Constructive Critism

         Do you know the difference between intellectual critism and a blast mockery? Well, syariah law does. In Islam, there's a distinctive difference between them though it is largley imperceptible. And well, Western especially , perceive syariah law as barbaric, rigid and irrevocable once passed, but it really is not, seriously. It is just like any other legal tradition that aims are justice and equality for all. But like any other legal tradition, they are also exposed to corruption and misconduct. ( maybe we should discuss more about syariah law other time)

          Okay back to my initial question, intellectual critism ? They are allowed for one primary reason. They behaved as a constructive critics. When you have someone to pinpoint your mistakes and brought them to perspective, you should thanked them. At least they care enough to help you address your weaknesses, and now knowing it gives you opportunity to make it up to it. In social psychology , there's a phenomenon called groupthinking where all the members of a group got caught up with their unique internal logic, in time it grows stronger and polarized, until they looses diversity and ends up making fiasco. That's why you will find in history unified parties that once were so great suddenly slowly their influence withered. They looses their momentum because they lacks one crucial criteria that always keeps thing progressing, diversity, in opinions and ideas.

         

          The great Umar al-Khattab, the second caliph of Islamic civilization, were once criticized by a drunken man. Amazingly, despite the sinning state of that man, he accepted his critics and move on without a single sign of rejection. When asked for explanation, Umar answered that in the man's comment there's a truth and thats's the one should be valued. A critism should not be measured in relation to the speaker, but only to the merit of what he is saying. If a man in his position can wisely accept critism, then we should have the humility to receive one too.

          Another lesson to be learned is that, giving advise to someone is encouraged despite the fact we ourselves are engaged in the sin. This is not hypocrisy. This is Islam telling you advice is important. The advice might not help you who are already trapped in the incorrigible sin, but it surely will be benefial to thwart them far from ever desire the sin.

        

        When you share your knowledge, belief,  weltanchauung or worldview with someone like-minded, it definitely grew stronger and you become more passionate. A release of pleasure thats strengthen the relating neural connection. You are experiencing group polarization. This will lead to groupthinking if they are not well handled.

         I'm sure you have heard the term reverse psychology. It exist, I will not argue that, but do they constitute intellectual critism? Let me make it clearer, reverse psychology is, for example, you insult someone in attempt to make them response positively to prove you're wrong. But this method solely depends on the character of the receiver, what if he/she has a faint-heart? It might send them a shock and completely shatter their self-confidence. Well that's not so intellectual but rather looking 50-50 of destroying one's emotion or the other.

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Alexander The Great

           We have outstandingly amazing warriors that have flourish throughout history as an ever-lasting source of inspiration. Their fighting spirit resembles the true power of the human will. They continue to provide motivation for incoming achievers, their fearless nature in embracing conflicts and taking devastating risk and coming out victorious had been a major quote for businessmen, politicians, students and any person who wills to fight their pedestrian fate and grab success.

           Alexander The Great was indeed all-deserving of the title. Imagine, a man who empowers the overall ability of a true leader, an intellectual privately tutored by the greatest philosopher of ancient history, and a soldier trained under the Philip 2 army. He leads his own army  into wars, subdued all nation that he wage conquer, and at all time maintain conciliatory posture facing the defeated. He did not succumb to cruelty and misuse of power, though he possesed the greatest power that stretch out over lands that seems borderless for a man to traverse.

           He dreams to conquer the whole world. In his empire, he manage to unite the people, foster  the mergence of the west and east culture to form Hellenistic culture, and exchange weltanchauung or world view of Greeks and the Persians. He was far-sighted, man with vision, he denied peace treaty offered by the Persian tyrant, he continued his conquest and liberate the lands under oppression. He manage to accomplish this military feat only at the age twenty four.

          But there's another man. A man that bested Alexander The Great in battlefield. Alexander was a witty warrior, but Khalid al-Walid was unchallengable in his fighting prowess. Khalid was recorded to participate in nearly 100 battle, in which he suffers great injury, but there's no worldly pain that can take his life away. He died a sick man on his deathbed. Though he pursue martydom for his entire Muslim life, he only manage to massacre his body but life remain fierce in him. Stories tells he cried on his deathbed, regret that he did not die a marty. But God raised him with the title 'Saifullah' ,literally translated as The Sword Of God. Upon reflection, it is only fitted that The Sword Of God shall never fail in battlefield, as he never did.

          Khalid al-Walid and Alexander will forever remain intact in our heart, I want to be just like them in my life. Man who was respected by fellow companions, and feared by their enemies.

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Bleach and Detergent

Many would like to think that they are in control of themselves, but do we really heed our life according to our own desires and rationale ?

         

        Our conscious brain operates on a mechanism called the associative coherence. Have you ever wonder what sparks the next word in your brain when you are thinking? Sometimes brilliant ideas just pop out, cartoons illustrate this eureka moment with scintillating light bulb burst out of nowhere above one's head. A truly remarkable moment. But that's really just an exaggerated representation. What about this continuous chain of thoughts that's keep on going seamlessly and endlessly in our brain, what determine the next thought? They seems to be so natural and fluent, from one idea to another idea. Well, you might connotes an idea to be a concept, but a simple noun,adjective,adverb and all other parts of speech are just an internal conception that we agreed to contort into a vocalized sound. The English philosopher John Locke expounded on this complexity of human language and in his explanation he represents words as ideas. So, back to the primary question, what determine the next word or thoughts in our mind?

        

          By the idea 'associative' itself you could have guessed what determine the next word I typed. Association. We make association, an object to a sound, a sound to characters, characters to sound back. These characters later are arranged by association to form writing. This is a simplified summary of the true machination of our conscious brain.

        

          The next thing we are going to delve into will questioned your free will. There's more to association than meets the eyes. Psychology in its young and ferment years suggested that association happen on a conscious level and they link from one to another. But recent studies surprised psychologist, association can also takes place in our subconscious mind, they linked to ideas that do not register into our consciousness, though it is affiliated, but we are not aware of them. More pertinent, association can happens from three to more ideas at a time.

S O _ P               W _ S H

        

 Try to fill in the blank with an alphabet you find first in your brain.

       

           I bet it will be an A. If it is, I proved that you have been primed into thinking soap instead of soup, wash instead of wish. Well maybe because I planted the thought in your brain without your conscious. But my plantation of that particular idea is not like the one of the adventurous mission in the movie Inception that takes numerous detrimental level of dreams. The plantation occurs when you read the title of this article.

        

           We can intentionally disrupt the association of our mind. Politicians and advertisers are precisely the camp that exploit this loop hole to their interest. It is called the priming effect. In the advertising industry this effect is more widely recognised as subliminal message.

      

          Lets say you went to a supermarket, you are uncertain of what to purchase. There's an awful lot of advertising posters everywhere, you ignore them as you walk, probably thinking the shop owner are not good with internal decoration, filling them with nuisance instead. They might have escape your focused vision , but the images  certainly entered your peripheral vision. As you are filling the shopping basket, suddenly you are reminded of the toothpaste that had been squirt out till the last drop from your bathroom, then you grab a toothpaste and throw it in the basket. As you were checking  back the list in your head, most likely you thought of maggi now. You took them and went to the counter and ready to pay, that's when you realize the poster had been about toothpaste and maggi.

    

           Adverts are scarily effective because of this priming effect. They register the message into your sequence of thoughts unconsciously, so when you go down the sequential list in your head, you will inevitably bump into these seemingly natural thought out of your own desires, but truly they are planted. No body likes to be gullible, but we are an easy target of deception.

        

         But dont worry, your are still the chief in charge. Priming effect is robust but not necessarily large. Most that fall victims are the ones with uncertain mind, if you are determined, knows what you want and what you do not need, you will not be susceptible to these effect.

      

         What's more scary about priming effect is that they do not necessarily effect our thoughts and desires but also our physicalized ideas. If you are primed with elderly thoughts, like wrinkles, ill-cough, fatigue and alike, the odds are that you will be slow in your motion too. Probably you will walk down the stairs much slower than usual. Okay that instance might not be convincing, try this. If you are primed with victors stories, you are more likely to pursue your goal more vigorously. This physicalized ideas are a product of priming effect, that have been dubbed the ideomotor effect.

    

         When we knows our natural propensities, trends that we have adopt so naturally, we will gain advantage over ourselves rather than be at the mercy of the greedy businessmen, that wants the last penny in your pocket, and that politicians that want to exploit your loyalty to gain more power and accumulate wealth. Believe me, politicians and businessmen are more equipped with workings of human mind than leadership knowledge, they would care to hire an expert if could, and most of them do. Even Adolf Hitler, the demagogic tyrant, mastered oratorical body language to convince his people to succumb to his leadership.

    

         That is why Plato hated democracy. He believe justice will not prevail until kings becomes philosopher, and philosopher becomes king. He believed only the minority intelligentsia are capable of filtering the gobbledygook and demagogueries of the eventual corruption of all politician who desires only power. And now is more crucial than ever to recognize the lies, as they are spreading across all means of cables and print behemoths.

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An Enquiry Concerning Human Psychology.

        We tend to reduce all the situational behavior of someone to our perception of them. We often try to create a narrative that explain the causal connection between a person outward behavior and his internal intentions, the causative affiliation. This is because they provide a coherence and a flow that we can read and interpret, rather than the messy and veneer randomness of our behavior. Why we love reading and writing, or at least we like them better than spontaneous talking, why ? Its because they represent our organized thoughts, and they are the most effective method of sharing knowledge that capable to surpass the barrier of spacetime since ancient history .We knows that scattered reasonings block our understanding, no body likes to not understand. Our yearn for understanding of the events around us force our mind into narrative fallacy. If someone is making a fuss over an accidental spill of coffee, we relate in to intolerance and bad-temper , but, perhaps he was just having a bad day and the coffee incident break his overbearing patience.

       When I was small, there was a lot I could not understand when I watch English movies. You know how complicated their conflict could be. When stumble with a confusion, I force myself into a narrative to give me a sense of clarity , most of the time, they divert from the original course of the story. I followed the fallacious narrative ( I didnt know it was wrong at that time) because it makes the story so much easier to understand. Without understanding, the movie will only be gibberish to me and a waste of 2 hours, so I forced connection between events in the movies to create an understanding, and that is an example of narrative fallacy.

       Often wonder why first impression are so important? It is actually an importance borne out of our flawed perception. Our first appearance of ourselves to someone new might well establish the lasting perception of ourselves for them. Take for example an employee who forgot to bring his urgent file to the meeting, his boss will immediately mark this bad circumstance as a consequent of his forgetfulness. This flawed perception leads to the same conclusion in subsequent incidents. Any other mistakes the employee made in the future will be linked to his first. From a forgetful person , he will be labelled as reckless, from reckless becomes unreliable, and in the end it takes a toll over all his frailities. Simple mistakes that often goes unnoticed and pardoned when somebody else do it, will now be something that is forever linked to his attitude. And this effect is called the halo effect. This effect can takes a variety of context, positive or negative, as long as they stands out above the other, everything else will be judge in central relation to them. 

        Ancient philosophy  describe that our reaction are not the response to an event, but rather to our interpretation of the event. This is why some can laugh at a joke, and others take umbrage. Everybody have a different neural connection that made them unique, even identical twins who shared exact dna constituents have far contrasting neural connection. That is why we cannot expect everyone to perceive our actions as sincere, one's man priest can be another's charlattan. Look at our democratic leaders,  they are continuously in a derisive fight, accusing one another as charlattan just to win public's support. Sometimes they stand on the notion that is spectacularly idiot in our perspective, but they seems to be very assuring in their arguments when asked of the stance.

       This also can be observed in the intellectual circles. A lot of intellectual luminaries have diversified opinions concerning just one issue. You think Einstein couldn't be wrong? He argued with Neil Bohr over the randomness of the quantum world, and that's when he quipped the now famous quote ," God doesn't roll a dice". But time had proven him wrong, the microworld is in fact dictates by indeterminism and probability, a place where reality breaks apart and our common sense looses its grip ; two particles can be in two state at the same time.

Why some can so ardently defend Israeli, while we here so blatantly despise Israel's violence ? Because our neural connection tells each of us a different story, this is called cognitive biases. Nobody escapes biases. All of us was nurtured with a certain beliefs that we readily, and innocently accept as general truth without any proper dose of skepticism . We approach the world with this preconceived mindset , and they form all of our judgements of the events occuring in our small milieu, when its needed, we extend the scenario to include global events. But of course this cognitive biases can be overcome by rational syllogism. That is why Socrates invented elenchus, an argumentative debate to eliminates as much individual biases as possible and to reach closer to the objective truth.

       But we are also a creature of habits and most of our daily interaction are founded on our idiosyncracy. For instance, look at the words you talk in a day, and where certain sentences are repeated over and over again. We repeat the same curse words when we are sad in those when we are angry. Its because we have idiosychronize our speech. When we are angry, a sequence of reaction emerge, we might shout, throw stuff and breaks fragile things, or our face will turn grumpy. Habits governed our daily experience. We have unconsciously adopt certain automatic response for our daily interaction, and it makes a lot of things easier for our brain, to reduce big task into fixed response. We might want to think that we are a rational being  driven by a conscious soul that are in control of every decision we made, but the truth is most of our daily action and conversation are reactionary, and predetermined by our previous encounter of that particular situation.

     Try to be more mindful to your daily activities and you will be surprised, you are controlled by your habits more than you think. The way you walk, the way you run, in what way you usually goes up the stairs ; run or walk or running and jumping two steps at a time ; switching through tv channels, exploding your knuckles, listen to music, and watch movies. All of these activities do not requires your critical faculty to examine them and decide, rather you have been activated by impulse to do them, and most of them are effortless. Activities that are subjected to our habits will be registered to our conscious mind as cognitive ease. Conversely you will experience cognitive strain when you engage yourself with unfamiliar robust activity, they demand increase attention and focus. Consequently, our eyes will dilate and our heartbeat will increase blood flow to the needed organs.

    We truly are exceptional beings. Our ability to create habits allows us to spend less time doing unimportant activities. If we are aware of every things our body and mind are processing, it will be sluggish and it will subsequently consumes unnecessary amount of time. Habits give us the opportunity to neglect certain task as it can be done unconsciously, while the conscious mind are focused at a more subtle task.

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Time-bounded Arguments

What is time-bounded argument? Its the kind of argument that are closely linked to a certain period of time. Many use time-bounded arguments to demonstrate their point are justified by the history. But if you can prove a negative and a positive both in history, doesn't that discredit history as a reliable justification.? Think about it. If you can prove that Islam create and provoke violence using history of the past decade egregious terrorism that has been sprouting out of the Middle East  under the name of Islam, but, meanwhile your opponent respond with quoting the heyday of Islamic civilization during Ottoman empire, doesn't that make history not a good justification ? That's the problem, certain arguments cannot be supported by history because history prove both contrasting notion valid, ergo its either it is a truthful paradox or it proves history itself incapable to be used as justification. Hence how do you prove Islam is a religion of peace or  a religion that invoke violence, if not with history? Im not saying that history cannot be cite as justification, but first the notion must be constant throughout history to provide a convincing prove, if not, in this case, history will only be a weak argument. So to prove a notion that are inconsistent through the layout of history, we must resort to the doctrine of the religion itself and its honest interpretation and judged by our moral standard. If I'm wrong and had deluded my own rationale, please help me clear it up.

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Head I Win, Tail You Lose.

         I watch Ahmed Deedat talk on ''Arab and Israel: Conflict or Conciliation'' yesterday. He is a very good speaker, we are lucky to have his talk and debate documented on video because during his time much discussion were not recorded as camera was still in its early years and broadcasting is at its dawn. I am sure everybody who watch his lecture or debate, though kept the opposing view, must admit his erudition in religion studies specifically Islam, Christianity and Judaism and his unbeatable logic in presenting his argument while maintaining a dramatic and funny composure. His ability to pinpoint his opponent hypocrisy made his argument even more convincing and hard to revile. While enjoying his talk, I take note of few things he mentioned of the many important things he presented, one of which is 'head I win, tail you lose'. He was telling a story about the Jews that planned to trick Jesus by asking a 'head I win, tail you lose' question. Because Jesus was also a Jew, he manage to come up with a witty rejoinder that pays back the trick on them.

      What is a 'head I win,tail you lose' question? Its a trick question which always in favor of the questioner. Let me give example of one of these question. The first time I encounter this type of question was when I watch a Tamil movie past few years ago, until now only I actually decide to term it 'head you win, tail you lose' question in tribute to Mr. Deedat flamboyant speech. In the movie, the hero was caught by the police and had to undergo court trial. The lawyer ask him a simple yes or no question which he refuse to give an answer. Instead he showed that mere simplistic answer can only be in favor of the lawyer whether the answer is yes or even no. In making his point clear, he ask the lawyer a yes or no question back," Have you stop taking bribe?", if yes means the lawyer had taken bribe before while no means he still practising bribery. You get it?

      Prima facie, the argument that deny God as goes, can God create a stone which is so heavy that he Himself be unable to move it, if can then it means God's strength is limited, if He cannot create it means His power is not limtless, seems legit and sound but however the premise of the question regard God as only the Creator and the All-Mighty, but God is also the Law Giver and All-Wise. He have His own will. Why would He willed to create a stone so heavy that He can't move it.? An All-Wise God, whether He can or cannot create such stone, would never even built such stone. He is still All-Mighty and the Creator because there's still no one on the same level as Him. In Arabic we say God behave as mukhalafatuhu taala binafsih ( God is like no other ). 

   In chess, we can also see the game version of 'head I win, tail you lose' situation. It's when you trap your opponent with just a set of movement that which ever way he take you would still get to pin down one of his pawn, in other words, there's no other way but to sacrifice one soldier to protect the eminent one, in this case the king. 

    

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Salat (Video)

The importance of salat in our life

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Have faith in Allah S.W.T

Is it true that God exists? "Dahri launch event argument.

"Indeed God does exist", said Abu Hanifa.

"If God is realized (figure), where is the place?" Dahri sound increasingly rising.

"God still exists and he has no place!" Obviously Abu Hanifa.

"Strangely, you say God exists, but where is God?" Dahri Protest throwing cynical smile to the audience.

"Ah, Just you look at yourself. Isn't in you, have a soul", Abu Hanifah began to argue.

People are starting to notice this trend of young scientists speech.

"Indeed I have  life, and indeed every creature that breathes there a soul!" Dahri said.

"But, do you know where is the soul or spirit is it? In the head, stomach, or whether at the end of your feet?"

Dahri moment snapped. People began to whisper among themselves.

After that, Abu Hanifah took a glass of milk and shown it to Dahri then said: "Is this milk contained fat?"

Dahri quickly answered: "Yes, of course!"

Abu Hanifah said: "If so, where is the fat? At the top or the bottom?

Dahri gasped again unable to answer questions such eloquent Abu Hanifah.



"Untuk mencari di manakah beradanya roh dalam jasad dan terletak di manakah kandungan lemak dalam air susu ini juga kita tidak berupaya, masakan pula kita dapat menjangkau di manakah beradanya Zat Allah SWT di alam maya ini? Zat yang telah mencipta dan mentadbir seluruh alam ini termasuk roh dan akal dangkal kita ini. Juga ciptaanNya yang tunduk dan patuh di bawah urusan tadbir kerajaanNya Yang Maha Agung!”

Sesungguhnya kita ini hanyalah hamba-Nya yang mempunyai sedikit pengetahuan.Pemikiran kita tidak mampu untuk mengetahui sesuatu yang diluar jangkauan pemikiran kita disebabkan keterbatasan akal fikiran kita.walaupun kita mengetahui sesuatu, itu semua datang dari Allah S.W.T

Cukuplah kita mengetahui Allah S.W.T itu wujud dan Dialah yang kekal selama-selamanya. 

(Quotes from lala rahim)

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Become so good at what you do, that you cannot be ignored.

Have you ever heard the saying “Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to do the dishes”?

It is like this with some (not all, but some, of our Muslim brothers and sisters) – those who are essentially absent from the present, dreaming of the future, yearning for the past, but neglecting what has to be done in the present.

Consider, for example, how often we hear young Muslim men and women saying, “we need more Muslims in science!”, or “we need more female engineers, doctors, lawyers, architects!”, or “we need to cultivate our knowledge and rebuild our civilisation – look how behind we are from where we could be!” – yet we often find many of the same people unwilling to simply keep up in their studies, to focus on what opportunities have come to them, or to even support those around them who are striving in those ways.

Some may say, “we should not seek progress just for the sake of progress, as do many secular societies”. It is true that “progress” in of itself is not something to be worshipped. However, the difference for Muslims is that, for Muslims, we seek progress (e.g. improving technology, medicine, strength of resources) purely to serve our Creator, by fulfilling our duties to His Creation.

On a recent episode of Women’s AM (Islam Channel) that I appeared on, called ‘Islam and Science’, it was mentioned how many of the great engineers and scientists of Islam’s past were women, and how these extraordinary cases should be seen again. The thing is, women excelling in such fields was never a big deal in Islamic history – it was taken as a given that women could and would do those things – it was really no big deal. That is what made Islam so great – excellence was its standard. To achieve that standard again, brothers and sisters, we have to be present in the present. If you really want to see Islamic civilisation thrive once again, work hard on what you’re doing, and “become so good at what you do, that you cannot be ignored”.

(The Islam Channel episode discussing ‘Islam and Science’ will be uploaded by the Islam Channel team soon.)

-Quoted from Zara Faris blog.

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The true reason for us to study

 Based on the picture above, the man is neglecting his wife's demand because of football addict. Yes, there are many people addicted to football. 

 The truth is, I have also started to be addicted to football when I was in boarding school. The people: students, teachers, principal and even the school guards are addicted to football.

 I don't know why I'm writing this but I just want to tell that, football is nothing but distraction. Yes, Alhamdulillah I have realized it. I have realized it when I came to study in INTEC. Everyone here are actually don't care or give a shit about it.

 The best part is, I now realized that spending time to learn the true meaning of life is the most important in the world. The are too many things for us to study about. The knowledge about the presence life and the-after life. Yup, the things that I want to tell is actually related to religion and can be accepted by people world wide.

 We need to know who's our God and to literally know who is Him, we need to be receptive to change. Stop reading and watching things related to football. Start your day with Basmallah and may the guidance from God always by our side.

Importance of Education

In a society where religion and knowledge in general and science in particular do not go hand in hand, it seems necessary to briefly describe the position of Islam vis-à-vis knowledge, Islam, in theory as well as in practice, has always promoted knowledge. Distinctive mark of human beings over the an­gels is knowledge:

"And Allah taught Adam all the names…” (2:31)

The first verses of the Quran began with the word:

"Read. Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not know." (96: 1-5).

The Qur'an says.

"Are those who have knowledge equal to those who do not have knowledge?!”(39:9).

The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his progeny) has also empha­sized the importance of seeking knowl­edge in different ways:

(a) Time: "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave."

(b) Place: "Seek knowledge even if it is far as China."

(c) Gender: "Seeking of knowledge is a duty of every Muslim"

(d) Source: "Wisdom is the lost prop­erty of the believer, he should take it even if finds it in the mouth of amushrik."

The Prophet did not only preach about importance of knowledge, he also gave examples of promoting knowledge. In the very first battle between the Muslims and unbelievers or Mecca, known as the war of Badr, the Muslims gain victory and caught seventy kuffars as prisoners of war. One of the criteria of releasing the POWs devised by the Prophet was that those who were literate among the pris­oners could go free if they teach ten Mus­lim children how to read and write.

What Type of Knowledge?

Knowledge in Islam is normally di­vided into two broad categories: there is a famous saying "al-'ilm "ilman: 'ilmu- adyan wa ilmu abdan - knowledge is of two kinds: the knowledge concerning religions and the knowledge concerning [human and physical] bodies." What has been mentioned above on the importance of knowledge refers to both, the religious as well as the secular knowledge.

The Quran has specifically talked about science also:

"In the creation of the heavens and the earth the alternation of the night and the day, in the ships that sail in the sea with their load…. in the rain which Allah sends down from the sky and thus revives the earth after its death; and then He spread in all kinds of animals; in the changing of the winds: in the clouds which have been left suspending between the heaven and the earth -in all these are clear signs for the people who understand” (2:164)

"We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves." (41:53)

The backwardness of the Muslims in last few centuries, as far as education is concerned, is because of the following:

• The Muslims lost leadership in the field of physical science and technology because of arrogance which led to stag­nation.

• The invasion by the Mongols, who were barbarians and did not appreciate the value of knowledge: they burned down the most prestigious libraries in Baghdad.

• In the nineteenth century, when the Muslims attempted to revive the process of education and knowledge in their so­cieties, they naively adapted the western secular system which had completely separated the religious sciences from the secular sciences. (Example of the Turk­ish reformers of the last century and also Egyptian intellectuals of the early twen­tieth century, especially Dr. Taha Husayn in his Mustaqbilu ‘th-Thaqafah fi Misr. We can also mention Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of India.) The Muslim world is still suf­fering from the dissection between the re­ligious and secular sciences.

Remember, our Imams have said that if you have to select between wealth and knowledge, go for knowledge: wealth can he stolen but knowledge can never be taken away; wealth decreases with us­age but the more you use your knowl­edge the more you increase in it.

Look at the examples of our Imams: the rulers took away the wealth but they could not take away the knowl­edge which had been bestowed upon them by Allah. In spite of all the bitter­ness between Imam Ali and first caliphs, the second caliph used to approach Imam Ali whenever he could not resolve a legal or Qur'anic problem.

We are in minority in this continent; when political stability and economic prosperity is there, we as immigrants or minorities are acceptable. But no one knows what will happen to the present tolerant environment when the economic indicator goes down or these countries lose their political stability. Look at the anti-immigrant, sentiments in Europe during the last two years. Our wealth may be taken away; but if we have knowledge, no one will be able to deprive us of it. With knowledge, we may regain our wealth; but with wealth, you cannot buy knowledge.

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Berdoa Dalam Bahasa Arab

       Kerohanian is all about feeling the moment of connection with God dan dasar kerohanian adalah pemahaman  . Tanpa pemahaman, seorang muslim atau sesiapa saja yang mengakui sebagai penganut sesuatu agama, hanya  mengamati  konsep taklid ( blind adherence without comprehension of the merit it constitute).  Tanpa pemahaman juga setiap ibadah menjadi kosong kerana hilang penghayatan sebenar yang ibadah tersebut ingin utarakan kepada pelaku nya. Seakan akan ibadah tersebut hanya dilakukan untuk memenuhi kehendak agama yang dianuti . Ibadah memerlukan keikhlasan dan keikhlasan hanya dapat diwujudkan melalui pemahaman. Ibadah kerohanian memerlukan pemahaman.

     

     Berdoa adalah sebahagian daripada ibadah yang berada dalam kedudukan murunah( fleksibel dan boleh diubah bacaaannya mengikut kehendak pembaca selagi berada dalam ruang dinamik nya) . Doa amat penting kerana orang yang meninggalkan nya seperti berlaku sombong kepada Tuhan. Doa menjadi perantaraan antara individu dengan pencipta-Nya, doa melahirkan rasa kehambaan dalam jiwa seorang muslim khususnya. Kita berdoa untuk mendapat rahmat daripada Allah agar Allah membahagiakan kita dunia akhirat.

    

      Doa tanpa pemahaman. Berdoa dalam keadaan tidak memahami apa yang disebut amatlah mendukacitakan. Kerana ingin memenuhi keafdhalan berdoa dalam bahasa Arab, masyarakat Malaysia khusus nya sanggup mengadaikan pemahaman . Malangnya hanya sedikit yang sedar akan keutamaan pemahaman mengatasi keafdhalan berdoa dalam bahasa Arab. Without pemahaman our direct hotline to God is being disconnected because the doa does not reach its goal that is to produce humility and ketawadukkan . Adakah doa yang tidak mempunyai ketawadukan dan humility akan diterima oleh Allah, padahal  itu adalah jiwa ibadah? So I would argue that pemahaman provides the means for humility, ketawadukkan, kehambaan, keamataan, dan penghayatan dalam doa dan tanpa pemahaman doa hanya kosong walaupun ia dibaca dalam bahasa Arab. Hilang kerohanian  apabila membaca doa tanpa pemahaman.

   

     Bahasa Arab dan Doa. Each and every muslim should take an effort to study Arabic dan saya tidak menafikan tanggungjawab itu.  Namun begitu,bila mengambil kira pelbagai faktor,  masa dan keadaan sekarang amatlah sempit dan menutup kebanyakkan ruang untuk mempelajari Bahasa Arab seperti keadaan kebanyakan  remaja sekarang termasuk diri  saya.   Alhamdulillah atas nikmat dan ilmu yang Allah telah berikan kepada orang yang berpeluang mempelajari bahasa Arab kerana latar belakang mereka yang tertentu. Tetapi , adakah bermakna penghayatan pemahaman dalam doa hanyalah eksklusif kepada orang yang belajar bahasa Arab? Pada pendapat saya tidak . Justeru itu , salah satu cara untuk menimbulkan pemahaman dalam doa tanpa meninggal keafdhalan bahasa Arab adalah dengan membaca doa dalam Arab dan diiringi dengan pembacaan terjemahannya dalam bahasa ibunda. Ini adalah satu solusi yang mengambil berat akan kepentingan kedua dua nya, a win-win solution.

     

         Doa jemaah. Oleh kerana itu, seafdhal nya adalah lebih baik bagi imam yang berdoa selepas solat tidak berdoa dalam bahasa Arab dengan penghayatan seorang diri. Since kita adalah satu jemaah, saya mencadangkan imam membaca doa Arab dengan iringan terjemahannya agar semua makmum yang berkemungkinan cetek ilmu Arab nya,  dapat bersama-sama menghayati doa dengan tawaduk berserta pemahaman. Ini secara tidak langsung juga dapat menyemarak kan kerohanian para makmum yang mengamiin-kan doa tersebut secara bersama.  

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My Passion

        Effort . I have struggle for UPSR. Scan books into my head for PMR, fall sick studying hard for SPM, but was all that worth it? Worth awhile i would say but not anymore. Some might point out, if i didnt get 5A's for UPSR i wouldn't get admitted into the best secondary school in Port Dickson, then i wouldn't get 8A's for PMR which got me into first class in upper secondary, which pressurized and push me into getting 7A+  3A's for  SPM and consequently got me a sponsorship to further studies abroad. They have a point to hammer home . Im not trying to brag here but i don't feel the knowledge and the education. I felt the achievement and the happiness of getting awarded though, but deep inside i know the truth that i was nothing but a guy who work hard, who burnt the midnight oil, wasted tons of papers writing notes and pasted it on the wall, and squander precious time on books which no further help me in my life and yet failed to feel the education . And now im in Intec doing my foundation for 2 years before hopely succeeded to be qualified and be accepted into the university in United States .

         Time and Dreams. I have change the motives of my education. Im not studying for marks any longer, i wont spend time on books just to score exam papers, quizzes and test (apparently currently i have 3 types of pressure cooker). Im building and carving the foundation of my life not my studies, I own my hourglass time not to exam, not to impress teachers and friends, just solely to my heed and my dreams. I regretted spending more time on studies than my dreams. Studies is just a tool, a mean to achieve your dream. Imagine a knife, it is created to cut through something, to make a hole, but if you keep on and on sharpening the knife just so it works better, eventually you will find out that while you were working on getting it sharp the thing that you want to cut had harden through time. If you had started cutting from the beginning, you would have make a bigger hole by now. We wasted our time on studying too much when what we should do is get into action already. Take lesson from our elders, they themselves like us now had previously study for 20 difficult years average and still have a hard time performing their job because that 25 years is 25 years of wasted time doing delaying things and most of them are against their real passion although they have succeeded theoritically in exam but reality is different. You are not going to work for papers anymore, you are gonna  deal with humans which are full of emotion and are judgemental. Dont waste your time anymore! Work for you dreams and heed your life, if your are not gonna build you dream, someone else are gonna use you to build theirs!

          Lifeworth.  I am currently forced to study computer science;  what the definition of output and input, memorizing how a hard drive works, how wires and communication devices speak to each other through standards and protocols. What is all this? I know i will not remember even the slightest of them after the semester ends, but i have to study it just to pass and get to the second semester. I am adding knowledge into my brain, but they are piling up in the future-trashbin department not in the future-might-be-useful department nor near future-useful department. How is that education? I acknowledge that there are some domains that although might not have input in my dreams but will be quite useful in life. For example religion and language studies, These are the types that would be life-worth studies! Sadly, most college students are required to give an amounting focus on  worth-awhile studies: studies that usually serves just as a complement to our CGPA. They are time-consuming and unnecessary.  

        Life and Stress. Man can move mountain. There is actually  a man who manage to move a mountain, im not joking, he single-handedly move a huge hill using just shovel, his name is Dashrath Manjhi. Before I proceed, I would like to suggest you to subscribe Sully Breeze , a youtube channel. I find it really amusing, motivational, inspiring and eye-opening. I am trying to enjoy what im doing in Intec. This blog is a fruit of my assignment and I make use of it as much as I can. I write journal too which part of my writing-assignment. I avoid as much stress as i can. My Precalculus and Computer Science results are not really satisfactory, and I know this change im trying to make will affect my results. But I wont succumb to this fear of change. Seeing my college-mates stressing over the exam and test compels me to write this article. We have the responsibility to be the best, yes i dont deny that fact, but the best is enjoying what you do while  producing good outcomes. 

         My Passion. Is to make myself significant in this seemingly impersonal universe. I dont want to live a normal life. I refuse to live a mundane life, i will fight for my rights to live my life to the fullest while making significant changes to the world and carve my name in the wall of honor and in the pages of history.  And my struggle ends here. I wont call this pursuit a struggle. From now onwards, there are no stress and no studying but learning, and enjoying.
 Study+dying= Studying. Learn+earning= Learning. Choose wisely. 

       

       

       

         

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Salat

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Can You Focus

Focus!

Attention works much like a muscle: use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grow.In Focus by psychologist and journalist Daniel Golemen contends that in this era of modern technology and era of distractions,we must learn to sharpen focus if we  are to thrive in complex world.He discover attention research in three catogories: inner,other, and outer.

Inner focus

“Inner” focus refers to self-awareness and self-management: how well we can tune in to our guiding values, for instance, or know our strengths and limits – which in turn gives us a realistic sense of self-confidence—and also handle our distressing emotions so they don’t interfere with getting things done, marshal our positive emotions to stay motivated in working toward out goals, and bounce back from setbacks.  

Other focus

“Other” focus describes how well we attune to people: our empathy, which allows us to understand how people perceive things, how they feel, and what we can do to help them be at their best. And tuning in to others this way provides the basis for skill in competencies like motivating employees, persuasion and influence, negotiation and conflict resolution, and — increasingly important – teamwork and collaboration. 

Outer focus

“Outer” focus has to do with how well we can sense the large forces that shape our world – whether organizational dynamics, like whose opinion matters most for a decision, or economic forces such as how a new technology will roil a market, or environmental trends like the new value placed on lower-carbon processes. Outer awareness allows a leader, for example, to formulate a winning strategy that anticipates what’s coming.

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Let's Discover Our Solar System

The Sun and the planet of our solar system

Solar System comprises the Sun and the objects that orbit it, whether they orbit it directly or by orbiting other objects that orbit it directly. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets that form the planetary system around it, while the remainder are significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small solar system bodies such as comets and asteroids

The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular bond. 

Inner planet

The four inner or terrestrial planets have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring systems. They are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form their crusts and mantles, and metals, such as iron and nickel, which form their cores. Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift valleys and volcanoes. The term inner planet should not be confused with inferior planet, which designates those planets that are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus).

Outer planet

The four outer planets, or gas giants (sometimes called Jovian planets), collectively make up 99% of the mass known to orbit the Sun. Jupiter and Saturn are each many tens of times the mass of Earth and consist overwhelmingly of hydrogen and helium; Uranus and Neptune are far less massive (<20 Earth masses) and possess more ices in their makeup. For these reasons, some astronomers suggest they belong in their own category, "ice giants". All four gas giants have rings, although only Saturn's ring system is easily observed from Earth. The term superior planet designates planets outside Earth's orbit and thus includes both the outer planets and Mars.

  

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Google company

History of Google 

Google

Mission	:	To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful
Slogan	:	Don’t be evil
Founded	:	Menlo Park,California(September 4,1998)
Founders	:	Larry Page And Sergey Brin met at Stanford university in 1995.By 1996,they had built search engine (initially called Backrub) that used links to determine the importance of individual webpages
	:	The search engine they built “Google”,from a mispelled word  of “googol”,the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google Inc. was born in September 4 1998,when Sun co-founder Andy Bectolsheim wrote a check for $100,000 to that entity – which until then didn’t exist
Key People	:	Larry Page(CEO),Eric Schmidt(Chairman),Sergey Brin
Headquarter	:	Googleplex,Mountain View,California,United States
Technology	:	Internet search engine,mobile phone operating system(Android)
Website	:	Google.com

1990s

Google started in March 1996 as research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Standford University. The project was nicknamed as “Backrub”. They were working on the Standford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SLDP’s goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, intergrated, and universal digital library” and it was funded through the National Science Foundation. Page and Brin had developed PageRank algorithm to rank websites in their search engine results. Originally the search engine used the Standford website with the domain google.standford.edu. On September 15, 1997, the domain google.com was registered. They incorporated their company, Google, on September 4, 1998 at Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California. On August 31, 1999, the first patent was filed under the name “Google” by Siu-Leong lu, Malcom Davis, Hui Lo, Yun-Ting Lin, Guillaume Mercier, and Kobad Bugwadiam, is titled “Watermarking system and methodology for digital multimedia content”. The earliest patent filing under the assignee name “Google Inc”. By the end of 1998, Google had an index of about 60 million pages. The home page was still marked “BETA”. In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 Univesity Avenue in Palo Alto. Later, the company leased a complex building in Mountain View called Googleplex.

2000s

Google began selling advertistments associated with search keywords, text-based to maintain an ulcluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and click-throughs, with bidding starting at $ 0.05 per click. In January 2004, Google announced the hiring of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange an IPO. The IPO was projected to raise as much as $4 billion. Google’s initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004. A total of 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share. The sale raised US$1.67 billion, and gave Google a market captilization of more than $23 billion. In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Bloggerm a pioneering and leading web log hosting website. The acquisition secured the company’s competitive ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in a companion product to the search engine Google News. After the IPO, Google’s stock market capitilization rose greatly and the stock price more than quadrupled. On August 19, 2004, the number of shares outstanding was 172.85 million while the “free float” was 19.60 million. As of September 2013, Google operates 70 offices in more than 40 countries.

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You Are A Complete Schmendrick! Language is an Art.

       

 What is beauty? As a member of the male gender, I would say beauty is a girl who has an amazingly alluring outer appearance: the shape, the smoothness, the flawless skin,  the golden mean of her eyes, nose and everything else. Its all about the outer part isn't it? Pulchritudinous is the word for physical beauty. But the Greeks sees alot more to beauty than just a girl, they surely enjoy watching girls and their tenderness, but they are reluctant to confined and  narrow it down to 'girl's stuff '.They see an art as a beauty, a good deed as warmth as beauty is, an idea as capturing as beauty could be, and ultimately they see beauty in the language itself, Ironic isn't it? The noun beauty reflects its own constitution! The fact that in a language you have hundreds of words that could be use to describe beauty is the evidence of itself being beautiful. It doesn't end there, the words is one thing, but the genuine syntax of the words is potentially infinite in its versatility and scope. How many possible arrangement could you make from words in a language to make a sentence is the ultimate part of the beauty of language. And im currently learning English extensively so that it would someday be on par with my mothertongue.

                                                                                                                                                                   

          Urshprache meaning proto-language, is the first existed language where all of the language in the present day is its long evolved descendant. Yes its not just us evolving, so does languages, and they seems to be as much alive as we are. Everyday there's at least one  new word born in a language. In the formation of a word, there's alot of resources, English itself most of its words originates from various sources but most common of all are Latin, Greek, French , and Spanish. To get a better understanding or to be a good etymologist, we should know what makes up a word: prefix, root, and suffix. Thence, the diversity of a language makes it so debonair, imagine to use a loan word while conversing, say for instance in giving example we can say exempli gratia,  to speak  sincerely we can say ex animo, and thank you as gracias. 

         

         Complexity. In a language we have maxim, adage, proverbs and conventional wisdom in which each of  them helps to convey our message so effectively but at the same time indirectly. We also have vulgar and profanity, though we tends to avoid them (or do we?) , they are of a great weapon when we are in need of expressing our exasperation, anger and hatred. We have abstarct words like justice, love, kindness, egalitarianism and alot of other ism that carries an idea that only exist in our mind. How amazing is that! I just used rhetorical did you notice?? The question of how is not meant to be answered, it meant to state how amazing it is. Other than that, we also have aliteration, methaphor, hyperbole, exaggeration, satire, analogy, allusion, allegory, euphemism, dsyphemism, paradox, irony, oxymoron, and onomatopoeia.

         Language can be very subjective, Different people perceive a word differently. Take for example  the word ejaculation, it means a burst of anything , could be laughter, speech or lava, but in biology, the word is used specially for the occasion of male's orgasm. And the word squirt holds the same connotation for female but more as a slang than a biological term. Someone exposed to such usage of a particular word would only feel awkward when someone else utter it in a conversation. Connotation of a word makes it more complex, it makes your diction to be highly cautious not to choose the wrong word.

        I love language. But how poor the school or in fact any other education institution outlined the language in a syllabus could potentially makes anyone the worse protester of that language. I have a theory, if you are good at something you will eventually develop a passion of it. Vice versa. If you are bad at something, you will ended up resenting that thing as i have hate football because im not good at hand-eye-coordination. The school always potray your skills in a language as bad, They judge you, give marks and penalize you. Consequently you are destined to hate it but a fortunate few to be privilege with the right education would succeed in that system.

        Im not a scintillating wit at adolescent but i regret not taking a keen interest in language back then. You, instead, are a complete schmendrick to not believe me. I just learn the word and im practically in love with it as if that is all i can think of at the moment. : )
     
      Solve this conundrum if you are capable of it. What came first in a language, a word or  a sentence? if you say a word, how do you explain the meaning of a word without constructing a sentence first? Just a brain teaser. There's an answer!

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