Muqaddimah

بسم الله الرحمن الريم

Disarikan dari karya Khalid Muhammad Khalid

yang berjudul 60 Sirah Sahabat Rasulullah saw.,  

perjalanan sirah ini

diawali dari kisah heroik seorang duta,

ahli diplomasi, pandai berbicara, bijaksana, tenang,

dari bibirnya keluar cahaya kebenaran, yang dengannya membuat akal pikiran orang-orang Madinah terkunci,

tidak bisa mengelak

dari kebenaran yang disampaikan.

Kehidupannya berubah 180⁰.

Kemewahan berubah menjadi kelusuhan,

kecukupan berubah menjadi kelaparan, kehausan,

hingga pada akhir perjalanan hidupnya,

tidak ada kain yang dapat mengkafani jenazahnya,

sampai-sampai Rasulullah memerintahkan sahabat

untuk menutupi kakinya dengan rumput idzkhir.

Kesederhanaannya

digambarkan oleh Rasulullah melalui salam perpisahan

yang beliau sampaikan di samping jenazahnya,

dengan sabdanya,

“Ketika di Mekah dulu,

tak seorang pun yang lebih halus pakaiannya

dan lebih rapi rambutnya daripada kamu,

tetapi sekaramg ini, rambutmu kusut,

hanya dibalut sehelai burdah.”

~01~

Mush’ab bin Umair

“Duta Islam yang Pertama”

180⁰

Dilahirkan dan dibesarkan dalam limpahan kenikmatan, seorang pemuda Quraisy yang paling menonjol, paling tampan, dan paling bersemangat, dialah Mush’ab bin Umair. Yang bisa jadi, tak seorang pun yang di antara anak muda Mekah yang dimanjakan kedua orang tuanya seperti yang didapat Mush'ab bin Umair.

Mungkinkah kiranya anak muda yang serba kecukupan, biasa hidup mewah dan manja, selalu dielu-elukan, dan bintang di setiap rapat dan pertemuan, akan berubah menjadi tokoh dalam sebuah cerita keimanan dan perjuangan demi membela Islam……?

Sungguh satu kisah penuh pesona… Kisah perjalanan Mush'ab bin Umair atau kaum muslimin biasa menyebutnya “Mush'ab Al-Khair (yang baik)”…

Dia adalah satu di antara orang-orang yang ditempa oleh Islam dan dididik oleh Muhammad saw.

Seperti apakah dia…?

Sungguh, kisah hidupnya menjadi kebanggaan seluruh umat manusia.

Suatu hari, anak muda ini mendengar berita tentang Muhammad yang selama ini dikenal jujur… Berita yang juga mulai didengar oleh warga Mekah… Muhammad yang selama ini dikenal jujur itu (Al-Amin) menyatakan bahwa dirinya telah diutus oleh Allah sebagai pembawa berita gembira dan pemberi peringatan. Mengajak umat manusia beribadah kepada Allah yang Maha Esa.

Perhatian warga Mekah terpusat pada berita ini. Tiada yang menjadi buah pembicaraan mereka kecuali tentang Rasulullah saw. dan agama yang dibawanya. Tak ketinggalan anak muda yang manja ini. Dia terlihat sangat serius mendengar berita ini. Mesipun usianya masih muda, ia menjadi bintang di setiap rapat dan pertemuan. Kehadirannya di setiap rapat dan pertemuan selalu dinanti. Gayanya yang mempesona dan otaknya yang cerdas merupakan keistimewaan Mush'ab bin Umair yang mampu menyelesaikan banyak persoalan.

Di antara berita yang didengarnya ialah Rasulullah saw. dan para pengikutnya biasa berkumpul di suatu tempat yang jauh dari gangguan orang-orang Quraisy, yaitu di bukit Shafa, di rumah Arqam bin Abul Arqam. Dia pun segera mengambil keputusan. Di suatu senja, dia bergegas ke rumah Arqam bin Abul Arqam.

Di rumah itulah Rasulullah bertemu para sahabatnya, mengajarkan shalat dan ayat-ayat Al-Quran dan melaksanakan shalat.

Mush’ab masuk dan duduk di sudut ruangan. Dan di sinilah perubahan akan dimulai. Ayat-ayat Al-Quran mulai mengalir dari hati Rasulullah. Bergema melalui kedua bibir beliau. Mengalir menembus telinga, merasuk ke dalam hati.

Mush’ab terlena, terpesona oleh kalimat-kalimat itu. Dia terbuai, melayang entah kemana.

Rasulullah mendekatinya, mengusap dada Mush’ab dengan penuh kasih sayang. Dada yang sedang panas bergejolak itu akhirnya menjadi tenang dan damai, setenang samudera yang dalam.

Setelah itu, hanya dalam waktu yang sangat singkat, pemuda yang telah masuk Islam ini berubah menjadi pemuda yang arif bijaksana. Jauh melebihi usianya. Ditambah lagi dengan semangat dan cita-citanya yang kuat. Semua itulah yang nanti mengubah perjalanan sejarah.

~ (  ) ~

Benar-benar Sudah 180⁰

Khunas binti Malik. Ibunda Mush’ab, adalah seorang wanita yang berkepribadian kuat. Ia seorang wanita yang disegani bahkan ditakuti.

Ketika Mush’ab masuk Islam, tiada satu kekuatan pun yang dikhawatirkan selain ibunya sendiri. bahkan, seandainya seluruh penduduk Mekah, termasuk berhala-berhala, para pembesar dan padang pasirnya berubah menjadi suatu kekuatan yang menakutkannya, Mush’ab tidak akan bergantung sedikit pun. Akan tetapi, jika ibunya yang menjadi penghalang, maka itulah rintangan yang sesungguhnya.

Mush’ab segera mengambil keputusannya untuk merahasiakan keislamannya sampai Allah memberikan keputusan yang terbaik.

Mush’ab selalu datang ke rumah Arqam menhadiri majelis Rasulullah. Dia merasa bahagia dengan keislamannya. Bahkan, rela jika harus menerima kemarahan ibunya yang sampai saat ini belum mengetahui keislamannya.

Tetapi di kota Mekah tiada rahasia yang tersembunyi. Apalagi dalam suasana seperti itu. Mata-mata kaum Quraisy berkeliaran dimana-mana.

Seorang laki-laki bernama Usman bin Thalhah, di suatu waktu, melihat Mush’ab memasuki rumah Arqam dengan mengendap-endap. Lalu di waktu yang lain, ia melihat Mush’ab melakukan shalat seperti yang dilakukan Muhammad dan para sahabatnya.

Akhirnya berita keislaman Mush’ab sampai ke telinga ibunya.

~ (  ) ~

Saat ini, Mush’ab berdiri di hadapan ibu dan sanak kerabatnya, serta para pembesar Mekah. Dengan hati mantap dia membacakan ayat-ayat Al-Quran yang telah membersihkan hati para pengikutnya. Mengisinya dengan hikmah dan kemuliaan; juga kejujuran dan ketakwaan.

Ketika sang ibu hendak membungkam mulut putranya dengan tamparan keras, tiba-tiba tangan yang bergerak cepat itu jatuh terkualai, saat melihat cahaya yang membuat wajah yang berseri itu kian berwibawa dan patut diindahkan. Cahaya yang menimbulkan ketenangan dan rasa pasrah.

Karena rasa keibuannya, ibunda Mush’ab tidak jadi memukul putranya. Dia memikirkan cara yang lain untuk memberi pelajaran kepada putranya yang telah ingkar kepada tuhan-tuhan sesembahannya. Akhirnya, Mush’ab disekap di satu kamat, dikunci rapat dari luar.

Untuk berapa lama, Mush’ab terkurung dalam ruangan itu, hingga ia mendengar bahwa beberapa sahabat Nabi saw. hijrah ke Habasyah. Kesempatan itu tidak disia-siakan oleh Mush’ab. Dengan sedikit strategi, dia berhasil mengecoh ibu dan para penjaganya. Ia berhasil lolos dari kurungan, lalu ikut hijrah ke Habasyah.

Dia tinggal di sana bersma saudara-saudaranya sesama muhajirin. Lalu pulang ke Mekah. Kemudian ia pergi lagi hijrah ke Habasyah untuk kedua kalinya bersama para sahabat atas perintah Rasulullah saw.

Baik di Habasyah maupun di Mekah, keimanan Mush’ab semakin mantap. Dia menapaki jalan hidup baru yang diajarkan oleh teladannya, Muhammad saw. Mush’ab sudah mantap kalau kehidupannya akan diberikan kepada Sang Pencipta yang Maha Agung.

Pada suatu hari, ia menghampiri kaum muslimin yang sedang duduk di sekeliling Rasulullah saw. Melihat penampilan Mush’ab, semua menundukkan pandangan, bahkan ada yang menangis. Mereka melihat Mush’ab memakai jubah usang yang bertambal-tambal. Padahal masih segar diingatan mereka bagaimana penampilannya sebelum masuk Islam. Pakaiannya ibarat bunga di taman, menebarkan aroma wewangian.

Adapun Rasulullah, beliau menatapnya dengan pandangan penuh arti, disertai cinta kasih dan syukur dalam hati. Kedua bibirnya tersenyum bahagia dan bersabda,

“Dahulu, tiada yang menandingi Mush’ab dalam mendapatkan kesenangan dari orang tuanya. Lalu semua itu ditinggalkan demi cintanya kepada Allah dan Rasul-Nya.”

Semenjak ibunya merasa putus asa untuk mengembalikan Mush’ab kepada berhala sesembahannya, dia menghentikan segala pemberian yang biasa diberikan kepada Mush’ab. Bahkan, dia tidak mengizinkan makanannya dimakan orang yang telah mengingkari berhala-berhala itu, meskipun orang itu adalah anak kandungannya sendiri.

Terakhir kali bertemu Mush’ab adalah saat hendak mencoba mengurungnya lagi, sewaktu Msuh’ab pulang dari Habasyah. Mush’ab pun bersumpah dan menyatakan tekadnya untuk membunuh orang-orang suruhan ibunya bila rencana itu dilakukan. Mengetahui tekad anaknya yang begitu kuat, mak sang ibu membatalkan niatnya. Keduanya berpisah dengan cucuran air mata.

Perpisahan itu memperlihatkan kegigihan luar biasa dalam mempertahankan kekafiran, di pihak sang ibu, dan kegigihan yang juga luar biasa dalam mempertahankan keimanan, di pihak sang anak. Ketika sang ibu mengusirnya dari rumah,

“Pergilah sesuka hatimu. Aku bukan ibumu lagi.”

Mush’ab menghampiri ibunya dan berkata,

“Wahai ibu, aku sangat sayang kepada ibu. Karena itu, bersaksilah bahwa tiada tuhan selain Allah, dan Muhammad adalah hamba dan utusan-Nya.”

Sang ibu menjawab,

“Demi bintang-gemintang, aku tidak akan masuk ke dalam agama itu. Otakku bisa rusak, dan buah pikiranku takkan diindahkan orang lain.”

Mush’ab meninggalkan kemewahan dan kesenangan yang pernah dialaminya, dan memilih hidup miskin serta kekurangan. Pemuda ganteng dan perlente itu, kini hanya mengenakan pakaian yang sangat kasar, sehari makan dan beberapa hari rela menahan lapar. Akan tetapi, jiwanya yang telah dihiasi akidah suci dan cahaya ilahi, mengubah dirinya menjadi manusia yang lain. Manusia yang dihormati, penuh wibawa dan disegani.

~ (  ) ~

Men-180⁰-kan

Sekarang, Mush’ab dipilih Rasulullah untuk melakukan tugas sangat penting: menjadi utusan Rasulullah ke Madinah. Tugasnya adalah mengajarkan agama Islam kepada orang-orang Anshar yang telah beriman dan berbai’at kepada Rasulullah di bukit Aqabah. Juga untuk mengajak orang lain menganut agama Islam, dan mempersiapkan kota Madinah untuk menyambut hijrah Rasulullah ke kota itu.

Sebenarnya, di kalangan sahabat saat itu masih banyak yang lebih tua, lebih berpengaruh dan lebih dekat hubungan kekeluargaannya dengan Rasulullah daripada Mush’ab. Tetapi Rasulullah memilih Mush’ab Al-Khair. Rasulullah sadar sepenuhnya bahwa beliau telah memikulkan tugas sangat penting kepada pemuda itu. Menyerahkan kepadanya masa depan Islam kota Madinah. Kota yang tak lama lagi akan menjadi kota hijrah, pusat dakwah, tempat berhimpunnya penyebar dan pembela Islam.

Mush’ab memikul amanah itu dengan bekal kecerdasan dab akhlak mulia yang dikaruniakan Allah kepadanya. Dengan sifat zuhud, kejujuran dan keikhlasan, dia berhasil memikat hati penduduk Madinah hingga mereka berduyun-duyun masuk Islam.

Saat Mush’ab memasuki Madinah, jumlah orang Islam hanya 12 orang, yaitu orang-orang yang telah berbai’at di bukit Aqabah. Hanya beberapa bulan, penduduk Madinah berbondong-bondong masuk Islam.

Pada musim haji berikutnya, kaum muslimin Madinah mengirim rombongan yang mewakili mereka untuk menemui Nabi. Mereka berjumlah 70 orang yang dipimpin oleh guru mereka, oleh duta yang dikirim Nabi kepada mereka, yaitu Mush'ab bin Umair.

Dengan tindakannya yang tepat dan bijaksana, Mush'ab bin Umair telah membuktikan bahwa Rasulullah saw. tidak salah memilih orang. Mush’ab benar-benar memahami tugasnya. Ia tahu apa yang harus dilakukan. Ia sadar bahwa tugasnya adalah mengajak menusia untuk menyembah Allah, menyampaikan berita gembira lahirnya suatu agama yang mengajak manusia mencapai hidayah Allah, dan membimbing mereka ke jalan yang lurus. Tugasnya seperti tugas Rasulullah: hanya menyampaikan.

Di Madinah, Mush’ab tinggal sebagai tamu di rumah As’ad bin Zurarah. Dengan didampingi As’ad, ia mengunjungi kabilah-kabilah, rumah-rumah, dan tempat-tempat pertemuan untuk membacakan ayat-ayat Al-Quran. Menyampaikan “bahwa hanya Allah Tuhan yang berhak disembah” dengan sangat hati-hati.

Ia mengalami peristiwa yang mengancam keselamatan diri dan rekannya itu. Tapi, dengan kecerdasan dan kebesaran jiwa, ia berhasil mengatasinya dengan sangat baik.

Suatu hari, ketika sedang berdakwah di tengah orang-orang suku Abdul Asyhal, tiba-tiba Usaid bin Hudhair, sang kepala suku muncul dengan menghunus tombak. Usaid muncul dengan kemarahan yang membuncah. Ada orang yang akan menyelewengkan penduduknya dari keyakinan mereka. Mengajak mereka meninggalkan tuhan-tuhan mereka dan beralih ke satu Tuhan. Tuhan yang sama sekali belum mereka kenal. Mengajak meninggalkan tuhan-tuhan yang tempatnya jelas, bisa didatangi, dan bentuknya kelihatan. Sedangkan tuhan yang baru ini tidak bisa dilihat dan tidak bisa dijumpai.

Tak ayal lagi, orang-orang Islam yang  ada di tempat itu ketakutan. Akan tetapi Mush'ab bin Umair tetap tenang dengan air muka yang tidak berubah.

Seakan hendak menerkam, Usaid bin Hudhair mendekati Mush’ab dan As’ad bin Zurarah. Dengan kasar ia berkata,

“Apa maksud kalian datang ke kabilah kami ini? Apakah hendak membodohi rakyat kecil kami? Tinggalkan segera tempat ini, jika tidak ingin nyawa kalian melayang.”

Seperti tenang dan mantapnya samudera, laksana damainya fajar, terpancarlah ketulusan hati Mush’ab Al-Khair, dan bergeraklah bibirnya mengeluarkan kata-kata menyejukkan,

“Mengapa anda tidak duduk dan mendengarkan terlebih dahulu? Jika nanti anda tertarik, anda dapat menerimanya. Dan jika nanti anda tidak suka, kami akan mengehntikan apa yang tidak kalian sukai.”

Allahu Akbar!!! Sungguh awal yang baik, yang tentu berakhir dengan baik pula.

Usaid adalah orang yang bijak. Dan saat ini, ia diajak oleh Mush’ab untuk berbicara dan meminta pertimbangan kepada hati nuraninya sendiri. ia hanya diminta mendengar. Jika ia suka dengan apa yang dikatakan Mush’ab, maka ia akan membiarkan Mush’ab untuk berdakwah. Jika ia tidak seka dengan apa yang dikatakan Mush’ab, maka Mush’ab berjanji akan meninggalkan kabilah dan masyarakatnya untuk mencari tempat dan masyarakat lain. Tidak ada yang dirugikan bukan?!

“Baiklah.”

Kata Usaid. Lalu ia duduk dan meletakkan tombaknya.

Mush’ab mulai membacakan ayat-ayat Al-Quran dan menguraikan dakwah yang dibawa oleh Muhammad saw. Bacaan dan uraian Mush’ab mengalir ke telinga Usaid, memasuki dada, dan menerangi hati yang ada di dalamnya. Belum usai Mush’ab membaca dan memberikan uraian, tiba-tiba bibir Usaid bergetar dan berkata,

“Alangkah indah kata-kata ini. Tidak ada satu kesalahan pun. Apa yang harus dilakukan orang yang masuk agama ini?”

Serentak gema tahlil keluar dari bibir kaum muslimin “Laa ilaaha illallaah, Muhammadar Rasulullah.” Tahlil terus bergema seakan hendak mengguncang dunia.

Mush’ab berkata,

“Hendaklah ia membersihkan pakaian dan badannya, lalu mengucapkan “Asyhadu an laa ilaaha illallaah wa asyhadu anna Muhammadar Rasulullah. “

Usaid meninggalkan mereka beberapa saat, kemudian kembali dan air masih menetes dari rambutnya. Ia berdiri dan mengucapkan, “Asyhadu an laa ilaaha illallaah wa asyhadu anna Muhammadar Rasulullaah.”

Berita ini tersebar dengan sangat cepat, secepat cahaya.

Sa'ad bin Mu'adz juga mendatangi Mush’ab. Setelah mendengar uraian Mush’ab, ia pun masuk Islam.

Setelah itu Sa'ad bin Ubadah juga masuk Islam.

Masuk Islamnya tiga tokoh ini berarti pintu lebar bagi masuk Islamnya para penduduk Madinah. Mereka berkata,

“Jika Usaid bin Hudhair, Sa'ad bin Mu'adz, dan Sa'ad bin Ubadah sudah masuk Islam, apalagi yang kita tunggu?! Mari kita menemui Mush’ab dan menyatakan keislaman kita.”

Kata orang,

“Kebenaran itu terpancar dari setiap kata-katanya.”

Demikian duta Rasulullah yang pertama telah mencapai hasil gemilang tiada taranya. Suatu keberhasilan yang layak diperolehnya.

Beberapa tahun kemudian, Rasulullah bersama para sahabatnya hijrah ke Madinah.

~ (  ) ~

Kanan-kiri-tengah, Akhir yang Indah

Di pihak lain, orang-orang kafir Quraisy semakin geram. Mereka menyiapkan kekuatan untuk melampiaskan dendam mereka terhadap kaum muslimin. Maka terjadilah perang Badar, dan kaum kafir Quraisy mendapatkan pelajaran pahit yang membuat mereka semakin kalap dan tidak waras. Mereka berusaha menebus kekalahan di perang Badar. Kemudian tibalah perang Uhud. Rasulullah berdiri di tengah barisan kaum muslimin, menatap setiap majah: siapa yang sebaiknya membawa bendera pasukan? Ketika itu, terpilihlah Mush'ab bin Umair. Ia maju dan membawa bendera pasukan dengan mantap.

Peperangan berkobar dan berkecamuk dengan sengitnya. Pasukan panah kaum muslimin melanggar perintah Rasulullah. Mereka meninggalkan posisi mereka di atas bukit setelah melihat pasukan musuh lari terbirit-birit. Perbuatan mereka itu secepatnya mengubah suasana. Kemenangan berganti kekalahan.

Tanpa diduga pasukan berkuda musuh menyerang pasukan kaum muslimin dari atas bukit. Pasukan Islam pun kalang kabut.

Melihat barisan pasukan kaum muslimin porak-poranda, musuh pun mengarahkan serangan ke arah Rasulullah saw. Mush'ab bin Umair menyadari suasana gawat ini. Maka diacungkannya bendera pasukan setinggi-tingginya. Dengan suara lantang ia bertakbir, “Allahu Akbar.” Ia maju, menerjang, berkelebat ke sana kemari mengibaskan pedangnya. Ia ingin mengalihkan serangan musuh yang sedang tertuju kepada Rasulullah saw. Ia menyerang sendiri, namun terlihat seperti satu pasukan tentara.

Sungguh, walaupun hanya seorang diri, Mush’ab bertempur laksana sepasukan tentara. Satu tangannya memegang bendera pasukan yang harus terus berkibar, dan tangan satunya lagi menebaskan pedang dengan matanya yang tajam. Jumlah musuh yang dihadapi Mush’ab semakin banyak. Mereka semua ingin menginjak-injak mayatnya untuk mencapai Rasulullah.

Marilah kita dengar apa yang diceritakan oleh saksi mata. Bagaimana saat-saat terakhir sebelum Mush'ab bin Umair gugur sebagai syahid.

Ibnu Sa’ad menyebutkan bahwa Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Syurahbil berkata, “Ayahku pernah bercerita begini, ‘Mush'ab bin Umair adalah pembawa bendera pasukan di perang Uhud. Tatkala barisan kaum muslimin porak-poranda, Mush’ab tetap gigih breperang. Seorang tentara berkuda musuh, Ibnu Qamiah, menyerangnya dan berhasil menebas tangan kanannya hingga putus. Mush’ab mengucapkan, “Muhammad itu tiada lain hanyalah seorang Rasul, yang sebelumnya telah didahului oleh para rasul.”

Lalu bendera itu ia ambil dengan tangan kirinya dan ia kibarkan. Musuh pun menebas tangan kirinya hingga putus. Mush’ab membungkuk ke arah bendera itu, lalu dengan kedua pangkal tangannya ia mendekap dan mengibarkan bendera itu, sambil mengucapkan, “Muhammad itu tiada lain hanyalah seorang Rasul, yang sebelumnya telah didahului oleh para rasul..”

Orang berkuda itu menyerangnya lagi dengan tombak, menghujamkannya ke dada Mush’ab. Mush’ab pun gugur dan bendera pun jatuh.”

Gugurlah Mush’ab dan jatuhlah bendera. Ia gugur sebagai bintang dan mahkota para syuhada. Ia gugur setelah berjuang dengan gigih. Mengorbankan semua yang dimilikinya demi keimanan dan keyakinannya.

Ia merasa, jika ia gugur, akan sangat terbuka peluang untuk membunuh Rasulullah. Demi cintanya kepada Rasulullah yang tiada terbatas, dan kekhawatiran akan nasib Rasulullah, ia menghibur dirinya setiap kali pedang menebas tangannya, “Muhammad itu tiada lain hanyalah seorang Rasul, yang sebelumnya telah didahului oleh para rasul.”

Kata-kata itu terus ia ulangi. Kata-kata yang kemudian hari menjadi bagian dari ayat Al-Quran. Al-Quran yang akan senantiasa dibaca oleh kaum muslimin.

~ (  ) ~

Dan janganlah kamu mengatakan terhadap orang-orang yang gugur di jalan Allah, (bahwa mereka itu ) mati; bahkan (sebenarnya) mereka itu hidup, tetapi kamu tidak menyadarinya.

(QS. Al-Baqarah [2]: 154)

Rasulullah bersama para sahabat mengitari setiap sudut medan pertempuran untuk menyampaikan salam perpisahan kepada para syuhada. Ketika sampai di tempat terbaringnya Mush’ab, bercucurlah air mata beliau dengan deras.

Khabbab bib Arat menderitakan, “Bersama Rasulullah kami hijrah di jalan Allah untuk mengharap ridha Allah. Pasti kita mendapat ganjaran di sisi-Nya. Di antara kami ada yang lebih dulu meninggal dunia, dan belum menikmati pahalanya di dunia sedikit pun. Mush'ab bin Umair adalah salah satu dari mereka. Ia gugur di perang Uhud. Tidak ada yang bisa digunakan untuk mengkafaninya kecuali sehelai kain. Jika ditutupkan mulai dari kepalanya, kedua kakinya kelihatan. Jika ditutupkan mulai dari kakinya, maka kepalanya kelihatan. Maka Rasulullah saw. bersabda,

“Tutupkanlah ke bagian kepalanya, dan tutupilah bagian kakinya dengan rumput idzkhir.”

Betapa pun luka pedih dan duka mendalam menimpa Rasulullah karena Hamzah (paman beliau) gugur dan tubuhnya dirusak oleh orang-orang musyrik, hingga bercucuran air mata beliau. Betapa pun penuhnya medan perang dengan jenazah kaum muslimin, di mana mereka semua adalah panji-panji ketulusan, kesucian, dan cahaya. Betapa pun semua itu menggoreskan luka mendalam di hati Rasulullah, tapi beliau menyempatkan berhenti sejenak di dekat jasad dutanya yang pertama, untuk melepas kepergiaannya dan mengeluarkan isi hatinya. Rasulullah berdiri memandangi jasad Mush'ab bin Umair dengan penuh kasih sayang dan cahaya kesucian. Beliau membacac firman Allah SWT.,

Di antara orang-orang mukmin itu ada orang-orang yang menepati apa yang Telah mereka janjikan kepada Allah; Maka di antara mereka ada yang gugur. dan di antara mereka ada (pula) yang menunggu-nunggu dan mereka tidak merobah (janjinya), 

 (QS. al-Ahzab [33]: 23)

Ada kesedihan di mata beliau ketika melihat kain yang digunakan untuk mengkafani Mush’ab. Beliau bersabda,

“Ketika di Mekah dulu, tak seorang pun yang lebih halus pakaiannya dan lebih rapi rambutnya daripada kamu, tetapi sekaramg ini, rambutmu kusut, hanya dibalut sehelai burdah.”

Setelah itu, beliau memandang para sahabat yang masih hidup, dan bersabda,

“Hai kalian semua, kunjungilah mereka, dan ucapkanlah salam. Demi Zat yang jiwaku berada di tangan-Nya, tak seorang muslim pun, sampai hari kiamat kelak, yang mengucap salam kepada mereka, kecuali mereka akan membalas salam itu.”

~ (  ) ~

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I've been wandering around different food blogs and jotting down recipes that sound good to try.  I happened upon this great recipe from Cassie Craves so I decided to try these pepperoni pizza puffs today from her blog and they really really easy and so delicious.  Also the you can use this batter and really add any of your favorite fillings to change them up.  I think next time I might try spinach and cheedar cheese....YUM!  I made a slight change to the recipe just to lighten it up a little bit but it still tasted totally delicious.

**Nanci just came over and loved them so now we are trying to come up with a new concoction to use with this batter.  Stay tuned.......

Pizza Puffs

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pizza seasoning
3/4 cup whole milk (I used 3/4 cup of skim milk instead)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 package mini pepperoni rounds (or 1 cup cubed pepperoni)
1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce


Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and pizza seasoning; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes. Scoop batter into greased mini-muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Variation - Bacon Corn Cheddar Puffs

(omit pizza seasoning, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni)

Add 1 cup of frozen corn, 1 cup of bacon bits (I used immitation bacon bits) and 1 cup of cheddar cheese

Variation - Tri colored pepper and mushroom puffs

Saute red, yellow, green peppers and mushrooms in a litlte olive oil add salt and pepper to taste.  Add 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.



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I love this recipe. It started when my kids went trick or treating a few years back and came home with ridiculous amounts of Halloween candy. I took all of the Hershey and Crunch bars and melted them in the microwave and threw in whatever snacks I had lying around in the kitchen and made bark out of it. It was a huge hit and my friends and family raved about this candy. Who knew that was all I had to do to make something so yummy. So now I bring this treat to family gatherings and I get requests to bring it to scrapbooking events that Ellen and I host for our friends. The great thing about this treat is that you can use any kind of chocolate you have in your house and you can add anything into it that you want (m&ms, dried fruit, reese's pieces, etc)

Thanks Ellen for taking this amazing picture. I can't believe how professional it looks!!

Ingredients:

1 bag of milk chocolate chips
1 bag of semi sweet chips
1/2 bag of mini marshmallows'
1-2 cups pretzel pieces
1-2 cups chopped almonds

Preparation:

Melt chocolate in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl until melted and smooth (microwave one minute at a time until it is fully melted). Pour in marshmallows, almonds and pretzel pieces and stir to coat. Pour mixture onto a silpat or waxed or parchment paper and refrigerate until set. Break into pieces and serve.
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I received this newsletter today. It was about the event we attended in December. Thanks SIF!

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We are David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and we are glad you’ve joined us for another lesson in beekeeping.
We are located in central Illinois where it is cold and snowy and the bees can’t wait until a nice warm day and neither can we.
I was going to jump into some lessons on Top Bar Hives, but I’m going to save that after this series of lessons.
There is plenty of information in the beekeeping literature to help beginners. But there is far less information that goes into great detail about what to do with your bees the second year as they come out of winter. In today’s lesson and over the course of the next few blogs I’ll address what you should be doing with your bees as winter draws to a close and spring makes its usual grand entry.

LESSON 91: BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR OVERWINTERED COLONIES
There is plenty of information in the beekeeping literature to help beginners. But there is far less information that goes into great detail about what to do with your bees the second year as they come out of winter. I'll take the next few articles to address what you should be doing with your bees as winter draws to a close and spring makes its usual grand entry. The first thing you should do is celebrate and rejoice that your bees made it through a long winter. After you've had sufficient time to celebrate, you'll need to get serious about helping your bees have a great season. I've made an acronym to make it easier to remember how to prepare your bees for their second seasons:
Stimulate For Rapid Foraging Force Prevent Swarms Rotate Hive Bodies Inspect The Productivity Of The Queen New Queen Give 1:1 Sugar Water & Pollen Patties
In this lesson, we'll look at how to stimulate your late winter bees for a rapid buildup of the foraging force. A colony that is very populated with foragers will be able to gather more pollen, nectar, propolis and water. This alone will make a much healthier colony. And if you desire to increase your honey yields per hive, increasing your foraging force is essential.
How can you help your colony build up a huge foraging force to gather an abundance of resources? To start, we have to do the math. We have to work backwards to arrive at our target stimulation date. Let's randomly choose May 1st as the day we want our full foraging force.
By foraging force I mean a maximum number of worker bees of foraging age. Since worker bees take 21 days to emerge and another 21 days until they take their first foraging flight, that gives us a total of 42 days. So we want our queen to be laying at her maximum 42 days prior to May 1st, which would be March 20th. But, we'll need to stimulate the queen about a week before March 20th so that she can be at her maximum laying on March 20th. Bingo, March 13th is our date that we will want to manipulate the colony to ensure we have our full foraging force for May 1st.
To stimulate our queen to lay at her maximum we would normally want a natural, heavy nectar flow. That might be the case the further south you live. In central Illinois I will have to introduce pollen substitute patties and a 1:1 sugar feedings to stimulate my queen to start laying prior to the natural nectar flow. And once I start, I cannot stop, because the colony is counting on my pollen and sugar water to feed to their larva. Even the adult bees feeding the larva need this same food so the glands in their head can produce the much need brood food.
Of course you'll need to be sure you have a prolific queen and you'll be able to determine this once the temperature warms up above 65 (F) and you can lift out brood frames and inspect for eggs and sealed brood.
…next time we’ll look at Spring Swarm Prevention
We hope you are finding our lessons very helpful and if you can, please purchase all your beekeeping needs from us! We sell packages of bees, 4 frame nucs, raise and sell our own queens and we manufacture beekeeping equipment as well. Make us your one stop shop for all your beekeeping needs. Thank you in advance.
HERE’S OUR CONTACT INFORMATION:
PHONE: 217-427-2678
EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com
WEB: www.honeybeesonline.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/longlanehoney
See you next time,
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N. 1020 E. Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
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This is quite interesting: An international sci-fi short film competition for a vision of Jerusalem 100 years from now: Jerusalem 2111 (tip from Faithworld). The top prize was $10,000 and there are some interesting entries. The length of the movies had to be between 60 and 180 seconds - and so it is fascinating to watch how stories are told in such a short time. The winner of the festival Secular Quarter #3 (see below) - about a hopeful future for the city, but with some outside help. Hey - whatever it takes to restore sanity to a piece of land. You can see the three finalists here.

Secular Quarter #3:



Here is another one - that some a nice atmospheric feel to it:

Rebellion:


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It is not exactly clear what can I really say here. A Facebook page was created in praise of the guy (Qadri) who yesterday killed the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer. The page got 2000 likes before it was taken down.  The mainstream religious organizations in Pakistan have applauded the murder. In fact, in a rare show of unity, both the Barelvis and Deobandis have come together to condone the murder. What kind of religion do these guys (and yes, these are mostly guys) follow??

"Salman Taseer was himself responsible for his killing," Munawar Hasan, the head of Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the two big religious political parties, said. "Any Muslim worth the name could not tolerate blasphemy of the Prophet, as had been proved by this incident."

Qadri was in the Barelvi sect, which is followed by most Muslims in Pakistan. However, on the issue of the blasphemy law, the Barelvi clerics had joined hands with the pro-Taliban Deobandi. The issue was sparked by Taseer's championing of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy late last year.

"No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salmaan Taseer," a statement from Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan, one of the biggest organisations of the Barelvi, representing 500 religious scholars, said. "We pay rich tributes and salute the bravery, valour and faith of Mumtaz Qadri."

And if this is not enough:

Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security.

A few months ago I had a post about a lynching of a guy in Pakistan in broad day-light after a minor traffic incident (it was only a near-accident, but the driver was bludgeoned to death by two lawyers - yes, lawyers - on a motorbike). This was preceded, only a month earlier, by the lynching of two teenage brothers mistaken for robbers in Sialkot, and a broad day-light beating and then burning of three robbers in Karachi - in front of a crowd of onlookers.

It is no surprise then that prominent members of the same society are now applauding a murder of someone they disagreed with. And there is no shame in it. They are okay to send a press-release with their name on it.

There really are no words to describe it. This is now what we call Pakistan. Yes, of course, there are elements of the Pakistani society that are appalled by all this. But it is becoming clear which way the tide is moving. I will give the final words on this to Huma Imtiaz, reporting from this abyss (tip Faithworld):

Taseer’s assassination; even though assassination is too mild a word to describe it, the correct term should be cold-blooded murder at the hands of a Pakistani who has grown up and is continuously spoon-fed state and the right-wing religious lobby’s propaganda about Islam, blasphemy and secularism, is not the beginning of the end. This is the end. There is no going back from here, there is no miracle cure, there is no magic wand that will one day make everything better. Saying “enough is enough” does not cut it anymore, I think we can all agree that enough was enough ages ago, when the first murder under the garb of protecting Islam took place. With each bullet that deranged gunman pumped into Taseer’s body, with each person celebrating Taseer’s murder, with each person who has approved or justified his death on national TV, with each politician who promised that they would not change the law or allow it to be changed, the rape of humanity has been carried out, repeatedly.

(emphasis is mine in the above quote)

This is indeed the end of the hopes for a progressive and liberal Pakistan. But forget about that. Lets hope that people first stop applauding murder. The issue of rights will come later.
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Since we started this blog in January I didn't want to wait another whole year to document Thanksgiving which is many of our favorite holiday.  We all get together the day before Thanksgiving at Susan's house to drink wine, enjoy eachother's company and of course cook.  (IN THAT ORDER).

The wine has been poured so let's get started.........

The Menu

Pomegranite Cosmopolotians

Spiceds Mixed Nuts

Crudite with Hummus

Butternut Squash Soup

Pumpkin Muffins

Goat Cheese & Carmelized Onion Crostini

Turkey and Herbed Gravy

Traditional Stuffing (Mom's Stuffing)

Cornbread & Chestnut Stuffing

Cranberry Strawberry Compote

Cranberry Jello Mold

Roasted Root Vegetables

Cauliflower and Parsnip Puree

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Mashe Sweet Potatoes with Mini Marshmallows

String Beans with Almonds

Pecan Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

Chocolate Chip Meringue Bars

Cranberry Pistaschio Biscotti

Mixed Berries with Mango and Figs

Susan

Karen

Nanci

No picture of me.....which was fine by me because I had a very unfortunate hair coloring incident so I would've deleted any pictures of me anyway!

The Table

Kids Table Center Piece

(totally edible)

 

My Sisters

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Tonight's Dinner - 1/5/11
















I Like to make this recipe with turkey sausage and whole wheat pasta. It requires very little oil so it is a yummy low fat meal. If you want you can spray the bottom of the pan with cooking spray and avoid the oil all together. I also like to mix the pasta in with the sausage and peppers before I serve it as you can see in the picture.

Ingredients:

2 lbs sweet Italian turkey sausage

3 large peppers, sliced (red/yellow/green)

1 T crushed garlic

1 large red onion, sliced

1/2 can of tomato paste

1/4-1/2 cup of white wine

olive oil

Preparation:

Coat the bottom of a heavy bottomed pan with olive oil. Over med/high heat, brown sausage on all sides and remove from pan. Pour in a little bit of white wine to deglaze the pan (use wooden spoon to scrap up all the bits). Put in garlic and onions and cook until soft and golden. Then add peppers and cook until soft. Add tomato paste and 1/4 cup white wine. Slice sausage into bite sized pieces and add back into the pan. Cover and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Serve over whole wheat pasta.

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If not now, it is not clear when. More and more cases are being registered under the blasphemy law in Pakistan - and the excuses are becoming flimsier and flimsier. Just in the past two months, we have the case of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death (yes, a capital punishment) under this hideous law, and then just to complete the mockery, a doctor was arrested after he threw away a business card of somebody named Muhammad (the doctor has now been released). One cannot make this stuff up. It would all be funny, if the consequences were not to tragic and pathetically sad. But then what can we expect when as part of the Pakistan passport application form, one has to declare, under oath, a segment of fellow Pakistanis, the Ahmadiyya sect, as non-Muslims (you can take a look at the application form here), or for that matter, when a host of a religious religious show sanctions the murder of Ahmadis (two murders followed the show) and gets to keep his job and his show.

In this context, what exactly is the level of shock to hear that the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who was a vocal opponent of the blasphemy law, was gunned down today. There may have been other political reasons as well, but it seems that the killer mentioned the opposition to the blasphemy law as the motive.

Christians, Ahmadis, Shias, Hindus, Deobandis, Barelvis. If not for the religious affiliation, one can be identified and targeted for his or her ethnic identity: Pashtun, Punjabi, Muhajir (Haqiqi or Altaf), Sindhi, Baluchi. Being a Pakistani is not enough. Everybody is something else in Pakistan.

If there is ever a place which needs to repeatedly hear Pastor Martin Niemöller's words about the inaction of German intellectuals against the rise of Nazism, it is Pakistan - in the 21st century. Yes, these words have been overused for various causes, but they should still pack a punch with the level of intolerance we are seeing in Pakistan. You can replace your ethnic and/or religious affiliation at your own choosing: 

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me

and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Here is a clip about Salman Taseer's murder:

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Also see Pakistaniat (Deadly Intolerance: Punjab Governor Salman Taseer Killed) and Faithworld (The Infliction of the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan)
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Time passed by quickly and I went back to campus. Have gotten all my books today, I feel relieved.. but wait, this is my first book:






With more than 950 pages, the book just amazes me ...
Then, these are my second and my third books:






I first felt glad when I saw my fourth book:






It's better than the previous one, isn't it? But... oh, this subject requires two books in one
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تفكّروا في خلق الله ولا تفكّروا قي ذات الله

Kalau kita memperhatikan struktur tubuh kita akan kita dapati struktur yang sangat menakjubkan, karena kesempurnaan dan keakuratannya.

Susunan otot dan tulang, sistem pencernaan makanan, peredaran darah, pernafasan, susunan alat-alat seksual, susunan urat saraf, alat perasa, pelihat, pendengar, pencium, pengecap dan peraba. Semua itu merupakan tanda-tanda kesempurnaan ciptaan Allah, yang dengan akal budi kita bersujud dan hati tunduk dengan khusyuknya.

Allah SWT.berfirman:

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ

Sesungguhnya kami telah menciptakan manusia dalam bentuk yang sebaik-baiknya . (QS.Ath-Thiin:4)

dan juga firman Allah SWT.

وَفِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ

Dan (juga) pada dirimu sendiri. Maka apakah kamu tidak memperhatikan? (QS.Adz-Dzariyaat:21)

MAKA PERHATIKANLAH TANGAN ANDA KEMUDIAN BANDINGKAN DENGAN GAMBAR TANGAN (YANG DIBEDAH) INI...

REAKSI APAKAH YANG TERJADI PADA DIRI ANDA???

a. tambah beriman  b. biasa-biasa saja    c. bingung

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Tonight's Dinner - 1/4/11


This is so delicious and easy to make.  It's one of my husbands favorite dishes (even though it's a newer dish I started to make)  If you don't like artichokes or capers just leave them out.  This recipe makes a big family portion (10-12) so just halve the ingredients to make a smaller amount. Serve over pasta or rice with roasted asparagus.  YUM!

Ingredients:

12 chicken cutlets (thin)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Garlic powder to taste
All-purpose flour
4 tablespoons butter - divided use
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (also known as Italian parsley)
Lemon slices for garnish (optional)
1 can of artichoke hearts drained
1/4 cup of capers drained and rinsed

Preparation:

Season cutlets with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Dredge in flour, shaking off excess.
In large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons butter and oil over medium-high heat until hot. Cook cutlets on each side until golden brown, about 5 minutes or until the juices run clear. Remove from pan; keep warm.
Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in same skillet, add 2 tablespoons flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth, stirring up any browned bits from the bottom of skillet. Heat to boiling and cook until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley. Season with additional salt and pepper, as desired.

Arrange chicken cutlets in a baking dish and add artichoke hearts, capers and lemon slices.  Pour lemon sauce over the top, cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes until heated through.  
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I ask this question because apparently for my appliances the answer is 10 years!  Last week three of my main appliances that I receved as gifts when I got married just blew up practically all at the same time.  My food processor, my blender and my electric can opener all suffered an untimely (or perhaps timely) death while I was cooking last week.  My blender gave out while pureeing butternut squash soup, my food processor exhausted itself grating cheese for homemade mac and cheese and my can opener literally flew off the handle opening a can of water chestnuts when I was making chicken potstickers one night.  Now what new appliances should I buy to replace those who have passed on?
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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah

Readers of Irtiqa may recall a post last March where Salman, referring to a BBC Radio 4 report, had highlighted the important Abu Dhabi Masdar project: Masdar - Abu Dhabi: The Silicon Valley of Renewable Energy?

Indeed, this is a hugely ambitious project, where a whole city (of 45,000 residents plus 45,000 commuters) is supposed to be “zero-carbon”, or at least “carbon-neutral”. Zero-carbon means no production of carbon dioxide at all, so no traditional cars, no fuel burning, all energy essentially solar or “clean”; carbon-neutral means that any carbon dioxide produced in the city needs to be compensated for, say by trees that will be absorb an equal amount. And anyone who has lived in this part of the world knows how close to impossible this is going to be, for the energy requirements of life (the constant heat requiring 24-hour air conditioning some 10 months in the year, cars are used even for very short distances, etc.). And knowing the current low-efficiency of solar cells or other alternative-energy apparatuses, the investment in large solar panels and such is going to be horrendous. Add to that the very smart designs needed for the whole city, taking into account the non-usage of (traditional) cars, and you get a brand new kind of city and life, one which may challenge even the most patient and environmentally committed amongst us.

All this has been noted by various observers. What I would like to mention today is the graduate-level institute which goes with the project: the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST, or Masdar Institute for short), which is a Master’s and Doctorate-level institution, highly research-oriented and focused on alternative energy, sustainability, and the environment. It established a partnership with the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which provides “scholarly assessment and advice”. The Masdar institute, which aims at serving the bigger Masdar City project and provide pioneering graduates who can produce new solution for urban life of a new, environment-friendly life, opened its doors in September 2009 to 88 students, and added about 100 others in September 2010.

So where’s the novelty, you may be asking, if this institute has been in operation for 16 months, has a small number of students (see their fields of study here), and has not graduated anyone yet or produced any publicized new “solutions”? Well, the new development is that last year everyone was housed temporarily in a building downtown Abu Dhabi, but this past September everyone moved to the new “zero-carbon campus”, and a few days ago, Gulfnews (the largest English-language daily in the Gulf) published a long story about life in such a different environment, interviewing some students and faculty members.

Here are a few highlights of the place and its lifestyle (from the Gulfnews article):

·      MIST “is fully powered by solar energy. A 10-megawatt solar power plant, the largest in the region, generates clean energy to support the ongoing construction activities at Masdar City and power the institute. The plant produces excess energy, which goes into the Abu Dhabi grid. Another 1-megawatt solar-power system has been built on the roof of the Masdar Institute buildings, which provides up to 30 per cent of the buildings' overall energy requirements every year.”

·    “It is car-free. Students who don't live on campus have to park their cars in designated parking lots outside the borders of the city and then walk, bike or jump on the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) to get around. The PRT, an electrically powered driverless car, can carry up to four people and goes at a speed of up to 40 km/h.”

I think this is an interesting experiment, which degree of success will have to be measured in a few years and beyond. The cost of Masdar City, initially estimated at $22 billion, has now been revised to some $16 billion. One may guess that the cost of the Institute alone (construction and operation) may reach around a billion dollars. It remains to be seen whether the returns, over ten years, from that investment, returns in the form of the high education of, say, a thousand M.Sc. and Ph.D. holders in (important) fields like Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, and Engineering Systems and Management, as well as various innovations (patents) and research results, will be judged to be substantial enough to justify the costs. As to the carbon-neutral, zero-waste city, it is not expected to be completed before 2025; who knows what may happen between now and then.

 On a more modest note, my university recently announced that starting next semester, the whole campus will be smoke-free, both inside and outside buildings, except parking lots and areas next to living quarters. Smoking was, until now, not allowed inside buildings only. The administration cited two main reasons for the new law: a) passive or second-hand smoking, even in small amounts, causes health problems for non-smokers; b) campus cleanliness (some smokers extinguishing their cigarettes on buildings or dropping the butts on the ground, leading to permanent disfiguration of buildings and a trashy appearance of the campus). I can only applaud.

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Tonight's Dinner 1/3/11

Super easy one pot dinner that tastes sooooo much better than you would think.  Something about having the pasta cook in the sauce makes this dish.  Really yummy, reheats perfectly so great for left overs and your whole family will love it.

*note: you can make this dish with ground turkey and whole wheat pasta and its still totally delicious.

Ingredients:

4-5 T. vegetable oil
2 lbs of ground beef or turkey
1 large onion chopped
16 ounces of pasta (penne, fussili, rigatoni)
1 jar of pasta sauce
2 cups of water
garlic powder
salt
pepper

Preparation:

Saute' onion in vegetable oil, add beef and cook until browned. Stir in pasta, sauce, water, garlic powder, salt & pepper. Cook over low to medium heat for 30-40 minutes until pasta is cooked.

Linked to Julie's Eats and Treats
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December 31: I was in Denver together with my two friends for a flight from New York to Seattle.
We were supposed to arrive in Seattle by 11 p.m. but the plane was delayed and we would miss the New Year Eve celebration in the town.Yeah, we would count down the time in the air.






The plane then took off around 10 Denver time, the time where the clock stroked 12 in New York. No fireworks,
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Matahari terbit membawa lembaran baru dalam sejarah hidup manusia. Masa akan terus berlalu dan waktu akan terus berputar. Namun hala tujunya satu, iaitu ke hadapan. Masa tidak akan berputar kembali. Kisah silam tidak mungkin dilalui kembali. Yang tinggal cumalah kenangan.

Di tahun baru ini saya kembali menelusuri sejarah hidup. Bermula pencarian-pencarian saya sedari alam persekolahan sehinggalah ke saat ini. Bagaimana saya mula bergelut dalam suasana tarbiyah dan dakwah. Bersama dengan mereka-mereka yang kini berada di samping saya. Juga mereka-mereka yang bakal berada di samping saya. Dan kesimpulan yang dapat saya buat adalah, ini semua adalah percaturan Allah yang Maha Kuasa.

Mahu dengar cerita saya?

2002 : SMAPL dijejaki

Saya bukanlah pelajar bermasalah di mata guru-guru. Saya boleh dikatakan 'pandai' mengelakkan konflik dengan guru-guru. Padahal saya sering memberontak di dalam hati. Salah satu sebab terbesarnya adalah makcik saya mengajar di sekolah itu, SMAPL.

Saya juga nakal bersama kawan-kawan, tetapi biasa-biasa saja. Mujur saya tidak minat bola sepak sangat. Jadi saya tak terlibat dengan kes pecah masuk dewan makan untuk menonton kejohanan bola sepak suatu ketika dahulu. Juga pergaduhan besar antara pelajar tingkatan 4 dan pelajar tingkatan 6 gara-gara pelajar tingkatan 6 pemegang kunci bilik TV itu terlambat membuka pintu.

Nakal saya lebih kepada mengusik kawan-kawan. Mengutuk cikgu belakang-belakang, bertekak-tekak dengan pelajar puteri sekelas dan lain-lain. Bukan saya suka-suka ya, memang semua pelajar putera dalam kelas tu selalu bergaduh dengan pelajar puteri. Saya asalnya pelik juga, tapi bila semakin menjadi-jadi, saya pun 'ter'ikutlah sekali. Tetapi yang ajaibnya, bila mula naik ke tingkatan 3, gaduh-gaduh tadi semuanya sudah hilang. Jadi bercintalah pula mereka ini. Pelik-pelik.

2004 : Lembaran Sosial Bermula

Perubahan mula berlaku dalam diri. Mungkin tindakbalas kimia daripada hormon-hormon kematangan yang semakin banyak dirembeskan. Mula memerhati sekitar dengan lebih galak. Peringatan agar lelaki menundukkan mata sudah semakin dilupakan. Berbondong-bondong pelajar-pelajar tingkatan 3 mula berjinak-jinak dengan chat, Friendster, MIRC, Yahoo Messenger dan sebagainya.

Mula ramai yang berkenal-kenalan dengan kawan-kawan baru, sudah punya TTM (Teman Tapi Mesra), bercouple dan semakin mesra antara lelaki dengan perempuan. Saya ketika itu sempat menganggap yang saya 'ketinggalan kerana masih tidak punya TTM. Mana tidaknya, mereka yang boleh kata 'hampeh' pun satu-satu mula bercouple! Macam cendawan tumbuh!

Lalu langkah mula diorak. Usaha mula diletakkan. Umpan mula dipasang, kail mula diturunkan. Menanti datangnya sesuatu yang dianggap 'rezeki' oleh kebanyakkan pelajar di saat itu. Dan hujung tahun mula menunjukkan hasil. Umpan mula mengena. Kail mula ditarik perlahan-lahan. Penuh kesabaran dan usaha. Lalu terpancinglah juga seekor...

2005 - Mei 2006 : Hanyut Dalam 'Aku dan Duniaku'

Dunia dirasakan bagai milik diri sendiri. Oh, silap. Milik kami bersama. Zaman yang penuh dengan kemengarutan dan kejahiliyahan. Cinta mengaburi mata. Wang dan masa dihabiskan. Namun tertutup dengan nama cinta suci dan cinta islami. Setiap tindakan dirasakan benar dan perlu diperjuangkan.

Sambut hari lahir bersama. Saling bergurau senda. Sentiasa berkepit dengan telefon bimbit. Buat profile Friendster sama-sama. Sempat keluar makan bersama.

Sehingga dirasakan hidup sudahpun sempurna. Tanpa sedetikpun merasakan diri sudah semakin dikotori jahiliyah. Sedikit demi sedikit diri dimakan mazmumah. Kemuncaknya Ogos 2005, saya menunaikan umrah. Ka'bah di depan mata. Namun sedikitpun air mata tidak terembes, apatah lagi bergenang. Padahal makcik di sebelah sudah lama banjir pipinya.

Saya mula bertanya, "Kenapa dengan aku ni?"

Jun 2006 : Mula Melihat Sinar

Mula dengan Kem Kecemerlangan SPM 2006. Di situ saya mula mengalami perubahan. Perubahan drastik. Cerita yang terperinci telah saya nukilkan sebagai cerpen. Maafkan Aku. Pengisian daripada Dr. Muhammad Hizul Azri cukup memberi kesan dalam hidup saya.

Dan saya berubah bermula saat itu. Tetapi belum 100%. Masih ada yang tidak ditinggalkan. Cuma hubungan semakin islamik. Kejut subuh, baca Al-Quran, SMS tazkirah dan apa sahaja yang bernuansakan islami. Tetapi tetap sahaja hati tidak tenang.

Fasilitator daripada program datang setiap minggu ke sekolah. Akh Fairul Hafiz bin Adnan. Murobbi pertama saya. Saya mula berjinak-jinak dengan pengisian daripadanya.

Lalu kemuncaknya tiba suatu saat,

"Minggu depan cuti kan? Ada program untuk antum semua. Di Penang."

"Dr. Hizul ada tak bang?" saya bertanya.

"Insya-Allah ada."

"Saya pergi, insya-Allah."

Dalam hati menanamkan tekad yang cukup kuat untuk hadir ke sana. Saya sangat-sangat ingin bertemu kembali dengan lelaki yang saya anggap cukup istimewa itu. Saya ingin kembali mendengar nasihat daripadanya.

Surau Bukit Panchor menjadi latar tempatnya. Malam bersejarahpun berlalu. Lembaran hidup sekali lagi diselak. Kisah bersejarah itu dilakar dalam cerpen Detik Bersejarah.

Lalu langkahan kaki semakin padu. Semangat untuk berubah semakin meluap-luap. Hala tuju hidup berubah 180 darjah. Saya menjadi Umairzulkefli yang baru ketika itu. Umairzulkefli yang hidupnya hanya ingin mencari redha Allah.

Sungguh saya amat rindu detik dan saat itu.

2007 : Mula Mencorak Dakwah

UTP menjadi universiti pilihan. Walaupun keputusan percubaan melayakkan diri untuk memilih universiti luar negara, namun saya tetap ingin ke UTP. Kerana ikhwah-ikhwah serta murobbi saya ada di sana. Saya ingin terus berada dalam suasana tarbiyah. Saya ingin terus mewarnai hidup saya dengan nuansa tarbiyah dan dakwah. Saya ingin meninggalkan terus kisah silam yang pahit dan kelam. Lobi daripada ibu dan perlian daripada kawan-kawan kerana melepaskan peluang untuk ke luar negara saya buat tidak tahu sahaja.

Dan kisah hidup tarbiyah saya bermula. Saya naik dengan cepat. Saya semakin kenal dengan ikhwah-ikhwah. Saya mula diberi beban-beban dakwah. Saya semakin menjiwai nilai-nilai tarbiyah dan ukhuwah. Semeseter kedua terus saya membawa usrah sendiri, walaupun mereka semua sama umur dengan saya. Mereka saya bimbing sehingga dengan izin Allah menjadi teman-teman seperjuangan saya.

2009: Sejarah Pahit

Dakwah sudah sangat besar. Hampir seluruh Malaysia dakwah sudah punya kadernya. Dan hampir seluruh Malaysia saya pernah jelajahi demi urusannya. Namun Allah punya rencananya.

Bibit kemerosotan mula kelihatan. Ikhwah semakin ramai yang gugur. Di sana sini terdengar idea-idea pelik. Saya sibuk dengan perancangan tarbiyah dalam UTP, sehingga kurang memerhatikan kisah-kisah yang berlaku di sekitar.

Dan Tragedi itupun berlaku. Dakwah dilanda Tsunami ujian yang cukup besar. Kader-kader yang tinggal cumalah beberapa kerat. UTP tinggallah saya seorang yang paling senior. Kembali menyusun dakwah terkontang-kanting bersama anak-anak halaqoh yang tinggal. Juga Allah mengurniakan sorang ikhwah yang masih junior namun hebat dan bersemangat daripada Sabah.

Namun saya pasti semua ujian ada hikmahnya. Allah tidak beri ujian tanpa makna. Saya dapat lihat ini peluang untuk memperbaiki diri dan menguatkan langkah.

2010: Dakwah Berwajah Baru

Dakwah disusun kembali. Bermula dengan batu asas pertama. Mencari kader-kader baru bersama-sama. Saling kuat menguatkan bersama-sama. Dan dakwah terus berjalan.

Pematangan diri saya turut berlangsung. Walau tempoh ini saya akui tempoh yang paling sukar. Saya bagai bersedirian menggerakkan tanpa teman. Namun ikhwah-ikhwah tercinta sentiasa hadir.

Akh Azahar, Akh Zikri, Dr. Hizul, Akh Ucop, Akh Fakhrullah.

Anak-anak halaqoh tercinta, Hasbulnallah, Hazim, Khir, Khozafi, Zainul, Ikram, yang kini semua telah menjadi teman-teman seperjuangan tercinta.

Saya akan terus melangkah. Bersama-sama dengan kalian, insya-Allah.

2011 : Azam Baru, Hidup Baru

Dan kini tahun 2011 menjelang. Saya kembali menelusuri kenangan tarbiyah. Sungguh Allah Maha Baik dan Maha Penyayang terhadap saya. Mematangkan diri saya dalam menempuh kehidupan agar lebih bermakna di sisi-Nya.

Ahli keluarga saya sudah ramai yang ditarbiyah. Semakin menerima dakwah. Sungguh merupakan kebahagiaan yang tiada taranya

Dan kini, saya akan menamatkan zaman bujang. Detiknya sudah hampir. Semoga Allah mempermudahkan urusan kami. Nantikanlah pengumuman daripada saya. Doakan kami.

Alhamdulillah...

Kuatkan aku terus Ya-Allah, untuk berjuang di jalan ini. Untuk memimpin diri dan keluarga serta dakwah ke arah yang direhai-Mu.

Amiin...

-sebelum ke kursus nikah-

-1146-

-010111-

-Baiti Jannati-

~End Of Post~

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Thank you, 2010.

I'm excited for 2011, and I want to share some of my plans for the coming year. But before I do, I also feel obligated to take a look back on my plans for last year.

I can't believe a whole year has passed since I wrote a blog post called "Towards a new entrepreneurship" laying out my priorities for 2010. Back then, I wrote:

"[Here is] an idea that I don't think is too widespread yet: that entrepreneurship is an industry. Sure, when entrepreneurs create startups that grow up into mature companies, they become part of an established industry, with its own ecosystem, norms, partners and best practices. But until that happens, we entrepreneurs have our own ecosystem, of investors and service providers, norms and even some "best" practices. The two ecosystems have diverged significantly in the past fifty years - and especially in the past ten. The reason is that the underlying theory that powers established business, the theory of general management, is increasingly inadequate for managing startups. And yet, so far, we lack a coherent theory to replace it. My belief is that the lean startup is that theory. Together, we are part of a movement that is redefining entrepreneurship."

This idea has become a reality in many ways this year. Our ideas have entered the mainstream of startup thinking and even the popular culture. I mean, who ever thought we'd see this cartoon in the New Yorker magazine?

Lean Startup Meetups are now in more than 75 cities, with more than 12,000 combined members. More and more, I am meeting entrepreneurs and managers from companies large and small who agree on this one point: entrepreneurship is management. By applying the same scientific principles that gave rise to general management in the first place to entrepreneurship and innovation, we are unleashing incredible creativity. But we still have a long way to go.

In that spirit, I want to review the four priorities I laid out at the start of this year. For 2010, I announced four main projects. Here's how I laid them out (in their original embarrassing order), and here's how each one turned out.

1. The Lean Startup Cohort program. Verdict: FAILURE. This seemed like such a promising idea at the time. Take a small number of high-growth companies and have them pay a premium price to learn from me and from each other how to apply Lean Startup ideas in depth. My main hypothesis was that making the program expensive would act as a quality filter, and that if we could find smart, committed companies to participate, they would all benefit tremendously. Thus, I assumed the biggest risk was finding participants who could afford the price.
   
   Unfortunately, I was completely wrong. Finding participants was no problem; the program quickly filled up. And the quality of participants was way higher than I imagined. And yet, when we actually started to run the program, it still failed. Teaching Lean Startup concepts in a fixed order really didn't work, since all active companies face different challenges at different times. And even in a strict, high-quality filtered room, most companies didn't want to share their problems and internal data, nor did they particularly want to engage with other companies' problems. In retrospect, that should have been obvious to me - as an entrepreneur, I would never have had the patience for a program like that.
   
   What's that you say? Even "gurus" have to get out of the building, build a minimum viable product, and pivot? Why, yes, they do. Embarrassing, but at least we failed fast. (Peter Drucker thought people used the term guru because it was easier to spell than charlatan.)
   
   
2. Teaching in academia. Verdict: MIXED. I started the year co-teaching a Lean Startup class for MBA's at Berkeley with Steve Blank. In some ways, it was a big success: the class was oversubscribed, had a record number of auditors, and received positive reviews. But the experience left me with doubts about whether that is the right way to engage with academia, for me.
   
   I strongly believe academia has an important role to play in transforming the practice of entrepreneurship. Luckily, Steve has been leading the charge to bring a new way of teaching entrepreneurship into academic programs, and 2010 saw the debut of his Durant School of Entrepreneurship at sllconf, as well as new programs like the Lean Launch Pad at Stanford and the Business Model Competition at BYU.
   
   I believe significant new research also needs to be done. What we know today is just the tip of the iceberg about this new entrepreneurial management. How many of our beliefs are just tactics that sound good, or that only work in certain situations? Much more is needed, and 2011 will see the first few buds of that research project flower. My colleagues at Harvard Business School will debut a new Lean Startup-themed course for MBAs this spring, as well as a new $50,000 Minimum Viable Product Fund. As part of that project, HBS has commissioned a series of new case studies on Lean Startup practices, both in and (importantly) outside the software industry. (You can see a little taste at Jeffrey Busgang's blog here.) I've also begun a collaboration with Nathan Furr at BYU to research actual practitioners, following them over time with an eye towards discovering ways to test some of our beliefs about Lean Startup ideas empirically. You can follow our work (and volunteer to be studied) here.
   
   Also along these lines, I've worked with a variety of collaborators to produce case studies right here on Startup Lessons Learned. Hopefully, more will come in the new year. You can see our efforts so far.
   
   
3. Startup Lessons Learned Conference (sllconf). Verdict: SUCCESS. This was a project I almost didn't do this year, because the prospect made me so nervous. Boy am I glad I did. I still receive regular feedback from people who were there live or in one of our 60+ simulcast locations around the world. It was always a dream of mine to produce a conference where knowledge - not hype - was king, where information was presented in a useful order, and where success theatre and vanity metrics were banned. I believe we succeeded on all three counts.
   
   In case you missed it, here's a little taste of the event itself, courtesy of my friends at Micro-Documentaries:
   
   
   
   And don't forget, you can watch full video of the entire conference courtesy of our sllconf Justin.tv channel.
   
   In 2011, we will do sllconf again, probably in mid-May. As always, I will look to you readers for guidance and suggestions of what we should do different. Stay tuned for details. If you are interested in speaking or mentoring at sllconf 2011, we will accept suggestions and nominations. If you would like to nominate someone, please post a video of them giving a talk (with slides if possible).  Grainy low-def youtube videos are perfectly adequate. We had far too many submissions last year on behalf people I didn't know. I had to be confident they would meet the standards I laid out above, but I couldn't take the time to meet them all. Therefore, if you'd like to speak this year at sllconf, a great way to get a leg up would be to speak at a Lean Startup Meetup, and ask someone to record the session. And if you are a meetup organizer, and have had a great speaker who you'd like to see at sllconf 2011, please let me know.
   
   In other conference news, we'll also have an event at SXSW. We'll make details available soon, I promise. If you're going to be in town for SXSW, and might like to join as a speaker, sponsor, or attendee, please let me know.
   
   
4. Writing a book. Verdict: TBD. I am in the final weeks of preparing a manuscript for The Lean Startup Book which will be published by Crown (one of the largest business book publishers in the world) in 2011. I sincerely hope you'll like the final result; it has been a labor of love for me all year.
   
   Deciding to publish this book through traditional channels took a lot of thought. I believe it is time for our movement to Cross the Chasm into mainstream awareness. Our early successes have been impressive, but we are still just at the beginning. In my talks all this year I have been exhorting audiences to Stop Wasting People's Time. Our modern economy is full to the brim of waste: building products that have few customers, that produce negative returns for investors, or companies stuck in the land of the living dead. And yet, the people who are responsible for this waste are not generally early adopters of new ideas about entrepreneurship. They are not scouring blogs for the latest gems in innovation thinking. They are overwhelmed, doing the best they can, and get information from only a few sources. They don't want avant garde advice, they want to be reading the same things everyone else is reading.
   
   My belief is that, in order to reach this mainstream audience, we need to produce a book that is accessible to them, and then make that book a bestseller. That's one of my main goals for 2011, and I will be asking you to help many, many times in the coming year. I hope you'll continue to support me as you have this past year.
   
   As a reader, the rational thing to do with a new book is to wait until the book comes out, see if your friends and colleagues read it, and if they do, see if they think it's any good. That's classic mainstream customer thinking. Hopefully, the early adopters and visionaries among you will disregard this advice, and agree to pre-order the book instead. The more of you who do that, the more people we'll be able to reach when it debuts next year. Remember, mainstream customers will be looking to you to see if it's worth buying.
   
   You can pre-order it from me directly, or get an even better price at Amazon.
   
   (If you'd like to help, I'm still looking for test readers, case studies, and - most importantly - help bringing traffic to the book website. We're running constant A/B tests there; anyone who is able to donate traffic, ads, or a link from your own blog/website will have my gratitude.)

So that was 2010. I believe 2011 will be even better.

It's an auspicious time. Entrepreneurship is in a new renaissance. There are more startups operating today than at any time in history. New ideas about entrepreneurship are in the air. And the dominant management paradigm of the past century has run its course. Literally.

2011 will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the idea of management. I date its origin to the publication, in 1911, of Frederick Winslow Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management, one of the most important management books ever written. Management's second century will be very different than its first. Our problems are more complex, faster moving, and we face greater uncertainty. In other words, we need entrepreneurs to solve them. I'm excited to see what comes next.

I hope you've all had a happy holidays, and I wish you the best for a new and exhilarating New Year. Here's to 2011!
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