Learn from the 'Hair Port'

Yesterday, I have fulfilled my children's request to bring them to a cinema in Ipoh for 'Upin dan Ipin'. It is not about the movie that I wanted to publish here but a signboard of a shop (a hair salon) attracted me for its statuesque-but-thoughtful presence. While I stood in front of the closed shop (it was 11.00 p.m. already..) I was wondering what if I changed some words and replaced them with my own educational-related words... Here is my version...

"A student is the most important denizen in our school compound. Even though they feel they are not dependent on us, Our tasks are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our duty. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing a favour to himself, by giving us an opportunity to do so."

So ... how does it sound....? Remember teachers.. the above quotation is not a new National Philosophy of Education. It is just a thought that I have had in mind when I was looking at the signboard.... ;-)

When a western scholar talks about Prophet Muhammad

" O Muhammad, We have not sent you but as a blessing for all the worlds. "
(al-Anbiya', verse: 107)

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Today Muslims celebrate the birthday of a great man who was born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Makkah. He was given a name, Muhammad means "Praiseworthy" by his grand father, Abdul Mutalib. He was chosen as the Last Prophet by Allah. The above quote is taken from the holy scripture of Muslims, The al-Quran. The verse mentions the main purpose of the prophet being sent to the world. To those who do not like this great man (most of them are westerners) might give many negative connotations whether in writings, speeches or caricatures (while Muslims have never given such negative comments on any biblical characters). No matter how many negative connotations given, there are still great scholars who realised how great this man was and have written unbias writings about him. One of the scholars has written the description about the great and last Prophet as below:

"Muhammad was a man of exceptional genius. When he died in 632, he had managed to bring nearly the tribes of Arabia into a new united community or ummah."

The excerpt above is taken from Karen Armstrong's "A History of God". I read most of her books and found she is really sincere in her literatures. She describes Prophet Muhammad as if she was one of the Prophet's followers. To her, those who learnt literature should appreciate al-Quran and Muhammad is not the writer of al-Quran. About this issue Amstrong writes,

"Unlike the Torah, however, which according to the biblical account was revealed to Moses in one session on Mount Sinai, the Koran (al-Quran) was revealed to Muhammad bit by bit, line by line and verse by verse over a period of twenty-three years. The revelation continued to be a painful experience"

and the usefulness of al-Quran in natural science is sincerely revealed...

"...The Koran (al-Quran) constantly stresses the need for intelligence in deciphering the 'signs' or 'messages' of God. Muslims are not to abdicate their reason but to look at the world attentively and with curiosity. It was this attitude that later enabled Muslims to build fine tradition of natural science which has never been seen as such danger to religion as in Christianity."

Looking at the hullabaloo happens in the world nowadays, I regret the demise of this greatest man in history. However, he has left us (especially Muslims) his legacies which are the al-Quran and al-Hadith to guide us to the righteous path and yet many of us failed to follow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY O' MY BELOVED PROPHET MUHAMMAD