Of late there seems to be a shift in the Malay trend of naming
children. The majority of which seem to be heading towards the Arabs.
Somehow, today's culture sees Arabization as a means to overcompensate
for a void in their lives they start naming their newborns with funny
sounding names that the letter "A" spelt with an apostrophe to stress
on the "'ain" sound a-la Arabs. Then some even go as far a as
translating Arabic words into Malay to get a so-called "'afdal"
meaning to their Kids' names....
Hello! Reality check please.... Names do not ensure or even remotely
determine the outcome of one's morals. I have personally met several
chaps with whose names have "Mohamed", "Ahmad", "Abdullah", as well as
those who are named after Muslim Prophets who are actually drunkards,
whore house regular customers, druggies and what nots. I'm not saying
that naming them that way is bad. It's just that I am of the opinion
that how Parents raise their Children, the environment they grow up
in, their peers, Schooling are all determinants in ensuring how and
what a person turns out to be.
My grouse is with some people. They have this overbearing sense of
kampungness that they constantly try to instill into my Children.
While I have no particular qualms with kampung people, I just do not
want my Children growing up into one. While my own ancestry, one that
I am proud of, originated from the very same rice fields as that of
some people, it does not mean that we must constantly be in some kind
of peasant state of mind to be a better Muslim.
As badly as Bahasa Melayu has evolved into some kind of English
dictionary rip-off with it's constant poaching of English and Arabic
words, so too has Malay culture, albeit by poaching, cultures and
traditions of the Arabs, namely the naming of Children.
While many find that it is somewhat of plus point to name one's Child
like an Arabic bedouine, I do not see the point. Does it make them
better? Smarter? Pious? NO! So what if I name my Children after some
Gaelcian name? What's wrong with that? Have they ever wondered that
maybe some of us have plans? Some of us intend to emmigrate to a better
place when time and resources permit? That the naming of one's
Children are in line with one's potential future plans of moving out of this country? Some of us do have plans and
goals in life.
While I have this sense of attachment to some Nordic, Gaelic and
whatever distant culture's names, thanks to my own exposure to
different cultures, places and whatnots growing up in different
countries, does that make my Children less Muslim? For example, my
Spouse's sibling is married to a foreigner. Their children all live in
some distant white man's fantasy heaven. They all have Malay names but
none of them have their genital organs circumsized. So names are but
mere facades. They may appear more Muslim in name, perhaps for the
benefit of the kampungfolk they meet once of twice a year but
otherwise they are, bar pork and alcohol, no more Muslim than the
white men in their home country.
To me, if you carry the Prophet's name, do not use it in shame. I have
decided to move away from the standard Malay naming scheme of things
simply because I think it is hypocritical. Names like "Danial" are
accepted as Malay names when it is clearly of some mat salleh origin.
Whereas some tounguetwister names like that of my Children's are
frowned upon simply because they cannot pronounce it. Well, too bad!
If you people cannot speak English, French, Spanish or
whatever that's your problem. Don't make it mine.
I have come to the conclusion that people will say and do whatever the
hell they want, you can't stop them. Fine. But do not impose your
values on me when I clearly do not impose mine on you. We can talk,
discuss, and whatever for the sake of intellectual discourse but at
the end of the day, values are what makes us. For example, lying about
your whereabouts may seem acceptable to some under the guise of "tipu
sunat" (a man made way to legitimize lying on the basis of a small lie
created to prevent a much bigger disaster), to others lying is lying.
There are no exceptions to it.
Well, I have virtually given up with a lot of people on this naming
issue simply because I feel that they are invading my personal space
when it comes to my Spouse & Children. To me that is a line no one
should cross, regardless of whatever favours one may have granted to
us before, that is a line that must never and should never be crossed.
Again, it is a matter of values. One's value system is highly
subjective. A culture that has a phrase like "jaga tepi kain orang" is
hardly one that can sit idly by and watch others be non-conformists.
To hell with that, don't like it? Don't watch it!
