PhD : Permanent Head Damage, PhD journey, scholarly journey

What is knowledge worker? - Definition from Whatis.com

2011-10-20T10:38:00.000+08:00

What is knowledge worker? - Definition from Whatis.com

are you a knowledge worker?

Tools for everyone

2008-03-06T10:29:00.002+08:00

Today is another day.
At 2pm - I'm meeting Prof. B for supervisory.
I had been sleeping late for the last 1 week.. 3-4 in the morning.

Feeling dizzy now.
he he..

he he heee...

he hee..

heee...

Knowledge Management, anyone?

2007-04-07T13:18:00.000+08:00

Knowledge Sharing

2007-02-25T20:35:00.000+08:00

I have the strongest feeling that the first person to promote knowledge sharing is Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). I have no other evidence, though, except for his tradition saying: "Ballighu anni walau aayah."

I will dig into this. Meanwhile, whoever has information on this, please share with me.
Thank you. :)

Definition:

knowl•edge
Pronunciation: (nol'ij),

—n.
1. acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition: knowledge of many things.
2. familiarity or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch of learning: A knowledge of accounting was necessary for the job.
3. acquaintance or familiarity gained by sight, experience, or report: a knowledge of human nature.
4. the fact or state of knowing; the perception of fact or truth; clear and certain mental apprehension.
5. awareness, as of a fact or circumstance: He had knowledge of her good fortune.
6. something that is or may be known; information: He sought knowledge of her activities.
7. the body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time.
8. the sum of what is known: Knowledge of the true situation is limited.
9. Archaic.sexual intercourse. Cf. carnal knowledge.
10. to one's knowledge, according to the information available to one: To my knowledge he hasn't been here before.

share
Pronunciation: (shâr),

—n., v., shared, shar•ing.
—n.
1. the full or proper portion or part allotted or belonging to or contributed or owed by an individual or group.
2. one of the equal fractional parts into which the capital stock of a joint-stock company or a corporation is divided.
3. on or upon shares, on the principle of sharing the profits or losses of an undertaking: They agreed to work on shares.

—v.t.
1. to divide and distribute in shares; apportion.
2. to use, participate in, enjoy, receive, etc., jointly: The two chemists shared the Nobel prize.

—v.i.
1. to have a share or part; take part (often fol. by in).
2. to divide, apportion, or receive equally.

source: Infoplease Dictionary

Those who know

2007-02-11T20:55:00.000+08:00

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) once said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge... "

Allah said in sura az-Zumar verse 39, which means:
"Say: "Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know?"

For me, it is clearly understood that of course it is not equal. Even for being imagineers! (a term borrowed from Disney's) If Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge, then I believe he didn't noticed that to have imagination, a person has to first have knowledge. Without knowledge, he wouldn't be able to imagine things.

Let's say, a young boy imagining of getting a new toy. What kind of toy that he wants? Hmm, it must be something that he has seen, or heard. If it is not seen or heard in whole, it could be partially seen or heard. Meaning, either way, he has a little bit of knowledge of what he wanted.. and he is imagining his father giving it to him.

Engineers, doctors, researchers.. anyone who does 'invent' or 'do' new things that came from their imagination, there must be a speck of information that they have got from anyone or anywhere. Some other people might get the same information, but did nothing. And here they are inventing new things and finding new solutions. Where did they started? From mere imagination? Of course not, it's from the information turn knowledge!

So, put let's not stop learning. I know you're already on that path. But be careful, as Jabir Ibn ‘Abd Allah narrated, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:“Do not acquire knowledge in order to vie with scholars, and to wrangle with the foolish, and to sit in the best seats: whoever does that his abode will be the Fire, the Fire.”(Ibn Hibban, Sahih)

Educational Visits:

Albert Einstein

Reference Desk

In them there are signs for those who reflect

2007-02-04T10:54:00.000+08:00

The Muslim scholars from as early as the Abbasid Caliphate, that was around the mid of eight century A.C., had really struggled to get the gist of knowledge merely for the purpose of knowing. No special recognition was given to them back then in terms of rankings or wealth. Well, there were salary, but not as comparable as today's.

So, almost every original and creative work was done by the Muslims, be them the Arabs or the Persians. Where translated works were involved, they were originally from the Syriac language. They were, though, used in the process of gaining comprehension and later to be corrected. You see, Muslim scientist used the methods taught in the Qur'an in order to seek the understanding.
The deductive method (AlQur'an, 39:62), the inductive method (AlQur'an, 3:26) and the analogical method of reasoning (AlQur'an, 35:9) has been discovered by the scholars back then.

In AlQur'an, the verses like "Why do they not ponder?" or "In them there are signs for those who reflect," recurrently occur. So for the Muslim scholars, utilising their senses for observation and mind for reflection was a must. Maybe, they feared that if they didn't, they would be compared to the cattles or would be described even more astray than them! This is a psychological teaching came direct from the Almighty.

In sura al-A'raf, verse 79, Allah had clearly mentioned: "Many are the Jinns and men We have made for Hell: they have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle, nay more misguided: for they are heedless (of warning)."

Unlike the Muslim scholars, other ancient scholars depended on mere speculation. They scorned the empiricism in the preserverance of observation. The result? Aristotle had 'succeeded' in writing physics without doing a single experiment! And Galen, who was thought as the greatest classical authority in anatomy, told the public that the lower jaw consists of two bones. None dared to challenge him until Abd al-Latif went into the trouble of examining human skull.

Thus, according to the history, many learned Muslim scholars and translators who knew the Syriac language, translated them into Arabic (and corrected them). Later, people from other mother tounges translated the Arabic works, both the original works and translation, into other languages such as Hebrew, Latin and Spanish.

In these process of translations, especially from the latter languages into plain English, many names and terms were translated or altered as well. This led into us believing that the works were done by non Muslims Europeans. Some of the nomenclatures and names changed are:

al-Jabr = algebra
sifr (zero) = cypher
al-qali = alkaline
askariyyah = escarde (French)= squadron (section of armed forces)
Baitarah (al-Baitar, the founder of medical treatment of animals) = veterinary
Kitab al-Qanun by Ibn Sina = Canon by Avicenna (translated into Hebrew in 1270)
Kitab al-Manazir by Al-Haitham = Opticae Thesaurus Alhazeni (Latin)
Abu'l Qasim al-Zahrawi = Albucasis (eminent surgeon)
Muhammad Ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan al-Battani = Albetinius
Abu Ali Ibn Sina = Avicenna
Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi = Rhazes
Ibn Rushd = Averroes
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi = Alkindus
Abu 'Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn al-Haitham = Alhazen (founder of camera)
'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Uthman Ibn 'Ali al-Qabisi = Alcabitius
'Abd al-Malik Ibn Abi'l-'Ala Zuhr = Avenzoar

It's good to know that science and the basic of technology started with the observation and reflection based on what Allah has ascribe us to do. And it shouldn't stop at their era. We shouldn't just gloat and not pursuing what has been left.

References:

Saud, Muhammad (1986) Islam and Evolution of Science. Pakistan:Islamic Research Institute.

Educational Visits:

Who taught men by the pen..

2007-02-03T01:56:00.000+08:00

Back in those days, knowledge was passed around through oral transmission. It descended from a grandfather to a grandchild, from a father to a son. Even from a teacher to his disciples. After Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) departed from this world to another, people started to compile what were learnt during his days. No papers back then, only using papyrus and on bones, or leaves did they wrote down whatever their memory recalled.

The effort however, didn't go on for commercial aim. They really studied very hard for the love of knowledge. They burned their oils thru' the nite' and wrote down whatever has been taught during the day. Merely for the purpose of private use.

The practise then got even bizarre. They opted to destroy whatever have been written after some time, or at least before they passed away. "Abu 'Amr and Daud al-Ta 'i burned their books. Taj al-Amma flung his into the sea. Yusuf ibnu Ashat hid his books in a cavern in the mountains (the entrance to which he blocked). Sulaiman-al-Darani put his into an earthern oven and baked them, Sufyan tore up tremendous number of pages and tossed them to the wind..."1

Bro. Nizam said that maybe they did that all in the sense of piousness, aftraid that whatever they had written down could led others astray or some kind. There's a hadith that I forget.. saying that the Prophet was telling the companions, whoever writes what is not from me, it is a bid'ah. Or something like that. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So, maybe, they were afraid that could occur too. Then in another way, the Prophet had asked us to "ballighu 'anni walau aayah", i.e. to let others know the teachings of the Prophet even what we can convey is only 1 sentence.

The practise went on until middle of fifth century when al-Mawardi, a learned doctor of Baghdad asked his colleague to perceive him on the point of his death, to take his hands. If al-Mawardi presses his colleague's hand, then it was the sign to destroy his works. But if he opens his hands and let it open, then it was a sign that it's ok to publish the work. Well, the latter happened.

The traditional Arab practise that is to transmit knowledge through oral has been trying to be fixed by the scholars bcak then. After all, it is Allah who taught men by the pen.2

1. Mackensen, R.S. (1936) Arabic Books and Libraries in the Umaiyad Period. The American Journal of Semitic Language, 52. pp. 250.
2. Al-Qur'an. Al-Alaq:4.

Educational Visit:
1. al Mawardi
2. Arabic Writing

Iqra'!

2007-01-29T16:07:00.000+08:00

Today in Bro. Nizam's class, one of his statement has fallen on my head like a big hard rock, waking me up from my fantasy.

Lately, I have been thinking about this current ummah being distorted from the real cause of life. Years ago, while visiting a Muslim scholars exhibition at the National Science Center, it struck me like lightning to know that all of them (well, maybe 99.9%) were hafiz from the very beginning. Meaning, they were huffaz long before they embark on their course of academia. They understood the holy Qur'anic verses as if they were their own ideas. They established perceptions that were so-o-o real, that they succeeded in realizing them!

I then wonder how they could be so obsessed with religion and fully being intelectual at the same time. For what I've seen today, most scholars are either one. Today, Allah showed me why.

Bro. Nizam said that during back then, there were only 3 sources of entertainment: your wife, your slave girl and books! Masya Allah.

So, I thought.. that's why they're not distorted! Unlike us today, we have so many forms of entertainment that we forget our main cause. Many of us today prefer lining up for movie tickets rather than lining up to register a course. Some of us see highly of the art performers but not the academic writers. We get headaches easily when we try to read a line or two from a 'text book' but happily finishing a romance novel and hoping to get hand on another.. by the same author. And yet, we still have the nerve to complaint about the moral declining among the youth or the corruption by the authorities!

Now and then, we always complaint about having not enough time. Especially to do some academic or scholarly work. Well, now you have it! We know where all the time has gone. To the entertainment! It doesn't really matter what type of fun it goes into, it didn't end reading scientific report or scholarly journals.

I call upon myself (who is an ardent movie watcher!) to take a break, and start reading (academically)! And not just that.. start writing serious writings too, Iza! And hey, you too out there.. maybe we can do something positive about our passion to books and writings.

Educational Visits:

Publish or Perish!

2007-01-27T02:43:00.000+08:00

Today I decided to start this new blog in honour of my lecturers. I guess I will post their teachings here. So, be prepared.. it may be a 18PL site for some.. or well.. just a U rated one.
Wish me luck!

oh, by the way.. this site will be in both English and BM. Maybe a little bit Mandarin.. eheh.. or Arabic. Or whatever the language I wish to use. After all, it's me who'll note it down, right? Hehe.. No offence, it's like my first blog, it will be a good therapy for me, at least.

Ok, c u tomorrow then. Salam.