Lately mainstream media are
awash with the campaign for Malaysians to be moderate. Led mostly by English-based
media, last week the campaign received what they described as ‘a huge boost’
via a letter of support signed by so-called '25 eminent Malays' largely
consists of former high-ranking civil servants and diplomats.
Within that letter on top of
demanding a public debate on Syariah law vis-à-vis Federal Constitution, they also
aired their anxieties on the rising 'bigotry' and 'extremism' which in
English-based media tend to associate and blame Malay and Islamic-based groups,
such as UMNO, PAS, PERKASA and ISMA.
In the eyes of many
self-professed 'Moderate Muslims' who proudly claim to uphold 'liberal' and
'democratic' values, such Malay and Islamic groups are regarded by them to be
‘right-wingers’ – an euphemism for extremists.
"Moderate, Liberal,
Democratic, Bigot, Extremist," - these are all loaded terms that need to be
unpacked with proper intellectual tools in order to adjudicate their claims
justly.
To what extent the claims made
by these eminent Malays valid; firstly, by professing themselves to be 'moderate
Muslims' and secondly, their views on extremism which they contrasted
themselves against?
Since the central focus here
is about the religion of Islam, it is best for us to examine the sources from
within Islam itself notably the Holy Qur'an and Prophetic tradition (hadith) to understand how Islam views
moderation contra extremism.
Extremism as defined by
Prophet Muhammad
Much has been spoken about the
meaning of Wasatiyyah, an Arabo-Islamic technical term which
often insufficiently rendered into English as 'moderation’.
Moderation as understood in
English fails to do justice to the word Wasatiyyah
which generally means "avoiding the excesses" in the English
worldview.
Wasatiyyah is not only moderation but primarily it means 'to be just'. The
proper definition of Wasatiyyah would
be: “the middle point between the two extremities of excesses as well as deficiencies
which reflects justice and wisdom based on the conditions stipulated in the
Holy Qur'an and Prophetic traditions (hadith)” where justice is defined
in Islam as "to put things in its proper places".
Often than not, uninformed
public regard extremism to be an act that went beyond the limit of an
established norm of the majority or religious and moral truth. But this
understanding is incomplete in Islamic viewpoint as it only explained the first
half of extremism spectrum in Islam, which is the 'excesses' (tafrit/ghuluw).
The often missing and forgotten dimension in today’s discourse on the spectrum
of extremism in Islam is the part on 'deficiency' (ifrat/naqis).
Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) had stated very clearly in one of his hadith the kinds of extremism that will appear within Muslim
communities:
"This Knowledge (i.e.
Syariah) will be transmitted from every just successor (i.e. scholars of Islam)
who will negate the distortions of the deviated, the plagiarism of the people
on falsehood and the false interpretations of the ignoramuses”
Scholars of Islam – those who mastered
the sources of Islam – have not limit the meaning of extremism to those whom
Prophet stated above solely referring to the extremist Muslim militant groups
like ISIS, Taliban and suicide bombers.
On the other hand Muslim who
placed rationality above and beyond
the limit stipulated by the scripture, or regards 'man as measure of all things' are deemed to be part of this
‘deficient’ extremist group within the fold of Islam.
The former has gained
international fame due to their violent nature and anti-modern. Islam for them
must be understood in rigid, literal and ossified manner. Muslim scholars have
no qualm to label them as extremists on the ground of their excesses in
fulfilling what they claimed to be God's command which in actual fact they
distorted the commands with their own whims and desires.
But the latter form of Muslim
extremism is not so easily distinguishable from the normal Muslims and rarely being
scrutinized by the mainstream media because the values and principles they
uphold are pretty much in tandem with the spirit of this era where secularism
and liberal democratic values are regarded to be the apex of modern
civilizations, bequeathed by Western colonial masters that once ruled the Muslim
polities.
Call a spade, a spade
The mistake made by this group
of ‘Moderate Muslim’ is that their proposal, either intentionally and
unintentionally – will alter and retrofit Islam according to the mould of
Western modernity; not the other way round as how it usually transpired in the
history of Islamic civilizations.
In the past, Muslims appropriated
the best values and cultures from other non-Islamic civilizations like Greek
and Persian into the fold of Islam
without harming its conceptual integrity and cardinal principles.
By adopting everything from
the West in toto and uncritical manner, it reflects an extremism of a deficiency-kind because such thinking will
definitely dilute the cores of Islam that are already and firmly established
within Muslim communities.
It is impossible for Islam to
undergo changes or reform just for the sake to be accepted within the fold of
modern contemporary zeitgeist like how Christianity has evolved in the West.
The letter penned by the
‘Moderate Muslims’ suggested that Syariah (Islamic life-system) must be
scrutinized based on the principles of liberal democracy by further subsuming
it under the common law that many Muslims scholars totally disagreed as Syariah
must be sovereign as it claims to reflect divine justice, far exalted than
man-made positive law.
Such letter drew many
criticisms from many Muslim scholars and religious authorities as they regarded
the content of the letter that embodies a reformation spirit that has gone off
tangent. Instead of strengthening and upholding Syariah, the letter is replete
with unsubstantiated claims, laced with skepticism, and prejudice on the status
of Syariah law in Malaysia.
In actual truth, this whole
discourse of being moderate is very much skewed and champion by marginal, urban
Malay figures and personalities who derived their supports from the urban
constituencies and ill-informed non-Muslims. They generally cherished Western
culture and values and have lost touch with their own intellectual Islamic
tradition.
This is a common tragedy in
Muslim world today. The failure of the excessive, rigid and ossified Muslims in
negotiating their way through the current of modernity is no better than
Muslims who are so liberal, and deficient in their understandings of Islam.
Both have compromised the
conceptual integrities of Islam and experienced confusion and error in knowledge.
They both misunderstood and reduced Islam merely as a collection of injunctions
and law that is devoid of moral, intellectual and spiritual cores.
Learned Muslims who understand
the centrality and primacy of Syariah know very well such debate and discussions
are not meant for laity. As stated in the Holy Qur'an, "only those who are
deeply rooted in knowledge (i.e. Syariah)" are able to deal with the
intricacies of the subject at hand and they are the Muslim scholars,
specifically the Islamic legal philosophers and thinkers (fuqaha').
It is not the proposition of
the letter that has invited great suspicions from Malay and Muslims at larger
rather the brazen and callous manner it was argued against Syariah that many
perceived them to be a clandestine extremism of liberal and deficient kind
hidden within the moderation garb.
Make no mistake on the
seriousness of Muslims at large in demanding Syariah to be reinstated back to the center of the political system in
Muslim-majority countries. In 2013 Pew Research Center survey found out 86% of
Muslims in Malaysia favoured in making Syariah as the country’s official law,
no longer restricted to family and marital matters.
This undying request still
echoes the spirit that was vividly captured by a British educationist, R.J
Wilkinson during the colonial period: “There can be no doubt the Muslim Law
would have ended by becoming the law of Malaya had not British law stepped in
to check it.”
Muslims at large must know
that such deficiency is a form of religious liberalism that is condemned in
Islam. Like it distant opposite of excesses, it too fails to strike the sweet
spot of justice as demanded by the word Wasatiyyah.
The author is a Fellow at Putra Business School, Malaysia.
(this article was published by The Malaysian Reserve, 22nd December 2014)
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