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.

Madinah=Wahabbism?

Wahabbism. What does it mean actually? To be honest, i'm not quite sure myself, because the so-called "Wahabbis" don't call themselves that. Well I'm not here to give the history of the origin of that word, because I didn't take the 'History of Saudi Arabia' module. And, despite my title, that isn't what I want to discuss.

What is more pertinent here is the issue of Madinah students: why are they really hated/condemned by certain parts of our community? Well the easy answer would be ignorance, or sometimes, just blatant disrespect.

Usually, these people would (as always) justify their hatred of Madinah/Saudi people by quoting the authentic hadith, whereby Nabi s.a.w refused to recite doa for the people of Najd despite being asked by his companions, adding that Najd will be the place where the "2 horns of syaitan will appear." But is Najd really Saudi Arabia, as the anti-"wahabbis" claim?

Well, if we do not know, we should ask the experts in that particular field, and in the field of hadith, there are not many more expert than Ibnu Hajar Asqolani, a prominent scholar of hadith in the Syafii madzhab. According to him, in his book Fathul Bahri, Nabi saw was in Madinah while saying that line, and he pointed to the East while saying that; Ibnu Hajar came to the conclusion that Najd is actually Iraq. In fact, he quoted numerous scholars in that book, and none of them said that Najd is Saudi.

How then did the Najd=Saudi theory came up? Wallahu a'lam. I don't know whether it was done in spite or it was a genuine mistake or whether that is indeed the case.

Since there's so much ambiguity in that interpretation, let's turn to other sources of evidence that are less ambiguous.

Firstly, in kitab sohih Bukhari, there is a whole chapter on the superiority of Madinah: there is not 1 on Mecca, Yemen, Syria, Jordan: nope, there's none. Only Madinah. Surely, to the intelligent person, that means something.

Allow me to quote just 1 hadith from that chapter: Nabi saw said:

"Yemen will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew.

Sham (Syria, Palestine etc) will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew.

Iraq will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew".-(aukama qal)

This hadith cannot get any clearer, yet people like to condemn Madinah and its people. Its one of the 2: either they did not come across this hadith, or they do NOT want to find it.

Well for those who's seen this hadith, please, don't hide the truth. And even if you haven't seen this hadith before, or you have some other interpretation to it, there is absolutely no reason for us to slander other people, just because our opinions differ from them, or just because they are from Madinah. Ultimately,our differences in opinion should not stand in our way of our unity.

After all, we're are but 1 ummah, not 2 ummahs.

Back, with a purpose.

Oh well. I know I did say I would not blog anymore after some team won the Champions League, but seeing all the nonsense that people write on their blogs, I feel compelled to come up with some nonsense of my own, and what better way to do that than via my blog.

Of course, entries will be at a much lesser frequency than when I was in Amsterdam. Hope to express my opinions freely over here, and, if I ruffle a few feathers along the way, then that's just a bonus. Hehe. Jokeng jokeng. But (bad) seriously. Damn! That felt good!

So look out for my next entry: Madinah=Wahabbism? Cheers people.