ALLOH BUKAN MEMANGGIL ORANG YG MAMPU,TETAPI MEMAMPUKAN ORANG YANG MENJAWAB PANGGILAN NYA
Aku mengenalnya 12 tahun yang lalu, dalam sebuah acara pengajian rutin kami,…
Sosoknya terkadang membuatku bergegas untuk bersegera memenuhi apa yg beliau sarankan kepada kami, entah apa penyebabnya..di awal pertemuan dengannya pun aku merasa deg degan.karena konon dari informasi yang aku dapat beliau ini orangnya tegas (afwan ya…nggak berani dong kalo aku sebut beliau galak…emang singa/) dan benar…bahkan untuk menatap matanyapun terkadang aku tidak berani.sekilas dari pertemuan pertama kami, aku menangkap bahwa beliau memang orang yang cerdas, gesit dan sibuk.itu kesanku…
aku biasa memanggilnya dengan mba Sari…seindanh namanya,…kata katanya memang selalu menjadi sari bagi kehidupanku…banyak hal hal yg beliau kritik dalam kehidupanku…meski terkadang sakit hati di awalnya tetapi manis di akhirnya…
seiring berjalannya dengan waktu…aku mulai bisa memahami beliau..kelihatannya beliau adalah seorang koleris melankolis sejati.he…he…bisa di bayangkan kan?karisma yang ada padanya terpancar karena kesholehahannya…
ketegasan beliau memang terkadang membuaku stress…tapi melihat kedekatan beliau dengan ilahnya membuat aku menutup mata dengan segala hal yg terkadang bisa membuat aku menangis…tapi itulah beliau, kedekatan dengan Robbnya ini membuat semua nasihatnya terdengar bernas, mencambuk hati,dan memaksa jazadku untuk selalu menjadi lebih baik.
meski terkadang ada bebrapa temanku yang terheran heran dengan persahabatan kami…kok..mba heni bisa tahan ya?dengan orang yg keras sperti itu?aku hanya bisa tersenyum…yah…di sekelilingku banyak sekali orang orang keras, saat aku kecil,saat aku sekolah di sd,smp dan sma, bahkan tatkala kuliahpun banyak orang orang yang keras, tetapi Alhamdulillah aku bisa berdamai dengan mereka…aku bisa mendengarkan mereka bercerita…aku fikir…justru di balik kekerasan mereka tersimpan kelembutan loh….
seiring berjalannya waktu juga…beliau jadi seperti kakak , dan sebagai seorang adik pasti aku juga tahu dong…kehidupannya, subhanalloh..sangat sederhana..beliau berdua dengan suaminya..kalo boleh saya katakan betul betul rajin sekali bersedekah…bukan cuma dengan sedekah uang, tapi juga bersedekah dengan ilmu mereka,pekerjaan tetap suaminya adalah seorang pedagang buku…yg terkadang laku terkadang juga tidak.kesan yang aku tangkap adalah bahwa pekerjaan mereka berdua sebetulnya bukan berjualan buku …tapi justru berdakwah..dan pekerjaan sambilannya adalah pedagang buku.Alhamdulillah Alloh mencukupkannya untuk membiayai kehidupannya bahkan untuk kuliah ketiga anak mereka.
” Jangan takut masalah rejeki,.Allohlah yg mencukupkannya ” kata kata itu yg selalu beliau katakan, “yang penting Intan surulloha yansurukum,wa yu tsabit aqdamakum” barang siapa yang menolong agama Alloh pasti Alloh juga akan menolong kita dek…
Masya Alloh…resep mujarap ini pulalah yg aku terapkan sampai sekarang dalam berbisnis…orientasi sebenarnya adalah bisnis akhirat…sehingga Alloh pasti akan melancarkan bisnis kita di dunia…
tak masuk akal memang tapi inilah yang aku jalani…terkadang hampir satu minggu penuh aku berpindah dari majelis taklim ke majelis taklim..tanpa sempat mempromosikan jualanku (bakso, mpek@ dsb) tapi…Allohlah pemilik rezky,,selalu ada saja yang memesan daganganku…
kembali ke cerita tentang mba sari…
hingga awal januari 2011 , beliau tiba tiba meng sms “dek..doain mba ya..insya Alloh mba berangkat haji tahun 2015.iyya mba insya Alloh..waktu haji kemaren tanpa mba minta juga sudah aku doain kok…
ternyata ceritanya tidak akan sampai di 2015…karena 2 minggu yang lalu…tiba tiba telepon rumahku berdering jam 11 malem…
“dek…hick…hick…terust…hening….cuma ada suara tercekat menahan tangis…” ada apa mba?tanyaku penuh ke khawatiran,
“mas dek…” katanya meneruskan..”ada apa dengan mas Handoko mba? tanyaku khawatir…
“Alhamdulillah barusan dapat kabar kalo mas di tugaskan jadi TPHD” katanya masih dengan penuh haru…Alhamdulillah dong mba…terus kenapa menangis mba?bukannya harus bersyukur? tanyaku…
“hick..doain mba ya…adek kan tahu, mba sari nggak mau kalo kami hajinya sendiri sendiri,mba bener bener minta di dorong dengan doa, semoga Aloh benar benar mengundang kami berdua menjadi tamnu Nya …sekarang mas han lagi berusaha cari peluang kursi kosong di daerah temapt beliau di tugaskan, bener bener minta di dorong dengan doa ya dek…”
iyya mba insya Alloh, tenang saja mba…semua kejadian kan sudah di tulis di lauh mahfudz..pasrahkan semua kepada Alloh swt.mudah mudahan semuanya di mudahkan oleh Alloh swt.
2 hari kemudian aku mendapat sms…”dek nanti malem mba ke rumah yah”. meski penasaran juga , beliau mau apa ke rumah, tapi langsung aku jawab “siap mba”.dan ternyata bd magrib…beliau sudah di depan pintu rumahku sambil membawa martabak coklat manis kesukaan anak kami…” dek…katanya seolah tak sabar, mba Insya Alloh jadi berangkat haji sekarang..”katanya sambil memelukku, menangis berdua kami sambil berpelukan di depan pagar, Tabarakalloh…mba…alhamdulillah..” mba kesini mau belajar banyak yah…soalnya mba kan nggak sempat manasik…
“ah…mba ada ada saja..”biasa saja mba..kebetulan saja kami pergi lebih dahulu…kalo dari segi ilmu mba dan mas han lebih dari kami, kataku merendah…”.eh…serius dek…mba mau belajar…kan manasik itu sunah” kata beliau merendah.
dan malam itu, kami berempat benar benar berdiskusi, berbagi pengalaman sambil sama sama membuka kitab tentang haji.mempelajari hukum hukum mana yang rukun, mana yang syarat dan mana yang sunah, sambil berbagi pengalaman tentang pengalaman yg pernah kami lalui.
seperti dugaanku bukan manasik sebenarnya yg menjadi intinya…karena kalo dari segi ilmu beliau beliau ini lebih mumpuni dari kami.Dengan suara yang sedikit berat mas han menceritakan bahwa..dalam 2 hari ini beliau membutuhkan uang sekitar 20 jutaan sebagian untuk melunasi bpih mba sari, sebagian untuk bekal dan biaya beli hadyu, dan yang paling penting adalah uang saku untuk ketiga putra putri beliau.
kami berdua tercekat…ya Alloh,…seandainya kami punya, dan belum sempat kami mengemukakan alasan kami, mas han sudah mendahului, sebenarnya kami masih punya cadangannya sih..mobil VW tua kami…insya Alloh kalo di jual juga laku 20 an juta.tapi menjual mobil tua dalam waktu 2 hari sepertinya hal yang susah…katanya mengaakhiri pembicaraannya.
Dan malam itu kami tercenung…”allohumma yasirru wa la tu ashiru” ya Alloh…hamba yakin engkau pasti akan menolong dan mencarikan jalan keluar yang baik bagi dua orang sholeh ini…ehm…mas…coba nanti ana browsing ya ke komunitas mobil VW..siapa tahu ada yang minat…ana lihat mobil antum masih cukup terawat”, ana cuma butuh fotonya saja, besok pagi kalo sudah terang , yah sekitar jam tujuhan lah sebelum ana ke kantor ana foto dulu ya mas, siapa tahu bisa laku cepat.Alloh kan melihat usaha kita.
dan malam itu…mereka berpamitan.
esok paginya bersama suami aku berangkat ke rumah mba sari,
“assalamu’alaikum,”
“wa alaikum salam….masuk dek…”
kulihat mukanya ceria sekali meski matanya terlihat sembab bekas bekas air mata masih terlihat jelas di wajahnya.
‘duduk de…sebentar ya,,mas han lagi mandi dulu”
tak berapa lama mas han muncul dari dalam rumah.
wah..sudah siap bawa kamera nih katanya sambil menjabat tangan suamiku.
begini ah…ana jadi tambah bingung nih…kata mas Han membuka pembicaraan,
“antum sudah cerita ke mana saja akh?” tanyanya dengan serius…
“cerita apa mas?” dengan suara dan mimik yang tak kalah serius suamiku balik bertanya.
“cerita bab uang 20 juta?” kata mas Handoko
“ha?” kata suamiku kaget…”belum akhi,..belum sempat cerita cerita…kan tadi malem kita selesai jam 11 malem.ada apa mas?”
“begini akh johni, tadi malem sepulang dari tempat antum, ana dapat sms dari sesorang minta nomor rekening, ana kira berkaitan dengan iklan mobil vw , malah ana sempat berfikir..wah..antum cepet juga yah cara kerjanya,jadi ana kasih saja tuh nomor rekening”,kata mas han serius
“terus akh”kata mas johni nggak sabaran..
“tadi pagi ana dapat sms lagi..nih bunyinya”, kata mas han sambil memberikan hpnya ke tangan suamiku
Perlahan tapi pasti mas johnipun membaca sms tsb.dengan suara keras agar semua bisa mendengar : “mohon di cek apakah sudah di terima uang sebesar 25 juta?”
“ana langsung cek tuh akh john,
“Subhanalloh..ternyata memang ada uang masuk sebesar 25 juta, jadi ana sms balik”,uang sudah masuk, maaf ini dengan pak siapa ya?”mobil mau diambil kapan?kata mas han sambil memperagakan gerakan tangannya ketika sms.
“nggak berapa lama kemudian,kemudian orang itu sms “barakalloh..semoga antum bisa menjadi haji yang mambrur insya Alloh uangnya halal dan anggaplah itu rejeki dari Alloh”, sampai di sini ana jadi lemesh akh…ana masih bingung apa sebenarnya maksud sms tersebut, sampai ana ulang bersama istri di baca bolak balik…apa benar ini maksudnya si akh ini ngasih Rizki ke ana?”….dengan tetap berwajah tawadhu mas meneruskan ceritanya ,
“ana telepon saja nomornya,ternyata sampai sekarang nggak nyambung nyambung, bahkan dari tadi pagi ana sudah sibuk mencari cari adakah yg kenal dengan nomor kontak ini…tapi tak ada satupun yang faham…dan kenal…sepertinya “ikhwah ini” sengaja membeli kartu prabayar akh…yang sekali buang…subhanalloh…ana ingin sekali bertemumuka langsung…
Dan seperti tadi malam…kamipun menagis terharu…”Hal jazaa ul ihsanu ilal ihsan…” hal yang baik pasti akan di balas dengan kebaikan, kami yakin, orangnya pasti orang dekat dengan beliau…tapi subhanalloh…kami tak bisa menbaknya satu persatu.. siapapun yang menolong sahabat kami ini. kami yakin seratus persen…pasti akan mendapatkan balasan atas semua kebaikannya oleh Alloh SWT.
Dan Sekarang Alhamdulillah kedua sahabat kami sedang di Madinah sekarang sedang bersiap menuju ke makah al mukaromah, untuk bersiap melakukan prosesi haji. semoga di mudahlkan dalam menjalani ibadah mereka dan menjadi haji yg mabrur.aamiin.
But an unusual assortment of players, including furniture makers, the Chinese government, Republicans from states with a large base of furniture manufacturing and even some Democrats who championed early regulatory efforts, have questioned the E.P.A. proposal. The sustained opposition has held sway, as the agency is now preparing to ease key testing requirements before it releases the landmark federal health standard.
The E.P.A.’s five-year effort to adopt this rule offers another example of how industry opposition can delay and hamper attempts by the federal government to issue regulations, even to control substances known to be harmful to human health.
Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that can also cause respiratory ailments like asthma, but the potential of long-term exposure to cause cancers like myeloid leukemia is less well understood.
The E.P.A.’s decision would be the first time that the federal government has regulated formaldehyde inside most American homes.
“The stakes are high for public health,” said Tom Neltner, senior adviser for regulatory affairs at the National Center for Healthy Housing, who has closely monitored the debate over the rules. “What we can’t have here is an outcome that fails to confront the health threat we all know exists.”
The proposal would not ban formaldehyde — commonly used as an ingredient in wood glue in furniture and flooring — but it would impose rules that prevent dangerous levels of the chemical’s vapors from those products, and would set testing standards to ensure that products sold in the United States comply with those limits. The debate has sharpened in the face of growing concern about the safety of formaldehyde-treated flooring imported from Asia, especially China.
What is certain is that a lot of money is at stake: American companies sell billions of dollars’ worth of wood products each year that contain formaldehyde, and some argue that the proposed regulation would impose unfair costs and restrictions.
Determined to block the agency’s rule as proposed, these industry players have turned to the White House, members of Congress and top E.P.A. officials, pressing them to roll back the testing requirements in particular, calling them redundant and too expensive.
“There are potentially over a million manufacturing jobs that will be impacted if the proposed rule is finalized without changes,” wrote Bill Perdue, the chief lobbyist at the American Home Furnishings Alliance, a leading critic of the testing requirements in the proposed regulation, in one letter to the E.P.A.
Industry opposition helped create an odd alignment of forces working to thwart the rule. The White House moved to strike out key aspects of the proposal. Subsequent appeals for more changes were voiced by players as varied as Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, and Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, as well as furniture industry lobbyists.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 helped ignite the public debate over formaldehyde, after the deadly storm destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes along the Gulf of Mexico, forcing families into temporary trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The displaced storm victims quickly began reporting respiratory problems, burning eyes and other issues, and tests then confirmed high levels of formaldehyde fumes leaking into the air inside the trailers, which in many cases had been hastily constructed.
Public health advocates petitioned the E.P.A. to issue limits on formaldehyde in building materials and furniture used in homes, given that limits already existed for exposure in workplaces. But three years after the storm, only California had issued such limits.
Industry groups like the American Chemistry Council have repeatedly challenged the science linking formaldehyde to cancer, a position championed by David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana, who is a major recipient of chemical industry campaign contributions, and whom environmental groups have mockingly nicknamed “Senator Formaldehyde.”
In laminate flooring, formaldehyde is used as a bonding agent in the fiberboard (or other composite wood) core layer and may also be used in glues that bind layers together. Concerns were raised in March when certain laminate flooring imported from China was reported to contain levels of formaldehyde far exceeding the limit permitted by California.
Typical
laminate
flooring
CLEAR FINISH LAYER
Often made of melamine resin
PATTERN LAYER
Paper printed to resemble wood,
or a thin wood veneer
GLUE
Layers may be bound using
formaldehyde-based glues
CORE LAYER
Fiberboard or other
composite, formed using
formaldehyde-based adhesives
BASE LAYER
Moisture-resistant vapor barrier
What is formaldehyde?
Formaldehyde is a common chemical used in many industrial and household products as an adhesive, bonding agent or preservative. It is classified as a volatile organic compound. The term volatile means that, at room temperature, formaldehyde will vaporize, or become a gas. Products made with formaldehyde tend to release this gas into the air. If breathed in large quantities, it may cause health problems.
WHERE IT IS COMMONLY FOUND
POTENTIAL HEALTH RISKS
Pressed-wood and composite wood products
Wallpaper and paints
Spray foam insulation used in construction
Commercial wood floor finishes
Crease-resistant fabrics
In cigarette smoke, or in the fumes from combustion of other materials, including wood, oil and gasoline.
Exposure to formaldehyde in sufficient amounts may cause eye, throat or skin irritation, allergic reactions, and respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing or asthma.
Long-term exposure to high levels has been associated with cancer in humans and laboratory animals.
Exposure to formaldehyde may affect some people more severely than others.
By 2010, public health advocates and some industry groups secured bipartisan support in Congress for legislation that ordered the E.P.A. to issue federal rules that largely mirrored California’s restrictions. At the time, concerns were rising over the growing number of lower-priced furniture imports from Asia that might include contaminated products, while also hurting sales of American-made products.
Maneuvering began almost immediately after the E.P.A. prepared draft rules to formally enact the new standards.
White House records show at least five meetings in mid-2012 with industry executives — kitchen cabinet makers, chemical manufacturers, furniture trade associations and their lobbyists, like Brock R. Landry, of the Venable law firm. These parties, along with Senator Vitter’s office, appealed to top administration officials, asking them to intervene to roll back the E.P.A. proposal.
The White House Office of Management and Budget, which reviews major federal regulations before they are adopted, apparently agreed. After the White House review, the E.P.A. “redlined” many of the estimates of the monetary benefits that would be gained by reductions in related health ailments, like asthma and fertility issues, documents reviewed by The New York Times show.
As a result, the estimated benefit of the proposed rule dropped to $48 million a year, from as much as $278 million a year. The much-reduced amount deeply weakened the agency’s justification for the sometimes costly new testing that would be required under the new rules, a federal official involved in the effort said.
“It’s a redlining blood bath,” said Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University Law School professor and a former E.P.A. official, using the Washington phrase to describe when language is stricken from a proposed rule. “Almost the entire discussion of these potential benefits was excised.”
“That’s a huge difference,” said Luke Bolar, a spokesman for Mr. Vitter, of the reduced estimated financial benefits, saying the change was “clearly highlighting more mismanagement” at the E.P.A.
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The review’s outcome galvanized opponents in the furniture industry. They then targeted a provision that mandated new testing of laminated wood, a cheaper alternative to hardwood. (The California standard on which the law was based did not require such testing.)
But E.P.A. scientists had concluded that these laminate products — millions of which are sold annually in the United States — posed a particular risk. They said that when thin layers of wood, also known as laminate or veneer, are added to furniture or flooring in the final stages of manufacturing, the resulting product can generate dangerous levels of fumes from often-used formaldehyde-based glues.
Industry executives, outraged by what they considered an unnecessary and financially burdensome level of testing, turned every lever within reach to get the requirement removed. It would be particularly onerous, they argued, for small manufacturers that would have to repeatedly interrupt their work to do expensive new testing. The E.P.A. estimated that the expanded requirements for laminate products would cost the furniture industry tens of millions of dollars annually, while the industry said that the proposed rule over all would cost its 7,000 American manufacturing facilities over $200 million each year.
“A lot of people don’t seem to appreciate what a lot of these requirements do to a small operation,” said Dick Titus, executive vice president of the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association, whose members are predominantly small businesses. “A 10-person shop, for example, just really isn’t equipped to handle that type of thing.”
Photo
Becky Gillette wants strong regulation of formaldehyde.Credit Beth Hall for The New York Times
Big industry players also weighed in. Executives from companies including La-Z-Boy, Hooker Furniture and Ashley Furniture all flew to Washington for a series of meetings with the offices of lawmakers including House Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, and about a dozen other lawmakers, asking several of them to sign a letter prepared by the industry to press the E.P.A. to back down, according to an industry report describing the lobbying visit.
The industry lobbyists also held their own meeting at E.P.A. headquarters, and they urged Jim Jones, who oversaw the rule-making process as the assistant administrator for the agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, to visit a North Carolina furniture manufacturing plant. According to the trade group, Mr. Jones told them that the visit had “helped the agency shift its thinking” about the rules and how laminated products should be treated.
The resistance was particularly intense from lawmakers like Mr. Wicker of Mississippi, whose state is home to major manufacturing plants owned by Ashley Furniture Industries, the world’s largest furniture maker, and who is one of the biggest recipients in Congress of donations from the industry’s trade association. Asked if the political support played a role, a spokesman for Mr. Wicker replied: “Thousands of Mississippians depend on the furniture manufacturing industry for their livelihoods. Senator Wicker is committed to defending all Mississippians from government overreach.”
Individual companies like Ikea also intervened, as did the Chinese government, which claimed that the new rule would create a “great barrier” to the import of Chinese products because of higher costs.
Perhaps the most surprising objection came from Senator Boxer, of California, a longtime environmental advocate, whose office questioned why the E.P.A.’s rule went further than her home state’s in seeking testing on laminated products. “We did not advocate an outcome, other than safety,” her office said in a statement about why the senator raised concerns. “We said ‘Take a look to see if you have it right.’ ”
Safety advocates say that tighter restrictions — like the ones Ms. Boxer and Mr. Wicker, along with Representative Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, have questioned — are necessary, particularly for products coming from China, where items as varied as toys and Christmas lights have been found to violate American safety standards.
While Mr. Neltner, the environmental advocate who has been most involved in the review process, has been open to compromise, he has pressed the E.P.A. not to back down entirely, and to maintain a requirement that laminators verify that their products are safe.
An episode of CBS’s “60 Minutes” in March brought attention to the issue when it accused Lumber Liquidators, the discount flooring retailer, of selling laminate products with dangerous levels of formaldehyde. The company has disputed the show’s findings and test methods, maintaining that its products are safe.
“People think that just because Congress passed the legislation five years ago, the problem has been fixed,” said Becky Gillette, who then lived in coastal Mississippi, in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina, and was among the first to notice a pattern of complaints from people living in the trailers. “Real people’s faces and names come up in front of me when I think of the thousands of people who could get sick if this rule is not done right.”
An aide to Ms. Matsui rejected any suggestion that she was bending to industry pressure.
“From the beginning the public health has been our No. 1 concern,” said Kyle J. Victor, an aide to Ms. Matsui.
But further changes to the rule are likely, agency officials concede, as they say they are searching for a way to reduce the cost of complying with any final rule while maintaining public health goals. The question is just how radically the agency will revamp the testing requirement for laminated products — if it keeps it at all.
“It’s not a secret to anybody that is the most challenging issue,” said Mr. Jones, the E.P.A. official overseeing the process, adding that the health consequences from formaldehyde are real. “We have to reduce those exposures so that people can live healthy lives and not have to worry about being in their homes.”
