seizing the day, carpe diem

I have written a lot on my experience as the Director of CERDAS.Of my 24 years of working, I have to say that this is the most challenging and exciting post I have ever held.

I learn to swim when the office is sinking (the meeting on Monday is now postponed to another Monday in 3 weeks).But the best of all is learning how to be an enterpreneur (against my will but possibly this is by the will of Allah.Everything happens for a reason). I learned how to do clean business (without riba).Always mindful of NOT devising too much profit which will be oppressing our clients.What matters is our targetted groups learn something new and become better Muslims/people after their encounter with our progs.Social enterpreneurship, gitu.

Dr Haslina and I were laughing away at my reminder after editing a PhD thesis (from Uni. of Hong Kong) on Islamic Finance and Maritime Trade.There was a section on riba.I also heard on IKIM types of riba.So in our biz at CERDAS, we try to observe this.It's a feel good feeling lah after a task completed.Part of riba is hidden cost.It's a no-no.We were perplexed when Dr Azman (himself an Islamic Finance Consultant with one of the banks) revealed all our costs to our smart partners.Dr H asked me why would he want to tell all.Now we understand better. No hidden cost -- everything must be transparent (so Air Asia, read this!)

Also you cannot have a biz which is misleading (this I heard from IKIM radio) eg. selling a brand which sounds or looks like the original - Abibas vs Adidas, Coach vs Croach, etc is HARAM cos there is an element of deceit/misleading people.

We are (also) doing our best to act on complaints by students (much to do with admin. shortcomings).CERDAS does not make all the decisions and hence, solutions can be quite slow.For that, I have been called many names (by one or two students). Hey, it's part of the job and I accept this, humbly (I had accepted the post relunctantly when nominated, knowing how difficult it would be with only 2 staff at hand but my Dean said it was only for short term).

But as my term comes to an end, my conscience is clear.I HAD GIVEN MY BEST.No regrets.And I treasure the friendships I made with my fellow colleagues.Dr Haslina especially (who's like my shadow, day in, day out); Dr Riza who often comes rushing to assist despite her busy schedule taking care of her parents and her health, Prof Istiaq who will sacrifice his family time to help out when I holler, Prof Azman who often comes out with brilliant ideas on Islamic courses.Last but not least, Hasnah who has kept files in order and can just pluck one on demand.Simply amazing.
And our new Manager, Zul who would have late lunches cos' work comes first.

Alhamdulillah.