Being Something ['Khalifah: Intrinsic Values That I've Learnt' i]

Salaam ... ahoy everyone. How's life going? If you--by any chance--were waiting for my daily blabbering, then I'm sorry for not posting anything for the last two days. I've had plenty of stuff going on, and that limited me to do my addiction : blogging of course <but if you were not anywhere close to waiting my post, I still am thanking very much for reading this, yet, another blabbering><gotcha!>. Ahahahaha~

Hazwan invited me. Thanks, man ...

As I have said in my previous penultima post, I was invited to a non-formal, Islamic program by my friends. Thinking of getting damn bored weekend, I was forced to accept the invitation with heart just for fun- no, how do I say it:- "suka-suka"?? Yeah, I think it suits the context ... "suka-suka" There was not even a bit of my heart that said I wanna go there because I want to learn something <we were asked to pay RM10 for food>. Agagaga- mean Yassin.

Things like this happen sometimes in our life. Getting into the wrong intention, vanity, having the wrong mindset and doing something without having full consciousness about it. With empty heart, and a mountain of hope of not getting bored, I packed my things and threw in the boot. Akhi Naqib <my former naqib> offered us to ride along with his Atos. Along the way to there, I was anticipating a massive program which involves hundreds. 

As we arrived, my jaw dropped. Oh my Merciful Allah <I will use it with abbreviation OMMA, by now>, I was like, "Is this it?"  Situated in the middle of bungalow settlement, that has Koreans as their majority, Khalifah Institute stands as a tall and elegant with bungalow. With brown scheme, bamboos decorating its yard, it was like a diamond in a pool of nothing. So wonderful <though my expectation was a large school with many kids and teachers was wrong, I was happy to be there. Its cold, and vibrantly peaceful>.

Oh, forget to tell you a little bit about this NGO project. Well, Khalifah Institute <or better, Khalifah Model School> was established by Prof Dr Muhammad al`Mahdi. The school was actually one of his countless efforts in promoting the caliphatic way of learning, I mean, the truly and rightly way of Islamic epistemology. Their lingua franca is English, and by that, you could imagine how fluent their educators are, in English. And the students, too <but during the whole course of our activity, there were no kids because the people there said, it's holiday>.

A little about the establisher

Prof Dr. Muhammad Al'Mahdi Jenkins

He was an American scientist and atheist. He mastered many sorts knowledge; psychology, theoretical physics, cosmology and of course theology. He was a strict atheist, rejecting any possibilities of Spiritual world/existence. But then, as he studied cosmology and how the Universe came into being, and after he deciphered the intrinsic meaning of E = mc^2, he finally gave up his atheistic life view and turned theist. 

He did not went to Islam directly, instead, he traveled across the globe, studying all major religions and even sort of, trying all of 'em. After "trying" Christianity, Hindu and Buddhism he still was unsatisfied. And at the very moment he gave up, he noticed that there is this one religion which he was yet to study. Islam. He didn't even look and bother "trying" Islam. But later, he forced himself to be sincere, treating all religions as having equal possibilities. 

The moment he read Qur`anic translation, he was astounded. Grounded to the Earth, as if someone slapped him right on his face and said, "This is it!". Later, he turned Islam and dedicated the rest of his 23 years of life struggling to implement caliphatic method in Malaysia. He died on 26th April 2006 out of cancer. Let us hear he confession, made somewhere in 2004:

"I spent over half my life as one of the most committed atheists you could ever imagine. I was totally convinced of the rightness of secular philosophies and materialist science. I spent over thirteen years as a full time university student. These long years of study included three Ph.D. programs. My early studies were in theoretical physics and my later studies were in child and clinical psychology.                    

I had never expected in my wildest imaginings that I would ever be a believer in God, and even more unexpectedly, that I would become a Muslim. About 30 years ago I decided that if I wanted to be honest as a scientist I would have to accept that the findings of modern science, particularly theoretical physics and cosmology, led undeniably to the conclusion that God did indeed exist ... "

 A warm welcome & meeting new people

Now let us get back to the original context; arriving there. Well, I would and should say, the staff there were very friendly, warm and showed us great hospitality. They reflected the real manner, just like what I read in Qur'an. There were the qudwatun hasanah; practicing as many goodness as possible. As much Islam as they could.

Firstly, we were taken to a large antechamber <is antechamber, foyer or what??> and were asked to fill in a form. Details about us. And then, we were guided by one of the facilitators to our room and in there, we rested ourselves after an exhaustive journey <PERGH! As you're the driver ;( >. I dunno about others, but I was darn hungry at that time.

One thing that struck me was the warmth that these guys posses. They communicated with us as if we were their close friend. Ne'er stop smiling, they always be ready for any questions or doubts. That institute certainly has the best educational staffs.

Below are several pictures for this entry. I'll be writing and posting more pictures about the program, so stay tuned.

Mengisi borang sebelum masuk ke bilik <kira check in-lah>.

Brother Qayyum <di sini, memang akan dipanggil nama dengan title Br atau Sr>

Sr. Azra Banu ... she's the best English woman preacher  I've ever witnessed. She used 100% English, so, at times, I had difficulties in understanding her <but her talk was very comprehensive and fun, too>.

LDK. During this, we were asked to do short tutorial to test our understanding about the talk, held before it.
One man's eyes were closed, and he was asked to draw aeroplane.

Getting into group ... from right: Hazwan, Razvi, Adam, Aizat and none other than me.

Presentation ... this was about the 'Always Do-s' and the 'Should Do-s'