How to deal with evils activities such as prostitution, gambling, alcoholism, drug addiction and so on in an Islamic country? What are the guidelines? How to eradicate these evils activities? Some Muslims are in the opinion that no evils activities should exist in Muslims countries. They are in the opinion that all evil activities are to be banned completely and immediately in Muslim countries. When those Muslims are in power, they will decree orders to close immediately all premises, which operate evils activities and will withdraw all licenses or permits, which allow such premises to operate. When they are in power, according to these Muslims, these are the only methods to be used to prevent evils. Is it true what they have done is the correct way to prevent evils with power? Is it true what they have done was also done by our Prophet Muhammad saw? One classical example to demonstrate on how these Muslims are eradicating evils practices with power, are shown by the actions of Taliban. Everyone knows who the Taliban are and what they did when they were in power in Afghanistan. Taliban believe many evils actions eminate or come from women and to them, women are the sources of many evils. According to Taliban, when women are allowed to go out and work, evils practices will increase. In order to prevent evils practices, women in Afghanistan were not allowed to work. Similarly according to the Taliban when women are allowed to go out of their homes without wearing purdah, women will seduce men into evil actions and in order to prevent evils, during the time of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan, when they were outside their homes were made compulsory to wear purdah with their faces completely covered. Taliban does not allow their girls and women to go to schools, colleges or universities and become educated as, to the Taliban educated women will be able to work outside their homes and to them, working women are the sources of many evils.

When Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, among the drastic action taken by Taliban was not to allow women to work outside their homes and not to let women to go out of their houses without purdah. Taliban believe, all promiscuous activities arise due to men being tempted by women. In order to avoid or to reduce temptation of men by women, Taliban believe, women should be kept within the four walls of their houses. Taliban also believe that the responsibility of women is only to serve their husbands and children and not to go out and work. Because of that, many widowed women (many of their husbands have died in the war) who were supposed to work in order to earn their living were forced to remain in their houses without foods. This had caused great financial problems and stress to these women. When Taliban were ruling Afghanistan, one other thing that they did, which they believe to be Islamic were to destroy one of the oldest Buddhist temple in the world which were built by the Buddhists many thousand of years ago. Similarly, when PAS ruled Terengganu, one thing that they did which they think highly commendable was to destroy the replica of turtle (penyu) and to replace it with Batu Bersurat (inscription stone with Quranic Laws). Who are these Taliban? Are they similar to PAS in Malaysia? Where do they come from? Who teaches them all these ideas? Taliban comes from the word Talab, an Arabic word that means students. Taliban are students, who studied Islam in the various madrasah in Pakistan. They come from Afghanistan. How Taliban reached to the idea that, when women are allowed to work, evils practices increases? Is it true, in order to stop evils, women should not be allowed to work? Who teaches them these ideas? Do the Taliban derive these ideas from the Quran and Hadis?

Taliban supposed to be the students of Quran and Sunnah. They supposed to understand the Quran and Hadis. Do Taliban understand the meaning of evils and good as mention in the Quran and Hadis? Good mention in the Quran means to recite the Great Kalimah; “I bear witness that there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah”. Evils mention in the Quran means; unwilling or refuse to recite the Great Kalimah. Many Muslims, including the Taliban do not understand the meaning of good and evils as mention in the Quran. The greatest evils done by men is not to recite the Great Kalimah and the greatest evils done by those who have recited the Great Kalimah is not to do the work which is associated with the right of the Great Kalimah. Many Muslims does not understand that when a person is unwilling to recite the Great Kalimah, it means that person has committed a great evil. Many Muslims think that evils acts are restricted to evils actions related to other men or women. Many believe only such actions as zina, alcoholism, drugs addiction and gambling are great evils. Muslims do not regard, when a person refuse to recite the Great Kalimah, that person is committing an act of evil and similarly Muslims do not regard when a Muslim is not doing the work which is associated with the right of the Great Kalimah, he or she is doing an act of evil.

Even a person such as Dato Nik Aziz, Menteri Besar of Kelantan and Tuan Guru Haji Hadi, the President of Pas, believe, in case PAS is in power, the first order of Allah to be established in Malaysia is Hudud Laws and not to call mankind to good and to forbid mankind from evils. According to them Islam is Hudud and Hudud is Islam and to establish Hudud Laws mean to prevent evils. In Hudud laws, when in the presence of 4 pious persons as witnesses, a bachelor man and bachelor woman who is found to practice illicit sex, each person will be beaten with hundred lashes. In case it involves a married person, the punishment for the married persons is to stone them to death. The Taliban wanted to establish Hudud Laws in Afghanistan and Dato Nik Aziz and Haji Hadi also want to establish Hudud Laws in Malaysia. Many Muslims in the whole world believe, establishing Hudud Laws means establishing Islamic Laws. Hudud Laws are not the only laws in Islam. There are so many other laws in Islam beside Hudud. Many Muslims are with the opinion that with the introduction of Hudud, evils actions or practices will be prevented or reduced. This is not true. When we introduce Hudud laws, evils are not reduced or prevented as we cannot prevent evils with either rules or laws. Evils are only prevented by inviting those who do evils to do good. Hudud laws are one of the orders of Allah to be established but not the first order to be established. The first order of Allah to be established is to establish in every mosques, the work which is associated with the right of the Great Kalimah.

How Taliban do learns that evils are associated with women? Is it true that evils are associated with women who go out to work? Why do the Taliban destroy the Buddhist Temples? Are these actions are acts of Jihad? Are there any verses in Quran or Hadis that mention that evils are associated with women who going out to work and in order to prevent the evils are to prevent women from going to work? There are no verses of Quran or Hadis mention the relationship between evils and women who going out to work. It is only a fantasy and not a fact. It is not based on Quran and Hadis but it is based more on fantasy. Where the fantasy does comes from? The fantasy comes because of the Taliban association with Jemaah Tabligh. While the Talibans were studying Islam in Pakistan, they were invited to join the movement of Jemaah Tabligh. The madrasah in Pakistan, which is in the control of Jemaah Tabligh, made it compulsory for their students to participate in the activities of Jemaah Tabligh. During their vacations, the students are asked or somewhat forced to participate in Jemaah Tabligh activities either for 40 day or 4 months or even for one year. With their involvement in Jemaah Tabligh, they obtain only the enthusiasms (semangat) to practice Islam but not the true understanding of Islam and not the ability to practice the true teaching of Islam. With their incorrect understanding about Islam, they wanted to establish Afghanistan as an Islamic country. At that time, Afghanistan was under the Mujahidin. Taliban with the assistance of Pakistan army attacked and overthrew Mujahidin, and formed the Taliban government.

In reality, Taliban were those students who previously were studying in Pakistan and have been influenced to certain extent by Jemaah Tabligh. Taliban idea not to let women to go out and work comes from Jemaah Tabligh. I have followed Jemaah Tabligh personally for about 30 years. One of the most important points in the movement is to makes women not to study worldly education but to study only Islamic education, to stop women from working and to make women to wear complete purdah. What consider being a great achievement to many members of Jemaah Tabligh is to be able to persuade their wives or daughters to stop working, to wear purdah with face covered completely and to remain only at homes. Most members of Jemaah Tabligh believe, the main work of women is only to tend the need of the husbands and the children in the houses, which are similar to the understanding of the Taliban. Because of the work of Jemaah Tabligh many Muslims in Malaysia start to love to practice Islam. Although they love to practice Islam but they do not have the correct understanding of Islam. Many in Malaysia particularly those associated with Jemaah Tabligh, thinks PAS is an Islamic party and many of them support PAS. When PAS won in Kelantan, Dato Nik Aziz became the Menteri Besar of Kelantan.

Dato’ Nik Aziz has no association with Jemaah Tabligh and he does not do as the Taliban did in Afghanistan. In Kelantan, women are still allowed to work and wearing complete purdah is not compulsory in Kelantan. According to Dato’ Nik Aziz, his greatest achievement as Menteri Besar of Kelantan is to be able to deposit all the money belongs to the states, which were previously deposited in all other conventional banks to Bank Islam. His second greatest achievement is to stop issuing licenses to gambling premises in Kelantan and his third greatest achievement is to initiate the slogan “Membangun Bersama Islam”. Dato’ Nik Aziz is proud to be able to stop issuing licenses on gambling, prostitution and so on in Kelantan. Dato’ Nik Aziz in one of his talk said; he is able to do such actions because he has power. He concluded in his speech, in order to establish the laws of Allah in this world, a person need to have power and in order for PAS to have power, all of you must vote for PAS. I can conclude from this speech of Dato’ Nik Dato Nik Aziz that he has made power to be the purpose of his life and the purpose of life of all those who follow him which is the PAS members. What is the true purpose of the life of a Muslim? The purpose of the life of Muslims is to obtain the love of Allah and not to obtain power. Dato’ Nik Aziz thinks only with power the orders of Allah are made alive. This is not true.

The truth is; there is no one who can make the orders of Allah alive except Allah and Allah makes the orders of Allah alive by the mean of the work done by Prophet Muhammad saw and not by the mean of power. Dato’ Nik Aziz also said, Prophet Muhammad saw while in Mecca had no power to establish the orders of Allah and because Prophet saw has no power, Prophet saw can only teach Quran in Mecca. Dato’ Nik Aziz also said that the Hijrah of Prophet saw to Medina was to obtain power. This is also not true. Either the Prophet Muhammad saw was in Mecca or in Medina; he was doing the work of calling peoples to Allah and teaching the peoples about the orders of Allah. Prophet saw aims of life is only to obtain the redha or love of Allah and not power. Prophet saw is a Rasul and not a politician like Dato’ Nik Aziz. Prophet saw made the Hijrah to Medina because it is the order of Allah and not because Prophet saw want power as said by Dato’ Nik Aziz. Allah can give power to Prophet Muhammad saw even when he was in Mecca. When the Quraish of Mecca offered him to become the leader of Mecca, provided the Prophet saw discontinued the work of calling peoples to Allah, Prophet Muhammad saw out rightly turn down the offer.

In my opinion, Dato’ Nik Aziz is not Ulama but ahli Kitab. However all PAS members and many Muslims in Malaysia regard him as Ulama. In my opinion, Dato’ Nik Aziz does not have the correct understanding of Islam. Many of his recent speeches that I have heard from the Youtube are not in accordance to Quran and Hadis. In my opinion, he is more a politician than Ulama. With such wrong understanding about Islam, Dato’ Nik Aziz would not be able to practice the true Islamic practices in his administration. One such example that illustrates his poor understanding about Islam and administration is Dato’ Nik Aziz believes, without issuing licenses to premises which operate businesses of evil practices, evil practices will be curtailed or reduced in Kelantan. This is not true. It is definitely not true to believe that without giving licenses to premises which operate on businesses of evils practices, the premises will not be able to operate their evil businesses. Either with or without licenses, premises, which operate on businesses of evil practices, will continue to operate their evil practices even without licenses. It does not mean, when no licenses are being issued to the premises, which operate on such evil practices as prostitution, prostitution in Kelantan will be reduced or curtailed. Recently in Kelantan, a premise just about 500 meters away from the office of Menteri Besar is found to operate business of prostitution.

Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
July 2012
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre