Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim
Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Maha Besar ALLAH yang mengeluarkan kamu dari perut ibu mu dalam keadaan tidak mengetahui sesuatu pun, dan Dia memberi kamu pendengaran, penglihatan dan hati agar kamu bersyukur.[1] Maha Suci ALLAH yang telah menyeru orang-orang beriman, “Berlapang-lapanglah dalam majlis”, maka lapangkanlah, nescaya ALLAH melapangkan (tempat) untuk mu; dan apabila dikatakan: “Berdirilah kamu”, maka berdirilah, nescaya ALLAH akan meninggikan orang-orang yang beriman di antara mu dan orang-orang yang diberi ilmu pengetahuan beberapa darjat; dan ALLAH Maha Mengetahui apa yang kamu kerjakan.[2]
2. Hamba-Mu mengangkat kalimah kesyukuran setinggi-tingginya kerana dengan kudrat iradat Mu, Hamba-Mu dapat bersama memakmurkan Majlis ilmu yang dianjurkan ini. Semoga niat suci dan usaha murni sekalian hamba Mu ini mendapat limpah berkat dan rahmat dari Mu jua. Ya Tuhan ku! lapangkanlah untuk ku dada ku; dan mudahkanlah untuk ku urusan ku; dan lepaskanlah kekakuan dari lidah ku; supaya mereka mengerti perkataan ku.[3]Amin Ya Rabul Alamin.
3. Selawat kesejahteraan ke atas Rasul Junjungan dan Penghulu kami, Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alai Wassalam, semulia-mulia kejadian, yang senantiasa memohon supaya ditambah ke atas dirinya ilmu pengetahuan.[4] Kurniakan rahmat ke atas Baginda, demikian juga ke atas ahli keluarga dan para sahabat Baginda yang merupakan bintang-bintang penunjuk mencernakan cahaya, seterusnya ke atas sekalian para Tabiin dan para ulama yang berterusan, gigih mengembangkan ilmu, berperanan sebagai penyuluh kegelapan. Semoga memperoleh ihsan dari Mu jua Ya ALLAH sehingga ke hari kebangkitan.
4. The Second World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilization dengan tema “The Rise and Fall of Civilization: Contemporary State of Muslim Affairs” bertujuan menghimpun pemikiran-pemikiran Islam sezaman selain mentafsir semula pemikiran ilmuwan Islam terdahulu dan semasa. Beta menzahirkan penghargaan kepada Kolej Universiti Islam Sultan Azlan Shah (KUISAS) atas usaha menganjurkan program yang akan menambah khazanah ilmu untuk manfaat ummah.Semoga usaha yang dirintis ini mendapat petunjuk dan rahmat dari ALLAH Subhanahu Wata’ala.
5. Terkandung di dalam Al-Quran, pelbagai kisah tentang kebangkitan dan keruntuhan tamadun, pemerintahan, kerajaan dan ummah. Para pengkaji mendapati hampir 1,500 ayat atau satu perempat kandungan Al-Quran mengandungi kisah-kisah sejarah[5] untuk dijadikan peringatan.Surah Al-A’raaf mengandungi 206 ayat.Dalam surah tersebut sahaja, terkandung kisah-kisah Nabi Adam Alaihissalam, Nabi Nuh Alaihissalam, Nabi Hud Alaihissalam,Nabi Shaleh Alaihissalam, Nabi Luth Alaihissalam, Nabi Shuib Alaihissalam, Nabi Musa Alaihissalam. Bahawa tiap-tiap umat atau bangsa itu mempunyai batas waktu kejayaan dan keruntuhan selaras dengan maksud yang terkandung dalam ayat 34 Surah Al-A’raaf:
“Dan bagi tiap-tiap umat ada tempoh (yang telah ditetapkan); maka apabila datang tempohnya, tidak dapat mereka dikemudiankan walau sesaat pun, dan tidak dapat pula mereka didahulukan.”[6]
6. Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala memberikan contoh-contoh akan kehancuran dan kemusnahan yang berlaku kepada kaum dan ummah akibat daripada sifat sombong manusia mengingkari perintah ALLAH, serta perbuatan zalim yang dilakukan oleh manusia sesama manusia, sedangkan ALLAH telah secara jelas lagi nyata memperingatkan manusia dalam ayat 4 Surah Al-A’raaf yang membawa maksud:
“Dan berapa banyak negeri yang Kami binasakan, ia itu datang azab seksa Kami menimpa penduduknya pada malam hari, atau ketika mereka berehat pada tengah hari.”[7]
7. Oleh itu dalam hasrat dan usaha mahu membina tamadun ummah, agar dapat disuburkan, dipertingkatkan dan terus berupaya dilestarikan, amatlah penting di kalangan mereka yang telah diamanahkan dengan tanggung jawab mengurus tadbir ummah, menjadikan pedoman ayat 181 Surah Al-A’raaf yang bermaksud:
“Dan di antara orang-orang yang Kami ciptakan itu, ada satu umat yang memberi petunjuk dengan kebenaran, dan dengannya mereka menjalankan keadilan.”[8]
8. Sesungguhnya, kelestarian sesuatu tamadun itu amat dipengaruhi oleh budaya tadbir urus yang menjunjung prinsip-prinsip utama menurut yang ditetapkan di dalam Al-Quran; serta menjadikan lampu penyuluh, amalan unggul kepimpinan Rasulullah Sallallahu Alai Wassalam menurut yang terkandung di dalam Hadis-hadis peninggalan Baginda.
My Fellow Muslims:
9. As we survey the state of Muslim affairs today, we are presented with a grim picture. Large swaths of the Muslim world are in great turmoil. The sorry state of social, political and economic development in the Muslim world has often been remarked upon. Many of these countries have low and medium levels of human development, and some have serious problems with poverty, health, security and stability. In the UNDP’s Human Development Report 2014, only one-third or 19 out of the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) are classified as being either in the very high or high human development category. Two-thirds or 38 members are placed in the medium and low human development category, with the majority (24 members) located at the bottom of the table.
10. When we look at their populations, the disparities become even more stark. Only 2 per cent of the population in the OIC member states has achieved very high levels of human development. A further 18 per cent are in the high category. Meaning that four out of five – or 80 per cent – of the population in the Muslim world suffer the deprivations of underdevelopment and poverty.
11. In concrete terms, those living in conditions of low human development have life spans that are, on average, 20 years less than those in the very high category. They have an average of 8 years less schooling and average per capita incomes that are less than 10 per cent of those at the top. Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa are the most greatly disadvantaged, followed by those in South Asia and the Middle East. Generally speaking, Muslims in East Asia, Europe and Central Asia fare the best.
12. Even these indicators do not tell the whole story. They do not take into account the suffering and dislocation to family life caused by internal political turmoil and armed conflicts that are present in many parts of the Muslim world today.
My Fellow Muslims:
13. In a speech delivered at the World Muslim Leadership Forum in London a few years ago, I indicated that the Muslim world faces three major challenges. I mentioned that a revitalized Muslim world must endeavor to build at least three bridges. The first is the bridge between Muslims and their government. The second is the bridge between Muslim countries themselves. The third is the bridge between the Muslim world and the rest of the international community. I believe these challenges to be as relevant today as they were then.
14. All three bridges are important and they reinforce each other. Each bridge needs to be strong. But the most critical bridge is the first one -that between Muslims and their governments. Until this bridge is strong, the other two will not be sturdy.
15. Muslim countries should, therefore, tend to this bridge first and make themselves internally cohesive and resilient, and peaceful and prosperous. Only then will they have the capacity to tend to the other two bridges.
16. The challenge for the Muslim world is that the majority of its countries are not robust internally. Most are developing countries with limited resources and deficiencies in political, economic and social governance. These problems are not unique to Muslim countries. They can be found in all countries with low human development and unstable domestic and external environments.
17. To achieve internal cohesion and resilience, peace and prosperity, practicing good governance needs to be the first order of the day. No number of vision statements, development plans or policies can work when the essentials of good governance are not present. Only by doing so can the Muslim world be seen as part of the solution to the world’s ills. And only then can it gain the admiration and respect that it so desires and deserves. It is only with good governance will countries be able to make the giant leaps needed to lift their populations out of the cycles of violence, underdevelopment and poverty.
18. As Muslim scholars and intellectuals, all of you would be aware that good governance is fundamental to Islam’s teachings. Good governance is what Islam has always advocated. Its promotion is the obligation of every Muslim. The concepts of amanah (responsibility or trust), musyawarah (consultation) and muafakat (consensus) predate modern Western notions by more than a thousand years. And yet, as we look across the Muslim world, good governance practices seem to be noted more by their absence than their presence. This is something that must be addressed urgently.
19. At its core, good governance must possess the attributes of being participatory, consensual, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective, equitable and inclusive. When a sufficient number of these basic attributes are in place, countries can begin to go about making the kinds of decisions that will bring benefits to the people.
20. Education has rightly been identified as one of the main keys to empowerment. In this regard, although progress is being made among Muslim countries, primarily because the base is so low, achievements are staggeringly below par. The adult literacy rate in OIC countries averaged just 72 per cent in 2010, compared with 83 per cent in other developing countries and 98 per cent in the developed world.[9]Illiteracy is most prevalent among Muslim females, with just 64 per cent able to read and write, but even Muslim males lagged behind their counterparts in non-OIC countries.
21. While numbers enrolled at pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions have risen in OIC countries over the last 10 years, the figures are still far behind the rest of the developing world. The number of post-secondary students doubled between 2000 and 2011 but the rate of increase was lower than in other developing countries.Enrollment in tertiary institutions in OIC countries in 2011 was under 20 per cent, compared with 25 per cent in other developing countries and over 75 per cent in developed countries.
22. While governments around the world invest an average of 5 per cent of GDP on education, 4.5 per cent in the case of developing countries, OIC countries devote just 3.8 per cent in 2012. With these kinds of discrepancies, it is difficult to expect OIC on the whole to make up ground. With each passing year, the shortfalls lead to cumulatively larger numbers and the task of catching-up on the education front becomes all the more onerous.
23. To be sure, some governments are devoting a great deal more to education and research and development than others. Countries such as Malaysia, Tunisia, Turkey, Pakistan and Jordan are higher than the OIC average in terms of the number of researchers per million of population and gross expenditure on research and development. The number of patents filed and scientific papers published in these countries has risen accordingly. Nevertheless, the 57 members of the OIC published about the same number of papers that Germany alone did in 2011.
24. We as Muslims need to be confident enough in our faith to engage with the outside world. We must regard all knowledge and truth as coming from the Almighty. If the Muslim world rejects scientific discoveries or ignore technological innovations, it will continue to remain weak and marginalised. The invention of the movable-type printing press, for example, infamously encountered strong resistance by some Muslim scholars and was banned during the 15th to 18thCentury by the Ottoman Empire. This greatly slowed the spread of knowledge throughout the Muslim world. Progress requires absorbing and adapting technology that exists in other places, which necessitates engaging with those who have it.
My Fellow Muslims:
25. I have dwelt on good governance and education this morning because I believe they provide the keys to the revitalization and regeneration of Muslim countries and civilisation. The advent of Islam 1,400 years ago brought a fundamental change in the values, belief systems and practices of Arab society and thereafter the world. Those changes raised the dignity of the human person and human community to a level unknown before.
26. When rulers nearly everywhere had few responsibilities and obligations to the people, when women everywhere enjoyed virtually no rights, and when slavery and servitude were considered the natural order, Islam enjoined just rule, responsibility for the welfare of the poor and needy, the provision of education, and property rights for women.
27. Similarly, the principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law had been present in the Islamic tradition hundreds of years before the Western versions of those principles were exported there. The Holy Quran repeatedly enjoins tolerance towards other cultures and religions. It opposes absolutism in politics, culture and religion. It abhors omnipotent despots. Ideas of social contract were part of Islamic political philosophy long before the teachings of Locke and Rousseau. Political leaders are meant to govern through consultation, a recommendation that adumbrates modern participative government.
28. It is this spirit embedded in the Islamic tradition that we must endeavor to rediscover. It is my hope that this gathering of Muslim scholars and intellectuals will be able to contribute to this rediscovery.
29. Dalam niat mahu membina tamadun ummah yang agung, dan dalam hasrat untuk mengukuhkan budaya urus tadbir yang mendapat keredaan ILAHI, sama-samalah direnungkan maksud yang terkandung dalam ayat 52Surah Al-A’raaf:
“Dan sesungguhnya Kami telah datangkan kepada mereka, sebuah kitab (Al-Quran) yang Kami telah menjelaskannya satu persatu berdasarkan pengetahuan (Kami yang meliputi segala-galanya), untuk menjadi hidayah petunjuk dan rahmat, bagi orang-orang yang (mahu) beriman.”[10]
30. Semoga para peserta Konferensi ini dirahmati oleh ALLAH Subhanahu Wata’ala selaras dengan hadis yang diriwayatkan Abu Dzar Radiallahuanhu:
“Menghadiri majlis orang berilmu, lebih utama daripada mendirikan solat seribu rakaat, mengunjungi seribu orang sakit dan bertakziah seribu jenazah.”[11]
Wabillahi taufik walhidayah
Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
- Al-Quran, Surah An-Nahl, 16:78. ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Al-Mudjaadilah, 58:11. ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Thaha, 20:25-28. ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Thaha, 20:114 ↑
- Syarif al Syeikh Soleh Ahmad al Khatib, Al Sunan al Illahiyyah Fi al Hayah al Insaniyyah Wa Athar al Iman Biha Fi al Aqidah Wa al Suluk, Dar al Uthmaniyah, Aman, 2004. (Dipetik dari kertas Mansor bin Sulaiman (UMP), Sunnah ALLAH Berkaitan Jatuh dan Bangun Tamadun Manusia Menurut Al-Quran dan Hubungannya Dengan Proses Pendidikan Akhlak: Suatu Kajian). ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Al-A’raaf, (7:34) ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Al-A’raaf, (7:4) ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Al-A’raaf (7:181) ↑
- Statistical Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), Education and Scientific Development in the OIC Member Countries, 2012-2013, OIC: 2012 ↑
- Al-Quran, Surah Al-A’raaf (7:52) ↑
- Imam Ghazali, Ihya Ulumiddin-Jilid 1, Terjemahan Prof. TK. H. Ismail Yakub SH, MA., (Kuala Lumpur: Victory Ajensi, 1988) ms 59. ↑