My name is NOT Khan. Obviyesli.

In the name of Allah,
Most Gracious, Most Merciful,
Praise be to Allah,
the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds,
and Peace and Prayer be upon the Final Prophet and Messenger. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran


In my Identification Card a.k.a IC, my name is still the name that I was born with.

Why?

It's like this.


When I become a Muslim, I only registered at the Islamic office( J.A.I.S) a week after. Before I went to the office, I was told that, now that I am a Muslim, I need to change my name to an arabic name with good meaning so, yeah, a lot of suggestions were coming in but I have trouble deciding. So when I went to the office, when the officer asked me what will my Muslim name be, I was at lost and a name suddenly came to mind and that is the Muslim name that I chose. And no, the name I chose is not The Rocking Hijab though I do think it would be AWESOME to have people calling on me by that name.

Just imagine.

"Yo The Rocking Hijab! Whatchadoin?"

That.would.be.LEGEND-DARY. #howimetyourmother


Ok, never mind my juvenile imagination. Anyways, the name I chose was Nur Farah Syakirah and I chose that because I have always liked the name 'Farah', back since I was a secondary school-er. It all started when my Math teacher, when I was in Form 2, not yet a Muslim, called me by the name 'Farah' because he was nicknaming everyone(to make it easier for him to call on us to fetch our books from his table) and I get to be Farah because my name kinda sound like 'faradella' though it's actually Fr*d*ll*. So the name stuck on me like glue and I carried that name until the end of Form 2. But I liked it and I don't feel offended by it. I guess it was kind of a du'a cause yeah, I'm Farah now. (^_^)v


Moving on.


So after I registered my religion change at the office, a few days later, I came to know that it wasn't necessary to change my name. I was overwhelmed and I contacted the office to ask them about this and they told me, yes it was true. I was really mad because they didn't inform me beforehand about it and what pissed me off to the level of nirvana was that they told me with a sorry-i-accidentally-stepped-on-your-foot face, "Oh sorry ramai sangat sampai lupa nak bagitau." As if that was excuse enough.

In fact, you should sound a bit more thankful that people are flocking into this religion despite all the prejudice that people have on Islam!

Fuhh, sikit lagi nak bertukar jadi ijau masa tu. =___=*


Anyways, I won't expose which Islamic office it was, but I just hope this kind of thing won't happen again. Please, it's just too depressing.

What's so big about it you might want to ask?

Well, one, that time I wasn't planning on telling my parents yet. Obviously I would be in hot soup if I were to because I was going to go back to Sarawak for the holiday. And plus, being really new in the religion, I was afraid if I were to reveal my Islamisation(that is if there is such a word), I might be forced to convert back to my previous religion so yeah, I was pretty rational I think.

My point is, back when I changed my name, people questioned me why I did such a thing and didn't I know that I CAN KEEP MY NAME?

So alhamdulillah, it is Allah's decree that it so happens that I need to have my Islam card in order to change my IC. So unless I have my Islam card, I cannot change the status of my religion and this has really eased me during my time as an Undercover Revert. It was great but rather difficult for new Muslims to obtain their Islam card because they need to complete a one week course to be able to apply for the Islam card which is a very important document for us. Without it, we will not be able to change our religion status on the IC and naudzubillah, if we die, we won't be able to have a proper Muslim funeral.

So when I came to Kelantan, alhamdulillah the procedure was easy because I don't have to attend whatsoever course as a requirement for me to have that card. But then I would have to re-register again, so this time, I did what I have been wanting to do, that is keeping my name and yes, no 'binti Abdullah'. ^_^ Alhamdulillah.

See? It wasn't that hard really. It's the protocols that have been making 'easy' things difficult.

So when I wanted to change my IC, that is the name that I used, which is the name that I was born with.

And this comes to my next point, which is, when people saw that my name is still my original name(whatever you may call it), they ask me this instead,

"Why didn't you change your name?"

And when I explained it was for da'wah purpose and it was in order to care for my parent's feelings, they told me that then people wouldn't know that I am a Muslim.

Err...hello? See this hijab thingy on my head? How unMuslim is that?

But then, they told me that it would be hard for me in terms of when dealing with technical things yadda yadda yadda so I told them that I have never experienced any difficulties regarding my name so that finally got them to shut up.

Besides, even the companions of Rasulullah s.a.w didn't change their name except for a few, but only because their former name was unIslamic and bear bad meanings.

Islamic name doesn't mean it have to be in Arabic. UnIslamic would mean, for example, if it was Abdul Kaabah, which means Slave of Kaabah. Or if your name is Silly, then you would have to change your name.

But my name was Fr*d*ll* S*ndy, and still is, at least in the IC. And I wish it to be that way.

It doesn't have any meaning, but at least my parents' happy and they will learn indirectly that I am still ME. No matter what religion I am, I will always be their ONE and ONLY daughter. Nothing has changed, and there is no gap between us. This is, I guess, my style of da'wah, to educate them that by being a Muslim, one doesn't necessarily has to have an Arabic name and one is not cutting off the blood ties just by the change of religion.

I guess it is up to us to show our parents that we really are still the same person they raised except that now we have become a much much better person by returning to Allah.




Random:

Hmm. It just came to me that I have not spoken with my dad and have been away from home ever since that day for almost a year and half now. It's pretty hard to believe that I have survived all these things. I guess that just shows that indeed Allah will not burden a person with more than what they can chew. InshaAllah. Pray that I keep on living...and surviving despite all the tests. InshaAllah.



Till next time inshaAllah. Salam jumu'ah.


Salam alaik and peace out,





We must hurt in order to grow, fail in order to know, & lose in order to gain. Because some lessons in life, are best learnt through pain.