Min Qolbi

I remembered a while back when my dermatology professor told us, "Skin is like a mirror of our internal organs." If there is something wrong with your skin, you should definitely think about something wrong going on inside your body (either it is because of a disease, immune deficiency.. well, the list goes on, i'll probably bore you if i list them all down here). There were a whole lot of other things the professor told us, some of which really taught me, not only about dermatology and medicine but also about life. That was what i liked most about my dermatology cycle, you can gain all the knowledge you want from books and the internet but life experience is something invaluable to share with, something you can't get from books.

And so the same goes for us. sometimes, the way we talk, the way we look at others and talk to them, the way we smile and just by what we do, we actually convey if not all, part of what is inside of us. We do what our heart and mental judgment tells us too. We speak about what is in our hearts, about what is in our minds. If our hearts and minds are troubled, the things we do and talk will also be affected.

"Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be whole, all the body is whole and which, if it be diseased, all of it is diseased. Truly it is the heart."

And in one of those many cases, especially when our iman and our hearts are not quite on the healty side (read: futur), we inevitably might have done slight glitches that might have affected those around us. Often, we keep asking, "Why am I the only one left out in this?" or "Why am I the one doing this?" or "I'm disappointed with everyone around me that I feel like I just want to sit at home and keep to myself" or.. well, you get my drift. We are so occupied with ourselves that we forget to look around us and see what others are going through, possibly the times they are going through are tougher than us. At times, we forget to smile or ask how they are doing. And even if we already know that giving salam is the best way to spread love, as in Rasulullah's hadith...

The Prophet صلى الله عليوسلم said, "You shall not enter Jannah until you believe, and you shall not believe until you love one another. Shall I not direct you to something that if you were to do it, you would love one another? Spread Salam amongst yourselves." [Muslim]

... maybe we tend to forget about it. There's always a difficulty especially when we want to confess our love to our friends and loved ones, when instead, Rasulullah S.A.W. has shown us the easiest way; spread salam and you will spread love. Ain't that sweet?

So, maybe we have our ups and downs. During the ups, we smile and laugh together but during the downs, we'll stick together through thick and thin. Because we know that ultimately, this bond between us is stronger than of blood, than of any kind of bond in this world, biiznillah...

"Truly Allah loves those who fight in His Cause in battle array, as if they were a solid cemented structure." (61:4)

No matter how much we dispute, how many disagreements we face, how many frowns we might have accidentally (oops!) shown to each other, be patient and be merciful to one another (read: rahmah) because what keeps us together is Allah. Because Allah loves when together we fight, we work and we strive for His sake. As Muslims and inshaAllah as Mukmins, love for Allah must always be number one, must always be the one to surpass love for others..

If you're asking why the title for this post is "Rising from the Ashes"? (erk, ada org ke yg nak bertanya?) Well, if you're well-acquainted with a mythical creature called 'phoenix' (best seen in Harry Potter movies, yeah that bird which carried the sword and healed Harry's wound... yes, guilty as charged, i used to be a "harry potter-kipas-susah-mati"), i'm kind of fond of that creature. Mostly because whenever it burns to ashes, it will rise again from the ashes. And to me, that's something we should learn from the mythical creature; whenever we fall down, whenever we fail, whenever we are depressed, disappointed with life and the world that we live in (read again: futur), we should always find a way to get back up again. And most of the time, that way is not going to be easy. But who do we ask the strength from?

No other than Allah 'Azza wa jalla.

Allahu'alam.

ps. alhamdulillah, i've managed to update a new post here (i've been keeping this post for several weeks now)

pss. asif jiddan to all my lovelies. i know i've been hard to deal with these couple of weeks. (read: emo)

pss. "Dalam Mihrab Cinta" is on youtube!

psss. if you're very, very, very free, check out "Sang Pencerah" too