Friday, January 8, 2010

Pandangan ikhlas dan rasional seorang Kristian


Kebakaran di Gereja Metro Tabernacle adalah amat dikesalkan. Kita tidak mengetahui siapa dalang di sebalik kejadian ini, tetapi saya percaya ia tiada kena mengena dengan bantahan secara aman di Masjid Negara petang ini.

Saya mengutuk sebarang tindakan yang tidak rasional dalam menyatakan bantahan terhadap keputusan membenarkan perkataan `God' diterjemahkan sebagai `Allah'. Lebih-lebih lagi jika ada pihak tertentu atau agent provocateur yang sengaja dihantar bagi menggagalkan bantahan hari ini dan memulakan api pertelingkahan antara penganut agama Kristian dan Islam.

Bagi saya, bantahan ini tidak sama seperti demonstrasi jalanan tahun 1998, Hindraf, Bersih dan sebagainya. Namun jika terdapat agent provocateur yang sengaja membuat kacau, saya berharap pihak polis akan bertindak tegas dan cepat untuk menangkap mereka.

Apa pun seperti yang saya katakan, Hakim mungkin terkhilaf dalam menafsirkan beberapa fakta kes. Bantahan demi bantahan dan kebakaran Gereja membuktikan bahawa terdapat ancaman terhadap keselamatan negara dan jika tidak dikawal ia akan menyemarakkan api permusuhan antara penganut agama yang tidak sekali-kali kita ingini. Berdoalah kita agar tidak ada sebarang insiden yang lebih buruk terjadi.

Sepanjang seminggu ini saya telah mengambil pendekatan untuk menerangkan kepada umat Islam dan bukan Islam kenapa terjemahan God dalam Bible sebagai Allah tidak tepat. Saya agak beruntung kerana seorang rakan Facebook yang dikenali sebagai Christian Rational telah berkongsi sejumlah artikel.

Dalam blognya terdapat tiga artikel yang menarik yang bukan tulisan beliau tetapi seorang Kristian Sabah bernama Michael Sibilin. Pada pandangan saya suara Michael Sibilin adalah suara seorang penganut agama Kristian yang amat rasional. Tahap kefahaman beliau tentang Bible, Quran dan agama samawi lain juga nampaknya jauh lebih tinggi daripada Dr Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin dan tentulah jauh lebih tinggi berbanding pemimpin agama Pas, Nik Aziz Nik Mat dan Abdul Hadi Awang.

Dalam artikel pertama "Allah is a Name, not a Word - Michael Sibinil", beliau mengupas tentang salah faham terhadap nama Allah dalam bahasa Arab yang mengaburi mata ramai umat Islam di Malaysia dan digunakan sebagai hujah oleh golongan Kristian. Katanya, "there is enough evidence to suggest that the word ‘Allah’ is not Arabic but a name claimed by Mohammed to have been revealed to him by his god through the angel named Jibriel (Gabriel). Seriously though, what’s severely wrong or shameful in using the word "TUHAN" to denote the Christian God in the Malay language?? What’s so glamorous about using the word ‘Allah’ in the Malay Bible? If the Muslims are adamantly reluctant to allow Bible believing Christians to use the word ‘Allah’, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for insisting that the word ‘Allah’ can be used by Christians to denote the Biblical God and that "Allah" is the same as the God of the Bible!"

Dalam artkel kedua, "Kinoringan for Sabah Kadazandusun", dan ketiga "Its a sin against Yehweh", beliau cuba menjelaskan kenapa penggunaan kalimah Allah sebagai terjemahan God adalah satu penyelewengan oleh gereja di Sabah. Katanya, "In any case, you still have to proof to me that "KINORINGAN" and "YAHWEH" are ONE and the SAME God of the Bible. Or, that "KINORINGAN" is a WORD and not a NAME and that YAHWEH too is a WORD and not a NAME of the God of Israel / Judeo-Christianity. Is "ELOHIM" a WORD or a NAME? Isn’t YAHWEH Elohim? And, when the Jews declare "THERE IS NO ELOHIM BUT YAHWEH", what do you actually understand when the Muslim declares thus: "LA ILAHA ILLALLAH"?"

Dalam artikel keempat, "Christians must judge RIGHTEOUSLY" beliau menyelar sikap kurang rasional golongan tertentu dalam isu ini. Katanya, "And to my Muslim acquaintances (colleagues at work) or fellow Malaysian Muslims and elsewhere, let me make it absolutely crystal clear that I have ABSOLUTELY no part in the earlier campaigns made the papists (Roman Catholics) and their "symphatizers" (Anglicans, SIBs, SDAs, Basels, Baptists, Charismatics, et al…) to promote the use of the name ALLAH in the Malay Kitab (Bible) for I and my immediate family members have long DISCONTINUED the use of the name "ALLAH" in our worship of the Christian God, JESUS CHRIST. "

Jelas penjelasan yang dibuat beliau konsisten dengan apa yang saya perolehi dari rakan-rakan beragama Kristian saya seperti yang ditulis dalam artikel "Soalan bagi umat Kristian".

Alhamdulillah, masih ada penganut agama Kristian yang benar-benar mengikut ajaran sebenar Kristian. Nampaknya Michael Sibinil lebih boleh diharapkan dari Nik Aziz dan Pas!!

8 comments:

  1. WITHOUT PREJUDICE

    I don't to step on anyone's toes, but this whole issue is going too far.

    SITUATION ANALYSIS / HISTORY:
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, the BM Bible was translated by Munshi Abdullah (aka Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_bin_Abdul_Kadir) over 200 yrs ago at the time, Malay was written in Jawi script. Munshi believed in only ONE God, 'Allah'.

    Thus possibly the only other terms in BM Jawi scripts were 'dewa' or deity. As such, perhaps he didn’t want to downgrade God in the Bible translation, so he wrote 'Allah' in Jawi script.

    When the BM Bible changed to Roman script, the translation in some versions remained as 'Allah', and so perhaps a lot of East Malaysians use this translation but it is NOT our practice in the Peninsular.

    I'm surprised that some Catholics INSIST on the right to call God 'Allah' and not Tuhan here in KL. My family and I are not interested in using this Arabic word. Why fight for this? What is there to be gained? Even if we win the right to continue this, what is there to gain?

    POINTS TO REMEMBER:
    * In our normal conversations in Malay we do NOT use the word ALLAH.
    * Christianity is about love for one another NOT about finding ways to alienate people.
    * The Herald should concentrate on religion and not politics.
    * We are not going to lose our faith by using the word TUHAN!
    * The Arab Christians used the word 'Allah' because Arabic is their native language BUT most of us Malaysian Christians are not Arabs (my apologies to anyone who is).

    CONCLUSION:
    If The Herald has become too political, we need The Herald to become neutral. We must politely request the Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam announce that we will stop using the term 'Allah' and switch to 'Tuhan'.

    Catholics should support this, and take the first step in the interests of peace. We must demonstrate that we have absolutely no intention to confuse or convert Muslims in Malaysia.

    1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God's holy people.

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  2. Bila ini berlaku akan timbul salah menyalah antar Islam dan Kristian. Akhirnya apa faedah pada negara? Lebih-lebih lagi sekarang, sudah pasti umat Islam akan terima tekanan kerana isu perkataan 'Allah'.Kata pujangga Melayu,ikut hati mati, ikut rasa binasa. Fikir-fikirkanlah. Sanggupkah kita menyediakan suasana yang tidak selesa kepada anak-anak kita yang tidak mengetahui apa-apa?

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  3. One bad mistake by the judge...and we suffered...im so scared of thinking what will happen next..hopefully it will end soon...

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  4. For me, the issue is not what word to use to translate the Hebrew original - jehovah/YHWH. That's best left to the linguistic experts.

    The issue is about the human rights of minorities to practice their personal faith within their personal space. Do the majority have the right to impose? We don't want another Hitler to be voted into power by the majority and persecute the minorities.

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  5. semakin ramai 'pakar2' dalam soal agama terutama isu yg sedang hangat sekarang ni. sesungguhnya nilai moral n keamanan adalah melebihi betapa pakarnya seseorang itu dalam isu tertentu. sejarah, lojik, n budi bicara perlula seimbang dalam membuat kesimpulan mengenai isu tersebut.

    apalah sangat susahnya nk benarkan orang Kristian gunakan frasa tersebut sedangkan ada yg telah sekian lama sebati dengan menyebut nama Allah untuk tujuan keagamaan...

    terus terang i katakan yang isu ini xperlu disensasikan lebih2 lg untuk digunakan dalam risalah2 Kristian.

    di sabah sendiri banyak sesi kebaktian dalam bahasa Malaysia dan kami memang telah menyebut2 nama-Nya 'Allah'. dalam lagu2 nyanyian pujian n penyembahan kami juga...

    janganla kerana gereja d west Malaysia kurang sesi bahasa Malaysia... d Sabah n Sarawak pon ikot xleh guna frasa itu. c'monla... fikirkan sejenak...

    risalah n penerbitan Kristian adalah untuk digunakan oleh siapa??
    i nk bgtau skit, sekian lama hidop d muka bumi ni xpernah i bg baca apa2 bahan agama Kristian kepada kawan2 sekeliling i yg non-Kristian... malah i xnak 'mengelirukan' saudara i yg xsama agama dengan i. i simpan baik2 alkitab tu takot2 mereka mau baca...


    ada kawan2 i yg nk baca alkitab i tau x??
    buat apa aku tipu??
    hakikatnya i xbagi mereka baca langsung. i pon ada ilmu skit dalam undang2 terutama dalam hal2 sensitif negara. xda skool ka aku ini???

    kekeliruan di kalangan saudara2 i yg beragama Islam adalah tanggungawab org itu sendiri n usaha langsung oleh majlis agama untuk meneguhkan akidah penganutnya. so, kenapala kami ni yg jadi mangsa plak??

    hurm, xperlula dibuat kaji-kajian mendalam lagi pasal frasa tu kz terlalu remeh tetapi telah disensasikan oleh media massa...

    kalo kedaulatan n keamanan negara diancam... kerajaan xkan benarkan berita ni disebarkan melainkan org2 tertentu sahaja yg tau. nape isu mcmni dengan sedapnya diulang2 dalam berita arus perdana mcm pasang lagu d radio. hey, apa maksud sumer ni???

    Malaysia maju kerana kita terdri drpd pelbagai agama, kaum, n bahasa beb... lebih 50 tahun suda... sangat sedih senario semasa negara tercinta ini. imej kta tercemar!! tercemar!! dunia sedang mentertawakan negara kita...

    sekian dengan salam kasih untuk kita semua d Malaysia.

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  6. i ve written about ths in this blog and i ve quoted some explanations by christians leaders and scholars on ths issue –

    I would like to share a number of interesting thoughts by Pastor Brutus Balan of a Baptist Church in Australia in the Facebook (FB). I hope he doesn’t mind.

    In his posting Brutus Balan said,

    1. In today’s religious context, the word ‘Allah’ is a word loaded with Islamic theology. The God of the Christian Bible Yahweh-Elohim from Genesis to Revelation is a trinitarian mono God. IT is not a creation of the Church but it is a inspired revelation. Its maths is hard to understand but it is the heart of John 3: 16 and Jesus’ life will be nonsensical as much as His sacrifice for sinful and doomed humanity if the second person of the Trinity did not incarnate in the human flesh. The Christian Gospel is based on this redemptive revelation of the triune Godhead. The Quranic concept of ‘Allah’ is in total opposition to this. There is NO similarity between them whatsoever.

    2. The early ‘Christian missionaries’, mostly Roman Catholics erred when they started to Christianize pagan words (jargon/terminology), concepts, icons, statues (Mother and child), festivals and celebrations (like Christmas/Easter) and included them as Christian so the ‘converts’ from the Christianized societies are not brought into a cultural vacuum. Therefore the word `Allah’ that pre-dates Islam, a word that was and is a non Hebrew word for a pagan deity was Christianized and retained among the middle Eastern converts and used in the Bible translation. This syncretism was followed in Asia with the use of the word, Allah among minority ethnic ‘converts’. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

    for those who wants to explore further the opinions by Christians themselves, u may read them here –

    http://tunfaisal.blogspot.com/2010/01/it-was-wrong-then-and-it-is-wrong-now.html

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  7. yg sa heran, 'Kinoringan' pun salah c micheal s eja, btl ka fakta dia ni atau ni urg bukan urg dari sabah, atau, mcm saja kana buat ni.

    Kinoringan
    Kinoringan

    x perna sa dgr org guna ni oo, btl ba ko ni micheal?

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  8. saudara TunFaisal. bleh ka ko kasi link blog dia c Micheal Sibilin. poinsikou.

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