The Art of Da'wah..

Bismillahirrahmanirraheem..

alhamdulillah, i'm back in Malaysia, n we're in a new home now, i named it Baitul Asma, which means High House, or maybe also House in the Sky, n it has my Mum's name in it as well, so i think it's a perfect name for this house~ lol.

this is the view from Baitul Asma. SubhanAllah.. this was taken on a fine day (no rain).. one can actually see the Kelantan River from our windows n verandah. so in the monsoon season such as now, i can monitor the level of the Kelantan River, which i hope you can vaguely see in the panorama image above.

now, referring to my previous entry, about the ni'mah of having lots of free time n how to use that free time as an ibadah to Allah. i know some friends are doing summer school back in NZ, n mashaAllah that's a great thing to do in order to fully occupy yourself with digging into knew knowledge in search of Allah's Greatness n His Pleasure. well to those at home, don't lose hope! don't get bored! there's loads to do!

inshaAllah, i'll be sharing some ideas/projects in this entry and the coming one, which we can do at home with our siblings/relatives/friends to occupy our time benefecially, inshaAllah. apart from the heaps of books n blogs that we can read, there are also lots of activities that we can do in order to fill our time wisely and achieve a lot of other objectives. i will be babbling mostly about artistic activities, as that's my area of interest apart of medicine/science! =]

so, back to the core business, in everything we do, it is really important to purify our niat (intentions), n try our best to have goals/objectives that we would like to achieve, n then try our best to achieve them. in terms of arts, there are lots of activities/projects we can do. alhamdulillah, Allah gave me an idea to do Art Projects with my youngest sister, who also likes arts. our first project is making a 'Tabung Infak' for our house, The 'Tabung Infak' Project. it's a container, where anyone can donate money, which would be given to those in need, in the cause of Allah.. or in other words, to give alms.

in order to do this, i had to explain to her what INFAK is, n why we are doing this project. so you see, the objectives for doing this project are, not just to fill our time beneficially, but also for bonding with my sis, to collect money in the cause of Allah, to educate n create awareness among our family n guests about INFAK, n above all, to gain Allah's pleasure, inshaAllah.. alhamdulillah, we finished the project n i hope we did achieve all the objectives listed! just to share how we made it, i inserted some pics below. enjoy!

using a used container, we just stuck some colourful ice-cream sticks (which i got from a camp i went in Wellington - Mukhayyam Al-Badr ;). my sis also had some too. hehe)

together, we painted a strip of paper, to be lined around the wall inside the container, to make it more colourful n attractive!

i poked the lid of the container using a pair of scissors n it created a nice straight cut in the middle of the lid. as it was too hard to cut a hole through it (for the money to be inserted into it), i used some folded cardboard to hold the slit open. quite spontaneously got the idea to make a cute smiley on the lid, with the folded cardboard being the two 'sticking-out' teeth~ hehe..

the finished Tabung Infak! alhamdulillah~ =]

but wait! we need something that people can read to know what infak is all about.. the 'educate n create awareness' objective! remember?? hurm..

so we painted a piece of cardboard...

...n wrote some important notes about INFAK. with some nice quotes from the Holy Quran, to explain the virtues of INFAK.

"Who is there that will lend to Allah a goodly loan? Then He will double it for him many a doubling. For, Allah receives and amplifies; and to Him you will be returned." [Quran, 2:245]

"The Parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like the parable of a grain which grows into seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies for whom He pleases; for Allah is ample-Giving, all-Knowing. Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, then do not follow up what they have spent with obligation, nor injury; for them is their reward with their Rabb, and there is no fear on them nor will they grieve." [Quran, 2:261-262]

Alhamdulillah, done! =]

Alhamdulillah, we were satisfied with the outcome, n i hope it would be a long lasting 'Tabung Infak'.. inshaAllah, the money collected would be donated to any mosque/Islamic institution/Muslim in need.. for the cause of Allah..

finally, i would like to say that, anyone can do da'wah (inviting one to Islam.. embracing Islam as a way of life).. one just needs the urge to do it, Islamic knowledge, some brains n a good heart in attracting one's attention to Islam. Allah didn't give brains n hearts to us for no purpose~ so use them wisely! in the case of an eight-year old who likes arts, like my li'l sis, I chose Arts to win her heart.. =D

inshaAllah, you can do it too!

next project, some done n more to go, inshaAllah: The 'Decorating-our-house-with-Zikrullah' Project.. =]

Ni'mat masa lapang?

Alhamdulillah, esok jumaat, maka genaplah seminggu paper last final exam ku tempuhi.

aku dah cuba berusaha dan menjawab dgn terbaik mengikut kemampuanku. tapi kalau nak dinilai dari segi mencabar kemampuan diri, sudahkah aku mencabar kemampuan diri sepenuhnya dalam berusaha utk cemerlang dlm exam? utk menuntut dan menguasai ilmu bermanfaat? huhu. persoalan yg boleh kite same2 muhasabah dalam rangka memperbaiki diri.

namun utk exam kali ni, ia sudahpun berlalu, tiada gune aku menangisi soalan2 yg tak dapat ku jawab, or yg tak ku jawab dengan sebaiknya. tapi yg dapat aku lakukan sekarang, hanyalah berdoa dan bertawakkal pd Allah. Dia yg Maha Berkuasa utk lakukan apa2 pun. maka hanya padaNyalah sepenuh pergantungan diletakkan. hasil atau natijah atau keputusan exam ni dah pun tertulis di Lauh Mahfouz. yg Allah tengok selama ni ialah usaha ku. moge2 Allah memberkati segala usahaku dan menerimanya sebagai ibadah di sisiNya. moge2 kejayaan sudah tertulis buatku dan juga saudara2 seperjuangan ku, insyaAllah. amin3..

maka dengan tamatnya musim peperiksaan yg begitu menyesak dada dan fikiran, tibalah pula musim cuti yang menenangkan dan begitu diidam2kan oleh kebanyakan insan. sebab apa? cuti = masa lapang. maka bolehla buat apa2 yg teringin sangat nak buat masa tengah busy study n exam. maka adakah cuti juga bermaksud enjoy? adakah ia bermaksud boleh buat sesuka hati? tidur berlebih2an, makan berlebih2an, gelak berlebih2an dan sewaktu dgnnya?

na'uzubillah, moge2 dijauhkan!

"Dua ni'mat yang dilekakan olehnya banyak orang: Kesihatan dan Kelapangan"

tak balik Malaysia pun lagi, dah boleh terasa 'tak tau nak buat apa dah'.. huhu. sikap ini perlu dikikis, dibuang jauh2. banyak sangat benda bermanfaat boleh buat.

ku tau, ramai sahabat menghabiskan masa lapang dengan menonton movies atau apa2 rancangan di tv. boleh je, tak salah pun. tapi eloklah kalau ia disertakan dgn niat yg baik, kerana Allah. barulah menonton itu jadi ibadah. kalo tak, jadilah ia suatu yg sia2. boleh ke niatkan tengok tv kerana Allah? macam mane tu kaklong? haa, kalo kite tengok cerita2/rancangan2 yang menambahkan thaqafah (pengetahuan) dengan niat utk menambahkan pengetahuan kerana Allah, maka insyaAllah ia jadi ibadah. kalo kite tengok movie dgn adik-beradik/kawan2 dgn niat utk meningkatkan ukhuwwah, maka insyaAllah ia jadi ibadah (tapi jangan lak tengok movie yg tak sepatutnye. pandai2 la menilai sendiri kesesuaiannye. dah besar panjang n bijak2 belaka~). kalo kita tengok movie2 berunsurkan perjuangan dgn niat utk menaikkan semangat kita utk berjuang di jalan Allah, maka insyaAllah ia jadi ibadah. ha, senang kan kakcik?

hmm, banyak lagi benda boleh buat kalo nak di listkan. fikir2kan sendiri apa yg kita boleh n mampu buat utk mengisi masa lapang kita ni dengan bermanfaat. yang penting, betulkan niat selalu. jadilah niat conscious. ingatlah, suatu masa, bila kesibukan mula menyesakkan dada kite semula, kita kan mula menyesali detik2 waktu lapang yg tak kite gunakan sebaiknya.

utk cuti kali ni, aku berazam utk menambahkan thaqafahku dengan menghabiskan bacaan2 yg asyik tertangguh dek 'kesibukan'. juga dengan membaca blog2/website ilmiah di internet atau menonton rancangan/movie yg boleh mencapai tujuan yg tersebut tadi. ku harapkan juga agar kepulanganku ke Malaysia kali ni adalah kepulangan yg bermanfaat. moga2 dapat ku berkhidmat kpd ibu bapa dan keluarga, menambahkan ilmu dengan apa jua cara sekalipun, memantapkan hafazan, menyambungkan ukhuwwah dan juga cuba alert n analyse situasi ummat di Malaysia.

aku menulisnya di sini bersaksikan pembaca2, utk meningkatkan motivasi ku utk membaca dan mengisi masa lapangku dengan bermanfaat. sebab ape? bila dah tulis/cakap, kena buat! walk the talk~ n supaya sdare2 pembaca dapat mengingatkan diri ini andai ku terleka dengan ni'mat masa lapang ni. tapi jika ditakdirkan ku busy dengan urusan2 penting lain di Malaysia nanti, moga2 Allah memberi kesempatan pd ku utk mencapai juga azam2 ku itu walau dalam ujian kesibukan.. insyaAllah, amin3.

akhir kalam, senang mahupun sibuk, kedua2nya adalah ujian dari Allah. ia bukan alasan utk kita tidak memperkuatkan tarbiyyah diri. tarbiyyah harus istiqamah! maka berusahalah wahai diri! jangan sia2kan ni'mat masa lapang ni. cabarlah kemampuan diri utk mengisi masa lapang dengan bermanfaat!