Gerimis diMalam Raya

What a night! I went early to the mosque last night for the Isya prayer. I was also planning to perform the Terawih prayer, thinking tomorrow would be another day of fasting. As we were performing the Isya prayer, the sky opened up. Within 5 minutes, during the prayer, the whole place was hit by a flash flood. The water level went up by up to a metre almost in an instant. By the time we were able to check outside, our cars were already surrounded by water. We couldn't do anything, only to watch the situation escalating to worst and feeling utterly helpless. The water had entered all the cars or completely submerged a few within the mosque compounds.

As we waited for the water level to recede, even worse things awaited the jemaah. The water level actually continued to go up and started to enter the mosque. By the end of the night, most of mosque's carpetings were wet and nothing much could be done to save them. I got stranded for two hours and by the time I left the mosque, the water level was only starting to recede. My 4-wd car was flooded inside but I still felt very lucky and fortunate as other jemaah faced even worse fate. Some have to abandon their cars for the night and only to retrieve them in the morning.

So what a night, on the eve of Hari Raya, for the jemaah and our mosque to be faced with an unexpected predicament. The morning Hari Raya prayer on the next day had to be done elsewhere. The regular jemaah of 2000 strong had to spread themselves to the various mosques nearby.