Hello.
Last Saturday, June 2nd, I tagged along with my friend Faiz's family to:
Universal Studios Singapore
Of course, we rode all the rides, a round of Transformers: The Ride, two rounds of the Battlestar Galactica: Human rollercoaster and three rounds of Battlestar Galactica: Cylon.
I had a lot of fun and I'll upload some photos once Gibson shares them first.
Anyway, this isn't what I wanted to talk about, though.
There was this one incident that happened when we were standing in a long line to watch Shrek: 4D.
I overheard a conversation between an old English couple, where the husband was named Sam but I couldn't get the woman's name.
It went something like this:
Woman. Sam.
Look at that beautiful girl. Can't imagine her being all covered up like her mum.
Well, why not? It's their culture. You have to respect that.
But what for? Look at her beautiful eyes. She's going to grow up beautifully but she won't have a face.
It's not like she's forced to do it.
Oh, she's not forced and I get that it's their customs and all. But she doesn't have a choice, you see. The husband's all comfortable while she's wearing all that and feeling hot. Don't you think she feels hot?
Well, do you think she's unhappy? She's doing it for her husband, you know.
I wouldn't say she's unhappy but I don't think she likes it, either. Look at that beautiful girl. Poor girl. Can't imagine her being all covered up.
She is doing it for her husband. I mean, why would he want to share her with everyone else? I think it's fine. Why would he want to share her with everyone else? And she's doing it for her husband. You'd do it for me, right?
I would not. I'd run away.
You naughty little thing, you.
...
The conversation went more or less like that and continued till we got to the auditorium.
If you can't quite get the picture, here's one to give you a clue:
Sam and his wife were chatting about an Arab family, consisting of the husband, the wife in a "purdah" and "jubah" (as above) and their three little children, one of which was a girl.
The wife was talking about how much of a pity it was for that little girl to someday grow up to wear such heavy and loose fitting clothing, covering up all her beauty and charm.
She was commenting on how inconsiderate the husband was, forcing his wife to wear such an uncomfortable outfit and restricting her of freedom to wear clothes of her own choice and so on.
However, Sam was the more understanding one in the conversation, telling his wife how it all isn't to cause inconvenience, but more as a way to keep her beauty only for her husband, the only one who truly deserves to see it.
Sam understood the need for such cover-ups so that people wouldn't be enticed by another man's wife.
Sam even offered his wife to cover up a little more.
This is a sort of thing I very rarely see or experience.
It has come to my attention that today, our Muslim society is falling off the trail of religious upbringing.
We consider ourselves happy and content as long as we live how we want to, sometimes beyond the boundaries of Islam.
Sam saw the importance of preservation and privacy.
He understood that people shouldn't just show off skin and expose themselves willingly.
This kind of recognition and acceptance by a non-Muslim is something I see as refreshing.
I am not at all pious and in the event of human error, I am one that succeeds to fail.
But I do realize that we shouldn't just go Hellbent over enjoyment and freedom.
We have our faith and we should stick to it.
Regardless if we were Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or even Hindus.
Our religion is our guide, we should always be true to it.
I understand that I might be hypocritical about religious stuff because I, too, am one who doesn't abide to all the rules I have sworn to go by.
But I do think about it everyday and I do wish I could be better.
This is not an entry I seek to deliver as a religious stunt.
This is just my one-two cents on how our world is changing and how we should change.
"Our brains and our minds are two different entities. The former is used to process information, the latter is used to analyze, apply and appeal"
Comments