18 Jun 2011 - Paris, France (1 day 1 night)

1 day 1 night in Paris,
believe it or not?












P/S: It was a rush trip. Business trip cum super speed sightseeing. No time for reading/get-to-know the places before flying. You know what, I simply stopped by and enjoy, sometimes (or most of the time) without knowing what-the-hell I'm staring at / visiting to! So, this post is a way for me put pieces together.

Friday, 17 Jun 2011, 6PM. Rushed out from Quintiq office, took taxi to train station and boarded train to Amstel to catch 10PM Eurolines bus to Paris!

Gallienie, Paris

Saturday, 18 Jun 2011, 6AM. Reached the bus stop at Gallienie. From there, we took metro to Trocadero, then walk to Eiffel Tower. Thanks for the tips I found on the net. The scenic walk was wonderful.



Tips: Take line 3 to République (6 stops away) and then line 9 in the direction of Pont de Sèvres as far as Trocadéro. The total trip time on the métro is 35 minutes.
At République, look for the sign that says "correspondance" and follow signs pointing you to métro 9 and make sure you take it in the right direction.

We met a Taiwanese guy, James, who traveled alone from Denmark on business trip just like us. He joined us visiting a few places there before we parted for hotel check-in.

P/S: The bus was really mediocre. The seat is small, not as nice and big as the bus I used to take back and forth KL-Spore. Can't really sleep well.

Eiffel Tower (aka Iron Lady)

"A puddle iron lattice tower, built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution."

That morning, we were the first group to arrived Eiffel Tower. Can't miss the golden chance. Waited for 2 hours, cold cold cold. The wind seemed to blow stronger under the tower! Gosh... Finally, we made it through as the first batch to the second level by lift for the day! Hurray!!!

Once I stepped my foot on the second level of the tower and looked around the marvelous view, then only I understand why it's called "City of Light". I'm sure the view would be fantastic at night! We planned to come here again to watch sunset :-)



Flea market in Paris

Walking away from the tower, we stopped by at an open air flea market. I guess it's this one: Saxe-Breteuil Market. Bought french-middle-east kebab for lunch. And enjoying nice sweet fresh cherries :-)



Arc de triomphe de L’Etoile

"The Arc de Triomphe (in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I."



Walked. Stopped at Arc de Triomphe. Raining. Heavy rain. Gloomy day. I looked up on the sky and mesmerized with the clouds moving so fast blown by the wind. It reminded me of what Yosia, my colleague, told me the other day, the clouds in Paris is very light! Hahahhaa....true indeed. Smiled. Then, started walking to Avenue des Champs Elysees once the rain stopped.

Avenue des Champs Elysees



This street definitely for the famous and glams. Not me. Branded handbags, shoes, apparels and you-name-it. Shop till you drop. I bought n o t h i n g.

Place du Pantheon (Paris Law Faculty)

"One of the four faculties of the old University of Paris."

I managed to grab Paris t-shirts from nearby souvenir store for my family members :-)

Cathedrale Notre Dame (aka Lady of Paris)

"Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic, Catholic cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris. It is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe, and the naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture."

Quick stop here.

Musee du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

"One of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is in there!"

One of my favorite stop. Love the water pool surrounding the glass pyramid. Simply awesome. Didn't manage to enter the museum, closed, late afternoon. But, managed to enter the glass pyramid and wandering around at the lounge.



Place de la Concorde



"Place de la Concorde, is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. In fact, in terms of area, its 8.64 hectares (21.35 acres) make it the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées."

Luxor Obelisk

"Luxor Obelisk is a 23 metres (75 ft) high Egyptian obelisk standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. It was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple, in Egypt."

Luxembourg Garden

"Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris (224,500 m² (22.5 hectares) located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. The park is the garden of the French Senate, which is itself housed in the Luxembourg Palace."

On the way walking back to Eiffel Tower for sunset, we stopped by at a huge, super nice garden, the Luxembourg Garden. I simply enjoyed sitting by the water pool watching ducks paddling around. And of course, a break for my painful foot!

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Papa, what is my name?

Congrates to Pak Lah & Intan for their cute newly born baby boy! He's automatically the KL Gamblerz junior member!


Baby: Papa, what's my name? Say my name, say my name. If no one is around you, say "baby I love you".
Uncle Erik: Hey baby, it's okay. If papa doesn't give u name, I will give u one :-) 'Ahmad Aaron Ahmad Abdullah'.


Baby with his Tummy Time Gym!

Baby: Thank you, Uncle Erik & Aunty Wanie. You guys are very advanced. I've got to work-out hard and I'll show you my 6-pax real soon!

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Deen Tight: Bridging faith, music & tradition

Islamic music has long been rigidly related to just nasyeed, an Islamic vocal music that is either sung a capella or accompanied by percussion instruments such as the daff. In general, true Islamic nasyeed does not contains lamellaphone instruments, string instruments or wind and brass instruments as Muslim scholars interpret Islam as prohibiting the use of musical instruments except for some basic percussion.



Nowadays, a new refreshing Islamic music has became phenomenal through the evolution of songs with Islamic values lyrics in variety of genre such as R&B, Soul, pop, hip-hop, rock, metal and you-name-it. Just look at the popularity of Maher Zain(Sweedish singer, musician, songwriter, composer), Yusuf Islam (Cat Steven), Sami Yusuf (Iranian musician, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter), Opick (Indonesian singer, song writer) etc.

7 Sept 2011, Wed. 8 - 11pm. KDU College, Damansara Jaya.

Out of curiosity, I attended a documentary filmmaking workshop and a screening of a film by Mustafa Davis, an award winning American Muslim filmmaker: Deen Tight - Bridging Faith, Music and Tradition.



Sitting in the lecture hall reminds me of the memorable experiences during my university years. It feels good. Smiled. The event started with the screening of the film followed by Q&A with Mustafa Davis on topics related to film making and production.

www.deentight.com
Music, considered taboo practice by many traditional Muslims, has also become one of the most prominent methods for Muslims to share their faith internationally through Muslim Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a global phenomenon reaching from the skyscraper laden skies of New York all the way to the deep deserts of Arabia and beyond. It is a subculture that transcends boundaries of language, gender, and religion. Deen Tight brings to the screen the untold story of Western Muslims struggling to find a balance between their culture and their religion.

Filmed on location with Muslim rappers, DJs, slam poets, breakdancers and a graffiti artist in concerts, recording studios, at homes and in the streets. The story focuses on the perceived conflict between traditional religious ideals and modernity, as well as both the positives and negatives of Western Pop culture on todays’ Muslim youth.

Synopsis:
We follow a group of Muslim Hip Hop artists living in the United States and United Kingdom. They discuss intimately with us the challenges they face trying to balance their faith, culture, and the pressures of daily Western life.

The film provides an intimate look into the lives of a group we know very little about and how they deal with the many issues surrounding their culture and religion. Mutah Beale (formerly Napoleon of Tupac Shakur’s Outlawz) is adamant about leaving music and the Hip Hop scene as an act of obedience to God. Rapper Tyson Amir Mustafa and HBO Def Poet Amir Sulaiman see nothing wrong with using music as a form of cultural expression and DJ BelikeMuhammad even claims to use Hip Hop as a means of proselytizing his faith.

We show both sides of this conflict, through intimate and emotional scenes where the artists candidly express what motivates them to feel the way they do.

This is the tale of one of the most influential pop culture movements of our time and its relationship to Islam, one of the worlds fastest growing religions.




Struggles in bridging faith, music & tradition

The film screens different perspectives from both side: the protagonist and antagonist. Antagonist may present through phobia, interest, insecurity and community. Mustafa Davis explained that the film doesn't showcase opinion from any Muslim scholars because what they said will suppress the voices of others. Fair enough.

Here, I tried to discuss and reflect what I learned from the screening. This is merely my own personal opinion and it's in no way meant to undermine anyone. Wallahualam (Only Allah knows).

Dakwah in the new millennium

Rap, hip hop and graffiti are the language of today's youth. It's part of American lifestyle, culture and tradition. That's how the youth express their feelings, emotions and telling stories from heart to heart. They convey positive message through hip hop and rap to uplift other people and bring joy to them. To me, even when they speak a normal conversation, they sound rapping :-)



Actually, I prefer R&B and soul songs like Maher Zain's because it sounds tender, delicate and touching to the heart. Listening to the rap by Kumasi in the film make me understand how rap can also be as tender and touching as the R&B and soul. Rapping by Kumasi at the end of the film is my favorite. The wordings on submission to Allah flows through the way Kumasi rapping is just marvelous. The script was composed by Mustafa Davis himself.

Graffiti art work by Mohammed Ali has taken across the globe with his fusion of street-art and Islamic script. He describes his work as, 'taking the best of both worlds' and bridging back to the forefront principles that are gradually fading away from our modern societies. Music and arts are powerful tool to transform today's multi-cultural societies. However, vandalism is where the problem may come when youths start expressing their feelings and art work mischievously. The youths spray out bad words all over the place illegally and create unpleasant view. During my train trip from Amsterdam to Den Bosch, I could vividly see graffiti sprayed all over the place. It makes me feel a bit insecure.

Mission impossible

As a form of dakwah, some of them even take an extra steps by performing rap and hip hop at disco and clubs. They feel that they need to reach out to the people who needs the message of Allah the most - the pimps, party goers, alcoholics and the gangs. It's a risky mission though. Come to think about it, these kind of people won't go to the mosque or religious events. So, the only way the message of Allah can reach them is that we have to go to them. It reminds me of the tazkirah I recently listened to at the mosque in the month of Ramadhan. The delivery was quite stern just like how politician shouts out promises in the election campaign. I can imagine how they would respond if they listen to that. I myself prefer a gentle delivery.

I guess rap and hip hop are youthful refreshing approach. Nevertheless, some may start with the pour intention of dakwah but turn into being overzealous and then lose focus along the way. So, we've got to always reflect, remind ourselves as to who we are and what's our mission is.

Music is in their blood

Some claim that music is part of their blood. Their parents, grandparents and great great grandparents are doing this. Here, we shall treat this very carefully and learn lessons from the story of Prophet Ibrahim where he reasoning with his father and his people about their belief and practice.

Surah (Chapter) Ash -Shu’ara” (The Poets), The Quran 26:69-82

And recite to them the story of Ibrahim (Abraham)[69]
When he said to his father and his people: “What do you worship?” [70]
They said” We worship idols, and to them we are ever devoted.” [71]
He said: “Do they hear you, when you call on (them)?” [72]
“Or do they benefit you or do they harm (you)?” [73]
They said: “(Nay) but we found our fathers doing so.” [74]
He said: “Do you observe that which you have been worshipping - [75]
“You and your ancient fathers? [76]
Verily they are enemies to me, save the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinn and all that exists), [77]
“Who has created me, and it is He Who guides me. [78]
“And it is He Who feeds me and gives me to drink. [79]
“And when I am ill, it is He who cures me. [80]
“And Who will cause me to die, and then will bring me to life (again). [81]
“And Who, I hope, will forgive me my faults on the Day of Recompense, (the Day of Resurrection). [82]



Please don't get me wrong here. I'm not equating the music to worshiping other than Allah. My point here is on the gist of the story. Tradition may be good and bad. Take one example, bullfighting, it's a tradition in Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Latin American countries in which bulls are baited in the bullring for sports and entertainment. Oh yeah..it's a bloody sport, but then they regard it as a fine art. Each year, approximately 250,000 bulls died in bullfights [peta]. The point here is that we shall not merely follow the tradition without reasoning. Perhaps, we could transform the bad into good. Wallahualam (Only Allah knows).

Stay within boundaries

Contradicting opinions on faith, music and tradition may be there. I shall not make any conclusion on this matter as I'm not in the position to do so. I could understand the challenges these people face in bridging them together. It can bring benefits in some ways and can also cause harm in some other ways.

Perhaps, we could have done much better by unleashing the full potential of our mind with the guidance of Al-Quran and As-Sunnah to explore, learn, reason and understand while staying within the boundaries to the best of our ability. Wallahualam.

Other stuff:

Achievement vs brain drain based on the talk by Shaykh Afifi Al Akiti on the topic "Pursuing the path of knowledge"

Traditional Islam in America based on the talk by Imam Finch

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