Friday, December 31, 2010

The University

05122010(007) The place where we gain education sometimes gives more than the education itself. We human for sure need knowledge and science as they will, as we are sure, make our life better. But it has been quite hard when we are faced to the option, which one is the best best so we will focus spending our time, money and life studying there. Especially when we are demanded to pick the higher education such as university or college. To me, it comes to the time when I joined selection in my senior high school. I consciously picked the Indonesia University of Education (known as UPI) but intentionally picked the department which is management. Nonetheless, this university for some excellent results lets me to be the person like what I am today. I just feel the improvements along with the process of education itself appear. I don’t want to say that I am good guy or something, on the top of that, I just be grateful to God as He gives me ample of beneficial things at the college of mine.

 

It has been a year since my graduation and here I just intend to let you know the building or spots when I usually spent my time when I was a student – missing this calling anyway.

Here is the Faculty of Economic and Business. In this building now, the lecturer’s cubicles located and some classes are also available. The second building is know as Gymnasium – the place where we usually have sports competition and graduation or other vast ceremonials. This one can accommodate up to 10 thousands of people. 

31102010(002)  31102010

The shots above are swimming pool and track (soccer field) where I usually practice some sports. The entrance fare is quite cheap – IDR 1000 to 3000 for students and staffs. But for non of them, the charge can be two times more expensive.

 

Here is the main gate of the campus:              And here is the only bank that available serving us:  05122010(001)05122010(011)

(Though I have graduated, I still used the bank for electricity payment)

 

Well, here are some snapshots of other faculties:

05122010(009) JICA MIpa

(Faculty of Art and Language known as FPBS)       (Faculty of Math and Science known as MIPA)

I was fond of being in the faculty of Art and Language as the wi-fi was quite fasted than to the faculty of mine – faculty of economics. At MIPA, I pretty much enjoyed the lunch (not that often though) as the place is hygiene and comfortable. From last floor you may also enjoy the view of Bandung and I myself sometimes did it when having troublesomes in mind. One of the things that interests me is that, the building was the most awesome one as it is built by Japanese people mixing the architecture of Japan’s building and Gadang house from Padang (West Sumatera).

Since the majority of students and staffs are Muslims, of course the university serves us with the enjoyable and huge mosque. This is called Al Furqon and it has 3 floors for us to pray. This is the best place where students can be so close to the God. Aside from that, students may also have short relaxing time as the place is quite apt for us to so.

05122010(002)  05122010(006)

 

Spot that not existed when I studied at my university is the “Park of Knowledge”. This is set in behind of the main gate so you will see this when firstly coming to the campus. This spot is totally great if you want to take some pictures or learn photography. Here it is : 05122010(004) 05122010(005)

 

Well, if you need more detail information about the university of mine (UPI), or if you need to know more about it, please get on the site bellow:

www.upi.edu

Or, you may call me anyway. I am all ready to be your guide for the short tour of my campus, kidding :)

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Masjid Daarut Tauhiid


Daarut Tauhiid Mosque is situated at Geger Kalong street, precisely beside the street's line so that it has a quite narrow passage. In the city of Bandung, this Muslim praying place is located in the northern part of the city so you need to cruise up quite a bit if you'd like to reach this spot from the city center. Nor this mosque is really big or grandiose, and yet its fame reaches the entire country or even overseas.


This mosque has now some alterations which bring it to the upper level of mosque in terms of management and some measurements. The mosque is started to be known by public some 10-years ago by an ulama (preacher) namely Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym). He is somehow an initiator or the pioneer who commenced the mosque establishment, not the owner. Aa Gym is one of the most popular Islamic preachers as his way in delivering Islamic teaching is somehow dissimilar to others. In my personal opinion, he is a breakthrough maker as the atmosphere he creates when preaching lets me go to the place of clear and simple understanding. The material of his teaching is mostly about Tauhiid or the ones of Allah. He pretty much repeats this material as it is indeed the most high thing we need to fully grasp then apply in our life as Muslim. Tauhiid is the estuary of science and understanding of a Muslim.

I admit that in the middle of the going, this Mosque might have been supported by Aa's popularity, but now everything has been much better. The mosque committee is open to the improvement so that the mosque starts running more professionally.

There are some points I am trying to outline regarding to the professionalism of the mosque (of course there are still some weak points needed to be upgraded). First is its facilities such as are clock displaying the rest time before the obligatory praying begins. It is needed for us when we are about to do the additional prayer before the fardu one. I think there are only few mosques in this country do have this kind of facility as the people might have different view on this. Some might think that this is good idea to be conducted as the technology is supposed to make our deeds or worship better. But some people might think that it's not that needed, I have got a friend who thoughts so. It does not matter though as difference gives us little bit nice tinge and dynamics in life, he is still my buddy anyway... :)

The next is a clear audio sound. When imam is reciting the prayer, the voice can be heard quite loudly so that there is nothing missed or overlooked. Next supporting tools are infocus, LCD monitor and TV showing Visual speech delivered by ustadz. Another good point is that its tidiness and sanitary. Though it maybe cannot be compared to as example Al Haram or and Al Madina mosque in Saudi Arabia, Daarut Tauhiid's mosque can be also counted as a quite clean and comfort one in this city (if not in the country). Or maybe I just have not been able to experience being in many mosques in this nation :)

Another thing deserves the consideration is that the quality if imam which most of them are hafidz. Hafidz is a term used to name someone which is able to memorize all verses of Quran. It is for sure a super plus point as there are only few hafidz in this town (compared to the total population). So, DT mosque is somehow far more advance in a way of providing us quality iman in praying. As and addition, to me DT mosque is a quite impressive mosque as it had never few people coming especially for jamaa prayer. The committee always makes events or something to invite people to get there.

Very last point is that the way of committee of the mosque in gathering fund for building and expanding the mosque by empowering wakaf funding from the generous people. There are some unique ways done by them. One of them is that by gathering the money using saroong (a piece of fabric hung on somebody). The people who wear or lift this saroong then move around to collect cash from jamaah (people). I have just found it here, at DT mosque. At the present the mosque is under repairment, so let us make some investment by donating some of our money for the mosque.

Well, by the way have any of you paid a visit or stayed at the mosque? If haven't please do make a visit to pray or anything. You might be able to meet me in weekends there, not a whole day though :)
See you at Daarut Tauhiid's mosque – a mosque where peace and warmth lie within.
Peace be upon you...


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Eid ul Adha Nov 17 @Ledeng Bus station


Bismillah,
Allahuakbar...allahuakbar, laailahaillallah...
This chanting was resounding from the dusk of yesterday till this very last morning. The sun shined brightly and the weather was sort of cool. I prepared myself to perform Eid ul Adha prayer at Daarut Tauhiid's mosque. But for some reasonable reasons, I executed a contingency plan – doing prayer at Ledeng area which is of course neared to the home of mine.

The place that we used for praying is actually a bus station situated at Ledeng. It very makes sense since there is no more place to use. I mean the bus station is quite representative and can accommodate up to two thousands or even more people. I assume that the committee of this prayer, in which the DKM (Management) of Nurul Huda mosque did kind of lobbying to the DLLAJ (authorized transportation institution) to use the station. Here are some more shots of the last morning prayer:


From the speech, noted some points here as follows:
Ibrheem (Abraham) is the father of prophet. Shalawat in our prayer is for Muhammad and also Abraham. He struggled to find God miles away from Mesopotamia, to Egypt and finally to Mecca. He worked hard for the both families (Sity Hazr and Siti Sara). He also built house of Allah in which Ka'bah. We all now from all over the world pray toward that direction as the symbol of unity in Islam.

Abraham did those things to find the real happiness while living in this world, he didn't mere look for the worldly things though. His aim is to sincerely make all people happy. In Mecca there are various foods and fruits from whole over the world and it has been lasting for years and years since Abraham asked it to Allah. I forgot the prayer though, sorry :).

The water of Zam Zam (derives from Egyptian language meaning gathering) that is so popular among the pilgrims is for all human on earth. He even sacrificed the one he loved the most (Ishmael) for the sake of Allah. But Allah then succeeded his son with goat. This thing shows us that killing human can never be right. Aside, loving someone or something to much in this life is not right either. Place everything in moderation!

All rites that Abraham and family did then finally come up to us such as thawaf, jumra, hajj and Qurban. In short, we Muslim need to learn a lot from the prophet Abraham.

So, what can we Indonesian Muslims do now? Well, from the speech I could say that we must work had to create paradise and gladness as best as we can in this life (like what the prophet Abraham did). The country of ours are now being stricken by the attitude degradation thiriving, we act mostly based on lust and anger. Therefore let us create paradise of ours wherever we are, at house, bus station, school and where else. By all means in Qurban we give “heaven” to those who have no opportunity to taste the flesh of animal in their daily dishes. We Muslim, indeed love sharing cheerfulness to all humans on earth, it has been exemplified by Abraham the prophet of Allah, right? Merry Eid brothers and sisters :)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Creative Country


If you ask me about the most creative country in the world, the answer of mine would be for sure varied. I'm going to reply this query by first asking you, in what field? Yes it depends on the gauge we use. I'd probably answer Japan if you ask me about the automotive industry and I'll answer USA if you ask me about the general technology and military stuff. About Art, I'll probably answer Italy as what I know, there are many great art works from there. Ah...these of course can be totally wrong as they are just personally my rough subjective answers. But please don't forget one nation – Indonesia. It has tons of things that others don't. Really, you'll only can find them here in the archipelago country in which now its people are sort of sad as we are stricken by natural calamity happening in many parts of the country. These calamities are actually some of the really Indonesian things as I am sure no others nations do have many volcano as we do. But in this piece of writing I just want to unveil a thing that I think it is quite creative and it only exists here. Besides, I also use the consideration of mine based on the experience of daily activities occurred around me.


Yeah, it is a street entertainment. It is something that entertains the bikers on the street. Please picture this. You are driving motorbike and as usual you have to befriend with the jam while driving in the city. You must feel so annoyed with the traffic jam, right? But there is kind of free remedy that will overlook your wary. It is the totally creative writing stuck on the rear part of motorbikes in front of you. While having jam, please read that. As examples, this morning l read:

“Aing disusul kunu Gelo”
“Moal balap, sieun meunang”.
“Ingat dzikir, doa dan sodaqoh”
“Mio aing, kumaha aing”.
“Hari gini over gigi, cape deh!
“Hari gini gak punya gigi, ompong dong!”
“Lieur, motor can lunas wae!”

Yes, you can only see them on the street here in Indonesia. I indeed love reading this kind of masterpiece art work. I call it so as it brings new feeling to the readers. It probably cannot be called as the real art though as some of the writings contain the very rude saying that I cannot share with you here. Yes, there are some of the impolite ones that I sometimes feel a bit irritated inside. But majority is just a kind of kidding or little entertainment. Aside from that, it shows the creativity of the artists that need not to be acknowledged by anyone. What they need is probably just money or happiness in the heart of those who user their attributes and those who enjoy. I am one of those who enjoy this quite much anyway. Their art work lets me fly, think, imagine and laugh. I just love it and appreciate those who make it (the good one, not rough).

I am not really sure the beginning of this street giveaway entertainment. But it is probably started when automatic motorbikes thriving around 5 years ago. The very first sticker haunting my mine was “Hari gini over gigi, cape deh!”. This more or less means, “what a tiring thing if today you still have to shift the gear or dealing with transmission, use the automatic one please!” Ya this is probably a kind of satire to those who still drive a non automotive bike. I am sure the automatic makers benefit from this. They have to thank the artist or the sticker makers as it somehow brings a debate on the mind of the automatic fans and their competitors.
One thing for sure, the sticker containing some quite creative words pretty much grabs my attention as it can loose the jumbled mind while trapping in the jam. You may or may not call it as a form of art though. It maybe does not bring the joy to all. But I just simply appreciate those who intend to make it for any good reason. Keep in mind, I just pick the good ones to be remembered or shared, I think you can do the same, laddies and gentlemen.

You won't be able to find this kind of thing in USA, Japan, Thailand or where else. This is really a form of non formal communication on the Indonesian street that reflects the real situation or condition of Indonesian people. They who stick the sticker are actually conveying the truth they want to share to others. But they just cannot say it personally especially when it is aimed to the government or authority owner, so publicly spread by sticking it on the bike is maybe the very best idea. What do you think?
Thank you ;)




Friday, November 5, 2010

Say good bye to blogging?

Bismillah...
It's November, buddies. Things have changed? Yes some did, some didn't. Hope all go toward the so-called improvement. One thing that is not really well to find out its solution is that the unwillingness within me myself to blog. In this sense, of course I am talking about the productivity to produce some kind worthwhile writing. To me, writing on a blog is just to write the idea and eagerness to share the good to the world. But on the top of that, it is all about the practice of writing - English writing and doing dakwah.


If you see the post of mine in Ramadan (few moths ago). It was quite diligent, right? Hehe...kidding. It was just, then I made some sort of target to do so. But last month, it was quite terrible as I could only submit less than 5 pieces of writing. Wildly imagining, if I am a student of this kind of blogger university, I am probably the worst one – always come late submitting the task from the professor haha...no need to absorb this last sentence...

Saying the above title is barely easy. But not saying it is not easy either as sometimes the laziness perches on the thinking and shoulder of mine. The thing that I've emphasized to myself is that a formula says, Blogging = learning to write + doing dakwah. This maybe the ideal one from all reasons soaring in my mind. But it's pretty much difficult. It's all about the spirit to act and undergo the plan, not about the planing anymore. Keep in mind that learning is a part of worship!!!

The lack of chance to read is also the problem that hampers me in blogging. When we are about to write a particular topic, of course the materials should have been digested by our brain. In short, we have got to read first or maybe experience something before blogging as it will enhance the quality of our writing. The forthcoming reason I'd like to unveil is that the business of mine. Yes I am working now. But is shouldn't be the burden to write. If all is properly scheduled, all will be just ok. Blogging is also going to be just fun. Hm...I'm talking this as I am actually giving medication for the sickness to blog. Hope it'll work out.

The last, I've got to love more blogging. Love it till undetermined time! Keep blogging so long it benefits you yourself and others. There is no need of wanting to be seen as good or smart person. That's not the point. You blog = you learn + you do dakwah, don't say the title above...

(It's remedy of mine). Thank you.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Rain again...

Rain pretty much falls these days. Even within a city in Indonesia, the rain falls variably and can not be predicted exactly when it'll shower the people. Many of us might think that rain is not pleasurable as it hampers us from going to somewhere.

It is true that we (I) sometimes “Ah...rain..!” whenever rain showers and we are working on something important to someplace. By saying so, we actually are not grateful to the creator of rain itself. Rain is indeed a blessing from God as by this the plantations can grow and the world becomes fertile. We pretty much ask for rain to drop when the long summer or dry season comes. But in the rainy season also want to have the regular rain. As if we can precisely control its falling, we express our claim when rains comes or doesn't.

Well, I think the best thing we can do is to be grateful whenever rain or drought perch on the land of Allah. Just say “ok and thank You Allah for the rain” will probably make us feel ease in walking or driving on the rain. Rain has always been beautiful as the sound entertains us in harmony. We are not able to produce such rhyme, aren't we? So, no points on dwelling on falling rain, whenever and wherever. Insha Allah...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

On the Street

To me, it's not an easy thing dealing with driving motorbike or car in the big city such as Bandung, moreover in the metropolitan city such as Jakarta. I can drive both vehicles but I just don't have license to drive the latter. Besides, it's been so long hibernating from driving car. Or maybe I have forgotten to drive it? I hope not. Well, I just have now a chance to use the motorbike and I pretty much deal with it quite intensely in a daily basis. Thing that matters me when driving on the road is that the speed and traffic jam.


It's been my wild thought that all of the motorbike drivers here are the racers. Not like Rossy or Stoner though. We just love racing. I am just influenced by them (sometimes). It's really natural to have a high pace in driving as we basically feel hate to be beaten by anybody, anywhere and anytime. It comprises when driving on the road, too. Besides, it's far more fun to step on the gas when driving motorbike. Well, driving safely is the most prioritized one anyway. We've got to remember it.

The high speed in driving motorbike is not just dangerous for those who do that. But it endangers all of the street users – the walkers, other bikers, car drivers, police and all. We sometimes forget them as we tend to focus on the aim of place we want to reach by. It's not a bad thing anyway. The problem is, we seem to lose the consciousness that we are putting ourselves in jeopardy when driving too fast. Besides, we are at ease when people ignite us to to drive faster like they do. Ah... I hope I'll be able to always control myself.

There is no exact procedure to drive safely that I know. Thing I do know little bit is that, follow the rule made by government and respect others on the road. I think by doing this we'll be able to lessen the risk of street accident, in which we don't want to happen, right?

The traffic jam prevailing in this city is caused by many things. Yes I admit that I am maybe one of them. I mean the motorbike drivers also contribute to this matter. The easy and relatively cheap installment apparently causes problem. It is undeniable that government of ours encourages many companies to make easier procedure of owning the vehicles as it can boost the economy. But on the other side, too many people belonging these will make worse problem on the road. So, who should be blamed? No body is able to answer this, I think. But one thing for sure, government, companies and us drivers need to sit around together and solve the problem. Maybe it has been a long discussion but it results nothing but deadlock. Indeed there are many conflict of interests when we talk about policy on the transportation. “Street rulers” (preman in Bahasa, it's my term) are also needed to be considered as they kind of control things in a hidden way.

I don't have specific reason of writing this. I just practice writing and express some of the ideas I have got on my mind about a thing that I now used to it – driving. Driving too fast is bad, making prayer when we are about to drive is maybe a good way. Mom pretty much reminds me about this. Hope we can be wiser and obedient people on the street. Let's drive safely....

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

30th day of Ramadan & Eid Day


A difference or diversity is bless from Allah. It is not us who makes it, Allah does it instead. We were created in many posture shapes, religions, backgrounds and anything so it is just fine to face dissimilarity in our lives. Yet, a quite hot thing happened recently was the difference in precise day of doing the Eid prayer. Some Muslims did it on Friday and some of on Thursday (or maybe on none of those days for some others). This difference pretty much happens as the standard used by all Muslim sects in Indonesia is somewhat dissimilar. Though the standard may be the same, but the measure is often the case different among them. Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul Ulama are the two biggest Islamic organizations in this country in which they usually have different time in determining the precise day of any Islamic day. I see this as a normal thing though, as I mentioned above, difference is one of Allah's blesses as He makes it for us to take lesson.

I and my family in hometown of mine had Eid commemoration on Friday, September 10, 2010 so that we got the even number of our Ramadan fasting – 30 days. We performed the prayer at Al Hasanah mosque and all of us went there by foot. The distance is not that far from our house so we just needed about 3 minutes to get there. The mosque was filled up with around 700 Muslims just from our RW (Rukum Warga, it's hard to explain in English). Most of them were native Cisewuans and some were the comers from other towns who marry our people here. Something that caught my attention then was the speech delivered by the khatib (speech person) in which I at all was not familiar with. He's the chief of KUA (Religion Affairs Office) and at that time he talked about the essence of Ramadan as well as the Eid.

In Ramadan we learn many things. From sahur and iftahr we learn discipline and the importance of punctuality. From zakat we learn how to share with others, from shaum itself we learn how to feel what the needy or the starving people feel. From taraweeh we learn night prayer which is very good to apply. Indeed, there are many things we could learn from Ramadan. The essence is, we have to be able to be bettering ourselves from those learning. Those who have endured training will have more power, skill and capability of becoming better people.

Hope we'll be much better people after Ramadan, amiin, amiin, amiin. Eid mubarak everyone ^_^

29th day of Ramadan

Firecracker and firework are things that really common at the very edge of Ramadan. Many people play around with these kind of things to make the Eid day somehow become merrier. This habit might be good but can also be a bit disturbance for others. Two days before the Eid was the most earsplitting day ever in Cisewu since many people kindled many traditional firecrackers. The firecracker is made from raw yet strong bamboo pipe with the carbide as its ammunition. Being ignited, the sound can be so piercing, depending on the length of the bamboo as well as the ammo put inside. “:This best commemorates the Eid”, the doers said.


To me, firework seems just fine but the bamboo firecracker is hard to deal with. I mean the sound is so loudly that some us might feel disturbed, it barely can be accepted. It is true that the Eid might become more joyously but we need also to respect those who have inconvenience with the very loud sound. Happened to one of my neighbors to lose her consciousness caused by the very loud sound. She apparently has medical problem – heart attack or something.

Well, this similar-to-cannon-thing is a legacy from the past and has become a part of our culture. It is not just for Sundanese but also for many tribesmen in this country. Even, the Indo-Chinese usually have much more merrier firework and louder cannon rang-out on their sacred days.

Lastly I would say, it's hard to get rid of firecracker and firework in Ramadan as they have been the legacy of ours, not all Muslims though. But I think the government needs to limit the use, the firework is okay but the bamboo firecracker should be somehow limited of its use. The police in my hometown didn't do much of banning those who ignited the firecracker. Whereas the use of this is prohibited, I heard this announcement at the first day of Ramadan. But the fact, the prohibition didn't prevail. I don't know anyway.

Hope my society will be able to take lesson in the forthcoming Ramadan by being wiser in dealing with firecrackers.

28th day of Ramadan

Eid basically means go back or repeat. Fitr means holy or clean. Therefore Eid al Fitry means go back to the pure clean and holy situation as we have undergone the drilling process to erode our sins during Ramadan. On Eid day we are recommended to perform Eid prayer in the morning. This prayer or shalat is sunnah (additional) so it is not the same as the compulsory ones performed 5 times a day. Even so however this one is good to do since it only happens yearly – one time in a year. There are some sort of things we need to notice on Eid day.


The first is that, wear a nice outfit and have meal before performing the prayer. Eid prayer itself is better to be conducted at the place accommodating more people, it can be mosque or field. It is also highly suggested to walk instead of to use vehicle when heading up the place. In addition, our path of going and heading home should be different since by doing this there is possibility to meet and greet more people. This is what our prophet did. Another thing worth paying attention is wearing a good cloth, not a new one. On Eid day, our prophet wore red robe he pretty much wore on Friday sermons. So, it is not a must to buy a new cloth, shoes or any other outfits, right? And yet, it seems hard to not to do this thing as it's been the heritable culture done years here in the country. I myself didn't bought anything but my mom did that. She bought me one, thanks though.

Other things we must not forget on Eid day are : paying zakat fitrah, do as much as silaturahim and enchant takbir (Allah is great). These three things are the more important ones than the prior I underlined in last paragraph. Zakat Fitrah is an obligation for all Muslims. We each pay around IDR 15.000 this year. For Silaturahim usually visit relatives, friends and neighbors around. Takbir saying is resounded at the end of Ramadan (dusk) until the time of Eid prayer (a day after).

According to the government announcement, Eid prayer this year is scheduled on September 10, 2010. There were some sects or people did it one or two days before though. I've got no comment about them due to the inadequacy of knowledge of mine. One thing for sure, we need to respect to each other and find best solution. I think our government is working on this now.

Well, hope the Ramadan bring us bless and upturn so we'll be more taqwa person. Amiin..



27th day of Ramadan

Ramadan is about to end and the Eid al Fitr is just around the corner. What do you feel? Happy or sad? Well, to be honest, I sometimes feel sad since I haven't been able to fully apply all the targets I've made. But as weak and ordinary human, sometimes I feel I want to be in Syawal soon since in that month I am able to eat and drink. Hm... this is the sign of a very ordinary person, right? Well, long time ago, our prophet and his companions felt so unhappy if they were about to face Eid day since this means Ramadan is about to end. Moreover they would not get the bless of Ramadan for any longer. On the top of that, they weren't certain whether or not they would be able to meet the upcoming Ramadan. Something we can learn from this is that, feel happy to greet Ramadan and make best effort in a way of bettering ourselves. At the end of the month, we have to make sure that everything has been achieved.

It is time to evaluate the result of our a-month-drilling. Have ourselves improved? I start to be worried that I get nothing. Well, hopefully we'll be capable of getting at least a thing from this training- iprovement.
Thanks..


26th day of Ramadan

The speediest ever!
Yeah this is what I've got in mind about Ramadan this year, of course not merely this though. I do not know why but I feel so, really so. It is indeed the first Ramadan in which some changes within me, prevail. Every year has change though, but this year is maybe sort of more substantial than the ones in the past. Well, here's the thing I'd like to share anyway.

Ustadz who delivered the speech that evening was someone that is not familiar to me. His appearance then was the first (for me). I forgot the name of his, as always. He told us that in surah Al-Fatir 32 Allah says there are 3 groups of humans on the day of judgment. The first is those who will not be judged (applied hisab). They will enter paradise right away. Who are them? They are those whose good deeds is heavier than the sins. In other words, the balance tends to the right one. In heaven they will be served by fairies, subhanallah. They will first be cordially welcomed by the angel of Ridwan. Those whose name is MUHAMAD will also get this kind of privilege. How come? The ustadz didn't gave me further explanation.

The second group are those whose goodness and sins are exactly balanced. It means they have the same kindness and wrong doings. Where do you think they will go? Subhanallah, Allah is too kind. These kind of people will also enter paradise as Allah is the merciful, the most beneficent. It's all because Allah's bless and mercy we can be saved from the blazing fire. And how those people whose balance is slightly heavier to the left (sin)? Indeed, Allah is again too kind. Those people will be saved by the syafaat (help) of our Prophet – Muhammad. Our prophet prays to Allah to save those people so that they will enter paradise.

The third cluster is those whose balance is heavier to the left, they are called dzolimun. These ones will be washed, ironed and cleaned in the hell. They will be placed there for a particular period of time depending on the sins they made in the world. The time of this cleansing process can be a year, a month, a week, a day an hour, a minute or even a second. But a day in hereafter is similar to millions of years in this world. So, a second there can be so long. Want to go there? I hope no.

In order that we won't be categorized to the third group of people, we need to be really serious in making repent to Allah. The biggest sin that won't be forgiven is syrik or worshiping others beside Allah. As an example is ziarah or visiting tomb. It is not a sin so long the intention is pure not for asking for something. There are many people coming to the tombs for asking, not for giving pray to those people who have passed away. This happens not just in this country but also in the country such as Egypt. Vising a tomb is a good thing if we want to give pray to them, clean the areas and take lesson that will be like them sometime. Tomb reminds us that we will also die. But when the intention is for asking bless, wealth or any thing, it is counted as syrik action and Allah won't love it.

That is all I could share, many thanks.
Gie

Sunday, September 5, 2010

25th day of Ramadan

Daarut Tauhiid (DT) mosque pretty much serves its mosque-visitors well in Ramadan. As an example it employs the knowledgeable speech persons for delivering kultum before tarweeh prayer. Last night, the management of DT mosque pleased us by letting us hear the speech from an ustadz whose specialization in Islamic medical treatment. We call him ustadz Badri BRC. He talked about tauhiid (oneness of God) but still connected it to the medical world. The tauhiid he mentioned was specified to the signs of tauhiid exist among us - the odd ones.

He told us that Allah loves the odd either number of anything. He remarked that on our hands there is a sign of tauhiid. On our palm of left hand there is number 81 in Arabic while on our right one there is number 18. If these two numbers are summed, the result is 99. Besides, the five-finger we have both the left and right have a similar look to the writing of ALLAH in Arabic. Please try seeing your hands. We do obligatory prayer 17 rakaat a day, taraweeh 11 rakaat a day, tawaf and sai 7 times. There are many examples of the odd number.

Thus, in our daily life we'd better start thinking and counting everything based on this odd consideration. For example, if we have 4 pairs of shoes, it is better then to give one so that they become odd. We can almost apply this concept to anything. Well, it might look ridiculously senseless or something, but the essence is by doing this, we always remember Allah with His odd liking. Ya the point is we keep our heart and mind incline to Him – Allah the almighty.
Thank you... :)

24th day of Ramadan

Ustadz Budi Hataat was the speech person last night. The impression I have got about him is, he's quite serious but the content of speech he brought is pretty much great. He got an Lc. degree from overseas and it is so redoubtable. It is undoubted that he has much knowledge about Islam. In his speech last night he spoke about the thing called tawakal. In English it probable means “reliance on something”.


He told us that Tawakal divides into two – tawakal to beings and tawakal to Allah. The latter of course the right one. The prior has two aspects in which the living and non-living one. The living one such as humans, animals, our boss, our job or anything. It is indeed a wrong action as those how have tawakal on them counted as musryik and they do small syirik. While make tawakal on the dead thing such as mascot, amulet, tomb, dagger, sword or anything categorized as big syirik. Syrik however can never be true to be done as it is the hugest sin in which Allah hates so much. It is an unforgiven sin that must be eluded.

The ways can be undergone to make the veracious tawakal are, first ask for anything to Allah, not to any of Him. It is just Allah the one whom we asked for help, wealth, prosperity, victory and every single thing. The second we must make effort to attain them. We cannot just stay at home awaiting for gold or money falling down from the sky. The third is we must accept all thing final decision given by Allah. When everything has been done according to the procedure (we make effort), and we have also asked for Allah's help while doing that, indeed the result is the best, whatever it is. We just need to fully accept it sincerely. Allah knows better than we do for everything in this life, just be khusnudzon to Allah.
That is all. Thank you...

23rd day of Ramadan

Ustadz Mukhtar Khalid gave us a quite “astonishing” speech that evening – so fabulously good. I mean I got much fresh and new knowledge that I had never heard or studied before. The points are intense, finely served. Here are they:
He told us that doing shalat subuh in jamaah is better than doing tahajud alone. Subuh prayer which is one of the 5 obliged shalat is indeed hard to conduct except for those who have strong faith. Thus Allah gives much rewards to those who do that in Jamaah in mosque. He also added that those who make 2 rakaat before this prayer even get insurance from Allah. The best subuh prayer is of course in this last 10 days of Ramadan.


It is good to have favorite verse (ayat) in the Quran. Abu Hurairoh did have a favorite surah which is Ayat Kursi. He pretty much repeated saying this when he got time and chance in his daily activities.
Ramadan can be called as the month of Quran we need to maintain our memory in reciting Quran. One of the big sins is that when we forget the verses that we have memorized. Hm...hope we'll be able to keep our memorizing of the holy Quran.
In Ramadan we are not supposed to just read or memorize the Quran. But we can also read and grasp the fadilah of surah or verse (or in English can be called as “excellence”). The saying of Basmallah for example has been used to ease us in getting couple. Ustadz Muhkat told a story of a man reciting and reading this verse on the wall of his house as he wants to marry the girl he dreams about. Finally, helped by Allah, he gets her. Another verse, the last 2 verses of Attaubah is used as Ruqiyah (medication from spirit). The Ayat Dzuha is recited to get fadilah of recovery from sickness. Allah says to whose who recite Al-fatihah and Al Ikhlas will be protected from anything except death. We can apply it in ourlive for example when parking the car or motorbike we are supposed to recite these two verses in order that Allah will protect our property. Of course we first have got to make effort by properly locking the car or motorbike of ours.

In Ramadan we have a chance to get lailatul Qodar. To get it we must do both mahdoh and ghoir mahdoh. Mahdoh is worship done directly to Allah such as shalat, reading Quran, shaum, Hajj. Whil ghoir mahdoh is conducted through a thing such as human. I mean we do ghoir mahdoh usually by socializing with other people. Making a much intensive charity to the right ones is good to do. Hope by doing this we'll attain the lailatul qodar. In short, be more generous!!!

The criteria of those shaleh (pious person) in a way of social is: first he never hurts other people's feeling. Muslim who hurts other Muslims won't smell the heaven. The second is he gives many benefits to society. The ultimate one is that, he becomes the way or intermediary for other people to make goodness. In short, he always be a bless for others. Those who think goodness for other people will get into the paradise earlier than other. Want it? Let's do harder.

That is all the points I could sum up. Hope we'll be able to take lesson and apply them in our lives.

22nd day of Ramadan

The hadith to ponder:
“Ruin to the slave of the Dinar; the slave of Dirham, and the slave of the striped cloak. If he is given anything he is pleased, but if no he is unhappy” (Al Bukhori).

The essence of above hadith is that, nothing in this world will make us really happy unless God who places that in our heart. When Allah is in our heart, there is nothing to worry about. Happiness and sadness are pretty same, they can be a test from Allah to make us closer to Him. It is Allah who suffices us, and it is enough.


21st day of Ramadan


Allah loves more the Muslims who are stronger.
Yes, it is important to be a strong and healthy Muslim. We need to notice this since being healthy Muslim is extremely important. And yet, many of us sometimes forget it. We seem not to really care about our body condition by working too overwhelmingly, eating unhealthy food, having less rest and so forth. As a result, we get sick. Who should be blamed? No one. Our sickness can be a test from Allah too. What we need to do then, cure our ill, eat the nourished meals, drink medication, have a quality rest and ask for recovery to Allah.

Labassya Thohurun insha Allah...
Thank you

20th day of Ramadan

Masrukul Amri – the power of problem.
No one wants it but everyone must have at least one life – problem. According to the speech delivered by Ustadz Amri there are many things we can do to deal with problem. Here they are:


1.If we are really able to fix our problem, don't procrastinate. Solve it now deliberately.
2.Or if we are not able to fix it right away, we may wait the right time and situation so that we might be able to find the right solution. The gradually-done-action to solve our problem can be better for some persons.
3.Problem can train us to be better people. When we have solved the problem, we then get the portrayal in a way of solving the similar problem which might occur sometime in the future.
4.A problem is motivation for us to make things a lot better.
5.Problem will end sometime in the future, even if we don't try to make any solution. But it is not recommended for us to take as it more or less shows us as irresponsible ones.
Nothing's dangerous with problem, it is just the way from Allah that is supposed to make us closer to Him. Any problem comes from Him and only to Him we ask for help to solve ever problem we have.

19th day of Ramadan

Being arrogant is for sure a no-good act but we sometimes do this wrong thing, no matter what our age is. Kids and adults often act and say that they are much better than others. The speech person that day told us about it. He exampled a kid who was arguing with his counterpart and he says that his dad has a gun, his counterpart does the same. He even told that kid (first) that his father does have a gun and it is bigger that his counterpart's father's. You may have experienced this in your life, I have. But the worst is that, we mature people sometimes do the same. We kind of proud of our parent's having or something. We feel proud of having of our partner's having or something. But indeed that thing is nothing, we are like children then. In short, the speech was about takabur or boast that we must actually leave away.

There are several things that can make us be takabur person. First is our knowledge of something. When we thing we know many things, we tend to say them to other persons. It is good to share, but we need to make sure that we do that mere for the sake of of pure good, Allah's sake. It is hard as it is the matter of heart. But keep straightening our intention. The second is our worship. When we think we are better in particular worship (such as reading Quran), there is also possibly for us to act arrogantly to others. But, it doesn't mean that we need not to read Quran or to be smart in it. It is all about straightening the intention as mentioned before.
Hope we're able to maintain this heart, only for Allah..
Thanks.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

18th day of Ramadan

I missed the jamaah tarweeh as I got an iftar in Griya mall at Pahlawan street with my pals from Management department. I was eager to come and join since it had been quite long no see them. But thanks to a friend of mine for texting me the summary of a Darlis Fajar speech at DT mosque. Here it is.


The surety of our fasting is not our health, but it is the faith of ours. Those who feel strong doesn't guarantee they will be able to fast if they have not faith or iman.
Making a betterment in each time we have in Ramadan is good. As an example we need to keep our health and faith. Since the seconds are worth it, we can never play with time in Ramadan. It is barely possible to be better persons in this Ramadan if we don't seriously focus on improving every aspect of ourselves.
The good deeds are the ones done sincerely for the sake of Allah, no other reasons. When we do everything because of Allah, we will not be getting lost, poor or contemptible.
Thank you.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

17th day of Ramadan

The night of glory and the night of power!
It is the night in which the most myriad and magnificent love of Allah is given to those who are lucky – the believers who get lailatul Qadar. Lailatul Qadar is super special night as Quran was first descended. It happens in Ramadan. Those who get it will get reward more than worshiping Allah for 1000 months (around 83 years). Hm...appealing, right? For sure it is.


Al Quran was gradually revealed to our prophet long time ago. It was taught to our prophet by Allah through Gabriel. The content of Al Quran never changes though it has been 14 centuries now. The speech person of the last taraweeh kultum told us that Quran consists of :
Aqidah. It is the teaching that says Allah is the only one God. There is no god but Allah.
Ibadah. Quran tells us to worship Allah, respect people, universe, nature and follow our prophet.
Promise and threat of Allah. Allah will never lie and He will for sure fulfill His promise.
The ways we must take to gain true happiness both in this world and hereafter.
The ways for us to get away from the misleading path.
The stories from the past so that we can take lesson.

Those are some of the contents of the Quran. The preacher told us that those who know the meaning, share, and implement the Quran, they will indeed be protected by Allah. Hope we'll be able to love Quran more. Let's make this Ramadan as a reflection and starting point to learn and implement the Quran, insha Allah.


16th day of Ramadan

Bismillah...
Last night I did go to DT mosque and prayed isha there, but I didn't attend the speech session. Instead I had a weekly gathering with some friends of mine at different mosque. So, I here would like to document the result of our gathering.


The meeting was started at 8.40 pm and we began it by eating fried-foods and kolak. Some of us read Quran, chatted and some just listened to the recitation. We then gathered and listened up to the sharing delivered by someone. He is a friend of mine from psychology department. He told us the history of dakwah of our prophet. The speech was about the phases in which our prophet took part in doing dakwah in Mecca, Thaif, Habasyah, Medina and out of Arabia. Our prophet started the dakwah in 3 phases : the furtive phase in Mecca, obvious phase in Mecca and the phase outside of Mecca in which Islam gained more support from people.

Our prophet was against by many people in Mecca as he brought new teaching saying the worshiping statue or pagans was wrong. He was accused for breaking family relationship between husband and wife, children and parents and so forth. Abu Lahab and his wife were two of those who against our prophet the most. They always tried to hurt the prophet by setting trap and else. Allah curses the Abu Lahab and his wife as in the Quran says “Tabatcyadaa abillahabiwwatab...” etc. Even so however our prophet never gave up and he kept his head up to carry on the dakwah duty on his shoulders.

Thing we could learn from this story is, we Muslims need to remind to each other that doing dakwah is not easy but we can never give up. We do dakwah by being good people that worship only Allah. A good person in Islam is the one who shares with other, gives to others, becomes the good figure for the society, and fully able to give benefit to society. I think this is the culmination of someone's attainment. Being rich, smart, popular, respected is nothing if we cannot be a good follower of our prophet.

The essence of learning a history is we need to look back and take lesson from the past so that we'll be able to make betterment for our present and future. By knowing the struggle of our prophet, hopefully we'll be motivated to do dakwah ; spread peace, give benefit to society and of course worship merely to Allah.

Hope you find this note useful.






Thursday, August 26, 2010

15th day of Ramadan

Half way there...
Daarut Tauhiid. I've been there for five years now. Time flew so fast. Well, it might not be the best part of the world for you. It might not be the super-awesome place for you to go to either. But to me, it indeed has profound effect for my life. One phrase representing this place – self improver. I feel a lot better of being familiar with this spot. At least this is what I feel inside, and I don't at all care with what people say about it. I just simply follow something that I'm sure it is true and peaceful for me. Well, I went there just now, performing taraweeh prayer. Beforehand I had kultum session and that time the sermon giver was Pak Saiful Islam Mubarak, Lc. He told us about Al Quran as it was revealed in this holy month. So it is good to kind of commemorating the revelation of our holy book at the very right time.


The speech delivered by Pak Saiful was quite dissimilar to the usual speech told by other preachers. He asked us to follow his way in reciting some verses of the noble Quran. He actually talked about the 7 styles of reading Quran which were taught by our prophet to his companions long time ago. It was Allah who taught our prophet to ease all Arab tribes and all human to pick the easiest style to recite. At the early times Gabriel appeared to our prophet bringing the style of reciting holy Quran was actually been negotiated by our prophet in terms of reading or pronouncing verses. Our prophet bargained and he finally was given looseness by Allah as He for sure wouldn't burden us. It is hard for us to master all those seven styles as we've been so much familiar with the commonest one we know nowadays.

Before reaching the level in which we are able to pronounce all those styles, first we've gotta master the basic. Here are the steps:

1.We have to correct our common mistake in reciting it. Example, instead of saying long “la” in “bis- mil-la-h”.. we have indeed say it short as it is one harakat (kind of tempo).
2.We then must be able to perfectly sound the right sound of each letter in our Arabic alphabet. It might be hard, but we need to learn.
3.We then must lern the tadzwid or the rule in reading sentence or verses in Al Quran.
4.Then we need to know the history of revelation of the Quran. By knowing this will be much eager to learn Quran as well us to understand it.
5.Qiraat is the next point then. It is the style that is used by people in singing the holy Quran.
6.Tafsir is the last. It is kind of interpretation of the meaning of the Quran.

By knowing and implementing all those things, we then can fully grasp the Quran as our guidance in life. It is indeed the so-called a holy book that regulates and makes us close to our creator. Reading Quran 1 juz a day in Ramadan is kind of a must. Hope we'll be able to be istiqomah...amiin.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

14th day of Ramadan

Budi Prayitno is a quite popular ustadz in the city of Bandung. I've got several podcast containing his speech about some several familiar topics. Last night he delivered a kultum at DT mosque and thankfully I went there. In that speech he told us two things – Allah's assurance and tips in marriage. The two of them are extremely important to notice for those who are now having “issues”, for me too :).

Well, Allah will for sure pretty much love the believers. The believers mean those who always do what Allah wants and forsake what He forbids. There are three things will be given by Allah to those kind of persons:
Allah will never let them alone. Allah will always be with them. They will never felt sad to much with this world as they already make Allah the only goal in their lives.
Allah will always grant their prayer. There is no obstruction between their prayer and Allah's grant of the dua.
Allah will always help them in difficulty. One of the ways we can do to get rid off the barriers in our lives in by saying “Allahhuakbar” - Allah is great. Compared to His might, our problem or handicap is nothing – exceedingly trifling.

The second point delivered by Ustadz Budi was the so-called tips to make our wedlock last long live. To ustadz Budi, a marriage is called a “sweet-jihad” as it is part of Jihad and it is sweet. Hm...I cannot disagree with him. Well, he actually took the sort of tips from a research conducted in the USA. There are 8 things we need to note here:

1.The strong commitment from the couple to always keep and defend their marriage. Their promise is totally important so that they have to keep the pledge to always together. Whatever the storm they face, they will never say no to divorce and maybe polygamy.

2.Two of them must have a realistic hopes or future wishes. No one is perfect, so we need to make reasonable hope from our couple. Wife's weakness is husband's strength, vice-versa.

3.Tolerable to our partner. It means we always forgive mistake made the couple of ours. A little mistake can sometime affect the longevity of marriage so that we also need to overlook every single mistake as much as we can.

4.Be smart in understanding the implicit meaning of our couple. When our partner say yes, it doesn't mean she or he is really okay with that. We've gotta know the body language or gesture practiced by her or him.

5.Must have a skill to compromise to each other. In other words, we need to own a good art and skill in managing our anger. As a good example, ustadz Budi told us about one couple of his students who promise to each other to solve and and end every problem they have no longer that the time of prayer. When they have problem at 7 am in the morning for example, they will have ended this before dzuhur prayer at 12 pm. What a good example, right?

6.Spend and find a particular time to just be together. A good couple is smart in making time to just 2 of them without anybody around.

7.Sex is important. Be genius in this kind of thing and our marriage will last long. In Islam, this husband-wife most intimate relationship is not just a media to satisfy the need or lust. But it is also an act of worship to Allah.

8. The couple must have an ability to solve every problem. It is totally vital to be owned by all couples who dream of having eternal relationship.

Well, I found myself impressed by the speech given by ustadz Budi. Hope you find it useful, too.

13th day of Ramadan

Again, I missed the moment to pray at mosque for Taraweeh. The lesson I'd like to share now is a speech from an ustadz in MQFM radio aired on Aug 24, 2010. I listened to his speech in the morning after Aa gym gave a usual speech beforehand. The ustadz basically talked about the importance of making charity or sadaqah in this holy month.


It is really good if we are able to make much more contribution to the society around us in this Ramadan than in other months. That is why we need to put our attention in making this, at least we make daily target in allocating particular number of money to those who are needy. As an example, our prophet was for sure a generous person. But in Ramadan he even was more generous that he was in other months.

The role of government is really great in managing charity or zakaat. Thanks God we've got supportive constitution showing our govt. cares quite much to Islam. Even so however, Indonesian government cannot force someone to pay zakaat as it is the part that is not regulated in our rule. Our government has only part in regulating the institution which is allowed to manage zakaat and so forth.

The potential of zakaat is abundantly myriad in this country as the majority of people is Muslim. The number of Muslim here is more than the number of Muslim in the entire middle east. If managed professionally and people have awareness to pay zakaat, it can lessen the number of poor and unemployed people. So, let's be used to pay zakaat, infaq and sodaqoh (charity). Let's give charity everyday, insha Allah...



Tuesday, August 24, 2010

12th day of Ramadan

Ramadan as th the month of “la'laakum tattaquun & la'laakum tasykurun”. This is the only sentence I remember from the speech in the radio as I didn't go to the mosque. I listened to the MQ FM radio at the very last minutes. The speech person was someone that I must not familiar with as I didn't recognize his voice.

The meaning of la'alaakum tattaquun is more or less the taqwa reason. Yes the ultimate goal of Ramadan is taqwa. Everybody is supposed to be taqwa person within her or his life, and Ramadan is the media to drill in order that for each of us to reach this sublimest attainment. It is for sure not as easy as it is to gain Taqwa. If you ask me, I'm way far from it..let's keep trying though.

While the second part of that sentence is the gratitude reason. It is really important to be notice this. We sometimes or most of the times forget what Allah has done to us. To make any gratitude or syukur is indeed a must thing to do. But many of us tend to pretty much overlook it from our daily routine. We seldom spend our time focusing on how to fully gratitude to Allah, this is what I feel. I hope you don't do the same.

As an analogy, the speech person said that we have to thank Allah like a louse, don't like a mosquito instead. A louse will just shake the blood from human body without many sayings. It acts swiftly and finish its work as soon as it can. But mosquito does less intelligent in this case. This able-to-fly animal always sounds the voice so we human can hamper it from sucking the blood. This sort of analogy simply means, we have to make syukur or thank without saying anything to anyone. It is just Allah, enough!

Well, it is quite hard to do.. But as always, never give up to learn and work the best we can, insha Allah. Allah knows us best. He knows for sure our capacity. Insha Allah...

Thanks...

11th day of Ramadan

On that day I didn't go to the mosque or listen to the radio speech. So I just want to share with you a prayer from Ali bin Abi Thalib. I have ever heard Aa's saying says Ali ask for three things in his prayer:
“Ya Allah jadikan aku mahluk terbaik dalam pandanganMu”
“Ya Allah jadikan aku mahluk terburuk dalam pandanganku”
“Ya Allah jadikan aku mahluk yang biasa-bisa saja dalam pandangan manusia dan mahlukMu”

It was quite hard to understand that prayer, but lately I started to understand quite much. In English this prayer more or less says :
“Oh my Lord, please let me be the best person in the view of Yours”
“Oh my Lord, please let be the worst person in the view of mine”
“Oh my Lord, pelase just let me be the ordinary person in the view of other people”.

The essence of this prayer is sort of clear now. I begin to realize that the meaning of the first, second and the third downstream to the so-called Tauhiid – the oneness of Allah. Here is the explanation.

It is totally clear that if we want to be the best in Allah's side, it means we are eager only to get closer to Him and be with Him all times. The essence of tauhiid is that we never rely on anything except God – Allah. Our effort, prayer, worship and anything we do in this world are for the sake of Him.

The second point of the dua above is that, we always try hard to improve ourselves to be a better persons day by dsay. It happens as we think we are nothing. We've got many flaws so that we have to always make some efforts to bend all weaknesses of ours.

The third point is that, it's just enough for us to be seen as ordinary people instead of extraordinary in the view of humans. It won't make us feel boastful and we indeed don't need to been seen as good, smart or generous people by other people. What we need to do is to be serious in reaching those degree. That's all.

As I outlined before, the kernel of Ali's prayer is tauhiid that made him closer to Allah. Allah is indeed Ali's first goal. And I think we need to learn from Ali. Wallahualam....





10th day of Ramadan

Chicken!
What can be learn from a chicken?
People call chicken to those who don't have any audacity of something. But in this writing I'm going to tell you what a chicken really can do and we can't! It is then somehow stronger that us. Really?

Well, last night Mr. Mulyadi told me about chicken in his taraweeh speech. Chicken can actually fast much longer than we can do. The hen or the mommy of chicken can brood on the eggs before they are hatched about 21 days or three weeks. We human just fast 14 – 18 hours a day. What is behind this? It means we Muslims cannot actually just doing fast in Ramadan. Merely doing fasting in Ramadan is not extraordinary. There are lots of things we need to do and focus on them. Fasting is just one of them. A mommy chicken does better that us in terms of keeping itself from eating for hours and days.

Another animal which is better that us in a way of keeping from eating is snake. Snake changes its skin regularly and to do this this, every snake fasts for about 2 weeks. Snake has to pass this hard time in order that the skin can peel with ease.

Another thing I could share with all of you here is that, chicken and snake will change something within themselves after they endure this fasting. The mommy chicken will be quite tough as it has to keep its chicks from any disturbance. The snake in the other hand will look much beautiful in some ways as it has new skin. What Muslim need to learn from them is that, fasting in Ramadan is not just holding ourselves from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse (for the married). We need to hold our saying, thinking, behavior and all the bad things we have. At the same time we need to escalate our effort in charity, reading Quran and others in other months. The result of our effort will then come into fruition which is called Taqwa. This is indeed the ultimate goal of our fasting in Ramadan.

That is all I could share for now, I hope this note can be a good reminder that recalls in the future in case I forget some things I mentioned here. The paucity of knowledge doesn't necessarily limit our effort in making some mends this Ramadan, this should be emphasized. Happy fasting, let's learn from chicken and snake...

Tons of thanks.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

9th day of Ramadan

Aa Gym was the speech person that evening since it was Thursday. From the speech he delivered, I could take some points here as follows :

1.Don't be afraid of the entire world. It basically means we should never feel afraid with the anxiousness saying we won't be sufficed by God. Indeed everything has been calculated and God will give that to us. Our fortune, our couple and everything are not needed to be worried about. The thing we only need to be afraid of is when we don't repent our sins and mistakes. We've got to make extra effort in order that ourselves become so-called taqwa persons.

2.To some extent, this life will be quite hard. But it actually feels difficult since we don't have any guide. If we seriously ask and make Allah as our guidance in this life, we won't feel that hard. Just be sure!

3.The solution of every problem is not just our intelligence. We might say that our mind or logic can also solve particular issue within ourselves. But most of the time, it is indeed our faith or taqwa that does that. It does give us solution as we ask for God's help. The matter is, we sometimes don't realize that Allah is behind that.

4.Our lives won't be guaranteed by salary, saving and our asset. It is Allah who “insures” our lives. The things we own are just for awhile so we should never make them as our insurer.

5.When we are able to make Allah is just enough, everything will be just little. Everything in this world is minuscule thing we should never be proud of.

6.The best amal are the deeds conducted in Ramadan month since Allah multiplies the rewards. Be serious in making good deeds. In making charity, the best thing is that when we don't tell anybody. To practice, just do and forget it, do and forget it.

7.The best men are those give many benefits to other people. We need to be the ones who give more instead of the ones who accept. It is ok if we get something from someone, but afterward we have to think and make effort to repay even the bigger thing to him and to other people.

8.Indeed, everything we have in this world such as money, position, car, house, laptop and everything should be used to make ourselves closer to Allah. All of them are just facilities, not our end goals.

Well, I am not sure I can implement all knowledge mentioned above, it is hard. But insha Allah, I'm trying. Please guide me, my Lord...amiin.

Friday, August 20, 2010

8th day of Ramadan

Still remember the time at elementary school? Maybe not all you do remember it. Well, what about the time when Ramadan came? I think you do. School which was represented by our teachers always gave us a book called “Ramadan Book”.

On that book, all students should fill all activities they did on the basis of daily. It started from compulsory prayer, taraweeh, quran recitation, zakat and so on. And remember, after filling each page we then needed to ask our parents to sign that – legalizing that we didn't make any intelligent lie to the school. This habit lasted till I went to senior high school. Yet, I don't know about today. What do you think about this sort of book? Why can't we find this kind of thing at universities or colleges? I mean it's probably a good idea to prevail a quite similar thing at a higher level of education. We just then need to adjust the contain and some parts. Hm...what I'm going to share here is not about the Ramadan book.

Well, I was just impressed by scores of students at DT mosque bringing and filling this kind of kind-book. I think they are must be SMK students or the students who take a short Islamic class or learning at the pesantren area. What I'm outlining here is probably the same as what they wrote on their Ramadan book. At that evening, the speech person was Professor Miftah Farid. He's known as a popular ustadz in Bandung and West Java. He spoke about the dua or supplication.

Professor Miftah emphasized the supplication in Ramadan as in this month Allah will surely grant or approve the prayer. Ramadan is the only one of the 12 moths in which Allah is even more generous to those who make prayer. However Allah always accepts the prayer of the believer. It is just the matter time. If a dua is not granted in this world life, then Allah will definitely give it to us as our saving in the hereafter.

Pak Miftah also said that one of the differences between a good person and not is that, the good man will always ask for anything he wants to Allah. While the bad always doesn't want to since he probably doesn't really need that. In fact, every person is lack of at least something so that we should always make prayer. Go boasting of something is always unfavorable in Allah's view. Allah loves those who ask through supplication and hates those who don't. But of course dua should be accompanied by effort. Dua and effort should go along till Allah let them meet in an intersection.

Another thing that I had just knew by then was the term Tawasul. Once my mom ever told me this, but I didn't really care about it. Tawasul is kind of intermediary of dua. Pak Miftah mentioned 3 things of Tawasul. They are :
1.Before making dua, we first make good deeds, say shalawat, praises Allah.
2.Use Allah's names before making dua. You must have known Asmaul husna, right? We then pick some or all of them to refer to Allah's names.
3.Ask someone to make dua for us. We may ask an ulama, ustadz or a pious person.

The best month to make dua is undoubtedly in Ramadan. So in this month we really have to make as much dua as we can. Let's ask Allah our prayer. Let's let Allah hear our dua. Besides, we need to be aware that in making dua, our money, our clothing and everything attached to us should be good (halal). Allah will never grant someone's dua if he's wearing haram thing. After clearing everything, we then must be sure that Allah will grant our dua, either here or there.

Thank you.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

7th day or Ramadan

Peace be upon you...
Due to some unspeakable reasons, last night I didn't go to the mosque for performing taraweeh. Instead I just stayed at home and did taraweeh alone. Even so, I felt more tranquility inside as much of the time was spent to focus on me and God. I mean, there less disturbance from other people especially children who pretty much some noises. Since tarweeh is a sunnah prayer, so there is no necessity to conduct it at the mosque with jamaah. Jamaah is sometimes better though.

Although I stayed at home, I did listen to some speech on the radio. MQ FM was my only choice then. The speech was still about magnificent Ramadan. From hadith, the sermon deliverer said that if all Muslims know the miraculously blessed Ramadan, indeed, all of them will ask all the months become Ramadan. Since in Ramadan there are tons of rewards given by god.

Ramadan is actually an Arabic word. He said that long time ago, Arabic people named every month based on the weather they felt. And in the moth they fasted, the weather was so extremely mild. So they came to a decision that that month was finally named Ramadan, meaning the combustion. So what is being combusted or burnt? It is our sin and our bad acts.

Why our sin is needed to be burnt? The answer is, Allah wants us to be much better people. As an analogy, the speech person said that the roof-tile is much more expensive than just the clay since it has been burnt, shaped and ground. The price of this processed stuff is tougher and worth more payment. Besides, we put it in the upper part of our house. It is not a clay in which we step on it staying under.

Another thing that I could catch was about the importance of giving some foods or refreshment to those who fast. There are 3 things that Allah will grant to those people:
1.Allah will erase their sins
2.Allah will protect them from blazing fire in hell
3.Allah will give the same rewards of the food receiver to the giver.

That is all the note for last night taraweeh speech. See you tomorrow. Have sound sleep...


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

6th day of Ramadan

Salaam...
I don't precisely remember what was said in the last night tarweeh speech. Person delivering the kultum was an imam of a mosque near the Ledeng area, as always, I never brought the speech person's name to my mind. He was quite old though, indeed. One thing I very much remember was about the people grumbling at his quite-long-speech. I don't intend to undervalue his saying with this post. I just need to tell the about truth. I think that person was too energetic in giving his speech so that he sometimes forgot the time limit he had.

To write this post, I squashed my mind and finally found one key word. It is shaum. Yeah, he mentioned that, the word shaum derives from Arabic and we'd better use it instead of puasa or fasting in English. The word shaum more likely belongs to Islam while others may have been influenced by other religions or faiths.

Shaum basically means to hold. In terminology is more or less the effort we make to hold ourselves from eating, drinking, having sexual intercourse from the dawn until the dusk time. Shaum in Ramadan is exceptionally special as it is only once in a year. As it is totally special, we must then give our best effort in doing shaum this month.

I think those are the only points I could remember...(I'm going to make some notes on the forthcoming speech).
Thanks.

Monday, August 16, 2010

5th day of Ramadan

Last night was the first time for me to perform Taraweeh prayer at DT mosque. As always, every Sunday afternoon I come to MEC. On day I decided to just stay at the pesantren area for doing isha as well as taraweeh prayer. For taraweeh in Ramadan, most of the mosque here in Bandung has 2 x 4 + 3 formation, including DT mosque. But there in my hometown, people have got 4 x 2 + 3. It's just a comparison anyway. Well, the person in charge to give us a kultum speech that day was an ustadz, an al azhar graduate. But again, I forgot his name. It's been my personal flaw to remember people's name. But I am quite often hearing his voice so he was not strange and ineed I very much enjoyed the evening sermon. He brought us to the topic of Ethic of fasting in Ramadan.

There 6 things we need to put in list when doing Ramadan fasting. The first is, do eat predawn meal at the later time. I mean if we wake up at 3 am and imsak time is around 4.30 am, so we are totally recommended to have sahur at around 4 am. Beforehand we can do some prayers or read Quran since the predawn time is the favorable time for us to pray. Allah loves more those people who perform some worships at that time. Tons of blesses will be given to those who supplicate or pray in the dawn time.

The second is, do break our fasting as soon as we can when its time arrives. When adzan resounds, we should start breaking our fast by either eating or drinking something. He said that it might seem good to keep fasting, but when the time of fast breaking arrives, we must break the fast, that what our prophet did. It doesn't necessarily to drink nice or delicious beverage, a glass of plain water is also good.

The third is we have to keep ourselves from doing unnecessary things. They include watching TV, playing game, chatting, walking around for no good reasons etc. There are indeed many better things we can do instead of doing those things. We do sometimes need refreshing, but it Ramadan. It's too pity to leave reading Quran or reading books.

The fourth, add the intensity of tooth-brushing. It is true that in the viewpoint of Allah, people who fast in Ramadan have fresh and extremely fragrant breath. But in human', it doesn't count so that we'd better brush our teeth as often as we can. Not that often though, maybe 3 or 4 times a day is good enough to have a fresher mouth.

The penultimate, read Al Quran as often as we can. Hearing this, I am abashed as I haven't been able to fulfill my target – read 2 juz a day. I juz a day is actually hard too. But keep on trying.

The ultimate, get exercise ourselves as Ramadan is the month of exercise. It barely happens for many people to wake up at 3 or 4 am unless in Ramadan. In Ramadan some people tend to make some improvements in themselves so that in other months this habit is actually supposed to be prevailed too. We learn to pray in jamaah, read Quran, gather for eating and so forth. Aren't they good for us to do the following moths after Ramadan?

Hm...that's all the summary for today, keep on writing, keep on doing good things in this magnificent month, insha Allah.
Thank you

Sunday, August 15, 2010

4th day of Ramadan

Today was the first time driving again a motorbike for a quite far distance - Cisewu to Bandung (around 90 km). It's been so long no to ride it, so I very much needed a lot of adjustment and adaptation in myself. Alhamdulillah everything went quite well. Soon after I arrived in Bandung I directly went to Daarut Tauhiid mosque. I went parking and had dzuhur prayer at the mosque. I was not alone – accompanied by one of my cousins. Riding the motorbike, he headed my dorm as he badly needed to take a rest, he told me so.


After reading some pages of Al quran at the mosque, I then joined the English club of mine, as always. I talked and shared with about 13 members there. Afterward I got breakfast and performed maghrib prayer. For taraweeh did it at Nurul Huda mosque situated near to my lodging house as I was quite tired to perform it at DT mosque. The speech person was someone that is very familiar to me but I didn't know his name. It's terribly poor I didn't hear his name at the accoutrement.

The topic he said was still about Ramadan. Ramadan is the month for us to drill and exercise. Allah compensates and motivates those who fast with tons of rewards – unbelievably great rewards, you've got to believe though. The sunnah prayer has the similar reward to the wajib ones, and the compulsory ones of course are multiplied.

Something that impressed me so much was the question, “are we sure we'll be able to meet Ramadan next year?” well, it tugged me anyways. From this statement I could say that we must do our bestest in this Ramadan this year since there is no one can guarantee we will be still alive until next year. This is the point of tonight taraweeh speech. Hope we can take something.
Thank you.



3rd day of Ramadan

Last night the speech person was Mr. Rahman. He is one of my neighbors. He is a headmaster by profession but he is sometimes also able to be an ustadz, no, he is a great person anyway.


Well, since I went to Ar_Rahmah, mosque where I studied Islam when I was 8 years old. I found some memories there. I still remember when I read Quran, learned how to sing shalawat, completed to each other and all things. Nonetheless, I won't talk about those here. Instead, as I promised myself, here is the summary of that night taraweeh.

Pak Rahman spoke about several things that abrogate the reward of our fasting. He also mentioned the 5 things that can reduce our fasting rewards. Since I have mentioned the latter in the prior post, so please scroll down to find them out. Well, here are some sort of things that discard our fasting:

Swallowing something through our mouth (e.g. eating and drinking)
Ejaculating caused by “imagining wrong things”
Having sexual intercourse (for married couple)
Vomiting (intentionally)
Being Epilepsy at the time


There are special treatments we need to do if we do or experience any of them. For example, if we eat something in Ramadan for no reasonable reason, then our fasting was broken and we have to replace it in other months. But, I don't recommend you to do this since if you do, you've got sin still. I mean it is not permissible thing to do to break our Ramadan fast before maghrib.

There are exactly some versions about the things that cancel our shaum. Pak Rahman just summed of from all of them. You may ask google for the complete ones. In short, by this writing I just reminded myself about things that can discard our fast, hope I won't forget them. Thank you .

2nd day of Ramadan

It's the second day of Ramadan and I still here at my little town – gratifying all things given to me and family. A new and big thing happened, mada doumo arigatou kamisama.

Well, as I mentioned to you in the last post, it's my commitment to post the summary of Taraweeh kultum. The speech person yesterday was the religion teacher of mine at senior high school. His name is Agus Badrusalam and last night he spoke about “Islam is my Religion”.

The speech was quite touching and I found some similarities to what Aa Gym has every told me in his speech. I mean I have ever heard Aa's said the message in Pak Agus speech.

Pak Agus told us that in Ramadan we've got to accelerate our effort in a way of getting closer to Allah. It is true that all people benefit from this month – the sellers, drivers and all profession regardless to their believes. But since this is this is an extraordinary special month, we have to make sort of betterment plans.

He told us that Islam is such perfect religion regulating all things. All has been mentioned in the Quran so that we have to be able to maintain reading it in a regular basis. Shaum in Ramadan is a part of His teaching supposed to make us become more taqwa, shalih and faithful persons, it is mentioned in the Quran, too.
Thank you.

Munggahan & 1st day of Ramadan

The thing that is quite close to my mind when facing the month of Ramadan is munggahan. I don't know how to say it in English though. Well it's just basically kind of preparation in the first day of holy month - Ramadan. We Indonesian Muslims have sort of unique thing binded in our society. Every part of this country has different name to call Munggahan though. As I live in the province where Sundanese language is commonly spoken, we call it as munggahan meaning the ascending. If I am not wrong, Javanese people also share the same name. Munggahan means we go up or upgrade ourselves to be much better people than ever before.

On Munggahan day we usually travel home to meet our family. Or if we can't, we may text, call or just email them. This year thankfully I've got a chance to meet my family directly. This meeting in munggahan is simply a way of us in expressing our apology as well as a way of us in giving forgiveness to all of them. To our friends, we usually do the same. Sending SMS is the best way – cheaper and a lot faster. Giving and asking for forgiveness are the must-do thing before Ramadan begins as we human are tend to be sinful. No one is free from mistakes or error so that every single Muslim has to both ask and give forgiveness.

In this preparation, some of us usually also buy some things such as produces, dates and maybe new clothes. As we may see in market such as Tanah Abang and Pasar Baru, many people flock buying their stuff. While at the same time many sellers also gain much more profit than usually they do. However, in our teaching there is no need to wear or buy new cloth in Ramadan. It is just actually our behavior or habit. Nonetheless, I'd say it's not really a good habit readers, I mean we'd better save our cash or donate to those who are needy instead of quenching our thirst or greediness to buy new thing.

In Ramadan this year, I started making Taraweeh prayer in the evening. Tararaweeh is a special sunnah prayer we do only in Ramadan month. We can never do this in other months, just in Ramadan. The rewards that Allah has promised to those who perform Taraweeh in Ramadan is indeed multiplied. I can't mention the precise thing though. I myself did go to Masjid Agung Cisewu to perform this prayer. We did Taraweeh after we performed Isha prayer and had short speech beforehand.

The first speech or kultum (7 minutes speech) at my mosque was performed by the chief of our mosque. He welcomed the jamaah and announced several things we needed to noticed. Something that we were quite eager to hear then was the certainty of the first day of fasting. It happened to us to wait the formal dissemination from government of ours since they somehow were not able to see hilal to determine the first day of Ramadan. Wanna know what hilal is? Please ask Professor Google or Doctor Wiki :)

The kultum speaker of the first day of Ramadan was Mr. Someone (I forgot this name). The 1st day of Ramadan means the 2nd speech and the 2nd taraweeh. The speaker said that there are 5 things that can reduce the reward of our fasting. Two of them are making a lie and doing ghibah. Unfortunately I forgot the other three. Well, from now on until the end of Ramadan I'll try my best to sum up the speech of Taraweeh. I hope I'll be able to be commitment to it. Well, the first day of Ramadan ran very well anyway. I went to and fro to meet relatives and fixed several things I pretty much do. Tomorrow is the second day of Ramadan, you'll see the excerpt of Taraweeh on the forthcoming posting. Have a blessed Ramadan respected brothers and sisters :)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Bosscha Observatory





As I promised you, I'm now showing you the shots and sort of summary of my trip to Bosscha observatory. Bosscha was built in 1923 when we were colonized by Dutch. The Bosscha itself is the name of someone who back then owned the money for building this observatory. He was a Dutch but he didn't have any background in science or such. Till now, it seems the government of ours never plans to build the new one. I would say that, more or less Indonesian government barely ever made observatory as we are only proud of having this only one observatory which is the legacy of colonization era.


I and some friends of mine arrived at the site at around 5 pm. We all 36 members of MEC headed up this place as it was our routine program to hang out. We pretty much learn English and learn anything around us. The first thing we visited there was the park and we sat there gathering to kick off the agenda. Having had the short opening, we then went to the biggest cupola where Zeiss telescope located. Someone explained us quite much about it, we felt quite difficult to understand his explanation though.

Soon the adzan maghrib resounded. Some of us headed to the praying room. We were quite in trouble since there only small room there. Besides, the ablution room was not quite representative either. I didn't want to complain about all things there, but it seems the management or our government needs to give more attention to mend the facilities and everything. I hope it will be getting improved soon.

The next thing we did was to listen up to someone's explanation about Bosscha's history and and astronomy. We were seated in a room accommodating around 100 persons. Subsequently we explored moon and Saturn by using other smaller telescopes. We were not able to use the Zeiss as it was being used for research, a guy said. To use the telescopes, we stood in line as other schools of people also wanted to try them. I met some guys from Solo and Palembang then.

Having done all of them, we then shopped some stuffs. I myself bought a miniature for sister of mine. Hope she'll like it. Some of us groped rupiahs to buy key tag, sticker, miniature and others.

The last thing we did before leaving was to snap some pictures. We of course didn't want to miss every corner there so we posed ourselves at almost all parts of the site, not that much though.

A thing that I could take from the trip, regardless to the facility drawbacks, coldness, unclear explanation or anything is that I must thank God more. I do realize that I am nothing and this world is nothing either compared to the gigantic and unknown universe. We do only know a little thing of anything. God knows all things.
Alhamdulillah I so much liked this trip. It is comparable to the trip I had in Mt. Lemon Kit Peak – Steward observatory.

Hope I can visit other observatories, any suggestion?

See you.