On Malaysia

The entry below is something I wrote during my two weeks break in Malaysia some two months ago. It is more of a critic rather than providing a solution for the problem. Hence, I will try to write a second part of this in the near future outlining the possible solutions that I think should be implemented.

I do not know if I can say that Malaysia has evolved or probably revolved dramatically in the past 10 years in terms of development. Physical development has seen that the country has had a considerable leap. We pride from the tallest, the biggest and recently the first Malaysian to go outer space. Most often than not, we always define or at least see development as material or external expansion or progress. Seldom have we heard about spiritual of internal development i.e. human development. This is the basis of all the developments. It is the foundation to higher level progress. It is the first pass before we proceed to focus on the physical part of it. Developing the moral and spiritual values is more important as it defines the values of the future generation of who will be in charge of the physical advancement of the country.



Recently the country has seen a sudden tremendous plunge in our moral values in the community. It is shocking now how Malaysians have been inundated with immoral behaviour of their own people. The brutal murder of Nurin Jazlin has put me on my nerves. It is unimaginable how someone can go to the extent of barbarically molesting and killing a little girl. This is but one case that has been brought forward to public knowledge and there are many more such cases happening everyday in our so-called peaceful society. It is poignant how material progression has led to a fall in our morals and etiquettes. It is not wrong in my opinion to say that we are being one sided in terms of chasing development; i.e. we forget to invest in human development. It is of futile effort should we develop the nation physically but in the end of the day the society with weak moral values is being generated at a cost of the external development. We are not ‘engineering’ a generation that is capable of handling the material progress that is being developed in the future i.e. the generation of strong moral and leadership values.

What has gone wrong? Or rather where have we gone wrong? The country has announced a lot of development plans from NEP to RMK-9 but sad enough that very little is being dedicated for human development as in developing a well-mannered and spiritually-aware nation. This internal human development should be in line with the material progress in order to secure a future that is well-developed externally (i.e. physical development) and a nation that is well-brought up in terms of etiquettes, morals and religion. Our focus is more towards human capital development that is capable of bringing up the economy but we forget to bring up the human themselves in terms of cultivating added values in them.

There are efforts that have to be stepped up to warrant a society that is strong spiritually and morally. Undoubtedly this course of action should begin at an early stage as internal development is not a day process but a process that needs to be nurtured gradually.

My Spiritual Journey

I do not intend to write long in this post. I let the pictures do the talk. God willing, I was doing my first Umrah the end of April this year and it was indeed a real spiritual journey, far from any of the holidays that I have been to. This is far superior.


Me in front of Masjid An-Nabawi, Madinah


View of Masjid An-Nabawi


View of Masjidil Haram, Makkah


Camel Farm


Museum of the Architecture of the Two Holy Mosques, Makkah


Arafat


View near Babul Madinah after Fajr

Amidst the richness of the Holy City, we can still find people live in poverty. Sometimes I wonder is it so hard for human being to feel for each other?


Children of Madrasah Darul Uloom

I had the chance to see Rashidullah who showed me around Makkah, find me some nice shops for Jubah and invited me cordially to his Madrasah where he taught more than 200 Burmese children of the science of Quran. It is not too much if I say they live just above the poverty line. Allah make their journay easy. The picture before and after show the background of the scene near his madrasah.


Burmese Migrant in Makkah

God make me strong.

Give me the correct understanding of Deen

I have attended several Islamic lectures and towards the end of the lectures they often say so that Allah grant us the correct understanding of Deen. I never bother to ruminate upon its meaning until recently that I attended Sh. Bilal Moola lecture after Tarawih in Hepburn mosque that it sparked to my mind what it really means.

Often enough we were reminded that Islam is simple and its teaching is easy to follow. Several restrictions imposed on its teachings are a cause of prevention before we are far astray. That is the basis of Islamic guidance. This where I think that we need to ask God to grant us the correct understanding of the religion. Having been born in a Muslim family does not guarantee us to practise Islam in its correct way. Those who revert/convert to Islam often have a better understanding of Islam because they seek and look for the truth. We who were born as a Muslim tend to take things for granted and we practise it as though it is a culture to practise not as something compulsory as instructed by God.



Having been granted the correct understanding of the religion will enable us to see Islam in the true perspective of how it should be viewed. Lacking of this quality is the source of the wrong interpretation of the religion and the basis for the things that we think is condoned by the religion but as a matter of fact is not. For instance, excessive music in daily life that has blended well in our norms now. Things are easily fall into oblivion when we do not really understand the religion. There are so many small facets in our life that we regard is permissible by the religion but is actually less desirable Islamically. I believe that having committed many small sins is actually worse that committing one big sin. Committing big sin is easily realised by us but the danger of not realising the small sins that we commit repeatedly is a more perilous deed to do. Worse still, we do not even realise the deeds as sins. These are entirely devil’s game.

I strongly believe that Islam should not be judged by looking at Muslims. It should be evaluated by its true teachings. Most often Muslim does not portray the essence of the religion. If I may use the term “modify”, the teaching has been modified (added and subtracted) to suit our daily life just because of our ignorance. We need the correct understanding of the religion.

Oh God give me the correct understanding of the Deen! I need that guidance to make me understand Islam better and to practise it in its true form. Let us practise it in its true form not in the manner that we think is right but rather in the way that have been instructed by you and your Messenger in its original teaching.
I remind myself and others.

Being Me

We chase our dreams, we walk the road that we create and we talk the thoughts that we picture just to realise the future that we have been longing for. Sometimes we forget that we ought to take a step back and look into the unique existence of us in this world. No doubt we want to be successful and we all have our own choice of colours to paint our future. We hasten in realising our dreams and we forget to relish the snippets of our lives. Life is a journey with no end but ironically we rather hunt for the finishing line forgetting to savour the passage or the quest that we take to materialise the journey. It is the road that we take towards the future that makes up our life and worth to be treasured.



Life is getting complex with today’s society. We are competing to be more successful than the others. Times and again we overlook the learning route that we take and we let it pass by unbeneficial. I believe in taking a break and ponder upon the sole reason we are here and let us tread the way that we deem is right. We should steer our life according to our beliefs. Let us just be us.

I saw a quote on TV back home the other day. It says;
“The hardest challenge in this life is to be ourselves in the world where everybody else is trying to make us to be somebody else”.

On Old Friends

Coming back for raya meeting old school friends and teachers that I have lost contact with for some time was indeed a refreshing experience. Most of them have had a turn in their lives, have moved from a student life to having a career. Time has changed so much for the past seven years since I left the school but Taiping is still the same old town that I have known for the past 24 years. Coming back here has seen that I have to change my Malay accent to the northern dialect which I have to admit that I have to think for a while first before I utter something. I have called Australia home for the past 6 years and my Malay there is conversed in KL-type accent.

I enjoy meeting old friends and share the old stories together, had a laugh together. They are still of the same old characters. My Taiping friends are of less complicated people. We do not talk about having a lot of money, about having a business and bragging about career. We talked about teachers, about friends that we did not manage to keep in contact with and of course about school. These less complicated topics are easy to talk about and a great source of amusement to us. It brings back the good old memories and I am actually amazed by how much I can appreciate those memoirs now. Sometimes the bitter past can be a sweet one when we laugh and pick on each other.



Time has inevitably changed the path of our life. Every junctures that we take now is decided by us and will lead to future consequences. We begin to assume responsibilities to family and to ourselves. We still talk about the same topic we used to talk before e.g. flirting with girls, picking on some friends etc. but now we also talk about the future more seriously e.g. married life. We begin to feel the burden that we need to carry in the years ahead. I am happy that at least I know that most of my friends know where they are going or at least have the noble intention to have a rewarding life. The most important lesson that I learned when meeting them is that we cannot judge people by their conducts at school. People grow and mature. By time and God willing we begin to feel the sense of responsibilities that we need to have. An urchin may become someone important in the future. People are funny and unpredictable and life is complex that it can take its turn so quickly without us realising it.

It is interesting how we can learn from each other so much regardless of our background. I find it fascinating how people can be so enthralling that every move we take can serve as a lesson to others. Probably that is the reason why God say that human being is the best of His creatures. It is also worth mentioning that every step we take will be recorded and rewarded if the intention is right. God reward the good action when we intent to do it before we actually carry out the intention but only record that bad action once we commit it.

Let us all savour the good old times and benefit from every bit and pieces that have been left behind for us to glance at to remind us of our roots. When we reach upon a star, make sure our feet is still on the ground.

15 Oct 2007, 7.08 pm Taiping

Irony Syawal

Today is the second day of raya and I am back home at the moment. I am watching a program in TV 9 called From Taiping to Akademi Al-Quran a story about a Taipingite who became the champion of Akademi Al-Quran. It is always a wonderful feeling to be here even though there are not many people at home now but guests keep coming as every past years. Always looking forward to see them. It is a nice feeling and environment here with raya song and program played on TV, kids coming for raya from out of nowhere and meeting old school friends that I have lost contact with for years.

I have to sincerely say that this Ramadhan was not as sweet as my past Ramadhan. I only woke up for Tahajud once and Alhamdulillah I did not miss one single Tarawih while in Perth except for one day when I was on the flight to Malaysia. I guess I have been slacking in making this Ramadhan a beneficial one. Having to work and some other commitments are not an excuse for me to treat Ramadhan as any other months. I was very inspired by this MAS accountant that I met in Trinity prayer room when he said that we do not do justice to Ramadhan if we treat Ramadhan just like any other usual months. Therefore, he took 2 weeks off to celebrate Ramadhan. On the other hand, I took 2 weeks off to celebrate raya! I know that one of the groups of people that has been cursed by Rasulullah s.a.w. is those who do not take full advantage of the month of Ramadhan. Allah forgive me.



I begin to feel that we are not on the right track in our way of celebrating Syawal and our way of saying farewell to Ramadhan. It is an irony how we are in high spirits in celebrating Syawal and at the same time we forget that we are leaving Ramadhan behind us not knowing if we are meeting Ramadhan in the next year never mind if we have benefited from this year’s Ramadhan. As far as I am concerned, Islam stresses heavily on reaping full benefit of Ramadhan and 1st of Syawal is the day that we celebrate having successfully completed Ramadhan. Syawal is the celebration of religion not that of culture. However, today we tend to celebrate Syawal like a big party putting Islamic values to a side. It should be a way of expressing our gratitude to Allah for giving us the blessed month of Ramadhan.
It is an irony how we are joyful that Ramadhan has gone and for some of us Ramadhan is not something that we look forward to even though we know the big rewards that contain in it. Every big reward comes with difficulties that we have to face and in this case we have fast and to govern ourselves from everything that has been forbidden to us in order to reap the benefit of the blessed month.

It is an irony how we can cry of not meeting families in Syawal but we can’t cry realising that Ramadhan is going. It is an intrinsic nature of human being I think that we are forgetful and we enjoy being happy. We look forward for the worldly happiness and we forget about eternal happiness. I think what we should really be doing is that we have to reap the full benefit of Ramadhan and then we enjoy the Syawal festivities, of course within the Islamic boundaries.

I remind myself so that next year my heart will be soften to perform more in Ramadhan and to moisten my lips more with the praising of my God. Not to mention also that Ramadhan is a month to practice to be carried forward to the months after.

14 Oct 2007, Taiping

On Patience

Went to Hepburn yesterday and as usual the talk by Bilal Moola was inspiring
even though we might have heard the story before, but the way he narrated the
story leaves an impact. Therefore, I think I should extend the reception of
the story. Yesterday's talk revolved around the image portrayed by the
Muslims with an example set by Rasulullah s.a.w. I gathered 2 stories
basically. Of course, this is my version of the story as my memory could
retain and should not be treated as authentic narration.



There was this famous Jews Rabbi by the name Zaid bin San'ah and he read from his scripture that there
will be a great Prophet and He will be the last prophet sent by God to the
people. He was not convinced that Muhammad s.a.w. is the last noble prophet
as mentioned in his scripture. Therefore, he decided to investigate the
quality of Rasulullah s.a.w.; the high level of patience as a sign of true
prophethood. He went to the Prophet's s.a.w. house to investigate. When he
was there, there came a poor man asking for some food.

"Ya Muhammad, could you spare me some food?" says the poor man

"By Allah, I will give you if I have something but I do not have anything at
the moment" says Muhammad s.a.w.

The Jews Rabbi thought that this would be a good opportunity for him to test
the true sign of Prophethood of Muhammad s.a.w. Thus he said to Muhammad
s.a.w.,

"I have an orchard and if you will you can pick the fruits there and I will
accept the payment from you later"

"If that is the case, I will accept and will pay you at the set date" said
Muhammad s.a.w and they agreed on the date of payment.

Three days before the set date of payment, the Jews Rabbi came to Muhammad
s.a.w. and asked for the money saying in a harsh way that the Prophet s.a.w.
has forgotten to pay the money owing. Even though it was before the agreed
date, the Rabbi showed his anger and rude manner. At that point, when he
turned his head, he saw Umar r.a. behind him with his eye ball rolling
showing his anger.

"If it is not because of the presence of Muhammad s.a.w., I would have
beheaded you right now. How could you talk in such a way to my Prophet?" said
Umar in an angry manner.

"Calm down Umar, this is not what I want from you. You are not making the
situation better. What you should really say is, remind me to pay the debt by
time and tell him to ask in a softer manner", said Muhammad s.a.w. and he
went off.

Look at the quality of the prophet in this instance. After the incidence,

"Do you know who I am Umar?" asked the Rabbi

"I don't know who you are and I don't want to know who you are" said Umar
angrily.

"I am Zaid b San'ah and by Allah
today I have witnessed that Muhammad is a true prophet of Allah by the
quality that he has shown. From now on, I shall recite my syahadah and will
give half of my belonging in the path of Allah", said the Rabbi after he was
moved by the manner of the prophet.

I think this is very beautiful.



Just one other point, we can see that Umar was so angry at the Rabbi for his
harsh manner to Muhammad s.a.w. The love of the sahabah to Prophet s.a.w is
unique.

At the death of Prophet s.a.w., there was this sahabah and he mentioned that,

"My eyes are no longer useful if I could not see Muhammad s.a.w again"

And he asked Allah to take away his sight so that the last object that he
sees will be Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Allah granted his wish.

Pls pass this along to be a great example of patience of its
virtue.

-From the e mail that I wrote to a friend.

Matters of the Heart

Perhaps I should just let my heart decide on its own matter. The interference of mind will sometimes make things complicated as mind decides base on logic and matters of the heart are matters of emotional not logical. It is kind of tricky when someone gets into your life and the state of your emotion changed due to commitment, happiness but you still act the same. It is really hard for me to describe the situation I am in now. I am just not the kind of person to express feeling into words or actions. I need to learn to be more appreciative of my environment i.e. the people around me, things that I have etc. It sounds easy but matters of the heart involves emotions and emotions are unpredictable. Sometimes you can be cold hearted towards a person and sometimes you can be the most gentle person. Sometimes you can be very sensitive and sometimes very insensitive. Sometimes you can be very easily hurt and sometimes you could not care less. It is just hard to put a solid line defining the two extremes emotional states.

Same Life Still

This is my 6th year in Australia, Perth in particular. I don't know if I can call Perth home now and I don't know how much longer I am going to spend pieces of my life here. Truly I have no plan for my future. I am still ruminating upon my future. Right now I am still wondering aimlessly as far as my future is concerned. I don’t really know what I want to be in the years ahead.

I’d love to see the world. I’d love to experience different cultures and see wonders of the world. I have been craving to travel the globe but just some constraints holding me back i.e. time, money etc. Perhaps I want a different environment to refresh my thoughts and merely just to broaden my horizon. At this point of time, I cannot say that I have the freedom to do that as yet.



I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has somehow shaped my life be it coincidentally or deliberately. I thank God for his love and blessings granted upon me and sometimes I forgot how forgetful I am not to thank him. It happens to me that everything that I wished once upon a time was granted now and sometimes I even forgot that I used to wish it before. Just as yesterday while I was walking down the terrace on the way back home, I was sparked by this thought that I wanted a Camry before when I was a fresh university student back in 2002 and now God granted it to me some 4 years after that. I only realized it yesterday after about a year having that car. We always think that wish never comes true but for me it does, it is just time that separates us. I thank God for innumerable things he granted me and complemented my life with.

I thank my friends, my long lost friend, close friends or friends I never met. I learn a lot from them and I have hurt some of them a lot too. I have to say that I am very insensitive towards someone’s feelings but very sensitive upon my feelings. That is just unfair of me I guess. Now I learn that to be solemn at times is very rewarding. We can always be the focusing character of a situation but I have to learn that that will not last long. Everyone has his own fair share of time in this world it is just that I have to remind myself that I among the lucky few.