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Hadith of the Update

Narrated by Ibn 'Abbas,

The Prophet said, "There are two blessings which many people lose : (They are) Health and free time for doing good."

[Bukhari. Volume 8, Book 76, Number 421]

Quote of the Update

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

-George Orwell

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Boonaa Mohammed in USMKK

Author's note: Suggested BGM, Michl - Kill Our Way to Heaven. Why? Listen to the lyrics and you'll know why.


     What's up guys? Hopefully you're all well and healthy. I know I am. n_n   I haven't blogged for so long but honestly, I've always been wanting to do this. I kept on thinking about this day it was like, I'm a heavy smoker and I was deprived from smoking. Imagine that. It was that bad. Haha. My hands were itching unbearably to write something in here and Thank God, I now have a reason and also the time to update it. So, what is it about this time around?

     How many of you actually know about Boonaa Mohammed? To be honest, last week was my first time hearing his name. He came to my campus a few days ago and a few days before that, I heard people talking about him. My friends kept talking about him, some random staffs from USM were talking about him, the announcement after almost every events were talking about him, it was like I went full blown crazy as if I could even hear cats purring about him. XD   Okay, that's exaggerating. Haha. But yeap, he became a subject everyone talked about. They were saying he's a famous poet and stuffs so I took the chance to go and hear him speak. Trust me, now I know why people were so excited. The talk was definitely a fulfilling one and so, I'd love to share some of the knowledge I gained with all you. n_n

     Actually, before the talk began, we watched a movie. A movie made by the speaker himself, Boonaa Mohammed. It was an hour long movie called Tug of War. Click here to watch the trailer if you're interested, but I don't know where you can actually watch the full movie though. So sorry about that. XD   Lucky me, I got to watch it for free. Haha. It's actually about a Muslim man, Khalil who just came out of prison, turned over a new leaf and was trying to build his life back. Sadly, everyone shunned him including his parents. He lost everything but one friend, Anas. However Anas is not all good news. Long story short, these two turned into extremist Muslims due to the personal problems and were ready to fly to a place (I honestly forgot where it was) to join Muslim extremist militaries. However, something happened that they got separated. In the end, Khalil, the ex-convict went there alone, and died on the battlefield while Anas, learned more about Islam and became an advocate of Islam. The end. You could really see the blessings of our own life hidden in the scenes of this movie.

     The movie was related to the topic of the speech, I guess, that was pretty much why he chose to let the audience watch it first. Probably. Or maybe, he was just being smart, saving his energy from speaking for too long. Hmmm. Slick. =w=   Oh well, when we were done watching the movie, only then Brother Boonaa gave his speech for about another hour plus, together with Q&A session. So let's see what are the meats and potatoes of his speech. n_n

   One, although there is no such thing as terrorists prototype, or a particular mould, there is one specific trait that these people have in common. Political grievance. They see what's happening to Muslims all over the world, many are killed everyday and this makes their blood boil. "That should be the case for all of us as well but that's not the issue. The issue is, what we view as the solutions to these problems," said Boonaa. We are fundamentally opposed to anyone who uses indiscriminate violence to harm others for their political goals, in the name of religion, in the name of Islam be it ISIS, Boko Haram etc or any other groups that may come in the future.

     Their rhetorics are usually based on emotions. They try to emotionally blackmail you saying stuffs like, "They slaughtered our brothers and sisters in Palestine and you are sitting here doing nothing but drinks coffee and enjoying your life? Are you not ashamed?" Heard of something like that? Or perhaps, have someone said that to you? n_n   These people use their emotions as their dalil, their evidence, as a permit for them to use violence against others. They would go against their Imams, the ulama' when their ideas are challenged. They start attacking people of knowledge saying, scholars for dollars, deviated and corrupted etc while in reality, they are the ignorant ones. 

     Secondly, Brother Boonaa says there is a huge lack of knowledge about Islam in this world by both the non-Muslims and the Muslims. These people would take the same ayat (sentence) in the Quran and use it out of context to support their own cause. Not just them, we, the current Muslims community are also doing the same. How many of us ask questions to Syeikh Google when we are in doubt about something? Uh uh, don't lie, we all did this. n_n   We take our religion from Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and funny thing is, we think our knowledge are of the same level as our scholars who have spent years learning this Deen (Islam). Funny, but true isn't it? n_n

     That is a big problem. Why? Because when we think we know about Islam while in truth, we are ignorant and have misunderstood it even,  we are easily persuaded into things that are incorrect. The Muslims nowadays are lacking in what Boonaa call critical thinking. We never authenticate what we saw or heard. If someone were to post a photo, "Did you know, if you say Allah Allah Allah and spin around, anti-clockwise for 40 times, you'll enter Jannah (heaven)?  Signed, Muslims Fact," some of us may believe in it blindly. That's how sad we've become.

     Nowadays, we take our religion in a very weird way. Some examples, we say MasyaAllah brother, look at how long his beard is, he must be right. Or, see his turban and his robes? He must be an ulama', if you don't trust him, you'll go to hell man. Or, look at her, she's wearing purdah, wife-material bro *pervy laughs*. That's not Islam. We cannot believe everything people tell us just based on how they look. We have to take it upon ourselves to understand why we believe what we believe. It's not good enough that our parents tell us, he tells us, she tells us. We should investigate and learn about the matters on our own. Be critical in our thinking and don't just believe in what somebody tells you because that is the key factor in misguidance.

     Next thing is, the lacking of safe spaces. What does this mean? Brother Boonaa says, in Canada, many people are curious about Jihad however the Muslims over there are scared to even say that word. Some would not even speak about it with their kids. They are paranoid, scared that someone is listening to them and what is the effect of this? The curious people, their curious childrens now only have one options to learn about Jihad, that is through the internet. Boom. No wonder there are so many misunderstandings about the word Jihad. Therefore, to create safe spaces where people can talk freely without being scared is of utmost importance. But in Malaysia, honestly that's not much of a problem I think. Thank God. n_n

     Finally, the conclusion. Fuuuh. That was long. Let's finish this last bit. Have you ever asked yourself, "Do I care about Muslims all over the world? If I do, what have I done for their cause?" If you can answer it, Alhamdulillah. But if you can't, like me, Brother Boonaa's story may change that. A few weeks before the election in Canada last year, he made a Youtube video and openly criticised the ex-Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. The video went viral and the atmosphere was a mixture of emotions. Some Muslims were scared, some were very accepting. Then again, many people thanked him for saying all the things they were too afraid to say. Thing is, everyone keep waiting for someone to make a change but they never try to be the one who lead the change. So, what have we done to help our Ummah? The answer should never be nothing because everyone can put something to the table. And if you're questioning as to why should you help them, thinking you're also suffering in many other ways they don't, try counting the blessings you've gained in your life. n_n

     This has been a pleasure. As I thought, I love blogging so much and I hope I'll be able to share things here for many years more. n_n   Hopefully, the post has been worth the long read. I'm sorry if it gets draggy sometimes but as long as you reach this point feeling satisfied, I am more than happy. One last thing, I'll be facing my Professional Examination 2 this mid-May. What that means is, I have to pass it in order to get into my fourth year of my degree. Please, do pray for me and my friends and may one day, we will become doctors who are trustworthy and responsible enough to serve the communities. Ameen. Thank you for the kind prayers everyone. n_n

Here's a video of the whole speech. Thanks to FESKI for bringing such a fantastic speaker.



~Jaw~

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