Today is 15th May. Do you know what day it is?
It's Nakba Day, يوم النكبة, 'the Day of Catastrophe', commemorating the displacement of thousands of Palestinians as a result of the creation of the state of Israel.
Israel was 'officially' pronounced as a state on 14th May 1948. The creation of this state is analogous to stabbing a knife in the heart of the muslim world.
The Palestinian lands started being occupied much earlier, when it was designated as a British Mandate in 1917. I won't go into the details here, for that you could refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba_Day.
These are just some of the indignities that the palestinians have to face on a daily basis. No one should have to endure such intentional suffering, even if he wasn't a muslim.
So it is our duty to do as much as we can to to free palestine from oppression. Money, aid, campaigns, changing profile pictures, this is all good. But its mostly short-term and serves to lessen their burdens on a daily basis.
But what is even more important is this : we need MEN. Men like 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and Salahuddeen Ayyubi, men who have, in the past, brought freedom and justice to al-Quds. We need men who are lions by day, and cry in front of Allah at night. And men who are serious about their mission, who dedicate their whole lives to islam and wouldn't do something if it wasn't for islam.
If we allow our time to be occupied by insignificant things, time-wasting things, then don't talk about 'Freeing Palestine'. It will just remain talk. al-Quds wouldn't be free at the hands of those kind of men.
In fact, the enemies of islam like people who have lots of fun and forget about their mission in life. That is one of the reasons why they feed us with mind-numbing things like movies, songs, football, etc. What really bothers them are men, especially young men, who have only one purpose in life. Now you're talking.
Final note, to cheer us up. The Crusaders entered Jerusalem in 1099. Salahuddeen freed it in 1187. That's a period of 88 years.
If we take 1948 as the beginning of the Occupation, its only been 64 years. another 24 years before we catch up to Salahuddeen.
Assuming someone is 21 years old now, in 24 years he will be 45 years old. At that age, someone will be old enough and mature enough to plan and to lead an army.
Will we be the ones to free al-Quds? possibly. If Allah wills.
Question : What is the best gift for Mother's Day?
this ayah commands all human beings to be kind to their parents, because bringing us up is no easy task.
See, its not an easy thing. Since we first got our legs, we started kicking our moms. After we came out, she needed to change our diapers every few hours. She prepared our food. She helped us walk and talk. In the ayah above, we only reach maturity and full strength at the age of forty. Imagine that looooooooong period of upbringing. And even after forty, our mums will still think of us as her little children.
I remember one time when we went back to our kampung for Hari Raya. My mum wanted to help my grandma make some ketupat, but she said "takpe, kau tak reti buat ni" (it's ok, you don't know how to make this). Just like what my mum says to us little kids. teehee.
After this period of upbringing, what should be the result? The end product? what should a 'good child' be like?
Allah answers this in the ayah. The good child will ask Allah to "Grant me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your Favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I may do righteous good deeds, such as please You, and make my off-spring good. Truly, I have turned to You in repentance, and truly, I am one of the Muslims"
But Allah is saying that material things shouldn't be our considerations. Material things might bring our parents away from Allah. For all their hard work and sacrifice, do we want to repay them with Allah's wrath?
That's not the right way to obey them.
To become a child who obeys Allah in everything, and invites his parents to do the same.
zainab al-ghazali (may Allah have mercy on her) wrote a shocking memoir about her time in prison, under Gamal Abdel Nasser. In English its called 'The Return of the Pharaoh'.
One story that struck me was zainab's recounting of how the Muslim Brothers lived in prison. This particular episode was regarding food.
Besides the Brothers, there was also a group of socialist youths, if i remember correctly. And zainab wrote in admiration about the difference between the Brothers and the other youths.
When the Brothers got their food, they didn't fight over it. They distributed it among themselves, even if it was a single piece of bread. But the other youths, they used to fight over such things like the bed, measuring it to make sure no one crossed his line.
This spirit of selflessness, i believe, not only helped the Brothers to survive prison. It was the key to their success in calling people to Allah. Their sincerity struck at the hearts of people. "he doesn't want anything from me. he doesn't want my money, my food, my things. he's not asking from me anything other than islam. this religion must be true."
i long to see such men, and lament their absence. Where is our selflessness? today i see people uphold the policy of 'our stomachs first'.
I remember back in the days when i was new in D&T. One day, someone cooked something, but some people were not satisfied by it. So they went to a nearby restaurant. But they went quietly because they did not want the brother to get offended. They were embarrassed and hid what they did. No words, what more photos and updates.
Let us rekindle the spirit of selflessness. If we think we have it tough, remember that others are having an even more difficult time. While we eat luxurious food and spend freely, others are struggling because they don't even have lunch money.
everything takes time, i guess. To love our brothers more than we love ourselves is a hard attitude to build, especially in today's individualistic society. But its not impossible.
Our food, our clothes, our laptops, all our provisions, they don't come from our own work and our own hands. They come from the provider of rizq, Allah SWT, who is also called by Ar-Razzaq (The Provider). But sometimes we get more than what we need. Allah is also al-Wahhab, the Giver of Gifts.
That is the beauty of Allah. He is also al-Lateef, the Subtle, and sometimes He gives you blessings from sources that you could never imagine.
Today i was given something that seemed to have come out from thin air.
It started from last week. At our local mosque, there is a young Somali brother. The most i've ever said to him was 'salam' or 'how are you brother'. Then last Thursday he asked me if the glasses i wore were the only glasses i have.
And he went off in a hurry before you could say 'banana peel'.
"i believe we had an appoinment"
and he gave me a case. Inside was a brand new pair of glasses.
I was overwhelmed, and didn't know what to say. "its okay brother, take it. in islam we are brothers and we have to take care of each other's needs". This was a man i had only talked to once or twice. But the purity of his heart was worth more than a million words, and it was as if we had known each other for a lifetime.
Provisions can come from anywhere. The glasses were awesome, yes, but the gift of 'seeing' how small deeds could have big impacts, that is even more awesome.
This is a true story. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine.
This person is a government-sponsored student. And as stated in a typical contract, the government will pay for a ticket the first time you go overseas and when you are coming back for good.
So this person requested a ticket. I saw this ticket with my own eyes.
one-way ticket HEATHROW - KLIA = RM16368. That's like 3326 pounds at the current rate. One way.
To get a feel of how expensive that is, let me tell you how much i paid for my tickets so far.
I was trying to 'husnuszhon', so i thought 'ok, maybe its last minute','maybe its a flexible ticket'.
But then i checked the Malaysian Airlines website. On that date, the price of a ticket including tax and all is about 500 pounds.
There may be two explanations.
1. the price of a ticket bought through a travel agency is that expensive.
2. someone working for the government couldn't be bothered. "its in our budget anyways. might as well spend it all."
If its reason #1, we can't really do anything about that can we.
But if its reason #2, then pity you, dear reader, because i'm going to give a khutbah right now.
DO NOT, and i repeat, DO NOT be careless, especially when you're sitting in a government department handling the hard-earned money given by taxpayers. Yes, nobody's looking, and probably no one will ever know if you mishandle a few cents here, a few cents there.
But Allah knows. he watches us all the time. And we'll be held accountable on the Day of Judgment.
This is the mentality that we're trying to change, the 'tak apa' mentality.
We must care, and we must be responsible. We're not doing a job just because it feeds us. We're the guardians of other people's money. They trust us to use it well.
Corruption isn't something you can erase through having laws. When people see us, we're not corrupt. But when nobody's seeing, we become corrupt. That's not the way. corruption is erased through having integrity, having a fear of God and the Day of Judgment. People of taqwa won't take what isn't theirs, will be very careful, will ensure that whatever they manage, they manage well.
And this goes to the rest of us. Fear Allah. Because when the time comes and He gives us a position of responsibility, we might be even worse then those people we call 'corrupt'.
1. It creates the impression that there is an invincible group with limitless power, putting their signs everywhere. This is giving them God-like abilities, and we know only God has those abilities.
2. It creates an unnecessary fear, and as believers we only need to fear Allah.
They are humans just like us, and they can suffer from bad planning, anger, uncertainty and everything else that humans suffer.
We believe in conspiracy theories because we don't know how to explain big events that are beyond our control. So we say they are the works of 'hantu', 'illuminati', and the like, eventhough they are only the results of humans doing what they believe in. We don't know how the system works.
So today insyaallah we will try to dispel this veil of ignorance. We will try to give an insight into how the system works.
I myself gained an insight into the workings of the system while reading a book a few days ago. Its called Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Its written by a man who previously worked as an economic hitman (EHM).
this is an EHM. He looks like you and me, only with smarter suits.
Big financial institutions like the World Bank use these forecasts to give loans to the country.
..But the ones who get rich are people at the top, while the people who labour like slaves to support the economy are neglected.
Meanwhile, the loans still have to be repaid.
This debt becomes a chain on those countries : they'll have to do what the US says and become part of the Empire.
They could then be used to protect the interests of the US. Fall in line, or face the consequences.
What happens if people rebel against this system? They have other tools.
They can send in saboteurs and spies to destabilise the county.
If that doesn't work, they still have ye Olde Grand Army.
This is what the author reveals, based on his many years being an insider of the system. I think it has a ring of truth to it.
Economic Growth will benefit all of society.
Being a student of accounting & economics, this is what we've been taught to believe in every single class. Look at the numbers. Look at how much the country is growing overall. But this is a false concept.
If the country has an output of 1 TRILLION DOLLARS, is it rich? "Yes", i hear you say.
Even if 1 person holds that 1 trillion, the country is still considered 'rich'. Even if the rest of the people live in total poverty, has little to eat and can't send their kids to school.
But the people at the top do not care. "Let the 'engines of growth' become rich. we reward the politicians and the lucky entrepreneurs. The rest can live or die, it doesn't matter, there's lots of them", they say.
This is the story of how we've come to live under an Empire that expands its power very subtly, we don't even notice it. It has expanded through greed, supported by leaders who can be easily corrupted. They have spread capitalist values and materialistic outlooks, creating a 'Pax Americana' (American Peace) all over the globe. People of different colours and languages share the same values : love of wealth. They eat at the same fast-food restaurants, wear the same shoes, have the same ideas about beauty, because? the Empire said so.
It's not a global conspiracy : its just people, accomplishing what they believe in, whether that belief is true or false.
This, in my opinion, is the fitna (trial) of the dajjal described by Rasulullah in his hadeeth. I used to think that the dajjal would be a big one-eyed monster.
But if that monster came out, people would immediately know him as the dajjal and it would be easier to shoot arrows at him or whatever.
This fitna is subtle. No guns, no visible armies coming to conquer us. Their weapons are words like 'freedom, prosperity, growth', which sound beautiful. Their front-line armies consist of economists, statisticians, scientists, and other respectable people. Our minds are being brainwashed without us noticing. We are being carried far from our religion. We think we are independent, but in reality we are obedient citizens of the Empire, swallowing whole everything it teaches us.
Hopefully, this short post has enlightened your outlook on life and dispelled the superstitions. If the one-eyed monster does come out, then i'll be glad. Then everyone can wake up.
There is a way to reform this system, to bring it down, but that's a topic for the next post.