OUTSTANDING MUSLIMS IN MALAYSIA - CONTRIBUTIONS TO ISLAM AND SOCIETY

PERSONALITY : USTAZ WAN SOHOR BANI LEMAN

Biodata of the Personality – Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman

U
staz Wan Sohor Bani Leman, known as Ustaz Sohor among the Malaysians is a

famous Islamic motivator that had given more than 200 talks and had published

various books and media, most of them were published by Telaga Biru

Publications ( a Malaysian publisher well known with their Islamic range products ). Born in

July 1969 ( aged 41 ) , he is married to Tufekcic Enisa , a Bosnian woman, who is eight years his

junior. They got married in May 29, 1993. Having married for 17 years they are blessed with two

children, a boy and a girl. He graduated from a university in Madinah and currently works as an

Arabic lecturer in International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). He is very active in

giving talks and producing many articles and products for the benefit of Islam in Malaysia. He is

therefore, eligible enough to be said as one of the most outstanding Muslims in the country due

to his major contributions to Islam and society.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ISLAM AND SOCIETY

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Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman had contributed many of his own ideas and effort to strengthen

the image and the implementation of the religion of Islam among the society. Well-known as the

famous motivator among the Malaysians, his contributions covers a wide range of medium such

as the television programmes, cassettes, DVDs, youtube , popular magazines and many others.

He is one of the Muslims scholar that would be consulted by the community whenever a matter

of confusion regarding the religion arise. His contribution is not restricted by the national

boundaries as he also contributes a lot to other Muslim country as well , such as the construction

of mosque in a rural village located in Bosnia. In this particular topic, we are going to divide his

contributions to 4 main fields. That would be, first , his contributions in spreading the message

of Islam (talks and motivational programme) , in his Islamic products and how they benefit

the Muslims , his contributions in the construction of masjid As-Sahabah, Bosnia ,and lastly,

how he become a good role model for others.

Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman has participated in many talks and motivational program all

around the Malaysian globe. Besides holding a pose as a speaker, he is also a talented host.

Once , he had appeared as a television host in “ Hello Malaysia” program broadcasted on

Bernama Television. The speakers for this program were Ustaz Syukri and a lecturer from UTM.

The talk was entitled “ Senario Umat Hari Ini dan Sambutan Maulud Nabi” ( The current

scenario of the ummah and the celebration of Maulud Nabi). He mentioned about people

nowadays who were far away from the era of the prophet and instead of celebrating the

“Maulidur Rasul”, they should learn how to love Nabi Muhammad PBUH . At the end of the

program, Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman concluded the talk with this phrase : “ The coming of

the Last Messenger of Allah were waited by all races including Yahudi, but because of the

prophet is not from their races (Yahudi), they denied it even though they know the truth. So, as a

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Muslim we should not follow their behavior. They rejected the truth and follow their own lust

and desire”. From this program, all audience would know the story about the struggled of the

Prophet Muhammad PBUH to spread dakwah to his ummah. Various lessons could be extracted

from his talks and it could be used in daily life. On 16th April 2010, he delivered a talk entitled “

Keluarga Bahagia” ( A Blissful Family ) organized by Surau Muhajirin and Businessmen at SU

MALL in collaboration with Persatuan Penduduk SU3 and Masjid Saujana Utama. The talk was

given to the community of Saujana Utama and the residents nearby. The aim of this talk is to

promote SU MALL as a place of knowledge and Alhamdulillah, with the influence from Ustaz

Wan Sohor, the aim was achieved successfully. In this program, a collection of donation for

surau Al- Muhajirin SU3 was held and they had collected RM 1200.00. From this program, the

community would have more knowledge on how to build a happy family and at the same time

can help Surau Al- Muhajirin to collect some donation. Not only appeared as a speaker for talks,

Ustaz Wan Sohor is also a DJ at KL FM for the slot Az-Zekra He would on air every Monday to

Friday on 6.45 a.m. In this program, he will talk about ‘Tafsir’. He would interchangeably

change the post every one week with Ustaz Puzhi Dato Mustafa, which means after one week the

post would change again and Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman would take the post again. The show

gained positive responses from the listeners and is one of the high-rating programmes

broadcasted on KL FM.

Like any other Muslims personalities that have their own Islamic product, Ustaz Wan

Sohor is no exception. Having published many products (mostly with Telaga Biru Publication),

his product is mostly based on the practical way of Islam, The Fiqh of Islam and Aqidah. For

example, a collection of CDs entitled “Mudahnya Solat” (How to Pray). These CDs illustrated

on how to make Azan and Iqamat, the Niat for Solah and the practical way of doing Solat Subuh,

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Solat Zuhur and Solat Maghrib ( a video by which Ustaz Wan Sohor showed the practical way of

Solah ).The publisher for this product is Ilham Network Enterprise with the collaboration of

Al-Muqarrobin Production. The distributor for this CD and books is Pro Seven Marketing. This

product had helped the Muslims to improve their Solah and also is a good learning material for

children. They can improve their recitation and also can perform their Solah excellently. He also

wrote his own books, among them are “Solat-Solat Sunat” , “Cara Pengurusan Jenazah” and

“ Al- Quran Format Karaoke”. However, most of his products were distributed by the Telaga

Biru Publisher. Some of the titles of his CDs and DVDs are Qiamat Kecil , Sunat-Sunat Kecil ,

Amerika Diserang , Roh Yang Gembira Dan Sedih and more were among of his products

distributed by the publisher.

Not only in our country, Malaysia, Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman is also well known for his

charity work in assisting our Muslims in other country as well, such as Bosnia and

Herzegovina, his wife’s birthplace. Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a country in South-Eastern

Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the

east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina ( also known as Bosnia-

Herzegovina/Bosnia and Hercegovina) is almost landlocked, except for 26 kilometers (16 miles)

of Adriatic Sea coastline, centered in the town of Neum. In July 2008, Ustaz Wan Sohor made

an announcement in a radio show hosted by him in KLFM, Az- Zikraa that a mosque

named Masjid As-Sahabah (As-Sahabah Mosque) would be build in Kovacevici, Nemila,

Zenica ( A muslim village in a rural area ). The mosque would replaced the old mosque used by

the residents there, which was approximately aged about 500 years. The worn-out conditions of

the old mosque had made it difficult to accommodate a large amount of people at one time,

especially on Friday congregational prayer. At least 75 000 Euro (approximately RM 322579.31)

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was needed to fully sustained its construsction, and it could exceed more than that due to various

problems such as economic and weather problem. However the project was abandoned due to the

financial problem faced by the residents there. Realizing the fatal need of the mosque to the

Bosnians, Ustaz Wan Sohor, together with his brother-in-law , Tufekcic Munir , launched the

programmme called ‘Derma Masjid’ ( Donation for the Mosque ). An official blog of the

programme had also been made with he himself as the moderator. The blog would act as a

medium of interaction and place for special announcement to those who contributed their money

for the development of the mosque. The program attracted huge donors from all over Malaysia to

give their helping hand to their relatives ( in this case, the Bosnians) there. On 25th August 2008

the program had collected a vast amount of RM 304 468.24 followed by a substantial amount of

RM 353 733.87 on 28th August 2008. All of them were donated by the Malaysians who

transferred their money to Ustaz Sohor’s Maybank account. From that particular amount, RM

100 145.00 ( approximately 20 000 Euro ) had been transferred to Tufekcic Munir’s ( his

brother in-law ) account ( Bosnia Bank International D.D ) located in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This

account was supervised by the head of the Imam together with the villagers there to avoid any

kind of misunderstanding and corruption. In December 2008, the ground plan and letter of

approval from the government for the development of the mosque had been posted in his blog,

proving that the project would be continued further. He announced that the construction of the

mosque will begin in Mac 2009. A few days after that, a 3D image of the mock mosque had been

posted in his blog. While he continued to give his tazkirah in Az-Zikraa , he always reminded his

program’s listener to continue their support of the project and also encourage them to continue

their donation as well, because, to build a mosque, in Bosnia even, was clearly not an easy task.

In Mac 2009, another amount of money total up to RM 354, 750 ( approximately 75 000 EURO )

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had been transferred to Bosnia to initiate the construction of the mosque. It is a remarkable day

indeed for the Bosnians in Orahovica, Kovacevici in May 2009, when on this day the foundation

stone of the mosque was placed at the mosque. The event was followed by the beginning of the

construction of ground floor’s wall and rooms ( for the imam, computer’s room , Muslim

women’s room and room for taking wudhu’). Also, it is stated in the blog that the first floor of

the mosque would be the main prayer hall while the second floor would belong to the bilal of

Friday congregational prayer and also as the Muslim women’s prayer place for other days than

Friday. From July to June 2009, the process of construction concerned in building its walls and

pillars. Both of them had been completed in August 2009. After that, the dome of the mosque

had started its construction. Throughout the year 2010, further process of construction and

beautification of the mosque had been done. Process of painting the mosque had started its action

in March 2010 and it took 1 month above to be completed. After it finished, the community of

the mosque continued its construction by inclusion of the internal heating system. It was further

continued by light installation and other trivial beautification for its walls and floors. In July, a

Malaysian couple, Hj. Mahmud Yusof and his wife Zainab Abd. Majid visited the mosque which

at that time, within an inch of its completion. At that particular moment, the mosque was 98%

ready and had been used by the residents there to perform their prayers. Hj. Mahmud Yusof, who

was an architect himself, praised the architecture and the design of the mosque. In his opinion,

the materials used are of high quality items and furnishings that include a variety of cultures such

as Turkey, Iran, Malaysia and Bosnia itself, making it subtle and different from most of the

mosque tower in Bosnia, because it was squared staggered rather than cylindrical shape. Finally,

the mosque recorded its own historic moment when the first Friday congregational prayer was

performed there on 30th July 2010. Until today, the mosque had been used by the Bosnians there

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and they started to named it “Masjid Orang Malaysia” ( The Mosque of Malaysian People )

instead of Masjid As-Sahabah for the remembrance of the services and donations from the good-

hearted Malaysians. This project, which had taken approximately took about 2 years to complete,

will not eventually come into existence if someone doesn’t initiate the process. Therefore, it is

without reasonable doubt that he is one of the important figure that contribute a lot of his

herculean energy, precious money, and time in this noble project. This programme had

encouraged other muslims to exemplified Ustaz Wan Sohor’s action in everyday life. By doing

this , he proved that, Islam is somehow a religion that encourage its follower to help others in all

fields of life, be it money, residency, education and so on. Though Bosnia and Malaysia were

separated by a national boundaries and both countries share nothing in common in the aspects of

culture, lifestyle, language , education and many others, they were linked with one faith, one

religion, and one god, that is Islam and Allah s.w.t. And it was an explicit proof from Ustaz

Sohor that, those principles is not only written in the book, but it was implemented by the

muslims in their real life. This, would in turn change the perceptions of others that view Islam as

‘”terrorist” while paradoxically, it is not and was far better than that.

Ustaz Wan Sohor possessed a very good personality within him. This made him a good role

model to be followed. Among his special qualities are helpful, good sense of humour,

knowledgeable, hardworking, systematic, loving and easy to be friend with. A solid proof of that

statement would be at the times when he became a volunteer to Bosnia to help people there. He

went there while he was still studying in a university located in Madinah Al-Munawarah. And

all of this is done without any barrier dividing him from those people in Bosnia. The assistance

was given based on the principle of strong bond of brotherhood between Muslims. Not only he is

a helpful person, he is also a person with a good sense of humor. As we all know, for the past

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few years, other than being an Islamic motivator and conducting his own programme in KLFM,

he is also a lecturer of Arabic Language in IIUM Petaling Jaya. During his teaching, he would

give ‘tazkirah’ ( it is a form of advice to remind Muslims about Islam and the Almighty God ) to

his students and usually, though it is a serious topic, the messages behind it would be conveyed

well, all thanks to his way on delivering the topic. One of his students stated that : “ Ustaz was a

very kind and humorous lecturer. He is someone that holds firmly to Islam. But, what made him

different from others is his ability to change the skeptical image of an ustaz into someone that we

can relate to. In the class, he always tell us a lot of stories, most of them revolves around Islam.

And it is delivered in a fun and interesting way. It is enjoyable to heard about how he got married

at the age of 24 to his beloved wife, a Bosnian woman who is at that time was at the age of 16.

What made us laugh was when he said : ‘Woman must marry someone who is older than her.

Because they grow old faster than man did. Like me, because I am 8 years older than my wife,

she always look beautiful and younger. So , as a husband I am so proud to have such a beautiful

wife!’. Though it seems like it was merely a joke, but the real message is that woman should

marry someone older than her because old man is more matured and thus, could handle the

woman well.” This matter was not only agreed upon by his students, but also by people who had

once working with him for a certain projects. For example, Amin Idris , the founder of Amin

Idris Training Consultant (AITC) , who had once collaborated with him for Valentine’s Day

Forum “ Love Me, Love Me Not” held by IIUM stated that: ‘ He is a very great person. For

once, I noticed that the only thing that made people can get closer to him is because he loves to

smile. He is a very easy-going person and does not adhere much to formalities. He is simple, but

very knowledgeable.’ Besides all that, Ustaz Wan Sohor is also a hardworking person, especially

when it comes to religious matters. He always doing his best to contribute as much as he can for

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the benefit of the ummah. He is willing to go to rural area such as in Sarawak and Sabah to give

talks and exceeding the country’s boundaries by doing charity in Bosnia. Despites all that, he

still manage to divide his time and manage his life wisely. He might be a lecturer to his student, a

husband to his wife , a father to his children and many others, but still he succeed in doing his

best to be the caliph of Allah.

Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman. Some of us might know him, while some others might not. His

name might be familiar, but then, it might not. While some of us has seen him once or twice,

others may not even know the existence of such person. However, his contributions to the Islam

and society were unquestionable. Being involved in talks for many years and deliver the message

of Islam, helping people to solve their problem regarding Islamic matters, producing Islamic

products that benefited the Muslims , the important people behind the ‘Derma Masjid’

programme and being the role model for others to followed until they are being inspired by him ,

he is in fact, is not nobody, but somebody. Someone to be known. Someone to be followed.

What was written in this assignment was just a part of his contributions, it is without doubt that

there are a lot of his contributions that are not being mentioned here. By looking at those facts, it

is crystal clear that, Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman was one of the outstanding Muslims in

Malaysia. For him, may Allah grant him the best life here and the Hereafter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 Ustaz Wan Sohor Bani Leman’s Official Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/people/Wan-Shohor-Enes/1518654517

 Telaga Biru ( The product of Ustaz Wan Sohor – Cassete, CD, DVD )

http://telagabiru.net.my/index/index.php?

option=com_content&view=category&id=9:cd-dvd-

kaset&layout=blog&Itemid=12&layout=default

 Youtube ( The Practical of Solat Subuh Prayer by Ustaz Wan Sohor )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMuxQcBhnw

 Forum Perdana di SU Mall mencapai Matlamat ( Talks)

http://www.saujanautama3.com

 The official blog of ‘Derma Masjid’( Donation for the Mosque )

http://dermamasjid.blogspot.com

 Bosnia and Herzegovina

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

 Anis Magazine, 0ctober 2000 edition

 Amin Idris Training Consultant (AITC) (Motivational Talks)

http://www.aminidris.com

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