The Purpose of Life

The people who are really stupid living on earth are those who don't know their reason of life. In another word that they don't know the mission and vision in life. Thankfully we all Muslims have already the vision that is the Allah's blessing and paradise – jannah. About the mission, we all just need to worship God by following the person sent by Allah as an example.

He is Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Yes, the mission is to simply follow him in whatever role we have. We might be a teacher so please follow him as the Prophet Muhammad was also the teacher for his companions and ummahs. If we are soldiers just follow him as the Prophet Muhammad was also the soldier, even the highest general at war. He was also the son, husband, businessman, president, leader and so forth. We both women and men indeed just need to follow him. Another thing that is also important is that, Prophet Muhammad was an preacher, in my word he was “an caller to the good”. He put people's importance above his. He pretty much served his ummah and was not selfish paying attention much on himself. I mean he really loved his Ummah and was never exaggerating himself to satisfy his needs or wish or desire, in which we now tend to do.

The importance of calling people to the good (based on Quran and sunnah) is less realized by us, now. This can also be called as dakwah. Why dakwah or inviting people to the good is important? Well, one of my teachers said that dakwah is the job or profession of prophets – the most noble persons on earth, the loved ones by God. So if we pick dakwah as our job, that means we do something that the most noble persons did in the past. Simple isn't it? Well it is not that simple since if we are committed to doing dakwah, we have to learn extra hard about Islam and about the Prophet himself. This real struggle is counted as jihad and some examples are to learn at Islamic School, read sirah book, joining a mentoring, bettering the Qur'an recitation and so on. These all can be done if we have strength and faith in we which are now pursuing for.

The purpose of our lives is not to be an alay (fragile, weak and exaggerate person). In fact, our purpose is to simply want to be noble persons, this means be people who do the job of prophets – dakwah, serving ummah. This is the purpose of Muslims in life, wallahualam!

Omar Ibn Khatab (Movie)

It is the movie of Omar that's been wowing me. It is very long movie but it's indeed very much worth to watch. It's got 30 episodes and in duration it's for about roughly 15 hours. Its available for download at site such as Youtube. You may also get the DVD at dvd stores or online. Just search using “Omar or Movie of Omar/Umar” as keywords.

The movie tells much about the development of Islam since the beginning brought by Prophet Muhammad in the city of Mekah (Mecca) until its victory. The movie also portrays the strive of Prophet's sahabah (companions) in which Omar becomes the center of the story. Abu Bakar, Utsman and Ali are also told in the movie. Having watched this movie, I got so much inspiration and appreciation to all of prophet's companions including Bilal bin Rabah, in which he was a slave before his embrace into Islam.

In the movie, I could know more about the character of Omar who later became khilafah (Leader if Islam). He was a kaffir (a non-Muslim) but he had a very good stance in terms of fighting the right. He was very firm so that none of Arabs was brave against him. He used to be very tough in opposing Islam and prophet Muhammad as he thought that Muhammad and Islam has caused riot and trouble among Quraisy tribe. Once he even made decision to kill Prophet Muhammad.



It was when he listened to Al Quran recitation he decided to embrace Islam. His heart softened as the ayaah of Quran being read by one of his family members. It was so touching the audiences including me. Omar then changed himself 180 degrees to defend Islam and Islam was gaining substantial strength then.

Other pieces of story that impress me were a lot. Some of them are Abu Bakar story, Hijra to Medina, Hamzah's death, khilafah succession, Khaleed bin Walid leadership at wars and so forth.

If you are there the movie-holic or such. I recommend you to watch this Movie. It cannot be compared to other movies such as J Dorama (Japanese) or K movie (Korean). Omar movie really touches me and teaches me on how to be a good leader. All characters of Prophet's companions are also awesome. Ali, Abubakar and Utsman were indeed the best among Muslims after the prophet. They had very own characters that contribute to Islam development so that we can now know Islam. I have no doubt that their supports, sacrifices and contributions have made Islam spread around the globe. May Allah grant His mercies to all of them, amiin.

Roles

I've been a son for more than 25 years, I've been a student for about 18 years, I have been an older brother for about 14 years, I have been a teacher for about 2 years, I have been an English facilitator for about 7 years and I have been a husband for about 6 months or so. Yes, in life we have so many roles that we have to play at its best. Yet, have we ever asked ourselves why we have lots of roles in life of ours? Well, you need or need not to answer or even ask that query.

But to me, so far I know, the easiest thing I that can do in dealing with having many roles is to always be grateful. Thanking God for letting us live our lives in this or that way is an outstanding healer or superb entertainer when we face fatigue or unstable mind. Grumbling upon any situation doesn't help at all. It makes thing even worse. Here on this post, I'd like to specially thank my wife for supporting me this far. She's been giving an immeasurably great contribution and sharing an immaculate love! May Allah keep our love pure, for the sake of Him. Will I have a new role? A dad? :) PS: image: from Istock

Socio-Preneur

Around a week ago I took part in an international seminar held by management department Indonesia University of Education. Placed at amphitheater building, this seminar was attended by around 200 participants from various backgrounds i.e. college students, lecureres, university’s staff, business practitioners and others. The topic we had then was about entrepreneur. We’ve been familiar with it, right? Well then, the topic was breakdown into tow parts. First is socio-preneur and the other is so-called techno-preneur. From those two terms I am sure you can guess what the content of the seminar was. The two speakers in the seminar were from Arizona USA, city of Chandler precisely. To me, the new thing that I heard is the first part I mentioned. The later, I thought I knew a bit so I wouldn’t share with you all here. Socio-preneur, based on the seminar is sort of person doing good things to develop society around him – intending to make progress and not relying much on government. This what the first speaker then mostly talked about. Kevin Hartke was the member of Chanlder chamber of commerse is a socio-preneur. He shared a lot about his experiences in developing society, helping the poor to get better life, motivating childern at schools, fixing public facilities, keeping environment safety and so forth. His theological background at master degree has shaped him to be an igniter and initiator to make changes. He told us that it is his inner-compass that drives him to go on and on. Restlessly he involves with society to stop cursing government, instead they start working on things they can do by themselves such as putting of grass besides the street. I did share with him and the other speaker about my experiences in doing almost the same thing. I’ve been working with friends of mine (and with my wife too) to maintain a community where we can result something, some big things hopefully. It is an English Community where anyone can join and learn English for almost free. We charge those who join fivety thousand rupiahs and they can learn English twice a week. What inspired me after joining the seminar is that, I cannot feel exhausted to share and work to make betterment in society. Islam teaches us to give benefits to others regardless we are paid or not. The key is, the more we give to people, the more Allah will give us. “The money is just an impact“, shared my wife. All in all, we cannot hope much on so called worly-things when we do good deeds. It is to attain Allah’s mercy is the ultimate goal we have got to put in every action we make. The Senior Pastor Kevin Heartke does good thing for his society in Arizona and I am now more into in serving people in community where I used to be the president. Start giving benefit, stop blamming anyone

Tolerance in comparison

Few days ago read the news about Hasyim Muzadi making a controversial speech. He is the former general chief of of Nahdatul Ulama (PBNU, a well-known Islamic organization in Indonesia). His speech is now widely spread on net, BBM and alike. His speech is more or less about countering stigma saying that Indonesia is less tolerant country in terms of religion. He told us in the video that he had traveled to lots of countries and he never found a country as tolerant as Indonesia, meaning that Indonesia is the world most tolerant country in terms of religion. No one doubts his experience and Islamic knowledge as is the prominent figure that has already been doing da’wah (spreading Islam) for decades. Generally speaking, everything we say and have in mind is influenced by many things. We are aware that experience has great shares in shaping our way of thinking. Even it is the most influential one. I do realize that I am influenced by the experiences I got within the period of my life; I am now 25 years, married, and still studying at master degree. Compared to Hasyim Muzadi, I visited only once in my life to the overseas country i.e. USA, Arizona state. It was in 2008 I flew there and stayed for about 8 weeks in the city of Tucson, Arizona. Although it was in Ramadan, my daily activities there in the USA were mostly common to me. In terms of religion I got no any harassment or such from people there. I think was respected enough by people of American which are non Muslim and of course I got much appreciation and brotherhood feeling from Muslim brothers and sisters. I was also several times invited by non Muslim families to have dinner in their house. Sometimes we got ifthar (breaking the fast) together and had sharing afterward. To me, those experiences somewhat erased the stereotype that American are racists. There were only two mosques within that city though and I only came to one of them called ICT (Islamic Center of Tucson). Compared to the number churches (both catholic and protestant) and synagogues for sure the number of mosque was too small. This is of course normal as the number of Muslims is few. One peculiar thing I found there was that, the Mosque didn’t have any minaret with loud speaker on it. It was really strange because in Indonesia I always find that the mosque and loud speaker cannot be separated. Loudspeaker here is used for resounding adzan – inviting people to pray (five times a day). Adzan was only resounded in the mosque and it couldn’t be heard from outside. Wishing to find the answer why this happened asked one of the Muslims in the mosque. He remarked that the city’s law doesn’t permit adzan to be sounded outside the mosque as it is deemed to disturb people who live around the mosque. But well then I asked myself, why can bell in synagogues be rung? Does it also disturb people around it? Well, I just couldn’t complain anybody since I was just a temporary student at one of universities there in Arizona. There I tried to be very tolerant though I couldn’t have something common- hearing adzan outside the mosque. Connecting my experience in Arizona with the situation prevailed in Indonesia which is deemed less tolerant; I am sure that what Hasyim Muzadi stated in his spread video is correct. I am all with him. People cannot judge that Indonesia is a less tolerant country in terms of religion. They must see this case comprehensively, at least do comparison with other countries and then they can make objective valuation. All in all, Muslims is and Christians in Indonesia must live harmoniously by respecting to each other. To me, this can be manifested in the act showing; Christians are given right to make churches as needed. At the same time Muslims also have to be given right to establish mosque for them to pray. This must be also applied in any country which adhere the principle of democracy such as USA, England and so on. I certainly sure that is the really mean of democracy in terms of religion life. In other words, this is what we called the tolerance we’ve been pursuing for long.

Capsized Pyramid

As a student who’s learning Economics and management, I am keen on sharing my thought with you about something related to the subject I am learning. It’s actually the problem faced by some countries in the world and I picked Japan. Why Japan? It’s been quite some time that I follow the news about it, or write about it for my paper at college. Japan is now facing the problem called aging population, aside from its effort in handling nuclear problem caused by tsunami few months ago. Japan is a well-developed country but now is challenged by the economy and demography problem i.e. aging population. Aging population is situation in which most people live in a country are old people – more elderly than youngsters, in a simple sentence. This is sort of spooky thing as the country won’t work well. “If a country has more than 30% elderly with the age more than 60 years old, it’s not viable anymore. The number of money generated by 70% of the citizen is not enough to suffice and take care of the 30% elderly”, said Abduraheem Green in speech in Australia (I forgot the detail time and place). If a country has more elderly than the youngsters, the economy will fail sooner or later. Shrinking population is like an upside down as it is really difficult to overcome. It is a long term problem – demography and it takes decades to rebuild the country. Can you imagine in country with no children and teenagers? Most of the citizens are grand ma(s) and grand pa(s)? Schools and kindergartens are closed or converted into animals training places. This is what happened in Japan that I heard from a lecture of mine. One of the factors causing this issue is that, few people who think to get married or have children. They postpone the marriage for the sake of happiness and pleasure in the young ages. It is not simple to solve aging population. A lot of countries such as Germany, urges its citizens to get married and have babies. Those who do will be given some money but it seems a few people who do. China with its one child policy is now facing the scarce of labors for the industries. These are just few examples and I am certainly sure there are some more countries having the similar problem. To my logic and consideration, delaying the marriage is no more acceptable as if a lot of people do so, the problem will be in a large scale. Marco-scale problem is far harder to overcome. So, what do you think of this delaying marriage? What should Japan, China, Germany do? If you have any idea, please write your comment here. Thank you

Honey

One of good things that I love to do is to consume honey. Honey comes from bees, small animals which will sting you if you disturb them. The reason of consuming honey is that: first it is exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad. He used to consume honey combined with glass of water or he directly ate it. The second reason is that, love sweet food and honey as a very pure taste that I cannot find in any processed food. Honey’s sweetness is so precise on my tongue that licking it has somewhat unimaginable sensation, it’s being exaggerated though. Honey, although it is sweet, not all people love honey. My wife (read: honey) doesn’t really like it so I have to little bit force her in order that she consumes it :). Honey has indeed abundance of benefits for our health, as well as for our intellectual quotient. We must then realize that this is needed for our health. Allah in the Quran says clearly states that honey can heal men from their sickness. Your Lord revealed to the bees: "Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow." From inside them comes a drink of varying colors, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Qur'an, An-Nahl : 69) The ways we consume honey can be in various ways. We can mix honey (two spoons) with half glass of water or we can eat it right away without any addition. If you like eating bread, you may pour honey on it as the replacement of milk. I’m definitely sure that honey is much better than milk and any kind of processed food out there. In a bottle, honey can last long and you may grab it for just 50 to a thousand rupiahs depending on the quality of honey. The good and genuine honey is really different from one is mixed. So you need to be quite careful when deciding to buy honey. I prefer to buy honey from neighbor of mine as he gets honey from forest, I am sure he doesn’t mix it with anything. Well, happy consuming honey so that you’ll be healthier. Thanks also to my “honey” who pretty much serves me a glass of honey :)

Wedding

The passion to write a piece of writing has never been so good lately. I did experienced lots of things but the fingers were too lazy to type. Well, I am now eager to share a little thing about so-called a special thing – my wedding. I am now a husband, no more a bachelor. With this writing I am intending to disseminate good news so that everyone out there knows. My wife’s name is Solikah, it’s her blog: www.sokatuhkah.blogspot.com. I married her on March 15, 2012. I don’t have to tell you all about her here; you may just visit her blog and ask her anything there. All I want share with you here is that, getting married is a part of life and almost everyone thinks it is a big thing in his life. Being a husband or wife is for sure everybody’s ideal, at least this is what I have in mind. To have a partner in the rest of our lives is a blessing of Allah. By having a partner (a legal partner) we’ll be able to live more happily, insya Allah. It is because getting a friend is human nature so both of them are going to the exact direction and goal. Lot of people are afraid to get married in the young age, me too. We’ll it’s prevalent in the mind of youngsters in Indonesia, but some of us are brave enough to take decision to get married when they are at college for example. The wariness arrives when other people say that getting married needs much money, or becoming a husband or wife limits the freedom in life. Lots of things come to our mind - influencing people to halt this sublime thing. Well, I’ve done this great thing and the real strive has just actually begun. I do pray for you, readers may you get married soon. This is a great thing equals to the half of religion (in Islam). Thanks for reading.

The year 2012 is Leap Year. As a result, this month, February has 29 days and it only happens once in 4 years. Tahun Kabisat is called Leap Year in English because it is unusual to have 29 days in Feb. The regular number of day in February is 28. So, use this day in a very wise way and make great thing today since you may only meet this day again in 2016. Happy celebrating the Day!

Indonesia is now in the rainy season. Rain mostly comes in the afternoon. Everyone is supposed to prepare things such as umbrella and raincoat. I do have raincoats, two. The first is one is blue and the other is greenish. But the latter is somewhat broken so I don't use it very often. Umbrella, I got it for free for I joined a seminar and the committee gave me as a gift. It's pretty good. The essence of this writing, be well-equipped with umbrella, readers!

Webcam for Learning

One of the best things to learn English is by practicing yourself to talk in front of the mirror. I pretty much did it when I was in high school. Even nowadays I sometimes do it whenever I have chance. This allows you to know the way you pronounce certain word as well as to know the rhetoric of yours. Confidence is also thing you’ll get if you do it quite often. I am sure there are more benefits that we can get from doing this thing if we do it in a regular basis, once a week or more is suggested. As technology improves, I now do this in a way that’s more effective and result-producing. Yes, webcam is very good friend of mine in learning English. I just sit before the computer of mine and start recoding myself. I talk about anything I want, such as my idea on something, my experience on that day, my plan, or whatsoever. The key is that I keep practicing to talk in English. The duration doesn’t need to be so long. It’s maybe 3-5 minutes per shot. The video I recorded is saved in my drive so that I can view it at anytime. Besides, it allows me to value myself in case I said wrong word or less appropriate sentences. This evaluation is something that you won’t get if you just talk in front of the mirror. The videos I produce have been sort of entertaining and somewhat witty sometimes. Yes, knowing mistake you make is good point to evaluate your English skill, but it’s often peculiar. Never mind anyway, the point is that our skill in English improves. Aside, no one knows thing you say and do in front of the webcam. Happy learning!

Bond of Love

Bismillah,

It’s been quite awhile not posting piece of my idea or experience here. Well, now I’d like to share something that I believe so I do, at least I try to keep doing. It is called (doing) silaturrahim or silaturrahmi. I don’t really know the precise translation in English. But this word derives from Arabic which more or less means the bond of love. The meaning of love here is not between man and woman we mostly hear about. Instead, it’s the love between, for example, son and dad, teacher and student, you and your old friend. Yesterday morning I met one of my lecturers at my former university – Indonesia University of Education (UPI) and I haven’t met him in ages since my graduation. I dared myself to make appointment with him since once he phoned me, asking to meet and talk about something related to my master degree scholarship. I pretty much appreciate him and I like the way he taught me when I was studying at my under graduate. We planned to meet at 9 a.m. but I waited for him quite some time as he had lots of things to do first. I think it was just ok as while waiting I could relax and have some reading at his office. He is one of important persons at UPI some when I was there, there had been some people waiting for him, too. So, I knew myself that I my waiting was just really ok. To my surprise he showed up at around 9.25 a.m. He first talked to a security officer, conversing about a guess coming unexpectedly. I just listened to them. Having finished the talk, among the guesses I then got the first chance to talk with my lecturer. Yes we chatted about my study, scholarship, friends who haven’t graduated, and so forth. He gave me some meaningful advices and shared his experiences when he was at college. He even gave me one of his books, yes he wrote that book and offered me a chance to be his co-author. I didn’t say yes yet, but I think it’s worth accepting. I just need to learn more to write book about management. The point of this meet is what I mentioned above – silaturrahim (bond of love). Yes, Allah says that silaturrahim is a very good thing and this is an obligation of Muslim to conduct. One of the benefits in doing silaturrahim is that, Allah will grant us more blessings. In this case I got a book which of course has value of money. Keeping Silaturrahim with the persons we haven’t met for so long will indeed give us certain blissfulness and to some degree, it will invite Allah’s blessing that we never expected before. So, let’s do more silaturrahim with people we haven’t seen such as our former teachers, old friends, some families, relatives. We can do it more easily now by the existence of advanced technology such as SMS, BBM, or even by coming directly. Doing this, insya Allah we’ll get blessing of Allah. Thank you.