->Dosa dan Pahala

Oleh Adam Yew Abdullah

Manusia tidak sepi dengan melakukan kesalahan dan kesilapan, kerana manusia adalah ciptaan Allah yang mempunyai sifat lemah. Kita disuruh untuk bertaubat sekiranya kita melanggar perintah Allah. Sekiranya kita enggan berbuat demikian, dikhuatiri mendapat kesan yang buruk dalam pengamalan kita seperti menganiayai diri sendiri dan menghadapi kerugian untuk mendapatkan pahala sama ada di dunia ataupun di akhirat. Allah berfirman:

“Barangsiapa yang mengerjakan dosa, maka sesungguhnya ia mengerjakannya untuk (kemudhratan) diri sendirinya.”
Surah An Nisaa’ 111

Sebagai contoh yang boleh kita jadikan sebagai ikhtibar ialah kewajipan melakukan solat. Kesalahan seorang hamba tidak melakukan solat kerana terlupa dapat dimaafkan, asalkan seseorang itu bertaubat dan memohon untuk tidak mengulangi kesalahannya itu. Allah berfirman:-

“Dan barangsiapa yang mengerjakan kejahatan dan menganiaya dirinya kemudian ia memohon ampun kepada Allah, niscaya ia mendapati Allah Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang.”

Surah An Nisaa’ 110

Namun, ada sesetengah manusia yang sengaja tidak mahu menunaikan solat dan juga tidak mahu memohon pengampunan ke atas kesalahannya itu. Golongan manusia ini, bukan hanya ingkar dengan perintah Allah malah bersikap sombong terhadap penciptanya. Mereka ini adalah antara orang-orang yang kufur dan sesat daripada rahmat Allah.

“Dan barangsiapa yang menentang Rasul sesudah jelas kebenaran baginya dan mengikut jalan yang bukan jalan orang-orang mukmin, Kami biarkan ia leluasa terhadap kesesatan yang telah dikuasainya itu dan Kami masukkan ia ke dalam jahanam dan jahanam itu seburuk-buruk tempat kembali.”

Surah An Nisaa’ 115

Dosa dan pahala adalah di tangan Allah. Perbuatan kemungkaran akan mmendapat dosa dan seseorang itu wajib memohon pengampunan kepada Allah, supaya dosanya itu diampunkan. Tetapi bukan semua dosa dapat diampunkan oleh Allah, contohnya seperti perbuatan syirik terhadap Allah. Perbuatan syirik adalah kesalahan yang paling besar dalam Islam. Syirik adalah menyekutukan Allah dengan mempercayai ada kuasa lain selain kuasa Allah SWT. Kesyirikan seseorang itu adalah contoh seperti menyembah berhala atau patung-patung, mengunakan makhluk halus atau jin untuk tujuan perubatan, meletakkan benda-benda tertentu di sesuatu sudut dengan kepercayaan ia akan menghalau syaitan dan memakai sesuatu di tubuh sebagai untuk mencegah perbuatan sihir orang. Antara semua ini adalah perbuatan syirik yang membawa kemudharatan terhadap diri sendiri. Allah berfirman:-

“Sesungguhnya, Allah tidak mengampuni dosa mempersekutukan (sesuatu) dengan Dia dan Dia mengampuni dosa yang selain dari syirik itu bagi siapa yang dikehendakiNya.”

Surah An Nisaa’ 116

Kedua-dua golongan manusia ini dianggap berbahya dalam Islam. Mereka itu munafik dan musyirik terhadap Allah SWT dan orang-orang mukmin. Mereka berpaling dari kebenaran yang dibawa oleh agama Islam. Kefahaman Islam yang cetek dan kurang penekanan dalam mengamal Islam adalah antara punca mereka kufur. Di samping itu, kurang didikkan dan bimbingan agama dari wali-wali mereka juga merupakan factor penyebab kesesatan mereka.

Allah berfirman:-

“Dan siapa di antara kamu murtad(keluar dari agama Islam) dari agamanya lalu ia mati sedang ia tetap kafir, maka orang yang demikian, rosak binasalah amal usahanya di dunia dan akhirat dan mereka itulah ahli neraka mereka kekal di dalamnya selama-lamanya”
Surah Al-Baqarah 217

Orang-orang mukmin harus menjauhi diri mereka daripada terjerebak dengan sifat-sifat golongan ini. Adapun golongan ini telah disesatkan oleh Allah SWT dan tidak mungkin kita sebagai manusia biasa, mahupun orang mukmin sekalipun tidak mampu menyedarkan mereka kembali ke pangkal jalan. Allah berfirman:-

“Apakah kamu bermaksud memberi petunjuk kepada orang-orang yang telah disesatkan Allah? Barangsiapa yang disesatkan Allah, sekali-kali kamu tidak mendapatkan jalan (untuk memberi petunjuk) kepadanya.”
Surah Nisaa’ 88

Jelas sekali bahawa keharusan orang-orang mukmin meninggalkan perbuatan seperti syirik dan munafik kerana perbuatan sedemikian itu tidak membawa apa-apa faedah sebaliknya kita akan disesatkan oleh Allah. Jangan sesekali menghampiri sifat-sifat itu kerana khuatir tergelincir ke dalam lembah dosa besar. Sebagai orang Islam, kita wajib berpegang teguh kepada agama Islam, walau apapun keadaan sekalipun, sama ada semasa susah mahupun senang, kita tetap dengan ikhtikad yang satu iaitu Islam yang suci.

Wassalam…

->Combating Food Crisis

COMBATING FOOD CRISIS: LOCAL SOLUTIONS BEGIN WITH YOU

Associate Professor Zainal Ariffin Ahmad
Human Development Lab, USM

After a month of breaking fast buffets and souqs or Pasar Ramadhan, the season for open houses is upon us starting with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri (1 October 2008) followed by Deepavali (27 October 2008), Christmas (25 December 2008) and Chinese New Year (26 January 2009). Therefore, it is only fair that we take heed of the glaring headline below in the Environmental News Service (http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-22-01.asp).
“Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted” ENS (22 August 2008).

This strong statement was jointly espoused by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in their policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain." They argue that the “current food crisis is less a crisis of production than a crisis of waste.” As one of the 4-Fs (fuel, food, financial and falling-out) crises, the food crisis faced by Malaysians is a global phenomenon that requires local solutions.

Let’s look at a common controlled commodity during these festive seasons—chicken. Business Times reports that statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry show that Malaysians consumed 964 tonnes of chicken in 2006 compared to 940 tonnes in 2005 mostly through fast-food chains via chicken-based dishes, sandwiches, salads and tenders. Recently, the Federation of Livestock Farmers Association of Malaysia (FLFAM) suggests Malaysians consume 1.3 million chickens daily in Peninsular Malaysia and the demand increases by 3 to 4 percent during festive seasons. The 2008 report on“Changing food consumption and imports in Malaysia: Opportunities for Australian agricultural exports” (abare.gov.au) reports that chicken meat accounts for more than 60 per cent of the Malaysian's meat consumption of 48 kg per person, whereas fish consumption per person rose from 48 kg in 1990 to 57 kg in 2005. We consume more meat compared to other Asian countries such as Japan and Korea (35 kg) and Thailand (24 kg) but about 50 per cent lower than the meat consumption in the United States and Australia .
The report also stated that whereas the Malaysian government is committed to food self-sufficiency, we are not able to sustain, for example rice production is only 3 percent of our agricultural output. Whereas our rice consumption has reduced by 15 percent, wheat consumption has increased from 33 kg in 1990 to 58 kg in 2005. Our self-sufficiency rates for milk, mutton and beef are very low compared to fruit, poultry, eggs and pig meat. Malaysia will remain highly dependent on imports of many agricultural products such as beef, dairy products, and sheep meat but less dependence on rice imports. On the other hand, processed food accounts for 10 per cent of Malaysia ’s manufacturing output and the food processing industry is growing. About 34 per cent of food retail sales including processed food are from supermarkets with chain outlets such as Carrefour, Dairy Farm Holding and Jaya Jusco.

To put the food crisis into perspective, recently I had a humbling experience visiting a private organization called Rumah Yakin Al-Wadi that housed 77 poor and orphaned children in Kupang, Kedah. After breaking fast of kueh and kurma, the entourage of about 40 employees from a multinational company in Penang performed Maghrib prayers with the children and staff members. The children were then feted with a feast served in the traditional way of 4 persons eating from the same “dulang” with chicken, meat, vegetables, rice and curry. Normally their daily meal twice a day consists of meager ration of rice and most of the time served with fish. We were informed that it costs RM10 a day to sustain a child in Rumah Yakin. One policy of the house, take what you need, you must finish everything in the “dulang” as “rezeki” is hard to come by, therefore “waste not, want not.” What a contrast to the RM30++ to RM88++ Ramadhan buffets in KL hotels or at Midvalley. Even at half-price for children there will be lots of leftovers either on the plates or on the buffet lines and it seems that people’s visual appetite is larger than their stomach. The joint SIWI-FAO-IWMI’s policy brief drives the point home for the Malaysian food crisis scenario,
"More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem - many are hungry, while at the same time many overeat. We are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."
How true, just look around us in our daily behaviors dealing with food at breaking fast time or even during non-fasting months. It gets worse during the festive seasons at the open houses, people rush to the buffet lines where the voracious visual appetites exceed the stomach capacity and you will see lots of wasted food on the plates and the garbage bags. If greed was blamed for the financial crisis, the same greed is at fault for our food crisis. It’s really embarrassing!

No wonder than we are faced with a vicious cycle of food crisis. Whereas the Government current policy is striving for high level food self-sufficiency, our country is experiencing declining growth in agriculture productivity partly blamed on limited availability of arable land, significant decline in agricultural employment with migration of male farm workers to urban and into manufacturing. We are dependent on food imports especially from Australia , Thailand and China . The fuel crisis adds to the food crisis because even with the recent reduction of 10 cents, you will not see the prices of food products going down. The financial crisis doesn’t help reduce the food prices either, because regardless if your stock prices rise or fall, you still have to eat. And worse still, the falling-out crisis in the Parliament House and the Dewan Rakyat will not improve the matter. We are wasting food like nobody’s business during the festive seasons, overeating and indulging in wasteful behaviours at so many open houses around the country. Maybe we should learn from the poor and orphaned children of Kupang, “take what you need and finish everything on your plate” when you visit the open houses this festive season. Selamat Hari Raya and eat well, and be part of the local solution for OUR food crisis.


Associate Professor Zainal Ariffin Ahmad
Head, Human Development Lab
School of Management
Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 Penang, Malaysia

Tel: +604-6532534
Fax: +604-6577448

->Rumah Yakin Tahfiz Al-Wadi

Rumah Yakin Tahfiz Al Wadi


















Motorolan, Penang

->Program Ramadhan 2008

Venue:
Rumah Yakin Tahfiz Al Wadi,
Lot 4185, Kupang 09200,
Kedah darul aman

Date:
24 – 09 – 2008

Aturcara Majlis Berbuka PuasaDengan Anak-anak Yatim.

4:00pm Bertolak dari Motorola
6:00pm Ucapan dari pengerusi rumah anak yatim
6:10pm Ucapan dan penyampaian hadiah sumbangan
6:30pm Majlis bacaan tahlil dan doa selamat
7:00pm Majlis berbuka puasa
(Berbuka dengan buah kurma terlebih dahulu)
7:30pm Bersolat Maghrib
7:45pm Makan (Makanan dalam hidang)
8:20pm Bersolat Isyak
8:45pm Bersurai

->My First Blog...

--My New Family--

--Ayu Fatihah & Ibu kesayangannya--

This is our first blog & hopefully will gain new experience here!