COMMENT I
have followed the ‘Allah’ issue very closely and carefully these many
months ever since it erupted after the court’s verdict. I have
carefully read the news on this issue as an academic, as a Muslim and as
a Malaysian citizen.
I
have played various endgame scenarios of this issue and all of them
have bad endings for one group, both groups and most importantly the
loss of our values in the Rukunegara.
To my mind there is only one
course of action that
has an acceptable endgame scenario. I must ask my Christian brothers,
sisters, fathers and mothers, for the sake of the safety of our children
and the sacred values of our nation’s Rukunegara, that I must plead the
Christians use the most powerful weapon that they have; turning the
other cheek.
I will explain why I have come to this conclusion and the answer
surprisingly lies in the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) himself at the Treaty of Hudaybya.
I could also quote the examples of
Martin Luther King and
Mahatma Gandhi in their peaceful civil resistance but I think the
Prophet Muhammad himself showed that he himself would ‘turn the other
cheek’ for a more fruitful and non-egotistical stand.
As I am not a Bible academic, there may be problems and issues with
my interpretation of the phrase ‘turning the other cheek’. With due
respect to the Bible scholars, please allow me the academic and
philosophic leeway to outline my ideas and concept of this phrase.
To
me, the phrase ‘turning the other cheek’ is the ability of a person to
rise above an egotistical stand as well as the ability to have a higher
consciousness in looking at a bigger picture than that of the ‘enemy’ or
the other party.
The other party may think that it has won because one party has
decided to ‘cave in’ to its demands. But in reality that party who
thought it has won in actual fact has suffered a terrible moral defeat
and in time will crumble to the ground. If one does not believe in
Divine Providence, then one just have to look at many historical
examples of the ‘meek inheriting the earth’. The ‘meek’ in this case is
the stronger of the two.
As one saying goes ‘ the greatest warrior is the one who can conquer
his own Self’. After a hard fought battle, the Prophet also said that
‘we have come from one jihad to another that is greater than it’; the
jihad in subjugating the ego-self.
Events of the Hudayba Treaty
Before outlining my strategy for my Christian brethren, allow me to
summarise the historical events of the Hudaybya Treaty by the Prophet
Muhammad. When the Prophet Muhammad and his followers were persecuted
mercilessly in Mecca, he gave the order for his followers to emigrate to
Medinah after securing the Pledge of Akaba with the Ansar people. The
Ansar had promised to give protection to the Prophet and the emigrants.
The Muslims then left all that they owned - houses, land, husbands,
wives, fathers, mothers and all their worldly possession in order to
have the promise of worshipping the one God, Allah with the Prophet.
After many years of success in Medinah, the Prophet yearned to return to
Mecca for the pilgrimage as decreed by God in the five pillars of
Islam.
So he gathered the Muslims, donned the ihram, took no weapons at all
and bravely crossed the deserts on foot and with camels for weeks until
they reached the outskirt of Mecca.
When the Quraysh, who had
persecuted the Prophet, heard of the advance of the Muslims, they sent
out a man to negotiate with him. The Quraysh did not want the Prophet to
return for that would shame them and acknowledged his religion and
strength.
At the same time the Quraysh were wary of attacking an unarmed group
bent on a religious quest. Furthermore all of the Muslims were family
members and this would tear the social fabric of Mecca apart. The
Quraysh spokesperson met the Prophet and demanded several conditions.
The first was that the Prophet cannot enter Mecca that year but the
following year for three nights only. Secondly any Meccans who left to
embrace the new religion and went to Medinah or with him must be
returned, but those leaving Medinah should be allowed to return to
Mecca. These two conditions were very painful to the Muslims. Had they
not crossed the deserts for weeks to pray at the Kaabah and meet their
family members once again after many many years?
And why must they agree to the unfair second condition which shows
no advantage to the Muslims at all? To make matters worse, a man by the
name of Abu Jandal had escaped the Quraysh from Mecca after suffering
much persecution. When he finally came upon the Prophet and the Muslim
camp, the Treaty was sealed.
The Quraysh spokesperson grabbed Abu Jandal and demanded the Prophet
to allow him to take him back to Mecca. The Muslims were ready to do
certain battle to save this one man, but the Prophet forbade them and
consoled Abu Jandal that Allah will reward him for his condition. The
Prophet had ‘turned the other cheek’.
He could have ordered the Muslims to march into Mecca and sustain a
bloodshed in which the Muslim were ready to be martyred. But he gave no
such order. The third condition of the Treaty stipulated that there
would be peace for 10 years and the Prophet saw much that could be
achieved with peace rather than stubborn resistance.
Many Muslim and non-Muslim historians have called this decision by
the Prophet as a stroke of political genius. In the eyes of the rest of
Arabia, the Quraysh had to acknowledge the strength of the Muslim nation
because they had to sign a treaty! During the peace that ensued the
Arabs came in droves to enter into the Islamic fold.
The ‘meek’ inherit Mecca!
On the day that the Quraysh broke the treaty by murdering a group of
Muslims, the Prophet rode ahead of a 10,000 strong army to liberate
Mecca from the unbelievers. The ‘meek’ had inherited Mecca.
With
this lesson, I will now suggest an outline of how the Christians of
Malaysia can follow the Prophet’s example by using a weapon that they
had always owned in the Bible from the story of Jesus or Isa (peace be
upon him). They may consider doing the following in order to ensure that
our
children may not suffer any actions from the Malay and Muslim
extremists in Malaysia:
Firstly, the
Christians should cease, for the time being, to use the
word ‘Allah’ in their sermons and publication. To me, using a word
without knowing the attributes of the word is pointless.
I may
have used the word ‘Allah’ millions of times without appreciating His
attributes and it has not brought peace to my heart. Only now that I
have read many spiritual texts from many sources, God whether ‘Allah’ or
‘Tuhan’ has a new meaning to me.
Secondly, the
Christians may tell their congregants that
academically, historically, legally and morally, they have every right
to use the word ‘Allah’. But in the interest of peace and harmony and
more importantly, the safety of our children, the Christian community
will cease to use this word in prayers and replace it with ‘Tuhan’.
Actually Zulkifli Noordin is wrong when he says the Malay word for
‘Allah’ is ‘Tuhan’ because in all the prayer books I have read the Malay
Muslims would use the word Ya Allah, Tuhan yang Maha berkuasa,
kurniakanlah bagi ku... So, the Malay Muslims still use ‘Allah’ in their
supplications in that language.
Thirdly and finally, the Christians can tell their congregants that
in the coming national elections, all of them shall vote for the party
that is trustworthy and that would deal more fairly on this issue of
‘Allah’. The Christians shall wield their second weapon of strength -
voting in a democratic and free and fair election.
What is the ‘hikmah’ or positive outcome of this action? Firstly,
our children and places of worship will be safe from further reprisals.
Secondly, those extremist Malay and Muslim groups would have no more
fuel to feed the fires of hatred. It is a fact that firemen would cut
down fresh trees in order to stop the march of a forest firestorm so
that there would be no more ‘food’ for the fire to feed on.
The same goes for an army retreating from a battle where they would
burn the food in that place in order to starve the oncoming army.
Napolean found that out the hard way in Russia.
Putting safety ahead of ‘egos’
Thirdly, The Christian leaders shall be known that they put the
safety of their congregants ahead of their ‘egos’ of wanting to be
‘right’ simply because they ARE right. I do not know how many times I
have had to give in to my children and wife on many issues even though I
know that I was ‘right’ in order to place the bigger reward of peace
and harmony in my family.
Lastly I would like to end my article with some Verses of the Qur’an:
“Not
all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book (Christians and Jews)
are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the signs of God
all night long. And prostrate themselves in adoration.
“They believe in God and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right and
forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) of good works:
They are in the ranks of the righteous.
“Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for God knoweth well Those that do right.”
(Surah Al-i-Imran Ayat 113-115 (translation by Abdullah Yusof Ali)
The Malay and Muslim extremists may think that they have won and
that they find favour with Allah, but truth be told Allah The Most Wise
and Compassionate only loves those including the People of the Book who
have the attributes recorded in the Qur’an.
PROF DR MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI, who teaches
architecture at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, is a veteran academician
of 26 years. He specialises in mosque and Islamic architecture,
particularly that which relates to Malaysia using a hadith-based and
socio-cultural approach in order to create the total idea of a built
environment suited for a whole social structure.
