As 31st August approaches, Malaysians, as usual, are busy preparing for the Independence Day celebration, despite a slightly sombre one this year. Foreshadowed by the double tragedies of MH307 and MH17, the 57th Merdeka Day will still be duly observed and honoured for it commemorates the country’s freedom from colonial power. In fact, Independence Day…
Far from being promised of “gold mines”, “the moon”, “the sun” or “the stars”, Malaysians have been blessed with prosperity, peace and happiness, since the country achieved its independence 57 years ago. More often than not, we tend to be lulled by the comfort and wealth we acquired. Though we may have forgotten to express…
Caring and charity for the needy, including homeless and beggars, is a righteous deed. This is a way of life to share happiness and bring justice to society. Al-Quran says to the effect that “You shall never be truly righteous until you spend of what you love and whatever you spend is known to Allah”…
Malaysia’s plural society is a mixture of various races, religions, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Comprising of the Malays, Chinese, Indians, the richer ethnic diversities of Sabah and Sarawak such as Kadazan, Iban, Bidayuh, Dayak, Melanau and Bajau, this form of pluralistic social structure poses as a great challenge to the government. For a country like…
In today’s world, one of the main agenda of any government is to achieve socio-economic development for the nation. The reflection of the achievement of socio-development implementation made by a country normally comes in the form of improvement in human welfare, quality of life and social well-being of the people. The key indicators normally used…
In the Islamic tradition, knowledge and practice go hand in hand. As claimed by religion Islam aims to transform behaviour from those that are blameworthy (Madzmumah traits) such as ghadab (ill-tempered), hasad (envy), bakhil (stingy), hasad (envy), sharrut ta’am (eating too much), Sharrul kalam (talking too much), hubb al-jah (love of power), Hubb al-Dunya (loving the world too much), ‘Ujub (self glorification), takabbur (proud), Riya’ (showing off) to those that potentially can raise humankind to levels even higher…
According to the West, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, is the world’s most dangerous extremist. Is this a fair statement? An extremist is a transgressor, who recognizes no limit in his mind, speech and act. He could be anybody. Defined as such, an extremist is not necessarily an Arab or a Muslim, as…
Our life is becoming more interesting and enjoyable in recent times—thanks to the advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which have brought us the cyberspace via the advent of internet and the social media. To a large extent, our activity is now confined within the cyberspace, boosted by unabated inventions and innovations of ICT…
Among the contemporary topics which begin to gain much attention among scholars these days is the issue of extremism. This is reflected in a recent conference held on ‘Extremism among the Muslims in Contemporary Times: Dimensions and Manifestations,’ organised by the Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation (CASIS), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).…
Justice is inextricably related to knowledge, and knowledge to education. So, when we see gross injustice in every aspect of life, the ultimate question would be about knowledge and education. There must be something wrong with the way we have educated the society so that the products are more likely to become unjust. It means…
