Freedom of religion. Some say, freedom of religion is the freedom to practise that religion or not, and also the freedom to leave or enter the religion. Based on this understanding, it can be said, easy come,easy go.
That is acceptable only if religions is made by humans,by philosophers,or created by someone.
If the religion truly come from the Creator of this world, then that is another story. If we know for sure that, that religion comes from the God that creates all of the creation in existence, then will we just leave that religion casually? Of course not.
We will hold onto that religion and practise that religion properly. And we will protect and spread our religion. Not with extremity or with radical or foolish response, but with knowledge. We spread it because we know it is the truth. Nobody likes to live in falsehood.
Borrowing words from an ulama, he says that peace is not the highest value. The highest value is truth. This is because how can a person have peace if there is no truth?
Without proper knowledge, we will not be able to defend our religion. It is not the religion that is problematic, it is us, the muslims. For this, we must seek the person that have the knowledge, those who know, those who have the authority in the subjects that we are seeking knowledge about.
Speaking about authority, we must realize and know that we are not same. Of course as humans,we are same, but knowledge differs us. And by seeking knowledge we must choose about what we want to know. It is impossible to know everything. Therefore, we choose to know what is beneficial to us, and choose to learn things that make us grow closer to Allah s.w.t.
And, the rule is, we must admit that we do not know, we must know what we do not know, and we must know and realize what we know. In learning, lower yourself. We must never be an arrogant person. Arrogance burns knowledge. It burns the beneficial knowledge inside us. It means that what we know,does not benefits us in becoming a good person. So, be a humble and honest person in seeking knowledge. Knowledge is power! With true knowledge, we will have the power to discern between truth and falsehood.
It takes a long time and hard work to understand great works written by the scholars of the past and of the present. Be patient. May Allah grants us beneficial knowledge and guides us to the truth!.
written by :
Mohd Arif Syafiq,
Fellow Researcher,
Strategic Department,
School of Mass.
22.Mac.2015.
