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Speech of Dr.
Mahathir
bin Mohammad
(Ex-Prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to
2003)
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 Shi’a-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 Shi’as there are further divisions. The Sunnis have
four imams and the Shi’as have 12; their teachings all differ (note : teachings
of 12 Shia Imams are same). 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
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