Beautiful Life!

    It is a fallacy to think that religion is all about blind faith. “Just believe. Do not question.” Such a blind, unwarranted obsession about something is the very reason why religion is being looked down upon by the scientific/medical society and religious people are being thought of as second class citizens (less bright, less logical, less rational) in this proof-oriented society.

    For Muslim women, the wearing of hijab seems like a flaunting way of proclaiming “I am religious!” and therefore carries a stigma that we are less rational, and less bright.

Silap ajaran

    Islam is not about blind faith. For almost 18 years, I am a Muslim who blindly believe. And when I saw all those people who had ‘murtad’ the chilling thought that occured in my head is ‘that could be me if I am not careful’.

    So, what had happened after 18 years that changed my mind? After 18 years, my friend died in a car crash. It shattered my illusion of ‘immortality of young people’. It forced me to think. Funny how you only use all your synaptic connections when something has happened and not before that. Because if I was the person who died in the car crash, it would be too late!

    I had been blind for 18 years. Believing for the sake of believing. Blindly follow the religion of my parents. Nothing else matters in life other than getting all straights As in all the big exams.

    After my friend had passed away, I started reading, and this time not only novels. I started reading Harun Yahya, and Ahmed Deedat. And because their arguments are logical, rational and intellectual, I could truly say that ‘Now, I really believe!’. And at that time I was already nineteen! All my prayers, my fastings etc before was done out of tradition rather than true ‘iman’. It was sad, really!

    Does that make my faith any less than someone who believe blindly? How come I need logical reasonings, and only then I would believe? So after nineteen years, only then I truly believe which was good. But after having found my belief, I struggled with the thought that my faith must be less than someone who could believe without any proof and logical reasonings. What was wrong with me that I could not have strong blind faith?

   But now, I know! Christianity and other religion is about blind faith. Islam is NEVER about blind faith! How many verses in the Quran that says “Why don’t you reflect? Why don’t you use your mind? Why don’t you think?”

    Harun Yahya looks at the nature, the DNA, the protein, the animals, and then present his thinking and reflection of that nature! Exactly as the Quran has asked us to do. So, he has reflected, he has thought and has used his mind. That’s why his reasonings have such great logical power to compel you to the truth. If you believe blindly, you never truly believe.

   High school Muslim students memorize their Islam textbooks regarding iman : “membenarkan dalam hati, mengaku dengan lidah dan mengamalkan dengan perbuatan”. But they never truly understand what those things mean. Macam mana kita nak membenarkan benda yang kita tidak tahu benar? So, sebenarnya, iman adalah selepas kita telah menggunakan segala daya usaha dan kekuatan akal  untuk cari kebenaran, barulah kita boleh membenarkan, dan selepas kita membenarkan, kita pun beriman. If we haven’t done the process of thinking to arrive to iman, then you can only claim that you have faith, but not iman. For faith is indeed blind belief, but ‘iman’ is not. There is no word in English that could replace iman. Nak tanslate iman dalam bahasa melayu pun punya panjang sampai kena make concious effort untuk hafal.

    How do I arrive at my faith? When I was 18, how did I do that? I thought I was adult at 18…how ridiculous is that? Now I know, 18 ni sangat muda. You are still stupid at 18. But 18 is also an age when you are going into the society. If you do not start thinking then, you would be a sad human being.

   I was searching for the right religion, but I did not stop my prayers, fastings or anything like that. I continued to do those rituals because I still had my blind faith, but suddenly it was no longer enough.

   To arrive at faith, you have to be logical. I think this is the best method (people may choose to disagree, but it works for me):

1)Tanya diri sendiri percaya tak ada Tuhan.

2)Kalau kita tak percaya ada Tuhan, then your search stops here. Tapi, kalau selepas kita fikir betul2, tengok alam ni, baca arguments between atheist and creationist, and kalau selepas kita buat semua tu, kita percaya ada Tuhan…maka tanggungjawab kita untuk cari which religion. Tapi setengah orang pula stop kat sini: “I just believe there’s a higher power but I do not want to restrict myself to any particular religion”. Those people are called the agnostic.

3)But because I was born a Muslim, I understand that my God would be a responsible God, who would complete HIS creations with a manual book to guide us. So, I started looking at other religion and eliminate them one by one. It was not hard to arrive at Islam at this stage. Because:

-Hindu just doesn’t make sense.

-Jews agama budaya. Seolah2 agama ni orang Jew sahaja yang punya. Do you believe God would create religion like that?

-Christianity pula…well, at that time KMB buat ceramah comparing Christianity and Islam. So, it was not hard for me to choose Islam. Chistianity with their confusing doctrines of trinity, original sin and their imperfect bible, I was happy to choose Islam.

    After that, I truly have ‘iman’ and not just faith. So for me, the key step (rate-limiting step kalau dalam eksperimen kimia) is to first decide “ada Tuhan ke tak ada Tuhan?”. Selepas tu, it would be natural for you to choose Islam. It would be easy for you to choose Islam becasue other religion just does not make sense, bukan setakat tak make sense dalam adat, malah dalam akidah (the creed). Orang lain maybe nampak Islam tak make sense kat hijab or the rights of women etc, tapi diorang tak boleh argue dengan kita punya akidah. Our creed make perfect sense! No nonsese like trinity, or having deities who have sex with fish/cows etc.

   Actually, steps yang aku tulis ni sudah pun dipraktikkan. Contoh dalam Quran pun dah ada. Nabi Ibrahim (a.s) first believed that there must be God. Selepas tu, Baginda tengok alam ni, and eliminate one by one; dia dah eliminate bulan, matahari, bintang…sampailah dia dapat the true religion. Sama macam aku eliminate Hiduism, Judaism and Christinaity (I did not bother tengok religion yang lain sebab I have arrived at Islam by then. Maybe my search was cut short sebab I was lucky I was already born a Muslim). So, Allah memang dah guide kita untuk berfikir dengan merekodkan kisah Nabi Ibrahim di dalam Quran : this is how you believe! Not blindly but use your reason! Think! Reflect!

    So, pada pendapat aku lah kan, since UPSR tak ada subjek agama, apa salahnya belajar agama dengan cara yang kritikal. Belajar agama dengan membaca Ahmed Deedat, Harun Yahya, dengar DVD.Jangan biar budak2 blindly believe sampai diorang dah habis SPM. Kesian! Kalau budak2 tak percaya akidah, macam mana diorang nak buat rituals. Senang ke nak sembahyang 5 kali sehari, puasa penuh sebulan kalau diorang tak nampak point apa yang diorang buat? Senang ke nak pakai hijab all the time kalau diorang tak truly understand the creed? Aku pun hijab on and off when I was a teenager, adalah rasa bersalah sikit2, tapi rasa bersalah tu boleh ditenggelami dengan macam2 alasan. I am sure there are many people like me. I was not the odd one.

    But people will question: Tak ke terlalu berat nak bagi budak belajar Harun Yahya and Ahmed Deedat?

     The answer is NO! Several thousands NO! Absolutely, irrevocably, definitely NO! Jangan underestimate minda kanak2. In fact, waktu kita kanak2 lah kita paling senang nak absorb something, time tulah minda kita tengah dibentuk. Time tu lah synaptic connections dihasilkan dengan dahsyatnya! Kalau waktu tu kanak2 belajar banyak bahasa, dia akan boleh bercakap all those bahasa. Diorang cepat adapt, cepat faham, cepat tangkap. It is called ‘the window of opportunity’. Kalau waktu kanak2 banyak disogok dengan buku cerita, these kids will grow up loving to read and write. Kalau waktu kanak2 banyak balajar matematik, they will grow up being excellent in Maths. Bila kita dah grow up, and ‘window of opportunity’ dah tutup, kita masih boleh belajar new facts, tapi lambat.

    Tengok J.K Rowlings. Dia tulis buku cerita untuk kanak2. Tapi dia tidak pernah cuba underestimate kanak2. Dia create vocab baru, dia create creatures baru,malah ayat2 dia semuanya seolah2 audience dia adalah adult. Tu pasal bila aku baca Harry Potter, perasaan dia tak sama macam aku baca cerita Cinderella or Snow White. Gaya bahasa masih lagi gaya bahasa yang matang. Tapi kanak2 masih boleh baca, masih boleh terima, masih boleh faham. It is because, waktu kanak2 benda2 ni senang pick up; senang pick up bahasa and basically senang pick up everything.

   Bukankah zaman dulu2 kanak2 dah hafal al-Quran waktu umur 6 tahun. Amazing kan minda kanak2 ni?

   Looking back, I felt like aku ni mangsa keadaan. And also mangsa kurikulum sekolah yang bengong! Kalau daripada UPSR lagi akidah dah mantap, it make sense lah nak belajar ritual time sekolah menengah; puasa, haji,nikah, korban etc.

Arguing with your Colleague

Bayangkan kalau daripada budak2 lagi kita dah master ‘the creed’ of our religion, and therefore we have already familiarized ourselves with the arguments against and for religion. It would be much easier for us to argue with our non-Muslim colleagues, here in overseas. We would not be made to feel so stupid, as though we are blind followers.

   Tapi sekarang ni, kita sendiri pun baru saja tahu benda2 ni. Nak argue boleh, tapi taklah confident. Satu lagi, diorang maybe ada point yang kita tak pernah come across pun lagi due to our lack of experience. Because we only just started. Furthermore, there is an art to arguing that we have to master. Bukan main jawab jer. Kita bukan setakat nak jawab supaya kita menang atau pun supaya nampak kita ada juga jawapan, tapi apa yang kita cakap biarlah convincing. Some people nak proof, some people nak statistic and data, some people nak reference. Tambah2 lagi medical students who have been fed with “evidence based medicine”.

Positive development

   Nowadays, if you are a medical student and you benefit from variety of lecturers, you will see how the lecturer subtly insert their own belief in their presentation.

-Tony Quail, my physiology lecturer, likes to use the word design. When asking some random questions, he would say “Why are we designed like that?”

-Claudia, my anatomy lecturer when I was in first year, likes the word evolve, “So, you can see how we have evolved from…-”

-Nicholas Bogduk, also likes to use the word ‘created’. “Our spine is created to be able to withstand very high pressure. It is such an excellent design. Everything has got its function….you have to learn how the structure perfectly fits the function it is supposed to be making.”

- Charles Douglas is a definite atheist! He believes in Evolution and he never hides that fact.

Sometimes, these kind of lecturers create some invisible tension in the class room. WhenTony Quail use the word design, I would glance at Aydin (a confirmed eolutionist) and I would see how his cheek muscle twitched. And when Charles Douglas was going on and on about evolution, the Muslims (me!) would shift uncomfortably in their seats.

   It is quite funny when you think about it. I am sure there are many Christians in my batch, but because they do not wear any religious symbols, they don’t really feel the heat when any lecturers who are evolution-inclined say something. But not so for us the Muslims.

   The positive development here is that nowadays the medical society has been filled with many more people who believe in creation. And all of them are pretty prominent. For example, Tony Quail is a respected professor. Nicholas Bogduk is also a respected professor and he is also a head of a particular department at John Hunter Hospital. They have come out openly with being religious with creationist tendencies. So, no one can say being religious is being illogical, irrational and senseless. You can’t look at Nicholas Bogduk and Tony Quail and think they are supid.

   I hope one day, I would go back to Malaysia and change the whole Islamic curriculum for kids. We could not let the ‘window of opportunity’ close. We have to learn the right things at the right time and in the right order. It makes sense when you think about it. Tu pasallah in the past, ramai ulama yang hebat2. They learn the religion first…lepas tu everything, every other ilmu, comes naturally. And benda ni make sense in a scientific manner if you learn about neurolgy and brain development in kids.

   I hope one day I would see a medical society in which the athiests are the minority.

   

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