Think Big Dream High- E10 – Hijrah

Performing the Hijrah

I am from the village. As someone from the village,I spent most of my free time at the mosque. At the mosque there are a lot of religious classes to increase one’s knowledge and ibadat.The Wilayah Persekutuan Mosque with its air-conditioned prayer rooms open from 10.30 am to 9 or 10 pm is normally my choice. I often wonder whether this mosque which always has its air-conditioned switched on is for mine and one or two guard’s usage? It will be good if this big and beautiful mosque could be used as a learning centre or university so that the large and roomy space could be fully utilized. This mosque is suitable for me to perform the i’tikaf whilst at the same time reading religious books, Tafser Al Quran and the Hadith. My choice of Tafser Al Quran is that written by Maulana Abdullah Yusuf Ali. My favourite Hadith book is Bahrulmazi. From my readings of the kitab books, the one thing I wish to share is the concept and philosophy behind Prophet Muhammad SAW’s hijrah from Mecca to Medina. We read and hear a lot of this historical hijrah, but most of the write ups are urging us to change.The meaning of hijrah in short is to change or to move or to migrate.

The Interpretation of Hijrah

When I analyse this findings deeply, the philosophy and the teachings behind this hijrah is not restricted to just asking us to change. It is more than that. Be it sheer coincidence or as determined by Allah SWT, most people who performed the hijrah are successful in their lives. Indians,Vietnamese,Sudanese, Chinese, Cambodians,English, Jews, Indonesians,Nigerian or Bosnian that performed the hijrah from their country of origin are very successful in building their lives in the new place. Just like me, who came from the village and performing the hijrah to the city. The bottom line is that I am relatively more successful than my friends who did not perform the hijrah. This is not the issue I want to talk about this time around.

History has proven that the priorities of Prophet Muhammad SAW when he reaches Medina was to built a mosque, secondly to construct the market and thirdly to marry off the Muhajiran people with the Ansar people. I pondered why our Prophet Muhammad SAW gave priorities to these three things. Now, if we studied and do a bit of research, and observation around us and in the Islamic countries, I felt that we can find the answers. The conclusion of these three activities are very clear to me. The mosque is the learning centre or university. The market is the centre of economic activity. Whereas the marriage between the Muhajirin and the Ansar is a reflection of the unity and sanctity amongst the Muslim world.

Knowledge, Economy and Unity

Look at the Muslims now, be it in our country, more so in other Islamic countries like Indonesia, Africa, Bangladesh, The Khmer Republic and other parts of the world. In the relative sense, the Muslims are way behind in the field of knowledge, economy and in aspects of harmonious and unity of the Ummah.

The University

Why did the first thing Prophet Muhammad SAW did was to built the mosque?. This is because Prophet SAW, placed the securing of knowledge as the climax to what the Muslims needed. To me the mosque is actually the university, the place to enable the Muslims to teach and acquire various knowledge. At the height of the Islamic glorific era and after many achievements in the field of mathematics, philosophy, religion, medicine, physics, astronomy, geography, and various knowledge relating to livelihood, bit by bit, the excellence era start to deteriorate. Now, look at what has happened to the Muslims? We are way behind in many fields of knowledge and technology. If the Nobel prize can be the yardstick in the field of knowledge, then the Jewish people win hands down. There are around 16 million Jews world over and yet 180 of them have won the Nobel prize to date. As opposed to more than 1.8 billion Muslims throughout the world, only 4 Muslims received the Nobel prize to date.

The Economy

In the field of economy, we need not comment further as comparatively, the Muslims are way behind than the rest of the world’s population. In our country, the equity ownership in the corporate sector for example is not even 20% in the hands of the Muslims. In my previous blogs, many of these issues have been elaborated and discussed. In Indonesia, the biggest Islamic country in the world with more than 250 million Muslims, not even 20% of the country’s wealth belonged to the Muslims. Why did Prophet Muhammad SAW after building the mosque or university, created the market as the Prophet SAW’s second priority? The answer is very clear as the Prophet SAW wanted the educated Muslims to also succeed in the field of economy. The Prophet SAW realized that economy, wealth and assets are important in expanding the Islamic religion. The Prophet SAW encourages the Muslims to be successful and wealthy only after they have gained adequate knowledge, taqwa and iman. The Prophet SAW wanted his Ummah to become millionaires but millionaires with adequate iman and taqwa. With these two strong belief, the Muslims will possess the strength that are feared by the people from the other faith.

The Unity

Is knowledge and wealth sufficient? No, and that is why the third issue expedited by the Prophet SAW is to marry off the Muhajirin with the Ansar. The Prophet SAW saw clearly the unity among these two groups is the pre conditioned to success and development introduced by the Prophet SAW. Only unity and sanctity can increase the strength of the Ummah. The strength of this unity is not only strengthening the resources of the Muslims to face and fight the enemies but it is also important for the Muslims to increase various aspects of their daily lives. For instance, to practice Islam as a way of life, to enhance the Islamic governing system in order to prepare and make the Islamic governing system as the leader to everybody regardless of religion. As the leader, the Muslims need to show and demonstrate excellence in various aspects of life. Now, not only do we see the Arab world fighting with each other, but the Muslims in this country are also not united. If among us, we are not united, hated each other, back stabbing and showing the others their weaknesses, what is the rationale to becoming leaders to all races or nation. Can the other nation emulate, respect and look up to us? Can the other nation look upon us as their leaders? These facts need to be studied especially by our Muslim leaders i.e. if we want the glorific era to come back. A formula to unite the Ummahs need to be derived. This formula has to be inclusive and covers every group of people and not just one or two groups only. When all Muslims are united, then it is easy to unite the other communities. When all of us are united, then other people will offer themselves to be with us. They will adjust themselves to fit with us. Same goes for the Jews, the Christians during the Prophet’s SAW era. The Prophet SAW was able to unite them by strengthening the Muslims. The Jews and the Christians had to adjust and assimilate themselves with the Muslims.

The hijrah is not only one historical episode. The philosophy, concept and what can be learned from this episode is important to follow, understand, and practiced as a sunnah for us and the future Islamic generation. InsyaAllah, based on our realisation, excellence and experience the Muslims can be recreated based on the spirit of hijrah.What we need to have is the drive to think big dream high and have a strong heart.

Think Big Dream High-E9-Be Positive

Life’s routine

I am from the village. As a villager, I do not bother much about the things that happen around me. Suffice there be sufficient food on the table, adequate fixed income to support my family, a car for our transportation needs, a comfortable house equipped with all the necessary electrical equipments. In the evenings, I gather with friends. At night I go to the mosque, studied the yellow kitab with the Imam. Back home, my wife a convert, is very strict in supervising my children’s school work and studies. Back from the mosque, I spent quality time with the family, look at the TV channels that interest me especially the news and sports. Most of the news are covered with pictures of the country’s leaders giving speeches or I turn to watch any interesting sports program and then to sleep. My wife continues to watch her favourite Korean drama or film, whilst waiting for my children to finish their studies. That is largely my family’s routine. Sometimes I wonder, life cannot be that simple. Allah made me a Khalifah. It cannot be that simple for me to ensure that I go to heaven later.

The negative news

Are all those speeches telecast on TV and print media telling the truth? Do we have to accept it without question? Almost all media headlines are featuring negative information on the local and international communities. A lot of news on divorce cases, wars, murders, shooting, nuclear weapons, the destroyed environment, landslide, flood,fire, earthquakes, drugs, accidents, mud slinging the opposite parties, bad mouthing personalities that are not on the same wave length with us, Islamic uprising, Israeli violence, terrorism, dumping illegitimate babies, court rulings on murders, punishment for anal intercourse, police shooting the adolescence and many more negative news if we want to list down. Most of them are negative, and negative only. These are the news we are forced to accept, our wives and children have to accept, every hour of the day regardless of night, day or evening.




The hidden teaching blunder

Happy news, motivation, wealth, millionaires, love and affection, good ethics and behavior, caring, beauty, harmony, happiness, unity, peace, success are also featured but not as headlines. It is indeed included in the newspaper segments. The public is largely exposed to a lot of negative news rather than the positive ones. In order for their media news or network to be sold or subscribed, the media owners are of the opinion that sensational news need to be highlighted or potrayed. Actually they are the ones teaching the public to behave and thinking that way. Eversince, it has been rooted in the minds of the readers to be attracted to negative news. Positive things are not highlighted as it is not interesting. Politicians choosing a TV personality as second wife seemed uninteresting but when written in a provocative manner it became sensational. Thus it deserves to be in the front page. Such news are considered sensational in comparison to news about a 15 year old girl, becoming a millionaire by developing and selling software at the silicon valley which is considered not so glamorous. That is the real fact. We are being exposed daily to negative news. Without realizing it, our media have their own hidden agenda to ruin our generations. To indoctrinate the negative elements in our new generation minds,

Complementing with negativity

As a result of the large exposure to negative news, the public in general became a negative community. From a very young age and in school days, we have been fed with negative news. Our minds have been programmed to be sensitive to negative things. When we grow up and become leaders, ministers, reporters, journalists, novel authors, film directors, engineers ,doctors, script writer, drama producers, chief executives, managing directors, teachers, accountants, like it or not , we continued and contributed towards adopting this negative culture. The drama and films that we produced have negative themes, the news and speeches have negative themes. Our discussions when loafing around revolves around negative things. The whole community became comfortable with negative issues, became complacent with negative things. We don’t feel anything about negative things. We can accept the negative things. We don’t feel guilty about negative things. The negative outlook has become our culture, the norm and no longer a taboo to us anymore. It has not turn into something that is unacceptable anymore. The fact is we can already accept negative things. When we talk we use the word ‘No, No, No’ more and less of ‘Yes, Yes, Yes’. We use more ‘You Can’t’ and less of ‘You Can’. Eventhough our tagline is “We Can” but our practices are the other way round.

What can we do?

As a villager and a Khalifah of Allah,what can we do?

1.We need to be good and become experts in whatever career we are in. Let us be experts in our career. With our expertise, we can make judgements on the negative and positive issues confronting us. With the skill and knowledge of our career that we have mastered, we will be matured enough to put aside all negative issues in our career and our life.

2.We need to increase our knowledge, through reading, listening motivational talks, attending courses and religious classes and visits. Reading becomes cheap now because of the internet. No need to buy many books. In using the internet, we need to be expert in choosing our reference materials, it needs censorship. With the knowledge that we have, we will be guided in making our choice, which one is positive and which one is negative. With knowledge, we become more critical, we become more analytical. We will not accept blindly what we read in the papers and while watching TV.

3.We can become more innovative and creative. We need to ask a lot of questions. We need to ask ourselves on any issues in front of us.Those who are creative and innovative, practice lateral thinking and thinking out of the box or by the side of the box. We no longer think in normalcy or routinely. By getting used to thinking openly, it will not be easy for us to be influenced by negative issues. We are much more smarter in pushing away all negative influences in our daily lives, InsyaAllah.

4.We must carry our responsibilities to motivate, communicate and reach our people with our experiences, knowledge, skill and the truth.We want all of us to be positive and successful in our way of life. We want our people to be able to filter and avoid all kind of negativities. In order for us to be positive at all times, we need always to think big dream high and have a strong heart.

5.We need always to pray so that we, our family, our friends and our community will be protected and blessed by Allah SWT here and the hereinafter, InsyaAllah. I strongly believe,as our country is moving very fast towards becoming a fully developed nation soon, our way of thinking and consideration will also change positively.Our people will be relying more on facts and figures, the truth, the reality, performance and track records in making their wise decisions rather then merely on the beautiful slogans.

Think Big Dream High-E8 – Things that are within our control

Change has to be for the better

I came from the village. As a villager, I often used the “back to basic” approach in whatever actions, be it way of thinking or basis of judgement in making decisions. The world is fast changing and it should remain that way. Our country has changed.My countrymen too have changed a lot.From time to time we changed,to the extent more often than not we changed not for the better.The changes we make sometimes affect our religion, our education, our social life, our way of life and our politics. In general when changes happen we hope these changes will be for the better and is positive for ourselves,our families and our communities.We want something that is good for our religion, our education, our social life, our lives and our politics.

The Win Win Formula

The question that comes to mind which sometimes disturb my thoughts and feelings is how the politicians make decisions for our beloved country. The politicians are those who are in power or in the opposition. Their policies are based on formulas to win the hearts of every communities in this country to the extent there will be some who are not satisfied. We want a win-win situation, we want the best for us. In arriving at this formula, there must surely be those that who are affected.At times, it can be irritating. Since our countrymen are the ones in power, there are sacrifices that we have to make to derive the win-win formula. We are hoping that all the formulas are for our benefit only.

We must face the fact that in a multiracial society, we cannot hope that all the formulas are for the benefit of our countrymen only. This may not happen. Our leaders will derive formulas that can win the hearts of every single member of the multiracial population. This is logical and should be done by our leaders. We cannot do anything about this. Personally it is beyond our control. The real owners of these issues are the politicians.We cannot make the decisions,the people in power are the ones that should make the decision. Our involvement will be when we cast our votes during the election. We can use our vote to choose the candidate that we favour.The best candidate that care for our welfare,our interests,our economy and our religion.These are our basic rights.

Back to Basics

What then must we do? Nothing else but go back to the beginning of the road. We must use the back to basic approach. The approach that we ourselves can use to control our decisions. We are the ones that can control our environment, our children and our families. As an example,as parents, we need to make sure that our children obtained all As in all subjects in their school exams. Ensure that at the university level, our children enrolled in engineering, medicine,law or accounting courses. We need to flood the job market with engineers,doctors,lawyers,or accountants,from our countrymen. These engineers,doctors,lawyers and accountants at one stage will be very successful as world class professionals,hightech entrepreneurs,technopreneurs,corporate figures or even the respectful politicians and leaders.We train them not only to become world class professionals but at the same time strengthened them with iman and taqwa.

Decisions within our control

This means we,our children and those within our control need to always work hard.Other people are not affected by the decisions we made for our children to be successful and happy.The decisions are 100% in our hands. Not in the politicians’ hands. Therefore as a villager, I urge that we pledge to work hard to be successful in our studies,careers or in our businesses. So that our wives are successful in their careers. So that our children are successful in their studies.If we have 5 children,one must be an engineer,one doctor,one lawyer and two accountants.So that all our family members are successful as a professional in their chosen careers.So that in our families we work together to increase our efforts in alleviating our assets,wealth,iman and taqwa.So that we pray,munajat,hope,tawakal and resigned ourselves to Allah SWT.Only Allah SWT have the right to bestow happiness to us in this world and hereinafter,InsyaAllah.

The International Standards KPI

Let the politicians derive their win-win formulas. We need to do our win-win formula ourselves. Our win-win formula is the formula for our family to be successful in this world and hereinafter. This is within our control. We need to maximize what we can do for us to be successful.When we are successful, become rich, excel, our families are well known, the politicians will come running to us. At that time, they will respect, become closer and look up to us. We receive them in good faith, and bless be to Allah. Hopefully, they will use our approach in their political channels when providing motivation and awareness talks to all our countrymen to emulate us. So that our success become a KPI, a standard that can be followed. If this happens, then our whole communities will be successful. Our country will be successful and our countrymen will remain in control of our wealth and respected. Our leadership will not be questioned since our countrymen are at the top and always achieving their KPI. Using standards which relies on merit alone. KPI that is at par with the international standards. Not the village KPI eventhough I am a villager. In order to achieve this world class KPI we need to think big dream high and have a strong heart at all times.

Think Big Dream High,E-7 – Have My Countrymen Changed 200% in the last 30 Years ?

Change

I am from the village. For more than 30 years now I have not resided in the village.Eventhough I am residing in the city,I am still a villager at heart. I still think about the village, the villagers, about my friends and schoolmates from the village during my younger days. Once in a while, I go back to the village to meet my old friends, their families and children.

Physically, my village has changed. The roads are no longer murky and muddy. Children go to school riding their bicycles or sent by their mother or father using motorcycle or car. The villagers houses too have changed from a thatched roof to tiles or ardex or zinc. Children do not go to school barefooted anymore. In 30 years time there appears to be obvious changes physically.

Thirty years is a long period of time. For a country, the situation now compared to 30 years ago is a long period of time. The country’s economy has changed a lot. During the 70’s or early 80’s our country does not have big factories, no highways, no high rise buildings, no modern shopping complexes, no LRT, ERL, Monorail, MRT, very few cars on the roads, no private TV stations and not many TV channels can be watched. In general, our economy expanded nearly 200% in 30 years.The per capital income has increased to about USD10,000.

The country expanded 200% but does my villagers way of life also expanded 200% in 30 years?. Does my villagers that are part of my countrymen developed as fast as that? If previously, my countrymen sells vegetables, fruits or traditional cakes at the market or towns, are their children turning into successful entrepreneurs or respectable businessmen?. If previously most of my countrymen were farmers , labourers, police and soldiers, are their children turning into successful accountants, lawyers, doctors or managers with five or six figure salaries? Indeed, there are some who are successful. Why not?. If the country expanded 200% surely my countrymen too have developed and improved themselves.


Which communities change more?

The question is which communities benefited from the country’s development activities. There is no need to do any research nor look at the statistics about my countrymen’s development. Roughly, it can be said that my countrymen is still living the way they lived 30 years before, Their way of thinking, communicating and attitude have not changed much. In comparison to the country’s economy, the economic development rate of my countrymen cannot be seen clearly.

The country’s development can be seen with our eyes. It is only my countrymen’s economic development that cannot be seen clearly with our eyes. What is obvious is the change from a house with thatched roof to a house with tiles roof, a house with bamboo walls to a house with wooden or half concrete walls. From walking to cycling to school. From cycling to riding motorcycles. From motorcycle to driving a Kancil,Myvy, Proton Waja or Wira secondhand car. Those that are earning a fixed income like clerks, officers, or teachers can afford to own a new Kancil,Myvy, Wira or Waja. From using the sarong to long pants or branded jeans. But where do they purchased the branded jeans?. Obviously not from the five star shopping complexes but from the bundle shops. It is true, all these are changes. These changes are healthy and encouraging. My countrymen have indeed changed a lot. The question now is the level of changes that happens.The non-muslim communities too have changed. The changes that happened to the non-muslim communities are different. They changed from a wooden house with zinc roof to a bungalow house or luxury condos. They changed from using bicycle to driving a Mercedes Benz or Bently. In fact, many owned private jets.

The changes experienced by them are fast and multiplying. Their wealth multiplies.Their numbers are small but majority of the country’s wealth belonged to them.They are in the 20% super rich group and controlling the other 80% wealth of the nation. Why does this happened. It is because their rate of change is not one time but thousands and millions of times. Their rate of change is more then 1000% compared to our countrymen’s change of about 30%. This still make the whole country on average changed 200%.

Previously, they were scrapped steels vendor, now they are owners of steel mills. From a garbage collector to owner of factories. From a mechanic to owner of a repair and spare parts chain shops that are worth millions of ringgit. From a salesmen to owner of supermarkets. From laborers to big contractors. From a factory worker to become the bosses. From hawkers to manufacturers. From real estate managers to owners of real estate companies that are listed on the main board of stock exchange. From the consumers of electrical tariffs to owners of Indipendent Power Plants(IPP) that are earning millions of dollars in a day. From a TV audience to owners of TV stations that offers more than 100 channels.From a handphone user to the owner of the largest telephone company in the region.


Disparity still exists

During the previous school holidays, my family went back to our village. The villagers are very comfortable with their lives. I went back home twice or three times in a year but my village communities year after year remained the same. There are no shocking news except generation after generation have left the village. No such news that says their children have open up a factory, purchased a shopping complex in the city, expand their multi-million dollar housing projects, or news of their children becoming CEO of a listed corporation on the Stock Exchange or their children went back to the village using their own helicopter. No such sensational news as this are heard in my village.

Exponential changes

As I mentioned before, my village have changed so have the villagers. Is that the kind of change that I want to see happening to my countrymen?The water from the spring eventhough not diverted will still reached the cove one day. My countrymen too as time passes by will also changed. Is it sufficient? Or will this guarantee that my countrymen will not be left behind. The changes that happens with time is unavoidable. It flows like the stream from its origin to the cove. It does not make my countrymen advanced in comparison to the other communities. The changes that are required by my countrymen if they want to be at par with the non Muslims must be exceptional, must be exponential. Not just normal changes. The changes that need to be made must be multiple and not just any change.

If during the younger days work as a mechanic, when older owned a chain of repair shops. The father works in the stalls, the children owned factories. Father is a teacher, the children opened their own private hospitals. Father is a soldier, the children owned shopping complexes. This is what you called exceptional changes, exponential changes. The changes in multiples. My villagers need these kind of changes, the changes that will bring progress to the mind of my people, the changes that will bring up the social status of my people. In order to achieve this, we need to change not just 200% in 30 years but change 1000% 10 years down the road.This exponential change will require my countrymen to start to think big dream high and have a strong heart,or otherwise we will continue to remain below par.