THE SHARIA LAW DEBATE : IS SHARIA RELEVANT TO THE 21ST CENTURY?

THE SHARIA LAW DEBATE : IS SHARIA RELEVANT TO THE 21ST CENTURY?

Background

The Law Society of UCD organized a debate titled as above. The atmosphere was heated, with both sides exchanging blows and coming to an irreconcilable conclusion. The motion was passed in favour of the proposition. SHARIA LAW IS DEFINITELY NOT RELEVANT IN THE 21st CENTURY.

“ I’m not an idiot. Do not even attempt to fool me in saying that we believe in the same God. You believe in Allah. I believe that Jesus IS the son of GOD. You beat up women. You degrade them.You oppress them. And then you claim that SHARIA is the divine solution to our problems. Shame on you.”

This is me

I’m don’t claim to be an intellectual. I don’t pride myself in being analytical, nor do I spend time pondering in thought about pressing issues.

I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. Writing brings out the best and worst in me. On one hand, my ideas are more concretely presented, as I seldom find people who connect to the poetry I write.

Writing, however is a total different story. It is intertwined with emotions. It is extremely hard to differentiate between emotions, fact, and arguments without sinking into a ‘rambling’ phase I find in many blogs. I hope I’m up for this. Here goes….


Why I hate Histology

I promise you I will make this clear once we reach the end. Believe me it has everything to do with the topic I wish to highlight

I once characterized histology as the “study of dots”. I hated looking in the Wheater’s text book of histology. I hated noting the differences between a red dot, a purple dot, and a squiggly looking mitochondrion so unlike the beautiful picture painted in my past biology textbooks. To summate, I hated it.


In UCD, most of the histological material is taught in a module called “The Molecular Basis of Life”. Take note of the aura of theatrics surrounding the title. I of course could not ever appreciate the significance of John Baugh rambling about his fascination surrounding a mere cytoskeleton of a cell.


Why I still hate histology

Much has changed since then even though I still disagree with the method of teaching histology. When browsing through any histological text book, one can easily overlook the significance of each picture. The amount of time put in to actually make a claim that this red dot actually secretes histamine, or whether this lighter red dot is actually a chromophobe, or even claiming it to be a capillary; things we let slide from our view makes this subject mundane and tiresome.

Admittedly, I still hate histology. But I do appreciate the importance of it now. One cannot ever hope to gain anything beneficial by just studying text books on the week before the exam.

Dots will remain dots.

Unless we appreciate the effort put by the histologists (not even sure if such a career exists) in picking the right stain, analyzing the structures using intricate techniques before even daring to come up with an explanation of what its functions are; Dots will remain dots. If we go back to the FUNDAMENTALS of histology, how it relates to the aetiology of disease, then one would value the immense role it has to play in medicine.


Sharia Law : Is it even worth talking about?

”If I am gang raped by a bunch of criminals, the Sharia won’t even allow me to press charges unless I present four reliable witnesses. I might even be liable to lashings of the whip if I am convicted of false adulterous testimony”



Again I stress that I’m no intellectual. Nor am I a scholar. Sharia isn’t for the faint hearted.

How can you convince a capitalist state that women dressing up in hijab WILL prevent rape? How can you claim that stoning an adulterer to death is beneficial to a society that is generally promiscuous?

All these questions went unanswered tonight. The debate was a farce to begin with, and we had no chance of winning let alone convince anyone in that room who wasn’t muslim, that Sharia is relevant.

These are trivial matters.

Unfortunately, these are the issues that we focus on whenever indulging in a dialogue that spans faiths. Undoubtedly, at some point it does need to be addressed, but to shift one’s target from the core content of what Islam brings is unfair.

Individual vs State

Establishing a state of islam is a sensitive issue. And when it comes to sensitive issues, we prefer to sweep it under the bed and leave it there.

It is in our aqidah to believe in the compulsion of establishing the rule of Allah in this world. A statement which many shy upon making. The question is, should it be made our priority?

Are we discounting the fact that building an Islamic state in a society that is predominantly IGNORANT of islam will cause chaos and anarchy?

Rasulullah spent 13 years in Makkah preaching nothing but submission to God. In 13 years he managed to obtain merely 300 followers to Islam. But these 300 muslims were the ones of the highest qualities. Individuals groomed to excellence in faith, understanding the true core of submission toward Allah swt. An Islamic state was only formed after almost the whole of Madinah embraced the Oneness of God.

It was the presence of individual muslims confident of their faith that made it possible to establish any sort of rule pertaining to Sharia.


What does histology have to do with Implementing the Sharia?

If one does not understand the significance behind the choice of stain used to analyze a microscopic specimen; If one does not understand the importance of detecting a slightly misshapened mitochondrion, or a partially degrading Kupffer cell, then Histology is of no relevance. Histology will never be relevant.

Hence, (drumroll)

If one does not understand Islam; If one does NOT appreciate the NEED for Allah. If one does NOT even believe in the fundamentals of religion that have been decreed upon since the beginning of time; Then ISLAM isn’t relevant. SHARIA isn’t relevant.

All because he failed to understand the significance of that little red dot in his histology textbook.

I rest my case


(Good luck to my fellow colleagues who will be sitting for their Endocrine Histology exam on the 11th of November)

11 comments:

Unknown said...

good writing...much clear way of expressing your ideas...no more poem..suckksss la..haha.keep it up
yea..poor john bough...
hahaha..

bagus2..suka bangat entry ni

A.I.M. said...

http://goreymuslimcommunity.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Thuaibah said...

extremely good way of pointing out "the importance of something" (that we do not know) in an unbiased manner...

yes! absolutely true
"Dots will remain dots. "

yes! could not agree more..
"If one does not understand the significance behind the choice of stain used to analyze a microscopic specimen; If one does not understand the importance of detecting a slightly misshapened mitochondrion, or a partially degrading Kupffer cell, then Histology is of no relevance. Histology will never be relevant.

Hence, (drumroll)

If one does not understand Islam; If one does NOT appreciate the NEED for Allah. If one does NOT even believe in the fundamentals of religion that have been decreed upon since the beginning of time; Then ISLAM isn’t relevant. SHARIA isn’t relevant. "

this article is suitable to be presented to many of our colleagues who still argue about it.."owh, syariah Law/ Islamic sates is irrelevant nowdays"

j477 said...

kpd semut :
di sebalik pujian ade kutukan di situ haha..

kpd thuaibah
im glad tht u found it interesting.jzkk

tahniah jua kerane tlh memberi komen yg terpjg dlm sejarah blog ini.

pemburu syurga said...

...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................komen aku panjang gak eh?

j477 said...

lemah ar ko-waqi

mohd shazli mohd zaini said...

hahaha.. siyut waqi....best giler komen ko....XD

nice views on shariah law... well, couldnt agree more ( although i'm doin acc n law at once).

bende ni camner yek? simple put, dorang x nampak kot kebaikan dia kat life dorang kot. in short, sepanjang aku blajar law n bisnes kat sini... even church pun x leh intervene dlm jurisdiction dorang, apatah lagi shariah...hehehe, lagiah dorang hangin...

they concern more to Human Rights etc since the implementation of Human Rights Acts 1998 to their constitutional.

cuma yg bestnyer dorang x bising lak biler islamic finance easily and widely penetrated their market? the reason is simple... coz ader direct benefit for them, meanind dorang leh nampak kebaikan utk dorang etc... although initially the suggestion for the shariah law were only to be implemented to muslim family dispute specfically issues regarding divorce, etc

well, i suggest you read more on it at timesonline ( law section) for further argument...

again, nice views! cuma tang histology tu aku x paham sgt since aku ni mmg anti science.... hehehe


regards,
shazli
leeds,uk

j477 said...

segan ar bile orang yg amek law comment artikel yg totally xde basis fakta yg kukuh ni....

klau ko x phm histology, aku x phm "islamic finance easily and widely penetrated their market"....

org medik bace buku medik je, org acc n law bace buku ape ek?gempak gile general knowledge ko...:D

Thuaibah said...

Salam.
Islamic Finance sbb nmpak sgt benefitnya kt mrk n kekukuhannya hadapi fluctuation and inflation...sbb tue mrk trm..so cmne nk suruh nampak SHARIAH LAW nie org nmpak benefit nyer?

petikan artikel:

Produk perbankan Islam terbukti mampu tangani kemelut ekonomi dalam sistem pasaran kapitalis

JIKA kita boleh tamsilkan keadaan sakit kewangan global hari ini dengan sakitnya satu dekad lalu, penulis boleh umpamakan dengan keadaan sakit seorang anak dan seorang ayah. Dalam krisis kewangan global akhir milinium lalu yang sakit adalah anaknya.

Oleh itu, ia masih boleh diubati oleh si ayah. Tapi yang sakit pada hari ini adalah ayahnya. Bagaimana dia boleh mengubati diri sendiri. Krisis global akhir 90-an adalah krisis kewangan yang berayahkan bank manakala krisis hari ini adalah krisis perbankan yang di dalamnya ada wang. Sudah tentu dampak dan imbasnya akan jauh dan berbeza.

Negara dunia hari ini menawarkan diri untuk menjamin semua simpanan bank mereka di mana dalam sistem ekonomi kapitalis ia adalah sesuatu yang tabu. Tapi kerana ingin menyelamatkan kepentingannya, maka yang tabu ini menjadi halal dan boleh. Justeru, yang tabu ini adalah amalan yang sememangnya satu daripada tonggak sistem kewangan Islam dalam bentuk wadi'ah yad damanah, simpanan dengan jaminan. Bukankah sudah tiba masanya untuk menerapkan sistem perbankan dan kewangan Islam?

Mungkin kerana penulis mengajar subjek Perbankan dan Kewangan Islam untuk pelajar Diploma Perundangan Islam dan Guaman Syarie dan subjek al-Masarif al-Islamiyyah (Perbankan Islam) untuk pelajar Sarjana Syariah di Fakulti Syariah dan Undang-Undang, Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Brunei, maka Dekannya, Dr Ayman Salih yang berasal dari Jordan menghantar satu e-mel berkaitan dengan isu hangat krisis perbankan global ini.

Dalam e-mel berkenaan disertakan tulisan Muhammad al-Nuri bertajuk Kuttab Gharbiyun: Tatbiq al-Syariah al-Islamiyyah fi al-Majal al-Iqtisadi yunqiz Iqtisad al-Alam (Penulis-penulis Barat: Pelaksanaan Syariah Islam dalam bidang ekonomi menyelamatkan ekonomi dunia).

Dalam tulisan berkenaan dipaparkan perbincangan reaksi terhadap tulisan Ketua Pengarang majalah Challenges dalam lidah pengarangnya sebulan lalu bertarikh 12 September 2008 dengan tajuk Le pape ou le Coran (Pope atau al-Quran).

Majalah ekonomi terkemuka Eropah berbahasa Perancis itu membuat kejutan dengan tajuk rencana berkenaan di mana Ketua Pengarangnya, Vincent Beaufils menulis dan bertanyakan mengenai etika kapitalis dan peranan Kristian sebagai agama khasnya gereja Katolik yang memburukkan krisis dan mempermudahkan masalah faedah sehingga membawa dunia ke tepi jurang.

Beaufils menulis dengan bahasa yang penuh kemarahan dan menuduh pihak gereja serta memohon maaf kepada Pope Benedict XVI: "Saya fikir, dalam menghadapi krisis ini kita perlu lebih banyak membaca al-Quran daripada Bible demi untuk memahami apa yang benar-benar berlaku terhadap kita dan perbankan kita. Ini kerana jika pelaku perbankan kita mencuba untuk menghormati apa yang tertera dalam al-Quran mengenai ajaran dan hukumnya kemudian mereka menerapkannya sudah tentu bencana dan krisis ini tidak akan terjadi menimpa kita dan kita tidak akan sampai kepada suatu keadaan yang membimbangkan ini; kerana wang tidak melahirkan wang."

Begitu pula Ketua Pengarang Majalah Le Journal de Finance, Roland La Sceen, dalam pembukaan majalahnya awal bulan ini menulis lebih berani dan jelas dengan tajuk "Apakah Wall Street sudah layak untuk menerapkan prinsip-prinsip syariah Islam?" Dalam tulisan berkenaan, beliau menyeru akan betapa pentingnya menerapkan syariah Islam dalam bidang kewangan dan ekonomi untuk mengehadkan kemaraan krisis yang menggoncang pasaran global akibat permainan kotor ke atas prinsip-prinsip kontrak dan sangat berlebihan dalam transaksi-transaksi semu (palsu) yang haram.

Beliau mendedahkan bahaya yang menimpa sistem kapitalis dan merayu untuk mencari penyelesaian alternatif ke atasnya dengan memberikan beberapa jalan penyelesaian dan berada di urutan atas adalah penerapan syariah Islam walaupun ia bercanggah dengan adat istiadat Barat dan kepercayaannya.

Seorang penulis dan pengkaji wanita berasal dari Itali, Loretta Napolioni, baru-baru ini menulis buku bertajuk Iqtisad Ibn Awa (Ekonomi Ibnu Awa). Dalam buku ini, dijelaskan bahawa perbankan Islam menjadi alternatif yang sesuai bagi perbankan Barat dengan ranapnya bursa dunia dan krisis hutang di Amerika Syarikat.

Sistem perbankan konvensional sudah mula nampak keakutan penyakitnya dan memerlukan penyelesaian dari akar umbi.

Dalam laporannya, detik.com pada 22 Oktober lalu menulis: "Ketika bank-bank konvensional terlilit masalah akibat krisis kewangan, jumlah pelanggan Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) meningkat lima peratus, termasuk pelanggan sektor pembiayaan yang naik menjadi 13 peratus. Di antara pelanggan baru itu, ramai pelanggan bukan Islam."

Pengarah Komersial IBB, Sultan Choudhury, berkata, orang kini beralih ke bank Islam kerana bank berasaskan Islam memiliki perlindungan yang lebih baik daripada pengaruh kredit tak berbayar yang saat ini menimpa bank konvensional. IBB, tambah Choudhury, tidak mengambil pinjaman berasaskan faedah daripada bank lain dan memiliki pelaburan berasaskan aset yang berkualiti tinggi.

Konsep syariah yang dilaksanakan dalam produk industri perbankan kini semakin bertambah dan meluas setelah wujudnya persaingan antara pengamal pasaran peringkat tempatan dengan pengamal pasaran antarabangsa.

Jika sebelum ini banyak produk perbankan Islam menggunakan konsep syariah yang terhad seperti wadi'ah termasuk yad al-damanah, murabahah, BBA, Inah dan bai al-dayn, kini banyak konsep syariah yang lain diguna pakai seperti ijarah, mudarabah, musyarakah dan tawarruq.

Perkembangan ini menunjukkan bahawa pengamal perbankan Islam kini semakin bersedia dan memahami keperluan kepada mempertingkatkan kepelbagaian produk bagi memenuhi kehendak pelanggan yang memerlukan kepada produk kewangan Islam yang patuh syariah. Selain inisiatif pengamal pasaran, ulama Islam juga mula menunjukkan kefahaman mereka terhadap struktur produk yang lebih kompleks dan pelbagai.

Kontrak yang diamalkan dalam kewangan Islam umumnya terbahagi kepada dua jenis kontrak iaitu kontrak yang bersifat 'uqud musamma' dan 'uquq mustajiddah'. Kontrak yang lahir daripada 'uqud musamma' lazimnya mudah dilaksanakan kerana segala syarat yang perlu ada pada kontrak itu telah dibahaskan oleh ulama fikah terdahulu seperti jual beli, ijarah, salam dan sebagainya. Sementara kontrak yang bersifat mustajiddah, maka ia perlu kepada takyif fiqhi yang jelas dan ijtihad secara kolektif agar pelaksanaannya lebih menepati asas syarak.

Lazimnya kontrak yang bersifat mustajiddah lebih banyak diamalkan dalam konteks kewangan semasa antaranya murabahah li al-amir bi al-syira', ijarah muntahiyah bi tamlik, musyakah mutanaqisah, qard, mudharabah, wakalah bi istithmar dan sebagainya.

Dengan istilah produk kewangan Islam ini sudah cukup dibuktikan bahawa sistem kewangan Islam memang inovatif dan ia sesuai untuk keperluan manusia di setiap tempat dan masa. Di samping itu, sistem ini adalah sistem terapan dari pemahaman terhadap al-Quran dan hadis Nabi yang sudah pasti akan membawa keberkatan. Wallahu a'lam.


http://www.bharian.com.my/Current_News/BH/Sunday/Agama/20081026025023/Article/index_html

p/s: komen plg panjang lg:p

nahar said...

last time, i hate histology too..and for one sem i don't really understand about those slaid..and most my friends fail 1st year sbb tak lepas histology..well after 1 year 'suffer' i know that sebenarnya dgn histology u can see a lot of things as it is the basic of life..depends on you how you want to relate ur knowledge with what your life need =)

j477 said...

Salam

nahar :
my point exactly. one can never begin to understand the SIGNIFICANCE of anything in life, be it religion, studies etc, UNLESS one goes back to the BASICS. The core reason behind it all. When applied to religion, it makes life so much simple, there is less doubt, and more assurance in adhering to the rules set forth by our creator..wallahu 'alam

Thuaibah:
komen awk pendek je.cume artikel yg di-paste agak pjg..(maaf kerane x membace dgn sepenuh hati, sbb mmg pjg)

im a realist. if there was a solution (short term) to all of this, it would already happen. But life, it seems, isnt that simple. various factors need to be taken into account before even considering the implementation of the 'islamic' way of life, x kisah dari segi syariah, ekonomi atau ape2 saje

it is easy to pen down our thoughts, ideas, and opinions...implementing it is a different story.

I crave the day Islam regains its rightful place.

j477

 

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