Pages

Tuesday 4 September 2007

"Don't you want to be like them?"

I have the privilege of knowing a friend who looks up to the ulama' the way others look up to footballers or rock stars or mangaka. He once showed a memoir by a well-respected alim and I was surprised that such book exists. Needless to say that this alim's life and mine are like day and night.

And then my good friend asked me, point-blank, "Don't you want to be like them?"

I was lost for words. Nothing crawled to mind.

For me it isn't a question of "want to or not?". It is more of a "possible or not?" question.

May Allah bless the alim for his patience. His upbringing was harsh, but amazingly he was grateful for it. He was 'reminded' by Him on several occasions about his mistakes in ways I don't even believe I could take.

And till this day I'm still looking for my answer...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

now this is new to me :P

r.o.l. said...

believe it, bro

Anonymous said...

This is not directly related but i think pretty relevant to the topic.
An interesting quote from a pious man:

Beliau ditanya apakah itu cinta?
Jawab beliau, cinta itu bermula dengan "terbakar" dan berakhir dengan "terbunuh".

It's about one's love for god but I guess this can apply to love between human too (sometime) :P
It's not the exact quoute but more or less that's what I remember. Have you ever heard of this?

r.o.l. said...

Can't say I have. Thanks for the quote. I'm no good in this department of interpreting meaning behind pious people quotes.

Is it by Rumi or some sufi?

Anonymous said...

Sorry I can't remember the sources, I'll try to check it out later.

This might relate more with people who steadfastly stand up and fight to correct what they see is wrong until they were executed for it.

I'm not good at interpreting this kind of thing too but the best example that I can relate to this, is people like Sayyid Qutb. Well, that just my view.

r.o.l. said...

I guess it's "cinta" in terms of struggle and strive (jihad?).

OK, now I think I understand a bit more. But of course, Allahua'lam.

IeNa said...

Insya Allah, may Allah permudahkan jalan untuk ke arah itu, ameen :)

r.o.l. said...

...amin...

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
Copyright 2009 introspector. Powered by Blogger Blogger Templates create by Deluxe Templates. WP by Masterplan