These past few weeks, I’ve been digging up information on many things that have been taught to me when I was young. I must admit that being born as Muslim, I had never put any attention to what I was told to do and not to do. In fact, there were times when I can’t really recall the 6 articles of faith (Iman), or probably get myself confused with the 5 pillars of Islam. Ignorant.
But now after being a typical Muslim for the past 27 years, I’ve started to realize and questions all the things that we were TOLD to do and not to do. Are all these clearly written in the Quran? Or was it just based on cultural beliefs, which most of you are aware, the Malays dictate the Islam more than the Quran.
This post is going to be a little bit BOLD as I had never wrote any kind of religious post before this (so far as I can recall). And before you read further, please get yourself prepared with what you’re about to read. It may be offended, some might even label me MURTAD or even ask me to “mengucap” again. But at least, I’m doing a research and I truly welcome your opinion, if you have any.
I would like to just start with the Quran and all the school of thoughts that we have now. Many of us would probably claimed we have “khatam” the holy book, but I must admit I didn’t even finish reading the Quran when I was young, not even up until now. The “ustazah” quit halfway and I was not sent to any other “ustazah” after that to complete my Quran lesson. In fact, the “ustazah” kept falling asleep during my readings and I doubt if I even have mastered all the “tajwid”. No, I’m not pointing any fingers to anybody. It all goes back to me when I was matured enough and good enough to take care of myself and my needs.
I tried reading the Quran on my own and bought myself a book on “tajwid”. Sometimes I just followed the “tajwid” lessons aired on TV at 6.30pm to make sure I have the right understanding. But then I never managed to finish reading the whole Quran. I always have this gap and after so long I would just start reading it again from the beginning. So it never ends! Couple years back, I bought the translation of the Quran, the “tafsir” since I realized I don’t really understand what was written in Quran, coz I don’t really speak or understand Arabic. I would like to know what does Quran trying to tell me and how can it benefit me.
There was a story about a young child asking his father the main reason for Muslim to recite Quran. And the father just gave him a very dirty basket and asked him to go to the river, to fill it up with water. The basket does not hold any water in it since it’s pretty much broken and was in poor condition. The child had no choice other than going back and forth filling up the basket with water to a point the father asked him to stop. The father then asked the child to look at the basket and see if there’s any difference. The dirty basket turned very clean from the “wash” the child did with the water. And the father said, reading Quran is similar to cleaning the basket from the dirt. It’s a purification process to human, Muslim in particular.
As much as I agree that reading Quran will make us feel closer to God, I beg to differ. Reading or probably reciting the Quran alone is not enough. It’s as if we complete reading the whole Engineering Handbook without really understanding the content. For instance, in order for me to design a well (be it oil or gas well), I must learn how to predict the pressures of the formation and the fracture gradients expected before I can simply set my casing point. So, if I do not understand the whole pore pressure prediction process, how can I design a good well that will not collapse nor burst and definitely will not be another Macondo well? (read: the Deepwater Horizon case). Probably this is too much of an example but bottom line is, how can you understand what Quran is trying to tell you if you don’t really understand Arabic?
Now, I’m slowly reading the translations. It’s not actually DIRECT translations. Most of the “tafsirs” are the interpretations of the translations. The words are translated to whichever language we prefer and there will be more interpretations attached to each verse. This triggers me, who did the translations and who did the interpretations? Does it really, exactly reflects the exact meaning of the “ayat”? Sounds like I’m sitting for the “Ujian Pemahaman” back in Primary School, where we have to find “isi tersirat” in each sentence. Then who can actually say our understanding and our interpretation is correct or wrong? Who can deny what we think or view? One must always remember that each of us sees things from different angle and we definitely have different views and opinions. Agree?
This then makes me realize that all 4 schools of thoughts that we have are mostly based on interpretation. I’ve yet to dig up information of all these 4. I’m curious. Why is Shafie deemed better than the other 3, Hanbali, Maliki and Hanafi? And how did we arrive to a decree that Shafie is the one that we must follow, in Malaysia? If I managed to dig up all info on all 4 schools of thoughts, can I follow Maliki, if I think it’s the best school based on my interpretation and views? Would that make me less Muslim than the others? Would you, as my family or friends see me differently, or probably would not accept me at all? Ok, probably I’m getting a little bit dramatic but thinking of how the Malays think, I can pretty much expect those things to happen.
I’ve found many other things that will definitely surprise most of you. But that will follow later. Do you think I’m less Muslim now or my faith is weak? Whatever you think, I don’t really care. To me, it’s better for me to fully understand the whole Islam by doing the research, obviously based on the Quran, rather than listening to what people think or the Majlis Fatwa thinks, or what Malays think. And most importantly, God is one, regardless of what schools of thoughts we follow, it all goes back to worship the one and only God. I’m not giving any conclusion. Yet.
*cheers*
But now after being a typical Muslim for the past 27 years, I’ve started to realize and questions all the things that we were TOLD to do and not to do. Are all these clearly written in the Quran? Or was it just based on cultural beliefs, which most of you are aware, the Malays dictate the Islam more than the Quran.
This post is going to be a little bit BOLD as I had never wrote any kind of religious post before this (so far as I can recall). And before you read further, please get yourself prepared with what you’re about to read. It may be offended, some might even label me MURTAD or even ask me to “mengucap” again. But at least, I’m doing a research and I truly welcome your opinion, if you have any.
I would like to just start with the Quran and all the school of thoughts that we have now. Many of us would probably claimed we have “khatam” the holy book, but I must admit I didn’t even finish reading the Quran when I was young, not even up until now. The “ustazah” quit halfway and I was not sent to any other “ustazah” after that to complete my Quran lesson. In fact, the “ustazah” kept falling asleep during my readings and I doubt if I even have mastered all the “tajwid”. No, I’m not pointing any fingers to anybody. It all goes back to me when I was matured enough and good enough to take care of myself and my needs.
I tried reading the Quran on my own and bought myself a book on “tajwid”. Sometimes I just followed the “tajwid” lessons aired on TV at 6.30pm to make sure I have the right understanding. But then I never managed to finish reading the whole Quran. I always have this gap and after so long I would just start reading it again from the beginning. So it never ends! Couple years back, I bought the translation of the Quran, the “tafsir” since I realized I don’t really understand what was written in Quran, coz I don’t really speak or understand Arabic. I would like to know what does Quran trying to tell me and how can it benefit me.
There was a story about a young child asking his father the main reason for Muslim to recite Quran. And the father just gave him a very dirty basket and asked him to go to the river, to fill it up with water. The basket does not hold any water in it since it’s pretty much broken and was in poor condition. The child had no choice other than going back and forth filling up the basket with water to a point the father asked him to stop. The father then asked the child to look at the basket and see if there’s any difference. The dirty basket turned very clean from the “wash” the child did with the water. And the father said, reading Quran is similar to cleaning the basket from the dirt. It’s a purification process to human, Muslim in particular.
As much as I agree that reading Quran will make us feel closer to God, I beg to differ. Reading or probably reciting the Quran alone is not enough. It’s as if we complete reading the whole Engineering Handbook without really understanding the content. For instance, in order for me to design a well (be it oil or gas well), I must learn how to predict the pressures of the formation and the fracture gradients expected before I can simply set my casing point. So, if I do not understand the whole pore pressure prediction process, how can I design a good well that will not collapse nor burst and definitely will not be another Macondo well? (read: the Deepwater Horizon case). Probably this is too much of an example but bottom line is, how can you understand what Quran is trying to tell you if you don’t really understand Arabic?
Now, I’m slowly reading the translations. It’s not actually DIRECT translations. Most of the “tafsirs” are the interpretations of the translations. The words are translated to whichever language we prefer and there will be more interpretations attached to each verse. This triggers me, who did the translations and who did the interpretations? Does it really, exactly reflects the exact meaning of the “ayat”? Sounds like I’m sitting for the “Ujian Pemahaman” back in Primary School, where we have to find “isi tersirat” in each sentence. Then who can actually say our understanding and our interpretation is correct or wrong? Who can deny what we think or view? One must always remember that each of us sees things from different angle and we definitely have different views and opinions. Agree?
This then makes me realize that all 4 schools of thoughts that we have are mostly based on interpretation. I’ve yet to dig up information of all these 4. I’m curious. Why is Shafie deemed better than the other 3, Hanbali, Maliki and Hanafi? And how did we arrive to a decree that Shafie is the one that we must follow, in Malaysia? If I managed to dig up all info on all 4 schools of thoughts, can I follow Maliki, if I think it’s the best school based on my interpretation and views? Would that make me less Muslim than the others? Would you, as my family or friends see me differently, or probably would not accept me at all? Ok, probably I’m getting a little bit dramatic but thinking of how the Malays think, I can pretty much expect those things to happen.
I’ve found many other things that will definitely surprise most of you. But that will follow later. Do you think I’m less Muslim now or my faith is weak? Whatever you think, I don’t really care. To me, it’s better for me to fully understand the whole Islam by doing the research, obviously based on the Quran, rather than listening to what people think or the Majlis Fatwa thinks, or what Malays think. And most importantly, God is one, regardless of what schools of thoughts we follow, it all goes back to worship the one and only God. I’m not giving any conclusion. Yet.
*cheers*
6 comments:
A nifty link. Check it out. Might be useful:
Quran Explorer
My understanding is that to make a judgment on another over faith & religion is simply to speculate at best. After all, your deed and whatever you endeavor in is between you and the God. None other. Who's to say with definite what is right and wrong?
On another note, my observation has confirmed me that much of what the Malay Muslim practice and their beliefs are deeply steeped with customs and tradition, an element at times have nothing to do with Islam. Would you agree on this?
Further, I think for you to really understand Islam one must go back all the way from its origination and work yourself forward. And of course, try to dig infos via the alternative sources - resources that which is unorthodox. History, etc is often written by the victor hence to hear the other side of the story might prove to be refreshing.
The prophets of the Abrahamic religion from Moses to Jesus and all the way to Muhammad (pbu them all) has only a single message:
One message, one god
It is us the humans that often add and deduct what these prophets have delivered and muddle it some more with our own definition. Over time, it branches to another thing altogether.
Something i found illuminating :
The Divine Book
The Arrivals
Until next time then.
It's good to hear a good constructive feedback, as I was expecting some random people to condemn my writing and views. And many thanks for the links. I'll definitely take a look and discuss more, maybe in the next post for you to share your thoughts too.
I do have the same opinion with you when it comes to Malay Muslim. It's getting more sensitive when you relate Malay and Islam, as you can definitely see what happened to the church in KL and some other offensive acts conducted by the Malay. They, as I should not claim myself Malay (Chinese Muslim by the way), fights over minor things i.e. whether one should call God or Allah, whether this people can use the term Allah or not, when they actually should try to maintain the good relationships with all humans, regardless of religions and try as best as we could to keep our country in harmony and safe. And I believe Islam in Malaysia is very much influenced by the politicians, when actually they should refer to Islam Law on how to run their politics business the best. Sadly, it's the opposite way, when politicians runs Islam law, and the Majlis Fatwa keeps changing the Law from time to time, which to me sounds a bit not right.
A question from me, how can I counter check on the history to see the other side of the story? I mean, we can always refer to history, which obviously was written by the victor but I find it quite hard to really dig up information on what exactly happened in the past. And I am too taking extra precautions when doing research as some information might have been changed by those who wanted to deliver the wrong message and tarnish Islam's image.
When the word of God and his religion came down, it was a universal calling – for all to embrace regardless of color and origin. But for us, the norm is to build our understanding from the purview of our surroundings and common ground. Take a child for instance. When the kid is growing up, the point of reference for him/her are the parents. Why the parents? Because they are the ones closest and easiest point towards understanding the world. The child would see the world through the lens of the parents. But when it comes to religion, we need of broaden the horizons so that it does not become insular and narrow.
The Divine Book link contains a series of 10 youtube videos which I think is an eye opener. It starts off a bit slow but in the end you would learn many, many new things as I did. One that amazes me was about the Fibonacci Sequence. I guess the guys who prepared the series was on a similar quest as you are right now. Indeed they have done an extensive research. You asked how to find these sub-altern sources? In part 4 of the 10 series, you can watch how they went to the far reaches of the world to uncover the hidden original scriptures of the Bible – if I’m not mistaken one of the places was a mount in Ethiopia. Coming back to your question, I guess the first thing we can do is to cast a critical eye on everything we read, hear, and watch. Often the mainstream media, CNN, etc have their own agenda and interest to put forward –Take it with a pinch of salt at face value until you have done your research to verify the news. When you’re accustomed to this, I think it would be hard for them to pull the wool over you as you have trained yourself to do the due diligence before accepting anything as the absolute truth. (I agree with you wholeheartedly on the issue of politics coming into religion in the country. Sometimes it is just so nonsense that I just couldn’t put up with it (reading the daily gibberish news) that hearing the news on tv would just saps the energy out of you.)
In your line of work, you are able to travel the world over – to see and meet many people from diverse backgrounds. Do take this advantage and leverage on it. In another words, try to kill two birds with just a stone. What I’m trying to say is, don’t take your line of work just as that. Have other goals too. For me I would like to think that we can do more. Your current quest to find the truth about faith and religion is one. Hear your co-workers views and opinions. From the larger pool of ideas often a better and educated conclusion is easier to reach.
Try getting this book from here: http://amirmu.blogspot.com/2010/11/postal-orders-for-islam-in-malaysia.html
Refreshing to say the least.
Tora; I've watched the first episode of The Divine and still buffering on the second episode. I've looked for some comments for both Divine and Arrivals but could only find some feedbacks for the arrivals. I'm not sure how to react, should I see it or not as there has been many negative thoughts than constructive ones for the film. Anyway, the Quran link is good. Thanks.
Shawn: Many thanks!! Can't wait to go back and buy the book!
yang...niat ikhlas...alwiz support you...insyaAllah
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