Working as a PR Trainee

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Fuhhhh.... These two weeks are quite hectic. On 3rd of June 2013, I received a phone call from a government agency and the caller said that she has a temporary job to offer to me. Actually I did not haunt the job so much since I am gradually trying to leave the "world" behind beginning with balding my head. I am grateful to get the job though it is just a temporary one. I am placed in the Corporate Communication Unit which is a small unit at the basement of the department. I reported myself at the human resource office at the third floor at the block 08 on 6th of June 2013. 

I sent my thesis on 3rd June 2013 and I went to my mother's cousin sister house. I spent some time with my cousin brother, well not so little but younger than me known as 'Ady. He took me to Mee Udang restaurant owned by his friend in Balik Pulau but he does not know that I am not taking seafood. Since I did not want to make any fuss and he was so happy to introduce his state's delicacy to me so I am just celebrating him and broken the "pantang" while crying in my heart. I am happy to know that he is going to be hired for other job which is more rewarding to him. He loves sailing and I think his father is a native of Pulau Pinang which means that they are the Orang Laut. It is normal for us Arab descent to have relatives of different races... 

Right now I am a trainee of public relations in the department. We deal with publicity, ICT products of the department such as checking the pictures of the CS to the Government and the people there or the media profiles, exhibitions at the department's lobby, handling visit from other government agencies, managing media and controlling photographers in the office's official ceremonies like the Stunning Achievement Award for public servants, clerical jobs, handling complaints, and many other things related or non-related to the job specification. More or less this temporary job is related to both degrees that I have studied. About the payment, they paid me under the O-Level scheme which is RM54 (16.86 USD) per day and it is about RM1620 (505.70 USD) per month. Just be grateful with whatever that He gave us. Maybe there are hidden wisdom that we do not know.

These two weeks were the busiest weeks for me. One of the senior trainee there is going to quit from the unit since he received an offer for permanent job in other department. So, the deputy head of the unit has appointed me to take hold the jobs left by that guy. He is going to end his service in the unit this Friday so I have to learn and also finishing the left-over jobs by previous trainees since they had also involved me in their meetings. On 20th June 2013, I joined the group of trainees to entertain a visit from Bakri Police-Technical Institute. They came all the way from Johore to see the Prime Minister's Office and made a proper application to the Communication and Corporate Unit so everyone should also address their application with manner. 

Tomorrow, I am going to be a media controller in the ceremony of "Anugerah Pencapaian Cemerlang" which will be held in the Putrajaya International Convention Center. Those people ordered me to do so and I am a trainee though I have a master degree. I am going to humble down myself and try to gain experience as much as I can. So tired since today I have been working in the office for half of the day trying to finish the initial tasks received and at 15:00 we have to go to the ceremony site to check whether everything is in order. I just arrived at home at 19:04 and was sent by a younger trainee known as Naqiyuddin. He has a nice name but I am not going to entertain little kid like I used to in the Tekun hostel. I am not trying to be cocky but I am too "Old" or perhaps "Ancient" to mingle with them. Maybe some people would see me like a "sufi" person but let me tell everyone something. We do not mingle so much with people and most of all people would "cast" their sins on us. I am not something which purify people's sin nor grieves! I used to tell this to little kids in the USM hostel in a framed phrase that "I am a human-being" when they uttered some weird words but little kids are little kids... 

I have to finish up with the task. So, I beg on my knees to brothers and sisters please help me to pray to Him may He makes everything easy for me. May He makes me easy to perform every worship and always remember Him as what I had promised in the covenant with Him. Brothers and sisters please take care of your health in this hazy condition. Pray that may He orders the smoke and fire to cease away so others could be healthy and performing worship to Him in their ways.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!              

Transactions in Islam

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

I just returned home from USM Penang and arrived here in KL just after 'Asr time. I had submitted my thesis. Anyway, for postgraduate students who take full-time classes we actually have to write a five chapters mini-thesis other than hundreds or maybe thousands of weekly assignments. I shut myself down for about a year since the Gregorian New Year 2013 after my thesis being rejected for about.... Well, I do not know how many times.

For this time, I wish that they could accept my thesis and let me go through the candidature as a master graduate student. I did not sleep for about a week to manage my thesis right. Grateful to both sisters, Aida and Premawati. Because they contacted me and reminded me to the thesis, so I came to realize that I had wasted my time in the campus for another three years of my life just after I graduated from undergraduate class. Six years as a higher institution student, plus with my schooling times. I am not trying to brag myself but one could compare our maturity with those who had started their working life since after their schooling times or after their undergraduate times. We could analyze the situation better and not just working for the sake of saving our ass. We learned to be compassionate to other beings and feel others' sufferings.

Well, tonight I am connecting myself with the mosque again which is the al-Najah Mosque at the religious primary school in Precinct 9. I just love that imam guy. I feel connected spiritually to him and also some other guys but only specific people. It is like being connected to another brother when seeing him or other specific people. Coincidentally, there was a religious lecture related to communal activity component in Sharia Islamiyah or the Way of Islam. The ustad talked about the interest or in Arabic we call it as al-Ribaa. This is quite interesting because I learned about this but I had forgotten, lol. 

Basically, there are six matters which is mentioned in a Hadith I guess reported by Abu Sa'id al-Khudry r.a as interest matters. They are:

1. Gold 

2. Silver

3. Wheat grain

4. Dates

5. Salt

6. Barley

Well, because this country and most regions in South East Asia are following the jurisprudence of imam al-Shafi'ie rahimahullah then I am offering him my honor, love and respect. I will just mention about his method of jurisprudence other than my family in majority follows his method. In modern days, there are matters subjected to interests such as money and they are reasoned through a process known as deductive analogy by jurisprudence scholars. Not by commoners.

The imam al-Shafie jurisprudence method categorized interests into three categories:

1. Ribaa' al-Fadhl

2. Ribaa' al-Nasee'at

3. Ribaa' al-Yad

The adherents of Hanbali jurisprudence usually would follow the method of Ibnu al-Qayyim and other scholars from the particular school of jurisprudence where they recognize two categories of interests in transaction. It is not a problem at all but do not impose the method on others like they do not have their schools of jurisprudence or scholars of jurisprudence. 

I guess these are the summary for basic things in our daily transaction whether with money or barter system. These form the basis of our financial law and economic system where Islam is not based on any Enlightenment products from European continent but it is an "Enlightenment" product from Arabian Peninsula where the people there were regarded as barbarians although it is perhaps an overgeneralization by Orientalists or Western academicians.

I just read some books written in Malay language from our library in Hamzah Sendut USM. I guess I took two books about tariqas in South East Asia and one is the Book of Aphorism written by Ibn Athaillah al-Sikandari and compiled again by Sheikh Fadlullah al-Haeri of Karbala. The book about tariqas among them is known as the "Syariah: Ilmu Fekah Menurut Tarekat Qadiriyah" or "Sharia: Jurisprudence according to Qadiri Lineage" written by Haji Abu Bakar Aceh and published by Pustaka Aman Press. Another one is the "Tarekat Ahmadiah in Malay World" but I cannot remember the author's name and publication. Qadiri lineage is actually my paternal family lineage but we had forgotten and leave the practices behind when our elders passed away. My father was not properly educated (religiously speaking) and I am lamenting him because he is unfortunate. Basically I have some basic knowledge about the Qadiri lineage where I just look at the contents and I could elaborate them again from my basic understanding of Islam. Some of the practices I had already get from elders at our "centers" when I was little child. I am just referring to the book as to recall my memories back while waiting the time to take the bus to return to Kuala Lumpur. Did not have much time to xerox the book and violating the publication copyrights because I was rushing with thesis submission and others.

Tomorrow will be my first day working in an organization. It is just a contract based job but anything will do because I need some experience in working areas and getting used to whatever that I had left before. Thank you brothers and sisters for visiting this humble site. I am grateful for brothers and sisters prayers.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!        

Undergraduate Class

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah!

Just a picture that I have from our class. The truth is I had never capture any picture of mine during schooling times nor during undergraduate period. Just got this from colleague, brother Amir and he took it from other sites of our classmates, lol...

Urm, I cannot remember all of their names... We never really mingle together because the class was divided into groups. One group of students went against one another. I am with brother Amir because he is my Kedah state compatriot. I could say that I was quite racist at that time and strictly mingled with Kedah, Kelantan, some students from Besut in Terengganu and Thais, ahaha...  This is around 2008-2009 while I studied Translation and Interpretation studies where the basic languages were Malay and English. Right now I am still practicing these studies and translated many things which also include both Muslim and non-Muslim wisdom. I still keep some of the notes and rewriting them again as to preserve and to spread it out to other Muslim brothers and sisters.

I do not mix with other students in the class and have problems with some lecturers because I was also an orthodox Muslim guy. I respect Friday and the calculation of the holy day for me begins from Thursday evening up to Sunday dawn. My German language lecturer surprisingly understood me but Malay Muslims do not understand me and our rituals. 

Usually we, observant orthodox Muslims would have problems even in Muslim society ourselves. Not only in Western society. However, I could assure everyone that I am even more open-minded than any "liberal" thinking people in the West. I never have any conflict with people of non-Islamic faiths. I am in the photo anyway but only those in the pictures know me, hehe...

Sealed with prayers with mercy, peace and love, amin! 

Thesis AGain

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah!

Last week I received emails from my course coordinator and also from the school's clerk. They said that my term is not ended yet. My colleagues which is Aida and Prema both also called me. They thought that I am still in progress to repair my thesis but the reality is that I am not repairing anything. I just went to mosques and praying besides reciting the Quran and litanies to purify myself yet I still feel not purified because I think that I am still selfish. Sometimes I had forgotten to take note on my parents feeling. It is a violation of commandments. 

Just about a week ago, those colleagues called me. And now I am almost finishing my thesis which is around 30,000 > words and about 87 pages, haha... I did not sleep days and nights to cope with the running time because this Monday is the due date which would determine whether I will be graduated as a master student of International and Diplomatic Studies (European). What is the title of my thesis? The title is "The Recognition of Religious Minority Rights in Europe: Muslim and UK as a Case Study". This is not really an easy study, but praises only due to the God the Highest. I am thankful to brother Abdullah al-Andalusi. His debates in the Muslim Debate Initiative series really helped me and because of that I could combine my readings about Islamic civilizations. The study also talks about the Sharia law and political angle of Islam besides analyzing the flaws of Western political philosophies such as liberalism and inequity in human rights as people hypocrisy could also be confusing.  

Right now, I am writing the last chapter which is the conclusion for the thesis. Tomorrow I would print it out and just return to USM, with His Will of course. Please brothers and sisters help me to pray for my success in the study. I love legal, policies and political studies though before I frowned at them. I am countering my fear factors now, haha... Thank you for prayers. My prayers is also for brothers and sisters.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!