Sources of barakah

~Bismillah~

So sorry for not updating this blog for so long. You know... first week of study. Always busy with the add and drop. But no matter how, in sha Allah, today I'm going to refresh this blog. Sorry again to keep you waiting for my new updates.

Remember that previously I did promise you to share some of the knowledge I got from the Productive Muslim course that I had attended last time? Again, I'm really really sorry for not be able to do so much earlier. I got some problems that I needed to deal with at that moment. So, I hardly to sign in to my blog. However, today I'm not going to share all I got from the course. Just a few that I think are the most important ones and you should also be knowing. Hence, today, I'm only going to share with you about barakah.

Q: What is barakah?

A: An attachment of Divine goodness to a thing... (actually the definition of barakah is much longer than this but I didn't have time to write them all. As soon as I get the slides, I'll let you know)

There are 18 sources of barakah.

Good intentions. Every of our deeds should be based on our intention.

Belief and piety in Allah. Taqwa 'alallah.

Putting you trust in Allah. Just trust that Allah always has good plans for us and His plans are always the best.

Reciting Quran. Spend at least 30 minutes per day to recite the Quran; before or after each fard prayers.

Saying bismillah. Remember Allah everytime before we start doing a certain task.

Eating with people. Just like Prophet Ibrahim as always did. He never ate alone. Whenever he has some meals, he would always invite other people to share the meals with him.

Honesty in trade. When we are being honest in our business transaction, Allah will make our rezeki murah.

Dua. By reciting dua each day, it will remind us of Allah always; the only One who makes things happen. By reciting dua, it shows that no matter how easy or how hard our lives might be, we should always be dependent on Him because everything happens on His wills.

Halal income/money. By utilising halal income/money, our rezeki will be more berkat.

Following the sunnah. Simple sunnahs like smiling, giving charity, helping people who are in need, being in the state of purity, eating with the right hand, etc. would be satisfied. 

Praying istikhara. Istikhara is not necessarily to be done when we are doubtful about something. The truth is, we perform istikhara prayer, after we have made a certain decision about something. It's like this. When we have a problem, we think about it and at the same time, we ask for other people's advice too. Then, based on our opinions and their advice, we try to come out with a decision. However, we are not sure whether or not the decision we have made is a good one. Then, we pray istikhara to confirm it with Allah. But, whatever outcome it may be, we're prepared to accept it because we know that Allah knows what's the best for us. As simple as that.

Giving thanks to Allah. Always be grateful to Allah for all His ni'mah because if it wasn't because of Him, we won't be able to enjoy things in this world as we please.  Being thankful to Allah shows how a good servant we can be in the eyes of Him.  

Charity. As you know, charity does not decrese pur money, otherwise it increases it without we realizing. It's like this. The more we give, the more we'll get, although not from the human beings themselves, but surely from Allah. So, nothing to worry about. We shall get our share. So stop being stingy.

Tying ties of kinship. Remember, the first thing done by Prophet Muhammad saw when he first stepped foot into Madinah was to tie kinship between the Muhajirin and Ansar. So, why don't we do the same?

Waking up early. You must have heard these phrases before, "First come, first serve" and "Early birds get the worms." So, think about it. If you really want "the worms," just wake up early before anyone grabs them. If not, they will be finished just before the time and you'll be at lost.

Marriage. Here comes the best part! Surely marriage is one of the sources of barakah. Please don't disagree with me. Even Prophet Muhammad saw himself got married, so why don't us? When we marry to someone, Allah will definitely open for us the door of rezeki, maybe not necessarily in terms of money. It could be in a kind of children, easy to get knowledge, and so forth.

Salah. Obviously! By performing salah, we'll always feel that we are closed to Allah, our God, our Creator.When we so-called rajin solat, Allah will surely make our "dreams come true." When we sort of have a tight and good relationship with our God, He will love us more and grant all our wishes. Isn't this a golden chance for us that all other people, non-Muslims I mean, don't have?

Istighfar. We should seek for Allah's forgiveness not only after committing a certain sinful act, but all the time. Istighfar can purify our heart and easily remove all the black dots inside our heart.

May this piece be useful to you. Don't by shy to share them with your friends and family too. May Allah bless.

Take care. Berehh! ^_<

Moshi Moshi Zimah Zaiwani (Episod 2) "M A S A"

(Al-'Asr: 1-3)

Bercakap tentang masa, ada lima perkara nak diingatkan;

kaya sebelum miskin
muda sebelum tua
lapang sebelum sempit
sihat sebelum sakit
hidup sebelum mati

"Demi masa, sesungguhnya manusia kerugian. Melainkan yang beriman dan yang beramal soleh,
yang berpesan-pesan dengan kebenaran dan berpesan-pesan dengan kesabaran."

Ingat 5 sebelum 5.

Masa takkan menunggu kita. Sebaliknya, kita yang harus kejar masa dan usah
biarkan masa memotong kita.

Selamat beramal ;)

Pengalamanku belajar English? Hmm...

~Bismillah~

English language has been my second language since I was very small. After acquiring the first language, which is Bahasa Melayu, my parents started sending me to Tadika Amal Gombak, where I had first been exposed to English language learning and the process of learning the language continues right until I entered the university. It is known that  every teacher has his own ways or styles in teaching English language to his pupils. The same thing can be observed from my previous English teachers. However, I do not exactly remember the approaches used by my teachers during kindergarten and primary school but what I can recall is that a few techniques used by them during my secondary school.

            To begin with, learning English is not a piece of cake at first because it was totally a foreign language to me. Being brought up in a family whereby Bahasa Melayu is the medium of communication among its members had given me more challenges to learn English. Although I have learned the language since I was a little girl, but still it is difficult to grasp. This is because at home, I do not have a company who could speak English with and thus makes my English on its static position. It does not improve at all. Whenever I try to speak the language with my parents and siblings, they will always respond to me in Bahasa Melayu. The same thing applied when I was surrounded by my peers at school. There was one time where I talked to my friend in English. I did that for the sake of improving my English, plus English was my favorite subject in school. So, after we performed Zuhur prayer, I began chatting with my friend in English and her respond was, “Zimah, cakap Bahasa Melayu jelah. Anti punya English berteraburlah…” (Zimah, why don’t you just speak in Bahasa Melayu because your English is bad). Of course I did not blame her for saying that but somehow it had demotivated me to speak  English and it had caused me not to speak the language with anyone for such a long time.

At home, I learn English in a different way. Nobody have ever tutored me on how to be a good English speaker or writer. Most of the time I learn it on my own. When I was about standard six, I asked my mother to buy me more English story books from Enid Blyton series and I also watched some English cartoons on television. From there, I started to learn to language slowly and at my own pace. I learned about new words and some expressions that I barely heard before. But when my mother realized that I was going to sit for my UPSR, she began looking for a private tutor who could teach me English and she really took this matter seriously. Learning English with a personal teacher was too much different from learning in school. With him,  I was more focus on what I was learning and my tutor paid more attention to me. The first thing he would do was to trace all my weaknesses in English language. However, he only taught me on how to enhance my English writing and reading skills because the main reason my mother hired him for me was due to UPSR not because she really wanted me to master the language. On the other hand, he only concentrated on teaching me the correct pronunciation of words, basic grammar and writing essays, without considering the importance of speaking and listening skills. Furthermore,  he did not teach me English in English. He used Bahasa Melayu instead. Maybe he did that because he was afraid that I would not understand his teaching if he used English.

Things were too way different at school. In the English classroom, my teachers used different approaches to teach English to their students. This is because they need to cater to the needs of all students. In a proper English classroom, a teacher does not have time to give more attention to one student only, instead he needs to fulfill all his students’ requirements, which is to me is much more challenging. Back to my secondary school, when I was in form one until form three, my English teachers used the same approach when teaching us English. All I can say is that they were textbooks-oriented. This means they taught us English according to the syllabus given to them.

I  believe all schools in Malaysia provide English textbooks and exercise books for the students to carry everyday and use them in class. The same goes to my school. My teachers really made use of all the books provided for them and they taught us English blindly following the orderings of the chapters of the textbooks. They would go page by page. As for the exercise or practical book, they would ask us to do all the exercises according to topic orderly. Sometimes, they would just command us to complete the exercises in class but my other English teachers preferred to give them as our homework, which was the thing that we hated the most at that time. No kids would want homeworks. My lower forms English teachers I can say, were too rigid when teaching us the language especially for the grammar part. They would merely use textbooks and everyday would be the same.

  Nevertheless, things were different when they taught literature. When I was in form two, I still remember that the novel chosen for us to study was The Phantom of the Opera. Different from my other English teachers, my form two English teacher requested us to do a short play about the novel. Firstly, all of us would be assigned into 12 groups, according to the number of chapters of the novel. Then we were asked to perform the scene in the chapter for about 15 minutes during class time. We were permitted to ask for our friends from other classes to be the minor roles of the play yet we were not provided with anything as our props. So, we needed to make our own props in making our play more interesting. It was a competition actually and my teacher would give us marks according to the way we acted out our roles as well as the props we had made based on our creativity. To me, it was a very awesome activity that teachers should do when teaching literature to the students. Because if the students are only asked to read the novel on their own, it is not a guarantee that all of them would have finished reading them and this will give problems for the teacher to discuss the content of the novel in class.

As I moved to the upper forms of my secondary school, in which I was in form four and form five, the approaches used by my English teachers during that time were much unusual from the previous. The activities conducted by my teachers became more interesting and interactive, whereby all students got to involve in those activities, whether they liked it or not. Such activities included games like spelling bee, cursed box, quizzes, and some creative works. Usually, my English teachers would conduct a game pertaining to spelling English words and as mentioned above, the most game conducted by them in our English class was spelling bee, which was the most famous game done by English teachers from other forms as well. The main reason why they loved to instruct a spelling bee game in class was because according to them, most of the students at my school was so weak in spelling English words. So, in order to improve our spelling skills, my teachers would ask us to form a group of five to six people and we had to compete with other groups spell long English words according to the time set by the teachers. It was an amazing moment whereby all students integrated in one group helping each other to spell the words correctly.

Other activity which I favored the most was the cursed box game. This is a kind of game whereby first of all we had to make a big circle around the class sitting on our own chairs. Our teacher would provide a box contained many pieces of small paper with questions pertaining to English. The box needed to be passed from one person to another following the music played by the teacher. When the music paused, there would be one person who would have the box in his hand and he was asked to choose any question inside the box to be answered. The game went on until the time was up. There were other sorts of activities which my teachers assigned to us in class which did not involve speaking or listening skills at all. These activities were mostly related to our writing skill. I did not know exactly what was the name of the activity but it was a kind of creative art works. There was one activity whereby we were asked to bring English newspaper (i.e. The Star or The News Straits Times) to class and a drawing block. Our teacher would ask us to collect as many adjectives as possible from the newspapers, cut them and pasted them on our drawing block. Then, with all the adjectives we had collected and pasted on our drawing blocks, we were asked to make up sentences from all the adjectives in our collection and presented to our classmates.

Based on the activities discussed above, all I can say is that most of my English teachers did not prefer lively activities such as games, quizzes, role play, etc. as their teaching methodology. They were still using the traditional ways of teaching which is using the textbooks and asked the students to read everything inside the textbooks out loud without really knowing the significance of doing it. On the other hand, there are also a few who love to conduct such interesting activities in teaching English rather than doing exercises in both textbooks and practical book. These teachers of mine tried their very best to make the class attention-grabbing and to inject our interest in learning English as our second language. This can be clearly examined from those who did activities like role playing in teaching literature. But most of them were still textbook and exam-oriented. They only taught us English for sake of making us all passed the examination, not because they really wanted us to become a good English speaker when we grow up. However,

When I was working as a part-time teacher, teaching English at my secondary school, a lower form English teacher once told me that I needed to be creative in teaching English. She further said that being an English teacher is all about being creative. We cannot use the same method when teaching the language throughout the year. It will make the students feel bored of whatever they are learning because language involves both theories and practice. Theories are important in order to make the students gain an insight and more knowledge about the language they are learning but without practicing it, all the theories taught by teachers to them will be nothing. To do this, students need some new approaches to enhance their English language skills. Fully depending on textbook and merely doing the exercises provided in the textbook do not help the students learn the language much. All they need are supplementary activities that can make their learning process become more effective and appealing and teachers should take note of this. Seems we are now living in an era whereby mostly everything has been computerized or digitalized, many things need to be altered, including the ways teachers teach English language to their students .

Since the birth of the Internet, there are many sorts of new ways that English teachers can adapt when facilitating their students in developing their English language skills. In my opinion, traditional methods such as doing exercises in textbook and practical book are already outdated. It is encouraged that teachers could make use of the advanced technology in the language classroom. If the computer is used as a teacher’s assistant in the classroom, it will help him to make the learning process become more and more attractive and extraordinary. This could possibly trigger the interest of the students to learn English in a better way. For example, English teachers can use popular websites like Blogger to improve the students’ writing skills and YouTube to improve their speaking and pronunciation skills. Other than using the computing technology as their methods of teaching English, English teachers are also encouraged to conduct more activities which could increase the interaction among the students and at the same time improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well. Such games are encompassing Coca Cola and  Survival games. This allow the students to communicate more with their friends using English although they are not really used to it. This is because the students, especially young children prefer activities or games rather than doing exercises as they are more fun and entertaining at the same time they can also get the knowledge their teachers are trying to deliver to them.

Based on my case stated above, a language learning theory which can represent the process of language learning that I involve in is a combination of two; behaviorism and  interactionism. To recall, behaviorism agreed by some traditional behaviorists is generally the result of imitation, practice, feedback on success and habit formation. So, pertaining to my case, it can be clearly seen from the way I learn English on my own, without the help of any tutor or teacher. As I mentioned before, it is true that I began learning English since I was in kindergarten yet I continuously learn the language for the sake of improving all the four basic skills; speaking, writing, listening and reading merely through reading English story books and watching my favorite television shows which are mostly cartoons and among the television shows which are my favorite including Totally Spies, Barbie and Charms. As I watch these programmes, I tend to imitate every single words uttered by the characters or actors from the movies and try hardly to memorize all the words or phrases or sometimes expressions so that I can use them in my daily conversations. If I view them on YouTube or DVD, I will rewind or reply the parts that I like the most and will try to memorize the lines. Although this has not helped me so much in better my language learning, but it still contributes to my empowerment of English language. Besides, when I listen to the real people’s conversations, I would listen very carefully to the words coming out from their mouth and try to copy the way they talk to each other, especially if they are the native speakers of English.

In addition, behaviorism can also be seen from the way I learned English at school. It is known that B. F. Skinner, one of the proponents of behaviorism argued that behavior of people is based on a reward-and-punishment basis, in which people will only do things if they got something from it in return. So, to illustrate, previously in my English language classroom, my English teacher did give us rewards if we could answer her questions correctly and not to forget a punishment if we failed to. We would be rewarded with something if we completed any works given by her. For instance, she would praise us in front of our other classmates and we would also be punished like standing on our chairs or outside the class if we did not successfully accomplish our works. In addition, another language learning theory which applies to my situation is interactionism. I also learn English through my social interaction with other people. When people who are very fluent in English speak with me, especially those whose first language is English, it motivates me to speak the language better because when I talk to them I can talk leisurely as they will just let me do as many errors as possible. From there, I learn more about English grammar and never feel inferior to speak the language. Interaction with other people also influences me in improving my English.

To sum up, learning English is not just about learning the language itself in terms of its structures, grammar, and so forth but most importantly as Muslims we should know how to Islamize the language. Meaning to say, although we know that English belongs to the West but it is nothing wrong to learn it as our additional language as Islam never prohibits us to learn knowledge as long as it does not against the shariah law. We can always insert any Islamic elements into our English language learning. For example, there are many books provided in the bookstores that are written by prominent foreign Muslim scholars which talk about Islam itself and not to mention quite numbers of illustrated story books that contain lessons which young children can grab being published from time to time. Other than improving our English by reading these books, at the same time we can also gain some knowledge about our beloved religion. In fact, I still remember when I was learning English in my secondary school, my teacher never forgets to include Islamic histories inside her teachings or sometimes she would tell us some stories about the Prophets and his companions before she began our English lesson. This is because my school is a religious type school whereby all teachers are required to include as many Islamic perspectives as possible into their teachings.

  

~The end~

As the new semester begins

Bismillah.

Wow, it's been such a long time since I've stopped updating my blog. Actually, I didn't intend to stop blogging but I just can't promise you that I will blog regularly as my schedule for this semester is more packed and my life will be more hectic than before. Honestly, I won't just be busy with my studies but there are also some QYC works that are queuing up behind my back. They are waiting for my "call" to get everything done before the tenure ended. So, what to do. Responsibility is a responsibility and a good Muslim never abandons his responsibility to the people no matter how busy he might be.

Getting started

Alright people! Now we have come to the beginning of the new semester of studying. In my case, this is my sixth semester and I still have to go through a long journey before I end my life here (in IIUM) as an undergraduate student. Sounds tough though. I still got two more (long) semesters to accomplish until I say, "Farewell IIUM." Hmm... so much plannings to do but whatever it is I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing now. Just for the sake of sharing, I'm taking 18 credit hours this semester which is to me is quite a lot because I'm not used to take more than 20 credit hours in every semester. Well, I have personal reasons for that. A few days back, my friend, Iman, told me that the chance for me to graduate earlier, as early as in 2013, is bright since I'm doing a single major (I'm not minoring in any programmes). But I told her that it's okay for me to graduate in 2014 because I prefer not to rush in completing my degree. For me, it's better not to rush in seeking for knowledge. I prefer to finish my studies in Bachelor of English Language in four years time because I don't know but I just want to stay in IIUM a bit longer. There are still a few 'gems' that I want to collect from 'The Garden of Knowledge and Virtue' and another reason could be that I have some kind of instinct telling me that perhaps I'll not be able to meet IIUM again after this. Who knows, right?

However, that's not what I want to share with you here. Since many of us have started our classes in the first week, I think it's not too late for me to wish you all the best for this semester. Let's together set our new mission and goals to achieve by the end of this semester. Beforehand, you know my style, don't you? I like to remind about the same thing more than once. So, here in the first entry of the first semester session 2012/2013 will be about the four tips shared by my COMM 1010 lecturer, Mdm. Nury in the last two semesters. Actually, she gave us this tips when the final examination was just around the corner. But it is applicable as long as we are still university students, most importantly Muslims. This is because good Muslims always realize that they must give their best shot in every good thing they do in their lives.

The tips

Study hard and study smart. Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of this phrase. I guess it's because some people might have their own stands about it. Some claim that, achieving a success is not about study hard but it's about study smart. Only smart people know the better way of achieving their goals in life. I think they think this way because they have discovered many right and extraordinary techniques on how to learn knowledge quickly and efficiently whereby we don't even need to exhaust our body and mind. Because studying is about knowing the right techniques to trigger our mind in absorbing new things that we learn in classroom. On the other hand, there is also another party which believes that in order to become a successful person, we must study hard. Meaning, a success will not be worthy if we don't put as much efforts as possible to it. This is to show that how important it is to train ourselves to be a hardworking person. As we have been taught by our beloved religion, Islam, that Allah judges us according to our hard works or efforts, not the result. But personally speaking, I don't agree with the two branches of ideas. Don't you think that it'll be more beautiful if we can just be moderate? Islam is a moderate religion and to me, we need to do both; study hard and study smart in order to get the blessed success. They are actually complementing each other. Studying without knowing the proper techniques will make our brain inactive (or in other word, passive) or even ineffective and studying without struggling or putting some force within ourselves will be useless. 

Pray to Allah sincerely. Maybe some might question, why doesn't this come first? Well, this point is actually trying to emphasize on the importance of solah and du'a. As Muslims who witness the true existence of Allah as our one and only Creator in the whole universe, we should always depend on Him in everything we do. Why? Because He's the one who brings things (or problems) into existence and He's also the one who will provide the solutions or remedies for them. Moreover, if we know our position as servants of Him, we are not supposed to take our duty to perform the five time daily solah (including the recommended solah, like Dhuha and Tahajjud) for granted, especially when it comes to the matter of seeking for knowledge. As a knowledge seeker, it's very crucial for us to only depend on Allah in everything as all the knowledge that we are learning actually come from Allah, either directly or indirectly. They are Allah's knowledge, in case we have forgotten. What more, if we are searching for a success by the end of our studies, we should only ask from Him because our success is not determined by our efforts only, yet it depends on Allah's will. That's why it is very important for us to recite Ummul Quran, Al-Fatihah every time before our lecturers start their lessons, like Mdm. Nury said, "We recite suratul Fatihah everyday because we want to gain barakah from Allah." Don't we want that? We do, right? One more thing that I want to stress on here is that if we have a good relationship with Allah, Allah will absolutely grant everything we ever wish for. Trust me. Just do whatever He commands, we shall not go astray. Oh, how loving He is.

Ask for our parents blessings especially our mother. Why do you think? Because paradise lies under mother's foot. Hmm... interesting right? But once again, why mother? What about father? Don't we have to ask for our father's blessing as well? Yes, no doubt that we should actually get the blessing from both our father and mother, yet we must give priority to our mother. This shows that how special the position of a mother is in the side of Allah. This is because mother is the one who carries us here and there in her womb for nine months, she's the one who gives birth to us, she's also the one who breastfeeds us, she's the one who nurtures us with a good care, she's the one who pours out her love and she's the one who wills to sacrifice a lot of things just to make us happy. Have we ever noticed how wonderful our mother is? It's very rare to find a father who will do anything for the sake of wanting to see his children happy nowadays, or I could say there are most probably none! I'm not being prejudice or sexist here but that's the fact that we have to 'swallow.' That's why Islam stresses on the importance of showing respect and Allah Himself have commanded us many times in the Quran to do good towards parents, especially to our mother. Even if we have struggled enough in our studies and perform our solah everyday but if we lack of our parents'  blessings, the success will never be ours as Allah's blessing is depending on the parents' blessing.

Tawakkal 'alallah. Well, there's not so much to talk about this. Most probably everyone knows about this, true? Well, simply to put, after we have completed all the first three steps, last but not least and for sure we have to leave everything to Allah. Let Him decide what is the best result we should attain by the end of the journey. Only He knows what's best for us and when we apply the concept of tawakkal 'alallah, we'll be satisfied with anything granted by Allah later. We'll never upset about it because Allah is Just and He will only reward us with something according to our effort and sincerity. So, don't worry, be happy and just believe in Him as quoted by my friend, "A certain end will only lead to another new beginning and Allah will be the Light in guiding the journey. Trust in Him and good happenings will be seen in everything. ♥ Allah.. :)" and she's so true about this.

So, what are we waiting for? Let's start the engine and continues the journey. Although the success is too far away to reach, but just remember that there will always be a 'success' at every end of our efforts in seeking for knowledge of Allah or even so in every end of our good deeds.

May Allah bless us and the best of luck to all of us!

GANBATTE! 

Warkah cinta buat adinda-adindaku: "Tidak mustahil untuk berubah"

Dengan lafaz bismillah pembuka bicara.

Selawat dan salam ke atas junjungan besar, Rasul tercinta, Muhammad SAW.

Assalamualaikum buat adinda-adindaku yang kukasihi hanya kerana Allah.

Semoga adinda-adindaku berada dalam keadaan sihat diiringi dengan rahmat dan redha Allah.

Bagaimana dengan pelajaran kalian? Baikkah semuanya?

Tertekan? Letih? Bosan? Malas?

Ah, kukira itu semua perkara biasa bagi seorang pelajar yang sebenarnya dahagakan ilmu seperti kalian. Ingatlah pesanku, bahawasanya tidak ada istilah "senang" atau "mudah" dalam menimba ilmu Allah. Terlalu banyak rintangan dan cabaran yang kalian harus tempuhi kerana ilmu itu ibaratnya seperti sebutir mutiara di dasar lautan. Bernilainya ia hinggakan tidak semua orang mampu untuk mendapatkannya. Ia hanyalah rezeki yang Allah sediakan bagi mereka yang sanggup membanting tulang, berusaha untuk menggarapnya.

Bersusah-susah dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian.

Wahai adinda-adindaku,

Tahukah kalian betapa bernilainya diri kalian pada Islam, juga di mata Allah? Walaupun manusia memandang kalian hina, namun mereka tidak tahu bahawa hati kalian bersih dan lebih mulia dari mereka. Jika merek terus-menerus menghina atau merendah-rendahkan kalian, mungkin mereka lupa akan firman Allah dalam Surah Al-Hujurat (49:11):

"Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Janganlah suatu kaum mengolok-olok kaum yang lain, (kerana) boleh jadi mereka (yang diperolok-olokkan) lebih baik dari mereka (yang mengolok-olok)..."

Walau manusia memperolok-olokkan kalian hatta memulaukan kalian sekalipun, ingatlah bahawa Allah tidak akan pernah lakukan hal sebegitu kepada kalian. Kasih dan cinta-Nya sentiasa tertumpah pada kalian tidak seperti kasih manusia yang saban hari kian memudar. Janganlah sesekali kalian terfikir untuk berputus asa dari rahmat Allah. Ingatlah janji Allah dalam Surah al-Rahman (55:31-32), pabila Allah mengatakan:

"Kami akan memberi perhatian sepenuhnya kepadamu wahai (golongan) manusia dan jin. Maka nikmat Tuhanmu yang manakah yang kamu dustakan."

Bahkan, jika kamu menghadapi masalah atau dugaan seberat mana sekalipun, Allah tidak akan pernah membiarkanmu terkapai-kapai menanggung beban masalah itu sendirian. Sebaliknya Dia masih tetap di sisi kalian, setia menemani dan memberi sokongan malah pertolongan kepada kalian bagi menghadapi hari-hari sukar. Andai saja kalian terus-menerus melakukan kesilapan dalam hidup kalian, Dia dengan sifat-Nya yang Maha Penyayang dan Maha Pengampun akan sentiasa memaafkan kalian, setiap minit dan setiap saat. Tambahan pula, kecintaan-Nya kepada kalian tetap juga sama seperti selalu walaupun kalian terkadang lalai daripada mengingati-Nya.

Ini bisa dibuktikan oleh kata-kata-Nya dalam Surah Ad-Duha (93:2-3):

"dan demi malam apabila telah sunyi, Tuhanmu tidak meninggalkan engkau (Muhammad) dan tidak (pula) membencimu,"

Tetapi, kalau kalian telah melakukan sebarang kesilapan, cepat-cepatlah memohon ampun daripada-Nya. Percayalah, pengampunan Allah sentiasa terbuka luas bagi hamba-hamba-Nya yang ikhlas bertaubat. Sebagaimana Allah menjelaskan dalam Surah Al-Ma'idah (5:39):

"Tetapi barang siapa yang bertaubat setelah melakukan kejahatan itu dan memperbaiki diri, maka sesungguhnya Allah menerima taubatnya. Sungguh Allah Maha Pengampun, Maha Penyayang."

Jika kalian sentiasa menemukan kegagalan, janganlah menyangka bahawa tidak akan ada sinar cahaya di penghujung usaha kalian itu. Percayalah, yakinlah bahawa cerita kehidupan kalian akan berkahir dengan sebuah kecemerlangan. Seorang Muslim sepatutnya tidak boleh membiarkan dirinya terjatuh dalam lubang yang sama. Itu pesan Nabi kita. Akan tetapi manusia akan belajar daripada kesilapan yang dilakukannya berulang-ulang kali sebab dengan itu, barulah kita bisa mengingat pengajarannya dari kesilapan itu buat selama-lamanya.

Sekiranya manusia memandang rendah pada keupayaan kalian akan sesuatu, sebagai contoh, ada dalam kalangan mereka yang tidak yakin bahawa kalian mampu sampai ke puncak menara gading dan menjadi orang yang berjaya, ingatlah bahawa aku sentiasa percaya bahawa kalian bisa melakukannya lebih daripada sangkaan mereka semua kepada kalian. Kerana kutahu kalian semuanya mempunyai kelebihan dan keistimewaan yang tersendiri yang mungkin sekali belum sampai masanya keistimewaan kalian itu ditonjolkan di depan khalayak. Sungguhpun mereka mengejek-ngejek kalian atau meremeh-remehkan kebolehan kalian itu, sentiasa ingatlah akan pesanan Kekasih kalian yang Maha Penyayang, dalam Surah Ali Imran (3:200):

"Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Bersabarlah kamu dan kuatkanlah kesabaranmu dan tetaplah bersiap-siaga (di perbatasan negerimu) dan bertakwalah kepada Allah agar kamu beruntung)."

Adinda-adindaku yang kucintai,

Luangkanlah masa kalian sebaik-baiknya. Isi masa kalian hanya dengan perkara-perkara yang bermanfaat yang akan mengisi penuh kantung pahala kalian dan membiarkan kosong peti dosa kalian. Masa itu umpama pantasnya kilat. Kita hendaklah tangkas memotongnya sebelum ia memotong kita. Ada tiga hal yang apabila ianya berlalu, maka tidak mungkin kita bisa mendapatkannya kembali:

Pertama, kata yang telah diucapkan.

Kedua, masa yang telah berlalu.

Ketiga, peluang yang diabaikan.

Ingatlah ketiga-tiga hal ini. Sematkan di dadamu. Simpan di dalam kotak memorimu. Masa dan kesihatan adalah antara nikmat yang paling berharga, anugerah Allah buat kita semua, ciptaann-Nya yang agung berbanding dengan ciptaan-ciptaan-Nya yang lain. Beruntunglah kalian, bersyukurlah kalian kerana lahir sebagai manusia dan sebagai seorang Muslim. Jangan sesekali kalian perisa-siakan nikmat Allah ini.

Kukira terlalu banyak yang inginku sampaikan dalam pesananku buat semua adindaku yang kuingati ini. Namun, seperti yang kukatakan tadi, masa dengan lajunya telah memotongku dan mengehadkan peluangku untuk terus menukilkan kata-kata di sini.

Namun begitu, wahai para adindaku, sebelum kuakhiri warkahku pada kalian kali ini, suka untukku berkongsi dengan kalian tentang sebuah kisah seorang anak muda seperti kalian yang dahulunya seorang pelajar yang terkenal dengan kenakalannya akhirnya kini telah menjadi seorang yang berjaya. Kisah ini kupetik daripada ruangan Dr. Tengku Asmadi Tengku Mohamada dalam majalah Anis keluaran Jun 2012. Marilah bersama-sama denganku. Kita amati dan hayati kisah di bawah ini dengan seikhlasnya agar dengan itu kita bisa mengambil pengjaran dari kisah hidupnya yang mungkin ada sedikit persamaan dengan kisah hidup kalian.

Dalam bulan Februari lalu, bekas pelajar saya yang pernah ikuti program motivasi yang dijalankan pada tahun 2000 telah hadir di majlis penutup kursus. Beliau menceritakan bagaimana ketika itu dia dalam tingkatan tiha dan bakal menduduki Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR). Keputusan peperiksaan percubaannya memang teruk iaitu 1B, 1C, 4D dan gagal subjek Matematik dan Sains. Bukan setakat itu sahaja, malah beliau seorang yang mempunyai masalah disiplin di sekolah, merempit, kaki gaduh, buli, ponteng kelas dan bermacam lagi. Kalau diikutkan memang mustahil baginya berjaya malah ibu yang memasukkan dia ke dalam program motivasi yang saya adakan itu juga tidak meletakkan harapan yang terlalu tinggi.

Namun, apa yang berlaku ialah selepas 42 hari menghadiri seminar motivasi, beliau mendapat 8A dalam PMR. Selepas itu, beliau ditawarkan ke sekolah MRSM dan mendapat 10 A dalam SPM. Beliau akhirnya melanjutkan pelajarannya ke UKM dan mendapat Ijazah Sarjana Muda dalam bidang Terapi Cara Kerja dan mendapat Anugerah Pelajar Cemerlang bagi Fakulti Kesihatan dalam konvokesyen pada 2008. Beliau telah ditawarkan UKM untuk menjadi felo dan melanjutkan pelajaran ke peringkat PhD. Namun, beliau akhirnya menolak tawaran tersebut kerana dalam masa yang sama turut mendapat tawaran sebagai Pegawai Tadbir Diplomatik (PTD). Akhirnya, beliau memilih menjadi PTD hanya kerana sewaktu dalam program motivasi pada tahun 2000 dahulu beliau sudah tekad suatu hari mahu menjadi Perdana Menteri. Cita-citanya itu begitu menghantui fikiran dan tidak pernah padam. Dan kini setelah 12 tahun berlalu, pada usia 27 tahun beliau adalah PTD di Pejabat Perdana Menteri.

Hebat bukan, si dia seperti yang diceritakan oleh Dr. Tengku Asmadi ini?

Tidakkah kalian merasakan bahawa kalian juga bisa menjadi sepertinya, malah jauh lebih berjaya darinya?

Mungkin kalian masih belum lihat di mana letaknya keistimewaan kalian itu. Tapi yakinlah bahawa kalian tidak akan diciptakan oleh Allah di atas muka bumi ini dengan sia-sia. Setiap daripada kalian akan menjadi penyumbang utama kepada Islam. Setiap seorang daripada kalian akan menjadi peneraju kepada daulah Islamiah seperti yang telah diwariskan oleh Rasulullah SAW dan para sahabat-sahabat khalifah baginda.

Dengan itu, adinda-adindaku sekalian, kuakhiri warkah ku ini dengan lafaz alhamdulillah.

Semoga kalian bisa mengutip butir-butir mutiara dalam ucapanku ini.

Aku di sini sentiasa mendoakan kalian dan tidak akan pernah berhenti berusaha untuk mebantu kalian, mempin tangan kalian mendaki gunung ujian yang berliku-liku ini demi sampai ke puncak menara gading itu. Aku akan usaha semampuku untuk memastikan bahawa kalianlah yang akan meneruskan tampuk pimpinan Islam suatu ketika nanti.

INGAT! TIDAK ADA KATA MUSTAHIL BAGI SESEORANG UNTUK MELAKUKAN PERUBAHAN KE ARAH YANG LEBIH BAIK!

Wallahua'lam.

Semoga kita semua diberkati Allah.

Salam kasih dan rindu, dari kakak kalian.