Skip to main content

Zainal Abidin Jaafar: Beating His Own Path

If there is one in my family who have truly lived, it would be my brother Zainal. I must, regretfully, admit, that, as an elder brother, he has always been an elusive man of mystery for me. Being the youngest, by the time I was born, Abang Enal, was already in form 2. When I started school in 1971, he was already in Melaka studying at the Vocational Institute of MARA. I have vague memories of visiting him with my parents.

Then, he was off to Japan, I don't know for how long, and then, he came back home with a beautiful Japanese girl in tow. I remember, she had picked the name Suzana as her Muslim/Malay name after she converted, and they got married. We all lived together with my late sister Aishah and her husband Abang Haris, and their two sons, Zulkifli (Zul) and Sallehuddin (Hud). The one memory I have of my Japanese sister in law, was; Abang Haris once bought one of those racing track toys with tiny motorcycle riders going around in a figure of eight, then up a conveyor belt, then down again around the track. The instructions to assemble the toy was in Japanese, and we (Zul, Hud and myself) asked Suzana to read the instruction, but since her grasp of English was still in its infancy (much less her Malay), it was quite stressful to understand her explanations. Thinking back, if you were an observer looking at three kids sitting around a pile of toy parts listening open mouthed to a Japanese woman explaining how to put it together, it must have been a hilarious sight.

The marriage did not last....

But, with his wits and charm, it wasn't long before Abang Enal wooed another beautiful girl, but wisely ensuring she is a local girl.

This, in my mind, is the perfect match. Kak Maya, the energetic, robust, straight to the point kind of girl, is perfect for the soft spoken, laid back Abang Enal. They had four children, and to the annoyance of Abah and Mak gave them weird names.... Nina Eza Maria, Ezwan Razak, Assalamia and Al Haq....

The ups and downs of their lives, would have made the bestseller's list. God only knows the hardship they had gone through, which makes them what they are today. The children grew up fine, married to wonderful spouses, their business started to pick up..... Unfortunately, there are those who cannot stand to see others happy.

Abang Enal is now in a much better place now. He is resting now... He had lived this life walking his own path. He never asked for approval not did he expected any. He seems content, having all that he loves, and loving all that he has.

I don't think I have ever heard him complain or see him sad, right to the last days of his life, he was ever jovial, with a permanent smile on his face.

I am envious of him, both in life and in death. There can be no other reward for him, in the afterlife, than heaven.

The blessings of Allah upon him.... Alfatihah.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pak Mat Beca

I started school in 1971. I went to Sekolah Ismail (Dua), as far as I am concerned the only primary school in the whole universe and every kid must go there or the government will put their parents away forever. The "Dua" or Two (2), does not mean there were two Sekolah Ismails. There was only one, except that there were two sessions, morning and afternoon. When I started in standard one, I was in the morning session. Apparently, somehow, the two Ismails alternate, and I really can't recall ever having to go to school in the afternoon. Every morning, my cousin, the late Hashimah Hashim (Allah bless her soul), and I would wait for Pak Mat to pick us up in his beca, his trishaw. And, until I changed school in 1976 (that's another story to tell), Pak Mat and his beca would take me to school every school day. I know of no other way to go to school and I did not really appreciate the distance that Pak Mat had to cycle to pick us up and send us to our respective s...
Post a Comment
Read more

For the Love of God

Someone told me a joke about a man who had just bought a car. It was his first car and, not wanting to have even a scratch on it, he took it to a hindu temple, a buddhist temple, a church and a mosque. At the hindu temple, the hindu priest chanted mantras over the car and tied a red string around the car's right wing mirror. The buddhist monk sprinkled the car with water after chanting traditional mantras and then a white string was tied to the left wing mirror. The christian priest blessed the car with holy water and gave the driver a cross to hang from the rear view mirror. At the mosque, the imam was astounded since nobody ever asked to bless a car before. So after a recitation of selected verses from the Qur'an, he took a hacksaw and promptly cut the tip off the car's exhaust pipe..... to circumcise it. When I first heard this story, I thought the new car owner was an atheist, albeit a superstitious one. This man, I had deduced, did not really believe in the existence o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Being Vulcan

Spock, son of Sarek . Born: 2230.Died: 2263 (in alternate universe) aged 162 Vulcans , I assume, would be well into rebuilding their civilisation and restoring their culture on their new planet after  Nero  destroyed their home planet in 2258. Vulcans first came to Earth in April of 2063 when they detected the first-ever warp drive test flight piloted by Dr Zefram Cochrane . Our allegiance with them has contributed to the advancement of human technologies, which, in turn, have enabled interplanetary relations and the exploration of space —the final frontier . Legend has it that Vulcans were very emotional creatures, but their religion (although they do not refer to it as one), founded upon the teachings of the great philosopher Surak , forbids them to show emotion and to embrace logic. Humans will do well to adopt the teaching of Surak. Humans may not be as emotionally volatile as prehistoric Vulcans, but we would be better off if we could better control our emot...
Post a Comment
Read more