ASE Annual Conference 2008

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,


In relation to the previous post and just to prove how expensive it is to attend a conference. Alhamdulillah my abstract has been accepted to be presented in the ASE (the Association for Science Education) Annual Conference 2008. This will happen from 3-5 January 2008 at the University of Liverpool. Guess how much does it cost? It's GBP240.00 for 3 days. Alhamdulillah they give me 1 day free cos I'm presenting a paper, so it's GBP185.00, still! Now, I have to join the association which costs about GBP24.00 (quite cheap cause I'm a poor full-time student) but it will make my registration fee goes down to GBP100.00. That's not it. To travel from Cambridge to Liverpool by train and return, it costs GBP33.00 if I get the ticket early. Also, the accommodation! You think I'll be staying in a hotel room? No, it's going to be a room in the Halls that costs GBP54.00 a night. So, altogether, it is GBP100.00 (plus membership fee GBP24.00) + GBP33.00 + GBP108.00 = GBP265.00 x 7 (approx. Malaysian currency) = MYR1855.00!

I've just sent off 2 grant applications (one to my faculty, one to my college) to my supervisor to sign and then submit to them. Please make du'a that I got some money to go.

I'm not very excited to go to this conference not because of the cost, but I just think that I can't bear to waste 3 days there and not concentrating at my writing. I was planning to go for just a day to present my paper only. But then, my supervisor insisted that I should go for 3 days. Below are his reasons:

1. You will deserve a break - especially at that time of year!
2. Sometimes your brain needs time away from focusing on a particular issue
3. You can take some work with you if you feel uncomfortable
4. You should not follow your supervisor's example and become an
anti-social hermit
Wassalam.

p/s: He is not an anti-social hermit at all.

Published knowledge is out-dated knowledge

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Shocked by the title? Think about it again. I went to a seminar on publishing yesterday. They said that to publish a book, you need to write a proposal (obviously you have to have the knowledge first) to give it to some commissioning editors of some good book publishers. Then after 1-2 weeks (if you are lucky), they will either say, ok sign a contract and write us a book. So you take a few months (or even years) to write a book, then send it to proof read. Once done, they will send it to a few professionals and users to review the book. Depend on how fast they read it, then they will comment either reject, revise, resubmit or accept. If it's rejected, you will have to rewrite. If it's revise and resubmit, you will take a while to do it and then they will take a while to review again. So God knows how long it will take, probably 1 year or so. Then you got a contract, print the book and publish. Right, at least 1-2 years to get your knowledge published to a book.

Let's go to an easier route. What about publish an article to a journal. Let's say a high ranking journal. First you send your article to the Editor. The Editor will read it and select 2-4 professionals to do peer-reviewing, which is not an easy process. It has to be someone who knows the field, a professional and have time to do it. Also, there shouldn't be any bias in this. If the reviewer is a person who have an exact opposite paradigm to the writer, that's it, your paper will never get published. The Editor will ask an officer to change the name of the authors and anything in the article that can show the identity of the writer. Bear in mind that peer-reviewing is FREE, you don't get money but only CV to do that. It might take up to 1 month to get somebody to agree to do it. Who knows how long will the reviewer take to read your article. It is worse than a part-time job. Some may end up to 6 months or so before it is returned to the Editor again. So, you got marks from them and the Editor will decide. Again the same process as book reviewing. So, if correction is needed, a few months will be taken to do it. Finally it will get published if it's good enough. That's 1-2 years again. The quickest might be in 6 months but very rare. Some high profile journals have a reputable rejection percentage that they must keep (this is a regulation that the Editor must follow). A top rank might go to 80-90% of rejection percentage a year to maintain the reputation. This is to say that, they MUST reject 80-90% of the papers sent in. So, even if at the end, your paper got accepted by the reviewers, the Editor won't inform it to you until after a year and if the rejection percentage is not reached, the Editor will still reject your paper. So, it's a long 2 years of waiting for NOTHING!

Let's go to a quicker one then. Let's try a low profile journal. Yeah, but still a good 6 months. What about a newspaper. Yeah, good but no one is going to review it and you can imagine the quality. Blogs? Yeah, again same like newspaper but no ISBN number to let you put into your CV that you publish a piece of knowledge. What else? What about writing to many journals and books publishers at the same time. No no no, that's HARAM! Before you even start writing a book, they will ask you to sign a contract that you are not writing the similar thing to another publisher. Also, if you send a journal article, the Editor will ask you to sign a legally binded contract where you can't write similar thing to other journals until it is either published or rejected totally.

The worst thing is, you have an idea to do a topic in your PhD 10 years ago. Then it took you a good few years (well, at least 3 years) to get it done. Then it becomes a piece of knowledge. The research work is not done until you disseminate it. So, it took another 2 years to get published. So, it's like a life time process to tell people that, THIS IS A NEW PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE THAT I'VE FOUND! That's why the title is a FACT! Like it or not.

The other way to disseminate your knowledge is through conferences. It is the most updated knowledge but you can't reach a wide audience. It is updated knowledge because usually the dateline for submission of abstract is like 5-12 months before the actual date of the conference. So, even you don't have the result of your research yet, you will write an abstract telling that you will present blah-de-blah, hoping that by the day of the conference you really have some knowledge to present. That's the most updated one. However, it is very expensive to go to a conference because the registration fees can be quite costly. Don't forget travelling & accommodation expenses too and other unexpected stuff. There is always funding and grant for attending a conference but how many times can you apply and how many others are also applying it?

See, academicians are poor. You write for journal for FREE. You review journal & book for FREE. You get paid very low loyalty when you get your book published because you are not writing Best Selling fiction books like Harry Porter or Lord of the Ring. You pay for doing a PhD and to attend conferences. You even have to pay to buy journals or access journals online! So, why get yourself into academia?

You can see all the down sides. Hey, but the brighter side is that you get your articles and books reviewed by professionals where you can learn a lot of new things from the reviewers feedbacks, just only if you don't give up in keep on sending articles and books for publishing. It helps to polish your writing skills, thinking skills and increase your knowledge & experience. It is only from failure that comes success. When you review others works you learn again. When you attend conference, you learn new things, meet the real people and networking. When you do PhD, you learn again, for good 3 years. Now, the most rewarding thing is when you get the result. You get your articles published in high profile journals (which have 80-90% rejection precentage, hey you are the 10% of the cream!), plus you get a free copy of the journal too. You get your book published, get a few free copies for your ownself, family & friends. If you review books & journal, you get them free. When you go to conference, you travel and get to go to places where not many been to. You get to meet the real men behind the books and journals. You get to fill in the gaps in you CV. When you go to your PhD convocation, you can smile for your sweaty 3 years and make sujud to ALLAH for this gift, alhamdulillah. And most importantly, no matter how new or old the knowledge is, knowledge is always knowledge, once you've learnt it, no one can take it away from you. Imam Shafi'i said that knowledge is Light, Light of ALLAH. If we know something by-heart, are we not having ALLAH's Light in our heart?

Wa lILLAHIlhamd.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Love

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I've written this post quite a long while ago...

I remember once I asked this very funny question to this friend.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
With a smile she said:“Yes, of course”
And with all the suspense, I asked for the name of that very lucky guy.
She gave me the coolest answer ever – ALLAH S.W.T.
HE is her boyfriend, subhanALLAH!
She gave me a very vivid picture of my Creator which has been so distance from me for all these years.

I don’t know how she felt the love of ALLAH but I’m definitely sure that ALLAH is the Most Merciful, the Most Loving and the Most Caring of all upon His servants, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). The love of a mother is said to be the greatest love of all, that she is willing to sacrifice herself for her children, but remember, the Ar-Rahim’s, ALLAH’s love to His servants is much, much more than the love of any human being can give.

These are just two Hadith Qudsi about how great ALLAH’s love would be to His servants:

ALLAH Almighty said: "MY servant draws near to ME with nothing more loved by ME than the acts of worship that I have enjoined upon him. MY servant continues to try to draw near to ME with more devotion, until I love him. When I love him, I will be his hearing with which he hears, his sight by which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, his feet on which he walks. When he asks ME for something, I will respond and when he takes refuge in ME, I will grant it to him. I do not hesitate in doing anything I intend to do as much as I hesitate in seizing the soul of MY faithful servant; he hates death and I hate hurting him. But death is a must for him".

~ narrated by Bukhari

Subhanallah! Do you like to be among one of the loved one?

Another Hadith Qudsi, hadith directly from ALLAH S.W.T.:

ALLAH Almighty said "I am as MY servant expects ME to be. I am with him if he remembers ME. If he remembers ME to himself, I would remember him to MYSELF. And if he remembers ME in a gathering, I would remember him in a gathering, which is even better. And if MY servant draws near to ME by a hand's span, I would draw near to him by an arm's length and if he draws near to ME by an arm's length, I would draw near to him by a fathom's length. And if MY servant comes to ME walking, I would go to him speeding."

~ narrated by Bukhari

MashaALLAH, HE is running toward you, if you just walk toward HIM, imagine how big HIS one step would be (you won't be able imagine it), and what if we run to HIM?

I don’t know anyone of you have a ‘boy/girlfriend’ or not, but surely you know how a couple works. If you have a boyfriend, or if you like it to be your husband, what would you do if he wants to meet you in any special occasion? Of course most of us will put on the best dress, best make-up, and best of presentation.

If it is a 'dating', will you be late? I doubt about that. Likewise when we want to meet ALLAH in every prayer, how would you dress if you are to meet HIM? What is your attitude towards each prayer? Or each dating with ALLAH? You are going to meet you Lover! The greatest Lover of all!

Have you ever seen a couple by the street? If they are dating and talking to each other, do you think they will ever notice any pedestrians walking by? As they are now in their own world.
Likewise when we are praying, this is the dating between you and ALLAH. If we love HIM so, will we ever be disturbed by anything when we are praying? Definitely no.

Have you ever received any love letter from anyone that you admire? Will, if you love ALLAH, you already have 30 Juz of Love Letters, the most beautifully written love letters by HIM. You will enjoy reading all those Love Letter, the Holy Love Letter and you surely will try your best to memorize them. Why? Because you would really like to understand what is HE trying to tell us and what HE likes or dislikes. You will always have the time to read it.

If you love someone, you will try to find out what are the things he likes and dislikes. And if you love ALLAH, you will surely just like to gain HIS pleasure by doing what has been commanded and avoid doing what has been told not to.

You will just remember HIM and miss HIM all day long that dhikr will always be part of your life. We are encouraged to remember ALLAH always as in the Holy Qur'an or the Love Letter says:

They are the whose hearts rejoice in remembering ALLAH. Absolutely, by remembering ALLAH, the hearts rejoice.

~ The Holy Qur'an, Surah Ra’ad (Chapter 13, The Thunder) verse 28

Now, just try to put your love to HIM and imagine what more you can do just for HIM? As I’ve pointed out, you will steadfast in your prayer, you will make better if not perfect prayers, you will recite the Holy Qur'an, you will try to memorise the Holy Qur'an, and who knows you might be a Hafiz, inshaALLAH. You will also try to learn and understand the Holy Qur'an as a very popular hadith saying that the best among you are the one that learn and teach Qur'an. You will be a very knowledgeable mukmin insyaALLAH because you know and you will practice the ‘amar makruf and nahi mungkar’. Plus you will always remember ALLAH in your life. That makes you a real muslim that truly doing what most of the people call – Islam is the way of life. See how just the love to the All-Mighty ALLAH can shape you into a better Muslim! I know there are more that you will do if you truly love HIM, I leave that for you to think of because it is your love to HIM that really motivate you to keep on improving yourself to become a better Muslim. I pray that we all may gain HIS Love, amin.

Now, how are we going to gain HIS love?

There are several verses in the Holy Qur'an telling us what kind of person does ALLAH loves.

ALLAH loves the one that love the Prophet Muhammad (saw):
[Surah Ali-Imran:31] Proclaim: "If you love ALLAH, you should follow me." ALLAH will then love you, and forgive your sins. ALLAH is Forgiver, Most Merciful. (the one that follow the Prophet Muhammad (saw))

ALLAH love the one righteous one:
[Surah Ali-Imran:76] Indeed, those who fulfill their obligations and lead a righteous life, ALLAH loves the righteous.
[Surah Maryam:96] Surely, those who believe and lead a righteous life, the Most Gracious will shower them with love.
[Surah Al-Maidah:93] Those who believe and lead a righteous life bear no guilt by eating any food, so long as they observe the commandments, believe and lead a righteous life, then maintain their piety and faith, and continue to observe piety and righteousness. ALLAH loves the righteous.
[Surah At-Taubah:4] If the idol worshipers sign a peace treaty with you, and do not violate it, nor band together with others against you, you shall fulfill your treaty with them until the expiration date. ALLAH loves the righteous.

ALLAH loves the charitable:
[Surah Al-Baqarah:195] You shall spend in the cause of ALLAH; do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction. You shall be charitable; ALLAH loves the charitable.
[Surah Ali-Imran:134] who give to charity during the good times, as well as the bad times. They are suppressors of anger, and pardoners of the people. ALLAH loves the charitable.

ALLAH loves who asks for forgiveness and purify himself:
[Surah al-Baqarah: 222] ALLAH loves the repenters, and HE loves those who are clean.

ALLAH love the steadfast:
[Surah Ali-Imran:146] Many a prophet had godly people fight along with him, without ever wavering under pressure in the cause of ALLAH, nor did they hesitate or become discouraged. ALLAH loves the steadfast.

ALLAH loves the good doer:
[Surah Ali-Imran:148] Consequently, ALLAH granted them the rewards of this world, and the better rewards of the Hereafter. ALLAH loves the good doers.
[Surah Al-A’raf: 31] O Children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer; eat and drink; but waste not by excess, for ALLAH love not the wasters.

ALLAH loves the one that trust only on HIM:
[Surah Ali-Imran:159] It was mercy from ALLAH that you became compassionate towards them. Had you been harsh and mean-hearted, they would have abandoned you. Therefore, you shall pardon them and ask forgiveness for them, and consult them. Once you make a decision, carry out your plan, and trust in ALLAH. ALLAH loves those who trust in HIM.

ALLAH loves the kind and helpful:
[Surah Al-Maidah:13] It was a consequence of their violating the covenant that we condemned them, and we caused their hearts to become hardened. Consequently, they took the words out of context, and disregarded some of the commandments given to them. You will continue to witness betrayal from them, excepting a few of them. You shall pardon them, and disregard them. ALLAH loves those who are benevolent.

ALLAH loves who acts justly:
[Surah Al-Maidah:42] They are upholders of lies, and eaters of illicit earnings. If they come to you to judge among them, you may judge among them, or you may disregard them. If you choose to disregard them, they cannot harm you in the least. But if you judge among them, you shall judge equitably. GOD loves those who are equitable.
[Surah Al-Hujurat:9] If two groups of believers fought with each other, you shall reconcile them. If one group aggresses against the other, you shall fight the aggressing group until they submit to ALLAH's command. Once they submit, you shall reconcile the two groups equitably. You shall maintain justice; ALLAH loves those who are just.

[Surah Al-Mumtahana:8] ALLAH does not enjoin you from befriending those who do not fight you because of religion, and do not evict you from your homes. You may befriend them and be equitable towards them. ALLAH loves the equitable.

ALLAH loves who strive for His cause:
[Surah As-Saff:4] ALLAH loves those who fight in His cause united in one column, like the bricks in one wall.

And do you know whose the one that ALLAH hates? They are the:

the aggressors:
[Surah Al-Baqarah:190] You may fight in the cause of ALLAH against those who attack you, but do not aggress. ALLAH does not love the aggressors.

the disbelievers:
[Surah Ali-Imran:32] Proclaim: "You shall obey ALLAH and the messenger." If they turn away,ALLAH does not love the disbelievers.

those who inflict injustice:
[Surah Ali-Imran:57] As for those who believe and lead a righteous life, He will fully recompense them. ALLAH does not love the unjust.

evil dores:
[Surah Al-Maidah:64] Whenever they ignite the flames of war, ALLAH puts them out. They roam the earth wickedly, and ALLAH dislikes the evildoers.

corruptor:
[Surah Al-Baqarah:205] As soon as he leaves, he roams the earth corruptingly, destroying properties and lives. ALLAH does not love corruption.

those who are arrogant:
[Surah An-Nisa’:36] You shall worship ALLAH alone - do not associate anything with Him. You shall regard the parents, the relatives, the orphans, the poor, the related neighbor, the unrelated neighbor, the close associate, the traveling alien, and your servants. ALLAH does not like the arrogant show-offs.

those who spend lavishly:
[Surah Al-An’am:141] He is the One who established gardens, trellised and untrellised, and palm trees, and crops with different tastes, and olives, and pomegranate - fruits that are similar, yet dissimilar. Eat from their fruits, and give the due alms on the day of harvest, and do not waste anything. He does not love the wasters.

those who does not act upon what he has said:
[Surah As-Saff: 2-3] Glorifying ALLAH is everything in the heavens and everything on earth. He is the Almighty, Most Wise; O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do?

So, what should be do to win ALLAH’s love? There is a hadith narrated by Ibn Majah:

"A man came to the Prophet (saw) and asked him "O ALLAH's Messenger, tell me of something I do to win ALLAH's love and people's love". The Prophet answered "Do not love this world, would love you and do not have a longing for whatever people have, people would love you".

Or, you can just simply held the love upon ALLAH like a hadith that has been narrated by Bukhari:

"God Almighty said: If My servant loves to meet Me, I love to meet him, and if he hates to meet Me, I hate to meet him."

See, how simple we can do to gain His love?
Following are some more benefit of loving ALLAH:

A hadith qudsi narrated by Muslim:

"If ALLAH would love HIS servant HE would call Arch-angel Gabriel and tell him "I love this person, therefore love him." And Gabriel would love him and call out in the heavens "ALLAH loves this person, therefore love him." And the inhabitants of the heavens would love him. Then he would be embraced by the people of this world. But if ALLAH would abhor HIS servant, HE would call Gabriel and tell him "I abhor this person, therefore abhor him". And Gabriel would abhor him and call out in the heavens " ALLAH abhors this person, therefore abhor him." And the inhabitants of the heavens would abhor him. Then he would be abhorred by the people of this world."

You will be very famous among the angels!

Some more hadith:

"There are three characteristics whoever has them will taste the sweetness of faith: that ALLAH and HIS Messenger (saw) are more loved by him than everything else, that he loves or does not love a person only for ALLAH's sake and that he would hate to revert into disbelief just as he would hate to be thrown into fire."

~narrated by Bukhari

"When a man asked the Prophet (saw),"O Messenger of ALLAH, when will the Day of Judgement be?", the Prophet (saw) replied, "What have you prepared for it?" he said, "I have not prepared for it a great deal of prayer, fasting nor charity, but I love ALLAH and HIS Messenger intensely," the Prophet (saw) said, "You will be with those whom you love."

~ narrated by Bukhari

Take an excellent example of a great female sufi called Rabiatul Adhawiyah. Her love to ALLAH made her wake up every night just to pray (dating) and to tell how much she loved HIM. She said:

"O ALLAH! If I worship YOU for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship YOU in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship YOU for YOUR Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty (face).”

ALLAHU’alam.

Wassalam.

Preparing to hibernate...

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Don't get me wrong, it is not the preparation for winter. It is to hibernate myself from all the social events that I have been enjoying for the past two years in Cambridge. I have been always living in an active life style ever since my secondary school. I am a person who doesn't know how to sit still. I'm constantly thinking, working, planning, doing, evaluating, judging, trying, etc. In my secondary school, when I was in my Form 4, I was involved in more that 6 societies in the school and organised other major events for the school like camps, formal ceremonies, etc. It was a tiring year but very fulfilling. I eventually slowed down after my mum showed her anger of me not staying at home as much as I should as a 17-year-old girl!

When I went to the university, leaving my family to stay in the hostel for the first time, my life became more active than ever. Beside studies, of course, the rest of my time is activities, activities & activities. I knew in and out of everything that happened in my college, faculty and even university. Not through gossips but really what I saw and heard first-hand from the people involved. It was a valuable experience as it shaped me into who I am now. I began to think more maturely, all-rounded and more humbly because seeing other people trying to be proud of themselves for what they have done, they actually have no idea how many things are happening out there. I myself too, who might know more than them in some aspects, still have lots more stuff that I don't know. My life changed at the last year of my university after my mum passed away and later when I embraced Islam as my way of life.

As I moved on to the world of employment, I still carried on my active personality. My colleagues commented me as a person that can be seen everywhere in the school and then faculty where I worked. It's only when I was disappointed about some matters that I will be seen sitting still on my desk. I don't mind to be bullied with work loads of others so long as they don't burden me. In fact, it's a good opportunity for me to learn. Working from the lowest level, I learned how the bureaucratic system works. I know what should I do when I have to deal with them in the future. Seeing from their perspective will help me and them to work out things more efficiently.

Now, I am on study leave to do my PhD abroad. Bearing in mind of my responsibility and contract with my employer who is also my sponsor, I keep on busying myself with the extra-curriculum activities in the university. Working through these two years on my study as well as Islamic Society (ISOC), I have never regretted of the time that I have spent. It is a truly paradigm-shifting experience for me. I made more friends who are not just friends but inspirations, assistants, spiritual-companions, advisors, and most of all sisters. They are always there for you when you need them. If these friendships (or rather sisterhood) were bought through all the activities that I have involved in ISOC, I would say, I have not paid enough to buy them. What I have done in ISOC over these two years were mainly emailing, attending circles, participating in ISOC major events and sisters gathering, and then later organised some of them myself or with the help of others after I have figured out how things here work.

The main motivation for me to get active in the school was to get into university as it is one of the main criteria in Malaysia for a non-native student after academic achievement. Later, the reason changed to represent non-native students in the college. And then, when I was working, it is all about gaining extra knowledge and experience for the use of future. But now, it is to make more friends (life friends) and make them happy for the sake of ALLAH. I will smile to see sisters smiling. This is the biggest motivation for me to keep on moving.

Unfortunately, to keep this going, it's time consuming. I have one more year left in Cambridge to complete my PhD and then go home. Like it or not, I have to focus all my time just to do my PhD now. After a PhD seminar yesterday, I have realised that, the time is way ahead of me now. I will have to keep all my desire to do a lot of things for ISOC and the sisters. So, today, I am announcing that I will be hibernating from things that do not concern with my PhD study. I will still keep on with the teaching in the mosque until they find proper teachers to take my place. Whatever events in Cambridge that are spiritually developing, I will still spend some time to attend them. Other than these, my life is all about PhD.

I know it's going to be difficult for me for restraining myself to not to think of the sisters and participate in many of the coming events in ISOC. It will be hard to not to cycle around Cambridge and visit the sisters randomly; it will be hard to not to see the sisters as frequent as I like at ISOC events; it will be hard to not to hit 'reply' whenever I read funny emails from the sisters; it will be hard to not to forward interesting emails and articles to the sisters; it will be hard to not to even check hermes & facebook as frequent as I like (glad that there is not internet connection at home at the moment, so no need to keep on refreshing!). Hey, how can there be success without sacrifice? I hope I'm not sacrificing to much here. I pray that whatever I miss for the purpose of my PhD for the sake of ALLAH, will be compensated for the success of my PhD and my life later.

So, I won't be blogging as much as I was. I'm sorry to say so, but please make du'a for me so that ALLAH make it all easy for us and grant us success.

Wassalam.

Oxbridge Muslim Alumni

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Oxbridge Muslim Alumni is a networking association for Muslims who have studied or are studying in University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, UK. It is a great opportunity for Muslims, who are the minority from the top two universities in UK to meet. At the age of around 3 years old, OMA has done 3 major meetings, producing newsletters and organising some charity events targeting at getting more Muslims to enroll in these two universities for further studies.

Last Saturday was the OMA Reunion/Eid Dinner 2007 at The Guildhall, Cambridge. More than 250 members and their family turned up for the dinner with two guest speakers. What I really enjoyed is not the food, not the speeches but the opportunity to meet sisters, both old and new, Cambridge and Oxford. I didn't eat much nor pay a lot of attention during the speeches. I enjoyed walking around, taking pictures of the smiley faces of the sisters. This is one of the reasons why I like photography.

OMA Reunion/Eid Dinner 2007

Many of the sisters coming all the way from London stayed over at mine after the dinner. A few more other sisters came too to enjoy their companies while they are still in Cambridge, even for a night. This is the sisterhood that I like, the sisterhood that is hard to bond to this extend. May ALLAH bless them all and grant them success in thus Wolrd and the Hereafter. If I eventually have to go back to Malaysia after my study, I pray that there will be plenty of opportunities for me to meet them again and again. If not, may we rejoice in the Hereafter under the shade of HIS Mercy.

Wassalam.

The Last Sermon of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I will never get bored reading this sermon, everytime I read this, new thoughts will come out about my own life, the pass, the present, the future and also about people around me, the society and Islam as a whole. Different emotion while reading it - sad because it's the final sermon by the beloved, happy because I still can read the sermon from the beloved, ashamed because I'm not doing enough as what the beloved said, scare because what has been said is happening and will be happening, enlightened because the sermon gives practical solutions to many problems around us, etc. I would sincerely urge you to read and reflect, contemplate, think deep about each word that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said. As much as he loved his nation (ummah), cried out our name, 'ummati, ummati, ummati' before his last breath, this piece of sermon is like a will that he wanted us to consider seriously in our daily life, now and forever.

There are many narrations of the whole sermon and I hope this link is giving us the most complete piece:

In the name of ALLAH most Gracious most Merciful.

"O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether, after this year, I shall be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am saying to you carefully and take these words to those who could not be present here today.

O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your LORD, and that HE will indeed reckon your deeds. ALLAH has forbidden you to take usury (Interest), therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived.

Beware of Satan, for the safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.

O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers. And it is your right that they do not Make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery.

O People, listen to me in earnest, worship ALLAH, say your five daily prayers (Salah), fast during the month of Ramadhan, and give your wealth in Zakat perform Hajj if you can afford to. You know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. You are all equal. Nobody has superiority over other except by piety and good action.

Remember, one day you will appear before ALLAH and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.

O People, no Prophet or Apostle will come after me and no new faith will be born. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand my words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my example the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray.

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness O ALLAH, that I have conveyed your message to your people."

~ This Sermon was delivered on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, 10 A.H. in the 'Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat by the Prophet Muhammad (saw)

As part of this sermon, the Prophet (saw) recited them a Revelation from ALLAH which he had just received and which completed the Qur’an, for it was the last passage to be revealed:

"This day the disbelievers despair of prevailing against your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me (ALLAH)! This day have I perfected for you your religion and fulfilled My favor unto you, and it hath been My good pleasure to choose Islam for you as your religion."

~ The Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-Maidah (Chapter 5, The Food) verse 3

The sermon was repeated sentence by sentence by Safwan's brother Rabiah (ra), who had a powerful voice, at the request of the Prophet and he faithfully proclaimed to over ten thousand gathered on the occasion. Toward the end of his sermon, the Prophet asked “O people, have I faithfully delivered unto you my message?" A powerful murmur of assent “O ALLAH, yes!", arose from thousands of pilgrims and the vibrant words “Allahumma na’m” rolled like thunder throughout the valley. The Prophet raised his forefinger and said: “Be my witness O ALLAH, that I have conveyed your message to your people."

I hope I have done the job of conveying his (saw) message.

Wassalam.

Cover or not? (Hijab or not?)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

This is a very controversial topic, not just among the Muslims but also the non-Muslims. I never intend to make this into an issue to anyone or for myself, but something that happened yesterday triggers me to think about it and I decided to share it. Your comments are most welcome. I was in the prayer room and a fresher sister came to prayer Asr. She is not a hijabi but she never missed her prayer. When we were talking about different Asr timing for Hanafi and non-Hanafi, I asked her, "Your family must have a prayer timetable at home, right? Just follow it if you are not sure". She then said that none of her family actually prays. So, she only gets the prayer timetable from her friends. It's actually her friends who encourage her to become more practising. Before I came to UK, I thought that many of the non-hijabis are not really practising Muslims, although not all together but majority. My view changes a little when I'm in UK after a debate with friends and self-argument, but still I believe that it is always best to put hijab on, for many reasons which I'll explain later. Yesterday I was thinking, OMG it is awfully bad to judge a non-hijabi sister like that. She is like a baby, who only starts to learn how to crawl and already someone thinks that she should be running now! She just learns the 5 pillars and tries to practise them as much as she can (while there's no family support), there is no way that we can do more than that at this stage. Astaghfirullah. Of course, I didn't say anything further after realised that her family are not practising.

In Islam, as far as the evidence from the Qur'an, there are 2 verses that many Muslim scholars from the past until now, quote and judge that the wearing of hijab is compulsory for a Muslim woman who reaches puberty and if she is in front of her non-mahram (male, none close relatives, of course not your father, brother, uncle, grandfather, son, husband etc.).

"And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their headcoverings (khimars) to cover their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their beauty except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or what their right hands rule (slaves), or the followers from the men who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide of their adornments. And turn in repentance to Allah together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful"

~ The Holy Qur'an, Surah An-Nur (Chapter 24, The Light) verse 31

O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the faithful to draw their outergarments (jilbabs) close around themselves; that is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And ALLAH is ever Forgiving, Gentle.

~ Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-Ahzab (Chapter 33, The Confederates) verse 59

Many people tend to try and interpret the verses above according to their own shallow understanding thus making the obligation to wear hijab as commanded by ALLAH into something being taken easily. The thing is, if you have not studied the Qur'an, not memorising the Qur'an, not memorising the hadith, not learning Tafsir Qur'an, 'Ulum al-Quran (The Science of the Qur'an), Asbab un-Nuzul (The Reasons behind the revelation of each verse of the Qur'an), the Sirah (The Islamic History) in depth, not practising, not pious (God fearing) and close to ALLAH to understand HIS will, who are you to tell what do these 2 verses really mean? Or are you just want to be like the Bani Israil explained in the Qur'an, who only guessed the meanings of the Scriptures sent to them, and then made their own laws wrongly thus earned ALLAH's anger? Made the lawful into unlawful and made the unlawful into lawful.

Below are the interpretations of the first verse presented above by two major Muslim scholars in the Interpretation of the Qur'an (Tafsir):

"Women in those days used to cover their heads with the khimar, throwing its ends upon their backs. This left the neck and the upper part of the chest bare, along with the ears, in the manner of the Christians. Then ALLAH commanded them to cover those parts with the khimar."

~ Interpreted by Imam Abu Abdullah Qurtubi (Maliki School of Thought)

"'Extend their khimars to cover their bosoms' means that they should wear the khimar in such a way that they cover their chests so that they will be different from the women of the jahiliyyah who did not do that but would pass in front of men with their chests uncovered and with their necks, forelocks, and earrings uncovered."

~ Interpreted by Imam Abu'l-Fida ibn Kathir (Shafi'i School of Thought)

Those are the interpretation by well-learned, well-known and knowledgeable Muslim scholars in the field of Qur'an Translation and Interpretation. They studied the Qur'an in their whole life, so are we better than them in this field to make our own interpretation (simply to fulfill our own desire)? It's as though a secondary school student who has just learnt about the First Newton Law and wanted to challenge a Professor in Physics! Hilarious! You don't play about with Science but you make fun of religious knowledge!

In the Prophetic tradition, it is clear that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) did the below action:

"Aishah (ra) reported that Asma’, the daughter of Abu Bakr (ra) came to the Messenger of ALLAH (saw) while wearing thin clothing. He (saw) approached her and said: 'O Asma’! When a girl reaches the menstrual age, it is not proper that anything should remain exposed except this and this. He (saw) pointed to the face and hands."

~ Narrated by Imam Abu Dawud>

So, do we want to say NO to the commands by ALLAH & HIS Messenger (saw)? Even all the Imams of all the 4 Sunni Schools of Thought say that it is obligatory to observe this religious duty. Now, I don't like to use the word 'hijab' as it only indicates the need to cover your head. I would like to use the word 'covering nakedness', this would be more appropriate than the word hijab. You can wear hijab but still exposing your arms or other part of the nakedness (awrah). And also, the word hijab has been abused by the media into a negative picture. Hey, by the way, virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, also wore a hijab. Don't believe me? Click this. What about the nuns? Also, in Jainism (a type of religion in India), look at how their women dress. What about orthodox Jewish women? Don't they cover their head too after marriage? And so many more examples of women from the past (I mean before Islam) until now observe this duty. Well, obviously cause Islam is not a new religion! Books and Scriptures have been sent down to mankind from the One and Only GOD.

Anyway, go back to the main point of this post. Yes, covering nakedness for a Muslim woman over the age of puberty in front of non-mahram men is an obligation. There might be certain cases that you can opt not to, especially if it will (or potentially) endanger your life, from other people or from health problem. This is understood and many Muslim scholars accepted that as a valid reason. But, nowadays, how many of the non-hijabis are really in this kind of situation? This is an endless debate which I do not wish to get involved in my blog. I respect whatever your reason is as long as you are truthful to ALLAH. The difference in opinions is a form of mercy from ALLAH. So, you do whatever you think is correct after praying hard to HIM to show you the right way. If not, please do not impose your opinion to others, you won't know if you are spreading the right thing or the wrong thing as whatever the consequence is, you will get the share even after your death. This sentence apply to myself too, and especially to myself as you are now reading my opinion, which of course by no means that I want to 'force' you to accept it, just think about it.

Having said so that wearing hijab is an obligation, in length, now go back to my fresher sister, for her, it is already hard to observe the daily prayers, to put on one more duty, probably will scare her off and put her off the religion if she is not strong enough. We should not judge her as a 'bad' Muslim, simply because she is a non-hijabi, because we don't know her intention and the story behind. Judge ourselves first before we look at others! I pray that, the more she goes near to ALLAH by observing the 5 pillars, she will finally come to other obligations too. Please make du'a for her and other sisters too.

Now, think about this. If Islam can be seen like a GCSE or A-Level or SPM or STPM examination, then think of each obligation is like a paper, you have English, Maths, Science, etc. and you may get A, B, C, D, E and so on for different paper. So I can't judge your performance based on 1 paper. It has to be taken as a whole. Same to Islam, simply because a person fail the Awrah paper, it doesn't mean that she mush have failed in Islam. She might get A* in Salah paper, Wudhu paper, Ihsan paper, etc. Talking about Ihsan, when we wear hijab or cover our nakedness properly, are we doing it for the sake of ALLAH?

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

p/s: Later this evening, I met another fresher sister and she used to be a non-hijabi, but then, after she be friended with a sister who doesn't judge her like other do, she became closer to Islam and now she is a hijabi, with good manner, smiley and doing her PhD in Oriental Studies (good in Arabic too, she is not an Arab). Alhamdulillah. So, we should stop being judgemental on others so to bring others closer to the religion.