OH! Part 1

Hello everyone! I know I’ve been making a huge mistake by abandoning this blog. Truly, I don’t really mean it. I’ve been too occupied with workloads and classes that somehow consequently have tarnished my dreams from having free weekends, to be honest. Life as a student starts to bite and hinders me from the world of writing, I can feel the old wound begins to open and I just need another minute to yelp. I have lots and even tonnes of things to pour onto this piece of parchment yet, the exasperating ticking time prevents me from advancing.

Living in the UK is an utter opposite from the life that I used to have back in Malaysia. The weather is so unwelcoming. Sometimes it’s zippy, uncertainly breezy and couple of times the place is soaked with deluge of murky rainwater. That’s the new weather. In whatever way, I have no choice but to get used to the erratic weather. Really challenging! From having troubles to arrange myself with the new trend of getting to bed early to sharing the bathrooms and privies with the opposite gender; I really need to summon all my courage to confront the new world.

One thing that I really love about being here is that I am able to attend many Islamic events that are held at every corner in the UK. Most probably, yesterday was the third biggest event that I’d attended so far which was held in the vicinity of London somewhere at the Finsbury Park. I was feeling rather dejected a day before the event was held; awfully depressed because I wasn’t really content with the dinner I had with a local guy housemate. It was just a regular infatuation, I just had a crush because he was rather cute and he’s a mobile physics machine. Anyway, my point is, I was hurt that night because of jealousy. Full stop.

the Tube Station

Throughout that Friday, I was soul-searching and I lost my head frequently that morning. I was flustered and in the need of a place to hold. If not due to the spontaneous offer from my senior, otherwise I might end up sleeping 24/7, the next coming days. It goes without saying; she’s the knight in the shining armour that rescued the damsel in distress. Thank you, Kak Athi! Although at the very beginning of it, I was rather reluctant, driven by my sense of mockery and I was in a critical condition -- at the tip of the breaking point -- becoming a bankrupt, she offered and lent me a hand, promising me that she will foot the bill i.e. covering all the expanses to London, provided that I will attend the Islamic event. A smile slowly contorted my gloomy face (which was rather another exaggerating fact).

Great meal!

Not many pictures were taken during the journey because I was deciding to make it as my secret quest to seek for Allah’s knowledge and to seek for temporary sanctuary from the erring humans and the sickening sights of sins.

So here is some of the info that I had acquired yesterday.

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OH! (Our History) - 31 October 2010 (London) -- 

Ergo, apparently I don't and I won't celebrate Hallow'een due to certain reason:

"Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) issued a stern warning: "Whoever imitates a nation is one of them!" (Abu Da'oud). Muslims should heed this warning and refrain from copying or imitating the kufar in their celebrations. Islam has strongly forbidden Muslims to follow the religious or social customs of the non-Muslims, and especially of the idol-worshippers or those who worship the devil. The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said: "By Him in Whose hands is my life, you are ordered to enjoin good and forbid evil, or else Allah will certainly afflict you with torments. Thereafter, even your du'a (supplications) will not be accepted." (Tirmidhi)." 
http://blog.iloveallaah.com/2010/10/origins-of-the-halloween-festival-and-the-islamic-perspective/

The programme started with a one hour vivifying muqaddimah (introduction). Surprisingly, all the speakers in this event are students themselves.

Session 1

The speaker, Shah injected the audience with a very crucial question. Who are we? Although most of us only gave stereotype answers:

1.  Malay
2.  Malaysian
3.  Student

Indeed, the answer that he wanted was, “we’re Muslims”. It really made me understand that I am not just plain Malay or just a Malaysian or a student but I am a Muslim. We’re divided into multiple races but Islam brings us together; therefore, let us work hand in hand as one ummah (nation). We’re brothers and sisters, that is to say there’s no difference between us. Each of us has 10 fingers, one nose and two eyes, yes? As the word Islam comes from the Arabic word “salam” that enshrines peacefulness, Islam demands us to submit ourselves to Allah. Still, Islam is being threatened and deemed as a religion that only brings calamity to the world as such it’s being synonymous to malevolent terrorists. What a quirk remark. A question was again being asked. When does Islam begin or originate etc.?

“Islam is from Adam. Islam is the same religion that is being taught by Moses or Jesus or even Abraham…”

It’s a very old religion. The same word is being uttered by those prophets, the same word that is being taught by Prophet Muhammad. Subhanallah. Yet, not many of us realize this. Some even believe that Islam is a new religion fabricated by Prophet Muhammad, a common misconception by most of the Muslims.

“When his Lord said unto him: Surrender! he said: I have surrendered to the Lord of the Worlds. (131) The same did Abraham enjoin upon his sons, and also Jacob, (saying): O my sons! Lo! Allah hath chosen for you the (true) religion; therefore die not save as men who have surrendered (unto Him). (132)” (Al-Baqarah).

Then he went on and explained the fine line that distinguishes between “The Muslim who learns” and “The Muslim Student”. At first it was very vague and the meaning was rather ambiguous. Thanks to the background knowledge during my previous reading it had somehow helped me to actually figure out the “fine line”. The Muslim students are simply people who embrace Islam by name and do not practice what they are being preached. For example, a girl name Siti Aminah is a Muslim student at a very famous school. However, she does not really practice Islam in every aspect of her life. To put it clearly, she studies hard but when she hears athan, she still continues her studies, ignoring the fact that the prayer is the pillar of Islam. Now, who are the Muslims who learn? ON the contrary to Siti Aminah, the Muslims who learn are those who study but at the same time put Islam as their first priority. So who do you want to be? Siti Aminah?

Shah later pointed out one thing that really amazed me (up until now, my head is still reciting the same hadith). Unfortunately, I can’t find the English translation of the hadith. This is somewhat my version of the hadith in English. Hopefully, it still carries the main idea of the hadith.

Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah said, "People are like metal, they are chosen when they selected the pagan Muslims, and they are chosen when they’re Muslims (if they understand) "(HR Bukhari-Kitabul Anbiya ').

Therefore, we’re great! As a matter or factly, we’re awesome! But why are we being compared to a metal?

Let’s ponder…the audience was a mixture of great minds. Thus, a variety of answers had been given.

1.  Valuable
2.  Can withstand weather

Certainly, too many minds will come out with too many answers. However, the reason being why this metaphor is being used is that the price of a metal is fixed, be it now or later. It shall never change. The same goes to human ability. If someone is a pagan, the abilities he is blessed with will be used for paganism. If someone is a Muslim, then he’ll use the ability for Islam. A crystal clear evident can be seen through Khalid Al-Walid. He was a great leader and a great swordman. He used to lead the chivalry team during the Uhud battle. He won the war against the Muslimuns. But later, as he converted to Islam, he had used the same abilities to lead the Muslim army into winning many battles against the non-believers. I am a metal too and I use my intelligent for Islam. Are you?

I know this is supposed to be an hour session but he continued and stressed on the importance of a piece of red flesh called the heart. Why is it so difficult to read even a paragraph from an academical crap whilst it’s so easy to read a chic-lit novel within a day? This is because we seldom use our heart as the “command centre” when reading those craps. Unlike when we’re putting our nose between the layers of a novel, we’re so engrossed into the reading that we hardly notice that the story finally reaches its final page. For that, I deduce that I need to practise using my heart as the “command centre” when reading my lecture’s notes.

See Al-Araf (179)

“Already have We urged unto hell many of the jinn and humankind, having hearts where with they understand not, and having eyes wherewith they see not, and having ears wherewith they hear not. These are as the cattle - nay, but they are worse! These are the neglectful. (179)”

The final part of this session was about reminding us the main purpose of our living, which was to answer Shah’s initial question.

Basically, there are two important surahs to explain our main purpose of living:

“I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. (56) I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me. (57) Lo! Allah! He it is that giveth livelihood, the Lord of unbreakable might. (58)” (Adh-Dhariyat)

And

“And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not. (30)” (Al-Baqarah)

According to these surahs, Allah had created us so that we would worship and submit to Him or else known as “ubudiah”. We should lead the world as a khalifah (leader).

By making those two as our main purposes of living, we could later summarise that the purpose of human creation is also to prepare us for the afterlife. The ibadah acts as our food and will ensure whether we could make it there. To this degree, we could conclude that this is our real purpose of living. There were too many metaphors that were being shared but one of the best metaphors was regarding the seed. The seed has a sac that will provide it with all the minerals and nutrients that it needs when it’s growing into a tree. So our ibadah acts as the sac. And the seed’s main goal is to grow into a tree. While human on the other hand is jannah. If the seed decided to stay dormant, it shan’t grow and it’ll die apparently as the sac withers. Just like us, if we purposely ignore our real goal, we’ll end up just like the seed. If the seed grow into a tree, it’ll benefit everyone by providing shelter and fruits. And if humans decided to strive for the final goal, we’ll benefit each other too as we will continue spreading the great news of Islam to each other.

If we fail to escape from our regular routine as a rotting human, we are no more than a robot. Doing the same thing on and on but completely oblivious that the "owner" is watching us. One day we will meet our owner and our fate will soon be decided by Him.  

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