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Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : IIUM CAMPUS IN GOMBAK, SELANGOR
Tarikh/Date : 17-04-2001
Tajuk/Title : THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC
UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA (IIUM) AND
THE 2ND GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE
FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITIES IN
THE MUSLIM WORLD
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
It is with great pleasure that I accept your kind
invitation to officially open the International Islamic
University Malaysia. I am delighted to have been asked
to speak at this 2nd General Conference of the
Federation of Muslim Universities in the Muslim World.
2. The International Islamic University of Malaysia
was conceived as a seat of higher learning where the
disciplines are not confined to Islamic theology but
include all the sciences and the arts which are not
abhorrent to Islam or incompatible with its teaching.
Yet these disciplines will all be infused with the
spirit and the essence of Islam as a way of life. This
way the students will be able to gain mastery of all so-
called non-theological subjects, which can contribute
to their development and advancement and still enable
them to live the way of life of true Muslims.
3. There is a great deal of confusion among Muslims
regarding secularism. They tend to regard anything
that is not about the ritualistic expression of Islamic
faith, about Islamic laws and Islamic theology as being
secular. This is rather unfortunate because it tends
to make Islam a reclusive religion, incapable of
understanding and dealing with anything other than what
they perceive as being religious. That this should be
the perception of Islam is doubly wrong because Islam
is not just a faith to be believed in, but it is a way
of life. Islam should therefore be concerned with
everything that is done in daily life, whether as an
individual or as a community. And what we do in life
is not and cannot be confined to the performance of
certain religious rituals and rites only.
4. As we all know Islam enjoins its followers with
two separate imperatives or impositions, or
injunctions. One is `Fardu Ain' which is concerned
with the personal performance of the rituals and
personal conduct of life as a Muslim. These earn merit
for oneself for life in this world and the hereafter.
5. The other injunctions are about one's duties to
oneself, to the community, to the `ummah' in general
and the immediate members of the community in
particular. The performance of these injunctions or
`Fardu Kifayah' give merit not just to the person
concerned but also to the other members of the
community where the Muslim individual lives, and to the
`ummah' in general.
6. While it is possible to perform `Fardu Ain' by
oneself with purely religious knowledge, the
performance of `Fardu Kifayah' requires other knowledge
and skills. Yet `Fardu Kifayah' is no less important
than `Fardu Ain' for even the most dedicated Muslims
will sin if what is enjoined as `Fardu Kifayah' is not
performed by him or by some other member or members of
the Muslim community.
7. Even here there is a tendency to confine `Fardu
Kifayah' to the religious rituals as for example the
preparation of the deceased person for burial, prayers
for the dead and for the burial. It is declared that
if in a community there is no one who can perform all
these then the whole community is condemned for having
sinned against the injunctions of Islam. And the
deceased, despite his religious piety in life is said
to have sinned against Islam.
8. Yet we all know that Islam enjoins upon the
`ummah', the community, to look after the well being of
all Muslims and their safety. This injunction is very
comprehensive because the well being and safety of the
Muslim involves the provision of food, clothing and
dwellings as well as arms and the capacity to defend
the Muslims against aggressors and uphold the religion
of Islam as the final religion of Mankind in the eyes
of Allah.
9. It follows that we cannot allow Muslims to starve
until they are reduced to begging for food not just
from other Muslims but from non-Muslims as well, some
of who are their detractors and even enemies. To keep
the Muslims supplied with food they must be involved in
its production, in farming, preparation and processing,
transportation, wholesale and retail sale of food. To
do all these they would need capital and agricultural
knowledge not just to plant food crops and to harvest
but also as the population and demands grows, to
increase production through the development of newer
and better strains with higher yields and greater
resistance to diseases. Accordingly the need for
scientific agriculture becomes more and more necessary.
Land has to be better utilised and administered and
farms must be large enough to be managed efficiently
and to give the profit to be used for more investments
in more food production as well as to pay tax and
`zakat' to uplift the Muslim `ummah'. The acquisition
of the knowledge and skills to do all these must
certainly be a part of `Fardu Kifayah'. The individual
farmer toiling in the field with his bare hands may be
adequate in the days of yore, but today's mass demands
by more than one billion Muslims require new approaches
to mass production.
10. The learning of agricultural science and related
subjects must certainly be a duty which Muslims cannot
neglect or consider as irrelevant to Islam and the
Muslims. So are the other sciences which can
contribute to the well-being of the Muslims, to their
freedom from hegemony and oppression by their enemies.
The Muslims are enjoined specifically to prepare with
war-horses and weapons to put fear in the hearts of
their enemies and to defend themselves. Horses and
swords and bows and arrows were sufficient in the days
of the Prophet. Today we need guns and tanks, fighter
planes and warships and a host of other sophisticated
weapons in order to deter the enemy and to defend
ourselves. But we are dependent on others, including
those who look upon the Muslims as their enemies, to
supply us with these defence requirements. We are not
putting fear in the hearts of anyone and certainly we
are unable to defend ourselves effectively.
11. The result is that Muslims all over the world are
oppressed, and often they are killed and massacred with
impunity, expelled from their own countries to live as
refugees in hostile lands for decades and centuries
even. Can we honestly say that their life is what is
meant by the Islamic way of life?
12. But of course there are Muslims who excuse
themselves by saying that it is Allah's will, that for
the Muslims Allah has prepared heaven in after-life.
Can this really be true since we have neglected a
cardinal injunction of Islam to prepare ourselves with
the means to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies
and to defend ourselves?
13. There are some who believe that Muslims can never
master the skills and knowledge to compete with their
detractors in the invention, production and use of
modern weapons and other products. This is a defeatist
attitude unworthy of Islam. We know very well that the
Muslims were superior to all others in the past in the
production of weapons, other products and in their
skilful usage.
14. The real reason why we are far behind the
developed nations is because we are advised that our
religious duty is to study religion because it will
gain us merit in the next world. Indeed parents are
known to insist that their children study religion
because they, the parents, would gain merit for
themselves also. In Malaysia professionals have been
known to express regret that they had chosen to go into
a profession when they should have studied religion.
To expiate what they consider to be their sin they sent
all their children to religious schools or to become
`hafiz'.
15. We know that many Muslims study various non-
religious subjects such as science and engineering but
many more who should be studying these important
subjects are not doing so because even though they may
be brilliant they are made to believe that these are
secular subjects.
16. In addition many who are studying these non-
religious subjects are being harassed by those who
would have them devote more time to various para-
religious activities. They are even urged to
participate in activities that have nothing to do with
their studies, as for example political agitations and
so-called struggles over all kinds of so-called Islamic
issues. Some are prevailed upon to take part in
clandestine activities said to be in the interest of
the religion.
17. A favourite approach of those who are opposed to
the acquisition of non-religious knowledge is to accuse
the Government which is promoting non-religious
education of being un-Islamic. The subjects were all
labelled as secular and therefore unsuitable for
Muslims to study. Muslim students would feel guilty if
they insist on studying these subjects and they would
do their best to devote more time to religion in order
not to be regarded as impious by their peers. The
result is that their ability to master these subjects
would be impaired.
18. In some cases such Muslim Governments are actually
attacked by urban guerrillas and the leaders would be
assassinated every now and again.
19. The net result of all these is a severe shortage
of scientists and technocrats. In fact even trained
administrators and business managers are in short
supply. Today when knowledge workers are in great
demand the Muslim countries are terribly short of such
workers.
20. These are the reasons why there are so few Muslims
in Muslim countries capable of developing their
countries to the level of the developed countries of
the world. There appears to be no possibility that a
Muslim country would emerge as a world power in the
foreseeable future, no matter how big it is.
21. The Muslim countries missed the industrial
revolution completely. Now we are likely to miss the
Information Age and the concomitant globalisation also.
We are simply not prepared for these radical changes in
technology and the relation between nations.
22. Globalisation is rapidly advancing and we are not
even a part of the process of interpreting
globalisation. After the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) has been formed all kinds of subjects totally
unrelated to trade are being introduced as issues for
trade negotiations between members of the WTO.
23. The IMF was once used as an agency for imposing
the will of the rich countries on the poor. But its
reach was limited in a way. The WTO will cover every
member. Once a rule is accepted failure on the part of
a member to comply can lead to countervailing measures
on the part of the rich and even to trade sanctions.
24. For example if transparency in Government
procurement is agreed to, the locals will have to
compete with powerful international contractors who can
outbid their local competition. In the end the local
contractors for Government supplies or construction
will all go under. On the other hand there is not a
hope for the contractors from poor countries to bid for
contracts put out by the Governments of the rich and
powerful countries. Either way the poor businesses
from the poor countries will lose.
25. Few Muslim countries are conversant with the
processes of globalisation. They are all disunited in
facing the challenges and the negotiations. They do
not have a common stand. Some are under obligation to
the rich and may not oppose the interpretations on
globalisation formulated by the rich. But once they
have committed themselves to the WTO, they will not be
able to get out of it. In the end they will lose
control over their countries. They will lose their
independence.
26. This is what is in store for the third world
countries and all Muslim countries belong to this
category. It looks like we are going to lose out again
as the world moves into the Information Age. Not only
do we not have mastery of Information Technology, but
also we don't seem to realise that it and the
globalisation that accompanies it will again result in
our subjugation.
27. Why are these things happening? Why should they
happen?
28. The answer is very simple. We have forsaken the
true teachings of Islam. We say Islam is a way of life
when we mean it is a way of death. For we are making
no effort to prepare ourselves for life in the 21st
Century Masihi.
29. When Islam asks us to acquire knowledge we say
that the knowledge referred to is only religious
knowledge. When Islam enjoins upon us to be prepared
to put fear in the hearts of our enemies and to defend
ourselves, we ignore the injunction and instead, by our
unpreparedness and weakness, we allow the enemy to put
fear into our hearts, and to attack and overcome us at
will.
30. And when Islam enjoins upon us to regard each
other as brothers, we make enemies of each other, we
fight and kill each other. We are told that when two
Muslims fight each other, the others must try to
reconcile them by referring to the teachings of the al-
Quran. But we hardly try and certainly when one
accepts and the other does not we never fight against
him. Instead we take sides and we enlarge the
differences.
31. We know that Islam forbids the taking of one's own
life, forbids suicide. But when Muslims fight each
other to the death, then they are actually committing
suicide of the `ummah'.
32. All that is happening to the Muslims of today is
due to our easy acceptance of the teachings which are
selective and which exclude much that are enjoined upon
us so we can make Islam as a way of life truly
beneficial to the `ummah'. Instead we propagate only
those parts of the religion which we, in our
selfishness, want to perform for our own exclusive
merit in the afterlife.
33. Western science has progressed to the point where
they believe they can play God. They want to clone
humans now and with their disregard for morality we
cannot foretell to what evil use they will apply their
knowledge. We as Muslims must never play God; we must
never let the evil in us misuse and misapply science.
But we have a need to understand and to be able to have
the same capability. We must have this not because we
want to emulate the West but because we have to know
how to counter the evil that will come our way. If,
and I say if, the Muslims are instilled with the proper
teachings of Islam, insya-Allah, we will be able to
frustrate whatever evil designs that Western scientists
may have in the application of their knowledge. We
cannot fight knowledge with ignorance. Of that we can
be certain.
34. The Malaysian International Islamic University is
not a theological university but is a university which
is inspired and guided by all the teachings of Islam as
a way of life, a way of life that acknowledges the
inevitability of death and the hereafter. Islam
enjoins that there should be a balance between the
present life and the hereafter. Muslims must partake
of their share in this world and seek their share in
the next world.
35. Clearly today Muslims are forfeiting their share
in this world. Never in the history of Islam have the
Muslims been so oppressed and subjected to all kinds of
indignities and forced to live a life that is so
penurious and miserable. Everywhere they are forced to
depend on others for their survival even, and for this
they have to pay a heavy price. They have to submit to
all kinds of restrictions on their freedom, on their
rights as members of the human race. In short they are
anything but the `khalifah' on earth that they have a
right to be.
36. As I said, there are some among us who would have
us believe that this is Islam, that we will suffer in
this world because we will reside in heaven in the
next. There are those who believe that this is
`takdir' the fate that God has determined for us. They
believe that we must not go against what has been pre-
ordained by Allah. But if we try to improve our lot
and if as a result we succeed, that too would be
`takdir', for certainly we cannot succeed if it had not
been pre-ordained by Allah.
37. We must all know our religion so we may not
deviate from it. But it is not necessary that every
single one of us to be an expert in Islam, an `ulama'.
There must be enough of us who master other skills that
are necessary to fulfil the other injunctions of Islam.
The General, skilled in the art and science of modern
warfare, is no less important to the Muslim `ummah' and
to Islam than the man learned in Islamic theology. The
skilled administrators, doctors, engineers, scientists,
businessmen and industrialists etc are no less
important to the Muslim `ummah' than the learned
theologian.
38. There must be a division of labour among the
Muslims for there cannot be a Muslim `ummah' where
everyone is skilled in everything. It is impossible
for a Muslim theologian to design and build a fighter
aircraft, produce it and fly it himself to defend the
Muslim `ummah'. These must be the responsibility of
those trained in these fields. The theologians must
never assume that because they are well versed in
religion, they can do everything that those who are
trained in the various fields can do. Nor should those
with other expertise, though they must know the
fundamentals of Islam so as not to stray away from it,
indulge in the intricacies of Islam which are the
subject of polemics between the `ulamas'.
39. It is only when we accept that there is no one
competent in all fields and we acknowledge that
everyone has an important role to play in the life of
Muslims and their society and nation and that each of
these roles are as much an `ibadat' or duty enjoined by
Islam and would therefore gain merit, can the Muslims
and their countries expect to develop and be at par
with the developed nations of the world.
40. This International Islamic University of Malaysia
must therefore dedicate itself not just to Muslim
theology but to preparing Muslims in all fields of
learning so as to enable them to build a Muslim `ummah'
that is well versed in the fundamentals of Islam and in
the skills and knowledge to make them capable of
developing their societies and countries to compete in
a world so hostile to Islam. We should seek to restore
the Muslim `ummah' and Islam to their rightful places
as Allah's `khalifah' on earth, to bring back not just
the greatness of Islam but the sanity of the rest of
the world also. We believe that this is what Islam
really wants us to do.
41. I now have the pleasure, in the name of Allah, The
Compassionate, The Merciful, to declare open the Second
General Conference of the Federation of Universities in
the Muslim World and the official opening of the
International Islamic University Malaysia.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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