Bedah Filem: Munafik 2

A Life Journey

by Syasya Amalin

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Bedah Filem: Munafik 2 was an Islamic event held to share experiences from real life occasions related to hypocritical people and to educate the audience on how to be a better Muslim. It was organised by Persatuan Mahasiswa Kelantan Universiti Malaya (PMKUM) in collaboration with Kelab Pengurusan Surau Tuanku Kurshiah. It was hosted by Muhammad Adam Muhibullah bin Abdullah, the winner of Da’I Pendakwah Nusantara TV3 Musim ke-6 2018. The event was held on the 3rd of May, Friday, from 8.30pm to 11.00pm in Tuanku Kurshiah’s Conference Room. Free food and transportation was also provided for students who were staying far away from Tuanku Kurshiah Residential College.

Da’I Adam is an incredible and very down-to-earth kind of person. He is a Sabahan and previously used to be a Christian fellow. His Christian name was Dizzy Reo Sidul. He prefers his Muslim name, Adam, as it is easy to remember and is quite catchy.

“I didn’t expect to win as it has only been the eighth year of me being a Muslim”, he said. Winning the Islamic TV program was a stepping stone for him on a journey to be a better Muslim. He told us about the journey and obstacles he was facing throughout the first four years he converted to Islam.

He was driven away and scolded harshly by the people who were in charge of the mosque every single time due to the tattoos on his shoulder. He was expecting these people to encourage and give him guidance as he was still a newbie in Islam. Instead, he was treated horribly. Although removing tattoos could risk someone’s life, they were forcing him to remove the tattoo permanently as to them it was considered as one of the necessary procedures once a person has converted. He was not allowed to step his feet in the mosque if he did not obey to what they asked him to do.

The truth is, Islam never teaches its followers to risk their lives once they have already repented to Allah no matter how bad their past was. The first lesson he taught us was hypocritical people are everywhere. They make Islam hard for people to understand and follow and spread wrong teachings. They love to put others down and think they are better than everybody when they are actually the worst type of Muslim.

Next, Da’I Adam told us that his female friend, whose name he did not mention, once had a terribly hard time facing her non-Muslim family. Her family could not accept the fact that their daughter and sister had converted to Islam. They abandoned her if they saw her wearing the hijab or performing prayers in the house. In order to make her family accept her, she had to take off her hijab every time she was with her family and pray without their knowledge. Her Muslim’s neighbours talked bad about her behind her back and some were yelling at her to stop being a Muslim if she kept on taking off the hijab when she was with her family. They should have given her moral support and encouragement in order to be a better Muslim, but they were doing the exact opposite.

The second lesson he taught us is that people are judgmental as they would make their own assumptions without knowing the real situation that someone is facing.

During his fifth year of being a Muslim, there was a guy that preferred to not be named who wanted to convert from Islam to Christianity. The main reason why he wanted to convert was because he wanted freedom. He wanted to be free from performing prayers and doing good deeds that the religion of Islam teaches us. Da’I Adam was overcome with anger as Christianity has never taught their followers to be free from their responsibility as God’s servant.

The guy had zero knowledge regarding religion and he argued with Da’I Adam when he tried to correct the way he was thinking as he thought he was in the right. The guy was using religion as a justification for his selfish acts and run away from his responsibility as a Muslim. He taught us that people should respect other religions and find information regarding it before randomly making assumptions. By insulting fellow Christians blatantly, they are not doing their responsibility to their God as servants. It is an unforgivable thing to say to someone who deeply believes in their religion.

A heart-breaking life occasion that happened to him which he shared with us was his friendship that he built for years was crushed due to jealousy. It was the seventh year of him being a Muslim. It started when his friend asked him to accompany him to an audition of Da’I Pendakwah Nusantara. Adam had refused it millions of times but his friend was stubborn and registered his and Adam’s name for the audition. His friend was full of confidence during the audition while Adam was only doing it for the sake of it as he did not want to disappoint his friend. Unfortunately, the audition went the other way around. His friend failed the audition and shockingly, Adam passed it. “I wish I had never taken part in that program if I had known that the cost of it would be the loss of my best friend”, he said regretfully. Since that day, his friend left him and they never contacted each other again.

Jealousy and a rotten heart can break a friendship that has been built for years and in the end, it was as if their friendship was meaningless. The lesson learnt next was people should build friendships that are not based on hypocrisy. A true friend will always be there for you through the ups and downs in life. In fact, they would be happy for you achieving your dreams if you are trying to be better instead of leaving you behind due to jealousy and hatred.

During the Q and A session, he advised the audience that it is impossible to please everyone. Although there are people who wear the hijab, niqab, kopiah or serban, some of these people only want to bring other people down and believe that they are the best among the rest. It is impossible to advise these type of people and tell them what that what they are doing is terribly wrong. “They would not listen to your advice as they believe that they are the best. I know because I’ve been through that kind of situation before”, he said with a chuckle.

He continued with an honest smile, “The only way to make them realise the true path is by showing and practising the proper way of Islam that has been taught to us for decades. Keep on learning so that these people would not look down on you. Eventually, they will be ashamed of themselves and come to you to apologise for their wrongdoings against you.”

The advice given and experience shared by Da’I Adam was unforgettable. His wise words and advises were very hard to resist as it was truly related to what is happening in our real world. Islamic events usually have difficulties in attracting the audience’s attention but he succeeded in making the audience feel guilty to even blink until the end of the event.