Ibrah for the week

Assalamualaikum, this is my very first original post on things we should know, as a muslim and God willing, practice it in our everyday lives. May be that I’m not the right person to tell you all of these, but this would act as a reminder for you and (especially) for me as well.

Actually, this was supposed to be told during kulsem (a college thingy done in the surau), but other people have their own stories to tell, and let just put it this way; I was too afraid to speak up in front of the public. :S

So, here I am, and I’ll start with a story to tell.

I used to wear hijab, since kindergarten times, due to my father’s wish. So, it was pretty much out of compulsion so as to why I wear hijab in the very first place.

okay, xde la cute macam ni =.=;;;

However, when I entered primary school, my ustaz was advising the ones who don’t wear hijab, and was explaining to us this: “if you wear your hijab, you will get your reward for good deeds (pahala), Allah will pay you worthily. So, if you wear hijab in school, you will get your pahala for that amount of time you wear your hijab in school.” Giving the example of: if you wear your hijab to school, that would gain you a 7 hours’ worth of pahala (and only Allah knows how much it is).

So, being very excited about the news, I wear my hijab for the rest of my primary school years, all the way to secondary school. Up to that point, I only wear hijab when I’m in school, and that’s it. When I’m out shopping, go to the tuition and go to places, I don’t wear it.

When I reached the age that I’d be going to the college, a sudden realization hits me. I’ve been a hypocrite since I’m in kindergarten up to this point. That’s it! I’m gonna quit all this. So, with that in my mind, I entered college free-haired.

However, the environment changed my thoughts. So, I decided to wear hijab with the intention to follow the majority of the girls here (follow with the flow) plus, it feels kind of weird, learning without wearing a hijab, after all those years I’ve been wearing it to school. But, still, I don’t wear it if I’m outside of the college.

Nevertheless, I tried to wear it when I’m outside of the college and Alhamdulillah, now, I’m wearing hijab full-time and last raya was the first raya I celebrated it wearing hijab. Everyone in my kampung was surprised with my “transformation” and I find it funny when I reminisce the times when I’m in kampung, rushing to get my hijab when my uncles went back home from their work. ;)

This story relates to something told by my friend that: to do something, you have to do it out of compulsion, first. If forever you want to wait for Allah’s hidayah, only then you would want to change, if He decided to not give it to you, would you want to stay jahiliyah forever and blame Allah for it? By the time you are dead, would you want to die in jahiliyah? This particular thing was further explained by another friend of mine that said: doing something not from our own willingness is called tarbiyah; you are teaching yourselves to become better and insyaAllah someday it would be part of our akhlak. By that time, you would do the good things spontaneously because you have been teaching/ forcing yourself all this while and that if you don’t do it, it would feel weird because it has already become a part of you.

An ayat from the Quran to reflect (An-Nisa’ 4:137)

Sesungguhnya, orang-orang yang beriman lalu kafir, kemudian beriman (lagi), kemudian kafir lagi, lalu bertambah kekafirannya, maka Allah tidak akan mengampuni mereka, dan tidak (pula) menunjukkan mereka jalan (yang lurus).

Alhamdulillah, I want to state here that I’m thankful to Allah to place me in KMB. Even though the workload gets sometimes unmanageable that I would want to quit so badly, but I learnt more than what I’ve been learning for almost 12 years in just 2 years, Alhamdulillah.

But, to reflect with what happened in the pavilion today, I’m kind of disappointed+embarrassed+stunned+flabbergasted. What happened today would be considered as normal in any other schools, but not KMB. It was our college’s sport carnival and the crowd, I would say, got uncontrollable, or to put it in another way, wild.

Girls were dancing around shamelessly (in front of guys some more), jeering, and doing all sorts of other things that one would not expect out of a KMB student, particularly a girl.

I told this story to my sister, and she being the student of other college cannot believe it. “serious?? habislah mesti kakak2 usrah kau menangis”. She is aware with KMB’s environment and she knows how we work things around here and what she said might probably be true.

It was simply unacceptable and what more is unacceptable, in the midst of all that, I captured a familiar culture, once I had gone through before this. It turns out a junior of mine was bringing the culture of “cheering” to the crowd. She was supported by a few of her friends.

Told this to my sister (again) and here’s a few extracts of what we had conversed: Miss C might probably wanted to be a cheerleader so bad, but in CBN she was too fat to join in. Sebab tulah kat KMB gian nak masuk cheer. Lepas tu over pulak.

In CBN, it was very normal for us to cheer the team we’re on sampai terkeluar anak tekak (sorry, it would be best if I explained this in malay). In fact, if we had our sport’s day or cheer comp, the next day, EVERYONE would have sore throat.

spot me in this picture ;D

But reality check, here is KMB. It would be nice if we treat KMB as what Ustazah once said: a bi’ah, a place to do good deeds. If we’re wild outside of college, then be wild outside of college, but please respect KMB as it is. To relate it with what I’ve mentioned before, Allah will reward us worthily, so if you do good deeds, even just in KMB, Allah will insyaAllah reward you, even for the tiniest deed you’re doing. This is all a reminder to me and insyaAllah to everyone else who are reading this.

I’ll end this post with another ayat from the Quran (Al-Baqarah 2:208)

Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Masuklah ke dalam Islam secara keseluruhan, dan janganlah kamu mengikuti langkah-langkah syaitan. Sungguh, ia musuh yang nyata bagimu.

Till next time, annyeong!