Read the Qur'an Campaign

There is a campaign in the blogsphere, initiated by Marina Mahathir and 3 of her friends called “Let’s read the Qur’an”. I have read the campaign and though it sounds like a good effort, it is not the right campaign and it must be stopped. I urge the readers in my blog to spread it over to all your friends, colleagues, family members, etc not to participate and support such a campaign. You can also link this posting to your blog of forward this posting in email form.
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Among others, the campaign is about encouraging the people, regardless of their religion status to start reading Al-Qur’an in whatever language that they are familiar with. Meaning to say, if you can’t read the Arabic transcript, then you read in Malay language and the same goes to Chinese, Indians and others. You can read the Qur’an in your own language. That is what the campaign is all about and more and more bloggers have participated in such a campaign, and come to think about it, it is very scary in deed. Marina has also, to certain extend, associated the campaign vis-à-vis the Qur’an and the celebration of Valentine’s Day, as the campaign period started from 15/1/09-14/2/09 and she even wish “Happy Valentine’s Day”. It is indeed an insult to Islam and Al-Qur’an in particular and the Muslims community as a whole for Marina Mahathir to associate Islam and Al-Qur’an with Valentine’s Day, which is totally unIslamic.
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Below is my explanation as to why such a campaign should be called off immediately. The same has also been posted as my reply at Marian Mahathir’s blog. You may also go to www.rantingsbymm.blogspot.com to see for yourself such a campaign but please, please and please do not fall for it.
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Dear Marina,
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It is good to have such a campaign to encourage the people to read the Qur’an. However, some of your suggestions need to be revisited because to understand the Qur’an better, you need to have an in depth study on Al-Qur’an (‘ulumul Qur’an). By mere reading of the Qur’anic translation and try to understand what it means may lead to deviation from the true meaning of the Qur’anic verse.
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In Qur’anic studies, to interpret and get the true meaning of the verse, we need to know few things such as the reason of revelation (asbabun nuzul), the type of verse (makkiah or madaniah), the repealed verse and the verse that repealing (nasikh mansukh) as well as good linguistic (arabic) knowledge (to determine whether the verse is an instruction or a mere statement, etc).
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Another thing is that there is only one (1) language for us to read the Qur’an i.e. the Arabic language. Other than the Arabic language, we call it translation. As such, it is wrong for you to encourage people to read the Qur’an in any language that they understand most because there is no such thing in Islam.
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To give you a simple example is the Qur’anic verse where Allah said, “la ikraha fiddin” which means “there is no compulsion in religion (Islam)”. If we are to translate it literally (and that is what most people have been doing), the verse would mean that in Islam, we are given the freedom and choice whether or not to do what is obligated upon us to do such as praying, fasting, paying zakat etc and no one can force us to do those obligations. However, there is a reason for revelation of the said verse as reported by an acceptable Qur’anic verses translator (al-mu’tabar) by the name of Imam Mujahid whereby he reported that the reason for the revelation was that there was a man from the Ansar tribe
Who owned a slave by the name of Subaih. The man (Ansar) has forced the slave (Subaih) to convert to Islam, thus the verse was revealed. So, based on the reason the verse was revealed as explained above, the true meaning of the verse is that in Islam, we can’t compel the non-Muslim to convert to Islam. This is also in line with another Qur’anic verse i.e. “lakum diinukum waliyadiin” which means, “for you your religion and for me is mine”.
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There are also various verses in the Qur’an which have been repealed by other verses and the repealed verses are no longer has any effect. However, they still remain part of the Qur’an. As such, it is wrong for us to rely on the Qur’anic verses that have been repealed. It is like a provision of the law which has been repealed. Once the said provision has been repealed, it is no longer has any effect.
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So, whether one is Muslim or non-Muslim, you can’t get the true meaning of the Qur’anic verse by just reading the translation and try to understand its meaning.
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As such, I strongly suggest that you and your friends, as the initiators of the campaign to call off the campaign in the name of Allah and for the sake of the Muslims community. I also suggest that you request those bloggers who have put in the campaign in their blogs to remove such a campaign.
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As an alternative, if you really want to learn about Al-Qur’an, go and learn it from the Ulama’ and not to learn it all by yourself.
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Below, is one of the reasons why such a campaign should not exist and should not be opened to the non-Muslims.
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Michelle said: I decided sometimes last year that I’d read the Qur’an too. Good to know about this campaign. Looking forward to many interesting posts from you guys.
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CKGord said: I’m joining this campaign. Already posted the ICON. What’s the limit of our discussion??? Can I tell joke accompanying it?
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These two comments can be found at the blog below: -
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http://asylum60.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-campaign-let-read-quran.html#comments
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I wonder if what Michelle means by her starting to read Al-Qur’an sometimes last year is that she was just reading the translation part of the Qur’an. That is not reading the Qur’an, that is reading the translation of the Qur’an. As for CKGord, realize it or not, it is just not ethical and insensitive for him/her to think that he/she can make joke out of Al-Qur’an.
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There was also another respond by Michelle (perhaps different Michelle) in Marina Mahathir’s blog which says, “Those who are bent on splitting hairs and those who are unable to counter an argument would insist that the mortals should always use the correct interpretation in the original Arab script as if Islam is only for those literate in Arabic.”
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My reply is, Al-Qur’an was revelead in Arabic transcript and as such, we need to understand it from Arabic transcript perspective. As such, it is not a matter of people’s inability to counter argue any argument, it is about Al-Qur’an. That’s it and full stop.
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So, Marina, it is you and me, as Muslims to stop this misunderstanding and confusion among Muslims as well as non-Muslims on the contents of the Qur’an. If you think that you know nothing about Qur’an, it is better for you to remain silent than proposing something that could cause misunderstanding, confusion, deviation and whatever you call it. As the Prophet said in his hadith, “man kaana yu’ minu billahi wal yaumil aakhir, fal yaqul khairan au liyasmut” which means, “whoever among you believe in Allah and the day of hereafter, say good things or keep quiet”.

Ring Tone

I was told by my nephew who is studying in Egypt that a fatwa has been issued by the Muslim scholars in Egypt that the use of Quranic Verses as ring tone or caller ring tone is haram (forbidden) The reason is that when the call is answered, the Quranic verse may not be fully read, thus it can give different meaning.

Well, I know that to the people who use Quranic verse as their rig tone, they do it wth good intention and with full sincerity in order to be rewarded. However, I fully agree with the fatwa, as not only that the Quranic verse will be truncated half way through, imagine if we are in te toilt and suddenly our phone ringing with Quranic verse as the ring tone, we will get a sin instead of being rewarded. While it is good to have Quranic verse close to us in every second, if it is wrongly used (perhaps unintentially), it can work against us.

So, to all my friends out there or fiends to my friends wo are using the Quranic verse a their ring tone or caller ring tone, I urge you to immediately change it.

Grateful

Allah berfirman di dalam Al-Qur’an: “Lain syakartum la aizidannakum wa lainkafartum inna ‘azabi lasyadid” yang bermaksud “sekiranya kamu bersyukur nescaya aku akan menambahkan (nikmat kamu) dan sekiranya kamu kufur (tidak bersyukur), ingatlah sesungguhnya azabku amat dahsyat (pedih)”.

Ayat di atas menuntut kita untuk sentiasa bersyukur dengan apa yang kita perolehi. Allah telah berjanji bahawa sekiranya kita bersyukur, Allah pasti akan melipat gandakan nikmatNya kepada kita. Namun, dalam kebanyakan keadaan, kita sebagai manusia sentiasa berasa tidak cukup dengan apa yang kita ada. Keadaan akan bertambah parah apabila kita suka membandingkan diri kita dengan orang lain yang lebih daripada kita. Hal itulah yang akan menyebabkan hilangnya rasa syukur kita. Tambahan pula apabila iman kita tipis, maka senanglah kita untuk dipengaruhi oleh syaitan.

Contoh yang paling mudah ialah pembayaran bonus tahunan oleh majikan kita. Saya pernah mendengar seseorang berkata, “bonus kalau setakat dua bulan, serupa tak de bonus je”. Ini kerana individu tersebut kebiasaannya mendapat bonus antara tiga hingga lima bulan daripada majikannya setiap tahun. Oleh kerana ada ura-ura mengatakan bonus pada tahun tersebut kemungkinan besarnya dua bulan gaji, maka individu tersebut berasa kecewa. Keadaan ini berlaku kerana kita sentiasa membandingkan apa yang kita ada atau apa yang akan kita perolehi dengan sesuatu yang lebih hebat. Kenapa tidak kita membandingkan diri kita dengan orang yang kurang hebat dari kita? Bukankah dengan cara itu, kita akan terus berasa bersyukur dengan apa yang kita perolehi?

Saya teringat seorang rakan sekerja saya. Saya kagum dengan peribadinya. Dia bukan seorang Muslim, namun rasa berseyukur yang ada di dalam dirinya hebat. Saya sendiripun masih jauh untuk mencapai tahap yang dia berada sekarang. Dia tidak akan senang-senang membeli sekiranya dia tidak begitu memerlukan barang tersebut. Apabila dia memberitahu saya bahawa dia memandu Proton Wira manakala isterinya memandu Perodua Kancil, saya terkejut kerana kebanyakan orang dengan gaji beliau itu, pasti mereka sudah memandu kereta yang berharga ratusan ribu ringgit. Apabila saya bertanya, katanya bagi beliau kereta hanya untuk menghubungkan beliau dari satu tempat ke satu tempat yang lain. Samada beliau memandu Proton Wira atau BMW, beliau masih boleh sampai ke tempat yang hendak dituju.

Berdasarkan kepada apa yang saya tulis di atas berhubung isu perbandingan, adakah kita tidak boleh membandingkan diri kita dengan orang yang lebih hebat daripada kita? Sebenarnya, kita masih boleh membuat perbandingan, cuma perlu kena caranya. Nabi Muhammad s.a.w berkata di dalam hadithnya yang berbunyi, “la hasada illa fithnataini; rajulun aataahullahu malan fasullita ‘ala halakatihi fil haqqi wa rajulun aataahullahul hikmah fahuwa yaqdhibiha wayu’allimuha” yang bermaksud “janganlah kamu berhasad kecuali dalam dua perkara iaitu terhadap lelaki yang diberikan harta oleh Allah dan dia membelanjakannya untuk orang lain dalam perkara yang benar dan lelaki yang diberikan ilmu oleh Allah dan dia mengamalkan untuk dirinya dan disampaikan kepada orang lain”. Hadith di atas menunjukkan bahawa perbandingan boleh dibuat dengan tujuan mencapai kebaikan dan bukan untuk menunjuk-nunjuk.

Jika dilihat kepada ayat Al-Qur’an di atas, Allah memberi jaminan sekiranya kita bersyukur dengan pemberiannya maka Allah akan menambah nikmatNya kepada kita. Ini janji Allah. Bukan janji manusia yang boleh tidak ditepati. Allah tidak pernah tidak menepati janjiNya. Namun kita sebagai hambaNya yang serba lemah sentiasa diduga dengan pelbagai dugaan. Terpulang kepada diri kita bagaimana kita menghadapi dugaan tersebut. Namun, apa yang malang ialah apabila kita sendiri tidak tahu yang kita sedang diduga.

Bagaimanakah caranya untuk kita bersyukur? Ucapan Alhamdulillah adalah salah satu daripadanya. Namun dengan hanya mengucapkan Alhamdulillah sahaja tidak mencukupi. Ia perlu dituruti dengan perbuatan. Banyak caranya. Antaranya ialah dengan membayar zakat, memberi sedekah, membantu orang lain yang kurang hebat berbanding diri kita. Itu adalah antara cara-cara kita menunjukkan rasa bersyukur kita kepada Allah.

Dalam ayat yang sama juga Allah mengingatkan kita untuk akibatnya jika kita kufur dan tidak bersyukur. Azab yang menanti kita pastinya amat pedih. Ini juga janji Allah yang pasti akan ditepatiNya. Sama-samalah kita fikirkannya.

Wallahu ‘alam…

'Adil (Justice)

Allah said in Al-Qur'an: "Fa iza hakamtum bainan nassi an tahkumu bil 'adl" which means "if you punish among the human being, you must punish in fairness/justice".

The above Qur'anic verse is simple and seems to be straightforward but it is not. Allah said punish in fairness/justice. But what is fairness/justice? Justice is to put something in its place. The meaning is wide enough to cover a lot of things from the appointment of ruler/leader to the implementation of Syariah laws. Have we been treated fairly so far by our leaders? At a glance, we may say yes but if we think in depth, we may say otherwise. The laws that should be implemented by a Muslim leader/government is the Syariah laws as demonstrated in the Qur'an and Hadith. More so in our country that claimed to be an Islamic country and alleged that a lot of other Islamic countries are admiring its "Islamic" concept.

However, in Malaysia, what laws are being implemented? Is it Islamic laws? We do not need a genius to figure out that. Even an ordinary citizen of our country knows that we are upholding the law that was introduced by the British and sidelined our own Islamic laws. Funny isn't it? An Islamic Counrty is unable to uphold Islamic laws. This is further proven under Article 4 of our Federal Constitution, which provides that "this Constitution is the supreme law of the Federation and any law passed after Merdeka Day which is inconsistent with this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void".

In Islam, our utmost guidance is the Qur'an and Hadith. There shall be no other book or laws higher than the divine book, Al-Qur'an. But the said Article 4 stated otherwise. Even if the Syariah laws is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution, the Syariah laws, which is a divine laws that comes from Allah the Almighty shall, to that extent, be void.

After 50 years of independence, we are still following the British laws that was drafted by the Reid Commission. Are we fully independent?

In my humble opinion, our leaders/government, after 50 years of “independence” and run the country on their own, still fail to uphold and put the Islamic laws vis-à-vis Al-Qur’an in its proper place. Have they done justice to us? My answer is absolutely “no”. While our leaders proudly and always tell the people and the whole world that Malaysia is an Islamic country (may be because we are member of OIC), I seriously think that they need to be guided by the following hadith: -

Narrated by Ma’qil:-

The Prophet (pbuh) said, “If any ruler having the authority to rule Muslim subjects dies while he is deceiving them, Allah will forbid paradise for him”.
-rawahul bukhari-

Wallahu ‘alam…

Polygamy

Allah said in Al-Qur’an: “Fankihu ma ‘taabalakum minan nisai mathna wa thulatha wa rubaa’ fain khiftum alla ta’dilu fa wahidah” which means “So you marry the women two, three or four, but if you are afraid that you can’t be fair (equal treatment to all of them), then (marry) only one”.

The above Quranic verse is an authority that Allah allows Muslim men to have four wives at any one time. However, such privileged comes with a condition and that condition is not something that is easy to fulfill i.e. give equal treatment to each and everyone of them.

“Equal treatment” is a simple self-explanatory phrase but more often than not, those who practice polygamy “overlook” or “choose to overlook” this requirement. The treatment here refers to everything from the foods to the house to the sexual needs. While most of those who practice polygamy thought that they have the capability to have more than one wife, I would say that majority, if not all of them are in fact and indeed do not have such capacity to practice polygamy. Just imagine, when the husband buys foods for his fourth wife, he is also obliged to buy the same foods for his other wives. If the fourth wife is staying in a double storey bungalow and third & second wives are staying in a separate double-storey terrace house while the first wife is staying in a single storey terrace house, that is not fair. To be fair to all of them, the husband must ensure that his wives are staying is a same type of house. If the husband is buying a cloth for the fourth wife, say silk material, the other three wives must also get the cloth of the same quality and definitely not of cotton material.

Further, the husband must spend his time equally among his wives, which means, the husband must move from one place to another on equally number of days basis.

So, is it easy to practice polygamy? Well, it may look easy but believe me, it is hard to practice the true polygamy concept according to the Islamic requirement. This requirement is more important than and harder to achieve as compared to our ISO certification. I bet, if SIRIM is to asses husbands who practice polygamy in term of the equal treatment, 99.999% will not get the ISO certification. I know a lot of men are using/depending on this Quranic verse when they want to have more than one wife but they only look at the first portion of the verse. Should they look at the second portion of the verse (and really understand the express and implied meaning of the verse) when Allah said “but if you are afraid that you can’t be fair (equal treatment to all of them), then (marry) only one”, do you think that they dare to practice polygamy? I will say “NO”, they won’t.

Such malpractice makes polygamy, which is initially a good Islamic concept to be seen as a tool of victimizing the women. There was one time my former Boss (a non-muslim) asked me about polygamy when we were together in her car on the way back to office. Initially, I explained to her about it. But after sometimes, we were debating about it, as I agree with the Islamic concept of polygamy, which she is totally against. Finally, she asked me one question – Will you allow your wife to have four husbands including you? My answer was a straight and firm “NO”. So, she said if a man does not want his wife to have more than one husband, he should do the same to his wife. Sounds logic but that is not the case. I told her, if a woman is allowed to have more than one husband at any one time, how are we then going to determine on the child’s paternity? Who is the father? Well, to certain extend, I managed to shut her mouth but then she asked me about the inequality in term of treatment given to the wives, which to certain extent I do agree with her that most men who practice polygamy are not fair to their wives. Then she suggested to me that since I agree with her, don’t I think that polygamy should be stopped from being practised. Wow! Looks like I was caught by my own words, but then I told her that we do not simply abolish a good system just because some people in charge of the system abuse the system. I gave her an example of traffic system. We have speed limit on the road. While it is a good system (to have the speed limit), are we going to abolish the speed limit system just because most drivers (including me…hehehe) always beat the speed limit? So, by that, we ended our conversation (coincidentally, we reached our office by that time).