SHADOS IN MALAY CULTURAL

 

 SHADOW IN THE MALAY CULTURAL

What the shadow is.

A shadow is a dark area formed when an opaque object blocked the light from it source.

In The al-Quran

There are some verses in al-Quran Allah said about shadow purposely to educate the human being as slaves to the Al-Mighty of Allah. There are not less than twenty verses mentioned about shadows in the al-Quran. Some of the verses refer to the shadow in this real world where we lived and some of the versed refer to the world after.

We extract some verses what Allah said in   al-Quran about the shadows:

Verse one:

“And unto Allah [Alone] falls in prostration whoever is in the heaven and in earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons”. - Ar-Rod [13]: 15

Verse two:

“Have you not seen how your Lord spread the shadow? If He will. He could have made the sun its guide [i.e after the sunrise] it [the shadow] squeezes and vanishes at midnoon, and then again appears in the afternoon with decline of the sun and had there been no sun light there would be no shadow”. Al-Furqan [25]:45.

“Then We withdraw it to Us a gradual concealed withdrawal”. Al-Furqan [25}:46

The Myth Of Shadow

Meanwhile there are some belief among the Malay old folk, especially Kelantanese who belief that the shadows have some of his own super natural power.

This believes have some effect to the people, mostly those who live in villages, and have not enough religious knowledge.  We are like to forward some of the believes which are still in the heads some of the old people,

To have a Jin

There are some people through the ages that like to be friends with jin or syaitan, in order to get their help in times of needed. Allah had forbid them to ask them for   help, and have told their slaves that the syaitan are their enemies forever.  But mostly human being are ignored Allah prohibit.

So they created many ways to get what they wanted. One the easiest way to get jin or syaitan as friends are they used their shadows. They stand back to the sun, so that they can see their shadow clearly. Then they hammer their shadows with a branch until the shadow vanished. If one day did not get any result, they so do again so many times until the shadow vanished at last. When it happened they believed the jin or syaitan had been their best friends.

This practice is very bad, and cursed by Allah who forbids human being to be friends with syaitan and threaten to put them in hell in resurrection day that surely will come.

Play With Shadow

In the times when the electricity was did not use widely, mostly in village, they used kerosene or paraffin   lamp to lighted their houses at night. The Malay called it “pelita minyak tanah” or “pelita minyak gas”. When someone passed between the lamp and a wall, their shadow will appear on the wall. The children usually like to play with their shadow on the wall, so they made many variety of movement to see variety of their shadow for amusement. But their father, grandfather or the old man in the house will stop or did not allow them play with their own shadows. They believed that the children who played with theirs shadow will get bad or scare dream that night.

Shadow Play

Shadow play or “wayang kulit” is an entertainment to the people of Kelantan. It is also known as shadow puppetry. It is one the popular entertainment at that times that was no modern entertainment like today, no cinema and no television. The used puppets or cut-out figures made from the skin of animal, mostly buffalo. The player of the puppets or tok dalang played the puppets between the source of light and a white translucent screen. The audience who sat on the ground in the open airs outside the stage saw the movement of the shadows on the screen.

Proverbs

We can find shadows in some of Malay proverbs. We collected some of them for inspection.

-Shadow presume as a body

Meanings: Hoped for something which is not sure.

-Shadow is not as long as a body

Meanings: Made something more than the power.

-hallucination by shadow

Meanings: Wanted something but there is no hope at all.

-Afraid of his own shadow

Meanings: Felt afraid for his bad or cruel manners.

Lorong Masjid al-Qasimi,

Kg.Kubang Siput, Pasir Tumboh,

Kota Bharu, Kelantan.