Multi-faith family eats sahur meals together

ALTHOUGH it was only her second time to greet the holy month of Ramadhan since embracing Islam last year, Siti Rokiah Sah, a 33-year-old Iban descent, does not see fasting as burden.

Siti, a mother of eight children aged between 10 months and 11 years old, lives with her husband Muhd Nordin Muhd Arif, 30, a Punan descent, along with her parents in-law, a brother-in-law, niece and nephew in one the units of a wooden stilt longhouse by the Belait River in Kg Sukang.

Kg Sukang is a village in the interior parts of Belait District, about 140km from Brunei's capital.

The couple are among the recipients of the monthly welfare assistance from the Islamic Da'wah Centre. They receive a total of $600 a month.

To get to the longhouse, one has to cross a 25-metres-wide river after taking a two-hour drive from the capital.

During Ramadhan, just as other eligible Muslims required to perform fasting from dawn to dusk, Siti, started her day by preparing pre-dawn meal (sahur).

At the time of the visit, Siti cooked a pan of plain fried rice for sahur in the kitchen located at the back of the longhouse. It took her only few minutes to prepare the simple meal for there was nothing else to cook.

With no dining table or chairs, the family sat on the wooden floor to eat their meal a way that has been practised for generations.

Joining for the sahur was her parents-in law Luyah and his wife, Bunyang Anak Bugak. Despite being non-muslims, they too woke up early to join the pre-dawn meal, reflecting unity and harmony within the family.

The younger member of the family scooped rice for their elders. Siti's brother-in-law, Abdul Wahab Abdullah Sing, 27, scooped some rice onto a melamine plate and handed it over to Luyah, the eldest member.

Siti told The Brunei Times that her decision to embrace Islam was entirely her own choice. "I can recite Al-Quran a little bit," she said.

Though she was raised in a family that does not practice Islam, it did not deter her to whole-heartedly perform her new faith.

After having her pre-dawn meal she said that she performs the Subuh prayers. In the evenings she would join other Islamic converts to perform the Tarawih prayers at Kg Sukang prayer hall, just across the river.

Her brother-in-law, Abdul Wahab, who took a leap of faith in 2000, also shared that he usually performs Subuh prayers alone, while in the evening he would join others at Kg Sukang prayer hall for Maghrib, Isya'and Tarawih prayers.

Asked who introduced him to Islam, he said, "My religious teacher at school when I was still a student."

He said the teacher "adopted" him. "I embraced Islam out of my own choice," he said.

As Ramadhan is a month where sincere prayers and wishes would be answered, 'insyaAllah', both Siti and Abdul Wahab said their only hopes was for their entire family to remain healthy.

The Brunei Times