rembat pic wan. ^_^ sudah tiba di penghujung semester. mood *happy-worry* Just now I had completed my last class of Islamic Knowledge & Civilization. fyi, IKC--> university required course. Just over this very last lecture of our Ustaz, he concluded many things I thought were crucial. few months ago, he keeps insisting that this course should be practical, not just like any other course we go-to-class-and-sit-for-the-exam. There were three things he keeps repeating throughout the class.
1. meet me at the fajr prayer at the mosque. (because later in the class, he keeps asking for whoever did come) 2. get married before the end of the semester. 3. what was the third? i dont remember, sorry.
the first thing was hard I must say, it's about istiqamah, it's about maintaining what you've been doing consistently. moreover, our Prophet had his hair gray-en when he reviewed a verse regarding it in Chapter Hud. (tak ingat ayat, they just went from his mouth). means, it really is something significant to our Prophet himself. however, some of us did, well not most of the day, but we found that he somehow motivating, give reason to be there. plus, there was Ramadhan in the middle of semester. it's a good start. In addition, at the time of early Islam starts to flourish the sahabah received many questions like- have you give sadaqah? have you pray? have you feed faqir? have you pay zakah? have you, have you, have you. whatsoever. until at the end of the day, they can give a YES to all of them. while we learn, bit by bit.
At further point of this book, the author included the story of how she dropping out from the Muslim community due to how things are done slightly wrong. Again, this is the break point of the whole story. Midlife crisis. Dropping out from something you cannot afford to face anymore was good. But, when it comes to faith, heart is the best speaker to decide. In her story, she tells on how the alternative, the books can be the source of motivation to continue become a Muslim again. Taking the example from the pilgrimage, the author begin her personal pilgrimage
According to her, personal pilgrimage, a private search to regain faith and peace is amazingly effective. Turning inward to the spirit can enable us to embark on an inner journey that is as meaningful, important and ultimately as wonderful as any experience we will undertake. By her experience, taking a time for oneself is absolutely essential in order to begin. For her, taking a time for herself by doing the most things you love and go for a walk is great help. Thinking your own thought and enjoying the nature while walking alone can put your mind at ease.
“Earth with thousand voices praises God”
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew the benefits of “stepping out” into the world. By then, a feeling of peace, connection, and awareness of God, come naturally while walking in your own direction and pace. Furthermore, after some time here and there a silence overtakes, and you begin to open to even greater feelings, and to ability to hear the “thousand voices praising God,” one of which will be yours.
Later on in this book, the author describes in her hindsight to the subject of sin. Particularly in Chapter Six and Chapter Seven where she put aside all the perception she had received on the subject by a community she involved in. For her, a new Muslim is very impressionable for every bit of what he or she learned from other already-Muslim. In her case, when she is judged by fellow halaqa mates, she almost fell for it. The only judgment can be made by God is told in her face.
As a reflection, she take herself some time to discover that sin is about oneself to God, and to creation or in other word is called hablumminAllah and hablumminannas. Thus, people around has no right to judge but only to remind on what deeds should be done and what should not in exposition and wisdom.
Some are born Muslim, while some are not. Instead some are in between those cases, which can be called transitions. In other word, it is also a process of changing from a state to another or a period of such change. In addition, there are about 2 billion in the world’s population choose Islam as their faith instead of other religions. Furthermore, the number grew more and more, but becoming a Muslim has never be at ease. Particularly in a country which Muslim are the minority. Thus, Lynn Jones, the writer of Believing as Ourselves has done very great job of sharing the experience of transiting to become an American Muslim.
This is very important books which inspire people who have the blurry message of what becoming a Muslim like, and thus have people educated themselves on what Islam is. The book is beautifully written, compelling and honest depiction of life as a female American convert to Islam. Furthermore, the personal experiences of her shows great sincerity and introspection as she struggles to attain authentic self-surrender to God.
In the early part of the book, the author tells on her early experience with Islam. As she mentioned that, the mosque is the place ever to have the first contact with Muslim community. But, the idealized perception of Muslim themselves on people who just perked their interest in embracing Islam can be so hard going. It says how Hanna, a friend of her being ignored for hours as she were a minor annoyance while sitting in the same room with other Muslims. That was not how it should be done. A warm welcome for a new convert could have been more pleasant.
it's been so loong since my last entry, and fyi, my first-half of the sem had me offline for a while, though. anyway, I'm still alive fellow ! So, what is up?
Still RAYA right? even it's 23rd of Syawal already, I can see people still inviting each other for jamuan raya. (my lists - this evening : napi's open house, tonight : umno's wangsa maju) . We Malaysians celebrate Raya for the whole month, aren't we? Happy, happy, makan, but, how about getting your body weighed up? before raya and after raya. see yourself develop! my resolution? nah, don't lie to yourself la. just eat, work on your health later on. it's raya anyway. (yes, develop is the best term to describe)
All and all, Raya gave me reason, personally, to visit my neighbourhood, which is, before just a neighbourhood of "glance-and-go", even without smile at all. if i don't stretch my cheek 1st. Oh my, this is my 1st raya after i moved from my felda (act it's kampung run by felda, so felda get the name). Felda people's friendlier. Oh ye, they're not as busy as madaniy, aren't they?
Speaking of Ramadhan, I had my video project aborted due to unfortunate corrupted disk storage. and it was stressful enough. I interviewed some student, for a spontaneous video response on
"If this is your last Ramadhan, what do you wish to happen?"
for that thought to be answeredspontaneously have given me various answers, and of course that answers motivate me throughout the special month. What unfortunate is that, I can't finish it and share it to the world, I wish I had done so.you should try this yourself, grab a video camera, and go for random people. Or you can just create a form, the very good tip is "try to make it looks official", so that people wont be banyak bunyi and just go flawless with the survey.
anyway, throughout the respondent, a Bangladesh student name Kassim ask me about the meaning of
"Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir dan batin"
that "maaf zahir dan batin" really intrigued him, so he ask. and my pop answer is of course the translation of it. lol. to put it simply, I did say about asking forgivness from a person for what action we've seen wrong, and what we've not seen wrong. am i close to exact answer? I'm not sure myself. Because last time I learned arabic is 2 years back. despite of that, my logic says Zahir is external, something you can see and Batin is back side of it. so, external is like any wrong doing we did to a person in which he knew it himself, and vice versa. anyway, I found another trend of people with alteration to the phrase. says
"Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir je, batin tak"
and sometimes they add "mana duit raya" at the end.
....aaaa
....aaaaaa
......aaaaaaa
my jaw dropped in awe. What on earth is that? maaf zahir je, batin tak pyh. isn't it lively? haha. but, giving lil' thought of it, i found it's annoyingly annoying. Sorry to say. I'm thinking as me myself saying that in front of the mirror, the fact that it's endearingly cute can be consider, but what about the sin which we dont ask forgiveness for? are they in a way lesser than the sin we did zahirly? whatever fella. I hope they're joking, no one saving their own sin, do they?
in fact, nobody likes to think about sin, unless it's someone else's(aha, backbiting right?). Even when we do think about our own sins, we hasten pass it with a fleeting cringe. lighten the mood up, cheers. Happy Raya, Happy Fasting also. (last 6 days starts tomorrow, FIGHTING ! - Korean people said this word very very frequently, why ea? it's not even their language, isn't it?)
