A Simple Iftar , Tarawikh Prayer and A person called Mr. Yee =)

Assalamu’alaikum, peace and blessings be upon you, =)

Wow..reading the headlines of most of the online news today makes me feel hesitant to write this.You have to figure it out why I said that .As I sit back and think  , I don’t think it would put any harm to anyone. It’s about a friend of mine called Mr. Yee.

I’ve known Mr Yee for almost a year if I’m not mistaken. We have been keeping in touch quite often and we even held some discussions on so many issues mostly religion and even miscellaneous matters. Though we don’t have the same faith, I believe he is such a good ‘Christian’. He calls himself as a Bible Follower and prefer not to be called as Christian as it is not stated in the Bible. Morever, he does not even comitted to any church as he said.

Yesterday late in the evening, I called him to invite him to have ‘buka puasa’ together. Really, it was a last minute planning as I’m coming to UIA to settle somthing regarding the payments etc prior to my convocation next month. . I called Tirmidzi and later we decided to have our Iftar at the Food court near the mosque in UIA. I knew Mr. Yee would be coming because he has always wanted to meet me and my friends for further discussions on issues that we had left before. Alhamdulillah, though we had such a simple Iftar, this eventually leads to one of the most happiest moment in my life and also Mr. Yee’s I believe. It was five of us- Me, Mr. Yee, My friend Tirmidzi from Thailand, Ahmad Sabree from the States and lastly Arvin from Sabah. We had such a wonderful chatting until it is already the time for Iftar. We stOpped and enjoyed the meal. To be honest, Mr Yee is very much approachable person. When I say approachable, I’m not saying that we are trying to convert him or the way around, it is because he is used to mix up and mingle with Muslims.

Once we heard the Adzaan,we had a light meal i.e. sweets before we prayed Maghrib. I was so happy looking at Mr Yee joining us at that particular moment. After Maghrib, we had quite a heavy meal and we went on and on chatting and laughing . Ahmad really did the talking. I know Ahmad very well and he talks a lot =) I mean that in the nicest possible way of course!.

Then came the Adzan for Isya’ prayer. Tirmidzi was looking at me while I did the same thing to him. Subhanallah, prior to this Iftar, I did tell Tirmidzi that I really wanted to bring Mr. Yee to our mosque here. He conceded to my planning. I’m so afraid that Mr. Yee would refuse to accept the invitation. That’s why I was a bit hesitant to ask him. Then Tirmidzi just blurted it out!.

Tirmidzi : Mr. Yee, actually we are going for Tarawikh prayer after this,. If you do not mind, maybe you can join us and visit our beautiful mosque here.

Mr. Yee : Thank you so much. I’m so happy to get this invitation, Really, I never thought you would ask that.

Me         : Actually, I’ve always wanted to bring you to our mosque, but it just that I’m afraid you might not accept my invitation.

Alhamdullilah, he did. Of course I can see that he was a bit restless, and worried. I convinced him by saying “ Mr Yee, do you know what makes UIA mosque different from other mosques? I said, it doesn’t matter whether you are a chinese, Indian, African or even European, nobody would ask you whether you are Muslim or not.!
He then said. “ But I cannot just sit there without doing anything”. Tirmidzi responded by saying : “it’s up to you Mr Yee. You can even join us. You know what Mr Yee, you are not even commiting syirik as you dont believe in Trinity”. That’s why it is not wrong.” We all smiled when he said that. We all walked to the mosque and went to the ablution area. I felt like crying looking at Tirmidzi teaching Mr Yee how to make ablution step by step. I can se that Mr. Yee is trying very hard to folow Tirmidzi. Without Tirmidzi, I myself am not sure wheter I can do this alone. Alhamdulillah, Mr Yee did his first step. We then went to the praying area upstairs and there goes the most cherishing moment InsyaAllah.. Mr. Yee stayed next to Tirmidzi and followed whatever Tirmidzi does. From the bowing, prostrating and so on. Subhanallah, I myself felt restless because I never thought this thing would happen that night. He was praying with all of us that night. In fact, My Yee, did both Isya’ and Tarawikh prayer. It was really-really a wonderful moment that night. After Tarawikh, we sat at one of the corners of the mosque and we started to talk about a couple of things regarding the mosque itself, the Imams there ,and of course about Islam. I can see that he was so happy with that experience. He kept thanking me for that invitation and said he really enjoyed the experience of praying there. To be able to listen the recitaion of the Qur’an and so on. We wrapped up the meeting around 12pm. Deep inside, I prayed to God, may He opens up the heart of Mr Yee. For me, he is already a Muslim, it just that he doesn’t know it =).
Allahu A’lam, Allah Knows best.

p/s: At first I’m not so sure whether I should share this or not because I believe there would be mixed responses defintely. You may say whatever you want- criticize me or condemn me. For me, I believe what I did was right and and whatever it is, it is between me and my God ...

image credit: here