The Otherness of History

Alhamdulillah, I had arrived home safely. Actually, I felt nervous when I was about to finish packing to go back home. You know what? To be at home means that I have to face ‘the otherness of history’. 

According to Prof. Yedullah Kazmi, the otherness of history is the obstacles or challenge which a Muslim has to face in order to get back his original home that is paradise. Every one of us has different challenges and to be a Muslim we have to face the challenge by understanding the world.

Now, ‘who is a Muslim’ and ‘what is to be a Muslim’? Is there a difference among two?

‘Who is a Muslim’ describes a person who is born Muslim and becomes a Muslim accidentally. ‘Who is a Muslim’ denotes the objective self. If he is an engineer, he becomes an engineer who is Muslim. He separates his spiritual from his intellectual. This person does praying, fasting, doing hajj, and other form of worship that Muslims do. However, he crosses his arm and takes this world for granted. He reads the Quran but he does not make effort to understand the Quran. He places the Quran on the rack, respect it as it is a monument in museum.

On the other hand, ‘what is to be a Muslim’ refers to a person who is born as Muslim and takes the title as a challenge for him. ‘What is to be a Muslim’ denotes the authentic self. He believes that to face the otherness of history or challenges in this world, he has to understand the Quran. Only by understanding the Quran, he can makes sense of this world and understand it. If he becomes a doctor, he will become a Muslim doctor. ‘What is to be a Muslim’ involves spiritual and intellectual. ‘What is to be a Muslim’ will take the Quran as a book of guidance. He will try to understand the Quran in order to understand the world. He will make his own history and work hard to face the otherness of history. A Muslim will make his own history by his own way to become authentic in his relationship with Allah. It can be understood by a game of soccer, for example. Every time we play the game, we will play different games with the same rules. The factor which makes the game interesting is how the player plays the game. The player plays soccer with his own way, but still following the rules. The player plays creatively in order to win the game and not to break the rules. Same it goes to a Muslim. A Muslim can be whatever he wants to be, but what makes difference is his creativity to play his role as a vicegerent of Allah and at the same time following the rules determined by Allah by understanding the Quran.

Fuuhh.. I will miss this Prof. Yedullah's class next semester. It makes me think hard and critical. 

By the way, just want to share with you. Last night, I travelled alone and my bus departed at 11 p.m. Actually, it is a bit scary to go out alone at night in KL. It will be safe if you have at least a friend accompanying you at night and you are just waiting at the LRT station. But to go along the silent way from LRT station to Puduraya makes me to think twice before doing it again. Yes, anything can happen. I mean, if a stranger suddenly approaches you and ask for money or harm you. What will you do? I don’t think screaming will help because there is nobody there. You only have ALLAH at that time, but it doesn’t mean that you can take any risk by saying that Allah will accompany you and at the same time you do nothing to prevent yourself. What do you think?

P/s: As usual, I will not tell my mum if I faced any risk or danger along my journey to go home. It will only makes her to worry more. I love you, mum!