Silent Truth of the Ummah

(Ucapan disampaikan oleh Naib Presiden I PEMBINA, Saudara Ibrahim Bin Mohd Hasan, ketika majlis Konvokesyen ke-26 Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM).  Beliau menerima anugerah Best Student (Academic) for Bachelor of Economics).

 

Assalamualaikum wbt wrt.

I would like to begin my speech today by revealing to you the silent truth of our ummah in this 21st century. Either we realise or not, the statistics has shown a tremendously unexpected figure that surprises us. According to National Registration Department of Malaysia, about 257,000 of cases of illegitimate child recorded in Malaysia from 2000 to 2008. In average about 2,500 were recorded every month or 83.3 cases every day. This means that there is one case of illegitimate baby for every 17 minutes in our country. How this moral illness promoted by the westerners can does be accepted and spread in our beloved nation. This numbers only represent the cases of illegitimate baby registered under national registration department of Malaysia. Can we imagine what number will come out if we look for the number of unregistered number of illegitimate babies? Maybe it can be double or even triple. The worst case is when these irresponsible mothers were forced to dump their babies dreadfully after feeling upset to the consequence of their immoral behavior. This condemned act has contributed about 580 cases of dumping babies from 2000-2006 in Malaysia. Even though the number is not that big the recent cases show a critical situation where the child was found hopelessly in the trash and toilet bowl last August in Melaka.

 

Not to mention that we, the Muslim are the champion of drug misuse in Malaysia, I don’t intent to reveal more devastating statistics that prove we are the champion of various social ills which will only humiliate us.

 

Honored guests, brothers and sisters,

 

I believe that other Muslim nations also share the same concern about this unrestrained moral disease. Maybe today we are not concerned enough, or is there something wrong with our sensitivity? We might say that it happens in their country, NOT our country. It happens in their state, NOT our state. Or we might think it just happens in the city next to us, NOT in our neighborhood. Or it just happens to our neighbour NOT our family. But when it happens to our own sister, our daughter what else could we say? How do we feel and how do we react? Do we just sit down and enjoy the sad news and do nothing? Or is it suffices to advise our children to stay at home in the era where the entire negative influences could easily slink towards them from each angle?

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

The reason why I bring this issue is because we are one ummah, and one ummah shows their real concern among their brothers. As mentioned in the hadith narrated by Huzaifah:

“من لم يهتم بالمسلمين فليس منهم”

أن شأن المسلمين أن يعتني بعضهم بما يهم البعض الآخر، والمقصود من ذلك وارد في صحيح الآثار، ففي صحيح البخاري ومسلم، واللفظ للبخاري عن النعمان بن بشير قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: “ترى المؤمنين في توادهم وتراحمهم كمثل الجسد الواحد إذا اشتكى عضو منه تداعى له سائر الجسد بالسهر والحمى”

وفي صحيح البخاري وسنن الترمذي والنسائي عن أبي موسى الأشعري أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: “المؤمن للمؤمن كالبنيان يشد بعضه بعضا“.

 

The evidence in the Quran and Sunnah has strongly proven to us that we are one ummah and we shall always unite as one ummah under the deen of Islam. Allah s.w.t says in the Quran;

 

Verily this Ummah of yours is one Ummah…” (Al-Qur’an, 21:92.)

 

“And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together, and be not disunited…” (Al-Qur’an, 3:103)

The unity of the Muslim ummah is a reality proclaimed in the Qur’an, in the verse mentioned and numerous others like them; it is one of the key strengths of the Ummah at many levels, from the cultural to the political. It is the unity of the ummah, the common understanding that all Muslims are brothers and sisters in faith that makes Muslims feel at home wherever they may go in the Muslim world. However, nowadays the colonizers have been separating and dividing us by regions and races.

The physical segregation seems to be very devastating; however there is something worst that we must worry about. It is the segregation of our life from the true Islamic teaching. The real root cause that prevents us from being united as one ummah comes from ourselves the moment we abandon the Islamic Teaching of Quran and Sunnah. We start to blame each other and have no concern about what happen to our brothers even in our own country. We start to lose our own identity as one ummah and let the westerners to mold our generation. Either we realize or not, our ummah is imitating the western culture and lifestyle and yet we are still proud of it.

 

Brothers and sisters,

 

There is a famous quote believed to be Edmund Buke that says, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. It clearly reflects the condition of our ummah right now where it is enough for us to spend our time, absolutely do nothing to let the ummah fall down, let the immoral values spread and affect our sibling, without ourselves do nothing about it. There will be no assurance that our siblings and our family are safe from negative influence especially at time where everyone is being selfish. According to the Newton’s laws of motion, everybody remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it acted upon by an external unbalanced force. It means that illicit moral value can easily destroy our ummah by just letting it spread without taking any action. This also means that there is a need for us to take an action in order to gain back our own identity as one ummah.

 

Whenever we talk about action, there are several steps or level of action that could be taken.  However it is better to begin with something that is workable and applicable to us. Let start with us as graduates of IIUM, the process shall starts from grassroots’ education that is aligned with the philosophy that is set by the university. According to this philosophy, knowledge is propagated in the spirit of Tawhid, leading towards the recognition of Allah as the Absolute Creator and Master of mankind. The spirit behind this recognition of Allah as the Lord of the World (Rabbal-Alamin) represents the apex in the hierarchy of knowledge. Thus, all disciplines of knowledge should lead towards subservience of this truth. This is because knowledge is a form of trust (amanah) from Allah to man, and hence man should utilize knowledge according to Allah’s will in performing his role as the servant and vicegerent (khalifah) of Allah on earth. In this way, the seeking of knowledge is regarded as an act of worship.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

On this precious day, upon the completion of our study, we must realize that IIUM also groom us to become the leaders of the ummah. Thus the development and the facilities that IIUM has given us show its high expectations and hope for us to become an all rounded world class leaders. Let us not point to others but let start with us. I believe that most of us have been contributing during our 4 years of study here. I would like to congratulate all of you especially those who spent their time and effort in giving their service to the ummah. However our contribution towards the community shall not stop on this day. We have a great responsibility since we carry the title as the khayra ummah (the best of ummah).

 

When I mentioned about khayra ummah, it seems to be very idealistic and far to be realized. In actual fact, what is important thing is the effort that we put in and the contribution that we can make even in a small portion as Allah counts every single effort and not just the end result.  Actually there is a lot of room for us to make a difference in our society voluntarily especially through non-governmental organizations or residential associations. I myself as an activist in Persatuan Belia Islam Nasional (PEMBINA) a youth based organization, I realize that there are a lot that we can do. I am also an active member of PEMBINA since student days in which I was elected to the Central Committee early this year. I believe this is a way for graduates to contribute back to the society. I hope that one day PEMBINA can be registered within the university so that many other students can benefit from its wide range of programs. As the Vice President I of PEMBINA, I must make sure that the youth in Malaysia must engage in activities that can rebuild our Muslim identity and shows our pride and leadership to become the catalyst in the ummah. Even though I have to forgo my precious weekend by attending meetings and programs, I feel happy and proud to start seeing our youth join various programs such as usrah and leaving behind the negative elements. The institution of Usrah is not confined to university only, but an ongoing development for. I would like to convey my appreciation to IIUM for its tarbiyyah based program that has enriched my university experience. Besides the activities organized by the university, I have also benefited in a great manner from the programs organized by NGOs namely Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia, ISMA. I believe students should take full advantage from the amendments of AUKU that had removed the prohibition for students to be involved in NGOs registered legally. The most important thing is that we find tranquility during the day we meet our Creator and can answer upon the responsibilities in front of Him.

 

ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلمَوتَ وَٱلحَيَوٰةَ لِيَبلُوَكُم أَيُّكُم أَحسَنُ عَمَلا وَهُوَ ٱلعَزِيزُ ٱلغَفُورُ

“He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving.” (67:2)

 

Teman-teman yang saya kasihi,

 

Hari ini merupakan hari bersejarah bagi kita, hari yang telah kita nanti-nantikan bersama. Today is the day, the day that we have been waiting for to celebrate our success. Congratulations to all of us for our achievement. I would also like to thank all lecturers who have enriched us with valuable knowledge and experience during our memorable time here. Today we have proven to ourselves that we could make it, alhamdulillah.

 

Akhir sekali, saya ucapkan tahniah kepada semua rakan-rakan seperjuangan. Inilah hari kita menuai hasil usaha gigih kita selama ini. Congratulations to all of us.

 

Wabillahitaufik walhidayah, wassalamualaikum.

 

Ibrahim Mohd Hasan
Valedictory Speech
4th October 2010
IIUM 26th Convocation

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