I Commit to A New Religion, You? - Part 2

This is the continuation from the Journal on 29th of September.  A story about commitment and religion.

Place: Bukit Kachi Mall
Time: 12 PM
Date: Oct, 2nd, 2012

So, Today, i met Uncle again. He was happy to see me. As usual, he brought many newspapers to be sold. He is the supplier of newspaper in this mall.

And, again, he gave me one newspaper to be read. He is always do that.

Me: Hello Uncle..
Uncle: Hello.. (smiling)
Me: How are you?

I was waiting for him to explain about this new religion "Bahai". I have been so curious about this religion. It keeps running on mind. Last week, he was about to explain when a customer came to have top up.

Uncle: Oh ya, last time I wanna tell you about "Bahai".

Me: Ya..ya..

Uncle: It started in 1819 near Iran. This religion considers that all God are same. We don’t differentiate or group it.

Me: Aha..

Uncle: It starts after Islam. It was horrible. Islam and Christian were fought each other and appear this new religion. Then when they know, they were angry. And they wanna kill him, Bahaullah, he said that “Don’t kill me first before I pass the message to my friend.” Christian people try to shoot him but they can‘t. He is fine. Nothing happen. He was there on the other side telling his friend what to do. Then he come back and said, “Okay, now you can kill me.” Turn for Moslem to kill this guy. Finally he was dead.

Me: How do you pray?

Uncle: I pray like you, like Moslem. In Islam you believe for 25 prophets right? This religion believes that there’s one prophet after Muhammad SAW named Bahaullah. He is the first one after Muhammad SAW.

Me: Oh..

Uncle: (he is drawing) yaa so this religion starts with that. It believes that we are all one. He is drawing a cycle that tells Bahaullah is the first prophet after Muhammad SAW.

Me: How do you pray? (Again, i'm curious)

Uncle: I pray at home. For us, God is everywhere. Before, I praise statue. It was wrong. I knew so I changed religion. I know this from my relatives in India. It was just 7-8 years ago I converted to Bahai.

I read the pray book. It’s in many languages. Tamil, malay, Indonesian. It’s like the book pray like Moslem has. All the pray. Ya Allah ya Tuhanku.. (He starts to recite a do'a)s

Me: Oh..so how do you pray?

Uncle: Like Moslems do. All the moves.

Me: Oh?

Uncle: Ya..if you wanna see the book I’ll bring it to you. You can read it. It is in Malay.

Me: How do you get it? How do you know this religion?

Uncle: We have to order from KL. I knew from my relatives in India. Before it’s only a few. My cousin from India said the pray book is very good. The words then he took it. Kumar also read.  You can read it. I will bring it later.

Me: It’s better for you to convert to Islam. Cuz I learn Islam not because my parents are Moslem but because I want to. I learned in catholic school for 6 years, I studied Catholic. My family, many of them are Hindu. I was so young when dad took me to catholic school so I pray and pray. I find peace in Islam that’s why I wanna be a Moslem. Not because my parents or anything.

Uncle: Ahaaa..

Me: It’s not Islam that differentiates people. It’s the people. Religion is not cruel but people are. If you read Qur’an is all about peace and love.

Uncle: Ahaa. I read Qur’an.

Me: Yeah..

Uncle: You are very good..like you..

Me: Ah noo. Uncle it’s better you to go to Islam directly.

Uncle: Aha?

Me: Yes..Islam is the way of life. Everything is arranged in Islam.

(Suddenly a customer came.)

A girl: Kak, i want to reload..

Uncle: Okay I will go to exchange the money.

Me: Okay, see ya.

(After a few minutes..)

Uncle: There is no small money. I’ll call Kumar.

Me: Is it okay? Don’t worry I’ll call him now.

To be continued..

PS: Will Uncle change religion?

      Or Me the one who will change religion?

See you in next part,

Chandini