Today i'm gonna relate a story. an experience which left me quite sad and disappointed.i've always been taught to have a good impression of others and never be judgemental so bear in mind this isn't a stereo-typed version. Its my personal lesson and something i would like to share in view of what the non muslims would think when this scenario happens:
there were a group of colleagues meeting up to have lunch together. it was a mixture of muslims and non muslims and i happened to be one of them. they were gathered at an 'ulu' shopping centre with 2 fast food joints, a hawker which hasnt operate and a food court with only a halal foodstall. they contemplated for 4 minutes, finally deciding on the food court upstairs. while making their way up, unexpectedly another muslim spotted a thai seafood restaurant. everybody including her was pretty excited and started looking at me to seek approval.
i stared at the signages with pictures of the food for 2mins.
a non muslim exclaimed:" see, there's no pork. you can eat the chicken."
the other muslim said: "you can eat prawns, and there's vegetables."
to avoid all the attention, i told them okay okay. just before we stepped in, the waiter at the entrance prompted: 'this is not a halal restaurant.' they nodded and walked in. i suddenly realised that i cannot succumb to such desires of thinking that this restaurant is halal to proceed. i sat down and opened the menu.
one big word appeared: PORK
and i told myself: NO WAY!!!! so i went ahead and tell them to go ahead and i would go buy my own food elsewhere. the muslim said to me; 'the waiter told me that the rest of the items are safe.' hmmm.... when pork is cooked together with rest of the dishes, its safe?? as there were other non muslims around, i didnt want to embarrass her like that but i indirectly told her that it's haram. and she continued anyway... i could also sense that the people around were carrying 'strange looks' at the both of us.
i could see that they are confused. perhaps they would view me as being rigid or extremist while the other muslim was much more flexible with food regulations. would this scenario destroy the originated message to dawah that all muslims should avoid places where pork is cooked???
i didnt laugh at her but somehow i felt sad and disappointed. sad for her and disappointed with myself. previously on another occassion when i went out with her, i actually got carried away and neglected my prayers. i was afraid of letting her wait for me to finish my prayers when i actually should be afraid of Allah for missing my prayers without valid reasons. i didnt set a good example to her. and today, this had to happen. i reprimanded myself for not emphasizing but yet hesistant because i might not be wise enuff to use the correct approach. aarrgghhh....... i hate myself
nonetheless,insya allah i hope that she continues to read the Quran translation i gave her and wake up soon enuff. (put it abruptly) or maybe she could be able to start somewhere by beginning to change her 'haram menu' slowly.
and i remembered what the ustaz always said about people having strange thoughts about this strange religion. i dun know how he phrased it. will tell u guys next week.
sometimes i wish i could find and spend more time with the people 'with the right kind of religious priorities'...
5 comments:
Whoa tough situation there. But not sumtin i havent ended up in b4.
Fr wat i know, some muslims sumhow treat that as an 'emergency' & instead of going sumwhere else to get food, they merely ordered vege (as in, purely vege and not some vege-mix-wth-meat thing) or dessert (icecream, etc though this obviously isnt a filling food) or fruits. For my case, i've always been able 2 'escape' by pretending i'm not really hungry or that i had a REALLY heavy brkfast.
Of course that muslim colleague of urs ws wrong to disregard the non-halalness of the restaurant. But it ws admirable of u to NOT embarrass her (despite the fact that she may have embarrassd u).
Personally i feel the scenario does distort the dakwah that u mentioned. However, i remember when i ws younger an ustaz told me once that it's not always about avoiding the place but avoiding the FOOD, especially in ur scenario. I believe u can BE IN the retaurant but shld probably just order a drink instead of food.
Regarding ur muslim colleague i tink it's gd if u slowly try to make her change her haram menu BUT if u dont succeed, the most is u can pray/doa for her. Because afterall, her ibadah is between her and God.
Cum 2 tink of it,if ur nonmuslim collagues r actually too quick to judge u as 'extremist/rigid',i'd view these collagues as the ones who r being 'rigid'--as in, rigid in their perceptions.
They shld know that wth EVERY religion, there r many 'categories' of followers. Muslims who do their solats Vs muslims who dont do their solats, Hindus who dont eat meat Vs those who eat meat, Christians who go to church & celebrate Christmas Vs christians who NEVER attend church & dono wat's in the bible but choose to call themselves christians and celebrate christmas, etc.
By now, what wth the 'publicity' thats been surrounding Islam, most people including nonmuslims shld be aware of some basic stuff eg the compulsory 5 prayers-per day, the 'no pork' AND no meat slaughtered by nonmuslim, etc.
Anyway i pray that u wont face too many of such unfortunate scenarios in future. It's a learning experience but an eye-opening one nontheless. Hang in there, sister!:)
I admire the way u dealt with the situation mashallah :) Be confident and may Allah bless u :)
that's a whole lot of advice and feedback from spongebib.
Thanks alot man!!
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