JAZAA-U SAYYIAH: THE PENALTY FOR A BAD DID

            Once upon a time in an unknown village, lived a poor boy that has nothing to do. He just sat and ate his only bread on the roadside. He saw a dog in the opposite roadside while eating his bread and had some naughty plan to trick the dog.

            The boy came closer to the dog and started to offer the dog with bread on his hand. He came closer and closer. Step by step, until the dog interested on it.  The dog looked at the boy who was coming closer, then focused on the bread on the boy’s hand.  The dog got its muzzle closer to the bread. Then, while it was going to eat the bread, the boy pulled his hand back then hit the dog’s forehead with his another hand.

            The dog was angry and afraid of him, then walked back to its place while the boy was laughing at the dog and seems like he was very satisfied. Not too far from there, a man was looking from the little window on his house what the boy had done to the dog. When the boy decided to get back to his place and continued eating his bread, the man came out from his house and called the boy loudly.

            “Hey, you a boy over there!” shouted the man. The boy just glanced at the man without any interest at all. “Come here, boy!”

             The boy got up from his place and walked to the man’s place lazily. The man who was bringing a stick and hiding it on his back started to offer the boy with some money.

            “Do you want this money, boy?” asked the man. Just a second later, the boy was so enthusiast. But then he had a doubt on it and asked, “How much?”

            “50 dollar, isn’t it much enough?” answered the man.

            “Yes, of course!” The boy shouted happily and his hand was going to take the money on the man’s hand. But a moment before he was successfully took the money, the man pulled back his hand and hit the boy’s hand with a stick on his back.

            “Ouch, what have you done, Sir?” sighed the boy. “Why did you hit me whereas I haven’t got anything yet from you?”

            “Then, why did you hit the dog whereas it hasn’t got anything yet from you?” The man asked a similar question to the boy and the boy just bowed shamefully. “Remember, boy! Jazza-u sayyitin sayyiatun mitsluha. The penalty for a bad did is a bad thing the same with what he did.”

An Islamic Structure, That Should Be Free

Everybody should have known the three most sacred places in Islam. Yes, if you're a Muslim. Those are Mecca, Medina, and the third is a place which mentioned in one of Qur'an Ayah as the place where Rasulullah had done "The Night Journey" or known as “Isra Mi’raj”, Al Aqsa Mosque in Old City of Jerusalem.

            المسجد الاقصى is translated into English as “The Farthest Mosque” also known as Bayt Al Muqaddas. The mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son al-Wadid. Some re-constructions had done caused by earthquakes and occupation. Today the Old City is under Israeli control, but the mosque remains under the administration of the Jordanian/Palestinian-led Islamic waqf.

            It is known that the current construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque is dated to early Umayyad period of rule in Palestine and is believed there was a possibility that the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Umar ibn al-Khattab had begun the construction as a small mosque only for 3,000 worshipers somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif. Then the mosque was being reconstructed and expanded by the caliph Abd al-Malik in 690 CE along with the Dome of the Rock.

                The rectangular al-Aqsa Mosque and it precincts are 144,000 square metres, although the mosque itself is about 35,000 square metres and could hold up to 5,000 worshipers. It is 272 feet long and 184 feet wide.

                Unlike the Dome of the Rock which reflects classical Byzantine architecture, the al-Aqsa Mosque is characteristic of early Islamic architecture. The dome is totally changed from the original dome built by Abd al-Malik since it was being reconstructed for several times. The dome that was built by az-Zahir consists of wood plated with lead enamelwork. Then, in 1969 the dome was reconstructed in concrete and covered with anodized aluminum instead of the original ribbed lead enamel work sheeting. In 1983 th aluminum outer covering was replaced with lead to match the original design by az-Zahir.

                The mosque has four minarets on the southern, northern and western sides. The first one known as al-Fakhariyya Minaret was built in 1278 on the western corner of the mosque. It named after the father of Sharif al-Din Abd al-Rahman, Fakhr al-Di al-Khalili. It was built in traditional Syrian style, with a square shaped base divede by molding into three floors which two lines of muqarnas decorated the muezzin’s balcony. The niche is surrounded by a square chamber that ends a lead-covered stone dome.

                The second, known as the Ghawanima minaret, was built at the northwestern corner which has six stories high, it is the tallest minaret of the Noble Sanctuary. It almost entirely made of stone. Its firm structure made it nearly untouched by earthquakes. It divided into several stories. The stairway is externally located in the first two floors but then become internal spiral structure from the third floor until it reaches the muezzin’s balcony.

                The third minaret called the Bab al-SIlsila Minaret located in the western border of the al-Aqsa Mosque. It is built in the traditional Syrian square tower type and made entirely out of stone that possibly replacing an earlier Umayyad minaret. Since 16^th-century, it has been tradition that the best muezzin is assigned to this minaret.

                Then, the last and the most notable minaret was built in 1367 is known as Minarat al-Asbat. It is composed of a cylindrical stone shaft. The shaft narrows above the muezzin’s balcony and is dotted with circular windows and ended with bulbous dome.

                The facade of the mosque was crowned with a balustrade consisting of arcades and small columns. The facade’s was covering with tiles. There are fourteen stone arches along he facade, most of them are Romanesque style. The entrance to the mosque is through the facade’s central arch.

                The al-Aqsa Mosque has seven aisles with several additional small halls to the west and east of the southern section of the building. There are 121 stained glass windows. The interior is supported by 45 columns, 33 of which are white marble and 12 of stone. The ceiling of the mosque was painted with funding by King Farouk of Egypt. The minbar was made of ivory and carefully crafted wood with Arabic calligraphy, geometrical and floral designs in its woodwork.

                The mosque’s main ablution fountain known as al-Kas that means the cup is located north of the mosque between it and the Dome of the Rock. It is used by worshipers to perform wudu before entry into the mosque.

                Al-Aqsa Mosque is totally amazing structure of Islamic architecture. But unfortunately, now it is being occupied by Israeli and the Palestinians are trying to keep it with all of theirs. It is such an amazing Islamic structure that should be free.

                Free Palestine. Free al-Aqsa! 

source : 

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_Al-Aqsa
http://spacetimefactor.wordpress.com/
http://malai-ur.blogspot.com/2010/12/al-masjidul-aqsa-site-plan.html

Know Your Cultures! Love Your Nation!

Do you live in Bandung?

If yes, you should have known SMAN 3 Bandung, haven't you?

At least, you've ever heard it before, right?

Are you really are an Indonesian?

Do you love your culture?

If yes, do you know what is Matswapati?

As wikipedia said, Matswapati is the binatara (great) king in state of Wirata, the king who rules the kings. It is an Indonesian puppetry  figure.

But, not. It's not what I meant.

Matswapati is an event that being held by SMAN 3 Bandung to deepen the teenagers' knowledge of Indonesian culture. It was held on last Saturday, 27^th of September 2014. It also held for celebrating Bandung's 204^th anniversary. 

I will not tell the whole activities and agendas in Matswapati. But I will specifically tell you about how my class member were decorating our stand. 

We decorated it on the spot, a day before Matswapati. It was not such an effective time for us to decorate it well. We decorated it in hurry, because there was no much time. Our stand theme was Arjuna that brings archery. Beside we decorated the stand for selling items, some of us make costume for Davy who was becoming Arjuna.

It hadn't ended yet, so we continued it on D-Day. Some of us went to stand and arranging all items for sale, some others adorned the stand with ready properties, and the rest was drawing on a cloth for stand's background.

One of them which was drawing on the cloth was Fadhilla Najmi, or usually called Falla. She is one of my class' creative student. We wrote down "Arjuna" on the cloth and gave some pattern to beautify it's appearance.

I helped a bit, but then Fathiya asked Falla to accompany her to the toilet. But I found that they went to the food court. Oh hey, they was tricking me. Haha. Not, that was not the reason. There was a reason why they went to the food court instead of going to toilet.

And I was following them then we ate lunch there until the T'sT performance. When we went back behind the stand where we decorated stand's background before, the background had done. Yes, I just helped a bit, I'm sorry guys! :))

Overall, Falla said Matswapati was nice, not it was great. The problem is the weather that was so hot and there were not any tent in front of the stage. That caused the visitors were lazy to watch the performances and chose to just listen from the food court, or watched from inside the stand. It was totally hot weather and so dusty although the firefighters had sprayed the water to remove the dust on the field over and over again. Another problem is, we felt thirsty even though we had drunk ice lemon tea, milo, and many drinks. It must be because there were not any mineral water there and the sweet drinks just make us more and more thirsty.

Falla, Fathi, and Maria went back to home at about 5 pm. And I stayed there until almost the last performance cause I really wanted to watch Barsena and Glenn's performances. I was being picked up at about 7.30 pm when Glenn Fredly was performing his last song.

For me, personally, I like this event. It was a great event! 

Know Your Culture! Love Your Nation! And happy 204^th anniversary Bandung City!

A Night That Full of Tears

"Time is a typical case that makes beautiful memories."

- Ai Haibara in Detective Conan Anime

 

Friendship really is an important thing that I can’t live without.  Live is love. Love is you, my beloved friends.

             

                   Islamic Boarding School of Bina Umat is not just a boarding school for me. Not just a dormitory that I live in for sleeping, eating, and all other common activities, Bina Umat is second home for us. Not just a 1,024m² physical building that can be seen by eyes, Bina Umat is a special place in our hearts, the graduated students of Bina Umat.

                The sun began to set on the west side of Bina Umat dormitory. The sky was getting darker and darker by the time. The opening part of the inauguration tonight has done before maghrib, and then after isya’ prayer we were ready with our special costume for the show. 

The inauguration ran well. The performances of each class were so great and we enjoyed the night show. It’s almost midnight when our turn finally came. The 3^rd grade, our class, showed off a movie production presenting all of our memories, since 1^st grade until 3^rd grade, friendship and togetherness, all of those parts were shown in the movie.

The first part of the movie ended and we laughed together, recalling the funny moments that happened in the first and second year of school.

The second part made us began a bit touched because some of our friends had moved to other schools and couldn’t be with us that night.

In the third part that also the last part of the movie, was totally made that night full of our cries. We hugged each other, realized that night was our last night to be Bina Umat student. 

But the situation turned uptight, because all of our illegal electronic goods were taken by the ustadzah for a single night until the next afternoon. But it didn't matter for me at all because my parents were staying there that night that causes my electronic goods were safe from the confiscation.

And the next day, the graduation day, really was a day that full of tears. We hugged each other as if we will never meet again. As if it was the last time we could meet face to face directly with our beloved friends. The moment we felt it was a heavy task to do, being apart with each other. Cause three years is too short for us. But three years has made a lot of memories, unforgettable memories.

For all of my junior high school friends, I love you all, as always. Keep our ukhuwah for the rest of our life. May be you never have a chance to read this blog, but again, I love you.

Bina Umat JHS'14 a.k.a vabelouz