A famous Albukhary Mosque

Just visiting my client at a small town in the north last week and on the way back to Big Foot Hill or Bukit Mertajam, Penang, I have taken a detour to this road  in Alor Setar, Kedah as my client recommended me to another client. Guess what? I stumbled upon a beautiful sight at night which is the  Albukhary Mosque.

Many Muslims and other people have been to this beautiful mosque for worship and Friday prayers or just take a walk and relax there after shopping at the complex named "Souq Albukhary" which is where Giant hypermarket is located.  Many travelers from near and far would have enjoyed its beauty and serenity through recommendations from travels' websites and blogs.  I saw many beautiful images of the mosques being photographed and uploaded.

A check on the net also shown that there is another Albukhary mosque in Kuala Lumpur which is also built by the Albukhary Foundation. Our Malaysian tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is the giant behind the projects.  I once read in the local news article that he was once working at the wet market helping his mother and was used to wearing clogs.  He is a very humble man and can speak the local Chinese dialect.
Here is the link to his personal blog  http://mokhtaralbukhary.blogspot.com/2008/02/tan-sri-syed-mokhtar-al-bukhary-tan-sri.html 

Here are some of the pictures taken by me. 

I remember my primary school days in Kangar town, the capital of Northern most state of Malaysia, Perlis, where I used to sit in the class quietly with another classmate since we were the only non-Muslims students in a class of forty something pupils when the Islam Religious teacher came to our classroom to teach our Muslim friends the Religion period which usually lasted some 30 minutes.

Not only once but many times, I heard my Muslim classmates asked the teacher about the places of worship which they can use as an alternative to the mosque if there is no mosque near them at the time where they are to perform the prayers five times daily while on a journey or far from home. The teacher did mentioned that my Muslim classmates can use the Church if there is one nearby but not at the temples (Taoist or Hinduism places of worship) where there are idols worships. Now that there are mosques and worship rooms in every town and residential housing estates, it is understandable that our Muslim friends will be able to perform their prayers in these places rather than at a Church which is a taboo.

Well, our country has prospered and the people are more affluent and can afford to donate to build places of worships while the Government ensured that the housing developers built places of worship for the Muslim brethren.  There are not as many new places of worships for the non-Muslims being built as there is no compulsory laws to compel the developers of new housing estates to build one for them.

Back then, there were very few mosques except in major towns like Kangar, Arau, Kuala Perlis, Kaki Bukit and Padang Besar in Perlis.  The mosque in Kangar town have large black colored domes while the old one in Arau was green and white. The new one near the Arau railway station is golden domes as the King of Perlis used to perform prayers there. Usually the mosques compounds are also the burial grounds. There were Muslim funerals attended by their non-Muslims friends, right from the deceased's house to the mosque vicinity in my former Royal hometown. There were no huff or many hoodlums then. Purely mourning the loss of a good friend and a good neighbor, paying last respect and conveying condolences to the deceased's surviving family members and friends.

Those days, people lived in harmony and peacefully in almost every neighborhood with united spirit among the Malaysians as compared to the present day where there were many sad incidents of blatant disrespects and disregards for the places of worship.

There are more live and regular daily broadcasts of Islamic religious programs through the radio and television (TV) channels nowadays. We use to sing the National patriotic songs as they were being played over the radio and televised on television by Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) .  We watched black and white TV.  Does it matter whether we are black or white or yellow or brown like coffee mixed with milk? What happen to us Malaysians today?  What happened to our Education system, the Civic and  Moral classes? Study History of facts that were altered and twisted according to whims and fancy instead of its truth in the past has NO FUTURE.

Did we progress to be an Affluence ONE (A1) NATION of TRULY ASIA OR a LOW BUDGET MENTALITY STATE DOMINANCE WITH MANY DIVISIONS? Too much politicking and power crazy at the top?  Ordinary folks like us just stroll along in our neighborhood in fear of our safety of many incidents of crime reported and the unavoidable economic inflation skyrocketing due to increases in the prices of essential commodities and daily household goods from the chain reactions.

Heaven above is a place in Malaysia on Earth. May God Al-Mighty and Merciful keep us and Malaysia safe, this I pray.  As for me, I ask Lord Jesus to bless the Nation with Peace and Harmony and Prosper Malaysia as I refer to Bible Psalm 118 verse 25-29. For more reading on Psalm 118: 25-29 and for Non-Muslims Only(If you are from Malaysia), please click here.

By the way, if you want your kids to join our Bukit Mertajam Baptist Church (BMBC) Children's Christmas Celebration this coming Saturday December 11, 2010, we welcome you and your kids.  It will be held at the charitable homes.  For more details, please contact BMBC at Tel. no. 04-5391854

Reading on Psalm 118: 25-29 Courtesy of Bible.Org
http://bible.org/