Islam the Misunderstood Religion
As salaam alykum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatu
Dear Brothers and Sisters
I would like to congratulate the organizers on the 10th Anniversary of IslamiCity for their effort. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to speak to my brothers and sisters in America.
A few years back I spoke to a small audience of Muslims and non-Muslims in Oxford University regarding Islam and how it is misunderstood not only by non-Muslims, who think of it as an oppressive religion but also by the Muslim who claims it is the greatest religion which would save mankind but have not saved it. We can easily explain why the non-Muslims misunderstand Islam. But why did I say that the Muslims also misunderstand Islam.
The basis for stating this is simple. We all know Muhammad the Prophet brought only one Islam, just one. But today we have all kinds of beliefs which claim to be the Islamic faith but the beliefs are so different and so inconsistent with each other that each condemn the others as not being Islam or Islamic, condemn to the point of labeling them as apostates against whom they are willing to fight and to kill.
For example we are seeing today Sunni Muslims fighting and killing Shiite Muslims every day, each claiming the other is not Muslim. There were no Sunni or Shiite during the time of the Prophet .
Which one is right and which is wrong. They cannot both be right because their interpretations are so different that they are killing each other claiming the other is not Islamic.
One of them could be right and the other wrong. But which one? Neither Sunni nor Shiite are willing to admit that their sect is wrong and the other is right. Both claim to be right and to fight and kill to defend their assertion. So we do not know who is right. We simply follow the teachings of the sect we were born into - right or wrong.
Is it possible that both are wrong? The answer is yes. In the view of those of the numerous other sects, the Alawaites, Druze and very many others both Sunni and Shiite are wrong. For the followers of thousands of imams, only their own imam is right and the others are wrong to some degree or are completely wrong.
Islam does allow for differences in the interpretations. But does it allow interpretations which are so different as to cause accusations of not being Islamic and the believers not being Muslim, so different that each is willing to fight and kill because of what each claim to be heresy on the part of the others.
We Muslims claim that there are 1.3 billion Muslims in this world today. But we do not regard very many of these people to be Muslims because of differences in interpretations and practices. So there cannot be 1.3 billion Muslims. According to each sect there are only a few million true Muslims. The others are not Muslims and therefore are not members of the brotherhood of Muslims. Indeed they are worse than enemies of the Muslims for each is more willing to kill the others than to fight and kill the declared enemies of Muslim and the oppressors of all who consider themselves to be Muslim regardless of their sects. These enemies of the Muslims do not care whether those they define as Muslims are Sunnis or Shiite, followers of which of the imams of the Sunnis or Shiahs or the innumerable imams whose interpretations have resulted in the emergence of the different and differing sects of Islam. To the detractors and enemies of Islam and the Muslims, they are all Muslims, followers of the same religion and therefore deserving of the oppressive treatment meted out to them.
In the meantime we, members of the different sects of Islam, will continue to fight each other, reject the Quranic teachings that all Muslim are brothers and thereby weaken ourselves.
Many say that this fragmentation of the Muslim ummah is the work of the enemies of Islam. If that is so why are we allowing them to succeed, why are we retaining and adhering to the different and differing sects that we say the enemies of Islam have created?
No. Let us not delude ourselves. Let us not try to blame our enemies. They are not so smart - Machiavellian that they can so easily break us up and cause us to fight each other so they will gain.
The break up of the Muslims is brought about by the Muslims themselves, by their own learned ones who made the interpretations, sincerely and faithfully sometimes but self-serving in many cases. It is they, these interpreters of Islam who have broken us up into so many antagonistic sects. Unless we admit this and stop blaming others, we will not be able to make any corrections, to bring the ummah back together again.
Malays say, when you lose your way, you should return to the beginning, to the starting point and start all over again. We cannot say we have not lost our way when the one Islam brought by the Prophet has now become a thousand Islams. It cannot be that all are right. Some of us or all of us may have lost our way and we therefore need to go back to the start.
What is the starting point? Obviously it is the Islam as taught by the Prophet. We agree that most of the teachings of the Prophet are in the Al Quran. Some are in the Hadiths.
But the Quran contains two kinds of verses; the very specific ones and those which constitute parables or allegories. The specifics are very clear e.g. that there is no Allah but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger or that all Muslims are brothers.
If we consider belief in these specifics, qualifies one to be a Muslim then the difference in our interpretations of the parables etc need not divide us. We should all go back to these specific and basic teachings of Islam and, disregarding the differences, we should consider all are Muslims and are brothers in Islam.
Then there are the Hadiths or the traditions of the Prophet. We know that by the time Bukhari and others studied the Hadiths in order to verify them there were more than a hundred thousand Hadiths. Bukhari could verify only about 7000. Other scholars differed from Bukhari.
Since all these scholars are normal human beings they are not infallible. Still there are many Hadiths which have been verified by almost all the scholars. These we should accept. The practice of what is enjoined by the Hadiths is not compulsory. They are optional. So if we differ in our belief or practice of the Hadiths it should not make us apostates. We would still be Muslims and as such we can consider each other as brothers and be united.
I am not preaching my own version of Islam. But the great scholars should not just dismiss this because it comes from what the Christians call a "layman". We have no priesthood in Islam. Any man can lead the prayers. Any man can therefore study the religion and try to understand it. We need guidance but we must remember that the guides are also human and such have been their teachings and interpretations that there are now thousands of beliefs which claim to be Islam. They cannot claim a monopoly of knowledge of Islam and a monopoly of interpretation.
Islam is not just a faith, a belief. It is a way of life. And the way of life of the Muslims of today is so varied and different from each other that there is utter confusion. Islam is not meant to confuse its followers and deny their hassanah in this world. If it does then it is not Islam, the religion of Allah . that is wrong, but the numerous and tendentious interpretations of Islam which are wrong. What needs to be corrected is not Islam but the interpretations of Islam by mere man, no matter how learned he may be.
If Islam is to bring hassanah to the faithful then it needs to be interpreted by all who are learned in all fields. And the interpretations should begin from the beginning, from the Quran and the verified Hadiths, without regard for the interpretations of those who through their own understanding and interpretations in the past have divided the ummah.
Wassalam.
IslamiCity Lifetime Achievement Award was Dr. Mahathir Mohamad For his leadership in advancing economic, educational, scientific & technological development in Malaysia and providing inspiration to the Muslim world Los Angeles 2005 |
Topics: Islam, Misconceptions, Tafsir
Views: 26959
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An article from an honest educated and great muslim.Dr Mahatir ideology is growing in a big way throughout the muslim world and a generation is coming up which will change the face of Muslim world so this world.
wassalam
Perdana Leadership Foundation,
No.1, Jalan P8H, Precint 8,
62250 Putrajaya, Malaysia
some materialas here:
http://library.perdana.org.my/mm.html
I can't be pleasing to God. I hope we can all work promote our brotherhood more effectively, God willing.
On the other hand, Dr Mohamad continues to preach exclusivity ("I am the way, the ONLY way"), and so religious strife will continue until that view is repudiated not just by Islam, but by ALL -- ALL -- religions throughout mankind.
I think that mankind needs to take Dr Mohamad's advice a great step further. ALL existing religions need to be repudiated and we need to make a FRESH religious start !! It is possible -- but we need from the very start to weed out those who display that extremely evil characteristic "charisma" from the leadership.
Most of the technological advances in science and technology are done by foreigners living in the U.S. The Americans are extremely lazy period.
Their current president and former president reflect attitude of the population..i.e. current president(BUsh jr/ranch boy) lost his ability to speak, think and reason due to loss of brain cells stemming from drinking too much at the age 0f 17.5....the former president (the "I did not have sexual relationship with that woman" boy) engaged in infidelity w/ a drunken 21 yrs girl who want to express herself since she wanted to maintain the "self-expressivity" of her expressive and high spirit society...
...Almost 99.99% of American kids lose their virginity at the age of 15....Boy!!! Is this a civilized society I am talking about?
well, yeah! if you think that nudity or infidelity directly is proportional to modernity...
In summary, just let them drink and misundertand for 70-80 yrs? What they going to do..What they going to do when he (angel of death) comes for them?
Neither Dick Cheney nor anyone will be of any use. No intercessions will be allowed on that day...
We appreciate all what you have done for the sake of Islam and Muslims, and we invoke Allah to put these deeds in your Book in the Hereafter, but talking about different sects of Islam and the numerous Imams looks very pessimistic and miserable.
We have a big lightened hope about Islam's and Muslims' future , and we are afraid that we don't agree with you that our status is as bad as you mentioned .
We admit that there are mistakes and maybe big ones, but the mistakes doers are not the majority indeed they are very few followers of few sects , but the media views them as if they are all Muslims doing nothing but killing each other .
There is another point : there are many Hadiths which have been verified by almost all the scholars. These we should accept. The practice of what is enjoined by these Hadiths is compulsory. They are not optional when they are authountic and consecutive.
Following the prophets orders is our Gods order as He says in the Holy Quraan:
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May Allah bless you all
Girls from Damas
i am not happy with the way islam is misinterpreted and divided.PROPPHET MOHAMMAD BEFORE HIS DEATH DECLARED THAT "islam can never be destroyed by the pagans unless it is destroyed by the enemy of islam who call themseves muslims".
nowadays,the muslim are many but the mumini(true muslims) are few.
to reunify islam back,let all the muslim scholars and leaders meet and discuss.this will help to conserve the brotherhood that should exist among all the muslims of the world.
MA-ASSALAM.
LONG LIFE ISLAM.
It is not only that many muslims do not really understand their own religion but what is worst is that some Muslims from certain parts of the world have a holier than thou attitude towards Islam and believing that they are the only ones holding on or practising the real Islam, imagine! and they look down on these other Muslims in other parts of the world so how can we even think of unity!
This is one reason why Muslims can never unite today.
Salam
This is one of the many speeches of Tun Dr Mahathir which discusses about Islam and understanding of Islam. He has been saying this over and over and over again since 1990's...but sadly i have yet to see major changes in the world and making an impact on the Muslim world.
Pls read the book " Islam and the Muslim Ummah " Selected speeches by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and you will see what i mean.
He is the only leader that i know /see that has consistently tried to make a difference for Islam and Muslims...and stands up for what is right...
I am not saying this because i am from Malaysia and bias in my statment...but i truly feel that it is a fact...
Regards to all
Jawahir
if that is done, the current war in Iraq, for example, would not be fought by the Iraqi gainst each other but rather, the Iraqi would have united as members of the same faith to further the interests of the Iraqi people with one voice.
May Allah enable us to see the light for the good of Islam - Amen
Thanks br. Mahatir.
Build a mechanism for this purpose, an institution with clear objects and guidelines and an organization with committed people to achieve the objects.
We must start with the Al-Quraan Al-Hakim, to which all sects, all divisions agree. The main object would be to ensure that every Muslim to whatever sect he or she belong understand this Book, every verse of it. Once he or she understand the book, encourage them to think and ponder and seek the help of Allah to understand the verses correctly. The book has extra-ordinary capabilities. Like a blacksmith who fashions out useful implements after hammering the raw iron, the book hammers out of its beleivers, useful and upright humans capable of great action.
So the start up object of the Mechanism should be something like the following. 'keep the differences, but please understand this book'
This would naturally need the learning of the language Arabic by every Muslim. I have great belief that this all that needs to be done. Just ensure - adopt any methods, offer any incentive, pamper them, cajole them, spend all the wealth available, put into use every source, every strategy, every method - that every Muslim understands the Book, every word of it.
The Book will take care of all differences. It is not difficult to learn the Langauage. We learn so many languages, study so many subjects and work so many projects. Just ensure that this book is understood personally by every single Muslim.
I pray that this is done immediately by concerned Muslims and specifically pray Dr.Mahathir Mohammed himself start this now. He is free from his political responsibilities, he commands the respect of many countries and muslims and he in my opinion is the right person.
I'm very happy when I received this article .
My question is that how can we muslims estinguish this hatrdness which is becoming more and more pronounced every day and face the common enemy of Islam ?
Wev followersof Muhammad (S.) have a long way to go in order to remove this catastrophe
I would like to point out in all humbleness that unlike what Dr Mohammad says, the Sunnis and Shias are not killing each other but rather one fanatic group that claims to be 'sunni' is relentlessly and ruthlesly massacering the Shias. Why? I do not know. And yet it is comendable that the Shia leadership and its followers are faithfully and patiently staying firm in not retaliating just to bring about unity among the Muslim umman and give the enemies who want to divide us a defeat. I sincerely hope that more of our Sunni leadership will address this issue and call for cooperationa and Unity.
was salaam
Some Muslims see Islam in their interests,
add/delete things which are not in Islam.
Just plane and simple :READ QURAN AND HADITH (with Translation if needed)Do not draw your impressions, research etc. This may lead to confusion and misunderstandings.
Non-Muslims do not want to even know the basics of Islam.They just get the information from media(TV, radio talk shows, newspapers,). I tell my non-muslim friends ,why dont you go and read quran and hadith in English and make your own opinion about Islam, forget what they say in any media.
Therefoe a muslim or non-muslim can read Quran and Hadith in their language and Insha-ALLAH there will be no misunderstanding.
Thanks.
So the "bullies" can step in and exploit this situation. However, they do not cause any harm, we do it to ourselves.
Thankyou Dr. Mahathir for your candid words that ring very true to our ears.
We must return to the Book and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the Salafus Sahih they are the saved sect who excaped the hell fire, their manhaj is our blueprint.
We don't seem to have learnt anything from history? One country after another being occupied illegally with massive destruction and awe to innocent people, to infrastructures and to wealth in front of the worlds civilized people, and the next victim is waiting for its turn for the predator to attack mercilessly with or without reason. It will continue like it has for long until we awake from our deep ugly slumber. The big bully will never stop bulling and massacring unless people stand up united in unison, everyway; then the bully will realize that his days are numbered. That is the nature of all bullies.
Finally thanks to Dr Mahathir for this wonderful speech, and thanks to Allah for all his blessings.
Bismillah; May I congratulate Dr. Mahathir for this excellence speech at this sad time for the Ummah. I pray to Allah to grant him the courage to speak the truth, may Allah give him good health, long life so he can stand up for the oppressed people. He is the only one as far as I know have shown some vision for the future, rest of the majority leaders are deaf, dumb, blind, they are more into oppressing and massacring their own people to please their lowest desire, and of their masters. They think they will stay in power forever or their wealth and the oppressions they are committing against their own people will last forever. They seem to learn nothing from history. How many tyrants, oppressive dictators (tagut) has gone bye into the dust bin of history, and likewise these oppressive bloodthirsty tyrants of our days will find nowhere to run from the justice or from Allah. Our leaders could learn a lot from Europe, i.e. its unity, single currency, European constitution, Nato, E.U. army and surely democracy but not hypocrisy. Dr. Mahathir has been talking about Islamic Golden Dinar in his other speech, we definitely need some thinking on it. This single currency can unite the Ummah. Muslim unity is paramount. We have disadvantages but we have more advantages than disadvantages compare to E. U., I am not saying every single country should unite and have single currency but at least 8 or 9 countries united, like the D-8 we have, but put more life into it in everyway possible be it single currency, no visa or passport etc. Muslims countries have enough resources imaginable be it manpower, scientist, doctors, natural resources etc., except security of their countries wealth and people. I know we have many organisations like OIC, Arab league, GCC, AU etc. most of them are useless, unable to defend its people or resources; they are body without soul unlike E. U. or Nato.
'United we win divided we lose'.
and i think this will be to the leader to take decision and tell us the best way to follow bse for us we don't know what haram and halal look i dont think that women to be reading salat is only probrem they have there is something behind for may view is to make them think that islam forgot them but they fotocopy when you see from adam and eva who was the first? so let us confirm in coran and hadith before staping if is not so that we are going to pass far from allha wishes and we will not be able to find best solution
assalam alaikum
Allah knows the best.
I pray that this comments finds you all bro. n sisters and esp. my great mentor Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in the best of health and islamic spirit,Amin.
The main Tun Mahathir wants is to built the real strong united of muslims,with strong advance economy as he target to make all the muslim country use Dinar in any trade.He dont want muslim nation and ummah weak,he's wants all of us look foward to the future and take the challenge,detrimental to our nation in progress,development and stability of our economy.
100% salute you Tun Mahathir.May ALLAH bless you.
..rising of the east don.
core div.
13swords
Dr Mahathir's call to get back to basics, i.e the Quran & Hadith; is very timely. Muslims have been too intent on following interpretations by teachers and ulamas that they become fanatics and fail to seek enlightenment from the very source of our religion - the Quran. We forget that the Quran is more than mere scriptures; it's a MUKJIZAT. Many muslims have been happy to be led and told of how they should practise their religion as opposed to seeking to understand the teachings of the Quran. Therefore, I urge my fellow muslims to seek knowledge from the Quran through knowing and understanding its contents and not merely relying on interpretations from others. InsyaAllah.
wonderful piece of article and really loved it.
Thanks so much for letting us know the truth,
and I fully agree with Dr. Mahathir regarding
the interpretations and misunderstandings.
Thanks so much for this and Alhamdulillah
that we have people who think like you.
the Prophet may the prayer of Allah be on him said "nations gonna come together against you like hungry people come together to a single plate. and they asked: are we gonna be few, Oh Messenger of Allah? no, you are in those days many but weak like suds and Allah gonna take off the fear of you from your enemies and gonna put in your hearts the Wahan. they asked, what is Wahan, Oh Messenger of Allah? (replied) loving the life and hating the hereafter"
I tried my best to translate this hadith in the best way and may Allah forgive me if I miss something?.
the hadith mention clear the difference between us and the brothers who lived with the Prophet(salla Allah alaihe wa sallam)! the brothers asked the prophet only, about how many they gonna be those who gonna have this problem. they didn't ask how far they will be from accepting to meet their Creator(cause they didn't have this problem of fearing the death in their time)!!! Now the Mullah Bush is the guidance for some kind of mosslems! he is the one who gonna tell them how to act, what to wear inorder he gonna accept them in his kingdom on Earth.
May Allah give us more knowledge about things before we open our mouths and talk about them without know? what we need is more educated mosslems in Islam and satan knows well our weakness is in keeping us away from learning before talk. he(satan) succeeded in making his slaves forcing the world to stay away from learning Islam in the right way. and those who listen to his slaves gonna always be blind on the real killing who happen everyday with the last technology weapons against the poor and miserable people arround the world.
Dr. Mahathir has indeed highlightd the biggest plague this Ummah is suffering from.
I think the if EVERY single Muslim or Muslima struggles to get closer to Allah SWT and focus on one's own faults, then there would be no energy left to spend on critising other Muslims!
The most logical way of getting closer to Allah SWT is ofcorse to study HIS book(the Quran) and follow the authentic hadith to THE bEST OF ONE'S ABILITY
M Khan
WASSALA MU ALAYKUM
Who Obey Allah and His Prophet (SAA), Who fellows the injunctions of the Holly Koran, the guidance and the sunna of the Prophet (SAA) and the teaching of His companions is never wrong and is not astray...
The oumma is divided into several branches; This fact has already been foretold by our beloved Prophet (SAA) and he also told us who is the victorious group...
The oumma has problems and we need to fix them...Those problems weren't engendered by the 20th century but they emerged well back in time...and kept growing...
Oua essalamou Aliakoum
The solution indeed lies only in our own hands. We must cease to be petty and be uniform in our belief and treatment of other Muslims keeping in mind that we must not deviate from the purest teachings of the Quran.
Wassalam
The Quran exemplify various characters and traits (akhlaak) of people, here are some illustration:
1. Testimony: A Mu'min bear witness that there is nothing to adore, there is only ALLAH.
2. Denial: A kaafir is someone who rejects Islam and refuses to submit to ALLAH.
3. Hypocrisy: A Munafiq or hypocrite, more dangerous and worse than a kafir. Some imposters stated under oath that they are believers to infiltrate the "Deen-i Islam" with the aim to harm honest Muslims.
The Yemenite Jew "Abd bin Sabah" was a great Munafiq and among the worst enemy of Islam. This great imposter and trickster declared himself a believer under the rule of the 3rd Caliph Usmaan R.A. He fraudulently and craftily fabricated a fake seal like the Caliph's one and distributed falsify land contracts to some other pretenders and opponents of Islam. Then, he viciously spread rumours to harm the Caliph. A few hypocrites joined force and murdered the 3rd Caliph of Islam. HADITH
4. Ignorance: Jahiliyyah refers to the pre-Islamic era that existed in Arabia. It is a combination of views, ideas, and practices that totally defy and reject the guidance sent down by ALLAH through His Prophets.
5. Polytheism: Shirk or A Mushrik is someone who associates partners with ALLAH
6. Surrender: A Muslim is someone who surrenders to ALLAH and follows the obligatory injunctions of the Quran. He has a perfect personality, behavior, activities, actions and manners.
7.Spread: A Murabit is a person who is on the road spreading Islam.
8. Oppression: A Musad'afin is a weak and oppressed person.
9. Intellectual: An Alim is a learned person in Islam.
10. Faithful: An Amin means custodian or guardian. Someone who is loyal or faithful.
The above are only a few characters outlined by the Qur'an. In the case of Muslims, they surrender to ALLAH and follow the obligatory injunctions of the Quran. They follow the principles of monotheism,justice,equality, and peace in all aspects o
This Ummah is generally united at heart. Yes there are some small extremist groups who see everything as either black or white, but I would suggest that they are a minority, although at times they assume a high profile.
The divisions are more political that religious, and the divisions are driven by political leaders rather than religious leaders. Yes, there are ignorant religious leaders; but they lead ignorant people.
Violence between Sunni and Shia is again driven mainly by political motives and in recent times by imperialist design.
The Shia scholars from the time of Khomeini have made some major conciliatory steps towards their Sunni brothers, and vice versa. We have to build on this.
I agree with him that we need to cast a fresh glance at some of the 'established' thinking. We do not have to throw out the wisdom of past scholars - they were great thinkers - and we can be also. Some scholars seem to feel that we need to lock ourselves in the paradigm of yesteryear, but the models that served us well one hundred years ago, may not necessarily be adequate for the new era of a global village.
"Getting back to the basics" makes a whole lot of sense.
Nobody who lives in a Muslim nation would make such a statement. It would be nice though.
Sectarian strife is not "improving". It is getting worse rapidly. While I appreciate the gloss-over and coat of paint for unbelievers, frankly, I need to hear a plan of action, not hopeful words.
If the believers can't manage to find some method generally agreed on to change centuries-old tribal and sectarian stife and brutality, you are going to see more of the same murderous recent events. Outsiders-especially Westerns-will see the Muslims once again as a group united only in hatred and backwardness. How did Islam come to such a pass?
"I have dreamed a dream
of a mighty coalition
of men, not nations;
of brothers and sisters
come together,
to help each other,
who look to each other,
in the light
of their shared heritage,
of Shahaadah.
I have dreamed a dream,
of the "Federal Islamic Caliphate"
Regards
Dr Syed Alwi
Muslims killed their Philosophers a thousand years ago. Now they have no reliable guide to rely on how to understand the Message of the God. We don't need more interpretations of the Qur'an but we need to understand it before we obey it. To achieve this understanding Muslims have to develope a language based on the concepts of the Qur'an so that they can communicate with each other meaningfully,
wasselam
Hakki
(1)The fundamental requirement of Islam is worship of Allah SWT. Yet Muslims have created idols and idol-worship with their focus on "religious scholars" and "hadiths" in all of their religious discourse. They quote names and words of these men more often than they quote the Qur'an or mention Allah's Attributes. Muslims today have made themselves idol worshippers par excellence.
(2) Muslims' often display total lack of conscience--shocking because of the emphasis that Islam places on moral values and individual responsibility and accoutability. For centuries Muslims have been told by their worldly power-and-wealth-hungry religious/political leaders to accept Islam as defined for them by experts. Challenging and questioning others' intepretations are deemed blasphemous. At the same time,literacy levels among Muslims are often the lowest. A religion that has placed so much emphasis on education, knowledge and learning has followers who cannot read. One group in the Muslim ummah claims that only awaliyas must read or interpret the Qur'an. Consequently, mothers read the book of their devout "leader" but not the Qur'an to their children, although those very children are encourged to memorize the Qur'an--but without making effort to contemplate on its essence or meaning (This is precisely what created the Dark Ages in Medieval Europe). We have religious zombies amongst us, not spiritual Muslims.
(3) Not only are Muslims ignorant of their own religion and religious history, they are oblivious of the religious history of other religions such as Christianity. If they did, they would realize that many criticisms and comments made by the Christian/western world are actually reflections of their Christian religious/historical experience. Also, this same ignorance of Christianity amongst Muslims deprives them of insights that could help them purify their own faith --for often they have mimicked Christian and Jewish traditions.
AArabs Arabs, the closed upgraded definition of the AArabs in our time are the people who gives priority to the benefits of this life over the benefits of the hereafter. they rush to accept from Islam just what benefit them in this life and they work less for the hereafter.
for the brother who spoke about Ali may Allah be pleased with him. who was Ali? an arab! an knephew of the Prophet! a strong mosslem and strong mujahed! a followed of the Prophet and the Quran. do you see in Ali any description that will make him living double life??? If that was something wrong in Ali's time, I don't think there is one courageous mosslem like him to stand up and claim that his leaders were kiffer. unfortunatly in our time, the descendents of the ex-fire worshippers and the one guilty of stealing the black stone in the past, are unaware of their forefathers mistakes back what the taught them without bothering themselves to read the history of Islam and stop cursing the wives of the Prophets that Allah forbidden in Quran to anyone to say something wrong about them.
It is time to wake up and learn from everybody who can teach you something! it is hard except on those that Allah guided. but with the time everything is becoming clear. Allah doesn't send his message to be under the dead sea or to be hiden waiting for a fictive personality to come on earth and read it. wake up people? the messages are for Mankinds and not for fairy tale stories. when the message gone or corrupted another message got to come untill the last message that we have in our hands. fear Allah in what you are saying on Him without knowledge?
The speaker claims that he is not preaching his own version of Islam, but he is doing exactly that.
He wants to throw away the works of all the scholars in the past and start from scratch by re-interpreting the Qura'an?
He said "...And the interpretations should begin from the beginning, from the Quran and the verified Hadiths, without regard for the interpretations of those who through their own understanding and interpretations in the past have divided the ummah."
The statement above is troubling and dangerous. We are to take our religion from politicians. I think this is where the problem is, as long as religion is used as a vehicle for political agendas, you will always have new versions of Islam (or any other religion for that matter).
May Allah reward Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for his effort. I agree with some points, but I disagree with a lot of what he said. I agree that there is one Islam. But I disagree with this statement:
"What needs to be corrected is not Islam but the interpretations of Islam by mere man, no matter how learned he may be."
Isn't the speaker doing just that?
What needs to be corrected is us muslims. This is the real issue. How many of us take their faith seriously and establish prayers as we should?
We do not need an interpreter to tell us that in the Quraan, Allah SWT stresses the five prayers, and that the prophet PBUH stressed praying in the Masjid. Yet, the Masajid are empty, except on Fridays and Eid ...
It seems that this is too hard nowadays so we therefore revert to the re-interpretation of the quraan and sunnah. Start all over again ...
I hope my brothers and sisters read in between the lines ... The speech offers no solutions, but more confusion ...
I pray that Allah SWT forgives me and forgive all the muslim umah ... When we take our basics seriously, then InshaAllah, we will be in a better shape.
Now when the Taghut of today is making desperate efforts to divide Muslims in numerous non-entities to wipe out Islam, we must agree on some common denominators to determine who is Muslim and who is not.
The Quran and Hddith tells us very clearly who is a believer. A person who believes in one and only one God (Allah), who believes Muhammad (pbuh) as the last and final prophet of Allah (swt), who believes in Quran as the book revealed by Allah (swt), who believes in the Day of Judgment and the Life Hereafter, who believes in the prophets before Muhammad (pbuh) and books before Quran, and who believes in the angels - is a believer or a Muslim.
Anybody who has the faith in these basic teachings of Islam must be accepted by all of us as a Muslim with an open heart.
Now comes the question that who is a better Muslim. The only competent authority to decide is the Allah All-Mighty who knows what is in the earth and heavens and what is in our hearts. This is what the Day of Judgment is meant for.
To be a better Muslim we should live our lives according to the teachings of Quran and Haddith instead of using our energies to declare others apostates.
Thank you Dr. Mahathir for putting words to what probably many muslims feel and would like to express. What are we doing to each other, maiming and killing. Where is the way Nabi Muhammad (saw) that would not even allow the angels to avenge him, even though the kafir of his time were cruel and did everything to hurt the muslims.
As-Salaam-Alaikum
Peace.
Islam is simpilicity of reality and actuality.
I agree with my Brother Dr. M.Mohamad.
I will take it one step futher. The Holy Quran has also been interpretated by many and much has been lost in the truth or accuracy. This can also be said of other Books that are called Holy by different religions.
To know Islam is not to be confused,to know Allah is not to be confused.
Wasalam
Nice speech! remind me when I was 18 and started to read different books and talk my mind :). brother Mahathir is master of his field and now he begins learning more about Islam. may Allah gives him more knowledge and understanding? most of what he said in his speech is said at least in time of Ibn Taymia Rahemah Allah or maybe in time of Imam Abu Hanifah or Imam Malik or... may Allah be pleased with all of them. something interesting in his speech is when he said the malays said "when you lose your way, you should return to the beginning, to the starting point and start all over again.". at least he found the right Algorithm to resolve the problem of being lost. 1 solution better than none.
Islam was based on easy things following the hadith of arrassoul where the Angel Gabriel came to teach mosslems by asking the prophet questions and agreeing with his answears. Islam defined with the witness where the oneness of Allah and the acknowledge of his last prophet and messenger is a must, the making of salat, the giving of charity, the fasting and the visit to Hajj for those who can afford it. anybody who do this easy things or agree on them and doesn't teach or believe to something against them is a mosslem. who say so? a simple reading of the Hadith of the Prophet and you can find unlimited signs in Quran who back that. also none of the scholars known of Islam had one question to say about that hadith.
Now! when you get info about some sects killing each one the other, you should check. sahabe of the Prophet was called fassek(someone who did something very bad intentionally or unintentionally) because he was sent to check on an arab tribe,supposed to give jizya to the prophet, but he didn't do it in the right way. he reached a hill by the tribe and saw them preparing their horses and camels and return back to the Prophet telling him they are coming to fight. while in the fact they were bringing the Jizia!!! may Allah help us to remember to check carefully? A
I pray that Dr. Mahattir's message reaches all Muslims, especially new Muslims. There is so much contradictory information out there that I can see why many new muslims are confused. I no longer read any Islamic literature other than the Quran and the Bukhari Hadith.
Regards
Dr Syed Alwi
The problem in my view is that Islam as a goal (Submission) is not what is being contested here. What is being wrongly contested is Islam as a mean to attain this goal (The way, the religion), although our bickering is hiding the goal from view and hence from materialization.
The Goal of the mission (Din) for Humanity was, is and will always be submission (Islam). The root of the problem is the confusion brought about by the fact that the prophet (PBUH) named his religion (Islam); after the goal of his mission and that of all the messengers before him.
When the means to an end and the end itself are described by the same word, confusion to say the least can occur.
The prophet of Islam and his disciples after him respected other religions because they knew that the goal of other religions is Islam or Submission. The problem is that later, due in part to the ignorance of all the parties involved, things have changed, and the rest is history.
In my view the misunderstanding that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad seems to be talking about in his speech, finds its root in the misinterpretation of much of the latest version of the word of God (The Qur'an).
To get out of the dilemma we are in, and as a start, in reading the Qur'an (In Arabic), before we translate to other languages, great care should be given to the interpretation of the words, Islam, and Diin.
Assalamo 3alaykom wallaho A3lamo wa ahkam.
COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER NO MATTER WHAT NATIONALITY WE ARE FROM. AN ARABIC LANGUAGE ADOPTION (EVERY MUSLIM MUST READ AND UNDERSTAND
ARABIC ) WILL UNITE THE MUSLIM ONCEAGAIN, INSHALLAH.
W'SALAM
Thank you Dr. Mahthir. There should be only Muslim Ummah. Now I know that I am not alone in this path. People always ask me are you sunni or shiite I have always told them that I am a Muslim. You can't branch out Islam. what needs to be corrected is not Islam is the interpretations of Islam which has been interpretate by different scholar. we have to become a role model for others so everyone could live in harmony and we should over come the proverty that each night 800million people will not sleep hungry.
Wassalam
1. Let's learn to be labeled and known ONLY as MUSLIM (one who submits to the will of Allah as perfected by the last of the prophets of Allah Muhammad (SAW)). No more Sunni, Shiite, quraniun, etc. Do not identify yourselve with any of the groupings, so as to even think of following only their Imam's(?) teachings? and not the true teachings of Islam.
2. Let us go back to school, the school of Aqidah (which I may have consider the first principle anyway) where the true nature of Allah will become clear as our fitrah was design to accept. Once we have the knowlege of Tawheed in our souls then no selfish Imam can give us any doctrine that will take us outside the pale of Islam. The Islam taught by the Prophet(SAW) and the Sahabas.
By experience, these two principles are easy to achieve. They are not a lifetime endevour cos I could hear somebody asking, when will we have the true brotherhood if we all go back to school and start from the beginning as Dr. Muhammad surmised in his article? Allah will help he that wants to help himself, this is His decree. The choice is now ours to make or to mar. Lets not be like the Jews who say they know too much, or like the Christians that misunderstood everything and in the process exceed all bounds. Lets stay in the middle, lets all be Muslims...Ummatan wasatan...bowing to Allah's will only and not to our whimps and caprices.
Peace.
I always regarded Mr. mahthir as the leading leader of the ummah .And today he showed his courage to disclose our original problem that is the segregation of our religion by weak interpretation by the so called scholar.
Like he said we should go back to our origin that is The Quran and only those hudith that does not contradict with Quran.There should be only one ummah that is The Muslim ummah.No shia no sunni only muslim. He spoke out for the Ummah ,now it is our duty to spread it and help to establish it in proper way.
I agree with him. Let us do some real analysis, which is as rigorous as mathematical 'real anlaysis'. We need it. It is time that ummah learns to point fingers towards its own self. It is time that the ummah shows some maturity. It is time that we learn take up the responsibility. It is time that we start from the scratch while keeping and cherishing the contributions of past scholars at the same time. It is time that we learn to point faults to our scholars' analysis without showing disrespect to them. It is time that we re-adopt the scientific approach of research, analysis and criticism in Islam, something that the Ummah had lost in general for a long long time. And perhaps, most importantly, as Dr. Mahathir mentioned, it is time that the Qur'an is integrated with all fields of specialists--Economists, Physicians, Philosophers and so on. Qur'an is a book that can never be appreciated by 'Sheikhs' trained in Arabic and Islamic literature only, although their contribution is no doubt highly valuable. But by no means, interpreting Qur'an and Sunnah should be there sole monopoly. This would only lessen the value of this glorious book and the Ummah would have to wait a long wait for Dr. Maurice Bucaile and the likes of him to give it an essential lift.