Kassim Ahmad's Blog, page 5

MEMPERKASA UNDANG-UNDANG SYARI'AH

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                                                    MEMPERKASAKAN UNDANG-UNDANG SYRI'AH                                                                            By: Kassim Ahmad                                                                                2 April, 2017                                                               
   Saya telah menulis tentang kesilapan Suruhanjaya Reid untuk menggubal Perlembagaan Malaysia dengan meletakan Islam sebagai agama Persekutuan. Kesilapan ini sangat jelas, kerana warganegara Malaysia terdiri dari pelbagai penganut agama (Islam, Budha, Hindu, Keristian, malah atesi).    Kita sudah mempunya satu contoh yang baik dan relevan dalam Perlembaan bertulis yang pertama dalam dunia, iaitu Piagam Madinah yang digubal oleh Nabi Muhammad sendiri. Alangkah aneh ahli hukum Islam sendiri tidak sedar akan wujudnya dokumen sejarah yang penting dan pokok ini!   Ketua Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) Haji Abdul Hadi, yang ingin mengemukan Rang Undang-undang Persendirian ini di Parlimen nyata ingin menggunakan sentimen keIslaman untuk mempengaruhi orang Islam dalam parti UMNO sendiri untuk menyokong Rang Undang-undang ini. Pendirian UMNO terpaksa mengambil kira sekutu mereka dalam Barisan Nasional, seperti MCA, MIC dan lain-lain yang tidak bersetuju.    Saya pun, seorang Islam, tidak bersetuju, kerana undang-undang syri'ah yang sebenar berpaksikan keadilan. Birokrasi agama Islam itu lain sama sekali!.   Nyalah Hadi tidak tahu dan tidak peduli tentang Perlembagaan Madinah, Nyata juga dia tidak tahu bahawa arahan  Tuhan dalam Quran untuk semua pemeritahan dalam dunia supaya mentadbir dengan adil, walaupun arahan ini logik sekali. Dengan perkataan lain, agama tidak kena-mengena dengan sistem ketatanegaraan. Agama itu urusan peribadi penganutnya dan harus diuruskan secara otonom oleh penganut-penganutnya. Persis inilah yang dinyatakan denga jelas dalam Perlebagaan Madinah. Nyatalah Tuan Guru Hadi kena belajar lagi tentang sejarah Islam.   Beliau patut tahu tengtang konsep Quran dalam sistem ketatanegaraan: baldattun tayyibatun wa rabbun ghafur. Ertinya "sebuah negara yang baik di bawah ria'yah Tuan yang Pengampun. Tidak ada konsep negara Islam di situ!   Seorang sahabt saya menunjuk kepada saya ketiadaan pengasingan kuasa dalam Perlembagaan Madinah. Saya fikir hal ini, walaupun tidak disebut secara jelas dalam Perlembagaan Madinah, ia wujud secara tersirat. Nabi Muhammad, atas kewajipannya sebagai pemerintah melaksanakan konsep pengasingan ini.
_______________________________KASSIM AHMAD seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Laman webnya      . 

ON PROPHET MUHAMMAD

ON PROPHET MUHAMMAD By: Kassim Ahmad29th July, 2016darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my
   I am writing this article to clarify my position once and for all on Prophet Muhammad. My detractors accuse me of belittling him. I never did. In fact, I was like them before, repeating parrot-like, their mantra on him (“May God bless him and may peace be on him”) which I inherited from my ancestors. However, I felt uneasy, though amazed and perplexed, at Muhammad’superelevated position.   Truth to tell, I began to study the Quran from the age of seventeen. Every year I would repeat it, comparing one translation with another till I was 54 in 1986. By that time I have studied it for 36 years!    In the meanwhile, I studied Arabic as a subsidiary subject at the University, and continued to study it later. By then I had collected most of the Malay and English translations. I now have in my library 13 translations, including what  consider to be the best English translation by Dr. Rashad Khalifa.   Yesterday was a hectic yet productive day for me. In the morning I visited the Grand Old Man of Malaysia (GOMM) at his office in Putrajaya. Sadly, I found him not to be his old confident self any more. Last year, in the evening, as I walked beside him to go home, he said that he was like my older brother. In 2014 when I first appeared as an accused at the Syari’ah Court in Putrajaya, he attended the court, to the obvious surprise of everyone, including the judge.    To continue my story, I walked away a little disappointed. Not only age has taken toll on him, but Malaysia’s conservative Shafi’e religious school of thought has distanced himself from the young exuberant forward-looking Malaysians. Although I am nearing 83 and not physically young, I am as young in spirit as ever. God be thanked!       I raced to Setia Alam in Shah Alam in order to be in time for my last appointment at 5.00 p.m.  Luckily, the persons I was to meet were also late. A few minute later they turned up. We had a productive conversation for almost three hours. My new acquaintance, Abdul Karim Abdullah, is a lecturer in one of our institutes of advanced learning. To my great joy, we shared the same thoughts on all topics.       Muhammad is the last prophet of God, ending a series of prophets beginning with Prophet  Adam, through prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus, teaching  the same religion of monotheism to their national communities. The only difference is that Prophet Muhammad was sent to the whole world and delivered the divinely-protected Quran . Hence he is “a mercy to the world.”    Muhammad was an Arab.  He had the qualities to be the receptacle of a new revelation in Arabic, the language that God chose to reveal the Quran in.   This is my position vis-à-vis Prophet Muhammad. My rejection of the second syahadah is based on the Quran where it is rejected in Surah 63,verse 1.      You see I love God The Truth, and I obey Him. What wrong did I do for the human religious authorities to accuse of belittling Islam?  
KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.cm            ON

THE STORY OF MAN

THE STORY OF MAN By: Kassim Ahmad17 February, 2016darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my
            One day the father of Man said to his son, “I want to write the last chapter of the story of Man. “Is it short, or long?” asks his son. “Neither too short, nor too long,” answered the father. “Is it a tragedy, or a comedy?” asks his son. “Decide for yourself,” answered the father. “Please write it quickly. Maybe I will benefit from it,” said his son.            Here is the story.            After the greats of all nations, ancient, medieval and modern, secular and religious, across all civilizations have come and gone, are we any better? Are we any safer? The answer is a big, “No.” We kill one another every day. One nuclear power  threatens another nuclear power with nuclear destruction. We live under threat of total or near-total destruction.             Why, oh Lord? Are the protesting angels right? Are we shedders of blood and causers of destructions? But You still went on to create us, saying You know better. Are You wrong? It cannot be, You being All-Knowing. Are we wrong to believe in You? Please help us humans!  Where is our promised helper, Imam Mahdi? When is the Second Coming? Oh Lord, please help us.            You must help yourselves, says the Lord. I have given you My Book and the mind. Read My Book and use your mind. But all our great minds have come and gone. There is the tomb of books in all the world’s libraries. Still we are no more knowledgeable, nor more safe. Why? The great bullies remain bullies. The aged, the women and the children suffer, become refugees. Oh Lord, where is the justice You promised us? Where is Your compassion?The fault lies not in your stars, but in yourselves, as said Mr Shakespeare. You choose the easy road of sports and amusements; not the difficult road of struggle for justice and truth. You choose to degenerate, instead of to progress. It is your fault. But, Lord, it is You Who make us like this. How can I believe in You now? Even the geniuses among us, like Prof. Stephen Hawking, do not believe in You. Did not Jesus, one of your greats, said that you cannot live by bread alone? You have to believe in something. Better that something be the Ever-Living, the All-Powerful, the All-knowing, the Perfect, even if He does not exist. But what if He does exist? Yes, He does exist. Even if you cannot know Him, he does exit. Otherwise, how can you exist? You exist because He created you. How do you know that He created you? As far as I can see, the world creates itself, although I did not see it happen. I deduce it logically. If I were to say that Someone Else creates the Universe,  it makes logical sense. But in the end you will come to the Uncaused Cause. What causes the uncaused cause? If you answer the uncaused cause, causes itself, you put yourself  outside the bounds of logic. You become illogical, which is unacceptable.  You have to surpass the boundaries of logic, not into the world of the illogical, but into the world of supra-logical. God is not illogical. He is supra-logical. Epistemology is the combination of sensory, logical and supra-logical evidences. Period.
KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is www.lassimahmad.blogspot.com                   
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THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAM

THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAM By: Kassim Ahmad17th  January, 2016 Revised and expanded on 19thMarch, 2016darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my
            The Quran in Surah Ali-‘Imran (3) states that “The only religion approved by God is Islam.” The Arabic word ‘deen’ essentially mean ‘way of life’ rather that the restricted ritualistic meaning of the word ‘religion’. This religion of strict monotheism is taught by all prophet-messengers from Adam to its completion and perfection by Muhammad, the last of all prophet-messegers. The previous prophet-messengers were sent to national communities. Only Prophet Muhammad was sent to the entire world. This is stated in the Quran. (7: 158). The only book he brought was the Quran, a protected divine scripture.But, as it is wont with human beings, corruption and deterioration set in and complete their work in after about 300 years (10 generations) to change the original teachings. Thus, the monotheism of Prophet Moses became polytheism in Judaism, of Prophet Jesus polytheism in Christianity, and of Muhammad polytheism in Sunnism. Sunnism is polytheistic in that it has elevated Muhammad to a second god, against his will. KASSIM AHMAD is a freelance Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com
See Quran (16: 51) which states: “Do not worship two gods. There is only one God.” Further Surah 63, verse I, invalidates the second syahadah which is uttered by hypocrites. God has proclaimed: “Do not worship two gods; there is only on god. Therefore you shall reverence Me.” (Quran, 16: 51).

TUDUNG: PENEMUAN BARU

TUDUNG: PENEMUAN BARU
Oleh: Kassim Ahmad (Article in berasal dari jawapan yang saya sediakan untuk menjawap pertuduhan terdap saya oleh JAWI/JAKIM pada tahun 2014)(Disemak semula pada 25hb Mac, 2017)
     Tudung yang dipakai oleh kebanyakan wanita Melayu yang beragama Islam sekarang tidak berasal dari ajaran Quran. Dalam ajaran Quran, rambut wanita bukan ‘aurat. Buktinya terdapat dalam ayat-ayat berhubung dengan wuduk (Quran, 5: 6) dan dengan pakaian (Quran, 24: 30-31) Perkataan a’urat berasal dari bahasa Arab, ertinya kebogelan. Kebogelan bermakna dada seseorang hingga ke bawah lutut. Kebogelam mesti ditutup.Jadi, bahagian dada hingga ke bawah lutut itulah a'urat seseorang, lelaki dan wanita. Jelas sekali ia tidak termasuk rambut wanita. Jadi, dari mana dan bila adat ini timbul? Tudung ini  berasal dari kitab Taurat, Perjanjian Baru, Bab Korintus I, 11: 5-9 yang berbunyai, “Tetapi tiap-tiap perempuan yang berdoa dan bernubuat dengan kepala yang tidak bertudung menghina kepala-nya sebab ia sama dengan perempuan yang dicukur rambutnya. Sebab jika perempuan tidak mahu menudungi kepalanya maka haruslah ia juga menggunting rambutnya. Tetapi jika bagi perempuan adalah penghinaan bahawa rambutnya digunting atau dicukur, maka haruslah ia menudungi kepalanya. Sebab lelaki tidak perlu menudungi kepalanya; ia menyinarkan gambaran dan kemuliaan Allah. Tetapi perempuan menyinarkan kemuliaan lelaki. Sebab lelaki tidak berasal daripada perempuan, tetapi perempuan berasal daripada lelaki. Dan lelaki tidak diciptakan kerana perempuan, tetapi perempuan diciptakan kerana lelaki.”
KASSIM AHMAD  seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Blognya www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com 
Dipetik dari Al-Kitab, Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia, Jakarta, 1984; hlm. 218.

The Crime Imam Shafi'e Commits

AN EVENING OF POETRY RECITAL

AN EVENING OF POETRY RECITAL By: Kassim Ahmad29 August, 2016darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my
            Almost a month ago, I was admitted to Kulim Hospital because of complications of my left lung. Unbeknown to me and perhaps my friends in Kuala Lumpur wanted to present a fiat accomplice to me, they  arranged an evening of poetry recital for me. Due to pressure of my friends, I appealed to my doctors to allow me two days off. They relented after extracting from me a promise to return to the hospital.            My son spirited me in his powerful car to the promised avenue to reach sharp at 2.30 on that Sunday 7thAugust. There were present about 60 people, including some friends, in the small hall. Without much ado, the Chairman introduced me, and then after a gentleman sitting on my right spoke his stuff, he passed the microphone to me to start reciting my poem “Sidang Ruh” (= Human Souls in Session).             I called for music.There was none. So, deliberately, slowly, in a sombre  voice, I recited:-
I
                        perlu satu-satu diperhitungkan kembali                         hari ini kita dewasa                         tanpa tuhan tanpa impian                        kerana besok mungkin terlalu lewat                        bagi kiamat yang telah ditangguhkan.
                        bukan aku sinis                        jangan kau mengateis                         beritaku dari mereka yang lupa bagaimana untuk hidup                        maka demikian perlu kata-kata                        supaya maut kita jangan kerana bisu.
                        kalau kau percaya kepada manusia sejahtera                        jangan kau bergembira menurut hukum                        (kerana kemenangan)                        kalau kau percaya kepada manusia bebas                        jangan kau berkata menurut hukum                        (kerana taat-setia)                        kerana tidak ada hukum yang akan berlaku                        (namun digubal dalam pi bi bi)                        yang tidak berperlembagaan di hati.

II
                        sudah datang berita yang paling kejam                        bagi mereka yang lagi hidup kerana bisa berharap                        dunia ini penjara                        nasi kita akan cukup di syurga.
                        di atas belakang Dajjal                         telah diperdagangkan hidup                        gelak dan hilai bukan kerana bahagia                        gelak dan hilai kerana papa.
                        akan bersidang segala roh                        anakmu hari ini makan apa                        nasi atau beer                        ketawanya palsu tangisnya tanpa suara.

III
                        nanti akan padamlah dengan sendirinya                        lampu dari menara tinggi                         kerana di bawahnya orang kian mabuk                        dan Tuhan sudah mati.
END
            I heard my voice booming across the room. The audience applauded me when I finished the recital. I asked them if they wanted me to explain it stanza by stanza. They replied, “Yes.” So I did. Again they applauded me. I stood up to acknowledge their applause.          Then came questions and answers. One asked me a question I did not expect -- what I thought of religious scholars. For some reason, I shot out a cryptic answer, “Cari makan,” meaning they were  merely earning a livelihood. To my surprise, none asked me to explain what I meant. Back at home, I thought I should have been fairer. Then I would have to tell them that most of them were as ignorant as the next man! And I would enumerate their errors: the second syahadah annulled in the Quran (63: 1), on the so-called Hududpunishments, the once-a-year practice of the pilgrimage to Mecca, cramming two million people into the small place, causing over-crowing and at times many deaths, when the Quran stipulates that the hajj can be performed in anyone of the four sacred months. Not only that. Only those who are healthy and financially able should  perform the hajj, once in a life-time. The rural folk especially would rake their life-time savings to do the hajj. A woman’s hair is not her ‘aurat or nakedness that needs to be covered. Their religious scholars – where are they?  Why do they not tell them the truth from the Quran?            At the end, many came forward to ask me to autograph my books in their possession and to take photographs  with me..           I must say I enjoyed every minute of the evening.
KASSIM AHMAD  is a Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com     

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

SURAH AL-FATEHAH

 TAF1:060394

BAHAGIAN  I
SURAH 1: PEMBUKAAN (AL-FATIHAH) (Mekah, 7 Ayat; Wahyu ke-5)
MAKLUMAT PENTING
TEMPAT & TARIKH TURUN WAHYU:Di Mekah pada zaman awal Mekah dalam  masa lima tahun pertama antara 12-8 B.H (610-615 T.M.) Wahyu ke-5. Tujuh  ayat.
TUJUAN:Doa agung untuk orang mukmin.
NAMA LAIN:Fatihat al-Kitab atau Pembukaan Buku, Umm`ul-Kitab atau Induk Buku, Surah al-Du`aatau Surah Doa, Al-Hamd atau  Pujian, Al-Kanz atau Khazanah, dan Al-Syifaatau Penawar.
AYAT PENTING:“Engkau semata-mata kami sembah dan kepada Engkau semata-mata kami pohon pertolongan. Bimbingilah kami ke jalan yang lurus.” (5-6)
TAJUK
A. PUJIAN KEPADA ALLAH (2-4)B.  IKRAR  MUKMIN (5)C.  DOA (6-7)

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1. Dengan nama Allah,2. Segala puji bagi Allah, 3. Maha Pemurah, Maha Pengasih.
4. Raja pada Hari Pembalasan.
5.  Engkaulah kami sembah dan kepada Engkaulah kami pohon pertolongan.
6. Bimbinglah kami ke jalan yang lurus;
7.  Jalan  mereka yang Engkau restui, bukan  mereka  yang  Engkau murkai, dan bukan  mereka yang sesat.

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[2] Ayat ini, yang dikenal sebagai Basmalah, menduduki suatu tempat yang istimewa dalam Quran. Ialah kenyataan pembukaan semua surah, kecuali Surah 9, dan ia merupakan asas mukjizat matematik angka 19 Quran. (Lihat lampiran I)      Basmalah terdiri daripada 19 huruf Arab, dan tiap-tiap huruf itu (Bism, Allah, Al-Rahman, Ar-Rahim) terdapat dalam Quran dalam angka ganda 19: 19, 2698, 57 dan 114 kali masing-masing. Dengan demikian, pembaca telah pada awal-awal lagi diberikan tanda-tanda bahawa ini bukan buku karangan manusia.
    Banyak fenomina matematik dihubungkan dengan ayat ini. Umpamanya, ketiadaan Basmalah dari Surah 9 digantikan sembilan belas  surah kemudian dalam Surah 27 yang mengandungi dua Basmalah (Lihat Lampiran .... dan Nota ....) Dengan demikian, jumlah Basmalah genap 114, atau 19x6. Apabila kita campur nombor-nombor surah dari surah ketiadaan Basmalah (Surah 9) ke surah kelebihan Basmalah (Surah 27) [9+10+11+ ... +27], jumlahnya 342, atau 19x18. Jumlah ini pula bersamaan dengan bilangan perkataan di antara kedua-dua Basmalah Surah 27!
    Sepertimana yang diperincikan dalam Lampiran I, kod matematik Quran ini begitu luas dan begitu halus sehingga tidak ada kuasa di bumi ini yang boleh menirunya, apalagi membuatnya, seperti yang ditegaskan dalam ayat 17:88.
Perkataan Arab rabb memang bermakna “tuan”, dalam bahasa  Inggeris diterjemahkan dengan perkataan  lord.  Makna ini kekal dalam bahasa  Melayu dalam perkataan-perkataan  “tuanku”, “tuan hamba”, “Yamtuan” dan “Yang Dipertuan Agung”.  

THE TRUE MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE

THE TRUE CELEBRATION OF INDEPENDENCE By: Kassim Ahmad28 August, 2016
            This is the 60th year of our independence. We spend millions of ringgit yearly to celebrate this auspicious day of 31 August with parades and the like, with every citizen flying or waving the national flag. We have been doing this year in and year out. Is this the true spirit that we want to inculcate in our citizens? Of course the parades and such like have their uses. But independence must mean more than that. It must mean the acting out of freedom in our souls. We must act freely to realize our place in the several countries that we are in and in the world -- the just and peaceful world that everyone wants. In this sense of the word independence,  we are far from it in the several countries that we are citizens of and in the wider world.  We suffer hardships of various kinds and magnitudes. The ultimate hardship would be a Third World War, using nuclear weapons. So far we are in stalemate, one bloc fearing destruction at the hands of the opposite bloc – the so-called mutual assured destruction, the MAD of human madness!             That means our independence is hollow and a fake. That means we are not at peace with ourselves, the OTHER being no more than ourselves. This is a scary and disastrous discovery. Where have we gone wrong?             To answer that question, let me bring two pointers from the Quran. In Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 30, God informs the angles that He wishes to create a human being to rule and change the earth, to which the angles protest, arguing that the human beings would spread evil and shed blood. God simply replies He knows better.             Humans have of course shed blood in the two World Wars.            But he is also a creator civilizations, the good side of him that God refers to.            The second pointer is from the first Surah, the great human prayer to his Lord. Verses 6-7, states, “Guide us in the right path, the path of those whom You blessed, not of those who have deserved wrath, nor of the strayers.”             Let us analyse these two verses. Those whom God bessed are clear. They are the true believers. Those who incur His wrath are also clear, that is the deniers of God and their ownselves. The strayers are those who think that they are believers, but are in actual fact disbelievers.             So those who are actually free are those who live in this blessed state of freedom, happy with themselves, happy with their environment and happy with their Lord. They are in the abode of Paradise.            This is the true meaning of freedom.

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

ON PROPHET MUHAMMAD

ON PROPHET MUHAMMAD By: Kassim Ahmad29th July, 2016Darul_hikmah333@yahoo.com.my
   I am writing this article to clarify once and for all my position on Prophet Muhammad. My detractors accuse me of belittling him. I never did. In fact I was like them before, repeating parrot-like, their mantra on him (“May God bless him and may peace be on him”) every time his name is mentioned. This I inherited from my ancestors. However I felt uneasy, though amazed and perplexed, at Muhammad superelevated position.   Truth to tell, I began to study the Quran at the age of seventeen. Every year I would repeat it, comparing one translation with another for thirty-six years till I was 54. That was when I wrote my book re-evaluating the Hadith in 1986. The book, in Malay, was discussed in all print media for two months. Half the readers supported me; half opposed. ABIM (the Anwar-led Muslim Youth Movement) invited me to discuss it in a dialogue at the end of which they arbitrarily pronounced it as  deviant. That brought the ban by a fatwa (religious edict)   At the University I studied Arabic as a subsidiary subject and continued to study it later. By then I had collected 13 Malay as well as English translations of the Quran, including what I consider the best modern English translation by Dr. Rahsd Khalifa.   Yesterday was a hectic day for me. In the morning, I visited the Grand Old Man of Malaysia (GOMM) in his office in Putrajaya. Sadly I found him not to be his old confident self any more. Not only age has taken a toll on him, but he has also made peace with conservative Shafi’e school of thought and has distanced himself with the new forward-looking young Malaysians Although I am nearing 83, I feel as young as ever.   I raced to a sumptuous launch appointment given by my young niece in an Arab restorant in Petaling Jaya. By time it was over, it was already 4.15 p.m. My son took to my last appointment at a Starback in Setia Impian in Shah Alam, scheduled for 5.0 p.m. Fortunately, the persons I was to meet were also late. There I met a young Hungarian Muslim lecturer, teaching economics at one of our advanced  institudes of higher learning. We had a very frutful discussion for more than three hours. I am happy to record that he and I shared similar views on all topics.   To continue my story, Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet of God, beginning with Prophet Adam, through prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus, teaching the same religion of monotheism to their national communities, with the exception that Muhammad was sent to the whole world, delivering the divinely-protected Quran. Hence he is called “a mercy to the world” in the Quran   Muhammad was an intelligent and honest seeker of the truth. When young he and his friends formed an organization to oversee the peace in Mecca, where he was born. When he reached the age of 40, the age of spiritual maturety, he received the Quran. He was strictly ordered to deliver the Quran, and nothing but the Quran, thus making the the hadiths ascribed to him as fabrications.    The correct Muslim declaration of faith (the syahadah) is found it the Quran in 3: 18. The fabricated and false second syahadahis found in 63: 1.      ---------------------------------
KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysia author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com