Religion is important to all human-being because it is a guideline in our life. Islam is the one of the religion that exists in this world. Islam is the true and complete religion compare to other religions. Nowadays, there are many people who claims they are Muslims but most of them not a real “Muslims”. In Malaysia, when you say that you are Malay, then it will make you automatically become a Muslim. This is a mindset of most people in Malaysia. On the other hand, when the Chinese or Indian changes their religion and converted to Muslim, they will say that the Chinese or Indian becomes Malay and not Muslim. They think that all Muslims are Malay and all Malays are Muslim. Some people being a Malay first before become a Muslim and this is true.
As for me, I prefer to become a Muslim first before I become Malay. This is because, all things that I do, I will look at the Islamic perspective first and this will avoid me from do the wrongdoing things. Somehow, our society today likes to be Malay first before become a Muslim. They are already born as Malay and Muslim but did not practice the Islamic way of life. They are more like to bind by the customs. You can do this and you cannot do that even though the rules in the custom are not according to Sunnah and Al-Quran. The rules in Malay custom are the advice or information from the ‘old people’ on the past time. The Malay always takes serious about these things until sometimes it can make the Malay who is already Muslim become ‘syirik’ or confuse about what is right and wrong.
For example, the parent avoids their daughter from singing in the kitchen because if she does so, she will marry with an old man. Same with the parents that prohibit their children from playing outside the house during dusk because at that time there are many bad devils comes out playing. When we look at both situation here, it is not be teach in Islam but it was been told by our parents and this will continuing when we have children in the future. We keep reminds the same things that had been told by our parents to our children. This advice will be continuing from one generation to next generation.
As a Malay, there are many rules in custom that we must follow and this is a serious problem when we did not follow the rules but sometimes the rules in custom is more been followed by the Malay than the rules in religion. So, when you say that you are Muslim and at the same time you are Malay, you must apply what the best rules in your life. In fact, I am not saying that we must neglect our own customs but sometimes we have to use it depend on the situation whether it is rational or not.
The Malays have their own identities which strengthen by the religion that is Islam. We cannot make other people looks or behave like we do because people are different. The parents especially play very important roles in shaping their children to become a Muslim or not. We live according to religion as a guideline and at the same time we are growing and learn about the customs that is already be implemented in our generation. Malay and Muslim must go together to create the good Malay-Muslim.
As conclusion, I am really grateful for being born as Muslim and at the same time being Malay. The rules in my religion have shape me for being a good Muslim and the rules in customs make the Malays look special compare to other races in Malaysia.
No comments:
Post a Comment