Deciphering Reality of Life

I involved a lot in tarbiyyah programmes. I even lead one usrah group over here. I myself have my own usrah that I attend. Simply put, my life is filled with learning the deen besides learning Medical subjects. It looks idealistic isn’t it? It looks like I’m such a good person. Yeah from outside, it looks like that. That’s how I present myself to the public. I am good at creating an image… but an image is an image. Putting it in physical term, an image is not ‘real’.
So am I real?

I have to admit, not to everybody but myself… that what I projected was really an image. So am I being hypocrite? People say better not involve in tarbiyyah, dakwah etc if you are just a hypocrite.
No… I wouldn’t say that I’m a hypocrite. And I am really not one… Na’uzubillah. So what happen actually?

There’s a simple mistake I did… the failure to put the knowledge into practice. What is Islam all about? What is Qur’an about? What is Sunnah about? These are all nothing but a deen… a way of life. So when I learn one ayat, I should put it into practice. But I did not. I treat the ayat as a mere source of speech so that my presentation in usrah can be more flowery and attractive. It’s a big mistake! I have fractionalized Islam making myself a partial Muslim!
But my dear friends… putting Islam into practice is the real challenge. My failure might also be your failure, the failure to decipher the sea of knowledge in the Qur’an and Sunnah into real daily living.

So how do you know you are actually failing to decipher the knowledge into practive? Into reality of life?

Easy… these might be the indications:

1. You wake up late in the morning
2. You didn’t attend Fajr prayer
3. You didn’t Qur’an that much
4. You didn’t pray in Jamaah

Wait a minute… are all indications about ibadah? No… even more like these:

1. You didn’t keep your room
2. You didn’t finish your homework
3. You didn’t study regularly
4. You spend your time on movies
5. You SMS girls
6. You skip your cooking duty
7. You didn’t attend class

Well… I think I am not a real Muslim yet. If I am real, I’m not just projecting a Muslim image… you know like, beards, ketayap, or in my case usrah, daurah, posting hadith on facebook, posting Muslim news on facebook etc. Being real is to keep check on all the above daily matters. I might be criticizing myself but you… yes you, whoever reading this… you might be one as well.


يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ ادْخُلُواْ فِي السِّلْمِ كَآفَّةً وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo odkhuloo fee alssilmi kaffatan wala tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani innahu lakum AAaduwwun mubeenun
2:208 O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy

Wallahuallam

Ageing

I’m dedicating this scrappy note to whomever turning 23 tonight

Here I am once again, coming onto the brink of transitional age. Hey, wait a minute! What’s that? Transitional Age? Like Descartes or Plato give this term or what? Naah.. I invented the term my own. It’s defined by me as a range of age where people are turning from childhood to teen, from teenage to adulthood, from adulthood to golden age, and from golden age to err.. death.

Yeah… I’m 23 now. Well, many would still consider this age as being youth. So youthful would normally means… ENJOY!! No responsibilities!!! No committed relationships!!! Or Study!!! Well… erm I guess I’m done with that phase already. I just got to move on, leave that pointless “youthful” life and start to find some clear, DESTINED directions. Actually I began to start leaving that phase over a year ago, when I began to see pointless shopping as pointless, or dating as not hype anymore, then having girlfriends as well (can’t find the vocab)… as pointless.. and now I think my transition into adulthood is almost complete.

Metamorphosis?

Wow… so easy to say that? Like I’m a metamorphosing butterfly? Well, I don’t actually and exactly and accurately saying that I’m nearing adulthood. I just felt that I’m nearing that phase. Everything around me is like ‘growing’:

1.Many of my friends already got married… many got engaged as well… sometimes I felt like err like I’ve been left behind..

2.Some already got a job… hey my younger sister had already been offered a job as a kuli architect in a Chinese firm.. I mean Malaysian Chinese firm.

3.My elder brother is heading towards marriage as well… good luck to you…

4.My classmates’ jokes are getting more unchildish… like: hey you gotta be quick getting married… ha ha ha ha (is that a joke… well, I’m quite a jokeless person at times)… or like: tickle tickle tickle tickle… Mus!! You better hurry up and tell her mom for her hand! I can’t stand you tickling me..

5.Discussions are getting more like adult: Err… Zul, you know anything about Bosnia? Yeah I know something.. its like bla.. and bla bla this bla that. Oh ok.. we gotta read more… history is important.

6.I Don’t need to mention facebook… discussions are so much into philosophy, history, religion, sociology, politics.. and so on.. [no time for gossip-like statuses]

7.Oh yeah My father… His first topic after a hello on the phone call will be: ANAS!!!! When are you getting married? Dhuhh.. well don’t worry Abah… I’m working for it.. I’m wooorking.. God knows Well what’s in store for me.

8.And… erm… things are coming up for me as well… that makes me really began to think like an adult… things like: marriage [I’m normal… normal dude got married], like money, like buying my first car, like buying properties, like when I’m having my first child… like my first child’s name [oops.. not to that extent yet]

Well… that’s just a scrappy recap of how things turning adult around me

Our first Year in Bangalore... things had changed a lot

Life as a da’ie

And yes… my life as a da’ie… Does the title da’ie makes me different? Or special? Or people say more holy? Naah.. it’s just the same, normal life actually, because Islam is normal.. it’s normal for God to expect us to do Amar Makruf nahi munkar, it’s normal for God to tell us to become a khalifah… being a khalifah? Is it like being a king or mullah or what? Naah.. you are just being yourself… like I’m becoming a doctor, and my duty as a doctor, putting it in the way God wants it to be… that’s a khalifah… It’s also normal for us to pray five times a day, putting more effort into augmenting our amal… because that’s what God told us to do… so it’s sooo normal and natural… so my life as a dai’e… nothing much different from your life whoever you are reading this… I go to work, I study, I’m buying cars, I’m buying house… so do you…

except, people see is as abnormal sometimes because they are not taking all these as normal… like really normal doctors don’t go anywhere giving religious talk… or like me giving talks at F15 on one fine Sunday morning in SEED programme. Well.. don’t freak out.. just see that as a part of my errr… fulfilling my obligations.

So at 23, my job as a dai’e doesn’t change the fact that I’m a human no less holy than anyone… just doing my normal part as a khalifah… like what God normally tell us…

Life as a dai'e... its normal

Be careful, don’t trip

Transitional ages are challenging periods. I remembered how challenging teenage was. At that time I began to discover something like sexuality, feelings, love, or things like hype stuff… you know, cigarette, having girlfriends and stuffs… those are challenging age… many got tripped and trapped down into the ravine of life after that.

Transitional age is challenging as there are lots of new changes around you that you need to be quick to acquaint yourself with. By acquainting yourself what I mean is that to understand the changes around you and use that changes for you to mature yourself.

Now that I’m in the transition age again, this time into adulthood. Things like marriage is of daily thoughts. So what you gonna do with that? Getting married? Some just don’t realized that they actually want to get married. So they opt for unlawful relationship instead. Many had gone into premarital sex as well. So to get a control over changes in yourself is to identify and understand its urge. From there we must find a way to get it the natural way… in this case, nikah is an urge… you gotta be there someday somehow… so just get there then.. work it up!!!

Again I’m stressing… transitional age is challenging. If you fail to understand its nature, you fall into the ravine of life. Some just give up life for this. So it’s a crucial time.

Transitional age is a crucial time... always be on guard

That’s it!!!

So that’s it… my scrappy note about ageing.

Usually I wrote serious things… like politics, or dakwah, or history, but this time around I’m just… errrr… scrapping.

So, if you don’t find any benefit just don’t bother.

God Knows best/Wallahuallam