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.

Apakah makna bagi perkara ini? Apakah makna bagi perkara itu? Berikut merupakan pertanyaan yang terlintas dalam fikiran kita dalam pencarian sesuatu makna.

Apabila disoal mengenai makna, maka untuk menjawabnya, kita akan menggunakan perkataan untuk menjelaskannya. Mengapa? Hal ini demikian kerana perkataan mempunyai makna. Perkataan bukan hanya sekadar sebuah perkataan.

Apabila kita mengatakan mengenai sesuatu perkara, kita menggunakan perkataan. Apabila kita menggunakan perkataan-perkataan tersebut, terdapatnya kata kunci yang pemahamannya berbeza daripada seseorang individu kepada individu yang lain.

Contoh-contoh perkataan berikut ialah agama, kebebasan, manusia, keadilan dan Tuhan.

Pemahaman yang tepat untuk kata kunci berikut akan membawa kita kepada jalan kebenaran.

Ditulis oleh :
Mohd Arif Syafiq

Diterjemah oleh :
F-2,
Sekolah Massa
22.Mac.2015

What does that means? What does this means? What is the meaning of this?

We are asking about meanings.Then, to answer, we use words to explain. Why? Because word have meanings. Words are not just words.

When we speak about something, we use words. And there are keywords which sometimes is being understood differently from people to people.

Examples of such word is religion,freedom,human, justice,God.

The proper understanding of such keywords, will unlock the door to the truth.

written by :
Mohd Arif Syafiq,
Fellow Researcher,
Strategic Department,
School of Mass.
22.Mac.2015.

Dalam memahami ajaran agama Islam, hendaklah diingatkan bahawa Islam tidak memisahkan agama dan politik. Hal ini demikian kerana Islam membimbing penganutnya ke arah jalan yang benar dengan mengajar akhlak dan budi pekerti yang tinggi. Penganutnya diajar bahawa mereka tidak boleh melakukan apa sahaja untuk mendapatkan apa yang mereka inginkan. Terdapat cara yang benar dan cara yang salah untuk mendapatkan apa yang ingin dikecapi.

Kesultanan adalah sistem yang masih wujud dan sistem yang paling dekat dengan sistem Khilafah. Dengan mengetahui apa yang telah dilakukan oleh Raja Ali Haji dalam Kerajaan Riau-Lingga dapat memberikan pencerahan mengenai bagaimana mahkamah syariah dan mahkamah sivil beroperasi di masa lampau . Mengikut kefahaman saya, kedua-duanya mempunyai kuasa yang sama. Sultan adalah pemilik tanah dan mengikut kefahaman, ini maka kita berada di bawah naungannya. Untuk mengetahui lebih lanjut mengenai perkara ini, maka bacalah karya Raja Ali Haji, Thamarat Mahammah.

Sesetengah pihak merasakan bahawa urusan agama sepatutnya tidak boleh masuk campur dalam urusan politik. Ini bertitik tolak daripada sejarah pengalaman Barat yang akhirnya untuk mereka maju ke depan, mereka perlu memisahkan urusan agama daripada urusan politik dan mengamalkan dasar sekularisme. Natijahnya, jadilah agama itu tidak lebih daripada bersifat individual . Oleh itu terserahlah pada diri masing-masing untuk menentukan agama dan kepercayaan diri mereka. Kami akan menghormati anda.

Walaubagaimanapun, dalam Islam, agama tidak bermaksud kepercayaan semata-mata. Agama juga melibatkan amalan. Agama mungkin dilihat oleh mereka sebagai budaya atau tradisi atau sesuatu ciptaan manusia atau sesuatu untuk mengawal tingkah laku manusia ke arah yang lebih baik. Namun, bagi kita, agama adalah seuatu yang diturunkan oleh Tuhan selaku pencipta alam . Tuhan yang menentukan cara yang betul untuk patuh dan tunduk pada perintah-Nya yang disampaikan melalui rasul-rasul-Nya. Agama Islam adalah sesuatu yang bukan dicipta sendiri oleh manusia. Ia juga bukan dicipta oleh Nabi Muhammad SAW. Melalui kefahaman saya, nama Islam itu sendiri diberi oleh Allah. Adalah sesuatu yang tidak benar sesetengah dakwaan bahawa kita tidak tahu nama agama kita mahupun nama agama kita ini diberikan oleh orang lain. Sesetengah pihak mungkin mengatakan bahawa kita adalah Mohammadan, tetapi kita hendaklah menafikan sekeras-kerasnya dan menyatakan bahawa kita adalah Muslim.

Bagi sesetengah pihak, agama adalah simbol ketidakadilan disebabkan pengalaman mereka. Maka mereka melihat pihak yang cuba membawa agama ke dalam politik sebagai pihak yang akan mengulangi kesilapan lampau yang dialami oleh mereka dan keadaan ini akan mengakibatkan ketidakadilan berlaku.

Namun, kita hendaklak tahu bahawa dalam sejarah agama kita, agamalah yang membawa keadilan. Daripada hasil tradisi keilmuan kitalah, Barat mampu keluar dari zaman gelap.

Agama Islam adalah agama ilmu. Sebab itulah sesiapa yang mengatakan bahawa agama kita tidak benar, mereka hendaklah membawa bukti yang kukuh, yang mana mereka masih gagal untuk melakukannya. Bukti yang dibawa tidak lebih daripada hasil salah faham mereka sendiri.

Terma negara Islam membawa persepsi buruk pada masa kini. Persepsi ini cuma boleh dihilangkan melalui kefahaman yang benar dan merujuk kepada golongan yang lebih tahu atau mereka yang ahli dalam soal ini. Ekstrim bukanlah cara kita. Segala tindakan kita adalah berasaskan ilmu.

Maka, sama-samalah kita untuk menuntut ilmu.

Ditulis oleh :

-Mohd Arif Syafiq.-

Diterjemah oleh :

F-2,
Fellow Penyelidik,
Sekolah Massa.

In our understanding of our own religion, we don't separate religion from politics. Mainly because, religion guide us to the right path. How so? It teaches us to have virtue. It tells us that you cannot do anything just to get something that you want. There are right ways and wrong ways into getting things that you want to achieve.

Kesultanan is the nearest system that is available next to the Khilafah. It is after reading into what Raja Ali Haji did in Kerajaan Riau-Lingga then you can know in greater length how the syariah courts and civil courts works in the past.To my understanding,they have equal power.. The Sultans are the owner of the land, and by this understanding, it is us who are his subjects. To know more about this, lets find a book entitled Thamarat Mahammah by Raja Ali Haji shall we?

Some may have understanding it is a bad move to involve religion in politics. Because they learn they lesson from the history of the west, and in the end, for the west to move in a better direction, they adopt secularism. Religion will belong to the domain of individual then. Its up to you what is your religion, what is your belief, we will respect you.

But in islam, religion does not just mean that you just believe. The action also involve is also necessary. They may see religion as cultrue or tradition or something created to control human or to make human behave in a better way. We see it ,as it comes down from the creator of the worlds Himself. God tells us the right and proper way He wants us to submit to Him, through His prophets. It is not something we create on our own. It is not created by Muhammad s.a.w. And from what i understand, even the name islam is given by Allah. It is not true that we do not know what is the name of our religion. Or the title islam is given by others to us. Some may say we are the Mohammadan, but we must clearly deny this. Say that we are muslim.

To some, religion is a symbol of injustice because of their own experience, so they might see others that are trying to bring religion into politics is repeating the past mistakes and this will bring injustice.

But, we must know that, in our history of religion, it is religion that brings justice. it is from our tradition of knowledge that the west finally be able to get out from the dark age.

Our religion is the religion of knowledge. Thats why to say that we are false, they must bring proof, and to which they fail to do so. The proof that they bring is only great misunderstanding on their part.

And, the term islamic state is getting bad name. This also can be cleared with proper understanding and by referring this to the people that know it well. Extremes is not our way. We do things, in a way firmly grounded on knowledge.

Let's seek knowledge!

Written By :

Mohd Arif Syafiq,
Fellow Researcher,
Strategic Department,
School of Mass.
22.Mac.2015

One of the state in our country is trying to implement the law of islam. Whether it will succeed or not, it is a good trigger. The feedback given by the citizens, whether support or oppose it, people eventually will look and focus more on this law and of course, the history of the implementation of such law in the past in our land.

Raja Ali Haji. It is important to look into his book, Thammarat Mahammah.

What is the impression of the world about this? Will others see it as an effort made to resurrect the islamic state? How the responds given will depend on how people understand islamic state.

Today, islamic state is more popular brand for the terrorists, that is a very extreme movement. Well, will some outsider interfere in the name of national security?

Or can we say, national security is just an excuse used to intervene? What do they get by intervening? Selat Melaka?

Thinking back, do we have all the qualified people to execute the law?

People will talk and comments and give all kind of feedback. And the main topic is, of course about justice.

Is it just? If that person get that punishment and that person get another for the same crime. This is not equal says them, therefore it is injustice.

Is equality is justice? We must know that in islam, justice does not have the same meaning as equality, because in short, justice means the condition of things in proper places. You cannot put all things in the same place. If i may borrow a phrase from an ulama, he says,"how can the act of bringing things of higher worth to lower worth can be called justice?"

The notion of justice. This, we need to have correct understanding about justice. The concept of justice is misunderstood by many.

We need to know what justice is. And i believe, the concept of justice can be understand by looking into the great works of Tan Sri Prof.Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas.

Written By :

Mohd Arif Syafiq,
Fellow Researcher,
Strategic Department,
School of Mass.
21.Mac.2015