Faith is not a bottle of vodka martini

Najib's Islamic faith can neither be shaken nor stirred.

COMMENT

Faith is a belief system that comes from within. It is not something that can be, to paraphrase Britain’s fictitious spy, James Bond’s famous line, “shaken not stirred”.

In short, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s faith in Islam is not a bottle of vodka martini.

Yes I am writing this in response to Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria’s remarks over Najib’s visit to Batu Caves in conjunction with Thaipusam.

An online media report quoted Harussani as saying: “Najib’s visit is blasphemous. I have been telling this to him for years.”

It also quoted Harussani as saying that Najib “sacrificed his faith” and that it was an “idolatrous act” on Najib’s part when he attended the Thapusam festival on Tuesday.

Najib has been visiting Batu Caves for the past three years.

How can Najib’s Islamic faith be shaken and stirred when his motive of being there is purely political, not religious?

He was there to announce about the funds for the temple and additional Tamil schools, hence Harussani’s contention that Najib joined Thaipusam celebration does not hold water.

From a political perspective, one can decipher Najib’s “nambikei” (trust) speech as a bait for election.

At the end of the day, Najib & Co must obtain the people’s trust to form the next government at the 13th general election.

Harussani does not need to do so since his appointment as mufti, by convention, is done by the sultan.

It is also vital for Najib to be present in Batu Caves, Selangor, since 52% of the voters in Selangor are non-Malays.

My second point would look at the issue from the Islamic perspective.

Islam is a religion of reason
The Islamic civilisation had world reknowned scholars such as Avicenna because arguments are based on facts and Muslim scholars then were able to reason.

Unfortunately, Harussani has not given any reasoning in lashing out at Najib.

Based on the news report, Harussani also did not present his argument by using the four sources of Islamic as his basis for argument. The four are Al- Quran, As-Sunnah, Ijma and Qiyas.

The Sunnah are actions and quotations of Prophet Muhammad that is recorded in the Hadith.

Ijma is the general consensus among Muslim jurists (ulama) on a particular issue whereas qiyas refers to process of legal deduction where jurists are allowed to argue by using the Quran and Sunnah.

As a mufti which is equivalent to the top most religious official, Harussani’s statement is detrimental to Malaysian Muslims as it gives the impression that the faith of the Muslims can be shaken and stirred.

It also serves to belittle Islam to the Western world that has not wholly come out of Islamophobia since the 9/11 incident in 2011 where Muslim terrorists crashed two airlines onto the World Trade Center in America.