Ramadhan, Bulan Puasa

assalamualaikum..

in the name of Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

8-9 days ago was the last time I posted something here.I could not possibly update sooner due to many reasons(real ones!).

so, 5 more days to Ramadhan huh?

Rasulullah,the Prophet himself had the opportunity of going through 9 Ramadhans. Ramadhan was implemented on the 2nd year of Hijrah. To the many of us, this probably would be our 9th-12th ramadhan probably. to those who will turn 24 this year, is our coming 11th ramadhan(assuming you reached puberty at 13) going to be a better than the Prophet's 9 ramadhans? Certainly not, but Rasulullah left us the guidelines to meet the objectives of Ramadhan.

Ramadhan, as indicated by this verse,

"Hai sekalian orang yang beriman! Diwajibkanlah puasa atas engkau semua sebagaimana yang diwajibkan atas orang-orang yang sebelum engkau semua itu,"

'Orang yang beriman'. does this imply all Muslims? why did not Allah use 'hai sekalian orang Muslim'? A believer(orang yg beriman) is definitely a Muslim, but a Muslim is not necessarily a believer. Not suprisingly we see a minor portion of Muslims do not oblige this order. they do not fast and some even make this public, and proud of it!

let's change this. a reminder, our job is not only encouraging the maaruf, but to prevent the munkar. your friends who commit any wrongdoings, let them know they are wrong. be nice to your friends. you should hate their attitude, not themselves. therefore, correct them in the very best way possible. they are not gonna be mad at you, if they really call themselves your friends. at the age of 20s, you are wise enough to know friends who are with you in the times of easy and difficult.

a friend in need is a friend indeed

think of it again, how many times have we been hated(temporarily) for correcting friends in the name of Islam. you wake your friends up for Subuh prayer, they might be angry at you. u might then feel inappropriately guilty for a wrong reason. dont be. Allah says

33. Siapakah yang lebih baik perkataannya daripada orang yang menyeru kepada Allah, mengerjakan amal yang saleh, dan berkata: "Sesungguhnya aku termasuk orang-orang yang menyerah diri?"

34. Dan tidaklah sama kebaikan dan kejahatan. Tolaklah (kejahatan itu) dengan cara yang lebih baik, maka tiba-tiba orang yang antaramu dan antara dia ada permusuhan seolah-olah telah menjadi teman yang sangat setia.

41. Sesungguhnya Kami menurunkan kepadamu Al Kitab (Al Quran) untuk manusia dengan membawa kebenaran; siapa yang mendapat petunjuk maka (petunjuk itu) untuk dirinya sendiri, dan siapa yang sesat maka sesungguhnya dia semata-mata sesat buat (kerugian) dirinya sendiri, dan kamu sekali-kali bukanlah orang yang bertanggung jawab terhadap mereka.

Al-Fushilat-33,34,41

friendly match All Blacks - Ireland 2006

I'm writing this as I'm watching the Rugby World Cup. woohoo! All Blacks vs Italy. The game would be probably have finished as u read this. No regrets coming to Auckland bro! if you were wondering the situation in NZ here, it's sufficient to say almost as good as football world cup. i know the game is so not familiar to Malaysians but try to have a go at one match. any All Blacks game would do, a Haka for sure will get u addicted to the game! forget football for this 1 week, they are only international matches anyway.

again, no more bazaar Ramadhan for me this year. last year was fun, this year will be even better. we have a bigger community now. earlier this year, we could form 4 different football teams everytime we played football. more people means more food, more food means more Malaysian food! mantap2!

okla, till next time

before I leave, dont forget to wake up for Sahur. it goes without saying sahur is good. we wanna fast as taught by Rasulullah, so make sure we start fasting in an Islamic way, and ends it in Islamic way

"Pemisahan - yakni perbedaan - antara puasa kita dengan puasanya kaum ahlulkitab -yakni kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani - itu ialah adanya makan sahur." (Riwayat Muslim)

we certainly have not helped enough our brother and sisters in Palestine. now we want to follow their teachings?

will write again,
assalamualaikum