Monthly Archives: December 2004

Luthfi Assyaukanie – Al-Quran sudah tidak asli lagi

Satu lagi dari grup Jaringan Islam Liberal / Paramadina – menurut salah satu tokohnya, Al-Quran yang kita pegang pada saat ini sudah tidak asli lagi.

Pada posting ini saya akan lampirkan tulisan Luthfi selengkapnya yang saya kutip dari milis INSIST net. Kemudian saya akan posting juga bantahannya dari Fahmi Salim.

Semoga bermanfaat,


Dikutip dari:
Luthfi Assyaukanie.
Dosen Sejarah Pemikiran Islam
Universitas Paramadina
Jakarta

Sebagian besar kaum Muslim meyakini bahwa Alquran dari halaman pertama hingga terakhir merupakan kata-kata Allah yang diturunkan kepada Nabi Muhammad secara verbatim, baik kata-katanya (lafdhan) maupun maknanya (ma’ nan). Kaum Muslim juga meyakini bahwa Alquran yang mereka lihat dan baca hari ini adalah persis seperti yang ada pada masa Nabi lebih dari seribu empat ratus tahun silam.

Keyakinan semacam itu sesungguhnya lebih merupakan formulasi dan angan-angan teologis (al-khayal al-dini) yang dibuat oleh para ulama sebagai bagian dari formalisasi doktrin-doktrin Islam.
Continue reading Luthfi Assyaukanie – Al-Quran sudah tidak asli lagi

A gov’t doing the right thing

When Peru decided to pass a law ensuring the freedom from IT lock-in, Microsoft responded by spreading a FUD campaign to force them to reconsider the bill. In reply, a Peru congressman wrote this letter to Microsoft:
Peruvian opensource nightmare for Microsoft

I must say that piece of law is quite englightened, and a good example to follow for other governments. They’re not extreme on things, not even sided blindly to open-source. Instead, the law ensure freedom from IT lock-in, and that’s all.
So actually if Microsoft can fulfill that requirements, then they’d be free to join in as well.

Shame on Microsoft again.

100,000 homeless families in UK

United Kingdom, 4th richest country in the world, now confirmed to have 100,000 families without a home:
BBC – Homeless families total 100,000

The government is legally obliged to provide housing to its people by a law that has been in effect since 2002. So really, heads should start to roll.

The government tried to side-step the issue by saying things like most of the families are not on the street, that they’re already in shelters / hostels / cheap accommodation.
That’s not the issue as some of you may have spotted already – housing is a basic human need, even more so in places with extreme climates like UK. Therefore it should be considered a right to own a house, not a privilege.

However, as I’ve noted before, the basics of the system are already flawed. I feel so sorry to the people who is in this mess, and wish them the best.

PC World sucks

There are reasons why people are putting PC World in the Hall of Shame along with AOL – and I’m finding it out, painfully, at the moment.

A friend of mine asked for help with his PC. He couldn’t get the drivers for it. It’s an Advent brand PC, which I found out later to be sold by PC World. Unfortunately, he’s lost his drivers CD, so I have to find the drivers online.

After a quick search, it’s clear that PC World wants you to call its Helpline – which is a premium phone number, which will cost you a lot. So I refused the temptation, and insisted on finding the drivers by myself.

pcservicecall.co.uk (on of PC World’s website) listed the manufacturer’s website as http://www.adventcomputers.co.uk/. Too easy ? Yep, the website is down. Nothing like a challenge to start your day.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there.
The graphic card was quite easy, it’s a Radeon X300. But the motherboard and soundcard were the painful ones. And then there’s still one funny thing in device manager that I have no idea what it is.

At the moment I’m still sorting out this bloody thing.
So, again, just say no to PC World. They can make your life miserable (and you paid a lot for it!).

Harga obat

Menyenangkan sekali membaca bahwa Menteri Kesehatan berani mengancam produsen obat untuk menurunkan harga produknya.

Berita tersebut juga menafikan anggapan dari Marius bahwa tekanan tersebut hanya diarahkan kepada pihak apotik (karena Menkes menekan pihak pabrik langsung).
Tetapi satu hal yang cukup penting justru adalah fakta bahwa para dokter kita lebih cenderung memberikan resep non-generik (baca di akhir artikel).

Mengapa demikian ? Satu contoh kasusnya saya sempat lihat langsung sendiri – ada seorang dokter kenalan kami yang sebelumnya hidup biasa-biasa saja. Namun, beberapa tahun kemudian tempat prakteknya sudah berubah menjadi mewah. Hidupnya pun berkecukupan.
Dengan bangga dia memberitahu bahwa ini semua didapat dari komisi yang diberikan oleh pihak produsen obat.

Ternyata, semua resep yang diserahkan ke apotik itu dilacak oleh produsen obat. Kemudian, dokter-dokter yang meresepkan obat mereka akan diberikan komisi secara langsung dalam berbagai bentuk (tidak selalu berupa uang).
Namun, obat-obat yang memberikan komisi itu belum tentu yang paling ekonomis bagi pasien…

Praktek ini kelihatannya perlu diberantas juga, agar para dokter lebih terdorong untuk meresepkan obat-obatan yang tetap manjur, namun tanpa membebani sang pasien.
Let us see…

Firefox -vs- Internet Explorer

What most people doesn’t realise is that we’re talking about the battle to defend / conquer mainstream Internet here.

Imagine if Microsoft managed to dominate both the web browser and web server market. What’s going to happen ? Yes, they can define Internet “standards” all by their own, locking out alternatives and locking in their users in the same time.

Thankfully, Apache singlehandedly managed to avoid the webserver-domination scenario from happening.

Now Firefox has starting to reverse the Microsoft domination on the web-browser front. For our own sake, let’s hope they succeed before the next attempt from Microsoft arrived.

Islamic Republic of Iran

I was busy creating an e-commerce website for my friend when I noticed that on the list of the countries there’s one listed “islamic republic of iran”. I was speechless.

Shia / Shi’ite, especially the 12 Imaams sect (which is the majority), is everything but Islam. Their core beliefs contradicts the core beliefs of Islam. For now I’ll just list a few saying from the great early Muslim scholars that refuted their claim as being a Muslim :


Imaam Abu Hanifah

It was reported that often Abu Haneefah used to repeat the following statement about the Shi`ites, “Whoever doubts whether they are disbelievers has himself committed disbelief.”

Imaam al-Shaafi`e

On one occasion al-Shaafi`i said concerning the Shi`ites, “I have not seen among the heretics a people more famous for falsehood than the Raafidite Shi`ites.” [Ibn Taymeeyah, Minhaaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah, 1/39]

On another occasion he said, “Narrate knowledge from everyone you meet except the Raafidite Shi`ites, because they invent Hadeeths and adopt them as part of their religion.” [Ibid, p. 38]

Imaam Maalik

Once Maalik was asked about them and he replied, “Do not speak to them nor narrate from them, for surely they are liars.” [Minhaaj as-Sunnah, 1/37]

During a class of Imaam Maalik, it was mentioned that the Raafidite Shi`ites curse the Sahaabah. In reply, he quoted the Quranic verse, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and those with him are harsh with the disbelievers and gentle among themselves. So that the disbelievers may become enraged with them.”
He then said, “Whoever becomes enraged when the Sahaabah are mentioned is one about whom the verse speaks.”
[Tafseeer al-Qurtubee, Soorah al-Fath; Editor’s note: That is, anyone who is enraged by the mention of the Sahaabah is a dsibeliever, because the verse says, “…the disbelievers may become enraged with them (Sahaabah).”]

Maalik ibn Anas

Imaam Ibn Hazm quoted a report with an isnad going back to Hishaam ibn ‘Ammaar, who said: “I heard Maalik ibn Anas say: “Whoever curses Abu Bakr should be whipped, and whoever curses ‘Aa’ishah should be killed.” He was asked, “Why do you say that concerning (the one who curses) ‘Aa’ishah?” He said, Because Allah says concerning ‘Aa’ishah, (may Allah be pleased with her): “Allah forbids you from it (slander her) and warns you not to repeat the like of it forever, if you are believers.” (al-Noor 24:17)’”


For more information in English, you can read the book titled Mirage in Iran. (Amazon link)

Gotta run, will discuss in more details (much) later.

keywords: syiah, imam syafi’i, imam malik, malik bin anas, ibnu taimiyyah.

RedHat’s price

Among problems with RedHat is their price. It’s almost the same to its Windows counterparts !
I’ve had a hard time justifying some migrations to open-source because of the cost – my manager will become confused and asked me “what’s the difference with Windows then ?”.

You may ask, why not propose other/non-RedHat distros ? Well, in case you failed to notice, they’re a very recognised brand in corporate environment.

But this may change soon (rejoice!) – especially when it’s a behemoth as huge as Dell that’s complaining about it.
I hope this will finally kick some senses back to their sales department, and make them adjust their prices accordingly.

Asperger Syndrome : my story

People may not realize this, but actually I suffer from a mild case of Asperger syndrome.

People closer to me may have noticed things like :

  • Difficulty in expressing my thoughts verbally : but excellently do so in writing
  • Failures in interpreting body language : example, I kept on almost colluding with people when walking in an aisle because I fail to recognize whether they’ll be walking on left or right side
  • Failure in interpreting facial expressions : example, a lot of people has given up telling me jokes because I have a hard time figuring which ones are real and which ones are the jokes by their facial expressions…. so I ended up staring at them awkwardly when they’re expecting me to laugh like mad.. can’t blame them really 🙂
  • Obsessiveness in certain routines : I’m obsessed on doing things in the most optimized way possible – but sometimes this ended up annoying others, or taking more time to do so.
  • Ability to focus to tasks at hand intensely : I’ve been laughed by my parents because when I read a book I often fail to sense anything else. Now it’s my wife that’s annoyed with me (hi dear! 🙂 ) because whenever I’m working with computer I fail to hear her calls for help.
  • I have to learn most social skills like you learn how to ride a bicycle – it’s not something that happens naturally.
  • etc

As you can see, I fit a kid’s description of “weirdo” quite nicely, and indeed I was bullied heavily when I was a kid. I escaped from the bullies in my later years at school by isolating myself. This was quite hard (to say the least), but thankfully this also led me on discovering computer.
Once I set my eyes on one, I knew that I can use this to make things better.

Most importantly, Islam has help me tremendously in this, by making me to focus on the positive side of things. Also in helping to let go of things that is indeed beyond my ability to reach.
I still have a lot to learn, but I’m in much better condition nowadays.

If you think you have the same problem as me – take heart. You’re not alone.
Indeed you have had, and will continue to have problems – but as Erin Brokovich said: “Press on”. Solve them (if possible), and focus on things that you do best. Never stop trying to make yourself better.
I wish the best for you.

The Wiki Empire

I’ve been very impressed by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with vast amount of good quality contents. So imagine my surprise to find the list of all WikiMedia’s websites here:
Wiki Media Foundation: Our projects

Internet has renewed my belief to the goodness in human race. Grass root movements like these will enable and empower us to be and act as a single, human, race – regardless of nationality, religion, skin color, etc.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t get hijacked before it fully realize its full potential.

The Samurai -vs- The Cowboy

Very interesting…. with Japan holding a lot of US debt in its hand, it may be the samurai that will finally be able to stop the cowboy that is US government :
Japan threatens huge dollar sell-off

Another possible player are the Arab governments – if they’re brave enough to switch to Euro for their oil transaction, USA will be significantly weakened. But they’re a bunch gutless cowards at the moment, so US gov’t got nothing to worry about regarding them.

We’ll see.

mod_security

mod_security is an Apache module which is designed to do things that a conventional firewall couldn’t – block application-level attacks.

While a firewall block attacks at packet level, most of them have port 80 opened to allow access to the webserver behind it. And with conventional firewall getting very good nowadays at doing its job, criminals have started to find that it can be very easy to breach your network using this route instead.

This is where mod_security come to your assistance.

It’s able to do quite a lot. For example, it’s able to filter user requests (based on your own rules), both POST and GET – protecting you from potential SQL injection, XSS, root traversal, and other attacks.
Those are already quite powerful, but there are more. It’s also makes it easy to make Apache runs chroot-ed, invoke virus scanner on uploaded files, limiting admin access based on IP address, detecting instrusions, stopping information leak – even disabling the famous FormMail from sending spam. Your creativity is pretty much the limit with it.

I can’t praise this thing enough. If you haven’t install it, I recommend you do, asap.

Further readings:
# Excellent introduction to mod_security
# chroot-ing Apache with mod_security
# ApacheSecurity.net – the website for Ivan’s (yet to be released) book, but already contains a few security tools which may be of interest to you
# HOWTO: installing mod_security on Debian stable

Peringatan agar jangan pernah merasa sombong / yang terbaik

Hadist Ali r.a katanya:
Aku pernah mendengar Rasulullah s.a.w bersabda: Pada akhir zaman akan muncul kaum yang muda usia dan lemah akalnya. Mereka berkata-kata seolah-olah mereka adalah manusia yang terbaik. Mereka membaca Al-Quran tetapi tidak melepasi kerongkong mereka. Mereka keluar dari agama sebagaimana anak panah menembusi binatang buruan. Apabila kamu bertemu dengan mereka, maka bunuhlah mereka karena sesungguhnya, membunuh mereka ada pahalanya di sisi Allah pada Hari Kiamat
(HR Muslim)


Mudah-mudahan kita tidak terjerumus menjadi orang-orang yang dikecam di hadits di atas tersebut.

Beberapa orang mungkin akan dengan cepat menuding kelompok Salafy dengan dasar hadits ini, tetapi saya lihat ada berbagai kelompok-kelompok lainnya yang juga menunjukkan ciri-ciri yang lebih parah lagi, beberapa di antaranya justru adalah para penentang Salafy tersebut :

  • Didorong agar cepat berdakwah. Sebetulnya ini bagus, namun kemudian yang sering terjadi dan saya saksikan sendiri adalah para da’i tersebut mentafsirkan Quran dan Hadits tanpa dasar yang jelas. Ini sangat riskan dan berbahaya kalau dilakukan dengan ada rasa ujub di hati.
  • Mengklaim bahwa kelompoknya adalah yang paling benar
  • Membaca Al-Quran, berdakwah kepada Islam – namun kelakuannya sendiri terkadang melanggar agama
  • dst

Catatan:
Saya jelas tidak bisa memfatwakan tindakan yang disebut di hadits tsb, karena saya bukan ahli agama. Tapi saya hanya bisa mengingatkan kita semua, terutama saya sendiri, untuk tidak melakukan hal-hal yang tersebutkan diatas itu.