Masjid as-Syakirin

Muhajaba has an entry on a Malaysian mosque. I think it’s the Masjid as-Syakirin. If it is, I’ve been there! It is a beautiful mosque on the grounds of the KLCC. The grounds are a work of art in their own right, designed by the late Brazilian landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx, probably the most famous tropical landscape architect. And the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Civic Center) is the name of the complex containing the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world! I was there in 2000, shortly after the birth of my second child. I had one day to show my mother around KL before her return flight to Michigan. Since it was Friday, I thought I could show her the Petronas Towers and pray juma’a at the mosque nearby. I’d never been there before, and as it turned out, we were dropped on the wrong side of the 50 acre complex. We were already late, so we hustled off toward the masjid. Just as it came into sight, prayers had come to an end. With the gentlest murmur of voices and footsteps, people streamed out of the masjid and began strolling down the winding pathways back to the Petronas Towers. My mother and I stopped in our tracks. It was an awesome sight, thousands of people emerging peacefully onto the lush green landscape, with the masjid gleaming brilliantly behind them. Subhanallah! Rasulallah said,”Verily, Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty.”

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You’re currently reading “Masjid as-Syakirin,” an entry on Bin Gregory Productions

Published:: 04.13.03 / 12pm

Category:: Malaysia

Briefly

Anwar Ibrahim and the Opposition: Malaysian Seeks End to Decades of Firm Rule - a pretty decent roundup of political developments in Malaysia, from the New York Times.

The Spiritual Aspirant: Sidi Khalil Moore will be in Singapore conducting a workshop for The Spiritual Aspirant, to be held 27 June to 5 July. I had the pleasure to hear Sidi Khalil speak in Detroit back in 2002 in conjunction with the US tour of Habib Ali Al-Jifri. I regret I won't be able to make the short trip across the South China Sea to attend, but I recommend it to anyone in the area. The workshop is being sponsored by Simply Islam, under the capable hands of some of the fine people who put on the Journey to Ihsan event a couple years ago, which I did attend and enjoyed immensely.

Collapse Preparedness: The transition from the USSR to the republic of Russia was a catastrophic event for the people who lived through it. The eventual (imminent?) collapse of the US will be much much worse, warns Dmitry Orlov. The USA has a Collapse Gap. Orlov realizes

that some people will react rather badly to having their country compared to the USSR. I would like to assure you that the Soviet people would have reacted similarly, had the United States collapsed first. Feelings aside, here are two 20th century superpowers, who wanted more or less the same things – things like technological progress, economic growth, full employment, and world domination – but they disagreed about the methods. And they obtained similar results – each had a good run, intimidated the whole planet, and kept the other scared. Each eventually went bankrupt.

Valuable lessons on what to expect and how to prepare follow. Read it yourself, but the condensed advice is this: Live on the margins of society. One encouraging sign that Americans are picking up the skills they will need to survive: haggling at the mall.