On Syiah and Sunni

Recenty I came across an interesting book. The book talks about the concept of Politics in Islam. While the topic is about the politics in Islam, the author seems to be more interested to talk about Sunni and Shiite. I guess, the author wanted to narrow down the scope of his book by looking at Sunni (Those who follows Prophets tradition) and Shiite (The followes of Ali) perspective. Actually I came across this issue of Shiite during my secondary school days. In form three to be exact. I have a friend whose brother (studying in UKM I think) is very fond of Shiite. Since his brother is into this Shiite group, he is also curious about it. Being a kid, I guess my brain is not capable of looking at this Shiite issue beyond whether it is HALAL or HARAM. A quick reference to Jabatan Agama or Ustaz2 will tell you that Shiite is HARAM. So the issue died down as I don't want to occupy myself with something HARAM.

Fast forward twenty years later, here I am again reading something that touch on Sunni and Shiite. Now being an adult who do a lot of analytical think, I began to see that there is more than HALAL and HARAM to this issue. Apparently Shiite started as a group that disagree with the selection of Saidina Abu Bakr R.A. as the caliph, they insists on Saidina Ali R.A. This disagreement soon grows into more complex issues which finally lead to the formation of Shiite Imamah (Ja'fariah) etc. While we want to downplay Shiite influence, the fact is they used to be major player of the Islamic world whether through proxy (Buyid Dynasty) during Abbasid Empire or forming their own empire such as Fatimiah (in Egypt) and Safavid (Nearer to Modern Day Iran) a contemporary of Othmaniah Empire. To this day, they have a big followers in Iraq, Lubnan, Kuwait and Syria not to mention Iran.

It strikes me that is it odd for us to summarily say they are Kafir just like that?? Where does this kafir judgement come from by the way? Ja'far Sadiq (one of the Shiite Imam) is the teacher of Imam Malik (of Mazhab Maliki), the Shiite Imams are all Ahl-Bayt (The family of Rasulullah SAW) so are we suggesting that they are not muslims?? Is it that our prejudice towards the Shiite can be traced to the hatred of Umayyad Caliph's?, or our (the sunni) rivalry during the Fatimiah reign or Safavids (which is closer to modern day Iran)??

Before you start arguing from the point of view of aqidah, what I want to say is that all of these Sunni-Shiite division is more of a tragedy to me no more no less. Sadly this tragedy leads to the divergent in term of interpretation of the religion. While reading this book, I keep asking myself, If I where with Saidina Husin during the clash with Yazid (the Sunni), or seeing the mistreatment faced by Ahl-Bayt during the Ummayad (many are killed and jailed) , even I will support this Shiite group but again life is not that simple.

I think the time has come for us to bridge this gap, to sort out our misunderstanding, to declare that the sunni no longer treat shiite as enemy vice-versa.. The day of Ummayyad, Abasid, Ottoman are long gone.. let us bury all the hatred and together we stand united as Muslim. That is better than starting to label this group goes to hell or that group goes to hell... On what group goes to hell? Well just leave it to Allah.

p.s: Wikipedia offers a variety of topic regarding Islamic History Sunni and Shiite Alike. Feel free to check it out then you may be feeling the same way as I do.. hmm ye ker.

On Youth and Nation Building

The recently concluded Iranian presidential election reveals the behavior of young generation. It has become increasingly apparent that the young generation's expectation with regard to the idea of a nation and its adminsitration need to be studied and handled correctly. Not only in Iran, the 'young and restless' are everywhere. We can see demos in Jakarta, Seoul, Athens or even Paris involving these young people.
The restlessness have become unbearable There is an urgent need for us to study on WHY aspect of this phenomena and HOW to handle it. Answering this question of WHY and HOW is important because the expectation of these strong young voices might not be necessarily right. Given their youth, their demand may lack wisdom and their solution may be shallow. The only things they have are their brute force, vocal voice and large in number.
The govt cannot entertain the youth as is. If the govt succumb to their demand as is, then we are in grave danger for their (the youth) preference may lead to destablization of our country. However, the govt need to reach out to this people and this is where it gets interesting. The current method of govt approach seems to be not working. This may be due to the usage of out-of-date technique. The old school such as Rakan Muda, pertubuhan Belia may not work anymore. The govt need to employs techniques that are appealing to the young. Something that allow for their involvement on nation building. More importantly, the leaders and shakers of the young group. The young group may likes pop music, but its leaders and shakers are more towards involvement in nation building, religious enrichment or serious consultations. It is these m&s that the govt has to look upon for these m&s are the one who will command the pop music group. Once they feel that the land belong to them and rsponsible to it that their behavior might be different since now their concern is protecting their belongings from falling into wrong hands.
Above all, by being able to answer the WHY and HOW question as stated just now, hopefully we can have a better and peaceful place to live in where all the differences can be solved amicably.

On Unity Government

Sudah tiba masanya parti2 tunjang melayu ini (UMNO & PAS) memperhalusi persefahaman masing2 di dalam modus operandi mereka in term of kedudukan Islam dan melayu (Muslim) sebagai tunjang identiti negara kita. Kita tidak mahu perpecahan org Melayu menjadi begitu buruk sehinggakan isu Islam dan Melayu terpaksa bergantung kepada 'show of hand' (suara majority) berbanding dengan bersandarkan kepada Al-Quran dan Hadis.Di alaf baru ini UMNO tidak lagi boleh mengharapkan its dominan position sebagai senjata utama to dictate its surrounding. Given the population growingly more critical nowadays, tidak dapat tidak its power will slowly being distributed to various party/faction with no apparent majority like what happen in many western countries. Putting aside the allegations that UMNO is corrupt, saya boleh terima jika UMNO held tha majority of the seats in D.Rakyat or DUN. Given that PAS are able to lead the country, saya juga tak kisah if they control the majority of the D.Rakyat or DUN. What concern me the most is the 'in-between' where PAS pun lemah and UMNO pun tak cukup kerusi with respect to BN. Dlm situasi inilah perpaduan/persefahaman org Melayu itu penting utk memastikan Malaysia kekal sebagai sebuah multiracial Muslim Malay majority country. Dan bagi saya inilah mesej yang cuba disampaikan oleh Hj. Hadi di mana PAS dan UMNO tidak perlu bergabung tapi integriti sosio-politik negara Malaysia itu perlu dikekalkan.