11 Dec, 2008
Is Najib prepared to sacrifice power and position? Is he prepared to give up his post as Deputy Prime Minister and reject the post of Prime Minister that he is expected to take in March 2009? That is the real sacrifice and is what sacrifice is all about.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
This is what the New Straits Times reported on 8 December 2008:
Najib: We must make sacrifices
PEKAN: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the significance of Hari Raya Aidil Adha lies in the fact that if Muslims seek to progress and succeed in their endeavours, spiritually and materially, it would not come without sacrifice.
He said the awareness of the need to sacrifice for success should be inculcated in all Muslims.
"The need to sacrifice, which is a blessing from God, is not only a matter of faith but also in our tasks undertaken," he said, at the handing over of 179 head of cattle and two camels to representatives of surau and mosques in his constituency.
Present at the function was Najib's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
Because of the heavy rain at Najib's family house, the hand over of the cattle and camel was shifted to the Sultan Ahmad Shah Convention Centre at the town centre here.
The live animals were brought into the convention centre in a lorry and Najib handed them over to the coordinator of the programme.
The animals, which will be taken to the respective surau and mosques in the Pekan constituency, will be slaughtered after Aidiladha prayers today. – NST, 8 Dec 2008
How often do we hear Muslims talk about ‘sacrifice’ and ‘jihad’? These two words are probably the most used words alongside the words ‘akidah’ and ‘tawhid’.
Today I do not want to talk about akidah or tawhid. I already debated this matter with the ustaz from Jakim while in Kamunting and the debate went nowhere. Basically, they look at things from the theoretical point of view but offer no solutions as to how to put theory into practice. When we offer them examples of practical applications gone awry they quickly look at their watch and tell us that time does not permit us to prolong the debate and that we should break for lunch.
No, they do not want to confront reality in spite of them knowing that theory can sometimes be a great departure from practice. Communism, in theory, sounds good. In practice it’s another thing altogether. Capitalism is another ‘theory’ that is proving disastrous. It has now dawned on the world that capitalism may yet trigger the ‘end of the world’ that we have known for 200 years and that we may be seeing, at the point of a gun, the beginning of a new system that will replace capitalism.
Did not Jesus physically evict the moneychangers from the temple? 2,000 years later we might, again, be evicting the moneychangers from the Temple of Capitalism. Money has become worthless, at least the paper money that we know today.
Will we see the exit of ‘paper’ and the re-emergence of barter trade? Seven of my goats for one of your cows! Fifty of my chickens for one of your goats! One cow for a vote for Barisan Nasional -- five cows for an Umno Supreme Council post! One handshake from Nurul Izzah Anwar or a kiss on the cheek from Hannah Yeoh for one vote for Pakatan Rakyat! (I voted for Hannah Yeoh for just a sweet, enchanting smile. But then I come cheap -- ooo….what a smile from a sweet young thing can do for me.)
The list of barter trading possibilities is endless so let your imagination run wild on this one. (I can already anticipate the comments from readers on the barter trading they are going to propose). Yes, soon, paper money will be so worthless no one will want it. It will have to be goods for goods or goods for services, and vice versa. That’s how it used to be until some smart aleck replaced the system with paper money. And that was the beginning of our problems, and which is going to haunt us come 2009.
And Najib Tun Razak wants to become Prime Minister just when this economic earthquake hits us. If I were Najib I would allow Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to stay on till 2010. I would not want to be the Prime Minister who takes the blame for the worst economic period in Malaysian history. And the Finance Minister 2 says that we shall not be having a recession in 2009. Sheesh, where did he learn economics?
Anyway, back to the subject matter. Najib talked about ‘sacrifice’ in his statement on Hari Raya Korban (the Ide’ of Sacrifice). For those who do not know what Hari Raya Korban is all about, it is a festival to celebrate Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, which was originally ordered by God and then, just as he was about to carry out God’s command, was replaced by a sacrifice of an animal, at the command of God.
“What has Abraham got to do with Islam?” some of you may ask. The Quran says that all the followers of Moses and the followers of Jesus who follow the way of Abraham are the true submitters (Muslim). So the way of Abraham is the way (adeen) of Islam. And that is why Kofi Anan, in his speech in the UN, said, “We are all children of Abraham (meaning Jews, Christians and Muslims).”
Does this therefore make Jews, Christians and Muslims brothers/sisters? 99% of those from the Abrahamic faith would answer “No!” They will argue that Jews, Christians and Muslims are enemies of one another. This is not surprising considering that Jews, Christians and Muslims are enemies amongst themselves, what more inter-religion.
Sacrifice and jihad come together. They cannot be separated. They are like Siamese twins where two bodies share one internal organ. And I am not talking about the jihad of fighting the Russian army in Afghanistan. That is the Small Jihad. I am talking about the Greater Jihad. I am talking about the Great War. I am talking about the war you wage against yourself.
Jihad is the war you wage against temptation, lust, jealousy, greed, envy, vanity and egoism -- just to mention but seven of the many ills afflicting humankind. “Get thee behind me Satan,” say the Christians. And Muslims too believe that Satan has made a deal with God to tempt humankind and lead him astray. The Christians and Muslims actually believe the same thing in many things.
When we talk about lust it is not just about sexual lust. Lust for power and wealth are in fact more dangerous than sexual lust. When you lust for power and wealth you will stop at nothing to get them and this is what makes humankind most immoral. When you are envious about the success of others and you too want the power and wealth that others have this too makes you immoral. When you are vain and have a huge ego and think that you too deserve power and wealth the immoral streak in you takes over.
Can you see how temptation, lust, jealousy, greed, envy, vanity and egoism come as a package? Normally, when have one, then you have all seven. And the Greater Jihad is the fight against the ‘seven deadly sins’? These seven are all within us. It is something that lurks in our hearts. And fighting it is harder than fighting the Russian army in Afghanistan.
"The need to sacrifice, which is a blessing from God, is not only a matter of faith but also in our tasks undertaken," said Najib. I agree and I welcome that statement from Najib. But ‘sacrifice’ is more than just about slaughtering a poor cow and eating its meat afterwards. It is bigger than that. Sacrifice is about embarking on the Greater Jihad to shut out the feelings of temptation, lust, jealousy, greed, envy, vanity and egoism. If you can’t do this then you have sacrificed nothing, other than an unfortunate cow.
Is Najib prepared to sacrifice power and position? Is he prepared to give up his post as Deputy Prime Minister and reject the post of Prime Minister that he is expected to take in March 2009? That is the real sacrifice and is what sacrifice is all about. That is the Greater Jihad, the Jihad of sacrifice -- the rejection of temptation, lust, jealousy, greed, envy, vanity and egoism. But all we have seen thus far is the sacrifice of cows. You did not sacrifice anything. It was the cow that sacrificed its life, albeit reluctantly since it had no choice in the matter.
I love talking about Jihad and sacrifice. It is my favourite subject. But many who also talk about it do not understand its concept. It is not about killing cows to eat its meat. It is not about fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. It is about you telling Satan, “Get behind me.” I know there are many Satans already standing behind Najib, waiting for him to take over as Prime Minister. But this is not quite what I mean. These Satans standing behind Najib are waiting to rip off what is left of our country come March 2009 when Najib takes over as Prime Minister.a
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