Of his Never-Before-Revealed Quest.

R.I.P. - STEVE JOBS. One dies, Millions Cry. Millions die, No-one Cries.

2011-10-09T09:27:00.001+08:00

R.I.P. - STEVE JOBS. One dies, Millions Cry. Millions die, No-one Cries.

We remember your Memory:

• A 'Genius' whose Global Empire was literally built on the back of Underage Chinese Slave Labour working in horrific conditions. Some were driven to SUICIDE.

• Your fearsome Legal & Private Security Team that ANNIHILATED smaller prey.

• Oligarchal Power/Bilderberger Elitist Ruthlessly Striving for Global Domination

• Wielding Power Over Government, Media with fellow Global Plutocrats

• Censorship, Authoritarianism, bullying, humiliating, manipulation, intimidation & fear of Staff

• The HUNDREDS OF 1000's of people that SUFFERED due to your relentless pursuit of GREATNESS, Love of GREED and POWER.

• Not 1 cent did you ever DONATE to Charity.

Did you leave your $7 BILLION to any of the underage Chinese workers whom you ruthlessly exploited driving some to suicide?

Finally, does your £7 BILLION keep you warm at night?

R.I.P.

Signed: Your Exploited & Indentured Slave Labour

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Petikan Kitab Bimbingan Mu'minin

2011-09-20T20:03:00.002+08:00

Petikan Kitab Bimbingan Mu'minin

Assalamualaikum wbt

Untuk posting kali ini saya petik terus dari Kitab Bimbingan Mu’minin karangan Imam Ghazali terjemahan Syed Ahmad Semait untuk sama-sama kita ambil ilmunya. Kitab rumi m/s 575. bab “Kitab Mencela kekikiran dan Harta kekayaan” sub topik “ cara mengubati penyakit suka dipuji”.

Ketahuilah bahawasanya kebanyakan manusia binasa disebabkan terlampau takut kepada celaan orang ramai, dan bimbang kalau-kalau ia tidak mendapat pujian mereka. Sebab itulah, maka segala gerak geri dan kelakuan mereka bergantung atas apa yang boleh menyebabkan keredhaan orang ramai, supaya mendapat pujian dan terjauh daripada kecelaan. Ini semua termasuk perkara-perkara yang membinasakan diri, maka sepatutnya ia diubati dan disembuhkan dari penyakitnya. Cara mengubatinya ialah sama seperti diatas, iaitu mencari punca yang menyebabkan timbulnya penyakit itu, iaitu penyakit sukakan dirinya dipuji dan benci kalau dikeji.

Diantara sebab-sebabnya ialah merasakan diri telah sempurna disebabkan pujian yang diterimanya dari orang lain. Cara mengubatinya ialah dengan anda kembali kepada diri anda sendiri seraya bertanya kepada akal anda; Pujian yang diberikan oleh sifulan itu dan segala sifat tinggi yang dikatakannya itu, adakah benar anda memilikinya atau tidak ?.

Andaikata sememangnya semua sifat-sifat itu ada pada diri anda, maka kiranya ia yang berkaitan dengan harta kekayaan atau pangkat kedudukan, niscaya ia tidaklah wajar dipuji atau digembirakan sangat-sangat dengan pujian itu. Misalnya seperti orang yang bergembira dengan tumbuh-tumbuhan yang baru bertunas di atas muka bumi, bukankah tidak lama lagi ia akan kering dan hancur musnah dibawa dek angin. Kalau begitu gembira kerana sebab puji-pujian seperti itu tentulah timbulnya dari akal fikiran yang kurang sempurna.

Tetapi kiranya pujian itu berkaitan dengan ilmu pengetahuan dan kewarakan, jika kita katakan ia patut diberi pujian, namun begitu tak wajarlah digembirakan sangat dengan pujian itu, sebab khatimahnya atau pengakhirannya masih belum tentu lagi. Jika pujian yang diberikan kepada anda itu, bukan menjadi sifat anda yang hakiki dan anda tidak pernah bersifat seperti itu, maka kegembiraan anda kerana pujian itu menunjukkan kemuncaknya ketidaksiuman diri anda.

Diantara sebab-sebab lain, ialah perasaan segan silu atau kedudukan yang menyebabkan si pemuji itu menhamburkan pujian itu. Ini semua kembali kepada adanya sesuatu sebab yang tertentu atau sesuatu peristiwa dan keadaan, yang mana sepatutnya orang yang dipuji itu tidak terpesona dengan puji-pujian seperti itu, kerana ia tidak kekal. Bahkan sewajarnyalah ia merasa sedih dan kecewa, malah ia harus membenci dan marah terhadap orang yang memujinya itu, sebagaimana yang dilakukan oleh para Salaf Saleh sebab bencana-bencana pujian yang mungkin menimpa keatas oarang yang dipuji itu sangat besar, seperti yang telah kita sebutkan dalam bab membicarakan bencana-bencana lisan.

Rasulullah saw pernah bersabda, mencela orang yang suka memuji-muji, sabdanya. ( )

Bermaksud “ Celaka engkau!, Engkau telah patahkan belakangnya (yakni orang yang dipuji itu) dengan pujianmu”.

Ulasan saya :

Imam Al Ghazali membincangkan perihal segolongan manusia yang melakukan sesuatu perbuatan hatta amal ibadat sekalipun bukan kerana Allah (tanpa disedari mahupun menyedari). Mereka melakukan sesuatu hanyalah kerana orang lain, mereka berpakaian untuk dilihat oleh orang lain, melakukan pekerjaan juga kerana orang lain. Hatta amal ibadat seperti sembahyang, puasa, menolong orang hanya kerana manusia, bukan 100 % kerana Allah meskipun niat permulaan ibadat hanya kerana Allah. Sudah jadi kebiasaan perbuatan manusia dilakukan kerana takutkan orang lain mengata kepada dirinya. Contohnya menemui batu menghalang perjalanan diatas jalan, lalu ia turun dari basikal, motosikal atau kereta / pick -up untuk membuang batu tersebut hanya kerana takut orang kata, “dah nampak batu atas jalan pun tak buang” perbuatan membuang batu tersebut adalah baik dalam agama Islam kerana membuang sesuatu yang boleh memudaratkan orang lain, namun yang terlintas dihatinya buat kerja tersebut hanya kerana takut orang berpandangan negatif terhadap dirinya . Yang merugikan diri sendiri, manusia sering terlupa meletakan keutamaan “kerana Allah” dalam melakukan sesuatu pekerjaan walaupun dalam kes membuang sesuatu yang menghalang jalan,

Kadang-kadang apabila kita melakukan sesuatu kebaikan, kita mengharapkan dipuji oleh orang lain dan kita dengan ujub seolah-olah orang lain tidak termampu untuk melakukan seperti apa yang kita lakukan.

“Mereka yang memuji, bukan kehendak saya”. Baguslah jika anda tidak minta dipuji dalam semua amal kebaikan yang anda lakukan, namun bagaimanakah caranya untuk mengatasi pujian mereka supaya kita tidak tergolong dalam orang yang dipatahkan tulang belakangnya seperti yang di Sabda oleh Rasulullah SAW.

Bagi diri saya, kadang saya termakan pujian, sehari dua baru tersedar dan baru hendak bertaubat. Terlalu sukar untuk tidak termakan puji, hanya orang yang berilmu sahaja dapat mengelak diri dari termakan puji kerana mereka tahu siapa diri mereka sebenarnya, segala kebaikan datang dari Allah manakala kelemahan adalah berpunca dari dalam diri sendiri.

Apabila orang memuji kita, ucaplah Alhamdulillah, kerana Allah lah yang mewujudkan beberapa kelebihan dalam diri kita sehingga orang memuji kita, kita tiada apa-apa tanpa keizinan Allah. Segeralah kita taubat dan memohon keampunan dari Allah swt.

Boleh atau tidak kita memuji orang ?. Bukankah secara psikologi memuji merupakan satu pengukuhan, satu ganjaran. Bukankah memuji akan menambah semangat orang yang dipuji. Harus diingat hadis Rasulullah tadi, jika hendak memuji, Pujilah dengan berhikmah, macam mana pula puji berhikmah. Saya sendiri belum ada pengalaman memuji secara berhikmah.

Cuba ayat ini,
“ Tahniah, awak telah mendapat rahmat Allah dengan kejayaan ini” – puji le tu.
“ Tahniah, Allah telah menganugerahkan otak yang baik dalam diri kamu, sebab itu kamu berjaya” – puji le tu.

Orang yang kena puji jawab balik

“Alhamdulillah, semuanya kehendak Allah”
Wallah hu Aqlam

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

we , descendants of Keturah?

2011-09-20T20:01:00.001+08:00

we could be the lost tribe of Israel , we could be not.

we could be the descendants of Keturah (if Keturah is really existed la) , we could be not.

but one thing for sure is that, we are all children of Adam and Eve. FULLSTOP.

Just who can deny that?

"Kita janganlah terlalu asyik untuk "mengangkat" Melayu sehingga kita terpaksa sandarkan hujah kita kepada maklumat Bliblical atau maklumat itu dikatakan sebagai Isra'illiyat." Perak Bangkit.

Tak salah kaji Sejarah Alam Melayu purba tapi alangkahnya malangnya kalau itu membawa kepada ketaksuban. Ingatlah kenapa Yayasan Rockfeller beria ia menaja dan membangun muzium Firaun , kenapa orientalis barat seperti PK Hitti beria ia memuji zaman arab jahiliyah, yang ust Pahrol Mohamad Juoi sebut sebagai "mundur sampai Parsi dan Rom pun tak sudi menjajah".

Ia tak lebih dari usaha untuk menyambungkan umat islam dengan zaman kejahilan. Maaf lah kalau kasar bunyinya. qulil haq walau kana murran.

http://perakbangkit.blogspot.com/2009/10/bangsa-melayu-bukanlah-berasal-daripada.html

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Finally people are seeing the Emperor’s Naked ~ American Decline: Causes and Consequences!

2011-08-27T15:25:00.000+08:00

American Decline: Causes and Consequences

US soldiers gather near a destroyed vehicle and protect their faces from rotor wash, as their wounded comrades are airlifted by a Medevac helicopter. (AFP – Johannes Eisele)

By: Noam Chomsky
Published Wednesday, August 24, 2011

In the 2011 summer issue of the journal of the American Academy of Political Science, we read that it is “a common theme” that the United States, which “only a few years ago was hailed to stride the world as a colossus with unparalleled power and unmatched appeal – is in decline, ominously facing the prospect of its final decay.” It is indeed a common theme, widely believed, and with some reason. But an appraisal of US foreign policy and influence abroad and the strength of its domestic economy and political institutions at home suggests that a number of qualifications are in order. To begin with, the decline has in fact been proceeding since the high point of US power shortly after World War II, and the remarkable rhetoric of the several years of triumphalism in the 1990s was mostly self-delusion. Furthermore, the commonly drawn corollary – that power will shift to China and India – is highly dubious. They are poor countries with severe internal problems. The world is surely becoming more diverse, but despite America’s decline, in the foreseeable future there is no competitor for global hegemonic power.
To review briefly some of the relevant history: During World War II, US planners recognized that the US would emerge from the war in a position of overwhelming power. It is quite clear from the documentary record that “President Roosevelt was aiming at United States hegemony in the postwar world,” to quote the assessment of diplomatic historian Geoffrey Warner. Plans were developed to control what was called a Grand Area, a region encompassing the Western Hemisphere, the Far East, the former British empire – including the crucial Middle East oil reserves – and as much of Eurasia as possible, or at the very least its core industrial regions in Western Europe and the southern European states. The latter were regarded as essential for ensuring control of Middle East energy resources. Within these expansive domains, the US was to maintain “unquestioned power” with “military and economic supremacy,” while ensuring the “limitation of any exercise of sovereignty” by states that might interfere with its global designs. The doctrines still prevail, though their reach has declined.
Wartime plans, soon to be carefully implemented, were not unrealistic. The US had long been by far the richest country in the world. The war ended the Depression and US industrial capacity almost quadrupled, while rivals were decimated. At the war’s end, the US had half the world’s wealth and unmatched security. Each region of the Grand Area was assigned its ‘function’ within the global system. The ensuing ‘Cold War’ consisted largely of efforts by the two superpowers to enforce order on their own domains: for the USSR, Eastern Europe; for the US, most of the world.

By 1949, the Grand Area was already seriously eroding with “the loss of China,” as it is routinely called. The phrase is interesting: one can only ‘lose’ what one possesses. Shortly after, Southeast Asia began to fall out of control, leading to Washington’s horrendous Indochina wars and the huge massacres in Indonesia in 1965 as US dominance was restored. Meanwhile, subversion and massive violence continued elsewhere in the effort to maintain what is called ‘stability,’ meaning conformity to US demands.

But decline was inevitable, as the industrial world reconstructed and decolonization pursued its agonizing course. By 1970, US share of world wealth had declined to about 25%, still colossal but sharply reduced. The industrial world was becoming ‘tripolar,’ with major centers in the US, Europe, and Asia – then Japan-centered – already becoming the most dynamic region.
Twenty years later the USSR collapsed. Washington’s reaction teaches us a good deal about the reality of the Cold War. The Bush I administration, then in office, immediately declared that policies would remain pretty much unchanged, but under different pretexts. The huge military establishment would be maintained, but not for defense against the Russians; rather, to confront the “technological sophistication” of third world powers. Similarly, they reasoned, it would be necessary to maintain “the defense industrial base,” a euphemism for advanced industry, highly reliant on government subsidy and initiative. Intervention forces still had to be aimed at the Middle East, where the serious problems “could not be laid at the Kremlin’s door,” contrary to half a century of deceit. It was quietly conceded that the problems had always been “radical nationalism,” that is, attempts by countries to pursue an independent course in violation of Grand Area principles. These policy fundamentals were not modified. The Clinton administration declared that the US has the right to use military force unilaterally to ensure “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.” It also declared that military forces must be “forward deployed” in Europe and Asia “in order to shape people’s opinions about us,” not by gentle persuasion, and “to shape events that will affect our livelihood and our security.” Instead of being reduced or eliminated, as propaganda would have led one to expect, NATO was expanded to the East. This was in violation of verbal pledges to Mikhail Gorbachev when he agreed to allow a unified Germany to join NATO.
Today, NATO has become a global intervention force under US command, with the official task of controlling the international energy system, sea lanes, pipelines, and whatever else the hegemonic power determines.
There was indeed a period of euphoria after the collapse of the superpower enemy, with excited tales about “the end of history” and awed acclaim for Clinton’s foreign policy. Prominent intellectuals declared the onset of a “noble phase” with a “saintly glow,” as for the first time in history a nation was guided by “altruism” and dedicated to “principles and values;” and nothing stood in the way of the “idealistic New World bent on ending inhumanity,” which could at last carry forward unhindered the emerging international norm of humanitarian intervention.
Not all were so enraptured. The traditional victims, the Global South, bitterly condemned “the so-called ‘right’ of humanitarian intervention,” recognizing it to be just the old “right” of imperial domination. More sober voices at home among the policy elite could perceive that for much of the world, the US was “becoming the rogue superpower,” considered “the single greatest external threat to their societies,” and that “the prime rogue state today is the United States.” After Bush Jr. took over, increasingly hostile world opinion could scarcely be ignored. In the Arab world particularly, Bush’s approval ratings plummeted. Obama has achieved the impressive feat of sinking still lower, down to 5% in Egypt and not much higher elsewhere in the region.
Meanwhile, decline continued. In the past decade, South America has been ‘lost.’ The ‘threat’ of losing South America had loomed decades earlier. As the Nixon administration was planning the destruction of Chilean democracy, and the installation of a US-backed Pinochet dictatorship – the National Security Council warned that if the US could not control Latin America, it could not expect “to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world.”
But far more serious would be moves towards independence in the Middle East. Post WWII planning recognized that control of the incomparable energy reserves of the Middle East would yield “substantial control of the world,” in the words of the influential Roosevelt advisor A.A. Berle.
Correspondingly, that loss of control would threaten the project of global dominance that was clearly articulated during World War II and has been sustained in the face of major changes in world order ever since.
Wall Street street sign is displayed, in New York. (AP – Mark Lennihan)

A further danger to US hegemony was the possibility of meaningful moves towards democracy. New York Times executive editor Bill Keller writes movingly of Washington’s “yearning to embrace the aspiring democrats across North Africa and the Middle East .” But recent polls of Arab opinion reveal very clearly that functioning democracy where public opinion influences policy would be disastrous for Washington. Not surprisingly, the first few steps in Egypt’s foreign policy after ousting Mubarak have been strongly opposed by the US and its Israeli client.
While longstanding US policies remain stable, with tactical adjustments, under Obama there have been some significant changes. Military analyst Yochi Dreazen observes in the Atlantic that Bush’s policy was to capture (and torture) suspects, while Obama simply assassinates them, with a rapid increase in terror weapons (drones) and the use of Special Forces, many of them assassination teams. Special Forces are scheduled to operate in 120 countries. Now as large as Canada’s entire military, these forces are, in effect, a private army of the president, a matter discussed in detail by American investigative journalist Nick Turse on the website Tomdispatch. The team that Obama dispatched to assassinate Osama bin Laden had already carried out perhaps a dozen similar missions in Pakistan.
As these and many other developments illustrate, though America’s hegemony has declined, its ambition has not.

Another common theme, at least among those who are not willfully blind, is that American decline is in no small measure self-inflicted. The comic opera in Washington this summer, which disgusts the country (a large majority think that Congress should just be disbanded) and bewilders the world, has few analogues in the annals of parliamentary democracy. The spectacle is even coming to frighten the sponsors of the charade. Corporate power is now concerned that the extremists they helped put in office in Congress may choose to bring down the edifice on which their own wealth and privilege relies, the powerful nanny state that caters to their interests.
The eminent American philosopher John Dewey once described politics as “the shadow cast on society by big business,” warning that “attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.” Since the 1970s, the shadow has become a dark cloud enveloping society and the political system. Corporate power, by now largely financial capital, has reached the point that both political organizations, which now barely resemble traditional parties, are far to the right of the population on the major issues under debate.

For the public, the primary domestic concern, rightly, is the severe crisis of unemployment. Under current circumstances, that critical problem can be overcome only by a significant government stimulus, well beyond the recent one, which barely matched decline in state and local spending, though even that limited initiative did probably save millions of jobs. For financial institutions the primary concern is the deficit. Therefore, only the deficit is under discussion. A large majority of the population favor addressing the deficit by taxing the very rich (72% for, 21% opposed). Cutting health programs is opposed by overwhelming majorities (69% Medicaid, 79% Medicare). The likely outcome is therefore the opposite.
Reporting the results of a study of how the public would eliminate the deficit, its director, Steven Kull, writes that “clearly both the administration and the Republican-led House are out of step with the public’s values and priorities in regard to the budget…The biggest difference in spending is that the public favored deep cuts in defense spending, while the administration and the House propose modest increases…The public also favored more spending on job training, education, and pollution control than did either the administration or the House.”
The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion – a major victory for Osama bin Laden, whose announced goal was to bankrupt America by drawing it into a trap. The 2011 military budget – almost matching that of the rest of the world combined – is higher in real terms than at any time since World War II and is slated to go even higher.
The deficit crisis is largely manufactured as a weapon to destroy hated social programs on which a large part of the population relies. Economics correspondent Martin Wolf of the London Financial Times writes that “it is not that tackling the US fiscal position is urgent…. The US is able to borrow on easy terms, with yields on 10-year bonds close to 3 percent, as the few non-hysterics predicted. The fiscal challenge is long term, not immediate.” Very significantly, he adds: “The astonishing feature of the federal fiscal position is that revenues are forecast to be a mere 14.4 percent of GDP in 2011, far below their postwar average of close to 18 percent. Individual income tax is forecast to be a mere 6.3 percent of GDP in 2011. This non-American cannot understand what the fuss is about: in 1988, at the end of Ronald Reagan’s term, receipts were 18.2 percent of GDP. Tax revenue has to rise substantially if the deficit is to close.” Astonishing indeed, but it is the demand of the financial institutions and the super-rich, and in a rapidly declining democracy, that’s what counts.
Though the deficit crisis is manufactured for reasons of savage class war, the long-term debt crisis is serious, and has been ever since Ronald Reagan’s fiscal irresponsibility turned the US from the world’s leading creditor to the world’s leading debtor, tripling national debt and raising threats to the economy that were rapidly escalated by George W. Bush. But for now, it is the crisis of unemployment that is the gravest concern.
The final ‘compromise’ on the crisis – more accurately, a capitulation to the far right – is the opposite of what the public wants throughout, and is almost certain to lead to slower growth and long-term harm to all but the rich and corporations, which are enjoying record profits. Few serious economists would disagree with Harvard economist Lawrence Summers that “America’s current problem is much more a jobs and growth deficit than an excessive budget deficit,” and that the deal reached in Washington in August, though preferable to a highly unlikely default, is likely to cause further harm to a deteriorating economy.
Not even discussed is the fact that the deficit would be eliminated if the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the US were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies, which have half the per person costs and at least comparable health outcomes. The financial institutions and pharmaceutical industry are far too powerful for such options even to be considered, though the thought seems hardly Utopian. Off the agenda for similar reasons are other economically sensible options, such as a small financial transactions tax.
Meanwhile, new gifts are regularly lavished on Wall Street. The House Appropriations Committee cut the budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the prime barrier against financial fraud. The Consumer Protection Agency is unlikely to survive intact. And Congress wields other weapons in its battle against future generations. In the face of Republican opposition to environmental protection, “A major American utility is shelving the nation’s most prominent effort to capture carbon dioxide from an existing coal-burning power plant, dealing a severe blow to efforts to rein in emissions responsible for global warming,” the New York Times reports.

The self-inflicted blows, while increasingly powerful, are not a recent innovation. They trace back to the 1970s, when the national political economy underwent major transformations, bringing to an end what is commonly called “the Golden Age” of (state) capitalism. Two major elements were financialization and offshoring of production, both related to the decline in rate of profit in manufacturing, and the dismantling of the post-war Bretton Woods system of capital controls and regulated currencies. The ideological triumph of “free market doctrines,” highly selective as always, administered further blows, as they were translated into deregulation, rules of corporate governance linking huge CEO rewards to short-term profit, and other such policy decisions. The resulting concentration of wealth yielded greater political power, accelerating a vicious cycle that has led to extraordinary wealth for a tenth of one percent of the population, mainly CEOs of major corporations, hedge fund managers, and the like, while for the large majority real incomes have virtually stagnated.

In parallel, the cost of elections skyrocketed, driving both parties even deeper into corporate pockets. What remains of political democracy has been undermined further as both parties have turned to auctioning congressional leadership positions. Political economist Thomas Ferguson observes that “uniquely among legislatures in the developed world, U.S. congressional parties now post prices for key slots in the lawmaking process.” The legislators who fund the party get the posts, virtually compelling them to become servants of private capital even beyond the norm. The result, Ferguson continues, is that debates “rely heavily on the endless repetition of a handful of slogans that have been battle tested for their appeal to national investor blocs and interest groups that the leadership relies on for resources.”

The post-Golden Age economy is enacting a nightmare envisaged by the classical economists, Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Both recognized that if British merchants and manufacturers invested abroad and relied on imports, they would profit, but England would suffer. Both hoped that these consequences would be averted by home bias, a preference to do business in the home country and see it grow and develop. Ricardo hoped that thanks to home bias, most men of property would “be satisfied with the low rate of profits in their own country, rather than seek a more advantageous employment for their wealth in foreign nations.
In the past 30 years, the “masters of mankind,” as Smith called them, have abandoned any sentimental concern for the welfare of their own society, concentrating instead on short-term gain and huge bonuses, the country be damned – as long as the powerful nanny state remains intact to serve their interests.
A graphic illustration appeared on the front page of the New York Times on August 4. Two major stories appear side by side. One discusses how Republicans fervently oppose any deal “that involves increased revenues” – a euphemism for taxes on the rich. The other is headlined “Even Marked Up, Luxury Goods Fly Off Shelves.” The pretext for cutting taxes on the rich and corporations to ridiculous lows is that they will invest in creating jobs – which they cannot do now as their pockets are bulging with record profits.
The developing picture is aptly described in a brochure for investors produced by banking giant Citigroup. The bank’s analysts describe a global society that is dividing into two blocs: the plutonomy and the rest. In such a world, growth is powered by the wealthy few, and largely consumed by them. Then there are the ‘non-rich,’ the vast majority, now sometimes called the global precariat, the workforce living a precarious existence. In the US, they are subject to “growing worker insecurity,” the basis for a healthy economy, as Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan explained to Congress while lauding his performance in economic management. This is the real shift of power in global society.
The Citigroup analysts advise investors to focus on the very rich, where the action is. Their “Plutonomy Stock Basket,” as they call it, far outperformed the world index of developed markets since 1985, when the Reagan-Thatcher economic programs of enriching the very wealthy were really taking off.
Before the 2007 crash for which the new post-Golden Age financial institutions were largely responsible, these institutions had gained startling economic power, more than tripling their share of corporate profits. After the crash, a number of economists began to inquire into their function in purely economic terms. Nobel laureate in economics Robert Solow concludes that their general impact is probably negative: “the successes probably add little or nothing to the efficiency of the real economy, while the disasters transfer wealth from taxpayers to financiers.”
By shredding the remnants of political democracy, they lay the basis for carrying the lethal process forward – as long as their victims are willing to suffer in silence.
Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect al-Akhbar’s editorial policy.
source: http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/american-decline-causes-and-consequences

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

2011-07-16T19:29:00.001+08:00

Today the British papers not owned by Rupert Murdoch “rumored” that he might be jailed. Americans, even Brits, have little or no idea what is at risk here. There is simply no one who can report it when the individual who, not only controls the world’s largest news organization turns out to be, well, what?

Who is Rupert Murdoch?

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has played a significant role in the elections of three U.S. presidents, as well as some of the events that have happened during their
administrations including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economic meltdown, Gordon Duff, senior editor and writer for Veterans Today told Press TV.

What he is not is an Australian “right wing” billionaire. Murdoch, though born in Australia is an Israeli citizen and Jewish.

Why is this important?

Murdoch is now admitted to have controlled the political systems in Britain and America for two decades. He has had the power to choose national leaders, make policy, pass laws at will.

Where did the power come from?

We now know it came from spying, blackmail, bribery and propaganda.

What is his agenda? Ah, there’s the rub.

Was it about selling newspapers using scandals or spying in the name of Israel to push Britain and the United States into wars for Israel?

There is a simple answer.

Murdoch’s primary motivation isn’t even that he is “for Israel.” Murdoch is, perhaps, the most influential Israeli, more powerful than Netanyahu. The problem with that is that his beliefs are what we call “ultra-nationalist.” This makes him a threat. Ultra-nationalists are known to support wars, plan terrorist acts, manipulate populations into strife and racism, foster fear and panic, even financial ruin.

What are we describing here?

If you aren’t totally brain dead, you realize I am describing Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

Murdoch owns Fox News and so much else you may not have a time to look at the list. If he doesn’t own it he doesn’t want it. Fox is a network and Murdoch, owning so many newspapers across America and being a foreigner shouldn’t be able to control such a thing.

How did he do it?

Reagan “appointed” Murdoch an American
citizen. Murdoch promised to have Fox News support Republicans and say whatever was needed, no matter how false, how stupid or, as we have seen now for decades, how genuinely evil.

What he really did, however, was use Fox as a base to allow Israel to run spy operations.

These went two ways:

1. Israel got lots of military technology and secrets they could sell to America’s enemies for money. This is good “Murdoch” business sense, as we all see now.

2. Murdoch helped Israel gain control of
congress. They literally run the United States.

The tools? As in Britain, bribery and blackmail, police, military and congress. No surprises for anyone.

Murdoch has, in fact, engineered the last 20 plus years of American history, picking politicians, throwing elections, establishing policies.

Were the decisions his own?

I don’t think so. I think Murdoch represents a group, mostly financial, making up the Rothschild family, the Federal Reserve Banks and organized
crime. There is an Israeli or Jewish aspect to some of this but not in the sense of being “pro” or “anti” Semitic. The Murdoch empire, married to the “lily white” “no Jews allowed” Republican Party simply put their own very powerful spin on the good old “New World Order,” pushing it into drug running, arms and human trafficking, manipulated international currencies and debt on a massive scale, ran America and the European Union into economic collapse, worked with oil companies to set up price fixing schemes…

This is what Murdoch and his friends have done, all the while pointing their fingers at Osama bin Laden and the evil “liberals.” They divided Britain, starting at first as “conservatives” and then changed to “liberals.”

What they did in Britain is undermine legal government, destroy the nation and the public’s trust in the government, Blair, Cameron, it doesn’t matter, Murdoch chose both and ran and runs both like hand puppets as he did with Bush and his friends.

The ideas are simple. Bilk the countries out of every last cent, use a portion to bribe or blackmail politicians, buy police and get even more money. Then you lie to the people, give them enemies to hate, arrange wars for them to fight and stand back and watch them destroy themselves.

Are there people really this evil?

Yes there are, Murdoch, the gang at his
companies, the gang at Fox News, the folks in the US called “neocons,” the Israeli lobby in the US, the ADL, AIPAC and the Likudist faction in Israel run by Netanyahu. These folks hate the United States. A similar group hate Britain. Australia has their own, he runs that place entirely, right into the ground. He also runs Germany, Canada, he runs much of what was once the “free world.”

Am I describing Satan?

Pretty much.

His strongest advocates, those who have stood with his thieves and liars against all that is decent, all that is good, all that is right is the Evangelical and “Zionist” communities in the United States.They were and are the “fertile ground” for his message of hate and deceit.

Look at the endless list of wild accusations that came from Fox alone. Then look at the others, the accusations, the wild and insane things that were written into history but likely planned by
Murdoch.

Gordon Duff,
Veterans Today.

Masak sendiri dan Tapau makanan : Satu perbandingan.

2011-07-14T00:55:00.000+08:00

Bila kita balik ke rumah, dan dalam kelesuan, membuka peti sejuk. Mengeluarkan bahan bahan masakan. Kopek bawang, potong bawang, potong cili, buka tin sardin keli. Kita masak dalam keadaan yang lesu. Terkadang datang pula migraine. Ahh. Menyeksakan sungguh.

Tetapi kemudiannya adik adik kita makan dengan penuh seleranya (atau pura pura selera), segala kepenatan, kelesuan itu, semua nya hilang sama sekali. Kita lupa akan kepenatan kita. Sebaliknya, kita rasa nikmatnya tengok adik adik kita makan sampai licin lauk yang kita masak. Begitulah nikmatnya berkeluarga. Lebih tepat lagi, masak untuk keluarga. Biarpun, kita masak masakan yang simple sangat.

Dan kita berasa bahawa, kalaupun mak kita bawa balik makanan yang sedap sedap belaka, ikan patin masak tiga rasa ke, ikan keli masak asam pedas ke, ada satu ketika kita rasa tak berselera untuk makan. Kita rasa masakan yang kita masak di rumah itu jauh lebih menyelerakan, biarpun sangat ringkas masakan itu. Sardin keli, sardin tuna ke, masak kicap ke. Apa rahsia nya?

Kasih sayang.

Saya tak kisah mak saya masak seringkas manapun di rumah, itu jauh menyelerakan daripada makanan yang selalu dibungkusnya balik. Terkadang saya tak usik pun. Saya tak turun ke bawah pun untuk makan walaupun mak saya beberapa kali panggil untuk makan. Kerana saya sebenarnya sudah muak. Walaupun makanannya diselangselikan , namun saya seperti mampu mengesan bahawa ia kekurangan suatu bahan yang ter utmost penting.

Kasih sayang.

Saya sering masak lauk yang sama di rumah, kerana selalu kekurangan bahan masakan, saya selalu masak sardin, masak kicap dll lauk yang mudah mudah. Tapi amat jarang ianya tak laku atau adik adik saya tak lalu untuk menjamahnya kerana muak dsb. Kerana saya masak dengan,

kasih sayang.

Ya. Kasih sayang itu lah rahsia atau secret resipi dalam menjadikan masakan itu menyelerakan. Ingatlah, masakan yang sedap tak semestinya menyelerakan. Ada yang memuakkan. Kerana ia kekurangan kasih saya.

what makes our mother the best chef in the world? Love. They cook with love.

Jadi kepada akhwat , akhi yang bakal menjadi jurutera membina masjid, bekalkan lah jemaah jemaah yakni keluarga anda dengan masakan dari air tangan sendiri. Seperti kata pepatah Melayu. Nak ikat suami, ikatlah perutnya. Yakni jagalh pemakanannya.

Semoga kita mampu membugarkan kasih sayang dalam keluarga melalui masakan dari air tangan kita sendiri. Tak kira akhwat atau akhi. Semuanya perlu belajar masak, sebagai persediaan ke arah berkeluarga. Insha Allah.

P/S : Kalau mak saya masak asam pedas, dari bilik saya dah dapat menghidu aromanya. Begitu mengiurkan dan sukar diterjemahkan. Ada sesiapa yang pandai masak asam pedas disini?

amzahu ma'akum. :)

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Tujuh Dasawarsa Sudah Berlalu.

2011-06-25T01:33:00.005+08:00

Tujuh dasawarsa,
sudah berlalu pergi,
bunyi bedilan dan ledakan fosforus putih sudah biasa,
esak tangis mu sudah kering,
diseka waktu yang berlalu.

kau terduduk hiba,
mengenang kesepian saudara saudara mu,
sangat sedikit keprihatinan mereka atas nasibmu,
sedang sepatutnya mereka juga tahu,
betapa besar ganjarannya melaksana suatu misi jihad,
disisi Yang Maha Melihat.

tapi kau sedikitpun tidak menyalahkan takdir,
kau tahu Allah memilih bangsa mu,
berjuang dan tidak kenal erti mengalah,
walau bersimbah darah mempertahan bumi anbiya.

Sabarlah saudara ku,
tetaplah berjuang bulatkan tekadmu,
tidak tersia amaliah istisyahadiahmu itu,
tidak tersia lontaran kerikil disertai teriakan takbir Allahu Akbar,
bukankah Dia Maha Melihat,
Maha Mendengar?

kau sungguh bertuah sebenarnya,
diberi ujian maha dahsyat bukan sembarang,
yang membutuhkan pengorbanan tahap tertinggi,
dan memahami hikmah disebalik dugaan duniawi.

sedang kami disini ,
entah apa yang kami kerjakan sejak bangun pagi,
hingga ke dinihari,
kami adalah dari kalangan orang orang yang rugi,
kerana tidak diberi peluang sebegini,
tidak pula merebut kesempatan berbuat bakti.

Mohamad Azhaari Shah.
25 Jun 2011.
Jeram, Kuala Selangor.

BookLog : List To Buy Books

2011-06-19T23:39:00.003+08:00

BookLog : List to buy books as of 8th June 2011.

8th June, saya sekali lagi ke Popular bookstore. Ini lah buku yang dalam list to buy saya, insya Allah. Selain tu, saya juga sempat membeli novel Persuasion dan Pride and Prejudice. Kedua duanya tulisan Jane Austen. Satu lagi buku adalah buku Tales from Shakespeare. Pada 16th June pula saya membeli buku Terapi Duka tulisan Dr. Aidh Al Qarni.

Seperti saya janjikan sebelum ini, ini lah short list to buy books yang sempat saya jot down dan short list pada 8th June.

1. Putera Lembah Bakkah
Galeri Ilmu
RM13.00

2. Quranic Law of Attraction
PTS
RM13.90

3. Facebook : Sebelah Syurga Sebelah Neraka
Al Hidayah Publication
RM14.00

4. Kisah Kisah Inspirasi Para Muallaf Dunia
Al Hidayah Publication
RM15.00

5. Rahsia Baitul Maqdis Palestine
Al Hidayah Publication
RM15.00

6. Pembaharuan Pemikiran Islam
RD NETWORK
RM15.00

7. Perang Dunia Ke-3
PTS
RM16.00

8. Taktik & Strategi Berpolitik Gaya Khulafa Rasyidin
PTS
RM16.00

9. Ilmuwan Nusantara
PTS
RM18.00

10. Tales from Shakespeare
RM22.00

11. Transformasi Fikah Semasa
RM22.50

12. Minda Tertawan Intelektual Rausyan
SIRD
RM23.00

13. TEKNIK MENINGKATKAN DAYA INGATAN
RM23.50

14. Secangkir Teh Pengubat Letih
Galeri Ilmu
RM25.00

15. Keajaiban Kekayaan Dengan Bersabar dan Bersyukur
Ibn Qayyim Al Jauzi
Jasmin
RM25.00

16. Salahudin Ayubi Penakluk Jerusalem
Abdul Talib Latip
PTS
RM26.90

17. UMAR B AL KHATTAB : THE CONQUEROR
YAMANI ANGLE
RM29.80

18. The Choice : Dialog Islam & Christian
Ahmad Deedat
Kharisma Publication
RM29.00

19. Sherlock Holmes
RM29.90

20. Mari Kita Terbang Ke Syurga
Al Hidayah Publication
RM30.00

21. Baldatun Thoyyibah : Pelita di Dalam Kaca
RM30.00

22. TANDA TANDA ORANG MUNAFIK DALAM AL QURAN
Al Hidayah Publication
RM30.00

23. Yakjuj & Makjuj
Muhammad Alexander
PTS
RM31.50

24. Singkatnya Usia Umat Islam Kedatangan
Imam Mahdi dan Munculnya Dajjal
Al Hidayah Publication
RM35.00

25. Jane Austen Selected Works : Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility
RM35.90

26. Sengsara Kem Kamunting Kisah Hidup Dalam Penjara ISA
SIRD
RM38.00

27. Anda Bertanya Ustaz Menjawab Mengenai Solat
PTS
RM40.00

28. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Worldsworth Edition
RM49.90

29. Genghis Khan
Bantam Books
RM49.90

30. Imam Imam Yang Benar
Abdul Latip Talib
PTS
RM55.00

30. QUANTUM ASMAUL HUSNA
Al Hidayah Publication
RM55.00

31. Good To Great
Jim Collins
RM79.90

32. The 100 Ranking of The Most Influenced Persons In History
Michael H. Hart
RM89.90

33. You Can't Lead With Your Feet On The Desk
Ed Fuller
RM95.80

34. Blue Ocean Strategy
Harvard Business Review Press
RM119.00

35. Biografi Tun Abdul Razak
PENERBIT UKM
RM120.00

SECOND LIST

The Age Of the Warriors : Selected Essays
Robert Fisk
RM44.90

A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE : THE MEMOIRS OF TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD
RM100.00

CONFIDENCE BOOSTERS : 10 STEPS TO BEATING SELF-DOUBT
RM17.00

100 GREATEST WONDERS OF THE WORLD : THE MOST INCREDIBLE PLACES ON EARTH
RM25.90

IDEA PENDIDIKAN BERKESAN AL GHAZALI DAN KONFUCIUS
RM35.00

ADA APA DENGAN BUKU
RM19.90

TENGGELAMNYA KAPAL VAN DER WIJCK
RM23.00

1. Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of
Southeast Asia
Stephen Oppenheimer
London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1999
RM110.00.

2. Khalid Al Walid The Sword of Allah.
3. Michael Jackson (history).
4. Riyadatus Shalihin by Imam Nawawi.
5. The Man In The White Suit (The Stig)
6. Yakjuj dan Makjuj.
7. Iskandar Adalah Alexander.
8. Warren Buffett

*The list may not be final.

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Extinction of dinosaurs 'led to mammals growing 1000 times bigger'

2011-06-17T11:58:00.002+08:00

Mammals grew in size 1000-fold after being left a food bonanza by the extinction of the dinosaurs, research has shown.
From their origins as small shrew-like animals, some became enormously large - and the same pattern was seen all over the world.
They included giants such as Indricotherium, a hornless rhinoceros relative from Eurasia that stood 18 feet high and would have dwarfed an African elephant.

The largest land mammals that ever lived, Indricotherium and Deinotherium, which would have towered over the living African elephant (front)

Dr Jessica Theodor, from the University of Calgary in Canada, one of the study's authors, said: 'Basically, the dinosaurs disappear and all of a sudden there is nobody else eating the vegetation.
'That's an open food source and mammals start going for it, and it's more efficient to be a herbivore when you're big.'
The research, which looked at the fossil record of mammals around the world, showed that after the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago ecosystems did not take long to re-adjust.

An African elephant would have been dwarfed by prehistoric mammals

'Within 25 million years the system is reset to a new maximum for the animals that are there in terms of body size,' said Dr Theodor. 'That's actually a pretty short timeframe, geologically speaking. That's really rapid evolution.'
When mammals shared the Earth with the dinosaurs they grew no heavier than about 10 kilograms, said the researchers.
But after the dinosaurs' exit they quickly exploded in size to a maximum of 17 tonnes.
'Nobody has ever demonstrated that this pattern is really there,' said Dr Theodor, one of 20 researchers from around the world who worked on the study. 'People have talked about it but nobody has ever gone back and done the math.
'We went through every time period and said OK, for this group of mammals what's the biggest one? And then we estimated its body mass.'
The scientists gathered data on Perissodactyla, odd-toed ungulates such as rhinos and horses, Proboscidea, which included elephants, mammoths and mastodons, Xenarthra, the anteaters, tree sloths and armadillos, as well a number of other extinct groups.
The results showed that mammals in colder climates grew the most since bigger animals are better at conserving heat.
The research appears today in the journal Science.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1333215/Extinction-dinosaurs-led-mammals-growing-1000-times-bigger-eat-extra-food.html

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Gambar Serangan di Pearl Harbor

2011-06-17T11:45:00.002+08:00

Gambar Serangan di Pearl Harbor

Pada pagi 7 Disember 1941, pasukan kapal terbang dan kapal selam kerdil tentera laut Imperial Jepun di bawah pemerintahan Timbalan Laksamana Chuichi Nagumo, melancarkan serangan mengejut ke atas tentera laut Amerika Syarikat berpengkalan di Pearl Harbor, dan terhadap Kor Tentera Udara Darat "Army Air Corps" dan lapangan terbang Marin berhampiran di Oahu, Jajahan Hawai'i, sekarang ini dikenali sebagai Negeri Hawaii. Serangan ini telah dikenali sebagai Pengeboman Pearl Harbor dan Pertempuran Pearl Harbor tetapi, paling biasanya, Serangan ke atas Pearl Harbor atau secara ringkas Pearl Harbor.

Pada 26 November 1941 angkatan merangkumi enam kapal induk diperintah oleh Laksamana Madya Chuichi Nagumo. Jepun meninggalkan Teluk Hitokappu di Kepulauan Kuril dan menuju ke Pearl Harbor tanpa melakukan sebarang perhubungan melalui radio.

Pada pagi 7 Disember 1941, kapal terbang angkatan tersebut mengebom kesemua pengkalan tentera Amerika Syarikat di kepulauan Hawai (terbesar merupakan pengkalan udara tentera darat Amerika Syarikat di pengkalan udara Tentera Udara Hickam), dan kebanyakan kapal yang berlabuh di pelabuhan Pearl, termasuk "Barisan Kapal Tempur". Hampir kesemua kapal terbang Amerika dimusnahkan di atas tanah; hanya beberapa pejuang berjaya berlepas dan bertempur. Dua belas kapal perang dan kapal lain ditenggelamkan atau rosak., 188 kapal terbang dimusnahkan, 155 telah rosak dan 2,403 Amerika kehilangan nyawa mereka. Kapal perang USS Arizona meletup dan tenggelam menyebabkan 1,100 orang kehilangan nyawa, hampir separuh daripada orang Amerika yang mati. Badan kapal kekal menjadi tugu peringatan kepada mereka yang terkorban pada hari itu, kebanyakan mereka kekal di dalam kapal tersebut.

Matlamat serangan pada Pearl Harbor adalah untuk melumpuhkan tentera laut Amerika Syarikat di Pasifik, walaupun untuk sementara. Laksamana Isoroku Yamamoto sendiri menyatakan bahawa serangan yang berjaya sekalipun hanya memberikan setahun dua kebebasan bertindak. Jepun telah terbabit dalam perperangan dengan China selama beberapa tahun (bermula pada tahun 1937) dan telah merampas Manchuria beberapa tahun sebelumnya.

dalam jangka masa panjang serangan ke atas Pearl Harbor merupakan malapetaka strategik bagi Jepun. Malah Laksamana Yamamoto, yang mencetuskan idea menyerang Pearl Harbor, telah meramalkan bahawa sungguhpun dengan kejayaan menyerang Angkatan Amerika Syarikat tidak akan dan tidak mampu memenangi perperangan dengan Amerika Syarikat, kerana keupayaan pengeluaran Amerika terlalu besar. Salah satu matlamat Jepun adalah untuk memusnahkan tiga kapal induk Amerika Syarikat yang diletakkan di Pasifik, tetapi tiada ketika serangan berlaku — Enterprise dalam perjalanan pulang, Lexington telah berlayar keluar beberapa hari sebelumnya, dan Saratoga berada di San Diego selepas pengubah-suaian di Limbungan Tentera Laut Puget Sound. Merosakkan kebanyakan kapal perang Amerika Syarikat dari bertugas, dianggap secara meluas— oleh tentera laut dan pemerhati sejagat —sebagai kejayaan cemerlang bagi pihak Jepun

http://ajaibbenar.blogspot.com/2010/04/gambar-serangan-di-pearl-harbor.html

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Gaza Penduduk Paling Sehat di Dunia

2011-06-17T11:43:00.000+08:00

Seorang wartawan yang baru beberapa bulan bekerja di salah satu majalah terkenal di negera Arab menjelaskan bahwa Gaza adalah pusat kesehatan terbesar (The Biggest Health Center) di dunia. Ceritanya bermula ketika sekretaris pimpinan redaksi (Pemred) majalah itu memberitahukan bahwa wartawan bernama Sa’id itu harus segera menghadap sang Pemred. Dengan hati gembira, wartawan yang masih muda dan enerjik tersebut segera menghadap pimpinannya.

Sa’id diterima dengan sangat hangat oleh pimpinannya sambil berkata : Selamat datang wartawan muda…. Terbukti keberadaan Anda yang tidak begitu lama di Gaza telah membuktikan pada kami bahwa Anda adalah wartawan yang tangguh dan serius. Saya mewakili pimpinan media ini mengucapkan banyak terima kasih..

Sebagai imbalannya, saya memutuskan Anda menulis laporan utama untuk terbitan pekan depan terkait dengan blokade terhadap Gaza yang dilakukan oleh Yahudi dan pemerintah Mesir. Sa’idpun menjawab dengan penuh semangat : Terima kasih pak atas kepercayaan yang diberikan kepada saya. Semoga saya bisa melaksanakan tugas mulia ini dengan baik dan maksimal. Tema Gaza ini memang menjadi konsentrasi saya sejak saya diterima bekerja di majalah ini.

Sa’id melanjutkan ungkapan kegembiraannya : Saya akan tulis semua hal terkait dengan Gaza secara detail karana saat ini hati kaum Muslimin sedunia memang sedang terluka dan bersedih melihat blokade terhadap Gaza.

Sambil menganggukkan kepala, sang Pemred berucap; Anda benar, Anda benar… lalu Sa’id berkata : Saya akan mulai segera dan akan buat tulisan-tulisan yang akan menggema ke seluruh penjuru dunia, insya Allah…Barakallahu fika ya akhi… (semoga Allah memberkahimu saudaraku), ucap sang Pemred tadi. Namun, sebelum Anda mulai menulis, ada beberapa catatan kecil yang perlu Anda perhatikan. Sai’id segera beratanya : Apakah catatan kecil itu pak?
Lalu sang Pemred meneruskan: Andakan tahu bahwa majalah kita ini tidak didukung oleh tokoh-tokoh besar di negeri ini. Maksudnya? Kata Sai’d, sambil menyela perkataan pimpinannya itu. Maksudnya, tulisan Anda jangan sampai menyinggung pemerintahan Arab yang terlibat memblokade Gaza dengan penuh semangat dan begitu aktif.. Semoga Allah meridhai Anda..Kita tidak mau bermasalah dengan para inteligen negera-negara Arab yang ikut memblokade Gaza… Bisa-bisa kita dituduh merusak hubungan persaudaraan antar negara-negara Arab, kata Pemred itu..

Sambil melepaskan nafas panjangnya, Sai’d menjawab : Yaach… Oke pak. Saya akan jaga catatan itu, kendati saya melihat hubungan persaudaraan negara-negara Arab tidak akan bisa dirusak oleh siapapun…Lalu sang Pemred meneruskan arahannya :
Barakallhu fik… Tapi, ada catatan kecil lagi yang tak kalah pentingnya yang perlu Anda ingat. Apa itu? Jawab Sa’id… Andakan tahu bahwa distribusi majalah kita bukan hanya di negera-negara Arab, akan tetapi juga di negara-negara Eropa dan Amerika. Kita tidak mau dituduh mendukung terorisme sehingga majalah kita dilarang beredar di sana. Sebab itu, dalam tulisan nanti, Anda jangan sama sekali menyinggung perlawanan bangsa Palestina terhadap Israel dan hak mereka untuk memerangi penjajah Yahudi… Kita tidak mau menghadapi banyak masalah…Nanti kita dituduh mendukung teroris. Oke? Semoga Allah meridhai Anda. Kata Pemred majalah tersebut.

Mendengar keterangan pimpinannya, Sa’id menjawab : Baik pak! Padahal dalam hatinya berkata : Sadis amat Pemred ini, mau membela Gaza, tapi tidak boleh ini dan tidak boleh itu? Dalam hatinya ia berkata : Aku tidak mengerti bagaimana cara membela masyarakat Gaza yang tak punya senjata menghadapi pasukan teroris Israel yang dilengkapi dengan berbagai senjata canggih itu?
Sa’id mengira ceramah Pemrednya selesai. Tiba-tiba ia dikagetkan lagi dengan ungkapannya : Kita tidak boleh menyinggung oarng-rang kaya Arab dan bagaimana mereka menghabiskan uang mereka jutaan dolar AS untuk pesta kembang api, pesta artis, penyanyi di saat penduduk Gaza mati kelaparan. Andakan tahu sumber pendapatan majalah kita dari iklan. Bila orang-orang kaya itu tersinggung dan marah pada majalah kita, kita tidak akan mendapatkan iklan mereka.. Anda mengerti kan? Kita belum siap kelaparan seperti penduduk Gaza. Oke?

Mendengar ungkapan terakhir itu, Said tidak bisa lagi menyembunyikan marahnya, lalu ia berkata. Oke Bos… Masih ada perintah lain? Tanya Sa’id. Sebenarnya tidak ada lagi. Saya sebenarnya tidak mau banyak menasehati Anda… Ingat ya! Jangan bicara soal anak-anak Gaza yang sedang berjuang menghadapi kematian karena kelaparan dan serangan berbagai penyakit. Anda tahukan bahwa media Arab sibuk mengurusi kontes kecantikan hewan ternak. Sedangkan media Barat sibuk pula meliput anjing yang ditemukan pasukan Amerika di Irak, bahkan mereka meminta agar pemerintah Barack Obama meberikan suaka poltik agar anjing tersebut bisa masuk dan menjadi warga negara Amerika.. Masalah ini juga jangan Anda singgung. Nanti organisasi penyayang hewan dunia bisa marah kepada kita. Mengerti? Kata Pemred itu kepada Sa’id.

Di muka Said memancar warna kemerahan pertanda marahnya sudah memuncak. Namun, karena Sai’id seorang yang taat ibadah, ia bisa menahan marahnya. Lalu ia memuji Allah sambil berkata : Subhanallah… Apalagi perintahnya Bos? Bosnya dengan tenang menjawab : Tidak ada lagi, hanya itu saja, bagi saya sudah cukup. Lalu Sa’id menimpali perkataan bosnya : bapak yakin tidak ada lagi perintah lain? Kitakan tidak ingin orang lain marah karena tulisan kita kan?

Mendengar pertanyaan itu, sang Pemred ingat lagi masalah lain yang tak boleh disinggung sambil berkata : Oh ya, karena Anda ingatkan saya, saya masih punya larangan lain yakni, terkait dengan dialog antar agama yang akan diadakan di Negara kita bebrapa hari lagi. Kita tidak mau dituduh oleh para promotornya sebagai penghalang acara tersebut. Sebab itu, Anda jangan sama sekali menyinggung kaum Yahudi dan penindasan mereka terhadap bangsa Palestina serta penghinaan mereka terhadap tempat suci kaum Muslimin. Nanti para penggagas dan pendukung dialog antar agama bisa marah pada majalah kita loh!. Dengan suara keras, Sa’id menjawab : OKE BOOOSS?

Akhirnyanya Sa’id keluar dari ruangan pimpinannya dalam keadaan marah besar karena dia ditugaskan menulis tentang kenyataan yang ada di Gaza, akan tetapi dengan seribu satu pantangan…Namun Sa’id tidak kehabisan akal, karena ia seorang wartawan cerdas. Tanpa melanggar perintah bosnya, ia menulis laporan utama terkait Gaza dan keesokan harinya ia serahkan hasil tulisannya itu kepada pimpinannya agar dikoreksi sebelum diturunkan. Isi tulisannya ialah :

Gaza adalah The Biggest Health Center and NO.1 di dunia. Penduduknya menghabiskan hari-hari mereka dengan sangat bahagia setelah memutuskan untuk mengikuti nasehat para ahli kesehatan moderen agar tidak mengkonsumsi makanan yang menyebabkan kolesterol tinggi, tekanan darah naik, dan kegemukan. Demikian pula, mereka berhasil menghindari faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan terjadinya pencemaran lingkungan yang disebabkan bahan bakar minyak dan zat kimia lainnya. Untuk itu, mereka menerapkan olah raga berjalan kaki yang sangat bermanfaat bagi kesehatan tubuh dan akal, khususnya bagi para manula, orang cacat, orang sakit dan para wanita hamil.
Adapun rumah sakit dan tempat-tempat pelayanan kesehatan sudah ditutup, karena sudah terbukti dan tidak perlu diragukan bahwa obat-obat tradisional alias moderen adalah penyebab munculnya berbagai penyakit dan membunuh daya imunitas tubuh. Sebab itu, para penduduk Gaza kembali mengkonsumsi obat-obatan yang terbuat dari daun kayu dan rumput-rumputan atau apa yang disebut dengan alami atau herbal karena mengikuti petuah atau metode pengobatan kuno, atau konsep, back to nature.

Sebab itu, penduduk Gaza menjadi orang-orang yang kuat dan sehat sehingga mampu menggali terowonngan sepanjang belasan kilometer, pemberani, dan seakan tidak mempan senjata canggih, kendati dihujani dengan white phosphor lebih dari 1.5 juta kg. Karena itu pulalah semua penduduk Gaza, laki-laki, wanita dan anak-anak banyak mengucapkan terima kasih pada pemerintah yang ikut memblokade mereka. Boikot dan blokade itu telah menyebabkan mereka menemukan jalan hidup (life style) yang sehat wal afiat dan jauh dari godaan peradaban yang merusak kesehatan, baik fisik maupun akal.
Yang lebih utama, mereka meminta pada Allah agar Allah memberikan kesempatan pada para pemimpin negera yang ikut memblokade Gaza, isteri-isteri dan anak-anak mereka agar dapat kesempatan menerapkan pola hidup sehat seperti yang mereka lakukan sejak beberapa tahun belakangan.

Demikian juga, penduduk Gaza berterima kasih pada pemerintahan Israel yang dengan terpaksa menugaskan ribuan pasukannya untuk mengontrol dan meyakini tidak sampainya bantuan dan bahan-bahan yang berbahaya – seperti yang dijelaskan sebelumnya- ke Gaza. Semoga blokade itu mejadi faktor kebaikan yang banyak bagi Gaza dalam segala hal dan turunnya pertolongan dari Allah.
Amin yaa Robb.… (fj/zadalebad.com)

eramuslim.com

http://qalamv.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/gaza-penduduk-paling-sehat-di-dunia/

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

2011-06-17T11:37:00.005+08:00

Idolatry in our age

S'hirk',the word used for idolatry in Arabic means "partnership/association".

In the Qur'an, to practise idolatry is to associate any other being, any other person, or concept with God, considering them to be equal to God, and to act upon this unsound belief.

In translations of the Qur'an, idolatry is explained as "associating a partner with God". It is expressed thus: "having another god besides God", or "worshipping another god besides God".

In its broadest sense, idolatry is to adhere to principles and values, or pursue a life style other than is consistent with the teachings and moral values of the Qur'an. Someone adopting such principles simply sets up the person laying down these principles as a partner to God. This person may be anyone; his father, grandfather, an ancestor he may so exalt the society he is a member of, the founders of an ideology, a philosophy or its followers. In this broad sense of idolatry, someone adhering to a different way of living other than the Qur'an, simply practices idolatry. He may call himself an atheist, Christian, or Jew. He may even appear to be a Muslim, performing his regular prayers, fasting and obeying the laws of Islam. Nevertheless, anyone harboring a thought or judgment opposing the Qur'an is a mere idolater; by such a stance he simply manifests his acceptance of the existence of a ruler other than God.

Idolatry does not essentially require an absolute denial of the existence of God. Rather, the majority of the idolaters avoid explicitly accepting such an attribute or "title". Never scrupulous in conduct, they deceive themselves throughout their lives. On the Day of Judgment, they still reject being involved in idolatry. The stance they adopt is explained in the following verse:

One day shall We gather them all together: We shall say to those who ascribed partners (to Us): "Where are the partners whom you (invented and) talked about?" There will then be (left) no subterfuge for them but to say: "By God, our Lord, we were not those who associated other gods with God."Behold! How they lie against their own souls ! But the (lie) which they invented will leave them in the lurch. (al-Ana'am, 22-24)

An idolater does not necessarily have to make "declarations". You will certainly never hear a statement like this: "I hereby take this divine being as a god besides God and I swear an oath of loyalty to him." Idolatry resides primarily, in the heart and is then disclosed through word and deed. From the standpoint of the Qur'an, having a preference for a being other than God underlies it. Giving preference to the will of some person over the Will of God, for instance, fear of other people rather than fear of God, or an attachment to some person rather than to Him are examples of idolatry described in the Qur'an.

From the foregoing, it is clear that idolatry is the diversion of the feeling of "love" from God to other beings. The strong attachment formed to idols is explained in the following verse:

Yet there are men who take (for worship) others besides God, as equal (with God): They love them as they should love God. But those of the Faith are overflowing in their love for God. If only the unrighteous could see, behold, they would see the penalty: that to God belongs all power, and God will sternly enforce the penalty. (Surah Al-Baqara, 2:165)

This verse makes it clear that "love" given to the wrong people lays the basis for "worshipping others than God" as well as idolatry. Unlike believers, unbelievers can never maintain an intimate relation with their Creator. They love either themselves or others, or both; they share out their love among their fathers, sons, brothers, wives, husbands, lovers, the people they are surrounded by, and so on. As well as for people, unbelievers feel attachment for non-living things, or rather concepts like money, possessions, houses, cars, status, prestige, etc.

The superior and gorgeous properties of all living things and non-living things alike, are mere reflections of the infinite attributes of God. The unique possessor of these features is God and therefore the only One worthy of loyalty, devotion and love. Feeling an attachment then for anything other than God is mere association of partners with God.

In another verse, in the words of prophet Abraham, it is asserted that unbelievers leave God and strengthen the bond with their idols:

And he said: "You have taken (for worship) idols besides God, out of mutual love and regard between yourselves in this life; but on the Day of Judgment you shall disown and curse each other: and your abode will be the Fire, and you shall have none to help you." (Al-Ankaboot, 25)

Passion for women is the most striking example of ascribing partners to God in terms of love. The woman in question can be anyone-a spouse, a girl friend, or even a woman to whom one is platonically attracted. In consequence, if the love felt for a woman makes a man drift apart from God, makes him see a woman as equal to or at a higher level than God, then this is explicitly "ascribing partners to God." Such a mentality, assumed to be innocent behavior in society, has serious consequences, however, in the presence of God:

(The Pagans), leaving Him, call but upon female deities: they call but upon Satan the persistent rebel! (An-Nisa, 117)

This point of view also holds true for women. This type of love, unacceptable in the presence of God, is however encouraged in modern societies under the "innocent" rubrics of "love", "romanticism" or "dating." The indoctrination of romanticism- especially targeting young people-has devastating effects upon new generations. This is surely a great hindrance to the healthy development of the youthful mind and consciousness. As a result of this indoctrination, generations devoid of understanding, come into being. In such circumstances, the members of society live in a total unawareness of the purpose of their existence on Earth, and the exigencies of their religion and faith. Such people simply cling to an ignorant way of living and lead their lives without knowing what love of God or fear of God really means.

Another reason for the individual to drift into shirk is fear. Just like love, fear should be felt only for God. One who feels or shows fear for created beings simply attributes individual might to them. This is idolatry, pure and simple.

God has said:

"Take not (for worship) two gods: for He is just One God: then fear Me (and Me alone)." To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and on earth, and to Him is duty due always: then will you fear other than God? (An-Nahl, 51-52)

Unbelievers go in great fear of other people. This is narrated in the Qur'an:

...When (at length) the order for fighting was issued to them, behold! A section of them feared men as - or even more than - they should have feared God. They said: "Our Lord! Why have you ordered us to fight? Could you not grant us a brief respite?"... (An-Nisa, 77)

Apart from the feelings of love and fear, there are other attitudes leading man to idolatry.

The basis of idolatry is the preference for a person, or a thing over God, for instance, to prefer somebody's approval to God's, to fear somebody as one fears God or to love him as one loves God…Or to do for an idol what he doesn't do for God, or to make a sacrifice which he does not do for God's approval.

Given the foregoing arguments, it would be a shallow interpretation indeed to define idolatry as the worship of statues. This is surely an argument used by unbelievers to justify their stance. According to their explanation, idolatry ceased when the idols in the Ka'ba were broken at the time the message of Islam was communicated. If this argument were true, then the hundreds of verses warning believers against idolatry, and providing a detailed explanation about it, would have relevance only to a few primitive tribes in our day-a piece of a reasoning quite contradictory to the essence of the Qur'an. Furthermore from the Qur'an which will prevail until the Day of Judgement we understand that, in every age, pagans lived together side by side with believers. The related verse follows:

Strongest among men in enmity to the believers you will find the Jews and Pagans... (Al-Maeda, 82)

Turn back in repentance to God, and fear Him: establish regular prayers, and do not be among those who associate other gods with God Turn to Him, be careful of your duty to Him, be steadfast in prayer and do not be of the polytheists, who split up their religion, and become (mere) sects, each party rejoicing in its own beliefs! (Ar-Rum, 31-32)

As the verses suggest, one of the most significant characteristics of polytheistic societies is their approach to true religion; they reject some commandments of the religion revealed by God and hence form divisions within the religion. The members of these divisions assume themselves to be on the right path and fight with one another. However, it should be kept in mind that even a minor diversion from the Qur'an is an addition or alteration to what God has revealed, and consequently a source of polytheism.

In the verses below it is stated that no deed of the pagans is accepted by God; even their prayers and worship:

But it has already been revealed to you, as it was to those who went before you, "If you were to associate other gods with God, truly fruitless would your work in life be," and you would surely be in the ranks of those who lose all spiritual good". (Az-Zumar, 65)

Out of what God has produced in abundance in tilth and in cattle, they assigned Him a share: they say, according to their fancies: "This is for God, and this for our partners!" But the share of their "partners" does not reach God, whilst the share of God reaches their "partners" ! Evil and unjust is their judgement! (Al-Anaam, 136)

A believer may commit various sins. However, behind these sins, there is no question of a revolt or a similar intention or act against God. What makes idolatry different from other sins is that, in contrast to the other sins, idolatry assigns another god besides God and invents a lie against Him. Thus idolatry is the greatest sin. It is in a way a manifestation of disrespect to God.

Accordingly, God mentions in the Qur'an that He will forgive any sin except idolatry:

God does not forgive those who set up partners with Him; but He forgive to whom He pleases; for anything else; to set up partners with God is to devise a sin most heinous indeed. (An-Nisa, 48)

God does not forgive the sin of associating other gods with Him; but He forgives whom He pleases for sins other than this: one who associates other gods with God, has strayed far, far away (from the right). (An-Nisa, 116)

Therefore in many verses of the Qur'an, God warns believers against idolatry and deters them from this greatest sin. The Qur'an explains idolatry in detail:

O you who believe! Truly, the Pagans are unclean... (At-Tawba, 28)

Being true in faith to God, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to God, it is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had swooped (like a bird on its prey) and carried him off to far-distant place. (Al-Hajj, 31)

Turn back in repentance to God, and fear Him: establish regular prayers, and do not be among those who associate other gods with God. (Ar- Rum, 30)

Behold, Luqman said to his son by way of instruction: "O my son! Serve no other deity besides God: for false worship is indeed the greatest wrong-doing." (Luqman, 13)

Say: "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me, that your God is one God: whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him do what is right, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner." (Al-Kahf, 110)

Anything, living or non-living, which the pagans assign as partners to God by no means possess any divine attributes.

God states in the Qur'an that these partners can neither harm them nor profit them (Jonah, 18), cannot create anything (Jonah, 34, Al-Araf, 191), they cannot help anyone, not even themselves (Al-Araf, 192), and cannot lead to the righteous way (Jonah, 35). Despite their all being inherently weak, these "partners with God" are set up by pagans. The main reason for such an attitude is the fact that God bestows some of His attributes upon these beings.

The authority, sovereignty, supremacy, and prosperity a person possesses, for instance, truly belong to God. As a trial, God grants some of his attributes to some people in this life. Attributing all the power, possessions, etc. to a person's personality, and thus showing fear for him, would be merely associating partners with God. That person is neither a divine being nor someone who possesses the power to attain anything by himself. At this point, we hardly need mention that these are only imaginary beings one creates in one's own mind. In the Qur'an it is described thus:

Behold! Truly to God belong all creatures, in the heavens and on earth. What do they follow who worship as His "partners" other than God? They follow nothing but fancy, and they do nothing but lie. (Jonah, 66)

A person who worships someone other than God will live to regret his delay in understanding that those partners had no virtues whatsoever. Those partners, whom they preferred to God in this life, will lead them to a great grief in the Hereafter. Those partners are also the main reasons why pagans take God, Who has the sole power, honor, and glory, and Who is also the only One to be taken as the Protector, as their enemy. On the Day of Judgment , their fate will be as narrated in the following verses:

One day shall We gather them all together. Then we shall say to the idolaters, "To your place! You and those you associated with us as 'partners'. We shall separate them, and their "partners" will say: "It was not us that you worshipped! God is sufficient for a witness between us and you: we certainly knew nothing of your worship of us!" There every soul will prove the fruits of the deeds it sent before it: they will be brought back to God their rightful Lord, and their invented falsehoods will leave them in the lurch. (Jonah 28-30)

Then they will be asked: "Where are the deities to which you gave part-worship in derogation of God?" They will reply: "They have left us in the lurch: Nay, we did not invoke of old, anything that had real existence." Thus God leaves the unbelievers to stray. (Al-Ghafir 73-74)

The Qur'an defines the end of the pagans as follows:

But when they saw Our punishment, they said: "We believe in God, the one God and we reject the partners we used to associate with Him." But their professing the faith when they actually saw Our punishment was not going to profit them. Such has been God's way of dealing with His servants from the most ancient times. And so the rejecters of God perished utterly! (Al-Ghafir, 84-85)

Jul 03, 2005

http://us1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/3424/IDOLATRY_IN_OUR_AGE

From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman

Idolatry in our age

2011-06-17T11:37:00.003+08:00