What came to us...

photo by Sue Anna Joe

I have this one thing to talk about. I was thinking of writing this since a long time ago but I did not get the chance. Firstly, this entry is not to condemn anyone but only a plain personal opinion about what the community is facing right now. By the way, the concern is mainly regarding the Muslim women nowadays.

When my mom got married with my dad, she wasn't wearing hijab (tudung) but later, after few years into marriage, she started wearing hijab, which is a bless. It's the order from our Lord 'Azzawajalla towards the women. That was around the 80's. Most people have more concern on religious matters during that time and until now. Alhamdulillah. Even most parents instill Islam in their children's daily routine nowadays. We used to be "jahil" but things are getting better and better. If my grandma never asked my mom to wear hijab when she was younger, now it's different. My mom always reminds her children to cover their aurat necessarily.

As we are moving towards better understanding in our Deen, there are still obstacles coming our way. That's life right? On the straight path, you might found your way into bushes, fallen trees, hidden holes, etc. It's never easy. So I thnk I saw this one obstacle that may put us in confusion or we may realize it but we just can't resist it. Lately, wearing hijab is getting more attention from Muslim women. I'm discussing this in regards of the Muslim women in Malaysia because I'm not sure what it's like in the other countries.

Fashion has becoming a powerful device in influencing our way of life. I'm not saying it's totally wrong. It's simple. If you are following the proper guidelines outlined by Islam, you're on the right track I suppose but if it's otherwise, you need to do something about it. When we talk about fashion, what comes to mind is how you dress up and how you want people to look at you. Then, we will hear few reasons why people are into fashion. Some of them will say, oh I feel good and have more confidence when I wear this and this. Maybe some will say, oh I don't want people to look at me as selekeh if I wear that and that. And the reasons goes on and on until we forget what Islam taught us in dressing up, which is one of the earliest things we learn at sekolah agama. I like Yuna. Her voice is really good and she's good looking too. Her presence in the music industry in our country has brought quite a wave to us. I think most Malaysian know her. She's an icon. There are people who will say that it's a good thing to have a girl with hijab and a guitar being an icon for the country. Their reasons might be: It shows that Islam doesn't oppress; There will be more people considering wearing hijab; and so on. However, if you are critical enough in judging this matter, you will say that it's a "No" for a Muslim woman to publicize her voice. There are certain cases where they can let their voice heard but music is not one of the cases. I don't want to talk more on this because it's not what I want to focus on.

The thing that I want to focus on is about how this kind of thing influences the people. There are women who started wearing hijab, which is good, but not according to how they supposed to wear it, which is not good. And there are women who from wearing the hijab properly, turn into wearing the hijab according to the fashion brought by the icons, which is to me, not good. This topic can make a great debate. But if you are impartial, you can see and realize that it is a simple issue. When it's wrong+right, it's wrong. This is only about hijab. We haven't touched on shirt, pants, socks, shoes, etc.

This is one big challenge for the Muslim women to face. I understand how hard this could be for them. Fighting our "Nafsu" is never an easy task plus with the "Syaitan" wh are always finding opportunities to discourage us from following the straight path. I was thinking of including few hadith or verses from the Quran regarding this but it's late and I'm too tired. Hopefully I'll get to quote them later. I hope this reminder will make us think and moves us to a better spot among the Mukminun. Amin.

Allah knows better.

In Allah we have faith

What we used to be...

So here I am. It's been a while since the last time I was here. Actually I still keep in touch with this blog from time to time to read other people's blog but not to write mine. I was thinking that no one reads my blog and therefore it won't bother any of my followers. But I was wrong. I just got a message from a follower telling me to update my blog. This is so embarrassing for me. I mean, I already have a blog and I have followers. The right thing to do is to keep updating the blog from time to time. It's a commitment right there. I'm so sorry for my selfishness and I will try my best to show some love to this blog by updating it in a timely manner.

I have no idea what to write. Since it is my long awaited return to the blog, I definitely need to write something really good you know. And maybe that is one reason why I've been away for quite a while. Just because I have nothing good to share with you guys. Okay that's a lie. Actually I have something that I can share perhaps. Just now, I was talking with my dad on Skype. We talked for about 2 hours. Yes, it is that long! When we talk, we can never stop. Things keep coming until one of us realized about how time has passed us by and finally we call it a day. But yeah, my relationship with my dad is really close. We can talk almost about anything; politics, religion, social, entertainment, sports, emotion, etc. You name it! There's almost no barrier.

We were talking about this one thing faced by the Muslims all over the world. Islam used to be strong and powerful until we nearly conquered 2/3 of the world. Cordoba in Spain was under our power, which was used to be under Christian's rule. On that time people all over the world were sending their children to study there. And when they graduated, they came home wearing "jubah" and other cloths that symbolizes Islam and they were proud about it. But what the hell happened to us now? We send our children to study to other western countries and we feel proud about it. This example is to show that Islam's position is getting more inferior, which is not right at all.

I know everyone of us realize about Islam being inferior. People can't see why Islam is the true religion. The Muslims can only talk proudly about the success history of Islam civilization, but they are all history. What about now? Anything significant? Nothing. Not a thing. But why? That's a big question to answer right there. The answer is simple. It's us. It's the Muslims. Point your finger on yourself.

When we looked at the prophet before Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), we know that their people twisted the real revelation that Allah sent to them. In that case, they have been wronged at the fundamental level of the religion. The scriptures like Injeel and Torah were exploited. On the other hand, it doesn't happen to th Holy Quran since Allah protected it. This is the case that I want to highlight. Since they can't change the Quran, they change us. They change the way we live our lives from every kind of aspects. Political, economical, social, education, and everything else. This way of life is passed from generation to the next generation without us knowing that we are being indoctrinated.

So what now? We need to wake up! We need to revive what Islam has taught us to live our life just as how our Prophet (pbuh) brought Allah's Message since the beginning. Take an easy example: Muslims men are ordered to pray jamaah at every praying time at the masjid but then, the obligation doesn't seem to be important to us anymore. Since we are too busy with our study and work, we feel that it's okay even to pray alone. If Islam is to be important again, this needs to change. Another one is, we only pay attention to the "wajib" stuff simply because we were taught that "Oh buat yang wajib dapat pahala kalau tak buat dapat dosa", "Oh buat yang sunat dapat pahala tak buat tak dapat apa2", and until ke sudah la kita tak dapat apa-apa. There are many other things that we need to change.

So my friend, I hope this little note can help us to remind ourselves about what is our situation now and give us some thought whether we want to wake up or we don't want to. One thing that you always need to remember is that this life is a journey. We are the wayfarers. Our final destination is Al-Jannah or the Hell Fire. It is totally clear. Begin the change with the small things and move up to the big things. It is never easy.

We are blessed to be given the chance to be a Muslim. We are blessed to be given the chance to inherit what the Prophet (pbuh) left for us. And now is the critical moment for us to relive his teaching that has been long gone. If it's not us, who else?

In Allah we have faith