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YASEEN : STORY OF THE LOST CIVILISATION

Caution: This is an extremely long article. Your discretion is advised.

I am please to announce that my August's article "The Bridge" will stay for your reading pleasure of my blog. After a month being published, no one had objected to my profiling of the verse Al-Fatiha ( سورة الفاتحة) and that means the article shall forever be part of my blog ( at least until this entire blog is deleted by the owner of blogspot.com. )

Thanks ya'll !!

So would you mind if I profile yet another favorite surah of mine from Al-Quran??

But before I began, here's my disclaimer for this article. Please read it.

First and foremost, please always consider the possibility that I am an idiot and that things I said here is a complete rubbish. It is Allah who owns the knowledge that no creature shall ever comprehends. Therefore I urge you not to take my opinions herein seriously. Just take it as food of thought for your leisure readings.

P/S: Also, I apologize to Homer Simpsons for using his picture as my alter ego. Do'h!

Actually, surah 'Al-Fateeha' is not the only surah that I had profiled so far (for those who have yet to read my previous article 'the Bridge', please do so). Very recently, thanks to the lesson I've learned after watching the videos of converts (again, for those who have yet to read my previous article 'A Lesson From The Converts', please do so), I have spent a lot of time studying the translated texts of my most favorite surah in Al-Quran which is surah Yaseen.

I am proud to say that Surah Yaseen is my most recited surah in Al-Quran. The first time I recited this surah wholeheartedly was when I was hospitalized a few years ago. This was at the moment in my life when I had just joined the legal fraternities but yet to join the Watchers Group. This was a brief period in my life when I was a bit 'naughty' due to bad influences from no good friends ( however, I don't drink and I had never done drugs. I was naughty but I was not bad ).

I was in extreme pain back then and I spent a lot of time reciting this surah - praying that God would ease my pain and heal me. At one time the pain was so severe that I think I had passed out on bed without anyone around me noticing. Nearby patients probably thought I was sleeping. It was during this episode I heard a voice of a man telling me that there's a reason why I need to be in the hospital. This may sound comedic but merely three days after I was admitted to the ward, I was stunned to receive a very 'naughty' SMS from an ex-girlfriend (whom was already a married woman by that time) asking me out to a 'date'. Weirder yet, an hour later I received another SMS from a friend telling me that there's a new karaoke lounge  in town and its owner had offered him 'two new goods from Phillipine' (meaning 'girls') for 'pinoy test drive' (go figure).

Had I not been imprisoned in hospital that whole week, my life probably had changed into one which is morally corrupted and far from the straight path. That was the day when I began to believe that there is no "musibah" in Islam. That was also the day when the same voice had also told me that my numbers will be up when my age reached '.........' (censored). Luckily though for me, I still have enough time to 'invest for my retirement scheme" and in the meanwhile enjoy the correct way life should be enjoyed with family and kids. Unfortunately I won't be blowing candles on my 75th birthday. But then again, I still can see my kids grows up and if I'm lucky I might even see them get married.. Haha..

So now you know where's the idea to write my past articles namely "How To Make Money Online" and "Tiada Musibah Dalam Islam" really came from.

I hope by telling this story, you will also understand why in many of my articles I repeatedly emphasis the need for my readers not to take my writings seriously. I have this fear {called it phobia if you will) of inadvertently leaving behind harmful information in this world. The last thing I want to do is going to the grave with people performing sins in the world of living no thanks to my stupid blog. When JayaNegara went loco I was horrified to learn that my blog was listed amongst his favorites. I was relief however upon learning that this guy wasn't even learned enough to understand English. This is my primary reason for writing my articles in a language foreign to the majority of Malaysian idiots / lunatics.

But I feel that there were things which were worth telling.. provided that readers are cautioned not to take it seriously. The things I about to tell you is something which I don't think will bring any danger to your aqeedah. This is the story that may be used to warn future generation of what shall befall unto them if they stray from the straight path. This is my profiling of surah Yaseen which I believe tells the story of a lost civilization that sounds eerily similar to a well known legend from the west.

Another Caveat : I am not 100% sure the story in Yaseen refers to that legend I'm gonna speak about. I only say that to me, it sounds eerily similar. Got it?

If you got it that by all means you may proceed to read the rest of this article. If you unable to comprehend the meaning of my caveat, then kindly stop reading and click HERE to exit this blog.

THE STORY IN YASEEN

• Ya, Seen.
• By the wise Qur'an.
• Indeed you, [O Muhammad], are from among the messengers, 
• On a straight path.
• [This is] a revelation of the Exalted in Might, the Merciful,
• That you may warn a people whose forefathers were not warned, so they are unaware.
• Surely (because of their persistent disbelief and hatred) the word (decree) Has been proved against most of them that they will not believe.
• Surely we have placed on their necks shackles reaching right up to their chins so that their heads are raised up.
• And we have set a barrier before them and a barrier behind them and cast a veil over their eyes, so they see nothing.
• And it is the same for them whether you warn them or you warn them not they will not believe.
• You can but warn only him who follows the Qur’an and fears the most-kind (Lord) without seeing. So give him the glad tidings of forgiveness and a generous reward.
• Surely we shall raise the dead to life, and we shall write down the deeds which they send before, and their traces which they leave behind. And we have kept count of everything in the preserved tablet.

Above are the translation of surah Yaseen from ayat 1-12 (Sahih International). However, those who're familiar with the meaning of surah Yaseen will know that this surah tells a story of a city being destroyed by a cataclysmic event.

It is generally believed that God had left out the details and focus is solely of the lessons to be learned. The people involved in the story are not named - and so does the name of the city, the type of cataclysmic event that occurred and when it occurs. Because of this - and due to the lack of knowledge on modern science in the past - scholars had been known to come out with different suggestions on where this event occurred. Some suggests that the event occurred in Antioch, Syria. Others suggests that the verses actually refers to the story of Noah (the story of the great flood). Then there were others who suggested that this story refers to the destruction of Pompeii.

I would like to say in clear words to my readers that these opinions as voiced out by these scholars out to be considered and respected more than mine. As stated earlier in the earlier disclaimer, you should always consider the possibility that I am just an idiot who write rubbish. Compared to these scholars I am a moron with  no credentials whatsoever to offer. The things I write here is just a matter of personal opinion and hence should always be doubted and rejected if you began to think about it too seriously.

Personally, I believes that each and every words uttered in Al-Quran is a set of miracles by itself. So powerful each words are that different individuals can experienced its miracle  in a different way and through different perspectives. Therefore whereas the message conveyed by the words of God is easy and plain enough to be understood metaphorically by many, my friend and I in the Watchers group tried to apply our crazy idea and our so-called 'literal rule' to decode surah Yaseen as a whole.

I have to say though, applying the 'literal rule' approach when decoding Yaseen has yielded an 'interesting' results.


To make its easier for me to relay my opinion in this article, I will use the following words to refers to the destruction of this unnamed city, its unnamed city and unnamed population.

1. The Yaseen Incident = The events that lead to the destruction of the city by God.
2. The City of Yaseen = The unnamed city refers in Surah Yaseen.
3. The Yaseenites  =  The population of Yaseen of whom was wiped out in the Yaseen Incident.

YASEEN : 13 - 27

• And relate to them (for their understanding) the parable of the people of a town when there came to them our sent ones.
• When (at first) we sent to them two, they denied them, so we strengthened them with a third, then the three of them said to them “verily we have been sent to you (as messengers)"
• The people of the town said “you are not but human beings like ourselves. And the most-kind lord has not sent down anything - you are only lying”.
• The apostles said “our Lord knows that without doubt we have necessarily been sent to you”.
• “and on us is nothing but to convey (the message of truth) in clear terms”.
• The people said “surely we see only an evil augury in you. If you do not desist, we shall certainly stone you to death, and you will receive from us a painful torment”.
• The apostles said “your evil augury is with you! (strange!) when you are admonished (for your own good you start threatening). Nay, you are a people transressing the limits”.
• (In the meantime) from the farthest end of the city there came a man running, he said “O my people! Follow the sent ones..."
• “Follow these (apostles) who do not ask for any wage from you, And are on the right course as well”.
• ”And how can i be justified in not worshiping Him who created me, and it is to Him that you shall be returned?
• (Is it proper for me that) i (should) take other gods beside Him? (by no means!) if ever the most gracious intends me any harm, their intercession will not avail me in the least, nor could they rescue me.
• “(if i were to associate anything with Him), then verily i too would be in manifest error."
• “surely i (have now come to) believe in your lord, so listen to me (with open ears)!”
• (This person was killed by his people, in death) It was said to him (by the angels): “enter the garden”. He said “if only that my people also had knowledge".
• “That my Lord has forgiven me and has made me join the honored ones”.

The story of the Yaseen Incident begins at ayat 13 when God commanded prophet Muhammad to tell the story of an unnamed city. Neither the city was named nor the people who was involved. The story goes that God sent two of His messengers to the Yaseenites but when the Yaseenites did not believe them, Allah sent a third messenger and together these three messenger told the Yaseenites that they had been sent by God.Yet still the Yaseenites persisted in their disbelief, except for one man, who urgently and passionately warned his people to obey the messengers and follow the true religion (sadly, that man was stoned to death by the Yaseenites).

The narrative of stories from ayat 13-27 tells us ("us" here refers to me and my group only. I am not representing you because I'm not telling my opinion herewith for you to spread to others) that the story does not refers to the same people in the story of Lut or Noah. This is because:-

1. Whenever the story of Lut and Noah are mentioned in Quran, their identities are always specifically disclosed (eg: Al-Araf 7:59 and Al-Anbiyaa 21:74). One of the miracles of Quran is its consistency. Therefore from our literal perspective, whomever these three messenger are (as mentioned in Yaseen but their identities undisclosed), Lut or Noah are not one of them.
2. There are three messengers who appeared to the Yaseenites. In the story of Lut and Noah, there is only one messenger namely Lut and Noah being sent to warn each of the local population.
3. The narrative of stories between that being told in Yaseen and the stories of Lut and Noah is completely different. For example, in Yaseen ayat 14, it reads "When (at first) we sent to them two, they denied them, so we strengthened them with a third, then the three of them said to them “verily we have been sent to you (as messengers)". From this ayat we know that at first there were only two messengers appearing to the Yaseenites and then later God sent the third messenger. This is different with the the story of Lut where three angels came together to the city of Soddom. Also in Yaseen, the Yaseenites vehemently rejected the three messengers and even threatened to stone them to death. In the story of Lut however, the homosexuals desperately wanted to kidnap the three angels in order to rape them.

It is true that the city was not named in Yaseen but that doesn't means that God Al-Mighty did not leave a clue. One might wonder why didn't God simply give out the details in Yaseen. Well, I think it is perhaps because the mega disaster that had befallen to the citizen of Yaseen had never been heard nor known by the arabs before the coming of prophet Muhammad.

Scholars who relied on Yusuf Ali's translation of Quran had opined that the Yaseen's incident occurred before Isa (Jesus). They based their opinion on Yusuf Ali's translation of ayat 41 which stated that the 'Ark' mentioned therewith refers to the famous Noah's Ark. According to them because the story of Noah Ark also appeared in the Christian Bible and the Jew's Book of Talmud, then it means that the Yaseen Incident happened sometimes after Noah and yet before Moses ( and Jesus).


The literal translation of ayat 41 reads "And still another sign for them is that we bore their offspring in a laden ark" which means that it is very often (or perhaps their tradition) the citizen in Yaseen gave birth of their offspring in an ark. However, Yusuf Ali was of opinion that the laden ark here refers to the same Noah's ark and thus Yusuf Ali's translated ayat 42 as "And a Sign for them is that We bore their race (through the Flood) in the loaded Ark". But then again, technically speaking there was no mention of a 'flood' in ayat 41. The translation of ayat 41 as as follows from three other different perspectives:-

• Sahih International - And a sign for them is that We carried their forefathers in a laden ship.
• Pickthall - And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship,
• Shakir - And a sign to them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship.
• Dr.Ghali - And a sign for them is that We carried their offspring in the laden ships. 

Therefore, the opinion that perhaps the Yaseen's incident occured after Noah is based solely on Yusuf Ali's version of translation. That being said, no one can really be sure  when the when the Yaseen incidents occured. The only thing that is certain is that it happened long time before the birth of prophet Muhammad.

I have to point out a bit here that it does make sense that the Yaseen Incident long before the day of Moses. But that doesn't necessarily means that the "laden ship" or "laden ark" mentioned in ayat 41 refers to the same Noah's ark that had landed on Mount Judi (believed to be Mount Ararat in Turkey). Furthemore there are other reasons for me to believe that the city of Yaseen was not located near Mount Ararat of the Middle East Gulf for that matter. Wait.. I will explain that...

PROFILING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CITY

Usually when you want to tell others about a city but you didn't know its name, then you will describe the most significant characteristic of that city. For example if you have visited KL and you want to describe it to Tarzan who had been living in a jungle for his whole life, then it will be useless to tell him that you have been to 'Kuala Lumpur' because he wouldn't be able to visualize where KL is and how it looks like. So, you will instead tell Tarzan about the most significant characteristic of Kuala Lumpur. It may sounded something like this:-

"Long time ago I've travelled to this place far far away from here. It was a magnificent place where I saw this huge twin tower made from metal and glass. There were streets made from small black rocks and vehicles moving on it on four round rubbers each. Oh yes in this city there's a a bunch of monkeys too like in your jungle in this city they look like humans and they were called Pakatan Rakyat".

That being said, I believe that the Yaseen Incident had probably occurred such a long time ago before the birth of Muhammad, and in a place far far away  that it would serve no purpose to reveal the details to the more recent generation. But thanks to the accumulation of information via today's technology, we now have enough information gathered from multiple resources and culture to make an intelligent guess.

The first of the Yaseen City's characteristic that caught my eyes in the characteristic of three plants that was mentioned in Ayat 34 and later in Ayat 80 which reads as follows:-

• And we grew therein orchards of date palms and vines, and therein we caused springs to gush forth. (ayat 34)
• Who (in His wisdom) produced fire for you in the Green Tree - Then you kindle more fires there with (ayat 80)

The logic is is simple. The Yaseen City was once a beautiful city known by its palm trees, grapevines and green trees at every corner. For palm trees, grapes and green trees to be able to flourished in the city, the most suitable climate would be a moderate Mediterranean climate be it either 30th degree North or 30th degree south.


However, it is fair to say that it is most unlikely that the Yaseen City was located somewhere in the 30th degree south (the lower part of the globe where there is only a potion of Argentina and Australia). It would make better sense that the Yaseen City is located somewhere within or near the 30th degree north. (highlighted pink in picture below).



There are also others clues within Surah Yaseen which indicates the possibility that the Yaseen City is located not on any continent but on an Island. Consider these three ayats for a while:-


For any profiler, these three clues provided by ayat 41, 42 1nd 43 of Surah Yaseen are enough to shows that the Yaseen Incident actually happened on an Island. Below are the reason:-

At ayat 41, it is said that the Yaseenites bore their offspring on a laden ark. For those of you who didn't know, the words "laden ark" or "laden ship" actually refers to a large ship. You know, the kind of large one which were used to navigate deep water. Now read that information with Ayat 42 and the words "LIKE THAT" therein actually indicates that the Yaseenites do own large ships and vessel as big as a "laden ark". The words "OTHER THINGS ON WHICH THEY RIDE" basically indicates that the Yaseenites main mode of transportation are their ships and vessels.

Now, what kind of civilization would depends heavily on large ships? And what kind of people would would relied on ships as their main 'ride'? The answer is - People who live on an Island of course.


Now, ayat 72 did mentioned that the Yasenites also rides domestic animals but ayat 43 provides an ever stronger clue about these islanders. Ayat 43 actually refers to the what happened after the mighty blast that had completely destroyed the City of Yaseen (the blast was mentioned in earlier ayat 29). It seems that there were survivors of the blast and in Ayat 44 its is said God had showed mercy to these survivors by letting them getting away. In Ayat 44 Go said that if He pleased He can simply drown these survivors and there would be nothing that can stop Him.

Now, consider this argument with an open mind. Lets say for example you live in Syria when mighty blast occurred, where would you run to? Well, of course you would get into your car and drove to neighboring countries like Turkey, Iraq or Saudi Arabia which is reachable by land. But what if you are living on a an Island? Where can you go and type of transportation would you use?

As you have no where else to go, then you have to board yous ships to escape the blast.

See how easy it is to become a profiler? :)

Upon hypothesizing that the Yaseenites might actually be islanders, my mind naturally took me to all those information in books and television documentaries that spoke about the western legend we all knew well - The Legend of Atlantis

THE LEGEND OF ATLANTIS

Contrary to mainstream belief, Plato did not come up with the story of Atlantis. The story was first told to the Greeks by a guy named Critias who told it to his son also named Critias. Then Critias the grandson told this to Socrates (Plato's mentor) during a dialogue of which Plato was also participating. The four persons dialogues between Plato, Critias, Socrates, and another guy named Hermocrates were later written by Plato into his book Critias and Timaeus (which means "Dialogue").

Plato's story in Critias and Timaeus centers on Solon, a great Greek legislator and poet who journeyed to Egypt some 150 years earlier. While in the Egyptian city of Sais Solon received the story of Atlantis from priests. The priests respected Solon's reputation and cordially welcomed him. They also respected the Athenians, whom they regarded as kinsmen, because they believed their deity Neith to be the same deity as the Greeks called Athena.

Crantor, a student of Plato's student Xenocrates, later on claimed that the story of Atlantis is a matter of historical fact. Crantor's book which was a commentary on Plato's Timaeus, was later missing but another writer by the name of Proclus had reports on it. Proclus said that Crantor had actually visited Egypt and had conversations with priests, and saw hieroglyphs confirming the story. Proclus wrote:

"that this is testified by the prophets of the Egyptians, who assert that these particulars [which are narrated by Plato] are written on pillars which are still preserved."

According to Plato in his book Critias, the Egyptians described Atlantis as an island larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined, comprising mostly mountains in the northern portions and along the shore, and encompassing a great plain of an oblong shape in the south. The Egyptians also described Atlantis as A NAVAL POWER (I repeat.. NAVAL POWER) lying across the "Pillars of Hercules" (Straits of Gibraltar in today's Spain) that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon, i.e. in the 10th millennium BC.

Below are the size and location of Atlantis as described by Egyptians to Critias and later Critias to Plato. Compared that with the clues hinted out by ayat 34 & 80 of Yaseen and tells me whether or not you're getting warm.


THE SINS OF THE YASEENITES

So what does the Quran say about why God completely wipe out the city of Yaseen and its inhabitants?

Well, there are three reasons. The first reason . Here is reason number one as explained by ayat 21-24 (read carefully the highlighted lines in yellow):-


Ayat 21-24 make it clear that apparently, the Yassenites ( in Surah Yaseen ) were no longer worshiping Allah. Yes they knew about Allah (as indicated by ayat 47) but they have chosen to turn their on Allah and instead "other Gods" beside Allah. So who is this "other Gods" that the Yaseenites were worshiping? Jesus? Buddha? Ganesha? the Monkey God?

Here is reason number one as explained by ayat 60-62:-


Yep, not only the Yaseenites had abandoned the one true God 'Allah' (eventhough they were well aware about Him), they even worship the Devil himself.

You might be wondering by now, how come in ayat 21-24 it is said that the Yaseenites were worshiping 'other Gods' (indicating many) and yet in ayat 60-62 it is said they were worshiping the Devil (indicating singularity)?

Well, if you have read enough articles about the Gods of the ancient Greek, then you will understand what these ayats means.

The ancient Greek basically has several Gods and several other demi-Gods. For a start, there were the top three brothers Zeus who ruled the earth, Poseidon who ruled the sea and Haden who ruled the underworld.

In Plato's book, he said that the Atlanteans ( the people of Atlantis) were worshiping Poseidon (the greek's God of the Sea). The Atlantean even believed that Poseidon had married their woman named Cleito who then give birth to 5 twins who later the Atlantis territories.

It is a law amongst the Atlantean that they must performed ancient ceremony held in the temple of Poseidon. Here the royals and the priests drank blood which has been mixed with wine in golden cups. This was followed by a dinner that preceded the rulers putting on magnificent blue robes in which they judged matters concerning the kingdom according to Poseidon's laws.

According to Plato, these blood were taken from a bull which was sacrificed as offering to Poseidon. However, it has also been documented in Greek's literature whenever there was storms and earthquakes, it was believed to be signs of Poseidon’s anger, and people would do whatever they thought was necessary to appease his anger, which usually took the form of human sacrifice.

There were also some arguments by scholars whether the Atlantean were indeed worshiped the same deities as the ancient Geeks. Bearing in mind that the story of Atlantis is actually a hearsay which was passed by the ancient Egyptians to Solon 150 years before it was again told by Critias to Plato. It is a matter of great possibility that the only reason why Plato think the Egyptians and the Athenians (the Greeks) share same deities was because the Egyptian thought their deity Neith to be the same deity as the Greeks called Athena. Hence because of that, it is possible that Plato merely assumed the sea God worshiped by the Antlantean was the Greek's god Poseidon.

Whatever it is, it has emerged several evidences which now led researchers to believe that the Atlanteans were indeed performing human sacrifice.

The first opinion of such came from researchers who believe that the Minoans (Europe’s first great civilization, flourished on the island of Crete 5000 years ago) were in fact Atlantis itself. The Minoans were excellent ship builders and sailors, and their maritime empire was so vast, it rivaled that of the ancient Egyptians. However, as enigmatic people as they may seem, the Minoans worships snake priestesses and were engaging in human sacrifice.

Another group of so called Atlantis researchers are relying instead on the famous Edgar Cayce, a psychic who claimed to have made a psychic readings of Atlantis.

According to Cayce, The early Atlanteans were worshiping ONE GOD. They were peaceful and so made rapid advances in the application of natural laws. The Atlantean were so advanced that they have utilized natural gas to make large balloons from the skins of animals to transport building materials. Electricity was also discovered and set to work for man, thus paving the way for remarkable developments in this field.

However, turmoils later arose with contempt, hatred, and bloodshed resulting from the magnification of desires without regard for the rights of others. So an effort was made to draw the people back to the worship of one God, by establishing the first altars upon which animals were sacrificed as a means of cleansing for all.

However, the later generation of Atlanteans uses the altars to perform human sacrifice, thus turning more and more of them away from the original understanding of the Creative Force. Strife, rather than peace, became the common state, and the fact that great understanding of nature's forces had been attained made the destruction all the more terrible.

There is another group of researchers who also believe that human sacrifice was carried out by the Atlantean. In the book entitled "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly, it is claimed that the Druids of Gaul in Britain were descendants of the Atlantean and they too performed human sacrifices. Similar to the claim by Adgar Cayce the physcic, it is claimed that before the destruction of Atlantis the Atlantean were worshiping the sun God named Bel or Baal (which is a demon also worshiped by the Illuminati).

Regardless of which views could be accepted as correct, there's a similar consensus amongst Atlantis researchers that the people of Atlantis indeed performed human sacrifice to appease their God and Deities.

When these information is taken into account to my group's hypothesis, then that would explain what was said in surah Yaseen about the Yaseenites turned their back to Allah to worship the Devil. Whether it is Poseidon or Baal or what God/Deities the Yaseenites were worshiping, the performing of human sacrifice proves that they were indeed worshiping the devil.

Several other ayats in Yaseen which make me thinks that the Yaseenites had indeed performed human sacrifice is 65-67.


Now, it might be true that ayat 65 refers to what shall happened in the day of judgment.In ayat 65 Allah said that the Yaseenites had earn their living in wrong or evil way. This is true if the Yaseenites indeed had made a deal with the devil to sacrifice a living person in return for their kingdom's wealth and properity.

It is interesting that in ayat 66 and 67 Allah uses the sentence "AND IF WE PLEASE WE WOULD..". Clearly Allah is saying here that if He wishes to, He could do some very terrible thing to the Yaseenites such as cancelling their eyesight or mutilating them, but the Al-Mighty choose not to do so. I no longer think these two ayats refers to the day of judgment because why would God refrain Himself in the days of judgment?

Furthermore, people like me who had read about what Hell has to offers knows that losing an eyesight or being mutilated is actually rather 'tame' compared to the rest of punishment in hell such as having boiled lead poured into one's brain or having a giant snake ripping apart your organs.

Therefore, I think what God is saying here is that if he wishes to, he can do these things to the Yaseenites while they were living but He had chosen not to.

Now, if you think about this very carefully, this type of statement actually refers to a desire to revenge someone. For example, if you had just arrested a murderer who had just stabbed someone's head, you might say something like this to him before handing him to the police.

"You know what, luckily for you we have police in this country or otherwise I would stabbed your head like what you had done to that victim."

It is interesting to note briefly here that it has been documented by historians that the past civilizations who performed human sacrifice has been known for stitching the eyelids and mouths of the condemned prisoner to prevent him/her from escaping. The sacrifice itself was carried out by mutilation namely by slicing the throat (or chest) to draw out blood, cutting open the chest to harvest the heart and later cutting the victim into several pieces.


THE ADVANCE CIVILIZATION OF THE YASEENITES

It is true as said in Quran that when citizens had corrupted themselves beyond repair, they are simply inviting the wrath of God beyond their own comprehension.

Listen and understand what the Al-Mighty had said in ayat 31 of Yaseen.


And listen and understand what the Al-Mighty had said in ayat 59 of Al-Kahfi.


Thanks to the cyber-highway of information nowadays, From the east to the west our modern generation had learned about past cities and civilizations that had been wiped out from the face of the earth. The story of Noah's Ark, Soddom & Gomorrah (Luth), Pompeii, and the Legend of Atlantis has become a matter of mainstream interests with research carried out by archaeologist, movies made by Hollywood producers and books written by academicians.

Therefore, you might be asking what made us (the Watchers Group) think that the City of Yaseen in in fact the lost civilization of Atlantis?

What information contained in surah Yaseen that eliminate the possibility the story is about the people of Noah or the people of Luth?

Well, other than the hints that the City of Yaseen was located on an Island somewhere in the region of 30 degrees North, there were two other clues hinted out by surah Yaseen.

Lets start with the third clue, the advance civilization of the Yaseenites itself.

What separates Atlantis with other cities destroyed by God is its advance civilization. Such quality (albeit unproven) has captured the world's imagination about the legendary Atlantis which resulted with Atlantis being the most beloved story which had spawned hundreds of book, television series and movies.

So how advance is Atlantis according to western perspectives?

PLATO

According to Plato the Atlanteans were so advance that they were able to build an 8.8 kilometers long, 300' wide, 100' deep canal from sea. The also had built a horse track, a walled bridges 100 feet wide with guard towers and gates on it, an a ditch 17770 kilometers long. Their military forces are awesome. They have war chariot, horseman and a charioteer, slingers, stone shooters, and javelin men. The most awesome characteristic of their military forced are their naval forces. They have 1200.. I repeat.. 1200 laden war ships ready for sailing.

The Atlantean also mined a metal called "Orichalc" which is 2nd in value to gold and they have abundant timber, elephants, marshes, swamps, rivers, mountains, plains. Their main source of water is a twin spring gushing out hot and cold water (which reminds me here of the meaning in ayat 34 "And we grew therein orchards of date palms and vines, and therein we caused springs to gush forth").

EDGAR CAYCE


Between 1923 and 1944, Edgar Cayce performed a total of 700 of psychic readings on Atlantis. Thus, of Cayce’s 14,256 documented readings, 4.9 percent contained some Atlantis material.

Edgar Cayce’s chronology of Atlantis actually varies little from the Plato account. Both of them placed Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean and they both tell of an advanced civilization existing in ancient Atlantis, but Cayce’s description of the civilization is far more technologically advanced. Between the timeframe of 50,000 B.C. to 28,000 B.C., Cayce describes a civilization that had developed power sources, hot-air balloons (made from skins), flying “ships,” advanced forms of communication and electronic transmission, and a mysterious laser-like “firestone” that could be tuned to various levels to produce power. A

THE MINOANS

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans.

Scholars who proposed the Minoans Civilization as Atlantis believe that the Minoans were the first Europeans to use a written language, known as Linear A, and the first to construct paved roads. They were an advanced society of highly-cultivated artisans and extremely skilled civic engineers who built excellent ships.

THE YASEENITES IN YASEEN (QURAN)

To tell you the truth I don't know squat of how advance was the Atlantis Civilization, especially Edgar Cayce's description about flying vehicles and the mysterious laser thingy which sounds too good to be true.

But, I do can say that the Yaseenites described by the Koran were much much advance than the rest of the world. That by itself is proof that the Yaseenites referred in 'Yaseen' are not Noah's people or the Sodomites (from the story of Luth).

How advance was the Yaseenites?

Well, if my group's profiling is correct, then it seems that Copernicus was not the first to discover that planets orbited the sun, and Johannes Kepler from German is not the first person who knew how the rest of the planets move in the universe. Thousands of years before the arrival of 21st century, the Yaseenites had already discovered that the planets move in elliptical orbits.

Let's see what Yaseen ayat 40 has to say about this:-


Now, you perhaps questioning me right now how the Watchers Group came up with the idea about the Yaseenites advance civilization based on this ayat. There is nothing in this ayat which directly saying that the Yaseenites possessed such knowledge.

You see, in order to understand how we came to such conclusion, you have to read surah Yaseen as a whole and understand a little bit about God's wrath.

The thing is, God will not punish the fools for their ignorance. In An-Nisa ayat 17 Allah said "The repentance accepted by Allah is only for those who do wrong in ignorance [or carelessness] and then repent soon after. It is those to whom Allah will turn in forgiveness, and Allah is ever Knowing and Wise." Also Ibn Taymiyah gave example of this in a hadith: This man was ignorant of Allah's ability to bring him back together after death. He had hoped that Allah would not resurrect him because he was ignorant of what had been revealed regarding the resurrection. Nevertheless, since he believed in Allah, His commands and prohibitions, and His promises and warnings, and since he feared His punishment, and since his ignorance was in a matter about which the proof that would have made him an unbeliever had never reached him, Allah forgave him.

Applying this basic principles of justice, the Yaseenites would not be punished so severely by God if they were plain stupid people.


Another way to explain this hypothetically is by using that funny character Xi from the movie "Gods Must Be Crazy" ( I hope you have seen it or at least knew what the movie is about ). In the movie the character 'Xi' was a bushmen with absolutely no knowledge of the world beyond. One day, a glass bottle is thrown out of an aeroplane and falls to earth unbroken. Xi thought that the bottle was dropped from the sky by God and hence the title "Gods Must Be Crazy".

Now, if the Yaseenites were like Xi who in his entire life didn't had the opportunity to witness the signs of God (or miracle) then surely God will either forgave them or grants temporary respite as mentioned in Koran : "I granted temporary respite to the unbelievers (so that they would repent, but they did not). At last I seized them with a terrible retribution. (Surah ar-Ra'd, 13:32)". "We destroyed the inhabitants of certain towns only when they transgressed and did not repent before our deadline. (Surah al-Kahf, 18 59)"

On the other hand, Ignorance is no longer an excuse when a society has been bestown with intellect high enough to discover the miracles in God's creation. I think we all are in agreement here that there is no better way to see God's miracles than through an advancement of science.

An example of that is how nowadays the world has discover the miracle of Quran (Surah 23:12-14) regarding Embryological development. By the same token, people who studied astronomy would know that such a vast universe must has it's Creator. Hence regardless whether we see it through the science of human anatomy, astronomy or even the science of botany, it is absurd to think that this world is simply formed by pure chance.

I wish to use another example to deliver my point befor we go further. Imagine that you're a parent and your teenage son came to you one day and said "Dad, I am not going to listen to you because I haven't seen any sign of your love to me!". What would you say?

Naturally before slapping him you would say things like "You ungrateful dumb ass boy! Look at the clothes you're wearing, food that you eat, and your education I work my ass 24/7 to pay for?! Is that signs good enough for you huh!? or perhaps a few rounds of belting should be order??"

What I'm trying to say here is that the boy knew that you as his parent do care for him. The evidence is there right before his eyes. He was wearing it, eating it and enjoying life that you had provided for him and your family. Yet still he acted out like a dumb-ass.

Make sense?

If it does make sense, then let's read several ayats from surah Yaseen and applies the same sense to decode its clues about the Yaseenites:-


Here God said "AND A SIGN OF OUR MIGHT TO THEM IS..." and applying the same rule of logic then this literally means that the Yaseenites had been shown the 'SIGN OF GOD' and they understand it. Otherwise if they didn't understand what the signs means then why would God mentioned it this way in Koran? Certainly God would never deliver such severe punishment without prior notice or advance warning, right?

The hypothesis that they did understood 'God Signs' the consequently lead to subsequent hypothesis that the Yassenites had acquired a technology which was advance enough to study the soil of thier Island (epadology = the study of soils in their natural environment). The Yaseenites knew that the island they were living on used to be so unhabitable that it was thought impossible for anything to grow on it. But when God let plants like vines, palm and other plants grow on the soil, that alone is nothing less than a miracle.

In this ayat is is also said that the Yaseenites had made discovery of something which the earth had grown 'IN PAIRS' (whatever that was.. Wallahualam). Then, referring to the sentence 'AND OF THEMSELVES AS WELL.." it is hinted that they had also discovered something about themselves (human) which God had also created in pairs. Does this means that thousands of years ago, the Yaseenites has already discovered the 'base pairs' in human DNA double helix?? That certainly a possibility because ayat 77 also gave out clue that the Yaseenites knew about "sperm" in semen (human reproductive system).

Whatever it was, these were the scientific proofs and sign of the Al-Mighty that the Yaseenites were fully aware of. However, instead of using their advancement in science to strengthen thier faith, they choose to turn away from Him.



Here's another mind blowing clues of the Yaseenites mind blowing advancement in astronomy.



Like I said earlier, from our profiling, my group now believe that Johannes Kepler is not the first to come up with knowledge on planetary motion. Thousands of years before Kepler's book was first published in 1609, the Yaseenites had discovered that That the stars also move on its own orbits.


When it is said in the ayat that "the Sun.. keeps moving to its appointed resting place", the sun here isn't just referring to our Sun per se. We now know that unlike the moon, our Sun doesn't moves orbiting planet earth. Instead, it is planet earth that move orbiting our Sun. HOWEVER, our Sun as a plantery system, does moves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

It takes the Sun 226 million years to completely orbit around the center of the Milky Way. In other words, that last time that the Sun was in its current position in space around the Milky Way, dinosaurs ruled the Earth. in fact, this Sun orbit has only happened 20.4 times since the Sun itself formed 4.6 billion years ago. Since the Sun is 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, it has to travel at an astonishing speed of 782,000 km/hour in a circular orbit around the Milky Way center. Just for comparison, the Earth is rotating at a speed of 1,770 km/h, and it’s moving at a speed of 108,000 km/h around the Sun.

Thus it is fair to assume that a civilization that knew about our sun orbital movement also knows about the Milky Way.

(Our group already have our own theory on what is in the center of Milky Way. But I wouldn't want to boring you with that)

Now, what level of civilization do you think we are talking about here? You have to bear in mind even up the time of Greek Empire, their best astronomers only manage to speculate that the moon and the sun was orbiting earth. For many thousands of years civilizations generally did not recognize the existence of the Solar System. It was believed the Earth to be stationary at the center of the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. It was only after 17th-century that Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton developed an understanding of physics which led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that the Earth moves round the Sun.

It was only in 1992 that the first real evidence of a planetary system other than our own was discovered, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. And whereas the Persian astronomer Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) did proposed the concept of Milky Way, actual proof of the Milky Way consisting of many stars only came in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used a telescope to study the Milky Way and discovered that it was composed of a huge number distant Suns.

Whomever the Yaseenites are, they have known about the Milky Way, our own solar system and how everything works in deep space.

So what do you think? What level of civilization do you think we are talking about here?

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY

As I said earlier, there are two clues hinted in Surah Yaseen indicating that the Yaseenites were not Noah's people or the Sodomites from PKR.. err.. sorry typo error.. I meant to say the Sodomites from the story of Luth.

The first I had explained - the technology and mind blowing scientific knowledge.

The second I will now explain - the destruction of the city itself.


There are two variables given by ayat 29 - 'ONE MIGHTY BLAST' and 'REDUCED TO CHARRED COALS INSTANTLY'. Simply based on this two variables we can rule out the possibility that the Yaseen Incident refers to the 'Noah's Ark' or 'Soddom & Gommorrah'. Here is my explanation in brief:-

Noah's Ark - In Noah's Ark the destruction was caused by mega flood. Flood don't caused people to burn into coal

Soddom & Gomorrah - the story of Soddom & Gomorrah actually happened during the lifetime of prophet Ibrahim and in this story, the homosexuals were destroyed when their cities were turned upside down followed by a rain of stones covered by clay. There are different description of 'stones' between Yusuf Ali and other translators because Yusuf Ali translated it into 'brimstone' whereas the rest only said 'stone'. If we rely on Yusuf Ali translation to 'brimstone', then what happened to Soddom sounded like something which were portrayed in the movie 'Volcano' starring Tommy Lee Jones where the phenomenon did not involve any volcano mountain at all (because there is no volcano mountain in Palestine). In the movie Los Angeles was struck by earthquake, subsequently causing the earth surface to open up letting the earth larva to exit up unto earth's surface. Then the pressure from within earth itself caused the larva to be ejected flying crashing into the town and hence the 'rain of brimstone'. However, for such freak incident to occur there has to be at least 'TWO MIGHTY BLASTS' - the first blast is when the earthquake occurs and the second is when the volcano erupted. Therefore I don't think the destruction in Yaseen refers to the Sodomites. It would be different if in Palestine there used to be a mountain volcano like in the story of Pompeii. A single blast from a volcano mountain in Palestine would cause both earthquake and flying brimstone raining down on the homosexuals. The simple 'stone covered by clay' version by other translators is a better fit with the recent archeological discovery. Egyptian archaeologists had announced in 2007 that they have unearthed traces of solidified lava on the northern coast of Sinai that date to around 1500 B.C.—supporting accounts that ancient Egyptian settlements were once buried by a massive volcanic eruption. However, the volcanic eruption here did not occurred in the Palestine itself. Instead the volcano was located far in the Mediterranean (the Santorini Eruption). So what happened was the Palestinian was killed by blizzard of ash from Santorini. The archaeologists also theorize that the volcano created a giant tsunami that swept all the way to Egypt. If this is true (albeit doubted by experts that lava from the volcano could have reached Sinai that way) that would explain how the city of Soddom was turned upside down. Be it may, the Santorini eruption still doesn't fit with the variable stated by surah Yaseen. The single blast referred in Yaseen is so sudden that in another ayats 49-50 it said "THESE (WRETCHES) AWAIT NOT BUT A SINGLE BLAST WHICH SHALL SEIZE THEM (OF A SUDDEN) WHILE THEY WILL BE CONTENDING AMONG THEMSELVES. THEN THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE A WILL, NOR WILL THEY BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THEIR FAMILIES". By contrast, the Santorini eruption occurred far away from Palestine that it doesn't really make sense that even a blizzard of ashes can reduced the homosexuals into 'CHARRED COALS INSTANTLY' (Yaseen Ayat 29)

The two variables provided by ayat 29 of surah Yaseen can only fit into one of the two events. My fellow colleges in the Watchers Group think it has to be a volcanic eruption the like of the Santorini eruption. That would explain a single blast that turned the Yaseenites into charred coal instantly. Western scholars such as Galanopoulos and Bacon (1969) did argue that the date for the destruction of Atlantis Plato gives as 9000 years before his time should be read as 900 years and that there was an erroneous translation by Solon from the old Egyptian number system. Plato lived ca. 300 BC and Solon's journey to Egypt had taken place about 300 years earlier. Adding the figures, the Atlantis event should have taken place around 1500 BC, in good agreement to the recent datings of the the Santorini eruption 1640BC. My colleges said that there is no 'single blast' that is more instant than a mega volcanic eruption.

I however said that there is one natural disaster that is more instant than volcanic eruption - an asteroid impact. This is because deep in North Atlantic Ocean floor there are two impact craters which are adjacent and are similar in size and shape. Both are roughly oval, and in both, the major axes of the ellipses run from northwest to southeast. This would suggest that the objects that struck like cosmic shells and gouged out these deep sea-holes came either from the southeast or the northwest. An American anthropologist, Dr. Alan H. Kelso de Montigny, after studying depth charts showing another massive depression in the eastern Caribbean seafloor, concluded that an asteroid must have struck that area around 10,000 or so years ago. The site is not a great distance from the North Atlantic craters, although this hole is much smaller and shallower than the other two. The importance of this is that there is at least a suggestion of a cosmic impact with our planet within the time-frame of the demise of Atlantis (9000 years ago as stated by Plato).

However, my colleges does has point to exclude asteroid impact, namely:-

(a) In Koran, some of the Yaseenites were able to escape the destruction of their Island. They wouldn't have time to do that if the Island was hit by asteroid.

(b) Surat 29 clearly stated that the Yaseenites had been turned into charred coal instantly. An asteroid impact would instead turned them all to dust.

So okay.. I now think it's a volcanic eruption too.. :)

CONCLUSION

It is now 01:03 am on September 19, 2013 and I had been writing this ridiculous article for three days. I don't want to write any longer anymore. I am sleepy and the laziness is really creeping over. If I have anything else to add, I will add it later.

All I wish to say as conclusion is that it doesn't really matters whether our group is right or wrong in our profiling of surah Yaseen. Whether the City of Yaseen and the Lost Kingdom of Atlantis is one and the same is not important. It's the lesson drawn from it that should be taken seriously.

For me, profiling Surah Yaseens reminds me of the life and opportunity we have nowadays. Like the Yaseenites we now have the science and technology to discover the signs of God. Science, mathematics and technology is in fact the best method to strengthen our faith. This would explain past scholars during the glory days of the Ummayids and Abbasids who were 'ulamak' in the real sense because not only they were religious, they're also scientist of their time.

It is interesting to note that metaphorically speaking, the Yaseenites has returned in this modern day. I'm referring here to two groups of people here:-

1. The athiests whom nowadays uses science to deny the existence of God.

2. The Luciferians (the Illuminati) who in fact know the truth because they own the technology of which they have used to witness the signs of Al-Mighty. These are the kind of people who wanders the globe studying and collecting evidence of God Almighty for the sole purpose of concealing it from the public. To make matter worse, they also worship Lucifer and performed human sacrifice to demons such as Baal or Moloch.

My dear brothers and sister in religion, strengthen your faith not only by praying but also by reading Al-Quran regularly and understand its meaning. May we all be protected from the fitna of the devil.

Note: There's an ayat in Yaseen indicating that the Yaseenites knew about extra terrestrial being. However, I purposely leave it out from my article because I don't think it's important. The main purpose of writing this article is to attract your interest to read Quran yourself and not to cause you to dwell to much on discovering the identities of the Yaseenites. Yes, the Yaseenites were once an advance civilization, so advance they were that perhaps Allah has allow them to acquire the knowledge of the universe and to discover the existence of His creation from other planet. But that doesn't change the fact that the Yaseenites are human being who had abandoned the true path and is destined to burn in hell. Lets not repeat their mistake.

(P/S: I would like to thanks those who keep pestering me to finish this article be it via facebook and emails).

CADANGAN MEREPEK SAYA DI BUDGET 2014

Sebentar tadi saya pergi ke laman web Bajet 2014 di http://www.1malaysia.com.my/bajet2014/.

Disini rakyat Malaysia diberi peluang memberi cadangan tentang beberapa isu-isu bajet yang bakal dibentang pada 2014 nanti. So saya pun mendaftar masuk dan beri cadangan juga la.

Tapi bila saya bandingkan cadangan-cadangan saya dengan pencadang lain, saya yakin lah mesti tak ada satu pun cadangan saya tu yang akan dipertimbangkan hehe.

Anyway, kalau ada sesiapa yang melawat laman web bajet 2014 tu, sekiranya sudi harap 'Like' cadangan saya supaya ada harapan sikit sampai ke mata Dato Seri Najib.

Berikut adalah cadangan-cadangan saya (semua cadangan terpaksa diringkaskan sebab ada limit 400 huruf ja bagi setiap topik).

KOS SARA HIDUP

Jangan asyik tunduk dengan CUEPACS. Setiap kali gaji sektor kerajaan naik tanpa disokong oleh pertumbuhan ekonomi (yang juga membawa kenaikan gaji swasta) maka kakitangan swasta menderita akibat tidak mampu mengejar kenaikan harga barang disamping menjunamnya peluang pekerjaan. Kos sara hidup meningkat tapi hakikatnya tiada cukup duit beredar di pasaran. (p/s: ramai yang 'dislike' cadangan ni)

PERUMAHAN DAN KEHIDUPAN DI BANDAR

Harap kaji penggunaan serbuk bambu untuk dijadikan papan lapis untuk tujuan pembinaan rumah. Bambu adalah tumbuhan terpantas membesar di dunia dan boleh matang dan diproses hanya dalam 4 bulan saja. Jika bambu boleh diproses menjadi papan binaan, maka kos membina rumah papan akan turun drastik. Rujuk http://afterdarkwrites.blogspot.com/2011/02/plastic-bamboo.html

PENGANGKUTAN DAN INFRASTRUKTUR

Sudah sampai masanya syarat untuk mendapatkan lesen motorsikal automatik dilonggarkan bagi membolehkan golongan wanita dan berpendapatan rendah beralih kepada motorsikal sebagai pengangkutan utama ke tempat kerja. Begitu juga dengan membenarkan pemilik motorsikal memasang atap seperti di Thailand. Pengenalan teksi motorsikal seperti di Indonesia juga boleh diadaptasi.

PEMBANGUNAN DESA

Setiap kali desa dimodenkan maka setiap kali itulah semakin hilang peluang ekonomi penduduknya. Sungai menjadi kotor, hutan ditebang, tanah ditarah, tanah dijual, dan kepelbagaian bio terhapus. Itu sebabnya orang muda terpaksa lari cari kerja di bandar. Desa seharusnya diperindahkan dan dipelihara supaya mengekalkan peluang ekonomi sektor desa serta pelancongan (cth: homestay. kraftangan dan IKS kecil-kecilan)

PEMBANGUNAN EKONOMI

Ekonomi domestik hanya berkembang jika semua orang berkerja dan ada duit untuk dibelanja. Syarikat besar yang pekerja hanya 10-20 orang tapi untung berjuta hanya tau simpan duit di bank. Duit itu tidak masuk pasaran. Oleh itu syarikat-syarikat hi-tech yang kedekut menggaji pekerja harus dicukai semaksimumnya. Semakin banyak jumlah pekerja maka makin sedikit cukai dikenakan. Dengan cara ini semua syarikat berebut tambah bilangan pekerja. 

PELAJARAN

Semakin hari beg sekolah anak saya semakin berat. Mengalahkan kampit beras sedangkan dia baru Darjah 1. Memandangkan harga Tablet 10 inci hari ini sangat murah (sekitar RM400 kalau yang made in China) maka saya merayu agar semua buku teks dan buku latihan diprogram dalam bentuk App Android saja. Bagi mengelakkan syarikat penerbit buku gulung tikar, bolehlah diberi kontrak pada mereka untuk membina dan menjual App itu di Google Store.

KESELAMATAN AWAM DAN RASUAH

Kembalikan ISA dan Ordinan Darurat!

BELIA DAN SUKAN

Merujuk kepada senario bola sepak negara, adalah dicadangkan agar pasukan negeri yang menjuarai Piala Malaysia adalah secara automatik akan menjadi Harimau Malaya untuk tahun tersebut disamping mendapat peruntukan besar. Tak kisahlah kalau 70% pemainnya mungkin orang kelantan tahun itu.

ALAM SEKITAR DAN PERTANIAN

Perkenalkan sektor tanaman padi, penternakan dan perikanan secara besar-besaran di Sabah dan Sarawak. Kita tidak seharusnya bergantung kepada Negara luar seperti Thailand sebagai sumber beras dan makanan. Ini kerana kebergantungan sebegitu akan dipengaruhi oleh bekalan minyak untuk tujuan pengangkutan. Jika ditakdirkan berlaku keruntuhan dollar Amerika dan putusnya bekalan minyak, maka sekurang-kurangnya kita masih ada sumber makanan sendiri.

PERKHIDMATAN AWAM

Lantik Tun Mahathir sebagai KSU

PEKERJAAN

Generasi baru Malaysia semua memilih kerja yang berhawa dingin. Kerja jaga kaunter yang gaji seciput pun tak apa asalkan air cond. Minta mana-mana jurutera di Proton cipta jaket dengan internal air cond. Lepas tu agaknya baru ramai yang sanggup nak kerja di ladang dan di pembinaan. Ini juga menggalakkan ramai pemandu kereta beralih kepada motorsikal dan basikal yang kurang mengguna minyak.

BUDAYA DAN PELANCONGAN

Program pelancongan menari-nari, menyanyi-nyanyi dan bercampur lelaki wanita adalah membuang masa kerana pelancong asing tidak berminat hendak melihat budaya barat di Malaysia. Jika Kuala Lumpur secara tiba-tiba berubah dipenuhi wanita bertudung, lelaki-lelaki yang solat di masjid, acara agama dan ayat Quran atau nasyid yang berkumandang di semua shopping complex, maka akan lebih menarik perhatian pelancong asing untuk datang ke Malaysia.

OKU DAN GOLONGAN KURANG BERNASIB BAIK LAIN

Merujuk kepada 'Golongan Kurang Bernasib Baik Lain', pelarian wanita dan kanak-kanak Syria pun adalah golongan ini. Oleh itu mohon bawa mereka untuk ditempatkan di kawasan pelindungan khas dan berikan mereka peluang 12 bulan untuk berdikari. Jika selepas 12 bulan masih tak berdikari bolehlah dihantar pulang semula ke Syria. Pasti mereka akan bersyukur walaupun terpaksa berkerja sebagai penyapu sampah. Ini juga sebagai pengajaran pada rakyat kita yang tak tahu bersyukur.

THE BRIDGE

Photo by EsmarE Hamid Kenoh 

Very recently someone had sent private messages to me via Facebook, asking me how to be khusyuk in solat. Apparently she had read my previous articles PRAYING WHILE GOING THETA and Q&A = PRAYING WHILE GOING THETA back to back. So I repeated my advice that understanding in her own language what was recited in arabic during prayer is the key. She said she had done that but still wonders if there are more tips I can give her.

I said yes, there is one other method of which I practiced for my own solat. This is one of which I have never shared except with my wife and the rest of my friends in the Watchers group. I haven't even shared it with my parent because I have no confidence of its truthfulness. In this era when some people might scream "bida'ah!.. bida'ah" at you whenever you share your 'personal opinion' on religion, it make me anxious to share something which purely based on personal experience.

I have been thinking for quite some time whether I should write this or not. Unlike the rest of my previous articles which were the accumulation of opinions by members of the Watchers Group. This things you're about to read is basically all mine after a dream that I had two years ago. I have discussed it with my fellows friends in the group and received a mix reaction. It does ignited an interesting discussion and all of my friends agreed that my profiling on this makes sense. The only problem is that

(a) there's no verses to back it up,
(b) there's no hadiths to back it up,
(c) there's no kitab to back it up,
(d) so far as I have googled, no one has spoken about it before.

and most importantly, none of us in the Watchers group believe we are religious enough to profile one of the most important verse in Quran without the benefit of a verse or hadith to back it up.

But I told that reader of mine about it, and since then she has been pestering me with repeated private messages urging me to write this one up. I have also spoken to my wife about it and she too encourages me to share this special experience with others. She said after listening to my story about the dream and my opinion about what "the bridge" might mean, it too has tremendously motivate her to concentrate during solat. It has also instilled a tremendous amount of fear to Allah whenever she think about what I had told her what "the bridge" might means.


After an hour of discussion via Skype, I finally got my approval from my group to write this one down. However, there is a caveat. They wanted me to write it in a manner to invite the general public to share their opinion. Some of you out who stumbled upon this article might be able to contribute to this issue. Please tell me your opinion via the comment section of these two questions:-

Do you believe this profiling of mine is harmful to the aqeedah of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah and thus this article should be deleted?

I will monitor all your replies for about one month time and if the majority of you says that this article should be deleted.. then I will delete it with no question asked.

So here is my profiling of verse Al-Fateeha from a literal point of view (sort off)...

THE DREAM

The dream is actually very short and it occurs during the 3rd day of ramadhan 2010 when I was napping after praying zuhr. What I can remember is this -

In the dream I was amongst a tremendous group of people in a desert and it was extremely noisy. All of us were moving slowly forward toward something but at first I don't know what the raucous was all about.

Then I saw it, in front of us there is a huge gorge with larva flowing and fire bursting from within it. There was a long line of people queuing toward the pointy edge of the canyon and this time I was able to hear what they were saying. They were praying and saying something about THE BRIDGE. By this time and for no apparent reason I start panicking. So I decided to pray too. I folded my arms over my chest and pray and it sounded something like this (for this article I wrote it down in English but in the dream I was praying in Malay):-

"Dear God the ruler of the universe who owns this day of judgement. I beg you, please show mercy to me by allowing me to use the BRIDGE similar to the one used by your servants that you favored. Dear God, please I beg you not to let me use the the one that you have given to those who have angered you or the one that were used by those who have forsaken you. "

Then I woke up.

It was a scary nightmare for me, but it didn't really hit the nerve until a week later when by pure coincidence I read an article in a magazine which give details on what we all shall faced during the day of judgment. Here is an excerpt from it in English.

"After all their sins has been accounted for and before entering into Paradise or Hellfire, the people will have to cross A BRIDGE laid over Hellfire. This bridge is called SIRATUL MUSTAQEEM which is constructed over the fire of Hell. Depending on one's deeds while living, it can be broad or as thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword. This is the only road that can be taken to go to Jannat. The Prophet will be the first to cross the bridge, then All the Ambia and Mursaleen , followed by the Ummat of the Prophet and then the Ummats of all the other Prophets. One will pass over the bridge as per his deeds. Some will pass as fast as the flash of lightning. Some will pass like wind traveling at high speeds. Some will pass as fast as birds fly, whilst others will pass in the speed of a fast horse. Some will travel in the speed of a running man and some will be dragging themselves on their bottoms. There will be those who will be passing as slow as ants.

On both ends of Pul Siraat, there are two massive iron rods with curved ends like hooksand it will seize whomsoever it is commanded to seize. Some of those seized will be severely wounded, but will manage to pass the bridge, whilst others will be plunged by it into the fire of hell. The entire nations will be struggling to pass over the bridge, but our prophet Muhammadur Rasoolullah sallal laahu alaihi wasallam will be waiting on the other end of the bridge praying for his Ummah to pass with safety."

When I remembered that the bridge itself is named "Siratul-Mustaqim" then suddenly several things clicked in my mind.

First, I began to remember the prayer that I had recited in my dream and how familiar it sounded. My dua in that dream does sounded layman but then again when I think about it again and again, I began to realize that the meaning of my dua in the dream is similar to the meaning of surah Al-Fateeha. This is how I came to realize it

Now, for quite some time there was one thing about verse Al-Fateeha which caught my interest as profiler. It is very obvious that this surah is in a form of a 'doa' (supplication). I however was intrigued to know what mystery might be hidden in this short surah and to what situation might this 'doa' literally refers to. Now, other surah in the form of dua are plain clear. For example the wordings in verse Al-Ikhlas means that we are praying to strenghten our faith and not to worship other than Allah. Similarly for verse An-Nas we are seeking protection from black magic and whereas in Al-Falaq we are seeking refuge against all harms that might come from other creatures be it day or night.

Al-Fateeha on the other hand, has long been understood only metaphorically. It is well understood that the most meaningful portion of  Al-Fateeha is in the verse 1:6 which reads "EH'DENAS SIRAATAL MUSTAQEEM". The Sahih International has translated this portion of the verse into "Guide us in the right path" but other scholars has translated it as follows:-

ABDLH.YUSUF ALI: Show us the straight way,
MUHD M.W.PICKTHALL: Show us the straight path,
M.H.SHAKIR: Keep us on the right path.


So you see, other scholars didn't use the word "Guide us..", instead they ranslated it into either "Show us.." or "Keep us..". However, the words "Siraatal Mustaqeem" were consistently translated into "the right path" (or "the straight path"). Metaphorically, this means that we are praying so that Allah shows us the way to live in Islam. This too is another miracle of Al-Fateeha that I noticed during my research while writing my previous article "A LESSON FROM THE CONVERTS". Apparently people who earnestly pray to be shown the way into Islam will receieved a nod from the Al-Mighty.

A few quick examples as follows:-

Example 1.

"I met a kind, quiet Muslim man named "Hani." I approached the man and told him that I wanted to learn more about his religion. The first thing Hani recommended was reading the Qur'an, the revelation of Allah to His Prophet Muhammad. Hani even gave me a Qur'an (In fact, the small Arabic-English Qur'an that Brother Hani gave me is still one of my prized possessions). Hani inscribed in it the following words that continue to touch my heart: "May Allah guide us to the right path." I began reading the Qur'an and to my surprise, it made sense to me." (Source: An "All-American Boy")

Example 2.

 I heard one of my Muslim friends saying ‘I am going to pray for a while and will come back,’ so I told her that I want to pray as well.” Recalling that moment, Diam’s said she experienced feelings she had never before. “It was the first time that I touched the floor with head and I prayed for God to show me the truth, and I had a strong feeling that I have never experienced before,” Diam’s said. “I believe now that kneeling in prayer, shouldn’t be done to anyone but Allah.” (Mélanie Georgiades)

Example 3
God is unseen but there are clear proofs to those who care to look and listen. Partly as a result of this dream and other reflections, I recall making a little prayer for the first time in many years saying “God, if you exist then guide me.” (Lamaan Ball (M. Phys.)

Example 4.
Hanna was taken directly from the birthing room to the neo-natal intensive care unit. When I found out that my second daughter was blue I was very concern. I went to saw her in the ICU and saw from the level of her chest down to her toes she was in a deep dusky blue. We took a cardiac ultra sound and it showed she had a choarctasion of an aorta. I understood it at that time that my daughter is about to die. I was emotional and I left the ICU, I went down to the hallway to a prayer room nearby. I pray for the first time in my life with sincerity. I prayed "Oh God if you're there, I need help. If you save my daughter and guide me to a religion that is most pleasing to You - I promised to follow" (Dr Lawrence  Brown - Link)

So it is true that the prayer "Ed'denas Siraatal Mustaqeem" (Show us the straight way) is the most significant prayer that we all must perform while we're living in this world. So significant it is that during solat we are required to repeat it 17 times a day.

But then again, I can't help but wonder whether Al-Fateeha has another secret within it.

After the dream that I had, and upon knowing that the bridge in the day of resurrection is literally named "Siraatal Mustaqeem" itself, I cannot help but letting my profiling instinct to kick in. So I did and I found these verses within Al-Fateehah to be most intriguing.

1:3 - AR RAHMAANIR RAHEEM ("Most Gracious, Most Merciful")
الرَّحمـنِ الرَّحِيم

I found it interesting that in Al-Fateeha we're praying for for God's mercy. Usually people beg for mercy when they fear of an impending punishment. I wonder what kind of situation would make humanity all trembles in fear (noticed that in Al-Fateeha it uses the word "we" instead of "I").

1:4 - MAALIKI YAWMID DEEN ("Master of the Day of Judgment.")
مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّي

I think the answer to the question above is answered in the next verse. I now believe that the doa might refers to the day of judgment itself. This is the day when all humanity shall be in fear, begging to Allah for mercy and refer to Him as the Master of the day of Judgment.

1:5: EYYAAKA NA`BUDU, WA EYYAAKA NASTA`EEN ("You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help)

إِيَّاك نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِين

I think this one is easy to figure out. This is clearly a 'begging" in process. During a day of judgment we will all begging to Allah for help and tell Him that He alone we worship. The words is quite self explanatory.  But the question is, what it is we are begging for?

1:6 EH'DENAS SIRAATAL MUSTAQEEM ("Show us the straight way")

اهدِنَــــا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِي

This is where things gets interesting. If we read the verses and translated the words "siraatal mustaqeem" as "the straight path" then the meaning become a metaphor. In this world we are now living we will understand it as a doa to become a good Moslem.  

But consider this for a second,  what if  the bridge crossing over hell itself is literally named "SIRAATUL MUSTAQEEM?" Wouldn't  the phrase "Show us the Siraatul Mustaqeem" can also be understood as "Show us the bridge"? (because the bridge itself is literally called "Siratul Mustaqeem)

1:7 SIRAATAL LAZINA AN`AMTA `ALAYHIM;  ("the way of those whom You blessed")

صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ

This is also easy to profile. Here we are all begging to God to let us use the same bridge that had been used by those he has bestow favors. This refers to those who had perform good deeds in the world of the living. These are those who are able to cross Siraatul Mustaqeem easily. As mentioned above, some will pass like wind traveling at high speeds. Some will pass as fast as birds fly, whilst others will pass in the speed of a fast horse.

1:8 GHAYRIL MAGHDOOBI `ALAYHIM  ALADDAALEEN. ("not of those who have deserved wrath, nor of the strayers")
 غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين

This verse mentioned to two categories of people whom clearly will not be able to cross the Siraatul Mustaqeem. They are those who have earned the anger of Allah (I believe it's the Munafiqun) and those who who have gone astray (I believe these refers to those who worship others than Allah). When verse 1:7 and 1:8 are read together as a doa, it refers to a situation where we will all be begging to be included the first group of people (those mentioned in 1:7). It would be understandable why none of us would want to end up like the people in the categories mentioned in 1:8.

* * * * * * * *

I now think the reason why al-Fateeha is the first and the most repeated supplication I will have ever recited in my life is because it will be the last and also the most repeated doa I will supplicate right there in Mahsyar. This I believe will happened when it is my turn to cross the bridge. During solat I sometimes see this vision (I'm not sure whether I'm hallucinating while reciting Al-Fateeha) of standing there in mahsyar watching people before me trying to cross the bridge. I will see some of them being presented with a wide and beautifull bridge that is easy for them to walk or run on. Then there are people in category 2 and 3 all hanging like monkeys, screaming to keep their bleeding hand to grip on the bridge which is now as thin and razor sharp as a blade. Needless to say they eventually fall down into the fiery hell.

So that is how I manage to focus even more during my solat for the past 2 years since the dream occured to me. Most of the times during a prayer I cannot help but thinking of the day when I shall stand there with my hands crossing my chest and  looking down  (the same way my heads are bowing down when performing solat) at the gorge full fire, fully aware that I will have no choice but to cross over it someday . No doubt when presented with such brutal view, I tremble in fear and I believe anyone in my situation no doubts will do the same as I am- which is to repeats the Al-Fateehah again and again and again and again and again and again.. begging to Allah to let me use the category 1 bridge.

This is my secret method of keeping myself focus during solat. I am not saying that this is the way for you to follow, but reciting Al-Fateehah during solat, knowing what it means and then imagining yourself about to step on THE BRIDGE surrounded by river of fire can be extremely intimidating that you might end up crying.

But crying during solat is a good thing though.. I think..