IN PLAIN WORDS…
Days of the Mundane and the Terrible,
23rd-24th dawn of the reign of Ganymede – bearer of the two streams,
Year of the Caminus Canis,
Hmmmm…
There are a few reasons why I wrote my entries in cryptic.
- The entries that I wrote are the dailies thoughts, experience and observations that I have made during the days that have past in the thirty years that I have walked this earth. They are somewhat personal but they also resemble what most of us has become in this present time. Living life as a dead man.
- I wrote the entries (although they are ridden by imperfections and misuse of words) in search of truths about being a human, in search of great intellects that wrote and posses such great thoughts; and have such great and wonderful ability to write and convey their thoughts in writings (just to name a few – Master Shariman at http://dementedreality.blogspot.com/, le County Byron at http://countbyron.blogspot.com/ and his brother at http://gukita.blogspot.com/, the sweet angel at http://minuseven.blogspot.com/, the learned kid, Miza at http://complicate-me.blogdrive.com/, the feisty lady with no ‘H’ at http://faranoh.blogspot.com/, the artful Master Najwa at http://khayalkhayal.blogspot.com/, and the beautifull cosmic traveler at http://cosmic-abyss.blogspot.com/.)
- To learn of the beauty of the human mind and thoughts, as to humble my arrogant self.
For the past few months since I began to posts my entries, many of my objectives in doing this have been reached. I am humbled by the existence of these great minds and writers that I have chance by in this faceless realm. I have seen the war of words and learned to respect the thoughts of others.
IN PLAIN WORDS… I titled this entry as such due to my failure to further constraint my sadness, anger and disappointment to the degradation of humanity that I (so lacking-ly as many might agree) observed in our society. I’m not writing under the capacity of a devout Muslim (as I have sinned more than I have virtue) but rather as a disillusioned human being.
Over the past few days, we have seen many apt issues arises in this great nation of ours – particularly those pertaining to religion, human rights and what is being religious about. Many have strike swords and spears of words, power and notions as to champion their own thoughts and believe. Many slash down their so called opponents and claim triumph yet fail to realize that it is the wielder that is at lost – much like the old Malay saying “MENANG JADI ARANG, KALAH JADI ABU”.
RELIGION FREEDOM…
Nice sounding topics aren’t they? Even ‘nicer’ is the impact to society that they have. At present, many (be it muslims, so-called muslims and non-muslims) alike have fancied ourselves to “discuss” these issue. The non-muslims championed the cause of RELIGIOUS FREEDOM; the muslim liberals second the notion and the muslim fundamentalists retorts. But the question IS, is there any inkling at all that restricts religious freedom? Did the ONE (or ONEs – depending on what life-path you choose) who governs the earth, sky and sea ever IMPOSE (note that I’m all-cappings the word) the TEACHINGS on those who embrace paths that differs from ours? Or, it is us who are the ones that so arduously trying to do so? Which leads to the question for what reasons? Is it for the goodness of all man kind or for the benefits of one? Is the path that we have chosen to walk on is the most truthful of all? ARE WE THAT TRUTHFUL?
We fought; we champion the so called freedom as to challenge the authenticity of others based on what - our own distorted and confused interpretation of the religion that we embraced? I AM A MUSLIM. This religion that I embraced teach me to respect and uphold the principles of just and freedom. In the Quran, Allah has mentioned “La iqra ha fiddin” – there is no force in religion. It means that ISLAM is not a religion that force itself unto the believers of other faith (refer to sura Al-Kafirun) unto you your religion, and unto me my religion. Islam has never forced itself unto other religions. Islam advocates understanding, knowledge and respect (refer to Baqara:2:179, Alaq, 16:1 and Yunus:10:19). These advocacies are to thwart the disharmonic ambience between muslims and the non-muslims. It is my most utmost believes that other religion too promotes as such. So why must there be this distorted ‘ war’ between us?
ISLAM LIBERALS and ISLAM FUNDEMENTALISTS…
My question is how come such terms ever existed? Liberals and fundamentalists – for GOD sake we are muslims! We are of one faith! Both of these sides are at each other nerves, for what? To both I urge, learn, understand and have respect for each other. Islam has never EVER taught us to label each other as such. We proclaimed that we are such an intellect, but we slashed each other with such sharp retorts and remarks. Why?
To all, I plead, no I beg of you to seek truths and seek it with knowledge and understanding. Think of the future that will be to our children and our children’s children. Islam gives the right of freedom of thought and expression to all citizens of the Islamic state on the condition that it should be used for the propagation of virtue and truth and not for spreading evil and wickedness. The Islamic concept of freedom of expression is much superior to the concept prevalent in the West. Under no circumstances would Islam allow evil and wickedness to be propagated. It also does not give anybody the right to use abusive or offensive language in the name of criticism. It was the practice of the Muslims to enquire from the Holy Prophet whether on a certain matter a divine injunction had been revealed to him. If he said that he had received no divine injunction, the Muslims freely expressed their opinion on the matter.
Please!
8 comments:
Lord Demon,
I will have to agree with a lot of what you have stated herein.
Once more, I have to say that you think too highly of me, that I do not properly deserve such high regards from anyone.
Perhaps it is in my nature to seek debate, and perhaps to some this might seem as a horrible thing to do. I admit right now that I am quite guilty of fondly and freely using the term "religious fundamentalism" on certain quarters.
Be that as it may, Lord Demon, these debates and heated arguments are not entirely negative: while I ruthlessly counter-propose and destroy the other party's contentions, I also admit that I learn a lot from them as well. As twisted as it may seem, debate is a learning process to a certain extent.
I can only hope that those that I have dealt with recently and in the past have learned something from me as I have from them.
But one thing you present is undeniably true. At the end of the day we are all Muslims, equal in the Eyes of God. and if need be you will find me side by side defending the faith with yourself and those that I have debated with.
My Demon,
It's hard to read your blog. I had to download first and then only read. But this is my piece;
Islam is only one. It is singular, not plural. It’s Unity is as integral as God’s Unity. There cannot be a fundamentalist or liberal Islam. There cannot be Sunni or Shi’i Islam. There cannot be a Shafei or Hanafi or Maliki Islam. Islam is the one and only religion wahyu’ed by Allah s.w.t to all the prophets from Adam a.s to Muhammad s.a.w. The unadulterated Islam is as is in the Qur’an; the one and only One endorsed by Allah s.w.t. All other references shall be subjugated to analysis and reasons (please do not equate me to the Anti-Hadiths belief on this point for I had fought till froths from the mouth, ….eeerrrr…. keyboard with this group). If all agrees to this highest reference, then, all problem can be solved and there need not be labels as many as Election Day posters to Islam. Labels are what they are…..just labels.
Religious freedom or whatever should be as derived from this one and only source. This is constitutional and there cannot be a higher Constitution than the Qur’an. If a group throw away a diction from the Qur’an for his own fanciful whims or philosophic tendencies, whether real or actually nafsu / syaitan inspired one, then he cannot be called a Muslim, what ever label he wants to be known as. How can one reject Allah’s WORD for his own and still call himself a Muslim? Impossible because that means he is putting his meager mental ability against The Creator, The All Knowing and The All Wise. That is BASIC.
Freedom as guaranteed by Allah is freedom of beliefs, not freedom of action. For every action there is accountability, whether in this world under present law or in the Hereafter. God judges all and Justice is His domain. As for beliefs, nobody can force anyone to his own belief. He can of course discuss or debate. In the glory days of Islamic Empire, debates on religions were held openly in the Caliphs court yard and nobody’s head was chopped of because of this, not that I’m promoting Caliphates to the present form of government.
However please take note. A Caliph had sent an army to rescue / punish the aggressors when a single Muslimah’s honour was trampled in another land. In our case, our very own integrity was questioned in our very own land, our very own country, in a majority Muslim country that put Islam as the official religion and we can only say….. sudahlah….sudahlah….takkan nak buang semua dia orang nie….. what a shame.
In context of religious freedom, does it extend to public behaviour? Is indecent public behaviour to be condone because we guarantee religious freedom? Does kissing in the public parks, on public transport system or wearing outrageously sexy (note the word) dress in public a symbol of religious freedom? Those are two altogether different things. This is indecency we are talking here, not religious freedom. Do Taoist, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, you name it call such acts religious acts that needed to be given a space in this free-religious-practice-country? So on what framework do we gauge public decency? On whose opinion? What is the `Islam Is The Official Religion’ Code for? Is it just ceremonial and let all else be thrown to the wolves? Hell NOOOO!!!
huhh nnt lar bila pree wa baca...
tak reti sgt mende2 camnih but still have huge interest to read it... just to gain knowlegde
Dear blog owner,
There is one thing i'd like to highlight here. only the sinned would see all those flaws. and when we draw from the orthodox sameness, we r the devils' advocates. we see things differently, and we claim they r some sort of truths. we r confused.
i am one of them.
Hi Deme
You string beautiful words.. congratulations. I love your writing.. your sensitivity towards what is truth and what is not... your search..
We are all seekers of truth.. some more vehement than others.
To label oneself as liberal or fundamentalist is a shade of the degree of searching.. our inability to control the urge to be judgemental and to give labels.
Having said that, what is good is good, and what is not good is still not good.. the simplicity of islam is actually what brings me to appreciate its beauty.. and it brings lots of solace to many non-muslims too; the co-existence of muslims-non muslims testify to this beauty for generations throughout the history of religion.
Thanks for visiting my site..and thanks for listing mine here as one of your examples Deme.
You are a great man.
tend to agree with gukita... and therefore... there's no such thing as Islam Hadhari....
by d way demon, nice blog!!! susah sket nak baca tp okey laa... but i truly don't deserve any credits for my blog though... just for fun blogging, that's all...
and do u know that there's a blog that calls itself Demons In Me? Same person ke? Du tink so... but then... hmm.....
I think everybody blog or writes to undestand themselves much better. I write because the only way to understand myself is by writing. And having knowledge about myself is important because knowledge is power. In every sense.
Islam. I find it hard to debate or even talk about this topic. I am scared that when I read about it I get confused and because confused is a not very nice place to be in. Islam is simple, it's the way of life. Everything in it is explained in such detail that we, as muslims are not lost in everything we do.
Some people talk about it beause when they talk the more strongly they grasp of their believe. I am the complete opposite. So forgive me if I don't contribute my thoughts about certain matter at times.
Thanks for the prop. It's nice to be recognized once in awhile.
susah sikit nak paham blog kau, agak unik, tapi ok gak, mamat tu macam muka trunks? betul ke? trunks anak bulma dan bezita...he he he
Post a Comment