What was the first language in the world? What was the language thought to Adam, as by Allah, SWT? What was the language used by Adam, Eve, and their children to communicate?

If it it was Arabic, then Arabic is the root of every language in the world. If Arabic it is, why it is so difficult now to find resource to learn it? I’ve just come back from a nearby bookstore. A big and famous one. All I could find about Arabic is just Arabic for children. A thin and colorful book of first words. And I could find a huge resources for English, which already becomes a second language for most Indonesian employee.

I need a serious and structured Arabic resource. Rosetta Stone is a good one I think. But it can’t take Indonesian order. The same problem with Amazone. But I surely can not stop at this point. Still searching and learning.

Today I’ve read in a local magazine about Halal Perfume. I love to apply perfume at home. But there are some important things that we must consider when choosing perfume. I have translated this article for you.

Perfume is beeing a part of our life. Men or women have usually apply it in many occasion. From ibadah, going to mosque, deodorizer, or just to give a certain effect or image. In Islam, it is recommended to use perfumed material as a part of ibadah, in order for going to mosque (for men), or for the purpose of harmonizing the relationship between man and wife.

But before we choose a perfume, it is better for us to be aware, because not all perfumed material are halal for sure. Sometimes they consist of najis when used. The material that usually debated in Islam in using perfume is alcohol. According to MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia — Indonesian Council of Ulama), alcohol referred here is etanol, which is a pure alcohol, not formed by alcohol drinks industries (khamr) thus it is not najis. Besides, in perfume usage, alcohol is just act as extractor. After beeing sprayed, alcohol will be evaporated thus only the perfume stayed. Perfume with this kind of alcohol may applied.

It is not only the alcohol that we should be aware to. There are other things. First, there is two possibilities of basic material for making perfume, from flower or animal. If it is made just from flower, of course it can be applied safely. But if it is made from animal, we should be more careful of it is halal or haram. For example, Civet or Musk (a kind of weasel oil) should be pored over if it is halal. If it is not comply with Islamic rules, Civet or musk results from haram animal will made najis perfume.

Secondly, there are different kinds of processing methods. For example Enfleurage. After the flower has been picked, the coloured part then put on oil layer. The oil used here comes from purified pork oil.

Third, there is two kind of perfume, spray and oil perfume. Spray perfume mixed with alcohol that is safe to apply. Oil perfume use animal oil that has to be looked over more carefully whether it is halal or haram.

Halal Perfume
Material
Plants
An essential oil is any concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. They are also known as volatile or ethereal oils, or simply as the “oil of” the plant material from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. The term essential indicates that the oil carries distinctive scent (essence) of the plant, not that it is an especially important or fundamental substance (wikipedia)
Example : lavender or citronella

Floral Oil (process of extraction and maserasi), that is likely essential oil, but floral oil is processed with dissolving or absorption. This kind of material mainly produced in Northern France, Italy, and Norther Africa. Floral Oil is the most expensive perfume. Example : jamine, rose, and tuberose.

Do you have a column that look like the following in you Excel Spreadsheet?

Hotel List
Clarion
Clarion
Horizon
Clarion
Horizon
Horizon
Hilton
Clarion
Hilton
Quality

And you want to get only unique values from them, one row for each? You can simply do that with the following steps.

• Block the columns
• Point to menu Data | Filter | Advanced Filter
• Choose the Action. If you want the filter result to be in their current place, choose “Filter the list, in-place”. If you want the filter result copied into another cells, choose “Copy to another location”
• Make sure the field in List Range met your selection fields you wish to filter
• Leave the “Criteria Range” empty
• If you choose “Copy to another location” in the previous step, choose a destination cell to copy you filter result in “Copy to”
• Do not forget to put a check in “Unique records only” checkbox

Now you have a column that looks like the following.

Hotel List
Clarion
Horizon
Hilton
Quality

Glasgow, March 2006. It was my first time experience going aboard. We had a course there from Graham Technology (GT), a provider of CRM interface application in the company I work for. GT’s office itself located in India Inchinnan, Renfrewshire. About a half hour from Glasgow city center.

While the course held from 9 to 3 every day from Monday to Friday, and we was there for 8 days, it was not enough for sightseeing. We stayed in a hotel at Glasgow City. It was such a good location. In front of Glasgow Central Station, not far from the shopping center, and we also could reach The Queenstreet Station by walking.

The weather is could enough for us, Indonesian people who live on subtropic country. And the time difference (-8 hour) from Indonesia was also another story. But we had good time there.

Uluwatu is a Hindu temple located on Uluwatu beach, Bali. We reached there after 1 hour trip by a travel bus from Kuta. As some of other famous Balinese temple, the Uluwatu temple is located on an exotic rock by the beach. According to the people, they have chosen a location for building a temple after a vision got by the local leader through his dream.

There is a park nearby where monkeys live there on groups. We must be very careful when we pass through them. It is recommended that you do not wear your glasses there. The monkeys may took it off. It happens to one of my friend and with two other visitor who ignore the warning. The local guide said that if they can get it back from the monkey, they will send it to us. But do not hope too much.

Have you got a column in MS Excel worksheet which looks like this ?

Eragon
_____
Lord of The Rings
_____
_____

And you need to fill the blank rows with the same value with its nearer nonblank row? Try this tips :

• Select the entire column
• Click menu Edit | Go To
• Click “Special” button
• Click the radio button with label “Blanks”
• Type in “=” and press the top arrow keyboard button
• Press Ctrl+Enter on your keyboard.
• Voila. Check out your column

Hope this is useful.

Assalaamu’alaykum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh

My name is Cheeqa, and I am an Indonesian. I have a family with two children. They are a boy and a girl. The boy named Agim, will be Insha Allah 5 years old next month (May 2007). And the girl will be Insha Allah 4 years old also next month.

Now, I’ve been working in a telecommunication provider company in my country for 9 years. And I hope one day I may run my own business from home, along with the children around and have a full education on them. Since the kids are kidergarten years, I want to try to homeschool them. Although I know that will be hard considering my time at office from 8 to 5, five days a week. For the homeschool portfolio, I have a site here.

At last, hopefully this blog may inspire some of you, and get us closer with The Creator, Allah, SWT.