~Of a camel and its owner~

Salaam 'alaik.

Seorang lelaki sedang berada di tengah-tengah padang pasir, hanya ditemani untanya yang seekor. Dia meletakkan bekalan makanan, minuman dan pakaian di atas untanya dan mula berjalan merentas padang pasir itu. Tiba-tiba untanya melarikan diri jauh daripada lelaki tersebut dengan membawa kesemua bekalannya. Apa agak-agaknya perasaan lelaki tersebut setelah dibiarkan seorang diri di padang pasir yang luas itu? Marah? Kecewa? Sedih? Tak susah nak bayangkan perasaan dia kalau kita berada di tempatnya.

Tiba-tiba untanya kembali bersama-sama bekalan lelaki itu. Bagaimana pula agaknya perasaan dia sekarang? Mestilah dia rasa sangat gembira dan bersyukur.

Samalah juga dengan kita.. Allah (swt) pastinya murka kepada hambanya yang telah pergi jauh dariNya, mengabaikan tanggungjawab yang sedang digalas di muka bumi ini. Namun Dia pasti akan berasa gembira setelah hambaNya yang sudah sekian lama pergi jauh dariNya kembali dan bertaubat padaNya. Bukankah Dia menyayangi hamba-hambanya lebih dari ibu-ibu mereka sendiri?

Masih tak lewat untuk kembali kepadaNya. Walau sejauh mana kita telah terpesong dari jalan Allah, kembalilah, mohonlah sebenar-benar keampunan dariNya. InshaAllah Dia akan mengampuni dosa-dosa yang telah kita lakukan, dan mohonlah agar diberi petunjuk hidayah supaya kita tidak akan terpesong lagi.. kerana Dialah yang Maha Pengampun dan Maha Penyayang..

Cinta Allah adalah yang Maha Agung.. ='(


*Diceritakan kembali oleh penulis apa yang diceritakan oleh seorang sahabat yang dia hormati..

Nota: Cerita di atas sebenarnya tak boleh dibandingkan bulat2 dengan situasi dalam realiti, kerana Allah tidak memerlukan kita mahupun ibadah kita. Tapi ade point yang cuba disampaikan yang kemungkinan lebih senang difahami dengan bantuan cerita itu.. Wallahu'alam..

~Mukhlisin-The sincere ones~

Salaam,

I opened my notebook just now to jot down a few items on work when I came across notes I wrote during a talk in PMS by Dr Ayman Ewais about Mukhlisin (people who are Ikhlas-sincere, earnest). It was about the 11 fruits of being sincere. Being Ikhlas is not an easy thing to do especially with all these penyakit hati which all of us are prone to, such as being riak, ujub, and so on. In order for a deed to be accepted by Allah (swt) requires more than 99% sincerity, not even 99.9999% but 100%. One of the hardest trait to achieve, but if you succeed this is the compilation of 11 fruits of being sincere:

1. Gaining the pleasure of Allah (swt) and have your deeds accepted by Him. (what more can you ask for?)
   
2. Allah (swt) puts love to you in the hearts of other people (this can be seen as a sign of sincerity and accepted deeds).
3. Allah (swt) saves the slave from hardship in this world (remember the tales of the Prophet (saw)'s companions?).
4. You will get the reward even if there's a mistake without intention; i.e. it is still accepted (there was a story of a sahabah who wanted to give sadaqah at night unknowingly by others but mistakenly gave it to a prostitute, a thief and a rich person. Rasulullah (saw) informed him that his sadaqah was still accepted)
5. You will get the reward even if something stopped you from doing a good deed; from your intentions and sincerity (it is said that if a muslim went to a mosque intending to attend jama'ah but came in late and the jama'ah has already finished, he will still get the reward of praying in jama'ah even when he prayed alone)
   
6. When you do good deed, you won't get just 10-700 rewards, but endless (it is quite impossible to count rewards given by the Most Gracious and Most Merciful isn't it?)
   
7. You will get the reward even if something stopped you from doing a deed you habitually do (sounds similar to the above point? what this point means is if you normally do a certain good deed with istiqamah every single day [with sincerity of course!], if on a certain day something stopped you from doing it you will still obtain the reward)
8. If you are sincere, you'll feel very very strong (you are totally sincere and devoted to Him, and when He, the Most Strong and Giver of Strength backs you up, why shouldn't you feel strong? =D)
9. If you have Ikhlas, you'll get rewarded for every habitual thing you do (repeat: "for EVERY SINGLE habitual thing you do". eating, drinking, taking a shower, sleeping, reading, if you have sincerity in everything you do, each and every one of those will give you reward)
10. Ikhlas and intention is the scale of the work done (a small piece of work but with 100% Ikhlas will give you huge rewards, but a huge piece of work not at 100% Ikhlas in doing it will only give you a small reward-- this is an adaptation of a Hadith told by Dr Ayman)
11. You get goodness and barakah in this world and the Hereafter (again, what more can you ask for?)

Dr Ayman mentioned of two types of worship, "small" and "big". "Small" worship includes doing prayers, fasting and hajj. I was a bit shocked to hear this actually. These are considered small?? And he went on and says the "big" worship is the worship of the heart, which includes sincerity, getting rid of arrogance, riak, takabbur, and to pardon every single wrongdoing of others to you. Frankly, this "worship of the heart" is the hardest part to me, which explains why it is considered "big", in that it is relatively a lot harder to do, compared to the physical fulfilment of our ibadah.

This is just a small reminder to you and me. Let's try our best to be a Mukhlis and be sincere in everything we do. =]
InshaAllah..

Wallahua'lam..

~From home to home~

Salaam.

It had been a loooong while. =]

After a trip around the UK and spending some more time in London I am now back in Cambridge. The jaulah (literal meaning: jalan-jalan, tour, pelancongan; from Google Translate) was a 10-day trip covering the south of UK, Portsmouth to the capital city of Scotland at the north, Edinburgh before joining PMS (Perhimpunan Musim Sejuk) at Sheffield and then back to London. The whole journey follows the following route: London-Portsmouth-Bath-Cardiff-Birmingham-Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Edinburgh-Leeds-Sheffield-London. The overall journey was filled with fun and experiences, and most importantly a lot of knowledge and lesson was learnt and a strengthened ukhuwah was achieved =].

Sebelum perjalanan tu kami dah diberi peringatan memasang niat untuk Allah dan fikirkan apa yang hendak dicapai sepanjang jaulah tersebut. Frankly speaking apa yang saya harapkan sewaktu itu ialah untuk berjalan2 bersama sahabat2, saudara2 di sini, dan di hujung perjalanan menyertai PMS untuk mendapat input dan mengenal lebih orang dari bahagian UK yang lain. Alhamdulillah semua dapat dikecapi, namun yang paling berharga ialah perhubungan ukhuwah yg lebih erat antara kami. Walaupun saya (boleh kata) mengenali (hampir) semua sahabat2 yang turut serta berjaulah dari awal, tetapi rupanya banyak lagi boleh dipelajari tentang mereka dan mengenal mereka dengan lebih rapat. Orang yang nampak agak pendiam dan distant rupanya adalah seorang yg lembut hatinya dan menghargai persahabatan kami, muka yang baik jangan disangka malaikat, dan banyak lagi. Benarlah apa yang kami diberitahu di awal perjalanan, kata2 seorang tokoh Islam di zaman silam (Umar kalau tak silap), jika kita mahu mengenali seseorang, kita perlu makan bersama, tidur bersama dan bermusafir bersama.

10 days... yet after it ended till now, the whole journey seemed like a dream and I have to return to reality. InshaAllah I will try my best to keep all I've learnt and obtained throughout the journey in my heart.

Sangat banyak yang masih boleh dicoretkan di sini, tetapi perjalanan pulang ke Cambridge telah menghabiskan sisa tenaga saya dan juga disebabkan malam telah lewat, maka saya terpaksa menamatkan post ini di sini. Semoga dapat bertemu kembali saudara2 ku di London, Portsmouth, Warwick dan lain2 inshaAllah. =]

(heh ntah kenapa tetibe terasa nak tulis gaya skema. mengantuk kot xP tapi memang sepanjang hari terasa pelik sket badan nih..)

Below is the jaulah video compiled by Akmal Hayat: