Rudy Herman Sinen

Google Wave Video Presentation

Google Wave Keynote Presentation

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

If you’re a developer and you’d like to roll up your sleeves and start working on Google Wave with us, you can read more on the Google Wave Developer blog about the Google Wave APIs, and check out the Google Code blog to learn more about the Google Wave Federation Protocol.

• Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave
• Google Wave Drips With Ambition. A New Communication Platform For A New Web. (Techcrunch)
• Exclusive: Video Interview With The Google Wave Founders (Techcrunch)
• Live With The Google Wave Creators (Techcrunch)
• Google Wave: A Complete Guide (Mashable)

Videos on Google Android Smartphone Operating System

Full web experience

Traffic in maps

Using Gmail

Why is Android’s Approach Better

From Code Android, read.
From CNet, read.

As we all know, Google’s business in Android is not selling the OS, but rather to encourage mobile Internet use in order to drive web searches and (Google)ads. Andy Rubin, former co-founder of Android, now the director of Google Mobile Platform, shared his opinions in more detail about the Android mobile strategy and how it will change the business. Great read.

Q: How do you reconcile the goals of staying open with the need to offer carriers their own experience and the compatibility problems that may come as a part of that?

Rubin: Traditionally what’s happened is the burden has been on the (phone makers) to be systems integrators. And what you get is kind of a lowest common denominator of functionality and usability because the software was actually developed by multiple parties, and nobody was really thinking holistically about the user experience.

It’s (about) how do people expect these products to perform, and what are the various paces that a consumer will put these products through? No one company was thinking about that. And so a huge benefit to this open platform is that it’s complete, it’s basically everything you need to build a phone. Sometimes the reason things fragment is because the platform is incomplete and people need to fill in the pieces. And when you fill in the pieces, you inherently have incompatibility. It is possible to have a completely different user interface with a completely different look and feel but still be compatible. And that will be demonstrated.

There will be a couple of launches; we’ve generated a lot of interest in China. The use cases in China are slightly different in the U.S.; typically in China, because of the Asian input, people prefer a pen-based interface rather than a capacitive-touch based interface because they expect a stylus to be able to draw the complex characters. So the use case has completely changed but we have achieved compatibility.

How did the goal of Android evolve after it was brought into Google?

Rubin: The goal was pretty much the same, the business model obviously changed. Google’s business model is deep into advertising, and so for Google this is purely a scale of the business, we just want to reach more people, and hopefully they’ll use Google and we’ll get the upside of the advertising revenue.

By the way, we’re confident enough in our advertising business and our ability to help people find information that we don’t somehow demand they use Google. If somebody wants to use Android to build a Yahoo phone, great.

Did you ever consider doing a phone? A Google phone?

Rubin: Yeah…I mean, it’s funny, if you build one phone…I’d much rather be the guy that does a platform that’s capable of running on multiple companies’ phones than just focusing on a single product. A single product is going to have, eventually, limitations. Even if that was two products that’s going to have limitations. But if it’s a hundred products, now we’re getting somewhere, to the scale at which Google thinks people want to access information.

Getting back to business models, Google has a great business model around advertising, and there’s a natural connection between open source and the advertising business model. Open source is basically a distribution strategy, it’s completely eliminating the barrier to entry for adoption. When Android was a start-up company, it was always a razor/razor blade business. The razor, the free thing, was the open-source operating system. In Android’s original business model, the blades were basically provisioning systems that we sold to wireless carriers that had hooks into the open-source operating system. That was an unproven business model, I would say, and certainly the feedback I got when we were going for venture financing was that it was an unproven business model. I was willing to give it a go, but then Larry and Sergey and Eric came along and said, “it’s much more aligned with Google’s core business and Google’s business model, and you’ll have a much easier time executing within Google.” And retroactively, I agree.

Is this a market share play? Is this something where you want to conquer the mobile world?

Rubin: We look at it first from the scale perspective. The mission here is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and relevant. So the accessible part: think of a world in which you are somehow prevented from accessing the information you want. When I go to a hotel room and pay the $19.95 to get on the Internet and they have some firewall that doesn’t let me get to my Exchange server, it makes me berserk.

I look at things–and Google looks at things–in (terms of) how could the landscape change in such a way that consumers who want to access Google services can’t? In that honest goal of not having consumers being blocked and allowing them to access information, it helps our competitors as well. What we don’t want to do is disadvantage anybody by being the only person; we don’t want to create any kind of separate structure where people can only access Google. And this is the definition of openness: it’s not just open source, it’s the freedom to get the information that you’re actually looking for.

Why is this approach better what Apple or Palm is doing where they control the whole device?

Rubin: Controlling the whole device is great, (but) we’re talking about 4 billion handsets. When you control the whole device the ability to innovate rapidly is pretty limited when it’s coming from a single vendor.

You can have spurts of innovation. You can nail the enterprise, nail certain interface techniques, or you can nail the Web-in-the-handset business, but you can’t do everything. You’re always going to be in some niche. What we’re talking about is getting out of a niche and giving people access to the Internet in the way they expect the Internet to be accessed. I don’t want to create some derivative of the Internet, I don’t want to just take a slice of the Internet, I don’t want to be in the corner somewhere with some dumbed-down version of the Internet, I want to be on the Internet.

Even if that comes at the cost of compatibility or UI advances? If you’re going to be the Everyman phone, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices at some point, right?

Rubin: I think that’s yet to be seen. I think we’ve done a pretty good job. Again, we’re talking about a clean slate technology that didn’t exist a few years ago. So I’m actually thinking this could be a revolution.

Remember people used to trumpet “write once, run everywhere”? Well, I think we’re actually there. I think when we start talking about the possibility of exploring things like Netbooks and car navigation systems, you have potentially different processor architecture types. You have Intel, you have ARM, set-top boxes have MIPS. We have all sorts of different processor architectures, and the guys who are steeped in legacy have trouble addressing those markets with a single solution. I actually think Android is the potential single solution that can address all those markets, and it’s new, it’s revolutionary. It will change the game.

If this is a revolution, why haven’t we seen more of these phones?

Rubin: It takes about 18 months to build a phone from end to end. What we wanted to do for our market entry was make sure that we had one successful showcase product to prove that the product was reliable and robust and ready to go. We chose HTC as our partner for that. At the moment we open-sourced, November 7 (2007), that’s when a lot of these guys got their hands on it. We’re still in that 18-month window of building products, and what you’ll see coming up is a whole string of products.

What did you learn from Android 1.0 to 1.5?

Rubin: I learned that 1.5 was the product I wished was 1.0. The reason is it’s a different business for Google: helping the industry build operating systems for their cell phones.

Because on the Web, you can iterate very quickly, and you can put things out in beta, you can fix bugs literally hourly. On cell phones you’re blasting something in a ROM in a device that’s in manufacturing where you did just-in-time ordering of all the parts and have inventory risk and everything else. Widgets are literally coming down a factory line, and if software isn’t ready by the time they reach the end of the line they’re going to drop on the floor and pile up. And that winds up costing a lot of people a lot of money. And if you don’t get it right, you’re kind of hosed.
What is going to dictate who wins and loses in this market? We all have different things that we may want in a phone. How do you try to be the Everyman phone and try to keep up with what’s going on?

Rubin: We’re trying to be something really unique, and I don’t think anybody else is offering this. We put a very focused spotlight on openness, and openness is the means by which you get the product that you want.
Do people care (about openness)? I mean, the industry might care, the partners in the Open Handset Alliance may care, but do consumers?

It’s an enabler. I’m not on some marketing campaign to educate consumers about what openness means. Actually, if you ask anybody on the street, you’re going to get 10 different definitions of openness. The Symbian guys are going to be like “I’m open,” and the LiMo guys are going to say “I’m open.”

There’s probably like a royal flush of openness, where you can lay your cards on the table and say (pointing) “open, open, open, open, open,” it’s the guy with the most open that’s going to win.
I think we’re that. I think that we have an open ecosystem, we have an open-source platform, we chose the right license, there are no viral aspects, it’s absolutely 100 percent free, it’s complete, it’s everything you need to build a phone. When you add all that stuff up, all those ingredients, potentially–I think the jury’s still out–we can make a really successful product.

Vatican Says Islamic Finance May Help Western Banks in Crisis

March 4 (Bloomberg) — The Vatican said banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis.

“The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the Vatican’s official newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an article in its latest issue late yesterday.

Author Loretta Napoleoni and Abaxbank Spa fixed income strategist, Claudia Segre, say in the article that “Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the “‘car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” they say.

Pope Benedict XVI in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing financial markets saying that “money vanishes, it is nothing” and concluded that “the only solid reality is the word of God.” The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper that criticize the free-market model for having “grown too much and badly in the past two decades.”

The Osservatore’s editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that “the great religions have always had a common attention to the human dimension of the economy,” Corriere della Sera reported today.

By Lorenzo Totaro
Link

Moody’s: Islamic banks will endure crisis

The worldwide fall in oil prices and the global economic crisis has affected the Islamic finance industry, but its accumulated liquidity and capital will help it withstand this pressure, says a Moody’s report.

According to a special report, the drop in oil prices poses two key challenges for the Islamic finance industry.

“Firstly, there is still a vital link between oil prices and Islamic banks as most of the latter operate in hydrocarbon-exporting economies. As they face increasingly limited funding sources, Islamic banks will find it more difficult to grow going forward,” said Anouar Hassoune, a Moody’s vice-president/senior credit officer and co-author of the report.

“Secondly, oil liquidity has been a major driver of the disintermediation process in the Islamic finance industry. With reduced oil liquidity, not only have sukuk issuances been slowing sharply, thereby depriving Islamic banks of much-needed long-term funding, but pricing on such instruments has been distorted.”

However, Moody’s believes such concerns are not unduly significant given that, in previous benign periods, Islamic banks have accumulated asset liquidity and capital on their balance sheets. They are currently also using their core asset liquidity to continue to grow their credit portfolios, despite scarcer funding sources. Moreover, large capital bases are helping to buffer asset price declines and possibly also higher delinquency rates in credit portfolios.

Moody’s cautions that, amid the funding and liquidity crisis, the sukuk market will need time to recover. However, the rating agency believes that, when liquidity does become more available, previous sukuk growth rates of 30 to 35 per cent per annum will be seen once again. The Islamic mutual fund and asset management business is also set for a bright future.

Moody’s explains that Islamic financial institutions have been more resilient to the ongoing crisis than their conventional counterparts because direct investment in sub-prime assets and their derivatives is prohibited for such institutions, as per the principle of ‘no riba and no gharar’.

However, they are not risk-immune and, like any conventional financial institution, face constraints relating to the scarcity of liquidity and liquidity management, asset price declines, and deteriorating asset quality amid the ongoing financial turmoil.

‘In summary, Islamic finance is not an island and has suffered from the liquidity drought. However, Moody’s believes that, as an industry, it can now demonstrate a track record of resilience and may even emerge stronger from the crisis provided some conditions are met — namely, more innovation, enhanced transparency, more robust risk-management architecture and culture, and better training,’ observed Mardig Haladjian, general manager and report co-author.

– TradeArabia News Service
Paris: Thu, 26 Feb 2009

Link.

Ustaz Sonhadji Mohamad – Berdakwah Melalui Mata Pena

Walaupun usia Ustaz Sonhadji sudah melebihi 80 tahun, tutur katanya masih fasih, pemikirannya tetap tajam dan daya ingatannya sentiasa segar. Beliau sentiasa mengikuti perkembangan semasa agar ilmunya dapat dimanfaatkan oleh sesiapa yang merujuk kepadanya.

Muat turun tulisan ini dalam format PDF di bawah:

Januari 2005
Majalah Sarina
Oleh Rudy Herman Sinen
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Mac 2005
Majalah I, Karangkraf
oleh: Rudy Herman Sinen
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Bermula dari satu siri kuliah tafsir Al Quran di radio, kemudian kuliah tafsir itu diolah menjadi sebuah kumpulan kitab-kitab tafsir Al Quran 30 jilid yang dinamakan Abrul Athir. Kitab tafsir Al Quran Abrul Athir itu kini menjadi rujukan dan buku teks di majlis pengajian tafsir di Malaysia, Singapura dan Brunei. Ia merupakan satu-satunya kitab tafsir yang lengkap dan mudah difahami yang asalnya ditulis dalam bahasa Melayu.

Tokoh besar yang menghasilkan kitab tafsir Abrul Athir ini tidak lain ialah Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji Mohamad. Beliau dikenali sebagai seorang ulama dan ahli tafsir Al Quran yang tersohor di rantau ini. Malah, beliau adalah segilintir ahli agama yang menggunakan ketajaman mata pena untuk menyampaikan dakwah.

Kitab Mari Sembahyang yang digunakan secara meluas di majlis pengajian asas sembahyang adalah satu contoh sumbangan yang sangat bermakna dari Ust Ahmad Sonhadji kepada masyarakatnya.

Dari mengarang kitab-kitab peringkat asas hinggalah ke kitab tafsir yang mengupas ilmu-ilmu Al Quran yang mendalam, Ust Ahmad Sonhadji masih terus menulis dan berdakwah melalui kitab-kitabnya.

Manusia Biasa

Pada bulan Ogos 2004 yang lalu, genaplah usia Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji, atau lebih mesra dikenali sebagai Ustaz Sonhadji, menjangkau 82 tahun. Sempena usianya yang ke-82 tahun, beliau telah menerbitkan sebuah lagi buku bertajuk “Tazkirah Untuk Orang Mengaji: Karya Sonhadji”. Buku itu adalah kumpulan catatan-catatan beliau mengenai kehidupan dari sudut pandangan Islam yang beliau tulis sedikit demi sedikit sejak bertahun lamanya.

Jiwa pendidik beliau tetap mekar mengatasi tubuh dan usianya yang semakin meningkat. Beliau masih mengadakan kelas pengajian, aktif di masjid, menghadiri majlis agama dan sering diminta nasihat dan menjadi tempat rujuk bagi berbagai kemusykilan agama Islam.

Jika anda bertanya kepada Ustaz Sonhadji dari manakah beliau mendapat semangat dan tenaga untuk terus memberi sumbangan dalam bidang dakwah dan pendidikan, beliau akan menjawab dengan rendah hati, “Saya ini kan manusia biasa.”

Namun, di sebalik beliau sebagai “manusia biasa”, tersirat suatu keberkatan yang “memimpin” dirinya sejak zaman kanak-kanak sehinggalah meningkat dewasa.

Ustaz Sonhadji dilahirkan di Solo, Jawa Tengah di dalam sebuah keluarga yang susur galurnya berasal dari keluarga kiayi dan pembesar negara. Di antaranya ada yang menjadi ulama hafiz Al Quran, guru kepada Sultan Solo ke-4, pendiri madrasah dan pejuang bangsa.

Bapanya bernama Mohamad Milatu Bin Hj Haromain Bin Hj Othman Bin Hasan Muharrar sementara ibunya bernama Raden Ummi Salamah Binti Hj Anwar Bin Wiryodikromo.

Nama Sonhadji juga ada keistimewaannya. Ia diambil sempena dengan nama seorang pengarang kitab iaitu Syeikh Sonhadji. Beliau mengarang kitab nahu bahasa Arab yang bertajuk Matan Ajrumiyah. Dan nama Sonhadji juga dikatakan nama sebuah kerajaan Islam di Afrika pada masa lampau.

Seawal umur 5 tahun, Ustaz Sonhadji sudah dibawa merantau oleh bapanya. Mereka ke Singapura pada tahun 1927 dan langsung menetap di kawasan Jalan Sultan. Kemudian mereka berhijrah ke Rengat, Riau Sumatera buat sementara waktu. Di sanalah beliau mendapat asuhan pendidikan agama awal kerana bapanya juga ialah seorang guru agama di Rengat. Pada usia 14 tahun, Ustaz Sonhadji kembali semula ke Singapura dan menuntut di Madrasah Aljunied dari kelas Tahdiri hingga ke kelas Tahun Enam.

Pengajiannya di Madrasah Aljunied berjalan dengan sempurna sehinggalah, tanpa diduganya, Singapura dijajah tentera Jepun. Oleh kerana keadaan di Singapura menjadi tidak menentu semasa peringkat awal penjajahan Jepun, beliau tidak dapat menyambung pengajiannya. Lalu, beliau kembali ke Rengat buat sementara waktu.

Setelah berada di Rengat, Ustaz Sonhadji tidak hanya mendiamkan diri. Beliau mengambil peluang untuk menyebarkan ilmu dengan membuka sebuah madrasah di sana bersama seorang guru yang dikenalinya. Madrasah di Rengat itu dinamakan Perguruan Agama Islam Rengat.

Walaupun sibuk menguruskan madrasah barunya di Rengat, Ust Sonhadji masih tetap tidak melupakan pengajiannya yang tertangguh di Madrasah Aljunied kerana perang. Beliau kembali semula ke Singapura dan akhirnya berjaya menamatkan pengajian Tahun Enamnya pada tahun 1944.

Mula Menabur Bakti

Setelah tamat pengajian, Ustaz Sonhadji menjadi guru pelatih di Madrasah Aljunied selama setahun dan terus menjadi guru penuh. Pada tahun 1945, beliau dipelawa untuk memulakan pengajian agama di Persatuan Bustanul Ariffin di kawasan Coronation Road. Walaupun hasrat awalnya ialah untuk membuka kelas pengajian di rumahnya sendiri, namun beliau mendahulukan permintaan Persatuan Bustanul Ariffin untuk membuka kelas pengajian di rumah persatuan itu.

Dengan takdir Allah, khidmatnya di Bustanul Ariffin tidak berpanjangan. Lantas beliau menuruti rancangan awalnya untuk membuka pengajian agama di rumahnya sendiri di kawasan Coronation Road juga. Murid yang datang belajar di rumahnya sahaja melebihi 100 orang. Kelas pengajian di rumahnya itu berjalan selama 7 tahun.

Pada tahun 1956, beliau bersama teman-teman seperjuangannya menubuhkan Persatuan Guru-Guru Agama Singapura (PERGAS), sebuah persatuan guru agama Islam di Singapura.

Ustaz Sonhadji juga pernah menabur bakti di Brunei di Sekolah Menengah Arab Hassanul Bolkiah. Beliau menyandang jawatan Ketua Guru di sekolah itu dari tahun 1966 hingga 1970.

Sekembalinya ke Singapura dari bertugas di Brunei, Ustaz Sonhadji dilantik menjadi Pengetua Madrasah Aljunied dari tahun 1973 hingga 1980. Beliau juga berkhidmat sebagai Imam di Masjid Muhajirin, di kawasan Bradell sejak tahun 1980.

Khidmat masyarakatnya tidak berhenti di situ sahaja. Beliau terus menabur bakti, menyebarkan ilmu, mendidik dan membimbing masyarakatnya tanpa kenal penat dan menagih imbalan materi.

Sejajar dengan tarafnya sebagai seorang ulama yang arif dan dihormati, beliau dilantik menjawat beberapa jawatan penting. Di antaranya:

• Anggota Tertinggi Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (1980-1992)
• Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (1974-1992)
• Lembaga Rayuan Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (1974-1986 dan 1990)
• Jawatankuasa Penasihat Islam, Kementerian Hal Ehwal Masyarakat (1960-1962)
• Jawatankuasa Pelajaran Agama Islam, Kementerian Pelajaran (1958-1960)

Jasanya terhadap masyarakat tetap tidak dilupakan, malah diberi penghormatan. Pada tahun 1988, Ustaz Sonhadji dianugerahkan Pingat Bakti Masyarakat. Dan pada tahun 1992, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura menganugerahkan Ustaz Sonhadji dengan Anugerah Jasa Cemerlang.

Berdakwah Dengan Mata Pena

Ustaz Sonhadji berdakwah dan mendidik dengan berbagai cara. Bukan sahaja melalui kelas-kelas agama dan syarahan, beliau juga arif menyampaikan dakwah melalui mata pena.

Memang sudah menjadi budaya para ulama zaman silam yang berdakwah melalui penulisan hingga terbitnya kitab-kitab agung yang masih dibaca hingga kini. Ustaz Sonhadji mewarisi budaya penulisan seperti itu. Sudah tentu anda pernah membaca kitab-kitabnya seperti

• Mari Sembahyang Lelaki/Perempuan
• Pelajaran Sembahyang
• Pelajaran Sembahyang Berjemaah
• Benih Agama I, II, III, IV
• Pendidikan Budi Pekerti I, II
• Panduan Memahami Tafsir Al Quran I, II
• Pengetahuan Agama Islam (Bahagian Tauhid, Fiqih dan Sejarah Islam yang disusun bersama pengarang lain.)

Ciri-ciri seorang pendakwah juga terserlah sejak di bangku sekolah lagi. Selain dari cemerlang dalam pelajaran, beliau juga menubuhkan kumpulan nasyid dari kalangan murid-murid madrasah, ketika usianya 14 tahun. Kumpulan nasyid ini terus berkembang sehingga Ust Sonhadji menjadi guru di Madrasah Aljunied. Beliau juga berkebolehan mencipta lagu-lagu nasyid. Dan sebuah nasyid yang popular hingga ke hari ini ialah nasyid bertajuk “Nahnu Syababul Islam” (Kami Pemuda-Pemuda Islam).

Walau begitu, satu-satunya sumbangan Ustaz Sonhadji yang amat berharga kepada masyarakat ialah melalui kumpulan kitab tafsir Al Quran yang dinamakan Abrul Athir. Kitab Abrul Athir merupakan sebuah koleksi 30 jilid kitab tafsir Al Quran yang diusahakan oleh Ustaz Sonhadji selama 25 tahun.

Ustaz Sonhadji mula menulis tafsir Al Quran ini pada tahun 1959. Teks asal tafsir Al Quran ini ialah dalam format skrip radio untuk memenuhi sebuah rancangan agama di Radio Singapura pada masa itu. Ustaz Sonhadji diberi peluang menyampaikan ceramah tafsir Al Quran di Radio Singapura bermula dari 19 Februari 1959 pada setiap malam Jumaat. Ternyata beliau tidak mensia-siakan peluang untuk menyampaikan ilmu di gelanggang yang lebih luas lagi. Melalui radio, dakwahnya dapat didengari di mana dan oleh sesiapa sahaja.

Oleh kerana bermulanya penulisan kitab tafsir Al Quran ini untuk sebuah rancangan radio, maka beliau menamakan kitab ini sebagai Abrul Athir yang bermaksud “merentasi gelombang udara”.

Tahun demi tahun berlalu, Ustaz Sonhadji tetap cekal hati menulis dan menyampaikan kuliah tafsir melalui radio. Walaupun beliau tidak dapat melengkapkan kuliahnya di radio sehingga 30 juzuk, beliau masih terus menulis kitab tafsir ini tanpa bertangguh-tangguh. Samada di rumah, di pejabat, dalam pesawat, semasa bertugas di Brunei atau di mana sahaja, beliau terus berusaha menyiapkan karangan agungnya itu. Beliau memperuntukkan masa sekurang-kurangnya 3 hari penuh setiap minggu untuk mengkaji, menelaah, mengupas dan menulis kitab tafsirnya itu.

Akhirnya, 25 tahun kemudian, iaitu pada tarikh 26 April 1984, lengkaplah sebuah naskhah tafsir Al Quran yang sangat tinggi nilai ilmunya. Kemudian, proses menerbitkan kitab tafsir dilakukan secara bertahap-tahap, bermula dari penerbitan jilid pertama pada tahun 1960 hingga lengkap 30 jilid pada tahun 1988.

Salah satu keistimewaan kitab tafsir Abrul Athir ialah bahasa asalnya ditulis dalam bahasa Melayu dan ia menggunakan bahasa penulisan yang mudah difahami. Hal ini menurut Ustaz Sonhadji ialah supaya semua peringkat masyarakat dapat manfaat dari tulisannya. Beliau berjaya mengupas ilmu tafsir Al Quran yang mendalam hingga menjadi satu subjek yang jelas difahami oleh semua peringkat pembaca.

Dalam kata aluan untuk kitab tafsir Abrul Athir yang ditulis oleh Pendeta Zaaba (Hj Zainal Abidin Bin Ahmad) pada tahun 1960, Zaaba menulis, “… tentulah suatu hal yang boleh dibanggakan kerana dalam bahasa Melayu pada masa ini belum ada tafsir Quran yang cukup luas sampai 30 jilid seperti yang ada dalam bahasa Arab dan lainnya.”

Begitulah besarnya sumbangan Ustaz Sonhadji kepada masyarakat. Kitab tafsir Abrul Athir bukan sahaja telah memartabatkan ilmu Al Quran bahkan ia menambahkan lagi khazanah ilmu Islam di dalam masyarakat.

Mengulas Isu Semasa

Sekalipun usia Ustaz Sonhadji sudah melebihi 80 tahun, tutur katanya masih fasih, pemikirannya tetap tajam dan daya ingatannya sentiasa segar. Beliau sentiasa mengikuti perkembangan semasa agar ilmunya dapat dimanfaatkan oleh sesiapa yang merujuk kepadanya.

Sehubungan dengan ini, Ustaz Sonhadji mempunyai ulasannya yang tersendiri, mengikut tafsiran ayat-ayat Al Quran, mengenai fenomena pengganasan yang sedang menimbulkan cabaran bagi umat Islam kini.

Ustaz Sonhadji mengulas mengenai kegiatan pengganasan, “Mereka kurang berpengalaman dalam bidang agama. Dan mereka tertarik dengan satu kegiatan pengganasan. Tetapi mereka ambil jalan mudah dalam berjihad. Mereka gunakan (maksud jihad) yang akhir iaitu peperangan. Sedangkan jihad itu banyak – jihad dengan hati, dengan anggota, dengan fikiran, harta dan akhir sekali dengan nyawa.”

Dalam pada itu, beliau menganalisa bahawa pengganasan berlaku disebabkan timbulnya rasa tidak puas hati dan mahu membalas dendam ke atas orang yang menindas umat Islam.

Beliau berpendapat, “Terrorisme adalah hasil dari jihad. Dan (segolongan) orang Islam merasa tertindas dan hendak membalas dendam.”

Namun, Ustaz Sonhadji menegaskan bahawa di dalam Al Quran sudah ada panduan bagaimana untuk orang Islam menangani cabaran dan bagaimana pula tindak balas yang sepatutnya dilakukan oleh orang Islam jika dicabar.

Menurut Ustaz Sonhadji, di dalam Surah As Syuraa, Allah berfirman,

“Dan balasan sesuatu kejahatan ialah kejahatan yang bersamaan dengannya; dan barangsiapa yang memaafkan (kejahatan orang) dan berbuat baik (kepadanya), maka pahalanya tetap dijamin oleh Allah (dengan diberi balasan yang sebaik-baiknya). Sesungguhnya Allah tidak suka kepada orang-orang yang berlaku zalim.” (As Syuura:40)

Melalui ayat itu, jelaslah bahawa walaupun kita boleh membalas kejahatan orang terhadap kita, tetapi Allah melarang tindakan balas itu melampaui kadar kejahatan yang ditimpakan terhadap kita.

Tetapi yang lebih utama ialah kita memaafkan kejahatan orang lain, malah sanggup berbuat baik kepadanya. Dan pahala berbuat demikian akan ditanggung oleh Allah.

Begitulah Ustaz Sonhadji menerangkan betapa indahnya panduan yang Allah berikan untuk umat Islam dalam berhadapan dengan cabaran. Bukan sahaja dianjurkan supaya jangan membalas dendam tetapi memaafkan, malah, yang lebih utama ialah untuk kita berbuat baik terhadap orang yang membuat kejahatan kepada kita.

Melalui kisah yang dipaparkan, jelaslah jasa dan bakti Ustaz Sonhadji kepada masyarakatnya bukan sesuatu yang dilakukannya dengan sambil lewa. Ia juga bukan boleh dilakukan oleh sesiapa sahaja tanpa memiliki tingkat keyakinan dan iman yang atasan serta kadar daya juang yang optima.

Sepanjang hayatnya, beliau penuhi dengan usaha dakwah dan mendidik anak bangsanya agar terpelihara dari kelalaian dunia dan terus menghidupkan risalah Rasulullah di akhir zaman ini, tanpa mendarab untung ruginya.

Walaupun di sepanjang perjalanan dakwahnya adakalanya beliau dipergunakan, diperlecehkan atau berurusan dengan pihak yang tidak jujur, Ustaz Sonhadji tetap seperti biasa dan meneruskan perjuangan yang diyakininya.

Inilah anugerah Allah kepada beliau berkat memegang kepada pesan ibunya yang sering dilafazkan kepada Ustaz Sonhadji semasa kecil. Ibunya berpesan, “Jangan engkau jadi kaya, jadilah orang mulia.” Justeru kini, beliau mulia kerana memuliakan Al Quran.

Perpustakaan Negara Hargai Sumbangan Dua Cendekiawan Melayu

CENDEKIAWAN Islam terkenal, Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji Mohamad, telah diberi penghormatan oleh Lembaga Perpustakaan Negara (NLB) atas sumbangannya menjadikan koleksinya sebagai warisan tiada tolok bandingnya kepada negara.

Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji Mohamad, 89 tahun, telah menyumbangkan sebanyak 700 kitab agama bersiri dan meminjamkan 6,000 naskhah manuskrip kepada NLB.

Selain itu, Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji turut menyumbangkan khutbah-khutbah tulisannya yang ditulis dalam tulisan Jawi.

Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji yang begitu berminat dengan ilmu memberitahu, bahawa setiap kali ada kenalannya ke Indonesia, Mesir ataupun Kuwait beliau akan memesan beberapa buah buku dan majalah untuk di bawa pulang.

‘Pendirian saya ialah, jika hendak banyak ilmu, kita mesti banyak membaca. Jika hendak banyak pengalaman, kita mesti banyak menulis,’ ujarnya lagi.

Walaupun Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji kini menghidap penyakit Parkinson beliau masih mempunyai pemikiran yang tajam.

Beliau percaya bahawa dalam keadaannya yang tidak sihat sekali pun beliau masih boleh berbakti kepada negara dan masyarakat.

‘Dengan meninggalkan beberapa kitab kepunyaan saya kepada Perpustakaan Negara, saya juga dapat meninggalkan warisan agama untuk generasi seterusnya.

‘Jika saya sendiri yang menyimpan kitab-kitab saya, saya tidak dapat mengekalkan keadaan kitab-kitab itu dengan baik. NLB punya kepakaran menjaganya,’ ujar beliau.

Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji merupakan ahli tafsir Al-Quran di Singapura.

Pada tahun 1960-an beliau pernah menerbitkan buku-buku teks Bahasa Melayu dalam tulisan Jawi bagi peringkat sekolah rendah bersama beberapa muridnya.

Selain Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji, penulis, penyajak dan pelukis mapan, Encik Abdul Ghani Hamid, juga diberi penghormatan oleh NLB.

Encik Abdul Ghani telah menyumbangkan buku-buku sastera kepada NLB sekali gus dapat membantu NLB membina kumpulan warisan Singapura.

Mereka juga adalah antara 19 penyumbang kepada dokumentari warisan di The Pod di Perpustakaan Negara semalam.

Kebanyakan daripada penyumbang yang diberi penghormatan ini merupakan rakyat Singapura daripada pelbagai latar belakang.

Mereka merupakan pemenang pingat budaya, penulis sastera, seniman, pemilik kedai buku dan jurugambar.

Masyarakat umum boleh melihat kumpulan daripada para penyumbang di tingkat 10, NLB di Victoria Street.

Singapura : 27 Februari 2009
Berita Harian Singapura
http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg

Antarctic glaciers melting faster than thought

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_sc/un_un_warming_antarctic

By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – Glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster and across a much wider area than previously thought, a development that threatens to raise sea levels worldwide and force millions of people to flee low-lying areas, scientists said Wednesday.

Researchers once believed that the melting was limited to the Antarctic Peninsula, a narrow tongue of land pointing toward South America. But satellite data and automated weather stations now indicate it is more widespread.

The melting “also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica,” said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

“That’s unusual and unexpected,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

By the end of the century, the accelerated melting could cause sea levels to climb by 3 to 5 feet — levels substantially higher than predicted by a major scientific group just two years ago.

Making matters worse, scientists said, the ice shelves that hold the glaciers back from the sea are also weakening.

The report Wednesday from Geneva was a broad summary of two years of research by scientists from 60 countries. Some of the findings were released in earlier reports.

In Washington, as part of an overall update on global warming, top researchers on Wednesday sounded a similar warning to the U.S. Senate about rising temperatures in the Antarctic.

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group set up by the United Nations, told lawmakers on the Environment and Public Works Committee that Earth has about six more years at current rates of carbon dioxide pollution before it is locked into a future of severe global warming.

For years, the continent at the bottom of the world seemed to be the only place on the planet not experiencing climate change. Previous research indicated that temperatures across much of Antarctica were staying the same or slightly cooling.

The report Wednesday was compiled as part of the 2007-2008 International Polar Year, an effort by scientists to conduct intense Arctic and Antarctic research over the past two Antarctic summers.

The big surprise was exactly how much glaciers are melting in western Antarctica, a vast land mass on the Pacific Ocean side of the continent that is next to the South Pole and includes the Antarctic Peninsula.

The biggest of the western glaciers, the Pine Island Glacier, is moving 40 percent faster than it was in the 1970s, discharging water and ice more rapidly into the ocean, said Summerhayes, a member of International Polar Year’s steering committee.

The Smith Glacier, also in west Antarctica, is moving 83 percent faster than in 1992, he said.

The glaciers are slipping into the sea faster because the floating ice shelf that would normally stop them — usually 650 to 980 feet thick — is melting. And the glaciers’ discharge is making a significant contribution to increasing sea levels.

Some people “fear that this is the first signs of an incipient collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet,” Summerhayes said. “If the west Antarctica sheet collapses, then we’re looking at a sea level rise of between 3 feet, 4 inches, to nearly 5 feet.”

Together, all the glaciers in west Antarctica are losing a total of around 114 billion tons per year because the melting is much greater than the new snowfall, he said.

“That’s equivalent to the current mass loss from the whole of the Greenland ice sheet,” Summerhayes said.

Looked at another way, it’s more weight than 312,000 Empire State Buildings.

“We didn’t realize it was moving that fast,” he said.

Summerhayes said sea levels will climb higher than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,

A 2007 report by the IPCC predicted a sea level rise of 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century, which could flood low-lying areas and force millions of people to relocate.

The group said an additional 3.9- to 7.8-inch increase in sea levels was possible if the recent, surprising melting of polar ice sheets continues.

New research published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that melting glaciers will add at least 7 inches to the world’s sea level — and that’s if carbon dioxide pollution is quickly capped and then reduced.

Far more likely is an increase of at least 15 inches and probably more just from melting glaciers, the journal said.

Until recently, scientists debated whether Antarctica was warming.

But a January study in the journal Nature found that Antarctica’s average annual temperature has increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1957, but is still 50 degrees below zero.

The report also determined that autumn temperatures in east Antarctica were cooling over the long term.

International Polar Year researchers found that the southern ocean around Antarctica has warmed about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit in the past decade, double the average warming of the rest of the Earth’s oceans over the past 30 years.

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report

UAE issues $5.3bn sukuk

25/02/2009 09:58:00 AM GMT
Source: Business 24-7
http://www.sukuk.net/news/articles/2/UAE_issues_$5.3bn_sukuk.html

The UAE remained the second largest issuer of Islamic bonds (sukuk) in the world last year despite a sharp decline in their value compared with 2007, according to a leading Gulf investment company.

Malaysia, which has dominated the sukuk market over the past decade, was again the largest issuer, with a value of $5.5 billion, (Dh20.2bn) the Kuwaiti-based Global Investment House (GIH) said.

The UAE maintained the second position, with a total sukuk issue value of nearly $5.3 billion, the report said.

As for sukuk issued worldwide, the study said their total value tumbled by more than 50 per cent in 2008 because of a sharp decline in the last quarter, mainly in the Gulf, due to the global financial turmoil.

“The total value of sukuk issued worldwide plunged by nearly half to $15.1bn last year from around $33.1bn in 2007,” the study said. “The main decline was in corporate sukuk, which dropped in number to 92 from 97. But sovereign sukuk surged to 73 from 32 in the same period.” A breakdown showed the value of sukuk issued in the UAE dropped to about $5.3bn from $6.59bn. There was also a decline in the other GCC states, except Qatar.

“In 2008, the GCC countries accounted for around 55 per cent of the total value of sukuk issued worldwide, while Malaysia accounted for 36 per cent.”

In a recent study, Saudi Arabia’s largest bank said the value of corporate sukuk issued in the GCC fell by 57 per cent in 2008.

The sukuk issuance in the GCC and other global markets last year was in sharp contrast to 2007, when such investment activity rose to one of its highest levels, the National Commercial Bank said.

“Last year was bleak in terms of value and number of issuances,” NCB said.

Source: Business 24-7

Indonesia’s Matahari plans sukuk, conventional bonds

Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:57am EST
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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JAKARTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Indonesian retailer PT Matahari Putra Prima Tbk (MPPA.JK) said on Wednesday it plans to raise a total of 500 billion rupiah ($42 million) from the sale of Islamic and conventional bonds in April.

The world’s most populous Muslim nation is trying to tap its huge market for Islamic-compliant products. The government recently raised 5.55 trillion rupiah from its first retail sukuk issue, well above the 1.7 trillion rupiah targetted.

In a prospectus published in a newspaper, Matahari said it plans to sell 200 billion rupiah of ijarah sale-and-leaseback sukuk and 300 billion rupiah of conventional bonds.

It has appointed PT HSBC Securities Indonesia, PT Indo Premier Securities, and PT Ciptadana Securities as underwriters.

Islamic bonds do not pay interest, which is banned as usury under Islamic law, and are structured as profit-sharing or rental agreements underpinned by physical assets. ($1 = 11,930 rupiah) (Reporting by Dicky Kristanto, editing by Sara Webb)