Asri Rabbani

Asri Rabbani, an icon in nasyid industry in Malaysia. For my readers outside Malaysia, nasyid is Islamic song to remind us of who we are (servant of Allah) and we we are going. Asri Rabbani passed away yesterday after he had fallen down before a show in RTM. He cried 'Allah!' when we fell down.

He possess such powerful voice. He can sing both high and low key note well. Most singers can only perform one of it well. He was very versatile and consistent in his dakwah or effort to spread the teaching of Islam through songs.

I was touched when one of his team member told listeners of Radio IKIM that a day before, he asked them all to congregate. There, he asked his team members to work hard for dakwah through commitment to Rabbani group. Rabbani is a big nasyid group consisting of ten or more members. They have been together for almost twenty years since the day of Nada Murni, the old name of the group. He was like a big brother that keeps everyone in his place. He is also their icon.

What strike me most is his consistency in dakwah. He was never involved in any kind of controversy. In music industry, that is kind of hard to do. But he has the strength. Partly because he has a big team members to take care of each other. They have become almost like blood brother. Every Hari Raya they team members will seek forgiveness from each other starting from him first. He is their big brother. And will always be.

He is known to never have said anything that might have hurt other people's feeling. Even when he try to correct his team member, he will do it in the softest way so that they will not have any bad feeling against him. Comparing myself to him in this aspect, I'm way behind. Not comparable at all. Can we learn to be like him? That's one of the legacy that he leave behind. Following the footstep of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (saw).

One of his nasyid song that stuck to my mind is Subuh Yang Terakhir. In this song he said if the dawn or subuh this morning is our last dawn, have we said 'I love you' to our loved one like our spouses, parents, kids, friends, etc. What he want to say is don't take our loves ones for granted and always show our love to them. Thank you Asri for the reminder. You will always be in our heart. May Allah put you with those who are near to Him. Amin.

May Allah bless us all.