TRUTH WILLS OUT
By: Kassim Ahmad
22June, 2017
English poet John Keats said, "Beauty is Truth/Truth Beauty/That is all I know/That is all there is to know/.
In my experience, this came several times. In a dialogue organized by ABIM. a Muslim youth organization on my book Hadis - Satu Penilian Semula (translated Hadith - A Re-evaluation).
When the Malay original came out,in 1986 the Malaysian skies fell on me
like a ton of bricks. Our cartoonist Lat depicted this event very well
with me carrying a beg with dark skies and storms brewing on the
right.. The book was discussed in the print media for two months, half
supporting me and half opposing. After the two months of wide
discussions, the reactionary religious authorities banned it. It was a
primitive act inherited from the European Middle Ages. Soon it was
translated into English and Arabic and read throughout the world,
bringing positive consequences in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. In
Malaysia six rejoinders soon appeared, repeating their tired old
arguments, which I had already demolished in the book in the first
place.
I was not the first to be critical of hadith. Several writers before me
had done so. But, without wanting to boat, mine was the first all round
and scientific treatment of the matter.
The book originated from a five-part article that I wrote for my weekly
column in a weekly magazine.The editor, fearful of negative
repercussions in a fanatically Shafi'e-influenced Malaysia, refused to
publish it. I learned later that the matter was discussed in the Cabinet
and even raised in the Malay Rulers' Council. The education minister
then, Abdullah Badawi, acting for the Cabinet, I guessed, rightly argued
for freedom of academic discourse. My friends in the a department of
sociology and anthropology in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
was ready to sponsor the seminar I called for. However, it was
cancelled by Pusat Islam/Islamic Centre. Lastly, I had to resort to
publishing it through my friend-publisher Azran Abd. Rahman, bringing
the skied down on my head, as I said.
My Arab philosopy professor-friend Dr Hassan Hanafi chided me for
raising an abstract matter, arguing I should focuss my attention to
bread-and-butter issues..I replied that I wanted those things as well,
but these can only be had through a philosophical outlook.
Coming back to my story about the ABIM dialogue: several scholars in
attendance yelled at me accusing me of arrogance. In fact one prayer
leader denounced me in a Friday prayer sermon when I was in front of
him.
After
the prayer I looked at the village youths who attended the prayer. They
simply smiled! I thought if I were in Pakistan or Bangladesh. I would
have been beaten to death!
Two three years later all of them -- those religious scholars who
opposed me -- realized their error and apologized to me. God be praised!
.
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KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is
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