Water Fountain Performances outside the Burj Khalifa & Dubai Mall in Dubai, UAE - March 2012

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman, Ameen.

Every 30 minutes on the dot, there is a huge water fountain performance set to all kinds of difference music. There are so many different performances and are really nice to watch. The Burj Khalifa is in the background and it's the tallest building in the world. The Dubai Mall to the right, which you hardly can see, is the world's largest mall with over 1,200 shops, 160+ restaurants/cafes, an indoor ice skating rink, and indoor aquarium and a movie theater inside. I was in Dubai for 4 days, in Saudi for 3 months and in Bahrain for 3 days.

If you don't listen to music, you can simply mute your computer or device

Only 7 will be given shade on the Day of Judgement

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! Insha Allah this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.

1. A just ruler

2. A youth who grew up with the worship of Allah

3. A person whose heart is attached to the masjid/mosque

4. 2 persons who love each other for the sake of Allah, who meet each other for the sake of Allah & whom depart from each other for the sake of Allah

5. A man whom a beautiful & high ranking woman tries to seduce but her rejects by saying, "I fear Allah!"

6. A person who gives charity & conceals it to such an extent that the left hand might not know what the right hand has given.

7. A person who remembers Allah in solitude & his eyes well up with tears.

You mi

66th Nakba Day – Palestine thanks Malaysia for continuous support

Pic – One of Aman Palestin humanitarian trip to Palestine

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 – Palestine Ambassador-Designate Dr Anwar H.Al Agha has conveyed his country’s gratitude to Malaysia for its strong support to the Palestinian cause.

Speaking at an event to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the Nakba Day (Al-Nakba) or Palestinian Refugee Catastrophe yesterday, he hoped Malaysia and its people would continue to support the Palestinian struggle.

Nakba Day referred to May 15, 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled by force from their homelands and villages by the Israeli occupation forces. They were forced to flee to other neighbouring countries like Jordan, Syria and Iraq and were prevented from returning.

Dr Anwar described the celebration as more joyful this year, “as the Palestinians are coming together again”.

He was referring to the unity talks between offficials from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction and the rival Islamist Hamas group.

According to reports, officials of the two factions had met in Gaza on Tuesday to discuss the formation of a unity government which they hoped would end their seven-year estrangement.

Reuters reported that officials from the two groups planned to propose non-politically affiliated candidates for seats in a unity cabinet which would be tasked with preparing presidential and parliamentary elections after six months.

“We want to have One Palestine, One Nation, one government and one people in Palestine and very soon we will be able to witness together and celebrate the new national unity government,” Dr Anwar said.

He said Palestinians would continue their struggle against the Israeli occupation and do so “until the end”.

“We are always looking at Al Aqsa Mosque to be freed, we always hope that all Palestinians will go back to their lands in Palestine,” Dr Anwar said, stressing also that the Palestinian leadership would always consider the refugee crisis as one of the main dilemma in the Palestinian struggle.

About 150 people including officials from Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry, Arab diplomats, students and the Palestinian community in Malaysia attended the event held at the Residence of the Palestinian Ambassador.

Meanwhile, Perdana Global Peace Foundation said it stands united with the Palestinian people in memory of Al Nakba which began on May 15, 1948.

“We wish to reiterate that the Palestinian issue lies at the heart of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and that the right of return of the several million Palestinian refugees to their indigenous land is the most fundamental issue in any peace progress,” the foundation said in a statement.

It emphasised that the catastrophe was not just about a disaster that befell historical Palestine and its people in 1948 as it was continuing today with increased brutality, in full view of the whole world.

The foundation claimed that Al Nakba was the culmination of a calculated and wilful Zionist plan to displace and dislocate Palestinians from their homeland so that the land could be colonised by Jewish-Zionists from other parts of the world. – BERNAMA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces end of Palestinian political division

RAMALLAH, June 2 – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Monday the end of a seven-year-long political division between his Fatah party and Islamic Hamas movement, reports China’s Xinhua news agency.

In a televised speech on official Palestine TV after the swearing-in of the new unity government, Abbas said the political split that caused many crisis to the Palestinian people has ended.

“Today, we announce that we have restored national unity, the unity of the homeland and its institutions. The division has gone once and forever,” Abbas said.

Abbas stressed that national unity is an indispensable guarantee to achieve the dreams and ambitions of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian national unity government was sworn in on Monday before Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

As many as 13 ministers, led by Rami al-Hamdallah, have taken the oath before Abbas at his office in Ramallah, while four Gaza-based ministers could not attend the official swearing- in ceremony after they were denied access into the West Bank by Israel.

This is the 17th cabinet since the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994.

Meanwhile, Abbas affirmed that the unity government is interim and it will mainly focus on serving the Palestinian people as well as preparing for future general elections supposed to be held in six months.

“Like the previous Palestinian governments, this one is committed to previous agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO),” Abbas said.

The Palestinian president reiterated that PLO, the sole representative of the Palestinians, will oversee peace negotiations with Israel as it has always done.

He also applauded the stances of the Arab countries which pledged to continue supporting the Palestinian people and their new government.

“We also appreciate the constructive stances of the European Union and Russia and the positive notions of the US towards the Palestinian reconciliation,” he said.

Abbas also pledged to respond to any Israeli actions that might hurt the Palestinian interests.

“We are not seeking an escalation with Israel, but we will not stay cross-handed at Israel’s punitive measures. We will respond diplomatically and politically,” he said.

The new consensus government has ended seven years of political division that started when Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas who now rules the West Bank.

Hamas and Fatah have agreed to reconcile and form a unity government on April 23. – BERNAMA

The price we pay?

Assalamualaikum wbt… Bismillahirrohmanirrohim…

To start with, the decent looking girl came to my clinic accompanied by her ‘boyfriend’. I was absurd by the way they acted because they looked like a just married couple if not more than that. I questioned her about her last period and she said that it had just passed one week ago. Her abdomen looked normal and apart from the fact that she looked a bit pale, she appears to me as being normal. I then asked her further about her boyfriend and stated that their relationship is very inappropriate for Muslim, unmarried couples. I stressed that she should have come with her parents or guardian rather than that friend of hers. She had objections at first but later she agreed to what I just said.

I ordered a urine test on her and to my dismay both of them entered the main door to the toilet together. It is a separated gender toilet behind the laboratory but the main door to both is the same. I had to instruct my nurse assistance to go investigate. Finally we managed to send one of the staff from the lab to observe the girl and kindly escort her friend to wait outside. There were no dramas.

She finally entered my room about 15 minutes later and the result of the test was positive. Despite this, she still denied of any sexual relationship with anyone before this. At that time my Specialist was not around and we could not manage to do a pelvic ultrasound of her. I then called the nearest klinik kesihatan to her house and informed them to follow up this young teenager with her unborn child.

This case saddened me a lot and I must admit this was not the first time I encountered such patient. I used to work in a Neonatal Unit and there were many babies born from unwed pregnancies. Because my patient looked decent, I questioned her further and found out that she currently lives with her aunty because both her parents were separated. She has left school and is still in touch with her parents who are both working in suburban Johor Bahru.

Thinking about the case, I guess as teenagers the price of growing up nowadays is huge. Especially with the advance of technology which has turned the world into a no boundaries territory. Physiologically, when a child reaches puberty, the surge of hormones internally prepares their body for further human developmental stage as well as uplifting their emotions in preparation for a relationship and later on being a parent. When this development is not guided by Iman to Allah, a teenager becomes lost and tend to follow what their colleagues do or what is portrayed by the society as being ‘normal’. To add salt to the wound, society today, being far from Islamic teachings and adherence has portrayed a lot of immoral activities as being acceptable. Society has turned away from being guided by Al Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet saw to laws of ‘human rights’ and the Western culture, in the name of modernization. They fail to realize that Islam offers the greatest human rights and modernization with the sole inspiration of being the khalifah of Allah. We may remember that the wahyu was sent onto the Prophet SAW, at the time when Saudi Arabia was not developed technologically or culturally compared to the adjacent mighty Roman Empire. However, as soon as the understandings of Islam spread, Islam reached a civilization that has never been achieved by Rome or any other civilizations before or after that.

When we talk about society, we need to remember that the grassroots of society is the family unit. And this is where my interest lies. As I have stated before, when I explored the background of the patient, we can clearly see that she grew up in a disordered family setting. And therefore she is not the only one to blame for what has happened.
Dear parents, we need to realize that in this challenging world, a child has to grow up knowing who they are and what is their purpose of life in this world. Without this ‘agenda’, time and tide can ruin a child life as they have to face with a lot of influence without knowing which way to go. In the pressure of costly living, parents need to make sure that although both need to go to work, the children does not get abandoned. I don’t mean insufficient clothing or food but insufficient – Iman.

We need to realize that if we equip a child with Iman, that child will gain success of the hereafter as well as being successful in this world, however on the other hand, failure to do this, may result in a child that is only successful in this world but not the hereafter or a child that is defeated in both – na’uzubillah. I hope to see better familial ties in our society that is guided by Iman to Allah. Only then can we become a strong society and build a strong nation, Insya Allah.

Importance of knowledge for being a Muslim

In this first part of a few series of article, I will endeavored to portray Islam in its entire perspective. The purpose is to provide Muslims and particularly non-Muslims with a brief treatise giving a lucid, comprehensive and all-embracing view of Islam. It is the duty of us as muslim to invite our non muslim neighbours to Islam. It’s then their role to reflect, contemplate and further search for the truth and choose to embrace Islam as a way of life or not.

In order to set a guideline for the discussion, I’ll attempt to summarize Abu A’la Maududi’s rahimahullah (rh) book entitled “Fundamentals of Islam” chapter by chapter.

In the first chapter, Maududi’s (rh) stressed that being a muslim is not a racial asset which we automatically inherit from our parents and clings to us mechanically whether we bother about it or not. Being a muslim requires that one person makes an effort to be a muslim. The person must take an extra effort to really understand what does it take and what does it mean by being a muslim – that is, to submit to the Creator’s Will.

Islam comes from knowledge and putting them into practice. It is impossible to become a muslim while remain a muslim if in a state of ignorance. A person becomes a muslim by accepting Islam through a deliberate and conscious decision and act accordingly. Therefore, the differences between a muslim and a disbeliever or kafir is not because of a name or a dress or to which ethnicity the person is from, the real difference is of knowledge.

The person is considered kafir because the person does not know what relation has God with him and what relation he has with God and what is the right path for him or her to lead the life in the world in accordance with the wish of God. If the person is a born muslim yet does not submit to God but instead pursuing other ways of life, what difference between the person and the disbeliever? How do one differentiate then? A person is considered muslim in a real sense when the person knows what Islam stand for and affirms his or her faith with full consciousness. Unless the muslim acquires the knowledge and learn the complete teaching of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and act according to it, the person can’t really claim that they’re muslim in a real sense.

A muslimah wears a hijab because of her knowledge that wearing a hijab, pleases Allah.

A muslim lowers down his gaze, not because of “it’s my custom”. No, because the person know such act pleases Allah.

A muslim, decided not to celebrate Valentine – because deep in the person’s hears it pleases Allah.

A muslim or muslimah avoid smoking because of the knowledge that anything that an act that purposely harms his or her body, angers Allah.

A muslim or muslimah supports hudud because of the knowledge that hudud is small part of a bigger system that Allah has prescribed for His slaves.

Thus, this is how a true muslim behaves. For any action, the person will think whether such act pleases or anger Allah the Almighty. A muslim will pursue any actions that pleases Allah. A muslim will avoid from any behaviour or position that may lead to Allah’s anger.

To know this, one must then has the right tool to help the person steer to the right direction. What is that tool? Knowledge.

Many of us are expert in our profession (especially in the age of Facebook everyone seems to be the jack of all trades) but when it comes to Islam, people tend to take Islamic knowledge for granted and assume that whatever knowledge we learned during our primary or secondary school is enough. We spend a great deal of time for our profession but probably less when it comes to iman. Why is it then we behave in such manner when Iman is more precious than life? We spend years and work long after office hours for our profession but when it comes to Islam we spend less than 1/10th of our time to learn more about it?

We don’t have to learn 10-12 years continuously and reading volumes of books all night long but it is enough to spend one or two hours every day to learn about aqidah and Islam as a way of life. Learn about the essence of Quran and why it is being revealed. Learn about the mission of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and what wrong he wanted to abolished and what right he wanted to established. Learn what Allah has ordained for us as muslims in His syariat.

In this day and age, one can easily spend 1 hour either to listen from various international muslim speakers in Youtube such as Ahmad Deedat rahimahullah, Dr Zakir Naik, Bilal Philips, Yasir Qadhi, Nouman Ali Khan, Suhaib Webb, Yusuf Estes, Khalid Yasin, Hussein Yee etc. For those who wishes to listen to Islamic lectures about aqidah in local flavour they can listen to Maulana Asri, Dr Abdul Basit, Abdullah Yasin etc.

Not much time is required to attain this knowledge. If Iman and living on the true path is really important, then spending not more than 1 hour in a day to learn about Islam is the least we can do.

Respect Others?

It was a very calm morning as school holidays has just started. I left home later than usual to head to work as I do not have to send the children off to school. Nevertheless I arrived early at my clinic because of the light traffic. As I turned into the staff car park, I saw an angry Chinese man talking from beside his car to my colleague, who is an IKRAM activist. I did not hear the conversation as I was still in my car but I can see from his body language that ‘things are not good’. As I stepped off my car, my colleague has already moved her car to another parking space. She approached me with an unpleasant look from her face saying that she has just been scolded (I mean this literally) by a Dentist Specialist about parking her car in his parking space. He even asked her ‘who are you?’ I am Jusa C (highly ranked government personnel) with a disrespecting manner.

Allahuakbar! Astaghfirullah…

I felt angry although I wasn’t directly involved in this incident because of the way he treated my colleague. She has made a mistake, true, but for whatever reason it is wrong to scold someone in that way.

I don’t mean to generalize this person to all Chinese community in this country but I stand to defend what ISMA has loudly spoken about and has been heavily criticized of in the last few weeks. There are figures that are ungrateful and disrespectful and look down unto others that we need to ‘remind’ them of their rightful place. The car park is such a small piece of land that he claimed to be his designated parking space and yet we as Malays are still ‘shy’ or not bold enough to claim that this land is rightfully ours. If there is no compromise or tolerance in a car parking space, should there be compromise in a blessed and peaceful land?

Islam is the most tolerant religion with high professional values and respect towards others IF someone is sincere in discovering its fundamentals. Muslims live their lives for the sake of pleasing Allah and not other human beings. Respect towards others and good attitude (akhlak) form a strong percentage of the religion and determines a person’s fate in the life of the hereafter. If people disregards others and treat others with cruelty, that person is hindered from entering Paradise. However, a good system has its check and balance meaning if we are provoked and downgraded, we have the right to defend ourselves. However, when we defend ourselves, we are labeled as extremists.

I can only conclude in saying that the war against Islam has taken a turn from swords and missiles which can be materialized into a more discrete manner. Muslims must be careful as to not become the victims of poor morality and low socio-economic value. Islam is not meant to be understood by logic alone or merely feelings and instinct. On the other hand, Muslims must also be careful as to not become the tools that others use to destroy our own religion.

Let’s put on our thinking caps and may Allah guide us to the truth.