Mahu mendapat kepuasan

وَسَيُجَنَّبُهَا الْأَتْقَى

17. Dan kelak akan dijauhkan orang yang paling takwa dari neraka itu

الَّذِي يُؤْتِي مَالَهُ يَتَزَكَّى
18. yang menafkahkan hartanya (di jalan Allah) untuk membersihkannya,

وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِندَهُ مِن نِّعْمَةٍ تُجْزَى
19. padahal tidak ada seseorangpun memberikan suatu nikmat kepadanya yang harus dibalasnya,

إِلَّا ابْتِغَاء وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَى
20. tetapi (dia memberikan itu semata-mata) karena mencari keridhaan Tuhannya yang Maha Tinggi.

وَلَسَوْفَ يَرْضَى
21. Dan kelak dia benar-benar mendapat kepuasan.

Diriwayatkan bahawa ayat-ayat ini diturunkan atas sebab kedermawanan Saidina Abu Bakr r.a. dlm membebaskan hamba-hamba. Dari sini jugalah beliau mendapat gelaran Atiq.

Kalau mengikut tradisi jahiliah pada masa itu, setiap hamba yang dimerdekakan akan ada hubungan yang 'terikat' dgn orang yang membebaskannya. Ia akan patuh dan memberikan taat setia sebagai tanda terima kasih. Dan menjadi budaya bagi orang Arab jahiliah utk membeli hamba-hamba yang kuat sahaja kerana hamba-hamba tersebut akan menjadi konco-konconya, mengukuhkan kedudukannya dalam masyarakat.

Hal ini amat berlainan dgn Saidina Abu Bakr r.a. Beliau seringkali membeli dan membebaskan hamba-hamba yang lemah. Mengapa? Kerana hamba-hamba itulah mereka yang telah memeluk Islam. Kerana apa?

إِلَّا ابْتِغَاء وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَى
tetapi (dia memberikan itu semata-mata) karena mencari keridhaan Tuhannya yang Maha Tinggi.

Tidak ada apa-apa yang beliau harapkan dari mereka melainkan keredhaan Allah.

Saya juga ingin begitu.

Mampukah?

InsyaAllah.

Kerana di akhir hari, saya hendak mendapat kepuasan. Kepuasan yang sama seperti yang digambarkan dlm ayat terakhir surah al-lail.

Moga dgn tertariknya sedikit nikmat kesihatan sekarang tidak mengekang kesungguhan membuat kerja.

Ok.

Harus tidur.

Esok ada kerja menanti.

Half Glass Full

When someone is thirsty, you give them half a cup of water.

If they remain thirsty, then you supply them with the second half.

This means that first, when someone acquire knowledge, he first have to be thirsty for it. And after this thirst has been communicated to you, you supply them with half a cup of water. Don't shower them with a full gallon of water because this is only going to push them away. Give them half a cup. If they ask for the second half the cup, you supply it to them.

If they don't its not your responsibility. They will sooner in their life. The best way for people to see and change their way of thinking, is for them to experience the change, is for them to see and research this knowledge, rather than someone telling it to them.

So if you do care about someone, and you want to share a piece of truth and knowledge, you need to be very subtle, you need to do it in a smart way, and you need to bring the person in. Ask them questions instead of supplying them with answers.

Throw in discussions, rather than preaching. You will build a certain level of trust and a level of comfort between you and the desired listener. And this will help you to take it to next step; to facilitate ways for him/her to achieve or receive the knowledge that you found valuable. The ones who are ready to see and the ones who are ready to be unplugged, will do so. But many won't. Either way you shouldn't take it personally.

-The Arrivals-

Portfolio Design Studio 5

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

Design Studio 5, semester 1 2009

Studio : Architectural Knowledge

Project : Small scale addition to residential buildings

Tutor : Louise Wright

INTRO

This studio is my last studio for my lower pool studies. The workload is not that heavy. In fact my tutor, Louise Wright was quite easy going when it comes to doing work. Anyway, going straight to the point.

This studio is about designing an addition to an existing residential house, using our built up architectural knowledge. What is architectural knowledge? They are, really, just some concepts and ideas of spaces (the perception of spaces by man). For example:
- a small space will feel bigger when we have high ceilings
- people's view will be forced out to the windows/outside when they are in spaces with low ceilings

We built up our knowledge by doing case studies on a few projects such as the Holyoake Cottage by Field Consultants, Plumgrove House and Weekend House by Kazuyo Sejima, Gehry House by Frank Gehry, Boyd House 2 by Robin Boyd, etc..

DESIGN PROJECT

My site is in 5 Crampton Crescent, Rosanna. It is a quiet residential area, with a little bit of slope. It is a post WW2 brick veneer house, therefore it has quite a large backyard. In my design, I tried not to change to much of the original house, therefore the renovation will only be 'add-ons' to the existing.

In a lot of the case studies, there are a lot of strategies that has been used to bring in some natural element in the house. Therefore, in my design, I have tried to do the same.

The existing house has 2 bedrooms. However, I needed an extra bedroom to meet the design requirement issued by the tutor, therefore I played with the configuration of spaces inside, trying to squeeze in the extra bedroom within the existing plan. That results in the bedroom being quite small. Therefore, I 'removed' the exisiting windows, leaving the walls with an empty hole, and then added walls outside, 800mm from the existing walls. This makes the space feels bigger.

The existing house also has planter beds with vegetations all around the house, following the boundary set by the fence. Therefore, I continued the language inside the house by having vegetations (shrubs) in the layer between the existing walls and new walls. Since the new walls wraps around part of the house, so is the layer of shrubs. In terms of spatial quality, I think it enhance the interior spaces. That is a personal opinion which some might agree and some might not. But generally, a lot of people like vegetations. So that is the basic idea behind it.

I always thought that it would be great if our homes are open to the garden/nature/etc.. Again this is a personal interest and opinion, and might vary from others.

In the existing house, there was no direct relationship between the interior and exterior spaces. Therefore, as part of the renovation process, I've decided to open up the kitchen to the backyard, and tried to blur the transition between inside and outside, like what was done by Geoffrey Bawa in his projects. What I did was extending the roof, ceiling, one side wall, and the floor to the corner of the backyard. So when people stand there at the extended elements, they will feel like they are inside the house (because of the ceiling above them, the floors that they stand on, the walls that they see), but at the same time, they are also outside because they are already in the backyard and can engage directly with the weather. If its winter, they will feel cold, if its summer, they will feel the heat, if its raining, they will feel the rain. You get what I mean.

Studying Bawa's work, I realized that it would be better, in terms of landscape design, to have a direct view relationship between the space we are in, and the space that our eyes see. Sounds weird. Basically, when you are standing at point A, you would be able to see an object (landscape element) in front of you. For example, a tree, or a large boulder, or a fountain, etc..

That was part of the knowledge that has been brought into this project but I think that is sufficient to sum up this semester's work, as brief as possible. The followings are my presentation panels and some pictures of the cardboard model (thank you ar-fira for the excellent photographs).

Wassalam~

ps:

1. No renders allowed this semester. I'm suspecting my rendering skills are all rusty now. But I learn how to draw in cad though.

2. Will use malay language for the next note.

3. Winter ini bakal menguji seutuh mana ukhuwah yang telah dibina setakat ini.

4. Sukar hendak menjaga masa. Moga semua kerja berjalan lancar.

5. Belum explore joomla. Alamakkkkkkkkkk!

6. Harap2 plan ke blue mountain tidak dilintangi aral (betulkah ayat ini?). Apa-apa pun kena ada back-up plan. Mungkin pergi melihat ikan paus dan dolfin?

Secebis fikiran

1. Tahun ini sahaja ramai yang balik. Ini bermakna semakin berkuranglah tenaga kerja ikhwah di sini. Dengan perginya mereka, saya risau, adakah generasi yang baru mampu bergerak selaju, segigih, setabah dan setangkas mereka? Adakah saya mampu?

2. Umar r.a. merupakan salah seorang sahabat hebat yang saya kagumi. Semasa membuat model untuk final presentation, saya sempat mendengar ceramah Jamal Badawi berkenaan isu ikhtilat. Dalam ceramahnya, beliau ada menyebut tentang Umar dan sifatnya yang amat keras dalam pendirian (strict). Kalau diikutkan hati, beliau tidak akan membenarkan isterinya ke masjid. Namun, oleh sebab tiada larangan dari Rasulullah ke atas wanita utk ke masjid, Umar menundukkan kemahuannya itu lalu membenarkan isterinya untuk pergi. Atas rasa cintanya pada agama dan ajaran Rasul, Umar mengetepikan kemahuan hatinya. Sesuatu yang sangat sukar untuk dilaksanakan.

3. Ketentuan Allah menghendaki agar kefahaman di dalam gerakan dakwah terdedah kepada gangguan, ujian dan penapisan. Di tengah-tengah ujian ini terdapat pula kecuaian dan keterlaluan (ekstrim). Di satu penjuru ada yang mengatakan supaya kita menjauhkan diri dari arus pemerintahan dan politik (dan juga masyarakat) demi memelihara diri dan dakwah dari sebarang akibat yang tidak diingini. Di satu penjuru yang ekstrim pula menganggap semua umat Islam yang tidak menyetujui fikrah mereka adalah kafir. Astaghfirullah. Maka seharusnya ada mereka yang mengemukakannya kepada orang ramai dengan jelas dan terang, mempunyai ketahanan, keteguhan bersama kebenaran, dan menolak kecuaian dan keterlaluan itu. Perlu ada mereka yang memelihara amanah di dalam kefahaman sifat dan akhlak.

4. Saya bersyukur kerana presentation saya lancar, padahal pada kebiasaannya saya tidak petah berkata-kata. Alhamdulillah. Rasanya boleh la dikatakan bangkit selepas mid semester. InnAllah ma'ana.

5. Terlalu banyak benda di fikiran. Perlu lebih fokus membuat kerja. Satu demi satu.

6. Akan update final design scheme tidak lama lagi.

Sneek peek Final presentation Level 5

09.06.2009

FINAL PRESENTATION

"ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE"

Level 5

- full presentation and brief summary coming up soon -

Dare to fail

Being a newbie in this field, I tend to be careful in taking a step forward, which is good. If done properly, it means that wherever I end up, the steps taken will bring me forward (sori tiqi. pinjam tagline).

However, sometimes I tend to be too careful, trying not to make a single mistake. As time flies, I thought I was doing quite well in what I'm doing. It took a while for me to realize that that extra cautiousness is actually a mistake in disguise. On many occasions, it draws me back from taking a potentially-beneficial move.

For example. 50% of my posts are unpublished. Why? Partly because I'm afraid of posting something that contradicts with the public opinion. I think I will learn a lot more (and move progressively) if I dare myself to 'fail' once in a while. Only then this blog serves its purpose (not the sole purpose though). When I am a little bit older, I will be able to look back at today's posts and compare them to the future ones to see how much I have progressed.

Isn't Melbourne just a training ground? Supposedly, this is where I should harness all the skills and basic knowledge, before going back for good (nooooooooo), before dealing with the reality in Malaysia.

So, be careful in taking steps, but not too careful. Do it wisely. Help and support is all around.



ps: mahu pergi potong rambut. tapi swine flu sudah semakin merebak. cancel plan. (seorang pelajar rmit bisnes dah terkena swine flu)

Refleksi Diri

Kadangkala, apa yang kita nampak di cermin boleh menipu diri kita sendiri. Di rumah, kita akan nampak diri kita kurus sedikit, tinggi sedikit. Tapi apabila melihat cermin di tempat lain, kita nampak gemuk sedikit. Kalau gambar diambil menggunakan kamera, kita akan nampak lagi gemuk (mungkin). Bagi yang tahu bermain Photoshop, boleh lah dikuruskan sedikit rupa. Tapi, realitinya, apa yang kita nampak kadang kala boleh menipu diri kita sendiri yakni tidak menggambarkan diri kita yang sebenarnya kerana cermin itu tidak sempurna seperti yang kita sangkakan. Tidak betul-betul rata seperti yang digunakan dalam teleskop Hubble.

Kadangkala, bagi sesetengah orang, apabila bermuhasabah seorang diri, kita menipu diri kita sendiri. Kita akan nampak diri kita baik sahaja. Adalah cacat cela sikit, tapi, kita merasakan kita semakin baik. Atau mungkin juga kita merasakan kita ada banyak dosa. Pandang depan, dosa. Toleh kiri kanan, dosa. Lalu kita beristighfar. Namun, apabila dilihat dari kaca mata orang lain, kesalahan kita sebenarnya lebih banyak dari yang kita tahu. Dalam sedar atau tidak, kita melakukan kesalahan tanpa disedari.

Emo.
Melenting.
Bertindak terburu-buru.
Mementingkan diri sendiri.
Memandang aurat bukan muhrim.
Bercakap perkara tidak berfaedah.
Bergurau melebih-lebih.
Tidak senyum.
Makan makanan orang lain.
Suka bermegah.
Suka populariti.
Suka dipuji.
Tidak menjaga muamalat.
dan banyak lagi.

Maka, di sini perlu ada budaya tanassuh (saling menasihati). Tanassuh merupakan budaya yang penting dalam saff dakwah. Kata seorang akh kepada saya tidak lama dahulu. Ya. Tidak dapat dinafikan. Kerana kita bukan maksum. Sudah semestinya ada cacat celanya. Sudah pasti ada masanya tersilap langkah. Kita kata kita harus amar makruf dan nahi mungkar. Tetapi ia selalunya disasarkan kepada objek dakwah. Tidak sesama kita. Saya kira, barisan duat akan lebih cantik sekiranya budaya tanassuh ini sentiasa diamalkan.

Ada kalanya amat susah untuk kita menegur sesama kita. Mungkin kerana hormat, takut, ragu-ragu dengan pandangan sendiri, atau mungkin juga kerana malas hendak melayan karenah. Tetapi perlu diingat, barangkali nasihat kita itulah yang mungkin membawa perubahan yang besar kepada sahabat kita itu. Perubahan yang insyaAllah positif.

Poin yang hendak diketengahkan di sini ialah, manusia melakukan kesilapan dan sering terlepas pandang, walaupun ia bermuhasabah. Nama pun al-insan. Maka, tegurlah (secara berhikmah) andai ada salah dan silap. Peringatkanlah andai terlupa. Itulah tanda ukhuwah yang kukuh.

"Sesungguhnya manusia itu benar-benar dalam kerugian, kecuali orang-orang yang beriman dan mengerjakan amal soleh dan nasihat-menasihati supaya mentaati kebenaran dan nasihat- menasihati supaya menetapi kesabaran." 103:2-3

ps: Maka apabila anda melihat saya melakukan kesilapan, silalah tegur.
Terima kasih kepada seorang pakcik di masjid Michael St kerana telah menegur saya dan rakan-rakan suatu maghrib yang lalu.