Sunday, March 27, 2011

ASB : From 54 billion to 2 billion......

From Libya to Tok Bali, let us move over to something nearer home that involve you and me : The millions of 'small bumiputra men and women' all across Malaysia,who hope one day we can really rely on our ASB and ASN savings to sustain us when that magic KWSP dwindled to a halt in our retirement days.

I was shocked to read the HARAKAH headline today enblazoned on the front page:

AKHIRNYA NAJIB MENGAKU RM52 BILLION LESAP .!
KEMEROSOTAN TERUK SAHAM BUMIPUTRA DARIPADA RM54 BILLION KEPADA HANYA RM 2 BILLION MEMBUKTIKAN KEGAGALAN DASAR MEMBANTU BUMIPUTRA YANG DICEMARI AMALAN KRONISME, NEPOTISME DAN RASUAH.

I am not an economist ,neither am I an accountant. I hope this is not right.


I dont read papers nowadays, be it NST, tabloid or even Harakah. My wife, a non card carrying member of any political party like me, however has her favourite read : HARAKAH. She got her Harakah illegally though on a weekly basis from her Indian news vendor. It is illegal to read and sell Harakah nowadays you know unless you are card carrying members of PAS. Both of us are neither PAS, nor Amenu , not even PKR, or DAP or MIC.

CNN and BBC are getting tedious even to see. Al Jazeera even has changed since Qatar joined the Alliance on the Libya issue!
We got tired of politics, even international politics ! I just watch The Iron Chef nowadays. My wife sticks to her KBS.

And the KLSE index is not even at sub 1000 or 900. It is currently at an all time high of 1515 ! What happened ?
Let us examine the possible loses or rather the 'anatomy' of such massive loss over the years that in a way impacted on the ASB slimming down to just 2 billion :


BBMB bailout , a total of 4 times - RM10.4 billion.
Perwaja Steel - RM10 billion.
Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) - RM200 million.
Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad - RM1.7 billion.
Hicom (Proton) losses over the years- RM1 billion.
MAS bailout from over repayment above market value of shares - over RM1 billion
KWSP, for Danaharta and Khazanah buyout of Timedotcom shares not taken - RM3.3 billion.
Bailout of LRT PUTRA and STAR - RM6 billion.
Bailout of Renong/UEM - RM12 billion.
Bakun Dam, settlement - RM 1 billion
InventQjaya - RM228 million
Crooked bridge, settlement - RM257 million
Broga Incinerator settlement- RM500 million
Agusta loss- RM510 million
Port Klang Free Zone 'extravaganza' - RM4.6 bilion
Offshore Petrol Vehicle scandal(PSC-NDSB) - RM6.75 bilion
Blok L dan M - RM 380 billion
Sime Darby - RM 1.6 billion AND COUNTING !
Pos Malaysia - RM 546 million
Felda - RM 8 Billion
'Additional', miscellaneous from Khazanah - dunno just yet !

...of course not all coming from ASB, some from GLC's etc etc....Somebody somewhere need to pay these losses. It is great that we still have our Petronas.

My God !

PS :
additional, Bank Negara Malaysia, some 15 years ago, courtesy of current 2nd Finance Minister's dabbling in money market - 10 billion.
He subsequently got promoted after it.....Oh Malaysia

Friday, March 25, 2011

From Libya to Tok Bali.........

Post Script :

We had a nice briyani dinner at 'Spice of India' last night. I thought Nadzru and Dato' Rahim would 'slaughter' me outright for labelling them 'ignorant',but was quite assured since TS Min was there.I could trust him that he would be a decent referee as most Oxbridge product would do.
Surprisingly thing was a wee bit tame last night.....We were able to agree to disagree on the issue of Libya.

Four 'budu' people, all beyond their prime, discussing from amongst other things, how to substantially persuade the current Federal Government of Najib Tun Razak,[ his late fatherthe Tun, was as far as we all could recall, a real perfect gentleman, no hanky panky, no nonsense ], to really be fair to 1.5 million ummah from Kelantan, all mainly 'budu' eating people, and all praying to the same God as NTR and Tun.

Under Dr M, Kelantan already lost a big Pet Chem project as big as Kertih ,or even bigger to rookie in the oil business, Thailand, by then really unprepared and unstable Southern Thailand and that was some 15 years ago. That to me was the most 'daftest' ever decision made by a PM [ my personal opinion here and I certainly stand corrected ].One just need to take a drive from the sleepy town of Bachok to Tok Bali and internalise the level of rural unemployment, high level of dadah addiction from youths in this areas of real rural poverty, to really comprehend the deleterious effect of that one stroke of the pen from a thoughtless old man who should know better than just think about winning in elections.

We Kelantanese have practically left all that behind us but for this scribe it still hurt thinking about all the lost opportunities, the pain and the suffering of the common people, the Mat Stopas and the thousands of Mat Nordin Rhejabs who could have done better.

Let bygone be bygone, I used to say to myself, but one cannot help pitying this old man who at 86 now would need to answer to his God one of this days !

Back to oil business I have been told by my friends at the dinner table that by current production capacity of 110,000 barrels of petroleum and petroleum derivatives equivalent[ gas,LNG etc and etc] per day over so many years since the inception of Petronas, I reckoned , if translated over ringgit and sen that would be around 150 million RM per year of income to Kelantan for that many years. Time that by 35 over years that would be 5 billion RM.

All and sundry know now that The Kelantan State govt will be taking Petronas and the Federal Government to court. On a good day with a full complement of fair judges on the bench, insyaallah, I got the 'fihrasat' in my dream last night that tells me that Kelantan will ultimately win.

With damages, accrued interest and all that jazz,I would not be surprised if the settlement figure could well breach 15 billion. But knowing Tok Guru, I think he would be just contented to settle out of court for a mere 5 billion RM. He could be persuaded I believe as this can be taken in the spirit of between 'adik beradik'. No need interest, no need damages no need 'lost opportunities'.....Just 5 billion Rm...'kito kiro adek kakok'

You guys in the Federal Govt cannot go on cheating the Kelantan people forever. Truth will prevail.We believe Petronas is sincere about settlement . The problem remain with it's political boss. We have got to learn lessons from Libya, Yemen and Egypt.
Insyaallah !


Nik Howk


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

An interesting addendum from Dato' Rahim Kamil :

We were men of honour, united by a sense of deprivation by the Great Leader who was inspired to check the tide of a revolution that begun with the people of the horses.

We had no intention of slaughtering Dr Nik.

So let's pause and think of what Kelantan has versus the royalty we do not yet have. A little creativity and innovation of the Islamic fiqh on land and natural resources will unleash the true wealth of Kelantan.

I am not saying that we forget about oil royalty. We should continue with our demand as a member of the Federation which If we had not joined, the issue would have been settled. Period.

So we can demand that Putrajaya respect the Federation Agreement.

We already have something equally valuable as oil royalty. It will unleash our spirit of innovation and industry. In my early days in Petronas I learned to appreciate the genius of Allahyarham Tun Razak. If he had handled our oil with the usual practice of granting concession to taukes and tycoons (as in timber and tin) we would not have a hydrocarbon economy. Once our oil is depleted by excessive production the T&Ts would have migrated south or east, living off their wealth with 8 concubines.

Tun Razak ingeniously innovate on the principle that oil is common wealth, as Islamic fiqh requires. He formed Petronas and asked a Kelantanese prince to manage it. The PSC were forced to recreate economic value with downstream activities. As the pioneering Petronas staff we remember well the scorn and doubts thrown literally at our faces. I was told by a tauke not to bother trying to market kerosene and cooking gas. Just supply the taukes and they would do their magic of distribution and retailing. Engineer Ru went into refining and engineer Ghohing started marketing.

Kelantan has timber and minerals but Kelantan continue with the practice of concession, made worse without requiring concessionaires to go downstream and recreate economic value. When our timber, manganese etc are depleted we will be abandoned by the taukes once again. Why can't the Kelantanese government be true to their Islamic credentials, invoke and innovate on fiqh and create Perkayu, Pergalian etc etc. Run it efficiently with zero-corruption.

For God's sake the natural resources of Kelantan belong to you and me as our common wealth. Why do we perpetuate the same Ali Baba practice.

Dr Nik, look around you and start blogging.

I am passionate about this neglected fiqh. I am trying to prove this with my insistence on treating land as resource and capital for my own project in Kelantan.

Ru is fond of saying that constitutional activism and agitation form the basis of "Islamic" government. Let us see whether we can move beyond legislating separate counters for men and women, heaven and hell and move into the realm of economics.

Wassalaam

RKS


Related Articles on past blog :

Mustaffa Apakahnamadiadah ? click here
ToK Guru in Conversation click here

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Of Libya, Tsunamis and Wrath of God.......Part 2

Dear Nadzru,


now these f....... ,brainless, good for nothing Arab League fellas, all friends of yours, are crying foul that the b......, f....... Europeans and Americans have overdone their things...so much for being Arabs, Nadzru! So much for being stupid Arabs !

Say, O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty! Thou givest sovereignty unto whom Thou wilt, and Thou withdrawest sovereignty from whom Thou wilt. Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and Thou abasest whom Thou wilt. In Thy hand is the good. Lo! Thou art Able to do all things. Thou causest the night to pass into the day, and Thou causest the day to pass into the night. And Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living. And Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou choosest, without stint. Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security. Allah biddeth you beware (only) of Himself. Unto Allah is the journeying
3 : 26-28

And that is not in my language or yours, that is in Arabic, your poetic Arabic with hyperbole and all!
So much for trusting your enemies, Nadzru.
These morons forgot that in 1905 the Italians sneaked into Tripoli, when the Ottomans were the Sick Man of Europe, and some years later hanged Umar Mukhtar, The Lion of the Desert, in front of all his people.

Now we have to tolerate the spectacle of Muamar Gaddafi and his sons being hanged by courtesy of the utube. Of course he is no Umar Mukhtar , you would say.

Congratulations Nadzru! Congratulations !

Nik Howk


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



Dear Nik Hawk,

A heart plumber you may be but that does not give you the privilege of expletives deleted.

Gaddafi like Saddam and their ilk in the Arab world are and were inplants. Gaddafi beats them all as a master class tyrant and dope. No one of them can beat Gaddafi in appearance and words, when he was dressed in his silly robe and holding an umbrella when there was no sunshine nor rain and uttered, ' sa abhathuhum aina ma ajiduhum, shebr shebr, beit beit , dar dar, zangga zangga, ha'ula'i fa'ar mustanfira' ( I will search for them ( his protesters) wherever I can get them, hut to hut, house to house, courtyard to courtyard, lane to lane, these rotten yellowing rats - in libyan arabic). When we hear that we forgave the NATO bombers going to kill his thugs ( and hopefully himself) like a yellowing rat that he is. That is my feeling.

I have not sorted myself out yet about how I feel on other collateral matters, be it history, geography or theology on Gaddafi and his thugs. Kill Gaddafi first, with NATO bombers or anything at all.

Wassalaam


Nadzru



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

My Dear Nadzru,

Sorry Nadzru, cannot help about the expletives....not meant for you.
The sorry state of our ummah asking 'sworn enemies' for centuries to solve our problems with our own leadership and then realising that they have given them the whole 'cheque' books really make my heart boil. Sorry about the expletives.....

They do not comprehend their Quran, despite all their linguistic hyperbole and poetic nonsense. That is our basic problem. That is what is painful. I can understand that our inconsequential diplomats and the 'Hamzahs' of our world, brought up on a staple diet of 1960's Shakespeare and too much cheese at Oxford or Cambridge and tax free wine overseas,not comprehending the spirit and the Muslim ummah and their Islamic struggle but this nonsense coming from a group of senior Arab statesmen who are supposed to know better is too heart breaking!.

They have been playing balls with the Kuffar of the West for over 50 years with predictable results all the time!. They have been playing balls with them over Palestine and of late Iraq, and all these have not added an iota to their education..

The Quran is in their language.
3 : 26-28 is as 'Muhkam' as it can ever get !

Now what f.....g[ no expletive ] hope can they ever get that Libya is not going to get flattened, and more Libyan are going to die as collateral damage, that Security Council which is just a tool of the West, will reverse the decision.

Muamar Gaddafi and his son will be hanged publicly in the near future. That is our ummah's tragedy.

That is our BALA. Expecting crumbs from the European and American High table !

Nik Howk

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

Doc ,

Agree with Ru. To regain dignity in God's world, Muslims must learn to reject tyrants.When I was reading the Green Book in 1970s (aka Islamic socialism crap) a Libyan exile in Melbourne was upset with me. He warned that MG is dajjal.

Now I understand!

Ru was with me when another dajjal Saddam rained missiles on Tehran and gassed his Kurds.

Please don't count them even among sinning Muslims.

Rahim Kamil


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




Dear Dato Kamil,

So Dato we have also to tear down another Government, Syria.......while we are at it why not Jordan , Bahrain and Saudi as well. Just leave Algeria because it is already democratic and Western enough. Wearing headscaves are banned in Algeria, so their government by present standard is OK ! Does not matter 20 years ago, 300,000 had been slaughtered because FIS won the 'erection'. That is also OK !

Do not forget that when the French bombed Libya with its Patriot and Exocet missiles at one million euro a piece there will be pay back time. Hamid Karzai type of clowns and puppets will be installed and they are back to worse than square one !
Even now we are hearing news these group are disparate group of tribal people with no uniformity in purpose and ideology.

In 2011, this is our BALA : our inability to differentiate between friends and foes, and our lack of EQ as an ummah to rebuilt from within.
Our inability to REBUILD FROM WITHIN.

Just look at another aspect , the theological side of things: we have a 1450 year old oak tree and we have a few 'Wahabi' clowns shouting hoarse over every body saying , we have to cut down the trees ! It is heresy, it is bidaah etc etc.....

Mashaallah, We have really lost our marbles !

Nik Howk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfRoLRwTypY&feature=related


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


Nik

I don't know what else to say. it's not OK to have leaders kill one rakyat. Much worse if 1000s. The Arab street beginning to regain their collective honour. They don't fear their satanic tyrants anymore.

I am not going to defend the " honour" the butchers of MENA who are largely munafiqun or mad, or both.

Let them taste the wrath of the rakyat.

Laknatullahu alaihim.

Rahim Kamil


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


Dear Dato Rahim,

If you are Najib and there are 20 Hindraf chaps, or PAS or PKR trying to takeover your government, brandishing guns near Ampang and gathering crowd, and your intelligence telling you ammo from Sinapo landing in Pasir Gudang by the truckloads, do you send flowers to them and a red carpet ? Probably NTR would do so in our present chaotic political scenario......just to win a few votes !

If in olden days ,you are Alexander the Great you have them killed on the spot plus 3 generations down and burn their whole village and to be sure all other houses within 20 km circumference!.

If you are Gaddafi or any legitimate government for that matter,the minimum you would do is stop the rebellion. The more decisive the better.

I am not pro Gaddafi but I am appalled at the mass hysteria and blind frenzy even amongst so-called intellectuals that can be whipped up by the world media.
Watching CNN and BBC I can understand their agenda but the last one week even AlJazera has changed colours. I was confused because they seem to be joining the frenzy as well.

We have a masjid somewhere. Some of the makmun do not like the imam. He has been there for ages. Is it right to call any Tom, Dick and Harry to carpet bomb our neighbourhood and flatten the masjid, kill all the people around as well and at the end of the day hang the imam and his family. With our own 'oil' then rebuild the masjid and ask Tom or harry to choose the right imam. Congratulations Dato Rahim and Nadzru. You engineers are brilliant ! Brilliant indeed !

Today all things have more or less unfold......Qatar is part of the alliance of the crusaders....No wonder AlJezari was like that the last one week. I would like to use more expletives here but my classmate Nadzru will by now disown me !.

There is no limit to Muslims incredulity and sheer stupidity. Muhammad al Nauf, spokesperson for the disparate rebel group told Reuters arrogantly yesterday that the new Libya will be both SECULAR and Democratic. My God !

But anyway , why bother. Let us enjoy our briyani tonight. My 'good' friend Dato DC just emailed to say the Briyani at 'Spice of India' is a wee bit, 'tad' too spicy......but then he had had too much cheese at Oxford in the 70's. We cannot trust his taste buds. We are all 'budu' people so, we will follow Tan Sri Min's sixth sense...I am hungry already.

I will drown my sorrow on a couple of plates of lamb briyani. Probably I can persuade Tan Sri Min to sponsor me to go have a decent, expensive ,'brain 'makeover at Mayo Clinic to correct my 'PHD '[ permanent head damage] . It is getting very painful and lonely to not be able to see things as you guys see them. Really, this is getting very painful, lonely and sad! I also would like to sit back and enjoy life as you are.....

Ignorance is bliss !

Nik Howk

Post Script :

We had a nice briyani dinner at 'Spice of India' last night. I thought Nadzru and Dato' Rahim would 'slaughter' me outright for labelling them 'ignorant',but was quite assured since TS Min was there.I could trust him that he would be a decent referee as most Oxbridge product would do.
Surprisingly thing was a wee bit tame last night.....We were able to agree to disagree on the issue of Libya.

Three 'budu' people discussing from amongst other things, how to substantially persuade the current Federal Government of Najib Tun Razak,[ in the memory to his late father who was as far as we all could recall a really perfect gentleman ], to really be fair to 1.5 million ummah from Kelantan, all mainly 'budu' eating people, and praying to the same God as well, like him and his father.

Under Dr M, Kelantan already lost a big Pet Chem project as big as Kertih ,or even bigger to rookie, by then really unprepared and unstable Southern Thailand and that was some 15 years ago. That to me was the most 'daftest' ever decision made by a PM [ my personal opinion here and I certainly stand corrected ].One just need to drive from bachok to Tok Bali and internalise the level of rural employment that could be derive to really comprehend the effect that one stroke of the pen from this man had done to Kelantan. We are not worried about that now though it still hurt all thinking kelantanes like me to ponder over. . Let bygone be bygone, though at 85, he would need to answer to his God one of this days !

Back to oil business I have told by my friends at the dinner table that by current production capacity of 110,000 barrels of petroluem and petroleum derivatives equivalent per day over so many years since the inception of Petronas, I reckoned , if translated over ringgit and sen that would be around 150 million RM per year of income to Kelantan for that many years.

All and sundry know now that The Kelantan State govt will be taking Petronas and the Federal Government to court. On a good day with a full complement of fair judges on the bench, insyaallah, I got the 'fihrasat' in my dream last night that tells me that Kelantan will ultimately win.

With damages, accrued interest and all I would not be surprised if the settlement figure could well breach 15 billion. But knowing Tok Guru, I think he would be just contented to settle out of court for a mere 5 billion RM. He could be persuaded I believe as this can be taken in the spirit of between 'adik beradik'

You guys in the Federal Govt cannot go on cheating the Kelantan people forever. Truth will prevail.We believe Petronas is sincere about settlement . The problem remain with it's political boss. We have got to learn lessons from Libya, Yemen and Egypt.
Insyaallah !

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Of Libya, Tsunamis and Wrath of God.......

Say: O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty! Thou givest sovereignty unto whom Thou wilt, and Thou withdrawest sovereignty from whom Thou wilt. Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and Thou abasest whom Thou wilt. In Thy hand is the good. Lo! Thou art Able to do all things. Thou causest the night to pass into the day, and Thou causest the day to pass into the night. And Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living. And Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou choosest, without stint. Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security. Allah biddeth you beware (only) of Himself. Unto Allah is the journeying.
3 : 26-28


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



The Libyan war has now begun. It pits a coalition of European powers plus the United States, a handful of Arab states and rebels in Libya against the Libyan government. The long-term goal, unspoken but well understood, is regime change — displacing the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and replacing it with a new regime built around the rebels.
The mission is clearer than the strategy, and that strategy can’t be figured out from the first moves. The strategy might be the imposition of a no-fly zone, the imposition of a no-fly zone and attacks against Libya’s command-and-control centers, or these two plus direct ground attacks on Gadhafi’s forces. These could also be combined with an invasion and occupation of Libya.
The question, therefore, is not the mission but the strategy to be pursued. How far is the coalition, or at least some of its members, prepared to go to effect regime change and manage the consequences following regime change? How many resources are they prepared to provide and how long are they prepared to fight? It should be remembered that in Iraq and Afghanistan the occupation became the heart of the war, and regime change was merely the opening act. It is possible that the coalition partners haven’t decided on the strategy yet, or may not be in agreement. Let’s therefore consider the first phases of the war, regardless of how far they are prepared to go in pursuit of the mission.
Like previous wars since 1991, this war began with a very public buildup in which the coalition partners negotiated the basic framework, sought international support and authorization from multinational organizations and mobilized forces. This was done quite publicly because the cost of secrecy (time and possible failure) was not worth what was to be gained: surprise. Surprise matters when the enemy can mobilize resistance. Gadhafi was trapped and has limited military capabilities, so secrecy was unnecessary...............
George Friedman


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



Dear Nadzru,

As I expected, France, America and Britain, like vultures of old, wasted no time in going in for the 'kill'. France must have been preparing for this moment for years.

Libya will soon be handed to 'Hamid Karzai like' clones to divide piece by piece to MNC's such as Royal Dutch, EXXONMOBIL, Shell etc and etc.

Can our Petronas join in the fray as well ? Ranhill is already counting their losses. "Nadzru et al" has been exceptionally very quiet probably still too busy rehousing and relocating 'their' foreign Libyan workers in Italy.....

This is the socioppolitical Tsunami in the Middle East. Are we Muslims incapable of learning lessons from the present and the past? The Arab League give them a cheque and the 'barbarians' assume they can start burning the whole of Libya ?

When I look at the present I am always reminded of the past. It is painful. It is gloomy. And the future. The possible scenario of a few disgruntled HINDRAF youths parading in KL. Riot here and there. Sinapo joining in the fray.....soon BBC and CNN. Then 'No Fly Zone'...not long after that, North and South Malaysia.

Very far fetch you might say. Very imaginative. NTR and his clowns in Putrajaya may like me for this.

The point is, this new philosophy of international invasion is getting out of hand.
On the same merit israel should be invaded 40 years ago !

Nik Howk

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


[ from Nadzru Azahari,Arabist par excellence and troubled Ranhill director,'embedded' in Libya for sometime trying to relocate his workers to Italy ]


Dear Nik Hawk,

I was in Jeddah and just got home.

The tardiness and lethargy in reaction from muslim countries in general and arab countries in particular is that, I believe, their leaders do not differ in essence from Muammar Gaddafi. So an affront to Gaddafi is like an affront to their own selves. Fortunately they differ a lot from Gaddafi in the degree of tyranny and personal imbecility. I think Gaddafi is beyond parallel when it comes to his position at the peak of schizophrenia,lunacy and idioticism ;tyranny notwithstanding. Dictatorship is not mentioned as a lot of other African and Latin American leaders are in the same ilk. Dictatorship is soft science compared to tyranny and cruelty. If is just dictatorship then I think Gaddafi is a very pedestrian matter. The beauty of the arab world is that it has enough quorum for every shade of human character. So while, 90 % of the Libyans have had enough of indignity and suppression with and under Gaddafi there is still 10% that find him very acceptable. That 10 % of the Libyan population is 500,000. That is a lot of people! Enough to make a quorum for state TV orchestrated pro-Gaddafi demonstrators, thugs, spies, sycophants, militia leaders, etc. Arab leaders are masters in making that 10% as the only portion of their population that counts and hence Gadddafi is correct when he said that Libyans love him and will with him 'defend' Libya, 'house to house, cluster to cluster and lane to lane ' ( beit beit, dar dar, zangga zangga). Arab leaders always get voted in with 90% majority, as that is 90% from the 10%.

As an oil producing country Libya attracts world attention and business interest. Larger engineering companies in the oil industry in the ASEAN countries could never carry on business on just opportunities that come from PETRONAS alone for instance. So Libya is where opportunities are big. Fortunately for us engineering companies from abroad, the arab world as a whole offers opportunities, not necessarily at high tech level but even at oxidation ponds and sewage treatment plants level! The arab world is still way behind in pee and poo management, street lightings, landscaping, drainage and petrol station design. A top Jeddah hospital is still not anywhere near SJMC! So is Libya. Look at the TV pictures and you will see how unkempt and disorganised their civil infrastructure is. The whole country is still not engineered to sustainability. This, after years and years of oil production and trillions of dollars in revenue. If you wonder why would a humble firm like Ranhill can be still doing simple engineering projects like the design of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the housing connurbation of Tajura in Tripoli Libya, it is because the arab world is low tech! Don't be impressed with the compressed enclaves of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Cairo but look instead at the sprawl of disorganised Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina, Khobar, Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers. The Deputy Chairman of the Saudi Chamber of Commerce in Jeddah Sheikh Maazen told me last week that in summers, they employ bangladeshis to carry plastic water tanks from trucks to the upper floors of expensive apartments, for they have NO water. Come winters and the water from the rainfalls in Taif will rush down the barren hills and enter the sewerage ponds and Jeddah gets threatened from drowning in their own poo. They also use bangladeshis to put sandbags to prevent their poo water from pooing into their expensive homes. The Ranhill engineering office in Jeddah, never seems to stop designing simple stuff for poo management and flood evasion. This is a country that cannot sustain itself. There is no engineering challenge in this country of the Haramaein that can equal what humble Malaysia has ( and had) to offer.

Libya is not about the challenge of putting bread and mutton soup on the table. They have enough of that, indeed they are driven to obesity with food. It is the indignity of having an idiot as a leader and the wherewithalls with him, many of them correctly putting him as a case of clinical psychiatry and his institutions as psychiatric wards. The trigger came from their neighbours Tunisia and Egypt and the rest you have been watching on Al-Jazeera.

Wassalaam

Nadzru Azhari
PS :
Let us be fair to NATO and the UN resolution. Libyan oil is organised trade, very well organised. It is not as simple as pummelling Gaddafi to death and stealing the oil away. Gaddafi have been giving oil to them all the time! They are already in control of the export and importation and indeed even price fixing of Libyan oil. They don't have to send bombers to get more oil.


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


[From Tan Sri WAH]

Thanks Nadzru for filing an excellent view on the Libyan situation. I am comforted that my own personal suspicions of what truly are the issues in Libya and the motives that drive people onto the libyan streets are broadly affirmed by Nadzru's on-the-spot observations. I am deeply challenged and mystified by how much capacity Muslim societies have for pain and injustice from the tyrannical structures they have to live under. I have always viewed the phenomenon of Islam and Muhamammad s.a.w 's mission was revolutionary and liberating in nature; why the legacy of wretched acceptance by the Muslim masses of pain, poverty, squalor and injustice dished out by tyrants and despots? Europe and Christendom saw the start of liberation from feudal and clerical tyranny more than 5 centuries ago. perhaps we are just beginning to see the same finally overtaking Muslim societies, eventually sweeping away the structures of political tyranny, economic thievery and exploitation, intellectual servitude and religious obscurantism.


I am much concerned about Nikhowk's worry over the hypothethical'no-fly-zone-over-Malaysia' : not so much about the no fly zone itself as much as the fact that a sophisticated Malay-Muslim professional of considerable learning and intellectual capacity could think in those terms. the issues that the Arab street is currently engaged in are not unique to the Arab world. we have those issues nearer to home too. So let us save our paranoia for real existential threats from home-bred tyrants and despots - or biro tata negara can mark Nikhowk as a mission accomplished!


I shall be traveling again Sunday. So if the mood is there and the appetite is good, let us meet this week to resolve the Muslim world's problems over biryani and a leg of lamb. salam and kind regards,

WAH


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

[ from Dato Rahim Kamil, who called himself a'tired and retired Muslim activist, consulting engineer etc etc ]

Dear Ru,

With cynicism I almost wanted to say that we should have Islamic dictatorship and democracy in the same breath as Islamic art, science, city, house etc.

Until I reminded myself that Islam, Iman and the Kaabah belong to Him and Him alone, aptly acknowledged by Abdulmutalib when he was confronted by the general of Abrahah's army.

Secularism has cleansed the Muslim world of superstitution fossilized by defeat and intellectual stagnation. We can now renew our Faith, vote Islamists and the onion seller of Qom.

So we hope if we can face the reality that the turbaned ones will continue to grovel at the feet of the Qadhafis and Fahds.

A month ago I wrote to you that Tahir Square would be a picnic compared to Misrata and Benghazi when the mad dog of Tripoli/Sirte unleash his terror.

Why do we continue to deserve this punishment? Because we persist in abdicating our responsibility to the present day versions of Abdullah ibn Ubay, Abu Jahl, Yazid etc..etc.

Inna fatahna lakafathan mubina!

Salam

Dato Rahim Kamil


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

Dear Nadzru and Dato Rahim Kamil,

I am troubled by what is going on in Libya. Already the vultures are taking the Arab League impotence as an unlimited blank cheques. I still remember Italian General Graziani and Umar Mukhtar,The Lion of The Desert in 1905, what these bastards did to him ! The moment when The Ottomans were as weak as a dying gazzele, the Italian jackals moved in. Where is OIC in 2011? Is Libya going to be another Iraq ?

These socio-political Tsunamis hitting the Middle East and the triple whummy Tsunami hitting the Far East, is this wrath of God ?

If this is BALA, forget about the Arab despots and self serving dictators, but of all the people why the Japanese ? Such discipline and industrious lot.

Care to speculate why BALA falls on such stoic and exemplary people?
We know they lie on the geographical fault but so are the rest of us, perhaps even us in Malaysia. That geographical fault line is man's hypothesis only. There could be millions of 'subteranean' fault lines running every where, even under Malaysia as well, we do not know. Only God knows. Let us be humble on this issue. Science does not know every thing despite Dato DC , in his innocence like to belief!

WHY THE JAPANESE ?
WHY NOT THE Americans or British or the French?....or for that matter we Malays who are willing to subjugate ourselves to all the firauns and the abdullah bin ubays and what have you, come what may ?

Too many hypothetical theological questions, no answers !

Nik Howk


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


[ from Dato Rahim Kamil ]

Dear Dr Nik,

I will need to paraphrase my response very carefully so that it doesn't encroach on the boundaries of untouchable discourse.

We can't read God's mind but I do believe He will deal with Muslims and non-Muslims differently for the same offense. Still His wrath, onto Melayu or Jepun is too painful to ask for.

Wassalaam

Rahim Kamil

....................................
[ from Dato' Rahim Kamil ]

Dear Doc,

Some ulama will frown upon the slightest speculation on theology since the demise of the Muktazilah creed. The question you pose is as heavily laden as the Islamic response to atheism. As far as I know mankind is either mukmin (strictly tauhidic) or mushrik. So what about atheism which is not mushrik, unless we take the example of the firaun, or man who claim to be god as being an approximation of Marxism's "god as an image of or creation of man". In Arabic the atheist is Almulhid. I hope Ru can shed some light on whether AlIlhad exist in Quranic lexicon. Indeed it is interesting to read the tafsir of Allamah Tabataba'ie before JAIS raid our private libraries in search of Shii books. Tabatabaie speculated that Gautama Buddha is one of the messengers unnamed in revelation or Islamic history. I have pondered silently that there are reasons why the Jews Christians and Sabians are called Ahlulkitab in the Quran when in history and contemporary world they have waged wars on us, especially the followers of Paul who hijacked the teachings of Isa a.s. If we compare the wars waged against each other the Christians must have fought more against Moslems and Jews than the other way round. It is only recently that we fought the Jews over Baitulmaqdis. We may continue to compete and fight against the Christians because of their sheer number and territory but we cannot alter the fact that they are Ahlulkitab whose food and women are halal (or used to be halal if we follow latter day salafis) to us. The Quran even teach us that it is desirable to befriend them, albeit cautiously with their guile. Our conduct with them is defined, allowing me to speculate that although they have compromised Tauhid, Allah's Mercy on them is a degree higher than other mushrikun. However I am not prepared to call Buddhists Ahlulkitab even when I am tempted to agree with Tabatabaie's powerful tafsir. I used to stay for a long period (many months) for couple of years in Tokyo in 80s. Even before Internet pornography, Japanese hedonism and debauchery are shocking and unashamedly public (and pubic) in trains and printed materials. It is one of the most difficult society to talk about religion, especially Islam. Even "anything can do" Christianity can't penetrate the Japanese soul. I used to host a Japanese AFS student for one full year. The concept of God is alien to him. This was later acknowledged by a Japanese couple who converted to Islam. I haven't been to the Yoyogi Uehara mosque for a long time. If not for the expat Muslims there will be no mosque there. And I was told that pornography depicting sex in public is much worse than the time I lived and commute in Tokyo. I haven't seen a more depraved society than Japan. It's so normal and commonplace. Ironically everything else about Japan is squeaky clean befitting a stoic and disciplined people. Why??? Of course we Muslims have discarded sociology and anthropology so we have to wait very long to answer this. If we see the March 11 earthquake and tsunami from the perspective of Bala I can only surmise that God's wrath has something to do with the godlessness of Japan. On why the Americans and Brits are spared and we wish otherwise, I can only speculate on the theology of our relationship with the Ahlulkitab. And I pray I have not erred and may Allah forgive me for my shortcomings in indulging in a bit of speculative theology to understand the world around me and strengthen my Iman. Jazakallahu khair.

Rahim Kamil


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

[ from Nadzru Azahari ]


Dear Nik Hawk,

I am of the school of thought that Allah the Almighty and in his Essence, causing calamity and disaster to punish his creation is not in his 'engineering design specifications sheets'. Especially to the human species, whom He created to be his vicegerent , the receiver of his Message, the administrator of his world and who are above and superior to His angels and His satans.

He cannot be creating destruction by design, even to test, His human creation whom he has entrusted with a series of prophets and armed with His revelations that got compiled into treatises of how to conduct their lives in consonance with the nature of the universe that He has created. The universe that He created is a perfect organically engineered product. With all the wherewithalls; earthquakes, tremors, hurricanes etc. The earth plates moves and faults are created by virtue of these earthquakes and tremors the continental shelves that carry the embedment of fossiled organisms which created hydrocarbons in various phases, solids, liquids and gases, get disentrapped by these wonderful earth movements and fractures.

So would all the wonderful minerals that mankind needs to create his civilisation and to live acccording to the treatises revealed to the prophets. With that we have all the wonderful metals , oil and gas that got entrapped plentifully in Libya. Allah also created the wonderful and just laws of physics. 'Discovered' by a silly greek Archimedes while playing with his basin full of water, that when he put a ladle full of olives into it, there was a displacement and the water spilled onto the floor. Archimedes was not smart enough to be elected to the Senate of Athens, he was between elections and so had time to play with water basins and tumblers. So the principle of Archimedes is applicable to earthquakes and movements in the seabed. When the rupture and move, water is displaced and spills onto the shores of the land mass. Water then finds it owns level. Allah has not given water. Wisdom to evade taxes and mankind when it spills, it will simply spill horribly and with such awe until it meets its own level and then recede. Allah had however told mankind about the nature of His creation, how to handle it, avoid it, mitigate it and CONTROL it.

Unfortunately we cannot as his human creation ask for a reprieve that due to our negligence and mishandling of information and database , that He uses his Will and Power to make the water disobey the law of physics for the moment concerned. In the Quranic text, or any Abrahamic text for that matter, I am of the school of thought that ' Bala'' ( with a glottal hamza stop' is not a legal term and has a ' Shariatic' connotation. Neither does ' museeba'. They are not arabic/semitic words that describe phenomena akin to an action of God that has got to do with the ' message' of ' testing' or ' 'teaching a lesson' by creating havoc. They are simple words to describe outcomes of the laws of physics. One cannot produce a text appelled , ' the significance of Bala' and its Islamic intepretation form the Quranic sources and viewpoint'.

It will be as meaningless as Gaddafi's speech about pursuing the rebels house to house, courtyard to courtyard, alley to alley ( dar dar, beit beit, zangga zangga) and killing them with no mercy like they are wet rats ( he referred them to being wet due to his tear gas).

There may be closest to these incidences, like the destruction of the people of Aad and Thamoud ( for their transgression) by an earthquake, the people of Lot ( for homosexuality) and the elephants of Abraha in Mekka. However, that is another thesis that my school of thought would like to view from another angle , certainly not in the same light as the tsunami that hit Japan and Aceh.

Wassalaam

Nadzru


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


Dear Nadzru,

Congratulations Nadzru !
That my friend is political correctness of the highest order.

BALA is BALA. Does not matter whatever colouring you choose to pick what type of sugar or honey you choose to sweeten the ' black coffee'. Cause and effect are just for us mere mortals . God is beyond that but having said that we have a very 'scientific' God, otherwise Einstein would not have to his utter his dissapointment after having discovered HIM in his famous E = MC squared.

Aad or Thamud were probably like the Japanese: very clinical and industrious ,carving out monuments in the mountain and beautiful building and giants of their time, if we can give ourselves a wee bit of imagination. The Tsunami of Noah's time must also have a seismic explanation for the Nadzrus and Dato DC's of that time to pontificate the beauty of science and engineering but at the end of the day it was still BALA. Call it by any other name, but a spade will remain a spade.

It is our collective inability to call it as such is why it is always becoming a recurring theme in these years and age..
The Muslim ummah collectively currently has been in a state of Bala since the Ottomans were swallowed by the vultures of the West post World War 1 after which another Bala came in the form of Ataturk.

The sum total of it all is that since we collectively are unable to recognize this as our BALA,is why we still remain the pariahs and the scum of the earth that we are today.

1.5 billions ummah waiting for crumbs to fall from the High Table of Europe and America ! That to me is the ultimate BALA for us present day Muslims ! That to me represent Wrath of God ! We have lost all our balls and marbles !

It pained me to switch on CNN or BBC nowadays. Even AlJazeera seem to be no longer palatable. Whatever happened to Muslims 'honour and marwah' nowadays ?

Perhaps I need to see my optometrist to change my glass or something because I seem to be the only odd man out viewing it differently.

Nik Howk


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

[ from Dato Rahim kamil ]

Dear Nadzru,

It sounds a bit of dialectic materialism that tools of production can define morality. The meticulous Zen suited the Japanese soul to produce miniatures but those tools cannot define moral standards. If we begin to doubt Anwar's leadership because of alleged sexual escapades then we must judge nations with the same. Otherwise we "Let It Be" for suspected or proven fornicators and paedophiles or whatever.

Technology didn't make the people of Lut, Nuh etc (peace unto all of these prophets ) different from Japan, Los Vegas or even Malaysia. The Almighty didn't dispute their engineering prowess technology etc but question them on their rejection of His message. His Wrath didnt contradict His Beauty nor His Mercy. I don't see Him as a Newtonian or Nietsche god who construct the Laws of Physics and leave the world to Man to do as he wish. . And He did warn us of wrath didn't He. And He turned Sodom and Gommora upside down on the so-called vice-gerents.

It sounds a bit like Mother Theresa (or Marx) that He is unwilling to intervene in the laws of physics because He had elevated Man to a status higher than angels. If indeed He has constructed the Laws of physics and left the world to His vicegerent, stoic Japanese or stupid Gadafis, Mahathir or Anwar Ibrahim without the threat of His Wratth then why bother revealing the Quran where every 10 ayats or so repeat His warnings. Why bother with Hell? In fact let us all sing with John Lennon "Imagine there's no Heaven. And no Religion too...Nothing to die for.." Because we are His vicegerents. Are We?

Reminds me of my lessons in Marxism in philosophy of science for engineers - "No property, No religion, no family etc. So lets f..abundantly and freely ". The possibility that His wrath visited the Japanese in the form of earthquake or tsunami is always there, especially if we take a closer look at their life behind the veneer of advanced technology. Let's not be as beguiled as Marx was when he thought that the tools of production will define human epoch in its march towards communist Nirvana where everyone is actually good. Stoic, disciplined. From each according to his ability, to each his want. Marx had to construct this path to Utopia to save his Jews by eradicating Jewishness-religion and property.

I agree with the good doctor Nik that Bala can be in many form. Mahathirism is Bala, Anwarism is also Bala although I still don't believe this sodomy charade. Gadafi, Suharto etc are Bala too, besides "natural calamities". As a short-term Marxist (few months la) I tend to be harsh on anything that resembled materialist illusion as if human nature is very different from eon past. From the time of Nuh a.s to Gadafi's 2011, human nature has not changed, otherwise the Creator would have told.

Rahim Kamil


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

Guys,

I have gone to see my optometrist at Empire Gallery. He had good news and bad news for me:
" Sir, you do not need new specs. Your eyes are OK. You have what we in the business termed as PHD ?"
"What the f.. is it young man !?"
" Permanent Head Damage, Sir. Some form of chronic inflammation we call 'HAMKA-itis'. No cure. You have to live with the defect ".

OK guys, let us have the briyani kambing tomorrow ! This is depressing.

Nik Howk


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Universe : A Dichotomy of Perspective .. Same Physics..

Knowledge is double edged. Knowledge, divinely blessed by wisdom and 'fihrasat' leads to 'Makkah' while if it is peppered by a big dose of insolence, false pride and arrogance, will lead one to 'Rome'.

There is nothing wrong with being in 'Rome' except that it represent a complete dismal state of 'LOSS'. Those in Rome are not only 'lost!', but they cause others to be 'lost' with them. In linguistic Malay, "anda bukan saja sesat tapi bahkan menyesatkan ! Mashaallah !

The former is total enlightenment , the latter, despite superficially looking good and very clever,leaves one being, 'Deaf , Dumb and Blind '.

In my daily discourse with people,I have the displeasure of meeting many seemingly 'super' bright guys with even tertiary and brilliant post tertiary education; in the higher echelon of  civil service and private sector; from all walks of life, who unfortunately fall into this latter category.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi6yPJvCFU0&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ftF8sXzoWk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEQouX5U0fc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE7xRgfPjAI&feature=fvwrel

aaaahhhhh ! multiple universes but no God ! How quaint and romantic these scientists are.....!

Let us move over from Prof Michio Kaku to Prof Dr Muhammad al Mahdi.
"Prof. Dr. Muhammad al'Mahdi devoted his last days to training others in the knowledge and techniques he acquired during his lifetime. He was for over half of his life an atheist, convinced by the materialist science he knew so well that God did not exist. After he came to understand the non-materialist science of Einstein, particularly the necessary logical implications of Einstein’s General and Special Theories of Relativity, he realized that if he wanted to be honest as a scientist he had to accept that scientific data now very powerfully proclaimed that God did exist. It was his study of theoretical physics which changed him from a non-believer into a believer in God and it was the perfection of the revealed truth of Islam in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that resulted in him becoming a Muslim almost twenty five years ago. Before he became a Muslim he gave years of serious study to all of the world’s major religions and found that no other religion but Islam offered him the opportunity to remain both an objective scientist, and a true believer in God. Allah has indeed Blessed him greatly by His guidance."...quote unquote from www.islamic world.net

Professor Muhammad al'Mahdi passed away on 29th April 2006 after battling cancer of the pancreas for over 2 years. I find his profound insight on ' Scientific Proof to the Existence of God ','The Creation of the Universe' and 'The True Nature of Reality', very sublime, especially the ones on 'The Creation of the Universe'. Most beautiful insight indeed and I do agree with him, given the level of ignorance and the inherent natural tendency within our ummah to negate and pulverize any attempt at scholarship and original thinking, it would be a matter of time when someone would stand up and point out that this is 'kufr' and false 'theology' . 'Bidaah' to think this way , etc and etc.Most of these clowns forget that Islam, thinking and science,once were compatible terms !

A major portion of our problem today is that most in our ummah still hold on dearly to the mistaken notion that thinking and ijtihad ends with the 14th century. All that need to be thought and ponder had been done way back 6 centuries ago. That to me is the malaise and stumbling block within our ummah !

May Allah have Mercy on his soul and place him among the righteous.

http://www.islamic-world.net/videos/creation.htm



"We created not the heaven and the earth and all that is between them in play. If We had wished to find a pastime, We could have found it in Our presence - if We ever did."
22:16-17

"Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were of one piece, then We parted them, and we made every living thing of water? Will they not then believe? And We have placed in the earth firm hills lest it quake with them, and We have placed therein ravines as roads that haply they may find their way. And we have made the sky a roof withheld (from them). Yet they turn away from its portents. And He it is Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. They float, each in an orbit. We appointed immortality for no mortal before thee. What! if thou diest, can they be immortal! Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us ye will be returned.
22 : 30-35


Related Articles,
Click here Divine Decree : "al qada' wal qadar"

Click here Of Big Bang, Stephen Hawkings and Arash

Click here An Aidil Azhar Letter to an Agnostic Friend

Friday, March 18, 2011

Faces in Islam : The Power of Doubt.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG0gOMq4ihE&NR=1

The power of reasoning and scientific advancement were elements that kept the bludgeoning Muslim empire of that time going. When in the 14th century while the capitals of Europe were still dark at night,infested with rats and pestilence, the Muslim cities of Servile, Cordoba and Baghdad were in comparision , cities of light and enlightenment.Between the 8th to the 14th century the pursuit of 'ilm, ilm and ilm' was what that kept them apart.

When the light of Islam subsequently faded, when Muslims of that time thought ijtihad and thinking ended with the 14th century, that what need to be discoursed were already well discussed and what need to be discovered had all been discovered, the thinking caps moved on to Europe. The 'photostat' machines of Europe was busy working overtime. Indeed European renaissance that catapulted them to present day Western hegemony of knowledge was initially build on the template of science founded by the early Muslim pioneers.

Now in 2011, Muslims must get permission from The UN Security Council before they can go back to study the 'atom'. The Council likewise can sit and discuss at their time and convenience how to divide a Muslim country in whatever ways and size the want. The Barbarians of the 14th centuries have finally taken over the Main Table.
We Muslims must watch,wait and fight for crumbs handed down......

Such is the power of 'ilm, ilm and ilm'.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Muslims are so good at dividing that they can divide the atom. If you see two Muslims, probably they belong to 3 parties."

Imam Al Ghazali,

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Jewels from The Quran : Small Kindness

This is a digression from Shaykh Ismail Menk's discourse on The Quran. I find this Sayyid Qutb classic on Surah Al Ma'oun irresistible and would like to share with you guys. I think his almost sublime treatment of the surah is the best so far I have read, and I have read quite a few Tafseer works. While the salafi Tafseer Ibnu Katsir and Shaykh Rashid Rida were so dry, and very straight forward, and Hamka's treatment much better, Sayyid Qutb's play with words and emotion, I find very inspiring. Reading him provide me with the occasional 'honey' and 'nectar' that we often look for in our every day life within the Faith.

With the Tsunamis hitting the shore of Japan and elsewhere yesterday,and the socio-political Tsunami hitting the Middle East which inevitably will lead to further splintering of the Muslim ummah and of course our collective strenght, 'honey'and 'nectar' are hard to come by nowadays. [I certainly have my own personal perception of what the Tsunamis represent but in this age of political correctness and scientific advancement, will keep that perception of mine wholly private.]



Small Kindness
al Ma'oun

In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful!

Have you seen him who denies Our religion?
It is he who harshly repels the orphan
and does not urge others to feed the needy.
Woe to those who pray
but are heedless of their prayers;
who put on a show of piety
but refuse to give even the smallest help to others.

In the Shade of the Qur'an

This surah is a Makkan revelation according to some authorities and a
Makkan-Medinan one according to others (the first three verses are said
to have been revealed in Makka and the rest in Medina). The latter
opinion is perhaps more accurate. Yet the surah is one interwoven
entity, aiming at the establishment of one of the most fundamental
aspects of Faith. For this reason we are more inclined to take it as
being an entirely Medinan revelation. Its subject matter is more in
line with the topics of the part of the Qur'an revealed in Medina.
It is related to the phenomena of hypocrisy and false appearances which
were unheard of among the Muslim community in Makka. But there is no
need to reject the assertion that the surah is a Makkan, Medinan
revelation, because it is possible that the last four verses were
sent down in Medina and integrated with the first three on grounds of
similarity of subject. Having said that, let us now consider the surah
and its theme.

This surah of seven short verses tackles an important and vital issue
which could very well change the common meanings normally assigned the
terms "faith" or "Iman" and "disbelief" or "Kufr" Moreover, it brings
forth the fundamental truth intrinsic in the nature of the Islamic
faith, the enormous benefit it offers to all humanity and the abundant
blessings with which Allah favoured mankind when He sent them His last
Message.

Islam is not a way of life built on ostentation and superficiality. The
apparent aspects of the different acts of worship are, according to
Islam, meaningless unless they are motivated by sincerity and devotion
to Allah. Worship sincerely motivated produces effects within the
individual's heart which then cause him to act righteously and which
are reflected in a social behaviour which elevates man's life on this
earth.

No less true is the fact that Islam is not a loose, fragmentary, dis
jointed system from which one can pick and choose at leisure. On the
contrary, it is a complete way of life with acts of worship and rites
as well as individual and collective obligations that are mutually
complementary. Together they lead to a goal of which mankind is the
sole beneficiary, a goal which ensures that hearts are purified, life
is ennobled, and men co-operate for the common good and progress a
goal wherein abounds the blessings of Allah.

A man can profess to be a Muslim, that is, he accepts this religion
and all its principles, offers prayers regularly and observes other
of worship, and yet be lacking in the essence of faith and sincerity of
belief. In fact, he may be very far from these. For there are signs
which indicate the firm establishment of these qualities in men's
hearts.

As explained in the commentary on surah 103, "The Declining Day", the
essence of faith once firmly rooted in the hearts and minds, will begin
immediately to operate and manifest itself in men's behaviour. The surah
stresses unequivocally that, if this is not the case, there is no faith.

"Have you seen him who denies Our religion? It is he who harshly repels
the orphan and does not urge others to feed the needy." The surah starts
with a question addressed to all who can "see", generating suspense and
holding their attention in order to make them discover the target and
subject of the surah. Ah! Who is this creature identified by the Qur'an
as the one who denies the religion of Islam? Hence, the answer: "It is
he who harshly repels the orphan and does not urge others to feed the
needy." This definition of the disbelievers may sound surprising when
compared with the traditional definition of faith. but this is the core
of the whole matter. Indeed the one who denies the faith is he who
wickedly repels the orphan, humiliating him and hurting his feelings!
and who does not care for the needy or their welfare. For if the truth
of Islam has in any degree touched his heart. he would commit no such
acts. True belief in Islam is not a spoken word but an overall change
of the individual's heart, motivating him to benevolence and goodwill
for all his fellow beings that are in need of his care and protection.
Allah does not want mere words from His servants but demands deeds to
support the spoken words which, otherwise, are as weightless and
valueless as blown ash. Nothing can be more forceful than these three
verses in affirming this fact which represents most aptly the nature
of Faith.

We do not intend here to indulge in a juristic discussion on the
boundaries of faith and Islam. These are required in legal affairs,
whereas this surah states the facts from Allah's point of view and
judgement, which is quite different from the legal aspect. Next,
Allah offers a practical illustration of what is meant above: "Woe
to those who pray, but are heedless of their prayers." These verses
contain Allah's invocation against, or a threat of destruction to
those who offer prayers but are careless about them. Who exactly are
such? They are those "who put on a show of piety but refuse to give
even the smallest help to others," those who perform prayers but do
not aptly meet their requirements. They execute the mechanical aspects
and pronounce the verbal formulae of prayers but their hearts are never
alive to them, nor are they nourished by praying.

The essence and purpose of prayer and its component parts (recitation,
supplication and exaltation of Allah) are never present in their souls.
They offer prayers only to deceive others and not out of devotion to
Allah. Hence, they are inattentive when they pray. They only outwardly
perform their prayers. Muslims are required to offer their prayers
regularly, having in mind that their prayers are a manifestation of
their servitude to Allah alone. Thus, prayer leaves no result in those
who are neglectful and inattentive to it. Consequently they refuse to
be kind or helpful to their fellow beings and deny the slightest charity
to any of the servants of Allah.

Once again, we find ourselves presented with the fundamental truth and
the nature of this religion, a Qur'anic verse threatens with destruction
certain people who offer prayers precisely because they carry out
meaningless movements devoid of any spirit or sense of purpose,
intended for deceit and pretence, and not devoted to Allah. Since
their prayers have not affected their hearts and behaviour, they are
not merely useless but rather a sin for which they are liable to severe
punishment.

From all these, we gather the purpose behind what Allah demands of
His servants when He instructs them to believe in, and worship Him.
He seeks no benefit thereof for Himself, as He is All-Affluent, but
all He cares for is their own welfare and prosperity, purification
of their hearts and happiness in their lives. Allah wishes human life
to be elevated, happy, based on pure motives and characterised by
mutual compassion, brotherhood and purity of hearts and behaviour.

To where then is humanity driving itself? Away from this abundance of
mercy? Away from this wonderful and sublime path? How can mankind debase
itself to living in the wilderness of a wretched and gloomy Ignorance
when it beholds the sparkling light of faith before its very eyes at
the cross-roads where it now stands?
--
I am only the master of the camels, but the House has its own Lord
who is sure to protect it.

Abdul Muttalib to Abrahah, King of Abbysinia on the latter's intention to destroy The Kaabah
http://islamworld.net/docs/qutb/s105.txt
[ see Tafseer Syed Qutb, Surah 105, LINK ]

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Faces in Islam, [ 2]: Science and Islam



first part of a 6 u-tube presentation on Science and Islam.

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,
Createth man from a clot.
Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who teacheth by the pen,
Teacheth man that which he knew not.
96 : 1-5

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Jewels from The Quran : Episode 1

Early this month and most probably stretching up to June insyaalah I would venture into 2 aspect of our Ummah.

Firstly, from time to time I would introduce Shaykh Ismail bin Musa Menk, the present mufti of Zimbabwe, who will take us on a most beautiful journey from Surah Al Fatihah up to probably Juz 22 of the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran and its correct interpretation and oftentimes reinterpretion, along with Seerah Nabi and hadith, are pivotal to our survival and 'hasanah' here and the hereafter . In this context, Shaykh Ismail Menk is certainly very qualified to guide us towards the Straight Path.He certainly has a great sense of humour and tremendous knowledge and wisdom. This is probably the non controversial part of my presentation.

Shaykh Ismail Musa Menk, Mufti of Zimbabwe
Jewels from The Quran, episode 1
click here

Off the beaten track : Gunong Stong, Jelawang , Kelantan..

On my way back to Slow Temiang to get my monthly supply of 'fresh 'oxygen' and watch my 'gaharus' grow, I make a detour towards Gunong Stong, some 40 kilometres from Gua Musang, north-westerly,[ taking the alternative route to KB when you are about 5 km from GM and assuming you are driving from Simpang Pulai-Loging way...], and 3 kilometres from sleepy one street town, with the 'world famous' railway station, Dabong. Those of you guys who want to visit Stong one day can take a train from Sentral and stop at Dabong. The Camp Baha 'boys ' could collect you from there and bring you to the 'resort' at the foothill of Stong, first crossing the Sungei Galas. You may instead want to take a leisurely 2 hour drive from KL to Simpang Pulai via the PLUS Highway and then aim for Loging and 5 Km from GM, take the route to Dabong.All atotal of 5 hours drive, no traffic except on the PLUS Highway.

I do not know how Gunong Stong got its name but I suspect since it is actually one big lump of granite massif from top to bottom,and since the stony face of the Stong waterfall is so prominent the Kelantanese add a 'g' and remove the 'e' from the English term 'stone' and so it was named: Gunong Stong.



"Then, even after that, your hearts were hardened and became as rocks, or worse than rocks, for hardness. For indeed there are rocks from out which rivers gush, and indeed there are rocks which split asunder so that water floweth from them. And indeed there are rocks which fall down for the fear of Allah. Allah is not unaware of what ye do."
Surah Al Baqarah , 2 : 74

The waterfall here is 7 tiered, the highest of which is a bifurcation with one stream coming from Gunong Stong proper and another coming from Gunong Ayam. At tier 3 there are 3 interesting 'sinkholes' and I tried diving into one and it must be about 10 feet deep but do be careful because the diameter is just about able to fit the body and one might get stuck in there !

One may approach the resort people at the foothill to arrange for the climb and could spend the night there at the foothill before the climb but a better way would be to contact direct the Camp Baha 'boys' [ Ed, Lod and Sid ], the 1st pitstop' some 400 metres above sea level. Beautiful view from even Camp Baha. Very basic camping facilities and basic bamboo chalet available by the waterfall.

[ contact :0199591020, a guide would wait for you at the resort to guide you up to Camp Baha. As for the resort at the foot hill, there is nothing to shout about at present. It has been left dilapidated for years but I saw the new manager this time who probably will spruce things up.... and increase the charges as well! ].

Must warn you though.....no toilet facilities up there, all 'au naturale'.
" No excuse, you guys must have one otherwise how can this place handle all these Mat Salleh and tourists!", I scolded the boys. They told me they used to have a decent flush system once but all got clogged up by a small group of Singaporean chaps !
"Digging a hole in the ground up here at base Camp Baha is difficult, Sir, as you meet rock within a few feet". My God ! These boys, what petty excuse.

The climb to the base camp for sloopy, unfit city dwellers like me would take one and a half to two hours of often times vertical climb. But once you reach there it is worth it. Bring your own foodstuff. Water is plenty and FOC. Spend a night here and listen to the sound of the cicadas and baboons and other night creatures.

There was this particular specie of cicada that only make itself prominent at precisely magrib time with its eerie 'pontianak-like' cry that make my hairs stood on ends! After that, surprisingly no more sound ! This must be a magrib-praying cicada who act as 'bilal' calling on all those 'unseen' inhabitants of the forest to begin their nightly prowl......Seram !!.... The nights here are certainly long and cool....ideal and perfect for a nice long tahajjud and continuos dzikr !

The next morning watch the sunrise from the stony granite of the fall, have a proper 'maggi mee' breakfast maybe and proceed to the climb. Give yourself 4 hours of steady climb up and three coming down to base camp. Have another leisurely evening and night sleep before you head for home next day. For those of you who would rather have a lazy day by the fall, ask your guide to walk you up to the 'bifurcation'.

Try to keep your expectations and things simple here and enjoy nature, you will be OK ! Time does travel slowly up there at Camp Baha. In fact, keeping things and expectation low all the time in general seems like a good adage, making life easy for us and people around us. I remember during my mountain climbing days a few years back when I was doing Mount Kinabalu annually with my children. At 13,000 feet it was a different ball game even though I must say Kinabalu is one of the most friendliest 13,000 feet mountains in the world ! Because of its rarefied air, you just focus on being able to breath....breath in, breath out then take one step, breath in breath out then another step...that to me was a very 'sufic' moment : my bad loans, my difficult patients, my various wrong ' life and death' decisions, my disappointments with friends, colleagues and family, etc etc and etc,..... all forgotten.

Life after all is just three bated breaths: the one you have just finish, the one you are about to complete, and insyallah, the next one that is not yet actually guaranteed that it is yours !

Places like Gunong Stong bring me back to basic.......

"By the declining day, Lo! man is a state of loss, Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance."
Al Asr , 103 : 1-3

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

CHOLESTEROL

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Faces in Islam , Jewels from The Quran

Beginning early this month and most probably stretching up to June insyaalah I would venture into 2 aspect of our Ummah.

Firstly, from time to time I would introduce Shaykh Ismail bin Musa Menk, the present mufti of Zimbabwe, who will take us on a most beautiful journey from Surah Al Fatihah up to probably Juz 22 of the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran and its correct interpretation and oftentimes reinterpretion, along with Seerah Nabi and hadith, are pivotal to our survival and 'hasanah' here and the hereafter . In this context, Shaykh Ismail Menk is certainly very qualified to guide us towards the Straight Path.He certainly has a great sense of humour and tremendous knowledge and wisdom. This is probably the non controversial part of my presentation.

In 'Faces in Islam', I am going to take you guys on an intellectual journey across the vast so-called diverse and sometime confounding Muslim hinterland, probably starting first with the glorious days Of The Abbasid era, Muslim Spain, The Ottomans, and current Ummah. Currently there are an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims on this planet ie one out of every four human being is a Muslim. We carry a massive amount of cultural, historical and often times, pseudo religious baggage which when amplified and 'dissected' further with microscopic vision and intent, tend to divide and weaken us further.Jackals and hyenas are just out there to take advantage of our inherent and perceived weakness for indeed the opposite of Truth is Kufr and TRUTH has many enemies. Present day Abu Jahals, Abu Lahabs and Abdullah bin Ubays have unlimited funding, massive armoury including nuclear weopens and knowledge behind them. We just have TRUTH.

May I suggest you leave behind your views and 'position' and travel along with me. We will take that interesting journey, Insyaallah........Starting March !

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Muhammad Ibnu Abdullah, messenger of God

Faces in Islam............


In our first journey across time and space in 'Faces in Islam',let us acquaint ourselves with the principal actor, Muhammad ibnu Abdullah, messenger of God. Born some 1450 years ago in Makkah, orphaned at birth, illiterate but full of wisdom even during his youthful days,preordained in Loth Mahfuz in a distant 'land beyond land' at a 'time' before time' to lead the whole of mankind from kufr to TRUTH.

Let us listen to this presentation by leading orientalists and erudite scholars of Islam in the world on the subject of Muhammad Ibnu Abdullah, messenger of God. I find their perspective very fair and balanced.

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Al-Alaq
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth, (1) Createth man from a clot. (2) Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, (3) Who teacheth by the pen, (4) Teacheth man that which he knew not. (5) Nay, but verily man is rebellious (6) That he thinketh himself independent! (7) Lo! unto thy Lord is the return. (8) Hast thou seen him who dissuadeth (9) A slave when he prayeth? (10) Hast thou seen if he relieth on the guidance (of Allah) (11) Or enjoineth piety? (12) Hast thou seen if he denieth (Allah's guidance) and is froward? (13) Is he then unaware that Allah seeth? (14) Nay, but if he cease not We will seize him by the forelock - (15) The lying, sinful forelock - (16) Then let him call upon his henchmen! (17) We will call the guards of hell. (18) Nay, Obey not thou him. But prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah). (19)

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Al-Fatiha
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful (1)
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, (2) The Beneficent, the Merciful. (3) Owner of the Day of Judgment, (4) Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. (5) Show us the straight path, (6) The path of those whom Thou hast favoured. Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. (7)


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Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12

Prophet Muhammad's last sermon [ Khutbah ]
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...and by the way, 1.5 billion people on this small planet earth are some kind of raving lunatics to have followed Muhammad Ibnu Abdullah, messenger of God according to this lady!!
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Mashaallah, there is no limit to being Deaf, Dumb and Blind ! Hearing this apparenyly much 'educated' lady's ranting ,full of barbs and poison and anger, I felt blessed waking up every morning with my soul and faith intact to yet go through another day insyaallah with my faith in HIM unblemished and insyaallah when the time come for Izrail to pull my soul out of my 'halkum' I would still have the strenght to say: La ila hailllah, Muhammada rasullallah.

There is no god but God. Muhammad is HIS messenger.