Cintakan Dunia, Dambakan Akhirat

Pernah Pernah atau tidak?.

Pernah atau tidak dalam kehidupan anda, anda berkehendak kepada sesuatu perkara tetapi anda tidak mampu mendapatkannya?

Pernah atau tidak dalam kehidupan anda, anda menginginkan sesuatu yang terbaik buat diri anda dan apa yang anda ada sekarang tidak memuaskan hati anda?.

Pernah atau tidak, anda merasakan perasaan mencintai perkara-perkara dunia sehingga anda sukar untuk mendambakan perkara-perkara Akhirat?.

Pasti pernah bukan?.

Saya beri contoh:

1) Seorang lelaki yang ingin mencari jodoh, kebiasaannya dia akan lihat pada rupa paras perempuan yang yang ingin dikahwininya. Dia juga menginginkan bakal isterinya datang dari keturunan yang baik, daripada keluarga yang kaya-raya dan paling tidak mempunyai Agama. Ada yang letakkan Agama sebagai perkara pertama, ada yang meletakkan Agama antara perkara paling kurang penting dalam kriteria bakal isterinya. Konklusinya, dia mahukan yang terbaik atau 'Perfect' pada isterinya. Sesetengah lelaki, dia dapat apa yang dia mahukan, sesetengah yang lain tidak.

2) Seorang perempuan yang baik, dia dinikahi oleh oleh seorang lelaki yang pada sangkaannya lelaki yang baik. Tetapi selepas pernikahan baru dia menyesal kerana ketika itu suaminya menunjukkan sikapnya yang sebenar. Dimarahi isterinya, dicaci-maki, dipukul sehingga lebam dan berdarah. Apa yang dia mampu buat adalah bersabar. Kalau bercerai nanti malu dengan masyarakat setempat. Tetapi dalam hati, dia mahu suaminya berubah, dan dia berusaha ke arah itu dalam menasihati suaminya. Konklusinya, dia mahukan suaminya sekarang, menjadi suami yang baik. Situasi ini agak biasa di negara kita, rata-ratanya bercerai selepas si isteri memohon fasakh.

3) Satu pasangan suami isteri ingin memiliki sebuah rumah di Kuala Lumpur. Disebabkan harga rumah yang terlampau mahal, mereka hanya mampu membeli sebuah apartment. Bak kata orang, rumah atas angin, tidak bertanah. Tetapi mereka juga berharap, agar mereka mampu membeli sebuah rumah yang diingini mereka suatu hari nanti. Konklusinya, pasangan suami ini, mahukan sesuatu yang lebih baik berbanding apa yang mereka miliki sekarang ini. Ironinya, mereka mungkin tidak dapat membelinya walaupun mereka mengumpul duit sehingga berusia 60 tahun.

Antara dunia dan Akhirat.

Realiti nampak kejam bukan?. Tetapi itulah dunia, sekejam mana ia, kita tetap cintakan ia bukan. Cara paling mudah untuk mengubati hati ini, adalah dengan kita mengharapkan segala apa yang kita kehendaki di dunia ini digantikan oleh Allah swt di Akhirat.

Kalau nak isteri yang ada Agama, cantik, kaya dan daripada keturunan yang baik, sekiranya tidak dapat di dunia, kita pohon pada Allah supaya kurniakan di Akhirat kelak kita seorang isteri yang kita hajati di dunia.

Kalau seorang perempuan itu tidak memperolehi seorang suami yang baik, pohon pada Allah supaya mengurniakan seorang suami yang baik di Syurga nanti.

Kalau nak rumah besar, tanah berekar-ekar, nak sungai sebelah rumah dan sebagainya, pohon pada Allah supaya gantikan apa yang kita ada di dunia ini dengan apa yang terbaik di Akhirat sana.

Mudah bukan?. Dengan kita tanamkan sikap tidak terlalu berharap pada dunia, kita semakin mendambakan Akhirat. Apa yang kita luahkan pada Allah dalam solat kita, dalam doa kita, walhal dalam hati kita sekalipun Allah dengar. Ini juga strategi untuk mendekatkan kita dengan Allah. Justeru, jangan berkecil hati dengan dunia, kerana kita akan berbahagia dan gembira di Akhirat kelak. Apa yang ada di dunia ini sementara, tetapi apa yang ada di Akhirat itu kekal selamanya.

Hati dan Akal berbicara

Di sebuah pondok usang milik seorang hamba, akal dan hati berbual berkenaan kasih dan cinta..

Akal : Assalamualaikum, sahabat.

Hati : Waalaikumussalam...

Akal : Apa khabar iman anda?

Hati terdiam...

Akal bertanya sekali lagi.

Akal : Apa khabar iman anda?

Hati : Kurang sihat mungkin.

Akal : Mengapa?   

Hati : Aku merindui dia segenap jiwaku...

Akal : Dia yang mana, sahabatku?

Hati : Kedua dia. Dia yang hakiki, juga dia yang entah kemana akhirnya..

Akal : Tidak mengapa, Itukan fitrah manusia.

Hati : Tapi rinduku kepadanya kadangkala membuat jiwaku runsing. Fikiranku melayang terbang jauh ke angkasa. Kadangkala ketika beribadah juga aku teringat dia.

Akal : Cintamu padanya, juga cintamu padaNya, cinta padaNya kan yang lebih utama.

Hati : Tapi... Aku benar cinta dia. Aku benar rindu dia. Aku mencintainya kerana Allah. Kami saling menasihati kepada kebaikan. Aku mahu mengejar syurga bersamanya.

Akal : Apa makna cinta?       

Hati : Kasih dan sayang.

Akal : Bagiku cinta itu gila.

Hati : Mengapa pula?

Akal : Apabila kita mencintai seseorang, kita asyik teringatkan dia. Apa yang dikata jangan, sebaik mungkin kita elakkan. Apa yang diminta, seboleh mungkin kita usaha. Bila ada yang lain mendekati, bergelodak rasa cemburu. Apa kau rasa begitu?

Hati : Ya. Begitu yang aku rasa.

Akal : Apa kau tahu apa pula ibadah?

Hati : Orang kata ibadah itu taat dan patuh.

Akal : Ibadah itu juga adalah cinta.

Hati : Bagaimana dimaksudkan begitu?

Akal : Ibadah itu cinta. Berkasih-kasihan dengan Tuhan.

Hati terdiam lagi...

Hati : Jadi... Apa sebenarnya yang ingin kau sampaikan wahai akal?

Akal : Fikirkan, kalau kau benar mencintai dia kerana Allah, apa kau ada mengadu kepadaNya?

Hati : Aku puas sudah berdoa. Aku mendoakannya empat puluh kali setiap hari. Siang dan malam! Tegas hati..

Akal : Apa kau berdoa kepadaNya hanya kerana apabila kau terasa jauh dengannya? Apa kau hanya melipatgandakan ibadahmu ketika jiwamu rasa tak tenang?

Hati diam dan tertunduk...

Akal : Bagaimana boleh kau katakan cintamu kerana Allah. Sedangkan kau mengabaikan Dia ketika cintamu dengannya sedang indah bercahaya. Sabarlah wahai hati. Doamu mungkin tidak makbul sekelip mata. Barangkali Allah akan memakbulkannya di lain masa. Barangkali Allah ada hadiah yang lebih berharga untukmu!

Aliran sungai merah terasa semakin deras mengalir ke kepala...

Akal : Cinta kepada manusia yang gila seperti itu, hanya layak disandarkan kepada Allah. Allah menarik cintamu kerana Allah lebih mencintaimu. Allah merindui doa dan tangisan hambanya. Allah mahu kau kembali mengindahkan cintamu kepadaNya!

Hati mulai menangis... Sepi... Kesal...

Not mine-because I am NOT a valentine

All praise and thanks are due to Allah the Rabb of the Worlds and peace and blessings on His Messengerr the last and final Nabi and Rasool, our master Muhammadr, his family and companions and all those who follow them in excellence until the Day of Judgment. Thereafter.

They say, 'Imitation is the most sincere form of praise.' I say, 'Imitation is the surest sign of mental slavery.'

So what is Valentine's Day?

This is what my research on Google produced.

"In Ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Feast of Lupercalia started the next day.

During these times boys and girls were segregated. However, the young people had a custom that began on the eve of the Festival of Lupercalia. The girl's names were written on pieces of paper and inserted into jars. Each boy then drew a girl's name from the jar and they were partners throughout the Festival. After being paired, the children would often continue to see each other throughout the year and on occasion even fell in love and got married.

Emperor Claudius II of Rome, also known as Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time recruiting men as soldiers. He believed that the men did not want to leave their sweethearts and cancelled all engagements and marriages throughout Rome. St. Valentine, a priest of Rome at the time, secretly married couples. He was eventually caught, arrested and condemned. He was beaten to death and beheaded on February 14th, around the year 270.

Lupercalia was a feast to a heathen God. Pastors and priests of the early Christian church did away with the pagan custom by replacing the names of the girls with the names of saints. They chose St. Valentine's Day as the day of celebration for the new feast.

Now, Alhamdulillah we all know the Islamic reasons why celebrating Valentine's Day is Haraam and why all the actions associated with it – contacting and being alone with non-Mahram men and women, flirting, having boyfriends and girlfriends, carrying on romances directly or on the internet and so on, are all Haraam.

I don't think in today's world there is any Muslim who can read and write and has access to the internet, who is ignorant enough to claim that he or she does not know that these things are actually Haraam. So I want to talk about another insidious and shameful aspect of this Festival of Shaytaan. I call it the 'The thin edge of the wedge'.

They called it freedom. And freedom is a good word, so we thought nothing of it. Freedom to do whatever they want, to be themselves, to express themselves, to have space; they called it. It sounded like a good thing. After all don't we all believe that the fight for freedom is the good fight and don't we support all those who are fighting to gain freedom?

We should have asked, 'Freedom from what? To do what? What does 'express yourself' mean? What is the meaning of 'space?'

Then we would have learnt that freedom meant, freedom from all restraint, all rules of decency, all that holds the fabric of moral, socially responsible society together. But then, isn't that what we used to call anarchy?

Yes it is, they said. But then you see, those are the quaint and frankly embarrassingly idiotic and backward, middle class values that we used to live by. High time we jettisoned them and joined the mainstream of modern society in the global village.

They forgot to tell us that in the global village the dominant culture is the culture of consumerism. The culture of consumption. The culture of self-indulgence with the only limit being the spending power of your credit card. They forgot to tell us that one day we have to pay for what we buy. That one day we will be called to account. They forgot to tell us that in the process of creating this society it was necessary to create a high degree of irresponsibility, a sense that only 'I' matter and the rest can go to hell. 'Each man for himself and the Devil take the last.' 'Family' in this society is a 6 – letter word; a bad word because families epitomize responsibility. And responsibility is another 14 – letter bad word. Responsible people save. They don't spend. They conserve. They don't waste. They become sedate. They don't follow fads and trends. Responsible people don't support consumerism. They are bad news.

So the family must be destroyed.

To do that promiscuity and immorality must first be encouraged. But you can't call it that, can you? That will draw too much flak. So they invented another phrase – adult consent.

Now being adult is all about taking decisions about your own life without anyone else having the right to 'interfere', right? If two adults want to do something who is anyone else, be it society, be it the law or be it religion, to dictate what they can and can't do? That is the opposite of freedom, right? And the opposite of freedom is oppression, right? And oppression is a bad thing, right?

So adult consent came into being. And we supported it.

Now to take the 'fight for freedom' to its next stage and that is, to define who is an adult. Age of consent. 21 years? Too old. People mature long before that. So 18? Why not 16? Ah!! The joy of a 16 year old!! But we can't talk like that. 16 is the ideal age of consent because a person is mature at 16, so why should they be prevented from exercising their right to freedom any longer? That sounds much better.

How do you make promiscuity acceptable in a society that insists on decency and morality?

A very powerful way is to call it 'Love'. A 'good' 4 – letter word for the real 4 – letter word for what it really is, 'Lust'. They promoted it in the form of a festival – Valentine's Day. 'What's the harm in it?' – they asked. It's only little boys and girls (of course most of them are not so little) expressing love for their sweethearts. Originally even Christian clergy opposed it but then, they succumbed.

Naturally Valentine's Day promotes the consumerist culture that is the real agenda – give people reasons to spend more and more. So let them express 'love'. Now what does that make those who say that this way of expressing love is Haraam? At best, killjoy Mullahs. At worst Islamist, terrorist, retarded, backward, oppressive – see the name game?

What did Allah tell us about such festivals and celebrations of Shaytaan? He said:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُواْ مِمَّا فِي الأَرْضِ حَلاَلاً طَيِّباً وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ

إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاء وَأَن تَقُولُواْ عَلَى اللّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

Al-Baqara 2:168. O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth, and follow not the footsteps of Shaytaan. Verily, he is to you an open enemy. 169. [Shaytaan] commands you only what is evil and Fahsha (shameful, sinful), and that you should say against Allah what you know not.

How do you make promiscuity acceptable in a society that insists on decency and morality?

Another excellent way is through advertisements, serials and movies. Bollywood, Hollywood and all the commercial product and service advertisements do a cardinal job of chipping away at the bastions of social morals until what was unmentionable a decade ago becomes fashionable in this decade. We call it entertainment. We call it being progressive. We call it being chic and those who don't subscribe are the squares.

That's the thin edge of the wedge. Once it gets into the doorway, the rest is inevitable, only a matter of time. So we thought nothing of a biscuit advertisement that showed a scantily dressed woman lounging languidly on a couch. We thought nothing of an ice cream stick ad which showed a woman licking the stick in a gesture that clearly reminded you of something else. We thought nothing of a pocket PC ad that focused more on the curve of the buttock supporting the pocket than the PC which protruded therefrom. And all the while we comforted ourselves with the thought that after all these were only bill boards featuring some women we did not know personally. So they can't hurt us, can they?

We did not see or chose not to see the real agenda – social engineering. Changing the standards of society. Changing what is acceptable and what is not. Changing what is considered taboo and what is not. Moving something from 'unthinkable' to 'aspirational'. You did not think it could be done, did you? Well, just look at the way advertising and films have changed over the last 3 decades and you will see how things that our parent's generation would have had a heart attack to see don't even attract a comment from us.

But why do you need a woman's naked body to sell ice cream? Isn't that oppression of women? No it isn't. You see, she is doing it of her own free will. Just like playing tennis in micro-skirts. Wearing a burqa is oppression. But what if the one wearing the burqa is doing it of her own free will? Not possible. The burqa is not religion. It is subservience. Ask Sarkozy. So it must be banned. But forcing people to take clothes off is as much oppression as forcing them to put them on, isn't it? Ah!! You will never understand. But it doesn't matter, because you don't matter. You are too old fashioned and out of date.

We watched pre-marital and extra-marital relationship scenes in movies in the name of story line and plot and marveled at the acting skill (after all it is all acting and not real, we comforted ourselves) until suddenly one day our children started to have similar relationships. When we watched the movie we never thought it would happen in our own home, did we? But then weren't we accepting the new world order when we paid to watch the movie? Was it not we who told our children that pre-marital or extra-marital sex was okay, when we watched the movie together as a family? Was it not we who gave our children the message that our morals had changed and that it was no longer necessary for them to take us as role models but instead to take the actors and actresses as worthy of emulation?

Then came television and the lovely serials, ending each day on a note of suspense that ensured that we watched what happened the next day. Bold & Beautiful, which may have been bold but was certainly not beautiful. Relationships of men and women that eventually got so confused that the woman who was once the wife of the father is now the wife of the son while simultaneously being the paramour of someone else. What freedom!! And where was all this happening and being watched? In our own living rooms. In homes where women were in purdah, extra-marital relationships were displayed in full detail and watched by the whole family completely without shame. Why? Because of course we believed it couldn't happen to us and what we were seeing was 'only acting'.

And for those of us who were among the watchers exclusively of National Geographic, talk shows, news and Animal Planet – well you see, it is the commercials that ensure that you can see these shows and what is in the commercials? Pushing the boundaries of desire, daring, challenging norms and making the impossible, possible. Not one of those words that I have used, will you challenge.

Not one of them in themselves is objectionable. But look at a commercial – almost anyone of them and you will see each of these concepts in a totally different light. But we didn't think about that, did we? Because we don't think, period.  And for those who don't watch any TV at all there are the newspapers, magazines and the ever present, ever more daring bill boards.

The thin edge of the wedge that was inserted in the doorway had very effectively worked its way in, and the door was now wide open.

So now we go the whole hog!! Homosexuality. Ah!! Before you start screaming, 'Stop!' It's all about freedom, see? And about adult consent. And about who is an adult. Did you not agree to all these concepts already? Were you not on the forefront right alongside us in the fight for our right to exercise our freedom and express ourselves and to have our personal space and to fulfill our desires? Well, so what's the problem now? It's all about desire, see?

Goodbye, old chap. It's now our world. Ask your children if you don't believe me.

In the Washington March for Gay Pride in 1993, they chanted, "We're here. We're queer. And we're coming after your children."

You say it's not natural? Well neither is ice cream.

antara solat dan couple ?

Satu situasi yang kita lihat dalam kalangan remaja masa kini sama ada sedar ataupun tidak, adalah budaya'couple' yg begitu diangkat sebagai satu kewajipan berbanding SOLAT. Tidak dinafikan juga ada diantara mereka yang ber'couple' ini juga menunaikan solat lima waktu sehari semalam. Namun sebahagian besar daripadanya masih lalai daripada menunaikan solat. Apa yangg saya cuba sampaikan kali ini adalah berkenaan perkara yang WAJIB dalam hidup kita, lebih-lebih lagi sebagai seorang remaja muslim.

Persepsi kebanyakkan remaja hari ini mengenai 'couple' adalah adalah 1 budaya yang menjadi kewajipan. Tanpa 'couple', seseorang itu dianggap tidak laku ataupun kolot, kerana tidak mahu bersosial dan sebagainya. Persepsi ini adalah salah sama sekali, bahkan dalam ISLAM sendiri tidak ada satu pun ayat AL QURAN yg mengangkat budaya couple ini sebagai perkara yg WAJIB.

Ada pun munculnya beberapa golongan yg menggunakan ayat Al Quran:

"Dan tiap-tiap jenis Kami ciptakan berpasangan, supaya kami dapat mengingati (kekuasaan kami dan mentauhidkan Kami)."
 (Surah Adz-Za'ariyat, ayat 49)

Mereka sewenang-wenangnya menggunakan ayat ini bagi 'menghalalkan' tujuan untuk ber'couple'. Ayat ini juga digunakan untuk meminta nombor telefon supaya dapat berkenalan. Sama ada sedar atau tidak, perbuatan ini sudah menyalahgunakan AL QURAN utk kepentingan diri sendiri. Lihat sambungan ayat diatas:

"(Katakanlah wahai Muhammad kepada mereka): "Maka segeralah kamu kembali kepada Allah (dengan bertaubat dan taat), sesungguhnya aku diutuskan Allah kepada kamu, sebagai pemberi amaran yang nyata."
 (Surah Adz-Za'ariyat, ayat 50)

Dalam ayat ke 49 itu tadi, telah dinyatakan mengenai ciptaan ALLAH secara berpasangan agar dapat mengingati kekuasaan-NYA, bukan utk tujuan berkenal-kenalan antara lelaki dan perempuan semata-mata. Ayat ke 50 pula menyeru agar manusia bertaubat dan mentaati perintah ALLAH dan Rasul-NYA. Ada pun perintah ALLAH dan Rasul-NYA (Nabi Muhammad Salallhu Alahi Wasalam) itu adalah WAJIB, salah satu daripadanya adalah SOLAT!

Tuntutan SOLAT dalam ISLAM

Mendirikan SOLAT (Menunaikan SOLAT) adalah perkara yg menjadi kewajipan bagi seorang muslim. Solat juga merupakan Rukun Islam yg kedua, iaitu selepas mengucapkan Dua Kalimah Syahadah. Solat juga merupakan perkara terpenting dalam membentuk peribadi diri seorang muslim. Perkara kebaikkan akan menjadi sia-sia sekiranya tidak menunaikan solat, kerana solat adalah nadi dan kunci bagi segala amalan kita di dunia ini.
Mari kita perhatikan ayat Al Quran yg berikut:

"Dan dirikanlah sembahyang (wahai Muhammad, engkau dan umatmu), pada dua bahagian siang (pagi dan petang), dan pada waktu-waktu yang berhampiran dengannya dari waktu malam. Sesungguhnya amal-amal kebajikan (terutama sembahyang) itu menghapuskan kejahatan. Perintah-perintah Allah yang demikian adalah menjadi peringatan bagi orang-orang yang mahu beringat.".
(Surah Hud, Ayat 114)

Ayat ini menjadi dalil yang jelas menyatakan solat itu adalah WAJIB. Dan disambung pada ayat seterusnya:

"Dan sabarlah (wahai Muhammad, engkau dan umatmu, dalam mengerjakan suruhan Allah), kerana sesungguhnya Allah tidak akan menghilangkan pahala orang-orang yang berbuat kebaikan."

ALLAH telah mengingatkan agar hamba-NYA bersabar dalam menunaikan kewajipan dalam agama dan tidak mengeluh dalam beramal. Dalam ayat 116 pula dingatkan agar kita tidak mencontohi umat terdahulu yg telah dibinasakan, walhal mereka itu mempunyai keupayaan untuk melarang org lain utk tidak melakukan mungkar.

Dalam ayat lain juga ada dinyatakan mengenai kewajipan solat ini:

"Dirikanlah olehmu sembahyang ketika gelincir matahari hingga waktu gelap malam, dan (dirikanlah) sembahyang Subuh sesungguhnya sembahyang Subuh itu adalah disaksikan (keistimewaannya)."
( Surah Al Isra', Ayat 78)

Perihal solat juga ada dinyatakan dalam hadith Rasulullah Salallahu Alahi Wasalam:

Dari Jabir bin Abdullah ra. bahawa Nabi Muhammad Salallahu Alahi Wasalam didatangi oleh Jibril as dan berkata kepadanya:
“Bangunlah dan lakukan solat.” Maka baginda (Rasulullah Salallahu Alaihi Wasalam) melakukan solat Zuhur ketika matahari tergelincir. Kemudian waktu Asar menjelang dan Jibril berkata, “Bangun dan lakukan solat.” Maka baginda melakukan solat Asar ketika panjang bayangan segala benda sama dengan panjang benda itu. Kemudian waktu Maghrib menjelang dan Jibril berkata, “Bangun dan lakukan solat.” Maka baginda melakukan solat Maghrib ketika matahari terbenam. Kemudian waktu Isya` menjelang dan Jibril berkata, “Bangun dan lakukan solat.” Maka baginda melakukan solat Isya` ketika syafaq (langit merah) menghilang. Kemudian waktu Subuh menjelang dan Jibril berkata, “Bangun dan lakukan solat.” Maka baginda melakukan solat Subuh ketika waktu fajar menjelang.
(Hadith Riwayat Ahmad, Nasai dan Tirmizi. )

Begitu jelas dan terang lagikan bersuluh mengenai SOLAT, seperti yang dinyatakan dalam AL QURAN dan Hadith. Solat adalah menjadi penyelamat kehidupan kita di dunia dan akhirat. Solat jugalah menjadi ikatan istimewa antara kita dengan ALLAH, Pencipta kita yang Agung. Fikirkan dahulu soal 'in a relationship' kita dengan ALLAH, insyaALLAH akan diberikan pula olehnya seorang manusia yang menjadi teman 'in a relationship' untuk kita.Lebih manis lagi, ALLAH akan memberikan segala-galanya dengan keadaan HALAL selagi mana kita patuh dengan SYARIAT yang telah ditetapkan oleh-NYA.WALLAHUALAM :)