I should have blogged about this earlier as a pre-cursor to Hari Raya visiting.
This is regarding the salam (greetings by means of shaking hands). This act is a sunnah when meeting and leaving fellow muslims. However one must be reminded that such an act is prohibited between opposite genders unless that other person is your mahram.
The act of salam involves touching. This is clearly prohibited between non-mahrams. As Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove/School would say, "No... Touchy."
A mahram can be defined as a person whom you cannot marry. We are talking about opposite genders here. No 377A hoo-hahs here. Islam is clearly against homosexuality.
So, who exactly constitute as a person's mahram?
Let's look at the following quran verses...
And marry not women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed; indeed it was shameful and most hateful, and an evil way. (22) Forbidden to you (for marriage) are: your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your foster mother who gave you suck, your foster milk suckling sisters, your wives' mothers, your step daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom you have gone in - but there is no sin on you if you have not gone in them (to marry their daughters), - the wives of your sons who (spring) from your own loins, and two sisters in wedlock at the same time, except for what has already passed; verily, Allâh is Oft¬Forgiving, Most Merciful. (23)
Surah An-Nisa (22-23) In summary, people who are considered mahrams are divided into 3 parts (this is from the perspective of a woman.... a similar manner can be derived for a man) :
permanent or blood mahrams with whom you become mahram by a blood relationship:
father, grandfather, great-grandfather and so on;
brother;
son, grandson, great-grandson;
uncle, parents' uncle, grandparents' uncle and so on;
nephew, grandnephew, great-grandnephew and so on;
in-law mahrams with whom you become mahram by marrying someone:
father-in-law;
son-in-law;
step-father (mother's husband) if their marriage is consummated;
step-son (husband's son) if her marriage is consummated;
radha' or milk-suckling mahrams with whom you become mahram because of being nursed by a woman. When a woman acts as a wetnurse (that is, she breast feeds an infant that is not her own child) for a certain amount of time under certain conditions, she becomes the child's radha mother and all said about blood mahrams applies here, like radha father/mother, radha sister/brother, radha aunt/uncle and so on. In English these can be referred to as milk brother, milk-mother, etc.
This means that if you are a guy, you can salam your mother's/father's sister. Your grandmother's/grandfather's sister. Your great-grandmother's/great-grandmother's sister and so on.
This also means that if you are a guy, you cannot salam your uncle's(either your mother's or father's brother) wife.
This also means that my Uncle Taufik Batisah, in theory, can salam my great-great-grandmother.
According to Mazhab Syafi'i's teachings, touching a non-mahram is permissable in darurat cases such as treating a sickness, dentistry, surgery and the likes if there is no other like genders around to perform the same job.
For me, sometimes it's very hard to say no when the non-mahram extends her hand and say,"tak salam?" Especially if she's within family but still not considered mahram. One still cannot regard this as darurat. Even if it becomes a norm in society, it does not make the wrong thing right.
We have to be strong to put the commands of Allah at its place. Should we slip, we should seek forgiveness and pray that we will be stronger in the future.
Yesterday, my kindergarten one sister was eating biscuits with tea. She made quite a mess with the biscuit crumbs. I decided to help clear the crumbs and armed myself with a broomstick on one hand and a dustpan on the other.
When I was done sweeping, I headed back to the kitchen to empty the dustpan. At the same time my sister was done with her little brunch and was skipping into the kitchen to place her almost empty IKEA porcelain cup of tea on the kitchen of the cabinet. She barely placed the cup on the cabinet before she was dashing off back to the television. She somehow pulled the cup off the cabinet as she was letting go of it.
Everything happened while I was next to her. I saw that the cup was going to slip off the cabinet. My ninja reflex told me to stretch my legs to an almost full split position. It helped that the surface of the kitchen floor is very slidable. The reason I did that was to avoid from getting hit from the pieces of the broken cup when it hits the floor. Innalillah wa inna lillahi rajiun. By this time, little sis was already 2 meters away from the whole thing.
I might have been able to let go my dustpan and caught the falling cup in time if I had stayed in ninja school longer. Alas, I stopped ninja training at brown belt and have been living a pretty sedentary lifestyle post national service days.
That impromptu action resulted a cramp. Hence I was spending Hari Raya Visiting with a cramp.
Life is one complicated journey You can never be too sure What will happen till it happens Walking through time There's bound to be regrets Don't let them eat you away Initial disappointments inevitable Rise up from the dead Or die before your soul separates from your body Change Something that you must face Either you change yourself Or let things change for the worse naturally Life is your journey Basically you choose your path Answering the choices you make And end up dying for it
29 December 1998
Looking back at this. I see that I had an idea of how to get out from whatever situation that I was going through.
What was difficult was probably not having the confidence to begin with. And get help. Getting help is important. I learnt that from Man-At-Arms from the newer He-Man cartoon series. He-Man the cartoon serious has a tradition of sharing the lesson learnt from the story after every episode. From that particular episode, Man-At-Arms was saying that getting help is a sign of strength. Of course you don't ask for help for every little thing.
"Asking for help is a sign of strength."
Learning life lessons from cartoons?? Whatever works for you Fir... Weird?... maybe a little. But I hope my animation can have the same kind of effect on others.
Force yourself, especially when you are feeling inspired to change. Start small and eventually you will stretch your comfort zone. Easier said than done, but not impossible.
Change is a small word that is so hard to do. Just as with anything else, it gets easier with practise.
Taking a break to finally blog on Raya this year. School just started last week and I have been busy with some other things...
The first day of Raya is different this year. Nenek(grandma) celebrated Eid fitri in the holy land of Mekah. Therefore, there wasn't the usual gathering of uncles and aunts of my mother's side at home. Nenek lives with us.
The guys went to En-Naeem mosque to perform the Eid Fitri prayers. There was a jenazah on that day. That, sort of sets a different mood to the whole Raya feeling. It serves us as a reminder that death can come at any time.
Reflecting on it, I thought that, to have that many people pray for you is really something. But it must be totally devastating for his family though.
The sequence of the prayers was, firstly the Eid Fitri prayers, followed by the jenazah prayers. Finally, the Eid Fitri khutbah(sermon). Learnt something new.
Later at home, I hugged my parents and sought for forgiveness. Sought forgiveness from my siblings as well.
Then the raya-ing begins. First stop was of course, my paternal grandmother's place. Then it was off to Pak Busu's(youngest uncle) house. He lives just a few blocks from grandma. Unfortunately, this year when we made our way to his place, he was making his way to grandma's place. So, we didn't manage to stop by his place. However, we made a traditional stop to take a photograph at the mini garden next to the void deck of Pak Busu's place.
2005
2007
2007 with parents (dad is quite a poser)
2006's pic is lost in bro's stolen laptop. The so-called tradition might end this year, since big bro is getting married in December this year. Things will change and new traditions will emerge. :)
Last Sunday marks the end of iftars with tertiary institutions for me. Friday was with Ngee Ann Polytechnic's NPMSS and NPMCC. Saturday was with Singapore Polytechnic's SPMLS. While Sunday was with our ally Temasek Polytechnic's Nur Ikhwan. Too bad, I could only go after 6pm for Nur Ikhwan's event.
Went to the events as an avid observer, hoping to learn as much as I can. Came up with some conclusions.I shall share a little here. Saw familiar and new faces. Networked.
NP's video showcase was a smack in a face. It's a sad reality check for the muslims community. SP had a youthful ustaz share about the theme I am a H.I.P muslim. Humble, Intellectual and Passionate. I have my own interpretation to it. The better word for humble is qanaah. It means to remain unaffected whether a person praises you or criticizes you, for you know that whatever you do is for Allah. My word for passionate is itqan. It is to give your best in whatever you do.
TP's helping to clean the old folks homes and befriending is commendable. Let's not make it a once a year thing. Make it a part of life. Talk to the old man who always sit at your void deck. Go down 15 minutes earlier when you are fetching your little sister, who takes the school bus, from the void deck. Not only will you be a listening ear for them, you can learn about things of the past that you never knew about. Hear their regrets in life and aim not to repeat their mistakes. It will make you want to prepare for old age.
Animation has sort of taken a back seat for me for a while. Been trying out other stuffs to get that perfect balance out of life. School will be opening school and it feels like I am returning back to reality somewhat.
The challenges ahead....
I see animation very differently now. I see it as a tool to my bigger purpose in life.
I was reading the papers. It's about the comic "The 99". Read about it some time ago and now its being sold in Indonesia for S$3 for each issue. I do not agree with the whole 99 thing. The story is such that, there are 99 noor stones will give man superpowers.
It is based on the 99 names of Allah which are also His attributes. Whoever bears the stones will gain the superpower similar to Allah's attribute.
I tried searching for my akidah book to confirm this.... but will have to rely on my memory for now. Correct me if I'm wrong, one cannot be named after the 99 names like the characters, Jabbar and Sami'. Instead one can be named as such only with a prefix of Abdul which means servant of. So it should be Abdul Jabbar and Abdul Sami' instead.
There are attributes of of Allah that as humans, we can strive to emulate. But there are attributes that solely belongs to Allah. One can sense that something is not quite right just by a quick browse of the comic. The female superheros are not even covered up. The whole fantasy story might do harm to the akidah of the muslim youths who reads such books. It sounds almost hypocritical for me to say that this fantasy world will do harm. I grew up with influence of fantasy of cartoon world and even enjoying them. However, I have come to understand that they are also a form of distraction.
Pretty screwed that I chose to pursue animation as a career. Not quite. I do still have choices. Let's now talk about Malaysian animation. I feel that Malaysia's animation is on the rise. First there was Saladin. Now there's Upin and Ipin by Les' Copaque. Upin and Ipin is a light hearted animation fit for the family. The kind that I would love making. It's encouraging to see fellow Malays doing these things. It's giving me the drive to pick animation back up where I left it. Singapore is cool with its democracy system and all, but one cannot deny the race connection. It's currently being played on malaysian cable TV9. But of course, there's youtube.
wednesday Last Wednesday, broke fast at Republic Polytechnic with NYPMSN peeps. It was pleasant and I wish I could have stayed longer.
saturday Last Saturday, my grandmother flew to perform Umrah. It's a mini pilgrimage. It can be done at any time unlike the Haj which is done during its season. The family saw her off at the airport. I remember when I went for Umrah with her back in 99. I was ignorant then. Oblivious to many things in many ways. During that Umrah we made a stop to Palestein as well. A memory I hold on to very dearly. The highest sought piece of real estate in the world.
That very piece of land is the center stage for the bigger things that are in motion in the world.
I'll make doa that I will be able to perform my Haj in due time.
The family prayed maghrib at Darul Ghufran and somehow ended up at Kampung Chai Chee after driving around to find a place to break fast.
sunday The next day, after my weekly religious class, broke fast with the nypmsn peeps and alumnis at Chai Chee Seafood. All I'm saying is that there's a lesson we learnt.
