Being a Muslim studying in the West, it is heartbreaking when most great neoteric scientific discoveries, literary works, and many other branches of knowledge that you study all have its roots in the West. The Judeo-Christian world is the power, the knowledge, the monetary source. The Golden Age of Islam has long gone and if one cogitate the condition of the ummah today, one would agree that there is no conspicuous sign of it to resurface.
If other Muslims choose to whine about the fate of the ummah; if other Muslims are busy killing each other, branding other Muslims as non-Islamic, nationalist, Hadharism, cronism, ‘UMNO’, nepotism and Al-anwariyyun (just to name a few - if I give the full list of censures that Muslims use to attack each other, it would fill up the whole blog), I have decided to take on the responsibility of pioneering the revival of the Islamic Golden Age movement in this blog and hopefully other writers/readers would follow suit. I have decided to follow in the footsteps of Al-Kindi, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Ibnu Bajjah and many others. I have decided to become a failasuf (a philosopher).
Eminent philosophers like the ones mentioned above produced books and theories that touched millions of people. My hope is that my effort would touch you, dear readers. I have indeed acquired the inspiration to contrive my first theory from my observation of this blog, thus it is only fair that this blog has the honor of hosting my theory which I have called the Kampung Malays Theory or Teori Jaguh Kampung.
Name of theory:
Kampung Malays Theory (Teori Jaguh Kampung)
Description of theory:
Raja Petra Kamaruddin of Malaysia-Today.net once claimed that one could easily take the Malays out of the kampong, but never the kampong out of the Malays. Observing the status quo of this blog a few days ago when a writer pointed fingers to Kelab UMNO NJ/NY for its ‘ambiguous’ basis of formation and the quarrels over trivial matters that Malaysian Muslims always find their ways into, NOTHING could falsify his statement thus I have incorporate it as the foundation of my theory. In short, Kampung Malays or Jaguh Kampung refers to Malaysian Muslims that have already moved out of their own kampong to pursue knowledge but still appear like they have never been out of their own little shell. I hereby would like to propose the social, biological and psychological characteristics of these Jaguh-jaguh Kampung as a guideline for you, dear readers.
1) PSYCHOLOGICAL characteristic
A large portion of Kampung Malays are those that were selected by the government to study in other countries (the United States for example) because they are (supposedly) the cream of the crop. The fact that these Kampung Malays could speak fluent English (the language of knowledge and technology), the talent to write brilliant articles in various topics and read great books written by renowned authors, makes it inconceivable for one to forebode that these people are actually Kampung Malays. After all, Kampung Malays have made persevering and painstaking efforts to make sure that their true identity is safely tucked away lest people would recognize that they are Kampung Malays. However, if one is a Kampung Malay, he would always be a Kampung Malay. If provoked, he would promptly brandish his keris in the air and start attacking his adversaries – a specialty of this group of people. Gone is his controlled self-composure. However, would a Kampung Malay stop and contemplate the reasons for such criticism towards him? NO! Would he take the effort to invite those people for a discussion? NO! Psychologically,Kampung Malays could be classified as a group of people that could not stand criticism but do nothing to elucidate the problems arose.
2) SOCIAL characteristic
Kampung Malays are well-known for their manners. They are truly courteous, considerate and ‘civil’ to the extent that if they disagree with their neighbors they would not articulate the problems that are burdening their hearts to those neighbors lest they hurt those neighbors’ feelings. INSTEAD, a Kampung Malay would disseminate the issue to EVERYBODY ELSE. He would meet all ends to make sure he has broadcasted the issue to a fair amount of audience – he would write in his blog, keep up with the discussions that followed and voluntarily provide different aspects of his neighbors that he believed to be dubious, to the readers. But has he tried to straighten out the issue with those neighbors? NO! Did he have a man-to-man dialogue with the neighbors? NO! Did he even know those neighbors well enough to make such accusation? I believe the answer is no. Kampung Malays therefore is the perfect paragon if one wants to illustrate the human race most primitive talent – the ability to propagate unnecessary chaos J
3) BIOLOGICAL characteristic
It was astonishing to see that many people reacted to the entries about Kelab UMNO NJ/NY (and the harsh words they use to express themselves are even more astounding!) but the fact that none of them used their real name did not catch me by surprise. You see, Kampung Malays would throw rocks or bombs, would cry for reformation in the government or even call for Jihad AS LONG AS they remain anonymous. When they are masquerading, the Kampung Malays are the bravest type of Muslims hiding behind names such as Bangku, Hamba Allah, Bukan Islam Hadhari, Hidup UMNO NJNY (just to name a few) but one would always wonder why these brave Muslims recoil from the idea of revealing their true self. If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding? If they are speaking the words of truth, who do they fear? I have consulted a future physician, Adibah Abdullah, on the biological aspect of the Kampung Malays because a theory is irrefutable only if the reasonings and proofs for it come from a reliable source. Adibah has a simple but concise answer to it, “tak berani letak nama sendiri tu namenye ado testosterone tapi ciri-ciri kelamin sekunder tak abih keluar.” I therefore incorporate the statement from this future physician as the biological characteristic of the Kampung Malays.
Conclusion:
My goal of reviving the Golden Age of Islam could not be accomplished if I am alone. All Muslims especially we, the youth of the ummah must work together to achieve this if we truly love Islam. It is heartbreaking when Muslims just could not refrained themselves from pointing fingers at each other, or put certain ‘labels’ on other Muslims. Oh, by the way readers… If you ever come across a Kampung Malay, please do not despise him. Kampung Malays need help, and I believe if we all work together we could salvage them…. All for the sake of the ummah…