Thanksgiving Prayers for the Newborn

We decided to hold a thanksgiving prayer session to mark the arrival of little Hadeef Hafiy and it was held in the late afternoon of Friday 8th. Shaffik invited his colleagues and I had some of my old acquaintances in Bintulu to join in. It was a joyous occasion and the centre of attraction was of course the little baby. We had a group of elders from a local mosque to lead in the prayers and we perform a simple ceremony of cutting Hadeef’s hair and ‘introducing’ him to zam zam holy water and dates. Most of those present took turns in cutting the hair, wiping dates on the baby’s lips and putting a few drops of holy water in his mouth.

The elder siblings were busy the whole day preparing packets of goodies to be distributed to all present that late afternoon. They were enjoying the job as the goodies consist of chocolates, sweets, cakes and biscuits and hence, one or two got into their mouths while packing, ha ha ha! They then proudly carry the packets in decorated baskets and presented one each to all present during the late afternoon occasion. Afternoons of the week had been very hot every day, and the heat continued until late evening but on Friday, the day of the prayer session the weather turned out to be pleasant. It rained in the early morning of Friday and the weather continued to be mildly cloudy the rest of the day. So, it was a pleasant afternoon after all.

Shaffik arranged for food through a regular caterer consisting of yellow rice, mutton curry, beef dalcha, chicken in tomato sauce and honey, salads and other condiments, several types of fruits, several types of local sweets and cakes, soft drinks and the ever popular ‘teh tarik’. There were about seventy adults and counting the kids there would have been about ninety people. There was more than enough food for everybody and we could pack some to give away too. This was because several invitees could not join us as that weekend was a long weekend when many in Bintulu took the opportunity to travel out of Bintulu.

Hadeef was a good boy throughout the occasion. He seemed to relish the attention given. He was awake all the time but did not make any sound. He just lay there in the comfort of his dad’s arm while being taken around to each guest present and later in his grandma’s arms while being taken to the ladies present.

In closing the ceremony an acquaintance of mine, who is a religious teacher and preacher, gave a talk on the virtues of starting proper in child upbringing, of leading the children in a balanced atmosphere both worldly and spiritually, of setting good examples to the children and not be overly indulgent and so on and so on……

Every one partakes in the food spread at the end and there were lots of merriment and laughter. Amongst the crowd were some people that I have not seen for some time and it was in deed a joyous occasion. We caught up with ‘lost time’ and promised to meet up again soon. How soon will that be I wonder…….







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