Monday 30 July 2012

On Olympics, Illuminati and Ramadhan

Bismillah ar Rahman ar Raheem

What we're taught when appraising a medical paper, (and I believe this applies to any paper as well in its own context), one very crucial question to ask which makes all the differences is "So what?" or in a more formal note, "Is it clinically important?"

Reading a Facebook status of a friend regarding the Olympics and the Illuminati conspiracy, brings a different perspective in viewing things.

***

"Inspired by an anyonymous relative:
Banyaknya post berkenaan konspirasi Olympic. Hebat betul imaginasi umat Islam sekarang. Pasal pokoklah, baby dan byk benda yang mengarut serta tidak bersandarkan fakta. Benda baik pasal Olympic yg merupakan fakta tak nak sebut seperta IERA organisation yg menggunakan peluang utk berdakwah tentang Islam kpd Non-Muslim, bagaimana pihak penganjuran menyediakan sahur dan iftar utk umat Islam yang berpuasa, dan paling gah sekali, mereka sebut tentang bulan Ramadhan. Korg tak rasa izzah ke apabila org bukan Islam sebut pasal Ramadhan dan atlet kita bermain waktu puasa demi menunjukkan terernya umat Islam dalam bidang sukan (yg shariah compliant)? 
Cuba fikir betapa gahnya, org bukan Islam sorak dan bincang sesama diorg benda mcm, "Hey John, look at them Muslims. Mighty strong people going to fight our boys with empty stomach" "Yeah, Rob. That sounds like they got guts"
Hai, kawan2. Daripada korg share gambar illuminati, lebih korg share gambar yg menguntungkan Islam seperti gambar umat Islam bagi leaflet psl Islam luar stadium, psl atlet Islam berhijab, psl atlet Islam berdoa atau pasal atlet Islam buka puasa. Mana tahu org bukan Islam atau org yg kurang Islam akan dpt hidayah apabila melihat gambar positif yg korg share. 
Klu korg share post illuminati/freemason/Yahudi ni, lglah merugikan Islam sebab korg tunjukkan betapa ceteknya pemikiran org Islam. Entah2, itu mungkin agenda illuminati sebenar - to make you guys to share riddiculus post to make Islam looks as stupid as possible. Inception?!
Astaghfirullahal azim. Wallahu a'lam."
***

We are so easily bugged by such conspiracies and we are so ready to hit the Share button and add more fuel to the flame. But how about we take a second and think, and ask ourselves, "So what?"
Why should we bother about the Illuminati and stuff? 
To raise the awareness, people might say... 
And so what?
Well, to prepare ourselves and so we can defend our precious ones from being influenced by those sly bad bad BAD guys. 
And so, what do you do to "defend" ourselves?
Err...
Ok. So what? 

You know those 5Fs or 5Ss or whatever people say are the strategies made by them evil people to mislead us? I believe many have come across it and I believe many are keen to share it and probably have shared it whenever they come across those acronyms. I don't remember all the individual Fs or Ss, but I remember them being Fashion, Fun, Football, and et cetera. Oh well, probably we can add Facebook in it too. It's a double-edged dagger, really. You can kill, or be killed. You can use it, or be used. You choose. 

But anyway, I think a lot of us know about it but what do we do? I don't have any issues with football, honestly. Oh well, I know I don't play much football. I don't have passion about it. I don't support any team. I don't watch them. You mention a name, chances are I don't even know who that is, let alone to know which team he's playing. I often got asked playfully, "IC tulis jantina apa?" translated as "Are you a man or what?"
Man are defined with football. You don't watch football, you're not a man. Again, I have no issues with football. It's a great sport, it brings people together, man and woman alike, but I wonder why do people went head over heels for it more than they fell in love with the Prophet's Sunnah. 
It makes me wonder how come some people are able to wake up at 3 am to watch football, but hardly for qiam. Some offer salah since they've woken up that early before the match, but just a thing to reflect, what is it that woke them up? The match or the sheer desire to make qiam? I'm saying this not because I make qiam every night (I find it extremely hard myself, honestly) but just a note to reflect ourselves on, how much do we prepare for those insults and fitnahs that we already knew are their strategies to divert us from the straight path? We've known their strategies, but what do we do, individually and collectively, to counter those attacks? 

It's like, you are spying on the enemy and seeing what they are doing but you go back, doing nothing. 
"Oh look! They're loading their machine guns!"
"They've got new high-tech tanks" 
"Oooohhh.. new unmanned drones!"
"Gosh, deadlier chemical bombs~!"
But hey, where's YOUR ammunition? 
Oh we can easily chuck out some nice weaponry and build new tanks and bombs and stuffs and blast them off in a few shots and they'll be gone from this world. Easy peasy. 
Or is it? 
Those are not our ammunition. Our real stuff is our iman. Fortify your iman, and come what may, you'll be ready, head on and no regrets nor hesitation, and you'll be "bullet-proof" from their assaults. Be it real solid red hot bullet or those sly silent attacks on our iman.

Well hey it's Ramadhan, and it's our chance to boost up our iman! It's a month of barakah, and little deeds can make a lot of difference, man. Take heed of the Prophet's sunnah, no matter how small, or presumably small, and get the best of it. Eat simple. Waste not. Read the Quran. Try to wake up for qiam. Give sadaqah, even just a smile when you're out buying food at the bazaar. Don't feed your nafs too much, shaytan is not here to tempt you. Tame it while you can, as you've got full power over it in this holy month. If it's more powerful than you in this month, then just wonder what it can do to you with the help of shaytan when you're out of Ramadhan. 

Ihya' Ramadhan, mates! 

This is me, reminding me in case I forgot.