AS00572053

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim...

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Beneficient...

Setelah selesai Ramadhan, bagaimanakah perubahan pada diri?

Itu ayat monolog selepas beberapa hari dalam Syawal.

Lantasku berfikir secara random. Dalam hidup ini, sudah pasti akan ada pertanyaan-pertanyaan seperti, "Dah dapat 10A, nak sambung belajar apa?", atau "Dah grad, sekarang ni buat apa?" atau "Dah bilenyee kome nak kawen?" ataupun, "Eh anak hang dah beghapa oghang?" dan seterusnya...

Dalam pada itu, tuntas diriku berfikir selain soalan-soalan ini, apa pula soalan perkembangan diri sendiri (baca personal growth)? Apakah hidup ini hanya diukur dengan gred, kerjaya, anak et cetera?

Oleh itu, moleklah sangat kiranya kita, sebagai seorang yang berdiri sendiri dengan kehadiran Allah, menilai kembali dan membuat personal goals dalam hidup.

Dari segi spiritual, gimana ya?
Dari segi intelek, gimana ya?
Dari segi penjagaan fizikal, gimana ya?
Dari segi kematangan emosi, gimana ya?

Paling-paling tidak, dalam tarbiyah, tidak asing lagi dengan terma 10 muwasofat tarbiyah.

Pun begitu, semestinya pada diri sendiri, harus ada inisiatif untuk perincikan lagi apa yang mahu dicapai.

Contoh; mahu sihat dari segi fizikal. lihat saja setiap hari, ada set goal berapa kali floss gigi. Selain berus gigi lah.

Lagi contoh; mahu lagi dekat dengan Tuhan. lihat berapa kali dan sejauh mana pengetahuan tentangNya. berapa kali dalam sehari sudah tatap dan baca al quran?

Semestinya pada umur sebegini, sebegini, ada peningkatan pada amal juga pada diri secara keseluruhannya yang kita hendak jadi lebih baik. Juga perubahan meninggalkan apa yang tidak baik untuk diri sendiri.

Salah satu cara menjadi adil adalah bermula dengan berlaku adil pada hak diri sendiri.

Ayuh, mari mulakan perubahan!

In the spirit of madrasah Ramadhan, let us be better khalifa, better duat, better daughters/son, better friends, and better muslims and human...In sha Allah 

Ramzan III

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim...

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious...

InshaAllah apart from sharing another hadeeth from the Daily Hadith app, I would also like to share bits of reflections of how this Ramadhan has been going on so far for me. So, long post warning.

I have been meaning to write this for a while, and I guess it's time now. For a lot of reasons, I've always think that one of the best thing about Ramadhan is that you get to be spiritually cleansed once again.

And yes, it's true isn't it? Ramadhan has been always the special month that Allah has given us to race and persist in doing good ibadah that eventually will becoming habit throughout the year, if not throughout our life.

One of the reasons why Ramadhan is so so ultimately wonderful due to the fact that it is in this month that the miraculous Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him). It is almost by default then with the revelation of words from God (Allah) that we, Muslims get to know about the beautiful messages in Islam.

In which the truth and gems lie within in the Quran that it should be a great motivation for all of us to study it better to understand more about our religion, what Allah wants us to know about Him, his creations and all that matter to him, beyond what is on this earth.

Personally, verses about differences in colors, races, and the way Prophets' of God (Adam, Ibrahim-Abraham, Yusuf-Joseph, Yaaqub-Jaacob and others) mentioned in the Quran always struck me. You see, as we go through and read the quran alongside its tafseer, Prophet Ibrahim alayhissalam (a.s) was endowed in intellect, Musa a.s had the strength,  Sulayman a.s had the power, and Prophet Muhammad pbuh had emotional intelligence...

Here Allah is showing us that He created people with differences be it in the physical, intellectual, emotional self. Allah knows that we, as humans especially, are different from each other but the best thing is, He taught us to be respectful and be graceful on others about it.

If we are in differences, be mindful and walk away if the other start throwing you bad words and/or choose to engage in mutual discourse that leaves both parties in peace...InshaAllah. We are taught in the Quran about adab and hikmah so much so that we could even see lessons from the verses in Sura Ibrahim about kalimah at-thoyyiba, from the verses in Sura Taha about qaulan sadida when Allah ask of Prophet Musa(Moses) a.s to meet Firaun(Pharaoh) and a lot more.

Yet sometimes we get transfixed on how the other person isn't having the same faith, race, intellect nor emotional aspects similar to us that we failed to see on the other side what it is like for them, and to approach the issue with care, after having reflections including good choices of words.

This also includes the way we're doing dawah. Its sometimes easier to blame, scoff, and act like, "I'm holier than thou" or "I actually hold the one and the only truth" or "Your fikrah is wayyy off" ...Right? :( When in fact, people receive guidance from Allah in different forms of invitations, be it through halaqas/usrah/circles, good characters, self study of Quran.

We have to acknowledge that we have reverts, muslims from various backgrounds, of different madzhab, of different upbringing...Hence, just know that the truth lies always with God, and we are, especially only another medium to invite. Therefore, keep doing your amal with ihsan and itqan and full of Rahmah.

On another hand, with deep reflections, thereupon comes responsibility to act upon it. Though this has been quite a struggle for each and everyone of us (especially idealists), I would like to encourage that every individual acts according to what is within his/her capabilities. As an example, given that a lot of saying, love is simply not words but acts or love is a verb, I would argue that some people do have difficulty in expressing their love with acts and some have difficulty with words. It all really boils down to appreciating any form of love is presented to us. Love could take in many forms, and it's terribly wonderful if we could just feel it deep down, be grateful and never forget to sayالحمد الله

Another thing to add is, with principles in line with presenting "truth", there are needs to speak up when injustice has been done; injustice to our own spiritual self, injustice to fellow human beings, including injustice to the creations of God alongside us. When we feel the need to speak up, it is upon us especially Muslims to address the issue after series of investigation and verification (tabayyun) of the issue followed with good words, and with clarity (not sarcasm, seriously). -I myself, sometimes fall into liking statuses of people who wrote with sarcasm and I'm ashamed with that-

Last but not least, let's not forget upon how we will be gathered in front of Allah in the day of Judgment, and will be asked of our own deed. And the fact that Allah will put someone inside Jannah with His mercy mashaAllah...and those who are with qalbun saleem (purified heart)...as well as with taqwa...may we be amongst those people who are fortunate enough to receive such mercy and enter one of the Gates to Jannah.

With Ramadan to end in another 5 days, let's be hopeful and strive to end it with goodness and receiving forgiveness from God and continuing on our resolutions during Ramadhan.

Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun kareem, tuhibbul' afwa fa'fu 'anni...

Ramzan II

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful

This is a bit off from what I promised before, but I've just got to tell that mashaAllah this book is terribly good. Such a good choice, if you ever decided to pick up your seerah back.

Muhammad : His Life Based On The Earliest Source by Martin Lings

Aside from that, as promised. Another selected hadith for Ramadhan;

Ramzan

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim...

In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy...

As Ramadan approaches its 15th day tonight, its still a wonder that Allah is giving me, us to continuously perform our best deeds. Liyabluwakum ahsanu 'amala...remember?

I've actually made a mental note to myself to post reflection series (well, sort of) starting on the 1st day of Ramadhan from the chapters I've read in this beautiful beautiful book. A book, that was bought as a gift from a precious friend - may Allah preserve and bless her for her kindness - using her book vouchers.

A Journey To God : Reflections on the Hikam of Ibn Atha'illah by Jasser Auda

(See how bad I am at taking pic...geez)

Turns out it didn't work as planned, because let's face it, mental list is never a good start to do something to begin with. Writing down the list does helps A LOT...at least for me.

So I resorted to this. Posting selected ahadeeth from this uber cool app called Daily Hadith. It gives you notification per day, and mind you it's got the bestest design I've ever seen. Like this;

Just look at the simple design, and turquoise background with a lil bit of waveylike deco!

Also, Hassan Al Banna once suggested, reading ahadeeth soften the heart. I would check on this. Is that why people who undergo tarbiyah reads Riyadus Solihin everyday too?

However so, with the wondrous amount of ahadeeth easily available these days, we as muslims especially need to check on the status and the context of them all. Is this certain hadith hasan,  mutawatir, dhaif et cetera? What about the "perawi"? Do I know how this hadith came about? Hence, the reason why we need to refer to its syarah, with guidance from the people who are 'aalim in this matter. To not misinterpret them and misusing them you know. I remembered once, attending to Dr Maszlee's talk in Bangi when he talked about this.

You know, in Ramadhan Allah is making it easier for us to focus internally, hence it's easier to listen closely to our heart to start make changes. The spiritual needs get heightened so that when you read stuffs or listen to lectures, they just hit you real hard. I mean, the eeman senstivity just get all activated more aight? That's ihsan and product of taqwa all right.

May Allah keep us steadfast in performing our deeds even after Ramadhan, and in trying our best to be on the straight path. Quoting Sh Yusuf Qardawi, be a Rabbaniyyun, not Ramadhaniyyun :)

الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا وما كنا لنهتدي لولا أن هدانا الله

"Praise to Allah, who has guided us to this; and we would never have been guided if Allah had not guided us."

(Al-A'raaf 7:43)