There was once an era called the ‘dark ages’ of the Christians in Europe that stretched roughly from the first quarter of the tenth century to the 15th century. The people at the time were obsessed with supernatural powers of satans, devils and the likes. Fighting evil spirits, witches and even vampires was almost what the Christian priests were all about.
Many are said to have been wrongly accused and burnt to death, especially women, for being suspected, accused or ‘proven’ to be a witch. The words of the priests were considered words of God and objecting them would make one a sinner or a conspirator of the devil. Religion is not a thing to be discussed or questioned or you will be condemned as a bad Christian or a sinner, or worst, an apostate.
The 8th century was the beginning of the golden age of Islam. It lasted until 1258 when Baghdad fell to the Mongols. While the Christians were obsessed with the supernaturals and afraid to question the Priests, the Muslims were discovering the universe and invented algebra.
The golden age was when the Muslims reached its highest height in human civilization; a height so high that no Muslims in this era could even imagine, but only dream. In their dreams, they long for those glory days. And they keep dreaming in the dark, suffocated by the nostalgia, but forever refuse to wake up.
Since then, the Muslims have been sleeping and dreaming in the dark for centuries already and there haven’t been a sign that they would eventually wake up. However, they believe that they will wake up one day because the Quran says so. How or when, remains a mystery.
With the current development in the Muslim countries, I don’t think they will wake up anytime soon. Muslims in Malaysia were however don’t sit under the same dark shades as the rest of their brothers and sisters elsewhere. Here, in Malaysia, the Muslims are not asleep, thanks to the bright shiny sun all year through.
But that was 10 years ago. With the way things are going today, where horror movies, ghosts, spirits and black magic are becoming the way of life of the Muslims in Malaysia, I believe that the dark-ages of Islam in Malaysia has just begun.
In the Asian region, Indonesia and Thailand are known to have a wide practice of black magic. In the Phillipines, the Sulus, who attacked Sabah recently, are also known to be hard-core black magic believer. Ghosts and spirits are reported to be roaming free in villages. They keep the ghosts and spirits like a sheep-dog, a guard or a servant to care for their belongings, to keep them safe or to harm people they don’t like.
However, only recently that we heard the ghosts, devils or satans being commanded to go to war. That was when the Sulus attacked Lahad Datu.
I don’t know how much of it is true but I do have many friends in the army. Therefore, although I am the type who would laugh off of such stories, I choose to keep an open mind about it. I know my friends don’t lie, they have no reason to do so.
Personally, I believe that satans or devils exist only in the minds of humans. But let’s not talk about what I believe and focus on what I know.
I know that the Quran has stated that the devils or satans or whatever beings in this world, are lesser creatures than the humans. Since the Quran’s words are ‘preserved’ and protected from changes, the Muslims must be reading and citing the same words from the Quran day in and day out. The Quran says that humans are the highest, most perfect beings ever created because only humans are equipped with this unexplainable, untouchable, invincible ‘thing’ called the mind.
The mind exists in the brain, or is it? A dog has a brain, but does it have a mind? What is a mind?
Technically, the brain is the mechanical part of the mind but is it the mind that controls the brain or does the brain works naturally? Brain cell sparks and connects in order for us to move or make sense of something. But if you cut out the skull and take out the brain, you cannot see the ‘sense’ that we made out of the thing. Just like you cannot see ‘love’ when the doctor operates your heart. The scientists may take out Einstein’s brain, but they couldn’t find his ‘mind’. His brain is disappointingly - just like everybody else’s.
The mind is a complicated existence, too complex to describe. Some sufis said that the mind is part of God itself. God works in the form of energy that is limitless or infinite. The frequencies, the gravity, the reaction of energy in water or air are all God’s work. The mind is the energy of humans just like emotions, which are also God’s work.
What we can see, like our hands and legs and the mountains and the skies are God’s creation.
While these unseen energies are all God’s work - with the ‘mind’ as the ultimate one bestowed only to human beings.
So, believe it or not, God works through science. Therefore, science = power.
Hence, a ‘mind’ (ultimate gift) used for science (power) will lead to greatness.
In the end, there is nothing but God.
Now, which holy book that says this? Yes, the Quran. So, why do Muslims choose to defy and deny science when the Quran itself is all about science?
The Christians managed to get out of the dark ages by embracing science. The Muslims had its glory days when they embraced science.
This takes us back to the black magic and ghosts and the voodoos of Africa, Sulus, Indonesia or Thailand. As powerful as they claimed this supernatural powers to be, their powers are only limited upon those who believe in it.
Eventually, it is the power of science that conquered the world.
The Sulus were defeated by guns and grenades. The Africans remain the most backward people. The Indonesians and Thailands are having a hard time just to build a nation.
The Sulus had to take a boat to Lahad Datu, they couldn’t fly or ‘blink’ themselves from Philippines to Sabah. They still need to use some kind of transportation that is built by a brilliant mind, using science.
Sadly, Malaysia which is supposedly skipping and singing, giggling happily on our journey to be the First World Country isn’t taking science seriously. Less and less students sign up for science-related courses in schools or universities and everybody is talking about ghosts and spirits. The entertainment industries are full of hocus pocus Mr. Boogedy kind of things. Politicians revert to shamans or dukun and bomoh to seek success or protection. Things must have become so bad that even Tun Mahathir had to express his concern over the matter in his blog.
So, dear leaders, please be informed that we are going backwards and downwards to the dark ages. How do you actually believe that we can move forward without tackling this problem?
Do you have a plan to do something about it?
Don’t tell us that imitating the Negara Maju by letting go of examinations in school would help us tackle the problem. Don’t tell us arresting the Shi’ites would help us move forward. Don’t tell us that humiliating those who commit ‘khalwat’ in the media would put us on the right track to ‘enlightenment’. And making religious subjects compulsory won’t take us anywhere.
And please…the taxes and price hike are totally different story, ok?
The key word for the solution is ‘science’, so work around it if you really want the country to go forward. But before that, I would like to remind that you can’t tackle a problem from the consequences, you have to tackle it from the root-cause. So, I would suggest you start with the teachers (the educators), rather than the kids and the society.
