Asalamualaikum w.b.t to all my readers, my name is Zarrief Syabil bin Abdul Wahid which all of you can call me Zarep, currently I'm 19 and having my MBBS at International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuantan (IIUMK). I'm living happily in Ipoh, Perak with my parents and 3 other siblings. 

    Today, I'll be emphasizing my life about the time I had invested towards my Non-Governmental  Organization (NGO) which I started when I was 16. All of it were new to me, I'm just a kid at the time, no experiences, no knowledge related to it but after spending my years of dedication towards this kind of lifestyle has taught me almost everything about life, social standards, our economy, politics and etc. It shocks me every time when I realize how fast I'm growing mature mentally year after year after joining this NGO which known nationally as '4B' ( Bersatu, Belajar, Bekerja & Berkhidmat ) as translated in English term which is Unite, Learn, Work and Serve. The branch that I join is 4B Remaja Perak which consist of highly passionate teenagers and young adults that focuses on the sustainable development between self and the surrounding society and community. 

    Actually, there's a lot of other organization that I join but the organization that I just stated is the first one and has one of the best experiences that I had. 

    Therefore, among all of the events and programs that we conducted, I'll tell to you about the time we successfully managing a charity program during Eid Al-Adha. It is program which we ourselves learn how to slaughter a cow cleanly, divide the meat and distribute it among us and mostly to a village full of Orang Asli. 

   As we all know Eid Al-Adha is the holiday that we Muslims celebrated in the purpose of honoring the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his own son Ismail as an act of obedience to God's command (which God eventually replace the son with a lamb as a sacrifice) . On this special holiday, some Muslims will offer a cow to be slaughtered and distribute the meat to poor families.

   Then, without further ado, the story started when I was 18, my organization decided to buy our own sacrifice which is a cow to be slaughtered mainly to distribute the meat to a village of Muslim Orang Asli that is high up in the mountains. There is an Ustaz that marry one of the villagers there, he is the one that guided us to the village and tells us story about them. 

   After a week of preparation for the program, we went to a mosque which is the nearest to the village, actually it is still miles from the village but still the nearest. At the wide plain area of the mosque, we immediately take out the tools, equipment and other stuffs like plastic bags, containers and big cloths. Then, there we see the huge four-legged figure that we can see the fear in it's eyes and movements. The program started with a local man there briefing to us on the precaution and procedures to handle the sacrifice by demonstrating it directly. Then, that is where I realized how hard it is and how careful we should handle the sacrifice to give it a non-torturing death, even to take it down was magnificently delicate as it was very aggressive. After it has been taken down, the person in charge immediately slit the cow's neck as fast and as clean as possible, it was such an admirable sight. The others including me, take our tools and start to cut out the meat and divided it to various parts like bones, organs and meat, the locals there guide us very specifically to avoid any waste, we can see how experience were they.

  That was when it hits me, without the locals, we can never perfectly handle all he parts of the sacrifice due to the wide gap of experiences and skills. Which make me think a bit, this culture that Muslims is having in Malaysia right now are slowly dissipating due to the younger generation that is not interested in this kind of  thing and just hoping others should do it when they become adults or older. If this actually going on without a stop, there will be an era of people that will poorly conduct Eid Al-Adha in the right way if we think about it deeply. Therefore, I'm just grateful that I'm lucky enough to join the program which can educate me and some of my friends more about this culture because some people don't have this kind of chance, it is actually fun and exciting if we give it a try. Malaysian government should bring forward this kind of program for the Muslims teenager to ensure a continuous seasoned people regarding this culture. Not only to sustain education about this, but also for health management because cleaner meat lowers the risk of having a disease and also for the good of poor people to get a better chance on having food to lower poverties and hunger.

   Let me continue my story about the event, after we equally divided the meat for distribution among us, we hurriedly load the bag of meats in the truck and drive up the mountain where the village center of Orang Asli located. It was such a bumpy ride and the Ustaz that guided us was also the one that driving the truck, he purposely drive dangerously to give us a hard time which we sit at the back of the truck where all the loads were in, the cow's intestine were flying everywhere and also stinks, we know it is just a joke but we also had fun. Back to topic, when we arrive, the locals there welcome us warmly, before we unload the meat, we have been offered dinner by one of the people there, it is just a typical Malay's cuisine but the taste was much more exotic and special. We noticed of how all the buildings were made of bamboo stem delicately but also make us wonder the durability during any disasters, but money is the issue. After we ate, we continue the program by distributing the meat to the villagers, each uncommon name was called and took the meat. After everything is done, we bid farewells to the locals with a smile and went directly home.

   We're glad that we able to provide any aid for them, other that meat, we also provide some nice clothing for them and money, the smile that we able to carve on them give a sense of pleasure and gratefulness towards Allah for us. It just strike us that this was not the only village that is struggling, there is bunch more. That's what my NGO was for, mainly helping the needs of people and and increasing knowledge spiritually and environmentally for self. I always remind myself that I am so lucky to have join the organization, it literally taught me a lot regarding the struggles of people towards avoiding hunger and poverty. I'm just worried about the younger generation which doesn't have a chance like me to educate ourselves regarding the sustainable developments in our country and me myself hoping to improve my knowledge so that I can provide it to others.

   Personally, I hope the politicians stop their corruptions as most of the politicians is Muslims, since Islam has always taught us the correct way of handling organizations and the community. A great leader brings a greater environment. Peace should be our main focus, but in order to achieve it, a lot of thing need to be fix first which is poverty, hunger, equal education and racism issues. We can see that from my story earlier on how many people were actually struggling to survive by all means and how many people that have experiences regarding our Islamic culture is dissipating. I think the very key to make this hope became a reality is sustain back the teachings of Islam as early of the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W era and Khulafa' Al-Rasyidin which always focus on the people. People actually is the main key of having a harmonic environment where they may not too worry about worldly problems and may focus more towards the main purpose of life which is God's will.

  Lastly, if you think you can make change for a better society even if it is small and seems insignificant, then just do it and set the niah for the sake of Allah, InshaAllah if we all do it together, everything may change for the better. Even Saidina Umar ibn Al-Khattab R.A quoted that 'May Allah bless the man whos says less and does more'. That's all from me, thank you for reading!!! Assalamualaikum