Mutiara Daurah 1 (2013) - Q1

~Bismillah~

Q1: Who are the successful ummah?

"And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided. And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful."

- Ali Imran: 103-104

  A successful ummah are those who/whose:

hold on to the rope of Allah, do not become separated, unite together, hearts are brought together, and tie up the kinship (silaturrahim). As long as we have these characteristics, we will soon become the most successful ummah on earth; who would definitely strive together in enjoining what is good and prevent what is bad. Oppss, don't forget another important element that makes a great ummah; ummah wasatha, which should also be taken into account! Who are the ummah wasatha mentioned by Allah? See the following verse:

"And thus we have made you a just community that you will be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you. And We did not make the qiblah which you used to face except that We might make evident who would follow the Messenger from who would turn back on his heels. And indeed, it is difficult except for those whom Allah has guided. And never would Allah have caused you to lose your faith. Indeed Allah is, to the people, Kind and Merciful."

- Al Baqarah: 143

What do we mean by "a just community" as mentioned by Allah in the above verse? "A just community" here is simply referring back to "al ummah al 'adl" which means an ummah or a community which is balance between dunya (worldly matters) and akhirah (hereafter). Still don't get it do you? Okay. Allow me to make it clear to you. 

Alright. 

What Allah means as "a just community" or "al ummah al 'adl" as stated in the verse is that a community which makes its dunya as a preparation (bekalan) in order to live a new life in the hereafter (akhirah). More specifically, a just person should not be bias to any of the two kinds of worlds. One cannot be too secular or too liberal in the sense that he believes that he's going to live in this world forever. Therefore, he needs to equip himself with unlimited entertainments. This is where the culture of hedonism has started to widespread among the people nowadays. Yet, one can't also be too religious in the sense that he thinks other worldly matters are not important and cannot help him towards Allah's jannah. Thus, he decides to stay in the masjid and pray all day and all night long without concerning about his family and other people who are in need. Well, what I can say is that this kind of thinking is also not right or should I say it's totally unacceptable! Islam doesn't work that way. What Islam means by ummah wasatha is that we should know how to balance up our dunya and akhirah as in make our dunya as the place where we can prepare ourselves properly in order to live a better life in akhirah as soon as we are called to return to Him. Got it now? I hope so.

*Inilah antara mutiara berharga yang Zmah dapat dalam daurah pertama bagi sem ini. Sebenarnya banyak lagi. Tapi ini yang paling best dan memberi kesan di hati.

;)