Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah

Isn't it amazing what a little heart can do?

I celebrated the Masehi New Year with feasting and we celebrated the stroke of midnight with slices of cheesecake and fake wine. It did nothing to my heart.

I celebrated Maal Hijrah while driving, saying "amin" to the doa akhir & awal tahun read over the radio with one hand on the steering wheel, making my way home through heavy traffic while a headache starts to pound in my head. It continued with an unknown ustadz with a heavy Jawa accent telling the story of the Prophet's perilous hijrah away from Makkah to Madinah and those who were there to support him. It made it all so much more real to know that it wasn't a simple miraculous act of disappearing from one place and reappearing in another. It took courage, planning, logistics, espionage and communications. And it happened 1429 years ago. Their GPS was the stars. Their guide was Jewish. The tracks were covered by a flock of sheep.

Why did I never learn about all this before? Why did I not know how beautiful history was? I think I'll start learning more about the truth now. Islam is more than praying 5 times a day, fasting in Ramadhan and reading the Quran. And not about doing puasa sunat & sembahyang hajat just to earn points and to make wishes come true. I want to be like the people of old, who discovered medicine, and astronomy and mathematics. People who lived by the words of the Book, not merely reading them with beautiful tajwid, yet knowing nothing of its true contents.

Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah. Semoga tahun yang mendatang dipenuhi kebahagiaan, kesejahteraan, keberkatan dan keampunan dariNya. Amin.