The Signs of Allah by Cat Stevens


"I realized that everything belongs to God, that slumber does not overtake Him. He created everything. At this point I began to lose the pride in me, because hereto I had thought the reason I was here was because of my own greatness. But I realized that I did not create myself, and the whole purpose of my being here was to submit to the teaching that has been perfected by the religion we know as Al-Islam. 

At this point I started discovering my faith. I felt I was a Muslim. On reading the Qur’an, I now realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought the same message. Why then were the Jews and Christians different? I know now how the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had changed His Word. 

Even the Christians misunderstand God’s Word and called Jesus the son of God. Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur’an; it asks you to reflect and reason, and not to worship the sun or moon but the One Who has created everything. 

The Qur’an asks man to reflect upon the sun and moon and God’s creation in general. Do you realize how different the sun is from the moon? They are at varying distances from the earth, yet appear the same size to us; at times one seems to overlap the other. Even when many of the astronauts go to space, they see the insignificant size of the earth and vastness of space. They become very religious, because they have seen the Signs of Allah." 

- Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Establishment of 'Air House' Standard in Tropical Countries : Part 2

Image
Vernacular Architecture of Traditional Malay House Vernacular Settlements Vernacular architecture includes dwellings and other buildings which relate to their environment and available resources. They are customarily owner or community built, utilising traditional technologies from one generation to the next (Oliver, 1997 and 2003). Hanafi (1994) suggests that agriculture and fishing activities are the two main areas of work during ancient times of the early Malay settlements. Tjahjono (2003) claims that rural settlements have grown in geographically distinctive locations that vary from hilltops, valleys, riverbanks, lowlands, estuaries and coastal areas, with each area developing different types of economy, social organization and built environment. The opening of new settlements in unexplored areas by the newly migrated families starts the traditional Malay settlements or ‘kampong’ (Figure 1). This migration is an individual family or in a group (originating from the same
Read more

4 Key Factors in Designing A Building in Tropical Climate

Image
Every region in the world has a specific climatic behavior. Some places might be too hot or too cold, and some others are in between or both. That is why the architecture of the place is different among each other, and they are not adaptable to all weather conditions. Many architects and designers are not aware of this sensitivity, or maybe they want to be a stereotype rather than monotype. Globalization for sure is the main reason why the designers have forgotten their tradition approaches in building a shelter. However, there are still many genuine designers practicing the real understanding of regional architecture. Some of them arguably really good and succeeded in converging trend and place constraints in architecture. I called this scenario as a battle of the copy and paste architects versus genuine and realistic architects.   My writing here is not meant to educate people. I just want to share my little understanding and knowledge about tropical building design. Ge
Read more

My PhD Journey (Part 1 - Experience from the past)

Image
My PhD Journey (Part 1 - Experience from the past) PhD... The aim that I have set in mind since 2012. I was always dreaming to further my study overseas again. I studied in the University of Edinburgh from 2011 to 2012. The study experience was so great, the Edinburgh city was so beautiful and the Scotland's sceneries were so gorgeous. Yes of course there were some advantages and disadvantages of been overseas, but it is very much depending on the person him/herself. For me, I'm always looking for a new challenging thing and I enjoyed every moment good and bad while in Edinburgh. The most important was being 'Musafir' could make us closer to the Almighty Creator - Allah SWT.  With wife and kids around, we paved our own path and lived bravely in a new environment, new society and new lifestyle. There is only one word can describe us - 'Survivors'. Therefore, a year experience in Edinburgh had changed us a lot.  PhD... Again, I take the chal
Read more