Her: OMG, I'm so freakin hungry!!
Me: .......... (focusing on making the sandwich)
Her: And this ham looks so yummy right now. Wan, do you know that ham is the best meat ever?
Me: Really?? I never tried it. But I'm sure nothing can beat the chicken tenders.
Her: NO! Ham is the real thing u know. Wait, u said u never tried it?
Me: Yup! I'm a muslim remember??
Her: Oh yeah, sorry about that. I forgot that Muslims can't eat pig. Do you mind telling me why?
Me: Well, it's written in the Quran that as Muslims, we can't eat pig.
Her: ............(Unsatisfied with my answer and confused)
Me: If I'm not mistaken, Allah banned muslims from eating pig because of healthy issue. You see, many years ago, many people died from eating pigs, maybe because the pigs were dirty or something. You know, like the pigs had bacterias in them and gave diseases to everyone's eating them.
Her: But that was then, u know. Like now, we have all the technologies to clean the meat and stuff. And nobody dies because of eating ham now.
Me: You know what, you are right. But maybe there's more to the story of why Allah banned pigs among the muslims, you know. I'm not the best person for u to ask obviously, but tell u what, i'll try ask another person about this, a more reliable person who would have more knowledge that me, and I'll get back to you soon.
Her: Sounds good!
Location 2: In my apartment, chatting with a friend about the same matter.
Me: So my friend, tell me why can't we eat pigs?
Her: Because Allah said so. Duhhh,,,
Me: I know that. But tell me the reasons behind it.
Her: I'm not really sure myself. But i do know that it has something to do with health issues.
Me: Yeah, I know that. But we dont see many people get sick from it do we? and how about the chickens and the cows. I mean we had some health issues with those animals too right?
Her: Hmm..I dont know. BUt whatever it is, it's in the Quran and as good Muslims we should not question what Allah ordered us to do because there sure are reasons to it.
Me: (Speaking to myself very quietly) This is the problem with our society (including myself). We choose what to believe and what not. We choose what to justify and what not. For instance, we dont really care to find the reasons to why Allah banned pigs because we dont really care and dont really want to consume them. But we always find a reason to justify God's existence. I mean, if we really have faith in God, then why do we need proof? It's because it's our nature as humans to seek answers and satisfy our curiosity and there's nothing wrong with that. But what's wrong is to FILTER what to believe without being holistic about it.
But, hey, whatever it is, it's someone's right on what to do with his or her own life ;)
