Life Unpredictables

Sometimes in life, things come and happen without we realising it. Sometimes it happens so fast for us to even get a glimpse at it and more often than not it develops slowly for us to savour. Most of the times we do not realise the things that happen around and upon us. We always take things for granted and sometimes forgot to give it back to those who deserve. Let us take one step back and look at the world we are in now. It is like a picture. If you are too close to it, all you can see is just a small black dot. But if you take a few steps back, you begin to see the whole picture and will appreciate it. The beauty lies when you know how to appreciate things and look at it from a different angle. Two people may see the same object but look at it differently.

Times and again we just do not realise that something has happened to us. May it be a good one or something to cry over. Let’s stop for a while and ponder the things that happen in this juncture of our life. We may be amazed by how lucky we are. We are indeed very lucky, it is just that we do not realise it. We always compare with something that is of higher value that what we have. Always look for the inferior and not the superior. This will help us to be thankful. If you think that you are lack of something, think of the others who do not even think to have the thing that you long for. May be due to poverty. Children of Somalia would be grateful to have a slice of bread for their lunch. They live in poverty until they do not know that they are poor, what more to know the meaning of being wealthy like a fire that doesn’t know that it is hot. If you think that you are lack of something and you look at others who possess it, this will only make you feel inferior and lose your self-confidence. We should learn to be thankful of what we have.


God does not send something to us for nothing. If we believe in blessings, everything that happens to us is indeed a blessing. It may look hard at times. If you happen to face a down point in your life, just tell yourself that it happens for your betterment. May be bitter at first, but as time goes by you will realise that it is a blessing in disguise. All we need to have is faith in what we believe. Keep reminding yourself that God always has better plan for you.

Everyone that we meet has a role in our life. God doesn’t send them to you without any purpose. It is our duty then to search for the notion why they are send to us and of course it takes time to discover it. You may know a girl, fell in love with her just to find out that she was just playing a fool with you. This may seems saddening at first, but if who choose to look at it from a different point of view and tell yourself that it happens for a reason, you will take it as a lesson of your life. Your intention has to be pure and sincere to really feel the gist of life. Most of us learn well when something unfortunate happen to us because we always forget to learn when we are fortunate. Life is indeed a school of ‘ No Pain No Gain’. If life is a smooth and comfortable journey, then our life will be a monotonous and flat road. Just bear in mind that there are always a meaning behind everything that happens in our lives.


We are sometimes very strange people. The only thing we want to say, the one thing that we should say is the one thing that we do not say for fear of embarrassing the other person or ourselves. We are indeed funny when we pretend to be someone else when we are with others but not our real self. We tend to project ourselves as what they want us to be rather than who we really are. This may be positive sometimes. If you are a serious person, but you pretend to act funny to make your friends laugh and to feel the pleasure of your company, that will indeed improve your social life and blend you in well. From the perspective of your own self, your ‘pretended being’ may lead to you not being your real self. We should learn how to act in public by being our real self. Everyone in this world has his own quality that we can share with. Therefore, we have to learn from others and try to savour the gist of their quality. Every person that we meet is indeed a lesson to us. As before, God does not send someone to us for nothing.

Life is indeed unpredictable because the unexpected always dawned upon us. The thing that we long for is always one thing that we do not get and the choice that we make is always not the right one. Life is funny because sometimes coincidence can be predestined and the unexpected can be your destiny.

*12.14am, 22nd March 2004
Currie Hall (Rm B211)

I Wonder

I wonder why most of the time when we ask for something, the thing that we ask just do not materialise or happen they way we want it to be. Are we too impatient to wait for the right time for it to happen? Or simply it will not happen for our own good because god has a better plan for us? More often than not most of the time the things that happen around us are the things that we do not expect it to happen. Is it part of worldly miracles or surprises that make us joyful or depress for the time being? All that we seek in life is the sense of impermanence in happiness. Pleasure is something that always happens to us but it doesn’t stay there long enough to enable us to feel the true essence of happiness. All that we seek in life is happiness and true happiness does not happen until we look for it and begin to search and appreciate the things around you.


I wonder why sometimes we are very forgetful. We may have hurt someone’s feelings without realising it. But when we do realise it, we try to amend it but it so happen that we forget to say sorry to the person that we hurt. Worse, we realise that we have hurt his or her feeling but do not try to improve on it. Human beings are always forgetful. Is it the underlying nature of us since Adam? The beauty of saying sorry is that you have realised your mistakes and try to mend the heart of the person that you hurt. The person may not forgive you but at least you have done your part. We are sometimes very arrogant people to think that we are right all the time and refuse to listen to others because it will make you feel inferior. We need to stoop down a little and learn from all the small petty things around us because the gist of life lies between the thing that we think trivial and of least significance.

I wonder why the world can be so unfair sometimes. Why the poor has to suffer because they are poor. Why the 85% of world’s wealth are only enjoyed by 20% of global population. It is quite strange sometimes to think that the superpower can do whatever they want to oppress the weak and the world around us are cringing like a mouse afraid to voice out just because they are scared. They are scared to do the right thing because fairness is not longer defined by the prevalence of justice. Fairness is now the notion of the accumulation of wealth and satisfaction of greed by the strong forces regardless of the rights of the weak. They think that they are morally right and they carry the burden of the poor which make them think that they have the responsibilities of end this. The opposite happens. More damaged was done. Equality no longer fairly defined. What is equal to them is when they can enjoy the wealth of the other nation but do not want to share their own wealth.

I wonder why we can be so naïve to think that we don’t have what we want. Desires dictate our behaviour. Human nature is such that we are always not satisfied of what we have. We tend to look to someone higher than us and thus try to reach the same level. It does motivate us in a way but the sense of gratitude should also present.

* 9.06pm, 1st July 2004

From Hobart With Love

Five days in Tassie enthralled me. Hobart nestles at the toe of Mount Wellington is the second oldest city in Australia. Relatively small town like Perth but Hobart is more reserve in nature and warm in welcome. There is really nothing much to do there but loads of stuff to behold. I'd say Hobart is a perfect getaway to unwind and to feel the serenity of country life. Launceston, Huon Valley, Derwent Valley and Port Arthur will serve your eyes.

Well, that's not my whole point. Of course you go for a holiday for sight seeing but more importantly is the value that you get from your observation and experience in people's place. A day after I checked-in at Hollydene, came a group of Korean students for a five weeks English course in Uni of Tasmania. I met a couple of them. Communication is quite a problem but we manage to decipher each other somehow after a deep remuneration. Keno was one of them. They told me that Koreans seldom speak English and realizing the importance of English they Uni they are studying in Korea send them to English speaking country to master the language. Well, fair enough. This spaked my mind of the type of investment they country is making. Just like me here under sponsorship, investment for the country's future. They can see the long term effect of today's investment. This is waht we need to develop a country. Terry said that that is the reason why Malaysia is so thriving now. 
  

I was thinking about Saudi Arabia then. They are currently employed about 30000 American, about 15000 British and 2000 Australians expatriates. Where are all the capable Muslims? Are they not given the chance for contribution or merely their talent was not explored? Saudi is a wealthy country in resources. They can builts big highways and flash palaces. Is that where the money gone in the name of developing the country? Physicaly yes but how about morally? King Saud may be does not see the importance in investing in his people because he si too busy obeying America's demand. This is where we are lack in. we can't see the future or at least see what lay ahead the next day. 
  
Keno also told me that it is in their culture that when they elder in the group is moving away, they have to stand up and greet him as a show of respect. This is a real simple stuff but we seldom practice. This is so beautiful if can be incorporated into Malay culture. Sometimes we tend to forget this kind of simple stuff as we are busy thinking and learning the other worldly knowledge.  This is the sort of value that we need to take or learn from other culture to further enrich our daily practical life. Most of the time we do not have to think or to look far. Most of the time they are just around us and it is up for us to notice of let it pass unnoticed.  
  

We met Hong Yeh at the Melbourne airport on the way to Hobart and we became friends then rather quickly.  We went to visit him in Launceston(2.5 hours north of Hobart) and was quite surprise of his hospitality given the fact that we only met him couple of days ago. It is easy to win friends and it is also easy to loose them. I learn that friends are like pet. You have to always look for them and once you got them, you got to 'cuddle' them with your heart. That are some of the things that I gather from Tasmania and have at least stolen my heart.

What is in Islam?

I am currently reading a book by Dale Carnegie entitled How To Win Friends and Influence People.It mentions various ways how to get people attracted to you, how to be a good conversationalist and how to be a good listener. I think it kind of make sense the way the suggested. Most of the things are real simple stuff such as always smile and try to be a god listener, but in life these simple stuff are the things that we always forget to do. So, it is serves as a reminder to be somehow. One of the ways that he suggests is always pay attention to the person you are talking with. Be a good listener because the person you are talking to will feel that he is appreciated. These are one of the mant ways to win a person's heart. He illustrated numerous examples to prove that this way did and will always work.

Yesterday I was preparing for the kids saturday evening's religious class and I chose to talk about Akhlaq Rasulullah SAW. I was on the net for about an hour or so to look for material. One of the web listed down about 40 known akhlaq of Rasulullah SAW and I selected a few of them for my lesson. It so happen that one of the ways or manners Rasulullah SAW interacted with people was to listen attentively to the person He is talking to. I try to relate this with the material that I am currently reading.



We don't need great western writers or philosophers to tell us how to be a good interactor. We don't need the so-called greatest thinker of mankind to guide us how to behave. It doesn't take Socrates, Plato or even Aristotle to figure that out for us.Muslims have their very own role model and most of the time we tend to forget this. Al-Quran and Hadiths are the two main guidance that is timeless and borderless. Whereby, can be applied anytime and anywhere. Rasulullah SAW is the greatest example that we can have and indeed He was sent to perfect our morals.

Imam Maalik (R.A.) reports that it had been related to him that Rasulullah s.a.w. said: "I have been sent down by Allah to evolve moral virtues to the highest
perfection."

Allah s.w.t. has mentioned in Surah al-Qalam verse 4; ‘Verily, you are an exalted
character’



Muslims now should not forget their root and the failure to keep on reminding themselves on this is the root of the problems that we are facing now. Allah has mentioned that He has perfected for us our religion and has chosen Islam to be our religion. That is clear that we can find everything that we need in the essence of Islam.

* Flying to Melbourne tomorrow at 12.55pm then to Hobart the next day.

My Sister's Beautiful Mind

Yi Shuang always leaves an unforgettable memory in me through her wisdom and maturity. With the fact that she is younger than me, I'd say that she knows more than me in terms of appreciating friendship and human nature. Ever since I know her in 2001, she has left a deep impact in my life as to how beautiful a human being can be. She once mentioned that I am as though like a tree can't wait to reach the sky when we supose to leave a memo to each other telling them what we feel about them at the end of our foundation year. I still keep that little piece of paper.



Even though that she is now in New Zealand pursuing her studies and I am stuck here in this peacefully boring place in one corner of Australia, I still treasure her wisdoms through her e mails. Hers is the only e mail that I seldom delete them from my inbox. I was just wondering how wonderful human mind can be. She indeed has a real dignified and wonderful frame of mind to look at things from different angle. I was reading this Dale Carnegie and he mentioned that the ability to see things from other people's perspective is a wisdom.She savours everything she sees and does. As far as I am concerned, she never did grumble over anything.

I'd like to dedicate this column to her and hope she can cherish the world with her mind that is full of wonder and beauty. I try to learn from her and I think now I begin to appreciate the thing that around me. We just need petty sacrifices as Emerson put it. Through her marvellous and magnificent way of looking at things from a dazzling perspective, I learn to appreciate life more than I ever have before. These principles and values in her somehow makes me think that she is older than me that makes her my 'sister'.

* To see something through a child's eye is wisdom but to behave in a childish manner is folly.

Our Problem

Yesterday after my normal teaching at Musollah, me and Marko went for a Kebab at Broadway. It was his treat. The competition goes as to who can memorise Juz Amma first will get a treat. I spent the rest of the night at his place. Marko,Reza,me and later came Hakim and Iman were discussing about the issue of Muslim now. As usual Marko will have his own point of view. The problem with Muslim now is unity. It has sort of been ingrained in us that we just cannot unite. Tribalism has occured since the time of Prophet S.A.W. Killing and hurting each other has occured since the creation of Adam. Does that mean we can't change? I believe that those are God's given examples so that we can take lesson from. They say that all the problems that occur now result from the act of Muslims themselves and of course we do not discount the fact the greed of the Western world.



Tribalism and disunity in Iraq has resulted in what Iraq has become now. We sholud learn how the Prophet unite the Ansar and the Muhajirin. The Ansar and the Muhajirin have been fighting ever since they could remember. When they accepted Islam, they were brothers that would help each other and so much so would die for each other. These are the ways of uniting people. We just don't go to people's country to offer 'help' when they do not even ask for the help. In the name of justice, they invaded the country in order to so-called rescue the people from a tyrannical regime. More damaged was done.

Being in a non Muslim country somehow makes me feel more prone to know about my own religion. May be because of the environment that I am in. I know a lot of Sheiks here and I believe their way of communicating the idea of Islam is better simply because they are more outspoken. When you are the minority, the spirit to strive is stronger.

Muslim needs to switch their mindframe now to focus on the thing that befallen upon them. The Arabs have to forget(for a while at least!)their tribalistic manner. If we hold steadfast of the true teaching of Islam, all these things can be solved not true violance. We always tend to take the only culture but not the values from the West.

**Complete Amma and Ar-Rahman

Why I write this.

Lately I feel that I always have something memorable to write. Things that I discover and things that I do and the things that all around me somehow steal a glimpse of my mind to be inscribed in here. Most of the time the things that I encounter are out of a sudden or unexpected. People say that the thing that you least expect is the thing that will change your life. I begin to look at life from different angle. I begin to savour the thing that I see and I do. This thing is nothing more than your encounter with people in your everyday life.