Fulfilling the Ultimate Obligation: Being A Muslim in Less Encouraging Surroundings

I was looking at the different colours of shawls in front of me when I realized she wasn't local.

Without asking to confirm, I quickly concluded that she came from a European country by just looking at her fair skin and lighter shade of hair colour. She initially thought I was the stall owner.

"It's ok. I will translate for you. I will ask on your behalf." I offered to ease her difficulties as the stall owner couldn't speak english. She gave me a big smile at once, feeling happy to hear that. In a reflex, I smiled back.

She had a beautiful, sweet smile and pretty, dazzling eyes. I could hear her genuine appreciation from the way she talked.

"So I'll choose and you ask for me," her lips repeated my words back at me as her hands quickly browsed through the head gears, accepting my assistance.

As I was waiting for her to find the scarf she liked, my mind couldn't stop wondering. The friendliness on her face encouraged me to bond some more.

"Where do you come from?"

"Oh, I'm from France. But my parents are actually from Spain and Morocco. So I'm kind of mixed." She continued to give me warm, sweet smiles throughout our conversation, making me completely at ease. I further concluded that we had another big variation. Religion.

* * *

She made a very familiar gesture. Her hands were lifted up to the ear level and brought down after a while, similar to one of the Muslim's praying positions. She did that several times while her mind was racing to find the right word to explain to me. "For prayer?" I asked with reasonable doubt. Her fashion and country of origin were telling me that she was unlikely a muslim.

"Yeah..yeah...I'm sorry. I don't know the right word in English. I don't wear it like you do. I tie it at the back."

Ignoring her reply, my impulse urged me to ask the next question instantly, "You're a muslim?" I had to clear my uncertainty.

"Yes....yes. Or else, why do you think I'm buying this?" She questioned me back, purposely pointing out the lack of congruity in my question. I almost dropped my jaw, hardly believing it.

It wasn't really about her skin colour, her hometown or her family lineage. It was the way she dressed which astonished me the most. While wearing a short skirt up to her knee level and exposing part of her chest, she was still mindful about her obligatory prayers (solat).

I've met Muslim men who praise Allah before eating and Muslim girls who fully cover themselves but could hardly care about  performing the five daily obligatory prayers. I've heard Muslims arguing about the prohibited and permissible (the halal & haram stuffs) and yet, ironically, those who were bickering don't even remember when was the last time they prayed.

While this European girl, despite her great failure to properly cover herself, still had time to buy appropriate cloth to be used in solat. It was so odd, so ironic.

She, in fact, can easily forget about worshiping Allah without having to worry about what others would say. She was raised in a nonmuslim country, France, and now worked in Thailand, another nonmuslim country. I believed her parent who came from Spain was initially not a muslim. She is now far from her family. No one would bother if she doesn't pray at all.

How can she secure her faith within these opposing surroundings and conditions? How did she survive being a muslim with all these drawbacks? I was caught in a tangling tangle. I don't know what will happen to me if I were her. Can I still observe the five pillars of Islam?

She amazed me in great depth.

My respect to those who incredibly manage to secure their Islamic faith despite all those great temptations and intense difficulties.

May Allah protect you till the end of the world.

p/s: We met the girl visitor yesterday while we were shopping for shawls at the many stalls along Jalan Masjid India. We stopped there on our way back to IIUM after going for medical service at one of the IIUM panel clinics in the KL city.