Sarawak, Allah and the Bible.... the 3 wise men in the East (of England)

I was the regional sales manager for a take-away food ordering e-commerce company which is now a very successful multinational corporation. As I no longer believe in how they conduct their business, I won’t be mentioning their name.It wasn't all bad, however, as there was one overwhemingly good thing Bbout this role which, I enjoyed immensely: The people is met.

Why?

I spent nearly a year and a half working very closely with a large number of Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Iranian and Turkish communities across the East of England. As many of you may have worked out, apart from the Chinese communities, the other nationalities I mentioned, are more than likely to be Muslims.

I don’t specifically take joy out of meeting muslims, the same way I don’t particularly take joy out of meeting bhuddists, or Jews, or atheists. I do however , get a great kick out of meeting lots of people, regardless of their class (whatever that means), creed, colour, and relevantly in the context of this piece, religion. Though there are people of a certain few religions who I don’t enjoy meeting…. But that’s another blog for another day.

What I DID get great joy out of, was meeting a large of amounts of muslims, most of whom enjoyed a good debate about their own religion, and all of whom encouraged me to ask questions about it! Not only did this empower me (as a non-muslim) to discredit a large amount of negative perceptions I worngfully had towards Islam as predicated by 'Malaysian Islam'(the way it's practiced, regulated and interpreted, I inspired me to learn more about it. One more very fundamental joy I get from meeting these fellow foreigners who happen to embrace Islam, was the smile I see on their faces when I greet them with ‘Assalamualaikum’. Not once, have I ever not been greeted back with ‘Walaikumusalam’!

Round about the time when there were debates going on with the Malaysian High Court’s revocation of the unconstitutional banning of the use of the word ‘Allah’ in Bahasa Malaysia Bibles, I had a once in a lifetime encounter. I had an Arabic speaking, Christian Lebanese chef friend ‘Louis’, who was looking at the opportunity of buying one of my client Jamshad's business , or Jimmy as he prefers, who is an Iranian Muslim. So I arranged a meeting between them, and I came along to act as an advocate.

Neither parties knew anything other than each other's names, about each other. It really was a ‘shotgun’ arrangement, as the offer, location and timing was right. An associate's associate suggested one phone call that led to another... you know the score. Before I knew it, a meeting was arranged for the evening of the following monday.

When we arrived at Jimmy’s, I did my customary shout out of Assalamualaikum round the back door, through his back yard, only to be greeted back with an even louder walaikumusallam and a VERY firm handshake and his trademark bear hug.

As I was to turn around to introduce my two associates, an almost surreal thing happened! Louis stuck his hand forward and greeted Jimmy with Assalamualaikum too… and the pair went off on some quick fire exchange of what sounded like Arabic chat, laughs, violently friendly hugs and handshakes, and what I can only describe as neighbourly niceities of familiarity and respect… as though they’ve know each other for years… I felt slightly out of place and even a little marginalised truth be told, but underliningly quite chuffed…

After a good 10 minutes of the aforementioned niceties, It had transpired that Lebanon’s official language is Arabic (which ignorant ol’ me had no idea), and Jimmy’s father had a business in Lebanon, only 40 miles from where Louis was born. Furthermore, Jimmy’s first wife who passed away 3 years before, went to the neighbouring church where Louis was christened. How’s that for chances!
Just to mae it even more bizarre, there they were in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the UK, introduced by a Malaysian Chinese Bhuddist working for a Danish Company based in London!

Anyways… small talk aside, business discussed, numbers for lawyers exchanged, initial offers confirmed, quite a of extremely strong black tea, served with sugar cubes later, I was very please with myself. Well, until the arrival of the ‘big-small-talk’, as we retired to the back room.

Imagine the setting. We: an Iranian Muslim, a lebanese Chirsitian, a Malaysian chinese Bhuddist, retiring to a sheltered backyard of the kebab shop where there was a park bench. On it was an overspilling ashtray, a shisha pipe on the table, a large metal teapot with a few glass highball glasses upside down on a wooden tray, during a lovely and warm summers dusk as the stars were just about visible, the smell of some sort of a casserole that's simply too sweet, exotic yet homely to be the conventional 'scent of the Kebabee'. Sounds bizarrely biblical and idyllic right? ....

This is how the conversation roughly went:

We all sit. Cigarettes were lit. One of Jimmy's staff was signalled to do something with the shisha, which he obediently and promptly toddled off to do.

Jimmy (at me): So I read in some internet articles that your country, only just recently allow the word Allah in the religion of my friend here’s sacred book? Is it true?

Me: Yes. (thinking… oh, lord! Find me whole right now so I can just hide… as I may stir an argument her and screw up the deal for them both!)

Louis: Yes. I too saw it on a report in Lebanese TV.. saying it was a secular court ruling on religious matters…. What are you opinions?

Me: Well… It’s hard for (just as my quivering lips was about to spout my views whilsts my brain was frantically constructing the most diplomatic, impartial deflective non-committal answer… Jimmy cuts in)

Jimmy: (with a slight snigger)Louis, my friend… don’t you think it’s a little unfair to ask our friend here who is not a ‘man of the book’ to comment on a matter that doesn’t affect his beliefs, before hearing ours?...

Louis: (With a facial expression of sincere regret and putting both of his hands on his chest and then transferring them onto my hand) I’m so sorry Howard. So sorry… well why not let Mr Jamshad here start this topic anew by him voicing his views on the topic he has raised.

Jimmy (at Louis): You are a man of … I forget the words…. (some Arabic words)..
Louis (He welcomes it with a thunderous laugh but showing appreciation, and simultaneously expressing humbleness and humility)…. I am honoured. The word I believe is Eloquence and decorum.

Jimmy: Yes, yes… eloquence and decorum… and also honour. I see I am in company of a true gentleman.

At this juncture, I was torn between being really relieved of getting away with voicing my views, and EXTREME fear of this niceties of what is now being said, being some chivalric precursor to a sword fight to death due to their potentially fatalistically opposing views (or so I thought). To my right, there hangs by a window a 3 foot long Kebab carving knife…. I was VERY VERY uncomfortable.

Jimmy: Well here are my views. I hope our friend Louis agrees. My wife was a Christian. We never shared our religion but we shared our lives. We will never know for sure whether our Allah is the same being, or not. But we both believed that there is one True Allah. So, what difference does it make? She was a good person, alhamdullillah. She gave me 4 children, all beautiful. Unfortunately 2 of them have NO religion! But I’m sure they will find Allah, or Allah will find them one day… We both called our God Allah, because God born us into families who spoke Arabic. What do you think Mr Louis?

Louis: I was fortunate enough to have nearly completed, in my years of studying, a degree in Law. (something else I never knew… I’ve know the guy for nearly 2 years…) I have always approached matters like this with questions. My questions are:
1) If I was to come to your country, how do I pray to my God, in my own words and language, If I don’t speak English?
2) Would I be praying illegally in your country, with it’s previous law, if I was to pray in Arabic, when I praise my God by the name of Allah?
3) What in the name of Allah, both Jimmy’s and mine, is a secular court deciding on religious matters like this anyways?

Me: (With a huge sigh of relief). Well… I will say to what you both have expressed. Alhamdulillah ad Masha’allah. I agree with you both!

We all Laughed and dinner was served.

The conversation continued till the wee hours in the morning, with more tea, cigarettes, shishas… and Kuresh Gohmeh Sabjee : an unctuous, really slow cooked leg of lamb, fresh herbs and beans and peas stew. The interplay of Fenugreek, parsley and coriander, that really dances well with the fresh zestiness of the dried limes seems to set a really beautiful background for the sweet and tender lamb… Especially in the setting that were we in.

For those few hours, I was convince that we were transported back in time to the days, when open debates were had between scholars from all faiths in some middle eastern country, on how the world can become a better place if only we listened to each other and learnt as much as there is to learn about everything. The days when the concept of faith wars for the sake of the ones who hungered power had not permeated the world; the days when having your own beliefs made you want to learn more about other beliefs; the days when people didn’t subjugate others based on their beliefs or even impose upon others their own, by restricting their rights, with no other reason than their possession of power and social standing.

Some might ask, did those days ever exist.

It’s my belief that they did.

It’s not my place to make anyone believe it, but i know for sure that I won’t stop believing it if anyone forbade me from believing, thinking or saying it.

I will take a leaf out of my friend Louis book and express my conclusive views through a question:

Will the Sarawakian Christians stop addressing their Allah any differently in their mind, soul and spirituality, simply because the authorities won’t allow it… despite the courts ruling…?

We all know the answer.