I WAS having a conversation with my dad the other day over a nice cup of ginger tea when we realised that a Facebook friend of mine was actually related to someone my dad used to know.

“What a small world!” I exclaimed.

My dad smiled and went into a deep thought.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked.

“He is no longer around, he passed away quite some time ago. But I really respected him, especially for this one thing he did long ago,” said dad.

Intrigued, I asked dad to explain.

“I was about 18 at the time,” dad said, “and I heard about this new religion in town. It was called Bahai. I was curious, so I decided to join their preaching session.

“What’s Bahai?” I asked, clueless.

“Bahai is a religion founded by a young Iranian who called himself a Messenger of God. It accepts all religions of the world and centres around the idea of unity. The Bahais believe that people should work together for the common benefit of humanity.

“I remember being seated in a room full of strangers. And then I spotted a familiar face – I was quite surprised to see him there. I wondered if the reason of his presence was exactly as mine – because he was curious about it, but after a while, I realised that he was part of the congregation,” dad explained.

“An apostate mamak?” I asked, shocked.

Mamaks, especially those back in the days were very religious, so it was news to me, finding out we had people among us who abandoned Islam and embraced a new faith.

“What did you do then?” I was impatient to know the rest of the story.

Dad smiled and kept me waiting as he took a sip of his ginger tea.

“Quickly lah,” I urged him.

“I did nothing. I just sat and listened to them talk,” said dad calmly.

“And then?”

“Suddenly, he stepped onto the stage and stopped the preacher abruptly, and looked at me straight into my eyes.”

My heart pounded as I listened to dad.

“He recognised you?”

“Yes he did.”

“S***. Did he try to convert you into Bahaism?” I asked, my eyeballs almost bulging.

Dad chuckled.

“On the contrary, he made an announcement, saying there is a Muslim seated among them and respectfully asked the Muslim to stand up.”

“Did you stand up? Did you?”

“Of course.”

According to my dad, he was asked of his purpose for joining the event. Dad explained that he was merely curious of what Bahai was all about and thought joining the talk would give him some knowledge about this new religion.

The man then explained that the meeting was only for the Bahais. And it would not be suitable for anyone of a different faith to join in.

“You are a young man and you have a lot to learn. The last thing we want to do, is to confuse you,” the man told my dad.

“Wow, that is so noble,” I said in admiration.

“Indeed it was. But I assured him that I was merely there for knowledge purpose and asked him not to worry. Anyway, about half an hour later, I wasn’t interested in the talk anymore and decided to leave,” said dad.

“Did he ever try to talk to you again, I mean after the incident?” I asked.

“We bumped into each other a few times, but we never spoke of the incident, neither did he talk to me about his new religion. That’s the reason I had so much respect for him – because his new faith was his personal choice and he was not trying to influence anyone to embrace it.

There was no extra brownie points for him to earn by converting others into his belief,” said dad.

Dad’s story reminded me of an old neighbour of mine who had a private conversation with my son about Christianity, despite knowing we are Muslims. He spoke of Jesus Christ as the saviour of humankind and urged my son to meet him again to learn more on Christianity.

I was also reminded of a relative of mine who mentioned that he was proud of marrying a non-Muslim, converting his bride into a Muslim, claiming of having ‘rescued’ her from producing non-Muslim offspring, and committing more sins.

These people make me believe there are people among us who are secretly out to earn merit points with God.

How wonderful it would be if we are surrounded by people like my dad’s late friend.

“I can see why you have a great deal of respect towards him,” I told dad.

“He may be an apostate as far as we Muslims are concerned. But in my books, he was an honourable man,” claimed dad. – November 9, 2017.

* Fa Abdul is a passionate storyteller and a resident agitator of the idiots in society. Well-known for her straight-talking sarcasm and occasional foul mouth, she juggles between her work as a writer, producer and director.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.