They drew my attention to niat ie intention.
In Islam, the most basic teaching teaches you that everything starts with niat. Niat that everything you do and everything that you are is because of God. I'm not so good at following that part simply because. But I do agree with the practice of niat. I generally believe that I should live life doing good or at the very least to not harm others. Those are, I guess, my general intentions in life. But what if I push it further?
It made me recollect back on my primary-school-agama-classes-days plus all those extracurricular-tuition-imposed-agama-classes where I had to memorise many many doa (prayer) outlining my niat for all things imaginable. It was crazy. There is a doa for when you wake up, before you shower, when you put on clothes, before you eat, before you step out of the house, when you study, at housewarmings and many many more. I resented it! Memory is not exactly the best gift I possess and what more in a foreign language and in meanings that I hardly cherish. Example 1: Doa when you wake up translates to something along the line of 'Thank you God for reawakening me back from my temporary slumber. And to You shall I return.' Geezz, talk about gibberish for a primary school kid right?
But after a degree or so, and a slight tweaking to suit me, it could easily translate to 'I am grateful to be alive today. I may not be tmrw' translation: Carpe Diem my friends ;p
But in all seriousness, I guess what I've discovered and am trying to highlight is that you should continuously be aware of and determine your intentions, in whatever way relevant to you, before setting out on doing something. Intention before action! Imagine what it could mean if I woke up every morning being grateful to be alive and wanting to live the day to the fullest. There will be no Monday-blues or any days blue. I wont get bogged down by the calamities of life and learn to appreciate and be grateful for each day as it comes. I will get things, well the important thing anyway, done much quicker too.
And that is just with practicing 1 intention in the morning. Imagine if I expand further. Leaving the house and embracing the traffic in the morning with the determination to learn more, to achieve more; being grateful for the wonderful food that I intend to enjoy before I eat; a simple housewarming doa with the intention of building a home and not just a house (think of it as wedding vows but for the family); Theres 10,001 niat for 10,001 actions!
You'd think its crazy that so much focus goes into intention and that it'll shave time off action right? Not necessarily so. I think its just a way of re-wiring oneself, to living life and every moment of it with well intentions and to living life purposefully. It will take time to adjust but it is a technique that can be mastered. Haha how would I know. I'll let you know someday soon hopefully. I'm gonna think of 1 simple intention to master first ;) Baby steps :)
^8 Cee
It made me recollect back on my primary-school-agama-classes-days plus all those extracurricular-tuition-imposed-agama-classes where I had to memorise many many doa (prayer) outlining my niat for all things imaginable. It was crazy. There is a doa for when you wake up, before you shower, when you put on clothes, before you eat, before you step out of the house, when you study, at housewarmings and many many more. I resented it! Memory is not exactly the best gift I possess and what more in a foreign language and in meanings that I hardly cherish. Example 1: Doa when you wake up translates to something along the line of 'Thank you God for reawakening me back from my temporary slumber. And to You shall I return.' Geezz, talk about gibberish for a primary school kid right?
But after a degree or so, and a slight tweaking to suit me, it could easily translate to 'I am grateful to be alive today. I may not be tmrw' translation: Carpe Diem my friends ;p
But in all seriousness, I guess what I've discovered and am trying to highlight is that you should continuously be aware of and determine your intentions, in whatever way relevant to you, before setting out on doing something. Intention before action! Imagine what it could mean if I woke up every morning being grateful to be alive and wanting to live the day to the fullest. There will be no Monday-blues or any days blue. I wont get bogged down by the calamities of life and learn to appreciate and be grateful for each day as it comes. I will get things, well the important thing anyway, done much quicker too.
And that is just with practicing 1 intention in the morning. Imagine if I expand further. Leaving the house and embracing the traffic in the morning with the determination to learn more, to achieve more; being grateful for the wonderful food that I intend to enjoy before I eat; a simple housewarming doa with the intention of building a home and not just a house (think of it as wedding vows but for the family); Theres 10,001 niat for 10,001 actions!
You'd think its crazy that so much focus goes into intention and that it'll shave time off action right? Not necessarily so. I think its just a way of re-wiring oneself, to living life and every moment of it with well intentions and to living life purposefully. It will take time to adjust but it is a technique that can be mastered. Haha how would I know. I'll let you know someday soon hopefully. I'm gonna think of 1 simple intention to master first ;) Baby steps :)
^8 Cee
8 comments:
i like this post :) it's true, niat is the core of everything. i'm sure you've come across people who write on FB or twitter (or even say it out loud) things like "going to perform my prayers now" or "reading the quran always makes me calm. going to do that now." or something along those lines.
it's all well that they do those things but is it necessary to announce it to the whole world? what are their real intentions of doing those things? to get closer to god or to show off to others?
hehe sorry, people like that annoy the crap out of me coz it seems like they're trying to prove that they're better than others. for me, i don't need to announce to the whole world about my relationship with god. He knows well enough.
yup baby steps lalink. I'm so proud of you. Everything that happens in life has a reason behind it.
You forgot Andrew Jackson’s Big Block of Cheese with nary a macaroni in sight.
i like the idea of niat-it makes one more focused nearly just because you have to vocalise what you want, you are more likely to know how/what to do to achieve it. but sometimes the realisation of the intention comes from doing unless the intention is really broad like doing good. its kind of like as a kid you are not too sure why you have to learn all these things at school but one day you realise the reason and your intention for studying/trying. sometimes it seems hard to figure out why but you're doing it just coz you feel like you have to.
sportsmanship: perhaps when you realise you maybe better at something but you always take time to help the person lagging behind.
but sportsmanship does not equal charity?
nice post :)
there are many ways of saying and getting things done..in case of niat i suppose what you're trying to say matters more than how you're saying it. i think the doa's we were thought give an idea of what we should ask for..while they might be long and detailed sometimes, clearly a lot of thought has been put into it and we should be able to understand why later. after a while i think all the preachers and teachers of the world are trying to say the same things..just differently for different people.
well..carpe diem! :D
natalie rose: errmmm i dont have that kind of friends?? :p but i think they're the type that update status on everything in Fb and not just the ones where they try to look better than the rest. But its ok what, its like a reminder to the rest i guess?
AL: cant wait for you to come back in Dec and we can do all the sleepovers :)
anonymous: thats pretty random
avp: yea its a process of focusing oneself. i guess sorta like erasing all the white noise from the background and just enjoying the music.
i wouldnt say sportsmanship = charity and i dont think sportsmanship only applies when you're better than someone else.
in vacuo: yup! i guess what I'm saying is just that. We gotta be open-minded and find a way to make it relevant to ourselves. and i used islam as an example coz its the religion i'm most familiar w/. But i think the technique is the sort of meditation thats prevalent in most, if not all, of the religion.
I niat to meet you soon Weener. Intention disclosed. Now you go trigger the action. Heheh
toots: hahahahah wth?!! u la always cannot make it. gimme a date and i'll confirm availability :)
Post a Comment