Earlier this year (I think during February ke March gitu), dengan kuasa Allah ntah macamana me and hubby 'ter'berkenalan dengan seorang saudara baru dari France. Ali Jerome nama Islamnya - nama French dia - Jeromé ArmenÃo. He's from Sete, South of France.
Kebetulan hari Sabtu tu, dalam keboringan, hubby ajak kluar jalan-jalan (masa tu lebih kurang pukul 2.30 ptg). Tak tahu mana nak tuju, drive ke area Lake Garden tapi memandangkan keadaan tengahari terik tu, in the end we decided to go to Muzium Kesenian Islam (memandangkan selalu asyik ter'miss' je peluang nak ke sana).
It was a good trip - the models of masjid2 terkemuka di dunia was marvellous. We spent an hour jugak la membelek model2 masjid kat situ. Bila we all move on to the other part of the exhibits, terserempak la dengan sorang mamat 'mix' ni. We all mula2 ingatkan org uzbekistan or maybe orang Bosnia ke because he has that kind of look.
Ali came from a family yang tak ada agama (atheis).. lama sebenarnya dia mencari dari satu ugama keugama yg lain, kata Ali hatinya rasa tak selesa, dia rasa jiwanya masih kosong. Masa umur dia 17 tahun (this was 4/5 years ago), dia mula mengenali ugama Islam dan terus tertarik. Yang menariknya tu, he manage to find Islam against all odds. Ye la kat sana kan masjid tak banyak macam kat sini. Tak ade sesiapa yang bagi dia guidance, kawan-kawan semua question dia kenapa nak masuk Islam - because to them, Islam is associated with terrorism. Tak ramai orang2 kat situ tau pasal Islam..Makanan halal, memang susah la nak dapat - he said he survived dgn vegetables saja masa awal2 tu.
Mulanya dia sorok dari pengetahuan keluarganya, after few weeks mak dia insist Ali to tell the truth (mungkin naluri ibu) sebab tengok perubahan dari segi tingkah laku anaknya. The moment Ali explain everything to his mother, terus mak Ali ni tarik tangan anak dia pergi mini market halal kat area bandar Sete. Kata Ali dia terharu tengok ibunya bersungguh nak mencari barangan halal. Ali rasa serba salah nak explain bab minyak masak, kuali & utensils lain.
Memang benarlah spt yg dikatakan 'kasih ibu berpanjangan' - mak Ali kata jgn risau dia akan belikan set yg baru khusus utk masakan halal utk Ali sorang. Masa ni kata Ali dia benar-benar terharu sangat melihatkan pengorbanan ibunya.
In fact, bab makanan halal nilah Ali faham hikmah disebaliknya. Adik lelaki dia siap puji masakan mak dia lagi, bila mak dia masak halal dishes - 'Kenapa hari ni mak masak lain dari yg dulu?...sedap betullah mak masak hari ni.' So Ali mula realised dia dah buat keputusan yg tepat dan dia rasa bertambah yakin dgn ajaran Islam. In fact kata Ali, the beautiful part is from that day onwards mak dia terus masak makanan halal sbb the whole family termasuk kakak, bapak, datuk & nenek Ali dah prefer masakan halal. He's really hoping that one day the whole family will join him as a muslim. Tak putus dia berdoa pada Allah.
Anyway, tujuan utama dia datang ke Malaysia sbb nak melawat dan bersolat di dalam sebanyak mungkin masjid yang dia boleh sepanjang dia ada kat Malaysia. Disebabkan asyik bersembang dengan dia sepanjang masa tu, we all pun ajak la dia ikut we all lepas dah habis kat Muzium tu.. Dia dengan gembiranya accepted the invitation. Tapi dengan syarat, we all kena pegi solat Asar kat Masjid Negara dulu dengan dia. After solat, we went makan-makan with him kat Bangsar and eventually dropped him off kat Bukit Bintang area where he was staying. He left for France the next day. Since then, we've been constantly in touch with him.
Interestingly immediately lepas peluk agama Islam, dia sambung belajar bahasa Arab for one whole year untuk memahami kandungan Al-Quran. Recently he completed his studies in Mandarin language diShanghai. Rasanya macam he took Nabi Muhammad's s.a.w. advise literally - pergi menuntut ilmu hingga ke Negeri China.
He is now back in France and planning to pursue his studies in University of Paris. He told us he keep telling his family about Malaysian, how welcome he felt when he was here (we all la tu.. hehehe) and now his family felt that he might eventually live in Malaysia - mana tak nya sebab kata Ali dia asyik citer pasal Malaysia je..
Kebetulan hari Sabtu tu, dalam keboringan, hubby ajak kluar jalan-jalan (masa tu lebih kurang pukul 2.30 ptg). Tak tahu mana nak tuju, drive ke area Lake Garden tapi memandangkan keadaan tengahari terik tu, in the end we decided to go to Muzium Kesenian Islam (memandangkan selalu asyik ter'miss' je peluang nak ke sana).
It was a good trip - the models of masjid2 terkemuka di dunia was marvellous. We spent an hour jugak la membelek model2 masjid kat situ. Bila we all move on to the other part of the exhibits, terserempak la dengan sorang mamat 'mix' ni. We all mula2 ingatkan org uzbekistan or maybe orang Bosnia ke because he has that kind of look.
Ali came from a family yang tak ada agama (atheis).. lama sebenarnya dia mencari dari satu ugama keugama yg lain, kata Ali hatinya rasa tak selesa, dia rasa jiwanya masih kosong. Masa umur dia 17 tahun (this was 4/5 years ago), dia mula mengenali ugama Islam dan terus tertarik. Yang menariknya tu, he manage to find Islam against all odds. Ye la kat sana kan masjid tak banyak macam kat sini. Tak ade sesiapa yang bagi dia guidance, kawan-kawan semua question dia kenapa nak masuk Islam - because to them, Islam is associated with terrorism. Tak ramai orang2 kat situ tau pasal Islam..Makanan halal, memang susah la nak dapat - he said he survived dgn vegetables saja masa awal2 tu.
Mulanya dia sorok dari pengetahuan keluarganya, after few weeks mak dia insist Ali to tell the truth (mungkin naluri ibu) sebab tengok perubahan dari segi tingkah laku anaknya. The moment Ali explain everything to his mother, terus mak Ali ni tarik tangan anak dia pergi mini market halal kat area bandar Sete. Kata Ali dia terharu tengok ibunya bersungguh nak mencari barangan halal. Ali rasa serba salah nak explain bab minyak masak, kuali & utensils lain.
Memang benarlah spt yg dikatakan 'kasih ibu berpanjangan' - mak Ali kata jgn risau dia akan belikan set yg baru khusus utk masakan halal utk Ali sorang. Masa ni kata Ali dia benar-benar terharu sangat melihatkan pengorbanan ibunya.
In fact, bab makanan halal nilah Ali faham hikmah disebaliknya. Adik lelaki dia siap puji masakan mak dia lagi, bila mak dia masak halal dishes - 'Kenapa hari ni mak masak lain dari yg dulu?...sedap betullah mak masak hari ni.' So Ali mula realised dia dah buat keputusan yg tepat dan dia rasa bertambah yakin dgn ajaran Islam. In fact kata Ali, the beautiful part is from that day onwards mak dia terus masak makanan halal sbb the whole family termasuk kakak, bapak, datuk & nenek Ali dah prefer masakan halal. He's really hoping that one day the whole family will join him as a muslim. Tak putus dia berdoa pada Allah.
Anyway, tujuan utama dia datang ke Malaysia sbb nak melawat dan bersolat di dalam sebanyak mungkin masjid yang dia boleh sepanjang dia ada kat Malaysia. Disebabkan asyik bersembang dengan dia sepanjang masa tu, we all pun ajak la dia ikut we all lepas dah habis kat Muzium tu.. Dia dengan gembiranya accepted the invitation. Tapi dengan syarat, we all kena pegi solat Asar kat Masjid Negara dulu dengan dia. After solat, we went makan-makan with him kat Bangsar and eventually dropped him off kat Bukit Bintang area where he was staying. He left for France the next day. Since then, we've been constantly in touch with him.
Interestingly immediately lepas peluk agama Islam, dia sambung belajar bahasa Arab for one whole year untuk memahami kandungan Al-Quran. Recently he completed his studies in Mandarin language diShanghai. Rasanya macam he took Nabi Muhammad's s.a.w. advise literally - pergi menuntut ilmu hingga ke Negeri China.
He is now back in France and planning to pursue his studies in University of Paris. He told us he keep telling his family about Malaysian, how welcome he felt when he was here (we all la tu.. hehehe) and now his family felt that he might eventually live in Malaysia - mana tak nya sebab kata Ali dia asyik citer pasal Malaysia je..
Masa makan2 kat Bangsar.. sempat jugak bergambarBila dengar cerita Ali dan tengok keazaman dan tekad Ali dalam mendalami Islam, nampak benar kesungguhannya. Sepatutnya kita lebih bersyukur kerana dilahirkan sebagai seorang Islam.
11 comments:
Salam Anom,
Alhamdulillah.. he truly wants to be a Muslim - IKHLAS. Sebab tu Allah permudahkan jalan yg dia lalui. Kalau ada obstacles tu, hopefully that will only make him lebih bertaqwa...
Subhanallah...Alhamdulillah...
Selalunya those who discover Islam when they're adults understand the religion better, and would go the extra mile to strengthen their Imaan.
It's good that you all still keep in touch with him. Hopefully, there'll be updates on Ali every now and then from you here :)
Salam Kak Ja..
Betul tu Kak Ja.. semoga dia terus diberkati oleh Allah dan ditetapkan iman..
Somehow you can see that they really appreciate Islam. I remembered him being restless when we were still at the Museum eventhough the azan was about to 'berkumandang' at the National Mosque. Then only we realised - he wants to be there ready on the sajadah when we hear the azan.
I had another friend from my uni days - an Indian who converted in secret because he had problems with his family members. He even used his Indian name to keep this a secret. We were in one of our 'Anak Angkat Project' in Besut, Terengganu. We were just returning from a meeting at the balairaya when waktu Asar masuk. Sampai je kat bilik sekretariat, he jumped from the motorbike and rush ke dalam.. Terpinga2 jugakla Anom. Bila tanya abang2 senior yang lain, baru tau rupanya dia dah masuk Islam and rushing nak mengerjakan solat. Rasa malu pada diri sendiri -- kita ni, waktu dah nak habis, baru nak terhegeh2..
Insyallah Kak Shana.. now we are trying to persuade him to visit during ramadhan and syawal..
But I doubt he'll make it coz his studies in University of Paris is about to start.
Anom,
Calon untuk Cha??????
Alhamdulillah
(tak de pikir lain le abg aa ni)
Kah..kah..kah Abg A..
Marah dia abang a..tapi we all pun sebenarnya ada gak terpikir-- tapi tak berani nak cakap dengan dia and mama..hehehe..
(Yang pentingnye.. bukan abg a sorang je terpikir, kan.. ;-))
iya ke? ha ha...not into that idea, macamana ni boleh pikir kesitu pulak..? kurang setuju...itu bukan tujuan sebenar.
out of curiosity nak tau pengalaman yg mereka ni (sdr baru) lalui. boleh belajar dari pengalaman mrk ni...yg tu lebih penting.
memang menarik perjalanan hidup dia, kata Ali dia skrg lebih tenang dan fokus 'everything I do is for Allah - I'm just so happy, now I have so many brothers & sisters'
nasir
wow....the mother part got to me.
abg a,
sempat lagi dok jd match maker naa...uih tak leh jadi nih...huhu
cha
wan cha go for him!!!!!! he's cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute and half of the work is already done. he's already a muslim...a devoted one at that. how old is he eh? =____= WAN CHA GO FOR HIIIIIIIIIM!!!
ok.ok.ok.. that's it..Cha kalau ada jodoh, no problem..
Safia, kalau wan cha tak nak, Safia nak ke ? hehehe...
Eh.. in the first place, nak ke dia.. hahaha..
Post a Comment