Last Day of the Year

Hmm, I'm not going to write about this year in review today. Instead, I want to share with you all a true story that happened earlier this year - True Story of a Rumor

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True Story of a Rumor

It all started during the first Editorial Board session 2003 meeting. We were discussing about changes and improvements that we need to do for that year. We used the year 2001 edition of the school magazine as our reference. We ran through it cover to cover to find any weaknesses that we need to fix and anything good that we can carry over to this year. We stopped at the Police Cadet page as their picture was one of the best picture in the Co-Curriculum section.

Referring to the picture Pn. Liza, our Advisor said that one of our ex-student that had moved to MRSM Jasin died of a motorcycle accident with a lorry last year. She said it was Ashraf, my close friend since Standard Six. I was shocked to hear it and expressed my condolence, but deep in my heart I feel that something was not right. I asked her for more information and put a note in my mind. After gathering enough information we just continue our meeting.

On my way home my mind start boggling, all the information from Pn. Liza contradicts what I know about Ashraf. I don't blame her because she got the news from someone else. But I'm still not sure whether he's alive or not as anyone can live one minute and leave this world another minute. As with the case of my junior who died in a car accident.

Once I reached home I told the news to my younger sister. She is a friend to one of Ashraf's younger sister, Nadiah. So I hope to get some hints from her. She's also shocked to hear the news but then she said that Nadiah never talked about it and she sounds cheerful every time she called Nadiah. So how come Ashraf can be dead?

The next day I went on to gather information from my classmates. I talked to Husna and Azlyn but once again the information contradicts and have some added twist to it. They said that he died of a motorcycle accident with a lorry last year in Shah Alam while on his way to his girlfriend's house to study Mathematics. The word Shah Alam caught my mind, it is now became clearer to me that this news about Ashraf is just a rumor. How come he can ride a motorcycle all the way to Shah Alam since his house is in Banting and it is not a short distance between the two town.

But still, I'm not confident enough that this is just a joke. I'm yet to talk to him personally so on Saturday I asked my sister to call Nadiah to ask for Ashrafs mobile phone number. My sister called Nadiah’s house but she have gone out. I'm getting worried. "This is not good," I said to myself. At last his mother herself called me.

She asked why I'm asking for his phone number, are there any important thing to tell him? Trying to hide my anxiety I said no, nothing important to tell him just I want to ask him the phone numbers of my other classmates in MRSM Jasin. She satisfied with my answer and went on asking how's my study and family. Finally I gained my strength to ask the question I wanted to know the most, is Ashraf still alive?

She was surprised to hear me to ask such question and asked me why I said so. I told her all about the rumors I heard. Then calmly she said... Yes, Ashraf is still alive and all the news I heard is a fake. Then we bursted into a big laugh. What a joke! Alhamdulillah, at last I find out the truth.

"O you who believe, if a sinner comes to you with news, VERIFY IT, lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done." [Al-Hujuraat, 49:6]

Wassalam, may this be a lesson for us not to believe in rumors.