Holy School!

Is the action of a ustaz "allegedly" selling "air penerang hati" or holy water to improve pupils' memory the result of the increasing integration between religion and secular education in our national schools system?

Thankfully, some, in our civil service still speaks sense when the State Education, Human Resources and Multimedia Committee chairman of Perak, Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said "immediate action should be taken to stop the sale of such water to students", as reported by the Star.

He also urged parents to ensure that their children did not fall victim to the ustaz,

“It is a norm among Malay parents to ask for who was clearly out to take advantage of the students. air penerang hati for their children from people with good religious background... Usually, parents will give a token sum of money to the person who blessed the water for them. But in this case, the ustaz himself produced the water although there was no request made and sold it directly to the children without the parents’ knowledge.”

However, in the first place, should the principal be the responsible party to ban such practices in our schools? Why should the ustaz be allowed to offer this holy water directly to school students and part them from their probably small and limited amounts of pocket money, especially if its without the knowledge of the parents?

Or is it such that the words and actions of all ustaz are holy and must be adhered with and complied to without hesitation by all Muslims? I'm clearly not the expert in Islam here, and maybe our Muslim friends can help enlighten us on air penerang hati as well as the actions of the ustaz.

However, more interestingly, the Perak Mufti, Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria, one who is not a stranger to controversy - see report by Malaysiakini which highlighted an online poll on the Mufti's office website which offered "“Hunt and kill them or launch war" as an option against those who insult Prophet Mohammed - said that "there was nothing wrong with selling the holy water".

“It’s a form of prayer to enhance memory, just like gingko biloba is a memory booster... It is not wrong to sell it unless the ustaz is dishonest about how he produced the water. If he lies, then he will be answerable to God.”

With all due respect to the Perak Mufti, I think comparing holy water to a herb with health benefits is taking the analogy to a level beyond reason. The holy water "tonic" is one based totally on faith, while the other is based on scientific earthly properties of the herb - it isn't even a case of comparing apples to oranges, it's like comparing deities and us earthly humans!