on podcasts

Got a new obsession : podcasts! Yes, i know, though it seems tempting to say its oh-so-passe now, I did try it out previously, only to have my interest peter off due to the lack of podcasts that interest me.

Now, however, its a totally different story. Through podcasts, there is a cost-efficient way to partake in various intellectual pursuit. Here are a list of some of the podcasts I currently subscribe to (with a short description of its contents):

• Gamelan Podcast - self-explanatory
• Zaytuna Institute Podcast - one of the more frequently updated and truly multimedia podcasts, contain both audio and video lectures on Islam by Shaykh Hamzah Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, and also documents on Islam
• Q-News Podcast - of Q-News magazine fame, covers current issues, e.g. Palestine, organic food, mental health from a decidedly Islamic perspective.
• iKhutbah - various lectures from American Muslim scholars, i.e Imam Suhaib Webb, Imam Siraj Wahaj etc.
• Radical Middle Way Project - UK podcast with lectures on Islam delivered by noted scholars (in English).
  
• mykuliah.net podcast (Malay) - a compendium of ceramahs delivered by famous Malaysian speakers like Dr Harun Din, Aqil Hayy, Ustaz Shamsuri Ahmad.
• Zirah KLFM 97.2 (Malay) - a favourite show of mine. This is the podcast for Zikrah, the daily morning radio program on KLFM featuring Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman.

The quality of the recordings are generally bearable bearing in mind that most of the episodes are actually lectures recorded live (with the exception of the Gamelan podcast as it is essentially a music program). The Zaytuna podcast deserves extra mention as it truly is a full-featured multimedia podcast and is updated at regular intervals. Its a good thing then, I suppose, that one finds it hard to tire of Hamzah Yusuf and his educational mirth.

There are also podcasts that aim to teach or at least complement the learning of a language. The learn Japaneses podcast is very popular (it was even featured in Time recently), so is the learn Mandarin podcast. However, the arabic language podcasts that I have tried are unsatisfactory,to say the least.

After listening to people like Abdul Hakim Murad, Hamzah Yusuf, Zaid Shakir and others, one finds it tempting to make comparisons with the lectures we regular hear delivered by our homegrown scholars of islam. The content of the Malaysian lectures are rather superficial, as opposed to the deep probing discourses, especially those delivered by people like Abdul Hakim Murad, a professor of Divinity from Cambridge University. There also seems to be greater emphasis on the application of Islam principles to daily life and issues as opposed to merely restricting it to supplications, prayers and the odd political issue. As there is a very obvious spiritual vacuum, perhaps it is timely for our Ustazs and scholars to start speaking in depth and offer their opinions on concerns such as the environment, health, culture, relationships lest people seeking for answers pick up instead the solutions offered that may be incompatible with Quranic principles.

God knows best.