Townsville

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“Apasal gelak?” Chen angkat muka dari kertas A4 bertimbun atas meja.

“I’m laughing at my past. Belajar dari Umar al-Khattab.” Pandangan teralih ke arah Chen. Gelak yang berbaki dihabiskan. Tetiba je gelak, sape tak naik hairan?

“Apa yang lawak?” Kening pula yang diangkat.

“Aku punya past la. Lawak.” Wajah ditampal dengan senyum, baki dari sisa senyum.

“Berapa jahil kau dulu-dulu?”

“Seriously you don’t wanna know.”

“As bad as Mojo Jojo?”

“Worse.”

“Kau pernah bom satu Townsville ke?” Chen buat riak terkejut.

Kid pecah tawa lagi. “Yeah. Gotham City pun sekali. Believe me, I’m in the naughty list. I’ve been into hell and heaven in this worldly life.”

“And, which one is better?”

“Of course la heaven.” Soalan bonus.

“Apa sebab kau nak masuk hell?”

“Sebab aku rebel.”

“Dan sebab kau rebel?”

“I’ve been given a list of Do’s and Don’ts masa kecik-kecik dulu-dulu. And whenever I commit the don’ts, aku dijanjikan hukuman. Mana tak rebel bila dah besar.”

“Means?” Chen buat muka berkerut. Tak faham. Orang seni ni memang la susah nak faham.

”Take it this way. Dulu kecik-kecik, aku dah diajar, minum arak tu haram. Solat tu wajib. Aku buat benda haram dan tinggalkan benda wajib, aku kena hukum neraka. Aku tinggalkan benda haram dan buat benda wajib, aku dapat masuk syurga.”

“So??”

“So, I grew up and rebel. Mana tak nya, dah namanya aku takut Allah sebab His Hellfire. Aku dah diprogram untuk takut dan patuh pada Allah, macam tyrannical dictator. So, aku rebel.”

Chen lagi pening. “So, you’re saying you’re not afraid of Him?” Lagi berkerut dahi Chen.

“Didikan yang aku terima salah. Definisi takut yang aku terima kecik-kecik tu led me to become rebellious.” Bersungguh Kid menerangkan. “Definisi takut tu salah. Fear is born out of love. Itu yang sepatutnya. I love Allah, so my fear towards Him is born.”

Chen diam, memberi ruang Kid berbicara.

“Okay, bring to mind someone you love. Contohnya, your Mak. What if she says, she’s gonna hate you, forget you if you disobey her words. Kau takut kau hilang her love kalau kau diobey her. Dan itu definisi takut yang sebenarnya. Takwa. Mak kau tak perlu pun nak cakap, I’ll beat you up if you did this, or that.”

Chen senyum. “You and your ustaz in you.” Kertas Circuit Analysis tu memang dah tak tersentuh. Khusyuk dek khutbah depan mata.

“Everyone’s an ustaz la. Dan sebab definisi takut aku yang salah tu yang dah bawak aku ke hujung dunia sebenarnya. Nasib baik jumpa jalan balik. Tapi, bukanlah sistem didikan yang macam tu yang jadi the thing to shoulder the blame. And bukan tenaga pengajar yang dah ikut syllabus tu jugak yang jadi the one to shoulder the blame. Aku tak pernah salahkan diorang.”

Chen angguk. Dia pun, kalau ikutkan bukan sebab didikan syllabus skema seluruh dunia pakai tu, takkan mungkin nak cari Tuhan.

“I'm the one to shoulder the blame, sebab in the end, semua benda berbalik kepada diri sendiri. We have nobody but ourselves, right?”

“And Him.”

Senyum.

[Townsville]

Him.

The one and only Lord, whose mercy is far beyond His anger.

In fact, Allah’s anger pun sebenarnya ciput sangat kalau nak lawan dengan kita punya anger.

Sikit-sikit nak merungut.

Padahal, kita hamba.

  

THE BEST GIFT

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"What better gift can u give than giving the knowledge of Islam to others?" 
Shaykh Shady Suleiman's voice was loud and clear. Crystal. As if the crystal is shattered and the sharp crystal fragments pierced through Ikhwan's heart. 

"And from the Islam you share with them, they embrace Islam and practise the way of life. What gift is better than that?"

Words coming from the heart will reach hearts of the listener. True enough.
Shaykh Shady continued the Jumu'ah khutbah. All the words play back in Ikhwan's mind, bit by bits, to form a solid understanding and memory of what's being discussed. To be shaken by words. Words reminding the ignorant hearts, reminding the forgotten hearts.

The theme of the khutbah was the Characteristics of a true mukmin. As he listen to the words that had really shaken his heart, Ikhwan tried to gather all the informations entering his ears, to be stored in his heart, and to be translated into actions.

"Charity, donation. Sadaqah. Every single person around us has his share in us. Have rights. The companions asked, if with their wealth they can't afford to give sadaqah, what should they do? Rasulullah s.a.w said that "you must help people in problem". They asked again," if we can't do it?" Rasulullah answered, "bring benefits to others." Again they asked, "if we can't do it?"
Rasulullah replied, "don't bring harm."

Yep. Everyone has rights we have to fulfil. Whether we realise or not. And that will be questioned in the day of judgement. But how far do we want to fulfil the rights of others, that's the most important thing. We have been given guidance from Allah through Rasulullah, what should we do, and the rest; to do or not to do, to make ultimate efforts or to make excuses which won't help us in the day of judgement, is up to us. *smile blinking eyes* (lulz)

"The best of you is who is the best to others. Bring benefits where ever he goes. Not only in surau or mosque or in class. But everywhere."

There it goes. It would be cliche to say this but truths are always cliche. We already know but we don't practise. Yeah. As the term implies, Islam is ad-deen, the way of life. As long as we live, whenever it is, where ever we are, we are to practise Islam. And if Islam teaches us to be beneficial to others, we shouldn't restrict it to bring benefits only in certain places.

"A true believer, he is the key to open the door of good, and become the lock to lock the door of evil. Amar makruf nahi munkar. He enjoins people to do good and forbid evils. If u can't become the barriers from people to do evil, don't become the barrier for the people from doing good; for example a person is changing to the good, but you condemn him, say things to him which hurts his heart."

"Characters of a true believer is the characters of Nabi Muhammad shallallahu alaihi wassalam. He attracts people to Islam with his characters. The ones who hated him the most turned to be the ones who loved him the most.
Every of our acts should attracts people to Islam. All our acts must be according to what Islam teaches us to be. To date, do you realise how many of our actions has caused people to be further from Islam?"

Shaykh said many other things, until these words. These words really strucked his heart. When Shaykh was talking about giving donation, when he did mention that the act of a man who worked hard to earn halal money to feed his family is considered as donation. As if everyone else is doing the normal routine, but his intentions differs him and grant him the reward as he is giving donation. The the Shaykh said;
"What better gift can u give than the gift of Islam? Sharing knowlege of Islam with others. With the knowledge u share to them, they embrace Islam, they practise Islam. What gift is better than that?"
Basically it's the obligations of da'wah entrusted to us, Muslims. How far did we do this job? Point to ponder. :)

But first, remember, 'To give, you must first have.' To donate, u have to earn the money; to teach, you must learn; to help people to understand the deen, you must first understand! And if u truly understand, u will help others to understand. :)

"Man yuridillahu bihi khairan yufaqqih fiddin"

---THE END---
Disclaimer: The words used are according to what I understood from the khutbah, not necessarily bit by bit is the same as Shaykh's.
Any wrongs and mistakes, I ask Allah for forgiveness. May Allah forgives us.
There are so many more that Shaykh conveyed, but this is the least I can share.

Caramel Latte

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Caramelatte tak luak-luak. Jeda di antara mereka berdua kembali memanjang. Masing-masing ligat memutar benak memikirkan konversasi sebentar tadi. Adee membawa kedua belah tangan memeluk tubuh. Pandangannya nun jauh ke arah skatepark seberang jalan. Victoria Park skate ramp. Fikiran menerewang entah ke mana. Nak kata pada assignment tadi, tak mungkin. Assignment lambat lagi nak kena submit. Dan tak mungkin nak pening-pening fikir pasal To-Do list yang diconteng pada tangan. Semuanya dah dipotong. Seharian siapkan semua benda. Mana nak kena basuh baju, beli butter, print lecture notes.

"Mungkin sebab hidup ni sendiri anugerah..." Ka'il membuka mulut, jeda panjang terhenti.


***

Doktor HO itu sekali lagi mencucuk jarum ke lengan bayi tersebut. Ahh! Tak dapat! Jarum tak masuk salur vein. Haishhh.... Jarum sekali lagi dicucuk.

Teriak dan tangis terpapar pada wajah bayi kecil itu. Memang tak terkeluar suara dari peti suara, tapi air mata menjelaskan segala. Riak wajah apatah lagi. Rengek kecil menggambar sakit tak terkira. Mulut terbuka dan terkatup walau suara lekat di kerongkong.

Ka'il sekadar memerhati. Pandangannya jatuh pada rekod pesakit. Robert Tanya. Disease, spinal muscular astrophy kalau dalam bahasa mudah. Type I, infantile. Autosomal recessive disease yang melibatkan genetic defects pada SMN1, eukaryotic cells protein. Lumpuh seluruh badan.

Tipu kalau kata, simpati tak hadir pada bayi itu. Sampaikan pihak Auckland City Hospital pun tak mampu nak menolong. Kalau nak diikutkan, dah banyak kali Dr Mark Andrews berkias dengan ibu bapa anak kecil tersebut untuk meninggalkan hospital.

"...about two or three months more I think. We've tried, but...." Dr Mark menghabiskan kta disitu. Sengaja.

Bapanya beriak tenang menerima. Sang ibu jelas tergambar sedaya mengawal emosi. Cuba menerima walau berkali-kali mendesak pihak hospital untuk mencuba selagi mampu. Dan keputusan untuk keluar dari hospital  memang tegas ditolak mentah-mentah.

Ka'il walaupun sekadar pemerhati, dia tahu segala backstory yang berlaku.


****

"Mungkin sebab, hidup ini anugerah..." Ka'il membuka mulut, jeda panjang terhenti. "...dan tipikal manusia, benda percuma memang selalu nak dibazir."

Adee menghirup Caramel Latte perlahan.

"Aku cuma pelik manusia-manusia yang memilih jalan mati daripada jalan yang sepatutnya." Jukebox dari seberang jalan di tepi skate ramp lagi melalak. Suara Ka'il tak tenggelam dek beat jukebox. "Hidup ni kan perjalan ke arahNya. Setiap pilihan, walau sekecil memilih breakfast untuk hari ni, itu semua tetapan Allah untuk kita lalui jalan hidup ke arahNya. She struggled to death, dan kita masih belum pernah terfikir nak bersyukur atas nikmat hidup yang Allah bagi."

True enough. Adee mengiyakan. Caramel Latte dihirup lagi sekali. Kalau setakat beban kerja rumah melambak, kena buang kerja, paip air bocor pun nak mengeluh, cuba letakkan our feet into the baby's shoes. Tak pun, try to fit our feet into her parents' shoes. Tengok muat ke tak.

[Caramel Latte]

Ibrah jaulah Easter

Habiburrahim

kisah benar, pengalaman senior saya sebenarnya