AN EVENING OF POETRY RECITAL

AN EVENING OF POETRY RECITAL

By: Kassim Ahmad

29 August, 2016

darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my

            Almost a month ago, I was admitted to Kulim Hospital because of complications of my left lung. Unbeknown to me and perhaps my friends in Kuala Lumpur wanted to present a fiat accomplice to me, they  arranged an evening of poetry recital for me. Due to pressure of my friends, I appealed to my doctors to allow me two days off. They relented after extracting from me a promise to return to the hospital.

            My son spirited me in his powerful car to the promised avenue to reach sharp at 2.30 on that Sunday 7^th August. There were present about 60 people, including some friends, in the small hall. Without much ado, the Chairman introduced me, and then after a gentleman sitting on my right spoke his stuff, he passed the microphone to me to start reciting my poem “Sidang Ruh” (= Human Souls in Session).

            I called for music.There was none. So, deliberately, slowly, in a sombre  voice, I recited:- [1]

I

                        perlu satu-satu diperhitungkan kembali

                        hari ini kita dewasa

                        tanpa tuhan tanpa impian

                        kerana besok mungkin terlalu lewat

                        bagi kiamat yang telah ditangguhkan.

                        bukan aku sinis

                        jangan kau mengateis

                        beritaku dari mereka yang lupa bagaimana untuk hidup

                        maka demikian perlu kata-kata

                        supaya maut kita jangan kerana bisu.

                        kalau kau percaya kepada manusia sejahtera

                        jangan kau bergembira menurut hukum

                        (kerana kemenangan)

                        kalau kau percaya kepada manusia bebas

                        jangan kau berkata menurut hukum

                        (kerana taat-setia)

                        kerana tidak ada hukum yang akan berlaku

                        (namun digubal dalam pi bi bi)

                        yang tidak berperlembagaan di hati.

II

                        sudah datang berita yang paling kejam

                        bagi mereka yang lagi hidup kerana bisa berharap

                        dunia ini penjara

                        nasi kita akan cukup di syurga.

                        di atas belakang Dajjal

                        telah diperdagangkan hidup

                        gelak dan hilai bukan kerana bahagia

                        gelak dan hilai kerana papa.

                        akan bersidang segala roh

                        anakmu hari ini makan apa

                        nasi atau beer

                        ketawanya palsu tangisnya tanpa suara.

III

                        nanti akan padamlah dengan sendirinya

                        lampu dari menara tinggi

                        kerana di bawahnya orang kian mabuk

                        dan Tuhan sudah mati.

END

            I heard my voice booming across the room. The audience applauded me when I finished the recital. I asked them if they wanted me to explain it stanza by stanza. They replied, “Yes.” So I did. Again they applauded me. I stood up to acknowledge their applause.

          Then came questions and answers. One asked me a question I did not expect -- what I thought of religious scholars. For some reason, I shot out a cryptic answer, “Cari makan,” meaning they were  merely earning a livelihood. To my surprise, none asked me to explain what I meant. Back at home, I thought I should have been fairer. Then I would have to tell them that most of them were as ignorant as the next man! And I would enumerate their errors: the second syahadah annulled in the Quran (63: 1), on the so-called Hudud punishments, the once-a-year practice of the pilgrimage to Mecca, cramming two million people into the small place, causing over-crowing and at times many deaths, when the Quran stipulates that the hajj can be performed in anyone of the four sacred months. Not only that. Only those who are healthy and financially able should  perform the hajj, once in a life-time. The rural folk especially would rake their life-time savings to do the hajj. A woman’s hair is not her ‘aurat or nakedness that needs to be covered. Their religious scholars – where are they?  Why do they not tell them the truth from the Quran? 

          At the end, many came forward to ask me to autograph my books in their possession and to take photographs  with me..

          I must say I enjoyed every minute of the evening.

KASSIM AHMAD  is a Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com    

 

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[1] This poem was written in August, 1960 and published in Utusan Zaman.

SURAH AL-FATEHAH

 TAF1:060394

BAHAGIAN  I

SURAH 1: PEMBUKAAN (AL-FATIHAH)

 (Mekah, 7 Ayat; Wahyu ke-5)

MAKLUMAT PENTING

TEMPAT & TARIKH TURUN WAHYU:

Di Mekah pada zaman awal Mekah dalam  masa lima tahun pertama antara 12-8 B.H (610-615 T.M.) Wahyu ke-5. Tujuh  ayat.

TUJUAN:

Doa agung untuk orang mukmin.

NAMA LAIN:

Fatihat al-Kitab atau Pembukaan Buku, Umm`ul-Kitab atau Induk Buku, Surah al-Du`a atau Surah Doa, Al-Hamd atau  Pujian, Al-Kanz atau Khazanah, dan Al-Syifa atau Penawar.

AYAT PENTING:

“Engkau semata-mata kami sembah dan kepada Engkau semata-mata kami pohon pertolongan. Bimbingilah kami ke jalan yang lurus.” (5-6)

TAJUK

A. PUJIAN KEPADA ALLAH (2-4)

B.  IKRAR  MUKMIN (5)

C.  DOA (6-7)

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1. Dengan nama Allah,[1]Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Pengasih. [2]

2. Segala puji bagi Allah, [3]  Tuan Semesta Alam.

3. Maha Pemurah, Maha Pengasih.

4. Raja pada Hari Pembalasan.

5.  Engkaulah kami sembah dan kepada Engkaulah kami pohon pertolongan.

6. Bimbinglah kami ke jalan yang lurus;

7.  Jalan  mereka yang Engkau restui, bukan  mereka  yang  Engkau murkai, dan bukan  mereka yang sesat.

*****

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[1] Saya telah menggunakan perkataan Allah untuk perkataan Arab yang sama dan perkataan tuhan untuk perkataan Arab ilah, kerana perkataan Allah memang  telah masuk ke bahasa Melayu. Contohnya dalam frasa-frasa “ya Allah!”, “demi Allah”, “hamba Allah”, “insya Allah”, “kerana Allah” dsb. Tetapi pendapat yang mengatakan bahawa perkataan Allah khusus untuk nama Allah itu dibantah oleh Quran sendiri dalam ayat 17:110 yang berbunyi: “Katakanlah, `Serulah Allah atau serulah Yang Maha Pemurah. Apa jua nama yang kaupakai, milik-Nya nama-nama yang paling  indah.’ ” 

[2] Ayat ini, yang dikenal sebagai Basmalah, menduduki suatu tempat yang istimewa dalam Quran. Ialah kenyataan pembukaan semua surah, kecuali Surah 9, dan ia merupakan asas mukjizat matematik angka 19 Quran. (Lihat lampiran I)

  

   Basmalah terdiri daripada 19 huruf Arab, dan tiap-tiap huruf itu (Bism, Allah, Al-Rahman, Ar-Rahim) terdapat dalam Quran dalam angka ganda 19: 19, 2698, 57 dan 114 kali masing-masing. Dengan demikian, pembaca telah pada awal-awal lagi diberikan tanda-tanda bahawa ini bukan buku karangan manusia.

    Banyak fenomina matematik dihubungkan dengan ayat ini. Umpamanya, ketiadaan Basmalah dari Surah 9 digantikan sembilan belas  surah kemudian dalam Surah 27 yang mengandungi dua Basmalah (Lihat Lampiran .... dan Nota ....) Dengan demikian, jumlah Basmalah genap 114, atau 19x6. Apabila kita campur nombor-nombor surah dari surah ketiadaan Basmalah (Surah 9) ke surah kelebihan Basmalah (Surah 27) [9+10+11+ ... +27], jumlahnya 342, atau 19x18. Jumlah ini pula bersamaan dengan bilangan perkataan di antara kedua-dua Basmalah Surah 27!

    Sepertimana yang diperincikan dalam Lampiran I, kod matematik Quran ini begitu luas dan begitu halus sehingga tidak ada kuasa di bumi ini yang boleh menirunya, apalagi membuatnya, seperti yang ditegaskan dalam ayat 17:88.

[3] Perkataan Arab rabb memang bermakna “tuan”, dalam bahasa  Inggeris diterjemahkan dengan perkataan  lord.  Makna ini kekal dalam bahasa  Melayu dalam perkataan-perkataan  “tuanku”, “tuan hamba”, “Yamtuan” dan “Yang Dipertuan Agung”.  

THE TRUE MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE

THE TRUE CELEBRATION OF INDEPENDENCE

By: Kassim Ahmad

28 August, 2016

            This is the 60^th year of our independence. We spend millions of ringgit yearly to celebrate this auspicious day of 31 August with parades and the like, with every citizen flying or waving the national flag. We have been doing this year in and year out.

Is this the true spirit that we want to inculcate in our citizens? Of course the parades and such like have their uses. But independence must mean more than that. It must mean the acting out of freedom in our souls. We must act freely to realize our place in the several countries that we are in and in the world -- the just and peaceful world that everyone wants.

In this sense of the word independence,  we are far from it in the several countries that we are citizens of and in the wider world.  We suffer hardships of various kinds and magnitudes. The ultimate hardship would be a Third World War, using nuclear weapons. So far we are in stalemate, one bloc fearing destruction at the hands of the opposite bloc – the so-called mutual assured destruction, the MAD of human madness!

            That means our independence is hollow and a fake. That means we are not at peace with ourselves, the OTHER being no more than ourselves. This is a scary and disastrous discovery. Where have we gone wrong?

            To answer that question, let me bring two pointers from the Quran. In Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 30, God informs the angles that He wishes to create a human being to rule and change the earth, to which the angles protest, arguing that the human beings would spread evil and shed blood. God simply replies He knows better.

            Humans have of course shed blood in the two World Wars.

            But he is also a creator civilizations, the good side of him that God refers to.

            The second pointer is from the first Surah, the great human prayer to his Lord. Verses 6-7, states, “Guide us in the right path, the path of those whom You blessed, not of those who have deserved wrath, nor of the strayers.”

            Let us analyse these two verses. Those whom God bessed are clear. They are the true believers. Those who incur His wrath are also clear, that is the deniers of God and their ownselves. The strayers are those who think that they are believers, but are in actual fact disbelievers.

            So those who are actually free are those who live in this blessed state of freedom, happy with themselves, happy with their environment and happy with their Lord. They are in the abode of Paradise.

            This is the true meaning of freedom.

KASSIM AHMAD is aMalaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com