Requisite Variety

Have we came across situations where counter service was poor and slow? And how we wish we could "do it ourselves" to expedite the process and get over with it.

Service excellence is everyone's dream. We will appreciate it when we encountered situations mentioned above. But apart from attitude and aptitude for good service, there is also a variety equation to consider. A good example of this variety equation is the departmental store - therefore products or items are stored and displayed at different departments: men's, ladies', children's, toys, electronics, housewares, etc ... And is it not for nothing they are called departmental store. The total system variety is carved up into subsystems of more reasonably sized variety. The customer who is not clear what commodity, if any, will meet her need, represents variety that cannot be trapped by this departmental arrangement; and what we need is an information desk or counter - to absorb this excess variety.

Variety? No, not quite that variety we understood to mean many and of different types. Variety here is meant to be the number of possible states of the system, and the number increases daily, for every institution because of an ever-increasing range of possibilities afforded by education, by technology, by communications, by prosperity, and by the way these possibilities interact to generate yet more variety.

The check-in counter staff, for example, cannot be less knowledgeable, less competent or less motivated that the passengers they serve - this is a simple example of a low-variety system serving a high-variety system. Another example to consider is the low attraction among youth to partake in social organisation activities. These youth inherently exist in high variety situations and systems, and organisational offerings are low-variety and will not be able to absorb the excess variety of the youth today.

So what is it that controls variety? The answer is dead simple: variety.

Only variety absorbs variety. Not only do we need variety to absorb variety, but we need the same amount of variety to do it. What we have arrived at in the departmental store is the dominant law of societary systems, Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety.

In a hypercompetitive marketplace (and in da'wah) where personalised service and attention are sought and won, variety matching is an important skill. And variety matching is a dynamic process of attenuation and amplification and getting the variety equation right.

High variety leaders may find it easier to attenuate their variety to match low variety situations, or members that they serve. But the reverse may not be true. Low variety leaders will lose their leadership role and function if they are not able to match the variety of the members they serve, or situations under their charge.

In any case, Law of Requisite Variety will exert itself.

And don't blame members or customers if we lose them !

Dum Spiro Spero

Its called the bucket list. It is a list of things to do before one kicks the bucket (forgive the expression). Usually drawn-up by those who how know much time left there are for them to live. I imagined what would be listed in my bucket list, if I were to draw one. Strange, and perhaps even weird to even consider it.

Some would want to do things they had wanted to earlier in life, but never get round to doing it - visit all the wonders of the world, do extreme sports such as bungie jumping in Queenstown, NZ or skiing on the Swiss Alps, or meet-up with long-lost friends. Obviously it depends on how much wealth one has too.

Sometime ago, I chanced upon a television series called My Name is Earl. The main character, Earl committed all possible misdemeanors and petty crimes that caused physical and psychological hurt to others. He stole, cheated, lied - you named it - he's done it. Suddenly he won a lottery but as he rejoiced on the street, he was knocked down by a car, and almost lost the lottery ticket. When he recovered his ticket, he decided it was karma - and vowed to undo or correct all the wrongs he did in the past. So he listed all the good deeds he needed to do and went on doing it, striking it as he completed one item at a time, just like the bucket list, except that he did not think he was going to die anytime soon. Earl had turned over a new leaf.

Like Earl, many of us do not exactly know when we are going to die, and hence the idea of drawing-up a bucket list is remote, if not irrelevant. Perhaps knowing how much time left to live is not something one looks forward to, but it has its advantages nonetheless. But if we are not privileged to such knowledge, Earl's effort to create a list to undo previous wrongs by doing good, is certainly worth emulating.

If to do many things at once, may not be possible, we can start with an act to undo past wrong and an extra act to do good, each day. It means we negate a wrong and add a good deed too.

We need not wait to know or be told that death is near to start a bucket list.

Dum Spiro Spero, its Latin for while I am still alive.

Flight of Life

I am travelling again this weekend. This time to Amsterdam, followed by London. Over the last three years I have travelled to, and visited 8 cities, making up a total of 34 cities since the first time I took the airplane in 1980, when air miles and loyalty programmes were unheard off. Sometimes I jokingly nicknamed myself Ibn Battuta to credit the air miles I have accumulated over the years.

I still remember my first long distance flight to Paris in the early 80s, on Malaysian Airlines Boeing 747. The return flight from London was truly a joy and perhaps as a young traveller, I immediately developed a romance for air travel.

After two decades of travelling, for work, vacation and visiting parents when my family and I took residence in Liverpool, I am beginning to feel the aches and pains after long flights, not to mention the stress and anxiety of excess baggage, lost luggage and missing connections.

There is an inverse relationship between my romance with air travel and the air miles I collected from my travels. There were instances when I felt enriched by the flight - through the articles found in the flight magazine, the movies offered, the food served and the conversation with the unknown passenger seated next to me. But these were rare instances. Most often, I had to live with uncomfortable seats, poor quality food, and plastic (and tiny) fork and knife to wrestle with the piece of meat or fish.

There are not many things one can do on the plane, quite apart from reading, watching the movies, walking up the aisle, sleeping or engaging in conversation with other passengers. I often wondered how I managed to survive long flights, including the one that took 23 hours to Washington DC, when I went on the US International Visitors Program. It will interesting to note and list the things I (may) do for the 13 hours of flight to Amsterdam, to reflect whether it was time well spent or otherwise. Like previous travels, it will be a spontaneous response on flight rather than a planned list of "things to do".

Interestingly, I have made several life decisions on the plane during my travels. One example, was the decision to pursue my postgraduate study, when my wife and I were in the plane to London for our honeymoon. Some years later, during the flight to Toronto, I decided to do research in Cybernetics for my PhD. Other than decisions, I have also acquired knowledge and insights of culture, society, history and civilisations through conversations with fellow passengers, the inflight magazine and documentaries.

Air travel is a perfect condition to experience absolute dependency to Allah, our Creator. It is during flight - takeoff, landing and airborne we accept the reality of our weak and powerless existence. That we can do nothing to change what may have been destined to happen. And thus we pray and hope that it will be a safe flight throughout.

One can only be a new person after every flight from the prayer and renewed acknowledgement that Allah has the power over all things.

Climate Change

Climate change is uppermost in my mind, and I hope in many others' too. It is certainly the concern of many govermnents, and I was told that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had appointed a Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator the Honourable Penny Wong to deal with this important issue and challenge. The British Government Chief Scientific Adviser was quoted to have said climate change poses a bigger threat to the world than terrorism.

Climate change affects world's habitats and ecosystems, not to mention food supply, energy consumption, health related problems and diseases, tourism and human migration. We are already witnessing frequent and repeated earthquakes, cyclones and delayed snows, the most recent was Nargis that affected Myanmar and the earthquakes at Sichuan province. I feel Singapore is getting warmer too. Perhaps this is the effect of global warming.

Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has increased greenhouse emissions. These gases trap more and more heat, which would otherwise escape into space. As a result, the planet's temperature is rising. Unless something is done, the world will become too hot for life as we know it.

Consider this scenario: With the global temperature now 5 deg Celcius higher than at the turn of the century, the world is now a different place. Millions have already fled from the low-lying islands in the Pacific and Asia because of an 80cm rise in sea levels. In Europe the Alps lost their snow and ice and the ski industry collapsed 20 years ago. The Himalayas have also lost about a third of their remaining ice cap, and last year the Ganges ran dry for the first time. Panic swept through India and Bangladesh, and in the biggest migration in human history, nearly 300 million people are moving towards Europe.

I shuddered at the thought of how my children and grandchildren would face black skies and yellow grass, and the sight of them putting on masks to protect themselves from pollution. Black skies from traffic pollution was one of the first thing I encountered when I arrived in Los Angeles as I travelled from the airport to Pasadena, sometime ago.

If I am able to take forward one idea, however small, to reverse global warming or to be environmentally-friendly, what would it be? I asked. Or are we doomed, as my daughter Muslihah, claimed?

There must something we can do, in addition to asking Allah, the Almighty, for His mercy.

Let's find out as much as we can about climate change and global warming: facts, figures, websites, organisations. Let's share the information gathered and talk about it whenever the opportunity arises, to play our khalific role and to create as many eco-minded saints who will save the planet.

A lot of people doing a lot of little things could have a huge impact.
And by doing something, we are demonstrating that lots of people really do care.

Qawiyyal Jism

A healthy body, that is what it means. Many will try to achieve it through physical exercises or games - badminton, soccer or swimming. I had contemplated golf, only because it is not physically demanding. In fact Deepak Chopra authored a book titled Golf For Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life and the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) has a course titled The Spirituality of Golf. According to UTS this course examines Golf as a "hobby life" activity and a strategy for kingdom-building. Golf can be a method of mind-body discipline, an avenue for encounter with the spirit world, and an environment for personal evangelism and network building. Students will play two rounds of golf and participate in oral and written reflection.

But after serious consideration I decided to give golf a miss and focus on my diet instead. Some weeks ago, I had considered turning vegetarian, partly to lose weight but more so to manage my temperament. But that did not materialise due to my own failings and it was difficult to play host at dinners. Tonight I am taking a bold and drastic step to go on strict diet for the next two weeks - starting tomorrow (Monday 26 May 08) I will not be having any rice, bread, potatoes, pasta or baked stuff, and no fruit as well. No sweets, cakes, biscuits or ice-cream for the next two weeks, either. My staple for the next two weeks will be vegetables (lots of them) or salad with olive oil in the dressing, meat or fish.

Staying away from rice or bread may pose a difficult challenge given our food culture and customs. Nasi Briyani, Chicken Rice, Nasi Lemak, Lontong, Soto Ayam are dishes that come with rice in one form or another. I personally cannot imagine buying chicken rice from my favourite stall but not having the rice as it is off-limits. And attending wedding function without eating the Briyani - I will need to develop an alternative strategy to ensure the host does not misunderstood me, or worst still, felt insulted by my dietary restrictions.

After the initial phase of two weeks and hopefully, the cravings for sugars and starches have gone too, I will add good carbohydrates to my diet. The idea is not to eliminate all carbohydrates, but only bad ones. Good carbohydrates are found in whole grain bread and high fibre wheat bran cereal. I hope to feel that this plan is less like a diet and more like a way of life - and I will be eating normal foods, in normal size portions (for eg, rice servings no bigger than the tennis ball).

In addition to the diet, I intend to work an exercise plan that does not require me to remake my life - something that I can incorporate easily into my routine. For a start, I will do a 20-minute brisk walk everyday, and hopefully will perspire enough to call it quits.

This is not just an exercise to lose weight and to be physically fit. It is a commitment to self-discipline, and to understand the practical nuts-and-bolts way to control blood chemistry and metabolism through food choices.

This evening, I weigh 84 kg. In two weeks time (9 June 08) I hope to lose 10 kg.

Goodbye bad carbos and bad fats !

Khutbah by Dr Yahia Abd Rahman

Friday khutbah is a must for Friday prayers. Its objective to touch the jamaah and create a transformation depend on several factors, namely its content, delivery by the khatib, and other external factors such as temperature of the prayer hall and (believe it or not) weather. Today, I prayed at Al-Falah mosque, and the khatib was Dr Yahia Abdul Rahman, our guest from Pasadena, Los Angeles.

His khutbah was different from the usual style delivered weekly in Singapore. After the supplications, he shared personal experiences to demonstrate the values and teachings of Islam. But what was most interesting for me, was the optimistic tone and message of his khutbah, and he quoted successful stories of development among Muslim societies and communities.

He also brought up an interesting point - that there are a significant amount of young Muslims who are well-educated, and are contributing as captains of industry, leaders of organisations as well as those currently doing well in their studies - future economists, engineers, doctors, bankers who will soon take office in both public and private sector. "They will eventually represent the crème-de-la crème of the best minds; most educated and qualified young Muslims in the world. It is this generation of Muslims that I strongly believe will not only make a difference in Asia but also in the world through its children, grandchildren and their grandchildren" he said. This cumulative process should bring about a new Muslim renaissance in the future.

If we are serious about our faith, he said, we need to first apply it to ourselves and our families. And he listed several "must-do" to repeat what history had shown us - that after every wave of attacking Islam, a wonderful era of Islamic renaissance emerged.

> We need to be the model that others would envy and emulate.

> We want our neighbours, our colleagues and our friends of all faiths to admire who we are. How husbands are good to their wives and wives to their husbands, How the Muslims families project the example of the better families in our communities.

> We want the professionals, the students and the Muslim citizens at large to be the examples of what excellence is all about.

> We want to see our children to be the best students at school not only in their scholastics but in their leadership in all aspects of school life, be it school organizations or sports activities.

> We want members of our communities of all faith to prefer the services of the Muslim doctors, the Muslim Bankers, the Muslim accountants, the Muslim merchants and the Muslim politicians.
The world will benefit from their values of decency, hard work, dedication, truthfulness, care for all people, and respect of all faiths and love all people.

Dr Yahia Abdul Rahman ended his khutbah with a beautiful do'a to Allah, to ask Allah to forgive us for our ignorance, and to shower His blessings and bounties to the world. Many in the prayer hall shed tears when he asked to Allah to grant us spouses and offsprings that will work in His cause. He also asked Allah to grant every single man, a believing woman to be his spouse so that he may complete his religion, and for every single woman, a believing man to be her spouse so that she may complete her religion.

This khutbah had achieved its objective (for me, at least).

Lead, Dream and Be Happy :-)

I've had a long and a heavy day, just like many other working days except the breadth and depth of conversations over lunch and dinner today. Interestingly, lunch and dinner were at the same restaurant - Garuda Padang Cuisine at Bideford Road, but with different set of guests.

Over lemak nangka (I hope the spelling is correct), sambal telor, ikan kering and ais cendol, we attempted to rescue a school that is currently overwhelmed by expectations from patrons and parties. The lady who found and currently runs the school are struggling with external demands and organisational challenges. At the end of a lengthy update, we concluded the best advice to offer are a) that the interest of the students must be first and foremost over any other considerations, and b) a management team of competent professionals must be formed to help run the school. The discussion then moved to other local issues, including the leadership deficit that exists in organisations which we are familiar with. I am not sure whether we are short of leaders, but certainly leadership for da'wah requires serious attention.

Alhamdulillah, despite the concerns over leaders and leadership, we have among the younger colleagues and tertiary students, good and high potential leaders for the future. Being young however, some require interpersonal skills and tact, to win the hearts of their peers and seniors (too). Admittedly it is not easy to please everyone - but everyone love someone who is gentle, gracious and good-natured. It may also be difficult to transfer such admirable skills and attributes other than by role modelling and perhaps, reflective self-critique.

Leaders and leadership will remain to be critical success factors for da'wah, organisations and human activity systems.

Dinner was longer and varied - both the food and the company. Seated around the table in an enclosed area are trainers of the Awqaf workshop, who have travelled from different countries to lead the various sessions. We had an Iranian, an American of Arab descent, a Kuwaiti and a Pakistani as our guests.

The conversation spanned over many issues and many cities - from food, state of the Muslim world, price of oil, Tehran, Cairo, Dubai, religions - in between good humour and laughter.

There were several interesting points exchanged during the conversations. I thought the following were worthy of reflection and deliberation:

The approach to view Islam as an expansion of other monothesistic religions, namely Judaism and Christianity. This approach implies recognition and acceptance of Judaism and Christianity, instead of nullification and rejection. I particularly like this approach and will give it more thought over time.

That many Muslim families are not happy, and at the same time pretend to be happy (and loving couples) when they are in public or among friends and relatives. This borders on hypocrisy, and is detrimental for the children, who knew that their parents are driving each other mad at home. Unhappy parents and families will raise unhappy children, and the vicious cycle goes on. This may be one of the causes of the difficult state that we are experiencing. Let's start a happy family movement :-)

And we have stopped dreaming .. We don't dream big things anymore. Perhaps because we are fire-fighting everyday, and caught up with the inside and now instead of the outside and future. Examples of dreamers who combined perspiration and aspiration to make their own unique contribution include Leonardo Da Vinci, who vowed "I shall become of the greatest artists the world has ever known and one day I shall live kings and walk with princes" at the age of 12, Napolean who spent long hours conquering Europe in his mind, dreaming of how he would lead his troops, and the Wright brothers who turned their dreams into aeroplanes.

Everything starts with a dream. Dreams are seedlings of realities. If you never have a dream. you'll never have a dream come true.

Lead, dream and be happy (family)!

2nd Workout Session

Brothers and Sisters,
Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Alhamdulillah, we praise Allah for His mercy and for allowing us to spend time together for this workout. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet, his family, his companions and the companions of his companions, and to all who strive in His cause.

Today is Vesak Day. On this day devout Buddhist reiterate their determination to lead noble lives, to develop their minds, to practise loving-kindness and to bring peace and harmony to humanity. In many ways, we are also aiming to do that, and more, including to seek Allah's pleasures, to strengthen our ukhuwwah, to renew our commitment to Islam, to increase our contributions to our community and to preserve the well-being of Singapore, our beautiful country.

The first workout that took place during the Chinese New Year holiday in 2006 at the Boys Brigade Campsite was a watershed for us. It was the first time we had participants from several and different organisations coming together to offer ideas and later follow-through the initiatives developed through the workout. The first workout had a lasting impact on me - it was a gathering of minds and souls and a reunion of sorts; brothers and sisters who once were together in campus, met again after taking different journeys of tarbiyah and da'wah. The ta'aruf session took much longer that the time allocated - a testimony of renewed friendship and brotherhood or sisterhood. And the workout ended with a long list of ideas and initiatives for participants to develop and implement where viable. Beyond the list of ideas, we also broke the glass ceiling that shapes our previous organisation-centric approach to da'wah.

I am pleased to report that several of these ideas and initiatives have taken a life of its own, in different platforms and programmes. Some are embedded in existing programmes, while others shaped new programmes and pushed the envelope much to the discomfort and complaints from some members of our community. The most significant achievement are the work done with NTUMS and NUSMS, the BRMY and TMSN camps. A direct outcome of this initiative is our Breakfast Club@Kassim, and alhamdulillah, the club has managed to sustain interest among the brothers. Some sisters are now asking us why they are not invited - a testimony of success and usefulness of the club.

Another success story is the creative use of media for da'wah. We discussed the need to have groups of artistic talent to reach out to youth and the creative young. We may not be able to claim all credits, but alhamdulillah, there were several initiatives to achieve this goal, including the 8-minute film making competition, the alunan kasih song writing competition, Sis Lieja's attempt at cerpen writing for Suria and many others. And on working with specific influence groups, we have started conversations with polytechnic lecturers, renewed our relationship with teachers and partnered with theatre and silat groups. Since we have left the implementation of the ideas and initiatives to interested participants and groups, along with its loose and laisser-faire modus operandi, there are no verifiable means to measure success accurately.

There were other initiatives that did not take off: mentoring programme for students in campus, networking with university academics, and development of (tarbiyah) content for all the initiatives and programmes created by the workout to develop potential du'at and leaders for da'wah. But this must not discourage us from moving forward - in fact it should motivate us further.

Our thanks and appreciation goes to all who have in one way or another helped implement those ideas and initiatives.

But as we move forward, we must also take cognizant of the changing landscape and the aspirations of the young. The traditional attraction and affiliation to formal da'wah and social organisations are no longer prevalent in our community. Many young persons aspire to do something and contribute, but at their own time, through their specific interests and by themselves. How do we response to these aspirations, including other black swans and unknown unknowns?

This workout session hopes to create new stimuli, energy and interest groups that will embrace many young persons and others who may not find a calling to participate through programmes and membership of existing da'wah organisations. For this workout, we intend to discuss and develop a business plan of sorts on four initiatives: a) the tarbiyah triangle, b) rumahtangga dakwah, c) outdoor programmes, d) new media.

We may not be able to delve substantively into all four initiatives today, but I am confident that we will have enough inputs to develop these initiatives and implement it in the near future.

May Allah (swt) guide us in our journey today, and grant us a good outcome for this workout.

Messenger of God for Mankind

I wanted to write about my visit to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers (referred to in Surah Al-Kahf) and the Dead Sea, which I made during my short stay in Amman and Irbid, Jordan, but I have yet to put my thoughts together. The other piece that I wanted to write was my reflections on my meeting with the Hadramis, the Yemeni society and Yemen, but this too will take some time for me to weave it into a meaningful tapestry ... and in the meantime many other life stories are unfolded as days passed by ...

Today, we had our inaugural International Hajj Seminar attended by delegates from some 19 countries. Alhamdulillah, I am grateful to be able to chair the presentations by delegates from Singapore, Philippines and South Africa. But I was both overjoyed and moved when the delegate from Albania, Dr Ramiz Zekaj, General Director of the Albanian Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation gave me 3 books on Albania and Kosovo, as well as a set of books titled This is Prophet Muhammad (saw), Messenger of God for Mankind in 5 European languages -- Italian, German, French, Albanian and English. This 90-page book which has been translated into 12 languages, including Russian and Spanish, consists of 4 chapters, a) Let us get to know the last Messenger, b) The Prophet who perfected the human virtues, c) The Prophet in the view of world personalities, and d) A few lessons derived from the life of the Prophet.

What intrigued me was the simplicity and the poetic style used to present the life of the Prophet and his virtues. At the end of the book, readers are served with a chapter of Prophetic sayings. This chapter features a set of colourful drawings of roses each accompanying a hadith (sayings) of the Prophet to correspond the single red rose against a colourful wave that serves as the cover of the book. Let me try to explain what I meant through the introduction at the beginning of the book:

Personalities resemble high mountains. They stand above the others, are easily visible from the distance, but climbing up is a long and tiring road. The traveller, aiming to reach the top, should walk across the footpaths and uphill and rocky roads and cope with patience and persistence the difficulties and tiredness. Up high, the air is fresher and cleaner, and the horizon is vast. In the people's conscience, the mountains symbolize pride, greatness, beauty and eternity. Views from all the points of horizon cross on top of the mountains.

The personality of Prophet Muhammad (saw) is the highest of all mountains. From their peaks one can see in all directions. The fields look toward this peak, as well the hills and the high mountains look towards this point as a point of orientation. The road towards this peak is the longest but not tiresome - soft and nice, as was also the Prophet Muhammad (saw).

During the climbing, the traveller walks across valleys full of colourful flowers, where thousands of bees gather nectar and pollen; taste the pleasure and freshness of pure water running down the water continuously; listens to the songs of the birds mixed with the whistling sound of centuries old forests. All these amazing beauties spiritually lift the traveller to a world as pure as the water and air of this mountain ...

Prophet Muhammad (saw) is the personality that God equipped with all the beauties and heights of the spirit, with the best and special virtues, with the wisest mind and purest heart. Viewed from any direction, he (saw) radiates and serves as a model the people of his time and the following generation of mankind.

Several books including Professor Tariq Ramadan's The Messenger are waiting patiently to engage and interact with me. Dr Ramiz Zekaj's gift adds to this collection.

Dr Zekaj has also introduced me to the Albanians and to "remind the civilised world about this forgotten people", through these books.

Clay and Water

In my younger years, sometime around 1975, I was introduced to Lin Yutang’s book titled Importance of Living by my (then) boss David Tay, a renowned interior designer, when I was working in his design firm after dropping out from school.

When I had my fingers on the clay at Cikgu Iskandar Jalil’s clay and pottery workshop yesterday morning (together with my son Mus’ab and my colleagues) Lin Yutang’s work that I read decades ago suddenly came to mind.

One of the flashes was on the analogy of clay and water in human marriage.

Madame Kuan, wife of the great Yuan painter Chao Mengfu, expressed the analogy a very long time ago. Madame Kuan was herself a painter and teacher at the Imperial Court. When Chao was thinking of taking a mistress, Madame Kuan wrote the following poem, which touched his heart and changed his mind:

Twixt you and me
There’s too much emotion.
That’s the reason why
There’s such a commotion!
Take a lump of clay,
Wet it, pat it,
And make an image of me,
And make an image of you.
Then smash them, crash them,
And add a little water.
Break them and re-make them,
Into an image of you,
And an image of me,
Then in my clay, there’s a little of you,
And in your clay, there’s a little of me,
And nothing ever shall we sever;
Living, we’ll sleep in the same quilt,
And dead, we’ll be buried together.

{Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living}

I shared this very poem with my wife when we got married in 1983.
Today, 25 years on and with 5 beautiful children,
I (re)dedicate this poem to her – and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day.

11 May 2008

Fountains of Wisdom

Subhanallah. To say that I was honoured to be able to meet not one but several religious luminaries, scholars and leaders of Syria (and Sham) would not be doing justice to the experience, given my (low) standing and worth. Alhamdulillah.

Sheikh Dr Hussam-Eddin Farfour received us on arrival and insisted that we have tea at the airport café before we proceeded to Le Meridien. Sheikh Farfour, who is the Rector of Al-Fath Al-Islami Institute, was our Visiting Scholar for the Asatizah Seminar in 2007. He had the opportunity to meet the Most Revd Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams when the latter was in Singapore for the Diocese of Singapore and Muis Lecture. Sheikh Farfour is an active participant and co-organiser for interfaith dialogues and study visits in Damascus. The institute that was founded by his father, Sheikh Mohamed Saleh Al Farfour had co-organised interfaith meetings with Hartford Seminary and other institutions in the West. Sheikh Hussam Farfour had delivered lectures and seminars in Princeton, Boston and other Ivy-league universities. During tea at the café, Sheikh Farfour welcomed us to Syria – and to consider it as our home, too.

Both Sheikh Farfour and the Mufti of Damascus Sheikh Dr Abdul Fatah Basm were consistently warm and generous. They never failed to insist that we do a “pit-stop” at their houses for a meal on our way to the airport. They are also very generous with their wisdom, time and humour. When asked about relations between Muslims and others, they explained the significance of “wa laqad karamna bani adam” (in Surah Al-Isra’: 70) – that Allah gives dignity and honour to each and every human being and all of us are in one human family. Kindness, compassion, mercy and all good deeds are not only for Muslims but also to all human beings. This resonates with our understanding of “wa ma arsalna ka illa rahmatan lil alamin”.

They helped us to confirm our meetings with the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Dr Baduruddin Hassoun, and the Minister of Awqaf, who is a religious scholar himself, Sheikh Dr Muhammad Abdul Sattar As-Syed. The Grand Mufti shared his recent invitation by the European Parliament to deliver a speech to them, after they gave him the highest vote among the rest of astute religious scholars. The Grand Mufti asserted Islam is founded on the basis of benevolence and does not restrict the rights of other faiths to exist. He further elaborated that the most honoured person would be someone who is God-conscious, pious, beneficial to mankind and ready to serve all humanity.

Later during the meeting when the Grand Mufti took a phone call in the adjacent room, Sheikh Farfour informed us that the Grand Mufti would be leaving to Aleppo immediately after our meeting to attend to his elder brother’s funeral. When the Grand Mufti returned to our meeting, we expressed our condolences to him, extended our do’a to his late brother and our appreciation for receiving us, despite the circumstance. There was a deep sense of calmness and acceptance of the Divine will from his look and expression. Words cannot really describe the profundity of his presence, wisdom and emotion.

The Minister of Awqaf, Sheikh Dr Muhammad Abdul Sattar As-Syed, himself a religious scholar, is from the lineage of the Prophet (saw). I was told that his religious scholar peers nominated him for the Minister’s job to the President of Syria. And this also applies to other high offices, including the appointment of the Mufti. It can be inferred that there is a highly connected and cohesive group of ulama’ or religious scholars to lead the Syrian society. It however does not imply that they always agree with each other. They differ views and intellectual opinions but that did not, and will not affect their relationship and respect for each other.

Sheikh Salahuddin Kuftaro remarked that if there are those who said that we should die for Islam, it is time for us to say that we should live for Islam. His message to seek knowledge, exude best akhlaq (character) and contribute to humanity and its attendant ethos form the basis of the Foundation that was founded by his late father, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro. The Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro Islamic Foundation was established 70 years ago as a small mosque at the foot of the Kaasyoun Mountain. Today it is an educational complex (and the Abou-Noor mosque within it) that house three colleges, schools, student hostels, and an orphanage.

Sheikh Salahudin also shared the normal practice of allowing other religious leaders to deliver a talk before the Friday khutbah at the Abou-Noor Mosque (similar to our Pre-Khutbah talk in Singapore). The Friday congregation is used to listening to Bishops from the Orthodox Church before the azan to commence the Friday prayer proper. When this was mentioned, I cannot help but imagine the furor this may cause in our mosque in Singapore.

I was impressed with the consistent messaging of interfaith dialogue and co-existence from the religious scholars and other non-government officials and wondered at the plausible reasons for such views to have taken root in Syria. Sheik Kuftaro said that the historical land of Sham that stretched from Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and Palestine has a long history and was the cradle of civilization for Muslims, Christians and Jews. The people therefore had been used to the idea of co-existence and mutual respect. He recalled that when the pioneer of the foundation, Sheik Ahmad Kuftaro passed away, there was sadness even from prominent Christian leaders in Syria who declared through the local newspaper that the Mufti for the Muslims and Christians had passed away.

Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, during his visit to Pakistan, was asked by the (then) President of Pakistan to offer his observations of the development of the country. He replied with immense wisdom through the following words – If the building of madrasah are not complemented by the building of factories, and the minarets are not accompanied by warehouses to store food, then development will not be realized.

These scholars including Sheikh Dr Wahbah Zuhaily and Sheikh Dr Taufiq Al-Buti are a class of their own – mutamassikun bil asal wal munfatihun. Indeed they are fountains of knowledge and wisdom: deep in tradition, inclusive and embrace new knowledge and modern sciences.

And from these fountains, streams flow to water far away lands and enrich life.

Find Your Strength

Mus'ab and I had a wonderful experience, this morning.

Together with other colleagues, we spent some two hours at Cikgu Iskandar Jalil's pottery workshop at Taman Warisan. After an introduction to clay and the overview of the "project". Cikgu Iskandar showed us how he did it, on a tile of clay - for us to get a look and feel of what was to come. It really looked simple. He stressed repeatedly that there was no need to think when we worked on the clay tile, but to let our hands do the job.

Using all sorts of tools, some looked like (hair) comb, pointed screw drivers, scrappers, etc, Mus'ab and I tried to create our masterpiece. We raked, poked, drew to create textures and design of sorts - and to be honest we did not have a clear goal of what we intend to create. We worked on our instincts, and it did produce a tile of diverse subdesigns and objects - blobs on surface, waves of lines, etches and small holes interspersed with a myriad of objects of different shapes. We even penned our name in Arabic at the two end of the tile.

Cikgu Iskandar Jalil was generous with his wisdom and philosophy of life. He is an extraordinary person -- a winner of the Anugerah Jauhari, a Guru at pottery and with clay, lectures at several universities in Japan, Helsinki, Copenhagen, among others, ran several marathons, travelled widely, had several books on him and his works. And as he demonstrated how to work on the tile and later on a vase, he shared some of his views of life and told us to "find your strength".

When I first met Cikgu Iskandar at his house at Kembangan, I was both afraid and awed of him. Afraid because of his high standard and strict discipline to life, and awed because he appeared casual and personal. He showed us pages of the books written on his works, pottery art pieces that he brought back from an exhibition held in Korea. We were served tea in mugs made of clay and moulded by his hands. I was also attracted to his koi (fish) pond as we entered into his house. Cikgu said that the state of the koi is indicative of what is to come - when the koi is not its usual self, Cikgu will expect and be prepared for a not-so-good-news. The pond is clean and well-taken care of, unlike many ponds I came across. It showed that Cikgu had spent time, patience and discipline to maintain it, and to keep the koi alive and healthy.

During that meeting, I was not sure whether he would consider our request for his work to be mounted at our new Singapore Islamic Hub reception lobby. After explaining to him why we wanted Iskandar Jalil's work at the SIH, he proposed that we involved everyone - staff and stakeholders to do a tile of clay - and he will put it all together on the wall. It was a brilliant idea and consistent with our intent that the SIH represents contribution and achievement of the Muslim community. But he had yet to give his commitment then.

Cikgu also brought us to the kiln area where the pieces were burnt to specified heat. Interestingly he reminded us an important lesson in life - of pace and stages. He showed the broken pieces of clay tile when it was heated before it was adequately dried. To rush a tile to the kiln before it is ready is futile - almost similar to many things we do in life, including human development. He also said that through clay and pottery work, he was able to detect health deficiencies and conditions. The speed of the spinning machine, the functioning of fingers on the clay and the trembling of hands whilst working on the pieces are all indicators or signs of hypertension and related conditions. But pottery work is also therapeutic for many.

While on the spinning machine to mould a vase, at the end of our session, Cikgu encouraged us to consider pottery making for leisure and to prepare for our old-age. He commented that it only requires an hour a day of discipline to produce vases and other objects. But he also asked us to find our strengths to choose and decide whether it is plates, mugs, or vases that we should focus on, and create. Only then the quality will be superior and we will be known for our art pieces.

Cikgu's sharing this morning, reminded me of a Buddhist saying which goes - when the student is ready the teacher appears. Cikgu Iskandar Jalil is a Master-teacher who is ever ready for students who are willing to appear.

Thank you, Cikgu.

Singapore Seminar @ Damascus

This was not my first visit to Damascus, but my fourth. However there were several firsts this time round – the first Singapore Minister to visit Syria, the first Singapore Seminar to be held here and the first attempt to pack in as much meetings, dialogues and calls on religious scholars, academic and national leaders, over two days.

We went straight into the function room at Le Meridien Hotel from the airport, for Minister to keynote the seminar, followed by our presentation and dialogue sessions with about 65 Singaporeans who are studying in Damascus. These students led by DIMASYQ (the Singaporean student society) were very well prepared for the seminar. Emceed by Br Muhammad Fizar, the seminar was engaging throughout and full of surprises. It was not like other student seminars I had attended. Dressed in lounge suits and formal wear to accord Minister’s presence, the ambience matched the standards of many similar events organized in Singapore.

There were 4 presentations in all, each followed by a dialogue session. The students were candid in their questions – covering broad areas and issues, perhaps best summarized with the 4 futures – a) challenges and career opportunities within and beyond the religious sector; b) community with a progressive outlook and strong Singaporean Muslim identity (SMI); c) madrasah and religious education, and d) religious leadership through a progressive culture of ijtihad.

I had to rework my presentation almost on the spot, after much of what I intend to deliver was also covered by the keynote address, but also to share the other attributes of the SMI since the earlier Q+A session focused mainly on interfaith and its imperatives.

Apart from those serious questions, there were also the odd “what-was-that-all about?” surprises such as a question on how to reconcile the call to continue and pursue studies at postgraduate level on the one hand, and the need to work to save money for marriage on the other (*hmm*), the Master of Ceremony’s metaphorical ship (although I initially thought he meant sheep – the korban saga still lingered in my mind, obviously) and his reference to the pilot of a plane upon which their (students) life depended on, to the incoming President of DIMASYQ at the dinner (I am not certain whether the phrase “no pressure intended” for Br Faizal, the newly appointed President, can be used here) .

I was told that the students reflected, and discussed the issues raised during the day (at the seminar) into the late night after the closing dinner and a group of students went into it till about 3 am next morning, much to my surprise and delight. Many students were pleased that many of their questions were answered and doubts addressed. It certainly gave me great satisfaction to learn that our efforts to stimulate their thoughts and challenge prevailing assumptions were not in vain.

After my presentation the participating students had their breakout sessions for group-work. Each group was asked to discuss and offer responses to the issues discussed during the presentation, as well as to the recent incidents affecting Islam and Muslims. One group shared their discussion and presented their thoughts and responses to the issue on how best to deal with incidents such as the Danish caricature on Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the recent Fitna Video by Geert Wilders.

To react with anger, hatred and violence, is to provide Wilders and his supporters, the evidence (or as a journalist would put it – the ammunition) they needed to substantiate their assertions – that Islam promotes hatred and that Muslims are violent. Hence, this group reminded us to response with good deeds (the phrase – wa idhaa kho thobahumul jaahiluna qalu salaama – in Surah Furqan, suddenly came to mind) and echoed the need to increase efforts to reach-out in friendship with many others who may not have a positive view on Islam and the Muslims.

I closed the seminar proper by summarizing what I considered to be the salient points presented by the speakers and discussed in the Q+A sessions as well as my reflections for participants to take as Way Forward.

The day ended with a dinner with all the participants, much to their delight and gratitude. The spread was tantalising and we were spoilt for choice. Aisyah told me that Le Meridien asked us to choose 16 types of salad for the dinner. During dinner, I managed to catch-up with a former colleague from MAS who is now studying in Damascus, and accepted our invitation at a very short notice. It was a walk down nostalgia lane when she gave me potted updates of many friends who mentored me at work during my younger days.

But the dinner was more than just food. Sis Hadijah shared her reflections in somewhat a valedictory mood, Br Zahid, the outgoing President presented DIMASYQ’s report card for his term of office and asked Minister to present appointment letters to the newly elected President and members. The highlight of the dinner was the qasidah and nasyeed by Br Zahid and group of students (some in their tarbus *the red head dress usually worn by Turkish men) – it was spiritually uplifting. I had tears in eyes as we recited the selawat of the Prophet, despite not fully comprehending all the words in the nasyeed. Indeed, the meaning is superior to the words.

I had said in previous seminars and workshops, that one of the measures of success for such events was whether participants stayed on long after the closing and photo-takings. Organisers should worry if participants kept looking at their watches, as if they felt that event was not meeting their expectations or that they had other better things to do.

The Singapore Seminar in Damascus did not “stand down” until we were persistently ushered out of the function room by the staff of Le Meridien. It must be way past their working hours, and participants kept glued to the conversations and questions, amidst more photo-takings with Minister and officials.

From the Le Meridien function room, the conversation and issues discussed at the seminar resonated and reverberated at a cafe, on the minibus and in students’ living rooms….

Sunday 27 April 08