Nukilan pendek tentang Logo IGK

Di sepanjang kehidupan TSD di KISAS, pelbagai pengalaman pahit dan manis, suka dan duka berlaku, apa yang dikesalkan mohon diampuni Allah, apa yang menggembirakan pula semoga di redhai Allah.

Namun apa yang paling dihargai sepanjang tempuh yang terasa pendek adalah ukhuwah yang terjalin. Rasa kebersamaan itu masih wujud dan kasih sayang sesama saudara itu jelas kuat. Syukur pada Allah kami diberi peluang bersama memeluk aqidah yang sama.

Setelah selesai pengajian di KISAS, TSD merasakan kehilangan semua lingkungan kawan tersebut, tidak dapat memeberitahu rasa, tak dapat mendengar berita, lalu atas inisiatif sendiri dan rakan-rakan maka sebuah blog diusahakan. Kini blog tersebut sudah pun hampir berusia 3 tahun, manakala IGK sendiri sudah pun berusia hampir 5 tahun.

Walaupun hanya sebagai penulis komet (kadang-kadang je kalau ada rezeki maka akan menulis :P) tapi kerana hasrat hati untuk menyatukan itu lebih kuat, maka ditubuhkan juga blog berkenaan. Maka bermulalah perjalanannya memberi hebahan dan perkongsian.

Logo IGK diusahakan oleh TSD sendiri, idea dan lakaran awal juga dari diri sendiri, kritik masih belum wujud terhadap logo ini, tapi andai wujud maka dipersilakan untuk meluahkan pendapat agar ia dapat dibaiki.

Ini Geng Kita diringkaskan menjadi IGK, huruf yang dipilih pada logo adalah dari huruf rumi namun untuk menampakkan ke-KISAS-annya, maka ia mengikut lengkuk dan bentuk huruf jawi.Warna biru dengan dua tona serta hijau memberi imej ceria, segar dan menarik. Kini ia diabadikan di blog IGK untuk hampir 2 tahun.

Semoga Iman marak, semoga ukhuwah mekar, semoga Islam mampan. Allahuakbar!

Gold Dinar assets and saving; a beneficial and profitable investment. (Part 3 of 3)

The last reason is because it promises us with the financial stability and security. One main component that makes the world in the cycle of financial dooms nowadays is because we are tangled in the web of financial usury or riba. Get rid of the usury and a huge portion of the world’s problem will disappear. Paper money is well known to be subjected to usury (Mohamad, 2009). It is related to the ability to create money out of thin air, creating money on the other hand has to do with the government’s economic decisions. When government need extra cash, they will ask Bank Negara to print out the money, and then it will be put into the banks around the country. Those who borrow it will be charged with interest, the profit surpluses can then be used by the government. However it may seem as the last option by governments to do this, in a bigger spectrum, imagine that government become the big nations, the vetoes, their bank is International Monetary Fund (IMF), and their customers are the third world countries. Indonesia for example who has taken a large sum of fund from International Monetary Fund (IMF), and just imagine how long will it takes to pay all the ever mounting debts and the condition is not getting any better in a short term.

A nation’s decision will affect its system and the system is comprised of the citizens. In the end, the working class people are the one who has to lay labour in order to survive while the value of money keeps dropping. If we are about to think small, then think if we are the one who has to sweat day and night just to make a decent living. Think what if we have gold, a value holder that confirms a good return if we are going to exchange with other goods. What is the good to have one million Rupiahs if it is worth only half the pay for low laymen in Malaysia? How about low laymen in Indonesia? Then the figure of one million Rupiahs could only be dreamt off for them. Just to be exact, one Dinar cost about RM 660, equivalent to IDR 1.9 million, how staggering that would be. So in a country that is flourishing with tranquillity and financial stability, we must take a heap to protect ourselves and our family before the rainy days eventually arrive. Do the right thing now, and the right thing will always seeks its way to you.

Usury is clearly a form of oppression and injustice (Mohamad, 2009). When we hold something that is independent of other things, we will have freedom. Gold has its own value and it does not need government or banks to tell it whether it is useful for exchanges. You will be the owner of yourself and none others.  

Investing and saving in Dinar is also an action of protecting our wealth from manipulative threats. We have discussed earlier how money can be printed out of thin air, how it is subjected to usury, how it affect an individual, how the exchange rates makes it difficult and strangely inconvenient, and now we would like to know better how money could be manipulated. The obvious issue is the external manipulation and devaluation of ‘money with no intrinsic value’ by developed countries (Hosein, 2007). We once have a solid economy traded in gold and the system works fine and everybody is happy. But when the ruling European Judeo-Christian alliance start the movement to remove the money with intrinsic value (gold) from the money-system of the world and then replacing it with money that has no intrinsic value like paper, then everything change. Gold has no longer become currency and just acts as a backing to the paper money that has been put into the circulation. Later when the World War II occurred, the countries involved had to print more money so as to fund the war. When the war is over and the treaty was signed, losing countries have to pay back the damages they inflicted and the winning countries nevertheless, had already spent too much. So none of the countries that have rights to the compensation want others’ printed money, thus they claimed for gold from the treasuries. Needless to say, those who have printed too much money had already overwhelmed the amount of gold they could use to back up paper money they’ve printed.

In the end after the World War II, the power has shifted and new world order was formed. The issue of gold-backed-money is very critical and in order to escape the calamity, in 1971 President Nixon of the United States had abolished the Bretton-Wood system (Stephey, 2008) and the world seeing the end of gold backed currency previously used. As the world power, every nation follows their step and now we have what we call fiat money, money that is one hundred percent not backed up by gold or any other commodity. Now the wealth of a country is not limited to the real amount of gold they have, they can always print more and they will always looking forward to trade their money with real valued goods and commodities.

The strategies used are different nowadays. They are focusing on globalization, political intervention and financial control over nations. They manipulate how much their money would worth over others and since they are the big nations, obviously their money will be valued more. They targeted countries that economies have been weakened, which will seek help from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and assume control over them. When money have been devalued so much, it would become more and more expensive for such countries to pay loans which were taken on interest. Eventually these countries were trapped in debt they could never repay and fall under the mercy of those who suspiciously loan them large amount of money (Hosein, 2007). The cost of property, labour, goods and services in the territories of the devalued currency become cheaper and cheaper to those who create the monetary system. Then when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forced privatization upon those whose money had lost value, the bandits could then buy out oil and gas fields, power supply companies, telephone companies, etc., in such countries for a price far less than their true value. It is the neo-colonization and like Mexico which has been funded with billions of dollars by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the standard of living is poor, the cost of property and labour are very cheap, and there are a lot of American’s factories built there to get the utmost profit from the low production cost.

Let us ponder back to the year 1997 which at that time Malaysia was in financial crisis. When Malaysia showed the signs of imminent economic downturn, the currency speculators jump in to profit from the situation (Meera, 2002). These collective speculators were amounted to largely attack our currency and to buy our currency as much as they can. It was becoming very hard for the central bank to match the foreign reserves in order to counter attack. In the end our currency plunged down from RM2.47 per US dollar to a crisis rate of RM4.80 per US dollar. When the value of our money have been dropped to that extent level, they will not only profited from the early speculation they have made, but they will also take advantages from exchanging the money during the disequilibrium between currencies in order to get an arbitrage profit. The country which was already in bad condition due to the economic downturn was worsened by the collective attacks. This situation is an inevitable as the graph of economic growth will always move in a wave like shape, meaning to say that after several years of economic growth the cycle will repeat again. During the economic recession many companies scaled down operation and retrenching workers, individuals and businesses declared bankrupt and citizens have to cut down their expenses extensively especially for private sectors workers. It seems that the only way to survive is to avoid the currency speculation and arbitrage effects by making our self ready with enough savings. 

The power to shape our history does not always totally rely on the role of government, apparently in this new millennium the individual influences are becoming more prominent than ever. Even though we are not going to burn ourselves to death just like Muhammad Bouazizi that sparks the revolution in Tunisia and then Egypt, we still have the choice to influence our course of life. We could not escape the system, but we must make sure we can survive under the system. After years of working, we must make sure our salary is invested properly. Those who hold gold would not become poor because even the money was devalued, gold will retain its values. Although gold can fluctuates from time to time, it is still the most feasible way to have financial stability and security. It is portable, high liquidity, stable, highly demanded, universal and secure. 

In recent progress, gold have become more acknowledged with deeper understanding of its role in economy rather than just becoming merely jewelleries. Gold is now freely traded by the public and reachable by anyone. One of the most popular products nowadays besides jewellery is gold dinar. It enables individuals, not just women to be unhesitant and have the chance to keep gold in a quantity that they could afford. It will be a long way before gold becomes the backbone of our economy, but it seems to have a good start after all. It is hoped that everyone would turn to gold as their mean of saving and investment so that with the individual effort combined, our country will be as strong and as stable just like gold have. As a conclusion gold dinar is recognized as divine money in Islam, has undeniable potential as precious commodity, and promise financial stability and security and therefore would becoming the best deal in investment.


Bibliography
Al-Quranul Karim. (2005). Bandung: PT Syaamil Cipta Media.
 

Hosein, I. N. (2007). The Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham: Islam and the Future of Money. San Fernando: Masjid Jami'ah.
 

Kijang Emas Prices. (2011, March 10). Retrieved March 10, 2011, from Bank Negara Malaysia: http://www.bnm.gov.my
 

Meera, A. K. (2002). The Islamic Gold Dinar. Subang Jaya: Pelanduk Publications.
 

Mohamad, N. M. (2009). Between Islamic Banking and the Gold Dinar: a Compilation of Paper & Articles. Kuala Lumpur: Saba Islamic Media.
 

Shah, N. R., Alrazi, B., & Abdul Hamid, H. (2004). The Mechanisms of Gold Dinar. Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen.
 

Stephey, M. (2008, October 21). A Brief History of Bretton Woods System. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from TIME: http://www.time.com
 

Vadillo, R. '. (2002). The Return Of The Islamic Gold Dinar, A study of Money in Islamic Law and The Architecture of the Gold Economy. Cape Town: Madinah Press.

P/S: This is an attempt from writer to publish an academic article and he start with Gold Dinar, this article is not yet validated by any economist etc, but rather submitted to the lecturer of English. Overall this article scores 8/10 in writings.

Gold Dinar assets and saving; a beneficial and profitable investment. (Part 2 of 3)

The second reason is because gold as of Gold Dinar has undeniable potential as precious commodity. For 5000 years of human experience, gold has never fail to perform its duty (Vadillo, 2002).  Gold is a commodity and the material that built it, is considered very valuable to human because of its charm, chemical and physical features. Gold is malleable making it one of the most easy-to-work-with metallic elements. This ability enable human to objectify beauty in arts and decoration as it can be formed into the most intricate designs. Anything that is gold will be redeemed precious.

However apart from its charm, chemical features, physical features, portability and exclusivity, the most important feature is because gold has real intrinsic value unlike fiat money or paper money that is only printed by the power of an issuing authority (Meera, 2002). Paper money has no real value, it is just paper by right and therefore only worth as much as the paper itself if without government’s backing. Its value comes with political power and legal financial system and if they crumble, so will the money too. Paper money always has been a subject to inflation because it is printed and can be manipulated by banks of the world (government also has its own bank). In order to generate maximum profit, private banks can issue credit services, loans will be subjected to high interest rates, to cope with that manufacturers will charge more to the customers, resulting in a price hike on the consumers’ goods. Money loses value as the same RM 100 can no longer buy the same goods as before the inflation.

The effect of inflation on gold could be seen in the soaring price of gold with comparison to currency. When money devalued as in inflation, it means that the same amount of money could not buy the same amount of goods, because the money has less value over the goods. But the goods are the same, the value does not decrease, it is a real value. Gold too has real value, over the time as we see it, gold price will increase. As an example, the price of gold per ounce by Bank Negara for 9 February 2006 was RM2200, and in 9 February 2011 it was RM4387 (Kijang Emas Prices, 2011).

Besides that gold is also a great value-preserver (Meera, 2002). Gold or Aurum is an inert material that will not oxidized in air or water. Because of its good resistance to oxidative corrosion, gold will likely to last for centuries without any depreciation of its value. Pharaoh’s gold treasures 1500 years before centuries still captivating and deemed precious nowadays as it was back then. Our investment will not degrade by itself because of this reason, we could expect our wealth to be inherited and transported back and forth without getting major reductions. We may see the price of gold fluctuates in a short period of time but for a long time investment it is well worth it. Printing will fade, paper will decay, land will erode, livestock will die but gold will remain as it is.

Due the outstanding features of gold, it is not weird if it is a fact that gold being demanded by everyone and thus making it having a universal acceptance (Meera, 2002). Gold by substance is universal and identical everywhere. It is not like petroleum which occurs to be different according to the place it was discovered. The differences in grade enable trading for different quality of petroleum grades possible. The different compositions of mineral that exist underground and the process of the key substances in petroleum have undergone making it different naturally. However gold is a single substance, its chemical features make it uniform. Although foreign substance can be introduced into the gold to make it less pure, the process does not involve a chemical combination of atom into another element.

The process can always be reversed in order to acquire the highest achievable percentage of purity, 999.99. This gives gold a guaranteed acceptance by everyone or by every country. Unlike paper money which has different exchange rate between them (Meera, 2002) which make it difficult for different nationals when they need to buy goods from other countries. The exchange rates also make it ridiculously overvalued or undervalued. If we were to bring some amount of money in a vacation, what obvious reasons to justify that to have the same type of pizza in Japan would cost us around RM 110?  When something is craved by every one of all races and continents, they will share the same appreciation and respect for it. The acceptances become universal and their demand is high. Therefore it is great to have gold in our saving because our wealth will be as useful anywhere on the globe. All of these qualities make gold has undeniable potential as precious commodity.

Gold Dinar assets and saving; a beneficial and profitable investment. (Part 1 of 3)

Assalamualaikum wbt.

What are you going to do with your deposits in the banks? People tend to save money for emergencies, they save money for their children, they save money for retirement and they save money in order to enjoy life to a greater degree. At the same time these people do hope more than just saving and seeing their money sits there unchanged after 25 years of waiting. It is a good thing that the money is not leaked elsewhere, however how are we going to have a maximum return out of the efforts we have invested throughout the years? Does 0.2% to 3.00% dividend seems worth a wait? How about something better, something that could promise you an average of 27% increase every year? Don’t you want your saving to be as good as an investment?  If you do, then acquire gold now. But before we grow fonder of gold let us have a better understanding why we must acquire gold. Acquiring Gold Dinar as a personal asset and savings is beneficial as it is recognized as divine money in Islam, undeniable potential as precious commodity, and promise financial stability and security.

The first reason why it is beneficial is because Gold Dinar is recognized as divine money in Islam. Gold is a commodity that has been extensively traded for centuries and become the medium of exchange. As Islam appears in the best of everything surely gold doesn’t miss the attention. Gold Dinar is considered a valuable merchandise that is accepted as Syariah Money (Mohamad, 2009). During the Rasulullah’s time, it has already been mentioned and commonly used as an exchange just like other commodities such as dates and salt. According to Mohamed, N.M. (2009), it had reached an utopian scale during the Caliphate of Umar Abdul Aziz (99H) and during this time there were no persons who were eligible to receive zakat, which suggest the achievement of such high status welfare and economic well-being. Mohamed, N.M. (2009) also stated that during the time of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (170H) death, the assets of Baitulmal reached RM 180 billion. That is 1300 years ago and compared to the economic level nowadays it is still unimaginably hard for a country to achieve the same level of accomplishment. This reflects to us that gold dinar play a very important role not only as a very effective mechanism in economy but also a beacon of bless from Allah. One of the main component reasons is because during that time people pay zakat using Dinar which in Syariah, it is considered a compliant-method to pay zakat (Vadillo, 2002). With gold circulated in the economy, it flourished and blessed people at that time with divine wealth.

The word ‘Dinar’ is mentioned by Allah in Quran (Shah, Alrazi, & Abdul Hamid, 2004) in surah Aali-Imran, 3:75, (Al-Quranul Karim, 2005);
“Amongst the People of the Scripture (i.e, the Torah) there are those who if entrusted (by fellow Israelite) with a Qintar (a treasure of money such as a heap of gold coins) for safe-keeping, would return it upon demand. Yet amongst them there are those who if entrusted (by a Gentile, i.e. one who was not an Israelite) with a single Dinar (a gold coin) for safe-keeping, would not return it on demand unless the owner were to persist in demanding the return of his property. The reason for this (double standard) is because they argue that the (religious law) placed no obligation on them to be just and fair in their dealings with Gentiles. But they lie against Allah (Most High), and they know full well (that it is a lie).”

In this verse of the Quran Allah Most High has referred to ‘money’ as ‘gold’ coins. It is firmly located in Allah’s creation and possesses value assigned to them by Allah Himself who is the creator of wealth. In another verse Allah also refer gold as wealth, and such wealth could be used as money in the form of gold Dinar. 

“Beautified for men is the love of things they covet; women, children, much of gold and silver (wealth, Dinar and Dirham), branded beautiful horses, cattle and well-tilled land. This is the pleasure of the present world's life; but Allah has the excellent return (Paradise with flowing rivers, etc.) with Him.” (Aali Imran, 3:14), (Al-Quranul Karim, 2005)

Above is the description from Allah of the wealth that human would normally invested in which states the word gold as respect to Dinar. He is the Creator of Wealth and what reasons do we have to rely on if we deny the very advice of the supreme economic advisor, Allah? Acknowledgement in Quran means that Allah put some recommendation, benefit and urge for Muslims to follow it as it is our source of constitution. This includes the way we select our currency and investment. Our action will be the symbol of obedience and adherence to the commands of Allah Taala and Rasulullah p.b.u.h. The extension and realisation of our obedience to Allah and Rasulullah is by ultimately doing what they ask us to do. 

“Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: "A time is certainly coming over mankind in which there will be nothing [left] which will be of use save a dinar and a dirham."  (The Musnad of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal).

Rasulullah had say in his hadith that when the time comes we must save dinar (gold) and dirham (silver). If we are obedient we will surely follow him. After all, we are seeking both the happiness in the world and also in the hereafter; whatever we do in this world can’t only be single viewed only as a worldly profitable investment but also must comprise the spiritual aspect.