October 1987

• ISSN 0890-6831 MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE Publahed Monthly by MASJID TUCSON Safar 1408 October 1987 Editor: Rashad Khalifa, Ph.D. How Quran can be the guiding light for mankind SOME concerned Malaysians. after 30 years of independence. may perhaps feel as despondent as Hamlet, and say with him: The time is out of joint. O That ever I was born to set it Fortunately for us, unlike Hamlet, we are living in a demo- cratic era and our problem is not wholly a personal family prob lem. like his. All concerned Ma. laysians must act together to set This is not an indictment of our present government - it is of all the governments that we have had in the past 30 years. It is also an indictment of all our leaders, past and present, politi- cal, social and religious, past of- fice-holders and current critics. as well as all of us. For what we reaptoday is the fruit of what we sowed yesterday. Sowers are we lions of ringgit, that have sur- faced or have been unearthed within the last three or four years; the iragmentation ol par ties and the expensive politick- ing and party electioneering; the tearing apart of society by ideo- logical. political and party sec- tarian fanaticism; the multitude of amoral, unthinking. robotic crats: costly opportunistic politi- cians, the army of unemployed; the half-million youthful victims of drug abuse, and the unseen. neglected and forgotten poor minority of our community these are the stuff of our Malay. sian disjointed time. It is time. after 30 years, that we look at the whole panorama from a perspective of jointed time and, like Hamlet, right, even if we have to kill our mother's lover in doing so. Liberal democracy There are always two sides to The gloom that we have painted is only one-half of the picture. It may be the more noticeable and dramatic half. The other half is the brighter but perhaps less obvious side, thai is, the growth and development of all sectors of our cconomy, the growth of a Malaysian middle class, the growth of a Malay middle class, the development of a lational education system based on the national lunguage. the beginnings of a Malaysian national consciousness, the be- ginnings made to develop Malay as the language of learning and high culture in our country, the rapid spread of education, liter amenities, the beginnings of a critical consciousness. the al- most uninterrupted peace and order prevalling In the country. These are no ments. They should be consoll- dated. upgraded and perfected. Like Brutus, we now pause. It Is a very important pause. indulgent reader will pardon me for quoting from a notorious poem of mine, improbably titled Sidang Ruh, that I wrote 27 years ago during one of my heretical Perlu satu-satu diperhltung• Tanpa tuhan tanpa Implan Kerana besok mungkin ter. Bagi kiamat yang telah di. The mood seems to persist with me, with due respect to our theologians (who unfortunately have made It their solemn busi- ness to save souls, although souls are only saved by their I still want to urge that we make a fundamental review of our situation. We have to rc-exa- mine our basic premises. This is a good time to do so, not only be- cause a generation has now passed and we are beset with seemingly insoluble problems. but also because we now have the tools and the moral will to do By tools, I refer to the world's intellectual developments within the last 80 y. rs or so. Man's critical intellei has thor- oughly criti ised and refuted the ideologies of our time. The scien. By KASSIM AHMAD ilsts, writers and philosophers of each or no camp have refuted the other or all camps, thus ne- gating all Ideological camps. In this way the ideological er- rors of liberal democracy, com- munism and religious theocracy have been thoroughly exposed. QUOTER the Muslims (in Iran) will soon be left looking for a now saviour. Their true saviour and that of the entire world now is the Quran. This theoretical refutation. how- ever, is not the only proof of their errors. Real-life experiences havc condemned them long be- fore this theoretical exposure. Nevertheless. the theoretical in- validation Is an extremely Im- portant milestone in Man s intel- lectual Journey to the realm ol The most glaring error is the bifurcation of llfc into this- worldly and other-worldly. that is the legacy of Descartes' mo- dern philosophical dualism which has its roots in ancient Greck philosophy. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Cae- sar's: and render unto God the things that are God's" Is the bib- Ical channel through which this great fallacy has come down to Prophet Muhammad came to redress the fallacy with Islam's divine concept of tawhid or unity of God. unity of universal exis- tence and unity of life. However. as is mankind's wont, even his followers later reverted to this dualism for all practical pur- poses. even though their thelo- gians never admitted it In So, even in our case, Islam be- came a religion in the sense of a mystical religious life separated from the social and practical. just as other religions in the pasi had become. We are Muslims be cause we fulfil certain set ritual obligations like the affirmation of the syahadah 1'1 affirm that there is no God but Allah and I affirm that Muhammad Is His messenger"), and the perfor- mance of daily prayers, fasting. charity and the haj. if we have the means. In other sectors of lifc. in short, In the socio-politi- calsphere, we take our guidance from the Western secular philo- sophics of liberalism or Marx- Ism or some diluted forms of the Benefiting from humanity's Intellectual achierements ing the last 60 years. we must now admit the basic errors of li- and Marrism. Of course. it is not casy to make the outmoded materialism to a new spiritual rationalism. This is the strongest argument for preparing the ground care fully. For one thing, there is the Iranian type religious elite who. exploiting the religious senti- ment of the masses. are keenly desirous of establishing a reli- gious dictatorship that is equal- For another. there are still se- cular groups of the Right and the Left who continue to live in their cocoon of blissful sectarianism and who are completely blind to the current demolition of their Idols and collapse of their ideolo- The current resurgence of Is- lam is due to many factors, both of a permanent and deep-rooted nature as well as of a temporary and fashionable one. The Quran describes Islam as a divine reli- gion of truth, progressively taught by all God's prophet-mes- sengers from Adam down to Mu- hammad. including Moses and Jesus. to all national groups, cul- minating in Muhammad whose teaching in the Quran, contain- ing the essence and the best. is applicable universally. Scen from this universalistic perspective. the Islamic resur- gence will persist into the far fu- ture and will save and remouid the world according to the loft; Quran in the leschings of the

ist ard aand centurics. Bul seen from the chauvinistic ictatorial Iranian-type theo- rac!. it is merely the replay of » curworn theme: the religious coc:aci. of the ancient Phar- ohs and of the medieval Chris. an Charch. It was the revolt of iurope against such a Zuropcan meocracy ihat was responsible or the modern Duropean swing › secuiarisir.. Perhaps for the Muslims the isson of a religious dictatorship not been clarified enough 15 nd this is the reason for the still owerful emotional pull of Iran ader Khomeini for them. ran is a passing phase and the rusiims will soon be left looking Their true saviour and that of world now is the luran. The proof of this is con- ained in the Quran itself. in the rampleo! the Prophet's 23-year nd in the early history of Islam. ave testified to the almost mir- culous rise and rapid victory of siam in the then world. It has Iso creaied the first spiritual- cientific civilisation in the his- ory of the world. It was a mo- -ern social experiment that did Unfortunately, this very im. ortant fact has been covered up. ot only by early Judeo-Chris. :an propaganda (that we must ay is now being corrected by jod be praised!) but also by the istorical propaganda of the fuslims when they diluted the 'rophet's rational, infallible. di- ine teachings ( the Quran) with iose of the fallible human (the ›-called prophetic Hadith). In iis way, they have turned the siency and practicality of Is- im as a way of life into an im- ractical and impotent mysti- "his is what we may call the Thus we can see that the orld, with in the last 1,500 years, as seen two failed and one sue- essful social experiments. The ailures are the secular and reli- ious experimerts: the success- il is Muhammad's Islamic ex- criment. I am fully convinced hat Muhammad's Islainic spiri- uni-social-scientific experiment ¿ the general model for the fu- ure, bearing in inind that the erm "Islamic" is interpreted in universa. rationalistic sense nchored in the ussential teach- ngs of all God's honoured pro- •hets as preserved and perfect- d in the divine infallible Quran. True teachings We must try to apply this third alternative to Malaysia. At one confcrence on the Malaysian Constitution recently, I suggest- ed that the Quran be made a "guide" to our law. Although dog- matic traditionalists would look askance at thisesuggestion, they should remember that I am'only what the Quran repcating ac- lually said about itself. that it is "guide", a "light" and "the straight path" for mankind. The dogmatic secularists would be doing the same, for different rea- sons. Objectively, therefore, both the die-hard traditionalist and secularists are performing the same function of hindering the people from returning to the Quran. They have been doing this for a thousand years. This suffi- clently explains the deplorable ignorance of the masses of the true teachings of the Quran. Our young are taught to "recite" and chant the Quran thrice-finished, capping the "education" with a feast, not knowing the meaning of one word of it at the end! remember that not one of my rellgious teachers, including my honoured father, taught me to read the Quran In translation. I bought my first tafsir more than 30 years ago out of my own deep (and long-lasting) interest In Is. lam. Therefore we have to begin by asking the people, especially the young generation, to read and study the Quran, and to follow its teachings. For our immediate we must start now to purpose, Implement, step by step, the very rich, dynamic and reward- Ing socio-polltical ideas to be found in the Quran. Just take the habit of reading and learning from reading, for example. As all Muslims know, that is the very first divine commandment revealed to the Prophet, yet to- day the Muslims are perhaps its worst violators! Our leaders and intellectuals must spend the next five to 10 years examining and studying the extremely rich philosophico- social Ideas contained in the Quran and formulate them Into coherent philosophical essays which we can apply to solve our problems. Although some work of this theoretical nature has been at- tempted during the last 15 years or so, much of It is eclectic and hotch-potch. Many Muslim writers and thinkers suffer el- ther from an irrational anti- Western or pro-Western bias and critically and properly , cannot assimllate Western science and knowledge of the last three cen- turies. This is a very serious weakness which they must quickly overcome. Let us demonstrate in the poll- ical sphere. Western political philosophy starts from the Hob beslan notion of the sovereignty of the people that is handed over to a political authority accord- ing to the theory of social con- tract. The sovereignty of the peo- without ple is assumed any authority except a so-called self- evident truth. Islam's actual position Is to as- sert the sovereignty of God with- out undermining the sovereignty of the people to whom God has entrusted that authority. Thus we may say that Islam calls for a government based on the so- vercignty of the people under the sovereignty of God. This position. is contrary to both the secular. position of "people's absolute so- "'creignty" and the eccicsiastical pusition of "God's aholute sover. cignty" and "no so: mients lo QUOTE God in His unbounded mercy has provided us with a comprehensive philosophical framework in the Quran. In practical terms. our Parlia- ment Is sovereign in so far as it operates under God's sover- eignty, l.e. that its laws and deci- sions do not contravene His com- Proceeding from mental Iegal position, we may "The belief and worship of one God only while guaranteeing abso ship, the sanctly of human life, ab- solute freedom of thought. righteous living, the unity and equality of Man before the law, the equality of man and woman. "Freedom of speech within the law, promotion of learning, кпо- ledge and science, national and in- lernational co-operation to pro- mote good and prevent evil. "Prohibition against aggression, the rule of just law, prohibition against slavery and child-killing, government by consultation, social leadership and responsibility to be given to those who are capable and "Individual and collective re sponsibility and accountability for evcry action, prohibition against injustice, slander and unjust rebel- "Obedience to God and due obe. dience to legally constituted auth- ority, punishment for crimes, ad- ministration of justice lempered with mercy, individual and collec. live struggle to promote good and prevent evil. "Socia-economic justice, wealth as a divine trust to mankind, indi- vidual rights to the fruits of his la- bour, social charily, prolibition prohibition against corruption, againsthoarding and usury, prohi. bition against extravagance and wastage. "Sound healthy family lifc, mor- ogamy as the ideal married state but allowing for conditional poly- gamy, are obedience of the young to parents. nna care of orphans. ly soued, meramy and socially re socially re. alert, perse. sponsible, mentally vering and disciplined individual and society, condemnation of pride and egoism, good healthy food ha- bits, and a comprehensive scienti- fic methodology to develop know- ledge, science and cívilisation." What a fantastle wealth of ideas! Anyone who has some knowledge of world social theories and sys- tems can see at once the towering superiority of the above Quranic social teachings over those of: other sysiems. Yet many of us, must endeavour hard to distln.. guish the teachings of the Quran: from the practice of present-day, Many a thoughtful Muslim has keen disillusioned by the last dis. parity between the two. Is true Is. lam impractleable? It cannot be. and the Prophet and his early fol lowers had ahundantly proved oth erwise. The first Arab-Muslim ci- Is a standing The great simple Ideas we list places in the Quran, cannot more reasonable and practical. They also have a universal appeal. It is here that Isiam's social philo. sophy is very much relevant to the needs of our society, Only Islam. as preached In the Quran, can unite our multi-racial and multi-rell- gious people and take us out of the present gloom and put us on the road to greater and ever greater There Is & general fear among liberals and Marxists to mixing re. ligion with politics. "Keep rellgion llon. This Is old discredited stuf from the age of European Renais. sance. Present and future politics Thiscanonly be supplled by a true universal religion which Is Islam. National ideology To go forward from this historic 30-ycar milestone, we need a na. tlonai philosophy, that is compre- hensive, spiritually sound, univer- sal, inodern, 'lexible and prectical. Obriously, our national ideology. the Rukunegara (that has some semblance of a philosophical framework) is grossly inadequate in comparison to the Islamic philo. sophical framcwork that we have Some of Its Ideas are not exactly In line with the Quran (e.g "Loyalty to King and Country" should be reworded as "Loyalty to God, King and Country"), Imperfectly formulated, and over- all it is too bare and sketchy to pro- vide a sufficient gulde. God in His unbounded mercy has provided us with a comprehensive philosophical framework in the Quran. The framework only gives us the general Ideas and leaves us a very wide berth to work out the mechanies of their application ac- lies the unmatehed superiority of the Quranic guide over others. It is the turn of our leaders and thinkers now to apply their minds seriously and creatively to solve our many problems with the help of these great Ideas. It is fervently to be hoped that our leaders, Inside and outside government, will have the humility. the wisdom and the will, putting aside narrow party sectarianism and personal tism, to awaken and pool the na- tion's creative potential and re- sources in this great common national endeavour so that to- gether we can set right our own disjointed time. Reprinted from: NEW STRAITS TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1987

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