Muslims first!

If there are two shops next to each other, both offering the same services but are owned by different people, which shop would you choose? What would be the criteria that would influence your choice?



Where I live, there are two neighboring photocopy shop. One owned by some non-muslim chinese people. The next owned by some muslim malay people. And this is quite obvious because outside the chinese shop, there's the red tokong, while outside the malay shop, there's a banner with the word 'Bismillahirrahmanirrahim' written largely.

When I was a kid, my family members would always go to photocopy stuffs at the chinese shop. From inside the car, I always wonder why my family and other customers (mostly malay muslims) prefer the chinese shop over the malay shop. But the only logical thing I could think of at that age was, maybe the quality and services are better there.

Now that I've grown up, the time has come where I need their service to photocopy stuffs. As I drove myself to the shops, I found myself parking in front of the chinese shop.

But as i sat there in the drivers seat, the question came back to me; why am I choosing the chinese shop over the malay shop? The only answer I could give was that this was where my family have been going to all these years. And it is guaranteed that the service here is good.

But then, if I don't support the malay muslim economy, then who will? All these while, I've been calling people to islam, for the muslims to rise and conquer the whole world..yet, here I am, preferring a non-muslim shop over the muslim shop. And I was like...what?

Cognitive dissonance, hey?

And so, I thought.. nah, I should break the tradition. Let me be the first in my family to go to this malay shop. And so, I reversed my car and parked it in front of the malay shop and went in.
Alhamdulillah, I felt great.

Not because I chose a malay shop over a chinese shop. But because I chose a muslim shop over a non-muslim shop.

As for the service.. I'll be honest. The service offered by the malay shop is not as good as the chinese shop, and the malay shop is waaay messier. (Could be why people don't prefer coming here). But still, I manage to get my stuffs photocopied.

Lessons learnt:
1) As muslim customers, please do support the muslim economy.
2) To muslim entrepreneurs, buisnessmen/women, etc.. please try your best to provide the best service possible. Have a goal of conquering the economy! Make life easier for people like me who wants to support people like you.