The judges are deciding! Hurry up before its too late!

A friend of mine shared this video of Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan, a Muslim speaker that live in Dallas, Texas. Anyway, please read it through until finish! I know watching movie, sleeping, gossiping, or scrolling down Path, Instagram, or snapchating will be more interesting rather than reading through this, but please just give a little time for our mind to contemplate.

By the way, you can watch the video here if you want to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNC3y9rJI9c

Here’s pretty much a resume plus additional opinions.

Dalam video ini, beliau menjelaskan potongan ayat Surat Al-Hadid yang menceritakan mengenai apa yang terjadi di Hari Penghakiman (judgment day/yaumul akhir). The interesting part is that God does not compare the judgment day of a believer and disbeliever; instead, He compares believer and people who THINK that they are believer, orang-orang yang merasa bahwa mereka memiliki keyakinan, memiliki iman. I’m going to explain it in points so it’s easier to understand.

1. Pada ayat tersebut dijelaskan pada saat Hari Penghakiman, orang-orang yang memiliki keyakinan yang murni, ikhlas, dan tulus (we call it a believer that truly has a sincere faith) akan memiliki cahaya dari hati mereka dan dari tangan mereka. Cahaya ini akan digunakan sebagai obor penerang untuk berjalan menuju surga ketika mereka dibangkitkan. (In judgment day, everything is totally dark. The lights is vary, some people have very bright light, some people have dimmer light depends on how sincere the faith is, I guess)

2. While there are another group of people who does not have lights at all, ini lah sekumpulan orang yang merasa bahwa mereka memiliki iman, group of hypocrites. Orang-orang ini ketika dibangkitkan melihat dari kejauhan, cahaya-cahaya yang berjalan menuju surga. Then they scream out to the believers “wait for us! We need light, bring us with you!”

3. The believers replied “I’m not turning back, go get your own light, I’m heading to Jannah!” Karena sejatinya, di hari ini, seorang Ibu tidak akan peduli pada anaknya, seorang Kakak tidak akan peduli pada adiknya, you’re on your own business.

4. Ketika believer meminta orang-orang hipokrit ini untuk mencari cahaya sendiri, ini adalah kata-kata sarkas yang artinya meminta mereka kembali ke dunia untuk mendapatkan cahaya. You can’t get the light at the judgment day. Once you don’t have it, you won’t have it forever.

5. Para hipokrit tidak menyerah. Mereka mengejar cahaya tersebut, tapi Allah kemudian menurunkan sebuah dinding besar dan tinggi dengan satu pintu yang membatasi mereka, sementara dari belakang, hukuman mengejar mereka. Mereka berteriak “open up guys!! We used to be with you, we pray with you, we do goods with you, why are we not with you?!!” the very desperate screaming (please imagine ourselves in judgment day undergoing this, it must be torturing). Mereka sangat percaya diri bahwa dulu di dunia mereka termasuk dari orang-orang yang beriman, who have a sincere faith.

6. And the believer answers “yes you were with us in the world, but then you lose the light”. Apa yang membuat orang-orang hipokrit ini tidak memiliki cahaya untuk berjalan menuju Surga? People lose the light not in one night, it’s through a process.

What are the processes? It’s a spiral downward.

Step 1: YOU PUT YOURSELF IN FITNAH (TEMPTATION, TRIAL)
Kita terus menempatkan diri kita pada situasi di mana iman kita diuji. Situasi itu adalah lingkungan buruk. Some people may argue that as human being, it is necessary to blend with variety of people, to develop, to understand world from different point of views. Kemudian kita akan melakukan banyak justifikasi karena hati dan tubuh kita menyaru perlahan dengan lingkungan tanpa kita sadari bahwa banyak dosa yang kita lakukan. Justifikasi itu berkedok “well, we give benefits to them, we are doing dakwah though, I am not gonna be addicted, Im not gonna get the bad effects”. Padahal secara perlahan, kita membenarkan kebiasaan, jauh dari membiasakan kebenaran. Niat kita yang pada awalnya ingin mewarnai lingkungan, justru kita yang terwarnai. We’re not strong enough in holding our crayons. We think we are doing the right things.

Well frankly speaking, to me, yes it is necessary to mingle with any kind of people. Yes it is right that way of dakwah is a lot. But we have to know our capacity. How convincing our capacity to mingle with certain kind of people or certain kind of events? Seberapa kuatkah kita untuk bertahan dalam suatu lingkungan tanpa membuat kita berbelok? How sure are we that our hands are strong enough to hold the crayons?

Step 2: YOU KEEP PROCRASTINATING TO CHANGE
Kita telah sadar bahwa lingkungan kita buruk, then we promise that we are going to be away from that. We said “I am going to change, I promise, next week I’m going to change.” Or “I might be like this now, but by the time Im going home from Hajj, you watch, im gonna change.” Kita terus mengulur waktu hingga tak sadar uban telah bertengger di rambut kita, keriput telah menggerogoti wajah cantik kita, bahkan cacing-cacing telah memakan kita. Kita menunda, tak sadar kita menoleransi diri sendiri. We think we are doing the right things.

It’s not necessarily avoiding us to enjoy the process of hijrah. But we gotta take it seriously whenever we decide to change. Nikmati proses tanpa dengan sengaja memperlambatnya.

Step 3: YOU DOUBT ISLAM
This is the most interesting part for me. So what happen is people start to feel guilty when they realize that they have been procrastinating. Ketika manusia sudah sampai pada tahap ini, syaitan datang dan membisikkan manusia, “why you have to feel guilty? Islam should make you feel guilty, this is haram, that is haram, it is sin, everything is sins. You’re not sure that Islam is true, anyway? Why you have to follow God of Islam?” then yes, we start asking ourselves “How do I know Islam is right? How do I know that Qoran is true?” That doubting of Islam brings us to a spiral downward that cause us to disobey Islam. Comes the material desire instead of desire to go to Jannah. Kita lebih memilih mengejar kebahagian dunia yang sudah pasti terasa dibandingkan dengan kebahagiaan akhirat yang menurut kita belum jelas ada atau tidak, a false hope deceives us. We think we are doing the right things.

Well, to me, doubting an ideology is not a mistake. Adolescents normally somehow will undergo that kind of thing. James Marcia, a psychologist classifies Identity Statuses that I guess match this discussion though these aren’t necessarily related to specific topic:
• Identity Diffusion – the status in which the adolescent does not have a sense of having choices; he or she has not yet made (nor is attempting/willing to make) a commitment
• Identity Foreclosure – the status in which the adolescent seems willing to commit to some relevant roles, values, or goals for the future. Adolescents in this stage have not experienced an identity crisis. They tend to conform to the expectations of others regarding their future (e. g. allowing a parent to determine a career direction) As such, these individuals have not explored a range of options.
• Identity Moratorium – the status in which the adolescent is currently in a crisis, exploring various commitments and is ready to make choices, but has not made a commitment to these choices yet.
• Identity Achievement – the status in which adolescent has gone through an identity crisis and has made a commitment to a sense of identity (i.e. certain role or value) that he or she has chosen
(http://www.learning-theories.com/identity-status-theory-marcia.html)

Manusia ketika mempertanyakan kebenaran suatu ideologi, dapat berada di posisi Identity Moratorium, they would explore various commitments. But what happen is orang-orang yang meragukan Islam terkadang tak mau berusaha mencari kebenaran, ga ambil pusing, let me just enjoy my current life. Ada yang mungkin masih berada pada ID forclosure, memilih mengikuti mayoritas orang banyak atau mengikuti petuah yang diseniorkan (well pray a lot then, wish what we follow were a right track lol). Ada juga orang-orang yang mempertanyakan namun berdiskusi dengan orang yang sama-sama mempertanyakan dan kapasitasnya sama. Instead of asking the expert, people then make their own interpretation assuming that we are smart enough to understand stuffs. People are then becoming disbeliever; through a somewhat invisible process.

Then, this is why some people argue bahwa belajar agama itu penting. Belajar dengan orang yang lebih tahu dari kita untuk menghindari pemahaman-pemahaman yang salah.

###
Nouman Ali Khan kemudian bertanya: “where are you at?” di mana posisi kita? Apakah kita orang-orang yang menempatkan diri kita pada fitnah? Mengulur waktu untuk berubah? Atau meragukan Islam? yang pada akhirnya akan membuat kita menjadi hipokrit. Then the hypocrite’s position will be just the same as disbelievers.

We gotta know our capacity and our level of understanding, reevaluate our process of change, and search teachers to help us study to get out of confusion. The judges are deciding! Hurry up before its too late!

Remember Allah and we shall get the light.

#selfreminder #forustoremindeachother