I met a lot of great minds (you too) with their niche in teaching, parenting, documentary, journalism, photography, videography, designing, content creating, Islamic teaching, businesses, marketers, talent managers, programmers, doctors, architects, engineers, politician…and the list goes on.
How-what-when-where-why makes you guys so great?
Most of them had treasured their own experience, ups and down, sad and mad, grateful and fulfilled, with their grip on the key knowledge and taking lessons, a deeper understanding of their audience’s psychology...and…the discovery about their own purpose. Voila, that's an ikigai trophy of life!
One thing I feel grateful for (also empathy) about myself, is overly thinking. “You are naturally a thinker”, as told by Raphil Rahman. And that’s what thinkers procastinate do a lot.
"Why can’t you just understand what has been told (dddoohhh)?", one of my college's buddy, Syed Nur Adaf Zhafry also teased me quite frequently.
Yeah I did, but the neuron keeps asking me, is there any more than that?
Until the day I met a legend who said, "There's more than just design", Asri Ahmad.
After practicing some of the mainstream psychology’s laws used in visual comm, marketing, branding, user’s law, reading from different knowledge and context, trying to understand a bit deeper the meaning of the Holy Quran…
I was stunned, it was a euphoric moment I found across them all!
I can’t help myself from not sharing this with all of you.
I am about to share in this lengthy article a preliminary observation and what I felt since years back. It’s unsettling until today because at first there was an “Aha” moment, then it became “Ahaa”, then “Ahaaaaa” & and now “Ah…ha?”. Looks like I am addicted to this thought coffee.
The Process
To put into context, my previous and current roles in the creative industry - from designing a single poster with just inspiration only (like anyone can do) to a designer with business and marketing understanding, dealing with various clients, have made me come up with these observations.
So I made a simple chart of what I have been doing this entire design life.
I started to chart the flow of my career journey to find the greatest treasure in my mind and genes. Instead of blaming the past (because I didn't get this realization earlier), I asked myself what kind of lessons. I stumbled upon the sketches, and my mind stopped responding like Adobe’s crush and recovered feature. No more Aha moment, just a complete silence. "I know nothing". The journaling exercises took a few months.
(The visual - coming soon)
I tried skimming through the pages again and again, I could feel the substance of communication instead of creative design, and I could sense some underlying rules. Not just that, the ability to influence, pierce through someone’s heart, and give a significant impact to the people who naturally need to connect with others. After a long marathon of WHY questions, this and that, I can understand why the late Steve Jobs says we just can keep connect the past, not the future.
"Because weand , as a creation, will not have the answer. But how can a big giant company have a very long product vision and roadmap? Because that’s their plan, and whoever makes a big effort towards that, will achieve it. Not an Advance Future Sight like ‘Kenbunshoku No Haki: Mirai Kan” in One Piece or The Script ‘A’ by Ywatch. But how about the old Simpson’s episode that predicted the future?"
Erm, for me, it is only a revision.
The Substances from The Almighty Creator, Revealed
They have a few similar substances, from what they have discovered, across that that I have been involved, and what have written more than 1,400 years ago. The are two sets of knowledge and understanding which are required to comprehend. The first one is the meaning of Surah Al-Fatihah (if you have not done it yet, I would suggest reading it here). Second, a brief explanation about the composition of the Quran in a book written by Ustaz Nouman Ali Khan & Sharif Randhawa, titled “The Divine Speech by Nouman Ali Khan”, Chapters 8 & 15. I am calling it as a substance first to avoid the conflict between names.
“It’s study means different things to different people”
Simplicity, always come after complexity
There are more than 300k letters to form 70k words in 6k verses. Then, those verses from the shortest to longest version, are chaptered in 114 surah. And yet, 113 of them are actually a lengthy explanation from the first surah which is Al-Fatihah which only have 7 verses. And you know what? The entire meaning of it is beneath in a single verse. Can you see how those 300k letters are being designed and summarised into one powerful verse here?
These are very structured methods to come to one conclusion, one goal, or the truth. So no matter what is being talked about, the end of mind is there.
Simplicity is to have a purpose
What’s the point of doing a lot of things in our daily life? Some of us might be answering, to achieve financial freedom, doing a passion project-that-can-fund-me-the-entire-life, or to preserve someone’s heart and body like the Taj Mahal, or to be a billionaire-to-the-moon, or finally, not doing nothing. Whatever.
That’s the case, you can’t live without whatever goal that you want. You are a creature that cannot live without it. Those who found their purpose, either successful or still thriving till their last breath. To live with a purpose is a must, to find the right purpose is a journey.
What’s more awesome than becoming the freest person on earth but actually realizing you’re submitting ourselves-within your own context and DNA, to the one and only Creator?
Access to the objective
Reckon again the first point of simplicity, there are ways to achieve the goal. Find the best that suits you, hold onto it, and keep thriving. For example, to be able to practice “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help” (this is the most powerful verse that I mentioned before), you need to understand the previous verse, or understand the meaning of Surah Al-Fatihah first. It will start with the idea of Rabbul ‘alamin, ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, and Yau-Middin.
The accessibility is given, right to our mind. Want more? read the other surah. Want it more? read the tafsir. Want it more? Read and understand the hadith.
The framework of simplicity, after complexity.
Do you remember the decreasing number before? From 300k to 70k to 6k to 114 to 7 to 1. I am not a fan of the secret of a magic number, odd or even number. When I bumped into this funnel, I thought there was more than just a number.
Miller’s Law used in the psychology of observation and communication, (you might be using it already without realize) says that the number of objects the average person can hold in working memory is about seven. It was put forward in 1956 edition of Psychology Review in a paper titled “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”. (You can test yourself here)
This concept has been applied to the arrangement of phone numbers, vehicle plate numbers, advertising, marketing, etc. Any message that is required to be disseminated to the user (or us, the creation), will be highly effective by using this concept. And that’s only one at the time I wrote this article (reserve others for later).
We are destined to be, always plural.
Haha. What is the meaning of this? Can’t you be the most special one? What is “I” or “me” then? No no no, that’s where I am heading. We are using the pronouns for our daily conversation, but not in absolute power. When I using “I”, there’s always other people who can address him/herself as “I” too. Together with all “I” users in the world, you’ve become a group of people who want to communicate.
When Oneness is defined (which is ‘Rabb’), others cannot have the same. The Creators will always not be the same as their creations. Whoever invented a new pattern or technology, does the invented product look, function, behave, and thrive like us humans? There are a few claims and notable attempts, but it is either controversy and not success till now.
So, in the Surah Al-Fatihah, there is one Arabic term that if you’re physically alone in prayer, you must address yourself as “We”, not “I”. “You alone I worship, You alone I ask for help”. Nope cannot.
The framework of simplicity does have a shape.
Based on the mentioned book, for me, is the most interesting part for me. The words already struck my heart, but my visual cortex needed something too.
There a lot of repetitive patterns, ring composition, mirror composition, its structure, and balance within each surah, the dovetailing (modern people say an easter egg) between surah which is commonly used in storytelling, the plot pyramid, and so on.
Guess what? All of these will end with one goal.
Who created us as men with a purpose?
It is still unsettled. Should I further study in Psychology? Islamic Psychology? Or informatics psychology? Or Quranic study? Would you like to share something my journey here? Much appreciated!