Alhamdulillah, dengan izin Allah SWT saya telah selamat sampai di rumah yang terletak di kajang pada jam 7:15AM tadi. Segala puji dan syukur hanyalah milik Allah SWT. Pengalaman semalam sangat bererti buat diri ini. Mungkin ini Ramadhan terakhir saya, mungkin bukan, mungkin juga yang terakhir sebagai...aha, nanti kita sambung.

Suka saya hendak berkongsi sedikit sebanyak perjalanan yang dilalui semalam.



Perjalanan semalam dimulai dengan pembaikpulihan motor ataupun kuda perang putih saya, Honda Wave 125S. Kuda yang amat setia walaupun telah beberapa kali tercedera dalam medan perjuangan, sama ada saya yang menunggangnya ataupun ikhwah lain yang menunggangnya. Minyak hitam dan spoket yang telah haus diganti baru.

Lalu pulang ke UTP untuk mempersiapkan diri, bilik dikemas sebaik-baiknya untuk ditinggalkan buat masa lebih seminggu. Rasanya inilah keadaan bilik saya paling kemas sepanjang praktikal ini. Maklumlah, kehidupan sebagai pelajar praktikal teramatlah menyibukkan. (iye ke umair..hurm..)

Sila abaikan kawasan yang tidak terlihat

Jam 7:10PM saya dan Akh Khozafi bertolak ke rumah Akhi Zikri di Taman Maju. Kami iftar bersama buat kali terakhirnya dalam Ramadhan ini. Iftar turut disertai adik Amirul. Kerana tersalah beli tiket, basnya ke Johor akan bergerak pada jam 10:00PM malam ini, sedangkan kawan-kawannya telahpun pulang semalam lagi setelah habis Final Exam. Kenapa saya dan Akh Khozafi masih di sini? Kerana kami dan beberapa orang ikhwah baru sahaja menghabiskan program iktikaf bersama-sama di sepanjang 10 malam terakhir Ramadhan pada 9 Ramadhan @ 7 September.

Ceria bersama ikhwah-ikhwah tercinta

Bergantian, adik Amirul bergambar, saya pula yang menangkap

Setelah solat Jamak Qasar Maghrib dan Isyak, saya menghantar Akh Khozafi ke perhentian bas, lalu bermulalah perjalanan sebenar yang panjang.

Persiapan di Stesen Minyak Petronas UTP

Bacaan meter sebelum memasuki lebuh raya

Kebanggaan UTP di lebuh raya

Perhentian 1 : Tapah

Gambar agar kabur, belum tukar mode

Surau R&R Tapah : Menghabiskan bacaan muka surat 542-549

Perhentian 2 : Behrang

Tiada kawasan kedai di Behrang, cuma tandas awam dan pondok solat

Pondok Solat Behrang : Menghabiskan bacaan daripada muka surat 550-557

Perhentian 3 : Lupa pula nama perhentian ni

Surau Perhentian : Menghabiskan bacaan daripada muka surat 558-565

Perhentian 4 : Restoran Jejantas Sg. Buloh Arah Selatan

Surau R&R Restoran Jejantas Sg. Buloh : Menghabiskan bacaan daripada muka surat 566-573

Perhentian 5 : Masjid Negara

Masjid Negara : Menghabiskan bacaan daripada muka surat 574-581 (Tamat Juz 29)

Perhentian Akhir : Masjid Jamek Kajang

Masjid Jamek Kajang : Menghabiskan bacaan Juz 30 (Khatam Al-Quran)

Adik tercinta, Usaid sedang beriktikaf buat kali terakhir. Dia menunggu saya di sana kerana terbaca blog saya. (Sebenarnya saya belum umumkan kepada semua tentang rencana berkendara di malam hari ini. Hanya mereka yang membaca blog saya yang mengetahui. Jazakumullah Khair kepada ikhwah-ikhwah yang mendoakan keselamatan saya sepanjang perjalanan.)

Alhamdulillah selepas subuh saya pulang ke rumah tercinta di Taman Mesra.

Begitulah pengalaman-pengalaman berharga semasa menunggang di bawah langit malam terakhir ramadhan. Alhamdulillah segalanya berjalan lancar, Al-Quran dikhatamkan, Qiamullail disempurnakan, setiap malam terakhir saya adalah di Rumah-Rumah Allah. Alhamdulillah.

Semoga setiap daripada kita berjaya meraih sebanyak-banyaknya kebaikan serta manfaat dalam bulan yang mulia ini. Tinggal beberapa detik sahaja lagi sebelum ia meninggalkan kita. 

Dengan ini saya memohon ampun dan maaf daripada semua terutamanya yang banyak berurusan dengan saya. Yang saya marah, yang saya bangkang, yang saya sakiti hatinya, maaf, maaf, dan maaf dipinta. Doakan agar segala amal kita diterima dan diredhai. Semoga kita semua keluar menjadi insan yang lebih berjaya, dunia dan akhirat. Insya-Allah.

Apabila tibanya Aidilfitri

Jangan dilupa Ramadhan yang ditinggali

Semoga perbaikan berlaku dalam diri

Agar hidup lebih diberkati

Ilalliqo' Ya Ramadhan. Ahlan Wa Sahlan Ya Syawal.

-umairzulkefli-

Rumahku Syurgaku

Taman Mesra, Kajang5:40PM

9th Sept 2010

~End Of Post~

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Francis Collins has become an interesting figure for debates over science & religion. He is an outspoken Evangelical christian as well as the director of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), and his professional credentials are impeccable. After leading the Human Genome Project, he went on to write a book The Language of God. When Obama appointed him as the director of NIH, many questioned this choice - since Collins believes in at least some (past) religious miracles, and questioned if he should be in one of the most prominent posts for American science. I think this was a good choice purely from a professional view point. Now there is an interesting article about Francis Collins in last week's New Yorker. Apart from talking about the controversy over Collins' appointment and his journey to Christianity, the article also does a nice job of addressing the recent stem-cells ruling that has halted federal funding for embryonic stem-cells research. Hopefully, this ruling will get reversed, but the Congress may have to step in for this one. Here are some bits from the article about the reaction to Collins' appointment and about his upbringing:

When the geneticist Francis Collins was named director of the National Institutes of Health, last summer, he became the public face of American science and the keeper of the world’s deepest biomedical-research-funding purse. He was praised by President Obama and waved through the Senate confirmation process without objection. There also came a peer review of a sort that he’d never experienced, conducted in the press and in Internet science forums. Collins read in the Times that many of his colleagues in the scientific community believed that he suffered from “dementia.” Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, questioned the appointment on the ground that Collins was “an advocate of profoundly anti-scientific beliefs.” P. Z. Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris, complained, “I don’t want American science to be represented by a clown.”

Collins’s detractors did not question his professional achievements, which long ago secured his place in the first rank of international scientists. As a young researcher at Yale, Collins conceived a method of hastening the laborious process of hunting disease-causing genes by skipping across long stretches of chromosomes until the suspect gene’s neighborhood was located. As an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, in the nineteen-eighties, he and collaborators at the University of Toronto employed this method to find the gene that causes cystic fibrosis and, a year later, the genetic flaw responsible for neurofibromatosis. These breakthroughs brought him fame and, eventually, the job of director of the Human Genome Project, which promised to revolutionize medicine by identifying and mapping all the approximately twenty thousand human genes that code for protein.

... 

President Obama’s choice of Collins for the N.I.H. touched a nerve. The George W. Bush era had been an extraordinarily fractious time in public science, beginning with Bush’s first prime-time address to the nation, in which he announced restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research. That move, and others that followed, convinced Bush’s critics that the religious right had become the final arbiter of public policy, an impression that Bush seemed little inclined to dispel. “Well, we thought we’d seen the last of the theocracy of George W. Bush, but it apparently ain’t so,” Dr. Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago professor, wrote when Collins was appointed. “I am funded by the N.I.H., and I’m worried. Not about my own funding (although I’m a heathen cultural Jew), but about how this will affect things like stem-cell research and its funding.” 

A year later, Obama’s appointment of Collins seemed an inspired choice. The President had found not only a man who reflected his own view of the harmony between science and faith but an evangelical Christian who hoped that the government’s expansion of embryonic-stem-cell research might bring the culture war over science to a quiet end. On August 23rd, however, Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, halted federal spending for embryonic-stem-cell research, putting hundreds of research projects in limbo and plunging the N.I.H. back into a newly contentious national debate. 

At the N.I.H., the ability to deal with controversies, as a generation of Collins’s predecessors learned, matters at least as much as credentials; political combat comes with the job. Collins does not seem a likely combatant. His physical aspect—gray mustache and hair (cut in an early-Beatles mop top), thin-rimmed eyeglasses, and a distinct pallor—suggests a man best acquainted with a sunless existence in some laboratory. Yet, in a relatively colorless town, Collins has come to be known as something of a character, a model of geek cool. He likes big, noisy motorcycles, and, despite a mild manner, he is famously unself-conscious. At the unlikeliest moments, he will strap on a guitar and accompany himself in song, often a tune he has composed for the occasion.

Okay - I knew about his motorcycle, but not about his singing. But he has a quite an interesting background:

The man who holds the most powerful job in American science came from an unusual background. During the Depression, Collins’s parents, Fletcher and Margaret Collins, became part of a short-lived West Virginia project—sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt, and with financial help from Bernard Baruch—that attempted to create an ideal community for a group of impoverished miners near Morgantown.

Fletcher was the project’s music director, with the mission of helping the homesteaders recover their cultural heritage. He had a gift for coaxing from the mountain people the nearly forgotten old fiddle tunes, folk songs, and square-dance calls that had been, he wrote, “very much in their blood,” but “layered over by coal dust.”

After the war, the Collinses bought a ninety-four-acre farm in the Shenandoah Valley, near Staunton, Virginia, determined to derive a livelihood from the land without modern agricultural machinery. They kept chickens, sheep, cows, and two workhorses, who pulled the plow and old wagon that carried the harvest from the hilly fields to the barn. The four Collins children, all boys, served as farmhands, collecting eggs, milking the cows, and shucking corn. When the alfalfa needed to be mowed and baled, amused neighbors would stop by with their tractors and help out. Once a week, the family drove into Staunton, where Margaret’s parents lived, and the boys had a bath; in the summertime, they bathed in the cow trough. After a few years, Fletcher took a position as drama instructor at the local women’s college, Mary Baldwin (“My cash crop,” he’d say), but the family was relatively poor. The younger boys wore their brothers’ hand-me-downs, and by the time the clothes reached Francis, the youngest, they were threadbare.

The Collinses’ household, known as Pennyroyal Farm, became the center of a vibrant arts community in Staunton. (It’s still thriving.) “Musicians would come and crash there for a couple of weeks because they’d run out of money,” Collins recalls. “They’d play great music, and then finally they’d move on.” Bob Dylan was among those who came to Pennyroyal. “Margaret and Fletcher were sort of hippies before there were hippies,” the singer Linda Williams recalls. “They were back-to-the-landers, and saw things the way people did in the seventies, only they’d done it in the thirties.”

For Francis, it was an enchanting, if arduous, childhood, part Boys’ Life and part Woodstock. He could set a barn door and knew how to predict weather by reading the sky over the distant Alleghenies. He did not see the inside of a schoolroom until sixth grade, because Margaret taught her boys at home. “There was no schedule,” Francis recalls. “The idea of Mother having a lesson plan would be just completely laughable. But she would get us excited about trying to learn about a topic that we didn’t know much about. And she would pose a question and basically charge you with it, using whatever resources you had—your mind, exploring nature, reading books—to try to figure out, well, what could you learn about that? And you’d keep at it until it just got tiresome. And then she’d always be ready for the next thing.”

Read the full article here. 

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Malam ini saya akan bertolak pulang ke rumah.
Saya akan iftar di rumah Akhi Zikri di Taman Maju. Berukhuwah buat kali terakhirnya buat ramadhan ini. Turut bersama Akhi Khozafi. Basnya ke kelantan akan bertolak jam 8 malam dari perhentian bas Seri Iskandar.

Soalnya malam ini malam terakhir ramadhan. Jadi saya merancang untuk memaknakan malam terakhir ini dengan melakukan sesuatu yang sedikit berlainan.

Saya akan pulang ke rumah yang terletak di Kajang, kira-kira 237 kilometer daripada Universiti Teknologi Petronas yang tercinta. Dan saya akan pulang dengan motor. Barang-barang yang perlu dibawa pulang telahpun diserahkan kepada Akhi Zainul Ariffin yang pulang dengan kereta Satria Walabinya. Jadi motor itu hanya perlu menanggung beban penunggangnya dan beg galasnya.

Bagaimana saya ingin memaknai perjalanan ini?

1. Ini adalah malam yang terakhir jadi saya mahu seluruh perjalanan saya berada di bawah langit sambil mentadabburi malam yang terbentang luas. Semoga ia akan membuahkan pengalaman yang berharga buat saya bawa dalam bulan-bulan seterusnya.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Target saya untuk 10 hari terakhir ini adalah untuk mengkhatamkan Al-Quran. Saya bermula dengan menamatkan bacaan pada malam ke-21 Ramadhan kelmarin bersamaan 1.20AM 31 Ogos 2010. Bermula dari saat itu saya cuba mengekalkan bacaan sebanyak 3 juz sehari. Alhamdulillah, dengan izin Allah SWT sekarang saya sudah habis 27 juz. Jadi malam ini saya akan mulakan juz yang ke 28 dalam perjalanan. Bagaimana?

• Saya akan berhenti di 5 setiap perhentian yang bakal saya lalui.
• Solat Sunat Tarawih akan dilaksanakan sebanyak 2 rakaat di setiap perhentian.
• Saya akan membaca sebanyak 4 muka surat pada setiap rakaat. 1 juz = 20 muka. 2 juz yang akan dihabiskan = 40 muka.
• Pada perhentian yang ke 5 saya akan solat witir sambil menghabiskan bacaan juz ke 29.
• Saya akan mengkhatamkan juz 30 di Masjid Jamek Kajang, lalu solat witir 1 rakaat.

Inilah serba sedikit perencanaan saya pada malam terakhir ramadhan ini. Semoga saya mendapat pencerahan spiritual yang sebanyak-banyaknya sepanjang perjalanan ini. Mohon doa daripada semua. Semoga Allah redha dengan kita semua.

Doakan saya selamat sampai ke destinasi.
Buat yang lain, pastikan malam terakhir ini diisi sebaik-baiknya. Belum tentu kita akan menemui Ramadhan yang seterusnya.

Jadikanlah malam terakhir ramadhanmu malam yang bermakna.

-umairzulkefli-
Engineering Office
Nihon Canpack (M) Sdn. Bhd.
5:06PM
8th Sept 2010

~End Of Post~

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Ramadhan semakin menyirna.

Bagaimana pula dengan kita?

Buat yang belum kembali kepada fitrah

Ingatlah bahawa masih ada waktu

Buat mereka yang tidak pernah kisah

Ingatlah bahawa masih ada waktu

Ramadhan itu masih ada

Ramadhan belum pergi

Jangan berputus asa

Teruskan perbaikan diri

Masih ada waktu..

Lupakan kisah silammu

Walau besar apapun dosamu

Walau sedikit sekali pahalamu

Ingatlah rahmat Allah masih terbuka untukmu

Masih ada waktu..

Mari kembali kepada fitrah

Menjadi hamba yang sentiasa menyerah

Bukan menyerah kepada nafsu serakah

Tetapi menyerah kepada kehendak Allah

Masih ada waktu..

Biar seburuk apapun ramadhan yang dilalui

Atas dirimu sama ada mahu perbaiki

Ingat, Ramadhan masih belum pergi

Buat jiwa yang ingin diampuni

Masih ada waktu..

Kami tidak layak untuk syurgaMu..

Tetapi kami tidak sanggup untuk ke nerakaMu..

Kurniakanlah keampunanMu..

Semoga kami bahagia dengan rahmatMu

Ampuni kami Ya-Allah..

Masih Ada Waktu

-umairzulkefli-

V2A-002

7:24 AM

8 September 2010

~End Of Post~

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What impact can religion (or non-religion) make on how we see the world? There is an interesting new paper out in the journal Cognition that looks at this issue. I have just downloaded the paper and will have another post on it later (I'm traveling right now...). In the mean time, here is the summary from Science:

As academic psychologists have ventured beyond institutional and national boundaries, they have come upon an impressive influence of culture upon cognition. A canonical example of this is the relative tendency of East Asians to see visual scenes via a holistic mindset in contrast to the Western style of focusing on salient objects. Nevertheless, within these cultural categories, there is considerable intrinsic variation, which can be uncovered, for instance, in comparisons of Chinese and Japanese. Colzato et al. have looked at the linkage between religious upbringing and visual perception in three somewhat less heterogeneous populations—neo-Calvinists in the Netherlands, Roman Catholics in Italy, and Orthodox Jews in Israel—and found that adherents of each of these religions differed from atheists of the same cultural background. The Calvinists, whose tradition emphasizes the role of the individual, showed greater visual attentiveness to local features, whereas the big picture perspective was favored by Catholics and Jews, whose traditions stress social togetherness.

The paper appears in Cognition 117,10.1016, and has a great title: God: Do I Have Your Attention? Here is the abstract:

Religion is commonly defined as a set of rules, developed as part of a culture. Here we provide evidence that practice in following these rules systematically changes the way people attend to visual stimuli, as indicated by the individual sizes of the global precedence effect (better performance to global than to local features). We show that this effect is significantly reduced in Calvinism, a religion emphasizing individual responsibility, and increased in Catholicism and Judaism, religions emphasizing social solidarity. We also show that this effect is long-lasting (still affecting baptized atheists) and that its size systematically varies as a function of the amount and strictness of religious practices. These findings suggest that religious practice induces particular cognitive-control styles that induce chronic, directional biases in the control of visual attention.

Curious, where Muslims will fall under - and then will there be a difference between Shias and Sunnis, or how much do cultural differences wash out the religious differences. Nevertheless, this is interesting stuff.
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Assalamu'alaikum WBT...

Ramadhan semakin meninggalkan kita. Kini ramai yang sedang berusaha mencari malam yang lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan.

Lailatul Qadar.

Jadi saya nukilkan sebuah cerpen khas untuk kita yang memburu Lailatul Qadar. Semoga bermanfaat sebagai muhasabah kita atas hari-hari yang telah kita lalui

Terimalah :

Malam Ke-29

"Aku nak jumpa malam Lailatul Qadar!"

"Yang kau menjerit-jerit ni kenapa? Dahlah salah sebut!" Rashid berteriak.

"Ops, tak perasan pula kau ada di situ. Eh, apa yang aku salah sebut?"

"Lail tu maksudnya malam. Kalau sebut Malam Lailatul Qadar maksudnya Malam Malam Al-Qadar. Salah!"

"Owh, habis tu nak sebut macam mana?"

"Sebut je Lailatul Qadar. Senang."

Dia tersenyum sendirian mengenangkan peristiwa tersebut. Awal-awal dia mendengar tentang malam yang lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan itu amat menggembirakannya. Beria-ia sungguh dia ingin mencari malam tersebut. Hampir setiap rakan di asramanya diberitahu akan niatnya itu.

Namun kemudian dia kembali bermuram. Malam ini dia banyak termenung. Al-Quran yang ada di atas rehal dibiarkan terbuka. Surah Al-Jinn berada di muka kiri. 10 muka surat lagi untuk menghabiskan juz 29. Rencananya malam ini dia akan menghabiskan juz ke-29 dan esok dia akan mengkhatamkan bacaannya. Memang disiplinnya untuk mengkhatamkan Al-Quran pada setiap ramadhan. Sehari satu juz. Bermula sejak tingkatan 1. Suasana sekolah asramanya memang menggalakkan budaya mengkhatamkan Al-Quran sepanjang ramadhan.

Dia terus termenung. Ada sesuatu yang bermain dalam fikirannya. Masjid di penghujung ramadhan terus sepi. Barangkali ramai yang sudah pulang ke kampung halaman. Hanya dia seorang sahaja yang beriktikaf pada malam tersebut. Fikirannya kembali menerawang ke masa silam.

"Aisyah, Ibnu Umar dan Anas r.a meriwayatkan: "Adalah Rasulullah SAW beriktikaf pada 10 hari terakhir bulan Ramadan" Hadis ini diriwayatkan oleh Imam Bukhari dan Muslim. Hadis sahih. Kita harus menghidupkan 10 malam terakhir dalam bulan ramadhan dengan beriktikaf di masjid. Ini merupakan sunnah Rasulullah SAW. Tetapi ramai orang yang sudah tinggalkan sunnah ini. Pernah dulu saya beriktikaf bersama anak-anak di masjid kawasan saya, tiada orang lain. Hanya kami bertiga. Lagi 10 minit sebelum subuh baru nampak kelibat bilal. Kita kena hidupkan semula sunnah ini. Lagipun, dengan beriktikaf, lebih mudahlah kita nak berjumpa dengan Lailatul Qadar!" Ustaz Malik berceramah dengan penuh semangat.

'Owh, nampaknya aku kena mula hidupkan sunnah iktikaf. Baru lebih peluang untuk berjumpa dengan Lailatul Qadar!' Getus hatinya.

Lalu seperti biasa, habis dicanangnya niatnya itu kepada teman-temannya. Hampir semua pelajar lelaki tingkatan 3 yang ditemuinya diceritakan tentang hal itu.

"Yelah, pergilah iktikaf." Kata seorang temannya.

"Kalau kau nak pergi ajak aku ya." Balas teman yang lain.

"Woi! Kau cuba cakap perlahan-lahan sedikit! Aku tak pekaklah! Nak iktikaf pergi sahajalah! Tak payah bising-bising!" Rashid berteriak.

Dia tersengih-sengih sendirian. Memang Rashid selalu geram kepadanya kerana suaranya yang nyaring. Bercakap dengan orang yang jaraknya sedepa seperti melaung sejauh gelanggang bola keranjang.

Dia tersenyum lagi.Hatinya bermonolog, 'Apa yang sedang dilakukan oleh Rashid saat ini agaknya? Tidurkah?' Kawannya itu tidak pernah mengikutnya beriktikaf di masjid sekolah. Mungkin qiamullailnya di bilik sahaja.

Kembali dia termenung. Masih memikirkan sesuatu. Masih ada yang tidak beres dalam fikirannya. Sesuatu yang kelihatannya mengecewakan. Lalu dia kembali menyambung tilawahnya. Ayat demi ayat dibacanya. Namun baru sahaja sampai ke ayat 7, dia terhenti. Hilang 'mood'. Al-Qurannya diketepikan. Dia memandang ke arah dinding di hadapannya. Jam elektronik dengan LED merah menunjukkan waktu 2:52AM. Dia mengeluh.

"Agakmya ada peluangkah aku bertemu dengan malam istimewa itu. Dah 5 tahun aku cari. Masih tak jumpa. Huh~"

Tiba-tiba dia mendengar seseorang membaca Al-Quran. Dia tahu surah apa yang dibaca. Surah Yusuf, ayat 53. Permulaan juz 13. Muka surat itu dihafalnya ketika memasuki pertandingan hafazan tahun lepas. Setiap peserta diberikan satu muka surat untuk dihafal, dan dia mendapat muka surat 242.

Dia mencari-cari pemilik suara itu. Sepertinya suara itu datang daripada dalam masjid. Setelah habis separuh muka surat, kedengaranlah suara tersebut bertakbir. Lalu dia terlihat kelibat seseorang yang sedang rukuk di bucu kiri belakang masjid.

'Ada orang solat rupanya. Merdu betul bacaanya. Dia hafal quran ke? Tak nampak pegang Al-Quran pun?' Dia bermonolog dalam hati.

Dia terus memerhatikan lelaki tersebut. Dia memakai jubah putih. Rambutnya hitam, tidak berketayap. Gerak gerinya amat tertib. Tidak bergerak-gerak. Setelah bangkit daripada sujud lelaki tadi melantunkan Surah Al-Fatihah mirip bacaan Imam Saad Al-Ghamidi. Imam kegemarannya. Dia terus merenung lelaki tersebut. Terasa bagai ada sesuatu yang membuatnya tertarik akan lelaki tersebut. Dia tidak tahu apakah itu. Dia terus merenung. Setelah selesai melantunkan Al-Fatihah, lelaki tadi kembali menyambung bacaan Surah Yusuf. Ayat 59 sehingga 63. Dia terus merenung. Ketika lelaki tersebut memberi salam, dia mendekatinya.

"Assalamu'alaikum bang."

"Wa'alaikumussalam." Lelaki itu menjawab dengan tersenyum. Indah. Terpancar ketenangan.

"Maaf ye mengganggu. Abang orang baru di sini? Saya rasa tidak pernah nampak abang solat di masjid ini."

"Abang bukan orang sini." Jawabnya pendek. Masih tersenyum.

"Saya dengar abang baca Surah Yusuf tadi. Abang hafal Al-Quran ke?"

Lelaki tersebut hanya tersenyum dan mengangguk. Dari dekat, kekemasan pakaian lelaki itu semakin terserlah. Tiada langsung kedut kelihatan. Rambutnya yang hitam tersisir rapi. Wajahnya tampan, putih bersih. Kelihatan seperti wajah kacukan Arab. Namun fasih berbahasa melayu.

'Dia tak banyak cakap, tengah mengulang hafalan agaknya. Baik aku jangan kacau dia.' Fikirnya.

"Er, bang, saya nak minta tolong boleh? Abang iktikaf di sini kan?"

"Ya, abang iktikaf di sini. Adik nak minta tolong apa?"

"Saya mengantuklah. Tolong kejut saya pukul 4.30 nanti boleh?"

"Boleh, insya-Allah. Nanti abang kejutkan."

"Okay. Saya tidur di beranda masjid itu ya bang," sambil menundingkan jari telunjuknya ke arah beranda masjid.

Lalu dia bergerak meninggalkan lelaki tersebut dan terus bebaring di beranda masjid. Namun matanya tidak terus terlelap. Dia masih memikirkan masalahnya yang sedari tadi. Malam yang lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan yang dicari-carinya.

'Bila agaknya aku nak jumpa malam itu ya?'

Sambil melelapkan mata dia terdengar suara bacaan Al-Quran. Dia menjeling ke arah tempat lelaki tadi. Kelihatan lelaki tersebut sedang solat. Menyambung bacaan Surah Yusuf. Dia masih kagum dengan lelaki itu. Hafiz Al-Quran, tampan, kemas, sopan-santun dalam berbicara. Sempurna!

'Siapa dia ya?'

Lalu perlahan-lahan matanya tertutup. Dia terlena.

"Adik, bangun. Dah pukul 4.30 ni." Lelaki itu bersuara sambil menepuk-nepuk bahunya. Dia terus membuka matanya dan bangkit dari perbaringannya. Terkebil-kebil memandang lelaki tersebut. Lelaki itu hanya tersenyum.

"Abang tak tidur ke?" Tanyanya sambil menenyeh-nenyeh matanya kanannya.

Lelaki itu hanya tersenyum. Tidak mengangguk atau menggeleng.

'Abang ni asyik senyum je. Tapi aku suka tengok dia senyum. Lapang hati aku.'

Anak matanya hanya memerhati lelaki tersebut meninggalkannya. Dia lalu bergerak untuk membasahkan anggota badannya untuk berwudhuk. Lalu solat tahajjud didirikan 2 rakaat. Kering. Terasa hambar solatnya. Dia merasakan malam itu sama sahaja seperti malam-malam ganjil tahun sebelumnya, tiada perubahan. Mindanya pesimis mengatakan malam itu bukanlah malam yang dicari-carinya. Dan mengikut fikirannya, sudah tiada peluang lagi untuk bertemu dengan malam tersebut. Ini malam yang ke-29.

'Kenapa aku masih tak dapat jumpa Lailatul Qadar ya?'

Lalu dia menadah tangannya untuk berdoa.

"Ya-Allah, sudah lama kucari malam yang pernuh berkat itu, namun sehingga kini masih tidak berjumpa. Hampir setiap malam ganjil aku hidupkan. Hampir setiap ramadhan aku beriktikaf di masjid. Kumohon agar kali ini Kaupertemukanlah aku dengannya. Agar tertunai segala hajatku. Agar tercapai segala impianku. Amiin..." Suaranya perlahan.

Tiba-tiba bahunya ditepuk. Lelaki tadi ada di samping kanannya, tersenyum indah.

"Adik tengah fikir apa? Dari semalam abang tengok adik macam ada masalah je? Ceritalah, mungkin abang boleh bantu."

"Erm, abang pernah jumpa Lailatulqadar?"

"Macam mana kita nak tahu yang kita dah jumpa Lailatul Qadar?" Lelaki itu kembali bertanya.

"Mungkin dapat tengok pokok sujud ke, rasa air macam ais ke, nampak benda-benda pelik ke,"

Lelaki itu tersenyum seketika mendengar ungkapannya.

"Siapa kata kalau kita nampak benda-benda tu tandanya kita dah bertemu dengan Lailatul Qadar?"

Soalan itu membuatkan dirinya berfikir. Sebenarnya apa yang akan berlaku pada malam Al-Qadr itu?

"Entahlah bang, selama ini semua orang cakap macam tu."

"Adik pernah jumpa dengan orang yang pernah jumpa Lailatul Qadar? Apa yang mereka nampak?"

"Tak pernah."

"Jadi, kenapa kita tunggu tanda-tanda itu? Sedangkan kita pun tak tahu apa yang akan berlaku pada malam itu. Yang penting kita sahut seruan Rasulullah SAW; mencari malam Lailatulqadar itu pada 10 malam terakhir dalam bulan Ramadhan. Tapi apa yang abang nampak sekarang, orang ramai dah salah cari."

"Salah cari? Maksud abang?"

"Apa tujuan kita beribadah? Untuk cari redha Allah atau untuk cari Lailatulqadar?"

Soalan itu bergema dalam gegendang telinganya. 'Untuk apakah ibadahku selama ini?'

"Kalau ditanya semua orang akan jawab, untuk cari redha Allah. Tetapi hakikatnya yag dicari adalah malam itu semata-mata. Buktinya, berapa ramai yang hanya iktikaf pada malam-malam yang ganjil sahaja? Membaca Al-Quran dan membanyakkan ibadah sunat hanya dalam bulan ramadhan sahaja? Habis sahaja ramadhan atau dengar sahaja sudah ada orang berjumpa dengan Lailatulqadar, dia terus tak bersemangat untuk beribadah lagi."

Dia terdiam mendengar penjelasan lelaki tersebut. Semua yang diperkatakan itu adalah dirinya sendiri!

'Ya-Allah, teruknya aku! Selama ini aku hanya berusaha mencari Lailatulqadar, bukannya redhaMu. Aku hanya iktikaf pada malam-malam ganjil sahaja. Malam yang lain aku tidak hidupkan.' Ucap hatinya lirih.

"Tetapi yang lebih menyedihkan adalah apabila manusia menjadikan Allah hanya sebagai alat untuk mencapai matlamatnya, bukannya Allah yang menjadi matlamat hidupnya."

"Maksud abang?"

"Adik rasa-rasa kenapa ramai orang nak sangat cari Lailatulqadar? Kenapa ramai orang berdoa? Kenapa ramai orang buat solat hajat?"

Sekali lagi dia terdiam. Hatinya berdebar-debar menantikan jawapan lelaki tampan itu.

"Kalau adik perhatikan, orang-orang sekarang kebanyakannya cari Allah sebab mahu dipenuhi hal-hal dunianya. Berdoa dan beribadah bersungguh-sungguh apabila ditimpa kesusahan, ada masalah perniagaan, nak naik gaji, bila nak ambil SPM, bila nak minta kerja. Bila dah dapat semua itu, mereka terus lupa kepada Allah. Terus lupa beribadah. Ingat Allah suka apa yang mereka buat?"

Lalu lelaki itu melantunkan ayat ke-12 daripada Surah Yunus dan membacakan maksudnya.

Dan apabila manusia ditimpa bahaya dia berdoa kepada Kami dalam keadaan berbaring, duduk atau berdiri, tetapi setelah Kami hilangkan bahaya itu daripadanya, dia (kembali) melalui (jalannya yang sesat), seolah-olah dia tidak pernah berdoa kepada Kami untuk (menghilangkan) bahaya yang telah menimpanya. Begitulah orang-orang yang melampaui batas itu memandang baik apa yang selalu mereka kerjakan. [Q.S. Yunus, 10:12]

Allah kata mereka melampaui batas."

Terasa bagaikan halilintar menyambar jantungnya. Perasaannya gundah-gulana. Dia merasakan ayat tersebut tepat mengenai batang hidungnya. Rasa bersalah dan takut tiba-tiba merasuki setiap relung jiwanya. Lalu gugurlah airmata sulungnya buat ramadhan itu. Air mata keinsafan.

'Ya-Allah, hinanya aku...'

Dia mula menangis teresak-esak. Ditekupkan mukanya ke lutut sambil tangannya merangkul kedua lututnya. Hatinya begitu tersentuh dengan ayat yang dibacakan lelaki itu. Terasa sia-sia amalnya selama ini.

"Adik, ingat tujuan kita diciptakan. Hanya untuk mengabdi kepada Allah. Wamaa Kholaqtul jinna wal insa illa li ya'budun. Dan tidak aku jadikan jin dan manusia melainkan untuk mereka mengabdi kepadaku. Ingat semua nikmat-nikmat yang dikurniakan kepada kita. Allah tak minta apa-apa balasan melainkan kita mentaati perintahNya." Lelaki itu menjelaskan maksud ayat ke 56 daripada Surah Az-Zariayat sambil mengusap-ngusap bahunya yang terhinut-hinjut menahan tangis.

"Sesungguhnya jika kamu menyembah Lailatulqadar, ketahuilah bahawa lailatulqadar hanya ada ketika ramadhan dan ramadhan akan berlalu. Tetapi jika kamu menyembah Allah, maka ketahuilah bahawa Allah itu ada pada setiap masa, di manapun kita berada. Carilah lailatulqadar itu pada setiap malam." Lelaki itu meneruskan kata-katanya sambil mengalihkan tangan dariapda bahunya.

"Insya-Allah abang. Terima kasih banyak. Saya sedar kesilapan saya selama ini." Dia berkata dengan mukanya yang masih ditekup. Malu untuk mengangkat mukanya yang dirasakan penuh dosa.

"Saya insaf, selama ini saya hanya beribadah bukan untuk cari redha Allah, tetapi untuk kejayaan dunia semata. Sebenarnya saya nak sangat jumpa lailatulqadar kali ni pun sebab nak minta supaya dapat 11A dalam SPM. Saya akan ubah diri saya, insya-Allah."

"Eh, kamu tengah bercakap dengan siapa tu?" Tiba-tiba suatu suara garau bertanya dari arah kirinya. Spontan dia mengangkat wajahnya. Kelihatan bilal masjid sedang berdiri di samping kirinya.

"Saya bercakap dengan..." sambil memandang ke kanan, kata-katanya terhenti. Darahnya berderau. Lelaki tadi sudah tiada!

"Dengan siapa?" tanya bilal.

"Dengan abang yang pakai jubah putih di sebelah saya tadi."

"Dari tadi pakcik tengok kamu duduk seorang diri sahaja di sini. Mana ada orang lain."

Dia semakin pelik. 'Mana abang tadi? Tiba-tiba hilang?'

"Saya mengigau kut pakcik. Maaflah menyusahkan pakcik sahaja."

Bilal itu menggeleng-gelengkan kepala sambil berlalu pergi.

'Aku mimpi ke tadi? Tak mungkin! Aku rasa betul dia ada di sebelah aku. Semuanya memang benar-benar terjadi!' Jerit hatinya. Dia segera bangkit dan mencari kelibat lelaki tampan tadi. Seluruh pelusuk masjid dicarinya namun kelibat lelaki tadi tidak kelihatan.

"Ya-Allah, apakah ini jawapan bagi doaku?" Lalu air matanya mengalir. Dia merasakan dia telah menemui sesuatu jauh lebih berharga daripada apa yang digambarkannya selama ini. Hidayah Allah.

"Ya-Allah, ampunilah segala kesilapanku selama ini. Bantulah aku untuk memurnikan ibadah dan ketaatanku hanya untuk meraih redhaMu. Berikanlah peluang untuk aku memanfaatkan ramadhan yang tersisa ini untuk mencari redha dan keampunanMu."

Lalu azan subuh berkumandang. Air matanya terus menjadi saksi di pagi ke-29 Ramadhan.

~End Of Post~

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Since this blog's earliest days, I have made a habit of surveying you, my subscribers. I did it originally as a demonstration of the advantages of having a pathetically small number of customers, but I found the actual info so incredibly helpful, I have done it several times since. Since the last time, your ranks have grown tremendously, and I thank you all for this incredible support.

So, to celebrate Labor Day here in the US, I've created another survey. If you're willing to take five minutes to fill it out, I would be most grateful:

Click here to take survey

As usual, I've added a small minimum viable product (I'm starting to think of this technique as the "survey MVP") at the end, as yet another customer validation exercise. I'll post about the results later; to say anything here would bias the survey. 

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My journey began when I took a domestic flight to Jakarta.I got my itinerary one day before the departure date and I went to Sriwijaya office to change the itinerary into e-ticket. I arrived at the office at about 9 o'clock and queued. Suddenly a friend called me,  surprisingly she was my college-mate working for the
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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Usually he writes on Mondays, but he has this early post for next week. Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah

The Times newspaper (in the UK) published an excerpt from the soon-to-be released book by Stephen Hawking (The Grand Design) in which he boldly states that God is not needed anymore when considering the creation of the universe. The excerpt was distributed by The Times as a feature of the September issue of Eureka magazine; it will be available online on September 6. The accompanying article, however, which is available online, gives a general flavor of the ideas that Hawking is putting forward. In particular, we read:

Just as Darwinism removed the need for a creator in the sphere of biology, a new series of theories have rendered redundant the role of a creator for the Universe.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist,” he writes.

Hawking writes that the first blow was the confirmed observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun. “That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions — the single Sun, the lucky combination of earth-sun distance and solar mass — far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings,” he writes.

He predicts that physics is on the brink of writing a theory of everything, a single framework that can entirely explain the properties of Nature. Such a theory has been the holy grail for physicists since the time of Einstein, but until now it has been impossible to reconcile quantum theory, which explains the sub-atomic world, with gravity, which explains how objects interact on the cosmological scale.

Professor Hawking suggests that M-theory, a form of string theory, will achieve this goal. He writes: “M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. The fact that we human beings — who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature — have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph.”

The Times’ science correspondent, author of the article, contacted me to get some reactions to these claims. Below are the comments I sent; they were quickly posted on the newspaper’s website, along many others’. Since at least some of the webpages of The Times are available only by subscription, I have thought it useful to post my comments here for followers of Irtiqa. Further comments are more than welcome:

Obviously, one would have to read Professor Hawking’s new book to get a full grasp of his arguments and reasoning before responding or commenting. However, from the article in The Times, it appears that several ideas have unfortunately been mixed in an erroneous manner.

First and foremost, God is not a factor that one adds or removes (as unnecessary) in an equation or a model for the beginning of the Universe or any part of Science. All scientists, theists and atheists, subscribe to Methodological Naturalism, whereby all explanations for phenomena of nature and the universe must exclude supernatural agents. God, however, is an interpretation – not an explanation – given by believers for the existence of the universe, life, intelligence, consciousness, humans, and everything that we witness. When we became able to fully explain celestial motions, lightning, diseases, mental disorders, and many phenomena around us, we did not conclude that “there is no place for God anymore”.

Secondly, one should not mix the “cosmological argument” and the “design argument” for God, whatever value one may find in either one. The first one argues that the existence of the universe/multiverse (which is described by science) can be interpreted in reference to God, whereas the second argues that the precision and harmony of “creation” (all objects, including but not limited to earth and humanity) can be interpreted as a sign (not proof) of a God behind it. These arguments are subjective, optionally left for humans to accept or reject; they are not part of science and should not be placed in opposition to scientific theories and progress in our objective knowledge.

Thirdly, even Darwinism has two aspects: the objective part and the subjective, interpretative part. No real scientist doubts evolution, though some argue about aspects of the theory (more or less emphasis on natural selection, full randomness or constraints in the evolution of nature, etc.). However, the interpretation of what evolution and its features mean is open for debate. Many great scientists of all times have found no difficulty in balancing the facts with their own theistic or atheistic interpretations of evolution or cosmology, but it would be a serious mistake to insist that philosophical and religious interpretations must be rigidly ruled by science.

Lastly, when Hawking writes “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing”, he is already postulating the existence of gravity and the laws that will lead to the creation and evolution of the universe. Shouldn’t we ask about the origin of gravity and all features of the universe? Many of us scientists and thinkers doubt that full explanations of everything can be complete and self-contained, with no need for a metaphysical principle like God.

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Steven Coll has a nuanced short piece on Pakistan in this week's New Yorker. Basic message: Pakistan and the Pakistani situation is complex, but focus on the economy. And for economy, Pakistan-India relations have to be improved, which are tied to resolving the Kashmir dispute. But he starts with the public opinion in Pakistan:

Last spring, according to a Pew Research Center poll, eighty-four per cent of Pakistanis were dissatisfied with the way things were going in their country. Inflation, terrorist bombings, and American drone strikes were among the causes of their discontent. Three-quarters disapproved of the job being done by the country’s President, Asif Ali Zardari.

Then came the summer’s monsoon rains, which engorged the Indus River water system, causing floods that by last week had killed almost two thousand people, left seven million homeless, and ruined 1.4 million acres of cropland.

And here is the complexity that is often gets ignored: 

After a decade in which the United States and Pakistan have been lashed together by war and terrorism, it is understandably hard for many Americans to conceive of Pakistan as a whole place. It’s not only a country that is poorly governed and menaced by Islamist radicals; it’s also one that is growing economically, and that houses a raucously open society populated by muckraking journalists, comic novelists, cheesy reality-TV producers, real-estate hustlers, world-class squash players, and the like. The number of Pakistanis living in poverty fell by almost half between 1999 and 2008, from thirty per cent of the population to about seventeen per cent. This extraordinary change, a result of rapid economic growth and remittances from Pakistanis working abroad, is not often discussed on American cable-news outlets. Five years ago, Pakistan’s economic growth rate reached eight per cent annually, and the economy has continued to expand, if more slowly, even since 2008, when the global financial crisis and the domestic Taliban insurgency took hold simultaneously. (The number of Pakistanis living in poverty almost certainly has crept up again, and will move higher still because of the floods.)

Islamist insurgents threaten Pakistan’s weak government, yet they remain widely unpopular. In the last election, the religious party previously aligned with the Taliban polled two per cent; in the country’s history, religious parties have never won more than twelve per cent in a national election.

But this is where economic ties with India come in, and he uses Indonesia as an interesting example to emulate: 

Pakistan’s economic expansion has come, in part, by selling and smuggling consumer goods to India’s growing middle classes. For Pakistan to overcome its many burdens, it must make peace, or, at least, normalize economic ties, with India, which would include resolving the Kashmir dispute. On this subject, the United States could benefit from a sense of urgency comparable to its focus on Pakistani terrorism. In 2007, the governments of India and Pakistan negotiated the outline of an agreement that would have further opened their border to trade. A final deal has proved elusive, in part because of evidence that Pakistan’s Army continues to support anti-Indian terrorist groups; the Obama Administration has the leverage in Pakistan to hold the Army accountable.

Economic growth is not a panacea for social ills or political disarray, but policies designed to unleash Pakistan’s economy during the next decade are far more likely to reduce the threat of Taliban-inspired revolution than are military operations and drone strikes. Examples of success exist: Indonesia, which, like Pakistan, has a large Muslim population and implausible borders left behind by imperialists, suffered badly a decade ago from separatist violence, Al Qaeda-linked Islamist terrorists, and poisonous civil-military relations. By riding Southeast Asia’s economic boom, Indonesia has become a comparably bland, democratic archipelago.

... 

The agricultural market towns in the flood zone—Ghotki, Jacobabad, Shahdadkot—are not notable breeding grounds for international terrorism. They are home instead to the marginal lives of another Pakistan, one poised for many years between aspiration and collapse—that of landless laborers, tenant farmers, bus drivers, and shopkeepers. These Pakistanis belong to no war party and live in peaceful indifference to the United States. To help reimagine their future, and that of their country, the place to begin is to come unconditionally to their aid.

I think it would be very smart to tie Pakistan's economy to India's rapidly growing economy. This will be good for the region and good for Pakistan (and India). Can there be a real substantial move in this direction? I hope so - though it is hard to see such a step from the existing leaders in Pakistan (and in India as well). But then floods, as destructive as they are, were often seen in ancient mythologies as new beginnings. May be. Read the full article here. Also see this post on how to help flood victims in Pakistan. 

Also here is a song for flood victims by the Pakistani band Laal. By the way, this band is known for its lefty-activist political songs - especially using lyrics of the late poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib. Again, how many people outside of Pakistan expected the existence of such a band - and a band that has had considerable mainstream success.


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There is no question that astronomy, perhaps more than any other science, has spectacularly changed the way we look at ourselves as humans. It has inspired awe and it has also challenged many religious traditions unwilling to adapt to the new astronomy of the time. It has also been useful (and tricky) for calendars and in providing navigation help for early sailors. Plus astronomy played a major role during the scientific revolution of the 16th/17th centuries, from the debate over the geocentrism to the imperfections of the heavens as revealed by the new telescopes.

So it is no surprise that some of the sites of astronomical discoveries and of the gathering of astronomical knowledge are being considered for the World Heritage status (from Science):

The study, which has been officially endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), highlights 44 sites and artifacts that mark humankind's millennia-long fascination with the heavens. Usually, it notes, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee focuses on what it calls "tangible, immovable heritage," such as buildings, parks, and railways. But when addressing astronomical heritage, it's the development of scientific knowledge that is important, not the bricks and mortar, says Thomas Hockey, an astronomer at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and a member of the International Astronomical Union's working group that helped produce the report.

For example, the twin monastery of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in northeast England no longer houses the scientific writings of the medieval monk Saint Bede, but World Heritage status would recognize the "scholarly activity" that occurred there. Saint Bede's most influential work, On the Reckoning of Time, written at the monastery in about 725 C.E., "became the principal text for early medieval astronomical study," says the report, which is available online at www.astronomicalheritage.org.

I think this is absolutely fascinating! But interestingly, one of the candidates is also the Mauna Kea Observatory. The fact that Mauna Kea is sacred for the native Hawaiians and the telescopes are often a flash-point for controversy (see earlier posts on this topic here, here, and a summary here), this sets up an interesting question about how we assign cultural values. Some of the astronomical contributions from observatories at Mauna Kea have been truly outstanding (extrasolar planets, some of the work around Dark Energy, confirmation of supermassive blackholes in galaxies, etc.). So is this a world heritage, even though some Hawaiians feel that these discoveries have come at the expense of their culture? These are some tough issues - and I will address this a bit more soon. The section on Mauna Kea (pdf) in the IAU study just devotes one sentence to the Native Hawaiian connection.

In the mean time, check out the Astronomy and World Heritage Report here. You will find some fascinating places in the report. By the way, the Jantar Mantar Observatory in Jaipur, India has just been added to the World Heritage (other sites, such as the Stonehenge and the Greenwich Observatory are already on the UNESCO's World Heritage list).
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Last week's Science pointed out this quote from Conservapedia (sigh...):

"The theory of relativity ... is heavily promoted by liberals who like its encouragement of relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world. ... Virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to read the Bible. ..."

—From the article "Counterexamples to Relativity" in Conservapedia, a Web site (http://conservapedia.com) that describes itself as "an encyclopedia written from a conservative viewpoint." The page includes links to articles on black holes, dark matter, moral relativism, and wormholes, listed under the heading "liberal pseudoscience."

And here is a direct link to this idiocy.
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