Last week i accompanied Cik Nanie to visit her late father's grave which is also my first experience visiting a non-muslim cemetery.
When I told one of my muslim colleague about it, she seem a bit surprised. The look on her face and the way she said "apa la u ni..in response to what i told her, as if I was doing something very wrong and I can be murtad because of it. She even asked me, " So, u sembah-sembah sekali la ye?" And I have to explain that nothing of the sort took place. Pelik. Terkejut. Ada ke patut cakap aku sampai ke situ sekali?! Seliberal -liberal aku pun, i know where's my limit la, cik kak.
Come on la babe, it's not wrong for us Muslim to visit person of other religion's grave kan? Cik Nanie's father is a chinese so if she has converted to Islam doesn't mean that she cannot visit her father's grave? And as a friend tak salah kan kalau aku temankan dia sekali. I was just standing there watching Cik Nanie 'talked' to her father. And it was a very brief, less than 5 minutes visit.
Anyway, i noticed a lot of 'adab melawat kubur' difference between Muslim & Non-Muslim.We Muslims have to be properly dressed and menutup aurat. But the visitors I've seen in this memorial park is more casual. Wearing short pants, t-shirts and even sleeveless. I remembered that I'm a bit panic bila Cik Nanie suddenly kata nak visit her father on our way back home.
Looking at my outfit, i asked her.."Alamak, abis tu i pakai camni, takpe ke?"
"Relax ar, kat sini u pakai ape pun tak kisah, dulu i pakai short & spaghetti strap je"..haha..tu la jawapan Cik Nanie.
On our way in, ada Hindu funeral rites in one of the hall performed by the Hindu monks just outside the cremation hall. In the memorial yard, I noticed that there are quite a number of indians buried kat situ. Maybe after the cremation ceremony they just buried the ashes there because it is more convinient to do everything in one place. I guess, this kind of crematorium / memorial park is no longer restricted to certain race or religion kot. Luckily nobody noticed that there's one budak melayu sesat dalam tu..kot tak pasal-pasal kena halau. Nasib baik kulit ada terlebih gelap, bolehla conceal identity sikit.
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