On the third day of the Enc week, we went to Madrasah Aljunied and visited the students in that school. From our experience, we learnt a lot about their culture and their way of study.
As mentioned in the previous post, most Malays and Muslims celebrate Hari Raya Haji and Hari Raya Aidilfitri. The students and teachers in Madrasah Aljunied celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Haji, which is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan. Most of us only know about the names of this festival, but through a Question and Answer session, we learnt more about why and how they are celebrated.
The staff at Madrasah Aljunied only eat food that are permitted by the Islamic law which is halal food and they avoid eating anything that is prohibited within its text. However, they do not need to worry about this matter as all the food sold in their school is halal so they can safely consume this food without having worries. We need to take note of this important point just in case we invite Muslims over for a meal, so as to prevent misunderstandings. This emphasizes on the importance of knowing about other cultures as it proves that we should be more sensitive to their culture and the only way to do so is to make an effort to know them well.
As we were given some background knowledge on the students everyday life, we found out that the students in Madrasah Aljunied have O'Levels like secondary schools too. They have as many as 11 subjects as they have to take arabic language too. It is a difficult language as many of them struggle to create a sentence even after 4 years of learning. We were shocked to see the amount of subjects they have to learn as with 6 subjects, some of us are already struggling. We were also surprised as we do not know that some schools learn islamic language in Singapore. Apart from studies, the students will also have planned breaks to do their prayers which can be completed in less than 10 minutes and will have to do 5 prayers at different parts of the day. Their school also has a library and all the books there are arabic! This is different from us as we do not have to take specific breaks to pray, neither do we have a school library filled with arabic books. The trip to their school was really an eye opener for us as we learnt more about their way of studying and how it is different from us.
(Picture below shows their school library containing arabic books)
Speaking about fashion, Madrasah Aljunied students are often distinguished by their uniform, which constitutes trousers, white long-sleeved shirts and songkok for the boys, baju kurong and a jilbab or headscarf for the girls. They have to wear covered clothing and can only show their hair to blood related family. From a Question and Answer session, we learnt that when they want to cut their hair, they will have to visit a malay private barber especially hired for them and the barber have to be also of the same gender as them.
The trip to Madrasah Aljunied was certainly an eye opener for us as we gained many insights about the islamic culture and new facts which we did not know before. It has been an enriching and meaningful journey for us as it allowed us to have a better knowledge of the muslims in Singapore.
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