Jendela Hati

Sesungguhnya mata itu jendela hati. Oh how deep. Well, these are not my words. They are Noor Suraya’s. Noor Suraya is one of (the few) my favorite Malay authors. Her books are published with quite a few publishers including Creative enterprise and Jemari Seni. Her writing is a little different compared to the other authors. If you have read 3 of her books, you would notice her style/plot. My favorite is of course, “Nyanyian Tanjung Sepi”, and it’s not because of some of you might thought an obvious reason. It’s not!

Her storyline could be a bit monotonous and you might not like her endings. What I love about her books mostly are the characters. Most of the characters are simple, humble and free of unnecessary drama. Another reason is the message/moral of her stories. It will grab you out of your fairy tale life and open your eyes to see what is more significant in life. Anyways, I’m not actually writing this to discuss her work. The first sentence is more what I interested in talking about.

“Sesungguhnya mata itu jendela hati”. The first time I read the sentence I was stunned by how accurate it is. Don’t you think it’s true? What is a Jendela, literally? A jendela is a small part of a building. It usually is small in size, yet it plays such an imperative role. It allows the person from inside to view the world outside, and it allows the passerby to steal a look inside.

It’s the same with our eyes. It is only a small part of our body, yet is capable of doing so much. Aside from its glamorous role as capturing the world’s beauty, it is also capable of portraying what is inside a person body to the outside world. Words can only describe so much but our eyes say a lot more. Its language is universal, crossing the borders of country, religion, and race. It is the most honest part of the body. It holds no lie, no secret.

Feelings are exposed bare nakedly in our eyes. The eyes sparkle in a lover’s gaze. And the sparkle can easily vanish in a sorrow. It flickers in quest and flaming in rage. Determination can easily be spotted in a sharp eye. Well, I’m no expert. But if you asked this to an artist, they can easily tell you the eyes’ language. A drawing can only look alive if the eyes of the object painted tell a story. Isn’t that why the portrait of Monalisa is famous of?

This is only one of many other functions of the eyes. Isn’t it amazing how something so small is capable of so much? All the praises for you, o Allah Almighty.

“On the Day, when their tongues, their hands and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions”

Al-Qur’an,24:24 (translation by Abdullah Yusof Ali)