It Ain’t What We Learn!

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

SPM is near—less than one month away—so does the year-end exam for First to Fourth Formers of IKISS. What do you think the most appropriate thing a student should do at times like these? Be prepared. Yes. However, with what kind of preparation? Study, revise and practise? Heh, tis not that man… What we have in our heads contribute nothing, not even one-percent, to our success in the examination. So what is the real thing a student must do prior to the exam? More after the jump!

Let’s Be Clear.

You studied very hard for the whole year and you said that that will ensure your straight A’s? Or you studied so little but you are a naturally gifted born-genius and that secures you the string of A-plusses on the results slip? I am sorry to say, but working hard or being a genius do not have a say in the results. There’s only one—and only one—factor that decides whether we succeed or we fail. And that factor, the Ultimate Factor, is …

ALLAH.

Yes. It is ALLAH, our Lord, Who is the sole factor in determining our success. He decides what He wills and He does what He wants. He is the Creator of All Worlds. The Creator of man—we, humans, are His. Everything that we possess is also His, including our exam results. He is Ar-Razzaq. Good results are bounty and bad results are trial and reflection. He has the full right on our exam results. It should be known by heart, that He is the only one who ultimately decides what’s what for His creations.

Then, what exactly should we do?

1. Improve our HDA (Heart Dependence on Allah)

Allah is the only One deciding our results, we should depend only on Him. It’s with His love and blessings that we obtain good or bad results. Remember the story of an ‘abid, his prayers and his eye? If not, let me retell you the story:

There was an ‘abid (a person whose day filled only with prayer) who had prayed to Allah for his whole life. Then, on the Day of Judgement, he was called forth by Allah, “Do enter My Jannah with My blessings.” The ‘abid said, “I want to enter Your Jannah with my deeds.” Then, all of his deeds were put on one side of a balance and only one of his eyeball is put on the other side. It turned out that his one eyeball is a lot heavier than his years of prayers.

This story shows that Allah’s blessings on us are a lot more than our deeds and efforts. Getting good results are a form of blessing from Allah. Our lame revisions can’t even compare to His blessings. However, it should be noted that we still need to revise, but don’t we depend on our revision: let our dependence be only on Allah.

Allah is the Omnijust. A born-genius and a born-slow-learner both have the equal chance of getting straight A’s in an exam. If the genius doesn’t appreciate the blessing bestowed by Allah upon him, he won’t score. The opposite also applies, if the slow-learner works hard and knows that Allah looks at an honest effort of His servant, he will score, insyaAllah.

How about the case in which a rotten-hearted genius passes the exam with flying colours? Then, it’s an istidraj—the help of Allah on a bad person so as to increase his disobedience. How can his exam results help him when he is thrown into the depth of Jahim?

If a kind-hearted normal person fails, it’s a trial from Allah. If he accepts his failure with an open heart and practise husnuzzan towards Allah, what’s the effect of one failure compared to the Jannah of Allah?

Remember, that Allah will not put the deeds of Believers in vain…

2. Respect our Parents and Teachers

Let it be known that the prayers of parents and teachers are heard. If we annoy them or make them mad, how are we going to get good results? Ma ridha Allah illa fi ridha al-walidain—Allah’s pleasure is not but in the pleasure of parents. We must practise the Adab between a child with his/her parents and between a student with his/her teachers. These two things are the most common situation that we overlook:

• Reluctant to help our parents because we are studying.
• Skipping classes to study on our own.

I must restate that it ain’t what we learn. These are our real chances, as Muslims, to get good results: helping our parents when they ask us to even when we are in desperate need of revision and attending those monotonous classes by the teachers when we are more fit to revise alone. Do you think Allah will let your sacrifice to be in vain? If you are honest with Allah in helping your parents and celebrating your teachers’ classes, Allah will help you in the exam. It may be not as direct like a sudden increase in info in your head, but insyaAllah, it will be in ways we least expect:

• Our head is clear enough that we can recall 100% of the next revision;
• What we didn’t read didn’t come out in the exam;

… and so on.

3. Be courteous towards knowledge

With what I write above, I don’t mean that we don’t need to revise any more. We must revise and practise. I love the motto of our class, 5 Ijtihad, which is taken from an Arabic saying, “al-ilm la yu’thik ba'dhah hatta tu’thiyah kullak” which means knowledge will not give you one part until you give it all.

Verily, Allah will not change (the fate) of a group until they change (their fate) themselves. Allah will look at our efforts. We make efforts but we do depend only on Allah.

Study hard, study smart. Let it be known that you have 100% probability of getting an A and 100% probability of getting a G. This is because your results depend solely on Allah. In this eleventh hour, acknowledge your mistakes of not having enough preparation in your night prayers (qiamullail). Improve your relationship with Allah. Be polite with your parents, teachers and friends. Ask them to pray for your success. Respect knowledge as how the early generations respect knowledge and their teachers. REVISE and PRACTISE. Make a lot of effort. You want big, so you must act big. Tawakkal without effort is not the attitude of a Believer.

Akhirul Kalam

My friends always ask me how I score in exams. The answer is simple but usually unexpected: I practise courtesy towards my teachers. I’ve done a lot of mistakes in becoming a youth; but one thing I always keep inside my heart is respect towards individuals who sacrifice themselves to give me a piece of their honourable knowledge. I know that I’m not as great as Imam Ghazali. One day, Imam Ghazali was giving lecture to his students and suddenly a filthy looking man came into his class. Imam Ghazali asked all of his students to stand and give respect to the man. His students were puzzled and asked him for the reason. Imam Ghazali said, “This man once told me how to differentiate between a dog (male) and a bitch.” MasyaAllah, see, the respect of a scholar towards a non-respectable person who taught him such simple things!

I hope that helps to clear our perception on exam and results. Should a person more knowledgeable than me on this matter detect any mistake that may cause misunderstanding, I beg for your kindness to comment and correct my mistakes … I seek refuge in Allah from guiding people away from His path.

Wassalam~