Friday sermons (khutbah Jumaat) in Malaysia are generally boring and bone-dry, about topics that put most people to sleep. But today's khutbah was different. I went to Masjid Kampung Melayu Ampang near my house for Friday prayer and the khutbah, I thought, was fascinating in a wishful thinking sort of way. It was a full-fledged political khutbah and the imam is a very well-known strong supporter of PAS, the opposition Islamic party. He talked about non-Muslim politicians quoting verses from the al-Qur'an, which happened quite a few times in recent months during the by-elections. He said there was nothing wrong in that; in fact, he fully supported it.
But the twist was that he guaranteed that these non-Muslim politicians - Nga Kor Ming, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, etc - will embrace the Islamic faith by the year 2015. Why 2015, I don't know. The imam was so confident that 2015 will be the momentous year when throngs (his word was "berbondong-bondong") of non-Muslim Malaysians will become Muslims. That's a very bold prediction to make especially when there's hardly any logical basis to support it. Just because a few non-Muslim opposition politicians recite some verses from the holy Qur'an it doesn't necessarily mean that majority of non-Muslim Malaysians will be flocking to the faith any time soon. It's just that they're adapting themselves to the nature of political discourse in Malaysia, in which Islam plays an integral role. What better way to endear themselves to Malay voters than to speak in a way that touches the Malay people where it matters the most: their faith and belief.
But the main point of today's khutbah was about "dakwah" and how we, as Muslims, have the responsibility to bring the non-Muslims onto the right path (siratul mustakim), which is fine and dandy except that I don't agree with him that we need to bombard our non-Muslim friends with Islamic books, CDs and DVDs or forward them Islamic emails. I believe in dakwah through example, that is by how we Muslims behave and carry ourselves in public. I don't believe in aggressive dakwah advocated by the imam and I believe that people should be allowed to make their spiritual decision freely without any strong and explicit pressure.
I also take issue with the imam's ultimate objective in wanting to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state by the year 2020, and the mass conversion of non-Muslims to Islam is just a means to that very end. First of all, Malaysia can never be an Islamic state because it's a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, pure and simple. We are not Saudi Arabia or Iran. Secondly, what kind of Islamic state, if it ever comes to it, we plan on implementing in Malaysia? For me the system we have right now is good enough except with some modifications such as re-affirming the supremacy of civil law and reducing the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts by amending the Article 121 (1a) in the Malaysian constitution.
Finally, what really cracks me up to the point of making me "senyum tersipu-sipu" was when the imam boldly announced to everybody that in 2020, in lieu of him, don't be surprise to see Lim Kit Siang or his son Lim Guan Eng standing up on the mimbar (dais) giving the Friday khutbah. Yep, that will be the day! I seriously doubt it'll happen but then who knows... In all it was an exciting khutbah today and I didn't even sleep, which says a lot about the khutbah. It was a good entertainment for sure...
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