Eventide and In the Morning
I can still vividly remember hearing the takbir Raya for the first time. I was a few years old back then when we were still living in Taman Putra. It was early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, at an unusual time for me to be up. Wandering around the house bored and groggy, I heard a faint sound coming from the outside.
Out of curiosity, I walked to the locked front door to peer outside and inspect what that sound was and where was it coming from. I looked around and saw people with white jubah and baju melayu walking towards the nearby mosque. I clutched the cold grills with both hands, with complete childlike wonder, peering further to that faint, mysterious sound.
And then it came. Floating frighteningly, rapidly, soothingly through the peaceful still morning air. The serene music sent tiny ripples throughout my body. A million goosebumps erupted on my skin and sent a sudden shiver down my spine. That was how I felt the first time in my life that I heard the takbir Raya. Years and years have since passed, and it still gives me that same feeling from that morning in Taman Putra. That sensation that resonates and uplifts me like nothing else. A sense of peace and melancholic serenity.
I've never heard of any sound, any song, any music, more beautiful than that. And I know I'll never hear anything else that will sound any more beautiful than that.
