Sunday, October 22, 2006

Maaf zahir dan batin

i once explained to my best friend, an american white chap, while residing under the same roof during university days, that the significance of ramadan is to seek forgiveness from God and therehence seek His love and that the signficance of Eid-ul-Fitr is to seek forgiveness from everyone else and therehence seek their love. he got so excited and on the day of eid he will wake up earlier than he normally will and he will block me from leaving the house till i apologize to him for every thing i did. in the subsequent eid he overslept and so he waited for me to return from mosque and demanded me to seek forgiveness from him. he was so thrilled by this exercise cos he explained that if he had to ever do the same, that will be the last thing for him to do... to seek forgiveness from another person, one naturally has to lower themselves, swallow their pride, bruise their ego which is rather a painful and bitter process which interestingly only produces the nectar of healthier relations. we can see this especially amongst politicians. even when they are at the core of fault, the most incorrigible ones will refuse to apologize and when they do, bitter enemies only unite. its human to err. but its not only divine who should forgive.

unfortunately sometimes opportunities are denied to us even when we are willing to seek forgiveness. once someone asked if i will go to this person, who has wronged me so cruelly, and seek forgiveness from him if she can arrange and i said i will without hesitation simply because that is the one of the chief objectives of Eid-ul Fitr. unfortunately that someone cherishes enmity more than reconciliation and refused that opportunity. i remember since as a kid seeing the mosque on the day of eid being a place for reconciliation. fathers and sons or brothers or relatives who had severed ties, seperated, fallen out with each other and stopped talking will reconcile with a hug and handshake.

amongst the variuos muslim communities i have seen, the malays are the most steadfast in observing the tradition of seeking forgiveness and love during eid. they will make a huge effort to go and visit every single relative and friend. they also use a very powerful and meaningful phrase "maaf zahir dan batin" which means forgive me from within and outside.

in my blog, i may or may not have written something that might have hurt your sensitivities. if i did, i must say it was never my intention and i sincerely apologize. Maaf zahir dan batin.

10 Comments:

At 10:22 PM, Blogger Lampu said...

Maaf Zahir Batin. A beautiful entry. I have been reading your blogs actually and the wealth of knowledge I gained is remarkable. Alhamdulillah. Thank you so much for sharing. May this Eid brings enlightenment and happiness to you. :-)

 
At 9:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eid Mubarak to you and your loved ones!

two_wrlds

 
At 1:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

salam brother,
your blog is truely rich in knowledge.especially "Maaf zahir dan batin" is very inspiring.what is the meaning of the title?
al-humdulila please keep your wonderful work going.

 
At 1:50 AM, Blogger ney_reed said...

thanks. every knowledge comes from Allah.

this post interesting has generated quite a number of emails into my inbox.

i guess that could be because amongst the many things that our global culture has lost regardless of race, religion, east or west, language or whatever, one of the most valuable asset that we have lost is the culture of seeking forgiveness from God and one another.

today we all only know how to hurt, wrong, abuse, torture, brutalize, injure and kill one another and thereafter instead of seeking forgiveness we only choose to blame everyone except our own selves.

apology has become something that is last we can expect from someone who wrongs us and the last from us when we wrong someone.

since we have become so territorial marking every space exclusively for ourselves and unbelievably selfish, we truly have erased the consciousness of others in our universe and have instead filled it with our ego and pride.

even when we do, we pretend that we do and remark that others dont.

undeniably if there is any culture that Mankind needs to re-claim today from its past, it has to be its lost culture of seeking forgiveness.

 
At 7:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks.it is a wonderful phrase.i hope your readers are inspired to give forgiveness some thought.forgiveness is a funny thing itself.here,in the west the word sorry is so easily said by everyone.we are so apologtic to strangers yet we never say sorry to our loved ones.maybe its because we feel we own them.

 
At 7:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for "Maaf zahir dan batin." As a Christian, I appreciate it especially. You speak better on this topic than many Christians.
Do you have a comment on the execution of Saddam Hussein, his call for forgiveness and the rejoicing of his enemies? Anything you might say would be interesting, whether pro or con.

 
At 5:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wish not agree on it. I think nice post. Specially the appellation attracted me to read the whole story.

 
At 2:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.

 
At 8:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Genial post and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you seeking your information.

 
At 8:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"undeniably if there is any culture that Mankind needs to re-claim today from its past, it has to be its lost culture of seeking forgiveness."
Amen to that. I am a Christian and I can't agree with you more. The act of forgiveness and grace is central to Jesus' teachings yet what we see a lot today is exactly the opposite - unforgiveness & ungrace. God's grace has forgiven us despite of all ours sins and rebellion agst him. If God can forgive us, why can't we forgive those who sinned agst us..turn the other cheek, without expecting anything in return. Give us our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass agst us. I wish you and fmy a joyous eid mubarak..maaf zahir dan batin. God bless.

 

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