“Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining”

(Edy Maherul Fata, S.S.)

“Every cloud has a silver lining”. It means that there is wisdom behind every calamity. Wise advice like this is certainly not something new that we hear. Whenever there is a disaster, the sentence is often conveyed by people around us as motivation to raise enthusiasm, invite positive thinking, or in order to imply the resignation of humans as weak creatures in front of Allah SWT. Unfortunately, “wisdom” is more attached to or attached to things that are not good in nature, such as calamities or losses, including disasters and calamities. In fact, wisdom has a broad meaning. The word wisdom in the Quran is mentioned 20 times in 19 verses and 12 surahs. The biggest lesson from the Covid-19 outbreak is of course human awareness to prepare and prepare for death, because as the Prophet Muhammad PBUH mentioned, “Wa kafa bil mauti wa idzho”, which means that death is enough as a reminder.

The pandemic invites people to reflect, be grateful for every breath before the blessing is taken suddenly. Preparing for death means appreciating life more. In one minute, the average adult human inhales 7-8 liters of air. If calculated in one day, then approximately an average human breathes 11,000 liters of air. This count occurs in a normal activity. If a person does more and more active activities, the more air he breathes, it can reach 12,000 liters of air every day. From a total of about 11,000 liters of air per day that we breathe, about 20% of it is oxygen. That is, per day a human breathes about 2,200 liters of oxygen (www.idntimes.com). This figure is based on the price of oxygen circulating in the market at the peak of the pandemic, which is hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah per liter, so if it is calculated nominally in rupiah terms, the value of the oxygen we breathe per day is very expensive, from hundreds of millions to billions of rupiah. Without much gratitude, Allah SWT is very generous, providing free oxygen in nature for us to breathe everyday.

The Covid pandemic has also provided an opportunity for most people to spend quality time at home, either alone or with family. Time to pause together and simultaneously throughout the world that may happen once in a lifetime. This situation gives wisdom to rebuild intimacy between family members, build a better communication climate. Basically, parents are the first institution in the education of children.

In the world of education, there are also some lessons behind this pandemic. Among them, students and teachers can master technology to support online learning. In this era of increasingly sophisticated technology, teachers and students are required to have the ability in the field of learning technology. Mastery of students and teachers of learning technology that varies greatly, is a challenge for them. With the Work From Home (WFH) policy, they are able to force and accelerate them to master digital learning technology as a necessity for them.

There were various distance learning media tried and used by the teachers. Facilities that can be used as online learning media include e-learning, zoom application, google classroom, youtube, and whatsapp social media. These facilities can be used optimally, as a medium in carrying out learning such as in class. By using these online media, indirectly the ability to use and access technology is increasingly controlled by students and teachers.

Although it is undeniable that this pandemic has also created difficulties in various sectors, we as Muslims need to be wise in taking lessons, especially during this virus outbreak. Because after all Allah created everything on this earth by His will and destiny. God also has a purpose and wisdom in it. And we as a ummah who believe and believe in the existence of Qodho and Qodar, we must find out the wisdom of everything that God has destined and see it with the eyes of the faith that we have. An example is this Corona virus outbreak that is happening among all of us. The greatest lesson is that with we become more aware that Allah is the creator of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

Even we as humans are only weak and helpless. We can see that even a small virus can shock humans with fear and panic that shakes the world. And with this virus, we as humans are made aware that the existence of this epidemic does not necessarily make us arrogant because it is Allah who has the power and effort over everything in this world.

Pandemic situation that we face nowadays provides wisdom for humans to be grateful for the blessings of health, including personal and environmental hygiene. In a pandemic era, maintaining health and hygiene does not only apply at the individual level, but throughout the environment and community. This is where mutual cooperation in goodness (taawun alal birri) is absolutely necessary, defeating sectoral egos. Believers are people who have a great contribution to others. It is this wisdom that we later need to take as a lesson to improve our relationship to Allah SWT and moreover as a wisdom to improve our lives as Muslims to move towards a better direction and a path that is blessed by Allah SWT.