Belated Arabic Exam...

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence..." - Robert Frost

Since early this year, I have been attending the Arabic classes two nights in a week. The class was interesting and the Ustaz was good. We learned our lessons in a relaxed environment and most of the time we deviated from the syllabus to cater for some slow coaches and those who often took unauthorized absence more too often.

Although it was the policy for all students to have more than 75% record of attendance to sit for the final exam, only a handful of us met that criteria. The Ustaz being lenient and nice, would not report on us. The reason being only a small minority were of hardcore miscreants. The rest of us were good and obedient and never missed to submit our homework.

Towards the end of the semester, attendance got better and the class was full-house again. I made a point not to miss classes as Ustaz would, in between revisions, sometimes gave hints on probable questions for the final exam. A list of soalan bocor circulated among the 3 classes and students were all excited and geared up to sit for the final exam. Confident to receive the much coveted certificate, a license to enroll for advanced Arabic class next year.

I was the unlucky one. I missed my final exam as the date clashed with my Umrah trip. Sensing my frustration, Ustaz advised me to request for a special sitting at a later date. After I came back from my trip, I was engrossed in my normal busy life and forgotten all about the exam.

Until last Tuesday, when I received one sms from my Ustaz: ‘Saya dah arranged untuk awak ambik exam hari Khamis. Datang lah, pukul 8 pagi…’

This morning, sitting in one corner in the administrative office in Masjid Negara, I took my written Arabic exam, while eaves-dropping on conversations among the office staff discussing about balik kampung, kueh raya, ketupat and rendang…