Last night I prayed Maghrib at Masjid Al-Taqwa although I still cannot forget how the women there treated Maryam. So after Maghrib I intended to stay and listen to the lecture. The management of the masjid managed to ensure that every night of the week, there'll be a lecture. So I stayed, but not for long. The reason being the content of the lecture.
Firstly it seems to be interesting though. The ustaz was teaching on tafsir of two verses from Surah Yasin:
78. And he puts forth for Us a parable, and forgets his own creation. He says: "Who will give life to these bones after they are rotten and have become dust?" 79. Say: (O Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam) "He will give life to them Who created them for the first time! And He is the All-Knower of every creation!"
[Surah Yaasin, 36:78-79]
These verses were revealed in relation to the challenge posed by al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah. The ustaz gave a brief biodata of al-Walid, who is the father of Khalid ibn al-Walid. One day he brought an old bone in front of the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam and crashed them into dust, followed by the conversations as told in the verses. Allah can create something from nothing, so creating something from the dust is actually much easier.
Then the ustaz told us that these two verses are used to heal diseases that originate from the bone, including weak bone, almond skin, and many other diseases that I myself did not know. He explained that in our bone, there is a liquid - just as our homeland contain land and water (in Malay: tanahair). Then he went to explain why the water in the sea in salty but the water from the river is not. The almond skin is caused by the liquid in the bone had become 'bad' (in Malay: jahat). So the bad liquid will irritate the skin and made them itchy. Even if we take medicatication, once the medication effect finishes, the bad liquid will affect the skin again. So the ustaz told the audience that only by reading these verses the bad liquid will become good again.
Surprisingly, many of the audience paid full attention to his lecture. No wonder since all of them are already in their golden age (I'm the only one who seems to be weird staying in the masjid). Again, I wonder what will become to the Muslim in Malaysia - they oppose any attempt to bring good scholars (such as the ex-Mufti of Perlis, Dr. MAZA) but rather enjoy listening to good story-tellers.
I pity them a lot - what else they are already in their golden age.
Not wanting to waste my precious time, I left Masjid al-Taqwa and went to Masjid al-Ghufran, another masjid in the neighborhood. Guess what, there was a video lecture of one of the habibs from Yemen. The people inside the video were crying. The same thing that I saw when I attended ESQ training programs, where the speaker managed to create a sense of awareness among the audience to cry asking for forgiveness from Allah - which I think is better than the lecture at Masjid al-Taqwa. However, there were less than 10 people inside the praying hall watching the video. The masjid authority would rather have a video show with less than 10 audience rather than inviting good scholars that could have attracted hundreds easily. Why? Because compared to the sufi sermons that ask people to fear Allah, good scholars tend to evaluate all issues openly and academically that sometimes challenge the current practice of the masjid authority.
Nah, I'm joking. They are actually doing a very good thing for the economy. Less attractive lecture at the masjid will cause the people to rather spend their time at shopping complexes, watch movies in cinema, dine in lavish restaurants, etc. So kudos to the masjid authority for helping the economy!
In economics, a rational concert manager would choose a singer who could attract many audience. Why? Because the manager's return depends on the ticket sales. Even if there is no ticket collection, the crowd numbers somehow represent the quality of the manager. So I guess the masjid management should learn something from the concert manager. Even a layman knows this.
