Cerita blog ini

Sejak awal bulan Jun lagi saya sibuk dengan pelbagai benda, termasuk menziarahi beberapa tempat yang sudah lama saya tidak ziarahi, seperti Tanjung Tokong, kampung nenek dan moyang saudara saya. Dan projek-projek yang sudah lama tertangguh, menyebabkan tumpuan saya kepada blog ini menurun.

Saya akui saya bukan blogger tegar. Saya masih mampu hidup tanpa mengupdate blog saya setiap jam hari. Apa yang penting bagi saya ialah satu tempat untuk menulis.

Ketika saya memulakan blog ini pada tahun 2003 atau 2004 (saya kurang pasti kerana ada entri awalan yang sudah didelete), saya lebih berminat untuk menyertai dan menyelami fenomena blogging yang baru masih berkembang pada waktu itu. Dengan bantuan seorang rakan sekolah dan blogger, ieka, saya membuka blog ini dengan nama "Awkward Living with Rollie." Tajuk itu ada maksud yang tersirat. Ketika itu saya masih tercari-cari arah tuju hidup dan baru sahaja tamat belajar. Walaupun saya lulusan dalam bidang komputer, saya agak lemah dalam kemahiran teknikal seperti pengaturcaraan dan pengiraan. Kerjaya di bidang teknikal tidak begitu menggamit minat saya.

Blog ini merupakan projek sampingan saya, tempat saya melarikan diri seketika. Dengan sokongan blogger lain seperti iena, mudin dan rakan-rakan blogger dan pembaca, saya terus menulis. Sedar-sedar, blog ini sudah melepasi usia lima tahun, enam tahun dan seterusnya hingga sekarang.

Alhamdulillah, sedikit demi sedikit penulisan saya bertambah baik, jika dibandingkan dengan masa saya mula-mula blogging. Saya percaya menulis blog adalah satu cara yang untuk meningkatkan kemahiran menulis. Saya sentiasa memberi galakan kepada kawan-kawan saya yang ingin membuka blog mereka sendiri.

Dari awal lagi saya sengaja meninggalkan ejaan kontot dan cuba untuk menepati tatabahasa sebaik mungkin. Keputusan ini secara tidak lansung menajamkan lagi kemahiran editing saya. Saya sekarang lebih teliti terhadap hasil kerja saya yang melibatkan penulisan.

Saya turut berpegang kepada nasihat Anne Lamott, penulis Bird by Bird, iaitu berkenaan "shitty first drafts." Selalunya entri saya akan diedit berkali-kali sebelum dipublish. Mungkin ada melihat ini sebagai satu bentuk self-censorship atau blogging yang tidak authentic. Bukankah blogging sepatutnya datang dari hati? Jujur sejujur-jujurnya?

Memang. Dan memang, ada banyak cara untuk blogging. Ada orang blogging untuk berkongsi pengalaman dan perasaan dengan orang lain. Dan orang menggunakannya sebagai satu wadah untuk ekspresi diri, siap dengan galeri foto dan portfolio karya.

Tentunya saya tidak boleh sama sekali mengatakan yang cara saya blogging adalah cara yang sepatutnya. Terpulang kepada empunya blogger masing-masing.

Satu perkara lagi, ketika mula-mula dahulu, saya menjadikan blog sebagai projek eksperimen HTML dan CSS. Saya mengedit template Blogger.com dan menjadikannya unik, dan sejak dulu lagi saya sukakan gaya minimalis yang kini dipopularkan oleh Apple melalui desain iPhone dan iPad. Satu soalan yang sering saya dapat ialah, "Kenapa blog ini tidak berwarna-warni?"

Sudah beberapa kali saya menukar template blogger ini, dan yang terbaru adalah beberapa hari lepas. Namun akhirnya saya membuat keputusan untuk terus menggunakan template yang sekarang, The Morning After. Desainnnya ringkas dan kemas serta tidak terlalu padat. Dan paling penting, rupanya yang minimalis.

Terima kasih yang tidak terhingga, pembaca dan blogger sekalian, kerana sudi berkunjung, khasnya buat afida yang menjenguk dan bertanya khabar setelah lama saya tidak blogging dan menjadi follower pertama blog ini. Mohon maaf kepada semua jika ada terlanjur atau tersilap. Saya orang tua baru belajar.

Izinkan saya untuk berkongsi semula sebuah entri berbentuk puisi dari 2005 bertajuk "No updates? Why?"

Are you
Too busy, to sit down and write something?
Too lazy, to think of something to write?
Too hungry, to even think clearly?
Too occupied, to even remember that you own a blog?
Too sad, from hearing the depressing news about the world around us?
Too stressed out, from the tremendous pressures of modern living?
Too tired, from running away from all your responsibilities?
Too guilt-ridden, from the thought of taking some time of your busy day to update your blog?

Or are you
Too scared, to face the readers who never really exist?

The Story of the Qur'an

Sumber: Wiley

Saya keberatan untuk memulangkan buku ini ke perpustakaan usai membacanya. Saya bimbang kalau saya membacanya secara terburu-buru lalu terlepas isi-isinya yang penting.

Niat asal saya membaca buku ini adalah untuk mencari maklumat tentang sejarah Al-Quran. Walaupun lahir Muslim, pengetahuan saya mengenai sejarah Al-Quran masih kelam. Misalnya, bagaimana ayat-ayat Al-Quran yang dahulunya tersimpan di dalam ingatan para Sahabat RAHum berjaya dihimpunkan dan dibukukan?

Keseluruhan proses mengumpulkan isi Al-Quran mengambil masa beberapa tahun, merentasi zaman beberapa Khulafah Ar-Rasyidin. Umat Islam sangat terhutang budi kepada Zaid ibnu Tsabit RA, sahabah yang menjadi jurucatat Rasulullah SAW, yang juga telah diperintahkan oleh Baginda untuk menguasai beberapa bahasa termasuklah bahasa orang Yahudi ketika itu, memandangkan betapa penting dan strategik peranan bahasa dalam usaha dakwah. Zaid dan sahabah lain RAHum telah menulis semula hafalan Al-Quran dan mencantumkan lembaran-lembaran ayat suci Al-Quran dari pelbagai sumber, menghasilkan naskhah Al-Quran yang kita semua baca hari ini.

Ini sebahagian kecil isi The Story of the Qur'an, sebuah kajian akademik oleh Ingrid Mattson. Beliau merupakan seorang Professor di Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford Seminary. Walaupun buku ini sebuah bersifat akademik, gaya penulisannya begitu mengasyikkan. Jarang sekali saya berjumpa dengan kajian yang bersifat tinggi (senarai rujukan yang panjang serta analisis yang luas dan mendalam) yang membuatkan saya rasa ingin terus menerus membaca dan berasa sayang untuk berhenti, malah berasa berat untuk memulangkannya. Prof. Dr. Mattson mengupas Al-Quran dari pelbagai aspek meliputi ertinya kepada umat Islam, sejarahnya, penafsirannya, dan peranannya di dalam lingkung hidup Muslimin.

Ada terdetik di hati saya, adakah Prof. Dr. Mattson seorang muslimah? Atau adakah beliau seorang lagi ahli akademik yang mengagumi Islam tetapi belum memeluk Islam?

Jawapannya, ya. Beliau saudara saya dan kita semua orang Islam. Semoga Allah mengganjari beliau atas penulisan yang amat bernilai ini, amin.

This Earth of Mankind

Source: Nobelang Atisan

Some authors are known for their tendency to put their characters through hell. Pramoedya Ananta Toer, I suspect, is one of them.

The Buru Quartet is considered to be one of Pramoedya's most well-known work. The four book series consists of This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia), A Child of All Nations (Anak Semua Bangsa), Footsteps (Jejak Langkah), and House of Glass (Rumah Kaca). Initially banned by the Indonesian government for propagating communism thoughts— an allegation that turned out to be entirely false— the books have been translated into many languages and have been critically praised for its boldness in exploring the intricate web of native-colonial relations.

Pramoedya himself had went through a hell of sorts. Buru Island was the place of Pramoedya's incarceration, and the books were originally told to his fellow inmates before later recollected in writing after Pramoedya was released. The prison prohibited any text whatever. According to Max Lane, the translator of the Buru Quartet, an inmate was taken away by the prison's authority because he was to found to possess a small piece of newspaper that was used to wrap some nails. His body was found floating in a nearby river a few days later.

My Buru Quartet journey began with its ending. House of Glass was a cat-and-mouse tale between a native-born colonial police officer and the figures of Indonesia's native liberation movement. One of them of the Dutch-educated Raden Mas Minke, the novels' most central charater. Minke's final fate was an ill one, a fate that could befallen upon the many who fought and died in the struggle for liberation. For every few names remembered in the history tomes, thousands are still buried in obscurity, doomed to be forgotten.

But Minke had a life, a beginning, and This Earth of Mankind is that beginning. We meet young Minke as young man, a promising native-born student at a Dutch school, the son of a Bupati (native officials in the Dutch administration). Minke was on the path to become somebody.

And that path would lead him to Nyai Ontosoroh. During an expected visit to home of businessman Robert Mellema, Minke becomes acquainted with the most cultured and intellegent native woman he ever met, someone so rare she is almost mythical; the self-educated native businesswoman. She would have been the jewel of her society if were not for one reason. Nyai Ontosoroh is not the legal wife of Mr. Mellama despite being the mother to their two children, Robert Jr. and Annelies.

Minke falls for Annelies as instantly as Robert Jr. despises Minke for winning the heart of his mother and sister. Annelies is fragile strand that holds the story together. Her naivete and exuberance are direct opposite of her mother's character, the indomitable manager whose fate were sealed when as a young girl she was sold by her parents to Robert Mellema. Annelies embraces her mixed heritage which similarly makes her what her brother is not; the self-loathing native-born Dutch. The family's patriach, Mr. Mellema, was first introduced as a man who is reduced to a shell of his former self.

The Mellema family continues to shape Minke's view of the future. In Nyai Ontosoroh, he sees the hope that education can bring. Before Mr. Mellema succumbed to frequenting a nearby brothel, he taught Nyai Ontosoroh all he could. He even admits that Nyai Ontosoroh was more educated than the average Dutch woman in the Netherlands. Nyai Ontosoroh tries to do the same for her daughter by getting her to be actively involved in the family business. Meanwhile, Robert's retaliatory behaviours constantly widens the gulf between him and both his mother and sister.

Towards the end, Minke becomes embroiled in a series of shocking events involving the Mellema family, including him getting married to Annelies. The young couple's happiness was cut short by the intervention of Dutch administration on the grounds that Annelies is underage. At this point it seems that Minke is destined for a difficult life, and thinking about his twilight days on earth in House of Glass really got to me.

To say that I thoroughly enjoyed the two books in this tetralogy so far would sound as if I enjoy seeing Minke and the other characters suffer, being oppressed and subjugated. The truth however is I am both appreciative of and shaken by the realism that Pramoedya conveys.

Mengenali Pendita Za’ba

Di sekolah menengah dahulu saya tinggal di asrama untuk beberapa tahun. Asrama kami bukan asrama penuh, sekadar sekolah separa harian. Sebahagian besar pelajarnya tinggal di asrama sementara yang lain berulang alik dari rumah. Ada yang memilih untuk tinggal di asrama kerana rumah mereka agak jauh dari sekolah. Ada pula yang memilih untuk terus tinggal di rumah, sanggup mengharungi kesibukan Kuala Lumpur saban hari tanpa sekelumit keluh.

Bangunan asrama yang saya diami dahulu agak kecil dan mempunyai enam bilik asrama, dua bilik air serta bilik membasuh awam dan dua buah bilik hujung yang juga merupakan rumah kediaman warden asrama sekeluarga. Menariknya bilik-bilik di bangunan ini semuanya dinamakan sempena nama sasterawan. Bilik saya A. Samad Said, setingkat dengan A. Samad Ismail dan Abdullah Hussein di sebelahnya. Di tingkat atas adalah Za’ba, Keris Mas dan Tongkat Warrant. Bangunan itu sudah dirobohkan dan kini sebuah bangunan baru yang lebih besar berdiri di tapaknya.

Salah seorang kawan sekelas ahli bilik Za’ba. Saya selalu ke situ kerana ahli-ahlinya sangat mesra terhadap tetamu. Jika ada makanan lebih mereka tidak pernah lupa menjemput kami menjamahnya. Sesiapa yang pernah tinggal di asrama akan faham kenapa makanan selalu dianggap satu kemewahan, apatah lagi jika sajian di dewan makan kurang membangkitkan selera. Malah seorang kawan lain pernah berpendapat yang penyakit orang yang tinggal di asrama ialah suka makan free. Mungkin penyakit ini tidak menimpa kebanyakan penghuni asrama tetapi ada kemungkinan saya salah seorang penghidapnya.

Layanan penuh budi ahli bilik Za’ba terhadap saya menyebabkan saya teringat-ingat dan terfikir-fikir tentang tokoh empunya nama Saya cuma tahu yang beliau adalah pengarang buku Pelita Bahasa Melayu dari sebuah rencana yang termuat di dalam buku latihan Bahasa Melayu UPSR saya. Selain daripada itu saya kurang maklum.

Kebelakangan ini saya tersua semula dengan nama Za’ba. Mula-mula di celah-celah halaman buku Ustaz Dr. MAZA. Kemudiannya di muka depan Berita Minggu bertarikh 15 Mei 2011 (“Za'ba Dipersenda”). Perasaan ingin tahu saya tentang tokoh Melayu yang jarang disebut-sebut ini mula menebal.

Beberapa kali Ustaz Dr. MAZA menyebut tentang buku Za’ba yang berjudul Perangai Bergantung kepada Diri Sendiri. Penterjemah buku Ustaz Dr. MAZA menterjemahkannya sebagai “Our Attitudes Depends on Us Alone”, tetapi merujuk kepada buku yang dimaksudnya, terjemahan yang lebih tepat mungkin berbunyi “The Attitude of Self-Reliance.” Atau “The Habit of Self-Reliance”, mengikut edisi rasmi Bahasa Inggeris terbitan Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Sumber: Fauzi Sabri

Menurut pengenalan buku ini yang ditulis oleh Hamdan Hassan, penulisan Za'ba tentang perangai yang khusus ini menerima kritikan dan kecaman ketika mula-mula diterbitkan. Kontroversi yang ditimbulkannya menyebabkan Sultan Perak terpaksa campur tangan lalu mengharamkan Risalah ke-I yang juga diberi judul Falsafah Takdir. Buku Perangai mengumpulkan Risalah ke-II dan ke-III.

Pandangan Za'ba tentang pemikiran orang Melayu amat menyengat. Saya tidak hairan jika nama Za'ba kurang disebut-sebut sehingga kini. Jika kumpulan ulamak pun boleh memohon Tuanku Sultan untuk masuk campur, bayangkanlah reaksi pada peringkat orang awam. Barangkali Za'ba menjadi mangsa perkara yang beliau tentangi iaitu sikap bertaklid dan tidak berusul periksa.

Misalnya tentang mencari rezeki dan menyara hidup tanpa meminta-minta (dalam konteks hari ini saya fikir ini termasuklah meminta-minta kepada kerajaan). Beliau menegur,

... (pada perkara dunia) jika hendak memasukkan anak ke sekolah, rendah atau tinggi, maka sentiasalah mereka hendak mendapat ‘free’ (percuma tiada bayaran), atau mereka terharap-harap mendapat pertolongan kerajaan akan memberikan ‘scholarship’ (biasiswa) kepada anak itu. Jika mereka tidak ‘biasiswa’ tiadalah upaya mereka membelanjainya, kerana mereka miskin dan sentiasa mengaku miskin dan mengaku tidak tahu dan tidak pandai berikhtiar mencari wang sendiri atau berjimat-jimat mengumpulkannya untuk membelanjai sendiri anak-anak itu ke sekolah...

Nah, bayangkan reaksi umum orang Melayu terhadap pendapat ini.

Selanjutnya beliau menerangkan,

Padahal orang-orang bangsa lain walaupun mereka sendiri tiada berpelajaran tetapi dengan sehabis dayanya berkebun sayur, berjual kayu api, berjual air batu, mengkayuh basikal kereta (trishaw), berjimat belanja, berceking makan minum, dapat mereka menghantar anak-anak mereka ke sekolah dengan belanja mereka sendiri dan dengan membayar tiap-tiap perkaranya. Kerana walau di sekolah bangsa mereka sendiri pun, mereka tidak mendapat “peri” semuanya seperti kita dengan anak-anak kita di sekolah Melayu. Maka yang demikian ialah terutamanya oleh sebab mereka kuat bergantung kepada usaha dan ikhtiar mereka sendiri dan percaya kepada kebolehan dan keledar diri mereka sendiri, serta malu meminta tolong.

Saya melihat ini sebagai satu peringatan yang wajar. Kita lihat saudara-saudara seislam kita seperti rakyat Palestin dan Iraq. Mereka banyak mengambil inisiatif sendiri kerana mereka tidak bergantung kepada kerajaan mereka seperti yang kita selalu lakukan. Ada sekali-sekala gerakan memohon derma untuk membantu rakyat Palestin oleh orang Palestin sendiri tetapi sangat jarang kita jumpa mereka yang ke hulu dan ke hilir meminta derma berterus-terusan. Begitu juga dengan rakyat Iraq yang sekarang ibarat ketiadaan negara.

Za'ba mengajak kita supaya mempergunakan kudrat dan nikmat pemberianNya untuk berusaha, di samping bertawakal. Beliau mengambil ibarat orang Kristian yang mengharapkan dosa mereka ditebus oleh syafaat Nabi Isa, di mana orang Islam pula mengharapkan syafaat Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Akan tetapi jika “semuanya” orang Islam hendak jadi begitu — hendak masuk syurga dengan jalan syafaat dan permohonan Rasulullah sahaja menolongnya, bukan dengan jalan amal sendiri atau dengan jalan kelayakan sendiri dari sebab amalnya itu — nescaya tentulah akan memberi malu yang besar kepada Rasulullah hendak memohon ke hadirat Tuhan. Kerana jika demikian maka bermaknalah bahawa orang-orang umatnya bangsat belaka, tiada mempunyai amal dan kelayakan sendiri!

Amal soleh kita adalah usaha kita untuk sejahtera di akhirat. Teguran beliau adalah khusus kepada orang-orang yang hidup tanpa beramal dan hanya mengharapkan pahala tahlil dan sedekah bacaan Qul Hua'llah daripada orang yang masih hidup sebagai bekalan. Hakikatnya setinggi mana pun amalan kita, tiada jaminan yang amalan itu akan diterima tanpa ditapis-tapis.

Ketinggian intelek tokoh Melayu ini gagal diiktiraf dengan sewajarnya. Ramai orang termasuk saya lebih mengenali Za'ba sebagai nama sempena bagi bangunan, jalan atau bilik asrama.

Orang Kota Bharu

I can't remember exactly the last time I set foot in Kota Bharu. I believe it was not too long ago on a trip to Terengganu. I was merely a passenger who slept mostly through the trip. I vaguely recall stopping by a roadside stall for lunch and performing solat at a nearby surau. I went back to sleep and woke up somewhere between Besut and Setiu. Or was it all a dream?

Anyway, despite having a number of good friends and neighbours who hail from Kelantan, I know very about the Cik Siti Wan Kembang state. I turned to Orang Kota Bharu for a tour of the historic city, and by the end of it I got more than just a history lesson.

Way more.

Orang Kota Bharu reads more like an anthology than a novel. The stories revolves around the capital city, told from several point of views. 

The novel has narrator who appears at the beginning to enlighten us on how Kota Bharu came to be. The brief history lesson sets the stage for several stories to come, including some that involves the underworld. More on that later.

I had some expectations about this novel. As a city famous for its Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah, a market where the majority of its are female, I wanted to see to the city from the female perspective. I read on and realised that it wasn't going to happen. The majority of characters are males. This isn't to say that the novel is biased, it just happens to have more testosterone flowing through it.

And speaking of testosterone, if you love gang stories, you could be in for a treat. Mind you, this isn't The Sopranos or The Wire or anything of that sort. It's the sort of gang stories that has more heart and humanity than blood and bullets. Anyone can write gang stories by glorifying violence and spicing it up with explicit scenes, but it takes pathos and a moral core to humanise the characters and not let the audience forget that criminals are not heroes to be idolised or admired.

The story on the flood took me back to childhood. I was in primary school when our house in Terengganu were inches deep in flood water. It was a cleaning nightmare for my parents but an adventure for me. All day long I pretended I was on ship. But I could still recall how my parents stayed up all night to move the furnitures, something some people in Kota Bharu had to endure year after year.

And what book about Kota Bharu is complete without any politics talk. The novel ends with a rather gripping account on the battle between UMNO and PAS for the state government, focusing on the tenure of Menteri Besar Datuk Muhamed bin Nasir, 1973–1978. We will learn that the political manoeuvrings we are seeing today is really nothing new and proving once again that history has a habit of repeating itself.

Even though the stories don't really interlock connect, at the core it's all about the people of Kota Bharu. What is Paris without the Parisians? What is Tokyo with the Tokyokkos? Every city, town, village or neighbourhood is what it is because of the people who reside there.

Laptopku desktopku

Photo by Ja-nelle

Saya pernah memiliki PC desktop dan laptop. Kedua-dua ada kelebihan dan kekurangan sendiri. Sebab inilah sekiranya saya ditanya mana satukah lebih baik, desktop atau laptop, saya percaya saya dapat menjawabnya. Dan jawapannya akan bergantung kepada keperluan orang yang bertanya.

Dalam keadaan saya sekarang, saya terpaksa memilih laptop. Faktor yang terpenting untuk ditimbang adalah ruang. Sebuah desktop akan memakan lebih banyak ruang dan permukaan. Tentunya faktor lain seperti harga juga penting (kerana saya belum sekaya Donald Trump), tetapi kekurangan ruang amat mendesak.

Kali terakhir laptop lama saya berkhidmat sepenuh masa adalah hampir lima dahulu. Ia laptop pertama saya. Waktu itu saya masih muda dan mentah dalam perkara-perkara berkaitan laptop. Saya ingat pesan kawan baik saya, "Laptop adalah umpama bayi, berlemah-lembutlah ketika mengendalikannya." (Saya ketawa kerana saya ingat dia buat lawak.) Kini kata-kata tersebut salah satu prinsip utama saya sebagai seorang pemilik laptop. (Itu pun selepas beberapa insiden yang tidak ingin saya kenang yang juga sebahagian besarnya akibat salah sendiri.)

Dari banyak segi, laptop dan desktop tidak banyak beza. Perbezaan yang paling ketara ialah mobiliti. Laptop direka untuk bersifat mudah alih. Laptop yang jenis berat pun masih lebih mobil daripada kebanyakan deskop kerana papan kekunci, pad tetikus dan paparan yang termuat bersama. Ramai pemilik laptop, termasuk saya, yang menjadikannya sebagai pengganti desktop mereka. Faktor mobiliti bukanlah faktor terpenting bagi saya kerana memikirkan tentang kes-kes kecurian laptop yang sentiasa berlaku. Saya lebih suka laptop saya dibiarkan diam di satu tempat khas dan hanya dialih ketika perlu.

Walaupun laptop dan desktop tidak banyak beza, kedua-duanya tidak boleh kita samakan. Laptop berfungsi melalui kuasa bateri yang dicaj menggunakan adapter berwayar. Benar, laptop masih boleh berfungsi jika baterinya dicabut. Malah ada pemilik laptop yang melakukannya untuk memanjangkan jangka hayat bateri. Ada pula yang terpaksa berbuat sebegini (saya salah seorang daripada mereka) kerana bateri laptop mereka sudah terlalu lemah dan mampu dicaj lagi.

Saya ada pandangan sendiri tentang sama ada mencabut bateri laptop akan memanjangkan jangka hayatnya atau tidak, tetapi ini lebih kepada penaakulan dan bukan berdasarkan bukti saintifik. Untuk maklumat yang lebih sahih saya syorkan membaca panduan oleh BatteryCare, khususnya mengenai cara untuk melakukan discaj bateri secara penuh. Serta pastikan apakah jenis bateri yang digunakan serta beri perhatian pada perubahan suhu dalaman laptop dan bateri.

Kesimpulannya, jika laptop sudah menjadi desktop, jagalah ia seperti mana menjaga seorang bayi, terutamanya kalau duit belum sebanyak duit Donald Trump.

Islam in Malaysia: Facts and Perceptions

Source: Matahari Books

Discussing issues involving Islam is often not easy, even among Muslims.

Take the issue of zakah money as an example. Every year we hear about how much zakah money has been collected in this or that state, usually in millions of Ringgit. The Selangor Zakat Board collect RM336.8 million last year, according to their website. While this is undeniable a good thing, the bigger question that every Muslim should be asking is how are we spending the money and are money going to the deserving recipients. RM336.8 million is a lot of money. Shouldn't the zakah board release annual statements on how the money is distributed, since it is money of the Muslims? Where is the assurance that this money would not be mismanaged or wasted?

I still have faith in the honest people works in the zakah boards. At the same time, I believe it is time we become more professional in handling the affairs of the Muslims, and that includes becoming more accountable. We cannot simply operate on the basis of trust alone. After all, syaitan never discriminates.

And this is among the many arguments brought forth by Ustaz Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin (Dr. MAZA) in his book, Islam in Malaysia: Perceptions and Facts.The book is a compilation of Dr. MAZA's writting in his Mingguan Malaysia column, Bicara Mufti, published between 2006 and 2008. I admit it has been years since I last read Mingguan Malaysia, and I had no idea who he was other than how he was often portrayed by the media as the firebrand young mufti from Perlis with a supposedly Wahabbi leaning. At least that's how I perceived him.

That perception caused some reservations on my part when I first picked up this book. There are a lot differing opinions in interpreting the practices of Islam. At best, these 'disagreements' provide flexibility and room for discourse. At worst, we would be seeing rifts and bloodsheds, sometimes over trivial matters.

According to Dr. MAZA, at the root of many of these issues is the Muslims' blind adherence (taklid) to religious teachers and authorities. Many Muslims simply accept everything that they hear from Ustazs even if the thing sound far-fetched or even ludicrous. One example he gave was about how some Ustaz like to repeat the story about some pious walis who prayed 1,000 rakaah of tahajjud a night. Dr. MAZA deconstructed the story by pointing that assuming a rakaah takes about a minute (which is a very short rakaah) and there is only about 600 minutes in a night from 8 PM to 6 AM; going for 1,000 rakaat in night is neither mathematically nor logically (nor even humanly) possible. On the other hand, a hadith narrated by Ummul Mukminin A'isyah RA reported that Rasulullah SAW use to pray not more than 11 rakaah in one night.

Islam actually encourages the use of individual intellect and common sense. Muslims should be encouraged to ask questions by looking at evidences and reasoning, and a religious figure, even someone at the level of a mufti, should not be exempted from scrutiny. This is sadly absent from the Muslim ummah of today. Making things worse are narrow-mindedness and rigidity, qualities that are opposite to the lines of thinking exemplified by our noble scholars in Islam. Imam Al Muzani, a student of Imam Syafie, told that his teacher warned against accepting any of his teachings that contradicts evidence, reasoning or thought.

There so many of hard-hitting points raised by Dr. MAZA that I am just astounded at how his column managed stay in a mainstream (read: pro-government) newspaper for two years or so. His writing was originally collected in Mengemudi Bahtera Perubahan Minda and this book is the English translation of it. The translator, U-En Ng, does a good job in preserving Dr. MAZA's voice along with his wit. I found some words were translated rather literally than technically like zakah (which is not exactly the same as 'alms', as viewed by a few non-Muslim English speakers including my SPM tuition teacher), dakwah (also, not quite the same meaning as 'preaching') and muhasabah. But for most parts I see that Ng made the effort to get Islamic terms defined as accurate as possible. Kudos to both Ng and Matahari Books. I hope is the first of many Islamic books coming from the publisher.

Whether you are a Muslim or not, this book will give you a lot to think about. And especially for Muslims, a lot of work to be done.

Fatimah's Kampung

(Source: The Asian Journal of Humanities)

If you ever need to teach your children that even bad things happen to good, honest people, then this is a book you should get.

I don't mean to sound so negative. I actually would do the same for my children, especially if see them overdosed on simple tales of good versus evil, black versus white, and so on, because you and I both know the world is grey and grey comes in so many shades... Wait, wait... Before you think I'm suggesting that should we raise our children to become a bunch of cynical, disillusioned zombies without a speck of hope in their heart, I think I better start again.

If you ever need to teach your children about the realities of development, urbanisation and their impact on the lives of ordinary people, then this is a book you should get. In fact, this is what the author and former geography lecturer, Iain Buchanan, had in mind when he wrote Fatimah's Kampung.

Fatimah lives in Kampung Hidayah, a village that is sitting on a very prime land. But we won't see that until later. First we will be taken for a tour around the peaceful kampung, populated by very friendly people who, like many other kampung people, take good care of each other. Close by is a small forest where a tiger, Pak Belang, lives, and therein other beautiful flora and fauna as well, plus a beautiful mausoleum where a very respected man named Bismillah Wali is buried.

The first half of book reads like a good guide to life in a kampung. Friendly neighbours, wooden houses, grandma telling stories; all of which reminds me of my parents' kampung, and even though my maternal grandparents lived in a semi-urban housing project, they lived next to a kampung and I used to ride my grandfather's black Raleigh bicycle through it. I've never lived in a kampung but I have lived near them enough to know a thing or two about the kampung life. I say this because I'm totally blown away the details that Buchanan had capture in his paintings throughout this book. They will make you (if you are like me, a hardened city dweller) want to pack your bags and go for a holiday in a kampung.

The next half is when reality sets in. Developers are salivating over Kampung Hidayah and the last person to stand in their way is a member of the Royalty, the Sultan. Buchanan is bold in having this character in this story because Tuanku and particularly his grandson, are instrumental in bringing about the impending doom change that awaited Kampung Hidayah. I really hope that this book will not end up in the hands of some narrow-minded reader who would bellow that this book has committed lèse majesté by suggesting that the Royalties are in cahoots with greedy developers. And actually I should be more worried about when my children ask, "Abah, why the new Sultan and the developers want to tear down the houses of these poor kampung people? Why are they forced to live in flats? Where are their children going to play? Where, Abah, where?"

I could, and I should, try my best to answer these questions because after all that is the purpose of this book. But if my brain is overstressed by work or other worries, I would tell them in very gentle way to, "Go ask your mother."

Straight to the point(s)

1. Saya rasa saya nak tiru-tiru gaya blogger lain yang menulis menggunakan poin.
2. Saya sangat sibuk sekarang ini. Saya ingin membaca buku yang saya ingin baca tetapi terpaksa membaca buku yang saya terpaksa baca. 
3. Apa pun, masih membaca. 
4. Oh, dan saya kena menulis. Panjang. Saya jarang menulis panjang-panjang sebegini.
5. Kemungkinan besar tahun ini, seperti tahun lepas, saya tak akan dapat ke Pesta Buku (huhuhu...).
6. Di antara sebabnya ialah saya telah borong sakan awal bulan lepas, kononnya hadiah kerana berjaya mengurangkan pembelian buku.
7. Hakikatnya, ia cuma pembelian yang dikemudiankan. Banyak sama juga.
8. (Sebenarnya masa masih ada cuma tidak sesenggang dulu. Sepatutnya saya banyak-banyak bersyukur.)

Cooler ways to handle your .zip files (for free!)

Zip files are super useful. We usually use zip files as a container to put many files in one place, and being compression tool, we can even reduce the size of the total files.

It's good to know that nowadays zip files are readily supported by Windows and Linux. And we no longer need shareware like WinZip or WinRAR to unzip a .zip file. Shareware is a type of software that lets us try them for limited trial period. Once the trial period is over, some features of the shareware will be disabled and we are asked to pay for the shareware's price before all the disabled features are enabled again. WinZip allows us to use it for free for 45 days before it starts telling us to buy it.

I'm sure WinZip and WinRAR are fine if you chose to use them. Me, I like to tread the freeware path. Zip file programmes have matured over the years, including the freeware ones. Some of them are not only super useful but also super cool-looking.

First up is PeaZip.

PeaZip may not be able to make your zip files smell fresh, but it will undoubtedly make them look fresh. Everything from its icon to its user interface is designed to us want to use it and recommend it to all our family, friends and even that guy we work with but whose name we don't know. PeaZip can tackle normal .zip files as well as other less familiar formats such as ACE, BZ2 and ARJ (just heard of this one, actually). On its own, PeaZip is a worthy alternative to Winzip.

Can hamsters handle zip files? It can, if its name is HamsterZip.

Looks may not be everything, but HamsterZip's sleek look is difficult to overlook. HamsterZip focuses on simplicity of use. Creating zip files with HamsterZip is as simple as drag-and-drop.  HamsterZip may lack some of the fancy features of PeaZip, but as a basic (and cool-looking) zip programme, it's everything an average zip file user needs. If you have space for only one zip programme, HamsterZip deserves your consideration.

Don't care much for looks? Then go with 7-Zip, my good friend.

7-Zip might lose points for coolness factor, but serious zip users tip their hats to fella. I use this myself more than the other two because of one important feature: the ability to check zip files for errors called Test Archive. PeaZip has this feature as well since it is based on 7-Zip, but error checking is easier with 7-Zip. When I'm downloading or I received zip files from someone, I would run 7-Zip error checking to see if the file has any problems. Errors mean the zip file might not have downloaded or copied properly. This feature also saved me a lot of time and trouble because there are programmes that can open zip files without unzipping them.

Average zip file users can go with any of the three (or all three, if you like). For power users, 7-Zip is highly recommended.

Do you know any other and perhap better zip file freeware? Share with us via comments.