Think about 'this' on the last 10 days of Ramadan…

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

Reflection

The Declining Day (Al-'Asr)
1. By the declining day,
2. Lo! Man is in a state of loss,
3. Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort 
one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.
***

WHEN my previous article in Harakah (the issue of 13-16^th June 2016) entitled ‘Growing up in Kuala Kangsar’ was up in Harakahdaily, a comment by one reader, Hussy Husainy caught my attention. He wrote: “The Malays have given Umno 59 years to lead. Until now we can see it has failed the Malays. Therefore it is now time for Umno to tie up with PAS and let it lead. It is now or never!”

Since we are observing the last 10 days of Ramadan; let’s leave the 'provocative' suggestion but explore to what I had heard and read from some Islamic intellectuals (ustazs) about the impact of Ramadan (or should leave) upon us, Muslims.

Generally all Muslims throughout the world fast during Ramadan…thus Muslims from any corners of the world adhere and practice this third or fourth pillar in 'Rukun Islam' (fasting)…in the Qur’an the fasting ‘ayah’ reads:  “Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness." (Q2:183)

Five ‘ayahs’ before the fasting ‘orders’; Allah SWT says: “O ye who believe! The law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain; then grant any reasonable demand, and compensate him with handsome gratitude, this is a concession and a Mercy from your Lord. After this whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave penalty.” (Q2:178)

Both ‘ayahs’ begin with “O ye who believe’…but whats our attitude towards both calls from Allah SWT. Why the difference in treating the ‘ayahs’: why for the ‘ayah’ on ‘qisas’ there are many ‘errrr’ and ‘errr’ (excuses)…didn’t Muslims were told to submit to all orders from Allah SWT and to refrain from things He had forbidden?

An ‘ustaz’ said, many of us had read the Qur’an over and over again, but to miss one great point again and again until we were no longer in the world (die)…the Qur’an is sent to us to guide us in life but whats our attitude towards it?

To explain his point the ustaz likened it to our attitude when we receive a notice or memo from our boss in our work place. Our superior asked us to do this and that…are we going to perform our tasks immediately or we let ourselves being stuck and wasting our time in praising the ‘beautiful’ language of the memo, the quality of the paper used and ‘groovy’ signature of our boss?

Or are we going to sing the message of the memo aloud in office including in front of our colleagues and boss? Perhaps if we do so, our boss would fired us immediately!

The Qur’an contains do and don’t from Allah SWT, the Lord of the Universe but what are our attitude towards it. Are we only good in taking or performing things that suit us and reject things that do not please us?

As Muslims we should obeyed all Allah SWT words in the Qur’an. Allah SWT has given us warning on this matter in one Qur’anic verse where He warns us not to become like the Children of Israel who disobey some of Allah SWT’s commandments in the Taurah, as stated in Ayah 85 Surah Al-Baqarah which reads; “…Then is it only a part of the Book that ye believe in, and do ye reject the rest? But what is the reward for those among you who behave like this but disgrace in this life? And on the Day of Judgment they shall be consigned to the most grievous penalty. For Allah is not unmindful for what ye do.”

In the following verse (Ayah 86 Al-Baqarah), Allah SWT says: “Such are those who buy the life of the world at the price of the Hereafter. Their punishment will not be lightened, neither will they have support.”

Are our lives truly guided by the Qur’an? Or are we good in taking what we think are good to us and ignoring what we feel bad? Regarding this, Allah the Almighty warns in Surah al-Baqarah 2:85, that to accept some part of the Qur’an and to reject some is to reject all of it. There is no room for partial acceptance in your relationship with the Qur’an; there cannot logical be.

Now let us have a good look once again at Ayah (Ayat) 178 and 183 of Surah Al-Baqarah (Cow); the question is why we fully accepted God’s commandments regarding fasting but we were reluctant to his laws of ‘qisas’. Fasting is an individual deed but to implement ‘qisas’, we need to have a government (state) first.

Muslims should have no reservations in implementing all of Allah SWT commands including hudud law and preventing ‘mungkar’ (sins). Having reservation on any of Allah SWT’s commands is a clear violation of our oath, the ‘syahadah’, that we will submit and obey all of Allah SWT’s commands.

Some scholars even say having such an attitude will nullify our ‘syahadah’ and is sufficient to make a person ‘kafir’ (a non-believer). And Allah SWT has given us warning on this matter in Ayah 85 Surah al-Baqarah (stated above) where Allah SWT warns us not to become like the Children of Israel who disobey some of Allah SWT’s commandments in the Taurah.

We must accept Islam fully as the only way of life thus there’s no separation of politics and religion. Now back to Umno-PAS issue, the Malays could be united only by Islam; party or parties that are reluctant to follow the way of the Prophet (s.a.w.) should be abandoned; only the ones that are willing to carry out Allah’s and His Prophet’s orders should be given support as I had mentioned in the ‘Growing up in Kuala Kangsar’ article.

To achieve unity the Malay/Muslims (PAS-Umno if you like it) need to adhere fully to Islam and put aside ism such as nationalism, which only perpetuates secularism.  Malays cannot take Islam merely as a conglomerate of symbols and ceremonial expressions; such an undertaking will only undermine the role of Islam in society.

So the solution to Malay/Muslim unity as suggested by some scholars is by fully accepting Islamic teaching including Islamic law such as ‘hudud’. Thus if a group fails to adhere to such law while another one is in favour of it, then there is no unity among the two groups. Former PAS 'mursyidul am' (spiritual leader), Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying if Umno practice Islam fully, then there was no need for us to have PAS. 

Yes, while doing recommended deeds such as 'i'tikaf' (staying in masjid), recite the Qur'an, making 'du'as' (supplication) and performing 'zikr' (the rememberence of Allah), think about 'this' during the last 10 days of Ramadan. Think and reflect whether we are in His straight path. Ask ourselves whether we obeyed all of Allah's orders or we reject some of them?

Yes, Allah The Almighty tells us not to divide, but first of all, we must hold fast to the Rope of Allah – “And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah (i.e. this Qur'an), and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allah's Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren (in Islamic Faith), and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allah makes His Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.,) clear to you, that you may be guided.” (QS. Ali Imran 3:103)