We Are Not Just The Only Ones in This Life

Today, we went to an orphanage in our town. It’s a very neat but humble house that contains almost forty children, girls and boys. We’re so excited to meet them, most of us didn’t have any idea what or how everything goes in the orphanages.

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It’s a Muslim orphanage. The girls wore jilbab and the boys wore sarongs, they’re unique and polite, greeting us with smiles while sitting on carpets facing each other. It was not a very big room, but clean and colored with white-green paint—Islam in our culture is identic with white and green colors that represent holiness and comfort. I supposed that it’s a meeting hall, also for madrasa activity where children learn everything about Islam.

The orphanage’s called Ma’hadul Aitam—literally means madrasa for orphans. I thought it must be correct, why they gave it that name because I felt children there know more about our religion better than us though they’re smaller by age.

Fastabiqul khairat—vying in doing good deeds—indeed we should envy them for their good deeds. When we live on easy street, those poor children, or those orphan children, or even those poor orphan children vigorously tried to learn their own religion and enriched themselves with good deeds. They want parents’ affection while we get mad at our parents every day. They study hard while we play hooky two times a week from school. People say that experience is the best teacher, but should we wait for our parents to be gone for us to change? Should we wait for misfortune for us to change? No.

We’re just messing around day by day, living our live like we’re not going to die anytime soon. We’re getting mad at everything. We’re evil, nasty-hearted, unwilling to help, spat on the homeless while living in luxury. We’re uncaring and even heartless. We’re busy insulting everybody until we forget that there are those people in this world needing help.

We aren’t even crying when we know African children live in agony. We bomb and kill Palestinian under the name of that so-called justice. We’re tired after building Burj Khalifa while donating nothing to Syrian women who hide in fear everytime. We’re so selfish that we’re blind to the truth. Ethic has long forgotten. Good deeds, verily, aren’t the most important things anymore. This is the black realm we breathe in, love is being replaced by lust, to conquer the world but never try to brace.

خَيْرُ الناسِ أَنْفَعُهُمْ لِلناسِ

“The best of people are those who bring benefit to the rest of mankind”

—Rasulullah Muhammad SAW.

Childrens at Ma'hadul Aitam Orphanage

Palestinian' misery.

Poor African children.

Syrian people.

Written by an amateur writer, Meutia Z. Arianti

Indonesia, 30 March 2018.