Ali the 5th.

25.6.2013.

He's my fifth grandchild, my fourth grandson, from my third son with my third daughter-in-law.

Ali.

Born on the fifthteenth of Sya'aban in the Hijriah 1434. That was yesterday, Monday 24th. of June, 2013, at  12 p.m. at the Pantai Hospital, Bangsar.

Ali's maternal and paternal grandmothers both witnessed his emergence into the world. All 2.9 kilograms of him, all pink with thick black hair. Alhamdulillah, all went well.

A simple name that wasn't simply chosen. His dad had spoken about it to me months before. It's a good name. I thought I might personally look at a few good Arabic names first, the way I looked for and chose "Ahmad Zulhilmi" 31 years ago at the Assunta Hospital, P.J.  "Ahmad" from the Prophet, "Zulhilmi" the possessor of tenderness.

But "Ali" is excellent.

Ali was the Prophet's first cousin and his son-in-law, Fatimah's husband, who was to become the fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs who took over the leadership of the growing Islamic nation from Muhammad saw.

To-day we visited Ali again, because yesterday I couldn't see him  personally, the staff having  taken him immediately into seclusion in the post-natal ward, and I had to go home to Seremban at 5. So today I held Ali in my arms. His eyes opened and his tiny hands and feet pushed out the wrap he was bound in. He looks  like his dad, I offered.

I told Suhaili I've opened another "tabung" for my new grandson, and  wrote on the bottle "Ali - 24-6-14" the date of his first birthday when I'll give him the bottle of coins, as I've done for his cousins Iman, Arsyad, Amir and Azim. All good Arabic names that hopefully would bring good tidings for all of them.

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