“Please take a piece of paper and draw a scene/landscape,” said our Ustadz opened his teaching like a teacher who asked to his kindergarten students. We were smile because we thought that the task was too easy. A few minutes passed, we had done then our Ustadz asked us to show our works.
But what happened? Seemingly almost all of our drawing was similar! There were two mountains and in between was a sun. There was farm in front of the mountains, narrow path that cut through the fields, a small hut in the middle of the farm, and trees along the path….
“Well let’s see all the pictures are almost identical. Why?” the Ustadz continued,
“That’s because of the picture that commonly taught by our teachers at the school during Ibtida’iyah or primary school is still in our mind. Though, the picture of scene can vary not only farm or mountain. We can draw a big city filled with cars and buildings, train station, flowery gardens, soccer field, playground with full of children playing, and others!”
Then the Ustadz continued. “The implication is, in learning Islam is the same as when we draw the
scene. From Ibtida’iyah until now we keep have the same vision. Do we have a better knowledge than what we got in our childhood? How about our recitation and understanding of the Qur’an? ”
The audience kept silent as to evaluate themselves. Lesson about Tauhid, Hadith, Al Qur’an, causes of the Surrah sent by the Creator (asbabun nuzul), Fiqh, morals, etc. from elementary up to now how many percent is the improvement? Increased or even diminished? Probably we forget a few Surrah in the Juz Amma that previously fluent because we never practiced it during our prayer! We probably often used only short Surrah like Al Ikhlash, An Nas, Al Falaq, or Al Kafirun.
O Muslima, how is our next generation if parents do not want to improve their Islamic knowledge? The trend in today’s family is more worried about his son/daughter who cannot read and write in the alphabetic letters rather than if they cannot read Al Quran! If our children cannot read the school books
at the age of 5 or 6 years, we will be panic. But if our children cannot read Quran until the age of 10 the parents are still calm. Why? Because mostly Quran lesson is not part of the exam to the higher study, especially for public or non-Islamic schools.
Some parents who are still could not read Quran are unwilling to learn because of feeling shame to their colleagues or feel too old to learn. Though parents should be a good example for their children.
Muhammad Rasulullah SAW said,
“The best of you are the one who learns the Qur’an and teach it.” (Reported by Bukhari).
Sometimes we do not reluctantly pay alot of money for our children to get good marks in Math, English, Science, Musics, Swimming, etc. But to learn more about Islam we just want to spend less or even ask for free!
Ibn Abbas RA suggests, Muhammad Rasulullah SAW said,
“The last thing you should take payment is teaching kitabullah (the Qur’an).” (Reported by Bukhari).
It is very interesting that the reward for studying was exceeding than 1000 raka’ah or cycles of the prayer reward! As narrated by Abu Dharr RA, Rasulullah Muhammad SAW said,
“O Abu Dharr, if you go and learn a verse from the book of Allah is better for you than you pray 100 raka’ahs. If you go and learn a chapter of it that can be practiced is better for you than your 1000 raka’ahs in prayer.” (Reported by Ibn Majah).
Therefore we should have spirit to study especially Islam since childhood until our lives end. We have to understand the meaning of the verse in the Quran and practice it, reading more of religious books, listen to lectures via television, or looking for information via internet. That’s what I’m trying to do now. Every human being is surrounded by devils that are ready to tempt our faith. If we do not have a strong intention to continue studying Islam, surely the world will continue to dominate our life. Because life of the world is in front of us, while life of the hereafter has not been seen yet. Do not make us one of those losers.
