When I was growing up, I remember my house being filled with pictures, all nicely framed and hung on the walls. As I grew older, the numbers of framed pictures grew too. Baby pictures, graduation pictures, wedding pictures – it was as if our entire life was on the wall.

At times when we remembered those who were no longer with us, all we had to do was search for them on the respective walls. That was how we kept special people like my grandpa and grandma alive.

I remember the day when I came home to find the walls empty – mom had all of the framed pictures tucked away in boxes, stuffed under our beds and above the cupboards. This took place after a series of ceramah agama (religious talks) she had heard on the radio which convinced her that displaying pictures at home was haram in Islam. Dad agreed as he too heard of the same spoken by some preachers at the mosque.

“Kalau simpan nanti malaikat takkan masuk,” mom had said, sounding worried. (If they are displayed, angels will not enter our house).

Day in day out, I saw many things change in my house. And like the pictures, figurines and dolls we used to buy from overseas as souvenirs began disappearing too. Their disappearance was the result of other ceramah agama mom and dad had listened to.

My brothers and I tried debating with mom and dad over these issues, trying to make them understand that it made no sense for the angels to boycott our home simply because of a few pictures and figurines. Like many elderly, mom and dad would squash our arguments with the advice that we should follow the instructions of the ‘wise ones’. “They are more knowledgeable than us”, mom used to say with conviction.

And then, one day, dad came home from one ceramah agama all fired-up. Apparently, an ustaz, a well-known religious scholar who was invited for a talk at an Islamic centre, related a story to everyone, claiming it was taken from a hadith. An avid reader of hadiths, my dad raised some questions, as he had never come across such a story before. However, not only were my dad’s questions dismissed, he was asked to sit down and refrain from further disturbing the “wise man” and his ceramah.

It was then that my dad realised that not all preachers knew what they were talking about. Some created stories to spice-up their ceramah while others took things totally out of context from the original source.

Since that incident, things began to change in my house. Instead of being a follower, mom and dad became seekers. For everything they heard, they turned to different books to get a better understanding. Instead of accepting everything uttered by religious people as the truth, mom and dad started analysing the truth according to the Holy Book and their God-given brain.

Soon, the walls of my house were once again filled with pictures of family members and friends. And our cabinets were decorated once again with the various figurines we had cherished from different places in the world – dolls from South Korea, Bali, France and even my younger brother’s most treasured collections of skulls.

So yesterday when I received a phone call from mom, alerting me on the recent news about the Langkawi eagle statue being condemned as haram, all I could do was laugh.

“Fa mesti tulis pasal patung helang tu dalam FMT. Semua pun mereka nak cakap haram. Mereka ingat kita ni bodoh, ka?” It was amusing to hear mom all fired-up (Fa, make sure you write about that eagle statue in FMT. They are forbidding everything. Do they think we are dumb?)

I guess people cannot be fooled all the time. Using religion to justify ridiculous things will not be tolerated all the time. People will eventually get fed up and will start to think for themselves. I am just glad that the people around me have already begun doing it. The rest will catch up soon enough.

With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.