Solemn

Hush now, is this the end of the road?

Masjid

4 weeks to go. Gulp.

Hooray!

Happy 4th birthday blog!

Off to Kelantan tomorrow, and seriously, 'updated' is not really this blog's middle name right now.

Take care folks.

Here We Go, Semester Six!

"Sikit boleh jadi cukup, banyak boleh jadi lebih. Tapi boleh jadi sikit tu sempit, banyak pulak tak cukup. Apa dia?"

I know I nearly skipped the whole January without blogging. As anyone would have expected, the beginning of the final semester in Perak (with another year left to be gone through in Shah Alam) is busy. And dramatic, nonetheless. Study-wise it has been too interesting. Somehow I'm reintroduced to the whole process of learning, and somewhat I'm reintroduced to a whole substance that I thought I have known all along: Islam.

The verdict: we are to design a mosque for this semester. And (not but) things are never simple. Just like any other spaces, a mosque, perhaps correctly a masjid, is a space not to be 'given just like that', to quote Encik Li. As the always famous quote says, architects are not mere space givers. So?

The last three weeks have been a celebration of a re-looking into the Qur'an and the Sunnah. What does Allah says about building? Did our good Prophet Muhammad ever set a guide on how to build, the Islamic way? How is a masjid becomes a masjid? This includes rampaging the library for all books pertaining the jurisprudence of erecting buildings in Islam and the jurisprudence regarding all activities related to the usage of masjid. And that's a lot.

All these traces us back to the classic, and nearly rhetoric, question: what is Islamic architecture? Or, in the words of Encik Li himself, is there such thing as Islamic architecture? Don't get my lecturer or me myself wrong. But seriously, whose idea was it that a masjid must come with a dome, a minaret, and some insertion of so-called arabesque patterns?

Whatever it was, things are going deep. "Are architects to be blamed if the design of a masjid is a contributor to the invalidity of one's ibadah towards Allah -- thus a contributor to the fatal social problems to what we Muslims face today?" Encik Li asked.

Why are Muslims failing even though their mosques today, in all parts of the world, are all pleasant and splendorous? Why, with its very utilitarian form of only date-palm columns and mud walls -- palm leaves and sky as the roof and the desert's earth -- the Prophet's mosque in Madinah in its heydays has successfully turned Islam to a super global civilisation, a feat that its 1 billion followers today are still not able to repeat?

Questions that we are yet to answer. The essence that we are yet to insert in our up-and-coming design. What is clear now is, to design a masjid is to design on the ways of our blessed Prophet, mentioned by Allah in the Qur'an: to be built on the basis of taqwa. This semester, the more we unlock the keys to questions, more doors are open to even more questions.

This is Project Islam. Semester 6. And here we go again. And the question asked in the beginning of the post? It's something called barakah.

Posted in Seri Iskandar.

Spectacular. That's The Word!

So many things to write, so many photos to be organised, yet so lazy!

Finally at HOME!

Smile, Yogyakarta!

I miss all these!

Sorry for the very slow uploads. I'm quite easily demotivated if the Internet connection is slow; and if my media is all scattered up. Whatever that means. Enjoy the little bits!

How A Day Designed Itself

This is my very first attempt to write letters to world leaders, and I have picked none other than to Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Who else to write to other than to a notorious student in the classroom, right?

I actually didn't realise that I was apart of a whole 'Write-a-thon' thing held by Amnesty International (a human rights group for those who don't know). It went on worldwide yesterday. There were a lot of cases exposed to the public for the public to respond and write about to any respective receiver, so I chose a case regarding a Palestinian youth detained without chargers (let alone trials) by who else other than the Israeli authorities.

I wonder if the Prime Minister even reads my letter anyway, I mean if he does, I hope he realises that Hamdi al-Ta'mari's (the youth's name) case is only a tiny (big) dot in a whole rough waves of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which requires a lot of calming efforts to be done.

Thinklab's Design Conference at the National Art Gallery, also held yesterday, was also a good exposure, though much of the issues are the same old issues only given an elevated experience -- especially when there was a politican too engaging in the discussion. What the hell is Malaysian design identity scores top; followed by roars demanding 'Democracy in Design' (non other from our counterparts in UiTM itself, so shall I say, bravo?) to the extent of suggesting a setting of a Malaysian 'Ministry of Design'.

It's interesting how a design conference also echoed a political talk, joined by Clive Kessler, Noraini Ahmad, Tunku Abdul Aziz and another panel (I don't know that guy, sorry!), held at Art for Grabs, held in Annexe CM which also took place yesterday. Of course, this one contained direct attacks, but it also beats around the same old (yet popular) questions. What is this nation becoming to? Where is this country going? Can the Malays survive without crutches? The Malays doesn't need crutches! You don't need crutches!

Or so I was told.

I found myself taking the LRT again back to KLCC to fetch my car. At least there were no people rushing into the train before people from the inside managed to go outside when the train stops -- you know what I mean? The 'kambing terlepas' effect, to frankly name it. Still I can't stop comparing our transit system to Singapore's MRT, whose system fared much better than London's underground and New York City's subway, though they still have that 'kambing terlepas' effect anyhow.

Yesterday was a cool example of how politics, history, culture, people, nationhood and design blending (im)perfectly, and trying to connect with each other. Ah, and travelling, too! Not realising this simple fact could be equal to the crimes of detaining innocent people like Hamdi al-Ta'mari -- even worse!

Posted in Shah Alam.

Lion City Blues

I guess Singapore is a city that sleeps, but when it's awake... it roars. Loud.

We have a lot to learn from them, don't we?

Well. Will be landing in Subang Airport tomorrow -- oh how I miss that!

Posted in Singapore.