Patience, Perseverance and Determination

WHAT DO I perceive to be the top three best traits in Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam (Peace be upon him) which I should really try to emulate personally? I’d say his true-grit patience; his unequalled perseverance and doggedly-firm determination respectively.

I can only summarise what I feel about those three tall orders in poetry:

Running thin, low and weak

Patience runs thin
Perseverance goes down low
Determination gets weaker by the hour

Then I remember
And I start to ponder
Whilst I gather all strengths

What a truly patient man, O’ Prophet!
In his perseverance amidst adversity
His pure determination of sheer tolerance

What I go through now in my own life
Is like a droplet of the early morn’ dew
Evaporating in the midday sun’s rays

The Messenger went through much worse
More challenging difficulties and obstacles
All our troubles are like peanuts in butter

Much more amazing is his perseverance
After 23 years of struggle in the true path
Peace be upon him, the Chosen One won!

His strong-willed determination to remain
As the most faithful and devoted to Allah
Is his single most important Quranic character.

PLK

Hardest act to follow — the Messenger’s life

IN THE EXCITEMENT of the country’s 26th National Day Anniversary celebrations, I feel a tinge of sorrow thinking of how the Greatest leader in the history of mankind had to endure the hardships in his struggle to bring the best of Islamic civilization into this world more than 14 hundred years ago.

The Islamic world will remember the Prophet’s birth anniversary on Friday, 26 February 2010 or in the Islamic calendar, 12 RabiulAwal 1431 Hijrah. In Brunei Darussalam, the Maulidur Rasul (as it’s known in Arabic) will be celebrated with a Mass Procession at the Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien in the heart of the capital this Saturday.

Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam (Peace be upon him) led a very simple life — not too rich, not too poor — and didn’t even live in a palatial home although God the Almighty offered to give him the best things in life including to pave the Holy City of Mekah (his birthplace) all in gold! No, it just wasn’t his style to be pampered with all the wealth of this temporary world. The Messenger of Allah passed away as a simple man in another Holy City of Medinah in Saudi Arabia at the age of 63. Let us share a video narration of the Last Moments of the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) as featured below:

“Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the last Day, and remembereth Allah much.” [Quran 33:21]

One of the world’s leading philosophers who ever lived, Sir George Bernard Shaw in his book ‘The Genuine Islam,’ Vol. 1, No. 8, (published in 1936) wrote that if there is a new religion that will prevail in England or Europe in the next century that would be Islam. Muhammad is a wonderful man and should be called the Savior of Humanity, said Bernard Shaw (a non-Muslim).

Another non-believer, Mahatma Gandhi, considered to be one of the world’s greatest statesmen, in his statement that was published in “Young India” in 1924 said that it was not the sword that spread Islam. But the passion, courage, and faith of the prophet Muhammad to God successfully spread Islam.

A modern-day American thinker, Michael H Hart in his book ‘The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History,’ which was published in New York in 1978 chose prophet Muhammad as the number 1 among 100 most influential people in the history of the world.

Yusuf Islam a.k.a Cat Stevens (formerly a famous singer who has embraced the Islamic faith) beautifully narrated “The Prophet’s Last Sermon” below:

PLK

Tiger Woods vs Hypocrisy

POOR TIGER WOODS (but still filthy rich by any standards) had to feebly stood up to the world of hypocrisy that we live in now. On Friday, the still indisputably champion golfer of the world, faced a select group of family members including his own Thai-American mother, Kuntilda, as well as some close friends, associates and a few journalists in a closed door hall but beamed live to the electronic world simply to say: “I am so sorry!” in a hyped up confession.

Tiger Woods certainly lives up to his ‘animal’ name by taking such a brave and bold decision to make his worldly apologies official… and in the first week of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, at that! PERFECT TIMING is truly his trademark just as in his billion-dollars’ worth of golf swings.

I still haven’t figured out totally why the brouhaha, though? The modern open-minded democratic society he grew up in has always liberated such sexual inclinations or ‘trangressions’ that he had messed himself up with, in the first place! From the United States Presidency to politicians to Hollywood/sports celebrities to teenaged students — they’ve all been there, done that! What the heck and why now? Where Tiger’s better half comes from it’s even much worse — it’s a FREE WORLD, baby! And where was she when he needed his wife the most?! Such hypocrisy of the highest order…

Where I come from, confessing to such sinful acts and witnessed by at least four reliable and trustworthy men who saw with their very own eyes the actual sin being committed is tantamount to be punishable by jail sentencing on top of many lashes of the whip or cane (if found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a Shariah Court). And it’s not only the male sinner alone, the female accomplice/s must face the music, too. But I’m no judge and jury or even a religious preacher for that matter to say all this. Suffice to say Tiger Woods is still a lucky son of a gun being a Buddhist living in a liberal hypocrisy.. oopsie-daisie, democracy, rather, like Good ‘Ol America… the Land of the Free!

If the American Society and U.S. Lawmakers per se want to prove their honest-to-goodness standards (not DOUBLE please!) of democracy of the highest world order, then I personally challenge them all, including President Barack Obama to once and for all declare NO MORE FREE SEX OR SCENES OF TRANGRESSIONS to be explicitly and implicitly depicted in Hollywood movies shown to the the whole world (whose audience includes pretty young moviegoers!). I know for sure they’ll ignore this personal plea or challenge of mine. BUT if stupid sex-crazy movies were to win the Oscars in the 82nd Academy Awards come March 7 next month, I dare say TO HELL WITH U.S. SOCIETY HYPOCRISY! Can’t they all see that basically and intrinsically, sex in movies are roots of Tiger’s and all the human race ‘trangressions’ globally, not to mention illicit pornography which has started since the bad old days of silent cinematography by Jewish-sponsored western film-making industry…

You know what, I can only pray may Allah protect us from committing such ‘transgressions’ and shield us from His harshest of punishments – AMIN!

P.S. At the end of the day, this Tiger Woods’ episode would eventually end up being ‘profitably exploited’ by Hollywood movie moguls…

PLK

Patriotic poetry?

No Bruneian left behind!

The leader in me and you
demands nothing less
but the best from us
to build our nation
of peaceful notion,
of stable condition…

The thinker in me and you
thinks of nothing else
but the people’s survival
in good and bad times,
in prosperity and calamity,
in socio-political stability…

The patriotic nationalists in us
want our voices heard,
need our actions counted,
desire for changes to be made;
so let us be given the chance
to prove our worth as true citizens.

PLK

A random poet

Ang Pow Weekend

One fine Saturday mornin’ in Miri
Ang Pow-rich lion dancers up early
Cool winds breeze ev’r so nicely
Sights and sounds of Chinese festivity

Waiting for my kids’ brace dentistry
Outside Dr Aziz’s Orthodontology
A dead black cat lay in frigidity
Next to a rollin’ bottle, empty

Female Iban sweepers in bright green
Dust away Miri streets specky clean
Tudung-clad Malay lasses, smiley grin
Chinese Amoys so casual, in denim jean

Everybody still looks festive in spirit
Givin’ themselves shoppin’, eat-out treat
Animal of the year, Golden Tiger is it?
The dead black cat, abandoned on the street.

PLK

The world according to America

OR MY HEADING should be America according to the world is [expletive past tense]-up or to put it mildly, knocked-up! China definitely agrees with me… LOL

Gold medal with a couple of F's

Bud Keene, the American coach of the US 2010 Winter Olympics Gold medallist, Shaun White, stirred up a media hype in the Vancouver Games when his vulgar [expletives] went on Live NBC TV! But then again Hollywood movies are full of [expletives] and even much worse graphically violent and sexy vulgar images, anyways…

And a 53-year-old suicide pilot, disgruntled American Joe Stack, has crashed his private plane into a Texan Internal Revenue Services (IRS) building ala 9-11… Talk about a home-grown terrorist!

The worst from the United States is yet to come vis-a-vis its ‘obssession’ to vanish the ‘military dictatorship’ of Iran! You know what, I just don’t get it — America claims and the United Nations’ (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concurs that Iranian President Ahmadinejad has many tricks up his sleeves to build nuclear bombs and not nuclear power for energy purpose and peaceful means as he has always reiterated.

So come on America… what’s wrong with Iran’s peaceful nuclear ambition? The US President Barack Obama is planning to do the same all along.

Is the United States so desperate to start a Third World War in this Year of the Tiger or what? Enough is enough America! it’s not yet ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Iraq and US plus NATO troops are nowhere near in ending Taliban/Al-Qaeda ‘rule’ in Afghanistan… and now the US wanna terrorize Iran? Drop dead USA!

P.S. Lady Gaga might as well lead America to replace President Obama! ROFL

PLK

A significant twist to N-Day & Prophet’s B’day

THE 26TH NATIONAL Day Anniversary (February 23rd, 2010) celebrations falls only three days before the global Islamic celebration of the Birth Anniversary of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam (Peace be upon Him) or “Maulidur-Rasul“.

It could only mean a good omen for Brunei Darussalam of the good things to come in this Golden Tiger Year, hopefully. What’s more significant is the resurgence of Islamic conservative attitude amongst the younger population of school-going age, in particular. I was in a mosque earlier and I couldn’t help being ecstatic observing a group of young teenaged boys performed the Zuhur prayers (“berjemaah“) after school.

When I was their age, such piety was a rarity. In fact, I’m quite concerned with the liberal attitude of my own son their age who finds praying more of a chore rather than an obligatory duty. My boy is more into what Lady GaGa has to say than what I have to relate to him about all things Islamic… Ggrrr! I pray that unorthodox Lady Gaga converts to become a Muslimah! LOL

My young daughter (whose trendy fashion — not my taste) is another big headache for me… I’m as much to blame for being liberal-minded about the whole spiritual issue myself. Well, the parental challenges of the 21st Century cease to amaze me…

PLK

If Perth could do it, why can’t Brunei?

AS I WROTE in my previous couple of postings on the Abode of Peace as one of the best places to live in Asia and on a global scale, rightly enough the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) this month ranked Bandar Seri Begawan as the 100th Most Livable City in the world.

According to EIU the top ten cities were: 1. Vancouver 2. Vienna 3. Melbourne 4. Toronto 5. Calgary 6. Helsinki 7. Sydney 8. Perth 9. Adelaide 10. Auckland.

Whereas the bottom ten cities were: 1. Harare 2. Dhaka 3. Algiers 4. Port Moresby 5. Lagos 6. Karachi 7. Douala 8. Kathmandu 9. Colombo 10. Dakar. (Don’t tell me Port-Au-Prince, the devastated capital city of Haiti is in a much higher ranking?!)

Now, contrasting standards were accorded by another world-renowned publication, International Living Magazine, which put Brunei Darussalam at 84th in its Quality of Life Index rankings last January.

Funnily enough, Paris wasn’t even in EIU’s top 10 cities BUT France topped second-placed Australia (the latter has four cities in the top 10, mind you) in the International Living Magazine rankings. The magazine placed Canada in 9th position but Canadian cities — Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary were 1st, 4th and 5th places respectively in EIU’s list. So what gives?

The difference in comparison between the two ‘western standards of quality living’ only means that both are objective at worst and confusing at best!

What’s interesting about the EIU rankings, though, was the fact that Perth (considerably as laid-back as Bandar Seri Begawan sharing the same time-zone and humidity) is in 8th position! So wouldn’t it be a good idea to benchmark our capital city with that ‘outback’ western Australian city of Down Under? I believe relevant Brunei Government agencies have a long, long way to go to catch up in terms of global promotions.

PLK

Dear AFP reporter/editor, Brunei exists on Borneo island, too!

In an AFP story below, the journalist seemed to have indicated that ONLY Malaysia and Indonesia existed on the Borneo island… BAH! How ignorant can an international press like AFP be?!

First footage of clouded leopard captured in Borneo
AFP – Monday, February 15

[An image grab from video footage released courtesy of A. Wilting and A. Mohamed of...] An image grab from video footage released courtesy of A. Wilting and A. Mohamed of the Cat News Journal shows a newly identified Sundaland clouded leopard, caught on camera for the first time ever, stalking through the Dermakot Forest Reserve in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – – The Sundaland clouded leopard, a newly identified and little understood species of big cat in Borneo, has been filmed for the first time.

The leopard, a healthy-looking animal a metre long (3 feet) and weighing about 40 kilos (90 pounds) was caught on video at night at the Dermakot Forest Reserve in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state.

“What surprised us was that while clouded leopards are very elusive cats, this one was not scared at all,” said Azlan Mohamed, a field scientist with University Sabah Malaysia.

“Despite our powerful spot lights and the roar of our vehicle’s engine, it walked around our vehicle calmly,” he told AFP.

“It is rare to see the big cat in the wild. These cats are usually shy of humans, it was by chance we caught it on video.”

The Sundaland clouded leopard was classified as a new species through genetic studies several years ago and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature designated it as endangered in 2008.

Previously all clouded leopards living across the Southeast Asian mainland were thought to be the same species.

Azlan said the Sundaland species is the biggest predator on Borneo, a resource-rich island split between Malaysia and Indonesia where wildlife habitats are under pressure from logging and plantations.

Because of their nocturnal habits, secretive behaviour and small numbers, little is known about the beast, including how many of them are living in Borneo.

However, Azlan said the researchers found the remains of a samba deer which had been killed by one of the big cats.

Azlan is a member of a research team focusing on carnivores in Sabah, led by Andreas Wilting of the Leibnez Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research based in Berlin, Germany.

This big cat can be found in lowland rainforest on Borneo and in small numbers in areas of logged forest.

But environmentalist say that the clouded leopard faces the threat of poaching while rapid deforestation and the creation of rubber and oil-palm plantations in Borneo is destroying its natural habitat.

Azlan said Dermakot Forest Reserve, a 500 square kilometre (190 square mile) area which had been commercially logged but where replanting is now underway, is also home to four other threatened wild cats.

Sixty cameras traps placed in Dermakot also captured images of the marbled cat, flat-headed cat, leopard cat and Borneo bay cat, all smaller in size than the Sundaland clouded leopard.

“These small cats feed on rats and mice,” he said.

Azlan said the research team was “surprised” to find all five cat species in Dermakot and four of them in the neighbouring Tangkulap Forest Reserve.

P.S. Some years back, a similar large species of wildcat was caught near Kuala Belait in Brunei, too, if I’m not mistaken… I suggest the relevant Bruneian authorities should formally write to AFP to request that an Erratum or correction needs some sort of rectification.

PLK

Relaxing to Mamma Mia~Julie-Julia~It’s Complicated

WHAT A RELAXING Lunar New Year/V-Day it’s been for me. Sunday was spent watching three DVDs of my all-time favorite Hollywood actress, the one and only demure Meryl Streep.

This silver screen diva still has what it takes to win another Oscar… and I pray that she could win the Best Actress award for her fabulous starring role in the ‘sumptuous Frenchie-foodie’ movie, Julie-Julia, during the 82nd Academy Awards which will be staged in Los Angeles on March 7, 2010. I also love Sandra Bullock’s great touching role in the Blind Side movie but I believe Meryl Streep deserves to win this year’s Best Actress Academy Award, definitely.

Meryl Streep epitomises the all-round qualities of the modern woman of the new century and I personally feel that she should be a role-model for all professional career women out there. I don’t know about y’all girls, but to me, Meryl Streep, is one heck of a truly inspirational lady!

It’s funny how she reminds me of a great female acquaintance of mine who has carved a highly-successful niche in her own right for herself, both in her personal and professional life. I doubt if she has time to watch Meryl Streep’s great knacks for cooking in Julie-Julia and It’s Complicated respectively, though, since she’s got her own hands full profiting from her culinary skills herself. Kudos to my good friend (who in some ways somehow resembles Meryl, too)! I SEE YOU…

Sunday morning, I was somewhat movingly woken up by this beautiful track (entitled: “I See You”) from another award-winning, highest grossing and block-busting movie, Avatar.

PLK