Alhamdulillah, I was blessed to be given an opportunity to seek
knowledge in Connecticut, at Hartford Seminary Summer Programs 2013. I was
enrolled in two of its many courses, Muslim Life Through Fatwās, Ancient And
Modern by Yahya Michot, Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim
Relations and Building Abrahamic Partnerships by Yehezkel Landau, Faculty
Associate in Interfaith Relations, Faculty Associate in Interfaith Relations.
This program is fully sponsored for three Asatizah (religious scholars) as
part of their development program. Hence, it comes with responsibilities that
include a ‘Daily Journal Writing’ which I wish to share here.
We took the United Airline flight at 6am on Friday the 7th of June from Singapore Changi Airport transiting in Hong
Kong & Chicago before reaching to Hartford’s Bradley International Airport
at Windsor Locks in Connecticut. The overall journey should take about 25.5
hours including the time for transit. What really amazed us was, we reached our
final destination at 7.25pm on the same day according to Connecticut’s time
whereas back in Singapore it was already early Saturday morning. It is as if we
were able to chase the time, not letting it pass by us and go away.
Subhanallah, this shows the greatness of the One who
created time itself. This reminds me of His words in the Holy Quran with
regards to time. We are all here in the state of loss, except for those who believed
and do righteous deeds by bringing others to the truth with patience and
perseverance.
Time is indeed precious. Too precious, that once it is
lost, it will be gone forever. But sadly, only a few cares. Only a few heed the
advice and make an effort to hold on to it strongly. This includes me. I
remembered my mentor’s concern and for years he kept reminding asatizah on the
importance punctuality. Yet, nothing has changed thus far. Many of us turn up
late at work, meetings and events without feeling any form of guilt.
At first, I like to believe that this may have been
caused by our absence in the Singapore National Service (NS). We were never once
forced to train to be disciplined. To be punished for the lack of it and to also
be responsible for other’s discipline who are sleeping in the same bunk as
ours as well. But I think, that is just being too simplistic, ignoring our
female counterparts who is not obliged for it. On the other hand, our Madrasah (Islamic schools) system too, which mostly breed
us asatizah may have major contribution in this. That early development in
school should have an impact in building our madrasahs character. Should we relook at our
teaching methodology, academic subjects, and more importantly, our emphasis to the students there?
However, I am not denying the fact that it can go deeper
by looking into genes, ethnicity, environment and culture, but I refuse to
believe that we are not able to control our own will and desires and keep pointing
our fingers to blame other factors.
Yes we should change ourselves for the better. It
should start from us. And it should start now, today. InsyaAllah, I shall use
this one month opportunity bestowed upon me by the Almighty very well. And I am
glad, Alhamdulillah, the lesson I learnt from day one was on time itself.
May this be the right way to begin. Allahumma Yassir.
