Every year, all over the world, muslims in the spiritual lineage of the great saint Imam Abdullah al-Haddad gather together to celebrate his life and remember his great wisdom. He is most fondly remembered in the parts of the world that have benefited from the dawah of the scholars and saints of Hadhramaut: Yemen, the […]
Category Archives: Nusantara
A Trengganu Childhood
Awang Goneng’s book is finally out, and feted at the Royal Asiatic Society no less! The warm and colorful recollections of Growing Up in Trengganu started off online at Kecek-kecek, but were far too good to stay there forever. You may now pick up your copy in Malaysia from MPH Online, or from Monsoon Books […]
Behold, the Biawak
Two more chicks have met their doom since last I wrote. Both were mauled by biawak attacks that I fended off too late. By the time I would race to the scene, shovel flailing, I could only succeed in denying the perp a meal, but could not save the lives of the victims. The first […]
Merdeka by Petronas
The most riveting programming on Malaysian TV is the advertisements. Not the advertisements exactly, but the public service announcements put out around holiday times by the major national companies like Perodua, Telekom, and Petronas. Petronas has really outdone itself this year with a wonderfully nuanced and introspective look on nationhood here at the eve of […]
Malaysia: Muslim or Islamic?
Ali Eteraz mused recently that the key to making Islam compatible with Mosque/State separation in Muslim countries is to declare Islam as the official religion, while retaining a lawmaking process that is not subject to theological review. Great idea! That’s precisely the arrangement that exists in Malaysia. The government is predicated on a secular platform […]
Rough Neighborhood
My wife woke with a start just after 5, a few minutes before subuh prayer. The glow of her cell phone cum time piece was still on her face when she heard a loud sickening snap, crunch and pop coming from the backyard. Shortly, the chickens started squawking at DefCon 3 levels. That wasn’t enough […]
Mawlid Barzanji
12 Rabi’ul Awwal has come and gone again. In the past, I’ve written about a famous book of poetry about the birth of Prophet Muhammad (s) called Mawlid Daiba’i. Actually the Mawlid poetry more widely read in Malaysia is Mawlid Barzanji, named after its composer, Imam Zayn al-`Abidin Ja`far ibn Hasan al-Barzanji (d. 1177) (r). […]
Datuk Hakim Keramat
By Abu Muhammad English Translation and Photography by Bin Gregory Productions Datuk Hakim Keramat, or the Miraculous Judge, was the title given to a religous scholar of Sarawak well known for his miracles and mystic knowledge. His real name was Abang Haji Abdul Rahman bin Abang Haji Brahim. He was born in Kuching, Sarawak and […]