Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Prayer To Sell

[2:42] And believe in what I have sent down [Quran] which fulfils that which is with you [Torah], and be not the first to disbelieve therein, and barter not My Signs for a paltry price, and take protection in Me alone.

Our clan is in mourning after the death of one of our uncles last Sunday evening. Due to circumstances, as soon as we found out that he was critical in the ICU, mom and I decided should something happened his body would be laid next door and all the wake would be held there as well.

Before we even left the house to see him, we got a call that he passed away. So that night, the whole clan and friends gathered next door praying in front of the body. Then someone asked, who were going to stay with the body the whole night? Someone said that some people need to pray all night near the body. Then it was decided to asked the musholla's (a small mosque) help. A bloke came proposing to read the whole quran all night for 1 million rupiah, citing that's what my family did when my father died. I told my cousin that we were proposed the same thing but didnt do it, because we didnt see the point, plus we believed paying them the said amount for that is only lead the readers to sin for selling God's word for a paltry price. It would've been different if we just gave them donation for their time and effort. They had the guts to tell us if we didnt do that, my father would have trouble in the after life or something along that line. Great.

That's one of the problems I have with that Musholla, they are greedy and sell out. When we were in the middle of burying my father, I had a phone call telling me that they refused to come to our place unless they received certain things for certain number of people. I felt like they kidnapped us for ransom. They take advantage of people in needs. I hate people like that with passion. To me, such people and those terrorists are the real enemy of Islam, they put a shame on the religion, not some stupid cartoonist or someone naming her doll Muhammad.

5 comments:

colson said...

First of all I offer you my condolences at the loss in your family.

As for the disappointment the musholla's, I think our commercialized undertaker's business is even much worse. By exploiting the grief of the bereaved at that moment, these vulture often talk them in way too expensive funerals or cremations.

triesti said...

Thanks Colson. I dealt personally with a Dutch undertaker years ago when a friend's mother died. It was much more restrained compare to these vultures disguised under religious shroud. At least with the Dutch we knew we were dealing with business people trying to make a profit, not some goody two shoes people.

Unknown said...

Wouldn't the head of the local mosque try to stop this carry on or don't things work like that?

triesti said...

The head of the musholla is as greedy. He also asked for money when he joined us praying at his musholla and we also had to pay people who joined the prayer there. It's one thing to donate for the use of musholla, but it's another when they asked for money for joining in our prayer.

Unknown said...

ah...