Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

The Voice

In as much as untrained "writers" like me are able to express our thoughts through blogs and facebook, it takes natural talent and skill to use the written word to project our voices.

Without the help of the voice, sometimes our writings get misinterpreted. When we think we are funny, readers think we have a lot of agro.

However when we speak, the manner and tone of our voice reflect our true feelings (unless we are actors of course) which in certain cases can be actually hurtful to the one listening.

So... on the one hand we must be careful how we write to avoid misinterpretation, and on the other we should be careful how we speak in order not to give away our true feelings.


This delightful poem by an unknown writer explains:

“It’s not so much what you say,
as the manner in which you say it;
It’s not so much the language you use,
as the tone in which you convey it.
’Come here’,I sharply said,
And the child cowered and wept.
“Come Here", I said and he looked and smiled,
and straight to my lap he crept.

Words may be mild and fair,
But the tone may pierce like a dart’
Words may be soft as the summer air,
But the tone may break my heart’
For words come from the mind,
Grow by study and art,
But tone leaps from the inner self,
Revealing the state of heart.

Whether you know it or not,
whether you mean or care,
gentleness, kindness, love and hate,
envy, anger are there.
Then, would you quarrels avoid
and peace and love rejoice?
Keep anger not only out of your words
keep it out of your voice."


But that would be just suppressing negatvity, wouldn't it?

Once in a while,  I'm game for verbal badminton too.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Penawar Kerimasan

Dalam keadaan rumah tunggang-langgang kerana operasi cat-mengecat, dengan scaffolding di tengah rumah, dan barang-barang lemari berserabut di atas meja dan lantai, sejuk hati ini apabila terlihat salah-seorang ahli pasukan empat sekawan Mat Bangla yang bernama Abdurrahman, sebelum berus mencecah dinding mengucap Basmallah dengan penuh khusyu'.

Sebelum itu memang saya terfikir sampai bilalah saya harus bertahan dengan keadaan rumah sebegini serta kebisingan celoteh team yang amat bersemangat.

Lalu memujuk diri dengan mengharapkan sesuatu yang baik walaupun kecil, dari Yang Maha Adil... kerana berpeluang membantu hamba-hambanya yang mencari rezeki.

Kebetulan saya sedang membelek-belek online Al-Quran dan rasa tersentuh pula dengan sebahagian ayat 195 Surah Al-'Imran (kononnya mengulangi pelajaran di usrah malam tadi).

"(195) And thus does their Sustainer answer their prayer: "I shall not lose sight of the labour of any of you who labours [in My way], be it man or woman: each of you is an issue of the other...."  ~ Muhammad Asad's translation.

(195) Maka Tuhan mereka perkenankan doa mereka (dengan firmanNya): "Sesungguhnya Aku tidak akan sia-siakan amal orang-orang yang beramal dari kalangan kamu, sama ada lelaki atau perempuan, (kerana) setengah kamu (adalah keturunan) dari setengahnya yang lain;

Subhanallah...

Malam tadi saya tertarik dengan ayat 190 dan 191:

(190) Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the succession of night and day, there are indeed messages for all who are endowed with insight,

191) [and] who remember God when they stand, and when they sit, and when they lie down to sleep,
and [thus] reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "O our Sustainer! Thou hast not created [aught of] this without meaning and purpose. Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! Keep us safe, then, from suffering through fire!

Ustaz menerangkan yang "endowed with insight" itu lah yang "remember God when they stand, and when they sit, and when they lie down to sleep". Memang sah saya amat berkurangan dengan "power of insight" tersebut, kalau mengikut terjemahan Bahasa Melayunya ialah kurang berakal... ooops sedihnya

(190) Sesungguhnya pada kejadian langit dan bumi, dan pada pertukaran malam dan siang, ada tanda-tanda (kekuasaan, kebijaksanaan, dan keluasan rahmat Allah) bagi orang-orang yang berakal

 (191) (Iaitu) orang-orang yang menyebut dan mengingati Allah semasa mereka berdiri dan duduk dan semasa mereka berbaring mengiring, dan mereka pula memikirkan tentang kejadian langit dan bumi (sambil berkata): "Wahai Tuhan kami! Tidaklah Engkau menjadikan benda-benda ini dengan sia-sia, Maha Suci Engkau, maka peliharalah kami dari azab neraka.

Banyak perkara lagha yang mengisi waktu saya - mana mungkin boleh mencapai "a happy state" tanpa mengingati Yang Rahman Yang Rahim...

Sedang saya membaca ayat terakhir surah, saya teringat seorang rakan yang terlantar sakit.

(200) O you who have attained to faith! Be patient in adversity, and vie in patience with one another, and be ever ready [to do what is right], and remain conscious of God, so that you might attain to a happy state!

Insya Allah beliau sudah melatih diri untuk  "remain conscious of God" "when they stand, and when they sit, and when they lie down to sleep" atau ditidurkan.

Saya juga harus mempunyai kebolehan seperti itu.

Ini baru sahaja menghadapi keadaan rumah yang lintang-pukang seperti dilanda angin puting beliung. Belum lagi ancaman nuklear dan sewaktu dengannya.

Belum lagi di.....    (iishhh.... tak mahu fikirkan lah)

Ya Ampunnn...


Ini juga penawar.


Monday, 27 December 2010

When He Was 64

My late father was born in 1922. He chose the date 4.4.44 to marry my mother. He was still only  a few months shy of 22. My mom was then only 17.

By the time he was 40, going on 41, they already had 9 children. Mom was just 35, 36. The gynae suggested that she had her tubes tied, to which she agreed. Otherwise there might have been 3 or 4 more of us.

The years passed, we finished our schooling. Dad made sure we all went through tertiary education, and got decent jobs and.... got married. By the time he was 64 and Mom 59 they've already had 15 or so grandchildren, and my youngest sister 23 years old.

Year: 1986
 

So I guess they could breathe easier with everyone grown up.

I am 57 now and if I get to see 64 my youngest would be 25 years old. No more school uniforms to be bought, even since last year for that matter.

It's just that I have a couple of 64, 65 year-old friends, albeit on Facebook, who still have teenagers running around them. And they are not the grandchildren.

These coots look youngish and spritely though. I'm just wondering whether they treat their young children as children, or grandchildren... because these daddies are old enough to be grandfathers anyhow.

I remember my own maternal grandfather had 3 little girls in his sixties when he re-married after my grandmother passed away. They were very much younger than me and I think he doted on them  as he did us, his grandchildren.

Usually grandchildren get away with things that would definitely be frowned upon by the parents.

Like peeing on grandpa

This is my nephew Rez
 
Or punching him in the eye

This is Amin

If my father were still alive, he would be 88 and probably enjoying his 31 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren like Mom is now. He passed away at the age of 71 with 9 additional grandchildren. May Allah bless his soul and place him among the righteous.



________________________________

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Let The Sun Shine In

Like all good Muslim households in Malaysia, be it in the towns, kampongs or in the sprawling surburbia of the Klang Valley, come end of Ramadhan we start sprucing up our homes for the Raya or Eid celebrations.

It's mainly because during Raya we would be receiving little guests and the not-so-little yet-to-be-employed guests who have come to collect their little gift-packets of money.

But more importantly we would be welcoming guests who have come to wish us peace and ask forgiveness for past incursions. It is a beautiful thing really, as this act of forgiving is almost always mutually rendered.

So we tidy up the house or even give it a paint job because at least if the house is clean and pretty, we will be actually preventing our guests from committing another wrong: that of their hearts whispering negatives about our house maintenance.

We want to lay out our best tablecloths and china for them and serve them good wholesome Raya dishes too, we honour them so their hearts whisper positives about our hospitality.


This mutual forgiving seems to be the practice at Hari Raya in this part of the world and which can be somewhat cleansing too... spiritually, depending on one's sincerity of course.

Like yesterday, when I was having all the drapes in the living-room laundered, that "heart" of the house (according to Feng Shui) looked so cheery with the sunshine flooding in and the gentle breezes wafting through, I didn't feel like having the curtains hung up again.

And I began to think, that's just how our own hearts are. We clothe our bodies as appropriate, but if we still veil our hearts, Ramadhan "cleansing" becomes superficial, just on the outside, the practices just rituals, maybe we had just chalked up "brownie points" for going through the motions only, for the quantity but not the quality.

Actually I meant "me", not you... because I know most of the time my heart needs to be aired, needs to be de-veiled, needs to be dusted and cleansed....  so that the light may shine through

That light that brightens our hearts, that make us reachable, and teachable, accepting, and forgiving, etc.

The light that cleanses...

But how?

That is the question.

Let the sun shine in. De-veil. Or be-deviled.


To all Muslims
Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya, Mohon Maaf Zahir dan Batin



Saturday, 22 May 2010

The Language of Love and Black-and-Whites


I love old black-and-white photos. I have a stash of them, salvaged from an old filing cabinet in my mum's house. Some of them go back 50 years or more and the images are still so clear and well-defined, unlike early colour photographs of the mid-seventies. Somehow the memories that the black-and-whites evoke are also clearer, each event played back as if it took place not that very long ago.

One picture I love though is one I have absolutely no memory of, and I'm absolutely sure I wasn't even born when it was taken. It's of my mum and dad presumably a few years into their marriage


Since in those days only special events warranted a photo-shoot, I guess this was taken to commemorate some upcoming challenges that they had to face. To me what shows out in this picture mainly is their air of quiet confidence. And the love and togetherness. In fact they were together through thick and thin... and nine children, until dad passed away a year shy of their 50th wedding anniversary.

Is there a secret to the strength of marriages of old - the weddings would most often have been between very young ladies not out of their teens with young men barely out of them. Or was it that they understood better the language of love, as the Sheikh who wrote the article below puts it.

Anyway, thought I'd share the piece.

_______________________________________________________
Salaam Alaikum!
Love has many languages. By this, we mean that there are different ways that people express love and recognize it. Many times, the way that a person expresses love is not the same way that their partner wants to hear it.

Imagine, if you will, two people who are speaking different languages to one another – say, Chinese and Swahili. Even though one of them might be saying ‘I love you’ in her language, the other person simply has no clue that this is a message of love. They are not communicating in the same wavelength.
Many times, a person feels unloved by his or her spouse because the expected language to hear that love never materializes. Yet, if the spouse were asked about his or her feelings, it would become clear that true love does actually exist. It’s just a matter of not communicating the feeling of love properly to the other party.

For example, some people express their love by wanting to spend quality time with their beloved. This is generally more common amongst women. If a wife does not get to spend quality time with her husband, she might feel unloved, even if he is showing his love to her in other ways (by spending his money on her, for example). On the other hand, other people express love by physical acts, such as kissing and sexual activity. This is more common amongst men. When a man regularly approaches his wife, he is showing that he loves her. Yet, the wife is not ‘hearing’ this love because in her vocabulary, love must be expressed in a different language – that of time. Unless and until she sees this aspect, she will find it difficult to understand that her husband loves her.

Another language of love is helping the one whom you love. A wife might show her love for her husband by taking care of his daily needs and household chores. But it is possible that the husband does not hear this love, because he is not tuned into this language! Rather, he might be expecting it in different ways. Therefore, all of the acts of devotion and dedication that the wife shows to her husband are simply ‘tuned out’, like a foreign language, because that is not what he wants to hear to confirm his wife’s love for him.

By understanding the different ways that people show love, each spouse can better appreciate the languages of love that his or her spouse speaks. Many people unknowingly speak more than one language of love – however, until the other partner learns to listen to and recognize that language, all of these beautiful expressions of love will be lost and evaporate into thin air.

In the online seminar, Halal Intimacy: Practical Steps To A Blissful Marriage, we will be discussing the different languages of love in more detail insha Allah.




Jazakum Allah khayr!
Yasir Qadhi

______________________________________________________________

The language of love is not quite black and white...

Friday, 18 September 2009

Untuk renungan


(Tazkirah Ramadhan mutakhir disampaikan oleh Ustaz Shihabuddin Muhaemin)

1. Kalau kita semangat berpuasa , mengapa kita tidak semangat juga dalam bersolat yang sama matlamatnya iaitu taqwa?

2. Kalau kita bersungguh-sungguh menepati waktu berbuka, adakah kita bersungguh-sungguh menepati waktu solat?

3. Kalau kita berbuka dengan makan berjema'ah, adakah kita solat juga berjema'ah

4. Kalau kita rajin solat terawih di masjid, adakah kita juga rajin solat fardu di masjid?

5. Kalau kita rajin beribadah dalam bulan Ramadhan, mengapa tidak kita rajin beribadah selepas Ramadhan?

Ubahkan persepsi kita terhadap Ramadhan -
dari bulan ibadah
kepada bulan kita BERMULA RAJIN beribadah.


Saturday, 12 September 2009

Meme: Save Yvonne's Sight

What if you or any of your loved ones is afflicted with neurofibromatosis type II and his/her sight has been severely affected? Would you have written a book about the condition to help raise funds for the very expensive surgery. Well, someone has done just that, not for another but for herself.
















Yvonne Foong, 22, has neurofibromatosis type II, which has severely affected her sight and hearing due to tumours in the brain and spine. She is scheduled for an operation between 1 and 4 December 2009. The cost of surgery is USD44,000 or RM154,770, and the cost of staying in hospital for two weeks is USD915 or RM3219.

She has raised about RM10,000 of this and is hoping to raise the rest by republishing her book I'm Not Sick; I'm Just a Bit Unwell in English and Chinese. The books are now available in Malaysian bookshops and from her web site store. She is also selling T-shirts at bazaars and via her web site store. You can read about her surgery and donate to her fund here.

You can also help by sending on this meme. If you do, please follow these meme rules:
1. Create a blog entry titled "Meme: Save Yvonne's Sight"
2. List three things you love to see. Add in the picture of Yvonne's book cover. The URL is http://www.yvonnefoong.com/images/banner/my-story.jpg
3. End with the line, "Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com.
4. Tag 5 blog friends. Be sure to copy the rules, OK?
5. If you have a Facebook account, please check out Ellen's new invention, a "feme" pronounced FEEM, a meme designed for Facebook here. And if you want to blog about NF, that would be great too!
Three things I love to see :
1. A perfect omelette
2. A green light at the intersection
3. A toddler staring at me
Kak Teh has tagged me for the Save Yvonne's Sight Meme.

Bloggers I'm tagging are:

Ayub Jamil of Delights of Remembrance
Dr Sam of An Archive of Time
Pak Zawi of LAISI
Saya of I, Blog (currently)
Uncle Lee of A Moonlight Rendezvous


"Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com."


In fact if anyone else out there would like to meme or feme this - please feel free.
LET'S DO WHATEVER WE CAN TO HELP YVONNE.



Thursday, 10 September 2009

Bridging the Divide

As we enter the final stages of Ramadhan, I would like to share a story (link provided by Amin in KK) about a Malaysian daiee's experiences in Malaysia and abroad (Belfast, Ireland). It was written 3 years ago but still an eye-opener on the issues relating to spreading the message. The writer is Ustaz Hasrizal. His biodata is here and his website is http://saifulislam.com

AKU SALAFI, ANAK (MURID)KU BAGAIMANA?


KISAH SELUAR

“Eh, Mid. Seluar engkau tu tak sesuai. Warnanya tak masuk dengan warna baju engkau. Tukarlah seluar lain. Pakai yang gelap sedikit”, Edi menunding jari ke arah Hamid yang wajahnya masam mencuka.

“Mid, engkau nak keluar macam tu? Tak malu ke? Orang zaman sekarang ni sudah tidak pakai seluar begitu. Carilah yang up-to-date sikit”, Zamri pula mencelah, turut sama memberi komen kepada Hamid yang baru sahaja menukar seluarnya.

“La Ilaha Illallah. Itukah seluar terbaik engkau? Malu aku nak berjalan dengan kamu, Mid. Seluar macam itu, orang sekarang buat kain pengelap lantai sahaja, kau tahu tak?”, kata Azlan yang tidak berpuas hati dengan penampilan rakan serumahnya, Hamid.

Pipi Hamid sudah merah. Wajahnya sudah masam mencuka. Rupanya seperti bom yang mahu meletup. Pakai yang ini salah, pakai yang itu salah, habis yang mana satu?

“Yelah yelah, susah sangat, aku keluar rumah bertelanjang lagi senang”, akhirnya Hamid keluar dari biliknya bertelanjang. Ia menjadi insiden yang amat mengaibkan. Tidak tergamak untuk ditulis di sini.

Ya, akibat keliru dan diasak dengan pelbagai pendapat, akhirnya Hamid mengambil keputusan paling drastik iaitu bertelanjang.

Kisah di atas mungkin sekadar bayangan saya. Namun saya menulisnya sebagai gambaran tentang kekeliruan yang berlaku di kalangan masyarakat kita dengan kepelbagaian pendapat yang menyerang. Bila dibuat begini, dikatakan Bid”™ah. Bila dibuat begitu, diserang pula dengan tohmahan sebagai Wahabi. Akhirnya golongan ini terkeliru dan mereka membuat keputusan yang paling popular masa kini, iaitu bertelanjang. Mereka menelanjangkan diri dari agama, kerana agama itu sungguh mengelirukan.

Siapakah yang mengelirukan masyarakat tentang agama? Tidak lain dan tidak bukan, iaitulah golongan agama sendiri. Sama ada yang berkelulusan agama dari Alif sampai Ya, mahu pun yang Alifnya rumi, dan di tengah-tengah jalan, Lamnya menjadi jawi dan Arabi.

REALITI YANG DILUPAKAN

Ya, dalam keasyikan melayan pelbagai pandangan dan aliran, kita sering terlupa bahawa majoriti telah memilih untuk bertelanjang. Mereka menanggalkan agama dari diri kerana agama sungguh menyerabutkan. Pandangan ini saya kutip daripada pelbagai siri pertemuan, terutamanya apabila mengendalikan kursus wajib yang disediakan oleh pihak Universiti dan Kolej. Saya bertemu dengan ramai pelajar yang pelbagai dan nyata sekali di hari pertama kursus, kebanyakannya hadir dengan paksa rela.

Ia berbeza dengan kuliah di masjid. Masjid hanya dihadiri oleh mereka yang berjiwa masjid. Maka kita bertemu dengan insan yang hampir sama corak fikir dan gelombang frekuensinya. Ia juga tidak sama dengan program terbuka yang iklan di papan kenyataan hanya dipedulikan oleh mereka yang peduli. Akan tetapi, ketika saya berprogram melalui Fitrah Perkasa, saya bertemu dengan manusia yang sungguh pelbagai. Saya tidak berhasrat untuk mengulas dalam skala yang terlalu besar, maka untuk kali ini saya hanya ingin mengajak pembaca menumpukan perhatian kepada kekeliruan yang menimpa golongan muda, khususnya pelajar sekolah, kolej dan universiti.

Saya masih ingat, semasa di Belfast, saya menghadapi masalah yang sama. Soalan saya semasa itu mudah sahaja, AKU SALAFI, ANAK (MURID)KU BAGAIMANA?

Bagaimanakah sepatutnya saya mengajar anak-anak murid yang pelbagai itu? Jika saya mengajar solat Fajar tanpa qunut, ia menghairankan anak murid saya yang beribu bapakan seorang Melayu yang tidak pernah meninggalkan qunut, bahkan menggantikan qunut yang tertinggal dengan sujud sahwi. Seandainya saya mengajar solat Fajar dengan qunut, ia membingungkan anak murid saya yang berketurunan Pakistan dan Turki yang hairan mengapa mereka diajar qunut sedangkan ibu bapa mereka terus sujud selepas bangun dari rukuk di rakaat kedua.

Saya harus akur bahawa pelajar di sekolah saya terdiri daripada anak-anak yang datang dari lebih 25 negara. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Turki, Bosnia, Adzerbaijan, Mesir, Jordan, Syria, Arab Saudi, Maghribi, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Lubnan, Iraq, malah Iran dan tidak lupa Malaysia, serta yang sudah pastinya British, English, Irish, dan Scottish. Semua itu terhimpun dalam sebuah sekolah kecil bernama Belfast Islamic School yang berpengetuakan saya, seorang budak Melayu yang baru berusia 26 tahun ketika itu.

Itu baru satu isu.

KEBENARAN ISLAM VS KRISTIAN

Masalah seperti ini juga membabitkan isu kebenaran Islam dan Kristian. Saya tidak boleh secara mudah menyebut, “agama yang benar adalah Islam, manakala Kristian itu batil dan sesat, tempatnya di neraka!”�. Mengapa tidak? Sebabnya mudah. Hampir 20 orang daripada anak murid saya yang ibu mereka Kristian manakala bapa mereka Muslim. Dengan menggunakan peruntukan perkahwinan bersama ahli Kitab, jumlah penduduk di Belfast yang mengahwini perempuan Kristian tempatan agak signifikan.

“Imam, saya rasa emak saya yang Kristian lebih baik akhlaknya berbanding ayah saya yang Muslim. Takkanlah mak saya masuk neraka!”, kata salah seorang anak murid saya.

Habis, apakah jawapan yang dapat saya berikan? Hakikatnya memang begitu.

Saya pernah dihubungi oleh pihak polis yang meminta agar saya hadir ke sebuah funeral house. Saya dijemput dengan sebuah limosin hitam, bagi menghadiri upacara menyembahyangkan jenazah seorang kanak-kanak perempuan berusia 4 tahun yang meninggal dunia semasa tidur. Ibunya Kristian bermazhab Katolik dan ayahnya seorang Muslim Arab dari Algeria.

Semasa tiba di majlis tersebut, saya bertemu dengan si ayah. Bertindik, rambut kerinting cantik berdandan. Si ayah bersalam acuh tidak acuh dengan saya. Tiada sepatah pun kalimah dari mulutnya, salam saya juga tidak berjawab.

Saya dibawa bertemu dengan si ibu, wanita Irish dalam usia akhir 20′an. Wajahnya sugul sekali dan ketika melihat saya, dia datang sambil melemparkan senyuman yang dipaksa.

“Terima kasih, Imam. Saya amat menghargai kedatangan Imam. Maafkan saya kerana meminta bantuan polis untuk mencari Imam sebab saya tidak tahu lokasi masjid di Belfast.”, katanya.

“Tak apa, puan. Malah saya amat berterima kasih di atas kesungguhan puan menghubungi kami. Apa yang terjadi puan? Bagaimana puteri puan meninggal dunia?”, saya bertanya.

“Tuan Imam, anak saya tuan Imam. Itulah satu-satunya anak kami. Kami amat sayangkan dia. Tetapi pagi Isnin baru-baru ini, kami bangun pagi dan dapati Mary sudah tidak bernyawa. Wajahnya biru dan tubuhnya sejuk membeku”, jawab wanita tersebut dengan tangisan air mata.

“Inna Lillah wa Inna Ilayhi Rajioon. Takziah dari saya, semoga Allah memberi kekuatan kepada puan dan suami”, saya cuba mententeramkannya.

“Maafkan suami saya Imam, dia memang begitu. Agak kurang peramah”, kata perempuan tersebut sambil merenung suaminya yang sedang menghembuskan asap rokok ke tingkap koridor.

Saya dan rombongan masjid dibawa ke dewan. Kami meminta supaya di arah kiblat, tiada sebarang tanda salib atau patung. Semasa menjenguk ke keranda, berderai air mata saya melihat si anak kecil yang dihias cantik, dengan gaun putih dan rambut yang disikat kemas.

“Allah telah menyelamatkan dirimu wahai anakku, Maryam. Pulanglah engkau ke syurga-Nya”, saya berbisik sendirian ke arah sekujur jenazah yang mati penuh misteri.

Saya susunkan saf menjadi tiga. Seterusnya saya imamkan solat jenazah di pagi yang hening itu, sambil diperhatikan oleh puluhan anggota keluarga ibu si Mary. Ayahnya enggan bersolat bersama kami.

Selesai mengerjakan solat, saya diminta berucap di hadapan orang ramai, sebagaimana adat yang diamalkan oleh penganut Kristian Katholik.

SAYA BERTALQIN?

“Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, khususnya Puan Catriona sekeluarga. Sesungguhnya kematian ini adalah sesuatu yang pasti. Kita merancang pelbagai perkara yang entahkan sempat atau tidak kita melakukannya. Tetapi janganlah kita lupa merancang untuk hidup selepas mati.

Ajaran agama kami iaitu Islam, menyatakan bahawa setiap bayi yang lahir, adalah suci dan bersih. Suci dan bersihnya mereka menyebabkan setiap mata yang melihat wajah kanak-kanak akan terhibur, kerana pada diri mereka tiada dosa. Di antara kanak-kanak yang suci itu adalah Mary Daly yang akan berpisah dengan kita buat selama-lamanya hari ini. Mary lahir dengan penuh kesucian, seperti kanak-kanak yang lain, seperti Mary ibu kepada Isa. Dan apabila dia pulang kepada Tuhan seawal usia ini, dia pulang dengan suci, dan pastinya Tuhan menyambut kepulangan Mary dengan penuh restu.

Walaupun sedih, namun bergembiralah Puan Catriona dan suami, serta sekalian yang mengasihinya kerana Mary pulang ke syurga. Tempat yang selayaknya untuk insan-insan yang suci sepertinya. Semoga Allah menerima Mary dengan sebaiknya, dan memberikan kekuatan kepada ibu dan ayahnya, Amen”, saya mengakhiri ucapan pagi itu dengan sekalung doa.

Entahlah, apakah perbuatan saya itu menjadi talqin yang dibid’ahkan oleh sesetengah orang? Namun ia adalah peluang dakwah yang amat besar kerana hanya dengan Islam sahaja, kematian Mary boleh dilihat positif, sedangkan ramai yang hadir gusar kerana Mary belum disucikan daripada original sin sebab belum sempat dibaptiskan paderi.

PENTINGKAH ILMU PEDAGOGI?

Pengalaman di atas sungguh unik, namun saya tetap melihatkan sebagai suatu cabaran yang mengelirukan, apabila ia dibawa ke institusi pendidikan. Di Belfast Islamic School, saya harus serius memikirkan kaedah pendidikan yang tersendiri lantaran keadaan anak-anak murid saya yang sungguh unik lagi tersendiri.

Pada masa itu ilmu dan pengalaman saya amat cetek. Saya terpanggil untuk berusaha meningkatkan diri dengan memohon menyertai program Master di bidang Sosiologi Agama di The Queen’s University of Belfast. Tetapi semasa hari pendaftaran saya membatalkan hasrat itu kerana tidak mempunyai bekalan wang yang mencukupi.

Pada tahun yang berikutnya saya telah mengambil keputusan untuk melanjutkan pelajaran di peringkat sarjana di bidang Pendidikan (Curriculum Studies) bersama The Open University, UK. Tujuan saya memilih bidang ini adalah kerana cabaran saya di Belfast Islamic School. Saya harus serius membangunkan kurikulum yang tepat bagi sekolah itu bahkan sekolah-sekolah lain di UK dan Ireland.

Tidak mungkin generasi anak-anak ini dididik dengan sistem pendidikan yang dilalui oleh ibu bapa mereka. Anak-anak ini menerima pendedahan terhadap Islam dalam bentuk yang berbeza. Soal mazhab, perkahwinan campur dan banyak lagi isu, harus ditangani dengan teliti.

Saya tidak boleh mengambil pendekatan bebal. Ahh, manhaj aku adalah yang paling tepat dengan al-Quran dan al-Sunnah. Maka dunia harus berputar mengikut putaranku. Soal mereka ikut atau tidak, itu tidak penting. Yang mengikut tandanya dapat hidayah. Manakala yang menolak, terserahlah nasib mereka untuk ditentukan Allah! Wah, mampukah saya berkata demikian? Jika anak orang lain mungkin sedap mulut kita menyebutnya. Tetapi apabila terkena anak sendiri, mahu dibiarkan sahajakah dia terhumban ke lembah yang terpesong dari jalan ke syurga itu?

Guru-guru yang mengajar anak murid tanpa mengambil kira kesan pengajarannya, adalah sungguh tidak mempedulikan Sunnah. Kita mengajar untuk express atau impress? Kita berceramah untuk memandaikan orang atau untuk tunjuk pandai di hadapan orang?

Kerana itu, saya tenggelamkan diri saya dalam himpunan buku pedagogi. Alhamdulillah, rakan-rakan sekuliah amat pelbagai. Ada cikgu sekolah di Jepun, ada guru penjara di Hawaii, dan ramai lagi rakan forum saya dalam subjek semester pertama kami. The Open University of UK mempunyai Fakulti Pendidikan yang terbesar di Eropah, dengan jumlah pelajar yang mencecah 16 ribu orang semuanya.

Malang sekali, di tahun pertama pengajian, saya ditimpa penyakit dan terlantar selama berbulan-bulan di rumah. Saya tidak boleh keluar rumah kerana kulit saya menjadi foto sensitif. Berbahang apabila terkena matahari. Saya mengundurkan diri dari pengajian di tahun itu.

Manakala di tahun berikutnya, saya menyambung kembali pengajian, tetapi malang sekali lagi, kami terpaksa pulang ke Malaysia kerana isteri saya dipanggil pulang berkhidmat di tanah air.

Walaupun MEd. saya terbengkalai, namun saya masih sensitif dengan metodologi pengajaran. Pada saya, ilmu mengajar adalah sama pentingnya dengan ilmu yang hendak diajar.

Read the rest here




Another excellent read on treading the delicate divide between two dissimilar views http://www.zaharuddin.net/content/view/218/95/


_______________________________________________________

Sunday, 30 August 2009

Soap or Perfume?

(Fished from my nephew's blog)




Imam ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi was once asked:

“Is it better for me to make Tasbeeh (praise Allah)
or to make Istighfaar (seek forgiveness)?”


He replied:

“The dirty robe is more in need of soap than perfume”

Take this Ramadhan to cleanse and purify heart ... none can find the best time other than this month

Sunday, 2 August 2009

An Enduring Love

Adapted this from The African Star, Marwa Alnaal, AmrKhaled

Khadijah was the daughter of Khuwaylid, a wealthy merchant in Arabia. Khadijah’s father was “a successful businessman whose vast wealth and business talents were inherited by Khadijah and whom the latter succeeded with faring the family’s vast wealth”. Khadijah was married twice, and twice she was widowed because her husbands died due to the ravaging wars with which Arabia was afflicted.

Khadijah bint Khuwailid was born in a society which was terribly male chauvinistic. However, she earned two titles: Ameerat-Quraysh, Princess of Quraysh (the tribe to which she belonged), and al-Tahira, the Pure One, due to her impeccable personality and virtuous character. She used to feed and clothe the poor, assist her relatives financially, an even provide for the marriage of those of her kin who could not otherwise have the means to marry.

To marry Khadijah herself would have been a great feat for any man, and indeed, quite a few of the most prominent and wealthy men in society had asked for her hand. Yet, she rejected them all; already twice widowed, she had lost the desire to marry again.

Until Muhammad came into her life. He was young man of 25, and although he was also of a noble family, he was an orphan and was not a man of many means. He had made a meager living tending sheep in the hills surrounding the city. Yet, he had an impeccable moral character, and he was widely known as one of the most honest men around. That was what attracted her to him: she was looking for someone honest who could conduct business for her, as she - a woman in a fiercely patriarchal society - could not do it herself.

Consequently, upon the suggestions of his uncle Abu-Talib Muhammad started working for Khadijah. A commercial caravan led by Muhammad headed for Syria, taking with it Maysara, Khadijah's man-servant, whom Abu Talib had asked to take good care of Muhammad.

After he returned from his first business trip, she asked her servant, about Muhammad and his conduct. The servant amazed her by his report: this young man was the kindest, gentlest man he had ever met. Never did he treat the servant harshly, as many others do. Yet, there was more: as they traveled in the heat of the desert, the servant noticed that a cloud had followed them the entire time, shading them from the blazing sun. The businesswoman was quite impressed with her new employee.

Not only that, this new employee proved to be an astute businessman in his own right. He took his employer's merchandise, sold it, and with the profits bought other merchandise that he sold again, thus profiting twice. All this was enough for her: the embers of love in her heart that were once extinguished re-kindled again, and she resolved to marry this young man, who was 15 years younger than she.

Khadijah had rejected several marriage proposals by the elite of Quraysh who were attracted by either her beauty or her wealth. This continued for sometime until Khadijah opened her heart to one of her friends, Nafisah Bint Al-Munabbih, and admitted her admiration for Muhammad, and gave permission to Nafisah to talk to him concerning the marriage.

She asked him, "Why are you not married, yet?"

"For lack of means," he answered.

"What if I could offer you a wife of nobility, beauty, and wealth? Would you be interested?" she told him.

He replied in the affirmative, but when she mentioned Khadijah, the young employee chuckled in amazement.

"How could I marry her? She has turned down the most noble men in the city, much wealthier and prominent than me, a poor shepherd," he said.

"Don't you worry," Nafisah replied, "I'll take care of it."

Not long after, the wealthy businesswoman married her young employee, and it was the beginning of one of the most loving, happiest, and sacred marriages in all of human history: that of Muhammad and Khadijah, the daughter of Khuwaylid. When they were married, Muhammad was 25 years old, and Khadijah was 40. Yet, that did not bother him one bit. He loved her so deeply, and she loved him as deeply. They were married for 25 years, and she bore him six children: 2 sons and 4 daughters: Al Qasim, Zainab, Abdullah, UmKulthum, Fatima, Ruqayya.Both sons died in infancy.

Khadijah and Muhammad had much in common. Not only were their character’s and personalities very similar, but they both refused to worship idols- a common practice among Arabians during that time period.

Khadijah was a source of immense love, strength, and comfort for Muhammad, and he leaned heavily on this love and support on the most important night of his life.

While he was meditating in cave of Hira, the Angel Jibreel came to Muhammad and revealed to him the first verses of the Qur'an and declared to him that he was to be a Prophet. The experience terrified the Prophet Muhammad, and he ran home, jumping into Khadijah's arms crying, "Cover me! Cover me!"

Muhammad was swarmed with the trauma, and Khadijah consoled him and put him to sleep on her lap. When he recovered he related then related the story to his wife how Angel Jibreel came down from the sky and commanded him to “Read!”. The Prophet feared he was losing his mind or being possessed.

Khadijah put all his fears to rest: "Do not worry," she said, "for by Him who has dominion over Khadijah's soul, I hope that you are the Prophet of this nation. Allah would never humiliate you, for you are good to your relatives, you are true to your word, you help those who are in need, you support the weak, you feed the guest and you answer the call of those who are in distress."

She then took him to her cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal - a scholar well-versed in the Judeo-Christian scripture - and he confirmed to the Prophet that his experience was Divine and he was to be the Last Prophet.
After this tremendous revelation, Khadijah became Muhammad’s first convert. The faith of this mature wealthy woman of high standing in the community must have influenced others to accept Islam. She was also Muhammad’s best friend.

After his ministry began, and the opposition of his people became harsh and brutal, Khadijah was always there to support the Prophet Muhammad, sacrificing all of her wealth to support the cause of Islam. When the Prophet and his family were banished to the hills outside of Mecca, she went there with him, and the three years of hardship and deprivation eventually led to her death. The Prophet Muhammad mourned her deeply, and even after her death, the Prophet would send food and support to Khadijah's friends and relatives, out of love for his first wife.

Khadijah not only received praise from Muhammad, but also from the Angel Jibreel. Jibreel once said to Muhammad (PBUH): “Oh Muhammad! Khadijah is bringing you a bowl of food; when she comes to you, tell her that her Lord greets her, and convey my greeting too, to her”.

It was part of the prophetic mission of Muhammad (PBUH) to invite people to the equality between men and women. Khadijah was there to help him spread this mission. All her money went to the sake of Islam and to feed and clothe the poor Muslim converts. Her economic independence; her marriage overture, apparently without a male guardian to act as intermediary; her marriage to a man many years younger than herself remained as examples of an exceptional woman of her time.

It was only after Khadijah died, may God be pleased with her, that Prophet Muhammad married other women. Most of these wives were widows, whom the Prophet married to care after them, or they were the daughters of prominent Arab chieftains, so that the Prophet could form a cohesive Muslim society out of a fiercely tribalistic (and barbaric) Arab culture.

Many of his later wives would become jealous of her. One in particular, Aisha, his last wife stated that one day she said to the Prophet Muhammad that Allah has compensated him for the loss of Khadijah, who was only an “old woman with red eyes”. Muhammad became angry at this statement and responded,

“No, indeed: He has not compensated me with someone better than her. She believed in me when all others disbelieved; she held me truthful when others called me a liar; she sheltered me when others abandoned me; she comforted me when others shunned me; and Allah granted me children by her while depriving me of children by other women”.


Also, after her death, a chapter of the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in her honour. This chapter ends: “O soul that is at rest! Return to your Lord, well-pleased with Him, well-pleasing Him, so enter among My servants, and enter into My garden” (Quran, 89:27-30).

_______________________________________________________________

Note: Anâs Radhi-Allâhu ‘anhu reports that Nabî Sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam has said: “From among the women of the world who have reached perfection and who are worthy of following are (the following four):Miryam the daughter of Imrân; Khadija daughter of Khuwailid; Fatima daughter of Muhammad and Asiyah wife of Fir’aun” (Tirmidhi)

The scholars of hadîth are of the view that this statement was made before Aisha Radhi-Allâhu ‘anha reached the position of excellence whereupon Nabî Sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam said: “The virtue of Aisha Radhi-Allâhu ‘anha over all the women of the world is like the virtue of tharîd [a meat dish] over all other food.”



Saturday, 1 August 2009

A Visit to Yayasan Al-Jenderami

This morning I was out of the house at the crack of dawn to catch a 7.00 a.m. bus to Yayasan Al-Jenderami to attend the Majlis Memperingati Ummul Mukminin Sayidatina Khadijah Al-Kubro with friends from LKPI.

A little background from Wikipedia:

Yayasan ini ditubuhkan pada 23 Jun 2003 di bawah Akta Syarikat 1965, Company Limited Guarantee and Not Having A Share Capital. “Dikecualikan daripada cukai pendapatan di bawah seksyen 44(6), Akta Cukai Pendapatan 1976. Ruj : LHDN.01/35/42/51/179.6-5583”

YAYASAN AL-JENDERAMI sebuah yayasan bantuan kemanusiaan yang berfungsi sebagai badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang membantu serta menolong umat islam tidak kira dalam mahupun luar negeri seperti Indonesia, Kampuchea serta yang lain. Ianya terletak dan beroperasi di Kampung Baru Jenderam Hilir, Dengkil di dalam daerah Sepang.

Yayasan ini telah menjalankan kerja-kerja amal dan kebajikan lebih daripada 15 tahun, yang mana sebelum ini hanya bergerak di bawah sebuah kampung yang diasaskan dan didiami oleh bekas-bekas kakitangan UDA (Perbadanan Pembangunan Bandar). Tujuan yayasan ini ditubuhkan adalah untuk turut serta dan sama-sama membantu merealisasikan wawasan kerajaan di dalam memberi perkhidmatan kepada masyarakat Malaysia.

Yayasan ini diasaskan oleh As-Syeikh Hj. Mohd. Hafidz b Selamat dan diterajui oleh Hj. Abu Bakar b Abd. Aziz sebagai Pengerusi dan dibantu oleh Ahli Lembaga Pengarah dan barisan Ahli Pengurusan.Alamatnya ialah Kompleks Yayasan Al-Jenderami, Lot 4029, Lorong Aman,Kampung Baru Jenderam Hilir, 43800 Dengkil.

Pada bulan Mei 2005, Ijtima' Ulama Sekolah Pondok Senusantara dianjurkan di sini. Yayasan ini telah mengadakan sekolah pondok di sini.


The Yayasan Complex houses an orphanage, residential units for warge emas, a masjid, a co-op, study areas, home-stay facilities, and a hotel. The grounds are clean and welcoming, and the occupants and staff very friendly.

This article from Ikan Tongkol captures the essence of Yayasan Al-Jenderami.


Below the accounts of three resident warga emas of the Yayasan.


Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Excerpts from "The Road to Mecca"

Arabian Wisdom

"Coffee, in order to be good, must be bitter like death and hot like love."

"If water stands motionless in a pool, it grows stale and muddy; but when it moves and flows, it becomes clear: so, too, man in his wanderings."

"You traveller, he traveller; your way and his way is together."




"We Arabs .... we want to commit our errors ourselves and so learn how to avoid them - just as a tree learns how to grow right by growing, or as running water finds its proper course by flowing."

"We do not want to be guided to wisdom by people who have no wisdom themselves - who have only power, guns and money, and only know how to lose friends whom they could so easily keep as friends..."





A Jew against Zionism
"It was not without a purpose that God made us lose our land and dispersed us; but the Zionists do not want to admit this to themselves. They suffer from the same spiritual blindness that cause our downfall. The two thousand years of Jewish exile and unhappiness have taught them nothing. Instead of making an attempt to understand the innermost causes of our unhappiness, they now try to circumvent it, as it were, by building a "national home" on foundations provided by Western power politics; and in the process of building a national home, they are committing the crime of depriving another people of its home."

2 retired Jewish couples whom we befriended in Rome
(originally European and Indian respectively)



The Chant of the Mu'azzin
"... made me realize in those days at Cairo how deep was the inner unity of all Muslims, and how artificial and insignificant were the dividing lines between them. They were one in their way of thinking and judging between right and wrong, and one in their perception of what constitutes the good life."


Prayer
"I became aware how near their God and their faith were to these people. Their prayer did not seem to be divorced from their working day; it was part of it - not meant to help them forget life, but to remember it better by remembering God."




Spiritual Development

"The Quran never let its followers forget that the life of this world was only one stage of man's way to a higher existence, and that his ultimate goal was of a spiritual nature. Material prosperity, it said, is desirable but not an end in itself: and therefore man's appetites, though justified in themselves, must be restrained and controlled by moral consciousness. This consciousness ought to relate not merely to man's relation with God but also to his relations with men; not only to the spiritual perfection of the individual but also to the creation of such social conditions as might be conducive to the spiritual development of all, so that all might live in fullness..."




Dedicated to mamasita

Monday, 29 June 2009

The Road to Mecca


By Muhammad Asad formerly Leopold Weiss


No this is not a book review, it's just that I was so happy to find this book at the LCCT book-shop whilst waiting for my flight to Banda Aceh some 10 days ago. It was recommended to me by the learned Pak Cik of Al-Manar whom I hold in very high regard through his work with the not-so-privileged children where he lives. Anyway I was guilty of not actively seeking out this book beyond popping into the book-stores in my area just to confirm my belief that they did not stock it. But to find it in LCCT was totally unexpected.

I am a slow reader and I have not got past Chapter II - Beginning of the Road. It's almost a book for the scholarly, of which I am not, and so I tend to re-read passages that fascinate me a few times, sometimes not in the same sitting but hours or days after. Not only does Asad write with deep perception and sensitivity when narrating some of his harrowing experiences in the desert (Chapter I - Thirst), he so cleverly takes me by the hand into his mind, so to speak, explaining the rationale behind his varied thoughts while describing his feelings in intricate detail. (Need some help from editors/journos out there: is it ok to write that last sentence in the present tense?)

A very brief synopsis on the back cover tells us that "The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad is not a travelogue one picks up to read about the conditions of the people and landscape of a country in the distant past; it is an absorbing personal saga of a man's 'home-coming' to Islam, the religion of his fitrah (nature)".

A couple of passages that struck a chord with me were:

[Chapter II] "All these sunken years now come up to the surface, uncover their faces once again and call me with many voices: and suddenly, in the startled jerk of my heart, I perceive how long, how endless my way has been. 'You have always been only going and going,' I say to myself. 'You have never built your life into something that one could grasp with his hands, and never has there been an answer to the question "Whereto?"..."

[Chapter II] "For when I ask myself, 'What is the sum total of my life?' something in me seems to answer, 'You have set out to exchange one world for another - to gain a new world for yourself in exchange for an old one which you never really possessed.' And I know with startling clarity that such an undertaking might indeed take an entire lifetime."

Leopold Weiss was a German born into the Jewish faith whose grandfather was an orthodox rabbi from a long line of orthodox rabbis. In his early years he had become disillusioned with the religion of his ancestors despite or perhaps because of the extensive knowledge he had acquired of it, at the insistence of his father. His acceptance of Islam came, not through wordly reasons, but when he was "convinced that the Quran is really the word of God and not merely the brilliant creation of a great mind".

OK I admit I have this habit of reading the beginning of a book and then flip to the end to see how it ends. (I "read" The Kite-Runner this way: a third of the beginning and a third of the end, totally missing out the middle because I found it too depressing to read about cruelty and oppression. Give me a book on self-empowerment anytime.) And I found this startling torrent from Leopold Weiss, in Chapter X - Dajjal, uttered circa 1925/26, which is still so relevant today:

"How has it come about that you Muslims have lost your self-confidence - that self-confidence which once enabled you to spread your faith, in less than a hundred years, from Arabia westward as far as the Atlantic and eastward deep into China - and now surrender yourselves so easily, so weakly, to the thoughts and customs of the West? Why can't you whose fathers illumined the world with science and art at a time when Europe lay in deep barbarism and ignorance, summon forth the courage to go back to your own progressive, radiant faith?

Further he asked:

"Tell me how has it come about that the faith of your Prophet and all its clearness and simplicity has been buried beneath a rubble of sterile speculation and the hair-splitting of your scholastics? How has it happened that your princes and great land-owners revel in wealth and luxury while so many of their Muslim brethren subsist in unspeakable poverty and squalour - although your Prophet taught that No one may call himself a Faithful who eats his fill while his neighbour remains hungry?"

Weiss wasn't a Muslim yet at that point but evidently had more than a mere appreciation of Islam: "No, I am not a Muslim, but I have come to see so much beauty in Islam that it makes me sometimes angry to watch you people waste it... Forgive me if I have spoken harshly. I did not speak as an enemy."

My heart beats a little faster at this tirade, I get goose-bumps, I'm guilty, guilty, guilty!

It is going to take me many months to finish this book, surely I would be going forwards and backwards, pausing and re-reading, and dozing, in trying to absorb it all.

I might just as well give blogging a break :-)