Saturday 13 December 2014

When Thinking Stops

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 “Recite, in the name of your Sustainer who created man from a clot of blood.” This is the first commandment of Allah swt to His beloved prophet Muhammad (saw) - to one who could not read or write.


Initiating His message with the word ‘Recite’ speaks volumes of its importance. And since Allah swt  has also said that He has guided many from the Quran and misled many from the same, it is imperative that one has to recite in His Name. Before going further, although the article starts with a verse from Al Quran, it is not intended to make tafseer of the verse(as the author is not a scholar) but merely to highlight the significance of the word 'read' or 'recite'.In human science, reading triggers a process of mental exercise transcending all other efforts (lifting, swinging, walking, etc.) of a human body. From reading, the mind subsequently memorises, understands, analyses and finally creates images of the recited text. These images allow the mind to evaluate on the usefulness of the text and to act accordingly. They are also stored for future references and cross references.

In spite of being relatively small, the brain consumed quite a substantial amount of energy to process these words into images. It has been understood that, at a given time, the energy consumed by a thinking brain is about 20% of the total energy required to maintain all the faculties of the human body. Also, each step of the effort is in itself a skill development process. Memorising, understanding, analysing and pondering are all separate intellectual skills and are of different levels. It is integrated into a system of neural networking termed as thinking.
A person who recites and thinks and, to the end, good actions emanate from his limbs has actually undergone an exclusive process where all other creations are deprived of. A saying goes, ‘I think, therefore I am’.  It is this very intellectual capability that differentiates man from other creations including the angels and jinns.

When Allah swt intended to create Adam (as), there were objections from two main parties namely the angels and Iblis. Given that the angels were made from light and Iblis from fire while Adam was from clay, they hold superiority over Adam. The objection from the angels was more of a concern in nature as past experience had shown the undesirable responses from the jinns. It was a simple ignorance. The angels questioned Allah swt as to why would He create another being that would cause corruption and bloodshed on earth; the mistakes made by the jinns before. Allah swt replied " Verily, I know what you know not". According to some scholars, what the angels initially did not know was the unprecedented bestowing of the intellectual capacity to human being - knowledge and ability to think and evaluate. After Adam (as) displayed his ability, they realised and admitted their ignorance. And on His command, they wilfully prostrated before Adam (as). On the other hand, the objection of Iblis was of self dignity. Up to then, he transcended the angels and lived in the companies of Allah swt due to his immaculate past records. After all he was made from fire while Adam was from clay. The creation of Adam challenged his status. It was too much to swallow. His compound ignorance has caused him to be haughty and refused to prostrate before Adam(as) when he was commanded to do so.

Compound ignorance is an intellectual state in which one is convinced that one knows certain things while in reality he knows absolutely nothing of the matter. This is the worst form as compared to simple ignorance where one realizes the fact that one does not know. Compound ignorance is not about the measure of physical matters but rather related to the ailment of the heart, namely arrogance and egos - the characters described by Allah swt of Iblis.  The power of reciting and triggering the thinking process is an act hence not to be underestimated.

In the advent of technology, the children of the world today have been presented with devices which readily process and display images. (Familiar with the term idiot box?) They spend time on the device endlessly scanning the images. Apparently, the human nation has progressed. After all, there is a saying which goes, “A picture paints a thousand words”. Seemingly, all is well. However, in their zeal to find short term solutions to do things in easier ways, man sometimes bypasses essential steps leading them in a completely reverse direction.

When one adopts image recognition instead of reading, one bypasses the all important integrated process of thinking. The brain has stopped exercising and training itself to memorise, understands, analyse and evaluates. In other words, the most vital organ of the body has stopped functioning in the way it should. Prolonged state of idleness lead to its dysfunctional and underdevelopment and eventually end in idiocy and worst, compound ignorance. In utter disillusion, man thought that he has reached higher stations while in actual fact he has plunged into the abyss. This has great repercussions. When the mind is dead the person no longer thinks. When he stops thinking, he no longer exists as a man and has lost the privilege of saying, “I am”. He has to be associated with “it” – together with the rest of the lower members of the animal kingdom.

Even in the academia, we have witnessed such degeneration amongst the majority of the seekers of knowledge - how they just stopped thinking. Given a task, they do follow the procedure favourably, sometimes with detail and excellence. This is a clear evidence of 'excellent training' in image recognition. However, they failed when they are requested to take an alternative path to achieve the same objective. They recognised the instructions well. But they have lost the ability to think and recreate another path to the solution. A few do try to show some creativity. However, given their dysfunctional processors, the outcome can be quite disappointing and sometimes hilarious.The teachers are not totally to be blamed. Neither are the parents nor the society, nor everyone else. In actual fact, the students have never stopped studying. They have just stopped thinking. Not because they do not want to think. They have simply lost the ability to think. They have lost the ability to think because their brains have, from childhood, spend most of the time scanning images. Reading has become an ancient practice. A poetry book on a table appears like a specimen from the Jurassic period.  Whether it is a conspiracy or a good scientific invention, the box has made them idiots. To make matters worse, now it is not only the television. It has its brethren in the form of personal computers, cell phone, pads and the list goes on. All intertwined in a powerful network of electronic communication called internet.

What does this do to the Muslim?

Firstly, it affects our basic daily practices. Let alone memorising, understanding, pondering over its meaning, we have even stopped reading the Quran. Image scanning is more fun. Reading one page of Quran is more difficult than one day on the ‘YouTube’. Image scanning does not burn the 20% of our energy.

Secondly, in the context of aqeedah - recognising the oneness of Allah swt - image recognition has a reverse effect as to reciting or reading. Some of the Fiqh scholars of the past have instituted that creating certain images is forbidden (Haraam). There are reasons for this. In the past, the believers used to follow their guides (prophets or pious people) while the latter were alive. After their death, rather than continuing with the reciting of the inherited scriptures, the followers would instead create a physical image of their guides. It is intended to remind them of their teachings and to maintain spiritual closeness to them. However, the subsequent generations began to lose sight of the purpose and began physically decorating the image. They replaced the word ‘fear’ by image of long moustache pointing sideways. The word ‘wrath’ by image of teeth with long sharp incisors. They would replace the word of “Rahmah and Barakah” with image of big round belly and bald head. When they ran out of space to fill up the image, they would create another one to supplement other attributes. And eventually they would worship these images rather than turning to Allah swt directly. Hence, polytheism (Shirk) comes into existence. The pagan Arabs never stopped worshipping Allah. But their minds cannot comprehend how God can be One and that He is not ‘on the ground’, i.e. not tangible. The images created by their forefathers were deeply entrenched in their souls and were not easy to undo. Hence, they have Allah – and others, too. Presently, in a similar fashion, imaging has rather a profound reverse effect. Instead of reading and pondering over His words and reflecting His greatness through the mirror of our thoughts and mind, we vainly spend time capturing and filing images. Such images are put up everywhere – on the walls, backgrounds, etc. We unconsciously generate our own idols.

Thirdly, it is a highly sophisticated weapon. Evildoers of higher orders create wars and profit from it. There are three fundamental elements that make up a society, namely, the people, the dwellings and the field to plough. Nuclear weapon destroys all three. It evaporates every matter within its zone and killing the survivors through radioactivity. In the aftermath of the war, in order to make it productive again, everything has to start from scratch. It would require a generation to establish the status quo. To ‘improve’ on the strategy, they work to develop a type of more selective weapon that will just mop out the people while keeping the dwellings and field intact. This is called Neutron bomb. However, even with the dwellings and fields remain undisturbed, eliminating the people will only cause shortage of work force to work the field after the war. Yet, it is still a working progress. The final strategy is to device a weapon that does not destroy the people, its dwellings and field. This weapon is designed only to destroy the mind keeping the other parts of the body intact in order to maintain productions. The mind now operates like a microprocessor driven by software downloaded directly to the brain via sophisticated image processors. This weapon is called electron bomb. You will find them located in every home throughout the world, whether made of stone, wood or clay; in the homes of the laymen or in the homes of the scholars; in the hotels or in the mosque; in the deserts or in the seas. In the pockets of kids and adults. The enemies continuously and patiently create and control these images. Yes, they are patient. They can wait. Over prolonged exposure, the brain loses its ability to think and to be creative. It loses its ability to evaluate what is good and what is bad. It exists as a follower rather than an intellect – religiously following the instructions set by the image makers. The work to create darkness is now complete. Iblis has now been equipped with a complete weapon of mass destruction - a weapon not created by him but by man himself. The enemies are now on the verge of making a final assault on man. His promise to drag along all men along with him to the fire of hell has become a big possibility.

All is not lost. We still have our Allah. Everything belongs to Allah and to Him we shall return. There is no strength and no power except in Allah. And Allah (swt) has put a protective shell for those who are sincere. Iblis has followers among man and jinn. These satanic creatures are our clear enemy. Iblis is only His creation. He is created only to make us worth more than the angels. Let us take positive from the fact that Iblis is deprived of the special gift that Allah swt bestows upon our father Adam(as) i.e. the intellectual capacity. His brain is small. Through history, Iblis knows only one stereotyped way of leading man astray, that is to whisper doubts into one's ears and to assign partners to Allah swt. He is not creative. He may appear sophisticated but in reality it is not his planning. Instead, he rides on man's brain and makes man think and work for him. He is not creative enough to invent a television but he makes men does that job for him. His intellectual level is way too low to perform computer programming but he makes men program for him.  These are among the men that Allah swt has commanded us to seek refuge from.

Restart thinking process, beginning with our children and ourselves. Converse with them rather than allowing them to be deafen and dumbed by the idiot box. Keeping them away from your cellphones is a good idea. Train their brain to think and be creative. Unlike other religion, the Quran asked us to ponder over His creation and challenges man to think. Evaluating the countless creations of Allah swt and His systems of the universe will only lead to one thing and one thing only - the recognition of the Oneness of Allah swt. Oral communication has always been the authentic form of teaching and learning. Our prophet Muhammad (saw) could not read and write. Yet, he (saw) is a teacher of the Quran to 125,000 of his companions - the best group of students ever existed, may Allah be pleased with them . The Quran has been from the beginning learned by heart. It was only after our prophet's (saw) death that the compilation into a book began. He did not just make them learned scholars, but also taught them how to learn. Jibrail once came to Nabi (saw)in form of a man. He sat close and facing Nabi (saw) with his knees touching the knees of the Prophet (saw). He asked about Islam. Sahabah (ra) were around. Afterwards, among other things, Nabi (saw) mentioned to the sahabah (ra) that Jibrail also came to teach man the etiquette of sitting in a majlis of ta'alim.   In short, we simply have to come back to the basic practices. Save ourselves from getting fixated to the image processors. Read the Quran. Read the hadeeths. Read the lives of the Sahabah (ra). Read the work of our rightly guided scholars of the past. There are no pictures in them, just texts. Through the guidance of righteous scholars, simple practices of reading, memorising, understanding, and pondering over its meaning will lead us to the recognition of the greatness of Allah swt and purification of our inner self - mind and heart. In order to gain knowledge and understanding of the infinite variants by which Allah swt runs the universe, we need to empty our vessels from pride and arrogance, and fill it with humility, patience, love of Allah and the humanity, remembrance of Allah, thankfulness for the countless favours He bestows upon us and above all, sincerity. These qualities make us easy to think.  However,  acquiring these qualities requires great effort and sacrifice - effort to redirect heedlessness towards consciousness. It requires us to restructure our excessiveness in image scanning towards a more traditional and natural learning process, i.e. reading and thinking.

Ad-Deenul-Islam Ad-Deenul-Fitrah. Islam is a natural religion. If the learning process is right, the mind and heart will get right. And when the mind and heart are right, good actions emanates, inshaAllah. When our mind and heart are full of fantasy, there is no more space for reality. This is when thinking stops.











Tuesday 23 September 2014

The Office


AlHikmah Office and Waiting Lounge for Male Guests

Office September 2014
Soon, insyaAllah before Eidul Adha, the fathers and other male guests shall be standing in the car park no more.They may sit in the lounge or hang around the verandah of the AlHikmah Office. We shall also place an intercom where the fathers can inform their daughters of their presence on occasions when the mothers are not around.


30th September 2014, Nearly There.....

















5th October 2014. Alhamdulillah, we are all set to move in







Friday 4 July 2014

Bagaimana Wanita yang Istihadhah Mengerjakan Solat Tarawih?

Bagaimana untuk seorang wanita yang istihadhah itu mengerjakan solat tarawih?
Jawapan : Dia boleh mengerjakan solat sunat selepas Isyak dan solat sunat Tarawih dengan wuduk solat Isyak tadi tanpa perlu memperbaharui wuduknya. Dengan syarat sebelum solat Isyak tadi, dia telah membersihkan farajnya dan mengenakan pad/kain dengan kemas dan ketat serta berwuduk. Disyaratkan juga tidak berlaku sebarang perkara yang membatalkan wuduknya selepas solat Isyak tadi seperti buang air kecil, kentut dan sebagainya.

Penjelasan : Asal bagi hukum seorang wanita yang istihadhah itu adalah sama seperti hukum wanita yang suci kecuali mereka ini perlu berwuduk setiap kali solat. Oleh itu, mereka itu boleh bersolat, berpuasa, membaca al-Quran, beriktikaf dan melakukan ibadah-ibadah lain sepertimana wanita yang suci.

Seperti yang disebut di atas, sekiranya wanita yang istihadhah itu hendak menunaikan solat fardhu, maka dia hendaklah berwuduk. Dan sebelum itu dia perlulah membersihkan farajnya dan mengenakan kain atau ‘pad’ padanya. Ia juga perlu diperkemas dan dikenakan dengan ketat untuk menghalang darah daripada mengalir keluar dengan banyak. Al-Imam al-Nawawi menyebut perihal mengenakan dan memperkemaskan kain untuk menutup faraj ini (atau disebutsebagai at-talajjum)  adalah wajib bagi wanita yang istihadhah sebelum mengerjakan solat fardhu. Kemudian barulah dia berwuduk. Perlu diingatkan di sini bahawa at-talajjum mesti mendahului wuduk. Hamnah radhiyallahu ‘anhadatang bertemu Nabi shallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam mengadu mengenai istihadhahnya yang banyak. Lalu Baginda shallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallammenyuruhnya supaya meletakkan kapas di tempat keluar darah. Hamnah memberitahu bahawa ia lebih banyak dari itu, darah tersebut berterusan mengalir keluar dan banyak. Lalu Baginda shallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam menyuruhnya untuk meletakkan kain di tempat tersebut untuk menghalang darah. (Diriwayatkan oleh Ibn Majah. al-Albani berkata : Hasan)
Sekiranya darah keluar selepas dia membersihkan faraj dan mengenakan pad serta berwuduk, ia tidak membatalkan wuduknya dan solatnya. Dia boleh bersolat fardhu dan mengerjakan solat sunat sebanyak mana yang dia mahu selepas solat fardhu tersebut. Namun begitu, jika dia tidak mengenakan pad dengan baik lantas mengakibatkan darah mengalir keluar, maka dengan itu terbatallah wuduknya dan solatnya. Jika ini berlaku selepas solat fardhu maka dia tidak boleh mengerjakan solat sunat.
Menurut Mazhab Syafie, wanita istihadhah tidak boleh mengerjakan 2 (atau lebih) solat fardhu dengan satu wuduk kerana wajib berwuduk sebelum solat disebabkan sesuatu yang keluar dari faraj (dan dalam kes ini darah). Fatimah bint Abi Hubaisy didatangi istihadhah, lalu Baginda shallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam berkata kepadanya : “Sesungguhnya darah haid itu adalah hitam dan ia dikenali oleh wanita. Jika ia demikian maka janganlah solat. Tetapi jika ia lain dari itu, maka berwuduklah dan solatlah. (Diriwayatkan oleh Abu Daud, al-Nasa’ie dan disahihkan oleh Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim dan al-Baihaqi. Al-Hakim berkata : Sahih atas syarat Muslim) Tetapi dia boleh mengerjakan solat sunat dengan wuduk solat fardhu tadi sebanyak mana yang dia kehendaki. Ini kerana solat sunat itu banyak, jika dia perlu berwuduk setiap kali hendak solat sunat maka itu pasti akan membebankan.
Allahu’alam.
Rujukan : Al-Nawawi, al-Majmu’, 2/492-493 & Dr. Abdul Karim Zaidan, al-Mufassal, 1/172.

Saturday 28 June 2014

FIFA – Fasting Is For ALLAH!

Alhamdulillah, Allah Ta’ala has once again blessed us with the beautiful month of Ramadhan. Like a little child, who while opening a present, can’t contain her excitement any longer, I shriek in delight that Ramadhan has finally arrived! Another chance for us to increase our balances in His bank of rewards!

Ramadhan...

Ramadhan is not the month of pies and buffet here and there…Before it arrives, we busy ourselves in preparing for its arrival. But, the way we prepare for its arrival is by preparing food. No doubt, food is important, but is it worth it to spend so much of time and energy in preparing food that we forsake this greatest opportunity to show our obedience and love towards our Creator, Allah! What are we doing? Will we just overlook the numerous blessings that Allah has bestowed on us in this month? Will we really let this wonderful gift slip right through our fingers?

Do we know what is waiting for us? Every good deed that we do in this month is far more virtuous than the good deeds done in any other month. Our rewards will be multiplied by 10 up to 700 times. It’s so easy isn’t it? Ramadhan nights is the crown of all nights. Its darkness is precious, its hours are purest. The Prophet (sallallahu a’laihi wasallam) said: “The best prayer after obligatory solah is the night prayer.” Every night, doors of acceptance are opened from the heavens. Ask Allah Ta’ala for His bounties and mercy for this month is the month of rahmah. The weakest person is the one who cannot supplicate to Allah Ta’ala.

Fasting reforms the hearts, encourages commendable deeds and prevents one from any corrupt deeds. It removes sins and increases rewards. The Prophet (sallallahu a’laihi wasallam) said: “When Ramadhan comes, gates of heavens are opened, gates of hell are closed and Shaitaans are chained.”

Fasting also reminds us of the condition of the poor and destitute who suffer the pain of hunger and thirst throughout the year. It removes the gap between the poor and the rich for everyone is fasting, seeking the forgiveness of his Lord, abstains from eating and drinking, and breaking the fast at the same time.

One simple thing we can do is that when we fast, we fast only for the pleasure of Allah Ta’ala and hope for its reward, for this will be the means of forgiveness for our sins.
To feed a fasting person during Iftaar time has a great virtue. We will gain the same reward as the other fasting person merely by providing him with a piece of date or a sip of water so that he can break his fast.

We should try to spend the last 10 nights or even one or two nights in I’tikaaf (time spent alone in a masjid or room in our house with sole intention to worship Allah) and also increase our Ibadah during these days so that we will be kept away from Jahannam by the distance of 3 trenches. Or for just 1 day of I’tikaaf we can get the reward of two Hajj and two Umrahs. How tremendous is the reward! Allahu Akbar!

Nights of Ramadhan are blessed ones. It contains one night which is the king of all nights. It is LAILATUL QADR. A night which is better than a 1000 months. Whoever stays awake and stand in prayer on that night faithfully and hoping for reward, all his past sins will be forgiven.

Well sisters of faith! Use the opportunity of these few blessed days in increasing our good deeds, let’s not spend them in idle talks and other things that will snatch away our precious times for Ibadah.  Say NO to back biting! These things will be decrease the   reward of our fasting. Will we live on to see the next Ramadhan? We don’t know...So let’s increase our investments for Akhirah now! May Allah Ta’ala grant us all the ability and strength to do every good deed, Ameen!

prepared by:    Binti Abdul Malek - 3rd year student


 

Saturday 22 March 2014

Getting Rid of Pride

Who am I? Who are we really?

I begin with a Hadeeth narrated by Abdulullah ibn Mas’ud (R.A), from Rasulullah S.A.W:-

لا يدخل الجنة من كان في قلبه مثقال ذرة من كبر
"No one who has even an atom's weight of pride in his heart shall enter Paradise." (Paradise)”

Who are we to walk on earth with our chest up and nose high, all puffed up? Walk like we own all the pathways and valleys on this earth? None of these belonged to us really!

The owner of the skies, the earth, the seas and the entire universe is Allah Ta’ala, but unfortunately we forgot that. We have forgotten the real creator who created this world.
Even our bodies are not actually ours. We will return to Allah Ta’ala, leave our bodies in the ground being eaten by the worms. 

What is so great in us that we can boast about? 

Nothing! Nothing at all.  

A person with the slightest form of pride will not enter the Garden of Eden. This is enough to remind us of where we stand. We have no right to be proud because pride is the don of Allah Ta’ala. Allah Ta’ala said:

العز إزاري والكبرياء ردائي فمن ينازعني عذبته
“Honor is My lower garment, pride is My Cloak. Thus whoever vies with Me regarding one of them, shall be tormented”

What quality are we supposed to have as humans and servants of Allah?

Humbleness.

We must have humbleness in our heart, humility and humanity within ourselves. We know nothing in this world. We must be like the paddy, the more it fills up, the lower it will bow to the earth.

Why should we worry about people looking down on us? We know the promise of Allah:

ما تواضع أحد لله إلا رفعه الله
“No one humbles himself for the sake of Allah, except that Allah Ta’ala will raise his rank up”

We as human beings, require a good character to deal with people around us. Each of us has someone that we look up to. As believers, we have our own idol. Our idol is the most perfect man with the perfect akhlaq in this world. He is Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. It is stated in a hadeeth:
كان رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وسلم) أحسن الناس خلقاً
“Rasulullah S.A.W was the best of people in character”

Though he is no longer here for us to see or communicate, we have his speech and the stories of the Sahabahs who were the nearest to him. We have our leader, for us to follow the correct lifestyle.

We are humans and sinners in this world. No one can ever say that he’s perfect. But there’s always room for improvement.

We have to try to inculcate the good manners such as modesty, generosity, tolerance, gentleness, humility, sincerity etc. There are so many ways to show good akhlaq. Keeping our anger in check instead of venting it out is part of good akhlaq. If we hold back our anger and forgive the person, Allah will hold back His anger from us on the day of Qiyamah.

Having good character will win us people’s love. We should respect the elders and love the young ones. Always help another person in need. Remember, Allah will be in the help of a servant so long as he is in the help of his fellow brethren.

Merely having good akhlaq will gain us tremendous reward. Stated in a hadeeth that:

إن المؤمن ليدرك بحسن خلقه درجة الصائم القائم
“Verily, by means of good character, a believer attains the rank of a fasting person and person performing Qiyamullail (optional prayer at night)”

As a conclusion, let’s ponder about this one hadeeth which highlights the merit of having good character,
أنا زعيم ببيتٍ في ربض الجنة لمن ترك المراء وإن كان محقاً، وبيتٍ في وسط الجنة لمن ترك الكذب وإن كان مازحاً وببيتٍ في أعلى الجنة لمن حسن خلقه

"I guarantee a house in Jannah for one who gives up arguing, even if he is in the right; and I guarantee a home in the middle of Jannah for one who abandons lying even for the sake of fun; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Jannah for one who has good manners.''

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Wall Fence Project

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم


Front (Classes and Tuckshop area)


Side (Dormitories area)

Front (Classes and Office area)
In order to provide better security for the students, Madrasah has decided to replace these green wire fences with a proper wall fence around the whole Madrasah. We hope that by having these walls, our aim of establishing a Syariah compliant environment (proper purdah for the girls) will also be achieved In sya Allah.

The estimated cost is RM3, 200 per 20 ft. (6 meter)

Anyone interested in lending us a hand with this project, may opt to donate through the following methods:

>> Bank Transfer

Account Name: Madrasah Al Hikmah Lil Banaat
Acc. Number: 562375401226
Bank: Maybank

>> Cheque

"Madrasah Al Hikmah Lil Banaat"

>> Walk-In

Please do not hesitate to contact us at 019-392 1614 for assistance. 

Any amount awarded to this project is highly appreciated and we precede your contribution with جزاك الله خيراً و أحسن الجزاء في الدارين