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