Fw: Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on Usage of word "ALLAH" - More enlightenment why cannot use the word ALLAH if it does not refer to the ONE God

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Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:57:20 +0800

Subject: FW: Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on Usage of word "ALLAH" - More enlightenment why cannot use the word ALLAH if it does not refer to the ONE God

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To: ya...@dmcgroup.com.my; Masilatunakmar Bt Omar; Roshaiza binti Yusoff @ Hamzah; leila karim
Subject: FW: Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on Usage of word "ALLAH" - More enlightenment why cannot use the word ALLAH if it does not refer to the ONE God

* Very simple explanation from Prof. Syed Naquib al-Attas.
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Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on Usage of word "ALLAH" On December 13, 2009, during the Worldview of Islam Seminar organized by the Assembly of Muslim Intellectuals or Himpunan Keilmuan Muda (HAKIM), there was a question being posted to Professor Al-Attas regarding the polemical usage of the word "Allah" by the non-Muslims.

Below is the transcript of his brief-but-yet- concise enlightening remarks. As a word of caution, though, one must not only rely on this brief transcript alone to understand the whole spectrum of Prof. Al-Attas' view about this theological matter. Further thorough elucidation of his thought can be found in numerous works of this great Muslim scholar of this age, such as Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam, Islam and Secularism, Islam dalam Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu and A Commentary on Hujjat al-Siddiq of Nur al-Din al-Raniri.

Prof. Wan Mohd Nor and Prof. Al-Attas during the special lecture in the seminar last year.

Question : The using of kalimah “Allah” by other people in this country
Answers by Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas :

Well I have been talking about this long time ago. I remember about this in ISTAC, when we first established ourselves (late 80’s and early 90’s), I think the Arcbishop of Penang was asking this question. And I have answered that.

And then we had a meeting with the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur and about all the representatives of Christianity, including the ministers, we had a meeting at ISTAC.

And I said, “Why you want to use the word ‘Allah’ for yourself?”

They said “we going to pray in Bahasa Malaysia”

That’s the way they put it. So my answers to them, “Why you have to change praying into Bahasa Malaysia. You have been praying in English all the time. Why suddenly change into Bahasa Malaysia?”

Ok, so they said they want to change so that it more patriotic. Then in that case I’m saying that “why don’t you use Tuhan while praying in Bahasa Malaysia? Because you are talking about God isn’t it?…God is not just a name…”Allah” is a name of this Being whom you called God… and in fact a Being whom even higher than what you called to be God”

And then I said, “ …and “Allah” is not from Bahasa Malaysia. It is not a national language. It belongs to the language of Muslim all over the world . Therefore your argument using this for the word “Allah” does not fit into your idea of God. Because “Allah” does not have a son, It is not one of three (Trinity), that is why out of respect to Allah we can’t allow you to use this.“

But when we Muslim, when we write in English we say God, or when we talk to people we say God but we mean “Allah”…but they cannot say when they speak about God it means “Allah” as they don’t mean it.

So in this particular respect, we have to be clear about this, not was-was (hesitate).. . .whomever responsible in our governing, they have to be clear about this and to explain to others.

We agree you want to use God, then use Tuhan as we also use that…but we understand in the Malay language that Tuhan is not a translation of Allah ..that is why we say “ tiada Tuhan melainkan Allah ” not “ tiada Tuhan melainkan Tuhan ”. We don’t say “there is not God but God”..at least the ulama’ among the Muslim Malays, we understand what is the meaning of that (word “Allah”).

So “Allah” cannot be translated as no language has translated Allah. The Arabs themselves they only use that after Islam..although the word existed (before)..the Christians Arab they also did not use Allah (in theological, epistemological and ontological sense in the same manner as the Muslim)..if they say that it is just a language..they talking about language..because they say “Allah” like the Muslim when they ( melatah )…

So it appears they want to do that in order to confuse the Muslim into thinking that all the same ..that is why I say one of the problems about religion is the nature of God ..about who Allah is..that is why in Arkanul Iman (The Pillars of Faith), the first thing is “ amana billah ”.

“Who is this Allah?” and that need to be explain at higher institution in a proper way…

So we have answer the question. It is not proper to allow them using this, since they asking us and there is no point bringing this to court since this is not a matter of court to decide it whether they have the freedom to use it or not. It is up to the Muslims.

But then if they used it and said “in Indonesia they have use it, why can’t we?”…but it is because of the Muslims..if Muslims don’t care they will go on and use it..and in Indonesia they are using not only that, other things they even call it “choir” as “ selawat ”. Choir is not a “ selawat ”, as “ selawat ” is for Prophet..it’s not singing hymn..

And they also talk about..in Indonesia they are also confuse..Muslims. .that is why this thing happen. Sometimes the language when you come across English words like “Prophet of Doom” in Indonesia they said “Nabi celaka”. How can there be “Nabi celaka”? What is meant by the “Prophet of Doom” is…even the word Prophet in English does not mean “Nabi” only…it means “ yang meramalkan malapetaka ”..that what it means…so the “Prophet of Doom” means “ yang meramalkan malapetaka ”, not “Nabi celaka”.

They (the Muslims in Indonesia) seem not to bother about this. What we can say is that ultimately well they say “God is not Allah”...well if you want to use the word God, we are saying we also use the word God, we refer to Allah as we know and we are not saying that your God ultimately will not refer to Allah. You can’t run away from Allah. You can only escape Him and so in the Qur’an (surah An-Naas) says: “ Qul aAAoothu birabbi annas, Maliki annas, Ilahi annas ”. He (Allah) is saying “ I am the real Ilah (God) of naas (mankind)”, although mankind (non-Muslim) does not interpret it that way.

Writers comments :
If that is the case, that shows how persistent were the Christians in finding the loopholes be it in legal or cultural dimension to further their cause that might create confusion to the Muslim's polity if not being mitigated by the governing authority of this land.

As I iterated before, by having confused so-called Muslim authorities which normally appear in the silhouette of Salafism/Wahabbism as well the Modernist/Reformist (actually they are just the two sides of the same coin), the "public sphere" itself has been flooded with confused views which do no good to the Muslim's cause in defending their creed from blasphemy.

It is best to leave this matter to the Muslim scholars who have been trained as Theologians ( mutakallimun ), that possessed in depth understanding on Islamic Theology, Islamic and Western Philosophy as well knowledge about the Western Civilization (which Christianity is one of the mosaic part of the whole picture) to deal with this issue succinctly.

Most of them that I have known are the young protege of Muslim scholars who being trained by Prof. Al-Attas himself during his days in the "original" ISTAC like Prof. Wan Mohd. Nor Wan Daud (ATMA-UKM), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainiy Uthman (IIUM),Prof. Alparslan Acikgenc (Fatih University), Dr. Mustafa Ceric (Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Hezergovina) , Dr. Zaidi Ismail (IKIM), Dr. Sani Badron (IKIM), Dr. Wan Azhar (IKIM), Dr. Farid Shahran (former VP of ABIM, IIUM) Dr. Wan Suhaimi Wan Abdullah (UM), Dr. Azizan Sabjan (USM), Dr. Adi Setia (IIUM ) Ustaz Asham Ahmad (IKIM), Ustaz Nik Roskiman (IKIM) while Prof. Al-Attas' students from Indonesia who have fought closely in this issue the likes of Dr. Syamsuddin Arif, Dr. Hamid Fahmy Zarkasyi, Dr. Adian Husaini, Dr. Khalif Muammar, Ustaz Adnin Armas, Dr. Ugi Suharto and many others. Do google their name for further references.

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jaio rodriguez

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Jan 25, 2010, 10:48:56 PM1/25/10

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prof wan md nor is my fren. we went to same u....

coincidently, his brother was my student at uum sintok.

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ISMAIL HJ ABDULLAH

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Jan 25, 2010, 11:14:41 PM1/25/10

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Prof Naquib is my guru long time ago, while active in ABIM in 70's & 80's...(aku pun ada link2 gak, mcm rodriguez)

Aku dok heran mula tu...sapaaa la "jaio rodriguez",balak mana ni? kat senarai mail tu...ropanya...
alaa Zaid,Sakoq.. dia nak tukaq identiti la tu. Dulu naik Vespa dgn spek itam, ala2 Bobby atau filem apa tu?

Moga Selamait...

--- On Tue, 1/26/10, jaio rodriguez <zairim...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Sobri Aziz

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Jan 26, 2010, 5:38:35 AM1/26/10

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Salam Semua,

Saya rasa Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas adalah merupakan seorang "Mujaddid" alam melayu. Tajdid beliau bukanlah semata membawa perkara baru tapi sebaliknya "memperbaharui semula" apa yg menjadi semakin layu. Perkara yg semakin layu itu adalah "Pemahaman & Pengamalan Islam Yg Tulen".

Saya discover perkara ini setelah saban kali duduk di dalam siri majlis beliau yang di panggil "Saturday Night Lecture" di ISTAC dari 1997 hingga 2001. Pada saya Prof. SMN al-Attas mempunyai satu Pandang Alam Islam (Islamic Worldview atau Tasawwur Islam) yg tepat. Pandang Islam ini boleh ditelaah melalui buku-buku beliau seperti (i)The Nature of Man and the Psychology of the Human Soul (ii)Islam: The Concept of Religion and the Foundation of Ethics and Morality (iii)The Meaning and Experience of Happiness in Islam (iv)Tinjauan Ringkas Peri Ilmu dan Pandangan Alam . Sesetengah gagasan yg dibawa oleh beliau agak rumit untuk difahami melalui pembacaan sahaja. Sebab itu kita perlu duduk berdepan dgn guru terbilang ini. Kalu ada peluang tidak rugi kita berguru dengan beliau.

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Dr Abd Hamid Mat Sain

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Feb 20, 2010, 3:33:29 AM2/20/10

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Salaam Sobri and friends,

1.very enlightening to read Prof Al-Attas viewpoints here.just wonder whether he still subscribes to those viewpoints now without any change whatsoever given the controversial nature of the issue.

2.just wonder whether all his enlightened students listet below including our br sobri have similar views or divergent views with inputs from elsewhere.

3.i believe, if the muslims live by the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet,people can see Islam more clearly and hence the true nature of Allah more clearly and the imagined confusion (to the muslims?)from using the word Allah by nonmuslims becomes trivial and perhaps irrelevant.i think this is a better solution that to use legislation to control the usage amidst the lack of beliefs and practice of Islam among muslims and also not to mention the widespread hypocrisy.

4.historically speaking,people divide the era of the Prophet into the Meccan period and the Medinan period.these 2 periodic models of how muslims live individually and collectively as a society remain relevant for us to learn from.i personally believe,after the fall of the Ottoman in 1924,the muslims have a lot of Meccan features than Medinan...looking at the Meccan period,the muslims strength was in da'awah and ibadah rather than legislation(in fact NO legislation whatsoever).
i think we should focus on da'wah and ibadah more than legislation in living our Syari'ah for now at least....??

Just my opinion from casual and sometimes serious observations

Salaam

Abd Hamid Mat Sain MD
Surgeon
ColumbiaAsia Hospital,Seremban,Malaysia

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From: Sobri Aziz <sob...@gmail.com>
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Sent: Tue, January 26, 2010 6:38:35 PM

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Sobri Aziz

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Feb 23, 2010, 10:55:18 PM2/23/10

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Salam Doc Hamid & kawan2,

One does not change one's stand just because the issue had become controversial. The "Allah" issue is perhaps stale now but here's my take on it.

1. "Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa". Kita semua pernah mendengar slogan ini. Kenapa diangkat status bahasa begitu tinggi sehingga menyamai dengan jiwa sesuatu bangsa? Kerana bahasa adalah satu alat yang penggunaannya menayangkan pandangan alam atau worldview sesuatu bangsa.Perubahan bahasa boleh membayangkan perubahan pandang alam sesuatu bangsa.

2. Dalam Islam "pandang alam" atau worldview itu adalah falsafah agama yang berasaskan Tauhid kita. Faham Tauhid Islam adalah "pusat" dan "punca" dan "paksi" keimanan kita. Yang "pusat" dan "punca" dan "paksi" itu haruslah "tetap" dan "sama' dan "kekal" tiada berubah atau berkisar atau berpindah-randah. Pandang alam atau worldview kita dan secara langsungnya Tauhid kita tidak boleh berubah kerana perubahan Tauhid boleh menyebabkan kita jatuh Kuffur.

2. Dengan Tanzil nya al-Quran, bahasa arab kuno telah direvolusikan dan diislamkan dengan istilah-istilah yang tertentu. Begitu juga bila Islam berkembang ke seluruh pelusuk dunia, bahasa-bahasa umat tempatan seperti Bahasa Melayu, Parsi, Turki dan Berber telah diislamkan sebagaimana yg telah berlaku ke atas bahasa arab kuno. Bagaimana cara pengislaman bahasa ini berlaku? Penggunaan bahasa tempatan sebagai alat penyebaran islam telah di"pasak" dengan istilah-istilah tertentu seperti "Allah", "ad-Din", "Wahyu", Ma'arifah", "Ilmu", "Alim", "Arif", "Hikmah" dan sebagainya. Istilah-istilah pasak ini mempunyai makna yang tetap, sama dan kekal. Makna istilah-istilah ini adalah jelas dan al-Quran sendiri menyatakan ianya adalah satu Kitab yang keterangan tanda-tandanya dan perbicaraannya jelas dan tertib teratur (Kitaabun fussilat aayaatuhu). Selagi makna bagi setiap istilah pasak ini tidak berubah, selagi itulah penyebaran, penerangan dan pemahaman Tauhid umat Islam tidak akan bergoyah.

3. Yang terpenting antara istilah pasak ini ialah istillah "Allah". Kerana Allah lah menjadi tumpuan kepercayaan, ibadah, doa, tempat mengadu, tempat menaruh harapan semua umat yang mengaku dirinya Islam. Dan Tauhid kepada Allah bererti mengaku secara tasdiq bahawa Dia lah Tuhan yg Maha Esa (satu), tidak beranak dan tidak pula diperanakkan (Intisari surah al-Ikhlas).

4. Tuhan didalam doktrin Trinity agama Kristian adalah tiga; "The Father", "The Son" and "The Holy Spirit" . Kalau lah Tuhan itu tiga, bermakna doktrin Triniti Kristian tidak berpegang kepada fahaman keEsaan Tuhan. Bermakna juga istilah Tuhan Kristian tidak sama dengan istilah Allah Islam. Kalau maknawi asas sudah berbeza manakan mungkin istilah yang sama boleh digunakan untuk kedua-duanya. Tidak masuk akal! Ibn Hazm berkata didalam Kitab al-Milal nya bahawa ini adalah "sheer folly and confusion".

5. Tetapi kita tidak harus terkejut dengan cadangan puak Kristian untuk menggunakan istilah "Allah" ini. al-Quran sendiri mengingatkan kita bahawa dua musuh utama umat Islam adalah kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani (Kristian). Dan al-Quran juga memberi amaran kepada kita yang kaum Nasrani tidak akan berdiam diri dan akan terus menerus mangganggu-gugat umat Islam. Saya katakan bahawa kontreversi penggunaan istilah "Allah" ini juga adalah strategi licik mereka.

6. Strategi ini boleh dilihat sebagai serampang dua mata; (i) Merubah makna "Allah" dari Yg Maha Esa kepada Yg Maha Tiga, dan (ii) Pabila makna tetap Allah telah dirungkaikan, bermakna kedua-dua agama Islam dan Kristian menyembah tuhan yang sama iaitu "Allah", maka kepada umat Islam yang tipis keimanannya akan tampak seolah-olah "it doesn't matter if you are a muslim or christian for they both worship the same god." Boleh jadi umat Islam yang tipis keimanannya bukan dari generasi kita atau generasi anak-anak kita, hatta mungkin bukan generasi cucu-cucu kita tapi generasi-generasi seterusnya. For this is a long and patient game on the part of the Christians.

7. Sebagai umat Islam kita harus berhati-hati dan memberi reaksi yang agak keras untuk mempertahankan pendirian kita dalam isu ini. Saya bersetuju dengan intensiti kemarahan umat islam di sini tempoh hari tapi tidaklah sampai mengiktiraf perbuatan pembakaran gereja. Kalau ikut etika peperangan junjungan kita pun beliau melarang keras pembunuhan kanak2, wanita dan org2 tua serta pemusnahan tempat-tempat ibadah sewaktu berlaku peperangan. I know the reformist liberals amongst us will say "What's the big issue? Afterall ALlah is THE GOD for all mankind be they muslims, christians, jews, hindus, buddhists etc. My answer is yes Allah is the god of all mankind but not all mankind accept this assertion. Otherwise they would all be muslims.We should not sell our religion for a few christians votes.

Nak comment pasal Meccan & Madinan models but space doesn't permit. Maybe some other times.

Sori, sedikit panjang.

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