Salam Aidilfitri & Salam Kemerdekaan…

Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera. Sudah hampir sebulan kita semua berpuasa dan kini tiba masanya untuk kita semua bakal bergembira di Aidilfitri yang bahagia. Sekarang ini, ada yang tengah mengemas barang hendak balik kampung, servis kereta, membeli-belah baju raya dan kalau kanak-kanak, mesti tengah buat kira-kira hendak membeli mercun. Ada juga yang sedang sibuk mengecat rumah dan menghias dengan lampu kelip-kelip bagai. Sungguh seronok hendak menyambut kedatangan Aidilfitri. Rasanya, tahun ini pertama kali kita di Malaysia menyambut Aidilfitri serentak dengan Hari Kemerdekaan tapi mungkin bertahun-tahun dulu ada pernah juga. Perasaan untuk menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan sudah ditenggelamkan oleh perasaan untuk menyambut Aidilfitri tapi masih ada lagi anak Malaysia yang patriotik memasang bendera di kereta ataupun di rumah. Sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, semakin kurang rakyat Malaysia yang mengibarkan Jalur Gemilang untuk menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan negara. Entah mengapa, mungkin ramai yang lalai dan alpa kerana sudah agak lama kita merdeka. Kita semua hanyut dengan nikmat kemodenan, kemajuan dan keamanan negara. Di sini saya ingin mengambil kesempatan untuk mengucapkan selamat menyambut Hari Raya Aidilfitri dan Hari Kemerdekaan negara kepada semua rakyat Malaysia yang sedang membaca di sini. Maaf zahir dan batin. Semoga anda semua selamat pulang dan kembali, berhati-hati di jalan raya dan ingatlah orang yang tersayang. Sekian, terima kasih…

p.s:- Ok, I’m going to make this real easy. Just a simple shoutout. Selamat menyambut Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir & batin. Selain itu, selamat menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan juga. Enjoy your holiday…!!!

How Should We End Our Ramadhan…?

Salam. Many of us have started preparing for Aidilfitri, maybe we should also make sure that we end this blessed holy month in a great way.

1. Repentance (Taubat)

We end this month by returning to Allah in a state of humility and repentance. We seek forgiveness of Allah and repent to Him because we acknowledge that our deeds are deficient and we acknowledge that we have wronged ourselves and others.

2. Gratitude (Syukur)

We must thank Allah for all that He has given us during this month. He blessed us to be among those who worshiped Him and He gave us the health and ability to fast, to pray and to increase in our good deeds. Being grateful to Allah and thanking Him reminds us to be humble because we would not have received anything good or have had the opportunity to do any good without the help of Allah.

3. Proclaiming the Greatness of Allah (Takbir)

Takbir is to declare the greatness of Allah, to exalt Him and magnify Him. Saying “Allahuakbar” is the highest and best way to exalt Allah. We repeat this throughout the night and day, reminding ourselves that Allah is greater than everything else and we declare His praise for having guided us to finish Ramadhan.

4. Intention to Change

We end this month with the intention to continue fasting, praying and doing good. Ramadhan is a month of change that is meant to give us a spiritual cleansing that will last us the whole year. The virtues of fasting and praying do not end after we celebrate Aidilfitri; rather, Aidilfitri should be the beginning of a new chapter for us to continue doing the habits we started in Ramadhan. Do not be a typical “Ramadhan Muslim” by intending to return to your old habits after the Aidilfitri prayer. Ask Allah, the one who guided you to worship Him in Ramadhan, to help you continue in your worship and good deeds. Remember that Ramadhan has left us but the one who created this month will never leave; for He is living and His reward is everlasting. That’s all for now, thank you…

p/s:- Let’s hope all of us will be around for the next Ramadhan. Aminn…!!!

Is Social Media Creating The Laziest Generation…?

Hello there, how’s everything? Observing events and then commenting about them on social media has become our national religion. We anxiously wait for the next celebrity to screw up, another politician to be caught in a sex scandal, the verdict in an even higher profile murder trial or simply a friend to do something stupid so that we can quickly begin worshipping at the altar of the social media platform of our choice to offer our (or read others’) opinions, jokes, jibes and the occasional insightful thought. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and a host of other social media platforms, all the world’s now truly a stage and we are all players in the reality show of life, either as the stars or as the self-appointed pundits. In the past, people would recount where they were when an historic event occurred. In the future, we will instead recall what we tweeted, posted or read on social media platforms about such events. Yes, it’s fun and I’m guilty of doing the same thing but here is my growing concern:- Are we becoming the laziest generation? I know that in today’s increasingly complex and challenging world, it seems that one individual can’t have an impact on the issues facing our country or our planet but you can, and if you choose to, you will. That’s all for now, thanks for reading my crappy opinion…

p/s:- I’m not in any way advocating that we should stopping using social media. In fact, please follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook and Google+ but if there is an issue you really want to make a difference on, it will take more than a tweet of 140 characters or updating your Facebook status to do it…