Faith Friday: What's Fear Got to Do With Love?

I used to have a problem with the idea of fearing God. What's fear got to do with loving God? Why would God want to instill such an unpleasant emotion in us if He was truly Loving and Merciful?

Then I was reminded of the time I saw a mother yelling at her 6 year old son for racing up and down a flight of stairs with his friend. She warned him once with a stern voice. It didn't work. Eventually she walked over to the stairs, yelled at him and pulled him aside for putting his friend and himself in danger. She instilled fear in him.

She did it out of love. And he knew that. So he stopped.

The Good Word: a lesson by Prof. Al-Attas

{photo: A dignified wattle tree, Dunedin}

I attended Professor Syed Naquib Al-Attas' lecture for the first time last night. I was surprised by the large number of people that were there. At least 500 people attended last night's session. In the [nearly] two years I've been back in Malaysia I've heard his name in passing but I was not aware of his magnanimity as a scholar. I am utterly embarrassed by this but I do believe the right opportunities will manifest or become apparent to us when we are ready to seize them.

During his lecture, Professor Al-Attas casually brought up verse 24 from Surah Ibrahim. I recall coming across this verse while reading this chapter of the Qur'an on the day of Eid ul-Adha. I thought, "Wow, that's really beautiful but I wonder what it really means."

My question was answered last night.

{VLOG} Sneak Preview of Mantanani Island Holiday

The video was shot with a Samsung Note 3. Pretty awesome huh? 

If there's one thing you should notice about me by now is that I love the beach. I initially wanted to go to Bali with a girlfriend but coming from a very protective family I was advised not to. #MuslimGirlProblems

In the end my family planned a trip to Mantanani Island, Sabah in West Malaysia, and it was my first time in Sabah too! So much of it reminded me of New Zealand. The clean, green environment, mostly. And the culture of the indigenous people reminded me of the Maori culture. 

Anyway, the video is a sneak preview to an upcoming blog post, inshaaAllah. I have hundreds of photos to choose from so you can imagine it will be challenging to write that blog post! But I can easily say this... Sabah made me fall in love with Malaysia all over again.