Comments on: Neighbor Day at the Surau

By: Southern Muslimah

Southern Muslimah — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 07:40:23 +0000

What beautiful lyrics to the song. I’m sure it’s even more beautiful if one understands Malay.

Thought you’d have been nominated for a brass crescent. I so enjoy your blog. MashaAllah.

By: Bin Gregory

Bin Gregory — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:46:57 +0000

That was a great album. My wife had an old cassette tape of Munajat – actually she still has it, but now we don’t have a cassette player anywhere. I feel silly to buy one just for a doomed collection of aging cassettes. Nice to get it in digital form.

By: Israd

Israd — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 06:14:57 +0000

That song really does bring back memories. If by any chance you want to listen to it online, that nasheed sang by Nadamurni can be dloaded here:

http://isradhakim.multiply.com/music/item/23

A whole compilation of nasheeds by the same group can be found here: http://nadamurni.multiply.com/music

I really liked their Munajat album especially the nasheed with the same name… and also “Sunnah Berjuang I & II”..

Just wanted to share with you if perchance you’re interested!

By: Nizar

Nizar — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:13:44 +0000

Speaking of khatam Quran, it’s been a culture (or maybe used to be) of the Malays. And it’s kind of embarrassing when someone asks you “When did u khatam the Quran?” and you answer “I never did”. We have to, at least once, finish reciting the whole 30 juz before baligh (puberty?), after which many of us just keep the Quran until it’s wrapped with spider’w web waiting for Ramadhan to come before we open it again. Thursday nights, most of us just recite the Yasin and/or al-Kahfi. Recite only… not really trying to explore the tafsir. Hehe that was what I did from 2001 to 2004. Astaghfirullah.. Please forgive me, God.

Anyways, I was gonna talk about the Khatam Quran ceremony, usually in kampung, kids would have had their khatam Quran ceremony by the age of 13. I finished reciting the whole Quran at age 13, though, and my ceremony was done when I was… 20! haha together with my two younger brothers’.

My mom made us a new pair of peach baju Melayu Teluk Belanga each. Two months earlier, she taught us ‘barzanji’ (also called ‘rawi’). It’s a long poem in Arabic telling the stories of the Prophet, weaved with prayers in between the lines, praising God, the Prophet, and the Companions.

On the ceremony day, we recited only the ‘ayat lazim’ in the 30th juzuk, after each surah, we recited the tasbih. After the last surah, we recited the special prayer for khatam al-Quran, almost like singing a nasheed. Then we continued with ‘barzanji’, since there were 3 of us, we recited 3 chapters only in 2 different styles – after the 1st chapter, we did the ‘marhaban’ – everyone stood up and singing, praising the Prophet.

Of course there were bunga rampai, bunga manggar, bunga telur and the kompang group, almost like a wedding ceremony with relatives and neighbors and friends (including Chinese/non-muslim friends of my father’s) present – but there were no brides. Outside our house, my father rented tends for the guests. There was a big speaker standing in our yard so whatever we recited could be heard by the guests. There was no chance for mistakes.

Nasi tomato with ‘ayam masak merah’ and ‘acar buah’ + ‘sirap bandung ais krim soda’ were served. Did I forget to mention the ‘pelamin’ (dais)?

It was really a great event in my life. The first big event was my circumcision ceremony. Next is my wedding (don’t know yet when it will be) and/or my death ceremony. Heh…

By: Bin Gregory

Bin Gregory — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 02:59:53 +0000

Yes, they were sitting together after Tarawih (we pray 20 with just juz amma surahs), one circle on the men’s side, one circle on the women’s side. One person would take turns reading a page or two, and then pass to the next. Everyone follows along and the member with the best tajwid points out errors. The intention is to improve everyone’s recitation, inshallah.

Do you mean that the imam recites a juz every night during the tarawih salat? Some masajid in Kuching do that, and that’s great, but I personally never preferred it that way – I lose my khushu’…