Moment to Reflect ( Pt 9 ) : He fashions – Al Musawwir

This afternoon I received from my No1 the following e-mail with two pictures attached.  

I think what she wrote, one of the picture and my reply to her, could, to my mind, be shared with my blog readers. It is appropriate that this being the holy month of Ramadhan.

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 Dear Babah,

Just to share a tomato with kalimah. We were preparing for berbuka yesterday and discovered this while cutting the tomatoes.  Nothing earth shattering but interesting enough

                                                                 Sliced tomato

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Pakcik’s reply,

Dear Enon,

It is us, humans who don’t care to or are simply unable to detect the signs of His presence.  Let us look it this way; we put our signatures on our documents as much as artists signing their master-pieces. I even put my signatures on books I buy simply to claim ownership of the books which I have no part in writing.

Naturally HIS signs are on all things, because he is the Absolute Architect, the Designer, the Al Khalik , AlMusawwir. But HE does not need to claim ownership because HE owns it all.

You have been feeding your children with salads, and tomatoes are almost a must, believing in the goodness of these vegetables. I am sure you have been cutting and slicing them the same way. But yesterday something clicked. ALLAH. The word has been there all the while but this was the first time it struck you. Yes, perhaps, He wants you to know that we all should think of the Architect and Designer, not just the food values of HIS work.

You may take it as a reward, a special gift ( in line with Lailatul Kadr that WE ALL PRAY FOR ) or as a gentle reminder that we all should be more conscious of His presence as a matter of routine, not just as and when.

May He bless us all in the family.

Love,

Babah & Mami

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Perhaps if I MAY add here what I understand from the last sentence of Surah Alhasyr ( 59 ) – Ayat ( 24):

 

Muhammad Zafrullah Khan gives the following understanding of the beginning of this ayat:

“ He is Allah, the Crreator, the Maker, the Fashioner; His are the most beautiful names. All that is in heavens and the earth glorifies Him. He is the Mighty, the Wise. “

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Moment to Reflect ( Pt 9 ) – Leopold Weiss and the Quran

Just over twenty years ago ( Feb 20^th, 1992 ) died an extraordinary person who accepted Islam and whose translation of AlQuran has been a major book of reference to many. In 1900 Muhammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss, the son of a Jewish barrister and grandson of an orthodox rabbi. He was a confidant of many major Muslim figures of the century including King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. He was given the citizenship of Pakistan for his contributions to that country. But this great Islamic thinker chose to die in near obscurity in a small coastal town of Spain, about 500 years after the expulsion of the Muslim Moors and the Jews from Spain.

Three months after his death ( may Allah bless his soul for all his contributions to Islam) I bought the book ,The Road to Mecca, a book I dearly keep ,written by a man I greatly admire.

One very fascinating aspect which triggered his acceptance of Islam was the way he discerned the words of Quran expressed in the faces of distinguished looking people traveling in the Berlin subway. In brief I will take excerpts from that book.

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In Sept 1926 traveling with his wife, Elsa, in the Berlin subway Leopold Weiss’s “eyes fell on a well-dressed man with a beautiful brief-case on his knee and a large diamond ring on his finger,” representing “the picture of prosperity which one encountered everywhere in Central Europe”. But the man’s face did not seem to be “a happy face. He appeared to be worried.”

Leopold Weiss turned away from looking at the man and saw “ a lady of some elegance. She also had a strangely unhappy expression on her face, as if contemplating or experiencing something that caused her pain: nevertheless, her mouth was fixed in the stiff semblance of a smile which, I was certain, must have been habitual”, said Leopold Weiss.

Looking around he could see faces in every one of which he “could discern an expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the owner of the face seemed to be quite unaware of.”

He mentioned to his wife the impression he saw in those faces. “She too began to look around her with the careful eyes of a painter accustomed to study human features.” His wife concurred.

When he returned home he happened to glance on the copy of an open Quran lying on his desk. On picking it up to put it away, “and just as I was about to close it, my eyes fell on the page before me and I read:

Surah 102 : Verses 1 - 8

‘You are obsessed by greed for more and more

Until you go down to your graves.

Nay, but you will come to know!

Nay, but you will come to know!

Nay, if you but knew it will be the knowledge of certainty,

You would indeed see the hell you are in.

In time, indeed, you shall see it with the eye of certainty:

And on that Day you will be asked what you have done with

The boon of life’ ”

( Surah 102: verses 1-8)

He went on to say, “ For that moment I was speechless. I think the book shook in my hands. Then I handed it to Elsa. ‘Read this. Is it not an answer to what we saw in the subway?’ ”

To Leopold Weiss “it was an answer: an answer so decisive that all doubt was suddenly at an end. I knew, beyond doubt, that it was a God-inspired book I was holding in my hand.” He accepted Islam and became Muhammad Asad.

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19 years ago

To this great human being, AlQuran was what the Book should be, an absolute book of guidance.

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Semoga renungan kita menghasilkan satu titik bermulanya satu perjuangan.

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Moment to Reflect ( Pt 8 ) - Whether Alive or Dead - SAW

We have gone more than half way through the month of Rabiul Awwal. Mawlidul Rasul has been much talked about and discussed. Today I pick up one of my treasured books, The Life of Muhammad by Muhammad Husein Haykal.

By Muhammad Husein Haykal

The page immediately inside the front cover bears my signature and the date the book was purchased, KL 14/2/95, making it 17 years ago today, KT 14/2/12.

Purchased in KL on 14-2.1995

As I flip through the book and I reach Chapter 31 (page 504), The Prophet’s Burial. On the second page of this chapter I had some notes scribbled in pencil. Reading that I can barely hold back my tears. The scene was that of a total chaos, women crying near hysterical and others shocked and stupefied.

Umar, on hearing the sad news went straight to Muhammad’s bed, uncovered him and looked at his face for a while. He perceived its motionless and deathlike appearance as a coma from which he believed Muhammad would soon emerge. He found it hard to accept the truth of a great man he had so admired and worked for. So at the mosque he was proclaiming at the top of his voice, “Some hypocrites are pretending that the Prophet of God – May God’s peace and blessing be upon him – has died. By God I swear that he did not die ……. By God, the Prophet of God will return ……. Any man who dares to perpetrate a false rumour such as Muhammad’s death shall have his arms and legs cut off by this hand.”

Abu Bakr hearing the same news returned and noticed Umar addressing the crowd. He did not stop to listen to Umar but went straight to Muhammad’s body, uncovered his face and kissed it, saying, “How wholesome you are, whether alive or dead!” He then held the Prophet’s head in his hand and looked closely at the face which showed no sign whatever of death’s attack. Laying it down again, he said, “What would I not have sacrificed for you! …..”- such devotion.

Abu Bakr then returned to the mosque. Aproaching close to Umar he said, “Softly, O Umar! Keep silent!” He then went to address the crowd. After praising and thanking God, Abu Bakr delivered a brief address. “ O men, if you have been worshiping Muhammad, then know that Muhammad is dead. But if you have been worshiping God, then know that God is living and never dies." He then recited the following Quranic verse ( among the verses most dear toPakcik) :

Part of verse 144 - surah Al Imran

I have written above only the first half of the verse 144 from Surah Al Imran. Muhammad Asad gave us the following interpretation:

“ And Muhammad is only an apostle; all the (other) apostles have passed away before him; if, then, he dies or is slain, will you turn about on your heels? ….” He completed the other half of the verse.

Abubakr’s short speech, particularly the verse, worked like magic. The crowd listened to the verse as if they had never heard it before, now fully understood the stark truth. So that was that. The inevitable had to be accepted.

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So what does that scene above tell us?

Hadn't the great Prophet done enough ?

Do we simply keep on celebrating his maulid, without giving a thought what his life stood for?

And shouldn't we spare a moment to reflect over what the greatest man on earth had done for mankind?

“ What would I not have sacrificed for you! …..” ? - Abu Bakr's lament.

Have we nothing at all to sacrifice, in our own separate little way, in honour of what he did for mankind?

Sall Allah alaihi wasallam.

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