Kenapa Hari Raya Korban Dalam Islam Tidak Kejam (Logik, Ringkas)

Yo. 

     Semalam saya sempat berbual-bual di Fb dengan beberapa orang Kristian dan juga atheis mengenai Hari Raya Korban umat Islam. Ada yang mempersoalkan dan tak kurang juga yang mengutuk sambutan tersebut. 

"Selamat membunuh binatang wahai sahabat Islam. Ritual yang tidak disenangi oleh kaum lain tapi menjadi kebanggaan oleh Jihadist. Tuhan mereka sentiasa kehausan darah sebab itu mereka (Islam) suka bunuh membunuh." -Murtads in Malaysia and Singapore

     Marah? Eloklah kalau anda like page tu dan pergi jelaskan pada orang-orang di situ dengan sebaiknya. :)   That page needs more tolerant and knowledgeable Muslims to explain things to them. Mereka akan guna sains, politik, falsafah dan macam-macam lagi untuk merendahkan Islam. Kalau ada yang pakar dalam bidang-bidang ni, bagus juga kalau boleh bantu saudara-saudari seagama kita yang sedang berusaha membetulkan persepsi buruk terhadap Islam. Bersatu teguh, bercerai roboh. Ye idok? XD

     Here are a few logical reasons I can think of which hopefully will open the eyes of anyone who thinks korban is nothing but violations of animal rights.

1. Binatang yang bakal dikorbankan akan dijaga sebaik mungkin. Diberi makan dan minum yang cukup juga dipastikan sihat dan tidak cacat.
2. Binatang tersebut perlu mencapai had umur yang ditetapkan. Tidak boleh terlampau muda atau tua. Contoh bagi lembu dan kambing, umurnya telah sampai dua ke tiga tahun.
3. Binatang tersebut perlu disembelih dengan pisau yang tajam supaya dapat mempercepatkan kematiannya. 
4. Setiap hasil daripada binatang korban tersebut, kulit, daging, organ dalaman, tulang dan lain-lain digunakan sepenuhnya tanpa pembaziran. Tidak seperti korban dalam ritual-ritual lain dimana binatang tersebut dibakar atau lain-lain tanpa memberi hasil kepada sesiapa. i.e. Holocaust.
5. Daging-daging tersebut akan dibahagikan mengikut tuan dan akan disedekahkan kepada orang-orang miskin, dibuat jamuan untuk orang ramai dan juga untuk makanan sendiri. Bukankah itu satu kebaikan? 
6. Bilangan binatang yang dikorbankan hanya mengikut bilangan orang yang ingin berkorban dan mampu melakukan serta membayarnya. Bermakna tidak ada binatang yang disembelih sia-sia tanpa ada yang menginginkannya. 

     Lagipun, saya rasa kalau nak berlebihan mengutuk Islam dalam bab ni, bukankah setiap hari juga memang banyak binatang yang disembelih untuk memenuhi pasaran daging di seluruh dunia? Kalau tak, mana nak dapat bacon, ham dan macam-macam lagi? Eh lupa. Kerbau pendek tak ada leher kira sembelih juga ke? Hehe. XD

     Korban dalam Islam ini bukanlah persembahan seperti ini:
Situasi 1: "Allah, inilah korbanku. Harap kau suka dan tidak menurunkan bala kepada aku."
Atau,
Situasi 2: "Allah, ini korban kami. Hapuskan musuh-musuh kami."
It is actually more of,
Situasi 3: "Allah, terima kasih kerana memberi rezeki yang banyak kepadaku maka dengannya aku mampu berkorban (baca:bersedekah) pada tahun ini sebagai tanda bersyukur terhadapmu."

     Hari Raya Korban dalam Islam sebenarnya lebih kepada untuk mengajar umatnya supaya tidak berlebihan dalam menyayangi harta mereka dan cinta kepada Allah yakni Tuhan Yang Satu itu lebih utama. Dengan berkorban sedikit daripada harta mereka diharapkan dapat memberi rahmat kepada diri sendiri dan juga orang lain. Well, shortly, that's it. Nak pergi beraya pula ni. Hehe. Take care brothers and sisters dan selamat berhari raya. Makan tu jangan sampai tak ingat dunia. XD

~Jaw~

Sense of Superiority

Peace be upon you.

   A few weeks ago, I received my scholarship. Praise be to God. (Happy) I remembered when I was in first year, the scholarship for 3 critical courses, Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy will definitely be given to the new students who were offered these courses. That was 3 years ago. And just this year, this condition is no longer applied and students who were offered these courses are no longer considered special  and they have to compete with the others for scholarship.

   Then the talks spread. "Medical student should be given priority man. We worked hard to get here." More, "I feel so neglected now. I had to bust my ass during foundation, went to interviews, managed to get offered, but I'm the same as the others? S***". More, "Dentistry is not cheap. I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to get scholarship and they don't even care. FFF---".

   To tell you the truth, I once had the same feeling. The sense of being superior than the others. It's not obvious, but it's definitely there. Many of these students are not arrogant but, being human, they just can't avoid it. I wonder if there's anyone who really can avoid feeling superior even this subtle.

   For me it's normal to feel that way, but it's not normal to continue feeling that way once you have realised it. Sense of superiority is an insidious notion. It eats you to the very core, really slowly, it grows, and once you passed the threshold, I don't even know what will happen.

This video has a very good ending. If you don't feel like watching the whole video, skip to timeline 3:40. 

     This is only one example very close to me. I bet all of you have at least one near you. Perhaps 'very' near. 

"Rezeki Tuhan bagi, kita jangan sombong. Mendapat sesuatu itu rezeki, tak dapat sesuatu, itu juga rezeki. Jangan ingat kita sahaja yang berusaha keras (kononnya) dan geng-geng kursus lain tu sememangnya kurang layak berbanding kita. Tuhan sahaja tahu, mungkin mereka jauh lebih kuat berusaha daripada kita." - Anonymous

I think this is very true. Thank God this insight were given to me by a brother and I hope to make more notice this because it feels too right that we often ignored it. Even if it's hard, at the very least, let us try our best to clean our heart of  ego.

~Jaw~

Heaven And Hell (My Story)

   

   Hello and peace be upon you dear readers. It's been a few months since I last wrote anything on this blog and now I feel kind of rusty. Anyway, I hope you're in good health and happy wherever you are. As for me, I'm back in hostel and trust me, the only thing I miss about this place is it's fast Wi-fi connection. Haha. But still, I'm thankful for I can finally update my blog. n_n

   I've been studying away from home for quite a number of years, more or less about 6 years now and staying home during holidays were never boring for me. Among all things I do during my holidays, there is one thing that I never missed in any of it. Reading. People asked me how can you keep doing that after all these years (it's not that long, LOL). Well, my answer is simple. Reading is inspiring. And I'm going to share with you one of the inspirations I got during my recent holiday.

   Have you ever heard of the book Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom? It's a very nice book talking about the lives of two Men of God and how they, leading a simple life but managed to create a great community (and it's a true story). Being a Muslim, all the books I've ever read of this kind or genre are stories of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), about his friends, about famous Muslim scholars etc. I am ashamed for being so narrow-minded. This book certainly changes the way I think about Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions therefore leading me to rethink about the concept of afterlife and of heaven and hell.

   Back in the year 2000, I remember being taught that Muslims go to heaven no matter how bad they are as long as they have even as much as a tiny speck of iman (faith) and all the non-Muslims will go to hell no matter how much good they do because they don't have iman. Of course there are other things such as purgatory etc but that can wait. At that time, I questioned nothing and I accepted it blindly. Just as my friends did, just as many other Muslims of my age did.

   However, reaching the age where I can think rationally, how can I accept that? It feels so unfair. I was questioning myself how can Allah (God) be so cruel? How can He do that to His own creations? I understand it if He punishes the wrong-doer but why punish the good non-Muslims too? But please be reminded, even though I have this kind of questions, not even once have I doubted Him or my religion. It's just that these questions lingered in my mind for a few years, unanswerable until fairly recently.

   I got interested in religious books (not limited to Muslim books only). I listen to tazkirah (preaches) more often. I listen to non-Muslims debates and preaches too. And I talked to everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims about my beliefs and their beliefs. After some time, I know a bit more about different religions. The questions I had were answered by many of those books, people, videos etc and the answer is actually pretty simple. Allah (God) is the Judge and we, the creations, cannot judge as He does. We cannot say this guy's bad, he will definitely go to hell, this guy's good, no worries for him, he'll definitely reach heaven. Simply said, let Allah (God) do His job, we do ours', that is to please Him by doing good to everyone and avoid doing anything He forbids.

" '...Our sages tell us to repent exactly one day before we die.'
But ho do you know it's the day before you die? I asked.
He raised his eyebrows.
'Exactly.' "

   As far as my limited knowledge allows, I don't think there is anyone who walks on this Earth and judge every single person he meets. "Hell, heaven, hell, hell, heaven..." If there is, I think the first one he should judge is himself. Remember, don't judge a person by his past or his present for he might change for the better in the near future and you might turn for the worst. Who knows.

   To conclude, do not worry about questioning your own religion because that is how you learn and I believe it strengthens your faith too. Learn to tolerate with others and help everyone no matter who they are. And here is a video for my friends who might be wondering what Islam has to say about this matter. Enjoy. That's all for tonight.Thanks for reading. Ciao.


~Jaw~