Daily and Ramadhan Diary 2021

 My Daily Diary Entry:

Throughout the first semester of my degree, I have to go through it online at home instead of face-to-face at the IIUM Pagoh campus. Every day I have to wake up and stare at the screen of my phone and laptop. The classes were held on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Google Classroom. To be honest, I think that online learning is internally tiring and more challenging than face-to-face learning. Some of the struggles that I have to face are the assignments and tasks given were a lot and not suitable for online learning, group work also was kind of hard because of lack of face-to-face communication, and lack of motivation and time management since I have to deal with home matters and university matters at the same time. Network problem is also a common issue that me and my friends have to face during online classes. Sometimes it's hard for us to understand what we are learning because of the delay in the network. One time, when I was presenting my slides, I did not notice my presentation was stuck on the first page until my friend told me about what was happening midway through my presentation. Luckily, the lecturer said I can just send the slide in the google drive file and not have to repeat my presentation. E-books are also a struggle to look through as the pages are confusing and hard to scroll through and so much more. Even though there is a lot of obstacles that I have to go through as a student during the pandemic, I still try and do my best for every assignment and task that I have been given. Online learning made me more alert and responsible as I need to be aware of what assignments to do, date of submissions, and time of classes start because my friends and lecturers cannot remind me as to how they would in face-to-face. I'm very blessed to still have a chance in learning and continuing my degree during the Covid-19 pandemic. I also appreciate the IIUM lecturers as they are very understanding and caring to their students that are facing online learning during Covid-19.

My Ramadhan Diary Entry:

The month of Ramadhan 2021 is very different from all of the Ramadhan that I have been through before because this year's Ramadhan is during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have to stay at home most of the time and do the ibadah at home instead of at the mosque. I did the tarawih and read the Qur'an together with my family every night of the Ramadhan. Although, some nights I would do the tarawih on my own because some of us are busy with work and assignments. I think that staying home during this Ramadhan is a chance for everyone to bond with their family internally and externally. I'm very happy that I can spend the whole month of Ramadhan with my family. Family is very important to me as I love my parents and my little brother and they always take good care of me and I would do the same for them. She reported God's Messenger as saying, “The best of you is he who is best to his family, and I am the best among you to my family. When one of you dies speak no ill of him, " Tirmidhi and Darimi transmitted it, and Ibn Majah transmitted it up to “to my family” on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas (Mishkat al-Masabih 3252, 3253, Book 13, Hadith 170) (Sahih). This shows that Islam gives a lot of importance to having a nice bond with our family and I'm glad that I've been given a chance to tighten the silaturrahim with my own family. Aidilfitri came and we all celebrated in our home only. My house was filled with fairy lights in bottles that were made by my family for Aidilfitri. We called our relatives and wish them Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin. It is sad that we all cannot visit them face-to-face because of Covid-19 but we still contacted them using the technology we have which is our phone. Then, my family did sunnah Aidilfitri prayer together after taking the sunnah Aidilfitri shower. We ate delicious lemang, ketupat, and nasi impit with kuah kacang, dating, and ayam together at the dining table. Me and my friends also exchanged messages and posters of Aidilfitri. I also celebrated Aidilfitri with my biological father for just some hours only. We met literally outside of the house for a while, we all wore matching green colored baju kurung and melayu. We also celebrated my brother's upcoming birthday with him. All and all, I think that this year's Ramadhan and Hari Raya are a blessing as we still have a chance to go through it even though there is a global pandemic. I hope that the pandemic will be over soon as the next Ramadhan and Aidilfitri can be more better and fun.