Wednesday, September 19, 2012

utube rage...............



We Muslims , as an ummah, should not be overly concerned over the recent utube misrepresentation of our Prophet. These clowns in the West do not have a future that we all have. Instead we should  feel sorry and pity them for being lost sheep.

We are like a huge supertanker, moving on and on, albeit a wee bit slow about changing direction, but the  'captain'  is still very much in charge, and his 'compass' is  in good working order.

We still have our 'BOOK' [   http://tafseerkoran.blogspot.com/  ]   and the  SOP's are still there very much intact while the rest of the world are already in their 'dinghies' and 'safety boats'  rolling about in the sea without 'directions'.

We Muslims are enjoined, along with  the rest of humanity, to 'read' the two great Books of Revelation and Creation. We still have the first Book, 100 % fully intact, while the rest of humanity have had theirs pretty much adulterated and manipulated several times over, beyond recognition. Early Muslims from the 7th century to the 14th  gained much ground because they followed the precepts of the Book of Revelation and they were  in the forefront 'reading' the Book of Creation. We present day Muslims need to reassert our confidence in  the former and find our way back with the latter. A monumental task but something 'dowable'  with the proviso we stop aping the West and follow their dictates .

PR-wise, we  may think we are losing ground because we do not have CNN, BBC, CNBC, Aljazira, Hollywood and all that jazz. But by Allah we have  the internet, utube etc and etc ! With a wee bit of luck, in due process,  we may even be able to bring back those very  lost souls and clowns back  to 'fitrah'.

Just look at the Arab Spring ! Despite very heavy European and American involvement, things are not going in  the direction they would like it to be. 
' Cest Dieu Qui Direct ' ,  it is human to plan, Allah Direct.

This is the age of connectivity and globalization, and we better make full use of it. 
Allah, insyaallah, is behind us !

This seem  rather a simplistic way of my looking at things. 
TJ Winter and Yahya Rhodus look at the issue at a higher scholastic level  and plane :

TJ Winter aka Abdal Hakim Murad,
"Rida and Acceptance "
Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMuMS0dgNrI
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phdKJihf_hE&feature=relmfu
Part 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcun57cKSsc&feature=relmfu
Part 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt8VmlFV_ew&feature=relmfu
Part 5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl81VIIwH2U&feature=relmfu


Shaykh Yahya Rhodus,
" The Science of The End "
Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcQeu1v4KFQ&feature=related
Part 2 :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=areFiCkWZ1Q&feature=relmfu
Part 3 :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrxaTF_njeo&feature=relmfu
Part 4 :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UotEXTa3tA&feature=relmfu
Part 5 :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE0e76hj1dE&feature=relmfu
Part 6 :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZFVaSxRtXI&feature=relmfu









Monday, September 10, 2012

For Those Who Think : tafseerkoran.blogspot.com

Was in Alor Setar over the weekend attending to a medical school classmate's son's wedding [ Dato' Dr Zahari Che Dan].
Across the  table, one neurologist, 3 general surgeons, 3 family practioners, one timbalan naib chansellor and a lone plumber.
All talking of old days  'exploits' some 35-40 years back. 

I recollected borrowing Zahari's brand new sport bike to 'tayang' to a girlfriend in SecondCollege, MU.
It was an uphill climb.
On coming down the  steep Second College hill I could not understand the brake.
Whizzed across the road at 60 kph into the belukar !!
I am still alive today, mashaallah !

Could not sleep that night.
Life too short.
All of us, across the table, in our varying frailties and not 'young' anymore....
Never like this kind of meeting but this is a necessary  social 'evil' in our daily fabric of life....

A new website is born..............................
We will start with probably Menk's tafseer of al Fatihah, perhaps too elementary..
Dr Israr's would probably be more comprehensive...............
Utube is still not around when Mawdudi was here  otherwise he would be interesting........
Syed Qutb is more radical
Interesting possibilities, combination and permutation

http://tafseerkoran.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-quran-for-those-who-think.html








Thursday, September 6, 2012

Conversation on Islam : Philosophia Perennis


Dear  Mazeni,

Young man, you seem to be everywhere !
I was rummaging through Kapar, Klang yesterday [ my afternoon off from the hospital ], looking at some cool sheep called the Mulberry sheep of Barbados. They are sheep but look like goats, with little hairs ! It seemed they are resilient for our climate and I intended to get a stud or two for my 'hobby' farm, to cross with the local Malin breed...I stumbled upon a man, with a taliban-like janggut, a mafia in the local lembu business, forgot his name..he said he know you and you have a significant 'lembu presence' in  Kapar , near his. Mashaallah ! One of the best and safest pair of hands on this side of the southern hemisphere and the numero uno paediatric cardiology brain in the country, dabbling in lembu ! The agric people should have given you the NFC grant rather than to the husband of that MP from Menglembu. You would have been more substantive  and definitely not an embarassment all round to the government of the day !

Today, I was as usual, after Friday prayer, surfing thru the net for more info regarding the triad of  Martin Lings, Rene Guenon and Fridjouf Schuon plus minus  Seyyed Hoessin Nasr and lo and behold  I came across your most wonderfully written passage on Titus Burckchardt,  aka Shaykh Ibrahim, the noted sufi scholar.

OK, let me go straight to the jugular since both of us are busy people:
Years back when I was in 'communication term' with Prof Wan Mohd , I used to asked him about Martin Lings, who probably wrote one of the best , if not the most readable  Sirah on the Prophet. He just died at that time. The good prof said, " insyaalah, may god help him, he is a perinealist !".....the good prof sounded negative to me. Now the good prof does not dare come near me...[.I am an academic pariah probably, or he would suffer drastic pay cut, writing in my column !]

Later,reading about them, on the superficial level, with all that jazz about 'transcendance of religion' , at the superficial level.....it sounds  more negative.

I am a fan of Prof  SeyyedHoessin Nasr and spent hours going through his utube  lectures , and reading about him elswhere. I find that if we  do  allow ourselves to get beyond our superficialities , and our inherrent need to isolate and to compartmentalise these rarefied individuals into narrow confines, our view of them will not fall  into the narrow perspective as the madrasah's ustaz........you certainly know what I mean , I cannot put it into words....

WHAT IS YOUR  PERSONAL TAKE ON THIS perennialist issue?
Let me rephrase the question :
I want to 'bersangka baik' in the main.
From my limited understanding my take on them is that, what these people are actually saying  was ,secularism and materialism are the cause of man's heedlessness in modern time;
this heedlessness is not bringing us any where  except a path of universal specie self-destruct from the moral as well as material sense....let alone from the spiritual sense.
It is time that humanity go back to the great religions of the past [ traditions] that share many common threads.
That is the gist of their argument or position.

It is hard to belief that at their rarefied level that they are ignorant.
'Political correctness' maybe, given that Schuon, Lings and Rene , all share a Judeo-Christian perspective, before becoming Muslims. As for Nasr, my only guess would only  be 'intellectual arrogance' combined with trying to pander to a Western audience who only want to listen what is sweet music to them. Or otherwise lack of intellectual honesty in calling 'a spade a spade'.

In this perspective, I am sad that Tariq Ramadan seems to be following the same trajectory, though in a different landscape.....I pray not. 
We do not want to lose him, but we would be losing him if he carries on with his hare- brained project of 're-interpretation of the Quran.' ! 
[  http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/08/muddle-and-puddle-within-islam.html ]

......Of course some imaginative dissenting people, ulama'  and scholars included,are saying that these triad et al are saying the great religion of the world are all the same in essense.
there lies our problem  with the periennial philosophers......
then you have the bandwagon of clowns  and pseudo intellectuals from our local  nusantara breed, such as MM,  Kairi et al  etc and etc saying 'ah, all religions are the same, at the highest level' !!
Very suave politically correct position ! Good for election and getting votes...
Indonesia, our neighbour, seem to be a  very fertile breeding ground for this kind of pseudo intellectualism.

I think, and I hope that  we misread or overead these triad's objective. Or I may be wrong.
YOUR ESTEEMED  COMMENT PLEASE.

Nik Howk


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

Dear Nik,


Salam aidil fitri. I apologize for this late response to your e-mail. I do not access e-mails at home and it happened that yours came during the long hari raya break. When I first read it on coming back to office, I thought I need to digest a bit before responding, ya lah, not the usual kind of e-mail.

1)Like you and many others, I have learned a lot from the perennialist in terms of understanding our religion(and the need for one in general) from the philosophical and intellectual angle. Not that this is a necessity, the simple folks and the unlettered often have stronger iman than us, but why not. I find Schuon’s “understanding Islam” exceptionally brilliant, although I had to read and re-read a few times over, from medical school to MO and even bila dah jadi cardiologist. SH Nasr is also brilliant when he critiques modernity and the loss of spirituality, and is brilliant when he argues in defence of Islam, as well as his writings on Islamic art. I also agree that Martin Lings’ biography of the Prophet(SAW) though written in seemingly simple language, is very eloquent and inspiring. I also like biography on Shaykh Al Alawi, though it was written as an academic dissertation. As for Burckhardt, I think he is brilliant when he writes about Islamic sacred art, architecture and traditional communities. In his 20s as a young man he lived in Fez, morocco and learned Arabic and Islam from the great shaykhs of morocco, and a small book of his that I really loved is his translation of some letters Shaykh darqawi wrote to his pupils(letters of a sufi master, I think). In the 80s followers of shaykh ab qadir as sufi in the UK made a full translation of the rasail, but the language does not match burckhardt’s. So much so that I visited morocco twice esp the city of Fez in the 2 years I was in the UK.

To cut it short, I have a great esteem and admiration for the perennialists. I think they are intellectually gifted individuals and have a very important message to the modern man.
About philosophia perennis –I have a bit of misgiving of it. To bersangka baik , I assume that it is tawhid seen from  the western intellectual understanding of the concept although one can sense at times that this is treading on slippery ground. But it is definitely not the crude religious pluralism as preached by some, and worse, for political expediency. Even if we may ,think these gentlemen say that all “authentic spiritual traditions”( a term nasr likes to use) can lead to salvation – and this include  Hinduism and buddhism –but  I am also baffled that they chose the “shariat “of islam, and making themselves known to their readers as muslims.

2) In the early 90s, if I’m not mistaken, I read an article by an ex-follower of Schuon denouncing the deviationist teachings and practices of the sufi order he founded in Minnesota, tariqat maryammiyyah( as of Maryam , the virgin mother of Isa AS).
The practices allegedly include zikr sessions with men and women in the nude, and there is even a photo of schuon from the waist upward unclothed. Also weird drawings by schuon..Seemed like how modern day Sufism commonly end e.g al arqam, the darqawi followers in the UK,becoming pseudo-sufism around a highly charismatic cult figure. I did not investigate this further, but I heard nasr, being a faithful disciple of schuon, is also into this. You might want to check this out with Prof Osman bakar.  
If that is what actually happened to schuon in the twilight of his years, it is really sad. But No one can take away the brilliance of his works written nearly half a century earlier. 50 years is a long time and we change, sometimes for the better, somes the opposite. I do not hear of this about Burckhardt or Lings,and I hope I will not. At least Burckhardt, from some insight that nasr gave us, is a more of a contemplative and discreet gentleman, not someone who draws people towards him.

3)Yes, Kapar is where my kampong is, near puchak alam & saujana utama,and that is where I have my lembu and kambing. Am slowly developing the place so that by the time I retire it becomes a viable business operation that provides a few jobs and preserves part of my kampong from the fast encroaching urbanization. Farming, like many life skills, is something that even kampong kids today do not have. This is one aspect of “the crisis of modern man” that perhaps nasr should write about.

May I know your take on these too Nik?

mazeni

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

Dear Mazeni,

I am quite confused because these are not ordinary people.   They are creme de la creme of ultimate scholarship. It can be said that their 'road to Makkah' are highly esteemed, and by Allah , I pray that souls like Martin Lings, may find special place amongst the beloved.  Like you I 'bersangka baik'. But listening to this short Martin Lings interview down here, unsettled me a lot..........
[ it is still possible to miss the last  junction  on our' long road to Makkah 'and end up in  Mina  instead!  That is the fine work of 4 star General al Iblees. No one is immuned to him, at all levels, even at the level of a Tok Guru or Shaykh ! ]


Of course as Muslims we are urged to go back to the sunnah and ultimately the Quran to settle issues and in this respect I did not have to go very far.
Al Baqarah, 2 : 41, make my heart rest in peace . It is part of several ayat addressed to the Bani Israil of Prophet' time :

O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and fulfil your (part of the) covenant, I shall fulfil My (part of the) covenant, and fear Me. (40) And believe in that which I reveal, confirming that which ye possess already (of the Scripture), and be not first to disbelieve therein, and part not with My revelations for a trifling price, and keep your duty unto Me. (41) Confound not truth with falsehood, nor knowingly conceal the truth. (42) Establish worship, pay the poor-due, and bow your heads with those who bow (in worship). (43) Enjoin ye righteousness upon mankind while ye yourselves forget (to practise it)? And ye are readers of the Scripture! Have ye then no sense? (44) 

[ al baqarah, 40- 44, pickthal's translation ]

My understanding from the above ayat  , cross referencing with my tok gurus, Hamka, Asad and Ibnu Kathir, is :

"Hey, you guys of Bani Quraizah , Qunanu, Nadhir etc and etc [ those Jews community fringing  Madinah in 600+ CE ], Muhammad is MY new messenger. Listen to him ! His message is universal.  He confirmed your Taurat given to your ancestors in earlier time, if it still remain intact. Trouble is your rabbis and doctors of letter have already sold them, and 'doctored' them for pittance, centuries back !"

Of course this goes without saying that the flocks following Nabi Isa were already lost sheep with their bible by 600+ CE. The Council of Nicea called by Emperor Augustine, sometime in 200+ CE, only recognized  the Concept of Trinity as the foundation of  Christianity. The rest were heretical

Our Muslim position on this should be very simple and unequivocal :
If you guys can go  back to your original biblical source, Bible or Taurat, you guys are safe from HIS perspective.
If you can't and definitely you guys can't, 
then be practical and play safe:  ...Follow the way of Muhammad.

Failing to do so run you the risk of being HIS 'fuel and firewood for Hell'.
This is not my description or imagination. This is HIS promise , peppered everywhere in the Quran...for eternity, my friends....
and please do not say that you are not being forewarned.

Definitely there is no such thing as Philosophia Perennis in my book.
These highly educated and well meaning individuals are unfortunately misguided.
But then again , this is a free world, it is their choice......to be misguided or to be enlightened.
Huwallahualam.

Nik Howk





Saturday, September 1, 2012

Surah al Baqarah : The Opening Gambit....


Surah Al-Baqara
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Alif. Lam. Mim. (1) This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who ward off (evil). (2)
Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them; (3)
And who believe in that which is revealed unto thee (Muhammad) and that which was revealed before thee, and are certain of the Hereafter. (4)
These depend on guidance from their Lord. These are the successful. (5) As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn
them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. (6) Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts,
and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom. (7) And of mankind are some who say: We believe in Allah
and the Last Day, when they believe not. (8) They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not. (9)
In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie. (10)
And when it is said unto them: Make not mischief in the earth, they say: We are peacemakers only. (11)
Are not they indeed the mischief-makers ? But they perceive not. (12)
And when it is said unto them: believe as the people believe, they say: Shall we believe as the foolish believe?
Beware! They indeed are the foolish? But they know not. (13)
And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: We believe; but when they go apart to their devils
they declare: Lo! we are with you; verily we did but mock. (14)
Allah (Himself) doth mock them, leaving them to wander blindly on in their contumacy. (15)
These are they who purchase error at the price of guidance, so their commerce doth not prosper, neither are they guided. (16)
Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindleth fire, and when it sheddeth its light around
him Allah taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, where they cannot see, (17)
Deaf, dumb and blind; and they return not. (18)

Pickthal's tranlation of Surah al Baqarah, 2 : 1- 18


I love Surah al Baqarah
One of the many reasons is that :
 its opening gambit in its 1st 18 ayat always frightened the hell out of me,
the ayatul kursi [ 254] come very useful when I am alone in the forest , before I sleep, or when I feel I need the 'al Ghaiba' protection.
The last three ayat of the surah , [ 284-286 ] ,I read it most times in my solat, my favourite in fact,  because it always reminded me  and sums up  my unequal relationship
with HIM, a fairly balanced combination of fear, awe and everlasting hope...

It is however the 1st 18 ayat that make me lose a lot of sleep.
2 ayat on believers, 2 on the outright kuffar and omg !, something like 12 on people like most of us... Many will take exception of the word 'most of us' that I used here.
'The neither here nor there' people, of what George W Bush [ he is probably drunk most time on his Texas farm now ] put famously as, 'ARE YOU WITH ME OR ARE YOU AGAINST ME.
Yes, are you with HIM, or are you not with HIM ?....God may ask

The top guns amongst us wheel and deal 100 % of the time on riba.
The rest of us mere mortals have our car, housing and whatever loans on interest.
we think  full time material and secular thought.
Our visions and aspirations are mostly secular.
When we have disputes we have them settled by man-made laws.
We cannot think beyond Reid, at least in Malaysia.
It has even become ' pariah 'and uncivilised to even wonder about hudud or the sharia.
This political correctness has even crept in the local Muslim minds.
In some places in the world, one may even get 'droned', nuked or a UN resolution passed for outright  invasion, if one think sharia !
Just yesterday someone brought up a case in our courts that cross dressing is indeed a human right
Homosexuality and lesbianism are ok !
To not want to accept now is no longer tenable in the public sphere

Zikr, fikr, solat, alms and doa are now dinausaurs in our day to day lives
And if we do, there are obvious lack of presence
Our children, blinded by 24 hours of astro and video games, we do not know what go on in their tiny weeny brains.

Right now seem to be inordinately wrong, and wrong become obviously right.

Deaf, dumb and blind; and they return not.........
remember that in a time before time, this conversation took place :
'alastu biRabbikum?'..am I not your lord ?
'balaa shahidna'....yes! of course You are....!
and now sadly, Deaf, dumb and blind; and we return not.........

Nik Howk

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

 Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:23:01 +0800
From: kdin63@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: al baqarah...opening gambit.
To: drnikisahak@hotmail.com
a friend made a comment why the word gambit was used for  surah al-baqarah..he associated the word to a chess game...
 ..........................................




But why not ?



I was  a chess player in my younger Malay College days and I liked to start most games defensively by adopting moves known in the business as 'Sicilian Defence'.
Not an aggressive way to start a game certainly, defence moves made all  around the 'King' in place right from the beginning.
Allah chose to start al baqarah right away touching the jugular: the al munafikuns !!!!  

Allah could open up His Divine Letters to us in any way He likes...He could discuss apples and orange, night and day,seasons of the year etc and etc
But He chose to address the issue of believers, unbelievers and al munafukuns rightaway at the opening surah 2 !
foretelling us that at the end of time almunafikuns will form the great majority of us, Muslims......
of course  the great majority of us are believers !........but 'separuh, separuh'.
One prof even sees it fit to want to reinterpret the quran so that it can brought in line with the  current western philosophical thots and practice.
[ Tariq Ramadan, http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/08/muddle-and-puddle-within-islam.html ]


Nik Howk

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


Subject: Re: al baqarah...opening gambit.
From: aisyalam@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:41:18 +0800
To: drnikisahak@hotmail.com



Who believe in the Unseen---Muhammad Asad's tafsir has it as---Who believe in the realm of that which is beyond human comprehension---so much wider in meaning and necessarilly refers to the limitations of the human intellect---something that Prof. and others like him should take heed of in wanting to re-interprete the Holy Qur'an---according to their desires. Has not Allah swt told us that of knowledge He has given us just a little bit?

Adam


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



Adam,


What kept me awake and frighten the hell out of me all day whenever i approach surah al baqarah is the fact that in nabi's time the issue of al munafikun only arose at the time of the occasional ' roll-call ' to the war-front, defending against the invading kuffar army of Makkah. Then the likes of Abdullah bin Ubays et al came to the  fore,with their excuse, their misgivings, and  notably,their MC's !!

Otherwise things are pretty cool in downtown Medina : the Jews keeping to themselves on the fringe, the Ansars and the Muhajirins going about their daily 'cari makan' business peacefully, and the souks, I would imagine , as busy as could  be, like Chow Kit Road  in  KL in 2012. Al Munafikun remained inside the 'hearts' not something that could be seen. All joined nabi in prayers......

Now, in our time  jihad is no longer fashionable. In fact I would not be surprised that in a few years time UN would even  literally ban the word from our daily active vocab.
Rohinghas can die by thousands in Burma,
Chechens could still continue to be slaughtered by Putin for decades,
Palestinians can continue to be treated worse than dogs,
and NATO and America can go in and out of any 'Muslim' country at every opportunity for a variety of rhyme and reasons,
and we the ummah unwittingly enjoy the show on Aljazera, CNN, CNBC and BBC and continue to think it is OK. ' We are the problem that need to be solved' !

From another perspective, I just wonder in my heart of heart whether our flip flopping and dragging the legs on hudud and sharia in our muslim majority country;
our inability to rid from our lives the complete stranglehold of riba, capitalism and secularism;
our utter lack of presence in our daily prayers, solat, fikr and zikr;
our scholars and ulama's insipid and inconsequencial presence on the scene;
whether all of the above constitute 'treasonable' acts big enough to constitute the title of 'al munafikun'.....or worse ?

All these kept me awake all night, thinking......
I am scared.
I am scared that  I will not be counted as one of those who will  be allowed to go back to our original paradisal state.
Even the late dr israr, the great Pakistani thinker of our time, after Iqbal,[ utube below] was avoiding this rather sensitive issues I brought up above in his short  3-hour discourse on the opening gambit on al Baqarah.

nik howk