Man’s Indebtedness to Allah (exalted be He) - Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

Man’s Indebtedness to Allah (exalted be He)

by Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

The following excerpt is from “Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Fundamental Elements of the Worldview of Islam” by Sayyid Naquib al-Attas. In it, he challenges the modern portrayal of man as a rational agent with independent creative capabilities and powers. al-Attas uses several ayahs of the Qur’an to remind us that all human beings are created in a state of absolute neediness to Allah (exalted be He)- the one who is absolutely free from all needs.

The mere fact of existence places man in a state of debt the moment he is created. As Allah (exalted be He) is the Master, Creator, and Sustainer of the universe - man cannot utilize material things to repay this debt as he is not their proper owner. The only way man can ever repay his momentous debt to his Creator is by engaging in khidmah (service) to others and humbly submitting his very self to His pronouncements.

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“How can the concept of being indebted be explained in the religious and spiritual context? - one may ask; what is the nature of the debt?, and to whom is the debt owed?

We answer that man is indebted to God, his Creator and provider, for bringing him into existence and maintaining him in existence. Man was once nothing and did not exist, and now he is.

‘Man We did create from a quintessence of clay;

Then We placed him as a drop of sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed;

Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; than We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be God, the Best to create!’ [Qur'an 23:12-14]

The man who ponders seriously his origin will realize that a few decades ago he did not exist, and the whole of mankind now existing neither existed nor knew of their possible present existence. The same truth applies to all ages of man from the beginning of his existence in time.

So naturally he who ponders thus sincerely knows intuitively that his sense of being indebted for his creation and existence cannot really be directed to his parents, for he knows equally well that his parents too are subject to the same process by the same Creator and Provider.

Man does not himself cause his own growth and development from the state of a clot of congealed blood to the one that now stands mature and perfect. He knows that even in his mature and perfect state he is not able to create for himself his sense of sight or hearing or other – and let alone move himself in conscious growth and development in his helpless embryonic stage. Then again:

‘When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves (saying): “Am I not your Lord?” - they said: “Yea! We do testify!” [Qur'an 7:172]

The rightly guided man realizes that his very self, his soul, has already acknowledged God as his Lord, even before his existence as a man, so that such a man recognizes his Creator and Cherisher and Sustainer.

The nature of the debt of creation and existence is so tremendously total that man, the moment he is created and given existence, is already in a state of utter loss, for he possesses really nothing himself, seeing that everything about him and in him and from him is what the Creator owns Who owns everything. And this is the purpose of the words in the Holy Qur’an:

‘Verily man is in loss (khusr)…[Qur'an 103:14]

Seeing that he owns absolutely nothing to ‘repay’ his debt,except his own consciousness of the fact that he is himself the very substance of the debt, so must he ‘repay’ with himself, so must he ‘return’ himself to Him Who owns him absolutely. He is himself the debt to be returned to the Owner, and ‘returning the debt’ means to give himself up in service, or khidmah, to his Lord and Master; to abase himself before Him and so the rightly guided man sincerely and consciously enslaves himself for the sake of God in order to fulfill His commands and prohibitions and ordinances, and thus to live out the dictates of His law.”

[p 47 of “Prolegemona to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Fundamental Elements of the Worldview of Islam” by Sayyid Muhammad Naquib al-Attas]

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Sayyid Muhammad al-Naquib bin Ali al-Attas (born September 5, 1931) is a prominent contemporary Muslim philosopher and thinker from Malaysia. He is the author of twenty-seven authoritative works on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly on Sufism, cosmology, metaphysics, philosophy and Malay language and literature. (Source)

Who is Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) - Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

Who is Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace)

by Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

The following excerpt is from “Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Fundamental Elements of the Worldview of Islam” by Sayyid Naquib al-Attas. In it, he challenges the modern portrayal of man as a rational agent with independent creative capabilities and powers. al-Attas explains precisely who the noble Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) is and why he is relevant to our times.

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“The Holy Prophet, upon whom be God’s blessing and Peace!, is the Seal of the Prophets, the universal and final Messenger of God to mankind, whom he leads from darkness to light; who is himself the Lamp spreading light; he is God’s Mercy to all creatures, and His favour to those who believe in him and in what he brought and he is God’s favour even to the People of the Book, who may yet come to believe in him.

He is man whom God has created with a character exalted as the standard for mankind; he is the Perfect Man and Exemplar par excellence. He it is who even God and His Angels honour and bless as the greatest of men, and all true believers, in compliance with God’s command, and in emulation of His Angels, do likewise, and have done and will do so in the Hereafter to him will God vouchsafe the Lauded Station.

Muhammad, the Messenger of God, is he whose very is a miracle of fulfillment, for he alone among all mankind is constantly praised in every age and generation after him without end, so that even taking into account the ages and generation before him he still would be the only man to whom such praise is due.

We praise him out of sincere love and respect and gratitude for having led us out of darkness into light, and he is loved above all other human beings including our selves. Our love and respect for him is such that neither time nor memory could dull, for he is in our selves in every age and generations – nay, he is closer than ourselves, and we emulate his words (qawl) and model actions (fi’l) and silent confirmation (taqrir) of usages known to him, so that next to the Holy Qur’an he is our most excellent and perfect guide and exemplar in life.

He is the perfect model for every Muslim male and female; adolescent, middle-aged and old, in such ways that Muslims do not suffer from the crises of identity. Because of him the external structure or pattern of Muslim society is not divided by the gap of generations such as we find prevalent in Western society.”

(p 79 to 81 of “Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam” by Sayyid Naquib al-Attas)

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Sayyid Muhammad al-Naquib bin Ali al-Attas (born September 5, 1931) is a prominent contemporary Muslim philosopher and thinker from Malaysia. He is the author of twenty-seven authoritative works on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly on Sufism, cosmology, metaphysics, philosophy and Malay language and literature. (Source)

Despiritualization of Prophethood and its link to Identity Crisis by Sayyid Naquib Al-Attas

Despiritualization of Prophethood and its link to Identity Crisis

By Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

Transcript from Prof. Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas lecture on “The Religion of Islam”, ISTAC, 20th April 1998.

Now I want to talk lastly about what is called the “identity crisis” because this is something very important. I think the Muslim world is experiencing it, although maybe it does not see it yet and does not know its cause but this term “identity crisis” means one has lost one’s roots. One does not know any longer who one is. If we look at all societies we will find three generations: there is the very young, there is the middle age and then there is the old. You’ll find that everywhere. Now as far as Islam is concerned in the past, I mean to say, it is more so than now, although now also there still exists a lot of Muslims that follow the correct tradition but in the past there was no division between the adolescent, the middle age and the old. They all seemed to follow the same values, the values of the adolescent is the same as that of the middle age is the same as that of the old. Now why is that so? It is because of the Prophet, because he is an example to follow and as long as the Muslim follows him then there will be no gaps between these generations, there is no generation gap. But now, why are there generation gaps among the Muslims? This is because they no longer regard the Prophet as he ought to be regarded.

Now let us see what we mean by this generation gap. Again we take the West as an example, because they are the ones who talk about these things and who actually have these things all the time, even in the past; although maybe in some areas in the past there was no generation gap because they believed in certain permanent values and principles. When they attacked religion, secularization as a philosophical programme worked among them and this generation gap became more pronounced. Now every generation is looking for its identity. The young people know they are not following the values of their fathers (the middle age) because their fathers when they were young also were not following what their fathers had been saying. This is because when it comes to what is the truth, what is good, what is right, they tell the young: “Well, we don’t really know ourselves because we are seeking that too, and therefore you have to look it for yourselves, you must have freedom and that is why you have to believe in freedom to find out who you are, your identity. Now as regards the old, they have lost their identity, they cannot be an example.The reason is because this whole role of identity has to do with citizenship. If you say that your purpose is to be a good citizen, and we said government change, concepts change, therefore they don’t have an example to follow. They cannot have, and they cannot follow any of their leaders of the past as an example. You cannot make Socrates as an example; Aristotle, Plato also cannot be examples, for all times. Buddha also cannot be examples. Jesus of course cannot be examples, because he is half-God or God Himself and furthermore he does not marry so if you really want to follow his example as man then that is the end of Christianity. So none of them has a man like the Prophet in Islam as an example whom they can follow.

Now the Prophet is not just an example for little boys, girls, middle age, old men, men and women-he is an example for all. Which also means that we are looking at him not just physically as a man because he is also an example for women but also at the spiritual, the values and other things. Now there is no such human being in other civilizations because of that there must be this generation gap in these civilizations because they all want to find identity. If the identity is based on citizenship then the identity is based on usefulness to the state so the moment they are retired like the middle age group, they have lost their identity. As for the old they don’t like to talk so much about it because that reminds them of death. So in such a society, the old lose everything, they have lost their worthiness as a citizen, they are no longer working, and have become a kind of nuisance. They also remind the middle age of what they will be like later. The young also don’t want to be reminded of this.

This continual seeking of identity has now become worse because not only is there a generation gap, there is also a gap between a man and a woman because each one is also seeking their own identity. Women are seeking identity as women. So this is a chaotic state really. Now if the Muslims do not regard the Prophet in the correct way, they will be having this kind of problem too. Therefore the Prophet is the one who is actually keeping the structure of Muslim society as an ummah. Unfortunately the modernists have been despiritualizing the Prophet by making him an ordinary man like you and me. Of course he is a human being, nobody has worshipped the Prophet. That is why they keep on talking about the verse in the Qur’an carefully and look at all such verses that occur in the Qurāan: Innama ana basharun mithlukum and yet for example they don’t realize that if they study the Qurāan, other carefully and look at all such verses that occur in the Qurāan, other Prophets were also told to say the same thing. It is always directed to unbelievers, and the Prophet did that too, which means that you did not accept Islam, and the earlier Prophets did that too, which means that you can’t apply that verse to believers and yet they (the modernists) are applying that to us. So it is an incorrect application and the verse was revealed because the unbelievers were asking all kinds of irrational things from the Prophet. They asked why was God sending him as the Prophet, why not somebody else among them who was better than him, who was leader of the tribe? Or why not God Himself come? There is a verse in the Qurāan which Ibn Sina quoted: “Why does not He come in the canopy of clouds?”So because of that therefore what is meant there is that if an angel comes you will not understand the language of the angels, even angels when they come must appear in the form of man. Therefore a Prophet must be among human beings, therefore it is ana basharun. That is one point.

The second point is that this word bashar simply means a biological man, meaning flesh and blood like you. It is not the same as insan, it did not say ana insan mithlukum, it says ana basharun mithlukum but then the Prophet said: “I received the Revelation.” There is a very big difference here, that means what we are calling the perfect man is because he is man, there has been no report in Muslim history of people worshipping the Prophet although there have been reports of people worshipping ĂAli but not the Prophet because the kalimah shahadah already makes it impossible for the Prophet to be worshipped. So why is it that the modernists are throwing the verse at us? We are not unbelievers. It is they who don’t realize this. Why must you make the Prophet the same as everybody? They said it is because the Prophet himself said so. Yes, but the Prophet also said: “I received the Revelation.” That means he is not just like you and me, because in receiving the revelations he must have had some psychological or spiritual changes occurring in him as he is notbashar, he is also insan. And what’s wrong with that? Because the idea is that you don’t worship the Prophet, like the Christians with Jesus, but the Muslims have never done that in the first place. And therefore this reason is no good. One of the scholars whom I met in Ohio (in 1980) was saying: “Yes, before I used to think of him as a super man, now I think of him as just an ordinary man like you and me.” So you are just like the jahiliah to whom the Prophet was addressing all these things.

Husein Haykal, the author of The Life of Muhammad (the title of the English translation from the original Arabic-Hayat Muhammad), makes the Prophet as if he is just an ordinary man and he makes the experience of wahy very much the same as what Ibn Arabi was talking about fana and the sufis. How can you say that? The sufis themselves never said this, on the other hand they say their experience is nothing compared to the Prophet, and yet Haykal puts the Prophet down to the level of the sufis, the wahdatul wujud. Even the original Arabic title of the book, Hayat Muhammad, is something that nobody in the past has given to such a biography. They would say Sirat ul-Nabi, not Hayat, nobody in the past has written that. Sirat, because they know that it is a biography while hayat is a biological life. You can’t talk about the Prophet’s biological life as bashar, as it were, because there are things that are not really physical, for example how are you going to explain the angels? How are you going to explain the angel giving him the Revelation? This is not something happened to the hayat of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great or Gamal Abdul Nasser, and yet he equated the Prophet in that way.

To my mind, this is how the Muslims gradually get the generation gap. When the ahl hadithbegan to quibble a little bit about the ahadith, gradually and finally people now say they had better go back to Qurāan, not the Hadith. So this role of the Prophet as the consolidator and unifier of the Muslim ummah is gradually destroyed. As result he is no longer the example, and therefore you begin to seek identity. Even our leaders very seldom praise the Prophet. They will of course say Allahu Taala in their speeches but very seldom I hear them saying Prophet Muhammad. I think this is one of the causes regarding the role of the Prophet in Muslim society so far as preventing the generation gap is concerned because if he is really taken as an example of what he says then whatever is taught to the young is also the same with the middle age, the same with the old age, the same with men, and the same with women. Then there will be generation gap. But it is not the case now. The young people argue and say: “Well, that’s what you think.” We have seen that following what is in the West as portrayed on television. They say, I have my own life, it’s my own life. Some women are even saying: “Yes, it’s my body and I just can’t allow it to anyone and therefore I have the right to have children or not.” Already they are making cases in Australia and other countries of the West.

Keputusan Muzakarah Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Kebangsaan Isu Penggunaan Kalimah Allah Penganut Kristian

Keputusan Muzakarah Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Kebangsaan
Bagi Hal Ehwal Ugama Islam Malaysia
Mengenai Isu Tuntutan Penganut Kristian
Terhadap Penggunaan Kalimah Allah

Bil. Muzakarah : Kali Ke-82

Tarikh : 5 Hingga 7 Mei 2008

Tempat : Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites, Alor Setar, Kedah

1) Ulasan/Hujah

i. Perkataan Allah yang digunakan oleh umat Islam adalah merujuk kepada Allah Yang Maha Esa dan lafaz Allah yang telah digunakan oleh orang-orang Kristian adalah merujuk kepada ‘Tuhan Bapa’ iaitu salah satu oknum daripada akidah triniti. Ia berbeza sama sekali dengan apa yang dimaksudkan oleh Reverand Datuk Murphy Pakiam, Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur bahawa perkataan Allah telah lama digunakan oleh orang-orang Kristian sejak sebelum kedatangan Rasulullah s.a.w. Selain daripada itu, lafaz Allah juga tidak pernah disebut di dalam teks bahasa Greek yang merupakan bahasa asal penulisan Bible. Ini adalah kerana perkataan Tuhan di dalam bahasa Greek adalah ‘Theos’ bukannya Allah.

ii. Perkataan Allah juga tidak pernah terdapat di dalam bahasa asal Perjanjian Lama yang dikenali sebagai Taurat dan Perjanjian Baru yang dikenali sebagai Bible. Ini adalah kerana Perjanjian Lama ditulis dalam bahasa Hebrew manakala Perjanjian Baru ditulis dalam bahasa Greek. Perkataan Hebrew yang membawa maksud Tuhan ialah El, Eloh, Elohim dan juga Yhwh.

iii. Kalimah Allah Lafz al-Jalalah adalah khusus dan mutlak untuk agama Islam dan mafhumnya berbeza dengan mafhum Allah yang digunakan oleh agama lain seperti Kristian.

iv. Perintah mahkamah yang dipohon oleh Catholic Herald Weekly untuk mengisytiharkan bahawa larangan penggunaan kalimah Allah yang telah dikeluarkan oleh Kementerian Dalam Negeri adalah bercanggah dengan Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan bukan eksklusif kepada agama Islam boleh memberi kesan yang besar kepada kedudukan agama Islam sekiranya orang Islam sendiri tidak peka dan perhatian yang sewajarnya tidak diberikan oleh pihak berkuasa agama di negara ini.

v. Walaupun dari segi sejarah kalimah Allah telah digunakan sejak sebelum kedatangan Islam lagi, namun penggunaannya adalah berbeza dan perlu dilihat dari segi substancenya. Kalimah Allah yang digunakan oleh Kristian adalah bersifat Taslis dan syirik, sedangkan bagi Islam ia bersifat tauhid.

vi. Kalimah Allah merupakan lafaz suci yang perlu dijaga dan berkait dengan akidah. Umat Islam perlu peka dan bertanggungjawab dalam isu ini. Sikap membenarkan sesiapa sahaja menggunakan kalimah tersebut semata-mata untuk menunjukkan bahawa Islam meraikan agama lain hanya akan mendatangkan mudharat yang lebih besar kepada agama dan umat Islam.

vii. Umat Islam perlu tegas dalam menjaga kesucian dan identiti agama kerana bersikap terlalu terbuka sehingga membenarkan perkara-perkara yang menjadi hak Islam disalahgunakan oleh agama lain adalah amat merbahaya kerana matlamat utama Kristian menggunakan kalimah Allah adalah untuk mengelirukan umat Islam dan menyatakan bahawa semua agama adalah sama.

viii. Kalimah Allah sebenarnya tidak ada di dalam Bible, yang digunakan ialah perkataan God. Tetapi di dalam Bible yang diterjemahkan ke bahasa Melayu, perkataan God diterjemahkan sebagai Allah.

ix. Isu penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh agama bukan Islam ini melibatkan isu berkaitan Siasah Syar’iyyah dan Kerajaan wajib menjaga kesucian agama dan umat Islam. Fatwa perlu dikeluarkan oleh Jawatankuasa Fatwa Negeri supaya kesucian agama dan akidah umat Islam dapat dipertahankan.

x. Pertimbangan Jawatankuasa dalam melarang penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh agama bukan Islam bukan hanya dilihat dari aspek keselamatan, tetapi faktor utama adalah berasaskan kepada akidah dan kesucian agama Islam.

xi. Dalam keadaan di mana agama dan umat Islam dihimpit dengan pelbagai gerakan yang cuba menghakis kedaulatan Islam sebagai agama rasmi negara, umat Islam perlu bersatu dan menunjukkan ketegasan dalam menjaga maruah agama.

xii. Larangan terhadap penggunaan kalimah Allah ini telah diputuskan oleh Jemaah Menteri pada 16 Mei 1986 yang memutuskan empat (4) perkataan khusus iaitu Allah, Solat, Kaabah dan Baitullah tidak dibenarkan penggunaannya oleh bukan Islam. Pada masa ini terdapat 10 buah negeri telah memperuntukan larangan penggunaan kalimah Allah dalam Jadual kepada Enakmen Kawalan Dan Sekatan Pengembangan Agama Bukan Islam Kepada Orang Islam kecuali Sabah, Sarawak, Pulau Pinang dan Wilayah Persekutuan yang masih dalam proses menggubal Enakmen ini.

2) Keputusan

i. Setelah meneliti keterangan, hujah-hujah dan pandangan yang dikemukakan, Muzakarah bersetuju memutuskan bahawa Lafaz Allah merupakan kalimah suci yang khusus bagi agama dan umat Islam dan ia tidak boleh digunakan atau disamakan dengan agama-agama bukan Islam yang lain.

ii. Oleh itu, wajib bagi umat Islam menjaganya dengan cara yang terbaik dan sekiranya terdapat unsur-unsur penghinaan atau penyalahgunaan terhadap kalimah tersebut, maka ia perlu disekat mengikut peruntukan undang-undang yang telah termaktub dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Penggunaan Kalimah Allah

Penggunaan Kalimah Allah

Oleh PANEL PENYELIDIKAN YAYASAN SOFA, NEGERI SEMBILAN

SEMINGGU dua ini, negara amnya dan masyarakat Islam khasnya hangat membicarakan tentang penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh penganut agama selain Islam. Ruangan ini turut terpanggil untuk cuba menjernihkan fahaman dalam isu ini.


Terutama apabila ada juga tokoh dan individu Islam yang mengeluarkan pandangan mempertahankan keputusan mahkamah tinggi baru-baru ini yang membenarkan satu penerbitan Kristian Katholik untuk menggunakan kalimah Allah.


Apabila menimbangkan boleh atau tidak sesuatu itu dilakukan di sisi Islam, kaedah syarak menuntut kita mengenal-pasti hukum asal perkara tersebut serta turut memahami realiti sebenar atau situasi yang melatari sesuatu perbuatan atau isu.


Dalam ruang yang terbatas ini, kami akan membentangkan beberapa hujah di sebalik pandangan yang mengharamkan penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh agama-agama selain Islam.



Di dalam al-Quran sendiri terdapat beberapa ayat yang membawa larangan dan peringatan tentang menyalah-gunakan nama Allah.


Allah SWT berfirman yang maksud-Nya:

Tuhan yang mencipta dan mentadbir langit dan bumi serta segala yang ada di antara keduanya; oleh itu, sembahlah engkau akan Dia dan bersabarlah dengan tekun tetap dalam beribadat kepadanya. Adakah engkau mengetahui sesiapa pun yang senama dan sebanding dengan-Nya?

(Maryam: 65)

Ayat ini ditafsirkan oleh para ulama dengan beberapa tafsiran:

1. Di dalam kitab Tafsir Hadaiq al Rauh wa al Raihan H: 187 ayat ini ditafsirkan dengan maksud: Adakah kamu mengetahui, wahai Muhammad! Bagi Tuhan Yang Maha Suci ada perkongsian pada namaNya (pada menamakan-Nya dengan lafaz al Jalalah atau dengan Tuhan tujuh petala langit dan bumi. Ayat istifham (soalan) ini didatangkan dengan tujuan ingkar, iaitu maknanya: Sesungguhnya Allah itu tidak ada baginya misal atau bandingan sehingga Dia boleh disekutukan dalam ibadah dan dari sini akan melazimkan nama ini tidak khusus bagi Allah. Apabila ternafinya sekutu bagi Allah, maka layaklah Allah itu di-Esakan dalam ibadah dan dikhususkan baginya.
2. Pendapat kedua mengatakan maknanya: Adakah kamu mengetahui seseorang yang dinamakan dengan Allah selain Allah. Atau, nama yang lain dari nama yang Allah sendiri namakan bagi diri-Nya.
3. Pendapat ketiga mengatakan maknanya: Adakah kamu mengetahui seseorang yang layak dengan kesempurnaan nama-nama dan sifat-sifat yang layak bagi Allah.
4. Pendapat keempat mengatakan maknanya: Adakah kamu mengetahui nama yang lebih agung daripada nama yang unggul ini. Atau, nama-Nya diterbitkan dari sesuatu seperti nama-nama makhluk-Nya.

Sesungguhnya Allah itu tiada satu pun yang menyerupai-Nya. Ia adalah nama yang hanya menunjukkan kepada Zat Tuhan yang tertegak pada-Nya sifat-sifat.


Sama seperti isim alam yang lain yang menunjukkan kepada apa yang dinamakan tanpa diambil daripada mana-mana nama. Ia adalah nama yang diungguli oleh Allah, yang dikhususkan bagi diri-Nya dan disifatkan bagi Zat-Nya.


Ia didahulukan dari nama-nama-Nya yang lain dan nama-nama-Nya yang lain bersandar kepada nama ini dan semua nama yang datang selepasnya adalah sifat bagi-Nya dan bersangkutan dengannya.


Nama-nama Allah

Nama-nama Allah SWT yang lain disifatkan sebagai nama-nama Allah SWT yang lain dan kebiasaannya hanya dikenali dengan disandarkan kepadanya (Allah).


Oleh itu disebut, ia adalah nama-nama Allah dan tidak disebut ia adalah nama-nama al Sabur,al Ghafur, al Jabbar dan sebagainya.


Demikian juga keIslaman seseorang itu tidak akan sempurna melainkan dengan menyebut nama yang satu ini. Ia tidak menerima sebarang gantian dan tidak disebut nama gantiannya yang lain.


Misalnya dengan mengucapkan dalam syahadah dengan kalimah, "Tiada Tuhan melainkan al Ghaffar, atau al Rahim atau al Jabbar dan sebagainya.


Hanya yang digunakan dan disebut adalah, "Tiada Tuhan melainkan Allah". Inilah juga yang disebut oleh al-Quran dan hadis kerana ia adalah nama yang paling menunjukkan kepada hakikat makna Ilahiyyah dan dikhususkan baginya.


Ia juga adalah nama yang tidak memerlukan kepada nama-nama yang lain untuk diperkenalkan tetapi nama-nama yang lain itu dikenali dengan disandarkan kepadanya.


Perkataan Allah itu sudah mencukupi bagi pertuturan dan zikir (sebutan) tanpa perlu disifatkan dan di takhalluq (disifatkan manusia dengan sifat-Nya).


Allah telah menegaskan di dalam Kitabnya yang mulia:

Dan Allah mempunyai nama-nama yang baik (yang mulia), maka serulah (dan berdoalah) kepada-Nya dengan menyebut nama-nama itu, dan pulaukanlah orang yang berpaling dari kebenaran dalam masa menggunakan nama-nama-Nya. Mereka akan mendapat balasan mengenai apa yang mereka telah kerjakan.

(al-A'raaf: 180)

Berdasarkan ayat di atas, terdapat beberapa pendapat ulama tentang maksud mulhid:

Berkata Mujahid: Mulhid ialah orang yang menamakan Allah sebagai bapa dan berhala-berhala mereka sebagai tuhan-tuhan dan seumpamanya.

Berkata Ibnu Abbas makna (Yulhidun) ialah mendustai.

Berkata Qatadah: Maknanya mensyirikkan Allah.

Berkata al Khattabi: Salah dalam menamakan Allah dan menyimpang dari nama-Nya yang sebenar adalah Mulhid. (Al Bahr al Muhit fi al Tafsir jld 5 H: 232)

Maksud ayat ini, Allah Yang Maha Suci, bukan yang lain-Nya, mempunyai nama-nama yang sebaik-baiknya dan seagung-agungnya bagi menunjukkan kepada sebaik-baik dan semulia-mulia nama-Nya.


Merujuk kepada ayat-ayat di atas, kita boleh menyimpulkan bahawa nama-nama Allah, apatah lagi kalimah Allah itu sendiri sebagai nama yang khusus bagi Allah SWT bukanlah boleh digunakan sewenang-wenangnya dan tanpa batasan.


Pelbagai hujah lain yang mendokong larangan penggunaan kalimah Allah ini datangnya dari pelbagai sudut termasuk bahasa, falsafah dan seumpamanya.


Oleh kerana kesuntukan ruang, kami mengesyorkan dua tulisan yang memuatkan hujah-hujah ini secara lebih panjang.


Ia boleh didapati dengan mudah di Internet iaitu makalah bertajuk 'Antara Nama dan Hakikat' oleh Md. Asham Ahmad serta makalah 'Hujah Menolak Penggunaan Kalimah Allah oleh Kristian' oleh Mohd. Aizam Mas'od.


'Bermain'

'Bermain' hujah dan dalil berkaitan isu ini sebenarnya bukanlah urusan orang awam dan mereka yang bukan berkeahlian.


Oleh itu kita harus bersyukur kerana sebenarnya sudah ada suatu keputusan Muzakarah Jawatankuasa Fatwa Kebangsaan dalam isu ini yang bertarikh 7 Mei 2008.


Keputusan fatwa ini jelas mengkhususkan penggunaan kalimah Allah bagi orang Islam. Kami dimaklumkan bahawa hanya empat negeri sahaja yang belum mewartakan keputusan fatwa ini sebagai fatwa rasmi negeri.


Perlu juga diingat bahawa terdapat beberapa keputusan Kabinet mengenai larangan yang sama.


Dari segi undang-undang perlembagaan dan sivil pula, Perkara 11(4) telah membolehkan negeri-negeri di Malaysia meluluskan Enakmen Kawalan Pengembangan Agama di kalangan orang Islam.


Undang-undang yang telah diluluskan di 10 negeri ini jelas melarang penggunaan kalimah Allah dan beberapa kalimah lain oleh agama selain Islam.


Kita tidak menafikan bahawa mungkin masih ada perbezaan pandangan di kalangan segelintir para ulama dan ilmuwan Islam tentang hal ini.


Namun bukankah hujah-hujah yang melarangnya seperti yang sebahagiannya kami nukilkan di sini menuntut kita lebih berhati-hati dan berwaspada dalam isu ini?


Apatah lagi jika diinsafi bahawa kita sekarang bukannya membicarakan isu-isu cabangan dalam agama yang lebih rendah kedudukannya.


Isu yang kita bahaskan ini melibatkan adab kita dengan Allah Rabbul Jalil.


Jika kita tidak berhati-hati kita boleh tergelincir hingga berlaku kurang beradab dan hormat kepada Allah, Tuhan sekelian alam.


Rasulullah SAW ada berpesan dalam suatu hadis yang dianggap antara hadis-hadis induk dalam Islam bahawa,

Perkara yang Halal itu jelas dan perkara yang haram itu jelas. Dan di antara kedua-duanya ada perkara-perkara yang Syubhah yang tidak diketahui hakikatnya oleh kebanyakan manusia. Dan sesiapa yang menjauhi perkara Syubhah maka dia telah benar-benar menjaga kesucian agamanya dan maruahnya. Seumpama pengembala yang membawa ternaknya ke sempadan kawasan larangan. Sangat dibimbangi akan termasuk ke dalamnya.

(riwayat Imam Bukhari dan selainnya serta termasuk dalam himpunan Hadis 40
oleh Imam al-Nawawi)

Lalu kita ingin tanyakan, bukankah dalam isu ini yang melibatkan hak dan adab dengan Allah SWT kita lebih-lebih wajar menjauhi batas-batas syubhat kalaupun ada di kalangan kita tidak meyakini pengharamannya secara pasti?


Berasaskan semangat ini dan berbekalkan fatwa, undang-undang dan keputusan yang sedia ada marilah kita sekalian umat Islam di Malaysia mempersatukan saf dalam mengambil pendirian dalam hal ini.


Maslahah ummah amat jelas memerlukan sikap ini sedangkan maslahah untuk membenarkan penggunaan kalimah Allah bagi agama yang lain dalam konteks Malaysia sangatlah kabur dan rapuh.


Umat Islam yang cintakan kesepaduan dan kekuatan ummah seharusnya mengenepikan perbezaan pandangan yang terlalu akademik dalam isu ini dan mengutamakan perkiraan maslahah ini.


Semoga Allah SWT membuka jalan penyelesaian dan keselamatan bagi kita semua dalam menghadapi persoalan ini. Amin Ya Rabbal 'Alamin.

Artikel ini dipetik dari Ruangan Bicara Agama, Utusan Malaysia
keluaran 11 Januari 2010 / 25 Muharram 1431.