Food is something that we eat and it will become part of us. If the food is good, we will be good. And as I wrote before, there are foods that have a halal logo but actually produced by non-muslim. And there are a lot of food that produced by muslim never have a halal logo. So halal’s logo is not the issue here. It’s the muslim themselves who have to decide which to take and which not. By now, every muslim should know the do’s and the don’ts. If we don’t know then we have to ask those who knows. If we are not sure then we also have to ask those who knows. Else we will be in the dark, not knowing the truth. If we are right then it is good, what if we are wrong?
I dress the way I am. So does most of us. I like casual. Muslim has our own dress code. There is something called aurat. So, as long as we follow the guideline then it’s alright. One day, I went to see a maybank vice president. The first thing she asked me was, “how did you know Dato’ Wahid?” I told her that when he was in form five, I was in form one. Then she smiled and told me that most of his school mates that she met were just as casual as me.
What I am trying to say here is not what I wear but who made it. If we can wear clothes that made by a muslim, that will be better. But most of the time we wear something that is not made by a muslim because it’s either too expensive or too cheap. Or, some of us thought that it’s already out of fashion.
Some of us have a big house, some have a smaller one, some own, some renting. But everyone needs a place to stay. The government has a good hand in helping the poor; they even give a free house under the PPRT program. Some say this program allocates RM 32,000.00 per house, some says RM 38,000.00 and some want it to be RM 45,000.00. Which is which, we never know. But I had an experience to be the sub-contractor for one of the houses in Senggang, Kuala Kangsar. The main contractor secured the job for RM 35,000.00. I was supposed to supply the labor and machinery for RM 12,000.00 till the project completed. The materials actually cost around RM 8,000.00 to RM 10,000.00. So, the actual cost for the house is actually RM 22,000.00. But the main contractor felt that the profit was still not enough. He overridden me and took my labor to work for him direct! How much is enough? For nothing is actually ever enough.
As a muslim, we should be more thankful and syukur of what we have. We are lucky to be more fortunate than those who are not. Give them a helping hand and let them make it, so that one day they also can help others. But some muslim now a day’s thought that if they can get things for free, it is better, so that they don’t have to work. This is a bad sign. Then they will never get cross the line out of poverty!
Once, for some, when they had a bicycle to ride, it was already good enough. My grandfather used to cycle from Bagan Datoh to Sungai Raia, which was more than 100 km. my father used to ride a motorbike from Teluk Intan to Ipoh. Now, most of us have a car or some even have cars. It’s never a luxury now as it is a necessity for us to have one. How do we own a car? Each of us has our own answer. I’m lucky that my mother bought me one. Else I have to borrow from the finance company to buy one. Then I will be caught with riba. The only way that I can avoid riba is to buy the car cash!
Money is never enough. If we have more money, there are more things that we want to have. But those days, as Tun Mahathir wrote in malay dilemma, Malays got no worries as they plant their own padi for rice. They go fishing for fish and they pluck vegetables just around the house. Nothing to worry. But now things have change. Everything needs money. We even have to pay to release ourselves at the public toilet. So money is also a basic need.
How do we fulfill all these basic needs?
Works and works. Some have enough and some don’t. Some even have two jobs to cover the bills. And some are too busy that they don’t even have a life. Price tag never goes down. It’s always goes up. A lot of things to pay, the worse thing are that the interest never goes down. It grows each day.
Being moderate is a muslim way of life. So, we only live as what we can afford. If we are less fortunate, then others or the muslim brothers and sisters have to help. There is also baitulmal to help them. For the fact, baitulmal in our country is not really working. No one knows the real reason why. I once saw before my eyes, a poor man came to the zakat center asking for help. The lady clerk was standing with arms akimbo, with her nose pointing up attending to him. That was not a muslim way of doing things! Pity him and pity her. There is no more ukhwah or brotherhood or sisterhood in islam anymore.
Most of the muslim now likes to beg for most of the things now a days. Not much muslim willing to give a helping hand too. Each one of us are busy with our own life, thinking of the money that is never enough. No more syukur concept. No more thought of, we are lucky to be us. There are some people who have a worse day than us. Thank God, Alhamdulillah syukur…
The reason why we have this kind of life is because we were brought up in a different way, not the muslim way. Not much muslim is looking into this. Most of us over look the small things that actually make us different. We are in a different way, not the muslim way, the moderate way.
How can we help this situation as we are in a different world now. Kentucky fried chicken, pizza hut, and McDonald are not our food, or it is?We need to change, check our own wallet. Buy things that we only need. Nothing is wrong to dine in KFC or any other fancy restaurant. Just check your pocket. As once, I took my brother who just started working as a teacher to coffee bean. He said, if not that I took him there, he will never go into that kind of coffee shop.
If only we work together, things will be cheaper. We supply our own food, clothes, shelters, rides and create more jobs for us. Each one of us plays our own part. We work together in a group for example Koperasi KITA. We start a sample in Kinta then we duplicate it through out Malaysia! http://ko-kita.blogspot.com/
A very nice article.
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