Great Hope For Malaysia Through A Spirit of Thanksgiving

Dr. Farish Ahmad Noor, a Malaysian political scientist and historian and presently a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, recently expressed his doubts and concerns about the future of Malaysia as a nation in this article A Cold Look At The State Of Malaysia Today.

My fellow Malaysians,

Much as I empathise with Dr Farish Noor's pessimism based on the present facts (corruption in high places, attacks on church buildings, political and religious contentions of the lowest sort, etc) , I urge all Malaysians to look beyond the facts which are symptoms of a greater struggle, an inner spiritual conflict that Malaysia is going through.

If you can see that the nation is in birth pangs to give birth to a new Malaysia (be it in 2012, 2015 or 2020), then you may be filled with hope and joy.

Don't allow the immature and narrow politics to blur your vision of what God has destined for this nation.

In God's eyes, the future is eternal and He already knows the choices we have to make. One road leads to ruin and the other leads to harmony and glory. But if we Malaysians take the wrong road, the nation will have to go through a more painful lesson before she gets back to the right road.

Whatever road we take at the crossroads, in the end, God's final destiny and will for Malaysia will be achieved.

The choice of how we wish to arrive at the truth depends on us (citizens and politicians alike), through the valley of darkness or through reason, love and wise counsel.

And the secret to overcoming the negative spirit of hopelessness and despair that has arisen from the political, social and economic disintegration of the nation in recent months is a spirit of thanksgiving. Thank God for good health, for our families, for the food and the earth that He has given us to live and share among ourselves.

According Pastor Peter Tan, an attitude of thanksgiving in our words and actions has a major impact on the spiritual forces that drive a nation. This is an excerpt from his online book Prosperity Through Grace.

"We are the custodians of the New Testament flow of grace; we should be as willing as God to bestow unconditional love and grace towards all men. The manifold wisdom of God of this dispensation of grace is to be manifested through the church (Ephesians 3:2, 8-10).

The devil will seek to make us ungrateful for our country, our leaders, our fellow countrymen, our world so that our prayers for them become ineffective. We should endeavour through thick and thin to have a grateful thankful heart for everyone around us. For the atmosphere and attitude of thanksgiving is essential for the working of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Be thankful for your spouse, your family, your children. Don’t let the enemy make you an ungrateful person and hinder your prayers for your own loved ones. The seeds of divorce are found in the attitude of ungratefulness and the lack of thanksgiving. A strong loving marriage is built upon the foundations of thanksgiving and love. Always be thankful for your leaders, your country and your fellow countrymen. For you release the grace of God (and the power
of God) upon their lives when you hold them before God with thanksgiving in your prayers."

(Note: By "new Malaysia", I do not mean to say I support a change in government to PR or BN. Politics will always be subservient to a nation's spiritual quest for truth.)

Online Allah Debate Opens Up Philosophical Insights

Datuk Marina Mahathir’s blog post "Prophet Muhammad's Promise to Christians" at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ has opened up interesting philosophical issues facing Malaysia.

The diverse and interesting comments on this blog post can lead us into a deeper discussion about truth and human nature.

One of readers (pro-Allah is exclusive camp) said it is better to be unfair to non-Muslims that they cannot share their faiths while Muslims can openly do so with non-Muslims. He/she warns Muslims with a scenario of former muslims worshiping at a church in PJ.

First, openly sharing the Christian gospel is already possible through the Internet. Even without the Internet, God has His ways to show you the truth sooner or later. Just read the story of the Prodigal Son who was welcomed back by his father despite straying into a sinful life. If your religion has little influence over you, then real life experience will teach you lessons about your purpose in this world.

Second, we are again putting the cart before the horse when we espouse religious orthodoxy at the expense of fairness, kindness and peaceful acceptance of others with different beliefs.

Third, even assuming the former Muslim converts into a false religion, don't you think that one day he will open his eyes to the truth. Or is that false religion so strong and persuasive that he can't see the truth himself?

The last point is most relevant in this Allah debate because we are actually discussing about human nature: can man know spiritual truths through his own personal experience or is it through external laws governing his conduct, speech and rituals?

The Catholics would err if they think that the readers of their Bahasa publications, or Sarawakian Christians for that matter, will be less spiritual and confused by changing the name of Allah to Tuhan.

Likewise, the "Allah is exclusive" Muslim group will also be mistaken to believe that a generic name used by other faiths can have any impact on the richness of their faiths.

But the High Court ruling is right that to make the Allah word exclusive is unjustifiable. It is an infringement of constitutional rights. Not only that, it shows Malaysians to be most superficial, petty and ungracious in their religious practices, far behind Indonesia and many Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some of comments in the intense dialogue:

Dear Marina,

Your article about the historical promise is a wonderful discovery. True religion should tame a man from the inside and not from the outside. Only truth will set people free from the rage that imprisons their souls. Here is the best illustration of the destiny of Malaysia, which is at the crossroads between flirting with theocracy and birthing a true democracy.

Written by pastor TD Jakes on 6 April 2009:

"The founding fathers of America created a democratic system that separated church from state so that, as a country, we could avoid the slippery slope of getting into the business of telling people what to believe. That is a job they left to be determined by the individual, the synagogue, the mosque and the church!

A country that has one national religion as its only compass is much more of a theocracy than a democracy. That kind of tyranny leads to witch burning, spiritual genocide, forced and fraudulent expressions of faith, and God knows what else. As wonderful as faith is, faith out of control can be lethal. I love democracy because it is designed to keep the government from telling me when and how to serve communion, and it allows room for debate without dominance.

Religious people will never agree on everything within or outside of the bounds of the church. Democracy allows that debate without polluting it further with political intervention as long as that debate doesn’t infringe on another human’s rights.

Lately, it is my view that religion has become increasingly a servant to politics, and whenever a flame is needed to move a candidate or party closer to power, they ignite the flame of the faith community by playing on controversial issues and fear."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Munira said...

And interestingly enough, in the Netherlands...What we're really doing is we're arguing semantics. It's petty. But at the same time, as Nehemiah has pointed out, the one good thing that comes out from all this is some of us have learned something new. Nehemiah's sensible argument made a lot of strong points.

Also, if we ban the non-Muslims from using the word Allah, we'll be affecting the prayers of Sikh people as well. Or have we forgotten about them too, or simply ignorant?1. What about us?2. Ban on "Allah" word will interfere with Sikh prayers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it very unIslamic to interfere with the prayers of other people? Bukankah salah kita mengganggu sembahyang orang lain, walaupun orang itu bukan orang seagama kita?

Be kind. Be generous. Be understanding. It's not that hard, for that is what God, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Holy Quran are trying to teach us. Not hatred. Not prejudice. And definitely not injustice.

January 7, 2010 12:08 PM

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding Encik Azahar's comment:

"BTW Marina, do not let your great confidence in ISLAM to blind you from sinister acts of enemies of ISLAM who are always searching for ways to destroy ISLAM"

1. Is the reason why you advise Marina not to have great confidence in ISLAM, is because you think that God will have great confidence in you to carry out the dictates of Islam? i.e. by sounding and acting extra religious?

2. Pray tell who are the sinister enemies of Islam? With the world filled with rising crimes, drug abuse, wars ,etc, is it more important to protect your religion and your God's generic name, which is not exclusive btw, or make the world a better place to live in by truly transforming man's inner soul?

The purpose of religion is to reform man so that (a) he is in a right and loving relationship with God (b) he is in a right and loving relationship with his neighbour.

And Marina hit the nail on its head by saying that this relationship is based on CONFIDENCE and trust.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Postscript: I think there can be a simple solution to avoid confusion among the Muslims:

A compromise solution that will satisfy all parties concerned would be for the Herald to put a qualifier/caveat every time it uses the word Allah (e.g. "interpreted as the triune God by Christians and distinct from the Allah referred to by Muslims").

To all bahasa-reading Christians, we must be clear that changing the word Allah to Tuhan does not change our foundational understanding of God nor our spiritual walk with Him. It is a question of religious worship and familiarity for many East Malaysians who are used for decades in calling God Allah.

Since the government banned the word, the licensing issue can only be settled by the High Court. However, the social, cultural and constitutional controversy should be discussed in interfaith dialogues to reach a mature and harmonious solution.