"without Islam, does it matter?"

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
 السلام عليكم

alhamdulillah alhamdulillah alhamdulillah :) bereh sudah Fall semester 2010.
tapi ateeqa nasha being ateeqa nasha, dah already cuak utk next sem..
bukan cuak ape..org ckp, slalu dah sem2 akhir, dah rajin procrastinate. hu.
rajin tu bagus..tapi rajin malas same lah jugak dgn malas nk rajin.
tapi takpe. takleh cmtu kn...

last sem mmg lah sgt overwhelming. imagine sepanjang 4 bulan saye belaja 5 religions. we went kinda deep with for hinduism and buddhism but had to write 3/4 pages only. and prof gave us plenty of time to do it in that 3 months. tapi hanya satu bulan di spare utk belajar 3 Abrahamic Religions with 8 pages of paper to write in less than a week that was also the last week of college, with 2 presentations crammed on the last day of class.  two classes per religion. as a result, kelasku  yg bermula pukul 12.30 pm - 1.45 pm, kami terlajak sampai 3 pm.
prof, you were killing us by not sticking to the syllabus. pon lagi tak sempat nk kaver. taoism, zoroatrainism, jainism, confiusism dan byk lagi agama. tak sangka kn itu plan asal..kne belajar sendiri nampaknye.
all in all, alhamdulillah it was an amazing discussion class with great classmates too. just the 10 of us.

initially there were 4 groups. one presented on hinduism, judaism, christianity or Islam. as you might have guessed, i did mine on Islam. of course, tak salah present on other religion. kene blajar jugak agama lain kn. tp entah, dah ditetapkan saye buat on Islam and happily I did. very glad actually.
mula2 nk buat topic on Sufism..then, prof suggested lg wht abt Women in Islam? I was ecstatic. yeayy...my favourite.
saya, steve and asmita.
alhamdulillah Allah made it easy on us.
started of with  History of Pre-Ancient Civilization and Modern civilization by steve.
then saye covered The Politics of Hijab and Issues.
Asmita covered Islam In South Asia and Reformers.

saye kat sini nak nyatakan betapa amazingnye steve presented his part. cammana nk describe ye..apa yg dia sampaikan, dia sendiri terkejut. sampai merah2 mukanya. dia tak sangka dgn ni Qur'an (2:228) - "and the men are a degree above them [women]" - dgn penerangan, men have an authority over wwomen because theya re the ones who are supposed to be protecting women.

jugak dia mentioned pasal faraid - how men get more than women.
to back that up, dia explain tanggung jawab lelaki and how women, their possesions are their to keep and no man can touch it. kalo dia kerja, gaji dia utk diri dia..
pergh la steve ckp. dia sendiri tak pecaya apa yg dia ckp, so much for the misconceptions, aite.
saye mengangguk je. subhanallah..moga Allah enlightens you.
orang lain terdiam..

and this is the person that i waited the for the bus with...talking philisophy. dia pernah ckp, paraphrasing

"Good people do good things, and bad people do bad things, but religion causes good people do do bad things"

"i like the philosophical idea of Taoism. it's easier. how we all come from the nature and we'll all die and be apart of the nature. it makes sense" so he says.

it's easier to take short cuts. but amid of short cuts, men brains are made complex and like to be challenged. how easily and the brains and hearts be blinded if the eyes were? the question of purpose of life is surely superior to all other questions. how easily can we let a day pass killing ourselves spiritually by being in the state of denial. what's the purpose of doing good and avoid evil? if life was as simple as that, than killing one another is trivial. so what if i do good or evil in life? hidup solely dlm under the grounds of human rights and laws to consolidate with our free will? it's done us enough damage. 

Al Mulk 1-2.

 

"Maha Berkat (serta Maha Tinggilah kelebihan) Tuhan yang menguasai pemerintahan (dunia dan akhirat); dan memanglah Ia Maha Kuasa atas tiap-tiap sesuatu;"

"Dia lah yang telah mentakdirkan adanya mati dan hidup (kamu) - untuk menguji dan menzahirkan keadaan kamu: siapakah di antara kamu yang lebih baik amalnya; dan Ia Maha Kuasa (membalas amal kamu), lagi Maha Pengampun, (bagi orang-orang yang bertaubat);"

that is a true religion at its simplest form.
the thing is we're much pre-occupied with life that this question is not relative anymore. we already have enough burden and responsibility in life. we're constantly on the go..mcm robot.

then i question.. think about it. isn't all the mayhem happening because of the abandonment and ignorance of religion? we're living in the world where secularism is now being taken religiously, diminishing religion itself. ironic...

steve said ' yeah, thats right! the church that i used to go before used to be filled with people every sunday..but not anymore now. only half of the church is filled now. i myself don't even go to church anymore...'

he then challenged, "but then, serioulsy,  without religion, do you think you'll be a bad person?"

automatically without any hesitant, saye jawab "Yes...!" then saye tergamam. syukur sbb saye born muslim membuak2. ya Allah, sape lah aku tanpa Islam..."knowing myself, i'm a fairly wild and passionate person. if that's not being channeled to the right output/path then, i'd be damned.".."this headscarf i'm wearing reminds me of God. I'm a walking symbol of the religion that I represent. I carry with my my religion's dignity. it keeps me away from all those things"
"you don't see people with hijab go the pubs, drink and dance aimlessly, do you? i'm not saying that all non religious people do.. but there's a potential. and i'm not saying that all religious ppl don't do it. some do..but just how many bearded men with kufis on do you see on the playboy magazines? even secular people are being wronged in so many ways.... i wouldn't wanna be represented that way either."
he just nodded a few times, then the bus arrived.

dlm bus, i sat. his question was still lingering in my ears, altered slightly..."without Islam, does it matter?" saye emo lepas tu. saye bersyukur dgn nikmat Islam.