Illustration by Raimy Sofyan

،الله أَكْبَر، الله أَكْبَر، الله أَكْبَر،

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي سَخَّرَ لَنَا هَذَا، وَمَا كُنَّا لَهُ مُقْرِنِينَ،

وَإِنَّا إِلَى رَبِّنَا لَمُنْقَلِبُونَ،

اللَّهمَّ إِنَّا نَسْأَلُكَ فِي سَفَرِنَا هَذَا الْبِرَّ وَالتَّقْوَى، وَمِنَ ،

اللَّهمَّ هَوِّنْ عَلَيْنَا سَفَرَنَا هَذَا، الْعَمَلِ مَا تَرْضَى

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar

Subhanalladzi sakhkhara lanaa hadza, wa maa kunnaa lahu muqriniin

Wa inna ilaa Rabbinaa lamunqalibuun

Allahumma inna nas’aluka fii safarinaa hadza birra wattaqwa, wa minal ‘amal maa tardha

Allahumma hawwin ‘alainaa safarinaa hadza

“The great of Allah, The great of Allah, The great of Allah

Glory to Allah who make us easy to our vehicle, when we were previously unable to. And to Him we shall return to our Lord (on the Day of Resurrection).

O Allah! Indeed we asked You during our travel the goodness and piety, and the deeds that you accepted.

O Allah! Make it easy for our trip, and bring the distance close for us.

(Narrated by: Bukhari-Muslim)

Illustration by AA Sumadri

School will come to an end, summer holiday is coming soon. Many parents are designing a vacation out of town or even out of the country to let go all of our routine works and household affairs for a moment.

Any matters for trip purpose are carefully prepared. Related to the work, of course, to get leave permission from our boss or if we don’t have a boss we have to transfer our important jobs or businesses to our co-workers as long as we leave. Then ticket matter, when using public transports, which we certainly must book tickets in advance in order to get tickets in accordance with the dates we want. Moreover, when we will go abroad, more important things are paperwork items such as passport, visa, and exit entry.

As mothers generally we have more things because we need to prepare not only for ourselves but also for our husband and children. Food supplies, medicines or if it is needed, go shopping for clothes that fit to the place that will be addressed as well as other items that are appropriate to the activities to be carried out. What else?

Unfortunately, many of us are often forgotten of one thing. What is it? Halal food! The safest is yes we bring our own food from home whenever possible. But sometimes we cannot do, especially when we travel abroad which takes many hours or days by plane. The food we bring could be stale. Have all this time we are aware of food that are provided at the plane, which is not necessarily all halal? Though a bite of food that goes into our bodies will then fused with blood flow to all parts of our bodies including our brain? Consider the following tips of halal food from an expert on Halal Food, Dr. Anton Apriyantono.

The things that need to be considered in obtaining halal food on the plane are:

1. Choose a flight that provides or guarantees halal food.  Usually airlines from Middle East or Moslem majority countries provide halal meals, otherwise should ask by request.
2. At the check-in time ask the flight representative for halal meals or Moslem meals
3. Before ordering for food, read the menu thoroughly. If possible choose fish or vegetarian menu. As for other meals, they should be considered one by one. The safest one of course if there is a halal label on the package or like fresh fruits. If in doubt then leave it.
4. Browsing information about halal meals in their (airlines) websites.

Nothing is difficult if we had been doing, inshaa Allah.

As mentioned in the Qur’an Surah Al-Maidah: 88,

And eat of what Allah has provided for you [which is] lawful and good. And fear Allah, in whom you are believers.

Wallahu a’lam bishowab

In this Surah Makiyyah , there are lessons that we can take:

1. There is no tolerance of belief (iman or aqeedah) and worship, tolerance only applies to social issues (mu’amalah). This has been exemplified by Prophet Muhammad SAW in both Mecca and Medina. In Mecca he did not accept invitations to pagans, the day he was with the Muslims to worship the God of unbelievers (statue)  and the next day the unbelievers worship Allah SWT. Likewise, when in Madinah, the Prophet did not force other religions (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, polytheists) to embrace Islam, or otherwise the Muslims followed their religion, or bear a religion agreement (syncretism) or justify all religions (religious pluralism), but established common rules in the agreement or social interaction, this is what we are familiar known as Charter of Medina;
2. When we say no to people of other faiths to follow their worship or ritual, it does not mean no tolerance, it is precisely tolerance. This is done by Caliph Umar when – in the year 637, he freed Jerusalem from the grip of the Byzantine rulers – he was invited to pray by the Christian clergy in the church, Umar refused. He insisted that if he prayed there, Muslims would use it as an excuse to turn a church into a mosque. Of course it would deprive Christians. Finally Umar prayed outside the church.
3. Tolerance does not mean condone or allow all of it, but must obey the rules. In Islam, there is no compulsion of other faiths to convert to Islam, but when one chooses Islam, he/she must obey the rules of Islam. Hence the Prophet Muhammad  pbuh cleaned statues around the Kaaba, because in the rules of Islam should not be any statue in the house, let alone in the house of God (baitullah, the Holy Mosque), but it does not matter if it is in the neighborhood of non-Muslim places of worship, this was conducted by Umar bin Khattab during liberated Jerusalem and Amr ibn ‘Ash while freed Egypt, he let both church and synagogue and its contents;
4. There is no tolerance in faith and worship, as well as in terms of disobedience or violation of the rules of Islam. As the prophet did, he did not wear silk, because in Islam should not be. “From Ibn Umar, he said: Umar RA had seen a piece of silk that was being sold, and he said:” O Messenger of Allah! Buy this and wear silk on Friday, and if come to you messengers. “He said:” It’s just wearing this silk is that people will have no part at all in the afterlife. One day the Prophet Muhammad had been given a few strands of silk clothes, and then he sent some to Umar, and Umar said: “How can I put it on while you said silk like that?” He said: ‘Indeed, I do not intend to give it to you to wear, but you sell it or put it on to others. “Then Umar sent it to one of his relative who was in Makkah, before his relative converted to Islam.”
5. In social interaction (mu’amalah) we do good without have to distinguish among people’s beliefs, such as in doing good to neighbors. “From Mujahid, he said: ‘I’ve been on the side of Abdullah bin’ Amr and when his servant was skinning a goat. Abdullah then said: ‘O servant! When you are finished then prioritize our Jewish neighbor. ‘Suddenly one said: “(You’re precedence) the Jews? May Allah correct you! “Abdullah said: ‘I heard the Prophet SAW intestate about neighbors, to the extent that we were afraid or we even assumed that he would classify them as heirs.”

Once again, the essence of tolerance is steadfast in faith, but flexible in socialize. This is the meaning of “lakum dinukum waliyadin”.

Well, have you applied tolerance correctly?

And Allah knows best.

Masjid Nabawi, Madinah
Illustration by AA Sumadri

Illustration by Raimy Sofyan

At the start of the academic year Sept 2012, I made a promise to myself..that I would keep myself productively occupied, eat and lead a healthy life. It did not seem like a tall order. I had a plan in mind. To keep myself mentally challenged, I wanted to enroll in Arabic class..and I found one which I am enjoying greatly. To keep me physically and spiritually balanced I found a pilates instructor and a fiqh/tafseer teacher. It was and has been enjoyable classes, with friends. My eldest daughter was hin school from 8 am to 2.30 pm. My then 2 1/2 year old toddler was safely at home with my trusted helper. I would snatch whatever time before or after classes to read and play with him.

But gradually as my classes kept me busy 4 days a week, I found it harder to meet up my friends. Yet at the same time if I played truant with classes, I felt that there was something missing not just in the day but the week. Certainly I could feel the difference if I skipped my pilates, I would just feel lethargic through the week. So I would go for classes first then rush off to attend the last hour of my friends’ invite. This way I did not disappoint the host and kept up with my classes.

Having been a working mum, I can totally understand how difficult it must be to carve out 15-30 minutes each day for ourselves, especially if we have young children and no home help. But it is not impossible to steal time. The 30 minutes train ride, use that to read Qur’an. Download and listen to Islamic talks while driving, preparing dinner. Walk those stairs at work instead of taking the elevator. Start an after work walking/jogging group with your colleagues.

Don’t take a doughnut and coffee break, have healthy fruit and vegetable snacks. At home ditch those store bought juices. Make immune boosting and energizing fruit and vegetable drinks yourself. Kids love to help juicing!

Illustration by Raimy Sofyan

In the case of restructuring or its application, Islamic sukuk is not much different from the conventional sukuk (bonds). However, when we talk about the context of Islamic finance and its instrument, it is certainly not free from the rules of Islamic law as other muamaalat chapters, from where appears significant difference between conventional sukuk and Islamic sukuk, especially those in the following terms:

a. Basic principles and legal form

Islamic sukuk is not a debt, but joint ownership of an asset / project and in accordance with the principle of profit and loss sharing and it is also a form of middle and long-term investment. Conventional sukuk (bonds) is a statement of debt from an issuer in the form of usurious loans based on a fixed interest rate and a long-term investment.

Release mechanism

Islamic sukuk is released by statutes of IPO (Initial Public Offering) through a public offering and corresponding to the rules of sharia, in contrast to bonds which is only based on a public offering.

b. Trade and turnover

Islamic sukuk along with its variants can be traded and played except salam sukuk and istisna, as for bonds all are rotatable and can be traded without exception.

c. Gains or profits

In Islamic sukuk, amount of profit cannot be ascertained, could be fixed or vary, because profit is based on the basis of profit and loss is shared, different from bonds that their profits can be ascertained in every month with the amount that has been agreed upon earlier.

d. Legality of conversion into shares

Islamic sukuk cannot be changed and transferred in the form of shares, as sukuk is a form of a product or business carried on, while bonds can be converted at any time into shares.

e. Commitment to the rules of Islamic law

Islamic sukuk tied up with rules and laws of Islam, otherwise bond is not based on Islamic law at all.

f. The force of law for owners

Islamic sukuk holders are entitled to ownership of the project assets or rights, as other sukuk holders, on the basis of right of sukuk holders. Therefore they may represent their allies when dealing with outsiders. While bondholders connection to issuer is like lenders and issuers declared themselves as borrowers.

g. Capital guarantee

In Islam there is no capital guarantee for sukuk holders but there may be a third party that is willing to voluntarily guarantee or being a guarantor, provided that the guarantee contract separate from the contract between the two parties in the sukuk, which means that the guarantee is independent. In case of conventional bond, the bond issuer provides a full guarantee on capital and profit to be gained.

Wallahu a’lam

This is how to wear:

Step 1

1.  Wear the inner that cover head and neck

Step 2

2.  Place chiffon fabrics over the head. Make it the same length between left and right

Step 3

3. Pull the left side over the back  neck,

Step 4

4. Do it one more (for the same side) so it is round over the neck, then pin it for secure

Step 5

5. On the other side twist it all

Step 6a: from behind

6a. Round over the rear head then pin it for secure

Step 6b

6b. Done!