Truth or Dare

Not daring to think of the coming of death

is not daring to become ambitious.

REFRESHED!

When the sun smiles brilliantly to my face,

And the trees greet with its colorful sways,

And the cool wind blows softly, a company on my way,

Ah...this is bliss.

This is the Gift.

..And in his farm he had a swine and a camel (or a horse).

" While man is in this world, two things are necessary for him: first, the protection and nurture of his soul; secondly, the care and nurture of his body. The proper nourishment of the soul...is the knowledge and love of God, and to be absorbed in the love of anything but God is the ruin of the soul.

The body, so to speak, is simply the riding-animal of the soul, and perishes while the soul endures. The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole lifetime in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert." Imam Al-Ghazzali, the Alchemy of Happiness.

Swine flu made me ponder. Had there been a news release saying H1N1 virus of swine flu may live in chocolate bars, we will chuck away all our chocolate bars. For we are terrified that we might get the flu virus and we might die. The Malays would even chuck their rice, had rice possess the potential to help spread the virus.

We would do anything in our might to avoid the perish of our "camel" aka riding-animal aka body and the bodies of our loved ones.

But, we aren't as scared to do things that ruin the soul.
But why..we began as a soul, that then acquires the body, and this body will perish, and we are again left with just the soul. It is our soul that carries on.

"It is, so to speak, the rider of the animal soul, when that perishes it still remains, but is like a horseman who has been dismounted, or like a hunter who has lost his weapons." Imam Al Ghazzali, the Alchemy of Happiness

It is scary when Allah teaches us, that the things that we do to ruin our soul, may well be a permanent damage. Because our soul is what we continues on in, not our body.

"He who is blind in this life, will be blind in the next life, and astray from the path." 17:72

It's unthinkable, why then, are we more afraid to do things that perishes the body, than to do things that perishes the heart..and the soul.

Guide us. Ya Allah.

sama je

wak din* : sama je, merokok tak merokok, semua pon mati. ye tak, kakak "doctor" anis?

me:
ha'ah. betul. semua pun mati. sama je.

Yang beza, lepas mati.

Kubur orang yang merokok dengan tak merokok, tak sama.

Kubur orang yang makan terlalu banyak tak bersederhana, dengan yang makan cukup cukup je,

tak sama.

Kubur orang yang ikut cakap Allah, dengan tak ikut cakap Allah, takkan sama.

Lepas tu, dekat akhirat, darjat orang semua berbeza. Berganda ganda bezanya darjat manusia berbanding jurang kaya dan miskin di Indonesia.

Dekat sana, baru lah bagai langit dan bumi bezanya, yang merokok dan tak merokok.

Tapi betul lah yang Wak Din cakap tu. Sama je, merokok tak merokok, semuanya mati.

What the Quran says...
" And make not your own hands contribute to your destruction." 2:195

Tak sama...
"Katakanlah (Muhammad), 'Tidaklah sama yang buruk(khabees) dengan yang baik(tayyib), meskipun banyaknya keburukan itu menarik hatimu, maka bertakwalah kepada Allah wahai orang-orang yang mempunyai akal sihat, agar kamu beruntung." 5:100

Betul ke nanti di akhirat tak sama yang khabees dengan yang tayyib...
"Agar Allah memisahkan golongan yang buruk(khabees) dari yang baik(tayyib), dan menjadikan (golongan) yang buruk itu sebahagiannya di atas yang lain, lalu kesemuanya ditumpukkanNya, dan dimasukkanNya ke dalam neraka Jahannam. Mereka itulah orang-orang yang rugi." 8:37

Allah tells us, any choices that we make in this life, between tayyib dan khabees, takkan sama consequences nya in the next life.

All the best to us in making choices.

*wakdin mestila bukan nama sebenar.

p/s thanks aisyah. u made me ponder.

"Jauhnya last page, dekatnya exam dates"

Me1: Bersabar. Bersolat. Berdoa. Bertenang. Belajar.

Me2: Bersolat. InsyaAllah boleh. Berdoa, InsyaAllah. belajar...pun InsyaAllah boleh.

Me2: Bersabar dan bertenang...Susah sangat. Gelisah dan panik lagi mudah.

Me1: ............Mungkin sebab tu upah dari Allah bagi yang sabar dan yang tenang...tak mampu nak dibayangkan akal mahalnya.

"Katakanlah (Muhammad), 'Wahai hamba-hambaKu yang beriman! Bertakwalah kepada Tuhanmu." Bagi orang yang berbuat baik di dunia ini akan memperoleh kebaikan. Dan bumi Allah iu luas. Hanya orang - orang yang bersabarlah yang disempurnakan pahalanya tanpa batas." 39:10

"Wahai jiwa yang tenang! Kembalilah kepada Tuhanmu dengan hati yang redha dan diredhaiNya. Maka masuklah ke dalam golongan hamba-hambaKu, dan masuklah ke dalam syurgaKu." 89:27-30


La haula wa la quwwata illa biLLah.

"Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest" 13:28

Cambodia Relief Mission (CRM) 2009

In essence, what CRM09 is about:

• 15 students from universities in United Kingdom and Ireland under the Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia, Insya Allah are going to 7-8 villages in Cambodia.
• The plan is to provide 3 types of relief, InsyaAllah (if God wills it) :

1. Medical relief - mobile clinics for free consultation, medical check up, antenatal advice and paediatric care.

2. Educational relief - provide basic knowledge regarding hygiene, child health care and

women's health.

3. Social relief - distribute donations of clothes, blankets, self care and dental care

products, books etc.

• In 1,2,3. the student volunteers will assist the doctors in patient handling, take part in distributing leaflets and donations besides providing simple educative information to the villagers.

• Community work - visit to homes of patients who aren't able to access our mobile clinics. - distribute donations to homes of villagers and offer what domestic errands we can help them with. - visit local schools and orphanages to help start reading corners for informal learning.

• InsyaAllah, the team will arrive in Cambodia on the 24th of July and return home on the 5th of August 2009. Hence, we have about 2 weeks to carry out our relief projects.

• We cannot avoid limitations of time, but we hope that insufficient funding will not stop us from delivering our best to provide for the poor and the needy.

• Let us help you reach out to them. Donate to us, sponsor us, and put more meaning to your money. We need your help in ensuring success of this project.

• p/s If you are in the UK and Ireland, we sadly cannot accept contributions other than in monetary form as we cannot afford to ship them home. However, if you do have contacts in Malaysia that we can approach to obtain monetary funds, dental care and health products, books, clothes etc, please do contact anyone of us in our crm 09 blog
  

Come watch our video!


DONATE AND HELP US MAKE THIS RELIEF MISSION A SUCCESS.

To my Dear Professor

Done my reading for the night and picked up my Quran. I pondered. Allah...if only my professor knows. I always think in dialogs. The dialogs in my head went :

Professor: What do you Muslims believe?

Student: We believe that God is One and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.

Professor: You learn science, a knowledge from evidence. Tell me why you think there is God? 

Student: Because there exist you and me, the microorganisms we cant see and the nature so amazingly complex but beautiful. I don't know anyone or anything that can make any of these, but we are all here. There has to be a Creator.

Professor: Okay. What about spontaneity. Why do you reject the possibility that substances may well just spontaneously exist and then from there, organisms are formed.

Student: I don't believe something as complex as us can ever be spontaneous sir. How can the existence of DNA so precise be spontaneous. Even the saliva has many functions. And all these functions are relevant to the mouth, not randomly beneficial to the legs or the head. It moisturises the mouth that may easily be dry as the air in the environment is dryer than in the mouth (osmosis), it contains antibodies to protect the mouth as it is an area exposed to pathogens and insults, it contains digestive enzymes as it is where food comes in from. The saliva, sir, is so systematic it can never be spontaneously formed.

Professor: Okay. Then, tell me, why do you believe that there is only ONE God? 

Student: I see this in two ways. The first was explained to me by a teacher. You realize how in every atom of every cell in our body and in everything else, the electrons go around the positively charged nucleus. These electrons stay in their orbits and simply don't collide with the next. This is the system of which we and every single thing in this world function by. So, there isn't any other system but one. And then the planets go around the Sun in the same system. That one, same system. 

Professor: Yes, I am aware of that. What's your second point?

Student: That everything works best only if they go by Allah's way. The way of this One God. In the Quran, which we believe is the words of God, we are taught that the strong has to help to weak. The better off has to help the needy. And our Prophet Muhammad preaches the very same thing. In the body sir, if there is any damage, these damaged cells will be helped by local inflammatory response cells. Neighboring capillaries, neutrophils will all work to help this damaged area heal. They provide the damaged area with food (nutrients), cleaning service (neutrophils removing debris) and even a new home (scar tissue formation). They may not be able to function best in this new home, but still they now have another home. This is how tissue healing works. Had there been no inflammatory response, there will be no healing. That is also why, sir, in Islam, we reject the proud  evolutionary idea of 'The Survival of The Fittest". If the way we choose to work by is this, then the stronger ones will trample on the weak ones. Not only that that the social problems not heal, the problem will be cancerous. The way of Allah that He explains in the Quran for many aspects of life, is what our body functions best by. It is what we will function best by. 

Professor: Right. I do know that Muhammad preaches about Islam. But how do you know he is the Messenger of God? That he speaks of teachings from God?

Student: Interesting, I was just pondering about this. What we know about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is what he said and what he did. Whatever he conveyed. When I was studying your lecture on apoptosis, I was reminded of this. I believe now, even more, that Muhammad (PBUH) conveys the teaching of the One God because he calls for us to follow the already existing system in us that Allah created. For example, he taught us to support our brothers in wrong and in right. Then, a companion asked, but how can we support our brother in wrong? Then, the Prophet said, by stopping him from doing wrong. This, sir, is the way God's creation works too. In our cell cycle, you know better than me that there are checkpoints. A checkpoint between the Growth phase 1 to the Synthesis phase ensures that this cell that wishes to undergo further DNA synthesis and then further growth and cell division has its DNA in correct and good conditions. DNA integrity, you call it. If the checkpoint detects that the DNA integrity of the cell is impaired,like when the DNA contains mutations (hence will produce bad daughter cells), the following phases of the cell cycle will not be allowed to continue. If the DNA damage is less severe, the process in simply delayed until the damage is corrected. If the damage is very severe, the cell is sent for apoptosis (programmed cell death). Is this not how the Prophet asked us to work by? The way of the Creator. This is among how I know that Muhammad (PBUH) conveys the teaching of the One God.

Professor: Hm, like you said before, the way Genome integrity is maintained would work best in society too. Only, they call it law and order. We truly function best if we follow this system. 

Student: Yes. Our Prophet also calls it brotherhood. 

Professor: It's very interesting that "God is One, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God" that you believe comprises all this. I must admit, I will think more about the concept. Thanks for sharing. Have a good day.

Student: That, which you call concept, we call Guidance. And it's a real pleasure sir. You have a good day too.