As today the challenges in life are becoming more complex and sophisticated some people in Malaysia especially the Muslim Malays have changed their lifestyles and choose to live in privacy.
These changes have adverse effects on Islam as the religion encourages people to build strong “silatulrahim” and engagement with members of the community and family. The cooperativeness and strong bondage amongst the Muslims could be seen clearly in events like weddings, death and burial ceremony and religious activities held at the mosques and private homes.
Ustaz Nushi Mahfooz, described the gradual changes in the Muslim Malays’ characters towards privacy and being individualistic is a reflection that they have lost their perseverance and dignity.
According to Nushi in the 15th century the Muslim Malays were very strong and powerful marine experts and as such they managed to “control” the Malay Archipelago. These people have strong faith in Islam and spread the religion in the region.
“I am afraid if the Malay Muslims are slowly resorting to such lifestyles like not practicing Islamic way of life, do not read and understand the holy al-Quran and believe in hadith (prophets’ words) then one day the “real Malaysia” is without the Muslim Malays,” he said in his speech “Today’s Moral Challenges” at Maghrib’s talk session held in As-Siddiq Surau, Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, Cheras recently.
He added, when the Malays have no faith in Islam and Allah, they will resort to live freely and practice liberalism like drinking alcohol, revealing the body (aurat) and becoming non practicing Muslims and free thinkers.
The meaning of moral said Nushi is not just having good values when relating to parents, friends, relatives and neighbours but more importantly with Allah.
Nushi said, to have moral values with the almighty Allah is to follow closely and practice Allah’s commands and Islamic teachings as to enable a person to enter heaven “in life after death.”
“Islam is to believe and practice and not just look and listen without performing example praying and fasting. Islam should be instilled at the early age of a child with the parents’ guidance. From birth a baby should be whispered in his/her ears the “azan” and this is the starting point of Islam,” he said.
Nushi also quoted that Prophet Muhammad s.a.w spent 13 years to spread and make the people understand the meaning of “aqidah” faith in Allah and Islam in both Mecca and Medina.
Prophet Muhamad built mosques for the people to be devoted to Islam and bow down to Allah besides uniting the people. Prophet Muhammad was successful in uniting the Muhajirin- his followers from Mecca with that of the “Ansar” the people of Medina by building the Nabawi mosque in Medina.
He also quoted Prophet (Nabi) Ibrahim as an example of a man with strong confidence and belief in Allah that he has succeeded in developing Mecca from nothing to a very famous city in Saudi Arabia during the early days of Islam.
The philosophy and lesson behind the story of Prophet Ibrahim was that Allah will give to a person anything he needs if he works hard and prays for Allah’s help and blessings.
The Ustaz also stressed that the three elements a good Muslim should possess are “faith” or iman, Islam and ihsan (kindness).-Malaysia World News
