Author: admin

Those who know me well enough would know that one of my (many?) pet peeves is the nature and quality of Friday sermons in Malaysian masjids. I don’t mind it, I suppose, that religious bureaucracies insist on standardisation of the texts for Friday sermons – but the sheer banality and superficiality of our weekly sermons make it a constant source of sorrow for me.

Reading this book made me nod in agreement – a lot. The writer’s contention is precisely that many masjids have elected to keep the Friday sermon as bland as possible. Is it fear of religion as a source of political mobilisation? Or a sincere effort to depoliticise the masjid? Perhaps our Muslim preachers are just too lazy to use the Friday prayers as an opportunity to educate and edify? Whatever the motive might be, much of what the writer had to say were resonant to me.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this book is that sometimes the author does appear to be carried away in his indignance at the abject state of the Friday khutbah. He certainly lays his political cards on the table, making rather angry, and to my mind, rather vicious, denunciations of Muslim leaders such as those currently in charge in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Maybe it is unfair or unfeeling for me to feel such distate, but I do think that if one truly believes in the Majesty of His Justice, then one would not, cannot, get too worked up over the myriad injustices on this Earth. Sooner or later, His Justice will prevail.

We do not need to foam at the mouth too much – we do what we can, in the ways that we can, but we must also have faith that He will set things aright, if not in this world, then certainly in the Next.

Overall, I would give this a 4-star rating. Good read, but some parts were too angry for my liking.

When I was about to turn 40, I went through a series of personal and professional crises that had stopped me in my tracks, and led me to question most of what I thought my self and my ambitions had been. I took stock of how far I had come, worked through much of my hurt, and even relived some of the foundational pain that I had kept well hidden, even from myself. Despite everything, I looked back at my life, up to then, and saw that it was good.

Not merely good, in fact, but blessed beyond measure.

I realised, after much reflection, and many miles travelled on a long train trip across Asia, that I could walk away from what I had been doing for years – just being marionetted by other people’s dreams for me, and being haunted and made angry by other people having hurt me. I could choose a different way of Being – more purposeful, more meaningful.

As naive as it may sound, I am choosing to live a good life, to try to be a good person, and to bring goodness to the lives of those around me. It sounds simple, maybe even banal. And certainly there are some days when this new “ambition” feels so small – as if I am throwing away all this “talent” to feed on the crumbs of daily fortunes. Some days, when I feel low, I would cast an eye on the good luck and successes of others, and that familiar wave of Envy and Self-pity comes over me. Some days it feels that I might drown in the inundation.

But some days, like today, when I feel like I’ve touched someone’s life, even if in a small, small way – when it feels like I have pierced through some fog of existential loneliness, to break through and begin to know another human being, and to dignify another’s existence, without guile or grief – on days like today, my heart is full.