To Preach Or...?

Yesterday after work we went for a quick dinner, an early one that is.



We went to a warung satay near Lembah Keramat, turned out to be pretty good! It's called Satay Sri Melaka, very close to SMK Lembah Keramat. We ordered 30 sticks of satay (12 for him, 7 for me, and the balance as today's breakfast hehe).




By then, it was already Maghrib. We rushed to one of our favourite suraus, Surau An Naim, Wangsa Maju 5 which is around 5 minutes away from the stall.




Usually we would go to an Naim when there's Ustaz Hasrizal or Ustaz Ramadhan Fitri for kuliah Maghrib. But we didn't plan to go last night so we weren't quite sure who is the speaker for the night.




So that's when the 'torture' begin.





I think for most people, they would find it easy to accept if people would talk to them nicely, advice them in a gentle way or perhaps just share whatever experience or knowledge in a positive way so people can appreciate and learn.






And when it comes to Ustazs giving kuliah and ceramah, I would appreciate the likes of Ustaz Hasrizal, Ustaz Ramadhan Fitri or perhaps Ustaz Zahazan. Soft spoken speakers are much much more appreciated in the sense that what they share feels like a father talking to his son/daughter. Especially Ustaz Zahazan. Or perhaps Ustaz Pahrol.





However, it turns out that the speaker for last night was practically 'screaming' throughout the whole kuliah session. To top it off, he actually talked for more than an hour and a half and we finally get to pray Isyak around 9.10pm. I was getting restless, sitting at the back for the fact that his intonation and body language were a bit aggresive to me. It was unacceptable. I had to step out at some point to calm myself. It's just annoying to say the least.




I mean, I'm here to learn from you and yet you are not teaching me things, instead you are nagging at me. And in my mind I was thinking, it isn't a surprise if people don't feel like going to the surau during Maghrib/Isyak. It doesn't appeal people to listen to them ceramah-ing. I must say at some point they rather sounded 'syok sendiri'.





Not that I'm putting the blame on all these Ustazs for the lack of teenagers or youngsters coming to surau. But rather I think it is something that we must improve to invite them to come to masjids/suraus. And also to appreciate those who have been consistent to be at the surau for their 5 daily prayers. Above all things, a preacher must be someone we feel good to listen to. Appealing. Energetic. Like Imam Suhaib Webb!












This was taken at Masjid al Hidayah, Melawati on 1 October 2011 when TV9 had this recording session for Tanyalah Ustaz featuring Ustaz Zahazan and Imam Suhaib Webb, in which I'm not sure whether the session has been on air or not.

(I managed to watch the Tanyalah Ustaz session on Friday morning, 18 November while my husband was away in Bandung for a business trip, and I got to see my husband in the tv, wohoo!)


Once Imam Suhaib was done with his session, we went staight up to him, and even before my husband could introduce himself, Imam Suhaib was already saying, "My twitter buddy!"

I guess perhaps that was one of our best days by having the opportunity to listen to him and Ustaz Zahazan, and I guess, to see people coming from all sorts of place to gather at the masjid that day. I think the committee of masjid and also TV9 for that matter has been working real hard to pull off such a great event that day. And we're both glad to be there =)

I just wish that in the future, our Ustazs can make the extra effort to learn effective communication skills for them to be able to better engage with the youngsters and bring them closer to God. Ahh, perhaps maybe I should try to make the same effort too!

But anyway, I think if you guys have seen TV AlHijrah, you might have come across Ustaz Don! He's young and cool and his talk is appealing too! Wish we have more of this kind of speakers and Ustazs in the mainstream media, insya Allah.

We need more people to preach, not to nag! =)