Pernah nggak dalam hidup, Allah menempatkanmu dari awal lagi. Dari titik nol. Takdir-Nya mengantarkanmu pada keadaan, dimana kamu harus memulai segala sesuatunya lagi dari awal. Dan itu, terjadi saat usiamu tak lagi semuda dulu, mungkin sudah menjelang tiga puluh, bahkan mungkin sudah tiga puluhan atau empat puluhan? Kita ditempatkan di sebuah keadaan yang membuat kita bertanya-tanya. Bahkan, mungkin menyangsikan kemampuan diri sendiri. Padahal, justru dititik itulah kita diajarkan dengan keras untuk tidak terlalu mengandalkan diri sendiri.

Mudah bagi Allah untuk berkehendak, mudah bagiNya untuk membuat kita ada dalam keadaan tertentu. Tapi, di keadaan itulah kita semakin menyadari kalau rencana kita takkan berarti apa-apa tanpa keridhaanNya.

Mungkin, diantara kita ada yang harus memulai karir dari awal lagi. Mungkin, diantara kita ada yang harus memulai hubungan (untuk mencari pasangan hidup) dari awal lagi. Mungkin, diantara kita ada yang harus mengubah keputusannya, dari awal lagi. Dan banyak hal lain yang mungkin terjadi di hidup kita masing-masing.

Untuk bisa melewati keadaan ini, tenangkanlah hati. Tenangkanlah diri. Karena hidup ini tidak serta merta gagal hanya karena tidak sesuai dengan rencana kita. Yang gagal hanya rencana kita, bukan hidup kita.

The hawk’s swooping contributes to the sparrow’s alertness and agility. Although rain, electricity, or fire sometimes harms people, no one curses them. Fasting may be difficult, but it provides the body with energy, activity, and resistance. A child’s immune system usually gains strength through illness. Gymnastics are not easy, but they are almost essential to bodily health and strength. People’s spirits are refined through worship and meditation as well as through illness, suffering, and hardship. These allow them to acquire Paradise, for God gives a large reward for a little sacrifice. Hardships and sufferings promote people to higher spiritual degrees, and will be returned manifold in the other world. This is why all Messengers experienced the most grievous hardships and sufferings.

Hardship, suffering, and calamity cause believers’ sins to be forgiven, warn them away from sins and the seductions of Satan and the carnal self, help them appreciate God’s blessings, and open the way to gratitude. Also, they urge the rich and healthy to be concerned about the ill and the poor and to help them. Those who have never suffered cannot understand the condition of those who are hungry, sick, or stricken with a calamity. In addition, these afflictions may help establish closer relations between different social sectors.

The role of intention in fasting

Intention has a prominent place in our actions, for God’s Messenger told us that our actions are judged according to our intentions. Intention is the spirit of our actions, for without it there is no reward. 

If you remain hungry and thirsty from daybreak to sunset without intending to fast, God does not consider it a fast. If you fast without intending to obtain God’s good pleasure, you receive no reward. So whatever one intends, one gets the reward thereof. Those who have a firm belief in God, the other pillars of faith, and the intention to believe in them will be rewarded with eternal felicity in Paradise. But those who are determined not to believe, who have removed the inborn tendency to believe from their hearts, will be victims of their eternal determination and deserve eternal punishment. As for those with deeply ingrained unbelief and who have lost the capacity to believe, we read in the Qur’an: 

As for the unbelievers, it is the same whether you warn them or warn them not. They will not believe. God has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes there is a covering (Baqara 2:6-7).

Favoring the Heart as Opposed to the Flesh

Human life is a composite of two distinct powers: the spirit and the flesh. Although they sometimes act in harmony, conflict is more usual—conflict in which one defeats the other. If bodily lusts are indulged, the spirit grows more powerless as it becomes more obedient to those lusts. If one can control the desires of the flesh, place the heart (the seat of spiritual intellect) over reason, and oppose bodily lusts, he or she acquires eternity.

Compared with previous centuries, people may well be wealthier and enjoy more convenience and comfort. 

However, they are trapped in greed, infatuation, addiction, need, and fantasy much more than ever before. The more they gratify their animal appetites, the more crazed they become to gratify those appetites; the more they drink, the thirstier they get; the more they eat, the hungrier they get. They enter into evil speculations to feed their greed to earn still more, and sell their spirits to Satan for the most banal advantages. And so they break with true human values a little more each day.

To sacrifice one’s enjoyment of worldly pleasures has the same significance for human progress as roots have for a tree’s growth. Just as a tree grows sound and strong in direct relation to its roots’ soundness and strength, people grow to perfection whose striving to free themselves from selfishness so that they can live for others.

Spiritual practices during Ramadan

Muhasaba (Self-Criticism or Self-Interrogation)

Self-criticism may be described as seeking and discovering one’s inner and spiritual depth, and exerting the necessary spiritual and intellectual effort to acquire true human values and to develop the sentiments that encourage and nourish them. This is how one distinguishes between good and bad, beneficial and harmful, and how one maintains an upright heart. Furthermore, it enables a believer to evaluate the present and prepare for the future. Again, self-criticism enables a believer to make amends for past mistakes and be absolved in the sight of God, for it provides a constant realization of self-renewal in one’s inner world. Such a condition enables one to achieve a steady relationship with God, for this relationship depends on a believer’s ability to live a spiritual life and remain aware of what takes place in his or her inner world. Success results in the preservation of one’s celestial nature as a true human being, as well as the continual regeneration of one’s inner senses and feelings.

Tafakkur (Reflection)

Reflection is a vital step in becoming aware of what is going on around us and of drawing conclusions from it. It is a golden key to open the door of experience, a seedbed where the trees of truth are planted, and the opening of the pupil of the heart’s eye. Due to this, the greatest representative of humanity, the foremost in reflection and all other virtues states:

“No act of worship is as meritorious as reflection. So reflect on God’s bounties and the works of His Power, but do not try to reflect on His Essence, for you will never be able to do that.”  (Tabarani, Mu'jam al-Awsat, 6/250; Baykhaki, Shuab al-Iman, 1/136.)

By these words, in addition to pointing out the merit of reflection, the glory of humankind determines the limits of reflection and reminds us of our limits.

Shukr (Thankfulness)

True thankfulness in one’s heart is manifested through the conviction and acknowledgment that all bounties are from God, and then ordering one’s life accordingly. One can thank God verbally and through one’s daily life only if personally convinced, and if one willingly acknowledges that his or her existence, life, body, physical appearance, and all abilities and accomplishments are from God, as are all of the bounties obtained and consumed. This is stated in: 

Do you not see that God has made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the skies and whatsoever is in the earth, and has loaded you with His bounties seen or unseen? (Luqman 31:20), and: 

He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you reckon the bounties of God, you can never count them (Ibrahim 14:34).

Hanya mau bertanya kepada diri sendiri, sudah menyiapkan bekal untuk akhirat kah?

وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ

And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision,

فَرِحِينَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا بِهِم مِّنْ خَلْفِهِمْ أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ 

Rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty, and they receive good tidings about those [to be martyred] after them who have not yet joined them - that there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.

يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِنِعْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

@edgarhamas

"Jadi, bagaimana caranya agar kita tidak futur?" begitulah yang teman-teman tanya dalam banyak sharing.

Alih-alih menjawab tips dan trik, saya malah selalu menjawab, "rasa futur itu pasti ada. Justru Baginda Rasul mengabarkan bahwa amal itu pasti ada masa semangat dan futurnya."

Ini menarik sekali, Rasul begitu pas menjelaskan bahwa manusia itu tak bisa selalunya on fire. Ada masa turunnya, ada saat-saat lemahnya. "Sesungguhnya segala sesuatu ada masa semangatnya. Dan setelah masa semangat itu ada saat-saat lelahnya." (HR Ahmad)

Maka seorang guru pernah menasihati, "jika kamu sedang futur, itu fitrah. Semua orang pernah merasakannya. Namun ada caranya agar ia tak terlampau lama." Beliau mengajarkan, sefutur-futurnya kita, jangan sampai memutus 100% amal yang biasa kita kerjakan.

Jika kita biasa shalat tahajud, setidaknya kita tak meninggalkan 1 rakaat witir ketika futur. Jika kita biasa baca zikir pagi-sore yang panjang, setidaknya kita tetap membacanya meskipun sebagian kecil wiridnya.

Sebab futur bukan memberhentikan amal. Lemas bukan berarti mati.

Itulah mengapa Rasul bersabda, "siapa yang futurnya tetap pada sunnahku, ia telah mendapatkan petunjuk."

Sebagian ulama berkata, "maksudnya sunnah di hadits itu adalah; meski sedang lesu beramal, hendaknya ia masih melakukannya meski kuantitas dan kualitasnya tak seperti biasa."

Wahb bin Munabbih melengkapi narasi tentang hal ini, "Siapa yang tetap mencoba untuk beribadah meski lelah; justru kekuatannya akan bertambah. Dan siapa yang memilih untuk tunduk pada kemalasan; rasa futurnya justru akan bertambah lama." (Kitab Az Zuhd, Imam Ahmad)

Dan kita tahu akhirnya, justru dengan mengilmui futur; kita tahu ia bukanlah terjunnya iman kita hingga roboh tak bersisa. Ternyata ia episode; kelak akan berakhir, kelak ia akan bergulir.

Shaykh ibn Uthaymīn رحمه الله:

understand what you are reciting knowing what you are reciting will help you understand the blessings in what you are saying as well as the beauty of salah. this will make you feel more connected with Allah SWT.

have humility and meekness understand that you are facing the Lord of the Worlds, the One, that nothing is hidden from Him and He knows what is in your heart. so earnestly stand before Him and pour out your heart and ask for forgiveness hoping that it will be accepted.

pray as if it is your last prayer this one is important because you truly do not know if it will be your last prayer or not. think to yourself before you pray: if I die before the next prayer, how can I make sure that this prayer is the best prayer I have ever done? and build that into a habit every time where you are praying sincerely with concentration.

imagine that Allah SWT is right there in front of you and is watching you pray He is right there in front of you but sometimes it can be forgotten or not fully appreciated, so it needs to be visualised. imagining Him by your head as you do sujood you will help you gain that humility and meekness and will make you be more concentrated as you are aware that you are praying before the very One who created you, who has blessed you, who is the Most Forgiving and Merciful, subhanallah. this is your time with Allah SWT to worship Him and have a conversation with him so concentrate and bow down to Him sincerely.

understand the blessings in it doing research on the beauty of prayer and the blessings in it will make you never want to miss a prayer and will change a 'i have to pray' mindset to a 'i want to pray' mindset as you will not want to miss out on the beautiful blessings of salah. remember: we need Allah SWT, He does not need us. it is for our own benefit.

trying to wake up for tahajjud + fajr is something that i've been trying to do consistently, especially as it's winter and the days are shorter. this can be hard with my uni studies/lectures and other commitments when I just want to sleep for longer and not wake up. however, these are some things that help me form a routine:

sleep early this means that you're getting enough sleep to not be as tired when you wake up. try and go to sleep around the same time every night so that when you do wake up for tahajjud, your body adjusts over time to this new routine. i tried to be asleep by 11pm and my body naturally started to wake me up around 5-5:30am because of this, alhamdulillah.

setting multiple alarms i am that girl who will wake up her whole house with alarms before it even wakes her up. if i want to wake up at 5:45, i set them for 5:40, 5:45, 5:50, 6:00 and eventually i get tired of snoozing them all and just get out of bed.

repeating 'prayer is better than sleep' in my head sometimes it is so tempting to say 'i'll get up in 5 minutes...' and then that 5 minutes turn into 2 hours. when having the urge to say this to myself and close my eyes, i try and battle it by repeating that phrase in my head which reminds me the blessings of salat and helps me get out of bed.

waking up 30 minutes before fajr by the time i finish praying tahajjud, it is fajr time and i get to complete the first prayer on time as well. this will make it feel easier as you're not waking up in the middle of the night and then going back to sleep and missing fajr or having to wake up for it again - you get to pray both around the same time.

doing something after fajr before a nap sometimes it's hard to go back to sleep after fajr on the days where I start university late/it's the weekend but i still want some rest. i started to do some reading after fajr to make me sleepy so that in an hour or two, i'd go back to sleep for another 2 hours and wake up feeling well rested and continue with the rest of the day. i'm always the most productive on these days. of course, it depends on your life schedule and what is going on in your life as well.

reading about the blessings of tahajjud understanding this makes me want to pray tahajjud even more as i know the benefits and beauty of waking up in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep and Allah has descended to the lowest heaven in the third part of the night. it makes me want to wake up and be close to Him.

Tahu kalau waktu shalat dhuha itu hingga 6 jam, tapi tidak bisa shalat meski hanya 2 rekaat, padahal hanya 5 menit untuk melakukannya.

Tahu kalau waktu shalat witir itu mulai ba'da isya' hingga subuh, bisa sampai 9 jam, tapi tidak bisa shalat witir meski hanya satu rekaat, padahal hanya 3 menit untuk melakukannya.

Tahu kalau waktu sehari semalam itu 24 jam, tapi tidak bisa membaca Qur'an, walaupun hanya 1 juz, padahal hanya membutuhkan waktu 2 jam.. bahkan meski hanya satu halaman, padahal hanya membutuhkan waktu 2 menit.

Tahu kalau lidah itu tidak bertulang dan tidak mudah lelah, tapi dia tidak gunakan berzikir kepada Allah.

Tapi, kalau untuk komen tentang orang lain, atau ustadz, atau bahkan tiang listrik, semangatnya luar biasa.. memang apa manfaatnya untuk dirinya?!

Begitulah.. kehidupan dunia ini akan terus berjalan, dan manusia akan terus lalai, kecuali mereka yg Allah rahmati.

Ayolah, sadarkan diri.. ingatlah waktu yg berlalu takkan pernah kembali lagi.. kita hanya punya kesempatan pada waktu yg tersisa saja dari umur kita.

Dunia ini akan kita tinggalkan.. yg terpenting adalah nasib kita di akhirat.. mari persiapkan sebaik-baiknya dg amal, semoga Allah merahmati kita semua, Aamiiin...