4 days - the difference between a legitimate and an illegitimate born child

Aiyoyo, patronymics, wakakaka.

Thank goodness for small mercy that Chinese don't have patronymics except surnames. In fact, it's taboo for Chinese to adopt names of parents and ancestors or any parts thereof.

list of Chinese surnames compiled during the Song dynasty

I recall when my sweetie cousin was pregnant, her in-laws came to my uncle's house to consult them on a proposed name for the babe, to ensure the suggested name does not 'violate' the Chinese (or Confucian?) taboo.

My uncle or more correctly my auntie agreed to the name and after the in-laws went home, my uncle turned to my aunt and asked how she was sure that name did not resemble any of the ancestors' names?

My aunt answered glibly, "I don't know and I don't care", wakakaka. 

However, there is an exception to Chinese not having patronymics or matronymics, and that involves Chinese Muslims in Malaysia who are required to have the patronymic of 'bin Abdullah'.

Ridhuan Tee bin Abdullah for example has both, that is both a surname of 'Tee' and a patronymic of 'bin Abdullah'.

In China, the Chinese Muslims have surnames as well, the most common being Ma. The historically renown Chinese Muslim admiral who visited melaka and was reputed to have sailed around the world had a surname of Zheng as in Zheng He.

Admiral Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim, visited Malacca during Sultan Mansur Shah's reign. His fleet visited SE Asia, South Asia (India etc), the Middle East, Somalia & the Swahili coast.

Naval historian-author, Gavin Menzies, claimed Zheng He reached Americas 70 years before Columbus.

He didn't have a bin Abdullah to his name, wakakaka.

Years ago, when I was dating 'Anon, she asked me what Muslim name I would adopt, expecting me to only provide a personal name because the 'bin Abdullah' was a 'given' which would automatically be compulsory for Chinese convertees.

Still apprehensive of the associated wee but painful snipping, wakakaka, I mumbled Saladin bin Tamerlane which wasn't what she expected or envisaged.

Somewhat annoyed, 'Anon snapped at me and said the name (Saladin) was Turkish and not Arabic, and worse, it was Anglicised Turk when the real name of the 12th Century Saladin was actually Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub.

I protested feebly and argued (more like 'wimped') that Saladin gulp I meant Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was a military genius who I admired greatly and was thus attracted to his name.

Naturally she veto-ed that and offered to research for a more appropriate one for me (Ridhuan? Harussani? gulp) and while doing that she discovered to her horror that Tamerlane (recall my proposed patronymic of bin Tamerlane?) was a Turko-Mongol ruler, the mighty conqueror that had fantasies of becoming a second Genghis Khan.

To cut a longish story short, I spared 'Anon of further Turkish-Mongolian agonies, wakakaka.

So, on patronymics and the recent arrogant show of contempt of the court by Yazid Ramli, DG of NRD, Wikipedia tells us:

In medieval times, an illegitimate child of unknown parentage would sometimes be termed "ibn Abihi", "son of his father", notably Ziyah ibn Abihi.

We also learn from Wikipedia that said Ziyah ibn Abihi, illegitimate child that he might have been, was a Muslim general and administrator from the clan of Umayyah.

He was a great orator, a formidable warrior and one of the four 'shrewds of the Arabs' (Duhat al-Arab) with Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, 'Amr ibn al-'As and al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba.

Bravo matey, and may the credible memory of your deeds give two fingers to that DG of NRD Malaysia and his arrogant lack of compassion, civil decency, and contempt of the Court of Appeals, wakakaka.

Wikipedia continues: In the Qu'ran, Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is consistently termed "Isa ibn Maryam" - a matronymic (in the Qur'an, Jesus has no father).

And neither had he (Yeshua or Yehoshua or Jesus) in the bible as well.

Yosef ben Yaakob (Joseph son of Jacob as in the Gospel of Matthew; in Gospel of Luke, Joseph was the son of Heli) was only a foster father to Yeshua who married Miryam bat Yəhôyāqîm to save her from disgrace and probably execution for having a baby out of wedlock.

Thus fatherless Jesus was correctly known by his matronymic of Yehoshua ben Miryam or in Arabic, Isa ibn Maryam.

Could a surname or matronymic rather than a patronymic solve the issue which has been made silly by Yazid Ramli, the arrogant stubborn and insubordinate (to a court's ruling) DG of NRD and a yapping Perak mufti?

The illegitimate kid could then adopt the mother's surname or matronymic.

But let me quote you what the Malaysian Insight reported in its Perak mufti accuses Perlis counterpart of ‘permitting adultery’ (extracts):

The Court of Appeal ruling, which covers Muslim and non-Muslim children conceived out of wedlock, was made in an appeal involving a 7-year-old child born five months and 24 days (or five months and 27 days according to the Islamic Qamariah calendar) after his parents married.

The child was registered with NRD two years after birth and the parents jointly applied to have “MEMK” named as the father, but the department registered the child as “bin Abdullah” instead.

Note above yellow-highlighted parts. That means the poor innocent boy was born just a mere 4 days too early (by Islamic calendar) in his birth to merit carrying his father's name.

Just on 4 days difference in his birth (assuming the Islamic month during his birth was then of 31 days), the boy has to wear the stigma of a 'bin Abdullah'  for the rest of his life based on a fatwa that was made a thousand years ago, signalling to the Muslim-Malay community he is a child immorally born out of wedlock.

Uncle informed me that aeons ago, Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed to the Malays to adopt a surname like the Chinese. But his proposal did not gain any traction - was it because his suggestion alluded to Chinese socio-cultural practice? Wakakaka.

The only Muslim surname that I can think of, assuming I am not incorrect, is Merican as per the name of my fellow blogger Din Merican and well-known RTM's 'Grand Old Man of Broadcasting' Ahmad Merican and famous actress Farida Merican.

The surname Merican or sometimes spelt Marican has its origin in Indian (some said it's from Sri Lanka) and was originally known as Marawthiyar.

But that poor boy if allowed the surname of, say, Merican or a matronymic, would then not have to tolerate the social humiliations caused by Yazid Ramli's illegal act and the nastiness of a man who advocates fucking on a camel's back.