Think Big Dream High, E28 – The Smiling Society

Smiling

1.The higher the level of position and status the more difficult it is to smile to the others. The same goes for those who are in the lower position, the least important they are, the more difficult for them to smile to the others. Moderate people like us are always generous with our smile.

2 The VIPs do not smile intentionally as they needed to portray the image that they have the authority, stature, serious  and not easy to be associated with. The lower level staff find it difficult to smile due to their poor social status. There is a reason for all of our actions.

3. In Islam, smiling  is a sunnat. A smile is a sadaqah. It is encouraged to smile to anybody regardless of his social status. It makes the person who we are dealing with happy and so do we. It created a harmonious environment and friendship.

Reality in life 

1.The  VIPs too smile and have big laughs when they are among the VIPs circle. The Tuns will only smile with the other Tuns. The Tan Sris will only smile with the other Tan Sris. Sometimes the VIPs have a big laugh too, but it happen only during their happy hours with their boys or machai.

2.But one thing for sure, the VIPs will definitely give a  big smile when they are in front of the TV or newspaper camera. They have to show their friendliness to the public. They need to show their closeness to the public. Obviously technically we can brand them as the real hypocrite.

3.Majority of our community are poor thus they find it difficult to smile. So long as their lives remained unchanged, they find it difficult to smile. Our country is developing everyday. The capitalists or the wealthy are creating wealth and progressing every second. They are  doing it in multiples. This is the basis of a capitalism economic system. They can afford to smile among themselves even more than the majority of our community.

4.Whenever a programme is launched by the VIPs, the capitalist and the wealthy will immediately reap the benefits. Its as if,  today, the VIP announced a project,  tomorrow the wealthy and the capitalist become richer. They can continue to smile, as most of the programs announced by the VIPs are more for the benefit of the wealthy and less for the needy and poor. The way it is announced however, looks like it is for the benefit of the poor and needy. This is the strength of the media, the public relations strategy and the publicity.

Tips    

1.In order for the majority of our community to smile, the VIPs need to launch  programmmes that can make these people smile. The programmes for the wealthy ones, must be continued as these programmes will lead to a chain of job opportunities. These programmes, will contribute towards the country’s development process even faster. This fact cannot be denied.

2.At the same time, the programmes for the lower level categories such as the poor,unemployed,widowers and needy ought to be identified and introduced. We do not want the income for the majority of us increases as a result of  being dragged by the income from the wealthy which  increases multifold. We want the income of our community increases proportionately and not as a result of the increase in the average income. The increase in the average income is actually due to the increase in  income of the wealthy category. Mathematically, it is correct but socially, it is very wrong.

3.We need to have many sustainable programmes like FELDA and FELCRA. These are the kind of programmes that should be announced on a regular basis by the VIPs. Maybe programmes like FELDA and FELCRA are not appropriate in the current  environment  as they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. However,similar programmes which will involve  majority of the poor,unemployed and needy people,will make them own income,saving and assets.Which definitely will change their social status and make them smile throughout their lives.

4.The VIPs need to do research and brainstorming with selected  ordinary people representing the society not necessarily with Phd or high position to identify  programmes with the objective and parameters of creating real income,saving and assets.These programmes must be able to generate and increase our  community overall real average income and their savings on permanent and continuous basis. It will enable our community being the majority in numbers  to own landed properties gradually and value add these assets in the future generations.

5.These are the kind of sustainable programmes that  we need from our elite VIPs to announce. These are the kind of programmes that need to be carried out by our VIPs for our community being the majority.  Programmes that can increase our real income, accumulate our real savings, create and protect our  real assets.

6.By having these programmes, our community will not find it difficult to smile. This will enable  us, our children, our children’s children smiling throughout our entire lives. Therefore, apart from us, our elite VIPs too need to think big dream high and have a strong heart to enable all of us to continuously have a smiling face.                    

Think Big Dream High, E 27- The Spirit Of Sacrificing

Sacrifice

1.Making sacrifices in general is about a sincere action of giving or donating something which we own and dear to us. The highest and most valuable sacrifice is one’s life and the lowest and least of all is one’s time. Sacrificing will have value to Allah SWT if it is made only for the sake of Allah SWT. Sacrificing one’s life, assets, thoughts, emotion, desire, spiritual or time for the sake of Allah SWT will be rewarded with heaven and good omens/deeds.

2.For a country’s leader sacrificing will be in the form of abdicating himself to be of service to the country and the rakyat. His soul, desire, emotions, spiritual, mental and assets owned by the leader will be sacrificed and donated to the rakyat to care for their wellbeing and takes precedence over his personal interest. This is a real leader with a charismatic leadership.

3.As the head of the family, sacrificing is about allocating all of his assets to ensure that his family members are successful in education, career and their lives. He is responsible for the happiness of his children and wife in this world and hereafter.

4.This means sacrificing is something big i.e. giving out everything you have internally and externally including those that can be seen and cannot be seen to another person. This is not for personal interest. It is a reflection of one’s sincerity, kindness and high moral value towards Allah SWT, himself and the people around him.

Reality in life

1.FILO or FINO i.e. First In  Last Out or First In No Out has been the practice for most of us. We want to be the first to receive other people’s gifts and as far as possible, to be the last person to donate something to another person. There are also others who do not want to give anything to other people.

2.Seldom if ever someone who accidentally hit an unattended parked vehicle leaving a note at the car’s wiper apologizing for the incident and leaving a contact number for any claims of damages. This is a small example of our inner sacrifice. Our inner voice asked us to ignore and just leave the scene of incident. After all nobody knows we are the one who hit the car. By owning up and placing the message at the car’s wiper we have sacrificed our desire for the sake of Allah SWT.

Tips

1.Be determined to be someone having a noble and kind heart. Be determined to be someone rich and wealthy, a millionaire but who is always contributing for waqf, donating and paying zakat on his profits and assets. Be determined to channel our thoughts, emotions, desire, spiritual, time and energy for the Islamic religion. Be determined to be directly involved in contributing towards the success of our family, community and our country.

2.Be determined not to ask for any form of payment for the contribution and assistance made. No more Mr 10%, no more Datin 20%. No more acronym USA(Untuk Saya Apa) i.e. what is it for me?. We help and assist with sincerity. We arrange appointments with the VIPs with sincerity. We lobby projects from VIP with sincerity. In return we only ask for an appropriate amount of professional fees, equivalent to the services rendered.  If we receive the payment, we are determined to pay zakat, donate it and distribute it to the poor and needy and the orphanage.

3.We are determined to erase any form of revenge towards another person. We are determined to sacrifice our beauty sleep for the sake of performing the night solat sunnat. We are determined to sacrifice our full stomach to perform the sunnat fasting. We are determined to sacrifice our enjoyment with our  friends in order to start a distant learning programme for a degree in business administration.

4.This is our determination, will power and intention to be ever ready to make sacrifices when there is a call for it. To have all this right attitude and spirit we need to think big dream high and have a strong heart.       

Think Big Dream High,E26- Those That Cannot Refrain Themselves From Slandering The Others

Slandering

1.Slandering is one of the biggest wrongdoings for a Muslim. As a result, in the hereinafter we will be punished by Allah SWT by consuming our own  Muslim  brothers or sisters’ flash. We are sure of this. We are also sure that we cannot control ourselves from slandering others, talking bad and gossiping about the others.

2.Obviously we have reasons why we like to talk bad about the others. We assume that gossiping, slandering and talking bad about the others  do not cost us anything. We’ve completely forgotten that it is not free.

3.Those who cannot refrain from making slanderous remarks and talking bad about the others is actually suffering from a sickness. He knows its wrong but he’s still doing it. His heart ache. His mind is sick. He is mentally, spiritually and emotionally sick. Physically he does not look sick nor does he look mentally sick. He looks ok at first glance but in actual fact he is sick.

4.He needs to be treated. He needs to be counseled, rehabilitated and eventually recuperated. We do not gain anything when we make slanderous remarks about the others. It has become a habit for us to make slanderous remarks about other people. If a day goes by without us making slanderous remarks, then the day is  incomplete. Its as if something is amiss and devoid of satisfaction without slandering others.

5. Now it is easy to make slanderous remarks about other people. This can be done through blogs, political seminars, books, electronic and print media. The slanderous remarks will spread like wildfire.

6. Y making slanderous remarks to Z or vice-versa and the public like you and me for no reason were being roped in as well too. Somehow it affects our daily lives and state of tranquility. We were forced to read or listen or discuss about all kinds of mud slinging, accusations or wrongdoings. Our social life is being disturbed. We keep talking about the others such as Y or Z or vice-versa most of the time to the extent it became part and partial of our daily lives activities. Indeed, this is really not a good trend or culture at all to subcribe. It has become too rampant lately. It has become a social illness. The illness for the intellectual and smart ones.

7. We do feel frustrated and angry  towards the people we do not like. Sometimes our anger reaches boiling point. Can we reserve and control our anger to the point that we do not get carried away by making slanderous remarks about somebody in public? Let us have some reservations, eventhough our anger is beyond limits.

8. We know that this slanderous act will create disunity among our community. The person we make the slanderous remark about is our Muslim brothers or sisters and the person we talk bad about is someone we knew.

9.We cannot bequeath such bad behaviours to our future generations. We need to bequeath our good and high moral aspects, untainted honourable behaviour and our kind heartedness when we leave this world. We need to leave behind a respectable name and not someone who is jeered and abused by the public.

10.We need to change the culture of slandering to the culture of praising. The culture of bad mounting and gossiping to the culture of thanking,forgiving and appreciating. The culture of disunity and hatred to the culture of unity,loving and amicability. The culture of unproductive chit-chatting  to the culture of valuing precious time.

Reality in life

1.There is a piece of meat in our body. This piece of is meat is the one that controls our life. In the Kitab it was mentioned that this piece of meat is our heart. If this piece of meat is white then our behavior will be white as well.

The black and darker the colour so will be our actions and behavior.

2. In actual fact, this piece of meat for the majority of us is multi coloured i.e. not all black neither is it all white. If we present this study graphically, majority or about 90% will be multi-coloured, 8% black and 2% white. This is not the actual picture, just a rough estimation of the writer. 

3.All actions under the major sins which is haram such as adultery, homosexual, slanderous act, stealing, unfair ruling, killing, drunk, drug addict etc, are usually done by people whose heart is black. The lighter sins  are done by those whose heart is multi coloured. Those with white meat  are the ones not doing the bad deeds and doing and encouraging all the good deeds.

Tips

1.Can this piece of meat be cleansed until it turns sparkling white? The Kitab clearly says it can be done. The door for repentance is wide open. We need to apologise from the people we gossip and make slanderous remarks.

2.We need to cleanse this piece of meat by Zaikrullah, reciting Al Quran, reading Tafsir, reading Al Hadith. We need to do a lot of  fasting and solat. We need to pay a lot of Zakat and gifts in the form of Sadaqah.

3.We need to be admitted to the recovery and rehabilitation centre. This place is nothing more than the surau and mosque. We need to spend a lot of time for i’tiqaf in the mosque. A lot of mosque now is air-conditioned  and open 24 hours. We are free to come and go without having to make any payment. The owner of this centre is none other than Allah SWT. Allah SWT encourages us to enter his house.

4.No doctor can treat  our sickness. No guidelines or principles that can teach us to throw away this bad habit. It can only be cleansed through self awakening and realization. We need to go back to the beginning of the road through self realization, repentance, istighfar and remembering Allah SWT all the time. We need to think big dream high and have a strong heart and treat ourselves with all of the above spiritual medicines.     

      

  

Think Big Dream High, E25 – Those Having A Strong Determination

Determination

1.Determination is the promise and commitment that we make to ourselves in order to achieve our intentions and goals.

2.Life is a kaleidoscope  of whimsical  things and events. It is not easy to go through life by just being ourselves, by fulfilling our wants and following our habitual acts.

3.There are many environmental factors that affect our daily lives, that affect the decisions that we make in life.  All of our peers, media electronic such as TV, our readings, our social  circles, our country’s leaders, our teachers, the Islamic scholars etc. play a role in influencing our lives. 

4.The influences are not small. It can change our lives from being Mr X to Mr Y, from being Mr Niceman to Mr Badman or reciprocately, from being Mr Badman to Mr Niceman.

Reality in life

1.Many social ills such as bearing a child out of wedlock, aborting babies, drugs, smoking, infidelity, the opposite sex living together without  marriage ties, homosexual, lesbian, prostitution, abuse, being drunk etc exist in my countrymen’s communities.

2.All these exist due to loss of faith and grasp in life.  Our Islamic religious belief are not strong. We do not have the determination and willpower  not to be involved.

3.There are statistics that shows more than 20,000 female teenagers as young as 13 years old up to the age of 25 staying in the PPRT poor housing scheme  involved in negative social activities. This is a shocking realization though the truth is yet to be validated. The fact remains that it really exist and the trend is increasing and worrying.

4.The weird thing is that, a study in USA indicated a declining trend among the teenagers in USA that are involved in social ills such as loafing, free sex, drugs, being drunk etc.

5.The trend in our country is increasing whilst in USA it is decreasing. The teenagers in the USA study understood that if they destroy their lives now, they will have a bleak future. We have all the while been thinking that the teenagers in USA are a worrying lot but it is otherwise.

6.They are more responsible of their wellbeing and their future. They look beyond the shores and are smart in determining their future goals. They value their future, they do not want to destroy their lives by just having a short fling that will eventually affect their entire lives.

7.The reality is that our teenagers are more worrying. Our teenagers should learn the positive aspects from the teenagers in USA.

Tips    

1.Studies in USA indicated that the teenagers now realized the importance of having a good and stable career and achieving their goals rather than involving themselves in illicit sex, smoking, drugs and being drunk.

2.They now realized that their partners will trust them more if they have a good and lucrative career than those loafing around without any stable career  and ambition in life.

3.The studies also indicated that  the teenagers were able to evaluate and appreciated the fact that having a good family life is more meaningful than a short lived excitement.

4.In USA presently, the teachers were found to consistently advising and reminding the students to refrain and avoid themselves from loafing around, having free sex, smoking, drugs and other social ills.

5.A 17 year old female student in Atlanta, USA, firmly stated that  having sex, being drunk, smoking and drugs were not included in her thoughts radar and daily lives routine.

6.She commenced her daily routine by waking up at 5 am in the morning carry out activities such as swimming, going to school, gymnasium, jogging, swimming again, doing homework, involving herself in NGO social activities, entertaining and accompanying the old and elderly with their pets on their daily exercise routine. She ended her daily activities by continuing her studies and to bed at 10.30 am at night. Her daily life is meaningful, satisfactory and to her enjoyment. Both her parents are the elated ones.

7.There are actually more structured and morally acceptable recreational activities in Malaysia that the teenagers can join. We have many programmes such as Rakan Muda, various NGOs, activities at the mosques, co-curriculum activities, libraries, additional classes, religious and Al Quran classes, youth clubs,friendship programs, motivational camps, religious camps, self defence classes, sports as well as sufficient and adequate time to study and increase our knowledge and skills in computing, cooking, gardening etc. We have many constructive activities at our disposal.

8.We also have a choice to loaf around at the supermarkets, mixing with bad companies like mat rempit, clubbing, disco, partying, mixing with the smokers or taking drugs. Needless to say our  destructive activities choices are also wide.

9.We actually have our own class and standard. We are actually much smarter. We should be proud of our inherent qualities. Allah SWT loves us very much. Whatever choice we make it is reflective of the qualities in ourselves. For sure we do not want to make our parents and siblings frustrated and disappointed  with our behaviour. We want to proof that we are the best human being and Allah SWT will be  proud of us as His creation.

10.Maybe we lack religious knowledge, we have family problems, our parents are separated, we are not in good terms with our siblings, our neighbours are always disturbing us, our house is just like a bird cage, but remember we are also intelligent  and can still think rationally on our own. Be mindful that at the end of the day it is we that have to live with the decisions that we made.

11.We still have the feeling of love for ourselves. We still have our own self esteem.  We need to look back  and remember the small advices from our teachers that must have still remained in our memories like studying hard and be successful so that we can secure a good and stable career in the future.

12.Working hard can ensure that we achieve our ambition. We need to have the determination to succeed. We need to curtail and educate our desires. We need to be assured that we are not as bad as we think. We need to promise ourselves to strive hard for our goals and intentions.No substitute actually for the hard working culture. We need to have a commitment to achieve what we want.

13.We need to have values and self esteem. We do not want to be treated as the communities garbage. We too want to contribute meaningfully to our nation’s development process.From now on we want to think big dream high,we want to have a strong heart and determination to succeed.      

Think Big Dream High,E24- Failure and disappointment is temporary

Failure and Disappointment

1.The fact remains and always be that  our existence in this world is to succeed. We are not  born a failure or in a state of disappointment. Allah SWT created us to be a Caliph. A Caliph cannot fail and be in a state of disappointment.

2. Even though failure and disappointment exist, it will only be temporary. Failure and disappointment is part of the process to achieve success. Success will be sustainable if it has gone through the success and failure phase. Those who have not gone through the failure and disappointment phase will not appreciate and felt fully the beauty of success.

3. This does not mean that we look forward to disappointment  and failure first before succeeding. All of us do not want failure and disappointment in our living vocabulary.  We only want success in our life.

Reality in life 

1.Every one of us have had the opportunity to experience failure and disappointment throughout our lives. Many of us are of the impression that once a failure, he remains a failure forever with no opportunity to get back on his feet again. No more chance to recover.

2. Disappointment and failure crippled all aspects of his life and destroy all forms of ambitions and dreams. For the students and teenagers, disappointment and failure is as a result of  sociable activities, being in love and  poor studies. For the adults, it is as a result of career, business, way of life and marriage. For the elderly, it is as a result of health, religion, wealth and family relationships.

3. The consequences are that we believe  the series of  disappointment and failure from one form to another form of disappointment and failure are continuous and cannot be avoided. For example disappointment in love followed by  failure in studies, failure in career spreads to family and marriage breakup and from marriage breakup it affects the health and so on and so forth. It is even affecting our  religion and way of life. It may even led to death which is not wanted and warranted.

4.In the non Muslim countries like Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea, the number of people committing suicide as a result of failure and disappointment is at an increasing trend from year to year for all age groups.   Praise be to Allah SWT, that this plague is not serious in our communities but the symptoms are already there.

Tips

1. Migrating from a disappointment and failure situation is not something simple. A lot of traps exists for the victims. Disappointment and failure is related to emotions, spiritual and is closely related to psychology.

2. The ability to control is dependant on a person’s energy and strengths. We need adequate oxygen to have energy. We need certain discipline and practices to have strengths. Emotional strength, spiritual strength, mental strength and physical strength plays a big role in influencing the level of coping and sustaining of a person’s failure and disappointment.

3.These strengths will enable a person to cope and sustain the bad effects from failure and disappointment. The stronger the ability to cope and sustain from these bad effects, the better chances will be for all hidden traps  to be slowly eliminated. All we need is to start  building up the energy and the strengths.

4.We need to start eating a proper and balanced diet. We need to start  practicing simple exercise like jogging, cycling, push up and squatting. We need to start  attending religious classes. We need to  start  reading articles, magazines or books. We need to start memorizing Al Quran, reciting doa and zikir. All these practices will increase the oxygen content in our body and build our overall strengths  to overcome our disappointment and failure.

5.From now on we can distanced ourselves from the black spots. We start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. To ensure we can achieve all these we need to think big dream high and at all times must have a strong heart.