A just state, an Islamic state, a rose by any other name?
Though I do not know much, I'm just drawn to submit my two cents' worth to the discussion. Needless to say, these are just my personal views.
What do we, humans of Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, Protestant Christian, Catholic Christian, Hindu, Buddhistic, Sikh, Bahai, Zoroastrian, paganistic, animistic, secularistic, atheistic persuasions have in common?
Our humanity.
Born into different families of different religious faiths or of no particular faith, most of us, except a few, will most probably, for better or for worse, not change the faiths we grew up into.
Has anyone tried changing anybody's mind about anything and noticed how difficult it is? (Quran 2:72 "You are not responsible for guiding anyone. God is the only one who guides whoever chooses (to be guided).", Q 10:98,99 "Any community that believes will surely be rewarded for believing... Had your Lord willed, all the people on earth would have believed. Do you want to force the people to become believers?")
We have our own ideas of heaven and hell based on what we have been taught or have learnt, so that when we die, the good Muslims, in the Muslim mind, will happily end up in the Muslim heaven and the good Christians, in the Christian mind, will end up in the Christian heaven, the Hindus will be reincarnated accordingly, the atheists will end up somewhere or nowhere according to their atheistic beliefs. We will know when we get there, won't we?
But here we are in the here and now.
None should compel others to get into their heaven, no matter how good we think it would be for them. The golden rule says, "Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you".
We would not, for example, appreciate the Christians trying to get us into salvation and the Christian heaven through accepting Jesus as the sole Saviour no matter how sincerely well-meaning they are.
But we would all appreciate clean toilets, fresh air, sweet smiles, good food, interesting conversations, beautiful parks, efficient public counters, knowledgeable teachers, polite drivers, safe cities, fair traders, just judges, efficient and trustworthy administrators, to mention just a few things.
To the non-Muslims, it matters little if the Muslim prays five times a day, but that he is, for example, a competent public servant to deal with. And the Muslims don't really care whether or not, for example, the Chinese is a devout Buddhist or a pious Pagan, but that he sells things cheap and doesn't cheat.
The rites and rituals of a religion are only for the professors of that faith, and do not interfere with others' lives. (Q 2:256 "Let there be no compulsion in religion.")
How often do you think religion when buying a newspaper or boarding a bus? You would normally just buy the newspaper or board the bus and not think of the prayer mat or the holy cross doing it.
Of course, religion is more than just prayer mats, holy crosses and statues, expanding as it is to the degree of one's individual awareness and enlightenment. Still, how often do you think of religion when you go shopping or jogging?
We live and will die eventually. While living here as humans I think we should try to fashion our existence after the highest conceptions of peace, justice and prosperity imaginable to the human mind.
Individually, according to our own individual light, collectively according to the highest collective light. This can be done through continually thinking and learning about improving our lives and environments, both without and with the help of books of all sources, old and new, sacred and secular, and from learning from our own and others' experiences (Q 17:36 "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them.")
It is mentioned in the Quran, of the communities of old, which was to their credit the good that they did, and to ours the good that we do (2:134 & 2:141 "That was a people that has passed away. They shall reap the fruit of what they did, and you of what you do! Of their merits there is no question in your case!").
The mistake would be trying to fit square pegs into round holes. It is not for us to try to squeeze our present lives into a bygone-days model or a replica foreign mould, be it seventh-century or present-day Arabia, medieval Europe or modern America.
God in His wisdom and greatness, as the believers among us trust, is well aware of the conditions He put each community into and its respective development ever since.
God said over 1,400 years ago, "O people, we created you from the same male and female, and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognise one another. The best among you in the sight of God is the most righteous. God is omniscient, Cognizant." (Q 49:13).
The Malaysian person must learn to have courage and confidence to take himself more seriously and shape his life on his own terms incorporating global knowledge but instituting localised solution.
The pluralistic Malaysian society, like other human societies, must inevitably chart its own course and model itself after the best of what is available and what is possible in the evolution and potential of human civilisation and progress.
I suppose it is what we have been trying to do so far to a certain extent and with some success. The knowledgeable and the wisest among us must continue to discuss and exchange ideas to come up with a good working model of a state that supports the highest of human ideals - peace, justice, prosperity, cleanliness, beauty, love, kindness, truth, honesty, trustworthiness, efficiency, etc. which, indeed, are the shared universal, spiritual, religious and moral values of the living humans.
In our present context, this would translate into, among other things, progressively greater freedoms of speech, assembly, worship, more independent judiciary, higher standards of living, better housing, education, health care and infrastructure, cleaner elections, more respectful treatment of women and the minorities, fair labour practices, regular water and electricity supplies to all parts of the country, improved public transportation and telecommunications facilities.
No more crowded classrooms and undertrained and overworked teachers.
No more locking up any man or woman without trial.
No more phantom voters and giving fake IC's.
No more squandering the public funds.
No more setting up squatter slums and golf courses, etc., etc. The priorities must be clear, the commitment acted upon.
The present continuing dialogue regarding the notion of the 'Islamic state' is much welcomed and encouraged. It forces one to articulate one's interpretation against the highest ideals humanly imaginable and divinely inspired currently on offer, and to spell out its implementability in concrete, practical terms in order to be seen as convincingly more superior than the present constitutional framework and provisions both in theory and in practice. (Q 42:38 "...Their affairs are decided after due consultation among themselves..."
It must be a real challenge to our leaders and thinkers to first frame it and then to communicate it to the people. The people, on the other hand, will have to be made sufficiently prepared and educated to make an intelligent and informed choice.
The man in the street asks, "What does it mean to live in an Islamic state?" He wants to know and then he wants to decide if that is what he wants.
(One could say that the weakness is not so much in the present constitution but in the administrators'selective use and abuse of rights and rules within it. But this is another story for another day).
Pride and prejudice are negative values, un-Islamic, un-Christian, un-Hindu, anti-Buddhistic, and neither religious nor spiritual. Need we then be concerned with the proud ownership of alienating labels, Islamic or otherwise?
How does a rose by any other name smell? If we are striving to build a just, peaceful and prosperous nation, call it what we will, will God not know it when we do? Who was it in the Quran that said He is the best of judges?
