Pearls & Gem

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Failed Coup in Ankara........?? long dirty hands of uncle sam

Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Sun 7/17/2016 9:23 AM

To:

friends, dato and tansri,

is the failed coup in ankara distantly related to uncle sam?

possible, in fact more probable than possible, otherwise why should us secretary of state , john kerry right from the onset denies it?

this reminds me of an old 'kentut' [ fart ] joke about a kelantan taxi driver plying his business betwwen gua musang and padang pa' amat , pasir puteh.

there was this punjent smelling 'hot air' coming form the back seat of his 1967 old merc 200.

everyone of his four passengers kept quiet.

on reaching padang pa'amat, and all his passegers disembarking and paying their fare, the taxi driver ,suddenly out of the blue shouted back..

'heh! demo hok ketut tadi tok bayar lagi!..'

[ the chap who fart just now has not paid his due yet! ]

' heh! ambo bayar doh !! ', retorted pa mat nyadap.

[ no sir!... i already paid! ]

dr nik

https://www.opendemocracy.net/osman-softic/what-is-fethullah-g%C3%BClen%E2%80%99s-real-mission

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

From: Wan Ariff 2 Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2016 9:59 AM
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Subject: Re: conspiracy theory......'uncle sam' long and dirty hands!!??

I believe this article is makes more sense and is more reliable :

Securitising the Hizmet/Gulen movement |

openDemocracy

https://www.opendemocracy.net/mustafa-demir/securitizing-hizmetgulen-movement

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

Nik Isahak to dato wan ariff
to dato wan ariff@terangbulang.comulang.com

Today 11:28 AM

Wan Ariff 2 (wariffhamzah@gmail.com);

dato yeh,

maybe you are right.

you and ts wan ming have a bigger world view than mine definitely.....

wart, carbuncle and all though for all it's worth, turkey after being a pathetic beggar at europe's high table for over 70 years begging to join the union...only now has a 'mahathir' in its midst.

the pm's before him erbakan, tansu ciller, bulent eccevit, suleyman demirel, etc etc did not have much popular support.

in the midst of brexit, one who still wants to join europe must have their heads collectively examined! both the top and bottom!

joining eec now and sharing it's 'poverty' and debt is not critical for turkey.

turkey is no longer the 'sick man' of europe as it was a century ago.

spain, portugal, greece, etc etc, all are sick hanging for dear life to germany and equally sick france...

a banking collapse is imminent.

i have the feeling even 15 years back , if hypothetically, mahathir had his way with eaec [ east asia economic caucus ], an organized 'air plane crash' or an organized accident' could well be easily arranged.
and this easily solve all headache. but mahathir failed to persuade the japanese.
and the chinese then was less assertive as now.
so why should cia waste a bullet in his head?

one must never forget at around that time reagan had passed that controversial act of 'open covert action' as being entirely legal from the security perspective in the name of usa security.

i am deeply suspicious of uncle sam.....

i know you guys have close personal relationship with fethullah gullen.

i read his books.

he is a nice old man.

but even nice old man, america can made full use of, if it suits them.

you guys may say i am paranoid about america.

but we have always been proven right some 50 years later about this super rouge state, when the papers are free for citizens to read.

if they can organise assasination for president allende of chile, the iranian pm mossadegh and several others , what is the problem with yet another one?

not everyone in this world has the balls and the nerve to shoot down a russian mig!

..and escape unscratch.

erdogan is the best and most resilein that ever happened to turkey.

sadam, despite his brutality is the best for iraq 10 years back....compared to democratic iraq right now.

libya had some semblance of normality before they decapitate colonel muamar ghaddafy.

orghe bergheng dan supergedebe mache ergogan ni menatae america need to 'nip it in the bud'

the talk of introducing democracy is just bullshit

democracy carries no meaning if people cannot get clean water, no electricity and eat and sleep around where they 'shit', poor or non existent drainage and sewerage system and no health care.

at the end of the day it is all about usa security.....and to a large extent , its european allies.

the old man,dr m , is right.

the white irish protestant catholic 'race' is really bad news for everyone!

i stick by my conspiracy theory.

dr nik howk

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

dato wan ariffAriff 2

Today 12:46 Pm

from

You;

Azmi Wan Hamzah (azmiwanhamzah@terang bulang.com

You replied on 7/17/2016 1:43 PM.

https://www.rt.com/news/351656-gulen-erdogan-staged-coup-claims/

Sent from my iPhone

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

Re: conspiracy theory......'uncle sam' long and dirty hands!!??

Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Today 1:43 PM

Wan Ariff 2 (wariffhamzah@;

aah dato yeh, of all people i do not expect you to buy this tall tale!

america and israel have been arming the kurds in eastern turkey

it is akin to the british weaponising the communist party of malaya to fight tunku abdul rahman, hypothetically.....thank god it did not happened.

an independent powerful, united, islamist minded turkey....

bring back the spectre of the ottomans almost a hundred years back.

dato yeh, you take history in high school and the u.

i did just 'cari makan' chemistry, biology and physic.

but i know, isis and a strong independent islamist bent turkey is a high octane combustible mix!

it is an obvious no no no for america and europe.

no. no no for the kuffar and the secular humanist and the millions of muslim apologists

erdogan has to go!

replace him with a compliant beer drinking, party loving military junta, anytime!

no islam please in turkey!

dr nik howk

[ http://www.islam21c.com/politics/the-muslims-of-turkey-an-inspiration-to-all/ ]

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

from dato wan ariff :

Dear Dr Nik Howk

I don't say I believe those stories but I can certainly say I don't believe Erdogan's allegation that Fethullah Gulen was behind the failed coup.

I have many friends in Turkey and I know alot about
how much wealth Erdogan's family has amazed. The HizmetGroup has been very critical about Erdogan's abuse of power and the corruption that is rife within Erdogan's AKP party.

Wallahuaalam.
Sent from my iPhone

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

dato yeh,

so where do we go from here dato

for a long while turkey was waiting for a leader than can make them'lift their head' above beggar status.

....now that he is corrupt

allegation or true, we dont know, ...even if probably true, do we then

'decapitate' this ' turkish mahathir' and let a junta set back turkey 50 years backward from the lane they previously thread.

between erdogan and the generals i would rather have erdogan...at least people can vote him out the next 'erection'.

if turkey need people to smash ' some brains on the tarmac' to get things going ,i would vote that kind of chap, rather than it be run by the military.

the turkish electorate seem to vote for that with their hands and feet and lives on friday night!

that speaks volume!!!!!

we present day muslims have to be very careful with what we hear and read and think...

the west do not wan tto have a strong man running turkey.

your friend fethullah gulen may not be complicit in the western ball game.

he is just a pawn.

if he wants to run turkey he has to win an election.

and by the way i love his writings.

dr nik howk

From: Azmi Wan Hamzah Sent: Monday, July 18, 2016 12:48 PM
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah
Subject: Re: before we move on to surah luqman.....uncle sam's long and dirty hands??

nikhowk, you should ask nadzru and my brother - they may have valuable insight as both have, i believe, some relationship with fethullah gulen's educational charities specifically and the hikmet movement generally. i would be careful not to assume gulen would lend himself to imperialist conspiracies. recep erdogan, unfortunately, has not proven entirely impervious to the actonian maxim that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. salam, azmi.

________________________________ peace!

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

to:azmiwanhamzah@terangbulang.com

Azmi Wan Hamzah (azmiwanhamzah@terangbulang.com;

Wan Ariff 2 (wariffhamzah@padangpak amat.com

ts wan ming,

i consider i am very priveledge d here

2 prominent citizens and sons of serambi makkah both at my throat over erdogan

both of you guys global players and the globe is your kampong.

nikhowk has nothing except he has been gifted to look at the goings on in this world with a 'green' spec.....

your point are well taken ts.

but on friday night the whole turkey voted with the hands, feet and their lives for erdogan.

people are tired of military junta like asisi and mubarak who are impossible to vote out.

with erdogan, if the turks dont like him , they can vote him out next general election.

we in the muslim world cannot allow american and europeans to dictate who we choose to govern and run our lives

let alone have their dirty hands in our politics.

there is already too much of this bloody nonsense already

it has come to a point they are even dictating us how we pray!!!!

there is a lot at stake in turkey by virtue of its position , history and pedigree.

and pedigree they have....100 years back , for 6 long centuries the dominated the world agenda.

they control half of the known civilised world [ i am including mughal india here....]

i love fethullah gullen

read some of his books already

but i like erdogan more.

an 'erdogan' or a 'mahathir' occurs only very occasionally in this fractured muslim world.

and when they do, we have to celebrate them.

we have to separate the grain from the chaff.

all have human failings...that is sunnatullah.

yes i do not think fethullah wants to run turkey.

if he does he should stand for election rather than undermine erdogan

this is the 1st time turkey voted in some one who is proud to be muslim.

suleyman demirel, tansu cller bulent eccevit are all secularists.

ekbakan is muslim but does not have the suavity of erdogan to govern and persuade the masses

we have to give islam a chance...wart ,carbuncle and all

this is not a perfect world.

that is sunnatullah.

i believe we muslims should look at the big picture with turkey

the big picture with turkey is it is better off with erdogan in power than some military junta under the tutelage of america.

dr nik howk

ps: let me respectfully end this discussion on the coup wit my favourite scholar's take on turkey, shaykh hamza yusuf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOnKlrDAh3g

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Sanctuary TALES | Teganu Kite Revisited....

Myself, Johan, Adreana and Nadzru went out at 1 am to the beach just beyond the horses paddock to watch turtles laying their eggs.

There was sign of turtle landing but quite premature because 'it' made a beeline in the sand back to the sea, presumably the lights coming from our veranda was deemed by it to be not ideal and safe place to lay its eggs there.

Turtle landings are from the months of late March to early October in this part of 'Teganu'

The local WWF people have parceled out the beaches into one kilometre strips and tendered out to locals at around 5 to 6k RM per kilometre.

This saves WWF a lot of money from having to have local 'guards' to patrol the beach as the problem will always be who watches over the 'guards'...and also who watches over the watchers of the guards...

[.which reminds us of the problem and antics in Putrajaya .......we are still very much 'third world' anyway!! ]

Each landing usually bears about 80 to 100 eggs, some to be sold back to Gomen at 5rm each. At the big 'pasar' in KT, turtle eggs are been sold at 10rm each. Each 'tender holder' is required to sell x amount of eggs per season to a local govt hatchery at Penarik, about 4 kilometres away from my place.

------x

On the crocodile story, my Hamzah went out again last week spear fishing at 2 am at the ' alur' behind our house. He was met with a 4-foot long crocodile who was more aggressive than the '2- foot' ikan toman' he speared but failed to 'catch', a month ago. [' ikan toman, people find in Kenyir, not in brackish water in Merang', I remember telling Hamzah at that time... ]

It's eyes shoned back at him, reddish in colour. Very distinctively 'crocodile'!

" Dakto, boleh ko anok boyo dulu jadi besar macae ning dalae tigo minggu? ", he asked me curiously, the next day.

" Mung ning beto macae bendul la Mezah!.....tu lah abe dio !...belum juppo mok dio lagi! "

[ you are as straight as a 'bendul'.....that is its brother!...wait till you meet it's mother! ]

That would stop my Hamzah from midnight fishing for the next 2 weeks at the most!
....and concentrate more at his work.
Al Qalwa is long overdue.

A Close Encounter in Teganu Kite.....

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2016/02/a-close-encounter.html

Muslim apologists...........

Friends, Dato and Tansri,

In my day to day readings and intercourse I have come across many prominent Muslims who are 'apologists' for the ugama.

They come in many forms: the Marina Mahathir/SIS /g25 types who reveal their utter ignorance of their ugama publicly; more dangerous to the ugama, the socalled liberal scholars , and liberal ulama who are wetting their pants trying to bend backward to the incessant Western howlings on issues like lgbt , human right etc and etc [ see Tariq Ramadan et al who want to relook and reinterpret the Qur'an to allow for more convergence with modern secular values, Kassim Ahmad et al and the quranist group who are totally lost!]; and finally the outright ignoramus on the religion but given space and time in the media, people like zurairi of Malay Mail dan mereka2 yang sewaktu dengan nya .

In essence despite this being what we term as the American century,

we as an ummah have been dominating the world for 13 centuries!!! : from 711ce to 14th century in Spain and Portugal; from 14th century to 20th during the Ottoman's time....right from the balkans , almost up to austria and moscow in the north and west , up to a big part of china, and into mughal india, including all the stans of present day russia!

sir!, before we stoop too low, let us have some sense of history and numbers!

We are 1.6 billion and increasing.
We have 13 centuries of world dominance behind us...yes we dragging our feet this century, accepted!

We should not apologise and be 'bullied' and cowed into changing the texture and shape of our ugama by a civilization that is hardly one century old and already showing serious 'cracks' in the wall.
No! we do not go to war with them...we are peaceful....but when we are trodden we should not accept that hands down.

There was a time in the history of the Muslims when one Muslim lady got raped in Belgrade, the Ottomans will be massing their troops at the Austrian border.

Do listen to tj winter's thot and perspective on our present dire need to have collective 'ridha'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0_WD-fpEQ

dr nik

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

Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2016 1:06 PM

from: azmihamzah@terangbulang .com
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah

Subject: Re: before we move on to surah luqman.........tj winter aka abadal hakim murad on 'ridha'

nikhowk, why do you as a good muslim demand so much of others and so little of ourselves? the non-muslims do not owe any obligation to be kind, generous or supportive. we ourselves will have reboot our affairs and reset the course of muslim societies. other societies have given themselves the facility and capability to bring change and alter their collective fortunes. we muslims have, by and large, not found the way to do so. as painfully demonstrated within our own beloved motherland of open wounds. salam, azmi.

________________________________ peace!

Azmihamzah

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

ts wan ming,

aah ts , when you refer to our motherland that is our collective 'pain in the ass....'.
i have been more than vocal on this motherland...that you have not seen me yet behind bars, is a wonder.

but as far as the middle east is concerned i have no apology for my stand.
i do not have to wait 10 years for the chilcot report that now rapts blair on the fingers!.
bush, blair, donald rumsfeld and general collin powell.....all of them should be tried at the hague and if found guilty, hanged!
hanged them upside down!....and shot.

the iraq invasion by bush senior started them all, but even well before that..
a fact is a fact, ts
even in peaceful malaysia, you start arming 0.2 percent of the dissenting population, and encourage dissent via the media and give lope sided reports,, there will be absolute chaos in no time.

just how many decades the west had been playing this game in the middle east, if i may ask you, ts?

decades and years of media misreporting; support of disparate groups to further their economic agendas; blatant invasions of the islamic diaspora and interventions; covert and non-covert military actions; un sanctioned and non un sanctioned blood letting in muslim countries; dacapitation of saddam, and ghaddafy......etc etc and etc and etc in the name of democracy.

isis is an aberration of islam, accepted.
a gross aberration of a peaceful ummah that preach 'SALAM', i must say.
but if you are 1.6 billion, there are aberration both at the extreme left and right of the spectrum.
...and there is no 'papacy' in islam, to influence against this drift.

sorry, there used to be 'the grand mufti of egypt', having some semblance of that role at least in passing some 'fatwas', but post morsi, even the legitimacy of this once august institution has gone down the drain along with the 'generals'.

if a group of young muslims blatantly and wrongly at that, choose to interpret that the west is now openly at war with islam, there is very little anyone in the main body can do or influence, especially now.

the west approach to muslims must certainly be more nuanced that what they are doing now.
for decades the relationship has been too lop-sided.

a whole group of new leaders need to relook and reboot their approach.
if they need help, ask the muslims, not the neo-cons in pentagon or white house.
violence, does not matter whether it is un-sanctioned violence or non un-sanctioned violence, begets more violence.
the massive collateral damage are millions of civilians and children.

back to blair et al......
an ass-hole is an assehole , whatever you choose to call them.
blair is an absolute asshole!
along with bush, donald rumsfeld, colin powell and dick cheney.
they are war criminals, involved in genocide of millions and millions others displaced for decades.
a spade is a spade...to me.

locally , we need to get rid of all our local 'ass...' and not consider things as business as usual.
you corporate top guns of course may look at thing more pragmatically!
but having said all this, you do have some point though..
just listen to nouman ali khan here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYJscLEhpEU
he shares your point.
but if you listen closely to nouman towards the end, his premise is actually different from yours.
you are almost apologising.

dr nik howk

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Two Different Worlds....'never shall they meet'

It all started when that self proclaimed secular humanist, Zukariapakahnamadiadah wrote a piece in the Malay Mail recently on the 'fatwa' of Dato' Mufti of Pahang, or was it something else, some thing on 'imam muda'....I have forgotten the actual article, but imam,ulama and muftis are Zukari's favourite punching bags, and for a 'cari makan' fellow, I must admit , he does write fairly well, His english at least, though I do not seem to have the time and patience for people like him. On matters touching on the ' Ugama ', he writes rubbish and without wisdom most time at least from my from my perspective.

This dato friend of mine sends an email to rub me in between the ribs......
and OOUCH !..my ribs are fairly sensitive and tender these last 10 days of the Ramadan.

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

From: dhm@chrishichens.uk
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 1:51 PM
To: Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah
Subject: Sorry seems to be the hardest word — Azru

This article is NOT from your hated Zukari. It is from another Malay Muslim journalist. The clarity and precision (and a sense of irony) of the prose reveals that he is reasonably well educated.

Would you "rubbish bin" him as well?

Selamat berpuasa.

https://shar.es/1l

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

On 27 Jun 2016 17:10, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

this fasting month when we are hungry and thirsty, good breeding ground for malay muslim apologists, i can see that......
i tend to spend better time with my qu'an and getting my friends understand the qur'an better dato.
have you read the qur'an lately dato or it is also below you?

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

From: dhm@chrishichens.uk

Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 10:39 PM
To: Nik Isahak Abdullah
Subject: Re: Sorry seems to be the hardest word — Azru

When one cannot answer the question, one changes the subject. Sigh. Would that be possible in Med school exams, Doc?

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

On 28 Jun 2016 08:23, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

we are both beyond med and business school exam dato
we are both in what the brits call, our 'last inning'

when do you last read the qur'an, if i may ask you?
when do you last pray earnestly?
where are you going after this ?
what are you here for?

FORGET about the likes of azru and zukari, they are young punks still wet in between the ears.
ahh! how wonderful! the arrogance and exuberance of youth.

where are you going after this dato? if i may ask again
you think you wil be fairly safe and comfortable in that 6' by 3' hole in the ground?

or perhaps you think it is academic because you will just be dust and bones!

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

from dha@chrishichens.uk

You are right, doc. We are beyond university lectures, research, Term papers, tutorials, debates, exams and viva voce. We are now in real life, in the Age of Enlightenment. No longer in the Dark Ages.

We are persuaded to think on the basis of reason and evidence: To be good, kind, honest, charitable, and work in solidarity with our fellow human beings.

If God is Merciful and Compassionate, l have no fear of death. I do not, and cannot, live in terror of Hell. I have, l think, lived an honest and decent life. I fear no religious bureaucracy on earth. We all have eyes to read, an 'akal to think.

Life should be lived to the full, in appreciation, in doing good, in reading, and educating others to think, to be curious, to do good in human solidarity.

I think life should be lived well,
In kindness, not in fear of Hell.
It would be sad and a great error,
To opt for management by Terror.

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

On 28 Jun 2016 12:25, "Nik Isahak Wan Abdullah" <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

dato,

omg! you sound like the late christopher hichens himself to me just now...

the mantra of the secular humanist par excellence, who does things only and only for goodness sake; god is outside the equation; who does not believe in a tomorrow after today.
pompous arrogance of the first kind! God, in one part of al baqarah calls you guys , 'deaf, dumb and blind '.

a pity we cannot visit and ask hichens how he personally 'is' doing now.

one sufi luminary, hasan al basri, long dead by then,however was asked, in a 'dream' by his equally illustrious sufi friend, and his answer echoed what al ghazali had said in 'real' time':

''my friend, in my position now, you can forget about the lenghty philosophical intellectual discourses and existential discussions we had had before. the levels and levels of worship.

what seems to count is that lowly, lonely two or four or 6 rakaats that one does..in the wee hours of the morn! ''

but of course dato you are very much a worldly man who only 'sees the elephant in the room' in front of you.

the 'unseen', is alas, not there.....

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

29/ 6/ 2016 :

from today both the good dato and myself, we have reached a gentleman's aggreement:
i stop sending him 'naughty little bits about the qur'an', and he stop 'ribbing' me with articles about 'how bad we muslims are'.
a 'hudaibiyah treaty' of sort.
the truce may last 3 days perhaps!

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Levels and Levels......

Friends, Dato and Tansri,

One Abubakar al Khattani and Abu Hasan ar-Ramli asked a tok guru and Shaykh, Abu Said al-Kharraz:

"Please tell us the stations in our journey to Allah? ".

al-Kharraz answered, " It has to start with repentance, repentance and repentance.....", and he went on,

" after this station, one moves on to khauf [ fear ]. From the station of khauf one move on to raja' [ hope ].

From the station of raja' , one move on to be a 'solihin' and 'solihah'.
Then, one gets elevated to being a mureed.

From being a mureed , one moves on to the next station, a state of
ta'at, [ in complete obeyance ].

From complete obeyance one moves on to the station of mahabbah [ a state of unqualified love ].

From this station the next station is rindu [ 'lovesick' ].

The penultimate station on schedule is a steep hill to climb, leading to walliallah [ allah's friend ]

The last and final stop for the mere mortals is the station of the
al-muqarrabin [ the one near to HIM ]

[ excerpt from haqq' iq at-tashawwuf, shaykh abdal qadir isa, [ circa 1920 - 1991 ]

Another sufi shaykh, al-Junaid al Bagdhdi, sultan al awliya of all shaykhs of his time, ten centuries earlier, was asked a more direct and personal question by his fans:
" Shaykh, how do you achieve your current stature and state? "

" By staying under that staircase for over thirty years!..." , alluding to 'istiqamah ' and 'sabr' in doing the necessary 'legwork' a traveler had to undergo before they reach their status of a sufi saint. The 'legwork' is zikrullah, zikrullah and zikrullah and zikrullah, and good behaviour manners and adab...years and years of remembrance, total dedication to the hala and the haram,and 'hablu minal llah' and 'hablu minan nas'.

At my personal level, being without a tok guru for decades, I have been oscillating, back and forth, back and forth, like a yo-yo, between the 3rd station, khauf, and the 4th station, raja' .

I get my occasionally 'endorhin high' when on the rare occasion, when allowed to leapfrog to a state of mahabbah, not stopping at the station of mureed and ta'at!
This transient abberation in the order of things and adab is not long though.
As fast as I get to that stage, I percolate down back to the station of khauf [ fear ] and raja' [ hope ].

When you have been in this 'business' for some years now like i do, the spirit is ever willing, but the flesh occasionally rebel! Waking up at 4 am in the wee hours of the morning can be done for a period of two weeks, at the most three, but is a difficult proposition if it is to be done daily , seven days a week, 54 weeks in a year, come vacation or working.
This is in the realm of 'hubluminallah'. Beyond this come 'RINDU'.
One cannot fake it.
Mere mortals like you and me, we fall back to where we are.

At my age now, I wish I can turn back the clock by 20 years. Then a decent Tok Guru would have entertained me and lead me by the hand over those slippery 'slope'.

Now, at 64, I am already afflicted by phd [ 'permanent head damage' ], and no tok guru or shaykh, in their right mind, would want to waste his precious time and emotion to 'teach an old monkey like me new tricks'. So here I am permanently bivouked at station, hope.

...and to make things straight for the record, it is not just the lack of a 'mursyid tok guru'.
the potential student is also mainly at fault, not wanting to remove his cloth of egoism!
it is much a problematic student than the lack of tok guru.
i am to be blamed!

I guess there are many many millions like me.

In our thirties we have more than a passing interest in things 'tassawuf' but over the years we are too choosy about which tok guru we go to.

Central , from our perspective, rightly or wrongly, I think is , our reluctance to 'lose' our personal 'soveriengty'' to just any charlatan tok guru.

And currently there are just quite a number in the 'business'.
Bad and wrong 'tok gurus' can oftentimes be worse than no 'tok gurus' at all!
At the end, while waiting for the 'murshid' tok guru, we 'missed' the boat........
A problem of being too careful.

But insyaallah , even the station of hope is good enough.

Allah hummakh tim lana bi husnil khatimah , wa la takh tim alaina bi suul khatimah!
[ oh allah, grant a good ending to our lives and don't let end our lives with bad ending....]

Dr Nik

A similar article in the blog :

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2015/11/three-stations.html

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Sanctuary TALES | Close Encounter in Teganung Kite'.....

Hamzah and myself, we were paddling our canoe around Terusan Pulau Besar yesterday at dusk. Pulau Besar gained its notoriety some 30 years back in the 80's when the post Vietnam war Vietnamese refugees first landed in Teganung in huge numbers. The then Minister of Defence, Dr M wanted them shot at sea. The numbers swell to the point finally all of them were transferred to an off shore island, Pulau Bidong.

Terusan Pulau Besar enveloped Pulau Besar between the raging South China Seasea, separated by a thin strip of sand, and the muara of Sungei Merang. It's water is murky and dark, typical of all mangrove swamp within the Setiu basin.

Both of us know that there were incidental sightings of juvenile crocodiles, three to four feet in lenght,, basking in the noon sun ,on the bank of the abandoned almost completed massive club house and twenty or so abandoned exclusive bungalows near The Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary happened to be a small piece of heaven on earth, on that thin strip of sand,[ opposite Redang Island ],sandwiched between the raging South China Sea in February, and a small 'alor' called Sungai Telaga Papan, and shortly joining into the dark calm water of the Terusan Pulau Besar, at Pantai Telaga Papan, Merang, Teganung Darul Runtuh.

[ why Darul runtuh?......Everything in Teganung are in a state of possible 'runtuh', from the stadium, the masjid and even the yet to be opened Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. I do not foresee any possible drastic change in this state of affair until we send one or two present or past numero uno of Malaysia behind bars! Only then will there be a change of our paradigm of governance and accountability, hopefully percolating from the top down. But of course this is another matter worth writing a post doctoral thesis on. But who is going to write and act on this. Our professors in the universities are at present 'kangkong' professors!. Our AG and IGP, nothing to shout about! Both extreme example of mediocrity.....this is a digression, of course, an important one for me at least, otherwise I end up shooting some blokes somewhere. ]

Three weeks earlier while passing a group of fisherman manning and repairing their boats on the river bank, I jokingly asked whether 'there is anything big' in the water. One of them shouted back, in local Teganung/Kelantan linggo:

'kalu demo rasa gedeguk, tu jolo lah!'. [ if you feel something bumping your canoe from underneath, that is it! ]

Hamzah and myself, we took that as a joke and carried on, but not for long. After about half a kilometre around the terusan, we turned back. The water looked too murky and still, to our liking.

This time on I told Hamzah we were going full scale around the island and explore further. We planned to go round the island and head back to al Qalwa in a round about fashion. But when we reached the deepest segment of the terusan, furthest away from our pondok, about one kilometre, we notice a school of fish jumping out just suddenly over the surface.

'Ada benda besar ni Dakto!.......', Hamzah , my Pattani carpenter/builder muttered softly but with some anxiety and panic . Understandable. He was paddling behind while I was in front in the 2-men canoe. He was in a position of watching my back while his was fully exposed!

Just shortly after that I felt the canoe being shakened badly and grazed from below. Just to reassure myself, I shouted to Hamzah,

'Guano demo nih Mezah tebolah sangat nih?!' [ why!,, why are you so clumsy, Hamzah? ]

' Tidok ambo Dakto!' [ not me Doctor! ], Hamzah answered, and I could detect a sense of panic and urgency in his voice. He must have been thinking on the same line as me.

Both of us looked back and saw a bronze hump separating two icy eyes, surfacing to the left of our canoe, some 40 feet away.

The snort to the eyes was about 2 feet something!

'OMG! This is the infamous estuarine crocodile, the ' buaya tembaga',...and they don't get to this colour unless they are fully matured', I thought to myself from my previous reading about estuarine crocodiles found near Sungei Linggi in Nogori, Endau Rompin in Johor and Sungai Kinabatangan, Sarawak.

Both of us , we did not have the time to say any prayer at that moment . We just paddled hard and fast towards the river bank.

Up till now I still cannot fathom why the croc did not come back to make a second 'pass' at us or at least 'ngap' poor Hamzah from the back, since our canoe is quite flat and we were sitting ducks!
It has the speed and the ability and natural instinct to do just that .
That is just in its gene.
That would have toppled the canoe easily.
But it did not!

Was it my solat Tahajjud and solat Tasbih the night before or was it the size or the lack of size of the croc that prevented it from coming at us for a second pass .
Probably both I think.
Anyway it is nice otherwise both of us would had a different 'address' by today....
HE is not yet ready to see both of us or rather we, in our varying degrees of heedlessness, are not yet ready enough to be presented to HIM. It is a mercy and rahmah from HIM for the 'delay'.
Mashaallah, al Hamdullillah.

Over dinner that night Hamzah confided to me ,
' Ambo dae Jani, sokmo senok perok bilo Dakto ajak kito gi main kanu...'
[ Myself and Jani, we get lumps in our tummies when Doc invite us to go canoeing..... ]

That reminded me of a poem we standard six pupils used to commit to memory some 5o or so years back. The Charge of The Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson, a poem on an actual happening and 'bungling' due to a gross miscommunication during the Anglo-Prussian War of 18something :

" Forward, The Light Brigade! "
Was there a man dismay'd
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the Valley of Death,
Rode the six hundred.

" OK Mezah dae Jani, lain kali kito gi main di Kenyir atau pong di Sungai Paka atau Sungai Teganung. Sana ambo dengar tak dok boyo! kito bolih main sining tapi tok leh lepah dari club house.",

I tried to reassure both of them.
I am not sure that is enough reassurance for Hamzah and Jani.
From their perspective,The Boss is always right, even when he is wrong!

I love Teganung.
Teganung Kite'.