I actually got tired of writing on religion but I think Tiel did not mean that when she said write about faith.
But first let us get over the reason I got tired of writing about religion or belief:
Here is something that I experienced that will explain my point: Yesterday I joined a Malaysian online mailing list that had as its title Malaysia Spiritual Society. As I came onboard , I read one of the messsages from a guy who was just leaving. There were the usual oh please don t go, and other comments from others. I do not know what the dispute is really about but the gist of it seemed to be ' My religion is better that yours' and ' There is a big flaw in your religion.' Since this group of ove 100 people is mainly from one religion, with a smattering of members from other religions , there was a predominance of posts on this religion on the list ..which made me wonder at the name ...Oh no, not another religious wrangle or another place where one predominant group overpowers the discussuions....
There is another thing that is really bothering me right now: Since getting entangled in the training business , really , I think with me it is a calling, I have had from time to time been told to Islamize my training. Which put me into a wee dillemma really, not because I am not Islamic, I should think my words and deeds shout out Islam but because the material I was using was in my perspective very Islamic . My perspective said that all the material were principles that are embedded in Time . They were Universal Laws that had been put into place by the Eternal One.
Yet when asked to 'Islamize it' , I did . I took hadith and Quranic verses relevent to the topics and used them but I could not find the Muslim authors to quote because most of the material on these Universal laws were not written by Muslims ( but I suspect they had been dipping into Sufi sources ) .Then I got to thinking , hey hey hey , I am a Muslim and I wrote some of this stuff and what you are hearing is my Islamic perspective , is that not enough? Apparently not because for the last session I had in Bintulu , from a lot of positive feedback I got, one fellow commented that he/she disliked that I was pronouncing my quotes from the Quran wrongly and using quotes out of context. You can 't win can you?
Ok ok ok , so you think I am being defensive here right? I did a lot of soul searching and I did feel that I must learn to pronounce properly and also humbly state , please , those of you who have excellent Arabic, please correct me if I am wrong in my pronounciation and please, if I quote something out of context , do stop me and correct me.
What is the connection between what I am writing now to faith. What is faith? I do not want to look up the meaning here , I want to just write what I think faith is. Faith is believing in something so much that one acts on the beliefs , that one's perspective on things is from the perspective of the faith. Actually the Quran says quite often
Ya Ayuhal Lathina Amanu wa Amilusalihat.
Oh Ye who have faith and do good works
So actually one can have faith but NOT do good works but usually faith spurs one to good action.
What has many people quite confused is the definition of what good works is.
Many think it is prayer and fasting and going for Haj and throwing a feast now and then with people coming in to do the zikr , giving a donation once in a while to the orphans and attending weddings and funerals ..only of one's own faith mind you.
Then when you ask people who have been for Haj, they will tell you some nice horror stories of 'The Faithful ' performing the Hajj.Dear me nice and horror surely do not belong together. Oh but you know what I mean, the juicy stories that leave people shaking their heads and wondering how people of "other ethnic groups" could be so ill mannnered.
And you know the stories about how long it took to do the tawaf because a group from some other country decided to make a human chain and push you way way out so that the circle you had to make became very large. Or the man who did saie as though he was swimming and you were unfortunate enough to have been in his way and therefore stumbled after being pushed away by his hands and almost fell which would have been a disaster because you would have been stepped on. You have to admire the faith of these people really . They were determined to perform the Haj and fulfill their Muslim obligation at all costs, even if they inconvenienced their fellow pilgrims or caused a lot of grief to their fellow pilgrims........................................
You know I am being sarcastic here or at least I hope you do! I think for me ' Do good works ' is not about performing the rituals , which are important and meaningful enough when done with a lot of heart and done with presence and rememberence as well as with due consideration for the fellow worshippers...I think ' Do good works ' is being good and being kind to our fellow man, no matter what race, what religion , what perspective they are coming from. I think doing good works is being a Light in the darkness, being tolerant and speaking out against injustice , all injustice , not only the ones that affects one's own people but any people.
I woke up this morning upset with myself again. I could not find my identity card anywhere and then remembered my secretary took it to photostat for some applications I made and forgot to give it back. I saw myself asking her in a high pitched voice why she did not give it back to me and if she knew the consequences of trying to board my Air Aisia flight tonight without my IC and how about it if I could not fly....because I have a workshop to give tomorrow... As I saw this imagnary scene I was asking myself , Dear Lord , Ya Allah, there is this soft spot in my heart that inclines to kindness and goodness, and I am sure you put it there but why is it what comes out is this Shrill voiced angry woman who cannot have the patience to calmly ask for her IC and not lay the 'guilt trip' on my hapless secretary?
But I guess , even though what I visualised did happen, except I was less shrill voiced since I was aware of my actions , my secretary responded by laughing at me and with me. I guess she knows about that soft spot inside ..who told her I wonder?
So , if I put it in another way:
Faith is that soft and tender spot inside of you that loves little babies , that cries when emotions are touched , that defends the weak, that fights injustice........don t you go mistaking faith for something that puts people down and saying mine is better than yours.....you don t have to say mine is better than your, if mine is better than yours: It will be as clear as the Sun in the Sky and Allah knows best ......
Oh Ye who have faith and do good works
So actually one can have faith but NOT do good works but usually faith spurs one to good action.
What has many people quite confused is the definition of what good works is.
Many think it is prayer and fasting and going for Haj and throwing a feast now and then with people coming in to do the zikr , giving a donation once in a while to the orphans and attending weddings and funerals ..only of one's own faith mind you.
Then when you ask people who have been for Haj, they will tell you some nice horror stories of 'The Faithful ' performing the Hajj.Dear me nice and horror surely do not belong together. Oh but you know what I mean, the juicy stories that leave people shaking their heads and wondering how people of "other ethnic groups" could be so ill mannnered.
And you know the stories about how long it took to do the tawaf because a group from some other country decided to make a human chain and push you way way out so that the circle you had to make became very large. Or the man who did saie as though he was swimming and you were unfortunate enough to have been in his way and therefore stumbled after being pushed away by his hands and almost fell which would have been a disaster because you would have been stepped on. You have to admire the faith of these people really . They were determined to perform the Haj and fulfill their Muslim obligation at all costs, even if they inconvenienced their fellow pilgrims or caused a lot of grief to their fellow pilgrims........................................
You know I am being sarcastic here or at least I hope you do! I think for me ' Do good works ' is not about performing the rituals , which are important and meaningful enough when done with a lot of heart and done with presence and rememberence as well as with due consideration for the fellow worshippers...I think ' Do good works ' is being good and being kind to our fellow man, no matter what race, what religion , what perspective they are coming from. I think doing good works is being a Light in the darkness, being tolerant and speaking out against injustice , all injustice , not only the ones that affects one's own people but any people.
I woke up this morning upset with myself again. I could not find my identity card anywhere and then remembered my secretary took it to photostat for some applications I made and forgot to give it back. I saw myself asking her in a high pitched voice why she did not give it back to me and if she knew the consequences of trying to board my Air Aisia flight tonight without my IC and how about it if I could not fly....because I have a workshop to give tomorrow... As I saw this imagnary scene I was asking myself , Dear Lord , Ya Allah, there is this soft spot in my heart that inclines to kindness and goodness, and I am sure you put it there but why is it what comes out is this Shrill voiced angry woman who cannot have the patience to calmly ask for her IC and not lay the 'guilt trip' on my hapless secretary?
But I guess , even though what I visualised did happen, except I was less shrill voiced since I was aware of my actions , my secretary responded by laughing at me and with me. I guess she knows about that soft spot inside ..who told her I wonder?
So , if I put it in another way:
Faith is that soft and tender spot inside of you that loves little babies , that cries when emotions are touched , that defends the weak, that fights injustice........don t you go mistaking faith for something that puts people down and saying mine is better than yours.....you don t have to say mine is better than your, if mine is better than yours: It will be as clear as the Sun in the Sky and Allah knows best ......
4 comments:
Kak Su, just to ask yr opinion abt hypnotise techniques. I bought loads of CDs and tried them whenever I need to calm down and relax. Mainly it is about diagram breathing.
hmm if it works to calm you down it is good!
I guess a lot of people have lost touch with Islam, so they like people to 'Islamise' what they are saying, when actually good things are Islamic anyway.
(Hey writing that actually made me realise something important. :D Thank you).
Maybe a lot of people look for Islam from the outside, and hope that it will seep inside them. Some people carry Islam/presence of God inside, so whatever they do is tinged/steeped in it, their Faith radiates from inside out.
(Hey I realised something else again. Thank you thank you thank you thank you :))
Sometimes what you write triggers off something else, it's uncanny. But great :)
Faith is such a beautiful thing to have. Many people say they have no use for it, they take nothing just on faith but in the end they realize that it's actually the very thing that would help them to find peace with themselves and the people around them.
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