Seeking an Islamic Renaissance

"In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful."

Most Muslims would begin their day, actions or prayers with these words. Yet, from what I can see in Malaysia today, such words are mere recital. We are wont to recite such prayers, sometimes complete with long and tedious Arabic phrases, without pausing for a moment to savour their meaning. Worse, such recitals are often followed by acts that go against the very grace and mercy we seek.

I find today, we are quick to defend our actions as ordained by God. I remember when I was young and asked many more questions than I do now, I was told that some things are just "God’s will" and "Don’t ask too many questions, or you might become murtad."

Such conditioning has led to me being more quiet over the years, repressing the urge to question, and carrying the heavy burden of knowing there is something not quite right happening around me.

For example, I was taught that the Quran, as the last miracle, calls us to seek knowledge, to debate and discuss intellectually. This is the very reason we are gifted with the Quran, rather than the wizard-like miracles given to past prophets who preceded Prophet Muhammad.

Yet today, we cannot even question fatwas for fear of retribution. We do not seek intellectualism within Islam – rather, we are wont to submit blindly to those supposedly "more knowledgeable". We cannot even call for a consultative discourse, or question the accounts that collect our zakat.

As Malaysian Muslims, we are told to leave anything that has a whiff of our very own faiths to those who are "more knowledgeable", as such people are acting on divine will. Nevermind that what they decide will define our personal faith and submission to God.

We now hang on to the words of our ustaz and ustazahs as though our whole lives depended on them. Being an "imam muda" is a glorified career, complete with reality TV shows showcasing one’s ability to recite the Quran and lead congregations in prayer.

Despite this so-called progress, we discriminate against minority sects, the Shias and the Ahmadiyyahs, claiming that they are not Muslims. We turn a blind eye to the Rohingya, who are Muslims by the way, when they seek refuge but welcome the Syrians with open arms when we should extend help to all human beings regardless.

We act in such a condescending way, saying there is only one way that is right, and we punish all those who do not agree, calling them deviants or worse, liberals.

We seem to forget that historically, Islam is liberal.

Where is the compassion, where is the grace and mercy we so sought from our Creator?

Today, I think we Malaysian Muslims are reaping what we have long sowed.

We have become so unilateral in our conservative way of thinking that we are insecure in our very own faith.

I do not claim to have a scientific, rational answer as to why MH370 is still missing, or why a mere four months after the first tragedy, MH17 was downed by a Ukrainian missile.

Yet, forming a new airline that is "shariah compliant" simply to fulfil the "much publicised complaints by conservative Muslims who believed that the two major air disasters for Malaysia Airlines were caused by Allah’s wrath", seems to go against the very nature of reciting a prayer for safe travels and seeking grace and mercy from God.

"Verily, never will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)" (Ar-Ra’d 13:11).

Instead of supporting Malaysia Airlines and ensuring that our national carrier will continue to be in business, we have pushed for a new business model, spearheaded by non-Muslims, nonetheless steeped in what we humans think God wants.

Instead of questioning airline safety procedures, improving SOPs in cases of emergencies to prevent another tragedy from happening, and to bring those responsible for gunning down an innocent, public carrier to justice, we have played into the hands of the superstitious and the conservatives.

We have bowed to the hardline, unilateral way of thinking about Islam.

Again, in our haste to supposedly fulfil what we think God has ordained, we have reverted to the very worst of our fears. For is it not pagan that we think of God as a monster that needs to be appeased, is only all hellfire and brimstone, that disasters and tragedies are created by the wrath of God?

How does this lead to belief in the Most Benevolent, Most Merciful?

As we move into 2016, it is high time we reform our way of thinking as Muslims. We should seek to emulate Andalusia, when Muslims were known as thinkers, great inventors, philosophers and scientists.

We should no longer be known as terrorists and a war-hungry ummah. We should return to values espoused in the Quran – that of intellectual discourse, justice, compassion, mercy and inclusivity.

We should not seek to defend God – instead, we should return to our own humanity. – December 30, 2015.

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