PETALING JAYA, Jan 21 — Datuk Seri Aliff Syukri Kamarzaman is never one to shy away from the limelight.
This time around, the 32-year-old turned heads by hosting a lavish ‘tahnik’ and ‘first haircut’ ceremony for his newborn daughter Raudhah Arshiyah last weekend on December 19.
‘Tahnik’ is an Islamic traditional custom and practice where a newborn baby’s lips are touched with honey, sweet juice or pressed dates, in compliance with the teachings of the Sunnah.
The cosmetics businessman and aspiring singer uploaded a number of posts onto his official social media accounts yesterday, as he showed off what went into the planning and preparation for his daughter’s aqiqah ceremony.
On his official YouTube page, TV Terlajak Laris, Aliff explained that he went big for Raudhah’s ceremony, well, because he could, and that it didn’t matter how he celebrated his daughter’s birth because people would still criticise him anyway.
“If I just did something ordinary people would criticise me, if I do something really expensive still people talk,” said Aliff on his Youtube page.
“So what exactly is that problem? It’s my money, I can do what I want with it.”
He added that he spent over RM400,000 and invited over 1,000 guests made up of family members, associates and celebrities to their home for Raudhah’s ceremony.
He also said that he chose a “royal” theme for the occasion because he wanted to make it a memorable one for everyone involved.
“To be honest, the budget was somewhere around RM400,000 including the dais, decorations and a bunch of other things,” said Aliff.
“I was a bit picky this time around, it was kind of like a wedding ceremony instead.”
He also mentioned that a quarter of the total budget, which is RM100,000, was spent on the specially-designed dais and installation of 15 all-white canopy and food tents.
According to Rotikaya, Aliff also expressed that he had to throw an extravagant celebration for Raudhah so that people would not accuse him of “having favourites” in his family, after previously hosting high-cost ceremonies for his other children.
“We don’t want people to have any disputes and compare Yusof and Raudhah’s ceremonies,” said Aliff.
“We didn’t overdo it either as we only used the money we earned from social media, not to show off, but to make memories.”
“Every child has his or her own memories, so when they are older they can look back at the videos and know what their Aqiqah ceremony was like.”
Aliff’s post on YouTube has since gained over 130,000 views, with over 3,500 likes, while his Instagram post garnered over 40,000 likes.
Instead of criticising the cosmetics entrepreneur, social media users were full of admiration and compliments for Aliff as they said that they loved the decorations and his effort to celebrate his children.
“The decorations and the hall look so beautiful, I love it,” wrote one user.
“You’ve got a beautiful family, well done Datuk. God willing Raudhah grows into a good daughter,” wrote another user.
Other users were more focused on how cute Raudhah looked during the ceremony, as they flooded the comments section with messages of how adorable she is.
The ceremony was also attended by a number of famous local personalities like Datin Fouziah Gous, Zarina Zainuddin and Nur Sajat.
Last year, in July, Aliff also hosted an aqiqah ceremony for his fourth child, Yusof Al-Qardawi, which cost somewhere around RM300,000.
Aliff and his wife Datin Seri Shahida have been married for nearly 13 years and have five children together and one adopted child: Ammaar Ahyan, Qadejah El Zahra, Ibraheem Adham, Yusoff Al-Qardawi, Ameena and Raudhah Arshiyah.
