Keadilan-Mu & Pengampunan-Mu

Bila aku merasa dianiaya
Bila aku merasa kebuntuan jalan
Aku ingin menadah tangan
memohon atas nama Mu al-'Adl
Tetapi aku seakan kebejatan upaya
untuk menampung sepuluh jari meminta
akibat bimbangkan keadilan-Mu
yang hanya menambah laknat padaku
Lantaran dosa dan kehinaan diri
yang lebih hitam dari lumpur hitam

Selajur aku teringat akan nama Mu al-Ghaffar
Lantas lari bimbangku sejauhnya
Lantaran keluasan pengampunan-Mu
yang tiada bertepi
Aku memohon atas belas kasihan
dan kasih sayang Mu
Supaya diampuni dosa
dibersihi dan dikasihi diri
Supaya aku ampuh menerima
segala aniaya maupun petaka
sebagai kaffarah penghapus noda

My email to Dr Mohd Asri

Following my recent post titled "Second Blog", I've sent an email to Ustaz Dr. Mohd Asri asking for more clarification on the issue of unauthorization of Islam Hadhari in Selangor. The email goes like this:

"Assalamualaikum SS Ustaz Mohd Asri,

Nama saya Harith Abdul Malek & saya pelajar kursus perubatan di sebuah universiti perubatan di Cyberjaya. Saya inginkan sedikit penjelasan dari pihak Ustaz berkenaan komen Dr Hasan Ali tentang isu pengharaman arak. Saya ingin meminta jasa baik Ustaz supaya dapat direct saya ke sumber kenyataan tersebut kerana saya telah cuba mencari di beberapa akhbar tempatan dan juga sumber internet, tetapi tidak dapat menjumpai kenyataan tersebut.

Berkenaan dengan pendirian kerajaan Selangor untuk mengharamkan promosi Islam Hadhari di masjid-masjid negeri itu, saya berpendapat usaha tersebut adalah untuk membetulkan kekeliruan tentang Islam yang telah timbul berikutan pengasasan Islam Hadhari. Sememangnya, tidak dinafikan isi kandungan projek Islam Hadhari tidak langsung bertentangan dengan pokok-pokok ajaran Islam yang sebenarnya. Tetapi kedatangan Islam Hadhari telah menimbulkan kecelaruan terhadap masyarakat Islam di Malaysia yang pemahaman tentang Islam itu sendiri sudah tidak teratur--dibaluti khurafat, bid'ah, dan sekularisme. Kecelaruan yang saya maksudkan (yang amat merbahaya kepada Akidah umat Islam) adalah masyarakat terutama, segolongan besar mahasiswa di institut2 pengajian tinggi tempatan, telah berpendapat bahawa kehadiran Islam Hadhari adalah satu pembaharuan yang menandakan Islam yang diwarisi dari Rasulullah memerlukan pendekatan moden supaya kita mampu berserasi dengan dunia barat.

Keputusan untuk mengharamkan promosi Islam Hadhari di masjid2 sememangnya nampak keterlaluan & seolah-olah mempolitikan agama. Tetapi, persoalannya adakah kita masih mahukan masjid2 di negeri2 ini memberi khutbah mempromosikan Islam Hadhari. Pelaksanaan Islam Hadhari sebelum ini pun tidak menampakkan kesan-kesan yang baik. Saya amat suka sekiranya Ustaz dapat memberi pendapat dalam bagaimana kita harus menangani kekeliruan yang ditimbulkan oleh kemunculan Islam Hadhari,

Sekian sahaja untuk kali ini, & saya amat menunggu balasan emel daripada Ustaz. Saya juga berharap saya dapat menimba ilmu menerusi perbualan emel yang saya harap tidak akan berhenti pada emel kali ini.

Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalam,
-Harith Abdul Malek"

Alhamdulillah (I'm happy)

Last week, my younger brother registered into USIM for Foundation in Laws & Syariah. Alhamdulillah, everything went well though he seemed quite nervous. Yela, first day masuk universiti. I'll pray for his well-being. The day before my brother went to USIM, I paid a visit to my auntie's in Nilai. Got to meet my super cute little cousins--Ali, Fatimah, Muhammad, & Khadijah. It has been months since the last time we met. And I was ecstatic when each of them were trying to tell their stories. Ali gave up the earliest because he could not hold my attention for more than a minute. Muhammad has started kindergarten this year. Khadijah can read alphabets and she will only be three years old in December.

Muhammad & Khadijah

And that night, after the kids had gone to bed, I thought about what defines happiness. My happiness. And just before I fell asleep, I came out with the following list of events that make me happy.

1. to lepak at a big mosque with my brothers.


2. to listen to anak-anak telling their different stories at the same time.


3. to eat cendol after Asr with my families.


4. to talk about my future families with my parents; how many kids I wanna have and how my dear Mommy want at least a granddaughter.


5. to have someone who can make me laugh and yet not forget about death.

Second blog

Here is my second blog powered by Wordpress. I created this blog just to have a Wordpress account because I was drawn to comment on one of Dr Mohd Asri's entry in his blog. The entry was regarding recent remarks of Dr Hasan Ali on two issues: Islam Hadhari and alcohol beverage & gambling business in Selangor.

Aku hanya seorang hamba

Aku hamba
Aku sebatang kara
Aku ada Empunya
Yang Satu, yang Maha Esa

Aku hamba
Aku bukan mulia
Aku serah jiwa segala
Untuk dibelas dan dikasihan
Oleh Tuan yang Maha Kuasa

Aku hanya seorang hamba
dan juga kau dan sekian semesta.

Because of our deeds?

"One sign of relying on one's deeds is to lose hope when a misstep occurs". -Ibn Ata'illah As-Sakandiri.

Think about it. Selamat beramal~

Culture and inheritance

“Time and Eternity”

Essential oils are wrung,
The Attar from the rose
Be not expressed by Suns alone,
It is a gift of screws.

The general Rose decays,
But this—in Lady’s drawer,
Makes summer—when the Lady lies,
In ceaseless Rosemary.

-Emily Dickinson

I think the Attar oil is the main subject of the poem. And I would like to think it as an analogy to culture. Emily Dickinson, in this poem, described the Attar as a product of sequences of complicated and dynamic processes originated from a rose which represents the root of the culture.

Culture can be defined as complexes of learned behavior and perception and it is inherited through generations. As it is being handed over from one generation to the other, it will no doubt face many changes and will finally have to adapt to them. To Emily, and I agree with her, these adaptations, changes, and innovations perhaps, are the essentials that build and enrich the culture. On the other hand, I also think that culture is a fragile phenomenon as it is rarely written—it is often taught informally. Bear in mind that our written language, buildings, and artifacts are not culture, rather the products of culture. Hence, we see archeologists spend years of their life to extract culture from them. Because of its fragility, without planned and effective actions, we might lose the originality of a culture through fierce waves of changes.

Moving to the second stanza, the “general Rose” representing the physical being of the origin of a culture will “decay”. Our ancestors from whom we inherit the culture too cannot go against nature—to die is natural. However, the Attar is what preserves the fragrance of the rose. The culture, knowledge, and wisdom inherited by them are what will persist after they disappear.

"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allâh is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa [i.e. he is one of the Muttaqûn (pious)." (Al-Hujuraat: 13)