Mosque Open Day: Expect the unexpected

sumber


Assalamualaikum warahmatullah..

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"Hello, assalamualaikum Huda"
"Waalaikumussalam.."

"Huda free tak petang ni? Nak ajak jadi volunteer untuk Mosque Open Day.."
"Ooo..erm..yup, insyaAllah free je. Boleh2, insyaAllah. Lepas Zohor nanti Huda datang, jumpa kat sana ye"

"Tapi apa benda ye yang kita kena buat nanti??", soalku.
"Ala macam jaga makanan camtu je..tolong2 apa yang patut"

"Ha, kalau cmtu Huda setuju, hehe..orait2"

......

There were three of us, and we introduced ourselves to the other committee as FOSIS volunteers. When we arrived, there was nothing much that we can do since everything had been prepared by other people.


"Oh, we gonna have exhibition too! Bagusnya..."
"Anyway, nak jaga makanan apa ni? Makanan kat meja tu macam bukan untuk dijaga je..."

Dan kami benar-benar tiada kerja untuk dibuat. Kami cuma berlegar-legar membaca poster-poster di situ..

Tiba-tiba seorang sister mendekati.
"Alright girls, can all of you go outside and help with the things there?"

Kami bersama a few sisters mula melangkah keluar, dan..

"But three of you have to stay here. We have to be ready when the visitors come in. Do you know what you actually have to do?"
"Err..not really", jawab kami.

"Well, basically when people come in, approach them and explain to them anything about Islam as they go along this exhibition. Starts with the 5 pillars in Islam, insyaAllah tell them about Allah, prophet, Quran, answer their question and insyaAllah if they want to see how Muslims pray and our praying area, bring them to the upstairs. Is everything clear?"
"InsyaAllah..we'll try our best"
"InsyaAllah"

......

Subhanallah. Daripada niat nak menjaga makanan, sungguh tak disangka Allah pilih kami untuk sampaikan Islam kepada non-Muslims yang hadir pada Mosque Open Day ini. Ya, agak terkejut dengan tugasan ini, tetapi rasa sungguh bertuah dipilih Allah.

Kami mulakan tugasan dengan doa Nabi Musa..

"Ya Allah lapangkanlah dada kami, permudahkanlah bagi kami urusan kami, lancarkan lisan kami, supaya mereka faham perkataan kami.."

And below are some of the questions that people asked and some sharing from what we have experienced..

Questions:

Hijab
- why do you have to cover your body and hair?
I explained to her the reason of hijab, and what is behind this obligation to Muslim woman. I told her that we are safe when we're covered and I tried to relate this issue with the social problem that occured nowadays. When she knew that the Muslims have to cover all but their face and hand to wrist, she asked this:

"Guys can still be attracted to your hand and your eyes..right?? So?"
Yup, I agreed with her. I told her about the attractions that women have, and there are some part that men more attracted to and how Islam protects women about this issue.


Kaabah
- What is inside the square thing/black box in Makkah? Can you see inside it? Or can you go inside that box?

-Is your God inside that thing? Where is your God actually?

Frankly we don't really know how to explain clearly regarding the 'black box matter'(oh Allah, forgive us for our wrong saying) but we did explain to them about the concept of God and the fact that Islam don't use statue as idols.

Allah

-You have a lot of mosques..so where is your God actually? Is that mean you have a lot of Gods?

We give them the analogy of wind, and pain where you can feel it but no one can show how is wind and pain looks like. And also the concept of Oneness of God in Islam.

Prophets
-(info from a poster-Prophet Iliyas (or Elisha)) Elisha? A woman?

We told them the fact that all prophets are men and there are some reason for God to choose men instead of women to become the Messenger of God. Men are stronger, they can hold the most challenging task to mankind, and..

"Well, I'm not really agree with that. Women are strong too,"replied her.

I just smiled and told them the story about the Arabs during pre-Islamic time where the women being oppressed, women were treated like an object. And Allah knows better. The society during that time wouldn't accept Islam if it was from a mere woman. Prophet Muhammad as the Last Messenger, came from a respected family who was responsible to take care the well of Zamzam.

Quran

-Who wrote this book? What's the book contains?

And many more...

Subhanallah...

-there was one lady who are among the first comers, revert to Islam and learnt to pray immediately as on that moment, it was the time for Asar prayer. She followed slowly, and after prayer she had further discussion with an Irish sister. Subhanallah...

-some of the visitors able to watch us to pray Asar together, brothers and sisters. Alhamdulillah, Allah gave them this chance as some of them never see it before.

-a teacher came to learn about Islam just because there is one Muslim child in her class (bagusnya..)

-some people left the mosque just because they didn't want to take off their shoes

-and yup..Allah showed us a lot of things...we became speechless when three of us sat together back after Maghrib prayer. We learnt a lot..

When we explained the fact and figures about Islam to the non-Muslims, we felt there was something missing/not being explained yet to them..so to every people that we accompanied, we conclude the explanation by try to relate all of the things back to Allah and the basic concept in Islam.

May Allah protect us from any wrongdoings and give His guidance to everyone that came to this Open Day. Thanks to Allah for choosing us to explain about Islam to them..

"Have you ever heard about Islam?"

"No."

"Have you ever know about One God, Prophet Muhammad?"

"No".

Subhanallah.

Brothers and sisters, it is our responsibility to tell them about Islam, whether directly or indirectly. At least by showing a good example of Muslim, insyaAllah Allah will give His rahmah and barakah to us..aminn.

p/s: Thanks to Rima and Noran..sayang korang..may Allah loves both of you more that I do.