God

I have not given myself some time to mull over the current issue of the Court’s approval of a Catholic publication of using the word of Allah.

Two groups, the Christian and the Moslem have been fighting over on what is right and what is not.

The Moslem felt that their possession and their sole right of the word of Allah is being taken away.

The Christian felt that using the word Allah is just taking a word means God in Arabic to the English language.

Then the Moslem felt that if you want to take the word in Arabic, why Allah, why could you take ar-Rabb which means God? That the God has a name in Islam and the name is Allah. That the Moslems never take the world Jesus as the God’s name because Jesus is simply the name of a Prophet.

Some says it is a political agenda, that some big guns wants to be seen as the martyr of Islamic society in order to win more of Malay’s vote in the coming public election.

Some ponders on why a non Moslem was chosen to judge the proceeding.

Many compares the situation over the Peninsular of Malaysia and the Indonesia and East Malaysia’s Christian teaching where the word of Allah has been used in replacement of God.

Let me type over the implications of the new ruling. You may see these sentences in the Christian publications:
As Jesus as my Allah, …
As Allah exist in the Holy spirit, ….

Those two sentences as above are enough to stir the Malay particularly and the Moslem at large.

And you may see these sentences in the Moslem publications:
The Jesus a.s. was born in Nazareth and had promised that the final prophet i.e. Muhammad p.b.u.h shall be born later.

The sentence as above is not going to stir the Christian since they believe that Jesus is actually the God and they denied the existence and prophecy of Muhammad p.b.u.h.

One ethnic group is stirred and another one is not.

Question is, why is the Moslem stirred?

As a child born in a Moslem society, I was raised to think that Green is my color, Half Moon is my symbol. Therefore when the bad monster or alien is colored in green in any of the cartoon, I was given the impression that the colorist is trying to make the people think bad of the Green consequently to think bad of Islam. In some cases, I heard, the rural areas kids were forbidden to speak English because their parents thought that proficiency in English shall ensure the kids to read the Bible and hence, could get themselves converted easily.

There was I, a Moslem child, heavily protected.

I was taught how to pray 5 times a day, how to fast and read the Quran using the Arabic language. But nobody spoke of me about the syahadah and what it means. I recited the 3-Quls before I went to bed but wasn’t explained about what it meant by the God has no mother, has no son. Explanation was never given to me.

Because explanation will rouse curiosity and for a 7-year old, the curiosity is thought to endangering her belief.

Just when I had my first roommate who is Christian, then I understand that why the Quran repeatedly explained about the onenesss of Allah, that God has no Mother nor Son, he was not born from someone and neither gave birth to someone. You see, I understand a lot more about my God, my Quran and my own religion from other people’s religion’s point of view.

From her copy of Bible, I then understood the concept of Trinity. Really, when I was small, I tough the trinity concept is the statue by the Hindu of one man and three heads. I never thought it is a fraction of my own Religion’s history.

So why wasn’t I briefed about the concept of Christianity since I was small eventhough it was clearly repeated in the Quran? Why was I forbidden from asking question about what are the differences of Nasara and the Jewish? Was it because people don’t have enough explanation? Was it because the topic was a taboo to me? If it has no explanation and if it indeed is a taboo, why was it mentioned in the Quran?

Was I too small to understand?

Why my brain capacity and faith was was underestimated?

Back to topic that stir the nation. I don’t want to write about what is wrong and what is not. You place these two ethnics in the different country, the different outcome will arise. But I do know what is wrong. Wrong is when I heavily protect my kids from all the taboo. By not educating them about the differences of all the other faiths, I expose them to the possibility of their aqidah (faith) to the oneness of God being shaken. They must start young. They must learn about their God from their Book i.e the Holy Quran, not from someone else’s. They must not be confused of who is God and what is the name of their God.

Wrong is when I refuse to answer all their questions and instead, turn away and said, ‘Tak baik Tanya soalan macam tu’ (it’s not nice for you to question that issue).

I will not protect my kids. Their defence system gotta be built from young. They have to be exposed of the existence of other gods in the world, the existence of other faith, other beliefs. From then on, if I die, and if they are forced to live in an environment where there’s nobody to protect them, they can stand on their own and tell them repeatedly, ‘There’s no God but Allah, and he is the only God, and he is neither Mothered nor Mothering, and Muhammad is the Messenger’.

In this country where the politicians play their games out publicly, the kids' defence system is the only way out.