NEWS FROM WORLD: Hari Pahlawan, Quran & Bible

By Syed Akbar Ali

First a news report (truncated) about today's Hari Pahlawan

Malaysia sambut Hari Pahlawan ikut fatwa Sabtu ini

Oleh Adib Zalkapli

KUALA LUMPUR, 29 Julai — Hari Pahlawan disambut di Dataran Merdeka pada Sabtu ini — buat kali pertama berlangsung tanpa acara letak kalungan bunga dan bertafakur selama seminit di Tugu Negara, yang menjadi amalan biasa sebelum ini.

Tugu Negara menggambarkan sekumpulan perwira memegang bendera

Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan pernah mengeluarkan dua fatwa mengenai Hari Pahlawan iaitu amalan seperti tiupan “Last Post”, bertafakur dengan menundukkan kepala, meletakkan kalungan bunga, bacaan sajak, nyanyian dan tiupan “Rouse” yang dilakukan di hadapan tugu dalam upacara menyambut Hari Pahlawan adalah bercanggah dengan Islam dan boleh membawa kepada syirik.

Oleh itu, Islam mengharamkan perbuatan membina, mengukir atau memahat apa jua bentuk patung sama ada manusia atau haiwan untuk tujuan pemujaan, peringatan atau sebagainya.

To make a short story even shorter, the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan (MFK) has made a fatwa that placing flowers in memory of our dead and glorious soldiers, observing a minute’s silence in respect of our glorious perwira, playing Taps and even the National Monument itself is against their understanding of religion.

To my knowledge the fatwa of the MFK do not have the force of law as compared to fatwa made by the State Muftis. This is because in Malaysia, religion remains a State matter where the Sultan and the Head of State are the heads of religion. And the Sultan appoints a Mufti to advise him on religious matters. There is no equivalent power accorded to the MFK (I am not sure about the Federal Territory of KL and Labuan).

To digress, remember when the TV started telecasting live the Parliamentary debates some time back? People saw the YBs jumping up and down in Parliament like higher simians. A very young Mufti of a certain State (recently retired now) sent me an sms that said, ‘kalau live telecast mesyuarat Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan lagi tahu’.

Anyway when a State Mufti makes a fatwa, and the fatwa goes through certain bureaucratic procedures and gets “gazetted” it then acquires the force of law. After a fatwa has been published in the Government Gazette (by the way where do you buy a copy of the Government Gazette?) Muslims in that State can be arrested if they go against an officially gazetted fatwa made by a State Mufti.

For example many years ago one Mufti of Selangor (Ishak Baharom) made a fatwa that smoking cigarettes was haram. This fatwa I believe went through the process and was gazetted and is still in effect. So technically in Selangor a Muslim who smokes cigarettes can be hauled off to the religious courts. I doubt however that anyone bothers about that particular fatwa. It simply shows that even State Mufti can make fatwa that no one really cares about.

The MFK does not have the same stature as the State Muftis when it comes to enforcing their fatwas. I don’t think any of the MFK fatwas are gazetted at the Federal level either. Their fatwas are ‘advisory’ in nature. It is up to the State Muftis to officially gazette a fatwa passed by the MFK in their own States.

I recall during the Arqam witch-hunt, the MFK made a fatwa declaring them deviant. But it was up to the States to make their own fatwas again (based on the MFK fatwa) and have the anti Arqam fatwa gazetted in their respective States. Not all States did this, Kelantan being one of them I think. The fatwa made by the MFK has no force of law in the States.

Back to the subject, the MFK says the Tugu Negara which has that magnificent statues of our soldiers in action defending our country is haram.

This is part of a wider belief held by the religious people that statues of humans and animals, carvings of humans and animals, art and painting of animals and humans and even photographs of humans and animals are haram. Recall the Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban – we don’t know what he looks like because he never allowed anyone to take a picture of him.

Taking photographs is also haram – according to the religious people. However we see some hypocrisy among the ‘religious party’ politicians who just love to have their photographs taken. Some of them say photographs are not haram. The Saudis solved this problem earlier when one of their ‘religious experts’ made a fatwa that pictures are ok because a picture is just like looking in the mirror. It is just a reflection, so it is ok to have your photograph taken. It is not a carving or a statue. If the reader is getting confused, you are in good company. Remember this is religion – logic is not required.

The following site http://www.e-fatwa.gov.my is the official ‘Fatwa Portal’ where all the fatwa in Malaysia are hosted. I think it is set up by the Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia or JAKIM. You will see this crest at the top right hand corner of their web portal.

This is of course our very beautiful National Crest with the two snarling tigers. I am trying to imagine what the crest will look like without the two snarling togers? What if the tigers smile, like this one :

If the tiger looks familiar, it is Sher Khan from the cartoon movie Jungle Book (Folks, better watch out, even cartoon tigers may become extinct if there is a fatwa issued against them).

Even at the official website of the JAKIM, you can see the two Malayan Tigers snarling at each other. Here is a picture of JAKIM's organisation chart. Note the two snarling tigers :

(By the way here is some feng shui : Malaysia will always have good feng shui and prosper because our Federal Crest or Lambang Negara carries two snarling tigers. You must be very strong and brave to carry two tigers on your crest. Maybank has only one tiger. I don’t believe in feng shui.)

To reduce your agony, let me say straight out that nowhere in the Quran does it say that carvings or statues or pictures of humans and animals are haram. The belief that statues and carvings of humans and animals and photographs of humans and animals are haram is therefore extra-Quranic - meaning it comes from outside the Quran.

There is an interesting verse in the Quran about the Prophet Solomon and the making of statues. Solomon, a Prophet of Allah was given power to make the djinns work for him. Among the things that Solomon commanded them was to make statues for him. Here is the reference from the Quran :

Surah 34:13 “They made for him anything he wanted - niches, statues (thamatheela), deep pools, and heavy cooking pots. O family of David, work (righteousness) to show your appreciation. Only a few of My servants are appreciative.”

The Arabic word for statue here is ‘thamatheela’ which is rooted in the Arabic word ‘mithal’ from which we get the Malay word ‘mithal’ which means ‘an example of’, ‘a representation of’. Statues and carvings are representations.

To be sure, lets look at the same Arabic word ‘thamatheela’ which is also used to indicate statues in another verse in the Quran. This time when the Prophet Abraham scolds his father for worshipping statues. Here is the verse from the Quran :

21:52 He (Abraham) said to his father and his people, "What are these statues (thamatheelu) to which you are devoting yourselves?"

Looking at these two verses in the Quran it is clear that while the Prophet Solomon had statues made for him, obviously he did not worship them.

I am quite positive that the religious scholars never pondered any of these verses from the Quran regarding the “thamatheela” or statues. How then do they derive their fatwas? The same way that you, my dear Muslim reader derive your understanding of your religion – from extra Quranic sources. The Quran plays a very minimal or zero part in religious deliberation.

I am the only guy here who keeps harping that we must read and refer to the Quran. Is anyone willing to lend me some support on this one?

Anyway here are some non-Quranic sources which do say that statues, carvings and images are prohibited or “haram”. This is from the Bible.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I The Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me" (The Bible, Book of Exodus 20:4-6 King James Version).

The Bible forbids making a graven image (a representation or “thamatheela”). The Bible fears that making graven images will lead to worshipping them.

We all know that even the Catholic Pope does not believe this part of the Bible. The Vatican is so full of statues of Jesus, Mary etc. This leads to the question if the Pope has stopped believing in the Ten Commandments too because the 2^nd Commandment says the same thing :

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'