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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Fasting and hadith

There are numerous false hadith on the benefit of fasting in the month of Ramadhan. We need to be cautious on this matter and prevent this from spreading further. I still remember that back at my hometown, the mosque used to put up notice on the benefit of performing Tarawih for each night in Ramadhan. As a small child, I used to believe this type of info since this notice is being put up by mosque committee, and hence this is supposed to be accurate. However, I eventually find out the truth and learn the reason behind this fault.

Muslim community in Malaysia, mainly Malay, practices Islam as part of the tradition and there are many instances whereby custom/tradition is mixed with religious teaching. Many, if not all, members of mosque committee were elderly people and they are not used to abrupt changes in their daily activities. Hence, any old custom is being passed from one generation to another without any second thought.

Besides that, it is difficult to find young people praying at the mosque. Perhaps they were too busy with their work to the extent that many mosques were only filled by the elderly.

We can easily point out other people mistakes but it is another matter to correct their mistakes. It takes courage, time and careful strategies to implement any changes in the community. I guess I'm still far from being able to change anything in the community. Perhaps time will tell whether there will be any improvement in our Muslim community in the future.

Interesting read: Soalnya di mana Ramadan kamu? [in Malay]

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