CANGCIMAN #3: Muslimah and Self Management

Yogyakarta, August 21st 2020 – Jamaah Muslim Fisipol successfully held a webinar with a theme ‘Muslimah and Self Management’ on Friday night (21/8). This third session of CANGCIMAN (Changing Better While Charging Iman) was held on Zoom Live. Azka Yahdiyani Putri, the founder of @sedekahbaju.yk, @anfaalfoundation, and @lenteraharmoni.id became the speaker of this session. As a preface, Azka talked about the bitterness in life where she felt depressed due to experiencing conflicts and violence in the family.

Long story short, she experienced stress since childhood due to her father’s treatment and economic problems. Not only that, she also experienced bullying by her school friends. Due to a lot of pressure, she finally planned to end her life and even had time to almost be killed by her friend. However, Azka managed to get through this dark period and she made it all because of Allah. Here, Azka provided tips for getting out of stress or other problems, they were:

  1. Ikhlas, “Indeed, I have been commanded to worship Allah, [being] sincere to Him in religion.” – QS Az-Zumar: 11.
  2. Patience, O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient. – Al Baqarah: 153.
  3. Where there is difficulty, there is ease, Surah Al Insyirah.
  4. Always remember Allah, Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured. – QS Ar Ra’du: 28.

Because Azka’s life is not ideal compared to most other people, she has a great determination on how to avoid stress and pressure from being diverted to negative things, but to positive things, until finally she had a dream for the next generation to make them not feel the same thing as her. Therefore, Azka founded the Sedekah Baju Yogyakarta, which is a social activity to connect those who have excess clothing with those who need proper clothes. It is located in Yogyakarta, Palembang, and Pontianak. The idea was inspired by the number of street children who not only need food, but also proper clothing. Meanwhile, on the other hand, many people who have excess clothes are not even used anymore.

Apart from that, there are other activities that have become Azka’s routine. Gifood.id, a platform for sharing food, is a social activity to connect those who have excess food with those who need food. Cinta Nusantara, a youth volunteering, is a volunteering activity carried out by youth throughout Indonesia to empower communities in the fields of education and tourism. Lentera Harmoni, an empowering women community, is one of the social media platforms to raise enthusiasm, especially for women who are victims of broken homes.

Azka also gave tips on productive activities during a pandemic, including:

  1. Read and review books
  2. Online study, webinar, and learning foreign language
  3. Makes podcast, YouTube video, blogging, and making content on Instagram
  4. Pursuing yaumiyah deeds and targets of the afterlife
  5. Online gathering, cooking, and practicing skills and hobbies

For Azka’s own self-management, according to the contents contained in Surat Al-Ashr (the Time), they were:

  1. Discipline, Have a note every day then evaluated at night.
  2. Priority, Divide activities from most important to least important.
  3. Don’t stop for too long, If you are tired, you can give it a stop but not too long.
  4. Busy with positive things, If you do positive activities, you will avoid negative actions, you can match your passion.
  5. Intended for Allah, So that whatever we do has the value of worship, and always remember that whatever we do will be accounted for before Him.

At the end of the presentation, Azka gave Pak Har Laskar Pelangi’s favorite quote, “Life is about giving as much as possible, not receiving as much as possible.” As for Usman Bin Affan, “There are three things that I like in this world, namely feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and reading the Al-Qur’an.”

After finishing explaining the material, the moderator opened a question and answer session. The discussion participants were enthusiastic in asking every question to the speaker. Finally, the discussion was done at 09.00 p.m.