Change is never easy

*puff puff* cleaning the dusts and cobwebs in this so-called blog of mine. 

Salam my dear readers (if there are still any though).

It has been way too long from my last post. I'm surprised you are still reading this though. Well, thank you for your patience, I guess. 

So, I'm just going to proceed with the writing instead of rambling here about my hiatus. 

First of all, let me just wish a Happy New Hijr Year a.k.a Maal Hijrah. May this new year make us a better Muslim insha Allah. 

You know how people always have this new resolution every new year about what they want to change, what they want to become better at, what are the things that they want to stop doing, etc.. and then it turns out at the end of the year, that changes never happen? For some of you, you had actually succeeded in making those changes for the better, alhamdulillah, kudos to you *clap clap*! But some of you (i.e me of course) may not have succeeded in doing it right? Well, here's the thing. Change is never easy. Making small changes here and there might be easy but making bigger changes in our life will be so much harder. Because we have been doing it for like the past 10 years or so and it has became a part of us, like a habit. It is definitely so much harder if the things that we want to change are the ones that fulfilled our nafs, that we thought made us happy, right? But, does it make Allah happy? Ask ourselves this question. 

Why does it feel so hard to make those changes? 

Jahiliyyah (the things that Allah forbid us to do) is like a rust, covering whatever metals beneath it. If we do not protect the metal by coating it with some sort of paint (not sure what is the right term to use), the metal will get rusty quite easily. Why? Because it is exposed to the air and water. 

The metal is like our heart, if we do not protect it with eeman and taqwa, it will be very vulnerable to shaytan's whispers and make us do things that are unpleasant in Allah's sights. If we let this happen for a long time, the metal that is supposed to be very strong, slowly loses it's strengths and become brittle. Just like our heart. If we do not protect our heart by reading and understanding the beautiful verses from the Qur'an, continuously reminding ourselves of Allah and increasing our knowledge of the deen, our heart will become weaker day by day. Until at one point a sin that we used to be very cautious about, became normal to us as we kept doing smaller sins day by day that will eventually led to a bigger sin. Naudzubillah. 

So how do we get rid of the rust? My father had asked us (my siblings) to do this before; sand-papering a rusty metal. I think it was our gate in our old house. It was quite a challenge I must say. I wondered at that time, why do we need to remove the rust from the metal (in my case here, sand-papering the whole gate)? Why don't we just coat it with a brand new paint? It will be much easier and faster without all those hard work, right? I did not actually ask anything to my father at that time, I just did what I was told to do (like a good girl). I've learnt about this much later during my science class that we cannot get rid of the rust if we just coat it with another paint since the metal are already oxidised. The new paint will just be scraped off in no time by the already-rusty metal beneath it. By getting rid of the rusts on the metal, we are protecting the metal so that it will stand stronger and longer against the rusts.

Just like our heart. If we want to change for the better, we have to totally scraped off all the Jahiliyyah that is covering our heart. Scrapping it off won't be easy, it is a very long and hardworking process. But, it will make our heart grew stronger, right?

So, do we just stop at that? Getting rid of the 'rusts' only? The answer is no. Once the rusts are removed, the metal will be exposed again to the air and water that will make the metal all rusty again. So, what we need to do is to continuously giving protection to our heart from all those 'rusts'. I know, it is a long process (Trust me, I'm still 'sand-papering' my heart now). Getting rid of the 'rusts' in the first place is not easy. And making sure that the steel remained protected is another hard work. That's why, once we left some of the Jahiliyyah things that we used to do, we need to quickly find better replacements to make sure that we do not go back to do those things again. So what are the BEST replacements in our emptied hearts? Allah said in one of the verses in the Qur'an that, 

Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest - [Ar-Ra'd 13:28]

Therefore, the things that can replace all the Jahiliyyah in our heart are the things that can remind us of Allah and make us closer to Him. Believe me when I say that Allah will surely reward us from all those efforts that we did to be closer to Him, insha Allah. As hard as it may seem, well, the price of Jannah isn't cheap *wink*. The ones who have been promised paradise by Allah are of exemplary and outstanding characters. Ask ourselves, are we up to that standard? Are we worthy enough to be standing beside our Prophet SAW and His companions in the hereafter? I wonder. There are still lots of sand-papering and coating to do!

So, do not feel sad or demotivated if we did not fulfilled our last year's resolutions. Allah wants to give extra rewards for those extra efforts we are doing *wink*. Keep on improving ourselves. Just like a motto from the animation movie "Meet the Robinsons" - Keep moving forward!

May Allah accept all our good deeds and forgives our sins. May Allah give us strength and ease our path to be a better Muslim.

Still learning, and always will be.

Till then. Jazakumullah khairan khathira.

Busy?

Salam wbt :) Hi there!

 It has been a while, huh? I was going to say that I was so busy that I didn't have time to write..but, that would be a lie. I'm not that busy actually. I watched a video the other day and one statement threw me off guard, "Kalau nak dibandingkan dengan Rasulullah, dia lagiiiii busy tau..". *dush* Yeap, can't deny that. He's the busiest person on earth with the biggest responsibility to teach and spread Islam to others. And who are we to complain that we don't have enough time just to read a page of Qur'an a day, or to pray 2 raka'ah prayers before or after the obligatory prayers, or to take a little time off from our daily routine to remember Allah? Sometimes we tend to forget that we had a big purpose in this life that we need to achieve. Even bigger than just getting good grades and getting a good job, raising a family and all that..*sigh* 

At a time like this, when I started to ask myself over a lot of things..

I always wonder, what's the purpose of living for those who did not know that their purpose in this life had already been stated by Allah in the Qur'an..

And I (Allah) created not the jinn and mankind except to worship Me (Alone)  

[Az-Zariyat 51:56]

It's good to know what our goal is right? Just like what I learnt in one of my management subjects, we need to have a goal so that we can plan & work strategically in achieving the goal. 

Let us keep this (our goal) in our mind every morning when we wake up. So that our day can be planned according to our goal and insyaAllah everything that we do will be blessed by Allah..^_^

Mode: Muhasabah Diri 

Till then, Wassalam.

the 22 year old me

Salam wbt,

InsyaAllah, I'll begin with how grateful I am that Allah had given me countless of blessings throughout my 22 years of life in this world.  Alhamdulillah. It's so funny how time went by just like that. They say, the older you are, the wiser you be. I hope I am :) When you were 2, all you think about is play, play, play. When you were 12, you started to be more conscious about your look, no more childish stuff. You want to be just like someone in the television. And now when you are 22, you look at those stuffs you thought and care about back then, and just laugh at it. Now, you have more serious stuffs you need to think about. Like, where do you plan to work, what sort of job you want to do, which car do you want to buy, how much salary do you want to make, where do you want to settle down and maybe have family, kids etc. Ok, you might think, "Hey, isn't that too early to think about that stuff? We're still young, no need to think about having kids already, enjoy your life!" Haha. The thing is, whether you like it or not, we need plans for all of that. Cause we don't know when it might happen. Even though it's not a concrete plan, just being aware of all the things that might happen in the near future will help you to be prepared. Scary, really. But, that's a fact of life. Everybody will grow up eventually. 

Looking back in all those years, I'd never imagine, I'll be the person I am today. Thanks to Allah's guidance, my parents, my family and people around me.. Alhamdulillah, I'm still learning and learning, to be a better servant to Allah, the Almighty.. to be a better person that will benefit the ummah. I'm praying that in many years to come until I die, inshaAllah, I will still be in this path, bringing Islam to its Glory. Amin~

The 22 year old me

^^