Master Oogway's School

(Malay version below. Disclaimer: the Malay version is not a translation and I did not intend it to be so. Both languages have a different mode of thinking and different ways of conveying, and it is the meaning that I intend to convey, not the exact words)

Yesterday I had the good fortune of visiting my university for the first time. The first time I heard about it was, I think, during my undergraduate days. We had an Islamic Society dinner and some guys from SOAS were there as well.

I looked it up later and was quite intrigued. There's just something about the word 'oriental' that adds mystique to any word paired with it. Like how 'Oriental cuisine' conjures up an image of steaming tom yum made with a hundred different spices served in a 14th century Ming dynasty porcelain bowl (with dragons on the bowl, of course). Or how 'Oriental wisdom' brings to mind Master Oogway from Kungfu Panda. 

Anyways, why did I choose to come here? You know, people try to rationalise a lot of their decisions as if they came about as a result of deliberate thought when actually, it was just a 'wow' or 'let's do it!' moment. I may spin stories about how my fridge is value-for-money, energy efficient, bla bla bla, while the actual 'wow' was the cool metallic silver exterior that made it look like it could be an Autobot in secret. And only then do we find good reasons to justify buying an Autobot.

I guess it was the same with this university. School of Oriental and African Studies brings to mind the kind of school that Indiana Jones would have gone to before embarking on his quest to find oriental and african treasures. It brings to mind professors speaking 10 different Asian languages and wearing kain pelikat (jokes aside, there is a Russian professor at this institution whose specialization is medieval Malay manuscripts. He can read old Jawi, which makes him more literate than 99.9% of Malaysians!)

And the good reasons kept coming in. Their page in Wikipedia had this bit of history: 'The school immediately became integral in training British administrators, colonial officials and spies for overseas postings across the British Empire.' Cool. Any school that trained an army of James Bonds gets my vote. And apparently Pendeta Zaaba and Syed Naquib al-Attas studied here too, so I hope real Oogways here could impart just a tiny bit of that wisdom to this unripe soul.

***

Sekolah Master Oogway

Semalam saya bertuah dapat melihat universiti saya buat kali pertama. Saya mula-mula dengar nama U ini masa zaman mahasiswa; ada makan malam Islamic Society dan adalah beberapa orang dari SOAS yang makan sekali.

Kemudian saya kaji sedikit tentang tempat ini. Saya tertarik. 'Oriental & african' membayangkan orang-orang seperti Snouck Hurgronje, orientalis yang belajar bahasa orang kita, benar-benar masuk dalam budaya kita untuk mengambil hati dan mengubah cara fikir kita. 'Oriental' memberi bayangan sekumpulan pendeta ala-ala Master Oogway dalam Kungfu Panda, memberi kata-kata hikmah dan pedoman.

Kenapa saya memilih untuk datang sini? Kita selalu memberi alasan panjang lebar untuk mewajarkan tindakan kita, padahal yang sebenarnya kita hanya ikut rasa hati. Contoh: peti sejuk saya memang jimat tenaga dan sangat tebat haba. Tapi saya cenderung nak beli mula-mula dulu sebab warnanya 'metallic' seperti seekor Transformers. Bila mahu ada seribu jalan, bila tak mahu ada seribu alasan. Betul sangat kata-kata tu.

Samalah halnya dengan memilih universiti. School of Oriental and African Studies bunyinya macam sekolah yang melatih Indiana Jones sebelum beliau mengembara mencari harta karun. Bunyinya seperti ada Profesor yang reti bertutur bahasa-bahasa nusantara dan memakai kain pelikat (ada seorang Profesor Rusia di universiti ini, bidang pengkhususannya ialah manuskrip melayu lama. Perghh! Jangankan Jawi lama, Jawi masa SPM pun kita merangkak-rangkak).

Hati saya udah terpaut. Kemudian saya buat lagi pembacaan, apa lagi alasan-alasan baik untuk saya datang ke sini. Dalam wikipedia tertulis sejarahnya secara ringkas: 'Sekolah ini menjadi sangat penting (semasa zaman penjajahan) dalam melatih pegawai-pegawai kerajaan British, pegawai kolonial dan para mata-mata' (saya bukan SB tuan-tuan).

Kalau sekolah ini boleh melatih mata-mata sehingga fasih bahasa & budaya tempatan, saya nak tahu apa rahsia pendidikan tempat ini sehingga begitu ramai orang berkebolehan yang keluar darinya. Ilmuan Islam yang hebat seperti Pendeta Zaaba dan Syed Naquib al-Attas pun pernah belajar di sini, jadi saya rasa ini satu tempat yang baik untuk membuka minda yang kecil ini.

23 on 23

23rd march 2009. My last birthday in the 'black hole', before Allah broke my chains and set me free from the enveloping darkness, pain and nothingness.

now 5 years have passed and i am 23.

A lot can happen in 5 years.

you can come to realise that the world you once knew,
is nothing but an illusion, trapping all souls but a few.
you can lose a close friend, whose time was up and due. Only twenty-four, but touched more hearts than a man who's fourty-two.

others, you also lose, but not to an earthy mound.
this dunya took them and shook them, till their hearts flipped
and turned around
leaving behind no word or sound.

but don't be disheartened,
there are others on this road,
whose hearts never waver
while they shoulder crushing loads

they are chosen by the Master
heroes coming to your aid
they're not unblemished angels
but they will always keep you straight.

************

let's try to make the best of our short lives. abu hurairah lived with the prophet less than 5 years, but he used his abilities to the maximum and narrated more hadeeth than everyone else.

thank you for all the wishes and du'as.

maybe this will be my last birthday as a (fill in the blank). maybe, just maybe.

It's all good, even when its not

The train arrived at the platform. An electronic board gave its destination: Klang.

"Nice, the one after this must be heading to seremban"

Then the next one came. There's something about these new trains, maybe its the air conditioning, maybe its the comfortable seats, or maybe its the (now reduced) political propaganda, they just make you want to doze off the moment you sit down.

Im too embarrassed to set off a wake-up alarm in the train, so i hold on to a simple philosophy: allah will wake you up when its time.

As soon as i woke up,i went out to see...that i had arrived in batu tiga. (My actual train was supposed to go to serdang, but arriving in batu tiga meant that i took the train to port klang instead. So i had to ride a train back to KL and take another train heading to serdang)

Husnuszhan (making good assumptions) about why that happened:

- there was a serial killer weaving a butcher's knife in the actual train, so i was spared his madness.

- a man forgot to wear deodorant on the actual train, and i was spared his, err, lack of fragrance.

- my rizq (provisions) of food for the day happened to be in Kl sentral

Nevertheless, i now know how to blog on the train.yay! So everything really is good for the believer.

The Secret.

The most random (read : brilliantly destined) things seem to be the topics of this blog over the past few post.

Today my immediate boss sent an email titled 'I know you can' (as in, i know you can do it). And in the email there was no text, just an attachment labelled 'Attributes of a supervisor'.

Thank you, mr. J. I appreciate the encouragement *grin*.

The attributes are :

Attribute of supervisor

·         Achievement oriented

·         Strong sense of commitment

·         Perseverance

·         Good communication skills (oral and written)

·         Good analytical skills

·         Good understanding of applicable laws, rules and regulations

·         Proactive

·         Good knowledge in insurance operations and practices

·         Well informed on latest developments in Insurance

·         General knowledge in IT and ability to use basic IT applications

·         Matured and able to make constructive and appropriate judgement

·         Focused mindset

·         Objective and transparent

·         Strong sense of accountability

·         Value-add to auditees

·         Ability to adapt to changing environment

·         Concern for order

·         Problem solving skills

·         Decision making skills

·         Diligence

·         Courteous, tactful but firm

·         Not arrogant nor too demanding

·         Maintain secrecy at all times

·         Avoid situations of conflict of interest

·         Maintain good working relationships

·         Teamwork and cooperation

 Behaviour of supervisor

·         Observe code of conduct:

–         Dignity

–         Personal honour

–         Honesty

–         Integrity

–         Punctual

·         Approachable

·         Focused and cool

·         Avoids arguments

·         Always offer suggestions for improvement

·         Value add to auditee - give reasons why and ways to improve 

If every supervisor had these attributes, then i think that all women would want to marry supervisors. Just think about it. 'Avoids arguments', 'maintain secrecy at all times', 'not arrogant nor too demanding'.

See what i mean?

Anyways, the first thought that went through my mind while reading this was 

'Well, if you're a good da'ie (caller) you'll be a good supervisor".

No, that's not quite precise.

'If you're a good da'ie you'll be a good EVERYTHING'. =DDDDDDD

Good communication skills. This is an obvious trait that you'll build, if you spend half your time trying to 'fish' people out of their mudholes out into the light.

Honesty. In the 'house of brothers' (crude translation of Rumah Ikhwah) that i stayed in previously, there were bottles and bottles full of coins. Why? Because there were lots of spare coins lying around the house, but no one dared to pick them up for personal use. 

See what i mean?

When you're a good da'ie with a solid foundation of iman and rigorous education that perfects your character, you'll be even better than superman (because du'at wear modest clothing, definitely no undergarments on the outside).

When asked about the most important thing going into the 'working phase', a senior of mine didn't tell us to get good qualifications, or satisfy bosses, or save lots of money. He said

"Take care of your da'wah and tarbiyah. Then other things will fall into place. If you chase after other things hoping to become 'stable' before you start D&T, you will never be stable".

How true, how true.

and the life of this world is nothing but deceptive pleasures.

out of thin air

It is true what Allah said in the quran;

وَفِي السَّمَاءِ رِزْقُكُمْ وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ
And in the heaven is your provision, and that which you are promised. (Az-Dzariyat : 22)


Our food, our clothes, our laptops, all our provisions, they don't come from our own work and our own hands. They come from the provider of rizq, Allah SWT, who is also called by Ar-Razzaq (The Provider). But sometimes we get more than what we need. Allah is also al-Wahhab, the Giver of Gifts.

But our provisions are not likely to come like this:

That is the beauty of Allah. He is also al-Lateef, the Subtle, and sometimes He gives you blessings from sources that you could never imagine.

Today i was given something that seemed to have come out from thin air.

It started from last week. At our local mosque, there is a young Somali brother. The most i've ever said to him was 'salam' or 'how are you brother'. Then last Thursday he asked me if the glasses i wore were the only glasses i have. 

i said 'yes' 

and he said 'ok, i have a few pairs, in this country you're lucky, you can go to an optician with the frames and put some presciptions on them. you know, we as muslims we have to take care of one another. I have to go to Switzerland tomorrow, i'll be back this tuesday so i'll see you then insyaallah.'

And he went off in a hurry before you could say 'banana peel'.

So came tuesday (today), and i totally forgot about it. But after 'Asr prayers, this young man came to me

"i believe we had an appoinment"

and he gave me a case. Inside was a brand new pair of glasses. 

I was overwhelmed, and didn't know what to say. "its okay brother, take it. in islam we are brothers and we have to take care of each other's needs". This was a man i had only talked to once or twice. But the purity of his heart was worth more than a million words, and it was as if we had known each other for a lifetime.

Provisions can come from anywhere. The glasses were awesome, yes, but the gift of 'seeing' how small deeds could have big impacts, that is even more awesome.

on the queens of our hearts :)

on sweet and simple..roasted lamb??

Last week we had an aqiqah at MeWah (malay shortform for Muslim Welfare House), which is the neighbourhood mosque that we usually pray in.

Aqiqah - sacrifice of an animal on a child's birth

Of course, the lamb was already sacrificed and finger lickin' good.

people serving the food

the aqiqah meal: huge chunks of lamb. in the background is a mysterious square-faced man, identity  protected for fear of mobbing

Okay, minus the delicious fruit salad, nasi minyak, herbs and lamb cooked to tender perfection, i actually want to talk about how economical and efficient the whole gathering was.

Eventhough there are a lot of big mosques, mosques that look like umbrellas, mosques that have too many domes and mosques that are divided into green or blue, i still love Mewah the most, because it serves the community well and the mosque is actually full once a day during Maghrib. Once they held a family day there, and there's an adjoining school, and next to the mosque is a small bookshop. Now i hear they want to install signal jammers so mobile phones don't keep ringing. Cool.

Back to the aqiqah. Right after asr prayers a man asked us to go to the hall upstairs for some food. The malaysian ear is finely tuned to such things (rezeki jangan ditolak, bala jangan dicari!), so we went. There was food and apple juice and orange juice, and when our plates looked empty a man even offered to add some more lamb. :-D munch munch munch munch, the whole event was over in just over 30 minutes, and the place was all cleared up.

That's right, 30 minutes. no need for tents, marhaban troupes or kompang. sweet and simple.

i like this mode of doing things, as it gets things done quickly and you don't take too much of other people's time. And everything is inexcessive. I think this is closer to what Islam teaches, and moderation is becoming harder to find in a modern, 'islamic' country like malaysia truly asia.

Oh, in our euphoria at finding free food, we even neglected to ask whose aqiqah it was.

sangat melayu. -.-