Pixelated Scribbles

Tidakkah kamu memperhatikan bagaimana Allah telah membuat perumpamaan kalimat yang baik seperti pohon yang baik, akarnya kuat dan cabangnya (menjulang) ke langit, (pohon) itu menghasilkan buahnya pada setiap waktu dengan seizin Tuhannya. Dan Allah membuat perumpamaan itu untuk manusia agar mereka selalu ingat. Dan perumpamaan kalimat yang buruk seperti pohon yang buruk, yang telah dicabut akar-akarnya dari permukaan bumi; tidak dapat tetap (tegak) sedikit pun. (Surah Ibrahim 14:24-26)

Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable? – A goodly word like a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the heavens,- of its Lord. So Allah sets forth parables for men, in order that they may receive admonition. It brings forth its fruit at all times, by the leave of its Lord. So Allah sets forth parables for men, in order that they may receive admonition. And the parable of an evil Word is that of an evil tree: It is torn up by the root from the surface of the earth: it has no stability.(Ibrahim 14:24-26)

It isn’t awesome to have your iman on the low. It makes you lazy in ibadah, impatient, uneasy and easily stressed out. Nothing feels right. I think the scariest part would be when you start feeling indifferent towards your own complacency. Would that mean that your heart has hardened? If my heart is hardened, does that mean that I’ll go back to jahiliyah?

Jahiliyah?

NO!!!

Never do I want to go back to that again! The time when I thought I was living “a good life”, when in fact I was blindly grasping for brief jolts of excitement which never lasted. And due to this temporariness, I had to keep on “taking” these things to maintain that level of so-called-happiness. Going out, dating, gossiping. Only picking things from the hadith and Quran which are convenient for me. Oh dear. Astaghfiraullah.

My body was satisfied, but my ruh was neglected. And yes, I could  feel it. The emptiness, the unsatisfactory, the emotional outbursts, the stress. Everything was distorted. My life, my beliefs, my point of view. And my heart. Oh my poor heart. Enveloped in darkness. With so much sinning, yet no repentance? No purification?

Sighs!

So yes. When we see signs of serious weakness in iman, we should be worried. Very worried. Acknowledging the problem is just the first step. What did we do? What went wrong? Why did we let it go that far?

The next step would be to do something about it. Based on my own experiences (notice the plural?), the killers of my iman have been lack of consistency and worldly distractions. When syaitan sees me inconsistent with my amalan, he’ll keep on coming and work his wonders in hope I’d go astray.

“If Satan, when he looks on thee sees thee disobedient to God, he seeks thee time after time; but if he finds thee constant in obedience to God, he gets tired of thee and discards thee. But if hee sees thee at one time so, and at another so, he has hopes of thee.” (al Hasan)

Then I’d get the New Yorker syndrome. Exams, projects, activites, programs. I become too distracted with all these worldly duties up to the point where I’d forget to just sit down and reconnect with Allah. Solat? Yes. Reciting the Quran? Yes. Islamic gatherings? Yes. But lacking in khusyuk. How can the heart have kusyuk in ibadah when the mind is too preoccupied with worldly things?

Now what?

Taubah.  Seek sincere repentance from Allah, and have that determination to ensure that you’ll do it right this time.

“Trully, Allah loves those who turn to him in repentance” (Al Baqarah 2:222)

It also helps to rid of (like facebook feeds of people who are none of your concern) or reduce (live TV shows!) the things that are ridiculously distracting. Then keep a list of amalan that you want to stick to, then gradually increase.

“Verily, those who say: “Our Lord is Allâh (Alone),” and then they Istaqâmû (steadfast) , on them the angels will descend (saying): “Fear not, nor grieve! But receive the glad tidings of Paradise which you have been promised!” (Fussilat 41: 30)

So come and join me, and let us declare WAR against syaitan and our nafsu! ALLAHU AKBAR!

Oh dear…did I really sound as if I was in trouble in the previous post? Oh no! I’m fine. Really, I am. Alhamdulilah. I did have my oh-no moment, but that was late Feb I believe. Things have been pretty good eversince – in terms of leading a balanced life. Insya Allah.

Here are some news (Thursday, 21st May 2009)  on the really good things that are happening in Brunei:

• 6,000 people in Brunei-Muara pledge to cut electricity use

• Silent ride sends a loud message

• Taking initiatives to make energy conservation a habit

Alhamdulilah

I used to heavily criticise nasyid and nasyidy songs. Just because their songs are about Islam they can get away with singing terribly, i.e. sangauuuu. Dari idung lai~ But that was a long time ago. Now I’m just amazed and delighted to hear good quality religious songs (I don’t know the right term for ‘em!). There are actually a lot of them who sing through their mouth, instead of their noses! And! And! They come in various genres! Nice, innit~?

Anyway, here’s the pick of the week for me!

Ok. Back to the revisions. C’mon MSc!!!

Had two of my girls (in shifts) with me at the bay for the past week. Bless. I always look forward to spending some time with them – any of them! Even if it’s merely 1 day. When your time is spent with people of iman…it’s like having a minty mint refreshing facial spray sprayed on your face. Heh.

Okey dokes. Moving on.

I think one of my many fears is the fear of giving up. What if I get tired of all the hard work? Tired of being patient. Tired of having to face all the challenges in life. Tired of being strong, and tired of fighting for the things I believe in.  What if that time comes? What then? Will that time come?

It’s a scary thought.

When your mind and soul is focused on trying to attain and yield goodness in everything – work, people, world, self.  Then all of a sudden, you lose the will to carry on and keep on fighting. It can happen. It’s not impossible. Even this very minute – every single day is a struggle. A jihad. Coming in various forms and degrees. Will I be amongst those who will give up?

Nauzubillahiminzalik.

In this route in life that I have chosen to take, I know that I’m not alone. First and foremost, I know Allah is always here for me.

Moses said unto his people: “Turn to God for aid, and have patience in adversity. Verily, all the earth belongs to God: He gives it as a heritage – to such as He wills of His servants; and the future belongs to the God-conscious!”

Allah will help if we seek His help. Allah can turn something that seems illogic to this limited mind of ours into something that is possible. He can cause a tiny and fragile seed grow into a huge and sturdy tree. He can cause the blazing fire become cold to Prophet Ibrahim. He can cause a virign to become pregnant. If Allah can do all this (and so much more!), Allah can definitely give us the strenght to become a stronger person.

If ever my patience is gone, I should be worried. SERIOUSLY worried. What is left if my patience is gone?

Rasulullah SAW said: Sabr is half of iman (HR Abu Na’im from Ibn Mas’ud)

…they who are patient in adversity will be given their reward in full, beyond all reckoning! (Az Zumar 36:10)

So let us all hope and pray that we’ll never come to the point where we’d whine and complain so much on how tired we are with everything… and cause us to give up on striving in the cause of Allah, or plain old everyday workload. ‘Cos if that time ever comes, it just means that half of our iman is gone…GONE.

Allahu’alam.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah and hello all,

The backstage of the BBG project has been pretty busy with the planning and paperwork. Alhamdulilah, things are looking up. We now have a finalised set of events for the BGG, and they are as below:

1. Opening ceremony

Date: Saturday, 17th October 2009

Venue: UBD Time: 8am-10am.

2. Symposium

Date: Saturday, 17th October 2009

Venue: UBD

Time: 1pm-4pm

3.Environmental workshop for Primary school students

Date: Wednesday, 21st October 2009

Venue: JASTRe’s dewan (TBC)

Time: 9am-12pm

4. 350 Global Movement

Date: Sunday, 25th October 2009

Venue: Pantai

Time: 9am-4/5pm.

5. Drawing/Painting and Photography competition

Date: Tuesday, 1st September 2009

We would like to recruit volunteers for each event and play a part in the project. We require a team of dedicated and committed earth loving Bruneians to ensure the success of this project. The available posts and job description are as such:

Volunteers

- Survey for locations and other requirements for the event

- Communicate regularly with event manager

- Execute event manager’s requests

- Be present during the event (s)

- Provide ideas and suggestions to event managers on the design of the event (s).

- Be the primary Brunei liaisons for the project/event.

Media and Design Team

- Web posters/advertisements for the events

- T-shirt design

- Photographers

- Videographers

- To create and coordinate all printed materials for the events

For those of you who are interested to be part of this nobel cause, the requirements are as below:

1. Share our objectives and mission

2. Willing to commit and sacrifice their time and energy for the success of the project

3. Able to communicate frequently with their respective team managers

4. Preferably currently in Brunei, but we will also consider those who are yet to be in Brunei

If you are insterested to volunteer in any of the events please send us an email at Brunei350@hotmail.com with the details below:

Name:

Presently at:

Place of work/study (position/course):

Event to volunteer:

Reason(s) for volunteering:

Let us all come together and give birth to a Bruneian generation that cares about the environment, and play an active role in preserving the ecology. So what are you waiting for? Let’s make a difference!

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah and hello my dearest family, friends and readers,

I thought I’d chill today and blog…aimlessly.

My life has been pretty much filled with work. 3 courseworks are due on 18th. We’re planning to have this Brunei Generation Green project launched and executed sometime around September-October.  Hoping to get the proposal ready and done by the end of the week – Expect me emailing you, Pa! The project  may not be out there in the open just yet, but the backstage is pretty busy! So there’s that.  I also  have to ponder on my final year project, and I have this really nifty idea on what to do…but a lot of, ermm..corresponding is required from now on.  Oh! and I have exams on 4th and 2nd June. I have my other personal pursuits as well, and it’s a weekly thing….but beneficial dunia dan akhirat, insya Allah.

So yah…if you see me coming and going on a random schedule, then you can assume that Hidayah is just busy serving her purpose in life. TEE HEE HEE.

Till  then – jaga hati, jada diri, jaga iman. And Allah sentiasa melihat setiap perkara yang kitani kerjakann…secara terang atau sembunyi..

Dapatkan Mesej Bergambar di Sini

Wa’salam

Hidayah Osman

Imagine my excitement when I read about Brunei producing its own rice! Then, imagine my added delight when I saw His Majesty and his family getting down and dirty at the sawah (paddy field)!

Picture taken from Brunei Times

If you haven’t read the news yet, here are the links:

• ‘Laila Rice’ to Brunei’s rescue
• Farmers express their gratitude to His Majesty

This new project reminded me of what Dr Zul of UBD mentioned once in the recent Brunei Postgraduate Symposium. He said – what if something were to happen in the future that could halt the import of rice? Political issue. Transportation problems. Natural disasters. Anything. What then? So it’s important for Brunei to work towards self-sufficiency to prepare for such future possibilities.

On a different note, I won’t be surprised if the price of Laila rice were to be higher than the imported rice. I think, I actually expect it to happen. They’re new and may not be producing in a large enough scale to allow the cost of production to be spread out. So they won’t be able to sell at low enough prices. Unless, there’s a generous subsidy. If the prices between the imported rice and the locally produced rice do not differ much, I think it shouldn’t be too difficult  to encourage Bruneians to purchase the latter.  However, if Laila rice doesn’t taste as good as Beras Wangi, then maybe…just maybe..more work would need to be done.

All in all, well done Brunei. You have my support. And I shall invite people around me to join the bandwagon