Twins of Faith Day 2 Part 1

25th December 2011

I joined a Sister’s only workshop as a start for today’s activity.

The speaker, Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj with the topic Women in the Eyes of God. She started off with few verses from the Holy Quran that basically place women in Islamic perspective. Outside world perceive Islam as a religion that oppresses women, however it is clearly explained in the Al-Quran, both gender men and women are equal in the eyes of Allah, what differentiate us is our level of taqwa.

An-Nahl, ayat 97
Sahih International
Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.

Islam has never treated women as second grade creation; in fact, Islam is the only religion that strongly upholds women’s right. A whole chapter is dedicated to women in Al-Quran (Surah An-Nisa). Such details were drawn on how to treat women, up to the point of allocating the inheritance.

Dr Harlina draws her session more towards how women are in the current global society. She based her talk from a Millennium Development Goals Report. The Millennium Development Goals were derived from the United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 nations in 2000. Most of the goals and targets were set to be achieved by the year 2015 on the basis of the global situation during the 1990s. Three out of eight goals are directly related to women. The goals are:
1. Goal 3 Promote gender equality & empower women
2. Goal 4 Reduce child mortality
3. Goal 5 Improve maternal health

UN conducts the research to see where the countries stand based on certain KPIs. Though the report only outlines the scores according to continents, the working team had access to the detail breakdown of each countries score. Sadly majority of the Sub Saharan African countries that score the lowest ranking in all the indexes are mainly populated by Muslim people.

Why is this happening? This is because Cultural Islam took over instead of living the life the way it is outlined in the Al-Quran and sunnah. As an ummah, this is a serious issue. Muslim women are not being treated fairly across the world even by their own fellow Muslim brothers, we are lucky we did not see that as big issue in Malaysia, but still there are people in the our Muslim community that fails to live up to Al-Quran’s guide when it comes to treating women.

Some interesting facts that was shared, so ladies, off to the Norwegian Woods I presume? ;)

I once had a girl~~~ thanks CS, now I cant stop humming the song :D

After that workshop, I returned back to the main auditorium and just in time for next lecture by the cute and cuddly Sheikh :) . The topic is Our Youth, the Foundations of an Exemplary Community. Majority of the participants are no doubt still can be categorized as youth. There are quite a few universities that sent few buses of students to join the conference. I say the organizer did a great job in catering the conference to all walks of life.

Main take away from Sheikh Navaid talks, there are 7 categories in a wheel to help us (the youth :P ) realize our true potential. Those are:
1. Deen – spend time and effort in investing in the hereafter. People who aim the akhirat will try their best to be on their best behaviour. It was mentioned good tongue leads to good heart, hence a person that properly guard his/her deen, will definitely has a good personality to begin with
2. Education – invest in your own education. His advice was to learn this 3 basic skills and you are good to achieve anything in your life:
a. Learn how to manage people
b. Learn how to manage time 
c. Learn how to lead people
One highly recommended book to be read by the Sheikh is Dale Carnegie’s – How to Win Friends and Influence People
3. Career – do what you enjoy and what you most passionate about, not what others expect you to do
4. Social life – you are the average of 5 people you surround yourself with, so what type of person are there in your social circle?
5. Health – take good care of your health
6. Finance – money should be in our hands but let not money get to our hearts. Earn as much as possible, spend in way of Allah, do not just pamper ourselves (note to self!!)
7. Family – keep good relationship with your parents, siblings, family etc.

We will reach our full potential once all of these elements are well balanced in our wheel of life, insyaAllah…
That’s it for now. I will continue with the rest of day 2 programme in the next post. Daa…

Twins of Faith Day 1 Part 2

After Maghrib, the lecture series was continued with the session by Sheikh Abu Ameenah Bilal Phillips with the topic Cultural Islam or Islamic Culture. He opens up his talk by highlighting headlines from all over the world that give bad impression on Islam.

One case in Egypt a 35 years old woman was beheaded and her body parts was cut and thrown at a cemetery by her own brother and her son. It was mentioned that the son found out that his mother was pregnant after secretly being married for the second time. According to a culture in Southern Egypt (once where Shiite was big part of the community) once a woman becomes a widow, she is not allowed to be remarried. She is supposed to remain single for the rest of her life. Therefore, her action to re-marry has gone against the tradition and allows her brother to take matters in his own hands. This has got nothing to do with Islam, but since the family is Muslim, so that’s how people perceived Islam.

I guess it’s a common issue even here in Malaysia. We, Malays especially have too many cultures that contradict the shariah. Islam does not deny the diverse culture among different races; it is permissible as long as it does not go against Islamic rulings. Sheikh also touched on certain culture that was based by the Shiite and still continues till today, one of which is Maulidur Rasul celebration. Come to think of it, Rasulullah SAW has never celebrated his own birthday, nor does his companions once he died. It all started when a group of Shiite started all these extreme practices.

How did all of these started? It all can be summarized to 4 main factors, due to:
1. Pre-Islamic practise that continues till today
2. Adopted practise from other religion/community
3. Religious innovation
4. Religious fanaticism

Surah al- Maidah ayat 104

Sahih International
And when it is said to them, "Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger," they say, "Sufficient for us is that upon which we found our fathers." Even though their fathers knew nothing, nor were they guided?



There is also an issue of Mazhab Fanaticism, we all know the 4 main scholars and how different continents follows different school of thought.

Nowadays it may not be such a big issue, but did you know that before the year 1925, there used to be 4 different prayers held at one prayer time in front of Kaabah. One imam for each mazhab conducts the jamaah prayer separately. They took turns after each other finishes. It was mentioned there used to be maqam for all the imams in Masjidil Haram. They were not buried there, but the followers of each imam built the maqam as a symbol to show which teaching that they follows. The wahabis took a firm action and torn down all the 4 maqam and insist there should be only one single jammah going on in Masjidil Haram at one prayer time. I was shocked to hear the story, as I never thought people will go to the extreme to demonstrate which side they follow, but in actual fact we have to bow down to the one and only, Allah SWT.

It is not wrong to follow all these imams, as they also follow Al-Quran and Hadeeth, but we have to be a responsible Muslim, try our best to find out what is the exact ruling, and if it is too confusing to decipher with our limited amount of knowledge, then yes, we should follow the wise, and InsyaAllah we will not be strayed from the right path.

Islam and Islamic culture could not be inherited, we may inherit the cultural Islam such as our Islamic name, but the faith can never be inherited. Islam by definition is submission to the will of Allah, and in order for us to completely submit, no one can force, it must come from the heart.

The last session on that night was by someone closer to home, Sheikh Hussein Yee and his topic was One Faith, One Family.

He made one bold statement, saying that the Muslim nowadays believe in more than one God apart from Allah. We may not agree, but his reason is clear when he mentioned the way we discussed matter with the not yet Muslim indicates that we also believe that their God exist. We acknowledge their way of life (religion) but the aqeedah, the belief that their god exist is totally wrong. We must emphasize there can only be one God, Allah SWT and whether or not they accept that, its another matter. Take note, even Shaytan believes in Allah.

Sahih International
For you is your religion, and for me is my religion." Al-Kafirun, ayat 6
Sheikh asked us to show courtesy to call them ‘not yet Muslim’ instead of non-Muslim. This is due to the fact that they don’t even know what Islam is all about, who is Allah. Everybody was born a Muslim, only the parents that they were born to taught them the religion that they know now. So its our responsibilities to try calling the others and bring them back to Islam. We are all children of Adam, we are ONE family. He left us with this one simple message I Shall Love All Mankind – ISLAM


By now, the clock was showing ~9pm. We still have one more agenda, entertainment. This time its from a brother from Britain (pronunciation brit-en) ;) Brother Muslim Belal. He gave a brief intro on how he reverted to Islam at the age of 19. He actually put all that out in a poem and the best part is, at then end of it, even his mother reverted back to Islam,Subhanallah… I could not find the video, this one I believe was about Palestine.

After Muslim Belal, comes Abdullah Rolle, but I did not stay on, enough for me to call it a day…pheww…that was long :D

Twins of Faith Day 1 Part 1

I don’t know where to begin in this sharing. Basically the twins of faith refer to both the Pillar of Islam and Pillar of Iman, which in short Iman and Amal. The theme for the conference is Best of Nations – Building an Exemplary Community. You can read all about it in the webpage. 

As I mentioned, the activity was jam packed from 10am till 10pm. Throughout the talks, the main motto echoed was ilmu without amal is as good as amal without ilmu,  both are in vain. Amal meant here is action on the ilmu, be it via sharing, teaching and basically giving back to the rest so that we can be the Best of Nation, Muslims as a whole. I’ll be going through in gist what the speakers mentioned and hopefully we will get the message they are sending.


Day 1: 24th December 2011
The session started with recitation of Al-Quran by a local ustaz, I am so sorry for not taking notes on the ustaz’s name. He recited parts of Surah Al Imran, ayat 102-110. Up next was Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim. He addresses the conference’s theme, which very much described in the ayat recited by the Qari. 


Al Imran 102-110
Translation of Sahih International


102: O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]. 
103: And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.
104:And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful.
105: And do not be like the ones who became divided and differed after the clear proofs had come to them. And those will have a great punishment.
106: On the Day [some] faces will turn white and [some] faces will turn black. As for those whose faces turn black, [to them it will be said], "Did you disbelieve after your belief? Then taste the punishment for what you used to reject."
107: But as for those whose faces will turn white, [they will be] within the mercy of Allah . They will abide therein eternally.
108: These are the verses of Allah . We recite them to you, [O Muhammad], in truth; and Allah wants no injustice to the worlds.
109: To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And to Allah will [all] matters be returned.
110: You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah . If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient.


From this ayat, it is clearly stated that we Muslims has to stick together, work in making the world a  better place, help our brothers and sisters from going astray from the guided path. We, every single one of us are ALL responsible of that. Else, we’ll risk seeing the ummah collapsed.


Sheikh Yahya also mentioned that perfection is only attainable through constant pursuit, meaning we could not give up in the quest to create a better ummah. We will face different people and it’s important that we do not judge others by a moment of their life, take it easy on others, but the key message is, never stop in working to make a better ummah.


Next inline was Sheikh Alaa Elsayed, man…. this Sheikh is super-duper funny :) . He has his talk made into very informal and entertaining session. He has loads of sound effect to compliment his points, well, I am a bit biased. I just came back from a 2 days course with him, but I’ll discuss about that later. His topic was Building Blocks. 

I was seated quite in the middle of the auditorium

We know our end goal, a united ummah that helps each other to make the world a better place, but how do we do that? First off we need to have the knowledge, and we need to start taking action. And that is why the first word revealed was ‘Iqra’ which means read, gain as much knowledge as possible and start putting those knowledge into action. Building an ummah should start from the very first step, you got it right, your family, your babies in particular. 


What is the child’s first right? Even before he/she was born? You have to give them a righteous mother or father. You owe your children that. 
And now you can start talking about building an ummah, he mentioned briefly on guides to choose a righteous spouse, for both men and women. We have always been flooded with the hadeeth that guides the men on criteria to look for in a potential wife, but how do we choose the right men? He shared that as well. As I mentioned, he discussed this in detail during the course, which I’ll share later, ok? Main take away from his talk:


Raise your child to be a nation maker, not a nation breaker. One of the tips that he shared was, if you can’t help, don’t hurt. This is pertaining on how to talk to a child. When he/she did something wrong, be careful on how you handle the situation, be mindful of the language that you used. Make sure that if you could not offer solutions or ways to improve, do not turn the fault on them and start calling names. This in the long run may contribute to negative development of the child. I think most parents know this, but when tested during actual scene, some may tend to get carried away.


After the Sheikh, we had a light entertainment from Brother Boona Mohamed, a poet hailed from Canada. He was reciting his poems and the content was heavy. My ability to decipher words was heavily challenged listening to his recitation, he’s good. Throughout the 2 days he was featured quite a few times and some of the poems that he recited was Heroes. Thanks to some of the participant, they have uploaded some of the conference's recording and posted in you tube. 


So that was it the session before lunch on the first day. Pretty tight eh? After lunch, Sheikh Navaid Aziz made his appearance with his topic, I’m Muslim & I’m proud. 

The Sheikh is cute and cuddly like a bear. He has loads of stories, be it the stores from prophets to the stories of sahabah. I was in awe most of the time seeing how eloquent they were with all these stories. I bet they must have memorized the whole Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and only Allah SWT knows how many more kitab. I am seriously jealous. He shared a story of Umar Ibn al-Khattab on the how proud a Muslim should be. The story goes: 

Umar (r.a.) and his deputy and went to Jerusalem with his slave. They were having one camel on which each of them rode by turn. When Umar (r.a.) was entering Jerusalem it happened to be the slave’s turn to ride on the camel. Though the slave offered his turn to the "Khalifah" but Umar refused and remarked: "The honour of Islam (i.e., being Muslim) is enough for all of us." He entered Jerusalem holding the rope of the camel on which was riding his slave. His clothes were dirty and there were several patches on them. — Encyclopedia of Islam

The moral of the story: We Muslims should be proud by all the Islamic teachings, in this case being fair, and do not prioritize on how the others will look upon us. 
In order for us to be proud as Muslim, the importance of knowledge yet again is stressed, that is the essence of our izzah (honour, strength). 


The main theme of Islam is all ibadah are for Allah, love for one another and have mercy, compassion and forgiveness to others. We need to live by this element to show how good a Muslim is. He also shared few other stories that basically teaches us no matter how great we are being tested, never turn our back against Islam, be proud that we are a Muslim. He left us with a quote from the famous poet, Rumi, 

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself' (Rumi)

After the session, I moved on to one of the available workshop, this one runs by Dr Zaharuddin Abd Rahman, discussing on the Islamic approach of Family Finance. 

He started out the session with the daleel from Al-Quran on Islamic finances rules. Based on his slide pack, both feet of the son of Adam will not proceed to the next stage in the life after death except after he has been asked 5 questions, two of which are: 

1. Where do you get your wealth and 
2. How do you spend it?

I have been surfing high and low to find the hadeeth or related ayat to this statement but to no avail. The closest that I got was the hadeeth narrated by Imam Ahmad about the questions in the grave, the period between death and resurrection, which asked on the 3 questions:

1. Who is your Lord? 
2. What is your religion?
3. Who was that person who was sent to you? 

If any other person out there that can verify the additional 2 questions and what part of the afterlife it was asked, please share it with me. 


It is important to note, a strong reminder issued by one of the amir ul-mu'minin with regards to dealing with Islamic rulings in financial matters:

Khalifah ‘Umar bin al-Khattab RA said to the traders in the Madinah al Munawwarah market:“O traders! Do not trade in our market for those who not posseses knowledge (of Islamic commercial laws); because he may consume riba’ willingly or unwillingly (because of the lacks of knowledge). ”

His session has opened my eyes to know more on my own financial business, how much of my current transaction involves riba’ and what can I do to stop this. 
This is not the end of day-1. Still there are 2 lectures from day 1 to be covered. Bear with me, am working on to complete this before this week ends, insyaAllah. And by the way Happy New Year 2012!!


Wallahua’lam….