There is no god except Allah and Muhammad is a messenger of Allah

The Chinese Muslim who was wearing white Jubah beside me is Muhammad Zheng, From Hans tribe of mainland China（汉族穆斯林）。The photo was taken during last year Ramadhan month, we were shooting a documentary about Chinese Muslim in TV3.

He is a very special friend of mine, I knew him during visits Masjid Muhammadiah Tasek Jaya Ipoh (Masjid Cina ) last year (half year before the shooting of documentary). He came to David and me then asked:"Are you both Chinese Muslim? Alhamdulillah.. Finally I have found a few Chinese friends in the mosque."

"Religions isn't an issue in China, so how about Malaysian Chinese? Is there a lot of Chinese Muslim in Malaysia?"

The truth is hard to swallow.
It's very hard to measure how many Chinese are feeling tolerable with Islam, I would say very few. However I didn't tell him much as it's too complicated for him..

"Everything is fine in Malaysia, at least we have more and more Chinese who embraced Islam." I added.

He was full of enthusiasm in explaining the importance of Shahadah with me, the first pillar of Islam. "You should be explain the meaning of Shahadah to your parents, is ok if they aren't Muslim yet.. Just ask them to recite shahadah then Allah will ease their afterlife."



Few months later, he came back to the same mosque and gave me a large poster that's made of hardened plastic board. It's written the meaning of Shahadah in English and Chinese translation . It's about half meter width and one meter length.

"You may give it to your parent, inshaAllah they will open their heart one day by learning the meaning of Shahadah."

I have learnt a precious lesson from his humble heart. We don't have to take a merry-go-round in dealing with complicated Malaysia's political and religion issue. What we need to tell public about Islam is the most simple knowledge ever, the first pillar of Islam. Sometimes we have overlooked it, debating with people about terrorism, womans right, hijab, and etc...

The first priority as a Muslim is sharing the beauty of Shahadah. Or even better, invite them to recite Shahadah.

"He, Allah is one. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten, And none is like Him."

[The Holy Qur'an, Surah 112:1-4]