Ten %

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

linked + edited

"Kadang-kadang, bila baca blog orang tu kita boleh kenal orang tu."

(Sometimes, you can get to know a person when you read their blogs / writings)

- a friend of mine-

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"7 billion people, 14 billion faces."

Currently, i found myself reading quotes that more or less carry the same message....

We are now living in a world where there is literally no barriers. Everyone has access to basically anyone. Undeniably there are those who are able to choose to not be a part of this life, no online stuff, just normal daily stuff; there are also those who couldn't be a part of this life as they don't have any internet access with them (lucky them, huh?); i won't dwell into them, it's just us that i wanted to talk about. Us, ones who are finding ourselves stuck in this way of life.

Everyone now has a part of them that others can have a look into: be it facebook, twitter, instagram, and even blogs. Yes, undeniably we have all chosen to expose a part of our lives to others. Maybe not so much to random public eyes, but it's close enough. We can never really control who sees us and who doesn't. And even if all these online accounts have that setup called 'privacy settings'; let us all be truthful, there will always be random people lurking around who we don't even know.

We all practically do the same thing, exposing our lives to others (be it our friends or strangers); albeit the varying extent of the things we exposed. It ranges from just random thoughts, to pictures of your whereabouts, to political stands, to pouring-out-emotions-of-daily-lives. The extent of what we share with others somewhat reflect the way we think, the way we live. So i guess perhaps that's why many fall into the trap of thinking that they actually knew the person that they are reading about online.

But I think we have forgotten, that somehow everybody chooses what they want to expose. those thoughts, those pictures, they are not that random. those awesome quotes, how long did we spend searching for that inspirational words? those pictures, how many unedited ones were rejected before posting those filtered ones? those candid moments, how long did we ask our friends to actually snap our pictures of our uncandid poses? those delicious-looking food, how difficult was it to really take a picture from an exact 90 degree angle just to make it look scrumptiously delicious? 

We laugh at this now, because we all know that this is the reality behind it. And I've said this before and i will say it again; the worst part of it all is we dont just bluntly believe in all these things that we see online, but we'd also be painting our own version of that person that we are seeing. If they posted good islamic stuff, we all paint them to be this person with haloes on their heads and wings behind their backs. If they posted their awesome poses and stylish clothes, we all paint them to be this rich and famous and awesome people who have no problems in their world, and moan about our own lives. If we see people posting bad stuff, we'd easily paint them to be those club-goers, alcohol-drinking, zina-prone people. It's a dangerous habit we have; to make a judgement of one's life with what they posted online.

When we paint them to be 'nice' people, 

we would never give them a chance to make mistakes. 

And when we paint them to be 'bad' people, 

we would never give them a chance that they might change for the better.

Astaghfirullah.

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So my take on all of these, is something that my dad always say; 

Whatever you put out there, it's only 10% of the real you. 

And Abah is right.

It is only 10% of the real us. To say that we are able to know someone just by looking at their pictures, and occasionally reading their thoughts, are not enough to say that we know them. To get to know someone is when you discover both their beauties and their flaws. But apparently, nobody wants to show any of their flaws in that 10% now do we? Thus, this 10% can be as beautiful as we want it to be, but the reality is always with the 90% that's left. Because that is where we live, where realities are, where the no-makeup faces are, where the fights are, where the lonely days are, where the sweatshirts and messy hair are, where the sinful acts are, as well as where the real tests of our iman takes place; If we are actually doing the things that we are reminding others of. Scary world, huh? ~sigh~

And I am definitely no exception in this. All the posts in my facebook, or the things that i write, are only 10% of who i am. Am i always deep in thoughts 24/7? of course not! But i hope that my 10% is a booster for my 90%, whenever i make mistakes, or lose my patience, or felt hopeless; that i will have a part of me to cheer me on. And that perhaps from this 10% of my life, i'll get prayers from those who benefited from them. and most importanly, i hope that my 10% will be a testimony in the Hereafter that i did try doing something that brings us all closer to Allah. Aamiin wa insyaAllah.

So what's your 10% like?

I pray that you make the best out of yours too insyaAllah.

and i end today's post with the best reminder of all;

that Allah s.w.t knows us 100%, inside and out. :)

وَأَسِرُّوا قَوْلَكُمْ أَوِ اجْهَرُوا بِهِ إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ

أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ

Dan rahsiakanlah perkataanmu atau lahirkanlah;  
sesungguhnya Dia Maha Mengetahui segala isi hati.

Apakah Allah Yang menciptakan itu tidak mengetahui (yang kamu lahirkan atau rahsiakan);  dan Dia Maha Halus lagi Maha Mengetahui?

[67:13-14]

wallahua'lam.