The Kingdom of God is in our heart, not in the Ballot Box - a plea of sorts

83. The Village

Give me a suburb of honest sinners

Too busy with their lives and work to really

Care who I am,

Than a village full of gossiping believers

And their ubiquitous morality police.

....................

The march of political Islam is gaining new headway in Malaysia, with the proposal to create a religious scholars council within the incumbent UMNO party. Because you see, they are worried that they are not appearing Islamic enough... As if you need specific religious education to tell you what corruption and bribery is...

65. The Great Islamic Pail

Islamic courses and Islamic rules,

Islamic books and Islamic schools,

Islamic shops and Islamic banks,

Islamic bombs and Islamic tanks.

This is what my Islam is made of.

Islamic shoes and Islamic sandals,

Islamic tales and Islamic fables,

Islamic labels and Islamic rebels,

Islamic banging on Islamic tables.

This is what my Islam is made of.

Islamic banner and Islamic country,

Islamic state and Islamic party,

Islamic bread with Islamic buns,

Islamic hate with Islamic guns.

This is what my Islam is made of.

O’ Lord, we are spreading the word of “Islam”,

We have succeeded where the caliphs have failed,

All and sundry we have labeled “Islam”,

So what was once the humble bucket,

Is now the Great Islamic Pail.

.............

I don't need no busy-body peeping-tom moral guardians to tell me what's what. Had I such inclination I would move to some lovely neighbourhood in Tehran. I think people (and there are enough of them) who think Malaysia is not 'Islamic' enough to consider settling in such Shangri-la paradise as the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Somalia or Iran. It's lovely there. Honest.

I am tired of these 'Islamic' pundits from both sides of the House of Parliament gripping my fellow Muslims in a vice of spiritual extortion and blackmail - "Follow me or be prepared for Hellfire to burn your bottom" they often say, but the meaning I hear behind their words is different, it is an ancient phrase that once condemned the most faithful servant of God into a continuing exile, when he rebelled against God's Command to bow before Adam and sought to justify his refusal thus - "Ana khairun minhu" (I am better than he, meaning Adam). Such is the rocky path of hubris that is ever tempting the lettered scholars.

But I know that this trend of political Islam shall not end. Indeed, I anticipate it will flourish. But I am just saying I don't like it. That's all.

Help keep faith out of politics. Keep faith in its natural dominion, within our hearts. God save the Caliph!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way