Riots!

Bismillahirohmanirohim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate)

This entry is based on the various hadith that you could find in this website The right way of dealing with rulers

What are the cause of riots? Firstly, it is because that people are not steadfast to the religion. They do not have any rope to hold on to give a good principle and concious towards themselves.

These riot are supposed to be a revolt towards the injustice behaviour of those who are in authority. The teachings of Islam has always been parallel with peace. Do riots symbolise peace? From my point of view riot is definitely nothing close to peace. How about the unjust ruler? Should they go unpunished? This has been explained in the hadith. "Prophet’s saying reported on the authority of Hudhayfa Ibn Al-Yamân رضي الله عنه: “There will be rulers who will not be led by my guidance and will not adopt my tradition. There will be among them men who will have the hearts of devils in the bodies ofhuman beings”. I said: “What should I do O Messenger of Allah, if such timeovertook me? He said: “You will listen to the commander and carry out his orders, and even if your back is lashed and your wealth is seized (by force),you should listen and obey”"
 

What are the role of the community? The community should always be helping, and advising the unjust ruler. Then, there is the question, why should opposition exists? This is usually because the 'oppositions' think that they are more capable in ruling the country. It is also normal that the 'oppositions' way of opposing is by pointing the injustices done by the ruler. They do this not necessarily to help, assist and advise the government, but they do this to gain the support of the community to oppose the ruler. After establishing this they will continue with movements with the support of the community by doing protests and riots.

Food for thought, if the opposition managed to over throw the government what will happen next? If the opposition becomes the ruling authority, they cannot afford to do any mistakes. If there are mistakes and injustice, the community will spark a new protest and new opposition will be established. This will then be a consistent cycle. It will go on continuously and will affect the community and its education as the government is always changing and there is no long term vision. When it affects the education, there will be a less brighter future. The perception of the community will now be too obsessed to monitor those who are in authority. Most of their time will be occupied eyeing every single action by the authority, hence peace will be a distant thing in our hearts.
 

If everyone can have their own say, who will be the one to listen? In my opinion these are the cause and effect of secularism. Secularism has caused the mass to be confused. It has created a barrier between the religion and the administration of the country. "Give Caesar what belongs to him, and give Jesus what belongs to him." This has been the method adopted today and have separated the morale teachings that a religion can contribute to the development and administration of the country. With this separation, it portrays that governments are greater than religion which will create a perception towards the community that religion means backwards. Therefore people will adopt this method/perception and may do what ever one wishes (I.e criminal acts). Anyway according to the teachings of Islam, everything belongs to Allah (not Caesar, not Jesus, not Muhammad salallahualaihiwasalam) therefore religion should always be observed in every aspect of our lives. We should firstly rely on religion and then rely on our intellect (this is part of the method that is adopted by the shari'ah). We should not just rely on our intellect (secular method) alone because this will cause the destruction of the community. "Nay but humanity transgresses all bounds when it looks upon itself as self-sufficient". (Surah al-Alaq verse 7). When we think we are self-sufficient and not use Allah's laws and words, Allah says "Those who turn from remembering Me shall live lives of misery; We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection,". (Surah Ta Ha verse 124)

This link shows how one should react towards an unjust muslim ruler. Why are these hadith being neglected? Are the scholars not well versed enough? Scholars are actually well versed in this issue. This hadith is probably being neglected because of the weakness in the human hearts. We as the community could not be patient anymore and would like to see changes being made. We would rather follow our hearts than following the hadith so that we could see the unjust authority getting punished. Why are we too obsessed on seeing the unjust ruler getting punished now and putting matters in our own hands? Do we not believe in the punishment of the hereafter? Isn't patience considered as good deeds which will be beneficial in our hereafter? Why are we throwing away the opportunity in doing good deeds and good rewards? Sometimes, some of us muslims (including myself) would prefer to "follow" a hadith only when there are scientific proof! This should not be the method and we should change the attitude to have faith in Qur'an and hadith. We also need to educate ourselves on the authenticity and fabricated hadith. I will touch on this issue "attacks on the authenticity of hadith" in the near future, insha'allah.

Personally I have never liked the ways of the current government (Malaysia) but sometimes we have to try and put aside our feelings and hold fast onto the rope (Islam, refer to Surah al Imran verse 103). Opposing (by protest and riots) in my opinion is not a productive solution. I may not have the slightest idea for the solution, but from what I understand the teachings of Islam, things should be done or implemented in the roots. "Verily Allah does not change a people's condition unless they change their inner selves." (Surah ar-ra'd verse 11)

Islam to suit our ways?

Bismillahirohmanirohim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate)

As I have mentioned in the previous entry about discussing in depth on the issue of naming and branding 'Islamic banks'.

In this era, we are always looking for Islam to suit our way of life. 'Islamic banking' is one of the perfect and popular example nowadays. Personally I do not have any objection on most of the legality transaction, but I could not see how Islamic banking contributes to Islam in general.

Is 'Islamic banking' contributing to the development of the Muslim society? No doubt that Islamic banking do provide a way to create Halal transactions but do they have any other impact to the Muslim community? In my opinion 'Islamic banking' should be named as 'Shari'ah banking' like in certain places. This will make more sense because shari'ah is a place where a Muslim seeks its legislation ruling. (I.e nikah, divorce, business & etc).

Islam on the other hand is a whole package. When one says 'Islamic banking', it cannot neglect any muslim, be it rich, poor, healthy, disabled and etc. This is not what 'Islamic banking' is at the moment. They only interact with those who are doing business transaction with them. In the Holy Qur'an, it mentions about rich, poor, those in authority, loyal followers, orphans and etc. Therefore 'Islamic banks' should not neglect any of them. However, we often see them contributing or providing to those who are capable and in transaction with them.

"O you who believe! Enter silm (Islam) perfectly and follow not the footsteps of shaytan. Verily he is to you a plain enemy." (Surah al Baqarah verse 208) The highlight of this ayah is "Enter silm(Islam) perfectly". This shows that Islam is not restricted to just one section (I.e business) but are wide open and involves a lot of things.

People may agree that they call themselves Islamic banks because they handle only banking transaction. So, what is a definition of a bank? Does it only restrict to a certain methods of transactions? Even the Financial Services Authority UK could not define a bank. This is because banking are always enhancing and new methods are being innovated so a banking transaction can never be restricted because if it was restricted, many banks will loose their license.

Coming back to 'Islamic banks', should their transaction be restricted to those who are their clients/customers? Again, what have they contribute to Islam as a whole? So the next time you step in those so called 'Islamic bank' ask them what have they contribute to Islam as a whole.

The whole point of my entry is not to go against the 'Islamic banks' but to expose how often we neglect on certain things to create a better Islam. One may say 'Islamic banks' are doing false advertising. Things that are false should have nothing to do with Islam because Islam is the truth. We as a Muslim community should help these Islamic banks to fulfil Islam whole fully and not partly.