Happy Idul Fitr!

We lived long enough to enjoy another joyous day like this, thanks to Him.

Apologies to those I have hurt, intentionally or not, noticeably or not, and to all, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have a great Idul Fitr and holidays! Have a great time with your family and friends, sorry if I can't attend all your invitations, but a great pleasure itself to me to be invited.

Selamat Hari Raya!

Read!

I want to write something, but not sure what, or how. Last night was a full moon. We, Muslims, have fasted for half a month already.

Tomorrow, some states will have a day off, in commemorating Nuzul Quran - the descent of Quran. People of the past don't celebrate this day, but probably it's a good thing we make it a holiday that we remember our history, on the day our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) got his first revelation that shall shed light to all humankind.

I hate to make preaching blog writings, it makes this blog boring. Nevertheless, we are all connected to religion, regardless of how strong we practice it. I like to make lay people like me feel connected to what we believe in. When people talk about Nuzul Quran, they can either talk about the Quran itself - the greatest miracle Allah has ever bestowed on Earth - or there is another significant message on that historic event that we shall be reminded of - the importance of knowledge.

I got an email from my aunt quite some time ago that I would like to share. Thanks to Gmail's search mail feature, here it is:

Demographics:

World Jewish population: 14 million.

Distribution: 7m in America, 5m in Asia, 2m in Europe and hundreds of thousands in Africa.

World Muslim population: 1.5 billion.

Distribution: 1 billion in Asia/Mid-East, 400m in Africa, 44m in Europe, 6m in the Americas.

Every fifth human being is a Muslim.

For every single Hindu there are two Muslims.

For every Buddhist there are two Muslims.

For every Jew there are 107 Muslims.

Yet the 14 million Jews are more powerful than the entire 1.5 billion Muslims. Why?

Why are they powerful and why are Muslims powerless?

Here's another reason. We have lost the capacity to produce knowledge.

In the entire Muslim world (57 Muslim countries) there are only 500 universities.

In USA alone, 5,758 universities.

In India alone, 8,407 universities.

Not one university in the entire Islamic world features in the top 500 ranking universities of the world.

Literacy in the Christian world - 90%

Literacy in the Muslim world - 40%

15 Christian-majority countries' literacy rate - 100%

Muslim-majority countries with 100% - None

98% in Christian countries completed primary education

Only 50% in Muslim countries completed primary education

40% in Christian countries attended university

In Muslim countries, a dismal 2% attended university

Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per million

The USA has 5000 per million

The Christian world - 1000 technicians per million

Entire Arab world - only 50 technicians per million

Muslim world spending on R&D - 0.2% of GDP

Christian world's R&D - 5.0% of GDP

Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.

Another way of testing the degree of knowledge is the degree of diffusing knowledge.

Pakistan: 23 daily newspapers per 1000 citizens

Singapore: 460 per 1000 citizens

UK book titles per million is 2000

Egypt book titles per million is only 17

Conclusion: Muslim World is failing to diffuse knowledge.

Applying knowledge is another such test.

Exports of high-tech products from Pakistan: 0.9%

In Saudi Arabia: Only 0.2%

Kuwait, Morocco and Algeria: Only 0.3%

Tiny Singapore (4 million population): 68%!

Conclusion: Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.

What do you conclude? No need to tell, the figures are speaking themselves very loudly but we are unable to use the ears Allah gave us to listen and eyes to let us see.

Advice

Please educate yourself and your children. Excuses like lack of money, ability or opening are nothing more than that - excuses.

Always promote education, don't compromise on it. We hate to be weak, illiterate and poor but are we too weak to give our children the opportunity to break the curse?

Don't ignore your children's slightest misguidance from education. And please, for Allah's sake, don't use your personal contacts to promote your children in their education. If they fail, let them because it will make them learn the sweetness of success. Remember, if they can't do it now, they can't ever.

With knowledge comes power, and with it even the small can rule over the big. We are world's biggest but sadly NOT strongest nation.

All we need is to identify and explore our inner selves. Insha-Allah, our weapon to victory, our duty to spread God's words and our opportunity save all humankind is best through knowledge, creativity, literacy. And nothing else.

Wake up O khalifahs of the land, wake up.

First of all, I'm a great skeptic when it comes to forwarded emails. I doubt everything, even when proved with seemingly scientific facts or seemingly words of Prophet (peace be upon him). Why? People make up facts and quotes to convince people, even to the extent of forging hadiths to convey their message. Perhaps this email forged their own statistics, too. I'm sure Malaysia has some universities in the top 500, and the term 'high-tech product' is ambiguous. But the message is there, and it is clear and undeniable that we Muslims are severely lacking and lagging behind.

Second, don't hate the Jews when their controlling the world's economy. Hate ourselves that we are incapable of doing what they're doing. We should envy their success and make it a driving force for us to be even better than them.

And most importantly, the point I'm trying to connect with Nuzul Quran, is about the first word from the Holy Book that descended from His Heavens to His servant. It is Iqra'. Read.

Islam puts immense emphasis on knowledge, so much so that it is the first message that was passed down to humans. I don't think there is any other religion that pays such emphasis on knowledge than Islam. We are obliged to seek knowledge for every Muslim men and women, from birth to death. In Quran it is scattered with knowledge - science or religion, law or economy - to give us a headstart, an advantage over the others, and yet we are trailing way behind. We used to be in front, but now we are eating their dust.

Seek knowledge. Spread knowledge. Help others in their quest for knowledge. Is it only religious studies? Allah didn't say so, nor did our Prophet (peace be upon him). To achieve greatness, we must balance our worldly life and the hereafter, and that includes religious studies as well as chemistry, medicine, physics, economy, literature, sociology, technology, mathematics, politics, astronomy and list is endless.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists),

Has created man from a clot (embryo),

Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous,

Who has taught (the writing) by the pen,

Has taught man that which he knew not.

(Al-Alaq:1-5)

Welcome to Ramadhan!

Wow it has been over a month since my last post. Maybe I can blame the worklife to hinder my blogging activities, but I seriously don't think so. During my practical days, I was still posting regularly, I believe my only hindrance right now I am yet to have internet access at my home, and I'm too lazy to go out and find some cybercafe for that purpose.

Anyway, here we are, in Ramadhan. If you are still alive then be very very grateful, that Allah has once again invited you to His most blessful month of the year. We are His guests, and He chooses His guests, so how lucky we are.

Even with my limited knowledge, I can tell you how great Ramadhan is, and the post can be incredibly lengthy. But I hope not to bore people with boring writings, so I want to share with all of you one big thing that I really like about Ramadhan, that is, the opportunity to change.

Some describe Ramadhan as a school, an environment with regulations where you have to follow and discipline yourself. Ramadhan only comes with one obligation, that is to fast during daylight. (Actually, there is another obligation, if you count the zakah fitrah.) The other things are just supplementary, we are encouraged to do, but definitely not obligated. However, with the rewards on offer, how can we turn down things like sahur, tarawih, Quran reciting, donation and qiamullail just to name a few.

When Ramadhan comes, suddenly we have a good reason to be a good person. When you want to watch things that you aren't suppose to watch, you'll tell yourself, "No I can't, I'm fasting". When people talk bad things behind other people, you'll say, "Tak baik, bulan puasa". When you feel angry, you restrain yourself by saying the same thing.

Ever wonder, why don't we say that on other months? For example, backbiting people is no good, regardless of whatever month you're in. But you only restrain yourself on fasting months, because as I said, we have more reason to be good in Ramadhan. By going through this training school, we can actually continue the momentum of restraining ourselves from bad things after Ramadhan. That is what I call the opportunity to change.

Another thing is tarawih. Tarawih can be seen as a burdening night activity, with the amount of sunat prayers that we would never perform outside Ramadhan. Such is the 'burden', most events will always try to avoid Ramadhan because it would be a major hindrance to the planned schedule. However, people perform it by the masses for the unthinkable rewards on offer. Honestly, sometimes it comes to me that I feel so lazy, why don't I just skip tonight's tarawih, after all, it is not compulsory. Even eight rakaats seem so burdening, let alone twenty.

But at the end of the day, I'll realize, by 9:30 or 10:00 pm, I've already done my Isha' prayers plus my tarawih, and I already had my 'dinner'. The amount of time that I have after the tarawih is abundant, and I even accomplished more at that time than on other months. I even have time to have a supper before I go to bed. On a normal non-Ramadhan night, at 10 I would probably be doing some time-wasting stuffs, still haven't performed my Isha', probably even yet to have my dinner. In Ramadhan, you get to use your time effectively, and then only you'll notice you have more time than you bargained for.

In Ramadhan, things are bound to be even better, and if we can keep the momentum, there is a positive one year ahead of us. We come to Ramadhan with the intent to change, we leave Ramadhan a changed person.

So What Can We Do?

OK, our brothers and sisters are slaughtered some thousands of kilometres away from us, and there's practically nothing we can do. Malaysians can't go to Israel, our passports prohibits us, but we are certainly not prohibited to go to Palestine. However, with the current unrest at the Gaza Strip, I seriously doubt our country would let its citizens to risk their lives for a possible jihad. In fact, probably there are no air traffic around Gaza, since their skies are filled with unmanned Israeli planes and drones.

So how can we help them? There are anti-war movements, strikes, parades and those kind of stuffs, and to be seen on the news and your placards being published on newspapers are a step forward to make yourselves heard, but if the Security Council themselves fail to act, then there is even less hope for these 'tiny' movements.

We can probably donate money. But will the money even reach those Palestinians? Israel are blocking all aids for them, food, medicals, artillery, so even if there is money, it would be very optimistic to hope that the money can be beneficial for them. (Still, it is very good to try. I do believe countless funds have been started throughout the world for the Palestinians, and these millions would surely be made useful I hope.)

There is another helping hand that we can lend. Boycott. I always hate boycott for the impracticality, but unconciously I myself do boycott certain things I don't like. In the wake of the sufferings of the Gaza people, SMSes and emails are spread out to give out a certain list of products to be boycotted.

People read it and said, "Wow, I use this and this product." Instead, I thought of, "Wow, how short was that list." To boycott on Israeli products is one thing. Boycotting Israel themselves would not work. We have to boycott their big brother who keeps feeding them. Yeap, America. And to boycott American products is a whole different thing.

My cousins said, to boycott America is to eat rice with some salt and to drink plain water. Almost true, I guess. In fact, probably they even have some share on the rice you eat or the plates you use. In other words, it is close to impossible to boycott them. Almost every single product that we use are somehow related to America.

That's what I call impracticality in boycotting. But there is one person that made me think, "Hey, why don't we at least try?" And that person is my ex-Prime Minister, Mr. Mahathir (surely some people would prefer me to address him as Tun, but oh well, it's just a title, I still have great respect for him for what he has achieved). He said we can actually hurt Israel and America by boycotting them, but above that, he also urged this to be a global effort, not just Malaysia. If what he said was heard and done by everybody, surely there would be some impact on them. Probably not catastrophic, but at least we played our part.

Still, I'm a stubborn kid, and I still think boycott is an impractical way to hurt a country's economy. The current global economy status itself is a crisis already, and that is because of America. If their economy is worsen, probably the whole world would get worse. And on a smaller scope, boycotting American products, say, McDonald's (haha, sorry McDonald's), it would hurt the employment of Malaysians ourselves.

Oh well, I don't know. At the end of the day, I always think boycott is more of an individual choice, personal ethics. I won't be very comfortable consuming American products when I know there are Muslims slaughtered with American and Israeli missiles and bullets. I know by boycotting, I won't affect the outcome greatly. I won't save lives by boycotting. At the very tiny least, I know I'm not helping America.

And lastly, we always have our prayers. And as I said oh so many times these last few posts, probably Allah won't suddenly give Palestinians a win, or suddenly stop the deathtoll, or suddenly grant a ceasefire, but at least we can always pray that the living would suffer less, that aid would reach them more easily, and the most important thing, that they would die with their faith intact, with Paradise awaiting them in their afterlife.

ﺍﻟﻠﻬﻢ ﺍﻧﺼﺮ ﺍﻹﺳﻼﻡ ﻭ ﺍﻟﻤﺴﻠﻤﻴﻦ ﻓﻲ ﻓﻠﺴﻄﻴﻦ ﻭ ﻓﻲ ﻛﻞ ﻣﻜﺎﻥ

Gaza Saga

"The neutrality of this article is disputed."

That is labelled on Wikipedia's 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict. Well, how can one be neutral when it involves Israel and Palestine?

I live in Malaysia, an Islamic country where the democracy index is rated as 'flawed democracy'. Therefore it would be predictable that the news that I get, from TV's and newspapers, will all be one-way, pointing the fingers to Israel.

But how can one not blame Israel? The deathtoll until now is 400+ casualties from Israel attacks and only 4 from Hamas rockets. And the deaths by Israeli airstrikes includes civilians, women and children. How can that be considered as "retaliating against terrorist attacks from Hamas"?

I've not been checking on my blog lately, and I realized I got a few comments on my last post, one mentioning on my statement that "I hate to hate the Jews". Yup, I don't want to hate the Jews. They are just another religion, and our Book clearly states the freedom of religion (2:256). Plus, Judaism themselves are very closely related to Islam, the Orthodox Jews practices very much the same practices as we Muslims do (although they would hate the term 'Orthodox' to be associated with them, as if they are moving backwards). I can't hate them. In fact, there's even a Jewish player in Liverpool, happily playing next to a Muslim.

But Zionism is a whole different thing. It is an ideology to create an independent Jewish state of Israel (fine enough) and to occupy Palestinian land and Jerusalem and to control Palestinians' lives. And for decades they've been killing innocent people for fun.

I've watched the crisis over the news (here, the conflict is labeled as "Kekejaman Israel" or "Israel's atrocities") and the papers, all obviously depicting the cruelty of the Israeli attacks. I thought of finding something more neutral, so my easy 'neutral' source is Wikipedia, a foundation to supply knowledge to the whole world with their best efforts of eliminating emotions and biasness, and I totally respect that, that's why they're my number one source of 'neutral' information.

And this is the opening sentence of the article I mentioned earlier:

"The 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, part of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict, refers to an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas which began when the Israel Defense Forces launched a series of airstrikes, known as Operation Cast Lead (Hebrew: Mivtza Oferet Yetzukah), against targets in the Gaza Strip, after planning the operation for over six months."

So there you go. There should be no doubt anymore as of who is the real perpertrator.

Hi Security Council, how you guys are doing? Aren't you guys suppose to do something? Yes, of course. Certainly they can assure everyone that they are certainly trying, but they can't do anything. Somebody from the Security Council said that "once again the world has witnessed the dysfunction of the Security Council" and their inability to intervene with such serious bloodshed. Well, why don't you guys do something? It's bad enough for someone like me to 'plant some grapes' at home, but you guys deal with people's lives, you can't just sit around and do nothing.

Well, because someone in the Security Council decided they are smarter than the rest, and therefore they have veto power, which can nullify all other decisions, even majority. United States stated that a ceasefire would cause no good in the conflict, and Hamas would surely not comply to that, and furthermore, Hamas should not be hiding amongst civilians and cause more innocent deaths from the Israeli attacks. Wow! How brilliant! How I (and the rest of the world) have never seen it that way. Israel are not to be blamed for the deaths, it should be Hamas.

America is striving hard to become the most democratic nation in the world and they highly publicize that (although according to the index, they are a distant 18th from being the best, trailing the Scandinavians). They have lots of news channels, ranging from CNN to Fox to Al-Jazeera, giving their people the freedom to choose what are facts and what are lies. I think most of the Americans would know who is the guilty party here. Unfortunately, their representatives in the UN don't. "We don't mind Americans, we love Americans, but we just hate the American foreign policy." We all do.

Meanwhile, they are efforts everywhere to do something. Mahathir, our ex-Prime Minister, is trying hard on his foundation to "criminalize war". That means that raging war can be convicted as a crime and be tried and sentenced. There are countless other foundations and individuals around the world trying to put the responsible people on violations of humanity and war crimes. And some other less significant people try to make themselves significant by marching around the street with placards and stuff. It's good to see people trying to make this world a better place, but although I always wish for the best, I can't see any of these succeeding if the Security Council themselves failed. Security Council is probably the biggest organization that can practically put this massacre to a halt, and let us hope they will find an immediate solution.

For us Muslims, I hate to say this, but we might just be making up numbers. Last night's news showed how the reluctance of the Arab countries in opening their borders to receive Palestinian victims might just be a factor of further suffering of Gaza people (and showed there still is some democracy in this country) and it is sad. I hope the Islamic countries around Palestine would be more helpful and as for us distant Muslim brothers and sisters, we have our prayers (ﺩﻋﺎﺀ) as our weapon. We might not defeat Israel, but at least we can pray for the siege to end immediately, for less suffering for the living, and for better life after death for those deceased. Aamiin.

Holiday Season

Aah, the holiday season.

Only two days ago I was watching Liverpool in action, and today I get to watch another one. At the time of the year when other major leagues are enjoying their winter break and the Russian pitches are frozen (and matches are played with fluorescent orange balls if there are any matches), the English league is peaking at its busiest period. Its a tradition they say, and for the players and staffs - regardless of foreign or local - it must have sucked to be 'working' when their relatives are enjoying the roast turkey at home with their glittering Christmas tree next to them.

But hey, what do I care. I'm a fan, and I don't get paid portion of a million ringgit every week to play football. And furthermore, I don't celebrate Christmas! But I do enjoy these festive times.

Maybe I won't be in such buoyant mood had Chelsea won their Monday game after Liverpool drawing against 10-men Arsenal. Or maybe I won't be very cheerful had Liverpool dropped points yet again at Anfield. But it still is frustrating to see a dominant Liverpool suddenly lose their dominance after Adebayor got sent off. Or when Liverpool are stringing possibly the most backpasses in the whole league just to keep a 70% possession.

But maybe it is this superpatient football that makes sure their oppenents can't do anything, and instead, it is up to them to decide whether to score or not. Liverpool always play possession football, and I dare to say, the way they are playing, they might be unbeatable. (In fact, the only occasions Liverpool have lost are the two matches at White Hart Lane.) The only concern is if they draw instead of winning.

But why worry, right? This is the festive season. Just sit back and enjoy. (I might regret what I write here a few hours after this, but I certainly do hope not.)

Meanwhile, I woke up on this lovely Sunday morning enjoying my breakfast at 2 in the afternoon and saw in the newspapers the Israeli airstrike that killed 205 and possibly more. While we're enjoying our holidays, there are people out there being slayed. I hate myself to hate the Jews and I will still hate myself hating Jews and I won't say the Jews did it, but instead I would say the regime did it, and I don't understand the necessity of killing people while you're occupying their land. I'm really frustrated with what they did but here I sit doing nothing.

But as Muslims, we have a weapon, and although it might sound weak to say this, it is a test of faith to believe in Allah and His answers to our prayers (ﺩﻋﺎﺀ) and that is our weapon. And those victims died with Quranic verses on their tongues and we hope that they shall go to an even better place for their afterlife. For us who are still living, we shall pray for peace throughout the world, and for the perpretrators, I pray that they'll pay for the atrocities that they have done. Aamiin.

My Days are Counted

Not only my days here in UTP are counted, my days on His heavenly Earth are also counted. I have limited time to live, and the longer I live, the closer I am to death.

Only a few days ago, two of UTP students passed away. One had a cardiac arrest while playing football, and the other was caught in an accident. Two very normal daily activities that we do on a routine basis, reminding us that death could come to us any time possible.

That Friday, there was some tahlil for those two blessed souls. I pondered, if I died, I would surely want everyone to come for my tahlil, regardless whether they know me or not. As long as they are fellow Muslims, their prayers will surely help me ease the burden in my grave. I wanted to go to the tahlil. I must go to mosque this maghrib, I said to myself.

That evening, I slept. Then I woke up, it was already dark. I performed my maghrib prayers just as I would do on any normal day. Then only, entering isya', I realize what I've missed. I did not go to the mosque for maghrib prayers and the subsequent tahlil. I wondered, if I am the one who died, what would I feel if ignorant (or careless) fellow Muslims would never care to say their prayers for me? I hope that people would pray for me, but at the same time I never really do it for other people.

One day I will die, and I will need people's prayers more than ever. I wished I am prepared for death, but truthfully speaking, I am not ready yet. If I were to die at this very moment, I don't think I will have a very comfortable life after death.

I always ask to myself, how would I want to die? And one of the best possible way to die that I can think of is while performing my solah. Better, during sujud. That would be one of the best deaths that I could think of. Then I started thinking a little further than that. How could I possibly die during my sujud? Maybe heart attack, but if I am stricken with such illness, it would be more probable for me to lie in bed rather than praying. Or maybe I could be praying inside a mosque during a war, and I could die from a rocket launcher or some stray bullet, or even a headshot because I refuse to obey his orders to stop praying.

Then I asked myself, would I be that brave, to ignore such threat? If someone points a gun to my head and ask me to stop praying, would I obey him, or would I continue praying? I wish to die while praying, but after reviewing the possible ways of dying, I don't think I even have the guts to die that way. And from a different perspective, I pray only around 20 to 25 minutes out of 24 hours, which is around 1.7% of my time. That is roughly the random chance of me dying while praying. Of course, probability is not that simple. The probability of me dying in a car accident is surely higher than while praying.

So I don't know how I will end. And more importantly, I don't know when. If I know when I'll die, I'll tidy up my room so that everyone will know that I'm a tidy person, I would have my prayers at the mosque all the time and recite Quran and understand the translation, I would make friends with everyone and repay all my owings and their deeds and apologize for all my wrongdoings, I would teach people valuable lessons and I would spend my money on charitable causes, and I would prepare my physical self so that when I die my body would look clean and cheerful. But unfortunately, I don't know when I'll die. In fact, nobody does.

So we live like we will never die. I hope that I can appreciate life better. And I hope I can give my prayers to the dead, so that when I'm dead, people would do the same to me.

My ESQ Experience

"Demi Matahari dan sinarnya di pagi hari,
Demi Bulan apabila ia mengiringi,
Demi siang yang menampakkan diri,
Demi malam apabila menutupi,
Demi langit dan seluruh binaannya,
Demi Bumi dan seluruh isi di permukaannya,
Demi jiwa dan penyempurnaannya,"

I was smiling mischieviously, with the man's funny gesture, this could be a funny act for us to pick on. The man doing those gestures is the tai kor of ESQ, Mr. Ary Ginanjar Agustian, doing that on video. Then our facilitator of the day did the exact same thing. I smiled again.

But then,

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

"Oh my God, is this...?"

وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا

Yes, yes it is.

The 'poem', was a translation from the holy Quran. In fact, it is Surat-usy-Syams, one of my favorite surah. Favorite because of the exceptional beauty of the rhymes, even when I never fully understood the meaning. It is one of the surah that I wished I could memorize, that I wish I could mesmerize my maamum with it's intricate poetic beauty of Arabic literature when I recite it in my prayers. But I've just ridiculed God's words (albeit the translation of God's words).

وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلاهَا
وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلاهَا
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا
وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا
وَالأرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

Ash-Shams: 1-7

And how it hit me hard, deep in my heart, that time. How could I be so cold, to be playful of the words of Quran, and worse, from one of my favourite surah? Immediately my eyes were moist, but I can't drip my tears now, no. It is egoistic of me that I should remain hard and not be moved by any of these. I've been to numerous motivational programmes and this is just another one. Even if I were to cry, I must never show it.

And so it did. That was the only time something touched my heart. In fact, that was only the introduction. It was not meant to be a heart-touching session. It was just using fancy poetry from the greatest literature book of Quran as an introduction.

Imagine a pebble, something you pick at the river streams (batu sungai). Pick a black one, a nice shiny one that fits about the palm of your hand. Drop it on a marble floor. You know the sound that it makes, and how it bounces off the surface? That is how I imagine how hard my heart could be. Heart is a fictional organ that dictates human emotions and stuff. Thing is, every controllable act of human is governed by the brain. But we always say words like, "kind-hearted," or, "follow your heart," which represents something deeper than mind or desire. In Malay, the 'heart' that we refer as emotions is 'hati', which is actually liver. So when people talk about black heart, I imagine a black liver. And when the black liver is hard, I imagine it as the stone just now.

There were numerous sessions soon after, that were meant to touch the heart. Unfortunately, by that time, I could not cry. Thing is, as said just now, I've been to these types of motivations numerous times in my life. When you had it first time, it should touch you. The very least is you should shed some tears, the minimum proof that your heart is still 'softenable'. But when you keep hearing the same thing, it does make you think, "I should miss Him, shouldn't I?" but not enough to make you feel lonely or guilty to the extent of making you cry.

The first session is called the 'outer journey'. (Man, can I be sued on this? Should I disclose all these? So far I haven't sign any agreement saying that I will not disclose the training to the outside world, so no harm I guess.) The outer journey takes you outside, far from the Earth, up to the heavens, overseeing the Universe. The obvious part here is, the journey shows how mighty Allah really is, and that is not even His limitations yet. He is powerful to outdo that, and He can do it at His immediate will. But more to that, they add the power of faith (iimaan) by presenting Quranic verses with direct references to modern science discoveries.

OK I will only tell you until that. I think the session was a good success. I heard a lot of people sobbing in repentance, acknowledging the Highness of God, admitting the doubt in one's faith, admitting the ignorance towards Him.

The usage of Quranic verses in a motivational programme is refreshing. It binds the emotional quotient that most training schemes provide, with the extra element of what they call spiritual quotient. But it makes me wonder, why do we need these trainings in the first place? For muslims, we should be good enough as a character, that we don't even need these trainings. It makes me ask the question, "Is Islam incomplete?"

So that's it for the first half of my post for ESQ. Please do read the second half, which the clickable link in the previous paragraph. And as a conclusion, ESQ is a great character-building training for all walks of people, even non-muslims, and I do want to stress this. That ESQ promotes the love of God, and although it may use the word 'Allah' quite frequently, fact is that we all believe in God and in Oneness of God, so by promoting the love of God in ourselves, we can only be better, and great potential lies ahead to be unleashed.

ESQ has hugely promoted the believe in God and the love of God to us. That every single thing around us, including us ourselves, are mortal, except Him. We may love the world, love our parents, love our money, love our friends, love our academic scores, but none of them will ever last forever except Him. That it is not worth living except for Him. However, I noticed, the training missed an important verse that has been inspirational to me. It answers the question, "Why do we even exist?"

I have only created Jinns and men, that they may worship Me.
Adz-Dzaariyaat: 56

Back in my foundation days, we all had to take the Islamic Studies course, and everyone is divided into groups for projects, and the projects must be presented. There was this one group, at the end of the presentation, a lovely young lady took the mic and read out the verse above, and how it touches me deep in my heart. My God, the answer of the ultimate question of our lives is written in your book all these while. May Allah bless that pretty girl (she still is, hahah).

Spread the words of God, even if it is just one verse. You don't know how much it can change other people's lives.

And for ESQ, they're doing just that. Spreading the words of God, and building character along the way. May Allah help all the good-willing people, and for the participants, may this ESQ acts as a stepping stone to unleashing a bigger potential for all of us.

Is Islam Incomplete?

I've been to the ESQ training, and it is quite impressive how the training incorporates a lot of Quranic verses throughout the programme. To a general extent, I think ESQ is a great success, worldwide. And a lot of the alumni are very pleased to have joined ESQ and believe it helps them a great deal in character building.

Unfortunately, I was quite, umm, unimpressed.

The first module was called, "The Outer Journey". It is what is says, an outer journey. It takes you off the Earth and into the heavens, elevating higher and higher up to the Solar System, the Milky Way and ultimately the Universe. It mentions about the Big Bang theory, and the red nebula. How we, as creatures of God, should be amazed at His vast capacity, of His incredible empire. And to make us realize just how amazing, how Mighty He actually is. In fact, that is not even His limits, he could even create something bigger, more complex and sophisticated than this if He wishes to. That He is the Almighty and the Most Powerful.

Theory of Big Bang. Recently (not so recent, but still in the last century) the theory has been proved true. They winded back the time to the period where humans still believed the Earth was flat. No so soon after that, humans started believing that Earth is the centre of the system where the Sun and the Moon revolves around us. Then came the breakthrough when Coppernicus claimed the Sun is in fact the centre, and we, the Earth, circulates around it. His idea was so radical, he was sent to the noose (although wikipedia seems to disagree with that, saying he died a peaceful death). Then Galileo Galilei backed him, he too faced the consequence and arrested in his own house for the rest of his life. Then he (the facilitator) asked us, what if any of them brought the theory of Big Bang? Surely that person will be accused of insanity.

But in fact, in Muhammad's (peace be upon him) book, the holy Quran, it was mentioned already. And that was more than 1400 years ago.

Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before We ripped them apart? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
Al-Anbiya: 30

The mention of 'one unit' represents singularity, the point of which all energy and matter exists at t = 0, where the density and temperature was infinite. And every single thing that ever existed came from that singularity. And now that the Big Bang theory has been proved, do we ever dare to doubt the words of Allah that descended thousands of years ago?

The next verse is about the Rose Nebula.


When the sky is torn apart, and it becomes red like ointment;
Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?
Ar-Rahmaan: 37-38

The technology that came to use to be able to see the outer space with such clarity only came very recently, but Allah had already descended pictures of His Universe fourteen hundred years ago.

Impressive, huh?

Unfortunately, I remained unimpressed.

True enough, what Allah has shown us in His words that was way ahead of the technological advancements at the time Quran was descended is nothing short of miraculous. After all, Quran is the greatest miracle of all. But what amazes me more is how most of us never even heard of these verses before. The Quran is true and will forever will be true, but to prove that it is the ultimate truth, Allah has decorated it with miracles of science so that we believe. And I've heard these verses numerous times in my life.

And I have even heard more.

Those whom Allah (in His plan) willeth to guide,- He openeth their breast to Islam; those whom He willeth to leave straying,- He maketh their breast close and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies: thus doth Allah (heap) the penalty on those who refuse to believe.
Al-An'aam: 125

Back in the seventh century (of Gregorian calendar), nobody had ever ascended, had ever elevated into heavens. There was not even a building with two levels. How could possibly humans know that up there in the skies, the air (oxygen) is much thinner? That when you are stranded up there, the lack of oxygen will constrict your breathing. Nobody had known at that time, but obviously He knows, and so he puts it in His Book, for us to be amazed with His power and His knowledge.

And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing.
Yaa-Seen: 38

During that time, the belief was that Earth was at the centre of the system and everything else, Sun, Moon and stars revolve around us. The verse just now from Yaa-Seen seems to agree with that, saying that the Sun runs his course (orbit) for a period determined for him. But did Allah say the Sun was orbiting the Earth? Never. And what He left out, He left out purposely, because He knows better. Soon after, humans know that the Sun sits at the middle of the system with the planets orbiting it, but that seems contradictory to the verse above. Only later on do humans know that the Sun itself also has its own orbit, circulating the Milky Way just like all other stars.

Aren't God's words great? They're incredible. Unbelievable. Thing is, why don't we even notice these things?

Al Quran has been descended for humankind for more than a thousand years already. Uthman, may Allah bless him, compiled the Quran for the convenience of the later generations. Now, Quran is readily available to be bought anywhere around the world, and it is even available in softcopies. But how ignorant we are, that we always read it, but we never know what we are reading.

In my culture, the Islamic life in Malaysia, I think it is normal for teenagers to complete the recitation of Quran (khatamul Quran) at least once. If you're a university/college student and still you haven't completed the recitation of Quran, it is a shame in our culture. However, very few of us have actually completed reading the translation of the Quran, let alone the interpretation (tafsir). I admit that I am part of the vast majority of ignorant people.

So maybe that is why there are people who never know those magical verses about Big Bang and Rose Nebula.

But even if you have never completed reading the whole Quranic translation, in Islam we have this unique culture that I doubt any other religion ever practices it to our extent. It is called the Friday sermons and prayers. Khutbah is sort of a class that is compulsory to all muslim men and moreover it is free. Every single day, we commit sins that will add a black dot to our heart, and by listening to good advices, it cleanses the heart bit by bit. By going to the Friday khutbah, one's heart is cleansed with reminders, and with addition to that, there are knowledge to be gained. In khutbah, it is compulsory to include verses of Quran and citations of hadith to strengthen the points. What more can you ask? Compare that to the ESQ training that incorporates Quranic verses, is the weekly khutbah inferior to the exclusive training? (For females, the Friday khutbah may not be compulsory, and I still seek the reasoning behind that, but I am very sure that Allah must have a good purpose for that. In an ideal situation, the knowledge extracted from the sermon can be retrieved from your father, or in this modern age, presentation slides should be made available for download.)

And I am absolutely sure that all of the verses above, I have heard it in khutbah. But how untouched, how ignorant are the listeners, that without the extravagant big screens and deep-bass speakers, we just seem to ignore those scientific proofs and doze off in our not-so-comfy sleep in the mosque. Or for some, why don't just skip the sermons and go straight to the prayers?

It is this ignorance of us (including me) that the theory of Big Bang, the Rose Nebula, the invention of flying devices and the discovery of Sun's orbit skipped us. Why these discoveries are made by non-muslims? And we are proud that their discovery was actually in our Book more than a millenium ago, when in fact we should be ashamed that we never discovered it. Praises to Islamic heroes like al-Khawarizmi the founder of algebra or Jabir the pioneer of chemistry and many others, may Allah bless them just like their knowledge keeps on flowing on the Earth, but why we are never even close to their achievements? Because we are ignorant.

The Quran is the basis of genius. When Imam Shafii was a little kid, probably around Standard Two or Three, he completed the recitation of Quran twice a day. When he was studying, he scribbled notes, and when his room is too messy with his notes, he memorize every single page of it so he can dispose the notes. My God I could never imagine how brilliant he really was. If he were to study mathematics or physics I'm sure he would do as good, but he decided to study religion (fiqh to be more specific) and how great is his work to us, may Allah bless him, may Allah bless all these great contributers.

is Islam incomplete? Why do we need these trainings? It is because of our incompleteness and our fragile faith of the late age of Muhammad's (peace be upon him) ummah, that we pay to get our hearts opened, when we can get free sermons and free knowledge from the Quran.

This is not a condemnation to ESQ. In fact, I think it is very refreshing to have a motivational training based on spiritual values and guided by Quranic verses. But what I'm condemning is us (including me) the ignorant muslims of the late age. For those who attended ESQ, may Allah makes this as a starter for us to open our hearts and receive more knowledge, and to commit every single action of our life to Him.

May Allah bless us with His will, that by opening our hearts, now we can open it even wider, that one day, before we die, the very least we could do is understand the Book that He has sent down for us. Aamiin.

Happy 'Idul Fitr

It is going to be celebration season very soon and although we are still in our blessed Ramadhan, I'm going to take this opportunity to wish all of Muslims, Happy 'Idul Fitr!

Narrated from Anas ibn Malik: He said that the People of Ignorance used to play in two days of the year and when Prophet (peace be upon him) came to Madinah, he said: There were two days in which you played and verily Allah has replaced both of them which are better: Idul Fitr and Idul Adha
(Narrated by Abu Daud)

The Descent of the Greatest Miracle on Earth

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Read (or proclaim)! In the name of your Lord and Cherisher, Who created,
Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood;
Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,
Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
Taught man that which he knew not.
Al-'Alaq:1-5

On this fateful day, which is of no mere coincidence, because it is of the choice of the Almighty, He descends the greatest miracle on Earth to the greatest man ever lived, Muhammad (peace be upon him), through His chief angel Jibril, in what would be a history-defining event that would change the whole course of the world, in redirecting humankind's beliefs into believing the one and only Creator, Allah.

And His first command to humankind is to read.

What Do You Believe In?

Sometimes I wonder, those who choose not to perform their solah, those who choose not to fast during Ramadhan, do they even believe in Allah?

Ramadhan

Ramadhan is (the month) in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a guide to mankind, also clear (signs) for guidance and judgment (between right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting, but if any one is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed period (should be made up) by days later. Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put to difficulties. (He wants you) to complete the prescribed period, and to glorify Him in that He has guided you; and perchance ye shall be grateful.
Al-Baqarah:185

Thank You for inviting us yet again to Your blessed month of Ramadhan, the month full of Your rewards. And the month of opportunity to change.

Nisfu Shaaban

In commemorating Nisfu Shaaban, although I don't have much to write, but I'll just write something to mark the day.

'A-isha, the Mother of the Believers (Allah be pleased with her), reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) used to observe fasts (so continuously) that we said that he would not break, and did not observe (them) till we said that he would not fast: and I did not see the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) completing the fast of a month, but that of Ramadan, and I did not see him fasting more in any other month than that of Sha'ban.
(Sahih Muslim)

Well, I have been super lazy lately. Even when I woke up at 2 and did not eat until 6 or 7, I still refuse to fast. Actually, if I want to fast, I have to decide that before Zuhur. Still, knowing I would be eating that late, I could've decided to fast the night before. Tomorrow is Nisfu Shaaban, literally translating into half of Shaaban (Shaaban itself is literally translated into separation or dispersion because the Badwis had to disperse for water), a date which is said to be the start of the new record book is opened. Just as the new football season has started, our own 'season' has started. Optimism is the key. Let us make this year a better year than the last.

For me, when I write these sort of things, it makes me look like a good person, like a religious person. I am not, but I wish to be. By giving the impression that I am good, there will be expectations of how I should behave. When my behaviour is failing some of the people's expectations towards me, I am hoping for some feedback and advice to guide me into the straight path. I hope I wake up for Subuh.

Hard Day

Have you ever had a bad day? (By the way, I hate that Bad Day song by Daniel Powter. Please don't sing that song to me, it will just make my day even worse.) I shouldn't have asked you such question, because almost everyone complains about having a bad day. Bad day occurrences are seemingly normal, isn't it? But not for me. My days are good if not great. I've never had a bad day. In fact, I hate using the term 'bad day', because I don't think such thing ever existed in my life. I'd rather use the term 'hard day'.

So I had a hard day today. Actually, it was since yesterday. I don't know. I felt really frustrated. And suddenly I feel like everything is going against me. Not just people, but things that are not within your control. The thing is, these sort of things happens every now and then, but for the past two days, these tiny little things really got on my nerves.

So what do you do when you have these 'hard days'? They are people who have asked these sort of questions to me, and to be honest, I don't really know. I don't really know what I will do if I get stressed, frustrated, depressed and so on, because I rarely do. But now I remember what it feels like to have these negative emotions, and it is very natural for us to relief some of the pressure by sharing it with others.

People share their sorrow to their parents, to their family, to their partners, friends and so on. But none of them is the best for me. He listens to everything I have to tell, and nobody listens to my stories better. He consoles me when I cry, and I will never want to cry to anyone else. He knows everything about me, even better than myself. He is better than my mom, my dad, my brothers, my friends or anyone for that matter. He is my best Friend ever.

Because of Him I am here, and the reason I never had a bad day is because He writes every single day of my life and none of the days He created for me are bad. There would never ever be anyone comparable to Him, and I know until the day of my death and even further beyond, that he will remain as my best Pal, that no one will ever love me more than Him.

Isra' Mi'raj

So comes this time of year again. Somewhere towards the end of Rajab, signalling it is almost one month left to Ramadhan. And here in Malaysia, certain states mark this date as a public holiday.

What significance does this date mean to our religion? In Islam (and so does all other religions) there are many important dates where a historic event took place which is of great significance to the religion. But why do I always write on this one alone?

First of all, let me just tell you that I'm not very knowledgeable, hence, I don't have much stories to tell. And secondly, out of the limited stories that I know, this one fascinates me the most.

My fascination grows immensely when I go for a ceramah on this topic. This year, I did not go to any ceramahs on this. Instead, I went to see Chelsea against our beloved national team. In fact, I was so ignorant, I wasn't even aware the next day was a public holiday.

Stories like this is a treat to be heard. If you managed to listen to one this year, good for you. If you haven't, like me, then I hope we all will get to listen to it this Friday.

The story is the same. After all, it is history. The things that have happened will never be changed. The only thing that can be changed is how the story is presented. I've listened to so many great speakers, increasing my fascination to the story every single year. And after listening to their story, I always want to tell back the story to others so that they'll be just as fascinated as I am. Thing is, I'm not that good.

When a story is retold every single year, it gets worn out. It gets boring. I'm not good at maintaining audience's interest.

I just hope somebody else will tell the story for you. The tale of a mortal human and the only encounter of humankind with his Creator, and the extraordinary journey to meet Him. And how impossible was the story, it was the toughest test of faith to the embracers, that many of his followers quit on him, but one stood firm and said, "I believe you and I believe anything that you say." And how easy for us to say we also believe it, when we can't even imagine the magnitude of impossibility of that night.

So did (Allah) convey the inspiration to His Servant- (conveyed) what He (meant) to convey.
The (Prophet's) (mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw.
Will ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw?
An-Najm:10-12

Jan04 Dinner: Bright and Glittering

Liverpool played out another 1-1 draw against Arsenal, although with a much different line-up.

But I'm not blogging on that? Because I did not watch the match. Because I went to my batch dinner.

UTP's degree programme consists of two foundation semesters and eight undergraduate semesters. We are January 2004 intake, making this semester our ninth semester here. For engineering students, we have one more semester to go, while for technology students, this is their final semester. So, 5th of April was chosen to commemorate our five year stay here in UTP (it is really unfortunate that Liverpool and Arsenal had to play on the same date, isn't it?).

It was a night to remember. It was a night of joy. And really, I had a great time, just as I did in Chemi dinner a year ago. Yup, there were some glitches here and there, but you don't want a post mortem, do you? This is not a repetitive event like Career Week or Convo Fair where you can pass down the mistakes you've made to your predecessor to make sure they won't repeat the same mistakes. Things are not perfect, but I'm not going to list it here, because it makes no point. The bigger point to be seen is that, it was a success, everyone had a memorable night, everyone had a night to remember for the rest of their lives. Thank you Zainur and Dede, the co-directors (I don't know which one is the true director, I guess both of them are directors) , thank you to the committees, and thank you to everyone that participated.

160 is a lot of people (although our batch is estimated to be around 400, you can't expect everyone to come) and when everything is over and the photography session begins, then only you'll know how much in common we all are. There are pictures of the football teams (Picisan FC and Freestyle FC), the band (the Capoiz), respective courses, then by channel, by state, by fan club, by CGPA, what else? It seems anyone can be connected to anyone else by any connecting theme. I mentioned in my promotional flash movie, that you don't need to worry if you don't have friends, because everyone in your batch are your friends. I just made that up, to pancing orang to come to the dinner. I never really thought it was indeed very true.

Was it better than Chemi dinner? That is very subjective, and it would be even harder for me to spit the truth due to my biasness. But this dinner is certainly much more organized - they had door gifts, band performances, montage, photographers, games, cake cutting ceremony (I almost forgot that, even though 5th of April isn't exactly our birthday, I wonder if anyone knows when is our birthday). This dinner had much more participants, making it a much more difficult task to organize the flow, and to make sure everyone is involved in the activities, but the committees did an accomplished job in achieving so. Congratulations. Again, thank you. Thank you is such an overused word, it often dilutes the true emotions of the sayer, but I really appreciate the effort that everyone had put in this, to organize it, to pay for it, to come and participate in it, to enjoy it.

But as mentioned, there are some low points. In the organizing perspective, I won't say much. You guys have put in the effort, and unfortunately sometimes things won't go perfectly. But there are things that I do want to mention, regarding things outside or the organization. It is more of a personal matter.

May 03, the previous batch before us, also had their dinner last semester, while we were on industrial internship. Their night was as joyful as us, I believe. But they'll never anticipate the consequences. Pictures of them somehow got leaked and spread throughout the world, but more importantly into PETRONAS' email chain. A bad image was projected, and the organizing committee had some tough time to endure in the aftermath.

Even this writing of mine is controversial, because I should not disclose any degrading stories to the outside world. But, I don't know, I'm just too coward, I guess, to spit it out. Whenever I write, I will always hope that someone somewhere sometime will be inspired by my writings. That they'll learn something from it. That is what I'm trying to do here. I hope that, at least, I can make people learn from their mistakes, and that is my main purpose. I will not attempt to bring down or degrade anyone from my writings, let alone posting pictures on the web for the world to see.

Everyone has their right of freedom. Freedom of choosing whatever they want to wear and so on. You may argue that covering your aurah is against the shari'ah, but it is not against the human law, so it is legal. But to me, is it worth it to strip the things you have covered so gallantly over the years just so you could wear one special dress for one night? In fact, both the Queen and the Female Best Dress award went to two lovely girls who did not fail to cover their aurah.

It is a personal choice. There are people who did not choose to cover their aurah, maybe because they are not ready yet, maybe because they think it is not their identity. What differs from a girl who do not wear hijab at all, and a girl who wears hijab most of the time except for special occasions like a dinner where she wants to dress more special? The former is being herself, she knows she does not want to wear it, so she doesn't. The latter is, well, opposite of being herself, which is (sorry to say) - hypocritical. This is a very painful thing for me to tell people. "Why do you wear your tudung if you don't wear it the next day?" It is not easy for me to say that. "When you see a wrongdoing, correct it with your hands, if not, with your tongue, if not, with your heart, for that is the weakest form of iman."

Would I recommend girls who are in identity conflict (wearing tudung in front of certain people, not wearing it in front of other certain people) to strip off their veil? Hell no. That would be an even greater failure for me in my attempt to enlighten people. It is hard to take care of our aurah, but since you're already on it, why not just carry on with it? I believe every single one of us has intentions to improve ourself, to be a better servant of God, but if you choose to be comfortable 'being yourself' by stripping off what you've been wearing for years, it would be even harder to wear it back. You know, I know a girl who used to let her hair exposed, but now she's well covered and still doing so. It is a hell of an achievement, and I never get to say congratulations to her till this day.

I don't know if our pictures will get leaked as the previous batch. I'm not afraid of the consequences. I'll be honest, that is my batch. What can I do? It is their personal choice, it is not something within our control. The platform is set to commemorate our stay here in UTP in a memorable night, and that is the objective. What they decide to wear for the occasion is an individual choice. But, I am, how to say, a bit unhappy and uncomfortable, I guess. If they can lose one article of clothing, it would not be much of a surprise if they lose more after this. I'm so so sorry not to say this directly, but you know where my iman stands. I myself am not a very good practitioner of my religion, but I wish people to be better than me. I coined this proverb myself, and I don't know if it exists or not - "When a drug addict says 'Don't do drugs' to you, listen to him not because of who he is, but because of what he says," - but I am constantly inspired by my own words of that. I may not be doing what I'm saying (mengata dulang paku serpih, mengata orang dia yang lebih) but the very least I could do is inspire people to be what I wish to be, if I myself can't do it.

A rather drastic closing to an appreciation post for the dinner.

Week Review

It has been a hectic week for me. In fact, it's not over yet. I take seven subjects this semester, more than any before. Only four will have final exams. So the rest? Only coursework.

The problem with these type of subjects is that it makes you suffer throughout the semester. I take Final Year Project, an individual project, and Plant Design Project, a group project. The deadline for the progress report is on last Monday and Friday respectively. But I guess it is customary for us, Malaysians, to delay things. Since the evaluator will be your supervisor, things are negotiable.

I'm yet to submit the reports.

It's good that weekends exist. It gives you a temporary break from whatever you hate doing continuously over the working days. I wanted to write a tribute to the world's best album, but...

There's something bigger than that coming up. This blog has to adapt with circumstances. I have to admit, I did not write particularly on important things. Last week, the cabinet was revealed. I've never talked more about politics ever in my life than this period. It seems that any maple sessions will be some political talk. Thing is, I don't know much.

Last Thursday was a public holiday. It was Maulidur Rasul. I was talking about my birthday when I forgot a more important figure. I said that nobody celebrates birthdays on Hijriah calendar. I forgot about him, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The greatest guy to have ever walked on His Earth. He was written as the most influential man ever in the history of mankind by a Western author. His anniversary is not celebrated while he was alive, hence known as bidaah. But this is a good bidaah, a practice to remember what he has done, has achieved, his incomparable kindness to both friends and enemies, his values. We pray for a deserved place for him in the hereafter everytime after the azan call, and we always hope for his helping hand when we face the ultimate court trial. Sallallahu ala Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wasallam.

General Election

It is 6 in the morning, I just completed my preliminary report. Moral of the story: Never do things last minute.

What you write in your blog reflects who you are, what and how you think. While people are writing letters to rector and talking about Saint Valentine's Day and the upcoming general election, I'm talking about burgers.

In short, it shows the lack of maturity of my blog.

OK I'll be honest. I always want to make my blog look mature. Thing is, sometimes writing a thousand words makes people uninterested to read my blog. So I tried to adopt the mainstream writing in an attempt to attract people. So far, well, so-so. That's why I installed the visitor counter (notice there, at the right column) as a personal satisfaction to see how many people have been stopping by here (regardless of whether they read it or not).

I'll just touch a little bit on Saint Valentine's Day. Did you google anything yesterday? Google had a nice picture on their website which gave me some thinking. Saint Valentine's Day is often celebrated as a love day by teens who can't wait for their wedding to fuck their partners. Google depicted the love day by showing an elderly couple walking towards the horizon, probably symbolizing eternity. How sweet.

Nevertheless to say, Muslims should not celebrate Saint Valentine's Day. That's why I don't want to omit the word Saint there. I bet most of us Muslims are not aware there are other Saints' days, do we?

But the thing I want to talk here is about election. I wonder if I have anyone who has been following my blog since the inception on July 2007 (I seriously doubt so, but) if you do, then you'll notice my writings have been lacking of Malaysia's current issues. I always wanted to touch on issues like the brutal murder of Nurin, or the Bersih or Hindraf rally, but I always keep it so late, it is no longer cool to talk on rotten issues.

But I'm not that late now, for this thing I'm about to say about. General election. Parliament has been disbanded on 13th of February, and general election will be on 8th of March.

Yup, it'll be cool if I talk politics. In fact, as a Muslim, you can't avoid being involved in politics. The least you can do is vote. But that is exactly what I'm doing - avoiding it.

Man, I can't write now. I need sleep. My whole point is, I don't know I'm voting for, and what changes s/he can bring. On a bigger scale, what difference does a different government will bring. Politicians live by their lies, and different government will only tell different lies I suppose. Honestly, I'm less than impressed with Pak Lah compared to Mahathir, but that is all I can say. Nothing more. I'm not that good, and worse, I don't even bother. And all the talk becomes shit when I have not even registered for voting.

Yup.

Halal: Do We Even Care?

Assalamualaikum.

I once heard that Coffee Bean® is not halal because they fry their beans in lard (pig fat). I don't know how true was that, if I'm not mistaken coffee beans are roasted, not fried. Nevertheless it did raise doubt in me, and once doubt (was-was or shubhah) has appeared, it is no longer good for me to consume, even if it might be halal.

My doubt was further elevated when I noticed that Coffee Bean never bore the distinctive Malaysian halal symbol.

So too was Pringles®. The product has been a victim of false alert that states that it contains an emulsifier of E471 that is animal based. Since Pringles® is an imported product, it can be deduced that the animal (where the emulsifier came from) was not slaughtered with the name of Allah hence making it not halal. Soon, Pringles® put an description on the ingredients, stating that E471 is in fact of soy lecithin origin.

The thing is, why do they refuse to apply the halal symbol?

I really hate McDonald's®, but they do earn my respect in this context. They proudly display their halal logo in all their publications. I remember a promotion on their beef patties, it is about 100% beef, but on top of the 100% was 100% halal. All their posters and billboards feature the halal logo, considerably large to be visible. Even their TV ads have the halal logo in static at the bottom right corner.

No, I'm not promoting McDonald's®, I never will. But I do think they deserve a praise on their proud proclamation that they have rightfully earned the halal logo, and even if rumours keep on spreading that they actually supply a good portion of their profit to the damned Israel, at least Muslims can have the wicked comfort that their eating food that obeys to the shariah (and that almost all products' profits will go to Israel eventually, so McDonald's® is no exception).

Refusal of big, established products to attain the halal logo really gets on my nerves. Certain companies state that they refuse to apply the halal symbol because their product is already well known and they need not to further strengthen the brand by applying the halal logo.

What bullshit is that? Why would you refuse to enhance the brand power by putting a tiny little symbol that puts no harm to the non-Muslims and further convince the confidence among the Muslims? These companies are running multi-million dollar business, the expenditure for the application of the halal symbol is minuscule to their profits.

Suddenly came to me a thought. Does Burger King® have that halal symbol. It worried me sick. Whopper® is the best burger in the world, and if I find out that Burger King® does not have the halal symbol, it would be really painful for me, but I have to stop eating it. Thankfully, with tears running down my cheek, they do have the logo. Unfortunately it is too small. Not like McDonald's®.

I've been saying that I won't be drinking Coffee Bean's coffees until they manage to get themselves that symbol, but later I started to realize. Wait, there's a hell lot more food companies that still haven't obtained that definitive symbol. And most of them, I really enjoy it.

Cadbury® (especially the imported ones), Famous Amos©, Baskin Robbins™, Sushi King©, Victoria Station™ are to name a few. I even stopped eating Mars® Bounty (a chocolate I dubbed as the best chocolate in the world, even better than Kraft's Daim) when I found out it lacks the halal symbol and it contains emulsifiers that I don't know the origins.

Ok back to the title. We, Muslims, refuse to eat pork and drink wine or beer because it is explicitly stated in the Holy Quran to be forbidden. Dead animals that aren't slaughtered according to shariah is also disqualified from being halal. But why, for this part, we take for granted?

Halal in the eyes of non-Muslims is just like what I've mentioned just now. They understand halal to be pork-free and alcohol-free. They will gladly notify us if their food contains pork. "Sorry, sir, but this is not halal". Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly work the other way round. A statement of "This is halal, sir," from a non-Muslim may actually means, "This food is pork-free (but it may contain animal-based products which are uncertain of the methods of killing)". It would be criminal if a Muslim have a same mindset, too. We ought to know the stuff that make up our flesh and bones.

I'm hypocritical myself. I do eat food that lacks the halal symbol. Only lately I started to become a bit too particular. It is not hard to find halal food in Malaysia, although Malaysian Muslim community is only about 55%, quite a scarce percentage compared to other Islamic nations. Once you step outside Malaysia, only then you'll start to appreciate the halal symbol. In other countries, even in Islamic countries, halal symbol is not a popular label on the product. Even if the product does bear the symbol, it is merely a proclamation by the producers and no quality check was conducted by some Islamic body.

Malaysia has one of the most systematic halal regulations in the world, and we should be proud and more importantly take full advantage of that. Our halal logo is very distinctive with the eight-pronged star inside a circle. At the outer ring, the name of the approver of the halal symbol is displayed. Most products, even to cosmetics and toiletries feature the symbol nowadays.

What if there is no halal symbol? (This is purely my practice, and by no means I am suggesting it to you or say that I practice this because it is backed by some Quranic verse or hadith. If any of you can add some strong dalils here, it would be highly appreciated.) First, I make sure the food seller is a Muslim. I may ask the owner/worker specifically, "Are you a Muslim?" but in most occasions, I don't dare to do so. So I look for signs, such as greeting/replying people with salaam or having Quranic verses on the wall (I will never consider people would fake their religion for the sake of business). Then I may seek a confirmation from the owner that the food sold is halal. I may ask him, but usually I won't, so I'll just have the good perception (husnu zhan) towards the owner that s/he shall supply only halal food to his/her customers.

So what if the criteria fails? It fails if the owner is not a Muslim (hence voiding the halal claim even if the owner does claim the food is halal) or it is admitted that the food is not halal. If the former takes place, then I would simply avoid all meat and alcohol. The remaining menu would still be good, usually. Vegetables, seafood, eggs, milk and its derivatives would still make a decent meal. If I go to India for example, that is the best place for vegetarians. If I go to a Western (literally) restaurant where there is no way I can assure the halalness of the food, I can just go with seafood platter for example, and I can be considerably sure that the vegetables and the dressing does not have animal-based ingredient and the calamari and prawns are deepfried in vegetable oil. The only possible concern is that the oil might have deepfried something else before like chicken.

There's a lot more to write, but long posts do not attract lots of readers. When I blog, there're two types of posts - one where I'm merely expressing myself and hope that people would understand me better by reading it, and another where I am spreading a propaganda to make people think the way I am, agreeing to it and tell other people about it. This post is definitely the latter, and I have a huge hope that this post will reach thousands, maybe millions so that Muslims, and even non-Muslims, would be more aware of this halal agenda and start paying more attention. Halal is a big thing, and it is always a win-win situation. Non-Muslims will never be affected by halal, and for the Muslims it enhances confidence, and for the business it means more customers.

I am very glad on the progress of halal development in Malaysia. I just hope that one day we'll reach a day that any product that do not bear the halal symbol is unacceptable and will definitely flop because everything is halal-certified that when you don't have one, people will start to have serious doubt on the halalness of the product and thus not buying it.

Thanks a lot for spending your precious time reading until this point. Since you've already made it to this spot, I believe that you have your own views yourself, your practice in the quest of halal food and products, I would really appreciate if you would share it here. Any feedbacks and - even more precious - useful dalils from the Holy Quran, hadith and sunnah or fatwa released by a knowledgeable person based on a concrete reasoning is hugely welcomed. And if you happen to work with the halal-certifying agency or know the procedures of awarding the halal certificate, I am really curious to know more. I can be contacted at 012-2269789 or unpronounciable@yahoo.com.

O ye people! Eat of what is on earth, Lawful and good; and do not follow the footsteps of the evil one, for he is to you an avowed enemy.
Al-Baqarah:168

Wassalam.