Other thing in life

Assalamualaikum wbrt everyone,

Some memories
Now is a hajj season. It reminds me my time overthere in Mecca and Madinah in 2002. Many sweet memory still lingers in my heart. One incident that shows Allah's Mercy on his servant, happened on Friday. I really prayed very hard to be able to perform Friday prayer in the Masjidil Haram( after the hajj). I was told about 3.5 million people were there and plus the local people, the number could be more. "If you were to find a space in the Masjid, you have to be there at least three hours before Zuhr" said a colleage in the same Tabung Haji muasassah .

I did not remember what time I arrived to the Masjid, but definitely within the 'three hours before Zuhr'. MasyaAllah the masjid was full already because the Masjid police did not allow anybody to go inside the Masjid except the roof top..While I was walking before that, my inner heart already said "the sun is really shinning brightly and its warmer nature is really felt"." Ya Allah, I really want to pray Jummaah..to feel its aura in this Masjidil Haram".

Fulfilling the wish
Some people just put their prayer mats outside their accommodation and hotels that surrounded the Masjid. My husband and I just nooded our head to signal that the intention was to be fulfilled..by following the order of the police to the rooftop which did not have any shield to camouflage its Jemaah. However, As soon as I stepped outside, with Allah's Grace and Mercy..I felt the floor was really cool and I looked up, Allahuakhbar, there were patches of clouds that shielded the jemmah, no more bright sun, instead cooling breeze blew through us. Immediately I said Alhamdulillah and prayed tahhayatul masjid since we had no experience to perform tawwaf on the rooftop. In performing tawwaf one must know the starting point before circling seven rounds.

At first not many people around us..may be most people would think about the sun. The floor and surrounding were so cooling as if there was an air-conditioner being put in the open area. In between reading the Al-Quran and Zikr, I talked to myself that Allah swt the Most Gracious and Merciful in a way wanted all his guests to be able to perform Jummaah prayer and experienced his 'gift'...Allahu'allam

May all hujjaj be able to get Hajj Mabrur!

Wassalam
PUZIAH AHMAD

PHD Tips

Salam everyone,
On the 30th of October I was asked to attend the Phd progress report presentation. I was there to observe and digest all comments given by the panels.

The Tips

1. Writting up (very much relevant to me) - The writer must tie up all the chapters.

2.Literature review should relate to the topic

3. The title of the thesis should reflect with what we are doing especially the keywords or concept.

4.Theoretical element must be strong.

5. If the research questions are clear, there is no need for "hypothesis statement"

6. There are differences of approaches or school of thoughts for theoretical parts...some prefer 'Conceptual framework', some put the theory under 'research methodology'.

7. The written title must be clear and embody what we want to do.

Actions
Well I have to check all above ..in my own piece of research..


Wassalam

PUZIAH AHAMD

Progress Report

This picture is from the mall of "Winter Sonata " town in South Korea..source of hiccups too


Assalamualaikum wbrt and a greeting to all,

My Phd Progres Report and Presentation

I am expected to present my progress on this " Empowerment Mechanism and effectiveness of poverty reduction programmes in Malaysian development planning" on 30th October 2008. By the way my supervisor Dr Dasimah Omar is away following the Research Institute study tour to Germany..She won a gold medal on the innovative product design. I finally managed to escape from the presentation on the two grounds; I already presented my data findings the previous semester and I need more time for the Phd writting up process. Do not get me wrong as if I am on time and a diligent Phd candidate. Mind you I have been saying 'this writting up process' since three months ago. Not much progress except I managed to complete two seminar papers for Arte Polis Bandung and Islamic conference on poverty alleviation in UM.

The Progress
So far I was on time for ; 1. The literature and methodology (6 months)
2. Preliminary investigation - semi-structured interviews ( 3 months)
3. Questionnaire design and pilot study 1 and 2 ( 1 year)
4. Data collection and re-collection (4 months)
5.Data Entry and preliminary data investigation (3 months)
6. Data Analysis and writting up (not yet completed)--this is the stumbling block; Whenever I left the thinking on the analysis and writting for say a period of two weeks or so..I have to re-read what I have done and some misunderstanding of my own data..it means rewinding process. I started this so called writting up thing since May 2008(Guys do not follow my step in data analysis)..naughty thinking ...may be the grace period of 6 months slowing me down.
7. Discussion and future implications (only Allah knows best)
8....

Some hiccups
Another thing is that since I am not the expert on SPSS..I have to always refer to "kitab " SPSS for a better digested understanding. Hari raya also means some hurdles in Phd because the break causes the rewinding process.

Self-discipline is easy to say than done. My productive time span is short may be sometimes is only 2-3 hours per day. However, Alhamdulillah with Allah grace Insyaallah I will continue my writing . As long as my family and other activities would not be ignored , I am happy. Health and endurance are two gifts from Allah for me to make full use for the completion of my study.

PUZIAH AHMAD
AP990 FSPU UiTM Shah Alam

Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development

Salam everyone,

A blessing month of Syawal almost bids farewell to us. In Malaysia it is a month of festival celebration. Sorry folks who are no way found in Malaysia either away for business or study matters, you all sure to miss the eventful moment.

Poverty Alleviation seminar
For me in between open house, on the 14-15th October 2008 I managed to attend Islamic International Seminar on Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development at the University of Malaya Centre of Poverty and Development. As usual I talked about Poverty and Empowerment : An Islamic Perspective..I was the first speaker..besides me an Associate Prof from UM and a Prof from UUM. All of us stressed on the importance of solving the issue through various means of government fund, zakat, and waqaf fund.

Another interesting point was raised by JCorp MD Tan Sri Mohd Ali Hashim with "Jihad Ekonomi". JCorp with the conglomerate's assesst exceeds 4 billion, but yet this Tan Sri is still a humble man. His objective in business mission is very clear; that is for "kemesalahatan ummah" not solely for individual pursuit and in contrary to capitalist economy. Capitalist is someone who maximise profit to satisfy his/her own desire which is unlimited in nature. In fact the world economic slowdown and recession is blamed by many espeially Islamic scholars caused by interest based transactions and human greediness. Economy is based on "bubbles" and in actual fact not really based on concrete needs e.g in the US, the lending firms were so laxed in giving out credits even to illegible borrowers. Later the manipulation, affects the credit industry..then the economic meltdown.

Waqaf
The Othman empire in Turkey was said institutionalised the waqaf fund..it survived till today. Another one is the Al-Azhar University which until now the waqaf insitution manages the fund and students of syariah courses are given free tution fees not only for the locals but overseas students as well. Actually JCorp wants to follow suit the noble idea by professionaly managed the waqaf dana and to revive the Islamic concept. It has established Waqaf An-Nur, to provide free healthcare for the needy. I just love the idea, I wish to be part of the Jcorp team.

Polygamy
During the Q & A session after the gender issue papers, the last question was posed by a Nigerian. "This question might be sensitive in Malaysia, but not in Nigeria..I wonder why the paper does not touch the issue of polygamy...da..da" Suddenly a lot of people raised their hands to further clarify or object the ideas..
So the arguments were heated up, with two camps..obviously protecting their rights..At one time I swayed my attention by reading Tan Sri Mohd Ali book's "Jihad Ekonomi". Hi guys I wanted to further explore the issue of poverty and Islamic approaches and not polygamy or monogamy issue (I exclaimed in my heart).

My conclusion
My conscience is straight forward..the syariah view and the rest are issues which sometimes are depending on situational condition....tricky..tricky..man and women..venus and mars..

At the most important thing..Islam provides the solution..

Wassallam
PUZIAH AHMAD

Ramadhan and Syawal

9 Syawal 1429H/9 October 2008
Salam EidulFitri to all muslims and a greeting to all.

Alhamdulilah I am back to work. After the festival mood and family gathering affair, and not to forget 9 days and 8 nights spent at the two states of Johor and Kelantan. Luckily no horrendous traffic jam encountered by us. My 'raya' routine started with visiting my beloved parents' graveyard and their closed relatives and friends. Normally I did this before raya itself (if Muar first)..so that I could give some presents to them. By now I realize the numbers are getting lesser.. and it shows I am getting older. My mother in-law Alhamdulillah is there to compensate the lost moments with my parents. I treasure very much the various festival food in Johor and Kelantan. In Muar Johor I will always have this ketupat nasi, rendang, lodeh, kuah kacang..The best thing some of the food were given by relatives and neighbours. So we always escaped from weaving the ketupat.

In Kubang Kerian Kelantan, we always have the Kelantanese speciality of nasi dagang and laksa/laksam as raya food. This raya, I mean third raya I managed to make mee bandung for my in-laws..Not that difficult because I bought some ready-made ingredients from Muar wet market called "mee bandung mak pon".. Just add squids, prawns, eggs and vegetables to the boiled ingredients, then ready to be served ..This raya also I was made known "kuih ulat bulu". God they like to call food..such as "tahi itik"..but those food are nice and scrumptious.

Talking about Ramadhan I missed the last ten days due to..syarie reason, but I prayed hard may Allah forgive my sins and accept my inadequate ibadah as amal soleh. Procastination is the evil for productivity. It happened to me the last two days. UM called me for the full paper for the next week International seminar entitled Islamic philantrophy and poverty eradication. Suppossedly it should be ready before raya. Time flies. My husband also experienced some kind of 'stone' problems since second raya. I could only advise him to to do some scanning..but the decision is his..the doctor at the DEMC also said " ikut sukalah" after he refused a jab, instead he opted for viral medicine to ease the pain..you could only bring the horse to the river. but you cannot force the horse to drink..


Eid Mubarak again
PUZIAH AHMAD