Welcome

Assalamualaikum Spiders
Welcome to our new virtual squash court. Here, insha'allah, we will continue the kind of discussions we have had recently eversince Zahari's watershed post on our email group. To begin with, I'd like to address Zahari's last post.

Dear Prof Zaharij
We started discussing this topic (1Islam) after Latip suggested it as an alternative to your suggestion that you might join the 1Bumi/1Melayu movement(?). After his second posting, it became clear that Latip's idea of 1Islam is for us all to support PAS which created a very thick line dividing us with violent and vehement support on both sides. A few people like Rashid Dimin and Doc Halim threw in sobering postings to try to cool down the situation. Others, like Prof Jamaluddin and Razak suggested that we bring in an outside authority to teach us "True Islam". (Sorry if I translate/interprete you wrong, guys). Amidst it all, Pak Ya posted an extract from a book titled Ethics of Disagreement in Islam, which he dilligently typed, but unfortunately largely fell on deaf ears (or should I say blind eyes?). On my part, I tried to argue agaist Latip's position rationally suggesting instead an apolitical/intellectual approach grounded on the Quran and examples of the Prophet s.a.w., towards solving our quagmire. To further support my position, I posted a link to a book titled "Crisis in the Muslim Mind", which you immediately reject because you consider it "Wahabbi" and/or "too complex". 

I guess that brings us up to speed, unless anybody else wants to add anything.

Zahari, you say it's Wahhabi, I say it's not but even if it is, does it matter? Ideas and opinions should not be rejected simply because of labels. What's wrong with Wahhabism? Don't they also believe in the One God and the Prophet s.a.w.? Don't they also uphold the Quran and Sunnah? Maybe somebody else can help me here. I don't know much about so-called Wahhabism and why we should fear it. When we go to Makkah, we pray behind a Wahhabi Imam, don't we?

Pening? I am guessing that what you mean is that you prefer to keep things simple: pray, perform haj, fast in ramadhan and pay zakat. Actually, I envy your position because, I read/heard somewhere that the Prophet s.a.w. once said, "Most people of paradise are simple-minded." However, the simple-mindedness that leads to paradise also demands simple-mindedness in the affairs of the world. The fact that you brought up the 1Bumi/1Melayu issue to our attention does not suggest this. You are concerned and do think about the future our children and the Ummah in this country. Besides, we often claim we have the best brains among 54/55/56 year olds in this country. Don't we have a duty to use them?  

The book Crisis in the Muslim Mind actually addresses problems with the Ummah, the very problem we have clearly demonstrated in our exchanges on this subject. Humour me. Just read the Foreword that I am copying below and tell me what you think.

P.S. to everyone - these exchanges are not meant to pit one's ego against another or show who is cleverer than who. We are trying to pursue the truth. In order for a discourse like this to be productive, we need to learn to address the messages, not the messenger.

Peace to all.

Kab 

CRISIS IN THE MUSLIM MIND
FOREWORD

There is general agreement that the Ummah is passing through an extremely difficult stage, one of disintegration and schism, loss of identity, failure of institutions, and inability to extract itself from its present state of bewilderment.

There is also general agreement that change is needed. In particular, the Ummah became acutely aware of its problems following its early encounters with Western civilization in Egypt and Turkey. In the two centuries that have passed since then, the Ummah has suffered through periods of dictatorship and submission to foreign experiments with its political and administrative systems, its culture and business, ethical and social makeup, and science and art. None of this, however, has yielded the kinds of results that the Ummah wanted or hoped for. Instead, the Ummah found itself caught up in a vicious circle.

What this means is that the leadership of the Ummah has been unable to determine the proper approach for bringing about the change needed to lead it toward its true objectives, After pondering the matter at length, looking at it from different perspectives, and considering objectively the attempts of the Ummah in the past to extract itself, we are convinced that the process of change must begin in the thought of the Ummah. This is because thought naturally precedes deeds, whether they prove to be correct or faulty.

Only sound thinking will result in sound reconstruction, and only sound thinking will deliver the Ummah from the crisis which threatens to strangle the life from it.
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Serious and mature Muslim intellectuals and leaders must commit themselves to the one path that is truly open to them, regardless of how difficult it might at first appear to be. They must make certain that the solution they seek originates in their religion, their homeland, and their history, and that they use it to steadfastly confront the challenges of the present. if this is not done, the bitter failures suffered by the Islamic world over the past several centuries will pale in comparison with the new problems that it will have to face.

Of course, Muslim leaders and intellectuals, with all their different leanings and preferences, as well as the entire Muslim Ummah can continue to dream of salvation, progress, honor, or power. However, if they do not change their present ways, means, and methods of thinking, in the end they can only expect that their lot will be a harvest even more bitter than those they have experienced in the past. The Ummah's intellectual and social leadership must search for an authentic Islamic alternative solution, strive to discern its elements from deep within the thought, culture, practices and institutions of the Ummah, and then relate it to the actual circumstances of its people.