Percaya di bibir. Percaya di hati.

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Pada hari yang agak sunyi ini, sedang saya menunggu antara aktiviti makmal, saya teringatkan suatu cerita dalam buku (yang saya masih belum habis baca) iaitu "Rich Brother Rich Sister" oleh Robert dan Emi Kiyosaki. Ya, ini buku yang saya masih mengulang baca entah berapa kali, kerana tarikan isi kandungannya. Tidak kisahlah, walaupun ada orang yang mengkritik prinsip-prinsip dalam buku Kiyosaki yang terdahulu, tetapi dalam penulisannya kali ini (yang merupakan biografi, bukan buku non-fiksyen biasa), beliau menceritakan pengalaman menarik semasa beliau muda dahulu.

Buku, sumber review di sini.

 Adapun semasa muda dahulu, ketika baru keluar daripada kemelut kebangkrapan perniagaan terdahulu dan baru berkahwin semula selepas penceraian pertama, Robert masih di awang-awangan tentang hala tuju hidupnya. Dalam hatinya terfikir akan untuk berniaga lagi, tetapi ideanya mengenai "berniaga dengan niat untuk Tuhan" takut tidak menjadi. Namun, beliau bertemu dengan rakan lama yang agak ala-ala Hippie....tetapi memberikan nasihat yang paling berharga. Kisah teladan mengenai lelaki di Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls. (source)

"Pada suatu hari di tepi Niagara Falls terdapat seorang lelaki dengan basikalnya. Apabila ditanya oleh orang ramai mengapa beliau di situ, beliau menjawab, 

"Saya mahu lintas Niagara Falls naik basikal...atas wayar nipis! Siapa percaya pada saya?

Ramai yang ragu namun ramai juga yang memberi sokongan. Lalu lelaki itu meniti wayar nipis itu, berkayuh dari hujung, ke hujung. Penonton menunggu dengan penuh debaran. Tidak lama kemudian, dia turun dengan selamat.

 

Bukan gambar sebenar.(source)

Ramai penonton bersorak dan memberikan tahniah. "Hebat! Kami tahu awak mampu!" jerit mereka lagi.

Tiba-tiba, lelaki tersebut berteriak lagi,

"Sebab awak semua percaya pada saya....saya mahu lintas Niagara Falls lagi. Siapa nak ikut?"

Senyap, semua senyap.

(Source)

Tiba-tiba seorang kanak-kanak ke hadapan. "Saya nak ikut!"

Penonton mula terkejut. Kaget. Apabila budak itu mengikut lelaki berbasikal tadi ke wayar, penonton mula resah dan marah. Ada yanghendak  menelefon polis, ada yang terus meninggalkan tempat itu. Tetapi kanak-kanak kecil serta lelaki tadi tetap gigih, menaiki basikal itu.

Kemudian mereka melalui wayar itu. Pergi, dan balik.

Dan turun dengan selamat.

Penonton di tepi Niagara Falls (memang kena pakai baju hujan ya) (source)

Penonton kembali dan bersorak semula. Kagum. Mereka pun bertanya.

"Adik, adik beranilah! Kenapa adik sanggup pergi dengan lelaki ni, naik basikal melintas Niagara Falls? Bahaya tu!"

Adik itu menjawab,

"Nak tahu tak, lelaki ni ayah saya. Saya percaya dengan sepenuh hati padanya, bukan sekadar percaya di mulut."

Nilaikanlah, betapa ramai orang di dunia ini sebenarnya yang hanya percaya sekadar di bibir dan bukan percaya pada hati. Jika anda berbuat sesuatu dengan niat untuk Tuhan, maka percayalah; percaya dengan hati, bahawa dia akan bantu. Maka dia memang akan bantu." kata Hippie tersebut menutup ceritanya. 

Betul juga kan?

Short, short short shorts.

"These two girls sitting in front of me at the eatery... their skirt is so short, I know the exact color of the knickers."

Said a pal one day in his status post. Well, uh, that wasn't the first I've read this. A months back I got the exact same post from a girl, yes, a girl. And she even went as far as calling her a slut. Whoa horsie, that's harsh!

This got me reminded of that mayor somewhere in Indonesia who ruled that short skirts are a no-no because it increases sexual attacks. And of course, it got so much criticism--that a group of short-skirters made a demo to disagree with him! 

Well, when it comes to ruling about the dress code, I got nothing much to say religion-wise (any religion for that matter). What's written there, is there--enough. But it's just that--I kinda feel that alhough with somewhat liberal policy, we still need to dress ethically.

Now don't go around looking at my baju kurung and scarf accusing me of imposing a serbanistas belief--no, it's just that I do feel that slight uneasiness when I see people in really short-shorts. Or skinny tights with small tshirt that look like you wore your pantyhose and forgot your pants. Or shirts with super low-cut neckline. 

I mean, don't you?

Everyone has their "dress limit", either as conservative as an old Mullah or as liberal as an American. I mean, the aforementioned girl who called the short-skirt girl a slut -- well, she wears skirts too you know.

To me, it's the short-shorts that can see your undies.

For me dressing ethically means dressing that would not make everyone around you uncomfortable. Which also means dressing up, or down for the occasion. And dresssing skanky is never a synonym for dressing sexy. You could still be sexy even without dressing sexy, no?

Think about it.

toodles!

p.s. no pictures.

Carrot and the prayer

Assalamualaikum WBT.

Quite a while ago I sat in a class where they talked about the benefits of carrot (obviously it was the food functional class). "Beta carotene in the carrot will be converted to Vitamin A in the liver, which will later help in the formation of rhodopsin in the eye. This helps prevent night blindness and also eye degeneration in old people. But in people of good eyesight (or just slightly near/farsighted like us), it does not help much.

Interestingly, why does people seem to believe that Carrots can improve eyesight? Well, this comes from a WW2 story where German was fighting the British. British came up with a new invention, the ground-based radar which made lots of German planes being shot down. But to prevent the German from knowing about the radar, they spread the rumor that British pilots are fed with lots of carrot that made them see everything better (LOLWOUT). The rumor was so believable that even the British people--and us too, till today--eat carrots to improve eyesight.

OK, put that aside--well a few days back I saw this show on TV, it was about Islamic medicine, which someone asked what is the cure to poor eyesight. Which the ustaz answered,

"Buy 21 pieces of baby carrots, and eat them, while saying this prayer."



I was like, "why 21 carrots? why not one big one, or eleven tiny ones? Why not the supplements, the juice, the essence?" Correct me if I'm wrong--as of now, I haven't found any hadith towards eating 21 pieces of carrot for health, nor a story which actually described the Prophet eating 21 pieces of carrot.

So point is here? Well, like my friend said, disease is a matter of God's will. It happens on his will, it goes away on His will too. For me, it's not the prayer nor the carrots that made the eye better--it's God. His will.

But that does not mean you should "work" for it though. Just like working makes you earn your paycheck, eating medicine (and praying for it too) will earn you your health.

Good day, and eat your veggies!

p.s. speaking of rumors...it seems that americans does not understand the significance of Saidina Ali and the 11 september here. lol

Saya rindukan diskusi intelek!

Salam WBT.

Setelah hanya entri pendek-pendek di blog (kerana malas menulis, haha) sekarang ada juga sedikit celahan masa untuk menulis. Tambah lagi bila kerja semakin banyak mendatang, ketika Ramadan hampir ke penghujungnya—di masa saya sepatutnya lebih menghabiskan masa mengaji dan muhasabah diri. Dugaan! Dugaan!

Bercakap tentang muhasabah diri, terdetik untuk saya menulis perkara yang sekian lama terbuku di hati. Selama saya berblogging dan bergaul dalam media sosial, saya nampak satu trend yang agak jelas ketika berlakunya perselisihan faham. Ya, personal attack atau serangan peribadi. 

 

Jikalau anda rajin berblogwalking, terutamanya ke dalam blog yang jenis “pendapat” (memang kegemaran peribadi saya berbanding blog diari) anda akan ketemu satu dua post yang mempunyai entri jenis “berfikir” dan beribu-ribu komen perdebatan (OK, exaggerate-tak adalah sampai beribu-riban tapi adalah juga beratus).

Dan jika anda lihat, dalam komen perdebatan tu tentunya ada beberapa komen yang jenis tidak mengomen secara terus kepada isu entri, tetapi lebih kepada serangan peribadi—samada kepada orang yang disebut dalam entri itu, mahupun pemilik blog itu sendiri.

Kalau dalam gambar tu gemuk hitam, gemuk hitamlah diejeknya. Kalau namanya pelik macam Ziegler, disengaja eja menjadi Si Giler. Kalau gigi lebih sikit, terus dilabel Si Jongang. Bangsa dilahirkan, tempat asal, kursus yang diikuti, taraf pendidikan, rupa anak bini malah umur sekalipun--pendek kata semua benda boleh jadi bahan ejekan.

Saya hairan mengapa ramai kini lebih cenderung kepada menyerang peribadi berbanding berdiskusi secara intelek di ruang komen. Mungkin kerana ramai pembaca yang malas berfikir dan membaca entri sehingga habis. Ini nyata tidak membolehkan mereka mengeluarkan buah fikiran yang bernas. Kemudian yang hanya terkeluar dari mulut ialah “kau hanyalah loser di dalam hidup bukan?”

Natijahnya bila ada komen berunsur menyerang peribadi, pengkomen lain (atau pengepos sendiri) akan turut marah dan menyerang kembali. Berlakulah serangan demi serangan dan perbualan tidak lagi menjadi medan debat ilmiah—cuma menjadi medan kumpul maki hamun. Dan dosa.

Saya tahu, saya juga cenderung ke arah ini dahulu. Namun setelah agak lama, saya fikir cara ini cuma melambangkan aras intelek yang rendah (kalau nak trolling tak pe la. But still! Not cool). Lagi-lagi bila kita kutuk fizikal orang, mungkin satu hari nanti bila mereka tahu fizikal kita, habis berbakul-bakul mereka  kutuk. Kalaupun kekurangan kita tidak seperti kekurangan orang yang dikutuk, mungkin kita ada kekurangan yang lebih teruk.

Satu isu terbaru yang menarik perhatian saya adalah kes Sitt Alwuzara dan Arlene Tan. Bila dikhabarkan bahawa Sitt adalah Arlene, maka ramailah yang mengomen secara kutukan dan hinaan. Tapi bukan sahaja kutukan dan hinaan kepada blog itu, malah hinaan yang merujuk kepada maruah. Kemudian apa terjadi? Arlene melaporkan kepada polis atas gangguan yang diterimanya. Rupa-rupanya  dia bukan Sitt Alwuzara. Habis haru biru dunia blogging—yang sibuk mengutuk diam terkedu.  Ada pula yang berterusan defend diri sendiri (mungkin ego agaknya) dengan mempercayai bahawa memang benar Sitt adalah Arlene. Ah, kalau ya pun itu dia, tidaklah layak untuk orang menerima kutukan sebegitu. Fikirkan apa yang orang bukan Islam lihat andai dia ternampak blogger-blogger beragama Islam mencaci maruah sebegitu. Nampaknya jauh lagilah perjalanan untuk membersihkan nama Islam dalam media dalam talian ini.

Akhir kata dari saya, tidak perlulah kita menggunakan sifat-sifat fizikal sebagai bahan teguran. Sifat fizikal bukannya boleh diubah. Lebih baik menumpukan pada teguran benda yang boleh diubah seperti prinsip dan sikap. Lagipun, kata orang bijak pandai “bencilah perlakuannya, jangan benci pada orangnya.”

“(5) Dan orang-orang (Islam) yang datang kemudian daripada mereka (berdoa dengan) berkata: Wahai Tuhan Kami! Ampunkanlah dosa kami dan dosa saudara-saudara kami yang mendahului kami dalam iman dan janganlah Engkau jadikan dalam hati perasaan hasad dengki dan dendam terhadap orang-orang yang beriman. Wahai Tuhan kami! Sesungguhnya Engkau Amat Melimpah belas kasihan dan rahmatMu. (Al-Hashr: 10) “

*jangan dengkikan orang!

Assalamualaikum WBT.

Is It A Yes Or A No?

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Actually it’s such a hectic week, including last week and the next week too. I barely had time to do my reading and to complete some other work, which leads me too much lynching and scolding :(.

But on one or two rare occasional days, I managed to sneak in some blogging and reading time along the way. Lately, I’ve been inclined to read some of the fatwas and “hukum-hakam” given out by some Mufti/Ustaz either via websites or videos. They have fatwas for everything—from Facebooking and drinking ribena up to major issues such as witness credibility in sexual crimes (we’ll talk about that later).

from here

 One thing that interest me is that some fatwa really do cross opposite ways with each other, for example, a week ago someone discussed the fatwa of wearing inai (henna) on hands. One said you can, but only on certain fingers. I said eh? Wasn’t it not permissible at all? My mom said so, it’s HARAM! But instead of bashing her further for “ignorance” I googled it up.

Who was right?

Both, actually.

The fatwa agreeing on wearing henna is here, which I directly copy-pasted below:

The 88th Muzakarah (Conference) of the Fatwa Committee National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs Malaysia held on 2nd October 2009 has discussed the ruling on applying design henna in Islam. The Committee has decided that:

1. Applying henna in both hands and feet is permissible for women, whether for married or non married women as long as it does not open the door to fitna

2. However, the application is limited to wrists and ankles. The colour of henna should not remain permanent as in tattoos and the henna does not contain doubtful ingredients. As for the pattern and design, the permitted designs are leaves and plant designs. Meanwhile, designs of animal, deities or any design contradictory to Islam are prohibited.

3. Application of henna on the both hands and legs of men is not permissible except to a number of fingers of bridegrooms during marriage ceremonies and for medical purpose.

from here

Now the hokum disagreeing on henna usage is here :

Volume 7, Book 72, Number 816
Narrated Humaid bin 'Abdur-Rahman bin 'Auf
that in the year he performed Hajj. he heard Mu'awiya bin Abi Sufyan, who was on the pulpit and was taking a tuft of hair from one of his guards, saying, "Where are your religious learned men? I heard Allah's Apostle forbidding this (false hair) and saying, 'The children of Israel were destroyed when their women started using this.'" Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Allah has cursed the lady who artificially lengthens (her or someone else's) hair and the one who gets her hair lengthened and the One who tattoos (herself or someone else) and the one who gets herself tattooed"  (hadith taken from here)

This hadith was taken as a basis for Dato Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz’s conclusion, a former religious officer in the Royal Palace of Kuala Lumpur. He compares henna drawing such as vines, flowers or leaves to tattooing (although one is temporary and one is permanent). He even go as far as saying it is cursed by Allah SWT.  The only thing permissible, he said, is to wear it at the tips of the fingers (as nail color).

from here

So there are two reasoning to that one same situation—one leads to it being haram and the other as halal. I don’t know which is “better” than the other but I’ll stick to the one being Halal so I don’t start criticising people on their wedding day for wearing henna. Although, I’ll refrain myself from drawing henna on my hands to avoid pissing off my mom. She is so hell-bent in prohibiting us from doing henna art that she won't evn listen to my explatantion on the clashes of fatwa. Why? she was brainwashed time and time again by seniors and scholars that it is wrong. (and she got no Google to read up the intellectual discourse that follors)

When I look back at the fatwa’s clashing, I gave a big sigh. This is not something simple—it’s the opposite ends of the spectrum—HALAL and HARAM. Some individual ustaz, especially those with power and popularity, need to refrain from freely giving hukum before consulting some other experienced people. Yes, you think your ten years in Middle East and five years as an Imam is enough, but don’t you think that you might be a “raisin before a grape”? (raisin before a grape is an analogy quoted by a famous Muslim scholar, citing people who think they have enough knowledge that they give judgemental  freely). 

from here

So this problem has been around for centuries, and it has got a lot worse in these days. The fatwas of Yoga and Poco-poco for example, has ended in ridicule by non-Muslims and liberal Muslims by being too “over the top” and “overreacting”. I am not opposing that Fatwa actually, I am rather afraid that this might lead to distrust of the ustaz/mufti community as a whole.

Hopefully one day, we can just have one BIG muzakarah (probably worldwide, but let's be practical--Malaysia is good enough) and they all can do fatwa of everything under the sun. yes it's costly and time-consuming, but no disputes can trouble the minds of the commonfolk anymore.

Let us practice religion in peace please!

 

Born This Way

Just a little thinking.

For me, every human is born to this world, with a mission.

Mission I say?

Yes, a mission.

You know, Imagine God sending our soul down to earth with a tape instruction a-la Mission Impossible.

"Mrs A, you are born to this world into a poor family."

"Mr B, you are born into a country in constant turmoil and war for the past 50 years."

"Mr C, you are born as a disabled guy with one feet and no hands, to a family in Chernobyl."

"Mrs D, you are born as a woman with a transgendered inclination, and you will have the constant need to change yourself into a man."

You were given the mission, and you are expected to accomplish it.

It is a mission and also a test.

As He sees you go around you daily life, he carefully watches your move, and how you go about with your mission.

Do you complain? Do you get angry and rebel? Or do you try get through it, by cheating, lying, or stepping on others?

God, I dare say, is a better boss of you than the guy in Mission Impossible. Truthfully, I think he does not put finishing the mission as a requirement. Rather, he wants to see how you react through it and live with it.

We complain about how our lives isn't happy. Why did God made me this way? Why am I born poor and ugly while that girl over there is a perfect ten and rich too?

Then we forgot, she is here on a mission too. Some people--we may not see it--but they have their own mission. What if they were born rich, pretty and popular--to test whether they will be arrogant and cruel to others? Will they enjoy and exploit every single thing of life's pleasures while forgetting what they were living for?

So I guess, be content with what you are born for. Don't blame, don't judge. Find your way to live through it, without abusing power, money or other people. And it doesnt matter if you complete the mission, it's the journey there that counts.

Assalamualaikum!

Just a little bit of thinking, 1.0

1.0 The Surau

I don't know if there's any girls who notice this but, does the suraus and prayer room sometimes look odd to you?

I feel like they made it in the exact same layout of the boys' surau, you know--door, beside the door is the pipes, then the praying room half separated by the wall.

But girls are not boys, and boys are not girls.

Problem is with the layout, is that once girls open the door, they made other girls who are doing her wudhu' visible from the outside.

And sometimes when the girl surau is before the boys surau, there'll be boys walking by to get to their surau and they'll see everything as soon as another girl opens the door to some in and out.

You don't know how many times I instinctively duck my head when I wudhu' and someone opens the door. Sometimes I just removed my hijab and bam! the door opens.

There goes my aurat.

Yes, I'm fussy for complaining.

Just my two cents really.

Mengantuk sebenarnya.

Interesting.

Heard this from Tanyalah Ustaz this morning:

Indeed, mankind was created anxious. When evil touches him,(he is) impatient. And when good touches him (he is), withholding [of it],Except the observers of prayer.(Al Maarij, 19-22)

Sesungguhnya manusia itu dijadikan bertabiat resah gelisah (lagi bakhil kedekut); Apabila ia ditimpa kesusahan, dia sangat resah gelisah; Dan apabila ia beroleh kesenangan, ia sangat bakhil kedekut; Kecuali orang-orang yang mengerjakan sembahyang.(Al Maarij, 19-22)

So humans are born with chaos and confusion built into their selves. Born as a being with full sets of functioning mind and yet--the world is an enigma to them. Trying to figure out, but the world holds secret even they cannot open. Therefore some men--whom which sometimes I know and see--fall through the cracks while just trying to figure out this confusion.

I understandthat--for the things cannot be understood, we should just stop asking questions, and just started believing. That's why we prostrate to god, seeking those calm from all the confusion.

Because it's not ours; the knowledge, to be understood anyway.

[source]