"Allah decides.
We are merely ants."
...Sultan Muhammad V
Kelantan Darul Naim
Monday, October 4, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Foundation of Faith :...Ustaz Dr Abdullah Yasin
We must 'migrate' from 'mukhalid' to 'mu'tabir',
from 'mere follower' or 'taklid' to comprehension and understanding
from 'darkness' to 'Light'.
It is back to ilm, ilm, ilm and more ilm.
For the rest of the video, click HERE
from 'mere follower' or 'taklid' to comprehension and understanding
from 'darkness' to 'Light'.
It is back to ilm, ilm, ilm and more ilm.
For the rest of the video, click HERE
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
....we have to re-examine our SHAHADAH.....
The 'SHAHADAH': Lailahail lallah,wa ashaduanna Muhamadarasullallah' is consisted of 2 parts.
The 'true conviction'[ IMAN ] part," Laila hail lallah "[ There is no god but God ] . The 'AMAL' part "wa ashhaduanna Muhamadarasullallah "[ and I testify Muhamad is the messenger of God ]
The 2nd part, 'waash haduanna Muhamadarasullallah' is the syariah part , the 'AMAL part',ie since I believe there is no god but God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God,I accept that he was the best person to know God and thus I follow the ways of Muhammad[ pbuh]. And now that the prophet is not around I follow the next best people around, the ulama', since my knowledge in the ways of Muhammad is very superficial and shallow .Fullstop. Since all the sages and the ulama' said so,and I have little knowledge to think otherwise, I take for granted that they are right and thus I follow.If I have the time and intelligence to know the religion as HAMKA or Shaikh Rashid Ridha do, I am free to follow my heart....But I dont.Fullstop...
The prerequisite of the 1st part of the 'Shahadah' however, requires more than just to follow.There must be definitive personal conviction, without which our Aqidah is on very flimsy ground. And indeed if we present day Muslims are honest in our self examination, we will have to concede our foundations are weak, in many of us.Non existent in some.That is basically why we Muslims currently are faced with an existential crisis of mega proportion.
We simply do not comprehend our very 'shahadah' which we repeat like parrots at least some nine times minimum per day for those of us who pray. We , mostly, never give much thought to the meaning and conviction which goes with it with respect to 'there is no god but God '. We do not bother even to read HIS letters to us.They just are there to collect dust up there in high places.
How many of us read the Quran constantly?
How many of us read the Quran with comprehension and conviction?
How many of us derive lessons from the Quran?
How many of us 'live by the Quran'?
Let me rephrase the last question in another way,...frankly, how many of us tend to deprecate people who want to 'live by the Quran' and preach others to live by the Quran as well?......brainless, simpletons,pondok people,'kampong' people' fundamentalists, ignoramus, small brained 'kopiah type' etc etc and etc.
AT the end of the day, the typical Muslim now has not enough 'ilm' but does not wish to follow the ulama'.Almost totally ignorant on matters of Islam but has the audacity to question ulama' at every nook and corner, Oxbridge or Harvard educated notwithstanding.He or she wants to have a polemical discussion on Islam while his heart and soul remained a vacuum . He or she does not have ilm. Compounded further by the fact that he or she has no real honest conviction in the only miracle available to him or her, The Quran....The daily " Laila haillallah " has no meaning to him or her. Eyes remained dry and hearts harder than stone!
Here is a very spiritually 'sick' person: Lack in IMAN, very loose and inconsistent in AMAL! In medical parlance, prognosis: POOR!
"The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying. (285)
Al Quran , 2 : 285
The Quran 2 : 285, states so and since all Muslims believe that the Quran is the divine words of Allah, this is the conviction , which delivers the prerequisite for the 'Shahadah'.
Only after the 'Shahadah', come prayer, almsgiving, fasting,and finally doing the Haj..
We present day Muslims take our 'Shahadah' very lightly and that contribute in the main our major problem of malaise and spiritual weakness...our foundation is not strong...lack of conviction etc etc.
If one look at the formative period of Islam, Nabi spent 13 years in Mekkah building the 1st part , the 'conviction' part. Only the subsequent 10 in Medinah did the 'syariah' part came in...the call to prayers, fasting,zakat and Haj...
That was why the early Muslims were able to bring light and spread the message to Byzantine Syria,Jordan and Egypt,Sasanian Empire of Iraq and Iran and beyond the River Oxus to Afghanistan and Caucauses,Byzantine northern Africaya [Tripoli, Morocco, Algiers ], crossing over the Strait of Jabal Tariq into Christian Spain and Southern France, across the Indian Ocean into Sind. All these within the 1st 100 years post Nabi except for the final push on Constantinople and Western Turkey which occurred several centuries later.
Orientalists and Westerners deprecatingly put down Islam's fast spread due to 'The Sword'. The Roman empire took 5 centuries to be of the same size in comparision....But even if it is by the sword ,so what? It is as if empires are given on a silver plate!...if they cannot humbly acknowledge and recognise the Light and the Message that comes with it, that is part of their loss.
Now we have Muslims amongst our midst very proud ape-ing the West.
"Sir, What is wrong with the Muslims of the future? Are they few in number?". One of Nabi's shahabats asked him....
Not exactly .....there are 1.5 billions of them..."but they are just like flotsams being pushed aside by the waves..."
Now is about time that we, especially us given Islam on a silver plate from our parents, seriously need to re-examine our 'Shahadah'!
It has to be ,as usual, back to the same: Ilm, Ilm , Ilm and yet more ilm.
Dr Nik Howk
September 29, 2010 6:21 PM
The 'true conviction'[ IMAN ] part," Laila hail lallah "[ There is no god but God ] . The 'AMAL' part "wa ashhaduanna Muhamadarasullallah "[ and I testify Muhamad is the messenger of God ]
The 2nd part, 'waash haduanna Muhamadarasullallah' is the syariah part , the 'AMAL part',ie since I believe there is no god but God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God,I accept that he was the best person to know God and thus I follow the ways of Muhammad[ pbuh]. And now that the prophet is not around I follow the next best people around, the ulama', since my knowledge in the ways of Muhammad is very superficial and shallow .Fullstop. Since all the sages and the ulama' said so,and I have little knowledge to think otherwise, I take for granted that they are right and thus I follow.If I have the time and intelligence to know the religion as HAMKA or Shaikh Rashid Ridha do, I am free to follow my heart....But I dont.Fullstop...
The prerequisite of the 1st part of the 'Shahadah' however, requires more than just to follow.There must be definitive personal conviction, without which our Aqidah is on very flimsy ground. And indeed if we present day Muslims are honest in our self examination, we will have to concede our foundations are weak, in many of us.Non existent in some.That is basically why we Muslims currently are faced with an existential crisis of mega proportion.
We simply do not comprehend our very 'shahadah' which we repeat like parrots at least some nine times minimum per day for those of us who pray. We , mostly, never give much thought to the meaning and conviction which goes with it with respect to 'there is no god but God '. We do not bother even to read HIS letters to us.They just are there to collect dust up there in high places.
How many of us read the Quran constantly?
How many of us read the Quran with comprehension and conviction?
How many of us derive lessons from the Quran?
How many of us 'live by the Quran'?
Let me rephrase the last question in another way,...frankly, how many of us tend to deprecate people who want to 'live by the Quran' and preach others to live by the Quran as well?......brainless, simpletons,pondok people,'kampong' people' fundamentalists, ignoramus, small brained 'kopiah type' etc etc and etc.
AT the end of the day, the typical Muslim now has not enough 'ilm' but does not wish to follow the ulama'.Almost totally ignorant on matters of Islam but has the audacity to question ulama' at every nook and corner, Oxbridge or Harvard educated notwithstanding.He or she wants to have a polemical discussion on Islam while his heart and soul remained a vacuum . He or she does not have ilm. Compounded further by the fact that he or she has no real honest conviction in the only miracle available to him or her, The Quran....The daily " Laila haillallah " has no meaning to him or her. Eyes remained dry and hearts harder than stone!
Here is a very spiritually 'sick' person: Lack in IMAN, very loose and inconsistent in AMAL! In medical parlance, prognosis: POOR!
"The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying. (285)
Al Quran , 2 : 285
The Quran 2 : 285, states so and since all Muslims believe that the Quran is the divine words of Allah, this is the conviction , which delivers the prerequisite for the 'Shahadah'.
Only after the 'Shahadah', come prayer, almsgiving, fasting,and finally doing the Haj..
We present day Muslims take our 'Shahadah' very lightly and that contribute in the main our major problem of malaise and spiritual weakness...our foundation is not strong...lack of conviction etc etc.
If one look at the formative period of Islam, Nabi spent 13 years in Mekkah building the 1st part , the 'conviction' part. Only the subsequent 10 in Medinah did the 'syariah' part came in...the call to prayers, fasting,zakat and Haj...
That was why the early Muslims were able to bring light and spread the message to Byzantine Syria,Jordan and Egypt,Sasanian Empire of Iraq and Iran and beyond the River Oxus to Afghanistan and Caucauses,Byzantine northern Africaya [Tripoli, Morocco, Algiers ], crossing over the Strait of Jabal Tariq into Christian Spain and Southern France, across the Indian Ocean into Sind. All these within the 1st 100 years post Nabi except for the final push on Constantinople and Western Turkey which occurred several centuries later.
Orientalists and Westerners deprecatingly put down Islam's fast spread due to 'The Sword'. The Roman empire took 5 centuries to be of the same size in comparision....But even if it is by the sword ,so what? It is as if empires are given on a silver plate!...if they cannot humbly acknowledge and recognise the Light and the Message that comes with it, that is part of their loss.
Now we have Muslims amongst our midst very proud ape-ing the West.
"Sir, What is wrong with the Muslims of the future? Are they few in number?". One of Nabi's shahabats asked him....
Not exactly .....there are 1.5 billions of them..."but they are just like flotsams being pushed aside by the waves..."
Now is about time that we, especially us given Islam on a silver plate from our parents, seriously need to re-examine our 'Shahadah'!
It has to be ,as usual, back to the same: Ilm, Ilm , Ilm and yet more ilm.
Dr Nik Howk
September 29, 2010 6:21 PM
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
...REDHA.[ or how I come to accept what I can't change ]
"Unto Allah (belongeth) whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; and whether ye make known what is in your minds or hide it, Allah will bring you to account for it. He will forgive whom He will and He will punish whom He will. Allah is Able to do all things. (284)The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying. (285) Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it (is only) that which it hath earned, and against it (only) that which it hath deserved. Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget, or miss the mark! Our Lord! Lay not on us such a burden as thou didst lay on those before us! Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear! Pardon us, absolve us and have mercy on us, Thou, our Protector, and give us victory over the disbelieving folk." (286)
closing 3 ayat of Surah al Baqarah, chapter 2, The Noble Qur'an.
....we Muslims are blessed with some very powerful statements, from within the Quran and outside the Qur'an, to fall on back to when we are faced with an insoluble, seemingly intractable problem.
" Subhanallah, alhamdullilllah, allahuakbar" being the greatest.
" Laaillahaillallah, huwahdahulasyarikallah lahul mulku walahulhamdu yuhyiwayumit wahuwa ala kullisyain qadir', yet another.
The ayat of 'the Lord of the Throne' probably the favourite when in situation of fear and awe. And many others as in the sunnah...
For me though, when things in my life appear topsy turvy,too heavy for my 'heart' to endure and really 'unsolvable' and beyond my realm, I normally go take an ablution, pray the sembahyang hajat a total of 4 cycles with 2 salam.
First rakaat after fatihah, I read Surah al Ikhlas 9 times. In the 2nd rakaat ,20 times, then finnish the Ist 2 cycles of prayer with a salam.
The 3rd cycle,similarly 30 times al Ikhlas following the fatihah and finally 40 al Ikhlas in the last cycle. A total of 99 times in all.
Al-Ikhlas
"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Say: He is Allah, the One! (1) Allah, the eternally Besought of all! (2) He begetteth not nor was begotten. (3) And there is none comparable unto Him." (4)
Al Ikhlas, a 'heavyweight', equivalent to a third of the Quran, 99 times and Allah having 99 names...a heady mix of the sublime, with humble you, the profane.....
Additionaly, the last 3 ayats in Surah al Baqarah [ above ] has special connotation , sublimity and meaning. I read them a lot both in my prayers and as a form of 'doa'.It somehow soften the 'blows'.
Normally, after this kind of session, I find my problem or to put it more accurately, 'perceived problem', pales into insignificance...either it get solved later or God opens up my soul to the wisdom and humility to accept whatever happened 'seadanya'[ as it is ].
The interval taken for this prolong 'doa' give the necessary 'time element' for the 'neuronal-humoral-psychomotor' cascade to weave it's way and do it's magic on my soul.
And if I find I am still not restive , I repeat this daily, even for a month if need be.......It works magic! All the time. If things do not change[ usually more often than not, the status quo on the ground remained the same ], I changed...My perspective of the perceived problem changed. And just even with a change in perception, my world suddenly become lighter, often times, brighter!...The beauty of acceptance, 'Redha'.
Better still, this prayer be done in the stillness of the night, wee hours of the morning, in conjunction and proceeding an earlier two cycles of 'tahajjud' prayer and two cycles of 'taubat' prayer. 'Tahajjud' in the theoretical sense at least is 100 % for 'Him', followed by the 'taubat' prayer which in essence,with the proviso that if accepted, represent the expiation of your 'sin'.....only then the 'situation' is rightly set up for your 'hajat prayer.Remember the scene post Nabi when Abbas, our prophet's uncle was asked by the shahabats to pray for rain during a long drought.Abbas just simply asked for the expiation of his 'sin' first and only after that 'doa' for rain.
Do it one night, two for that matter, and every night if that is necessary.
Great for your soul!
We, mere simple ordinary folks, ignorant souls ,with lowly 'maqams', unlike the saints and sufis, have to have our very own simple formullae to come to a state of Redha, and if this is within the realm of the sunnah and the syariah,why not?
This is my usual personal modus operandi...
The sufis and the saints, they are different. They have attained a 'maqam' beyond 'human wants'!...They redha all the time. We ,mere mortals, have to work hard connecting with the 'divine' before achieving some semblance of it.
We are gifted with the template and the 'tools' handed down to us in the Qur'an and the sunnah. Just pick and choose and use it. The secret is in 'constancy' rather than 'volume'.
Huwallahualam!
closing 3 ayat of Surah al Baqarah, chapter 2, The Noble Qur'an.
....we Muslims are blessed with some very powerful statements, from within the Quran and outside the Qur'an, to fall on back to when we are faced with an insoluble, seemingly intractable problem.
" Subhanallah, alhamdullilllah, allahuakbar" being the greatest.
" Laaillahaillallah, huwahdahulasyarikallah lahul mulku walahulhamdu yuhyiwayumit wahuwa ala kullisyain qadir', yet another.
The ayat of 'the Lord of the Throne' probably the favourite when in situation of fear and awe. And many others as in the sunnah...
For me though, when things in my life appear topsy turvy,too heavy for my 'heart' to endure and really 'unsolvable' and beyond my realm, I normally go take an ablution, pray the sembahyang hajat a total of 4 cycles with 2 salam.
First rakaat after fatihah, I read Surah al Ikhlas 9 times. In the 2nd rakaat ,20 times, then finnish the Ist 2 cycles of prayer with a salam.
The 3rd cycle,similarly 30 times al Ikhlas following the fatihah and finally 40 al Ikhlas in the last cycle. A total of 99 times in all.
Al-Ikhlas
"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Say: He is Allah, the One! (1) Allah, the eternally Besought of all! (2) He begetteth not nor was begotten. (3) And there is none comparable unto Him." (4)
Al Ikhlas, a 'heavyweight', equivalent to a third of the Quran, 99 times and Allah having 99 names...a heady mix of the sublime, with humble you, the profane.....
Additionaly, the last 3 ayats in Surah al Baqarah [ above ] has special connotation , sublimity and meaning. I read them a lot both in my prayers and as a form of 'doa'.It somehow soften the 'blows'.
Normally, after this kind of session, I find my problem or to put it more accurately, 'perceived problem', pales into insignificance...either it get solved later or God opens up my soul to the wisdom and humility to accept whatever happened 'seadanya'[ as it is ].
The interval taken for this prolong 'doa' give the necessary 'time element' for the 'neuronal-humoral-psychomotor' cascade to weave it's way and do it's magic on my soul.
And if I find I am still not restive , I repeat this daily, even for a month if need be.......It works magic! All the time. If things do not change[ usually more often than not, the status quo on the ground remained the same ], I changed...My perspective of the perceived problem changed. And just even with a change in perception, my world suddenly become lighter, often times, brighter!...The beauty of acceptance, 'Redha'.
Better still, this prayer be done in the stillness of the night, wee hours of the morning, in conjunction and proceeding an earlier two cycles of 'tahajjud' prayer and two cycles of 'taubat' prayer. 'Tahajjud' in the theoretical sense at least is 100 % for 'Him', followed by the 'taubat' prayer which in essence,with the proviso that if accepted, represent the expiation of your 'sin'.....only then the 'situation' is rightly set up for your 'hajat prayer.Remember the scene post Nabi when Abbas, our prophet's uncle was asked by the shahabats to pray for rain during a long drought.Abbas just simply asked for the expiation of his 'sin' first and only after that 'doa' for rain.
Do it one night, two for that matter, and every night if that is necessary.
Great for your soul!
We, mere simple ordinary folks, ignorant souls ,with lowly 'maqams', unlike the saints and sufis, have to have our very own simple formullae to come to a state of Redha, and if this is within the realm of the sunnah and the syariah,why not?
This is my usual personal modus operandi...
The sufis and the saints, they are different. They have attained a 'maqam' beyond 'human wants'!...They redha all the time. We ,mere mortals, have to work hard connecting with the 'divine' before achieving some semblance of it.
We are gifted with the template and the 'tools' handed down to us in the Qur'an and the sunnah. Just pick and choose and use it. The secret is in 'constancy' rather than 'volume'.
Huwallahualam!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
...History is written by the victors: Japanese surrender
This is an actual film made of the surrender ceremony of the Japanese to General McArthur in Tokyo Bay on September 2,1945. Actual voice of the General. Never been shown to the public before. We always saw the "stills" but never the film itself.
Historical Footage: Japanese Surrender Signing Aboard Battleship Missouri Sunday Sept. 2, 1945.
An important piece of history.
Historical Footage: Japanese Surrender Signing Aboard Battleship Missouri Sunday Sept. 2, 1945.
An important piece of history.
Friday, September 17, 2010
...Does Peace has a chance in the Middle East...
"And when Moses said unto his people: Lo! Allah commandeth you that ye sacrifice a cow, they said: Dost thou make game of us? He answered: Allah forbid that I should be among the foolish! (67) They said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us what (cow) she is. (Moses) answered: Lo! He saith, Verily she is a cow neither with calf nor immature; (she is) between the two conditions; so do that which ye are commanded. (68) They said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us of what colour she is. (Moses) answered: Lo! He saith: Verily she is a yellow cow. Bright is her colour, gladdening beholders. (69) They said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us what (cow) she is. Lo! cows are much alike to us; and Lo! if Allah wills, we may be led aright. (70) (Moses) answered: Lo! He saith: Verily she is a cow unyoked; she plougheth not the soil nor watereth the tilth; whole and without mark. They said: Now thou bringest the truth. So they sacrificed her, though almost they did not." (71)
Surah Al Baqarah [ The Cow ], 2 :67-71
....Does Peace has a chance when the rest of the world has to deal with this type of people, who had the tough pedigree of even going back and forth even with Allah's simple command and 'test' during Moses's time!!??
The Peace process gets more convoluted and complicated with time. In future it will be made to appear that it is the Palestinians[ and the Syrians and Lebanese ]who are encroaching on Israeli lands.
And there are just 15 millions of them around...giving all these trouble.
The Europeans had effectively off-loaded their collective guilt of The Holoucast on to the Arabs!
The American Industrial- Military complex is just too happy for the status quo to remain intact and insoluble....It is all back to economics, jobs and employment.
And cheap oil!
Surah Al Baqarah [ The Cow ], 2 :67-71
....Does Peace has a chance when the rest of the world has to deal with this type of people, who had the tough pedigree of even going back and forth even with Allah's simple command and 'test' during Moses's time!!??
The Peace process gets more convoluted and complicated with time. In future it will be made to appear that it is the Palestinians[ and the Syrians and Lebanese ]who are encroaching on Israeli lands.
And there are just 15 millions of them around...giving all these trouble.
The Europeans had effectively off-loaded their collective guilt of The Holoucast on to the Arabs!
The American Industrial- Military complex is just too happy for the status quo to remain intact and insoluble....It is all back to economics, jobs and employment.
And cheap oil!
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