Toshihiko Izutsu

I was busy eavesdropping this seminar on Japanese scholar/thinker/philosopher/linguist Toshihiko Izutsu, organised by friends in IRK.He's the first Japanese who translated Quran to Japanese (he had a degree in English Lit but spent some time in Iran studying sufism, philosophy etc).I went cos' I was curious (tinggal kerja opis kejap).What had he said/written which past Muslim scholars had not said that deserved him a conference dedicated to him alone? Pelik juga, kan? Someone said it's becos' western schools that do Islamic Studies popularise him as great thinker of Islamic Studies.It's a brand of America's Islam.They decide who to study, etc.But having gone back to my Renaissance class after the seminar, etc, I could relate to Izutsu's sensibility/debates & discussions raised at the conference esp. about concept of man, philosophy, position of knowledge, language and the use/abuse of it. I guess I learned lots esp in my discussions with colleagues of the field.

Tak jumpa cari budak yang touched and went on the concept of man during jahiliah.I thought that concept fit in Renaissance's definition of man.Does this mean Renaissance values were actually jahiliah's? My mental bulb lit up at this! Would like to read more on this topic (concept of man during the jahiliah's period).

Tonight I will dine with Nura who I have not seen since 1993 (semalam sibuk kat Istana Hotel at the Corporate Dinner.I thot Muhyideen Yassin was boring ..dok persembah Financial Report buat apa? Duit banyak trillion2 pun bukan dapat ke rakyat biasa macam kami.And we are not Permatang Pauh voters.Tak payah nak impress lah how well the country did.I was hoping that he'd give some inspiring talk on how to build this city again)

Kaki bodek pun ramai (they did an Olympics gimmick on him..tiba2 nak announce how well he did as Sports Minister..apa ke jadah...what is the relationship between that and the event?)