Malaysia just had one of the most transparent and divisive general election since its independence. And the embers of discontentment with the election results are still glowing reddish. The incumbent government that prevailed in the general election claims one thing, and the opposition continues to claim another. The truth, as it often is, lies somewhere between the great divide.
In times like this I like to act dumb. And funnily enough I find acting dumb a very easy thing to do. I am almost naturally gifted to be dumb.
But never you mind, sunshine. Don't listen to those naughty politicians with their slippery tongue and those NGOs with their earnestness. And when people ask you if you are a fence-sitter, tell them no. Tell them that you are following the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and that you want to pull down the fences that divide all of us - The fence erected by our egos and propped by our nafs. Ergo, we shall begin with dismantling the first fence, our own egos.
Dear old Mikhail, borrowing an umbrella, after a Cukur Jambul ceremony for my partner Alex's youngest
newborn son, Siddi. Like myself, he is apolitical and does not
subscribe to any political ideologies (or umbrellas).
Election Fever. Last Thursday a friend asked me, "So which party do you support? Or are you a fence-sitter?" He is asking me this question because of two reasons - Firstly, he knows of my discontent about our country's present political system of representative democracy, a template which was handed down to us when we obtained independence in 1957. And secondly, it is because this coming Sunday the whole of Malaysia shall be queuing at the polling stations to vote in this country's 13th General Election. With 579 candidates vying for 222 parliamentary seats and 1,321 chasing 505 state seats, and an expected high voter turn-out rate, this is one of the most anticipated election in our recent history.
Cukur Jambul involves a ceremonial cutting of
the newborn's first lock of hair, preceded with
prayers for Sidi and his deceased relatives. While
the guests cut Sidi's hair (little bits only), his proud
grandmother along with her nasyid group sang
the Marhaban, songs welcoming and praising
Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) Later there is food for all.
Fence-destroyer. I remember being stumped to answer. Which party do I support? And if I support none, am I a fence sitter? But then again, why need there be only two possible answers? There is perhaps a third possible reply, and it was the one I chose. I said, "Bro... I support no party, but I am no fence-sitter. In fact it is my fervent hope to destroy that damn fence."
Anarchist me? He he he. My reply makes me sound like an Anarchist. But I don't think I am, because Anarchists are often secular and all about destroying the old system, old ways and prejudices, to bring in the new. My like-minded friends are the opposite of Anarchists, for they are concerned with addressing modern problems brought about by 'new things' such as democracy, the usurious fiat (paper) money and global banking system. We are also much worried about the over-weening power of global corporations, the plague (yes, plague) of bio-tech revolution which is affecting the precious bio-diversity and fine balance of our natural environment. All this is new, a 21st century problem. But the solutions we seek are ancient solutions, in the living pages of the Holy Quran, and in the living story of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), as guided by our Masters. We always have this qualifier in our statements because, to be honest here, we are not the brightest people around, nor the most virtuous. We need our saints to hold our hand.
And what is the cure?
Almost ten years ago I recorded a prose about the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s) and about walls and roads. The first part of the prose, which is the one that concerns us, goes like this...
The Roadbuilder
I build roads,
Not walls.
For my message
Is peace,
Not war...
.............................
Poor Siddi yawning. It's his sleep time now (daytime). He spends his nights keeping
his parents awake. Ergo, I often find his dad blinking away half-awake in the office.
On the day of the Cukur Jambul there was good merriment and gratitude.
Politics were forgotten, and the true important things in life celebrated -
Our family, our friends, in the Grace of God Almighty
and Muhammad Habibullah (s.a.w.s.)
The Message of Adab. The sublime Prophetic message of Muhammad (s.a.w.) touches all mankind. And it is essentially a message of Adab (good manners). For though we may differ in our ideologies and creed, if everyone is willing to treat one another with high Adab, there would be no need for all this fear-mongering, bickering, backstabbing, betrayal and slandering - the common weapons of choice in this election thus far. Often now we find in both the mainstream media and the new social media public comments and postings which are either insulting, or at best condescending and sanctimonious. Sometimes, I would like to ask them, "Who died and made you right?"
The Fence. So however attracted you are to any party's slogan or promises, don't build your fences too high until you find it so difficult to understand the other side's point of view. Are we not all human and do we not all err and in perpetual in need of God's forgiveness? Who is to say we are right or wrong? Or whether we are on the right side or the wrong side of an argument?
Tall Fences
Come to your senses,
My would-be martyrs!
And rely not on man-made borders
That keep outsiders outside!
For today you may be within,
Come tomorrow you may be without...
Then we shall see how well you fare
Clambering up your proud fences
Built tall and fair
With your incessant and foul pretenses...
.....................................
Wahhabism. We are also concerned with the persistent influence of Wahhabism in Malaysia, that strange extremist off-shoot of Islam, propagated with the sword and oil-money from the Middle-east. And the worrying trend of the two dominant 'Islamic' parties (PAS and UMNO) in Malaysia flirtation with the Wahhabi-centric political clerics and celebrity ustaz (religious teachers). Wahhabis are expert fence builders, and have a nasty habit of declaring people who disagree with them as apostates. Anyone who flirts with such people are flirting with spiritual poison.
I used to vote back in the days when candidates and their supporters, of whatever race, creed or political affiliation used to have decent manners. This year I shall not vote and continue to prop up these political fences that divide the people of Malaysia. Why should I when every election cycle seems to bring out the worst in many people? If my fellow Malaysians vote this coming Sunday, I wish them well, and hope that however you may mark the ballot paper, it does not colour your perception of the Oneness of God and the Mercy of His Prophet.
Madad (support us) ya Saydeena Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). Lead us back to our traditional good adab as exemplified by you, best of creation and God's own appointed Mercy to all the Worlds, for the sake of all humanity. The ringing song of Marhaban... marhaban... marhaban lingers in my heart still.
No party colours here. Just thirsty seekers looking for the Nur (Light).
Saying, "His mother knew not her child was destined
To be the Seal of the Prophets long awaited,"
Saying, "Why celebrate the Prophet's birthday?"
They have found Islam,
And it is an empty hollow shell.
They think they are authorised to interpret God's words,
But it is their own words speaking to them from hell,
Making the most gentle Prophet appear hard,
As the ego-voice in the empty hollow chamber
Distill history and make mischief
In their unfortunate hearts.
..............................
It is election season here in Malaysia. And word in the street (and cyber-street) is that the political party in Malaysia that is championing Islam will do very well (again) in this 13th General Election since our independence in 1957.
For myself and my friends, whom do not believe in this thing called Democracy, we can understand how people have spiritual aspirations. But when you mix religion within the context of a populist electoral process, what you essentially get is a spiritual leader with the most followers. And you get the most followers by saying things people want to hear. This is one problem, but the biggest problem is when it is you who wants to be the leader. It is you who wants to become the Prime Minister or (God forbid!) work to bring down the Sultanates of Malaysia, so that you can also become the first President of the Islamic Republic of Malaysia. And may Allah s.w.t. protect us from that spiritual reformation. For despite all your protestation of loving akhira (the world Hereafter) and despising dunya (this world), you are in fact chasing power in this world after all.
The Muslim is the one who loves and appreciates this world, as a mirror to the other world, and the True Reality of Allah s.w.t. and the Beloved One, being Muhammad s.a.w.s. Nothing else matters. The Muslim who has not found love - visceral, real and passionate love and veneration for Muhammad bin Abdullah s.a.w.s. and His Family and Companions and Saints, has not completed his faith. God has made it clear in His Holy Quran...
Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Send ye blessings on him, and salute him with all respect.
(Quran 33:56, translation by Marmaduke Pickthall)
The Election Day is this coming 5th May 2013. I pray that Allah s.w.t. shall continue to bless and protect this country. For it is my country, and despite everything, I love my people.
What can a Muslim build if the Prophet's name is not spoken
and his person venerated and blessed with high praise?
Nothing, but a false edifice of the human ego.
Will you be the Firaun or
will you be worse than the Firaun?
At least the Firaun was a
generous leader, are you as generous
With the pennies that you have?
Or are you deluding yourself
That when you get rich you
will get kinder?
If you complain about your
neighbour’s noise,
How many times have you
yourself disturbed their peace?
If you question someone’s
sincerity,
Why should you not question your own sincerity?
If you look down upon
someone’s fall into disrepute,
How far will you yourself
fall into disrepute?
If you sneer at a woman’s
dress or impropriety,
Why do you not avert your
eyes instead?
If you possess an envy for
so-called jihad-crusade wars,
Why are you not thankful for
the peace in your own land?
If you question the love a
Mureed (student) has for his Murshid (master),
Is it because you possess
none for anyone else but yourself?
If you think you can yourself
perfectly interpret the Holy Quran,
Why did God even bother
sending a Messenger when
He could have simply sent the Holy Quran?
If you think that democracy
is the way forward for Muslims,
Why do you think the
Messenger stressed so much on adab (good manners)
Above personal hak (rights)?
If you think Islam is the
best religion,
Why do you feel oppressed?
Who is oppressing you but
yourself?
Who is humiliating you but
yourself?
The nation will receive unto
it the leaders it deserves,
The nation will receive unto
it the religion it deserves,
You preach insularity and
introvertness,
But when the Messenger
(s.a.w.s.) looked within himself
He saw God, and outside he
saw the vast ocean of humanity.
What do you see when you look
within yourself?
Your ego? Dressed in a
religious cloth?
You speak of defending the
faith.
You say speak in the Name of God,
But the truth is you do not
Even understand the
Nature of Words,
And how Words
Can be sorcery
And how Words
Can be
Mercy.
You throw your day away contemplating
over the Devil’s deception,
Until you yourself become
part of his deception,
You wring your heart and beat
on your chest,
In righteous anger at the
Devil, at the unbelievers,
At the Jews, at the
Christians, at the Hindus,
But I see you there alone,
standing in front of the mirror,
And the only person I see you
harassing and haranguing
Is you and no one but
you...
There is no evil but evil,
And you have become the messenger of evil, o’ Man.
O’ Humanity, O’ Muslims, O' Sincerity, wake
up! Wake up!
.......................................
The Dajjal (Antichrist) is only One-eyed because, in truth, it cares for no one but itself...
The Spring of Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa has become the Spring of the Self, in an Age of the Self. Insufferably selfish, we-have-all-the-answers, down-with-the-old-and-up-with-the-new political movement with a million-headed hydra of individual fears, desires and hubris.
There are no real leaders because such leaders that they have follows the selfish self-centred whims and fancies of 'the people'. But they are not following the people, because the desires of the people are not the people themselves. But none understands this because the people sees their egos and themselves as one.
And that is the greatest tragedy in the Century of Self (which is coincidentally the title of this amazing BBC documentary. Just like the prose, the documentary is too long, 235 minutes. But worth every second, I think.).
May we all have a conscious day today, aware of ourselves and cautious of our ego, always.
The Age of Enlightenment passed me by. The French Revolution leaves me cold. The frozen rebuke makes me wilt at the thought of choice. Have I, dear friend, grown old?
Or less hasty? When we were young, we were so damn obsessed with growing older. Why... we cannot grow older fast enough. Not that we ever anticipated that growing older will inevitably make us one day, actually old.
And now that I am here, at the cusp of my 43rd year of life come 2013, I am not so hasty. I want to savour life. Like a fine wine swirling in my wine glass. And one of the things which comes with age is a bit (more) of circumspection and aforethought...
"I wanna do this, God. What do You think? Good idea?"
"I rather not do this, o' Creator of the World(s). Are You with me?"
"I am just gonna flip a coin on this... What say You, o' He Who Plans the Best?"
"Just another slice of apple pie... Too much, o' Most Benevolent One?"
But whether God approves or disapproves, you sometimes just do it anyway. Yet it is not His disapproval that I am ultimately worried about. But His indifference. That finally, after the millionth time I ignore His gentle counsel voiced through the guidance of the Prophet and the Holy Quran, through the whisper of my very own conscience, God finally gives up on me and declares, "Do whatever you want!"
Ah, freedom, what a poison chalice you may turn out to be! May God never leave us to the devices of our own choices...
The Big 'D'. That 'Djinn of the highest rank' is of course, as you may already know, the Devil, or Satan or Bezelbub or by any other name that he is known to mankind. God created our common ancient grandfather, and then commanded the whole of creation to prostrate before Adam. And inevitably, Azazil (as he was then known honourably as the first, mightiest and most loyal Djinn of God) in his pride and hubris gazed into Adam, scoffed at the idea of bowing before a puny, weak creature of water and earth, and uttering in disdain, "Ana khairun minhu (I am better than he)". And verily followed the rest of the Djinn Nation in rebellion against God's Word.
Thus arose the very first democratic protest in all of Creation. The 99 Percent against the One. No doubt, media commentators (if they were in existence way back then) would label it 'The Occupy Creation Movement' or 'The Djinn Spring'.
My personal distaste for democracy comes not just from the scriptural lessons, but from real life events that overtakes my otherwise happy days with examples of Man's folly. And how sad when clerics and religious teachers (who really ought to know better) decide to take part in the electoral process and muddy their scholarly cloaks by dragging them through the mud of human politics. Because this is what would happen - they would call unto the population to their most base common denominators - fear, anger, greed and pride.
Yesterday's headline in a local newspaper: "UMNO (the Muslim party in Federal power) heeds the call of PAS (the Muslim party in opposition) to unite to against the Prophet-insulting movie.".This is religious jingoism and the inevitable end when you mix religion and politics.
Why must we ALWAYS play according to someone else's script?
We are led by the nose and we don't even realise it,
thinking ourselves so pious and learned.
*sigh*
My brother, may God bless his soul, said this to me, "Why must we ALWAYS react in anger, with street protests, the burning of flags and blood-curdling cries for vengeance? Why not say, 'How sad we are by the insults towards our beloved Prophet by those who know nothing of him, but lies and prejudices?' We hope they will be rightly-guided, insyaAllah..."
I don't always agree with my brother, but he is right, I think. May we all be rightly-guided always.
InsyaAllah.
Have a happy insult-free hate-free Sunday, sunshine. It is a beautiful wet drizzly morning here in Kuala Lumpur.
Whoever said that a throne of melted-down swords would be comfortable? My hernia is killing me!
18. Kingly glory, kingly despair
If everyone are kings,
There are, in truth, no kings,
But slaves.
Kings craving queens greedy
And kingdom castles fair,
Ignorant that,
In kingly glory
Is crowned
Kingly despair.
...................
Game of Thrones. Poor Ned Stark. If you are a loyal fan of the TV fantasy mini-series 'The Game of Thrones' you would see plentiful reasons why being a King or a Lord or a Baron would suck big time. Oh yes, you will get to lord over your peasants and minions, but it is only until another King, Lord or Baron peers across the garden fence and wonders, "Saaay... them land and riches look mighty good to me."
The Young Turks. There are not many Kings, Lords or Barons nowadays in the world. Now there is Democracy which purports to be the best solution for a human society. And there is no more iconic symbol of Democracy than the U.S. of A. But any system is only as good as the people who works it. I learn a lot about America and its politics from the Young Turks channel on YouTube. It is the biggest internet news site with millions of hits.
Atheism and Hubris. It is also an atheist-centric show, and oh how they poke fun of many religions, mainly Christianity with Islam coming a close second. But they are not rabid religion-haters, although I guess it is hard for them sometimes to maintain a balanced view towards religion. To be fair, they do try to filter between the 'good' Christian teachings and the 'bad' Christian teachings. Same thing goes to Islam, Hinduism and other religions of the world. At other times, the condescending tone of 'we know better' comes out into the open, and I just sigh a little.
Democracy in the U.S. of A. I am talking about the Young Turks again (See some earlier postings like 'The West and the Irrationality of Rationalism"and "The Young Turks and the Miracles") because in a recent video upload, Cenk (the big boss of the TYT) was despairing on camera about the state of American democracy because of the U.S. track records on torture. And how many people under the previous Bush administration who authorised water-boarding, torture and 'rendition flights' are happily walking freely on the streets of America - simply because President A-Change-You-Can-Believe-In Obama wants to look forward and not backwards. But lastly, Cenk admitted that he still believes in the idea of America, a liberal, progressive and strong democracy, even if people would call him naive. See video link below.
.How are we any different? Well, that is the same view all believers in all religion have. There will always be bad apples in the barrel, but we still believe in the Barrel of God. And we still believe in the holy scriptures brought down by His Prophets, though there may be some who misunderstand or places different priorities in the faith to the point that their actions, meant to 'defend the faith' ultimately destroys their own faith. Why is religion perceived in any different way? Exchange the word 'idea' with 'religion' and it turns out that we are all the same, whether you believe in God or you don't.
.
We all have our share of bad apples. How are you any different from us?
.
I don't want to be a democrat, and I don't want to be a King. I just wanna be me, a naive and error-prone man stumbling his way towards some meaningful understanding and experience of servanthood, to God and to Mankind. This is what Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is teaching us.
So it is okay to be naive for we are all weak servants to the Splendid Truth of God - Love, Beauty, Compassion and Mercy.
Democracy and The Opium Den of Fantasy Money & Usury
Leaders, don’t give me paper money
To buy my votes,
Don’t build bridges and roads
On money created in fantasy,
For you are robbing the future
From me and my family,
Leaders, don’t tell me that
You can cure all the problems of humanity
By printing more and more money,
For each scribbled paper that you print
Steals the value of my savings,
Each QE that you sanction
Is a sanction against me,
Yet, again and again you climb
On your soapbox and assure me,
"Trust in me, believe in the economy,
“Vote me in, for change you can believe in!”
Leaders, don’t promise me
That things will change for the better
When you topple the incumbent,
With quotes from the Quran
About morality, when in your policy
You say nothing about the
Immorality of paper money,
Leaders, don’t speak to me of God
For who are you trying to kid?
Who will explain to God and His Prophet
For the usury and interest that
Is in the very water that we drink
And food that we eat?
Leaders, stop dressing your thirst for power
With the cloak of charity for others
And the pious dress of a religious teacher,
For you are taking the road to hypocrisy,
Wanting to be electable by the majority
And leaving behind the Adab of the Nabi,
And the morality of Unity of humanity
In the Oneness and sublime Uniqueness of God,
The One True guarantor of Love, Truth, Mercy and Beauty!
If you are playing
The Game of Democracy,
Do not waste your time with me,
Sell your fantasies and dreams
To those still drunk and dazed
In the Opium Den
Of Fantasy Money
And Usury.
………………………………………
A GROWING AWARENESS. There is a growing awareness in the West, especially amongst the more thoughtful, about the scourge of Wall Street greed and fraud in the City (of London), the two biggest centres of finance and credit in the world. Also becoming a focus of progressive research centres, NGOs and financial reform activists is the role played by the Federal Reserve of U.S. in first permitting, than openly perpetuating and encouraging the financial regulatory system (or lack that of, actually) and Wall Street executive compensation structure that profits the irresponsible and the fraudulent bankers of the big banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions. The new word coined by the activist about these crooks in pin-striped suits is 'the banksters', a wordplay of bank and gangster. And they are not far from wrong.
NOT HIPPIES. I take seriously the view of these activists, social commentators and pundits because they are not hippies travelling in a Volkswagen van and typing their blogs while smoking a joint. They are often former Wall Street suits themselves, financial whizkids, respected writers, lawyers, auditors, former securities and finance industry regulators, professors of economics and attorney generals. But things are just so bad, that fraud, cheating, open abuse of power and insider information are so toxic that these guys (and gals) simply had to voice out their conscience.
NO PROSECUTION. Since the 2008 credit catastrophe have you heard of a successful conviction of a single Wall Street boss? No, because more often the regulators are former Wall Street veterans themselves. And when their tenure ends they will return to the welcoming arms of the companies that they were regulating. On top of that, the banksters' friends in the government and regulators (read politicians, including, alas, President Obama himself) have declared certain banks (who coincidentally are the biggest contributors to political funds) to be 'too-big-to-fail'.
MOM & POP BUSINESS. By that logic, if you are a family hardware store in suburbia, you deserve to fail if the economy tanks, demand falls and you are over your head with debt. You didn't do anything morally wrong, you just made a couple of bad judgment calls... something which is normal and acceptable in a capitalist economy. But the Government won't come and rescue you. Too bad.
DAYLIGHT ROBBERY ON A TITANIC SCALE. But if you run your investment bank / insurance company / fund management into the ground by overselling stocks and lying to your customers (see recent Facebook and the old dotcom IPO fiascos), or by encouraging predatory lending to the poor and disadvantaged (sub prime mortgage), or by disconnecting profit from risk (by dumping the toxic debt out of your books to another bank or fund manager), or by spreading the contagion of easy(read worthless) credit worldwide to the point of bringing the 8 billion souls on Earth to the precipice of global financial armageddon... well that is okay. You are too-big-too-fail. The government will simply print more money (QE or quantitative easing they call it) to 'lend' to these banks. Each dollar that the government circulates into the industry(not the real industry and commerce, by the way, but the finance industry) devalues your savings. Pundits have said that this present generation of well-dressed thieves have successfully engineered the biggest theft in history of real wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich few. The bastards.
A GLOCAL PROBLEM. This problem is not a U.S.A. problem. This problem is not a European problem or even a Chinese or Japanese problem. It is a global epidemic that can affect you, me and a Bedouin camel herder in the middle of the Saharan desert. Because are you aware that these financial powerhouses have started their speculative trading into food and commodities futures and derivatives? The curs.
TOO BIG OR TOO CORRUPT TO FAIL? Too-big-too-fail is an intentionally deceptive adjective for these financial giants. The more accurate term should be too-corrupt-too-fail companies. Because the hard truth is that our current global fiat money system and usurious interest-bearing financial system is riddled with SYSTEMIC corruption and fraud.
These writers are heavy hitters
in the world of finance, securities,
currency systems and interestingly
enough, regime change. Very
informative, very scary.
LOOKING FOR DEEP THROAT. Malaysia will be celebrating its Independence Day this coming 31st August. Less celebratory is the upcoming national General Election. Some say end of this year, although those who should be in the know tells me that it would be early 2013. The election issues are the same infantile stew of religion, racism, money and provincialism. As far as I know no single political party is addressing the singular riddle knocking on the borders of our country, which is how to stay connected to the global economy while trying to immunize the country from the pandemic of banking fraud, speculative plays in the commodities and food market and the crumbling edifice of the world's reserve currency - the American Dollar. People tell me Malaysia is 'relatively' safe because our central bank has been conservative in their policies on lending and proprietary trading by the banks. But is it really? I spoke to Moses and I think we deserve to have our own local pundits and activists to keep an eye on the banking sector. But who will write? And most importantly, where can we find our Deep Throat?
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