Assalamu 'Alaikum
Belum
Sampai ke belum?
Sampai dah? Kemana?
Belum.
Sampai ke belum?
Sampai dah.
Kemana?
Belum.
Isy isy! Sampai ke belum?
Sampai dah.
Kemana?
Belum.
Papa! Sampai ke belum?
Sampai dah………….
You can go crazy with your nine year old daughter on this.
It’s a play on the word belum which in Malay means ‘not yet ‘. Belum, the pronoun,
is also the name of a royal heritage site on the mountainous East West Highway
housing the world’s oldest rainforest reserve. A popular tourist sport with
hotels on a man made island, actually a Dam made island, overlooking a man made
lake, half way to Kelantan or Perak depending which way you’re heading. You can
have fun with your kids on the play on words on whether you have arrived at
Belum or belum(i.e.not yet in Malay)! But don’t try with Mama when she ‘s
sleepy, might not get much of a response.
Here I am on the hotel balcony overlooking the beautiful
fresh water lake contemplating the freshness of a Ramadhan morning a couple of
days before Eid, in sya Allah. Contemplating indeed what we have done wrong as
a Muslim ummah, or more appropriate what we have not done right. The monsters
of Israel outplaying even Adolf Hitler is raining death and destruction on
little kids, babies, invalids and the civilian population in Gaza. Patients in
hospitals die on their beds not from wounds which put them there, but bombs
Israel lands on the hospitals. Geriatric and invalid ‘terrorists’ are also not
spared when their old folks and invalid homes are rained carnage by the
‘innocent lambs of Israel’ as they wish to portray themselves to the world.
I have just witnessed a dehumanizing video of a 6 year old
Palestinian boy crying in a locked room as a Jewish parent encourages their
daughter of the same age to continuously hit the hapless boy with a huge stick.
I won’t even talk of the countless display of Israeli inhumanities that is
flooding the world at this very moment. As we may have reached the depths of
sadness in our hearts, the Palestinians have probably reached the depths of
their despair and more. An apt saying today is “You don’t have to be Muslim to
feel for the Palestinians, you just have to be human.”
I am just an ordinary citizen of this world. If ever there
is a legacy I wish to leave to the Muslim ummah when I part this world, is to urge
my Muslim brothers and sisters to study and contemplate the historical events
that brought them to where they are today. As predicted by our Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him, we are plentiful, like foams of waves in the
ocean, but weak.
We are nation states instead of under one Muslim Caliphate.
We hold no strength in terms of technology nor inventions relying almost in
total on everyone else. God gave some of us untold wealth but we allow others
to manipulate us, to control and defuse the potential use of our wealth to
defend ourselves.
We are impeccable Muslims in rituals but abject failures in
the implementation of the Quran. I have exhorted before and I exhort again, we
have to begin by recognizing ourselves. Recognising first of all that our problems
begun with the fall of our last caliphate, and the ensuing colonization of our
lands. Where the colonialists destroyed our souls and sapped our strength by
the secularization of our religion.
The strength of our religion in days gone by was when our
religion was wholesome or syumul, especially when our leaders were masters of
both world, our citizens were nearly masters of both worlds and our education
produces children who will be masters of both worlds. We had amongst others Ibn Senna (Avicenna) as
Master of Medicine, and AlJabr the Founder of Algebra to name a few. In other words masters of Quran and
Sunnah, as well as masters of worldly knowledge.
The Quran and Sunnah was our lives and our law, and we always
begin our scientific research by first researching the verses of the Quran. The
colonials ripped out Quran and Sunnah from our lives, replaced Quranic laws
with their man made laws, and imposed their godless subjects in our education
system, imposed riba in our economy and perpetuate an economic system that
makes them perpetually enriched by our support of their system.
Allah and His Rasul declared war on the practitioners of
riba; we embraced riba as an article of faith in our lives. We began to look to
the west for everything and we need not invent anything for there are always
others to do it for us. When we placed such a high regard for another
civilization in our lives, little by little our self confidence is destroyed.
We also embraced a system of electing our leaders which
ensures there is constant disputes at national levels, which distracts our
minds from working on Muslim unity at international level, which is crucial for
our defence against like what is happening in Gaza. We made deals with the
devil to ensure we win over local national rivals, and in so doing sell away
our Deen.
We are now in the 21st century clueless about the
source, origin and cause of our present weaknesses. We watch the holocaust over
Gaza with total impotence.
If there is anything we can begin to do to change things is
to ensure we choose as our next batch of leaders, people who understand this
heritage. People who understood what our recent history has done to us.
People who are masters of both worlds or at least offer
themselves with a political structure that ensure as a group they are masters
of both worlds i.e masters of Quran and Sunnah, and masters of worldly
knowledge. We cannot be led by Scholars alone, nor can we be led by Worldly
people alone, who places no value on the advice of scholars.
We must be led by a grouping of Islamic Professionals, who
are at all times guided by Scholars.
Where can we find this group? That is our common task and
challenge at hand.
Wassalam,
Zahid C72
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