Friends ,
Frankly , I do not know whether I should feel sad or happy .
Anwar Ibrahim won with a bigger thumping majority .Just only more than 3000 votes than Wan Azizah's 13,00o ,some detractors from the other camp might say .But this is a Malaysian by-election in the hinterland of 'Serba Boleh' .With all the 'sumpah serapah' [that made a mockery of the sanctity of Islam] as preamble and the might of the government of the day brought to bear .
Again the nagging doubt ,'did he do it or did he not do it!?' playing in the mind .Was Rusmah ,and by association ,Najib guilty or not guilty as alledged ?GOK ,God Only Knows .Was Pak Lah a party to the crime ,by not taking proper wise action when the rumours initially cropped up ,or was he 100 % ignorant and sleeping on his 'job' ?Some detractors ,including Dr M ,might say he has been sleeping throughout .Again GOK ,God Only Knows !
This , my friends , is the land of 'Serba Boleh' ,pick your choice and make your stance .People of Permatang Pauh though have made their stance loud and clear .The government of the day can show blue film ,real or imagined ,repeat a thousand time ,of the guy with his 'Dick' fully erect and thrusting , shafting into the now world famous anus horriblis ,and yet the guy would have won with a much bigger majority .The people believe Nik Aziz and Abdul Hadi have more credibility than Pak lah ,Najib ,SyedHamid and the rest all combined ! Some may have doubt Anwar after the 'sumpah serapah' but very few doubt Tok Guru Nik Aziz 's sincerity [ and 'sixth' sense ] over his support for Anwar . This old man does not get easily excited over 'money' and power as Najib et al do .
This last minute support ,I believe ,was pivotal in the subsequent thrashing of UMNO .Such is the magnitude of the credibility gap present ,that whenever anyone on the side of the present government opens his mouth ,that very comment works against their candidate .What has gone wrong with the 'think tanking ' in UMNO nowadays !? Has it been relegated to a 30 plus year old Oxbridge graduate who obviously is still too' wet in between the ears '!
In Japan ,such heads of government would have disappeared in the wee hours of the night and in the privacy of their rooms ,quietly commit harakiri .Over here they can only proudly pronounce to the world that ,yes ,in Malaysia we are proud that democracy is working !It must have been a brilliant discovery on the part of Najib ! Democracy is actually working !
Is this going to be the dawn of a new era in Malaysian political development and maturity ?Where politicians and cronies ,top guns in government no longer have the blank cheques to sign and do as they wish or are we going to see more of the same ?Most importantly for us Malays Muslim ,are we just beginning to see the ugly head of Non Malays Muslim clamour for more of the flesh ?Do we have to move out of the veranda and stay in the cowshed ,having just given the master bedroom to the guest ?
Winning the election is simple ,Anwar might find ,and even moving right on to Putrajaya might not be too difficult given the current Raayats' dissapointment with UMNO and BN in general ,but running a pluralistic society such as ours ,with that many fault lines and divergence ,need more brain than what clowns like Bush and Blair have all combined !
Congratulations Anwar !
Dr Nik Howk
PS :
If you are going for the jugular this time around Anwar ,make sure your 'think tank' has in them that something extra called 'wisdom' to walk the 'mine field' that is Malaysia .
"This is not yet the end ,nor is it the beginning of the end .This is just the end of a beginning "...............
Sir Winston Churchill
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”...
Abraham Lincoln
"Do not doubt your power ,lest you give power to your doubt"
Some little known Greek philosopher
"Our typical Malaysian'Think Tank' advising big time Ministers, going for higher office ,normally brainstorm :a lot of storm by little brains "....
Dr Nik Howk
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Pearls & Gem : Imagine .........
Friends ,
Imagine .......
A whirlwind trip from Mekkah over the barren desert to Jerusalem's AlAqsa , and then many time swifter than light , to the outermost border of unreality into reality ,Sidratul Muntaha to meet the Absolute Reality .
You say : "Peace and Felicity to only Allah the Most High "
He replied : "Peace and Felicity to you ,messenger of Allah ,with My Rahmat and Berkat"
You replied :"Peace and Felicity to all of us abdals of Allah ,who are 'soleh' .I accept that there is no god but Allah and I accept that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah ."
The angels from down below boomed :"Our Lord ,give Peace and Felicity to Muhammad ."
Imagine .......Once back home with the Message you have to face clowns like Abu Lahabs and Arwa ,Abu Suffians and Hinduns and the likes of Abdullah bin Ubays............generations and generations of them !
"Imagine ..........
There is no heaven ,
Imagine there is no hell ,
...and there is no soul too,
....You may say I am a dreamer ,but I am not the only one ,not the only one ......"
John Lennon's Imagine leads to Rome , the other ,to Mekkah !
Pick your choice ....Without constant contact with the Absolute Reality ,we are just 'lonely people'.........' kubur masing masing !'
Imagine .......
A whirlwind trip from Mekkah over the barren desert to Jerusalem's AlAqsa , and then many time swifter than light , to the outermost border of unreality into reality ,Sidratul Muntaha to meet the Absolute Reality .
You say : "Peace and Felicity to only Allah the Most High "
He replied : "Peace and Felicity to you ,messenger of Allah ,with My Rahmat and Berkat"
You replied :"Peace and Felicity to all of us abdals of Allah ,who are 'soleh' .I accept that there is no god but Allah and I accept that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah ."
The angels from down below boomed :"Our Lord ,give Peace and Felicity to Muhammad ."
Imagine .......Once back home with the Message you have to face clowns like Abu Lahabs and Arwa ,Abu Suffians and Hinduns and the likes of Abdullah bin Ubays............generations and generations of them !
"Imagine ..........
There is no heaven ,
Imagine there is no hell ,
...and there is no soul too,
....You may say I am a dreamer ,but I am not the only one ,not the only one ......"
John Lennon's Imagine leads to Rome , the other ,to Mekkah !
Pick your choice ....Without constant contact with the Absolute Reality ,we are just 'lonely people'.........' kubur masing masing !'
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Not So Pearl & Gem :Is There Life Beyond Anwar & Najib ?
Friends ,
Just 8 years ago the night DPM Anwar was sacked and sent to Bukit Aman ,while the whole of KL was tense and there were some street demo ,Dr M was noted to be 'cooling' his nerves riding his favourite horse at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club .I scrawl a badly written note to Dr Siti Hasmah [that was pure madness but when you go ballastic what else can a poor citizen like me do] .
"..... your hubby is already 75 ,and he may need to meet his God anytime , and if he is not correct about Anwar I just wonder how he is going to explain to his God why he did what he did !I hope he is right !If Anwar is wrong he deserve more than a jail sentence .He deserve to be shot ! Both your husband and Anwar have let the Nation down ! "
My house phone went 'numbed' for a couple of days .My wife scolded me for being both dumb and crazy .It was obvious ,and we accept that we were being watched by 'Big brother' but it was all worth it ,at least I get that off my chest and able to maintain my sanity .Five long days later came the reply :
"...We have no choice .My husband was tipped off by SB for sometime .He picked Anwar because of his Islamic agenda .My husband can stomach the 'economic consequence'[ she must be referring to Mirzan's bailout by Petronas] but cannot accept 'this thing ' about him ....My husband has no choice but to act.......Only Allah knows ! " .Only Allah knows ,Dr Siti Hasmah wrote .
That was our former 1st Lady .Many now may despise Dr M for letting down the Nation by eroding the Judiciary, IPP deals to friends etc etc [ to be fair ,retrospectively we have a tendency to only remember the negatives ! ,and that is human ] but we can never get a better Ist Lady again like her .No 1st Lady in my book in the near future will come any better packaged than Tun Dr Siti Hasmah .Even though I did not agree with her reason and Dr M's action ,Tun Dr Siti Hasmah and myself ,we got on 'famously' after that letter .
As A citizen I was just doing my job sending her my 'dirty emails about what I thought of her husband's actions and inactions .The PM was behaving like a dictator ,his cabinet were filled by people who behave like poodles ,the feeling of the raayats need to be channeled .I was just playing a role of devil advocate .
I even gate crashed into A Sri Perdana 'do' for GPMS people one Ramadan night ,prayed beside Dr M but I never spoke a word to the old man .As a citizen I cannot forgive what he did to Tun Salleh Abas . That was a mortal sin and un-statesmanlike !You may say I may be suffering from a ' small man ' syndrome ,praying the Magrib prayer in his house ,by his side but refuse to talk nor shake hand with a great man .But even a small man must be given his day and that was my day I reckoned !
Now 8 years on we are back to square one .Is Anwar's case a malacious lie to kill off his political ambition and maintain the current UMNO status quo in Government despite it's increasing irrelevance , or is he really what they depicted :A brazen homosexual masquerading as a future post modern 'Saladin AlAyyubi' , the one that will bring the Muslim Ummah forward along with others in the Ist World ? The suave Muslim statesman who can court and dine and play ' balls ' with the American and the Kufr West and East and yet push the Islamic agenda ahead..., or just a lowly ' sodomist' in his private life .
Long after the court has adjourned and sentence being passed in the near future ,this question will never be answered .Only Allah and Dr Wan Azizah know .As Dr M succinctly put it recently ,the Appeal Court may have decided he was not guilty , but that does not mean he did not do it !
The political scenario is however very simple .The court case will go on .Come August 26th Anwar will win the Permatang Pauh by election hands down .The Mattress Extravaganza in court will take months .Anwar with his panache and winning ways in Parliament will be able to form the government in no time given the increasing irrelevance of UMNO nowadays .Pak Lah will find himself either deposed or will be an incoherent Head of Opposition .This man has been incoherent for sometime now anyway .The court case will by then be also irrelevant as irrelevant as the Altantuya case presently .
Scenario 11 ,Anwar still wins his by- election by as big a landslide as in earlier scenario,but by a stroke short of a miracle , could not turn around the Parliament .The court case goes on and found him guilty .He goes to jail .Syam Apakahnamadiadahtu become an instant bumiputra millionaire .Come 2010 ,Anak Pak Jab becomes the PM !His analyst friend ,Sirul and Co get off scot free : cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that Altantuya may actually has accidentaly blown herself up by mistake at the material time of her death !
The 1 billion dollar question now is can we Malaysians live with the uncertainties surrounding Anwar ?Do we not have other choices ?Is there really a dearth of real political talents that we have to hang our future and our children's future on him ?Anwar may be innocent ,or he may be guilty ?Do we want to transfuse possibly 'tainted' blood into a bleeding patient or just throw the bag into a waste basket and re-order a new fresh one ?Do we have a fresh one ?
Is the Malaysian Muslim's ummah interest best served by Anwar's Pakatan ?There was a deafening silence from Sivarasa and Co on the Malaysian Bar 's issue on ' Conversion to Islam' .We do not expect Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh to be sympathetic to us on this issue or any issue for that matter as we know very well who they are .Has not the Malaysian Muslim ummah given in enough to the non Muslims Malaysian or is it a case of 'dah bagi peha nak beri semua pula' ?
They used to ask for a Merdeka University, there are more than a hundred now littering the Nation .They speak about equality and freedom of religion ,Selangor is littered with kuils at every nook and corner and no one has ever been prevented to practice or preach ,they talk about equal economic share ,my God ,80 % is still not enough !Go to London ,New York or Sydney and one will know what religious and economic freedom mean !In Switzerland today we learn that the Western liberal society ,as what they claim they are ,even are not happy to allow the only mosque there to even have a small minaret : so much for religious freedom .
This generosity by the host has to stop somewhere !And Anwar's Keadilan does not seem to know the edges .
Now what about Anak Pak Jab ?People's perception is very important .People perceive he cannot control his wife and his lust !Fullstop . It is just perception , no hard proven evidence .In a court of law ,no hard evidence , the case is thrown out ,the plantiff wins and you pay cost .In politics and election ,perception is everything !
The Altantuya's case is still on and will be for a few more months ,so far we are going round and round and none of the brilliant legal minds ever have the courage enough to ask publicly in court ,the most basic of question as to who is 'the big gun' behind these policemen ,Sirul and Co !Instead we are going round and round in circus .Again public perception .Is Rusmah Mansoor a chronic Mrs 10 % as is the popular public perception that she is ?Again all innuendoes but no evidence ,legal or otherwise .Just heresay .Public perception .Though in Malaysia for sometime in the past public perception seem to be correct ,rather than the watered down official version .Not now in this new openness under Pak Lah .
Yet again another case of possibly 'tainted' blood !Do we want to use it on our dying patient or thow it away and just re-order a new one ?
Is Muhyidin Yasin or Rais Yatim etc etc so inferior to Najib Tun Razak ,that he is irreplaceable or is feudalism so well entrenched in present day UMNO that it cannot be changed ?Is UMNO so impervious to change that it can afford not to care anymore about public perception ?Are individuals more important than the sum total ?Does UMNO still not believe the general perception that it is rotten to the core and need major cleansing ?Is UMNO still in a state of denial ?
What is happening to the young turks in PAS that they collectively cannot change the mindset of the old ones ?Is continuation of the PAS -UMNO dialogue too lowly for PAS that it is not worth having ?Is Islam to be limited to the parochiolism of Kelantan or the symbolism of the kopiah ?Or is Islam to be perceived as Allah's chosen universal solution to human problems on this planet Earth ,applicable to both Muslims and Non Muslims ?Is Islam cutting edge enough to be at the peripherry of scientific knowledge and that we Muslims should by now be slicing genes and breaking down the atoms for human endervour ?Or are we just happy with the kopiah symbol of backwardness , poverty and mediocrity ?
I am just a simple doctor plying my trade. I am not even a corporate surgeon or thinking politician .I have more questions than answers but in my opinion ,presently if we were to survive well the tightening 'vice' by the rest on our culture ,economics and religious interests ,we have to make a quantum leap forward .We have to think beyond Anwar and Najib !A major paradigm shift .Throw away the possibly 'tainted' blood into the dustbin of history and start afresh !
Was it Tun Musa Hitam who 30 years back told us to be a 'little bit kurang ajar' on our own turf ?The time is now .
Allahualam .Just 8 years ago the night DPM Anwar was sacked and sent to Bukit Aman ,while the whole of KL was tense and there were some street demo ,Dr M was noted to be 'cooling' his nerves riding his favourite horse at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club .I scrawl a badly written note to Dr Siti Hasmah [that was pure madness but when you go ballastic what else can a poor citizen like me do] .
"..... your hubby is already 75 ,and he may need to meet his God anytime , and if he is not correct about Anwar I just wonder how he is going to explain to his God why he did what he did !I hope he is right !If Anwar is wrong he deserve more than a jail sentence .He deserve to be shot ! Both your husband and Anwar have let the Nation down ! "
My house phone went 'numbed' for a couple of days .My wife scolded me for being both dumb and crazy .It was obvious ,and we accept that we were being watched by 'Big brother' but it was all worth it ,at least I get that off my chest and able to maintain my sanity .Five long days later came the reply :
"...We have no choice .My husband was tipped off by SB for sometime .He picked Anwar because of his Islamic agenda .My husband can stomach the 'economic consequence'[ she must be referring to Mirzan's bailout by Petronas] but cannot accept 'this thing ' about him ....My husband has no choice but to act.......Only Allah knows ! " .Only Allah knows ,Dr Siti Hasmah wrote .
That was our former 1st Lady .Many now may despise Dr M for letting down the Nation by eroding the Judiciary, IPP deals to friends etc etc [ to be fair ,retrospectively we have a tendency to only remember the negatives ! ,and that is human ] but we can never get a better Ist Lady again like her .No 1st Lady in my book in the near future will come any better packaged than Tun Dr Siti Hasmah .Even though I did not agree with her reason and Dr M's action ,Tun Dr Siti Hasmah and myself ,we got on 'famously' after that letter .
As A citizen I was just doing my job sending her my 'dirty emails about what I thought of her husband's actions and inactions .The PM was behaving like a dictator ,his cabinet were filled by people who behave like poodles ,the feeling of the raayats need to be channeled .I was just playing a role of devil advocate .
I even gate crashed into A Sri Perdana 'do' for GPMS people one Ramadan night ,prayed beside Dr M but I never spoke a word to the old man .As a citizen I cannot forgive what he did to Tun Salleh Abas . That was a mortal sin and un-statesmanlike !You may say I may be suffering from a ' small man ' syndrome ,praying the Magrib prayer in his house ,by his side but refuse to talk nor shake hand with a great man .But even a small man must be given his day and that was my day I reckoned !
Now 8 years on we are back to square one .Is Anwar's case a malacious lie to kill off his political ambition and maintain the current UMNO status quo in Government despite it's increasing irrelevance , or is he really what they depicted :A brazen homosexual masquerading as a future post modern 'Saladin AlAyyubi' , the one that will bring the Muslim Ummah forward along with others in the Ist World ? The suave Muslim statesman who can court and dine and play ' balls ' with the American and the Kufr West and East and yet push the Islamic agenda ahead..., or just a lowly ' sodomist' in his private life .
Long after the court has adjourned and sentence being passed in the near future ,this question will never be answered .Only Allah and Dr Wan Azizah know .As Dr M succinctly put it recently ,the Appeal Court may have decided he was not guilty , but that does not mean he did not do it !
The political scenario is however very simple .The court case will go on .Come August 26th Anwar will win the Permatang Pauh by election hands down .The Mattress Extravaganza in court will take months .Anwar with his panache and winning ways in Parliament will be able to form the government in no time given the increasing irrelevance of UMNO nowadays .Pak Lah will find himself either deposed or will be an incoherent Head of Opposition .This man has been incoherent for sometime now anyway .The court case will by then be also irrelevant as irrelevant as the Altantuya case presently .
Scenario 11 ,Anwar still wins his by- election by as big a landslide as in earlier scenario,but by a stroke short of a miracle , could not turn around the Parliament .The court case goes on and found him guilty .He goes to jail .Syam Apakahnamadiadahtu become an instant bumiputra millionaire .Come 2010 ,Anak Pak Jab becomes the PM !His analyst friend ,Sirul and Co get off scot free : cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that Altantuya may actually has accidentaly blown herself up by mistake at the material time of her death !
The 1 billion dollar question now is can we Malaysians live with the uncertainties surrounding Anwar ?Do we not have other choices ?Is there really a dearth of real political talents that we have to hang our future and our children's future on him ?Anwar may be innocent ,or he may be guilty ?Do we want to transfuse possibly 'tainted' blood into a bleeding patient or just throw the bag into a waste basket and re-order a new fresh one ?Do we have a fresh one ?
Is the Malaysian Muslim's ummah interest best served by Anwar's Pakatan ?There was a deafening silence from Sivarasa and Co on the Malaysian Bar 's issue on ' Conversion to Islam' .We do not expect Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh to be sympathetic to us on this issue or any issue for that matter as we know very well who they are .Has not the Malaysian Muslim ummah given in enough to the non Muslims Malaysian or is it a case of 'dah bagi peha nak beri semua pula' ?
They used to ask for a Merdeka University, there are more than a hundred now littering the Nation .They speak about equality and freedom of religion ,Selangor is littered with kuils at every nook and corner and no one has ever been prevented to practice or preach ,they talk about equal economic share ,my God ,80 % is still not enough !Go to London ,New York or Sydney and one will know what religious and economic freedom mean !In Switzerland today we learn that the Western liberal society ,as what they claim they are ,even are not happy to allow the only mosque there to even have a small minaret : so much for religious freedom .
This generosity by the host has to stop somewhere !And Anwar's Keadilan does not seem to know the edges .
Now what about Anak Pak Jab ?People's perception is very important .People perceive he cannot control his wife and his lust !Fullstop . It is just perception , no hard proven evidence .In a court of law ,no hard evidence , the case is thrown out ,the plantiff wins and you pay cost .In politics and election ,perception is everything !
The Altantuya's case is still on and will be for a few more months ,so far we are going round and round and none of the brilliant legal minds ever have the courage enough to ask publicly in court ,the most basic of question as to who is 'the big gun' behind these policemen ,Sirul and Co !Instead we are going round and round in circus .Again public perception .Is Rusmah Mansoor a chronic Mrs 10 % as is the popular public perception that she is ?Again all innuendoes but no evidence ,legal or otherwise .Just heresay .Public perception .Though in Malaysia for sometime in the past public perception seem to be correct ,rather than the watered down official version .Not now in this new openness under Pak Lah .
Yet again another case of possibly 'tainted' blood !Do we want to use it on our dying patient or thow it away and just re-order a new one ?
Is Muhyidin Yasin or Rais Yatim etc etc so inferior to Najib Tun Razak ,that he is irreplaceable or is feudalism so well entrenched in present day UMNO that it cannot be changed ?Is UMNO so impervious to change that it can afford not to care anymore about public perception ?Are individuals more important than the sum total ?Does UMNO still not believe the general perception that it is rotten to the core and need major cleansing ?Is UMNO still in a state of denial ?
What is happening to the young turks in PAS that they collectively cannot change the mindset of the old ones ?Is continuation of the PAS -UMNO dialogue too lowly for PAS that it is not worth having ?Is Islam to be limited to the parochiolism of Kelantan or the symbolism of the kopiah ?Or is Islam to be perceived as Allah's chosen universal solution to human problems on this planet Earth ,applicable to both Muslims and Non Muslims ?Is Islam cutting edge enough to be at the peripherry of scientific knowledge and that we Muslims should by now be slicing genes and breaking down the atoms for human endervour ?Or are we just happy with the kopiah symbol of backwardness , poverty and mediocrity ?
I am just a simple doctor plying my trade. I am not even a corporate surgeon or thinking politician .I have more questions than answers but in my opinion ,presently if we were to survive well the tightening 'vice' by the rest on our culture ,economics and religious interests ,we have to make a quantum leap forward .We have to think beyond Anwar and Najib !A major paradigm shift .Throw away the possibly 'tainted' blood into the dustbin of history and start afresh !
Was it Tun Musa Hitam who 30 years back told us to be a 'little bit kurang ajar' on our own turf ?The time is now .
Monday, August 4, 2008
"Class of 65 ,Malay College Picture Gallery"
Friends ,
Thank you Rosli Mat Ali [ Class 69] for CCing those picture gallery of class 65 .Most outstanding from the sea of greying ,balding distinguished figures is the youngish looking YB Dato Shahrir Samad .Despite his 100 % silver grey he still looks young and sprightly ,must be due to his daily running and brisk walking regimen !Most of the rest look their age .60 plus and tired !,except the forever youthful Effendi Norwawi .Make one wonder whether 'reverse osmosis' really work .Rumors abound that he has a new candidate for ' reverse osmosis ' beyond TJ .Lucky man !
Effendi and TJ aside ,those pictures brought back a tinge of nostalgia and sadness to me as I ponder on the vagaries of age , ageing and my very own mortality .It felt only like yesterday that we were pounding on the hallowed ground of "Eton of the East" ,young schoolboys ,pacing around the world famous Prep School ,Big School ,The Pavilion ,dreaming dreams of conquering and changing the world ,under the Big Tree ,and the occasional naughty 'double rations' before the bell !...and of course the scrambling for the odd last minute ,one or two vacancies, at High Table .
This kind of nostalgia and sadness always invariably bring me back to base :The One and Only ,The CEO of the Universe .My nostalgic mind fast forward from the mid 60's to the mid 80's , and that brought me to Mekkah .I could still recollect the friday evening 'usraf'' we medicos had at our makeshift Al Ghazzah Hospital barely 400 metres from the Haram .I was a young medical consultant then given the order to bring down the mortality of our feeble hajis and hajjahs down to half or less the previous years figure .
That we did despite people falling like flies from heat stroke at Arafah under the midday sun in excess of 55 degree centigrade ,one of the hottest Arafah Day ever !.It came down to less than a quarter from the previous year , alhamdullillah .
Can still remember the Ulama' who lead the Isha' prayer and gave us a short lecture that night . An old sage well known amongst pilgrims from this part of the world , known as Hj Mohamad Al Mandeleng ,from Sumatra long domiciled in Mekkah .Could still recall his parting remark :" We Muslims ,to be safe ,must be in continuous contact with our Maker ,just like the spark plug of a car ,always firing .No sparks ,the engine stall .No genius required .You pick yourselves up from there at your very own pace ."
Before we parted for the evening he taught us a short 'doa' ,very short that I doubt many in the audience that day were impressed . I was though ,because this simple doa I recite 20 ,30 times a day,and has kept me in continuous contact with the Maker eversince .
"Astaghafirullah halazim allazilailahaillah huwalhayyulkhayyum waatubuilaik ,rabbirfirli waliwalidayyak walmukmini walmukminat ".......you ask for penitence and salvation not for yourselves only,but also for your PARENTS always and all other Muslims in general .We are all brothers and parents in Islam are 'special' people .
Very short doa .There are doa and doa's but since this one is short and has deep connotation and meaning I recite it everywhere ,during rukuk, sujud ,on waking up ,before ,during and after all my 'cardiac interventional' work , and whenever I feel stressed as I find this a great 'destressor' [ all doa's are destressors ] and today ,sadly after seeing the "Class of 65" picture gallery .Somehow this reminded me of my own mortality .
We all , from Class 69 downwards ,are at the 'margrib' of our life . One foot firmly planted on this side hoping we will hit that 4 score and ten with our mind ,body and soul intact[ may I add: Aqidah ],and the other one going to the 'other side' .The 'looks' on the faces of '65 does not inspire in me that most of us will hit that target .Thus the sadness .
Back to Tuan Guru Hj Mandeleng :It is all about Contact ,Contact and Contact .The rest you fill yourselves with Ilm ,Ilm , and Ilm .Then of course Amal .But without the Contact you can have all the Ilm in the world but one can end up like all the 'John Espositos' of the world :Full of knowledge on Islam but without faith and wisdom !
Allahualam .
Dr Nik Howk
PS :'Sedekah' Al Fatihah for the late Kamaruzaman Maaruf of Class 65 who has been called back to the Realm of the Unseen .I will always remember Kamaruzaman Maaruf as that wizardry ,fast 3 Q's ,that make the oppositions looked like wax stuck to the ground .Such beauty and poetry in motion .May his soul be placed amongst the blessed . Amin .
Thank you Rosli Mat Ali [ Class 69] for CCing those picture gallery of class 65 .Most outstanding from the sea of greying ,balding distinguished figures is the youngish looking YB Dato Shahrir Samad .Despite his 100 % silver grey he still looks young and sprightly ,must be due to his daily running and brisk walking regimen !Most of the rest look their age .60 plus and tired !,except the forever youthful Effendi Norwawi .Make one wonder whether 'reverse osmosis' really work .Rumors abound that he has a new candidate for ' reverse osmosis ' beyond TJ .Lucky man !
Effendi and TJ aside ,those pictures brought back a tinge of nostalgia and sadness to me as I ponder on the vagaries of age , ageing and my very own mortality .It felt only like yesterday that we were pounding on the hallowed ground of "Eton of the East" ,young schoolboys ,pacing around the world famous Prep School ,Big School ,The Pavilion ,dreaming dreams of conquering and changing the world ,under the Big Tree ,and the occasional naughty 'double rations' before the bell !...and of course the scrambling for the odd last minute ,one or two vacancies, at High Table .
This kind of nostalgia and sadness always invariably bring me back to base :The One and Only ,The CEO of the Universe .My nostalgic mind fast forward from the mid 60's to the mid 80's , and that brought me to Mekkah .I could still recollect the friday evening 'usraf'' we medicos had at our makeshift Al Ghazzah Hospital barely 400 metres from the Haram .I was a young medical consultant then given the order to bring down the mortality of our feeble hajis and hajjahs down to half or less the previous years figure .
That we did despite people falling like flies from heat stroke at Arafah under the midday sun in excess of 55 degree centigrade ,one of the hottest Arafah Day ever !.It came down to less than a quarter from the previous year , alhamdullillah .
Can still remember the Ulama' who lead the Isha' prayer and gave us a short lecture that night . An old sage well known amongst pilgrims from this part of the world , known as Hj Mohamad Al Mandeleng ,from Sumatra long domiciled in Mekkah .Could still recall his parting remark :" We Muslims ,to be safe ,must be in continuous contact with our Maker ,just like the spark plug of a car ,always firing .No sparks ,the engine stall .No genius required .You pick yourselves up from there at your very own pace ."
Before we parted for the evening he taught us a short 'doa' ,very short that I doubt many in the audience that day were impressed . I was though ,because this simple doa I recite 20 ,30 times a day,and has kept me in continuous contact with the Maker eversince .
"Astaghafirullah halazim allazilailahaillah huwalhayyulkhayyum waatubuilaik ,rabbirfirli waliwalidayyak walmukmini walmukminat ".......you ask for penitence and salvation not for yourselves only,but also for your PARENTS always and all other Muslims in general .We are all brothers and parents in Islam are 'special' people .
Very short doa .There are doa and doa's but since this one is short and has deep connotation and meaning I recite it everywhere ,during rukuk, sujud ,on waking up ,before ,during and after all my 'cardiac interventional' work , and whenever I feel stressed as I find this a great 'destressor' [ all doa's are destressors ] and today ,sadly after seeing the "Class of 65" picture gallery .Somehow this reminded me of my own mortality .
We all , from Class 69 downwards ,are at the 'margrib' of our life . One foot firmly planted on this side hoping we will hit that 4 score and ten with our mind ,body and soul intact[ may I add: Aqidah ],and the other one going to the 'other side' .The 'looks' on the faces of '65 does not inspire in me that most of us will hit that target .Thus the sadness .
Back to Tuan Guru Hj Mandeleng :It is all about Contact ,Contact and Contact .The rest you fill yourselves with Ilm ,Ilm , and Ilm .Then of course Amal .But without the Contact you can have all the Ilm in the world but one can end up like all the 'John Espositos' of the world :Full of knowledge on Islam but without faith and wisdom !
Allahualam .
Dr Nik Howk
PS :'Sedekah' Al Fatihah for the late Kamaruzaman Maaruf of Class 65 who has been called back to the Realm of the Unseen .I will always remember Kamaruzaman Maaruf as that wizardry ,fast 3 Q's ,that make the oppositions looked like wax stuck to the ground .Such beauty and poetry in motion .May his soul be placed amongst the blessed . Amin .
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Pearls & Gem :Surah Al Masadd [ Letter 111 ]
Friends ,
Tired and disappointed about discussing the world let us get back to the Glorious Quran for enlightenment .Surah Al Masadd ,revealed in Mekkah during the early period of Prophet Muhamad's Islam [ we take the premise that Adam ,Noah ,Ibrahim and Jesus were all prophets of the same Din , Islam] ,was very short and succinct :
"The power of Abu Lahab will perish ,and he will perish .[1]His wealth and gains will not exempt him .[2]He will be plunged in flaming fire ,[3]And his wife ,the wood carrier ,[4]Will have upon her neck a halter of palm fibre .[5]"
Abu Lahab represent 'corporate Arabia' ,and even though our Prophet's own paternal uncle ,was the main detractor against the new message brought by him .A question of status quo perhaps .Abu lahab's wife was Arwa .Both must have been massively 'blinded by rage and 'hasad' for Allah to permanently etched them both in the Quran along with Pharoah and Qarun as eternal example of what we should not be .
'Hasad' , the English equivalent is jealousy coupled with envy ,a very negative basic instinct .For instance ,the 'hasad' of the 'people of the book' ,that lead to a thousand year of' crusade' , will never end .Ignorance versus enlightenment , will never end until Doomsday .If Bush et al choose to fight against 1.5 billion Muslims ,they are doing it at their own peril .
Even Hind ,the wife of Abu Suffian ,another uncle ,was spared this' priveledge' of 'permanent mention' in history.Her fury was even worse . She was the lady who later during the Uhud campaign paid a black slave to specifically look for Saidina Hamzah , the Prophet's uncle ,speared him to death ,and she with fury and anger slashed open his chest and ate his heart and liver ! Such blind fury !She and Abu Suffian later accepted the Message .
Blind fury perhaps without 'hasad' could have been the saving grace for this couple .Abu Suffian's son ,Muawiyyah ,later played a dominant role in the political schism with Kalifah Ali Abu Talib . .Beyond Abu Bakar's caliphate ,political Islam began to show it's ugly face .
But back to Surah Al Masadd ,the Message in the Glorious Quran ,as always is universal and transcend time.We have Abu Lahabs and Abu Suffians today .We have Arwa and Hinds ,aplent .
I cannot but felt humbled by Sayyid Qutb's closing remark on the Surah :
"The humiliating picture of Abu Lahab and his wife has been recorded to last forever in the eternal book ,the Quran ,to show Allah's anger with them for their animosity to His Messenger and the idea he was advocating .All those who choose to take a similar attitude towards Islam ,therefore shall meet the same disgrace ,calamity and frustration ,both in this life and the Hereafter ,a fitting punishment and rewards ! "
Sayyid Qutb had had a 'bad' press since post 911 , and being dubbed as the philosopher behind the present Islamic radicalism and thought by some Western scholars as the provider of the necessary ' theological fuel' for Al Queda.The world tend to conveniently forget 50 years of Jewish piracy and maltreatment of Muslims in the holy land of Jeruselam ,being treated worse than animals , and centuries of Westerner's plunder and murders in Muslim hinterlands .No aknowledgement nor apology at all ! Just a wall of silence .These are the real building bricks of terrorism .
But we all student of Islam need not buy this kind of nonsensical zionist labelling . To the uninitiated kufr Western mind anyone who keeps a beard ,prays just 5 times a day ,do not consume alcohol or fornicate out of wedlock is a potential terrorist .
Soon there will be agents with their computers counting outside every major mosque in the West just studying who comes and go and all these will feed into a central computer . That is the nature of Western paranoia .Please do not bother their 'madness' ,study him at :
http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/tafseer/syed_qutb/
Make your own opinion of him .Most of his tafseer was done while under imprisonment during Gamal Abdul Nasser 's socialist regime .I personally find his interpretation and approach very beautiful .He was a literary genius and he understood the beauty and wisdom of the Quran better than most exegists who are non arabic speakers .Allahualam
Tired and disappointed about discussing the world let us get back to the Glorious Quran for enlightenment .Surah Al Masadd ,revealed in Mekkah during the early period of Prophet Muhamad's Islam [ we take the premise that Adam ,Noah ,Ibrahim and Jesus were all prophets of the same Din , Islam] ,was very short and succinct :
"The power of Abu Lahab will perish ,and he will perish .[1]His wealth and gains will not exempt him .[2]He will be plunged in flaming fire ,[3]And his wife ,the wood carrier ,[4]Will have upon her neck a halter of palm fibre .[5]"
Abu Lahab represent 'corporate Arabia' ,and even though our Prophet's own paternal uncle ,was the main detractor against the new message brought by him .A question of status quo perhaps .Abu lahab's wife was Arwa .Both must have been massively 'blinded by rage and 'hasad' for Allah to permanently etched them both in the Quran along with Pharoah and Qarun as eternal example of what we should not be .
'Hasad' , the English equivalent is jealousy coupled with envy ,a very negative basic instinct .For instance ,the 'hasad' of the 'people of the book' ,that lead to a thousand year of' crusade' , will never end .Ignorance versus enlightenment , will never end until Doomsday .If Bush et al choose to fight against 1.5 billion Muslims ,they are doing it at their own peril .
Even Hind ,the wife of Abu Suffian ,another uncle ,was spared this' priveledge' of 'permanent mention' in history.Her fury was even worse . She was the lady who later during the Uhud campaign paid a black slave to specifically look for Saidina Hamzah , the Prophet's uncle ,speared him to death ,and she with fury and anger slashed open his chest and ate his heart and liver ! Such blind fury !She and Abu Suffian later accepted the Message .
Blind fury perhaps without 'hasad' could have been the saving grace for this couple .Abu Suffian's son ,Muawiyyah ,later played a dominant role in the political schism with Kalifah Ali Abu Talib . .Beyond Abu Bakar's caliphate ,political Islam began to show it's ugly face .
But back to Surah Al Masadd ,the Message in the Glorious Quran ,as always is universal and transcend time.We have Abu Lahabs and Abu Suffians today .We have Arwa and Hinds ,aplent .
I cannot but felt humbled by Sayyid Qutb's closing remark on the Surah :
"The humiliating picture of Abu Lahab and his wife has been recorded to last forever in the eternal book ,the Quran ,to show Allah's anger with them for their animosity to His Messenger and the idea he was advocating .All those who choose to take a similar attitude towards Islam ,therefore shall meet the same disgrace ,calamity and frustration ,both in this life and the Hereafter ,a fitting punishment and rewards ! "
Sayyid Qutb had had a 'bad' press since post 911 , and being dubbed as the philosopher behind the present Islamic radicalism and thought by some Western scholars as the provider of the necessary ' theological fuel' for Al Queda.The world tend to conveniently forget 50 years of Jewish piracy and maltreatment of Muslims in the holy land of Jeruselam ,being treated worse than animals , and centuries of Westerner's plunder and murders in Muslim hinterlands .No aknowledgement nor apology at all ! Just a wall of silence .These are the real building bricks of terrorism .
But we all student of Islam need not buy this kind of nonsensical zionist labelling . To the uninitiated kufr Western mind anyone who keeps a beard ,prays just 5 times a day ,do not consume alcohol or fornicate out of wedlock is a potential terrorist .
Soon there will be agents with their computers counting outside every major mosque in the West just studying who comes and go and all these will feed into a central computer . That is the nature of Western paranoia .Please do not bother their 'madness' ,study him at :
http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/tafseer/syed_qutb/
Make your own opinion of him .Most of his tafseer was done while under imprisonment during Gamal Abdul Nasser 's socialist regime .I personally find his interpretation and approach very beautiful .He was a literary genius and he understood the beauty and wisdom of the Quran better than most exegists who are non arabic speakers .Allahualam
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Is Malaysia being run by a bunch of morons?
Friends ,
I am feeling very depressed lately .On the world scale we have to contend with President Bush who is not known to be the brightest of man .No ,I am not blaming him for the recent escalation of oil price .That would be giving too much credit for a moron like him .Even though with advisers with the likes of Dr Rice , and other neo-cons et al ,he is still capable of doing just that when advised .
On the home front everyone and sundry know Pok Lah has difficulty with counting his marbles , but with the recent arrest of Annuar Ibrahim , on account of failure to present himself to Police for investigation and interview ,must have brought down Pok lah's marble counting rating several rung lower .Even my Standard Six daughter can tell that Annuar at present is playing to the gallery ,and rightfully who would not in his situation .CNN,Aljazira ,BBC what have you .'Malu' kita .Ex Finance Minister main buntut , for the second time .
Dr Mahathir's blunder dah cukup lah .Even from the medical standpoint we doctors have been cracking our brains for weeks now as to how a 5 feet 8 inch 60 year old with a bad back and cervical disc to boot can 'prise' open a 6 footer , 25 year old chap not once but twice without getting a proper kick in his 'you know what' .Not yet addressing the issue whether the old chap can get his 'dick' up in the proper place for a decent period of time as yet .Pardon the doctors ,we have to think straight !
If this is 'consensual' then of course it is a different matter .In that case we can be more proud than the French who has Sarkozy .Carla Bruni has been known to sleep with more than 25 men ,Mick Jagger being one of them .We are one up .A potential PM material who is alledged to love the 'buntut' ,and another whose wife mess around with C4 plastic explosive .
I expect Annuar , rather than spending an evening at home hearing to the 'nag nag nag ' of a menoupausal wife ,bright ex eye doctor at that [ Wawi as we call her affectionately during those housemanship time some 30 years back] ,might as well spend just one more night at Bukit Aman playing mental exercise with the SB boys ! [ Especially as he is alledged to seem to like those kind ]And be an instant hero the next day .Especially after appearing so smooth and savvy on TV the evening earlier .Shabery Chik, with obvious saliva salivating down both corners of his mouth , despite his bravado appeared like a schoolboy meeting a pro .
We all know the government wanted to appear very open and above board in having the debate but whatever the government does or does not do nowadays , things are very academic .The perception going on in the coffee shops ,in board rooms and every where is :Is Malaysia presently being run by a bunch of morons incapable of doing things right ?Right from the Prime Minister , cabinet ministers , down to IGP , AG , etc etc ? Suddenly we are back in the news for the wrong thing .And sadly politics and government is about perception .Even the KLSE index !
Sorry friends , I am not usually political .I can sense a feeling of depression everywhere .Price of foodstuff gone up in some instances by a 100% ,contracters running away from projects leaving their workers to fend for themselves ,Transport cost and living cost for the average Ali ,Muthu and Ah Chong escalated and we have 2 clowns , the AG and IGP using the state machinery to get back at people who one day may even be their boss !
They think people can be as stupid as them ! Are we leading to a chaotic police state .Do these 2 clowns know the rule of law or respect it ? People are able to read in between the' lines' what they are doing . In 2008 there are people with MBA's and PHD's ,obviously more qualified than them , walking and pacing the streets ,jobless .Please do not underestimate the Joe Public nowadays !
Are the 'poor suffering' raayats going to have to stomach another long round of 'mattress' extravaganza going in and out of High Court again ? Who are the clowns that are going to replace Paul Augustine and Musa Hassan for the new 'show' this time around ?
What is happening to Pok Lah ? Has he really lost his marbles and really has no control over these 2 clowns ?
I never like Annuar . When he was Finance Minister[ very cocky and not having clever advisers then] ,but does Malaysia has a choice now ?Many now think Najib is never going to be PM unless he is 'brave' enough to ditch his current 1st Lady .No they do not think he is brave enough to do just that ,he will get castrated right away
UMNO is in a complete shamble and still in denial phase . After the Mahathir's era of 'judicial bashing ' and fixing , record numbers of multi million ringgit IPP contracts and others fat government contracts to friends being disclosed recently , followed by the Fourth Floor boys antics in Pok Lah's era , Altantaya's story revealed ,nothing they do now are credible anymore to the more enlightened populace .
In the late Tun Razak's days we hear of a story when he himself vetoed a $35,000 RM extension to his Sri Perdana for a private swimming pool on the basis that it cost too much of public fund .From Mahathir onwards right up to Pok Lah everything are in mega millions .One ex MP's husband got a 200 million soft soft loan just to dabble in the 'cattle' business .With Petronas now even being directed to get into the Boer goat business we do not dare hazard how many more millions is going to percolate down the drain .That is Pok Lah's economic 'injection' .Talking about the crab asking the juniors to walk straight .
We always look condescendingly to our neighbour as a Land of 'semua bisa diatur Pak!'.We in Malaysia ,now has a better equivalent ,'Malaysia boleh !' ."Everything can" in Malaysia . Even can be arranged to look 'legal' .Only the quantum need to be discussed ! The rot started in Mahathir's time ,continued into Pok Lah's era .Where do we go from here .Clowns everywhere !
I can bet my bottom dollar that if we have a National Reelection tomorrow , BN will lose very badly ,worse than the last .
I am feeling very depressed lately .On the world scale we have to contend with President Bush who is not known to be the brightest of man .No ,I am not blaming him for the recent escalation of oil price .That would be giving too much credit for a moron like him .Even though with advisers with the likes of Dr Rice , and other neo-cons et al ,he is still capable of doing just that when advised .
On the home front everyone and sundry know Pok Lah has difficulty with counting his marbles , but with the recent arrest of Annuar Ibrahim , on account of failure to present himself to Police for investigation and interview ,must have brought down Pok lah's marble counting rating several rung lower .Even my Standard Six daughter can tell that Annuar at present is playing to the gallery ,and rightfully who would not in his situation .CNN,Aljazira ,BBC what have you .'Malu' kita .Ex Finance Minister main buntut , for the second time .
Dr Mahathir's blunder dah cukup lah .Even from the medical standpoint we doctors have been cracking our brains for weeks now as to how a 5 feet 8 inch 60 year old with a bad back and cervical disc to boot can 'prise' open a 6 footer , 25 year old chap not once but twice without getting a proper kick in his 'you know what' .Not yet addressing the issue whether the old chap can get his 'dick' up in the proper place for a decent period of time as yet .Pardon the doctors ,we have to think straight !
If this is 'consensual' then of course it is a different matter .In that case we can be more proud than the French who has Sarkozy .Carla Bruni has been known to sleep with more than 25 men ,Mick Jagger being one of them .We are one up .A potential PM material who is alledged to love the 'buntut' ,and another whose wife mess around with C4 plastic explosive .
I expect Annuar , rather than spending an evening at home hearing to the 'nag nag nag ' of a menoupausal wife ,bright ex eye doctor at that [ Wawi as we call her affectionately during those housemanship time some 30 years back] ,might as well spend just one more night at Bukit Aman playing mental exercise with the SB boys ! [ Especially as he is alledged to seem to like those kind ]And be an instant hero the next day .Especially after appearing so smooth and savvy on TV the evening earlier .Shabery Chik, with obvious saliva salivating down both corners of his mouth , despite his bravado appeared like a schoolboy meeting a pro .
We all know the government wanted to appear very open and above board in having the debate but whatever the government does or does not do nowadays , things are very academic .The perception going on in the coffee shops ,in board rooms and every where is :Is Malaysia presently being run by a bunch of morons incapable of doing things right ?Right from the Prime Minister , cabinet ministers , down to IGP , AG , etc etc ? Suddenly we are back in the news for the wrong thing .And sadly politics and government is about perception .Even the KLSE index !
Sorry friends , I am not usually political .I can sense a feeling of depression everywhere .Price of foodstuff gone up in some instances by a 100% ,contracters running away from projects leaving their workers to fend for themselves ,Transport cost and living cost for the average Ali ,Muthu and Ah Chong escalated and we have 2 clowns , the AG and IGP using the state machinery to get back at people who one day may even be their boss !
They think people can be as stupid as them ! Are we leading to a chaotic police state .Do these 2 clowns know the rule of law or respect it ? People are able to read in between the' lines' what they are doing . In 2008 there are people with MBA's and PHD's ,obviously more qualified than them , walking and pacing the streets ,jobless .Please do not underestimate the Joe Public nowadays !
Are the 'poor suffering' raayats going to have to stomach another long round of 'mattress' extravaganza going in and out of High Court again ? Who are the clowns that are going to replace Paul Augustine and Musa Hassan for the new 'show' this time around ?
What is happening to Pok Lah ? Has he really lost his marbles and really has no control over these 2 clowns ?
I never like Annuar . When he was Finance Minister[ very cocky and not having clever advisers then] ,but does Malaysia has a choice now ?Many now think Najib is never going to be PM unless he is 'brave' enough to ditch his current 1st Lady .No they do not think he is brave enough to do just that ,he will get castrated right away
UMNO is in a complete shamble and still in denial phase . After the Mahathir's era of 'judicial bashing ' and fixing , record numbers of multi million ringgit IPP contracts and others fat government contracts to friends being disclosed recently , followed by the Fourth Floor boys antics in Pok Lah's era , Altantaya's story revealed ,nothing they do now are credible anymore to the more enlightened populace .
In the late Tun Razak's days we hear of a story when he himself vetoed a $35,000 RM extension to his Sri Perdana for a private swimming pool on the basis that it cost too much of public fund .From Mahathir onwards right up to Pok Lah everything are in mega millions .One ex MP's husband got a 200 million soft soft loan just to dabble in the 'cattle' business .With Petronas now even being directed to get into the Boer goat business we do not dare hazard how many more millions is going to percolate down the drain .That is Pok Lah's economic 'injection' .Talking about the crab asking the juniors to walk straight .
We always look condescendingly to our neighbour as a Land of 'semua bisa diatur Pak!'.We in Malaysia ,now has a better equivalent ,'Malaysia boleh !' ."Everything can" in Malaysia . Even can be arranged to look 'legal' .Only the quantum need to be discussed ! The rot started in Mahathir's time ,continued into Pok Lah's era .Where do we go from here .Clowns everywhere !
I can bet my bottom dollar that if we have a National Reelection tomorrow , BN will lose very badly ,worse than the last .
Monday, July 14, 2008
Longevity : A Muslim's Perspective
Friends ,
A few years back ,while visiting Tokhapi Palace in Istanbul , I was amazed to see the sheer size of Prophet Muhamad's sword from amongst the few remaining original Islamic memorabilia shown within the palace museum .At least a good 6 feet of glistening , heavy , solid metal .I could in my mind's eye imagined the Prophet leading a big group of shahabats riding on his favourite arabian steed Al Bariq in the hot summer sun towards the north [which is now the Saudi- Syrian border] to face a possible invasion by the massive army of the then Eastern Roman Empire.He was then nearing 63 !The battle did not materialise as expected as the Romans did not show up .
Shortly after that ,after completing his last pilgrimage to Mekkah ,Prophet Muhamad was called to his Lord at a ripe old age of 63 .By 2008 standard 63 is a relatively 'young' old age but put yourself 80 years ago when the average life expectancy of a Malayan male hardly reach 60 ! 1400 years ago the average life expectentcy in the desert of Arabia could well be just 45 or may be lower .
To put things into proper perspective ,Alexander of Macedonia started his world conquering feat at the age of 17 or 16 and died at a fully matured age of 25 !Not surprising ,if the average life expectantcy during his time was 30, for example ,for a boy at 15 you are no longer considered mummy's boy ,as what is generally considered today .You are expected to fight wars ,drink and be merry and die at 30 .Napolean Bonapart ,in 17th century France died at the ripe old age of 40 plus !
Taking this into account Prophet Muhamad lifespan was well beyond average for his time and period .By 21st century standard his 63 years of age could be translated as beyond 90 in 2008 . Allahualam !Riding ,fighting defensive wars and spreading the Message at that age ,Prophet Muhamad was a very fit ,healthy man right up to the end .His demise followed a short febrille illness ,and from the full description I read from Muchtar Holland's biography of the Prophet , "Muhamad " ,I gather with my limited medical knowledge that our prophet could have succumbed to Typhoid .A water and food borne disease fairly common at that period .Allahualam !
Let us examine his Sirah :He slept very little ,prayed tahajjud at the 2nd third of the night every night right up to Subuh ,Imam the Subuh prayer and then like the rest of his congregation ,disperse shortly after that to earn a mussel here ,a mussel there .Ate when he felt hungry , and stop well before he felt satieted [ remember the Okinawan 'hara haci bu' ] .He fast at least 2 days a week and when he fast his 'sahur' consist of just a couple of dates [high carbohydrate ,low calorie ] and water , breaking fast again some 12 hours latter with some dates and dry bread .His days consist of movements all the time .Presided over community dispute .Imam over all obligatory prayers of the day and myriad other activities a head of State has to do . Never fail to visit all his 9 wives daily during the day and settle at night accordingly to a preset time table .Sayyiditina Aishah[ his favourite] was given an extra night above the rest as Ibu Salamah [if I am not mistaken] , a senior by age ,gave her share of her 'nights' to the much younger Aishah .
Low caloric diet ,continuous movement and activity ,close relationship with the people around him and his community ,a life of piety and continuous connectivity with Allah :in short Prophet Muhamad ,we can see from his Sirah ,was a man who 'celebrate life fully' .
A few years back ,while visiting Tokhapi Palace in Istanbul , I was amazed to see the sheer size of Prophet Muhamad's sword from amongst the few remaining original Islamic memorabilia shown within the palace museum .At least a good 6 feet of glistening , heavy , solid metal .I could in my mind's eye imagined the Prophet leading a big group of shahabats riding on his favourite arabian steed Al Bariq in the hot summer sun towards the north [which is now the Saudi- Syrian border] to face a possible invasion by the massive army of the then Eastern Roman Empire.He was then nearing 63 !The battle did not materialise as expected as the Romans did not show up .
Shortly after that ,after completing his last pilgrimage to Mekkah ,Prophet Muhamad was called to his Lord at a ripe old age of 63 .By 2008 standard 63 is a relatively 'young' old age but put yourself 80 years ago when the average life expectancy of a Malayan male hardly reach 60 ! 1400 years ago the average life expectentcy in the desert of Arabia could well be just 45 or may be lower .
To put things into proper perspective ,Alexander of Macedonia started his world conquering feat at the age of 17 or 16 and died at a fully matured age of 25 !Not surprising ,if the average life expectantcy during his time was 30, for example ,for a boy at 15 you are no longer considered mummy's boy ,as what is generally considered today .You are expected to fight wars ,drink and be merry and die at 30 .Napolean Bonapart ,in 17th century France died at the ripe old age of 40 plus !
Taking this into account Prophet Muhamad lifespan was well beyond average for his time and period .By 21st century standard his 63 years of age could be translated as beyond 90 in 2008 . Allahualam !Riding ,fighting defensive wars and spreading the Message at that age ,Prophet Muhamad was a very fit ,healthy man right up to the end .His demise followed a short febrille illness ,and from the full description I read from Muchtar Holland's biography of the Prophet , "Muhamad " ,I gather with my limited medical knowledge that our prophet could have succumbed to Typhoid .A water and food borne disease fairly common at that period .Allahualam !
Let us examine his Sirah :He slept very little ,prayed tahajjud at the 2nd third of the night every night right up to Subuh ,Imam the Subuh prayer and then like the rest of his congregation ,disperse shortly after that to earn a mussel here ,a mussel there .Ate when he felt hungry , and stop well before he felt satieted [ remember the Okinawan 'hara haci bu' ] .He fast at least 2 days a week and when he fast his 'sahur' consist of just a couple of dates [high carbohydrate ,low calorie ] and water , breaking fast again some 12 hours latter with some dates and dry bread .His days consist of movements all the time .Presided over community dispute .Imam over all obligatory prayers of the day and myriad other activities a head of State has to do . Never fail to visit all his 9 wives daily during the day and settle at night accordingly to a preset time table .Sayyiditina Aishah[ his favourite] was given an extra night above the rest as Ibu Salamah [if I am not mistaken] , a senior by age ,gave her share of her 'nights' to the much younger Aishah .
Low caloric diet ,continuous movement and activity ,close relationship with the people around him and his community ,a life of piety and continuous connectivity with Allah :in short Prophet Muhamad ,we can see from his Sirah ,was a man who 'celebrate life fully' .
A life of piety ,a generous heart ,not in the material way it is usually meant today ,but a heart ready to forgive and forget ,a kindly smile to a stranger perhaps ,a heart that 'accept trials and tribulations as readily as easily forget feats of success ,that kind of old fashion heart not easily found these days . We Muslims encompass it in one word : RIDHA .In my humble view the missing link between the robust ,stressful , lonely physical world ,oftentimes depressing and the 'spiritual' cushion as mentioned earlier on .A philosophical- neuro-humoral linkage ,a final safety outlet which act as a major de-stressor .
A life of moderation in satisfying one's need for physical and spiritual pleasure .An active life .You see that expounded from Surah 1 to 114 in the Holy Quran .As Saiyiditina Aishah aptly put it Prophet Muhamad's life itself was a living Quran .A celebration of life.. ....longevity if at all is just an added bonus !
In the Prophet we Muslims already have a template for 'Longevity' .But even if some of us , in our lives fall short of the four scores and ten , do not feel disheartened for in 'Lailatul Qadr' Allah has ready a very special gift for us :
"We have indeed revealed This [ Message ] ,In the Night of Power :[1] And what will explain to thee what the Night of Power is ?[2] The Night of Power is better than a thousand months .[3] Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission ,on every errand [4] Peace ! This until the rise of Morn ![5]"
Dr Nik Howk
A life of moderation in satisfying one's need for physical and spiritual pleasure .An active life .You see that expounded from Surah 1 to 114 in the Holy Quran .As Saiyiditina Aishah aptly put it Prophet Muhamad's life itself was a living Quran .A celebration of life.. ....longevity if at all is just an added bonus !
In the Prophet we Muslims already have a template for 'Longevity' .But even if some of us , in our lives fall short of the four scores and ten , do not feel disheartened for in 'Lailatul Qadr' Allah has ready a very special gift for us :
"We have indeed revealed This [ Message ] ,In the Night of Power :[1] And what will explain to thee what the Night of Power is ?[2] The Night of Power is better than a thousand months .[3] Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission ,on every errand [4] Peace ! This until the rise of Morn ![5]"
Dr Nik Howk
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