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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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BISMILLA HIRRAHMA NIRRAHIM
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH , THE MOST BENEFICENT , THE MOST MERCIFUL
AL KAHF
4. And to warn those (Jews, Christians, and pagans) who say, "Allah has
begotten a son (or offspring or children)."
5. No knowledge have they of such a thing, nor had their fathers. Mighty is
the word that comes out of their mouths [i.e. He begot (took) sons and
daughters]. They utter nothing but a lie.
Dear Yahya,
The four questions I put forward to you is not meant to divert your
attention away from the dialogue.
I assure you it is relevant because normally when two people of different
backgrounds decide to have a proper discussion, a search for a common
ground should be made. Otherwise we will be communicating ideas which are
totally unacceptable to each other.
OK, let me clarify the four questions:-
1 Where did you learn about Quran.
2 Did you learn Quran before conversion to Christianity or after.
3 What is the meaning of Islam and what is Fardhu Ain.
4 What is Unconditional Love.
This is my answer as to why these questions are relevant.
The meaning of Islam as I know it is ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION TO GOD. There are
two parts here.
What is "absolute submission" and what is "God".
The meaning of God is the One that Creates All Other Things. Not only
that, God is also known by His Attributes. There are 99 of them in the
Quran, and the name that represents all these Attributes and God's Nature
is Allah. More narrative description of Nature of Allah than Al Ikhlas
verse 1 is Al Baqarah: 255.
Absolute Submission mean 100% submission to this God that I have mentioned
above. Not to other "god".
Fardhu Ain means things every Muslim has to know about their religion upon
reaching the age of puberty, i.e.. 15 for boys, and 9 for girls.
This means, I must be correct if I assume that prior to your conversion to
Christianity, you had already have certain amount of basic knowledge of
Islam.
However, when I went through your 'confession" I could see no trace of this
knowledge. This puzzled me. A lot of questions dangling that needed to be
answered first.
Since I saw no trace of basic Islamic knowledge in your 'confession", I
further assumed that you have acquired the ability to quote various verses
of Quran after you have converted into Christianity. If that is the case,
then I can say that we have different views and interpretations of Quran.
However, should you acquire this basic knowledge of Islam prior to your
conversion to Christianity, I wonder how you have managed to take a big
step in your life by changing your religion. As you know Islam is a very
strict monotheist.
The question related to unconditional love comes because I want to see how
you see the Nature and Attributes of God. You stressed so much on Al- Barr
( Goodness), Mercy (Ar Rahim) and Grace (Ar Rahman). But the way we look at
God is much more than that. We see another 95 Attributes of God all at
once, i.e. Allah.
Your early years indicated that you were taught to obey the five pillars,
and attended religious classes. I beg your pardon if I say these are the
syariat. The more basic than this is the Tauhid. Don't you know that
"Awalludin Ma'rifatullah"? ( The beginning of religion is to know God? ).
In what way could you have performed all these religious rites if you did
not know who you worship?. What is His Nature, his Attributes, His actions
and Law and Orders?.
Do you know why verse 1 to 5 of Al Alaq were the first verses to be sent
down?.
While Islam requires absolute submission, Islam does not require blind
submission. Prophet Muhammad SAW (Peace Be Upon Him) said in a Sahih, all
deeds without intent is not acceptable. Therefore to perform the syariat
but not knowing why they should be performed is not counted as Ibadah.
Al Alaq verse 1 to 5 indicate that the first move towards total submission
to God is to acquire knowledge. And the first knowledge that a Muslim
should acquire is "Awalludin Ma'rifatullah". After a person has this
understanding, then only can he proceed and perform the solat, fasting,
zakat, pilgrimage and the rest.
I am puzzled as to why you felt " spiritually unfulfilled, no matter how
many good deeds you did, you were never sure whether Allah is pleased."
I suspect that you have never known who is Allah. I wonder why you "cried
out to Allah but He seemed distant and impersonal.". I have to assure you
that you got it the wrong way. As far as I know, nobody who has tried to
search for Allah ended up with a different religion. There are cases where
those who searching hard for Allah ended up as an "Islamic deviationist".
But there have been no cases where a person ended up with different
religion. This is something new to me.
Should you have really "cried out to Allah but He seemed distant and
impersonal.", I wonder why you did it on your own? Didn't you try to get
help from an ustaz or somebody who knows about Islam?.
Do you know why God sent messengers in the first place?. God Al Alim knows
all too well that there are limitations to human minds. He knows that human
beings despite their undisputed intelligence could not reach Him without
help. That is why God sent down messengers. So as to enable common people
like us to know who is God, what He looks like and what He wants from us.
If you tried to find God on your own, there is a certainty that you will be
led far away from Him. Check out a Hadith for this.
To illustrate further your ignorance of Islam, you said " I was
enthusiastic about blending into the American culture, but unfortunately, I
was led further from the truth".
My confusion is, why did you need to blend into the American culture?
Was it because you felt that the American culture is a dominant culture and
therefore is the right culture that you should assimilate yourself into?.
Of course you would be led further away from the truth because the real
religion of The United States of America is consumerism, not Christianity.
I also find it difficult to chew when you said that we are all sinners by
nature. Why should I start my life with "negative account". Why should God
with an "unconditional love" leave me in this situation when I was an
infant and I know nothing about all these?.
Let us say, if my father steals something, why should I be caught by the
police? I did no wrong, therefore the police should not catch me. The
police should catch my father because he is the one who stole the thing.
For your information, there are certain qualifications a human being should
have before he can shoulder the responsibility to be Muslim
First, he must reach a certain age to enable him to differentiate between
right and wrong. In this case, when he reaches puberty. Infants, toddlers,
young kids are exempted.
Second, he must have sight, hearing and not mute. Otherwise Islam is not
applicable to him. The reason is absence of these basic abilities will
impair his ability to use his mind. There is not much he can learn in a
dark and silent world.
Third, the call of Islam must reach him. If a guy lives in a jungle in
Amazon and has never heard anything about Islam, he is exempted from being
a Muslim.
Fourth, he must be sane, not mentally retarded. Mentally retarded people is
exempted from being a Muslim because they could not use their mind
effectively.
Therefore, if you say all human beings are sinner by nature, those young
people who died carry the sins with them to the Hereafter. This does not
make sense. Why should God with an "unconditional love" let them carry all
the sins that they did not commit?
What about those children who are not baptized, in a far away land who have
never had any contact with either Christianity or Islam? Are they sinners
too?
Why should God Who offers "unconditional love" puts us in "negative
account" condition in the first place?
Why God Who offers "unconditional love" created Hell.?
The way I see it, unconditional means no condition, and that should be
absolute. The existence of Hell is in no way suggesting that God's love is
unconditional. It is unconditional SUBJECT to certain "condition". And
according to you that condition is " to accept Isa Al Masih as the Lord and
Saviour".
Failure to fulfill this condition means that the person is destined for
Hell. Is that a condition?. To illustrate further inconsistency of your
preferred doctrine, You have said in what I presume as a grand finale of
your "sermon", " Kita semua sudah berdosa dan hukuman TUHAN kerana kedosaan
kita adalah mati jahanam dalam neraka."
As you can see, you are already conflicting yourself by saying the things
you said about unconditional love and the threat of Hell. Further, you
failed to see the striking similarity between the concept of "unconditional
love" as you understand it with verse 48 and 100 of An Nisaa. It is too
obvious to me that both are quite a similar "product" except that the
packaging is different. You package the concept attractively but not
necessarily the right way. The verses put it in a direct and plain
packaging, with no hidden agenda. Just plain truth about reality.
In Islam, Isa Alaihissalam is a messenger of God, just like Nuh, Ibrahim,
Yaakob, Musa and Harun (Peace be upon all of them.). He did not die, let
alone die for our sins. He was elevated to the Heaven and was never
crucified. God Al Mighty has never sent him to die for our sins but to
deliver a message for Bani Israel. The Quran mentions about Isa Masih in
many surahs, among them are as follows:-
BISMILLA HIRRAHMA NIRRAHIM
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH , THE MOST BENEFICENT , THE MOST MERCIFUL
AL MAIDAH
72. Surely, they have disbelieved who say: "Allah is the Messiah [Isa
(Jesus)], son of Marry (Mary)." But the Messiah [Isa (Jesus)] said: "O
Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Verily,
whosoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, then Allah has
forbidden Paradise for him, and the Fire will be his abode. And for the
Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers) there are no helpers.
73. Surely, disbelievers are those who said: "Allah is the third of the
three (in a Trinity)." But there is no ilah (god) (none who has the
right to be worshipped) but One Ilah (God -Allah). And if they cease not
from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the
disbelievers among them.
74. Will they not repent to Allah and ask His Forgiveness? For Allah is
OftForgiving, Most Merciful
75. The Messiah [Isa (Jesus)], son of Maryam (Mary), was no more than a
Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His
mother [Maryam (Mary)] was a Siddiqah [i.e. she believed in the words of
Allah and His Books (see Verse 66:12)]. They both used to eat food (as
any other human being, while Allah does not eat). Look how We make the
Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.)
clear to them, yet look how they are deluded away (from the truth).
110. (Remember) when Allah will say (on the Day of Resurrection). "O Isa
(Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary)! Remember My Favour to you and to your
mother when I supported you with RûhulQudus [Jibrael (Gabriel)] so
that you spoke to the people in the cradle[] and in maturity; and when
I taught you writing, AlHikmah (the power of understanding), the
Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel); and when you made out of the
clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My Permission, and you
breathed into it, and it became a bird by My Permission, and you healed
those born blind, and the lepers by My Permission, and when you brought
forth the dead by My Permission; and when I restrained the Children of
Israel from you (when they resolved to kill you) since you came unto
them with clear proofs, and the disbelievers among them said: 'This is
nothing but evident magic.' "
116. And (remember) when Allah will say (on the Day of Resurrection): "O
Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary)! Did you say unto men: 'Worship me
and my mother as two gods besides Allah?' " He will say: "Glory be to
You! It was not for me to say what I had no right (to say). Had I said
such a thing, You would surely have known it. You know what is in my
innerself though I do not know what is in Yours, truly, You, only You,
are the AllKnower of all that is hidden and unseen.
I reckon that the powerful appeal of this approach has been used to lure
non Christians to your religion especially for those who have personal
conflicts and emotional problems.
This religion, Islam, is a religion meant for those who, on their own will,
want to use their every intellectual capability in search of true God and
to seek His Blessings. .
Regarding your comment ".... But rather through our weakness and frailty,
we commit sinful acts. Therefore, in Islam, one Muslim may be less sinful
than another Muslim and thus, it creates " holier than thou" syndrome
amongst Muslims. My comment is as follows.
Being weak and frail is not only the nature of man rather, it is the nature
of all creatures. As far as I can see, weak and frail are superlative form
of language. The Muslims use these terms in comparison to God Al Mighty as
described in Al Baqarah verse 255 and not in comparison with other
creations.
For example, the angel Jibrail was created in the best of form. He has 600
wings and if he stands in from of us, he would occupy the whole horizon and
the whole east and west. God willing, He could crush the earth with his
bare hands just like we could crush a tomato. He too, is weak and frail by
comparison with God Al Mighty. On his way to accompany Prophet Muhammad SAW
to the heavens to seek an audience with God Al Mighty, Both Prophet
Muhammad and Jibrail wept knowing too well that their hearts and souls are
in the Hands of God Almighty. Prophet Muhammad SAW asked Jibrail AS why he
wept as he is assured of God blessings. Jibrail AS said there was no
assurance to that as his future is solely in the Hands of God Almighty.
And to commit sin is human as we are easily distracted from God by what we
see in front of us. But to conclude that it creates " holier than thou"
syndrome amongst Muslims is too far fetched.
As I see it, this syndrome is a matter of perception by a weak and frail
creation like human. The fact is nobody knows who is holier than who.
Things like "takwa" can only be understood completely by God Al Mighty.
Human being can only judge a person from the outside appearance, not from
the inside which matters most. Passing judgment on others is not allowed as
in the case of an Asbabul Nuzul Quran whereby a Muslim killed another man
in a war ignoring the unfortunate man's utterance of declaration of faith.
On the contrary, I found that certain faiths practice intermediaries
between man and God Al Hayyum. Some of their rationales are, man are too
sinful to have direct communication with God Al Kuddus. So they create
idols to act on their behalf or employ "holy men and women" to seek
forgiveness from God Al Wadud. This inevitably creates the "holier than
thou " syndrome because the intermediaries are to be regarded as "holy"
first before he/she/it can have direct communicate with God Al Ghafur. Some
of the faiths believe that the middlemen are sinless, (which should also be
read as holier than the rest). While I believe that idols itself are
sinless as they do not have will and mind on their own and therefore are
not burdened with the responsibility to be Muslim, the same concept of
sinless do not apply to man and women as by nature, man do commit
wrongdoings either intentionally or unintentionally.
I do not understand why certain people regard themselves as sinless unless
these "holy men and women" bestow upon themselves the rights to appoint
themselves to be "representatives" of God Al Mighty.
On the contrary, the Muslims believe the exclusive right to forgive man
should be bestowed upon God and strictly God alone as God Al Haq does not
commit sins and does not have any weakness. God Ar Raufful Rahmannul
Ghaffur is so near to all His creations ( and the sign of this is
abundance) that the notion that God is impersonal should dispelled
altogether as a distorted perception of a confused man. More astonishing
than this is when the confused man under the mask of intellectual
discussion is eager to reinforce this distorted ideas unto others. Much
more astonishing than this is when the confused man attempts to make
comparison of two faiths without knowing that he is in total ignorance of
one of the faith.
I feel that it is unfair for a person who have certain degree of knowledge
in Islam and Christianity to make a loop sided commentary on one faith by
degrading one religion in favour of another "religion". This is by itself
is a sinful act as it ridicules the central theme of a faith. It also does
not go well with the idea of a multi-faith harmony as practised by the
people of this country.
As I see it, those who are effected by this syndrome do not realise the
abundance of forgiveness that God Al Mighty could offer.
A hadith tells us of a man whose hobby was to steal the shroud that wrapped
the bodies of buried Muslims. One day, he exhumed a new grave and found a
body of a Muslimah. After removing the cloth, he somehow raped the body and
then left the body naked. He later wanted to repent and seek the advise of
the Prophet Muhammad SAW. The Prophet said that if he came to Allah Al
Wadud with a sin as big as a mountain, Allah Al Mighty will match the sin
with a forgiveness as big as the mountain. If the sin is as big as the
earth, Allah will match the sin with a forgiveness as big as the earth.
The moral of the story is, besides committing sinful acts, some people, due
to the influence of Satan, they also underestimate the kindness Allah Al
Wadudul Ghafur could offer them. They feel that God could never forgive
them for the sin that they have committed. Therefore these people are
committing bigger sin ( if they are aware of this) as they are actually
underestimating God's Attribute of Al Wadud. This is the implication of
verse 1 of Al Ikhlas and this is Fardhu Ain i.e. something that all Muslims
and former Muslims should know.
In our religion, as part of Fardhu Ain, all Muslims should understand that
all creations have direct relationship with Allah Al Khaliqul Bari'ul
Musawwir whether they like it or not. The proof is more than plenty for us
to see to the extend that we take all these for granted.
When you say Allah's love is "because of..." ; Because you love Allah SWT ,
Allah SWT will love you. I suppose the love you express to Allah SWT is
both amalan, iman and ibadat . It is conditional love - depends on us." I
have to tell you that you have got it mixed up.
All happenings in this universe are controlled by God Al Qayyum and this is
God's exclusive right without any interference from any of God's creations.
Nothing in this universe happens without permission from God Al Azim and no
event happens outside the knowledge of God Al Alim. That is to say the
abundance that you and I have been receiving all the time are far from
being measurable.
For example, the body that we have, medulla oblongata, spinal cord and the
muscles that control our every body movement with God's specific
permission, the water that we drink, and its specific proportion to the
size of the earth as a whole, the specific distance of the Sun from planet
earth, the fixed courses taken by the Sun and the moon, the role that the
white blood cells play in our immune system, the creation of stars as
recently discovered by the Hubble Telescope and verse 37 of Ar Rahman, the
love shown by your wife and your children to you and countless more signs
of God Ar Rahman has provided to us regardless of our state of obedience to
Him. All these are the immeasurable love shown by God Ar Ra'uf whether we
are aware of it or not. Whether we are grateful to Him or not. Whether we
recognise it or not. And all these are given " in advance" even before one
start to worship Him or not, or even want to worship Him or not.
All creations have personal and collective relationships with God Al Jame'.
God Al Alim knows all details about you more than yourselves. The reason I
say this is because all human believers or otherwise continue living and
dying. They obtain their sources of living, the food, the water and
everything else. But every moment all creations are inching their way to
God Al Jame'. The proof is, at any given time, we are nearer to our death
and the stars are nearer to their total destruction. All creations will be
gathered, willingly or unwillingly to a place where all human and jinn will
be judged by God Al Hasib, believers or unbelievers alike. This is a place
where human will be willing to trade just about anything so as to escape
the Hell fire, even their own kins.
Regarding your dislike that Muslims are required to recite their prayers in
Arabic, let me tell you something, I actually share your concern but not to
the extend I need to change my religion.
But I guess, it is common sense to say that when we need something we ask
for it, we pray that we will get the thing we want. However, it is also
common sense to say that when we are really in need, there is an emotional
attachment with our prayer. The more we need something, the more emotional
we become. The question is, do we really know what we ask for? Will our
emotion effects our judgment on the most important need that we want?
Despite all the intelligence that is stuck between our two ears, we are
still no way closer to the level of knowledge possesses by God Al Alim. God
by His Attribute of Al Alim (All Knowing) knows the needs of His creations
better than the creation themselves.
Certainly when we pray, we are influenced by a certain degree by our
emotions. While emotion is required, it is also true that emotion effects
our objectivity. (When I analyse an investment proposal, I always leave my
emotions at home, so that I can deliver the best decision possible for my
company ).
On why Muslims recite their prayers in Arabic, it was taught to be that way
by Prophet Muhammad SAW. Our Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), did not act
according to his own desire, but according to wahyu (revelation). Our
Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) managed to maintain the objectivity of his
(Peace Be Upon Him) prayers at all times during his (Peace Be Upon Him)
prophet hood. This is true even in a dire situation, such as in the midst
of wars, when people normally loose their sense of direction and
objectivity. You can check with the sirrah to understand more what I am
trying to say here. Since our Prophet ( Peace Be Upon Him) was an Arab of
Qurayish tribe, his (Peace Be Upon Him) prayers were naturally in Arabic.
Since his (Peace Be Upon Him) Coach was none other than God Al Alim
Himself, his prayer represents the best collection of prayers there is.
Therefore we Muslims try our best possible to recite our prayers as taught
by our Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).
That is not to say that all prayers must be in Arabic. If a Muslim does not
understand Arabic ,he can pray in his own language. However, certain
prayers must be recited in Arabic. In the five daily prayers, all Muslims
must recite the beginning of the prayer in Arabic( Allahuakbar), the
Fatihah, the Tahiyyat and salam. Other than that, there is no really a
requirement to recite in Arabic. Personally, I don't think that is too much
Arabic to memorise. The Fatihah is actually Kalamullah, and I don't think I
can come out with a better recitation than Fatihah. To tell you the truth,
my 4 year old daughter can recite these short prayers quite comfortably.
Right now I am teaching her what all these prayers mean.
If you try to drive your point on praying in Arabic, I think you have gone
a bit off course in trying to justify your "concern".
Frankly speaking, I have actually sat down and tried to write down the best
possible prayer that suits me well. I even did brainstorming, discussion
with friends, did the drafting and redrafting of what was supposed to be
the prayer that suits me best.
Then I recited my prayers outside of the five prayers. But somehow there is
always a prayer used to be recited by our Prophet ( Peace Be Upon Him) that
is better than my prayer, this proved to be true all the time, if I
maintain my objectivity. You can once again check the sirrah to fully
understand what I am trying to say. I want to give you an analogy of what I
am trying to say, but please don't accuse me of engaging " on a long
diatribe on unrelated topic".
Suppose that I give my two year old son two choices, take an RM50 note or a
piece of Kit Kat chocolate (RM1.40 a piece). I can bet with you that my son
will choose the chocolate even though the Ringgit note is more valuable.
Suppose that I give my nephew, a restless 16 year old rascal, two choices,
to pass SPM with grade one or to own an EX 5 Honda. I can also bet you that
he will choose the motorcycle even though SPM grade one is more valuable.
Likewise, suppose that I can give two choices to a 40 year old man, take
half of Kuala Lumpur which is valued at God knows how much, or God
Blessings. I can bet you 90% of the time the man will choose half of Kuala
Lumpur instead of God Blessing because he can see instantly the benefit of
the choice. But that is not necessarily the best decision he can make.
There could be an even better choice than half of Kuala Lumpur, but the man
may not know this reality.
Four days ago I experienced a death of a family member. She was someone
that I care and love so much. God knows what is my immediate wish. But on
the other hand, I also know what should be my best wish, my best prayer. So
rather than following my instinct, my feeling, I am following what I should
have done. Recite the prayers as taught by our Prophet Muhammad SAW.
The point I want to drive here is, everybody has their own wishes. Those
wishes, however, may not be the best possible wishes or prayers. Therefore
the Muslims are encouraged to use the best possible prayers when they need
to ask something from God Al Alim. And the best possible prayers are the
ones recited by our Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Questions related to POINT # 1
Since mankind was created weak but sinless and mankind obviously wants to
follow the guidance from Allah, but it is Allah's will whom he guides and
misguided.
Does this sound right to you?
I agree if you say that mankind is inherently weak, but I don't agree if
you say "mankind obviously wants to follow the guidance from Allah".
My disagreement is based on the fact that there are so many religions in
this world. Each one of them claims that their way is correct. Common sense
says that, due to the huge differences of these religion, some of them are
contradicting with other religions, I can safely say that there are a few
possibilities.
One. All of them are wrong.
Two. Some of them are right, and some of them are wrong.
Three. Only one of them is right and the rest is wrong.
Four. The possibility of all of them are right is zero.
Now, where does all these variations in faith come from?. Where ever they
come from, the fact remains that mankind choose their own religion. How
they choose their own religion is another matter. Some by accident but a
lot of them by traditions and by their own will. You for example, said this
" Until today, I have no regrets of my decision to let Isa Al-Masih rule my
life". I ask you now, can you become a Muslim if you want to? Or can you
become a Buddhist if you want to?. I am quite sure that the answer for both
questions is yes you can, provided that if you want to.
Anyway, I can make a few conclusions from your preference:-
One. You truly believe that your decision is right.
Two. You truly believe you have made an exhaustive search of God.
Three. You believe that you have compelling reasons to believe Isa Al-Masih
is your Lord and Saviour.
Four. You choose your religion based on your free will and nobody, through
your story, have forced you to accept Christianity as your faith.
Likewise, I have chosen Islam as my religion. I too, have gone the same
rationale thinking process that you have gone through. I do not accept
Islam because it is a tradition in my family for the last few hundred
years. I choose Islam because I am an ex auditor who do not believe in any
assumption before I make a thorough audit. But somehow my conclusion is
different from your conclusion. You are a Christian and I am a Muslim.
Don't you think that the power of choice is relevant here.?
You choose Christianity and after you die you will go to place A.
I choose Islam and after I die I will go to place B.
There can not be two ways about this. The Quran mentions about this choice
in many verses in many surahs. I do not know why you underestimate the
issue of choice in your previous E mail. Let's say, if a thief who is
caught by the police is asked why he became a thief in the first place. And
the thief says, "what can I do, it is my fate that I become a thief ". This
does not sounds right to me. No judge will entertain this kind of argument.
But then, the Quran also mention that the moment you have made your choice,
the road to peril or the road to salvation will be made easier to go
through. That is why you can see a lot of people can easily justify their
misdeeds like adultery, gambling and so on. And a lot of people can easily
justify why they should go to mosques and offer solat.
As I have said, The Quran is Kalamullah (Word of God). When you made the
rough translation of As Sajdah verse 13, what you have in mind was the
power of the Will of Allah. While this is true, it is also true that God
speaks with His knowledge of the future. He knows how many people will go
to Heaven and how many people will go to Hell. And He wills that through
the choices made by Jinns and humankind. And the choices made by humankind
are based on reasons which is also created by God Al Alim.
God will banish the Jinns and humankind to Hell through reasons and not
only sheer will. That is why all of creations will be put into one place
later where everyone will have the opportunities to argue their reasons why
they should not go to Hell.
Also relevant to this power of choice is the story you quoted from Quran
about the skepticism expressed by angels about God's new creation, human.
The angels expressed their skepticism based on their knowledge of the Jinns
who inhabited the earth before human was created. The Jinns were involved
in many kinds of misdeeds.
The story goes on to say that God Almighty commanded the angels to bow to
Adam. Meaning that human is a better creation than angels who never disobey
God. However, in practice, this not always true. Some souls are elevated
higher than the angels while a great many of them are a lot lower than
domesticated animals. All this happen due to the choice factor.
If you check the last two verses of Al Ahzaab, you will find that God had
already offered the title of vicegerent to the sky, the earth and the
mountains. All of them declined the offer as they are not properly equipped
to carry out the duty. Human due to certain ability that they posses
willingly take up the job. Although it is a tough assignment, human somehow
took up the gift.
In order to be a vicegerent on earth in favour of angels, human are actual
equipped with a few components. The ability to manage these components
would make human to rise higher than angels or descend as low as
domesticated animals or even lower.
These components are hawa ( the rough English translation is ego), nafsu (
translated as desire), Aqal (Basically brain) and human body. When I say
human, I am referring to the souls not the human as what we normally
understand.
So you see, human have five basic components. Soul, body, brain, desire and
ego.
Soul is the one that is higher than angel if they fulfill certain
conditions. Desire and ego are the testers for the soul. The body is
basically sinless. The body follows what God wills on them. That is why the
body grows old and die. The other four do not grow old. Souls will be
handsomely rewarded if they can juggle the components they have correctly,
the ego, the desire and the brain. If they fail to juggle correctly
according to a prescribed manner called syariat, they will be bound for
Hell. The jugglers on the other hand, are not rated as a failure by God
before they start their performing act.( There is no such thing called
negative account or original sins). But Allah, being the Almighty, knows
the future and He relates His knowledge in verse 13 of As Sajdah.
To me, this verse is fair because I should know the consequences of my
juggling act. If I fail, what would happen. If I succeed then what would
happen. I think I should not be misled into thinking about only the
consequences of a successful juggling act and not being told what will
happen if I fail. Otherwise, everybody will argue why they should not be
thrown to Hell by saying they have not being informed in advance of the
peril of unsuccessful juggling acts.
Allah the All Knowing has complete knowledge of what are in the hearts of
all human. At the same time, He also manages all His creations by way of
His own Laws and Orders. He is aware of the state of obedience of His
creations. Therefore, He also knows the suitability and the final
destination of every Jinn and human. Either they go to Heaven or to Hell.
As you can see, all this is the sign of Allah Al Adl. (Just). Just, does
not mean that every bad guy and good guy will go to the same place. Just,
because He proves to the angels, to the sky, to the mountains and to the
earth of what it takes to be the most honoured creation of all. Tough
assignment on planet earth. In fact, the angels themselves have elected
their best representatives to be the vicegerent on earth. Harut and Marut.
Both of them failed. Check out Al Baqarah for this.
My response to the third part of your point # 1 "IT IS ALLAH 'S WILL WHOM
HE GUIDES AND MISGUIDE. DOES THIS SOUND RIGHT TO YOU?.
If you don't mind I want to add the word "knowledge" after the word "will".
Just to make sure you get it in the right context. The answer is yes. It is
perfectly sounds right to me because if there are things beyond His will,
it means that there things beyond his control. As far as I can see,
everything else other than God Almighty are called creations. If there are
creations beyond His power / control, it means that God Almighty is not so
mighty after all. Meaning that His Attributes of Al Aliyyul Kabirrul Qadir
has certain limitations. That limitation is the thing I called "reasons".
(All 99 Attributes of God Almighty is beyond reasons, unimaginable, and
could not be fully comprehended by all creations. If any of the creations
can measure any of this Attributes, it means that God' Attributes has
certain limitations. Which means, God's Attributes stops and can go no
further beyond certain limit). If you don't mind, I like to remind you
once again that this is also Fardu Ain, something that you should have
known before.
POINT # 2
Your question is " CAN ALLAH WHO CREATED GOOD CAN ALSO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
EVIL"
To put your question in a proper perspective ( according to Tasauf), your
question is actually "kurang ajar" meaning rude. The big word that makes
your question "kurang ajar" is the word "responsibility".
Due to God's Attributes, we Muslims do not address Him or His Will this
way. We say, all goods come from Allah and all evils and mistakes come from
us. But the truth is, all creations come from Allah. All creations means
things that you can see and the things that you cannot see. After all where
do you think Satan comes from? Did some other "god" created him or did
Satan created himself ?. If that is the case, Satan can be as powerful as
God Almighty Himself because he is beyond the reach of God Almighty.
Meaning that, God Almighty is "not so almighty" after all because there are
something else who can rival His Will and Power.
I assure you Mr. Yahya, all these point are difficult to grasp if you do
not have the kalimah LA ILA HAILLALLAH MUHAMMADAR RASULLAH in your heart.
Muslims on the other hand, should not have much difficulties in
understanding the meaning of all these.
This is basically the reason why I say this in my last E mail " You read
the Quran in absence of the faith. Therefore you will derive at the wrong
analysis of the Quran. You will pick up only the Quranic verses that suits
you and to support your hypotheses [ and your hypotheses does not come from
your quest to find the truth, but merely from your bad intention to mislead
Muslims away from their Deen]. We, Muslims pick up everything in the Quran,
and we believe in the Quran as a whole and do not leave even a single
letter.
On your last E mail you say "God has revealed himself (His goodness, mercy,
and grace) BEFORE Islam. God's revelation of Himself and everything else
is diametrically opposite what the Quran said about Allah. The bible (all
the books in the bible) that we have today have been around 600 years
before Islam. In fact, the same bible we have today existed during
Muhammad's time. It is convenient for Muslims to say the bible has been
corrupted".
As you can see, I have been paying a special attention to the meaning of
Islam. As I have told you, Islam means absolute submission to the Almighty
God that created this universe whereas Quran is Kalamullah. It means that
we Muslims believe all that are written in the Quran. One of the verses in
the Quran says something like this:-
Say (O Muhammad SAW): "We believe in Allah and in what has been sent down
to us, and what was sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Isma'il (Ishmael),
Ishaque (Isaac), Ya'qub (Jacob) and Al-Asbat [the twelve sons of Ya'qub
(Jacob)] and what was given to Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus) and the Prophets
from their Lord. We make no distinction between one another among them and
to Him (Allah) we have submitted (in Islam)." (Ali Imran : 84).
So when you used the term "before Islam" to me, I honestly have to tell
you that the term does not make sense. To us, Muslims, there is no such
thing as 'before Islam" as all prophets (Peace Be Upon All of Them) are
Muslims inclusive of Adam Alaihissalam and Isa Alaihissalam. You can read
Al Baqarah : 213 for this.
All of them brought the same message from God Almighty i.e. Islam. The only
difference is that they brought with them different syariats, which were
suitable for particular people during a particular time. Syariat is
basically the laws and orders for the day which were suitable for that
particular people. Prophet Muhammad SAW, being the last of these
messengers, was sent down for everybody else after him. And since there is
no more prophet after him, the syariat he brought along with him will
remain until the last day. And since the syariat is meant for everybody
after him, the previous syariats brought along by Daud, Musa, Isa and the
other prophets ( Peace Be Upon All of Them) for their particular people
were changed. That is all.
That is not to say other prophets are not good or had err in their
syariats. Far from that. They are the special people who were chosen by God
Al Alim to be the best among all of God's creations to spread the words of
God Almighty on earth.
During the time of Isa Alaihissalam, his disciples professed like this, "LA
ILA HAILLALLAH ISA RASULLAH. His disciples too, were all Muslims following
the syariat of Isa Alaihissalam.
During the time of Musa Alaihissalam, his disciples professed like this,
"LA ILA HAILLALLAH MUSA RASULLAH. And so on for the other prophets (Peace
Be Upon All of Them).
And consequently, I want to add that no Muslim can be regarded as a Muslim
if they do not believe in this. They will be an apostate like you. This is
part of Iman (the believe in all prophets). Didn't you learned all this
when you were a kid?
Regarding to what you have wrote" It is convenient for Muslims to say the
bible has been corrupted". I have so say to you that I have not mention
anything yet about the bible. True to what I have already mentioned to you,
I do not read the bible, therefore I could not comment much. But if I am
still an auditor, I like very much to do an audit of the origin of the
bible and the language used in the bible.
When I was still in secondary school I used to read "Hikayat Hang Tuah". If
you care to read the book, you will find out that the book is very nice and
entertaining to read. It tells about legends ,the magic things, the
undisputed loyalty of Hang Tuah, his strength and so on. I do not know how
true is the story, but one thing I am quite sure of is, Hang Tuah himself
did not write the book nor dictate the writing of the book, or any of his
companions. I don't even know when the book was written. I wonder how the
writers could relate all the stories in the book without even interviewing
the main character or the people related to the characters. I am not even
sure whether the writer himself was "sinless" or not.
As the problem with language, as everybody know that languages of the world
are evolved based on geographical location or region or culture. Therefore
every language is unique. One can not really translate 100% of the contents
of, say a book, in another language without compromising on the original
content. Although the idea of translating a book itself is a good idea,
one can not run away from this inherent deficiency.
For example, if a Malay makes an exclamation remark " Alamak" when he is
caught by the religious officers for committing adultery. An American can
only translate that into "My God" or may be "Shit". He can not translate
the exclamation as " Oh mother" as this will be out of context. Then comes
an Arab who wants to translate the English version of this remark into
Arabic. He may translate this exclamation remark "My God" as "Ya Rabbi".
Then comes another Arab who then read the translation as "Ya Rabbi" and
says " Oh! Actually the Malay guy is praying".
OK I understand the example may be a little exaggerated, but the point is,
there are bound to be deficiency in the original content when a person
translate a book from one language to another not to mention whether the
event really took place as the writers themselves did not witness the event
or obtain their sources through a proper audit trail. Merely claiming this
book is holy or that book is holy does not make the book itself holy. Only
the readers would like to regard the book as holy.
POINT # 3
The first paragraph of your point # 3 is very confusing to us Muslims
because you implied in your writing that God is not Al Aliy', meaning that
God is not exempted from certain conditions and rationale.
You say Allah's actions may be expected but not [as ] a matter of
NECESSITY. Other phrases are " WITHOUT ANY REAL ESSENCE " and "BECAUSE THEY
ARE RIGHT". The last word is " ARBITRARY".
Again I have to impress upon you that you have no idea whatsoever about
"Sifat 20", which is taught to every Muslims before they reach puberty. In
my case, I am already teaching my 6 years old son about this knowledge. Now
I really wonder how you managed to escape yourself from being taught this
"Sifat 20", knowing that you were taught to obey the five pillars of Islam
( which is to me is an advanced stage of Islamic study). What is the use of
these pillars if the land you want to build your house using these pillars
has no proper foundation? No matter how strong is your pillars, if the
house you want to build is located at a swamp, I can assure you that the
house will crack, crumble and destroy sooner or later.
As I have said before, time, space, reasons, responsibility are all created
by God Al Aliy'. He is above all of them. You, in this instance, justify
your points using "reason". While reason is required to kick start the
search for God, reason alone is grossly inadequate to describe God's
Nature, Attributes, Actions and Law and Orders. God knows that human brain
by itself could not understand Him because He is beyond reason. That is why
God sent down many, many messengers to spread His Words.
I give you my version of my understanding of how we acquire knowledge and
reasons and thereafter its limitations.
When a man was born, He does not have any knowledge about anything. He can
only use his brain in a very limited ways like crying when he is hungry and
only crying whenever he feels pain. But at that time, the ability to
understand the things around was already inside him. However, he can not
use this ability because his brain has not fully developed yet. Not that he
does not want to use it, he just can't. He is only a baby. This is the
reason why I don't think the man should be given a "negative account" in
the first place. Throughout time, The man begins to learn about things
around him using his 5 senses. The most important ones are the sight and
the hearing. The other 3 senses contributes only a small percentage of the
knowledge that goes into his mind. Just like a PC. The most important input
devices are the keyboard and the mouse. The scanner, optical pen and D
drive are of lesser importance compared to the first two.
If a person is deprived of hearing and sight, naturally he will also be a
mute. Not much knowledge gets into his mind and therefore he could not use
his inside ability to understand things around him. And therefore he is not
burden with the responsibility to be a Muslim I don't want to talk about
Helen Keller here because she represented the exception. It should be dealt
with as a separate matter.
My analogy about my accounting text book generalise the learning process in
a simple way. We learn simple things first before embarking on more
difficult subjects. In other words, knowledge is stacked on one another
until a person can be called a learned person. This accumulation of
knowledge in ones' mind comes with time and reasoning.
Without time and reason, the process of accumulation of knowledge will not
go effectively and smoothly. So you see, all human being are subjected to
certain Law and Orders created by God Almighty, even the process of
accumulation of knowledge is subjected to certain conditions.
If you never saw an elephant or a mouse, I am very sure that you will not
be able to answer me correctly if I ask you, " Which one is bigger, an
elephant or a mouse?".
You may answer correctly, either by chance or if someone tell you the
answer. But the question is, how deep is your faith in the correctness of
your answer?
Another example is, how you paint a picture of an elephant?
To my understanding, you must have certain method of drawing the elephant.
You may start drawing the body first, then the head, then the trunk, legs,
the tusks and lastly possibly the tail. After that you paint the picture
with a grey pastel or watercolour.
The process is totally different if you take a photo of the elephant using
your camera. If you look at the photo, I like to ask you one question,
which part of the elephant comes first in the photo? The body, the trunk,
the tusks or the grey colour?. The correct answer is, they all come
together as a photo. Even the background comes together with the photo. And
no parts of the photo comes one after another.
That is to say, to help in your understanding, one of the differences of
the knowledge that you have and that of God Al Alim.
To God Almighty, no knowledge of His comes first and no knowledge of His
comes later. His Knowledge about Himself, the past, the present and the
future all comes as one. It does not come one after another. Further His
knowledge is not bound by any conditions like time and reasoning because
these two are His creations. Further His knowledge on everything is
complete.
Human knowledge, however, increases with time. Human ability to probe Mars,
for example was a result of an accumulation of knowledge for the last few
thousand years ( The knowledge about how to mine for metals, how to use
metal and alloy, use of solid fuel as energy, Keppler, F= ma, management of
tangible and intangible resources and so on.). The very fact that human
knowledge accumulates over time indicates that there are limitations to
human mind. Meaning that, human knowledge does not go beyond certain limit.
On the other hand, God's Knowledge is complete, infinity, since before the
creation of time. Exactly since when His knowledge is complete, I really do
not know, because the word "when" denotes time. If the time has not been
created, I could not rationalise His knowledge.
Events happen one after another. But all of them have been written in the
Lauh Mahfuz.
Future events and fate or Suluhil Qadim is not known to any creations
except for those who are allowed to know it for certain purposes. If you
read verse 255 of Al Baqarah carefully, you will find that God' s
Knowledge covers everything in front of you and everything behind you.
Through His Kudrat and Iradat, by way of the conditioning that He subjected
to all of His creations, He determines the timing, nature and extent of
knowledge all human being have. How much you know on certain subjects, how
you know these subjects, your level of knowledge and so on are all within
His Power and Will.
That is to say, human knowledge is no match for the knowledge possessed by
God Almighty in any way imaginable and unimaginable aspects. When you say
something, you are saying it based on your perception, level of knowledge,
background and so on that shapes whatever you have between your two ears.
That is to say that you say things based on your imperfect knowledge.
And for that reasons, the words you said like "WITHOUT ANY REAL ESSENCE,
BECAUSE THEY ARE RIGHT, ARBITRARY and NECESSITY" are all misguided. These
words that you used are not guided by your knowledge of God but rather by
your "hawa" (ego). Ego gives birth to jealousy/envy.
If you want to know what I am trying to tell you, you can check to verse
120 of Al Baqarah and verse 19 of Surah Ali Imran. See the tafsir too (by
Muslims, not non Muslims).
As I have said in my last E mail, Allah is the Truth. How can the Truth can
be wrong? Who is suppose to determine what is right and what is wrong here?
You or the One that have more knowledge than you?
On WHY you think that "Allah' s love and forgiveness does not relate to His
Nature (because He does not reveal).... You can find the clues for the
answer in verses 6 and 7 of al Baqarah. For a more narrative description
you can check to verse 40 of An Nur. Check the tafsir too.
For the consequences for the people described in the above surahs, you can
check to Al Baiyina verse 6.
I reckon that you have made quite an impressive presentation of Islam in
your last few E mails. I presumed that you must have done a thorough
research of the Quran. I believe you have managed, to certain extend, to
sow the seeds of doubts in the hearts of many Muslims and that is what you
looking for. Your research however lacks the main and vital ingredient to
understand Quran as a whole. That ingredient is called LA ILA HAILLALLAH
MUHAMMADAR RASULULLAH. Because of this deficiency, you, therefore, will
always derive at the wrong conclusion of Quran.
Everything that I have said is based on whatever little knowledge I have
about Al Ikhlas. As I have told you before, I am an investment analyst, not
an ustaz. Since you said you know Al Ikhlas, I think you have a better
understanding of the surah than me.
Lastly but still a relevant topic is this story:-
Back in 1993, I bought an apartment in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. It was a
quite a nice apartment, a home a could afford. Unfortunately later on I
found out that the place was not really nice beacause there were vice
activities in that area. I even had a prostitute climbing down from the 9th
floor into my apartment at the 8th floor, through the balcony. Further, I
felt that an apartment was not very safe for my kids because I was afraid
that they would play superman or spider man whenever I was not around.
So I sold off the apartment and got myself a double story linked house. It
was a nice house with two little gardens in front and at the back. There
was no vice activities there and I didn't have to worry much if my kids
want to fly like superman.
What I want to say here is, I sold off my religion...oops, my apartment in
favour of a better house and I think I have made the right decision.
I say I have made the right decision because I know both the conditions of
the house and the apartment.
I cannot say I have made the right decision, if I only know thoroughly only
one of them and not even a superficial understanding of the other house.
My essences of my selection for a house are security and comfort.
Likewise, the essence of my religion is LA ILA HAILLALLAH MUHAMMADAR
RASULULLAH. Islam is my religion .Knowledge ( and not emotion) is the
first step to search for God Ar Rahman. Fardhu Ain is the essential
knowledge required to search for God of which "Ma'rifatullah" is the first
of these knowledge that should be learned to.
I really believe that if you search yourself hard enough using your 5 basic
senses as a start, you will find a conclusion that there is no God but God
Almighty Who has no association with anybody and Who, alone is self
sufficient. I therefore call upon you and everybody that is related to you
to ISLAM and profess LA ILA HAILLALLAH MUHAMMADAR RASULULLAH.
Together we worship Allah (One). The Self Sufficient Master who beget not,
nor He was begotten. And there is no co-equal or comparable to Him.
May God Al Hadi open your heart, whoever you are, individual or otherwise,
to accept ISLAM, the Deen here and Hereafter.
ISLAM is the only Deen acceptable to the Almighty God who have created this
universe. Amin.
Wallahu'lam.
Regards.
P/S . I still believe that the three remaining questions are important
before we could find a common ground for discussion. Otherwise there is no
point to go on. As you can see these questions can be answered in many
many different ways. What is your way?
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