e-Card

It is the end of Ramadhan and Eid ul Fitr, or the first of the month of Syawal is coming. Few days before this the mailbox used to be brimming with cards wishing every happiness for the joyous occassion. It is different this time around however. Perhaps e-cards and short messaging system truly have taken over the role of printed cards; or perhaps all those before were actually for the seat of the receiver ;-)

The Basis of Optimization

(It is true that developing something is easier than maintaining it. The long lull of this blog is a living proof of that saying. Anyway, Nakamora is back to tend his plot in the blogspace.)
The first agenda of that meeting in the morning part of the first Friday of every month, without fail, is the tazkirah. Tazkirah is a short talk to advise and remind each other of our role in life and the way we should go about it based on Islamic teachings. It was Nakamora's turn this month, and he decided to put extracts of it in this blog as in the subsequent paragraphs.
Today is the 14th of Ramadhan, the month having the most fadhilah among all of the months in a year. Let us take advantage of it and maximize the benefits, for we do not know if we would meet the next one. Let us pray that we would.
We are reminded of the words of wisdom of Imam Al-Ghazali that the farthest distance is the past, for it won't come back; the closest to us is death; the biggest is nafs; the heavisest to carry is trust; the easiest to miss is prayer; and the sharpest object is the tounge.
My tazkirah is about life in general. Looking at life somewhat philosophically, we can say that what everyone does in life is optimization.
We optimize our time so that we have some for other pursuits.
We optimize our spending so that we have disposable income for other discretionary spending.
In short in everything we do we optimize against some objective or cost functions.
What is different between individuals is the basis of the cost function - the world here or the Hereafter.
We are also reminded of the 80-20 rule - that 80% of problems are caused by 20% of all causes, that 80% of profits comes from 20% of the operations; that 80% of impact is the result of 20% of activities; etc.
We seem to adopt the same 'inverse' rule. 80% or more of what we do is for the world here. The world here, in terms of duration is incomparable to the Hereafter, let alone 20%. This is because the basis of our objective function is the world now.
Let us therefore apportion our activities appropriately to reflect the actual ratio of that durations. In fact we ought to continuously ask ourselves: with respect to the Herefatre, is the thing I do now, the best thing to do for the moment; is the place where I am now the best place to be;is what we spent on the best value for money, etc.
Before leaving for a long journey, we make preparations. The level of the preparations is commensurate with the duration and distance of the journey. Going to Europe, Amercicas, or Africa require more preparation than going to countries in this region, that are all within about 6 hours of flight time.
Prepartions to go to places we are unfamiliar with is even more elaborate. We learn a word or two of the language of the place, and we change our currency.
The Hereafter is so unfamiliar. We have not been there, and those who went there never come back. But we are told about it the al-Qur'an. Therefore, the preparations to go there should be the whole lifetime. The currency is not what we have now, but what we do with what we have - our good deeds. All will be accounted for, no matter how small. From al-Qur'an
[99:7] "Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it."
[99:8] "And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it."