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Saturday, January 13, 2018

My Forex Learning Experience: Stars, Angels, Moon and Halal

My Forex Learning Experience: Stars, Angels, Moon and Halal 
by Warina Sushil A. Jukuy(Learn to Trade Free Workshop 11 January 2018 Marco Polo Hotel)


Resource speaker Ferdie Pabalan's testimony was so riveting because it is a narrative common to Filipinos. It was a "propelling" story that inspires listeners to dream big and fuels listeners to take chances with "sky-is-the-limit" possibilities securely fastened to Forex trading's safety belt of a mere 2% risk! If there is ever a mantra to immortalize the lesson, it is: monetize your risk!
On the screen flashed his 3 goals sketched in pencil which he envisioned when he was a newbie in a Forex Learning Trade workshop- just like us - but his happened two years ago,
He depicted a condo building, a Civic car, and a Montessori Institute plus an oddly conspicuous man chilling under a beach umbrella. Funny, the sketch was in black and white but my eyes colored it. 
And the Ballroom vibrated with life when he flashed the AFTER photo slide onscreen, exclaims and gushes punctuated the red pointer highlighting an earth tone living room of his condo unit, his Civic Honda black car, and of his two kids in uniform lounging on a bench of Montessori: a resounding applause ensued. His SMART 3 goals achieved! Not just merely limned in pencil after 21 months!
Pabalan's resilience and ambition are anchored on familial values particularly for his two daughters who assessed and highly esteemed as they estimated his priceless net worth as their superhero Dad. When he asked them what Christmas gifts they'd like him to buy, the "bunso" replied that she'd like 3 stars and 4 angels. His eldest child opposed it because she pointed out it's too expensive. But the youngest said his Dad can afford it as in "kayang kaya yannn ni Daddy!" When Pabalan asked why stars and angels, the child answered that the stars would be to light up their homes and the angels would be divided one each for the siblings and two would be for Dad because he needs it for protection as he is always out to work. The eldest daughter's wish was the Moon to hold it in their hands and enjoy it as a toy, to which the bunso quipped "mas mahal kaya yan kesa sa stars!" Thus, the "Ate" relented by settling for stars too so they can all have two each.
Pabalan goals were for his kids' future and education. His kids ignited his goals, but Greg Secker fueled his dreams and galvanized his goals after it has gained momentum. And the fuel's brand is Forex!
Empowering dreams. Building bridges. Building brighter future. Powerful, positively charged slogans, the last is of the Greg Secker Foundation. These bring back to mind my Pagtabangan BaSulTa days penchant for advocacy slogans such as "Fueling Dreams, Lighting Up Hopes" for Pilipinas Shell Foundation's Youth Business Camp; and BRIDGE: Build relations, Initiate dialogues, Get engaged for Sulu multi-stakeholders.
"The focus is on what strategies work in the market today. I do not believe in teaching the almanac of trading, it's practically impossible. We will teach you what the most successful traders are doing today: how to keep the risk low and obviously how to monetise it." GREG SECKER. Btw, he was absent; he was only shown to us via a CNN interview video clip.
What he learned from his mentor Secker were some vital pointers which Pabalan enunciated to us with impressive wit and light humor. The wisdom resonates in my Muslim orientation bouncing off in my personal deen. Allow me to recap his helplessly practical tips: Take profit and stop loss. Protect your capital. Analyze: Up trending means Buy. Down trending means sell and buy back. Looks paradoxical yet sounds true. Remember do not be the stereotyped "emotional" Filipino if you do not want to err in your FOREX judgment. With a very static and volatile Forex trading, you would end up riding an emotional roller coaster that slides through the wavelengths of uphill and downhill turns of live infographs. After all, Pabalan did warn that to become a successful trader is "90% psychology and only 10% skills"- the latter merely a non-emotional  series of decisive mouse clicks.
Samer Musa Allong and I were two among five volunteers who answered Pabalan's question: Share to us your 3 S.M.A.R.T Goals for 2018. My answer was:
One: harness my unicorn product pyanggang and satti via an initial HALAL kiosk 
Two: A chain of HALAL kiosks into a Convention Center Resto with a greenhouse at the back to supply our communal organic herbs and spices;
Three: Give back as a sustainable social enterprise to generate job opportunities as a ripple effect. BUT in all these 3 goals it shall be achieved via halal and waqf principles. Bi idhnillaah.

Samer who shared ahead of me talked about poverty alleviation in impoverished Bangsamoro communities as the focal thrust of his three goals.
At the end of the free workshop, I was politely asked by an elderly if what do I think of the workshop. Reluctantly, I replied as politely, I posted what I think on my Fb wall. Samer said it is haram like gambling. The man countered that life is a gamble after all. Samer and I both gushed and chuckled but to us Muslims life is not a gamble. I was obliged to explain that what is forbidden like gambling, alcohol, adultery, senseless killing are done anyway out of human folly. But we have the choice to adhere to Islam as a way of life.
At 6:06pm to the workshop since 5pm today, I realized Forex promises cash gain but the loss is also a great possibility because if not Forex crashes down! More have to lose so that some could incur wins.
Facing Coach William (?) as per Pabalan's advice, I stated that anything that is FREE is an irresistible opportunity that was why we were there. But it must be a halal opportunity. Yes, who would not be interested with the 80% discount offer for a learning study offer to selected 20 testimonial graduates?! Especially, after listening to the success story of Pabalan. The dangling prospect of earning 2K to 4K dollars in 2 hours. The testimony that even his 69 yr old Mom can Forex trade so can his 5 year old daughter, too. Nevertheless, even at more than 400K undiscounted fees plunging down to a discounted price now at 85K in Manila is still unconscionable. Thinking about the 2% risk and monetizing such risk is inconceivable!
In the oxygen of liberal ideas, when in a dilemma between halal and haram, one just have to remember what to inhale and to exhale. Inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and all its impurities.
It is clear that in Forex trading of currencies: there is a delay, and the exchange is not done in the same sitting, thus, in such case it is regarded as a kind of riba-based transaction.
Now the challenge is how to remove the delay and to do it in one sitting to make it halal or permissible. Well, I must admit that my maverick idea would be tantamount to revolutionizing the existing Forex trade of currencies into a HALAL trade of currencies by a series of mouse clicks to buy and sell "control alt shift" to end the trade continuously in one sitting---IF and only IF your Mbps speed allows it. How I wish we, Muslims, could harness the principles of waqf and Islamic financing in order not to monetize our risk but to sanitize our perilous LOVE for money.
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RULING ON FOREX TRADING / INVESTMENT
It says in Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn Baaz (19/171-174):
Dealing in currency, buying and selling, is permissible, but that is subject to the condition that the exchange be hand-to-hand if the currencies are different. If a person sells Libyan currency for American or Egyptian or whatever currency hand to hand, there is nothing wrong with that, such as if he buys dollars for Libyan currency hand to hand, exchanging it in one sitting, or he buys Egyptian or English currency etc for the Libyan or whatever currency hand to hand, there is nothing wrong with that. But if there is a delay, then it is not permissible, and if the exchange is not done in the same sitting, it is not permissible, because in that case it is regarded as a kind of riba-based transaction. So the exchange must take place in the same sitting, hand to hand, if the currencies are different. But if they are of the same kind, two conditions must be met: they should be of equal amounts and the exchange should take place in the same sitting, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Gold for gold, silver for silver…”

PERMISSIBLE IF:
Dealing in currencies is permissible so long as the exchange takes place in the same sitting as the contract is made. It is permissible to sell euros for dollars so long as the exchange takes place in the same sitting as the contract is made.

HARAM IF:
But when the deal is concerning the same type of currency, such as selling one dollar for two dollars, that is not permissible because it is a type of riba. In that case they should be of equal amounts and the exchange must take place in the same sitting as the contract if the exchange is concerning one type of currency.

EVIDENCE
The evidence for that is the report narrated by ‘Ubaadah ibn al-Saamit (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, salt for salt, like for like, same for same, hand to hand. If the types are different then sell however you like, so long as it is hand to hand.” Narrated by Muslim, 1587 SOURCE: www.islamqa.com

 

Sunday, January 7, 2018

The Lady Judge Story: In Sulu’s Shari’a Realm




By Warina Sushil a. Jukuy  ■ For PCIJ emailed 942pm 07Sept2007■


Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling
Photos oftentimes cannot do justice to a woman’s beauty. That includes Hadja Nurkarhati Tulawie Salapuddin-Sahibbil. She’s our Aishwarya of Sulu! Definitely not the Tamil actress of the famous Bride and Prejudice film but a Tausug Muslim who happens to be the sole woman judge (until lately) in the existing 51 Shari’a Circuits Courts in the Philippines; and whose legal expertise caters to Muslim “brides” along with the frills of “prejudices” that real world brings
“For as long as you will maintain the purity of the heart, you will never go wrong. People may misjudge you but such purity will be your shining armor.”--- Hadja Nurkarhati T. Salapuddin-Sahibbil, Presiding Judge,3rd Shari’a Circuit Court
Her imposing personality blends in with the room. On its walls, are overwhelming emblems of the justice system, particularly of Shari’a First District Court and the Province of Sulu . Surprisingly, her beaming smile overpowers the colors inside her 3rd District Circuit Court’s space, located on the 2nd floor of a quite grungy building in Jolo, Sulu, where she presides as judge. My legs walked towards her, as my mind gropes for a sense of semblance to trigger my faltering memory. As our palms touched, I inwardly affirmed, as my clouded memory cleared in auto: she’s not one of the younger twins; she is moro activist Fatmawati Salapuddin’s older sister.
Photos oftentimes cannot do justice to a woman’s beauty. That includes Hadja Nurkarhati Tulawie Salapuddin-Sahibbil. She’s our Aishwarya of Sulu! Definitely not the Tamil actress of the famous Bride and Prejudice film but a Tausug Muslim who happens to be the sole woman judge (until lately) in the existing 51 Shari’a Circuits Courts in the Philippines; and whose legal expertise caters to Muslim “brides” along with the frills of “prejudices” that real world brings. However, instead of clinging to the lone woman judge position, she relentlessly lobbied for more women judges in the Shari’a Courts.( Muslim Women Peace Advocates Conference, Asia Security Monitor No. 59, December 23, 2003, American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C.) As a result, Shari’a Judge Remeerada Tanjili now joins Judge Nurkarhati’s solitude. Her perturberance on being the only woman in every Shari’a conference has finally been allayed.
How did Judge Nurkarhati reach the top rung of the ladder? In 1985, she was appointed as Clerk of Court II. Proficient in Sulu’s tongue, Bahasa Sinug, as well as in English, Judge Nurkarhati was once a court interpreter. A magna cum laude graduate in BS English of the Notre Dame of Jolo College , she served as Interpreter in 1988. The next year, she became Interpreter III. Basking in the prominence as current Shari’a Judge, she candidly replied (with a noticeable glimmer in her eyes) when queried, that she enjoyed best her work as an interpreter. Her pleasure manifested with the noticeable glimmer in her eyes as she fondly recounted how she lived up to the challenging role of translating Bahasa Sinug into the English language. Pointing out the intricacy of Bahasa Sinug, and its convolution due to limited vocabulary, Judge Nurkarhati proved however, how adroit she was as a spirited interpreter. Five years later, she further toiled as Clerk of Court VI for barely a year. By January 18, 1994, her appointment as Judge of the Shari’a Circuit Court was signed by Pres Fidel V. Ramos.
Amidst oppositions which reverberated from our Maranao brethren, she resolutely held on to her post despite and in spite of her gender, which was the subject of reproach. Consoled by the wisdom and guidance of the late Sulu Grand Mufti Ibrahim Ghazali (Allah yarham), she confidently executed her powers, functions and jurisdiction as Shari’a Circuit Court Judge of the First Shari’a District, Province of Sulu. Not intimidated by the ruling that a woman may lead and rule for as long as she doesn’t have the last word, she lived up to the juridical test! Armed with her inherent shining armor, Judge Nurkarhati proved her mettle in Islamic jurisprudence by ruling justly and equitably. True to her guiding principle, she ruled using the beacon of Islam in times of ambiguity. Judge Nurkarhati says: 
“For as long as you will maintain the purity of the heart, you will never go wrong. People may misjudge you but such purity will be your shining armor.”
Although, Judge Nurkarhati confided that initially her dream was to become a physician but by Divine Decree and human default, perhaps, she became a jurist on Muslim personal laws. She decisively concluded, however, that if she were to live her life again she would still want to be a judge. Without any contrition, she declared that people who displayed skepticism on her appointment have to live by what Allah has decreed her to be. She firmly believed that it “is” her destiny.
She reminisced on some particular notoriously celebrated cases. One of a wife asking for talaq by faskh due to her husband’s purported sexual impotence which at the end was proven true. Another of a battered wife who was married to a man whose psychological disturbance was previously unknown to his wife. There was also a familiar comical story of a runaway bride who fled before the marriage was consummated, thus, she was sued to return her dower to the abandoned groom. Quaintly, she ruled “justly” in favor of the truant neophyte wife due to justified grounds under Tausug customs and Islamic law. Absolutely, our feisty Lady Judge has braved the tolls and droll of matrimonial cases, along with divorce recognized under Presidential Decree No. 1083; betrothal or breach of contract to marry; customary dowry(mahr); disposition and distribution of property upon divorce; maintenance and support, and consolotary gifts(mut'a); and
restitution of marital rights. All cases involving disputes relative to communal properties.
She describes herself as a very amiable person as she added that she establishes easy rapport with her law students. However, she brimmed with contained laughter as she intimates that she has a temper to reckon with when her inherent rights are violated.

Admirably, she frankly admitted that she took the Shari’a Bar twice despite getting more than 95% rating in one subject. Proving that she is not one to be easily thwarted, on her second attempt, she triumphantly conquered her daunting waterloo, Succession. She intimated that the achievement was a product of love, sweat, and labor.
Her husband, Sulu Provincial Prosecutor Gulamurrasid R. Sahibbil, proved to be her motivator and inspiration. Although, engaged by parental arrangement, the couple met in Siliman University where Judge Nurkarhati took up some law units. During her early years of marriage, she gained a natural enthusiasm to read much on Islamic jurisprudence out of her desire and need to accommodate the questions of house visitors, calling in at times in his husband’s absence. She is a highly flexible woman as she manages to successfully balance her multi-faceted roles as daughter, big sister, wife, mother, presiding judge, acting judge, and professor.
Her daily routine includes Fajr prayer at dawn, mild exercise for her afflicted cardio, cooking breakfast, and by 8:30 am she reports for office, that is from Monday till Friday. She teaches Persons Family Relations and Islamic Jurisprudence at Notre Dame of Jolo College . Understandably, she exhorts her students to study law but to strictly adhere to and not violate the Qur’an as the Words of Allah, along with the Hadith and Sunnah of the Nabi Muhammad SAW.
Fascinatingly, you cannot stereotype Judge Nurkarhati as the regular feminist. She further confided that a lot of Moro men are even intimidated of her younger sister Fatchie (single by choice, PSHS alumna, Chairwoman of Bangsamoro Women Solidarity Conference) because of the latter’s intelligence and maverick nature as a peace advocate. Women are tolerated in Sulu, the Lady Judge observed. “You yourself know that you are struggling,” she interjected at this interviewer. We are in agreement that the suppression of women is so subtle that it is almost imperceptible.
However, Judge Nurkarhati contends that women must be aware of their complementary role alongside with men. She counsels Muslim women to bridge the gap between the genders and not widen the chasm. She affirms that couples must be attuned to role reversals when necessity calls for it. She limns women-men relationship as consensually symbiotic; neither predatorial nor adversarial in nature. The Judge verdict, so to speak, on women is enclosed in this quote from her: “You are the light of your home..the guiding light of your children and the light that prevents darkness in your husband’s way. See to it that such light won’t flicker for lack of fuel so your purpose of being a woman won’t fail.”
Ironically but true, she interposed with a question when I was about to end our interview. “Are you not going to ask me about subsequent marriages?” Chuckling, I naturally did when she prompted me. She revealed her perspective on subsequent marriages through these prudent words: “Almost always the cause of broken homes and children are the most affected as victims of the situation. Husbands are more inclined to consider that having more than wife is an obligation which is a very big mistake because allowing them to have more than one wife but not more than four at a time is merely a permission for exceptional cases provided the husband can treat his wives justly and equitably which needs supernatural capacity. It must be considered that material things can be divided equally. But for sure feelings can not be.”
Judge Nurkarhati concurred that there are a lot of flaws and inadequacies restricting the implementation of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws. She pointed out the membership of the PD 1083 Commission, as one of the basic reasons of its limiting powers and jurisdiction during the Marcos regime. Furthermore, she sensibly assented to Atty Michael Mastura when he said that, “It is better to have a half-baked cake than nothing at all.” Despite these legal snags contained in the CMPL, she remains optimistic for the Muslims in the Philippines .
Judge Nurkarhati acquiesced that there is a lot to be changed in the existing political system. She addressed a constructive challenge to the Moro youth:
“Be decisive. Be catalyst of change. Be obedient to and respect the elders But do not repeat the mistakes of our elders. It always pays to heed your parents’ advices. Being at the prime of your youth, don’t get affected by the evils in our system. Instead give priority to the common good over self-vested interests.”

#Sulu #Shariah #ShariahCourts #Islam #ARMM #CMPL #Islam #Tausug #Moro #Parang 

Sulu: The Promise

Glowing gold dusk hints

A promise. Ephemeral 

Brilliant dawn shall come. 

Picturesque 

a dream of beauty

Harmony sublime. #Sulu_YoursNMine



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Photo by Amir Mawallil featured on Mindanews

A Unicorn Song



Each step I take each moment
defines what Agony means
Will my own bare hands tear down
What we painstakingly build?
Each screw and bolt echoes
The Sign with clarity oh woeful
Finality. In splendor Dome seems
to console like azure sky assuring.
I stare blankly at jade diamonds
Its fluidity intense. Flying off the
canvas to calm me saying: Feel!
More than Maldives am soothing.
Some Drone did capture how quaint
you are when viewed from afar
A panorama worth scaling
by a lone Eagle's loving eyes.
My Heart is mirrored in your depths
A thirst Thy lake shall slake
Reflecting iridescent against Light
opalescent is Iris playing tricks?
Our local sandbar's incomparable
To any moonshine lit sand dune
Worry would die to freely melt
repose in Thy Loving waves.
Each step I take each moment
defines what Agony means
Will my own bare hands tear down
What we painstakingly build?
Remorse has a way of romanticizing
Morose bedevils as Faith squirms
How horrid if Fiery Flames gutted this up
Or Loony cyclone brought its ruin.
Now ask me: Will I take a longer last look
Before everything will turn to shreds?
Warring demons quieten in respect
In my Khaleel, Refuge I seek: Solace granted.
My Beloved never absconds Promise
Alhamdulillaahi alaa kulli haal
Unlike Phoenix: Unicorn soars
to oh-so-lofty heavens. 
-A Unicorn Song- wsj 01/07/2018 5:15pm