Sabtu, Desember 18, 2010

So Weep.......

Advised from Maulana Rumi,

How should the infant know the effect of his cries upon hearts?
So weep, even if you do not know the result!
The everlasting gardens of rivers of Paradise will be born from your tears...

Jumat, Desember 17, 2010

Three Things are Devastating

Three things are devastating:
1. to believe in the good of avarice,
2. to cater to one's lust,
3. and to be an egoist
[Hadist - Bayhaqi].

How many of the three that we keep...?

The Lives of Man

This should be my literary Thursday posting which was delayed (I was so busy with gardening yesterday). This posting is about something that I hope will remind all of us about the goal of our life. Barakallah.....

This posting is excerpts from 'The Lives of Man' by Imam al Haddad as delivered to me from Mrs. Iffath Hassan........

The First Life: (Life Before Conception)"The first life began with the creation of Adam, upon whom be peace, and the entrusting of his progeniture to his blessed loins, both the people of the Right and those of the Left, namely the people of the Two Fistfuls. Then God brought this progeniture out from Adam's loins all at once, to take the covenant that they recognized (His) Unity and Lordship." "Because of these events there can be no doubt that the progeniture was possessed of existence, hearing and speech; this, however, was at a degree or dimension of existence other than that of this world."

We must also know that the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu 'alahi wa Sallam) had a more perfect and unique stature in this stage, so much so that his light (peace be upon him) could be heard glorifying Allah while within Adam's (peace be upon him) loins, making a sound like that of birds.

The Second Life: ("Dunya" - The Lower World.)"The second life begins when one is delivered from one's mother's womb, and ends when one departs from the world in death. This which is the middle of the lives, is also their purpose. It is the period when man is held accountable for (responding to) the divine injunctions and prohibitions, the consequences of which will be reward or punishment, endless happiness in the proximity of God, the High and Majestic, or perpetual torment and remoteness from Him."

This section of existence is essentially broken down into the stages of Gestation, Childhood, Youth, Maturity, Seniority, Decrepitude, and ultimately Sickness and Death. The Imam beautifully explains the important aspects of each of these sub-stages and gives wise council and advice as to how to understand and succeed in them. Ultimately the key to understanding the gist of this chapter can be summed up in the Hadith which is mentioned at the end of the Afterward stating: "A man dies in accordance with what he had lived in, and is resurrected in accordance with what he had died in." (Hadith)
In another narration of Hadith the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu 'alahi wa Sallam) stated to Abu Darr: "O Abu Darr! The world is the prison of the believer, the grave his place of safety, and the Garden his end. O Abu Darr! The world is the Garden of the disbeliever, the grave is his torment, and the Fire his end."

May Allah make us one of those who dwell in the Garden of the Afterlife, Amen!

The Third Life: (The Intermediate Realm)"The third life extends from the time a man leaves the dunya at death until the moment he rises from his grave at the blowing of the Horn. This is the Intermediate Realm(Barzakh). God the Exalted has said:
And behind them is a barzakh until the day when they are raised. (23:100)

In this section Imam Al-Haddad breaks the chapter into several useful categories, namely; a Description of the Torment of the Grave and its Aspects, How the Living May Help the Dead, and Visiting the Graves.

Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of this chapter appears in the Afterword in which it is stated: "Created beings may, however, know about those signs and conditions which indicate its imminent advent. Many of these, which are described in many sound hadiths, have already come about, and only the major ones such as the sun rising from the West, the Dajjal (God curse him!), the Beast, and the coming of Jesus remain."

The Fourth Life: (Judgement Day)"The fourth life extends from the time when a person leaves his grave for the Resurrection and Gathering, until the moment when mankind enter the Garden or the Fire."
Imam Al-Haddad uses this section to highlight the dire situation of the last day and the different events which will occur. This section is broken down into the sub-sections of; The Balance and the Bridge, The Hawd, and The Intercession. Each of these areas are dealt with in the necessary details with mention of why we would be in our specific predicament at that time and the ways to avoid bearing the sorrowful and difficult punishments and trials on that day. Perhaps one of the most riveting quotes from this chapter is a quotation from the Holy Qur'an relating to after the animals are given their judgment and due and God says to them "Become dust!"
"At that the disbeliever will say, would that I were dust!"(78:40)

The noble Imam goes on to highlight in detail, the respect, honor, and elevation that the Holy Prophet Muhammed (Sallallahu 'alahi wa Sallam) will have on that day, and the relief that will be permitted to the believers through his intercession (shafa'a)

The Fifth Life: (The Fire and the Garden)"The fifth life extends from the time the people of the Fire enter the Fire and the people of the Garden enter the Garden, and continues into unending, limitless eternity.

This is the longest of all lives, the best, most pleasant and most joyous for the people of the Garden, and the worst, hardest, and most hateful and wretched for the people of the Fire."

This section outlines details pertaining to the Fire, admonitions, and advise as to how to avoid spending time in this wretched and painful place. To give a taste of the severity of this place the Imam relates Quranic verses and hadith including the following: "O people! Weep! And if you cannot weep then make as though you were weeping, for the people of the Fire shall weep in Jahannam until their tears run over their faces like streams. Then the tears will stop, blood will flow, and eyes ulcerate, so that if ships were launched therein they would float." (Hadith)

The Imam goes on to elucidate aspects of the Garden and its countless pleasures, the foremost being the beatific vision of Allah. Relating to one of the beautiful aspects of the Garden, Imam Al-Haddad quotes the Hadith stating: "The area of the Garden which could be surrounded by a whip is better than the world and all that it contains. Should one of the women of the Garden appear to the people of the earth, she would illuminate it entirely, and render it fragrant with musk. The scarf which is upon her head is better than the world and all it contains."

The treatise is concluded in accordance with classical Islamic tradition, with a description of the vision of God, and His overwhelming Mercy. In the final section Imam al-Haddad quotes the Hadith stating: "God has a hundred mercies, one of which He has sent down to be divided between humans, jinn, birds, cattle, and insects, and by which they have compasion and mercy towards each other. And He has saved ninety-nine mercies, with which He will be merciful to His slaves on the Day of Rising."

...........

Rabu, Desember 15, 2010

Panjang Angan-Angan

Aku ingat kala seorang teman mengatakan “Panjang angan-angan” untuk masih banyaknya keinginan mereguk kenikmatan duniawi. Belakangan ini aku membenarkan pendapat teman itu. Dan aku mengkhawatirkan “panjang angan-angan ” itu berbuah maksiat. Naudzu billaahi min dzaalik...

Sedihnya, aku tidak dapat berbuat banyak untuk melarang. Melarang berkutat dengan segala kemajuan teknologi yang membuat mudahnya seluruh dunia ter’connected’ ibarat masturbasi yang konyol. Tidak akan lagi kulakukan. Waktu yang akan menunjukkan kualitas macam apa yang kita miliki. Kalau tidak dapat mengingatkan orang lain, aku akan selalu mengingatkan diriku sendiri saja.

Seorang arif menasehatiku,----stretch not your legs on this sweet carpet of earth, for it is a borrowed bed- -----fear the time when they will come to roll it up.......

Selasa, Desember 14, 2010

Leave It.......

Just for the light of my eyes, Mbak Lia, Mas Akbar, Dik Salman,

Whatever act,
whatever thing,
whatever path is under the shadow of doubt and fear,
do not come close to it--------leave it.

Sabtu, Desember 11, 2010

Under Pressure.....

A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure. A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain. Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purist ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms.

Dear Lord, thanks for giving me the chance through this way.....

Jumat, Desember 10, 2010

Patience

Imam Ghazali said:
Patience comes in three stages:
first, one learns not to follow the baser self;
second, one learns to content oneself with one's fate;
finally, one surrenders oneself to the Master's will
and discovers within love and compassion, the greatest of all achievements.

Kamis, Desember 09, 2010

The Measure of A Man, By Sidney Poitier

Kamis ini jatahnya nulis tentang Literary, aku mau posting tentang bukunya Sidney Poitier, The Measure of A Man, a spiritual autobiography. Buku ini nangkring jadi penghuni rak perpustakaan kami setelah dibeli Herlan dari toko buku yang ada di Bandara Adi Sucipto, Yogyakarta beberapa waktu yang lalu.
Sidney Poitier, lelaki kulit hitam kelahiran 20 Februari 1927, dari lingkungan miskin di Cat Island Bahama menjelma menjadi bintang Hollywood, pemenang Academy Award sebagai best actor di film Lilies of the Field (1963), dan bermain bagus di film The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner dan To Sir, With Love. Kalo liat judul filmnya, orang yg setengah tuwir kayak akupun kayaknya nggak pernah deh nonton, film kuno banget. Ngefans sebagai aktor ke Sidney juga kagak (gimana ngefans wong nonton filmnya aja gak pernah). Tapi aku serasa mengenalnya dengan baik dg membaca buku otobiografinya ini.
Diterbitkan oleh HarperSanFrancisco (A Division of HarperCollinPublishers), tahun 2000, buku 255 halaman ini bercerita tentang kehidupan Sidney Poitier, mulai dari masa kecilnya di Bahama, masa remajanya, masa suksesnya sebagai bintang Hollywood dan pandangan introspektifnya terhadap hidupnya sebagai anak, suami, ayah dan seorang aktor.
Buku ini sesungguhnya bercerita tentang kehidupan bukan sekedar kehidupan makhluk bernama Sidney Poitier. Banyak pelajaran tentang kehidupan yang bisa kita ambil dari buku ini, tentang pengorbanan dan komitmen, kebanggaan dan kerendahan hati, kemarahan dan pemberian maaf serta harga kepantasan untuk menghargai integritas seorang aktor. Ya, Sidney berhasil membawa kita tidak sekedar mengenalnya, tetapi juga (semoga) memahami tentang bermaknanya kehidupan ini. Seperti yang ditulisnya...
.....I decided that I wanted to write a book about life. Just life itself. What I’ve learned by living more than seventy years of it. What I absorbed through my early experiences in a certain time and place, and what I absorbed, certainly without knowing it, through the blood of my parents, and through the blood of their parents before them.
.....I felt called to write about certain values, such as integrity and commitment, faith and forgiveness, about the virtues of simplicity, about the difference between ‘amusing ourselves to death’ and finding meaningful pleasures, even joy. But I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all life's questions. Quite the contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in selfquestioning. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set......
Terdiri dari sebelas bab, dengan pilihan kata sederhana, bersahabat dan menyentuh. Favoritku adalah bab terakhir berjudul ‘The Measure of A Man’ yang menceritakan mimpinya bersama sahabatnya, Charley Blackwell, yang menutup buku ini dengan bahasa yang sangat indah, sangat menyentuh dan sarat makna...
......Human life is a highly imperfect system, filled with subordinate imperfections all the way down. The only thing we know for sure is that in another eight billion years it will all be over. Our sun will have spent itself; and the day it expires, you’ll hear the crunch all over this solar system, because then everything will turn to absolute zero.
....But you can’t live focused on that. You can’t hang on to that. Anyway, luckily we puny individuals have only seventy-five or eighty-two or ninety-six years to look forward to, which is still a snap in the overall impenetrableness of time. So what we do is we stay within the context of what’s practical, what’s real, what dreams can be fashioned into reality, what values can send us to bed comfortably and make us courageus enough to face our end with character.
...That’s what we’re seeking. That’s what it’s all about, you know? We’re all of us little greedy. (Some of us are plenty greedy.) We’re all somewhat courageus, and we’re all considerably cowardly. We’re all imperfect, and life simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections......

Rabu, Desember 08, 2010

Worries....

Everyone has his share of worries. Everyone really has. Me too. Sometimes it’s easy to erase such worries but sometimes they fullfill my mind. And they almost make me ‘a worrying kind’ or be a pessimistic person. Often ‘cannot be shared worries’ that make me like that.
I know it’s not wise to let our mind sink in those situation. I will not. Everyone has his share of worries. Step by step I’ll make no worries fullfill my mind. For I believe what He had promised .......and for those who fear Allah, He (ever) prepares a way out, And He provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him. For Allah will surely accomplish his purpose: verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion (QS: At Talaq 02-03, Jusuf Ali Translation).
Religious Mahatma Gandhi said, ...there is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever......
So why do we have to worry...?