Intellectualism, and what not.

First of all, Shaza is safe and sound (and happy) in Germany; for more about her, visit www.shaz-souriez.blogspot.com!

Just a short entry to show that this blog is still alive (albeit barely so!).

It is pretty humorous to say people talk about Muslim intellectuals bla bla bla: and the funny thing is, most Muslims do no know who these are! These people are pretty much in obscurity, preferring to write "fanstastic" theses; but the works are confined to the libraries. No one reads them other than their ardent fans and the Malay Studies majors. So, for these intellectuals and their self-proclaimed fans, I strongly urge you all to expand the means for you all to spread whatever message you intend to: and not blame the people for not "reading enough" and what not; coz that would be just plain dumb! When you know majority of the people don't even know abt your writings, and you blame them for not being aware, I really can't think of a word other than dumb.

And it's amazing really; recently someone has commented that he doesn't understand why there's a "trend" of helping the madrasahs. Even wanting to help the madrasahs can be an issue now! Haha! It is so ludicrous, that I shouldn' talk about it further. As my ustadz says, "Anjing kalau menyalak, gunung takkan runtuh." And people will always talk about anything; especially those self-proclaimed intellectuals, who want to problematize everything.

And next, I hope MS people, you're reading this, the yahoo group is going to be a joke really soon, if it isn't already. Whenever Surya posts something, there will be a few people (the same old people) who will embark on personal and cynical attacks on him. Yet, those scathing emails are approved. I wonder why. And my email to the yahoo group publicizing AAM wasn't aprroved initially (though it was later on)! I really wonder how this yahoo group works: maybe you guys can clarify for me.

Many many other issues that can and should be talked about: though time is a constraint. I'm looking forward to Yaacob Ibrahim's dialogue session, fro now. Hopefully, after that, there'll be an entry.

Hamas VS Israel: Who is the terrorist?

Well, I'm sure if you ask different people you'll get a variety of answers to that question. But I feel, that question is totally inadequate in explaining what's happening. Is the real situation "Palestinians VS Israel; who is the guilty one?", or perhaps "400 innocent people have died: how long more will the world watch?", or maybe even "Gaza: the only place in the world where mass murders can take place?".

I just want to highlight some stuff. Firstly, as intelligent people, do realize that things does not always seem as they are: the power of the media is relevant to this issue. So, please do no take as given, fro example, when the media from our side of the world says that a group is, maybe, a terrorist organization. Go read up from different sources, go watch RTM 1 news, go do whatever it takes to learn more, do not just believe what you hear instantly.

Israel's PM said that they will help the Palestinian civilians in any way possible and they will provide humanitarian aid as far as possible. HA-HA.

CNN reported the other day, that Israel's "Coast Guard" rammed a vessel carrying 3000 tonnes of medical aid to Gaza tp prevent it from reaching. The vessel almost capsized according to one of its passengers (all the passengers were Western volunteers by the way). Israel says it was accidental. The said passenger told CNN that the Israeli "Coast Guard" surrounded the vessel for half an hour before ramming it, so how could it be accidental. Who's telling the truth? Is it the volunteer who has no selfish motivations, who isn't even Muslim, or is it the state that has been responsible for many many brutal killings? I don't know, you guys decide.

From Dr Asri's blog: "DRMAZA menyeru umat Islam zahirkan bantahan terhadap Israel dalam apa bentuk sekalipun." Dr Asri was in London, and he joined the protests outside the Israeli embassy there. I know that it's not practical to do so in Singapore (or is it?),so let's just do whatever we can for the people who are constantly living in fear, who are waiting for their turns to die, who are being hated/killed/brutalized just because of their skin colour or religious beliefs. Let's pray for them, at the very least. Better still, show our disgust (legally might I add) towards what is happening; either via writing in to the newspapers, facebook, blogs, whatever it is: just to make our feelings known, and hopefully, insya Allah, over time, we're heard.

Rasul s.a.w said in his hadith: "Whoever does not bother about his brother (in Islam), then he is NOT ONE OF US." (aukama qal) I think those are very very strong words from the Prophet. NOT ONE OF US.

So ladies and gentlemen, it's time to start bothering.

Terrorism: after Singapore's First Victim.

Now,I'm sure all of you would have heard about Singaporeans' reactions to the Mumbai attacks, which claimed a Singaporean life. I'm not going to sing the usual rhetoric; and condemn terrorism because Islam is a religion of peace bla bla bla; after all Habib Hassan has already done that. Rather, why don't we take this discussion 1 step forward?

Condemning terrorism, as our scholars always do, perhaps have to do, will not solve anything. I'm not saying they shouldn't come up with statements condemning terrorism, no, what I'm saying is they shouldn't JUST come up with statements condemning terrorism. Like it or not, those statements will not reduce terrorism one bit.

Let's try to understand why these terrorists act as they do. WHAT? UNDERSTAND THE TERRORISTS? Well, we always hear people saying we should understand the homosexuals, not just condemn them, then we can get them back to the right path. So why do we take a different approach when it comes to terrorists?

Look here. Why do these terrorists do what they do? Before 1948 (Formation of Israel) there were no suicide bombings around the world. Now, a suicide bombing is as common as Robbie Keane missing a sitter in front of goal. Before US invaded Afghanistan, there were no suicide bombings in Pakistan. Now, there is one every week. Before the US invaded Iraw, there were no suicide bombings in Iraq, now on average, terrorism kills at least 1 person a day there. Don't all these mean something to the intelligent people?

These terrorists are just doing what they do, because they want to defend the Muslims who are being oppressed every single damn day; in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and many other places. They just want to defend Islam.

I'm not for one moment suggesting that they are right: no, what they do is wrong. But we must understand that they THINK they are doing this in the name of ISlam, and their intentions are to defend Islam.

It's very sad when I hear Singapore ustads coming out and say these terrorists' motivations are all political. Definitely, there will be some whose motivations are political, but for the most part, they are motivated by religion; only that they channel their anger in the wrong way. What we need to do is understand this psychology, and try to divert their angst in a manner allowed in Islam. It is very very uninformed, and ignorant for people to just come out and say that all terrorists' motivations are political.

If we could solve Muslim oppression, we could get rid of terrorism, or at least reduce it drastically. For example, I'm absolutely convinced if we can solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue (not an easy task by any means), we can cut down terrorism by half.

Just one Singaporean died, and Singaporeans reacted angrily, and rightly so. For the past 50 years, Palestinians die every single damn day: imagine how Muslims around the world feel. Unfortunately, some of us express our anger in the wrong manner.

This entry is not to exonerate the terrorists, no. I just want to say that our approach in dealing with terrorism, isn't getting anywhere. Sure, you can invade Afgahnistan and kill terrorists, but you cannot kill terrorism that way. In fact, you'll just breed more terrorists. Condemning terrorism as an anti-Islamic act too will not bring us closer to solving his problem. It's high-time we take this campaign terrorism forward by nipping the issue in the bud.

To Canada, with Love.

Haikal, this is specially for you from myself, Bad, Mas, Jen and Nor. Nor wasn't able to be in this video because he had lecture. So as to not spoil the surprise, I will put Nor's birthday message in the comments later.

Enjoy this birthday present, our dear brother. Happy birthday from us in Singapore. This is for you to know, just how badly missed you are.

Horoscopes.

I just cannot fathom, people, in this day and age, at university level, Muslims, could actually believe in horoscopes. Even if it were not for religious concerns, I think it would be plai dumb to believe that the alignment of stars can affect your life, character etc.

Well, of course why I'm writing this is because I've just had enough of people who even mention zodiac signs to me, let alone believe in them. When will these people realize, it is all a scam!

What is Islam's take on this? Well amongst my readers there are some experts, and I'm definitely not one, but allow me to share a hadith I came across.

Rasulullaah s.a.w said: The purpose of stars are 3: 1) To decorate the heavens (i.e skies). 2)To be used as missiles to strike devils. 3) As a source of direction for travellers. Anyone who tries to find a purpose other than these 3, is doing something in vain. -aukama Qal. (Do correct me if the last line of the hadith isn't accurate)

When I told someone this hadith recently, that person still had the cheek to tell me,"Ah, Nabi saw only said it would be in vain, he didn't say it's wrong!" Haiz.

Some people say they don't believe in horoscopes whole-heartedly: so do they believe in it half heartedly? Or 20%? Or even 5%? Does that mean you attribute 5% of your fate to the alignment of the stars?

People, our lifestyles are already so damn un-Islamic. At the very least, DON'T let our beliefs, our Aqidah, become un-Islamic.

Countdown to 9 months from now.

The Sheikh has left. Somehow, it feels so much different this time. Maybe it's because of Ramadhan, which got us ever so close, much closer than before. Some people say that they have a sheikh, a "guru mursyid"; well i have one too i suppose, but he's more than just a sheikh; he's a friend, a companion, a brother, a teacher, someone who shares most if not all of my ideals, and someone, whom, if push comes to shove, I know i can bring to war with! Yup2, most of the adjectives I just used can be used to descirbe my other friends as well, no doubt; which is what makes our group so special in my eyes.

At the airport, when I hugged him, i just didn't want to let go. I didn't know if that was going to be our last hug, though I pray that there will be many more to come.

I'm really looking forward to next Ramadhan, where insya Allah Rizhan will be back here, Haikal will be here, and hopefully so will the other 'long-lost-during-Ramadhan-people'. I'm waiting for next Ramadhan, anxiously.

McDonalds.

Sometimes, the going can get very tough. When you abide by a certain set of beliefs, or, err, principles, and it seems like the whole world is against you, trying to impose their beliefs on you, ridiculing your beliefs even, it can truly be a test of character.

Then the best thing to do would be touch your heart, hold on firmly to what you believe is right. Let the world mock, let theworld criticise, let the world make fun, let the world ridicule, you hold on to your beliefs. Do not bother about what they say, just do what you have to do.

A reminder to myself,when the going gets tough.