Month: August 2019

Posted in A Thought At A Time.

Endurance.

Posted on by jarienaristonsyah

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

My mom is my role model. She seems like any other housewives but she is not. I couldn’t keep on track how many times she was tested by Allah s.w.t in her life, overthrown for many times and rise again and again. If anyone ask me who is my role model? – My answer would definitely be my own mother.

One quality in life that kept me enchanted by every single time, which I personally think my mom has it, is endurance. Endurance means the ability to endure any unpleasant, or difficult process or situation without giving away. I lost my mind for every time I come by a story of people, being put under misfortune repeatedly but managed to rise once again without complaining and relish their hour of triumph. For me, they are special kind of people and this does not only weighty in my eyes, but also for al- Basir (The All Seeing), and al-Hakam (The One Who Judge) – Allah s.w.t.

I totally could relate to some people who have came upon so many failures in life and eventually gave up. I understand their pain, and the pressure they’ve carried around on their shoulder and that feeling of ‘hopelessness’. Be that as it may, I still think we have choice; to give in and give up, or to sustain and survive?

I suggest you guys the latter one, although its the harder one. As a matter of fact, the hardest. But you know the drill, no pain no gain and no pain is ever wasted in the eyes of Allah s.w.t.

In Surah Maryam, there is one part after Maryam a.s has giving birth to her baby (Isa a.s), she was instructed by Allah to shake a date palm tree in order to eat the dates. She was starving, and also tired that she has no ounce of energy left in her after the deliver. However, upon hearing the summon she mindlessly shook the tree with all her might and Subhanallah, the dates coming off and she get to eat. Logically, her energy in shaking the hard-wooden tree would not be enough to make the fruits coming off from the tree but here, she managed to do it. How and why?

Its because of the Mercy from Allah s.w.t who saw her effort, in using all her energy to shake the tree (which approximately just 1%) and for that, Allah helped her with the other 99%. Here, we could see none of the effort and energy she has drained were gone wasted. Really, all help come from Allah s.w.t and only He is Alone who is able to do anything, and everything.

At the end of the day, we can endure more than we think we can

You might think that you’ve suffered enough now and tired of trying and trying but ended up in the midst of nowhere but, trust me when I say Allah sees you. He sees your effort, be it ridiculously small or enormously big, He sees and surely He will reward you for every.single.effort/pain/cry/moan/tears.you’ve.ever.felt in order to survive the ordeals He has put you into from time to time.

Do not ever feel bad for taking small steps in doing something, especially when it comes to wanting to rise again after hitting the rock bottom cause nothing is meaningless when you decided to take a step ahead in improving your life. Do not listen to people trying to belittle your efforts cause they know nothing what you’ve been through; only you and God knows so don’t mind them. And even if it takes you 1000 falls to be able to stand up straight again, believe in that 1001st of you accomplishing it. Hold onto that, firmly, without even a glimpse of doubts for Allah’s help and mercy.

And most importantly, please do not beat yourself up when things didn’t go as you planned cause you and I planned, but Allah planned too and He is the Best of Planners. When you’re fighting with your struggles know that being defeated is normal and that is a chance for you to stand up again, endure for countless times, and taste the sweet victory at the end of the trials. Yes, its easy being said rather than being done but it is not impossible. This is exactly why I value so much people who have endurance quality in them cause I know its not easy to endure the struggles and come out strong again after all those distress and anguish. These people are rare and for that, a blessing in my eyes.

I have read somewhere saying“Endurance is patience concentrated” and I could not be more agreed. In order to persevere all the hardships and tribulations being thrown on your face, patience must go hand in hand. Its not easy and that is why the reward is immensely great. Just like the story of Maryam a.s I have just mentioned before, its because of her patience that she could stand it when Allah appointed for her to get the food by herself prior to just delivering her baby.

Just believe that if things go wrong again after this time, know that if you choose to have patience over it and being grateful, later on the Judgement Day if your deeds alone could not help you to enter Jannah, Allah will put forth your rewards for being patient in the past and you are able to enter His paradise.

May you be given the gargantuan strength to overcome for whats to come. Aamiiin ya Rabb. I wish you the best for the best comes to those who wait.

Nur

Posted in A Thought At A Time.

I Love You 3000

Posted on by jarienaristonsyah

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

I’ve wrote today’s topic in my ‘common notebook’ quite long ago. I think maybe around last three months? Yea. Now that I’ve felt so much better than before (in terms of my health), I would want to give this topic a go. Letsszz :))

I watched Tarbiah Sentap’s short-film called “Titisan Suci” not long before. It has three series which for me easy to be understood as the flow was interesting, partly because the main topic was ‘real’ and speak right to my soul. Besides, each characters in this film truly shined. Overall it was a good short-film where I think we, the young generation should look up to. It was not that cringy or… you know… ‘sentap’ but it was fine. I mean I get it some people actually despised Tarbiah Sentap’s books cause they think the writers were rude or super harsh but whenever I asked them “do you read the book until the last page?” – the answer was a no which is the real problem here.

Ustaz Adnin Roslan (the founder of Tarbiah Sentap) is not someone rude or harsh in conveying his divine message or dakwah (Islamic summons) like most of some type of people in this whole wide world claimed him to be. He was being bold in bringing justice for Islam’s do and don’ts which for majority of people like us would feel like being attacked (although he was spitting a fact tbh) but you see, if you complete his book you would notice that he’s not like who you thought he was. He did sound like ‘scolding’ you at the first note, but at the end, he prevails us upon the mercy of Allah’s forgiveness. He pleads us to turn back to Him and not to continue being heedless in this fana (annihilation) world. He was trying his best to keep us awake and focus on the real world – the Day of Resurrection.

Okay that was a little bit out of the track. Well I’m not sorry.

From the short-film, there is one scene that I couldn’t get it out of my mind and it keep on playing on its own. I forgot which minute it was but that scene truly left an impact in my life. During that scene, these two men were talking to each other (consider one is A and the other one is B). A said to B something like this, “You see, Allah has 100% love of Him, and He has sent 1% of His love to the Earth and with that 1% was shared between 700 thousands of creatures in this world. Just you imagine… how much do we have left with just that 1% being shared by thousand of creatures?”

hm.. even if three months have passed, I’m still blown away by that lines.

And now, can you imagine? Just how many percent was left to us? And still with that 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000009% of love running in our veins is more than enough to make one to kill one another for love, to commit suicide in the name of love, to sell her own dignity for love, to give up everything and anything just for love, to feeling hopeless just because his/her relationship fall flat and such. Minus the negative ones – we had mothers who fight for her life just to give birth for her baby, fathers who got swollen eyes by doing multiple jobs to bring comfort for his children, a friend who is willing to assist his/her sick friend etc. We taught we have love enough already but we were wrong – its the up above who had it more than anyone else in this world and the entire universe. Its Allah.

Then, if human’s love was that big, how is Allah’s?

When a bad thing befalls on us, we tend to complain and find ourselves in total despair, thinking there’s no such thing as hope and give up. We tend to question why would Allah send us a test that we don’t think we can ever face but one thing we should bear in mind is, is He really punishing us like this or He is just building us in the long run?

How many times have you felt like it was your last time but believe it or not, you were still here breathing safe and sound? How many times you thought you had it enough and you just about to end everything or treat everyone badly cause your day was equally bad but later you found out someone spared you a cake or someone just made you laughed out loud? How many times you sat there alone, and reminiscing back why you didn’t make it years back but now thanks to the failures you’ve encountered, you knew better and are now progressing to be a better person? Ever think of why Allah sent you those hardships? – because Him Al-Wadud, the Loving One loves you very much from your head to toe that He needs to test you a little bit, just a little bit that you tasted all the bitter parts of life so that He would substitute it with sweet-honey-like parts later, if only you being grateful.

I want to share with you the story of Nabi Yusuf a.s which started by a plot of him being ditched into a well by his own brothers when he was young and then after being discovered, he was sold to become a servant of a rich mayor in the city. He was then falsely accused for doing zina (fornication) with the mayor’s wife and being jailed. What a tough life he had. I mean, since he was young he was isolated by his brothers and hardships befall on him one by one, continuously. If we were in Nabi Yusuf a.s’s shoes, I don’t think we could handle those trials patiently, exactly, like he did. Nabi Yusuf a.s just went with it and trust Allah the Almighty. At last, after he succeeded in interpreting the king’s dream correctly (with Allah’s will), he was released from the prison and the best thing was he got to reunite with his beloved father, Nabi Yaakub a.s after the longest time. (time to shed tears)

At the beginning of Nabi Yusuf a.s’s story, it seems like his life was so devastating and depressing that we questioned why would Allah put him in that kind of situation? But you see, because of Nabi Yusuf a.s’s suffering alone, he has saved lots of lives after he managed to interpret the dream of the king. He explained that the nation would undergo a famine as in future, there was not enough food stocks so the king commanded all of his people to prepare for the upcoming catastrophe. Because of Nabi Yusuf a.s, thousands of children were saved and new generation were born. A suffering of one child equals to thousand lives being saved and the generation continues until now. SubhanAllah … now don’t you think Allah has think of our fate every now and then?

MasyaAllah.

In this story I noticed that its not that Allah didn’t love his prophet Yusuf a.s that he was tested as such. Its because He do and at the end, he gave Yusuf a.s a victory that no one would ever expect. He had been taking good care of Yusuf a.s since the first place. Just imagine, if he was not getting hatred by his other brothers and didn’t being left in the well, would he being found and getting sold to the mayor? And if he didn’t meet the mayor, would he being accused for committing zina and being jailed? Would he then get to interpret dreams? Would he even be able to realize he can actually interpret them? Would he had saved the kids life? Would we still be here?

This got me reminded of a saying,

If it wasn’t for the struggle you wouldn’t have the strength. God is always building you even when it seems like He’s breaking you.

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I just want to say that maybe, just maybe you are in a hard times right now but, I hope you won’t give up just yet and just keep on striving like you always do. Its okay to be slow, to take a break but do not stop. Allah’s mercy and love has no ends and just like Yusuf a.s, the victory of yours will rise soon. The key is to have patience and hope for Allah’s help. If He was the possessor of 100% love, know that His way of loving us is more than a mother scolding her child for playing with dirt, which means He might appear cruel to you and He’s breaking you apart but He is mending you instead. Nevertheless, you’ll never know for He is al-Latif (The Subtle One) that often protecting us in silent, in the most subtle way you could have never known.

I just hope we hang in there juuuuuuuust a little bit and we keep on believing Him although we didn’t see Him. And since now we are currently in the ten days of Zulhijjah, let us regularly do Tasbih, Tahmid, and Takbir as our way of saying “I Love You 3000” to our Lord, Allah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.

Nur

#Duaa

O Allah, I ask you for a steadfast faith, a fearful heart, good deeds, sincere trust [in You], continuous success in every trial and continuous gratitude towards Your favors.