The other Allah debate

ARCHIVES 2013

By MT Webmaster On Jan 4, 2013

Mariam Mokhtar with Hannah Yeoh in London

The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems.

Mariam Mokhtar, FMT

If politicians form the group of people whom we despise most, then the sanctimonious hypocrites have to come a close second. The holier-than-thou types make the lives of many people a misery. They judge others by a strict set of rules, to which many of them fail to adhere.

The current Allah debate, sparked off by Penang’s Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, is our latest political football. The government has to pretend it is the defender of Malay rights and so the Allah debate will never reach a satisfactory conclusion before GE-13.

Umno Muslims must have a low opinion of their fellow Muslims if they think that the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims would lead to “confusion”. If Muslims can be confused by their non-Muslim friends using the word “Allah” then perhaps, we should blame the Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, for an education system which churns out idiots.

There is no confusion. The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems. The word Allah, from the Aramaic language, has been used in the middle-east, by both Muslims and Christians for thousands of years.

Around 2009, a senior Umno politician decided to gain brownie points and spook the Muslim masses, by claiming that only Umno can protect the Malays, their faith, their rulers and their way of life, the word Allah was banned from use by non-Muslims. The rest as they say, is history.

The “Allah” debate is nothing compared with the misuse of the words, “Insha Allah”, a tag which many Muslims adjoin to the end of their statements.

The misuse of “Insha Allah”, is more insidious, affects both Muslims and non-Muslims, in and out of Malaysia, and is a bane in our lives. Some Muslims liberally lace their speech with “Insha Allah”.

How many times have some Muslims told us that they would do something, and then end their statements with “Insha Allah”? How often has that commitment failed to be fulfilled?

The following are some of the ways many Muslims have abused the words “Insha Allah”:

“I will check out the contract requirements by the end of the week, Insha Allah.”

“When I finish shopping, I will meet you at the library, Insha Allah”.

“Don’t worry, I will drive mother to her friend’s house, Insha Allah.”

“The cheque will be posted before the end of the month, Insha Allah.”

“Leave it to me. I will make sure she gets to her class on time, Insha Allah.”

“Trust me, I will sign the documents before the deadline, Insha Allah.”

Breaking promises

In my experience, the people in the above examples used the words “Insha Allah” as an excuse to break their promise.

They may have had no intention of keeping their promise, or they may have been too lazy to keep to their end of the deal, or found something more exciting to do instead. So they say that what happened was God’s will.

Perhaps, others have had different experiences or been more “lucky” with people who say “Insha Allah”.

For those who are not aware, the words “Insha Allah” means “If Allah wills it” or simply “God willing”.

To those of us who have been let down many times, “Insha Allah” might as well mean “maybe” or “If I can be bothered” or “I might do it, if I have nothing better to do”.

Whenever someone uses the words “Insha Allah”, I know that person has no intention of carrying out his promise.

Muslims who do not understand what the words truly mean, tend to use these words flippantly. Although some of the Muslims who use these words are sincere, the majority are not.

First, they say “Insha Allah” because they realise that few people will question the power of God. Second, this cop-out clause is a useful excuse to explain why they failed to live up to their promise, because they will say, “God willed it”.

It would be nice if people were more open and admit that they could not fulfil the promise, rather than tell lies and invoke the name of God. Ultimately, it is not the faith in God that is tested, rather our trust and relationship in our friend, colleague or relative that is damaged.

People who have worked in the middle-east will be only too familiar with the phrase, “Inkin bukra, Insha Allah” which means “Maybe tomorrow, God willing.” This makes the word mañana sound like a call for immediate action.

Returning to the Allah debate, Lim’s Christmas message of 2012 failed to elicit the spirit of Christian cheer and goodwill from some Malaysians. The joyful tidings he was trying to raise, has started a raging debate, all because he urged Putrajaya to allow Christians to use the word “Allah” in the Malay version of the bible.

So, instead of people lighting the Christmas pudding, Malaysia’s latest defenders of Islam, a group of 100 members of the Pertubuhan Penyatuan Pembelaan Melayu Malaysia (PPPMM) staged a protest and burned portraits of Lim.