Saturday, August 23, 2014

"You have become a Malay!"

Ikhwan Ng via Facebook

"You have become a Malay." My mom is always telling me the same thing.
"What.. Why? Tell me what make you say like that."
"After you embraced that religion, what you eat is just KFC, Mamak stalls, Malay and Siam Restaurant. Why don't you go to Chinese restaurant anymore?"
So I brought my parent to New Hollywood restaurant at Canning Garden, Ipoh one day. There's a lot of Chinese stalls are selling Chinese Foods like Char Kuey Teow, 油炸鬼, wantan mee, chee cheong fun... Most importantly that's no forbidden meat inside. My mom just tells me that this food is not "Chinese" enough.
Oh well... I can understand what they think about me. I was raised up as a pork eater, that's pretty normal thing among Chinese. (I'm sorry if you are sensitive of the word "pork") Believe it or not, when I was a kid I asked my parent why do we consume pork if the pig farming is so smelly that it ruined the morning breezes. (Apologize again if "pig farming" is a big NO to you) I had stayed at house area that 10KM away from the pig farming place, the smell is so terrible that it's much worst than the garbage disposal area.
"Don't ask too much! Just eat what we Chinese used to be, are you going to become a Malay avoid pork??" My father said to me, the ridiculous idea about "why pork is so dirty that we still eat it" was following me in slightest way, sometimes I was thinking about it, sometimes not. It feels like that I have a feeling of looking for an answer, what is truly forbidden and what is lawful. Beer was prohibited at western country at 19th century while today is lawful for those who matured.
Refer to to wikipedia about Prohibition, (United states) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition
Concern over excessive alcohol consumption began during the American colonial era, when fines were imposed for drunken behavior and for selling liquor without a license.[23] In the eighteenth century, when drinking was a part of everyday American life, Protestant religious groups, especially the Methodists, and health reformers, including Benjamin Rush and others, urged Americans to curb their drinking habits for moral and health reasons. By the 1840s the temperance movement was actively encouraging individuals to reduce alcohol consumption. Many took a pledge of total abstinence (teetotalism) from drinking distilled liquor as well as beer and wine. Prohibition remained a major reform movement from the 1840s until the 1920s, when nationwide prohibition went into effect, and was supported by evangelical Protestant churches, especially the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and Congregationalists. Kansas and Maine were early adopters of statewide prohibition. Following passage of the Maine law, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, among others, soon passed statewide prohibition legislation; however, a number of these laws were overturned.[23]
Therefore, Since the day, I had convinced by Allah the al-Mighty Creator about Islam is true message and He explained what is lawful and forbidden for mankind, I quit eating pork and consume beer immediately before registered as a Muslim.
Allah has prescribed certain obligations for you, so do not neglect them; He has defined certain limits, so do not transgress them; He has prohibited certain things, so do not do them; and He has kept silent concerning other things out of mercy for you and not because of forgetfulness, so do not ask questions concerning them.
(Reported by aI-Darqutni and classified as hasan (good) by al-Nawawi.)
My new interest is looking for Halal Chinese foods, where the forbidden meat is switched to lawful meat while not losing the great taste itself. My favorite place would be Hainan Restaurant that serving halal foods since early of 20th century in Malaysia. What intrigued me the most is this news "Halal dim sum a hit in Kelana Jaya" as published in The Star Newspaper.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2014/07/23/Halal-dim-sum-a-hit-in-Kelana-Jaya-Customers-keep-coming-back-for-more-of-Aisyah-Yeaps-steamed-Ch/
Aisyah Yeap, 54, a Muslim convert, said she always kept an eye out for halal food.
She said there were many suppliers who sold halal dim sum but it did not taste authentic.
“Good Chinese dim sum is commonly made of lean pork meat. Since I became a Muslim, it was hard for me to find dim sum certified by Jakim.
“I finally managed to source for the halal version, which tastes very close to the ‘original’,” said Yeap.
Yeap does not make them herself but gets the dim sum from a supplier who has halal certification.
“This dim sum is made of lean chicken or seafood such as prawns,” she said.
In my conclusion, it's not wrong to eat Chinese food if it's served in halal way. Don't be overreacted with the word of "Chinese" and whatsoever if Allah never judge his servants by race and tribe.

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