Illness and Healing

5.5.2 Illness and Healing

Another instigator of the crisis stage is illness and the search for healing. When confronted with health problems and a struggle to find ways for healing, it is common for the sick individuals to strive and to find the meaning of their illness experience. As this happens, they might tap into religious resources in order to shift the meaning of the illness and reduce the extent of their suffering. In the case of the Dusun Muslim converts, the failure of the Dusun religion to provide solution to their health problem had led them to look for a religious alternative. This is basically how illness and the search for its healing triggered a crisis in the conversion experience of the Muslim Dusuns.

In the Dusun religion, the Temarok ceremony, which has been discussed in section 2.5 of Chapter 2, provides the Dusuns with ritualistic means to solicit medical recovery by In the Dusun religion, the Temarok ceremony, which has been discussed in section 2.5 of Chapter 2, provides the Dusuns with ritualistic means to solicit medical recovery by

Evidently, the outcome of the evaluation demonstrated the usefulness of Islam as an alternative way to cope with his illness, and as his health condition became more severe with the ongoing medical treatment, so did the acuteness of his need to convert to Islam to cope with the illness:

[E30.Muslim Dusun.I21]

My condition was worsened by day. I think my body rejected the medical treatment. When the doctor told me about sending me to Singapore for a heart surgery, it got me thinking. If I had the surgery, I had nothing to rely on. I didn‟t know how to pray and there was no

Dusun doa which I could turn to for healing... [Trans.]

A similar encounter with a serious illness was experienced by 57-year-old male convert where he believed the unexplained illness suffered by his daughter had made him more determined to proceed with his conversion. When the informant found out the fact that his daughter‟s illness was caused by his mother‟s own practice of the Dusun religion, he decided to seek solace in Islam for his daughter‟s health problem. The following excerpt explains the reasons why he thinks Islam could have its buffering effects on his daughter‟s illness:

[E31.Muslim Dusun.I28]

According to the tradition, a Dusun belian would pass down her spirits to her daughter or granddaughter. My mother, who was a belian, chose my daughter as she took care of her since she was a small. However, the spirits caused my daughter to act erratically at times, as if she was being possessed. This often got her into trouble at school and affected her relation with her teachers. Before our conversion, we had tried to get the spirits out of her body but it had not been entirely successful. It was then I began to seriously consider Islam as an alternative religion. From what I know, my prayers would be heard as there is no barrier between me and Allah. I can always ask for the assistance of religious teachers, imam or someone knowledgeable to deal with this type of illness... [Trans.]

The excerpts above strongly suggest that, both informants inevitably see Islam as the source of healing for the illness they were suffering. Such a perception on Islam is partly formed by the after-effects of the encounter stage which had instilled the

informants‟ trust in Islam. The trust component consequently precipitated the awareness component which caused the informants to evaluate the Dusun religion, and

to compare the religion with Islam due to failure of the Dusun religion to offer a reliable solution to their illness. This is one of the essential characteristics of the crisis stage in the Muslim Dusuns‟ conversion experience.