Friday, June 08, 2007

Name ... what's in a name

Story1 : On the phone. A call from a vendor who have so far been communication with me via email.
After finish the work-talk, now start to talk not-work-talk.

Me : OK lah yea, I nak pergi solat ni. Kejap lagi terlepas Zuhur.
Not Me1 : You nak solat ? You Islam ke ?
Me : Yes I am one. Apasal ... tak percaya ke ?
Not Me1 : Ingatkan you bukan Islam, pasal nama you tu tak bunyi macam Islam.
Me : Sekolah mana you pergi ni ada nama Islam ke tak Islam. Yang I tau ada nama tu ikut bahasa ... arab ke, melayu ke, siam ke, jawa ke. Anjuran agama bagi nama yang maknanya baik, tak de pulak specify bahasa apa.
Not Me1 : Never thought of that, I learn something new today. Actually nama you ni canggih jugak.
Me : Thank you. Itulah kreativiti mak bapak I. Now, shall we chat about naming convention some other time ? Bye ... ooops Assalammualaikum
Not Me1: Waalaikumsalam warahmatullah


Story2 : The current Big Boss of my current employer.

Not Me2 : laaa dia bukan Islam ke ...
Me : Not that I know of. What makes you think so ?
Not Me2 : Nama dia lah
Me : Apasal ngan nama dia, nama dia nama one of the Prophet so ?
Not Me2 : Ya lah dah nama nabi kan, kenapa tak Islam
Me : Let me try to explain, see if you can follow this line of thought. Nama Nabi tak semestinya nama Islam ... lagipun sejak bila ada nama Islam ke tak Islam. Nama arab, melayu, mat saleh, jawa, siam ada le.

Not Me2 : Betul jugak kau cakap ni. Dia ni confuse kan orang je.

Me : Dia tak confuse kan orang, korang je yang sah katak di bawah tempurung. Minda tertutup.


p/s: this post is not undermining the general idea to name our children with good meaning name but this post is to dispell the notion of religious-related name because in my humble opinion, names are language based not and never religious based.

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