THE DEEN SHOW: I didn't choose Islam; Allah chose me…

Some time ago, I wrote about friends who surprised me when they converted to Islam. Last Friday, more of them accepted Islam and declared their Sajda (Shahada). One of them just walked out of my clinic. He comes every month to take his prescription meds.

“I heard that you, too, accepted Islam,” I said while I was writing his prescription. “You are lucky,” I glanced where he was sitting, “that you took your shahada in front of a big crowd and led (of all people) by Dr. Lawrence Brown.” Obviously, he has neither the idea nor the prior knowledge of who Dr. Lawrence Brown is. Last Friday was the 7^th and last of the series of Friday lectures in Abha City attended by the region’s who’s who. It was very unfortunate for me; I couldn't have left my work to make the two-hour journey with friends.

“I accepted Islam,” he replied, “more out of gratitude for the blessings that God showered me with even before I recognized His Almighty. This is my 32nd year in my company, and they still offered me to stay while they let go of younger people who did not want to leave.”

I chuckled lightly. It reminded me of an episode of “The Deen Show” I watched last night, where two of the guests said, “I didn’t choose Islam; Allah chose me.” I tapped the keyboard of my new Samsung Convertible (Tablet/Laptop Hybrid) and showed him Dr. Brown’s YouTube videos. Standing behind my desk, he looked at it wide-eyed. “I’ll go and watch it—now,” he muttered.

Some people think that Filipinos in Saudi Arabia converting to Islam is imperative to the territory, something out of necessity. It could be true for some, but most are genuinely guided to the right path. In this “Deen Show” episode, a Filipino American converted to Islam as a matter of family affairs. When his cousin and brother accepted Islam, he declared his faith 2 months later. A Chinese man born in Beijing who had migrated to the USA was led to the faith by a friend who showed him a copy of the Qur’an. When he discovered that a chapter of the Qur’an was titled “Luqman,” he took it as a sign from Allah. His Chinese name is “Luman.” He changed his name to Luqman. This other guy picked a beautiful calligraphy he found on the net as his laptop wallpaper. 

“Bro, you are a Muslim now?”

“No!”

“So, what is this wallpaper on your laptop?”

“Why, what is it…?”

“It is the Shahada in Arabic, a declaration of belief in the one true God.”

“My mother used to tell me that God works in most mysterious ways. Allah must have chosen me to be a believer. I didn't choose Islam; Allah chose me.” 

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

BERMUDA TRIANGLE: Flight MH370 and Flight 19 flying into the unknown

FLIGHTS INTO THE GREAT UNKNOWN

Although it is absolutely bizarre that in this day and age, an entire jetliner with 239 people on board can vanish into thin air, possibly all with mobile phones with GPS, not to mention the jetliner’s own black box equipped with a locator that can survive the deepest sea and beep for 30 days, it is not the first time. 

On December 5, 1945, an entire squadron of five fighter jets on a bombing exercise in what has ever since become known as the Bermuda Triangle vanished into the history books of the mysterious unknown. Twenty minutes into the flight, the plane sent out to rescue the disoriented pilots likewise disappeared without a trace to this day—the entire squadron and their rescuer.

The Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was lost in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet – it is close to impossible for it to have crashed without anyone hearing or seeing something either on land or in the sea.

In the Bermuda Triangle, ships and planes vanished without a trace, and on a few occasions, ships were found drifting in the sea with all their passengers missing while their half-consumed meals were still on the tables.

If it is true that MH370 turned west to the Strait of Malacca, the pilot must have been disoriented. He probably assumed that he was on the correct flight path. Watch this three-minute BBC documentary about Flight 19 and its disoriented pilots. 

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https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

EARTH’s MOON: An Alien UFO Mother-ship…?

Earth’s moon, many believe, is an artificial and or engineered natural satellite positioned perfectly where it is to make Earth livable for intelligent life.

Imagine without the moon serving as Earth's anchor in space. Earth would wobble wildly, causing the oceans to surge and wash away low-lying landscapes. Every wave would be a tsunami. Earth’s oceans would not have lasted long. They would have evaporated. Earth would be what planet Mars is today.

If Earth’s moon had been smaller or bigger, it would have affected Earth’s gravitation, which would have, in effect, altered evolution as we know it.

Thousands of UFO sightings have been recorded on film and video, but the question remains: where is the mother ship…? 

Ever wondered why our Earth has only one moon compared to its siblings in the solar system? Were other moons removed to make Earth’s gravity just perfect for intelligent life to thrive?

Is it a coincidence that Earth’s moon is 1/400 the size of the sun and its distance from Earth is 1/400 the distance of Earth from the sun so that on a foggy or hazy day, the sun looks precisely the size of the moon and in the case of a solar eclipse, the moon can completely shut out the sun? Was it meant as a joke or for a specific reason?

Aliens may not be as malevolent and humorless as Tinsel Town always wants us to believe for entertainment. 

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

Brother Nathanael: Do We Want a Jewish State?

There is no iota of Biblical truth that the Promised Land was for Jacob’s (Israel) generations. Isaac, the forefather of the Jews, was not even born when the promise was made to Abraham and his son Ishmael. Abraham was 99 years old, and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when they were circumcised (as a seal of the covenant).  The yet-to-be-born Isaac was never a party to the covenant. In fact, God, who is the sole possessor of eternity, did not even see it fit to wait until Isaac was born, a puzzle I cannot comprehend unless God meant it to be for a reason. 

THE BIBLE

Genesis 17:1: “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.”

Genesis 17:10: “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you; the covenant you are to keep: every male among you shall be circumcised: you are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between you and me.”

Genesis 17:23: “On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money every male in his household and circumcised them as God told him.”

Genesis 17:24: “Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, and his son Ishmael was 13. Abraham and his son were both circumcised on that same day.”

More:

http://beyond666-acson005.blogspot.com/2011/11/truth-israel-and-promised-land.html

abc NEWS 20/20: Understanding Islam in USA

The USA, because of its uncompromising adherence to freedom of religion, is a fertile ground for the growth of Islam - it might be too fertile for all its differing branches to overgrow, especially the modern liberalized Muslims. Islam is not much different from Christianity when it comes to various branches of the faith, and like Christianity, there is likewise an interfaith rivalry among its adherents. The bloodletting between the Sunni and the Shiites is no different from the Catholic-Protestant divide that devastated the European continent in earlier times and led to Europe’s “Dark Ages.” That there are 2 million Muslims in the USA is a lie – regardless of how the USA’s major networks try to project themselves as fair, their biases are always palpably evident. There are, at present, more than 6 million Muslims in the USA and counting – Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the USA and the world.

I, My Slingshot and a Broken Wing

It must be summer; I’m sure of the time. Those were the only times I remember being able to live for an extended time in the embrace of nature. The river runs wild, trees thrive towards the skies, while grass and flowers bloom freely. It was where birds soar to the heavens unmolested, singing their chirpy songs of freedom. 

I must be no older than 9, as I would engage in more enterprising activities during the summer in later years. I shine shoes in the market – call it my regular source of income. Still, when opportunities came along, I would sell fruits on the sidewalk or vend peanuts, cigarettes, candies, and PX (brand of chewing gum) at political rallies. Wherever there was a gathering of people for reasons I couldn't care less, I would engage the crowd in an enterprising way.

Lumbayan-a-Gui is a small village that can be reached by walking less than 2 km from the highway. The unpaved road was always muddy. The village name literally means “where tall grasses blossom.”

The story is long, and I have already outlined its narrative in my book about how we came to live in this village, which has not so many houses. The following narrative happened long after we abandoned the fields of green grasses that blossom to a man’s height, fields of corn, and shrubs of wild sunflowers.

My eldest brother married into the village, prompting him to make it his home. We would come to spend weekends and, in summer, spend a longer time helping him tend to his farm and graze the animals, especially the Philippines' quintessential beast of burden—the water buffalo.

I left my beast to graze, but it was always a stone's throw away in case the animal sauntered to the newly cultivated corn fields. Idling the time away, I would aim my slingshot at any object I fancied that crossed my field of vision, but birds - that would be a dream shot for a budding hunter of my age. It was late afternoon. Birds, many of them, were hopping in short flights between grasses. They were near and far, constantly in motion, hopping, always in flight – a moving target that was hard to hit.

I froze; I thought I hit one. With adrenaline rising, I ran towards my fallen prey, leaping over the grass. I have never been so thrilled in my entire life, at least of what I have lived so far, that moment, something like 8 or 9 years. Anyway, my excitement was indescribable—euphoria would be more appropriate.

The grasses blossomed to about 2 feet in height. It took only a few minutes to find what I thought was my first hunting trophy, but my thrills turned to horror. A tiny bird with a broken wing was caught between the stems of the grasses that I needed to nudge aside. My heart sunk to a halt; I thought my heart skipped a bit from absolute grief. It was moving. It was alive. Gently, I picked it up. Probably in shock, it showed no resistance to my handling. It was so fragile I thought I would hurt it even further by a simple touch. I held it in my palm like I was holding water that would slip off between my fingers. It was the cutest thing I ever had in my hand. Except for the broken wing, I could see no other injuries. If I took it home – I thought, it would certainly die.

Growing at both sides of the country road were wild sunflowers that were so adapted to the climate; they bloomed so wildly beyond human heights and in clusters, creating undergrowth one could actually take shelter under it. Lanao is most probably the Philippines’s wettest province. It is no myth that if you cast the seed of the fruit you eat in your backyard, you will find it growing a few days later.

I waved aside the sunflower’s thick foliage and crept under the shrubs. With so many insects and tiny worms in the undergrowth, my tiny bird would have a better chance to survive without the benefit of flight. The foliage serving as a canopy would also protect it from the elements of nature. I wanted to nourish it back to health, and I knew that only nature could provide the healing.

Every morning, I would wave aside some of the flowers and look in the undergrowth. The bird with the broken wing seemed to be recovering fast, hopping among the Flowers' overgrown branches. On the third day, it wasn’t there. I searched the ground for what I hoped I would not find: a dead bird. I like to believe that, given there was no body of evidence, it fully recovered and took flight to freedom.

The horrific experience was a turning point in my childhood because it would unconsciously define what I would eventually become, an MD. 

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

NK

Nishreen: THE GOLDEN GIRL…

For the nth time, I examined the tip of my index finger. It has been deformed by the pen grip following years of writing prescriptions. MDs write as much, if not more, than clerical employees of any office on the planet. Technology, in fact, has made the lives of secretaries and other clerical workers simpler. At the same time, MDs are forever confined to the basics of writing on paper, not to mention record books, reports, and insurance papers to fill out.

Yesterday, I saw more than 30 patients. It is the first time in as many years since I returned to Saudi Arabia that I saw that many patients in a single day, a throwback reminder of my days at the town’s general hospital, where I used to see an average of 50 patients a day. The most significant number I saw in a day was – 280 patients. You’ve got to be a super-doc, but maybe I was in a different era when I was young. With nostalgic fondness, I can recall those days when so many patients would swarm over me, some pulling at my sleeves while others were pulling at my hair; “Doctor, ana aw’wal” (I am the first).

Whenever my colleagues (in the private clinic where I am now) quarrel with our manager/owner, I end up seeing more patients. With the pediatrician having to go on unscheduled leave, 30 patients will be the order of the day in the days to come. In this town, people call me the “Emir of doctors,” and for some, they call me “al Barraka” or “the miracle worker.” Very flattering indeed!

“Nish won the gold again,” my wife’s text reads.

I was unable to absorb what it meant for a moment. I was so busy that it took another hour before I could steal a precious moment to read the rest of the messages. Nishreen would inform me days before she entered any competition for obvious reasons—there is always some amount to pay. The following few texts, however, made it clear that they were at that very moment in a gym in Pasay City where Nishreen won the gold—again.

As a parent, there is no moment sweeter than news of your child or children's triumph in their chosen field, whatever that field of battle might be. We have called Nishreen a lot of lovely names, from a “miracle baby” coming at a time when her mom and I were past our prime, to “angel of joy” to “Kikay” as she starts to interact with her surroundings in a blissfully happy way. The age difference between her and her next sibling is 16 years, meaning her 3 sisters and only brother are all grown-ups; they treated her like a precious gem. It’s no surprise, therefore, that she keeps her siblings always alert on their heels, attending to her every whim.

Her mom, her siblings, and I didn’t demand that she excel in her academics, but she seems to be born with a natural talent that is obviously not your average kind. While still in the process of learning to talk, we demanded that she speak in English just for the heck of it, but amazingly, she adopted it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.  Her kindergarten teachers shied away from her talkativeness because they could not catch up with her English – LOL!

Kids with access to the latest communication gadgets are exposed to accelerated learning. Like Nishreen, they tend to be fast readers when singing on a minus-one sing-along or when they sing along to a YouTube video with lyrics. When they tinker with their myriad of gadgets and play video games, they read and follow instructions that further boost their mental growth.  

Although her first bundle of medals came at the end of her kindergarten, where she delivered the valedictory address at age 5, she got a few more after that when she moved to RG Montessori as an outstanding pupil. Her chase for more medals took a new turn when she joined a karate club where she receives lessons 1-2x/week. She won her first gold medal six weeks into her classes, followed by a silver four weeks later. Before the end of 2013, she won one more gold medal. Yesterday’s gold is her 4^th in less than a year, which began last summer. She is so good at what she does (without really trying) that her club promoted her to skip one belt to a higher level. “Karate” was meant to keep her away from spending too much time with her bundle of electronic gadgets, including an iPad, a PSP, a Samsung Tablet, and a Samsung Galaxy mini, not to mention laptops, around the house.

I hope, though, that her interest in the sport will not affect her academic standing much.

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ