A Tribute to Ahmed Shawqi the Poet...

On 13th October 1932, the great Eyptian poet, "Amir al-Sho’araa" or literally means the " "Prince of Poets", Ahmed Shawqi, left this world at the age of 62 years old. Some 50 years later, on the 13th October 1983, me own Ahmad Syauqi, the doctor and blogger, was born to this world bringing hope aplenty. Maybe he won't be as close to his namesake in his poetry and prose but nevertheless, this "insignificant being" can blog and put his thoughts down for others to share and ponder...that is good enough for any parents to be proud of...

Ahmed Shawqi the poet, has been attributed to making the following observation regarding the state of Islam and its followers during his times "You can find many Muslims in the East but no Islam whereas you can find Islam in the West but no Muslims". This has great significance to the fact that Muslims were beginning to take the Islamic values lightly in the East whereas in the West, although there were not many Muslims around, most of the Westerners (unknowingly) are living according to the principles as preached by Islam such as being honest and true to themselves. If the observation is true, which me can vouch to be true (as observed during me travels across Europe), this would augurs well to making the West a fertile ground for the rapid spread of Islam...

Ahmed Shawqi has also penned down many thoughtful statements which have been since then widely known as wise sayings as can be sampled below:

1. He who oppresses with a rightful weapon will be oppressed with a wrongful weapon.

2. When people brag, they lend to a cat a tiger's mustache.

3. Doomed to perdition is a nation that by an individual survives and dies.

4. Underwater, all depths are alike.

5. Valor may require one be a coward for an hour.

6. A woman-half learnt-looks prettier, a man-half ignorant-looks uglier.

7. A wise man, while unforgetful of life is mindful of death.

8. You may be cured of illness by protection, but cannot escape death until you have met it.

9. He who delves deep in human souls, will never again rise.

10. Brimful prisons are doomed to burst out.

11. Right will never fade out in a nation as long as it has a single man alive.

Maybe me Dr Ahmad Syauqi the blogger can learn something from the many treasures left by Ahmed Shawqi the Prince of Poets and possibly continues with his legacy for the good of the Ummah for your old man too has dedicated you to the services of the Ummah when you came to this world almost 26 years ago....

Perhaps the poetry below from one of his major play entitled "Majnun Laila", literally "Laila Love's Lunatic" written in 1931, a year before his death, could give us a glimpse of what this great poet had left amongst his many treasures reproduced here as a tribute to the Prince of Poets...maybe hidden in between its beautiful verses some wise sayings for us all to muse over its meanings...in order to face the many challenges of our times...

O’ God !

I wander all day and pine through time,
And seek some comfort in my rhyme.
The noblest of rhymes overflow with love,
The sweetest line - the musical and pure -
Are written down for the heart as a cure.
Men turn as they pay to the holy place;
To Laila’s home I turn my face.
Twice people say their payers at dawn;
When I think 0of her’
I know not the times I repeat my own,
Laila hid behind a crowd;
Her lip betrayed a smile,
Like the break of morn,
Or the sun as it shone.
Her sweet breath filled the air,
Made perfumed roses seem less fair.
A shiver ran through my form
From head to toe
As though my eye had met her own.
Let’s love:
All men are mortal but love never dies:
Laila and I loved with young eyes:
Our love story which is now alive,
To our successors will continue to survive.
Generations of men will die and go past,
But our true love will forever last.

(Translated by Dr Jeanette W.S. Attiya)

The Sun is Rising from the West?

The sun rising from the West? Maybe not in me lifetime...but what me want to share is the rapid spread of Islam in the West has not gone unnoticed by many. If metaphorically equating Islam to the Sun, it is obviously rising fast from the West.

The great philosopher, Sir George Bernard Shaw, once concluded that the future of Europe is Islam...and maybe he has seen then that unknowingly Islam was already there in the very essence of the European's psyche ripe for the picking except only for the followers (Muslims) were not there yet.

Nowadays, his prophecy could just be true as it was recently reported by the BBC that many British Atheists and Christians are turning to Islam in drove as chronicled by this BBC report from interviews with some of the reverts...

Could this phenomena be part of the 911 effect? Only those who reverts would know the answer...

Bule yang Mualaf

It has always been me fascination to see how people revert to becoming Muslims. One case in question just look at this young bule lady mualaf...maybe we can learn something from her conversion..

The Asian Tsunami – What Lesson?

That day started off as normal as in any other days. Yeah! me still remember, that day was a day after Christmas, most people was still in their holiday mood, looking forward to celebrate the coming new year–it was on the 26th December 2004, a day known amongst Christians the world over as the Boxing day. But what was to happen that day would long be remembered as the day when the human souls were greatly humbled in the wake of a Tsunami which struck following a powerful earthquake off the coast of Aceh in the island of Sumatera, Indonesia.

When that fateful day had ended, almost a quarter of a million people had perished in places as far away as the coast of Somalia, thousands of miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, notwithstanding, the brunt of the Tsunami was borne by the people of Aceh itself.

The whole world was caught off guard for the first time in its living history. A great devastation caused by an event simply known as the Asian Tsunami, unfolding right under its “nose”, feeling helpless and unable to do anything except watching it “life” in utter disbelieve – as if the whole world was walking in a daze having witness a calamity so awesome and so awe-inspiring to the human spirit not seen before in anyone’s living memory.

The days following the monstrous Tsunami saw the world waking up to a new dawn of humanity - a defining moment for humankind. As the world staggers to pick itself up from the specter of the Tsunami, a new sense of camaraderie never seen before in the history of mankind suddenly bloomed in the aftermath of the spectacle – the earth citizens of all colors and persuasions jumped to the rescue band wagon in great gusto without the slightest hesitation and in all sincerity in a show of great selflessness to helping those touched by the catastrophe.

Suddenly all the physical barriers were broken, borders were opened and all restrictions imposed following the 911 disaster were dismantled and made less burdensome. Suddenly all the benevolent human traits thus far buried deep in our psyche came to the fore in great abundance manifesting itself in the eagerness of the donors to just help the affected people recover from the tragedy and get on with their lives. Indeed, it was like a miracle to see what a Tsunami can do to the spirit of human endurance, a utopia that can only be dream of, to get us to forget about our petty differences in pursuit of the higher goals in life in a magnified way as one common citizen of the world living in the same “boat”.

What lesson from the Tsunami? Again, it was indeed an overwhelming experience, a stark reminder of our own fragility against our surrounding elements. But in the face of a misfortune, the human spirit remained resilient and has always managed to recover to live for another day.

It took the Tsunami just a day to end decades of fighting for the GAM and brought everlasting peace to the Aceh province which had suffered the most, seeing what has become of the squabbling in our world nowadays, are we asking for another Tsunami before we can talk and make peace with each other?

911 - What Lesson? Part I

It has been almost a decade since that fateful day known the world over simply as 911. The many stories of personal tragedies coming out of 911 may be starting to be vaguely remembered by those not really directly affected by the tragedy. In the face of so many other tragedies that followed the aftermath of 911, that frenzied September day may no longer get the kind of attention or closed scrutiny it used to command.

Alas! many start to forget that day was actually the beginning of the end of something more significant in our worldly affairs - in particular the love-hate relationship between the East and the West, between the Muslims and the Rest of the World.

The immediate repercussion of 911 was felt not on the American soil but half way across the globe in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan where the then recently installed Islamist Taliban was defeated by the US led coalition forces after a short one sided battle to find Osama Ben Laden. Not long after, the dictator Saddam Hussein fell to the advancing coalition army also led by the US on the pretext of destroying the weapon of mass destruction (WMDs) supposedly hidden somewhere in the deserts of Iraq.

Those were the grim reality of the impact of 911. Most of us, me including, were shown the "true" side of the story "life" through CNN or other media as if it was the right thing to do for the injustices done.

Many would agree that the world we live in had never been the same ever since 911. Many would henceforth viewed people of Muslim faith and origin as the perpetrators so as to be avoided at all costs. Muslims were looked upon with disdain and suspicion as if at any moment they would strike and cause untold havoc to their neighbors.

The "War of the Worlds" was replaced with the "Clash of the Civilizations". Muslims versus the West, Muslim versus the Rest of the World. Life was becoming very difficult for those whose looks or names having any tiny resemblance to being Muslims. Even the Arab tourists were forced to flee from the West and make a mass exodus to the East to spend their petrodollars in unheard of vacation spots in the East.

Muslims in the West continue to suffer. Head scarves for the Muslimah were banned in schools and public institutions. Places of worships were closely monitored and sermons were being taped for later evidences. Charitable organizations with suspected linkages to "terror" were forced to close and assets frozen, shutting down critically needed funds for helping the needy the world over. No more fun no more life as Muslims living in the West - only untold sufferings and hatred.

With clouds there is silver lining, despite the grim and gloomy outlook, there bound to be good tidings as God works in very mysterious ways. All is not lost it seems, the deluge of negative publicity on the Muslims had apparently produced an unprecedented demand for copies of the Quran's translations, where it was reportedly fast becoming the most sort after item and became the "best seller" and at times were "sold out" in some major bookstores in the West. There were also a tremendous surge in the searches for "Islam" or "Muslims" in the world wide web - mainly out of curiosity, out of the desires to know "why things happened".

This inquisitiveness has always been the best part of the intellectual West - a quality that will eventually helped them to decipher meanings "in between the lines", which will ultimately led them to the truth and be their savior.

What lesson from 911? No matter how much the truth is to be concealed and distorted, it will one day come out with a shine to find its true place in the hearts of men and women who are sincere and willing to look for an answer.