yasmin ahmad, a living legend

It is a shock to all of us that Yasmin Ahmad died yesterday. My sincerest condolences to her family and close friends. May Allah bless her soul and place her among the good men.

I know that she made good films and commercials too, but I never got around finishing watching her earlier movie, Sepet, let alone the latest one, talentime. Well, partly because I get restless watching a film for more than 30 minutes while I can read a whole book for 2 hours non-stop. That’s why I always read her blog more often than watching her films.

A recent entry from her blog about the death of Teoh Beng Hock, there was one comment from her reader that questions about ‘sudden death’. He said, and I quote,

“There is just too many "sudden death" happening in our detention.

I have always wondered what "sudden death" means?
When one dies suddenly like in a heart attack does it constitute sudden death? How about a car accident victim? Or a person who drops dead from a stroke?

Someone please explain sudden death to me.
And someone please explain what the hell is going on in this country.

And you know what’s the funny part of all this? Yasmin didn’t address to this comment as she did to other comments. Because I was quite curious to know what she have to say about this and I find it odd that she missed that one. Another response she gave that struck me is “but if this had happened to a member of your family, would you be as accepting? takdir is takdir, but in islam, if someone were murdered, his family decides the fate of his murderer. Yes, takdir is takdir but sometimes, even if that person did not die murdered, for instance a sudden heart attack, certainly the family would be hard of accepting. All the reasons were too soon, too young, got too much going on for him and so on. It’s human nature that people tend to be accepting, if not a little, if that person dies of a suffering illness or old age because then we are prepared to let the person go.

In light of the question on ‘sudden death’, we never know when our time is due. Some people are fortunate enough to know the chances of facing death (like being diagnosed cancer) so that knowledge can sink in slowly. But for many that doesn’t know (of course we don’t know), we have to make the best of time we have in life. A wise saying from our Prophet (PUH) that sounds more or less, worship as if death awaits you tomorrow.

In one of the tributes to her, I love her commercial ‘beautifully imperfect’ the most. Most of her works can relate to our life, no fairy-tale like, (kudos to her degree in psychology) which is most important because only then we would receive the message in her work. I have a lot to learn and one of them is to embrace the imperfections and make the best of it while I still have time. Because naturally, once you are gone, it’s the imperfection that will be remembered affectionately.

All of this makes me want to peluk-peluk sayang with what time is left.

yes, it is hard for us to accept the fact Yasmin Ahmad, one of the gifted talents, has finally left us all behind. but forget not, she still lives on through her beautiful works.

Al-fatihah.