Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever *Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi *kiut jgak eh hahaha*

Assalamualaikum =)

As the title itself serve, we are gonna be discussing about the quote that I really like from Mahatma Gandhi =)

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

My dear friends!! =D Let's discuss about the second part of this famous quote =)

It says that we should learn, gain knowledge as if we are going to use it for the rest of our lives; which could be an eternity. In other words, it also means that we should thrive our best to gain as much knowledge as we can for the long future ahead of us.

I have heard that the knowledge that we have right now, or are trying to acquire, is only as much as a drop of water from the total knowledge available to us; the sea. (This is from an Islamic source if my memory serves me right. See how rich His knowledge is, and how little we know.)

AND Please!! Do not forget, that knowledge that we should acquire or learn, is NOT NOT NOT 100% from textbooks. Experiences, social and communication skills as well as other hands-on experience and field work are also KNOWLEDGE. Hence, do not assume that those who did not go to school, college or universities are not KNOWLEDGABLE.

You could even see how IGNORANT and irrelevant some students could be. (not everyone, but such people do exist.) And I am also not stating that everyone that did not attend to proper education are brilliant as well. Some might just be the same as the ignorant and irrelevant students of higher education. It all once again, depends on who you choose to be.

This is what happens when we are given the opportunity to gain precious knowledge from higher education and not use them for the right reasons, or not use them at all. (for students)

For those who are not fortunate enough to gain higher education (due to poverty, or many other reasons) please do not lose hope. There are many opportunities for you out there, it is a matter of good you are to see that they are available for you.

Yes, it is definitly easier said than done. I am not implying that the road will be easy once you get the chance to succeed. HARD HARD work is a definite necessity. But, it is never impossible.

Please do not choose the easier path; a work well done is never achieved with ease.
Please do not choose the wrong path; turn back whenever you can if you do.
Please do not wrong those who wronged you; it will be a never ending circle or vengeance.

Please do not BEG. As I have mentioned earlier.. There are opportunities for you out there.

Look for them. Find them. And utilize them as soon as you grab a hold onto them.

The easier path and wrong path: I am referring to theft, drugs, gambling and easy money, or perhaps easy grades or A's for students.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with theft, drugs etc etc. But how about the easy grades?

Of course there are some classes or courses that you are fortunate enough to get a very kind lecturer or TA, where you will certainly gain an A for the class (Alhamdulillah XD) But the method to get easy grades that I do not agree with is cheating.

Sure sure it would be a breeze to copy our senior's past years work. Let's just alter a few words to avoid plagiarism.. The lecturer wouldn't know, he has had too many students to remember the past..

My dear friends, where are your integrity? Di manakah amanah kamu?
Of course no one would know, except for your friends you are working with.

What about Allah? Adakah DIA yang Maha Melihat tidak nampak?

It is definitly a challenge for everyone, when cheating is so easily done without the lecturer noticing. But please, think of the knowledge and credits you would be gaining from cheating.

Higher grades, yes. Gaining our degree, yes. Gaining a good job with our degree, yes. Gaining hard-earned money with our job, yes. Putting food, clothes and shelter for our family with the money we earned, yes.

Can you see how these things are connected?

Imagine the food you are feeding your children in the future. The money we have, the job we have earned.

Ya Allah, adakah semuanya HALAL?

Are everything that I am earning now, HALAL in Your Judgment?

Please my friends..
I'm sure that many have heard that even one vote, could make a HUGE difference. The same applies here. Though we might think these things as small matters, but it could bring such a huge impact.

Imagine bringing up your children, feeding them with rezeki that He does not approve of?

Ya Allah.. Diminta dijauhkan daripada perkara sebegini daripada berlaku..

I have once told my friends here attending the same university as I am after our usrah. Since I forgot to tell them during the usrah itself, I wrote an e-mail later on to my friends XD So I'm sorry guys if you have to read this over once again! =) But a reminder wouldn't hurt aite? =)

The title of the usrah was Small Things Do Matter. (something like that, tak ingat haha)

The most important thing that I would like to conclude is; please do remember that 'they' would try their best to make us choose the wrong choices, do the wrong things.

Of course, many of you might think; I would never MURTAD; which is exit from Islam itself. Alhamdulillah, if many of you know that no matter how bad you are, you will never leace your religion.

Perhaps many of you would even know that you will never ever do those unforgivable sins or dosa-dosa besar; berzina, drinking/minum arak, berjudi/gambling.

Alhamdulillah if you guys do not attend to these sinful acts =)

However. Since 'they' know that 'they' could not influence you to do those horrible sinful acts, they would aim to make you do the little ones; talking bad about people/mengumpat, lying, cursing/mencarut, not preserving our aurat, and many more.

What do we say when we do this small sinful acts? ; Ala dosa skit jek!!

Of course, it is considered 'small' among us.

However, talking bad about people/mengumpat is actually among the unforgivable sins; dosa2 besar! But since we are too accustomed to it, we treat it as nothing.

And do you know how 'small' is 'small', and how 'big' is 'big' for our sins? Of course it is stated in the Qur'an itself some of the sinful acts above are indeed 'big' or unforgivable.

But, are we able to measure them with a scale?

Dosa kecik ke dosa besar, semuanya sama saja; tetap dosa!

Hearing this statement from a guy who gave a talk when I was still back in Malaysia really struck me hard. Sins, no matter how tiny or big they may be, are still sins.

Have we not heard of the famous saying among us Malaysians; sikit2 lama2 jadi bukit?

This is what I meant by being ignorant. We know all of the things above. Dosa kecik, dosa besar, peribahasa BM (wlupon tak terer bm pon akan tau). But have we ever gave a thought for everything that should be taken into account?

That is why, my dear friends, we are all still able to fall into the Fires of Hell.
We do not know, and will never know, until Judgement Day of how much good and bad deeds we have committed. What is worse, we might not realize that the small sins that we may have been doing unconsciously might contribute to our chances of falling down.

Please. Be careful and take good care of yourself. Alhamdulillah, if you are very sure that you will never ever commit the 'huge' sins. But be aware of the 'small' sins as well, as we are more prone to fall for 'their' whisper and influence.

Now!! To the first part of the quote; the second part of this blog haha XD

Maaf2 sgt pjg pulak.. I'll try to make this brief ya =)

I have longg and thought of this part of his quote; Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Whenever we see any movies or dramas, where the hero or heroin knows that they could not live long, they would do everything on their wish list; perhaps do a bungee jump, sky diving, eat a whole pizza, etc etc etc.. And the list goes on =)

If we were to imagine that we were in their shoes instead.. We would most probably do the same. Do whatever that we had longed to do for before our time is up.

In one way or another, this quote is also asking us to 'Live our life to the fullest.'

We may never know exactly when we could die, leave the worldly life and enter the other dimension. Therefore, I truly do support this part of his quote and try to live up to it! =)

However, after some time I realized something.

Yes, it is true that we should live our life to the fullest. That is why I find myself spending more time on happy events, and lesser time on sobering on unfortunate events.

But how about living today as if you were to die tomorrow?

You could try to do everything you longed for today, if you knew that you were gonna die the next day. But, would you do the same if you knew you were not going to die just yet?

For example; you hate your boss. He yells at you at everytime of the day, especially during your break hours. If you knew you were going to die the next day, you might smash a cake into his face and yell at him "I QUIT!!"

However, if you knew you are still going to be alive the next day.. "I'm sorry Boss, I'll do it right away!"

Okay, let's say you DID smash the cake and quit your job. And you are still alive the very next day. Hence starts your search for a new job. How would you ever pay the bills without one?

The same thing goes for the most famous last wish of all; expressing your feelings to the one you had loved all this while.

What would happen if you had expressed your feelings, and you are still here the next day?

Alhamdulillah, if you could get a better job with better pay, and perhaps the person you expressed your feelings to actually feels the same way about you. But, things will never be the same before you do these things.

As everyone knows, actions have consequences.

The only difference is, you will be facing the consequences if you are actually still alive XD

Thereforeeeee~

Yes yes we must live our life to the fullest!! =D But if you wish to live as if you were to die tomorrow, be able to face the consequences ;p

Insya-Allah, not all of the consequences will be bad =)

But do think before you leap!!

Assalamualaikum ;)