Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Tarikh/Date : 22/03/97
Tajuk/Title : THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERMENT OF
THE KING FAISAL INTERNATIONAL
PRIZE FOR SERVICE TO ISLAM FOR 1997
1. Firstly, let me express my sincere appreciation to
the Saudi Government and to the Selection Committee in
particular, for conferring on me the 1997 King Faisal
International Prize for service to Islam.
2. I am honoured and overwhelmed by this recognition
and it is with pride and much humility that I accept
this prize. This prize is also a great honour to
Malaysia and its people both Muslim and non-Muslim
without whose tolerance, sensitivity and respect for
each other Malaysia would not be what it is today, a
multi-racial, multi-religious, yet politically stable
and economically prosperous country, which accepts Islam
as the state religion.
3. But then the bases for these achievements were laid
some 900 years ago, when Islam came to Malaysia. Like
all today's Muslims our distant ancestors were not
Muslims. In the Arabian Peninsular too the idol-
worshipping jahilliah became Muslims over 1400 years
ago. The other Muslims were blessed with the religion at
different periods after that, some through conquests
certainly, but many more through the exemplary behaviour
and achievements of the Muslims who came in contact with
them. Even the Muslim conquerors influenced the
conversion through their worldly success as much as
their preachings on Islam. And so the Spaniards and
Europeans, Christians though they were, embraced Islam
when Al-Andalus was under Muslim rule.
4. But the Malays were not conquered or forced in any
way. They converted because the Muslim traders from
Hadramaut, the first Western people to come to the Malay
states were obviously successful people in the worldly
sense. They were great ship-builders, sailors,
celestial navigators and traders. They were learned not
just in matters of religion but also in medicine,
geography and mathematics. As Muslims they were not
just devout, performing their prescribed rituals but
they were kind and charitable, not arrogant and
domineering as were the later Westerners from Europe.
They were simply good people who reflect the true
teachings of Islam, who probably excited the curiosity
and admiration of the animistic Malays and their Rajas
or rulers. And so these exemplary Muslim traders gained
influence over the Rajas who accepted Islam and caused
their subjects to embrace it.
5. Had the first Muslims who landed in Malaysia been
ignorant paupers belonging to different sects of Islam,
constantly fighting each other and slitting each other's
throats, even if they pray and fast, the ancestors of
today's Malays would have rejected Islam. In the
context of today's world, it is very doubtful that
today's Muslims would succeed in spreading the blessings
of the Islamic religion to the Malays if they are not
already Muslims.
6. But Alhamdulillah, the Muslims who came to the
Malay states 900 years ago were the equivalent of
today's developed and advanced races. They were well-
educated, skilled, technologically superior and true
practitioners of the teachings of Islam not just in
matters of religious rituals but in demonstrating that
Islam was indeed Ad-deen or a way of life. And so the
animistic ancestors of the Malays embraced Islam with
such enthusiasm and faith that they destroyed all their
old idols and temples. Today, Malays are
constitutionally only Malays if they are Muslims.
7. The progress of the Malays after conversion and
presently owe much to Islam as a way of life. There
had been lapses of course but by and large Malay
civilisation and its progress in the arts and the
sciences, in the systems of Government, the concept of
justice and the rule of law, have been the result of
attempts to adhere to the teachings of Islam.
8. I say attempts because there have always been
conflicts and contradictions in the interpretations of
Islamic teachings. Despite the fact that all Malays are
Sunni Muslims and followers of Imam Shafie, the
interpretations are not always standard or uniform.
There is, therefore, a great deal of confusion when we
attempt to follow the tenets of Islam.
9. Still, we have managed to remain faithful and
committed to Islam, to use it to guide us so that in our
desire to make material progress we have not forsaken
religion or relegated it to the background. Indeed, we
believe that our material progress is in accord with and
in full support of the teachings of Islam, in particular
the injunction regarding the brotherhood of Muslims and
the need for us to be strong so we may be able to defend
ourselves and our faith against those who wish to
separate us from our religion and destroy it.
10. To us political stability, good government,
knowledge of all the sciences and technology, material
wealth and modern sophistication are all a part of the
process of strengthening the Muslims Ummah, so as to
defend successfully the faith and our need to `amal
ma'aruf nahi mungkar'. To us rejection of the
brotherhood of Muslims, violent feuds between us, the
killing of other Muslims in the name of Islam and Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala when in fact the objective is
political, to us all these cannot be Islamic. Indeed,
we believe that being just to the non-Muslims who are
not against us simply reflects the true teachings of
Islam. We have always to remember that as much as we do
not like Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries to be
oppressed, we must not oppress non-Muslim minorities in
our midst.
11. Guided by these Islamic or Islamically acceptable
principles, we have found no difficulty in achieving
`hassannah' in this world and insya-Allah in the next
world, in the akhirat.
12. Many Muslims will of course disagree with us and
try to make out that we are `secular'. We are not going
to argue with them because we know that debating with
them or opposing them will not convince them that we are
right. But we believe and we are equally convinced in
our beliefs that what we do is in the service and in
accord with Islam. Nothing will convince us that Islam
requires us to pass judgement on other Muslims who are
our brothers and to act violently to negate Islamic
brotherhood, to destroy the unity of the Muslims, to
weaken them and to cause them to be dependent on non-
Muslims rather than Muslims and in many cases to cause
them to be enslaved by the professed enemies of Islam.
13. This is our faith and our creed in Malaysia. We do
not ask to be complimented or to be condemned by anyone
on this earth. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala will be our
Judge and in the hereafter we will receive our just
rewards or our punishments. No one, but no one should
presume that they, and they alone are privy to the day
of Judgement, to what will be Allah's judgement on us in
the akhirat. Only Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala knows.
14. Your Royal Highness and dear brothers in Islam,
once again I would like to thank those who have deemed
me fit to receive this award and may Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala bless us all and give us guidance.
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