Sheikh Hussain was a man who really walked the talk in practicing the sunnah. Little actions can make a lot of difference. 

Dr. Bilal Philips was a person who had benefitted me a great deal through his, primarily through his courses at IOU (International open university), previously named “islamic online university”). He is so much more knowledgeable than people realize: He has written books, conducted entire semester-long courses on subjects like Aqeedah, Fiqh, Tafsir, Arabic Language, Sciences of Hadith, and get this: even works of fiction. When we were studying wthose subjects, some of his best works of tafsir weren’t even published yet! 

Dr. Bilal really opened up my eyes on Islamic knowledge, appreciating the vastness and simultaneously the miraculous interconnectedness of the subjects. Two of his subjects that impacted me the most until today were the subjects on Etiquettes of Students of Knowledge, The Evolution of Fiqh (history of the mazhabs), Tafsir Surah Al-Kahf, Hadith on the Best in Islam, and his work on Usool Hadith, all of which really helped bring an elevated perspective and have a huge impact to me until this day.

And I am sure, there are thousands of others who have been touched by the work of these two great teachers. May Allah preserve them both and grant them continuous barakah and success in dunya and akhirah.

Lepak malam di Perlis bersama geng2 kenyalang

 

Masha Allah nice catching up with Sarawakian buddies Aziz, Aiman, Amal, Hisham, Erfan.. Lamak sik klaka Sarawak ehh.. di Perlis of all places 🤣. Rasa kedak balit Kampung iyeerrhh

Visited by bro Azizul n Wife.. Triggering deep discussion about parenting challenges and struggles and how we overcome them.. How we play our role as fathers and husbands, how to handle high needs children, how we prioritize and strategies their education and personal development, and so much more.

I find it's important that we fathers have focus groups on these matters as a jamaah, and surface out these challenges and solutions, like a community of Practice.
As my podcast buddy Aziz said, these are challenges that we all face, yet very few fathers speak out about it, and choose to keep to ourselves. Sometimes there is an unhealthy taboo of shame, judging ourselves, our spouses or our children ("is there something wrong with them/me?"). Parenting today in the 21st century isn't the same as it was when we grew up, and we can't just copy and paste what we think we know, especially if we aspire to be the change to raise future leaders in our ummah.

May Allah bless these gathering and these awesome brothers who travelled from Borneo just to attend PISC2025 , and may Allah grant us steadfastness to play our role to be the change our ummah needs to nurture and raise righteous families.