Staying Focus… In the light of Divine Guidance

Worries on ummah. That was Prophet Muhammad’s s.a.w focus until the moment on his deathbed. Why was he relentlessly persistent thinking about his ummah? Are there any threats upon his ummah from others then? Who would threaten the Muslim? Why would they do that anyway? Ok wait… first things first, let’s see how they would do it?

“And those who disbelieved are allies of one another. If you do not do so, there will be slander (fitnah) on earth and great corruption”. (Al-Anfal : 73).

So… seemingly that is what obviously happen around us nowadays... isn't it???

As a Malaysian Muslim, our worries should include Malaysia being used as branding platform on Islam but towards the slant of secularism that discriminates religion from life. In retrospective of mighty colonial nations, they would boast that if it had not because of their effort colonizing other nations, the world today could’ve been much worse because it’s difficult for different nations to converse in one similar language. Thanks to French for their invasion over some Africans… but as far as Malay lands are concerned, let’s not forget other western invaders such as England, Portugal and Holland.

In relation to the afore mentioned Qur’anic verse and the world we’re currently occupying, it should be crystal clear to us now why the colonials were so eager to have a foot in many countries including ours. A historical example to point the relevance of disbelievers being allies of one another was the Anglo-Dutch treaty in early 19^th century whereby Malay lands in Archipelago were divided in a mutual understanding by two colonials; Englishmen and Dutchmen. By virtue of definition, this Dutch and English treaty; also known as “Treaty of London” is a coalition that fits the meaning of the said Qur’anic verse precisely.

Within their history books, the act of colonization must surely be written in the utmost privileged manner of heroism with claims such as the Treaty of London 1824 as a civilized necessary thing to do. Less or perhaps no highlight ought to be given to facts about their blood-sucking activities on grass root level committed during the interim of their occupation in this land? As simple as depicting Umar Mukhtar as a rebel in the film, “Lion of The Dessert”, where Anthony Quinn played the role as Umar; local heroes were labeled as rebellions according to historians in favor of colonials.

An intriguing disbelieve that I always asked myself silently during my schooling years, when my history teachers told stories according to Malaysian Education syllabus was, “were these colonials really came here because of herbs and spices?”. I mean seriously, was it really herbs that motivated Alfonso De Albuquerque to swing by Archipelago area and complete his conquest capturing Malacca in 16^th century?

Malays in this land were already mostly Muslims back then. Why was it necessary to build statue of a Christian preacher in the land of Malay Muslim when they occupied this land? Not to mention, why Christian preachers came here on board armored naval fleet during early stage of conquest? Those preachers came here for herbs and spices too? Really???

And yet whenever possible, the western indoctrination tyrants condemn Islamic conquests with barbaric ‘terrorist’ nicknames, even when it went through fairly fought battle such as the charismatic Sallehuddin AlAyubi’s conquest of Jerusalem on 2^nd October 1187. Meanwhile, Richard The Lion Heart's crusaders of their Christian missionary actions on armored conquest slipped free decently under blanket cover over goodwill of historians of western colonials…

Every now and then, American troopers at modern age invading Muslim countries were gloriously depicted as saviors of human rights although along the way, thousands of innocent human lives turned casualties of their self-proclaimed holy "war on terror". Just observe most of Hollywood movies and TV productions on terrorism and we'll find it so easy to see Muslim names being acted as the villain of terror. I have to say that generic profiling really sounds ridiculously unfair.

It’s not entirely fair to only criticize western colonials when the Japs have also occupied this land. Yes, I agree. Although those Japanese didn’t come here to preach Shinto, they were also a menace. 'Thanks' to western democratic promoters, Communism shun away from this land although at the time its spread of domino theory was in motion in China and Indo-China moving towards this area. To a certain degree of stupidity, we uphold democracy as if it is totally Divine and Godly. Those westerners who promoted democracy to this land before were actually weasels filled with ulterior motives.

After the Treaty of London was signed, the Dutch faced Indonesians’ retaliation in their colony while Malay movement on independence against British occupation was also gaining momentum. To them during that time, it’s going to be more difficult for the colonials to sustain their plan to continue robbing the wealth of this land if people succumb to socialism or communism instead of their preferred capitalism. Hence the tagline, “there are things money can buy. The rest, there’s monstercard”, sounds delightful.

Then history recorded British as the deserving party to be thankful by people of Malaya when they granted this Malay land freedom and independence… well, at least that’s what they wanted people here to believe in such history of their version. After all, it was not too difficult at that time to find countrymen who would bend down to lead the nation’s ultimate aspiration for independence at the expense of trade up with British indirect involvement.

Situations after independence were unlike during colonialization when the Brits were in power but more or less, it was like they still rule but only in the mentality of successive government officials. Those were all in the past. Even Richard Olaf Winstedt’s history books about Malays have underwent several minor factual changes in respect of Malays requests who wanted to correct history. The time when Abdullah Munshi translated the bible into Malay language for the bestowed title, “Father of Malay Literature”, has also long passed.

Welcome to the age of information where everybody is supposed to have unlimited access to truth… and lies. Kindly make yourself comfortable with all the pretty awesome and cool stuffs served in it. So sit back, relax, and please enjoy the ride through wrong or right as you’ll find everyone can write as they might… with, without, for or against the Light.

Generally Muslims have walked through many experiences of rise and fall in the course of world history. Narrowing down to Malays in Malaysia, we’ve been through quite a lot for the last 500 plus years. Throughout those experiences, it’s only rational that we should be able to agree and disagree upon fundamentals especially related to Islam. Apart from our own incremental experiences, Muslims aren’t supposed to stop learning as outlined by our religion. Hence it is supposedly logical that Malay Muslims ought to master Islam as their religion because the mix of acquired knowledge and experiences should have helped us to think wiser.

Since the downfall of Islamic Sultanate in this land, we can assume that Islam has never been given a second chance to rule. Independence in 1957 marked an important milestone in history of Malaya. People’s choice of majority known as democracy is the order of power. Let’s just glance and think a bit deeper about this as a Muslim. Who robbed the Sultanate power here? Who occupied this land and raped the wealth including our valuable minerals in our soil? Who then surrender the power to the people they selected to represent power of the real people?

Whose terms and conditions are we following to run this nation in democratic capitalism or secularism? Who never stops trying to set the agenda of this nation then and occasionally now? So are we supposed to thank them? We’ve passed the age when they can take our rights without bothering to ask. Now when we have the rights to ask valid questions about our own rights, are we going to remain silent and let the people entrusted to take care of our rights, make do with their personal greed while we look on without bothering to ask?

Are those on our current political throne handling this nation not aware of such questions? We are proud that this nation is now governed by people of our own, but are we going to remain proud if people in the governance actually continue the agendas of British secular arrogance with refined version of divide and rule policy? Many times we couldn’t see because we’re not looking in the right direction. When the times come that we can see, are we going to turn our heads again and pretend that we see no evil, hear no evil?

Is it always practical to choose between two evils or more? We have lost Muslim empires and governments due to corruptions that resulted from losing focus to follow Divine Guidance. People say, those who write history, write the future. So when are we going to write our history with the right Muslim focus? Ask any motivational speaker about when is the right time to change for the better. I bet you’ll find out the only answer is NOW!

Confucius said, “Journey to a thousand miles begins with the first step”. Soren Kiekergard said, “Life can be understood backwards but it must be lived forward”. On top of these philosophers’ known for their words of wisdom, Muslims are lucky as we have AlQur’an and Sunnah to guide our life directions as well as to justify our actions in this world. We have to start focusing in the right manner and direction. At this instance of being real Muslims, it’s not really an option. We either follow ALLAH’s given Guidance or we’ll dwell in human greed, ignorance and arrogance. That’s just too obvious for a worthy focal option, isn’t it?

By: Towil