Letter to the Press Regarding “SIS : Feminisme Islam warisan sunah Rasulullah”
by Dr. Musa Mohd. Nordin

Saudara Pengarang

Reaksi yang dicoretkan oleh Sisters in Islam bertema “SIS : Feminisme Islam warisan sunah Rasulullah”; didalam ruangan Forum bertarikh 23hb Julai 2003 memang telah dijangkakan dan konsisten dengan teras perjuangan mereka semenjak penubuhannya pada tahun 1988. Saya tetap menghormati kesungguhan dan ltizam mereka mengarus perdanakan isu-isu wanita dan menarik perhatian masyarakat kepada ketidakadilan dan penganiayaan yang berlaku dan berlanjutan keatas kaum Hawa.

Namun demikian, didalam keghairahan dan keasyikan SIS memperjuangkan agenda wanita, mereka tidak harus hilang pegangan dan pedoman kepada tradisi dan kesahihan ilmu dan fakta. Ini ternyata didalam suatu luahan Ketua Eksekutif nya yang mendakwa bahawa punca kebanyakan daripada wanita professional tidak mahu berkahwin ialah kerana sikap kaum lelaki masakini yang tidak bertanggung jawab dan menghambat si-isteri dengan bebanan kerja yang berlebihan dirumah disamping tugas kerjaya mereka.

Terbawa-bawa dengan emosi feminsime yang luarbiasa ini, SIS melemparkan suatu kecaman yang tidak bertanggung jawab dan tidak berasaskan ilmu dan fakta didalam nukilan mereka yang terakhir ini. Demi mendokong dan merasionalkan perjuangan  “feminisme islam”, mereka merumusakan secara membuta tuli bahawa penindasan wanita dan penafian hak-hak asasi mereka adalah berpunca “kerana kaum lelaki sahaja yang telah menguasai secara eksklusif hak mentafsir al-Quran dan bahan-bahan ilmuan Islam yang lain”.

Hujjah sedemikian rupa yang acapkali ditonjolkan oleh SIS tidak asing kepada mereka yang mengikuti secara halus sejarah dan evolusi pergerakan feminisme  didalam dunia Islam. Amina Wadud yang baru-baru ini telah mencetuskan kontroversi di-Konsultasi Pemimpin Islam SeDunia Kedua berkenaan AIDS/HIV, juga merupakan diantara pengasas SIS, adalah termasuk sebilangan kecil yang menganut fahaman “feminist revisionism” yang mencemuh mufassireen lelaki terdahulu, yang mereka dakwa bersikap “bias gender”; memihak kepada jenis mereka dan menganiaya hak wanita apabila mentafsser ayat-ayat suci al-Quran.

Wadud didalam penulisan nya “Warisan Aishah : perjuangan untuk hakhak wanita didalam Islam” mendakwa bahawa “Pada zaman Abbasiyah, semasa asas-asas Islam sedang dibina, kesemua ahli fikir dan ulama nya adalah lelaki. Mereka tidak menghayati wahi secara terus ( dakwaan ini agak pelik kerana hanya para anbiya yang menghayati wahi secara terus dan pilihan Allah eksklusif kepada pihak lelaki, dan jika mantik Wadud dilanjutkan apakah Allah tidak bersikap “gender neutral” ? ), tidak mengenali Rasulullah secara peribadi dan kadangkala terpengaruh dengan fahaman intelektual dan budaya moral semasa yang bertentangan dengan Islam”. Wadud dengan emosi feminisme yang meluap ini menekankan bahawa Allah mesti digelar dengan “He/She/It” ! Selaku anak murid dan rakan seperjuangan Wadud yang setia dan ta’sub kepada perjuangan “feminist revisionism”, SIS turut mengutarakan hujjah yang songsang ini, tidak amanah kepada fakta sejarah dan membelakangkan tradisi ilmu yang bersandarkan an-Nahjus Sahih..

Tidak dinafikan bahawa ulama, ahli falsafah  dan mufassireen “kebanyakannya” lelaki tetapi tidak eksklusif dan hanya lelaki sahaja. Terulung dikalangan pentafsir ayat-ayat suci al-Quran dikalangan kaum Hawa merupakan ummul mukminah Aishah, Ummu Salamah dan Hafsah dan lebih kontemporari ialah penulis Kitab Tafsir Al Bayan bil Quran nil Karim, Dr. Aishah Abdul Rahman yang lebih dikenali sebagai bint al-Syatie ( yang cerdik ). SIS seringkali kali bernaung dan merujuk kepada kitab tulisan Wadud “Quran and Women : Rereading the sacred text from a woman’s perspective” ( Quran menurut perempuan : Perempuan meluruskan bias gender dalam tradisi tafsir ) yang telah pun digazetkan haram oleh JAKIM pada tahun 2001 dan diharamkan penyebarannya oleh Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN).

Melemparkan fitnah sedemikian kejam terhadap mufassireen lelaki yang terdahulu adalah seakan menghina tradisi suci ulumul Quran yang diantara lainnya mensyaratkan bahawa setiap mufassireen, lelaki maupun wanita, mesti memiliki ciri-ciri seorang mujtahid. Sifat-sifat ini termasuk aqidah Islamiah yang sahihah, ahli didalam bahasa Arab, ahli didalam jurusan lain yang bersangkutan dengan ulumul Quran seperti ilmu al-riwayah, memulakan tafsir Quran dengan Quran sendiri, ahli dalam ulumul hadith, mengelak daripada mengutamakan pendapat fardhi, merujuk kepada sunnah sahabah, tabiin dan kepada ulama tafsir lain yang muktabar. Apakah SIS mendakwa mufassireen lelaki yang terdahulu cacat didalam kriteria yang diterima pakai ulama tafsir sejagat, tidak jujur dan amanah didalam usaha mereka menyelami dan menerokai ajaran-ajaran kitab suci al-Quran dan “hanya memperalatkan agama untuk membenarkan amalan dan nilai-nilai budaya yang menganggap kedudukan wanita lebih rendah daripada lelaki” ?

Kajian SIS yang merumuskan bahawa faktor lelaki didalam ilmu tafsir al-Quran menatijahkan tanggapan yang serong terhadap kedudukan wanita didalam Islam bukan hanya naive, simplistic dan feminisme ala barat tetapi juga mencernakan kedhaifan dan kedangkalan mereka didalam seni, sains dan tradisi ilmu-ilmu al-Quran, al-hadith dan syariah Islamiah. Wallahu alam.

Dr. Musa Mohd. Nordin

Letter to Malaysiakini
by Dr. Musa Mohd. Nordin

The current discourse on HIV/AIDS in the media, Malaysiakini included seems to suggest an obsession with the condom culture and safe sex paradigm. The libertarian occident in no uncertain terms advocates this as their main thrust in their crusade against HIV/AIDS and have seduced a substantial volume of support for this strategy elsewhere. To indiscriminately ape this modus operandi and transplant them piecemeal  into our national HIV/AIDS programs may turn out to be a folly.

Some 22 years into the syndrome complex, the WHO global summary document of the HIV/AIDS epidemic estimates 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Dr. Nafis Sadik, Kofi Annan’s special envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific, said that (in stark contrast), the prevalence of HIV/AIDS remains low  in the Muslim world with rates well below 1% in countries with a Muslim majority and similarly in Muslim minorities in other countries.

These figures would therefore suggest that the infusion and practice of universal values derived from the Quran and prophetic teachings in individual, family and societal life must have endowed considerable prophylaxis against this deadly disease.

On the whole, I believe our citizenry continue to cherish the universal values of self discipline, chastity, morality, decency and family centricity. A whole host of  human values, code of conduct and ethics shared and guarded enviously by the believers in our nation, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs or  other religious persuasions.

Addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic demands a comprehensive and integrated response which prioritises preventative strategies, provides therapeutics, care and support to the afflicted and their families and puts in place long term macro-economic and social interventions to redress the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS.

The preventative strategies advocated by Islam and shared by virtually all other religious denominations emphasises the A for Abstinence from sex, the B for Being faithful in marriage, the C for Condom use, the D for Drug abuse avoidance and the E for Education of the public on the disease complex and her myriad of repercussions.

The avoidance of fornication and adultery is fundamental in the injunctions of the Shariah (and I believe most other religions too) to preserve the sanctity and purity of virginity, progeny and family. How may I ask would you respond to a speaker at the International Muslim Leaders Conference on HIV/AIDS (IMLC) who arrogantly said “.how empty religious platitudes are in addressing the problem and how, even when those responses are based on the Quran and Sunnah they are ineffective to resolve the problem”. And with impunity she adds “In effect, what I present here emphasizes the ways that Islam and Muslims exarcebates the spread of AIDS .” Farish Noor in his current column on HIV/AIDS  would therefore be well advised to be prudent and careful in his baseless accusations or is he, like the associate professor of Islamic studies oblivious of the ABC of the priorities of the Shariah (Maqasid as-Shariah) and Islamic Family Law!

There are obviously circumstances when condom use is indicated but to suggest a national policy of liberal condom use would only unleash a  culture of sexual promiscuity and permissiveness. And we need to be reminded that the vast majority, in excess of 80%, of our PLWHA are intravenous drug users (IVDU). The government and all her agencies have failed miserably to diminish, if not eradicate this social scourge in our society. This however did not attract the press attention (or Farish Noor for that matter) during World AIDS Days – a stale and non-sensational issue by comparison with the rise in heterosexual transmission. I think a careful analysis of the women affected heterosexually is in order. Complete and comprehensive data collection is unfortunately not a forte of our major stake holders in HIV/AIDS work. Our experience with the well over 70 women whom we have sheltered in our Rumah Solehah project (Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia’s Half Way Home for Women & Children with HIV/AIDS) showed that  the majority acquired the virus heterosexually from their IVDU husbands or partners. And without exception all the affected children in our care acquired HIV vertically from their mothers who were themselves heterosexually infected by their IVDU husbands. This is the domino effect of the heroin culture in our society which the key players need to address equitably and judiciously.

Many of our western counterparts are beginning to awaken to the wisdom of this time tested and best practice strategy. The leading editorial in the British Medical Journal, 21st June 2003, entitled “Preventing HIV : Time to get serious about changing behaviours” writes; “But if behaviour cannot be changed then no amount of money is going to make a big difference in prevention because every successful form of prevention requires change in behaviour”. Arthur J. Ammann, president of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention further writes “Data from developed and developing countries show that programs that incorporate abstinence, mutual monogamy, delayed sexual intercourse and condom work together to reduce the number of new HIV infections.”

An emotive issue as HIV/AIDS is bound to provoke a multitude of responses based on one’s religious, ideological and philosophical underpinnings. As Muslims, the Tauhidic paradigm envelops our responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is simply put a “back to basics” wholesome blueprint of action which espouses and celebrates universal values of self discipline, chastity, morality, decency and family centricity and embraces a theology of  mercy, care and compassion, forgiveness, healing, benevolence, brotherhood of humanity and belief in the hereafter.

Dr. Musa Mohd. Nordin