Batch Pemutus Dakwah

Here's the deal:
There's a vehicle to be driven, and no one's there to drive it.

"So, siapa nak drive Jengkaut tahun depan?"

The awkward, unanswered question for this batch - my batch.


'Jengkaut'
The name of the red Estima which is the kereta kawasan for Manchester.
Oficially it is named 'Al-Adiyat' - The War Horse.
But its loud diesel engine and sluggish swagger found more often in vehicles on the construction site then on the road have given it a new name:

'Jengkaut'- The Excavator

Last year Capek was the driver operator.
This year it is Syak.
Next year...?

"So, siapa nak drive Jengkaut tahun depan?"

*                    *                    *

The Jengkaut was the vehicle which brought us to our first car boot sale.
But at a deeper, more profound level, it has seen us discover something more amazing than cheap books and novelty items;
over the past year it has witnessed us discover the sweetness of tarbiyyah...

Now it is witnessing us realise how much we really have on our shoulders.


Because last year 50% of the ikhwah graduated, leaving Manchester for good.
At the end of this year even more are leaving.

What will happen to dakwah and tarbiyyah at Manchester then?
In the Northwest?
In the UK?

"So, siapa nak drive Jengkaut tahun depan?"

In the past few weeks, I feel like this question has taken a more symbolic meaning.

Jengkaut mengangkat beban dakwah

Relax, they say.
Allah will take care of dakwah and tarbiyyah, they say.
After all, did He not promise in His Book and via the Messenger that there will always be a group of people on this Earth calling to the Deen?

True.
But did He not say also, in a chapter of that Book named after his Messenger:

"...And if you turn away (from Islam and the obedience of Allah), He will exchange you for some other people, and they will not be your likes." 

[Surah Muhammad: 38]

Dakwah?
It doesn't need us. Rather, it's the other way round.

Hidayah?
It isn't something that's merely 'found'. Rather it's to be fought for.

Somehow the chain that is dakwah, stretching back to the Prophets of yesteryear, have reached us;
mere mortals halfway across the world from home, at a place cold and dark.
And with that the responsibility to keep that chain going...for future batches to also feel the sweetness of tarbiyyah.

Or
will we be the batch pemutus dakwah..?

"When we live only for us, life is so very short.
It starts from when we start and ends at the end of our limited lives. 

But if we live for something other than us,
live for an ideology,
then verily life is long and meaningful;
starting from the start of mankind and ending with the end of mankind on this Earth. 

If we feel like we start this struggle,
we will feel constrained facing death (because the struggle has not reached its goal yet). 

Remember, it is not us who start this struggle neither is it us who end it.
It was started by the Prophets and goes on until the end of time.
We are links on a chain of a long struggle"

- Sayyid Qutb

Here's the deal:
There's a vehicle to be driven, and there's no one to drive it.

And no, that vehicle isn't the Jengkaut.
that 'vehicle' is dakwah itself.

Ikhwah, we better start driving.

Jengkaut operator at work