Repent before death

One of the prayers that I learn in school was this: (Doa Selamat)
'O Allah, we ask of You... and sincere repentance before death'

As we sleep everyday, we should remember that sleep is a sister of death. This is the time when Allah lift up the soul from our body. If we were destined to live another day, the soul will be returned to the body, otherwise, we will meet the end of our time in this world.


The point is, it is wise upon anyone to take account of himself everyday and do sincere repentance, especially before sleep. This is the conclusion of our day, and wise person should always keep track of where he is heading. Yes, we all have this big dream of entering paradise, but are our actions helping us to achieve that dream?

It is tempting to postpone repenting. Even in business and work place, we see that those who delay in taking actions will be left behind. Similarly are those who delay his repentance.

One example was brought forward by one of my friend, and it goes like this:

A student met a Sheikh and ask him to teach him. The Sheikh agreed and took him for a brief journey. At the beginning of the journey, he ask the student to pluck out a budding seed from the ground. He did just that and they continue the journey. After a while, the Sheikh then instruct him to uproot a handful of grass. Obedient to his instruction, the student did accordingly but with a bit of struggle, and there are some marks on the ground as well. After that, they continued the journey until they saw a small tree, about two feet tall. Now, you know what's going to happen. Yes, the Sheikh again instruct the student to uproot this tree. Of course, this time, he put a hefty amount of energy to take the tree out, as the root is deeper and the trunk is harder. He needed a hoe to do this job. Alhamdulillah, after a hard effort, he managed to uproot the small tree. And this time the soil is more scattered. Does the story ends here? Not yet...next they came across a huge tree. And you guessed correctly, the Sheikh again ask the student to pluck this tree out. He sighed, but determined to do as instructed. This time, he needs more powerful tool. And more men power, so he hired some workers to finish the job. (pakai jela bajak, kan?)...to cut story short, he managed to uproot the big tree....and of course with much much more difficulties and spending. OK, there should be an ending somewhere right? right, I'll stop there. So, the student, drenched in his own sweat asked the Sheikh, what's the meaning of this journey?
The Sheikh said that the plants that the students uprooted are like sins. At the early stage, it is really easy to get rid of it. But if a person delay his repentance, the sin will grow more and more, until it is very hard to take it out from someone's life. He will face more struggle to get himself out from the sins and as a consequences, there are also more scars left.

Moral of the story: Don't delay! Shaitan will promise us long life and persuade us to indulge more in sins. But Allah also sends reminders to do good and stay away from evil on top of warning us that Shaitan is our open enemy. In the end of the day, he'll go away from us as soon as we involve ourself in sins. He will not help us if we were doomed to eternal fire, as he's also incapable of absolving himself from the fire.

'My' ti83 Plus

In Kolej MARA Banting IB World School, we were required to use graphic scientific calculator. The model that we use was ti83 plus.

It's more sophisticated than the one that we use in secondary school, of course, and has more features. Statistical functions are included. 3D graph functionality can be add-on to the device. Plus! We can even play games and draw pictures with it.

Because all of us need to have one, most of my friends bought it from the college. Since the college bought the calculator in bulk, we get it at a bargain price of only around RM500. However, the good news is I need not buy it because I used Kak Ngah's calculator which was inherited to Kak Ude and then to me...and I kept that RM500 calculator allowance from MARA for my pocket money.

To make the story short, I kept this lovely calculator with me to Sheffield during my University years. I almost sold it, because we cant use this device in the exam hall plus it has a high demand in the UK and the price did not drop.

Then, I shipped it back to Malaysia along with other stuffs after graduating.

A few months later, I went back to see my stuff and I found the calculator missing, thinking that it must have been left in Sheffield or somewhere in between Malaysia and UK. Huhu. To my dissappointment, I saw it in Kak Ngah's possession.

I whispered to myself,

"Why did Kak Ngah took the calculator from me without even informing?, Ooh maybe she wanted to 'borrow' it for a while."

After a few seconds of thought, then I realised. I recalled that the calculator is not really mine. It is still her belonging. Years after years possessing the lovely computing machine, I felt like the calculator is mine, eventhough it isn't so. My calculator, now it's time to say goodbye...

Then, when I think deeper that actually one day, Allah will take all the things that I posses, including the best machine I ever had, my own body. If I still think that this is mine, of course I will feel hurt. But yeah, the reality is that everything that I posses is not mine, it is Allah's. We have no choice but accept this truth. It is His right to give to whoever He likes and take it back or withhold from whoever He likes.

So, I learnt that we should not be so sad if we lose something in this life, because everything is from Allah, and it is just right for Him to take it back. Everytime we get something or we lose something, it is actually a test from ALlah to see whether we a true to Him or not. Possesing something or not does not relate to our status in front of Allah except taqwa.

Wallahu 'alam.

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Kenapa Belajar?

Semalam Ustaz Hadi dari MDE telah datang beri tazkirah di Surau Al-Hikmah SS18.

Dalam perkongsian itu, beliau telah beri satu peringatan yang sangat berguna iaitu hendaklah kita kejar akhirat kerana itulah tempat yang akan kita tinggal selama-lamanya. Sedangkan dunia ini pula adalah tempat tumpangan buat sementara waktu.

Antara intisari lain yang saya dapat lebih kurang:

• Apabila seseorang itu berusaha untuk akhiratnya, maka dunia ini akan jadi tempat untuk dia bercucuk tanam menanam modal. Dia tidak akan jadikan dunia ini tempat bersedap-sedap.

• Manakala amaran juga diberikan untuk tidak mengejar dunia. Sesiapa yang mengejar dunia maka dia seumpama kata pepatah, "yang dikejar tak dapat, yang dikendong berciciran".

• Dalam mempraktikkan visi akhirat ini seseorang itu bagaimanapun harus memberi masa untuk menunaikan haq-haq orang lain terhadapnya. Ada masa untuk amalan masjid, untuk keluarga dan untuk keperluan/kerja.

• Kemudian ada juga di sentuh tentang niat mencari 'ilmu. Sesiapa yang mendapatkan dunia dengan ilmu agama maka dia akan rugi kedua-duanya sekali. Manakala sesiapa yang membelakangkan dunia untuk agama maka dia akan dapat kedua-duanya sekali.

• Buktinya adalah ulama-ulama terdahulu. Mereka zuhud tetapi dunia bawah kaki mereka. Dan takde siapa pun yang rugi apabila mendahulukan agama/akhirat, dulu, kini dan selamanya.

• Sebaliknya, yang selalu tidak tenang ialah orang yang mengejar dunia membelakangkan akhirat.

• Oleh itu, niat menuntut ilmu kena betul, hanya kerana ALlah. Jika tuntut ilmu niatnya tak betul seperti untuk jadi pandai berkata-kata, nak berdebat, berhujjah, berlawan dengan orang lain, untuk pandai jadi penulis blog, maka inilah kerugian yang paling besar bagi seseorang. Dunia tak dapat, akhirat pun hancur. Rugi sangat-sangat.

• Jadi, menuntut ilmu itu niatnya harus lurus, iaitu untuk memperbaiki/islah diri sendiri..

Burung dan Bayang-bayang

Perumpamaan dunia dan akhirat adalah seperti burung dan bayang-bayang.

Seorang yang kejar burung, insyaAllah burung akan dia dapat, bayang2 pun dia dapat sekali.

Tapi seorang yang kejar bayang-bayang burung sampai bila pun takkan dapat tangkap bayangnya. Burungnya tu jangan haraplah.

Yang kejar burung tu macam kejar akhirat.
Yang kejar bayang-bayang tu macam kejar dunia.

Tandas

Tandas: Satu keperluan manusia

Dunia ni macam tandas.
Semua orang perlukan tandas.
Namun tandas bukanlah maksud hidup kita. Ia adalah sekadar satu keperluan.

Rumah dibina dengan ruang tandas yang minima.

Bayangkan kalau kita jumpa orang buat rumah dengan ruang tamu dan bilik lebih kecil dari tandas. Mesti kita cakap orang ni gila.

Macam tu juga lah, dunia ni bukanlah maksud kita. Ia adalah keperluan hidup.
Apakah maksud hidup di dunia?

Maksud hidup kat dunia ni adalah untuk persiapan akhirat nanti. Persiapan iman dan a'maal.

Mari kita lihat pada diri kita. Berapa banyak ruang daripada masa, harta dan diri ini kita beri pada 'tandas' dunia dan berapa banyak kita beri kepada maksud asal kita dihantar di dunia ini?

Adakah kita ni gila?

exam lagi

Student.
mesti dikaitkan dengan examinations.

kenapa ada exams?

sebab nak dpt naik taraf.

kalau lulus, naik.

kalau gagal, dok takat tu jela.

lagi teruk kalau kena turun.

sekarang ni sedar atau tidak, sebenarnya setiap dari kita adalah student. orang kampung kata "from cradle to the grave".

Allah hantar ujian demi ujian terhadap manusia. sesiapa yang pass, akan dapat tanda putih kat hati. kalau die asyik pass je, bile ada bintik hitam pon takkan dapat perasan.

sesape yang fail, akan dapat titik hitam kat hati. kalau fail je memanjang bintik putih takkan lg dapat beri ape-ape kesan kat hati yg dah hitam bebeno. Moga Allah selamatkan kita dari berkeadaan camni.

exam ni bukan susah je. senang pon dikira exam tau. bile susah kite diuji dengan kesabaran. bile senang kita diuji dengan kesyukuran. tu yg beruntung jadi orang beriman. apa-apa keadaan pon samada senang atau susah, die tetap dapat untung.

Moga Allah jayakan kita dalam setiap exams, di dunia dan lebih2 lagi kat akhirat nanti.

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