Invisible Guard

Ok, I’ll continue from where Kash, Zarin, June and Haza had left us. First I have to tell you guys that I am not the kind of guys who can become a member of that ghost hunters’ crew. Since I was one of the most junior members in the close relatives circle (i.e. among cousins), I was exposed to ghost stories since I started to understand other people’s conversations. Hence, I could not restraint myself from imagining things back then and made me a kind of “penakut” kid (yeah, blame others hehehe). So, I never wish to experience any encounters with the unseen world. I mean here we are facing and occupied with all type of threats from our own kind, which seems like a never ending affairs (reading newspapers now did make me depressed).

Before I continue, I would like to discuss a bit the issue of the supernatural or in malay society, commonly referred to as “alam ghaib”. My father is solid rock in his belief that nothing else is greater than God and all others are just His mere creatures (makhluk) and due to that only God can protect us from any threat from others, seen or unseen (of course we cannot just sit and do nothing in protecting ourselves). When I was a kid, each time I told him of any ghost stories which I heard from other kids, he would tell me that those creatures do not exist. Once I remembered that a guest at our house asked him about a “Pontianak” seen somewhere besides the Klang-Banting road (those days travelling from Klang to Banting can be scary at night with plantations, forest reserve and few kampongs/small towns in between, not like today). He just responded by saying that those were just “tahyul”/”khurafaat” things to be believed. I guess he did not want his kids (and people) to be overly concern about these things. After we have grown up, when this kind of issues cropped up, he would just say that these makhluk of the unseen world do exist in the form of evil (“iblis” and “syaitan”) and jin, as mentioned in the Holy Quran. There is a chapter in the Quran that is called “Surah Al-Jinn” which touches on the subject of this type of creature of God. The last verse of Surah An-Nas (i.e. one of the 3 “Qul” verses) clearly mentioned the word “jin”.

To tell you the truth I could not really claim that I have encountered supernatural forms since I was not really sure whether it did really happen or not. If I did not imagine things, below is the story of that encounter.

In year 2000, I went back to Malaysia from a 1 year stay in Japan accompanied my wife. We stayed at my parent’s house, which is beside my brother’s. My brother and his wife were performing Hajj at that time and his daughter was staying with my parent and hence his house would be empty for about 40 plus days (save for my parent’s maid coming to clean/mop the floor etc once a week). It was quite a big single storey house. We used to joke that devoid of any furniture, the living and the dining areas combined could be used to play badminton. Every evening one of us would go the house and turned on few lights in the house. One evening (before dusk) I went to the house and once I entered the house I felt very-very uncomfortable, feeling like someone was present inside. I went straight to the kitchen to turn on the light and when I was going to turn on the light at the dining area, from the corner of my eyes and in split seconds, I saw a man! I saw a man, a bearded and pious look with a white robe and turban (arab style turban) sitting on a chair at the living area facing me! I had goose bump straight away and automatically turned my face to his direction for a second look and …..nope he was gone. I hurriedly locked the sliding doors and went back to my parent’s house with my mind full of confusion, debating whether what I saw was real or just my imagination. I made a conclusion for the latter and I have not told any of my family members of that event, even until today.

A good 6 years after, I had a fresh perspective of what may have happened. Before sending off my sister and my brother in law to perform their Hajj, my father gave a few minutes of advise (tazkirah) to those present, inter alia, for those who are going to perform Hajj, not to feel sad and heavy hearted leaving their family behind and to believe that God Al-Mighty would protect, being His guest, their family and properties. It kept me thinking, was the “man” I saw (again if I did not imagining things) a makhluk (be it an angel or jinn) assigned by God to watch the house of my brother during my brother’s pilgrimage?

Allahu A’lam (God Knows Best).