By Wan Nashrah binti Wan Ismail
Ethics are rules that govern one’s behaviour. We are expected to practise ethics everywhere and at any time. We are not supposed to choose only certain place to behave properly while at other places we misbehave. Islam is very concerned about ethics. The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say: œThe best of you are those who have the best morals (in sahih Bukhari).
Therefore, we need to reflect upon ourselves and see whether we are in the right path or not. We need to always practise the good ethics in our life so that we get blessings from Allah s.w.t.
Take for example the ethics we need to practise when we eat in the café. There are several ethics we need to give attention to. The first one is to take care of the cleanliness in the café. Do not leave our leftover on the desk after we have eaten our food. We need to know our responsibility and what we have to do after we are done with eating. Most ethical thing for us to do is to throw the rubbish in the dustbin or in the right place.
In my own experience, when I was sitting in the Human Sciences (HS) café, I saw certain people do not throw their rubbish into the dustbin but just left it on the desk. Then, the rubbish fell on the floor and some people just ignored it. Maybe they did not see the rubbish, that’s why they did not collect it.
But, there are some people who will collect that rubbish and throw it in the right place. So, everyone should know their own responsibility and do their job without hoping anyone else to do the job for them. We should take it upon our duty to take care of cleanliness of café.
Furthermore, we should have some sympathy and empathise in the mak cik cleaner doing the job. Mak cik cleaner in café is usually old and weak, so students should be more considerate and help the mak cik cleaner by putting their own plate and glass on the place that has been provided after eating. This will ease the mak cik’s job and give them time to take a break. Why don’t we do all of this and not just wait for the mak cik to collect our plates? Such a noble thing expected of us…
During the peak hour, we should be more aware and do all of this because usually people come and go after they are done with eating. So, the mak cik cleaner have to clean up the table right after students have left, but we must understand that they do not have much time to cope. The students should therefore help the mak cik cleaner by putting the plates in the right place as this would make it easier for other students who want to eat later.
From my experience, I always have a hard time when I want to have lunch in HS café. Sometimes, there are plates on the table and no one to tidy up. Students who are done with eating, just leave their plates on the table and leave the café. That’s why, I rather take away my food and eat it in my room. There are more privacy and I can eat peacefully.
Next, we students should watch our behaviour in the café. This means that we need to respect others by talking softly. We need to tone down our voice. I noticed some of us usually speak very loud, and when we laugh, we tend to do it so loud without consideration for others near to us. We do not care about others who might want some privacy when they are eating. We should be more considerate about other people when we speak in public and not make others feel annoyed with our behaviour.
Let’s not sit down together with different gender to avoid gossiping by other people when we eat in café. Remember that this is International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and we should take care of our behaviour. We cannot simply do anything that we want without considering other people. We need to follow the syariah compliance and always remember that this is IIUM and many people will be watching us. If we sit with different gender, people will look at us in the different way. We need to behave properly and show that we are students from IIUM.
Moreover, have patience if we want to buy something in the café. We must respect other people when we are in the café. We cannot think only about ourselves. This mean that, if we see people line up when they want to buy something, we also need to line up. We cannot simply cut the queue just because we are hungry. We must consider other people and think about them as well. We must think of their feeling and respect them for being in the line. Everyone has his or her right in the café and we should respect that. We cannot afford to be too selfish even though we are in hurry.
We also need to follow the rules that had been stated in the café. We simply cannot do anything that we want to do. We must think about the consequences if we break the rules. Rules need to be followed and not meant to be broken. If we want to be good people, we need to follow the rules that have been laid down. Some people do not like to follow the rules and they just do anything that they want even though it might hurt other people’s feeling. They do not care about other people and just do anything that they want. This will not make people to like them and will not care about them at all.
Ethics are very important in our daily life because they reflect our identity. Just follow the ethics in your life not just in the café. Be considerate and try not to offend other people’s feeling. If we want them to treat us nicely, then be nice to other people. What we give is what we will get back.***
Photo courtesy of Travelympics