I went to Kuala Kangsar for a wedding reception of a dearest friend of mine.
Being at Kuala Kangsar for the first time, I must say that this royal city is one of the best cities that I have ever visited. The magnificent Masjid Ubudiyyah, the wisest of all dictionary writers Idris al-Marbawi birth place, the ‘glorious’ Malay College which has produced and still producing quite a number of the country’s political figures, the scenic greeny paddy fields and sweet little unique villagers houses are some of the attractions and heritages in Kuala Kangsar, which other cities do not possess.
A trip with no knowledge and wisdom derived from it can be considered as a futile and useless trip. In a layman’s term, the trip is just a waste of money.
I had been to al-Marbawi’s house (now coffee shop) in Cairo last summer, but I don’t really know him well at that time. ‘Budak-budak sekolah pondok’ should have been familiar with this name~al-Marbawi. What I knew about him previously is only that he is the writer of kamus al-Marbawi, nothing more.
Ever wonder where the ‘al-Marbawi’ name came from? He was born in Kampung Lubuk Merbau, Kuala Kangsar. Spelling ‘Merbau’ in arabic will give ‘marbawi’, as the composition of letters to spell ‘merbau’ are mim+ra+ba+wau. Before this, some of us (especially budak2 pondok dan pesantren) and I just take the al-Marbawi arabic dictionary for granted without we really put any effort in knowing and acknowledging the writer of that essential and useful dictionary. In addition to the dictionary, he also wrote ‘Bahrul Mazi’ which is now one of the main Islamic jurisprudence text book in al-Azhar University.
Do readers know how many reprinting has al-Marbawi dictionary has gone through? More than hundreds of time!!
The main intention of me acknowledging his contributions is to tell readers that Tanah Melayu has a lot of ulamas that have contributed a lot in Islamic world, but the sad fact is that, it is we who could not care less in learning their knowledge and wisdom. It is sad really, ’tis.
In conjunction with this post, I would like to congratulate Fendi and his zaujah for their ceremonious happy wedding. Semoga berbahagia hingga ke syurga, Insya Allah. Your hospitality is the best a guess can get in this world..tehehe.
P/s=one by one of friends has parted from me, I wonder when would be the time I will be parting with friends which are currently on the same boat…tehehe again.
