Assalaamu’alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh.
Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim. Alhamdulillahi rabbal ‘alamin. Wassala tuwassala mu ‘ala asyrafil anbia iwal mursalin. Wa’ala a lihi wasahbihi ajma'in.
Y. B. Dato Syed Arabi Idid, Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM),
Y. B. Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Kamal Hasan,
Y. B. Tengku Datuk Dr. Mohd Azman Shariffadeen bin Tengku Ibrahim, recipient of Honorary Degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Honorable Senator Prof. Dr. Khurshid Ahmad, recipient of Honorary Degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Prof. Dr. Mohd. Azmi Omar, Chairman of the 22nd Convocation of IIUM,
His Excellencies,
The Ambassadors,
Board of Governors and Majlis Members,
Vice Chancellors,
Deputy Rectors and Executive Directors of IIUM,
Senat Members,
Deans and Directors,
Lectures,
Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Dato’-Dato’,
Honorable Guests,
Graduans of International Islamic University Malaysia,
Parents,Members of the Media,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Sama-sama kita bersyukur kepada Allah SWT atas limpah rahmat-Nya dan dengan keizinan-Nya, kita dapat berada dalam majelis pada hari ini.
Let us invoke the highest praises to Allah S.W.T.
Sebagai President IIUM, saya merasa sungguh bertuah kerana dapat bersama-sama dengan ibu bapak, penjaga, waris dan sanak saudara kepada graduan dari seluruh dunia.
Congratulations
My congratulations to all graduates, parents, relatives and guardians for the achievement of our graduates today.
My special congratulation goes to the honorable Tengku Datuk Dr. Mohd Azman Shariffadeen bin Tengku Ibrahim whom I have known at my school days at Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) and to the honorable Senator Professor Dr. Khurshid Ahmad whom I knew since my active student days in London in the late sixties for the honorary doctorate of philosophy in Computer and Information Engineering and Islamic Economic respectively.
Contribution
As to the honorable Professor Dr. Khurshid Ahmad, I must thank you for bringing me back to the memory of the late beloved Maulana Maududi, with whom we had the discussion in his house at Highbury Islington, my memory to Professor Mannan whose book on Islamic Economic were the first that I read when I was studying at London School of Economics and to Dr. Ahmad El Najjar who founded the first Islamic bank in Mith Ghamr, Egypt in the 1963.
Dear Professor, you might also not be aware of your current contribution to this Islamic University. You have heard earlier on about our great success in producing the best debaters, the best orators in this country. I would like to mention in this gathering that it is the head or the dean of the section which deals with debate is no other than your ex-student Associate Professor Dr. Arif.
I am sure the student and graduate of IIUM will be inspired by the achievement of both of you Datuk Dr. Tengku Azman and Professor Khurshid Ahmad.
Wisdom
Dear Graduates, besides knowledge wisdom is a necessity for the success of leadership. Wisdom can only be achieved experience and age. There is no short cut to wisdom. After this 22nd Convocation Ceremony, you will be exposed to the real world. You need to continue learning about human affairs in relation to your knowledge.
Equip with the knowledge and exposure to the Quran and Sunnah, you need to take on the task or solving the ills which still exist in this country and all Muslim countries of the world. In the process, you acquire wisdom.
Social Ills
There are social ills which needed to be addressed. We still have the problem of drinking liquor leading to accidents, adultery leading to venereal diseases, homosexuality leading to AIDS, drugs abuse leading to senility, arrogant youngsters not respecting the elders thereby upsetting the social norms, boys less interested in their study than girls, disinterest in reading which make it difficult to develop an educated citizenry, the fear of being criticize which lead to mismanagement of affairs, children born out of wedlock, broken marriages, money politics, breach of trust by those in authority, apostasy, the avoidance of the good fundamental of Islam for fear of the West, cheating in examination which shows the character of the individuals, ungratefulness and indiscipline.
Character Building
We hope that in this university we not only imparted knowledge, but also develop character and personality to enable the graduate to be role models in society. For a position given to you later on in life cannot change your personality. To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Challenge
Except for those who become teachers or lectures in the subject of their study, others will find that more than 90 % of real lives are not taught in schools or universities. Certainly you are not prepared to solve all those of social ills.
Education
That is why B. F. Skinner said education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. A man is therefore said to be educated when he has prepared himself to be pursuing education throughout his life and realizes that the great end of education is to discipline the mind rather than to furnish it.
Starting Point
The knowledge that you have acquired is only the beginning to further the acquisition of knowledge as HRH of Constitutional Head yesterday said it is only an appetizer for a big dinner. All present solutions to the above problems of social ills could be seen as being totally western in nature in the Muslim world. They are not Islamic solution to such problems.
However, despite the deficiency in the experience you have the Quran and the Sunnah as your guidance. There are also books written by great scholars which should be useful to you. As our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW is known to have said the ink of the scholar is more sacred to the blood of the martyr.
Careers
Some of you who are here today are bound to fill the ranks in the government service in your countries. The rest will be in the private sector. You will become administrators, managers, entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, intellectuals and policy makers.
Responsibility
Whatever your vocation is you will form part of the educated citizenry and will function as leaders in your own right. You need to be innovative, creative, enlighten, lucid, rational, holistic and strategic in the use of acquired knowledge.
However, in the world where the moral of the young are deteriorating, graduates of the International Islamic University Malaysia should be able to accept the challenges and responsibility of correcting it.
Apostasy
One such menace for our elaboration today is apostasy or murtad. There are of course unfortunate parent who do not see or care to recognize the changes in their children as they move towards apostasy.
Process
Apostasy has always befallen a person through a long process however weak a person is in the practice of Islamic faith. Muslims all over the world are only interested in a tragedy when it has already happen or taken place. In this country for example the law does not permit anyone to propagate another religion to a Muslim. When a Muslim becomes a murtad we should not allow the humiliation of public officials who are only doing their job or performing their duties in accordance with the law. The official is not the cause of apostasy. He comes at the end of it.
It is the beginning which is important. You cannot expect to have clear water at the mouth of a river when it is muddy at the source.
Pujangga Melayu berkata: “Kita tidak boleh mengharapkan air yang jernih di hilir jika di hulunya keruh”.
We should therefore ask as to who is or are responsible for the conversion. They are the one who break the law.
ISA
As to the question of human rights, I have heard of it many times before. Malaysia was at one time condemned by the West for having the ISA (Internal Security Act) as something against human rights. After September 11, this human rights is forgotten or very much improve the point which much lesser rights in the West.
Centre for Study
I would suggest that a centre be set up at this university called Law Centre for Human Rights. At this Centre we can probably see the chronological changes in the interpretation of human rights and the double standard attached to its interpretation in the West. Probably we need also to have a centre for a study in Zionism and Terrorism as both are synonymous.
Peace
In Malaysia, we are very consistent on human rights. When we introduced into our Constitution that Islam is a state religion of Malaysia and we allow everyone to practice his/her own religion freely, it was meant to ensure that we can live in peace in this multiracial and multi-religious country. After all Islam means peace.
Besides May 13, 1969 incident which was cause due to economic imbalances, this peace in Malaysia we have enjoyed and preserved for almost 50 years.
Let us not upset the situation by religious adventurism. In this university girls and non-Muslim student proportionately appear to be performing better in Islamic subjects.
Awareness
Together with the non-Muslim student we should try to make every citizen and visitor aware of the rot of anger that can be caused and generated amongst Muslims on such person or person who brought about apostasy, then he or they would not be too enthusiastic in questioning our system of managing justice.
Dengan kedudukan Islam sebagai agama rasmi negara, maka dapatlah kita membelanjakan wang negara untuk melindungi, mengembang dan memajukan prasarana keagamaan dan kegiatan beragama. Kerana peruntukan inilah, maka UIAM dapat didiri, dimaju dan dijayakan.
Malaysia juga menjamin kebebasan kepada penganut agama selain Islam untuk bebas mengamal agama mereka sendiri. Oleh kerana ramai ummat Islam di negara ini yang berada di dalam kemiskinan di waktu kita baru merdeka dengan mengetahui bahwa wang selain nafsu dan kuasa mempunyai pengaruh yang menetukan kepada seseorang individu, maka untuk mengelak ummat Islam dari dimurtadkan kerana kemiskinan maka diadakanlah undang-undang yang melindungi ummat Islam dari dimurtadkan sehingga ingin menukar agamanya dari Islam kepada agama lain.
Batasan kebebasan beragama ini hendaklah diakui oleh semua penduduk ataupun orang yang ada di Malaysia sama ada rakyat atau bukan rakyat, pedagang atau pelancong, imigran baru atau keturunan imigran yang lama. Mengikut pepatah Melayu di mana bumi dipijak di situlah langit dijunjung (Whenever ground is stood on, the sky is hold high).
Adalah salah dari segi undang-undang di dalam Negara ini untuk seorang dari agama lain mengajar, mendidik atau mempengaruhi ummat Islam untuk menukar agamanya. Saya yakin dan percaya semua kes murtad yang berlaku di dalam Negara itu adalah melalui proses yang lama.
Walaupun ada negara lain yang melindungi perkahwinan antar pasangan yang berbeda agama, dan jika seorang darinya beragama Islam ianya ialah satu perlindungan yang menyuburkan pertumbuhan gejala murtad. Ummat Islam hendaklah mengawasi gejala yang membawa kepada murtad supaya ianya tidak berlaku.
Money and Power
I said earlier in Malay that wang selain nafsu dan kuasa mempunyai pengaruh yang menentukan kepada seseorang individu. Wang is money, kuasa is power.
If the deprivation of money leads to poverty it can deteriorate to apostasy. But this does not means that the possession of too much money is not a danger to individual. So long as money is a tool for man it does serve a useful purpose. But man can be materialistic and makes money his master. Therefore as Muslims, we must accept, adopt, inculcate and develop within us an Islamic value system that rejects blatant materialism.
A mindset that is governed by the glory of material gain and narrow self interest should not be our practice or norm.
The Power of Giving
You have heard today and yesterday our Rector mentioning IIUM Holdings Sdn. Bhd. donating part of its profits of RM 1 million each to IIUM Mosque Welfare Fund, to IIUM Consultancy and Entrepreneurship Sdn. Bhd. and to IIUM International Sdn. Bhd.
IIUM Mosque Welfare Fund will provide loan to capable but needy student. IIUM Consultancy and Entrepreneurship Sdn. Bhd. will finds new areas for business development and IIUM International Sdn. Bhd. will work with the IIUM Alumni all over the world to weave a network of linkages for business opportunities.
The result of one such linkage is a plan to set up a branch of our International Islamic College (IIC) for the study of tourism and hospitalities on an island in Maldives which has been made available to IIUM as soon as we are ready.
I hope that graduates from foreign countries will help develop businesses for the Holding as it is fully own by our university. This project in Maldives is in line with the resolution of the last OIC Conference in Kuala Lumpur to encourage tourism among the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries.
Hope
Akhir kata saya menaruh harapan yang tinggi kepada para graduan agar sentiasa mengutamakan nilai-nilai murni yang positif dalam diri dan dalam setiap tindakan pekerjaan. Selalulah ingat kepada agama, Islam menuntut kita memberi yang terbaik untuk diri, keluarga, negara dan ummat.
Seterusnya saya berharap sebagai graduan IIUM anda akan mengharumkan nama university ini, Insha Allah.
Tahniah sekali lagi dan teruskanlah berkhidmat demi kesejahteraan bangsa, agama dan Negara.
Wabillahitaufiq wal hidayah. Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh.
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