A Moment To Remember

Alhamdulilah, just got back from another cool Islamic talk titled 'A Moment to Remember' in Setiawangsa organised by One Heart Creative Solution. Yeah, the event was definitely a moment to remember! 

Oki Setiana Dewi shares how she dreamed to be an actress since she was 4 years old and grew up with the same dream for years until the day she was told that her mom had a critical skin disease. She started to make dua' and wear hijab because at that moment she realized that Allah is her only Helper and the Most Powerful of everything. Soon after her transformation, she was offered with many roles by the film directors but the roles required her to remove her hijab. Being torn between Allah and the need of money to support her sick mother's treatment, Oki decided to stay firm with her choice of getting closer to Allah and chose to not turning back to her previous life. Alhamdulilah, with the help of Allah, she's becoming who she is today, a muslimah, a spokesperson, a writer and also an actress where she plays the main female role as Anna Althafunnisa in a beautiful Indonesian film titled 'Ketika Cinta Bertasbih'.

"Kerana hijab, saya temui teman-teman yang baik, pekerjaan dan rezeki yang halal, dan kerana hijab, hidup saya kini lebih bermanfaat."

Oki adds, as a Muslim, we shall always remember the promises we make to Allah that we read everyday in our 5 times daily solat, 

قُلۡ إِنَّ صَلَاتِى وَنُسُكِى وَمَحۡيَاىَ وَمَمَاتِى لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ

"Say: Verily, my prayers, my sacrifice, my life, and my death are for Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds."

Let's reflect, review and remind ourselves about this. We always make these promises and yet we break them? Aren't we feel ashamed of Allah? Though sometimes we start to feel lazy, we must force ourselves to do what we are obliged to do because it is a rule, decreed and prescribed by Allah. If we truly love our Creator, we will never find it hard to fulfill the obligation. Love towards Allah is explained as the desire to obey Him, is reflected in following His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and in consistently encouraging others to obey Him.

The second panel, Wardina Saffiyyah talks about being a competent muslimah. 

"Kalau kita nak jadi baik, Allah akan hantar orang-orang baik dekat dengan kita."

She emphasis on how we are lacking with Islamic role model. She mentioned several women names that we hardly know of but their contribution towards Islam was magnificent, Masha Allah. These women served Allah and their community with bravery and wisdom. Beside Khadija bint Khuwailid, Aisha bnti Abu Bakr, Fatimah bint Muhammad, there's also Khaulah Al-Azwar the women who fought alongside Khalid bin Waleed, Nusayba bint K'ab the nurse who fought in the battle of Uhud, Syifa bint Abdullah the Minister of Finance during the reign of Umar Al-Khattab, Umm Salamah one of the first believers who remains steedfast despite persecution, Amra bint Abdur Rahman was one of the greatest scholars in Madinah, Zainab bint Kamal who taught more than 400 books of hadith in the 12th century and many others. These are the muslim women role models that we should look up to.


Wardina says as a women, we still have the right to speak and give our opinion that is within our capacity but one must have the knowledge in order to speak and act effectively. Even the Prophet taught us that there is no difference between believers on account of their gender. Both men and women have the same right and duties to learn and teach, to encourage the good and restrain the evil. She shares with us a story about a woman who voice out her disagreement during the reign of Umar Al-Khattab;

Ibn Al-Jauzi narrated the virtues and merits of Umar bin Al-Khattab (Allah bless him) in the following words: Umar forbade the people from paying excessive dowries and addressed them saying: "Don't fix the dowries for women over forty ounces. If ever that is exceeded I shall deposit the excess amount in the public treasury". As he descended from the pulpit, a flat-nosed lady stood up from among the women audience, and said: "It is not within your right". Umar asked: "Why should this not be of my right?" she replied: "Because Allah has proclaimed: 'even if you had given one of them (wives) a whole treasure for dowry take not the least bit back. Would you take it by false claim and a manifest sin'". (Al Nisa, 20). When he heard this, Umar said: "The woman is right and the man (Umar) is wrong. It seems that all people have deeper insight and wisdom than Umar". Then he returned to the pulpit and declared: "O people, I had restricted the giving of more than four hundred dirhams in dowry. Whosoever of you wishes to give in dowry as much as he likes and finds satisfaction in so doing may do so". 

Copy from HERE

Wardina ends her speech by encouraging the audience to find and seek knowledge for the sake of Allah. She told us to be aware of our talent, be good and passion about it and start to share with others all the knowledge we have. 

Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub has narrated from Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim from his father from al-Hassan ibn abu al-Hassan al-Farisi from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyad from his father from abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who has said the following.  "The Messenger of Allah said, ‘Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim. Let it be known that Allah loves those who seek knowledge."  

So peeps, if we want Allah to love us, let's transform to be a better muslim, let's seek knowledge for the sake of Allah and let's sujood and do ibadah more to get closer to Allah. May Allah grant us a deeper understanding and strength to find the right path to Jannah, InsyaAllah. Aminn ya rabb.