Yesterday morning I was shocked to hear that my ex-roomate's mother passed away. It is not long before all of us are returning to Malaysia. He decided not to go back.
Takziah is different from 'tahniah'. We often have the misconception that by saying 'takziah' to someone, it would be enough. Takziah itself is an act of condolence, not a wish. Takziah is what we do to comfort our brothers and sisters, to share grief, and to do whatever it takes to help the one who is at loss. We pray for the best for them.
But it doesn't really matter if we are sincere in our wish. The person knows our intent. God knows our intent.
Unto Him we shall return. It is a reminder to myself of what I would do and feel it it happens to me. And what if, at this minute, my life is taken away. I have done so many bad deeds in this world and I don't know if I can face the afterlife. Pray that we shall all be at peace in this world and in the Hereafter.
Say:"The death from which you flee will truly overtake you; then you will be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that you did!" (Jumu'ah: 8).
I pray that she will be among those will be among those who are loved by God. Be strong my brother. Verily, to Allah belongs what
He has taken, and to Him belongs what He has given. For everything He has
set a term. Al-fatihah.
It wasn't until I entered college that I learned to use this word. We used to call it 'surau' -a typical name for a place of worship which is smaller than a mosque. The name of the building may be different, but its function remains the same.
Recently, I heard a lot of people talking about musolla and mosques only having "Quran" and "Yasin" in Malaysia. They compared it with the West as they always have Quran and Hadith stacked on the shelves. Then I questioned myself, "is this really true?"
I am not sure about other places in Malaysia, but in my place that certainly does not happen. I agree that "Yasin" books are abundant in musollas, suraus and mosques due to its significance in several rituals. But this does not mean that the suraus, musollas and mosques do not have books on Sirah Rasulullah/hadith. It's probably because we are used to be given "Yasin" for granted that we forgot about other books that's available there. When a ritual takes place, people would pass around the "Yasin" to everyone in the compound. So, we don't really have to work hard to get one. When that happens, we could care less about other things that has been provided in the shelves.
But that's just probably a theory. There might be truth behind the missing Sirah and hadith. But from where I am living, I haven't come across a musolla/mosque with no books on Hadith. I slowly learned and became interested in Sirah Nabawiyyah when I was browsing the books in the musolla. Even the surau in schools do have books on that. They are usually placed in the shelves.
People not reading the hadith? Think again. There are people who do make use of the hadith in the musolla. But they wouldn't be reciting it like the Quran. That is why we may sometimes see this phenomena as not as popular as Quran and Yasin recitation. But I have to agree upon one thing, the numbers of people who reads it frequently are lesser than those who read the Quran.
But so long as the knowledge of Quran and Hadith is passed on, it doesn't matter how they are presented. Some people may opt to read and recite, while others may opt to listen, memorize and discuss. But this tradition must go on. Wallahu'alam.
When I first heard this song, there were a lot of fuss about it -people saying that it was a demon song. Not long after that it wasn't aired on television for quite some time until it suddenly popped out again in NTV7.
The song was in fact a protest song, and it was about the struggle of the Irish resistance, who are fighting to unite their land against centuries of English occupation. Those who read Potato People may understand the atrocities faced by these people. And when the singer utters 'what's in your head' and 'zombie', she actually mentions that when soldiers go to war they are usually mindless and kill whoever they want. And on 1916, the was the Easter Rising, involving bloodbath between the British and Irish rebels, as the British did not want to recognise the Irish independence. There were violence throughout the years after the uprising and the song criticizes this 'same old theme'.
When something becomes popular, there will always people who would bring it down for various purposes. People would not frown upon songs from groups that are not known to them. These groups would eventually make way into mainstream youth such as Black Metal songs which suddenly turned to public attention again. That is when even listening to groups like Metallica and Linkin Park can be considered blasphemous.
Sometimes we need to understand things before making false accusations. Nowadays people even said songs like "Sephia" as a ghost song. In my opinion, so long as listening to them do not divert you from your principle, it shouldn't be a problem.
Alfred Noble was famous for his inventions. He also founded the Noble Prize through his will, which is now one of the most popular award for science and technology. I think it was a noble thing to do, trying to lift up the status of science to a new level. People strive to achieve at least something for the award. But as humans, we tend to have flaws. Mr. Noble is not excluded from this general principle. Due to the ambiguous nature of his will, the award has become subject of criticism. This includes among others for the fact that the awards were given mostly to discoveries, rather than invention.
And I find it intriguing that some people advocate the idea of struggling for this award. The laureates selection itself makes me question myself, "Is it worth going for it?". Probably Mr. Noble's intent was good in the first place, but it seemed to be like it is slowly going out of place. There are just too many discoveries made by human race and you can't tell exactly who was exactly the first person who found this and that. Only God knows. And in this era of globalization, it is just impossible to do that as the discovery is usually shared in several networks.
Why do we have to worry so much that there are only 2 Muslim laureates throughout its establishment? Why being inferior to other countries who achieved so many awards? Why worry about the statistics? I can understand that we usually say such and such because we want to turn people's attention to knowledge. I have no problem with that. In Islam, it is important for us to seek the knowledge of the world. But it is also important for us to impart the knowledge to mankind. So we are not to be blamed for the lack of laureates. It's not because we are not progressing. It is because we don't have to show off. I believe that there are many others out there -regardless of their denominations- are making discoveries of their own, but their names are not mentioned in the awards. Not everyone can go about and tell people that they discovered something.
The person who created the 'first compass for kiblat' should get an award. The person who made the script for Hijri calendar on the internet should get an award. But these inventions are based on religious merits, which do not interest some people. Furthermore, if it's a collective work, no one is able to receive the award. Thus, we shouldn't really worry about not getting the award. Instead, we should start reading and make discoveries and invention of our own. I bet some may not know that one of the co-founders of Youtube is a Muslim. There is also an alternative to the Noble Prize awards, which is the Right Livelihood Awards. You may see many Muslims laureates, including from Malaysia and Indonesia. So we shouldn't give up. We should start to help in contributing to the world's knowledge.
We always talk about the dissolution of an Empire and the removal of the Caliphate system but we rarely talk about how one of the longest serving Islamic Empire came to exist. Daulah Uthmaniyyah, or the Ottoman Empire, as the West calls it, was once a thriving empire in the midst of the Age of Exploration. It all started with the unrest and the ongoing coflict in the Turkish lands.
I took some time reading the article by my friend who is currently studying in Australia. The Ottomans had a very long history of political and cultural shift as the new Sultan reigns. Their policy was not just about conquering lands, but they were also trying to unite people into a strong and diverse society. The famous 1453 capture of Istanbul marked the beginning of this cultural assimilation. Sultan Mehmet 'Al Fatih' was very optimistic in his policy -he did not punish the inhabitants who surrendered. It was one of his attributes which was derived from the Prophet's conquest of Mecca. From that point onwards, the Ottomans marched forward, going as far as the Eastern Europe, and established their administration there.
If tyranny was placed upon the Empire since the beginning of its time, we wouldn't be able to see the diversity of people in the former states and how tolerant they are towards people from different religions. Muslims and Christians co-exists in some part of the Eastern Europe. Mosques and Churches were sporadic, and traditional custom retained. However, the influence of centuries of Islamic rule still apparent.
More history of the rise of the Ottoman Empire can be downloaded here.
After a tough day yesterday, my friend made us a breakfast. We don't usually have breakfast in the morning (in fact it would seem awkward if we do that). Today the weather is rather good, and quite warm. We had my friend's version of bubur with tea. And we had discussion on the homework that we were supposed to bring in class. It was nice. As we rushed to class, we realized that our chef was not following us. And we was not present for the whole session. Then we realised that he had actually fallen asleep right after we had the bubur.
Must have been a tough day for everyone.
Today is a very challenging day for me. Thought to be a big day, with all the smiley faces, but it all turned out to be a very hectic voyage of self-discovery. I was going for an interview today, and had a dissertation tutorial as well. With happy thoughts, I marched my way to meet my tutor when she told me that I was supposed to see her 30 minutes earlier. And I had to wait for another week for another tutorial.
And it was raining the whole morning.
Adding up to the complication, I decided to go for my interview a bit earlier. Withdrew some money, returning some books in the library, and rushed to the bus stop. I arrived at the interview place an hour before the appointment.
My friends were supposed to be going for the interview as well, but I didn't see them anywhere. I guess they must be busy at the library, working on their dissertation or something. When it was my turn for the interview, I realised that I did not get a stamp from my college. So I had to rush back and get the stamp. As I was running across the hall, I met one of the staff in the marketing department. She helped me a lot with the advertising for the Malaysian Fest. It was rather a quick chat, but I was happy.
To cut things short, I was just in time to get into the waiting list. Alhamdulillah, the interviewer helped me throughout the session even though I had my complication. Feeling a bit devastated, I walked around the city.Lucky for me, the rain stopped right after the interview and I met some of my friends in the Barbican Theatre while I was walking around the city. Had a chat about what we have been doing. Later, I went to buy some grocery stuff for the house.
Though I am the one to be blamed for all those complications, I am thankful that despite the negaitive consequences, there were still positive outcomes from what had happened. Alhamdulillah.
When I was a kid, I always found this video clip disturbing. A child being lost in the woods, never to be found. And the child was relatively happy when he followed the fairies. I would imagine how his parents would have thought of him, thus shifting my thoughts about the fantasy world. I wouldn't want it to happen to my brothers or my sister.
But when I looked at the fairies again, I felt it was a stunning visual achievement for a spice girl music. The video suits the mood of the song. Probably it was dedicated to Geri who left in the same year. The video was directed by those who made the Wallace and Gromit claymation as well.
This phrase was too familiar when I was back in my school days. The teacher would set a ground rule for the class, by saying, "If you want to go to toilet please ask for my permission. Don't simply go out." And when somebody approach the teacher and said, "teacher, toilet.." he would get scolded or possibly get a slap from the teacher. It should be something like, "Teacher, teacher, can I go to toilet?" or with a more polite phrase, "Teacher, may I go to the toilet?". Well, those were the days.
As I browsed through my seniors' dissertation papers I found out that majority of local primary students had the urge to learn English because they were not confident enough to face their teacher, particularly when they want to go to the toilet. And toilet is one of the basic necessity for every school chidren. Imagine if you have to wait for an hour so that the Malay Language teacher would come and you can finally say, "cikgu nak pergi tandas". Even so, if you express it wrongly, you might as well caught up in the same situation as when you were with your English teacher. Who wouldn't be mad when somebody calls you a toilet? (Cikgu tandas..)
Sometimes, when it comes to asking permission students must also be aware of who they are talking to. There are some phrases which can be offensive to people, but there can also be phrases that causes laughter. For whatever reason the phrases should serve, students have to learn the language so that they could get through all the troubles and go on with their lives. See how important language can be in expressing one's thought. It may seem like a simple matter when we are in school, but imagine if you are somewhere in the high-class English speaking community, and you don't have the vocabulary. You may have to force yourself to learn the language too.
But by saying that it doesn't mean you can't be confident when you don't have certain knowledge of the language. We used to simply say "teacher, emergency" and ran away when nature waited for no one. You don't really have to struggle to learn that phrase. And the teacher won't slap you for that.
The journey from London to Wales was about a couple of hours. Upon arrival, I walked about Cardiff in a relatively silent night. That early morning, I had lemang as my sahur (breakfast), as I brought them from London when I was celebrating Eid. It was colder now, much colder than the the time I was travelling across Europe. From Cardiff, I went all the way up and had a look at some interesting castles and fort.
Wales is known for centuries of occupation from England. Conwy castle was among the surviving castles built in the old days, under the instruction of Edward I of England. I took a stroll around the walls and had a breathtaking view of the town. There were even kids who were shouting from the castle. They were probably on a class trip.
The whole day trip was rather tiring so I decided to stay for a night in one of the guesthouses in Swansea. By next morning, I got a cold. But it wasn't that bad. It was worth it.
