Still in jail

To Miss A, smoga dpt bersua lagi spt semalam!:)

Assalamualaikum wbt..

Alhamdulillah ala kulli hal, alhamdulillah atas nikmat iman dan islam yang dikurniakan oleh Allah kepada kita.

Tergerak hati untuk berkongsi suatu muhasabah yang kuperolehi semalam, terkait dengan tajarrud. Sebagai manusia, kita tak kan pernah tahu bila dan di mana tarbiyah Allah akan hadir untuk menegur hati kita yang sentiasa lalai dan lupa kepadaNya..

Apa itu tajarrud?

It's an arabic word, obviously :)

Dari segi bahasa- membersihkan, mengosongkan, melepaskan atau menanggalkan.

Saya suka melihat konsep ini daripada analogi buah limau yang dikupas kulitnya. Tajarrud diibaratkan seperti isi limau yang segar, yang hanya kelihatan setelah kita menanggalkan kulitnya yang tebal.

Dari segi konsepnya pula, tajarrud ialah membersihkan dan melepaskan diri dari segala ikatan selain dari ikatan Allah dan berpihak hanya kepada agama Allah.

Apakah keterikatan yang selain daripada ikatan Allah?

Ia adalah keterikatan-keterikatan yang tidak menguntungkan diri dan agama kita sebaliknya mampu menjatuhkan kita ke lembah yang boleh merosakkan iman dan amal kita. Keterikatan yang bersifat keduniaan, nafsu dan material adalah cabaran-cabaran yang perlu dihadapi dalam rangka kita sedang berusaha mengikhlaskan diri dan amal kita untuk beribadah semata-mata mengharapkan redha Allah.

'Ah, ini terlalu idealistik!'

Saya ingin membawa beberapa contoh umum, dan saya sendiri pun masih dalam rangka belajar untuk memahaminya. Rujuk orang-orang berilmu di sekeliling kita untuk mendapatkan kepastian.

Firaun yang mengatakan dirinya adalah Tuhan, mengasuh Nabi Musa sejak kecil dan amat marah ketika sampai berita bahawa anak angkatnya sendiri menyebarkan risalah lain yang mengajak manusia untuk menyembah selain daripada Firaun.

Dalam surah asy-Syuara, ayat 16-18,

"..and say: ' We(Moses and Harun) are the Messengers of the Lord of the A'lamin(mankind, jinn and all that exist). So allow the Children of Israel to go with us."

"(Pharaoh said to Moses): Did we not bring you up among us as a child? And did you dwell many years of your life with us?"

Dalam surah ini, budi yang telah dicurahkan oleh Firaun kepada Nabi Musa tidak menghalangnya untuk berdakwah kepada Firaun supaya bertaubat dan kembali menyembah Allah yang Esa. Hakikatnya, tiada keterikatan dalam diri Nabi Musa AS selain daripada keterikatan bahawa Tuhan yang selayaknya disembah hanyalah Allah, maka tanggungjawab untuk menyampaikan itu tetap perlu dilaksanakan.

Dalam surah al-Baqarah ayat 183,

(Katakanlah wahai orang-orang yang beriman)Sibghah Allah(celupan Allah), dan siapakah yang lebih baik celupannya daripada Allah? (Al-Baqarah: 138)

Celupan Allah, yakni segala aspek dalam hidup kita sepatutnya mengikut cara dan konsep yang telah Allah sarankan kepada hambaNya, kerana itulah sebaik-baik cara hidup yang menjamin dunia dan akhirat kita. Akhlak, pemikiran, amalan dan sebagainya perlu bebas daripada anasir-anasir rawasid(karat-karat) jahiliah yang boleh melalaikan kita.

Seorang daie yang bijak berkata-kata, hakikatnya masih di dalam penjara jika kata-katanya itu masih belum mampu diterjemahkan dalam bentuk perbuatan.

Maka kekuatan untuk menterjemahkannya ke dalam perbuatan, atau usaha untuk keluar dari penjara sangat bergantung kepada tahapan iman seseorang. Iman itu yazid wa yankuz, yakni turun dan naik maka sebab itulah kita sebagai manusia biasa perlu kepada peringatan yang berterusan.

Semoga Allah memilih kita untuk menjadi hambaNya yang istiqamah.

Dan semoga Allah mengampunkan dosa-dosa kita ketika kita masih tercari-cari bagaimana untuk keluar daripada penjara keterikatan ini.

Moga keterikatan kita, hanya kepadaNya. Amin,

of charity week and the street paradox

Assalamualaikum wbt.

May all of you are in peace.

Subhanallah, alhamdulillah, allahuakbar.

All praises to Allah the Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

As you may see from the title, i'm encouraging you to spare some of your money and food that Allah has given you, to those who need it more than you do.

Give sadaqah when you have the chance to do so, and help the unlucky and weak people as we don't know when is our turn to be test by Allah.

Alhamdulillah, the Charity Week 2010 that was organized by FOSIS UK and Ireland, had officially ended. For Ireland, it was started on 2nd Nov until 7th Nov.

I was involved in most of the activities and events, since I was part of the organizing committee for my college Islamic Society(RCSI ISOC). To be frank, it was fun! Alhamdulillah. I learnt a lot about event organization and management, got to know each committee member better, learnt how to respond quickly it there was any shortcoming, etc etc. Alhamdulillah.

And alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah, the 3 weeks of events in RCSI managed to collect more than 6000euro and we won the highest collection among all Islamic Societies in Ireland. We are not proud of the big figure, but we are proud to be able to help MORE people!

Millions of gratitude to all of the committee members, volunteers, participants and donors who made these weeks worthwhile, just for the sake of helping the orphan and needy children, and may Allah bless all of you for your kindness!

*****************************

Charity Week, is solely aim to help the children all over the world regardless their faith, race, status and nationality. We made it very clear to all of the donors so that they wouldn't be reluctant to donate since all of the money will be given to the Islamic Relief, before being distributed to lot of places ie Mali, Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Kosova, Chechnya and Bangladesh.

It is an annual event for FOSIS, so they also use the donation for follow-up programme at the area that they already planned and invested during the past years. This also include the funding and sponsorship for the Palestine orphans in Gaza.

I remembered one day when my friends and I went to Grafton Street to do the Street Charity, one middle-age man approached us and asked a few things about the collection. We told him about Islamic Relief, and the money will be use to help all children regardless their faith and race.

And he asked more questions.

"Does it also go to Gaza?"

At this moment we can't really sure about where would the money will go specifically for this year collection, and it was our fault for not study and asked the committee beforehand.

I think when he saw us not really confident about the where the money would go, he added,

"How do you feel about your brothers and sisters in Gaza? Would you help them if they need you?

"Yeah, of course we'll help them."

"So how about this money? There are also children in Gaza. They are your brothers and sisters. You know what, at the end of this road there are some people collecting for the Palestinians. I won't give you a cent until all of you go and help your people in Gaza."

He said that while holding a 5 cent coin in his hand. And after a few other questions about our nationality, he just went away.

And we were a little bit confused after that.

After our session ended, we walked down the Grafton Street and when we saw the group of people that the pakcik referring to, now we understand why.

It was the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign(IPSC) having a day boycott to the issue of Israeli Blood Diamond. They invited people to sign up for the petition and to raise awareness of the existence of the Israeli diamond in the diamond market.

They were all Irish, and currently, actively involved in almost all scope of issue that related to Palestine and apartheid Israel.

This was what the pakcik saw-a paradox in one street. One group of Irish, talked about the Palestinian,raising awareness for people to help them. Another group of Muslim ladies, collecting donation for the children around the world.

Maybe he suddenly thought-why wouldn't we-as the Muslim-be the one who talked about the Palestinians as they are our brothers and sisters.

Why wouldn't we-who believing the same God-didn't support each other?

These are among the defects that the people outside there see, and reflect selagi seluruh umat Islam masih belum bersatu. We are the one who causes fitna to our own religion.

To the pakcik, i am among the supporter of IPSC. And this CW donation will also be send to Gaza also, don't worry. And thank you for making my whole day full with istighfar and reflection.

To my fellow friends, never forget to also make du'a for our brothers and sisters in Palestine and other countries after each of the prayer, and support for any cause that will benefit the oppressed, unlucky, and needy people outside there.

"Have you seen him who denies the deen? He is the one who harshly rebuffs the orphan and does not urge the feeding of the poor." (107:1-3)

Allahu a'lam.

How do you define your leisure time?

Assalamualaikum wbt....

Moga sahabat-sahabat sekalian berada dalam kesejahteraan, dan selawat dan salam atas junjungan kita Muhammad Rasulullah SAW.

Take a deep breath, and exhale it slowly, beginning with basmallah.

Alhamdulillah to the Mighty God, Allah SWT for giving us the chance to live this life under His blessing and Mercy.

Syukr ilallah, without Him I might not be able to type this post, might not be able to walk, speak, or even breathe for once.

For the past two weeks I've gone through such a hectic time, regardless what day it was. People love Friday, as it is a mark for a long rest in weekend. People hate Monday-and some has 'Monday-blue' overwhelming them, as it is the end of their resting time.

Anyway, how do we perceive rest and leisure time?

Resting- can be associated to inactivity, freedom from work, strain and responsibility, and a pause for relaxation.

From resting people will benefit or lose. Two opposite things happens as a consequences of a same activity, which is resting.

Let's see how we can benefit or lose after resting.

Busyness thought me lots of things, until I realized that I grew to be more organized. Alhamdulillah. I can't bare just sit doing nothing, as time is priceless to just let it go.

If you notice, the title of this post is 'how do you define your resting/leisure time', not 'how do you define resting/leisure time'. These two bring a different concept as the latter only explains the general meaning of having a free time.

How do you define YOUR leisure time is referring to what do YOU do when you are free, not what generally people do when they are free.

Let's have a short reflection now. Allah gave us 24 hours, and yet man still finds it insufficient. Who is the most Knower of what is the best for mankind? Of course Allah SWT.

He created day and night consecutively-and man perceives it in 24 hours system.

What will happen when there's no sunset or no sunrise at all? Can we live that way? Subhanallah, we can only think about it, but the reality is that we survive well when Allah SWT set it in a day/night balance.

When we busy, we asked Him to give us 25 or 26 or more hours so that we have more time to settle our task/work. We whine, and cry seeking for help and guidance to go through the hard time.

When we are free, we wait as the time passes, and stand still doing nothing(inactivity). To make thing worst, we spend our leisure time with activities that doesn't improve our iman and a'mal. Sleep and sleep, eat and eat, movie marathon, shopping marathon, and many more.

Masya Allah. May Allah prevent us from being ungrateful to the time that He gave to us.

Rasulullah SAW said in a hadith,

"Take advantage of five matters before five other matters: your youth, before you become old; and your health, before you fall sick; and your richness, before you become poor; and your free time before you become busy; and your life, before your death."

Subhanallah, it's such a very concise hadith. Take advantage of our free time, to do something beneficial that can reward us in future, especially in hereafter.

Plus, busyness is actually a way to remembrance of Allah. I know, it's kinda cliche to say this, but Allah did say the same in Quran. Man remembers Him when he is in trouble, and forgets when he's free.

Take advantage from the busyness, to be close to Him and try to maintain the attitude, as we actually needs Allah in every single thing in our life. Really need Him.

If we feel that we can live our life without Him, go on, but don't take a single breath from His oxygen then. Can you actually do it? So don't be arrogant!

I remembered a moment few days ago when i told my mom that i need her advice to face all of the pressures, she replied a verse from Al-Quran. It was Al-Baqarah, verse 250.

" Our Lord! Pour forth on us patience, and set firm our feet and make us victorious over the disbelieving people"

(Subhanallah, thanks to Allah for giving me a great mom!)

She told me to memorize this verse, and recite it every morning after Subuh prayer. By Allah's will, His Mercy would be there :)

So friends, ask yourself-what do you do during YOUR leisure time?

'Hidup ini seharusnya dipenuhi dengan pekerjaan-pekerjaan yang agung dan pendek angan-angan'

Loves,

Huda.