Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Pearls and gem from Surah Al Emran [ letter 3 , Ayat 180 ]

Friends ,

The beauty of traveling light is well expounded in this ayat 180 of Surah Al Emran ,if the meaning is just taken from the ayat as a 'stand alone' context .There are other meanings of course as the proceeding ayats seem to allude to giving one's wealth toward s jihad [ a dirty contemporary word ! ] :

" And let not those who hoard up that which Allah bestowed upon them of His bounty think that it is better for them . That which they hoard will be their collar on the Day of Resurrection. . Allah's is the heritage of the heavens and the earth , and Allah is informed of what ye do ."


The economics of the 'haves' spending in the way of Allah i'e paying fair and good salaries to their employees , zakats , helping the poor and destitutes, etc etc certainly have a positive cascading effect on flow of 'money
' and no amount of man invented new capitalism can beat that .Instead we have the very rich getting richer and the poor poorer ,compounded further by on by the system of 'riba' .Even present day 'islamic' banking is not yet quite islamic enough , at least from the perspective of Malaysian 'Islamic banks' and institutions .The bankers would retort back that ," well we have to start somewhere ,it is certainly not 100 % halal and islamic but it is more islamic than before ' .The purist s in some of us of course would answer back to the banker and say that " would he mind being served a beriani meal with 99 % mutton and just 1 % pork !? "

But corporate issues aside , I could still count yesterday as a very special day for me .Was sitting quietly in my clinic doing my work when came this" young exuberant lady of 60 who seemed worried about her high BP arising as a side effect from her anti cancer medications .She has well treated breast cancer several years back but now has multiple metastases to the liver .Her days are numbered .[ So are we since if our lives are just dependent on some finite number of 'breaths ' , our days are really numbered ! ].Of course in situitions like this I could never resist 'doctoring' my interview to the" realm of the unseen " and she succumbed to my persuasion by telling her life [ albeit short term ] plan .The conversation went on like this :

"Doc ,if you have 10 millions what would you do if you are in the same position as me ? "

Well ,what have you done ? I do not have 10 millions ,if I have I do not think we may be having a conversation today .

"Well Doc ,I have going round to my home state giving money to this madrasahs and that madrasahs ,improving and rebuilding some when the previous owners allow me so ,that is main activity now but I also give some to anak yatim institution but less .I feel giving to madrasah would be a more permanent thing to do and I would continue to reap the benefit when i am not here ."

That sounds beautiful to me but I think our kampongs and pedalaman already are "over madrasahed " .In Pulau Meranti for instance we have 2 madrasahs where locals hardly use and even one masjid turned into a pusat sumber .As far as i know there is no "sumber" about it .Only goats going up and down the masjid. If you read the quran , in almost all the long and medium length surahs and there are 114 of them , almost always Allah talk about the poor and the anak yatim ,never about giving your money so that you" own" some of the bricks .I think Puan ,this owning some of the 'bricks ' is really overstated .Your millions would in my opinion serve you well if you channel them to the 'living' . I may be wrong , and you need to recheck with your learned ustaz 1st .Just my gut feeling from reading the quran .!

Masyaallah , it is encounters like this that enriches my life .I consider myself very priveledged to be given a 'peep' into people's inner lives .

Dr Nik Howk

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