Chinese New Year Gatherings

CNY Dawah Open House Program

Went to 2 events today. The first one was organised by my working committee, Macma Selangor in a joint venture with 2 other local ngos, Ikram and Hidayah Center. Over 600 people from all walks of life turned up to enjoy the day with us.

The menu was Chinese Muslim food and we enjoyed the fried bihun, mapo tofu, fried mixed veggies, friend fish and veg, curry chicken and fried prawns. Lots of oranges, Chinese tea and rezeki draws were carried out.

My son won a prize again, just as he won one at the rezeki draw in Kuala Trengganu Darul Fitrah charity lunch event. At that event in KT ,3 members out of 10 at our table won hampers. It was a wonderful surprise to have our numbers called out. Alhamdulillah.

Lion Dance

After several short speeches by the different representatives, we had a colourful and noisy lion dance performance to entertain the guests and members. There were 2 smaller versions of the lions, one yellow and the other green.

Today I learnt that the lion dance members who consist of teenagers and young men were training regularly all year round for the yearly performances. Though the charges were high, around a minimum of around RM650 per performance, I learnt that most of the income would be donated to charities. In a way it is a good thing.

Healthy Youth Activity

I suggested that we should train our own youth members to learn the art of lion dance or some form of Islamic cheerleading performance. It is a healthy active physical activity that can be carried out all year round. We can also invite them to perform at Muslim events. The money we spend on the engagements will benefit our own community and let the youth earn some extra income.

It will insha Allah be a shirk free performance and we can customise it to suit Islamic requirements. We do not know what rituals some people had to go through to ensure a good performance. It is the belief and superstition of some non Muslims to maybe perform some ritual but if we train Muslims to perform, we can be assured it will be just pure cultural entertainment which can serve as a dawah instrument. Not yet Muslims will realise that embracing Islam does not necessarily losing their own cultural identity. Far from it.

Muslims can continue to enjoy their culture and heritage so long it does not contradict Muslim tenets. We can carry on with activities we used to enjoy within our own communities and enjoy the best of both worlds, insha Allah (God willing).

Mini CNY Open House at Br Firdaus's Home

In the late afternoon we visited a friend's house. Many of our revert brothers and sisters and children, parents were there. It was a sort of mini CNY open house gathering. Everyone brought something to share. We ate and solat jemaah together. It was a warm gathering.

It was quite a mini feast, pizza, fried bihun, curry chicken, green tea and red bean cream cake, curry puffs, ice cream and quesadillas. The host provided the drinks, fried halal luncheon meat, oranges, chocolates and halal malted drinks etc .

The children were the ones who had a really great time, from toddlers to little babies. They played, laughed and cried. They are so forgiving that they would not stay upset with anyone for more than a few minutes. Subhanallah!Thanks to those who distributed ang pows generously.

All of them including unmarried young people were given red envelopes of money as presents, commonly known as ang pows, or red packets.