R.E.S.P.E.C.T

My Dad did not leave us with abundance of wealth, big house or anything like that- but he left us with this great lesson on life – we should always RESPECT others. This is not necessarily confined to human being, but other living creatures as well.

My Dad argument on this was simple- every living thing should be respected- because they were all created by God, and was given the opportunity live. Then I learnt in school that every human being is the same before Allah - regardless of their status, skin color, place origin etc – the only thing that distinguish between a man with another is “ketaqwaan mereka kepada Allah”.

Talking about respect, I still remember when my Dad was hospitalized for the second time; there was this Bangladeshi patient next to his bed. My Dad was allowed to eat literally everything, so we brought him food, fruits and juice. Instead of enjoying the stuff all by himself, my Dad take a look at the goodies that we brought to them and said this, “Bagi sikit kat dia (the Bangladeshi man). "Kesian, dah lah take visitors/relatives, so the least that we could do is to share.”

I still remember how this guy face lightened as we pass him air kotak and the cut fruits. It’s not about the food that we gave, but it was the thought that counts…

However, even if everybody should be respected, I believe that the level of respect is of course different from one individual towards another. The degree of respect that we have for our parents for instance, should never be the same as our respect for our leaders, superior etc. While we respect the elderly, we should not forget to respect the younger ones too..that is how you will earn their respect back.

And oh yes, we should respect the animals and plants as well-they are after all living things too..again back to the thing I learnt in matapelajaran Pendidikan Islam in school- the concept of “ihsan” include our relationship with other human being and creatures as well. If I'm not mistaken, "tidak sempurna iman seseorang itu sekiranya dia tidak menjaga hubungannya dengan insan lain".

So we were brought up that way, but I’m not implying here that I’m the politest person on earth-what-so-ever, it’s just that I could not stand people who don’t respect others – read: RUDE. When I encounter this kind of people, more often than not, when ever I got the chance I would react the same way as they did- I would be RUDE as well. My compassion for others will go down straight to the drain and I will definitely pay back. So if this RUDE people push others in to get into the LRT, I will push them back – HARD-whenever I got the opportunity. Or I would just purposely step on their toes…hahaha serve them right! And yes, I will also pay the revenge on behalf of others too that get bullied- Aquarians will always fight for the underdog!!

Recently I encounter an interesting event where the issue of respect arose. I did not intend to spill the details here, but my conclusion is NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the fact that we as human being, should RESPECT others-even if the person don’t hold any title, don’t have that much of money, look, bla bla bla, but they are still human being. Being disrespectful towards others will make other people lose their respect for you. And it is extremely true in my case…