'If you feel no shame, then do as you wish'...

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In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate; blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

Reflection
"Anyone who obeys the Messenger has obeyed God..." (Nisaa 4:80)
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SATURDAY 12th Rabiulawal 1436H (3th January 2015) was the anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (Sallallaahu ‘alaihi wasallam - s.a.w.) birthday. Malaysian Muslims were busy celebrating the big day in rememberence of the Prophet s.a.w., but what a shock we had about a week later - a video of several 'tudung' clad Muslims girls who groped and were being kissed by members of a K-POP group became viral in the internet.

At first I was shocked and disgusted. Later on, a sad feeling gripped deep inside my heart; 'Subhanallah' (All praise only to Allah SWT) what actually had befall to the 'ummah' (Muslims); a few of the new generation (generation Y?)  of Muslims seemed had plunged themselves deep into the ravine of destruction; loosing their 'malu' trait (modesty) or in Arabic 'haya'.

Modesty is part of 'iman' (belief). On the authority of Abu Masud, Uqba ibn Amr al-Ansari al-Badri (Radhiallahu anhu) narrated that the Messenger of Allah s.a.w. said: “Among the words people obtained from the first prophecy are: If you feel no shame, then do as you wish.” (This hadith was related by al-Bukhari)

Well, are 'some of our Muslim girls' fast loosing their 'malu'?  Or on a bigger scale, Muslims of our 'kampung' and 'taman' (village and housing estate), our state, country or even the world?

To 'refresh' ourselves on what really took place at the event, I rewrite this 'confession' from the internet.  Among others the writer wrote: "I was there, I saw what happened. I know what happened. I remembered clearly what happened. I recorded what happened.

"The guy asked million times if it's okay to re-act the scene. The girl answered with no doubt. The girl groped him first. The girl went 20 km/h to 140 km/h in groping him. Then it happened. He kissed her shawl, she pulled him closer to her body. The Chinese MC was shocked and told her to stop, she went to be so close and held the guy tight.

"What can he do when the girl gave in. If a Muslim herself forgets what's 'halal' (permissible) and 'haram' (forbidden, unlawful or sinful) why would a non-Muslim be to be blame? Well, any guy would do the same, I suppose..."

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, all Muslims actions are governed by the principles of ‘halal’and 'haram’.  

Since we are still in spirit of celebrating Prophet Muhammad's s.a.w. birthday, let's us tackle this issue by browsing back at the life of the greatest man in the history as being acknowledged by scholars including Western writers. 

Michael H Hart in his book ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History’ ranked the Prophet first, while Lamartine/Histoire de la Turquie/Paris 1854 asked; “If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?”

Hard’s The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, has sold more than 500,000 copies and been translated into 15 languages. What mainly surprised readers in this book was the first person on Hart's list (Hart, 1992). Hart decided to choose Muhammad over Jesus or Moses. Hart attributes this to the fact that Muhammad was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms.

Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was clearly a man who we should follow if we want to be successful in this world and in the Hereafter. In the Qur'an, Allah says: "Anyone who obeys the Messenger has obeyed God..." (Nisaa 4:80)

As Muslim we should not only remember Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. on his birthday but keep thinking about him at all times. In doing so, ‘insya-Allah’ (God willing) all our actions would be in line with his teachings. Then our lives would be guarded; our actions would be based on the five sections of ‘hukum shara’ (law of fiqh or religious law), that are ‘waajib’ (obligatory), ‘sunnah’ (optional), ‘harus’ or ‘mubah’ (probable), ‘makruh’ (improper) and ‘haram’.

It is ‘wajib’ to perform our five daily obligatory prayers (subuh, zuhur, asar, maghrib and isyak) so perform our best while doing it; it is ‘haram’ to shake hands with those of the opposite sex who are not our ‘muhram’ (those who are closely related to us such as our father, mother and siblings), then just leave it. And taking this in consideration, then of course it is 'HARAM' for  'tudung' clad Muslim girls (or even by those who are not donning the 'tudung') to  embrace or being kissed by male members of the K-POP group!

The question is why 'our girls' had guts to do 'those haram things'? Perhaps their knowledge on Islam was poor, their 'iman' (faith) loose, they easily gave up to their 'nafs' (desire) because there were 'maksiat' (forbidden activities) in the open everywhere and they failed to see good examples portrayed by leaders and even their parents!

Mother and father, please note that many of us do not or fail to 'dakwah' our children. The father thinks that he should be a good Muslim but forget about his wife and children. He should ‘dakwah’ not only himself but his dependents for Allah SWT says: "Believers! Save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is Men and Stones, over which are angels stern (and) severe as wardens, who flinch not (from executing) the commands they receive from Allah, but do (precisely) what they are commanded." (Qur’an 66:6)

As parents, we are the 'first teacher' for our children. The question is how is our children's 'iman' (believe); clearly from 'the K-POP' incident, the 'iman' of some of our young generation is questionable. 'Malu' (modesty) is part of 'iman' and if a few of our girls portrayed that they were 'tidak tahu malu' (had no modesty), then we have to check it ourselves fast.

As parents are we too  'tidak tahu malu'? The same question should be forwarded to our leaders - are they too 'tidak tahu malu' when they do all sorts of 'haram' things in the open such as the wife of a top leader embracing a male badminton top player and and a Bollywood star. Yes, if you feel no shame, then do as you wish.

Shaking hands involving the opposite sex is rampant in the ruling party functions. If we were to observe closely the moment when a leader arrived at a function, he would be greeted with handshakes by men and women.

The leader seemed not to have a sense of guilty when shaking and pressing his hand to the hands of other people’s wives (bini orang) or daughters (anak dara orang). It is sinful but the people of that party just ignore it. Women too, were seen pressing or pushing their way to shake hands with the top leaders.

Based on ‘this sinful’ phenomenon, I am afraid we are not thinking about Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. at all times, we are only good at remembering him when celebrating his birthday. Imagine what the Prophet would say, if he were to witness our deeds of not following his teachings and yet during Maulidur Rasul processions some of us are shouting our lungs in praising him.

Yes, we were not following the Prophets s.a.w. way of life and this time around we were 'heavily penalized' in the form of our young 'tudung' clad girls' embracing members of a K-POP group. Perhaps 'this sin' too 'had connection' with the devastating great flood that hit our country recently!

At the same time please be beware, perhaps next time 'our girls' would be embracing Hollywood and Bollywood stars; an excellent example had already been portrayed by the wife of one of our leaders. All these 'sins' were 'sungguh memalukan' (put a great shame to us as Muslims).