God, Paul Potts and Nefarious Simon - I will take the good times however it comes...

We are the Underdog! Faster than a speeding pooch!
Able to leap tall Dobermans in a single bound!

God and Mr. Paul Potts

Why do we feel like we win when the underdog wins?

Because we feel a little bit of us in them,

The hidden talent, the stranger in a crowd,

The frustrated promise, the burning ambition,

Suddenly let loose by a spark of divine planning,

An unexpected chance, a door of opportunity opening.

Why do we forget that each morning we wake up,

We are that underdog, that little guy, that lost genius

And sitting there is God,

Facing us and beckoning, encouraging,

Go on… show Me what you've got!

……………………………..

Over 100 million hits and still counting on its many versions, is the number of views this little piece of reality show is continuing to pick up on Youtube...

But things were not so straight forward. Old Wiki says "The Sun newspaper received complaints following allegations that Potts had been "coached by Pavarotti". There was anger that he was portrayed on Britain's Got Talent as a simple mobile-phone salesman, whereas he had in fact appeared in six amateur opera productions and in a concert for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and had plans for a summer tour with that orchestra. Potts responded that he had not claimed to be completely untutored, only that he had never performed any concert for pay and was therefore an amateur. He also said that the Pavarotti masterclass he attended in Italy was paid for from his own savings and was a single masterclass, not regular coaching."

But who cares, really? Of course he didn't cultivate that talent just by singing in the shower. For me, Paul's personal initiative and sacrifice simply made his victory all the sweeter. For on that day he walked on stage in Cardiff a shy retiring rose, but proceeded to blow Simon Cowell’s mind away. Everyone dreams such a day for themselves. But such day is here and now. Every day for you, and it is not hard-to-please Simon that is sitting in judgment, but God the Most Gracious, Most Merciful… Most Loving and Most Understanding of all. God, who is on your side. God, who will not let you down. The audience of the Prophets and Saints are sitting expectantly, looking at you with manifest affection and love. The stage crew of Angels are humming together, feet tapping to your accompanying music.

Come on, sunshine. Show God what you’ve got. Winning or failing is a worldly condition, but simply by trying, by giving your very best, you are already a winner in His book. You have absolutely nothing to lose...

And before I leave you, here's another magical moment from Britain's Got Talent audition for 2012. Yes, yes... I admit I am a flaky, cheezy sentimental jelly easily duped by commercial reality shows. But I don't care... I love it when beautiful things happen. It matters not a jot to me that nefarious hard-as-nails Simon had a hand in it. Thank you, God.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

God gives Everyone

A Chance to Shine

Turning Introspection into Inspiration - Meeting the 'BOSS'

The Boss. I attended a pre-launch function for a potential client last night. It was organized at a fancy pant-sie restaurant not far from my house. No sooner that I arrived I was led to the private room behind the stage (it was also a jazz club) to meet the ‘Boss’. Inside I was introduced to the Boss, and I guess the immediate impression was that the Boss would be perfectly casted to play a Chinese triad chieftain in a Jackie Chan movie. His stern demeanour and the clucking underlings that deferentially hovered around him made the atmosphere even more convincing.

Come to the back. My boss wants to meet you. *Gulp*

Engak Bisa. The Boss was very polite and we discussed potential work. That took about 20 minutes. After that, curious as I was (and talkative as he was), we continued to chat about work, business and politics, especially in Indonesia. Oh, I forgot to mention that he is Indonesian. He shared many experiences and lessons about his life, work and family. But his main passion was in marketing and motivation, and in that sphere I found the Boss to be very passionate. Although he spoke in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia Official Language), I was quite able to follow him as my Malay language and Bahasa Indonesia are closely related. Anyhow, He had one particular perspective about life, ambition and success which I found to be enlightening. He said…

Walaupun kamu tahu, engak pasti kamu mengerti. Sekiranya kamu mengerti, engak pasti kamu bisa. Walaupun kamu bisa, engak pasti kamu dapat. Dan walaupun kamu dapat, engak pasti apa yang kamu dapat itu bagus!

(Meaning - Just because you know, it does necessarily mean that you understand. Even if you do understand, it does not mean that you are applying your understanding consistently. And even if you do apply your understanding regularly, it does not mean that you are guaranteed success. And even if you do succeed, it does not mean that what you succeed in achieving is necessarily a good thing for you!)

Learning this is a good start. But it is still a looong
way to the Conductor's baton of the
Vienna Philharmonic...

“The problem with a lot of people...” the Boss continued, “... is because they leap from a little knowledge to imagining their grand moment of personal achievement. They learn to play ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ on the piano with one finger in the morning, and they go to bed at night imagining themselves conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. That is just ridiculous!”

I think I am just like that. A bit of a daydreamer. But the truth is that there is no guarantee of success, and certainly there will be none if you are not willing to sweat and work like a dog. Throughout our conversation, my mind kept drifting back to my own career and how woefully short I am in that aspect. The introspection made me feel a little sad. But I hope to turn this introspection into an inspiration.

Pray for me and wish me luck, sunshine!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

How to be happy in your job - Really?

139. The jailor is more imprisoned that the prisoners

The jailor is more imprisoned

That the prisoners,

The policeman is more criminal

Than the accused,

The psychiatrist is more crazy

Than the patient,

The insurer is more exposed

Than the insured,

The riddlemaker is more confused

Than his riddles,

The judge is more guilty

Than the convicted,

The politician is more a follower

Than his devotees,

The pimp is more a whore

Than his prostitutes,

The banker is more in debt

Than his debtors,

The businessman is more a peon

Than his workers,

The theologian is more a devil

Than the Devil,

The atheist is more dogmatic

Than the believers,

The poet is more hypocritical

Than his apostasy.

It is not condemnation that I utter,

But empathy for people whose trade

Cannot but affect them

In ways they are unable

To fathom.

Is it a surprise, therefore,

That Muhammad is saying,

“Before any trade you take,

Take first the servanthood of God.”?

FIRST AMBITION. I believe that every man and woman has a right to choose their employment. To do within the time given to them whatever gives them the greater pleasure and payment. But nothing should stand in your way to your very first ambition. A first ambition, you ask? Yes, something taken for granted (as always by mankind) by most people, and that is to be a decent human being.

BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD HAPPINESS. There is no trade or vocation more finer and indeed, more important than that. Whether you are a banker in their tower of fiat money, or a teacher in a classroom, or a fireman risking life and limb, this finicky and meddlesome task of being 'decent' is critical to happiness. But this happiness must be married with decency. If there is nothing better in this wonderful world than being good and happy, there is perhaps no worse condition for you than being bad and happy. For being bad-happy is the worse lie you can ever believe in. Many people do it. Even me sometimes.

DRESSED IN SERVANTHOOD. Every person must have a measure of decency by which to live their lives. And I think (and God thinks that too. Well... I like dropping names) that there is no dress for decency more fitting for a human being than the dress of servanthood. It is the sort of dress that you can wear anywhere with confidence, whether you are in a mosque, a church, a boardroom, a laboratory, in parliament , in a temple or a conference hall. And one size fits all.

So may God bless those who serve God (and Man). For you cannot have one without the other, yes?

Have a good-happy day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

God & The Door of Love - The Journey is the Destination

BIG PLANS. I have big plans. Really ambitious. I have decided to stop the bad habit of qualifying what I want by my age, my health and my wealth. I am throwing my hopes and aspirations as far as my furthest sight, and people will say that my dreams are a fool’s dream. I hope to raise the happiness and joy of people around me by several terabytes at least. If only people can get into my head, then they would see, they would not despair of my prayers and they would believe.

GOD’S PLAN. I was pondering about this when I started thinking about God. For unlike me, He has no Limit. Whether perceived or hidden limits. His Powers are endless, His choices are not really choices because there is no quantifiable limit to His choices. So what are His choices for us? I believe that God has an infinite ocean of happiness in store for us, only if we can believe in His Love.

WE ARE HERE ALREADY. And unlike me, we are all already living in His mind. Where as I cannot make people come into my mind. What dreams I have is wholly and exclusively my own until by some supreme effort of Fate, I am able to manifest that dream in real life. But God is different. We are already existing in His world. It is His creation that we live in, our bodies, our clothes, the ground that we walk on, the air that we breathe. Why, even the thoughts that we think and the feelings that curl in the most secret corner of our soul – All of it is manifested, whether physically or in spirit by His power.

UNHAPPY? So why are we unhappy, if we are already in His Most Benevolent world? Because we continue to act as if we are not. Forget awhile about what we think we know about what God wants of us. Let us discard theology for awhile and go back to the basics – Love. Compassion. Understanding. Tolerance. Courage. Chivalry. Honesty. Frankly, I think most of us are stumbling about blind like a bat because we are ignoring the sonar sense which God has granted us – our heart and conscience. The world appears to be dark and gloomy because we have made some poor judgment calls in our lives. And more often, it is because we choose to act upon our ego and leash our heart and conscience to the pillar of greed, hate and envy – these natural allies to our love-devouring ego.

So there is no need for a special invite by God. We are here already, you and I. In this most perfect planet called earth, and alive in this most perfect form created by God the All-Loving.

THE DOOR OF LOVE. 

(The journey is the destination)

I am told that if you desire God, 

You must follow your conscience and heart. 

For that is the only path to the Door of Love. 

But once you get there, you will be surprised. 

Because when you open the door, 

You will find that there is in fact nothing inside. 

For you are already 'in love'. 

With a Love unlike any other.

Wa min Allah at-taufiq

Holy Mediocrity, Annhilation of Self and Facial Hair - Old Toons 2

A tritoon (is there such a word?) of sketches. Published before (I think) in this almanac, I really cannot remember these things.

People have high hopes in their religious ambitions. I have very limited aspirations. And I don't want too much trouble getting them. I am sorry for God for having someone like me...

Fana is the state of divine annihilation of a person. Some mystics call it 'to die before dying'. There are many stages of this. Some Christians may consider this similar to the idea of 'born again'. As you can see, nothing is sacred to me, and I am quite happy making fun of anything really. Christianity ought to count itself lucky that I am not one of its adherents...

And sometimes it is all just about me. I get no end of complain about my facial hair from Heche. She says I am lucky to have someone so concerned about my appearance. Yes. I feel so lucky indeed. Many a times I have found myself beseeching God Himself, "Oh Lord, I do not deserve such blessings!."

Have a wonderful day, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.

Better than Heaven - Prose of Ramadhan Part 32

Better than Heaven (Ramadhan Verses #18)

Mr. Baldy: You are not seeking heaven?

Mr. Beardy: Not really.

Mr. Baldy: Then where do you wish to go after you die? What is that place which you desire better than heaven?

Mr. Beardy: What I seek is not a place.

Mr. Baldy: Then what?

Mr. Beardy: What I seek is a feeling and a state.

Mr. Baldy: Your own?

Mr. Beardy: No, not mine. I simply want God and the Prophet to feel happy, and be in a state of happiness with me. In that way, does it matter anymore where I will be?

Mr. Baldy: Hmm. You got a point there.

Mystics, neo-mystics, pseudo-mystics and plain old sinners (like yours truly) like to write sometimes about the 'spiritual stations' as if they are train stations that dot the railway line ending up at Godville, Heaven. I myself am guilty and have written thus in this almanac. Such analogies are of course nothing but useful visualisations of something that is actually a state of belief, feeling and knowledge. Essentially, when one discourses about spiritual stations, you must leave the trappings of physicality and enter into the universe of metaphysics. It simply does not matter where you are now, but more importantly how you feel and what you know - and the answers to that does not reside in you, it resides in the hands of God. If God is pleased with you, no doubt He will make His feelings known to you and within you. He is after all, God.

When you and I kaput, we end our physical existence to enter into realm of the soul. The realm of the heart is so metaphysical that 'metaphysical' itself as a concept expires in its relevance ("Metaphysical?" remark the Angels, "That is SO last season."). Reality is directly and immediately created and recreated by what our heart and conscience aspires to, without any physical condition to hamper our vision and its manifestations. Heaven is a wonderful thing, I am sure. God said so. But for the sufis, for those saints and mureeds of their tariqas, it is still a secondary object to God and the Prophet. Why pander to the wine in the dusty cellars when God, Most Wonderous Distiller of Love and Its Intimacies awaits your pleasure?

Have a lovely Thursday, sunshine. And do consider the old saint's question - If you have God's pleasure, why settle for any other?

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Mikhail and his First School Examination - A tearfully happy tale

While I was walking through (and sinking into) the peat soil of the oil palm estates in Saribas earlier this week, a small drama was unfolding at home. On Monday, Mikhail, my 7 year old son, returned from school, and he was strangely quiet and withdrawn. While changing, Bibik saw that he was furtively looking at some papers and quickly shoving them back into his school bag. In the afternoon, he continued being very quiet, so Bibik went to the tv room to see what he was up to. To her surprise she found him crying alone on the sofa. So she asked him what was wrong, and in between his heartbreaking sobs, he told her that he got a C and a B in one of the subjects he sat of his recent primary 1 exams. Tearfully, he pleaded to her, "Sorry... Bibik, Sorry... Mika tak buat lagi (I won't do it again). She answered, "Hey, Mikhail, apa nak mintak sorry kat Bibik ni? (Hey, Mikhail, why do you need to say sorry to me?)

"Mika tak dengar cakap Bibik... Mika tak mau lagi tengok tv banyak banyak, Mika tak mau lagi main laptop banya-banyak... Sorry Bibik (I didn't listen to you, Bibik... I don't want to watch too much tv anymore, I don' want to play with my laptop anymore... I am sorry, Bibik)", said my son mournfully. Bibiq sat with him and gently consoled him, but he continued crying in her arms until finally exhausted, he stopped. But it didn't end there, for twice she found him sitting quietly as tears trickled down his cheeks.Finally tired out by the day's miserableness, Mikhail insisted on going to bed early and he fell asleep still crying. Bibik did her best, but by then even she was crying. "Saya kesian sangat tengok dia ni...(I felt so sad looking at him acting this way)", she said.