Religion or Custom

This has always been my question everytime i came across situation where people always try to claim that things/ceremonies that they performed are because of religion. I am no where close to be called an Ustazah neither am i very sound in the religion of Islam. I am just a plain Muslim individual who has been trying her best to follow the teaching of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and Holy Quran as her guidance, Insya-Allah.


Majlis Cukur Jambul or... how do i translate this in English? ;) Anyway, after i had Aydin, Hubby insisted that we have a cukur jambul ceremony. A family friend got all excited and she told us to invite her Marhabban clan to perform this ritual. I went along because i wan't sure myself what is going to happened during this ceremony. All i know is just that you carry bub around and the Marhabban people will cut a bit of bub's hair and put it into the coconut water. Later, i questioned myself what was the reason to all these rituals? I have not read it anywhere saying that this was practised by any of the prophets. All i can remember is that we have to shave all the hair on a newborn and weight it. The weight of the hair will be converted to monetary value based on the price of gold and sadakah it to the poor. This was practised by one of the prophet which i can't remember who.


Another thing that i found out about this ritual is that we should give bub a taste of sweetness and air zam-zam? I am not sure of the benefit of doing this but scientifically, you are not advised to feed bub anything besides breastmilk for the first 6 months as this would kill more than 100 of natural antibodies from the colustrum that our body cannot reproduce. This includes water as breastmilk already contains sufficient water (fore milk + hind milk). I am sure orang-orang tua will not agree with me. Mak long will tell me i have to feed the right boob first as this is the food and the left boob last as this is the water baru budak kenyang :)


Anyway, i know i have read it somewhere and listened to a talk or something from an ustaz/ustazah saying that this cukur jambul and marhabban ritual is haram. It is good that we have a ceremony to announce the arrival of the new member and share the joy with our family and friends but to perform such rituals which are actually customs from our old folks 100 years ago is probably not right. Yes, the marhabban group recites some good advice for the bub but i personally think the best doa would be from the close family member especially the mother. Doa-doa ibu is the best doa for her kids.


Wallahu-alam i could be wrong. I just want to share my thoughts on this topic but feel free to tell me otherwise. Knowledge is infinity. You can never get enough of it till the day you die. The more you share, the more you know. Not what you know is always right.


On another note, i bought Aydin a very expensive CD called We are Muslim 1. He learnt the songs from the previous ALIM playgroup. It is a bit costly for a children CD but hey, i'd rather buy a Muslim CD for my son and instill good religious values instead of some nursery rhymes which i believed that some are just preeching on Christianity... indirectly. One of the song on the CD is the 5 pillars of Islam. What i noticed is that the 4th pillar of Islam is you GIVE zakat NOT PAY zakat as most of us refers to it. This is a good representation of the whole concept. You are not obligated to PAY but it is your responsibility to GIVE zakat to the poor. How a simple word could change the whole meaning of the action. Atleast we know that we are sincere in departing with our harta and share it with the poor. Something to ponder eh? Dah bayar zakat fitrah ke belum?