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| Who says Islam is Malay Jiao ? |
"Islam is not Malay Jiao” (religion)
Yesterday, when I said that statement in front of my students, they were extremely shock. It was so obvious that you can see from their faces. I’m sure they never expected that statement to come from my mouth. Anyway, it did and I’m happy that it did. In fact, I just smiled looking at their response and reactions as I’m sure they never thought I would blurt out that statement. Thanks to the subject syllabus, I have the opportunity to explain Islam to my students whereby all of them are actually non Muslims. The presentation was something like an introduction to Islam. In fact, prior to that, I’ve also explained Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. So, can you imagine that, a Muslim talking about other religions to those people who are actually embracing the religions?.
I felt sad of course looking at my students. Innocent and clueless when it comes to their religions. I’m not saying that they have zero knowledge, but their knowledge is very shallow and in fact superficial. When I asked their opinions on their religions, or maybe what do they believe, most of the answers would be or “I don’t know” or maybe “I’m not a religious person”. In fact, I made it a point that it’s not necessary to be a religious person in order for you to know your own religion.
Back to the above statement. Yes, for most of the Chinese(other races included) in Malaysia, they always perceive Islam as being the Malay religion. That’s why for Chinese, they call it as “
Malay Jiao”. When I presented Islam to my students, I’ve learned that even though they are living in a majority Muslim country, it is as if they have never met any Muslim throughout their entire life. Sad? Surprised? Disappointed ?-Yes-you just name it.
In fact, one student admitted to me not having any Muslim friend which I find it really surprising. Put aside Jackie’s (my Chinese student) answer when I asked him what does he know about Islam. His answer was Friday prayer. When I asked him the reason, happily he said ‘traffic jam’. That one might be laughable, but for other answers from other students, it only shows that they are not really interested not only about other religions, but also the religion that they themselves profess.
Alhamdullilah, I managed to explain quite a number of things to my students- among them:
Pillars of faith, the articles of faith, status of women in Islam, Jesus as viewed by Muslim and a bit on practices of a Muslim. It was really a worthwhile session as I tried to tell them the beauties of Islam, the concept of God and what does it mean to be a Muslim. I took around an hour to explain everything and the remaining period I showed them a video called “
Muhammad a legacy of a prophet”. The video was supposed to be a 2 hour video but I only managed to show it halfway. Anyway, nothing to lose showing the video as I know that video would be worth watching.
Surprisingly, after I finished the class and went back to my office, a female student came to me ask something regarding the assignment that I gave them a couple of weeks before. I explained here and there until she satisfied and before she left, she told me that she likes my lecture. In fact, she told me that she likes the video that I had shown them earlier. I was quite surprised when she said that. I really thought my students would look at the video as somehow boring. It was even more surprising when she told me that, she felt like wanting to embrace Islam after watching the video even though the video was not even showed until the end. Taken by surprise, I just smiled and deep inside, Alhamdulillah.. May Allah open her heart so that she would able to know more about this religion in the future.
Allahu A’lam.
p/s: InsyaAllah, please check on the youtube for the rest of the videos of “Muhammad: a legacy of a prophet”
Just got an email from my student, asking what topics would be covered in the coming mid semester exam. The email says :
“ Sir,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, IslamiCity -all will come out in the exam? ”.
Oh God, Please Help me !
