jangan sempitkan cinta!

dia bukan orang asing bagi kamu. dia antara orang yang menyaksikan jatuh bangun, nangis dan tawa kamu saat diri masih bertatih mencari makna kehidupan. dia juga hadir dalam setiap kenangan dan memberi erti dalam perjalanan mencari arah dan cita-cita. dia pernah membisikkan kata semangat juga tidak pernah jemu mendoakan kamu. Dan walau dalam sembunyi, dia ternyata merindukan kamu dari kejauhan walaupun tidak pernah dia ungkap secara jelas, walaupun kata kasih dan sayang kamu padanya tiada berbalas. Kerana dia manusia yang cinta dan sayangkan kamu dalam hati, terlalu dalam hingga tidak terluahkan. dia, bukan orang jauh. dekat teramat dekat.

'dia' ahli keluarga kamu, mungkin seorang adik, kakak, abang, atau ibu bapa yang kenal benar perangai nakal dan keanakan kamu satu masa dulu.

Tapi mengapa pada satu sudut kehidupan ini, pada satu jendela yang terbuka menceritakan sebaliknya. mengapa wajah kamu yang mengukir senyum tidak membuktikan bahagia? mengapa hadir satu perasaan bahawa kamu seolah sedang berusaha mencari sesuatu yang masih tidak jua kunjung tiba? mengapa pencarian kamu tentang erti cinta seolah sementara dan tidak pernah berjaya memuaskan jiwa?

Di mana kurangnya?

Kerana itu aku teramat ingin berpesan kepada kamu, keluarga, sahabat dan sesiapa jua yang sedang mecari erti bahagia. Jangan sempitkan cinta. jangan sempitkan cinta dengan membenarkan harta menjadi taruhannya. jangan sempitkan cinta dengan sekadar memenuhi keperluan dunia. jangan sempitkan cinta dengan sekadar memenuhi kepentingan nafsu semata. jangan sempitkan cinta dengan menggadai ikatan keluarga, jangan sempitkan cinta kerana tiada punya cukup masa, jangan sempitkan cinta kerana mengejar cita, jangan sempitkan cinta atas apa alasan pun jua. Kerana jika benar kamu fahamkan cinta, kamu akan korbankan semuanya. Tiada alasan dan tiada masa untuk berbasi-basi dengan rekaan atau sandiwara.

jangan sempitkan cinta. Kerana cinta itu luas, hanya dengan satu syarat. Cinta itu akan membahagiakan, hanya dengan membetulkan niat dalam hati kamu, cinta kerana Allah, cinta kerana Maha Pencipta. Manusia bahagia bukan kerana harta, bukan kerana dunia, bukan kerana pangkat, bukan kerana nafsu. tetapi definisi bahagia adalah kembali kepada fitrahnya, iaitu cinta kepada Pencipta cinta, Allah s.w.t.

Aku hairan melihat manusia yang seolah membeli cinta dan bahagia dengan harta, anak kecil yang tidak mengerti apa-apa dilimpahkan kesenangan dan kemudahan, hingga hatinya kering dan tiada lagi basah dengan kasih sayang yang teramat dia dahagakan. ya, anak itu dahagakan kasih sayang ibu bapanya, yang seharusnya mencintai dia kerana Allah, mengembalikan dia kepada fitrah, dengan mengajar anak itu kenal Allah, jadi hamba yang taat dan soleh, bukannya menjadi hamba kepada dunia yang sementara dengan lambakan material dan harta belaka.

"jika keluarga yang dibina terasa seolah kosong dan kekurangan, nilailah kembali adakah keluarga itu mendidik setiap ahlinya agar bahagia dengan mencintai Allah, bukannya mencintai dunia atau harta atau cita-cita semata?"

kerana itu jangan sempitkan cinta dengan fikiran yang sempit. Luaskan hati, luaskan minda, manusia hanya bahagia dengan ketaatan dalam agama dan kecintaan kepada Tuhannya. cuma itu penyelesaiannya.

Katakanlah: “Jika bapak-bapak, anak-anak, saudara-saudara, istri-istri, kaum keluargamu, harta kekayaan yang kamu usahakan, perniagaan yang kamu khawatiri kerugiannya, dan rumah-rumah tempat tinggal yang kamu sukai, adalah lebih kamu cintai daripada Allah dan Rasul-Nya dan (dari) berjihad di jalan-Nya, maka tunggulah sampai Allah mendatangkan keputusan-Nya.” Dan Allah tidak memberi petunjuk kepada orang-orang fasik.(9:24)

mencari cinta Tuhan, 

farahfareen

Ramadhan is coming!

"Ramadhan is coming. Wonder what Ramadhan are like for our brothers and sisters who are fighting for their lives in Palestine, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan and many others, in all over the world. Do keep them in your prayers, let's welcome Ramadhan with the purest intention of seeking for His blessings and to be among the true believers till Jannah, inshaAllah. They are calling us, and we need to answer. Islam is rising. Don't ever stop moving."

إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَ أَخَوَيْكُمْ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

"The believers are nothing else than brothers. So make reconciliation between your brothers, and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy." [Al-Hujjurat, 49:10]

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم also said about brotherhood: "None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." [Bukhari & Muslim]

#WishList

It is the first day of my second trimester, third year in Victoria.Alhamdulillah. I do admit that it's going to be a challenging Ramadhan, because most of my classes are in the evening session, 3pm above and the maghrib praying time is around 5. Pheww. Hopefully everything will be fine. InshaAllah.

Today, I am just gonna share with you some of my wishlist things to do in future. I just thought that it might be relevant to set new resolution, though it's already in the middle of the year, but yes, we need to constantly remind ourselves of our goals in life, so that we keep putting effort to turn them to reality, and not just a wish, a dream or fantasy. That's what this is all about.

I do believe, most of us, have the same goal. to gain His blessing and mardhatillah inshaAllah. Keeping in mind that everything we do in this world, is for Allah. Even our smiles, should be because of Allah, because Allah asked us to be loving to our siblings, brothers and sisters in Islam. It is not wrong to have dreams, or wishes, but it becomes wrong when we make them as the priority, our only intention, while Allah is the one who decide whether He want to give them to us or otherwise. It becomes wrong when your dreams are not based on Islam teachings, Quran and Sunnah. Indeed, what Allah has given us all this while, is just a loan for us to return it in a form of good deeds and contribute to the religion itself. So, whatever we want to be or we want to have, make sure that at the end of the day, we are able to contribute something to the religion back, and because Allah is the Most Rich, He did not need our fortune, but He wanted to see how grateful we are with the fortune that He has given. 

Sorry, here are my wishlist that I wanted to share with you. Hopefully it will motivate myself and others too, to have big dreams but at the same time making big effort too, to change them from dreams to reality. InshaAllah.

#1 To write a book about my journey finding Islam in New Zealand, more like a travel log >.<

#2 To graduate successfully from Victoria next year, with the presence of family members ♥ 

#3 To be a good and inspiring teacher to my students

4#To further study in Masters of English education or ESL

#5 To open my own Islamic kindergarten in Malaysia

#6 To bring parents to Makkah, as soon as possible

#7 To be a lecturer in English/ educational psychology

#8 To be a good Muslim, a good daughter, and other roles in future :p

#9 To contribute to Islam, brothers and sisters in the whole world

#10 To die as a syuhada who stand for Islam, till my last breath

InshaAllah, InshaAllah, InshaAllah..may Allah ease everything, because He's the One who knows what's the best for us. Indeed, we could only plan, but He is the Best Planner. May Allah guide each and every step of our lives, to always be in Islam and to only seek for His blessing and love. InshaAllah. It reminded me to one of my favorite verses in Al- Baqarah.

Allah Azza wa Jal says:

“…and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.”[2:216, al-Qur'an]

dont just be a dreamer, 
farahfareen

faith, take care.

Sonata Village, Whanganui. ( early July 2012)

as salam dear readers. It has been quite a while since I last update this little writing room of mine. Hope that everyone is in Allah's blessing and guidance inshaAllah. Been somewhere around New Zealand, due to some commitments that I need to fulfill. Anyways, it has been a meaningful and thoughtful journey alhamdulillah, though travelling in winter made you feel as if you are in freezer everywhere, but the warmth of the ukhuwwah of the people around me, has melted my heart more than anything I could think of. This heart has been quite in cold and numb condition due to the busyness of academic weeks, thus I am so thankful to have some time out, out of norm, out of routine for a while for some peace of mind. Do you now that a human heart could easily twist much much easier than boiling water? We might think sometimes we enjoyed doing something we like, but at times when we stop doing it, we would realize how much exhausted we are, because our heart is declining in its sincerity or losing the touch of that purest intention that we once have. And we as human, tend to forget, and ignore our feelings for many reasons, and one of the reason that I am most scared of is we forget because we are deceived by our nafs' (desires) and the shaytan's whisper. Nauzubillah. 

today I am going to answer a question from a reader, wanting to know how we, as Muslims, could be consistent or in other words istiqamah in taking care of our iman, our faith to Allah. My answer is that it's difficult thing to dobut it's not impossible. Subhanallah, a feeling of wanting to take good care of iman is a bless from Allah. Alhamdulillah. I would share with you a few ways which I hope will be helpful inshaAllah, but do feel free to suggest more if there's anything I am forgetting.

One of the way is by reflection. To always be aware of our doings, our words, our senses, what they have been looking, hearing, talking the whole day. Reflecting how much good deeds that we have done in a day? How much ibadah have we did, how many pages of Quran have we read and try to understand (by reading tafsir). How many zikr have we done during our free time? Reflection is a powerful tool, an important indicator for us to improve ourselves. Why not take a few minutes before you go to bed, to really think of what have been done the whole day, what you should and should not do, and the most crucial thing is what you could do the next day to improve. Make it a routine. I do admit that this is not an easy thing to do, but at least have some time (any time of the day) to really think what are you actually doing, is it gonna be useful during the Judgement Day, will it be blessed by Allah? There are also times when something unexpected happen or come to us, thus before we think of any complaining words, why not reflect and think of the solutions or reasons instead of worrying and be depressed. And one important tips to know whether you should continue with anything that you want to do is, to test whether you can read Bismillah before doing it. Obviously you won't read Bismillah before you are going to sing karaoke right? Em.

The other important thing is to always make effort to be close to Allah. By performing your ibadah like prayer, Quran recitation, qiamullail could also mean ---> (wake up early in the morning, could be 15 minutes before Subuh prayer and do tahajjud prayer, is not that difficult right?) dhuha, zikr, fasting and many others. Why ibadah is necessary in our lives? Why did Allah ask us to pray? Well, the answer is simple.

Because we are Allah's servants, and He is our master, who have full control of our everything and we are capable of nothing, without His willing. 

Ibadah is also a sign of gratitude, being grateful for all of His blessings, e.g. until this very second for example, you still capable of seeing, have perfect eyes to read and have perfect and wise mind to understand this writing. Who did that if not Allah, the most powerful creator of all. How could we not obey Him, how could we turn away from Him by abandoning His orders in Quran and Sunnah. Who are we to be so arrogant? Dear friends, I do know and admit that shaytan will always try to deviate our intentions in performing ibadah, to not be sincere, or consistent, but we should always pray for the strength to perform all of the ibadah from Allah, never ever give up. He's the source of our strength. Indeed Allah will look at your effort, not the outcome, because the outcome only belong for Him to decide. By doing ibadah, just for the sake of Allah, we are also submitting ourselves to Islam, to be in total submission in Allah's order. That's what Islam really mean, total submission, to practice Islam as a whole, and not only a few portions which we 'like'.

Next one, through heart purification.

The Prophet, Muhammad p.b.u.h said :

"Surely there is in the body a small piece of flesh, if it is good, the whole body is good, and if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted, and that is surely the heart". 

Narrated by Bukhari, in his Sahih.

We have carried this small flesh in our body for our lifetime, it has been broken, mended and broken again. Sometimes it could make us feel like this life is a bed of roses. But have ever take time to think how to purify our hearts? We might not even think before this, that it is necessary. But the heart is where all of the attitudes come from, all the intentions are based, all the kindness or badness that we have done. It is all depending on our hearts. Indeed how could we ever be sure that our heart is clean enough when shaytan is always whispering to it each and every second, everytime we forget Allah. Even myself, I do not think I remember Allah enough in all my doings but still I am trying to improve each day, to always feel Allah is watching, listening and knowing every single intention that come across in our heart. Thus, there's absolutely no reason not to take good care of our heart. To answer how do we take good care of it; this is one of the meaningful video to remind us. InshaAllah.

And last but not least, to always pray to Allah for taqwa. Because taqwa is the only way that will help us to take good care of our iman. Taqwa is God conscious, to always be careful in our doings and to feel as if like we are walking on broken pieces of glass, very very carefully avoiding the sharp edges of glass. The glass is  like the sins that we try to prevent from doing or anything that could make us forget Allah s.w.t. 

“… Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is [he who is] the most Righteous (the highest station of Taqwa) of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted [with all things].” 

(Surah al-Hujurat 49:13) 

Indeed the most righteous of us, is the one who have highest taqwa to Allah, not someone who has a lot of fortune, a millionaire, a powerful leader or a successful businessman. No. It might be someone who is poor, but have the richest heart because of his taqwa to Allah. It might be someone who are born disabled, but have taqwa to Allah. A noble person is not measured by his fortune, neither his family or status, but the level of taqwa, which only Allah could evaluate. It won't be fair if only rich or high status people who could enter the heaven right? Not all people in this world are born with million dollars in hand. Allah is the Most Fair to His creations, there is no way we could deny that. Taqwa is the measurement, and that's what the world is for. As a platform to be a good servant to Allah, who has taqwa in his heart.

“… And for those who fear Allah (Taqwa or high God-consciousness), He [ever] prepares a way out. And He provides for him from [sources] he never could expect. And if anyone 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.” 

(Surah at-Talaq 65:2-3)

Tomorrow will be the last day of my trimester break. To have new resolution and to renew intention.

May Allah bless, always.

Piha Beach, Auckland. (July 2012)

Farahfareen, 

the terrace, kelburn.

Away

As salam dear readers. First of all, I'd like to apologize for not updating this blog for quite a while. Currently I am travelling around NZ and will be back around next week. Do keep me in your du'as cause NZ is a bit shaky this week. Hope everything will be fine inshaAllah. Jazakallahukhair.