Ramadan in Isolation
Bismillah,
This is day 39 of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia, and going to be the 2nd day of Ramadan. What a way to fast this year!
I'm glad to be with my family during these trying times, alhamdulillah.
Just a short reflection since I just finished Setia dengan Kebenaran two days ago. It's a collection of short writeups by Hasrizal Abdul Jamil. Bought it back in 2017, yet it took me 2 years to open it and finish reading it in 10 days. The book coincidentally touched a few things which I had been mulling over these few weeks. One of them is the way I define myself as a Muslim.
I was recruited into a Muslim students organization during the early years of my first degree. It was fine at that time, made a lot of good friends which I still keep in touch over the years. I stayed within the organization until graduation, which summed up about 4 years max. When I finished my studies and returned home, another phase of adapting to normal life began. You are someone's daughter, someone's sister, and someone's granddaughter. You need to assimilate with the community. I rediscovered my curiousity in learning, travelled too. Learned the principle that if you want to learn about anything, seek from those who are well-versed in it. Made new friends out of the previous circle.
In short, I unlearned. and relearned.
It took me 3 years and 4 months post graduation to come out with this. I don't want to remain in the system. I resent the way it shaped my worldview during the 4-year stint, the way it limits our thinking capacity to 'what the party says'. The way it blindly interpret terms such as 'liberalism' as a label, without an idea of what it means. The way it threw the same label to people who are open to western ideas, and of course 'orientalists'.
I know I still have a long journey to explore. May Allah guide our hearts, and bless us with beneficial knowledge and understanding.
This is day 39 of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia, and going to be the 2nd day of Ramadan. What a way to fast this year!
I'm glad to be with my family during these trying times, alhamdulillah.
Just a short reflection since I just finished Setia dengan Kebenaran two days ago. It's a collection of short writeups by Hasrizal Abdul Jamil. Bought it back in 2017, yet it took me 2 years to open it and finish reading it in 10 days. The book coincidentally touched a few things which I had been mulling over these few weeks. One of them is the way I define myself as a Muslim.
I was recruited into a Muslim students organization during the early years of my first degree. It was fine at that time, made a lot of good friends which I still keep in touch over the years. I stayed within the organization until graduation, which summed up about 4 years max. When I finished my studies and returned home, another phase of adapting to normal life began. You are someone's daughter, someone's sister, and someone's granddaughter. You need to assimilate with the community. I rediscovered my curiousity in learning, travelled too. Learned the principle that if you want to learn about anything, seek from those who are well-versed in it. Made new friends out of the previous circle.
In short, I unlearned. and relearned.
It took me 3 years and 4 months post graduation to come out with this. I don't want to remain in the system. I resent the way it shaped my worldview during the 4-year stint, the way it limits our thinking capacity to 'what the party says'. The way it blindly interpret terms such as 'liberalism' as a label, without an idea of what it means. The way it threw the same label to people who are open to western ideas, and of course 'orientalists'.
I know I still have a long journey to explore. May Allah guide our hearts, and bless us with beneficial knowledge and understanding.
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