THEY DRINK COFFEE, EAT DOUGHNUT AND…

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
Al-Hujuraat: 13
It has been a really long time since the last entry and I am wondering if this blog is still active yet I had my mind set that if it is not, I will make myself start a new one (probably using the same name though) and be more committed to it in a more practical and doable way insya Allah.
When I get an offer to pursue my study overseas and given the chance to take my family along, I am thrilled. I am looking forward to see people very different from my people for a change. Well, guess what? Other than their great fond of doughnut and addiction to coffee, we are very much alike in so many ways.
If we have intellectuals who cannot stop discussing about their area of expertise or how they always see things from their respective areas no matter when they are walking, eating or making small talk that you wonder if they even dream of what they are preaching, we have a bunch of them here. If we have seen girls coming face to face with each other over a guy they like, well here they take it in the open air where we prefer in a close room. The common conversations that you catch while passing by people in Malaysia, you can get everything here down to the gossip!
It strikes me how similar people are and how true al-Quran is! We are nothing better than the other unless we have more taqwa than the person next to us. And speaking of taqwa, Dr. Mohd Nor Manuti gave a good background from the Arabic standpoint of the word itself. Taqwa comes from the root word wiqaya that means cautious. Thus taqwa means always being cautious (towards Allah) in the sense that you always watch that you do what He asked you to and leave what He asked you not to. Saidina Umar al-Khattab explained taqwa with an analogy as one walking on a road lined with thorn thus you can never be off guard at all time.
Indeed we are blessed at least we have a deen. We have Allah to hold on to for that matter. For the smart people here, sometimes they get above their head and feel like they are far off better and know everything. Unfortunately they do not realize that there is One who is All-knowing. Some are very humble, down to earth yet not humble enough to submit to Allah.
All of us have our insecurities. It might be our fear of an unfinished study or research or just a plain interview. Some of us lack confidence. They have it too! But we are blessed because at least (I would say we have the most) we have Allah while they feel like they are struggling alone and fighting their own battle. We can cry to Allah, we can ask Allah to help us and we know Allah can listen and Allah can help. We are a notch more hopeful than any other despairs in the world and hope is a powerful tool!
Now come to the getting to know each other to LEARN and NOT DESPISE. Yes, everybody has good qualities as well as the bad ones. Allah asks us to learn, not despise be it good or bad.
It is easy to learn from the good qualities for instance learning to be on time when you make appointment with the Swiss or Japanese, learning to be diligent and hardworking when you meet the Chinese, learning to honour your guests from the Arabs, learning to be courteous from the Malays, learning not to beat around the bushes from the Westerns and the list goes on. But how do we learn from the bad qualities?
I would like to quote the answer from the Prophet Isa a.s. when people asked him how he became good when he was amongst the Israelites (who are known to be very bad)? His answer was simple, “ I don’t want to be like them.”
Hence that is how we learn from the bad qualities. Try to eradicate them from ourselves. And if we meet anyone with certain bad qualities, now that Allah forbids us from despising him/her there must be a way for us to face this person and there must be a reason for that too. For this, our utmost muallim, Rasulullah s.a.w. had given the perfect answer.
In an occasion a guy was coming towards Rasulullah s.a.w. house with Aishah r.a. Rasulullah s.a.w told Aishah all the bad qualities that the man has. Yet when he entered the Prophet’s house, Rasulullah s.a.w treated him very well. When the guest left, Aishah r.a. asked Rasulullah s.a.w if what the Prophet told her before was all correct, Rasulullah s.a.w said yes. Aishah r.a. asked then why did Rasulullah s.a.w treat him very well? Rasulullah s.a.w said, “If no one shows him kindness, he will never learn to be good.”
Subhanallah! If only we strictly follow what Islam has taught us, this world is guaranteed to be a better place. I would bet my life on this. Wallahu a’lam.