ISTANBUL, TURKEY: MY FIRST IMPRESSION

Just landed at Istanbul Atartuk International Airport with ISDEV Deputy Director Dr Zakaria Bahari yesterday morning at about 0545. Observed fajr prayer at a corner of the airport's baggage claim area. There were 3 prayer mats. Ablution was done at the rest room nearby. There is no proper praying room at the airport.

Fetched by a travel agent provided by the organiser of the Conference we are participating, safely check-in at Green Park Hotel in Merter, have a little rest, observed zuhr prayer at a mosque nearby and had a lunch with Turkish Kebab at a stall outside the mosque.

Today we were guided by Mervan, a third year Islamic economics student of Istanbul University appointed by the conference organiser, to the historic Blue Mosque (where we observed our Zuhur prayer), Aya Sophia, Space Market and the tomb of the Companion of Rasulullah SAW, Abu Ayub al-Ansari. We took tramp and buses to the destinations, as well as walking quite a distance. The temperature was 6'C. It is winter now in Turkey.

Istanbul is just like other cities in other parts of Europe. It is a modern city with urban facilities and population divided generally into two, firstly those who are already conscious of Islam, and secondly, the other with secular lifestyle. At the prayer place at the Airport, for instance, we encountered two young men belonging to Said Nursi Bediozzaman movement, while outside the airport we witnessed quite a number of women smoking (may be Turks, or may be others from other countries). While on the tramp on our way to the Blue Mosque today, a guy sitting beside me was reading the Qur'an. He is an Hafiz - memorising the whole Qur'an from a madrasah in Istanbul itself, and now working as a graphic designer. On our way back to Merter, there was a couple kissing in front of us in the tramp, reminding me of similar lifestyle of young couples in England and Europe. Our Islamic conscious guide Mervan leaves it to his parents to choose a wife, for to him, it is haram to have a free social life before marriage, while other youngsters, according to him, are having lovers before marriage.

However, Islam seems to be reviving in Turkey, and the authority, I was told, is keen of it, Ahamdulillah.

ANOTHER ISDEV PHD STUDENT PASSED WITH FLYING COLOURS

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah SWT, another ISDEV PhD student passed his viva this morning with flying colours. This time is the turn of Heri Kusmanto, who writes on Islamic-Based Civil Society in Indonesia: Political Accommodation and Democratization of Muhammadiyah and Al-Wasliyah in North Sumatera. He is supervised by Dr Mohammad Zaini Abu Bakar and myself.

The Board of Examiners unanimously recommended his thesis to be nominated for Outstanding Thesis Award. He is the 10th ISDEV PhD students that have achieved such a flying colours, Alhamdulillah.

As the normal tradition of ISDEV, prior to the viva, Heri Kusmanto went through a thorough mock viva  at ISDEV yesterday. Then before the viva this morning, ISDEV lecturers and students gathered at USM Mosque to perform solat-ul-hajat for Heri Kusmanto, to seek the help of Allah SWT in positioning Heri Kusmanto in the benefit of himself and Islam. If his PhD is good for him and Islam, ISDEV appeals to Allah SWT to pass him. But if it is otherwise, ISDEV appeals to Allah SWT to fail him, so that he is safe from the punishments in the Day Hereafter. After a hard work in producing an excellent thesis, ISDEV leaves it to Allah SWT to decide for the best for Heri Kusmanto. Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT has answered ISDEV's appeal by passing him.

The viva was concluded with a thankful khenduri (feast), as usual.

REDEFINING ZAKAT BENEFICIARIES (ASNAF)

My apologies. The deliberations on Kelantan and Besut experiences as promised have to be defered a  little bit. I am at De Plama Hotel in Shah Alam at the moment, since yesterday, attending a meeting for Selangor Zakat Council (LZS) to redefine the beneficiaries (asnaf) of zakat for contemporary needs.

To ensure that the redefinitions are within Islamic teachings, they will be forwarded to Selangor Fatwa Council for further deliberations and approval, and eventually realised by the Selangor Zakat Council.

As the redefinitions are still in progress, hence confidential, I could not mention them here. What I could say at this stage is the interesting widening of the definitions to fulfill the contemporary needs of the beneficiaries (asnaf), within the context of contemporary socio-economics problems.

If these redefinitions are approved by the Selangor Fatwa Council, I anticipate an innovative mechanism in maximising the benefits for the asnaf in Selangor. As one of the leading zakat instutitions in Malaysia, Selangor Zakat Council is receptive of any innovation, including the one on decentralisation of zakat management we proposed earlier, which is now already in staggered execution, Ahamdulillah.

WHY PRO-PAS KELANTANESE ARE NOT IN FAVOUR OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

As promised, here is a little contemplation on Kelantan politics.

During my trip to Kelantan early this week, I came to understand some simple reasons why pro-PAS Kelantanese are not in favour of the present Federal Government. These reasons were reflected during a dinner at my friend's house, a retired teacher, who hailed from Besut but now living in his wife's hometown in Kelantan. He is not a PAS member, but very keen of Islam, hence in favour of PAS as PAS is viewed as more Islamic than UMNO.

Some of the reasons are as follows:

1. The Prime Minister is not capable of ruling Malaysia. He could not even educate his wife to wear a proper Islamic dress, especially her headgear (tudung).

2. In the history of Islam, the higher the authority one is having, the poorer he is. Unlike many UMNO members who become richer with the authority they hold, the present Kelantan Chief Minister lives in a relatively poor condition.

3. When do the Prime Minister and his Deputy actually work? They are always on the move at the moment, campaigning for UMNO and Barisan Nasional on the pretext of attending formal programmes at all levels.

4. Could the UMNO Chief Minister of Kelantan-to-be recites a prayer (doa) if UMNO wins the 13th General Election? Does he really know and practice Islam? The Kelantanese want an Islamic knowledgeable and practising Muslim leader to manage the State.

5. The Federal Government is depriving Kelantanese by denying Kelantan's right to have petroleum royalty. Instead, the royalty is channeled to the Federal-controlled State's Federal Development Department (Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan, JPP) in the form of Wang Ehsan. Though it is for the Kelantanese, it has been used for the benefit of UMNO's political mileage. Such a dissatisfaction is apparent on the road in Kelantan where many cars are having the stickers "R", meaning royalty.

The five reasons may seem to be simple, but they have great impact on the Kelantanese mind, hence their votes. If UMNO is really interested in getting Kelantan, it has to address these reasons seriously.

LESSONS FROM KELANTAN AND BESUT

On request of all my children to have a family retreat outside Penang during the Chinese New Year holidays, we headed for Kelantan last Saturday with a view to come back to my hometown in Besut after that.

During the 5 days in Kelantan and Besut, we enjoyed and learnt a lot of things, from foods to shopping, friendship, effects of tourism, and development politics. The most interesting was the mind set of Kelantanese towards Malaysian Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional which I think should be taken seriously if Barisan Nasional were to take over Kelantan. Secondly was a layman's theory of development, including the destructive effects of tourism on indigenous culture and lifestyle.

Bringing home all the lessons from Kelantan and Besut, we will be leaving for Penang early tomorrow morning, InshaAllah. God willing, I will jot down the notes on the Kelantanese mind set and the layman's development in subsequent postings, InshaAllah.

ISLAMIC ECONOMICS AND POVERTY MANAGEMENT

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah SWT, two writings of mine have been recently appeared in The Brunei Times (Brunei Darussalam) and The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society (USA).

The one in The Brunei Times entitled "6 Challenges of Islamic Economics", appeared in two series on the 5th and 6th February 2013 (http://www.bt.com.bn/e-paper/index.html). It is the revised version of my speech at the International Conference on Islamic Economics and Economies of the OIC Countries held in Kuala Lumpur recently. It stretches out the challenges faced by contemporary mainstream Islamic economics related to its framework, concepts and methodology used, system and society established, and scholars of Islamic economics themselves.

The other one in the The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society entitled "Spirituality and the New Form of Poverty Management", appeared in Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013 (http://ijn.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.200/prod.104). It is the revised version of my paper presented at  the Second International Conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society, organized by The Religion and Spirituality in Society Community, at Robson Square, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada from 20-22 February 2012. It expresses the idea that when spirituality is included in the management of poverty, the target group becomes selective as not all could be rich as well as not all could be poor. The determinant factor is the soul. Those with rich soul (high faith, iman) have the choice to either becoming rich or poor while those with poor soul could not be rich but need the most help to overcome their poor soul and their poverty. The meaning of the rich and poor soul is deliberated in this paper.

FREE-RIDERISM

Alhamdulillah, what a relief. After 4 days concentrating fully on the writing of a paper for a conference in Istanbul, Turkey end of this month, I eventually completed and safely sent it to the organiser today. It was quite a tough task indeed because prior to this, my work schedules were very tight and not much time was available to really concentrate on the writing. I could only fully concentrate on it after coming back from the Islamic Economics Conference in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday.

The writing reminds me of some of the stories told to me at the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur last week. A participant told me how a lecturer at his former university easily put his (the lecturer) name as the first author on works done by his (the lecturer) students, although his (the lecturer) contribution is almost nil. The other told me that he puts the names of his three supervisors as co-authors of his paper as one of them finances his participation in the conference through a research project, although the field of one of them is not economics.

Such a free-riderism too, I believe, happens to many in contemporary academic world elsewhere. Many papers, including in the Kuala Lumpurs' Conference last week, contains more than one author. The possibility of the involvement of free-riderism could not be ruled out. This is what I always remind ISDEV fraternity to avoid of. I know how hard writing a paper is. Putting name without contributing to the writing is unfair and sinful indeed.

One may argue that he puts his name as a supervisor that gives the writer his idea, and edits the writing. But is it not the task of a supervisor to do so? Authorship comes not only with ideas and editing, but also with the writing part itself.

However, such a case sounds a little better than many cases whereby names are put as authors of a writing without having to contribute not even ideas or editing. The name is included just because of power. A participant of a conference in Indonesia about two years ago told me that he was given leave for the conference by his superior with a request that he includes his (the superior) name as one of the authors of the paper. I also know about such a  case after delivering a lecture at a workshop on academic writing at a University in Malaysia last year.

I am worrying indeed, how could a learning-teaching institution produce well-mannered people for the  benefit of the ummah and human beings if the integrity of the members of the community inside it is at stake. Excelling the institution with fake accomplishment such as the publications suffering from free-riderism for the sake of merely fulfilling KPI is actually bamboozling the public.

Oo authorities at all levels, please look into this syndrome of free-riderism prevailing in the circle of yours!