If you lose a part of your body, you still have other parts

Have you heard of some people that lost some parts of their body because of a disease, an accident, or landmine explosion? Many people lost some parts of their body because doctors had to do amputation on them. Some others lost them because of accidents on street. And some others – particularly in conflict countries such as Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and Afghanistan – lost them because of bomb blast or landmine explosion.

Those people certainly never hoped and imagined that they had to lose some parts of their body. But they had no other choice. They lost their hands, arms, feet, or legs. We know that some of them even have to live without any part of legs, because they lost all parts of them – from the foot toes to the thighs. Some others have to live without any part of arms. Even some others have to live without both legs and arms.

How can they stand that terrible condition? They are certainly strong people – those who don’t give up continuing their life despite that bad fate. We have to respect and be proud of their accepting the fate without any desperation. They don’t commit suicide. They even promise themselves to do their best. Yes, some of them even succeeded to make great things that normal people could not make them. This fact means that losing some parts of their body is not an obstacle at all for them  to do their best.

Are you single? Are you married? Are you…?

In a western-style youngster-party, some guys and girls were enjoying their glasses of wine and bottles of whisky. They didn’t drink too much because they were warned by their parents not to get ‘wasted’. It’s just what they were used to doing on weekend: guys picked up their female friends – not always their girlfriends – and then those couples gathered and were ready for a party.

During the party, a guy approached an attractive girl. He hadn’t know her yet. But they were luckily being in the same place that night. After saying hello and having some introductory conversation, the guy asked: “Anyways, are you single?”

“Guess what?” replied the girl while she was smiling and slightly raising her shoulder.

I don’t want to continue telling you this imaginary story. But let me say that the guy certainly hoped that the girl was still single, and he would be disappointed to hear that she was not single. But don’t you know that ‘not single’ in their definition is not always ‘married’? Instead, they defined ‘not single’ as having special relationship to another person, that is not always marriage. Certainly, ‘not single’ can mean ‘married’, but they also would say that a girl is not single although she is unmarried, as long as she has a boyfriend. And, if a girl has just broke up with her boyfriend, she will be called ‘newly single’.

Daily What-To-Do for Muslims

We are muslims. For this reason, we are unique. We have to pray at least five times a day. Non muslims would probably say: “That’s crazy.” Yes, they wouldn’t easily understand. We, muslims, believe that we are created to worship Allah. We devote our life to worship Him. Whatever we do in our life is only to make Him pleased with us.

Praying five times a day is not the only thing we do everyday. There are some other things we should do everyday. Let me call those things ‘daily what-to-do for muslims’. What are they? Let me mention them for you.

Reciting the Holy Qur’an

The Holy Qur’an is the most important to read by muslims. It is the words of God, revelated onto Prophet Muhammad pbuh, to be guidance for human being in order to pursue the real happiness.

A good muslim will recite it everyday. It is strongly suggested that a muslim recites at least one juz of it everyday. That way, he will recite all of its content within one month, because it consists of thirty juz.

Pros and Cons of National Exam (Unas)

One of the most discussed headlines on newspapers and television screen these days is the endless pros and contras of National Exam (Unas). The previous administration insisted that National Exam had to be held. However, a group of students and parents has recently filed a lawsuit against the government at the Central Jakarta District Court, seeking to eliminate National Exam. The suit accused the state of denying the students the right to an education because they were unable to attend university after failing National Exam.

After a marathon of law process, The Supreme Court finally issued a rule demanding the government to take steps to improve the quality of education before another national exam can be administered. The latest news I heard said that the government insisted that National Exam will be held this year. I guess the government made the decision because they considered that it is the best to do as National Exam should be held after a while whereas there has not been any better substitute for the recent version of National Exam. Furthermore, if the government eliminated National Exam this year without any substitute, it also would be a foolish decision.

No matter what the government’s decision, I really respect their quick decision. We all need certainty within a very short period of time for preparing the exam. The condition could be worse if the government put off the decision.

Choices in Writing: Words, Structure, Outline, and Re-writing

Writing is one of many ways to communicate with others. When you write, you want to send information to others, through written media. Certainly you want the others to understand the information well. If they can understand well, it is called that you can send the information effectively. You have an image in your mind to transfer. If the image is transferred as it is to the others, it means you can communicate with the others very effectively. On the other hand, if the image transferred to the others is somehow different – either a little or much – from the image in your mind, it means you communicate somehow ineffectively with the others. Certainly you want to communicate with the others effectively. You want them to understand you as well as possible.

Simple words vs advanced words

When you write, you have a style of yours. The style is the way you choose words to use as well as the way you arrange the words in sentences. Talking about words used to form sentences, you have at least two choices: using simpler words or more advanced ones. You can choose one of the two choices, or you also may use simpler words but combined with some (not many) advanced ones. It is a choice, so it totally depends on yourself.

But remember, each choice has its consequence. If you choose simple words, others may understand what you write very easily without thinking too hard. On the other hand, if you choose advanced words, others – especially non native beginners – probably have to think harder to understand what you write.

Team Sport vs Individual Sport

What kind of sport do you usually do? (this question certainly only suits those who like sport). Do you like football (called soccer in American english), futsal, basket ball, badminton, swimming, marathon, motorbike race, or what? Based on how many people needed to do a kind of sport, we can divide sport into two categories: team sport and individual sport.

Team sport needs at least two persons who work as a team. If the number of persons are more than one but they don’t work as a team, the sport is not considered team sport. Soccer, basket ball, volley ball, baseball, hockey, rugby, and water polo are some of team sport, because they are played by more than one player, and they work as a team. However, marathon, motorbike race, car race, horse race, sprint race, and swimming race are not considered team sport because each player works individually – there’s no team work at all – although those sports usually involve a number of people.

Individual sport may need one person, two persons, or more. The number of people doesn’t matter. Something distinguishing individual sport from team sport is that there is no team work in individual sport. Swimming, jogging, biking, and weight exercise are some of individual sport.

What would you do in spare time?

How much spare time do you have in a week? Each of us certainly has his own answer. No matter what your answer, I am sure no one doesn’t have spare time. No matter how busy someone is, he certainly still has spare time, although not as much as those who are not busy persons.

Now I have a question for you. What do you usually do to spend your spare time? Watching televison? Playing computer games or PlayStation? Surfing on the internet? Playing with your Facebook? Hanging out with your friends? Having rest on your bed? Or what?

In this short article, I will show you that how wisely you spend your spare time will make big difference in your life.

Prophet Muhammad pbuh said that spare time is one of two gifts (from God) that are usually not spent well by people – and the second gift is health. It means that it’s commonly not easy for the people to wisely spend their spare time. Why? There may be so many reasons. That the people tend to have fun and do something that is no use in their spare time may be one of the reasons. Anyway, if you want to be a person that is different and distinguished from most people, what you can do is spending your time wisely. That way, you will make advantage over others.

Why do people do sport?

Do you like sport? How many times do you do it? Three times a week? Twice a week? Once a week? Once a month? Or you don’t have any certain frequency to mention? If you do sport regularly, I am sure you can answer the question easily. However, if you don’t do it regularly, it may be a bit difficult to answer the question. You probably will say: “Well, I’m not sure how many times I do it. I just do it whenever I want, but not frequently enough.”

Let me give you another question: why do you do sport? What’s your answer? Some of you may answer you do it because you like it. You may play football twice a week because you really like it. You will say that football is one of your hobby. You play it because it’s one of your hobby.

Many experts say that doing sport as a hobby can release someone’s mental stress. When someone is getting so distressed, it will be a good idea for him to do sport that he likes. If he likes football, he is to play it. This way, he will get relaxed. And that’s certainly good for his mental health.

Do it now!

I am convinced that all of you have ever felt under pressure because of deadline. In such condition, you have very limited time to do your job, or you have so many things to do that the time you have is not adequate.

When we were students, our teachers often gave us home works. Actually there was enough time to do the home works without being in a hurry. The teachers usually gave us at least one week to do the home works. However, students are always students. We just put off doing the home works. As a result, we had to do them in the last minutes – probably 30 minutes before the class began. That was like a sheep running away from a wolf, or a thief from a policeman.

The question emerging is whether we still have such bad habits now. If the answer is yes, it means we can not learn from our experiences. It is certainly not easy to get rid of bad habits. A habit is something that we often or usually do. We are used to it. As a result, we have to make effort to change any of our habits. But don’t worry. There’s a will, there’s a way.

Are You Addicted to Modern Convenience?

Have you ever found that electricity in your house was turned off? Or your internet connection went down? Or your computer didn’t work due to a serious problem? Or you lost your mobile phone? Or you had no car, nor motor bike, to ride?

What did you feel when you found yourself in such situations? Perhaps you said: “Oh no, I can’t live without all this.” Or you said: “Oh no, I can do nothing in such condition.” If that was what happened to you, I’m afraid that you are addicted to the modern convenience.

However, I can understand that many people – or even most of them – are now addicted to the modern convenience. The reason is quite simple: because they are not accustomed to live without the convenience. They always use the convenience in their daily life, as if the convenience were a part of them. They work, study, have leisure, have fun, take a bath, and even sleep using the convenience. Therefore, when they lose one of the convenience, they feel that everything becomes in trouble.