Reflective Perspectives

on being propa innit (translation:proper, isn't it)

2012-01-29T01:30:00.000Z

Quote of the day: We (malaysians) are very ritualistic.

We emphasize too much form over substance.

Everything must be proper. If we go to the masjid, we must wear kopiah and kain pelekat. No jeans.

If we pray, in must be in a proper prayer room, on a prayer mat. No praying outside.

Even when we've known someone and had a relationship for years and years, we still perform the formality of merisik (going to the house to meet and know the person and their family, i.e before marriage)
Note: i am not advocating relationships before marriage. This is just a description of our society today.

Showing outward propriety, while losing inward piety. We do these things without knowing and contemplating the actual meaning of them. I once asked a friend of mine,

Similarly, you could ask the same question to a lot of muslims nowadays;

This happens in literally every aspect of life, but take the prayer for a simple example. Allah says;

اتْلُ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book (the Qur'ân), and perform As-Salât. Verily, As-Salât prevents from Al-Fahshâ' (i.e. great sins of every kind) and Al-Munkar. And remembrance of Allâh is greater indeed . And Allâh knows what you do. (Al Ankabut :45)

The prayer prevents from al Fahsha' and al-Munkar. We have been taught to pray since primary school,

In primary school...

If we started praying at the age of 7, we would have been praying for more than 10 years now. THEORETICALLY, that would mean that we would have turned into very good people, not doing any fahsha' or munkar. Imagine if you did dishes for 10 years. You would be a pro, able to spot every microscopic bit if dirt on a plate.

But that hasn't happened for our worship. If you did dishes for 10 years and you're still not a pro, maybe you weren't really whole-hearted in doing the dishes. Same here. Maybe we weren't whole-hearted in doing our worship.

We forgot that the prayer is a direct connection between a servant and his Lord, where the servant asks for protection and guidance.

We forgot that the prayer is to remind us of being aware that our deeds are always being recorded.

If we remembered this, surely we wouldn't do fahsha' and munkar.

But we don't learn the lessons. What we care about most and give priority to is proper clothing, proper ways of sitting, proper movements.

We forgot to have a proper heart.

on how to talk about protests and flags while trying to maintain neutrality

2012-01-27T23:40:00.000Z

Its been a week since i last wrote. Those bubblemen are starting to protest.

Protests, protests. Its becoming the Cool Word of 2011/2012.

"You were one of the protesters at Tahrir Square?? would you like an interview?"

"I was one of the 99% who protested at Wall Street."

"i'm protesting in Syria tomorrow. If anything happens, you can have my laptop."

And although the action is happening at the centre of the world, even countries on the peripheries (like Malaysia truly Asia have not been spared). Witness the recent fiasco over "the flag that shook a nation".

And some of the things i frequently hear is

"Why are you protesting? you have a comfortable life. Okaylah tu, bersyukur."

"they're throwing away their future, protesting like that."

"protesting is not good at all. Look at the Arab countries. They rebelled. Are they more peaceful now? look at their country, its still in chaos."

Of course it would be daft to expect change in one night. Rome was not built in one day. Even the Prophet took 23 years to establish islam all over arabia, in the meanwhile encountering resistance and chaos.

I have no comments on the methods used by the protesters. Biasalah, darah muda (young blood). But the objects of their grievances are real.

And i don't agree with the view of "why all the fuss, we have a stable and secure life".

Sure, we have a stable and secure life. We have no external wars, no civil wars. That only means that there is no physical violence.

But violence occurs every day, right under our noses. We go to sleep full, whilst others in our neighbourhood don't have enough to eat. That is violence.

We are free. But our brothers are shackled, enslaved by the burden of debt and interest that they have to pay to the banks. That is violence.

Our fathers work hard and pay taxes. But some have the nerve to squander that money. That is violence.

This is what sociologists call "symbolic violence", the hidden modes of domination/oppression happening every day.

And as a famous man once said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

And an even more famous book says,

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Verily, Allâh enjoins Al-Adl (justice) and Al-Ihsân, and giving (help) to kith and kin and forbids Al-Fahshâ' (i.e all evil deeds) and Al-Munkar (i.e all that is prohibited by Islâmic law) and Al-Baghy(i.e. all kinds of oppression), He admonishes you, that you may take heed. (An Nahl:90)

The Prophet was undertaking a form of protest. He was trying to change the oppressive system of the Quraisy and the Arabs, changing them into a people who are just and kind and submit to Allah.

Corruption. Moral decay. Crime. etc.

A playwright once said,

"by continuing to play the roles assigned to them, “individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system.”

If we do nothing to change the oppression, we are part of the oppression.

And how does change start? By protesting against our inner self.

on the backbone of society

2012-01-19T09:49:00.001Z

Yesterday i had the chance to meet the director of our local masjid.

We asked about the youth in the area. And he goes on to talk about the activities that are happening in the masjid:

"alhamdulilllah, this mosque is quite busy.."

"we have karate classes for the youth.."

"and football sessions.."

"and tajweed classes for around 200 people.."

"quran classes for kids up to 16.."

"classes for teachers, to teach them how to be better teachers.."

"and this evening, the businessmen in the area are having a meeting in the hall downstairs.."

Businessmen having their meetings in the mosque?? COOLNESS.

I am impressed at how they utilise the masjid. They really use it as a centre for building the community, to get them attached to the masjid and islam. And this is in a 'muslim minority' country. We need a lot more work in our 'islamic home sweet home'.

LOTS more work. And under-utilised mosques are only part of the problem. In our country, mosques are only for 'ibadah (prayers, talks, etc). And that's taking a narrow view on 'ibadah. It should be more than that. Mosques should be the backbone of our society.

This is how it is in our country. We should encourage people to come to the mosque. Clothing is not a barrier, as long as it covers our 'aurah and not vulgar etc.

It should be a place to educate the youth, where discussions happen, where problems within the community are solved. Why are people not attached to the mosque? because our hearts are dead. A lyric goes,

"our mosques are empty, our refridgerators stocked."

Reviving the hearts of this ummah. We've got a huge task ahead.

on nature, nurture and the longing heart

2012-01-17T01:20:00.000Z

One of the major debates on sociology, anthropology, psychology, and other social sciences, is this:

ARE WE A PRODUCT OF NATURE OR NURTURE?

To put it another way,

"Were we born awesome, or are we influenced by awesomeness?"

To illustrate, imagine a "pious" boy.

this is so stereotypical. if you wear kopiah, you must be 'good'

Imagine he goes into a 'real-world' place. For example, a pre-university college.

But you know, syaitan has been doing his job for thousands of years. He's a type-A pro. Sooner or later...

This is not fantasy. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine.

So, are we the product of nature or nurture? My personal experience suggests BOTH.

And the story of our beloved Prophet affirms this. He was by nature a good person. But there was one incident, where he wanted to join a festival in Makkah. But Allah, with his Wisdom, made Rasulullah sleep, thus keeping him away from the potentially rowdy and unsavoury environment. From this story, we learn one important lesson. Our environment is very important in shaping us.

If we want to be good, find a good environment.

If we want to be otherwise, so be it.

A prominent celebrity in malaysia said a very profound thing,

"If we want to change, Allah will send us people to help us."

I agree.

Ever imagined an environment where people would hurry up for prayers and call you to the masjid?

Ever imagined an environment where you are studying, and someone comes up to you with a cup of tea?

Ever imagined an environment where people remind you with words from the quran?

A few years ago, i didn't even imagine that such people exist.

But they do. Keep looking.

on the crumbling of battlefield lines

2012-01-15T13:52:00.001Z

There are a lot of diseases afflicting our ummah, but today I would like to focus attention on one. In a lot of mosques that I've been to, there is a recurring syndrome:

"The Two-Saff Syndrome (TSS)"

Symptoms of TSS include:
- There would be only two lines of people praying behind the imam for Fajr,Zuhur,Asr,Maghrib,Isya', at most three lines
- The two lines consist of more or less the same people, day in and day out

And this is in malaysia, a country ranked 38 on the "Islamicity index", and which is a supposedly "islamic country"
(Footnote: we do not practise islam just to improve in world rankings. This is just an illustration)

Its the same almost everywhere. Go to KYUEM, its like that. Go to the mosque nearby my house, and its like that. But in the Kota Damansara mosque, there are encouraging signs. Its almost full for Fajr prayers, alhamdulillah. :-)

All diseases have outward symptoms. If you have lung disease, outward symptoms include breathing difficulties. Similarly, TSS is just a symptom of an underlying disease.

Our 'ulama say that going to the mosque is an expression of willingness to struggle in the way of Allah. When the muazzin calls,
"Hayya 'ala al-Falah" (Come towards victory)

We respond with vigour, saying
"We are in your service, O Allah, in your service"

And we hurry to the battlefield, to the frontlines, we are ready to strive in His way. So you see, our prayers, our fasts, they are not just rituals. They are training grounds for us to be Allah's servants in EVERY aspect of life. If we do not show to Allah that we are excited to be in His service, then we should not be appalled that Allah is not helping us like he helped Rasulullah and his companions

in a more ideal world

And its not an issue of how many people attend. In my opinion, one person going just for the sake of Allah is better than everyone going because its a cultural norm.

So going back to what we discussed previously. This is only a symptom of underlying afflictions. Is it because our spirit of jihad has decreased? Worldly pleasures have taken over us? Our hearts are not yearning for the pleasure of Allah? Or is it a symptom of the weakness that Rasulullah described:

"Loving this world, and dislike of death".

This is a time to look into our ourselves, and find the answer. Because we know ourselves better than anyone else.

The question is: why has the spirit of the ummah disappeared?

May Allah return this ummah to His pleasure. Amin.

On #901

2012-01-09T09:21:00.001Z

Some people like numerical conspiracies, so with respect to all the excitement surrounding 901, I decided to look up the verse 9:01 in the quran.

"(this is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and his messenger towards those of the idolaters with whom you made an agreement."

In this translation 'baraa'ah' is translated as immunity, but to be more accurate it means 'to let go of', 'not have anything to do with', 'cut off from'.

To paraphrase,

'Allah and his messenger do not want anything to do with the musyrikin'.

and in this surah, Allah did not even begin with a bismillah, as in other surahs. The basmalah (bismillahirrahmanirrahim) indicates a merciful God. it is a stern warning to those who deny Allah and what rasulullah preached.

Ironic.

We can implement all the reforms we want, appease every single person, give away all the money we have,

But if there is no real reform in our hearts, real submission to Allah, then nothing can help us.

On delivering even one sentence

2012-01-08T02:47:00.001Z

Tonight I am going to share a famous hadeeth by the prophet SAW.

"deliver from me even one aayah (sentence/sign)"

Often people focus on the 'one aayah' part

"bg satu ayat je cukuplah"
"give one sentence is enough lah"

I'd like to draw your attention to this bit: deliver from me.

often we deliver things that other people say. Pak mat said this, Minah said that, harian metro said this,and so on.

Sometimes we disregard who said it, as long as its sensational.

"you know, that boy, he went to Ireland and got married blablabla.."
"aiyo, that person went to the UK and became like that?"

mulut xde insurans. And the author is also guilty as charged.

But how many of us deliver what the prophet said? Or what he did? What was his attitude like? Do we make him as our point of reference?

maybe we don't find his teachings sensational enough. If we did, we'd deliver more than one sentence.

on the revolution within

2012-01-02T09:05:00.000Z

Apologies for the dearth of new material in this blog. I was on a 12-day exploration of self and truth.

The first awakening i had was on a similar trip 2 years ago. So it was nice to see new flowers bloom.

And it was a nice self-exploration. 'Umar said there are three things you could do to know a person:

- eat together

- sleep (i don't know any other way to make this sound less ambiguous)

- travel together

So the first step is to know your demons. Next step is to banish them away. But don't banish your demons the Malay Way.

Self-improvement and control of the self is a matter of hard work, discipline and perseverence. Promising yourself you'd read a page of the quran per day. Or praying jamaah 5 times a day. Or fasting every monday and thursday. Or asking people to do good and leave the bad. Or attending circles every week. Repeat.

Istiqamah (perseverence) is an easy word to say, but very difficult to achieve.

Forget about New Year's resolution. You get spirited in the beginning, and fizzle out by February.

My Every Day's resolution is: to become a better slave of Allah.

on the islamicity index

2011-12-17T12:17:00.001Z

There's an interesting study in the Global Economy Journal by two scholars from George Washington University. It's called "How islamic are islamic countries?"

There's a whole lot of indicators taken into account, from economic opportunities to political rights to international relations. Basically, which countries are the best in terms of applying islamic values, regardless of whether they're actually muslim.

Here's the list (for the actual study, click http://www.bepress.com/gej/vol10/iss2/2/):

OVERALL ISLAMICITY INDEX RANK

Countries Overall Islamicity Index Rank

{208} (OIC countries are highlighted)

New Zealand 1

Luxembourg 2

Ireland 3

Iceland 4

Finland 5

Denmark 6

Canada 7

U.K. 8

Australia 9

Netherlands 9

Austria 11

Norway 12

Switzerland 13

Belgium 14

Sweden 15

Portugal 16

Germany 17

Bahamas 18

France 18

Czech Rep 20

Estonia 21

Costa Rica 22

Spain 23

Barbados 24

U. S. 25

Slovenia 26

Hong Kong, China 27

Latvia 28

Japan 29

Malta 30

Hungary 31

Slovak Republic 31

Italy 33

Chile 34

Lithuania 35

Cyprus 36

Singapore 37

Malaysia 38

Panama 39

Trinidad and Tobago 40

Poland 41

Mauritius 42

Croatia 43

St. Vincent and the

Gren 44

Namibia 45

Greece 46

Jamaica 47

Kuwait 48

Uruguay 48

South Africa 50

Botswana 51

St. Lucia 52

Ghana 53

Argentina 54

Brazil 55

Mexico 55

Bulgaria 57

El Salvador 58

Philippines 59

Dominica 60

Israel 61

Monaco 62

Lesotho 63

Bahrain 64

Brunei 65

Romania 66

United Arab Emirates 66

Belize 68

Andorra 69

Cayman Islands 70

Seychelles 71

Fiji 72

Uganda 73

Tanzania 74

Antigua and Barbuda 75

Gabon 75

Jordan 77

Thailand 78

Grenada 79

San Marino 79

China 81

Nicaragua 81

Cape Verde 83

Macao, China 83

Tunisia 83

Colombia 86

Dominican Republic 87

Peru 88

India 89

Aruba 90

Russian Federation 91

Honduras 92

Greenland 93

Guyana 94

Netherlands Antilles 95

Mozambique 96

Mongolia 97

Macedonia, FYR 98

Oman 99

Suriname 100

Bosnia and

Herzegovina 101

Ukraine 102

Turkey 103

Maldives 104

Liechtenstein 105

Korea, Rep. 106

Kazakhstan 107

Timor‐Leste 107

Senegal 109

Albania 110

Moldova 110

Qatar 112

Puerto Rico 113

Armenia 114

Kiribati 115

Sri Lanka 116

Georgia 117

St. Kitts and Nevis 117

Morocco 119

Northern Mariana

Islands 119

Papua New Guinea 119

Zambia 119

Bolivia 123

Gambia, The 124

Azerbaijan 125

Ecuador 125

Guatemala 127

Belarus 128

Malawi 129

Mali 130

Saudi Arabia 131

Burkina Faso 132

Vanuatu 133

Vietnam 134

Rwanda 135

Paraguay 136

Kyrgyz Republic 137

Korea, Dem. Rep. 138

Virgin Islands (U.S.) 139

Indonesia 140

Venezuela, RB 141

Madagascar 142

Palau 143

Kenya 144

Guinea 145

Samoa 146

Benin 147

Pakistan 147

Cuba 149

New Caledonia 150

Nepal 151

Bangladesh 152

Egypt, Arab Rep. 153

Cambodia 154

Tonga 155

Burundi 156

Swaziland 156

Lebanon 158

Zimbabwe 159

Algeria 160

Micronesia, Fed. Sts. 161

Cameroon 162

Iran, Islamic Rep. 163

Myanmar 164

Central African

Republic 165

Bermuda 166

Bhutan 167

Sierra Leone 168

Afghanistan 169

Guam 170

Congo, Dem. Rep. 171

Togo 172

Turkmenistan 173

Nigeria 174

Uzbekistan 174

Haiti 176

Tajikistan 176

American Samoa 178

Cote d'Ivoire 179

Ethiopia 180

French Polynesia 181

Congo, Rep. 182

Equatorial Guinea 183

Lao PDR 183

Serbia and

Montenegro 185

Syrian Arab Republic 186

Marshall Islands 187

Faeroe Islands 188

Niger 189

Guinea‐Bissau 190

Solomon Islands 190

Sao Tome and Principe 192

Djibouti 193

Liberia 194

Mauritania 195

Libya 196

Chad 197

Yemen, Rep. 198

Angola 199

Comoros 200

Iraq 201

Channel Islands 202

Sudan 202

Eritrea 204

Isle of Man 205

Somalia 206

West Bank and Gaza 207

Mayotte 208

Of course, this has to be taken with a pinch of salt. But its a good indicator of the pitiful state of 'islamic countries'

And a typical malaysian would say "wow, we're highest at 38!"

-.-

if Malaysia Boleh, then we should be top-ranked in terms of islamic values.

on real superheroes

2011-12-15T18:02:00.000Z

Yesterday's role models:

Today's role models:

Who should we take as role models?

Allah has given us at least 25 men in the Qur'an, men who are exemplary in their belief and conduct. These are his prophets and messengers, and they are the ones who we should take because:

1) they believed strongly and deeply in Allah, and

2) they spread that belief no matter what came in their way, and their conduct in this mission is an example to this very day.

They are the real superheroes.

Allah sent us prophets and messengers who found themselves in all sorts of situations.

Some people say, "I can't do D&T, i'm too busy with my business and my wealth."

Well you can't be wealthier than prophet Sulaiman a.s. He was given the greatest kingdom, that no one after him was given. But he used that power to make other kingdoms submit to Allah. And when the queen of Saba' gave him a gift, he said

فَلَمَّا جَاءَ سُلَيْمَانَ قَالَ أَتُمِدُّونَنِ بِمَالٍ فَمَا آتَانِيَ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا آتَاكُمْ بَلْ أَنْتُمْ بِهَدِيَّتِكُمْ تَفْرَحُونَ

So when (the messengers with the present) came to Sulaimân, he said: "Will you help me in wealth? What Allâh has given me is better than that which He has given you! Nay, you rejoice in your gift!" (27:36)

In modern language, that's like saying "are you trying to bribe me? nay! What Allah gave is better!" (i love the word 'nay', sounds so classical-ish).

Some people say, "I can't do D&T, i can't even pray, i'm too sick *coughcough*"

You can't be sicker than prophet Ayub. He had a long life, a lot of wealth and a lot of children. Then Allah tested him, and took away his health, his wealth and his children died. But he never comlplained. After 7 years of severe disease, his wife complained. But he said

"Tell me how long did I enjoy good health and riches?"

"Eighty years."

"How long am I suffering like this?"

"Seven years."

"In that case I am ashamed to call on my Lord to remove the hardship, for I have not suffered longer than the years of good health and plenty."

And even when his wife left, he did not complain. He prayed to Allah for mercy.

وَأَيُّوبَ إِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنْتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ

And (remember) Ayûb, when he cried to his Lord: "Verily, distress has seized me, and You are the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy." (21:83)

If it was us today, we would say "urghh! curse this disease!" but prophet Ayub praised Allah, "O most Merciful of the merciful".

There are countless other examples for all our excuses not to do D&T.

Family problems? Troubled childhood? Prophet Yusuf's brothers threw him down a well, but he forgave them when he grew up and became a ruler.

Too many past sins? Prophet Adam got himself out of heaven, but he sincerely asked Allah for forgiveness.

No one listening to our D&T? Prophet Nuh called to his people for 950 years, and according to narrations less than a 100 people accepted Islam.

So you see, there are no reasons not to do D&T. Our prophets and messengers have been in all types of trials and tribulations, but they persevered. And in the books of seerah, we have the complete life of prophet Muhammad SAW, down to every last detail, so we know what to do in every part of our life.

So what are we waiting for?

Just DU-IT. (Doa' Usaha Ikhtiar Tawakkal).

on being good to one another

2011-12-11T21:45:00.000Z

i learnt a very profound hadith of Rasulullah SAW.

“Do not be envious of one another; do not artificially inflate prices against one another; do not hate one another; do not shun one another; and do not undercut one another in business transactions;

and be as fellow-brothers and servants of Allah.

A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him. Piety is here – and he pointed to his chest three times. It is evil enough for a Muslim to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for another Muslim: his blood, his property and his honour.”

And in the evening,

on the old man who wouldn't give up

2011-12-02T19:10:00.001Z

There are no coincidences in life. Yesterday we were talking about falling down and getting up, and in today's khutbah there was the story of the man who refused to fall, who refused to let anything get in the way between him and Allah. Subhanallah.

*dialogues re-created for added effect*

The story goes like this. The khatib went to hajj recently, and in his hajj group there was an old man. He was very old, frail and ailing, suffering from lots of diseases. He must be 80 years old or more.

But there was something special about this old man. He wasn't born muslim. Even those of us who were born muslim take it for granted that we're muslim.

4 years ago, this old man happened to hear the azan, and something struck his heart. After that its all history. He became muslim, and at a ripe old age. Who says its too late for you to change. So this old man made a dream to save the little money he had from his meagre pension, so that he could go to hajj.

After he had saved enough (and it happened this year, so he could meet the khatib, who could tell this story to us, and i could tell the story to you. Allah is the best of planners), he went to hajj. This man had a wheelchair, and he brought it along. But disaster struck! When the plane landed in Jeddah, the wheelchair had not arrived.

"It's OK uncle, we'll try and search for your wheelchair."

Did the old man say "sure, i don't feel so good either. Biasalah, dah tua (I'm an old man, you see)." ?

No, he did not. Instead, he said something like "If Allah wants me to go without my wheelchair, then i am pleased with what he has determined."

And the old man continued his journey, using a walking stick to move around.

And before the day of 'Arafah, the old man's health deteriorated. His leg was painful, his back was painful, he had fever, and all sorts of afflictions. 'Arafah is the most important rite of the hajj. If you did not go to 'Arafah on the day of 'Arafah, your hajj was null and void. But the old man was very weak indeed. Unable to move, he just laid down in the hotel.

And the whole of Makkah was starting to make their way to 'Arafah. He was alone. He wanted to go really badly.

Then the night before 'Arafah, he had a dream. He dreamt that he was on a motorcycle, heading towards 'Arafah. When he woke up, a miracle happened. He no longer felt any pain. No leg pain. No back pain. Nothing.

And coincidentally, another man from his hajj group came back to Makkah to check up on the old man. And guess what?

He brought a motorcycle along to carry the old man to 'Arafah. Subhanallah.

Like we said before, there'll be whispers all the time, asking us to go astray, to follow the easy way out. The old man had everything against him. He was in poor health, he was alone, he had no relatives.

But he made a firm intention to please Allah, and Allah helped him. May Allah grant him paradise. Amin.

on falling down and getting up

2011-12-02T01:53:00.000Z

One thing that amazes me about the Qur'an is this: no matter how many times you repeat the same verse over and over again, you're bound to learn something new.

Maybe the first time you listened to a commentary on the verse, you were like "yeah, uhuh, okay..now if you don't mind i'd like to call my mum" and you don't actually learn anything.

Then the next time something happens and you're all alone and there's no one to turn to but Allah. Now you listen more, and probably think "wow..these verses are really comforting".

Then the next time you maybe feeling down because you preach day and night, write blogs, post nice statuses on facebook, like every single good comment, and still no one listens to what you say. Now the verses have even more impact. "Allah is with me, as long as im with Him."

So recently i listened to a commentary on surah an-Naas, and learnt something. Or you might say i re-learnt it, because as humans we forget.

Its a simple surah, and even preschool kids memorise this surah.

As i was saying. Some of you will know how it feels when we get that spark, that motivation. That feeling of closeness to Allah, that you are willing to do anything for Him, that you want to improve yourself, that you hate being in sin.

And as the ocean tide rises and falls, so does our iman. Maybe we were too busy with our worldly affairs and forgot to remember Allah. Maybe we saw all the good things that life has to offer, and suddenly we're thinking "Why am i choosing this life? I could be carefree, hakuna matata, i don't need to think about D&T..i want to enjoy hanging out, i want to spend however i like, i want this, i want that.."

Well brother, in heaven we can hang out with the coolest people. People who never talk bad about you, never say frivolous stuff, you love them without the slightest envy, and they love you right back.

And in heaven you can have anything you want. And there's a whole eternity to enjoy all that. Not a bad deal at all, if you ask me.

We get up, we fall down. And in surah an-Naas, Allah tells us about the dangerous enemy that tries to steer us away from the true path.

مِنْ شَرِّ الْوَسْوَاسِ الْخَنَّاسِ الَّذِي يُوَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ

"From the evil of the whisperer who withdraws (from his whispering in one's heart after one remembers Allâh). Who whispers in the breasts of mankind, Of jinns and men." (An Naas:4-6)

There are a lot of whisperers, asking us to stay away from the straight path. But remember, they are khannaas, they are like the stars that appear at night and disappear by day. They'll be there to ask you to go astray. Once you do the evil deed, they'll say 'arrivederci' and leave you to bear the consequences alone.

But this surah also teaches us a powerful lesson : who do we ask for help in dealing with all these whispers, and who will get us on our feet again.

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ مَلِكِ النَّاسِ إِلَهِ النَّاسِ

Say: "I seek refuge with (Allâh) the Lord of mankind, The King of mankind, The Ilâh (God) of mankind, (An-Naas:1-3)

The whisperers, they come and go. But Allah is always there, he never gets tired and never sleeps.

Its normal to fall. But do get up soon. It'll be good if we're neighbours in heaven.

on discrimination and stereotyping

2011-11-25T00:26:00.000Z

Today in Organizational Behaviour we learnt about

Discrimination & Exclusion

The difference: Discrimination is more obvious and overt, where you target a group because they are different from you.
e.g: "I am firing you because you are dyslexic."

However, racism/other -isms are now socially unacceptable (at least in the UK). So people resort to Exclusion, which is more subtle and hidden, but nevertheless shows that you dislike a certain group.
e.g: being unfriendly to another race, trying to get as far away as possible from 'that brown dude', etc.

I remembered this one time, we were searching for a house, and the landlady was doing this

And one of the reasons why we discriminate and exclude is stereotyping. We generalise people and put judgments on them, even before we meet them.

So today i'd like to say something about stereotyping people who do D&T.

During the time of the Prophet, the Quraisy used to spread all kinds of propaganda to prevent people from listening to the call of Rasulullah.

"He's doing witchcraft. He's bewitching all of us to leave our stone idols."

"He's a poet. That's why he recites all these beautiful verses."

"He's crazy".

"He's a traitor who's trying to split the unity of us Arabs."

There was a man called At-Tufail ibn 'Amr. The Quraisy used to tell him all sorts of propaganda, until he stuffed his ears with cotton to block out the message of the Prophet.

But Allah guides whom He wills. One day, at-Tufail happened to meet the Prophet, cottons still in his ears. But you know, with cottons stuffed in your ear, you still hear something. And what at-Tufail heard was the most beautiful thing. The truth. The Quran. And experiencing the truth first hand, the propaganda of the Quraisy melted away, and at-Tufail became a guided Believer.

These things will still happen until the Day of Judgment.

"D&T people? I heard they're very closed-minded, have messy beards and have serious faces all the time. And they smell too. If i were you, i wouldn't get too close to them"

There sure are a lot of stereotypes, and im sure you've heard some of them. Not only negative stereotypes, but positive stereotypes as well. In fact, people sometimes expect D&T-ists to be perfect.

"You don't cut your nails! im not going to listen to you."

"You don't comb your hair! Bye bye"

وَقَالُوا مَالِ هَذَا الرَّسُولِ يَأْكُلُ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشِي فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ لَوْلَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مَلَكٌ فَيَكُونَ مَعَهُ نَذِيرًا

And they say: "Why does this Messenger eat food, and walk about in the markets (like ourselves). Why is not an angel sent down to him to be a warner with him? (Al Furqan:7)

DISCLAIMER: I am not asking you to stay just the way you are. Indeed, a believer should improve himself every day. This is a reminder to all of us to hold on to the truth, wherever it may come from.

So pull that cotton wool out of your ear and go find some good ol' soul-nourishing and some good company.

on international solidarity

2011-11-23T17:01:00.000Z

These past few days, the Intelligence Bureau at Reflective Perspectives (with only one staff member -.-) has been picking up almost similar snapshots of the public mood..yes, this intelligence source is none other than Facebook:

"congratz malaysia!!"

"see, indonesia can't play!"

which sometimes degrades into..

"indonesians are dishonest"

"indonesians are creating a facebook page to condemn malaysians.."

"..please, don't respond to these provocations, this is a conspiracy to split muslims."

I'd like to give a gold star to that last commenter.

At the beginning of the 20th century, old empires started to crumble and lose their power. These were vast empires with control over huge territory, like the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Prussian Empire. Another important characteristic of these empires was that they ruled over a multi-ethnic society.

For example, the Ottoman Empire didn't just consist of Turks. There were Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, and so on.

For the empires of Islam, what binded all of inhabitants together was islamic brotherhood, eventhough there was sometimes fighting amongst the rulers. This was what enabled to Ibn Battuta to travel far and wide throughout Dar-ul-Islam, the Muslim Lands.

But towards the end, islam and islamic principles no longer took centre stage in people's hearts. So people began to have a feeling that you're only my brother if you have my skin colour and speak my language.

Add that to a whole lot of other reasons, and the empires began to crumble into small nation states. So now there was Syria for Syrians, Turkey for Turks, and so on.

This happened throughout the muslim lands.

And there was Malaysia for Malaysians and Indonesia for Indonesians. There was a lot of nationalist sentiment all around. soulless nasionalism.

That things could degrade to such a level is a shame. Take the malay archipelago, for example. When Malacca was invaded by the Portuguese, the islamic Sultanate of Aceh and the Sultanate of Demak in Java tried to repel the invaders. Aceh and Java are in present-day Indonesia.

There is even a malay proverb,

"Kalau roboh Kota Melaka,
papan di Jawa kami tegakkan."
(If the city of Melaka crumbles, we will build a new one in Java)

International islamic solidarity.

'Umar ra had it right when he said,
"We were a humiliated people, and Allah gave us honour through islam. If we tried to seek honour through other ways, Allah would humiliate us again."

Allah also says in the Quran;

إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَ أَخَوَيْكُمْ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

"The believers are nothing else than brothers (in Islâmic religion). So make reconciliation between your brothers, and fear Allâh, that you may receive mercy." (Al Hujurat:10)

The history i present to you today is simplified, to know more there are lots of good books to read. But the main thing is,

on the market for excuses

2011-11-22T22:06:00.000Z

Today in accounting class i learnt an interesting term.

"The Market for Excuses"

WARNING: Accounting terminology coming up.
Accountants can choose different methods for accounting. So they say 'Method A' is good or 'Method B' is good, and come up with reasons. But sometimes they may say this method is good for the public interest, when actually they have underlying private interests. "Prawn behind the rock".

e.g. A company lobbies the government for lower tax. They give the reason that lower taxes encourage businesses and is good for the economy (public interest). But actually they want lower taxes to have more profits in the income statement, and the manager gets a fat bonus (private interest).

This is the market for excuses. Saying something noble as an excuse to do something selfish.

And as always in Reflective Perspectives, we do it the other way round. accounting class/daily life is just an excuse to talk about the big things:

There is a HUGE market for excuses nowadays. People give noble excuses for doing err, not-so-noble things:

"Why do i smoke? well i'm trying to help the malaysian economy you know."

"Eh, its my freedom lah, to wear hijab or not. La ikraha fi al-din you know (no compulsion in religion).

"I thank God for giving me this Most Vogue Artist Award. God likes beautiful things you know."

We should be careful about the market for excuses, because it afflicts nearly everyone. Ever had that feeling that you really really want to do something, but its not really proper? And then to make it 'legal' you try and find ayat from the Qur'an, from hadeeth, anything that would support your wishes. If someone 'religious' says,

"Owh, its okay to do that. I also do that."

You say

"Yay!! Finally *big grin*"

"awww, you're such a boring person. Ni tak boleh. Tu tak boleh. (this can't. that can't)"
Well im not saying we can't do anything. Just be careful not to let God's commands follow your desires. Let your desires follow God's commands.

Allah says,

وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ

"..And if you were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge, then you would have against Allâh neither any Walî (protector or guardian) nor any helper." (Al Baqarah:120)

So be true to ourselves. Are we doing things for our own pleasure, or to gain the pleasure of Allah, Most High. We can give any amount of excuses, but Allah knows what is in every heart.

on lost paradise

2011-11-22T01:46:00.000Z

on inner peace

2011-11-18T01:53:00.000Z

This life is a prison.

There's this one scene in Malcolm X, where another inmate says to Malcolm while they were in prison:

"Everywhere you go, you're in prison. Because its a prison of your mind."

We can't do as we like, when we like, however we like.

But as Ibn Taymiyyah said,

"what can my enemies to do me? My paradise is in my heart and it goes with me wherever I go. If they imprison me, it is private devotion with my Lord. If they kill me, it is dying for the sake of my Lord. If they drive me out of my land, it is making hijra for the sake of my Lord."

I do not know who you are while you are reading this. I do not know where you were born, who your family is, what your inner beliefs are. But i do know that to be have problems is to be human.

You might be stressed preparing for exams. You may have received a call saying "im sorry, he's..gone" You may be feeling inferior, all this while you're the top scorer, now you feel like you've achieved nothing.

On a loftier scale, you might be feeling really worried about the state of the ummah, and stressed because of your lack of efforts in helping.

You might be suffering under oppressive regimes. You might be worried because you just read Harian Metro this morning and thought "things are getting worse..what if this happened to my family?"

Be patient.

الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفُورُ

"Who has created death and life, that He may test you which of you is best in deed. And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving" (Al Mulk:2)

This life is just a test, to see which of us are the best in deed. Be patient enduring this prison. Because paradise is in our hearts, we are just waiting for the Day when Allah says

يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي

(It will be said to the pious): "O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction! Come back to your Lord, Well-pleased (yourself) and well-pleasing unto Him! Enter you, then, among My honoured slaves, And enter you My Paradise!"

on the priceless ones

2011-11-15T13:50:00.000Z

Broken blackberry = £30/month X 24 months

Argan oil spilt on Khalil's papers = a few pounds

hungry. 1 piece chicken + chips = £1

friends-in-faith = priceless

self-improving advice = priceless

Iman = priceless

Some things money can buy. But for everything, there's Allah.

on how to mould brilliance

2011-11-14T00:32:00.000Z

I want to change the world.

If i don't do that please shoot me.

Or don't shoot me. Don't want to die doing nothing.

on being as pure as a newborn

2011-11-12T11:07:00.000Z

This is a sequel to the previous post on change.

Rasulullah SAW said in a famous hadeeth:

مَا مِنْ مَوُلُودٍ إِلاَّ يُوْلَدُ عَلىَ الْفِطْرَةِ، فَأَبَوَاهُ يُهَوِّدَانِهِ أَوْ يُنَصِّرَانِهِ أَوْ يُمَجِّسَانِهِ

"There is not a child except he is born on fitrah (the natural state, i.e being submissive to Allah). Therefore his parents will make him a Christian, a Jew or a Magian (Majusi)" (HR Bukhari)

Every human being is born in a natural state, the fitrah. It is natural for humans to want good things. For example, take a robber. What if he were robbed?

"#@#*^$&!! Lu berani rompak gua?!! Mati lu nanti!!"
"#@#(((*:-)!! You dare rob me?? You'll pay for this!!"

So even the robber hates it if he is affected by the evil.

Another one of our fitrah is to recognise a Supreme Being who created the world, is all-powerful and has power over all our daily affairs.

You could see this in Youtube. Malaysian artists, eventhough they may not follow the commands of God completely (like wearing hijab), what will they say if they receive an award?

"ALHAMDULILLAH i received this award, i didn't expect it" *while wiping away tears*

Even Lenin, the leader of the first Communist state, said on his deathbed

"Oh God, i am in pain" (citation needed)

قُلْ لِمَنِ الْأَرْضُ وَمَنْ فِيهَا إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ سَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّهِ قُلْ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ

"Say, [O Muhammad], To whom belongs the earth and whoever is in it, if you should know? They will say, To Allah . Say, Then will you not remember?" (Al Mu'minuun: 84-85)

So everyone, in their hearts, recognizes that natural state.

A friend of mine illustrated this beautifully. No matter what religion you are, you will always go to places like this

to get some peace of mind. Because these places are the creation of the Supreme Being, its all natural and magnificent, unlike our man-made structures.

My dad also gave a good analogy regarding asking people to return to their fitrah.

Let's say that someone shows you the shirt that you wore when you were in kindergarten. A Kikilala tshirt, for example.

"Abang, this is your tshirt."

"No its not, it's too small to be mine."

"But this is yours, see? Even has your name on it. See this spot over here. That's when you played in the rain and fell down in a muddy pool. See this little hole. You were riding on your bike but fell down, you came to us crying, but we made you some Milo and then you were alright."

It is our shirt. In the process of 'growing up', we might have forgotten about it, we might think that we're 'too big, too mature' for it, we might have 'moved on'.

But it is our shirt, nevertheless.

Let us go back to our fitrah. Pure and simple.

on mission:possible

2011-11-10T14:58:00.000Z

Yesterday a friend of mine posted this status on facebook. Nowadays, after Syaikh Google, The Kitab of Facebook is where people get their wisdom.

"Umar Al-Khattab berubah, Saidina Hamzah berubah, Wardina Safiyah berubah, Amer munawer berubah, Ruffedge, VE, bob lokman semua pun berubah. Kalau diorang boleh berubah, kenapa tidak kita?

:)"

"Umar al-Khattab changed, Sayyidina Hamzah changed, Wardina Safiyyah changed, Amer Munawer changed, Ruffedge, VE, Bob Lokman, all of them changed. If they could change, why not us?"

Nice question.

Why not us? Change, as they say, is the only constant.

Umar al Khattab was a feared and brutal man before he changed, but after changing, he could cry just from listening to verses of the Qur'an.

How did the author change? Ever heard "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach?" It started with physical nourishment, it changed to mental spiritual nourishment.

Its strange how people fear change. I've heard some of my friends say

"Did you hear about this guy? After he flew to the UK/egypt/america/etc, he became really alim. He's a good guy now."

Everyone, in their heart of hearts, wants to be good. Its just that they don't know how.

So i'll let you in on a little secret, one that helped me:

Step 1: Pray to Allah for guidance.

Step 2: Find the good guys. And learn from them.

Step 3: I'll post it on this blog if i remember.

Have a lecture to catch now. Salaam.

on blaming everything else, not me

2011-11-09T00:07:00.000Z

Salaams all.

I frequently hear this statement from some of my friends and family.

"It's fated. It was my fate to be this way. Nothing could help me."

"Alah, what to do. Ayam patuk itik sudu." (my dad likes this rhyme)

"I was born osem."

Erkkk to the last one. -.-

Could we do nothing to change the situation we're in? are we so hopeless that we just surrender without trying and say 'i've done my best?'

Could we just watch as our brothers and sisters endure this?

And this?

Allah says,

...إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ ...

"..Verily! Allâh will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change their state themselves.." (Ar Ra'd: 11)

Allah has set the laws of the universe, and we call this sunnatullah. For example,

If we drink water, our thirst will be gone. This is sunnatullah. Imagine there's a water in the table in front of you. If you just scream out, "water! water!" The water will not magically fly to you, and you will become thirstier from screaming. You have to get up and take the glass of water.

If you just shout out "oh Allah help us! help us!" and just sit there doing nothing, nothing's going to happen either. Every day, babies get thrown away, children go hungry, families fall apart, drugs wreck people's lives, while we sit in inaction, with our comfortable homes, comfortable lives.

"I was fated to be stuck in facebook."

Sure.

on eid-ul-adha

2011-11-06T18:46:00.000Z

Eid Mubarak!

From the author, his nuclear family, his extended family, his family-in-faith and everyone who celebrates eid in the spirit of sacrifice.

on golf balls

2011-11-04T12:31:00.000Z

this is a good one, from a friend of mine.

The parable of the golf ball.

Once you hit the golf ball, it lands somewhere.

If you're an amateur like me, it lands far from the hole, in the rough. in malay we call that 'ke laut' (to the sea).

Or if you're good it may land closer.

Or if you're Tiger Woods it may land just a leeeeeetle bit off the hole.

Either you land in the rough, on the fairway or on the tee, it doesn't matter. The ball's still not in the hole.

Allah says,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ

"O you who believe! Enter perfectly in Islâm and follow not the footsteps of Shaitân (Satan). Verily! He is to you a plain enemy." (Al Baqarah: 208)

Some people say "i'm already rotten boy. You still have a chance."

Some people say "yeah, im a muslim. During eid-ul-fitri and eid-ul-adha."

Some people say "i know i do these things, but at least i pray and fast. Not like THAT GUY, he's even worse."

Rough, fairway or tee, doesn't matter. Still not in. If you're still on the outside, find someone to whack you in.

on using every second for good

2011-11-02T09:51:00.000Z

What do we talk about when we meet each other?

"Bro!"

"Broooo!"

"How's studies? OK?"

"Yeah, it has ups and downs, but everything's good man."

"How bout you?"

"I had an internship over the summer. It was awesome."

we are, i must admit, boring people.

What do the Sahabah say to each other?

There was this one time when Ibnu Rawaahah r.a held the hand of Abu ad-Dardaa' r.a and said:

"تعال نؤمن ساعة ان القلب اسرع تقلبا من القدر اذا استجمعت غليانا"

"Come, let us have iman for a moment. Verily the heart changes faster than the contents of a boiling kettle"

maybe in sounds better in malay : Marilah kita beriman sejenak. Sesungguhnya hati lebih cepat berbolak-balik daripada isi periuk yang sedang menggelegak.

Now that is awesome. They talk to each other about the things that are important. "How is your iman (belief)", "did you do good deeds today", "please remind me of Allah".

Even the first thing that we would be asked in the grave is ما ربك, who is your Lord.

And the stories we hear about the Sahabah are not stories about their professions, what businesses they did, how they made money etc. Instead we hear about their legendary deeds, like the 3 people who were dying on the battlefield, and one of them was given water to quench his thirst. He declined and said

"give it to my companion"

the second person also declined and said to give the water to his companion.

the 3rd person also asked to give the water to his companion.

In the end all of them died, preferring their friends over themselves.

Maybe the sahabah knew that we have no time to lose, like Allah says

"The Day they see it, (it will be) as if they had not tarried (in this world) except an afternoon or a morning." (An-Nazi'aat : 46)

On Judgment Day, we will feel as if we spent only one afternoon on Earth.

So find good friends who understand the purpose of life.

on the queens of our hearts :)

2011-10-27T18:27:00.000+01:00

on reflections on reflective perspectives

2011-10-26T01:32:00.000+01:00

This is, according to my dashboard, the 200th post.

This blog is like a time capsule, chronicling the evolution of my life and thoughts.

Anytime is apt for reflection, but people tend to reflect on certain memorable dates or events, you see.

For example, everyday we should be thankful that our mothers gave birth to us, but we choose to celebrate that on our birth dates.

Politicians like to declare special days, so people would get holidays.

And then there those weird days, like 'hug a friend day', 'tomato-throwing day', 'suit-up day'..

So today is '200th post day', 26th October 2011. Unfortunately, you still need to go to school tomorrow.

So yeah, I was going through my life so far. This blog started in November 2008, and in the early days i wrote things like

'Theme Park Fever'

'Jalan-jalan cari makan'

and a few other stuff that elicits the response

'Was i really like that??' *blush*

Then more teenage stuff..

and some more teenage stuff...

and some more teenage stuff..

"ngee~"

Starting February 2010 there were glimpses of hope.

Then there was a 3-month hiatus until May. What happened? Probably it was about this time that i realised

a) you were put on Earth for a purpose.

b) that purpose is not to work so you can eat, and eat so you can work.

c) why write about Theme Parks and food when you can write to save humanity.

c) Don't just read the history book, BE the history book.

وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنْتُمْ أَعْدَاءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا وَكُنْتُمْ عَلَى شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِنَ النَّارِ فَأَنْقَذَكُمْ مِنْهَا كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

"And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allâh, and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allâh's Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren (in Islâmic Faith), and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allâh makes His Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.,) clear to you, that you may be guided." (Ali Imran: 103)

So Allah gave a 2nd chance, when we were on the brink of a pit of Hell.

A poem we learnt back in MRSM said

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

And what a difference indeed. All the words in the world could not describe the joy of living in the light of islam, and the peace that it brings. When we occupy ourselves with work, with toys, with money, it never lasts. The workload will always increase. Toys become damaged. Money runs out.

But Allah never sleeps and he never tires. He's always there when the work gets too stressful, the things go bust and the money runs out, eventhough we never remember him before that.

So on "200th post day", i hope that these tiny efforts bring a difference to your lives also. These are tiny efforts, but collectively - there are lots of brilliant D&T bloggers and out there, and even people who don't have blogs but are super-brilliant - we are like a pounding river.

p/s: i don't know how the name 'reflective perspectives' was chosen, even before 'the 180-degree turn'..coincidence? but nothing is.

on looking at things

2011-10-25T02:29:00.000+01:00

Different people will look at different things with different light, depending on how you view the world.

Let's take a simple object, for example a tree.

A profit-oriented capitalist will say

"Hey look! Let's cut down that tree and make paper. We'll get lots of money for that."

A communist will say

"Comrade! That tree, if we sell it to the capitalist, we'll get money to distribute evenly amongst all our comrades."

An environmentalist will say

"What profits?? That tree is home to all the birds and squirrels. Cut me down first before you cut this tree."

How about us? I mean, i don't know about you, but i hope that after following this blog for a while, you'll get some idea of how to look at things with the light of islam.

"That tree, it is a creation of Allah, and it brings shade for those who sit underneath it. It drops fruit when people throw it with stones. When the lumberjack cuts it down, he sells it to feed his family. The paper from the tree is used to write down knowledge. So much benefits from a thing that could not even move. We humans move a lot, talk a lot, yet what do we give to the world. Allah is magnificent."

How do you look at things?

p/s: I like this poster..its a great illustrator of how we see things.

on detention; we're all being detained, awaiting trial in the hereafter

2011-10-22T01:24:00.000+01:00

Today, we have a chance to take action.

A concerted and intensive action to create a new revolution and rid the world once and for all of injustice!

i exaggerate, but yes, we do have a chance to take action.

basically yeah, in the UK now there's a huge ongoing effort to petition against the extradition to the US of Babar Ahmad, a UK citizen accused of (what else)? But here's the thing. He has been imprisoned for 7 years without any trial, and we thought only malaysia does these things. He is, at 7 years, the longest prisoner detained without trial in the UK.

In our khutbah at LSE today, we were told about the situation of Babar Ahmad. The evidence provided against him is insufficient to charge him in the UK, so they are trying to put him on trial in the US. And if found guilty, he will be sent to a Supermax prison into a solitary cell, where he won't be permitted to meet other prisoners, is only allowed 1 hour outside, and will only get 15 minutes to talk to his family once per month.

And the worst part is, during his first arrest he was subjected to abuse and torture, and one of it was being forced to go into the sujood position, while the police taunted him with cries of "Where is your God now?"

So, our part. If we can get 100,000 signatures before 10/11/2011, the parliament will rediscuss his case and hopefully he will get a fair trial in the UK, and not be subject to further unfair detention. this petition is especially for people currently in the UK.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

The ummah is like one body; if one part gets hurt the whole body feels it.

on honouring the qur'an: put it high in our hearts, not high on our shelves

2011-10-19T09:45:00.000+01:00

Salaams all,

Interesting article:

http://www.hmetro.com.my/articles/Lautbergeloraberubahtenang/Article

Basically, old copies of the Qur'an were burnt and their ashes were going to be disposed of in the sea.

And the choppy waters turned calm when they threw the ashes into the sea.

1) Even the sea turned calm receiving the qur'an. But we still don't want to read it.

2) The qur'an appears in the Malaysian media if:
- americans burned the qur'an
- pages of qur'an suddenly go missing
- youth trample on the qur'an in a show of disrespect

But rarely do we hear about the message of the qur'an in the media. Is it just an ornament to keep away spirits and jinn (genies)?

Or a guide to a complete system of living, now and in the hereafter?

You see, we 'step' on the qur'an everyday, without even realising it.

on the downhill slide of humanity

2011-10-18T17:38:00.000+01:00

Luckily, we have people like YOU, who are going to spread the Message *fingers crossed*

on typical malay movies

2011-10-17T18:47:00.000+01:00

on the tale of the donkey(s), in a parallel universe

2011-10-15T14:00:00.001+01:00

refer also to this post.

I want to live in a parallel universe T_T

on what we want in life

2011-10-15T00:46:00.000+01:00

on the tale of the donkey(s)

2011-10-12T11:02:00.000+01:00

on a late, windy night

2011-10-11T00:59:00.002+01:00

on gravity

2011-10-09T17:14:00.002+01:00

on budget deficits and faith deficits

2011-10-08T08:55:00.000+01:00

on why i enjoy being a stickman

2011-10-07T00:01:00.000+01:00

On the deafening silence

2011-10-05T13:49:00.000+01:00

There are people who talk loud and clear.

And then, there are the silent majority,

Who 'like' posts and statuses and share videos and read and watch

Who seem silent

But inside, they are thinking loud and clear

They are buzzing inside

They are roaring

With the hope, that when the silent majority is unleashed

They will roar with the roar of truth.

Meanwhile, our work never ends.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

on muddy waters

2011-09-29T01:00:00.000+01:00

"be like the tree; people throw stones, it drops fruits on them"

on the parable of the clockwork toy

2011-09-28T12:14:00.000+01:00

I learnt a good analogy yesterday.

Tarbiyyah is like a wind-up toy.

(credit)

before tarbiyyah, we were all stationary clockwork toys. nowhere to go. unable to move. oh boy oh boy.

Then a hand comes and spins our key. Our legs can move! Now we're free!

The road is long, the journey is tough. Along the way, 'i've had enough.'

Our key slows down, we no longer run,

and now we're back to square one.

but wait! a hand comes to twist the key,

a caring hand, so we'll always be free.

on priorities

2011-09-25T02:01:00.000+01:00

on cheesy but real advertisements

2011-08-21T16:41:00.000+01:00

on keeping calm, and carrying on

2011-08-19T16:40:00.000+01:00

Ibrahim a.s.

Mus'ab ibn Umair.

These were people who had to sacrifice their previous lives and leave what they loved behind.

"..verily, Ibrahim was soft hearted and forbearing" (at Taubah:114)

being soft-hearted, what our prophet Ibrahim had to go through must be very hard on him.

And Mus'ab, leaving his nice clothes, nice perfume, comfortable surroundings for something uncertain, something that exists with certainty only in their hearts.

We sold our souls to Allah, and we hope for His pleasure.

on something lots of people lose

2011-08-18T05:21:00.000+01:00

let's find ours back.

on the story of Pak Mat, part II

2011-08-03T15:00:00.001+01:00

life has a purpose. don't squander it.

- this message was brought to you by the people who care.

on the story of Pak Mat, part I

2011-08-02T16:42:00.000+01:00

on fasting

2011-08-01T17:06:00.002+01:00

on passion, like, total passion, no half-measures

2011-07-10T10:39:00.002+01:00

on being vigilant

2011-06-27T01:59:00.000+01:00

D&T everytime, all the time.

on halality, if there's such a word

2011-06-25T22:05:00.002+01:00

on believing

2011-06-24T00:51:00.000+01:00

something different from stickmen. and more soothing for the heart.

on don't try this at home

2011-06-23T16:33:00.002+01:00

on summertime

2011-06-22T07:44:00.001+01:00

on guarding the tongue

2011-06-18T01:52:00.000+01:00

on verbal warfare

2011-06-14T08:00:00.001+01:00

on weighing scales

2011-06-13T08:00:00.001+01:00

on corridors

2011-06-12T13:10:00.000+01:00

on how much is enough?

2011-06-06T20:39:00.000+01:00

on lions and monks

2011-06-05T19:55:00.000+01:00

can we hope to bring back islam when we're in such a state?

on dropping fruits on people: mangoes, not durians

2011-06-04T14:17:00.000+01:00

Lots of people still have idols other than Allah, even those we call 'muslims'.

Do we have the patience to eradicate those idols from peoples' hearts?

our efforts are probably not even 950 minutes, what more 950 years like the prophet Nuh a.s.

Be like a tree; people throw it with rocks, it drops fruits on them.

on make good intention brother part 3

2011-06-01T15:16:00.001+01:00

"O You who believe! Shall I guide you to a commerce that will save you from a painful torment? That you believe in Allâh and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW), and that you strive hard and fight in the Cause of Allâh with your wealth and your lives, that will be better for you, if you but know!

He will forgive you your sins, and admit you into Gardens under which rivers flow, and pleasant dwelling in Gardens of 'Adn, that is indeed the great success. And also another (blessing) which you love, help from Allâh and a near victory. And give glad tidings (O Muhammad SAW) to the believers."

(As Saff:10-13)

we give relatively little (everything is not ours to begin with anyway, its a loan from Allah), we get back in abundance.

make good intention brother.

on make good intention brother part 2

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000+01:00

verily, every action is with intention.

what is your intention of doing everything?

;-)

on make good intention brother

2011-05-30T08:00:00.004+01:00

on obedience

2011-05-25T08:00:00.001+01:00

even Frankenstein acknowledges that Allah is the only one worthy of being obeyed.

What about us?

;-)

on darkness, and then we saw light

2011-05-24T08:00:00.000+01:00

we may be comfortable where we are now, but what is comfortable may not be what is the truth.

"Is he who was dead (without Faith by ignorance and disbelief) and We gave him life (by knowledge and Faith) and set for him a light (of Belief) whereby he can walk amongst men, like him who is in the darkness (of disbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy) from which he can never come out? Thus it is made fairseeming to the disbelievers that which they used to do." (al An'am:122)

on our vain desires and the excuses we make for them

2011-05-23T08:00:00.001+01:00

That's what we usually are. We don't follow what Allah and his Messenger ask, but keep on asking until we find someone who agrees with our desires and what we like.

ish ish ish. malulah. (shame on us)

"Have you seen him who takes his own lust (vain desires) as his ilâh (god), and Allâh knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart, and put a cover on his sight. Who then will guide him after Allâh? Will you not then remember?" (45:23)

on the road not taken

2011-05-22T08:00:00.003+01:00

"And inspired it its wickedness and its righteousness" (91:8)

"Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and wish to discriminate between Allah and His messengers and say, We believe in some and disbelieve in others, and wish to adopt a way in between - Those are the disbelievers, truly. And We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment." (4:150-151)

on the opportunities that pass by

2011-05-21T08:00:00.005+01:00

"medan khayal itu lebih luas dari medan cakap,

medan cakap itu lebih luas dari medan amal,

medan amal itu lebih luas dari medan jihad,

dan medan jihad itu lebih luas dari medan jihad yang muntij (produktif)"

"the field of imagination is wider than the field of talk,

the field of talk is wider than the field of action,

the field of action is wider than the field of jihad (utmost striving),

and the field of jihad is wider than the field of productive jihad"

the truth is only going to stand up through men (and women) of action.

T_T

on procrastination

2011-05-20T08:00:00.002+01:00

"O you who believe! Enter perfectly in Islâm and follow not the footsteps of Shaitân (Satan). Verily! He is to you a plain enemy." (2:208)

"And spend of that with which We have provided you, before death comes to one of you and he says: "My Lord! If only You would give me respite for a little while (i.e. return to the worldly life), then I should give Sadaqah of my wealth , and be among the righteous." (63:10)

on god's mercy

2011-05-19T08:00:00.001+01:00

Enjoin good and forbid evil and never give up.

You never know when you might save a life.

on recordings

2011-05-18T12:00:00.005+01:00

"But verily, over you (are appointed angels in charge of mankind) to watch you, Kirâman (honourable) Kâtibîn writing down (your deeds), They know all that you do." (82:10-12)

Dakwah and tarbiyyah. It's serious business.

on the U-shaped expression

2011-05-17T21:00:00.000+01:00

Which type of person would you be more attracted to?

Smile and meet people with a happy heart.

Even emoticons with smileys exude warmth. :-D

It makes a huge difference.

Especially if you're carrying the name of Islam. :-)

on that invisible thing which makes your head grow

2011-05-17T02:05:00.000+01:00

Ego. it never ends.

Let's accept the truth, wherever it may come from.

on the simple economics of time

2011-05-15T10:56:00.000+01:00

Why do we waste time? this is a question posed by every facebook-loving, twitter following, blog-hopping young adult. we frequently hear the complaint 'i don't have enough time', to be followed by 'there's so much time i don't know what to do' and then 'urghh, i wish i could have used my time wisely.'

So to prevent from wasting your time any longer with digressing dialogues, i will illustrate by using the most simplified way of explaining human beings: economics graphs.

Let's say you have a supply of time, and a demand for time. The point at which supply equals demand will be the equilibrium price and quantity, as shown in the diagram below (i feel like im doing an A Levels Economics essay -.-), where equilibrium price is P0.

Let's say something happens, for example we receive an email saying that our forgotten assignment is due tomorrow! so now we have less time for other things, so supply of time contracts as in the diagram below

When there is less of something, its price/value goes up. simple. when there is less sugar in the market due to hoarding, its price rises. When there is less transparency, the price of oil goes up. Similarly when we have lots of time, time is apparently cheap like water, so we tend to throw it around. But when we have less time,it becomes very valuable, and suddenly we realize that tomorrow is our managerial accounting paper *gulp*

And then time becomes

A giant crocodile that gobbles up everything and now we regret having a facebook account and not being serious about our purpose in life.

What does the quran say about time?

"By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss, Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth, and recommend one another to patience." (Al 'Asr:1-3)

Man is in loss, because if he believes and do righteous good deeds, then he won't have time for other things. time is not cheap.

Maybe that's the heart of a believer. For him, death is near, and time is in perpetual shortage, so every second is as valuable as can be.

on the right time to be good?

2011-05-14T07:00:00.001+01:00

When is the right time to change and be good?

i've heard this question lots of times from the actions of people. Well, heard it from their actions, because not many people would ask such a question. What would you think if somebody asked you this question?

"when should i be good?"

what your answer be?

"erm..now?"

but it's okay, on Reflective Perspectives we don't get flabbergasted at such obvious enquiries, because "kebenaran itu hakmilik setiap insan" (truth is the right of every individual).

But everyone can answer that question, d'oh, you say. Yes, everyone can answer that question, it's clear as night and day. Allah says

"There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Tâghût and believes in Allâh, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allâh is All-Hearer, All-Knower." (2:256)

There is no compulsion, because truth is clear, and falsehood is clear.we know that it is false when we open dodgy websites when no one is watching. we know that all the idle entertainment we enjoy is just for pleasure, and not remembering Allah. we know that our wasting time isn't going to help us in the hereafter. we know all this.

The only thing left is which path are we going to take. But there are lots of good people out there, aren't there? Lots of people i know pray 5 times a day, and fast in ramadhan, and perform hajj, some do it once every few years. the default malay setting of a good person is

"asalkan tak menyusahkan orang sudahlah" (as long as you don't cause trouble to other people okaylah)

but our scales are not according to what our ancestors say. We have the manual of all manuals, which say

"O you who believe! Enter perfectly in Islâm and follow not the footsteps of Shaitân. Verily! He is to you a plain enemy." (2:208)

Enter perfectly.

'i love Allah, but i love my lifestyle/worldly things/entertainment as well'?

We'll take a samurai sword and slice the sentence into two.

*swooshhhhh!~*

'i love Allah'

as in a previous post, things are good if you do it solely for Allah, and impure if otherwise. The problem most people have today is, they love good things, and want to be good, but mix a bit of this here, a bit of this there, and when entering perfectly means they have to give up some things they love, they say

"im not ready yet, maybe when im older and more stable, have finished studying, have lots more knowledge etc"

Fair enough, but subject to one caveat, that is assuming we know our precise time of death. One normal day you can be walking from your house to the local runcit store, crossing the street, when

*vroooooooom!!!!*

a car comes out of nowhere and hits you, and the next day your mum will tell harian metro

"that morning before he went out he hugged me..who knew it was going to be his last hug"

And even if you live a bit longer, probably some other things will come and you will say

"im not ready yet, i have my family, maybe when im older and the kids have all gone and i have retired from work etc"

and before you know it death comes and your family weeps and you are in the ground and they all come and pay last respects and then they go home and you are all alone, saying

"And spend of that with which We have provided you, before death comes to one of you and he says: "My Lord! If only You would give me respite for a little while then I should give Sadaqah of my wealth , and be among the righteous." (63:10)

So when is the right time to change and be righteous?

When you feel like you really want to go to heaven and really don't want to spend an eternity in the burning fire.

On contingencies

2011-05-13T17:34:00.000+01:00

Blogger.com is currently down, so I am sending this post by email.

Blogger said that they are in the process of restoring posts that were removed.

Technical failure?

Or

Clampdown??

>:)

I watched a video on the egyptian uprising, and when one of the bloggers was arrested, he still posted on his blog by slipping out pieces of paper.

Would any of you be kind enough to do that for me? Pretty pleasee ;-)

Not to say I'd like that, but you know, in this line of work we have to prepare for contigencies.

Me and my anti-establishment leanings. Heh.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

on having vested interests in friendship

2011-05-12T13:11:00.000+01:00

"i hope you're ikhlas in being friends with me, and not because you want me to join usrah/or other hidden agenda"

emm..

.....................

@.@............

what is ikhlas anyways? if you want to be friends for a reason is that not ikhlas? if you are pondering these questions instead of 'should we have lunch at chili's or padi's?', then keep calm and carry on, insyaallah soon Allah will show you the way.

to answer the above questions that are burning in your mind, i refer to a talk i attended a few months ago by Dr Ayman Ewies. He said that ikhlas came from a root word in arabic meaning a sieve for sifting flour, the impurities stay on top and only pure flour falls below.

Which raises another question, what is pure and what is impure? how do you differentiate between the two?

let us take a look at surah al-ikhlas:

"Say: "He is Allâh, (the) One. Allâh-us-Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need). He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him." (al Ikhlas: 1-4)

There is no mention of the word ikhlas, yet the surah is named so. Why?

because ikhlas is doing things solely for the sake of Allah, the One, who has no equals and no comparison. Not doing things because your boss says so, or because your ego says so, or because Utusan says so. Because Allah, as-Samad, says so.

So that is the difference between pure flour that falls into the bowl and pests/dirt/rock that stays in the sieve.

I think the current misconception is that to be ikhlas, you need to be friends for the sake of friendship, with no hidden reasons. hmm. isn't that a bit hollow, friendship without any strong base? to illustrate, why is a zebra friends with a zebra?

for the sake of zebra-ness and having the same stripes.

To me, everyone has reasons and vested interests. being friends because of similar interests is a vested interest. being friends because you like a person's character is also a reason, 'because of his good qualities'.

But we must remember that the highest reason there can ever be is 'because of Allah', the incomparable. That is higher, and more everlasting than being friends because of having Kindles, or liking the same video games, or having pet zebras. And if your friend is helping you to get into heaven, i say hold on tight.

We might be having a good time now,

but on the Day of judgment, Allah says

"And no friend will ask of a friend, Though they shall be made to see one another - the Mujrim, (criminal, sinner, disbeliever, etc.) would desire to ransom himself from the punishment of that Day by his children. And his wife and his brother, And his kindred who sheltered him, And all that are in the earth, so that it might save him." (al ma'arij: 10-14)

Imagine how desperate could people be on the Day, when they don't care if all their friends went into the Fire, as long as they could save themselves.

And the Prophet SAW said that one of the groups of people who are under the shade of the throne of Allah on the Day of Judgment is

"2 people who meet and part for the sake of Allah"

and what could be more ikhlas than that.

carry on. one day, insyaallah, they will say

"im glad you had a hidden interest in being my friend. all along you wanted me to come with you to this place (heaven)"

Amin.

on being alone, together

2011-05-10T01:07:00.000+01:00

disclaimer: this is not a horror story about events in the night time. oh wait, it is a horror story if you look at it with certain perspectives.

It's night time in London and the atmosphere is melancholic. sayu =.=

In 'In the Shade of the Qur'an', there is an interesting interpretation of a verse common to most people.

"And from the evil of the darkening (night) as it comes with its darkness." (113:3)

In the day, with everything illuminated and lots of affairs to attend to, we are more cautious of our actions. At night time, evil breaks loose, riding on a harley-davidson, wind blowing in its face. Under the cover of night, those evil tendencies become more prevalent, those ridiculous thoughts come back to say 'hey, its alright, leave those goody-two-shoes behind, you've earned yourself some R & R.'

*Snap!*

Especially if we're alone. And alone might not mean 'one human being in an enclosed space'. Nowadays we could be alone, together. on facebook, we can count our friends into the thousands. In reality, we're left to fight our demons alone, in the darkness where nobody knows except you Allah.

'but i have friends'.

with friends who let us languish in the dark, its better to be alone. at least they won't have direct responsibility. *shudder* Which is why surah al-Falaq asks us to seek protection with Allah, rabb al-falaq, Lord of the dawn, who can eliminate the evils of the darkness.

And especially for us the young generation, who are determined to become towers of light that serve as beacons for mankind. shoo, darkness, shoo.

"Is he who was dead (without Faith by ignorance and disbelief) and We gave him life and set for him a light whereby he can walk amongst men, like him who is in the darkness (of disbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy) from which he can never come out? Thus it is made fairseeming to the disbelievers that which they used to do." (Al an'am:122)

And also keep good company.

"By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss, Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth and recommend one another to patience." (Al 'Asr)

In loss, except those who recommend to truth and patience.

Based on my recent revision of economics, the rational man is utility-maximising. so i think this is the perfect time to be rational.

Don't let the darkness get to you.

goodnight, and goodluck.

on sweet and simple..roasted lamb??

2011-05-09T08:00:00.002+01:00

Last week we had an aqiqah at MeWah (malay shortform for Muslim Welfare House), which is the neighbourhood mosque that we usually pray in.

Aqiqah - sacrifice of an animal on a child's birth

Of course, the lamb was already sacrificed and finger lickin' good.

people serving the food

the aqiqah meal: huge chunks of lamb. in the background is a mysterious square-faced man, identity protected for fear of mobbing

Okay, minus the delicious fruit salad, nasi minyak, herbs and lamb cooked to tender perfection, i actually want to talk about how economical and efficient the whole gathering was.

Eventhough there are a lot of big mosques, mosques that look like umbrellas, mosques that have too many domes and mosques that are divided into green or blue, i still love Mewah the most, because it serves the community well and the mosque is actually full once a day during Maghrib. Once they held a family day there, and there's an adjoining school, and next to the mosque is a small bookshop. Now i hear they want to install signal jammers so mobile phones don't keep ringing. Cool.

Back to the aqiqah. Right after asr prayers a man asked us to go to the hall upstairs for some food. The malaysian ear is finely tuned to such things (rezeki jangan ditolak, bala jangan dicari!), so we went. There was food and apple juice and orange juice, and when our plates looked empty a man even offered to add some more lamb. :-D munch munch munch munch, the whole event was over in just over 30 minutes, and the place was all cleared up.

That's right, 30 minutes. no need for tents, marhaban troupes or kompang. sweet and simple.

i like this mode of doing things, as it gets things done quickly and you don't take too much of other people's time. And everything is inexcessive. I think this is closer to what Islam teaches, and moderation is becoming harder to find in a modern, 'islamic' country like malaysia truly asia.

Oh, in our euphoria at finding free food, we even neglected to ask whose aqiqah it was.

sangat melayu. -.-

on why our moms are amazing

2011-05-08T14:52:00.000+01:00

"happy mother's day mama"

I've had a lot of significant mother's days in my entire life.

Like back in the days when i came home from primary school, and under the tudung saji there were already at least 2 dishes for lunch. And then we'd eat together, my mama and I, while the azan for zohor prayers wafted in the background. if she cooked asam pedas the day before, she would make some fried chicken, so it'll be asam pedas & ayam goreng. If she made chicken rice the day before and there's still some chicken left over, she'll make fried rice with some keropok. yumyum.

Or the days when i'm home and we'd fold clothes while watching al-kuliyyah or some cooking show other tv programme in the evenings, while having teh tarik. I'd see the stack of clothes and be disheartened, but she managed it all this while without even breaking sweat.

Or the days when i came home from boarding school, and she'd always make the things that i like most, until i called it 'menu wajib' (compulsory menu):
- spaghetti bolognese
- kebab mekah (closely guarded secret)
- ayam haliopolis (ayam halia, haliopolis to give it a fancier feel)

Or the days before going back to mrsm, she'd always ask 'along nak minum apa2?' (do you want to drink anything?) and i'd say teh tarik, because i love teh tarik. and then i'd drink the tea and feel sad about leaving home and the tea would feel a bit saltier because of that.

And those are my significant mother's days. To you it may sound normal and uneventual, but it's those repeated things that you remember, because it made up a bulk of my upbringing and nurturing.

And mums are amazing, because they can make simple things memorable. :-)

old school photo of me and my mum

I love my mama :-) happy mother's day everyone!

on how to ensure we don't fall before we reach the finish line

2011-05-06T07:11:00.000+01:00

Now its exam week, so i've been pretty caught up in the whole feverish atmosphere. which is a convenient excuse for why fungi and weeds have started to grow on this blog. peace.

However, exams are NOT an excuse to stop thinking about our purpose of life. Da'wah has to move on, regardless of what condition you're in. God exists in all times. even if you have no legs to walk or you're in solitary confinement. in fact, if you have no legs you can say cool things like

"my legs are already in heaven, the rest of my body is still waiting."

So these are some things i learnt while reading managerial accounting.

"managers have a preference for verbal communication, eventhough there are accounting reports/informal measures etc"

And this is something i learnt in circles. Whoever says to you something like

"you're not developing your skills, talking about the qur'an all the time"

is missing out on a lot of things. who better to hone your skills than the One who created you? right? righttttt??? *big cheesy grin* let's say your car breaks down. do you reach for an Argos catalogue? no sir.

*for readers outside the UK, Argos is a popular store in the UK that sells almost everything*

You reach for a car manual, and that's the logical thing to do. We learn about common sense and logic in classes, but when it comes to things like these it seems all common sense flies out the window. Similarly if you want to develop as a human being the best thing to do is to reach for our manual, the qur'an. Previously, when i wanted to do something bad i hid my qur'an in the drawer, as if that would make the sin less of a bad thing. true story *malu malu* :-(

back to managerial accounting. So basically i learnt lots of things with my tadabbur ekaunting, because dakwah is partly about reaching out to people and managing people. Anyhow, this tadabbur is based on my observations and experiences. Do NOT base your dakwah on management theories, which is why i don't put the authors' names. In academia researchers only quote from people who are trusted in their fields. Same here, since this is dakwah 101.

base it on the qur'an and hadith.

it's interesting that managers have a preference for verbal communication. eventhough we have twitter, facebook, skype, myspace, etc nothing beats the information you get talking face-to-face.

you can match the tone of voice to the facial expression.

you can discern whether his body language is coherent with what he is saying.

you can tell whether that person is about to punch you.

you can tell that you need to run away now.

Rasulullah was a master of communicating. When he spoke to people, he turned his whole body to face them. with that sort of attention, who wouldn't melt~

So that's where our dakwah begins. By touching the hearts of people. If a stranger tells you
"bro, what are you doing in front of the computer"

and a friend tells you the same thing, which advice would you more easily accept? same here.

similarly, you need to be in constant close contact to good people so their verbal actions and physical actions would leave an imprint on you. If you sit with mat rempit, pretty soon you'll acquire their vocab and a motorbike. If you are serious about changing society, live and breathe with society-changers.

pretty soon even the air will smell different.

on the link between a unity government and water

2011-04-28T08:46:00.000+01:00

Hamas and Fatah to form unity government. Alhamdulillah. Although there are going to be serious sticking points to be negotiated, its a good start.

Surely the Israeli state must be in a heightened sense of claustrophobia. A loan wolf in the middle of ever more hostile states.

This reminds me of a revelation in the quran, revealed to describe the expulsion of Bani Nadir from their forts.

"He it is Who drove out the disbelievers among the people of the Scripture (i.e. the Jews of the tribe of Banî An-Nadîr) from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think that they would get out. And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allâh! But Allâh's (Torment) reached them from a place whereof they expected it not, and He cast terror into their hearts, so that they destroyed their own dwellings with their own hands and the hands of the believers. Then take admonition, O you with eyes (to see)." (Al Hasyr:2)

You did not think that they would get out. I think it is a common (mis?)perception amongst muslims that every bad thing on earth, from poverty to the wars in iraq and afghanistan to never-on-time komuters, are caused by a conspiracy of jews. that last predicament is added just for flavour.

The palestinians live in a state of alert every second of every day, big events are up-and-coming, and malaysians are still stuck in things like

"Datuk, nenek dicekup khalwat"

(grandpa, grandma caught together)

that was a headline from? harian metro? okay, that was too easy, so no points.

i read somewhere that the character of a people are influenced somewhat by geography, so what about muslims of malay descent? (i talk about the malay people not because of racial sentiments, but because of shared culture and sentiments, and this facilitates da'wah)

we live in an archipelago with water all-around.

we have lots of rivers and lakes.

we eat rice, which requires a lot of water to grow and a lot of water to cook.

we drink a lot of water because of the tropical heat. (100 plus on a sunny day, ho liao!)

So maybe the malays are 'masuk air' ('water entered (his brain, his head, etc)', a term meaning not thinking straight, or crazy, or other equivalents)

How to flush all the water out?? surely this needs some serious thinking on behalf of us revivalists. Revivalists, sounds fancy, chewah!

that's what happens lots of times. we make up fancy names that produce little. like using the term 'blue omnidirectional vehicular device'. why not call it a car and get on with driving. -.-

lots of fancy imagining, lack of serious thinking, even less of actual work.

before i myself 'masuk air', im logging off.

on why moving is almost always better than standing still

2011-04-27T07:00:00.000+01:00

This blog is designed to make you move.

Move your eyes from the top of the page to the bottom of the page.

Move your fingers as you scroll down.

Move your body in front of the computer checking if the author has the mood and wit to write.

Move your head and shoulders downwards in frustration as you realize he doesn't. tee hee.

But most importantly,

this blog is designed to move your heart and soul. Not move your mind, no, that's the work of textbooks from outer space. Move your heart and soul when you hear,

"O you who is enveloped! Arise and warn!" (Al Muddathir:1-2)

Bolded and italicized and underlined. it can't get any more emphasized than that. On a side note, quranic translations always put the word Muhammad in brackets. Like "o you (muhammad) who is enveloped!" But the original text does not have the Prophet's name. Which means that, although the revelation was first sent down on Rasulullah SAW, it is intended for each and every one of us.

"not for me lah, im not in my duvet right now, so not enveloped meh. must be for that guy who's still sleeping, this ayat is to ask him to wake up"

*slap on the forehead*

Now i've annoyed myself.

Laughing? If you go out and meet society, there are people who think like this, who miss out the big picture. But im sure you. dear reader, are not like that *wink2*

You who is enveloped. Enveloped in the duvet of ignorance and in the habits of ignorance, unable to get out, suffocating, a slow and painful death with a slow and painful torture in the afterlife.

"This is too much, calling me ignorant. I am studying in university* lah!"

*based on a glance at the statistics of viewers, i conclude that most of you are students

I, too, am in university, and i openly admit that years of being in the system, and my subsequent dumping of the suffocating duvet, have allowed me to recognize it for what it is. Yes, we are smart, 10A1 and all that, but we have been duped all this while.

Arise and warn. Which means that every individual needs to rise and warn. Which means that da'wah is not only for people learned in the religious sciences coming to mosques giving tazkirah. We want rewards too, and the sahabah had a variety of professions. Uthman was a wealthy businessman. Sa'ad bin Abi Waqqas made arrows. With due respect, people learned in the religious sciences have a huge advantage in that they are more acquainted with the quran and hadeeth. So use that advantage also to arise and warn.

Warn people that there is an afterlife, what you do now is going to be repayed later and somebody's gotta get a hurt real baaaad.

"why go through all the trouble? they're gonna get punished anyways, even if we don't remind. Nanti kubur sendiri-sendiri (we'll be in our graves alone)"

Yes, that's true. But if the guy's grave is next to you you're gonna have a hard time resting with all that screaming.

That was tongue-in-cheek, but you get the idea.

Final question: how do you maintain that spirit of da'wah? frankly all my friends will boo me if i start warning them and i don't know where to start.

Simple. go to a happy place (read: happy circles, happy conferences, happy friends, ....)

Why are you still here? This blog was designed to make you move.

on the culture of de-culturing

2011-04-26T08:20:00.000+01:00

In the collective memory of the Malay people, although the meaning of what constitutes a malay is fluid according to when the next election is, the word 'amuk' (as in 'run amok', i think amok came from the malay word) conjures images of a man wielding a machete and slicing through people faster than a chef at sushi king. Is it a trait of the malay people to be easily ticked such that their word for going berserk is assimilated in english?

like 'melatah', which i think is an endemic culture of malays, since i've never heard the British say "oh your mother!" and i can't find the english equivalent of melatah.

why am i suddenly speaking about amuk? because modern amuk has manifested itself in many ways, i.e. we seem to have forgotten to settle scores nicely, less of

"can you sit here for a while? we need to have a talk"

and more of

"sit there in the witness stand, my lawyer will talk to you"

degradation of society, and if this is your first visit to mynameisikmal.blogspot.com this has been a recurrent theme in this blog , besides using the word 'on' before every topic and using the same color scheme (light blue) ever since its inception.

anyways, a glance at the newspapers for the last 7 days will reveal some interesting stuff:

KUALA LUMPUR: ...Minister Datuk Seri ** **** ***** will testify in his defamation suit against a blogger over an article about him posted in a blog.

A RESTAURANT owner in Lukut, Port Dickson, was attacked by four men who were unhappy with the fish curry served to them.

attacked because of unhappiness with fish curry??? @.@ its a good thing my ikhwah are nice, even if what i cook isn't that good, they'll still finish it up :-)

during his life, the Prophet used to feed a blind and old woman. The woman, not knowing that it was Rasulullah SAW, mocked the Prophet and threw insults at him, all while the hand of Rasulullah was putting food in her mouth. Did Rasulullah slap the woman and say

"you should be grateful, if i didn't come here you'd starve"?

no. he, peace be upon him, stayed patient and dutiful. his rewards were not words of appreciation, but Allah's mercy and forgiveness.

Then after his death and Abu Bakr became caliph, Abu Bakr went to feed the woman as well. The woman realised that it was a different hand and told him he wasn't the same person who used to feed her. Abu Bakr then, tears in his eyes, said that it was the same Muhammad that she insulted all this while.

The woman became muslim. Allahuakbar.

So, judging by the news, it is an uphill task for da'iyaat (callers), to invigorate this partly broken society with the teachings of islam. It is even more uphill if you read Harian Metro.

On the other hand, all is not bleak. there are some good news:

KUALA LUMPUR:...Datuk Seri ***** *** ***** has pledged to uphold the Government's promise not to censor the Internet.

License to kill.

Kill the ignorance. as in ignorance in the hearts and minds, not kill ignorant people, please please do not create the following news:

A BLOG owner in London was attacked by some men who were unhappy with the blog posting served to them.

And no defamation suits please. Exams are coming soon.

on why oil and water can't mix, you're either oil or you're water, no such thing as woil

2011-04-25T16:46:00.000+01:00

This is something i realised from documentaries of the recent awakening.

The strongmen, in their addresses to the nation, always begin with 'bismillahirrahmanirrahim'

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Especially-Merciful.

No mercy over there.

No mercy also.

In the name of God. No fear of God either.

Once a man passed by 'Umar ra. He was sleeping under the shade of a tree. No guards, no armor, only him and the tree.

That is a picture of a man who ruled with justice.

on what is inside you, you abhor if people found out

2011-04-21T09:00:00.003+01:00

If you take the first letter of any word and put it between 'the' and 'word', the letter becomes automatically notorious, although the word itself may be harmless.

The D word.

Dakwah.

The F word.

Futur.

The F U word.

Fluffy Unicorn.

But the J word is notorious in both shortform and actual meaning.

Jahiliyyah.

when jahiliyyah rears its ugly head

"ssokay, we're not jahiliyyah. we're an islamic country, and we're islamic people what. that isoc brother said so"

wrong-o.

jahiliyyah is everything not islam, and how many of it is present in today's world. You don't have to look at the dying or dead babies in rubbish bins, or the millions of mat pet by the roadside in Chow Kit to see it.

Rasulullah SAW said,

"Righteousness is goodness of character, and wrongdoing is that which wavers in your soul and which you dislike people finding out about".

"From the goodness of someone's Islam, he leaves what does not benefit him."

How many ugly red worms are wavering, itching in ourselves, and how much time do we spend doing unbeneficial things.

"but akademi fantasia is beneficial! i get to relax and chillax".

Relax all you want, see if it benefits you soon. hee. Okay, that sounded evil. Its okay, you can continue with your life. Okay, that sounded sarcastic. How do i make this sound okay? T_T

For da'iyaat (remember, all of us are da'ie, the difference is whether we're aware of it or not), the J word is of added danger. A friend of mine told me that having jahiliyyah within us is like carrying a heavy bag while running or swimming. Even if you're a commando with a black belt in Karate, that sort of load will, eventually, weigh us down.

"errr, adik, this sort of thing is not good for a muslim to do. what? i do it also? err..forget about me, you want to go to Heaven right.."

So the best thing to do is: ditch it. Kill the worm.

"hey, cakap senanglah! orang susah2 struggle nak buang jahiliyyah, dia boleh suruh kill camtu jer"

"hey, it's easy for you to talk! i am struggling to throw away jahiliyyah, what do you know."

I feel you, mr. struggling-with-jahiliyyah. It is hard, what more with 20 years or so living with a habit. Even Abu Zar, a renowned companion, once said to Bilal "son of a black woman."

When Bilal complained to Rasulullah, he said to Abu Zar, "you still have rusts of jahiliyyah within you."

erk T_T i think i have done worse than call my friends names. True to a believer, Abu Zar was overcome with guilt and asked Bilal to step on his head. And true to a believer, Bilal didn't have the heart for such a thing.

So that's what this whole episode on the J word is about. I think it was Imam Ghazali who said that the biggest sin is not realising what you're doing is a sin. So when we recognise a worm for a worm, we'll try our best to rid ourselves of it.

And if we stumble, we rise again. Stumble, rise again. Until we're purified from the habit.

That's what the T word is for.

Taubah.