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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Al-Quran vs Handphone

I just received an e-mail from my dad, he sent me something about a comparison between our Quran and handphone which i thought very good to be shared with everyone else. So i'll just paste it here with some editings for everyone to read and muhasabah about it.

Cell phone & Quran

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Quran like we treat our cell phone?


What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?


What if we flipped through it several time a day?


What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?


What if we used it to receive messages from the text?


What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?


What if we gave it to kids as gifts?


What if we used it when we traveled?


What if we used it in case of emergency?


This is something to make you go....hmm... Where is my Quran?


Oh, and one more thing.

Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Quran being disconnected whether out of coverage or battery!

Makes you stop and think "Where are my priorities?" right? And no dropped calls!

Think again my friends... where do you put Al-Quran in your life?


Thank you Bapak for such a meaningful muhasabah.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Rukun Pertama

"Zainal, tolong tulis artikel untuk Al-Munzir boleh?" tanya Faris Budak Medic melalui YM, aku terkejut sikit masa tu. Pikir kejap, then aku pun jawab, "InsyaAllah boleh, ko nak aku tulis pasal per?"

"Apa-apa pun ok, jgn berat sangat ar..." jawab Faris,
"Ok, bagi aku masa sikit ar, nanti aku email kat ko." aku jawab balik.

Begitulah lebih kurang perbualan aku dgn Faris melalui YM few weeks ago, dan alhamdulillah dalam Al-Munzir(Buletin mingguan Unit Pembangunan Insan PCI) yg latest artikel tu telah dikeluarkan.

Syukran buat Ust. Suhail, kuliah Syari'ah Tanta yg telah menjelaskan ttg Syahadatul Haq dalam muhdharahnya yg telah aku lalui ketika cuti hujung semester lepas. Artikel ini more or less dikarang merujuk kepada nota daripada muhadharah beliau dan e-book Syahadatul Haq tu sendiri. Siapa2 yang nak, boleh download di link ini, Syahadatul Haq e-Book. Jadi aku akan pastekan artikel tu di sini sebagai update untuk blog ini yang dh banyak hari x dapat di-hapdet dek kerana kesibukan yg amat dalam minggu lepas. Jadi, inilah artikel tersebut:


Semenjak kita di bangku sekolah rendah lagi, bahkan mungkin sejak tadika lagi, kita telah mempelajari tentang Rukun Islam. Saya yakin, adalah tidak menjadi masalah bagi para sahabat untuk menyebutkan satu-persatu daripada lima rukun-rukun tersebut. Biasanya, menjadi kelaziman bagi orang ramai memahami rukun kedua hingga rukun kelima, tetapi tidak ramai yg memahami rukun yang pertama sepenuhnya sedangkan rukun pertama itulah rukun yg paling asas yg menjadi tunggak rukun-rukun selepasnya serta asas kehidupan seorang Muslim.


Pengucapan dua kalimah syahadah yg bermaksud “Aku bersaksi bahawa tiada tuhan selain Allah, dan aku bersaksi bahawa Muhammad pesuruh Allah,” oleh seorang manusia seringkali dianggap hanya diperlukan ketika memeluk Islam, di dalam tasyahhud dan ketika menghadapi sakaratul maut. Walhal sebenarnya pengucapan dua kalimah ini amat besar ertinya. Ia menjelaskan Islam sebagai sebuah kebenaran yang nyata dan satu-satunya jalan yang membimbing ke arah mardhatillah. Ia juga menunjukkan Islam sebagai sebuah pendekatan yg terbaik dalam mencari sebuah kehidupan yg paling betul dan diredhai oleh Allah S.W.T.


Seseorang Muslim yang telah melafazkan dua kalimah syahadah ini sebenarnya memikul suatu tanggungjawab yang amat besar, iaitu tanggunjawab dalam menyebarkan Islam ke seluruh alam, menyebarkan Islam sebagai jalan hidup yang terbaik. Secara mudahnya, setiap Muslim memikul tanggungjawab dakwah, tetapi sayangnya, ramai Muslim pada hari ini mengabaikan tanggungjawab yang amat penting ini. Ramai yang menyalah ertikan dakwah itu hanya tanggungjawab golongan ‘alim ulama’, tetapi ia sebenarnya adalah tanggungjawab kita semua. Secara dasarnya ia terbahagi kepada dua, rata-rata kita memahami dakwah ini ialah dengan pembahagiannya yg pertama iaitu dakwah perkataan, dgn bercakap, menegur, menyampaikan ceramah dan sebagainya. Tetapi pembahagian yg kedua iaitu dakwah perbuatan sebenarnya lebih penting, dakwah melalui akhlak peribadi Muslim yang sebenar, menjadi qudwah kepada masyarakat sekeliling. Nah! Inilah dia tanggungjawab kita para sahabat, ayuh jangan ditunggu lagi! Hendaklah kita muhasabah balik diri kita dan cuba sebaik mungkin untuk mempraktikkan peribadi Muslim sejati. Dakwah perbuatan juga merupakan asas yg terbaik untuk mengukuhkan dakwah perkataan. Kehidupan seharian kita seharusnya mencerminkan dasar dan prinsip yang kita pegang iaitu Islam menerusi Al-Quran dan Sunnah.


Secara kesimpulannya, kita sebagai seorang Muslim yang berpegang pada dua kalimah syahadah harus mempraktikkan kehidupan kita sebagai hamba Allah secara total dalam seluruh aspek kehidupan, bukan hanya pada hal ehwal ibadah, kahwin-cerai, dan pewarisan harta. Selain itu, selaku umat Muhammad s.a.w. yg terpilih, menjadi tanggungjawab kita untuk menyampaikan keterangan yang telah kita warisi dari Baginda Rasulullah s.a.w. serta mencontohi akhlaknya yang terpuji. Ingatlah firman Allah S.W.T dalam ayat 143, Surah Al-Baqarah yang bermaksud: Dan demikianlah (sebagaimana Kami telah memimpin kamu ke jalan yang lurus), Kami jadikan kamu (wahai umat Muhammad) satu umat pilihan lagi adil, supaya kamu layak menjadi orang yang memberi keterangan kepada umat manusia (tentang yang benar dan yang salah) dan Rasulullah (Muhammad) pula akan menjadi orang yang menerangkan kebenaran perbuatan kamu.” Ayuh sama-sama kita fahami dua kalimah syahadah dengan sebaiknya dan mempraktikkannya dalam kehidupan seharian kita.


Rujukan: Syahadatul Haq oleh Syeikh Abu Al-A’la Al-Maududi



Friday, April 17, 2009

Occupation 101, how much do you know about it???

I was asked by Mr. Maro to prepare a summary on the famous documentary Occupation 101 for PCI's website. The summary might seem long since I'm not very good in summarizing. So here I'll just paste the article as an update for the the blog, please note that this is a summary so 50% or more of the sentences are a direct copy from the documentary itself. If you care about Palestine, this is something that you must read and you should watch the documentary for more details and better explanation. Those who has watched the documentary are very welcomed to leave your comment about it in this entry. I'll start this entry with the link to the documentary in case u want to watch it directly without reading this summary:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11

The issue of Palestine’s occupation by Israel is not something new. We all know that Palestine today is oppressed and invaded by Israel. The definition of occupation is when a foreign army occupies your land physically and controls your life. What happens in Palestine is the country is both under military and settler occupation. The citizens of Palestine no longer have their civil right, they are under a military rule, while their homes were demolished and bulldozed to build new settlements or towns for the Jews. The settlements of the Israelis were strategically built that are connected by a network of roads which separate each Palestinians community from the next and confined their ability to expend. Furthermore the settlements were often constructed around best farm land and water resources. The bottom line of all this is to make the Palestinians leave their land, in a way it is an ethnic cleansing.

Lots of people believe that the Arabs whether Muslims or Christians and Jews are fighting each other from a long time ago and will continue fighting till the end of the world, but the truth is, with a little bit of reading of the history, you will find that the Arabs and Jews used to live together peacefully in Palestine before the occupation. The big question is, what actually the root cause of this conflict? How did it start? It began with a suggestion of forming a Jewish state from a Hungarian journalist named Theodore Hertzl as a solution for the European Jews for the anti-Semitism problem in Europe. He was the founder of the World Zionist Organization which held its first conference in Basle, Switzerland on 27th-29th August 1897 which decided to make Palestine as the Zionist/Jewish State.

Following British rules after World War I, the Belfour Declaration on 2nd November 1917 promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine which conflicted with Britain’s previous promise of self-rule for Arab inhabitants throughout the region in The McMahon Hussien Agreement of 1915. Britain was extremely supportive to the Zionist movements. It was the beginning of massive immigration of the Jews into Palestine disregarding the presence and wishes of the existing Palestinian citizens. From 1882 until 1945, 467 625 Jewish immigrants have entered Palestine with the climax during Nazi’s ruling in German and the holocaust. The Palestinians were not the one who did the holocaust, but they were the one who pay the price.

In 1947, United Nations decided to divide the land into two states, an Arab’s State (43%) and a Jewish State (57%), despite the fact that the Arabs occupied more than 2/3 of the land and own over 92% of the land. To make the condition worse, not just the Jews were given the most of the land; they were also given the most fruited land. On 15th May 1948, the new State of Israel was officially announced with David Ben-Gurion as its first Prime Minister. About a month before the announcement, one of the most devastating tragedy occurred in Palestine, The Deir Yassin tragedy where 254 people including old people, women and children were systemically killed. The tragedy has traumatized the whole Palestine, causing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled from their home.

The Arab countries and other Muslim countries failed to react to help restore peace in Palestine. In the end, the Palestinians decided to take matters with their own hands, launching the first Intifada in Dec 1987 until Dec 1993. 1100 Palestinians were killed during that time. The second Intifada which also known as Al-Aqsa Intifada was launched in September 2000 until early 2006. 5500 Palestinians were killed. During that time, Israel had 3930 Tanks, 362 F-16 Jets (largest fleet in any country in the world behind the US)

America has been Israel’s strongest ally until today. The total US aid (Direct Aid only) from 1949-2006 were totaled around $108 billion. Out of all dollars aid that US government gave annually, Israel received 1/3 of it. In March 2003 alone, $10 billion to aid Israel while withholding $3.5 billion grant to help the training of first responders, those who will first respond in terrorist attack. The US has used its Veto power more than 40 times in the U.N. to defend Israeli violations of International Law.

The issue of Palestine is no longer an issue of the Arab’s world only, it has become an International humanitarian issue. It is our responsible to help Palestine, to free them from the occupation.