The story of true jihad (Part 1)

AUG 22 — Being a lover of books particularly on politics and history I have always yearned for the Muslim equivalent to Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King — inspiring modern examples of superior moral leadership that touched the world for their selflessness and benevolence. After all Islam had always emphasised the idea of justice and mercy. This is especially needed in Malaysia, a country where racial and religious tensions are being pushed to a boiling point by irresponsible parties.

The closest I could think of before is al-Hajj al Malik Shabazz, otherwise known as Malcolm X who abandoned his anti-white views after seeing the sheer unity of Muslims from different colours during the Haj. But he did not live long after the turning point at his pilgrimage. Yet his autobiography was compelling enough to a 14-year-old me that it shaped my basic premise in politics that justice is Islamic while racism is not. 

Of course, anyone who studies the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Rightly Guided Caliphs and Salahuddin al-Ayubi would realise that they were the real thing when the West was still consumed in their dark ages. But what does it say of the Muslim world when Mandela, Gandhi and King are found outside the Muslim world today?

Yet most Muslims would at least learn about the Prophet and the four Caliphs — Abu Bakar, Umar, Uthman and Ali — where the idea of justice and mercy predominates.

Even as I get exasperated at ignorant hate emails being sent about the Christian plot and the Chinese agenda, I however forget the common stories we take for granted and which we forget in dealing with our situation today. How ironic that many Muslims keep being nostalgic about returning to the time of Pious Predecessors (as-Salaf as-Saleh) today yet become perverted versions that forget these basic lessons that the Prophet and the Pious Predecessors lived and breathed by.

I was so touched by the story of the Prophet feeding the blind Jew. I heard the story from Dr Muhammad Nawar Ariffin, a Muslim activist with Persatuan Pemuda Masjid Malaysia who himself as my constituent, I know to be living example of a Muslim whose action speaks even louder than his wise words.

But Alhamdulillah this Ramadan is indeed a blessed month. As I sought to answer the slander and lies being spread I delved more into various sources which proves Islam is a blessing to all mankind, not merely to Muslims (or Malays as some would have it in Malaysia!).

I was eating after my tarawikh prayers in a surau when I encountered a constituent I know. When he started to complain about the Malays in Penang, I could sense where it was going but I waited for him to say it out loud.

I merely stated that “Penang Malay problem” was not new and has been so when Umno-BN was in charge for over 50 years.

But he said he was concerned about the playing of Quranic recitations before Subuh prayers. I explained to him this was the Islamic position as the Prophet prohibited reciting the Quran loudly in the mosque for fear of disturbing people who are praying or reciting the Quran on their own. This was the position taken by the Shafie school which rules that it is disliked (makruh) and Muslims will be rewarded for not doing it. This was the same position taken by the Penang mufti.

My constituent argued that this is something normal in Malaysia. Why now, he asks? I said it’s the mufti’s decision, not Lim Guan Eng. He persisted that it has been accepted in Malaysia and never an issue. I merely state that while that may be the case, surely religious law is superior to tradition? Even then, I have received complaints from both Muslims and non-Muslims in my constituency but only because of the Penang decision did I realise the real Islamic position on the matter.

He eventually asked why was it done without the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s knowledge. Caught unawares, I merely state that while I accept that the mufti should have informed the King, surely religious law takes precedent again after protocol? (The mufti’s clarification later proved it was much ado about nothing — it was merely an advice that did not need to be gazetted by the King and was not meant to be enforced but an advice to mosques and suraus in Penang).

I have stated my position on the Jais-Damansara Utama Methodist Church raid which earned me to be included in a list of supposed Pakatan representatives who interfered with the MBPJ action to seal the church by some irresponsible bloggers.

While encountering more ignorant people than me and being slandered by those, who were never sincerely concerned about Islam but merely about politics, was irritating, God is indeed great.

The alleged MBPJ document was proven fake when it emerged that there was no way a Damansara Utama resident could complain about “an illegal church in his residential area” as DUMC is located in Section 13, Petaling Jaya. The MBPJ enforcement director Mohd Fauzi Maarop has also lodged a police report on the forged minutes.

Indeed, it has been a blessing in disguise. I have been able to retrace the beautiful stories that reflect Islam as a blessing to all mankind (rahmatan lil alamin) that I learnt over the years but either took for granted or forgotten. I have also been reluctant to say much as I used to have a holier-than-thou attitude in spite of the little that I knew when I was at school. I preferred working at being a better Muslim myself rather than saying much about how others should be.

I have never taught much about being part of a religious scholar’s family other than making me curious about even if not properly educated in the religious sciences. I would read through countless books and engage in discussions with my father and the learned scholars who I have been blessed to know.

But as I seek to remind my friends about the little that I know (and learn from them what they know), I also realised how this Ramadan is an opportunity for me to become a better person in recognition of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s famous dictum that I quote at the beginning of my book, “Moving Forward”:

“Knowledge without action is madness, action without knowledge is void.”

I will share a beautiful story that I read last year but becomes so pertinent in the latest craziness not only for Muslims but Malaysians in general in part 2.

God knows best.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.