Syed Quotes & Sayings

A Muslim scholar is a man who is not a specialist in any one branch of knowledge but is universal in his outlook and is authoritative in several branches of related knowledge - Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas — Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud

Hope is holding on, praying expectantly. It's never giving up. It's never quitting. — Syed Ather

Muslims must be warned that plagiarists and pretenders as well as ignorant imitators affect great mischief by debasing values, imposing upon the ignorant, and encouraging the rise of mediocrity. The appropriate original ideas for hasty implementation and make false claims for themselves. Original ideas cannot be implemented when vulgarized; on the contrary, what is praiseworthy in them will turn out to become blameworthy, and their rejection will follow with the dissatisfaction that will emerge. So in this way authentic and creative intellectual effort will continually be sabotaged. It is not surprising that the situation arising out of the loss of adab also provides the breeding ground for the emergence of extremists who make ignorance their capital. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

The greatest challenge that has surreptitiously arisen in our age is the challenge of knowledge, indeed, not as against ignorance; but knowledge as conceived and disseminated throughout the world by Western civilization; knowledge whose nature has become problematic because it has lost its true purpose due to being unjustly conceived, and has thus brought about chaos in man's life instead of, and rather than, peace and justice; knowledge which pretends to be real but which is productive of confusion and scepticism, which has elevated doubt and conjecture to the 'scientific' rank in methodology; knowledge which has, for the first time in history, brought chaos to the Three Kingdom of Nature; the animal, vegetal and mineral. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

My heart always knew, you're the dew, my dry soul would never adieu.. but I still don't know why I let you go and waited all my life just for you. — Syed Arshad

Bush didn't do one thing wrong....
He did everything wrong. — Syed Ali

It's not love that you hate, it's the loved one who betrayed. — Syed Arshad

The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) ... to establish a superior library reflecting the religious and intellectual traditions both of the Islamic and Western civilizations. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Dominance is only for GOD. — Syed Islam

It is probably worth stating here that nobody wants to fail. We all want to succeed, whether we are entrepreneurs, sportsmen, politicians, scientists, or parents. But at a collective level, at the level of systemic complexity, success can only happen when we admit our mistakes, learn from them, and create a climate where it is, in a certain sense, "safe" to fail. — Matthew Syed

To know how to put what knowledge in which place is wisdom (hikmah). Otherwise, knowledge without order and seeking it without discipline does lead to confusion and hence to injustice to one's self. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Man is like an island set in isolation in a fathomless sea enveloped by darkness, saying that the loneliness his self knows is so utterly absolute because even he knows not his self completely. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

All human beings posses real age to others who have spend in fact realize to ourselves to be factor from the live life such a naturally holding the remaining rest will be count that who have command of all human beings those ourselves will be real age which are going on. — Syed Afroz Alam

Life Life Life Life; it fascinates me, it intoxicates me, it upsets me and it surprises me. However, I love Life because I know it has a meaning in whatever consequences it puts us in. At the end of the day Life is the most beautiful teacher and I want to Romance her! — Dr. S.U.A.H Syed

The practice sessions of aspiring champions have a specific and never-changing purpose: Progress. Every second of every minute of every hour, the goal is to extend one's mind and body, to push oneself beyond the outer limits of one's capacities, to engage so deeply in the task that one leaves the training session, literally, a changed person. — Matthew Syed

When two peoples share a common passion: they are capable of empathising with each other's misery. — Matthew Syed

If life is a movie, most of us are watching the boring and talked over!
Well, it's still not too late; drop it.. and start afresh with a new and exciting one.
Remember, there's only one climax waiting to be experienced ! — Syed Arshad

The extraordinary dedication of the young Mozart, under the guidance of his father, is perhaps most powerfully articulated by Michael Howe, a psychologist at the University of Exeter, in his book Genius Explained. He estimates that Mozart had clocked up an eye-watering 3,500 hours of practice even before his sixth birthday. — Matthew Syed

When most people practice, they focus on the things they can do effortlessly," Ericsson has said. "Expert practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can't do well - or even at all. Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can't do that you turn into the expert you want to become." So far the focus in this book has been on the quantity of practice required to reach the top, and we've seen that it's a staggering amount of time, stretching for a period of at least ten years. — Matthew Syed

If hunger could please God, millions hadn't starved to death. — Syed Arshad

World-class performance comes by striving for a target just out of reach, but with a vivid awareness of how the gap might be breached. Over time, through constant repetition and deep concentration, the gap will disappear, only for a new target to be created, just out of reach once again. — Matthew Syed

If it has a reason, it's definitely not love. — Syed Arshad

Psychologists often make a distinction between mistakes where we already know the right answer and mistakes where we don't. A medication error, for example, is a mistake of the former kind: the nurse knew she should have administered Medicine A but inadvertently administered Medicine B, perhaps because of confusing labeling combined with pressure of time. But sometimes mistakes are consciously made as part of a process of discovery. Drug companies test lots of different combinations of chemicals to see which have efficacy and which don't. Nobody knows in advance which will work and which won't, but this is precisely why they test extensively, and fail often. It is integral to progress. — Matthew Syed

A book is not just a collection of words, it is a perception portrayed on blank sheets. You know, getting you the feelings of blowing winds and rains and sun and flowers around, the smiles, the tears, the notional links with the characters and make them all alive, while you read. And that's sure as hell a gruelling task ! — Syed Arshad

Falling in love is like holding a candle. Initially it lightens up the world around you. Then it starts melting and hurt you. Finally it goes off and everything is darker than ever and all you are left with is the.. BURN! — Syed Arshad

I am a pillar. I know. I am this broken pillar of this basement. — Amaan Ahmad

Never reject an idea because it will create conflict! — Syed Ather

The common understanding among Muslims, no doubt indoctrinated by Western notions, is that a secular state is a state that is not governed by the 'ulama', or whose legal system is not established upon the revealed law. In other words it is not a theocratic state. But this setting in contrast the secular state with the theocratic state is not really an Islamic way of understanding the matter, for since Islam does not involve itself in the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, how then can it set in contrast the theocratic state with the secular state? — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

An Islamic university ... structure is different from a Western University; [its] conception of what constitutes knowledge is different from what Western philosophers set forth as knowledge; [its] aims and aspirations are different from Western conceptions. The purpose of higher education is not, like in the West, to produce the complete citizen, but rather, as in Islam, to produce the complete man, or the universal man ... A Muslim scholar is a man who is not a specialist in any one branch of knowledge but is universal in his outlook and is authoritative in several branches of related knowledge. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

I must go now", she said slowly and slipped her hand from his. Aarav looked at her face.. the water droplets pretended to be some shining gems embedded on a fine piece of white marble and a few strands of wet hair across, like some graceful ancient art on it. It took him a while to understand what she said. She just smiled softly with a hint of shyness. He kept looking at her.. the strands still intact, bothering him for some unknown reason. He raised his hand slowly towards her face.. her smile ceased with the movement. His dark brown eyes laid firm on her black ones, hearts pounding like door knocks.. he touched her face with his finger.. she half closed her eyes. — Syed Arshad

Words have no power, unless you give it to them. — Syed Ahmed Fahad

It is your own will to understand things, that makes you sensible.Education is just a fair chance. — Syed Arshad

The only way to be sure is to go out and test your ideas and programmes, and to realise that you will often be wrong. But that is not a bad thing. It leads to progress. This — Matthew Syed

People who think love can happen twice, actually never fell in it the first time. — Syed Arshad

Injustice, being the opposite of justice, is the putting a thing in a place not its own; it is to misplace a thing; it is to misuse or to wrong; it is to exceed or fall short of the mean or limit; it is to suffer loss; it is deviation from the right course; it is disbelief of what is true, or lying about what is true knowing it to be true. -Islam and Secularism page 78 — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Islamic tradition does not recognize such presumptuous and conceited preoccupation as "reviewing", which is now widely practised among scholars who regard highly this legacy of the Western tradition modern scholarship. a Muslim scholar, with the work of another before him, would either - according to Islamic tradition - refute it (radd), or elaborate it further in commentary (sharh) as the occasion demands. there is no such thing as "reviewing" it, whether the "review" is termed as such or as any other term which describes it. If there are petty mistakes they turn a blind eye to them; if there are obscurities they explain them in commentary - they polish a positive work and make it shine. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

But the philosophical and scientific process which I call 'secularization' necessarily involves the divesting of spiritual meaning from the world of nature; the desacralization of politics from human affairs; and the deconsecration of values from the human mind and conduct. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Nothing seemed to budge them from their conviction that the man who had been sent to prison was guilty. Even after the test had been performed. Even after the conviction had been overturned. Even after the prisoner had been released from jail. The problem was not the strength of the evidence, which was often overwhelming, it was the psychological difficulty in accepting it. — Matthew Syed

A child came out of my eyes some moments ago. My head is on fire. He laughed as he came out and I can still see him across that wall, crawling and laughing. I sometimes try to reach it but it runs away from me. — Amaan Ahmad

Change, development and progress, according to the Islamic viewpoint, refer to the return to the genuine Islam enunciated and practised by the Holy Prophet (may God bless and give him Peace!) and his noble Companions and their Followers (blessing and peace be upon them all!) and the faith and practice of genuine Muslims after them; and they also refer to the self and mean its return to its original nature and religion (Islam). — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Michael Jordan, the basketball great, is a case in point. In a famous Nike commercial, he said: 'I've missed more than nine thousand shots. I've lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.' For many the ad was perplexing. Why boast about your mistakes? But to Jordan it made perfect sense. 'Mental toughness and heart are a lot stronger than some of the physical advantages you might have,' he said. 'I've always said that and I've always believed that.' James — Matthew Syed

Well, it doesn't work. Lowering standards just leads to poorly educated students who feel entitled to easy work and lavish praise. — Matthew Syed

When the man, by means if 'ibadat, succeeded in curbing his animal and canal passions and has thereby rendered submissive his animal soul,making it subject to the rational soul, the man thus described has attained to freedom and existence;he has achieved supreme peace and his soul is pacified, being set at liberty, as it were, free from fetters of inexorable fate and the noisy strife and hell of human vices. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

It is partly because we are so willing to blame others for their mistakes that we are so keen to conceal our own. We — Matthew Syed

Seeing that he owns absolutely nothing to 'repay' his debt, 'his own consciousness' of the fact 'that he is himself the very substance' of debt, so must he 'repay' with himself, so must he 'return' himself to Him Who owns him absolutely. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Neither the student nor I would mind in the least fair criticism and correction, but no one will permit himself to suffer criticism and correction from another whose knowledge and understanding of the subject is less than the one criticized and corrected; whose knowledge and understanding of the subject is susceptible to doubt as to its true worth and validity. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Never reject an idea because you don't have the money, manpower, muscle, or months to achieve it! — Syed Ather

The world of man in the world of nature, cannot be change without physical appearance leads to positive possess by the initial human nature and could be change by habits of man. — Syed Afroz Alam

It is like the thirsty traveller who at first sincerely sought the water of knowledge, but who later, having found it plain perhaps, proceeded to temper his cup with the salt of doubt so that his thirst now becomes insatiable though he drinks incessantly, and that in thus drinking the water that cannot slake his thirst, he has forgotten the original and true purpose for which the water was sought. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

The feeling cannot be described in words, it's mystical; I am changing. Perhaps the soul needed silence so that it can shout to hear the echo from the walls of my heart. It did heard something, Sufism! — Dr. S.U.A.H Syed

The secularizing 'values' and events that have been predicted would happen in the Muslim world have now begun to unfold with increasing momentum and persistence due still to the Muslims' lack of understanding of the true nature and implications of secularization as a philosophical program. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

It's not about being liberal or conservative, it's about being human.
It's not about being rich or poor, it's about being alive and happy.
It's not about being right, it's about being considerate and compassionate. — Karen L. Syed

Failure is rich in learning opportunities for a simple reason: in many of its guises, it represents a violation of expectation.6 It is showing us that the world is in some sense different from the way we imagined it to be. — Matthew Syed

Islam is a religion based upon knowledge, and a denial of the possibility and objectivity of knowledge would involve the destruction of the fundamental basis upon which not only the religion, but all the sciences are rooted. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Creativity is, in many respects, a response. — Matthew Syed

Progress is built, in effect, upon the foundations of necessary failure. That is the essential paradox of expert performance. — Matthew Syed

Studies have shown that we are often so worried about failure that we create vague goals, so that nobody can point the finger when we don't achieve them. We come up with face-saving excuses, even before we have attempted anything.

We cover up mistakes, not only to protect ourselves from others, but to protect us from ourselves. Experiments have demonstrated that we all have a sophisticated ability to delete failures from memory, like editors cutting gaffes from a film reel - as we'll see. Far from learning from mistakes, we edit them out of the official autobiographies we all keep in our own heads. — Matthew Syed

Today I meet with Dr. Syamsuddin Arif. He said Prof. al-Attas says, I don't read much but I think a lot — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Mere experience, if it is not matched by deep concentration, does not translate into excellence. — Matthew Syed

Do not show the face of Islam to others; instead show your face as the follower of true Islam representing character, knowledge, tolerance and piety — Syed Ahmad Khan

I am a hair-lock; I am floating in the gutters to meet the rubber-band. — Amaan Ahmad

Child prodigies amaze us because we compare them not with other performers who have practiced for the same length of time, but with children of the same age who have not dedicated their lives in the same way. We delude ourselves into thinking they possess miraculous talents because we assess their skills in a context that misses the essential point. We see their little bodies and cute faces and forget that, hidden within their skulls, their brains have been sculpted - and their knowledge deepened - by practice that few people accumulate until well into adulthood, if then. Had the six-year-old Mozart been compared with musicians who had clocked up 3,500 hours of practice, rather than with other children of the same age, he would not have seemed exceptional at all. — Matthew Syed

The subversive idea at the centre of Ericsson's work is that excellence is not reserved for the lucky few but can be achieved by almost all of us. — Matthew Syed

Fiction is but truth.. tweaked or disguised. — Syed Arshad

Power and money in evil hands have caused all the miseries of the world so far. Both have devastated poorer countries in particular. There must be checks in the exercise of political and military power, and a ceiling on wealth (of all varieties). Governance in a situation of unequal hold on power and wealth is a sham. The pundits who write and lecture so much on governance should do well to learn this basic concept. — Syed Abdus Samad

If you do not waste, you do not want. — Syed Ather

It is all too often the case with certain types of scholars of Malay-Indonesian Islam, when dealing with Islamic texts such as the one in question in which they are confronted with a word they do not quite understand, that instead of admitting their failure to explain the word in the text as due to their own lack of understanding, they would proceed to conjure up some excuse for branding the word as an enigma, and then, because it is an enigma to them, they would proceed further to reject it with such pronouncements as: "it seems obvious that this puzzling word is due to a scribal error", so that they might suggest their own futile substitute. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

It is only by starting at an unusually young age and by practicing with such ferocious devotion that it is possible to accumulate ten thousand hours while still in adolescence. Far from being an exception to the ten-thousand-hour rule, Mozart is a shining testament to it. — Matthew Syed

Every riddle has one perfect answer. For life it is love. — Syed Arshad

Everything we know in aviation, every rule in the rule book, every procedure we have, we know because someone somewhere died . . . We have purchased at great cost, lessons literally bought with blood that we have to preserve as institutional knowledge and pass on to succeeding generations. We cannot have the moral failure of forgetting these lessons and have to relearn them. — Matthew Syed

Justice and injustice indeed begins and ends with the self. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Justice implies knowledge of the right and proper place for a thing or a being to be; of right as against wrong; of the mean and limit; of spiritual gain as against loss; of truth as against falsehood. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Reading is learning: Secure Future and earnings — Syed Sohail Ahmed

Slow and steady wins the race, only and only if the rabbit, competent, sleeps a while. But, fast and consistency always win it, even if rabbit is awaken. — Syed Ather

Time has wings it is flying but it has no shape, no colour ,no dimension so it is invisible. — Syed Afroz Alam

Marginal gains is not about making small changes and hoping they fly. Rather, it is about breaking down a big problem into small parts in order to rigorously establish what works and what doesn't. — Matthew Syed

Manuscripts - at least for Muslims who understand the subject - are to be read as books whose contents are to be known and understood, for that is why they were written, and not to be regarded as enigmatic specimens for critical textual and philological exercises. To them what is in the manuscripts is more important than what is on them, and so they say: Al-'ilmu fi'l-sudur la fi'l-sutur. — Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas