SYIRIK PRACTICE AND SUPERSTITIOUS IN MALAY

There are many act that offence and against what been teach inside Islam religion. Thus this article been made in order to explain and give example about those act and superstitious that been dwell among Malay custom and belief.

Firstly, what is Syirik in Malay understanding? Syirik is an act and belief that purposely against all the teaching in Islam which is Malay religion. Syirik is a motive or excuse to be made in order to gain something without depending on Allah s.w.t rather others thing such as corpse, medallion, ghost, demon, sacrifice, and many more.

This is same with what superstitious belief all along especially in the aspect of depending on unscientific method rather than vice versa. Thus these two have close similarity which deprived from the act and belief of those that are wrong and lost. There are many example can be point out such as,

l Swear by not the name of Allah s.w.t

Malay people who didn’t swear by the name of Allah are considering as a Syirik practice due to the teaching in Islam. It is due to belief that there are only one god exist and that is Allah s.w.t. Thus from this, it is understandable that Allah s.w.t is the core of everything in Islam and any act or a swear by not Allah s.w.t name is consider Syirik. After all, people tend to depend on supernatural stuffs rather than depending on the god they belief.

l Wearing a charm tree for invincibility

Just wearing a simple necklace or bracelet is allowed for Malay woman but wearing it for a reason such as invincibility or other is fall under Syirik practice. This is after all using other alternative method rather than depending toward Allah s.w.t and following all been asked according in Al-Quran and As-Sunnah. Thus this make people become separate from the one that should be worship and blindly believe in superstitious stuff.

l Using mantras for self-fortune

Did not ask for fortune from Allah s.w.t is one thing but using mantras to make one desire to achieve is consider twice the sin in Syirik practice. This is due to people tending to use an easy way to make money rather than struggle and pray to god about it. Not to mention that using mantras is the same as believing in supernatural just so that they can easy faster without thinking the consequences of Syirik practice in the end.

l Belief in shaman word

As thought using mantras is not bad enough but believing shaman word is worse of all. This act can show how much IQ you have in your brain if taking stranger word is enough for you to believe over your own god. This is common problem in Malay nowadays as there still people believe in dukun (shaman) rather than consult with religious member about the either problem you have or knowledge that you seek.

l Using graveyard as prayer spot

From my understanding, this Syirik practice occur when a certain group have a strong desire to accomplish such as winning in gamble, create aphrodisiac, brainwash woman emotion, and so on. This group will do a prayer over specific graveyard while sometime they even grave out the corpse just to make sure their prayer answered. Some even used fresh chicken blood that they just slaughter to show their determination in prayer.  

l Belief in flower bath

Flower bath is a common superstitious that dwell deeply in Malay custom until today. This happen due to when someone is believe to be struck with bad luck and having unlucky moment. The purpose of this bath is to wash away all the bad luck stuck at the people and replace it with good luck. Sometime, people didn’t have bad luck will bath in flower just to make sure their body been wash with flowery aroma and good fortune.

l Trust into fortune telling

There are a Syirik practice that popular among teenager and young adult and that game is fortune telling. As the name suggest, it is about predicting what the future hold and unhidden the mystery behind it. This action is similar as believing what a shaman said with replacing him with stranger that predicted fortune telling. Thus causing people to blindly believe what others said but not on the word of the god that they should worship.

Conclusion, Syirik practice and superstitious belief actually is a bad influence toward practitioner in Islam especially in Malay ethnic. Thus, it is crucial for other races in Malaysia to take note about these points in order to avoid making rift among races or creating a misunderstanding among each other as we live in the same country and side by side for long.

Author: Mohd Imran Tashiron