Of dosa-pahala, sincerity, and keredhaan

Yesterday I went to see a pharmacist to ask about a suitable supplement for my lightheaded problem. He said I might not be having enough rest, and he suggested that I took a multivitamin+multimineral supplement. Basically something that has iron in it to promote red blood cells formation.

Anyway, I kinda disagree with his statement that I might not be having enough rest, because as we all know, my work doesn't require a lot of energy. But o well, I've decided to not come to the office next week anyway to get a good rest at home.

By the way, I think the real reason I've been sick a lot of time after I came back to Malaysia is because I've been doing a lot of sins (ceh konon before this baik sangat la hahaha). Let's face it. Being in a relationship like this alone makes me commit sins everyday (nak kawin skrg jugak). And as people say, being sick helps our small sins disappear (This is what I hear, I don't know any dalil for this).

Speaking about sins, since we were small, we've been told about dosa-pahala. If we do something good, we'll get pahala and go to heaven. If we do something bad, we'll get dosa and go to hell. We've also been told that if we do jemaah prayer, we'll get 27 times more pahala compared to doing it alone. If we do this, we'll get this amount of pahala. If we do that, we'll get this amount of pahala. Before I knew it, I've been counting my pahala and tried to do things that would give me more pahala.

Then one day it striked me.

When we do something, thinking about the amount of pahala that we are going to get, wouldn't that makes us be not-that-sincere in doing it? I mean, we'll be doing it for the promised pahala, instead of doing it in search for keredhaan Allah.

That thought 5-6 years back marked the stop of my pahala counting/comparing.

I've stopped counting pahala now. I even tried to not know how much pahala one good deed would give me. Instead, I try to do good deeds because I know Allah loves it, and I try to not commit any bad things because I know Allah hates it (although buat jugak tu huhu). After all, I just want Allah's love. His redha. All the things about pahala and heaven, those come second to me (I'm still scared of the hell, though, of course).

As the first step, I'm trying to strengthen my prayer. After all, it's the most basic thing, and also our invisible 'shield', isn't it?

One step at a time.. :)

p/s: Sedang berazam menjadi muslim yg lebih baik ni. Semangat ni. Tak tipu! :P

The usage of the word 'Allah'

I want to voice out my opinion on the controversy on the usage of the word "Allah" in Herald Catholic (that's the correct name of the newspaper, if I'm not mistaken).

Yes, I respect the court's decision, but I think this case is larger than it looks. Maybe based on the constitution, the newspaper has the right to use the word (according to the judge), but the effect of the usage would be huge. This will make those with low understanding confuse, and who knows the confusion it will bring to the children, especially. This issue has touched the sensitivity of the Muslim.

They say they want to use the word "Allah" as a translation to the word 'god'. But please, the translation to the word 'god' is 'tuhan', not 'Allah'. The word 'Allah' refers specifically to the God of the Muslims. Not everyone knows the word 'Allah', anyway.

Even if we look at the translation to the syahadah of the Muslims, "Aku naik saksi bahawa tiada tuhan yang disembah melainkan Allah, dan aku naik saksi bahawa Nabi Muhammad itu pesuruh Allah." If they say god=tuhan=Allah, we can modify the translation to "Aku naik saksi bahawa tiada Allah yg disembah melainkan Allah"? This is wrong, isn't it?

Let's look at the translation of surah Al-Ikhlas:

"Katakanlah bahawa Allah itu maha Esa. Allah adalah Ilah yg bergantung kepadanya segala urusan. Dia tidak beranak dan tidak pula diperanakkan. Dan tidak ada seorang pun yg setara denganNya."

I mean, really, the word 'Allah' is a kata nama khas, the name of the God of the Muslims, whereas the word 'god' is a just a kata nama, a general noun. To the Muslims, yes, when we say 'God', we refer to 'Allah', but not to the followers of other religions.

If they say 'god'='tuhan'='Allah', then it should be applicable to the other religions as well. For example, "Allah agama Buddha ialah...., Allah agama Hindu ialah...." This is totally wrong. I bet other religions do not want to associate their Gods with 'Allah' as well. I mean, really, 'Allah' is the God for the Muslim.

When we say 'Allah', we refer to The Allah. There is only one Allah in this world. Allah is one.

Allah is the God of the Muslims.

Just because you can do it, does not mean you have to do it.

Please.

p/s: Read Tun. M view on this here.

I am fasting today

I am fasting today. Need to start replacing those days I skipped..

Actually I did not make any niat to fast until this morning, when I wake up for sahur. Which means I wouldn't have fasted if I did not wake up on time. And I thought I wouldn't wake up on time since I went to bed quite late (12:50am).

Miraculously I felt my heart jerking at 4:58am this morning, and so I was awake. My alarm had not ringing yet since I set it to go off at 5:15am. Normally I would pull my blanket and continue sleeping but then I remembered these words uttered by one of the speakers during my marriage course:

"Kalau kamu terjaga malam2 tu, bermakna Allah nak kamu bercakap dengan dia.."

Then I remembered that I wanted to fast today. Allah tolong kejutkan rupanya. Alhamdulillah.

And so I pushed my blanket away and headed straight to the bathroom to take my shower.

When there are too many unusual cases, it's fake

There are at least three cases of standing praying mat in the news these past few days.

The pattern is the same--one praying mat 'leads' in front of the others, like an imam, and the others look like the 'followers' at the back, like the makmum.

The three cases happened one after another, in different states. After the first case was out in the news.

I mean, come on. They are fake, okay. Even if they might be real, I would say only the first one might have been real, but the others? Nahh~

The pictures show that the praying mats are so-called 'standing'. But to me, they aren't. Instead, they are in a position that is not even close to standing. It's like the center of the praying mats were pulled up and whoever did it adjusted the mats so that they hold the shape and let the praying mats stayed that way.

Come on..the praying mats are made of some kind of hard fabric, not the soft, flowing ones..They can hold their shapes better than the other fabrics. We can make them look like 'standing' if we want to. Can't these people see??

I bet those pranksters were busy laughing right now.

The problem with Muslims in Malaysia

I have just read an entry by Tun Mahathir in his blog, which then led me to ex-mufti Perlis's blog. Both entries discuss the problem with Muslims (particularly in Malaysia), where we tend to follow whatever that is said by the scholars of Islam, without actually knowing the truth behind what is said.

This is actually a very common attitude of Muslims in Malaysia. We tend to follow without asking. Whoever dares to ask or question anything that is said by anyone who is considered as 'wise,' is usually considered as arrogant.

As Malaysia is getting modernized, the people should become more educated. Not to say we should be more liberal, but we should be smarter.

This mengikut membabi buta attitude should stop.

p/s: As I was driving along Jalan Gombak, I saw a banner by PAS. Since wind was blowing the banner, I couldn't read the banner properly, but I saw that they were organizing a talk entitled "Bersatu somethingsomething BN." I was like, "Maybe they want to merge with BN. That's good, but I doubt it. This is all politic." Then the wind stopped and I could actually read the title properly, it said, "Bersatu tolak BN." Deym. I can't understand why the so-called Islamic party is spreading hatred among the people. Islam is all about peace and unity, not hatred. Funny.

Kartika's caning

I would say Kartika's issue is one of the country's current hottest issues, and it has caught the attention of a lot of international media as well. Some say it is unreasonable for someone to be caned for drinking, while others support the court's decision. Personally, I think we should just keep quite about this thing as we should respect the court's decision. In addition to that, Kartina wants it anyway. Although we may question the motive behind her making a press conference and all on this, o well, just cane her already.

Here I want to share a blog entry about the punishment for drinking for the muslim. It's a long entry, but read it anyway; it's worth the time.

p/s: Really, Islam is simple, yet it is broad. So broad that I think I only know about 1% of it, although I am a muslim myself. Shame.