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Dear members of the list,
Assalamu Alaikum.I appreciate Dr Mathir in many
respects. I however dis-agree with his comment on Kamal Ataturk
write-up (below) ( Dr. Mahathir
says:-Many Muslims still condemn the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kamal,
because he tried to modernise his country. But would Turkey be Muslim today
without Ataturk? Mustafa Kamal's clear-sightedness saved Islam in Turkey and
saved Turkey for Islam. ).This is not a sound assessment of him.It is too much
to say that Turkey would not have been Muslim without him. .Allother Muslim
countries have remained Muslims and even progressed without a Kamal even
in far worse circumstances.
Of course he modernised in technical areas but he
was a true cultural slave of Europe who even banned cap, changed the
script,abolished Azan in Arabic ,abolished Shariah courts and
abolished Sufi orders All these were flagrant violation of religious and
human rights, also national interest and cultural identity. He was also a
dictator and an oppressor.
I am sorry that Dr. Mahathir eulogized him in such
a manner.
Shah Abdul Hannan
Former Secretary , Govt of Bangladesh.
.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2005 1:09
AM
Subject: [Shetubondhon] Islam's forsaken
resistance--Mahathir Muhammad
Peace unto all. Mahathir Muhammad is sharing his
wisdom now. The following piece is dianostic and the same time
inspirational. It's not that we do not know what he says here, nor that
his analysis is above controversy, but that the way he presents it can
intrigue our minds.
Mohammad A. Auwal
--------------------------------------------------
VIEW: Islam's forsaken renaissance —Mahathir
bin Mohamad
![]() Many Muslims still condemn the founder of
modern Turkey, Mustafa Kamal, because he tried to modernise his country. But
would Turkey be Muslim today without Ataturk? Mustafa Kamal's
clear-sightedness saved Islam in Turkey and saved Turkey for Islam
Children often play a game where they sit in a circle. One
whispers something to his neighbour, who then whispers that information to the
next child, and so on, around the circle. By the time the last child whispers
the information to the first, it is totally different from what was originally
said.
Something like that seems to have happened within Islam. The
Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, brought one — and only one — religion. Yet today
we have perhaps a thousand religions that all claim to be
Islam.
Divided by their different interpretations, Muslims do not play
the role they once did in the world; instead, they are weakened and
victimised. The Shia-Sunni schism is so deep that each side condemns followers
of the other as apostates — kafir. The belief that the other's religion is not
Islam, and its followers not Muslim, has underpinned internecine wars in which
millions have died — and continue to die.
Even among the Sunnis and
Shias there are further divisions. The Sunnis have four imams and the Shias
have 12; their teachings all differ. Then there are other factions, including
the Druze, the Alawites, and the Wahhabis.
We are also taught by our
ulema (religious instructors) that their teachings must not be questioned.
Islam is a faith. It must be believed. Logic and reason play no part in it.
But what is it that we must believe when each branch of Islam thinks the other
one is wrong? The Koran, after all, is one book, not two or three, or a
thousand.
According to the Koran, a Muslim is anyone who bears witness
that "there is no God (Allah) but Allah, and that Muhammad is his Rasul
(Messenger)." If no other qualification is added, then all those who subscribe
to these precepts must be regarded as Muslims. But because we Muslims like to
add qualifications that often derive from sources other than the Koran, our
religion's unity has been broken.
But perhaps the greatest problem is
the progressive isolation of Islamic scholarship — and much of Islamic life —
from the rest of the modern world. We live in an age of science in which
people can see around corners, hear and see things happening in outer space
and clone animals. And all of these things seem to contradict our belief in
the Koran.
This is so because those who interpret the Koran are
learned only in religion, in its laws and practices, and thus are usually
unable to understand today's scientific miracles. The fatwas (legal opinions
concerning Islamic law) that they issue appear unreasonable and those with
scientific knowledge cannot accept them.
One learned religious
teacher, for example, refused to believe that a man had landed on the moon.
Others assert that the world was created 2,000 years ago. The age of the
universe and its size — measured in light years –are things the ulema trained
only in religion cannot comprehend.
This failure is largely
responsible for the sad plight of so many Muslims. Today's oppression, the
killings and the humiliations of Muslims, occur because we are weak, unlike
the Muslims of the past. We can feel victimised and criticise the oppressors,
but to stop them we need to look at ourselves. For our own good, we must
change. We cannot ask our detractors to change, so that Muslims benefit.
What do we need to do? In the past, Muslims were strong because they
were learned. Muhammad's injunction was to read, but the Koran does not say
what to read. Indeed, there was no "Muslim scholarship" at the time, so to
read meant to read whatever was available. The early Muslims read the works of
the great Greek scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers. They also
studied the works of the Persians, the Indians, and the Chinese.
The
result was a flowering of science and mathematics. Muslim scholars added to
the body of knowledge and developed new disciplines, such as astronomy,
geography, and new branches of mathematics. They introduced Arabic numerals,
enabling simple and limitless calculations.
But around the 15th
century, the learned in Islam began to curb scientific study. They began to
study religion alone, insisting that only those who study religion —
particularly Islamic jurisprudence — gain merit in the afterlife. The result
was intellectual regression at the very moment that Europe began embracing
scientific and mathematical knowledge.
And so, as Muslims were
intellectually regressing, Europeans began their renaissance, developing
improved ways of meeting their needs, including the manufacture of weapons
that eventually allowed them to dominate the world.
By contrast,
Muslims fatally weakened their ability to defend themselves by neglecting,
even rejecting, the study of allegedly secular science and mathematics. This
myopia remains a fundamental source of the oppression suffered by Muslims
today. Many Muslims still condemn the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kamal,
because he tried to modernise his country. But would Turkey be Muslim today
without Ataturk? Mustafa Kamal's clear-sightedness saved Islam in Turkey and
saved Turkey for Islam.
Failure to understand and interpret the true
and fundamental message of the Koran has brought only misfortune to Muslims.
By limiting our reading to religious works and neglecting modern science, we
destroyed Islamic civilisation and lost our way in the world.
The
Koran says, "Allah will not change our unfortunate situation unless we make
the effort to change it." Many Muslims continue to ignore this and, instead,
merely pray to Allah to save us, to bring back our lost glory. But the Koran
is not a talisman to be hung around the neck for protection against evil.
Allah helps those who improve their minds. —DT-PS
Dr Mahathir bin
Mohamad was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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