My heart was heavy that afternoon. I had a to-do-list that I completely ignored because my head couldn’t think straight and my focus was scattered; it was all over the place.
So I wrote a poem down below because writing words that rhyme is STILL one of my favourite go-to coping mechanism. This poem was a result of my painful emotion about the genocide that is still going on in Gaza right now. It is also a poetical reflection of some verses of the Quran that always come to my mind whenever any tragic catastrophe struck me or the Muslim Ummah. These Quranic verses below serve like a balm to my inflamed soul.
So even though I was heartbroken, the profound simplicity and the aching beauty of God’s words sooth me to tranquility, as they always do. And with that tranquility, came the clarity of mind and the inspiration to pen my emotion into words that rhyme.
I hope my readers can relate.
***
What Has Deceived You?
What has deceived you about this life?
Instead of living like a wanderer
You exist in this world like it’d be forever
You refuse to sacrifice or strive
For The Mercy of Your Lord, you don’t care that much
In the hereafter, you’ll be deprived
Because you mock the woe of the believer
And applaud the evil of the sinner.
What has deceived you about this life?
Instead of speaking up for the truth
Your lies you held up as proof
Shunning to sacrifice or strive
For The Mercy of Your Lord, you don’t care that much
In the hereafter, you’ll be deprived
Because you laugh at the child, the elder
Who perished in your 'war on terror'.
What has deceived you about this life?
Instead of helping the needy, the poor
You aid the villain, the evil deceiver
Rejecting to sacrifice or strive
For The Mercy of Your Lord, you don’t care that much
In the hereafter, you’ll be deprived
Because you claim to be the victim, the sufferer
When in fact you are the victimizer.
You HAVE been deceived about this life!
One day you will see what it’s all about
You will be judged, scrutinized all out
About how you had refused to sacrifice and strive
The Mercy of Your Lord, you’ll be deprived
Because you never care about it that much
You can beg for forgiveness, you can shout
But only fire and darkness will be your shroud
IT WILL SERVE YOU RIGHT!
-Afiza Azmee-
13/11/2023
Thank God for Tik Tok
I used to be oh-so-skeptical about Tik Tok when it first became popular. The only reason I started having a Tik Tok account back in 2021 was because my department had organized a Tik Tok Video Competition among the public in celebration of World Mental Health Day 2021. My Tik Tok account was mostly passive and dormant for a long time.
It was only starting this year that I REALLY got seriously hooked on Tik Tok because I had come to realize that the contents on Tik Tok are not as heavily-censored compared to in other platforms, and freedom-of-speech on any controversial issue is still alive and kicking on Tik Tok. It was on Tik Tok that people all around the world can still see multiple sides of many different issues and get better educated on how those in power are trying to manipulate and deceive the public, leading them astray.
Now, the cruelty, the lies and the propaganda of the wicked Israel can be mass-witnessed by everyone around the world who are on Tik Tok and all of us are rising against it.
The lies of the cruel occupier/colonizer can no longer work their charm as they used to back in the day. Instead, when their lies were unravelled right before the eyes of the world, they got massively trolled online. On Tik Tok, people are making so many parody videos about the so-called ‘HAMAS LIST’ by using calendars as their acting prop 🤣. It would have been hilarious if it was not happening in the context of a horrific genocide.
On Tik Tok, we have witnessed many non-Muslims reverting to Islam after they were inspired by the profound beauty of the Palestinians’ faith to read the Quran and study Islam themselves, rather than continuously being lied to by the Western media about what Islam really is.
The propaganda of the West regarding Islam no longer holds power… at least, not to independent thinkers of clear conscience who are not suffering from conflict of interests or other considerations. You cannot be an independent thinker, if you care MORE about your job, your status and what people will label you as, when you stick out your neck to say the truth. Your main interest should only be to find the truth and proclaim the truth and then fight for it with everything you have. That’s how people become an independent thinker and the truth proclaimer.
And the only thing that will make THAT your priority is if you truly believe that God is watching you and you are accountable for your speech and your actions in the hereafter. Otherwise, other things will always be more important than the truth and you will always give yourself excuses to sooth your own conscience… your job, your financial security, the survival of your family, your reputation. Everything else will be more important than condemning the genocide committed by Israel.
The Israel government was so scared by the mass uprising of the people of the world against their actions that they had to resort to paying people $250 dollars to turn up to a pro-Israeli protest, recently. They were completely SHAMELESS in their tactic but it showcased their sad desperation so clearly that I am not even upset about it. Let them continue to waste more of their money in this manner… so that people can laugh at them while creating mocking memes and parody videos about the genocide-loving Israel. Did they think people won’t find out that they had to bribe people to turn up to their rally?
Whereas millions of people turn up to pro-Palestinian rally for free! Gratis!
I would like to reaffirm my love of Tik Tok by showing you guys my own Tik Tok video down below 🤣. I was swept along by the frenzy of this particular Tik Tok trend… of showing yourself drinking a cup of coffee made by a non-genocide-supporting brand and then lip-syncing to a dialogue. Many people who love coffee (but love Palestine and humanity even more) are doing this trend on Tik Tok as a criticism against Starbucks. And here’s my contribution to the trend. 😆🤪 I must say, my lip-syncing skill is not so bad, lol.
Last but not least, Free, Free Palestine 🇵🇸 🇵🇸. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!!
Dari sungai ke segara, Palestin akan merdeka!!
Kudos, MOH!
I would like to record an appreciative shout-out to the Ministry of Health for their recent media statement about possibly sending a humanitarian and medical team aid to Palestine soon. They had set up and distributed a Google-form link asking for volunteers among MOH doctors and staffs who are interested to join this noble humanitarian endeavour. And in merely 24 hours or so, the link had to be deactivated because countless MOH staffs had rushed to fill up the form to volunteer to go to Palestine.
By the time I shared the registration link to my friends in various Whatsapp and Telegram Groups, many of them were disappointed when they found out that the link had ceased working. And it was so soon too! It spoke volume of the courage and determination of many MOH staffs who are really keen to help our Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine. I am proud of us, MOH staffs! May Allah make it happen soon so that we as Malaysian doctors and healthcare workers can contribute to humanity, Amiin.
Book Review
For the past few months, I have been struggling to finish this one book that I had bought since 2017 but could not find the time to start reading it until somewhere in mid-July this year. There were so much positive reviews about this book that I couldn’t really appreciate, to be really honest. I was disappointed that I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would and actually had to push myself to finish reading it.
The book that I am talking about is a very famous book in the field of Theology. The title of the book is A History of God: The 4000 Year Quest Of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, authored by Karen Armstrong. This book was published in 1993… so about 30 years ago already! Maybe that explains why it was groundbreaking back then, but now… erm, not so much (in my opinion). To be honest, these days there are so many other well-written books on Theology and comparative religion than this particular book. If you are newly interested in the field of Theology, I really don’t recommend you to start with this book because it might kill your interest to smithereens before your interest can properly grow.
In this book, Armstrong wrote about how human beings conceptualize the figure of God in their minds and their psyche. This book is not REALLY about a history of God, in my opinion (Because God is not confined in space and time, right? God is not parametrically LIMITED like that. How can there be such a thing as a God HISTORY?) Rather than a history of God, this book is ACTUALLY about the history of how humans think about God from the beginning until now. She divided the book into several quite logical sequence of chapters, beginning with the God of the Pagans, and then the One God and subsequently she allocated one chapter each for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From Chapter 6 to Chapter 11, she wrote about the decline of the concept of the One God. For example, in Chapter 8, she wrote about ‘A God for Reformers’. In Chapter 9, she wrote the history of the concept of God during the Enlightenment era. In Chapter 10, the title of the chapter is ‘The Death of God?’ (thankfully, there was a question mark 😂) and in Chapter 11, she put forward a question of ‘Does God Have a Future?’.
When you look at the titles of all these chapters, you would feel pretty intrigued to read this book, wouldn’t you? This book is chockablock with historical facts, historical personas, philosophical concepts, and multiple perspectives of many religious concepts and issues.
But the writing…ugh, is so dry and uninspired, guys! I couldn’t bear it!
The delivery of the facts was very…erm, factual…with nothing interesting to bind your mind and your emotion to. She just bombed the readers with factual sentence after factual sentence… it made me feel like I was reading a History textbook instead of what I initially thought would be a relaxing theological non-fiction (Even a history textbook is not as tedious as this!)
Look, I love facts as much as the next person. But our brain engages with facts EASIER when the facts are placed in context. Creating context and stories and excitement to TIE AND GLUE your facts to… is the difficult job of a good non-fiction author. Because that’s how readers engage with the facts! (That’s the difference between a good History teacher and a bad one, you know. I was one of the few Pure Science students who LOVED History in school because that was how my mind engaged with historical facts and I was lucky to have had pretty decent History teachers who loved to tell stories to the class.)
So, to be really frank, it took me so long to finish this book because I had to push myself to continue reading this book one page after another while struggling to keep myself awake. 😤
Some had asked me “Why bother finishing a book that you don’t enjoy?”. Well, I don’t really know why. Sheer unreasonable stubbornness, I guess. 🤣
The thing is, I believe that there are some things that you should read NOT only for enjoyment. Sometimes you read certain books because they are famous and you want to know why. Sometimes, it’s just peer pressure🤣 Like, you cannot say you love the works of the Bronte sisters if you haven’t read their most famous books like Jane Eyre (I love it!) and Wuthering Heights (I hate it!). So, if you want to form a holistic (but casual) opinion about certain field, certain genre and certain author, your opinion is not worth a dime if you are not even familiar with the most famous work within that genre.
I am never going to be a Theologian. But I do have a lot of interest in Theology. And this book is very famous. I don’t really have a choice but to read it, do I? Otherwise, how else can I validate my casual opinion on theological issues when I write about it in my blog? LOL 😝(I said CASUAL opinion because Theology is not my area of scholarship. So whatever opinions I have will only be casual and not an expert opinion. But even casual opinion should be based on SOME knowledge isn’t it? Because it is very annoying when people feel like they have a right to espouse wrong opinion and then get away with it by saying “This is my opinion and it should be respected.” I REALLY cannot tahan that kind of person. So entitled to give an opinion based on his or her own conjectures. Even in a casual discussion, your opinion should NOT be misleading others. ESPECIALLY in matters of religious principles. ESPECIALLY if you are a respected person in a position of authority. This is why I also cannot tahan being in big Whatsapp Groups where people can just offer their random opinion just because it is their opinion. Come on! Whatsapp Group is NOT the place for any proper in-depth discussion of ANYTHING controversial or complicated or nuanced. The usage of big Whatsapp Group should only be confined for event promotion, one-off announcements and brief updates of simple issues. Not protracted drama of disputed matters! When you give an opinion on a complicated, nuanced, and controversial issue on a Whatsapp Group, people who disagree with you will feel so annoyed by it but they also cannot be bothered to type a contrary opinion because it’s just too time-consuming and energy-draining. So you and your kaki kipas will go away feeling like most people agree with you. The distorted perception of ‘being right’ that you receive from that inappropriately unbalanced Whatsapp discussion will not help you to challenge or correct your thoughts properly. It’s a disservice to the truth, the facts and yourself. Reality will bite you back in the long run.)
I am so sorry that I cannot say I enjoy this book. But do I recommend it? Nope… not if you are not interested in Theology. But even if you are, do read some other theological books first, then come back to this one. Perhaps it will be more palatable to you. Maybe, after a few more years, I might come back and read this book again just to see whether or not I can enjoy this book after having increased my background knowledge. If that happens, I will update my review, Insya Allah.
Until next time, my dear readers. May Allah keep us steadfast and firm upon the facts and the truth whenever we speak up for any issue.
I leave you guys with the recitation of Surah Al-Infitaar that had inspired the poem I wrote above. Do not EVER be deceived about the purpose of your life. Know how little this life has to offer in exchange for sacrificing the truth, risking God’s wrath and destroying your self-respect.
This life is not worth all that.
My Life Poetry That May Not Rhyme 