Zen and the Art of Happiness

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

These few days back I've been reading a book called Zen the Art of Happiness (Chris Prentiss) that emphasized on ways to change your inner strength to act as a magnet to your happiness. Maybe for some reasons we thought that by getting good results makes us happy, born in a rich family makes us happy, or living in a huge mansion makes us happy. The fact is it is the other way round: when you are happy, you can get what you wanted.

This is the book

Happiness is within yourself and you need to bring it out to the surface in order to make yourself happier. I would say the best way to understand this is by looking at your polar or trained of thoughts. Let's do this together. How many times have you ruminated about your stupidity in school?? How many times have you said that you are a complete failure?? And how often you undermined your own capabilities or believing that you can't do anything?? I think for many of us, those ways of thinking are pretty normal right. So now asked yourself, what did you get out of that?? Failure, lethargy, stupidity, and yada yada yada.

Well fear not, embrace yourself people because there are many ways of coping with that problems and guess what, they are very easy - doing tasks.

First, put this in mind: Everything that happens to me is the best things that can happened to me. When I said everything, it's literally means EVERYTHING and no one could change the fact. Make this polar of thought your daily chanting until you truly believe in that. The problem happened when difficulties strike, and conflicts peak. Many of us think that it will be the worse thing in life or maybe that are the punishments/karma for our wrong doings. Remembering trials as a mean of punishment could be a good way of looking at it but mostly people will extrapolate that to an extent blaming God and distancing themselves from Him which is wrong.

Look at the problem as it is and do not take them close to you. Handle them wisely and confront them bravely. God gives us trials and tribulations to elevate our positions in the eyes of the paradise dwellers. The more you think positive and less blaming, the better your position in the paradise. Give the problems and difficulties to scaffold you to grow, to become mature, being more independent, to hold on, and to be stronger. Remember, the way you think would have repercussions which either positive or negative, so choose what you want.

Second, we are the authors of every next moment. Without realizing it, we are such powerful beings that have the abilities to create and to form our own future based on our personal philosophy of life. Personal philosophy is simply the way you look at things which determined how you respond to anything. Be it your partner, your family, your school chores, and your problems. We seemed to be using bad impressions of our own life like putting connotations us being stupid, weak, bored, incapable and many more in which our bodies react to the way we look at things.

For example, when you believe that you are not handsome because you are above average in weight that people always criticize you for not being in a good shape. Well remember this, when you open a room for bad strangers, you are granting them permissions to take whatever they wanted and ruining whatever they feel like doing. So get the hell out of them be yourself people. They got no power to tear you down, but you do. If you are doing things that confirmed their attributions on you, there goes the conflicts and problems.

Lastly, for now, your brain inordinately have a super power to give effect on your physiology (physical body). Based on research, there are three major chemical categories in our bodies which are neurotransmitter, steroid, and peptides. Above all, peptides cover 95% of the entire chemicals that signal the activities of cells. Dr Peth in her research confirmed that when we think positively about anything, our hypothalamus which act as the site for peptides secretion releases more good peptides that will eventually channeled to the bloodstream to the cells. The peptides will get to the cells and help maintaining a good supply of cells that regulate our bodies.

When we think bad about something, we are prone to have almost eighteen billion of cells that have more receptors calling out for depressed - type peptides and less feel - good peptides. So when that happened, hypothalamus releases a surge of bad peptides to the bloodstream to the cells, and the consequences would be your daily life seems gloomy, dull, bored, depressing, and anxious. So it is all about thinking and building a good trained of thoughts.


Overall, I think this book is a good food to serve our mind and thoughts. We can change our life's result by improving the way we look and perceive things. I would say that it is a process and it takes a lot of efforts and energy to do it. But it is better to do it now before too late. Sorry for the least elaboration, but I hope that the main points were made clear. Change the way you think, and you'll change everything..

Loves,
firdausfazuan

Islam and Modernity (Final Paper)

Assalamualaikum.

This entry is a dedication to one of my instructor who taught me lots of things regarding Islam and life nowadays. His name is Professor Nur Amali Ibrahim. We argued a lot of times, intellectually, but soon after I came out with this paper, I realized that his trained of thoughts are somewhat correct. So, here is the paper sounds like, just for you my beloved Professor. xoxo

Muhammad Fazuan Abdul Karim

Introduction to Islam Final Paper

Islam and Modernity

Everyone should know this I guess. Credit to Google

Muslims all around the globe experienced the most dramatic and tragic history of the falling of the Ottoman caliphate when the empire was defeated by the European empire. At that point of time, there were advancements in the technology in the European continental such as industrialization and the steamship invention in which European have had the chance to conquer the Islamic caliphate. After the conquest, there surfaced problems of misfit: a situation where the religion fails to offer adequate explanation of proper conducts and the question on how to practice faith properly in context of rapidly changing world. But the situation that happens threatened almost the entire belief systems because it is known that Islam is a religion that is relevant no matter how rapid the changes are occurring. In that context, there was a need to reform and reshape Islamic knowledge in the light of Western models, known as Islamic modernism (Robinson 2008: 259 - 261). The core of the religion remains undisturbed but the acts of worshipping and implementing the religion varies from one generation to another generation. In this paper, just to be specific, I would like to analyze how the shift from taqliq to ijtihad plays its roles in designing the new patterns on the Islamic canvas. I would point out the most prominent impacts that ijtihad has had in effect which took place in the highly modernized Muslims community. It is also necessary for me to underscore the relevancy of the religion that has transcended different times and nations from four different scopes of discussion: emergence of new religious authority, the idea of radicalism, Islamic banking system, and the notion of spiritual economy.

The central argument when we discuss about Islam and modernity is the changes of causality from Taqliq to Ijtihad. Taqlid is basically following the traces that have been left by the ulamak's generations through the Islamic education. The process always involves adhering to knowledge that has been passed down from the previous generations that is attained from the concept of isnad pradigm. Jonathan Berkey (1992) argued that Muslims tried their best to get connected to the traditions of the Prophet via tracing down all the chains of transmission that eventually lead to the practices of the Prophet. On the other hand, ijtihad is an independent reasoning based on the God’s revelations. It opens and gives more opportunities for ordinary Muslims to read and interpret the religious texts by themselves. Individuals now are not necessarily need to be intact to the ulamak or any traditional religious authorities when they can freely understand and interpret the Islamic scriptures for themselves. This happened because of the advancement in printing press that facilitated the free access to the Divinity commandments.

First important impact that modernity has on Islam is the emergence of new religious authorities. The idea about atypical Muslim scholars that only can be found in the mosques or any Islamic community center has changed dramatically, since most of them can now be seen in different fields and prospective. These kind of religious authorities are way different from the traditional religious authorities in many ways. They did not study the religious texts from the ulamak, instead looking at the words of God as closely as they could. In another words, there was an ending of the total authority of the past scholars that previously known as the keys to the interpretations of Islamic scriptures (Robinson 2008: 267). Previously, Muslims referred to mufti or author – jurist to legalize their behaviors as legitimate and on track of Islam, but now they can highly assess their own justification since there is an easy access to the words of God. From article written by Berkey (1992), one thing that worth ponding upon is the idea that traditional religious figures gained their authorities and power through the never – break ties to the fundamental existentialism that traced back to the life of the Prophet and through years and years of tedious Islamic education, but the new religious personnel get theirs through the rhetorical and communication skills. They may not master everything about certain field of Islam, but they usually have multiple domains of interests that they really cherished. That is how people like Tariq Ramadhan and Omid Safi gained their power and respect; they managed to get all their standing novation through the power of their speeches and persuasive skills.

Tariq Ramadan credit to Google

The new religious authorities called themselves progressive Muslims in which they are very much concerned about the universal notion of justice; every one of us has the same worth and no single community's prosperity, righteousness, and dignity comes at the expense of another (Safi 2003: 3). They are among people who are loud and vocal in expressing their trained of thoughts, and they are people who strive to thrive Islam back to its original position. Some people argued that progressive Muslims are not suitable for that purpose of lifting the values of Islam because they appeared to be “not a good Muslim” characters, but they were the ones who struggle for the social critics, especially for the people that have been mistreated and oppressed. Robinson (2008) said that this newly authorities have something in common with the humanist which is the idea about free will and personal accountability. They truly believe that each of us has responsibility to choose from and to decide what is right or wrong in our life. Since we make up our mind for something and decided to do things on our own, the repercussions remain on our own accords.

Besides that, progressive Muslims also have been criticizing the single system of morality in which President of United States of America has been questioned and critiqued for his stands of treating his actions as the only morale and good. Progressive Muslims intend not only to revitalize the idea of Islam on Muslims, but also to bring the righteous acts forward than anything else even to the non - Muslims. Basically, they are not trying to exert their new ideas by diminishing the previous ones, but instead to broaden the spectrums of interpretations of Islamic texts and scriptures. The new dimensions that they came to propose were very much relevant and useful in this highly modernized realm. Somehow the author (Omid Safi 2003) in his edited version of Progressive Muslims emphasized that Islam was not as described in the pamphlet saying “Islam is simple and easy” because Islam is not an easy religion. He argued if the religion by itself is simple, how can there be so many disagreement and misunderstanding. Safi encouraged the readers to participate by sharing, arguing, debating, joking, and presenting the ideas of Islam with different people of the world (Safi 2003: 22 – 23).

Not only that, an array in interpretations of the scriptures of Islam led to the problem of radicalism. Radicalism is a group of Muslims who went too far beyond extreme in their understanding the religion that eventually could advocate overly reactive and aggressive behaviors. Radicalism happened due to the misinterpretations that occur in the small group of Muslims. They were triggered by the concept of jihad movement that initially, was just the idea of inner struggle against bad desires and the will to improve people on daily basis (Safi: 8). But somehow, the inner struggling notions have been redirected and indebted in globalization and modern communication techniques led to take up arms and military movement. One of the most famous persons that were associated to being a radical Muslim is Osama bin Laden, a legendary Al Qaeda's leader which the group acts as a group of mujahideen (army of jihad fighters). Osama bin Laden was a man born in a wealthy family of Saudi Arabia in which his family took control of many important sectors in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden studied business management, economics, and engineering in the King Abdul Aziz University and he did all his studies of Islam by himself through reading and contemplation of different Islamic thinkers. Recall the earlier point when I said that usually newly revived religious authority acquired their Islamic knowledge through self – study and analysis of different scholars’ views.

Osama Bin Laden credit to Google

Bin Laden first step in the radicalism was when Professor Azam went on jihadi mission following the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. There, Bin Laden was trained and fought alongside those Afghans, and there onwards that he founded Al – Qaeda as a group of mujahideen. After a very long struggles and massive wars, Bin Laden and his people defeated Soviet Union that emboldened the jihadis to continue their missions. At certain point, Bin Laden was angry with the Saudi monarchy for allowing United States to launch operation Desert Storm in 1991. He then fled to Sudan and built an empire of commercial businesses to support and to conceal Al Qaeda growing networks. Moreover, Bin Laden moved to Afghanistan and in 1996, he proposed a fatwa on “declaration of war against the Americans occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places” (Euben and Zaman 2009: 437 - 439). And because of his influential speeches and capabilities, therefore, more and more attacks were launched on United States: Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and New York in 2001. Bin Laden was good in delivering his polemics by recognizing the physical and structural violence; he mentioned that jihadis are not introducing violence but simply redirecting them elsewhere.

When Islamic revitalization and awareness has spread throughout the globe, there was an urge to pursue an Islamic banking system that obeys the principles of Islamic law. Surprisingly, in this modern world, Islamic banking is not exclusively practiced by the Islamic related banks, but also in major Western banks like ABN-MRO and Standard Chartered bank (Maurer 2001: 8 -9). And frankly speaking, I feel amused with the major transformation of many banks throughout the world into Islamic banking system. The primary concern of the Islamic banking system would be the prohibition of riba which contested many different kinds of interpretations and ijtihad from different Muslim scholars. Riba usually is associated with financial interest or increment from the primary amount of money. One thing that caught my attention is the Surat Ali Imran verses 128 – 132 that talks about the usury, doubled, and multiplied from the debt of a borrower who was unable to pay back on schedule. The doubling or multiplying involved both principle amounts of money and interest that indirectly pushes defaulters into enslavement. Elimination and prohibition of riba also meant to block socially harmful financial practices that threatened certain groups of people. In the context of the banking system, the central argument circulates around the concept of riba as profit for risk or not. Islamic teaching prohibited getting money without putting any effort or risk. One group of economists said that the investment that they made were actually risky for both bank and depositors, which makes it legal for the interest to be used by the depositors without any doubt. Another group of Islamic economists argues that interest cannot be accepted simply because there is no variable return in the business transactions. This means the depositors will receive the same amount of returns each term, no matter when the business grow or fall which marked some sorts of unjust actions.

I love the motto of Standard Chartered Islamic Banking

Not just that, extrapolating from the concept of non – interest banking is the notion of derivatives which caused even more controversial debates and arguments. Derivative is an asset whose value depends on other assets that do not exist in the same moment of time as derivatives. For example, the options and future which exemplifies the contract to buy something at a specified future date on a specific price. The goods can be sold to another party before the date arrives. On the other hand, it involved trading something that appears to be abstract and obscure which is somehow arguable in Islamic teaching. The economists were divided into either to agree with the derivative which was based on khiyar al – shart or disagree that taking into consideration of concept of haram. Again, ijtihad is very much important in this argument. Economists who supported the derivatives came out with khiyar al – shart which is the sale agreement where “one or both parties has the right to rescind an otherwise binding contract within a specified period of time from its commencement” (Maurer 2001: 10). For another group who is going against emphasized that we should not imitate western financial arguments since derivative is similar to gambling and exploitative practices. This group of economists thought that bank should be focusing on instruments that are beneficial to the Muslims community rather than profit maximizing. Again, no matter how huge the debate could be, Islamic banking aimed to increase the welfare of the people in accordance to the Islamic law.

In order to prepare Muslims of highly modernized world for neoliberalism, there is an ideology of spiritual economies: insertion of piety as a fuel of increasing the employees’ productivity. The idea of neoliberalism can be termed as an economic condition that includes free trade, free market, privatization of certain sectors, private properties ownerships, in addition to the reduction of the government intervention on economic landscape. The setting of this economy took place in Krakatau Steel factory in Indonesia in which 97% of the 6000 employees are Muslim. For very long period of time, Krakatau Steel factory has been under the state's project, but due to the change in the political economic landscape everything changed dramatically. From the article Spiritual Economies: Islam and Neoliberalism in Contemporary Indonesia (Rudnyckyj 2009: 104 - 113) argued that economic recession that happened in 1998 forced Indonesia government to make loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the exception of less intervention that the state has on the economy. From that point of time, the factory would not receive any subsidization or initiative from the government in order to prepare the employees for privatization of the factory. At the same time, the competitiveness of that factory dropped tremendously causing more problems since there was an increase in competitiveness transnationally including China that was known as one of the most efficient steel producer. In other words, something needs to be done in order to bust the productivity of the employees.

Man behind a great Ijtihad. Ary Ginanjar credit to Google

Ary Ginanjar, came out with the proposal of spiritual reform to solve the problem of the factory workers. He named it as 'spiritual' rather than any Indonesian or Arabic term simply because he does not want people to think that his ideology is stuck to religious practices only, but rather he wants it to be universal and meaningful. “This emphasis on spirituality, however, was not a rejection of science in favor of mysticism. Rather, Ary Ginanjar saw his efforts to develop spirituality as commensurable with the latest developments in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience (Rudnyckyj 2009: 121). Now the program that is known as Emotional and Spiritual Quotient (ESQ) has been accepted globally by many countries including European and some of the Western countries. One significant idea that he tried to bring upon is believing that piety should not be restricted to only worship; principles of conducive to modern business that are found in Islam and the Quran. The main objective of ESQ is to activate the God’s spot that is essentially important to increase personal accountability as a mean to obliterate corruption in workplace. Ary Ginanjar was the man behind such a great program in which the program serves as an Islamic version of corporate training and life coaching program. After quite some times, the ESQ program proved to be one of the important ijtihad to not only increase piety among Muslims but also to gear up employees to face the challenge of neoliberalism.

  

In a nut shell, Islam has changed its forms and shapes in favor of the modernity without taxing the primary core of the religion. The change of causality that has pushed the notion of taqliq to a more independent reasoning of ijtihad makes the religion rolls on until now. Due to the different interpretations drawn from the Quran and hadith, there created lots and lots of different practices and manifestations that make Islam looked diverse and rich. But it is important for us to know that the interpretations could either alluded positive practices or negative ones, depending on the context of the interpreters. Islamic banking, spiritual economies, and progressive Muslims might be considered positive outcomes of ijtihad, but radicalism signed the negative practice. Throughout this paper, I have presented 4 different angles of arguments that somehow going against or going for the idea of being highly modernized in which Islam continue to flourish. For some reasons, Islam changed as the Muslims evolved and the religion will continue to be relevant even though the time and generation change.

Well, there is always different understanding and belief when it comes to the above discussion. I'm taking and putting all the arguments in the authors' terms, and choose to judge their background. As it mention in the paper, different ideas are not replacing the old ones, but rather to provide an array of interpretations. Hope it helps to broaden our knowledge about Islam and life in general.

Thanks, 

firdausfazuan

Caring? Attention? It's so Ewwww

Hahaha the topic sounds fishy, right? But I guess now I fully understand what is the above topic means. That "caring" and "attention" somehow pernah disalahertikan oleh diri yang marhaen ini. 

Kalau ikutkan mata ni, memanglah teramat mengantuk sebab seharian penat dengan kelas yang sangatlah pack dan assignments yang menimbun, dan diserlahkan dengan preparation untuk final exam yang tinggal lagi dua minggu. Huhu tapi disebabkan oleh perasaan ini yang touched and moved by a few scenes yang berlaku hari ini menyebabkan tangan ini masih ligat di keyboard. Pathethic nyerr

**** Situasi 1 ****

Saya diberi kesempatan untuk berkenalan dengan seorang insan istimewa namun mempunyai hati yang sangat baik dan mulia. Mengenalinya membuatkan saya rasa gembira dan sedih pada masa yang sama. He seems incomplete or disable physically, tetapi kekurangan fizikal (lumpuh bahagian kaki) itu tidak mengurangkan sedikit pun nilai dirinya sebagai seorang manusia. Dia baik, penyayang, dan attentive.

Bayangkanlah, saat saya sedang dalam kesusahan untuk mendapatkan bas dan sebarang pengangkutan, dia membantu saya untuk mendapatkan teksi. He really insisted to do that walau pun saya mampu berjalan. He just want to do as good as he could to be a good friend and does not want to screw up the first time knowing me. 

Ini yang sedang saya cuba cerna dan fahami. Amatlah susah untuk saya jumpa atau accidentally terjumpa dengan orang - orang US yang sangat caring dan baik sepertimana si dia ini. I mean super caring and baik. Mungkin banyak limitasi dan kekurangan, namun satu hal yang dia miliki iaitu kemuliaan hati dan keunggulan peribadi. Subhanallah, inilah yang sepatutnya kita semua bawa dan implementasikan dalam kehidupan seharian. Ada kalanya, kita kurang dari satu sudut, tetapi itu tidak bermakna kita tidak boleh membantu orang lain.

Sesungguhnya, hebatnya seseorang itu bukanlah letak pada kaya atau paras rupanya, namun setinggi manakah kemuliaan akhlak dan peribadinya. Sayang seribu kali sayang, how I wish my friend tu seorang Muslim. Mudah - mudahan dia diberkati dan diberikan hidayah olehNya.

**** Situasi 2 ****

Malam tadi, i mean literally tadi, saya bertandang ke rumah seorang kawan yang terletak agak jauh dari rumah. I mean like from east side towards more to the west side of Bloomington and initially planning to sleep over at his place. Sementara menunggu kawan orang putih saya tu datang, I got texts from a Malaysian of mine, specifically my housemate, bertanyakan ke mana saya dan bagaimana keadaan saya.

Besides that, dia bertanya sama ada saya dah bagitahu mama untuk bermalam di rumah kawan atau pun belum. Yang paling touching and moved was that he mentioned about the amanah yang my mom gave to him to keep an eye on me and pantau saya sepanjang berada di bumi penuh keterasingan ini.  Well, it should be like 4 months ago and he made it right until now. Sentiasa menjaga dan memantau pergerakan saya walaupun amanah mama saya berada thousands miles away. Some people might think he is a little possessive but he is not. I like the way he nailed it!!

Inilah dia yang saya maksudkan sebagai enlightenment that I got about the meaning behind caring and attention. Rasa BERTANGGUNGJAWAB dan memenuhi amanah yang diberi. And my housemate tu mampu lakukan dengan super sempurna. MashaAllah syeikh, ana salute anta!!

Disebabkan saya tersentuh dengan perlakuan si dia, I decided to make my way back to our house instead of spending the night on my friend's house. And yang paling penting, letihhhh weeiii berjalan jauh sebab dah tak ada bas or any means of transportation. Haha. Semoga Allah merahmatimu sahabatku atas kebaikanmu untuk memenuhi tuntutan dan amanah yang diberikan oleh mamaku padamu, 4 bulan yang lalu.

**** Konklusi ****

Caring and attention bukanlah hanya bait yang indah untuk kita ungkap dan canangkan, sebaliknya kedua - dua perkara ini adalah values yang perlu dibumikan dalam kehidupan seharian kita. Walau siapa pun kita, di mana pun kita, cubalah untuk lakukannya. Tak rugi pun mencuba hal - hal yang baik ni, sebabnya imbal baliknya pasti perkara yang baik juga. God knows best. Wassalam

XOXO

firdausfazuan

Kefahaman dan Ujian itu Satu Pakej

Assalamualaikum

Ada kalanya sesuatu yang kita tidak suka, itulah yang menjadi ujian ke atas diri kita. Bilamana kita  kuat menentang akan sesuatu itu, pastinya diri marhaen ini akan teruji. Tatkala kita mula mengatakan pada orang lain atau mengajak manusia meninggalkan kebatilan itu, semakin kuat kebatilan itu datang kepada kita. Sungguh ujian itu pasti, kerana Allah ingin menguji sejauh manakah thabatnya hati kita ini di jalanNya.

Ya, saya sendiri sering kali melalui fasa yang namanya ujian. Dan apabila dilihat dan dibuat analisa, kebanyakan ujian itu datang apabila saya mula mengetahui kebenarannya. Contohnya, apabila saya sedar yang bercouple itu haram dalam Islam, ditambah dengan konsep dan analoginya yang tidak boleh disangkal lagi, maka semakin kuat pula ujian yan datang menimpa. Bukan itu sahaja, ujian itu datang dalam pelbagai rupa dan bentuk.

Saya sering berasa tidak sedap hati dan ada kalanya bersedih mengenangkan berat ujian yang diberi oleh Allah. Di saat saya mula mengetahui kebenaran, mengapa semakin berat ujian yang menimpa? Saya mula mempersoalkan dan bertanya dalam hati kecil ini.

Saya bagi contoh yang paling mudah. Buat masa ini, memang nikmat belajar di luar negara ini sangatlah ampuh dan menyeronokkan, ditambah pula dapat mengenali pelbagai lapisan masyarakat dan budaya. Namun, ada satu hal yang membuatkan saya semakin risau. Saya sering diuji dengan keadaan yang susah untuk saya ungkapkan. Contohnya, dokma - dokma yang menjurus ke arah kesesatan yang boleh membawa saya jauh dari Allah. Diasak dengan pelbagai persoaln, dicabar segala pendirian, diganyang dengan kesemua fakta.

Ya, siapa kata belajar di luar negara ini semata - mata keseronokan? Banyak ujian, banyak halangan, banyak juga keperitan yang harus ditanggung.

Teringat saya pesanan Imam Al Ghazali yang memperingatkan kepada semua bahawa kehidupan dunia ini ibarat penjara bagi orang - orang Mukmin dan syurga bagi orang - orang kafir. Orang kafir memang kelihatannya bebas melakukan apa saja yang mereka mahu, menuruti kata nafsu dan kehendak sesuka hati. Tetapi, bagi orang Mukmin, kesakitan inilah yang harus ditempuhi sebelum kembali menghadap Ilahi.

Dalam sebuah buku yang menceritakan perihal biografi Zainab Al Ghazali (Hari - hari Dalam Hidupku), seorang pemimpin jemaah wanita di Mesir, beliau ditangkap dengan beberapa orang pemimpin Ikhwan Muslimin kerana dipercayai berkonspirasi untuk membunuh Presiden pada waktu itu. Saya tersentuh apabila mengetahui betapa seorang wanita yang sangat terkenal dengan keunggulan peribadinya dan ketinggian ilmu akhiratnya, diuji oleh Allah dengan hukuman dan seksaan yang sangat berat. Presiden Mesir pada waktu itu, Jamal Abdul Naser memerintahkan agar beliau diseksa sepertimana seksanya seorang lelaki. Disebat, dicaci, dilempar dalam penjara air, dihamun, hampir dirogol, diletakkan di dalam bilik penuh anjing atau tikus, dan pelbagai lagi seksaan yang maha sakit.

Sungguhpun begitu, Zainab sangat kental mempertahankan tawheednya kepada Allah. Tidak sekali pun beliau mengakui atau menyalahkan Allah dalam memberikan ujian yang sebegitu sakit kepadanya. Dalam setiap rintihannya, kebergantungan sepenuhnya hanya dikembalikan kepada Allah dan bukan pada yang lainnya. Tiada rayuan atau rintihan kepada manusia melainkan Allah.

Semoga Allah merahmati dan memberkati rohnya dan menempatkan beliau dalam kalangan para syuhada yang sentiasa berjuang mempertahankan hakikatnya Allah dalam diri beliau. Owhh terlupa nak cakap, beliau tidak mati sewaktu dalam tahanan rejim. Beliau bebas walaupun teruk diseksa.

Dalam konteks perbincangan kita seperti yang di atas, perlu difahami kefahaman kita akan sesuatu hal pasti didatangkan juga dengan ujian. Ujian dan kefahaman adalah seakan satu pakej yang tidak boleh ditolak atau ditukar. Jika kita yakin dengan kebenaran, pastinya ujian akan datang kepada kita sebagai bukti betapa kita benar - benar ikhlas atau tidak dalam menjalankan yang hak dan meninggalkan yang batil.

InshaAllah, kesakitan dan kepenatan itu akan hilang, tetapi kebaikan yang kita lakukan kekal di sisi Allah. Jika kita melakukan kejahatan dan kedangkalan, ya memang benar datangnya kepuasan dan keseronokan. Tapi jangan lupa, keseronokan dan kepuasan itu akan hilang, dan kejahatan itu kekal di sisi Allah. Semoga Allah jadikan kuat untuk mempertahankan iman dan tawheed dalam hati kita ini. Ambillah apa yang baik dan tinggalkan apa yang buruk. 

Love,

firdausfazuan

When was The Last Time We Care???

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

***** Disclaimer *****

I know that there will be lots of grammatical errors as you read through this entry. But who cares.. I'm just overwhelmingly excited to share with you this blog post ASAP. So take what's good and ignore the junks. XOXO

***** Question *****

Well, for many reasons, we are obliged to many responsibilities and commitments, be it in the campus or in our daily routines. Personally, being in the university made me realized how busy a person can be, to an extent that I don’t really have time for myself. All endeavors seem important to me and I don’t want to miss any of them. But the question that I always ask myself is this, "when is the last time I care?"

Sounds weird huh? But this is the fact that every single college student needs to pay his or her attention to. Let's just ask ourselves today, when is the very last time we called our parents? When is the last time we sent good news and blessings to them? Last month? Two weeks ago? Ohh no, I just did mine like a couple of hours just ago, and that thing makes me super happy, relief, and excited.

You know why I brought up this issue? Because some of us, surely among us has "abandon" our parents and not letting them know our progresses. Frequently, I called my mom back then in Malaysia just for the sake of saying that I eat well or I'm having a bad day, but guess what, I felt so much better after doing that. Your parents and my parents don’t really care what our purpose of callings. They just want to know what is exactly happening to their beloved child and that act is an exemplification of care and affection.

 I might sounds like more into students that are currently studying abroad but head on, it's actually involved all of us. Yes, you and me and whoever is reading this entry now. Parents are creatures that have been granted a sense of care towards their children, and no matter what is happening in your family at this point of time, they still want t know what happen to you.

I'm sharing you this entry because I found it is profound for all of us to do this. Just call your parents, spend some times talking to them, tell them that you are doing great job in school, and hope everything goes well for them too. If, by chance your parents tent to share their opinions and ideas about something, LISTEN to their words attentively. Because their words are like diamond and carry lots of significance. Trust me!

***** Action plan *****

Hmm, some of us said that they are too busy with the workloads or they couldn't find any decent time to speak to their parents or they are having an important exam to take tomorrow that requires their focus and commitments, and blablablabla.. Well let me suggest this to you. Call your parents right now, seriously, ask how their life are doing, say that everything is doing good here, and most importantly, ask them to pray for you and send you their bless. Try this and I promise you there will be a significant improvement in your daily chores.

I might not be the most suitable person to tell you this, but the blessings from our parents are very very very important and it is undeniably true for anybody. Even the Prophet said in one of his hadith that Allah's mercy on you depends on your parents' blessings on you. If we do something that hurts our parents' hearts, Allah would also shows no mercy on us if there's anything bad happened to us.

***** Last words *****

I realized that it's been a very long time since my last post. It simply because I'm having troubles to adjust myself here in United States, in terms of their cultures and accents. Anyhow, better late than never, right? Hopefully, every single one of us could take the good words that I've came out with from this blog post. What's more important is that please call your parents after this and tell them how much you love them.

Love,

firdausfazuan.

Yourself VS the People Around

credit to Nwar Mohd

Assalamualaikum and hi everyone

Greeting from Bloomington everyone. Hahahaha =) I don't know why, although I'm craving to update this blog but it seems that there were so many commitments that need my extra attentions. Worry not because I just finished my extremely busy week, so here we go. I would like to talk about something so - so important that I always remind myself about being WHO WE ARE.

Haa, what is that mean?? Of course by definition we are who we R, right?? But don't take my words literally please because we need to transcend from the way we perceive things. Many people out there who willing to immerse themselves blindly in any sort of relationship and end up engaging in things that they don't really want.

Living in this newly community, I sometimes engage in constant doubt with how they behave, think, and talk. But I would rather look at the diversity rather than looking at the differences. Many people, before I flew to US, gave me advice to consciously preserve my upbringings as a Muslim and as a Malaysian. In another words, to be as good and noble as I could especially when I was about to mingle around with people of different values. A slack in my action can tarnish the whole perceptions about people from which I came from.

diversity of people. let us gain our unity!!! credit to Google

As I get to know many people here on campus, I realized that what the Quran said about the diversified kind of personalities, cultures, and beliefs are meant to be celebrated and praised. No matter from which background that they came from, we should respect and treat them well. 

One of the opportunity that I got during the Jumuah congregational prayer at the Islamic Center of Bloomington was when a group of students who are non - Muslims came to observe and to interview the members. It was a bless!! They asked me approximately 11 questions regarding the meaning of being a Muslim, politic involvement of Muslim, issues regarding invasion of Iraq and Palestine, and the women's right.

To be honest I felt that I was not the right individual to answer those questions, but that open discussion about me being a Muslim was a great experience of my life. Personally, I realized that every single Muslim carries a very important role as the ambassador of Islam. To show and to reflect the beauty of the religion. 

When we have that kind of opportunity to give our opinions and ideas, we should wisely make use of it. No matter what type of Muslim we are. Be it religious or not yet religious. Note that I used the term of "not yet" religious because everyone of us has the minimal right of reaching to that point of being religious. InshaAllah. Yeahhh, don't be terrified or overwhelmingly inferior. Have we forgot that Allah promised in the Quran that we are the best ummah created for the universe. Since our prophet Muhammad was the last prophet, then, who are going to continue his responsibilities?? Yessss, you and me. All of us do play a significant role.

So, what's the real point that I'm trying to make right here?? Hahaha. Just wanna remind all of you including myself that we are who we are, and we should be proud of it. None of us should be judged as odd or weird, because all of us are unique in our own ways. 

Once a Muslim, always a Muslim. Embrace yourself people!! It's time to shine brightly and show the world what we have in us. To be honest, we can conform to other's opinions and their ideas in order to seek for acceptance. But we shouldn't change the core and fundamental elements that had been instill in us since we were younger. We can compromise with little things, but not anymore when it involve our AQIDAH and the SYARIAH. If we feel sad for not being accepted in that group of people, we would be even more sad when Allah refuse to see us during the Day of Resurrection.

Last but not least, I don't know what else to say. Maybe you could think of a conclusion of your own. But seriously, Bloomington is a nice place to live your adolescence period. Muahahahahaha. God knows best. (It's way off from my tajuk).

xoxoxo,

Fazuan

Membumikan Makna dalam Bersahabat

Assalamualaikum

People asked me on how I defined friendship, and I'll answer brotherhood. It is like you treat, care, love, and attend to your own siblings without even reducing it.

------ Sajer nak try bragging guna English -------

Dulu waktu saya masih di MRSM Gerik, banyak kali saya diingatkan bahawa menyayangi dan disayangi sesama manusia itu adalah satu anugerah yang sangat agung dan hebat nilainya. Susah untuk diterangkan tetapi kalau kita dapat merasainya, pasti kita sebenarnya telah pun mendapatkan suatu nikmat hidup yang hebat daripada Allah swt.

Seorang insan hebat telah mengingatkan saya bahawa iman seseorang itu masih tidak lengkap selagi mana dia tidak menyayangi saudaranya seperti dia menyayangi dirinya sendiri. Maksudnya, do unto others as you want others do unto you. Seboleh mungkin kita mahukan yang terbaik untuk diri kita bukan? Jadi begitu jugalah seharusnya layanan dan kebaikan yang perlu kita berikan kepada insan - insan di sekeliling kita.

One thing yang bermain di minda saya di kala itu, adakah kita mampu lakukan semua itu? Adakah kita boleh memprioritikan orang lain seperti kita memprioritikan diri kita sendiri? Semua ini mampu kita lakukan dengan satu kunci kata... UKHWAH

Saya nak berkongsi suatu cerita pendek yang inshaAllah sarat dengan pengajaran dan saya akan cuba relatekan dengan apa yang sedang kita bincangan. Di suatu kawasan yang agak jauh dari Malaysia, tinggal seorang lelaki bernama Abu. Dia memang penduduk asal kawasan itu dan sudah biasa dengan selok belok lifestyle orang - orang di sana. Kebetulan ada seorang lelaki muka baru yang pindah masuk ke kawasan itu tahun berikutya, bernama Salman. Salman kaya dan mempunyai paras rupa yang elok alhamdulillah.

Mereka bertemu, berkawan, bersembang, makan, berjalan, dan akhirnya menjadi sahabat yang sangat akrab. Hubungan mereka sangat - sangat baik dan mesra. Pada suatu hari, Salman menyuarakan isi hatinya untuk berkahwin dengan seorang perempuan kawasan itu kepada sahabat baiknya, Abu.

Salman telah pun menyiapkan segala kelengkapan bermula dari hantaran hinggalah ke duit mas kahwin. Ewaahh. Sebagai menghormati sahabatnya yang telah lebih awal tahu selok belok dan adat resam tempatan, Salman meminta Abu untuk meminangkan wanita pilihan hati bagi pihaknya. Dengan penuh takzim dan gembiranya, Abu dan angkatan peminangan Cik Gayah bergerak menuju ke rumah perempuan itu dan menyuarakan hajat besar mereka itu. Ya, seperti yang dijangka, kedua ibu dan ayah wanita itu bersetuju. Ibunya berkata, "kami bersetuju, tapi lebih baik kita tanya tuan punya badan dulu." Ayat cliche.

Setelah ditanya, dengan ayu dan manis tersipu - sipu wanita solehah itu menjawab, "jika yang tolong meminang ini yang berhajat, maka saya bersetuju." Haaaa, terkezzzuut bukan?? Ya, wanita itu memilih Abu dan bukannya Salman. Dengan berat hatinya, Abu balik ke rumah dan menceritakan hal tersebut kepada Salman.

Kalau kita mesti dah sedih tahap meghoyan dah kan. Siap berguling -guling lagi. Tetapi tidak bagi Salman. Salman bahkan bergembira di atas berita tersebut dan menyerahkan segala kelengkapan perkahwinan itu kepada Abu dan acara perkahwinan dilangsungkan dengan jayanya. Bayangkan, dah lah dapat tahu yang wanita itu menolak dirinya, ditambah pula memberi kesemua kelengapan perkahwinan itu kepada sahabatnya. Memang si Salman deserve tabik springgg ni.

------ Itsar -------

Moral of the story ialah melebihkan orang lain daripada diri sendiri. Dalam hierachy ukhwah, itsar adalah tahap yag paling tinggi dan paling sukar untuk dilakukan. Untuk membumikannya perlukan mujahadah yang kuat dan mind set yang betul. Manakala yang paling rendah ialah bersangka baik (husnuzon). Kalau kita sendiri tak mampu bersangka baik, then itu berbahaya (Terjun lombong). Perkara - perkara ini kenampakannya seperti impossible, tapi ada saja manusia sebelum kita yang mampu lakukannya. Jadi kenapa tidak kita??

Alhamdulillah Allah beri saya peluang untuk tahu benda ini awal dan sehingga kini masih lagi berusaha untuk melakukannya. Suatu disclaimer yang ingin dibuat di sini adalah jika saya tidak bertanya khabar atau contact sesiapa yang bergelar kawan atau sahabat atau teman, bukanlah bermakna kalian telah lupus dari ingatan. Cuma mungkin dek kerana kesibukan tuntutan harian, workload yang banyak, dan yang sewaktu dengannya.

Diam bukan bermakna saya tidak hairan, menjauh bukan bermakna sombong. Yakinlah yang kalian senantiasa ada dalam doa kudusku yang tidak seberapa itu.

Dan mungkin ada yang bertanya, kenapa suka sangat marah dan nasihat orang ek?? Saya akan jawab, sebab saya masih sayang. Kalau saya diam di saat kalian berbuat salah atau tidak kisah jika kalian bermalas - malasan, itu petanda and wake up call antara saya dan anda ada sesuatu yang sangat tidak baik. Beruntunglah bagi orang yang masih saya marah dan tegur tu... Hehe.

Sayangi dan hargailah setiap insan yang mendampingi anda kerana bila anda kehilangannya, penyesalan hingga keluar air mata darah pun dah tiada berguna. Sebarkanlah kebaikan dan bertanyalah khabar, kerana ukhwah itu sememangnya nikmat untuk kesemua makhluk ciptaanNya. Wallahu alam.

Setelah Sebulan di Bumi Amerika

Assalamualaikum

Waaahhhh, dah lama sungguh blog ini tidak diupdate. Maaf kerana kesibukan yang melanda tidak dapat ditepis. Huhu. Sedar atau tidak, sebenarnya telah pun sebulan saya berada di bumi Amerika Syarikat ini. To be precise, Indiana. Terlalu banyak onak yang dilalui, terlalu unik orang - orang yang ditemui, terlalu banyak pengalaman yang nak dikongsi. Kesemuanya bukan lagi sebuah mimpi tetapi teah menjadi sebuah realiti.

Dreaming to be in a place and really being in that place is two distinct and different things. Dulunya, impian untuk ke US kelihatan masih samar dan jauh dari pandangan mata. Namun, saya bersyukur dengan segala nikmat yang Allah kurniakan sekarang saya mampu menjejakkan kaki di bumi yang dulunya menjadi igauan mimpi - mimpi saya. Jika dulunya, doa harian saya pasti akan terselit bait - bait seperti, "Ya Allah, aku teringin sangat nak ke Amerika, merasai dan melalui pengalaman indah sebagai graduan luar negara," tetapi kini Allah telah pun mengabulkan doa saya yang tidak seberapa itu.

Ada yang bertanya saya sebelum ini bagaimanakah cara saya belajar dan bagaimana cara untuk score dalam setiap peperiksaan. Jawapan saya sangat mudah: buatlah apa yang awak rasa terbaik untuk diri awak dan jangan ikut orang lain.

Kedengaran bunyinya macam poyo dan bajet bukan? Tetapi hold on a second and reflect balik apa yang saya katakan. Bukankah kejayaan itu milik setiap orang dan anda sebenarnya berhak mencorakkan sendiri bagaimana cara untuk anda berjaya. Ada yang menganggap dengan belajar sehari dua jam sudah mencukupi, ya memang terpulang pada diri setiap individu. Ada yang menganggap dengan stay up sampai lewat malam itu berbaloi, maka lakukan saja.

Pokoknya, kita sendiri yang meletakkan penanda aras bagi setiap apa yang kita lakukan. Jangan diikut cara orang yang mungkin saja tidak sesuai untuk kita. Yang penting usaha dan tawakal itu perlu bergerak sekali in a constant battle. Jangan malas!!!!

Namun begitu, masih ada perkara yang ingin dikongsikan. Kejayaan untuk mencapai sesuatu bukanlah bermakna kejayaan itu akan berterusan walau ke mana sahaja kita berada. Contohnya, jika dulunya saya bagus di kolej persediaan, bukan bermakna saya confirm akan jadi bagus ketika di US. Itu bukan kayu ukurnya. Begitu juga jika kita kurang perform sewaktu di kolej persediaan atau di sekolah menengah, bukan bermakna kita akan selamanya gagal.

Kejayaan dan kegagalan itu bukan untuk diwarisi tetapi untuk diubah. Gagal sekali bukan bermakna gagal selamanya. Begitu juga berjaya sekali bukan bermakna berjaya selamanya. Masih banyak perkara yang perlu kita pelajari dan perbaiki kerana hakikatnya hidup ini terlalu luas ruang lingkupnya.

Allah meletakkan suatu wacana minda untuk kita fikirkan dalam kitab sucinya: Ar -Ra'd ayat 11

"Sesungguhnya Allah tidak mengubah apa yang ada pada sesuatu kaum sehingga mereka mengubah apa yang ada pada diri mereka sendiri."

Agak straight forward apa yang Allh cuba sampaikan kepada kita semua. Allah hanya mahu kita berubah dan membuat perubahan itu sendiri. Soal dapat atau tidak, berjaya atau gagal, kita serahkan kembali kepadaNya since He knows us better than we do. Jangan pernah mengalah walaupun mehna yang mendatang itu tinggi dan menyesakkan. Kita layak dan kita berhak untuk berjaya.

Seperkara lagi yang menjadi kerunsingan di akal ini. Perihal manusia yang pelbagai. Alhamdulillah sepanjang saya berada di sini, suatu kelainan yang dapat saya lihat ialah pada akhlak manusianya yang baik dan murni. Well, I'm not vilifying our values as the Easterners, tapi sungguh saya kagum dengan kelakuan orang - orang di sini yang baik dan peramah. Matlamat lain saya untuk datang ke sini selain belajar adalah untuk mengambil nilai - nilai yang baik daripada orang di sini dan gunakannya saat saya balik ke tanah air kelak.

Bayangkan, bilamana anda sedang berjoging akan ada orang yang bertanya khabar anda. Ketika anda sedang beratur akan ada yang bertanya is everything all right for you sir. Bilamana anda sedang blur tak tahu hala tuju ke mana, ada yang bertanya are you searching for something young man. Bukankah molek jika itu berlaku dalam masyarakat kita?

Islam dah mengajar sebenarnya dalam penerapan akhlak dan nilai - nilai murni, tapi hidup kita selama ini terlalu banyak bermain dengan dokrin dan kurang implementasi. Saya bersyukur kerana saya banyak belajar benda - benda baru di sini. Jom ubah???!!!

Buat adik - adik saya yang berimpian untuk menyambung pelajaran ke luar negara dan secara terperinicinya untuk ke Amerika Syarikat, wat lek wat peace yoww. Jangan risau, kami sangat - sangat menggalakkan anda untuk datang ke sini dan ketahuilah apa yang saya katakan tadi bukanlah auta. Cuma ingin diingatkan juga akan kriteria pemilihan universiti. Jangan hanya memandang solely based on academic careers sahaja, lihat juga pada environmentnya dan komuniti Islamnya.

Percayalah, orang yang berkata "saya tak nak hidup dalam komuniti ramai Malaysian atau Muslim" sebab nak belajar something different that I didn't get previously, itu semua poyo.. Haha. Hiduplah dengan komuniti dan bukan untuk komuniti, inshaAllah kejayaan menanti kita semua. Wassalam.

Eheh.. Ramadan Tahun Ini Sama Macam Tahun Sebelumnya??

Assalamualaikum wbt

***** Monolog Dalaman *****

Termasuk hari ini dah masuk hari ke - 22 saya berpuasa dan merasai kenikmatan berada dalam bulan Ramadhan tahun ini. Dari dulu saya sering kali mendengar dari ustaz ustazah dan kawan - kawan betapa bulan Ramadan ini merupakan suatu madrasah atau pesantren yang mampu mentarbiyah hati kita yang sering kali lalai dalam memprioritikan Allah sebagai yang terutama. Natijah dari madrasah itu adalah perubahan yang signifikan dalam tindakan, pengakuan dan kata - kata seharian kita.

Sungguh hati ini berdetak kencang. Benarkah apa yang mereka katakan?? Mungkinkah setelah hampir sebelas bulan 'ditarbiyah' songsang syaitan laknatullah yang sempat pula berkolaborasi dengan sang nafsu serakah, diadun sebati pula dengan alat - alat penyumbang jahiliah, tiba - tiba bulan Ramadhan berubah menjadi insan mulia ala - ala diva Islamik gitu. Choiii..

Pada mulanya saya tidak percaya itu.. Saya menganggap itu semua poyo dan sekadar suatu ideologi untuk menggesa dan menolak kita. Ya, gesaan untuk membuat saya dan anda berubah. Sehinggalah sesuatu berlaku dalam kira - kira dua hari lepas yang telah sedikit sebanyak mengubah pola berfikir saya tentang bulan Ramadhan kareem yang sedang kita lalui ini. (Apa dan kenapa berlaku tidak akan dinukilkan dalam entri ini. Harap maklum)

***** Fikiran Berkecamuk *****

Setelah 'sesuatu' itu berlaku, ia membuat saya berfikir sejenak dalam kamar sepi tempat saya beradu. Apakah saya hanya ingin melalui bulan ini tanpa mendapat apa - apa pun ibrahnya?? Adakah saya sebenarnya membenarkan apa yang disabdakan baginda Nabi Muhammad yang umat kini banyaknya tidak lain hanya mendapat lapar dan dahaga dalam bulan ini?? Adakah Allah jadikan bulan ini hanya sebagai suatu bulan yang biasa - biasa sahaja?? Atau sebenarnya Allah telah membutakan hati saya dari melihat semua itu dek kerana maksiat masa lalu saya yang hitam??

Astaghfirullah. Andai itu terjadi, alangkah ruginya hidup saya sehingga kini kerana tidak ada penambahbaikan dari hari - hari yang sebelumnya. Sungguh merisaukan memerhatikan kelakuan segelintir masyarakat yang menjadikan siangnya Ramadan sebagai alasan untuk bermalas - malasan dan malamnya Ramadan untuk berehat - rehatan kononnya letih. Letih kerana menyumbat dan mentekedarah semaksima mungkin. Sigh.

Dan sepanjang cuti saya selama hampir 3 bulan ini, saya banyak memerhati a.k.a stalk profile kawan - kawan saya, baik di laman Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, dan yang sama waktu dengannya. Eheh, jangan risau. Saya hanya stalk atas tujuan - tujuan mengumpul maklumat dan idea untuk menulis dan menambah pengetahuan sahaja.

***** Provokasi Beragama *****

Kecoh sungguh video pasangan menunjukkan cara berbuka dengan cara yang mengaibkan agama. Ditambah pula dengan video klip raya dengan menyentuh dan memegang anjing bersama - sama kononnya untuk meraikan perayaan ini tanpa sebarang prejudis serta dikriminasi. Dihidang pula halnya rampasan kuasa di Mesir oleh konco - konco Israel daripada presiden Dr Morsi. Pening membaca komentar dan membara hati melihat semua itu terjadi. Jujurnya, saya juga sedikit tercabar. Namun, tahukah anda yang ada satu perkara yang lebih menghangatkan hati daripada melihat itu semua????

Hati ini lebih hangat dan panasss melihat orang Islam kita sendiri menggunakan KEKERASAN dan KEGANASAN untuk menangani masalah hidup mereka. Hal ini tiada kaitan dengan soal video - video di atas, tetapi sebaliknya realiti masyarakat kita.

Saudara saudari yang saya kasihi kerana Allah sekalian,

Pertamanya, saya yakin dan percaya Islam itu adalah agama yang paling benar dan tinggi dan tiada yang lebih tinggi darinya. Sebagai umat Islam itu adalah kewajipan kita untuk benar - benar membumikannya dalam kehidupan seharian kita. Islam telah pun dijanjikan oleh Allah kemenangannya dan keizzahannya (kemuliaannya) tidak kiralah walaupun grounding pointnya adalah di perlimbangan atau menjadi hambatan caci maki manusia. Islam pasti akan menang walau dengan cara apa sekalipun.

With no doubt saya sangat yakin itu pasti akan terjadi suatu hari nanti, sama ada dengan atau tanpa kita. Jadi, sekiranya kita memang dah yakin begitu, jadi mengapa harus mencaci maki dan selar - menyelar orang lain semberononya?? Kita tak perlu insecure kerana kemenangan Islam telah pun dijustifikasikan oleh Allah swt.

Keduanya, apa kata kalau kita tanya diri kita semula. Dalam pada kita asyik marah dan mengutuk tindakan mereka yang mengaibkan agama yang tercinta kita ini, sudahkah kita menyantuni mereka dengan akhlak - akhlah yang mahmudah?? Sudahkah kita TUNJUKKAN Islam itu kepada mereka?? Kita ini jaguh bercerita namun corot dan kikir pelaksanaannya. (Referring to myself as well)

Jangan marah sahabat. Saya tidak emosional dan berfikir sewenang - wenangnya. Memang seharusnya kita mengutuk dan marah dengan apa yang mereka buat itu, namun bukan dengan cara memusuhi dan membenci mereka kolektifnya. Takkan kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga. Saya cadangkan kita kembali kepada akar umbi Islam itu sendiri. Bagaimana Islam dibawa dan metodologi apakah yang Nabi bawakan sehingga masyhur Islam semerbak dan seantero Tanah Arab.

***** Solusi *****

AKHLAK AL KAREEM. Akhlak yang mulia, itulah jawapannya. Kembalilah kita kepada agama ini dengan erti kata yang sebenar - benarnya. Jangan hanya di mulut, jangan hanya pada pena yang menulis, tetapi juga dalam perlakuan dan pelaksaannya. Sememangnya Nabi sendiri diutuskan untuk menyempurnakan akhlak manusia.

"Sesungguhnya aku diutus untuk menyempurnakan akhlak yang mulia." HR Ahmad

Saya puji usaha - usaha murni untuk melakukan gerakan untuk menyebarkan kefahaman - kefahaman Islam secara lebih tuntas dan jelas. Saya puji mereka yang menganjurkan program perhimpunan AMAN menentang rampasan kuasa yang berlaku di Mesir. Saya puji mereka yang mengadakan majlis iftar bersama orang - orang bukan Islam. Saya puji mereka yang turut sama hadir memeriahkan suasana program Islamik bersama - sama keluarga dan sahabat. Setidak - tidaknya kesemua langkah di atas membuktikan Islam ini agama yang mendahulukan kedamaian mengatasi pertelingkahan. Sekali lagi saya tegaskan, kita BUAT bukan hanya bercakap.

Walau bagaimanapun, saya lebih puji orang yang berusaha memperbaiki dirinya terlebih dahulu dan mereka mengajak orang - orang lain bersama mereka. Mereka membina ISLAM dalam diri mereka dan menyebarkannya kepada orang di sekeliling mereka. Orang - orang seperti ini bukan hanya baik bahkan juga membaikkan. Orang - orang seperti ini bukan hanya soleh bahkan menyolehkan.

Ehh, tapi apa point Ramadan tadi dengan hal - hal yang di atas?? Ya, saya ditarbiah dengan melihat dan mentadabur masalah ummah. InshaAllah.

***** Disclaimer *****

Tiada langsung niat untuk fire siapa - siapa atau menimbulkan sebarang isu - isu sensitif. Sekadar berkongsi idea dan rasa untuk melihat kita semua kembali kepada Islam sebagai Addeen dan buka sekadar suatu sentimen. Sentimen akan hilang seiring berjalannya masa, tetapi Addeen kekal walau digetus getas halangan dunia. Ambllah keberkatan Ramadan ini untuk membuat anjakan perubahan. Jangan dikenang masa lalu kita yang kelam, majulah dan maralah ke hadapan menuju redha Allah. Semoga kita semua menjadi insan kamil yang tidak hanya menjadi sopan dan baik, malahan juga menjadi insan yang menyopankan dan membaikkan. Wallahu alam.