Ramadan Mubarak! Are you still excited to fast until the end? Of course, you are!
Today, I accidentally found an interesting podcast video Dian Sastro Wardoyo on YouTube. I must admit, besides Maudy Ayunda, Cinta Laura, and Nadhira Afifa and many other women who bring positive impacts, I also like her because she has a charity foundation to help underprivileged people continue their studies with scholarships. Hopefully, someday I can follow her lead. Say Aamiin, guys! 🥺😇
So, back to the story. She spoke about many interesting things, but I'll highlight three important things that relate to what I always think about.
First, it's about finding God. She was born Catholic to a Catholic mother and Buddhist father. She had many questions about the meaning of life, reasons why she lives, and for what purpose. (No wonder she asked such questions, considering she holds a degree in Philosophy. 😅)
Long story short, she was still in doubt because she asked too many religious scholars from all religions. One day, her aunt invited her to join an Islamic gathering where she met an Islamic scholar who answered her questions perfectly. This sparked her interest in embracing Islam.
What's interesting is that when she learned the first surah, Al-Fatiha, she said, "As an actress, I can't memorize every ayah without understanding its essence. That's why every time I memorize, I also read the meaning and learn it."
The part that I love is when she says, "I'm still learning both spirituality and religion, because we stop learning only when we pass." So deep.
It's interesting for me because as Muslims, we can read the Al-Quran, yet we sometimes never want to look up its essence to follow, whereas the Holy Quran is a life guidance.
The way she explained it opened my mind as a born Muslim to start looking up every ayah carefully and trying to implement it in my daily life. (Still learning)
Second, she also told us to always be open to new experiences and knowledge because when we feel we're enough to learn something, we'll get stuck in the comfort zone. Additionally, we can't only learn from people who are older than us with a lot of life experience but also from people who are younger than us because they also have life experiences that are more interesting to know and learn.
Last but not least, as a famous actress, she said that don't look at her by her recent life, she has a past about her struggle to be who she is now that she really appreciates.
I think those three things are enough to share with you tonight. I don't know why every time I see people who talk about the meaning of life, spirituality, philosophy, such deep topics, I'm always impressed. There are many things that I can learn from these people.
In conclusion, I'd like to say thank you for reading this, and as lifelong learners, I really hope that we can progress at least 1% every day to bring such a good impact to this big world.
