Think Big Dream High-E9-Be Positive

Life’s routine

I am from the village. As a villager, I do not bother much about the things that happen around me. Suffice there be sufficient food on the table, adequate fixed income to support my family, a car for our transportation needs, a comfortable house equipped with all the necessary electrical equipments. In the evenings, I gather with friends. At night I go to the mosque, studied the yellow kitab with the Imam. Back home, my wife a convert, is very strict in supervising my children’s school work and studies. Back from the mosque, I spent quality time with the family, look at the TV channels that interest me especially the news and sports. Most of the news are covered with pictures of the country’s leaders giving speeches or I turn to watch any interesting sports program and then to sleep. My wife continues to watch her favourite Korean drama or film, whilst waiting for my children to finish their studies. That is largely my family’s routine. Sometimes I wonder, life cannot be that simple. Allah made me a Khalifah. It cannot be that simple for me to ensure that I go to heaven later.

The negative news

Are all those speeches telecast on TV and print media telling the truth? Do we have to accept it without question? Almost all media headlines are featuring negative information on the local and international communities. A lot of news on divorce cases, wars, murders, shooting, nuclear weapons, the destroyed environment, landslide, flood,fire, earthquakes, drugs, accidents, mud slinging the opposite parties, bad mouthing personalities that are not on the same wave length with us, Islamic uprising, Israeli violence, terrorism, dumping illegitimate babies, court rulings on murders, punishment for anal intercourse, police shooting the adolescence and many more negative news if we want to list down. Most of them are negative, and negative only. These are the news we are forced to accept, our wives and children have to accept, every hour of the day regardless of night, day or evening.




The hidden teaching blunder

Happy news, motivation, wealth, millionaires, love and affection, good ethics and behavior, caring, beauty, harmony, happiness, unity, peace, success are also featured but not as headlines. It is indeed included in the newspaper segments. The public is largely exposed to a lot of negative news rather than the positive ones. In order for their media news or network to be sold or subscribed, the media owners are of the opinion that sensational news need to be highlighted or potrayed. Actually they are the ones teaching the public to behave and thinking that way. Eversince, it has been rooted in the minds of the readers to be attracted to negative news. Positive things are not highlighted as it is not interesting. Politicians choosing a TV personality as second wife seemed uninteresting but when written in a provocative manner it became sensational. Thus it deserves to be in the front page. Such news are considered sensational in comparison to news about a 15 year old girl, becoming a millionaire by developing and selling software at the silicon valley which is considered not so glamorous. That is the real fact. We are being exposed daily to negative news. Without realizing it, our media have their own hidden agenda to ruin our generations. To indoctrinate the negative elements in our new generation minds,

Complementing with negativity

As a result of the large exposure to negative news, the public in general became a negative community. From a very young age and in school days, we have been fed with negative news. Our minds have been programmed to be sensitive to negative things. When we grow up and become leaders, ministers, reporters, journalists, novel authors, film directors, engineers ,doctors, script writer, drama producers, chief executives, managing directors, teachers, accountants, like it or not , we continued and contributed towards adopting this negative culture. The drama and films that we produced have negative themes, the news and speeches have negative themes. Our discussions when loafing around revolves around negative things. The whole community became comfortable with negative issues, became complacent with negative things. We don’t feel anything about negative things. We can accept the negative things. We don’t feel guilty about negative things. The negative outlook has become our culture, the norm and no longer a taboo to us anymore. It has not turn into something that is unacceptable anymore. The fact is we can already accept negative things. When we talk we use the word ‘No, No, No’ more and less of ‘Yes, Yes, Yes’. We use more ‘You Can’t’ and less of ‘You Can’. Eventhough our tagline is “We Can” but our practices are the other way round.

What can we do?

As a villager and a Khalifah of Allah,what can we do?

1.We need to be good and become experts in whatever career we are in. Let us be experts in our career. With our expertise, we can make judgements on the negative and positive issues confronting us. With the skill and knowledge of our career that we have mastered, we will be matured enough to put aside all negative issues in our career and our life.

2.We need to increase our knowledge, through reading, listening motivational talks, attending courses and religious classes and visits. Reading becomes cheap now because of the internet. No need to buy many books. In using the internet, we need to be expert in choosing our reference materials, it needs censorship. With the knowledge that we have, we will be guided in making our choice, which one is positive and which one is negative. With knowledge, we become more critical, we become more analytical. We will not accept blindly what we read in the papers and while watching TV.

3.We can become more innovative and creative. We need to ask a lot of questions. We need to ask ourselves on any issues in front of us.Those who are creative and innovative, practice lateral thinking and thinking out of the box or by the side of the box. We no longer think in normalcy or routinely. By getting used to thinking openly, it will not be easy for us to be influenced by negative issues. We are much more smarter in pushing away all negative influences in our daily lives, InsyaAllah.

4.We must carry our responsibilities to motivate, communicate and reach our people with our experiences, knowledge, skill and the truth.We want all of us to be positive and successful in our way of life. We want our people to be able to filter and avoid all kind of negativities. In order for us to be positive at all times, we need always to think big dream high and have a strong heart.

5.We need always to pray so that we, our family, our friends and our community will be protected and blessed by Allah SWT here and the hereinafter, InsyaAllah. I strongly believe,as our country is moving very fast towards becoming a fully developed nation soon, our way of thinking and consideration will also change positively.Our people will be relying more on facts and figures, the truth, the reality, performance and track records in making their wise decisions rather then merely on the beautiful slogans.