Importance of Correct Intentions

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious and Merciful.

Hope that His blessings are always with us. aamiin.

For a long time, I didn't talk about my course; I am majoring in Agrobiology. As I had a chance to join my usrah yesterday, I got lots of tazkirah (reminders) and information from many fields. Alhamdulillah. Therefore I want to share something from this exciting usrah ^^.

It is about INTENTION or in Bahasa, it is called 'NIAT'. There is one hadith which says, 

Translated version:

عَنْ عُمَرَ بْنِ الْخَطَّابِ قَالَ, قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُبِالنِّيَّةِ وَإِنَّمَا امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِوَرَسُولِهِ وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوْ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَإِلَيْهِ


"Daripada ‘Umar bin al-Khaththab (semoga Allah meredhainya), dia berkata, Rasulullah (selawat dan salam ke atas baginda) bersabda: “Sesungguhnya amal itu tidak lain hanyalah dengan niat dan sesungguhnya bagi setiap orang hanyalah apa yang dia niatkan. Maka barangsiapa yang berhijrah kepada Allah dan Rasul-Nya maka hijrahnya adalah kepada Allah dan Rasul-Nya. Dan barangsiapa yang berhijrah untuk dunia yang dia inginkan atau kerana seorang wanita yang ingin dia nikahi, maka hijrahnya adalah kepada apa yang dia berhijrah kerananya."

From this hadith, we can see the importance of intention in everything that we want to do. This includes the purpose of our studying, running programmes, involving in sports and more. So, as students, have we ever thought why Allah has put ourselves in this field of study are we taking now? Maybe there are certain people taking the courses which they didn't expect or wish to study previously, and just learning without even knowing the use of it.

For the smallest thing to the biggest thing that happens to us, Allah Knows best. We as His slaves must learn to appreciate, appreciate and appreciate. ^^ 

We also even heard about people saying "I want to be a Muslim doctor," "I want to be a Muslim engineer", "I want to be a Muslim agrobiologist" and many more. Why not if we try TO BE like that from now? From that usrah, now I realized that whatever Allah has given us in any situation, there must be a 'hikmah' hidden by it. Subhanallah.. The knowledge that I am learning now, I can use it for the sake of my ummah, then the rewards from it can save me on the Judgement Day..and more important is..His blessings. REDHA. Insya Allah, aamiin :') Let's do it! 

Hence I would like to share what I have learned in my subject of Plant Pathology. Do you know what is it about? It is the study of plant diseases and it is very fascinating subject! I imagined when I am old, the conversation among me and my grandchild will happen like 

this: 

Grandchild : "Opah, what has happened to the papaya? It has a dark spot on it." 

Me : "Oh, that is because the papaya fruit has been attacked by a disease." 

Grandchild : "What is the disease, Opah?"

Me : "The disease name is Papaya Ring Spot Virus."

Grandchild : "Wow, Opah is so brilliant!" 
Me : "Alhamdulillah, Opah graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia, my cutie." 

*(Cewah. Berangan je lebih! :DDD)

Okay. SERIOUS. Take a deep breath and blow. Pheww~ Good. 

Have you ever heard about Genetically Modified Food? Enjoy reading ^^ ~


It is essential that we improve food production and distribution in order to feed and free from hunger a growing world population, while reducing environmental impacts and providing productive employment in low-income areas. This will require a proper and responsible utilisation of scientific discoveries and new technologies. 

The developers and overseers of Genetically Modified technology applied to plants and micro-organisms should make sure that their efforts address such needs. Increasing the amount of land available to cultivate crops, without having a serious impact on the environment and natural resources, is a limited option. Modern agriculture has increased production of food, but it has also introduced large-scale use of pesticides and fertilisers that are expensive and can potentially affect human health or damage the ecosystem.

A major challenge faced by humankind today is how to increase world food production and people’s access to food, which requires local and employment-intensive staples production, without further depleting non-renewable resources and causing environmental damage. In other words, how do we move towards sustainable agricultural practices that do not compromise the health and economic well-being of the current and future generations? 


In order to think in terms of sustainable agriculture, factors responsible for soil, water and environmental deterioration must be identified and corrective measures taken.Regarding to the papaya industry developed in Hawaii being damaged by a disease called Papaya Ring Spot Virus (PRSV) which discovered in Puna in May 1992, the papaya industry was in a crisis situation as the virus spread very rapidly. Research on transgenic crops is one of the wise way to counter the damage that largely affect the papayas production. 

Transgenic plants are plants that have been engineered, a breeding approach that uses recombinant DNA techniques to create plants with new characteristics. They are identified as a class of genetically modified organisms (GMO). It offers the possibility of not only bringing in desirable characteristics from other varieties of the plant, but also of adding characteristics from other unrelated species. 

Such modifications increase the nutritional status of the foods and may, help to improve human health by addressing multinutrition and under-nutrition.The question is why virus resistance in transgenic plants, and are there risks associated with the release of virus-resistant transgenic plant? There is clearly a benefit to farmers if transgenic plants are developed that are resistant to a specific pest. For example, papaya-ringspot-virus-resistant. Papaya has been commercialised and grown in Hawaii since 1996 (Gonsalves 1998). The adoption of transgenic papaya cultivars have been very high since the start of their release in Hawaii in 1998, reaching 60 percent in 2005, essentially because the virus had devastated the local papaya industry.

Besides, the expression of a virus gene fragment in a plant confers resistance to virus infection also raises environmental safety concerns with regard to the constitutive expression of viral genes, which is known to occur only with certain viruses in a few conventional crops. Such concerns have focused on the potential for allergic reactions to food products, the possible introduction or increase in production of toxic compounds as a result of the GM technology, and the use of antibiotic resistance as markers in the transformation process. 


Every effort should be made to avoid the introduction of known allergens into food crops. Information concerning potential allergens and natural plant toxins should be made available to researchers, industry, regulators, and the general public. In order to facilitate this effort, public databases should be developed which facilitate access of all interested parties to data.


According to the Health Canada's review of the information presented in support of the food use of virus resistant papaya line 55-1, concluded that this line does not present human food safety concerns. Health Canada is of the opinion that virus resistant papaya is as safe and nutritious as currently available commercial papaya varieties. Health Canada's opinion pertains only to the food use of virus resistant papaya line 55-1.

The PRV coat protein is not considered to be novel with respect to human consumption since fruit infected with PRV has commonly been consumed apparently without adverse effect. Naturally occurring infections of papaya result in concentrations of coat proteins at much higher levels than those expressed in papaya line 55-1. The proteins used as marker genes have been previously evaluated for toxicological safety as they are commonly used as marker genes in genetically modified plants.


Decisions regarding safety should be based on the nature of the product, rather than on the method by which it was modified. It is important to bear in mind that many of the crop plants we use contain natural toxins and allergens. The potential for human toxicity or allergenicity should be kept under scrutiny for any novel proteins produced in plants with the potential to become part of food or feed. Health hazards from food, and how to reduce them, are an issue in all countries, quite apart from any concerns about GM technology.

The application of modern genomics research techniques to plant species promises an explosion of new knowledge and information that may lead to important new advances in agricultural production and the quality, quantity and variety of food products. Actual realisation of these advances will depend to a significant extent on both publicly and privately funded research and on the development efforts of commercial companies supported by private investment. Therefore, to benefit the growing populations of the developing world, new plant varieties will have to be developed through a variety of sources, including: (i) farmers who select plants that succeed best in their particular locality for the retention of seed for future use or sale; (ii) public or pro bono research institutions financed out of taxes or charitable grants that provide improved varieties to appropriate users free or at cost; and (iii) for-profit companies interested in creating new products and markets that develop new varieties financed through profits from seed sales.

# The End.


"Bandingan pemberian orang-orang yang membelanjakan hartanya pada jalan Allah, sama seperti sebiji benih yang tumbuh mengeluarkan tujuh tangkai, setiap tangkai itu mengandungi 100 biji. Dan ingatlah, Allah akan melipatgandakan pahala bagi sesiapa yang dikehendakiNya dan Allah Maha Luas (rahmatNya) lagi meliputi ilmu pengetahuanNya." (Al-Baqarah : 261)

"---one of the hadith that related to plant---"

*Agrobiology is such a wonderful subject!* Alhamdulillah