Fasting month has made me productive, in term of writing. This is because, I am almost free from daily house chores such as doing laundry or cooking. I truly love it! Waking up at about 4.45am each morning to prepare some light meals to start our day of fasting. I didn't go back to sleep after that. I just clean up the dishes, do some clothes ironing for my husband, perform my dawn prayer and by seven something I will be sending Sara to school. After 7.30am, I'll be free. I will only be busy preparing meals for breaking the fast later in the afternoon.
About five something later in the afternoon, I started cooking and preparing meals to breaking the fast. Rice is a must for almost every household in Malaysia. Last night I made some black sauce beef, hot sauce chicken, some pan fried fish and mixed vegetables with salted fish. For dessert I made some sweet potatoes cubes laced with brown sugar and coconut cream.
Yesterday, the time for breaking the fast was at 7.42pm (for Langkawi area). It's very quiet nowadays since the two boys ,Ariff & Soffian were in the afternoon shift and Sophie was away in college, that only left three of us at home, my husband, Sara and me. After the fast breaking, we got ready for Terawih prayer at the nearby mosque. This prayer will only be performed during Ramadhan month. It is not compulsory as the five times daily prayer that we were obliged to do but it is encouraged for all to perform. I don't do it everyday but I do it whenever time and health permits. I find it so heart warming whenever we were at the mosque. It's buzzing with activities. Some jemaah (congregation members) were kind enough to bring in some food to be shared together. It's festive like. To me the best was when the Imam lead the prayer and the rest of us will follow suit. What I find amazing was when he,(the imam) only read one sentence of Quran verse, yet all of us will automatically know what to do instinctively, no matter which part of the world we're in.
Living the life of being a Muslim isn't as confined and suffocating as one would think. Islam never constrict its followers to become lame and inane. Quran and Hadith was to be the guideline for the Muslims. There's reasons why some things were totally forbidden for Muslim to do. Take for example, liquor. Why was it forbidden? Because it could lead to calamity or self destruction. Another example, why women should cover themselves? To avoid the ogling and wandering eyes of men. It all started from the eyes, then it leads to desire and then it leads to something further. When that happened, it could trigger jealousy,slandering and it could even break a strong-based marriage. Here's another one, same sex marriage. Our God, Allah, has made it clear that He created men and women to pair each other up hence produce children to fill up the world. What were to happen if one day everybody wants to marry the gender same as theirs? Let's say they adopt a child. How would the child feel when he/she was being ridiculed by other children at school? Some may argue this is human rights. In my humble opinion, even human rights has its limit.
From my point of view, if one is not happy with the rules and guidelines stated in the Holy Quran, then don't follow. Ignore it. Only thing is, a Muslim knew it full well that they were committing sin if they go against the teaching. But then again so does other religion. There's no difference in it. We do good we get the reward, the Heaven, we do bad we get another kind of reward,we go to hell (no pun intended). Quran words or alphabets was never altered, not even a single word since 610AD. It was preserved to guide mankind until the end of the world. Like Bible, Quran is for us to live our lives like a true human being. Without it, we could be equated to animals. No laws to abide to. Human become uncontrollable.
I don't understand why people everywhere have so much hatred against Islam. Islam is beautiful. The ugliness comes from the person who carries the identity of a Muslim and tarnished it with their extreme action and words.
I am a moderate Muslim. I pray as He wants,I fast during Ramadhan month, I pay tithe if and when I can afford it without compulsion. Islam even teach us to be kind and good especially towards others who are not Muslims. This is to show that Islam acknowledge other human beings the same as Muslims as we all were created by the same God.
Other than that I lead a normal life just like everybody else. I watch movies (I love Denzel Washington,by the way) as and when it pleases me. I sing karaoke to my heart out. I went window shopping and went out with my girlfriends for a chat. I told my children to live their life to the fullest. Wear hijab when they are totally ready and sincere, not doing it because it's fashionably so or because everybody else is doing it.
Whenever we do something, it should come from our heart. Because that is where the sincerity lies. One may come out with 101 beautiful quotes but if it didn't reach our hearts, then it is empty.
It saddened me when people crack a joke about my religion. Religion is something sacred to all mankind. I have never heard any Muslim make fun of Lord Buddha in the open. I never heard any one Muslim make a movie to disgrace Jesus openly. But our prophet, Muhammad had been ridiculed many a time over, through caricature paintings, movie or verbal abuse. We should be considerate and understanding towards each other. Muslims are patriotic when it comes to their religion and prophet. This is one of the reasons why the Muslim extremists carried out the suicidal bombings all over the world of which I truly against it. That is just not right because it involved the innocence.
Malaysia is a Muslim country with about fifty four percent Muslims living in it. We were taught about the values of being a Muslim since we were at a very tender age. Starting with a 5 times daily prayers, we were later introduced to fasting (no eating and drinking during daytime) , then Quran reading (meaning we had to learn the Arabic alphabets though many of us still don't fully understand the meaning of every sentences). Alhamdulilah, (means Praised be to Allah) we had finally absorbed some of the teachings into our life for our own good. Please do not judge all Muslims as terrorists. Come and visit our country and you will see for yourselves how the Muslims here live. We are a peaceful community and most of us are law abiding citizens. Overall we are moderate Muslims who loves our religion and at the same time respect the others.
I am proud to be a Muslim and I will pray for all of us to be well and able to live in a peaceful world without overwhelming hatred and prejudice towards one another.
Love,
Rose
16th.July '13
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