It’s a public holiday.
Everyone woke up late. After subuh prayers as usual, me and
my roommate would curl up in our respective blankets before snoozing again. I
really love the idea of sleeping, I don’t even know why. So when we were all
awake, soon found ourselves wishing good morning to each other at the pantry
making break-lunch.
Even though among all our housemates, only 2 of us were
Muslims, it was really great being a part of it. In fact, we don’t even have
any conflicts regarding to whatever small stuff after several months being in
the same roof. Everyone has their own good positive vibe, talkative side we
hardly feel awkward being with each other regardless of race and religion.
Making myself carbonara pasta, we sat together in a table
eating and talking. Suddenly the topic of why Indians don’t eat meat suddenly
came up in the conversation. Two of my Chinese housemates asked my other Indian
housemate regarding about it.
“It’s considered ‘suci’ to us, really. But actually, what
people tend to have it mistaken is a lot of people consider all this animal to
be our God. It’s not. I don’t even get it, but it’s like, a form of God but isn’t
the real God.”
Ohh, everyone responded.
While I was eating, one of the Chinese passed on her plate
to my Indian housemate before asking her how it tasted as she had added some
red wine in it (I don’t even know she had red wine but thankfully, she only
uses it in her cooking rather than drinking –alcohol isn’t permissible in
college anyway)
“It tastes the same, though. Oh Af, you can’t taste wine is
it?”
“Yeap,” having my eyes shifted on the pasta in my bowl.
“Can we all know why is that so?” Their eyes focused on me.
“It’s well, simple. Technically Islam doesn’t allow us to do
so. We’re just avoiding anything that isn’t allowed to drink or eat.”
“How about pork? You Muslims can’t eat that too right?”
“Exactly”.
“I mean, if you don’t mind sharing, is there a reason for
that? That you aren’t allowed to drink wine and eat pork?”
“Hmm how can I say this. Basically you guys know that we
have the Quran’ right? *everyone nods* So in the verses there are already some
sayings that has been obviously written that wine and pork is considered
illegal for us to consume. It may be a little too strict for you, but for us it’s
a good thing. Because we’re avoiding things that provide negativity to the
body. Don't get me wrong, though some Malays curse using the malay pork word, we don't hate the animal. We just don't eat or touch it that's all. Wine, drunk. Pork, dirty.”
“Is pork dirty meh? If so, so is chicken”.
“Yeah, cause they eat their own faeces that’s why. So are some
reptiles, even rabbits”.
I’m not quite sure what’s running through their minds, but
whatever is it, they’re very open-minded people, and that’s another thing why I
love about my housemates. After a minute of silence which felt like forever,
one of them stumbled with an unexpected question.
“How about smoking?”
“We aren’t allowed to smoke. Nope,” I responded.
“Why?”
“Cause’ they result to some drug addiction. Don’t even ask
about the content of it”
“Ohh, so how about shisha, vape?”
“Nope, they’re also illegal for us too. It’s official.”
“Shisha is worse than smoking a cigarette” another Chinese merged
in the conversation.
“So why meh a lot of Malays smoke if it’s not allowed in
your religion?”
Of course you don't judge the car by it's driver. But it's hard to put it into words of confidence when reality is there's too much 'reckless drivers' here to defend the minority representative. Not being gender bias, muslim sisters too, have their faults. It's just that this one hits kind of hard on the face.
Of course you don't judge the car by it's driver. But it's hard to put it into words of confidence when reality is there's too much 'reckless drivers' here to defend the minority representative. Not being gender bias, muslim sisters too, have their faults. It's just that this one hits kind of hard on the face.
Laughs faintly before silencing after the whole meal. “Honestly, I don’t
even know why”.
