Operation refresh

1. too much talk already, now time for action. Thinking of risks - the loss of LTIP is the most prominent, and potential risks of gaining future income after exhausting current stash.
2. Direction and motivation must be clear. Self-interest, survival instincts must be honed and sensitised. Articulate and forthright in expressing views, and able to lead and convince in all situations.
3. All positions must be considered before coming to a decision, and kiasu-ness should be a common outlook and less unnecessary benevolence. Time and effort are valuable resources, and money is to be reinvested wisely not expended needlessly.

Miscellaneous reflections

1. Too many things unsettled - feeling of drifting, losing control, losing perspective etc - after the many "structural" changes in the past few weeks. Key concern is that because of these circumstances, more decisions could be made taht further aggravates these outcomes.
2. Major changes in the past 2 months include: Sarah's employment coming to a close, Mak going for umrah trip with Zana and Amran, Ummi's Turkmen trip and "slipped" C3-C4 disc , moving house, taking a more proactive role in managing the kids, etc. I have yet to be able to reflect on the ominous changes these entail.
3. The key thing to manage now is make sure any other decisions affecting structural changes must be made with care and caution. The key thing is that the end vision must be very clear in the mind.

Ode to my eldest son

By how much have I wronged you?
1. by not being by your side at all times when you need me
2. by driving you away from me, and making you distrust and abhor me, and therefore making close personal relationaship  difficult
3. by taking sides against you, and then showing that I do not stand up for equity and justice
4. by not scolding others or not putting the same yardstick against your other siblings.

to all the above, I am deeply sorry and I hope that you can forgive me.Despite all that, I still love you very deeply and I always try to be the best dad that you can have.

Speech from Dr Danial to JIM Timur Laur from 2000

A short speech delivered by Dr Danial from the year 2000, but timeless and relevant in its message. Within that space of time, Dr Danial is now a public figure and widely respected, as he should be and me? I need to look at myself in the mirror.

 

Assalamualaikum.

 

Saya bersyukur kerana JIM Timur Laut telah melaksanakan janjinya untuk memberikan fokus kepada tarbiyah, pendidikan, IPT dan dakwah kepada yang belum Islam. Di bidang dakwah kepada yang belum Islam saya amat menekankan tentang konsep sinergi dengan IPCI dan ABIM-Outreach. Usahasama dengan sahabat-sahabat kita ini, saya yakin, akan menghasilkan sesuatu yang lebih baik demi masa depan ummah dan dakwah.

 

TUGAS MULIA UNTUK INSAN MULIA

 

Dakwah dalam konteks mengajak kepada makruf dan nahi mungkar adalah suatu tugas yang amat mulia. Tugas yang mulia hanya akan dipikul oleh mereka yang mulia. Justeru itu ianya diamanahkan kepada semua insan-insan pilihan yang bergelar Rasul. Kita adalah waris kepada Rasul-Rasul dan jika kita merupakan insan-insan yang mulia, kita juga akan melaksanakan tugas mulia yang bernama dakwah islamiah ini. Kita tidak akan menjadikan kerjaya kita, ‘overtime’ kita, rumah besar, kereta besar, pangkat besar dan gaji besar kita sebagai alasan untuk meninggalkan dakwah. Saya yakin kita masih ingat tentang dialog yang berlaku di antara Zainab binti Jahsy dengan Rasulullah, di mana Zainab r.a. telah bertanya kepada Nabi: “Adakah kita akan dihancurkan sedangkan masih ada orang-orang yang solih bersama-sama kita?” Nabi menjawab: “Ya, bila kemungkaran berleluasa!” Hadis ini telah diriwayatkan oleh Imam Muslim. Jelas sekali, bila kita meninggalkan dakwah, Allah dan bantuanNya akan meninggalkan kita.

 

ILMU ADALAH ASAS

 

Dalam hidup dan perjuangan, ilmu adalah penting untuk dikuasai kerana tanpanya kita akan terbabas. Kesungguhan untuk mencari ilmu melambangkan juga keseriusan kita untuk mengabdikan diri kepada Allah secara yang berkualiti. Nabi Adam sebelum dilantik sebagai Khalifah di muka bumi, telah dibekalkan Allah dengan ilmu-ilmu yang mantap seperti yang disebutkan di dalam surah Al-Baqarah pada ayat 31. Ada sesetengah kita yang begitu mengkagumi tulisan-tulisan Steven R. Covey, Peter Drucker, Napoleon Hill, Anthony Robins, Denis Waitley, B. Eugene Griessman dan lain-lainnya. Tidak ada salahnya untuk kita membaca karya-karya mereka dan memanfaatkan isi-isinya, namun kita perlu ingat bahawa karya yang paling utama untuk kita fahami dan dalami ialah Al-Quran, As-Sunnah dan buku-buku teras yang memperincikan tentang Quran dan Sunnah. Saya berharap kita tidak merasakan bahawa kita benar-benar sudah memahami dan mendalami Quran, Sunnah dan karya-karya agung ulama-ulama silam sehingga kita tidak memerlukannya lagi pada hari ini, kerana sikap yang seperti itu akan membinasakan kta sendiri. Jangan kita lupa bahawa kita adalah golongan ‘Fundamentalist yet Contemporary’ dan untuk menjadi ‘fundamentalists’ kita perlu memahami secara mendalam Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah dan selepas itu barulah kita manfaatkan bahan-bahan dan teknologi yang berbentuk kontemporari.

 

KELUNTURAN

 

Kelunturan akan menyerang kita bila dunia menguasai hati kita. Ketika itu perbuatan yang haram menjadi mudah untuk kita lakukan, ibadah akan dilakukan secara tergesa-gesa dan kita amat membenci teguran dan nasihat yang berdasarkan agama. Saya hendak mengingatkan kita tentang pergaulan di antara lelaki dan wanita, agar kita tidak terlampau kendur tentangnya. Saya tidak bermaksud untuk kita sentiasa memasang tirai di dalam majlis-majlis yang kita adakan, tetapi saya mahu batas-batas syariat tentangnya dipatuhi. Begitu juga dengan batas-batas aurat di dalam pemakaian wanita-wanita JIM. Kelunturan dalam beramal boleh tertonjol di dalam bentuk pemakaian. Hendaknya janganlah kita lupa bahawa kita adalah pendakwah dan sepatutnya kita menjadi contoh yang baik bagi orang lain. Seorang pendakwah yang baik ialah dia yang memulakan dakwah dengan dirinya terlebih dahulu. Terima kasih.

 

Dr. Danial Zainal Abidin,

YDP JIM Pulau Pinang.

 

 

 

Calibrating My Personal Charter

PERSONAL CHARTER



April 5, 2011

Realising that secular objectives, no matter how interim, is both misplaced and destructive, that I shall strive insyaAllah and with Allah’s guidance, to fulfill my fullest potential, and also to bear responsibility of realising the potential of those under my care, which includes my wife and children, and be the most positive influence I can be to others that I come into contact with, to benefit the purpose that Allah has given to His creation.


September 18, 2009; 28 Ramadhan 1430H

For the next 5 years, my financial planning mission shall be:

• Benefactor to others
• Work only for a worthy cause
• Secure dependents

1 Jan 2007


I will ensure my life and my family will live a life of integrity according to values approved by Islam and social order

I will be determined in ensuring we reach that goal while at the same time ensuring my parents are safeguarded;
including my wife and children; and our relations



I will have determination that I build up through persistence and tenacity;

I will pursue those goals with bravery and courage, and not be stopped by fear


I will pray that Allah protects my objective and makes it easy

I will also have understanding and tolerance for other people's viewpoints, perspectives, problems, concerns, and make it my own

I will use my rational thought coupled with hope and prayer to its fullest ability and find the opportunities that life brings for the betterment of this life

Migration is a realistic option

Malaysia is going down the failed nation route

1. This country is eroding.
2. Utusan is a joke of a newspaper who thinks their agenda of helping malays by continuing unquestioning loyalty to UMNO will perpetuate the malays survival, even at the expense of dumbing down the malays. Their overzealousness to prove Anwar as the protagonist of all evil in the world is made with the assumption that the malays are emotional and unthinking, and by goign through the moral high ground they can guarantee Anwar's destruction. I'm no big fan of Anwar post-2008 after all the miscalculated political missteps, but when Wan Azizah says it isn't Anwar, that's good enough for me. I trust Wan Azizah understands the concept of loyalty, as it is taught in Islam, is predicated upon truth and goodness, not upon deception and political calculation. So Utusan - may your editors find peace in themselves, and may the once-proud newspaper forever die a slow, painful death through making themselves an irrelevant space filler in dirty drains. The expected reaction to this is that this is a treacherous thought to allow a powerful symbol of Malay power, but in truth, Utusan has been a traitor to the malay agenda by ensuring the continued ignorance, prejudiced, unprincipled and emotional views to be propagated to unthinking malays.
3. Seeing Tun's blog on how to develop a university town today is another revolting idea. Tun is brilliant, but a supernormal Einsteinic, Alexander the Great he is not. His brilliance should have been focused on institutional building for continued malay development, not for short-cut, original but ultimately untested ideas. Instead, he cultivated a sycophantic following forever asking his ideas on development and regarding it as unquestionable truth. Malays will only progress once they start taking responsibility for themselves, and not waiting for a supreme feudalistic ruler to bring them to success. The sooner Tun really retires, the better for the malays. Najib should outflank him, and outflank him now.

Return to the origins

1. Bahasa has this nice proverb saying "kembali ke pangkal jalan" to signify life's typical journey of returning to fundamentals whenever we veer away from where we intend to go.
2. I've always had this feeling of chasing after money, no matter how interim, that objective becomes a domineering overwhelming instinct that eats up all our efforts, time and resources. No matter how noble the intent can be, ie looking after my family's interests and financial demands, it then becomes the mechanism where the original direction will be lost. There will be no balance, no proportion, and looking for proportion no matter how clearly it resides outside of the workplace now, it would be imbalanced when we lose the sense that Allah is the overriding, primary aim of life.
3. It has taken Sarah's leaving to ignite that need, now becoming a temporary single parent would naturally increase that reliance on Allah which I had quite conveniently left it by the wayside. It is time to return.
4. Just to add to the sense of unrealness, RTC has now initiated a video screening of proof that Anwar cannot control his Thamby. Talk of the inadequacy of someone raising libel on others. I cant visualise any other person with this kind of background displaying such a disregard of personal embarassment and shame, inability to find remorse and accountability, and no feeling of political responsibility to chase a personal vendetta. Society needs clean, clear-thinking, above this dirty politics that UMNO has become so synonymous with. I do feel a personal calling in this regard, and the call of money seems to be the only obstacle holding me back.
5. Elsewhere, Fukushima will result in a much increased cost of nuclear generation, and it remains to be seen if coupled with variability of oil price whether this could really push the envelope for RE generation, no matter how un prepared it is to become mainstream currently and the demands of subsidies to get it up. Certainly a business opportunity.
6. Wifey is overseas for the next 2 weeks - I'm bearing the brunt of the work at office and home in that period. I'll have to decide if this is worthwhile as a full-fledged career. Nevertheless, the demands of a PIBG Secretary, a business matching organiser, a scientific advisory technopreneur and a trainer could certainly be a productive alternative.