Tazkirah

Last night at Surau Al-Ikhwan in my community, there was a tazkirah (read: reminder) held before the terawih prayer. It is a common practice for us at the place to have such short and brief reminder right after maghrib prayer, but in Ramadhan; it looks like before terawih.

Ustaz Razak in his mid-fifty’s was the man sharing something with all of us last night. I like this guy, the way he tells thing, I can feel it comes straight from his heart, very resourceful and he is very humble too. I am always looking forward to listening to what he has to say. Well, it’s not about him I want to share here but I was attracted to the story he had related.

Luqman Al-Hakim was an ulama that lived long before our time. He among the scholars is well-known for his advices – very prudent and wise. There are recorded advices intended to his own son named Taran of which virtually the audience is not just limited to his son but also to all Moslems that live.

“My son, Taran. You are a wise person if you know that when you came into this world, you were actually facing your back to the world whilst the frontal part of you was facing direct to the eternity”

Meaning:

Our mission to be borne into the world is to prepare for the afterlife. We will face certain death once God has decided we have done our time and none of the earthly things will be accounted for its values except what good deeds we have done while we were walking on earth.

It’s not the first time I heard things like this but it’s not all the time when hearing, it strikes deep in my heart. This time around it did.

That’s a beauty of a reminder. Keep reminding until it strikes.