Surah az Zukhruf .......ayat 15 to ayat 32

friends, dato and tansri,

i must warn you i am going to digress a wee bit longer off the subject of the actual tafseer this time, given the socio-political climate which is quite hot in our country at present.

one  zaidi al kelatani, in a drunken  stupour on top of the  old istana's roof shouted down to an equally intoxicated sultan ibrahim adzam of balkh [ circa 718 to 782 ] :

" i may appear stupid to you your highness, trying to look for my lost camel on your roof, but the stupidest person on earth is you, trying to look for allah, in an istana like yours, with a bevy of young ladies tugging at your trousers and a coterie of court jesters and muftis saying yes to your  every wild whim and fancies, and with your  dozen of daimlers and a private jet or two in the hanger.. !!."

we move on to ayat 15 to 32 of surah az zukhruf.
dato ustaz shamsuri , as usual starting with a hadith or two.
then we join dr timothy winter  of cambridge with his short discourse on 'khusyu'. there is no exact english word for 'khusyu' as  'humble surrender with concentration and istqamah' is not the norm is the english speaking world, what more with the current very secular existence. 

the average post modern , secular man, thinks he or she already know enough.
the more western educated he or she is , the more pompous they  tend to become.
at the top most end , in malaysia at least, they automatically qualify to become g25 material, or it's contemporary female genus and progenitor, S o S.......what prevent most from joining these elite groups are determined by their level or absense of basic ugama education in their formative years!....and for the female equivalent their level of 'anger or lack of anger towards the opposite kind.

if you have the stamina after going thru dr timothy winter, continue on and read my recollection of the late dr kassim ahmad.
a sad encounter  i would say because my 'bubble' of what constitute kassim ahmad burst on that day.

as an idealistic young man in the university and later as a young struggling doctor out to find meaning in my cluttered life, i always looked up at people like kassim ahmad as an inveterate scholar of sort who chose a struggle  to champion others first and put zuhud forefront as a way of life. that was what i thought.

let us face it,  during tunku and hussien onn's time there were not many people as clever as kassim ahmad. he could easily be an important minister of the state and lead a 'good life' if he was on the side of government of the day.

i was largely surprised and disappionted when after a short meeting of the man himself later in life, he was rather superficial in his knowledge. a case of the  proverbial coconut hitting one's head in the wrong way. 

a point yet again to exemplify that in 'ugama' one cannot only read , read and read  and formulate.
there must be tok gurus, tok gurus, and tok gurus.
and if you are like me, allergic to  just having one tok guru, it is still read, read and read followed and supplemented, moderated and modulated by years and years of rubbing shoulders with tok gurus , tok gurus and tok gurus.

....and they dont have to be super duper tok gurus ...they can just be that simple ustaz from a pondok education back ground  giving tazkirah at your local masjid!

but if you never set foot in  your local masjid for your magrib and isya' prayers how can you meet them? 
you secular people think the masjid are peopled by imam and ustaz too low than your iq and eq!
there are tok guru and tok guru...listen to all of them , and then you can have your own formulation.

modulation and moderation are the key words...
even if you have a ba from oxford or you are a memeber of g25 and think yourselves great and already all-knowing, you can still pick something from these 'lowly' ustaz.

some people, like kassim ahmad, start getting interested in 'ugama' from the top and  late in their, and think no one can correct them......that is a mortal and eternal mistake.
there is lack of experiential islam.
which cascade down to being g25, SoS, liberal islamism and the likes of zaidi alkelatani included!

pompous, arrogant lot , you people.......
al sultan ibrahim of balkh had had his epiphany, when is yours?

dr nik isahak






And they allot to Him a portion of His bondmen! Lo! man is verily a mere ingrate. (15) Or chooseth He daughters of all that He hath created, and honoureth He you with sons? (16) And if one of them hath tidings of that which he likeneth to the Beneficent One, his countenance becometh black and he is full of inward rage. (17) (Liken they then to Allah) that which is bred up in outward show, and in dispute cannot make itself plain? (18) And they make the angels, who are the slaves of the Beneficent, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded and they will be questioned. (19) And they say: If the Beneficent One had (so) willed, we should not have worshipped them. They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do but guess. (20) Or have We given them any scripture before (this Qur'an) so that they are holding fast thereto? (21) Nay, for they say only: Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we are guided by their footprints. (22) And even so We sent not a warner before thee (Muhammad) into any township but its luxurious ones said: Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we are following their footprints. (23) (And the warner) said: What! Even though I bring you better guidance than that ye found your fathers following? They answered: Lo! in what ye bring we are disbelievers. (24) So We requited them. Then see the nature of the consequence for the rejecters! (25) And when Abraham said unto his father and his folk: Lo! I am innocent of what ye worship (26) Save Him Who did create me, for He will surely guide me. (27) And he made it a word enduring among his seed, that haply they might return. (28) Nay, but I let these and their fathers enjoy life (only) till there should come unto them the Truth and a messenger making plain. (29) And now that the Truth hath come unto them they say: This is mere magic, and lo! we are disbelievers therein. (30) And they say: If only this Qur'an had been revealed to some great man of the two towns? (31) Is it they who apportion thy Lord's mercy? We have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world, and raised some of them above others in rank that some of them may take labour from others; and the mercy of thy Lord is better than (the wealth) that they amass. (32)

translation by pickthal



[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDy2oTYkeg8&t=4s   ]
commentary by ustaz dato shamsuri bin hj ahmad, ayat 15 to 32.



[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLXoep5oN0Q   ]
timothy winter aka abdal hakim murad on  the state of " khosu'."..[ ??humble surrender..]



[  http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2017/10/kassim-ahmad-in-memorium.html  ]