Al Insan - Man/Time

Time and again, when I listen to this particular recitation of Al Insan by Sheikh Mishary, I am silent and reduced to tears. There is nothing more peaceful than that few minutes in which the words of the Quran ring true in my heart and remind me not to be swayed.

I used to question many things about Islam (as I'm sure we all must have at some point in our lives) but I must say that the day that I chose to open my heart once again to Islam and re-learn and re-examine the Quran was the best thing that ever happened to me.

But there will always be one thing that stumped me and that is of the accuracy of the description of creation. And here I'm going to share some of the things from this link I have. It shows that God came before Science and not that science is there to disprove God but in fact to ascertain even more that Science came FROM God.

A disclaimer: I hate the word 'proof'' but for the sake of this entry, I shall put this here. The link is here: http://islamtomorrow.com/proofs/

Scientists’ Comments on Scientific Miracles in the Quran:

The following are some comments of scientists1 on the scientific miracles in the Holy Quran.  All of these comments have been taken from the videotape entitled This is the Truth.  In this videotape, you can see and hear the scientists while they are giving the following comments. 1)  Dr. T. V. N. Persaud is Professor of Anatomy, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  There, he was the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy for 16 years.  He is well-known in his field.  He is the author or editor of 22 textbooks and has published over 181 scientific papers.  In 1991, he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of Anatomists.  When he was asked about the scientific miracles in the Quran which he has researched, he stated the following: “The way it was explained to me is that Muhammad was a very ordinary man.  He could not read, didn’t know [how] to write. In fact, he was an illiterate.  And we’re talking about twelve [actually about fourteen] hundred years ago.  You have someone illiterate making profound pronouncements and statements and that are amazingly accurate about scientific nature.  And I personally can’t see how this could be a mere chance.  There are too many accuracies and, like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my mind that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which led him to these statements.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) Professor Persaud has included some Quranic verses and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad  in some of his books.  He has also presented these verses and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad  at several conferences. 2)  Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson is the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.  Formerly, he was Professor of Ob-Gyn and the Chairman of the Department of Ob-Gyn at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.  He was also the President of the American Fertility Society.  He has received many awards, including the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology Public Recognition Award in 1992.  Professor Simpson studied the following two sayings of the Prophet Muhammad : {In every one of you, all components of your creation are collected together in your mother’s womb by forty days...}2 {If forty-two nights have passed over the embryo, God sends an angel to it, who shapes it and creates its hearing, vision, skin, flesh, and bones....}3 He studied these two sayings of the Prophet Muhammad  extensively, noting that the first forty days constitute a clearly distinguishable stage of embryo-genesis.  He was particularly impressed by the absolute precision and accuracy of those sayings of the Prophet Muhammad .  Then, during one conference, he gave the following opinion: “So that the two hadeeths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ) that have been noted provide us with a specific time table for the main embryological development before forty days.  Again, the point has been made, I think, repeatedly by other speakers this morning: these hadeeths could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available [at] the time of their writing . . . . It follows, I think, that not only there is no conflict between genetics and religion but, in fact, religion can guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches, that there exist statements in the Quran shown centuries later to be valid, which support knowledge in the Quran having been derived from God.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) 3)  Dr. E. Marshall Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.  There, for 22 years he was Professor of Anatomy, the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy, and the Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute.  He was also the President of the Teratology Society.  He has authored more than 200 publications.  In 1981, during the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Professor Johnson said in the presentation of his research paper: “Summary: The Quran describes not only the development of external form, but emphasizes also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and development, emphasizing major events recognized by contemporary science.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) Also he said: “As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically see.  I can understand embryology and developmental biology.  I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Quran.  As I gave the example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I knew today and describing things, I could not describe the things which were described.  I see no evidence for the fact to refute the concept that this individual, Muhammad, had to be developing this information from some place.  So I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in what he was able to write.”4  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) 4)  Dr. William W. Hay is a well-known marine scientist.  He is Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.  He was formerly the Dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.  After a discussion with Professor Hay about the Quran’s mention of recently discovered facts on seas, he said: “I find it very interesting that this sort of information is in the ancient scriptures of the Holy Quran, and I have no way of knowing where they would come from, but I think it is extremely interesting that they are there and that this work is going on to discover it, the meaning of some of the passages.”  And when he was asked about the source of the Quran, he replied: “Well, I would think it must be the divine being.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) 5)  Dr. Gerald C. Goeringer is Course Director and Associate Professor of Medical Embryology at the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.  During the Eighth Saudi Medical Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor Goeringer stated the following in the presentation of his research paper: “In a relatively few aayahs (Quranic verses) is contained a rather comprehensive description of human development from the time of commingling of the gametes through organogenesis.  No such distinct and complete record of human development, such as classification, terminology, and description, existed previously.  In most, if not all, instances, this description antedates by many centuries the recording of the various stages of human embryonic and fetal development recorded in the traditional scientific literature.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) 6)  Dr. Yoshihide Kozai is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan, and was the Director of the National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan.  He said: “I am very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in [the] Quran, and for us the modern astronomers have been studying very small pieces of the universe.  We’ve concentrated our efforts for understanding of [a] very small part.  Because by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts [of] the sky without thinking [about the] whole universe.  So, by reading [the] Quran and by answering to the questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the universe.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) 7)  Professor Tejatat Tejasen is the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Previously, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the same university.  During the Eighth Saudi Medical Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor Tejasen stood up and said: “During the last three years, I became interested in the Quran . . . . From my study and what I have learned from this conference, I believe that everything that has been recorded in the Quran fourteen hundred years ago must be the truth, that can be proved by the scientific means.  Since the Prophet Muhammad could neither read nor write, Muhammad must be a messenger who relayed this truth, which was revealed to him as an enlightenment by the one who is eligible [as the] creator.  This creator must be God.  Therefore, I think this is the time to say La ilaha illa Allah, there is no god to worship except Allah (God), Muhammadur rasoolu Allah, Muhammad is Messenger (Prophet) of Allah (God).  Lastly, I must congratulate for the excellent and highly successful arrangement for this conference . . . . I have gained not only from the scientific point of view and religious point of view but also the great chance of meeting many well-known scientists and making many new friends among the participants.  The most precious thing of all that I have gained by coming to this place is La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur rasoolu Allah, and to have become a Muslim.”  (View the RealPlayer video of this comment ) After all these examples we have seen about the scientific miracles in the Holy Quran and all these scientists’ comments on this, let us ask ourselves these questions: Could it be a coincidence that all this recently discovered scientific information from different fields was mentioned in the Quran, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago? Could this Quran have been authored by Muhammad  or by any other human being? The only possible answer is that this Quran must be the literal word of God, revealed by Him.

Wallahualambissawab.

Love despite Disabilities

Today I saw a friend post up this page from the Manja magazine (a malay medium in Singapore) that talks about couples whom despite their difficulties still manage to find love.

In this particular article, the groom to be is born deaf but his fiancee has taken it with a pinch of salt and learned to adapt to him to make their relationship work... and insyaallah their marriage too. You see, his fiancee was a schoolmate of mine and she went through a lot more hardships than most other people have gone through and so I guess deafness is not really a bad thing. To me, it is kesyukuran... because you are spared from the gossips of people, from listening to bad influences.

This schoolmate of mine used to have a sister who is the same age as me and the sister died of cancer when we were only 14 years old. I used to remember thinking that this girl (the sister) who died as a virgin would forever be accepted into the gardens of heaven. Insyaallah...

So back to the topic.

From this lesson, I feel that we should not see disabilities or any other misgivings [include plus-sized people, scarred faces etc] as God's lackluster creations but reach within and see the goodness in them. Not to quote Gaga here, but in her song 'Born this way' I like this phrase "Coz God makes no mistakes". Yes, He doesn't and so who are we to push away those we judge as less 'perfect'. Only Allah has that right to judge.

So, Insyaallah, I hope I can be a better person from this lesson today... that I would be able to look past the surface and see people for who they are and accept them without judgement because I believe that Allah made us all perfect.

Wallahualam bisawab.

Humbling reminder.

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

I have nothing much to say today except that you read this article:

http://hamidswisdom.blogspot.com/2010/09/nothing-is-wrong-with-this-marriage.html

It really humbles me, masyaallah. May Allah bless the writer for sharing this anecdote with us.

Weird Questions

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

I think my mother is ready to see me married off. =)
She asked me why have I not asked Hubtobe to come? Lol. Then she goes to say, she doesn't think his mom would come here. Well... you'd never know. =)

Lately she's been wanting to ask me two weird questions.

She hasn't asked me this question yet because she says she's afraid I'm going to scold her and/or ignore her.  

But I know what that question is:

Why did I break up with my ex-bf?

I am surprised she's even asking me this question because I thought she of all people would know best. But then again, I am a very private person with my emotions especially to my family members.

Then the second question is:

Why do I like Hubtobe so much? He's [put in all imperfections here] but why do you still like him ah?

Again, I'm surprised she doesn't see why. =)

Another thing she's worried is because Hubtobe and I are quite related and she worries that if we were to break off, then it'd be awkward if we met each other at family events etc. I wish she would not think like that... because Allah knows what's best for us and our religion. If He deems it best for our family, then it is and it will happen. 

Allah has answered both our prayers. I know He has. Only that I don't know what's that answer. But I believe that Allah knows best and in Him alone I put all my faith and trust. In Him alone I put my hopes and my dreams. And for Him alone I strive for excellence in all knowledge, my love, my family and my life. 

Amin.

Eid Mubarak!

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Alhamdulliah, Allah has allowed us to live through the Ramadhan to meet Syawal. 

I don't particularly like Hari Raya because of all the wastage and excessiveness that people including me go through. We buy too much tidbits and too much delicacies hoping that guests would come... but people don't usually eat so much... so it's just for show.

Then of course when we all congregate at my grandma's house, it is very disturbing to see the clothes that people wear... see through, body hugging... and the excessive make up and made up nails... It saddens me.

But apart from that, I am happy to have met some of my aunts and uncles whom I love so much... plus I got to see my granny and kiss her.

I'm just waiting for the chance to go out with Hubtobe for Hari Raya and take photos with him. =) I miss him too. Hari raya will be different in the coming years once we become permanent additions to each other's families.

A thief?

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Subhanallah... I found this on one of the Fb pages and I think it is very good. I wish that someone had shown me this when I was younger. But hopefully I could use it for my own children when they get to the stage where they start noticing the opposite sex and all.

The captions:

The girl says: Ya Allah, please protect my heart lest I steal his iman without me realising it. I pray to You, Oh God to strengten my iman and his iman.

The boy says: Subhanallah... she's so beautiful. Please fortify the iman in my heart. Let my presence be a source of strength to this girl's iman. Don't let me be the reason for a decrease in her iman.

We are just moulds, casting plasticine

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Remember when you were a kid in primary school and you had to make these ridiculous arts and crafts project with plasticine? I used to hate it because the pasticine smells so bad and my hands always felt so oily after playing with it. Plus, i hate to mix different plasticine together; I didn't like the colours tainted. Yeah, I'm disciplined in that way.

And yet plasticine is exactly the metaphor I will be using to describe the raising of children. I know it's so reductive of me... but in an essence, they are as malleable and pliable as you want them to be. And as parents, as adults, we are the moulds.

When I was younger, my consolation was always knowing that parents never had practice before having real children and they actually go into this parenting business blindly. As the eldest, that always meant I bore the brunt of all their experiments- be it punishment, disciplined, expectations and disappointment. And of course, to them, when I rebelled, it meant the world was going to end. Lol. So it is quite hilarious to see them go through the same process all over again with my brothers but guess what? This time, with more experience, they just sit back and say 'it's just a phase. he'll get over it. '

So on this topic of children I just wanted to lay out 3 different scenarios:

The first one is about a relative of mine, who due to his stable income, is able to afford living in a landed property and has the desire to have more children. He already has three children and his wife has just gotten pregnant with their fourth. But the sad thing is, his wife hardly takes care of their kids because she doesn't know how to. She leaves them to the maid and her in-laws. It's a bit sad to find out about such things. My mother was telling me that I better not dump my kids on her. I wanted to protest of course, seeing that my dad, being bored at home would love playing with the kids... but then, I also have Hubtobe's mom who is also bored at home and would love to take care of the kids.

The second is about my kids' maid who after 12 years of service, decided to return home to her own children and family, leaving behind, her surrogate children, whom she has helped to raise since birth. She had been their mother, raising them, educating them, enforcing solat and fast on them... and suddenly she's gone. But at the same time, I pity her own children who were devoid of their own mother's love and who had to grow up without her... how did they feel and what are they now without her influence?

Lastly, how does a mother decide which child to send to secular school and which child to send to a full-time madrasah? I was discussing with Hubtobe the other day and he said he'd want our girls to wear the tudung once they start preschool. I'd think 7 years old is a better time and best if we sent them to a full time madrasah too so they are surrounded by girls and women who are dressed conservatively.

We had this idea that we should send the first son and first daughter to a full time madrasah and then the rest we could send to secular schools. But I don't know... I'm not used to a madrasah system. Plus they'd not have the chance to mingle with non-malays and non-muslims for their entire schooling years. Ah, we'll think about it when we get there.

It's just... raising children is an amanah from Allah... and a very difficult task. It's not about dressing them up in the most trendiest clothes or enrolling them in ridiculously expensive early learning schools and what not...

Children are going to keep you awake at night and hound you restlessly during the day for attention and make all sorts of pleas and demands... then they grow up and start rebelling, shouting at you and then they get married and then you suddenly feel old and you're going to die.

How does one get over the fear of failing them? Of failing Him?

Wallahualam Bissawab...

Being a couple

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Alhamdulillah, Praise be to Him, we have made it through to the 16th day of Ramadan.

First of all, I'd like to put a quote I took from this blog entry :

"Jauhilah perhubungan cowo dan cewek (bahasa Jawa) sebelum kahwin, baik apapun bentuk perhubungan itu sama ada hubungan jiwa apalagi hubungan fizikal. Sedemikian banyak kemanisan yang dikecap antara hubungan dua jantina sebelum kahwin, sedemikian banyaklah kemanisan yang akan ditarik Allah sesudah di alam perkahwinan. Malanglah! Betapa manisnya masa cinta sebelum kahwin, hanya pahit dan sepah yang tinggal selepas kahwin, semua madunya telah dihisap dengan rakus dan tamak sebelum kahwin."

[ Stay away from relationships, be it emotional or physical, between male and female as long as you are not married. For as many sweetness that is shared between the couple before marriage, Allah will take as much sweetness from them after marriage. How unfortunate! No matter how sweet love is before marriage, only bitterness is left after marriage; all it's nectar sucked off by greed and gluttony before marriage]

I guess this entry is sparked off by an incident that happened last night at my cousin's birthday celebration. I must say that I was thoroughly surprised and happy that it was a cozy family affair that made me feel really comfortable and blessed.

It was very sweet to see my cousin and her husband around each other. Sometimes, I can't believe that they're already married. And I know they are waiting for their lives to be filled with the joy of being parents. And she reminded me about something very important yesterday-

That she and her husband are now halal and it struck me so hard how I envy that. For years in our lives before nikah, everything forbidden between a man and a woman is sinful and frowned upon by Allah. But everything after that, brings Him pleasure and we even get pahala for it.

Masyaallah... I'm sure no one wishes to have their marriage wrecked with unhappiness because Allah has taken away all the sweetness away because of their transgressions before marriage. And it made me also worry for my other loved ones who have yet to mend their ways and seek refuge in Him.

And so... I am looking forward to the end of this semester... and I put all my faith and yakin in Allah for He is the best of all planners.

Amin.

Of flowers and Hubbies

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Alhamdulillah, I have just returned home from sending food to Hubtobe for his buka, dinner and sahur. He sometimes forgets to eat or doesn't eat enough especially now that it's fasting month and he's working and schooling back to back. At times I don't trust that he'll eat unless he's eating in front of me.

But Hubtobe's so sweet... when I met him he said he was looking for a flower shop; said he wanted to buy a flower for me because he hasn't done so in a long time. Awwww... So I pointed to him to the florist on the other side of the street and I chose a sunflower!

I love sunflowers. They're so beautiful... masyaallah... in fact, all flowers are beautiful and I'm really itching to go to the nursery to get more flower pots. Preferably before Hari Raya for I think there might be a sale.

Here's the sunflower he bought for me today:


Hubtobe's really the first guy to constantly buy flowers for me... I don't expect flowers of course... but he's so sweet in that way.

Women can go silly at times when they get flowers. It makes them feel appreciated... especially after sweating while cooking and all those blisters from laundry and cleaning the house. That's why I buy flowers for my mom sometimes for no reason. Also the plants outside the house bring joy to her and my dad. =)

Anyway, I was reading Tuttie's blog a while ago and under her tags 'Busted', had me laughing so much! Especially the one where she found her hubby reading her blog! Lol. Then I read the comments and made me laugh even more. Yeah... I have the same feeling too! I mean, I don't really like ppl I know to read my blog. Hahahaha. weird or what. It's like she said- they're gonna psychoanalyze everything you say and then cross refer to their own memories of said incidents. -laugh-

But with that said, Hubtobe does read my blog... but he doesn't have much time to read it everyday... with all his workload and all. He managed to whine his way to letting me let him read my blog. Lol. Or wait... was that me? Hahahaha.

Happy Anniversary...

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Alhamdullillah...

May Allah strengthen our love for each other and may he keep us in Iman and among those with Iman...

May He bless us with a fulfilling life to make worship for Him and make us muslims with Taqwa...

May He bless us also with a happy family, a happy home and healthy relationship.

May He grant us forgiveness for our past sins and our future sins and forgive the sins of our parents and our siblings and children.

May He guide us down the right path, shine the light of Ilham on us for our studies and help us seek knowledge in His name.

Insyaallah, with His permission and His will, we will be enjoyed in matrimony soon; in hopes that we become more responsible and faithful in our ibadahs in the name of Allah.

Lihub Billah...

Adventure Saturday!

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Although it was a long, hot and humid day, I seemed to get alot of things done and 2/3 of it was spent on ibadah. Alhamdulillah...

Speaking of Alhamdulillah... today me and Hubtobe were exploring mosques and chanced upon Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka, near Havelock Road and it is so beautiful and so clean and so comfortable... almost like my other favourite mosque- Abdul Hamid Mosque. Oh yeah, and when I entered the female prayer room and saw that it was fully air conditioned, I smsed Hubtobe and said 'Hurray!' to which he chided me "Mane keSyukuran? Bukan cakap Hurray..." (where's your sense of gratefulness... not say hurray)

Ooops... I was just so happy and excited that I was going to enjoy peace and quiet in a comfortable mosque that I forgot for a moment. Apparently they've revamped the place and it looks really lovely now. Here's a photo I took from Wikipedia:



Prior to our visit to this mosque, we went to Funan to get Hubtobe's antivirus for his computer. It's been quite some time since we walked in town and especially now that it's Ramadan, walking in town isn't such a good thing. Hubtobe mentioned that town is not really a muslim-friendly place. Yes there is Al-Falah mosque and other musollah's here and there but the people who crowd the streets can really challenge one's iman.

I think for him, he has to lower his gaze more than I do because the women on the streets are quite scantily clad at times and it's hard to keep your eyes on the floor especially in a crowded area. Unlike me, I'm quite oblivious to my surroundings at times. Heh heh.

Well... that aside... I'm so happy I finally got a new foundation powder, eyeliner and lipstick (basic makeup really). I seem to have lost mine somehow. Hubtobe helped to choose the lipstick colour. He was so funny and so choosy! I prefered the neutral tones but he said he wanted something red and an image of a pin-up girl came to my head. But eventually we compromised to a colour called chestnut that was a mix of reddish brown. =)

Alright, to top it all, we did terawih at Masjid Sultan... it was lovely... The second Imam drove me to tears. Well... sniffles more like it. I was touched by his rendition of the surahs. He sounded like the Imam from Al-Khair though. Plus Masjid Sultan is spacious and it wasn't so crowded. I know its best if the mosque is filled to the brim... but sometimes I appreciate some space too... coz we always end up sitting on each other's feet during tahiyat akhir. -laughs-

Well... a day with Hubtobe is always a day well spent and although I'm really tired from all the walking and standing, I am grateful that Allah has given me the strength and the health to still persevere through the day. Alhamdullillah.

Also, at the end of the day, I know you know, Lihub Billah...