Islam Hadhari for dummies
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Malaysia has seen many maxims in its extremely short history as an independent nation. There was Look East, Leadership by Example, Malaysia Inc., etc. Now we have Malaysia Boleh and, of late, Islam Hadhari.
Malaysia Boleh is of course a relic of the previous Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, while Islam Hadhari is an invention of the current Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Most Malaysians, Muslims included, do not quite understand what Islam Hadhari is all about. Well, it is quite simple really; it is modern or progressive Islam, in that ‘old values’ are injected with modern or progressive ones. For example, usury (riba’) is haram (prohibited) in Islam so we don’t call it riba’ anymore but keuntungan (profit). Now it is Islamic.
The ‘Islamic’ banks giving out loans, and those borrowing from them, will now not be committing a sin if there is no usury involved but only profit — for profit is halal (permitted or kosher) in Islam. The fact that the tabulation of the annual ‘profit’ that the bank charges the borrower is still based on the same formula that traditional banks use to charge interest is a small technicality and we should not get confused by facts.
Beer is haram for Muslims but Muslims can consume non-alcoholic beer which is permitted. Pork is also haram so hamburgers are another forbidden food item. But you can always eat bacon, ham, and so on, made from beef called beef-bacon (or taufoo if you are a vegetarian) and that would be permitted.
Okay, we have settled the matter of hamburgers and beer. Now what about gambling, you may ask. Gambling is also haram for Muslims but there is always a halal form of gambling that Muslims can indulge in without violating any Islamic rules. For example, we can always gamble the future of this country by placing it in the hands of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. This is not forbidden and two-thirds of Malaysians in March 2004 voted in favour of taking this gamble.
Yes, Malaysians in general and Malays in particular are a strange lot. They split hairs when it comes to trivial issues but are very lax when it comes to the bigger and more important issues.
Let me relate something that I personally witnessed some years back.
I was having dinner with my wife at the then famous Alisan restaurant behind Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. At the next table was a group of Malays. The restaurant is Chinese owned so understandably they were feeling quite uncomfortable and they asked the Chinese waiter THREE TIMES whether the food in the restaurant was halal. The waiter was quite irritated at the persistent interrogation and he raised his voice and said,
“Can’t you see nearly every customer here is Malay? Of course our food is all halal!”
Having received this assurance, the Malays then ordered a round of beer and sat there guzzling away while they waited for their halal food to arrive. And it was not non-alcoholic beer mind you but the real thing.
About 20 years or so ago I joined a Terengganu State trade delegation to Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The delegation was led by the then Terengganu Chief Minister and there were about 50 of us in all. Half the group was Terengganu civil servants and officers from the State Economic Development Corporation.
These three oriental countries are the most difficult for Muslims to visit because finding halal food was a great problem. Even the vegetable dishes and omelette had bacon in them. Many, and the entire entourage was Malay, chose to just eat bread as they were worried that, though they may order non-meat dishes, the pots and pans may have been used to cook pork.
I still ordered the soup and salad though and consoled myself with the fact that since I do not see any pork, then I will assume there is none and will not harbour any doubts (was-was) — which I was told by my Tok Guru is Satan’s way of misleading us. If you don’t see it, my Tok Guru used to say, assume it is not there and don’t unnecessarily burden yourself with doubts.
Anyway, I admired the rest in our entourage who had the willpower to resist even the soup and salad lest some bacon or ham unwittingly find its way into the plate. But my admiration was short-lived for in the evenings these same Malays, who were very careful about what they consumed, smuggled women into their hotel rooms for a night of frolicking.
One Ustaz (religious teacher) who was in our entourage offered a very cute explanation to this paradox: Malays are concerned with the meat only if it has been slaughtered. They are not, however, concerned whether the meat is halal or haram if it is still alive.
Now that certainly explains it all. They worry about pork even if they cannot see it. But adultery is not a concern for these same people.
Yes, Islam Hadhari and Malaysia Boleh certain go hand-in-hand in Malaysia for many things in Malaysia are boleh (can), even those that Islam forbids.
