Sakinah Abdul Aziz

“To know how to put what knowledge in which place is wisdom. Otherwise, knowledge without order and seeking it without discipline does lead to confusion and hence to injustice to one's self.” - Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas This week's key takeaway for me is that; knowledge requires knowing its proper order and place.  Everything else is just information.

It is in our very nature, as human beings, to have desires. We yearn for so many things, it is impossible to list down all the possible wants of mankind. Generally, we yearn for and we aspire towards perfection and beauty, we love the notion of eternity, we want to experience eternal bliss, and to be in a state of tranquility, free of internal turbulence and worries. We want good things to last forever and we want to be free of hardships. These desires, I believe, are inherent within us. Look at how we naturally gravitate towards things or people which/who we think can fulfill these desires. Indeed sometimes, we are lucky to have found the providers for our wants and needs, but sometimes, it is either we are never completely satisfied, or we are always wanting more and something better, or we never learnt how to appreciate with what we have. We are always on this slippery slope where we either fall into the pits of disappointments or we struggle to trek on this uphill slope to fulfil...

One moment, this state of oblivion seems very settling and the next moment, life grabs and takes you to places you never thought you'd be. Or places you never thought you'd be so soon. And soon enough you need to face up to the complexities of the world and accept the fact that the world is this colossal place, full of infinite ideologies and knowledge, and more that are waiting to be discovered. It makes you feel small, knowing that you only know this much, when there are actually so much more out there, much more than you can possibly imagine. Scientists have discovered the amount of brain usage a human can possibly employ and that the average amount we actually employ is not maximized to its fullest potential. Thus, it is daunting to know that on top of what we already do not know, there are more unknowns that are beyond our comprehension. And so it is the duty of us to seek the best that we can. And the hardest part is to seek with an open mind knowing the vastness of the i...

Sometimes, He breaks our spirit to save our soul. Sometimes, He breaks our heart to make us whole. Sometimes, He allows pain so we can be stronger. Sometimes, He sends us failure so we can be humble. Sometimes, He allows illness so we can take better care of ourselves. And sometimes, He takes everything away from us... so we can learn the value of everything He gave us Make plans, but understand that we live by His grace. Although they plan, Allah also plans. And Allah is the Best of Planners. [Holy Qur'an 8:30]