Month: July 2019

Posted in A Thought At A Time.

The Word That Makes Us A Human

Posted on by jarienaristonsyah

Its only been few days since the first time I started blogging but now the pressure is increasing and increasing, and honestly my head hurts. I began to find words to make my entry more interesting and leave a powerful impact but instead, it just sounded weird and I didn’t enjoy writing any single bit. I was frustrated actually, now. But, whatever, I guess I’m still going to type and lets see where it goes.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

I’m sure many of you guys have heard the story of Nabi Adam a.s getting expelled from the paradise for eating a forbidden fruit before, right? I heard about this story few times before but only now I’m getting the storyline clearer and masyaAllah I need to tell you that the story was more than just Adam a.s ate a fruit and disobeyed Allah. The hikmah (conclusion) is beyond that. Honestly, by this time, I’m just in awed by the amazing plot Allah has planned it to be. Indeed, He is al-Makir, the One who Plots.

I would like to begin this story with the part Adam a.s noticed the zaqqum fruit and went near to the tree. He heard the iblis saying that if he wanted to stay in the Heaven forever, he must eat the fruit from the tree. Firstly, bear in mind of these two things; first Adam a.s knew since the beginning that he was going to be sent down to the Earth, meaning that Heaven will only be his first home and then he should be descent down to the Earth just like how Allah has fated for him. Second, the zaqqum tree that I just mentioned was a tree that Allah s.w.t had reminded Adam a.s to not go near to, not to mention of even eating the fruit from the tree.

However, the longer Adam a.s stayed there, wondering about the tree, with Hawa, they began to fall to syaitan’s deceitful words. They ended up eating the fruit from the tree and right after that, without a waste of even a second, the clothes they were wearing slid away from their body and they became naked. They immediately covered their own private parts and was sent down to the Earth separately.

When Nabi Adam a.s was first created, Allah s.w.t commanded all the angels to perform a sujood (prostate) before Adam a.s. They all questioned Allah and justified that human would only disobey Him. Human would also do a lot of crimes and bring destruction to the Earth. Allah then said ” I know which of you does not know of” and that sentence alone was enough to make all the angels realized that they have crossed the line. They immediately did a tasbih to glorify Allah and made a sujood before Adam a.s. On the other hand, iblis refused to do so. He gave his own logical reasons, arrogantly, to not make a sujood before Adam a.s. He gave his excuse by saying he was made of fire and why would he perform a sujood before something made by dirt? It sounds logical, isn’t it? – But not for the al -Hakim, the Perfectly Wise. Since then, he was cursed by Allah and he shamelessly blamed Allah for his own misdemeanor. Iblis laknatullah then swore to mislead the humankind and make sure to deceive as many human as he could to join him later in the hellfire – which something he nearly succeed to do to Nabi Adam a.s.

On this note, there are few lessons that we can learn from our Father, Nabi Adam a.s. When he knew Allah wanted to send him down from the majestic Heaven, he felt extremely remorseful of his own mistake. He realized that he really has made Allah disappointed of him when Allah who was the Giver of his life, yet he disobeyed Him. Besides, he also didn’t even argue with Allah’s decree on him, at all. He didn’t blame Allah nor was he giving an excuse by saying “You know I’m going to eat the fruit from that tree, you know I’m going to slip away, you planned it from the start to ditch me away to the Earth and now its my fault? Its your fault!”, which exactly the despicable thing iblis laknatullah did before. Instead, Adam a.s just accepted Allah’s decision as it was and even begged for His forgiveness afterwards. He begged non-stop. He repented greatly.

You see, its ironic to think that when Nabi Adam a.s who really wanted to be a permanent resident in the heaven at the first place, did something that he thought could help him achieve his dream (he was deceived by syaitan) and yet, was sent down to the Earth for the rest of his life until he was brought back to Allah. Don’t you think it sounds familiar?

I mean, these days we’ve seen so many people get tricked by the syaitan’s whisper by committing corruption when they knew well that it was forbidden in Islam, period. However, they chose to still do it anyway to get what they want which no matter how grand or worth it the benefits may seem, the truth was, the ugly yet explicit truth was, their action was never been blessed by Allah s.w.t. And at the same time, the blessing of Allah is what we are hoping for as its the master key to enter the Jannah (paradise). So, what to do if we have slipped?

Just do exactly like Nabi Adam a.s did – turned down our ego, repent, say Astaghfirullah, and be determined to not repeat the same mistake. Allah knows from the start that we are bound to make sins but he taught us to always come back to Him whenever we went overboard. Do you think Allah didn’t know that Nabi Adam a.s would eat the fruit from that tree? He knew, but that was the beautiful reason behind it. He sent Adam a.s to the Earth not to punish him, but as a lesson for us, the future human generation to always repent to Allah whenever we messed up, whenever we broke His rules. And the best thing about it was Allah will always, always, always accept our repentance if we do it out of our full sincerity and determination of not repeating the past sins. SubhanAllah, isn’t Allah is so great? Indeed, He is.

I remember of Ustaz Nouman Ali Khan has said once in one of his lecture regarding Suratul Hadid (he explained the middle verses) that since the early stage of human-hood until the end of it, we kept on asking for Allah’s forgiveness as we humans, the creation of Allah that even He knows, we will always got deceived by syaitan and as a result, we sinned. Ever since Nabi Adam a.s, the first human ever created, sinned and begged for Allah’s forgiveness until the days on Mahsyar (the place we will all gather together on the Day of Resurrection, meaning the end stage of human-hood), all of us will asked Allah to complete the light coming out from our body and to forgive us (the light will be our torchlight on that day cause it was pitch-blacked and one person has three source of light coming out from them; the heart and both of our palms) . Yet again, “to forgive us”. See, Allah knows that we are in need of His forgiveness ever since we were first born, died, alive again and then on our way to His Heaven. Hence, why do we keep on delaying our taubah nasuha, my dear friends? 😦

I prayed that Allah s.w.t softens our heart and make us His servant who always come back to Him to ask for His forgiveness whenever we slipped away. May Allah helped us to utter the words that make us a human – to say Astaghfirullah whenever we sins from the bottom of our heart. Indeed, He is the Most Forgiving and may Him forgive all of our faults and lead us to the straight path. May we be chosen to enter His Jannah, our very first home. Aamiin ya Rabb.

Nur

Posted in A Thought At A Time.

Underrated Love Story : Sayidatina Fatimah r.a with Sayidina Ali r.a

Posted on by jarienaristonsyah

Bismillah.

This topic is really dear to me as I have always been a fan of love story happening during the days of prophet-hood especially when it involves the love of srikandi (heroines) of Islam. To me, it was far perfect than any love novels/dramas/movies that seem perfect on the exterior, but covered layer by layer with false hope and lies which result to high expectation of love a.ka. total disappointment in a relationship. yea.

Long before I knew about ikhtilat (connection) in Islam, I thought love is all about being in love with one another and that you must be in a relationship first in regard of knowing each other better before you move to the next big step – a marriage. I must say I have only 0.1% understanding about love in Islam. I didn’t know much but I thought I have it all figured out after spending lots of time completing those K-dramas over the years. And, without me knowing I have too wanted to be in love in rush. Talking about the disappointment I just mentioned before… lol

You see, love is such a sacred and pure thing in the world. It is so precious and secretive that different people have different wonderful ideas of it. But one thing that I know about love is that, it is always about sacrifice. And, Sayidatina Fatimah r.a made it all clear.

Fatimah r.a has always loved this man ever since they were both kids. They grew up together and she has seen that man flourished to be a very powerful and inspiring young man. That man has participated in lots of jihad war together with her own father, Rasulullah s.a.w and the other sahabah. He has all of what it takes to be somewhat we call now, our future zauj (lol) and that man was Sayidina Ali r.a.

Before I continue their beautiful love story, I wanted to explain the distinction of qualities between these two beautiful souls. Sayidina Ali r.a was someone who was quite tough and very masculine. He was also very matured compared to his young age as he has always been interacting with people who were older than him. Thus, he was wise, straightforward and might sound a bit rough when speaking to him. He was gallant too. Allah s.w.t didn’t bestow him a sword of his own without any reason, you know. But anyway, he was very brave, kind and respectful. Rasulullah s.a.w acknowledged that Sayidina Ali r.a was the most knowledgeable, the most prudent and the first child to embrace Islam.

In contrast, Sayidatina Fatimah r.a was very motherly, soft-hearted and gentle. She has been taking care of our prophet Muhammad s.a.w with full responsibility and devotion ever since she was young. Do you remember the touching story of Sayidatina Fatimah r.a with Rasulullah s.a.w when she was only a kid? There was one time Rasulullah s.a.w was doing a sajdah at the Kaabah and upon seeing that, Uqbah bin Abi Muit splashed camel’s wastes on Rasulullah s.a.w’s noble body. This news reached Fatimah r.a and she hastily left her house and went for Rasulullah s.a.w. When she saw what had happened to her own father, she was really upset and mad. She glared, sharply, to the arrogant musyrik people there who laughed at Rasulullah’s condition. She cleaned Rasulullah s.a.w from the mess and courageously yelled at them for why do they did that nasty thing to her father. She has no fear for them at all. It was also narrated that her nickname was Ummu Abiha, which means ‘the mother of her father’. This was because she have been diligently taking care of our prophet Muhammad s.a.w, her loving father all her life until the passing of Rasulullah s.a.w.

Little did they know Allah has fated them to be each other’s spouse in the highest Heaven and they really had jodoh with each other in this dunya.

As we know, Sayidina Ali r.a has not many savings or property compared with the other companions. He has devoted his life to Islam ever since he was young and being occupied with series of dakwah and also with quite number of jihad wars he engaged in, he has almost nothing for saving. At the same time, two of Rasulullah s.a.w’s great companions, Sayidina Abu Bakar r.a and Sayidina Umar al-Khattab r.a who has more possessions compared to Sayidina Ali r.a, they also have asked Rasulullah s.a.w for a marriage with his daughter, Fatima r.h. However, unexpectedly Rasulullah s.a.w declined the offer. At last, it was destined that Sayidina Ali r.a who was pretty much like a poor man at hand but so rich in heart got to get married with Sayidatina Fatimah r.a, Rasulullah s.a.w’s most beloved woman in history.

The dowry of Fatimah r.a was incredibly simple. There was a story behind her dowry. When Sayidina Ali r.a was asked by Rasulullah s.a.w whether he had anything to give to Fatimah r.a, he said he only got these three things; a sword, an armor, and a horse. Rasulullah s.a.w suggested to Ali to sell his armor and with that he got 480 dirhams to put it before Rasulullah s.a.w. That was the dowry he gave to Fatimah r.a and it was even less than a poor might pay for their wives. (i think this part is so sweet i tell ya)

Alhamdulillah, with that they were married. Tabarakallah. Just like that, they tied the knot. The wedding was simple but blessed with immense of barakah from Allah s.w.t to the newly-wed couple.

So… you see, Fatimah r.a has liked or these days we called having ‘crush’ to Ali r.a since they were young but let us contemplate carefully how she carried her feeling all the way around before her marriage. First and foremost, she didn’t let her emotion control her. She chose to divert her focus on Allah s.w.t instead. She continued to worship Allah, strengthen her ties with Him and tried to assist our prophet s.a.w the best she could. Next, she didn’t peek on Ali r.a but instead, she lowered down her gaze and always preserved her modesty victoriously. She sacrificed, in the name of love. The question was to whom?

First, to Allah s.w.t by not putting her emotion and nafs first but rather to always put Allah as number one in her heart. That was not easy. That action needs a sacrifice. Second, to her own father Rasulullah s.a.w. Fatimah r.a could easily open up to Rasulullah s.a.w about her feelings towards Ali r.a and asked him s.a.w about it but she chose to not to. She sacrificed her feeling for Ali r.a by giving her full attention in helping to provide Rasulullah s.a.w instead. She combated her own yearning for something even greater, the love of both Rasulullah s.a.w and her Creator, Allah s.w.t.

I hope all of us, girs, can emulate Sayidatina Fatimah r.a’s modesty trait that kept her from any slander or deceit for as long as she lived. I hope if we ever fall in love, we would call Allah s.w.t first rather than calling that some random man’s number for help to calm our unstable emotions. I hope whenever we have realized our focus has shifted to a man we barely knew, we would immediately raised our hands to ask Allah for His guidance and strength to combat all these dreadful devil’s whisper and nafs. I hope whenever we missed for someone whom we shouldn’t, we are wise enough to realize this is all a test, a test which will make us stronger believer.

I pray that may we always put Allah and Rasulullah s.a.w first in our hearts and that we never turn our way back from our Creator, Al-Khaaliq and our beloved prophet s.a.w just like Sayidatina Fatimah r.a did. Aamiin ya Rabb.

Before I end this entry, I just could not leave without telling you guys about this one ruminating story of Sayidatina Fatimah r.a’s level of hayaa (modesty/shyness). Her hayaa was out of this world. I still remember about her asking Asmaa binti Umays to bury her dead body during the night as a reason to forbid any eyes to witness the shape of her body. Can you imagine that? I mean, you were already passed away hence there were no more sins to be accounted yet our Fatimah r.a still asserted Asmaa to bury her body at night to prevent people from noticing her dead body because of her extreme shyness. SubhanAllah. May we achieve that level of hayaa too. Aamiiin.

Nur