Monday, August 29, 2011

Jessica Iskandar Muallaf ?




Jessica di kediaman habib rizieq, photo : inilah.com
Presenter sekaligus aktris Jessica Iskandar memang berniat memeluk agama Islam. Sebagai langkah awal, Jessica sudah mulai belajar mendalami ajaran agama Islam. Meski belum banyak tahu, tapi perlahan-lahan presenter acara Dahsyat itu mulai mengerti.

Jessica Iskandar tak mau terburu-buru menjadi mualaf. Sampai saat ini, dia masih menunggu hidayah yang membuatnya memantapkan hati memeluk Islam. Bukannya ragu, tapi Jessica nggak mau setengah-setengah dalam belajar sesuatu.





Jessica, photo :tvone
"Ini sebuah proses. Saya enggak buru-buru, tapi saya menjalani dengan kesenangan hati. Saya enggak diburu-buru sama siapapun. Enggak ada waktunya harus kapan. Saya tunggu saja kapan dapat hidayah," ujar Jessica yang ditemui di Markas Besar FPI, Petamburan, Jakarta Barat, Minggu (28/08).

Jessica tampak serius mempelajari agama Islam. Sedikit demi sedikit bintang film Dealova ini mulai menghafalkan beberapa doa. Walau nggak seberapa, paling tidak Jessica ada niat untuk belajar dan ingin tahu.

"Saya belajarnya dengan kesenangan hati. Saya enggak buru-buru. Belajar sedikit demi sedikit. Belajar doa sebelum makan, doa sebelum naik panggung. Butuh sekali banyak bimbingan dari para Habib dan teman-teman," tandasnya.

Serjauh ini ia banyak mendapatkan dukungan dari orang sekitar. Termasuk Olga Syahputra yang nggak pernah berhenti mengajarkan sholat dan puasa. Memang butuh waktu cukup lama bagi Jessica untuk menyesuaikan diri. Ia pun berharap bisa segera menguasai ajaran Islam. (cumicumi@Vin)

disadur dari cumicumi.com

Idul Fitri : Pemimpin yang korup bertobatlah

inSetelah berpuasa selama bulan Ramadan, umat Muslim merayakan Hari Raya Idul Fitri. Mereka merayakannya dengan berbagai macam cara, dan juga kondisi. Ada yang mudik, atau pulang ke kampung halaman bersama keluarga. Ada pula yang harus merayakan Lebaran di tanah rantau.

Bagi Ketua Umum PP Muhammadiyah, Dr. H. Din Syamsuddin, perayaan Lebaran bisa dinikmati dalam berbagai cara dan kondisi. Pria kelahiran Sumbawa Besar 31 Agustus 1958 itu juga memiliki bermacam pengalaman dalam merayakan Lebaran.

Sebagai tokoh masyarakat, Din punya pendapat sendiri tentang kebiasaan open house yang kerap digelar oleh para tokoh elit. Selain itu, Din juga memiliki harapan terhadap Bangsa Indonesia setelah menjalani puasa di Bulan Ramadan dan merayakan lebaran.

Berikut wawancara VIVAnews.com dengan Din Syamsuddin pada Jumat, 26 Agustus 2011:

Apa makna Idul Fitri?
Lebaran atau dalam bahasa Arabnya Idul Fitri adalah hari raya kesucian, kekuatan, dan kemenangan. Kata fitrah mengandung ketiga unsur tadi. Oleh karena itu, sesuai dengan arti kata fitrah, maka Idul Fitri adalah hari raya kesucian, kekuatan, dan kemenangan.

Kita berharap pada hari itu kita bisa sampai pada derajat tersebut. Saya menghayati Idul Fitri sebagai momentum silaturahmi. Maka, Idul Fitri penuh dengan silatarahmi ke keluarga, kerabat, dan handai taulan.

Saat Idul Fitri, apa saja kegiatan Anda?
Selain salat ya bersilaturahmi ke keluarga, sama anak-anak, adik-adik, sepupu dan keluarga terdekat.

Anda punya tradisi mudik?
Tidak harus mudik, tapi kalau ada waktu senggang saya sempatkan pulang ke kampung selama 3 atau 4 hari. Mengunjungi ibu saya. Namun, terkadang saya tak perlu mudik, karena ibu saya sering ke Jakarta. Jadi kami berlebaran saja di Jakarta bersama keluarga.

(Din Syamsuddin berasal dari Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat. Saat ini, kerabat di daerah asalnya masih banyak. Sang ibu, juga masih berdomisili di sana)

Sebagai Ketua Umum Muhammadiyah, ada kegiatan khusus saat Lebaran?
Sejak 2005, saya jadi Ketua Umum Muhammadiyah. Sejak itu hari pertama saya saat Idul Fitri pasti ke Yogya. Karena, tradisi pimpinan di kantor pusat Muhammadiyah pada hari pertama lebaran itu menggelar Syawalan. Dan di situ ada ceramah tunggal dari ketua umum di kantor pusat.

Biasanya saya ajak keluarga ke Yogya itu. Dari Yogya, saya langsung balik ke Jakarta pada hari pertama itu juga untuk berlebaran di Jakarta.

(Din menjabat sebagai Ketua Umum PP Muhammadiyah pada periode 2005-2010. Dia terpilih lagi untuk masa jabatan 2010-2015)

Anda menggelar open house, menerima tamu di rumah pada saat tertentu?
Tidak pernah open house, tapi kalau ada orang datang ke rumah ya pasti saya terima. Tidak ada waktu tertentu yang disiapkan khusus menerima tamu di rumah saya. Tidak ada jadwal resmi.

Selain itu, kalau silaturahmi saya jarang ke atasan, kecuali pernah satu atau dua kali, saat jadi dirjen saya ke atasan.

(Din Syamsuddin pernah menjabat sebagai Dirjen Pembinaan Penempatan Tenaga Kerja, Depnakertrans RI periode 1998-2000)

Alasan Anda?
Alasannya, silaturahmi itu harusnya dari atas ke bawah, dari pemimpin ke bawahan yang dipimpin. Karena yang potensial bersalah itu pemimpin, bukan rakyat. Maka, saya tidak setuju kalau ada halal bihalal dikondisikan rakyat berbondong-bondong ke pemimpin.

Apalagi dengan iming-iming bingkisan atau uang, saya sangat tidak setuju. Sehingga ada yang sampai meninggal seperti tahun lalu. Malah jadi musibah. Manfaatnya memang selalu ada, tapi logikanya terbalik. Jadi yang bersalaman itu harus pemimpin ke bawahan, bukan sebaliknya.

Anda pernah menjalani Idul Fitri di luar negeri?
Iya, tentu pernah, sewaktu saya sekolah di Los Angeles.

(Setelah menuntut ilmu di Pondok Modern Gontor dan IAIN Jakarta, Din Syamsuddin melanjutkan kuliahnya di University of  California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA, mengambil Interdepartmental Programme in Islamic Studies tahun 1998 untuk program magister. Din lalu melanjutkan sekolahnya di universitas dan jurusan sama untuk programPh.d pada 1991)

Apa kesan Anda saat itu?
Tentu lain, tidak ada suasana seperti di tanah air. Selain itu juga kegembiraan tidak seperti di Indonesia karena memang jauh dari keluarga. Artinya, di sana kita ketemu sesama orang Indonesia di konsulat kita, atau paling tidak di Islamic Center. Tentu itu berkesan bagi saya. Ya mungkin bukan perasaan minoritas, tapi suasana Idul Fitri yang tidak dominan, paling di Islamic Center. Tapi sama-sama gembira dan berkesan. Apalagi kalau saat masih puasa, waktu winter itu lebih panjang puasanya.

Selama Lebaran Anda dikunjungi kolega non-muslim?
Sangat banyak, bahkan mereka yang paling rajin mengirim parsel, mereka paling rajin ke rumah pada hari raya pertama.

Tanggapan Anda atas kunjungan mereka?
Bagus, bagus. Mereka memberi ucapan selamat. Ini bukan masalah akidah, tapi tentang aspek sosial. Ini merupakan bagian dari toleransi.

Imbauan Anda sebagai tokoh masyarakat apa?
Pesan saya mari kita maknai Idul Fitri sesuai maknanya, hari raya kemenangan, kesucian, dan kekuatan. Intinya pesan utamanya silaturahmi, tingkatkan silaturahmi. Kita pelihara nilai Ramadan, insyaf, jangan sampai kita jebol bersama pelampiasan kita makan kue Idul Fitri.

Idul Fitri bukan akhir, itu awal mengaplikasikan nilai-nilai Ramadan yang telah kita jalani selama sebulan sebelumnya. Kita pelihara nilai Ramadan itu untuk sebelas bulan ke depan.

Harapan Anda untuk Indonesia setelah lebaran?
Indonesia tetap bersatu. Perbedaan pendapat jangan menjadikan kita pecah. Bagaimana Ramadan bisa kita terapkan dalam kehidupan, jangan ada perilaku menyimpang seperti korupsi. Pemimpin yang korup harus bertobat, menghentikan praktik itu.

disadur dari : vivanews

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ramazan Reflections

Ramazan is the month of peace, prayer and reflection. At least that is what all the television channels propagate all day long. If morning shows weren’t enough, they’ve made special sehri and iftar shows to hammer 'goodness' into us besides the original responsibility of making us telly addicts. But from what I’ve observed these past ten days, reflection is certainly not on our priority list (prayer is, usually, by default and peace is a novelty, at least in Karachi and...London!).

The act of going hungry from dawn to dusk gives us a license to do anything. It means we can lax at work, break traffic signals, shout at others on the road, get cranky for no reason and generally act high and mighty, especially in company of those not fasting.

These behavioural changes are not limited to the duration of the fast. Come iftar time and we morph into different beings. Food is the only thing worth fighting for and, if need be, dying for. Everything on the dinner table occupies a space on our plate and we gulp it all down with lots of sherbet and water. Ramazan, it seems, is the holy month in which we exercise two of the seven deadly sins to the maximum; greed and gluttony.

Greed steals the limelight from the other sins during Ramazan. For a vast majority fasting translates into one word: Eid. All our energies (the little that are there during the day) are spent planning for this festival. We are grateful for HIS blessings, especially monetary ones. Our principle concern, though, is mostly about clothes; there must be three separate dresses, at least, for the Eid festivities. If possible, maybe squeeze in some furniture and new crockery; what better time to put everything on display than Eid? So we spend our Eid bonus even before we get it, thanks to our little plastic companion. And we justify our excessive spending using the premise of fasting. Aren’t we crafty? I wonder who we think we’re fooling?

It’ll be a grand idea of Ramazan came twice a year. Lawn brands will have a ball; collections for summer, mid-summer, and three Eids! All the musicians who have become religious and can’t sing for a living will have work. And there’ll be no traffic on the roads during the usual evening rush hours, in case you want to experience how it feels to drive at 140mph on the roads in Karachi.  

And maybe, with Ramazan twice a year, people might just reflect once.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy


The one lesson that you take away after reading this book is, “Don’t Panic”. Not even if you wake up to find bull dozers surrounding your house ready to break it down or when you are told by your alien friend, whom you took for a regular human all these years, that the planet Earth will get vaporized in two minutes.

Hilarious is the perfect word to describe this book.  Another perfect word is outrageous. Actually, the book is full of some of the craziest stuff. Arthur Dent, a regular guy, wakes up on a regular Thursday morning, only to come across the most irregular happenings. The local authorities want to demolish his house to build a bypass. To make matters worse, Dent’s friend Ford Prefect comes up the very moment when Dent is trying to stop the demolition to inform him that, well, appearances can be deceiving. Prefect is an alien, and a hitch hiker, who landed on Earth while on a research trip for his book (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, what else?!) and got stuck for a good fifteen years. On this Thursday morning, he finds out, through his alien gadgets, that the Vogans (a really ugly alien form) are coming to destroy the world and he has around two minutes to save his friend’s life.

What happens next is a crazy adventure in which Arthur and Ford find themselves imprisoned in an alien ship, thrown into space and then picked up within 30 seconds by another alien ship, The Heart of Gold. On board this ship is Marvin (a depressed robot who absolutely hates life!), Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the Imperial Galactic Government, and Trillian, a slim, darkish humanoid. And to help Arthur make sense of this new life is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “an electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That’s its job”.

The one thing Douglas Adams does, besides writing a very humorous book, is to provide us with the answer to life, the universe, everything. It’s 42.

Read more on aliens on the blog here.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Enter the World of Suspense - Jassosi Dunya

Enter the world of Jassosi Dunya - ' an intricately demented world of larger than life villains, mad genius detectives, and beautiful femme fatales,' 

These lines are from the blurb of the English translation of Ibn-e-Safi's book from his Jassosi Dunya novel. Who is Ibn-e-Safi? To many in the subcontinent he is the creator of memorable characters like Imran and Faridi who featured in books full of suspense, mystery, adventure and romance. 

I have, unfortunately, not read a single one of his 116 novels in the Imran series or the 125 novels in the Jassosi Dunya series. I got hooked onto the great dastaan (story) of Tilsm Hoshruba at the tender age of eleven and thus, ignored Ibn-e-Safi. In my teenage years I read Asfaque Ahmed's Inspector Jamshed's series which was very entertaining, and unlike Ibn-e-Safi's books, easily available at bookstores. 

So after all these years, what made me think of Imran series again? Hubby dear and myself happened to stumble upon an English translation of one of his books. We did buy the book but why read a translation when we know the original language and thus began my quest to read all the books in the Imran series. And what better time to start than July, the month of his birth and death anniversary. 

I'm not sure how I'll go about this reading project but I have to read all of the Imran series books first and get hold of their artworks too. In case you are an owner of one of these books, and don't want them, please feel free to donate. And if you're a fan, join in. Read the novels with me (will post details soon) and leave the link of your blog/review in the comments section. Let's revive the work of this legendary Urdu writer.

Images: Google 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

James and the Giant Peach - 50 years and counting!

An orphan boy accompanied by a grasshopper, a centipede, a glow-worm, a spider, a silkworm, a lady bird and an earthworm cross the Atlantic Ocean atop a giant, juicy peach. This crazy mix of characters features in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, and this year marks 50 years of its publication.

For a book to remain in publication for 50 years is no small feat. But what is it about James, his friends and the giant peach that has entertained children (and their children!) around the world for 50 odd years? All great books share one common thing; a powerful story. The story and its ability to resonate with the reader is what makes a book, well, immortal!

And this book has exactly that, a powerful story. James Henry Trotter, the protagonist, is an ordinary boy. He lives happily with his parents in a beautiful house near the sea. Life is perfect for little James till the day when his parents, while on a visit to London, get eaten by an angry rhinoceros who has escaped from the zoo. The very absurdity of this accident lends it humor although, for a child, it is somewhat scary. 

Alone in the world, James ends up living with his villainous aunts -Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. In almost all of Dahl’s books, the characters, and especially the villains, are very strong. Their personalities reek of evil; their looks, actions and manners of speech all spell BAD GUY. There are some amazing villains in literature and many in Dahl’s own writings but none are so mean, ego-centric, greedy and repulsive as Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker.

“Aunt Sponge was enormously fat and very short. She had small piggy eyes, a sunken mouth, and one of those white flabby faces that looked exactly as though it had been boiled. She was like a great white soggy over boiled cabbage. Aunt Spiker, on the other hand, was lean and tall and bony, and she wore steel-rimmed spectacles that fixed on to the end of her nose with a clip. She had a screeching voice and long wet narrow lips, and whenever she got angry or excited, little flecks of spit would come shooting out of her mouth as she talked”.

Quite ghastly aunts!  

James spends three long, miserable years with his aunts. During all this time he is not allowed to meet or play with any other children or go to school. He can’t even accidentally bump into another child because his aunts live on top of a hill where no one happens to drop by (sounds pretty draconian!). One fine day, when James is feeling awfully miserable, an old man in  'a funny dark-green suit' gives him a bag full of magic beans along with lots of instructions. He promises James that on swallowing the beans "marvellous things will start happening to you, fabulous, unbelievable things - and you will never be miserable again in your life". If only beans could actually do that!

Magic turned James’s life topsy turvy, quite literally. The peach was his magic lamp and genie in one and along with his insect friends, James escaped from his horrid aunts and their “queer ramshackle house on top of a high hill in the south of England”. Along with him escape seven creatures of the soil, which came across the magic beans, and on swallowing them, became the same size as James. They included the musical Old-Green-Grasshopper, the nine spotted Ladybird, the emotional Miss Spider, the timid Silkworm, the quiet Glow-worm, the ego-centric Centipede and the blind Earthworm. The relationship between the insects, especially the centipede and the earthworm is very amusing. Each creature uses his/her ability to protect the peach and themselves from danger which includes a shark attack and an awful row with the cloud men.

But all’s well that ends well and after a very adventurous journey across the Atlantic Ocean, the peach and co. land smack in the middle of New York, on an “enormous silver needle sticking up into the sky” (the Empire State Building). They become heroes and spend the rest of their lives, happily ever after, in New York.

USA is the happy land where James and his friends lead their lives as heroes. UK, on the other hand, is the land of the villains, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, which they leave behind forever. After reading Roald Dahl’s biography, this doesn’t appear strange because Dahl, himself, had a soft spot for New York. As a young RAF officer, during World War II, he was posted in New York where he made many friends and rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty. As a writer, too, he found support and fame in America before United Kingdom. 

Even though it is a book for children, I loved re-reading and listening to the audio book narrated by Andrew Sachs. There are many things you can take from the book no matter which age you are. James is an amazing boy. Maybe it is his misfortune which shapes him into a compassionate young fellow who is not just intelligent but brimming with optimism. His innovative solutions and readiness to help others is very admirable, especially in a seven year old. His friends, too, are pretty amazing creatures. This just goes to show that friends can come in any shape or size, but as long as they’re at your side through thick and thin, it doesn’t really matter what their color/race/creed/status is. And of course, never stop dreaming because dreams do and can come true. All it needs is a lot of belief and a little bit of magic!

Images: Google

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Yingluck Shinawatra to be First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra (Thai: ยิ่งลักษณ์ ชินวัตร, RTGS: Yinglak Chinnawat; born 21 June 1967) is the current president of Bangkok-based property developer SC Asset Co., Ltd., and the youngest sister of Thailand's fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In May 2011, Thailand's opposition Pheu Thai Party — which maintains close ties with the ousted premier — nominated Yingluck as their candidate for prime minister in the 2011 Thailand general elections. Intial election results indicated that her party has won at least 310 seats in the 500-seat House of Representatives of Thailand, more than enough to form a majority government. Yingluck is set to become Thailand's first female prime minister.

http://ho.files-media.com/ud/imgs/contents/23187/20110111_091413.jpg

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra First Female Prime Minister of Thailand