On propa education not officially promoted by any current government

Tarbiyya, although you may suffer allergies from the word, has a simple, straightforward meaning.

It basically means education.

And there are brilliant examples from the lives of the Prophet SAW and his companions on how proper education based on the Quran changed them from a backward society into 'Khairu Ummah', the best nation.

For example, there was al-Barra' bin Malik. The narrations describe him as being very thin and black in skin colour. Probably you wouldn't look twice at a person like that if you met him on the streets of KL. But was that a hindrance? Absolutely not.

There was this one time during the reign of Abu Bakr, the muslims were at war against the apostates at al-Yamamah, and the apostates had locked themselves in a fort, afterwards known as the 'Garden of Death' (You can guess the ending, i just want to emphasize the awesomeness of the story).

So they couldn't get in you see. But al-Barra' wasn't going to let walls and volleys of arrows get in his way. This is more than Arnold-Schwarzenegger-style hardcore.

what a siege looks like

So he told the other Companions to lift him up on their shields and throw him over the walls, so that he could open the gates from the inside. This is serious.

After a while, the gates opened. And out came al-Barra', over 80 injuries on his body. And with the Grace of God he didn't die. Hardcore. It was advised not to let him lead armies because he was too brave. The muslims went on to win the battle and killed the false prophet, Musailamah al-Kazzab. And there are countless examples of awesomeness of the people educated by Rasulullah SAW. 

How did they achieve this? It's unthinkable of anyone these days to be catapulted into the enemy and face hundreds of them. It's unthinkable even for anyone to let themselves be catapulted for fun. And even people who go to tarbiyya circles are labelled as hardcore -.-

For me, the similitude of tarbiyya is like learning to write sentences. I've told you this story before. When i was in standard one the teacher used to give us 10 words every day and write sentences out of them. I cried because i wanted to write sentences like 'the red pencil has a laser capability and graphite shaft' when all i am capable of is 'i like my red pencil lalala'. But here's the thing.

You start off small, knowing little, you cry because you don't know and ask your mum for help. But you practise.

And practise.

And practise.

You devote lots of time to improve. You read Peter and Jane. Soon you read Harry Potter. Then you read ghastly books that have too many words. Before you know it you can write blogs and read in Arabic.

Keyword: Devotion and commitment. Tipulah (you're lying) if we just sit there browsing through facebook and expect our faith to become stronger. Unless you're going through facebook searching for all those good links (no, Justin Bieber is not an example of a good link).

And that's how Rasulullah trained the Companions. They were wholly committed to the cause.

Wanted another face but Che was the only one with a cool poster

I like this analogy.

How do you know Japan exists? *people who've been to Japan keep quiet*

Have you been there? No? Then how do you know?

When we were born, we don't even know the word Mama, let alone Japan.

As we get older, we see proof of Japan. Japanese slippers. Takeshi's castle. Doraemon. Yes, particularly Doraemon. 

And as we learn geography and culture and see real japanese people, our belief in Japan is unshakeable. *you tell me Doraemon doesn't exist and somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad*

Same goes for iman, faith. We need to be continuously educated about God and His Power and like the Companions, put in a undying commitment. So much so that their every thought and action goes towards achieving that goal. And maybe one day we, too, can be dropped into a hundred people.

Committed to the cause and feeling awesome about it.