Food for The Soul

April 19, 2012

I bought a few books for (and during) my umrah trip and since it's a spiritual journey, I only bought ones that I can learn more about Islam, its history and way of life. I haven't had much luck when it comes to buying Islamic books. Most of them are hard to understand and the writers seem have their own stance that is too extreme to my perspective. A sure way to make me closed the book and throw it to the trash. Need to pay attention to the author and publisher first before buying one.

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Thankfully, the ones I bought recently are truly an enlightenment to one soul. They put emphasize on the beauty of the religion instead of what it prohibits and the punishment ones have to endure in the afterlife. Looking back to my childhood and teenage years, I think I was taught more on what God doesn't like instead of what He likes.

My favorite book is 'Doa Harian' by Quraish Shihab. It's full of essential and practical prayers that relates to our daily life, written in beautiful words yet easy to understand. Some of the prayers never crossed my mind before, I should have been reciting them since a long time ago. The basic/general ones are also included so it's nice to have them all in one book. I read this one cover to cover when I was in Medina and the other one when I was in Mecca. Here are some of the variety of the plea in the book:

"Perlindungan dari kemalasan, dari sifat senang menunda, kejemuan, kekikiran, pemborosan (!), dari hal-hal yang tidak bermanfaat, dari amal yang tidak diterima, dari kalbu yang tidak khusyu, dari kenikmatan duniawi yang menghalangi kebajikan ukhrawi.

Permintaan untuk diberi rasa aman, kelapangan rezeki yang halal, keberhasilan yang diikuti oleh kebahagaian, untuk dimuliakan dengan takwa, dianugerahi dengan hidayah al quran, mental yang indah dan budi pekerti yang luhur, untuk memiliki kerelaan menghadapi ketetapannya, ketulusan dalam beriman, rasa takut yang dihiasi dengan kekaguman terhadapnya.

Kemampuan untuk bekerja yang giat, untuk menikmati segala anugerah dalam batas yang digariskannya, untuk puas dengan yang halal tanpa menyentuh yang haram dan mensyukurinya dalam jalan yang sudah ditentukannya (zakat, infak, dll), untuk merasakan kepuasan setelah usaha dan kerja keras, kesabaran dan keikhlasan saat sedang gagal, dan juga kemampuan untuk bersikap adil baik saat rela maupun marah, sederhana baik saat kaya ataupun miskin, rendah hati dalam ucapan dan perbuatan.

Permohonan untuk menjadikan awal hari sebagai rahmat, pertengahan hari sebagai nikmat dan akhir hari sebagai kehormatan, untuk disempurnakan apa yang kurang, dan untuk menjadikan sebaik-baik usia adalah akhirnya dan sebaik-baik amal kita adalah kesudahannya serta sebaik-baik hari kita adalah hari pertemuan kita dengannya :')."

And one of the ones that strike me the most:

Jadikanlah apa yang kami rahasiakan lebih indah daripada apa yang kami nyatakan

Such a simple yet strong statement that has so many meanings!. A beautiful reminder for me to go easy with the 'sharing' activity in social media.

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6 comments

  1. Thanks for the recommendation. Definitely will pick this one on my next trip to the bookstore.

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  2. buku bagus mbak. rekomendasi buat saya hunting buku berikutnya. thx a lot!

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  3. Thank you for the beautiful, inspiring post. I find myself resenting how some uelamas focus too much on preaching the punishments awaiting us in the afterlife, overlooking that every one of us sins exactly because we are humans.

    I have always tried to think positively about Him, that He is as He says in the holy book: "Most Merciful, Most Benevolent."

    I came across an interesting lecture on TED.com recently, by Lesley Hazleton (an agnostic) titled "On Reading The Koran" and was very moved by it (I leave here the URL of my blog post about it). Maybe one of these days I should really, really sit down with a Quran (and Tafsir) and really, really read it :)

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  4. Thank you for stopping by, Sparkling. Will check out the video soon. Tedex talk is always inspiring :).

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