The Taugeh ( Bean Sprout )

We were nineteen or may be twenty years old. The topic of discussion was something about how to be a good wife. The presenter was an ustazah, old enough to be our mother and had gone through years of experience as a married woman.

She talked about the responsibility of a wife in Islam, obeying the husband, taking care of the children, managing the house and all the usual things. All of us were listening intently, as she quoted the Qur'anic verses and the hadiths related to the topic.

Towards the end of the presentation, she concluded with something of the following:

"The duty as a wife varies, we must focus on the important ones....bla..bla...so do not just sit around in the house lazily, some people like to spend hours sitting in the kitchen cleaning taugeh one by one while the house is in a total mess...bla..bla...you will be question by Allah on your actions...etc..etc.."

And the presentation ended. As usual, it's time for question and answer session. Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, trying to think of a question when suddenly someone voiced out a question.

"Umm...Ustazah, we don't have to clean taugeh one by one, do we? "

There was a moment of total silence in the room and then at once we burst out laughing. I remembered laughing until my tummy hurts.
The ustazah was still laughing when she answered the question. I can't recall her answer but it was definitely hilarious.

Those were the days...



Note to the Malay readers:
The talk was in Malay. It was actually "menyiang taugeh", so, cleaning the bean sprout one by one means picking off the root of the sprout one by one. A practice that some people choose to do and some do not. The root is nutritious, by the way.... :)