It's sad how the growing population of our community is becoming more and more narrow-minded each day. Nak haramkan ni, nak haramkan tu. Semua nak diharamkan tak tentu hala. But tell me, have you done your research first? Let me just voice out what's been going around in my head for quite some time now.

I won't lie to you. I feel deeply offended when I saw this girl's Facebook status about Muslims coloring their hair. It was knife-sharp sarcastic and unnecessary. Did I colour my hair? Red? And purple? Looking like a frikkin clown to some? Why, yes, yes I did. Did I ever think about how it was going to affect my wudhu and solat and ghusl? Yes, yes I did. Which was why I spent nearly a week on doing a lot of research on hair-coloring for Muslims.

Most Muslims (at least, the ones in our country), would think that colouring your hair will affect your wudhu and ghusl and solat because water won't reach your hair. Really, now? Try doing some research first before you voice out any sarcastic remarks about those who've coloured their hair.

I'm not gonna even waste my time explaining which type of hair dyes are permissible (or in other words, ones that allow the water to reach your hair and scalp), but the one that I used is entirely permissible. Water can still reach my hair and scalp because the type of hair dye that I used doesn't form some sort of a coating around my hair shaft. Anyway, I don't understand why some Muslims in our country are so quick to judge what other Muslims do. I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing my own race, but you have to admit that some Malays can get really narrow-minded. Too uptight to accept what others are doing that they think is wrong. There. I said it. And dont tell me you dont know it's true. Maybe I'm influenced by the Western people? Perhaps. But they influence me in the way I think about life. They're open-minded, tolerant, and soooo not uptight.

I don't mean to brag about my prayers, but I do perform my solat, five times a day, and I dont understand why some think it's weird that someone like me would actually care about my prayers. But I do, and no one has the right to criticize other people's ibadah. What, just because I don't wear a hijab, and even coloring my hair, to boot, then it means I don't pray? Or care about my religion and my life in the hereafter? That's bollocks, I have to admit. You'd be surprised at how many girls who don't wear a hijab actually go to the surau or mosque to pray. You'd be surprised. I've seen my share of hijab-less girls who go to the surau to pray, and I must say, they're quite plenty.

And if that's the case then, do you really think that every girl you see who wears the hijab actually pray? You think that just because they wear a hijab then they're so pure on the inside? Do you feel offended by what I just wrote? It's the same thing with those of us who don't wear a hijab. Some of us really get offended when people have the assumptions that just because we're not wearing a hijab, then we commit all sorts of forbidden sins and whatnot. But some of us are actually so much better than your negative assumptions and I know this because I have friends who don't wear a hijab, and they do care about their prayers and they are in no way the kind of people who'd make you think they're bad Muslims.

I'm not trying to segregate those who wear a hijab and those who don't. But if you think that just because some of us don't wear a hijab and you think we're soooooo bad, please reflect upon yourselves first. Pride, or riak is forbidden in Islam, you know that right? So if you're so proud as a peacock that you wear a hijab and all, and then you look down upon those of us who don't wear a hijab, that's not a good thing is it? Riak, namanya.

Things are not always the way they seem. You can't judge a book by its cover. For all you know, a book with a fancy, beautiful cover might have horrible contents on the inside and those with a hideous cover might just have well-written contents. How many times have you bought a book just because you were attracted to its beautiful illustrations, only to find that the contents are all crap? It's the same thing for people.

One of the things that Islam embraces is tolerance. And acceptance. And it's sad to see how some Muslims of our generation (in our country at least) are deeply scarring the good image of Islam simply by pushing away things that they think is wrong to them. Making other people think that Islam is difficult, complicated, and uptight. That's not tolerance, and it is definitely not acceptance. If you carefully observe, our views of Islam are much much different from those Muslim scholars from the middle east. You'd be surprised. We let our race's background affect the way we see Islam (e.g. what is permissible and what is not) and that's just not right. It's just not right.

I thought that as we're adapting to an advanced world full of technology, we'd be more open-minded now that we have so much access to so many things in the world. But apparently my assumptions are wrong for certain groups of people in my country. It's sad. Just sad.

So please. Before you try to commit the forbidden task of posting rude, sarcastic, negative comments on Facebook just because you think you're better than everyone else, think twice about what you're doing and how it's going to do you good. Criticizing and looking down upon those of who you think are at a "lower standard" than you won't make you any better than anyone.

I don't normally write stuff like this on my blog, but in this case, I'll make an exception. Because some people just don't get it.