Islam has always been an obvious easy target of misperception, misunderstanding. In a never-ending challenge against it, another opportunity for Islamophobes around the globe to maim the religion lurks wide open yet again when the issue of child marriage resurfaced recently. They claim that child marriage is sanctioned, and thus common in the teachings of…
Human creativity, whether exemplified as invention or innovation, is essentially about new ideas and has to do in large part with thinking. What many Muslims of today have been unaware of but which a number of past Muslim scholars such as ibn Sina and al-Ghazzali had elaborated on is the close relation that exists between…
The Malaysian 13th General Elections has recently taken place and leaders have been elected into the Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies. They have been chosen by voters to represent their interests, care for the welfare of the people and also drive the country to greater heights and success. In this context, leadership is an…
Islamic history is rich with traditions and anecdotes which contain sufficient counsel for people of power and holders of authority. According to al-Ghazali, in his work Nasihat al-Muluk, how effective those traditions are depends on the strength of their faith. If faith is firmly established in the heart of those people of power, then these…
Many people belief that money is the root of all evils. It the long history of mankind, there had been evidences that money was the cause of destructions in many societies. Inevitably, whether we like it or not, we are living in the age where life seems to be centred around money. It has been…
Some time ago, the “Ah Long”menace used to shock the nation with reports of unscrupulous means of debt collections. Even then, the government managed to overcome such a problem. Currently, in replace of the “Ah Long Syndrome”, another form of debt collection has reared its ugly head. This time round, debt collectors make use of…
With the election fever in full pitch, some Malaysians, coincidentally, are busy dealing with their tax filing obligations at this time. Why should we be concerned with both the election and our tax obligations? What has the election got to do with tax in the first place? The answer, inextricably, lies within another question: who…
With the 13th General Election in Malaysia looming, issues revolving around power become even more pressing. Power for its own sake, or its Malay parallel “budaya kuasa untuk kuasa kerana kuasa,” has been claimed by certain observers to be the epidemic besieging influential Muslim politicians in the second phase of Post-Independence Malaysia. Despite power ultimately…
Development experts are making the observation that no matter how exciting future prospects of greater well-being promised by science and technology may be, present patterns of behaviour do not seem to be inspiring much confidence in the processes of achieving such prospects. Development agencies such as the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa as…
On the 9th of February 2013, the nation was awakened by news on the invasion by a group of foreign gunmen into the land of Sabah. As part of early diplomacy with the aim to prevent any bloodshed, the Malaysian government carried out series of serious negotiations with the self-proclaimed ‘Sulu Sultanate’ army. In the…
