PETALING JAYA, May 13 — Five Malaysian friends from various ethnic groups recently became a viral phenomenon for multicultural life at its best.
The pilots who are of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities cooked their sahur (pre-dawn) meals and broke their fast together in the spirit of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar.
Twenty two-year old Farid Hanip posted the heart-warming celebrations of the first day of Ramadan with his friends in Pattaya, Thailand.
He told Malay portal mStar that the five men arrived in Thailand last Sunday, a day before Muslims in the country observed Ramadan.
“The picture was taken on the first day of Ramadan near a homestay, we were holidaying in Pattaya.
“We went to the market to find halal ingredients such as sausages, instant noodles and cooked together for sahur.
My indian and Chinese friends cook and have sahur with me. pic.twitter.com/YsxWpEaFr0
— Farid (@faridhanip) May 5, 2019
“We even broke fast together. We’ve known each other for a long time. We lived together from 2015 until 2017,” he told mStar.
Farid was joined by his mates Daniel Dhevaraj, 23, Kishen Nair, 22, Mah Jin Hour, 22 and Chen Wei Kiat, 30.
According to Farid, this was their first vacation together, made even more exciting with the fact that they got to celebrate Ramadan abroad.
Farid and his four non-Muslim friends met in October 2015 while studying at the Malaysian Flying Academy in Batu Berendam, Malacca.
“We’ve been meaning to go on holiday together but everyone’s been busy and only last week was possible which coincided with Ramadan.
UPDATE : We even berbuka sekali😊 pic.twitter.com/jMUPh6OJfO
— Farid (@faridhanip) May 6, 2019
“My friends weren’t fasting then but they still respected me. Even when they wanted to drink in front of me, they asked first,” he said.
The five of them returned to Malaysia last Wednesday.
Commenting on the positive reactions from the public, Farid admitted he did not expect the post to go viral.
“I posted it for fun. When there were positive comments, I felt happy.
“There’s a lot of tension happening now —Malaysians must realise we need to unite,” he said.
The post has received almost 10,000 retweets with comments mostly praising the five men’s bond.
