THE current favorite political speculation is on Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s choice of successor. At 93, providence may not give Dr Mahathir the luxury of an unhurried pace, and Malaysia can ill afford leadership chaos now.
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Dr Mahathir can learn much from our Prophet Muhammad. One narration has the prophet sounding out his young companion, one Mu’adh Ibn Jabal, for the governorship of Yemen, a pivotal appointment. It goes something like this (approximate rendition):
Prophet: “How would you govern?”
Ibn Jabal: “According to the Book of Allah!”
Prophet: “What if you do not find it there?”
Ibn Jabal: “Then in your sunnah (traditions and practices of the prophet).”
Prophet: “What if you do not find it there either?”
To which Ibn Jabal replied: “Then I will strive for my own judgment.”
The prophet was most pleased by that response.
Everytime I hear this hadith cited, regardless of the speaker, audience, or venue, discourse would be long on Ibn Jabal’s vast knowledge of the Quran and his ability to discern halal from haram, together with embellished accounts of the prophet’s love and praises for the man. Many of the accounts, if we can believe the narrators, bordered on the homoerotic.
Then there would be the recitations of the various versions with their excruciating details, as if the prophet’s utterance of over 14 centuries ago had been recorded verbatim.
Rarely would one hear of the hadith’s wisdom, or how it could be applied to contemporary challenges. The fetish, then and now, is in displaying one’s Arabic fluency and memorisation prowess.
Tradition has it that the prophet had earlier sought out other candidates. When Abu Bakar volunteered, the prophet remained silent. Then Omar Khattab offered himself. Again the prophet fell silent. When Ibn Jabal responded, the prophet was most pleased.
A measure of Abu Bakar and Omar Khattab is that both would later succeed the prophet. Yet he bypassed them. You could say that the prophet practiced meritocracy and fast-tracked Ibn Jabal. This insight of the hadith is rarely recognised or recounted.
Note that the prophet did not inquire whether Ibn Jabal had paid his zakat or gone to hajj. The prophet was interested only in that one quality most crucial in a leader – his judgment. That insight too is often missed.
Had Dr Mahathir heeded this in his first go as prime minister, Malaysia would have been spared much grief. So would he. Now in his second time around, I hope that he will be more diligent. Scour the field wide for his Ibn Jabal and bypass his Abu Bakars and Omar Khattabs if need be. Dr Mahathir’s potential Ibn Jabal may not even be in the cabinet now.
Ponder that hadith again. Imagine the prophet reminding Ibn Jabal that he may not find the answers in the Quran or seerah! Tell that to those whose rote response to today’s complex problems is to endlessly chant, “The Quran (or seerah) has all the answers!”
We degrade the Quran when we reduce it to a how-to manual; worse, a talisman or a Muslim’s lucky rabbit foot. Soak a verse of Surah Yaseen in your tea and that would protect you from illness. Chant this ayat 72 times and your debt would magically dissipate, or there would be no need to be vaccinated. Plaster a verse on your dashboard and that would protect you even if you were to text while driving. That simple!
They choose to ignore the other prophetic tradition: first tie your camel securely, only then pray it does not escape.
Martin Luther observed that a Christian cobbler would best demonstrate his piety not by making shoes decorated with fancy crucifixes but by making them cheap and durable so the poor could afford them. Likewise, a Muslim engineer would best demonstrate his iman not by carving Quranic verses onto fancy arches but by being diligent in his calculations and meticulous in his construction so the bridge would not collapse with the first rainstorm.
Today the Quran and hadith are being exploited to end a discussion rather than illuminate it. The Quran (or hadith as narrated by Bukhari, Muslim, Termidhi, etc.) says: “...the ulama would assert with arrogant certitude, as if his interpretation is the only valid one.” The Quran and hadith should stimulate discussions, not close them.
Then there are those who would dispense entirely with hadith. To them, Prophet Muhammad was but a human fax machine, a robotic intermediary mouthing whatever God had placed in his vocal cords. Once you receive your message, the fax machine is superfluous.
Hadith scholar Jonathan Brown put it best. When we read the Quran, we implicitly put on the lens of the holy prophet. Like lens, the hadith enhance and clarify the Quran and help us focus. We can only achieve that if we are not preoccupied with and distracted by the chain of narrators, or argue endlessly on the authenticity of what was uttered a millennium-and-a-half ago.
If the prophet had to remind Ibn Jabal that the answer may not always be in the Quran or hadith, we too would be wise to follow that precept. – November 12, 2018.
* M. Bakri Musa reads The Malaysian Insight.
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Comments
Look, Malaysia were very lucky. We have a relatively small population, abundant land, petroleum, inherited plantation resources started by our former colonial masters, and functioning laws laid down during our independence and a spoken and written language used worldwide in commerce and diplomacy.
All this were squandered away. In the sixties, we were ahead of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc, but they are now out of sight in front of us. We are a little "kancil" trying to be a "tiger" competing now with the likes of Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines instead. How far we have fallen!
We have a PM-in-waiting who prefers to maintain a dignified silence than defend his future administration against relentless criticisms by a tainted ex-PM which (I hoped to be proved wrong) recall to mind a saying .... "its better to stay silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and proved to be one" ...
...... to be continued
Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply
And an opposition leader mocked and laughed at by our neighbours for his lack of knowledge of geography. He is not the only one. Many of our leaders had also excused away the floods caused by the North-East monsoon by the same reasoning. "First class idiots", to quote Rafidah.
All these are the products of our screwed-up education system (Mahathir included). During the era of MCE and HSC exams, students must pass compulsorily either History or Geography. Geography was then dropped. Just ask, how many Malaysians under the age of 35 can, off their head, name the capitals of all the states? Don't waste one breath asking them the capitals of Mongolia, Morocco and Mali or to describe the North-East and South-West Monsoons. We produced "kampung idiots" instead of "worldly men".
We have plenty of idiots in our current administration. One can deduce it from the nonsense they spewed out and their actions. These are the results of choosing based on race, religion, party affiliations and rewarding the "idiotic lackeys of the bosses".
I seriously had doubts whether Malaysia can in future compete with countries who choose their political and business leaders based mainly on meritocracy, We may regress further and further and become a derogatorily "Palm Oil Monarchy".
Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply
Posted 7 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply
Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply
Posted 7 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply