Caring for Others

I am writing a blogpost even though it is not really related much to the theme of this blog.

I guess, there are many things that we can learn from understanding the meanings of truly caring for someone. I believe that the best of people are those who truly care for the people around them. Although it is important to show that you care for someone, caring is not  just about showing you care. Worst still, that you do things to show to others that you care for that someone It is not about giving someone something, or taking care of his or her things, or even providing a voluntary service for him or her. Caring is about feeling for him or her. That you really put yourself in his or her position when he or she undergoes a tribulation. That you really hope he or she won’t go through that hardship. And realizing that no matter how you feel it, you can’t really decipher what he or she is going through.  Caring is about putting that person ahead of you. Caring is about others, and not about yourself, not about how you feel, not about your opinion. It’s about what he thinks, what he feels.

And everything that we do to the people around us should be rooted in this care concept. That if we engage in a debate with someone, we want the betterment for him. That when we share something for someone, we truly hope that we benefit him. So it doesn’t make sense if you correct somone’s mistake, knowing well that he or she will not be receptive to it, you proceed in that manner, or proceed at all. Showing that you care means that when you say “ihdinassirotol mustaqeem (show us the straight path)” 17 times a day, we include that person in the ‘us’, and not only the me. And that you raise your hand to pray for him or her every time.

Caring is a Godly attribute. You give without expecting anything in return. Caring should make you happy. And when you care for the creation, you receive care from the creator.

The Healthy Lifestyle

To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world’s “Blue Zones,” communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. At TEDxTC, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100. (Recorded at TEDxTC, September 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. Duration: 19:39)

Self Rectification

Question: What happens when you focus on  self-rectification?

Answer: You become Donnie Yen.

Never neglect periods of privation.

Personality of the week: Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah

from deenintensive.com

Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, hafidhu Allah, is an extremely well-known and well-respected scholar amongst scholars. In fact, he is a scholars’ scholar since many of his students are actually now considered scholars in the Muslim world.

Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah was born in Mauritania, West Africa, and is the son of a great scholar, Shaykh Mahfudh (may Allah have mercy on his soul). From a very young age, he showed extreme intellectual gifts and a profound ability to absorb vast amounts of information and text. He memorized most of the texts taught in the varying subjects including the Qur’an, Hadith, grammar, logic, rhetoric, semantics, philosophy and poetry. While still quite young, he was appointed to study legal judgements in Tunisia.

When he returned to Mauritania, he became Minister of Education and later, Minister of Justice. He was also one of the Vice Presidents to the first President of Mauritania. However, due to the conditions in Mauritania and the military change of governments that took place, he began to teach and ended up going to Saudi Arabia to become a distinguished professor at The University of Usool al-Fiqh.

Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah is also involved in writing. He has written several books and has delivered lectures all over the world. One of the areas of his expertise is in Fiqh al-Aqaliyaat, which is the juristic rulings related to minority Muslims.

Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah is a member of several legal bodies worldwide, such as the European Council of Legal Opinion and the Supreme Fiqh Council. He resides in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with his family and teaches Islamic Legal Methodology, Qur’an and Arabic at the King Abdal Aziz University.

He has graced our programs in the past with his blessed presence, sharing with us his vast wisdom and hikmah. He is fluent in Arabic and French, and delivers his lectures in Arabic with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf as his translator.

Islam and the arts:

Some Beautiful New Videos

One of my wishlist: Rihla Programme (Deenintensive.com)

[2009 video]

[2008 video]

[2007 video]

Habib Umar’s Australian Tour

i will survive

Its time to get serious.

Two weeks into the semester have passed, yet I am still just browsing through papers, not getting serious enough. I got an end in mind, yes, a final year dissertation. Here she is:

Exciting, yes, but how to get there? In the words of cake,  “I got all my love to give” but if she doesn’t love you, then you’ll end up living in pain, just like any other love story… But while you can walk away from a girl, you wouldn’t wanna walk out of your dissertation if you have “all your life to live”. heh…. ok lame jokes aside.  So you ask what project am i working on. I don’t wanna burst the bubble now, haha, but  here is how mrs azhar for the next 1 year  kinda look like (in beautiful portrait form):

I know, she’s not that beautiful, but she’s all I have now, so nobody can break my heart anymore, ok bubbly wifey? hee hee hee….. and a dedication to all:

About Health and Weight

I was reading through Farhanah Sultan’s blogpost on her need to lose weight, and she effectively drove her point home by  showing a picture of herself when she just entered college and how she looks now. Well, for those who know me in person, I bet you know what’s coming…. what happened to Farhanah, is probably a  minor case of what happened to me. Yikes!! Weight gain upon entering college is almost a sure thing for the majority of us, especially to the guys, who looked great after physical training in the army. But my case is indeed a little severe…

Well, Farhanah’s blog post hit me like a big truck smashing into an elephant as I lay down on my bed with my pretty white cat since morning. I have no idea what happened to me since last night. The last thing I remembered was kneeling in front of the toilet bowl, trying to vomit out every single grain of briyani rice that my mom bought home. No… I am not bulimic, duh!! My body rejected the mutton braced with fatty oil and acids…..  I use to love the afghan briyani so much man… haihh

Yeahhhhh, you bet. My health is at stake now. If I don’t do anything about my weight, I guess such occurences will be more frequent. Having headaches and cramps around the chest region is something which I have experienced during my internship, and the pain got so severe that I have to stop walking and hold on to something.

Our physical health is all that we have control over. Spiritually we excel via experiences of our physical body. If the physical body is weak, then how do we want to gain closeness to Him?

Oh Prophet, my dearest

[from 'the Prophet's Isra' and Mi'raj',

by Shaykh Muhammad 'Alawi al-Maliki, translation by Dr Gibril Fouad Haddad]

Allah Continued:

I have sent you for all people, without exception, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

I have expanded your breast for you and relieved you of  your burden and exalted your name; and I am not mentioned except you are mentioned with me.

I have made your Community the best Community ever brought out for the benefit of mankind.

I have made your Community a mean and a middle.

I have made your Community in truth the first and the last of all Communities.

I have made public address (al-khutba) impermissible for your Community unless they first witness that you are My servant and Messenger.

I have placed certain people in your Community with Evangels for hearts.  (footnote 36)

I have made you the first Prophet created and the last one sent and the first one heard in My court.

I have given you Seven of the Oft-Repeated which I gave to no other Prophet before you. (footnote 37)

I have given you the last verses of Surat al-Baqara, which constitute a treasure from under My Throne that I gave to no other Prophet before you.

I have given you the Kawthar.

I have given you eight lots: Islam, Emigration (al-hijra), Jihad, Charity (al-sadaqa), Fasting Ramadhan, Ordering Good, and Forbidding Evil; and the day I created the heavens and the earth I made obligatory upon you and upon your community fifty prayers: therefore establish them, you and your Community.

(Al-Shami added:) Abu Hurayra said that Allah’s Messenger said:

My Lord has preferred me over everyone else (faddalani rabbi)

He has sent me as a mercy to the worlds and to all people without exception, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

He has thrown into the hearts of my enemies at a distance of one month’s travel.

He has made spoils of war lawful for me while they were not lawful for anyone before me.

The entire earth has been made a ritually pure place of prostration for me.

I was given the words that open, those that close, and those that are comprehensive in meaning (foonote 38)

My Community was shown to me and there is non of the followers and the followed but he is known to me.

I saw that they would come to a people that wear hair covered sandals.

I saw that they would come to a people of large faces and small eyes as if they had been pierced with a needle.

Nothing of what they would face in the future has been kept hiddent from me.

And I have been ordered to perform fifty prayers daily.

And he had been given three particular merits : He is the Master of Messengers (sayyid al-Mursalin), the leader of the Godwary (imam al-muttaqin), and the chief of Those With Signs of Light on Their Faces and Limbs (qa’id al-ghurr al-muhajjalin).

36: Repositories of Allah’s Book

37: Surat al-Fatiha

38: I was given the apex of eloquence

39: untanned sandals

shafi’ie text and curriculum

- order of sequence of the books of the Shafi’i Madhhaab (tareem)-

1. Ar-Risalat Al-Jaami’a

2. Safinat An Najaa

3. Al-Mukhtasar Al Lateef

4. Al-Muqaddimat Al Haadramiyyah

5. Matn Abi Shujaa

6. Al Yaqoot An-Nafees

7. Az-Zubad

8. Umdat As-Saalik

9. Minhaaj At Taalibeen

Me and My PRC Colleague #2

This marathon that you are running, is no longer about strategies, its about determination.

Yes, you strongly believe in fate. We all believe in fate.

Fate brought you to the race, but now you have to decide.

You may choose to leave everything to fate and stop running. This may be your fate.

You may also choose to go all out for it, and when you complete the race, whether you win or you lose, it doesn’t matter to you. This may also be your fate.

Ultimately 10 years from now, whatever decision you have made at this point of time, will decide whether you will regret, or you knew you have tried your best.

- Your best friend will always be sticking up for you -