Summary – How Friday prayer highlighted the importance of listening.

Thanx for those who replied to my question in the previous entry. It is really a difficult question, I must say… to figure out what to say to the world. And the fact that the world is listening is not really helping.

If for example, you are asked to speak to thousands of people on a gathering, and you know for certain they will not be listening. Maybe you speak in another language, or that the microphone is faulty. I believe you will be able to kill the time effectively with your speech. Am I correct?

The fact is, listening to what people say is actually 40 times more important than giving the speech. Why 40? This is my personal opinion. If we look into the Friday prayer (for muslim), one of the condition that must be fulfilled for the prayer to be valid (sah) is to have 1 person delivering the “khutbah”, and 40 people actually listen and understand the “khutbah”. If only 39 people listen, then technically the whole group’s solat will not be valid.

There is no survey to check after the solat whether there is enough 40 people, or 40 people assigned to really listen. It really comes down to the individuals. They should know better that the “khutbah” is given to be listened and understood. Nobody should enforce you to listen.

Then there is a “hadis” always read before the “khutbah” saying that you must not speak during the khutbah, even with the intention to shh others. My personal interpretation on this is that, even if you are not listening, you must not interfere with other people who does. The message must always be respected. It took great courage to speak, advising and teaching people. If we disrespect the action, sooner or later, there will be no person to teach or advise. Think of the chaos that will do.

I’m not saying that we must be silent everytime other spoke. Both speaking and listening is important, that is without one of them, the Solat will not be valid. I’m just saying that listening really is 40 times more important.

Hopefully those who read this, will understand (listen to) the message.

————— Personal Note ————————–
I’m not trying to boast about what I do, but people do come to me asking my opinion on things, usually it’s relationship based. Not that I’m an expert. It’s just that I learnt from other people’s experience and make it a personal lesson for me.

The thing is, the people who I had previously advised on a problem, usually will come across the same problem over and over again. They just won’t listen. Yes, I completely understand that my opinion may not be the best, but he/she should at least listen and think about it. Not later come to me and say, “I should listen to you”.

Had this happened to you?

Summary – If the world is listening, what would you say?

I was invited to become one of the contributors for World United Bloggers (which generally means I can submit entries there). I take this as an opportunity for me to make more friends and expose myself to the many different ideas or point of view from the representative from around the world.

I’m still monitoring how the whole blog is being run. What’s the blog strategy to achieve what’s aimed. As I earlier stated in my post – Tips for first day at work, we cannot started trying to change everything. We must first observe the culture, adapt and learn as much as possible before anything.

I am curious though… Please tell me what you think.

If you were given one chance. Only one chance to talk to the whole world. And not only that, the whole world is listening. What would you say?

Are you going to promote Malaysia? or you will attempt to talk about peace, and love? Or you will try make friends first? Really… please think about it and enlighten me.

I’ve already submitted my first post there. The same post is attached below as I really think you, my fellow friends deserve the same appreciation, if not better.

Title – Connecting in BlogGreeting.. This is my first post as a contributor. I’m banji from Malaysia and it’s an honor to be here with all of you. Don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with my details.

First of all, compliment to the blog starter, the idea of one blog to unite us all is amazing. So what else would I say in a first post?1) I salute all of you
If you can see me typing this, I’m actually giving all of you who read this a standing ovation. You each is authoring your own blog, but in the name of unity and love, you took the time to write for WUB. Not many people around the world want to do this.2) WUB is all blessed NOT ONLY by people who blog, but those who leave comments.
Every body can blog, you just create an account, type away.. But not everyone reads, take the time to understand the message and connect to the author by leaving comments.Kudos to all WUB members, you are all actively participating. This is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time, entries are very hard to understand. But you try your hardest to figure out the message. This itself shows that you are very committed to achieve what WUB’s aim. Not only you do that, you appreciate the author by leaving comments. Appreciation or acknowledgment is in my opinion, another key to unity. As this will allow every one of us to connect with each other.
Conclusion – It is my humble opinion that connecting with each other is one of the many ways to unity and love. It doesn’t always need to be comments to entry, a simple hi at the shout box will be more than enough.

Summary – “Nafsu” is not a bad thing

A very busy day… Too busy that I don’t even have time to check my phone and reply the shoutbox. Again, I’m very sorry.

Still, while working one thing come to mind. let me share it with you. And maybe you can further develop the idea with me

So why do we work? There are a lot of answers to this question but in general, it is because we want more for our life. More money, more excitement, more experience, better status etc. This feeling of wanting more is better known as desire or “nafsu”

The thing is people almost always like to think that desire is the path to corruption. People want more money, so they received bribe. Teenager curious about sex took the wrong path. “Desire” were blamed for all these.

Then these people who blame “desire” started doing extreme thing to repair the damage. People who used to take bribe, suddenly realize the sin he committed.. then decided to throw away all money, because according to him, money corrupts. His family is now in danger of starvation, and his children left unschooled.

Then there are also people who get fatter because of their love for eating. They were convinced that they look unatractive by their friends. Trying to be thinner person, they stop eating entirely in the name of diet… perhaps die in a week or two.

What the examples are showing are how people tends to blame their desire when something bad happened. In my opinion this is partially wrong. Meaning… desire is not entirely responsible for the corruption. Let me explain..

I remember this saying back in high school. Human is claimed by Allah in Surah AtTin to be the best of his creation. (sebaik2 kejadian). Why not the animals? Because they have “nafsu” (desire) but no “akal” (the ability to think).Why not the angel (malaikat)? Because they have “akal” but no “nafsu”.

If an angel is assigned to manage the rain all over the world. He will do it until the judgement day without objecting. He will not trade his assignment with other angels for the fun of it or because his job is getting boring. That’s because he doesn’t have any desire to achieve more.

Human are the best creation because we are given both “akal and “nafsu”. Then we will strive to better ourselves motivated by our “nafsu” but we know exactly when to stop, because of our “akal”. It is when we do this we will be the best of creation.

In the same time, if we continue to satisfy our “nafsu” ignoring our “akal”, like killing our own flesh and blood because of shortage of money. or having sex with prostitute without thinking of Allah’s wraith and of course STD. Aren’t we then the worst of creation?

Conclusion – Don’t blame desire for everything bad in the world. It is almost always because of the “akal” is being ignored. Wear them both proudly and of course equally balance. Come to think of it, “nafsu” if used in balance with “akal” is what make us a better.

————— Personal Note ————————–
As you know in a palm oil mill, we strive to extract as much oil as possible. For the past few days, the amount of oil extracted is declining. Yesterday, by calculation, the amount of oil extracted is just 16%, which is very low. Upon investigation, we found where the problem lies. You see, there is this one big tank which we used to separate water and oil. Technically, we just pour in the mixture and as we all know, water and oil don’t mix. So with time, the two separated naturally. This is where we suspect the source of the low percentage. To make things short, almost half the tank is full with fine sand and soil. This will prevent the mixture of water and oil to separate properly because not enough time. Cleared everything… Let’s see how’s the figure tomorrow.

ehehe My attempt to explain what I do 🙂

The charity for Darul Izzah Orphanage is confirmed on. I’ve already updated the details in my page. Please check it out via the “highlight” link above.

Some of the major updates are as follows

• A total amount of RM27178 will be handed during the ceremony.
• There will be NO games, sukaneka, treasure hunt etc. Instead lunch and Yassin recital will take place
• I am confirmed going, already applied leave :)… Really hope to meet you guys there. For those without transport, I will gladly take you there from Bangi Komuter Station.

————— Personal Note ————————–
I’m terribly sorry for not updating yesterday. A major breakdown occured at the mill, and safe to say, I didn’t even have time to sit. To make things worse, the internet connection today is horrible. I’ll call Digi first thing tomorrow. How’s the life at your end? in other word… How’s everyone? 🙂