Taman Tamadun Islam

Taman Tamadun Islam

The story of Taman Tamadun Islam (TTI) had been told by my teacher every week before I visited Terengganu, Malaysia. I cold not imagine how the TTI was as the teacher said that “We will travel around the world just as we visit at the TTI.”

In November, my teacher brought us to travel at TTI. As my bus was crossing Terengganu River, the view of the TTI and Crystal mosque near the river bank made me felt excited. Even though it was not a program on the first day of this trip, the beautiful Creston mosque and TTI was attracted the eyes of all friends in the bus as Thai tourists.

On the second day of this trip came very nice. Everyone concentrate to go to the TTI. At the monument park, the officers were very nice. Before entering the park, we had to stamp a passport first (Monument park passport).

The TTI was very big and large. We had to take a train or buggy for visiting each mosque. The mosques and monuments were rebuilt as same as the original one but in the smaller sizes. However, it made me amazed as such I was in the real historical world. I had traveled around the world as my teacher said. It was very amazing!

Around 20 of the monuments and mosques of the world were duplicated at the TTI, Malaysia such as national mosque of Malaysia, Alhambra palace in Spain, Taj Mahal of India, Masjidil-Haram and Prophet mosque in Saudi Arabia, Pattani Mosque in Thailand, Suleymaniye Mosque in Turkey and any others famous Muslim monuments world. That day, I just spent a half day to visit the famous Muslim monuments around the world at TTI.

The most amazing monument of this trip was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. First step of entering this mosque, I was very proud and impressed. I had visited a real Dome of the Rock! Even it was smaller but I could see an amazing architecture on the roof and touched a big stone in the middle of the mosque. I got a great experience in the Dome of the Rock. My heart was full of happiness with feeling as visiting in Jerusalem but the rain outside the mosque woke me that I was in Malaysia!

This is a fantastic monument park I have visited. I love this place. I wish this kind of park will be in Thailand. It is very interesting. Last time, I visited with my classmate but I will visit with my family for someday. 

The Miracle of world

'The Miracle' of Floating Rock in Jerusalem? Or is it a hoax?

To begin with, just look at the image at right. It is a widely spread picture in the internet, especially within muslim community. Some call this floating rock, some flying rock or stone. Some even call this a miracle of Allah, of the Prophet or Islam. What make the picture an 'attention grabber' are also the stories that accompanied the emails or blogs about it.

Here are several summaries of the stories:

It is said that the rock is in Jerusalem. It was the rock where the Prophet Muhammad stood when he begin the ascend to heaven during the Israk Mikraj event. The rock was said wanted to follow the Prophet ascending to heaven, but the Prophet stop it. So it stopped the ascend and staying afloat until now.

Another story adds the above description and said that it is is now under the Dome of the Rock, in the Palestine. Some said the rock is now tightly guarded by the israely soldier as not to attrack muslim and to cover the miracle of the Prohet of Allah.

Some said it is a rock in eastern part of Saudi Arabia, in a village called Al Hassa. The rock is said to float about 10 cm from the ground at a specific time every year and then sit back on the ground.

Many muslims believe the stories and account the picture to be true and eagerly said: 'Allahu Akbar! (Allah is the great!)' or 'this is the miracle of Allah'. Many others questioned it. Still among the non-muslims, the picture raised some doubt and questions: is the picture real?

From my point of view, it is just a hoax because:

1. The picture is 'too good to be true'. If it is floating, and in open air, near a village (see the car, electricity cables and the house), flocks of people, radio and tv channel crews, and all sort of media would surely have published the pictures and the story. It should already have had its own blog, for sure. Yet, we only have this single picture and vague comments about where and what it is.

2. The story about the rock has no authentic reference from the islamic sources like hadiths or the saying of the Prophet. (if someone has the proof that IT HAS, please let me know)

3. It can be shown that the picture has been somehow manipulated or doctored. Several people pointed to the part below the rock, under the shadow. See below.

The true story of the 'floating rock'

After sometime of believing that the picture is not true without able to prove it, I finally come accross an arabic forum where the members discussing this. Thanks to image search engines, I can show you the pictures below that show the original rock in several viewing angles. The pictures show why the 'floating rock' is almost so convincing that many people reject to accept that such is only a manipulated image. The rock itself is unique, and is supported by at least three rock structures below it. The supporting rocks seem to be a continuous part of the rock that unite it with the ground. The supporting rocks are relatively very small compared to the size of the rock above them.

That fact explains why it is easy to manipulate the rock to be 'floating'. By photographing the rock at the right angle, one can have a picture where the supporting rock can be erased without manipulating other part of the whole image. Such small manipulation was enough to produce the miraculous 'floating rock'.

Here are several of the pictures:

From the forum, I also learned that the rock is actually located in Al Ahsa, near Tuwaithir village in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. You can see what the place looks like and the many unique rocky structures it has here, in Panoramio. There is also another reference to the original rock in flickr.

The original picture of the rock under the golden Dome of the Rock (Quba al Shahra)

This is the picture of the rock that is believed to be the standing point when the Prophet Muhammad about to ascend to heaven in the event of Israk Mikraj. It is located in the infamous Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, one of the famous landmarks of the Palestine. Is this rock actually floating? Honestly, i do not know the answer. But this is a very famous place and many pilgrims visited it every day, they should have known it if it is floating in the air.

Concluding remark

I hope this is enough to prove that the so-called 'floating rock' - and the miracle story that accompany it - is not true. For fellow muslims, I just want to say that we should not hurryly believe pictures or stories that is attributed to be the miracle of Allah, or Islam. We can still be a believing muslim, even if we do not believe such 'miracle pictures'.

That rock is nothing compared to the Power of Allah.

Betonng Town

Last August, My friends and I took a taxi to  Betong town. A long the way from Yala province to Betong town, the taxi turn right and left smoothly even it had to climb up the mountains. Two sides of road were orchards, plantations, and hills. Beside the road many car were filled with durians from gardens. So, the rich durian smell defused to all that areas. Some opposite cars were filled with Longgong, rambutan, and mangosteen. Two hours later, we arrived at Betong town. I was surprised at the isolated small town was more civilized than I expected.

The small town has all conveniences as in a big city of Thailand. There are a lot of big hotels with spa and beauty service, beautiful resorts, night club or bars, shops, big education places, and beautiful visiting places. Thai, Malay, and Chinese foods are available in the market. The cars and motorcycles move busily as same as in the big city.

Betong is a district of Yala province which is located at the Malaysia border. Most of populations are Thai-Chinese and others are Thai and Thai- Muslim. There are around 24,688 populations. Many tourists come from Malaysia. Betong is known as “a beautiful border town, southern most of Siam, beautiful flower, town in the fog.”

The taxi left us at the central town where a biggest red mail box of the world was standing. It was very big and tall. My friend and I did not forget to take a photo. We spent the times here until the sun dazzled over the mail box top.

That day, I visited many interesting places for example, hot spring water, Piyamit tunnel, Mongkollit tunnel, Betong central mosque, and many other interesting places. However the most impressive place of this trip was a winter flower garden. It was settled on the high mountain near the hot spring water where the air was cold. Various kinds of winter flowers were planted. It looked colorful and nice. At the top of the mountain, the garden was designed in many shapes such as circle, heart, and flower shapes.

Looking at the bottom, a garden was designed as a web. There was a small stream passing below the shelter and a various kinds of fish were swimming. Here, there were also Christmas trees. In addition, nice bamboo bungalows and beautiful design accommodation have been provided for tourists. The weather was cold and nice even it was at noon. It was a wonderful place I had visited.

My friends and I took many hours to take photos. The friends’ smiling were still in my memory. We are planning to visit here again on February which we will see a great colorful winter flowers are blooming and touching the mist town.

the door

She went through the heavy steel door that let to the basement