Muhammad Yunus Ways

Muhammad Yunus, 67 years old, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner. His story is extraordinary or I would say his ‘change the world into a better place’ story is more like Disney story rather than an actual real life story. I put his story into my blog was not because his story was islamicly inspired necessarily, but because he is a Muslim and he has made a great achievement. 

But, nonetheless his story was ultimately and definitely inspires me, and I hope someday I can do something similar here in my own country Indonesia. Where I see it there are many similarities between my country and his country Bangladesh. Especially many of Indonesian people is poor.

He made a business which he called “social business” which started initially in Bangladesh. Which I think in some way is similar or the answer to the creative capitalism of Bill Gates. You can check out the full story on the internet. The short story is that his social business has been a great success, especially in overcoming the social problem in his country. One of the first projects is a Bank for the poor called the Grameen Bank. After that Bank project becoming successful, he started many other “Grameen” successful project, including a partnership with one of a well known company called Danone. The project then was called Grameen-Danone company. And it has made a success in solving mal nourish problem on millions kids in Bangladesh.

Anyway, I just want to tell you especially about how the Grameen Bank did it. And here are the few examples.

On Grameen Banks case: <opposite to conventional Banks> 4 Ways;

• Conventional Bank VS Grameen Bank
• Lend to the rich VS lend to the poor
• Lend to the man (mostly) VS lend to the woman
• Doing business in the city centre VS Doing business in the remote villages
• People come to the Bank VS Bank come to the People

Grameen Bank's Facts:

• Now they have more than 28000 staffs, 8 million borrowers.
• Conventional Banks are usually own by the rich people, Grameen Bank own by poor women (borrowers/owners). Many of those women are poor and illiterate. When the Bank makes profit, it goes back to the borrowers as dividend.
• 60 % of their deposit comes from the borrowers. Which mean no shortage of money or money supply is not a problem for them.
• 100 % of ‘Grameen family’ (family whom their parents has a grameen account) kids are now in school. Which mean they will be able to read and write. They become better than their parents.
• Now there are more than 40000 students in various types of majors. And now many of them are professional and ready to enter the field of work.
• Grameen encourages them to be a job creator and not only a job seeker. Because is hard to find job in Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus talks to them, and he gives example on how their mothers were able to create a job then, even though that they are illiterate and don’t have a business education. So, now the ‘Grameen family’ children that are literate and definitely has a higher education are suppose to be better in creating jobs. He said to them that they must be a job giver and not a job seeker.
• For that job creator Yunus said that money won’t be a problem. Because Grameen Bank has a lot of money, but what kind of business that they will create is suppose to be their main concern. And also he said that the main issue is shifting the paradigm or mentality of a job seeker as the only way of success.
• Another project of Grameen Bank is a “beggar’s loan project”. This simply is a loan for beggars so that they can be a seller and not just a beggar. Shortly, this project is another huge success and now they have 112.000 beggars participating in it. 60.000 beggars are stop begging completely. More than 8000 of them became a regular Grameen Bank’s borrowers.
• From many examples of social business he created and his experiences from it, he concludes that poverty is not created by the poor people, but created by the system. Because the system sees that they can’t makes benefit or profit from the poor people. And in the contrary, so many evidence shows otherwise. Again and again when opportunity was given to the poor people, they can do something and made themselves better.
• Yunus said: “All human being are packed with unlimited capacity, but being a poor means that unlimited potential is just wasted.”

Tazkiyatun nafs (Purifying our soul)

The Most Valuable Asset to Mankind is Time

Death can caught you at any time and any place. Remembering or contemplating death in Islam is one of the main and ultimate ways to purify our heart. I found that many riches and pious people, and people that have great positive energy are those who constantly remembering death.

We’re often hear story about turning point of someone which associated with their near death experience. We called it also a second chance experience. But, we all know that no one has a certainty that everybody will have a second chance in life.

Although some said it’s a scary thought, but by remembering death we’ll be able question again, what is the purpose of our life and is there life after death? And secondly, we’ll be able to rethink and refocus on that purpose of life, and not just wasting our time for something that doesn’t have benefit in our life and especially the afterlife.

That’s what I see in eddy on the deen show. By the way, eddy is the host of a great show about Islam called ‘The Deen Show’ (you can check it on youtube). After I followed and watched several video clip of him on that show, I felt that he has a great awareness on death. That awareness doesn’t make him feel depress or negative but on the contrary it makes him has a great positive energy to spread the good message. Which is Islam.

Second example is still from that show. Which is a conversion to Islam story by Baba ali. One of the ‘AHA’ moment in baba ali story is when he waited his father at the hospital. So, The doctor had said that his father only have a few days left, and baba is waiting his father when supposedly his plan is to go to a Islamic camp to learn about Islam. While his waiting, he think that death can come to anyone regardless of how old they are. Including no one can guarantee that death will come to his father first. So, then he decided to go to that camp, even though his mother was totally against it. And finally Alhamdulillah (All praise to Allah) that day became his first turning point to Islam.

Dr. Maurice Bucaille Convert Story

Assalamualaikum,

This story is one of my personal favorite convert story. So, lets get to the point. I'll give you the short version of it. 

Dr. Maurice Bucaille was the Chief Surgeon of the France-Egypt pharaoh mummy Archaeological Research. The research was in 1981.

He was focused on the attempt to discover how this Pharaonic King had died. Finally, in late hours during the night the final results appeared. The salt remnants in his body: This was the biggest evidence showing that he had died whilst drowning, and his body was then extracted from sea immediately after drowning. Then, quickly they carried an embalming process of the body in order to preserve it.

But there was a matter which puzzled the professor, he wondered how had this body remained safer than other mummies even though it was extracted from the sea!!

Dr. Maurice prepared a final report in which he said. It is a new discovery until someone whispered in his ear, saying: “Do not rush muslims into talking about the sinking of this mummy.”

But he strongly denounced this news, and found it odd that such a discovery cannot be known to the world to help the evolution of modern science, and the help of most advance computer devices.

Someone told him that there is a ‘Quran’ which they believe tells a story about pharaoh’s drowning and body reservation. After this, Dr. Maurice became more astonished and he started to question how had this happened?? If this mummy been detected only in 1898, while the Quran had been available before one thousand and four hundred years?

How does mankind accept this as not only Arabs not know about the ancient Egyptians mummification of pharaoh’s corpses but only knew before decades of time?

Dr. Maurice Bucaille sat that night, staring on the body of Pharaoh, thinking carefully about what his colleagues had whispered to him of how Muslim Quran speaks about

The survival of this body after drowning !!!

The Bible talks about the sinking of the Pharaoh in his pursuit of prophet Moses (pbuh) without being subjected to the fate of his body. The Dr. asked himself: is it conceivable that his mummy is for Pharaoh, who was chasing Moses? Is it conceivable that Muhammad knows this from more than a thousand years?

Dr. Maurice was unable to sleep, and asked them to bring him the Torah in which he went on to read. Verse of the Torah saying: Water Return and covered the vehicles and all Pharaoh Army Knights who entered the sea behind and no one survived. He remained puzzled, even the Bible did not talk about the survival of this body and its preservation.

He belted up his luggage and decided to travel to muslim countries to interview a number of Muslim scholars who specialized in autopsy.

Upon his arrival there he made the first talk with them, about his discovery of the Pharaoh’s body preservation after drowning. So, one of the scholars opened the quran and he read the Doctor a verse said by the Almighty saying:

‘This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! But verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!’ Quran Surah Yunus 10:92.

He was deeply influenced by this verse and this strongly overwhelmed him in front of his audience he shouted in his loudest voice: ‘I have entered Islam and believe on this Quran’.

He returned to France in a different condition, prior to the one he had left before. In France he stayed ten years and did not have job but conformity to the newly discovered scientific facts written in the Holy Quran, and the search for a single scientific contradiction, then he understood the meaning of the Holy Quran which says:

‘No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it: it is send down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise.’ Quran Surah Fussilat 41:42.

In the fruit of those years he had spent, he came out when he authored a book about the holy Quran that shook the entire Western States scientist. The title of this book was named: ‘The Bible, The Quran and science. The Holy Scriptures Examined In The Light Of Modern Knowledge.’

What did this book do? The first edition had already run out of all the libraries and then hundreds and thousands of copies had been reprinted. After, the book had been translated from the original language to Arabic, English, Indonesian, Farsi, Urdu, Turkish and German etc.. The book was spread all over libraries in the East and West.

Dr. Maurice Bucaille is a muslim now.

At glance it seems like all holy book are inspired by God or are the words of God, but if we examine them carefully only one stands out. And that is the holy Quran. I guess this story shows it.

BR, Wassalamualaikum

Aria

Nouman Ali Khan on Tafseer Surah 112 (Ikhlas)

Nouman Ali Khan

 

Assalamualaikum

This is my impression after I hear a podcast from Nouman Ali Khan. By the way, he is one of the islamic speaker that I know from youtube. His speciality is tafseer Quran.

The speech is actually very long one, so he made it two part. But there is one segment in the first part that struck me the most, that is the end part. That part whom he made some kind of conclusion. That part is like an 'AHA' moment for me. And i have been using it and played it over and over, every time I am down and need of some motivation to stay 'sabar' or patient to worship Allah. 

And that part is: "It is easy to say Allah is One, but is He the One in my life?? Is He the one for me or there’s other One / something else that we run after. Allah rhetorically asked us what was so important to you that you ran after, that you can’t come after this? So, Psychological implication of internalizing ‘Ahad’ (one of the word in surah al-Ikhlas). Which is >> Am I fulfilling the rights of ‘ahad’?? or Am I doing the justice of ‘ahad yet??"  

I Sincerely recommend y'all check it out his free podcast. One of them is on the i tunes. 

Wassalamualaikum