our garden

Oh wow, our gardens has not had a new addition for so long!

Well I’m not to sure now where to pick up, its like meeting up with a long lost childhood friend and trying hard to find something to talk about, particularly if we’ve grown to be very different people.

After asking what he’s doing now, and telling him what you’re doing now, you’re very lucky if you could pick up on that, otherwise it would just be plain awkward=P

Anyways, Im not to sure anymore to whom I address this blog, it started out to be a personal blog to store my Poems, but the fairy that carried the pixie dust for my poems has not been visiting me  for a while, so I decided to write in prose, until slowly it came to me writing about philosophical and social issues if not a form of invitation towards my ideas of Da’wah…

So just a bit on this year, well i’ve been in Malaysia since october 15th when I left Melbourne after visiting Ahmad ridza and his friends. I stayed for summer, then decided I wont be taking summer school this year, and was happy=)

and then in february I found out I would be missing the first semester after My father got chikukunya.

In the processs I got to gain alot of insight in the field of writing, particularly in translating and also penning down my thoughts and having it crosss checked…

Right now Im just waiting for the book I worked on with my dad to be published…

On a lighter note, and a more personal one, I have just gotten engaged! And I cant believe I took this long to write about it.

The journey itself leading to my engagement to the girl I recognised as my suitable and only candidate deserves a blog in itself.

But suffice it is to say, when you know, you know.

I remembered a chat in school once with Syed Mahdar who said, you will know the woman you want to spend your life with when you find her to be a dove among the pidgeons…..you just can’t miss her! Well I can and I do.

Another guy I met in janda Baek when we talked by the river, told me how when you recognise the person it would just resonate in calmness when you talk to her or when you see her.

And her name, the one who makes me happy? Azimah Binti Abu Bakar, just cant miss it, well i do.

At any rate, I first had to pass an hour and a half of an interview with her parents querying me about everything from my Aqidah, to my plans of supporting a family, and my readiness and willingness to start one.

Well I remembered this line from a movie, and have been waiting to say this, that once you find the person you want to start the rest of your life with, you want to start as soon as possible=).

So finally after that interview on a fine saturday, a date was decided for the engagement.. and on the 28th of june, Alhamdulillah, we got engaged.

‘Marriage is in accord with reason’ says spinoza, so Inshallah when the appointed time comes we shall progress to this blessed institution.

Well this has been quite a long post, but I summarise with 2 more quotes, one from someone I know, and the other from another movie which I liked as well.

‘That a religion cannot be true if it seeks to prevent love between two consenting individualsl’, and the other being ‘When the heart desires something with it’s everything, the whole universe shall conspire to help achieve it’.

At any rate may the world flourish with people who seek to perfect their moral potentials, with those who seek to promote better understanding and meaningful communication between people, and May Allah bless us, everyone.

WARNING:THIS ARTICLE MAY SERIOUSLY CHALLENGE YOUR VIEW OF THE WORLD, SO IF YOURE NOT USED TO YOUR IDEAS BEING CHALLENGED,STOP READING,CHOOSE ANOTHER ONE. I COULD WRITE ON RABBITS MAYBE.

Azimah called me two days ago, and she told me of the coming of Yusuf estes to malaysia.  He is to give a series of talks, and the first one that i was able to attend, was last night’s.. titled why should we believe in god? It quickly struck a chord and i just opted to go.

It was at Malaya university hosted by their islamic studies department and Al-khadem foundation. Of course after the usual formalities, being welcoming speech and the technical problems, i finally get to see Yusuf estes metres away from me. I had first seen him in a video showed in islamic awareness week in otago.  The man knows how to command the attention of the audience. His powerful intonation, his eloquence, and his ability for humour makes him a very well equipped preacher.  Wish a lot more of muslims would learn to improve themselves to prepare for the challenges of the current times.

In order to prepare the audience, he started with an anthropological argument arguing for the probable existence of God. He quoted an anthropologist who studied languages and found that the word God existed in all languages, even for the primitive ones, and he quoted an example of a language that had only about a 100 words.  He went on further and say that humans only create a word for something that exists, the sattellite, the microwave are two examples that he gave.

Then he spoke of how ancient civilisations had depictions of God in various symbol to show that God has always been a subject among mankind.  What i’d like to say at this juncture is that this might suggest probability that God exists, but surely, if someone coins words like the middle earth, isengard or faires and Goblins one does not expext these things to exist now? And if one takes this argument further, in one’s asessment of mythology and symbolisms, humans create myth in order that they may make a better sense of this world, and to survive.

Take for example the existence of fairies that help mend your shoes(or maybe help finish your essay), you may create the concept in order that you could live sanely with an evil employer, or mothers might cling on to Batu belah batu bertangkup in order to deal with her naughty kids.

Psycho Analysts like freud in future of an illusion,even dawkins sensational God’s delusion suggest that God is a myth created by the oedipus complex suffered by everyone who make God to be an extremely powerful father whom when angered causes disaster in the soil, Hence when yusuf estes says of how the victims of earthquake become extremely good humans, this is because of uncertainty and sense of helplessness, the state of fitrah he calls it, and ironically it is the one that children posess.

Other than that, he tried to prove the existence of god by showing that evolution is false(the likes of harun yahya), and  that  sense verifiability isnt conclusive in supposing the existence of something.

He attacks the atheist in the common argument that the atheist professor must not have a brain if he does not see it, hear it,feel it smell it or touch it. But the problem with these arguments is that, it does not work! I will deal with evolution in the next article because it deserves it’s own post.

Let me first say that sense verifiability need not be something that one can immediately see, but a conscillience of inductions is good proof for the existence of something. For example that the earth is spherical and that the sun does not revolve around the earth, or that there is signal in your cell phone. Very few have actually seen the earth from outer space to conclude of it’s sphericity.

And some for example still think that the moon landing was a hoax. What do you have then? Well that the earth was spherical was already known even in the time of aristotle. He based his finding on the shadow of the sun during eclipses, the disappearing of ships from a port, and also the rotation of stars. But he has not apprehended directly the sphericity of the earth. BUt inductions, or signs tells him so.

What about vitamins, zinc and so forth? have you seen felt, or tasted vitamins?(not the tablet, but the chemical component), how do you know it exists? Again from inductions. Similarly your cell phone line and so on and so forth. Science does not expect you to prove something by immediate sense experience, but it is sufficient that you can conceive of a way to verify it sensibly. For example, that there are mountains behind the moon, one can conceive of sending a satellite to take pictures of it. Similarly with my brain, one can dissect it to see whether it exists. Or if one wants to go with induction,

than the existence of my brain can be attested with my behaviour. For example humans that have brains can pass the mirror test, is  capable of uttering signals(words) that signify the signified(meaningful words).

So how bout the existence of God then? Well let me give you a picture of a man stranded in an island, who was born with no hands and no feet(or got chopped of during his baby days by rocks if you wana be creative and sadistic). There are no animals on this island except for insects(so light they dont live foot prints). Now, if one day he sees a foot print, what do you think he will actually say?That there are animals/humans that leaves foot prints?

Or will he think that someone has probably drawn some cute shapes with his mouth? Now similarly the god hypotheses is the same, there is no sense verifiable way we can prove his existence because He is nothing like His creation. Laisa ka mithli hi shay’un(nothing is like him in His creation)

We are incapable of comprehending what god is like. God cannot be defined because He cannot be limited to words even if its 99 words.  One can only know HIm trough His attributes and His actions, again, inductions.

Hence the question i posed yusuf estes(title of this post) my intention was not to disprove the existence of god, It is rather to invite the muslims and the believers to improve on their idea of god and their conducts as muslims. That they shouldnt imagine God or Make God as a justifier of their religious fanaticism. God is the truth of the universe, God(Allah) answers the question of why is there something rather than nothing?

Where did we come from and where are we going?

Pertinent questions that demands answers from everyone, and what of the atheist then? well it should be funny that there are no positive arguments for the inexistence of God. That humans create myths because they want to believe in something, or a psychoanalysis of a child’s behaviour has nothing to do with the creator, but shows our weakness in comprehending who God is. People has since ancient times know that there is something out there, but their understanding can be very primitive.

For example my brother used to think that God was a giraffe with funny spots. I used to think that God was a fisherman with a very big hat.  But that is what we used to believe when we were five.  A real believer cannot seriously think that God is a vengeful father, or that God would put his feet in hell.  Because GOd is ineffable, and incomprehendable by the mind.

The other question Yusuf asked the crowd was that can god do anything? only very few like myself and hamzah didnt pick up our hands. Then he asked, could god bear a son? Could God die? Could God decide to walk on earth?  then people put down their hands at once,why? Crowd behaviour,few dared to use their capacity of reason to verify the existence of their lord, they are people who believe in Allah because their fathers did. This was the reason i asked those dangerous questions, muslims are asleep, wake up! Wake up!, wake up!. If you take God’s existence for granted and use really lame arguments to invite people to truth, do you think people will actually listen to you?

IF your tadhkirah only tells people that they are going to be hung by their hair in hell, or that one is going to be pierced with metal in his head if he doesnt believe in god, would he actually follow you? God’s omni benevolence(his kindness) needs to be emphasised. Otherwise even if they know He exists they will think He’s a tyrant God.

Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth, best who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.(An-nahl, 125)

All in all, yusuf estes was a good speaker, im looking forward to hearing from Him further.

Lines from nanny mcphee, at a certain point my brothers
habibi and ali, along with their kakak(my sister sharifah) developed a certain
liking for this movie. I missed most of the movie,but i digress.  My point
here is the play on the words, in the movie it’s supposed to be a
mispronouncement of the word Behave, which ended up being one of the nanny’s
magical tricks, where suddenly buzzing started to happen and stopped the
dangerous wedding that was to happen between colin firth and that materialistic
lady.

But the interesting aspect that i try to point out here is, could behave really
have something to do with beehive? ahaha it does sound a bit stretched, but hey
if theres nothing special about this group of Social insects, there wouldnt
have been a surah named after them now would it?

A lot have been pointed out about these wonderful creatures, in particular
theire good honey, or other benefits one extrapolates like propolis or the
royal jelly. What i  shall try to point out as a ppe student in this short
essay is the political aspects of this creature which one can learn from as
members of a society.

Some of you at this point are probably thrown back even by the word politics,
possibly due to how ugly it is being practiced in our society nowadays. But i assure
you, politics is indispensable as a craft/science. Aristotle pointed out which
later is echoed by Ibn Khaldun and al-ghazali that politics is the science
towards achieving happiness. Like it or not it is politics that orders nature,
be it in the animal kingdom or of man.

Very well back to the bees.  As a decent teenager who watches national
geographic may be able to point out there are various positions in the
beehive.These are the drones, the worker bees and the queen. The workers have various departments they each attend to.

Some of you may have seen the new seinfeild movie the bee movie where one of the worker bees sort of decided he wanted to do something else. Well in the real world this doesnt really happen, well first all worker bees(referring to the honey bee species) are females,and secondly they are a highly social animal.

So what happens with these worker bees is basically they have different tasks to do at different stages of their lives. The young ones start as cleaners of the hive,towards middle age they will grow a special mask as they become baby feeders. And finally the mature ones get to do the pollen finding.

Of course this is an oversimplified model, they have other departments such as maintainance of the hive, some are soldier bees, and some only tend to the queen’s needs.

How is all these relevant to a politics student?well a human experiment,for example kidnapping all the scout and soldier bees outside the hive will cause the bees still residing in the hive to divide and prematurely take the task. Similarly removing the worker bees or the baby feeders inside the hive will have some of the fliers stay back and grow new masks to do the baby feeding,preserving the ratio.

What’s interesting to point out is that imagine yourself as a young cleaner, having ambitions of being a flier, but suddenly the crisis happens and you have to stay home? virtually none of the bees protest or resign from the beehive unlike what we see in humans. The hive always come before the individual, even the queen bee, of the hive decides that she no longer can function as the queen, they will depose her trough ‘balling’ her. The Centrality of power here is also of significance as a hive does not have more than one queen.

This semester im studying the fall of the Ottoman empire, where during Sulaiman the magnificents rule spanned between europe,asia  and africa and posessed superior trade and education. There are various factors that led to the empire’s downfall, but one of the most important ones was that there was no longer a united citizenry behind the ruler. Other factors that led to the downfall were weak sultans, whom not only posess very poor political acumen and economic sense, but were morally corrupt as well. They were apologetic to the west, and preferred themselves and their families over the muslim empire.

Selim the second for example was so notorious for his drinking that he conquered cyprus because cyprus had an excellent wine. The debauchery doesnt stop there, one of the sultans was so engrossed with women that he had 4000 eunuchs taking care of his harem, fathering over a hundred children. Murad the fourth was so famous for his debauchery that he used to have human targets for his arrow practices.  Of course at the same time the european powers also arose and posessed the military and the technological superiority, but the factors that were most influential were from within the sultanate.

Perhaps thats why coming back to the bees unity and leadership is very essential for a functioning polity. The prophet(S.A.W) reminded us in a hadeeth of how the mu’min are like a single body. Looking at the bees can give us a better understanding of  how the community can be thought of as a single organism. These complex social structure of the social insects has posed darwin a very strong opposition until evolutionary biologists had to invent GRoup selection as a mechanism to make sense of it. This group of insects should be looked at as a single organism rather than individuals, claims darwin.

Whether or not Darwin is true in his prediction requires a separate debate, but what is clear even the Quran acknowledges that these social insects were ‘Inspired’ to live the way they did.

"And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and
in (men’s) habitations…there issues from within their bodies a drink of
varying colours, wherein is healing for mankind. Verily in this is a
Sign for those who give thought"(surah an-nahl)

The quran devotes a whole Surah on the bees, some scholars of tafsir says the word Nihlah(Like our adni friend)  although it means A gift or present also have a relationship with the word nahl or bees, and this they point out is because the presence of the bees themselves  are a gift to mankind. Be it in their honey, propolis or their social structure that we can learn a lot from.

I guess similarly in english, although with no historical basis, when one says behave!behave! one can also mean beehive!beehive! as when one thinks of the beehive,one remembers to put one’s debt/responsibility to society before one’s own.

Muslim emigration,a new we. Conclusions.  By Syed
Muhammad al-attas

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a
male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each
other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in
the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full
knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (QS; hujuraat; 13)

Tariq Ramadan was introduced as a balanced scholar, both in academia, and in
the Islamic sciences. In the western world he is ranked one of the top 100 intellectuals,
while his one on one training with traditional scholars in Egypt gives him
equal grounding as an Alim. The talk bore witness to this, as his perfect English
with a French accent is interjected with direct quotations from the Quran and
the Ahadeeth of the prophet. As he stood in the hall with his suit and his
white shirt, I can’t help but admire this new persona of the modern Islamic
Scholar, one who is comfortable to say that He is a Swiss and at the same time
holding on closely to the Islamic universal.

Why this introduction is important is because the talk that follows from this
man is embodied in his character. 1400 years ago, some of the sahabah’s like Omar
were convinced of the truth of the message by the eloquence of the Quran, but
for others at that time, they fell in love with the prophet’s character.

Professor Tariq relates how in the past emigration forms the basis of the Muslim
community. The hijrah from makkah to medina has so many lessons to draw from.
He points out how the muhajir and the ansar weren’t homogenous people; each had
their own history and traditions. The background of the sahabah was similar in
this respect. We have bilal who come from the habashi tribes and Salman
al-farisi that came from

Persia

.
There were the Umayyad and the Quraysh who came from the higher social strata
and yes, there were Jews in medina that stayed quite peacefully with the Muslim
community.

The problem with the current ummah is however, is that it neglects this
richness of character. The Arab’s says professor Tariq are to engross in
arabisation of the Muslims, just as the Pakistani Muslims would want to include
their culture into Islam. Malays are guilty in the same respect to, to a
certain extent (why do we hear masok Islam atau masok melayu?). The reduction
of Islam to a set of culture and traditions clouds the real message of Islam,
which He points out is a set of principals aimed at finding Justice,
Honesty, a high regard for truth, and thirst for Knowledge.

From this one can deduce that Islam does not reserve truth
simply for Muslims. It makes sense for example that the Muslim ummah could
participate in the community at large in order to further truth. One finds in
the Quran for example in the story of musa judging between a person of the bani Israel(his tribe) and an
Egyptian how Allah points out that his clansman was wrong.

The message of emigration and integration is of real
importance in this day and age. Although emigration has been part of human
history since antiquity or arguably part of human trait itself, Globalisation
has increased the pace dramatically. As a result one needs to tangle with the
concept of the world’s citizen. Muslims, if they intend to be relevant in this
day and age will have to learn to adapt certain cultures of foreign people. And
this is not totally a bad thing, for example a Muslim immigrating to

Japan

may find that their sense of time is even more important than to his original
culture, or the western work ethic that puts emphasis on creativity and
productivity. One can learn from the western society the frankness in
conversations and so on and so forth which appeals to the verse we quoted in
the introduction to show that each culture has its own advantages, and one
needs to learn to integrate, without losing his or her Islamic identity.

Commenting on the issues in

Canada

and the recent edict by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, professor Tariq says that a Muslim needs to find
within the common law, the flexibility that allows him to practice his life as
a Muslim. Critics may say that the Shariah courts needs to be instituted at no
matter what cost, however in a western society where the Muslims are the minority,
asking for a court of their own would lead to greater isolation from the
community.  One needs to understand that
alienation from the larger community or leading a ghetto lifestyle contradicts
the Prophetic tradition in medina where the muhajir learned to live with the
ansar. The Muslims should participate more in the community in order to show
that Islam is a universal principal.

Islam is the universal truth, but there are multiple
readings of Islam. There are the Salafi Muslims who insist on the literal
reading of the texts, there are the Sufi’s who appeal to mystical experience,
and there are also the mu’tazilah who emphasise the importance of human reason,
insisting that the Quran be formulated on conclusions arrived by reasoning
alone, refusing to accept the poverty of the human reason.

As a conclusion, professor Tariq proposes 5 C’s as a tool
for more efficient integration.

1 Confidence; The Muslim must read himself of the
minority mentality, he should know he has equal rights as any other citizen, he
also must rid himself of the guilt mentality where he assumes everyone is there
to get him just because he is a Muslim. The war on terrorism may have distorted
the view on Muslims, but it does not mean that the Muslim must conform to the
idea that he always has to prove himself.

2Critical mind; The message is taking in what is
beneficial and to adopt a different culture, not to lose one’s identity in the
process. The Muslim youth especially needs to realise that not everything that
comes from western sources are to be swallowed. The Muslim has ethics that are
not tradable at no matter what cost. Don’t drink alcohol or Shop lift just
because you think you’re trying to fit in.

3 Communication; Communication is the key for
understanding. People have pre-formed ideas about others, unless communication
actually takes place, this presumption are wrong more often than not.

4Consistency. Honesty is an important trait of the Muslim.
This should also be emulated in his treatment of other people. People should
all be regarded based on moral considerations, not race or gender. Here he
points out, that no matter how much a Muslim disagrees with the unjust
situations in

Palestine

and Israeli incursion into Muslim lands, and Muslims are not by nature anti-Semitic.
He condemns actions such that if Muslim brethren were to commit the same
injustice the law that’s applied should be the same.

5Creativity. these results from the 4 points above,
in learning how to cope with integration, creativity plays a very important
role.

Wisdom is the property of the Muslim, wherever he or
she finds it s/he should grab it –Ahadeeth of the prophet (saw)

This essay is based on the authors conclusions from
the talk he attended, and not a direct report,therefore,

some of the examples and comments are added by the
author in order to clarify what the author thinks the professor means.

Now how did this come about? Oh well,about 3 weeks ago, i was going trough the notice board at the Alhuda mosque in dunedin, and there it was, i saw tariq ramadan’s coming to give a public lecture!. Was excited,although later i found out it was going to be in auckland.

So i told kakok,erm how do i get to auckland? And she suggested this elaborate way of going there which i pursued. But before that i went straight to the university bookstore and bought me The Messenger;the meanings of the life of Muhammad by tariq ramadan.  I called my dad, Bah, i want to go to auckland! he was busy  as it ’s election season, but he asked me why?and so i said tariq ramadan’s coming! and so after a bit of explaining, he gave me the blessings. My face started radiating, i mean for rock star fans this is like mick jagger is coming or terauchi sensei for goju ryu karatekas=P

I started making arrangements, i was going to take a bus on thursday night from dunedin(no classes on friday) fly early friday morning from christchurch to auckland.

I arrived in auckland airport friday morning.Unfortunately,my friend al-kaf was busy at work, so he advised me to take the 15dollar bus to the city, and meet Tebu(Riduan) who would take me around.So i did just that, had a kebab meal at a turkish restaurant, and he showed me the university campuses, the sky tower, and the general architecture from queen’s street, he’s a nice guy. I got to tired so i slept at his place that morning till jumaah was almost there.

We prayed in a building there which is one of the praying halls for the muslims in auckland,and interestingly enough, the khatib was a malaysian. He talked about the importance of being moderate muslims, striving to achieve a balance in life and when khutbah was over, Riduan,along with some of his friends took me to Sylvia park,the biggest mall in auckland,or so they say.
They later sent me to al-kaf’s place.Al-kaf at first told me he’d send me,but later after i had a shower he said he wanted to tag along,and i was happy about it. In the car we had some chat about the coming elections, and i gave an overview of what i know about tariq ramadan.

At 6.50,we arrived at the fisher&paykel auditoriom of the business school. The hall was spacious,the architecture very modern, and ideal for a public lecture.The first person that grabbed my attention was professor Najibullah lafraie, a professor at the university of otago in the politics department. There was also the president of Fianz and a few of the executive comittees. I approached professor najib,told him i expressly went to auckland to hear this talk,and he told me how he’d done the same and wished more people would do the same. So me and al-kaf grabbed the front seats and right in the center while waiting for professor Tariq to come.(to be continued)

Allah feels pleased with his servant who comes back to Him in tawbah,just like the desperate wonderer lost in the desert who finds his camel.

Salamz people,let me begin by saying sorry,i havent written for so long,nor have i posted anything on my profile,i guess this things we can never tell,anyways i hope every one’s in their best conditions.

Well anyways,so much has happened since i last penned down my thoughts.Well guess what i’m back in nz again, been here since 4th of january, started summer school,did a paper called public participation in politics,studying how much should the population participate in order to keep a democracy running. Among others we looked at the notion of social capital and civic participation, chiefly at robert putnam’s theory of the decline in trust and civic participation in the american society(will have to dedicate a special post to this).The professor, lawrence saha is a visiting lecturer from A.N.U in canberra, and aside from him i managed to make friends with a kiwi guy called Stuart,an interesting character. He’s worked in fishing boats in russia, taught english in korea and likemyself is a political junkie=).

At any rate summer school in otago is so great.The 13 week lecture is compressed into 6,but we get smaller classes,and the city is less hectic. In the one month i’ve also managed to slowly sort things out living in a new place,and learnt to cook some good meals(abeb boleh masak da,sape nak join makan?).

Also,towards the end of summer,i also came to know doctor Afida, which we all call kAkok. She’s a neighbour,and alhamdulillah Allah gave me good acquaintances in nz. Time to time she’ll invite us for dinner at her place and she’s an excellent cook to=).

Last week was the last week of holidays,also known as orientation week.Last year,if you guys still remember,the theme was prison break,and this year,i dont know what it’s called. Although last year i lived in a hall where there are people who take fun seriously,where booze cannot be left of the equation, i somehow managed to miss all of the bar parties  and events.Among others was the toga party where girls and boys dress up like greek gods and party in the night.

This year got a little different,and here is how.You see i have a good friend who really loves to try new things here,and he says to me,at least try everything once. Perhaps he’s correct, i didnt want to be an extremist, and so he managed to talk me to go to one small jazz party ‘jazz in a pocket’. I got ready for it,thinking it was just a jazz show.But later i found out, it was going to be held at refuel, a bar near college.BY then,this friend of mine was ready and with much reluctance,i walked out of the house with him.As i walked out of the house i started having doubts,and this doubts started to develop to a strong internal rejection. Now i’m not trying to be judgemental to people who do go to bars or for people who loves to have fun, this is simply my own narration.
 

When we arrived at re-fuel,i realize what kind of trouble i was in,and yet i manage to push myself to pay the cover-charge,although by now i made it clear to my friend that the sole reason i was doing this was because he wanted to go so much.
there was this chop they give as a ticket and there it was,it wrote on my hands "CAMEL".

I sat down,i saw around, some people were getting ready to get drunk,guys and their girlfriends,my friend who was uneasy because he dragged me into this,and yet wanting to know what it was like,and then there was me,deeply ashamed.As i sat there i started questioning,how could i be here when Hasan Al-banna during his youth days went inside this kind of places to do da’wah?how weak am i as a muslim?
How can i be here knowing what  habib rizziq  al-shahab would do when he found out muslims would go to bars. As i start thinking, teacher azrina came to my mind,when she narrates to me how the Prophet in his youth was made to fall into deep sleep so that he missed the fiesta he was invited to.

ANd then i stood up,went out of the bar,and walked home.ON the way i saw rowdy kids, some of them naked,most of them drunk,and beer spilt on the alleys.This was another jahilliyyah. I started walking faster and faster,and after i arrived i called a good friend of mine,i needed the charge in my iman.

The next day,during khutbah, the imam was telling about the kindness of Allah, how His mercy extends more than His anger. But it was what the khatib mentioned about tawbah that really got me.
Allah feels pleased with his servant who comes back to Him in
tawbah,just like the desperate wonderer lost in the desert who finds
his camel.

looking at the spot where the prints CAMEl was,tears dropped from my eyes..

Has not the Time
              arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should
              engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been
              revealed (to them), and that they should not become like those to
              whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them
              and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors.
quran-surah al hadeed.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..

Wow it’s been so long since I’ve written huh? Oh well, I guess when you’ve not done something for a while it’s really difficult to start doing it again, other things become you’re priorities, like a path in an orchard, after a good amount of time when people don’t walk trough it bushels and shrubs might get in the way, give it enough time, and some old man would have said, there was a path trough there once, now even I don’t know if it exists. Or it can be like reading the quran, notice that once you stop reading for a few weeks, you’re reading will get a bit rusty and you say to yourself, ‘kenape lah susah sangat nih?’

But I love blogging. It’s a bit like cooking, you know, getting the ingredients to start off

‘tumis bawang putih,bawang merah dengan halia, lepas tu bile da naik bau tuang air siket, campor rempah korma’ kalau nak sedap,pas2 jangan lupe jintan jintan, kalau nak senang pakai je sup bunjut adabi, tapi mesti ketok siket dulu, haa nanti bile da mesre baru la letak daging siket..bagi mase siket..herm pastu cube rase..haa kalau sedap,baru laa tak sia-sia jadi anak norizah..ehehehe(I thought to myself,while preparing dinner last Monday,the recipe is from my mom,lepas2 memang sedap lah!ehehe,tapi saye makan sorang sebab mamat mamat arab ni tak suke pedas..=P)

At any rate, I’m now blending in to the second semester. It’s a bit tougher than the first, I mean last semester I stayed in a hall, and although I had to walk 25minutes to arrive to uni, life in the hall was catered for,I mean you just need to get down a few floors for meals,you  have bedsheet change every week, and you even have a lady vacuuming the room and taking away the trash in you’re small dustbin every Monday. But hey I guess  I wanted to try something new. So the end of last semester after speaking with scott walker(head of Aquinas college), I started looking for a place, and alhamdulillah, found a house in

. There’s 5 rooms, big ones too, and I saw what’s going to be my room and exclaimed ‘uyyoo,macam 2 kali gande bilek kat Aquinas,bilek besar camni boleh buat program

motivasi nih=P’.

It was empty, and I only went to check it out the night before my flight for

Malaysia

. I saw kamal, the owner of the house, he’s a pharmacist, and yes everyone in this house has something to do with pharmacy. He’s an afghani, has a younger brother but bigger than him called waleed, also a pharmacist, and then there’s Muhammad, a Palestinian who lived in

Syria

, also a pharmacist, and they all live in the first floor. On the second floor lives me and the iraqi’s ayman and ibraheem, ayman did a science degree in Auckland, but now he’s doing second year pharmacy in otago, while ibraheem, who speaks 5 arabic dialects including an excellent command of Arabic fushah  is in 3^rd year,yes like you’ve guessed pharmacy..i guess no problems with prescriptions this semester..ehehe. My studies is interesting too, I do four subjects this semester, critical thinking, 2^nd half of principals of economics, international relations, and most interestingly, politics of the middle east.  I guess it’s interesting because I live among these people. I mean of course most of them has stayed here for a few years, but i get a better picture. Most of us when reading the news are numbed by it, 80 people die, 300 hundred get serverely injured, or thousands displaced from their homes will see it as just numbers, I mean we try to feel it, but hey apathy can only go so far, but to these people who actually experience trouble returning to their homeland, who get phonecalls of a death from a relative, cousins, uncles, they know that the war is real, the oppression is real, the ones dead are not just numbers, but people, people with personalities, people with dreams, with fear,with families who care for them, when ibraheem tells me of sectarian wars, I really get sick of it, the sunni’s bombing the shi’a mosques,the shi’a retaliates,and the violence goes on, have they not heard that when two groups of muslims are in battle you must stop them at any given opportunity?

Sometimes the problem with us is, we have this ‘holier than thou attitude’(got to thank hamzah for this term),everyone else outside our circle is bad, some even go further and brand this people kafir, that one’s a fasiq, thinking that we own the copyright to send people to heaven or hell, let’s not be judgemental,

The business of passing judgements is not ours, our business is to improve and to deliver, the rest leave it to HE who owns whatever is in the universe.

We muslims are asleep,and mal-informed, we should do something about it, you should do something about it.

lAssalamualaikum..
I just played a round of basketball on my own,shooting some balls..before i was logged in that is..usually when i play sports i prefer my glasses off,somehow the thought of the pair of spectacles being stepped  on is not something that i like.When i took it off,i was like,woow!my eyesight was not this bad before,although i must admit even before i got the pair it wasnt to good..Speaking of glasses and stigmatism,i couldnt help but remember professor flynn’s classes. I saw him last week,before my political philosophy paper.
When i came in his office,he was writing some stuff down,bills maybe,i said i was there for his autograph,pointing at his book i took out from my bag..’oh you’re here for the 2 dollars’,taking out a syilling from a small cup..apparently he keeps that in his office,and he gives 2 dollars,or his royalty for the book he sells.He does’nt profit from his students that is..i was like,sweet!not only am i getting an autograph from a man i clearly admire,i’m getting 2 dollars for it(in my mind i was already thinking about putting the coin in the snack machine for the incredible cookie from cookie time)At any rate, i sat down with him, and he asked for my name,and spelled it ‘to syed muhammad el-attas,a keen student,jim flynn’
That was a memorable evening for me, i asked him a whole range of questions about all the thinkers in the course. I asked him,why he chose the thinkers,and asked how they all are useful for the political scientist or a philosopher. And the keyword was glasses,they give you a whole new pair of glasses.
Earlier he said,philosophy gives you a new window about the world,until when you become the person of practical wisdom,or how ghazali says in his al-munqidh minaddalal ‘ i set out to study about how things really were and not how men thought they would be"

The person of practical wisdom is like a man with a 20/20 vision  as compared to a person of stigmatism,where the former might say theres a rod ahead and the latter disagrees,but if the latter walks trough,he will surely trip over it.

Aristotle for example,gave us the fourfold spectacles of viewing the world. The formal,material,final and efficient. For example, we take a chair, the material cause would be the oak or pine or whatever you make chairs out of,as for the formal cause is the plan in the carpenter’s head,while the efficient cause is how the carpenter fashions the chair,and finally the final course,it’s purpose.

How bout the human being?how about the muslim then? what is the material?well one thing we know is that our material is plastic(plastic as in the concept,we are not really made out of plastic),meaning however you colour or paint it, it will be formed.like in the hadeeth,where what the parents(environment)builds in the individual will reflect in his/her character.But theres a passive grain,or that voice that whispers the good,that rejection of falsehood,for the state of fitrah is the state of purity,of course how one lives one life,the formal cause(education) effects this.
And then is the final cause,which is doing good for good’s sake. This is like our concept of ihsan, an ta’budallah kaannaka tarahu,fa in lam takun tarah fainnahu yaraka;to worship you’re God as though you see Him,if you do not,then He sees you’.
This is difficult,for example,if you’re reasons for friendship is for you’re own good, you might be nice to him,but in a party you might end up telling funny stories about him to impress a girl..Loving another person for the sake of Allah alone..

And then there’s karl marx, the commonly refuted political philosopher,fammous for his communist mannifesto, or his work on the theory of surplus value in his Capital. He gave us the pair of material glasses,where he proposed a new view,how it is economics that moves the world,the base and the superstructure. The base,or what shapes you is you’re economic condition,it depends on you’re relationship to the means of production. For example,if you’re born in a working class family,the lower middle class, you’ll have a tendency to like progressive taxation for redistribution of wealth,you’ll love inflation if you manage to get away with a loan,and you will respect the sanctity of a hard day’s work.  However,the capitalist on the other hand, thinks of it differently,the less work you do and the more you make,the more respect you earn,while he who works his butt off 50 hours a week just to barely live is looked down upon,’let money work for you’(read rich dad,poor dad). Of course there’s alot of chunks in his armour,meaning to say especially to us muslims there are other struggles other than class struggle,but it’s wrong to dismiss this spectacle without looking into it.
I mean the importance of zakah, the tough hudud law against assariq(or theft), the forbidding of riba’, the stress on islamic banking shows how important economics is to the muslim.  Islam emphasises working hard, and the worldly success of the muslim as well. The only difference is,islam uses the economy as a tool to a higher end. It is sad for the marxists because they see the world as everything there is. For the muslim who believes in the eternal life,of jannah,of nar,he knows, that Allah will always compensate him for any amount of effort,be it wealth or energy,and Allah will pay for it handsomely.
In surah saff, Allah invites the muslim to a business deal and it’s reward will be beautiful mansions and gardens that rivers flow under it..masyaallah, Allah is the best client.

Ultimately,when one views the world,one could always use a new pair of glasses,but most important of these glasses is the spectacle of islam,of the quran,of the prophet’s sunnah,of the sayings of ulema.I remembered in one chat at a mamak stall with the usrah boys,ustaz asmadi says ‘When people ask of you’re opinion on something, think of what the quran says,not what you say’
The quran is like a spectrometer when viewing colours,with you’re eyes you may see hundreds of colours,or a few shades of blue,but with the spectrometer, you’ll see a thousands more color..

so need a new pair of glasses?why not read the Quran?

Has there not been over Man a long period of Time, when he was
nothing - (not even) mentioned?

Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order
to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.

We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful
(rests on his will).-quran,surah al-insan

At the onset  of my 20th birthday last week, i stayed up the night before..umi called to wish me an advanced birthday,after that, i just stared at the ceiling,thinking..oh wow i’ve lived 20 years of my life!

At this point i was flashing back my birthdays,and then it came to me,the best birthdays are the small birthdays. Waking up like it’s a normal day,and then klua bilek je ade umi,and it becomes a competition sape wish dulu.SOmetimes oma starts first,but thats rare although we’ve been roommates for a long time..ehehe slalunye ade abah and che’ honey..for the past few years abah always says,you’re a man now..Well at any rate.This year’s birthday was small,only celebration would be eating yilmaz’s turkish pizza. Other then that, i went to new world supermarket and got me some nuts,and eggs..ehehe

Oh well i spent 20 years in life already,and this year,armed with a little philosophy started to rethink the questions we are frequently asked,and its not ape kaba?i mean to say the bigger questions. One nehlah says,’Whats the meaning to you’re life?what’s you’re significance?’ ANd she also says,dont give regurgitative answers, like the usuals, tujuan hidup untuk ibadah,Allah ciptakan manusia nak jadikan mereke khalifah. These answers are not wrong at all,but they mean nothing if you never internalised it. You’ve been to brother muhammad’s classes,big deal,so you know you’re a khalifah,and you know the 3 points mission,but remember the most important question,what have you done towards that direction?

Another big question we are asked but we never really think about,is who we are,i mean have you answered the question?You may say, ezrie aiman,but that’s you’re name.You’ll say, student kat skolah islam adni,well that’s where you go to school,most of the answers are just descriptions. Well ..pak hasni may have a good answer,when he said, i’m a champion!n we say im a champion!,we are the muslims,and we are the best!best! best!,but i mean seriously,do you think you’re a champion by default?

My dad gave a different answer,when i asked,bah,who are you?
and he answered ,i’m a loving soul. At that moment i felt a different jolt.He may have been right,i guess that answered the question.
But today,i’m still thinking yet of a different answer,one that will,like defining a chair,which not only gives it’s description,but also its purpose.

I recently read david hume’s description of personal identity,and i think it is to a certain level satisfactory.
It describes personal identity as person stages. Which means if you see alia at 7,and alia at 13,you’ll think of her as different persons,whereas she’s part of a stage of her life,and who we are, is the whole stage.I said alia,because about 2 weeks ago we were chatting,and she said, syed muhammad,kite rase awak da laen lah,have you changed?  That makes sense if i am just my body or my memory,but if im part of a person stage,then i havent changed,im just adding colour to my whole life. Sometimes when we reflect on the past we laugh at ourselves and say was that me?
But my point is,if our life is person stages,then what we model our lives upon is who we are.

You maybe an obsessed karate-ka, who model you’re life according to it.Thinking you’re week in terms of you’re next training,or using you’re monthly pays to buy a heavy gi,and even when thinking of marriage you’ll want someone you can train with.
Or you can be different,thinking in terms of money,everywhere seeing the dollar sign,when instead of spending you’re time with you’re family you think about how to buy them off with money,or worse still,if you always think about power,and how to keep securing it.

What we need is balance, a muslim should have colour in his life,he/she think in terms of family,in terms of her passion,in terms of her ibadah,but most importantly,she thinks of Pleasing Allah,not leaving Allah aside no matter how trivial the decision maybe,if you recall, the prophet even made istikharah when repairing his shoes. For that is why Allah said that the muslims are an ummah of the middle path, the prophet said ‘khayrul umoor ausatuha",abah umi cakap,ape ape pon jangan melebeyh,habibi cakap jangan merepek,jaba cakap,cidan!aku nye kerepek..ehehehe

it is from balance,and realising that you’re life is a journey,Allah has decided and planned for you,so relax and enjoy the movie..what’s most important is,the good guys always win in the end,and who are the good guys?it is those who please Allah of course..We ask if change is bad,no change is not bad,it is necessary.When you are told that saltwater fish is not salty,and that is how the mu’min is,you forget,the fish has mechanisms and adaptative organs,you may say that is iman,but iman also is you’re ability to adapt to change,although,the iman ensures that even if that occurs,the change is for the better. May Allah bless us,everyone=)

p/s,my mom posted me a very nice present,yeay!thank u umi=)

Blessed is He in Whose hand is the Sovereignty, and, He is
Able to do all things.

Who created death and life that He may try you– which of
you is best in deeds; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving,-quran,surah al-mulk

Assalamualaikum..
I woke up at 7 today,and it was still dark, had a short shower,did fajr, and had a go reading wirid al-lateef,mashaallah, when you start you’re day with salat, and within it a surah of considerable length,and after it read some dhikr, you sort of know it’s going to be a good day=)made myself a cup of green tea with lemon mixed with some honey,and then went down for breakfast..Oh, i also made myself a packed lunch,although frankly speaking, last 2 weeks i had given up on it,i mean everyday eating a soggy tuna sandwich just does’nt cut it..but the quran does say do not despair, and so this morning, i finally found a way to have a dry sandwich for lunch=p, and i even managed to get meat from the lady,how bout that?ehehe

Erm,as i was walking down the aquinas hill,at 8 or so, i saw the birds again at the field,plenty of them..and then i remember my dad’s favourite quote, ‘A bird which leaves at dawn never comes home with an empty stomach’.Also he says, early to bed,early to rise,makes a man healthy,wealthy and wise. Yeah, abah is a morning person, got to respect him for that..i remember back in malaysia,if i managed to wake up early, i’ll see nescafe made for him, and he’ll have it with two pieces of bread and cheese..and greets me with a good morning..then he’ll go, sit down beb! i want to talk to you…at any rate…
Today hafiz sent me a message, saying, ‘eh beb, gave up on you’re blog?’. No i have’nt actually, just could’nt find time to sit down and write a post, especially cos exams are approaching. I’m lucky only 3 papers this semesters,but next term’s the heavy one. However the 3 papers are heavy ones, i mean i have to master 8 thinkers in political philosophy, and get a good grip on philosophy of mind,philosophy of religion in my metaphysics paper, and then of course there’s economics..
Today i have to finish reading mill’s on liberty,on the freedom of speech, and it’s necessity in an open society. It is interesting as one of the most talked about topics is holocaust denial.I mean did you know that in countries like austria and belgium it is actually an offense against the law to deny that the holocaust ever happened? A historian(david irvine) was given a year in jail because of it…
According to j.s mill,which some may call the father of western liberty along with john locke,hobbes and bentham, freedom of speech should be maximised, and this he reasons because, whatever you’re opponent may say, it could either be

A.it is completely true in which case you’ve done yourself harm by not hearing it,
b. there is some truth in it, in which case you’re at loss as well,and finally
c.it is completely false. But even if it was so, you still have to gain by defending you’re word against it.

Flynn illustrates this by the complacency of the christians in the medieval times due to no opposition,people’s beliefs are not illustrated.
Similarly during our times if we do not defend our islam against others we will not have that strong attachment to it.

Or we’ll take a slightly less vital issue,of patriotism. In malaysia all we do is complaint,sometimes on national day we couldnt care less,but in a foreign country, when you sing you’re national anthem you’ll feel a difference.
Like professor flynn says ‘The burning of a flag could ignite more hatred now then other issues’.

At any rate, as a muslim,when one brings the issue of the freedom of speech, we cannot help but to think of the caricatures about muhammad last year drawn by the danish citizens.In this case,if one wants to use mill to clarify this issue, he also said that freedom should be restricted if it harms others. When they slandered the prophet(saw) the principle of harm is breached. This is when we muslims realise how dear the prophet is to our hearts, and those who doesnt feel anything,those who still wants to uphold the freedom of speech in this has not believed.
As the prophet said, ‘you have not believed untill i become more beloved to him more then his parents,his children and even his soul’.
And that is why our boycotts, our anger is accounted for. And they ask why is it that christians can laugh about jokes made about jesus or moses while the muslims becomes angry,well, it means that their love for their prophet is not that strong. To a muslim it is just like his parents being insulted or a slander to his wife, because to  us the Prophet is a big part of our lives..
I have said earlier that holocaust denial is a state offence in quite a few countries. As far as the evidence is put forth we would have no benefit to deny it,however what about the sabra and shatilla genocide? And the bosnians under the serbs? the apartheid that the palestinians are facing? don’t they all deserve the same attention? i mean is a muslim’s life worthless compared to a non-muslim’s?
Think about it..If it is a law that holocaust cannot be denied, then why shouldnt there be a law against slander of our prophet?