The First Muslim Guerrilla Leader

O mountains of Gounib,
O soldiers of Shamyl,
Shamyl's citadel was full of warriors,

Yet it has fallen, fallen forever ...

I'm reading a book that I bought almost a year ago. As you can see from the old, classic photo above, it's all about a Caucasian warrior who lived in the 18th century. Imam Shamil Daghestani, a Muslim scholar, a Sufi, saint and the Shaykh of Naqshabandi Tariqa of Caucasus who promulgated Shari'ah and eradicated Jahili customs from Daghestan. Apart from that, he yielded his sword against Russian bayonets.

Reading the book by Muhammad Hamid is just like reading an epic story .An epic story of faith in God and a legacy that every Muslims cherish, to be retold from generation to generation. It is enough to say that the Sufi movement, especially in Caucasus post-Ottoman period in the eighteenth century was not a Muslim cult that busied themselves merely chanting their zikr or awrad. Their struggle, refusing to concede and kowtow to slavery is indeed worth reading. A great book, written to tell us a great story of Muslims struggle in Caucasus.

Spending two, three days on this book is way much better than attending BTN course, isn't it?

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha!

Moga mendapat Haji yang mabrur bagi yang melaksanakan ibadah Haji tahun ini.

Yang tidak mengerjakan Haji, semoga ibadah korban yang dilaksanakan diterima oleh Allah SWT.

Hidayah As-Salikin

Off day di Port Dickson, sangat membosankan. Kadangkala aku balik ke KL, kadangkala termanggu sendiri di sini. Memandangkan aku meyimpan banyak khazanah buku yang dibeli semasa ceramah Shaykh Fuad Kamaluddin dan semasa di KL, aku bertekad untuk menghabiskan kesemua buku-buku tersebut. Kali ini aku 'menyemak' kembali kitab yang pernah aku belajar semasa Deen Intensive Dublin 2005. Inilah kitab yang sangat banyak 'barakah' dan manfaatnya. Kalau dulu di Dublin, kami bertalaqqi kitab induknya, Bidayatul Hidayah, kali ini aku cuba menghadam syarahannya oleh Shaykh Abdul Samad Falimbani, ulama Patani yang pernah gigih berjihad dengan pena dan senjata menentang kerajaan Siam. Beliau meninggal sekitar tahun 1246H/1830M. Untuk membaca biografi beliau, sila rujuk tulisan Allahyarham Ustaz Wan Saghir di sini.

Secara jujurnya, meskipun kitab ini dianggap kitab permulaan atau 'basic kit' untuk penuntut dan salikin, aku merasakan untuk beramal dengannya adalah satu perkara yang cukup mencabar. Jika seseorang Muslim berjaya mengamalkan seratus peratus perkara yang dihuraikan dalam kitab ini, dia boleh dianggap sebagai sebaik-baik manusia!

Kitab yang asalnya ditulis dalam tulisan Jawi dengan dialek Patani telahpun diterjemah dalam tulisan Rumi oleh Ustaz Ahmad Fahmi Zamzam an-Nadwi al-Maliki(HafizahUllah). Kitab yang beliau edit ini boleh dianggap baik dan boleh difahami, meskipun ada sesetengah transliterasinya agak janggal dan memerlukan penelitian untuk difahami.

Nasihat-nasihat yang dinukilkan oleh Imam Ghazali meskipun sudah ratusan tahun, jika direnungi masih banyak yang relevan hingga ke hari ini. Contohnya;

" Barangsiapa yang bercampur akan orang yang baru belajar ilmu fiqih pada masa ini nescaya ghalib atas tabiatnya itu berbantah-bantah pada bicara masalah ilmu dan mencela akan perkataan orang dan susah atasnya diam, kerana menjatuhkan kepadanya oleh orang alim yang jahat itu bahawa yang demikian itu yaitu menjadi kelebihan dan kemegahan dan bahawa kuasa atas mendirikan dalil dan kuasa atas membantahi perkataan orang. Dan kuasa atas menjawab perkataan orang itu yang dapat kepujiaan dengan dia, maka hendaklah kau lari dari mereka itu seperti lari dari harimau.."

Maksudnya, jangan terlalu bergaul dengan ulama fiqh semata-mata yang terlalu fokus terhadap masalah-masalah fiqh sahaja lantas gemar menggunakan ilmu mereka untuk menjatuhkan pendapat lawan dan mencetuskan polemik. Bahkan perbalahan idea dan pendapat dijadikan platform untuk menonjolkan kelebihan ilmu dan hujah masing-masing. Bukankah ini yang berlaku pada zaman ini?

Mudah-mudahan dengan keberkatan bulan Zulhijjah ini, kita diberikan kekuatan oleh Allah SWT untuk beramal dengan kandungan kitab yang penuh 'barakah' ini.

Ahli-Ahli PAS sila baca

'Bai'ah' according to Islamic jurisprudence

Hashim Kamali

THE current debate over oath-taking and its combination with divorce and pledge of political allegiance (bai'ah) has caused concern among Muslims to know Islam's own viewpoint on the issue.

The facts remain unclear but continued media coverage of the "oath of loyalty" linked to Pas representatives to divorce their wives (talak tiga) if they jump or quit the party has invoked public disapproval of this manner of oath-taking and its negative impact on the sanctity of marriage.

This is also a reliable indicator of Islam's outlook on this matter and may well provide the basis for a juridical consensus of our learned scholars to proscribe and denounce the oath-taking at issue.

Taking an oath proper (yamin) is permitted, according to the directive of a hadith, but in the name only of God and His revealed speech, the Quran.

Muslims are also cautioned not to debase God's illustrious name in frivolous oath-taking (Q.2:224). An oath may thus be taken for a valid reason, to show earnestness to observe or avoid a certain conduct in the future, or ascertain the truth of a past event, such as of witnesses before a court.

Oath-taking to divorce one's wife is basically ultra vires, but the jurists admitted it as a form of oath due to its continued practice among Muslims of a pre-Islamic usage that survived the advent of Islam. Muslim jurists consider this, not as yamin proper, but something of compromised validity they named as half.

Yet it became moot whether taking an oath on a contingent divorce was an oath proper, or a suspended divorce (talaq ta'liq). Since the oath in question is not in God's name, it is oath in a figurative sense (majazi) only. Muslim jurists have, however, disagreed over the juridical consequences of such an oath.

The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence have held that a suspended divorce takes place when its condition materialises, regardless as to whether it was taken by way of an oath, or a suspended divorce for its own sake. This conclusion is based on a hadith simply declaring that "Muslims are bound by their stipulations". A suspended divorce consequently occurs as pronounced in the first place.

The Zahiri and Shia schools have held that a suspended divorce, be it in the form of an oath or otherwise, does not occur ab initio, due mainly to the existence of doubt over its underlying intent: did he actually mean to divorce his wife or merely to show earnestness in respect of another purpose?

Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328 CE) and his disciple, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, have held that if the suspended divorce was taken by way of an oath only, even when its contingent event materialises, divorce does not occur, but the oath-taker is liable to an expiation (kaffarah) that consists of giving charity or fasting. Ibn Qayyim agrees but holds that no expiation is required.

However, if the suspended divorce is pronounced for its own sake, not combining with an oath, then it does take place whenever its contingent event materialises.

The hadith which declares that "divorce is the worst of all permissible things in the eyes of God" implies that all divorce is reprehensible (makruh).

A suspended divorce, when intended, is worse in the sense that it puts the marriage, which the Quran characterises as a solemn covenant (mithaqan ghaliz) in a state of insecurity and suspense (Q.4:21).

Although essentially a civilian contract concluded between two willing parties, marriage in Islam has a devotional (ta'abbudi) aspect that sets it apart from other contracts.

There is disagreement between the Hanafi and Syafii schools over the interpretation of a Quranic verse authorising women who attain intellectual maturity (rushd) to manage their own property transactions (Q:4:6).

The Hanafis drew the conclusion that if an adult woman is authorised to conclude financial contracts, she can, by analogy, also contract herself into marriage without the intervention of a guardian (wali).

The Syafii's retort that marriage is not like other financial contracts as it involves family relations, hence the analogy at issue is discrepant (qiyas ma'al-fariq), which is void, and the presence of wali is a requirement of marriage even of adult women.

These interpretations remain unresolved to this day. A message one can draw from this may be that marriage and divorce should not be mixed up with other transactions, including party-political matters.

A bai'ah fortified by a suspended divorce is also unprecedented in that it consists of an unconditional pledge of loyalty, which the early Muslims took to support the Prophet in the propagation of Islam and counted as an act of merit (Q.48:10).

The Prophet also took bai'ah from women, as the Quran recounts that "they avoid shirk (associating other deities with God), committing theft, adultery, infanticide, slander..." (Q:60:12).

Following the spread of Islam in Arabia and beyond, bai'ah lost its theological application and took a predominantly political character.

In the constitutional theory of caliphate that Muslim jurists subsequently formulated, bai'ah became a requirement of valid election to the caliphal office.

This was not conditional, however, nor has there been any bai'ah in our history to combine with a suspended divorce. A bai'ah in our times is the rough equivalent of a vote. Just as a vote is unconditional, so is the bai'ah.

A vote in a parliamentary or presidential election cannot take a condition to say, for instance, that "I vote for you provided that you do such and such". A condition of this kind would render the election inconclusive. This can also be said of bai'ah.

The alleged bai'ah-cum-suspended divorce that the media has reported of Pas representatives is unprecedented and amounts to a bid'ah (pernicious innovation), which calls for renunciation and avoidance.

The writer is founding chairman and CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia.

Asri Charged

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18, 2009) : Former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was today charged in the Gombak Timur Lower Syariah Court with teaching matters related to the religion of Islam without "tauliah" (authorisation) from Selangor Islamic Religious Council.

(L-R)Former Perlis MB Datuk Seri Shahidan Kasim talk with Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin at Gombak Timur Syariah Court today.

Mohd Asri @ Abu Talib, 38, who is currently a Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer, denied committing the alleged offence in a house in Taman Sri Ukay Ampang, Gombak, between 8.10pm and 9.45pm on Nov 1.

The charge carries a maximum RM3,000 fine or two years jail upon conviction.

Syariah judge Wan Mahyuddin Wan Mohamad granted RM3,000 bail with two sureties and set Jan 5 for a hearing. Asri, who was clad in a black blazer and songkok, posted bail.

When the case commenced at 9.15am in a packed court room, the charge was read out to Asri who said: "I plead not guilty, claim trial."

Selangor Syarie chief prosecutor Abdul Shukor Abdul Hamid applied for the case to be transferred to the Syariah High Court saying that a supporting affidavit was filed on Nov 12, stating the grounds for the transfer.

He said the application for the transfer was made through power vested under the laws to the Syariah chief prosecutor.

He said the case involved application of law and procedures that required views and accurate interpretations by an experienced judge and that the case received wide coverage involving an influential person.

However, Asri's lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman said the accused was only informed in the morning and that they had no opportunity to file a reply.

She also objected to the charge, saying it did not specify or had details for them to prepare a defence.

"It's blur. What is the meaning of teaching aspects related to religion of Islam without 'tauliah'?" she asked.

Zulkifli Noordin

Another lawyer Jamal Mohd Lokman Sulaiman, who is also representing Asri, argued that the supporting affidavit was filed on Nov 12 when the charge was only presented this morning.

He said the Lower Syariah Court judge was qualified to hear the case and if the case was tried in a Lower Syariah Court, the accused could appeal to the Syariah High Court and the Syariah Appeal Court.

"The fact that the accused is an influential person is irrelevent," he added.

Wan Mahyuddin then rejected the prosecution's application for transfer saying the prosecution had failed to state reasonable grounds.

He reasoned that a transfer to the High Court could only be allowed if the prosecution had reasonable grounds.

"Public interest is important and not individual interest," he said, adding that the case should be speeded up as a transfer would cause delays and delays could prejudice the accused.

"The grounds that he is influential is unreasonable for the case to be transferred to the Syariah High Court. The prosecution can have complete trust in this court to handle the case.

"In this court's view, the prosecution must be consistent, not referring to individual involvement. The accused being known to the public will not affect the delivery of justice," he said.

Wan Mahyuddin said hearing of the case in the lower court would also allow the accused to appeal to the Syariah High Court and Syariah Appeal Court.

Former Perlis Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin and Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir were also in the court premises.

Who Need an Islamic State?

No. We don't need an Islamic state

If what we want is only the form not the substance, please don't have an Islamic state.

We live in 'plastic' world, full of slogans.

One leader came and introduce "Bersih, Cekap, Amanah"

After that "Penerapan Nilai-Nilai Islam"

Another guy introduce " Islam Hadhari"

Then " Satu Malaysia, People First, Performance Now!"

We need the substance, not the form.

You can call a city "Bandaraya Islam", but if the town is full with garbage, what the heck?
This is not Islam nor Islamic.

You can call your state, an Islamic state or "Under the Leadership of Scholars" but if the state is full of new HIV/AIDS cases and full of poverty and corruption, then something is really wrong.

We need the SUBSTANCE not FORM or NAME or SLOGAN

The Passing of Shaykh Muhammad Adib Kallas

“God does not take away knowledge by stripping it from the breasts of men. Instead, He takes it away by taking away the scholars in death. Until there no longer remain scholars; and people take the ignorant as their leaders. They are asked, and they proceed to answer despite not having knowledge. They are misguided and they misguide others.” –Prophet Mohammed



It is the way of great men to travel on and leave behind gaps that cannot be filled. The Muslim world is currently experiencing the emptiness of such a gap. Sheikh Muhammad Adib Kallas died this week in Damascus. He was a master of theology and a jurist par excellence. Moreover, he was an example of a sage who inherited not just his knowledge, but his character, from the Prophet Mohammed through an unbroken chain of transmission.

Not only was he erudite and sharp-witted – he continued to read logic with students throughout his final illness just to keep his mind nimble – but he was exceedingly gentle. He was dedicated to both his students and his family, loved them dearly, and nurtured them. Tenderness and sagacity, that is how I remember Sheikh Adib. It is well known that he is the one who teaches ambitious students of knowledge in Damascus to say: “I don’t know.”

Born in 1921 in the heart of Old Damascus, in the shade of the Omayyad Mosque, Sheikh Adib began his pursuit of sacred knowledge in the early post-Ottoman period of the 1930s. He was understudy to some of the greatest names in recent Damascene history. He imbibed knowledge from them while learning was still organic in the Muslim World, well before it would become tainted by modernist reactionism. Between him and the Prophet Mohammed were only 18 masters.

Later, when the Soviets sent their atheist conundrums to Damascus, government ministries would forward the challenges to Sheikh Adib, who would, in turn, make short order of them.

He was courageous and humble all in the same moment, and inspired confidence as well as an ethical approach to law in his students and colleagues alike.

The scholars of Islam who have taken their knowledge in this way have a balancing effect on society. They combine a grounding in the authentic cultural identity of their people with a deep-seated sensitivity to the human condition and the well-being of community.

Their learning is beyond reproach, operating in accordance with systematic intellectual principles, wholesome spirituality, and lofty aims and purposes. The purposes that guide them are the preservation of life, intellect, religion, human dignity, and private property, as delineated by the Andalusian al Shatibi and al Ghazali before him. These men inspire our citizenry to be ethical human beings who combine education with compassion.

It is my contention that the sustainability of wholesome and balanced society is contingent on our ability to maintain the organic methods of learning and spiritual development that these men continue to leave behind them.

By Jihad Hashim Brown, director of research at the Tabah Foundation. He delivers the Friday sermon at the Maryam bint Sultan Mosque in Abu Dhabi

"Adik, adik ni asal dari mana?"

Aku bertanya pada gadis belasan tahun yang terbaring kelesuan dalam 'Resuscitation Room' di A&E. Baju merah jambu yang berlambang daging di bahagian dadanya habis lencun kerana peluh yang tak putus-putus memercik. Gadis ini dibawa oleh ambulan kerana pengsan semasa berkempen pada hari pengundian di Bagan Pinang.

"Saya bukan dari sini,bang!Saya dari Kuala Pilah," ujarnya lemah.

"Berapa umur kamu,dik?".

"18 tahun,doktor."

Aku cuma mengangguk. Entah sudah berapa banyak gadis-gadis sebayanya yang datang mendapatkan rawatan di Unit Kecemasan semasa tempoh kempen PRK Bagan Pinang. Masing-masing dari tempat yang pelbagai pelusuk dan ceruk. Datang untuk berkhidmat demi parti mereka yang dicintai.

"Kamu ni belum pun boleh mengundi. Baru 18. Sanggup pula datang ke mari nak berkempen. Setia sungguh pada parti?". Aku tersenyum sambil mengusik.

"Kami dapat duit,doktor. Setiap hari dapat 30-50 ringgit. Itu belum lagi apa yang Datuk ***** bagi," jawabnya dengan jujur.

Aku ketawa. Itulah nilai muda-mudi yang tidak ada pegangan agama. Diberi 30 ringgit sehari sudah boleh dibeli. Berkempen ke sana ke mari, terpekik terlolong meneriak slogan-slogan provokasi dan isyarat-isyarat lucah hanya dengan harga 30 ringgit sehari. Syabas, tuan puteri!

Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009

"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"

Jack W.Szostak

Carol W. Greider

Elizabeth H. Blackburn

The Baltimore Sun

Carol W. Greider, who on Monday became the 33rd person associated with the Johns Hopkins University to win the Nobel Prize, is a triathlete, a mother of two and a methodical and modest genetic researcher who colleagues say shuns publicity in favor of pursuing her passion: fundamental, curiosity-driven science.

Greider's breakthrough that won the ultimate scientific honor dates back two decades. During that time she has been catapulted to the top of her field - showered with grants, accolades and coveted prizes. And yet, news of the Nobel Prize left her breathless.

"My heart just started racing," she said.

Her rise to pioneering scientist and professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine began on Christmas Day 1984. The ambitious 23-year-old graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, was so excited about an experiment she was conducting, she went to the empty lab to check on its progress. What she detected on a piece of X-ray film led to the discovery of an enzyme called telomerase, a substance that plays a crucial role in the genetic life of cells and holds promise for developing treatments to fight cancer and age-related diseases.

"Carol is a classical, iconic scientist in the sense that she does her work quietly and doesn't seek the limelight and yet makes substantive discoveries like telomerase," said Dr. Chi Van Dang, the Hopkins medical school's vice dean for research. "She's very methodical, very thorough, and works passionately. Every piece of her work is like a masterpiece. She doesn't like to sketch things and throw them out."

Greider, 48, joins just nine other women who have won the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology of the 192 winners since the awards were first handed out in 1901. (In all categories from 1901 to 2008, just 35 women have won the prize, compared with 754 men.) Greider shares the award - which includes a total cash prize of $1.4 million - with Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, and Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School. It's the first time the prize has been awarded to more than one woman.

"A scientist, a teacher, a department chair, a mom, you're really a lady for all seasons," Dr. Peter C. Agre, a Hopkins researcher awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003, said during a news conference at Hopkins medical school attended by many admiring colleagues. "We bask in your glory."

Greider acknowledged the award was a triumph for women in science and said she hopes it opens the door for future winners.

"I think the number of women in science doing high-powered research is quite remarkable," she said. "But the total number of Nobel Prizes going to women has sort of lagged behind."

Awake with time to kill before her morning spin class on Monday, Greider was folding the laundry when the call came from the chair of the Nobel committee notifying her of the honor.

The typically poised Greider said she was shocked. She then made a joke about the committee giving her 45 minutes to prepare before the announcement became formal - enough time to take a shower. "I was glad for those extra 45 minutes," she said.

Soon after, Greider woke up her children, Gwendolyn Comfort, 9, and Charles Comfort, 13, who were elated. "My mom was shaking me, saying 'I won the Nobel Prize!' and I was like, whoa!" said Gwendolyn, who scribbled notes throughout the news conference as a keepsake.

Then the phone started ringing and it didn't stop for three hours, with congratulations pouring in from all over. Neighbors in the family's Roland Park community were stopping by to offer their good wishes. One even erected a giant congratulatory banner across their home's front porch, which was outfitted with balloons.

Greider accepted the accolades in her trademark self-effacing manner. She said the honor is a tribute to the entire telomere field, not simply her work.

"The discovery of telomerase was an important discovery at the time, but it's really the subsequent implications of what it has to do with disease that really makes this day possible," she said. "I'm indebted to all the people in my lab as well as all the many laboratories in the world who have made these discoveries."

While the science behind it is complex, Greider says the finding was sparked by something quite simple: scientific curiosity.

"Simply by going into the lab and being curious about this very fundamental question, we made the discovery that there is this enzyme telomerase that maintains these chromosome ends," she said. "I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to really play and be able to do science and just follow what was the most interesting thing to do."

Greider grew up in Davis, Calif., where her father was a physicist at the University of California. He was her role model for her pursuit of scientific research and the "academic freedom and the importance of liking what you do," she said. Greider graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1983 and earned a doctorate in molecular biology in 1987 from the University of California, Berkeley. After working at a laboratory in New York, she came in 1997 to Hopkins, where she is the Daniel Nathans professor and director of molecular biology and genetics at the Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences.

In 2006, she won the Lasker Award, nicknamed the "American Nobel," for her work with telomerase.

Dang said Greider reminds him of the late Nathans, another "classic scientist" who won the Nobel Prize in 1978 along with Hamilton O. Smith, both Hopkins faculty members.

"This award recognizes work of incomparable originality and insight," said Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels. "Carol's work really demonstrates how all of our aspirations and hopes for our colleagues can be fulfilled in such a dramatic and arresting way."

She's also a role model for a new generation of scientists, said Agre. "Young scientists have to realize Carol was in graduate school: On her first rotation she did an experiment that changed everything," he said. "So science is for young people."

Recent Nobel Prize winners in science and medicine affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University

•Carol Greider

Daniel Nathans professor and director of molecular biology and genetics

Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine



•Andrew Fire

Adjunct professor of biology

Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2006



•Dr. Richard Axel

1971 medical school graduate

Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2004



•Dr. Peter Agre

Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2003



•Paul Greengard

Ph.D. in biophysics, 1953

Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2000