THE SUMPAH LAKNAT: MY TAKE.

In connection to an article posted by RPK on inventing new religious rituals re sumpah laknat while holding the Quran, I dismissed his selfish and bias arguments. Some of my thoughts on this matter taking into account developments to-date are follows:

While RPK is not an authority on hadith, his reliance of a hadith to prove a point is inconsistent or hypocritical of his persistent usage of hearsay such as in his defamatory statutory declarations. RPK, true like his champion horse DSAI, has been twisting stories and facts with a strong slant towards a forked tongue creating I used to call grandfather’s tales. A hadith is the description on the Prophet’s action and customs by an actual narrative related by a chain of authenticated narrators, the names of those who narrators are clearly mentioned. These were written about 100 years after the death of the Prophet where the source of information was mostly memories of the Faithful. During that time too, there were no technology yet for mass paper printing, video and photography. To avoid the truth being lost or manipulated, the hadiths underwent a systematic and thorough authentication and classified accordingly.

Present day, technology for recording and printing are abundance. In his statutory declarations, holding steadfast to his universal declaration of human rights, RPK refused to give the names of his sources, only saying his source is most reliable. His stories and accusations contained in the declarations have since been refuted by the concern parties making the said statutory declarations dysfunctional and he, a “supposed” bankrupt, is now subject to being sued in the millions for his defamatory statements. But yet RPK would smile as he had successfully caused much confusion and rapture in our political system.

As one prominent blogger puts RPK as “He has a large following proves that people love the stuff he has been dishing out. Raja Petra's strength lies in developing a readable story based on a bit of facts and a lot of opinions (and he's willing to go down defending what he writes)”. When I viewed RPK’s postings and his commentaries, my opinion is “birds of a feather flock together”; his followers re commentaries were mostly those staunch believers of $Malaysian Malaysia’s new DNA and just like him and his champion horse, they love character bashing, preying on rumour mongering and half truths for the quest of a generic Malaysian DNA whilst hungrily degrading certain personalities without any decency and respect.

RPK used a classic hadith to prove a point on adultery (between a man and woman) but could not produce an alternative authentic hadith with specific reference to sodomy. As there is n$one, RPK twisting the facts with the said hadith. Local religious authorities including Ketua Pemuda PAS Selangor have already stated that the circumstances pertaining to adultery are different from sodomy. RPK seemed to reject such religious confirmation and thus again resort to twisting facts to confuse the Rakyat. DSAI also tried to use a foreign “ulama” from Egypt and Gus Dur (the blind Indonesian head of an ulama body who can’t see past his nose) in justifying going to syariah court in dismissing the sodomy 2 case. Is DSAI making a mockery of the Islamic judiciary system to deflect the many request for him to swear in God’s name on the grave sin he has been accused of committing?

Because of the intense commotion caused by RPK in accusing DPM Najib‘s involvement of the Atlantuya case, Najib took a similar oath in denying his accused role. As such, RPK’s image drastically eroded including amongst bloggers except his taksub supporters.

Swearing by the Quran; a Christian ritual? The Mufti of WPKL (the religious authority having jurisdiction where Saiful took his oath) has commented that swearing by holding the Quran which Saiful was not following the Christian ritual. The Mufti of Perlis commented that the swearing by holding a copy of the Quran did not invalidate Saiful’s swearing re sumpah laknat. Certain top officials of PAS would not endorse the sumpah laknat.

As we are all aware, millions of Muslims uses the beads in their religious chanting and wear the skull or ketayab as a headgear; these two are traditions continued from Jewish customs. In January 2007, Keith Ellison the first Muslim to the US Congress took an oath using the Quran instead of a bible. Definitely one would not find any hadith to support such act because during the time of the Prophet, such situation could not arise not merely because USA was non- existence yet but because the spread of Islam had just begun then. However, shouldn’t such act by the Muslim congressman be admired and respected? On 13 Dec 2007, the late PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto made her party candidates swear on the Quran during the closed-door meeting that after their elections they would not indulge in horse-trading and would give due respect and importance to party workers and refrain from exploiting them.

Islam is definitely not simply about rigorous rituals or Arabic customs but as usual conveniently some people would place more emphasis on the form rather then the substance. What’s funny is that the PAS ulamas and other so-called pro DSAI ulamas are most aware about such matter. The Malays generally practiced several religious rituals and customs, some of which are vigorously and constantly re-innovated such as in dowries, marriage ceremonies, burial headstones and kenduris etc some which are alien or not encouraged by Islam or even declared by some as syirik but these practices, rightfully or wrongfully, have been generally accepted by the Malay population. What is the big fuss about the swearing holding a copy of the Quran when ultimately the sumpah laknat is about one’s noble intention and action; the realm of the Almighty, the Most Knowledgeable.

DNA testing is an accepted new technology in the present day in proving certain associations including for use in criminal cases. This technology was not present during the advent of Islam although I am sure its foundation in the Holy Book can be found via careful diagnosis and interpretations of the Quran and authentic hadiths by expert Islamic theologians. Should Muslims discard using such useful technology? Yet DSAI had quickly dismissed that technology, accusing the relevant institutions of misusing it against his interest i.e. can be falsified. DSAI consistently reverts to the original covenant on adultery in syariah law i.e the presence of 4 witnesses. It should be noted that in Sodomy 1 DSAI and the parties concerned were found to indulge in such activities but the court of federal appeal was not unanimous its decision on the exact time of the crime. The fact remains that DSAI was a sodomite.

The call by many for DSAI to swear the sumpah laknat continues but DSAI continues to deflect such request. The sumpah laknat, although irrelevant to the criminal charge of sodomy in court that carries the maximum penalty of 20 years jail, carries a heavy psychological weight on the integrity of the persons taking the oath in the eyes of many. A Muslim needs to relate and adhere to Allah’s condemnation on sodomy in the Quran and Hadith as per the story of Nabi Lot to justify his/ her perception on sodomites because Allah’s punishment is eternal, presently and the hereafter.

The failure by DSAI to swear the sumpah laknat speaks for himself compounded by the disgustful manner he sought refuge at the Turkish Ambassador’s residence, on his proclaimed fear of assassination, his refusal to undertake a DNA test as requested by the Police to assist in the investigation and the prompting of the Permatang Pauh by-election before he was to be charged and so on and so on (the latest being his declaration that he did not have cronies during his term of office then as Deputy PM/ Finance Minister and Malaysian Government backs Isreal). DSAI’s many deception only enhances the perception that Sodomy 2 had indeed happened; DSAI’s many deceptive ploys blatantly do not represent the actions of the innocence and indeed he looks guiltier by each passing day.

The rakyat watches and DSAI’s hollow character understandably continues to be horribly tarnished. To many Malaysian citizens, the common view holds that DSAI is only concern about his own political well being and not that of the economics of the Rakyat or the country. However such view may not impact the voting at Permatang Pauh because the voters are rightfully depressed with several other issues against the BN particularly incompetence of the leadership; the catalyst of change is absent in UMNO to result in a drastic change to vote for BN.

For DSAI not to swear the sumpah laknat may be understandable in defence of his right (read universal declaration of human rights) and rejection of a respected view of the commons. However I just don’t understand why other Muslims and some so called ulamas (especially those known for their “holier than thou” attitude) are so taksub against this matter and whose actions and commentaries may mislead and confuse innocent Muslims on the supposedly honest and faithful role of those political leaders bearing the banner of Islam on the forefront. Is Allah’s Perfected Religion being abused for the sake of Political Corruption (read RM)? All these kecoh among Muslims and Non-Muslims alike is centred on one single “insan” by the name of DSAI; is he amongst the “small dajjal” or otherwise what kind of destructive “insan” is he?

All Muslims Beware Of This Man Called DSAI and his destructive association with The United States Administration.