Superior

Disklemer: Ini semua pendapat peribadi semata-mata. 

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The Belief in A Superior Power

Aka God. I feel lucky being born into a family whose religion holds the believe in a God. And not just one God; the one and only God. No other. And that religion is Islam. I'm not gonna talk about theology in this post. Rather, my opinion on the meaning of life (although this is coming from a mere kid who has not enough experience on what life has to offer).

I sometimes ponder what it feels like to have no belief in a superior power - any power, that is - who is the Creator of the world and everything in it. How people strive so hard to look for answers about the origin of life through what they call scientific research, when the answers are crystal clear to a believer of God. God created life. Period.

But some people claim that that cannot be tested scientifically, thus ignoring that God created life altogether. But isn't it more illogical to say that the world 'accidentally' happened on its own? That some genes in a single cell 'randomly' mutated thus giving rise to the life species as we can see today? Isn't that explanation way more preposterous than simply believing that God created us all? (If you want to read more about molecular evolution stuff, continue reading. If not, skip the next paragraph)

Based on what I've learned in an introductory biology course in college, we all come from one unicellular organism. The cell replicates itself over and over and over until a DNA mutation occurs. And contrary to popular belief, mutation occurs at random, not because the organism wants it or needs it to happen. Once a mutation occurs, the cell changes. The replication and mutation keeps going on until more and more species starts to appear. The following simplified tree of life explains this process. Some of the evidences of evolution includes the fact that all species share the same molecular code which is ATCG for DNA and AUGC for RNA. You can read more about this online. Or you can ask me, of course

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A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this show called Ancient Aliens on History Channel. Apparently it's about some scientists investigating the possibility that events in the past are caused by aliens. That day, the topic was about Noah's Ark. They were proposing that instead of being caused by God, the huge flood was caused by aliens. And they started doing some thorough investigation. I didn't finish the episode because it got pretty boring. 

Don't get me wrong though. I'm not saying that science is wrong. Scientific research is essential to understanding things going on around us. In fact, science is what helps us understand what God has created for us.

Sometimes, people look everywhere to find the reason to live; the meaning of life. Some look for it in fame and fortune. Some look for it in wealth and health. Some look for it in friends and family. But that's the problem about this world. It's full of temporary things and it itself is temporary. As a result, we constantly crave for more as we lose those worldly things. For me, my answer is that I live to be the servant of God. At least, that's what I set my goal to be, and everything else comes after that.

Death is Like Sleep

During my first semester in college, I was in this class called Quran Exegesis which talks about the Quran (duh). So one of our discussions was about the verse that relates death with sleep:

"God takes the souls (al-anfus) at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep; then He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death and sends the others back till an appointed term; most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect." (Qur'an 39:42)

The question is, is death really like sleep? Are we in a dream-like state after we die? When we 'wake up' from the dream like state (aka Judgement day), do we remember the dream? How long will the dream-like state last? As we know from experience, dreams can be very vivid and very convincing that we might confuse a dream with reality. Also, we lose the sense of time when we sleep, meaning that an 8-hour sleep just flew by like a breeze. Is that what death feels like? Obviously none of us have the exact answer, but you can read more about it online.

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Well, I think there's some more for me to say, but I'm not used to writing long, serious posts. Maybe next time?

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Backspaces

Who knew time flew so fast huh? From reaching KLIA the other day to having a week's worth of jet lag to starting with online classes to Ramadan to catching up with old buds. Now it's less than three weeks left of my online summer courses which means less than three weeks of my summer holiday. In other words, I have to start getting my shit back together for the next three years of college.

Dammit this is so true. Wasted crap on textbook that I don't even read (Credits)

Actually I just found the meme on the internet and was frustrated at how much it really applied to me.

Anyway, I'm glad to say this summer (it's always summer in Malaysia) didn't go to waste. Here's a list of things that I managed to accomplish up to this point:

1. I learned how to drive. Don't have a license yet but planning to get one in the states.

2. Almost finished watching Fresh off the Boat.

3. Almost finished online summer courses (although I'm not sure how my grades will end up)

4. Finished reading a book (although I wish I could've completed even more books in the summer)

But most importantly,

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5. Survived Ramadan. Now it's already Syawal. My Ramadan goal every year is to not have any regrets after Ramadan is over. No reminiscing the times I could've added more pages to my Quran-reading or more rakaat's during taraweeh. Alhamdulillah I'm happy with this year's ramadan, and hope to improve again next year. I do miss having Ramadan in PERMATA. That was the first time I took every opportunity that Ramadan has to offer, and I began to wonder how many previous Ramadans I have left wasted.

Oh and I almost forgot (actually I didn't forget. I just wanted to put this off until the end of the post).

I get to meet up with some of my closest friends: those from Sabah and those from PERMATA. I'd say, teenage life are the golden days. You grow up with the best friends you'll ever make in life. Because trust me, once you get to college, you'll find it harder to make meaningful, long-lasting relationships and friendships.

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And there comes a point in life where we encounter a fork in the road with numerous branches. That's when those whom we have been together with for so long have to go separate ways. And we're left wondering what'll happen 10 years into the future. Well, whatever happens, we have to keep moving forward because you know what? There's no backspaces in life.

p/s: I'm not good at metaphors