On praying

A year older a year wiser says the white man when I asked him about age. Then I turned to the pendita on top of the hill and he told me, orang tua banyak makan garam.. which then reminds me of the time my Biology teacher telling the class that salt in excess is bad for the body. Is that why people die when they get old? Too much salt?

Is it true what the white man said? I beg to differ. Just look around you, read the news and you will see that some of the most horrible things happening in the world is not by the hand of young people but older ones. Is Bush still a teenager?

I remember going for Friday prayers and after the solat, the Pak Imam would always pray for the youth to insaf and bertaubat, echoing the Pak Khatib's (most of the time it's the same person) previous lament about the youth and social ills, the youth and their raging sexual urges as well as the youth and crime. Nonetheless, never did once I remember praying for adults, be it young adults or elder adults. Never. Why? Why is there always an age bias in religion? Do adults drink? Yes. Do they go clubbing? Yes. Do they take drugs? Yes. Do they zina? Yes, even when they already have a halal way to go. Do they gamble? Yes. Do they do crime? Yes. If you really think about it, adults are capable of more sinister things than young people could ever do.

I'm not saying all adults are bad. Then again, not all young people are bad too. Why the bias? Next time we pray, lets pray for humanity as a whole. None of us is more innocent than the other.