Pe r da n a d i sco u r s e s e r i e s 19
Excerpted from Tun Dr. Mahathir
Mohamad’s Keynote Address
“Islam is a great religion. It is the religion that converted the Jahiliah, the
ignorant Arabs into the founders of
the greatest civilisation of the history
of mankind. A civilisation that spread
from China to Spain, and the West. It
was a great civilisation, far superior
to the civilisation of Europe at that
time. Indeed, Europe was living in the
Dark Ages when Islam was already
very far advanced as mentioned by
Tan Sri (Azman Hashim) just now.
All the great scientists and the great
mathematicians were from the Muslim world.
I am afraid that when we talk
about the past, the greatness of
Islam, we are actually admitting
the lack of greatness today. It was
glorious before therefore it is not
glorious now. And why is it not
glorious now? I believe that in the
past, people follow more closely
the teachings of the Quran without
having interpreters. Interpretations
sometimes conflict with each other
and have resulted in Muslims being
divided into different sects. We now
have the Sunni, Syiah, the Wahabbi,
“Islamic scholars and
gurus are human and
can make mistakes”
verse that is direct and clear, anyone
can understand it. But you have to
read it in a language that you can
understand. I completed reading
(khatam) the Quran in Arabic when
I was about 13 years old. But I knew
nothing about it. What I knew was
what my guru told me and my guru
is human. Some of the things he told
me were right but there were many
others which were not right, now
that I know about Islam.
But that is the Islam that we
practised. Not the Islam of the
Quran, but the Islam of our teachers. And our teachers are human.
Even if they are great scholars,
they are still human and they can
make mistakes. The interpretation
of one (scholar) is different from
the other. There are many teachers
and scholars, and their interpretations on Islam differ so much that
some regard others as not Muslim
and hence, can be killed. That’s the
result of following interpretations
and not going back to the Quran.”
the Alawis and the like…Because of
following interpreters rather than
referring to the Quran, we have
broken into many different sects
and we are fighting each other, despite the fact that Islam does not
advocate factional fighting. Indeed,
Islam forbids killing and Islam declares that all Muslims are brothers
and sisters.
Now, we are fond of telling
people that Islam is a way of life,
Ad-Deen, because Islam governs
everything that you do while you
are alive. A way of life, not a way of
death. If you read the Quran in a language that you understand, you will
find guidance there for everything
that you do.
In the Quran there are two different verses. One is very clear and
specific; the other is in the form of
allegory which you may interpret
differently according to what you
understand from the story. For the
To listen to an audio excerpt of Tun’s speech,
as well as his other speeches, head over to
Perdana Podcast at www.perdana.org.my .
ple. The governing principle of Islam is
Rahman (compassion). The Surahs of
the Quran begin with this phrase, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim; Allah SWT call
himself Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim. He
has 99 names but he chooses to call
himself Ar-Rahman. Compassion is not
an empty word but I think that when we
see the ugly reality in front of us, what
is happening is the opposite of compassion. The atrocities that are taking place
defies the very essence of Islam.”
PANELLISTS’ VIEWS
Professor Mohammad Hashim
Kamali | Founding Ceo, International Institute of Advanced Islamic
Studies
“I think that the misunderstanding of
Islam is not so much in terms of ideas
and principles. It is that Islam is not being practised the way that it is taught…
There was recently a learning exchange
between two prominent scholars of Islam and the question was, what is the
governing principle of Islam? What animates Islam most? One was