"Menghalalkan yang haram"

Or making the wrong right. Without realising, it's what the world had slowly become. Many think that logic is enough, especially in religion and that's why each of us have different point of views.

However, as a Muslim, the Holy Quran and the Prophet's teachings are my guidelines. 

Here I wanna say smtg about non-Muslim... things that they don't get. And also things that Muslims sometimes forget or neglect (myself included).

Recently, I came across 2 similar situations whereby these 2 non-Muslim aunties had said to me. Ok, the first situation.

It was on one of my promoter days where I am working until the late evening in KL. As this auntie (who I was working with) and I were deciding to leave earlier (to avoid traffic), I then told her "I think before we go, I should pray here first in case I couldn't make it in time before the next prayer comes".

Simply that. It was for my Asar (evening prayer). And I was expecting some sort of 'ok' or an agreement to my request like what I usually hear. Surprisingly, she insisted me to stay at the booth. She didn't directly said it though.

She said, "I heard you can replace later. It's ok if you don't pray now."

And that point, I was slightly offended. This is why I hate when Muslims make it sound so easy to skip prayers. Over the slightest matter. We tend to not consider our best to perform it, just because we let our 'logic' take over. 

'Oh, there's no surau here, no need to pray la'... 'It's already 10 minutes til the next prayer, pray later together la'...

I get it. I do this too. But this isn't right, guys.

In my situation, I stayed silent because I wanna hear her point of view further.

That auntie then said, "God is merciful". Yep I agree. "He won't punish you just because you don't pray once". Ok, I see where you're coming from. "One time, I had work and just so happen I also have a Church event the same day. So I lied to the company and made up some excuses. See, God won't punish me because I told a white lie. I did it to do what He would've pleases"

Alright. Here's my say. What's wrong with me praying then? If you would make up such a lie to be at a Church event, I don't get why you're lecturing me into not praying. I don't know about other religion, but in Islam, being consistent in remembrance is the key. Skipping a prayer won't make us forget God obvs, but performing all 5 prayers could avoid us from making more inevitable sin for our own good insya'Allah.

Have you ever tried stop doing something for only once, then you notice that you started giving excuses again and again? Eventually, it's what would get us to believe 'it's ok to not do it' all together. But take the MANY verses in the Quran regarding solat for instance, Allah has said it Himself so many times. Doesn't that itself explain its importance?

And a white lie? Lying itself is like a sickness, doing it for your own sake is one thing. But telling others to do the same? Don't even bother.

Personally, I used to always want the time of the month to come by. Because I didn't wanna pray. It somewhat feels like I have more time during the day if I didn't have to pray. But as I grow up, I find that every time I am on my period and that I couldn't perform the prayers, I'd feel bad. I don't just feel that I lost the connection with Him through all 5 solat, but I also feel like I'm forgetting Him. Why? Because through solat comes remembrance, through solat comes forgiveness and if I don't cling on to my Creator, who else would be there for me? Solat is a way of reaching out to Him at times we're drowned into the world.

She said, "God won't burden us with bad things. We do good to Him and he shall do good to us". Well, if God doesn't provide any bad in our lives, what makes us repent then? You see, we aren't angels. If you decide that whenever He gives bad incidents that he is mad at you, you're wrong. In any cases, it's because he loves you more. There will always be challenges and test towards our faith despite us doing good or bad. If bad things keeps piling up, they're not always your fault. At times, it is to keep you closer instead. Don't be prejudice towards Allah. No plan can be better than His.

She later asked me why Muslims women cover our hair and body.

Explaining to a non-Muslim isn't always easy because we don't wanna be giving a different meaning. I simply said because men doesn't see things the way we women think.

Islam knows that and protect the women from the lustful eyes of men. They are attracted to our curves, our fair skin, our neck, our body and us in general. This is how Allah protects us. But ofc, we women won't believe that because many see to believe. Again, logic.

Moving on to the second situation. I had a facial treatment this one morning and this auntie performed laser treatment on my face. She warned me not to wash my face til night time because it could've stop the laser from doing its job. I was being understanding, but I also couldn't help from asking "If later I need to pray, how?" in hope for an alternative, and she just told me to not apply so much water. So I figured, I could just do the wajib but then she said again, "Or you can just not pray. Don't worry, God won't punish you".

In my mind I was like, damn dejavu. I didn't say anything more because guess what? There IS a solution. And it's Tayammum. Ablution using dust instead.

I guess the word 'praying' isn't as impactful as it is to other religion nowadays hmm. 

Note to self and all my Muslim friends: Be a better Muslim, so that we can show the best Islam. When there's a will, there's a way.

To my non-Muslim readers: I don't blame you for not knowing. But we plead for your respect towards our beliefs and to say things like that only portray your ignorance, even if you didn't mean any harm.