LAST WEEK LOOKS LIKE ISDEV GRADUATE WEEK

Roslan Hassan

Last week, in particular from 4 to 5th May 2011, appeared to look like an ISDEV Graduate Week, though it was not called so.

On Wednesday the 4th, Roslan Hassan and Mohd Shukri Hanapi presented their Master and PhD proposals respectively. Both were given a nod to proceed with their research, the former on A Study on Conflict Management in Shah Alam City Council From Islamic Perpsective and the latter on Development Worldview in the al-Qur`an - A Study of Tafsir Mawdhi'y. I involved in both proposals - as an assessor to Roslan and as a main supervisor to Mohd Shukri.

Mohd Shukri Hanapi

On Thursday the 5th, I held a supervisorial meeting with all my graduate students, including those from Indonesia who purposely came for the week. We went through thesis write-ups of some of them, one by one, to be learnt together by others. It ended up with a drawing of guidelines for future works, to fit in ISDEV's encouragement to complete their study within minimum time, viz. one year for Master and two years for PhD. The Thursday was actually meant for all ISDEV graduate students, including from abroad, to meet their respective supervisors.

The climax was on Friday the 6th, with ISDEV Monthly Graduate (Collective) Supervision. I involved directly with it, in both sessions that have been scheduled. The first was the tazkirah titled Is It Too Difficult to Write A Thesis?, and the second was the lecture on Problem Statement and Its Relation to Background, Objectives and Research Questions.

The three days were joyful indeed, giving opportunities to all ISDEV graduate students, local and overseas, to interact formal and informally with their fellow students and supervisors, in accomplishing similar aim of producing excellent theses. Alhamdulillah.

Presenting "Is it too difficult to write a thesis?"

Parts of the graduates during the ISDEV Monthly Graduate Supervision

Mohd Shukri defending his proposal

UKM AGAIN

L-R sitting: Prof Abu Hassan (internal examiner), Zulkifli (PhD candidate), myself (external examiner), Prof Mansor (Chairman of the Board of Examiners). L-R standing: Dr Sanep (supervisor), Prof Nor Ghani (Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management) and Prof Abdul Hamid (Chairman of Postgraduate Studies)

For the third consecutive Monday, I was at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) again yesterday. I attended a viva-voce of Zulkifli Daud of the School of Economics, as an external examiner of his PhD thesis entitled Compliant Behaviour of Zakat Payment via Formal Institution in Aceh, Indonesia. The Board of Examiners has passed him but with a number of corrections.

As the two previous Mondays, the flight from Penang was at 7.10 am. My PhD student cum the Fellow of ISDEV Academic Staff Training Scheme, Shahir Akram ferried me to the Penang International Airport early in the morning, shortly after our congregational fajr prayer at my residence. For the two earlier trips, ISDEV Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr Masakaree Ardae from Thailand was the one who rushed me to the Penang airport.

How nice to have ISDEV fraternity who are always ready to help each other. It is definitely different from the time in the 1980's when I was about to introduce the field called Islamic development and establish committed group to work on it. Undeniably I have `friends' then, but I dare not ask them to help me in any sense, even to give a ride to the airport or to send to or pick up from a workshop for car services. I did not know exactly why, but I could recall how our relationship was more of an `intellectual relationship' rather than `personal relationship'. If there was any meeting point, it was just a meeting of mind, not a meeting of heart.

This, Alhamdulillah, have changed. I am surrounded by committed members of ISDEV who are not only developing and integrating their intellect together, but also integrating their hearts to work for Islam. This is one of the outcomes of heart-to-heart approach that ISDEV is adopting, I think. Thanks God.

EKARAT SITISAN IS NOW HOLDING MASTER DEGREE

Brother Ekarat Sitisan defending his thesis, watched by Muhammad Tahir (right)

Alhamdulillah, glad that another graduate student of mine, Ekarat Sitisan from Bangkok, Thailand, has submitted 3 final copies of his Master thesis to the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, marking his success in getting his Master Degree. The title of his thesis is The Potentials of Zakat Fund in Bangkok, Thailand.

Ekarat, together with my PhD student Ahmad Azrin Adnan who has earlier passed his study with flying colours, are expected to be conferred with their degrees respectively during the March 2011 Convocation, InshaAllah.

Apart from Ekarat and Azrin, another two of my PhD students are in the pipeline of attaining their degrees. They are Muhammad Tahir from Sulawesi, Indonesia who has submitted his thesis and now is waiting for his viva, and Warjio of Medan, Indonesia who is in his final stage of polishing his thesis before submitting it for examination. The title of Tahir's thesis is Tazkiyah An-Nafs in Development: The Case of Koperasi Pasentren (KOPENTREN) of Darut Tauhid in Bandung, Indonesia, while Warjio's is Dakwah Political Party: The Ideology, Strategy and Accomplishment of Parti Keadilan Sejahtera in Indonesia.

Praying that both of them are successful and will be able to receive their PhDs during the August 2011 Convocation, InshaAllah, also hopefully with flying colours. Many thanks to all ISDEV academics for ensuring the excellent success of our students.

ISDEV brothers wishing Ekarat good luck after special prayer (solatulhajat) for his viva

Brother Ekarat (3rd right) with Board of Examiners after his viva

Brother Ekarat with ISDEV brothers after the viva

Brother Ekarat with ISDEV sisters who came to support him during his viva