Where our Islamists went wrong

A conversation I overheard among a group of primary school boys the other day brought back memories. They were all swearing. Not the kind we engage in on the driving seat, but the “sumpah wallah” kind, to prove that one is telling the truth.

“Sumpah” in all its variants used to be a school slang between friends, usually uttered by the biggest of liars among us when pushed to a corner on the missing gadget that one of them lost during recess.

The late P. Ramlee did it all the time on screen, especially in his role as Abang Jamil in Madu Tiga.

It doesn’t mean a thing really, even if God’s name is invoked.

All that changed in 1998. “Sumpah” was suddenly thrust into national discourse, to decide on the future of the nation. And when the sumpah was not forthcoming, special “hajat” prayers (a now peculiarly Malaysian Muslim habit) were held, seeking divine intervention to show us which side told the truth.

Since then, sumpah has become the property of politicians. Many appeared in mosques, Quran in hand, thinking a God sitting in some corner of the prayer hall was waiting to hear them declare that curse would befall them if they did not tell the truth.

From denying allegations linked to weaknesses of the flesh to murder, sumpah is now also used to ensure loyalty to political parties.

Until recently, swearing and taking a vow in the name of God was the domain of Umno. Unbeknownst to many, a group of Islamists who won the elections – whether in tieless suits spewing good governance tinged with unfrightening Islamic terms, or in white robes quoting bygone books on the merits of stoning – were quietly engaged in their own vows of loyalty.

But let’s admit it, they were smarter. Instead of teasing God to inflict some calamity for lying, they found in such a vow a way to get rid of their wives.

They were smart enough, for example, not to offer their houses, their 4WDs, or their superbikes as penance for breaking oath. For these are more treasured than their sleep deprived wives who have probably taken pains bringing up half a dozen children while they are out there dishing out ceramahs to shouts of takbir.

It is a sad reflection when those who the public look up to as trustees would betray their own families for the sake of narrow partisan loyalties.

And it makes no difference whether you are a progressive who talks about trendy Islamic subjects endorsed by the liberals such as “Maqasid Shariah”, or a turbaned mullah who is a picture of humility snipping off the hair of a Muslim child at some kenduri but who also condemn those who do not agree with the cutting of more important body organs in the name of God.

For it is now no longer a secret that there have been and still are politicians in PAS who actually offered to give up their marriage and family unity, all to show they would not leave a party that for so long banked on their claim of subscribing to a revealed paradigm.

In pre-Muhammad Arabia, despite their refinement in culture and sophistication of the arts and literature, the Arabs were crass when it came to swearing or taking an oath to prove a point. They would swear by their mothers and sisters and wives.

It was only later that Islam came telling them that one should only swear by the Creator, and not make pawns of his fellow beings, and even then, it is mainly on matters of love and marriage.

Tell that to our self-styled ulama and they will rebut us. They would tell us that swearing loyalty at the cost of one’s marriage is not something never done by early Muslims, and therefore acceptable.

Because, you see, early Muslims were closer in their lineage to the Prophet and the teachings of his companions.

Of course they were. But whoever said early Muslims did not indulge in vices? Some of Prophet Muhammad’s own relatives were his greatest enemies, to one of whom a short chapter is dedicated in the Quran, cursing him till kingdom come.

And some of the greatest Islamic conquerors and caliphs in the early centuries after Muhammad were also known womanisers and alcoholics, as were those in the many empires of the Muslim golden age, which some Muslims today glorify without knowing why they collapsed.

All these early Muslims continued to be praised by our faith guardians today, who are beholden to a static, medieval interpretation of Islam bereft of the Quranic spirit to “think”.

And this is what those claiming to be modernist Islamists should ponder.

They should understand that Islamic civilisation, however great, is a story which begins with the phrase “once upon a time”. Muslim civilisation and whatever it represented, from science to politics to economics, has now declined, just like the civilisations before them.

How would you sell such a civilisation to the public, especially in the age of so many beheadings and killings done by those who want to foolishly bring back the caliphate?

You cannot. Because it cannot be a selling point, in whatever variants, whether moderate or otherwise, in the contemporary political experience.

But we still see these Islamists indulging in utopian terminology which even the ordinary Muslim public has no clue about, let alone the cynical others.

It is time the name and flavour of Islam not be used in the quest for good governance. Indeed, there is not a single living example of that in Muslim societies worldwide.

Muslim civilisation is in decline, and until we solve the problems in Muslim societies, we cannot expect to be in the driving seat of history.

Trust in the Islamic system has been squandered by their very proponents, whether in the Middle East or closer to home, in Kelantan. Twenty years of “leadership of the ulama” has got it nowhere. Kota Baru is a picture of filth, let alone good governance. And to hear more Islamist terms coming out of it is adding insult to injury.

Can we expect their modernist variants to do any better? It would probably require another round of oaths to convince the public.

Or perhaps we can be convinced after all, if they take an oath to do better, by offering their land and properties and their bling-blings, not by breaking up their marriages. – November 21, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.