Yohteh of merentap sengsara inspired this entry. You can read it here.
Whenever the word merdeka was mentioned.. the story about A Roman General (Georgius?) and Muslim warrior Khalid ibnu Walid come to my mind.
The Roman General came to the Khalid's tent holding a white flag..
When Khalid came out of his tent, the Roman General said " Khalid, can you answer me truthfully, for an INDEPENDENT MAN (orang yang MERDEKA) will always tell the truth".
Khalid said " I will tell you the truth"
The Roman General said "Is it true that Allah has sent down a sword to you.. hence you are nicknamed as Saifullah (Sword of Allah)".
Khalid said "No, Allah does not send a sword down to me".
The Roman General said " If I revert to Islam now.. will my Islam will be as good as yours?"
Khalid said "No, yours will be better than mine.. you see. we have Muhammad (pbuh) amongst us, we see how he behave, how he talk ..etc.. hence we believe him to be the Allah's Messenger.. but you are yet to see him.. yet you believe in him as Allah's Messenger".
Roman General asked " How do I revert to Islam?"
Khalid said " You have to recite ..There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is messenger of Allah, cleanse yourself and perform two rakaah prayer".
The Roman General thus reverted to Islam...
May Allah give us guidance to be merdeka enough..
May the last 10 days of Ramadhan bring us the good fortune of being granted by Allah "Merdeka dari Api Neraka"..
