Doc Ahmad Hajiri

Bismillah. The following conversations/questions are always thrown at me when they see my beard. Friend 1: “Hey Ahmad, why don’t you shave your beard? Are you really letting that grow? Or you just don’t know how to shave…” =) Professor 1: “You are a Muslim and you have a beard. So, you have been to Mecca, right?” Friend 2: “I like your beard… But man, it makes you look older!” Maybe there are a lot more conversations I had with friends (especially non-Muslims) who would never fail to notice my now-two-inch-long, sparsely growing beard hanging on my chin. And whether they ask me why, or I would notice them getting curious about it, I only have one answer for them:  “It’s simple my friend. This is SUNNAH!” (Usually followed by a beaming smile here) But what is Sunnah, you ask? No, it’s not the Arabic for “fashion”. Nor is it something done to please other people. SUNNAH is simply “following the examples of our beloved prophet Muhammad (Peace and ble...

Bismillah. It's already July, and since the first day of classes this year, I am still amazed as how fast things are going on in my almost-messy-unorganized days as an LU4 (Learning Unit 4 or 2nd year Med) student here in UPCM. Since the past two months (June and July) we already had 5 module exams, with about 7 major modules (subjects) compressed in such short time. These modules include: General Pathology, Microbiology, Parasitology, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Community Medicine and Pharmacology. In "normal" cases, each of these modules would take at least a semester to finish. And guess what, the "system" is pushing us to finish each within a week or two! Yes, indeed. We are not in a "normal" school after all. But Alhamdulillah, amidst the ultra-fast tsunami-lectures, there are still so many things that I always cherish in my everyday life in BSLR-West (our classroom). First are the great lectures delivered by the best lecturers in the ...

Bismillah. Ramadhan or the month of fasting for Muslims is now fast approaching. And for a country where non-Muslims dominate the population, there are always some point in time where a lot of people are getting curious of what really Ramadhan is. What do Muslims do in this month? Why is it so special to them? What can non-Muslims do to appreciate this month? And how can non-Muslims appropriately join in with their celebration? To have a short reading on need-to-know-about-Ramadhan, please visit my post: Ramadhan for Non-Muslim s . And in this post, we will talk about answering the question stated earlier: What can non-Muslims do during Ramadhan? Here is a list of things that non-Muslims can do and should avoid doing, from one Muslim’s personal experiences in living in a place where non-Muslims are the majority.  What you can do: 1.   Know who are Muslims around you. Before Ramadhan kicks in, keeping in mind who are Muslims around you--in your neighborhood...

Bismillah Last June 9, 2013 I was fortunate to be part of a Pre-Ramadhan Symposium, Alhamdulillah. This was organized by our Muslim Student Association-Alumni brothers and sisters from different campuses and in coordination with the Islam in Focus (IIF) Productions-Manila . The symposium themed: “Virtues of the Holy month of Ramadhan” was held at Kapatiran-Kaunlaran Foundation, Inc., at Sampaloc, Manila from 1:30 to 5 PM. The symposium, although simple, was attended by more than a hundred Muslim brothers and sisters throughout Manila. Sheikh Ahmad Javier (in black shirt) with the other ulama during the symposium There were two main lectures followed by the usual open-forum part. The first lecture entitled “Virtues of Ramadhan” by Sheikh Ahmad Javier who is also the director of IIF-Manila. He talked about the great value every Muslim should place on Ramadhan and we should never let Ramadhan pass us by without us reaping its bountiful rewards. He also emphasized...

Bismillah the Island of Siasi with Bud Siasi on the background Last summer I spent more than a week in Siasi, a smaller island in Sulu. I went there not to spend a wonderful vacation with my family, but to do something bigger, something greater: to conduct my first one-week community immersion! As one of the Regionalization Program (RP) students in the college, we were required to return to our community every summer and conduct our own community immersions before the next school year begins. This is one of the requirements that we have to accomplish for us to be allowed to enroll for the next Learning Unit (or year level). And so, being one of the only two students (out of 160) representing ARMM in our batch, I chose Siasi, Sulu to be my immersion site for the next five years of my stay in Medschool (in shaa Allah), and perhaps until I become a licensed physician someday (Ameen). Now, what did I do in my one-week stay in Siasi? I might not be able to tell all the th...