PERAK ACADEMY LECTURE
“MY VISION FOR MALAYSIA”


By: Kassim Ahmad
darul_hikmah33@yahoo.cm.my

25 February, 2012.

1. Introduction

I thank the Perak Academy for this great honour of iviting me to speak here. I know that many more illustrious persons than me have preceded me to deliver their lectures . Some of you may know that I am but an infamous character, dubbed and known as the leader of the “Anti-Hadith” movement in Malaysia. If I were to take these slanderers to court, I shall have nothing else to do! So, as the Malay rhyme goes, “Biarlah si Luncai terjun dengan labu-labunya!/Biarkan!/Biarkan!” Roughly translated, “Let the village humburg drown in the river with his gourds!/ Let be!/Let be!”
As for my lecture this evening, I can only hope that it will be as interesting as the others who have delivered theirs.
To sum up what I want to say on this topic of “My Vision of Malaysia”, given to me by you, it is this: “The best in the world, materially, morally and spiritually.”
Is this possible? The world, being a lawful creation of a logical and beneficient Power that we call God, it should be possible.

2. Two Types of Politics

At the outset, we must be aware that there are two types of politics: the oppressive oligarchical, and the liberating humanist. Throughout human history, oppressors – the elite minority – have always tried to oppress the people; opposing this oligarchical faction is the humanist faction, fighting to liberate the people from their oppression.
As some of you might know, I was in active politics for some time. I hated the first type, our Malaysian politics being a mixture of both. That is why I left it, opting for what I do best – writing. I told some of my friends that if I were 60 (I am now 78), I would certainly fight for the UMNO presidency, for to obtain power in Malaysia (and therefore to re-shape Malaysia), one still has to do it through UMNO.

3. Malay-based Malaysian Nation

This our new nation-state of Malaysia originated from the 15th century Malay Sultanate of Malacca and its politics is bound to be Malay-based for some time to come. The changes, material, moral dan spiritual, can be dealt with separately, but they are actually inter-related. I would need between 10 to 25 years to achieve my aim completely.
The first ten years would be devoted to economics – to provide all Malaysians with the material support fo a good life, with no one living in poverty. This means that the country must be productive in all aspects, with the rich part psychologically capable of helping the poor part, and eliminating waste and extravagance, much of which is due to corrupt officials. The entire populace must be educated and trained to be productive, while at the same time to hate and act against waste and extravagance.
Malaya, now Malaysia, after 446 years of colonization by European and some Asian powers, has become independent for 54 years and is now on a road to become a new multiracial nation-state. This new nation-state has evolved from the 15the century Malay Sultanate of Malacca that was part of the wider Malay world of the Malay Archipelago. It is to be remembered that Malacca was in that century a most famous cosmopolitan port visited by traders from around the world. It is said that as many as 84 languages and dailects were spoken at the port of Malacca, with Malay as the lingua franca.
It is important to remember this history. It explains why Malaysia is Malay-based. This is not racialism, as some claim. It is reality, but a reality that will be overtaken by our new Malaysian idealism. It will take at least three generations for the new Malaysia to take firm roots and for all of us to think and feel ourselves as Malaysians.

4. A Humanist Society

You can see now that the material component is intertwined with the moral and the spiritual. We must achieve this mainly through our educational system – to teach the moral and spiritual values of a humanist, as opposed to an animalistic, society. Religion in wider sense of the word would have a major part in establishing such a society, as all religions teach the doing of good and preventing evil.
Having established this society without any one living in poverty, we need to make sure that the society, over a period of years, does not relapse into a situation prior to it. The fight is a continuous one. The moral and spiritual education of the people cannot be relaxed. It has to be continuously promoted, improved and upheld.
We have to be vigilant against onslaughts from the oligarchical factions outside our country. This needs a policy of uniting with like societies to oppose the enemy forces.
We are now ready to embark upon the second level of our aim. I think it is not wise to separate the moral and spiritual levels. To what level does the promotion of science, philosophy, art and religion belong? Moral? Spiritual? It is difficult to say. The promotion of science needs a strong commitment to knowledge. The promotion of philosophy needs a strong commitment to rational thought. Of art, to beauty. Of religion, to truth, goodness and compassion.
What makes a man or a woman want to advance on the moral and spiritual planes? The Quran mentions three psychological states: the lowest being a self that is steeped in anger (Arabic: nafsul-amarah). He or she is angry at everybody else except himself or herself. This is the animalistic stage. I think most of mankind throughout human history remained on this animalistic psychological stage and only a Benevolent God saved us from our deserved certain destruction!
We must make an effort to ascend to the next psychological level, the true humanist level, i.e. the self-critical spirit (Ar. nafs’ul-lawwamah). At this level, we acknowledge that others may be right and ourselves may be wrong. This is the stage where we can cooperate with one another to carry out the good works of society. The establishment of the United Nations Organization in 1945 after the Second World war marks the point of our arrival at this stage.

5. Leading Groups

Every society consists of three leading groups: the sincere and the patriotic, upholding and fighting for truth and justice; the opposite of this, upholding and fighting to enrich themselves and their group; with a third posing as the sincere and patriotic, but actually behaving like the second group. There is a perpetual fight between these leading groups. The first group must unite with the broadest sections of the population to overcome the second and third leading groups. It is only thus that the whole society can progress.
Society’s leadership, both intellectual and political, must understand this truth and grasp and uphold the first worldview to fight the second and third worldviews and lead society onward in its evolution to true freedom and hapinness.

6. The Dual Party System

Since the 2008 General Elections when Barisan Nasional for the first time failed to get two-thirds majority, losing the control of four states (Selangor, Penang, Perak and Kedah, with Perak falling back to Barisan’s hands soon after) in the process, with Kelantan remaining in PAS’s hands, our people have become enamoured with the European model of politics, i.e the dual party system with a Government and an Opposition. This system has its philosophical roots in the British philosopher’s Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) which stipulated society as a “war of all against all” (from Latin: Bellum omnium contra omnes). So society must have a government of check and balance to avoid chaos and civil war. He claimed that this was the state of nature!
It can be seen that this system is, firstly, primitive, since it is based on the lowest psychological state that I mention above, while we can and should progress to the next psychological state, i.e. cooperation among citizens (Ar. nafsul-lawwamah), both at the national and the international levels. As I said above, the United Nations Organization reflects this state. Secondly, it is extravagant, because we simultaneously utilise one part of society to undo the work of another part.
The question is: why cannot we use both parts to work together, while at the same time create a mechanism to make corrections from wthin the government and society? That is what happens in a family: when a family wants to have a function, it deliberates and takes decision. Criricism and correction come from within. In same way, this applies to a society, for a society is nothing but a family enlarged.
We should not ape the West. Under its secular cover, he West is Judeo-Christian. Eastern societies, be they Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and others originate from different religio-moral traditions and operate under different worldviews. We can and should evolve our own governmental systems more in line with our cooperative social-moral traditions, without, of course, sacrificing the worth and rights of the indivividual in society.

7. Eradicating Poverty

Take the case of a truly humanist society. Society should, by right, take care of its members who are in need. Islam makes it the duty of a government to collect taxes, called zakat, translated as obligatory charity, from those who are able, to be given to eight classes or recipients, namely (i) the poor (ii) the needy, (iii) the collectors, i.e. the government or a public body, (iv) for the use of abolishing slavery, (v) for truth seekers, such as students and scholars, (vi) to help debtors, (vii) to help poor travellers, and (viii) to provide basic infracstucture, like education, health, housing, public transport, etc. Although zakat is much stressed in the Quran, it is neglected in all Muslim countries. In Malaysia, for example, after 54 years of independence, many families are still living in poverty.
In order for a society to progress (the word ‘progress’ to mean on all planes, material, moral and spiritual), its leadership must be first class. This means it must consist of professionally competent and morally good individuals. They must work as a team and must not be concerned with narrow personal gains. We know that the Singapore Government pays its ministers the highest salaries in the world to achieve zero corruption in government. It has largely succeeded.
At the moment, our agricuture is not self-sufficient. We import many food products, including rice, the staple foof of our people, on the ground that it is cheaper to import than to produce it. This argument cannot hold, as the more important consideration is rice’s strategic significance to our country.

8. The Party System

The government is run by a party system. The party is the vehicle by which the leading elements in society voluntarily join to form the government and to lead society. Thus these leading elements must undergo a process of scientific education and training to enable them to be members of parties and to be the parties’ cadres and leaders. Only then can the parties be true leaders of government and society.
UMNO claims to be a mass party with of 3.2 million members. It is well-known that over the last few decades, since “money politics” came into being, the quality of its members has deteriorated, resulting in power struggles and corrupt politics in party and government. The disaster of the 12th General Election for B.N. could be seen coming ten or twenty years earlier. UMNO members themselves have come to dislike and to be critical of their leaders for their over-materialism!
Today a great number of people has come to hate politics, especailly the young. It is in this political atmostphere that many people have come to see in the dual party system of the West the answer to our problem. As I have pointed out above, the belief is quite misplaced. As the European experience has shown, the system has not checked Western colonialism and imperialism in Asia and in the world. If ever there was any cause for modern civilization to be totally destroyed, it was the incessant wars between colonialisms and imperialisms! As I said above, only a Beneficient and Merciful God saved us from certain destruction!
Today this duel party system is collapsing in Europe itself. Imagine how foolish we have become to think good coming of a bad thing!

9. A Free and Responsible Press

It is obvious that society cannot remain at the lowest animalistic psychological level. It has to ascend to the next higher level. Otherwise, it will loose its relevance and perish. We are entering the moral and spiritual realms that are necessary to further human development. In this process, a free and responsible press is neessary, being part of the criticism and correction that I spoke about above and that is required.
A press is owned by a group of people who have their own interests. In this sense, it cannot be free. But a free press is necessary. Therefore, the group of people owning the press must voluntarily exercise their patriotic duty to dissiminate true information as well as to make reasoned analyses of local and international news. The country’s leaders as well as other press groups also exersice their role in bringing about a free and responsible press.
All these institutions, party and government leaders, intellectuals, and press groups have one big responsibility, i.e. to uphold and speak the truth, as well as “to enjoin good and prevent evil”, in the pithy words of the Quran.
10. The Study of Religions
There must be a group in the country devoted to the study of the various religious scriptures, supported by the Government, i.e. through the zakat tax that I have already referred to. This is important as the people must be informed of the good moral and spiritual guidance provided by the various religious scriptures.

11. Religion Must Be Separated From Politics

The Government must be secular in character. This secularism must not be of an immoral or amoral type that Machiavelli proposed in his influential book, The Prince. It has to be of a moral type, although it must be separated from religion in the narrow sense of the word. Religious devotions and rituals of every religious community must therefore be separated from State policy and run and managed autonomously by the particular religious community. State policy must clearly be based on the aspirations of all the citizens, regardless of race and religion. State policy must be based squarely on justice, fairness and compassion.
Unless some religious fanatics brand me as anti-religious for espousing secularism, let me remind them that this is precisely what Prophet Muhammad stipulated in his famous Medina Charted that he promulgated and gave to the city of Medina upon his migration to that city.
In order to fully achieve this society, we must pursue an active foreing policy of friendship with all nations to promote peace and justice in the world. Do not think that a small country like Malaysia cannot lead the word. Smallness is not equivalent o weakness. True strength lies in truth, justice and compassion.
This is my vision of Malaysia. Although I grant that it is difficult to put it into practice, it should be a pleasure for truth-and-justice-loving leaders to create such a society, and a greater pleasure still for its citizens to live in it.
God bless Malaysia.
Thank you.
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KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

IKUT QURAN – APA MAKNANYA?

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
Darul_hikmah33@yahoo.com.my

18 Februari, 2012

Pada tahun 1982 Dr. Rashad Khalifa menerbitkan sebuah buku menolak Hadis secara keseluruhan dan menganjurkan supaya umat Islam ikut Quran semata-mata. Hujah beliau Hadis yang sebenar itu Quran. Beliau lupa bahawa perkataan ‘hadis’ juga bermakna ‘berita’ atau ‘perkara’. Apabila saya menerbitkan buku saya Hadis: Satu Penilain Semula pada tahun 1986, beliau menelefon saya menyatakan beliau faham mengapa saya tidak menolak Hadis secara total. Sebenarnya pendirian saya berbeza dengan beliau secara berprinsip, bukan kerana saya mahu bertolak ansur dengan prasangka kebanyakan orang Islam yang taksub kepada hadis.
Ramai juga orang Islam di seluruh dunia, termasuk di Malaysia, menjadi pengikut Dr. Rashad Khalifa, dan menolak pendirian saya. Esei ini saya tulis dengan tujuan untuk menghuraikan makna sebenar cogankata “Ikut Quran”.
Surah Al-Nesa (4), ayat 59 menyatakan dua sumber kuasa. Sumber utama ‘Allah dan rasul’; sumber tambahan ‘mereka yang berkuasa’. Ayat itu berbunyi: “Hai orang yang beriman, hendaklah kamu taat kepada Allah, dan hendaklah kamu taat kepada rasul, dan kepada mereka yang berkuasa di antara kamu...” Ayat ini penting sekali, kerana ia menerangkan hakikat dua sumber kuasa atau undang-undang: pertama dan utama, Quran; kedua dan sampingan, pemimpin. Quran boleh diumpamakan sebagai perlembagaan, dan pemimpin, undang-undang tambahan atau undang-undang kecil, dengan syarat undang-undang tambahan ini tidak melanggar perlembagaan.
Di bawah konsep ‘pemimpin’ boleh dimasukkan apa yang dikatakan Hadis/Sunnah Nabi, dan ajaran-ajaran manusia yang lain, seperti sains, sejarah dan falsafah. Ajaran-ajaran ini, yang selaras dengan ajaran Quran, terpakai; yang bercanggah, batal.
Inilah makna ayat ini. Amat jelas dan tiada kekeliruan sedikit pun di dalamnya.
Ambil contoh wahyu yang pertama yang turun kepada Nabi Muhammad: “Bacalah dengan nama Tuanmu yang menjadikan ...” (96: 1-5) Nyatalah perintah baca ini menyuruh manusia membaca semua dengan kritis: ambil yang baik dan buang yang buruk. Ini makna frasa ‘baca dengan nama Tuanmu yang menjadikan’. Perintah ini bukan ditujukan kepada Quran, kerana tiada disebut perkataan ‘Quran’ dalam ayat itu. Lagi pun, Quran belum ada pada masa itu! Ini bermakna Hadis pun kita kena baca juga, tetapi baca dengan kritis. Begitu juga kita kena baca kitab Taurat, dan kitab-kitab agama-agama lain. Begitu juga kita kena baca sains, sejarah dan falsafah. Sebenarnya, perintah baca ini suatu revolusi besar dalam perkembangan fikiran manusia.
Apabila kita mengikut Quran, tidak bermakna kita tidak perlu membaca buku-buku lain. Quran sendiri, seperti yang telah saya tunjukkan, menyuruh kita membaca buku-buku lain dengan syarat kita membacanya dengan kritis.
Timbul soalan siapakah yang menghuraikan Quran, Nabi Muhammad (seperti yang didakwa oleh Ahlul-Hadis), atau siapa? Seperti biasa, Quran memberi jawapannya pada banyak tempat . Ayat 55: 1-2 menyatakan Tuhan yang mengajar Quran. Ayat 75: 16-19 menyatakan Tuhan dan agen-agen-Nya (termasuk nabi Muhammad dan cendekiawan pada semua zaman pasca-Quran). Ayat 35: 31-32 menyatakan mereka yang Tuhan pilih saja daripada generasi-generasi kemudian yang boleh menerimanya, yakni yang beriman dengan Quran dan boleh menghuraikannya. Ayat 3: 7 menyatakan bahawa tidak siapa boleh mentafsirkan ayat-ayat kiasan, melainkan Tuhan dan mereka yang pakar.
Saya telah memberi sembilan prinsip kaedah tafsir yang saintifik dalam buku saya Hadith: A Re-evaluation (1996: U.S.A.), hlm. 126-151.
Saya ingin memperingatkan pengkaji Quran supaya membaca dan mengkaji Quran secara keseluruhan. Pembacaan dan pengkajian mestilah dilakukan secara keseluruhan, bukan setengah-setengah. “Kami akan menyoal mereka yang mebahagi-bahagikan, yang menerima Quran setengah-setengah saja.” (Quran, 15: 90-91)
Quran juga menyuruh kita bertanya kepada para ilmuwan (perhatikan bukan ulama, kerana kasta paderi tiada dalam Islam; ia diimport dari agama-agama Hindu dan Kristian). (16: 43; 10: 94)
Dengan ringkasnya, mengikut Quran bererti mengikut kebenaran dan ajaran-ajaran yang logikal, bukan khurafat.
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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

PENDEWAAN PEMIMPIN –
SUATU KELEMAHAN MANUSIA


Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
darul_hikmah33@yahoo.com.my

12 Februari, 2012

Kebanyakan orang, walau apa pun kamu buat, tidak akan beriman. – Quran, 12: 103.

Kebanyakan yang beriman, tidak beriman tanpa menyengutukan Tuhan.
– Quran, 10: 106.

Jangan menyembah dua tuhan; tuhan hanya satu. – Quran, 16: 51.

Pada 5 Februari yang lalu, saya mengadakan majlis pelancaran buku saya yang baru (Islamic Renaissance – A New Era Has Begun, Brainbow Press, U.S.A. 2012) di sebuah hotel di Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Ucapan pelancaran diberikan oleh Sdr Nik Aziz Hassan, bekas Ketua Jabatan Dakwah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia dan seorang anggota pimpinan Kumpulan Shah Waliullah di Kota Bharu, Kelantan. (Shah Waliullah seorang failasuf besar Islam India aba ke-18.)
Kebetulan hari itu terjatuh pada hari Maulidil-Rasul, lalu saya meminta hadirin mengingati perjuangan tokok humanis yang agung ini, yang telah memberikan kita kitab suci yang terakhir, Quran’ul-Karim. Saya tidak menyebut frasa Arab sallal’llahu ‘alaihi wasallam ketika menyebut nama tokoh besar ini, seperti yang biasa dilakukan oleh kebanyakan orang Islam. Perkataan yang digunakan itu selawat, selawat kepada Nabi Muhammad.
Walaupun pada waktu soal-jawab, tidak siapa daripada hadirin menanya saya tentang perkara ini, saya ingin mengambil kesempatan ini untuk menjawabnya.
Ayat suci yang digunakan sebagai asas selawat ini datang dari Surah Al-Ahzab (33), ayat, 56. Bunyainya: “Tuhan dan malaikat-Nya merestui Nabi. Hai kamu yang beriman, hendaklah kamu restui beliau, dan hormati beliau dengan kehormatan yang sewajarnya.” (Restu, ertinya sokong, bantu.) Sekiranya kita mengambil ayat ini tanpa banyak usul periksa dan mengucap selawat apabila nama Nabi Muhammad disebut, bermaknalah kita telah membezakan antara rasul-rasul Allah. Membezakan antara rasul-rasul Allah itu dilarang oleh Tuhan. Rujuk Quran, 2: 136.
Apabila kita mengkaji dengan teliti ayat selawat tadi, kita akan dapati bahawa 13 ayat sebelum itu (ayat 43), terdapat ayat yang berbunyi: “Dialah yang merestui kamu (yakni orang mukmin), bersama-sama dengan malaikat-Nya untuk membimbing kamu keluar dari kegelapan kepada cahaya.” Ini bermakna, bukan Nabi Muhammad saja yang direstui oleh Tuhan dan para malaikat-Nya, tetapi juga orang mukmin. Malah orang mukmin disebut dulu!
Ini logik sekali. Nabi Muhammad itu pemimpin orang mukmin pada ketika itu. Orang mukmin itu memang tanggunjawab Tuhan (dan para maalaikat-Nya) sokong dan bantu. Demikian juga pemimpin orang mukmin.
Ada tiga perkara yang disebut dalam “ayat-ayat selawat” ini. Pertama, orang mukmin dan juga pemimpin mereka direstui Tuhan dan malaikat-Nya. Kedua, orang mukmin dikehendaki menghormati, membantu dan menyokong pemimpin mereka. Ketiga, Nabi disuruh merestui orang mukmin, kerana restu Nabi menggalakkan mereka untuk berjuang di alan Allah. (Ini disebut dalam ayat 103, Surah 9.)
Soalnya, mengapakah kebanyakan cendekian Islam (saya gugup hendak menyebut perkataan ‘ulama’, kerana kasta ulama tiada dalam Islam!) dari dulu hingga sekarang gagal menghuraikan perkara ini? Mereka membiarkan umat Islam melakukan dosa syirik, yakni menyengutukan Tuhan, sedangkan dosa syirik itu satu-satunya dosa yang tidak diampunkan Tuhan.
Saya telah memetik dan meletakkan tiga ayat suci di depan esei ini. Ayat pertama menerangkan bahawa kebanyakan manusia tidak beriman. Ayat kedua menerangkan bahawa kebanyakan orang yang beriman tidak beriman kecuali menyengutukan Tuhan. Ayat ketiga melarang kita daripada menyebah dua tuhan. (Siapa yang menyembah dua tuhan? Orang Hindu menyembah banyak tuhan; orang Kristian menyembah tiga tuhan. Yang menyembah dua tuhan, siapa? Fikirlah sendiri!)
Kita harus berwaspada terhadap kecenderungan manusia untuk mendewa-dewakan pemimpim. Pendewaan terhadap pemimpin membawa akibat kita menjadi hamba kepada pemimpin itu. Kita tidak bebas. Sedang kita dijadikan Tuhan khalifah untuk menentukan nasib kita sendiri. Kita dijadikan Tuhan raja untuk mentadbirkan Alam Semesta.

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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

RAYUAN KEPADA PEMIMPIN
DAN CENDEKIAWAN MELAYU

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
27 Januari, 2012

Sebenarnya, saya amat risau tentang keadaan dan kepimpinan masyarakat Malayisa sekarang. Maka itu saya menulis esei ini.
Walaupun saya menanggotai sebuah parti politik (tidak aktif sejak 1995), saya tidak taksub kepada mana-mana parti. Saya anggap diri saya seorang patriot. Saya cinta kepada bangsa dan nusa kita, tanpa saya melebihkan bangsa dan nusa kita melebihi bangsa-bangsa lain. Semua bangsa, kecil atau besar, sama. Yang melebihkan sesuatu bangsa itu ketakwaannya kepada Tuhan.
Saya merayu kepada pemimpin dan cendekiawan Melayu, kerana mereka masih memainkan peranan definitive (mentakrifkan sifat negara-bangsa) dalam masyarakat Malaysia yang sedang kita bina.
Biar saya senaraikan kerisauan saya.
Pertama, soal perpaduan. Saya nampak perpaduan yang kita bina sangat rapuh. Ia tidak boleh tahan bila ribut taufan yang kuat melanda. Lebih banyak propaganda dariapa meletakkan asas-asas perpadua yang kukuh. Sebagai contoh, kita sekarang (dulu tidak ada) mengamalkan “Rumah Terbuka”) untuk sesuatu perayaan sehingga sebulan lamanya, majlis makan semata-mata! Bukankah ini membazirkan wang dan masa? Dua puluh tahun dulu, kita merayakan hari raya masing-masing kaum dua tiga hari saja. Tidak ada rumah terbuka, kerana pada waktu perayaan-perayaan ini rumah kita senantiasa terbuka.
Perpaduan mesti diasaskan kepada pemerintahan yang adil dan telus, bukan majlis-majlis makan.
Kedua, pendidikan anak bangsa. Jika kita umpamakan masyarakt kita kepada sebuah keretapi, kita perlu memastikan kepala kereta api dalam keadaan baik. Kepala keretapilah yang akan menarik keretapi itu. Kepala keretapi dalam masyarakat kita itu parti, kerana parti dianggotai oleh anggota-anggota masyarakat yang bersemangan pejuang. Mereka memasuki parti secara sukarela. Hari ini keadaan ini tidak berlaku lagi. Anggota-anggota parti memasuki parti tanpa mengetahui tujuan perjuangan. Ketua cawangan mengambil anggota daripada ahli-ahli keluarganya untuk membolehkan ketua cawangan mendapat habuan material (projek Kerajaan). Dengan demikian, cawangan (dan seteruskan bahagian dan ke atas) tidak ada konsep perjuangan; yang ada mahu habuan!
Bolehkah sistem parti seperti ini menjadi kepala keretapi yang baik bagi negara dan masyarakat kita?
Ketiga, oleh kerana perkara kedua di atas, negara dan masyarakat kita tidak bergerak di atas prinsip. Yang di bawah membodek yang di atas untuk mendapat habuan. Kritikan tidak ada. Bolehkah negara maju dalam keadaan ini? Rasuah dan penipuan menjadi-jadi. Perhimpunan Agung parti selalu ditangguh ke selepas pilihanraya umum untuk mengelak rebutan jawataan yangsengit, yang boleh menejejaskan kekuatan parti. Maka itu, parti, yang sepatutnya bergerak sebagai kepala keretapi yang baik, sebagai pemimpin yang dinamik, menjadi permainan kaum elit!
Saya merayu kepada pemimpin dan cendekiawan Melayu supaya menghentikan proses kemerosotan ini segera. Segera ambil tindakan-tindakan untuk membaiki kepimpinan negara dan masyarakat kita supaya kepimpinan itu berjalan di atas prinsip. Ini sahaja yang boleh menyelamatkan kita akhirnya.

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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

HAIRAN BIN ‘AJAIB: MEMBACA BUKU YANG SAMA,
PENGERTIAN BERBEZA-BEZA!

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
18 Januari, 2012

Dalam pengalaman saya sebagai seorang pengarang, apa yang sangat menghairankan saya, lain pembaca, lain pengertiannya, atau seperti yang lazim dikatakan orang sekarang, persepsi lain daripada hakikat.
Apakah sebabnya?
Memang benar akal seseorang itu tidak sama. Ia bergantung kepada umur dan pengalaman. Ia bergantung kepada ilmu. Ia juga bergantung kepada disiplin fikiran pembaca itu. Seoran dewasa berumur, katalah 25 tahun, pemahamannya tentu lebih baik daripada seorang belia berumur 15 tahun. Lagi berumur kita dan lagi banyak pengalaman, apalagi dengan pembacaan yang luas dan disiplin fikiran yang ketat, seseorang pembaca akan mendapat pengertian yang maksimum dari teks yang dibacanya.
Saya amat senang dengan golongan yang ketiga. Apa yang hedak kita sampaikan boleh dikatakan diperoleh mereka 100% atau 99.9%. Tetapi saya menghadapi kesulitan dengan mereka yang tiada disiplin fikiran yang ketat. Apa yang saya tulis dihuraikan dan dikritik jauh daripada apa yang saya maksudkan. Ada kalanya mungkin saya tidak mengenengahkan maksud saya dengan baik: ayat yang panjang-panjang dan berbelit-belit pula.
Saya selalu mengelak tulisan seperti ini.
Bagi diri saya , apabila saya hendak mengulas sebuah tulisan, saya membacanya bukan sekali, tetapi berkali-kali sehingga saya berpuas hati saya telah memahami maksud penulisnya sepenuhnya. Sepenuh di sini bermaksud maksimum. Tiada pemahaman yang sempurna.
Tentunya pembaca terdiri dari pelbagai jurai ideologi, dari kanan hingga ke kiri. Pembaca atau penulis yang tiak boleh membebaskan dirinya dari sentimen dan prasangka idologinya, bukan seorang pembaca atau penulis yang baik. Seorang penulis mesti menulis perkara yang benar – dari segi fakta dan dari segi pandangan hidup.
Hidup kita mestu dipandu oleh sebuah pandangan hidup yang benar. Bila kita menulis, kita mesti kemukakan fakta, bukan prasangkan kita, dan fakta-fakta hendaklah dikemukakan dengan sepenuhnya. Tidak ada fakta yang kita sembunyikan atau kita putar-belitkan , kerana sentimen dan prasangka kita.
Sebagai contoh, pengaruh besar tamadun Islam-Arab dari abad ke-8 hingga ke-13 kepada gerakan Kebangkitan Eropah cuba dipadamkan oleh kebanyakan sejarawan Eropah, kecuali satu bilangan yang kecil. Ini dilakukan kerana sentimen dan prasangka Yahudi-Kristian mereka, yang pada dasarnya anti-Islam. Tetapi, seperti diterangkan dalam Quran, kebenaran itu kebal; ia tidak boleh ditutup selama-lamanya. Suatu hari pembohangan itu akan terdedah dan kebenaran akan terserlah dan akan dinobatkan.
Sebagai contoh lagi, pengalaman saya sendiri tentang pendirian saya tentang Hadis. Pandangan saya kritikal, bukan anti. Judul buku yang dimaksudkan itu jelas maknanya. Tetapi, ramai pembaca (ada ramai juga yang tidak membaca buku itu) mencap saya “anti-Hadis”. Inilah yang dipanggil persepsi: pemahaman yang menyalahi realiti!
Saya sedar kebanyakan orang Islam di Malaysia, atau di mana-mana, pegangan mereka terhadap Hadis amat kuat. Kita (khalifah Tuhan di Bumi) harus bersedia untuk membebaskan diri kita secara total dari pelbagai khurafat. Jika tidak, kita tidak akan dapat melaksanakan misi kita mentadbirkan dunia dengan sempurna.
Tentunya, kita tidak harus lupa ajaran Tuhan kepada kita bahawa ada tiga jenis manusia: mukmin, kafir dan munafik. Penjenisan ini mengikut jalur ideologi. Jadi, kita tidak harus hairan jika musuh kebenaran (kafir dan munafik) senantiada memutar-belitkan apa yang diutarakan oleh mukmin. Tetapi orang yang baik (yakni mukmin) harus berwaspada apabila mengulas sesuatu tulisan supaya kita tidak bersikap zalim terhadap penulisnya.

KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

BEBASKAN MASYARAKAT KITA
DARI SEMUA BENTUK KOLONIALISME:
SUSUN SISTEM PEMERINTAHAN NASIONAL KITA SENDIRI

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
darul_hikmah33@yahoo.com.my
16 Januari, 2012

Masanya sudah tiba untuk negara kita menyusun sistem pemerintahan mengikut acuan nasional kita sendiri. Dunia, Timur dan Barat, sedang melalui aneka krisis: ekonomi-kewangan, politik, intelektual dan budaya. Tanda-tandanya nyata: sistem Euro yang bangkarut; dolar A.S. yang tiada sandaran ekonomi fizikal; sistem-sistem politik Barat yang sedang runtuh; dan kerana semua ini, seluruh sistem dunia diancam keruntuhan. Lambat-laun, suatu pembetulan perlu, sama ada dilakukan secara terancang oleh kepimpinan politik dunia yang berwawasan dan berani, atau dipaksa oleh aneka keadaan yang tidak terkawal. Apa yang berlaku kepada Jepun (tsunami 8.9 skala Reichter: 12 Mac, 2011) suatu amaran keras. Jika ia boleh berlaku kepada Jepun, mengapa tidak kepada Amerika Syarikat, atau Eropah? Suatu kuasa ekonomi besar boleh runtuh dalam sekedip mata!
Semua negara sekarang sedang menghuni sebuah Kampung Sejagat. Sama ada kita timbul bersama, atau kita tenggelam bersama! Jangan kita fikir kita sebuah negara kecil maka apa yang kita lakukan tidak akan ada kesan kepada dunia. Kecil-besar bukan perhitungan bagi Alam Semula jadi atau Mother Nature. Baik-buruk – itu perhitungan yang akan menentukan kelangsungan Manusia, Homo sapiens di Bumi ini.
Telah saya nyatakan di lokasi-lokasi lain bahawa sistem pemerintahan yang kita pakai sekarang kita tiru dari Eropah – apa yang dipanggil sistem dwi-parti Kerajaan-Pembangkang. Sistem ini sebenarnya sistem yang primitif lagi membazir , berasal dari kejiwaan kebinatangan, dalam istilah Quran, nafs’ul-amarah, dirumuskan dalam falsafah politik Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) dalam karya agungnya Leviathan bahawa masyarakat manusia itu medan perang “satu lawan semua”. Walaupun kejiwaan primitif ini disebut dalam Quran (Surah 2, ayat 36: “musuh antara satu sama lain”), nyata ini kejiwaan terendah dan manusia, makhluk yang kreatif, tidak harus kekal di situ. Logika boleh melihat ke mana falsafah “satu lawan semua” ini akan membawa kita – kemusnahan! Kita sudah berada di situ banyak kali dalam sejarah manusia, tetapi kali ini kemusnahan itu akan bersifat total.
Kita dilantik oleh Tuhan sebagai khalifah di Bumi. Ini bermakna kita raja. Kita boleh menentukan nasib kita sendiri. Kita boleh pilih sama ada mahu memberontak terhadap Tuhan, atau kita mahu patuh kepada Dia. Dalam sejarah manusia, pemberontak sudah banyak datang dan pergi, seperti mana pematuh sudah banyak muncul. Bezanya kerja-kerja kumpulan pertama hapus ditelan zaman; kerja-kerja kumpulan kedua kekal menjadi batu-bata tamadun. Kita boleh pilih kumpulan mana kita mahu masuki. Semuanya bergantung kepada kita. Tidak ada paksaan. Tetapi, ingat, pilihan kita membawa akibat. Jika kita pilih untuk patuh, kita menjadi pembina tamadun; jika kita pilih untuk memberontak, kita jadi abu! Sejarah menjadi saksi kepada hakikat ini.
Maka itu, saya syorkan, pada saat ini, pada saat Najib, anak kepada negarawan pematuh kita yang lalu, kita buat perubahan ini. Tinggalkan kejiwaan primitif Thomas Hobbes “satu lawan semua”, dan pindah kepada kejiwaan manusiawi bertamadun (nafs’ul lawwamah) “bekerjasama untuk kebaikan”.
Rakyat Malaysia terdiri dari pelbagai suku-bangsa dan agama, sebuah masyarakat majmuk. Kita boleh ada banyak parti, mewakil pelbagai kaum dan ideologi, tetapi sebagai suatu negara-bangsa Malaysia, kita harus dicirikan oleh suatu semangat cintakan bangsa dan negara, iaitu Patriotisme Malaysia.
Mengapa kita perlu ada pembangkang untuk menghancurkan kerja Kerajaan? Konon untuk sekat dan imbang ( cek and balance dalam bahasa Inggeris). Kita diberi Tuhan dua tangan, lalu kita gunakan yang satu untuk mebelasah yang lain! Ini bukan saja tidak logik. Ini bodoh! Kita boleh kritik dan buat koreksi dari dalam. Dalam sejarah negara kita, Tun Razak telah membuat koreksi nasionalis terhadap dasar pro-kolonial Tunku Abdul Rahman. Sekarang Najib sedang membuat koreksi itu lagi. Sekarang dengan kejiwaan yang lebih tinggi, kita gunakan kedua-dua belah tangan kita untuk membangunkan tamadun Malaysia Baru.
Dalam sistem ini, Pakatan Rakyat, harus duduk dalam sistem patriotik ini dan memainkan peranan mereka yang kritis dan kreatif untuk membangun tamduan kita, bukan untuk menghancurkannya.

Kassim Ahmad seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

KOMEN TENTANG FORUM PERDANA EHWAL ISLAM
PADA 12 JANUARI, 2012

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
13 Januari, 2012

Adat saya kerap menonton Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam pada malam Juma’at. Pada malam yang tersebut di atas dua orang sarjana Islam, seorang lelaki dan seorang perempuam jadi panel. Saya tidak catat nama mereka waktu menonton itu. Yang menarik perhatian saya perkara tafsir Quran dan pengaruh Hadis.
Seperti yang kita ketahui, Quran itu “kalimah Tuanku” (Quran, 10: 96), di samping ia juga “perkataan rasul yang mulia”, (Quran, 69: 40) Quran juga memberitahu kepada kita bahawa ayat-ayat Tuhan (segala yang Dia ciptakan, di langit dan dibumi dan di antara keduanya) itu banyak sekali hingga tujuh lautan dakwat, ditambah tujuh lautan lagi, tidak mencukupi untuk menulisnya! (Quran, 31: 27)
Namun demikian, Alam Raya (Inggeris: Universe) itu terbatas. Ia diciptakn oleh Tuhan. Hanya Tuhan tidak terbatas. Tuhan bukan saja di dalam (Inggeris: immanent) Alam Raya; Dia juga di luar (Inggeris: transcendental). Mengikut satu hadis qudsi, “Aku suatu khazanah yang tersembuyi; Aku ingin diketahui, lalu Aku menciptakan apa yang diciptakan.” Lagi sebuah menyatakan, “Aku kini seperti Aku dulu.”
Ini bermakna, pada mulanya Tuhan saja yang wujud (perkataan, “mula” di sini tidak harus ditafsirkan bahawa Tuhan ada permulaan, kerana Tuhan itu Wujud Wajib. Dia senantiasa wujud. Keadaan ini memang sukar hendak dibayangkan. Jika kita mula dari sekarang serta surut ke belakang hingga tiba pada permulaan manusia (Homo sapiens, ‘khalifah’ dalam bahasa Arab) kira-kira satu juta tahun dulu, adakah kita sampai kepada sepasang manusia, Adam dan Hawa, atau beberapa pasang manusia, di beberapa kawasan budaya?
Walaupun ilmu telah banyak berkembang sejak permulaan tamadun di kawasan Asia Barat 5,000 tahun dulu, masih banyak hal yang menjadi tanda-tanya, misteri, kepada kita sekarang. Bukan saja kewujudan Tuhan satu misteri, ciptaan-Nya juga satu misteri. Adakah ciptaan-Nya automatik? Hadis qudsi yang kita petik tadi membantah. Jika ciptaan-Nya tidak automatik, maknanya Tuhan menzahirkan Diri-Nya (bahasa Arab: tajalli) pada suatu waktu tertentu, dan sebelum itu Dia saja yang wujud, sedangkan Alam Raya, termasuk manusia, tidak wujud. Pendapat ahli-ahli sains tentang apa yang diistilahkan sebagai “Letusan Besar”, the Big Bang hanya satu pendapat , walaupun popular, tentang permulaan Alam Raya. Kita sebenarnya tidak tahu.
Tidak tahunya kita terpancar dalam tafsir Quran. Kerana Quran itu “Kalimah Tuanku”, maka tafsir memperlihatkan keadaan separuh kejahilan ini. Umpamanaya, prinsip tafsir klasik itu Hadis mentafsirkan Quran. Alasannya siapakah yang lebih tahu tentang Quran daripada Nabi Muhammad? Mereka lupa Nabi Muhammad itu pesuruh Allah untuk menyampaikan Quran kepada manusia, bukan untuk menghuraikannya. Yang menghuraikan Quran itu Allah sendiri, tentunya melalui agen-agen-Nya. (Quran, 55: 2; 75: 19 & 35: 32.)
Contoh terbaik kesilapan kaedah tafsir klasik ini terdapat dalam ayat 59, Surah 4. Ditafsirkan “ta’at kepada Tuhan itu” berpegang kepada Quran, dan “ta’at kepada rasul” berpegang kepada Hadis/Sunnah. Huraian yang betul “Ta’at kepada Tuhan dan ta’at kepada rasul” merujuk kepada Quran, kerana Tuhan tidak datang kepada manusia sendiri; Dia menyampaikan Quran melalui rasul-Nya.
Oleh kerana kita sekarang memerlukan sebuah kaedah tafsir yang saintifik untuk memahami Quran, maka saya telah cuba mengadakan kaedah itu. (Lihat Hadis: Jawapan Kepada Pengkritik , Bab 7.) Saya menunggu komen dan kritikan daripada sarjana-sarjana Islam kita di Malaysia. Malangnya, tiada seorang pun tampil ke deapn untuk berbuat demikian. Mujurnya seorang sarjana Islam di Amerika, Dr. Robert D. Crane, penasihat kepada empat orang presiden Amerika Syarikat, telah melakukan ini. Saya telah meletakkan komen dan kritikan belau dengan jawapan saya dalam laman web saya (www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com
Jadi, ilmu tafsir perlu berkembang. Tidak boleh tinggal beku pada satu takuk, seperti yang telah berlaku kepada umat Islam. Kebanyakan mereka telah mendewa-dewakan imam-imam dan sarjana-sarjana besar dan menobatkan mereka sebagai “muktabar”.Tafsir yang telah mereka lakukan lebih seribu tahu dulu dijadikan suci, tidak boleh dikritik dan diperbaiki. Maka itu ilmu tafsir kita beku.
Sarjana perempuan itu membuat kesilapan, seperti kebanyakan orang Islam di mana-mana bahawa sembahyang tiang agama. Ajaran palsu ini datang dari Hadis. Tiang agama yang sebenar itu tauhid. Kalau kita tidak ada fahaman tauhid, kita menghampiri syirik dan segala amalan kita tidak terpakai!
Perhatikan bahawa sembahyang itu salah satu tujuannya untuk menjauhkan diri kita daripada perbuatan-perbuatan keji dan jahat. (Quran, 29: 45) Berapa ramaikah di antara kita yang memberi perhatian berat kepada peringatan ini? Lagi pun Tuhan mengkritik mereka yang bersembahyang tanpa ikhlas sebagai malang dan sesia.(Quran, 107: 1-7)
Saya tidak boleh menutup esei ini tanpa menyebut soal selawat kepada Nabi Muhammad. Praktik ini diambil dari ayat 56 Surah 33. Perhatikan apabila nama Nabi Muhammad disebut, kebanyakan kita akan berselawat. Tetapi bagi nabi-bani lain, kita sebut ‘alaih’is salam. Mengapa perbezaan ini? Bukankah Tuhan melarang kita daripada membezakan nabi-nabinya?
Sebenaranya, praktik berselawat kepada Nabi Muhammad ini timbul dari salah tafsir ayat itu. Ayat itu telah dikoyak dari konteksnya dan diberi makna yang silap. (Lihat risalah saya Dilema Umat Islam – Antara Hadis dan Quran, hlm 10-14)
Kita umat Islam patutlah memikirkan dengan serius sebab-sebab kejatuhan umat Islam dari puncak kuasa dalam abad-abad ke-7 hinga ke-13. Tentulah kita telah melakukan penyelewengan-penyelewengan yang besar untuk dihinakan begini.
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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

PENGUMUMAN PENTING

Sila ambil perhatian buka saya yang baru, "Islamic Renaissance -- A New Era Has Started", yang dijadualkan akan dilancarkan pada 8 Januari telah ditunda ke 5 Februari di tempat dan masa yang sama. Terima kasih. -- K.A.

PENGUMUMAN BUKU BARU OLEH KASSIM AHMAD
ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE -- A NEW ERA HAS STARTED, 254 pp.Published by Brainbowpress, U.S.A.,2012. May be purchased online at the Amazon.

By: Kassim Ahmad

This book will be launched on Sunday 8th Jauary, 2012 at Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya, God-willing. -- K.A.

Table of Contents
Forward
Acknowledgements
Chapter
1. Introduction,
2. Pointer from the Opening Chapter,
3. Definition of Divine Unity,
4. Idolatory and Its Implications for Human Society,
5. Religions in History,
6. Components of Religion,
7. Metaphors and Allegories,
8. God, the Pure Spirit, and Man, the Homo Sapiens
and Divine Vicegerent,
9. The Individual and the Collective,
10. The Problem of Creation
11. The Divine Method,
12. The Problem of Evil,
13. The Problem of Freedom and Determination,
14. Prophecy, Prophets and Miracles,
15. Muhammad and the Era of Internationalism,
16. The Noble Quran,
17. The Problem of Prophetic Traditions,
18. Shari’ah – Not a Divine Law,
19. Mysticism – a Deviation from the Straight Path,
20. The Non-Abrahamic Line: Other Scriptures,
21. The Straight Path,
22. Malays, Malaysians and the Promise of a New Malacca,
23. The Scientific Method,
24. Demythologization and Secularism,
25. The Great Deterioration and the Necessity for Perpetual Renewal,
26. The “Second Coming”,
27. Judeo-Christian Plot Against Islam
28. The Fall of Empires, and the Law of Replacement,
29. Peaceful Co-existence of Religions,
30. Science, Philosophy and Religion,
31. A Life of Success and Happiness,
32. A New Just World – Paradise on Earth,
33. God’s Grand Plan: Triumph of the Religion of Truth,
34. Conclusion.

Select Bibliography
Index
Appendices:

Maps
1. Spread of Islam
2. Origin of Malay polity
3. Malacca Empire

Diagrams
1. Time line: Development of Civilization.
2. The Evolutionary Tree.

(END)

CORRECTIONS TO MY BOOK “ISLAMIC RENASSANCE –
A NEW ERA HAS STARTED”

By: Kassim Ahmad
darul_hikmah33@yahoo.com.my

15 December, 2011

On behalf of myself and my publisher and editor, Mr. Edip Yukself, I would like to apologize for mistakes in my above-mentioned book released recently. The mistakes are mainly typographical, except or or two. I list them all here, starting from the first page. Please make the corrections.

1. P. 23, line 1 from sub-head 3, should read: “However, as things ...”
2. P. 72, line 15 from top. Sentence should read: “Just as we do not we exist ...”
3. P. 160, line 2 under sub-head 2. Senence should read “... the rise and fall ...”
4. P. 165, line 1 of sub-head 2, name of book Sejarah Melayu should ne italicied. And the English name in inverted commas.
5. P. 167, line 1 of sub-head 3. Sentence should read “The UMNO-led (UMNO=United Malay National Organization) coalition ...”
6. P. 168, line 3 of para 1. Sentence shuld read “... Onn Ja’afar, first president of UMNO...”
7. P. 196, line 7 from top. Senence should read “Is it not part ...?”
8. P. 202, line 1. Sentence should read: “There are many religions ...”
9. P. 222, line 2 of para 1. Sentence should read: “... that cumulates ...”

The frontispiece should carry a dedication, as follows:-

Dedicated to my parents ,
Who raised me up with love, care and hope for better lives, but
Fow whom I, obbessed with politics, failed to return enough of these three.
May God forgive me.

Below is the Table of Contents:-
Table of Contents
Forward
Acknowledgements

Chapter

1. Introduction,
2. Pointer from the Opening Chapter,
3. Defination of Divine Unity,
4. Idolatory and Its Implications for Human Society,
5. Religions in History,
6. Components of Religion,
7. Metaphors and Allegories,
8. God, the Pure Spirit, and Man, the Homo Sapiens
and Divine Vicegerent,
9. The Individual and the Collective,
10. The Problem of Creation
11. The Divine Method,
12. The Problem of Evil,
13. The Problem of Freedom and Determination,
14. Prophecy, Prophets and Miracles,
15. Muhammad and the Era of Internationalism,
16. The Noble Quran,
17. The Problem of Prophetic Traditions,
18. Shari’ah – Not a Divine Law,
19. Mysticism – a Deviation from the Straight Path,
20. The Non-Abrahamic Line: Other Scriptures,
21. The Straight Path,
22. Malays, Malaysians and the Promise of a New Malacca,
23. The Scientific Method,
24. Demythologization and Secularism,
25. The Great Deterioration and the Necessity for Perpetual Renewal,
26. The “Second Coming”,
27. Judeo-Christian Plot Against Islam
28. The Fall of Empires, and the Law of Replacement,
29. Peaceful Co-existence of Religions,
30. Science, Philosophy and Religion,
31. A Life of Success and Happiness,
32. A New Just World – Paradise on Earth,
33. God’s Grand Plan: Triumph of the Religion of Truth,
34. Conclusion.

Appendices

1. A Scientific Methodology of Tafsir.
2. Commentary on scientific methodology and author’s rejoinder.

Maps
1. Spread of Islam
2. Origin of Malay polity
3. Malacca Empire

Diagrams

1. Time line: Development of Civilization.
2. The Evolutionary Tree.

Select Bibliography
Index
The Appendices are also missing in this edition. It will be included in a revised edition. However, I append them below.
APPENDIX I
REJOINDER TO DR. ROBERT D. CRANE’S ESSAY
“THE NATURE AND ROLE OF HADITH: AN ANALYSIS OF A RE-EVALUATION”
By: Kassim Ahmad
10 March, 2011
darul_hilmah33@yahoo.com.my

“I was pleasantly surprised to suddenly come across the above essay while surfing the Internet about a year ago. When I added an addendum to my book, translated English version, Hadith – A Re-evaluation (1997:U.S.A) , titled “A scientific Methodology for Understanding the Quran”, I anxiously waited for reviews or comments from Muslim scholars in Malaysia or elsewhere. Without desiring to boast, I believe this was the first attempt at such a colossal task. I waited in vain, until I accidently found Dr. Crane’s quite lengthy essay. RegardIess of some of his negative remarks, I am therefore extremely appreciative of his comments.
That said, what erked me was the author’s unfounded barbs against me regarding the late Dr. Rashad Khalifa and the American thinker, Lynden H. LarRouche, Jr. The slanders that he flung at these fine individuals do not bear repeating and do his reputation no good. Needless to say, I am no slavish follower of any leader or thinker.
I shall not waste words. This erudite scholar, nevertheless, made many pitfalls. He claimed that the translated English version was different from the original Malay one. The translator, Syed Akbar Ali, as I stated in my preface to the translation, submitted the translation to me in late 1987. I left it in my computer until I found a way how to get it published in 1995. (Remember the Malay original is banned by Malaysian authorities.) I then went over the translation and made “what additions and changes” I thought necessary. I further stated in the preface that “this is not an exact translation of the Malay original, although the format and arguments remain the same.”
He claimed that the Code 19, discovered by Rashad Khalifa is “a deliberate fake”, without disclosing that it is based on Surah Al-Muddath-thir (74), verse 30 of the Quran and the numerous proofs of the Code’s existence in the Quran. Obviously, he was unreasonably swayed by the slander against the Code!
He claimed that the sixth pillar of Muslim faith, belief in predetermination, is “old hat for advanced students of the Quran and Hadith”. If that was so, why did Muslim leaders allow the error (because it contradicts the Quran) to continue for centuries?
He criticised me for regarding Jesus’s “Second Coming” as spurious. The Quran categorically rejects such nonsence. Man must work for his own salvation. There is no short-cut to it. For this reason, he took me to task for discussing the Anti-Christ and Gog and Magog. The fact of the matter is that enemies of Jesus’s true teachings did exist and continue to exist, symbolised in the person of the Anti-Christ; so do the enemies of God and mankind, symbolised in the figures of Gog and Magog, mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran.
He was flatly wrong in criticizing Rashad Khalifa for his claims to be a prophet, for the simple reason that Rashad made no such claim! What Rashad claimed ( and I disagree with him) was that he was the Messenger of the Covenant. Cannot he differentiate between these two simple terms: a prophet and a messenger?
A grave error, repeated by most Muslims and shared by Dr Crane, is the so-called selawat to Prophet Muhammad, taken out of context by Surah Al-Ahzab (33), verse 56. It tantamounts to idol-worship, not forgiven by God, unless the believer repents in good time. I shall not go over this matter here, as I have fully explained it in my book.
I was greatly disappointed that such a scholar as Dr. Crane fails to appreciate that discrepancy between rise of the official compilation of the Hadith (250 -300 years after the Prophet’s death) and the fabricated hadith that the Prophet left two books, the Quran and the Hadith. Truth is bitter, but it wills out.
To his credit, Dr. Crane reproduced in full my nine principles of a scientific methodology of Tafsir with favourable comments.
I am a little disappointed that this well-read scholar did not appreciate my work as it is. Again without wanting to sound boastful, it is the first comprehensive, logical and methodological refutation of the Hadith, as partial criticisms have appeared before. I made this clear in my book.
However, Dr. Crane’s concluding remarks are nice. I shall quote them in full: “ In summary, we might say that this monograph by Kassim Ahmad carries a lot of baggage, but that its overall message and most of the analysis is needed today more than ever to help Muslims understand their own religion better so that they can explain it to well-meaning non-Muslims who are willing to learn.”
Note: Dr. Crane’s essay follows.
The Nature and Role of Hadith:
An Analysis of a Re-evaluation
by Dr. Robert D. Crane
“A highly controversial document is circulating among Muslim intellectuals calling into question the validity of hadith as a source of guidance.
This document, an 80-page monograph, entitled Hadith: A Re-Evaluation, was written about 1990 by Kassim Ahmad and was somewhat sanitized in 1997 by Syed Akbar Ali to remove some of its politically and ideologically sensitive baggage.
The present analysis of Kassim Ahmad’s production is divided into four sections: 1) background intelligence analysis, so we know where the author is coming from; 2) purpose and objectives of the author in writing this particular piece, so we know where he is going; 3) major contribution of this piece to the thinking and literature on the subject; and 4) weakness of the author’s arguments.
Background Intelligence
One approach to any potentially enlightening study is to determine initially where the author is coming from by glancing through the bibliography, footnotes, index, and table of contents, in that order, and only then to consider the text.
My first conclusion from this background check is that this translation has left out some of the original, and that the apparent omissions suggest that the original was prepared before Rashad Khalifa destroyed his credibility in the late 1980s. What is left of the original indicates that Kassim Ahmad was not only familiar with Rashad Khalifa, but used Rashad’s translation of the Quran as his favorite (p.77). He also bought into Rashad’s Number 19 theory (p. 68), which has been exposed by computerized analysis as a deliberate fake designed to corrupt the words of the Quran in order to fit his theory.
As old-timers will remember, Rashad was the most powerful force during the mid- and late 1980s in bringing Euro-American women to Islam, especially the most able, creative, and dynamic of them, such as Karima Omar, who had a fantastic humor column every month in Islamic Horizons. He then built on his asserted discovery of what Kassim Ahmad on page 68 refers to as The Miracle of Code 19 to assert further that this revelation to him from Allah proved that he was a prophet. He developed this to assert that he was the fifth most important prophet, right after Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. He then proceeded to introduce new customs, like encouraging women to lead the prayers of both men and women together. As a result he was assassinated. His most promising students hung together for awhile, but some of them then left Islam and most simply disappeared, which was a major tragedy in the history of Islam in America.
In his introduction on page one, Kassim Ahmad writes that his book builds on Ibn Khaldun’s formula of hadith interpretation. This, he says, requires all acceptable traditions to be validated by the Quran and rational criteria. This position, however, though a scientific one, was still not clear enough until in 1985 the works of an outstanding Egyptian Muslim scholar, Dr. Rashad Khalifa, particularly his The Computer Speaks: God’s Message to the World, Quran, Hadith, and Islam, and his superb translation of the Quran opened for me a way to solve the problem of the hadith: how they came about; the social factors that brought them into existence; a review of the classical criticism; the actual place of the hadith in relation to the Quran; their negative effects on the Muslim community; their connections to the decline and fall of the Muslims; and the way out of this impasse. This seven-fold task is exceptionally well accomplished.
Nevertheless, this monograph has unnecessary baggage. The most recent of Kassim Ahmad’s forty-four bibliographic entries are in the 1980s, except for two, Mahmud Saedon A. Othman’s Al Sunnah in 1990 and the quite anomalous listing of Lyndon La Rouche’ s The Science of Christian Economy, published by his Executive Intelligence Review in 1991. The text that had once referred to Lyndon La Rouche was deleted from the translation, no doubt because LaRouche, although brilliant and exceedingly well informed, was and is a demagogue and a kook. The fact that Kassim Ahmad was taken in by these two brilliant imposters, Rashad Khalifa and Lyndon La Rouche, shows a lack of discriminating judgement. Fortunately, the most compromising parts of the original appear to have been deleted ex post facto in 1997 in the translation, though the above mentioned traces remain.

Purpose and Objectives
The objectives of this monograph are the seven he enumerates on page one, as listed above. These are to solve the problem of the hadith [by showing] how they came about; the social factors that brought them into existence; a review of the classical criticism; the actual place of the hadith in relation to the Quran; their negative effects on the Muslim community; their connections to the decline and fall of the Muslims; and the way out of this impasse.
The author’s underlying or overarching purpose is developed in beautiful prose throughout the monograph, as in a work of literature. He proceeds from appropriate verses of the Quran, since his entire theme is that the only authentic source of divine guidance is the Quran, and not the hadith, and that failure to appreciate this is the cause of civilizational decline.
His first two chapters are introduced by such verses. The introductory chapter one, entitled “Why We Raise this Problem”, is introduced in a heading quoting Surah al Zumar, 39:17-18< “Therefore, congratulate My servants who listen to all views, then follow the best. These are the ones guided by God; these are the intelligent ones.” This sets the tone for the entire monograph.
Kassim Ahmad lists his favorite English translations of the Quran and praises the magnificent one by Muhammad Asad. Asad’s comment on the above ayah from Al Zumar reads: “According to Razi, this describes people who examine every religious proposition (in the widest sense of this term) in the light of their own reason, accepting that which their mind finds to be valid or possible, and rejecting all that does not measure up to the test of reason. In Razi’s words, the above verse expresses a praise and commendation of following the evidence supplied by one’s reason (hujjat al-aql), and of reaching one’s conclusions in accordance with [the results of] critical examination (nazar) and logical inference (istidlal).
Chapter Two, entitled “Refutation of the Traditionists Theory”, is introduced by a heading quoting Surah al Isra (17):36, “Do not accept anything that you yourself cannot ascertain. You are given the hearing, the sight, and the mind in order to examine and verify.” Although some commentators restrict the target of this ayah to slander and detraction (humaza and lumaza), Kassim Ahmad prefers to extend its meaning to the entire realm of cognitive psychology, perhaps because of the immediately following ayah: “And walk not on the earth with haughty self-conceit.” Of course, this interpretation can turn into a double-edged sword, as shown by some later conclusions that could be understood to support the fatal hullucinations of the author’s apparent mentor, Rashad Khalifa.
The author’s overall purpose in writing this monograph, as stated on page 4, is to encourage the Muslim community and their intelligentsia to critically re-evaluate the whole heritage of traditional Islamic thought, including theology and jurisprudence, [in order] to seek the true causes of Muslim decline and thereby to lay the ground for a new Muslim Renaissance. As stated this might appear to be self-serving narcissism by a Muslim seeking to transform his glorious past into a utopian future at the expense of everyone else or at least with indifference toward the other. In fact, the purpose is much broader, namely to correct the errors of both Muslim and European post-Christian thought so that all civilizations can build a better global future through interfaith reliance on the transcendent.
He opposes both modernist and traditionalist theses on how to build a better world, because they both fail to appreciate the wisdom of what he calls the first scientific-spiritual culture in history, namely, classical Islamic thought. He writes on page 5, The modernist thesis, in brief, states that the Muslims declined because they remained traditional and have not modernized themselves according to Western secular values. The traditionalist thesis, on the other hand, blames the secularization of Muslim societies and the neglect of orthodox Muslim teachings as the major cause of Muslim decline. Both of these extremes he refers to as false ideologies. These spread only because the Muslims failed to follow the powerful and dynamic Islamic ideology as preached in the Quran, which subjected all knowledge, both local and foreign, to its own discriminative teachings and methodologies in order to gain insights into the justice and mercy inherent in the Will of God.
The thesis of this book, he writes on page 8, is that mankind, including the Muslims, have deserted the true teachings of God. Modern secular rebellious Europe not only turned against its own religious priesthood, in which action it was right, but also against religion altogether, in which action it was wrong. This is the cause of the present Western impasse. A similar fate befell the Muslims, who abandoned the Quran by elevating the ahadith and sunna to a divine source of truth in competition with it in order to support competing political powers and supportive religious movements. So it came about, he writes on page 9, that while Europe embraced either liberalism or Marxism, the Muslim world embraced the hadith, with the philosophies of secular humanism infecting the elites of Muslim societies.
Since this monograph is not a political tract, at least not in its edited version, it is not clear whether Kassim Ahmad here is referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, which under Syed Qutb metamorphosed into a modern political movement patterned after Western secularism, or whether he is referring to the still more radical Wahhabis and Deobandis who carried the logic still further and eventually produced the likes of the pseudo-religious Osama bin Laden who want to save the world by destroying it.
The purpose of this monograph is perhaps best developed on page 64, where Kassim Ahmad gives his prognosis for the future of the world. He forecasts: Despite the heresy of certain concepts like taqlid or blind imitation that have been dominant since the 12th century, there has always been a strong anti-taqlid movement that has manifested itself through the likes of Ibn Rushd (d. 1198), Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), and Shah Wali Allah (d. 1762). The anti-taqlid movement obtained its strongest impetus from the reform movement of Muhammad Abduh toward the end of the nineteenth century. It is most likely that within a short period of a few decades, the anti-taqlid movement in Islam and the theistic spirit that is growing in Europe will unite and return to the Quran in its entirety.
He cautions that, a return to the Quran does not mean that we destroy all the books of hadith and all the books of the religious scholars, nor do we mean that we no longer need the religious scholars. It only means that we must refer to the Quran alone as infallible guidance.
He concludes: Muslims have three major tasks. Firstly, they must evaluate critically everything that has been inherited from their Islamic tradition, in strict accordance with the bidding of the Quran. Secondly, Muslims have to learn to accept things that are from outside their fold but which by themselves are inherently good and therefore originate from God. The third and final task is to build the second Islamic civilization that will doubtless be far superior to the first because it will be the combined efforts of all united humanity. All these three tasks are interrelated. Our Muslim thinkers must also seek to reach out to those intellectuals and thinkers in other faiths and cultures, for they also seek to do good in the world. They must cooperate with the followers of other religions, those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good.
In our effort to elicit the full purpose of this monograph, as written before the death of Rashad Khalifa, we should note portions of the monograph that might be regarded as mutashabiyat, from the root shub-bi-ha (make similar; compare; be doubtful), referring to portions of the Quran and of any writings that can have more than one meaning and therefore are doubtful except through interpretation by experts. On page 71, Kassim Ahmad states his preference for the school of thought that such portions of the Quran can be known and that a class of people, the experts, can have such knowledge by God’s leave. He cites in proof thereof Surah al Baqara 2:30-34 where God tells us that He has endowed man with the ability to know all of His creations, above the knowledge even of His angels.
Ironically, on page 19, perhaps the key sentence in the entire monograph is Kassim Ahmad’s assertion that, this means, on the one hand, that the Quran explains itself, and, on the other, that God will, at the proper time, give man the necessary knowledge to understand it.

Major Contribution to Thought and Literature
Perhaps the single most controversial sentence in this monograph is Kassim Ahmad’s assertion on page 47 that, the majority of the hadith in the six [classical] collections cannot be accepted any more.
The bulk of the monograph is designed to substantiate this conclusion. The evidence has been marshaled many times before, among others by Fazlur Rahman, who thereby became one of America’s most controversial scholars.
Ahmad goes through the standard critiques. The role of the hadith as a source of law was not adopted until Imam Shafi’i did so 200 years after the death of the Prophet and decades after the death of even the last of the taba tabi‘in. And the Six Authentic Books of Hadith of the Sunni majority (Bukhari, d. 256; Muslim, d. 261; Abu Daud, d. 275; Tirmidhi, d. 279; Ibn Maja, d. 273; and Al-Nasa’i, died 303) were not compiled until after that, mainly from the years 220 to 270; and the four Shi’a collections (Al-Kulaini, d. 328; Ibn Babuwayh, d. 381; Jaafar Muhammad al Tusi, d. 411, and Al-Murtada, d. 436) until a century after that, when it was simply impossible reliably to ascertain the isnad of any hadiths.
Ahmad then does a creditable job in trying to show, as he put it on page 27, that, the so-called Prophetic traditions did not originate from the Prophet. They grew from the politico-religious conflicts that arose in the Muslim society then, during the first and second centuries. It constituted a new teaching altogether, seriously deviating from the Quran that the Prophet Muhammad brought to them. It was done against his will, but skillfully attributed to him. He goes into some detail to show that the Prophet Muhammad and the first four caliphs forbid the collection of any hadiths, and that the justification for doing so came from spurious hadiths invented for this purpose.
Ahmad concludes on page 29-30 that many hadith began to emerge and multiply at the same time as the emergence of divisions in the early Muslim community in three civil wars, beginning under Ali’s rule right up to the end of Mu’awiya’s rule. Power struggles giving rise to divisions led to the fabrication of hadith to support each contending group, and the fabrications of hadith further deepened divisions.
He notes the odd phenomenon of the hadith being elevated to an idol in the form of a source of guidance in competition with the Quran (p. 26) and even to a form of spirituality for Muslim fundamentalism. (p. 62), while the Quran itself is undermined by using the hadith to declare the doctrine of abrogation, so that whatever parts of the Quran might conflict with one’s favorite hadith are declared to be abrogated by a part or parts that agree with this hadith. Perhaps in observance of the political correctness that governed prior to 9/11, Ahmad does not point out that the Wahhabi practice in the modern world has been taken to the extreme of abrogating several hundred Quranic verses, so that this divine revelation is gutted of all meaning or perverted into a travesty of truth.
The specific conflicts between ahadith and the Quran are well documented, such as the lashing of adulterers prescribed in the Quran and the stoning invented later in the hadith (p. 48); the Quranic provision for freedom of religion and the bizarre hadith in Bukhari and Abu Daud, if anyone leaves his religion, then kill him (p. 50); and the five pillars of the aqida in the Quran (Anyone who disbelieves in God, His angels, His scriptures, His messengers, and the Last Day has indeed strayed far away, which does not include the so-called sixth pillar, Qadr. Ahmad laments that this sixth pillar, which appears in the hadith, has been used for centuries not to recognize that the ultimate planner is Allah but to instill a fatalism that more than anything else has caused the absurd situation today where the followers of the Quran are the most despised and oppressed people on earth.
All this is old hat for advanced students of the Quran and hadith. Although such critical analysis must always be maintained, this bulk of Ahmad’s monograph, Hadith: A Re-Evaluation, is not really a contribution to the thinking and literature on the subject.
The major contribution of this particular analysis of the nature and role of the hadith is Kassim Ahmad’s emphasis on principles in an iterative process of inductive-deductive-inductive reasoning. This was emphasized by the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and by all the classical scholars, who developed the maqasid al shari’ah over the course of many centuries. This great intellectual paradigm of thought culminated in the hierarchy of human responsibilities and rights propounded by Al Shatibi and never again even approached in any other civilization, but now essentially dead.
A corollary of this emphasis on principles is the focus on distinguishing between principles and historically determined forms. Ahmad states on page 23 that, whenever God pleases, He provides us with both the principles and the methods, but the punishments of hand-cutting for theft and a hundred lashes for adultery mentioned in the Quran are forms, not principles, of punishment. Furthermore, these forms are connected to specific historical circumstances. The Quranic principles for punishment are two: firstly, that every crime must be punished in accordance with the severity of the crime, i.e. the principle of equivalence; and secondly, the principle of mercy.
Similarly, the principles of governance, which come under the shari’ah purpose (maqsud or universal principle) known as haqq al hurriya, according to Kassim Ahmad, are sovereignty of the people under God’s sovereignty, government based on just laws, complete freedom of religious worship, obedience to God and due obedience to leaders, leadership to be exercised by those who are competent and morally upright, and government through consultation. But methods and institutions vary according to time and circumstances. The [specific] methods and institutions used by the Prophet are not universally and eternally binding.
Ahmad explains the difference on page 75 in his conclusion that, a careful study of the Quran would reveal that its contents consist of two types of statements: the universal and the particular. The universal statements refer to absolute truths, while the particular statements refer to relative truths that are limited to certain concrete situations. He uses the famous command from which the second surah of the Quran, Surah al Baqara, gets it name, when the Jews of the time were asked to sacrifice a cow, and they got hung up deliberately on the form of the cow, asking repeatedly about its size, age, and color, in order to avoid the principle.
The most useful contribution of the entire monograph is the set of rules for Quranic interpretation, based on the principle that the Quran is not only the best but the only reliable source for its own interpretation. He distinguishes nine principles of Quranic interpretation that come from the Quran itself. These are:
1) Two types of verses must be distinguished, which establish the principle of distinction between straightforward and metaphorical language (Quran 3:7);
2) The principle of unity of the Quran’s contents, meaning that its verses are not contradictory, but in perfect harmony (4:82);
3) The congruence of Quranic teachings with truth and logic, establishing the principle of truth, and its congruence with science and right reason (41:41-42, 42:24, 23:70-71, 8:7-8, 17:81, and 10:100);
4) The principle of self-explanation, i.e., that Quranic verses explain one another (55:1-2 and 75:18-19);
5) The principle of good intention, i.e. that the Qur?an cannot be comprehended by anyone who approaches it with bad intention (41:44, 56:77-79, and 17:45-46);
6) The principle of topical context, i.e., that the meaning of any verse or verses must be understood in the context of the topic under discussion (17:58, 53:3-4, and 59:7);
7) The principle of historical context, i.e., that verses relating to a particular historical condition must be interpreted in the light of that condition (4:25 and 92:4-3);
8) The principle of easy practicability, i.e., that the teachings of the Quran are meant to facilitate and not to render things difficult for mankind (22:78, 20:2, 5:6 and 101-2, and 4:28); and
9) The principle of distinction between principle and methodology and putting principle above methodology (22:67 and 2:67-71).
Much of this erudite monograph is devoted to examples of how to apply these principles in practice. Ahmad laments that he needs many years before he can apply such guidelines in detailed evaluation of all the hadith in the major collections, but implies that he is now doing precisely that.
Weakness of the Author’s Arguments
Compared with what Kassim Ahmad offers to the student of Islam, emphasizing his methodological and substantive weaknesses would appear to be merely nit-picking.
The only major fault that I find with his whole approach, and one of which most authors are guilty, is suggested in his statement on page 63: In the realms of philosophy, religion, the social sciences, and the arts there can only be one optimum form which will maximize the efficiency of all social behavior in human societies. The weakness of this approach is its failure to distinguish between human-made systems or realms, in which there can be no optimum form, and divine revelation, in which by definition there is an optimum, even though exactly what this is will always remain beyond human certainty.
Secondly, in his statement lumping philosophy and the social sciences and the arts together with religion, Ahmad fails to distinguish between essence and form. In philosophy, there clearly is a distinction between the essence of positivist relativism, which denies the existence or even possibility of truth, and the essence of what America’s founders called traditionalism, which denies the truth of such relativism. In religion, on the other hand the essence of all religions, regardless of the diversity in outward expression, is awareness of an ultimate reality beyond all forms, which Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians call Allah and some Christians call Being (which is beyond existence) or even Beyond Being (beyond the trinity). The essence of religion, furthermore, involves recognition that from the Oneness of the ultimate comes ineluctably the coherence of existence, which Muslims call tawhid.
Thirdly, Ahmad’s statement about optimum form seems to contradict his apparent preference for tolerance, diversity, and pluralism, which are three ascending levels of the same thing, namely, a respect for what Allah has created and planned, whether it is in the color of one’s skin or in one’s choice of religion.
The struggle to overcome this mindset of optimum form is beautifully explored in William R. Hutchison’s new book, Religious Pluralism in America: the Contentious History of a Founding Ideal, which will be reviewed, insha Allah, on behalf of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, England, in the next issue of this online journal, [url=http://www.theamericanmuslim.org]http://www.theamericanmuslim.org[/url] Hutchison, who teaches the history of religion at Harvard’s Divinity School, is considered to be the leading authority in the world on the history of religion. His thesis is that America, despite its nominal claims, has not advanced very far up the ladder of progress from tolerance to diversity to pluralism.
Tolerance, by my own definition, is what the Soviet Communists used to call peaceful coexistence, which is a codeword and in Soviet jurisprudential literature a well-defined legal term meaning a tactical truce in a strategic war finally to liquidate the enemy. This contrasts with recognition of diversity as a simple fact of life. This, in turn, contrasts with pluralism, which recognizes the pluralism in the universe, ranging from atoms to trees to clusters of galaxies and on to religious traditions as part of the divine plan as an essential means to recognize the Oneness of God.
Rashad Khalifa may claim secret knowledge of the ultimate form, but the Quran warns us not even to discuss anything about which in this life we can have no knowledge.
Another perhaps related weakness is Kassim Ahmad’s penchant for categorical statements about the realm of the ghaib. He appears to contradict his own maxims when he makes the categorical statement on page 65 that, there will be no Second Coming of Christ and neither will there be any superhuman savior to save the world. Our salvation lies in our own hands and through applying the teachings of the Quran creatively and scientifically. He adds on page 37, encouraging the Muslims to hang their hopes on something called the Mahdi is actually a subtle attempt to make defeatists and pessimists of them. The suffocating belief in fate: to make the Muslims submissive to other than God and to wait for someone to come along to save them. The truth is that no one will help us unless we help ourselves first.
Yet, on page 69 he accepts the coming of Gog and Magog and the Anti-Christ toward the Last Days, and states, we are required to believe in them, but we are to leave them to be interpreted by God and those who are experts in this field. The details of both the Mahdi and the Anti-Christ come from the hadith. His rejection of the Mahdi because he does not like the possible effect of a messiah on Muslim dynamism, and his acceptance of the Anti-Christ apparently because he sees no harmful effect of such a belief, seem to exemplify subjective selection of what Muslims should and should not believe.

His failure to consider alternative interpretations of the Quran is exemplified by his categorical statement on page 71 that the word mutawaffika (from the root wa faa, to complete, perfect, fulfill) cannot mean other than what it says, that is, that Jesus died, though not on the Cross. He dismisses Marmaduke Pickthall’s translation of this passage, “And remember when Allah said, ‘O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend to me, and cleansing thee of those who disbelieve.’” and counters it with Rashad Khalifa’s translation, “Thus God said, ‘O Jesus, I am terminating your life on earth, raising you up to me, and ridding you of disbelievers.’”
There has always been a minority position among the shuyukh of Azhar that the Quranic statement that Jesus did not die on the cross, although he appeared to do so, means that spiritually he did not die. Denial of Jesus’s death undermines the entire basis of Pauline Christianity, which is based on the belief that original sin requires the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus’s death on the cross for any person to go to heaven. This indeed is one of the passages of the Quran that appear to be muhkamat or clear and decisive, based on the root ha ka ma for exact and firm, but, in fact, may be among the mutashabihat or unclear passages and therefore not subject to categorical statements.
Entire sections of this monograph are simply weak in their arguments. The most egregious would seem to be his contention on page 19-20 that, we do not learn to pray from the hadith; that, the salat prayers today were not originally given to Muhammad during the Night Journey; and that neither the Quran nor the hadith are needed to teach us how to pray, because the Quran clearly states that the obligatory prayers and all other religious observances of Islam were originally taught to Abraham.
From this he concludes on page 54 that the forms of prayer do not have to come from the hadith but have been inherited one generation after another from Abraham. This may be Rashad Khalifa’s basis for innovating in the form of prayer by encouraging women to be imams. This free-wheeling approach to the forms of prayer seems to conflict with his statement on page 76 that the ordinary forms of prayer are required in principle, but that only under normal circumstances are we required to perform these prayers in the usual way. This leaves the way open to define subjectively what is normal and abnormal.
The reader will find many such surprising views, but the most surprising and suspect is his contention on page 72 that, God puts the believers and the Prophet on the same level. This is meant to counter the idolization of Muhammad, but it can be interpreted to permit reverence for someone living today as a prophet.
In summary, we might say that this monograph by Kassim Ahmad carries a lot of baggage, but that its overall message and most of the analysis is needed today more than ever to help Muslims understand their own religion better so that they can explain it to well-meaning non-Muslims who are willing to learn.”
There are only limited number of copies at the launching. However, readers can buy online from the Amazon.

*****


















PENGUMUMAN BUKU BARU OLEH KASSIM AHMAD.
JUDUL ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE -- A NEW ERA HAS STARTED, 254 halaman. Diterbitkan oleh Brainbowpress, Amerika Syarikat,2012; harga DAS 11.86.

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad

9 Disember, 2011.

Buku di atas baru diterbitkan. Terdiri daripada 34 bab, sepertri berikut:

Forward
Acknowledgements

Chapter
1. Introduction,
2. Pointer from the Opening Chapter,
3. Definition of Divine Unity,
4. Idolatory and Its Implications for Human Society,
5. Religions in History,
6. Components of Religion,
7. Metaphors and Allegories,
8. God, the Pure Spirit, and Man, the Homo Sapiens
and Divine Vicegerent,
9. The Individual and the Collective,
10. The Problem of Creation
11. The Divine Method,
12. The Problem of Evil,
13. The Problem of Freedom and Determination,
14. Prophecy, Prophets and Miracles,
15. Muhammad and the Era of Internationalism,
16. The Noble Quran,
17. The Problem of Prophetic Traditions,
18. Shari’ah – Not a Divine Law,
19. Mysticism – a Deviation from the Straight Path,
20. The Non-Abrahamic Line: Other Scriptures,
21. The Straight Path,
22. Malays, Malaysians and the Promise of a New Malacca,
23. The Scientific Method,
24. Demythologization and Secularism,
25. The Great Deterioration and the Necessity for Perpetual Renewal,
26. The “Second Coming”,
27. Judeo-Christian Plot Against Islam
28. The Fall of Empires, and the Law of Replacement,
29. Peaceful Co-existence of Religions,
30. Science, Philosophy and Religion,
31. A Life of Success and Happiness,
32. A New Just World – Paradise on Earth,
33. God’s Grand Plan: Triumph of the Religion of Truth,
34. Conclusion.

Select Bibliography
Index
Appendices:
Maps
1. Spread of Islam
2. Origin of Malay polity
3. Malacca Empire

Diagrams
1. Time line: Development of Civilization.
2. The Evolutionary Tree.

Boleh dibeli melalui Internet di Amazon. Akan dilancarkan oleh Ketua Pengarah IKIM, Dato' Dr. Nik Mustapha Hassan, pada 8hb Januari, 2012 di Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya pukul 9.30 pagi hingga 12.0 tgh. Semua dijemput.

(SELESAI)

UMNO PERLU MEREKAYASA
UNTUK TERUS MENJADI RELEVAN
Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
1 Disember, 2011
(Versi ini telah dipinda sedikit. -- K.A.)

Presiden UMNO sekarang, Najid Abdul Razak, tahu bahawa ahli-ahli UMNO perlu faham dan dukung falsafah dan prinsip-prinsip perjuangan UMNO, jika bilangan 3.4 juta itu mahu dijadikan kekuatan yang tidak terkalahkan. Pilihanraya Umum ke-12 pada 2008 telah membuktikan bahawa tidak semua ahli UMNO menyokong UMNO lagi. Sesuatu operasi besar perlu dilakukan terhadap batang-tubuh UMNO untuk menyegarkannya dan menyuntik darah baru supaya ia kuat kembali. Operasi ini perlu untuk membolehkan UMNO terus menjadi teras dan sokoguru bangsa dan tamadun Melayu.
Sesetengah generasi muda yang tidak tahu sejarah menuduh UMNO sebagai perkauman atau rasis, semata-mata kerana UMNO itu Melayu. Mereka juga jahil bahawa manusia itu dijadikan Tuhan pelbagai bangsa. (Lihat Quran, 49: 13) Jadi, kebangsaan itu fitrah manusia. Yang menjadikan sesuatu bangsa itu perkauman kerana melebihkan bangsanya mengatasi bangsa-bangsa lain serta dibenarkan menindas bangsa-bangsa lain, seperti orang Yahudi, yang mendakwa mereka “bangsa terpilih”!
Memang betul kita menuju ke arah sebuah bangsa Malaysia. Proses ini akan mengambil masa sekurang-kurangnya tiga generasi, iatu 90 tahun. Malaysia baru berusia 48 tahun!
Parti politik itu seperti kepala keretapi. Dialah yang menarik beratus gerabak keretapi yang memuat penumpang dan barang-barang. Tanpa dia, keretapi tidak berguna, tersadai dalam stesyen tidak boleh bergerak ke mana-mana. Ahli-ahli parti memasuki parti secara sukarela kerana perjuangan bangsa dan nusa. Tidak siapa memaksa dia. Inilah sifat sebuah perjuangan. Inilah sifat asal UMNO waktu ia ditubuhkan pada 1946 untuk menumbangkan ‘Malayan Union’, projek penjajah Inggeris untuk terus menjajah negeri-negeri Melayu selepas Perang Dunia Kedua. Berkat kebangkitan massa orang Melayu di seluruh Malaya pada waktu itu maka Kerajaan Buruh Britain menukar rancanganya dan berunding dengan delegasi wakil-wakil Raja-raja Melayu, dan parti-parti politik UMNO, MCA dan MIC untuk menubuhkan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu serta menyerahkan kemerdekaan pada 31 Ogos, 1957.
Tiap benda hidup akan merosot dan mati. Demikian juga yang terjadi kepada UMNO. Setelah mencapai kemerdekaan, kemewahan mula merosakkan UMNO. Rebutan kuasa, rasuah dan pelbagai bentuk penyelewengan meresap masuk ke dalam batang-tubuhnya, sehingga tiba-tiba parti UMNO dan Barisan Nasional nyaris-nyaris kalah dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12 yang telah saya sebut itu.
Sekarang UMNO sedang mengadakan Perhimpunan Agungnya pada tahun ini. Timbalan Presiden Muhiyuddin Yassin, dalam ucapan perasmian sayap Wanita-Pemuda-Puteri, terpaksa menggesa supaya ahli-ahli UMNO “jangan sabo, jangan boikot, jangan cah keting ...” Gesaan ini menggambarkan masalah UMNO sekarang. Apakah yang harus UMNO buat? Operasi bagaimana yang harus dilakukan terhadap batang-tubuh UMNO?
UMNO perlu balik kepada semangat perjuangan yang asal. Tanpa apa-apa habuan, ahli-ahlinya sanggup berkorban. Bolehkah ini dilakukan sekarang?
Jawabnya, boleh. Tiada yang mustahil bagi khalifah Tuhan di Bumi. Tetapi ia memerlukan sedikit masa. Pertama, ahli-ahli parti mesti dididik dengan falsafah dan prinsip-prinsip perjuangan parti. Hanya ahli-ahli yang melalui proses pendidikan ini boleh menjadi ahli parti. Kedua, kader dan pemimpin mesti melalui proses pendidikan yang lebih tinggi untuk melayakkan diri mereka menjadi kader dan pemimpin. Ketiga, semua perkara, termasuk dasar parti dan memilih pemimpin hendaklah dilakukan melalui perundingan. Ini kaedah yang diajar dalam Islam. Kaedah ini lebih baik dari proses demokrasi Barat mengundi. Perundingan membolehkan sesuatu perkara dikaji secara mendalam, dan tidak di permukaan saja. Keempat, kemiskinan perlu dihapuskan dalam masyarakat kita supaya ahli-ahli UMNO tidak masuk untuk mendapat habuan material. Ini boleh dilakukan.
Sejak timbulnya “politik wang” dalam UMNO, cawangan-cawangan UMNO menjadi milik sesuatu keluarga. Seseorang ahli masuk untuk mencari habuan material, bukan untuk perjuangan bangsa lagi. Orang-orang yang berkaliber dihalang daripada memasuki sesatu cawangan, kerana ketua cawangan takut kedudukannya akan hilang!
Operasi pembedahan besar inilah yang perlu dilakukan untuk UMNO pulih menjadi kuat, seperti di peringkat awal. Matlamat inilah yang patut disasarkan oleh pucuk piminan parti. Saya tidak menjamin operasi besar ini akan berjaya 99.9% (100% memang mustahil dicapai), tetapi jika 75% daripada matlamat ini boleh dicapai, itu sudah cukup baik.
Jika kita sasarkan sistem hidup uang dianjurkan oleh Islam, saya jangka kita boleh mencapai sebuah masyarakat yang aman, selamat , adil dan bahagia dalam masa kurang daripada 20 tahun. Tetapi usaha besar ini memerlukan tahap kejiwaan yang lebih tinggi daripada tahap nafsul-amarah yang dijiwai oleh kebanyakan rakyat kita sekarang. Pimpinan masyarakat kita, khanya UMNO, perlu naik ke tahap nafsul-lawwamah.

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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas. Laman web beliau: www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

TRIBUNAL RAKYAT:MENGHUKUM BUSH DAN BLAIR KERANA JENAYAH PERANG TERHADAP IRAQ

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
29 November, 2011

Rakyat Malaysia boleh berbangga kerana negara mereka, walaupun kecil dan baru merdeka 54 tahun, telah mendahului banyak negara lain dalam beberapa hal. Membicara dan menghukum bekas Presiden Amerika Syarikat, George W. Bush dan bekas Perdana Menteri Britain, Tony Blair, kerana, tanpa kebenaran Majlis Keselamatan PBB, telah melanggar dan menawan Iraq pada 19 Mac, 2003, dan dengan itu mengorbankan nyawa 1.4 juta rakyat Iraq. Bukti menunjukkan mereka telah merancang untuk menakluk Iraq sejak 15 September, 2001 dengan cuba mendapatkan kebenaran Majlis Keselamatan PBB. Kebenaran ini gagal mereka dapat. Perbicaraan dan penghukuman ini telah dibuat oleh sebuah Tribunal Rakyat atas dayausaha bekas Perdana Menteri kita, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Tribunal ini terdiri daripada lima orang hakim, diketui oleh bekas Hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan, Datuk Abdul kadir Sulaiman. Anngota-anggota lain termasuk peguam dan pakar undang-undang antarabangsa, Prof. Salleh Buang, dan pakar undang-undang antarabangsa, Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr. Shad Saleem Faruqi. Tertuduh mendakwa kononnya Iraq memiliki senjata pemusnah besar-besaran. Dakwaan ini, mengikut badan penyiasat, tidak benar, dan kemudian didapati memang tidak benar. Dua faktor menyebabkan pencerobohan ini dilakukan oleh Bush dan Blair. Pertama, kecurigaan anak emas A.S., negara haram Israil, terhadap Iraq. Ingat serangan Israil terhadap loji nukler Iraq di Osirak berhampiran dengan Baghdad pada 7 Jun, 1981. Kedua, kemunafiqan Iran. Kerana Perang Iran-Iraq (1980-88), yang sebenarnya dihasut oleh Khomieni dan kuasa-kuasa imperialis Barat, Iran menjadi musuh ketat Iraq. Kerana dendam Khomieni ini, maka Iraq ditikam dari belakang dan ini menjemput pencerobohan A.S. dan Britain terhadap Iraq. Ini membawa kepada penaklukan Iraq oleh mereka hingga hari ini. Dari hari penaklukan itu hingga hari ini, Iraq tidak pernah aman. Rantau Asia Barat memang sebuah rantau yang amat strategik. Bukan saja ia pusat tamadun manusia (nabi-nabi Ibrahim, Musa, Isa dan Muhammad muncul di sana), ia juga telah dijadikan tanahair negara anak emas Amerika, iaitu Israel. Walaupun umat Islam sedunia telah banyak dizalimi oleh kuasa imperialis Anglo-Amerika, pusat suatu peperangan dunia yang baru, Perang Dunia III, berlegar di antara Israel (yakni A.S.) dengan Iran. Tribunal mencapai keputusan sebulat suara bahawa Bush dan Blair telah melakukan jenayah terhadap keamanan di Iraq. Keputusan ini akan diumumkan ke seluruh dunia. Tun Dr. Mahathir, Presiden Yayasan Keamanan Global, mencadangkan supaya keputusan ini dikemukakan kepada Mahkamah Jenayah Antarabangsa. Juga dikemukakan kepada PBB untuk dibuat resolusi menghentikan peperangan di Iraq, mengembalikan keamanan di sana dan menghantar keputusan itu kepada semua negara yang menandatangani Statut Rom untuk mengambil tindakan terhadap kedua-dua penjenayah itu mengikut bidang kuasa masing-masing. Nyatalah Tribunal Rakyat ini tribunal pertama dalam dunia. Syabas Malaysia! Syabas Tun Dr. Mahathir!

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KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com

BUANG PENGARUH NAHU ARAB DAN INGGERIS:
KEMBALI KEPADA WATAK BAHASA MELAYU YANG ASLI

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad
13 Oktober, 2010

Bahasa Melayu memang satu bahasa yang cantik, dengan ayat-ayatnya yang ringkas dan padat dengan bunga-bunga dan simpulan bahasanya yang indah-indah, lengkap dengan pantun-mantunnya sekali. Ini dapat kita lihat daripada karya-karya pengarangnya yang agung, seperti Keris Mas, Usman Awang (Tongkat Warrant), A. Samad Ahmad, A. Samad Ismail, A. Samad Said dan ramai lagi. Jangan lupa pengarang agung Indonesia, Pramudia Ananta Tur. Membaca karya-karya mereka akan menyingkap keindahan bahasa Melayu kepada kita.
Ini tidak bermakna saya mendewa-dewakan bahasa Melayu. Bahasa Inggeris juga begitu. Saya fikir bahasa-bahasa lain juga begitu – satu daripada tanda kekayaan Ilahi!
Namun demikian, saya ingin menarik perhatian pengguna-pengguna bahasa Melayu kepada beberapa perkara.
Pertama, saya hendak menyebut tentang kesilapan-kesilapan yang kerap dibuat. Bahasa Melayu tidak mempunya kopula, ‘ialah’, ‘adalah’ atau ‘merupakan’. Umpamanya, kita kata “Ibrahim seorang guru.”, tidak “Ibrahin ialah/adalah /merupakan seorang guru” Dalam bahasa Inggeris, kita kata “Ibrahim is a teacher.” Perkataan ‘is’ di sini satu kopula. Jadi, penggunaan kopula ini pengaruh nahu Inggeris. Harus dijauhi.
Kedua, kesalahan kerana pengaruh nahu Arab. Perhatikan ayat ini: “Mereka itu adalah di atas petunjuk Tuhan mereka.” Ada dua kesalahan di sini: penggunaan kopula ‘adalah’, dan penggunaan kata depan ‘di atas’. Kata depan ‘di atas’ yang tidak perlu di sini menunjukkan pengarauh nahu Arab. Sepatutnya ayat ini ditulis: “Mereka mendapat petunjuk Tuhan mereka.”
Kerapkali juga kita dengar frasa ‘kunjungan hormat ke atas Yang Dipertuan Agung”, nyata terjemahan harfiah frasa Inggeris, “to pay a visit on”. Mengapa tidak kata “mengadap “ atau “mengunjungi” saja?
Ketiga, salah-guna perkataan jamak ‘mereka’. Kerap sekalai kita dengar perkataan “mereka-meraka”. Sungguh dahsyat bunyinya! Perkataan ‘mereka’ itu jamak; tidak perlu dijamakkan lagi! Berhungan dengan kesalahan ini, kita juga tidak harus kata “ramai orang-orang perempuan datang melihat temasya itu.” Perkataan ‘ramai’ sudah bersifat jamak. Tidak perlu, kata nama itu dijamakkan lagi. Demikian dengan semua perkataan jamak, seperi ‘banyak’, ‘kebanyakan’, ‘semua’, ‘sesetengah’, dan sebagainya.
Keempat, salah-guna kata depan ‘dari’ dan ‘daripada’, ‘ke’ dan ‘kepada’. Tidak perlulah saya huraikan kesalahan ini
Kelima, perhatikan ayat, “Iaitu jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat kepada mereka ...” (Ayat ini diambil dari sebuah tafsir.) Kesalahan ini tidak begitu ketara; walaupun bagaimana pun, kesalahan juga. Ada dua kesalahan di sini. Ayat ini sepatutnya ditulis, “Iaitu jalan orang yang telah Engkau kurniakan nikmat.” Kesalahan pertama: “Engkau telah kurniakan.” Yang betulnya: “telah Engkau kurniakan,” atau “jalan orang yang Engkau telah mengurniakan nikmat.” Kesalahan kedua: frasa ‘kepada mereka’ tidak perlu, kerana kertakerja ‘kurniakan’ sudah mengambil katanama ‘orang’ sebelum ini sebagai objeknya.
Sehubung dengan ini juga, lihat ayat: “Jalan orang-orang yang Engkau merahmati, bukan orang-orang yang ke atas mereka dimurkai ...” Ini terjemahan harfiah dari bahasa Arab. Bahasa Melayu menulis: “Jalan orang yang Engkau rahmati, bukan orang yang ditimpa kemurkaan-Mu.”
Inilah lima jenis kesalahan yang kerap dibuat oleh penulis-penulis bahasa Melayu. Kesalahan-kesalahan ini harus diperbetulkan. Bahasa Melayu jadi tidak idiomatik dan hodoh kerana kesalahan-kesalahan ini.
Memang semua bahasa berkembang. Perkataan seperti ‘ketidak-samaan’, ‘keterbukaan’ dan beratus-ratus lagi perkataan baru seperti itu menunjukkan perkembangan bahasa kita. Pinjaman perkataan dari bahasa-bahasa lain fenomena biasa. Demikianlah bahasa diperkayakan. Tetapi tiap bahasa mempunyai nahu dan idiomnya sendiri. Nahu dan idiom ini perlu dikekalkan. Jika tidak, rosaklah keaslian bahasa itu. Namun demikian, bahasa Melayu harus berkembang mengikut nahu dan idiomnya, dan tidak boleh bersalahan dengan nahu dan idiomnya.
Bahasa kebangasaan itu penting dalam pembangunan peradaban kita. Kita tidak boleh membangunkan peradaban kecuali dalam bahasa kita sendiri. Bila saya berkata demikian, maksud saya bukan untuk memperkecilkan nilai bahasa Inggeris. Rakyat kita perlu mengetahui bahasa Inggeris, kerana ia lingua franca dunia. Tetapi bahasa Inggeris tidak boleh menggantikan bahasa kebagsaan kita untuk membangunkan peradaban kita. Rakyat kita perlu juga mempelajari bahasa-bahasa lain (umpamanya, Arab, Perancis, Belanda, Jerman, Rusia dan lain-lain) mengikut keperluan kerjaya masing-masing.
Sebagai sebuah masyarakat nasional yang bersifat majmuk, rakyat kita juga perlu belajar bahasa-bahaya yang terdapat dalam negara kita, seperti Mandarin dan Tamil, untuk mempermudah dan membaiki hubungan antara kaum.
Saya tidak harus lupa untuk menyatakan bahawa dalam pemakaian bahasa kebagsaan yang elok, pemimpin-peminpin kita harus menunjukkan contoh yang baik. Bila mereka bercakap dalam bahasa Melayu, hendaklah mereka menggunakan bahasa Melayu yang baik, sepertimana mereka juga harus bercakapa Inggeris yang baik, bila berucap dalam bahasa Inggeris.
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Kassim Ahmad seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com