"Allah receiveth (men's) souls at the time of their death, and that (soul) which dieth not (yet) in its sleep. He keepeth that (soul) for which He hath ordained death and dismisseth the rest till an appointed term. Lo! herein verily are portents for people who take thought."
Surah Az Zumar , Chapter 39 : 42, from The Noble Qur'an...
No small wonder the ever careful practitioner, in the the tradition of his Prophet before his night sojourn, with heart full of trepidation and hope, would routinely read the four 'Kuls',followed by the 'Fatihah ' and finally 'washed further with a short rendition of 'The Lord of The Throne'[ Ayatul Kursi,al Baqarah 2 : 255 ].Then lastly a final repeat of The Shahadah.
Some more careful at heart would even recite as a preamble,nightly, without fail,a complete rendition of Surah Al Waqiah [ chapter 59 ], and Surah al Mulk [ chapter 67 ]. This, also a tradition of The Last Prophet.
But why not?
Our very own souls leave our lifeless sleep-bound bodies to be with our Lord 'for temporary safe keeping' during our nightly sojourn. Sleep is transient 'death'. If for some, the souls are held back, it is 'curtain' for the uninitiated and the secular minded, the end of this universe so to speak.THE END. End of story. Fullstop...
To the careful practitioner, this would herald the 'beginning of a new beginning'...." Ma Rabbuka....Who is thy Lord? ".From 'unreality to reality. From this 'unreal' world of matter without mass, to that 'real' world of souls without words...Alam Barzakh.
For some of them , they sleep in fits, waking up in the middle of the night, in remembrance of their Lord:
"Is he who payeth adoration in the watches of the night, prostrate and standing, bewaring of the Hereafter and hoping for the mercy of his Lord, (to be accounted equal with a disbeliever)? Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Are those who know equal with those who know not? But only men of understanding will pay heed."
Az Zumar , 39 : 9
How succinct. If just some of our movers and shakers of society, first ladies and last ladies of this planet; mega 'pirates and robbers' of the world; prime ministers and presidents of nations; kings and princes;... could just read and comprehend The Divine Letters.... This whole world would be a much more tolerable place for everyone. Rich and poor, black and white, brown and yellow. To live and share the bounties, pearls and gem and all, without any precondition.
Sadly this is just an utopian dream. One final day this 'unreal world' will crumble when the trumpet is blown..the veil will be removed....
"And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth swoon away, save him whom Allah willeth. Then it is blown a second time, and behold them standing waiting! (68) And the earth shineth with the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the prophets and the witnesses are brought, and it is judged between them with truth, and they are not wronged. (69) And each soul is paid in full for what it did. And He is best aware of what they do. (70)"
Az Zumar , 39 : 68-70
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Gods...God...Godless...
"Sad. By the renowned Qur'an, (1) Nay, but those who disbelieve are in false pride and schism. (2) How many a generation We destroyed before them, and they cried out when it was no longer the time for escape! (3) And they marvel that a warner from among themselves hath come unto them, and the disbelievers say: This is a wizard, a charlatan. (4) Maketh he the gods One God? Lo! that is an astounding thing. (5) The chiefs among them go about, exhorting: Go and be staunch to your gods! Lo! this is a thing designed. (6) We have not heard of this in later religion. This is naught but an invention. (7) Hath the reminder been revealed unto him (alone) among us? Nay, but they are in doubt concerning My reminder; nay but they have not yet tasted My doom. (8)"
Surah Sad ,Chapter 38 : 1-8, The Noble Qur'an
How classic .The above 'ayats' were alluding to the Makkan Quraish during the early days of Muhamad's prophethood. The Quraish at that point in time were polytheist, idol worshippers, worshipping some 300 gods.
If we look at history, early man believed in too many gods.Just about anything that amount to something, they called them gods.By Prophet Abraham's time, man were already exposed to a series of lesser known messengers of Allah, most notable of whom was Noah[ who sadly could not even influence his son ]. Man became more focussed on the concept of unity of Allah, but with passing generations, degeneration of belief gravitate back to polytheism. Right from Isaac down to Muhamad, The Torah , Injeel [ the early ones such as The Bible of Barnabas, did not have an iota of Trinity,the divinity of Jesus ] and many hundreds of 'ayats' in the Quran were just extolling the virtue of just one god, Allah. Starting from Darwin onwards till now , materialists took hold of the initiative and presently it has become politically incorrect to bring god into the 'public domain' in most Western and even eastern countries. The world is now 'godless'. If you happened to believe in one, my friend, 'please keep your belief in the privacy of your own homes!'.
Atheism and agnosticism are 20th century phenomena. Sociologists and philosophers amongst us probably can explain that due to overdependence and false and misplaced egoism on science..... What science cannot explain and 'comprehend', it is not there.If one cannot see souls and cannot see God, they are nonexistent.
But modern man could also not see atoms, proton or neutron,electrons, god particle, CERN particles, radiation, etc and etc.But they are there.We accept them to be there. Our clever scientists say they are there so they are there!
God is very definitive about this 'bifocality' that exist in modern man's egoism. HE not need be politically correct and mince HIS words on how HE feels. HE called them,'Deaf, Dumb , and Blind!'. In other parts of the Qur'an, '...they are worse than cattle'.
However, to be frank, if super scientists and thinkers like Albert Einstein were entirely honest and truthful to themselves, new science ,especially quantum physics, points to the existence of one god.A critical analysis of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and new work being done in quantum physics point to the existence of that one God as pointed earlier in the Torah, the early bibles and repeated in the 6000 plus ayats of the Quran.
For 1.5 billion of us Muslims, we do not need science to validate Islam, let alone Allah. Nonetheless when initially 'lost sheep' like the late Prof Muhammad Al Mahdi,an American by birth, a quantum physicist by training, could indeed finally see his Maker through science, our hearts can glow with warmthness and satisfaction. Yes, at least indeed here we have a man of true knowledge who is entirely honest and humble with himself.
Do visit him at:
http://islamic-World.net/
[ see LINK ]
Surah Sad ,Chapter 38 : 1-8, The Noble Qur'an
How classic .The above 'ayats' were alluding to the Makkan Quraish during the early days of Muhamad's prophethood. The Quraish at that point in time were polytheist, idol worshippers, worshipping some 300 gods.
If we look at history, early man believed in too many gods.Just about anything that amount to something, they called them gods.By Prophet Abraham's time, man were already exposed to a series of lesser known messengers of Allah, most notable of whom was Noah[ who sadly could not even influence his son ]. Man became more focussed on the concept of unity of Allah, but with passing generations, degeneration of belief gravitate back to polytheism. Right from Isaac down to Muhamad, The Torah , Injeel [ the early ones such as The Bible of Barnabas, did not have an iota of Trinity,the divinity of Jesus ] and many hundreds of 'ayats' in the Quran were just extolling the virtue of just one god, Allah. Starting from Darwin onwards till now , materialists took hold of the initiative and presently it has become politically incorrect to bring god into the 'public domain' in most Western and even eastern countries. The world is now 'godless'. If you happened to believe in one, my friend, 'please keep your belief in the privacy of your own homes!'.
Atheism and agnosticism are 20th century phenomena. Sociologists and philosophers amongst us probably can explain that due to overdependence and false and misplaced egoism on science..... What science cannot explain and 'comprehend', it is not there.If one cannot see souls and cannot see God, they are nonexistent.
But modern man could also not see atoms, proton or neutron,electrons, god particle, CERN particles, radiation, etc and etc.But they are there.We accept them to be there. Our clever scientists say they are there so they are there!
God is very definitive about this 'bifocality' that exist in modern man's egoism. HE not need be politically correct and mince HIS words on how HE feels. HE called them,'Deaf, Dumb , and Blind!'. In other parts of the Qur'an, '...they are worse than cattle'.
However, to be frank, if super scientists and thinkers like Albert Einstein were entirely honest and truthful to themselves, new science ,especially quantum physics, points to the existence of one god.A critical analysis of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and new work being done in quantum physics point to the existence of that one God as pointed earlier in the Torah, the early bibles and repeated in the 6000 plus ayats of the Quran.
For 1.5 billion of us Muslims, we do not need science to validate Islam, let alone Allah. Nonetheless when initially 'lost sheep' like the late Prof Muhammad Al Mahdi,an American by birth, a quantum physicist by training, could indeed finally see his Maker through science, our hearts can glow with warmthness and satisfaction. Yes, at least indeed here we have a man of true knowledge who is entirely honest and humble with himself.
Do visit him at:
http://islamic-World.net/
[ see LINK ]
Saturday, June 19, 2010
...Light..
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah setteth forth for mankind similitudes, for Allah is Knower of all things. (35) (This lamp is found) in houses which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein. Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening. (36) Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned; (37) That Allah may reward them with the best of what they did, and increase reward for them of His bounty. Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom He will. (38) As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert. The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning. (39)
Translation of Surah Al Nur [..Light.. ] from ' The Noble Quran ', Chapter 24 : 35-39
Life's journey is often time like a mirage.
We ,armed with superficial secular knowledge and apparent wisdom, can easily fall into a cosy assumption that we had all things covered, but when we reach there, it is still over the horizon. Life, devoid of true spirituality, can be awfully misleading. We start with false premise, have wrong direction, and at the end of the road, if we are sincere with ourselves,meet with dead ends!
False knowledge, dearth of wisdom and subsequent to this, blind pride, only lead us all to 'layer upon layer' of darkness'.
Only through 'true knowledge' can one separate'light' from mirages.
'Light' seemed like a nice cliche.
For people illuminated by such 'light' though, all roads lead to Makkah.
Cat Steven aka Yusuf Islam, despite his very own early hedonistic ways, is gifted with such 'light'. It is a rare precious gift. On the other hand one can have an IQ as high or higher than an Albert Einstein or a Carl Sagan, but without that gift of 'light', the eyes can see but, alas, remained blind and dry, the ears,hear, but not listen to true wusdom and knowledge,as if dumb,and the heart can still beat and has its rythm, but remain cold and impervious to Truth.
Light, from the perspective of Cat Steven, before he was given real LIGHT,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fxY2zh33z0
then, what followed changed his life 180 degrees,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4GZx26znag
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah setteth forth for mankind similitudes, for Allah is Knower of all things. (35) (This lamp is found) in houses which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein. Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening. (36) Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned; (37) That Allah may reward them with the best of what they did, and increase reward for them of His bounty. Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom He will. (38) As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert. The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning. (39)
Translation of Surah Al Nur [..Light.. ] from ' The Noble Quran ', Chapter 24 : 35-39
Life's journey is often time like a mirage.
We ,armed with superficial secular knowledge and apparent wisdom, can easily fall into a cosy assumption that we had all things covered, but when we reach there, it is still over the horizon. Life, devoid of true spirituality, can be awfully misleading. We start with false premise, have wrong direction, and at the end of the road, if we are sincere with ourselves,meet with dead ends!
False knowledge, dearth of wisdom and subsequent to this, blind pride, only lead us all to 'layer upon layer' of darkness'.
Only through 'true knowledge' can one separate'light' from mirages.
'Light' seemed like a nice cliche.
For people illuminated by such 'light' though, all roads lead to Makkah.
Cat Steven aka Yusuf Islam, despite his very own early hedonistic ways, is gifted with such 'light'. It is a rare precious gift. On the other hand one can have an IQ as high or higher than an Albert Einstein or a Carl Sagan, but without that gift of 'light', the eyes can see but, alas, remained blind and dry, the ears,hear, but not listen to true wusdom and knowledge,as if dumb,and the heart can still beat and has its rythm, but remain cold and impervious to Truth.
Light, from the perspective of Cat Steven, before he was given real LIGHT,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fxY2zh33z0
then, what followed changed his life 180 degrees,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4GZx26znag
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tan Sri Ibrahim 'Promet' in memory.....
Tan Sri Ibrahim bin Mohammad died yesterday, age 68, of massive cerebral thrombosis [ stroke ]. A colourful figure , flamboyant to his last, lawyer-economist, philanthropist par excellence, entreprenuer and above all, a great friend.
Our path coindentally crossed sometime in the mid eighties. An unlikely combination: Still very much 'high flying', 'corporate surgeon', beyond his peak, and on his way down, and a young 'plumber', definitely on his way up.That meeting was not coincidental. It was iron casted in Loth Mahfuz many milenium years back, before time, beyond our very limited comprehension. The chemistry however clicked and last
We happened to share the same love. The 'Haram'. We spent many happy years of'umrah' together, whispering sweet nothings unto "The Beloved". Hope for atonement, sharing of deep inner secrets, only The One and Only is privy, and asking for mercy and Barakah in the next world.
It was not all 'holy' and straight forward. In between the sobs and tears at the Maqam Ibrahim and the late night tahajud and istikharah in the 'Haram', we, being 'boys at heart' also pry the high street of Jeddah together just enjoying the Lord's gift to mankind, looking at beautiful rich women of leisure from Iran, Lebanon and Syria in their sensuous 'abaya', passing. Sometime you can see , sometime you don't...[ My God! Sensuality is in the mystery. This, the rather 'agressive and free' ladies of the West, and increasingly, now even the East, cannot totally comprehend! ].
Life is indeed full of incongruities and contraditions.These I shared with Tan Sri Ibrahim.Both of us, are able to look at life as a very private 'love affair' with The Beloved, so to speak....The pain, the gain, the fear and trepidition, the anguish and the happiness are just sides of the same coin... "We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us ye will be returned."[ I will venture to write about the nature of happiness in my next blog...insyaallah ]
He was a good teacher to me on how to live life to the 'fullest'. One can dream of sufi thoughts and convictions and grand religious plan and vision, but caviar and fine arabians , and turbo charged 'horses' and the excellent things in life are not haram!...I keep telling my elder brother, Hasan, who thought and vocalise that extravagance, as exhibited by the likes of people like Tan Sri, is sinful.... that we cannot judge man superficially. If one has 200 million in the bank, do not expect him to behave and think like 'you ' and 'me'. We do not know what goes on in a millionaire's mind. We are not privy to the generous donation he makes annually. We are not privy to his anguish and fear....At the end of the day,Islam is about excellence. Excellence in the Here and the Hereafter..and we are not the judge.
Ibrahim probably made his 1st million in Pahang. Went on to make more millions with his association with Genting. When you are young and very vital perhaps 'the end justifies all means'. But life, like golf, is not about how one start the game. It it about how one ends the game. I suspected, but never pry, that those many years of whispering 'sweet nothings' with me at Maqam Ibrahim, rain or shine, in front of the Kaaba, probably has to do with the atonement for his early days at 'Genting'. Friends just need to understand, we dont need to ask the inner sanctum of one's secret fear and love. That way, mystery further mystifies.
Hicom [ Heavy Industry Incorporated of Malaysia ], Proton and Langkawi seem to be Dr M's legacy to Malaysia.Ibrahim in his heydays was Dr M 1st private tutor, giving him free advice on corporate matters.Every Friday afternoon in the late seventies, is tutorial time. No one was allowed to clutter the lobby at PM's office to ask for favour or to send up any brown envelope for numero uno's perusal.Friday after prayer was reserved for Ibrahim! This went on for several years to the chagrin an envy of the likes of Musa Hitam and other senior cabinet members who seemed to be sidelined for lack of ideas. Much later, ADZ and all his 'wet in between' the ears assistants and cronies matured, and in due time took over the role. With politicians,friends and foes are transient. Interest is permanent.
Yes, Dr M must have been one of our greatest PM so far with respect to ideas and vision. I am not surprised. He got an excellent tutor in Ibrahim...... until the 'rot sets in'.
Promet Building, a definitive KL landmark and 'one of its kind' in the early 80's was the nerve centre from which this debonair maverick planned and execute his many 'corporate surgeries'.However, his star began to wean and slowed down when two of his best pals, Dr M and Razaleight Hamzah were at loggerhead with each other. Such is the reality of big business in Malaysia, then and now. Political patronage is the sine qua non of business ,big and small. When we are going to be able to grow out of this , I do not know?
It was also Langkawi that perhaps signaled Ibrahim's Promet Bhd fast decline. Millions invested sinking in the white sand, Development and crowd was slow to come.Free port status was even slower to come by. Promet share plummeted.Great friends parted further, caught by the inevitable quigmire of Malaysian political scene.
" I once advice 'Number One', the virtue of not having his children actually involved in big business, but that advice fell on deaf ears"......
The rest was history.The MISC bailout was a testimony of good advice ,not taken.
History can be very harsh for ex prime ministers and former leaders, but for my good friend Ibrahim, at least I know he had done well,
Good bye my friend.
May your soul be amongst those whom 'He' blessed.
" Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us ye will be returned. "
Surah Al Anbiya [ The Prophets ], 21 : 35
"Lo! verily unto Allah belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth. He knoweth your condition. And (He knoweth) the Day when they are returned unto Him so that He may inform them of what they did. Allah is Knower of all things."
Surah Al Nur , 24 : 64
Dr Nik Howk
Our path coindentally crossed sometime in the mid eighties. An unlikely combination: Still very much 'high flying', 'corporate surgeon', beyond his peak, and on his way down, and a young 'plumber', definitely on his way up.That meeting was not coincidental. It was iron casted in Loth Mahfuz many milenium years back, before time, beyond our very limited comprehension. The chemistry however clicked and last
We happened to share the same love. The 'Haram'. We spent many happy years of'umrah' together, whispering sweet nothings unto "The Beloved". Hope for atonement, sharing of deep inner secrets, only The One and Only is privy, and asking for mercy and Barakah in the next world.
It was not all 'holy' and straight forward. In between the sobs and tears at the Maqam Ibrahim and the late night tahajud and istikharah in the 'Haram', we, being 'boys at heart' also pry the high street of Jeddah together just enjoying the Lord's gift to mankind, looking at beautiful rich women of leisure from Iran, Lebanon and Syria in their sensuous 'abaya', passing. Sometime you can see , sometime you don't...[ My God! Sensuality is in the mystery. This, the rather 'agressive and free' ladies of the West, and increasingly, now even the East, cannot totally comprehend! ].
Life is indeed full of incongruities and contraditions.These I shared with Tan Sri Ibrahim.Both of us, are able to look at life as a very private 'love affair' with The Beloved, so to speak....The pain, the gain, the fear and trepidition, the anguish and the happiness are just sides of the same coin... "We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us ye will be returned."[ I will venture to write about the nature of happiness in my next blog...insyaallah ]
He was a good teacher to me on how to live life to the 'fullest'. One can dream of sufi thoughts and convictions and grand religious plan and vision, but caviar and fine arabians , and turbo charged 'horses' and the excellent things in life are not haram!...I keep telling my elder brother, Hasan, who thought and vocalise that extravagance, as exhibited by the likes of people like Tan Sri, is sinful.... that we cannot judge man superficially. If one has 200 million in the bank, do not expect him to behave and think like 'you ' and 'me'. We do not know what goes on in a millionaire's mind. We are not privy to the generous donation he makes annually. We are not privy to his anguish and fear....At the end of the day,Islam is about excellence. Excellence in the Here and the Hereafter..and we are not the judge.
Ibrahim probably made his 1st million in Pahang. Went on to make more millions with his association with Genting. When you are young and very vital perhaps 'the end justifies all means'. But life, like golf, is not about how one start the game. It it about how one ends the game. I suspected, but never pry, that those many years of whispering 'sweet nothings' with me at Maqam Ibrahim, rain or shine, in front of the Kaaba, probably has to do with the atonement for his early days at 'Genting'. Friends just need to understand, we dont need to ask the inner sanctum of one's secret fear and love. That way, mystery further mystifies.
Hicom [ Heavy Industry Incorporated of Malaysia ], Proton and Langkawi seem to be Dr M's legacy to Malaysia.Ibrahim in his heydays was Dr M 1st private tutor, giving him free advice on corporate matters.Every Friday afternoon in the late seventies, is tutorial time. No one was allowed to clutter the lobby at PM's office to ask for favour or to send up any brown envelope for numero uno's perusal.Friday after prayer was reserved for Ibrahim! This went on for several years to the chagrin an envy of the likes of Musa Hitam and other senior cabinet members who seemed to be sidelined for lack of ideas. Much later, ADZ and all his 'wet in between' the ears assistants and cronies matured, and in due time took over the role. With politicians,friends and foes are transient. Interest is permanent.
Yes, Dr M must have been one of our greatest PM so far with respect to ideas and vision. I am not surprised. He got an excellent tutor in Ibrahim...... until the 'rot sets in'.
Promet Building, a definitive KL landmark and 'one of its kind' in the early 80's was the nerve centre from which this debonair maverick planned and execute his many 'corporate surgeries'.However, his star began to wean and slowed down when two of his best pals, Dr M and Razaleight Hamzah were at loggerhead with each other. Such is the reality of big business in Malaysia, then and now. Political patronage is the sine qua non of business ,big and small. When we are going to be able to grow out of this , I do not know?
It was also Langkawi that perhaps signaled Ibrahim's Promet Bhd fast decline. Millions invested sinking in the white sand, Development and crowd was slow to come.Free port status was even slower to come by. Promet share plummeted.Great friends parted further, caught by the inevitable quigmire of Malaysian political scene.
" I once advice 'Number One', the virtue of not having his children actually involved in big business, but that advice fell on deaf ears"......
The rest was history.The MISC bailout was a testimony of good advice ,not taken.
History can be very harsh for ex prime ministers and former leaders, but for my good friend Ibrahim, at least I know he had done well,
Good bye my friend.
May your soul be amongst those whom 'He' blessed.
" Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us ye will be returned. "
Surah Al Anbiya [ The Prophets ], 21 : 35
"Lo! verily unto Allah belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth. He knoweth your condition. And (He knoweth) the Day when they are returned unto Him so that He may inform them of what they did. Allah is Knower of all things."
Surah Al Nur , 24 : 64
Dr Nik Howk
Monday, June 14, 2010
My Personal journey thru The Noble Quran : Surah Al Mukminun , 23 : 1-11
I attended a glittering marriage reception last night of one of our up and coming cabinet member. Rubbing shoulders with people within the corridor of power from both divide, captains and villains of industry, shakers and movers of society. They came in various shape and size, all resplendent in their Baju Melayus and glistening songket Terengganu and Kelantan ,or brightly coloured, personalized expensive batiks.
We shared, as usual on these occasions,empty talks ,anecdotes and social niceties.Everyone at their best, avoiding prevailing issues that divide, keeping to the narrow confine of political correctness.
What suddenly striked me as funny is the stark realisation that the common denominator and attitude of avoiding the 'truth of the matter' seem to be the most important 'prerequirement' or to put it in French, the sine qua non of political correctness. 'Truth' and 'biblical' requirements are not important. 'Cari makan' and the 'bread and butter' stuff are. Not that I did not know this before but having fresh conversation with some that night seem to underline this observation further. I was, to put it mildly, a wee bit disturbed that night. The feeling that I am now out of touch and 'alien' is pretty disturbing. Am I getting too old!?,and on coming back from the occasion and returning back to the tranquility of my Quran [ http://quranexplorer.com/ ], Lo and behold! there was it, in Surah Al Mukminun, the panacea to my seed of discontent:
"Successful indeed are the believers (1) Who are humble in their prayers, (2)And who shun vain conversation, (3) And who are payers of the poor-due; (4) And who guard their modesty - (5) Save from their wives or the (slaves) that their right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy, (6) But whoso craveth beyond that, such are transgressors - (7) And who are keepers of their pledge and their covenant, (8) And who pay heed to their prayers. (9)These are the heirs (10) Who will inherit paradise. There they will abide. (11)"
If we examine ourselves wholly and truthfully , personally, and I mean this myself, we have a long long way to go towards the simple and very definitive advisory given by God himself within the 1st 11 ayats of Surah Al Mukminun:
Be humble with our prayers [ solat ], put our 'hearts' wholly to it, reading the ayats and the 'doa' with full comprehension and 100 % attention.
Be serious, no wasting of time with vain , non meaningful activities and conversation and arguments.
Pays the zakat and be mindful of the poor, the down and out.
'Guard' our private parts, be chaste and truthful to our wife or wives and vice versa.
Be sincere and truthful to our business partners.When we have an agreement , stick to it. Do not cheat.
And understand and pay heed to our prayer.Prayer [ solat ]here underlined twice.
We 'solat' ,minimum, five times a day but our 'solat' has never liberated us or lift us beyond the ordinary. That we have to ask ourselves as to the reason why. The 'shahadah',..There is no god but God..,we say minimum nine times a day. It is a very liberating statement which even the greatest and most powerful individual on earth in the history of man, The Pharoah , learnt to his utter dismay when faced with Mosses. Contemporary Bush and Obama are just mere eunuchs compared to Pharoah. He was so powerful he even finally believed in his heart of heart that he was god himself!
Part of understanding our prayer and paying heed to it is the realization that we are here to do good, to follow His advisory and advise people to be good, to be Muslim, to embrace Islam. Fundamental to this is not to divide the 'world' into black and white, Muslim and non Muslim. We are all a 'spectrum' of God's humanity. At the extreme end on the left is black and the other extreme end is white. The great majority are a shade of gray , gray white and gray black.
If we look at humanity from this perspective, at the personal level it is mandatory for us to give good advise all the time, to behave well all the time. To be God's viceroy on this earth. From this perspective now I can understand my acupunturist's comment recently, 'Dr' Hasan Ma from China, who said," Doc, after so many years still the local Chinese in Malaysia are not embracing Islam in droves. They cannot see any beauty in Islam because you Malays are not exemplary!" It was not easy for me to accept and chew this initially but that is actually a very profound and true statement. We are not exemplary Muslims!
"You give banks to some corporate Malays, Petronas will have to bail them out. You give land and timber all will end up with Tengku Wongs. You give POWER, the country may even end up bankrupt! Some of us cannot even control our wives' excesses !"
It is high time we all take stock of ourselves. We are the Lord's viceroys on this planet earth. We have a job to be done. We need to take a fresh look at the world.
It is a wide open canvass, we are the artists!.
Yes,we, who are talented and endowed with Islam and knowledge should behave like artists. Our pastels and paint are the Quran and the Sunnah. Our canvass is the world. Let us paint the world white!
There are lots of Tun-ship, Tan Sri-ship and Datuk Sri's to be knighted, in the Hereafter!
Let us all work for it.
We shared, as usual on these occasions,empty talks ,anecdotes and social niceties.Everyone at their best, avoiding prevailing issues that divide, keeping to the narrow confine of political correctness.
What suddenly striked me as funny is the stark realisation that the common denominator and attitude of avoiding the 'truth of the matter' seem to be the most important 'prerequirement' or to put it in French, the sine qua non of political correctness. 'Truth' and 'biblical' requirements are not important. 'Cari makan' and the 'bread and butter' stuff are. Not that I did not know this before but having fresh conversation with some that night seem to underline this observation further. I was, to put it mildly, a wee bit disturbed that night. The feeling that I am now out of touch and 'alien' is pretty disturbing. Am I getting too old!?,and on coming back from the occasion and returning back to the tranquility of my Quran [ http://quranexplorer.com/ ], Lo and behold! there was it, in Surah Al Mukminun, the panacea to my seed of discontent:
"Successful indeed are the believers (1) Who are humble in their prayers, (2)And who shun vain conversation, (3) And who are payers of the poor-due; (4) And who guard their modesty - (5) Save from their wives or the (slaves) that their right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy, (6) But whoso craveth beyond that, such are transgressors - (7) And who are keepers of their pledge and their covenant, (8) And who pay heed to their prayers. (9)These are the heirs (10) Who will inherit paradise. There they will abide. (11)"
If we examine ourselves wholly and truthfully , personally, and I mean this myself, we have a long long way to go towards the simple and very definitive advisory given by God himself within the 1st 11 ayats of Surah Al Mukminun:
Be humble with our prayers [ solat ], put our 'hearts' wholly to it, reading the ayats and the 'doa' with full comprehension and 100 % attention.
Be serious, no wasting of time with vain , non meaningful activities and conversation and arguments.
Pays the zakat and be mindful of the poor, the down and out.
'Guard' our private parts, be chaste and truthful to our wife or wives and vice versa.
Be sincere and truthful to our business partners.When we have an agreement , stick to it. Do not cheat.
And understand and pay heed to our prayer.Prayer [ solat ]here underlined twice.
We 'solat' ,minimum, five times a day but our 'solat' has never liberated us or lift us beyond the ordinary. That we have to ask ourselves as to the reason why. The 'shahadah',..There is no god but God..,we say minimum nine times a day. It is a very liberating statement which even the greatest and most powerful individual on earth in the history of man, The Pharoah , learnt to his utter dismay when faced with Mosses. Contemporary Bush and Obama are just mere eunuchs compared to Pharoah. He was so powerful he even finally believed in his heart of heart that he was god himself!
Part of understanding our prayer and paying heed to it is the realization that we are here to do good, to follow His advisory and advise people to be good, to be Muslim, to embrace Islam. Fundamental to this is not to divide the 'world' into black and white, Muslim and non Muslim. We are all a 'spectrum' of God's humanity. At the extreme end on the left is black and the other extreme end is white. The great majority are a shade of gray , gray white and gray black.
If we look at humanity from this perspective, at the personal level it is mandatory for us to give good advise all the time, to behave well all the time. To be God's viceroy on this earth. From this perspective now I can understand my acupunturist's comment recently, 'Dr' Hasan Ma from China, who said," Doc, after so many years still the local Chinese in Malaysia are not embracing Islam in droves. They cannot see any beauty in Islam because you Malays are not exemplary!" It was not easy for me to accept and chew this initially but that is actually a very profound and true statement. We are not exemplary Muslims!
"You give banks to some corporate Malays, Petronas will have to bail them out. You give land and timber all will end up with Tengku Wongs. You give POWER, the country may even end up bankrupt! Some of us cannot even control our wives' excesses !"
It is high time we all take stock of ourselves. We are the Lord's viceroys on this planet earth. We have a job to be done. We need to take a fresh look at the world.
It is a wide open canvass, we are the artists!.
Yes,we, who are talented and endowed with Islam and knowledge should behave like artists. Our pastels and paint are the Quran and the Sunnah. Our canvass is the world. Let us paint the world white!
There are lots of Tun-ship, Tan Sri-ship and Datuk Sri's to be knighted, in the Hereafter!
Let us all work for it.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Biblical Stories in The Noble Quran :Chapter 21, Al Anbiya [ The Prophets ]
And We set a just balance for the Day of Resurrection so that no soul is wronged in aught. Though it be of the weight of a grain of mustard seed, We bring it. And We suffice for reckoners. (47) And We verily gave Moses and Aaron the Criterion (of right and wrong) and a light and a Reminder for those who keep from evil, (48) Those who fear their Lord in secret and who dread the Hour (of doom). (49) This is a blessed Reminder that we have revealed: Will ye then reject it? (50) And We verily gave Abraham of old his proper course, and We were Aware of him, (51) When he said unto his father and his folk: What are these images unto which ye pay devotion? (52) They said: We found our fathers worshippers of them. (53) He said: Verily ye and your fathers were in plain error. (54) They said: Bringest thou unto us the truth, or art thou some jester? (55) He said: Nay, but your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, Who created them; and I am of those who testify unto that. (56) And, by Allah, I shall circumvent your idols after ye have gone away and turned your backs. (57) Then he reduced them to fragments, all save the chief of them, that haply they might have recourse to it. (58) They said: Who hath done this to our gods? Surely it must be some evil-doer. (59) They said: We heard a youth make mention of them, who is called Abraham. (60) They said: Then bring him (hither) before the people's eyes that they may testify. (61) They said: Is it thou who hast done this to our gods, O Abraham? (62) He said: But this, their chief hath done it. So question them, if they can speak. (63) Then gathered they apart and said: Lo! ye yourselves are the wrong-doers. (64) And they were utterly confounded, and they said: Well thou knowest that these speak not. (65) He said: Worship ye then instead of Allah that which cannot profit you at all, nor harm you? (66) Fie on you and all that ye worship instead of Allah! Have ye then no sense? (67) They cried: Burn him and stand by your gods, if ye will be doing. (68) We said: O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham, (69) And they wished to set a snare for him, but We made them the greater losers. (70) And We rescued him and Lot (and brought them) to the land which We have blessed for (all) peoples. (71) And We bestowed upon him Isaac, and Jacob as a grandson. Each of them We made righteous. (72)
......... And she who was chaste, therefor We breathed into her (something) of Our Spirit and made her and her son a token for (all) peoples. (91) Lo! this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so worship Me. (92) And they have broken their religion (into fragments) among them, (yet) all are returning unto Us. (93) Then whoso doeth some good works and is a believer, there will be no rejection of his effort.....
......The Day when We shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolleth up a written scroll. As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it. (It is) a promise (binding) upon Us. Lo! We are to perform it. (104) And verily we have written in the Scripture, after the Reminder: My righteous slaves will inherit the earth: (105) Lo! there is a plain statement for folk who are devout. (106) We sent thee not save as a mercy for the peoples. (107) Say [ Muhammad ]: It is only inspired in me that your God is One God. Will ye then surrender (unto Him)? (108) But if they are averse, then say: I have warned you all alike, although I know not whether nigh or far is that which ye are promised. (109) Lo! He knoweth that which is said openly, and that which ye conceal. (110) And I know not but that this may be a trial for you, and enjoyment for a while. (111) He saith: My Lord! Judge Thou with truth. Our Lord is the Beneficent, Whose help is to be implored against that which ye ascribe (unto Him). (112)
http://www.quranexplorer.com/
[ see link ]
Dr Nik Howk
......... And she who was chaste, therefor We breathed into her (something) of Our Spirit and made her and her son a token for (all) peoples. (91) Lo! this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so worship Me. (92) And they have broken their religion (into fragments) among them, (yet) all are returning unto Us. (93) Then whoso doeth some good works and is a believer, there will be no rejection of his effort.....
......The Day when We shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolleth up a written scroll. As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it. (It is) a promise (binding) upon Us. Lo! We are to perform it. (104) And verily we have written in the Scripture, after the Reminder: My righteous slaves will inherit the earth: (105) Lo! there is a plain statement for folk who are devout. (106) We sent thee not save as a mercy for the peoples. (107) Say [ Muhammad ]: It is only inspired in me that your God is One God. Will ye then surrender (unto Him)? (108) But if they are averse, then say: I have warned you all alike, although I know not whether nigh or far is that which ye are promised. (109) Lo! He knoweth that which is said openly, and that which ye conceal. (110) And I know not but that this may be a trial for you, and enjoyment for a while. (111) He saith: My Lord! Judge Thou with truth. Our Lord is the Beneficent, Whose help is to be implored against that which ye ascribe (unto Him). (112)
http://www.quranexplorer.com/
[ see link ]
Dr Nik Howk
Monday, June 7, 2010
....Children of Israel...
“It is not important what the Gentiles say, it is important what the Jews do.”
David ben Gurion
Terrorist, Zionist, Co founder of modern Israel
We Muslims are faced with a people who have lost all sense of decency. 1.5 billion Muslims should 'rethink' and restrategise their relations with 15 million Jews/Zionists and their cohorts, NOW, and not tomorrow! Muslim governments should rethink their continued involvement with the United Nations who seem to be in cohort with the Zionist state. A general walk-out en bloc from UN by IOC member states may seem ridiculous but may be the only 'right' stimulus to change UN and the Security Council power structure and philosophy...
We are 1.5 billion but behave and talk like we are 1.5 million.IOC is currently impotent.No effective leadership and lack focus. We do not have a say in the Security Council. We do not have a say anywhere!...Why should IOC member states trap ' themselves into an organisation that 'enslaved' them rather than empowers them?...Trade, foreign aid?..don't we have enough trade within member states and others who want to be friendly with us and respect us on equal terms....We can say good bye to America, some of Europe and Israel!
A new paradigm....and see who blink 1st! Who will resort to state terrorism apart from Israel?
Muslim nations have significant, in fact a major ownership of the G.O.D matrix but we let Rothchild et al,to have free access and control of them. What is the G.O.D matrix that makes the world go round without which everything will come to a halt?
GOLD, OIL, DOLLARS.......
"...Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him."
Al Rad, 13 : 11
This is our 'misfortune'....our greater Tsunami....Our wrath from God!
And we deserve this....
Dr Nik Howk
David ben Gurion
Terrorist, Zionist, Co founder of modern Israel
We Muslims are faced with a people who have lost all sense of decency. 1.5 billion Muslims should 'rethink' and restrategise their relations with 15 million Jews/Zionists and their cohorts, NOW, and not tomorrow! Muslim governments should rethink their continued involvement with the United Nations who seem to be in cohort with the Zionist state. A general walk-out en bloc from UN by IOC member states may seem ridiculous but may be the only 'right' stimulus to change UN and the Security Council power structure and philosophy...
We are 1.5 billion but behave and talk like we are 1.5 million.IOC is currently impotent.No effective leadership and lack focus. We do not have a say in the Security Council. We do not have a say anywhere!...Why should IOC member states trap ' themselves into an organisation that 'enslaved' them rather than empowers them?...Trade, foreign aid?..don't we have enough trade within member states and others who want to be friendly with us and respect us on equal terms....We can say good bye to America, some of Europe and Israel!
A new paradigm....and see who blink 1st! Who will resort to state terrorism apart from Israel?
Muslim nations have significant, in fact a major ownership of the G.O.D matrix but we let Rothchild et al,to have free access and control of them. What is the G.O.D matrix that makes the world go round without which everything will come to a halt?
GOLD, OIL, DOLLARS.......
"...Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him."
Al Rad, 13 : 11
This is our 'misfortune'....our greater Tsunami....Our wrath from God!
And we deserve this....
Dr Nik Howk
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Surah Al Isra'[ Children of Israel ] 17 : 88-97, A personal journey thru The Noble Quran
"Say: Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof though they were helpers one of another. (88) And verily We have displayed for mankind in this Qur'an all kinds of similitudes, but most of mankind refuse aught save disbelief. (89)And they say: We will not put faith in thee till thou cause a spring to gush forth from the earth for us; (90) Or thou have a garden of date-palms and grapes, and cause rivers to gush forth therein abundantly; (91) Or thou cause the heaven to fall upon us piecemeal, as thou hast pretended, or bring Allah and the angels as a warrant; (92) Or thou have a house of gold; or thou ascend up into heaven, and even then we will put no faith in thine ascension till thou bring down for us a book that we can read. Say (O Muhammad): My Lord be glorified! Am I aught save a mortal messenger? (93) And naught prevented mankind from believing when the guidance came unto them save that they said: Hath Allah sent a mortal as (His) messenger? (94) Say: If there were in the earth angels walking secure, We had sent down for them from heaven an angel as messenger. (95) Say: Allah sufficeth for a witness between me and you. Lo! He is Knower, Seer of His slaves. (96) And he whom Allah guideth, he is led aright; while, as for him whom He sendeth astray, for them thou wilt find no protecting friends beside Him, and We shall assemble them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces, blind, dumb and deaf; their habitation will be hell; whenever it abateth, We increase the flame for them. (97) "
Surah Al Isra'[ The Children of Israel ] , 17 : 88-97
God gave us all two 'Books'.
The Quran is the definitive 1st Book.
The 2nd Book is our very 'own personal reading' of the universe,world and life itself.
Newtonian physics of the 19th century explains the world and the universe from the angle of balancing gravitational forces of 'nature. Newton was born and breed at the turn of the 19th century around the time of Darwin...the golden age of Materialism.You just need to ask how and not why...something that you cannot see does not exist.
Lord Rutherford did not see atoms and molecules, but perceived them in his mind...Protons, neutrons, electrons..... For the materialists, then and now, that is enough.
By Heisenburg and Einstein's time at the turn of the 20th century things began to get more muddled. 'Materialism' began to get more complex.The spanner in the engine of 'materialism' get fuzzier and fuzzier. The sufis around Al Ghazali's time some 1000 years ago already knew the TRUTH and definitively stated that matter is 'zero..nothing,, only God is absolute. Einstein et al at the turn of the century recapitulated and reinvent Rutherford's assertion by saying,Matter can still 'exist'[ it has mass] and at the same time 'not exist'. It can just be a 'wave function'. E= MC squared!
Cosmologists and non solid state physicists and quantum physics coined new terms to explain this new 'muddleness' brought about by new scientific observations which negate previous simplistic views and dogmas: God particles, Tau, neutrinos, Big Bang Theory of the birth of the universe, 'quantum hiccough',CERN particles, Higg's boson [..not bosom, my dear Watson! ] etc and etc. But no God. All just happened by themselves.....Time , matter, space, wave functions , neutrinos...all appeared by themselves 'out of the blue'....But no God.
Just ponder at our universe from their perspective now:
These universe happened at a 'time when there was no time'. It started from a 'singularity point', a point with no point but maximum mass[ dont ask me where the mass or point come from...I dont know...They also dont know!...]. There was a controlled explosion. No one controlled it either [ magic....just like Mosses' magic during Pharoah's time..], but the degree of control was perfect to produce billions and billions of galaxies with billion billion stars moving at the speed of light away from each other but yet kept 'glued' together from total diffusion and disppearance by the collective gravitational pull of one another. One end of the 'expanding universe' to the other extreme end, the diameter of the universe so to speak, is several billion kilometres, a number with 35 zeros to be exact. And it's edges forever expanding at several million- million kilometres per day ,everyday!
And yet, there is , my friends, no God!
That is the 'materialist' position.
Dr Nik Howk
PS: Oh by the way, this ayat 30, from Surah Al Anbiya give an inkling into the 'origin of the universe story' :
'Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were one piece , then We parted them , and We made every living thingof water ? Will they not believe .'
Surah Al Anbiya , 30
...and by the way the odd of all these happening by chance, some bright sparks amongst them have calculated, is in the region of something with 50 zeros! . They would still rather believe there is no God.
No wonder God called them 'deaf, dumb and blind', and ' shall assemble them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces'.
Surah Al Isra'[ The Children of Israel ] , 17 : 88-97
God gave us all two 'Books'.
The Quran is the definitive 1st Book.
The 2nd Book is our very 'own personal reading' of the universe,world and life itself.
Newtonian physics of the 19th century explains the world and the universe from the angle of balancing gravitational forces of 'nature. Newton was born and breed at the turn of the 19th century around the time of Darwin...the golden age of Materialism.You just need to ask how and not why...something that you cannot see does not exist.
Lord Rutherford did not see atoms and molecules, but perceived them in his mind...Protons, neutrons, electrons..... For the materialists, then and now, that is enough.
By Heisenburg and Einstein's time at the turn of the 20th century things began to get more muddled. 'Materialism' began to get more complex.The spanner in the engine of 'materialism' get fuzzier and fuzzier. The sufis around Al Ghazali's time some 1000 years ago already knew the TRUTH and definitively stated that matter is 'zero..nothing,, only God is absolute. Einstein et al at the turn of the century recapitulated and reinvent Rutherford's assertion by saying,Matter can still 'exist'[ it has mass] and at the same time 'not exist'. It can just be a 'wave function'. E= MC squared!
Cosmologists and non solid state physicists and quantum physics coined new terms to explain this new 'muddleness' brought about by new scientific observations which negate previous simplistic views and dogmas: God particles, Tau, neutrinos, Big Bang Theory of the birth of the universe, 'quantum hiccough',CERN particles, Higg's boson [..not bosom, my dear Watson! ] etc and etc. But no God. All just happened by themselves.....Time , matter, space, wave functions , neutrinos...all appeared by themselves 'out of the blue'....But no God.
Just ponder at our universe from their perspective now:
These universe happened at a 'time when there was no time'. It started from a 'singularity point', a point with no point but maximum mass[ dont ask me where the mass or point come from...I dont know...They also dont know!...]. There was a controlled explosion. No one controlled it either [ magic....just like Mosses' magic during Pharoah's time..], but the degree of control was perfect to produce billions and billions of galaxies with billion billion stars moving at the speed of light away from each other but yet kept 'glued' together from total diffusion and disppearance by the collective gravitational pull of one another. One end of the 'expanding universe' to the other extreme end, the diameter of the universe so to speak, is several billion kilometres, a number with 35 zeros to be exact. And it's edges forever expanding at several million- million kilometres per day ,everyday!
And yet, there is , my friends, no God!
That is the 'materialist' position.
Dr Nik Howk
PS: Oh by the way, this ayat 30, from Surah Al Anbiya give an inkling into the 'origin of the universe story' :
'Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were one piece , then We parted them , and We made every living thingof water ? Will they not believe .'
Surah Al Anbiya , 30
...and by the way the odd of all these happening by chance, some bright sparks amongst them have calculated, is in the region of something with 50 zeros! . They would still rather believe there is no God.
No wonder God called them 'deaf, dumb and blind', and ' shall assemble them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces'.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Surah Al Rad , 13 : 11....A personal journey thru The Quran
"For him are angels ranged before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's command. Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him."
Al Rad, 13 : 11
When I come across this ayat 11 in Surah Al Rad I cannot help but think that this translation by Pickthal probably best depict the spirit of the ayat for which it was meant. ...Wallahualam
Yes, by this translation the meaning elevates several planes higher than the usual 'economic' or 'physical' sense that people, usually politicians and shakers and movers of society usually quote it for. Translated the way Pickthal did, the spiritual element become very obvious indeed. I did not get this feeling from Hamka or Abdullah Yusuf Ali.[ I reread Abdullah Yusuf Ali today....he was almost there in his translation and interpretion ,but not quite on the dot..I have no opportunity to read what Sayyid Qutb think of 13 : 11., Ibn Katsir was silent on this..]
Allah seem to cajole, enjoin and encourage us to 'cleanse and renew' ourselves spiritually. Allah definitively ask us to " change that which is in our hearts ", the accumulated rust and dirt over years and decades of 'forgetfullness' ie change our 'qiblats' from materialism, secularism, hedonism, various forms and faces of idolatory, obvious , hidden or subtle,...... to total submission to Him.
Then one will be successful, as there is no 'defender more worthy and more powerful than Him'.
Examples are many ,peppered throughout history.To quote just a few: Muhammad's success in bringing truth to a people mired in ignorance and intellectual poverty;the early Muslims' success in bringing light and modernity to almost two third of the known world.
Personalities that were transformed from mere 'creeping' and wallowing creatures on this earth to 'giants' of their times, leaving indelible footprints are numerous and to name a few here are people like Saidina Umar Alkhattab, a drunkard and a 'hitman' during his jahiliah days being elevated to one of the best caliph ar rashidin history had ever known.Bilal, the lowly slave, whose indomitable spirit and tenacity of faith against massive adversity, reserved and deserved him an automatic place in heaven as told and confirmed by the Prophet himself. Prophet Muhammad heard Bilal's footsteps in heaven during his 'Mikraj'.
Umar Abdul Aziz, whose simplicity and sincerity as a reluctant Abbasid caliph [ his caliphate was given to him by his ailing caliph cousin brother who had sons but deemed not wise enough to take the post.Umar did not ask or 'fight' for it, as 'they normally do to get to 'power ' now, and even shortly after Prophet's death... ], though only 3 years at the helm, will be remembered as the most exemplary, substantive caliph after the Kalifah ar Rashidin.
Tariq Ziad, the Moroccan general who burnt his long boats after having crossed The Strait of Jabal Tariq: He conquered half of Europe and brought modernity and science to a continent that was initially living in the dark age plagued by disease and pestilence and human degradation..The germ of the European renaisance started in Serville and Cordoba, then spread to Florence! Al Ghazali the theologist-philosopher cum-sufi, all in one.Abdul Rahman bin Auf, the Quraish 'billionaire' of Prophet's time who lost all his property due to 'hijrah', rebuild his business empire from scratch, to donate almost all back for Islam...... Iqbal, Mawdudi , Sayyid Qutb and many others.
When later day Muslims forget their Quran and their Sunnah, the reverse happened.Forefront in this 'forgetfullness' we had Kamal Attaturk, whose massive mausoleum in Ankara is symbolic of the decay that started way back before his time.The subsequent submission of Muslim nations post 1st World War following the collapse and fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire when European super powers stood over the Muslim nations like vultures zooming in for a late brunch was a fashion of that time.Up till today we can see modern Turkey as a beggar for the past 50 years or so, begging for crumbs and nuts that might fall from the 'Knights of Templer's table. Turkey it seemed has all but forgotten it's rightfull place and 'adab' in the realm of history.It's people has somehow long decided The Quran and Sunnah are just fit to be 'kept in high places' in the house to collect dust...Elsewhere in the world, the Noble Quran and Sunnah were well codified, digitised, but never 'visited' nor 'reffered to'.
We began to see spirituality, justice and fairness being replaced by crass materialism,secularism.Human Rights and political correctness, with changing goalposts replacing God's right and God Himself. This current total subjugation of Muslims aspiration and progress, both economic , political and military, by a well planned ,well laid out, strategically organised and politically correct, Security Council of a conglomerate of 'united nations',lead and controlled by former enemies of Islam put an almost permanent and suffocating 'lid' over future movement towards universal Islam.
Current last example,the shooting' episode that happened just yesterday in International water, The Mavi-Marmara 'shootout' in the Mediterranean Sea by a Zionist regime that feel and act as though they can just do about anything should be a wake up call for Muslims the world over to get 'educated' and know who their enemies are, who are sitting in the gallery clapping their hands and who they should consider as real friends!
Which reminds me of one hadith which I would quote here with a slight 'modernist' twist [ some purists, if they are already dead, would twitch in their graves! Those still alive may have epileptic fits! ]:
"Sir, What happened!?... Are they just few in numbers, the Muslims I mean?"
"No, stupid. They are in excess of 1.5 billions. But they have lost their hearts and souls!"
That, my friends, is our predicament today.
'Rabbana atina fiddunya hasanah. Wafil akhirati hasanatan wakina azabannar' [2 : 201]
Our Lord, give us in this world good,and good in the hereafter, and guard us against the torment of the fire!
Yours Sincerly,
Dr Nik Howk
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/
Al Rad, 13 : 11
When I come across this ayat 11 in Surah Al Rad I cannot help but think that this translation by Pickthal probably best depict the spirit of the ayat for which it was meant. ...Wallahualam
Yes, by this translation the meaning elevates several planes higher than the usual 'economic' or 'physical' sense that people, usually politicians and shakers and movers of society usually quote it for. Translated the way Pickthal did, the spiritual element become very obvious indeed. I did not get this feeling from Hamka or Abdullah Yusuf Ali.[ I reread Abdullah Yusuf Ali today....he was almost there in his translation and interpretion ,but not quite on the dot..I have no opportunity to read what Sayyid Qutb think of 13 : 11., Ibn Katsir was silent on this..]
Allah seem to cajole, enjoin and encourage us to 'cleanse and renew' ourselves spiritually. Allah definitively ask us to " change that which is in our hearts ", the accumulated rust and dirt over years and decades of 'forgetfullness' ie change our 'qiblats' from materialism, secularism, hedonism, various forms and faces of idolatory, obvious , hidden or subtle,...... to total submission to Him.
Then one will be successful, as there is no 'defender more worthy and more powerful than Him'.
Examples are many ,peppered throughout history.To quote just a few: Muhammad's success in bringing truth to a people mired in ignorance and intellectual poverty;the early Muslims' success in bringing light and modernity to almost two third of the known world.
Personalities that were transformed from mere 'creeping' and wallowing creatures on this earth to 'giants' of their times, leaving indelible footprints are numerous and to name a few here are people like Saidina Umar Alkhattab, a drunkard and a 'hitman' during his jahiliah days being elevated to one of the best caliph ar rashidin history had ever known.Bilal, the lowly slave, whose indomitable spirit and tenacity of faith against massive adversity, reserved and deserved him an automatic place in heaven as told and confirmed by the Prophet himself. Prophet Muhammad heard Bilal's footsteps in heaven during his 'Mikraj'.
Umar Abdul Aziz, whose simplicity and sincerity as a reluctant Abbasid caliph [ his caliphate was given to him by his ailing caliph cousin brother who had sons but deemed not wise enough to take the post.Umar did not ask or 'fight' for it, as 'they normally do to get to 'power ' now, and even shortly after Prophet's death... ], though only 3 years at the helm, will be remembered as the most exemplary, substantive caliph after the Kalifah ar Rashidin.
Tariq Ziad, the Moroccan general who burnt his long boats after having crossed The Strait of Jabal Tariq: He conquered half of Europe and brought modernity and science to a continent that was initially living in the dark age plagued by disease and pestilence and human degradation..The germ of the European renaisance started in Serville and Cordoba, then spread to Florence! Al Ghazali the theologist-philosopher cum-sufi, all in one.Abdul Rahman bin Auf, the Quraish 'billionaire' of Prophet's time who lost all his property due to 'hijrah', rebuild his business empire from scratch, to donate almost all back for Islam...... Iqbal, Mawdudi , Sayyid Qutb and many others.
When later day Muslims forget their Quran and their Sunnah, the reverse happened.Forefront in this 'forgetfullness' we had Kamal Attaturk, whose massive mausoleum in Ankara is symbolic of the decay that started way back before his time.The subsequent submission of Muslim nations post 1st World War following the collapse and fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire when European super powers stood over the Muslim nations like vultures zooming in for a late brunch was a fashion of that time.Up till today we can see modern Turkey as a beggar for the past 50 years or so, begging for crumbs and nuts that might fall from the 'Knights of Templer's table. Turkey it seemed has all but forgotten it's rightfull place and 'adab' in the realm of history.It's people has somehow long decided The Quran and Sunnah are just fit to be 'kept in high places' in the house to collect dust...Elsewhere in the world, the Noble Quran and Sunnah were well codified, digitised, but never 'visited' nor 'reffered to'.
We began to see spirituality, justice and fairness being replaced by crass materialism,secularism.Human Rights and political correctness, with changing goalposts replacing God's right and God Himself. This current total subjugation of Muslims aspiration and progress, both economic , political and military, by a well planned ,well laid out, strategically organised and politically correct, Security Council of a conglomerate of 'united nations',lead and controlled by former enemies of Islam put an almost permanent and suffocating 'lid' over future movement towards universal Islam.
Current last example,the shooting' episode that happened just yesterday in International water, The Mavi-Marmara 'shootout' in the Mediterranean Sea by a Zionist regime that feel and act as though they can just do about anything should be a wake up call for Muslims the world over to get 'educated' and know who their enemies are, who are sitting in the gallery clapping their hands and who they should consider as real friends!
Which reminds me of one hadith which I would quote here with a slight 'modernist' twist [ some purists, if they are already dead, would twitch in their graves! Those still alive may have epileptic fits! ]:
"Sir, What happened!?... Are they just few in numbers, the Muslims I mean?"
"No, stupid. They are in excess of 1.5 billions. But they have lost their hearts and souls!"
That, my friends, is our predicament today.
'Rabbana atina fiddunya hasanah. Wafil akhirati hasanatan wakina azabannar' [2 : 201]
Our Lord, give us in this world good,and good in the hereafter, and guard us against the torment of the fire!
Yours Sincerly,
Dr Nik Howk
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/
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