Pesanan Luqman Buat Anak-Anak… dan Buat Kita Juga

Pagi ini saya mulakan hari dengan membaca dua muka surat awal Surah Luqman.

Alhamdulillah.

Ada rasa tenang yang susah nak digambarkan.

Bila membaca ayat-ayat ini, saya rasa seolah-olah sedang mendengar nasihat seorang ayah kepada anaknya. Nasihat yang penuh kasih sayang. Tidak keras. Tidak memaksa. Tetapi sangat mendalam.

Dan yang paling saya rasa…

pesanan itu bukan hanya untuk anak-anak.

Ia sebenarnya untuk kita semua.

Untuk saya.

Untuk kita sebagai anak.

Untuk kita sebagai ibu bapa.

Untuk kita sebagai suami, isteri, adik-beradik dan ahli keluarga.

Antara pesanan Luqman yang paling menyentuh hati saya pagi ini:

1. Letakkan Allah di tempat paling utama

Nasihat pertama Luqman sangat jelas:

Jangan syirik kepada Allah.

Maknanya dalam hidup ini, jangan sampai hati kita bergantung sepenuhnya pada manusia, pangkat, harta atau dunia.

Semua datang dan pergi.

Tetapi Allah kekal.

Bila Allah jadi pusat hidup kita, insya-Allah keputusan kita lebih tenang, langkah kita lebih jelas, dan hati kita lebih kuat.

2. Jangan lupa jasa ibu bapa

Dalam ayat selepas itu Allah mengingatkan tentang pengorbanan seorang ibu yang mengandung dalam susah payah, membesarkan dengan penuh kasih.

Membaca ayat ini pagi tadi buat saya teringat pada mak ayah saya.

Berapa banyak mereka berkorban yang kita tak pernah nampak.

Kadang-kadang bila umur makin meningkat, kita rasa kita sudah faham hidup.

Rupanya masih banyak jasa ibu bapa yang tak mampu kita balas.

Mungkin yang paling kita mampu buat ialah terus berbakti… selagi masih ada waktu.

3. Allah tahu walaupun perkara sekecil zarah

Ini ayat yang sangat kuat.

Walaupun sesuatu itu kecil… tersembunyi… atau orang lain tak nampak…

Allah tetap tahu.

Niat kita.

Usaha kita.

Air mata kita.

Doa yang kita simpan lama-lama dalam hati.

Tak ada satu pun yang terlepas daripada pengetahuan Allah.

Kadang-kadang manusia tak nampak usaha kita.

Tapi Allah nampak.

Dan itu sebenarnya sudah cukup.

4. Dirikan solat… kerana di situlah kita kembali

Solat bukan sekadar kewajipan harian.

Solat ialah tempat kita recharge jiwa.

Tempat kita kembali lurus bila hidup mula serabut.

Tempat kita meletakkan segala beban.

Tempat kita mengadu.

Tempat kita minta kekuatan.

Kadang-kadang dunia terlalu bising.

Solat mengajar kita berhenti sekejap… dan kembali tenang.

5. Berbuat baik, bersabar, dan kekal rendah hati

Luqman juga berpesan supaya sentiasa mengajak kepada kebaikan, menjauhi kemungkaran, bersabar dengan ujian dan jangan sombong.

Saya rasa ini sangat relevan dalam hidup kita hari ini.

Makin tinggi ilmu seseorang…

sepatutnya makin rendah hatinya.

Makin jauh perjalanan hidup…

sepatutnya makin lembut bicaranya.

Bukan makin mudah memandang rendah orang lain.

Kerana akhirnya…

semua kita sedang belajar.

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Pagi Jumaat ini saya ambil Surah Luqman sebagai satu reminder untuk diri sendiri.

Kadang-kadang kita membaca Al-Quran bukan kerana mencari jawapan besar…

tetapi kerana kita perlukan peringatan kecil yang tepat pada waktunya.

Dan pagi ini saya rasa Allah sedang mengingatkan saya tentang keluarga…

tentang tanggungjawab…

tentang adab…

dan tentang kembali meletakkan Allah di tempat yang paling atas.

Semoga Allah jadikan kita anak yang berbakti.

Pasangan yang saling menghargai.

Ibu bapa yang mendidik dengan hikmah.

Dan keluarga yang sentiasa saling mengingatkan kepada kebaikan.

Selamat pagi Jumaat.

Semoga hari ini dipenuhi keberkatan, ketenangan dan rahmat Allah buat kita semua.

Aamiin 🤲

Visualization Before Prompting: Why Teachers Still Matter More Than AI

 Visualization Before Prompting: Why Teachers Still Matter More Than AI

By Coach Amirul Iskandar Mannan

Today, almost everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence or AI. Some are afraid that AI will eventually replace teachers, educators, and even human beings themselves. Others are overly excited and want to hand over almost everything to AI without fully understanding the true role of technology.

However, after personally working with teachers in Johor through the Visual Teachers project under the UN SDG initiative, I began to realize something very important about the future of education.

The biggest problem today is not AI.

The real problem is that people are beginning to think less before using AI.

Many people want to jump straight into prompting without having real clarity on what they actually want to create. They expect AI to instantly generate ideas, structures, and solutions without first going through the process of deep thinking.

But from my own experience, the teachers who produced the best outputs were not necessarily the ones who were best at using AI.

They were the teachers who visualized their ideas first before using AI.

This is where I began to see the importance of what I call “Visualization Before Prompting”.

This philosophy aligns closely with the concept of Visualization Through Freehand or VTF, created by Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani, which forms the foundation of our Visual Teachers training program conducted with teachers in Johor.

Through VTF, teachers are trained to think, organize ideas, and communicate information visually using simple but impactful freehand sketches.

In our book Profits From Visuals, co-authored with Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani, we emphasized that visuals are not merely drawings. Visuals are a form of thinking and communication.

Today, I believe even more strongly that in the AI era, the ability to visualize ideas before prompting may become one of the most important skills of the future.

“Visualization before prompting may become one of the most important skills in the AI era.”

During one of our training sessions with teachers in Johor, I asked participants to sketch their lesson ideas visually before using AI. After that, I encouraged them to use AI to evaluate their visual outputs based on several criteria, such as clarity, organization, and effectiveness of communication.

I also asked AI to provide a score out of 10, together with suggestions for improvement.

What surprised me was not just AI’s ability to provide feedback.

What surprised me most was the teachers’ reaction.

They were excited because the feedback was instant, structured, and honest.

Some teachers admitted that when they asked fellow teachers for feedback, the comments were sometimes too general, too brief, or simply rushed due to time constraints.

There could also be unconscious bias involved. If the evaluator were a close friend, the feedback might become overly soft. If someone was too busy, the feedback might simply be superficial.

But AI consistently provided direct suggestions and practical recommendations for improvement.

At that moment, I began thinking much deeper.

Could AI eventually assist teachers in evaluating visual communication and creativity?

My answer is yes.

But only to a certain extent.

AI may eventually become very effective at evaluating patterns, structure, organization, and clarity at what I would call a “machine level”.

It may even help improve consistency in educational assessment.

In educational research, concepts such as Cohen’s Kappa are used to measure agreement and consistency between human evaluators. As AI becomes more involved in education, one fascinating future discussion is whether AI could eventually achieve levels of evaluation consistency comparable to human educators.

But for me, the bigger question is this:

Is consistency alone enough without empathy and human understanding?

Because education is ultimately about human beings.

A weak student or a special needs student may produce a visual that appears technically weak according to a rubric.

AI may assign a lower score because the drawing lacks neatness, structure, or visual hierarchy.

But a human teacher may see something far more meaningful.

A teacher may see courage.

A teacher may see emotional expression.

A teacher may understand the struggle behind the visual.

A teacher may realize that the drawing is actually a form of communication from a student who struggles to express emotions through words.

This is where I believe humans will always prevail.

“AI may evaluate visuals. But humans understand humans.”

That is why I strongly believe that freehand visual communication skills are becoming even more important in the AI era, not less important.

Too many people want to use AI immediately without first training themselves to think visually.

Before someone can produce a good prompt, they must first learn how to visualize ideas clearly.

We need to see workflows, relationships between ideas, and the bigger picture before asking AI to assist us.

When teachers sketch and visualize first before using AI, they become creators leading AI.

Not merely users being led by AI.

And that makes all the difference.

The future of education is not about humans competing against AI.

The future is about humans learning how to work with AI without losing humanity in the process.

AI may become an incredibly powerful assistant for teachers.

But teachers will always remain the soul of education.

Because in the end, education is not merely about information.

Education is about people.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Education #FutureOfEducation #VisualThinking #VisualizationBeforePrompting #VTF #VisualizationThroughFreehand #VisualTeachers #UNSDG #HumanCenteredAI #CreativeEducation #Teachers #Learning #Innovation #EdTech #Leadership #ChatGPT #ClaudeAI #GeminiAI #CoachAmirul #DrRuzaimiMatRani #YayasanWibaPrima #WeAreTheXPERTS #ThoughtLeadership #LinkedInArticle

📚 What a Library Inside a Mall Taught Me About Malaysia's Reading Problem

 

📚 What a Library Inside a Mall Taught Me About Malaysia's Reading Problem

A reflection from Seoul, South Korea

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Alhamdulillah — I recently had the opportunity to visit Seoul, South Korea.

Travelling opens your mind in ways that no classroom, no course, and no YouTube video ever can.

And sometimes, the biggest lesson hits you not in a museum or a conference room.

It hits you inside a shopping mall.

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🇰🇷 Welcome to COEX Mall — Where Shopping Meets Reading

COEX Mall in Seoul is one of the largest underground shopping malls in Asia.

It has everything you'd expect — fashion, food, tech, and entertainment.

But tucked right inside this buzzing mall is something I did not expect.

A library.

Not a small corner with a few shelves.

A massive, floor-to-ceiling, sea-of-books library — right in the middle of a shopping mall.

It stopped me in my tracks.

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📖 The Sight That Made Me Think

I stood there and just observed.

People were browsing. Sitting. Reading.

And then — something that genuinely surprised me.

Kids. Picking up books. Reading.

Not scrolling through their phones. Not watching videos. Not gaming.

Reading.

In a mall. By choice.

That, for me, was the real eye-opener.

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💡 The Genius of This Idea

Here's what I realised:

We've spent years telling people — especially young people — to "go to the library and read."

And it hasn't worked as well as we hoped.

Because the library is over there. And life is happening over here.

But what if we brought the books to where the people already are?

The mall generation doesn't go to libraries.

So bring the library to the mall.

Create the environment. Remove the barrier. Let curiosity do the rest.

And honestly? You don't need to worry about people stealing books.

No one steals from a library inside a shopping mall.

The openness itself creates trust.

The beautiful design itself invites you in.

And the books? They do the rest.

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🇲🇾 What This Means for Malaysia

I came home with one thought repeating in my mind:

Why aren't we doing this?

We have malls. Lots of them.

We have books. Plenty of them.

We have kids glued to gadgets — and parents quietly worried about it.

The problem isn't that Malaysians don't like to read.

The problem is that we haven't made reading easy, attractive, and accessible enough.

We need to rethink the environment.

A child who walks past a beautifully designed reading space inside a mall — surrounded by books, good lighting, and a calm corner to sit — will stop. Will look. Will pick something up.

That's not a dream. I saw it happen. In Seoul.

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🌱 A Challenge to All of Us

To the educators, leaders, policymakers, and parents reading this:

The solution to Malaysia's reading culture is not another campaign.

It's environment design.

Put books where people already are. Design spaces that invite curiosity. Make reading feel like a discovery, not a duty.

Travelling reminds me that the world is full of ideas we haven't tried yet.

Seoul taught me that.

And I'm bringing that idea home — Inn Shaa Allah.

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What do you think? Could a library inside a Malaysian mall work?

Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let's start the conversation. 👇

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#ReadingCulture #Malaysia #Seoul #Korea #COEXMall #LeadWithImpact #WorkSmarterNotHarder #CoachAmirul #Education #MindsetShift #LibraryInAMall #LifelongLearning #MalaysiaReads #TravelAndLearn #Leadership

AI Made Me Listen to Kuliah Differently

I truly believe that AI should be the ultimate leverage tool for humanity.

It should help us think better, learn faster, work smarter, and become more beneficial to others.

But at the same time, we must remember something very important:

AI should enhance human intelligence — not replace it.

We still need to be the thinker.
The creator.
The driver.

We cannot allow AI to think for us while we become passive users simply waiting for answers.

The people who will benefit the most from AI are not necessarily the most technical people.

It will be those who know how to use AI to upgrade and enhance their lives.

The way we work.
The way we study.
The way we learn.
The way we communicate.
The way we present ideas.
The way we understand the world.
The way we help others.

AI can amplify all of these things if we use it correctly.

Recently, I realised this during a kuliah.

Normally when listening to a kuliah or lecture, most of the learning experience is verbal. The ustaz speaks, we listen, and later we try to remember what was shared.

But if I am being honest, maybe I only retain about 30–40% afterwards.

Now, when I attend a kuliah, I use AI while listening.

If the ustaz mentions a sahabat, I quickly ask AI for more information.

If a surah is mentioned, I ask AI to show me the verses and tafsir.

If a kitab is referenced, I ask AI for the background and explanation.

If a historical event is mentioned, I explore it deeper immediately.

SubhanAllah, the learning experience becomes completely different.

Instead of only listening passively, I become actively engaged in understanding.

AI helps me verify information.
It helps me connect ideas.
It helps me explore deeper.
It helps me learn beyond the lecture itself.

The ustaz is still teaching.
But AI enhances my ability to absorb and understand.

And I think this is the real power of AI.

Not replacing humans.
Not replacing teachers.
Not replacing scholars.

But helping us become better learners.

Today, every one of us has access to incredible knowledge and insights at our fingertips.

The possibilities are truly endless.

I remember something said by Mark Hughes many years ago:

“Your success is only limited by your imagination.”

Honestly, I feel the same applies to AI.

Your growth with AI is limited by:

• your curiosity

• your willingness to learn

• your creativity

• the quality of the questions you ask

Challenge the AI.
Push it.
Explore with it.

Learn the skills.
Especially prompting.

Because prompting is not just about talking to AI.
It is about learning how to think clearly.

And perhaps that is one of the biggest lessons of all.

AI rewards clarity.

The clearer your thinking, the better the outcome.

Alhamdulillah, we are living in a time where technology can help us learn, reflect, create, and contribute faster than ever before.

May we use this technology with wisdom.
May it bring us closer to knowledge, benefit others, and ultimately bring us closer to Allah SWT.

Bismillah.

#ArtificialIntelligence

#ChatGPT

#AI

#AIForEducation

#AIForLearning

#FutureOfLearning

#Leadership

#Learning

#Productivity

#DigitalTransformation

#Education

#Teachers

#LifelongLearning

#PromptEngineering

#HumanCenteredAI

#Knowledge

#Innovation

#CoachAmirul

#LeadWithAI

#YayasanWibaPrima