In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful
I testify that there's no God to be worship but Allah,
And I testify that Muhammad (s.a.w) is His messenger.
Before anything, I'd like to remind those who read this, please renew your intention.
Cause so do I did, as the one who's writing this. I know everyone has their own justification for their writings, but I hope and I asked Allah to bless me and to save me from any bad intention, from being riya' and takabbur (auzubillahi min zalik).
My intention (insha Allah) is solely to share with all of you about my street da'wah experience, how was it going and how it really is, in reality.
So, let's get started.
I was following my sister to an Iftar gathering, of which consist of my sister and of course her-long-time-no-see- friends. I was there, most of my time were wasted doing nothing but listening. Well, it's not very much enjoying of listening when all you need to hear were just their stories about them
As I finished my meal and I helped them taking some pictures together, I asked permission from my sister to go some place outside (it's bazaar Hari Raya...!). Even before I agreed to join the gathering, I did planning to distribute some home-made brochures about Israeli assault on Gaza recently. Those brochures were actually some posters I downloaded from Facebook, I edited them using Photoscape (see how armature I am?) and I already asked permission from Aqsa Syarif to distribute them on individual effort. So Alhamdulillah, they've permitted me but sadly I've to do this alone because this reunion was adhoc and I thought I might don't have much time later to do the distribution. I really wanna do it with my friends but due to time constrain, I must catch up within time.
So as I went out the cafe, I hung the Palestine muffler I bought some years back on my shoulders. I admitted it really wasn't easy. Fear and cold surrounded me. I even asked myself twice before I start walking, "Am I really going to do this...? Alone...?" So, I prayed that Allah'd make easy of my journey, save me from harms, and give some strength to carry on. After that, I start walking. It is such a coincidence that a Mc Donald's restaurant was a block behind the cafe the reunion was held. So, in the darkness of night, I walked alone, I fought with my fear to carry on because my legs were already shivering. My target of distribution was the customers of Mc Donald's. But of course it's not that easy because the restaurant has two drive-thru counters. So it took me a while to ponder and to rearrange my strategy. But a strength was sent from Allah when I saw an old Malay man came out of McD and was ready to go home. So I braved myself to go near the old man, and I handed over the brochure. I told him,
"Assalamualaikum pakcik. Ni ada senarai barang2 Yahudi yang boleh kita boikot untuk melumpuhkan ekonomi yahudi. macam yang pakcik tahukan sekarang Yahudi tengah menyerang Gaza...? jadi, sebagai usaha kita untuk membantu saudara2 kita di Gaza, saya harap, kita boleh sama2 boikot barang2 Yahudi ni."
That Pak cik replied,
"Oohh...Ahh takpa. Pakcik balik tengok kat rumah laa naa,"
So I just nodded and smiled to him. But I knew pairs of eyes inside the drive-thru counter were strictly on me. Of course they wouldn't be agree to my doing because I was disturbing their source of income. Soon before that old man left, a girl from the counter yelled,
"Jalan baik-baik ye pakcik!"
Before this, I never knew that the person in charge in the counter'd shout to a customer just to greet him a 'safe journey home'. Seriously. So, that was...? Eheh. Husnudzan.
I felt relieved that I managed to approach some customers of McD. In which, a little of my target was achieved! I was still fear if suddenly the workers'd come out and push me away so that I won't disturb their business. I prepared my phone to call my sister if anything ever happen to me but Alhamdulillah, they didn't come out. It's just that their piercing eyes followed me until I crossed the road.
I entered the petrol station and still handing over the same brochures. The responses were getting better it excited me to give more! hoheh. I approached some Malays men, a Chinese young man and they listened to me well. As I walked further and I stopped in front of a restaurant. I distributed a few brochures to some families and a pair of couples. I approached a mother with three little kids and she took my brochure with a smile. Still, Allah has made it easy for me.
But it's not that beautiful somehow. There were some people I did not managed to approach because...I don't know. Yeah. I might look like some 'sales-girl-trying-to-promote-some-products' , and I knew some people really cannot get in with that but hey, I still deserved a chance to explain, didn't I? I'm just handing over some brochures but when I came to them and I didn't even say a word but they're already said a big "no-no" to me. And that, really took me down. Many times, I told myself, "Hey, you're not looking like a salesgirl and you're doing a noble,right thing. So don't be shy to carry on." Since I was doing this on my two feet, it was me myself who had to motivate myself.
There were many eyes spotting on me, yeah, I was only a girl wearing dress and muffler, walking around , like some salesgirl promoting something, and giving people some brochures. Only Allah knows how embarrassed and feared I was, but I have to carry on. Because this is a chance! The crowd. The bazaar. This is the right time to bring information closer to people. We might be surrounded of highly-awareness people about what is happening right there in Gaza, but we cannot justified other people out there were just like us. In fact, there are still millions of Muslims out there not knowing or even bother to care about the assault on Gaza! When I was sitting in the car on my way back home and I stuck in the jam, I felt sorry for not having enough time, enough brochures and enough strength to approach more people I saw were busy bargaining for the upcoming Eid!
After all, this effort might seemed so small and useless. People might asked me, "why are you busy doing this when it is actually never really exploding any impact?", those people I approached might just nodded in front of me just as a sign of respect, the brochures might be thrown away, the brochures might not even seemed to be educating them, the McD workers might have marked me as a 'bug' but...
Allah knows best why I did this. Insha Allah, this small effort has its own benefit.
I still do not own the chance to help the Gazans lively,
I still can't take up weapons to be with them,
I still can't donate so much to them,
I still can't demonstrate to show my solidarity towards them,
I still can't speak my voice to the UN so that they'd stop being a puppet for the Zionists,
I still can't feel the pain inside of their broken hearts and teared souls,
I still can't wash their flooding blood,
But this, might be considered as my effort to help them.
So that on the Judgment Day, insha Allah this little effort'd be my witness to help me answering my Lord,
When He asks me,
"What have you done to help your suffered brothers (not only the Palestinians)?"
And may this, be the barrier between me and the hell fire,
In which I might be thrown inside (auzubillah) for being carried away by this transient world,
For being deaf and blind towards my brothers' pain and suffers,
But being awake and quick enough in terms of materialism and glamorous.
It was narrated by Ibn Katheer about the story of a small bird, which tried to help Prophet Ibrahim a.s. As Prophet Ibrahim a.s destroyed his people's so-call-gods,preached them about the true deen, that Allah is the Only god to be worship, to leave all the nonsense beliefs from their ancestors, to surrender to Allah, his people really got mad. They were mad because they're drown in their own stupidity and confusion. They failed to reply everything questioned by Prophet Ibrahim a.s. They decided that Prophet Ibrahim must be killed for he was bringing new teachings and destroyed their man-made gods. So they gathered fire woods and set up a place to burn Prophet Ibrahim a.s
But there's a flock of birds were watching this and there came a little bird carrying water inside his beak. The amount of water was really not much (you can imagine how big a little bird's beak is), but he carried on spilling water on the fire so that Prophet Ibrahim'd be saved. Other birds were asking him,
"Why on earth would you do that? It won't be helping much."
But he replied,
"This is my effort to save Prophet Ibrahim a.s. Soon, if I were asked by Allah about what did I do when I saw His prophet being burnt, I hope my doing could answer on my behalf."
With the Greatness of Allah, He saved Prophet Ibrahim a.s. from the fire, He ordered the fire to be cold, and to save Prophet Ibrahim from burning, so when the fire was gone, the people of Prophet Ibrahim were so shocked to see how fine he is, though. Even the fire can't kill him, if Allah does not allow it.
This is a warranty from the Almighty,
"Those of the believers who sit still, other than those who have a (disabling) hurt, are not on an equality with those who strive in the path of Allah with their wealth and lives. Allah hath conferred on those who strive with their wealth and and lives a rank above the sedentary. Unto each Allah hath promised good, but He hath bestowed on those who strive a great reward above the sedentary;" [An-Nisa;95]
As we can see here, it's not the small help from the little bird that saved Prophet Ibrahim,
But the small help from the little bird is a proof and a lesson,
That Allah does not judge us by the outcome,
But how far we would go for an effort.
That's all from me .
May this sharing benefit us,
Little and more.
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