This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 17, 2022 - October 23, 2022

Tolerance and understanding of a different religion and a motherly love for a child of another race who was abandoned at the age of two months by her Indonesian mother, led non-Muslim Chee Hoi Lan to raise Rohana Abdullah as a Muslim.

While bringing up Rohana, Chee, now 83, even enrolled her in fardhu ain classes (where the basic obligations of Islam are taught) so that her adoptive daughter would grow up as a practising Muslim and not feel alienated from the Muslim-Malay community.

For her selfless and caring undertaking in multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, presented her with the 2022 Perdana Maulidur Rasul Award. Chee was one of seven recipients of this year’s awards.

The king, in his speech to mark the Maulidur Rasul celebration on Oct 9, reminded Muslim leaders that they should emulate Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in building a fair and just society, where trust is an important aspect of governance. Therefore, everything that is done by a leader should be done for the good of the community — whether or not its members are of a different race and religion.

Therein lies the complexity of understanding Islam. The image of Islam on the international scene, as well as in Malaysia, is far from what the religion preaches.

Kim, a Muslim convert friend of mine, sometimes finds it difficult to explain the simplicity of Islam to his non-Muslim friends. Islam, to them, is all about rigidity. There seems to be too many do’s and don’ts.

I told Kim that the onus is on Muslims to explain that Islam has so many common denominators with the different cultures of the world. It is a religion that has appealed to many great civilisations of the past. Why? That’s because it is a religion that shares many universal values with others.

“Kim, maybe you can use the ‘supermarket’ analogy,” I told him. I like to use this example to explain Islam in a simple manner to many of my non-Muslim friends.

“It is like when you enter a supermarket in Malaysia to do your grocery shopping. Here, Muslims can buy all the things that non-Muslims can buy, except those at the small corner of the supermarket where the non-halal goods are located. This covers only a few products among the thousands that are available in the supermarket, notably meats that are not slaughtered the halal way and products that are not permissible to Muslims, like pork and liquor.

“And space-wise, this section of the supermarket may comprise only 5% of the total area or less. The rest of the space is permissible zones, which means what non-Muslims can buy, Muslims can also consume. So, likewise, aside from the specific rituals of Muslims, the common denominators of our religions are dominant rather than marginal.”

If one looks at the history of Islam, after Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received the revelation from God (the Quran), the religion expanded fast among the Arabs and became their way of life because of the values that Islam carries. Pre-Islam (circa 610 AD), the Arabs were a very tribal society, where the rule of law was about the rich and powerful dominating the rest of the society.

Before the rise of monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the nomadic Arab tribes were practising polytheism in the form of animism and idolatry. Slavery and oppression were prevalent. Women were without many rights and were subjugated by their husbands or kinsmen.

Aside from the fundamental belief of the oneness of God and that Muhammad is the prophet and messenger of Allah and the religious rituals to be followed, the Arabs embraced Islam because it places importance on equality, for in the eyes of Allah, all mankind is equal. Within the society, it practises justice, fairness and freedom, and wants Muslims to be grateful and remain humble.

Islam abhors corruption, oppression and the misuse of power. It also encourages people to be generous and kind to others (including animals). Islam wants its followers to be honest and keep true to their promises, compassionate, patient and able to deal with anger by emphasising forgiveness.

Yes, war and conquest helped the spread of Islam, notably between the 7th and 8th centuries, but conversion to the religion among the Persians, Turks, Berbers of North Africa and people in the Indian subcontinent would not have happened if they did not accept the good values propagated by Islam, which appealed to those who felt oppressed in tribal and medieval societies.

Islam also spread through trade routes — the Silk Road — to reach Central Asia and China by the 7th century. And it was the Arab and Indian traders, along with the travelling Muslim scholars, who brought Islam to the Malay archipelago where Hinduism was the dominant religion.

As for the Turks, they not only accepted Islam and its way of life but the Ottoman became one of the largest and mightiest empires in the world, which saw Islam spread to Europe through the Balkans.

But it was in Spain, brought by the Arabs and Berbers, that Islam matured into a great civilisation, bringing the spark that lit Europe, which was in the dark ages. It was in Spain that religious tolerance became a way of life. There, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived and worked together peacefully for many years.

Muslim Spain was a centre of excellence, bringing innovation to many fields, including modernising the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas, and making advances to astronomy, medicine, education, art, literature, culture, architecture and many more branches of knowledge. In agriculture, it brought the concept of terracing, irrigation and dams to medieval Europe.

The experience of Baghdad (Iraq), which became home to a world-class academy — better known as the House of Wisdom — that attracted scholars worldwide in the 9th century was emulated in 12th century Spain. Cities like Toledo revitalised the education system and became a melting pot of ideas and people that drew scholars and translators from the East and West, and saw massive translation exercises of Arabic and Greek texts into Latin and later into other European languages.

Spain was Europe’s main library, and true to the Arab proverb “there can be no education without books”, the Umayyad rulers turned cities such as Cordoba into important learning institutions. The main library there had 600,000 volumes of books. Muslim Spain was the key that unlocked Europe’s potential, opening it to the era of modernity — the Renaissance.

“This is one way we can explain what Islam is all about to our non-Muslim friends,” I reminded Kim.

But today, Islam is often misrepresented and seen as a divisive factor. And come the 15th general election, which is expected to be held next month, there will be political parties that will not hesitate to use religion as a fear factor just to get votes.

Internationally, Islam is hijacked by terrorists who fight in the name of the religion and there are political parties too that want only their views of Islam to be represented to the non-Muslim communities.

Mainstream Islam, which is tolerant in nature, is eclipsed by a few episodes of extremism. But it does not help the cause of understanding Islam and improving cross-cultural relations when the Western media portrays the religion as one with a radical tendency rather than acknowledging its inclusive role in many great civilisations.

Back home, Muslims were told by no less than a minister to stay away from the Japanese cultural festival Bon Odori, which has been celebrated since 1977 as a symbol of political and economic friendship between Japan and Malaysia. It needed the intervention of the Sultan of Selangor for the festival in Shah Alam to continue, which according to his observations, did not involve religious rituals that could undermine the faith of anyone, notably Muslims, watching it.

I am not a scholar of Islam but there are many verses in the Quran and the practice and sayings of the prophet (sunnah) that promote equality, harmonious racial and religious relations, and forbid racism.

The Quran in Chapter 49, Verse 13 notes: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may get to know one another (and not despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous one. And Allah has full knowledge and is well-acquainted (with all things).”

On justice, Chapter 4, Verse 135 of the Quran says: Believers should “stand up firmly for justice, as a witness to Allah, even if it is against yourselves, your parents or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor: for Allah is best to ensure their interest. So do not let your desires cause you to deviate from justice. If you distort the testimony or refuse to give in, then know that Allah is certainly all aware of what you do.” In short, justice is for all and everyone should put justice first, even before their family.

And in the prophet’s last sermon over Mount Arafah, he reminded mankind and Muslims to not discriminate and that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve. “There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white person over a black person or of a black person over a white person, except based on personal piety and righteousness.”

While Muslims have to do better in presenting the beauty of Islam, in a multiracial, multicultural country like ours — especially in the days of social media toxicity where hate messages are defended in the name of freedom of speech and which usually become more heated during election campaigns — reciprocity is key in maintaining harmonious relations.

Here in Malaysia, both Muslims and non-Muslims must both do their part. Chee has done hers responsibly and admirably.

Azam Aris is editor emeritus at The Edge

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