Examination, Everyone!

In the name of Allah the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

May peace be upon you. 

‘Haish, exam dah dekat seh! Study tak habis lagi ni.’

Hey, brothers and sisters. We often stumbled upon this kind of emotional defect when facing such difficulties. We felt threatened, we felt… you know, that butterfly roaming-in-the-stomach symptoms. We feel nervous thinking whether we can pass the examination or we can pass not. 


During this time around lah, the emptiness of the mosque being stuffed, the gaps between makmums filled. And believe me, you will hear the voice, the prayer of muslims, begging for success in dunya and akhira.

Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Praise to Allah The Almighty for giving us hidaya to come to musolla, to pray, to praise Him and to preach. BUT, is the interdependency of a muslim and his God only significant during the examination hours? 


Is the status, muslim; the one worshipping Allah, only relevant when it comes to such circumstances? Brothers and sisters, where are we when the exam fever is over? Where are we, people? Remember, we are muslim no matter what circumstances we face. We are the full-time worshippers of Allah s.w.t. (!)

Upon that time, a brother came, shared some knowledge and his life experiences, I still remember. He said, “Is the examination result that valuable? If it is, how much?” Well, that is something to ponder upon. 


What is the value of our exam result? If it worth pursuing for or worth pursuing it not? Let’s us all travel back in the past, when we’re holding the exam slip. We passed with flying colours. 


Our relatives, our friends, and our teachers feel very proud and extremely happy about it. So do us. But look at us now, are we ourselves worth more than the rest of us? No, I do not think so.

 “Yang menciptakan mati dan hidup, untuk menguji kamu, siapa di antara kamu yang lebih baik amalnya. Dan dia Maha Perkasa, Maha Pengampun.”

(Al-Mulk:2)

To clarify, saying examination result is not worthy to grab does not meant we should abandon it for good. I am suggesting that we must know which is which. We must prioritize the prior priority; which is the akhira. 


Desire for dunya will lead you away from akhira. Otherwise, desire towards akhira will bring dunya close to you. Choose wise! Treat dunya as a platform or the wasilah to attain the goodness hereafter. 


As a muslim, don’t treat dunya as the only goal in our life. We still have a long way to cover, my dearest brothers and sisters.

We always complain we lack of time to revise, to study for the examination. We have too much things to do within the limited time. But hey, Allah is giving us a whole lot of time, didn’t He? 


From the day we are born till the day we die, the examination never ends and the result is never to be stalks. No one knows where are we heading to; the Heaven or Hell? But still, we do know and supposedly realise, we are being tested from every direction, from every corner we can’t imagine, every time without break, even for a sec. 


Didn’t we know that?

We always complain about the abundance of things to be settled with. Too much book to scan, too much subjects to revise and too much assignments to be submitted. The worst part is, that awkward moment when you don’t know how to answer even though the whole factual and empirical stuff is right in your very own head. 


But hey look, Allah is truly Generous, that He gave us the answer scheme to pass. Don’t you know, as long as you hold on to the Koran and al-Hadith, you will never gone astray? The Holy Koran, the forever manual for mankind to gain hasana in the dunya and the akhira. The al-Hadith, the guide to excel, the guide to pass the real examination with flying colours. 


Don’t we know that?

We always got influence by that typical mind-setting to study at the very very very last minute. Yes, I could not agree more when some of us still can succeed. But hey, isn’t the moment of death is close enough to us? 


Why study last minute, when you can do so, right about now? We will never know exactly the time or the reasons or the place where we will experience death. Or are we? Why are we being too carried away with the egoism growing inside? Are we that fully prepared? 


Even Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. the chosen one, the one who promised by Allah to enter Syurga is still performing his ibada to the fullest. When one of the sahaba ask him, why? He said, “Can’t I be a greatful worshipper of Allah?”

Hey, tak mampukah kita menjadi hamba yang bersyukur? Let us take a while, a moment to ponder upon; the moment that may change our paradigm, our perspective about life. InsyaAllah. It is the examination, everyone! It is all about the quality of our ibada, not the quantity, okay. 


Let us all strive for the best. :D

( p/s: The examination is creeping closer and closer. Need to study now. )