By Apocryphalist
After having proposed some very innovative (albeit provocative) suggestions as to how Malaysians can move from now on, in lieu of the recent ruling about the Name of Allah to be put in the Malay language bibles, Apocryphalist concludes his thoughts with some meek and accommodative suggestions to his fellow Muslim readers on what would be the meaning of all things happening as regards to the matter, and how things can be viewed positively only when one Trusts in God.
Agreement by the Church Fathers and Elders
In equal terms, we must also get the Christian Priests, Fathers and Elders to agree to what this Allah says in the Quran, since the name of Allah is used in the Quran by the Muslims anyway. Fortunately, the list for them is not as numerous as the ones that the Muslim Scholars had to contend with as mentioned earlier. In particular, they must all agree that it IS Allah who said the following things in the Quran. And being Allah, each and every saying is True, in no uncertain terms:-
- “Surely he is an Infidel who says ‘God is Christ, the Son of Mary’ “. (Al-Maidah 17)
- “Woe to those who had written the scriptures with their own hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah’ “ (al-Baqarah 79)
- “O Jesus, son of Mary. Did you ever say to the people, ‘worship me and my mother as gods besides Allah?’ “ (al-Maaidah 116)
- “Do not say ‘Three’. Stop it. That is good for you. Allah is the only One God. He is far too pure to have a son.” (an-Nisa 171)
- “Say, He is Allah, the Only One. Allah, the Eternal refuge. He neither begets, nor was begotten. And to Him none could be co-equal.”
Christian Elders must certify the above to be true: About how this Allah mentions that their bible had been doctored by human hands, about the fact that he neither begat nor was begotten, and the fact that nowhere did Jesus command people to regard him as an equal God and worship him. Only by such admissions from the Christian clergies that the process of reconciliation can proceed.
Rukunegara
When all is said and done, let us all change the Rukunegara to reflect what was agreed upon. Instead of the first Rukun to be “Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan”, let’s have Kepercayaan kepada Allah. That will suit both Muslims and Christians. For adherents of neither religion, you should all just tag along: because neither were you complainants when the issue was brought up nor did you give a hoot. In fact, if I do not know any better, the non-Malay citizens of neither Christianity nor Islam were SUPPORTIVE of the move to get the name Allah to be included in the bible. Not so much due to any dogmas of faith which they care least about, but purely because here is an issue that they regard as opportunity to be disdainful of the Malay-Muslim hegemony in the first place, and anything going AGAINST the Malay-Muslim hegemony MUST be supported, regardless of faith. Is this not true, folks?
Zeta: Coda
Reading this treatise of mine, you would all think that I am fighting tooth and nail for the name Allah NOT to be included int the bibles, don’t you? In fact nothing could be further than the truth. In actuality, I have a firm belief and drive that Allah, being the One True God of Mankind, SHOULD be put in the bible, defying a two-thousand year hiatus of Christians willing to go to wars and KILL just in order that it may NOT be done. Well there you are: the muslims have everything on a platter now. This inclusion of Allah in the Malay bible is only a small step towards its acceptance of the entire bible worldwide.
God — I mean Allah — has a way of doing things which are sometimes contrary to the flow of logics. Do you guys remember the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah? When the treaty was signed between the Prophet and the Quraish, it resulted in his companions be left in some kind of stupor. They couldn’t BELIEVE their eyes and ears seeing and hearing what was it that the Prophet agreed to. The treaty states (roughly) that if any Qurashite in Mekkah were to defect to Madinah, the prophet MUST return him back but if any Medinan prisoners were to be captured and held in Mekkah, then the Quraishites could get to keep them. There were to be no wars for the next 10 years. Yup, just as soon as the Muslims in Madinah had become a formidable fighting power exceeding that of the Quraish, and after having been tortured, humiliated, killed, attacked by the Quraish for the past 10 years, the Quraishites now say YOU can’t do THAT which we did to you before.
There were murmurs among the companions. What kind of crapola humbuggery is this? Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-Law and scribe for the treaty, refused to sign it on behalf of the Prophet. Umar was in a daze. “O Prophet”, he said. “Are you not the Prophet of God? Are we not the ones who are in the correct path? Are they not the ones who are not favoured by Allah? Then why this?”, he marvelled. The Prophet just brushed both of them, (I am imagining with a wink too), and conveyed the subtle message: “I know what I am doing. Trust Allah’s commands.”. The Prophet instructed Ali to tell him where in the document that his name appears so he could pen it (since he could neither read nor write) and Umar said much later, that he regretted his doubts that day.
The result? Of this “one-sided, unfair” agreement? Islam is where and what it is now. The Muslims who were forcibly kept in Mekkah due to the agreement, began preaching. And the nons who HAD to be returned to Mekkah from Madinah after being captured now began to have doubts: with that kind of character we have seen for these past days in Madinah, there could be no doubt that this man IS a Prophet of God. In fact the number of new Muslims grew in the leaps and bounds and later on the Quraish HAD to treacherously break that treaty for their continued existence, with the result that it paved the way to the conquest of Mekkah without a drop of blood being shed which otherwise could not have been obtained without bloody wars. Yes, Allah works not only in mysterious ways, but sometimes in CONTRADICTION to how we would do things too. Trust Allah, my friends. Trust Allah.
In more modern settings, some similar things happened but in different scenarios. Right after the 9-11 incident, President Bush and the entire Neocons tried hard to convince the world that the attack was perpetuated by someone sitting in a cave half a hemisphere away. This hermit, who was working in an environment of no electricty, no computers, no phones, no communications infra-structure and had to go on dialysis every other week for a failing kidney, could out-manouver the sophisticated NORAD defense system, and remotely instruct two Arab pilots who failed in their pilot tests before to carefully smash their Boeing jumbo jets into the Twin Towers with uncanny precision, resulting in several buildings to collapse, including one which was not hit by anything at all. And how was this conclusion made? Well because the passports of those hijackers landed on the feet of the FBI agents below, of course. The planes and buildings were destroyed, lives were lost, the black boxes took several days to find, but yup, those paper passports just flew and landed conveniently right on their feet. There were 19 Ay-rab attackers in all involved in that attack, all martyred for the cause of Allah, except that a few of them got the news while they were peacefully munching samosas in Saudi Arabia when they saw their faces on TV and proceeded to the embassy the next day asking why were their photos splattered all over the news when they were right here, perhaps munching more samosas when it happened.
The aim, of course, was to extend the age old Islamophobia, introduce in the real Clash of Civilisations, provide the impetus with which the dawn of a new oil-based order takes place and, ultimately, usher in the Rupture and End days Eschatology.
But what happened next? Instead of hating Islam more, publishers of the Quran could not cope with the demand of increased production in Quran printing the world over and in the US of A in particular. In less than a decade the number of Muslim converts grew, and more and more churches were turned into mosques. Islam became, both in America, Europe and elsewhere, the fastest growing religion. In the case of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France as well as the mosque massacre in New Zealand, both resulted in INCREASED rates of conversion.
So no, readers. If we can ensure that all is peaceful, and emulate the way of the prophet like what was experienced in Hudaybiyyah, then it is impossible that Truths take a back seat in the scheme of Things. Having the name Allah be uttered by as many world citizens as possible can only be positive: God would not want His name to be used in vain and in blasphemies, and He will ensure that. – New Malaysia Herald
Note: The opinion expressed in this article is that of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the stand of the New Malaysia Herald.
New Malaysia Herald publishes articles, comments and posts from various contributors. We always welcome new content and write up. If you would like to contribute please contact us at : editor@newmalaysiaherald.com
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