The guest called death

2011/08/17

17th day or Ramadhan

The smart human being is fully aware of the coming of death. Why wouldn’t we? After all it’s the only thing that is absolutely certain in life. All of the other things that we will experience are full of uncertainty. The job we will get, how many children we will have, how much money we will make, etc., are all in the list of uncertainties in life.

On the other hand, death is “the real thing”, and as beautifully articulated by Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, “Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death”. Death is a guest that will come to everyone no matter what. Whether they lock themselves in a high tower, run like hell from it, or whatever effort they do, death will not be deceived. It’s time is fixed, and it can’t be changed. Those who are meant to die will die. And those who are meant to live will live on.

A great hero in the Muslim tradition, Khalid ibn Al Walid, fought in numerous battles during his life. He was one of the bravest warriors who fought side by side the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is said that he always longed for death in the battlefield, as God gave glad tidings for those who fight and die for His cause. However, ironically the bravest warrior died on his death bed, despite all his near death encounters in the battlefield.

Thus, we shouldn’t be afraid of death. Rather, we should be more concerned about how we walk towards it, the things that we do while we’re alive. Are we being good human beings that benefit other people, or are we wasting our time with things that are of no benefit for us and others? Surely we should think deeply upon our lives so that we don’t regret it when the guest called “death” comes to us.

Appreciating the blessing of speaking

2011/08/08

8th day of Ramadhan 1432 Hijriah (2011)

To be able to speak is indeed an amazing blessing. If we would just reflect on how complex the act of speaking is, we would use this blessing for better use. Speaking involves so many organs in its process, even up till now, scientists are still unable to create a unified theory about it. It involves the tongue, the lungs, obviously the nervous system, the mouth, and a whole lot more. Not to mention all the different languages that we have. An amazing act indeed!

The Muslim grammatical scholars agree that the ability to speak is one of the main characteristics which differs man from animal. In fact, many of them call man, the talking beast.

But when we think about how it is used nowadays, we should be ashamed of ourselves. We use it to insult people, for saying shameless words, for gossiping, and other displeasing acts, showing us that we may not deserve to have this amazing blessing.

In the Qur’an, it is said that the norm is, whatever we say, there is nothing good or useful in it. The words that we utter are useless, EXCEPT the words that we use to encourage charity, to encourage acts of righteousness / good deeds, and the words that we use to make conciliation or peace between people.

So in order to truly appreciate the amazing blessing of speaking, we should ponder how we use it. Do we say things that are good, pure, and beneficial? Or is it the contrary? May we be given pure tongues that bring goodness to whoever the listener is.

People Who Challenge and Change Nature

Humans are given free will by God. Choices are ours to take.

This is also true in regard to our attitude towards nature. We have the choice to tamper with nature and adjust it according to our will, and destroying it through our greed or we can cherish it and wisely benefit from it. It seems that our civilization is opting for the first option, which I don’t think is a very wise choice.

We change things in nature to what we think is best for us with our limited knowledge. We tamper with genetic attributes of organisms for our economical benefit, not knowing what the consequences are. We change our appearances through plastic surgery to be more attractive to others (did you know that there were 11.7 million cosmetic procedures in the US in 2006?). We create artificial rain to fill up dams not knowing what effect it may have on global climate. We kill animals that seem dangerous and not beneficial with little or no knowledge about them.

Humans have a tendency to want to take control of everything which is of interest. Unfortunately, we severely lack the knowledge we need to be able to tamper with the ways of nature. Muslims are ordered to think about Allah’s creation, but for goal of understanding it, and realize the Creator’s greatness. However, muslims are ordered to be very careful in utilizing the creations (nature). In fact, the Quran has warned the danger of following the people that change nature. As said in Al Maidah verse 119,


The approximate meaning (Picktall’s translation):

"And surely I will lead them astray, and surely I will arouse desires in them, and surely I will command them and they will cut the cattle's ears, and surely I will command them and they will change Allah's creation. Whoso chooses Satan for a patron instead of Allah is verily a loser and his loss is manifest.”

The verse talks about the disbelievers, which take Satan as their helper. They also walk the path that Satan has built to misguide humanity, giving them false hopes and delusions of grandeur. Allah is the One Who permits this to happen, and verily it is He who knows best. One of their main characteristics is that they will change the nature of Allah’s creation to what they think is better.

Every creation has its purpose, no matter how bad or ugly it may seem for us. Take cockroaches for example. It might be a bit difficult to find anything positive related to this insect. We always relate it to trash, disgusting, and other filthy words. However, cockroaches can serve as bio-control agents in agriculture, to control lepidopteron pests such as moths and butterflies. The ugliest person in our eyes might be the kindest of all, which is what really counts. We should never judge Allah’s creations to be good or bad using our simple and incapable minds, more else change them into what we think is better.

May we all be protected from false hopes and dreams, and be among the righteous.

Keywords: genetic modification, an nisa, 119, greed, Satan, Nature, Choices

Emigrating To avoid oppression

The word emigration means moving out from one place to another. Nowadays, emigration from one country to another country is very casual. As a matter of fact, for mostly economic reasons, more than 400.000 Britons have emigrated from Britain since 2006. Another example is the emigration of Carpe Varde citizens to the US due to the hardships they face there.

The reasons for people to emigrate may vary from economy, chances of studying, following a spouse, to avoiding oppression. I'd like to emphasize on the last reason, which is to avoid oppression. Many people in many countries have to comprehend with the oppression they receive, either from their own people, or from invading countries. We can find many kinds of oppressions. Some might not even realize that they are oppressed.

In Indonesia for example, oppression is an everyday meal. The rich oppress the poor, the poor oppress the poorer, the strong oppress the weak, and the weak oppress the weaker. This use to only be the case in big cities such as Jakarta, but nowadays it is beginning to become widespread. There is not much to do though, as the media helps spread and mold this situation. It oppresses the mind of Indonesians through continuous nonsense promoting oppression of others (such as useless comedy, mystisism, gossips, entertainment, violence, etc), for their own financial benefits and ideologies. And the worst part is that people can't get enough of it.

Anyway, there are times when people try to fight oppression, but cannot overpower it due to its overwhelming dominance. At this point, the best option is to retreat, and emigrate to find a better place to uphold justice, at least to a place where there is no oppression towards them.

This is also the case in Islam, as Allah has said in the Qur'an, Surah An-Nisa verse 97-100. The verses say that people who are in the state of wronging themselves (when death reaches them) due to the influence/oppression of their society will be among the ones who are in ultimate misfortune. There is exception to this, which is for those who are weak and do not have the knowledge to devise a plan to emigrate by themselves.

Emigrating in the name of Allah in order to seek justice is praised and is a good deed in Islam. Even Prophet Muhammad had to emigrate from Makkah his home city, to Madina, after his people oppressed and drove him away. But then he came back after building the strength of the Muslims to uphold justice and bring goodness to the city. The Prophet's situation somehow mimic the condition that Muslims face today, especially in the west. Where many Muslims are oppressed, taunted and stripped of their freedom to implement their beliefs.

Emigrating should always be looked as a choice when we feel that we can do more good at another place. Whether if it is to emigrate to a new village, a new city, a new province, or even a new country. We should be strong at heart and head and try to let go of the ties which we call home, nation, etc. All of that is on the earth actually belongs to God, and it is for us to manage and benefit from.

keywords: An nisa 97 98 99 100 emigration hijrah oppression islam