Saturday, June 18, 2016

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Tanggung Dosa

This simple cartoon still makes me chuckle to this day ( I think it's a month old...I received it in May).

We need more shrewd sketches as this one...filled with nuggets of wisdom without neglecting the humour, in order for us to be a more informed society. 

There are many misconceptions and outright lies flying around these days, sometimes without any traces of basis to weigh its claim. The worst of it all is when they tagged Islam along the way to further their cause.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Melayu


Interesting points from the above article (I'll only summarize key points since I do not possess much time now) :

1. Humans moved out from Africa since 200,000 years ago, believed to be originated from a woman known as "Hawa". 
Christians believe that human dates as far back as 5000 years ago (based on their calculations from the Bible). This belief is shared by certain sects of Muslim (I remember seeing a big chart in a local mosque where it shows a depiction of chronological events from Prophet Adam (a.s) right through our last Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). It's calculation didn't differ much from the Bible, which puts the age of human roughly around 5000-6000 years old (from the time of Prophet of Adam (a.s)). This view, however, is criticized by Perlis Mufti Dr Asri, who argues it's illogical for the age of human to be only 5000 years old when scientific dating clearly proves otherwise. Quran never specifically mentions the exact age of human today from the time of Prophet Adam (a.s).

2. Research indicates that the settlements in China move from south to north.
This directly contradicts the Yunnan Theory, which states that Malay ancestors came from China. This Yunnan Theory is widely mis-used by chauvinist Chinese to propagate the impression that Malay race is indeed originated from China, so the Chinese is the rightful ancestor of the Malay archipelago. With this new finding, the opposite is true...Malays seemed to migrate northwards through Thailand and Indo-China before settling down in China. So Chinese indeed is descended from Malay. This scientifically-backed theory must be a bitter pill for the chauvinists to swallow.

3. Kelantan Malay and Javanese share a closely-matched genetic resemblance, and they are older.
I am secretly hoping that Kedah would be proven to be the oldest of the Malay lineage, but remembering that my great great grandparents were from Kelantan, so it's not a bad deal for me. And to be scientifically linked with Javanese is a great honour, as I have very good friends from Javanese descent. 

Dr Zafarina is the most intelligent and down-to-earth woman I've ever seen in my entire life. She is also deeply religious. There were, on numerous occasions, that I encountered her reciting Quran privately in her office. Hopefully more women would aspire to reach her monumental height, as we are currently in a dire need to have more women of her quality.     

I think that's all for today.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Ramadan


Tomorrow is a start of a blessed month in Islam...the sacred month of Ramadan.

Muslims all over the world generally, and Malaysia particularly, will be observing a month full of religious duty.

Fasting is the fourth pillar of Islam, although some would say it's the third pillar, as was widely taught during our school days.

I have asked this question many great times to my fellow friends, whether fasting or zakat is the third pillar of Islam? 

To date, none could have answered this seemingly basic question properly.

I do not know about our current syllabus, but during my school days, we were practically drilled to fully observed our fasting period, as our ustaz/ustazah continually stressed, that fasting is the third pillar of Islam behind syahadah and prayer.

But just recently, I watched one officer from JAIS on national television (TV1), emphasizing that zakat is the third pillar of Islam.

Of course I was stumped and perplexed upon hearing his bold statement. This ran contrary to what I've been taught all along. 

He seemed to base his statement from the following hadeeth (sahih), popularly known as the hadeeth of Jibril:
 
"Daripada Umar r.a. katanya: Pada suatu hari sedang kami duduk di sisi Rasulullah s.a.w. tiba-tiba datang kepada kami seorang lelaki yang sangat putih kainnya, sangat hitam rambutnya, tidaklah kelihatan atasnya tanda-tanda orang yang sedang dalam perjalanan, dan tidak seorang pun daripada kami yang mengenalinya sehingga dia duduk berdekatan dengan Rasulullah s.a.w. lalu dia menyandarkan kedua-dua lututnya kepada kedua-dua lutut Rasulullah s.a.w. dan meletakkan kedua-dua telapak tangannya ke atas kedua-dua paha Nabi s.a.w.
Kemudian dia berkata: Hai Nabi Muhammad! Khabarkanlah kepadaku darihal Islam. Maka Rasulullah s.a.w. menjawab: Islam itu ialah bahawa engkau mengakui tiada tuhan melainkan Allah dan bahawasanya Muhammad itu pesuruh Allah, dan engkau mendirikan sembahyang, dan engkau keluarkan zakat, dan engkau puasa bulan Ramadan, dan engkau mengerjakan haji di Baitullah jika engkau sanggup pergi kepadanya. Dia berkata: Benarlah engkau! Maka kami pun tercengang kerana dia yang bertanya dan dia pula yang membenarkannya.
Katanya lagi: Maka khabarkan kepadaku darihal Iman. Rasulullah s.a.w. menjawab: Iman itu ialah bahawa engkau beriman kepada Allah, dan malaikat-Nya, dan segala kitab-Nya, dan para Rasul-Nya, dan engkau beriman kepada takdir baik-Nya dan jahat-Nya. Dia berkata: Benarlah engkau!
Kemudian dia bertanya lagi: Maka sekarang khabarkanlah kepadaku darihal Ihsan. Rasulullah s.a.w. menjawab: Ihsan ialah bahawa engkau menyembah Allah seolah-olah engkau melihat-Nya, tetapi jika engkau tidak melihat-Nya maka sesungguhnya Ia melihat engkau."
(HR. Muslim)
And the learned JAIS officer is not alone on this. A number of people are also advocating this belief, particularly those who hold fast to hadeeth.

So, which is which?

Personally, I think we should follow the hadeeth, although this ran afoul of my earlier belief, which was taught to me from such a tender age.

All in all, hope this year's Ramadan would bring new spirit. Let us all light this Ramadan with a new spark of enthusiasm to do better in whatever we wish to endeavour.

Salam Ramadan!