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 blessin

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