Cabaran as a Muslim

Muslim in a foreign land. that is what I am now. It is a bigger challange than what I could imagine. Previously in Malaysia, we could get almost everything we want to eat easily. But now everything has change. Even to get halal chicken and meat we need to take a bus and it took us about half an hour to reach there. Alhamdulillah. It is better than nothing. Muhammad. It is an Indian stores and I thik I should Thank him. Without him, maybe I wiould end up as a vegetarian, which is something I dont want to happen. Cant imagine myself eating green leaves everyday. And since it is quit fat from our place, we bought a stock that will last for a month, something that I never seen umi done before. But yeah, we have to.

Then previously I am so happy when I stepped into a hypermarket, especially at the food department. But now, it is totally different. Even to buy a packet of biscuit, we need to check the ingredient first, afraid if it contains E471. Oh not only that, the list goes down. There are about 30numbers to remember which indicate that the food is non-halal. I once feel so hungry after my statistics class and I ended up stepped in a convenient store nearby.I grab a sandwish that look very attractive. But when I reach the counter, the lady (a muslim) told me that the bread is non-halal. And sadly I had to put it back and all things that I could do is stare at it blankly. Feeling frustrated at that moment.

The challenge not limit at the food only, but it also includes many other things. Here in University of Auckland, there are a lot of international students that could come from all over the world. Some of them might not familiar with muslim image and all. Some of my friend had received few questions from Kiwis about our tudung and our clothing. They asked what are we wearing (she means the scarf) and why are you wearing that? Is it because of faith or believe? It looks similar doesn't it? Really make us confused. Then some of them also asked us about our clothing. Why are we wearing long sleeves and long pants? The funny thing is my friend get shocked with the question asked and she answered because she didn't bring lots of cloth. And that guy automatically give a direction to the nearest cloth stores. Very Funny=) But the main points is, we need to tell them truth and let they know the beautiful of Islam. Maybe with our little explanation, hati mereka terbuka untuk lebih mengenali Islam. Who knows??

Thus now, I am not only being a Malaysia duta kecil only, I juga membawa tanggungjawab yang lebih berat dalam membawa imej Islam yang murni. Moga perjalanan hidupku disini diberkati Allah dan sentiasa dalm perlindungannya, AMIN.