SOUL SCRIBBLES

The past week or so, a WhatsApp group I was added to was buzzing about the halal status of a known restaurant in the city. A diner had posted on his Facebook wall a reply to an email he had sent to an executive of the said restaurant regarding the halal status of the eatery. The executive said the restaurant was not a “certified Jakim entity” and that it was not its discretion to validate the halal status of its suppliers.  We all know what halal stands for. It means “permissible” or “lawful” in Arabic, and provides assurance that the food does not contain ingredients that Muslims are forbidden to consume, such as alcohol, pork, and meat from cattle and poultry that were not slaughtered according to Islamic protocols.  Some friends and I were aware that the particular restaurant did not have the halal certification and would never get one from Jakim, the department in charge of Islamic development in the country. This is not because of the meat used, but because it has liquo...

Two weekends ago, my niece, nephew and I went cafe-hopping in Bangi. There are many cafes at Section 9 of Bandar Baru Bangi, catering to customers of the many retail stores there, mostly belonging to online businesses. These cafes are making good money as the retail store traffic there is unbelievably high, especially during weekends. And, when there is such volume, you will inevitably find those seeking donations for one cause or another.  We were seated in a cafe and ordering our drinks when we saw a foreign-looking man entering and going from one table to the other seeking donations. He would have approached our table but we were busy placing our orders with the waiter.  A short while later, another man entered the cafe. He came to our table, gave the salam and showed us a folder containing some papers on a madrasah in Pakistan.  For the past few years, I have made it a habit to ask for some form of documentation to show that whoever is seeking a donation is authori...