Ketika berbicara tentang investasi yang menguntungkan, para pebisnis sering berasosiasi kepada emas, properti atau usaha. Itu adalah cara “kiri”. Jarang sekali pebisnis berpikir investasi yang prospektif dengan cara “kanan”.

Apa itu investasi cara kanan? Itulah bisnis yang disebutkan di dalam al-Quran atau al-Hadits, yang sangat profitable, dijamin marketable dan  feasible di dunia dan di akhirat. Beberapa contoh investasi cara kanan itu adalah zakat, sedekah, menyembelih hewan qurban, haji dan umrah. Tulisan ini adalah testimoni tentang investasi umrah, yaitu ibadah “haji kecil” ke Baitullah di Makkah al-Mukarramah.

Banyak cerita aneh seputar umrah. Ada yang bilang uangnya sudah diganti sebelum berangkat, atau rezekinya serasa dicurahkan dari langit. Ada juga yang berpendapat bahwa umrah  itu bukan biaya, namun investasi. Dan bukan investasi akhirat saja, namun juga investasi dunia. Pengalaman ketika menunaikan ibadah umrah membuatku mempercayai hal itu.

Aku pegawai BUMN sejak tahun 1993. Alhamdulillah, kami mempunyai usaha sampingan dengan hasil yang lumayan. Tahun 2008 kami punya uang enam puluhan juta rupiah. Ada tiga keinginan untuk menggunakannya.

Yang pertama, merenovasi rumah. Kami punya rumah di Yogyakarta yang terkena gempa tahun 2006. Sudah lebih dari dua tahun kami biarkan karena belum punya dana yang cukup.

Kedua, untuk uang muka membeli mobil baru. Kami sudah beberapa kali mempunyai mobil, namun tidak pernah baru. Selalu second  hand, bahkan third hand, fourth hand atau entah hand ke berapa. Terakhir, tahun 2007, kami menjual mobil  kami, dan berjanji untuk tidak membeli mobil lagi kecuali mobil baru.

Dan yang ketiga, umrah dengan istri. Ketika menunaikan ibadah haji tahun 2007, aku sendirian, karena uangnya hanya cukup untukku. Kalau saja uangku banyak, pasti aku mengajak anak, istri dan keluarga. Aku iri melihat kemesraan suami istri jamaah haji yang bisa berangkat bersama. Aku berdoa di depan ka’bah agar bisa ziarah setiap tahun bersama istri.

Istriku memilih merenovasi rumah atau membeli mobil baru, namun aku memilih umrah. Aku merasa doaku agar bisa ziarah bersama istri sudah diijabahi.  Meskipun istriku ikut bekerja mengelola usaha dan menjadi menteri keuangan dalam kabinet  rumah tangga, namun kepala negara dan kepala pemerintahannya tetap aku. Maka dia makmum saja, dan kami berangkat umrah berdua.

Kami berdoa di depan ka’bah memohon kebaikan di dunia dan di akhirat.  Sungguh, Allah itu al-Ghanidan al-Mughni, Mahakaya dan Maha Mencukupi. Sulit dipercaya. Tidak berapa lama, usai umrah, kami bisa merehab rumah dan membeli mobil baru.

Alhamdulillaah. Ada saja rezeki yang datang, dengan berbagai cara, yang kalau saja kami tidak mengalami sendiri sendiri, mungkin kami juga tidak percaya.

Tahun 2011 kejadian serupa berulang lagi. Kami punya uang seratusan juta rupiah. Ada tiga keinginan untuk membelanjakannya.

Yang pertama, membayar hutang.  Ada usaha trading kami yang macet, sehingga aku harus menyelesaikan tanggung jawab sebesar enam ratusan juta rupiah. Kalau uang itu kami bayarkan, kami jadi tidak punya uang lagi. Dan hutang kami juga masih belum bisa lunas.

Kedua, membangun rumah di Ngawi, Jawa Timur. Sejak tahun 2003, ketika bertugas di Ngawi, kami membuka  usaha. Dua tahun kemudian saya pindah tugas ke Bogor, dan mengontrak rumah di Ngawi agar usaha tetap berlanjut. Dengan berjalannya waktu, kami bisa membeli sebidang tanah di dekat rumah kontrakan, dan membuat gudang sederhana. Istriku ingin punya rumah di Ngawi, karena rumah kami yang di Yogyakarta sudah “hilang” lantaran kalah Pemilukada di kampung halaman kami, Rembang Jawa Tengah, tahun 2010.

Dan, anak-anak kami menyebar di UGM Yogyakarta, IPB Bogor dan Pondok Modern Gontor Putri Ngawi. Membangun rumah untuk usaha, dengan anak tiga, pembantu, karyawan dan ibunda mertua, dengan uang hanya cepek, sungguh hal yang amat tidak sederhana.

Dan, keinginan yang ketiga, umrah lagi. Kami sepakat bulat, memilih opsi ketiga, ziarah ke baitullah. Kami berangkat bersama anak sulung kami.

Sebenarnya kami juga mengajak ibunda, namun beliau tidak bersedia. Salah satunya karena tahu jalan cerita sesungguhnya. Istriku terlalu berterung terang, bahwa karena uang kami tidak cukup untuk melunasi hutang atau membangun rumah, maka sekalian saja kami pakai umrah.

Kami berdoa di depan ka’bah memohon kebaikan di dunia dan di akhirat. Sungguh,  Allah itu al-Ghanidan al-Mughni, Mahakaya dan Maha Mencukupi. Sulit dipercaya. Tidak berapa lama,  usai umrah, kami bisa melunasi hutang dan membangun rumah.

Alhamdulillaah. Ada saja rezeki yang datang, dengan berbagai cara, yang kalau saja kami tidak mengalami sendiri sendiri, mungkin kami juga tidak percaya.

Sejak itu kami kian yakin, umrah itu bukan biaya, namun investasi. Bukan investasi akhirat saja, namun juga investasi dunia. Kalau ada orang yang tidak percaya, itu urusannya. Kami juga tidak pernah memusingkan pendapat orang bahwa daripada uang dipakai umrah berkali-kali, lebih baik disedekahkan kepada fakir miskin. Bisa lebih bermanfaat. Kami hanya berdoa usai Thawaf Wada’, selain mohon agar bisa ziarah tiap tahun  dengan penuh iman dan takwa, kami juga mohon agar jika kami umrah, kami juga bisa mengumrahkan saudara, keluarga atau orang lain.

Dan,  kami juga berdoa agar bisa bersedekah senilai investasi umrah. Sekali lagi investasi umrah, bukan biaya umrah. Dan bukan umrah saja yang merupakan investasi akhirat dan dunia, namun juga zakat, sedekah, qurban, haji, dan lain-lain membelanjakan harta di jalan Allah. Allah itu Mahakaya, Maha Mencukupi, Maha Memberi Rezeki, dan Maha Mengabulkan Doa.

Sumber : www.islamedia.web.id

Baca Artikel Lainnya : JAMAAH UMROH DI TAHUN 2014 MENINGKAT

Over the last five years or so, it seemed there was little that Dean G. Skelos, the majority leader of the New York Senate, would not do for his son.

He pressed a powerful real estate executive to provide commissions to his son, a 32-year-old title insurance salesman, according to a federal criminal complaint. He helped get him a job at an environmental company and employed his influence to help the company get government work. He used his office to push natural gas drilling regulations that would have increased his son’s commissions.

He even tried to direct part of a $5.4 billion state budget windfall to fund government contracts that the company was seeking. And when the company was close to securing a storm-water contract from Nassau County, the senator, through an intermediary, pressured the company to pay his son more — or risk having the senator subvert the bid.

The criminal complaint, unsealed on Monday, lays out corruption charges against Senator Skelos and his son, Adam B. Skelos, the latest scandal to seize Albany, and potentially alter its power structure.

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The repeated and diverse efforts by Senator Skelos, a Long Island Republican, to use what prosecutors said was his political influence to find work, or at least income, for his son could send both men to federal prison. If they are convicted of all six charges against them, they face up to 20 years in prison for each of four of the six counts and up to 10 years for the remaining two.

Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, of Long Island, who serves as chairman of the Republican conference, emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday night to say that conference members agreed that Mr. Skelos should be benefited the “presumption of innocence,” and would stay in his leadership role.

“The leader has indicated he would like to remain as leader,” said Mr. LaValle, “and he has the support of the conference.” The case against Mr. Skelos and his son grew out of a broader inquiry into political corruption by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, that has already changed the face of the state capital. It is based in part, according to the six-count complaint, on conversations secretly recorded by one of two cooperating witnesses, and wiretaps on the cellphones of the senator and his son. Those recordings revealed that both men were concerned about electronic surveillance, and illustrated the son’s unsuccessful efforts to thwart it.

Adam Skelos took to using a “burner” phone, the complaint says, and told his father he wanted them to speak through a FaceTime video call in an apparent effort to avoid detection. They also used coded language at times.

At one point, Adam Skelos was recorded telling a Senate staff member of his frustration in not being able to speak openly to his father on the phone, noting that he could not “just send smoke signals or a little pigeon” carrying a message.

The 43-page complaint, sworn out by Paul M. Takla, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, outlines a five-year scheme to “monetize” the senator’s official position; it also lays bare the extent to which a father sought to use his position to help his son.

The charges accuse the two men of extorting payments through a real estate developer, Glenwood Management, based on Long Island, and the environmental company, AbTech Industries, in Scottsdale, Ariz., with the expectation that the money paid to Adam Skelos — nearly $220,000 in total — would influence his father’s actions.

Glenwood, one of the state’s most prolific campaign donors, had ties to AbTech through investments in the environmental firm’s parent company by Glenwood’s founding family and a senior executive.

The accusations in the complaint portray Senator Skelos as a man who, when it came to his son, was not shy about twisting arms, even in situations that might give other arm-twisters pause.

Seeking to help his son, Senator Skelos turned to the executive at Glenwood, which develops rental apartments in New York City and has much at stake when it comes to real estate legislation in Albany. The senator urged him to direct business to his son, who sold title insurance.

After much prodding, the executive, Charles C. Dorego, engineered a $20,000 payment to Adam Skelos from a title insurance company even though he did no work for the money. But far more lucrative was a consultant position that Mr. Dorego arranged for Adam Skelos at AbTech, which seeks government contracts to treat storm water. (Mr. Dorego is not identified by name in the complaint, but referred to only as CW-1, for Cooperating Witness 1.)

Senator Skelos appeared to take an active interest in his son’s new line of work. Adam Skelos sent him several drafts of his consulting agreement with AbTech, the complaint says, as well as the final deal that was struck.

“Mazel tov,” his father replied.

Senator Skelos sent relevant news articles to his son, including one about a sewage leak near Albany. When AbTech wanted to seek government contracts after Hurricane Sandy, the senator got on a conference call with his son and an AbTech executive, Bjornulf White, and offered advice. (Like Mr. Dorego, Mr. White is not named in the complaint, but referred to as CW-2.)

The assistance paid off: With the senator’s help, AbTech secured a contract worth up to $12 million from Nassau County, a big break for a struggling small business.

But the money was slow to materialize. The senator expressed impatience with county officials.

Adam Skelos, in a phone call with Mr. White in late December, suggested that his father would seek to punish the county. “I tell you this, the state is not going to do a [expletive] thing for the county,” he said.

Three days later, Senator Skelos pressed his case with the Nassau County executive, Edward P. Mangano, a fellow Republican. “Somebody feels like they’re just getting jerked around the last two years,” the senator said, referring to his son in what the complaint described as “coded language.”

The next day, the senator pursued the matter, as he and Mr. Mangano attended a wake for a slain New York City police officer. Senator Skelos then reassured his son, who called him while he was still at the wake. “All claims that are in will be taken care of,” the senator said.

AbTech’s fortunes appeared to weigh on his son. At one point in January, Adam Skelos told his father that if the company did not succeed, he would “lose the ability to pay for things.”

Making matters worse, in recent months, Senator Skelos and his son appeared to grow wary about who was watching them. In addition to making calls on the burner phone, Adam Skelos said he used the FaceTime video calling “because that doesn’t show up on the phone bill,” as he told Mr. White.

In late February, Adam Skelos arranged a pair of meetings between Mr. White and state senators; AbTech needed to win state legislation that would allow its contract to move beyond its initial stages. But Senator Skelos deemed the plan too risky and caused one of the meetings to be canceled.

In another recorded call, Adam Skelos, promising to be “very, very vague” on the phone, urged his father to allow the meeting. The senator offered a warning. “Right now we are in dangerous times, Adam,” he told him.

A month later, in another phone call that was recorded by the authorities, Adam Skelos complained that his father could not give him “real advice” about AbTech while the two men were speaking over the telephone.

“You can’t talk normally,” he told his father, “because it’s like [expletive] Preet Bharara is listening to every [expletive] phone call. It’s just [expletive] frustrating.”

“It is,” his father agreed.