Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Hasbullah bin Latif. - 13 February 2016


Alfateeha………

The news that my good buddy Hasbullah had gone back to Almighty Allah on 13 Feb 2016 at 0740 hrs shocked me. He succumbed to prostate cancer and lung infection at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu. A day before, his wife Hajjah Sabrinawati Abdullah messaged that Hasbullah was admitted to Depency Ward in a critical condition with life support.

Kelantanese by birth, served RTM Kelantan and migrated to Sabah in 1974. He left behind a Sabahan wife, two (2) grown up children and a granddaughter.

The last time we met was on 29 September 2015 when I was on a mission to Keningau and I had a half day meeting with him at Kota Kinabalu. In fact, he picked me up at KK Airport Terminal 2 and we adjourned for brunch.




Hasbullah in memory.

We were in the same group by Andalusia Travel performing Umrah and Egypt Tour sometimes in 2008. The first time we got acquainted when we landed at Jeddah International Airport. We were stranded at the Airport due to our delayed flight ex Kuala Lumpur and the Hotel booking at Medina was cancelled. Therefore, we were instructed to make a detour to Mekah instead, a change of the itinerary. I was travelling with my wife and Hasbullah was with his wife, son and daughter in law. While waiting for the Bus to pick us up, we exchanged conversation, got to know each other as we will be together for the next two weeks. A Pensioner of RTM Sabah and he knew my brother (Amran Hamid), my immediate neighbor (Zakaria Yasin) and my one other ex RTM Pensioner buddy (Amran Din). It’s a small world indeed. We became close as we share common acquaintances and there was a subject to talk about. In Mekah/ Medina, we normally met at the Dining Hall as each of us had our own program.

After the umrah ritual, it was Egypt Tour and it was in Egypt that we became closer as both of us are English speaking species, got along fine with the Egyptian Tour Leader and assisted her to interpret to the entourage in the Malay Language. We covered Cairo and Alexandria. Literally, we hijacked the Tour Bus and we addressed ourselves as Panglima. I address him as “Panglima Di Bawah Bayu” and he entitled me as “Panglima Malaya”. We had good fun. We were on the Nile Cruise, had dinner and immediately after, appeared the Belly Dancers. Mind you, we just completed an umrah and both us were busy video recording. When we turned around, the ladies had all adjourned to the Upper Deck. Only Hasbullah and I remaining enjoying the belly wriggling. Our excuse, we paid for it, inclusive in the package. It was just an Egyptian social culture.

Sometimes in 2011, while I was on umrah mission with my wife and daughter, I rendezvous with Hasbullah and his wife in Mekah but they were travelling vide different Travel Agent and residing at different Hotels. We got together for tea.

On 14 April 2012, Hasbullah and wife made a surprise visit to my house at Port Klang. I hosted lunch at a Kampong Restaurant where budu, tempoyak and varieties of ulam kampong were on the menu. Being Kelantanese, he enjoyed it.  

During the family visit to Kota Kinabalu, Hasbullah was our Tour Guide. He drove us to Kudangsang, visited Kinabalu National Park, Nabalu Market and War Memorial Park. We had lunch at Kinabalu Pine Resort. Downtown Kota Kinabalu, he took us to Tanjung Aru Beach and the Phillipine Bazaar. Hasbullah family hosted Dinner at Ocean Sea Food Village, the best Seafood Restaurant just beside Promenade Hotel where we stayed.

Early January 2014, I invited Hasbullah for a tour of Palestine cum umrah with Almukminin Travel of which I am closely associated. He accepted and brought along his wife and other buddy, Haji Salim Ibrahim. We had good spiritual time at Jerusalem and Hebron. We ventured up to Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jaffa – the places we never dreamt of stepping. The best thing to happen we performed fardhu prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque and visited Quba Syakra (The Golden Dome). We even had the opportunity to join the Palestinians in congregation performing Friday prayer at Al Aqsa Mosque. We felt blessed as not many Malaysian Muslims dare to venture to Jerusalem. We saw with our own eyes the Great Barrier Wall erected by Israel segregating the Palestinians and Israelis. 












    
In Jordan, we went to the Dead Sea, the Cave of the Seven Sleepers and travelled 400 km westward to Wadi Musa to see Petra. We both wondered about ancient civilization and architecture. How in the world the Nabatean tribes could establish a kingdom carved out from a solid rocky mountain?? 

However, I did not join the group for umrah as I had to return to Malaysia to accompany non performing umrah travelers.

At anytime I was in Kota Kinabalu, we would meet and similarly when Hasbullah was at Peninsular Malaysia. The last he was at Putrajaya was on 15 May 2015 when his wife attended the Government sponsored farewell Dinner for Pensioners. I took him out for a drink and he complained that the pau at Putrajaya was damn expensive compared to Kota Kinabalu.




Sometimes mid September 2015, I got to know Hasbullah was unwell. Incidently, Almukminin Travel had a mission to Keningau on 29 September 2015 and I decided to fly early morning to meet Hasbullah. Later, I even accompanied him to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for a medical checkup. He was up and about except that he rather felt uncomfortable with the bag he was carrying. He wanted it to be removed but not until January 2016. He wished to perform an umrah soonest the bag could be removed. I advised him to be patience and adhere to the Doctors advice. Haji Salim and I sent him back to his residence and not knowing it was the last farewell between us.

Overtime we contacted each other by whatsup message and facebook. Seeing his postings in facebook cheered me up, presumably he was well. I heard he was hospitalized for surgery and my news of him was only vide Haji Salim – his closest buddy in KK. After the surgery he was back home but not long. Since then he was not responding to my messages until on 12 February 2016, Hajjah Sabrinawati Abdullah, Hasbullah wife contacted me that my friend was in critical situation and under life support. I immediately passed the message around and all acquaintances responded, praying in doa to Almighty Allah that our friend would be well. I felt rather shaky when Haji Salim told me our friend was in coma state.

Sadly, Hasbullah had his last breath at 0740 hours on 13 February 2016. Haji Salim updated and gave us the commentary from Kota Kinabalu.

Goodbye my friend - Panglima Di Bawah Bayu. In doa, may you will be grouped among the almukminin. I am going to miss you and you will always remain in my memory. We ventured to The Holy Land, Egypt, Palestine, Israel and Jordan together. The two Panglimas had conquered the three (3) Holy Mosques as written in the Holy Kora’an.




Alfateeha……..            

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