Ikhlas

by jen

I think Craig and I have both learned to practice Ikhlas while in Indonesia. I probably won’t get my explanation of the concept exactly right, but it comes from Islam and is deeply entrenched in culture on Java (and surely other parts of Indonesia.) The main idea is: sharing what you have without ever expecting anything back. I recently learned that Ikhlas also applies to other situations, like when we lose a loved one, or something gets stolen from us. In these situations, I suppose the idea is more like, “it’s ok that I lost this because it was never really mine to begin with.”

In the US, I feel that we buy someone a cup of coffee or cover their lunch, we often say, “it all evens out.” What we mean is, “i know you’ll get me back someday.” Ikhlas is more like, “i want to do this for you, knowing that i may never be repaid.”

We experience Ikhlas every day here- people give us fruit at school for no reason, people take us to visit faraway places in their car and buy us lunch because it’s fun, people cook for us if we show up at their house- it doesn’t matter if we politely and persistently refuse something or try to pay for it ourselves, because the people we interact with are equally persistent about helping us. And it’s not just because we’re foreign guests in their country, because I witness Ikhlas between other people every day.

I challenge you to pracice Ikhlas today. Give something or do something for someone without keeping track of it. I guess we would call this “random acts of kindness,” but here it isn’t random.