Listening 6: Husband's right on wife's income and can he stop her from spending on her parents? - Assim Al Hakeem

Sumber: https://youtu.be/qSGKJsKs4JM?feature=shared

the RAB asks and says a man isn't

working currently but his wife earns

decently in a business she spends 1/3 of

what she earns on family 1/3 she keeps

in savings and the remaining third she

gives to her parents her husband objects

to it and asks her to stop sponsoring

her parents as they're not needy

and keep the remaining third also in

savings he told her it is his right to

channel her spending she denies it and

asks for evidence they are from India

this is a frequently asked question and

through my humble experience whenever

issues over money arise this usually

does not end well whenever there is a

dispute over wealth over property over

spending this means that the

relationship between the spouses is not

positive and the vast majority of such

problems come when the wife is working

and she's earning and sometimes she

earns more than the man and this is when

the man intervenes and wants to have

control even on the wife's salary or to

at least have control where she spends

her money and dispute arises so what's

the ruling first of all we have to go to

the basics it is not something

that is dependent on our logic or our

taste or even our culture no it's not

the way to judge things in the early 60s

and 70s of the previous century the 20th

century the Muslims were bombarded with

movies TV series with programs depicting

and ready cooling a man with more than

one wife so what is called polygamy or

having more than one wife was fiercely

fought and attacked and this changed a

lot of the perception and the ideas of

the people to the extent that it became

normal for housewives even in the lands

of Islam born to Muslim parents living

in a Muslim country it was normal for a

woman to say let my husband go abroad

commit adultery fornicate does whatever

he wants and come back to me after a

month as my own husband and this is

better for me she says than him taking a

wife in halal where she would be a co

wife to me Subhan Allah she accepts him

to commit adultery and she turns a blind

eye to that so that he would not get

married in halal as Allah has prescribed

for him when there is a need likewise

nowadays we are bombarded through the

media through women movements you to me

- we - he as well movements calling for

empowerment of women

we have bloggers we have youtubers we

have celebrities coming and brainwashing

with filth the brains of women telling

them in confidence you can make a

difference you can be your own decider

of how your life goes

you don't need no one you can be

independent you have your choice you

have your freedom your face is your

identity

don't let anyone cover it don't let

anyone suppress you and hide you and

tell you what to do and what not to do

audhu billahi min ash-shaytaan-i'r

rajeem if Satan were to come he wouldn't

add anything more because all what

they're calling people to is to go out

of the boundaries of Islam this is what

their actual mission is now some of them

out of courtesy would probably say you

can do this through the Islamic channels

or through the Sharia how you want to

give women empowerment you want her to

get married without a guardian you want

her to travel without a Muharram you

want her to do whatever she wants take

off the hijab come out in western

clothes mixed with men where is Islam

she says I pray five times a day why do

you cover your hair when you pray

because Allah told me to cover and my

prayer would be invalid if I prayed

without covering my hair to shake so why

don't you cascade this to the rest of

your life the moral of what I want to

say I don't want to waste my your time

on such a topic the people nowadays are

bombarding women to be independent so if

you work then you're independent you

don't need a man in so many times we

here

this my job is more important my husband

and my kids because my job gives me

empowerment my husband and children

they'll tie me down and I would not

benefit from that so if we go back to

the basics we know that this is not the

way Islam works a wife is dependent on

her husband this is the norm she is

obedient to him and he is the guardian

and he decides almost everything in the

household he decides for the family for

the betterment of their lives and for

them to progress and to move on forward

this is the norm but there might be

exceptions there might be black sheeps

sheep in the family so we have to look

at each case by case scenario now as for

the rehab question if a woman is

currently working let us ask was this

condition stipulated in the marriage

contract meaning that when you proposed

her guardian or she said I'd like to

have your consent that after marriage I

continue to work and he says I agree so

they stipulated a condition and he

agreed in this case he's obliged to

allow her to work not only that he has

no control over a single penny of what

she earns and he has no right none

whatsoever to tell her who to spend it

on and who not to spend it on this has

to be cleared secondly if the condition

was not fulfilled at what was not

stipulated they did not ask for it

though she was working but when they

made the marriage contract they did not

stipulate this condition after marriage

it is the right of the husband to decide

whether to allow her to work or not to

work why because this is the meaning of

the Constitution of marriage that the

the wife stays home and the husband

works and provides simple as that now if

he allows her to work this is his

decision and by allowing her he would

compromise some of his rights because

instead of her being home 24/7 taking

care of his house and it was children of

him he is losing like 10 hours a day for

her to work here it is something that

they must reach a mutual agreement so

the husband in such a situation has the

right to say I don't want you to work

and it's a must that she obeys him or he

says I allow you to work but you have to

compensate me by paying for example for

the driver or for the maid who's working

instead of you cooking and cleaning or

to give me like 25 percent of your

salary this is what they agree upon it's

a business transaction the wife has all

the right to say this is not fair you're

not a man to ask such thing from your

wife I'm quitting this is her god-given

right she quits she sits home it's his

job but does life go on like this either

my way or the highway it doesn't

basically speaking I do not approve of

men taking anything from their women I

do not consider a man to be a proper

real man when he

stretches his hand begging his wife for

allowance or for her to buy the food if

his stone broke he should act like

someone whose stone broke rather than

being arrogant and insisting on this and

that as if she's obliged to work she's

not obliged to work and at the same time

I'm addressing this to the wife you have

to be wise so you have to balance things

up first of all every single penny that

you pay for the household for the food

for the rent for the electricity the

utilities Allah will reward you for this

if you anticipate the reward from allah

azza wajal

because it's not your obligation you're

not forced to do this even if you are

rich it is not your responsibility to

spend a dime on yourself on your

children or on the house

this is his duty and obligation if he's

jobless tough luck my money is my money

he has to manage so if you are giving a

helping hand may Allah reward you this

is good now if he says that you must not

pay one-third of your salary or income

to your parents I think that this is a

bit stupid with all due respect yeah and

he he doesn't work he doesn't provide

and he wants to be treated as a man at

the end of the day and Simon says don't

do this Simon Says do that this is

pathetic

this guy is out of his mind so as a

woman I am addressing your diplomacy and

intellect don't go to down to his level

don't share with him any of your

expenses

beware of having a mutual bank account

this is one of the wrong places to be in

your income your money your wealth keep

it in your savings your own bank account

nobody knows about it his savings and

money nobody knows about it it's his but

when you share everything that oh I got

a raise I got a bonus I my salary was

deducted so and so with him he tends to

get greedy so you have to separate these

things and don't tell him whether you

gave him your mom or your parents

something or not this is not his

responsibility may Allah reward you for

spending one third of your income over

the house when he's jobless but you have

to reach a compromise with him you have

to reach a mutual understanding that

listen Andy let's be realistic

you cannot beg and at the same time set

conditions so I give a euro to this

beggar and he says what would I do with

a euro I can't buy a pack of cigarettes

at least give me ten look at him what is

this when you're begging your ha we're

having the lower hand so whatever comes

you say I'd have the left risalah and

move on not to put such conditions but

at the end of the day Islamically we

judge it upon whether the condition to

work was stipulated in the contract or

not if not then you have to reach a

mutual understanding compromise and try

to find a solution out and remember that

you're setting a target and that is to

preserve your marriage and your family

if you go down the road of checking

every single penny you paid and where he

placed it and he's holding you

accountable and he is doing the record

books behind you then this marriage is

not going to end well may Allah shall

make it easy for all of you

Arti:--------------------------------

Pertanyaan RAB: Seorang pria saat ini tidak bekerja, tetapi istrinya berpenghasilan cukup baik dari bisnis. Ia membelanjakan 1/3 penghasilannya untuk keluarga, 1/3 ditabung, dan 1/3 diberikan kepada orang tuanya. Sang suami keberatan dan memintanya berhenti memberi kepada orang tuanya karena mereka tidak membutuhkan, dan menyimpan 1/3 tersebut ke tabungan. Ia mengatakan bahwa itu adalah haknya untuk mengatur pengeluaran istrinya. Istrinya menolak dan meminta dalil. Mereka berasal dari India.

Ini adalah pertanyaan yang sering ditanyakan, dan dari pengalaman saya yang sederhana, setiap kali muncul masalah tentang uang, biasanya tidak berakhir dengan baik. Ketika ada perselisihan tentang harta, properti, atau pengeluaran, itu pertanda bahwa hubungan suami-istri tidak sehat. Mayoritas masalah seperti ini terjadi ketika istri bekerja dan berpenghasilan, bahkan kadang lebih besar dari suami. Saat itulah suami ingin ikut campur dan mengendalikan gaji istri atau minimal menentukan ke mana uangnya dipakai, lalu timbul perselisihan.

Jadi, bagaimana hukumnya?

Pertama-tama kita kembali ke dasar. Ini bukan sesuatu yang bergantung pada logika, selera, atau budaya. Tidak. Itu bukan cara menilai. Pada tahun 1960-an dan 70-an, umat Islam dibombardir film, serial TV, dan program yang mencemooh poligami. Poligami dilawan keras, sehingga mengubah pola pikir masyarakat. Akibatnya, banyak wanita Muslimah lebih rela suaminya berzina di luar negeri daripada menikah lagi secara halal. Naudzubillah.

Demikian pula sekarang, media dan gerakan feminis membombardir wanita untuk menjadi independen. Blogger, YouTuber, selebriti terus mendorong ide bahwa wanita harus bebas, bisa memutuskan sendiri, tidak perlu suami, wajah adalah identitas, jangan biarkan siapa pun mengatur. Seolah-olah inilah kebebasan, padahal justru mengajak keluar dari batasan Islam.

Namun dalam Islam, normanya: seorang istri bergantung pada suami, taat kepadanya, dan suami adalah wali yang memutuskan banyak hal dalam rumah tangga demi kebaikan keluarga. Ada pengecualian, tentu, tapi aturan umumnya demikian.

Kembali ke kasus ini:

Jika seorang wanita bekerja, perlu ditanyakan:

Apakah ini disyaratkan dalam akad nikah?

Misalnya ia berkata: “Saya ingin setelah menikah tetap bekerja,” lalu wali atau calon suami setuju. Kalau ya, maka suami wajib membiarkannya bekerja, dan ia tidak punya hak sedikit pun atas gaji istri, atau menentukan ke mana uangnya dibelanjakan.

Jika tidak disyaratkan dalam akad, maka setelah menikah, suami berhak menentukan apakah mengizinkan istrinya bekerja atau tidak. Karena secara syariat, tugas istri di rumah, dan suamilah yang mencari nafkah. Jika suami izinkan, maka itu kompromi—ia kehilangan sebagian haknya karena istri tidak 24 jam di rumah. Maka boleh ada perjanjian saling ridha, misalnya: istri menyewa pembantu, atau menyumbang sebagian gaji untuk kebutuhan rumah.

Namun pada dasarnya, suami tidak boleh memaksa istri menyerahkan uangnya, apalagi jika tidak ada kesepakatan sejak awal.

Saya pribadi tidak setuju laki-laki meminta uang dari istrinya. Itu bukan sifat lelaki sejati. Jika benar-benar miskin, ia harus berusaha, bukan malah memaksa istrinya bekerja dan menanggung biaya rumah.

Bagi istri, setiap rupiah yang engkau keluarkan untuk rumah, makanan, listrik, meski bukan kewajibanmu, akan dibalas pahala oleh Allah. Karena itu adalah sedekah.

Tentang memberi ke orang tua:

Kalau suami tidak bekerja, lalu masih melarang istri memberi kepada orang tuanya yang tidak miskin, menurut saya itu tindakan yang kurang bijak. Ia seharusnya realistis. Jika tidak berpenghasilan, jangan sok berkuasa melarang-larang.

Saran praktis:

Jangan pernah memiliki rekening bersama.

Simpan uangmu di rekening pribadi.

Jangan laporkan detail penghasilanmu (kenaikan gaji, bonus, potongan, dll.) kepada suami agar tidak menimbulkan rasa iri atau rakus.

Jika ingin memberi kepada orang tua, lakukan dengan bijak tanpa harus selalu mengumumkannya.

Islam hanya melihat: apakah pekerjaan itu disyaratkan dalam akad nikah atau tidak. Jika iya, suami tidak berhak campur tangan. Jika tidak, maka harus ada kompromi, musyawarah, dan tujuan akhirnya adalah menjaga keutuhan pernikahan dan keluarga.

Kalau sampai menghitung setiap rupiah dan menuntut ini-itu, biasanya pernikahan seperti ini tidak akan berjalan baik.

Semoga Allah memudahkan urusan semua keluarga.

Listening 5: How to Get Your Brain to Focus | Chris Bailey | TEDxManchester

Sumber: (https://youtu.be/Hu4Yvq-g7_Y?si=j-Z7O-GfyaDsHsyq)

a few years ago

i began to observe
something in my own behavior
that made me a bit
uncomfortable
and that was that from the moment that i
woke up to the morning the to the end of
the day my life was a series of screens
i started the day with the thing that
woke me up first thing in the morning my
phone and so i sat there in bed watching
various cooking videos on instagram and
bouncing around between a bunch of
different applications but then
it was time to get out of bed and cook
breakfast and so the thing that i
focused then on in addition to the
omelette in the pan was the ipad that
was right next to the oven and then it
was time to do some work and so i went
to a different screen which was attached
to another screen itself all the while
this little
devil on my wrist was tapping and
beeping and blooping and distracting me
as i was trying to get important stuff
done
but there was one
particular offender out of all of these
different devices
that i wasted more time on than anything
else
that was this dastardly thing my phone i
could spend hours on this thing every
single day and so i decided to
essentially for all intents and purposes
get rid of the thing for a month as an
experiment i thought i'm going to live
on this thing for just 30 minutes every
single day at a maximum and so this is
the amount of time i have for maps this
is the amount of time to call my mother
this is the amount of time that i have
for everything that i could possibly
want to do to listen to music to listen
to podcasts and i observed what happened
during this time
it took about a week
to adjust downward into a new lower
level of stimulation but once i did
i noticed that three
curious things
began to happen
first my attention span grew
it was like i could focus on things not
effortlessly but with much more ease
than i could before this experiment
started
in addition to this though as i was
going about the world and especially
when my mind wandered a bit i had more
ideas
that my mind arrived at and on top of
this i had more plans and thoughts about
the future getting rid of one simple
device led to these three effects
why
noticing this a few years back led me on
this
long journey to get to the bottom of
what it takes to focus
in a world of distraction i poured over
hundreds of research papers from front
to back my office i don't know if you've
ever watched one of those crime shows
where somebody's solving a murder and so
they have this big bristol board and
their string attached to papers attached
to memos attached to newspaper clippers
this is like what the state of my office
was i flew out to meet experts around
the world who study focus i conducted
more experiments on myself until the
point i had 25 000 words of research
notes about why this is the case
how does technology influence our
attention and our ability to focus
i want to start
with the attention spans that we have
this is how we pay attention to the
world around us and how much control we
have over our focus
the research around this particular area
is fascinating it turns out that when we
two work in front of a computer
especially when our phone is nearby we
focus on one thing for just 40 seconds
before we switch to doing something else
and when we have things like slack open
as we're doing some work
this lowers to 35
seconds
but the reason that this is the case is
not what we might think after looking at
the research we think the problem
is that our brains are distracted
but after looking at the research this
is what i've come to know as a symptom
for the deeper problem which runs much
more deeply it's the root cause of this
distraction it's not that we're
distracted it's that our brains are over
stimulated
it's that we crave
distraction in the first place our
brains love these tiny little nuggets of
information and social media and email
and these things that we do over the
course of the day there's even a
mechanism in our mind called the novelty
bias
by which our mind rewards us with a hit
of dopamine one of those those wonderful
chem pleasure chemicals the same one
that we get when we uh eat and order a
whole
medium pizza from domino's that you know
the same one that we get when we make
love we get that same stimulation when
we check facebook we get this dopamine
coursing through our mind and so we not
only crave distraction but our mind
rewards us for seeking out and finding
distraction in the first place
so this is the state of our minds today
we're at this hyper-stimulated state
where we bounce around between these
bunch of different objects of attention
that are very very stimulating for our
mind and so i thought okay if the phone
had this impact on my attention span
what if i lowered how stimulated i was
even more still
and so
i you know this feeling that we
experience when we go from being in a
state of high
stimulation into a state of low
stimulation it has a name
that name is called boredom
you know this restlessness that we feel
when we have this super busy week and
then we're lying on the couch on a
sunday afternoon thinking all right what
am i doing now
so i challenged i put out a call to the
readers of my website and i asked them
what is the most
boring thing that you can think of doing
i'm going to make myself bored for an
hour a day for a month and so i did some
stuff that i still
i'm upset about from my readers to this
day day one i read the itunes terms and
conditions for one hour
it's actually shorter and more readable
than you might think day four i waited
on hold with air canada's baggage claims
department it's very easy
this is the trick if you want to make
yourself bored don't call the
reservations department call the baggage
claim people because you're gonna wait
for hours if you ever get through it all
day 19 i counted all the zeros that i
could in the first 10 000 digits of pi
day 24 i watched the
clock tick
tick
for one hour
and 27
other activities this month
geez
i still think back but curiously
i noticed the exact
same effects
as i did during the smartphone
experiment
it took about a week for my mind to
adjust downward into a newer lower level
of stimulation and this maps curiously
on top of research that shows that it
takes our mind about eight days to fully
calm down and rest like when we're on
vacation as an example our vacations
need to be longer than they are today
but i also noticed that my attention
span expanded
i was able to focus even more
effortlessly because
i wasn't surrounded by fewer
distractions but my mind was so much
less stimulated that it did not seek the
distraction in the first place
but the fun part were these ideas and
plans that struck me that didn't before
and the reason that this is the case is
because my mind had a chance to wander
more often
there's a great quote that i love that
you might be familiar with from j.r.r
tolkien where he says that not all those
who wander are lost
and the exact same thing is true it
turns out with regard to our focus with
regard to our attention if you think
back
to when your best most brilliant ideas
strike you you're rarely focused on
something
maybe
this morning you were taking a shower
or maybe some morning in the past and
then your mind had a chance to
connect several of the constellations of
ideas that were swirling around in your
mind to create an idea that would never
have materialized otherwise if you were
focused
on something else
on your phone
for example
this is a mode especially when we do
this deliberately when we deliberately
let our mind wander i call this mode
scatter focus
and the research shows that it lets our
mind come up with ideas it lets our mind
plan because of where our mind wanders
to
this is fascinating
it turns out that when we just let our
attention rest it goes to three main
places we think about the past
we think about the present and we think
about the future but we think about the
past less than we might think only about
12
of the time and often the time we're
recalling ideas
in these thought-wandering episodes
but the present which is a much more
productive place to wander
we want her to think about the present
28 of the time
and so this is you know it's something
as simple as you're typing up an email
and you can't find a way to phrase
something because it's very delicate
maybe it's political you go and walk to
another room you go to another room of
the house of the office the solution
hits you because your mind had a chance
to approach it and prod at that problem
from different directions
but here's the thing
our minds wander to think about the
future more than the past and the
present
combined whenever our mind is wandering
we think about the future 48
of the time this is why when we're
taking a shower we plan out our entire
day
even though it hasn't started yet
right this is called our mind's
prospective bias and it occurs when our
mind wanders
if you're good with math or maths i
should say
not in canada anymore these numbers
don't add up to 100s because the rest of
the time our mind is dull it's blank or
it doesn't have
an idea inside of it that is rooted in
time but whatever it is for you that
lets your mind wander something that's
simple something that doesn't consume
your full attention mine happens to be
something that is not necessarily
stereotypic of
my age and gender demographic but i love
to knit
knitting is one of my favorite hobbies i
knit in planes i knit on trains i knit
in hotel rooms i was knitting in the
hotel room before this event today
because it helps calm you down it helps
settle your nerves and i come up with so
many ideas when i knit i have a notepad
next to me
but whatever it is for you it might be
taking that extra long shower it might
be taking a bath upgrading your shower
to a bath so you can soak not just with
your body but with your ideas as well
it could be simple if you're at work
walking from one room to another in the
office
very simple
change but if you don't use your phone
during that walk
your mind will go to the meeting that
you're about to attend it'll go to the
call that you were just on it'll wander
to the ideas that are circulating and
it'll make you more creative in this way
it could be something as simple as
waiting in line
and just
i don't know waiting in line it could be
getting a massage you know whatever it
is that lets your mind
well i love this picture so much
whatever you love doing ask here's a pro
tip ask your masseuse to let you have a
notepad in the session because ideas
always come to you and you're always
incubating things and so capture them so
you can act upon them later
but i think
after doing this deep dive into the
research
we need to make two
fundamental shifts with regard to how we
think about our attention
we think that we need to fit more in you
know there's all this talk about
hustling
i'm an anti-hustler
i'm one of the laziest people you'll
ever meet and i think that's what gives
me so many ideas to talk and write about
we don't need to fit more in we're doing
enough we're doing too much we're doing
so much that our mind never wanders
anymore it's sad this is when our best
ideas and plans come to us we need more
space
if you look at what
allows traffic to move
down a highway
what allows it to move forward isn't how
fast cars are moving as you might expect
it's how much space exists between
the cars
that allows traffic to move forward
our work and our life are the same way
the second shift
we like to think of distraction as the
enemy of focus
it is not
it is a symptom of why
we find it difficult to focus which is
the fact that our mind is over
stimulated
i have a challenge for you
it's a two-week challenge but it's a
challenge to make your mind a bit less
stimulated and simply notice
what happens to your attention how many
ideas do you get how does your focus
change how many plans do you make so for
two weeks make your mind less stimulated
there are so many great features on
phones on devices that'll let us
eliminate
eliminate a lot of the time we waste on
our devices use those features not only
to become aware of how you spend your
time but how you can spend less so you
have more ideas
have a disconnection ritual every
evening one of my favorite daily rituals
i disconnect from the internet
completely from 8 pm to 8 a.m
my fiance and i we have a weekly
disconnection ritual a technology
sabbath every sunday so we can
disconnect from the digital world and
reconnect with
the physical world the real actual world
rediscover board you don't have to do it
for an hour please don't call air canada
it's just a world of help but rediscover
boredom just for a few minutes lay on
the couch and where does your mind go
and scatter your attention
you'll find some remarkably
fruitful things
in that
attentional zone
if there's one thing
that i have found to be true after doing
this deep dive into this world on how we
focus
it's that the state of our attention is
what determines the state of our lives
if we're distracted in each moment those
moments of distraction and over
stimulation build up and accumulate to
create a life that feels more distracted
and overwhelming like we don't have a
clear direction
but
when we become less stimulated when we
make our mind more calm
we get the benefits of added
productivity and focus and ideas and
creativity but we also live a better
life because of it
thank you so much
you

Arti:---------------------------------------------

Beberapa tahun lalu aku mulai mengamati sesuatu dalam perilakuku sendiri yang membuatku agak tidak nyaman, yaitu sejak aku bangun tidur di pagi hari sampai malam hari, hidupku hanyalah rangkaian layar. Aku memulai hari dengan hal pertama yang membangunkanku di pagi hari: ponselku. Aku duduk di tempat tidur menonton berbagai video memasak di Instagram dan berpindah-pindah di antara banyak aplikasi.

Lalu saatnya bangun dari tempat tidur dan memasak sarapan, hal yang juga kuperhatikan selain omelet di wajan adalah iPad yang ada di sebelah kompor. Kemudian tiba waktunya bekerja, jadi aku berpindah ke layar lain yang terhubung dengan layar lain. Sementara itu, “setan kecil” di pergelangan tanganku (jam pintar) terus mengetuk, berbunyi bip, bloop, dan mengganggu saat aku mencoba menyelesaikan hal penting.

Namun ada satu perangkat tertentu di antara semuanya yang paling banyak menyita waktuku—ponselku. Aku bisa menghabiskan berjam-jam setiap hari hanya dengan benda ini. Jadi aku memutuskan untuk benar-benar menyingkirkannya selama sebulan sebagai percobaan. Aku membatasi penggunaannya maksimal 30 menit sehari—untuk peta, menelepon ibuku, mendengarkan musik, podcast, atau hal lain yang mungkin ingin kulakukan.

Awalnya butuh sekitar seminggu untuk menyesuaikan diri ke tingkat stimulasi yang lebih rendah. Tapi setelah itu aku mulai memperhatikan tiga hal aneh:

Rentang perhatianku meningkat—aku bisa lebih mudah fokus.

Aku punya lebih banyak ide ketika pikiranku mengembara.

Aku membuat lebih banyak rencana dan pemikiran tentang masa depan.

Membuang satu perangkat sederhana saja bisa membawa efek ini.

Hal ini membuatku penasaran. Aku meneliti ratusan makalah, bertemu para ahli fokus di seluruh dunia, dan melakukan banyak eksperimen pada diriku sendiri sampai akhirnya aku mengumpulkan 25.000 kata catatan penelitian. Aku ingin tahu: bagaimana teknologi memengaruhi perhatian dan kemampuan kita untuk fokus?

Penelitian menunjukkan: ketika kita bekerja di depan komputer, apalagi dengan ponsel di dekat kita, kita rata-rata hanya fokus 40 detik sebelum beralih ke hal lain. Jika aplikasi seperti Slack terbuka, angka ini turun menjadi 35 detik.

Masalahnya bukan sekadar otak kita mudah terganggu. Akar masalahnya adalah otak kita terlalu terstimulasi. Kita mendambakan gangguan karena otak kita menyukai “nugget” informasi kecil—entah dari media sosial atau email. Setiap kali kita mendapatkan hal baru, otak memberi dopamin, zat kimia yang juga muncul saat kita makan enak atau jatuh cinta. Jadi, kita bukan hanya mudah terganggu—kita memang mencari gangguan itu sendiri.

Aku berpikir: kalau membatasi ponsel sudah memberi efek positif, bagaimana jika aku sengaja menurunkan tingkat stimulasi lebih jauh? Jawabannya adalah kebosanan. Jadi aku menantang diriku untuk membuat diri bosan 1 jam sehari selama sebulan. Aku melakukan hal-hal membosankan: membaca syarat dan ketentuan iTunes, menunggu di telepon dengan maskapai, menghitung nol dalam 10.000 digit pertama pi, bahkan hanya menatap jam berdetik selama sejam.

Ternyata, efeknya sama seperti percobaan ponsel. Setelah seminggu, pikiranku menyesuaikan. Rentang perhatianku makin panjang, aku lebih fokus, dan aku mendapat lebih banyak ide serta rencana. Karena pikiranku punya waktu untuk mengembara.

Seperti kata Tolkien: “Not all those who wander are lost.” (Tidak semua yang mengembara itu tersesat). Saat pikiran kita mengembara, kita justru menghubungkan ide-ide dan menghasilkan wawasan baru. Penelitian menunjukkan, ketika pikiran kita mengembara:

12% tentang masa lalu,

28% tentang masa kini,

48% tentang masa depan.

Itu sebabnya saat mandi kita bisa merencanakan satu hari penuh.

Ada istilah yang kusebut scatter focus—saat kita sengaja membiarkan pikiran mengembara. Inilah saat ide, rencana, dan kreativitas muncul. Untukku, kegiatan itu adalah merajut. Untuk orang lain bisa mandi, berjalan, menunggu, atau bahkan pijat.

Kesimpulannya: kita perlu dua perubahan besar tentang perhatian.

Kita tidak perlu “melakukan lebih banyak”. Justru kita terlalu banyak melakukan hal, sehingga pikiran tak pernah mengembara. Kita butuh ruang kosong. Seperti jalan raya—yang membuat lalu lintas lancar bukan kecepatan, melainkan jarak antar mobil.

Gangguan bukan musuh fokus—itu hanya gejala. Akar masalahnya adalah otak kita terlalu terstimulasi.

Aku punya tantangan untukmu: selama 2 minggu, buatlah pikiranmu kurang terstimulasi. Kurangi penggunaan perangkat, buat ritual bebas internet setiap malam, coba “sabat teknologi” seminggu sekali, dan temukan kembali kebosanan.

Karena satu hal yang kupelajari: keadaan perhatian kita menentukan keadaan hidup kita. Jika kita selalu terdistraksi, hidup akan terasa kacau. Tapi jika kita menenangkan pikiran, kita lebih fokus, lebih kreatif, lebih produktif—dan pada akhirnya, hidup kita jadi lebih baik.

Listening 4: When You're Lost, Pursue Yourself | Khairani Ashry | TEDxAnggerek Desa Youth

Transcriber: Ane Alonso SanchoR

Reviewer: Taoran Song

Sumber: (https://youtu.be/e4K9NH7-6I4?si=m0fC5zSEyLunhh63) 

If you ask me almost a decade ago,
this question, what do you
want to be when you grow up?
Or what do you want to do with your life?
I'd probably leave you
with no answer. And that's
because I genuinely do not know.

(Jika Anda bertanya kepada saya hampir satu dekade yang lalu,
pertanyaan ini: Apa yang ingin kamu jadi saat dewasa?
Atau Apa yang ingin kamu lakukan dengan hidupmu?
Mungkin saya tidak akan bisa menjawab.
Dan itu karena saya benar-benar tidak tahu..)

I was an A-level student figuring life,
or shall I say, enjoying life.
I was privileged enough
to be one of the students
in the most prestigious
school here in Brunei.

Saya adalah siswa A-level yang sedang mencari jati diri,
atau bisa juga dibilang, menikmati hidup.
Saya cukup beruntung menjadi salah satu murid
di sekolah paling bergengsi di Brunei.

My friends told me, my parents told me
and my teachers told me
to focus on your studies.
I always have. Have that in mind.

Teman-teman saya bilang, orang tua saya bilang,
dan guru-guru saya bilang,
“Fokuslah pada pelajaranmu.”
Saya selalu menyimpannya di pikiran.

But I don't have the privilege
to have academic as my weapon.
I wasn't the bright student,
but every time I mention
where I'm from, without a fail,
I'll get a wow. She's got brain.

Tapi saya tidak punya keistimewaan
untuk menjadikan akademik sebagai senjata saya.
Saya bukan siswa yang pintar cemerlang,
tetapi setiap kali saya menyebutkan dari mana saya berasal,
tanpa gagal, orang akan berkata “wow, dia pintar.”

Well, scientifically, I do.
We all do.
But then I'm not the A star student.
I wasn't a straight A student,
so I compensated in a different way.

Secara ilmiah, memang benar. 
Kita semua punya otak.
Tetapi saya bukan murid dengan nilai A bintang,
bukan juga murid dengan nilai A seterusnya.
Jadi saya mengimbanginya dengan cara lain.

If you knew me from back then,
I appear a lot on stage.
Not for public speaking, though.
I sang,
I've retired. Please don't ask me to sing.

Kalau Anda mengenal saya waktu itu,
saya sering tampil di panggung.
Bukan untuk pidato publik, tapi saya bernyanyi.
Sekarang saya sudah pensiun, jadi jangan minta saya bernyanyi lagi.

I've always missed my class.
Then I always tell my teacher.
Miss. I'm sorry I can't attend
to your class again.
But then, on the other hand,
I was like, yes,
we all been there.

Saya sering bolos kelas.
Saya selalu bilang ke guru,
“Bu, maaf saya tidak bisa hadir lagi ke kelas Anda.”
Tapi di sisi lain saya menikmatinya.

I truly enjoyed my time.
At one point I was a choir captain.
I was the head of field performance.
I was enjoying life,
but I was struggling academically.

Saya benar-benar menikmati waktu saya.
Pernah juga saya menjadi ketua paduan suara,
juga ketua penampilan lapangan.
Saya menikmati hidup,
tapi saya kesulitan dalam bidang akademik.

So with this question.
There's one thing
that I always ask myself.
It hasn't come up to my mind that what
I want to be because all of my friends,
they have their career path set.
I want to be a doctor.
I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be an accountant.
They all know what they want.
But I was just there, living life.

Jadi dengan pertanyaan tadi,
ada satu hal yang selalu saya tanyakan pada diri saya.
Tidak pernah terlintas di pikiran saya tentang
apa yang ingin saya jadi,
sementara semua teman saya sudah punya jalur karier.
Ada yang ingin jadi dokter, pengacara, akuntan.
Mereka semua tahu apa yang mereka mau.
Sementara saya hanya hidup menjalani hari.

During my O-levels,
I was really struggling.
So after I was done with my O-levels,
I requested to transfer school.
I really don't want to do my A-levels
because then I will screw myself.

Saat ujian O-level,
saya benar-benar kesulitan.
Setelah selesai, saya meminta pindah sekolah.
Saya benar-benar tidak ingin melanjutkan A-level,
karena saya tahu saya akan hancur sendiri.

But here's what my parents
and my teacher told me.
Just two more years.
Another two years and you'll graduate.
What convinced me was
when my teacher told me that you're
already in a prestigious school.
The universities will be seeing
our school first before other schools.

Tapi inilah yang orang tua dan guru saya katakan:
“Cuma dua tahun lagi. Dua tahun lagi kamu akan lulus.”
Yang meyakinkan saya adalah
ketika guru saya bilang:
“Kamu sudah ada di sekolah bergengsi.
Universitas akan melihat sekolah kita lebih dulu daripada yang lain.”

Now I was like, okay, I'm sold,
but do I really know what I want to do?
I don't even know what I want
to pursue in my university,
what major I will be taking.
I didn't know any of that.

Waktu itu saya pikir, “Oke, saya setuju.”
Tapi apakah saya benar-benar tahu apa yang ingin saya lakukan?
Saya bahkan tidak tahu jurusan apa yang akan saya ambil di universitas.
Saya tidak tahu apa pun tentang itu.

I still remember those conversations
as if they happened yesterday,
but they are still fresh in my mind
because that was the time
where I started to ask myself,
what do I want to do?
What do I want to pursue?

Saya masih ingat percakapan itu seolah baru kemarin.
Karena pada saat itulah saya mulai bertanya pada diri sendiri:
Apa yang ingin saya lakukan?
Apa yang ingin saya tekuni?

And that was when these questions
started to flood my head.
What makes me happy? What brings me joy?
Unfortunately.
I don't have an immediate answer,
but one thing that I know
is that deep down,
I know that I made for more.

Pertanyaan-pertanyaan itu membanjiri pikiran saya.
Apa yang membuat saya bahagia? Apa yang memberi saya kegembiraan?
Sayangnya, saya tidak punya jawaban langsung.
Tapi ada satu hal yang saya tahu:
jauh di lubuk hati, saya tahu saya diciptakan untuk hal yang lebih besar.

So let's walk back a little
to the O levels again.
I had quite a bit
of a following back then,
and I still remember how
my closet was practically vomiting
because I had too much clothes.

Kembali sedikit ke masa O-level.
Waktu itu saya cukup punya banyak pengikut.
Saya masih ingat bagaimana lemari saya
penuh sesak dengan pakaian.

And then that's where I built my platform,
where I could sell off my clothes.
Because I know that if I ask someone
to sell off my clothes, they'll be like,
Kai, this is too much.

Dari situlah saya membangun platform
untuk menjual pakaian saya.
Karena saya tahu kalau saya minta orang lain menjualkannya,
mereka akan berkata, “Kai, ini terlalu banyak.”

So I took the matters in my hands.
That's where I built my own venture
for fun initially.
But this goes on and on.
During my O-level years
and until my A-level years,

Jadi saya ambil alih sendiri.
Itulah awal mula usaha kecil saya.
Awalnya hanya untuk bersenang-senang.
Tapi itu terus berlanjut,
dari masa O-level sampai A-level.

I was juggling between studies.
I was also juggling between
my new venture,
trying to satisfy my 100 followers
for what I only had back then
I enjoyed. I truly enjoy packing stuff,
Delivering them.

Saya berjuang dengan pelajaran,
tapi juga sibuk dengan usaha baru saya.
Mencoba memuaskan sekitar 100 pengikut pertama saya.
Saya menikmatinya. Saya sangat menikmati
mengemas barang, mengirimnya.

The most tedious part is the photo taking.
There's a lot of logistics
going on back then,
but I enjoy it. I truly enjoyed it.
Gives me the fulfillment.

Bagian paling melelahkan adalah foto produk.
Banyak urusan logistik saat itu.
Tapi saya menikmatinya, itu memberi kepuasan.

I still remember.
I was really looking
forward to being 18 because why?
Because that was when the time that I
could register for my business license.
My birthday gift from myself
when I was 18. The first thing
that I did was to register my business
as an official business.

Saya sangat menunggu usia 18.
Kenapa? Karena saat itu saya bisa
mendaftarkan izin usaha.
Hadiah ulang tahun dari saya untuk diri saya sendiri
adalah mendaftarkan usaha saya secara resmi.

So now it's an official business.
It's not for fun anymore.
I have to think of how do I
turn from motivation to discipline?
Whether or not if I want to do it,
I have to do it because
I've signed up for it.
I've committed to it.

Sekarang ini resmi, bukan lagi main-main.
Saya harus berpikir:
bagaimana cara mengubah motivasi menjadi disiplin?
Entah saya mau atau tidak, saya harus melakukannya,
karena saya sudah berkomitmen.

So here's where I pivot.
I realized that doing thrifting a thrift
business will not get me anywhere,
at least in Brunei.
Again, I didn't have an immediate answer,
but along the way.
I found my answer.

Lalu saya mulai berubah arah.
Saya sadar bisnis thrift tidak akan membawa saya jauh,
setidaknya di Brunei.
Saya tidak langsung punya jawabannya.
Tapi sepanjang perjalanan, saya menemukannya.

How?
For context, my family goes on an annual
twice yearly for family trips.
So in one of our trips,
one of our customers asked me,
can you buy this for me?
I'll pay the price for it.
And I was like, oh,
there's a market for it.
There's a demand.

Suatu ketika saat liburan keluarga,
seorang pelanggan bertanya,
“Bisa belikan ini untuk saya? Saya bayar.”
Dan saya sadar, oh, ada pasarnya. Ada permintaan.

So I try to test it Sit.
And then, surprisingly,
I got a positive feedback.
I showed up for it day by day.
What started off as a few members now
to almost ten members
in our VIP community group all along.

Jadi saya coba, dan ternyata responsnya positif.
Saya melakukannya hari demi hari.
Dari awal hanya beberapa anggota,
sekarang jadi hampir sepuluh orang
di grup komunitas VIP kami.

That was my goal,
is to unleash my inner fire.
Listening to the voice inside
of me of what I want to do.
It looks different than most
of the career paths,
but this is what my voice tells me.

Itulah tujuan saya:
membangkitkan api dalam diri saya.
Mendengarkan suara hati saya.
Jalannya mungkin berbeda
dari jalur karier kebanyakan,
tapi inilah yang hati saya katakan.

I kept looking inward
and this is what I want to do for my life.
This is what brings me joy.
Seeing the satisfaction, seeing how happy
they are when I fulfill their orders,
I feel so fulfilled by that.
I feel so happy and that's

Saya terus melihat ke dalam diri.
Dan inilah yang ingin saya lakukan.
Inilah yang memberi saya kebahagiaan.
Melihat orang puas ketika pesanannya terpenuhi,
saya merasa sangat bahagia.

why I continued.
But then that's the thing.
When I started my personal
shopping business,

“Mengapa saya terus melanjutkannya. 
Tapi begitulah adanya. 
Saat saya memulai bisnis personal shopping saya,”

I started to ask question
how do I do the pricing?
How often shall I travel?
Did I find my answers right away?
Absolutely not.
But I figured it out along the way.

Tapi kemudian muncul pertanyaan:
bagaimana menentukan harga?
Seberapa sering saya harus bepergian?
Apakah saya langsung tahu jawabannya?
Tentu saja tidak. Tapi saya menemukannya di jalan.

So this is when I built my community.
I needed to find a way
to
make a platform where all
of us could gather around
and to shop together.
But then again, I don't want
this to be just a business transaction.
It's too boring for me.
Well, at least for me, it's too boring
for me. 

Dari situlah saya membangun komunitas.
Saya perlu platform
agar kita bisa berkumpul dan berbelanja bersama.
Tapi saya tidak ingin ini sekadar transaksi bisnis.
Itu terlalu membosankan.

I want to give a Value.
So that's when I use my community,
almost ten K members now
to share values.
Every rooms I step in,
I would share in my community group.
I would tell them top three
keys that I got from this event,
because I know that I'm privileged
to be in the room where most can't.

Jadi saya membagikan nilai.
Sekarang hampir 10 ribu anggota komunitas.
Setiap acara yang saya hadiri,
saya bagikan tiga hal penting yang saya dapat.
Karena saya tahu, saya beruntung bisa hadir di ruangan
yang tidak semua orang bisa.

I know there's still a huge gap
between potential and privilege.
My goal is to bridge that gap.

Tujuan saya adalah menjembatani
antara potensi dan kesempatan.

Here's the other challenge.
Owning a business
is not considered as a valid career here
in Brunei, and we all know that.
Why do you want to do business?
It's so unstable.
Just go with government lah.
Stable income.
You get all of the benefits.

Tantangan lainnya:
di Brunei, memiliki bisnis
tidak dianggap karier yang sah.
Selalu orang bilang:
“Kenapa mau berbisnis? Tidak stabil.
Lebih baik kerja pemerintah.
Gaji stabil, ada tunjangan.”

That's what I always hear.
It's not always easy.
You're fighting with yourself internally.
Whether. If you want
to listen to the outside world
or to listen to your voice.
What gives you joy?

Itu selalu saya dengar.
Tidak selalu mudah.
Ada pertarungan batin:
Apakah saya mau mendengarkan dunia luar,
atau mendengarkan suara hati saya?

I decided to do the latter.
My parents and I always have this talk.
It's okay.
You can stop doing your business.
I feel like you're struggling.
I feel like it's too hard for you.
But, Ma, I'm the one
that's doing the business.
How can you say that? It's hard
when you're not the one doing it.

Saya memilih yang terakhir.
Orang tua saya sering berkata,
“Tidak apa-apa, berhenti saja.
Terlalu sulit untukmu.”
Tapi saya menjawab:
“Bu, saya yang menjalani usaha ini.
Bagaimana Ibu bisa bilang sulit,
kalau bukan Ibu yang menjalaninya?”

But then again,
that's what life is all about.
Life is hard.
It's a matter of choosing your heart.

Memang berat.
Tapi begitulah hidup.
Hidup itu sulit.
Tinggal memilih kesulitan mana yang mau dijalani.

Eating healthy is hard,
but so is staying unfit.
Reading is hard,
but so is being unknowledgeable.
Starting your own venture
because it gives you joy is hard,
but so is staying in your comfort
zone that drains you.

Makan sehat itu sulit,
tapi tetap tidak fit juga sulit.
Membaca itu sulit,
tapi tetap bodoh juga sulit.
Memulai usaha itu sulit,
tapi tetap di zona nyaman yang mengurasmu juga sulit.

So you choose your heart.
And this is when I
realized that what aligns with me
is choosing my heart.
I love doing my business,
doing my new venture.
It gives me joy. It aligns with me.
It is what my inner voice tells me.

Jadi pilih kesulitanmu.
Saya sadar yang sejalan dengan saya
adalah memilih kesulitan saya sendiri.
Saya mencintai usaha saya.
Itu memberi saya kebahagiaan.
Itu sejalan dengan suara hati saya.

The mindset change that I've
gotten along the line in my journey.
I know I still have a long journey to go
is to acknowledge
how hard it is.
No rooms you enter is ever easy.
No job you enter is ever easy.

Saya tahu perjalanan saya masih panjang.
Dan saya harus mengakui betapa sulitnya.
Tidak ada ruangan yang mudah dimasuki.
Tidak ada pekerjaan yang mudah dimulai.

So that's when I feel the alignment.
That's when I sort of, like, found myself.
And that's how I got here.
Because I continued
to listen to the voice inside me.

Di situlah saya merasa menemukan diri saya.
Dan itulah bagaimana saya sampai di sini:
karena saya terus mendengarkan suara hati saya.

What I thought all this time.
Is to listen to others
and not knowing what to do.
I found my answer.
And in the end, it wasn't
about finding the perfect plan.
It was about finding myself
and build a life around it.

Selama ini saya pikir
saya harus mendengarkan orang lain.
Dan akhirnya tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan.
Ternyata jawabannya adalah
menemukan diri saya sendiri,
dan membangun hidup di sekitarnya.

Before I close my speech,
I would like to leave you with a quote
by my favorite author from his 48 Laws
of Power. You know it's Robert Greene.

Sebelum saya menutup pidato ini,
saya ingin meninggalkan sebuah kutipan
dari penulis favorit saya, Robert Greene,
dari bukunya 48 Laws of Power:

Do not accept the roles
that society foists
on you recreate yourself
by forging a new identity,
one that commands attention
and never bores the audience.
Be the master of your own image rather
than letting others define it for you.

“Jangan terima peran yang dipaksakan
masyarakat kepadamu.
Ciptakan dirimu kembali dengan
membentuk identitas baru,
yang menarik perhatian
dan tidak pernah membosankan.
Jadilah penguasa gambaran dirimu sendiri,
jangan biarkan orang lain mendefinisikannya untukmu.”

I resonate a lot with this.
Because when I finished my O-levels,
I really didn't know what to do.
I don't know who I was,
So I listened to others.
What? Their definition of success.
Taking a levels route.
I didn't listen to myself.

Saya sangat terhubung dengan kutipan ini.
Karena ketika saya selesai O-level,
saya benar-benar tidak tahu apa yang harus saya lakukan.
Saya tidak tahu siapa diri saya.
Jadi saya hanya mendengarkan orang lain,
mendengar definisi sukses versi mereka.
Saya mengikuti jalur A-level,
tanpa mendengarkan diri saya sendiri.

So from this.
If you're feeling lost,
if you still don't know what to do,
don't worry. You still have yourself.
It's time to pause. Look inwards
and ask yourself, does this bring me joy?
Does this makes me happy?
Does this align with me?

Jadi, jika Anda merasa tersesat,
jika Anda masih tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan,
jangan khawatir. Anda masih punya diri Anda sendiri.
Saatnya berhenti sejenak, lihat ke dalam,
dan tanyakan pada diri:
Apakah ini membuat saya bahagia?
Apakah ini memberi saya kegembiraan?
Apakah ini sejalan dengan diri saya?

Eventually, you'll find your answer.
Not immediately, but eventually
you'll find your answer. Thank you.

Pada akhirnya, Anda akan menemukan jawabannya.
Tidak langsung, tapi pada akhirnya
Anda akan menemukannya. Terima kasih.

Listening 3: Bagaimana Ahmed Deedat Memulai Perjalanan Dakwahnya

Sumber: (https://youtu.be/lnkD-c0iOCU?si=zz_KbBPt6I1_p5HS)

But beginning at the beginning, how did
I get started in this field of activity?
Soon after leaving school,
I started working in a country shop
somewhere out of the city of Durban
about 25 miles out.
There was a Muslim shop and across the
valley from the shop was a Christian
mission.
So these missionaries that they were
getting their training how to do jihad,
the crusades against the Muslims,
whatever they learned, they came to
practice on the Muslims in the shop.
All young men just have school, cheap
labor.
They would come into the shop to buy
sugar and salt, flour, rice.
But when they came to do the purchases,
they would start with as he says, you
know, your prophet Muhammad had so many
wives
and I knew nothing about that
about the wives of the prophet, our
mothers. I knew nothing about that.
They would say that your prophet
Muhammad, he spread his religion at the
point of the sword. He forced his thumb
down people's throats that if you don't
accept Islam, I'll chop off your head.
That's how he got the converts. I knew
nothing about that.
They say that the holy prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he copied
his book, the Quran from the Jews and
the Christians. This is the copy
imitation of the Christian Bible. I knew
nothing about that.
The only thing I knew about Islam was
that I was a Muslim and I read the
shahada the khala. If I met any of you
during that period in my teens and if I
ask you where you come from, you say
Kenya. I said about you meaning what
religion you belong to. You say you're a
Muslim.
So if you could sayallahuhammed
pass, you pass.
But what that meant, I didn't know. It
was like a magic formula. If you can say
it, you're a Muslim. If you can't say,
you're not a Muslim. That's all I knew.
Can you say
I hear it as you pass?
I prayed the way my father prayed. I
made song fasting the way my father
fasted. I made voodoo the way my father
did everything. I was a Muslim read the
shahada and led an ordinary Muslim life.
What these Christians are posing to me I
knew nothing about that. They making
life miserable for me and for the other
Muslim staff.
You feel like running away.
But where can you go? There was no jobs
to get. Jobs were difficult.
So you stick it out and but I'm looking
for an answer. I want Allah to help me.
Yeah Allah this misery. What am I what
am I bargaining for here? I come to ek
out a living and these Christians are
making life miserable for me.
But there was one thing I had. I had an
obsession for reading. Reading was my
pastime. Anything everything reading
reading reading anything I see in
writing I want to read. That was a
sickness I had.
And to to meet the requirement of this
sickness of mine, one Sunday morning, I
go to my boss's warehouse, his go down
and remaging through a pile of old
newspapers looking for something to
read. Better than an old newspaper. At
the worst, I'll take the old newspapers
and I read them because whatever I read
was news. 6 months old, a year old. No,
whatever I read, I didn't know. It's
news for me. I didn't know that today's
news today. You must know what's
happening today. No, no, that I didn't
know. If I read anything, I didn't know
it's news.
So, at the worst, newspaper. I would
take it into my room, start reading. But
in the meantime, I'm looking for
magazines.
Better than the newspaper. So, I move a
pile of newspapers and find one
magazine, put it one side. I move some
more newspapers and get another
magazine. I put it one side. While
ramaging through this old pile of
newspapers,
I come across a worm eaten book reddish
in color. I pick it up full of mildew.
When I pick it up, I start to sneeze.
Start to sneeze because of the mildew
worm.
And on the cover was written is harul
spelled out in English Latin script. I Z
H A R U L H A K is Harul Hak sounds like
Muslim is hak I sound like Muslim but
what is Hak I don't know
at the bottom in brackets in smaller
types is written the truth revealed so
maybe this word is har means the truth
revealed
so I sit down on the ground in the dust
and I start reading I got no time to
waste there they I'm hungry I want to
read what is it all about? So I read
started reading this book there on the
ground in the dust
that this book was written by an Arab
rah Hindi to help the Indian Muslims to
give battle to the Nasara the
Christians.
It speaks about the British conquest of
India as the British came and conquered
your country, conquered Ghana, conquered
Nigeria, they conquered India, they
conquered Malaysia. When they conquered
my country India, they realized that at
any time anybody will give them trouble
in India will be the Muslims
because power, rule, dominion was
wrenched out of their hand and once you
have tasted power, you aspire for it
once more. So the problem is the Muslim.
If you can convert the Muslim, if you
can teach him to turn the other cheek
like Jesus said, he will strike on the
right cheek doing the other. Once you
make the Muslim to do that, then you can
rule India for a thousand years.
So convert the Muslim. So they started
pouring in the missionaries like frogs
in the rainy season.
The Christian missionaries they started
coming into India and they started
challenging the Muslims to public
debates. Munaz
at first the Muslims were reluctant.
Number one they didn't know the
language. The British are speaking
English. I want to talk to you and
debate with you in English. He said I
don't know English. Our islands didn't
know English. Number two they had just
conquered us.
And if you speak too hard, too harsh,
they might send this to the Anderman
Islands, Blackwaters, like the Robin
Island in South Africa. Out of the way.
Shh. You want to take a chance? So the
Muslims were not cooperating. They
didn't want to debate. Number one,
language problem. Number two, fear.
So the Christian missionaries, they
mastered our language, uru, the language
of the elite, the alims.
And they started challenging us to
debate with you in your language.
Like our look we know we only know. So
the guy learn
we want to debate with him. Can you say
no in your language?
So the Muslims were forced to accept and
molana Abdul Aziz of Delhi. He accepted
the challenge. He was forced to accept
the challenge and the debate takes
place.
And I'm told in the book that 100,000
people gathered. There was no sound
system, no horns, nothing. Our voice
traveled to Allah was best. But people
were there watching from far and they
say, "Well, what's going on?" Somebody's
giving a commentary. He say, you know,
the mall and I gave one uppercut like
that. And this guy said commentaries are
going on, no sound system. There was no
sound system those days. So debate
starts with the reverend, reverend
founder by name, reverend founder, the
Britisher. He suggests to the molana
that molana sahed respected molana alim
gets patterned.
So the molana says you see Christianity
preceded Islam by 600 years as such you
have our elder brother you are 600 years
older than us and according to our
culture our elder brother has the first
chance.
Number two he say you are a guest. You
are a guest in our country. No doubt an
unwelcome guest but still you are a
guest. So according to our culture you
have the first presence.
So the reverend was forced to start and
he started with a question with a poser
with a riddle
said molana sah in udu speaking udu
molana sahib respected alim molana
where is your prophet Muhammad now now
this minute where is he now?
So the malana thought for a moment and
he said he is in
heavenly bliss with Allah subhanana wa
ta'ala.
out of that answer to him the second
question
said all right all right
if your prophet was with this Allah
where was he when his grandson Hussein
was martyed at Karbala
when Yazid chopped off his head where
was your prophet Muhammad then
so the molana again thought for a moment
and he said he was still in
heavenly bliss with Allah subhana wa
ta'ala out of that answer came the third
question. It was plan strategy.
Said all right all right. If your
Muhammad was with his Allah when his
grandson Hussein was martyed, killed,
slaughtered at Karbala, did he not ask
his Allah for help? Say tala. Oh my
lord, look what they're doing to my
grandson. Please help him out of his
difficulty. Didn't he ask his Allah for
help?
And there was a long pause.
And the the priest couldn't hold his
patience. He started stamping his feet.
So come on, come on. Did he not ask his
Allah for help? It's natural. Natural.
You should have a big brother.
Somebody's bullying you. You say,
"Brother, look man, look at this guy
here. What he's doing to me?" You
naturally you call for help. And Allah
is there, the almighty, the all
powerful, and you're not going to ask
him for help. Says, "Come on. Come on.
Did he or didn't he ask his Allah for
help?"
So the molana he said yes he did he did
ask Allah for that but what did Allah
say because we know he wasn't saved
what did Allah say and there was an
inordinate very long pause and the
priest again lost his patience started
stamping said come on come on what did
Allah say
the molana starts he says Allah cried
Allah cried so what Allah cried He said
there's a luck ride. He said I couldn't
save my own son Jesus. How can I save
your grandson
and the debate was over? The debate was
over. You see
the debate had nothing to do with facts.
facts. It was a matching of the wits,
cleverness. Who is the cleverer of the
two wins the battle
and alhamdulillah the molana won the
battle.
But this was the oldfashioned way of
trying to be argumentative, debating,
making a fool of you, making a mockery
of you, making a mockery of Islam. But
the Christians have advanced a lot since
then. They learned that the by this
method they can't get converts.
you're creating enemies, no converts. So
they use the psychology mentality, the
research, and they found out new ways
and means of asking questions.

Listening 2: Are you drinking enough water? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

 Are you drinking enough water? ⏲️ 6 Minute English
https://youtu.be/7F1iJZr-p4E?feature=shared

Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Phil, and I'm Beth.
Nowadays, I often see people carrying
water bottles with them
to make sure they drink enough.
How much water
do you drink a day, Phil?
Oh, I don't know.
Um, maybe about a litre.
OK. And do you know how much water
you should drink a day?
I think it's probably
about two litres.
Ah, well, the number many people
have heard is two litres a day.
Of course,
everyone needs to drink some water.
Over half the human body
is made up of it.
But exactly how much water
do we need to stay healthy?
That's what we'll be discussing
in this programme,
along with
some useful new vocabulary as well.
And speaking of vocabulary, remember
you can download all the new words
and phrases from this programme,
plus worksheet exercises
to help you learn them
on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Great! but first I have
a question for you, Phil.
I mentioned that over half
the human body consists of water,
but there's an even higher percentage
of water in our blood,
but how much? Is our blood
a) around 80% water?
b) around 90% water?
Or c) 100% water?
I think it's around 80% water.
OK, I will reveal the correct
answer later in the programme.
Our blood needs water
so it can carry nutrients
to the body's cells and organs.
The amount recommended is often given
as two litres a day.
But why? Here to discuss this
with BBC World Service programme
'The Food Chain' is
biologist, Professor John Speakman.
So, I'm not sure
how it was arrived at,
but it seems to be a number
that has taken grip
on a very large number of countries.
So, if you look at government
recommendations around the world,
they're pretty much all the same,
they pretty much all say everybody's got
to be drinking two litres of water.
Professor Speakman doesn't know
how the number
of two litres a day was arrived at -
how it was decided or calculated.
Nevertheless, the idea of drinking
two litres a day has taken grip
on many governments around the world.
When you say an idea has 'taken grip'
on something,
you mean it's taken control of it.
Yes, Professor Speakman says that
pretty much all governments
are giving
pretty much the same recommendation.
He uses the phrase 'pretty much'
to mean 'almost'.
For example, 'pretty much all governments
advise drinking two litres a day'
means, 'almost
all governments advise it'.
What Professor Speakman doesn't have,
however, is any scientific evidence
for this advice.
The number of exactly two litres
isn't based on scientific fact.
It's more of a ballpark
figure - a number, which is a guess,
but which you still believe is
approximately correct.
Actually, the amount of water in
our bodies is changing all the time.
Like your bank balance,
which goes down when you spend money,
your body loses water
all the time when you breathe, sweat,
or go to the toilet.
Exactly how much
you need to drink depends
on how much water
your body needs to replace,
and that mainly depends on your size.
But what happens when we drink less
than we should?
Here's hydration expert, Dr
Nidia Rodriguez-Sanchez,
describing the effects of dehydration
to BBC World Service's, 'The Food Chain'.
And also, many times
we start getting dehydrated and
we don't realise we are dehydrated.
So it's very common that we feel tired
or we feel, like, with a bit of a headache
or even we think we are hungry
and we go and get some food.
And actually what is happening is
that we are thirsty,
that we are dehydrated.
We're starting to show some signs,
or some symptoms of dehydration.
Dr Sanchez describes the effect
of dehydration, the condition
of not having enough water in your
body so that you feel ill or weak.
She mentions feeling tired,
having a headache,
or a dry mouth as symptoms
of dehydration.
Symptoms are signs or feelings
in the body showing the presence
of some illness or condition.
So, whether you drink a little more
or a little less, it seems that
around two litres of water a day is
a good way to keep your blood
and body healthy.
Speaking of which, Phil. It's time
to reveal the answer to my question,
what percentage
of our blood is water?
You said 80%, and the answer is 90%.
Our blood consists of around 90% water.
OK, let's recap the vocabulary
we've used,
starting with the phrase 'to arrive
at a number',
meaning to decide it
by doing calculations.
If an idea takes grip on something,
it takes control of it.
The phrase 'pretty much' means 'almost'.
For example, pretty much
everyone likes chocolates,
which means,
'almost everyone likes chocolate'.
A ballpark figure is
a phrase meaning 'a number, which is
an acceptably accurate approximation'.
Dehydration is the condition of
not having enough water in your body
so that you feel ill or weak.
And finally,
a symptom is a sign
or feeling in the body showing the
presence of an illness or condition.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
why not join me now,
and head over to
our website bbclearningenglish.com,
download the worksheet
for this programme,
and test yourself to see
how much you remember.
See you there soon.
Bye.

Reading 15: For a century and a half the piano

For a century and a half the piano has been one of the most popular solo instruments for Western music. Unlike string and wind instrument, the piano is completely self-sufficient, as it is able to play both the melody and its accompanying harmony at the same time. For this reason, it became the favorite household instrument of the nineteenth century.

The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instruments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries – the spinet, the dulcimer, and the virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, and the harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, a supremacy they maintained until the piano supplanted them at the end of the eighteenth century. The clavichord’s tone was metallic and never powerful; nevertheless, because of the variety of tone possible to it, many composers found the clavichord a sympathetic instrument for concert use, but the character of the tone could not be varied save by mechanical or structural devices.

The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a harpsichord maker in Italy (though musicologists point out several previous instances of the instrument). This instrument was called a piano e forte (soft and loud), to indicate its dynamic versatility; its strings were struck by a recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. The wires were much heavier in the earlier instruments. A series of mechanical improvements continuing well into the nineteenth century, including the introduction of pedals to sustain tone or to soften it, the perfection of a metal frame and steel wire of the finest quality, finally produced an instrument capable of myriad tonal effects from the most delicate harmonies to an almost orchestral fullness of sound, from a liquid, singing tone to a sharp, percussive brilliance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Selama satu setengah abad, piano telah menjadi salah satu instrumen solo paling populer dalam musik Barat. Tidak seperti instrumen gesek dan tiup, piano benar-benar mandiri, karena dapat memainkan melodi sekaligus harmoni pengiringnya pada saat yang sama. Oleh karena itu, piano menjadi instrumen rumah tangga favorit pada abad kesembilan belas.

Asal-usul piano dapat ditelusuri ke instrumen keyboard awal pada abad kelima belas dan keenam belas – spinet, dulcimer, dan virginal. Pada abad ketujuh belas, organ, klavikord, dan harpsikord menjadi instrumen utama dari kelompok keyboard, sebuah supremasi yang mereka pertahankan hingga piano menggantikan mereka pada akhir abad kedelapan belas. Bunyi klavikord bersifat logam dan tidak pernah kuat; meskipun demikian, karena variasi nada yang mungkin darinya, banyak komponis menganggap klavikord sebagai instrumen yang simpatik untuk digunakan dalam konser, tetapi karakter nadanya tidak dapat diubah kecuali dengan perangkat mekanis atau struktural.

Piano disempurnakan pada awal abad kedelapan belas oleh seorang pembuat harpsikord di Italia (meskipun para musikolog mencatat beberapa contoh sebelumnya dari instrumen ini). Instrumen ini disebut piano e forte (lembut dan keras), untuk menunjukkan keluwesan dinamisnya; senarnya dipukul oleh palu yang memantul kembali dengan kepala berlapis kain felt. Dawai pada instrumen awal jauh lebih berat. Serangkaian perbaikan mekanis berlanjut hingga abad kesembilan belas, termasuk diperkenalkannya pedal untuk mempertahankan nada atau melunakkannya, penyempurnaan kerangka logam dan kawat baja berkualitas tinggi, akhirnya menghasilkan instrumen yang mampu menghasilkan beragam efek tonal, mulai dari harmoni paling lembut hingga hampir menyerupai kelengkapan orkestra, dari nada cair yang merdu hingga kejernihan perkusi yang tajam.

Reading 14: The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark expedition, sponsored by President Jefferson, was the most important official examination of the high plains and the Northwest before the War of 1812. The President's secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, had been instructed to "explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean ...may offer her most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce." Captain William Clark, the younger brother of famed George Rogers Clerk, was invited to share the command of the exploring party.

Amid rumors that there were prehistoric mammoths wandering around the unknown region and that somewhere in its wilds was a mountain of rock salt 80 by 45 miles in extent, the two captains set out. The date was May 14, 1804. Their point of departure was the mouth of the Wood River, just across the Mississippi from the entrance of the Missouri River. After toiling up the Missouri all summer, the group wintered near the Mandan villages in the center of what is now North Dakota.

Resuming their journey in the spring of 1805, the men worked their way along the Missouri to its source and then crossed the mountains of western Montana and Idaho. Picking up a tributary of the Columbia River, they continued westward until they reached the Pacific Ocean, where they stayed until the following spring.

Lewis and Clark brought back much new information, including the knowledge that the continent was wider than originally supposed. More specifically, they learned a good deal about river drainages and mountain barriers. They ended speculation that an easy coast-to-coast route existed via the Missouri-Columbia River systems, and their reports of the climate, the animals and birds, the trees and plants, and the Indians of the West — though not immediately published — were made available to scientists.

--------------------------------------

Ekspedisi Lewis dan Clark, yang disponsori oleh Presiden Jefferson, merupakan pemeriksaan resmi paling penting terhadap dataran tinggi dan wilayah Barat Laut sebelum Perang 1812. Sekretaris Presiden, Kapten Meriwether Lewis, telah diperintahkan untuk "menjelajahi Sungai Missouri, dan sungai-sungai utama yang bermuara darinya, yang melalui alirannya dan hubungannya dengan perairan Samudra Pasifik ...dapat menawarkan jalur komunikasi air yang paling langsung dan praktis melintasi benua, untuk tujuan perdagangan." Kapten William Clark, adik dari George Rogers Clark yang terkenal, diundang untuk berbagi komando dalam kelompok penjelajah itu.

Di tengah rumor bahwa ada mammoth prasejarah yang berkeliaran di wilayah yang belum dikenal dan bahwa di suatu tempat di belantara itu terdapat gunung garam batu dengan ukuran 80 kali 45 mil, kedua kapten itu pun berangkat. Tanggal keberangkatan adalah 14 Mei 1804. Titik keberangkatan mereka adalah muara Sungai Wood, tepat di seberang Sungai Mississippi dari pintu masuk Sungai Missouri. Setelah bersusah payah menyusuri Sungai Missouri sepanjang musim panas, kelompok itu bermukim sementara di dekat desa Mandan di pusat wilayah yang sekarang dikenal sebagai Dakota Utara.

Melanjutkan perjalanan mereka pada musim semi tahun 1805, rombongan itu menelusuri Sungai Missouri hingga ke hulunya lalu melintasi pegunungan di barat Montana dan Idaho. Dengan mengikuti anak sungai dari Sungai Columbia, mereka terus bergerak ke barat hingga mencapai Samudra Pasifik, tempat mereka tinggal hingga musim semi berikutnya.

Lewis dan Clark membawa kembali banyak informasi baru, termasuk pengetahuan bahwa benua itu lebih luas daripada yang diduga sebelumnya. Secara lebih khusus, mereka mempelajari banyak hal tentang aliran sungai dan hambatan pegunungan. Mereka mengakhiri spekulasi bahwa ada jalur mudah dari pantai ke pantai melalui sistem Sungai Missouri-Columbia, dan laporan mereka mengenai iklim, hewan dan burung, pepohonan dan tumbuhan, serta penduduk Indian di Barat — meskipun tidak segera dipublikasikan — akhirnya tersedia bagi para ilmuwan.

Reading 13: The Preservation of Embryos

The preservation of embryos and juveniles is rare occurrence in the fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized. Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as marine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion. Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack if swift currents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial. Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.

The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish, and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos. Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.

Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched, and quarry operations factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pelestarian embrio dan hewan muda jarang terjadi dalam catatan fosil. Kerangka yang kecil dan rapuh biasanya tersebar oleh pemakan bangkai atau hancur oleh pelapukan sebelum sempat menjadi fosil. Namun, ichthyosaurus memiliki peluang lebih besar untuk diawetkan dibandingkan makhluk darat karena sebagai hewan laut, mereka cenderung hidup di lingkungan yang kurang rentan terhadap erosi. Meski begitu, proses fosilisasi mereka tetap memerlukan sejumlah faktor, seperti laju pembusukan jaringan lunak yang lambat, sedikit gangguan dari hewan lain, tidak adanya arus deras dan gelombang yang dapat menyerakkan tulang-tulang kecil, serta penguburan yang relatif cepat. Karena faktor-faktor tersebut, beberapa wilayah telah menjadi tempat penyimpanan fosil ichthyosaurus yang terawat baik.

Endapan di Holzmaden, Jerman, menyajikan sebuah kasus menarik untuk dianalisis. Sisa-sisa ichthyosaurus ditemukan dalam serpih laut bitumen berwarna hitam yang diendapkan sekitar 190 juta tahun yang lalu. Selama bertahun-tahun, ribuan spesimen reptil laut, ikan, dan invertebrata telah ditemukan dari batuan ini. Kualitas pelestariannya sangat luar biasa, tetapi yang lebih mengesankan adalah banyaknya fosil ichthyosaurus yang mengandung embrio yang terawetkan. Ichthyosaurus dengan embrio telah dilaporkan dari enam lapisan berbeda serpih di sebuah area kecil di sekitar Holzmaden, yang menunjukkan bahwa lokasi tertentu digunakan berulang kali oleh sejumlah besar ichthyosaurus dari waktu ke waktu. Embrio-embrio tersebut cukup maju dalam perkembangan fisiknya; sirip mereka, misalnya, sudah terbentuk dengan baik. Bahkan, ada satu spesimen yang terawetkan di dalam saluran kelahiran. Selain itu, serpih tersebut juga mengandung sisa-sisa banyak bayi baru lahir yang panjangnya antara 20 hingga 30 inci.

Mengapa ada begitu banyak betina hamil dan anak ichthyosaurus di Holzmaden, padahal di tempat lain mereka sangat jarang ditemukan? Kualitas pelestariannya hampir tak tertandingi, dan faktor-faktor operasional penambangan tidak dapat menjelaskan pertanyaan menarik tentang bagaimana bisa terdapat konsentrasi besar ichthyosaurus hamil di suatu tempat tertentu tepat pada waktu yang sangat dekat dengan masa melahirkan mereka.

Reading 12: Mass Transportation

Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant from city centers than they were in the pre-modern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.

Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.

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Transportasi massal merevisi struktur sosial dan ekonomi kota Amerika dengan tiga cara mendasar. Transportasi massal memicu perluasan fisik, mengatur penduduk serta penggunaan lahan, dan mempercepat ketidakstabilan bawaan kehidupan perkotaan. Dengan membuka wilayah luas yang belum dihuni untuk perluasan perumahan, bus umum, kereta kuda, kereta komuter, dan trem listrik menarik kawasan pemukiman menjauh dua hingga empat kali lipat lebih jauh dari pusat kota dibandingkan era pra-modern. Pada tahun 1850, misalnya, batas kota Boston hanya berjarak kurang lebih dua mil dari distrik bisnis lama; pada pergantian abad radius tersebut meluas hingga sepuluh mil. Kini mereka yang mampu secara finansial dapat tinggal jauh dari pusat kota lama dan tetap bisa pulang-pergi ke sana untuk bekerja, berbelanja, dan hiburan. Aksesibilitas baru terhadap lahan di sekitar pinggiran hampir setiap kota besar memicu ledakan pembangunan properti dan mendorong apa yang sekarang kita kenal sebagai perluasan kota (urban sprawl). Antara tahun 1890 dan 1920, misalnya, sekitar 250.000 lahan hunian baru tercatat dalam batas kota Chicago, sebagian besar berlokasi di daerah pinggiran. Pada periode yang sama, 550.000 lainnya dipetakan di luar batas kota tetapi masih dalam wilayah metropolitan. Karena ingin memanfaatkan peluang mobilitas, para pengembang properti menambahkan 800.000 lahan potensial untuk pembangunan di wilayah Chicago hanya dalam waktu tiga puluh tahun – lahan yang dapat menampung lima hingga enam juta orang.

Tentu saja, banyak yang tidak pernah ditempati; selalu ada surplus besar tanah yang sudah dipetakan tetapi kosong di sekitar Chicago dan kota lainnya. Kelebihan ini menekankan ciri khas dari perluasan hunian yang terkait dengan pertumbuhan transportasi massal: perluasan kota (urban sprawl) pada dasarnya tidak direncanakan. Hal itu dilakukan oleh ribuan investor kecil yang kurang memperhatikan tata guna lahan yang terkoordinasi atau pengguna lahan di masa depan. Mereka yang membeli dan menyiapkan tanah untuk tujuan perumahan, terutama lahan di dekat atau di luar batas kota tempat jalur transportasi dan penduduk kelas menengah diperkirakan akan berkembang, melakukannya sama banyaknya untuk menciptakan permintaan seperti untuk meresponsnya. Chicago adalah contoh utama dari proses ini. Pembagian lahan perumahan di sana berlangsung jauh lebih cepat daripada pertumbuhan penduduk.