Bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim
In the name of Allah,most gracious,most mercifulWhilst googling for activies organized by Melayu UK (Malays who are permanent residents here),I came accross an extremely interesting yet intelectually stimulating article.Well,not that I say it changes anything in a direct manner,but it's definitely something to ponder upon.The whole site has a collection of simplified narrations on the Malay literatures,specifically those related to the history of the Melayu people.
And among all,the 2 that caught my attention were the ones born from the delicate observations by Munshi Abdullah and Frank Swettenham,both depicting the cultural layout of the Malays and their characteristics,including the physique!
It is intrigueing that some of what they have stated decades and centuries ago,remains true and unchallenged to certain quarters of the fabric of the Malay society up till today!For example,Frank Swettenham wrote that the Malays were 'lazy and does not plan'.This observation was made ages ago.It somehow rings a bell to the most well-known cliche of all times within our society the 'Melayu pemalas',up till now.Is it still true till today,or are all of us now hard-workers and good planners?
Another interesting observation made was how
corrupt the society was (I view from an Islamic point of view),how
repressing and intolerant the feudal leaders were of opposition and how
indulged they were in themselves (some might still hold true now),and how
honour was not to be insulted,otherwise,your dead man! (amok)
I know how skewed and biased observations can be,and how social science is not definite in its laws (one rule may not apply to all),but I cant help but believe that even as our society progresses,some of these characteristics remain true,if not for all,some.
On the other hand,Munshi Abdullah depicted how devoid the Malays were of education
(hmm,might still be valid today?),how conservative they are (splashing like RM40,000 for a wedding without it having profitable consequences,not any that I can think of),and how they lack the will to improve their livelihood and society despite knowing the fact they were poor,uneducated,and repressed (a 'mandul' society).Common answers come out: Kami ni miskin nak buat cemana.Kami tak mampu buat apa-apa.
Again there still are many good qualities,like how
witty and clever a Malay is,how intolerant they are towards insult,and how
courageous we are.Remember the story of how
Tun Perak fended off the Thais by lighting up plenty of torch during the night to give the impression that we are in great numbers?Do you know the story of a
Malaccan Sultan (Muzaffar or Mansur?I'm not really sure) who was prized with the princess of the Emperor of China for being really clever?The story goes that China sent in an envoy with a ship full of needles and said that the needles were collected from every household in China,just to show how huge the empire is.The sultan in reply,sent a ship full of sago grain and said each grain is taken from a singel household throughout the empire of Malacca (although it was actually the Bendahara who filled the ship with it).
But that aside,could the more negative qualities of the Malays
played a role in our inability to become a dominant world player?Could it have lead to the more than 500 years of colonial rule?
It could.
Yet interestingly the golden era of Malacca when the
Malays contorlled an empire that the chinese stated as 'You will not even finish cruising through the Malay isles even after 2 years' was reached slightly after the
sultanate embraced Islam.Before that,Malacca was just a small state on its own.Islam came,and within 2 ruling periods of the sultan,Malacca was at its peak.Reminds me of how the great
Persian and Roman empires fell in the hands of Muslims in a period less than 4 years during Umar's rule.And how we attacked Spain in 92 hijrah and 95 hijrah circa,Paris was just 60 kilometers away.Before that the Arabs were just a bunch of desert traders and nomads.
Indeed when Frank Swettenham made the observation of how the Malays were so immersed in gambling and cock fighting,it was a period when the practice of Islam was waning off.The whole society became dysfunctional.How could they think of fighting the colonialists when they were too busy thinking of gambling?Certainly these small matters are distracting them from the larger goals of life.It's like what we see today,
young people,immersed in the quest and hunt for pleasure and fun (shopping2 too much,movies too much,football too much,awek2 and balak2 too much) that they become devoid to the fact that the world is actually theirs to conquer if they set their eyes on it.Insha-Allah.
The fall of Islamic Spain occured at the point when a young Muslim teenager started crying because the mother refused to buy a she slave.Before that,they cried because their request to join jihad is refused by the mother unless he memorizes the whole quran.See the difference?
I get 2 things from reading this useful article: first is that every race has its own character.The Arabs were proud people and refused to bow to any sort of rule (which explains why there was no central ruling in Mecca before Islam).The Indians are preseverant.The chinese are hardworking.All of them,have good and bad characteristics glued to them,like it or not.It comes in one package.But despite those differences,
embracing Islam wholly (read wholly not halfly like what we do nowadays) somehow seems to eradicate the negative values,magnify the good ones,and adds up useful attitudes,which led them to become 'ultra-men',capable of building a massive empire.Like the Arabs,they became fathers of modern science after wholly embracing Islam.Why is it,that all these time (4000 years) they never sought to become one until Islam came?The Berbers,known for their barbaric and nomad ways of life,became one of the key players in the conquest of Spain after Islam came.
Secondly,our history (the Malay history) is not as beautiful as we wanted it to be.Yes we managed to conquer southeast Asia,our language became the lingua franca,we were HUGE.But that was only for a short period.The rest of it?
We brushed off Islam,became corrupted and dysfunctional,and have so many negative characteristic glued to us,even up till today.
I cant help feeling sorry yet disgusted by this fact.500 years of colonial rule???Dont tell me 'Thats our history you need to be proud of it.We gained independece without shedding blood' because I'm not going to buy into it.Blood is the price you have to pay for complete independence.Otherwise,your laws would have to go along the laws of the colonials,a huge chunk of the land will have to belong to them.You think that the clever colonists will let go of a land full of riches,by just signing a paper,and by the pressure recieved from its people,simply like that?
That aside,I can swallow the fact that yes that is my people's history (the Golden Period of the Abbasids is also my history as well :) I am a Muslim afterall),but what I cannot take is the act of staring at history with a blind eye,swallowing the truth,and allow it to become our flesh and blood,manifest in our attitudes and areas of our life.
Do not be fooled by what we have today in Malaysia.We have huge shopping complexes,posh clothes,swift running cars,but that ultimately,is not a measure of how far we've progressed.To see how far we've progressed throughout history,lets ask questions like:
1) Am I still lazy and incapable of planning?How would my life be after 10 years?
2) Do I think too much of the small things in life? (ala bucuk-bucuk sayang bee mintak maaf laa.wow I wanna buy that shoe.And that shoe.And this one)
3) Do we have the will to progress,or are we just content with what we have?
We might have huge and tall buildings,up-to-date clothes,fluent English,all that is needed to be defined as modernized,but if we adopt the attitudes of those that caused us to succumb centuries ago,we'd still be the same.Stuck in this region.With no liberty to exercise power.We can just follow,and never ever lead.We are entrenched with the belief that we SHOULD emulate the Western people to go forward.Our minds,hearts,and our way of life might still be colonised.
Yes my fellow mates,unfortunately the way these attitudes or characteristic binds to us,is as strong as how gravity keeps us on soil eventhough we in Malaysia,are actually upside down.We need fuel to defy the laws of gravity.And so far throughout history that fuel has never been more better than embracing Islam as a deen in our lives.Even pre-independence,those that came to the cause of justice and fight for independence,were those with knowledge of the deen (Tok Janggut,Burhanuddin al-Helmy)
We (Malays) are fortunate Allah never gave us a choice.Alone,we're nothing more than a bunch of seafaring traders.With Islam,we became an empire.In a way,this reminds me of the Arabs.Unlike the Persians,Romans,French,English,they were given a choice by Allah.Take Islam,you'd be great.Don't take Islam,you'd still be great,but you wont have a share of My bouties in the hereafter.
My suggestion?Try and check out this (Islam) deen more.It's what made us,a long time ago,tick.
Wallahu a'lam.
