Tawakkul is standing in front of the Red Sea—as Prophet Musa did—with an army behind you, and not even flinching, knowing that Allah will get you through.

– Yasmin Mogahed

“mungkin ada baiknya kalau kita melihat bahwa arsitektur bukanlah tujuan akhir. arsitektur hanyalah jalan ziarah kita untuk memperbaiki kehidupan & kemanusiaan. kemudian pada akhirnya pergumulan tentang lokal atau global juga menjadi tidak terlalu penting jika kita hanya melihatnya sebagai style atau olah bentuk saja. mungkin harus mulai dipetakan persoalan kehidupan ini & kemudian kita bisa melihat peluang yang dapat diambil. memang tidak selalu ideal. hanya perlu mencoba untuk menggunakan peluang sekecil apapun untuk memenangkan kemanusiaan. mungkin ini tugas panggilan yang cukup berat. saya jadi teringat yang dikatakan Abel Cahen, bahwa kita sebagai arsitek merupakan orang-orang ‘kesepian’, kita berjalan & bergumul dalam ‘jalan sunyi’. dalam keheningan itulah kita kemudian mampu ‘melihat’ kehidupan.”

Cakap Eko Prawoto pada Thoat Fauzi

We are What We Search

My friend told me about story form HAMKA, he was a muslim scholar from Indonesia and has writing a lot of books and also very wise. One day, a man told him that when he went hajj he was seen many bad deeds happen in his trip. After that HAMKA told him, I also went to America but he didn’t find any bad deeds. What we can learn from that story is, we are what we search. If we want and looking to see bad deeds then you’ll find it, and if you don’t then you won’t.

It is very contextual to nowadays, because we have google. A very famous searching engine that can search anything. If you search something bad, you’ll find it. And if don’t then you won’t. Well maybe is not that simple. But please be wise when searching something.

Become Idealist

This is my first time visiting and staying in Europe. In Belgium where I stay, I visited one of famous outdoor stuff shop. And I read their brochure that contains information about their products. What I read is about their principle to become more sustainable. They take it seriously, from what kind of material they use, the source of material, the production process and so on. With all of those, the price of their products are not cheap. But they still have loyal consumer that will buy their products.

I think in here to become idealist in running a business is possible. They have good economy, probably does not having any problem with money. So they can still run business like that. Compared to that, Indonesia has different challenges, our economy are not strong like in here. And maybe only few consumer that will buy product that kind of products, that will caused idealist business can not survive.

I was wandering, is it possible to bring our idealist products to sell it in many other countries with good economy. Because I believe we will meet our loyal and royal consumer there. Or hopefully, Indonesian economy is getting better so it can be those kind of business will sustain which is also helping the world to become more sustainable.

Kesendirian

Alhamdulillah, tahun 2018 ini saya bisa berangkat untuk studi. Dalam perjalanan beberapa minggu awal ini sepertinya Allah ingin mengajarkan pada saya perihal tawakal. Tawakal berserah diri sepenuhnya pada Allah.

Sendiri, Jauh dari kampung halaman, berada di negeri orang, tak ada sanak dan famili, berbeda bahasa, berbeda budaya dan banyak hal lainnya menjadikan saya tidak boleh bersandar atau menggantungkan harap pada makhluk-Nya. Ketika menghadapi masalah langsung disandarkan pada Allah. Terdengar klise dan normatif namun ketika menjalaninya, memang begitu adanya.  Saya disarakan bahwa tak ada daya dan upaya selain dari Allah.

Semoga tawakal ini bisa terus terjaga dimanapun dan kapanpun sehingga lepas sepenuhnya dari bergantung harap pada makhluknya.