Friends ,
The phrase 'Insyaallah'or 'If Allah will' or 'God willing' is a phraseology most often used in the Arab world .Too much use that it become abused ."can I see you at 2 in your office ?"..."Insyaallah!" in Saudi Arabia can mean you will be waiting to see the official at 2 pm everyday for the next week or so !Of course in Malaysia this can get worse ." Will you come to my kenduri on Sunday?"..."Insyaallah"...means usually "No, most probably not ".This is not what Allah meant it to be .
""By the morning hours[1],And the night when it is stillest,[2]Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee nor did He hates thee,[3]And verily the latter portion will be better for thee than the former,[4]""
This Surah was revealed in the early formative period of Islam in Mekkah.Before this Surah the Prophet suddenly found revelations stopped for a long period of time.The unbelievers and detractors of Mekkah started to taunt him that indeed Allah had abandoned him.One line of story had it that the Prophet made a confident promise to a group of people about doing something in the future forgetting that important phrase "if Allah will'.Following that the long period of 'dryness' in the chain of revelations was a great object lesson for even the Prophet.
We should all try to make an effort to inculcate this important 'if Allah will' mentality in our daily life.We are so confident that the sun will rise from the east and set in the west tomorrow , that we will have dinner tonight,that we will reach home to see our children by 7,that we will move to that dream bungalow by the year's end etc etc when we cannot even guarantee that we would be still alive by the next breath ! That in essence is the meaning of 'insyaallah '.
'Insyaallah','subhanallah'and 'alhamdullillah': three very powerful concepts which we should readily internalise in our daily lives .Try this for a week I suggest. It is definitely very 'liberating',I must warn you ! Allahualam.
Dr Nik Howk
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Pearls & Gem :Surah Al Asr [Letter 103 ]
Friends,
My 1st Haj,1984,magrhib time in Mina,the imam read Surah Al Asr and the 'silver bullet' hit right into the bosom of my soul .Tears percolated down my face and chest and embarasingly the sobbing became uncontrollable .I did not know what hit me.I have read Surah Al Asr before ,knew its meaning,but was never moved this way before .I counted myself as a man with a 'heart of stone'[seen them all and gone thru them :as an orphan at age 9,one had to learn fast to go thru life without much fanfare,as a doctor in later life,the 'heart' further hardens].
"By the declining day,[1]Lo!Man is a state of loss,[2]Save those who believe and do good work,and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.[3]"
Very short ,precise and very sharp,this 'silver bullet' .The message pricked the very essence of my soul.I only cried 3 times in my life so far,1st time when I was just about nine years of age ,suddenly been brought to the hospital to see my dying father .That day was the 1st day I could ride a bike and the high excitement of the day was totally dampened when I get to see the asshened face of my dad ,who I recollected much later in my medical student days, must have been in septicaemic shock from a perforated ulcer :No decent strong antibiotics then way back in 1961].2nd time when my younger sister died of a needless motor vehicle accident in Beserah ,5 days in her marriage, driving back from Kota Bharu to KL .When come from a background like this one has to learn fast ,to go through life without much fanfare ,and to get 'on your bike and get it done "!You have one chance only in life .Grab it !.And then Surah Al Asr in Mina,just after Arafah Day .
Without faith,yes ,we all are in a state of loss!Be they the likes of Bill Gates with millions and billions to donate ,or just lowly humble chaps who have to scrap the barrel to earn a mussel here and a cent there,we are all in a state of loss .If living mean to eat,sleep,defecate,fart,work and as in some lucky people with excess fund ,enjoy life to the fullest in pursuit of 'happiness' physical or mental,defined in the secular way as 'cerebral' or psychological endpoints.Without faith,our lives are total wastage . A big loss.At some point in time ,Faith must come into the equation.Without Faith we are just slightly better than lowly 'animals':Eat,play,work,satisfy our bodily functions and finally die,to be devoured by worms .Slightly better because we have language to express our souls .
With faith,our trajectory can go on a higher plane.We do good work as encouraged by shariah ,we avoid those that are clearly forbidden by the shariah,and certainly 'life is not a bed of roses' and therefore we need each other to continue to remind us of the 'straight path' as and when we stray as stray we usually do as we are human .Increasingly now the 'straight path' is not easy to navigate even though by logic it is the shortest and the most economical path as there are 'jinns' amongst men and women as there are amongst the 'unseen'.That is why we need one another to continue to remind ourselves and on top of that the right ilm ,ilm ,and ilm .
Life for those going for the 'straight path' are never easy .We have to exercise 'sabr' or endurance for want of better word ."Ridha" ,as we grow older, become an important element in 'sabr' or endurance .There is a lot of beauty and 'ridha' going on in a simple person going about his life getting a mussel there and a mussel here , at the bottom of society's ladder,trying to irk a meagre living for himself and family, following strictly to the sharia, while looking around him seemingly well to do and heedless people passing by,with no obvious help coming thru .The poor ,the homeless ,the orphans,the single mothers,the down and out .
These people only have their faith and 'sabr' pushing them thru .But to the Ultimate CEO of the Universe,these simple people who just scrap the barrel but continue to have faith in Him are bigger individuals than all the likes of Bill Gates that walk this earth !Why not ?If you yourselves are the CEO of the universe ,what criteria or key performance indicators[KPI] would you rate your 7 to 8 billions of employees at any one time, except on key performance indicators that really matter ie "Ridha' and 'Taqwa'?
Acceptance of whatever 'trials and tribulations' you throw to him ,good or bad ,exacting or mild [ ridha ] ,and how the chap looks up to you ,his level of 'unquestioned loyalty and obedience'[ taqwa ] .Taqwa as in 'god fearing ' but more appropriate meaning would be ' god conciousness ' ..At your level of things ,CEO of your stature do not give a damn whether he goes to work in a Bentley Turbo ,stays in a palace with a million dollar income per month, or just an ordinary bloke like billions others ,or a lowly road sweeper with the town council .
That person can be a King ,a Prince ,a Billionaire ,or just a lowly Road Sweeper .The KEY Performance Indicators remain the same :Riddha and Taqwa
For the chap with the Bentley with the palace to boot you of course expect a different standard from the road sweeper and his trials and tribulations may not be the same as the road sweeper but the basic indices still remain :Taqwa and Ridha .
My 1st Haj,1984,magrhib time in Mina,the imam read Surah Al Asr and the 'silver bullet' hit right into the bosom of my soul .Tears percolated down my face and chest and embarasingly the sobbing became uncontrollable .I did not know what hit me.I have read Surah Al Asr before ,knew its meaning,but was never moved this way before .I counted myself as a man with a 'heart of stone'[seen them all and gone thru them :as an orphan at age 9,one had to learn fast to go thru life without much fanfare,as a doctor in later life,the 'heart' further hardens].
"By the declining day,[1]Lo!Man is a state of loss,[2]Save those who believe and do good work,and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.[3]"
Very short ,precise and very sharp,this 'silver bullet' .The message pricked the very essence of my soul.I only cried 3 times in my life so far,1st time when I was just about nine years of age ,suddenly been brought to the hospital to see my dying father .That day was the 1st day I could ride a bike and the high excitement of the day was totally dampened when I get to see the asshened face of my dad ,who I recollected much later in my medical student days, must have been in septicaemic shock from a perforated ulcer :No decent strong antibiotics then way back in 1961].2nd time when my younger sister died of a needless motor vehicle accident in Beserah ,5 days in her marriage, driving back from Kota Bharu to KL .When come from a background like this one has to learn fast ,to go through life without much fanfare ,and to get 'on your bike and get it done "!You have one chance only in life .Grab it !.And then Surah Al Asr in Mina,just after Arafah Day .
Without faith,yes ,we all are in a state of loss!Be they the likes of Bill Gates with millions and billions to donate ,or just lowly humble chaps who have to scrap the barrel to earn a mussel here and a cent there,we are all in a state of loss .If living mean to eat,sleep,defecate,fart,work and as in some lucky people with excess fund ,enjoy life to the fullest in pursuit of 'happiness' physical or mental,defined in the secular way as 'cerebral' or psychological endpoints.Without faith,our lives are total wastage . A big loss.At some point in time ,Faith must come into the equation.Without Faith we are just slightly better than lowly 'animals':Eat,play,work,satisfy our bodily functions and finally die,to be devoured by worms .Slightly better because we have language to express our souls .
With faith,our trajectory can go on a higher plane.We do good work as encouraged by shariah ,we avoid those that are clearly forbidden by the shariah,and certainly 'life is not a bed of roses' and therefore we need each other to continue to remind us of the 'straight path' as and when we stray as stray we usually do as we are human .Increasingly now the 'straight path' is not easy to navigate even though by logic it is the shortest and the most economical path as there are 'jinns' amongst men and women as there are amongst the 'unseen'.That is why we need one another to continue to remind ourselves and on top of that the right ilm ,ilm ,and ilm .
Life for those going for the 'straight path' are never easy .We have to exercise 'sabr' or endurance for want of better word ."Ridha" ,as we grow older, become an important element in 'sabr' or endurance .There is a lot of beauty and 'ridha' going on in a simple person going about his life getting a mussel there and a mussel here , at the bottom of society's ladder,trying to irk a meagre living for himself and family, following strictly to the sharia, while looking around him seemingly well to do and heedless people passing by,with no obvious help coming thru .The poor ,the homeless ,the orphans,the single mothers,the down and out .
These people only have their faith and 'sabr' pushing them thru .But to the Ultimate CEO of the Universe,these simple people who just scrap the barrel but continue to have faith in Him are bigger individuals than all the likes of Bill Gates that walk this earth !Why not ?If you yourselves are the CEO of the universe ,what criteria or key performance indicators[KPI] would you rate your 7 to 8 billions of employees at any one time, except on key performance indicators that really matter ie "Ridha' and 'Taqwa'?
Acceptance of whatever 'trials and tribulations' you throw to him ,good or bad ,exacting or mild [ ridha ] ,and how the chap looks up to you ,his level of 'unquestioned loyalty and obedience'[ taqwa ] .Taqwa as in 'god fearing ' but more appropriate meaning would be ' god conciousness ' ..At your level of things ,CEO of your stature do not give a damn whether he goes to work in a Bentley Turbo ,stays in a palace with a million dollar income per month, or just an ordinary bloke like billions others ,or a lowly road sweeper with the town council .
That person can be a King ,a Prince ,a Billionaire ,or just a lowly Road Sweeper .The KEY Performance Indicators remain the same :Riddha and Taqwa
For the chap with the Bentley with the palace to boot you of course expect a different standard from the road sweeper and his trials and tribulations may not be the same as the road sweeper but the basic indices still remain :Taqwa and Ridha .
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Pearls & Gem from Surah Al Maarij [ Letter 70 : Verse 1 to 4 ]
Friends,
"A questioner questioned concerning the doom about to fall[1].Upon the disbelievers,which none can repeal,[2]From Allah of the Ascending Stairways[3]whereby the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a day whereof the span is fifty thousand years[4].".....[Letter 70 :Verse 1 to 4]
Taken in the allegorical sense it is possible for us as human spirits to ascend to that height akin to that of angels .That is the position taken by Abdullah Yusuf Ali .I rather look at the literal sense,and the Big Bang theory of the birth of the Universe come into mind along with the vastness of Al Arash,Allah's throne .
Our universe is an ever expanding entity with galaxies of stars along with their planets moving away from each other since it's birth from that infinitely small concentrated mass several millenium years ago .
At the birth of this Universe when 'Time' was not even a concept ,present day scientists and cosmologists [ a 100 % of them namely 'hard core materialists or to be more blunt , atheists at best ,agnostics ] coined the term ,'zero volume of infinite mass ' exploded .From this controlled explosion gave birth to 300 billions or so of galaxies .Each galaxy contain around 300 billion stars .
['Zero volume ,finite mass' to the proud ,arrogant ,materialist scientists was a euphemism meaning 'we do not know what the heck it is but certainly the building block for the Universe was already there long before 'Time' .To us who would rather speak more plainly ,'zero volume finite mass ' means the '..ucking Universe ' starts from 'Nothing !'.It is as simple as that .This is a case of 'Kun Fayakun':'Be ' and ' so it Be ' .
These 300 billion galaxies that form our Universe are forever moving away from each other at a fast but finite speed to form what is known as the ever expanding Universe .The definite proof for this conclusion came from the observation from the giant Hubble telescope in outer space .Light from distant galaxies showed a preponderance towards the red spectrum in the light frequency , a well established fact you see when the light source is moving away from the 'observer' , a shift in frequency so to speak .Moves towards the purple spectrum if the source is coming towards you and vice versa .A well known accepted scientific observation and dogma .
Why 'Controlled Explosion' ?If uncontrolled ,the speed at which the galaxies move away from each other would result in complete disapearance of the celestial 'bodies' within the Universe in no time .If a tiny weeny bit too slow in velocity ,the whole galaxies will 'clump' together by their summative gravitational forces resulting in a 'Reverse Bang', a cataclysmic supernova multi inter galactic collision.
As a diversion ,an expected collision of our galaxy within which the sun is just one of the 300 billion stars within ,the Milky Way , with it's nearest neigbouring galaxy ,The Andromeada ,is anticipated to occur in 3 billion years time due to a slight diversion of the later 's course as it pass near a galaxy and star sucking super black hole in the future .Cosmologists talk in term of millions and billion of years ,as if our world will last forever .At the rate we homo sapiens are behaving now ,The Lord of the Universe may just call 'enough is enough' even tomorrow !
Putting that aside though ,on the basis of probability , a chance happening of this initial Big Bang formative 'controlled explosion ' ,as it did ,as an accident of 'time' is 10 to the power of 50 zeros !!!If you are a gambler with even a tiny weeny pea brain ,you do not gamble on this kind of odd .Who the hell controlled this event then ?The Lord of The Ascending Stairways of course !
The Lord of the Ascending Stairways that span 'fifty thousand years' as mentioned in Surah Al Maarij could literally mean Lord of the Arash.And how vast is the Arash we may ask ?If one can take the universe literally and place it on the Arash one will not be able to find it again . Like searching a lost pin in a large field of hay .
Why 50,000 years ?If you are an angel going up the Ascending Stairways leading to the Arash ,reporting to your Most High on a daily basis at the speed of light or probably faster ,that trip at that speed may appear as a few hours journey, may well be a 50,000 earth years journey !One abdal [ hamba Allah ] ,' dari mereka2 yang di murkai Allah ' at that , founded this fact some 50 years back and coined the concept Albert Einstein 's general Theory of Relativity .
Ini belum bincang pasal orang2 Islam being the viceroys untuk Allah diatas Bumi yang nyata ini !We as an ummah rationalises ,waxes ,weaves and wanes ,and chooses to wait for crumbs falling off from the 'main table '.We become abdal's to the rest of the world !Itu lah dia nasib ummah yang diberi ilmu dan petunjok tetapi masih ambil pakai sistem karut marut dan cara hidup orang2 lain yang 'sesat dan dimurkai ' .
Allahualam !Mashaallah !
Dr Nik Howk
"A questioner questioned concerning the doom about to fall[1].Upon the disbelievers,which none can repeal,[2]From Allah of the Ascending Stairways[3]whereby the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a day whereof the span is fifty thousand years[4].".....[Letter 70 :Verse 1 to 4]
Taken in the allegorical sense it is possible for us as human spirits to ascend to that height akin to that of angels .That is the position taken by Abdullah Yusuf Ali .I rather look at the literal sense,and the Big Bang theory of the birth of the Universe come into mind along with the vastness of Al Arash,Allah's throne .
Our universe is an ever expanding entity with galaxies of stars along with their planets moving away from each other since it's birth from that infinitely small concentrated mass several millenium years ago .
At the birth of this Universe when 'Time' was not even a concept ,present day scientists and cosmologists [ a 100 % of them namely 'hard core materialists or to be more blunt , atheists at best ,agnostics ] coined the term ,'zero volume of infinite mass ' exploded .From this controlled explosion gave birth to 300 billions or so of galaxies .Each galaxy contain around 300 billion stars .
['Zero volume ,finite mass' to the proud ,arrogant ,materialist scientists was a euphemism meaning 'we do not know what the heck it is but certainly the building block for the Universe was already there long before 'Time' .To us who would rather speak more plainly ,'zero volume finite mass ' means the '..ucking Universe ' starts from 'Nothing !'.It is as simple as that .This is a case of 'Kun Fayakun':'Be ' and ' so it Be ' .
These 300 billion galaxies that form our Universe are forever moving away from each other at a fast but finite speed to form what is known as the ever expanding Universe .The definite proof for this conclusion came from the observation from the giant Hubble telescope in outer space .Light from distant galaxies showed a preponderance towards the red spectrum in the light frequency , a well established fact you see when the light source is moving away from the 'observer' , a shift in frequency so to speak .Moves towards the purple spectrum if the source is coming towards you and vice versa .A well known accepted scientific observation and dogma .
Why 'Controlled Explosion' ?If uncontrolled ,the speed at which the galaxies move away from each other would result in complete disapearance of the celestial 'bodies' within the Universe in no time .If a tiny weeny bit too slow in velocity ,the whole galaxies will 'clump' together by their summative gravitational forces resulting in a 'Reverse Bang', a cataclysmic supernova multi inter galactic collision.
As a diversion ,an expected collision of our galaxy within which the sun is just one of the 300 billion stars within ,the Milky Way , with it's nearest neigbouring galaxy ,The Andromeada ,is anticipated to occur in 3 billion years time due to a slight diversion of the later 's course as it pass near a galaxy and star sucking super black hole in the future .Cosmologists talk in term of millions and billion of years ,as if our world will last forever .At the rate we homo sapiens are behaving now ,The Lord of the Universe may just call 'enough is enough' even tomorrow !
Putting that aside though ,on the basis of probability , a chance happening of this initial Big Bang formative 'controlled explosion ' ,as it did ,as an accident of 'time' is 10 to the power of 50 zeros !!!If you are a gambler with even a tiny weeny pea brain ,you do not gamble on this kind of odd .Who the hell controlled this event then ?The Lord of The Ascending Stairways of course !
The Lord of the Ascending Stairways that span 'fifty thousand years' as mentioned in Surah Al Maarij could literally mean Lord of the Arash.And how vast is the Arash we may ask ?If one can take the universe literally and place it on the Arash one will not be able to find it again . Like searching a lost pin in a large field of hay .
Why 50,000 years ?If you are an angel going up the Ascending Stairways leading to the Arash ,reporting to your Most High on a daily basis at the speed of light or probably faster ,that trip at that speed may appear as a few hours journey, may well be a 50,000 earth years journey !One abdal [ hamba Allah ] ,' dari mereka2 yang di murkai Allah ' at that , founded this fact some 50 years back and coined the concept Albert Einstein 's general Theory of Relativity .
Ini belum bincang pasal orang2 Islam being the viceroys untuk Allah diatas Bumi yang nyata ini !We as an ummah rationalises ,waxes ,weaves and wanes ,and chooses to wait for crumbs falling off from the 'main table '.We become abdal's to the rest of the world !Itu lah dia nasib ummah yang diberi ilmu dan petunjok tetapi masih ambil pakai sistem karut marut dan cara hidup orang2 lain yang 'sesat dan dimurkai ' .
Allahualam !Mashaallah !
Dr Nik Howk
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Pearls & Gem from Surah Al Qamar [Letter 54 : Verses 17-22]
Friends,
Of course it is now not politically correct to remember such 'quagmires' along this line . You may even be publicly incarcerated !That is how far we have all 'progressed' ! Mashaallah !
Tsunami ,Hurricane Nargis and the recent quake in China were just repeat scenarios of the past and preamble of the future.It is only we who are impervious to the signs and would rather believe that these events are 'predated' and have some 'time dependent' mechanism just like our alarm clocks,ready to happen along some 'geographical fault lines'.So impervious are we that we are able to accept these quagmires with ease and able to carry on our daily lives as 'business as usual'.Tsunami, Nargis or whatever are millions of miles away !Why bother ?
A friend the other day who just came back from the UK told me they had snow in April ! Ahh ! That is global warming ! No big deal .We have D24 durians in January !Very good .But let us examine what the Quran has to say about Tsunami, Nargis and having D24 durian in January ,some 1450 years ago :
"And in truth We have made the Quran easy to remember,but is any who remembereth ?[17]The tribe of A'ad rejected warnings .Then how dreadful was My punishment after My warning.[18]Lo !We let loose on them a raging wind on a day of calamity,[19]sweeping men away as though they were uprooted trunks of palm-trees .[20]And in truth We made the Quran easy to remember,but is there any who remembereth ?[22]"A friend the other day who just came back from the UK told me they had snow in April ! Ahh ! That is global warming ! No big deal .We have D24 durians in January !Very good .But let us examine what the Quran has to say about Tsunami, Nargis and having D24 durian in January ,some 1450 years ago :
Of course it is now not politically correct to remember such 'quagmires' along this line . You may even be publicly incarcerated !That is how far we have all 'progressed' ! Mashaallah !
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