To mankind not just Muslims

Bismillah

The news of non-support by the Police Department of the Lady Gaga concert has made shockwaves in the news and social media. The media frenzy started when the FPI (Front Pembela Islam/Islam Liberators Front) threatened to “meet” Ms. Gaga at the airport to turn her back where she came from. The organization accused her of spreading pornography, a devil worshipper, and so on. This led to the question, how will the police react?

Shortly after the news, the Police issued that they will not approve the concert on grounds that it is incompatible with our local culture. They dismissed allegations that they, a Governmental Law Enforcement Body, are under control of some extremist religious groups.

Now much has been made about the FPI’s origins, its violence and run-ins with the law, as well as the police’s “warm” relationship to the group. The Indonesian police’s reputation isn’t one to be proud of, either. But this time I will move away from those political topics. And I’m sure you are all aware of the Lady being discussed.

A few weeks ago in South Korea, Gaga experienced some backlash from its Christian community. The pressure was significant that the government banned children under 18 from attending the show. I was not sure how I stumbled into this news, perhaps some local online outlet reported this. But this phenomenon was not mentioned when discussing Indonesia’s problem with the concert.

What I am getting at is: it is unfair to single out Muslims as the ones fighting against what they deem incompatible with their morals or beliefs.

Personally, I have distanced myself from music. I realized that most pop songs contain nothing more than bad words, bad topics, sexually tendencious lyrics, and all bad stuff wrapped in catchy upbeat tunes. The worst ones are those that doesn’t escape your head after you caught a listen to it. I am also aware of the debates going on about music in the Shariah. I am not to the point that I completely view music as haraam, but I just do not actively seek to listen to it.

The objectionable things that I mentioned about modern music are things that I am sure any reasonable parents would agree as being bad. Something that they would not want their children exposed to before reaching certain maturity levels. And I have not even gotten into talking about the video clips.

It is not just Muslims that are against bad stuff, or maksiat as we say it. Whenever anti pornography rulings are discussed, many accuse the Muslim parties and groups are trying to make everyone wear jilbabs. When Ramadan comes, people complain Muslims are shutting down bars and clubs.

But as one ustadz says, “If wearing bikini is good, surely it will be taught in schools.” Think about it, would you, regardless of religion, want a casino being built near your home, near your market, near your schools? Would you want beer or alcohol store opening freely without regulations?

My point is that Muslims need to try better ways to get their point across. Shutting down discos with white robes, sticks, and shouting takbir would not give sympathy. I am no scholar, but I believe there is no harm in joining together with groups of other faiths or even secular ones in matters of good.

I would love to see Muslim organizations join churches, temples, NGOs in reducing cigarette use. I would love for Muslim youth to work together with youth of other religion to campaign against alcohol use in teenagers. Seek a common ground and work together towards it. Islam is rahmatan lil aalamin. Mercy upon mankind, not just Muslims.

Updates

It’s been almost..a couple years since I re-joined the family here at home.

It still is a struggle being an underground Muslim. I still try to fulfill all my prayers. I still try to avoid what’s not allowed. I still try to do what is required. (Not going to go into details, I believe that is considered “aib”, we should cover each others’, especially ourself. Correct me if I’m wrong)

But it has somewhat taken its effect. The passion to learn has dwindled down a little. Joining groups/communities have gotten a little awkward. Being the one who hasn’t learned to read Quran yet. Realizing that you should read more Quran (translation/otherwise), pray more Sunnah prayers, read more on religion, struggling to wake up in the morning. It’s pretty hard when doing the bare Wajib is already a struggle. Going to large gatherings of Muslims make you feel distanced as well as jealous. How nice it is to be among your brothers and sisters. To have practicing family who keeps you in the way of Allah.

But I believe every little activity counts as ibadah. Lifting a rock from the road. Sparing some change for the needy. Helping those who are committed to helping others. Alhamdulillah I am glad that Islam has changed my perspective in many things.

My work in the business requires me to spend most of my hours with dad. Long days of traveling, long days of spending the night together in hotel rooms. You’ve grown to know his tendencies. His habits. Yet there are a lot more about the person that I haven’t figured out, or know. I believe the same applies. Recently there are many articles/books about the so-called “Tiger Mom.” Chinese mothers who impose peculiar (to the Western minds) methods of discipline and education of their kids. As Chinese, I am not shocked by those. But I wonder if there are a certain category reserved for Chinese dads.

My siblings have jokingly said, how do you adapt with living together with dad for so long. Share office rooms, being with him for majority of the day. Wish I could have said, “Do I have a choice?”

In meetings and get togethers you are championed as “The Kid”. The only successor. Some more annoying folks use terms as “Prince”, “Crown Prince,” and other nonsense.

At times I do worry as the only other man in the core family (not counting in-laws). He survived a critical moment once. It was thisclose to me being the man of the family at early 20s. Now I start to see what is at hand. He is a very hard worker, so we are fortunate to have some wealth. I start to see what he has earned, and how he earned it. It is also rather scary to realize that he has managed everything single-handedly with utmost assistance of my mother. But for the person himself, there are still lots of questions to be answered.

Other happenings: last sibling is about to get married. That leaves me as the only one. Now let me say relationships have been a sensitive matter. Of course faith and a common vision is important. Nobody has remarked about the “ideal” in-law from me, but it’s safe to assume a solehah Muslimah is pretty far down the list .

There are still lots of questions to be answered. Lots of things to find out. About myself, about my surroundings. It’s strange it takes effort and time to get to know the people closest to you. I’m sure it came as absolute shock when the side that I chose to reveal was that I want to become Muslim.

But little by little I see improvements. For the first time ever we have a Muslim staff at the office, one who covered herself, too. Dad has come to accept to believe that Muslims can also be trusted.

One of my sisters recently said that she was annoyed at demonstrators who act violently while wearing Muslim clothes like the white cap. She said, why can’t they take it off before they act that ugly. It’s a shame to what they represent. Honestly it brought a smile to my face. Does she realize Islam is not represented by those people?

Hopefully I can show who I am and what I stand for and what I value, and therefore show that my faith is a big determinating factor.

Let me close with my favorite hadeeth/story (correct me if I’m wrong). Angels will say Amin to your dua and pray the same thing unto the person that prays for others, without the other person knowing.

Even Angels Ask

Currently reading this book by Dr. Jeffrey Lang.

Praying

When living in a non-Muslim country, a Muslim is often faced with the problem of performing prayers once the time comes. In the US it is very rare to see prayer rooms in public facilities, so Muslims are faced with finding the time and place right on the spot or to make up/combine later.

During my time in the US, I’ve seen and/or experience a little bit of everything.

Summers are a period of holiday for most of the world. A time where some families go abroad for vacation, and apparently the US was a popular destination for Middle Easteners. Last Summer 2011 was not an ordinary one for me. In one of the more popular destination area in the West Coast, Muslims were seen everywhere. It seemed that for every 50m you walk, you see Muslims with hijab or niqab. I had never seen so many Muslims out and about in a public setting in the US.

And fittingly it was the first time I saw someone pray in the open in a shopping center. I was surprised to see a sister praying behind a directory board. It was not in some secluded, quiet corner, but just behind a mall directory. A few days later I saw a whole family praying in the parking lot. The men prayed in a rather large space between cars, the women a little further back in the corner. I did greet them and exchanged small talk. They said they were from Saudi and it was nothing peculiar for them. It was time to pray and they did it. Subhanallah

From the conversations from Muslims I’ve met, I gathered there are a lot of ways Muslims fulfill their obligation while they are on the run. Some pray in the car sitting down. Some use department stores’ fitting rooms. Some use the ruling permitting combining prayers. But today I was very lucky to have found a solution.

Today I was out running some last minute shopping in a local mall. I remembered some time ago that a new salon kind of store had just opened and some Muslim sister was handing out flyers. Today I passed by the store and a sister in hijab was on duty. Considering Asr had just came, I braved myself to greet her and ask whether she had space to pray. Sure enough she offered me a prayer mat and a space in the back to pray. A short conversation ensued about conversion, being Muslim in the West, and some small religion talk. She seemed so happy to meet a fellow Muslim.

I wish I have the bravery to perform prayers regardless of location, and I know many Muslims do so. When it’s time, they just find a space and do it. InshaAllah it will come.

 

MIA

Assalamualaikum

I notice that people have left comments here that I have not yet approved. Well as you can see I have not been attending to this blog lately. Glad to see that you are still visiting. Insha Allah there will be more postings

The US..you just can’t like them

Assalamualaikum

So I’m sure you’ve hear the big news that is all over TV, websites, and newspapers. I’m not here to debate OBL or the news or anything, just merely a comment.

A few angles/opinions about the whole issue:

Obama is just looking for popularity

His popularity hasn’t been high, that’s for sure. High gas prices in the US and accusations attacks by rival Republican party members about things such as his birthplace (soundly disproved last week) has hurt his chances for 2012 re-election. This is a monumental achievement for his leadership and presidency.

How can we be sure it’s OBL?

There has been debates about whether to release the photos or not. Publish and it might become propaganda material for extremists.Don’t publish and you’ll get conspiracy theories.

Burial in the sea issue

Ulamas have voiced their disagreement about burying in the sea, which is not in line with Islamic tradition. The US response? They do not have countries willing to accept the body for burial, and again, they do not want the grave site to be a gathering and memorial place of OBL.

My personal thought about the whole issue is that it is somewhat good news, and a lot of concern about what comes next. We all hope that things start to get better from here. That the US will pull out of Afghanistan. That the Muslim community will stop being the target (although there has been reports of attacks/vandalisation of mosques and Arab community after the news).

Just from a sample of Twitter and Facebook accounts, Muslims in Indonesia are not as excited about the news. There are posts about this being fabricated news, Obama’s tricks to regain popularity as mentioned above, or to the respects and prayers paid to OBL. There are “reports” from weird news sources and other websites about the death of OBL way before. I understand the issue of Western-controlled media, but getting news from unknown sources and cheap-looking websites just don’t cut it for me. And also don’t get me started about the 9/11 being an Israeli/CIA trick.

Also, western scholars/Ulamas have posted their opinions.

Yasir Qadhi’s thoughts

Shaikh Yasir’s thoughts is very well-written, I encourage all of you to read it. He is born in the USA, but has studied all over the world including Saudi Arabia.

Converts panel, featuring Imam Suhaib Webb

Who do you marry?

This is a very interesting video.

Basically it was about whether Muslim women should be allowed to marry whoever they like. The ones in support says it is a basic right to choose who you want to marry. The opposing view is that Islam regulates this, Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslim men or other women.

One of the speakers in support of the motion brought up the family issue. She argues that the family knows best; that when you are faced with a difficult or controversial things such as marrying people of another culture or religion, you should seek the support of family.

Now as reverts, I’m sure this issue connects to a lot of you, single or married. It is tough enough for the folks to accept us being Muslim, let alone having Muslim in-laws. And I think for the fellow reverts who are in the SE-Asian Malay culture understand the racial dynamics of the Muslim-Malay and the non-Muslim-Chinese-Indians-other minorities. This is a sensitive, even somewhat taboo topic. Something that people just get done with and do not talk/discuss in the open. Those who do marry outside their ethnicities or religion would sometimes get talked about, stared at, etc.

I understand there are a lot of views among different families. Both sides can be as fundamental/hardcore or as liberal. The liberals would be in support of doing what you want. The conservatives would advise you to go with the safer approach. Muslim and non-Muslims alike will not only bring the cultural and family aspects, but also connect it with the scriptural sources. The Christians would quote the 10 Commandments of obeying parents. The Muslims would quote the Hadith that Heaven is under the mother’s feet.

If we are using the Islamic teachings, me and other revert guys don’t need our family’s approval for marriage. I have actually heard of people using this as an “antidote” to the possible difficulties. But can you imagine a Chinese kid marrying a girl without family’s consent? It is hard enough trying to marry a different ethnicity EVEN in the same religion. Imagine if those 2 factors are both different.

That and the common issue of Muslim families reluctance to let their daughters get married by reverts. Or someone from other nationalities/ethnicities. Just from my observation, it seems like Muslims are proud if a revert sister joins their families. Or we’ve heard sisters who get marriage proposals right after they said Shahadah. What about the brothers?

Detached

I’ll have to admit that lately I’ve been detached from religion.

I keep saying I’ll read the Quran, read into this verse, research that khutba. But that never came.

I keep trying to wake up early and pray.. that hasn’t been too successful.

I said to myself to come to masjid and pray in jamaah.. not happening either.

And recently a friend spoke to me about the state of our religiousness. It’s about how our relationship with God and religion is so personal, something that others have no business about. But then in Islam there are rules, guidelines about that relationship.

It’s been close to 3 years since I said my shahada, maybe more if I go back to when I did accept Islam, but up to now I still can’t go around in public saying I’m Muslim. This is true in the family and society level in general. Among Muslims people tend to see you as this “exotic” being and some view you as different (better or worse) than the regular Muslim dude. Among the non-Muslims, especially in my background, you are viewed as a lunatic perhaps, or a fool. If people see me, the LAST thing people would associate me with is Islam.

It’s funny that sometimes during Islamic events I try to look Muslim, and still people ask if I were Muslim. As if the white cap doesn’t tell already. I believe a lot of reverts share this. One revert sister told me how disappointing it is to see another Muslim on the street (mostly the visible Muslims, with hijabs etc.), yet you can’t or won’t greet him/her because you’d get the stare. “What is she doing?? Was that a salaam to me?” That has happened actually, where I greet someone and the response was more of a confusion.

I think as a guy I can get away with not displaying my Islam. For the girls, from what I believe is the rule, since hijab is an obligation I think it is tougher if they wear it. I can’t imagine how it feels right now to be associated with Islam and be known as Muslims the second people see you. So for that I really commend you folks who do the Muslim look, including the guys. I remember when I had a small goatee my friends and family would crack “terrorist” jokes.

I think I’m rambling away now. But I think the point is that people take their own time in practicing and applying the deen. I remember a scholar who was touring Egypt, and he talked about a guy selling potatoes in a cart. Of all the Islamic knowledge he has and all his amazing discoveries in Egypt, at that time he singled out the potato-cart guy. It was because when prayer time came, the guy asked the neighbors to keep an eye on the cart while he went to the masjid and pray. He literally left all his business, perhaps all that he had to make a living, to pray when the time comes. You can’t follow the Qur’an more than that. I guess that guy didn’t go to the best schools, or the best Islamic academies yet he displayed a quality that we might not often see see in people who claim to be knowledgeable or learned in the Deen.

I still have more thoughts but I’ll hold it so it won’t confuse the direction of this writing even more, but please share your thoughts so we can keep it going.

Unlikely friend

Assalamualaikum

Haven’t posted in a while.

I remind myself first to seek refuge to Allah from any feelings of riya’ from writing this. I hope this can be beneficial to the readers. Aamin.

In the winter weather countries, prayer times are close to each other compared to other seasons. It is somewhat nice, because Fajr here starts around 5.30 so we can get extra sleep and Maghrib is around 5.15 PM. What is not so nice is they are so close together that you have to plan around especially when going out. In a non-Muslim country where masjids and musollahs are few and far between, Muslims have to make special considerations. Not all of us deal with prayer issue the same way. Some try to combine the prayers, some try to plan ahead their schedule, and some just do it wherever they are. In a recent event I had the chance to pray jamaah out in the open, on bare grounds, with hundreds other Muslims. It was so crowded that we didn’t have enough mats, so just gotta do what you gotta do. That was also the case for the sisters. Some of them didn’t even care putting their face on the ground to do sujood.

Yesterday I had to run some errands before class. The way the time went, I arrived on campus about 20 minutes before Asr ended. My parking place was a little far to the MSA “headquarters” so I plan to pray somewhere else, probably the library. So I went there and surveyed the area. It was a very quiet library with few people reading on the cubicles at the edges of the room. Ok I decided to just pray there. I picked a corner, and alhamdulillah the qiblah was perfect since it faced the wall. I laid out my jacket on the floor since I’m still uneasy about sujood in bare floors. Need to carry some sujood base for the future. As I was ready to start praying I heard footsteps coming my way. I am still nervous about praying in public, so I flinched a little to see who it was.

Allahu Akbar, it was another Muslim brother. He was standing on the corner as if trying to pray. I asked whether he was going to pray and he said yes, then we proceeded to pray in jamaah together. I know him because I have seen him give Jumaat khutbah on campus a few times. I am still amazed by Allah’s plans. Those who have prayed out in public must have felt stronger and more confident when you pray in jamaah with others. Alhamdulillah it seemed like Allah made it easy for me to pray that time.

I hope this can encourage you to stay routine in your prayers. For those in non-Muslim countries I hope Allah made it easy for you. If you are confident, that itself might be a source of dawah since other people might be curious in what you do. Believe me most people even in the West are open and curious about our beliefs. For those living where masjids and musollahs are just around the block, there’s just no excuse not to pray.