This morning, I was on the way to work, resting my eyes and taking a breather before the busy – ness and chaos of the day starts, when…
“excuse me, miss…jesus is the son of god. jesus loves you.” A woman, smiled and handed me her card and some stuff I have yet to open and read. Her card read “evangelist.”
I was thinking…what should i say? Should I tell her off? In the end, I let it go (i admit, may not be the best reaction) coz I didn’t want to be confrontational early in the morning and thought too much of the different scenarios that could happen. By that time, she alighted already la.
But, in case any of us experience this in future, below could be some suggestions:
If you have 1 minute…
“You know, I actually believe in Jesus too. I believe he is a prophet of God. And God loves you.”
If you have 3 minutes …
“You know, I actually believe in Jesus too. But I believe he is a prophet of God and NOT His son. How can God have a son when He is God??? Isn’t He after all the Almighty God who created us and wouldn’t resemble any of His creations in any way??”
If you have more than 3 minutes (and the English translation of the quran at hand) …
“You know, I actually believe in jesus too. But I believe he is a prophet of God and NOT His son. How can God have a son when He is God??? Isn’t He after all the Almighty God who created us and wouldn’t resemble any of His creations in any way?? Why don’t you read these verses from a chapter named Maryam, or better know to you as Mary?”
other suggestions, anyone???
by the way, i realised that the book i was reading, "the story of god" was on my lap. maybe she thought that i am a restless soul searching for God. anyway, i just went for a public lecture by the archbishop of canterbury on religious diversity and social unity last night - how interesting.
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6 comments:
hihi.. yeah.. i think she probably did that because she saw the book. she must have been staring at it for a while, and deciding if she should do what she did. Then she finally thought.. why don't I do it, just before i leave the train.. and she DID IT!
hmm... I think the 3 minute response is just nice, and it took less than 3 mins to say.
salaam all.
first and foremost - lets recall what stephen covey said in his 7 habits: Understand others before being understood.
to that end, if you were the other person with a whole different set of faith you would think like wise of the other person?
and I hardly think all those rhetorics mentioned would help "enlightened" the other person. and on that note being enlightened to a Muslim (for example) is a different connotation to a person of another faith.
in education or even in the transcendence of divine knowledge - it didn't all came down in one minute or three for that matter.
And even after 23 years, there are those who chose not to believe. I say to each its own.
For a Christian, evangelicalism is amongst the highest commitment one could give to its religion. I have friends who goes on mission for a year and even hold on to entry from university for this, to them, a special cause. As far as I know only Tabligh Jemaah does that sort of stuff and even so with little or marginal success. On a side note: Our MM undergrads? That sort of dedication is far from it, I suppose.
So what does this say? It says the passion of an individual to what he or she believes and stands for and definitely need to be respected and admired.
so the inherent question here is - why are we even bothered to retaliate to someone who think that by pasting a brochure she is doing us a favour with a counter thesis on his or her faith?
is the retaliation the result of a certain ego? a feeling of not wanting to be pitied or inferior? pride? you decide and no ones to judge.
is it fair to throw all that sort of fundamental rhetorics while during other times not trying to work on other means that are non-reactive to debate and discuss the issue? are we doing that?
heres what i would have said: thank you and jesus loves us indeed - God bless and have a wonderful day madam.
hmm.. yes, I can understand where you're coming from. So, there's no need to be irritated that she was trying to 'help', in the way she knew and believed.
And i think it's still ok, to share our view on that matter with the other person as well.
Ok, so maybe not exactly in the manner typed out - which may have sounded like a retaliation, but in a nice, sharing tone.
Perhaps if there was more time, it could lead on to an intellectual discussion on the topic. Perhaps.
hehe kak marlina cute aahhh '1 min', '2 min', '3 min'
bro khairu:
waaah im impressed with your point and your sharings.
definitely should be taken into account insyaAllah
:)
i like your crafted responses. hee. I have the same issue with friends. not even strangers. but FRIENDS.
at times, i wish i could just tell them to back off... at other times, i would like to be confrontational.
but most of the times, i just relek and be OK about it. We should stop being OK with these things u knw.. whatever happened to being secular? being respectful of other people's religions.
i have a couple of friends who ends their sms-es with some reminder of jesus.. and God bless you. in their own Christian right. Oh well!~ I'm sick of it. Sick of not rebutting.
There will come a time where I have the courage to step up. Pray for me, and for the rest of our brothers and sisters k? :) hee.
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