Gaza under Fire

I recently attended an event titled Gaza under Fire which was organized by the Al-Aqsa Friends’ Society. This is the first time I attended one of their events, and I have to say, it was a big success. The main auditorium was packed with local students and international students from many different countries. This is also the first event I’ve attended which had an equal amount of Malaysians and foreigners, and also the equal amount of males and females (usually the females outnumber the males). It was very inspiring to see so many Muslims coming to show their support for Gaza.

There were two talks, several multimedia presentations and a drama show depicting the war scenario in Gaza. Even though a picture says a thousand words, I think video footages are better in this case. The audience was quiet as we watched women on the screen crying for their lost/dead/injured children with the remains of ruined buildings and smoke and dust in the background.

As one of the speakers said that night, this cannot be called an attack anymore. This is WAR. Just imagine, Gaza is only a small piece of land. Yet the Israelis are attacking Gaza by sea, land and air using army tanks and the latest nuclear bombs, which is why the death toll and the number of injuries are really high in just one day.

The people of Gaza have to be creative in order to survive. They make their own bombs and plan strategies such a releasing rockets across the borders and into Israel.

The Israelis are bombing schools, universities and homes.

They do not care whether they bomb children or adults, and for no absolute reason (although they claim that they “have their own reasons” for doing it).

They are so cowardly to attack Palestine in full force using all kinds of military inventions while knowing that the Palestinians have practically nothing. However, they are killing only the bodies of Gaza. They cannot kill the soul, determination and the mind of Gaza. The people of Gaza cry for their lost ones, but they do not regret what they have done. They have been doing this (fighting for their freedom and survival) in the past, and they will continue to do this to the end.

Some of them even thank Allah for the loss of their beloved ones (eg, I lost my mother, Alhamulillah).

There are deaths and injuries every single day.

There's neither fuel nor electricity. There is also insufficient medicine to treat the injured.

My dear fellow Muslims, this not a Palestinian issue. This is a Muslim issue. The issue of the whole Muslim ummah, for it concerns all of us as Muslims. Spread the word, increase the awareness.

Prayer for Palestine

In light of the recent Israeli attacks on Palestine, I would like to invite my fellow Muslims to pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters over there. As we go about our daily lives, it’s hard to imagine that in other parts of the world, our brothers and sisters are fighting - fighting for their life, and most importantly, for their religion. Our religion – ISLAM.

What are our problems compared to theirs? How sad is it breaking up with your boyfriend compared to losing your beloved family members? Or worse, how heart-breaking is it for a little boy to see his father, mother and baby sister blown up right in front of his eyes? Imagine not sleeping because you’re dreading a presentation in front of your lecturer and classmates compared to not sleeping the whole night for fear of not being able to wake up tomorrow.

While we throw away our leftover food, our fellow Muslims are starving or dying of hunger. Everyday, there are hundreds of Muslims killed or injured by the Israelis, be it in Palestine, Bosnia or any other part of the world. But what are we, their Muslim brothers and sisters doing to help them? Are we even aware that all this is happening? Or do we just turn a blind eye and continue about our daily lives, oblivious to the sufferings and the killings of our brothers and sisters?

Most Muslims aren’t even aware about all this. They are blinded by the worldly affairs and entertainment which, unsurprisingly, are created by the Jews and the Western people themselves in order to distract us from what is happening to our fellow Muslims. In fact, we don’t even realize how blessed we are to be able to open our eyes every morning, breathe in the fresh air and go on with our day. Since we are unable or incapable of helping them physically, the best way for us to help them is by praying to Allah. At the end of each prayer, please include a du’a for our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

In the Dark of Night

Recently, a friend and I couldn’t seem to sleep, so we just hung out in the corridor chatting about various stuff. I then glanced at the sky and commented on how dark the sky was tonight. My friend said that the moon isn’t showing herself tonight, which led us to remember the bits of science taught to us during primary school – the one about how the earth spins on its axis for 24 hrs (1 day), and how one complete orbit around the sun takes 365 days (1 year).

Then I remembered a lesson I learnt in my Arabic class which discussed verses 3 – 10 of Surah Yunus in the Holy Qur’an. Verse 5 mentions that Allah created the sun and the moon to move in its own orbit so that we (as the slaves of Allah) will know how to count the months and the years. So my Ustaz told us that the Roman calendar (tahun Masihi) is based on the sun and consists of 365 days a year, while the Hijriyah calendar is based on the moon and has 354 days in a year. That means that if we follow the Hijriyah calendar, we’d actually be older than we are now since it has fewer days in a year compared to the Roman calendar. Slight shudder there.

Another fascinating thing which my Ustaz pointed out to us in Verse 5 is the way Allah described the sun and the moon - Allah has created the sun to radiate and the moon to glow. However, I find that the Malay translation of that particular verse is more apt and easier to understand, believe it or not. Dia-lah yang menjadikan matahari bersinar dan bulan bercahaya. The significance of Allah’s usage of the word dhiya’ (which means ‘to radiate’) in describing the sun is because the sun emits light – bersinar. On the other hand, the word nuur is used to describe the moon because nuur means cahaya. In this case, the word cahaya means ‘light’, but in the sense that when the moon catches the light from the sun, it shines because it is reflecting the light from the sun. Of course, you will recall from your primary school science that this is because the moon doesn’t emit or radiate its own light – rather, it reflects the light from the sun (and thus, bulan bercahaya).

The shining sun

The glowing moon

It’s really beautiful and amazing actually the way Allah has paired and suited the perfect adjectives to describe His creations. Even I had to refer to a number of dictionaries and Qur’anic translations while writing this post. But then again, it shows that although we human beings are gifted with ‘aqal (mind), our knowledge will never, ever surpass Allah’s knowledge, unless He wills it to happen.




**Please correct me if there are any mistakes...Thank you.

Ramadhan Challenge

Recently, I had the opportunity to join the Friday prayers at the IIUM mosque for the second time in my (almost) three years here. I don't know about other mosques in other universities (or anywhere else in Malaysia), but I love the fact that there are many females who join the Friday prayers here. Most of them are international students of course, but there are also a couple of Malay girls who go. And another thing that makes IIUM unique is the fact that the sermon (khutbah) is either in Arabic or English. It so happened that on that particular Friday, the sermon was in Arabic. I tried my utmost best to understand the sermon based on my rather pitiful Arabic vocabulary, and there were a couple of things which I understood.

Fortunately, the khatib repeated the sermon in English, and it turned out that he was talking about how Ramadhan is a month of good deeds, good behaviour, etc. But the challenge is: Can maintain carrying out the good deeds and good behaviour even when Ramadhan is over?? Since Ramadhan is a month of training, lets hope that we will apply and continue to practice all these good stuff even after Ramadhan.

On another note, we are now entering the last ten days of Ramadhan. How time flies! I think it's a big challenge today to accomplish our daily tasks, yet still try to perform tarawih prayers and other types of ibadah. But we should be grateful that we have it easier than the Prophet and his Companions who fought in the Battle of Badr while fasting. Or to take a more modern example, at least we have sufficient food (regardless whether the food is tasty or not...heh heh) for iftar and sahur compared to our other unfortunate Muslim brothers and sisters in Iraq and so on.

So lets try our best to increase our ibadah activities...and may Allah bless us all.

Happy Ramadhan!

I know it's kinda late to wish Happy Ramadhan to my fellow Muslims, but at least the first week of fasting isn't over yet. Alhamdulillah, I got the chance to fast at home with my family these first few days since IIUM "kindly" gave us 5 days of midsem break - which is over tomorrow. Sigh.

It seems that we've just celebrated Hari Raya & Raya Haji, but all of a sudden it's Ramadhan again. I'm sure that most of us are already thinking about and planning for Hari Raya (myself included), such as what to wear, what kuih raya to order, etc. But to be able to celebrate Hari Raya happily, we have to first complete the fasting month. Because that's what Hari Raya is all about anyway...a day of victory for the Muslims who have successfully completed 30 days of fasting.

To me, Ramadhan is also a month of jihad - jihad with our own self (Nafs). Since all the Syaitans have been chained up by Allah, the only thing that can still whisper bad things to us is our own nafs. Like one lecturer always said, it all comes back to the soul factor. If your soul is good, it will motivate you to do good things, insha Allah. Check out this hadeeth:

Al-Bukhaari & Muslim narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

“When Ramadaan comes, the gates of Paradise are opened, the gates of Hell are closed, and the devils are chained up.”

As mentioned in the hadeeth, all the gates of Paradise are open to us in Ramadhan. If we do 1 good deed, Allah will reward us with 10 good deeds. But if we do 1 bad deed, Allah will only punish us with 1 sin. There...isn't Allah the Most Merciful?

So let's all step up our efforts and increase our 'ibadah this month...may this Ramadhan be better than the last for all of us, and may Allah accept all our deeds and 'ibadah, insha Allah.

Happy fasting to everyone!

**If there are any incorrect facts, please let me know.