There is no such thing as a modern Muslim.

What do you think of when you hear "Modern Islam" or "modern Muslim"? I understand that some people label certain Muslims as modern by their behaviour and lifestyle. So I'm going to take that definition. And just recently, I realize how bigoted this misconception is. To no(or little) fault of the non-Muslims, they are just observing the image portrayed by Muslims that surround them.

"Have you no Muslim friends?"
"Yeah but they're kind of modern... they eat pork, don't fast and stuff, drink."
"I guess the younger generation doesn't really care anymore about religion."

Astaghfirullah. This terminology to me sounds absurd now. Modern Muslim... is apparently if you are Islam in name but does not wear tudung (pleading guilty =/), pakai baju sampai keluar susu, drink, eat pork, etc. EPIC FALLACY. that couldn't be further from wrong. if someone who is a Muslim, doesn't jaga aurat well, drinks alcohol, eat pork and does anything against Islamic teachings, they are simply BAD Muslims. It does not in any way mean that they are "modern". There is no classification of Muslims being "old-fashioned", "traditional", "modern", etc. i wish I had corrected them, but at that time, macam inda terlintas kan menjawab, it just immediately got me thinking into this.

The media has a pretty screwed up image of Islam, what with terrorism and the act of extremism that somewhat characterizes the religion, in their eyes. Yes, those who base Islam on violence and stereotyping every Muslim with bombs and anything to do with degrading women rights, are ignorant. But think of this. How much, have we, as Muslims tried to prove them otherwise? They form negative opinion of our religion because they saw all these bad traits coming off from Muslims so they must think "ahhh this must be what Islam preaches!" TRAVESTY. So, it is our responsibility to try and correct those people around us, may they know the truth and Insyallah if ALLAH SWT permits, their hearts will be open to Islam. This is definitely one area I need to work on.. if someone up front asks me anything about Islam.. stuff like "what can you do and what can you not do?" is probably more answerable but here comes the toughie.. "why do you have to....." or "why do some people wear tudung and others don't? why do YOU not wear one?" "what makes you think Islam is the right one?" Maybe you would think that, huh.. if you have trouble answering any of that, that probably means that you don't believe in it as much as you say you do. But the thing is, it's difficult trying to express your opinion when it comes to religion, if you say anything wrong especially if subconsciously, berdosa saja. It's not easy finding the right words. Suddenly, eloquency falls very short.

This also pretty much leads me to another issue about how some people think that Islam evolves according to time periods. I shamefully have let this thought cross my mind in the past because of all this dunia things injected in my head... "sekarang zaman modern sudah.. dapat blablabla" But it hit me.. what makes me think that Islam needs to adapt to globalization and civilization? Don't make Islam adapt to me, but make me adapt to Islam. Ya lah, easier said than done. Tapi Insyallah terbuka hati nanti untuk menerima hidayah dari ALLAH SWT.

So yeah I mean we must be kidding ourselves to the bone if we think that Islam is an evolution according to time periods. It's as if thinking that the Quran is being updated each time period. Or modified according to current lifestyle, tastes and fashion? FALSE. The teachings of Quran remain as it is, the day it was first descended to Nabi Muhammad SAW(Peace Be Upon Him) during the night of Lailatul Qadar (noted that Quran di turunkan secara beransur).

As promised, here are some more exercepts from the dialogue exchange between Nabi Muhammad SAW (Peace Be Upon Him) and iblis.

RASULULLAH S.A.W: "Hai iblis! Apabila umatku mendirikan solat, bagaimanakah keadaan engkau?"

raja iblis : "Itulah sebesar-besar kesusahan kepada hamba. Gementarlah seluruh badan hamba dan lemahlah tulang sendi hamba, maka pada waktu itu, hamba menyuruh puluhan syaitan iblis menggoda setiap orang yang hendak bersolat menerusi anggotanya supaya malas bersolat dan hatinya supaya was-was dalam solatnya serta terlupa bilangan rakaatnya. Mereka juga akan bimbangkan pekerjaan dunia dan hatinya hendak cepat-cepat menamatkan solatnya. Sesetengah iblis masuk ke dalam mata orang yang hendak bersolat supaya ia tidak kusyuk dalam solatnya sehingga mereka berpaling atau menjeling ke kanan dan kiri semasa solat. (Maka) tidaklah tetap hatinya serta hilanglah kusyuknya. Sesetengah iblis memasuki telinga orang yang bersolat supaya memasang telinga mendengar perbualan orang, bunyi-bunyian dan sebagainya - yang sia-sia belaka. Sesetengah iblis duduk pada belakangnya supaya orang yang bersolat itu tidak berupaya lama-lama semasa bersujud atau bertahiyyat. Di dalam hatinya sering bekehendakkan agar solatnya segera tamat dan ini tentunya akan mengurangkan pahala solat. Jika sekelian iblis berkenaan gagal menggoda seperti yang demikian, nescaya mereka akan hamba hukum seberat-beratnya.

Oh man. Countless times that I have lost myself to the tactics above. Praying only takes about less than one quarter of our day daily and yet I still can't devote the little time that I have with ALLAH SWT, such weakness. But maybe now that we've read this, we will try to remember that iblis is behind it and make him suffer by strengthening our iman. Insyallah Taala.

RASULULLAH S.A.W: "Apa pula rahsia engkau terhadap umatku?
raja iblis : "Jika seorang muslim ingin membuang air besar (ke tandas), jika tidak membaca doa kepada Allah SWT untuk mohon perlindungan daripada syaitan, nescaya hamba lumurkan najis itu ke tubuhnya tanpa disedari.

(Inilah doanya sebelum sampai ke tandas - Bismillahi AllaHomma Innii a uu dzubikaminal khubusi wal khobaa is jika masuk ke tandas, dahulukanlah kaki kiri dan jika keluar dari tandas dahulukan pula kaki kanan dan apabila jauh empat-lima langkah daripada tandas, dibaca di dalam hati GhufraanakalhamdulillaaHil

ladzii azHaba annil azaa wa aafinii dan apabila selesai bersuci dibacakan doa AllaaHumma ToHHir Qalbii minnifaaqi wahaSSin farjii minal fawaa hi shi )

Maka jika dibacakan doa-doa tersebut, larilah hamba daripadanya.

HOW SCREWED UP IS THAT? EVERY. SINGLE. THING. iblis tries to dirty us.. and this LITERALLY SO! So this basically implies that at every time and place, we should try to have ALLAH SWT in our minds constantly. Insyallah Taala.

RASULULLAH S.A.W: "Hai iblis! Di manakah kediamanmu?
raja iblis : "(hamba tinggal) Pada rumah berhala dan pada mana-mana batu, kayu, tembaga dan sebagainya (bahan pujaan) Apabila mereka menyembah (berhala, batu, kayu, tembaga dan sebagainya), maka hamba cenderungkan hati mereka supaya bertambah-tambah keyakinannya terhadap pekerjaan mereka (menyembah berhala) yang syirik itu. Betapa ramainya umat Tuan Hamba telah hamba pesongkan sehingga memasuki rumah berhala Majusi dan Hindu yang menunjukkan betapa nipisnya iman mereka.

RASULULLAH S.A.W: "Hai iblis! Di manakah tempat perhimpunanmu?raja iblis : "Pada rumah wayang dan tempat majlis tarian dan seumpamanya seperti tempat percampuran lelaki dan perempuan (secara bebas)

I admit delusionally that I thought going clubbing was "okay" as long as you're there to just dance and just don't drink alcohol. Keep your intentions as they are. But that is completely naive and idiotic of me.. the act of dancing in a club (or probably anywhere else for that matter) itself is sinful and despite my non-intentions to drink or whatever, it still means stepping into "tempat perhimpunan" iblis, tempat maksiat. And besides, even if one intends to not do anything when stepping in... mun namanya tempat perhimpunan segala iblis dan syaitan.. apa lagi.. sanang bah tu kana hasut. Nauzubillah.

(The following one I quoted in a previous post but some of the dialogue confirms my point above.)

RASULULLAH S.A.W: Hai iblis! Bagaimanakah perbuatanmu kepada makhluk Allah SWT?

Kalau terdapat sesuatu pesta yang melibatkan pergaulan bebas lelaki dan perempuan, maka hamba akan menggoda bersungguh-sungguh supaya mereka kehilangan maruah, meminum arak dan mempengaruhi rakannya dengan cara paksaan supaya meminum arak sehingga hilang akal dan hilang rasa malu mereka. Lalu hamba hulurkan tali percintaan yang asyik sehingga terbuka beberapa pintu maksiat yang besar supaya mereka berhasad-dengki sehingga melakukan perzinaan.

Speaking to myself before anyone else, but as Muslims(even though most times we feel like we don't deserve to!), we all have binding responsibilities to remind each other of our Muslim responsibilities.

LOL 101

Don't you find the word LOL so extremely overused? Obviously I use it too, and quite a lot. But at least it's in the right context. So I don't mind it but when people say lol at anything.....

Text 1: hey do you wanna grab lunch?
(after an hour or so)
Text 2: hey i'm so sorry, i just read your text, but i just had lunch. maybe some other time!
Text 3: it's ok lolol

................ o....k?

IM 1: i know right, i can't wait til this is all over! anyways.. i gotta go now, good night!
IM2: okay see u lol

My dad committed this offence once. We were talking on msn and he was telling me he needed to go....

Bapa says:
anyways have a good weekend yeah..gtg now will try to chat with you later...lol

........ wait. my dad knows LOL? That's so LOL. but wait that's not even right. And okay I was amused rather than "..." when I read that, thought it was really funny because it's my dad. And I didn't say anything to correct him. So, okay another MSN session some time later.....

Bapa says:
au yth bapa pun inda tau bila... btw, apakan lol ani?

........MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I really don't remember what I said back but my dad can use it in the right context now, I think.

But like, it's not even the fact that people don't know how to use "lol" (unless you're a dad. jokes) but it's rather people say it because they don't know what else to say? Well okay let me tell you something... when someone says to you over MSN that they wanna sleep or whatever, why don't you just reply "alright ok, good night." instead of "ok lol" I suppose it's out of habit. I mean one can even say, "Lol you're so pathetic lol" "I'm having such a bad day!" "Lol what happened? lol."

And it's rarely used in real life. Although I do say lol in real life, when something funny comes up but not too funny as to make me laugh out loud so the 'lol' kinda suffices. My cousin, Dina who's like 7 now, once said to me irl, "kaka masa atu ice skating kan sekali gugur? lol" hahahaha.

But like yeah Laughing Out Loud doesn't literally mean laughing out loud... (yes, I have a certain knack for stating the obvious) it only means literally laughing out loud when someone actually tells you that they just LOL-ed in real life.

Anyhoots exams are ovaaaa soooo WHAT TIME IS IT? summer, SUMMER, summer.

...Lol?

Exams.

It is of great misunderstanding that I haven't put up any significant entry since the last one because I have been too busy with revision and exams to engage with the cyberworld. That is indeed a great error in judgment. I do not know why I often have the need to paint a picture of myself to all of you that I am not revising. I mean.. what does that constant revelation give off? Absolutely nothing. So I apologize if I have been shoving so much of my "OMG I'M SO LAZY, REVISION IS GOING UNWELL OMG HOW EXAMS ARE STRESS" down your throat. Okay I think that was another one. Okay. Moving on.

Significantly, today, I realize that my exams, as stressful and difficult the whole process feels, they aren't the real exams. Obviously the exams matter, but to a limited degree. Ilmu dunia. Menuntut ilmu is highly noble and wajib in Islam, given that an individual has the means. Tetapi... no matter how handal we are in studying segala yang melibatkan hal ehwal dunia... tanpa ilmu akhirat.. we aren't going very far. What matters the most is the exam that we go through daily that started since the day upon our arrival on Earth (birth) up til the day upon our departure (death). It feels like everyday we fail when we succumb to the seduction of iblis but selagi ALLAH memberikan kita masa di dunia, ertinya Dia memberikan ketani peluang untuk "pass". Adakah kita menggunakan peluang ini? Malu rasanya kan menjawab. Malu, bukan dengan kamu.. tapi malu dengan ALLAH.

I know we all know that Iblis is our enemy. Setiap saat, iblis ada membisik arah telinga ketani untuk membuat apa saja to make us deviate from ALLAH. Honestly.. I forget that iblis is always there to hasut us... until I receive dakwah mengenainya. Macam wow... iblis ani inda mau meninggalkan ketani selagi ketani inda ikut ia ke neraka. As much as we are aware of his doings, yet we still listen to him.. setiap hari ada saja dosa ketani buat.. inda payah ketani tanya kenapa. We can only pray to ALLAH to keep us away from jahiliah, berdoa supaya moga suatu hari Dia akan memberikan ketani hidayah dan petunjuk supaya ketani menjalankan kehidupan ketani sebagaimana diredhaiNya. Amin. Insyallah Taala.

So yeah.. we are being examed. We are put on this Earth for a reason. Such a basic reason, that a lot of times we just forget or completely oblivious to. Just think.. why do you think you have to sit for exams? To test your knowledge in the field of your studies and when you succeed, you are able to elevate to the next stage. ALLAH sentiasa menguji hambaNya... and I believe this truly, in which He will not put us through circumstances that He knows we can't handle. ALLAH Maha Mengetahui. Walaupun ketani inda suka kadang-kadang apa yang berlaku dalam hidup ketani, ALLAH lebih mengetahui... we can dislike something but it is actually good for us. Ada hikmah di sebaliknya. There is indeed a reason for everything. Everything and anything leads us back to ALLAH.

You know... whenever I post something like this, I always feel the need to justify something. I don't know if anyone reads this and might form an opinion that I am being hypocritical. I am the first one to admit that I am so far from being the one to give anyone advice atau teguran. Macam nada usul. But I just hope this message acts as a reminder to you. Most of all, it is a reminder for me. As I keep saying, I'm speaking to myself before anyone else. Like I said, setiap hari rasanya tergoda dengan iblis.. walaupun hati mau dengan ALLAH, our actions speak otherwise. Process mendekatkan diri kepada ALLAH, personally for me, bukan overnight. Kalau tah boleh, kan? Banyak lagi ruang for me to perbaikkan myself. Banyak rumpang-rumpang. Mudah lupa. Tapi Insyallah Taala, dengan izin ALLAH, ketani akan ada peluang untuk menjadi muslimin dan muslimat yang berada di sisiNya. Amin!

Below is an excerpt of a dialogue exchange when iblis di perintahkan ALLAH berjumpa Nabi Muhammad SAW (Peace Be Upon Him) untuk menjawab segala pertanyaan tanpa berbohong. There's many more, which I shall post in parts later.

RASULULLAH S.A.W: Hai iblis! Bagaimanakah perbuatanmu kepada makhluk Allah SWT?

raja iblis : Ya Nabi Allah, hamba goda perempuan-perempuan supaya merenggangkan kedua pahanya kepada lelaki yang bukan suaminya dan sesetengahnya hingga menghasilkan benih yang bersalah-salahan sifatnya. Hamba goda segala manusia supaya meninggalkan solat dan leka dengan makan-minum dan berbuat kemungkaran. Sesetengahnya hamba lalaikan dengan harta-bendanya daripada emas, perak, rumah dan ladang dan hasilnya dibelanjakan ke atas segala pekerjaan yang haram. Telah banyak kaum lelaki dan perempuan terpesong imannya menerusi tentera jin, iblis dan syaitan yang hamba perintahkan supaya menarik mereka ke jalan kemungkaran. Kalau terdapat sesuatu pesta yang melibatkan pergaulan bebas lelaki dan perempuan, maka hamba akan menggoda bersungguh-sungguh supaya mereka kehilangan maruah, meminum arak dan mempengaruhi rakannya dengan cara paksaan supaya meminum arak sehingga hilang akal dan hilang rasa malu mereka. Lalu hamba hulurkan tali percintaan yang asyik sehingga terbuka beberapa pintu maksiat yang besar supaya mereka berhasad-dengki sehingga melakukan perzinaan. Apabila lelaki dan perempuan berkasih-kasihan, maka terpaksalah mereka mencari wang menerusi tipu daya serta mencuri. Sekiranya mereka menyedari kesalahan masing-masing dan ingin bertaubat atau beramal-ibadat, hamba akan halang mereka sehingga mereka bertangguh dan bertempoh dalam berbuat kebajikan. Hamba juga akan menggoda dengan lebih kuat supaya melazimkan maksiat dan menyukai isteri orang. Maka telah ramai umat Tuan Hamba telah hamba sesatkan dengan jalan ini dengan bantuan jin, syaitan dan iblis di mana hamba menyuruh mereka menghasut seluruh anggota manusia hingga ke dalam tubuh badannya. Apabila mereka digoda pada hati, maka mereka akan sentiasa riak dan takabbur, ujub serta melengah-lengahkan amalnya dan berlaku sombong. Apabila mereka digoda pada lidah, maka sentiasalah mereka gemar berdusta, mencela dan mengumpat satu sama lain. Demikianlah hamba menghasut mereka semasa siang, malam, pagi dan petang.