Life: June 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Yesterday went out with my parents to Geylang. our motive to go there is to have a massage for my foot and my moms then went buying my parents clothes for my eldest bro tunang, so went we arrived there at kaki- kaki. at the end theres no massaging for guys what they mean by that is i must make appointment then theres one. but the counter girl said that i can give u china girls massage for ya cause now theres no guys working.
My mom ask me do u want girls to massage ur foot?
then i say, for me NP( No Problemo).
My mom like expecting me to say no but i said NO with a problem, hahaha. so my mom ask my dad and my dad was somehow ok with it but at the end he still say no so i said to my parents anything..haha. So we went walking to some other place to find the massage place. we found this place but my father insist for me to get massage there cause the man there after massaging he like to speak rubbish things. my father knows that cause his fren got tell him before.

We skip the massaging part first and we went to joo chiat complex. There my mom hunt for her clothes and for me and my father we wait for her and also we go find electronic shop to look for Vid cam. so far Joo Chiat no electronic shops if have also its only HP. Mom bought her clothes already then we went to the next mall. forgot the name, but what i can discribed is the place got lots and lots of Indonesians and Banglas down there. i think u guys by now should no where issit. so went in and my mom still shopping for her stuff, shes buying her self a scarf. while shes choosing and buying her scarf we saw this electronic shop. Went in the shop and we saw lots of vid cam that they are selling. i told my father and also like make him think,
i told him why not we bought this for the family usage?. at least we no need to lend from his borther his vid cam everytime if we wanna go record some events and also the eldest bro is going to tunang atleast we can vid cam how it goes rite?.
So from there he think about it suddenly he like intrested with this Vid cam and at the end he bought it. my father told me that this vid cam responsibility is on me, i was like wow. ok. =). This is the vid cam that he bought.

so after buying the Vid Cam and also my mom have bought her stuff we went to another mall i'm also not sure of the name but after that we went back home taking the taxi. after all the stuff done over there for the massage at the end ended up at sembawang sunplaza. hahaha. my mom didnt go for foot massage cause theres no girls there. so my parents went home and for me i went for the massage. wah its surely nice after all the walking and waiting for my mom and at the end of the day a foot massage, hahaa..
Belive it or not the guy that massage me the forearm is big and muscular. i was like shocked, haha.. some of his massaging area is painful cause he attack my veins area. but i try to tahan, haha. but seriously when he attack my veins the blood rushes really fast to my brains man. hahaha.. so after the massage my leg feels light and brand new, hahhaa..

And dont forget yesterday i got from my father MP4, woohoo!...finally i got something to listen when going for a run. YEAH!. THX ABAH!.

Did Michael Jackson Die As A Muslim?

June 26th, 2009 Posted in Music, Times 5 Comments

The biggest news all over the world yesterday was the death of one of the most famous musical artists in recent history, Michael Jackson. As the hour long television specials, radio playlist tributes, and music video marathons already began on the same day, many Muslims are left wondering, “was Michael Jackson a Muslim?”

The short answer? It’s hard to say.

The long answer? Initially it began with rumors years back that he had joined the Nation of Islam. On top of that, Jermaine Jackson, his brother, is a known and confirmed Sunni Muslim, which added another ingredient into the mix.

Then in November 2008, various news sources reported that Michael Jackson had officially accepted Islam, as he had been interested in it since 2005 with the help of his brother Jermaine. Other news sources claimed that Muslim artists Dawud Wharnsby and Idris Phillips were also involved in his acceptance and that they were present when he took the shahadah (testimony of faith), and even that he was also meeting with singer Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens.

But since then, not much else had been said about his acceptance of Islam. What’s more confusing is taking into account recent statements both Dawud Wharnsby and Yusuf Islam that not only were they not involved in the reported shahadah, neither of them has ever met the pop star.

Dawud: “For the record: Though our professional circles did cross-over slightly with various common professional acquaintances - I never had the honour or pleasure of meeting Micheal Jackson personally, nor did we ever correspond on matters of our professions, personal lives or faiths.”

Yusuf: “Contrary to persistent press rumours, I was not at any kind of conversion ceremony for Michael Jackson. Nor, I believe, was Dawud Wharnsby or any of the others mentioned in connection with the story. Granted, I was in Los Angeles at the time these rumours first appeared – but I was busy filming a video for a new song, Boots & Sand.”

Here in Chicago, after the congregation of the Isha prayer, the Imam of a local masjid mentioned that he called up Dr. Muzammil Siddiqui in California, former president of ISNA, in hopes of finding any confirmation on the day of Michael’s death about his acceptance of Islam. Nothing was set in stone. With speculation having come up in the aftermath of his death, this is why I wish to bring it up here.

So the question is this: With no real answer (yet) as to whether Michael Jackson truly was a Muslim or not, what should be our position in regards to his death?

The answer is simple. Regardless of what the real answer is, we should hope he died Muslim. And that’s not just because he’s a celebrity or because we may have grown up listening to his hits, but because we as Muslims want the salvation of all mankind.

Islam is the best and most perfect way of life for all of humanity, and we want all manking to accept what we believe is the way to live mandated by God. And if that happens to be the most breakthrough artist in the history of pop music, then alhamdulillah, all praise be to God, may he be forgiven for all of his shortcomings.

If he’s not, then we leave his fate with his Creator as is, and hope more people like him are guided to accept Islam and help in spreading the message to the masses. And until we have some clearer answers to our questions, I feel this is the position we need to have as Muslims. We pray that Allah (SWT) guides more people to Islam.

Other Links On Michael Jackson’s Death

Extra

In addition to the above, I wanted to debunk some YouTube videos that are claiming to be Michael Jackson’s “Islamic” songs after the late 2008 reports of his conversion to Islam. During that time, everyone began to spread the following video as being the work of Michael Jackson.

Although it may sound really close, it’s not Michael. It’s actually a Muslim brother named Irfan Makki, a Pakistani-born Canadian that recently joined Awakening Entertainment as Muslim artist. You can see him performing the song live at a masjid here:

Also, here’s the music video for an interesting Michael Jackson song called “They Don’t Care About Us,” on racism, oppression, and the injustices of the modern world’s system of justice. This is an A Cappella version, meaning there are no instruments so it’s easier to hear the lyrics. The video was directed by Spike Lee.

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead
Everybody’s gone mad