Tiga Golongan yang didoakan Kecelakaan keatasnya

Pada suatu hari, sedang Nabi Muhammad SAW menaiki mimbarnya untuk berkhutbah, sahabat-sahabatnya mendengar Baginda bersabda “Amin” di anak tangga pertama. Di anak tangga kedua, Baginda mengulangi “Amin”, dan seterusnya di anak tangga ketiga, sekali lagi Baginda mengulangi “Amin”. Setelah selesai sembahyang Baginda telah ditanya oleh sahabat-sahabatnya tentang apa yang Baginda aminkan ketika menaiki mimbarnya tadi. Baginda telah bersabda dan menerangkan bahawa Baginda telah mendengar Jibrail AS mendoakan kecelakaan untuk tiga gulungan manusia.

Pertama, Jibrail AS mendoakan kecelakaan untuk mereka yang tidak berselawat ke atasnya apabila mendengar nama Baginda disebut, dan Baginda mengaminkannya.

Kedua, Jibrail AS mendoakan kecelakaan untuk mereka yang mempunyai ibu-bapa (iaitu yang masih hidup) tetapi tidak berbakti kepada mereka, dan Baginda juga mengaminkannya.

Dan

Ketiga, Jibrail mendoakan kecelakaan untuk mereka yang membiarkan Ramadan berlalu tanpa diampunkan dosa-dosa mereka (iaitu mereka tidak bersungguh-sungguh mencari keampunan di bulan Ramadan). Baginda juga mengaminkannya.

Jangan dibiarkan Ramadan ini berlalu begitu sahaja. Lipat-gandakanlah amal ibadat pada bulan Ramadan ini. 

PENAWAR HATI, Bab I: Memelihara Anggota Yang Tujuh

Setiap anggota yang dicipta Allah SWT untuk kita mempunyai keupayaan tersendiri yang boleh dimanfaatkan untuk hidup kita di dunia ini. Selain itu, anggota-anggota ini juga boleh di gunakan untuk melakukan, sama ada dengan cara langsung atau tidak langsung, perkara-perkara yang merupakan atau membawa kepada berlakunya pengabdian kepada Allah SWT. Dengan cara menggunakan anggota-anggota ini hanya di jalan yang diredaiNya, kita menzahirkan kesyukuran kita di atas kurniaanNya dan dengan kesyukuran, maka berkekalan dan bertambahlah nikmat.

Mata

Allah SWT telah menciptakan mata yang memberi kita keupayaan untuk melihat. Ia membantu kita dalam menjalankan hidup seharian di dunia ini dengan membolehkan kita berusaha mencari rezeki(*3), dan mengelakkan diri dari perkara-perkara yang boleh menyakitkan, seperti terjatuh atau berlaga sesama sendiri. Sebaliknya, mata juga membolehkan kita melihat langit, matahari, bulan, bintang DLL sebagai dalil (bukti) kewujudan Allah SWT, keesaannya, dan kekuasaannya, selain untuk melihat Al-Quran, jalan untuk pergi ke masjid dan tempat-tempat menuntut ilmu, yang semuanya membawa kebaikan di Akhirat.

Sebagai langkah menzahirkan  kesyukuran di atas kurniaan mata, kita perlulah memelihara mata daripada melihat semua yang haram (yang ditegah), seperti melihat perempuan selain isteri kita yang sah, hamba sahaya kita, dan muhrim kita. Begitu juga, kita diharamkan melihat aurat orang lain walaupun sesama lelaki.(*4).      

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Nota dari penterjemah:

*3 Apabila kegiatan mencari rezeki dibatasi kepada yang halal sahaja dan kemudiannya rezeki ini digunakan di atas jalan Allah SWT, ia juga menjadi ibadat yang membawa keuntungan di hari Akhirat.

  

*4 Ayat in di tujukan kepada kaum lelaki, dan ia hanya merupakan beberapa misalan daripada perkara yang ditegah. Perkara yang ditegah untuk lelaki biasanya juga ditegah untuk perempuan.  

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Dengan itu kita perlulah membiasakan diri dalam memelihara mata dengan menjauhkan –

diri dari memandang perkara-perkara yang ditegah. Firman Allah SWT di dalam Al-

Quran, Surah An-Nur ) النور ), Ayat 30:

قل للمؤمنين يغضوا من ابصارهم ويحفظوا فروجهم

ذلك ازكى لهم ان الله خبير بما يصنعون

Maksudnya:

Katakanlah (ya Rasulullah) kepada mereka yang beriman, bahawa hendaklah mereka memejamkan mata (supaya mereka tidak melihat perkara yang tidak harus mereka lihat), dan memelihara faraj (iaitu kemaluan) mereka (supaya mereka tidak melakukan apa yang haram dilakukan dengannya). Demikian itu lebih baik bagi mereka. Sesungguhnya Allah SWT maha mengetahui apa yang mereka lakukan (sama ada zahir atau pun batin dan setiap perbuatan akan menerima pembalasan daripada Allah SWT.).

Di dalam Ayat yang tersebut di atas, terdapat tiga unsur, iaitu unsur perintah untuk berkelakuan baik, unsur penerangan, dan unsur ugutan.

Dengan firmannya yang bermaksud “Katakanlah kepada mereka yang beriman, bahawa hendaklah mereka memejamkan mata dan memelihara faraj mereka.”, Allah SWT memerintahkan hambanya supaya berkelakuan baik dengan tidak memandang kepada perkara yang diharamkan untuk mereka, dan memelihara faraj mereka daripada digunakan dengan cara yang tidak halal (tidak dibenarkan). Di dalam hal ini, adalah wajib bagi seorang hamba mentaati perintah Tuhannya. Sekiranya ia ingkar, ia adalah seorang yang jahat dan patutlah ia dimurkai dan diseksa.        

Seterusnya, melalui firmanNya yang bermaksud, “Demikian itu (memejamkan mata dan memelihara faraj) lebih baik bagi mereka.” Allah SWT menerangkan bahawa perbuatan sedemikian adalah keduanya perantaraan untuk membersihkan hati dari segala dosa dan membanyakkan kebajikan.

Unsur ugutan pula terkandung di dalam firman Allah SWT yang bermaksud, “Sesungguhnya Allah SWT maha mengetahui apa yang mereka lakukan.”. Setiap perbuatan diketahui Allah SWT dan akan menerima balasan yang setimpal daripadaNya. Perbuatan yang baik akan dibalas dengan pahala, kesenangan dan Syurga. Sebaliknya, perbuatan jahat akan dibalas dengan seksa dan Api Neraka.

Di dalam Al-Quran, Allah SWT berfirman dalam Surah Ghafir (غافر), Ayat 19:

يعلم خائنة الاعين وما تخفي الصدور

Maksudnya:

Dia (Allah SWT) mengetahui pengkhianatan yang dilakukan setiap mata (iaitu mata mencuri-curi untuk memandang kepada apa yang diharamkan) dan apa yang tersembunyi di dalam hati ( sama ada cita-cita untuk mengerjakan kejahatan atau untuk kebaikan).

Di riwayat kan Al-Hakim daripada Huzaifah RA bahawa Nabi Muhammad SAW pernah bersabda seperti berikut:

ان النظر الى محاسن المرأة سهم مسموم من سهام ابليس

فمن تركها أذا قه الله تعالى طعم عبادة تسره

Maksudnya:

Sesungguhnya, memandang kecantikan tubuh wanita itu adalah seperti terkena anak panah terbisa di antara anak-anak panah Iblis (yang sangat membinasakan). Sesiapa yang tidak melakukannya (kerana takut akan Allah SWT), Allah SWT akan mengurniakan kemanisan beramal ibadah, yang akan menggembirakannya.

Diriwayatkan oleh Muslim dan Al-Baihaqi daripada Abu Hurairah RA, Nabi Muhammad SAW pernah bersabda seperti berikut:

لكل ابن ادم حظه من الزنا فالعينان تزنيان وزنا هما النظر

واليدان تزنيان وزنا هما البطش والرجلان تزنيان وزنا هما المشي

والفم يزنى وزناه التقبيل والقلب يهم ويصدق ذلك الفرج او يكذبه

Maksudnya:

Pada setiap anak Adam terdapat sebahagian dari zina; kedua matanya berzina apabila ia memandang (apa yang tidak harus dipandang), kedua tangannya berzina apabila ia memukul (apa yang dilarang memukulnya), kedua kakinya berzina apabila ia berjalan (menuju tempat yang haram didatangi), dan mulutnya berzina apabila ia mengucup (apa yang tidak halal dikucup). Hatinya berkehendak dan yang demikian itu dibenarkan oleh farajnya (lalu ia melakukan zina), atau pun kehendak itu ditentang (lantas dia terhalang dari melalukan zina).

 

Hadis ini antara lain menerangkan bahawa setiap perbuatan zina itu bermula dari kedua biji mata.

Secara keseluruhan, kita hendaklah menilai anggota tubuh kita dari sudut perbuatan yang sesuai untuknya dan kesudahan yang diinginkan untuknya. Kemudian hendaklah kita memelihara anggota-anggota kita dengan cara yang akan menjanjikan ia mampu mencapai kesudahan yang diinginkan. Semakin tinggi keinginan, semakin bersungguh-sungguhlah anggota itu perlu dipelihara. Kesudahan yang diinginkan untuk kaki misalnya, ialah ia akan berjalan di taman-taman Syurga dan di dalam mahligainya. Untuk tangan pula, kesudahan yang diinginkan ialah ia akan mencapai minuman dan memetik buah-buahan di Syurga. Begitulah juga anggota yang lain.      

Kesudahan yang paling hebat yang boleh diimpikan untuk mata ialah ia akan melihat Zat Allah SWT di dalam Syurga. Tidak terdapat di dunia mahupun di Akhirat, suatu nikmat yang melebihi nikmat melihat Zat Allah SWT. Oleh yang demikian mata, yang diimpikan untuknya sebesar-besar nikmat, perlulah dipelihara dengan penuh azam, dan dimuliakan dengan setinggi-tinggi kemuliaan. Janganlah ia dikotorkan dengan memandang kepada perkara-perkara yang haram.

Listening to Lectures and Sermons in Mosques

Most people appear to be unaware of the value of listening to talks at the mosques. We are all familiar with the terms ‘kuliah’, ‘tazkirah’, and ‘khutbah’ as it applies to activities in mosques. Essentially these are occasions when a learned speaks to an audience in a mosque, either on a religious subject or a subject having a bearing on religious life. Many who attend the Taraweh prayers, for example, leave the prayer hall when the tazkirah starts, and only come back when the tazkirah ends; some go off to a warong for coffee or even home for a very short break if they live very close by. Some choose to go to a mosque where they do not have a tazkirah session. If you live in places like Taman Melawati, i.e., at the border between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, that would be easy to do.

It seems illogical to want to attend the taraweh prayers that is a ‘solat sunat’, but to purposely avoid listening to the tazkirah, which can be worth 500 ‘raka’ats’ or even 1000 raka’ats of solats. (Check out the Kitab Matla’ Al-Badrain [ مطلع البدرين ] under Kitab Fadhilat ’Ilmu. This was used as a basic text when I attended religious schooling in Johore Baru in the late 50’s and early 60’s. But be prepared to encounter a very peculiar type of Malay language. I understand a Romanised version is now available. A sampling: Barangsiapa belajar satu bab daripada ’ilmu supaya di ‘’amalkan dengan dia dan mengajar akan dia orang lainnya adalah terlebih baik baginya daripada lima ratus raka’atbyang diruku’nya akan dia, dan . . . .) All you have to do is sit quietly and listen for 20 to 30 minutes, or even slightly longer. You can even find a pillar or a wall to lean against sitting and stretching your legs; just make sure where your legs are pointed (not at the Qiblat and not at somebody’s face).

Granted, that occasionally you get a speaker who is not too nice to listen to. But most of the time the ustaz types are good speakers. And remember that even a fool may have something of value to say if you listen hard enough. As they say, if you look with the eye of a honey bee you will always find nectar, but if you look with the eye of a ‘langau’ (that specie of fly that always ‘keromon’ shit) you will always find shit. Listen and you are a winner twice over: once for listening and second for just being in a masjid, a House of God.

Penawar Hati - Introduction

Appended below is the first instalment of the translation of the Kitab Penawar Bagi Hati, as yet unedited. 

Penawar Hati

Terjemahan Dari Karya Asal

Berjudul

Penawar Bagi Hati

Oleh

Ash-Syeikh Abdul Qadir Bin Abdul Muttalib Al-Indonesi

Pendahuluan

Ilmu Tasawuf  merupakan satu cabang ilmu yang mengkaji dan menerangkan perihal tindak-tanduk dan tingkah-laku hati, sama ada yang mulia dan terpuji seperti merendah diri dan bersabar, mahupun yang keji dan tercela seperti berdengki dan membesar diri. Ia menjurus kepada pengosongan hati daripada semua perkara selain Allah, dan menghias serta mengisinya hanya dengan ingatan kepada Allah SWT, tuhan seluruh alam.

Inti pati dan terasnya adalah hati manusia, dan ini dilambangkan melalui tindak-tanduk dan tingkah-lakunya. Adalah menjadi satu kewajipan, iaitu fardu ‘ain, ke atas semua yang berakal dan cukup umur untuk memahami perkara ini.

Ilmu Tasawuf ialah sesuatu yang berasaskan apa yang terkandung di dalam Al-Quran dan hadis Nabi SAW. Ia bertujuan membersihkan beberapa anggota zahir yang tertentu daripada semua bentuk perbuatan keji, sehingga akhirnya ia melahirkan hati yang bersih daripada semua sifat-sifat yang keji dan tercela. Anggota zahir yang dimaksudkan di sini merangkumi tujuh anggota, iaitu mata, telinga, lidah, perut, faraj, tangan dan kaki.(*1)

Kita hendaklah sentiasa sedar bahawa anggota badan kita adalah suatu nikmat dari Allah SWT yang sangat tinggi nilainya. Dengan itu, kita wajiblah bersyukur di atas kurniaanNya dan anggota-anggota ini wajib kita pelihara dengan baik(*2). Jika kita gagal memeliharanya dengan baik, semua anggota ini akan menjadi saksi yang mendakwa kita di hadapan Allah SWT di Hari Kiamat. Allah SWT berfirman di dalam Al-Quran , Surah Ya-Sin (يس), Ayat 65:

اليوم نختم على افواههم وتكلمنا ايديهم وتشهد ارجلهم

بما كانوا يكسبون

  

Maksudnya:

Di hari itu (Hari Kiamat), kami tutup mulut-mulut mereka (iaitu mereka terhalang daripada berkata-kata) dan tangan-tangan mereka serta kaki-kaki mereka akan berkata-kata kepada kami tantang apa yang telah mereka lakukan (semasa hidup di dunia).

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Nota Dari Penterjemah:

*1 Anggota-anggota ini melambangkan daya untuk melakukan perbuatan. Mata misalnya melambangkan daya melihat, dan telinga pula melambangkan kuasa mendengar. Lidah melambangkan daya untuk berkata-kata dan ia merangkumi juga semua anggota lain yang digunakan untuk berkata-kata seperti mulut dan kotak suara. Begitu juga dengan perut yang antara lain melambangkan daya untuk makan dan minum merangkumi juga mulut, lidah, tekak, DLL,. Dalam kitab ini, perut sebensarnya merijuk kepada keseluruhan bahagian tubuh yang terletak di antara leher dan paha, iaitu bahagian yang di kenali sebagai ‘torso’ dalam bahasa Inggeris.

*2 Anggota-anggota perlu dipelihara supaya sentiasa berada dalam keadaan yang baik, tidak disia-siakan, serta tidak digunakan untuk tujuan yang tidak seharusnya.     

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Setiap anggota akan berkata-kata dan menjadi saksi yang memperakukan semua perbuatan yang mereka sendiri telah lakukan. Firman Allah SWT di dalam Al-Quran, Surah Fussilat (  فصلت), Ayat 22:

وما كنتم تستترون ان يشهد عليكم سمعكم ولا ابصاركم ولا جلودكم

Maksudnya:

Dan kamu tidak dapat bersembunyi (ketika melakukan kejahatan di dalam dunia), melainkan disaksikan oleh telinga mu, mata mu, dan kulit mu. 

  

Kita tidak akan dapat menyembunyikan perbuatan kita daripada disaksikan oleh anggota tubuh kita sendiri. Anggota tubuh kita sentiasa bersama kita di setiap masa dan di semua tempat. Apa yang mampu kita lakukan ialah meninggalkan semua bentuk kejahatan sama sekali.

Wallahu Wa’lam

Ramadan is a Gift: Take advantage of it.

The month of Ramadan is a special gift to us. Besides the gifts of Rahmah, Maghfirah and the opportunity to be saved from the Hellfire, which I have covered earlier, there is this night called the Lailat-ul-Qadr translatable into English as the Night of Power, during which night the fate of the Universe and all therein are determined and decreed (hence I had referred to it as the Night of Determination in an earlier entry). In their translation of the Holy Qur-an, Darussalam Publishers and Distributors translated the Lailat-ul-Qadr as the Night of Decree. The Lailat-ul-Qadr can be any one of the last ten nights in the month of Ramadan, but nobody knows when it falls each year. The worth of any act of worship and servitude performed that particular night is multiplied 30000 times at the least, for that one night is better (more) than a thousand month. However, since nobody knows as to when the Lailat-ul-Qadr falls each year, pious Muslims spend every single one of the final ten nights in the month of Ramadan holding vigil, performing prayers, reciting the Qur-an, chanting zikrullah, and performing other such acts of pious worship and servitude. The Prophet SAW is reported to have spent the last ten nights of Ramadan each year at the mosque. The gift of Lailat-ul-Qadr is in recognition of our relatively short life spans compared with those of earlier ummahs.

At this juncture, it is appropriate to highlight the position of the mosque in Islam. The mosque is first and foremost a House of God, and whoever visits a House of God is a guest of Allah SWT. Yes, it is true that we are already His guest wherever we are, since we inhabit His earth. Still, visiting a house specially dedicated to His worship makes us quite another type of guest. Just to be present at a mosque, without doing anything else, is already considered a deed of piety. Those who show reluctance to visit, or feels bored at a mosque, cannot therefore be considered as someone who welcomes the opportunity to be His guest. One day, we will all be gathered on the Plains of Mahsyar, craving to be His guest in Paradise. Can we really consider ourselves worthy of the privilege to be His guest then, if we do not cherish the idea of being his guest now?

Men are supposed to perform the ritual solat prayers in congregation at the mosque under normal circumstances, unless there is no mosque available. For women however, it depends on circumstances. If she is going in circumstances that can create fitnah, than its better that she stays home. Likewise, if by her going she deprives a man the chance to perform his obligatory Friday prayer (that he must perform in congregation at a mosque), whereas it is not compulsory for her, then she should also stay at home. However, when these limiting circumstances do not exist, e.g., when there is no risk of fitnah, she should go. For example, a woman can go in the company of the husband or a brother.

A lot of things take place in a mosque. Besides the congregational prayers, there are the lectures, tazkirahs, etc., that take place in between the prayers. Attendance at such ‘majlis ilmu” is often likened to being in one of the gardens of Paradise. I have been told that there are hadis saying that the value of such attendance exceeds that of performing the non-obligatory prayers many folds. Certainly, there are occasions when you feel that the Ustaz is not worth listening to, because he has nothing to say that is worth listening to. But I have heard that the honey bee will always find nectar although the house fly will always find the rotten wherever they may be.

The month of Ramadan should be spent performing pious deeds and abstaining from all things forbidden. This gift of a month when all good deeds are magnified many folds (some say at least seventy folds) should thus be spent cleansing ourselves of our accumulated sins by performing all manner of pious acts of servitude. One Ustaz likened the month of Ramadan to a madrasah or a university. The core subject is the fast and the electives are the zikrullah, the charity, the supplementary prayers (of which the taraweh is only one), the recitation of the Qur-an, etc. We cannot expect to do well by passing the core subject only. We must also do well in the electives. Otherwise we will not graduate. Malaysians seems to spend too much time and money on the Hari Raya, which in many instances go against the grain of Islamic teaching. Wastefulness and partying with free mingling between people of the opposite sexes seems to be the usual way of celebrating the end of Ramadan.

We should all take advantage of this month of Ramadan. Just because we are still young, or think we are still young, it does not mean that we can wait to repent when we get old. Does anybody really know how much time he or she has? So don’t wait. Repent and adhere to the requirements of being a Muslim, starting now. Start with the Obligatory Solats. Do not miss it ever again. And Do it early, not at the last minute. Arrange your affairs around it and not arrange it around your other affairs. In Islam there is an order of priorities. Allah SWT is always first. The Prophet SAW comes next. All others come after them. Children (including even grown ups) are supposed to listen to their mothers followed by the fathers, but only after Allah SWT and the Prophet SAW. Married women have to listen to their husbands, but again, only after Allah SWT and the Prophet SAW.

Second Day of Ramadan

I had intended to post some excerpt from the the 'Penawar Bagi Hati' kitab today. But something went wrong with my desktop and the material is in the hard disc. I am now working on my laptop.

As is the practice at many mosque in Selangor, our mosque also breaks the taraweh prayers into two parts with a tazkirah session inserted between. There are some who were not too happy when the system ws first introduced, because they just want to get it over with and go home. Just as there are those who object to Imams who read slightly long surahs during the prayers. As for me, I find the sessions quite relaxing. I don't know if the majority shares my view, but I'm quite sure that the majority of those who are regulars at the mosque (those who frequent the mosque everyday, and not just on Fridays and for the taraweh) agree with me. I think that the majority don't really mind one way or the other.

Today the tazkirah was delivered by Ustaz Abu Bakar Yang, a fellow of IKIM (Institute Kefahaman Islam Malaysia) who happens to also be our Nazir. A tazkirah is not meant to be a teaching session. Its purpose is similar to that of the Friday sermons, i.e. to remind and to exhort. I think that's what some are not keen to listen to, just like there are some who come late for the Friday prayers, purposely missing out on the sermon. They also immediately leave after the Hari Raya prayers, not staying back to listen to the sermon, which is really one of the rukuns (must do parts) of the rite.

Among the things mentioned was that the month of Ramadan is when Allah SWT grants us three invaluable gifts. The first third of the month is when He dispenses forgiveness (maghfirah). The second ten days is when He grants his blessings/favours (Rahmah). Or is it the other way round? Well does it really matter? And the third ten days, which includes the Night of Determination (Lailatul Qadr), is when He grants us protection from the Hellfire. These are for those who seek it in earnest.

Talking about seeking the pleasure of Allah SWT in earnest, there are three categories of people who fast. First, there are those who abstain from food, drinks and sex from sun up to sun down, period. They continue to talk bad about others (mengumpat), or play the numbers, or waste time or material, or look at and listen to what's forbidden, etc. etc. These are those who gain nothing but hunger and thirst. Next are those whose fast extend to all their senses and they abstain from all manner of misdemeanors, filling their days and nights with prayers and other ibadats, including acts of charity. Next are those whose fast is complete; even to think of what to eat when they break their fast is considered an aberration. We should at least aspire to be amongst the second group. Let's muhasabah ourselves in honesty. There are things difficult to achieve, e.g. controlling your thoughts. But there are also those that are easy to do things if we want to; attend to them.

He also spoke about the need to remember our parents, dead or alive. Those whose parents have passed away should remember them in prayers. Those whose parents are yet alive should know what are due to them. He also spoke about the need for parents to set the proper example for their children. If parents don't perform the solat, or perform it only when convenient, the children will do even less.

These are the gists of what was delivered. Most certainly, there are a lot more elaborations, interspersed with quotes from the Quran and Hadis, as well as examples. Something that I heard for the first time today: There was an occassion when the Prophet SAW recited three long surahs at one go, starting with the Al-Baqarah, during a solat. If that happens today, I think the Imam will be left standing alone.

Ramadan Message to My Family

I have not done any updating for a while. I have been principally occupied with a personal project that I had hoped to complete before the beginning of the fasting month, and decided to drop everything else in the meantime. Nevertheless I have decided to make this entry today, on this auspicious beginning of the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, to address those for whom I am still, or had once been responsible for, in this life and the next.

First, a little on what had been occupying me recently that is outside the usual business of day to day living. I had recently come across a book written in the early part of the last century, in the Malay language typical of religious writings of the period entitled ‘Penawar Bagi Hati’ (perhaps, translatable into English as ‘Balm for the Heart’). Well, maybe ‘had recently come across’ is not exactly accurate, since it had been and is still being used by one of the visiting ustaz’s (teachers) at the local mosque as the basis for his monthly lectures. It was just that I had never looked at it before. The contents would fall into the realm of Tasawuf (Sufism), which on close examination interested me deeply and thus I felt that I just had to share it with others, especially those closest to me.

The trouble is that it is written in the Arabic script and as observed earlier, in the peculiar difficult to understand language used in religious writings of the period. To top it all, as is also typical of its genre of writings, the visual presentation is also something that an average reader today would find rather daunting. There is hardly any punctuation and hardly any paragraphing, such that you can sometimes have difficulty even trying to determine where one sentence ends and where another starts. Imagine a continuous stream of hand written Arabic scripts that visually seems like one continuous sentence, indeed like one very very very long word, from the first to the last letter on a page. Yet therein is contained an immense volume of what would be or should be of interest to a true Muslim. I therefore decided to translate the book, first into contemporary Malay written in Romanized scripts, and then after proper editing by those with more expertise than I on the subject of Sufism and the Arabic language, into English.

The task had proven quite a bit more difficult than initially envisaged and instead of having completed the entire exercise by today, I am only halfway through the unedited first draft. Nevertheless, I will start posting excerpts from the yet to be edited draft tonight. It is my hope that at least those closest to me will take a few minutes each day to read the excerpts that I will post daily.

As every father and every husband, I am entrusted with the religious education of my wife and children, something that I have to accept whether or not I like it, as is my wife equally responsible where it concerns our children. We each will answer before God for our failings thereon, I as husband and father, she as mother. In the realm of religious upbringing my wife is only responsible to me, but not for me. Unfortunately, I may have failed all of you in this sacred duty, for how can I properly lead when I had not been well equipped to do so. Without realizing it, the example I set had not been what is required and the values I portrayed had not been entirely Islamic. This effort, in some small way is my attempt at atonement. Please find it in all your hearts to forgive me.

As we go along, the direction in which I now want to go will become apparent. I do not pretend that I am anywhere near, but it is where I wish to be. Come along with me. I will need your support and we will prosper together in the way Allah intended. I am not an expert, but we can learn by reading and listening to the true experts. And we will try to put into practice what we have learnt.

It had taken me almost fifty years of adulthood to finally realize my errors, and I thank Allah SWT for allowing me the amount of time needed to finally see the light. I pray daily that all of you will also be given the time needed. For a long time I had lived believing that being a Muslim means believing in the six Articles of Faith, adhering to the five Pillars of Islam, and not doing any of the expressly forbidden, period. We then trust in the infinite kindness of Allah SWT to forgive us our sins while we merrily go on spending most of the means Allah SWT had put at our disposal on self indulgence, while continuing to commit ‘small’ sins and even ‘big’ sins all along the way. In truth there is no such thing as a small sin. There are only big sins and bigger sins, for every sin consciously committed is an act of willful disobedience against the divine will of Allah SWT, and if one were to die without having truly repented, one would have died in willful disobedience. True repentance means absolute abstinence from ever knowingly committing sins. In his infinite kindness, Allah SWT will forgive us our sins when unknowingly committed. But will sins knowingly and continuously committed because we are willfully disobedient ever be forgiven? I wonder.

We are all familiar with the idea of ‘muhasabah diri’ and we tell each other that we should ‘muhasabah diri sendiri’. I now list a few of what should be the yardstick:

Every time we perform the solat, we recite the Iftitah which includes the oath that we dedicate our entire lives to God, yet in reality how much of our means are dedicated to Him? I answer for myself and you each answer for you to yourselves.

God proclaims in the Holy Quran that he did not create mankind (or the race of jinn) except to serve Him. Did we in practice serve Him more than we served ourselves?

Allah SWT proclaims in the Quran that he will create mankind to serve as the Khalifah on earth. The Khalifah in Islamic nomenclature is not the lord and master of the human developed feudal system. The Khalifah is someone who serves. Notice that the Saudi king is called the Khadam (as opposed to King) of the two Forbidden Cities and Islamic history records Khalifahs and Governors living in worldly poverty. Have we lived to prosper the earth as Khalifahs or ourselves as kings?

While I was in Mecca for the Hajj last year, I was told about a real rich Muslim who right of the bat had given away 30% of what ever he earned. Apparently his pious mother had asked him to give away 30% of whatever he earned. So the good son that he was gave away RM 700 of his first pay check of around RM 2000 and has continued the practice ever since. Today he is billionaire, but there is no conspicuous consumption. He takes for consumption only what is reasonable by the standards of ordinary middle class people. No Rolls- Royce, not even an S-class. No RM5000 shirts, no luxury yachts. Where does the rest of the money go to? Well, they go to charity and to the creation of more employment opportunities. God bless him.

Let us celebrate this Ramadan as a month of piety and repentance. That is what it is meant to be.

Obedient Wives' Club

The New Straits Times of June 7, 2011, on page 18 under the main heading of ‘Obedient wives’, had carried four articles responding to something said by a Dr. Rohaya Mohamed, Vice-President of something called the “Obedient Wives’ Club” after the launch of its Malaysian chapter. Apparently she had said that, “A man married to a woman who is as good or better than a prostitute in bed has no reason to stray”. (Microsoft Word set to U.K. English, corrected “as good or better” to “as good as or better”.)

Poor Dr. Rohaya. Maybe she had hoped for some attention, but I do not think that she expected the vitriolic response. “An insult to women” read the heading of the response from K.T. Maran. “Insult to men, too” was the heading of the response from D. L. (Daniel Lim? Daud Lokman? Or David Lazarus?) “Its not a case of master and slave” was the heading of the response of Jose Mario Dolor De Vega, lecturer, Department of Social Science, School of Humanities and Social Science, Nilai University College, Bandar Baru Nilai, Negri Sembilan. “It’s against Islam’s teachings” was the heading of the response from Ainul Khairil Ezral, the only responder (or is the correct word ‘respondent’? Microsoft Word could not tell) whose name sounded like a Muslim.

I had been wondering about what had actually transpired at the occasion; what was this international organization called the “Obedient Wives’ Club” that has just launched its Malaysian chapter, and who were the members of this club. I was also wondering why this very public outcry about the formation of a private club and what its vice-president (don’t read: president in charge of vice) said to its members. To me, this is a free country (at least in matters that do not “threaten national security”) and people of like minds are free to associate with each other. Likewise, those wives who believe that wives should be disobedient (disobedient being the opposite of obedient) can go ahead and form an international “Disobedient Wives’ Club”. And then, wives who believe that they should be obedient and disobedient at the same time (although I do not know how that can be realised) can form the “Obedient Disobedient Wives’ Club” or “the Disobedient Obedient Wives’ Club” whichever the founding members prefer. And what about the wives who believe that it is the husband who should be obedient to their wives and should perform like the gladiators of ancient Rome in the clandestine sexual service of their respective dominas (the Roman ladies who owned them or whose husbands own these gladiators); do they not want to form an international “Wives of Obedient Husbands’ Club”? If all these separate groups were to form separate clubs with large memberships and hold regular tea meetings to gossip or do whatever else women do at such women-only get-togethers, they would significantly boost the Malaysian economy.

Today, Tuesday, June 14, 2011, my question was partly answered on page 5 of the New Straits Times. Under the heading “Sharizat: OWC a stain on Muslims”, it was reported that the club was founded by a private limited company that was the off shoot of the now defunct Al Arqam movement. No wonder the outcry. Once an organization is banned, its members is supposed to disappear altogether and never again surface, never again associate with each other for any purpose whatsoever, and never again should its members be allowed to amount to anything in society. It does not matter if the offending element has been discarded. I wonder who among the four commentators above was there at the function. Or was the honourable minister there? Otherwise, whatever their comments were, such comments were all based on hearsay and therefore inadmissible.

I am still trying to figure out which are the elements that are regarded offensive here and therefore constitute a stain on Muslims. Is it the idea that a wife should be obedient to the husband (that alone and by itself) that is offensive? Or is it the idea that a group of women who holds to that belief should form a club and make their views public? Or is it the idea that there is here an educated woman suggesting that it is alright for a woman to behave like a prostitute in the privacy of her own bedroom if it pleases her man, although she is supposed to present a picture of modesty to the public. Or is it really the idea of being like a prostitute only for one man exclusively that offends. I do not hear much protest about women who appear quarter dressed or three-quarter undressed in public. In many places over the world, including in this country, women sometimes behave like prostitutes with different men in public, but there is no hue and cry about it, at least not from the quarters making noise in this instance. I know at least one case of the wife of a taxi driver forbidding the husband from working on Wednesday evenings (ladies’ night at the clubs). On ladies night she assumes, there would be many women of easy virtue prowling the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

By the way, I do not think many men would baulk at the idea of behaving like a male prostitute for the wife, if it pleases her. In fact I think some if not most modern men may find such behaviour erotic. I am of course assuming that he can carry the part; not everybody is well enough endowed, in build and stamina, to be a male prostitute. There is of course an underlying assumption of what behaving like a prostitute means here, which may or may not be the same as the interpretation of the commentators above. I would assume that the good doctor had meant seductive and erotic behaviour, and love making in uninhibited abandon. From the kinds of garments and undergarments displayed in shop windows to those peddled, advertised and modeled in glossy magazines, and from the kinds of contents graphically portrayed in printed literature to the movies with lines like, “What does a girl have to do to get laid around here?” shown on local television, I thought that such was the attitude towards sex promoted in many parts of the world. The only difference in this instance is its exclusivity.

The idea of an obedient wife was long ago already considered politically incorrect in the West and among those enamoured with anything originating in the West. The Christians in the advanced countries (I do not know if this applies to all Christian communities, including those belonging to the orthodox eastern churches), have long ago dropped the words “to obey” from their marriage vows. Nevertheless there are still a lot of people in the world, besides the conservative Muslims (who follow faithfully what they believe to be required by their faith), who believe in the idea that the wife should obey the husband; for one, the Hindus. Then again, how about those Japanese practicing Shinto Buddhism? If this idea of a wife’s obedience to her husband is all that is supposed to be giving Muslims a bad image with them, then as far as I am concerned they can go jump in the lake. All that it is is that we espouse different views from them and we do not apologise for our beliefs. Are we always to tailor our views according to what they believe?

Anyway, where did this idea (that if you are obedient to someone then you are his slave) come from? I have always been obedient to whoever I am expected to be obedient. That included my parents as their son, my teachers as their student, my instructors as their instructed, my superiors as their subordinates, my coaches as their player and my leaders as their follower etc., etc., save when obeying one would mean disobeying another that is higher. Did all this obedience make me a slave to any one of them? I certainly do not think so.

Through all that had been written in the newspaper reports cited above, I had not seen anywhere the presence of a man telling the women assembled that their husbands had a right to treat them like prostitutes. It was one woman, presumably also a wife (and I assume more educated and therefore more exposed than many or most of those in the assembly) telling the other women to be like prostitutes, when in bed with their husbands. So where did the idea that husbands in Malaysia were treating their wives like mere prostitutes and sex slaves come from. A women behaving like a prostitute in bed is an idiomatic way of saying that she is erotic, seductive and makes love with abandon and no inhibitions, game for anything. Treating a woman like a mere prostitute means that she is being treated with complete disdain. The word prostitute thus carries different nuances in the two situations above.

I was not there, so I did not personally hear what she said, did not personally see her body language, nor the response of her audience. Did she in fact speak Malay and used the word “sundal” or “pelacur” or “jalang”, which was translated as “prostitute” in English. Other words of similar import in English include “whore’ and “slut”. All these words carry slightly different nuances. Did she say these words naughtily tongue in cheek? Was she greeted with a burst of laughter with the women giggling under their purdahs? Was it in fact the case of a more exposed member of a group of women in effect saying to the other purdah clad members, “Now look here girls, there is nothing wrong with enjoying sex. Leave your inhibitions behind. Don’t just lie there like a third rate prostitute. Go ahead, be naughty. Behave like a slut. You are allowed to enjoy it, you know?”?

Maybe this, maybe that and maybe the other. Whatever it was that actually transpired, can’t we just leave them alone? They did no force anyone to join them. And behaving like a slut in the privacy of the bed chamber with your husband is certainly not a felony. And friend, a woman enjoying wild uninhibited sex with her husband in the privacy of their own bed chamber has not gone against the teachings of Islam, not unless they transgress the limits set by Allah. In fact Islam recognises sex as something to be enjoyed, besides being a means for procreation, even by women. They do not have to be prudes. Remember the case of the woman married to this sahabat (companion of the Prophet) who fasted every day and spent every night at prayer? What it means here is that he never had time for sex with her. When she complained to the Prophet, did he not remind the sahabat that his wife too has need of him? It reminds me of the story of a young couple from Sarawak. The husband was somewhat pious for a young man of that period. This was in the early seventies. For a few months he had been making love to his then new wife as if he was afraid he would break her (those were her words). She was getting impatient since after awhile she really did not fancy the lights-off-under-the-sheet type of very careful sex. So one Saturday, (in those days, we worked half day on Saturdays) she waited for him to come home in the afternoon, stark naked in the sitting room, spread eagled on the sofa, facing the door. Well, he got home to the biggest shock of his pious life. They even forgot to close the door properly. The wife told my wife and my wife told me, but they do not know that I know, I think.

Malaysians As A People

Thanks to a number of great leaders in the past, we have fared better than many (dare I say most) of the other former colonies of European imperial powers. Thanks to the likes of Tun Razak Hussein and Tun Dr Mahathir, ably supported by a few great though relatively faceless (faceless to the general public) civil servants, Malaysia is on the way to becoming an economically developed country. Most certainly there are other countries that have done better than ourselves, but I think we should not be too disheartened when comparing ourselves to city states with near homogeneous populations that you can jog around. As a country that includes territories separated by a thousand miles of the South China Sea, with a peculiar set of political demands, we have a lot more variables and issues to contend with and are therefore that much more difficult to manage.

Materially, the average Malaysian now lives very much better than the average person in many other countries. We eat so much richer now that we now have a problem of obesity. Whereas the average Malaysian did not own cars in 1957, even my driver had two cars and a motorcycle in 2007. Our network of roads and highways is as good as any in the world. Then again there are the schools and universities, the hospitals, the sports and leisure facilities, the Petronas Twin Towers, etc., etc. As for leisure, do you know that there are cabbies in Malaysia who actually play golf?

Even as recently as the mid-1970’s very few people outside of South East Asia even knew that a country called Malaysia existed. Those of us who for one reason or another had to go overseas, invariably had to explain that Malaysia was a country north of Singapore and south of Thailand, or that Malaysia was not the capital of Singapore, or that Malaysia was not in China or in Vietnam, etc., etc. I have even heard of an instance when an African diplomat asked a Malaysian diplomat about how bad our last winter was, to which the naughty Malaysian replied that we had six feet of snow in the capital city. The last time I was in Europe however, I was only asked if I believed that our former Deputy Prime Minister actually committed sodomy. Asked the same question, I believe that some of us would maybe reply,’ Irrelevant’. Others would maybe reply, ‘Who Cares’, ‘What do you think?’, ‘I think so’, or ‘Maybe’.

Those of us who in one way or another positively contributed to this rapid economic and material development, directly or indirectly, morally, immorally or amorally, can be justifiably proud of our part in the development process. And Malaysians in general can be equally proud for belonging to this nation of achievers with the ‘Malaysia boleh’ (Malaysia can) spirit. At the least you did not, or maybe tried but failed to, stand in the way of progress. By the way, on the subject of the ‘Malaysia boleh’ slogan, I find it interesting to hear the Americans also using an ‘America can’ slogan around the time Obama came to power. Wonder who followed who.

Now however, the time has come for us Malaysians to look at and address the other facets of our development as a nation. Economic and material well-being is but one facet of the total national being. There are other facets, equally if not more important. Just like wealth is not the most important and certainly not the only attribute by which one judges a person, so it is with nations. Failure to address the non material facets of our development may one day turn us into a nation of wealthy but otherwise despicable people. That prodigious son of Malacca who for so long hemmed the development of that city state to our south, had once launched a campaign for his people to ‘smile’ and used the term ‘despicable’ to describe such people with little else besides material success, a rude people devoid of cultured behaviour and general good manners. How successful he was in this ‘smile’ campaign is of less consequence to us than the question of whether or not we now need a similar campaign for ourselves.

Consider the incidents of dishonesty committed by Malaysians that became big public news:

• Some years ago there was a scandal involving the fixing of English football games and at the centre of it was a Malaysian.

• Some years ago the Bank Bumiputera (way before the more recent merger exercises and name changes) was brought to its knees by its own senior officers.

• Some years earlier, the Bank Rakyat was also affected by wrongdoings committed by its very top officers. Luckily they have recovered and that without name changes and mergers.

• There were a number of occasions when public examination papers were leaked.

• There were published cases of academic plagiarism in our institutes of higher learning.

• There is wide spread trade in materials that infringe on copyright and patent proprietary rights (music, movies, reading materials, computer software, drugs, other fake products passed of as the genuine article) as if there is completely nothing wrong with such acts. Maybe we also have powdered milk containing melamine.

• There are frequent reports, accusations and innuendos of corrupt practices on the part of public officials, all through the ranks.

• There are periodic reports concerning the massive amount of study loans drawn by students that are not subsequently repaid when these students completed their studies and started working. Note that these are supposedly the cream of our youth.


I have also heard stories, of course unverified, of Malaysian students in the United Kingdom leaving huge unpaid credit card and telephone debts when they returned to Malaysia. There were also similar unverified stories of students buying dresses which they then use to go to a party only to return them the next day on the pretext that the items were defective (having deliberately created the defects themselves by removing some stitches). Likewise there were also stories of people buying a sewing machine that they subsequently used to stitch the curtains for their whole house, before returning it on the grounds that the machine did not quite measure up to their expectations.

In the context of a country with a small population like ours, are these incidents then to be considered isolated cases, or are they symptomatic of a basic problem in the fundamental make up of the Malaysian personality. Are these simply rare cases of deviant personalities, or would most Malaysians have behaved similarly had they been in the same place with the same opportunities? An honest assessment of the station we are at would be necessary if we are to initiate an honest development programme in respect of the non material aspects of our national being. I would therefore like to invite fellow Malaysians to honestly rate us as a people. Whatever you are or think you are as a person is not the question here. Give us your opinion about your fellow Malaysians in general. If you are personally dishonest, do you believe that most Malaysians are dishonest anyway and you are therefore perfectly normal? On the other hand, if you are honest, do you believe that most Malaysians are dishonest and you are therefore entirely special?

For this purpose, I believe that we should certainly compare ourselves with those who are among the best in the world, not with those who are among the worst. For example, I have heard that in some places they can actually place newspapers unattended on a bench with an open can next to it and expect people to take a copy and pay for it by putting the money into the open can. Likewise, I have also heard that in some places people commit suicide out of shame if they cannot honour their debts. On the other hand, there are also places where people merrily transfer their assets to trusted proxies, declare bankruptcy to get out of honouring their debts, and proudly continue to parade themselves in chauffeured limousines in front of admiring crowds. There are also places you dare not even park your car, lest all four wheels disappear. Or maybe the whole car will disappear for re-export to the Middle East.

To assist us, I list below some indicative questions. Whereas the questions may on the surface of it appear entirely trivial when talking about development and civilization, they are indicative of the mentality and attitude, and the finesse or the lack of it amongst the people that comprises our society. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the worst possible situation and 1 indicating the best achievable state, rate now your fellow Malaysians.


A) General Behaviour

1) The way Malaysians drive:

• How many of us honk impatiently when we get caught in a traffic jam, even when it is obvious that there is nothing any one could do? Do others than join in to create a ruckus?

• How many of us drive on the outer lane of the expressway (speed limit of 110 kph usually) at 80 kph, busily chatting with our girlfriends or talking on the phone, oblivious to others who may want or need to go faster?

• How many of us hassle other drivers who are already driving as fast as permitted by law while overtaking a string of other vehicles, simply because we want to go even faster than the speed limit? How many of us then blare our horns, flash our lights and start to ‘cucuk’ the car in front (come very close as if to ram their rear ends), instead of allowing them to finish overtaking and move left?

• How many of us weave, overtaking on the left and on the right, when there is a long line of vehicles on the highway, all already travelling with the flow of traffic at around the speed limit? Especially when we drive better cars than the ordinary blokes?

• How many of us just honk impatiently in front of our gates, expecting the Indonesian indentured labour to open the gates for us, even when it is not raining and it is late at night and we live in link houses? Especially when we drive S-class Mercs with loud horns?

• How many of us do not really care if our actions cause others to get into traffic accidents?


2) The way Malaysians dispose rubbish:

• How many of us throw things out of windows of high-rise buildings, not even caring that someone innocent could get seriously injured or even killed?

• How many of us throw rubbish (cigarette buts, plastic bags of fruit peel, empty cans, etc.,) out of car windows, not caring if what we threw out could hit the car behind, besides dirtying the place?

• How many of us litter everywhere, (on the roads, in the parks, on the beaches, etc.,) dirtying and spoiling the beauty of the place that others could otherwise enjoy?

• How many of us throw rubbish into all kinds of things, except the proper rubbish bins, clogging rivers, drains, toilet bowls, urinals, etc., thus inconveniencing others and making a mess of the country in general?

• How many of us who are charged with the responsibility of providing the necessary services and facilities to ensure cleanliness and hygiene criminally neglect our duties, such that it is impossible not to dirty the environment? (If disposal means are inadequate, we cannot just wave a wand to make the refuse disappear. Neither can we avoid generating household refuse.)


3) Other Behavioural Aberrations:

• How often do you find Malaysians jostling instead of voluntarily cuing-up for buses, trains, tickets, anything at all?

• How often do you find young and healthy Malaysian adults nonchalantly sitting on seats reserved for the aged, pregnant and those otherwise impaired, in trains and the like, while those for whom those seats were reserved stand right in front of them?

• How often do you find Malaysians jostling for food, at an Annual General Meeting of a public listed company, as if they had not eaten for weeks, such that the trays of food carried by the waiters are empty even before they reach the serving tables?

• How many cases have you heard of Malaysians treating their housemaids like slaves, not respecting their religious beliefs and physically or sexually abusing them?


B) Honour and Honesty


• How many Malaysian businessmen cheat in their income declaration for tax purposes, do not pay their contributions to the Employee Provident Fund faithfully, and do not transmit onwards the sales/service tax they collect supposedly for the Government?

• How many Malaysian businessmen deal in fake products, pass-off fakes as the genuine articles, use ‘Halal’ labels on their products without observing or even knowing the requirements, and generally have no respect for the proprietary rights of others?

• How many Malaysian businessmen would find the idea of multiple financing a single piece of equipment perfectly acceptable, if he needed to raise money but has no other collateral to offer?

• How many Malaysian salary earners, who pay taxes according to their dues, only do so because they really do not have much of a choice?

• How many Malaysian Muslims avoid paying the Zakat, this being a self-policed lean on their incomes and wealth?

• How many Malaysians would default on their debts, borrow regardless of ability to repay, borrow without at all intending to repay and/or under-declare the value of imported items?

• How many Malaysians would submit false and inflated insurance claims for damage to motor vehicles if they had the opportunity?

• How many Malaysian parents of school-going children ask for free books for their children even when they are not entitled to such subsidies, by under-declaring their incomes?

• How many Malaysian students, at all levels, from the lowest level public examinations to the highest level post-graduate thesis work, and even for their driving tests, would cheat if they had the opportunity? (Bribery, plagiarism, copying, submitting work done by others?)

• How many Malaysian golfers enter competitions with doctored, nursed, or under-declared handicaps, not counting doctored, nursed or under-declared count of strokes? (Forgetting that such ‘handicapped’ games are meant to be social games and not professional tournaments for those not good enough even as amateurs to supplement their personal incomes.)


Well fellow Malaysians, how did you rate us? Can we stand proud as a civilised people?
Or are we a somewhat wealthy but despicable people, on the way to becoming a truly wealthy but despicable people? Or worse, are we a somewhat wealthy but despicable people on the way to becoming a poorer and despicable people, because our wealth is not founded on solid fundamentals? Are we not too much like a landlord dependent on foreign tenants? Well, there will always be more inviting places for the tenants, like in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, or China even. Can our own companies, nurtured as they are either on Government preferential treatment or the strength of clan based cartels, or both, while possessing very little in the way of high value proprietary assets, compete on the open international market of which even our own continually prised open internal market will be merely a part? Even our small grocers have now to compete with the likes of Tesco, Carrefour and the now Hong Kong owned Giant?

By the way, I am someone who thinks that maybe, a Chief Executive who steals Rm5 million from the company but still leaves it with a pre-tax profit RM500 million, is much better for the company, than the Chief Executive who does not steal but generates only RM50 million in pre-tax profits, or worse, incur a loss of RM50 million. Did any of our Chief Executive steal? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I do not know. That is the absolute truth. I do know however, that if the able Chief Executive who stole in the example above had not stolen, the hypothetical company would have recorded much more than RM500 million in pre-tax profits and not just RM505 million. How come? There would have been much less stealing down the line under an able Chief Executive who does not himself steal. On the other hand, the less than able Chief Executive in the above hypothetical example would not even realise if the assets of the company were being stolen and sold to competitors by those closest to him. And God forbid if the less than able Chief Executive above also steals. There must be places in the world where this happens. I wonder where. But I pray that we will never have the misfortune of being governed by a party led by such a less than able administrator who is at the same time less than absolutely honest, with his only strength residing in oratory and charisma.

I leave you to ponder the significance of this last paragraph.

Rights and Wrongs between Employers and Maids

A few days ago another case of maid abuse was highlighted in the local news media, this time resulting in the death of the maid. It was reported that the maid ‘had bruises and scratch marks on her back, arms and forehead, both old and new’ (New Straits Time, June 7, 2011), suggesting that the poor woman had been enduring this abuse and mistreatment for sometime already before finally succumbing.

Some years ago the case involving the maid Nirmala had already elicited all kinds of responses from the public. Public anger and indignation was very much in evidence then, as was to be expected, On the other hand, there were also those who aired their frustrating experiences with their maids. Whereas some stopped at airing their frustrations and problems with maids, which by the way was already a widely known subject, there were still what seemed to be obtuse pleas on behalf of the employers who abuse their maids, i.e., that they can perhaps be partially forgiven or at least understood. This is worrying, i.e. the idea that there exist amongst us people who can, no matter how remotely and obtusely, find an excuse for the deliberate physical abuse of another living thing, let alone another human being.

Deliberate and conscious torture and physical abuse of another human being is not acceptable in civilised society, period. It does not matter whether it is an employer abusing a maid, a maid abusing her employer’s child, a parent abusing his/her own child, or a guard abusing a detainee in a lock-up/prison; there are no reasons, no explanations, and no pleas acceptable. The simple fact is that it is a barbaric act perpetuated by a cruel person, a criminal.

 A criminal is a criminal, a murderer is a murderer, and when caught and proven guilty, should be subject to punishment consistent with the cruelty of the crime and the circumstances of its commission, as prescribed by the laws of the country.

Be that as it may, I believe that a person should not be punished before his/her conviction in a court of law. If we believe in the rule of law, then we should also believe that guilt and innocence should only be determined in a court of law after a trial. It may also be necessary to remind ourselves here, that trials in the courts of law are not meant to be mere formalities to endorse the verdict of the public or the media, (which are based on allegations that are as yet unproven and are arrived at without full knowledge of the total circumstances surrounding an alleged crime.) The courts examine all the evidences available, both against and in defence of the accused, and a fairer outcome is therefore more likely. Nobody in his right mind can believe that the courts are infallible; after all they comprise human beings and no human being is infallible. Nonetheless it is the nearest thing we have that can avoid the anarchy of vigilante justice and private vengeance.

A question was raised that particularly attracted my notice. Somebody raised the question of how far an employer can go in disciplining a maid. This is intriguing to me in that it may suggest a mindset that somehow regards maids as in some ways belonging to a sub-specie not quite equal to human beings, or one that sees the acquiring of maids as somewhat akin to buying a slave on the slave market. To such a mind therefore, a maid does not deserve the same kind of basic rights as other employees, like the drivers, the factory hands, the secretaries, the clerks, or for that matter the chief executives of private companies. Maybe the few thousands paid to the agent for bringing the maid into the country is being regarded as part of some kind of slave purchase arrangement.

The maid is an employee, like any other employees. They are not slaves or partial slaves. The fact that they stay in your house does not reduce them to the status of a slave. Likewise, the fact that they eat in your house does not mean that you own their person. These are all simply part of the employment terms and remuneration package they had to accept. Just ask them if they would not rather you give them food and accommodation allowances so that they can stay on their own. They are as human as your secretary or driver, or for that matter you yourself, and have all the same human needs and feelings, and they deserve the same basic rights. You can stop your secretary from using the office phone to call her boyfriend or boyfriends and from always bringing her boyfriend into the office when she is supposed to be working; but you have no right to stop her from having a boy friend or boy friends. Likewise you can stop your maid from using your house phone to call her boy friend and from bringing her boy friend into her work place, (i.e. your house); but you have no right to stop her from having a boy friend. And in most offices, they do allow time for coffee and such things as making personal phone calls (especially if it is with your own mobile phone), so long as the time consumed is not excessive. Maids should also have this same facility that you allow other employees and in turn, your employers allow you. And personally, I think that to require somebody to work continuously and be at your beck and call sixteen hours a day seven days a week is blatant slavery. Maids should be allowed reasonable periods of rest and some days off, which I am very sure most decent employers allow.

Now, on the question of disciplining your maids, the same disciplinary measures available to you in handling your drivers and secretaries are available to you in handling your maids. Likewise, these are also the same measures available to your employers should the need arise where you yourself needs disciplining. Try pulling your secretary’s ear because she is always making typing mistakes in your letters, or slapping your driver because he always forgets to fill your petrol and clean the car for the weekend; and see what happens. Alternatively try picturing your boss hitting your on the head with a file while calling you ‘stupid’; and try picturing your likely reaction. Human beings are human beings, and must all be allowed the same basic rights. They are all to be treated with the same kind of basic respect, whether the person concerned is a maid, a secretary, a driver, a manager, or whatever. And that respect includes respecting their religious beliefs by not expecting them to handle or eat what they are forbidden by their religion. If you cannot do that, do not hire them; ask your agent for one with a different religion. If none are available at the price you are prepared to pay, too bad.

The situation when a maid absconds with her employer’s money is no different from one where an office boy or even a manager disappears with company funds. Likewise, a maid absconding after an employer has paid for her passage is not unlike your child absconding and refusing to serve the Government after the Government has paid for his medical education. Laws govern the available recourse in all these cases, and resort to physical abuse is never an acceptable option. An important thing to remember is that every time you hire or enter into a contract, especially with a stranger, you are taking a risk. Secondly, no absolute foolproof protection from this type of risk is possible. Did you in the first place interview the one you hire or contracted with? Does she know exactly what to expect from you and what she has to give in return? Were you able to do a background check before hiring, especially in the case of a maid who is going to have a free rein in your home? At the end of the day you may still hire, for whatever reason, knowing full well the risks involved. Nonetheless, it remains that the deliberate mental or physical abuse of another human being, even a maid, can never even be remotely justified. Also, just as it is true that not all employers are monsters, it is also true that not all maids are out to swindle their employers.

Perhaps, given the gravity of the circumstances, all foreign maids should be presented at their respective embassies at least fortnightly by their employers, where their proper treatment by employers can be ascertained by the people at their embassies. There should also be the political will to review the system and process of hiring maids, such that an arrangement that benefits both maids and employers instead of just enriching the agents on both sides of the border, much like the slave trade in the days of old, can be developed. The current system smacks too much of the old slave trade.

By the way, I do have maids and have had one that absconded after we paid for her passage.

Imam Muda Reality Show

I am an OLD sixty-two-year-old who needs more rest than the average adult. (There are also the

YOUNG sixty-two-year-olds who are still young in spirit and physically strong). So, besides going marketting, minding and ferrying my grand children to and from school, (three trips per day,) and going to the mosque for prayers, I need to take short naps every now and then. Consequently, nowadays I do not get to watch very much telivision beyond the news programmes. Not that I really would like to. Still, I have managed to catch a bit of the Imam Muda reality show this year.

I have always been one of those people who believed that a new approach is needed in our da'awah effort, something that is required of every Muslim. (But actually, I'm not sure if the letter of the enactments would require that all of us first obtain the certification from the authorities). All too often the people involved are aloof, the 'holier than thou' approach used entirely lacked hikmah, and sometimes, some self-appointed souls were downright hostile and confrontational. I often felt that such an approach can sometimes back fire and, instead of attracting the intended audience towards the true faith, one may actually drive them further away. I have heard of school girls being singled out and picked on by Ustaz's and Ustazahs, simply because they don't quite yet meet the required standards of religious observance, or simply id not know enough. Barbed comments were regularly directed at them, and they were often embarrassed in front of their classmates. I was also once shown a video recording of a self-appointed enforcer of the faith, aggressively harassing a small group of teenagers at the Dataran Merdeka. There had been a concert there and the kids were just hanging around, together with a host of other people of varying ages, before going back. Actually the CD was sold by the enforcer himself, after giving a ceramah at the surau of the Tabung Haji, purportedly to fund his 'pemulihan akhlak' (moral recovery) activities.

Of course the kids at Dataran Merdeka were freely moving in mixed company, a sin in Islam . Of course we are enjoined to 'mencegah kemungkaran' (prevent sinful acts). Of course Ustaz's and Ustazahs are supposed to guide and bring their charges closer to the true path. Here I am talking about the approach, not the end. Where is the hikmah? Where is the humility? Where is the kindness? Where is the 'not embarassing people in public'? I have heard a sixteen year old say in the commonly used mixed language that so infuriate the language nationalists, 'If that's what I'm suppossed to follow, 'terima kasih ajalah' (thank you very much). Lagi labuh tudung, lagi busuk hati' (the longer the headscarf, the more rotten the heart). When we go before Allah in the hereafter, He will ask us about what we have done as his Khalifah on His earth. Would it indeed please Him if, instead of attracting unbelievers into the folds of believers, we actually drove away those who were already born into the faith, shallow though their faith may yet be? Many of these young people simply do not know better. Their parents did not effectively instruct them , maybe because the parents themselves were not sufficiently instructed or for whatever other reasons. (Maybe they too were unsure of the legal status of such instructions, especially when even an ex-Mufti requires certification.) Their religious teachers in the day school did not effectively instruct them, maybe because they feel that the primary responsibility for religious education should be the parents or the religious schools, or again for whatever other reasons.

I found the Imam Muda reality show a refreshing new approach to dakwah. The only other comment I would like to add is that in pursuing this new approach, one should be careful that it does not create or contain elements that go against the grain of Islamic teachings. Whereas Islam enjoins humility and kindness, as examplified by the well known story of the prophet feeding the blind Jew who had been cursing and calling him names, celebrity usually creates in the celebrated haughtiness and pride instead of this desired humility. Whereas Islam forbids embarassing somebody in public, in the conduct of this types of reality programmes, the spectacle of somebody being subjected to embarassement can sometimes heighten its entertainment value. If those involved are not careful, you could see a spectacle of an established member of the religious elite subjecting a young aspiring would-be-member of the religious elite to embarassment, in front of the whole world. (We have international viewership?) As Muslims we are thought that if we are smarter, or stronger, or richer, or handsomer, or in whatever way exceed others, it is because Allah chose to lend us that attribute, in order to enable us to better serve him. The programme should therefore be handled in such a way that it does not potray a group of young people trying to best one another; rather it should reflect a group of young people helping one another to develop and use what Allah has granted them to the best of their respective abilities. It should not reflect so much the idea of somebody 'winning against others' as somebody being grateful for Allah's gifts to him. Again, the sifus (masters) should be potrayed as caring elders rather than gleeful judge and happy executioners.

The basic idea of such reality shows, as it developed in showbusiness, was entertainment.The basic purpose of the owners of the network and the other financial backers of the grogramme (advertisers etc.) is commercial. Still, one can use the opportunity made available for one's own purposes, so long as it can be done in ways that does not compromise one's very own basic guiding principles. Although one needs to attract the audience, one needs to be careful in the adoption of the 'Hollywood' type of elements in the programme. At the end of the day, the audience must be attracted to the message in the letter rather than envelope, the mailman, or the way he shashays down the ailse. Interestingly, did the audience comprise more females, including the makciks (aunties), than males? Or was it just the camera angles that gave that impression?

No, I'm not an ustaz in the commonly used sense, i.e., one who represents religious expertise. If I make some reference to religion, it is simply what I have heard from the real ustaz's.

Obesity and Nasi Lemak

Along with Indiscipline, Lepak, Rempit, liberal sex, Obesity has now been identified as a problem plagueing our young. In most instances, I agree that these are problems currently afflicting the young. However I am not quite sure, in many instances, why some souls sound as if these problems never afflicted earlier generations. The truth is that, not only had these problems also afflicted earlier generations, they continue to afflict them even when they were no longer young. The only thing that may be new is the discarding of babies in refuse bins and the like. In earlier days, the parents would have quietly married-off a pregnant girl to the offending boy or a Pak Sanggup, through coercion or bribery or both if need be, even if she was only thirteen. I used the expression 'may be new' because even in those early days some babies may have been discarded through the holes in the floating toilets of the time, floated downstream, get devoured by Bujang Senang or one of his close or distant relatives and nobody would be any the wiser. Then again, even if a body was found, how many reporters were there cycling around the country to pick up the news? And again, how many newspapers were there to carry the news around the country, and how many people were there who could at all read, let lone buy and read newspapers? And forget not that they did not then have television and satalite links that can carry news around the world, even live.

But enough of that. The subject for today is Obesity and here I do agree that it is more a problem today than it had been in previous genertions. However, I do not believe the number of obese school going kids are such that it warrants the banning of the iconic Nasi Lemak from school canteens. Not, unless you are perhaps talking about schools in areas like Damansara. One bungkus of nasi lemak at recess time for sombody who walks or cycles or takes a bus to school is not likely to result in obesity, especially if one plays soccer or rugby or badminton or takraw or such other physically demanding games. I said one bungkus of nasi lemak, not one bungkus of nasi lemak plus this plus that and plus the other and, to top it all, the only soccer or tennis one plays requires one to move no more than one's fingers i.e. video games.

The problem of obesity is more serious amongst our youth who are no longer studying in schools.(We define youth as anybody under 40). But the problem is not confined to them. Indeed it gets worse amongst those who are no longer youthful.You find these fatties in the customs service, in the police, in the various other government departments and ministries, in the banks, in the business houses, in the mini markets, in the super markets, in the hyper markets, in planes, on trains, in cars, on busses, on motorcycles though more infrequently on bicycles.The number of fatties do however decline amongst those above 70. Many fatties don't quite make it there. So any prohibition of culinary items should not be confined to schools.

Nasi Lemak or Roti Canai, with Teh Tarik. These are perhaps the most iconic of Malaysian breakfast items, their popularity cutting across ethnic lines and state boundaries. In the east coast states, the Nasi Dagang may perhaps be as popular and among the Chinese, you would have to include the Bak Kut Teh and the Rice porridge. Then of course there is the variety of noodle, kueh teow and vermicelli based dishes, prepared in a variety of ways reflecting the diversity of culinary traditions in the country. There is also the array of Malay cakes, Chinese cakes, indian cakes. How about the Tosay? Karipap Bai, any one? Forget not the Lontong and the Soto.

These breakfast items have been around for as long as I can remember. They were what Malaysians were eating when I was riding a 50 c.c kapchai to school in the late sixties. They were what Malayans were eating when I was cycling to my primary school in the late fifties and I believe they were what Johoreans, Pahangites, Kelntnese, Straits Settlers etc., were eating when my father and many others like him were walking to school, some of them barefoot in the mid-thirties. They were around way before obesity became a problem, indeed way before many of the ancestors of present-day Malaysians even knew such a word existed, certainly way before we became a distant but very disproportionately significant outpost of the fast-food empire ruled by the McDonalds, the Saunders and those from Kentucky.

The point I am trying to make is simply this. While it is true that nasi lemak is high calorie and is not particularly healthy, why single out this iconic Malaysian dish? We should ban the whole list of food items traditionally served in school canteens, since they are all equally unhealthy. Besides nasi lemak, and perhaps also nasi goreng and nasi dagang, traditional canteen fare had always included some noodle, kueh teow and vermicelli based preparations, together with a variety of Malay cakes. The luckier schools will also have roti canai and maybe some cheap ice cream. Nowadays, you will also find such things as chicken nuggets, hamburghers, sausages and french fries. Pray tell which of these items fit the description of 'healthy'. Most of the prepartions are principally carbohydrates, with fats or sugar, or both fats and sugar, some salt, and little else. Or else they would be based on low quality fatty meat, poultry or bovine, deep-fried in continously recycled cooking oil. So all these traditionally served items should be prohibitted. What purpose would it serve if Ali stops eating nasi lemak, only to eat mee goreng mamak or roti canai or nasi goreng more often?

The prohibition should exceed the school canteens and should extend to all eating places frequented by Malaysians. As highlighted above, the problem is significantly more serious amongst the older age groups. Those above 70 should however be given exemptions. First, the problem can be statistically shown to have declined in seriousness amongst those above 70. (Never mind the causal explantion.) Secondly but more significantly, no matter what they do they are not likely to significantly extend their life spans. So they should be allowed access to these unhealthy but highy tasty food items; let them enjoy what little remins of their respective lives. Their government pensions would have been rendered pathetic through inflation, their EPF's would have been largely exhausted and they would be rapidly becoming burdens to their children and society at large.

Since our operators of school canteens, the people who operate the warongs, and for that matter the average housewife or house husband are not really nutritional experts, who can on their own conjure up alternative menus, (ones comprising items that are healthy, tasty, yet filling,) the government should form a panel of dieticians to draw up a set of approved menus for all eateries. Just a panel will do; we will not need a Royal Commision. I certainly hope that the recommended menu will comprise more than apples and grape fruit juice, susu kambing, sandwiches made from two slices of wholemeal bread with vegetbles and grilled fish fillet (grilled without oil) as filling. No margarine or butter, especiaally the salted variety. No mayonnise either. In the case of items like sandwiches we will need to ensure that a person does not consume more than one serving per half-day period. Would we then need a calorie police unit unit?

In drawing up the new menu, the panel will have to take into account more than merely the calorific value of each serving. Price and affordability, suitability of taste to the Malaysin palette and the ability to fill the stomach and stop the feeling of hunger, are all equally valid considerations. While it is claimed that nasi lemak is too 'heavy' a meal for the mid-morning break and can make one sleepy, a growling stomach can be no less distracting. If any one or these criteria is not fulfilled, the programme will not succeed and we will and up with a different set of problems. For one, school canteens and other eateries may have to close down due to lack of patronge, thus creating unemployment. Those who suddenly find themselves unemployed, both the locals and those from Thailand, Myanmar and of course Indonesia, may have to turn to crime. Some of the women may end up as prostitutes, competing with those from China, Bosnia and Russia, thus driving prices down and increasing accessability. Multiply the number of schools in the country by an average of ten per school. You will derive the number of people who can become unemployed from that source alone and that number is already consierable. Those employed elswhere in the warongs and coffee shops would far outnumber those in the school canteens. So it is imperative that the programme to have an alternative menu succeed. Besides those problems already mentioned, failure may also lead to the creation of another under table market, in addition to those already existing for music, movies and pornography.  

Why I decide to blog

Prior to this I have never blogged, never twitted, never had a facebook account and generally considered such activities as, well, not for me. When I waas still working, I had an E-mail address that was set up and operated by my secretary. She would send out what I needed to (I dictated the text) and twice a day, she would check my mail box. If there is anything, she would print them out for me. I am not totally computer illiterate though and do know how to use spreadsheets, word processing, presenttion tools and data base applications. But I never could understand all the excitement about e-mails, facebooks, tweeters and blogs. When they are in my house, my children and their spouses would all be seated at/around my dining table each with their laptops. For hours on end. Seems like an obsession, an addiction. And now, my wife too has joined the facebook brigade. So now at the age of 62 I have decided to learn to blog. Maybe I too can learn to enjoy it, and maybe slow the onset of rust in my brain. Physical energy, I don't have much left. Even golf, is too exhausting. But time, I have aplenty.