Heard about ‘my people’ from Sarawak
struggle with the word of Allah in their worship. I wonder how they pray to God
now. I imagine my illiterate grandparents, my aunties and uncle, kneeling on
their knee, while their mind was hijacked with the prohibition use of Allah in
their praying. Pity them. We are suggested to convert to Muslim if we insist to
use the word of Allah in worship. Is this a joke….?because I immediately
imagine Christian people convert to Muslim simply just because of word of
Allah. Just imagine, an obedient and loyal Christian by force convert to
Muslim, pray to Allah…but it not Muslim Allah but Christian Allah! If he/she
privately pray to Christian Allah, using ‘Abdullah’ as her last name, who would
notice right? as long can pray in peace to Allah? But nah…our Christian fellow
are honest people, and our God won’t like it as well. Our religion does not
promote dishonest and always speak and act the truth.
Anyway, mumbling too much already.
What actually I wanted to say is...maybe this is wake up call from heaven. We
are living in a good life so far. Not perfect, but enough to have food to eat,
to have cloths to wear and we are blessed with abundance resources around us
that keep us survive. We go to church every Sunday, we praise and worship God.
It is routine to most of us in Sarawak. Our life like a circle, no change.
But God has promised us, He will
never leave us once we follow him. In fact, he always wanted the best for us,
His children. So, I consider this Allah issue as wake up call from Heaven.
We've been 'sleeping' for quite sometime. This is the time for us to move
forward as how He wanted us to be. Remember, He knows what is the best for us.
This Allah never been an issue in
our own land. But here, in Peninsular it became an issue because majority
people here are Muslim and it seems they are concern about Allah being misused
by Christian people. I did not blame them. First; they are not well informed of
the real situation are, second, they do not understand how to feel in minority
shoes and third; common people....leave Allah to them. Our God much more
greater than the word of Allah! Praise the Lord!
Majority Christian in Peninsular
using God in praying. Those minority people use Allah in their worship and
praying are those do not speak in English. well, since our government encourage
the use of Bahasa Melayu in our land of Malaysia verbal or writing, we
are Sarawak people as loyal as ever to their government...we are using bahasa
baku even to our Buku Al-Kitab. We translate everything to Bahasa Melayu.
But those people who undoubtedly more expert in history believes that Sabah and
Sarawak are using Malay in their worship since ages ago, and Allah been used
for centuries. I kind of agreed with them, otherwise how my grandma and grandpa
knows who is Allah? Don't forget my grandma and grandpa illiterate, they only
can speaks in Malay.
But hey Sarawakian, where is this
bahasa baku bring us? Going up or down? or roller coaster? Don't you think it
is time for us to move upfront? We've been left behind for so long, we've been
a follower for centuries, being minorities, we've been pushed down for so many
time in so many area...do you think, our Lord Jesus like that to happen to His
people? Remember how God take His people out of Egypt?
Remember our God is full of mercy
and graciousness? Remember our God only wants the best for His people? Don't
you think this is the best time to prove it?
So, most of people who affecting by
this issue, mostly in Peninsular. Those people in Peninsular are youth people
who came here to work and this youth are quite naive to think that people in
Peninsular are generous and friendly people. For some reason, they can be so
defensive and feel threaten. This is the time for us to unite and become more
stronger, not to give up. I perceive, this is a good thing and only good thing
will happen to the follower of Jesus Christ who have faith in Him.
He said “Do not seek revenge or bear
a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself”.
When he was crucified, he did not curse, he did not complaint. He even pray to
God on that very cross to forgave his enemy. Now, that what I call as peace and
love.
So, i totally believe that we shall
rise and shine people! As how He promise us. Amen!
