Interesthink @ ThePod

Firstly, The Pod is awesome!

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Finally got connected – one of the prerequisite for writing live. God bless Wireless@SG. If you’ve not heard about this event, check out the details at http://www.interesthink.com

The event was running late. Lots of technical issues apparently, with people scuttling around with recorders and mics etc. Just learned that The Pod @ NLB is actually a restricted area that requires some form of clearance to go to, so they the

Harish Pillai, the president of Singapore Linux Usergroup opened up the event. Some of his major points:

1. This is an awesome cross-disciplinary exchange of idea. So far it’s the politics or nothing.

2. Modeled after TED.com, quality is high even though it’s currently a hype. But cost is too high.

3. Hope not grow too big, otherwise we lose the chance to interact.

The first talk was given by Larry Francis, a scholar in Islam and Music. Stemming from his childhood where he felt misinformed due to his background in Christianity, he studies Ethnomusicology
of Islam. We looked at various instruments such as Gambus, Kompang, Marwas, Rebana, and Rebab. Many of them predates Islam, but was adopted as part of Islamic traditions. There is no such thing as “islamic icons”, so we cannot treat them as icons.

The major question asked here: “Is Music Prohibited or Approved in Islam?” Is music sinful? The prophet (PBH) never said anything. The Qur’an has never mentioned anything about it, in fact there are certain phrases which refers to chanting / singing. But the other 3 major Islamic literature, Hadith, Sunnah, and Syariah, the explicitly disallowed it, citing reasons such as music was used in tea houses where men meet dancing girls; string instruments played with to attract music; people who gets addicted to music forget to pray etc.

to be continued.

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4 Responses

  1. In the end, actions speak louder than words. As much as a person could present their idea, if the ideas aren’t turn into reality no matter how feasible or helpful it can be come it won’t exactly help the mentioned target.

    Well, at least that’s what I think.

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