Holy Men, Holy Women: A Journey Into the faiths of Malaysians and Other Essays

by Dina Zaman

Needing a break from her first book, I Am Muslim, Dina Zaman embarked on a two-year journey around Malaysia – the length of the peninsula as well as Sabah and Sarawak. She met people of many faiths. And from these encounters she has woven together a tapestry of vital stories: of nuns and shamans, of silat practitioners who she inadvertently offended, of pilgrims and ustaz, of hijabis who pole dance, and she ended up in Memali to discover that tragic tale. This collection of essays – animated, engaging and provocative – opens a window on the sometimes troubled terrain of religious beliefs and practices. The accounts are personal and intimate, and at the same time throw light on some of the most pressing issues that confront society today: mindfulness and worldliness, interfaith relations and lifestyle choices, class and conviction, identity and religiosity. This is Malaysia, peopled by holy men and holy women of all stripes, and Dina Zaman is your compelling guide.

‘Holy Men, Holy Women gives a valuable and rare insight into the people of faith that we revere and are too afraid or respectful to know more. They appear holier than thou. But Dina Zaman goes behind the superficial to show the human side of those who seem closer to the Almighty than the rest of us in this mortal coil.’

– Jahabar Sadiq

About the Author

Dina Zaman is a journalist, writer and co-founder of IMAN Research, whose aim is to examine the connections between society, religion and perception in order to strengthen community resilience. For many years she worked in the media, as an editor and columnist at Malaysiakini, the Malaysian Insider and the Malay Mail Online. Her book I Am Muslim (2007) brought together some of these essays in a study of Islamic religious life as it is lived by Muslims themselves. Her short-story collection King of the Sea (2012) explores themes of love, loss and longing.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We still have a long way to go. We have yet to reconcile our religion on racial lines : Malay Muslims Versus Chinese Muslims and Indian Muslims (Who are not considered Bumiputera. by the way), for example. There is chasm among minority liberals and factions among conservative muslims. We must also remember that there have been political and ideological differences in Islam, which have enriched and embittered Muslims throughout the time. If you read John Esposito and Dahlia Mogahed’s book ‘Who Speaks for Islam?’, the Muslims surveyed come from different backgrounds. There is only one Islam - all these labels have been created to belittle opponents and ridicule them. So who speaks for Islam in Malaysia? All of us. Now if we can only agree to disagree”.
- (Who speaks for Islam in Malaysia : Holy Men, Holy Women by Dina Zaman)
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This is such a ‘lay back or chill’ kind of esssays though when one is writing about religion, people would say its a heavy subject - hence why i am fond of Dina’s book. I think this is my third book that i read written by her and i am loving all of it. Multiculturalism in Malaysia is not new and along the way, faiths and traditions has been practiced side by side by all of us. We Malaysians try to understand and tolerate with each other especially in term of religion practices. The author did gather as many as she can , her perspective on witnessing the rituals or prayers from other religions other than Islam in Malaysia. However, i felt it is a bit inadequate. When i pick up the book, i expected to read more essays from other races or ethnicities especially from Sabah and Sarawak - how they practice their religion, how they navigate their faith especially when they did not convert to Abrahamic Faith and sadly this book is a bit Malays - Muslims centric. That is my only criticism that i have for this book. Other than that, i mostly concurred with author’s observation especially on how these Malays practiced their Islamic Faith.
- That Malays has become more religious over the years , that religion has started to be in capitalism mode and instead of unifying the ummah, it has started the class in itself thus creating the gap.
- Along the class income, the T20 usually getting their Islamic education from overseas - english speaking preacher that are more inclusive. The M40 mostly got attained the islamic course locally but their ustaz/ustazah usually studied abroad. Then we have the B40 who learned islam from their locally educated teachers. A stern emphasization on rituals is the testament of faith (thus pray, fasting, and other ibadahs is A MUST). This is where the thinking/opinion on religion started to differ.
Overall, this is an enjoyable reading. I would definitely recommend this to Malaysian Non Muslims readers if you are curious on what kind of Islam we practiced in Malaysia. Westerners may painted us as these crazy jihadist that go bombing airports and buildings when in reality, we just trying to live a comfortable and peaceful life and practice our faith without any disturbance.
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Being a 30-ish Unmarried Muslim Woman in Malaysia and being HALAM at the same time.
You try to adapt to your environment as much as you can because you can never show your true self. For those who didnt know what halam is - it meant ‘too halal for haram people’ and ‘too haram for halal people’ - thus you ended up being ‘Halam’ in Malaysia. I wear Hijab, I tried to be a good muslim whenever i can but i am not necessarily pious, my thinking is more liberal or progressive and i mind my own business as i believe whatever relationship you have with God does not concern me. You can pray, drink, doing tiktok dance or having a crisis of faith, whatever one do is entirely up to them and i am not here to be that ‘holier than thou person’ and judging them. But this is where it gets tricky. People cant fathom this. For example, my mom asked me why i didnt say anything when my cousin decided to no longer wear her hijab and on top of that, her hair has become blonde as well. How do you answer that? You cant answer with ‘Everyone has their own journey and maybe she felt she didnt want to wear it’ because they will answer back that “this is God’s order and theres no such thing as personal choice”. The generational differences and Conservative-liberal divide is a demon on its own - if i could say so.

[Ryan Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I haven't finished reading this book but I've already spotted some factual errors and a typo. In the Introduction section of the book, Dina supposedly spent time with a friend of hers who's now a practitioner of the Thai forest tradition of Buddhism. If that's the case, his knowledge of Buddhism is very poor and inconsistent indeed. For one, God is not important in Buddhism. I actually do wonder whether this friend really exists or he is only a figment of Dina's imagination. Then, in the chapter "Remembering Ibrahim Libya", Dina wrote that the then leader of MCP Chin Peng hid in a school (another error!) and that Tunku Abdul Rahman was already a Prime Minister (he was not) during Baling talk. Lastly, minister is erroneously spelled as minster. The author should have been more careful.

[Uzma Said · Rating 2 out of 5]

theres a very few things that i can agree with her but LOTS of her opinions i find insufferable for me to comprehend. too many that i dont have energy to list it

[Cathreen Shiucheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's too Melayu-Muslim centric, especially on the second part. I was expecting it to be more diverse on other faiths in Malaysia. In my opinion, the Malays are living in their own bubble. Halal cat food?? Are you serious? I don't know what to say of this book. Initially, i gave up reading on this book and chuck it aside on my bookshelves till i saw it yesterday and make it a point to finish it. I'm sorry to say, the Malays are getting more ridiculous in their thoughts. You may think the non-Muslims project the Islamophobia in their mind, but look, how ridiculous the Malays in Malaysia think. My work requires me to spend most of my time in Indonesia, in which I've talked to my Muslim friends there. They told me, in Indonesia, it's between you and God; while in Malaysia, it's between you and the society.

[Akmal A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buku yang menulis pengalaman-pengalaman penulis beragama. Secara peribadi buku ni takda la sedap mana dan ianya lebih sekadar kesinabmbungan dari I Am Muslim. Tetapi ada beberapa bahagain yang kadang-kadang sama dengan pendapat aku dan ada juga benda yang aku tak pernah tau seperti ini, seperti seorang orang kenamaan memiliki fetish seks yang aneh memakai sari dan suka sesama jenis (homoseksual). Ya aneh aneh ya perangai orang kaya ini.

[Atiqah Ghazali AlKashif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy Men, Holy Women:
A Journey into the Faiths of Malaysians and Other Essays
by Dina Zaman
Published by Strategic Information & Research Development Centre
Goodread's Rating: 3.4/5
My Rating: 3/5

"I have two ways of loving You;
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face."

This book is divided into three parts which consists of 36 chapters. In the 208 pages, the author covers from Sabah, Sarawak, pondok, silat, Memali, Malay dilemma, transgender, the Handbag Theory, Lipstick Jihad and more. Thought that the author would write more than Malay-centric topics, but alas, it is like one type of thread spuns into different types of clothes. Nevertheless, quite a good morning read.

"The Malaysian fashion hijabis are usually inspired by world class hijabis such as Princess Muna or Mozah Nasser of Qatar... The corporate hijabis will spend RM5,000 and more on a bag, usually an entry-level Chanel or Marc Jacobs, or a higher-end Louis Vuitton. Those on lower rank will spend RM3,000 and above, probably for an LV Speedy or LV Neverfull. Other options would be Prada, the nylon version or Gucci, the logomania in canvas and coloured lacquer versions."

📸: @atiqahnikghazali
#MalaysiaMembaca

[Witoldzio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topics are all very interesting, but the handling of them is not very successful. The author doesn't have too many opinions of her own and her writing doesn't flow very well. The book wants to be partly academic (judging from the academically formatted footnotes, and even a bibliography), partly a sociopolitical commentary, and also a private travel journal of sorts. The final result is kind of a salad bar of articles of varied lengths and quality. In spite of what she is claiming, she's trying not to lend too much voice to different religions at all, perhaps in an effort not to be suspected of proselytizing. If anything, she freely expresses a lot of scepticism about other religions. Still, I learned a lot from this book about Malaysian society and the often uneasy atmosphere within the country. The bibliography is incomplete, many books discussed in the book have unfortunately not been listed in the final bibliography, which means you have to go back to the text and search for them in the text. Malaysia is a wonderful country and I will continue reading on Malaysian topics as much as I can.

[Azmir Ismail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book, as it the writer writes about her observations and musings of religion in Malaysia, primarily focusing on Islam. As I am familiar with her writings in Gongkapas, I understood well what she wrote in this book, an introspective on Islam and other religions in Malaysia. I would recommend this book highly to those who are familiar with her writings.
Thanks.

[Hajar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend it 👍👍.