A Dialogue (Part 1)

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Assalamualaikum wbt.

(Part 1)

1. The dialogue was rare. Yet meaningful.

2. This story is about an encounter I had with a gentleman I just knew through internet who is a Muslim but apparently sees Islam as a different Islam, unlike what we normally understand.

3. In brief, he is still a Muslim (I believe so, Allah knows best) despite the fact that he seemed to favor some liberal thoughts and I am not 100% sure if he is still practicing (prayers etc).

4. I am not passing a judgement here, but I will explain my description above later as you read further.

5. Interestingly enough, this guy finished his secondary education at a well-known boarding school (SBP) in Malaysia, and this is not just another SBP but a religious school (sekolah aliran agama).

6. This is not about painting a bad image on our local schools, but a highlight on how challenging it is outside there, that Islam (our faith) is being attacked from all directions, all the time, risking not only ourselves, but each and every one person we love in this world (close you eyes and think about them for a couple of seconds now).

7. My point of writing this is not just to share the story, but more than that is to offer recommendation on how do we deal with many questions we may have about Islam (or asked by others) and never less important, is to adjust the way we deal with such people.

8. We should be able to engage in constructive dialogues and discussions, and not to be in defensive mode all the time.

9. I am in no way trying to suggest that I have the best solution or methodology here, but I will just share what is at my best available, and next to come is the roles to play by each and every single one of us.

10. We, all of us, have jobs to do.

11. This lovely guy (by his personality and character) is a Malaysian and is about to graduate from a university from the United States of America (USA) soon (for brevity's sake, I will use America from now onward).

12. When I met him at KLCC, he brought along a close friend of him, an American guy by the name of Matthew.

13. Unfortunately I only met Matthew for a very short time as he headed somewhere else walking around the place- in a way, he's a tourist after all.

14. So the dialogue began between me and him, the Muslim guy, in Matthew's absence.

15. From the way the conversation took place, he seemed to be searching for truth i.e the right religion to believe in. Mind you, this guy was born a Muslim.

16. According to him, it was not America (that influenced him), but he had things in mind way back since he was still in Malaysia, and America is only a place that sort of 'confirmed' what he believed in.

17. Among the first question that he asked, surprisingly, was about whether God exist in the first place? And he didn't claim to be an atheist, but he believed that it is not wrong to ask.

18. So then, does God exist?

19. (To be continued in Part 2)