Friday 29 February 2008

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's 50's and 60's



First, we survived being born to mothers who had no full time maids/cooked food/cleaned the house while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate cheese, sweet dishes and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a local bus/train was a special treat.
We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.
We would spend hours on the terrace under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV effect which never ever effect us.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate pastries, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours repairing our out dated bicycle and scooter out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms........!
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were never given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, we made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Cricket League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age

Tuesday 26 February 2008

The decree of Allah

I was in my harfiah class..a combination or tafseer and arabic actually...when one of the students asked our Sheikh about the decree..Somehow the subject of decree is a bit complicated. But if you have trust in Allah, it is not that difficult to understand. People become confuse when it is said that the decree of every each one of us is already written and we are only realizing them now following the time line. But Allah, as the creator of the worlds, is not subjected to His creation that is TIME. Time is also Allah's creation. Allah, the All-Mighty created these whole universe and anything in the heaven and the earth. The fact that He created everything with His might and power and everything is subjected to Him, how can He not know what we are going to do or react to anything that happens to us?

Whatever we do is all decreed by Him. Good or bad is already written. Of course, we still have to strive for our future... Allah knows what we are going to do - whether or not we are going to be lazy or we are going to put our best effort. Allah is JUST and we should believe that with all our hearts and never to doubt. Allah is what you think of Him!

So the Sheikh gave an analogy which i think simplifies the whole matter. He said.. let say in his own house when he deals with his own children. One day, he just want to test his own daughter and took away her toy. Hide the toy somewhere and messed up her room. Knowing her own daughter, he knows that when she gets back from school, she will be furious. She will yell and then said "Where is my toy?" Then she will not be calm until she gets the toy and then she will check her room and become more furious. She will do this and that.. and this was what he told his wife. When their daughter came back, she did exactly what Sheikh has predicted... every step was exactly as what Sheikh told his wife. How can this happened?


Can you see the analogy? We are only talking about relationship between family members that we know. What about our own Creator who creates us from nothing and He fashioned us into who we are now? Don't you think He would not have known exactly what we are going to do? Don't you think he doesn't have any idea at all? Things are easy for Him. Look at the whole universe.. listen to the report of the Hubble telescope that tracks the far away universe. The universe that ALlah has created is so much bigger than what the Hubble can reach. Allah's creation is beyond our own comprehension. Look at the sky, look at the sea.. the deap sea where it is dark that no light can ever reach. Look at the insects and their kingdom. How GReat is Allah - we are so tiny as compared to His creations. We have to have faith that the decree is JUST and we should never questioned about it. Relate ourselves to ALLAH well and you will never feel left out. Listen to our hearts and let the lights come in. Sometimes it is good to isolate ourselves.. sit there under the sky, look around and contemplate - relate to Him. Reflect! Can you not see how kind He has been to us? The subject of DECREE is not that difficult once we have that TRUST. It is something we should never questioned! Wallahu'alam.

Monday 25 February 2008

The world is a big classroom

Allah bless us with beautiful places in the world for us to travel and read the signs of His existence. If you ever get the chance to travel the world, grab it. Opportunities do not come twice.. so they say! I always love to travel and Allah has been kind to us.. we had many opportunities... I had taken my children off school for 2-3 months for many times just to experience living somewhere else when we had the chance. Some people would say.. what a shame! these kids had to miss school. But we have to remember that this world is a big classroom. All of us can be teacher and student at one point or another. So why not learn from this big classroom and let them explore... life is more than that going back and forth to school carrying those heavy bags. Kids can learn so much from many different experiences. It won't do them harm at all if we take them off school once in a while.

This world indeed is a classroom for all of us. We have to be aware and always try to understand from every each occasion of our lives and people around us teaches us a lot of things too. There are many different kinds of people. And one thing i realize from traveling is that.. the more you travel, the more friends you would miss and places that you long to go back. Allah put into our hearts the love of those whom we had never know before and bond us together through His grace and mercy. We don't have to have the same religion but our hearts can have that special bond like Anne Shirley called it as "Kindred Spirit".

I remembered a dear sister from France.. she is an Algerian French girl from outskirt Paris. We met in San Francisco when we stayed at a hotel in the heart of the city. One day, we went shopping and i noticed she liked a purse but put it back. I bought for her the purse. I give her the purse later that day as a present and she just looked at me, almost in tears and we hugged. We became sisters ever since. When we departed, it was the hardest moment - I remembered waving for her from the bus, she was all tears... she promised to go to Malaysia and she did... We spent Eid together that year. She actually did her practical training there for 4 months. Alhamdulillah...with only a cheap purse, Allah put into our hearts love for each other. Allah is kind and to understand Allah's kindness, we have to be kind to people. Like they said, what goes around, comes around... In the quran, it says .. (meaning) when you do good, you do good to yourself and when you do evil, you do evil against your own self.

This is something that we really need to understand. When we do good things to others, we are actually doing good to ourselves. We have to relate everything that happen around us and relate that to our own self. Nothing in this world happen as a coincidence. Never! Even the drop of a leaf from the tree is by the decree of Allah, the Exalted, Most High. It is Allah that has all the detailed plans and whenever anything happens, we have to take lesson from it. This is the classroom that i am talking about.. whatever you do.. relate back.. contemplate.. reflect. Insya'Allah, ALlah will give wisdom to those who want to understand.

Travelling teaches us a lot of things. Not only it enables us to witness Allah's greatness but more than that! You can look at it from many different perspectives. They said.. if you want to know someone, travel with them for 3 days.. then you can see his true character. Traveling usually needs lots of patience.. it is not that glossy smile and say cheese to the camera all the time.. yes, in the photos, you can smile but only the travelers know the story behind it.. the joy and the pain... It is funny when we heard about two families that went traveling together and when they came back, they no longer talk to one another... I am grateful i have Siti to travel with. It is not easy to find kindred spirits - but as long as we are willing to open up our hearts to accept love, insya'Allah, Allah will put plenty more! Look around us and see how many friends we have and what they have to say about us.. They are the signs for you to reflect. If they say good things about you.. alhamdulillah! If they say something bad, we might need to ponder deeper inside ourselves.. what have we done wrong.. what we need to improve? We can never be perfect like the prophet, Muhammad p.b.u.h. But these friends are like mirrors to us.. you look at them and you can see your ownselves - if we look hard enough!

May Allah open up our hearts to seek for true love which only Allah can provides. A true love is like magic.. it stays like glue and cannot come off. Seeking for Allah is actually seeking for that true love. And to love Allah is to seek for His pleasure.. to please him at all time and to fear Allah is to avoid displeasing Him because of that true love. Once that true love is there, nothing else matters ..

May Allah bestow on us that true love for Him and longing for Him in our hearts! Life is just a journey manifested in many different forms and we are like actors performing many different roles... Before that curtain is dropped, we need to review our performances.. has our performance made a difference to our audience or at least touches their hearts? If only we can have the best script, the best role, the best skill, the best costume .. it might make a difference!! Allah knows best. Wallahu'alam.

Saturday 23 February 2008

My Lab

When i first came to Swansea, our lab was at the Technium building. It is a very modern shaped building.. That unusual shape building below is the Technium. i love the place because after 3 months of stay, i got the best spot in the lab. I sat at a corner over looking the Fulton house - center of most activities on campus! If you look closely at the Technium photo, my place was just beside that partition at the far left of the picture (near the stairs there)... And even when i had to stay very late, i know that the porters were there and it was quite safe... it was quite a secured room and Siti sat next to my desk. We were good friends - we shared many little things and laughters. We would giggled, talked about the States, sometimes about our childhood - u name it... we love to share things probably because we don't have anyone else there... and we were like kindred spirits too! We both went to the States for our first degree.. and although our experiences there were so much different.. there were many similar things that we shared. Doing PhD is at times quite stressful. So it is good to have someone to talk to. We don't just talk together.. we travelled together too. She is good at managing things and myself... i don't know what i am good at but we made a very good team when it comes to traveling. It all started with a discounted ticket to Budapest for £10 return ticket. Then we were just on the roll... we travelled every month for 6 months not counting the local UK trips. Our family members were close too.. my son and her son were very close at school. So we went together to Budapest,Italy (Venice, Pisa, Rome), Stockholm, Burg (Belgium) and Holland. Every time we travel, the kids enjoyed so much... in-between the travels - during the breaks, the kids would ask, when are we going on holiday again? We travel most of the budget airlines.. Ryan Air, easy jet, thomsonfly.. u name it! And we, most of the time, would take with us, rice cake and some gravy/rendang. It is easy when you travel during the winter .. the rice cake stayed good for 3-4 days. Well, we don't travel for longer period... usually only across the weekends! These are one of those things about living in UK.. it is like living at the heart of the European countries where you can fly to east, west, south, or north whenever you want to ... provided you have money and time. Well! We usually do not spend much.. always try to find the best deal to get to somewhere interesting..

(Back to my story)
We move to another building later - fourth floor Faraday building. The travelling started from when we were at Technium until we move to Faraday building. And after sometime, Siti went home. She graduated and i still have a long way to go. There are many others in the lab.. they are nice students, young and friendly. I thought that's it... i have no more best friend now. Then after sometime, Allah send me a good friend - Liam. Amazingly, my son's best friend is also Liam. After knowing him for sometime, i get to know that he is one of the best student in the department. He is very smart and likes to solve matters at hand. If i asked him anything or a problem, he will investigate until he knows the answer to it. When i did my experiment, he scored all correct... he said he likes to make sure he tried his best. He is young.. considering his age, he can be my son... He is very helpful and helps me a lot in many of my tasks. When he comes in the morning, he will come to my desk and give his report of his yesterday's activity or anything at all.. We don't actually have common interest, but we get along very well. One time when these students have an evening at the pub, he invited me to go with them.. Funny... i guess many of them still do not understand our point of view about this matter - so i told him! I tried to be very frank with him most of the time.. i tried to tell him about Islam whenever i can because it is our responsibility to inform them.. so many around us has misinterpretation of Islam... Some of the non-muslim who reverted to islam sometimes asked why they were not informed before! So we have to play our role to inform them..

Anyway, I understand so much now... when you ask Allah for help, he will send his help through people around you and make them kind and helpful. This is Allah's mercy and He knows what is in our hearts and what we need more than we know what we need ourselves. So i make dua that Allah will continue to help me in this journey. Without His help, who am i? All praise be to Him, Lord of the worlds.

Thursday 21 February 2008

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN’T LOOKING ..



When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator,
and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a stray cat,
and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favourite cake for me
and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.
When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a prayer,
and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in Allah.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick,
and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing
and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I felt you kiss me good night and I felt loved and safe.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it
and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities,
even when you didn't feel good and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt,
but it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that
I need to know to be a good and productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say,
"Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.'"

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Al-Ghazali Again?



Yes.. i am still not finished with this topic. I am so amazed with this man. I will never compare him with the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. - to compare Rasulullah s.a.w. with others isn't right.. Rasulullah (the prophet pbuh) is a mercy for mankind. His whole life touched us in every sense. Rasulullah was a very exceptional man.. in our hearts, he stays! But it doesn't mean that we cannot admire other people too... I am just amazed on Imam Al-Ghazali of his vast knowledge and how much he strove to achieve excellence in his field.. or perhaps i should say fields, he mastered all fields! Sheikh Abdullah Yassin said that it is true when Sheikh Hamza Yusuf said we don't actually know Imam Al-Ghazali.. he would not write until he memorized 12,000 pages of text. Hang on a minute!!! Do you really mean 12,000 pages? Can you do that? i don't know if i cover 12,000 pages in a month or even a year? And i am a PhD student here! What have we here? Don't you all see? How great this man was? How serious he took life - dead serious. And we? What do we do? Sheikh Abdullah Yassin said that we are only like nursery kids or perhaps a very young child in terms of knowledge. And many of us criticize scholars like we know what we are talking about. Who are we to judge people. These are people who were sincere in their lives.. seeking for Allah. Al-Ghazali had gone through all experiments of life.. he tested every each one in order to seek for the truth. Indeed, he was a real life scientist or what they called him as THE PROOF OF ISLAM. When he spoke, no one dare to deny because he could win any debate. Yes.. some people ridicule him.. but they are really ridiculing themselves. These are the blessings of Allah. Allah bestow upon some people specialties others do not possess. Instead of condemning others, why don't we try to follow their footsteps. Perhaps one day, Allah will grant us wisdom. Let's make dua Allah will accept us as His righteous servants too, grant us knowledge that is useful for us and use us for His deen and gather us with those fortunate ones who had gone earlier than us who had proven to be the successful ones -the prophets, the companions, the tabi'in, the scholars... Our lives.. we don't know when they are going to end but as long as we are still here, let's make the most of it. Relive Islam and spread the truth.
OO Allah, how much you have blessed those people who had lived before us - You gave them the blessings of your knowledge and make them wiser than many of us. Help us too, O You Most Kind Most Merciful. Please help us in our everyday lives and ease our path to the truth and please do not let us astray. Please help us to keep You and Rasul Allah s.a.w. in our hearts. For we depend on You on all matters, O You All Merciful All Wise.

O Allah! You embrace all things within Your Grace and Knowledge, forgive those who repent and follow Your path, and ward off from them the punishment of Hell. (40:7)

O Allah! Perfect our light for us and forgive us our sins, for verily You have power over all things. (66:8)

My beloved friends, remind ourselves of this glad tiding for it will be ours, with His mercy, insy'Allah:


This is the paradise which you have been made to inherit because of your deeds which you used to do (in the life of the world). Al-Zukhruf:72

Wallahu'alam!

Imam Al Ghazali Last Poem


This is his edited last poem. I got it from the internet too but just want to share with those who has not read it. This such lovely poem can really touches someone's heart. When you read it again and again, you can see layers and layers of its meaning to teach you what life really is and what death means. Death is not something that needs to be frightened.. but it is simply a start of another life! Come on my friends. We really have to take life seriously and sharpened our hearts and let that internal soul be heard. It might be crying for help! So this is the poem.. read it carefully with all your hearts.

"Say to my friends, when they look upon me, dead
Weeping for me and mourning me in sorrow
Do not believe that this corpse you see is myself
In the name of God, I tell you, it is not I,
I am a spirit, and this is naught but flesh
It was my abode and my garment for a time.
I am a treasure, by a talisman kept hid,
Fashioned of dust, which served me as a shrine,
I am a pearl, which has left it's shell deserted,
I am a bird, and this body was my cage
Whence I have now flown forth and it is left as a token
Praise to God, who hath now set me free
And prepared for me my place in the highest of the heaven,

Until today I was dead, though alive in your midst.
Now I live in truth, with the grave - clothes discarded.
Today I hold converse with the saints above,
With no veil between, I see God face to face.
I look upon "Loh-i-Mahfuz" and there in I read
Whatever was and is and all that is to be.
Let my house fall in ruins, lay my cage in the ground,
Cast away the talisman, it is a token, no more
Lay aside my cloak, it was but my outer garment.
Place them all in the grave, let them be forgotten,
I have passed on my way and you are left behind
Your place of abode was no dwelling place for me.

Think not that death is death, nay, it is life,
A life that surpasses all we could dream of here,
While in this world, here we are granted sleep,
Death is but sleep, sleep that shall be prolonged
Be not frightened when death draweth night,
It is but the departure for this blessed home
Think of the mercy and love of your Lord,
Give thanks for His Grace and come without fear.
What I am now, even so shall you be
For I know that you are even as I am

The souls of all men come forth from God
The bodies of all are compounded alike
Good and evil, alike it was ours
I give you now a message of good cheer
May God's peace and joy for evermore be yours."

AL-GHAZALI

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Swansea

The picture was taken at Marina, Swansea. Swansea is such a lovely city.

Sunday 17 February 2008

A reminder for myself really!

It is Allah to choose whom He wants to receive guidance. We, the born muslim take things for granted everytime. More often than not, we see the new muslims are more committed than us. We only depend on the scholars to feed us knowledge but we ourselves do not bother to travel to seek knowledge. We thought our obligation is to seek excellence in our academic matters and we somehow neglect our obligations to deepen our knowledge in Islam. It is interesting when I listen to one of those talks when the speaker narrates the story of a companion when he narrated his dream to prophet Muhammad S.A.W. (It was a habit of Rasullullah s.a.w. that after Fajar prayer, he will gather with his companions and asked if any of them had seem dreams.) On one occasion, a companion told prophet Muhammad s.a.w. that in his dream, he saw a straight path and on each side of the path, there are beautiful gardens with streams and trees with fruits .. Then came along a group of people who rode through the path with their heads looking straight ahead and did not bother to look on each side of the road. They just rode along, heading to their destination. Then came along another group of people. They rode along and when they saw gardens with trees and streams, they stopped. They take a rest and give some water to their horses and camels and enjoy some fruits. After resting awhile, they took their horses, pack and continue their journey. Then came along another group of people. They saw the garden and all the pleasure in it. They stopped and walked into the garden and never continue their journey. They enjoy the place and never bother to continue their journey.


There are many different parts of the dream but the sheikh concentrated on this part of the dream because of its significance. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. then interpreted the dream. This is just my explanation to his interpretation and i am not quoting on his words.. this merely comes only from my understanding. He explained that the gardens are the DUNIA and all the pleasure in it. And the path is the Sirratul Mustaqim. We are on our journey to our final destination. The first group of people are his own companions during the time of prophet Muhammad s.a.w. who never answer to the calls of the dunia. They were very focus on the deen. The dunia is not important to them. Their aim is the hereafter, so they steadfast to the straight path and never look around. They are the perfect generation of the ummah. Then the next group was the tabi'in - the generation after the sahabah. They took some pleasure of the world but was not deceived. They did not forget their purpose of life despite taking some of the pleasures. And the last group was the last generation of the ummah when we are so busy with our lives and forgot that the final destination is not here but the hereafter. The word DUNIA itself in arabic means something filthy but it seems very appealing to us. We easily get deceived by the pleasures and comfort of DUNIA which is only tiny compared to the promised pleasure of the paradise.

It was said that after that narration, prophet Muhammad s.a.w. did not ask again from his companions regarding their dreams. It was as if he was waiting for that particular dream all along. We really have to ask ourselves are we in this category of people who seek only for the pleasure of this world. We need to reflect. It is said that one scholar said that we need to have at least 1 hour a day just to reflect on the deeds for the day... and ask Allah for forgiveness. Subhanallah.. we really have to be serious on this. Life is not a joke. Time is running out, my friends. Just like Imam Al-Ghazali, we need to have that spiritual journey of our lives so that we know who our Creator is in order to make our life meaningful. We need to know the attributes of Allah ... Life is short! Get to know our Quran because if you want Allah to talk to you, read the Quran. If you want to talk to Allah, pray! Insya'Allah, i'll continue next time.. Jazakumullah khaer!




Thursday 14 February 2008

Al-Ghazali The Al-Chemist of Happiness

I have been on this film for quite sometime now. I mean, i first found it on the internet and longing to watch it after doing some research about the great imam, Al-Ghazali. His last poem touched my heart and my son's too. We watched it one night at very late hour and i said to myself, Subhanallah! Allah had given wisdom to this man that not many has. His way of looking at life and death should help us to perceive them differently. Do we long to meet Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? Perhaps we do but we have not prepared enough.

So i really wanted to watch this film and persuade the ISOC (Islamic Society) to film this .. we discussed and decided to show it at the cinema. It was a long ordeal.. trying to cover the cost but alhamdulillah.. we were successful. Insya'Allah, whatever we got left will go to our dakwah work during our next Islamic Awareness week. We are having it in Mac, insya'Allah.

Al-Ghazali the alchemist of happiness is indeed very interesting and different. It’s not the sort of film you see everyday. I won’t say that it is perfect but I would say that it challenged your thoughts spiritually that you felt hurt trying to dig your inner thoughts and question your spiritual being. It initiated a lot of inner discussion that you need time to ponder the issue and contemplate. As the movie transient frequently from the commentary and his life itself, it helped to directly comprehend the transition that the imam went through as to provide us with information for higher level of intellectual debate, not externally but internally.

It is interesting that what you have here is the state which I described as quite dichotomous. I would say one will enjoy it or just be bored. As someone mentioned it to me after the show, if you have engaged yourself with this sort of spiritual state, you will see thing clearly now but if you are not yet there, it helps you to know which direction or the sort of path you would want to take. But if you have never given any such thoughts, it might initiate or spark some interest. Or on the other hand, you might walk out feeling bored and at least perhaps enjoy the scenery and music and the diversity of colours and culture presented that was truly unique and exotic.

The impact of the story was interesting. When we came out, there were many discussions among us. Sheikh Abdullah Yassin from Cardiff said, one can be at one point, and then turn 360 degrees to search for the truth and back to the same point again. This seems to others as pointless but it is truly an amazing experience after you realized why you should be at that particular point. It was what Imam Al-ghazali went through. He constantly quest for the truth and questioned an issue as deep as he could go into it. But of course, for someone of his intelligence and integrity, his quest enabled him to go to much higher level than many of us can even imagine.

A non-muslim lady bought 2 tickets from us. She came with a bus just to get the tickets few days before the show. Bought two but came alone. Anyway, after the show, I asked her if she enjoyed the film. She told me she cried. She was touched by it all through. Isn’t it amazing? If we can show this to 100 people, even if we can touch one single heart, it is all worth it. And she asked if she could buy the DVD too!

One would wonder what sort of life it was… seemed so serious and no enjoyment. As Sheikh Hamza Yusuf described it… it was “absolute seriousness”. This is the message of the whole story, that life is just a delusion, as your senses deceive you all the time, so are the calls of life. And if we do not search for that ultimate goal, we will fill that hollow space with some other substitutes as human is a hollow being. When one fills oneself with the quest of that ultimate goal, that is when alchemist of happiness comes into existence. To worship god is a lower level or submission but when one reaches to the higher level of worship that is having the knowledge of the Creator, his perspective of life and death will never be the same.

I am not a philosophical person. So who am I to comment further. But alhamdulillah, the message was quite clear to many. That life is temporary (a wayfare) and time is running out. Unless we travel and embark on that spiritual journey, we may never find what we are looking for – The Absolute Happiness, insya’Allah.

I hope i am able to spark some interest here.. I really encourage others to try to screen the film at your local cinema. May Allah reward your effort and sincerity. We have to remember that Allah is All-merciful. If we walk towards Him, He will run towards us. Let us all help each other in strengthening our iman and love each other for His sake.