Using the name of “ALLAH” in vain
December 28th, 2007 gier
So, this one time, I received this SMS:
Katakan ini dgn perlahan: “ALLAH AKU CINTA ENGKAU & AKU PERLUKAN ENGKAU. DTGLAH KE HATIKU.” Kirim pd 10 org & lihat keajaiban mlm ini.. Tlg jgn delete. Ia bnr2 t’jd. Ini SMS dp ibu ALI SAID – juru kunci sayyida Makkah yg b’mimpi bertemu RASULULLAH SAW. Belia b’pesan: “Kuatkan aqidah dlm ibadah krn dunia ini sdh goyah & tua”. Sebar SMS ini ke 10 Muslim, Insya Allah dlm wkt 10 hr akan dpt rezeki besar & jika tidak disebar tunggulah kesulitan yg tiada henti2nya.
As you can see, be of the Faith, be Faithful, forward the SMS to 10 other people and you’ll get “rezeki besar” (translation: lots and lots of money, yeah!). Insya Allah (with God’s permission), the SMS writes. If you don’t forward this to 10 other people, then “kesulitan yg tiada henti2nya.” (translation: you’ll be anally penetrated against your will non-stop, oh yeah!).
So, upon receiving this, I did the obvious. I sent an SMS back to the sender, asking her if she was gullible or just plain stupid.
***
Many of us would remember reports of the time when a bunch of people hung around outside the court where the decision on Lina Joy’s appeal were to be made. Some of the people hanging around there were from this shower: PEMBELA. They were sitting around, shouting “Allahuakbar! Allahuakbar!”, especially after the decision was made.
In case we have forgotten, the decision said that regardless of what Lina Joy wants, the Syariah Court would have to decide for her whether she could leave Islam or not. Even is she doesn’t pray facing Mekah, attends church every Sunday and lives with her Christian boyfriend, she remains by Malaysian law, a Muslim.
Many Malay-Muslims seem to find the thought of apostasy extremely abhorrent, and many of those also believe that the punishment for apostasy is DEATH. So, when the judges, in a split decision, killed off Lina Joy’s appeal, the shower sitting and standing outside the courthouse were ecstatic (Allahuakbar! Allahuakbar!).
Why were they happy? Because justice was served? Not everyone would agree to that. Because God’s will was such, that “justice” was served? How do they know for sure? Lina Joy sure didn’t look happy. Actually Lina Joy didn’t look anything at all, because she wasn’t even there, in case the nutjobs outside the courthouse decided to go medieval on her arse.
Maybe they were happy because it meant that she was technically not yet an apostate (MURTAD!), and therefore, they wouldn’t have to appear like twats asking the government to kill her? Or, indeed, kill her themselves?
***
Or how about that Moorthy case?
He died a Muslim according to the authorities. The wife (the widow!) said that he was a Hindu. He went to temples, she said. He drank alcohol, she said. We will cremate him as a Hindu, she said. Authorities say, oh no, according to our records, he’s a Muslim. So the authorities took the body of the deceased, and buried him according to Muslim rites.
Widow was non-plussed, not to mentioned outraged in her grief. Why did the authorities do that? Because it’s fardhu kifayah, to bury a Muslim, in the name of Allah.
Some of us were wondering, would God really mind how Moorthy was buried — or cremated, the ashes scattered over the Ganges? Would Allah tell the soul of Moorthy (if indeed he died a Muslim) that he would not get a good afterlife, as he was not interred as a Muslim? Would Allah be upset at the JAWI guys if they showed some compassion to the late Moorthy’s widow and just let her cremate her husband’s remains? Would Allah punish the JAWI guys, for not executing the fardhu kifayah?
Wouldn’t it have just been better to let the grieving widow grieve in her own way? More compassionate? More … I don’t know … religious?
***
Consider the case of Subashini, whose husband had buggered off and disappeared for 2+ months before turning up at their eldest son’s birthday party, to say that he was becoming a Muslim. He then converted the son as well, with the intention of converting the second son as well eventually (I wonder why he didn’t just do both at the same time, while he was at it). I’m no lawyer, so the argument about civil or Syariah court for divorce and custody is not the thing that I think of.
The problem here is that Subashini is the mother of the two boys. Subashini was not the parent who had left the family. Subashini, the mother, wants to keep her two boys. Subashini remains a Hindu.
Why did Saravanan leave the family? It’s a little strange, since it has now become apparent that he is not planning to abandon his children. Did he leave because he wanted to become a Muslim and felt that the best way was to just leave his Hindu wife and two Hindu boys while he goes off to learn Islam? For 2+ months?
As Muslims, do we agree that since he is now a Muslim and that the eldest boy of 5 is also a Muslim, he has the right to custody? Even though the woman that gave birth to the child disagree?
I asked this question to a friend of mine, who is ostensibly a more pious person than I am (which, admittedly, is not a very hard thing to achieve). He felt that the child should be with the Muslim father, since he would otherwise be brought up as a Hindu by the mother … and that would be abhorrent. So I asked again, “What about her feelings? What about Subashini being the mother?”
If Subashini cries for her son, fights through all the courts for her son, whom she felt had been forcefully taken away from her … is it not cruelty what has been done to her? Zalim?
Can this action not be considered cruel, because it was done in the name of Islam — in the name of Allah?
Never mind who has jurisdiction, never mind which religion has primacy. Isn’t Islam a religion of compassion? Can we deny the rights of a Hindu woman, because it is done for Allah? Wouldn’t Allah be upset with us?
***
I write this today, as Benazir Bhutto is being buried. If she was killed by “Muslim” terrorists, then I’m sure they thought that they had done great justice … in the name of Allah.
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