There's a blast in Bangalore...

All students are gathering in the human experiment lab of the Physiology Department (that includes me of course). We were here to claim our third IA's mark on physiology paper. Thank God I passed the paper...

Dr Suresh, the Physiology Head of Deparment came into the room. There's a seriousness in his face.

"Dzul... come here, I need you to make an important announcement" beckon Dr Suresh towards Dzula. I saw Dzula rushing towards Dr Suresh while Im sitting cordially on a chair in the Human Experiment lab of Physiology Department inspecting my third Internal Physiology paper together with the rest of the students.

Dzula came back to the crowd in the lab. Calm in his face... nothing shocking... he even put a smile.. a childish smile.

"Er... Perhatian semua... This is very important... Dr Suresh nasihat semua orang supaya jangan pergi ke town... Don't go to MG Road, Garuda semua tu. Saya tahu semua orang eager nak keluar town time-time lepas exam macam ni... tapi saya harap korang stay put and balik ke apartment dulu kot... Sebab ada siri Pengeboman di Bangalore. Setakat ni ada 5 bombing berlaku. Jadi untuk keselamatan saya harap semua orang balik rumah dulu kot."

A bombing... Bangalore is under terrorist attack

Knowledge, Understanding and amal (Tribute to akh Zafry)

"Anas, can you briefly describe your understanding upon this 1st chapter of Muntalak?"

I was dumbfounded... I couldn't do it. I couldn't describe my understanding upon this chapter. I totally forgot what is being discussed in this chapter. The whole chapter has been discussed extensively over the period of a few months with our previous naqib, akh Aizuddin. Upon all these months i came to forget everything. MashaAllah.. what has befallen on me?

Life has a specific rule on knowledge and understanding. The rule is those who understand a particular knowledge will be able to apply it. Knowledge coupled with pure understanding results in perfect application. This rule applies to any type of knowledge be it ukhrawi or duniawi.

A surgeon doing surgery on the GIT will be able to have an image of every relations of the stomach, duodenum, jejunum etc in his mind. He'll be able to project a 3D image of the whole system in his mind. Then when he's in the surgery he'll be able to implement it without any potential injury to the important blood vessels and nerves which appears in the surrounding. This is knowledge plus understanding.

I've been taught knowledge. Knowledge about the relation between the wahyu(revelation) and al-hawa(undue desire). We have discussed in our weekly online halaqat that wahyu will never go hand in hand with hawa... that life has two attractions; the Islamic attraction which is always good and the satanic attraction which is always bad... that one who's involve in da'wa need to get rid the al-hawa from his life.. totally get rid of it. This concept has been discussed thoroughly over a substantial period of time.

I was shocked, sad and I felt ashamed. Till now, the question put forward by akh Zafry still ringing clearly in my limbic... it keeps circulating there in the limbic, making laps upon the circular neuronal pathways that make up the emotional and temporary memory system.

Its profoundly clear that my knowledge in this 1st chapter of muntalak has not come with understanding. It hence resulted in my failure to apply it. Knowledge been taught that I must free myself from all the undue desire that chained my life; then only I can focus on learning, understand and thus reverberate the revelation to people in my surroundings.

For not understanding this knowledge, I've done many things unpardonable...of which I couldn't reveal to anybody. Only Allah Knows the best. He's closer than my own jugular vein. He Knows everything that I've done. Everything that answers the hawa... not the wahyu.

The axiom never fail: I learn + I don't understand = Im not applying the knowledge
= I keep indulging myself with hawa nafsu

The conversation with akh Zafry reverberate again in my ears:

..........."Anas.... boleh tak beritahu ana apa yang anta faham dari chapter lepas?"
..........."errr... urrmmmm... haisssyyy... akh Zafry.... minta maaf..... urmmm..... ana dah lupa laaa... urmm...."

Diam.... hanya bunyi horn lori di jalanan Bangalore mengisi ruang conference maya....

........"Oklah... kalau macam tu kita revise balik chapter lepas... kita tak boleh teruskan chapter seterusnya tanpa pemahaman chapter pertama...."

Fortunate me. Akh Zafry was so kind to help me revising what I did not understand and subsequently forgot...


"O Allah, protect me from my own hands, eyes and ears!"

ps: Third IA is coming in 7 days... I wrote this while pausing my study on the abdominal aorta

Jane, Chaurasia, Satya and Freakonomics(only some snippets)

Jane, Chaurasia and Satya... who are these? Friends? Indeed they are. They are my best friends nowadays... and they are to continue becoming my best friends at least for another month... Question is, who are they? Haha.... they are respectively the Indian authors of Physiology, Anatomy and Biochemistry text book. In the preceding 1 month they are to be my companion, my very best and good companion... because in one month, I'm having my professional examination. 1st MBBS professional examination.
Quoting my seniors notion on this crucial exam: "This is between life and death... so no wonder you guys are so stubborn to get up and come to Subuh prayer at F15" (ironic heh? hehe). By the way it is true in its truest sense. It's so crucial that failing is of no option and totally unpardonable. Repeating will be cost me a fortune.
So... hurm ... Fraekonomics? What the freak? I call this book as my study pause book. Reading Jane, chau chau and Satya often makes my frontal lobe goes fatigue... pausing for a sip of some economics fact will reduce its ischaemic state.
So... Srinivas says that exam comes and goes but knowledge remains... I want to add something to this philosophical thought of a 26 year old anatomy lecturer... exam comes and goes and never come again... but knowledge need to be retained in your frontal lobe. For God's sake they'll ask you the relation of profunda brachii artery when you are in the second year and the consecutive years.

programmed-oriented Dakwah? a hope for SRC

Alhamdulillah, just last week the Student Representative Council of IMS Bangalore had successfully organized the first ever Islamic Youth Symposium (IsYS). It is said that this is going to be the template programme for the IMS students in the upcoming years. It is undoubtedly a dakwah programme for the students, aiming in general to gain Islamic awareness amongst the students despite of the busy routine as a medical students.
Again undoubtedly it is a good programme, but yes of course there are yet many rooms to be improved. I am here wanting to raise one concern for all of us to think. Strictly, this is not a critique upon the IsYS programme (why must I critique? I am one of the think tank behind this programme after all hehe).
My concern fall upon the way we perceive dakwah. Must we wait for a programme then only we say we are doing dakwah? Must there be a specific formal programme for us to do dakwah? Isn't dakwah a continuous process? I'm only raising a concern here for all of us to think.
Hopefully those in the SRC realize that as leaders we are the vicegerent of Allah, we replace the duty of the prophets to bring human beings bowing, submitting to the One God. Alhamdulillah and InsyaAllah I am putting my trust to those who lead me. May God always lead you guys and not letting you guys fall astrayed. Ameen.....

.....................................................a hope for a brighter IMS.......................................................................

How are we establishing IMAM India SC?

IMAM India SC is yet a dream but this dream is in a progress. How far are we in the progress? The idea began to move when my senior here in IMS Bangalore began to contact Dr Latiff, president of IMAM. Then she began looking for those who have the same idea and ambition of seeing IMAM a reality, and call them out for a short meeting.

Then a meeting was held between six people. Those people are me myself, my fellow brother Farid Nazmi, Nur Asilah, Syazlin, Kak Nisa known better as Ken among the seniors, and Farha, better known as Aha. From the meeting we came out with our very first baby step which is to establish a protem committee. The committee is officially and temporarily lead by me. Then the names have been sent to central IMAM office in Malaysia and from thereupon IMAM India is virtually established and recognized by the central IMAM.

Then our next step was to approach leaders in other medical institutions. As a matter of fact there are list of medical institution infested by Malaysian students all over the South India region. The list are as below:
1. IMS Bangalore
2. Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal
3. Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore
4. Belgaum Dental College, Belgaum Karnataka
5. Salem Dental College, Tamil Nadu
6. Davangere Dental College, Davangere Karnataka
7. JJM Medical College, Davangere Karnataka (coming soon)
The highest student population is in Bangalore, Manipal and Mangalore. Since Mangalore is only two hours from Manipal we chose to approach the leaders in Manipal and Mangalore first. Hence me and Farid went to Mangalore and Manipal meeting the leaders beside accompanying an Ustaz from Aman Palestine to give talk to students in Manipal.

After the Aman Palestine talk in Manipal, me, Farid and leaders from Mangalore and Manipal went for an informal kedai kopi meeting. From there on we arrived to a conclusion and agreement that every institution must have their own protem committee. The leader from Mangalore, Alimin whom a third year medical student agree to provide 4 protem committee members. Leader from Manipal, Khairil promise to give me names but doesn't specify how many of them will be in the committee.

In the proceeding stage, I myself called Dr Latiff and reported to him the progress so far. Then he gave me an order to begin the real roll balling of IMAM India by running a small weekend programme. In order to do this a proper committee must be formed and it has been agreed that a temporary committee will be selected first without the course of democracy. This is done in effort to promote and henceforth attract students to join IMAM India SC.

So far the progress upon launching this programme has not been discussed yet due to exam constrain. And I am yet to receive any names from Manipal also due to the exam constraint. At 11 June, Alimin will be coming to Bangalore to sit and discuss with Bangalore committee members upon taking the next step. InsyaAllah, may Allah bless upon what we are doing and May Allah bestow upon us an easy path void of exterminating problems. InsyaAllah... all gives prayers and work it out with knowledge. These comes with unprecedented Knowledge and Work. InsyaAllah.

IMAM India SC... yet a dream in progress

It was an idea shared in common by many especially those who frequent the surau. Regardless whether the person comes from bangalore or mangalore, the idea comes to a meeting point. I believe the idea has been circulating around for years. But none comes forward to initiate it until one day a girl from bangalore urges a few person who has been talking these idea around without action to come and meet. It's the idea of forming IMAM India Student Chapter. Finally insyaAllah the idea is on the move, progressing at a fast rate.

IMAM which stands for Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia has been donned as a successful platform for Malaysian muslim medical related course students to fulfill their activism needs. IMAM has a humble beginning which seeds out from the idea of 5 muslim doctors back in the 1980's. Since then it has spurred out to become a large NGO gathering muslim doctors all over Malaysia, running Muslim agendas through professionalism.

Now that IMAM has student chapters all over the world; UK, Ireland, Russia, and Chezch Republic. I am not so sure whether IMAM has their wing in Egypt or not. However now we are about to see the emergence of IMAM's wing in India. I reserve my will to exaggerate this as there are still many obstacles ahead. We are still at the very seed of its establishment.

Let us first peek into the scenario in India. Malaysian population here in India has its own niche. Firstly its interesting to note that there are nearly a thousand Malaysian students scattered here in the region of South India. This number is expected to be growing as provisionally, Malaysian government are sending more students to India. This scenario can be credited to the fact that the cost is much lower and it is said that the quality of the graduates are better.

Secondly, due to geographical constraints and facility defects in India, students from different institutions are much disconnected to each other. This brought us to a scenario where students from different institutions tend to mind their own business rather than getting together for a beneficial gathering of any cause. In simpler words, Malaysian students in India in general are not united.

In effect to the fact that students are not generally united I observed that students in India are not much exposed to extracurricular activism that can help them to develop awareness that they are not becoming doctor for no clear reason; that can help them to realize that they are actually has dive into a profession so challenging and interesting that they can't afford to merely pass the course. There are something extracurricular that they must pursue in preparing themselves in becoming a real good doctor. I believe that these extracurricular factors are not being served to students in normal Indian classroom routines.

Hence come the IMAM idea to propel and fill up this vacuum. The main idea is to help students realizing at least their purpose of becoming doctors. Besides I am also hopefuls that this organization will be able to spark off the spirit of volunteerism among the medical students which is in my belief is an important niche of a good Muslim doctors. Inevitably, if IMAM were to be a reality one day this will be the first organization that really gathers Malaysia students to one point; and in fact this meeting point is a very beneficial one as it is based on the spirit of medical professionalism not merely empty hari raya fun.

As I said before, it's an idea shared by many who has been indirectly inspired by their colleagues in the western world. Now only we came to spark off the propeller's engine. The jet has not yet moved but the engine has been started. The roll balling of IMAM India will start with a simple weekend program. This program will mark the real emergence of IMAM as an effective organisation gathering Muslim Malaysian Medical students in India. InsyaAllah I'm optimistic to see a new dawn in India.

Srinivas: Exam comes and go, but knowledge remains

We were in the dissection hall, as usual, dissecting parts of human body studying its anatomy. This time around it was the head and neck region.
One of our lecturer comes... Mr Srinivas. He's not a doctor but pure anatomist. Challenge him with any anatomy question, hell he knows almost every part of the body. How can he be like this?
Well, Hamid, one of our fellow here talk to him about exams...

"Sir, exam is near, and still there are a lot to be read... how sir?"

"Well..." raply Mr Srinivas

"Man, exam comes and go but knowledge remains!" said Mr Srinivas, tapping his head.

Mr Srinivas is merely a 26 year old fellow. Unlike all other old proffesors, he's damn young and damn genius in anatomy.

I think this is such a good quote from him to be shared...

Good Luck to everybody, may Allah be with you...

Living Up Islam in our life

“Islam is the solution, Islam is syumul, Islam is the answer…bla bla bla…” huahhhhhh!(yawning)… boring!

Many would resort this statement as being empty… empty slogan they say. Indeed I agree. These are empty slogans. Really empty. Totally empty… nothing!

Why… don’t you believe me? Shoot me for saying this. Kill me for voicing this out. I believe I’m saying the truth. These slogans are empty because they are not being manifested.

True, Islam holds the solution to everything. Islam is the answer; Islam is the way of life, etc. But still people don’t believe them. Okay, so we blame the people for not believing these and hence the Qur’an? Good… now let’s lash these people further. We label them kafir, munafiq, fasiq.. . what else? Member of the jahannam?

God forgive me… astaghfirullah…

Qur’an is the answer. But Qur’an itself doesn’t manifest the answer to everything. We believe the postulate that Islam is the answer to everything and indeed it’s true. This postulate has prove itself once… hundreds of years ago, but not in the recent time. The proven postulate has become a hypothesis again. It is yet to be proven that Islam is the answer to everything because we, the Muslim didn’t manifest the postulate. We didn’t manifest the Qur’an; we didn’t manifest the sunnah; we didn’t manifest this deen or way of life. In simple term: Muslim did not walk the talk!

So this is the problem. We are good in finding problem and even better at lamenting about it. We are also good in feeling sad about it… just feeling sad. Nay we are good in finding the solution. When it comes to finding the resolution, we reserve ourselves further lamenting about our own dumbness.

No wonder we Muslims are so good boycotting western’s products. Two years ago it was our beloved prophet’s cartoon; we call it a blasphemy, and we got angry, got crazy, make processions, and some even went to the extent of burning cars and churches! Today history repeats itself. Now it’s the Fitna film. Again we Muslims call out for the same thing; processions, demonstrations, and again, the same boycotting.

Actually, we have the solutions to all these problems. We can disprove all these blasphemy, we can gain back our dignity but many reserve themselves not to venture themselves into this solution. Why did I say this? The reason is this resolution requires them to invest. What investment? I would say, they need to invest their entire life into it. However, unlike those financial investments, this involves no risk; it only involves security… eternal security.

So what can Muslims do in order to manifest the postulation that Islam is the way of life… in fact the only viable way of life? For me, there’s only one key to this. Muslims need to be ‘syumul’. Then only can Islam manifest its light.

Syumul… hmmm. Many of us now this. There’s nothing new in this solution. Am I bragging another empty slogan? Yeah.. maybe. Maybe I’m bragging about another old empty slogan. Here it goes:

“O my friends! O youth! O Muslim! Let us all become a syumul muslim!”

And yeah, I’m going to shout this over the minaret so that the whole Karnataka state can hear my sermon.

Nay I am like that. A good Muslim doesn’t talk empty; a good Muslim walks the talk. I want to be a good Muslim, hence for me and my fellow friends, I’m writing down some criterion of a good Syumul Muslim so that we can all ponder upon it and thence act on it.

Who is a good, syumul Muslim?

It is simple. We Muslims live by a simple principle. A clear principle which resonates a strong believe that there is no Ilah other than Allah, that we are a caliph to this world, and that we live in this world to abide to no other entity other than Allah; and we take Rasulullah as our qudwah or pure living example.

So a true syumul or complete Muslim have all these believe firmly bound to his/heart. Then ultimately this kind of person will manifest himself as a complete, excellent person. He’ll be excellent in all manners. A true Syumul Muslim is envisioned by his excellence in everything that he do.

If he study he’ll study to his best that he become the best student. If he go to work, he’ll make sure he’s doing the work to his best, be on time, keeping all the amanah given secured. If he gives speeches, he’ll be the person everybody wants to listen to. If he plays basketball, he’ll be the best player. This person has the wit, has sound general knowledge, he can give brilliant ideas and comprehensive solutions and best of all, he’s the person respected by everybody. Simple… Our prophet and fellow sahabah are the living example.

This is how Qur’an can manifest itself. All these personalities that I’ve listed down are Islamic messages being conveyed to human being by the Qur’an and Sunnah. It’s pity that many of Muslims today understood Islam as being a ceremonial religion just like other religions. People only use Islam when it comes to marriage, ceremonies etc. Some only use Islam when they got problems or wishes to be fulfilled. Example; Majlis solat hajat dan baca yassin serta doa selamat. Even worse, many interpret Islam as being only solat, fasting, and zakat.

How I ended up in India?

IB result is out! Im all sweating that night. All sweating to accept the verdict. My father lied cordially in front of the tv mocking my worriedness. I just can’t stay put. Something in my heart says that this is going to be bad. The result will be announced in the net by 9.00 PM. It was around 7.30PM.

I just can’t stay put. I grabbed my mother’s Atoz key, start the engine and dash off to Masjid Sultan Yahya, the Blue Mosque of Kelantan. Waiting for azan, I prayed. I prayed hard for a good result so that I can go to one of the anglo-speaking countries. Again, after finishing Isya’ prayer I did another prayer. This time I prayed to Allah; “Ya Allah gave me the result that suit the things that I’ve done. I’ll take whatever the verdict You give me Ya Allah. “ That was my final wish after two years of struggling and prayers for the International Baccalaureate at Mara College Banting.

Indeed, the verdict suit what I’ve done. 35/45. That was my result. Good enough for MARA to send me off to overseas. With this poor result all I can apply for is Tasmania University, Australia. It’ll be a five-year medical course. 35 leads me nowhere. With no placement at all, UTAS is the only choice I left. Given that I fail to get entry to this university, the last resort will be India. That’s what MARA promised me with this result.

Fine… I only got 35. I’ll go with whatever I have. By the way, I’m not all alone. My best buddy Farid also have the same fate. No placement, poor result. Unwanted. All I can do is smile. Smile, feeling content with what I have. It’s takdir. I can’t question takdir. That’ll be hikmah. And I do believe that Hikmah is only for those who wants to think about it. Otherwise, it’ll be of no use. You’ll keep blaming yourself and everything around you, even your cat!

There were twelve of us who applied for UTAS. 12 hopefull unwanted students. Let’s make the story short- All the 12 of us didn’t get into UTAS. Bye-bye civilization... bye-bye beautiful country… bye-bye developed country…Aweful indeed. Most students from Banting are looking forward for living in developed countries. We, 12 students are receiving a ‘warm’ welcome from the ever-unexpected India.

India… one postulate will come to most of us…and our relatives: Subserviant to Malaysia. Yes, India is not as developed as Malaysia. The cities are dirty, it’s hot, people are not friendly, in short, life will be horrible! Is it true? You’ll discover later on.

Pn Ayuslina, our beloved MARA officer who took care of Banting students said that we will be sent to MS Ramaiah in Bangalore. Okay fine.. MS Ramaiah. Sounds good.

“You’ll be getting your offer letter in no time,” said Pn Ayuslina jovially

Upon getting the offer letter…

“Oh my God! What is this? This is no MS RAMAIAH… this is K…. U….. T… P… M!!! KUTPM?? What the %^%*?” She said it’s Ramaiah? What happen? Why? This is no India college. It’s Malaysian!!! Im expecting a local one.

Okay, okay… whatever. I was told that we were to go for an orientation at KUTPM Shah Alam. Okay, I’ll go. So I went…

TRUTH DISCOVERED IN ORIENTATION

Orientation is really a time for getting information. These are shocking truth that I’d discovered during the orientation:

1. That KUTPM has made a collaboration with Gokula Education Foundation, the body that own M.S. Ramaiah Medical School and all other associated schools in Bangalore. This collaboration has led to the establishment of a new medical college- KUTPM International Medical School (KIMS). GEF supplied lecturers and syllabus and KUTPM supplied a building besides MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital plus all the funding. Hence, Pn Ayuslina has told us the truth. We are entering MS Ramaiah.

2. That there are many more of Bantingites having the same fate as me. All the unexpected faces appeared. Even those who scored flying colours in IB examination appeared there at the orientation. So, no big deal.

So that’s how it went. The verdict is known. It was predetermined that a man, named after Anas Aminin bin Wan Mohd Izzuddin is going to furhter his 1^st Medical degree in India, at a Malaysian company-owned college.

Next will be the preparation to fly… finally. After all these years of suffering and uncertainty in Mara College Banting. Flying is yet another chapter to be told. Why must I tell story about flying? It’ll be the same old series of events… receiving tons of money from family members and friends, visiting them, buy all those new clothes and stuff, and finally hugging your parents in front of the International Boarding gate. Same boring stuff… Is’nt it?

No! mine is not. There’s nobody to send me off!

India: A New Chapter

I've been in India for the past five months-since October 2007. Now its February 2008. 5 months is such a long period. Many things have I gone through. Bulks to be shared and tons to tell. Last 20^th of February I’ve celebrated my 21st birthday. An appropriate day to begin writing entries again after leaving this blog unattended for five months (poor blog heh heh).

From today onwards InsyaAllah I'm updating my blog with series of entries reminiscing my experiences and stories to be thought about. There are much to be shared about. It can't stay here in my memory forever. It'll deplete with time and age as per the normal of human being. Hence, writing it would save all the memories and thought that have crossed my mind before.

India is indeed a new chapter in my life. It begin around September 2007. MARA sent me here for my medical studies at International Medical School (IMS). IMS is a college under Management Science University (MSU), formerly known as KUTPM. Indeed it’s a Malaysian college established here in Bangalore…filled fully with Malaysian students. Ironic isn’t it? Haha. Let it be. Just hope someday that MSU will take admission from local Indians and other international students.

So here I am now. Aged 21 already, living cordially in Bangalore amongst other 200 something Malaysian st udents, studying MBBS. Oh Yes… maybe… this blog will be co-authored by my dear brother in Islam, Ahmad Farid Nazmi.

I’ll halt for now. This entry is just the beginning for a new chapter in India…

Wallahuallam…

Al-Insan