Friday Sermon : The Concept of Fear to the God

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Often, when we talk with Christian preachers about fear to the God, they will contrast us with the term of love to the God is better than fear to the God. As a Muslim, I am always aware about our love or devotion to the God. I always close my postings with prayers for peace, mercy and love and it means also love toward the God. I actually don't really like preachers. No matter of what religion, I just don't like to be persuaded. I love to do everything because of my own sincerity for Him and because of my own awareness. Not because I look at this guy looks awesome or that guy looks great in any church, group or etc. If I am that kind of person, I would be a person who has many friends around me. But I am not...

The imam who delivered the sermon is my favorite imam in Masjid al-Malik Khalid, imam Zayd Zahari from Pulau Pinang. I love his Quranic recitation which is clear, simple, medium and without any exaggeration. He actually gains my respect though I never personally talk to him because I don't think I am fit enough to talk to him and I also care about his memorization which means I will never interrupt him although he does not recite any Quranic verse in front of me because I know the sacred verses is actually circulating within him and could not be interrupted. I think his sermon about fear to the God is more important than political sermon about Palestine or Israel. They are not important as the God is important (He is the Light of the world and heavens). So, why should I exaggerate about these people situation? They become like that simply because of they have no reflection on themselves. No muhasabah and they look at themselves as important. Who is actually important? Allah or His slaves?

My Palestinian classmate never join five times obligatory congregational prayer services although he lives in the hostel close to masjid which is actually a serious offense according to Hanbali madzhab. For me, his room should be burned as according to Abu Hurairah hadith but yet he still talks about how important his country to be enlisted in the world map. If he prays in congregation with his people there it would be nice but I saw it with my own eyes as I always accompanied him since we were classmates. People like us have no country of origin anymore and living as the citizen of others without the sense of belonging but why we never lament our fate like them and going to the media like superstars? We also don't live like normal human-being so I understood how the Jews diaspora feel. If I live like normal human perhaps I would not be writing these postings to talk to the Lord.  

Definition of Fear to the Lord

According to the sermon, the word fear is translated from the Arabic word at-Taqwa which means fear, haha. It is synonymous to English word, integrity which was derived from a Latin word Integer. In the Old Testament, Songs of the Song (Shir Ha Shirim), integrity was mentioned for about 66 times. In Quran there are hundreds of the word which refers to integrity and fear to the God. The concept of taqwa and the confidence that the Lord is monitoring us (He is Monitoring us!).    

The imam says that the serious problem in our society today is because we have no taqwa toward the God. If we wanted to talk about the devotion and love to the God. We must also talk about fear toward the God as all of these are inter-connected. It is like when we talk to a beginner about certain things, they would not get the picture if we only show half of it and mentioning it as a complete picture. If we can't show the whole picture in a space, we should show it step by step. As in Christians' faith for example, to get the knowledge on Salvation, one has to be baptized. What happened if a person is not baptized? He will be doomed forever. For us Muslims, the words of fear to the Lord or kalimah at-Taqwa is there is no gods but only the God. Baptism for me is just a tradition of prophet Jesus a.s and sages of ancient Israel. I perform it everyday according to what has been highlighted by noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w. When I repented to our ancestral path, I also performed ghusl (baptism) to clean myself from previous deeds and being a new-person. Certain special days, I also perform massaha (annointing) where I will apply olive oil on my skin and hair. If I translate it into Greek it sounds, Christos but I am not a "Christian" and I don't need any church baptism. I am a Muslim, and my patriarchs are Abraham a.s and Ismael a.s, my imam of jurisprudence school is Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, the seal of prophethood according to my faith and creed is Muhammad s.a.w : )

Three Degree of Fear to the Lord

1. Liberating one self from infidelity and ingrateful attitude

2. Avoiding one self from sinful acts

3. Cleansing one self's heart and soul from things which keeping him far from Allah

Closing

I found that if we have ample knowledge about the pillars of faith and pillars of Islam, we will understand what has been taught by teachers. I always advise myself to revise the hadith compiled by Imam an-Nawawi rahimahullah on the hadith Jibril a.s. If I found kids doing immoral activities, perhaps I will kidnap them and force them to memorize the pillars of faith and pillars of Islam and recite them until their throat sore, hahahhahahahahaa. So the sermon today is about taqwa. Let us ponder more about this topic and get our understanding in a more deep manner. The way Allah look at us is upon at-Taqwa. Not upon superiority of race or nationality or gender or appearance. I also look at people according this standard.

Prayer for mercy, peace, and love, amin!    

Sahur Simple Menu: Mushroom and Chicken Spaghetti

Assalaamu'alaikum wa Rahmatullah!

It's already the first of Sya'aban 1432 H. Just a simple recipe. Lil sister taught me anyway. I am not good in cooking, hehehe. It's for our sahur or pre-dawn meal to begin fasting tomorrow. We cook it earlier and will keep the gravy for this early morning. Actually quite useful if we are alone, who knows if we live abroad or far from family so this might help to give us idea. 

We need chopped green onion. I don't know how many onions needed but two green onions would be enough or according to how big is your tummy or how many persons in your house. Then chopped garlic. Some vegetable oil. Two bottles of Kimball spaghetti gravy, hahaha. She bought them in Tafaz Maju grocery shop. Two bottles cost her about RM13. Then we have a can of straw mushroom or cao gu in chinese. And then, we have minced chicken. Just grab Ramlee burger minced chicken. Owh yeahhh, we need dried spaghetti as well!!!

Just boil our spaghetti for few minutes until it soften and toss them up. Then pour some oil in the cooking pot, wait until some white smokes show up. Make sure the flame is medium. Put the chopped green onion and minced chicken. Saute them for few minutes if the minced chicken is frozen to defrost it. I guess it is around 10-15 minutes although I failed my maths tests due to nervous breakdown, lol. Then put tomatoes, mushrooms that you had sliced into two, and olives if you have it in your fridge. We have Arab and Iranian shops as well here so these Mediterranean stuffs could easily be seen here. Then, put gravy in the bottles into the pot. It already contains oregano and everything spices in it so don't worry about the taste, ahahaa.    

I get the chance to talk to little sister while helping her with the cooking. She said that maybe I should stop reading and memorizing for few weeks because it could make my head being more complicated. She can't understand what I said to her last few weeks and afraid that I would end up in mental hospital or going back to my old self. I actually talked to her about Muslims attitude regarding friendship, amity, and assistance in protecting the creed of beloved brothers and sisters. I said to her that, we don't actually care about people around although we talk about brotherhood or sisterhood in Islam. 

When people going astray from the path, we might get angry, blaming other religious bodies and begin to publish it in papers on the Jews and Christians are envious to us but what we had done to prevent our brothers and sisters no matter the revert ones or the born-Muslim ones from being strayed into wrong path (vices, evil, and others)? Maybe I need to talk according to people's level but sometimes it just slips out of my evil mouth, lol. That's why I prefer to shut it up and it makes me think, think, and later lamenting myself because I am useless....

Well, what can I say if people don't understand me. I had faced this since I am a young kid. Mum also said I was crazy when I memorized English dictionary. It was near Lower School Certificate (PMR) examination, hehehe. I was so worried with my English that made me doing all of those crazy things. 

I did memorized few Arabic kitabs too but those were for exams. Now, my English wasn't so bad as before, and memorizing dictionary did helped me. I memorized Chinese characters as well although it's not in national or religious school syllabus, hahahahahahaa...... Mum said that I was just kidding her when she sneaked in my papers written in Chinese. She showed it up to Ah Fan aunty. She was our Hainanese neighbor. She told mum that I wrote about my feelings about environment around. I don't know how did I managed my lesson plan but I guess it is because of the spirit of curiosity in a young kid. 

Mum and dad could speak in Hokkien (Fujianese) and sisters could at some level speak in rough Cantonese but we don't know how to write in Chinese characters. That's normal for village folks in Kedah and Perlis because they would have to deal with those who rent their land or being money lenders like paternal uncles. Mums' elders who resettled in Jerlun of Alor Setar around 18th C, were actually Chinese Muslims with Persian ancestry from Southern China. I can't see any Persian face at all in them. But only Mongol face, hahahaa. Most had already passed away, some younger generations could not even speak in Chinese anymore because of the assimilation within mainstream society. I checked this in our ancestral book during our family assembly in Penang.

I don't really like spaghetti. I might just have some bread, plain water and dates for sahur. It's easier than having to make a mess on the table, wasting water to clean up dishes and I'm lazy to clean up the kitchen. We may also begin with humble donation to mosques in order to support the feast for others and religious activities for next month, insya'Allah His Will.

May everyone receives His guidance and success to perform the guidance. Sealed with prayers for peace, mercy, and love on brothers and sisters in faith.