oleh Najwan Halimi

Ompi: Wah, ini ke menara KLCC yang orang cakap ?

Syukri: Yela. Inilah dia. Lawa sial. Selama ni aku dok tengok dalam TV je. Baru hari ni dapat tengok depan mata. Kat Pahang hutan je. Tu pun dah nak habis gondol semua dek sebab pembalakan haram.

Ehsan: Aku dengar diorang untung 76 bilion ringgit baru ni.

Ompi: Siapa?

Ehsan: Petronaslah. Kau ni, tak baca paper ke? Takkan itu pun tak tahu.

Ompi: Ah, aku mana baca paper dah sekarang. Karut je semua. Tak habis-habis cerita pasal Altantuya. Aku dengar nama Najib pun dah naik. Sure gelabah punya mamat glokal tu. Orang Keadilan pulak sekarang ni ramai yang keluar parti. Aku dengar baru ni Ezam pulak umum keluar parti. Dia cakap Anwar diktator.

Ehsan: Biasalah tu beb, politik. Masing-masing ada kepentingan. Tapi bagi akulah, Ezam kalau masuk Umno memang aku tak boleh terima. Dulu mati-matian kutuk Umno, tibai kerajaan apa semua.

Hisham: Bro, rileksla. Biar lantak je la orang-orang politik ni. Buat apa kita nak susah-susah pening kepala. Baik korang pikir macam mana bila kita dah grad nanti. Lagi setahun je lagi kita nak habis belajar ni. Nak kena bayar PTPTN lagi. Nak pikir pasal kerja lagi. Dah la sekarang ni susah nak dapat kerja.

Syukri: Tu la korang ni. Orang politik tu peduli apa pasal kita. Diorang pikir nak kayakan diri dan gemukkan perut diorang je. Rasuah je kerja. Korang ingat untung Petronas tu dapat ke kita merasa? Untung berbilion-bilion pun, kalau minyak asyik dok naik je, baik tak payah!

Ehsan: Tu la pasal. Aku sekarang ni nak bawak kereta pun cam malas je. Minyak mahal. Tol lagi. Dulu pembangkang kononnya nak demo sampai tol turun, tengok-tengok senyap macam tu je. Cakap lebat. Habuk pun takde.

Ompi: Dah la korang, jom la kita pergi makan. Aku teringin Burger King ni. Nak makan McDonalds tak boleh sebab ustaz aku suruh boikot. Agen Yahudi katanya. Burger King takpe kot.

Hisham: Jom la. Aku pun dah puas tengok menara jagung dua batang ni. Lapar pulak rasa. Jom makan burger jom! Kat sana karang boleh sembang lagi. Sambil-sambil cuci mata tengok budak-budak Melayu punya pusat, dang it!

oleh adibahabdullah

Assalamualaikum.

The third part of my ‘Extreme Medicine’ series. Feels like such a long time has passed since my last entry on this, I hardly knew where to begin! Well, most of this entry is based on what I remembered - and understood - of Dr Heng Aik Cheng’s speech. Really, what an impressive man.

He was already an accomplished orthopaedist. Dealt with various cases. Complicated cases. Then he felt that he wanted to do something different, something more challenging. Something that - erm, well, that could change the world or something like that. So off he went to do ‘extreme medicine’. Medical relief somewhere.

Reality crushed him. He learned the meaning of humility. There lies a man with grave injuries, injuries a doctor like Dr Heng could’ve treated without much fuss, but for one simple fact - there’s no equipment for him to do anything that he could’ve done.

Reduced to a humble man helpless without technology and a multitude of drugs supply at hand, one learns that in essence, man is helpless. Despite all the luxury that is surrounding him, cradling him in the false reality that imprisons him in the so-called comfort zone, the real life makes a mite out of any giant. There is no such thing as ‘larger than life’. Life itself is too large to comprehend, in all its devastating complexity.

So what significance does this have to humanity, to mankind, or to view things in a smaller scale, to form a better human being? Man, when proud, under delusion that he’s in control, have little drive to change things. Why should he when nothing is actually wrong? Worse, man will feel less attached to the Power above all powers, that of Almighty God. As a person with a faith to God, I am of a strong belief that a man’s spiritual integrity depends strongly on his connection with God.

In short, humility learnt - or rather, achieved - through the ‘extreme medicine’ work allows man to realize that man is indeed small. How big you think you are, in the face of the great disasters on earth, you are just a small helpless being. More helpless than you are, are the victims of the disasters around you, waiting for hands to lift them up from misery. What differentiates you from them is that little skills that you happen to have, and some old equipments that you know how to operate, on which little things they clung to with utmost hope and expectation.

In men of worth, this hopefully would lead to a strong drive to fix things up - to make things better for everyone, but with a realization that is both spiritual and practical - that man is actually helpless, that the the world’s children is suffering massive devastation that currently is beyond anything technology can do to alleviate, that whatever man can do to help, he is never ‘the strong hero with power to solve all’, rather, he’s just a helpless servant of God out doing his bit to help others, always dependent on His will and protection.

Hm, as most ‘noble’ things are, ‘extreme medicine’ work is often dressed up and sugared up. Romanticized as a heroic deed done by selfless warriors willing to sacrifice all and sundry for the sake of love and humanity. While the naive young people like us look with starry-eyed stares and wish to be included among the heroes. Horrible things like poverty, disease, death, wars, and - um, extreme medicine - tend to be glorified and softened as romantic adventures, which they are almost usually anything but.
“When you go there, you think you are this kind person, this noble hero, who goes there to fix things up for the poor victims. The people are going to love you, to look up to you as their hero. No, it’s far from that.” -roughly quoting Dr Heng-

I’ve elaborated on the hard truth of extreme medicine situations.

http://kakiblog.com/2007/04/30/extreme-medicine-i/

http://kakiblog.com/2007/05/11/extreme-medicine-ii-the-six-rs/

The practicalities that need to be taken care of in a huge scale, considering hundreds and thousands of victims. The tough reality of blood, dirt, raw wounds, recycled bandages and operations without anaesthetics (imagine a patient having his throat sliced open to get rid of a faulty thyroid, his only ‘anaesthetic’ is a roll of cloth in his mouth that he bit hard on). The complicated political environment that needs to be dealt with - governments used to refuse entry to relief teams, sometimes letting them in a later stage (when the problem has festered), with strict regulations.

And there’s the question of security, which Dr. Heng used to emphasize on. The ‘victims’ are less likely to look at the relief workers as God-send angels to provide ‘unconditional help, treatment and love’, than they tend to see them as potential source of another kind of ‘relief’. Personal properties are often at stake. Relief workers are often warned against showing - or showing off - anything that can possibly indicate material wealth. Not even giving money freely to the poors.

The poor things might just assume that the person is wealthy and pick his pocket, or worse -which is more likely, actually- assume that the relief team is loaded with money and valuables, and go ransack his mission tent. Why wouldn’t they? Their properties were gone with the wind, so to speak. They struggle simply to get something to escape starvation. And these relief workers come with nice clothes, offer food and medication, and have cars. Wow! Security is a GREAT concern to relief workers, there must always be someone on the watch all the time.

Speaking of cars, according to Dr Heng, the major cause of death for relief workers is - guess what - car accidents. Hazardous road conditions, as often is the situation in such places, combined with poorly-maintained vehicles, lead to the grave consequences.

Another thought-provoking statement from Dr Heng was, roughly stated,

“Do you think you are doing them a favour? Do you think you are being very good, very nice, doing a ’sacrifice’ when you forfeit your comfort and safety to work in extreme conditions? No, you are not. The help they get is not an advantage. It is their right.”

Just as orphans have a right to be helped, these victims have inalienable rights to receive aid. So, people who go and do relief work are simply fulfilling their obligation - MANKIND’s obligation - to help. Don’t flatter yourself that you are being beacons of light, the hand of hope, the noble life-saver, whatever. You are just being human when you are doing that. You are doing what a human being have to do anyway, giving someone else their rights that should be given by mankind.

If you don’t do it when you have the capacity, when you don’t have other more important priorities, then you’re shirking an obligation. Which makes you.. uh, I’d better not use any defining adjectives.

This kind of obligation surpasses the barriers of race, status, or creed. Even if you are a Muslim or not, even if the one in need of help is Muslim or not, the responsibility to give - especially upon request - when you have something that can be given, is there. A story from Dr Ang Swee Chai, a Christian doctor of Singaporean birth currently residing in the UK, once working in the terror-stricken lands of Beirut and Jerusalem (she chronicled her priceless experience in a book, From Beirut to Jerusalem), particularly illustrated this.

She told of how when she worked in Palestine in the 1980s, some Israeli soldiers came in wounded, begging medical aid, asking her for a doctor. Being of small stature and childish-looking, perhaps she was mistaken for a Filipino nurse instead of a trained and fully-capable doctor, which she actually was. Outraged at the atrocities committed by the Israelis, Dr Ang told them that there’s no doctor available and drove them off.

When another Palestinian doctor - presumably Muslim - found out what she did, the doctor was not very happy about it. She was told that medical aid should be extended to everybody, regardless of the crimes that they had done. Our duty is to help, to use what God has given us to help those in need. To judge and punish others for their crimes is not ours to do.

An adage says, compassion is blind.
Upholding love, protecting life, treating sores and healing souls. For humanity, in Allah’s name.

meow~

oleh kaki bangku

Inner logic is often in common use by anthropologists to understand local communities. Though the intent is to be appreciative, it is often criticized as overly apologetic, or at least sympathetic in most cases.

Having said that however, if sacred scripture and doctrinal truths can be shown as logically plausible, then inner logic can (in fact, must) be utilized to explore that particular system’s belief system. I opine that this is the only way to go about understanding its intricate symbolic structures and interpretations.

When one becomes a Muslim, normally it is because of a logically plausible reason - be it personal experience or scientific evidence. But to proceed from this juncture, it is only fair and honest to use Islam’s inner logic to derive jurisdical, moral and theological conclusions - this inner truth is loosely structured as the classical Islamic sciences.

Hence, I object (though with all due respect) to dialectical and external modes of criticizing Islam and its traditional understanding (ex: “Islam is incompatible with democracy”) unless for a purely academic exercise.

oleh Najwan Halimi

“You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday, you’ll join us. And the world will be as one.” -John Lennon, ‘Imagine’ (1971)

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057.

Ketika itu saya sudah berumur 72 tahun. Barangkali sudah punya cucu dan cicit. Atau mungkin sudah mati. Mungkin juga ketika itu cucu saya Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang ketujuh atau kelapan. Mungkin beliau dari Parti Islam Semalaysia (PAS). Atau Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). Atau mungkin juga Presiden Umno! 

Ketika itu negara ini sudah mencecah 100 tahun usia kemerdekaannya. Barangkali Universiti Malaya (UM) waktu itu sudah pun berada di Sepang. Dan ada arca Ungku Aziz di pintu masuk UM, sedang duduk dengan penuh bergaya (ibarat tugu Abraham Lincoln di Washington DC) menyambut kedatangan pengunjung.

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057. 

Ketika itu barangkali Faisal Tehrani telah bergelar pemenang Hadiah Nobel dalam bidang kesusasteraan. Nama beliau sudah jadi setaraf dengan Orhan Pamuk dan Naguib Mahfouz. 

Fathi Aris Omar pula gah dikenali sebagai tokoh agung falsafah dari Nusantara. Idea-idea dan pemikirannya dijadikan rujukan ulama-ulama dan cendekiawan-cendekiawan dari Barat. Mungkin beliau sudah tiada ketika itu. (Barangkali beliau sedang tersenyum keharuan membaca entri ini. Atau juga sedang menggeleng-gelengkan kepala sambil berkata di dalam hati: “Apa gilanya budak Najwan ni..”)

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057. 

Waktu itu mahasiswa dan intelektual dari negara ini akan menguasai universiti terkemuka dunia, manakala universiti tempatan akan menjadi pusat kecemerlangan untuk cendekiawan antarabangsa. 

Ketika itu Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) dan Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) sudah lebih gah daripada Universiti Harvard dan Oxford. 

Tiada lagi AUKU. Mahasiswa mula hebat berfikir. Kritis, dinamis dan kompetitif. Ketika itu simbol wajah Che Guevara sudah tidak diminati lagi oleh golongan muda yang radikal. Potret Hishamuddin Rais sudah mulai menjadi hiasan dan kemegahan di baju dan batch di beg. 

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057. 

Kita akan menjadi perintis tenaga alternatif, lahir daripada kelebihan kita dalam biofuel. Bandar raya kita paling ceria dengan gabungan kemudahan kosmopolitan yang bertunjangkan masyarakat adil dan bertolak ansur.

Waktu itu Kuala Lumpur sehebat New York. Genting Highlands lebih masyhur dari Monte Carlo. Dan wilayah Iskandar lebih hebat dari Hong Kong. Singapura ketika itu hanya setaraf dengan Kangar barangkali. 

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057. 

UMNO ketika itu hanya sejarah, barangkali. Dan mungkin juga tiada lagi istilah Melayu, Cina atau India. Malaysia ketika itu milik semua. Semua kaum. Semua bangsa. 

Tiada lagi curiga antara agama. Tiada lagi pertikaian tentang siapa tuan, siapa pendatang. Tiada lagi upacara hunus keris oleh kepala-kepala rasis. Dan tiada lagi ugutan dan ancaman tentang penghapusan hak keistimewaan. 

Bayangkan kita di tahun 2057. 

Cuba bayangkan. 

Apakah kalian nampak warna-warna pencerahan? 

oleh Taufik

There is a glossary at the end of this article on certain scientific terms and Malay terms which may help the reader to understand the article better.  

When you hear about “kahwin dulu, baru dating“, probably in your mind you will be thinking about a guy with a kopiah 24 hours on his head marrying a girl who wear the tudung labuh or even a niqaab, better known as purdah at Malaysia. Your first instinct will also probably be, “I pray, I fast, I wear tudung, but I am not these extreme ‘alim people. I need to get to know my partner for life inside out. So, I need to date him, to know whether we are serasi or not.” I perfectly understand your concern. I understand that you are not ‘crazy’ enough to just jump into a marriage without knowing who your partner really is. So in the end, this kahwin dulu baru dating trend becomes an exclusive thing among people who are active in dakwah and jemaah, while the muslim masses are walking together holding hands or ‘hanging out’ at restaurants at KLCC, Mid Valley, etc. Some of these people are perhaps incurable, but I believe some just don’t get how kahwin dulu baru dating can actually work. I will try my best to show you that kahwin dulu baru dating actually works, and romantic love is hogwash in supposedly spotting the ideal partner for a long-lasting marriage.

Firstly, I have heard about people mocking about those who had successful marriage through matchmake as just being ‘lucky’. To set the record straight, according to National Geographic, the divorce rate of the Western world which embraces total romantic love is around 50 to 60% - a healthy percentage indeed! So, even if you start your marriage with romantic love, the probability for it to last untill death-do-you-apart is less than half. I would like to call upon those ardent defender of romantic love to pause for awhile and enjoy this statistics before proceeding to conjure some pseudo theories about the advantages of having romantic love - you can’t fool the figures. I would say that the western society has 1001 flaws in keeping a safe household and those ‘other factors’ surely contribute to the statistics, but the fact still remain that romantic love fails to spot these people’s partner for life. According to a study done by Utusan Malaysia, our country also has a divorce rate of 54% and our society is practically westernised with majority embracing romantic love - although maybe not the type that ends up on the bed. So it’s the same old story, statistics wise.

Some people say we need to know whether we have ‘chemistry’ through countless dates, hang outs, and spending a lot of time together. Going through a person’s ‘CV’, peer opinion or recommendation, observing her/him in public, and a brief get-to-know session are just not enough. We know that during this courting period, everyone pijak semut pon tak mati, and you will always forgive your partner’s shortcoming no matter how big they are, simply because you are madly in love. How many times have we heard about glitch-free Pakwe 1.0 who eventually turned into Husband 1.0 with lots of viruses and trojan horses? Also note that I am not saying go into a marriage with someone you know you don’t like, but I am saying you don’t need these romantic craps to know a person through and through. The fact is you won’t really know a person unless you live, eat, and sleep with him or her.

I wonder how Amazon.com can make big bucks, if everyone really insist in browsing through a book before buying it. Worst still, this book has a lot of pages written in magic invisible ink that will only show up after you buy it! So you never really know what you are buying. What if good reviews, high-praise critics, and best sellers are not enough for one to make a decision to buy a book? I admit that drawing an analogy between life partner with a book just doesn’t make sense at all. Let’s get scientific. So what really is this thing called love? Anthropologist Helen Fisher, a professor at Rutgers University, has conducted an extensive research on the biochemical pathways of love in all its manifestations: lust, romance, attachment, the way they start and wane, etc. Here is part of what her research is about:-

“After doing MRI on the brain of two lovers - they had been ‘madly in love’ for seven months during that time - she found out that parts of brain linked up to reward and pleasure - the ventral tegnmental area and the caudate nucleus- lit up. What excited Fisher most was not so much finding a location, an address, for love as tracing its specific chemical pathways. Love lights up the caudate nucleus because it is home to a dense spread of receptors for a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which Fisher came to think of as part of our own endogenous love potion. In the right proportions, dopamine creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. It is why, when you are newly in love, you can stay up all night, watch the sun rise, run a race, ski fast down a slope ordinarily too steep for your skill. Love makes you bold, makes you bright, makes you run real risks, which you sometimes survive, and sometimes you don’t.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

Sounds familiar? Mind you that mentally-ill people also shows high amount of dopamine in their brain, and scientists cannot tell apart one who is mentally-ill and one who is ‘madly in love’ by just MRIing their brains. Cool, right? The meaning of ‘madly in love’ is more real than what we think of, as the brain chemistry of infatuation is indeed akin to mental illness. Tak heran la, pijak semut pon tak mati, lautan api pon akan ku redah, dan gunung tinggi mana pon akan ku daki. Do you think an orang gila can make a sound judgement? The fact is, when you are in deep romantic obsession, you just want to win rewards from your partner due to the excessive dopamines, not objectively finding faults in him or her as you claim. Of course nobody is perfect, there is no point in finding every faults in your partner, and supposedly marriage is about reconciling differences and accepting the fact that your partner is another human being, inescapable from making mistakes. What I am stressing here is that dating and hanging out are for mere pleasures, not finding the right partner. How can something that is similar to mental-illness becomes a reliable way to make your decision of a lifetime? So am I still not convincing? Let’s hear further what Dr. Helen Fischer has to say about the chemistry of love:-

“Most scientist who studied love, divide it into three segments: lust, romantic obsession, and attachment. The first stage of it which is lust which is actually the sex drive. One of the things that men like about women is their waist to hip ratio, which according to scientists, the desirable waist to hip ratio is point seven. woman are attracted to man with broad shoulders and rugged features, all showing a great deal of testosterone. The second stage of love is romantic passion, and the same chemcals are involved when a person is in love is when they are high on Amphetamine [dopamine stimulus] , and the scientists are speculating that it ends after about four years, and that’s because that is the amount of time that it takes for a human baby to become ‘viable’. And two things happen, either the couple separate or they stay together in long term relationship. That third stage is called attachment and there is a different chemical in brain that is involved in a long-term relationship, which is called oxytocin, and that causes one to feel very calm and soothe. Emily and Brian of Ohio had been married for 60 years and have twenty children. They were to me sort of perfect example of this long-term relationship attachment.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

So, according to scientists, this romantic passion can only last at maximum for four years, but they don’t quite know why yet - biology is always vague. Some say that the human body just can’t stand the state of high in dopamine for so long because it deteriorates the body, while some gave the theory that four years is the maximum time span for a couple to have their first baby, so they need to get ’serious’. Whatever it is, no wonder a lot of people complain that their once glitch-free Pakwe 1.0 turned into Husband 1.0 with lots of viruses and trojan horses. Another thing to point out is that couples who are in long-term relationship show high amount of oxytocin in their brains, which is a totally different chemical from dopamine. Oxytocin is also present when you have good relationships with your parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. So what makes a relationship last long is this feeling of attachment to your partner like you have for your parents, friends, and family, not the romantic passion during courtship. It is interesting to note that oxytocin causes one to feel very calm and soothe, while dopamine creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. There is no similarity at all between these two chemicals; in fact, their purposes are actually the opposite to each other. So only a fool would think that romantic passion is the mechanism that should be used to find a suitable partner. It is like trying to use a hammer to cut your finger nail.

“And those who say: “Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes, and make us leaders of those who have Taqwa.” [Qur'an 25:74]

Is qurrota a’yun (comfort of our eyes) mentioned in the Qur’an, the feeling of calm and soothe (triggered by oxytocin) that is presence when a relationship is based on attachment? Finally, let’s listen to what Jody Cobb, the photographer of National Geographic magazine who wrote the article The Chemistry of Love, has to say about her impossible task: Photographing love:-

“I didn’t want to just photograph weddings, that I think is what is expected. I didn’t want to do a valentine, I didn’t want to do a hallmark card. The notion of love because anyone who has ever really been in love knows that, that’s not the reality. So I was very much interested to show real life and cultures all over the world. And women are becoming educated and wanting to make their own choices in mate selection, things are changing really fast. And just like in the West, where we trully believe in love and romance and happily ever after, we still have a 50-60% divorce rate.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

It is pretty clear now that dating dulu baru kahwin doesn’t come even close to ensure a happily-ever-after relationship. Ironically, those ‘extreme ‘alim people’ are the ones who understand real love and real life, not those Casanovas. Do note that I am not saying if you kahwin baru baru dating then your marriage will last forever, but if you dating dulu baru kahwin then you are doom to failure. I am simply pointing out that romantic passion has nothing to do about spoting the ‘right person’ in your life. It is also true that incompatibility may happen between two persons, like there is just no chemistry between the two of you. The point is, you don’t need to go on countless hang outs to spot that. You don’t need to overload your neuropathways with excessive dopamine to find the supposedly elusive chemistry. It is common sense: You sit down and talk with a person for 15 minutes and you’ll know whether you can get along with that person or not. I am talking in general, meaning even with a stranger who you want to make him as your friend, not just your life partner. As for the opposite gender, more than that, it is the evil desire from your nafs. Of course, if you are still in doubt, go through the person’s ‘CV’, find peer opinion or recommendation about that person, observe her/him in public, and so on and so forth, as long as it is according to the syariah. Whatever you do, don’t get mentally-ill. In the end, you still have to ride all the gelora after the romantic passion dies out and you dah kahwin - Husband 1.0 and Wife 1.0. Last piece of advice: Ride them with oxytocin, not dopamine, ok? Above all, bring along taqwa, inshaAllah it will be pretty smooth sailing.

“I love you because of your religion. If you let go of your religion, then I have to let go of my love for you” Imam Nawawi.

Glossary:

Scientific terms:

Neurotransmitters - are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron (brain/nervous system cells) and another cell.

Dopamine - Dopamine is a neurotrasmitter and it has many functions in the brain. Most importantly, dopamine is central to the reward system. Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities. Dopamine is released by naturally rewarding experiences such as food and sex. Disruption to the dopamine system has also been strongly linked to psychosis and schizoprenia, with abnormally high dopamine action apparently leading to these conditions. Now you can see the link between sex/romantic passion and psychosis.

Oxytocin - Oxytocin is a mamalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. In the brain, oxytocin is involved in social recognition and bonding, and might be involved in the formation of trust between people. Oxytocin is also an important hormone for women for various reasons, but in this article I am focusing on the function of oxytocin in the brain.

MRI - MRI stands for Magnetic resonance imaging, which is a non-invasive method used to render images of the inside of an object. In this particular case, it is used to render images inside of the brain.

Malay terms:

kahwin dulu baru dating - A loose translation would be: Marriage first, only then comes dating.

dating dulu baru kawhin - A loose translation would be: Dating first, only then comes marriage

tudung - hijab

serasi - compatible

pijak semut pon tak mati - Literally it means: Even if you step on an ant, the ant won’t die. What it actually means is someone who control his behavior to give a false, good impression during dating.

pakwe - boyfriend

Tak heran la, pijak semut pon tak mati, lautan api pon akan ku redah, dan gunung tingga mana pon akan ku daki - Literally it means: No wonder he steps on an ant, the ant won’t die, and he will say, “I will cross a fiery ocean for your sake, I will climb the tallest mountain for your sake.” I guess you get the meaning already

References:

1. Slater, Lauren. The Chemistry of Love. National Geographic Magazine, February 2006

oleh kaki bangku

Pada tahun-tahun 70an, 80an dan akhir 90an kita menyaksikan suatu gelombang kebangkitan Islam yang cukup menarik dan menggembirakan. Tetapi peristiwaperistiwa di peringkat nasional dan internasional selepas itu menjadikan gelombang itu mulai menurun dan malap. Sekarang ini umat Islam dan Islam itu sendiri dihujat sedemikian rupa oleh musuh-musuhnya yang tidak bersedia melihat Islam itu subur dan sentiasa bercahaya. Cabaran demi cabaran dihadapi oleh umat Islam hari ini. Keadaan demikian juga dirasai di Malaysia. Kita boleh merasa betapa Islam itu ‘hebat’ pada tahun-tahun tersebut (di atas) tetapi cukup ‘defensive’ sekali pada hari ini. Banyak faktor yang menyumbang kearah itu.

Berdasarkan hakikat di atas, MUAFAKAT merasa terpanggil untuk mengadakan satu seminar bagi menangani persoalan ini. MUAFAKAT merasa persoalan tajdid adalah persoalan relevan yang perlu digarap dan dikumandangkan secara berterusan agar umat sedar dan terus berprihatin tentang nasibnya yang dirundung malang. Sejarah Islam menyaksikan tajdid atau ‘reform’ adalah fenomena sejagat dan berterusan. Keadaan yang layu dan ‘malaise’ yang dihadapi umat tidak akan dibenarkan berterusan. Akan ada dikalangan umat mereka yang berdepan dan menanganinya secara serius dan penuh komitmen. Terdapat ramai tokoh-tokoh Islam yang pernah menangani masalah umat dan mereka ini digelar sebagai mujadid atau ‘reformers’. Salah satu tokoh tersebut ialah Imam Al-Ghazzali.

Pembicaraan tentang Al-Ghazzali – dalam bentuk tulisan atau bentuk lain – telah banyak dibuat dan bidangnya amat luas. Tetapi untuk tujuan seminar ini tumpuan adalah khusus dari aspek tajdid. Kertas-kertas kerja berkaitan dengan Al-Ghazzali yang akan dibentangkan samada dalan bidang syariah, falsafah dan tasawwuf adalah dijuruskan kepada aspek tajdid. Para sarjana yang akan membentangkan kertas-kertas kerja didalam seminar ini adalah mereka yang cukup berwibawa dan ahli dalam bidang masing-masing. Adalah diharapkan pemikiran, informasi, analisis dan idea-idea yang diutarakan secara metodikal, imaginatif dan ‘intelligent’ akan memberi manfaat besar kepada para peserta khususnya dan umat secara amnya.

Maklumat program di sini - Seminar Al-Ghazzali: Tokoh Mujaddid Agung

oleh Taufik

Recently Google launched a new service called Hot Trends, which finds the fastest rising trends instead of the most popular topics on the net. There is a clear distinction between popular trends and popular topics because expert says, popular topics still centers around sex, sex, and more sex. In its bid to accurately spot popular trends instead of popular ‘topics’, Hot Trend has to screen inappropriate language and pornography by implementing advanced searching filter. As you might guess, the top trends are none other than celebrity, fashion, and entertainment – sexual stimulus of the modern society. Don’t be fooled into thinking that it will be a whole different story if the search scope is limited only to popular topics and trends among the Malaysian net user.

The News Straits Times reported on May 23 2007 about a Malaysian version of an online ‘gateway’ to sex services which gives a complete guide to prostitution in the country. They even visited to a health spa recommended by the site, and indeed everything is real. This abominable business is not something participated only by a selective niche, as the forum is partaked by 10 000 members – a staggering number. We are talking about online gateway to prostitution here, not online pornography, which you can only imagine what the statistics will be. You know, everything is just a click away…

If you can recall, one of the bill of guarantees under the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project stated that the government will not implement internet censorship and the government has been true to its words thus far. The bill maybe the seventh heaven for the bloggers, but we all know what is the most popular thing on the net – definitely not reading political blogs people! I am pretty sure that the local authorities are aware about ‘what’s hot’ too, as TM Bhd. had launched the “Press Alt+F4 to Pornography” campaign long time ago – you can see those advertisements at the pillars of tolls at public highways. Doesn’t it remind you of the “Tak Nak” campaign? Everybody knows that this kind of effort – alone – is a real joke in curbing the human’s most overwhelming instinct.

The only question left is: Are we serious about combating pornography? Per haps our society has fallen to the state of moral bankruptcy, while hiding under the mask of freedom – just like the west. Well, we are definitely inching closer and closer to there. I myself am shocked by the total lack of apprehension in the report about the ‘gateway’ to sex made by NST – we are talking about prostitution here and it all seems fine and mundane. After all, free condoms will be given in the public soon, right? Oh, it’s about saving life from AIDS – big deal.

The bottom line is: No censorship people, we have to respect freedom. Well, you can’t politicize sex, can you? But we can definitely make money out of almost everything. We have perfected the art of making money out of sex: showgirls at motorshows, models wearing skimpy outfits for advertisments, sexual acts in almost every movie, miss universe, you just name it. So, what holds back the government and TM bhd. from implementing sexual content filter for the net? What harm will it bring? Human rights? I can imagine gruntled customers complaining, ” I paid for the broadband service to download XXX movies and now you are going to block it?” Oh yeah, the streamyx ADSL broadband service customers have grown two fold and three fold in these past two quarters.

Maybe some people will argue that if you implement sexual content filter then there will be a big confusion as to what is permissible and what is not? We may also encounter big problems with ‘innocent’ sites being blocked just because they have some nudity advertisements on their sites. One may also argue that you cannot block You Tube and p2p sharing programs too, just because they have some - or a lot of - pornographic contents. I would suggest blocking known URLs that are dedicated specifically for pornography and prostitution, so there won’t be any self made-up confusion about this issue. For example, the sites found by NST on online prostitution at Malaysia should be blocked! For what reason it should not be blocked? promoting prostitution in the country?

I agree that the form of censorship that I suggest here would not be able to completely prevent our youth from accessing to online pornography - there is no way to block everyhting in this cyber world. May I ask you: Why did the government raise the price of tobacco product in the country by 100% last time around? Will it completely solve smoking problem amoung our youth? Of course no, but nobody suggested that raising the price of tobacco by 100% is a joke in curbing smoking, except for the smokers themselves who are not pleased with it. So blocking dedicated pornographic and prostitution related URLs cannot completely prevent our youth from accessing to online sexual explicit content, but it will definately be a step forward - I know pornagraphy addicts won’t agree with me here.

As for human rights, let’s get real. Most western countries block tobacco product advertisement and there isn’t such a big fuss about it. Everybody agrees that smoking is bad for health, so a consencus was easily achieved. So are we too morally bankrupt to agree that pornography is bad for our youth? Don’t tell me that blocking pornography will prevent certain rights of certain people and our government will suddenly turn into an authoritarian ruler just by doing so. Well, at Canada they show hardcore pornography on the television from 10 p.m. to 12 p.m. every day - that is what I have been told by my friends. And at the US, they just legalized marijuana through democracy. Anyone here thinking about following them?

My worry is that this topic has not been given enough highlight that it deserves. Know that watching pornography among our youth has reached to an epidemic level. We are in a dire need of some drastic counter measurements before it gets out of hand. We are on rail towards moral bankruptcy, but nobody seems to notice about this silent killer called pornography. Our Imams, Ustaz, and Ustazah give a lot of ceramah and khutbah on drug abuse, the prohibition of alchohol in Islam, even smoking, and zina, but la takrobu zina a.k.a. pornography is usually spared for only a minute of talk. To me, the true scale of this haram conduct being indulge by our muslim youth is largely unknown by most ‘important authorities’. Nowadays, talking about morality in our society just smacks of being narrow-minded or extreme religious zeal. It is wrong to take drugs; it is wrong to road bully; it is fine to tengok benda lucah. We should be serious about banning our youth’s fast food towards moral bankruptcy a.k.a. pornography.

p/s: You may notice a rather lack of Islamic arguments in my points for backing up censorship. I talk a lot about morality rather than pornography being just haram - no more questions should be raised about combating it - in most of my points. The reason being I have in mind about sending this article to some other ‘places’ where I feel I should argue in a more general way if it is to be accepted. I also find that religion is fast becoming something strange in our country - especially among the people at the ‘top’. I thought I just came back to an Islamic country after spending some time at Canada, but let’s say I was a bit let down or even pretty worried. An interesting report to read on human rights at Malaysia.

oleh Najwan Halimi

Khabarnya, buku May 13: Declassified Documents on the Racial Riots of 1969 karya Dr. Kua Kia Soong yang dilancarkan pada 13 Mei yang lalu bakal berdepan dengan tindakan pengharaman oleh Kementerian Keselamatan Dalam Negeri.

Saya masih belum berkesempatan membaca buku ini, pun begitu kini ghairah mengikuti perbahasan dan ulasan mengenainya di beberapa blog teman-teman.

Amir Sari, menerusi ulasan di blog beliau turut menyiarkan kenyataan media oleh Komunite Seni Jalan Telawi (KSJT) yang membantah tindakan merampas buku ini.

Langkah seumpama ini, menurut KSJT, bukan sahaja boleh dianggap tidak demokratik, tetapi juga tidak mempunyai sikap yang beradab dalam kehidupan masyarakat yang terbuka dan menghargai perbezaan pandangan.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, melalui blog rasmi beliau juga turut mengkritik cadangan pengharaman buku ini sambil menyifatkannya sebagai mencabuli kebebasan bersuara yang termaktub di dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Tambah beliau lagi, tindakan menyekat buku tersebut secara tidak langsung akan meningkatkan lagi nilainya dan menaikkan keinginan pembaca (untuk memilikinya). Lebih penting lagi, pengharaman buku ini akan memperkukuhkan lagi tesis bahawa rusuhan kaum 13 Mei 1969 tersebut sememangnya disebabkan oleh rampasan kuasa yang dirancang pimpinan tertentu untuk menjatuhkan Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.

Saya secara peribadi tidak punya hak untuk mengulas isi buku ini memandangkan masih belum membacanya, pun begitu saya cukup hampa dan tidak bersetuju dengan langkah bacul pihak kerajaan untuk mengharamkannya.

Memetik kembali ulasan saya dalam entri Haram yang tersiar sekitar bulan Disember tahun lalu di blog saya, riwayat hayat :

“… Jika sekiranya kerajaan ingin terus menyaksikan masyarakat Malaysia menjadi masyarakat yang hanya membaca dua helai muka surat buku dalam setahun, maka perbanyakkanlah lagi tajuk-tajuk buku untuk diharamkan.

Haramkanlah juga pencetakan dan penjualan Al-Quran itu sendiri andai kalian khuatir rakyat akan membaca ayat-ayat yang menyatakan rasuah itu haram, Islam tidak mengiktiraf ideologi perkauman dan kezaliman itu wajib ditentang! Haramkan!”

Atau barangkali mereka tidak pernah beriman dengan ayat pertama yang diturunkan oleh Tuhan yang berbunyi IQRA’ itu?

oleh Taufik

Sebagai pengenalan, Pelepak Jalan Telawi adalah geng-geng intelek pseudo yang biasanya suka lepak di Bangsar. Mereka ini lah golongan yang perasan mereka ini liberated, open-minded, modern, dan sebagainya. Beginilah contoh spesimen orang Melayu Jalan Telawi berfikir:-

“Kita orang melayu teleh diArabkan, bukan di Islamkan sebenarnya. Orang Arab memang kerkena dangan bermacam-macam. Sekarang melayu telah terikut-ikut dan ter-terArabnya. Ada kemungkinan kita orang telah silap fahami agama. Tersilap taksir mungkinnya. Bagi saya, janganlah nampak sangat alim orang nya tapi hati nafsu marak seperti gunung nak meletup dan fikiran macam syaitan.

Satu contoh yg sangat baik betul-betul berlaku di Indonesia:-

Satu kumpulan National Geography pergi ke satu kampung dalaman di Indonesia dimana orang asli situ tidak berpakaian. Sampai sana dan jumpa orang aslinya yang anehnya semua orang hanya pandang kawan NG dari Arab. Tau mengapa? Sebenarnya kebanyakan ahli NG biasa tengok perempuan dan yang bogel termasuk pegawai dari Indonesia. Tapi ahli dari Arab tak biasa tengok perempuan dan bogel pulak. Jadi adik ahli Arab naik menuju ke langit. Seluar yang ketat pun tak dapat melindungi dia. Ini sebenarnya memberitahu kita kalau kita orang selalu memilih untuk mengelakkan sesuatu dan tak berani face on matters, kita silap. Orang asli di Indonesia biasa dah bogel sejak dulu sampai hari ini. Dalam hati mereka sangat mulia dan tak ada fikiran kotor. Tapi bagi orang asing yang tak pernah tengok perempuan, lain pulak cerita.

Satu contoh yg berlaku di Kuala Terengganu:–

Seorang guru cina telah ditugaskan untuk mengajar di Terengganu. Guru cina tu dah biasa pakai skirt pendek di kota. Dia telah dinasihatkan oleh guru-guru cina tempatan supaya pakai skirt yang panjang sebab murid-murid tempatan tak biasa. So guru cina baru pun memilih skirt yang panjang sikit sampai ke lutut dan pergi mengajar pada keesokan pagi. Kamu semua tau tak apa berlaku? Kebanyakan murid lelaki hanya tengok skirt dekat lutut guru tu dan ada yang turun kepala untuk tengok apa kah dalam skirt tu. Apa berlaku? sama-sama fikir….”
(Pelepak Tetap Jalan Telawi)

Manusia ini memang suka akan generalisation jika ia memenuhi kepentingan kita. Sebab itu kita suka sangat akan teori pseudo dan berita-berita angin yang belum pasti akan kebenaranya. Ramai juga muslim masa kini yang memilih arus pemikiran dan cara hidup barat yang mengindulge nafsu masing-masing mengatasi cara Islam yang mengajak kita bermujahadah melawan nafsu. Usahlah kita bersembunyi di sebalik topeng-topeng lojik akal bagi menglegitimate kehendak nafsu rakus kita. Sudah tentu berbuat baik itu lebih susah daripada berbuat jahat.

Nafsu tertakluk kepada semua orang tanpa mengira bangsa, warna kulit, atau agama. Orang NG ke, orang arab ke, orang asli ke, sama sahaja kerana ia in the genetics. Cuma beza antara setiap individu dalam bab ini ialah kemampuan mengawal nafsu itu. Dekat sini (penulis berkelana di Canada - negara asal orang-orang NG), cikgu pakai skirt juga seperti cikgu cina di Kuala Terengganu itu, tetapi murid-murid memang tak jakun sebab girlfriend dierang pon pakai skirt macam tu juga dan dierang selalu pon buat benda haram dangan girlfriend dierang. Tambahan pula hardcore pornography ditayangkan di saluran televisyen perdana di waktu primetime secara terang-terangan, jadi siapa la yang berminat nak jakun-jakun bila cikgu dierang pakai skirt pendek mana pon. Tetapi ini tidak membuatkan mereka lebih mulia, apatah lagi untuk memilih jalan ini sebagai jalan penyelesaian.

Tiada asas kepada teori selalu terdedah kepada aurat dan benda-benda haram lain akan condition manusia kepada lebih open-minded dan kurang ‘jakun’. Ingin saya petik satu analogi yang dinukilkan oleh Ustaz Zaharuddin bagi memudahkan penjelasan tentang isu ini:-

“Ye la, bila orang lelaki yang dah naik syahwatnya tu, kerana kecantikan peha wanita tu contohnya, mestilah terganggu syahwatnya, lalu terdetik keinginan seksualnya secara tidak terkawal..”
”Kerana itu saya katakan berpakaian seksi adalah suatu bentuk gangguan seksual kepada orang lelaki di sekelilingnya”
“Cuba bayangkan, kucing yang lapar diacah-acah dengan ikan ‘fresh’ yang digoyang-goyangkan di hadapannya tentu geram kucing tu, malah silap haribulan, tentu diterkamnya muka orang yang mengacah juga”
“Tapi perlu diingat, tak semua kucing akan terkam, hanya yang amat lapar dan liar je, demikian juga lelaki, tak semua lelaki gagal kawal nafsunya, tetapi tak dinafikan bahawa ramai juga yang gagal dan liar”[1]

Kalau seekor kucing itu sudah kenyang, 24 jam dapat makan ikan ‘fresh’ dari tuanya, bila dia diacah-acah dengan seekor ikan ‘fresh’ di hadapan matanya sudah tentulah dia pejam mata buat don’t know sahaja. Tetapi memberi kucing makan 24 jam ikan ‘fresh‘ bukan satu cara penyelesaian kerana ikan-ikan ‘fresh’ haram itu semua berdosa besar kalau makan. Orang-orang NG yang Pelepak Jalan Telawi anggap mulia sangat tu dah tiap-tiap hari bergelumang dengan dosa itu, orang arab itu pula baru ingin mencuba pertama kali. Sama sahaja mereka ni sebenarnya.

Tak perlu la kita berpura-pura di sini bahawa nafsu lelaki ini boleh dihapuskan dngan menyuruh atau membenarkan wanita bogel tiap-tiap hari di khalayak ramai seperti orang-orang asli itu ataupun seperti wanita-wanita barat yang memakai pakaian serupa macam tidak pakai langsung. Ia sama sepeti kita mengatakan: “Bagi penagih-penagih dadah tu dadah tiap-tiap hari dan masalah ketagihan akan dapat diselesaikan - we are facing the matter like this. Kalau masukkan dia dalam pusat serenti dan ajar dia supaya kawal ketagihannya nanti dia keluar pusat serenti dia ambik dadah balik juga kan? Jadi baik bagi dia dadah tanpa henti, senang cerita, selesai masalah.”

Analoginya, boleh la kita selesaikan masalah ketagihan dadah dengan memberi si ketagih, dadah secara non-stop a.k.a. pendedahan aurat meleluasa. Cumanya kita terima bahawa dadah itu tak bagus kerana kita tahu si ketagih itu akan mati jika kita berbuat demikian. Oleh itu, memberi dadah non-stop sebagai cara penyelesaian memang out of the question la. Persoalannya, adakah kita terima bahawa seks bebas dan awrat wanita bukan mahram itu tak bagus juga? Benda-benda ni tak mati dan tiada kesan mudarat segara kalau ‘digunakan’ tiap-tiap hari pon (tak seperti dadah), jadi mungkin ramai yang keliru akan mudaratnya benda-benda ini. Hanya mereka yang benar-benar mengimani akan hari akhirat dan panasnya azab api neraka baru boleh nampak magnitud kesalahan benda ini semacam atau lebih teruk dari ketagihan dadah. Itu pon Allah sudah membantu kita dengan adanya kemudaratan sejak di muka bumi ini lagi dalam bentuk penyakit AIDS dan penyakit-penyaikit seksual lain.

Usahlah kita menipu diri sendiri dengan mengatakan kita boleh mewujudkan society yang penuh dengan wanita ‘terbogel’ di kawasan awam tanpa perlu adanya pergaulan seks bebas seperti di negara-negara barat. Kiranya mengambil jalan tengah begitu: Zina haram tetapi pendedahan awrat dan zina mata halal, malahan dikatakan pendedahan awrat dan zina mata ini boleh membanteras zina! Mana-mana manusia berfikiran waras tahu bahawa ini idea gila yang dipelopori oleh orang-orang yang cuba menggunakan akal untuk menglegitimate nafsu rakus mereka. Jikalau anda menginginkan kehidupan tanpa agama - boleh buat seks bebas tiap-tiap hari, boleh tengok kecantikan wanita in all its splendour tiap-tiap hari, dan sebagainya - maka memang tak perlu kita terapkan iman dalam dada. Kalau benar kita rasa tak salah menghidang ikan-ikan ‘fresh’ ini, silalah ikut cadangan cara penyelesaian saudara Pelepak Jalan Telawi tu.

Betul ke claim orang yang terbiasa dengan pendedahan awrat ini “Dalam hati mereka sangat mulia dan tak ada fikiran kotor”? Bagaimana pula dengan pandangan pihak yang hendak dijadikan The Meat Market?

“Sometimes I watch a guy walk past a girl and he’ll turn back and look at her legs or her chest and I just think, I would hate that to happen to me. It doesn’t appeal to me. It’s not flattering, I can’t understand how that can make a woman happy. To me, it’s nicer when a Muslim brother passes by me and looks down. To me, that is more respectful than someone whistling at my legs,” sister Rabia (beliau tinggal di London). [From My Sisters' Lips, m/s 125]

Sudah tentu ada wanita yang berbangga apabila mendedah sana-sini dan lelaki yang matanya sentiasa liar mencari daging percuma, tetapi bukanlah spesies ini yang diakatakan “Dalam hati mereka sangat mulia dan tak ada fikiran kotor.”

Sekarang ini memang ramai muslim yg akhlak runtuh dan iman entah kemana, jadi bila diacah ikan ‘fresh’ di depan mata mereka terus menerpanya. Tak perlu la nak bagi 1001 contoh orang yang macam alim tetapi mereka ni sebenarnya korup untuk membuktikan teori pseudo Pelepak Jalan Telawi yang jelas-jelas hanya merupakan teori yang direka kerana otak sudah ditakluk nafsu. Penyelesaiannya tetap mengajar orang ramai agama dan tanamkan sifat taqwa. Memang la jalan ini lagi susah daripada jalan yang Pelepak Jalan Telawi cadangkan. What is wrong is still wrong, you don’t change it into something right just because it is an easy way out or just because it suites your whims.

Akhir sekali, inilah etika pergaulan dan batas pergaulan antara lelaki dan perempuan menurut Islam:-
1.Menundukkan pandangan:ALLAH memerintahkan kaum lelaki untukmenundukkan pandangannya, sebagaimana firman-NYA; Katakanlah kepada laki-laki yangberiman: Hendaklah mereka menahan pandangannya dan memelihara kemaluannya. (an-Nuur: 30)Sebagaimana hal ini juga diperintahkan kepadakaum wanita beriman, ALLAH berfirman; Dankatakanlah kepada wanita yangberiman: Hendaklah mereka menahan pandangannya dan memelihara kemaluannya. (an-Nuur: 31)

2.Menutup Aurat;ALLAH berfirman dan jangan lah mereka mennampakkan perhiasannya, kecuali yang biasa nampak daripadanya. Dan hendaklah mereka melabuhkan kain tudung ke dadanya. (an-Nuur: 31) Juga Firman-NYA; Hai nabi, katakanlah kepadaisteri-isterimu, anak-anak perempuanmu dan isteri-isteri orang mukmin: Hendaklah mereka melabuhkan jilbabnya ke seluruh tubuh mereka.Yang demikian itu supaya mereka lebih mudah dikenali, kerana itu mereka tidak diganggu. Dan ALLAH adalah Maha Pengampun lagi MahaPenyayang. (an-Nuur: 59). Perintah menutup aurat juga berlaku bagi semua jenis. Dari Abu Daud Said al-Khudri r.a. berkata:Rasulullah SAW bersabda: Janganlah seseorang lelaki memandang aurat lelaki, begitu juga dengan wanita jangan melihat aurat wanita.

3.Adanya pembatas antara lelakidengan wanita; Kalau ada sebuah keperluan terhadap kaum yang berbeza jenis, harus disampaikan dari balik tabir pembatas.Sebagaimana firman-NYA; Dan apabila kalian meminta sesuatu kepada mereka (para wanita) maka mintalah dari balik hijab. (al-Ahzaab: 53)

4.Tidak berdua-duaan Di Antara Lelaki Dan Perempuan; Dari Ibnu Abbas r.a. berkata: Saya mendengar Rasulullah SAW bersabda: Janganlah seorang lelaki berdua-duaan (khalwat) dengan wanita kecuali bersama mahramnya. (Hadis RiwayatBukhari & Muslim) Dari Jabir bin Samurah berkata; Rasulullah SAW bersabda: Janganlah salah seorang dari kalian berdua-duan dengan seorang wanita, kerana syaitan akan menjadi ketiganya. (Hadis RiwayatAhmad & Tirmidzi dengan sanad yang sahih)

5.Tidak Melunakkan Ucapan(Percakapan):Seorang wanita dilarang melunakkan ucapannya ketika berbicara selain kepada suaminya. Firman ALLAH SWT; Hai isteri-isteri Nabi, kamu sekalian tidaklah seperti wanita yang lain, jika kamu bertakwa. Maka janganlah kamu tunduk dalam berbicara (berkata-kata yang menggoda) sehingga berkeinginan orang yang ada penyakit di dalam hatinya tetapi ucapkanlah perkataan-perkataan yang baik. (al-Ahzaab: 32) Berkata Imam Ibnu Kathir; Ini adalah beberapa etika yang diperintahkan oleh ALLAH kepada paraisteri Rasulullah SAW serta kepada para wanita mukminah lainnya, iaitu hendaklah dia kalau berbicara dengan orang lain tanpa suara merdu,dalam pengertian janganlah seorang wanita berbicara dengan orang lain sebagaimana dia berbicara dengan suaminya. (Tafsir Ibnu Kathir 3/350)

6.Tidak Menyentuh Kaum Berlawanan Jenis;Dari Maqil bin Yasar r.a. berkata; Seandainya kepala seseorang ditusuk dengan jarum besi itu masih lebih baik daripada menyentuh kaum wanita yang tidak halal baginnya. (Hadis Hasan Riwayat Thabrani dalam Mujam Kabir)Berkata Syaikh al-Abani Rahimahullah; Dalam hadis ini terdapat ancaman keras terhadap orang-orang yang menyentuh wanita yang tidak halal baginya. (Ash-Shohihah 1/448) Rasulullah SAW tidak pernah menyentuh wanita meskipun dalam saat-saat penting seperti membaiat dan lain-lainnya. Dari Aishah berkata; Demi ALLAH,tangan Rasulullah tidak pernah menyentuh tangan wanita sama sekali meskipun saat membaiat.(Hadis Riwayat Bukhari)

Inilah sebahagian etika pergaulan lelaki dan wanita selain mahram, yang mana apabila seseorang melanggar semuanya atau sebahagiannya sajaakan menjadi dosa zina baginya, sebagaimana sabda Rasulullah SAW; Dari Abu Hurairah r.a. dari Rasulullah SAW bersabda: Sesungguhnya ALLAH menetapkan untuk anak adam bahagiannya dari zina, yang pasti akan mengenainya. Zina mata dengan memandang, zina lisan dengan berbicara, sedangkan jiwa berkeinginan serta berangan-angan, lalu farji yang akan membenarkan atau mendustakan semuanya. (Hadis Riwayat Bukhari,Muslim & Abu Daud)Padahal ALLAH SWT telah melarang perbuatan zina dan segala sesuatu yang boleh mendekati kepada perbuatan zina. Sebagaimana Firman-NYA; Dan janganlah kamu mendekati zina,sesungguhnya zina itu adalah suatu perbuatan yang keji dan jalan yang buruk. (al-Isra: 32)

Tidak perlu la kita mengikut Tafsir Jalan Telawi dalam hal ini…

[1] Aurat : Apa Sudah Jadi?, Ust Hj Zaharuddin Hj Abd Rahman

oleh Taufik

Have you ever played Super Mario before? If the answer is no, then do you have any idea what Super Mario is? This game was first released in 1985 and it is dubbed by a number of critics as one of the best games ever – it went on to sell over 40 million copies according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records. Super Mario is a scrolling platform game and it is the first in this genre to feature smooth-scrolling levels. Mr. Mario can only scroll or move either to the right or to the left of the screen. Oh yeah, I almost forget, he can jump too.

Let’s consider asking Mario to get out of the screen – moving sideways – in order to dodge King Koopa’s incoming hammer. I am sure you won’t find such move in neither the game’s manual nor in any cheat site. Well, even if you ask Mr. Mario personally, I am pretty sure he will reply to you with something like “You must be joking” or “Are you out of your mind?” Mr. Mario ‘lives’ in a two dimensional world in his entire life, so pardon him for being oblivious to the fact that he can actually dodge the hammer sideways instead of just jumping up and down. Luckily the advent of the 3D graphic accelerator has made modern game characters like Dr. Gordon Freeman (Half Life), Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell), and Dr. Malcolm Betruger (Doom) able to dodge incoming projectiles sideways. In other words, they are much more realistic due to the three dimensional game engine which resembles how we perceive our surrounding. But the question is: What is reality?

I am sorry if some readers are now at sea with what’s going on, as all these game terms and jargons can be quite confusing to the non-gamerz (spell-check off). I guess I will try to explain my idea with analogies from the real world, where everyone reading this article will be familiar with – providing that you are from earth. Consider the fact that some fishes use only two-dimensional vision instead of our usual three-dimensional vision. Scientists think that many fish find it more important to be able to look all around them for predators, than to accurately gage distance. For that reason their eyes’ visual areas do not overlap, but point to the left or right. Try telling a 2D vision fish that the shark he is seeing is actually 300 meters away, so he can chill for awhile before going ‘all ahead full.’ I bet the fish will say (if possible), “I am seeing a baby shark that is why it looks tiny, not because it is far away. I am sure that he is actually right in front of my nose. Well, I better be on the safe side. So, see ya.” Oh well, you get what I mean, right?

If the example above seems fuzzy, then let’s consider two-dimensional color vision instead of two-dimensional spatial vision. Firstly, do you know what color really means?

“If you watched a wildlife series with, say, the red light source of your television removed and you then came up with conclusions about colour variation in the natural world, would anyone believe you? Probably not, but then that is what we humans are doing every time we think we are seeing the colour world of non-human animals. Unlike other variables such as length, width, mass, or time of day, colour is not an inherent property of the object; it is a property of the nervous system of the animal perceiving the light.”[1]
Humans have trichromatic, or three-dimensional colour vision while most mammals other than old-world primates, have two-dimensional colour vision. Again, you will be having a tough time describing ‘red’ to a fish that cannot see red. Worse still, there are animal with 4 and 5-dimensional colour vision! Let’s picture this scenario: You just painted your house anew and your neighbor, Mr. Peacock made this remark, “Your newly painted house looks wonderful. You have a good color taste, my friend. I love Birublur very much!” You replied, “Pardon me, Blairblur?” Mr. Peacock replied back, “I mean Birublur; your house color, of course.” You replied back, “No, its not Birublur. It is Blue…” Then you had a long quarrel with Mr. Peacock about the ‘true’ color of your house. ‘Birublur’ is a (hypothetical) forth dimension color that only Mr. Peacock can see, while you, an ordinary human being, can only see three-dimensional color. That is why you thought that Mr. Peacock was out of his mind, but it is actually you who were naïve.

I must admit that I have been using pseudo (The 2D game) and fuzzy (fish anyone?) examples thus far. Before you loose interest with my random mumbling, I guess I should get serious now. Let’s talk about our universe’s forth-dimension, namely time. Let’s say that you are traveling at 10m/s north and I am traveling 20m/s. north too. I am some distance away directly behind of you. Therefore, the relative speed between us is 10m/s or in other words, I am catching you up at a speed of 10m/s right? Let’s say that light’s speed is 20m/s(this is not light’s true speed, it’s just a hypothetical case) and there is a photon of light some distance away directly behind of you. So light will catch you up at the speed of 10m/s just like I did right? Logical reasoning says yes, but the universe does not work that way. Light will catch you up at 20m/s. In fact, even if you are traveling at 20m/s, light will still catch you up at the speed of 20m/s (the nature of light is such that its speed is constant relative to you), so that makes light’s absolute speed 40m/s (20 + 20). However, a third person who is stationary will see the SAME photon of light that chases you as traveling at the speed of only 20m/s – remember that light’s speed is always constant relative to an observer. In other words, he sees that light as not catching you up but you are seeing the same light as catching you up. You may ask, so is that photon of light’s true speed 40m/s or 20m/s? The answer is both! Again, what is reality?

This peculiar nature of light does not makes sense to you, as your mind demands that everything in this universe has to be logical. I am sorry my friend, unfortunately, it is not our job to tell light and the universe what they should do or how they should behave. Let’s just say, Mother Nature has set those laws. Shall I say, God has set those laws and you have no part in deciding it? Einstein abandoned all the proven scientific laws and mathematical theorem such as Galilean Transformation and Euclidian Geometry – geometry that you have been leaning in high school and guess what, they are actually WRONG! They are only good approximations – instead he put his trust in Principle of Relativity, which is purely an assumption. In other words, he accepted that a photon of light’s speed can be 20m/s and 40m/s at the same time. Of course it turned out that he is actually right. It’s just that light’s true speed is 3×10^8m/s (blinding fast), which is why all the mind-bending predictions about space and time that Einstein made in Special and General Relativity are counterintuitive to us. What is actually science? What is intellect and logical reasoning?

To give you a more intuitive sense of what this particular nature of light may mean to you, let me give you an example. (This example is a modified version of an example in Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe) Let’s say that the leaders of Palestine and Israel are going to sign a peace treaty on a train. This train is a special one: It travel’s at relativistic speed (near the speed of light), and its carriages are all transparent so that people from outside can see what is happening inside. To add a bit of a twist to this anecdote, let’s say that this state-of-the-art train is engineered by an Israeli. Thousands of Palestinian and Israelis are waiting at a train station which is situated at the border of the two countries, as the treaty is scheduled to be made when the train passes that station. Let’s forget about the impossibility of the human eye to focus on something that moves near the speed of light. There is a long table in the train and there is a light bulb in the middle of the table. The Israeli president sits at one end of the table with his back facing the front of the train and the Palestinian president sits on the other end where his face is facing the front of the train. The rule is like this: The carriage will be made pitch dark. When the light bulb in the middle of the train is switched on, both leaders will sign the treaty. This is to make sure that they sign it at the exact same time (again forget about human’s reaction time). There is also a third person in the train to verify that the treaty is signed together and nobody cheats.

Now, the train is passing the designated station and the light bulb switches on. Both leaders play by the rule and they sign the treaty together, as confirmed by the third person. So we are on a verge of a new peaceful era in the Middle East, right? Shockingly, fighting starts between the Israelis and the Palestinians who are at the train station after the treaty was signed. Shall I say kudos to the Israeli engineer who designed this train? People from the platform claim that the Palestinian leader cheated: They say he signed the treaty first. Mind you that this is not some twist of the truth – this is the reality. People from outside of the train will indeed see that the Palestinian leader signed the treaty first, but the three people inside the train will claim that they agreed that nobody cheats. I can hear you say, “How could that be? This is a single event; therefore there can’t be two truths about it.” I don’t want to bore you with the technicalities here, but to cut long story short: It is because time is relative and a SINGLE event is not the same for different observers in different frames. So, do you understand what is time? When I say time, I am not talking about the watch that you are wearing on your wrist or even just the feeling of the passing of time. I am talking about all the events that had happened, are happening, and will happen in your life and the nature of this world that YOU THINK you understand. I am talking about the peculiar 4^th dimension of our universe that we cannot comprehend but it is true. If you can recall back, we are just like Mr. Mario here – unaware about the upper dimension that actually exists.

You may wonder, what am I trying to say after all these random points? Simply put: Realize that your intellect is actually limited! It bothers me that some people think that they can reason out everything in this world logically; even stuff in the realm of the infinite. Actually these people who think that their intellect has no boundaries are only Marios: Limited by their platform’s sluggish 16-bit processor and wanting for a 3D accelerator upgrade. I hope you don’t get segmentation fault when you try to jump out of the screen next time around – bad programming practice!

p/s: Video game is a waste of time.

[1] Exploring the Forth Dimension, Ecology of Vision, Biological Sciences, University of Bristol 2002.