Things We Learn

I am no expert, but at least I know this.

Once upon time, I wish to be a grown up. Now that I am old enough, the wish is not so tempting anymore.

Sometimes, I dislike how human thinks. For example, like how we’re never satisfied (...the song Maher Zain: Awaken suddenly rings through my head). I know, I know, it’s because of this very feeling that human are able to move forward and build these amazing contraptions (machine/rockets)... but you don’t indulge with it especially when it comes to your personal desire (nafsu), period.

If you play and toy around with your nafsu, it is like getting a one-way ticket to hell. Nauzubillah.

Every day, we learn new things. Among the things that I learn today is that there’s no use in regretting things, as in drowning yourself with guilt.

You see, I know that death is compulsory for everyone. Death might be just around the corner for all of us. “Setiap saat berharga,” my kak ngah said. God gives us life. Life is precious. Then, why not treasure it while you can.

I learn to value life, my life and others. I learn to be thankful, to learn to live as if life ends tomorrow, to be thankful of the little things. Little things that can make me smile for miles (anagram for smile)... mom asking to cover aurah, and our welfare, dad making breakfast, lil bro and sis help each other, talking with friends, calls from love ones, just everyday life really... Alhamdulillah!

And whenever I make a lousy choice, I don’t want to whine and drown in guilt at the decisions I make. I know that I am no longer a child. I would face the fact that I make a mistake, and that I MAKE A CHOICE.

I make a choice and LEARN from it. Then, pray for forgiveness from God, knowing He is Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim. I accept that we’re not perfect, incapable of being one but must never stop in trying to be one even though there's no way that's going to happen. God is perfect. We are only human. Don’t try to play god. La-ila-ha-ilallah. There is no god but Allah.

I am no expert, but at least I know this.

We’re never alone.

It happened to me and maybe to some of you, to feel as if you are alone. I didn’t realize how wrong I was then. You see, when we admit that we believe in God, the angle and of course other pillars of iman, we are admitting that we believe that we are never alone.

I am not talking about the ufo nonsense, thank you very much. Speaking of which, I don’t believe in alien. Why? Simple, because the QURAN didn’t say so. Period.

When you encounter with someone who feel sad, depreessed, annoyed and claimed that they’re alone and thus miserable. Tell them “You say, you believe in God, angle, the Quran, the Hereafter and the Qada’ and Qadar, but how true is that statement to you?”

God is always there for you. There are angles around us. (and of cuz jin, but let’s just ignore them)

Astaghfirullah. Years before, I am among those who degraded the true value of Iman. Years before, If I read this stuff that I am writing down I would groan and says “Urgh, ustazah! there’s she goes again yada yada yada,” and turn a blind eye.

I am no expert, but at least I know this.

If Islam is a person, I can already picture her crying. Crying sadly at what’s happening at the world now. And if possible, I feel like going up to her, hug and comfort her...and also feel guilty as we too among those who cause her sadness. I would also say to her that human do no justice, when in fact Islam is very beautiful.

You know, when you met Islam. You'll fall in love with it. You see, since I was little I have this little envy. No, a great jealousy. How I envy the 'ulama, qari, ustaz. Why not? I think you know the answer already.

I am no expert, but at least I know this.

...AND LIFE GOES ON

After searching and reading through other people's blog and my own, I realized something. You grow up with the blog. As in, you can see how each person change by reading the words written by them. What they're like, what they're not. What's their weakness, and what they have achieved. Hey, at least some of them. I realized that mine's also like thaT, heh, at least I thought so. And then as usual after we read the blog we start JUGDGING them, yes? Bersangka baik... Hmm, involuntary action?

Apa-apalah.

Dah lama dah.... Apabila kita bersujud pada Maha Pencipta, kita mula menyedari perkara yang kita tak sedari, contohnya betapa kuatnya jantung berdegup. Jantung kita bukan milik kita sayangku. Jantung kita berdegup dengan sendirinya, sehingga nyawa ditarik. Kita tidak boleh mengawalnya. Untuk siapa jantung itu berdegup sebenarnya? Jantung kita pun sayang pada Penciptanya. Jantung kita sayang pada Allah, dia berdegup kerana Allah, sehingga dia sanggup mematikan diri jika Allah perintahkanNya. Apatah lagi anggota badan kita yang lain? ada sel2 kita yang sanggup mematikan diri untuk Allah. To die for Allah.

Entah betul ke tidak benda yang ana mengarutkan ini.

sel2 badan kita taat pada perintah Allah. Buat apa yang Allah perintahkannya. Untuk mengunyah, untuk berdegup, untuk berzikir. kemudian, Allah memberi roh manusia untuk mendiami badan ini. dan kita berterusan melakukan perkara yang tidak sepatutnya (nauzubillah)... dan kita merosakkan badan kita. tak perlu ana huraikan.

Baru sahaja tadi ana membaca satu kisah yang unik. Menceritakan tentang warna hati seseorang. Contohnya, kalau ana bloeh melihat warna hati ana sekarang, agaknya apa warnannya? Ataupun warna2 hati sahabat yang lain? adakah ia warna yang cantik, harmoni, ataupun adakah ia seperti warna lautan yang bercampur warna hijau, merah, putih, ataupun seperti warna gunung-ganang yang menenangkan dan sejuk? Anggaplah warna hati kita sebagai simbol akan amalan kita selama ini. dan ana pasti hati manusia yang paling cantik warnanya adalah hati Rasulullah.

My advice for now is that, we have to realize that there's a bigger world out there. It's not always about you. No matter what you do to yourself but end up not doing anything for others, you're going to end up being alone. But, we have to fix ourselves before we start helping others. Or the help will be useless.

From the jaulah that i had the last few days, i realize one thing, we need help. Even Rasulullah need help at the night of Isra' Miraj from the angel Jibril . Me, living as a sister, a daughter, a friend. I need help in fulfilling these roles. We all do. But remember, Allah ialah sebaik2 pertolongan.

Trust in Him. Percayalah dengan kuasaNya.

Just Something

copied from http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1964223/2/Celestial_Requiem, disclaimer: it's not mine.

Celebrated and famous psychologist Sigmund Freud once said that the greatest motivator of humankind and human behavior is fear.

And it never ceases to amaze me how society embraces this concept, albeit somewhat unconsciously.

Everyday, we pass judgment on someone, even if we don't even know whom he or she is actually like. You know the feeling. You may not even have to be actually seeing the person. Possibly you heard a story from a friend or a rumor that is spreading widely. Maybe even when you see what they have written.

Now, of course, many people will say here that they aren't prejudiced at all. And that is a load of crap. We are naturally born to judge what we like and don't like. It is something that we gain through the experiences in our lives and what we are exposed to. We cannot help it, since it is ingrained in us somewhat instinctively to discriminate. One such case is the classic fire example. When you were a small child, and your guardian told you not to touch the fire, whether it is the flame on the stove or somewhere else, what was the first thing you did? You touched it. And you got burned. What happened?

You learned not to touch fire again. Why? You'd get hurt. And you don't want to get hurt. So? Don't touch the fire.

These experiences – experiences that are essentially traced back to the concept of fear – shape us. No doubt we all have had similar experiences other than the example I used to make this point. I myself happen to be prejudiced against grapefruit. Greatly against grapefruit. And maybe that is because of that silly diet my cousin tried a few years ago that I was also, forcibly, enforced to follow. What have I learned? Eating grapefruit everyday with a bit of cottage cheese and celery isn't a very nourishing meal every single day. Fear of starvation (yes, starvation, for I was young and my portions small) influenced my dislike. Also, that diet didn't work. I have the sneaking suspicion that my cousin was sneaking in food in at the time (like he normally does). I can't speak any ill of that, since I had done the same. And I won't deny that I would have died without those cookies my friend's mother sent me.

But I think we can all agree that those prejudices are otherwise harmless, even essential to the basic knowledge of an individual. If not, then we would probably be wondering why putting our hands in the fire burns all the time and continue to it all the time.

However, it is when prejudice is used to purposely hurt or damage when it is harmful. It has been done over the centuries and millennia of human consciousness. Let's imagine a small child falls down in the typical mind-numbingly normal park and begins to cry, but their mother isn't paying attention. A teenager goes to help the child up, possibly stop its bawling, having only good intentions in mind. But this teenager has a bad reputation in the neighborhood, isn't very well-known outside rumor, whose clothing isn't in very good shape and is seen as more than a little odd. What happens? The child's mother immediately comes into the situation and starts on the teenager, as if they were the cause. Thus, the teenager is left being falsely blamed for something he didn't do. All because he was immediately judged on stories about him and his appearance.

Happened to me on at least three occasions. I never figured out how I was always seen as the troublemaker, when my cousin is off toeing the line of the law. The irony of it all.

It isn't just on a local level either, but it is particularly glaring in the larger perspective of the world, especially in recent times. Prejudice was one of the major elements of the rise of Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany and his discriminating views killed millions of innocent people, including Jews, gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, and other groups. Segregation was a large part of the United States culture until it was outlawed in the mid-sixties, those of African descent separated from the whites in education, public transportation, facilities, and more. Apartheid in South Africa supported the whites of that country, 20% of that nation's people. And close to our own British history deals with India, where the untouchables were the lowest of the low and barely allowed into towns. And through out the times, women had been looked down upon as subordinate to men. It took inspirational leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatmas Gandhi, and others to alert us to the way we were inhumanly treating these groups of people. But just because these people and more have alerted us to the problem, doesn't mean that it isn't there. We see it all the time, whether we tolerate it, disapprove of it, are part of it, are victimized from it.

But what motivates this behavior though? Is it some fear of feeling inferior and lowly? Why do we do this? Certainly, we don't want to hurt other people purposely. There must be some element of fear to keep others in a position that we have power over, so we feel more secure. Fear for our safety, does that motivate us to discriminate against others?

I wouldn't know. As you can probably judge, I'm not a psychologist and certainly not Freud.

I hope you walk away with something from this. Also, I apologize in advance to those who revere grapefruit and all grapefruity things as well the grapefruit industry. I have no intention of offending you, but see it from my position if you will. I would think that eating grapefruit for breakfast, lunch, and (yes, and) dinner continuously for little over a month gives me some kind of entitlement. Now, I implore you to make your judgment on this intrepid, aspiring, grapefruit-hating writer.

Do your worst.

-Harrison Evans

copied from http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1964223/2/Celestial_Requiem, disclaimer: it's not mine.

This is a piece that I would like to share with you guys. It's interesting, to say the least.

QUOTE "Reminding you just in case you forgot"

Bismillah. Alhamdulillah dan selawat pada rasul junjungan. Dan jari jemari mula menguraikan kata2. Dan kata2 ini terutamanya untuk diri dan semua.

PLEASE, STOP. TOLONGLAH BERHENTI.

Alangkah indahnya hidup yang tiada perasaan benci pada diri sendiri atau manusia.

TOLONGLAH BERHENTI MEMBENCI DIRI SENDIRI DAN MANUSIA. FORGIVE AND FORGET. LET IT GO. KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

Alangkah indahnya hidup yang tiada perasaan dengki antara satu sama lain.

TOLONGLAH BERHENTI MENDENGKI! WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN GOOD QUALITY AND BAD ONES! JUST STOP!

Alangkah indahnya hidup tanpa perasaan mementingkan diri sendiri.

Teringat ana dengan hadith nabi tentang seorang hamba Allah yang meminta permintaan untuk berzina. Dan nabi menjawab dengan menyatakan bahwa hamba itu MEMENTINGKAN DIRINYA SENDIRI.

Kenapa tidaknya? Kalaulah Hamba Allah itu boleh berzina sesuka hati tetapi tidak membenarkan kakak atau ibunya untuk dizina oleh orang lain ke tidaknya itu salah. (Please correct me if i'm wrong, i'd appreciate it)

Orang yang melakukan kerosakan pada diri sendiri ataupun orang lain. Ke taknya mereka mementingkan diri?

TOLONGLAH BERHENTI. Takde maknanya!

Ya Allah. Hanya padaMu kami berserah, padaMu kami meminta pertolongan, padaMu kami menyembah, dan padaMu kami kembali...

Dan akhirnya, Alangkah baiknya hidup tanpa perasaan marah.

Kan?

Ramdhan telah meninggalkan kita. InsyaAllah, Ramadhan akan datang kembali. Namun, adakah kita akan berada di sini untuk menyambut kedatangannya? Dulu, ana tidak faham, kenapa orang sangat merindui Ramadhan ni? Apa yang best sangat? Kemudian kita sedar...

You don't realize what you have until its gone.

OBVIOUS FACTS

Fascinating facts on the creation of Allah: (obvious fact)

1. What if human no skin? We would be walking around with our bloody internal (eww) looking all scary and ya, we would die. (easily exposed to disease).

2. Even if we have skin, why izzit not see through? Err, could you imagine walking around with all your body system visible to others and yourself. (Honestly, I can't imagine seeing my heart pumping, and my lung puffing, and my stomach digesting)

(Subhanallah, i'm going green, puking alert)

3. Okay, now i think it's sort of stupid to ask what if human can't see, smell, touch, hear or taste, yes?

Why you?

4. Why does Allah gives us the ability to think? And Why does Allah only gives them to human?

To be honest, I can't imagine myself living without my aql. Subhanallah.

...


Perkongsian ana ialah tentang aql. Mari berfikir. Melihat waktu sekarang, sayu ana melihat manusia malas ingin berfikir. Malah, menggunakan nafsu sebagai pendorong hidup mereka.

Malaikat tiada nafsu mahupun aql. Haiwan pula ada nafsu tiada aql. Manusia pula ada nafsu dan aql.

Kalau manusia hidup sekadar ingin membahagiakan nafsu mereka dan mengejar dunia dan tidak menggunakannya, bukankah dah sama macam haiwan?

" Dan sungguh, akan Kami isi neraka Jahanam banyak dari kalangan jin dan manusia. Mereka memiliki hati, tetapi tidak dipergunakan untuk memahami (ayat-ayat Allah) dan memiliki mata (tetapi) tidak dipergunakannya untuk melihat (tanda-tanda kekuasaan Allah), dan mereka mempunyai telinga (tetapi) tidak dipergunakannya untuk mendengarkan (ayat-ayat Allah). Mereka seperti haiwan ternak, bahkan lebih sesat lagi. Mereka itulah orang-orang yang lengah." (Al-A'raf:179)"

Conthonya, cube kita fikir tentang logik Al-Quran. Ayat-ayat dalamnya bukan daripada manusia. Manusia tak boleh buat ayat macam ni. Dan dari dulu, manusia tak alter pun kandungan dalam Al-Quran. MaSYALLAH! Ayat2 ini suci. Ayat2 ini tetap seperti waktu ia diturunkan kepada seorang manusia terpilih bernama Muhammad.

Ini ialah kalam Allah.

Jadi, cuba kita fikir. Kalau ada benda yang sangat bernilai dan sangat berharga (yang terang2 datang daripada Yang Maha Agung, Yang Maha Suci) diberikan kepada kita manusia yang kerdil lagi hina, agaknya kita akan buat apa?

Kita akan jaga, baca, simpan dan memuliakannya. Tapi kenapa, sekarang Al-Quran diketepikan?

Mari berfikir.

TBC2

Assalamualaikum para pencinta.

....Kita semua adalah sama. Kita semua adalah manusia.

Kenyataannya adalah simple. Ana akan mati. anti, anta, antunna, akan mati.

Jadi, hiduplah sebaik2nya.

Kerana hidup hanya sekali.

dan... mati....adalah sangat dekat.

ini dari hamba yang lemah lagi hina.

TBC

erti hidup pada memberi, kata-kata seorang penulis.

Benar, hidup ini kita tidak boleh hidup keseorangan. Di mana, kita duduk dan membeli dan mencari pendapatan, dan semuanya adalah untuk diri kita. Tak boleh jadi.

InsyaAllah, ramadhan akan hadir beberapa jam lagi. Bulan yang amat dirindui para ulama, sufi, dan yang beragama islam. Bulan yang mulia yang penuh dengan kisah cinta.

Ini, menyebabkan kita berfikir sejenak.

Di bulan ini, banyak kisah ukhuwah, kisah peperangan, kisah Al-Quran, kisah Rasulullah tercinta, kisah manusia yang bermanja dengan Ya Rabb...

ada waktunya, kita akan banyak mengingati akan kisah ini. Dan byk waktunya, manusia menjadi lalai dan melupakannya.

kerana itu, manusia perlukan bimbingan, seperti Rasulullah yang dibimbing Malaikat Jibril pada Isra' dan Miraj..

Bimbingan yang akan menyambut kita sebelum kita jatuh,

ataupun yang menyaut tangan kita apabila kita terjunam,

ataupun yang akan menyebabkan kita sering mengingati Allah,

ataupun yang meletakkan senyuman di muka kita,

ataupun yang sering mengingatkan kita tentang hakikat akhirat, hakikat MATI.

hmm...asifah, ana terpaksa beredar...asifah kathiran.