On Immortality

One will die or more precisely one should die. The only way to become immortal is to leave a legacy that outlives one's age. 

Dishoroning Our Upmost Superior Quality

It is widely believed that the earth is in a balanced ecosystem, then humankind breeds and cause destruction.

To simplify the idea, let's assume the total number of species on earth before humankind was 10 000 000. 

And then by any means, humankind arrived and the number was added by one.  

10 000 000 + 1 = 10 000 001

And then BOOM! The balance of the ecosystem started to decline. 

That is quite illogical. I don't think it is the mere presence of us, the humankind, that should be blamed. 

It is our deliberate and conscious choice to become greedy, dishonoring our large frontal lobe. 

Big F

I have a friend and his name is Failure. Commonly, he is known as "F" or "Fail" among students within the academic circle. He does not have a good appearance though and probably that is the reason why he is always being misunderstood by many. He pays me a visit frequently and that is how I get to know him better from time to time. He has a good intention though, a good heart. However, people of the masses are not keen to see the wisdom of his existence and all the visits he makes. 

Personally, I know him as a constant companion and a great mentor, an expert in teaching resilience and optimism. He has his likes and dislikes, and his dislikes are those who are constantly whining, swearing and bragging and never learn a thing from him. Never to ponder, think or contemplate from the lessons being taught to them. His likes are those of the likes of the pheonix, rise from the ashes with fiery and rather furious motivation. Ordinary people with extraordinary resilience. They are not large in number though but they are enough to shake and shape the world in a good and blissful or bad and terrible way.

Harvard's greatest secret: 100% employment??

Salam and may peace be upon you :D It has been a while since my last entry due to my engagement with something else. So it is really hard gather my thoughts again about what to write when my mind flew elsewhere for too long. But i'll try my best.

Lately and rather constantly, there is something that really bothers me, my time and my head. It is regarding a phrase, a sentence, a social stigma that probably has been lingering around like an uncaught serial killer for as long as i can remember. I may not be an expert in this matter but i just want to share this thought of mine with my circle of friends. So bear with me.

It is really crazy how things progress and we somehow forcefully have to undergo this drastic and fast-paced environment that we live in today. An age of modernisation, social media and technology. Wow. How great are things, brands and technologies all around us. But the question is, can we keep up with this exponential progress in life?

Today, i am not trying to brag about humanity and how sad is it to see the world today in its dying state. Today, i dont want to talk or preach or say about noble and core values of life. Today, i want to bring you to a new point of view. I want to shift your attention to a tiny part of our worldly life responsibilities. 

This is the quote that sparks me to write this entry,

"Everyone at Harvard's inventing something. Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job." 

- the Social Network, 2010

Some of us are scared of unemployment. Some of us glorify others' triumph, success and wealth too excessively. We think about how great they are, how grand their brand is, their products and services like we have no life and dream that we want to pursue. "How i wish i was the creator of Facebook."" Oh my God, i wish i founded Pizza Hut. I could be zillionaire by now." Hmmm, can we try to scrape this attitude off us for eternity?

Sure, you can be a little mesmerised by their story of success. But dont let it consume you. Everyone is a genius, an expert in your own field. If everybody can do what you are capable of,then there is no reason for you to exist! So believe in your existance. You are worth to becounted. You are here for a reason, a noble and solid reason. Dont just lay down, sit back and relax. You have a potentially great legacy in front of you. 

Everybody has passions and dreams. So work for it. Only the one who is crazy enough to persevere and work and keeps on dreaming will taste the fruit of their pain-staking effort. Are you really that scared of unemployment and failure? If you dont find a job someday, create one for yourself. If you dont find a job someday, sit back and think deeply before you cry and give up. Persevere, believe in your dream and your passion! Work for the benefit of yourself and others. Your time will be worth it. 

There is no way Nike, Apple Burger King or Guess could be established if their respective founders were too scared to try and forever work for somebody else's dream. So what is your dream? Are you afraid to try? Are you afraid to be teased by your friends? Well that is just too bad. You will bring your passion and dreams deep down six feet underground into the grave with you.  

Think again if you are afraid to try. Do what you love and love what you do. Dont let others tell you what you can do or cannot do regarding your capability. You know yourself better than anyone. So dont tell me that you cannot it because of this and that. Work on your weaknesses and focus on your strength. Everybody has weaknesses but you have a lifetime to work on it. Improve little by little, one baby step at a time.

Feel good about yourself. Find things to cheer up your day :) 

Results on paper cannot measure your passion, dreams and vision. So make sure you know how to handle yourself in the real, big and scary world out there. Let's try our best, okay? We are the Y Generation. Haha together, we can put our mark in the universe :D

Confident Booster: Achieving your dreams start today.

Write your dreams and plans in a piece of paper today! Study shows that if you materialize your dream in a form of writing or picture, it is more likely for you to achieve your dreams. Just imagine for a while. If you were assumed to be a conquerer and your plan is to conquer Malaysia, then there will be two kinds of thought process that may take place:

1) You think that you are just a guy in a room trying to conquer this huuuuuuge land. Or,

2) You draw a map of Malaysia about the size of your hand, and you will get the big picture of your master plan. 

So make yourself bigger than your dreams! This is a technique tricks your mind and boosts your confident! :)

The reality of reality

Some are born great they say. Strong, smart and unparalleled. It is in their genes! But let me tell you something. In the world of reality, no one will give you what you want. You need to take it, you must acquire it with yourself. And surely the odd will be against you. Do not longingly be jealous of others, while you yourself do nothing. You are sufficient to make a change in your life. We always wait for the miracle to come, but in actuality you must work for your own miracle. The magic will not happen in your comfort zone. So step out of it, and live the world. Do something for yourself and for the benefit of others. You have your own specialty to contribute. The easiest way to predict the future is to create it, said Abraham Lincoln. So create your own future.

But remember. Being great does not mean being arrogant. Being a genius does not mean you are smarter than the others. The world are created complementarily. There will be no solution without a problem. Find your strength, work with others and you will find that you will be stronger than ever before. Your brain is designed to read, analyse, and to engage in critical thinking. Use your intellect to solve your problems. Centralize, personalize yourself and be unique! Anything or anyone you need is around you. Find it at the right place. And the wise will never follow their whims. However, there will always be a war between your desire and the right path. Discipline your mind and control your desire. Channel your desire in the right way. Read and acquire wisdom apart from knowledge.

Having a successful career doesnt mean being a civilized jerk with civilized method of capitalism. I dream of a generation great with science and technology and excellent in moral conducts. Am i unrealistic?

I am Solgado

Hello, my name is Solgado. I am the alter ego of Izzat Haikal bin Abdullah Halim. I am dry and straight forward. I dont need fancy words and sentences. Today was an amazing day. It marked the day that i have successfully persuaded Izzat Haikal to consider pursuing his study overseas. It was not an easy task to seduce him because he already has his own agendas, a well planned future beforehand if he were to study in Malaysia. His plans are firm but his heart is not. He loves to make quick and last minute improvisations to his plans in order to adapt to the upcoming unknown future.

His plan to study locally is mainly to increase the Islamic part in him. He wants to study basic Arabic language so that he becomes more appreciative of what he recites during the time of worship, be it solah, reciting the Quran or any form of worship that requires Arabic language to take part. He wants to understand this beautiful religion better and he wants to know the people around him with somewhat similar agenda. He wants to get connected with these people.

By pursuing his study locally, he believes that he has more confidence with the surrounding society. He will not be the shy guy he used to be. His vision is that he wants to be part of a responsibility. He wants to become some sort of a president for a club or anything. He wants to train himself with responsibilities mounted on his shoulders and learn to become a good leader. With such skill, he will become more organized and more charismatic. Maybe someday the leadership skill will be useful to him. Only Allah knows.

Psychology. That is an interesting subject to talk about. But why psychology? The reason behind this is because he wants more time for himself to read books, to find what kind of book he loves and to memorize facts because he is very weak in memorizing. He loves the way how scientists and geniuses think so he wants to know their secrets and creates his own style of thinking. To succeed in his own way. Mathematics is only to challange his brain, while art of any kind is for him to express himself with style. But psychology as a subject trains how he wants to perceive the world of games around him. He sees the world in a very chaotic yet interesting way.

Not forget to mention, by combining the basic Arabic language and the memorizing skill he will acquire via psychology, he hopes to memorize the Quran before he dies. Insha Allah.

One more important topic to discuss is about zine. It is a subject/a word not known to many people so you can feel free to google about it. It is short for "magazine". But it does not have a specific format. It is a free roaming artform. A perfect combination of a little bit of everything in art. Drawings, poetry and literature uniquely composed by the hands of an artist. Blogging and sharing facebook statuses are just the beginning. It is a good start to study about traffic, people's interest and being daring to share his thoughts, right or wrong, so that if only one day he has a rightful message, he will not be shy or scared of the public and critics. Be outside his comfort zone, he wants.

With an endless series of these zines, he wants to delve in this life to become a part time artist, a part time writer and a full time inviter to Islam. He wants to share the philosophy and teachings of this beautiful way of life with everyone. He wants to become great in rethorical kind of writing. So this series of zines will be the pinnacle of his great inventions because he believes that words can change the world. He wants to become the bridge between Islam and the people who is searching for the purpose of this life. 

What a big dream it is and that is just some sort of a beginning of a longer journey ahead of him, insha Allah. There are more tedious plans ahead of him, planned but not yet executed. Until a time, appointed, insha Allah. There you go. A brief plan of Izzat Haikal's secret life.

But on top of all of these, i, Solgado, have persuaded him with to consider this big opportunity before him. An opportunity for him to reinvent his plans and pursue a different path of life but to get to the same finish line. May Islam remains in his heart forever, may Allah directs him to a rightful and greater path. I am very sorry, my alter ego Izzat Haikal. You may have lost this battle in the end but i admire how strong you have been this past years. You have shown great courage and knowledge all this while. But maybe Allah has a greater plan for you, perfecting your skills and meeting the right people. Who knows but Allah. 

I pray for the best to you, Izzat Haikal. May Allah ease you towards ease. Consider this opportunity if you have the opportunity. Maybe you only have one conditional offer upon five universities you applied, but who cares if Allah has destined that path for you. The only thing that matters is how you accept the wisdom of this path. Allah's plan is better for you and it is more interesting, full of suprises. Now you can sleep well, my alter ego. Do not think too much about this. Once you get any conditional offer, work for it. If none comes to you, then Allah's plan is better. May Allah guides you forever :)

The Game Theory

Give victory to Allah, and you will be victorious. 

Fear your bad deeds more than your enemy. 

If you dont pray, start today. 

Fear none but one.

I recently watched the New Year's Revolution video by Kamal Saleh on Youtube.

http://youtu.be/3spupCsFG_w

A beautiful message indeed. He emphasised hugely on praying to Allah in order for us to attain victory. Therefore, i cannot help but to share something that we can ponder upon, a theory i called it. Haha so glad tidings are to the believers! 

Once, there was this one time when i saw my friend in college played the game with the title Plant vs Zombies 2. I bet everybody knows it. Haha it is a fun game actually but i am not very good at it so i dont play much. The game is hard if you do not know the efficient tactic :P But back to the point, on one of the stage, in order for you to get the star, the rules are:

1. Do not plant more than 12 plants

2. Do not use the lawn mower

So i watched my friend play the game although he was not very good at it. He has the basic tactics and he managed to kill all of the zombies but something terribly went wrong somewhere in the middle. Errr but wait, he has won the stage, right? He has killed every single zombies! But you know, killing the zombies is not the point of the game. The point of the game is that we must beat the game while obeying the rules. He accidentally planted 13 plants and then quickly dugged the extra one out and then continued his game. I knew that he lost the game and wont get the star as a reward. But he said that "it's okay to do that as long as we have 12 plants at the end of the game." And then i just nodded and waited for the game to end. I just wanted to see his reaction. Lol :P

When the game ends, he said "what? But i won" and theeeen, i started telling him what he has done wrong. Haha my message here is not that somebody is noob or anything. My message is pure and insightful. Because this is how the world is spinning. It has its own set of rules that we must follow, Allah's Rule :)

And the one who understand the rules to play the game will beat the game. And get their rightful reward. And others are lost in their own perception of the game. They are clueless about the game but they play like they know it. Voila! That is it! 

First step to win is that we must know and understand the rules. Second, we must have tactics. Like seriously, even PvsZ is hard for us if we dont have tactics :P and thirdly, survive till the end! Yeayyy, why are you telling us this child's play? Grow up, dude -.- 

Verily, many parties are playing for this world. Everybody has their own trump cards and strategies. They invent their own rules and tactics for world domination. And then they play it their way. 

I swear by Allah that Allah is executing something right now and Allah needs our patience for the Almighty is currently working out His Grand Plan, the coolest, the most majestic magic trick and illusion of all time! B-) like seriously, this is the Last Grand Battle in human history and we expect a small trick from Allah? Save the best for last, right? Have faith in Allah. After hardship will always comes ease, Allah says. Hardship is one of His rules that we need to win. And we are the worst in hardship right now. So we are on the right track :) 

The Prophet (saw) said, “Allah the Most High said, ‘I am as My servant thinks (expects) I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in an assembly greater than it. If he draws near to Me a hand’s length, I draw near to him an arm’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.’”

(Sahih Al-Bukhari)

In the context of the world today, i love to imagine Allah as an illusionist, an awesome magician with tedious and meticulous plan to humiliate the Devil's Army. But in order to fool your enemy, first you must fool your friend. And the first rule of magic is misdirection. Hoho go watch the film Now You See Me if you havent watch it yet. Indeed Allah is far more genius, amazing, powerful, than that. He is the Most Knowledgable :) and watch Sherlock the series and imagine Allah is more sophisticated than him!

Right now, Allah is putting some comfort in their heart that makes them feel that their plans are working. No one could stop them! Indestructable they are. They will become arrogant and feels superior. That is the trap for the ignorance. They feel no hardship so they will not have the ultimate victory. And they are making Islam appears as a loser in front of the world. Prophet Muhammad (saw) said that,

Even if only a day remains for The Hour to come, yet Allah will surely send a man from my family who will fill this world with such justice and fairness, just as it initially was filled with oppression.

(Abu Dawood)

This is when the fun begins. Why will Allah helps us during the time when this world is full of oppression? Why cant He helps us sooner? Yeahhh, the answer is so that the humiliation of the Devil's Army will happen at the right moment at the right place! Haha what is more humiliating than the supreme false king that they worship so greatly trips and falls on his face on greatest theatre possible when everybody's eyes are on him? Lol. Allah loves theathricality and deception for He is Majestic and Powerful B-) this is the promise of the Almighty. The spotlight is on them and Islam now. Thanks to them for popularizing Islam in the West :)

So believe in Allah. We know the rules already. Be a good muslim, leave it to Allah and we will have victory. This is my idea regarding the whys and the whens of Allah's doings. But someday we will know the hows. How is this plan, this bluff of Allah taking place :)

The unbelievers planned to imprison, murder or expel you (Muhammad) from your city. They make evil plans but Allah too plans and Allah's plans are the best.

Holy Quran, al Anfal 8:30

Read back my analogy. The star is the symbolises the desired reward, world domination. Myself symbolises Islam. My friend symbolises "somebody" in this world. The plants symbolises the "somebody's army". And the zombie symbolises Muslims up until now. "Defeated" and "helpless", although this is a part of the rule to fulfil the plan.

Islam knows the secrets of the game. We can tell the "somebody" all that we know but they will not believe in us. In fact everyone will not believe in us and the Power of Allah. This is our advantage to work so overtly :)