An Evening with the Prime Minister at his Residence

Sometime back, two years ago or thereabouts, I wrote of a visit by the Rector of a religious institution (Darul Mustaffa) in Yemen, Al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Since then he has visited Malaysia a couple of times more and in the meantime the Prime Minister had also visited Yemen and part of his activities in Yemen was to visit Darul Mustaffa.

Al-Habib Umar was in town again and arrangements were made for him to call upon the Prime Minister. An appointment was set for Saturday afternoon, two weeks ago. Representatives from various religious organizations were requested to accompany the Rector for the visit. I was representing my group, the AlJenderami foundation (website www.aljenderami.com.my) I arrived at the PM’s residence just before the appointed time. The PM was already there awaiting the arrival of his main guest. I had the opportunity to have small talks with the PM while waiting for Al-Habib Umar to arrive. I also had the opportunity, while waiting, to view the main hall, the prayer area, dining area and other rooms in the main building. The PM’s private residence is in another portion of the building or an adjoining building (I assumed). Anyway, the building was huge, high ceiling and spacious with different levels.



The late afternoon prayer time came and just a while after that the main guest arrived. We prayed in congregation after which there was a dialogue between the two leaders on current religious issues and what ways are best adopted to address the issues. There was quite an exchange of ideas between them while the rest of us were just listeners.

High tea was served after the dialogue session. There were food, glorious food, spread out for the guests and all present to enjoy. Enjoy the food I did………



It was a pleasant evening and a rare opportunity for me to get close to the PM. He was an easygoing man, jovial and easy to chat with. No airs around him and appeared simple and approachable. I have a different opinion of those people around him though……….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya