Reflection #2 : Judgment

"If we are such poor judges, why aren't we more aware of our limitations? Because that, too, requires judgement, and we aren't very good at judgement" (McLean, 2015)

We are all poor judges. We can't even judge ourselves well. So, why should we bother to judge others?

In everyday life, judgment and decision makings are inevitable. In fact, everyone judges everyone. For example, when we go for a job interview, of course, the interviewer will judge us. Taking time to choose which shirt suits us everyday is also a kind of decision making. Choosing a spouse for our lifetime is also a kind of judgment and decision making. Almost everything (or maybe everything) in this world needs judgment and decision making. However, what we need to ponder is that, to what extent we should judge and make a decision?

We need to put a limit to ourselves in judging people. It is normal for us to have an impression of others and sometimes, we do judge people even though we just met that person for the first time. However, what we always need to bear in mind is that, our judgment doesn't necessarily be true because what we see on the person is what he or she chooses to show us. And, what we see on that person is just a part of them. There are a lot of things we need consider before judging such as the individual differences, circle of friends, interests, family background, religious views, etc. If we can think of this, insha Allah, we will be less judgmental.

However, the tricky part is sometimes, we don't know to what extent we should "husnudzhon" (sangka baik) and to what extent we need to help a person when we feel like something wrong somewhere. I don't even have an answer for that but what my murobbi said,

"Berlembutlah dengan orang lain tapi berkeras dengan diri sendiri". It really depends on us how do we interpret "berlembut dengan orang lain tapi berkeras dengan diri sendiri." 

We are all humans who have flaws and making mistakes is human nature. What make people different is when we know we are making mistakes, we feel the urgency to repent and improve ourselves.

Jalan taqwa itu bukan hanya satu jalan. Tapi ada banyak jalan. Pilihlah jalan mana yang kita selesa untuk menuju taqwa. Jalan taqwa itu tidak berpenghujung hingga hujungnya nafas kita. Dan tiada siapa boleh mengaku dialah yang paling bertaqwa kerana taqwa itu hanya Tuhan yang Tahu. Let Him be the judge. Just do our best in helping ourselves and others to attain taqwa together. May we all meet in Jannah.

” Hai orang-orang yang beriman, bertakwalah kepada Allah dan carilah jalan yang mendekatkan diri kepada-Nya, dan berjihadlah pada jalan-Nya, supaya kamu mendapat keberuntungan.” (5:35)