The last 9 days of 2007...
1. The Wedding
We got a call a few days before Eidul Adha, from an acquaintance who shared similar name with hubby. Brother Amin, a Jordanian married Naoko-san, a Nihonjin through civil ceremony in October 2007. Naoko-chan had not formally converted to Islam yet at that time, and Brother Amin told her that until she become a Muslimah and they go through a proper Islamic nikah, they could not live together or have normal life as married couple. Nao-chan agreed .
Brother Amin tried getting some help from the people at his Embassy, but they advised him to return and bring Nao-chan with him to Jordan for the formal conversion and Islamic marriage, since no such arrangement could be done at the Embassy. Since Brother Amin knew that they could not afford to go back to Jordan, he started looking for other alternatives.
It was then when he remembered that he actually knew a non Arab Imam who could speak Arabic, so he called us. Understandably, he was very excited upon learning that we could help him with both conversion to Muslim and Islamic nikah. "Thank you brother, thank you sister. I didn't want to bother you, but Allah had answered my prayer by guiding me to contact you..."
After he received the list of necessary documents/preparation needed, he called us again, to make appointment to see us on Saturday, 22 December 2007, for both conversion and nikah ceremony. Hubby quickly agreed, since it also happened that the Nihonjin kids he usually teach on Saturday had earlier asked for leave that day. We asked if he could bring two Muslim guys to act as witnesses for the wedding ceremony, but he could not, so hubby promised to help him on that matter.
Thus, when we were at the Embassy for Eidul Adha celebration, hubby asked around, to get some volunteers to act as witnesses for the coming wedding in Asakusa.
Saturday saw me preparing the 2 kg of qurban beef hubby collected from the Islamic Center in Setagaya the previous day. I was not sure what to cook at first, but somehow I ended up making Nasi Minyak, with Khuzi Daging Lembu and Acar Timun/Carrot. For dessert, I just peeled some mandarin oranges, diced some apples, sliced some kiwi and mixed them all with sugar and yoghurt, ala Pakistani style dessert minus the masala/chilli powder. (I still have trouble understanding why our Pakistani brothers always finish preparing the yoghurt-and-fruit dessert by adding a dash of masala/chilli powder...)
So, alhamdulillah, Basharan, Hadyan, Lutfy and Shahreeza came to help out with Nao-chan's conversion and Brother Amin-Nao-chan's wedding. Since there were four of them, two acted as witnesses for the conversion while the other two for the wedding.
Funny moments include - our surprise to see photos of various poses cut into passport size instead of the official passport-sized photos we needed to stamp on the respective certificates; how one of the witnesses excitedly posed for a photo with a wedding certificate; and how the same witness admitted to feeling rather nervous just before the wedding ceremony, although the groom himself had no such trouble whatsoever. Oh, by the by, the same witness is darn good in imitating the groom explaining stuff to his wife about Islam using Level 1 Nihonggo - "kore wa dame... kore wa daijoubu... kore wa Allah ga suki..." Although hubby had asked those who are fluent in Nihonggo to explain this and that during the conversion ceremony, Brother Amin took it upon himself to do it, using simple Nihonggo - which even to my not-so-jouzu ears sounded not quite right, yet the main points were there. So while Brother Amin acted as interpreter for the Imam; the rest of us glanced at each other, thinking similar thoughts, "Ok... that's right, but, but...". Thus, the nervous witness sometimes helped in interpreting hubby's word to Nihonggo, when words seemed to fail the enthusiastic husband.
After some deliberation, Nao-chan chose Sara to be her Muslim name. Brother Amin was obviously interested in naming her Nur, " you will become Nur Amin, the light of me", he grinned as he persuaded her. I told her it would be okay for her to use Nur Sara as her Muslim name, but Brother Amin asked her to choose one or the other. Sarah is what her mother-in-law wishes to call her, and since Sarah/Sara is a common universal name, Nao-chan finally chose Sara.
There was a break between the ceremony and getting the official certificates ready since the newlywed needed to get some official passport-sized photos first. The witnesses were invited to our home for late lunch/2nd round lunch (two guys arrived earlier and had already lunched at our place). Must be the berkat of qurban, the khuzi was a big hit that day. I received plenty of compliments such as "lembutnya daging ni" (it was on slow heat for ages, plus the beef was rather fresh), "akak masak macam mana ni, sedap betul," (my guess is khuzi is not something most single guys would cook. curry maybe, even kurma, but I have yet to see khuzi instant seasoning by Adabi) etc. I smiled as the boys kept adding the rice and beef, feeling really pleased to witness them enjoying the food thoroughly.
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2. Jalan-jalan ziarah kawan
(Another version of this could be read at Faizly's blog)
On Sunday, 23 December 2007, together with Faizly, we went to Gyoda, Saitama on Kak Ita's invitation. Spent most of the 1-hour ride on Takasaki line being glared in between flipping pages of her novel by one obachan sitting opposite us. Then, not long after we arrived in Gyoda, one hit-and-run incident happened involving the Nissan Serena we were in.
It was sunny in Gyoda as opposed to rainy and chilly morning in Tokyo. At first we thought of visiting the Emperor at the Imperial Palace (23 December is the current Emperor's birthday, one of the two days the Imperial Palace inner ground is opened to the public, apart from January 2, for New Year Greetings) but changed our mind upon reading the weather forecast. We ended up watching the Emperor and Empress greeting the visitors flocking the palace on the television in Kak Ita's living room.
Hubby had a great time mikan gari (mandarin oranges picking) under the sun, while I tried to ensure that Huzaifah was not leaving any permanent damage in Kak Ita's house, or should I say Kak Ita's hubby's rumah warisan. Kak Ita prepared lots of food, since she was also expecting other guests. We were served with mouth-watering mee rebus, rice with telur masak rempah and acar rampai, puding roti bakar, dango and freshly picked mikan.
Kak Ita's dad used to stay and teach in Mak's hometown, Pontian. She called him up while I was there, asked me to talk to Tuan Haji myself and what do you know - he knows my Mak, and Mak's elder sisters - all of them used to be in the teaching profession too. Small world, eh?
We left after Asar, after a brief introduction to Yan and Walid who had just arrived then. Kogure-san, Kak Ita's husband agreed to drive us to the eki, but not without having to make a U-turn first because I'd forgotten Humaidi's bottle. Oopss...
Next destination - Ageo, to Kak Pah's house. Fetched by Lutfy on his Honda Fit (Jazz in Malaysia), we were taken to Kak Pah's impeccably clean and organized home. Really enjoyed Kak Pah's, her son and her husband, Mura-san's (aka Abang Din) hospitality. Okay, maybe not just hospitality - but also the laksa, kuih seri muka, Kedah-styled asam pedas keladi (aka asam rebus by those from southern part of Malaysia). Even Humaidi enjoyed the beef soup tremendously. Huzaifah tried to "help reorganize" stuff at Kak Pah's kitchen, all of his efforts smartly thwarted by the well-experienced Kak Pah.
We joined Lutfy and Shahreeza leaving Kak Pah's home after Maghrib. Instead from Ageo, we returned to Tokyo from Omiya, where Lutfy dropped the rest, driving back alone to Higashi Omiya. We bid farewell to Shahreeza who took Saikyo sen to go back to Toda, while we took Takasaki line to Ueno.
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3. Christmas visitor
Koseki-san, the detective who is almost a frequent guest of ours now, came by on Christmas to drop two Disney-themed 'christmas stockings' filled with snacks and cookies for Huzaifah and Humaidi. We already told him earlier that we do not celebrate Christmas, but he insisted on bringing a cake for us. Turned out he was late in ordering a cake, and he couldn't buy any suitable cake by the counter on Christmas Eve, so he ended up buying the snacks and cookies instead. I told him that he shouldn't have, but he said it's his pleasure. Nothing religious - it's just that Christmas cake has became part of Japanese culture in the past 30 years or so.
Christmas is not a national holiday here in Japan - but yes, it is definitely celebrated here, simply because as Koseki-san put it "we Nihonjin like to party and Christmas is a good excuse to party"
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4. Kodomo no Kuni
This deserves an entry on its own. Initial verdict - a great place for kids, definitely a Kids' Kingdom!
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5. Unexpected visitor
AMIR held sort of winter gathering in this Mosque, from 29 - 31 December. (The girls even stayed back for an extra night - cool way to usher in the new year, if you ask me.) Then on 31 December morning one Nihonjin guy suddenly entered my house without knocking first (which was really rude) which caused me to shout "don't come in, wait outside!" in half-surprise half-irritated tone.
After I was properly attired, I went and asked what was it that he wants, and he said that he would like to ask some questions regarding Islam. Hubby was not feeling well, so I brought him to the mosque, asked him to wait for a while and went down to ask for some help from the AMIR program participants. Baim and Kuchai volunteered. Upon entering the mosque floor, I saw the Nihonjin smoking, so I asked Baim to advice him that the mosque is a 'no-smoking' zone.
I am not one who usually dislike someone on first meeting, but there was something about the guy that just didn't sit well with me right from the very beginning - the entering without knocking, then smoking in the mosque without asking for permission...
Turned out he was not really interested in finding out what Islam is all about. He was more interested in confirming his own belief. One of his first questions was "is it true that Muslims are allowed to kill Christians?". Followed by other questions/discussion on the creation of the universe, the "love" message in Islam, the differences between commandments in religions, et cetera.
Hubby reported that he was kind of arrogant, that he was not really sincere in asking questions, but more to put forward his own views, as he cut in while others were speaking and sometimes he just refused to listen to what others had to say.
There were a lot of twisted statements here and there, some self-contradictory points made by the Nihonjin. Baim and Kuchai were very gentle and careful in answering questions, as hubby assisted with getting evidence from the Quran. When the AMIR slot was over and more people joined the 'discussion', one guy named Halim could not control himself but provoked the Nihonjin, by referring to his own twisted statements, to which he had no real answer, but just showed the "peace" sign instead.
Hubby said if he had known Nihonggo, he would have done the same himself. It is one thing to treat a non-Muslim who wants to find out the truth about Islam from Muslims gently and politely; but here was someone who openly showed his arrogance (and ignorance about Islam) to Muslims in a nearly provocative manner in a place considered holy by Muslims. That was why Halim was rather perturbed and could not wait to be given a chance to 'tembak' the Nihonjin guy a little.
Definitely an interesting 'latihan amali' in discussing comparison of religions for the AMIR guys.
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Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu.
Yoi otoshi wo.
(Happy New Year and wish you a good year ahead)
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