No Justice, No Peace

Margaret, my supervisor at CPI Leicester, where I worked for nearly four years, shook her head and asked a rhetorical question,  "Maizie, why do you keep on fasting?"   I had just gone to the rest room to put on my duffle coat  to top up layers of a thermal undershirt, a flannel shirt, a woolen jumper, and a gilet because fasting in winter makes you feel very, very cold, a biting cold which gets right into the marrow of your bones. It stops as soon as you break your fast and down a  mug of hot tea.   And people like Margaret will never know how it feels to taste the sustenance that-God gives and which we all take for granted.

In that year,  (2004, I think), an earthquake  struck a remote mountainous part of Afghanistan and I can just imagine what those poor souls were going through in that winter.  The rest of the country was in the thick of the Judaeo-Christian War on Terror fought in a Muslim country, maiming and killing civilians.  Aid was short in coming.  Islamic Relief (UK) had dropped in a flyer in our letter box and I read of this Muslim engineer from UK who had gone over with the IR Team to open up communication with the stricken area. From that day on Islamic Relief has been the main recipient of our Zakat and a beneficiary in our Will.

'Man was telling us about his experience at the CIMB Bank (not the Setiawangsa branch) just a few weeks before Ramadan.

'Man and Aisha taking a break at our porch

He had gone to the bank from his place of work - as a street cleaner - to pay his mortgage.  He was given a form to fill in.  He asked for help from a (hijabed) bank officer as he could not decipher the instructions.

She (snapping) :  Tak tahu baca?  Tak pegi sekolah kah?
'Man :  Bukan.  Saya lupa bawa cermin mata.

A male bank officer  then came along to help him.  I asked 'Man  why  didn't he report her rudeness to the manager.  'Man said, "Ala Kak, siapa 'nak pandang dan layan saya.  Ini perkara biasa untuk 'Man.  Kena di DBKL, di klinik, di mana mana saja orang tak pandang saya."

That little episode brings me to the end of Ramadan.   Tomorrow will be 1 Syawal - our Hari Raya.  I wish to convey my warmest greetings to family and friends and to AsH's followers and readers, far and near.

If only, oh if only, Muslims in Malaysia would endeavour  to continue the discipline, the devotion, the sincerity and commitment of Ramadan into their workplace and to our fellow beings for the other 11 months of the year.  Think what Muslims could achieve if these values are practised not just in the month of Ramadan.

Every Christmas, our local Animal Rescue Charity shop would remind people that  "A puppy is not only for Christmas".  People, out of the goodness (?) of their hearts, imbibe the spirit of   "goodwill to all men"  by giving away presents of puppies, kittens, and bunny rabbits etc.  By the twelfth day of Christmas or a little later, these prezzies would be abandoned and discarded like Christmas paper wrappers.

In the same vein our ibadah to God and our fellow human beings and all living creatures are not only for Ramadan.

This Hari Raya, most especially, will not be a Selamat Hari Raya  for as long as the genocide in Gaza does not stop.

As for Malaysians, be they UMNO, PKR, DAP or PAS Malays,  the 'can't-be-bothered' Malays,  the mayonnaise and belacan Malays, the 'I-am-holier-than-thou' Malays,  the 'I'm-alright-Jack- and-sod-everybody-else' Malays, the smug and full-bellied modernized Malays,  the 'in-the-kingdom-of-the-blind-the one-eyed-man-is-king' Malays, and septuagenarian Malays like me - we should go down on our knees and remember that "there, but for the grace of God, go I".  For we, at least, can greet our brethren with a Selamat Hari Raya. 

We are endowed with Peace.  Now we have to work for Justice.