Bismillah wa alhamdu lillah allazi laa ilaaha siwaah wa assolaatu wa assalaamu 'ala rasulillah

Just a quick writing (sebab computer ni pun pinjam jiran punya sekejap, rumah dah dekat dekat seminggu internet down), and look who's complaining? Who am I complaining about my dear? Allah. Allah. Allah.

Kapal Layar

Kapal layar is an interesting subject to begin with. Sampai sekarang, mind ni agak susah nak digest, macam mana Allah ciptakan asbab kapal ni boleh terapung. Daya apungan vs daya tujah vs graviti etc. Have you guys heard about this gravitational wave lately? Aha, gravitational waves bukannya fields tapi waves! They're trying to prove how gravitational waves really exists and are trying hard to build instruments that could quantitatively detect the readings of gravitational waves. Anyhow that's not the topic for today.

Kapal layar is a great metaphor sebenarnya untuk a lot of things. For instance, how kapal layar is a tool of travelling (vehicle) from one destination to another, thus reminding us how we need to have a platform, be it in the form of our qalb (to understand the higher dimension) or jama'ah (to organize the works of da'wah) etc in our journey from here towards khalili, Allah s.w.t.

Another example of it as being a metaphor, is how it reminds us of teamwork effort, bak kata a great friend of mine, kalau semua mahu jadi nakhoda, kapal tidak berlepas dari pelabuhan, akhirnya tersadai di dermaga (ehe .. or something similar to that .. pandai pandai je diri sendiri mengubah sedangkan dah sedap dah the sister susun ayat). But the point is, to move a ship, tidak boleh ada multiple nakhoda, as a result ada multiple arahan, multiple decisions and conflict arises. Hanya perlu kan satu nakhoda untuk memimpin sesebuah kapal or family or institusi or organisasi etc. And of course, siapalah nakhoda tanpa anak kapalnya. Insan mana yang mampu untuk hidup berseorangan? Allah ciptakan manusia untuk saling berteman dan berkenal-kenalan. Mutual consultation is a must, and at the same time a leader has to be appointed in order to make decisions, because at the end we want a converging hala tuju instead of ending up in a divergent goal.

Due to the shortage of time, allow me to bring just one interesting perspective about kapal layar ni. A point that intimately captured my heart about kapal layar ni. The arabic word for kapal layar is sharaa'. The root of it is harf :: shin-ra-'ain, which is the same root for shari'ah. Haa, sekarang apa kaitannya kapal layar dengan shari'ah? A simple explanation is that it reminds us of how this life is a journey from one destination to the other. Shari'ah is also actually a tool, assisting our journey in nearness towards Allah s.w.t. It is the the most correct and best way in approaching Allah s.w.t. It is the way and there is no other way. In a more complex idea, one of the most significant relationship between shari'ah and kapal layar is how it glides gracefully. Allow me to explain. Kapal layar is itself an 'ancient' vehicle. Seeing it from our physical eye, memang nampak tak modern langsung, tak up to date, and kalau nak belayar pun perlukan angin. Jika tiada angin, kaku, statik dan stagnant. Shari'ah pun sama, nampak 'ancient', seolah-olah mundur dan tersangat terkebelakang. Namun perlu diingat (here comes the most interesting part), seperti kapal layar, shari'ah tak dapat tenaga nya dari faktor-faktor materealistik tersebut. Sepertimana kapal layar dapat tenaga nya dari tiupan angin, shari'ah beautifully dapat it's 'magnificence' and tenaga nya dari 'tiupan' (reeh) Allah s.w.t. Reeh in arabic (in my limited knowledge, at least) ada dua maksud; satu ialah angin dan lagi satu is strength (subhanAllah, look at this beauty). In other words yang menjadikan shari'ah itu kuat, bertenaga dan efektif bukannya solely disebabkan oleh it's own essence tapi yang lebih utama is disebabkan reeh Allah s.w.t. This is one of the most important point yang kita kena bear in mind and keep it's rhythm in our hearts, insha Allah.

Time is catching up on me. I'll stop there insha Allah.

Wa al-kamaalu lillah, wa kullu hamdin lillah, wa Allahu a'lamu, wa hua al-'aleem ul-hakeem.

-- a slave of ar-Rahmaan.