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izz aty

Optimism and the Law of Attraction in Islam | Muslim Mind - 0 views

  • If you have hope in God, if you are certain that He will give you what’s good, then this is what He indeed will give you. But if you don’t, it’s like you’re saying to Him: I don’t trust You. God is the Generous, if you don’t have hope in His bounties, it only means that you don’t even believe He is really Generous. Do you realize how serious this is?
  • If you fear injustice, you forget that He is the Just. If you are confused and you don’t think you’ll find your way, you forget that He is the Guide. Remember that the reason to mention all that is to prove that a Muslim should be positive and focus on the positive; it’s how we Muslims should build our mind and our inner world.
  • Poverty is the promise of Satan, while forgiveness and abundance are God’s promise. Which promise are we to believe!? Remember that poverty is not only lack of money, which is only a manifestation; poverty is first of all a state of mind. Those who live in this state of mind are following and believing Satan instead of God.
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  • One can be poor while having tons of money, whereas those who truly believe in God don’t hesitate to give, even if they are not so rich; it’s because they don’t have this poverty state of mind. That also explains why the Prophet used to give so much that his companions said he used to give in the manner of a person who fears no poverty; this is the example of the Prophet who wasn’t really rich as we know.
  • Let’s also look at some other indications of this Law of Optimism in Islam. The Prophet says “Ask God with firm conviction that He will answer your prayer.” Now imagine the state of mind of a person believing this saying of the Prophet. Imagine that you pray to God and ask Him for good and Halal things, then you go about in life certain that God’s mercy and generosity will give you what you wish. Imagine how much power this will give you, how much enthusiasm and how much hope! It’s true that God will not answer your prayer on the spot, not immediately, but you know He will, and your worries disappear.
  • The verse also links this attitude of asking for the bad to being hasty, notice that pessimism is usually connected to impatience as well; a pessimist loses hope as soon as he is challenged, whereas hope can’t be there without patience, because you don’t really expect the good to happen overnight. Reasonable and hopeful people realize that, so they are not hasty and impatient to have what they want.
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    "Not long ago, a book was published, which had a great success, and it was entitled: "The Secret". It tries to give an answer to the previous questions, and it claims that the secret of happy and successful people lies in what is called, "the Law of Attraction." So what is the Law of Attraction, and do we have it anywhere in the teachings of our religion? I will tell you what the secret and what the Law of Attraction are, then I will explain that the belief in this so-called secret, which was told about by our Prophet and revealed in the Quran in the most simple and expressive ways, is in fact essential for a true Islamic life-style. It is essential for the inner life of a true Muslim and believer."
izz aty

Ronan McCrea - Is migration making Europe more secular? - 0 views

  • political scientist Eric Kaufmann has argued that religious believers have a demographic advantage in birth rates that will see Europe's secularisation reversed by the end of this century
  • Migration is one factor that has helped religion to return to centre stage in public life
  • Secularism in Europe has been in part influenced by the original recognition in Christian theology of separate secular and religious realms
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    "Contrary to popular belief, migration from Muslim countries is one reason why Europe is becoming more secular, not less"
izz aty

hot chocolate and mint: Being Sensible - 0 views

  • There’s nothing wrong with being angry. In fact, there are times when we should be angry; when people lie to us, when someone abuses our rights, when someone forces us to do something that is against our belief, when people disrespect us, and so forth. But being angry is right when released in the right way too. Just like how there’s the right way to talk to people, there is also the right way to express our anger; with grace.
  • when you’re really angry at someone, try to keep it between just the two of you. You don’t have to take people down in front of everyone just because they made you crazily angry for that very minute.
  • People make mistakes, and there are reasons for them. So listen to them first, then judge and evaluate.
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  • The moment you take it public, you are putting someone’s life at risk. Because you never know how one impulsive tweet or announcement can change a person’s life. Have the sense to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Life’s not always about me, me and me
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    One of the easiest things to do in life is to "be angry". Somehow, for some people, being angry seems to be  far much easier than being happy.
izz aty

Someone said that... - 0 views

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    A collection of memorable quotes to think about and/or live by.
izz aty

Archives | The Star Online. - 0 views

  • It does not matter if you are top of your class or have a string of degrees, that dream job will not be yours unless you can speak and write well in English.
  • 68% of the companies surveyed named communication skills as the top quality required in job applicants, followed by working experience (67%), interpersonal skills (56.2%) and passion and commitment (55.7%).
  • The MEF Salary Survey for Executives 2010
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  • MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said globalisation had changed the nature of jobs, making communication skills, specifically in English, a valuable asset for today's worker.
  • He added that this was an essential criterion even for professions traditionally seen as “backroom” staff such as engineers, technical personnel and scientists. “It is especially so for those working in multinationals and bigger firms,” he said. “Today, our clients are worldwide. In factories, for instance, engineers are a different breed from the past,” said Shamsuddin. “Now, they have to be involved in various aspects of business and interact with clients.”
  • Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers President Tan Sri Mustafa Mansur said the young ones who could not communicate in English were unable to negotiate the best deals in business transactions or investments. “We need to send people out to market our products, negotiate deals or get contracts signed. If they cannot communicate well in English, we will lose out,” he said.
  • Shamsuddin expressed concern that many local graduates today could not speak or write proper English, saying this was a reason why they faced difficulties getting jobs in the private sector.
  • Norman said it was important to master English as it was widely used among the business community, both in Malaysia and internationally.
  • Various industry and business leaders also warned that the decline in English was affecting Malaysia's global competitiveness.
  • Kelly Services (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Melissa Norman concurred, noting that six in 10 graduates who attended its interviews could not communicate effectively in English.
  • Pemudah co-chair Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, it was important for civil servants to have a good command of English due to a growing borderless world. “The standard of English also affects the quality of the public sector as civil servants have to interact with international citizens and the business world as well as articulate Malaysia's stand on issues to the international community. These include negotiations on important agreements such as trade agreements.”
  • Noting that the quality of English in the country had declined over the last two decades, former Human Resource Minister Tan Sri Fong Chan Onn warned that the country would lose out to its neighbours that did not teach English in schools previously. “Thailand, Indonesia and China are making efforts to improve their English through their education system,” he noted.
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    "Feedback from local and international employers shows that verbal and written communication skills in English remain the most sought-after attribute in prospective employees. According to a recent Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) survey, it is the most important trait employers look for when recruiting graduates."
izz aty

Romanticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850
  • Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution,[1] it was also a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature
  • embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography,[3] education[4] and the natural sciences.[5]
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  • effect on politics was considerable and complex; while for much of the peak Romantic period it was associated with liberalism and radicalism, its long-term effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant
  • The movement validated intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities: both new aesthetic categories
  • r, and the distant in modes more authentic than Rococo chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape
  • made spontaneity a desirable characteristic
  • argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities, as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usag
  • Romanticism embraced the exotic, the unfamiliar, and the distant in modes more authentic than Rococo chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape
  • elevated folk art and ancient custom to a noble status
  • the events of and ideologies that led to the French Revolution planted the seeds from which both Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment sprouted
  • in the second half of the 19th century, "Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism
  • Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of 'heroic' individualists and artists, whose pioneering examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society
  • In order to truly express these feelings, the content of the art must come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of
  • The importance the Romantics placed on untrammelled feeling is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that "the artist's feeling is his law"
  • vouched for the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art
  • the influence of models from other works would impede the creator's own imagination, so originality was absolutely essential
  • The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of "creation from nothingness", is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin
  • romantic originality.
  • a strong belief and interest in the importance of nature. However this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone
  • In contrast to the usually very social art of the Enlightenment, Romantics were distrustful of the human world, and tended to believe that a close connection with nature was mentally and morally healthy
  • in literature, "much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves"
  • by the middle of the 18th century "romantic" in English and romantique in French were both in common use as adjectives of praise for natural phenomena such as views and sunsets, in a sense close to modern English usage but without the implied sexual element
  • only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, and in 1824 the Académie française took the wholly ineffective step of issuing a decree condemning it in literature
  • Romanticism is not easily defined, and the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought
  • Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place "roughly between 1770 and 1848"
  • In other fields and other countries the period denominated as Romantic can be considerably different; musical Romanticism, for example, is generally regarded as only having ceased as a major artistic force as late as 1910, but in an extreme extension the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss are described stylistically as "Late Romantic" and were composed in 1946–48.[23] However in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlie
  • early period of the Romantic Era was a time of war, with the French Revolution (1789–1799) followed by the Napoleonic Wars until 1815. These wars, along with the political and social turmoil that went along with them, served as the background for Romanticism
  • t was part of the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment, is generally accepted
  • ts relationship to the French Revolution which began in 1789 in the very early stages of the period, is clearly important, but highly variable depending on geography and individual reactions
  • ost Romantics can be said to be broadly progressive in their views, but a considerable number always had, or developed, a wide range of conservative views
  • In philosophy and the history of ideas, Romanticism was seen by Isaiah Berlin as disrupting for over a century the classic Western traditions of rationality and the very idea of moral absolutes and agreed values, leading "to something like the melting away of the very notion of objective truth",[27] and hence not only to nationalism, but also fascism and totalitarianism
  • The painter, the poet, the composer do not hold up a mirror to nature, however ideal, but invent; they do not imitate (the doctrine of mimesis), but create not merely the means but the goals that they pursue; these goals represent the self-expression of the artist's own unique, inner vision, to set aside which in response to the demands of some "external" voice — church, state, public opinion, family friends, arbiters of taste — is an act of betrayal of what alone justifies their existence for those who are in any sense creative
  • An earlier definition comes from Charles Baudelaire: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling."
  • The end of the Romantic era is marked in some areas by a new style of Realism, which affected literature, especially the novel and drama, painting, and even music, through Verismo opera
  • movement was led by France, with Balzac and Flaubert in literature and Courbet in painting; Stendhal and Goya were important precursors of Realism in their respective media
  • In literature, Romanticism found recurrent themes in the evocation or criticism of the past, the cult of "sensibility" with its emphasis on women and children, the heroic isolation of the artist or narrator, and respect for a new, wilder, untrammeled and "pure" nature
  • Joseph maintained that invention and imagination were the chief qualities of a poet
  • 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther had young men throughout Europe emulating its protagonist, a young artist with a very sensitive and passionate temperament
  • Germany was a multitude of small separate states, and Goethe's works would have a seminal influence in developing a unifying sense of nationalism
  • Important motifs in German Romanticism are travelling, nature, and Germanic myths
  • The later German Romanticism of, for example, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann (The Sandman), 1817, and Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff's Das Marmorbild (The Marble Statue), 1819, was darker in its motifs and has gothic elements
  • The significance to Romanticism of childhood innocence, the importance of imagination, and racial theories all combined to give an unprecedented importance to folk literature, non-classical mythology and children's literature, above all in Germany
  • The first collection of Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm was published in 1812
  • Unlike the much later work of Hans Christian Andersen, who was publishing his invented tales in Danish from 1835, these German works were at least mainly based on collected folk tales, and the Grimms remained true to the style of the telling in their early editions, though later rewriting some parts
izz aty

England's Ranking in International League Tables | National Union of Teachers - NUT - 0 views

  • The Sutton Trust report said that big variations in England’s education rankings in global league tables can be misleading, should be treated with caution and can obscure the true challenges facing schools.
  • apparent differences in performance between different global tables, are the result of three key factors: Different countries are included in the different tables; League tables exaggerate the importance of raw test scores; and Some countries do better on one survey than another, perhaps because the surveys test different aspects of literacy, numeracy and science.
  • Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, said:“Whatever the average ranking of English education, we need to focus on reducing social segregation which is greater in England than almost all other OECD countries
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  • We also need to improve teaching standards across the board and not focus so much on structures if we are to match those countries that consistently outperform the rest of the world – not just places like Hong Kong and Japan, but successful European education systems – and use their achievement as our benchmark
  • School systems that offer parents more school choices are less effective in raising the performance of all children
  • UK state schools outperform private schools;
  • Financial constraints limits school ‘choice’ for low income families
  • PISA 2009 had some interesting things to say on schools systems, choice and equity, finding, for example that: Comprehensive school systems produce better and more equitable results;
  • Exclusions and school transfer of pupils reduces performance.
  • Pisa is unequivocal in saying that: “The bottom line is that the quality of a school system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”
  • The top ranked countries were Finland and South Korea where, despite huge differences, there was a shared social belief in the importance of education and its “underlying moral purpose”. These countries also had among the lowest levels of school choice and Finland had the lowest levels of school autonomy.
  • The Pearson report concluded that spending on education was important but less so than other factors. For example it said successful countries gave teachers a high status and have a ‘culture’ of education.
  • also emphasised the importance of high-quality teachers and the need to find ways to recruit the best staff – including raising teacher status, professional respect and pay.
  • OECD, PISA 2009 Results: What Makes a School Successful? – Resources, Policies and Practices (Volume IV) (OECD Publishing, 2010)
izz aty

Hype that's not my type | EFL Classroom 2.0 - Teacher Talk - 0 views

  • I read a lot about the “new paradigm” that is occuring in education. There is a lot for us teachers and particularly those in leadership positions to think about. I really do hear some things repeated over and over again – that I just won’t buy into. I don’t believe the hype. These ideas seem so obvious and so clear that to me, they must be a lie. Reality is crooked and operates on her own principles – not the nice, clean kitchen cupboards we like to stack away our beliefs in. So in brief and to maybe get others thinking a little “outside the box” – here are 3 things that are being hyped in the educational world that I disagree with completely. (and a joke for each that I hope will support my argument or if not, at least give you a chuckle)
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