Of Spiritual Winter, the coming of Spring, 'Mahabbah' and the Hereafter

At this juncture in my life, the feeling of 'mahabbah' is both overwhelming and fairly depressing for me.[ Arabic for 'love' for want of better words, in Malay, 'kecintaan', both 'love and kecintaaan oftentimes denote a sexual connotation. Mahabbah is not that kind of 'love'. Mahabbah for the Prophet for example .]
I see young people coming through my 'door' hanging on to dear life and out of 'political correctness'  I realise there is very little I can do to  uplift their  'spiritual winter'. Their physical hearts tottering on the verge of stopping. They seek my 'expertise'  for their physical hearts, but I know their inner hearts were in worse predicament. And most time I know they would not be hanging around for a long time. 'Mahabbah' and some degree of sadness.


I am sure all of you experience this kind of feeling at some time or other. A loss of a good friend of a different spiritual upbringing for example. For me this is happening with even more regularity, even with  mere acquientance, and lately ,even without 'loss' of  still living people I passed by in the lift, see in the clinic and meet at the market place etc and etc.


Mahabbah and some degree of sadness. Sadness in the realization that there is nothing I can do to change their ' perspective' and course.
'We are just like ships passing by in the night', even with our wives, sons and daughters and close relatives and friends !


Just yesterday a dear friend and colleague, a very senior consultant anaesthetist, excellent in his job, the very best in his field I would say. [ He gave 'gas' to a patient of mine with just a 15 % left ventricular ejection fraction who underwent a hip operation not once but twice and patient survive. The cardiologist nearly died twice of fright ! ]. A devout Hindu, he  just passed away, his whole body riddled with cancer. 


Oftentimes when I had bad 'cases' in the wee hours of the morning needing intubation and artificial ventilation, when the whole world are in deep slumber, Datuk Radha would answer his hand phone as if  'freshly awake'.
"....eeh by the way Datuk, when do you sleep ?"
"I will be there  for you in a jiffy Nik, I just finished prayer at the temple"
That was Datuk Radha, that I knew.


The week prior to his demise, he was in Sime Darby Medical Centre. Visiting him was difficult for me. Not visiting him was also difficult. The 'shahadah' was on my mind, and there dying in his bed, my friend, and I can't but looked and offer some nonsensical, meaningless niceties 
So much for 'politically correctness'.
Even if I do, decades of saying no to 'the Obvious' and His meseenger, to Him, to the Omnipotent and to His last messenger, may not change the final scenario.....................but how would I know?
I did not have the gall, the bullheadedness and the conviction to even try ! And how would I know ? 


I have 'mahabbah' for nice, excellent honest hardworking very spiritual  people like Datuk Radha.
I have 'mahabbah' also for honest non spiritual people around me.
I even have 'mahabbah' for the high brows people like the 'NFC lot' or the 'liberal lot'.....
That, in the current context of political correctness I have few option to reach them, is quite depressing  and sad for me.
Maniam, the news vendor; Richard Lim, my pious 'new born Christian' neighbour; that smiling young lady in the lift; a couple of big time CEO's. The list goes on and on, and at last almost all that 'rub' you in your everyday life.. Even a couple of'sultans' or two who seemed to be  somehow 'lost'. At this level, dangerous even just thinking about it. 
But why not for 'mahabbah', mashaallah.


I can imagine the Prophet's [ pbuh ]'mahabbah' for his uncle Abi Talib. His loss and ensuing 'depression must be a million times more. Abi Talib was his 'rock' during the early Mekkan days of Islam.
.........................................

The utube lecture down here is an excellent lecture, not exactly on the theme of 'mahabbah'  per se, by Shaykh Ninowy. But it touches it indirectly.

An excellent one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK8UeZBU32s&feature=related

Such mesmerizing lecture from this shaykh..........

I feel like crying.

Such passion and beauty.

'' When you do tawaf, you do not do it with your body, you do it with your hearts''

'' Some people come back with gifts that they bought from the bazaar, while some come back with gifts from the 'owner of the bazaar Himself !', "

Mashaallah ! In this time of gloom, I miss the Kaabah.




Related articles in the blog :
Unto Him is the journeying,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/02/unto-him-is-journeying.html
True Success in Life.....Shaykh Khalid Yasin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_vHfggaqA&feature=related
Morning has broken
 http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/12/morning-has-broken.html

Books : Purification of the Heart

Someone once asked A'isha, the Prophet's wife, about the most wondrous thing she observed about the Prophet [ pbuh ]. She said, " Everything about him was wondrous. But when the veiling of the night came, and when every lover went to his lover, he went to be with God. " The Prophet [ pbuh ] stood at night in prayer, remembering his Lord until his ankles swelled up and tears dripped from his beard. The Prophet [ pbuh ] said,

" Death is closer to any of you than the strap on your sandals. "

Somewhere on earth there is a door reserved for each soul, and one day each of us will walk through that door never to return to this life again. Where that door is and when we will walk through it are unknowns that we must live with. Upon death, suddenly all of this-  this whole world and all its charms and occupations-  will become as if it were all a dream :

And you will think that you tarried [ on earth ] only for a short while [ QURAN, 17 : 52 ]


Even those who are spiritually blind will see in the new world order of existence the ultimate truth about God and our purpose as His creation. And as we climb out of our graves for the mighty Gathering in the Hereafter, it would seem to us that we had stayed in our graves for only  a day or part of a day, as the Quran states.
When one is confronted with eternity, this world will seem like the most ephemeral of existences. This once overwhelmingly alluring life will be of no value to anyone.


It serve the soul to be actively aware that the door to death awaits each human  being and that it can open at any time. For this reason, the Imam says that we must keep the spectacle of death before our eyes and realize its proximity.




Excerpt from 'Purification of the Heart'
[ signs, symptoms, and cures of the spiritual disease of the heart ]
Translation and commentary of Imam al- Maulid's  MATHARAT al QULUB
by Hamza Yusuf Hanson


..........' a bloody good read', I must agree for most of us, heedless creatures, there is, creeping heedlessly on the face of this earth, rummaging  here and there,  pilling and hoarding unceasingly.


Related article in the blog:
Of Life, Dying, Death and Life after Death
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/09/f-dying-death-and-life-after-death.html 

Masihkah Mereka Pejuang Islam ? [ new paradigm in political islam ]

This article written by Dr Maza [ Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin, former mufti of Perlis ] epitomize the current dilemma facing Islamic groups the world over with respect to their world view, Islamism and Political Islam.
I suspect much of his  present worldview has been  changed  and shaped while engaging himself with the likes of  people like Tariq Ramadan in Oxford and TJ Winter of Cambridge University.


Islam is one thing in almost predominant Muslim majority countries like Syria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and Afghanistan.Yet another, in  more 'plural' countries like Malaysia, where Muslims, though  still forming  the majority in term of numbers but not quite majority in term of spirit, given the onslaught of  early colonial influence and  forced influx of alien 'migrants' . In America and Europe where Muslims are distinct  small  yet ever growing minorities, it is yet another different 'animal'.


My private gut feeling  though is  that even in predominantly Muslim majority countries, 'we' are still in a 'nascent' and developing stage , more so because the political and financial elites that effectively rule them have  forcefully 'hijacked' Islam  and reintrepreted Islam in such a way that the Medinan state of the Rasullallah's time is currently unrecognisable.


When one put it that way, we must agree with Prof Tariq Ramadan of Oxford that, like the Muslims in Europe, even the born Muslims in Libya or Saudi or Tunisia  have to rediscover Islam and essentially start back from zero :
WE ARE STILL IN A STAGE OF DARUL DAKWAH.
Can forget about Darul Islam right now.....indices of Justice, Gender Equality, Fairness, and love  and care for fellow mankind [ welfare ] in Muslim countries are at all time low.

MASIHKAH MEREKA PEJUANG NEGARA ISLAM?
Prof Madya Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
(sertai facebook DrMAZA.com dan twitter realDrMAZA)

Ramai yang menghantar mesej kepada saya meminta saya mengulas tentang kenyataan terbaru Tun Mahathir berhubung dengan hudud. Juga ada yang menyatakan saya ‘double-standard’ apabila tiba kepada Tun Mahathir saya selalu mengelakkan untuk mengulas disebabkan saya ada hubungan baik dengan beliau. 
Sebenarnya, ia disebabkan saya di UK dan baru sahaja tahu isu itu apabila dibangkit oleh rakan-rakan ‘tweet’ (not twit). Jika saya di Malaysia, mungkin saya akan hubungi Tun sendiri, tapi jarak jauh menghalang hasrat tersebut.
Asas hukum hudud disebut dalam al-Quran seperti hukum potong tangan pencuri dan sebat bagi yang menuduh orang lain berzina dan yang berzina. Kewujudan hukum tersebut dalam al-Quran memang qat’i iaitu pasti tanpa sebarang takwilan lagi, Ini disebut sebagai qat’iya thubut. 
Namun perbahasan ataupun pendetilan hukum tersebut seperti syarat-syarat hukum itu dilaksanakan, konteks perlaksanaan hukum dan segala pendetilan yang lain kebanyakannya adalah ijtihad ulama fekah. Kebanyakan ijtihad itu berasaskan kefahaman mereka terhadap nas-nas yang zanni(speculative text l zanniyyat dilalah) iaitu nas-nas al-Quran atau hadis yang mempunyai pelbagai penafsiran ataupun takwilan. Ijtihad itu terdedah kepada penilaian semula dengan menggunakan ijtihad yang lain. Berbeza pandangan dalam perkara ijtihad, bukan satu kesalahan akidah pun.

Setelah saya tonton video Tun Mahathir tersebut, saya dapati ada kesilapan dalam menggunakan istilah. Tun Mahathir mungkin memahami hudud itu sebagai perbahasan fekah berkaitan hudud, maka beliau menyatakan hudud tiada dalam al-Quran. Namun dalam masa yang sama beliau menyebut hanya ada beberapa hukum yang disebut secara umum. Di sini kesilapan beliau dalam menggunakan perkataan hudud tiada dalam al-Quran, sedangkan asas hukum tersebut memang ada dalam al-Quran. Harap Tun Mahathir dapat membetulkan kenyataan tersebut. Namun kenyataan beliau bahawa yang penting hendaklah ditegakkan keadilan, memang sedang dipakai oleh ramai ‘islamist’ di masa kini.
Siapakah Islamist
Minggu ini saya memohon dari Prof Tariq Ramadan untuk mengikuti kelas beliau ‘Political Islam, Islamism and Modern Islamic Movements’. Beliau membahaskan perkembangan golongan Islamist di Turki hari ini. Beliau meminta para pelajarnya memberikan, apakah golongan Islamist di Turki itu masih layak digelar Islamist ataupun tidak? Pelbagai pandangan diberikan oleh para pelajarnya. Kesimpulan dibiarkan terbuka. Kelas bersambung minggu hadapan. Maka saya terfikir untuk menyentuh tajuk ini dalam tulisan kali ini.

Ya, memang satu perkembangan yang menarik apabila Islamist di Turki tidak lagi melaungkan slogan perlaksanaan undang-undang syariah seperti hudud. Bahkan mereka bersedia untuk bekerja dan membangunkan negara dalam kerangka sekular (secular framework). Mereka menegak nilai-nilai Islam seperti ketelusan, amanah, berdisiplin dan lain-lain. Mereka tidak mengubah perlembagaan, sebaliknya bekerja dan memberi nafas kepada Islam dalam kerangka yang ada, tanpa menzahirkan perjuangan menentang secularism. 
Isu hijab (tudung) di universiti di Turki yang tidak dibenar sebelum ini diatasi dengan perlantikan pentadbiran yang mempunyai lebih luas tentang undang-undang tersebut. Sehingga John L. Esposito dalam The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic World di bawah tajuk secularism menafsirkan perkembangan Islamist di Turki sebenarnya bukan pertarungan antara Islamism dan secularism, tetapi sebenarnya pertarungan dalam menafsirkan konsep secularism itu sendiri. Ia antara versi secular Anglo-American yang memberikan ruang kepada penglibatan agama dalam politik dibandingkan pemahaman French secularism yang bersifat keras terhadap agama dengan menganggap penglibatan agama akan mengancam social order. Maka, Esposito melihat Islamist di Turki itu berpihak kepada secularism versi Anglo-American.
Hari ini selepas ‘Arab Spring’, gerakan Islam di kebanyakan Negara Arab sudah mula bekerjasama dengan parti-parti lain yang tidak berasaskan Islam. Kerjasama itu sekaligus menjadikan mereka menggugurkan isu ‘Islamic State’ khususnya perlaksanaan hudud. Hal yang sama kita lihat di Malaysia. Ini menimbulkan perbahasan sarjana semasa di Barat dan Timur, apakah mereka itu masih dianggap sebagai Islamist atau mereka sebenarnya ‘post-Islamist’?
Pertamanya, istilah Islamist atau Islamism itu apakah maksudnya? Secara umum, perkataan islamist difahami di Barat khususnya kelompok yang memperjuangkan politik Islam. Mereka ini berhasrat menegakkan Negara Islam yang melaksanakan undang-undang Islam khususnya hudud. Jika maksud ini dipakai, maka kelihatannya kebanyakan gerakan Islam hari ini bukan lagi Islamist seperti yang difahami oleh Barat. 
Namun jika istilah Islamist diberikan kepada mereka yang cuba menjadi muslim yang baik dalam kehidupan harian, mengamalkan nilai-nilai Islam dalam kehidupan individunya seperti amanah dalam pentadbiran, maka mereka ini masih lagi islamist. Jika disoal secara lebih jelas, apakah mereka ini pejuang Negara Islam versi lama mereka ataupun Negara Islam versi hudud? Jawapannya, kelihatan pada kemungkinan dan realiti, mereka bukan lagi pejuang Negara Islam versi berkenaan.
Post-Islamism
Asef Bayat dalam tulisannya “The Coming of a Post-Islamist Society” menggunakan istilah post-islamism merujuk kepada golongan Islamist di Iran. Beliau menyifatkan golongan post-islamist ini ialah mereka yang cuba mengadunkan semula antara Islam dan realiti dunia masa kini khususnya yang membabitkan soal kebebasan hak individu, demokrasi dan kemodenan. Beliau menyebut: 

“Post- Islamism is expressed in the idea of fusion between Islam (as a personalized faith) and individual freedom and choice; and post-Islamism is associated with the values of democracy and aspects of modernity”

Mengapa ini berlaku? Kesemua ini berlaku disebabkan pengalaman yang dilalui oleh gerakan Islam menunjukkan kegagalan dalam banyak perkara untuk melaksanakan slogan-slogan yang dilaungkan sebelum ini. Realiti politik dunia menunjukkan banyak slogan mereka sebelum ini lebih berbentuk retorik yang tidak dapat dilaksanakan. Negara seperti yang mereka baca dalam kitab-kitab lama itu sudah tidak wujud. Sudah tiada lagi Negara Khalifah. Nation State ataupun negara bangsa hari ini mempunyai realiti yang berbeza. 
Globalisasi pula sedang menghakiskan ciri-ciri nation state yang ada. Hari ini perkaitan antara politik dan ekonomi amatlah jelas. Dunia terbuka era teknologi juga mengubah terlalu banyak perkara. Hal ini akan lebih jelas terasa apabila golongan Islamist itu sendiri mendapat kekuasaan seperti di Turki dan juga beberapa Negara Arab yang baru diperolehi.
Maka, selama ini mereka mungkin telah melihat nas-nas politik dalam Islam itu di luar dari konteks yang sepatutnya ataupun decontextualization of nas. Mereka mungkin hanya membaca nas tanpa melihat konteks dan realiti yang wujud dipersekitaran nas. Tidak mengkaji rentak ruang yang mana nas-nas itu beroperasi (tempo-spatial contexts). Sedangkan dalam memahami nas, persekitaran ekonomi dan politik (economic and political milieu) yang wujud semasa nas-nas politik Madinah itu lahir hendaklah diambil.
Nabi s.a.w mengambil kira persoalan persekitaran politik ataupun realiti yang ada dalam perlaksanaan pemerintahan. Justeru itu, baginda tidak mengarahkan Najasyi Raja Habsyah yang menganut Islam itu untuk memerintah sama seperti kerajaan Nabi s.a.w di Madinah. Najasyi atau Ashamah bin Abjar mengelapai kerajaan Kristian. Maka, realitinya berbeza. Nabi s.a.w tidak mempersalahkannya disebabkan ruang yang terhad yang dia ada. Tidak pula disuruh dia meninggalkan jawatannya. Sebaliknya memuji ketelusan yang digunakan dalam ruang yang ada. Bahkan apabila Najasyi meninggal, Nabi s.a.w menyebut: 

“Telah mati pada hari ini seorang lelaki soleh. Bangunlah dan bersolatlah ke atas saudara kamu Ashamah (nama Najasyi)”. (Riwayat al-Bukhari). 

Demikian juga Nabi Yusuf yang bergerak dalam ruangan politik yang ada di zaman baginda.
Gerakan Islam mula rasional dan akur bahawa mereka mesti memahami text dan context. Jika perubahan dalam pendekatan dan kefahaman mereka kini dianggap tidak Islamik oleh sesetengah pihak, maka itu satu penafsiran yang dangkal. Realitinya, dunia Islam berhajatkan kepada pemerintah yang cekap, amanah, adil serta berjaya menghidupkan kebahagiaan rakyat. Jika gerakan Islam berjaya melakukan hal itu, maka itu satu kejayaan.




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from Nadzru Azahari, Jakarta




.

Dear Nik Hawk,

Thanks indeed. This is the stuff that I love to read and share. Have lots more of this to share. It makes my day.
Not for me is ' mounafique et sa mounaficite', 'touwba nasouha and its of manual of practice', ' studies in islamisation of knowledge', ' practice and methods of imbibation of islamic values', ' alternative medicine of the Prophet', ' 30 best du'as for good health and wealth' and the like.


Wassalaam

Nadzru

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Malaysia Boleh : Medical 'Scholls'....................

27 !!!!!!!!!,at the last count  with the latest addition of diperdana's.
17 private, 10 public.
[ sorry folks, I got it wrong ! it is 30 something at the last count....]

I am not worried too much about the public ones, even then once you get beyond the traditional 'ivy league' stuff of UkM, Mu and USM, and perhaps UIA  if one can stretch one's imagination a wee bit. As for the rest, ...........uitm, putra and etc etc, one can just hope they are doing things right with the correct staffing ratio, experience of teachers, availability of big teaching hospitals etc and etc and etc. 


 [It takes a lot of 'love' to run a decent medical school. That kind of love is hard to come by and on this count I must salute my old professors  and  untiring teachers like Prof TG loh, Somasundram, Khairuddin, Prataph, Marican, Razali, Chan Onn Leng,CK  Lam, Sengupta, Winnie Danaraj, 'Long John' Silva and the rest, some still living, some already dead. The late Prof Tan Sri Danaraj, top of the 'heap', was exemplary of the stuff that I am alluding to.]

With the private ones, mashaallah !!!!.....frankly I do not dare to think or imagine. It is a living nightmare just to think.

It boggles the mind how and where they get their students, at what level of entry they do that; and most importantly, their clinical teachers: what quality of teachers they have , where they get them, with the peanuts they are paying out are they actually getting 'monkeys' teaching 'monkeys' ?..... what level of clinical education and training their students get ?

umno , mic must have one. mca, since they are loaded probably 2 or 3. This and that individuals close to this and that pm and pm's wives must have one. ABIM or ABIM related NGO would like to have one as well. One even get nowadays  'virtual' nursing college and medical school like MEHSA or whatever etc and etc. Getting former DG's to sit on the board just help.

At the end of the day what kind of rojak doctors do we plan to produce ?

Some are probably doing quite well but majority are not .

Medical schools unlike flight schools cannot open today and close tomorrow.

The doctors they produce will be signing prescriptions and mending the sick for generations to come.

it is high time the powers that be review these schools and cut down down those that are just sub-standard and fly by night.

Otherwise we will have thousands of half trained half educated  'wounded' individuals for years to come manning and running around our hospitals. Even now hospital consultants are complaining they have too many housemen under them they dont even who are coming  and who are going. In some hospitals, house officers have  just 'two and half ' patients under their care. My time we have 50 ! At 12 midnight we are still looking just at the 5 pm admissions !

In Malaysia Boleh we can accomodate a few more ' nfc fiascos' , I think, that is all right by our 'malaysia boleh' standard.

But we cannot afford to have young specialists in something and something running around not being able to think and vocalise as well as they should be, and since I have been thirty over years in the business, I have been seeing even this creeping into the proffesion. 

Our DG's in Ministry of Health and their respective think tank have been sleeping on the job too much  and not thinking and not advising their 'political masters' well. And what is our Ministry of Higher Education doing by the way ?

.....and we have a medical doctor as pm for 22 years !
POOR AND 'SHOODY" PLANNING AND THINKING....THAT is what Malaysia Boleh is about !

dr nik howk

class of 72/78 

med school, university malaya




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from Adam,

Salam Howk,

Very aptly described. And that is why I gave my son permission to do his housemanship in Spore, despite comments from some that he was being unpatriotic. As he told me, it is not that there aren't good doctors in Bolehland, but most of them are nearing retirement ( your peers). Housemanship, being part of a doctor's training, I had to let him get about the best  in the region in the expectation  that he will be a much better doctor here when he returns. The powers that be are crazy unleashing half-baked doctors, just like they do half-baked lawyers and other so-called professionals, onto the unsuspecting public. So much for Bolehland!

Wassalam,

Adam


....................................................................
from dato dc,

The quality and nature of university teaching has changed worldwide. When I graduated many years ago, there were 20 students in my class, discussion groups of 5 students, and tutorials of 1 tutor to 1 student. A few years ago when I re-visited my old College, I found there were over a hundred in a class, discussion groups of 10 students per group, and tutorials of 5 students to a tutor.

Having said that, there were also vast improvements in the technology used in teaching, such as faster access to academic material, and easy online access to one's tutor, etc.

In Medicine, I can see constraints to such rapid expansions, such as availability of cadavers for anatomy students to work on, and good hospitals for attachment. I was pleasantly surprised to note the high quality of teaching of Medicine at the local campus of Monash University. I am a patient of Dato Prof. Khalid Kadir at the Sunway Monash. While examining me (for a diabetic- induced inflamed femoral nerve) he had three students looking on. He taught them well on how to proceed on the clinical diagnosis. I noticed that he taught them how to think. I was impressed by his clear and rational approach, and I think the students there are lucky to have such a world class teacher to tutor them.

We do have good local universities, programmes and teachers. But we also have rubbish universities here that issue degree certificates that state on the back "Valid in Malaysia Only".




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

What a pain to hear the devastating state of our medical training .Although I'm not a medical doctor but as a lawyer practising law for more than 35 years and often handled medical negligence cases, I notice even doctors of yesteryears with high standard of admission to medical schools with provision of training of the highest British  , Australian and Commonwealth standards, yet there were serious cases of medical negligence , albeit not many  of such cases.

Furthermore , our courts are generally reluctant to grant high  awards or damages to the plaintiffs. I don't really know what was the reason, most probably is because to avoid a litigious society as in the US.

Some proactive measures must be taken immediately by all parties in the medical industry and the government too.It's never too late to take corrective measures .

Best regards,

Datuk Dr Abdul Raman Saad

Sent from my iPad

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Doc Azman, senior consultant radiologist [ retired] formerly of USM wrote,

It is just money out there to be made NikH! At least $300K-1M per student.

Parents & children attitude - secured jobs, respectable jobs in society, glomour, etc ..... Etc.

Now seem to be low standard & over production!

What were the policy rational then?

I had been MQA official for other courses - I get to know how they run the programs; quality & standards were compromised. What is important is the balance sheets.

Doc Azman

V69 Sulaiman Hs

Sent from my iPhone4 via maxis

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NFC, Kaum Ibu and Rafidah Come Back.....and all that jazz....

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-so-pearl-gem-malay-dilemma_30.html

The current Leh Budu saga actually I picked some 4 years ago when the election of the Kaum Ibu UMNO was hotting up.

Rafidah was saddled with the unending AP saga and Sharizad was hot on her heel.

Leh Budu, her husband was just 'rewarded' with  a 250 million supersoft loan for the current illfated NFC.

It was ill-fated from the beginning actually, from some insiders info.There was no proffesional input in the NFC except from some 20 and 22 year old 'experts'. No MBA's . No vets etc etc. Just family. That was why  these 'experts' thot having 4 multi million RM apartments in Sinapo and KL is part  and parcel of the lembu business ! 

NFC was never meant to be a success. It was daylight robbery  or piracy from day one as I expected, whatever euphemism one cares to choose.

Now Nadzri the joker has come up with a resounding statement.

Agressive statement but nothing very cerebral from the defacto law minister. He stopped short of telling the lady to resign ,but waste every body's time saying that a loan is a loan..it need to be paid or  be recovered fully.

We do not need a law minister to say that. My form three daughter doing her exam this year knows that.

If one were to read in between the line, Sharizad's days is over.

Leh Budu may soon see the wrath of 'reluctant' justice after his tail....Reluctant because if people like you and me did not make noise in the 1st place, it would quietly be swept under the carpet....another 250 million gone down under for politicians and their their sweet young things ! Malaysia  Memang Boleh !

Just last week we read a centre page whole interview with Queen Rafidah in NST.

Are we seeing her again at the helm of Kaum Ibu. I guess we are....Kaum Ibu is running out of  ideas. Their experiment with the 'Puteris'  failed miserably with the previous Az-apakahnamadiadah.

NTR,as always the 'lalang', is taking too long a time to decide, what should have been a very easy decision if one were to present that to his previous mentor , Dr M....he could have done it while taking a walk to the loo for a pee. 


That is the difference between Dr M and NTR. The former very decisive and definitive, the later, still counting his marbles.

But with even this 'cerebral and character' deficit  NTR may even deliver in the next PRU.

Such is the sorry state of us, Malaysians !

Very pathetic indeed.


The common denominator is that there is an overall lack of accountability and real belief of akhirat amongst these people, a day when 'even an atom's weight is accounted for'.
Allahualam.


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Doc Nik,

The NFC is merely a small symptom of a deeper, systemic problem. When it is openly acknowledged that one enters politics "for fame and fortune" the decay in public ethics is pretty obvious, don't you think?

We have much to learn from countries with scarce resources but have become very rich, very open, e.g. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore (that you mock by calling it Sinapo) Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the list goes on, and on. What do they have in common? Superlative public ethics. Honesty and hard work are recognized, respected, and rewarded. 

Not one of them thinks about Akhirat, or about the atomic weights of their actions. 

Not one of them is Islamic. 

What can we learn from these facts?

DC.

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Dato Dc,

I must agree with you on these counts.
They have in common,independent judiciaries,  press and media not cowed into submission by executive power of politicians and most importantly people and population who understand the importance of these two institution and willing to lose their limbs and life for the continued integrity of free press and a free judiciary. Raayats need to be of some nitelligence as well to deserve good governance.
If we choose to remain pathetic, we deserve the shit that we have now.

Nik Howk

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from Dato' Aad, Jubleeintan group.

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 7:01 AM, Nik Isahak Abdullah <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

 

I must agree with you on these counts.

Do you HowK?  Why apologetic?  Very secular, very shallow argument!  Consider these:

1. He did not answer your question.  Did fira'un think of akhirat?  Ditto Qarun.  Ditto Haman.  Ditto Tha'alabah.  Ditto Abu Lahab, Abu Sufian.  And as for Qarun, (Allah Mentions in the Quraan) the keys to his "Bank Negara" had to be carried by 7 strong full grown men!
2. Leadership of those countries he mentioned "don't think of akhirat", but yes, at least they do think of their "dunya"!  That only puts leaders who think neither of their dunya nor akhirat in the worst category.  But it does NOT make those who "do not think of akhirat" any better!  
3. Sifat ar Rahman that we attribute to Allah answers the question as to why those countries are "blessed" with endless bounties.  But He reserves His ar Raheem only for those who constantly think of the akhirat!  This, we covered under "Tauhid Asma' was Sifaat", did we not?
4. And of course, Allah too did instruct us to think of BOTH, as in Surah Qasas (28): 77;

But seek, with that (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of the legal enjoyment in this world....."  (till end)

Note:  a)  "Hereafter" comes before "this world".  b)  The wealth we possess is "bestowed", bukan sebab kita terror.  c)  The          enjoyment that we seek in this world must be "legal".  d)  For akhirat Allah uses "seek", but for the dunya, Allah uses "don't forget". We can take it to mean that for the dunya it is only a "by the way" sort of reminder!

Wallahu 'aa'laam bis sawaab..........Mudah2an ada menafaat kita bersama.

Dato' Aad

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Dato Aad,

 You and I can understand where Dato DC is coming from :
pure  Oxbridge or Nottingham U  etc etc in the 50's or the 60's  without the priveledge of the Quran...Quran if at all come  a wee bit later, even then from orientalists perspective.

Was listening to an ulama' khutbah in my local mosque the other day. He said:
Ilm, Ilm Ilm is of profound important to our  early 'software'  development,but we need to change the order. The order should be Quran first  and only then the book of nature.

Quran first right from the outset,  then only MCKK, SIC, St Mikael, VI or Penang Free or Sri Cempaka ; then you can go to Harvard, Cornell or Cambridge or whatever.
That way one is assured of iman and ilm. Ilm without iman is dangerous for the soul. You get the 'Dunya'  and 'Western' lovers sans the 'akhirat'

Otherwise we get 'yellow mini-skirted young punks or dungaree laden young men going on  in later life,to become PM and ministers and CEo's with little clue and appreciation of their god given Din except for the little that they pick up along the way......when we  get NFC, Maminco, BMF, UMBC , Scorpene and whatever daylight piracy we make a lot of noise. We are responsible for putting up all these'pirates' there in the first place.

Having said that the good Dato has his point:
Iqbal when he visited Paris for the first time said " I come from a place where there are Muslims but no Islam to this place where there is Islam but no Muslims ! ".

We have to have both ilm and Iman....and Iman preceed ilm in importance. Without ilm, iman is on shaky ground. Ilm here denotes both ilm from 'The Book' and ilm from 'the book of nature'.
JMHO

Nik Howk

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Howk,

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Nik Isahak Abdullah <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

 "We have to have both ilm and Iman....and Iman preceed ilm in importance. Without ilm, iman is on shaky ground. Ilm here denotes both ilm from 'The Book' and ilm from 'the book of nature".

Allow me to just summarise, khusus bagi ikhwan kita dalam forum JI ini, dan 'am kepada sesiapa yang ingin bersetuju.

Ilmu. Iman. Amal soleh. Adalah seperti serampang tiga mata yang kita mesti ada untuk menuju kepada "...fid dunya Hasanah, wa fil akhiratu Hasanah...." yang kita ungkapkan saban hari.

Ilmu. Ada yang memenefaatkan, ada juga yang memudharatkan. Ilmu sihir is ilmu, tetapi memudharatkan. To reinforce, apabila Muhammad (SAW) mengajar kita memohon diberi ilmu, Baginda (SAW) mengajarkan "........'ilman na fi'a", or ilmu yang menafaat! Sebagai rumusan, "ilmu" is defined by one mu'alim, sebagai "sesuatu pengetahuan yang mendekatkan kita kepada Allah". Perlu diingat syaitan cukup suka dengan orang yang beramal tanpa ilmu! Ada riwayat yang menyebut bahawa, syaitan tak takut nak acah 1000 orang yang beriman/beramal tanpa ilmu. Tetapi syaitan amat takut kepada seorang yang beramal dengan ilmu.

Iman. Described by (if my 60 year old memory serves me right) Ali bin Abi Thalib, as, "Keyakinan yang tersemat di hati, yang dilafazkan dengan lidah dan dipertuntunkuan dengan perbuatan. Rosak hati, kufur. Rosak lafazan, munafik. Rosak perbuatan, fasiq!" So, it is not enough to say, Ya, saya beriman dengan al-Quraan tetapi hukum hudud is "out of date"! Hukum hudud tak boleh di enforce sebab Bolehland ada rakyat berbilang kaum! Iman (dan taqwa) IS the visa into Jannah. Tidak ada dalam Quraan yang mengatakan orang Islam (Muslimin) yang masuk syurga. Yang boleh masuk syurga (dengan Rahmat Allah) hanya orang beriman (Mukmin)! SO this is very very important. Silap haribulan, rosak iman, TERBATAL lah kalimah syahadah kita (wa 'iyya dzuBillahi min dzaa lik)

Amal Soleh. As opposed to "amal toleh". Pendirian ahlus sunnah wal jamaah: tidak terbatal iman bagi orang yang tak solat, tak berpuasa dan sebagainya. Dia tetap Mukmin, tinggal lagi, seorang MUKMIN FASIQ. But do not take this lightly, because Allah's treatment and view of the "fasiquun", is not a "good one" (for want of a better word). Tambahan, kalau dah biasa fasiq, kemungkinan terjerumus kepada kekafiran! Banyak Ayat Quraan yang menggariskan keseluruhan natijahnya kaum fasiquun ini!

Wallahu 'aa'laam........

--
Salam ISLAH
Sebarkan Salam

Aad.


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Heard , loud and clear Dato Aad.

Nik Howk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP9IzkM7xeQ&feature=related

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Turning Anger Into Joy

I think it might have been through my early readings of HAMKA's Tafsir Al Azhar or some other religious work somewhere, but I have practised this for years that whenever I am angry or more commonly as in my case 'dissapointed' with someone or something, I would go take an ablution and pray 2 cycles of prayer. Most times, the paradigm changes, my anger or dissapointment well abated and 'problem' seem less of a problem. My attitude to the socalled' problem changed......


There was one instance I recollect that the 'problem on the ground' was so intractable and 'formidable'., I had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning  daily and pray for over a month, suddenly one fine day I woke up with the pleasant realization that 'really actually it is not a problem anymore for me, it is HIS problem ! '. Everything suddenly become bright and breezy.


Yesterday I was surfing a 'sufi' web on the internet and came across this 'gold mine'. I know sufi/ tassauwwuf is a 'no - no' to some individuals.......

Well, if you are partial to tassauwwuf or sufism, or you think they are 'bidaah people', disregard that this is sufi, but listen....

If you love them......also listen

but if you are the great silent majority like me who are 'neutral' to all this name-calling,...do listen

Take just their wisdom, leave the name-calling, and  your  'I am holier and more knowledgeable than thou', common amongst us Muslims...just listen

http://vimeo.com/36200465

[ I  must apologise for some of the poor sound disturbance in the background ]

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. "

- Sir Isaac Newton

The Lives of Man....Hamza Yusuf Hanson

Hamza Yusuf Hanson, a Muslim revert at 17, received his early Islamic education mainly from a 'one to one encounter' with a Shaykh in Mauritania [' pondok style'], then later  in Morocco and Egypt,  and is currently the founding dean of Zaytuna Institute in USA.


Here he gave a 'dry' 2 hour lecture to his students on 'The Lives of Man', mainly derived from a  book of a classical scholar, Shaykh Al Haddad, with some anecdotal addition from his [ Hamza's ] own experience and acute observation and present day reading.


Fairly 'dry'  academic stuff but nonetheless quite illuminating.
Hamza Yusuf is certainly not a 'fountain of knowledge' per se but  it is rare in the Western world to find a guy who knows Arabic very well, steeped in early  Judea- Christian tradition, embracing Islam wholly and able to speak excellently to an English speaking audience.
They can be counted with fingers of one hand !
May Allah bless him with a long life to spread the universal good message of Islam...................


part 1 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G1Cyj7gt9k&feature=youtu.be

[very profound esp his discussion at 1.04- 1.10 on the spirit of syariah, touching on the spirit of hudud]

part 2 :

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

[ 0.15 , 0.16- 0.20 {death and dying in religious traditions }, 0.20 { spiritual death }, 0.29, 0.34 { on boredom and excitement about life, an arena of ecstasy, emotional death } , 0.35, 0.38  { submission as the radical cure to 'imprisonment'} , 0.54 { seeing prophets in dreams } and 0.58 { marthydom }  ]