Persoalan

Perkara yang aku telah lama bermain dalam kepala aku. Mungkin juga boleh dikatakan cerita lapuk, tapi isu ini adalah sangat 'real' dan mungkin juga akan berlaku lagi di masa hadapan.

Kali pertama aku dapat tahu tentang hal ini, aku rasa terkejut dan leceh. Teringat akan kata-kata Thomas Jefferson yang aku pernah baca dahulu.

"Religion -religion of any kind- in the hands of power can be the worst kind of tyranny"



Agama, jenis apa sekalipun, apabila di dalam tangan yang berkuasa mampu menjadi sangat kejam. Macam itu lah lebih kurang maksudnya dalam bahasa Melayu.

Apa pendapat kamu? Setuju atau tidak?

Perbandingan II

Bagi aku, kuat agama dan baik itu tidak sinonim langsung. Walaupun selalunya tanggapan orang umum adalah sebaliknya.

Kuat agama tidak menjamin yang seseorang itu baik (baik hati, baik pemikiran, baik kelakuan dll) dan begitu juga tidak kuat agama tidak bermakna seseorang itu kurang baik atau jahat.

Tapi tidak pula aku nafikan yang agama itu tujuan utamanya adalah untuk menerap nilai-nilai baik ke dalam manusia. Tapi sedikit malang aku rasa kerana agama itu memandang dunia ini dengan kaca mata absolut (religion deals in absolutes) - Itu baik, ini jahat, itu dosa, ini pahala, itu syurga, ini neraka. Macam digital 0101010101

Lebih malang lagi apabila agama itu mengajar bahawa hanya pengamalnya sahaja yang 'absolutely' betul dan orang lain semua 'absolutely' salah.

Sebab itu aku tersenyum apabila membaca petikan kata-kata Kahlil Gibran:

- Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth' -

Besar impaknya kata kata si Kahlil Gibran itu.

Kerana apabila sekumpulan orang yakin sepenuhnya dengan 'I have found THE truth' sehingga ke tahap di mana mereka berani pula mengatakan 'persetankan orang lain kerana mereka salah!' maka dari pandangan aku, komuniti dimana orang-orang ini berada akan terancam.

Aku tahu orang-orang begini wujud di kalangan kita. Cuma jangan sampai orang-orang begini yang menentukan halatuju negara dan masyarakat kita. Kalau tidak, mungkin perkara bodoh seperti yang berlaku di Pakistan hari ini akan berlaku juga di sini.

Percaya atau tidak, apabila aku terbaca surat khabar hari ini yang Benazir Bhutto mati ditembak dan beberapa puluh lagi mati akibat pengebom berani mati, aku tidak terkejut.

Memang sudah aku jangka hal itu akan berlaku.

Kisah Pengharaman 'Cap' di Masjid Pekan

Background Info:
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Malaysia ini negara yang panas, kalau bukan musim hujan dan tiada awan mendung maka memang panaslah. Kadang kadang aku bertanya kepada diri sendiri apabila berjalan di luar kawasan terbuka "aku di Malaysia ke Afrika?".

Padanlah dengan pancaran matahari yang menyengat kulit, aku selalu juga mengenakan topi (cap) apabila keluar. Bahkan ada masanya apabila diajak-ajak pergi sembahyang jumaat oleh rakan-rakan (ya aku perlu diajak, kalau tidak mungkin aku akan tidur atau buat hal lain - dan aku juga ingin mengambil kesempatan ini untuk mengucapkan terima kasih kepada rakan-rakanku yang penyabar, memahami dan menghormati), sebelum melangkah keluar, refleks semula jadi tangan aku akan pantas meragut 'cap' dan meletakkannya di atas kepala aku.

Bila tiba di masjid, 'cap' itu slalunya aku biarkan di atas kepala dan apabila tiba masa imam mula sembahyang aku hanya memusingkannya ke belakang (visor di belakang), jadi kalau dilihat dari depan, tiadalah bezanya dengan songkok atau kopiah yang dipakai kebanyakan orang lain.


The Issue:
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Pada suatu hari cuti aku pulang ke kampung halaman, kampung halaman aku ini bukanlah kampung sangat, lebih menyerupai sebuah pekan kecil. Maka apabila tiba hari jumaat, seperti biasa tangan aku pantas menyambar 'cap' dan aku meluru keluar bersama ayah dan adik-adik lelaki aku (kalau di rumah aku kurang malas untuk sembahyang jumaat, kerana aktiviti apa pun apabila dilakukan bersama ahli keluarga terasa lebih bermakna - secara automatik menjadi aktiviti sosial yang berfaedah dan worth it).

Apabila sampai di masjid, seorang lelaki menegur aku "Abang, tak boleh pakai 'cap' dalam masjid, haram". Eh, haram? "Abah ko yang haramkan ke?" aku mahu tanya, tapi tak terkeluar dari mulut, aku tahan.

Aku datang untuk duduk, dengar pembaca khutbah bercerita (tak best pun, baca dari teks sahaja - masalah yang timbul dalam komuniti tidak di address pun...ceh - tidak seperti di gereja -mungkin di ulas pada entri lain) bukan untuk berdebat atau bertekak. Ok abang, lu memang pandai, aku buka 'cap' aku dan senyum pada dia. Dia tersengih dan mengesot balik ke tempat asalnya. Seronok kot.


The Reason:
------------

Setelah beberapa lama kejadian tersebut berlaku, ketika aku sedang membaca, aku terjumpa dari mana datangnya pengharaman 'cap' oleh abang di masjid pekan kecil tempoh hari.

Kebetulan semata-mata. Buku yang aku baca ini tajuknya "What Went Wrong? - The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" tulisan Bernard Lewis.

Di sini aku akan berikan beberapa bahagian (clippings) yang akhirnya membawa kepada kisah 'cap' aku:
_________________________________________________

"Between 1768 and 1774 the Ottomans suffered a series of defeats at the hand of the Russians...the Sultan was now compelled to reorganize the "independence" of the khans (gavernors) of Crimea (kawasan yang hendak direbut Rusia). As it soon became clear, this was a preleminary to the annexation of the Crimea by Russia, in 1783"

Setelah kejadian ini, hal ini pula berlaku:

"Clearly, new measures were needed to meet these new threats, and some of them violated accepted Islamic norms. The leaders of the ulema, the doctors of the Holy Laws, were therefore asked, and agreed, to authorize two basic changes. The first was to accept infidel teachers and give them Muslim pupils, the second was to accept infidel allies in their wars against other infidels"

Apabila bibit-bibit perubahan mula bergerak:

"From the military, the clothing reforms spread to the civil service, and bureaucrats were now attired in frock coats and trousers. Only the headgear-the fez, the turban, the kefiya-remained. To symbolize their difference from the west"

Ya, jawapannya/reasoning-nya ada disini:

"For a long time, Middle Eastern soldiers wore European uniforms with Muslim headgear, eschewing Wester-style hats and caps with brims and peaks that obstructed Muslim worship and were thus seen as the symbol of the infidel"
________________________________________________

Rupanya pengharaman yang dilaksanakan abang tersengih di masjid pekan kecil adalah sebenarnya pembawaan dari budaya dan polisi pemakaian uniform ketenteraan askar kerajaan Turki Uthmaniyah pada zaman dulukala. Tiada kaitan dengan apa apa hukum hakam atau perundangan (rasanya lah - takkan benda kecil seperti 'cap' itu pun hendak diharamkan, kolot betul) Mungkin ada tok guru yang yang mengajar abah dia dan seterus abah dia pula mengajar dia.

Jadi kesimpulannya, betul jugaklah agaknya kalau aku bertanya kembali "Abah ko yang haramkan ke?"

Religion - Cont.

Looking at religion objectively, I came up with a conclusion. A religion is composed of four different components with some elements from one component overlapping with elements from another.

Here, once again, I shall lay down my opinion.

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The four components are:

1)Morality
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This is probably how it all began. The basic rules that any community on this planet needs. Within the first component, there are rules agreed upon by nearly everyone, things that we agree not to do unto others so that others may not do unto us.

-Thou shall not kill
-Thou shall not steal
-Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife
-Thou shall not ____ (insert something that you don't want to happen to you)

So, whenever people talk about how religions all preach the same thing, well the same elements are usually within this first component only.


2)Cultural Values/Pseudo Morality
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Morality has to be protected, everyone should abide by the basic rules or else this world will be in chaos. However, for nearly all communities, morality is also intertwined with cultural values. So moral values that are vague -meaning, they're only right within a certain cultural sphere- belong in the second component. I'll give you this simple example to illustrate my point:

Kissing in public, is this morally wrong?

- It is NOT WRONG in France, the French would think "ah ze couple ar showing zeir luuv and passiooun fur one anozher, how romantik!"

- It is WRONG in Malaysia, Malaysians would think "aiya, tak malu punya orang, talak maruah betul, ini macam pun boleh ka?" or "Masyaallah! Inilah kemungkaran yang nyata, argh I want Islamic State!!"

So naturally, in any cultural group, the members seek to retain their values, to retain what is morally right to them. This is why when a religion is exported, it has to be exported along with its background cultural elements, and this is also why pious Malays who abide by Islam tend to look like Arabs; The man would be complete with long flowing beard, jubah, serban etc and the lady would be covered from head to toe.

3)Preservation
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In a religion, once the first two components above have been established, there exists an immediate need to preserve them. Without preservation, the components won't last and chaos would ensue, we don't want that -do we?

Hence, the third component makes its entrance right about here and it fulfills the need of preserving 1) and 2).

This is a list of some of the Preservatives that I can recall at the moment:

a)Inspectors
......................
-God
-Gods/Goddesses
-Deva/Devi

b)Rewards/Punishments
.........................................
-Karma
-Hell
-Heaven


4)The Unknown
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We are scared of the unknown, our mind will naturally question things like, what will happen to me after death, why am I here, will I see my beloved ones when I'm gone, are there really ghosts, are we alone in this universe, what is there at the beginning, why why why what what what who who who etc

The fourth component is the answer, here you will find the answers and your mind and heart will be at ease. It is within this component that we are told/taught things like:

-it all began ______(insert an origin)
-after death, we will all be somewhere nicer.
-sure we'll see each other again.
-argh that bastard! It's allright, he might get away with it here but he'll suffer in the afterworld.
-there is no true death, after this life stops, we'll be reborn.
-etc

Does 4) contain truth? No one can tell, here faith is all that matters.

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I believe now, as I've believed long ago, that the most important component is the first one and
it is imperative that we all must concentrate on it.
And I must say also that it is sad and heartbreaking to know that people are fighting and killing one another -completely ignoring component 1- just to prove that their component 2, 3, and 4 are right.

I've laid down my opinion, clearly I hope, and now you...
what do you think?

Religion

That's one intimidating title, agree?

Before I proceed further, let me just say that what I'm doing here is just dangling out my opinion in the open, so that you may look, examine, see and hear it for yourself. This is never about right or wrong, this is my opinion. Please do not feel offended if my views seem to collide with yours, let us simply choose to agree to disagree but I hope we'll never get to that.

Ok, so..I was introduced to religion right after birth (if you're a Malay person, then most probably your dad made an azan/prayer call right next to your ears right after birth). Growing up I was enchanted by stories of prophets and their amazing adventures, thrilled by their struggle against tyranny, and gasped at the wrath of God unleashed upon evil men.

Therefore, as a kid, after being fed these stories, I had this romantic idea in my head. Simply put, what I had in mind was this - You do what God says you should do and everything will be allright, this world will become a nice place, evil will be gone, lambs will walk side by side wolves and all carnivores will become herbivores.

Ah, the entire world seemed so simple at that time. But guess what? It was just a phase - a phase that I went through as a kid. By the time I was a teenager, I became disenchanted, I became more logical in my approach to nearly everything, and around this time... I have grown out of the romantic phase.

Carnivores simply cannot become herbivores. It just doesn't work like that (but the DESCENDANTS of carnivores though, after thousands and thousands of years of adaptation may possibly become herbivores).

....may be continued....