Sep

29

A Malaysian Raya Message

September 29, 2008 |

To all my fellow Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, I would like to share passages from two books — one written by a Muslim and the other by a Jew.

The passages from The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abd al-Rahman Azzam:

“In its modern form, nationalism is a new evil, and racism is worse still; and there is no cure for either except to uproot tens of millions from their present places of residence and confine them to specific geographic areas.”

The Message of Muhammad recognizes neither nationalism nor racism in their modern contexts; the fatherland of the Muslim admits no geographic delimitations—it coextends with the faith. In reality, it is a spiritual fatherland, just as religion is a spiritual matter.”

“Racism, or a fanatic attachment to tribe, nation, color, language, or culture, is rejected by the Message as a product of pre-Islamic idolatry. The prophet declares, “He is not of us who preaches bigotry.” Islam rejects every form of bigotry. All loyalties are directed to the word of God, and no relation above the spiritual is recognized.”

And now, the passage from Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl:

“From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of “pure race”—and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.”

Both of these men stand on opposing sides of “racial and religious divides”. Both of these men are renowned in their own right. Yet, both of them affirms the irrelevance of race as we know it.

On the eve of Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, I humbly implore all of you, my fellow Malaysians, to discard the old life of living in racial boxes and start life anew living as Malaysians.

Salam.


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