Assalaamu’alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh.
The Honourable Professor Dr. Mohd Kamal Hassan, Rector of the International Islamic University Malaysia,
Respected members of the Majlis,
Deputy Rectors,
Members of the academic and administrative staff,
Honoured guests,
Parents and family members,
Ladies and gentlemen
The Quran
Let us together invoke the highest of praises to Allah s.w.t., the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds, who has said in His noble book:
“There has come to you from Allah, light and perspicuous book.”
Surah Al Maidah, Ayat 15
On this 18th Convocation Ceremony, I take this opportunity to congratulate all graduates for their many and varied successes, all members of the academic staff for the fruits of their effort, the administrative staff for their efficient management and the parents for their able sons and daughters.
Tahniah
Saya ucapkan tahniah kepada ibubapa atas kejayaan anak-anak mereka. Kepada Allah s.w.t kita bersyukur dan kepada kerajaan yang membiayai belanja persekolahan anak-anak kita, kita ucapkan terima kasih.
Thank you
Joining us, today and yesterday, in honouring our graduates and sharing our joy of another year of good harvest are representatives of many nations, together with friends of the university and family members of the graduates.
To all of you, I say ‘thank you’, terima kasih.
The last convocation
The last convocation was held 11 days after the New York World Trade Centre was attacked and the United States was threatening to attack Iraq. This year, our convocation is held while Iraq is under threat of a second attack by the United States either with or without the United Nations approval, after they have failed to track down Osama bin Laden.
The war will definitely take place if it is thought to be necessary for George Bush to win his re-election.
Whatever happens before the next convocation, the following topics surrounding the problems of the Muslim Ummah would not have been settled. They are:
a) Man and organisation
b) Science and technology
c) Money and economics
d) Media and information
As more graduates leave every year from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) campuses in Malaysia, let us hope that some of the problems, around these topics, will be reduced in intensity and that we are moving towards finding a solution, however long it takes for us to do so.
Let us discuss at random on the four subjects or topics.
Man and Organisation
This year, we honour Tan Sri Ainuddin Abdul Wahid in our convocation. It is a special event to all of us.
Tan Sri Ainuddin is a holy man of high intellectual standing, in whose make-up one sees a combination of taqwa and science.
As such, without malice and free of other agendas, he fearlessly supports what he thinks is right and opposes what he thinks is wrong. He did that yesterday.
Humble and Honest
Tan Sri Ainuddin is a humble Muslim of great discipline. He is shy when one praises him and does not feel slighted when he is ignored. He is genetically free from the types who survive on praises and aggrandisement. He does not claim what is not his.
Hardworking and Discipline
As a government servant, he worked hard and follows the rules meticulously and adheres to approved procedures and regulations, sometimes to the annoyance of the makers of those rules, procedures and regulations themselves. Especially those who would like to be exempted from those well thought-out guidance and restrictions, thereby opening doors to abuses.
He did not annoy the lawmakers by disregarding the rules and procedures.
Systematic and Proper
As an engineer and a scientist, he is systematic and he achieved greatness with propriety.
Respect ideas above personality
I have never known him as a fanatical supporter of any man, except for the ideas that a man stands for. Such as ideas which are good for the ummah.
Puts principles above friendship
He certainly does not compromise principles for friendships.
Love of Unity
Above all, Tan Sri Ainuddin is a strong believer in Malay and Muslim unity.
Unity of the Muslim Ummah
It is within the context of our effort at moulding Muslim unity that our attention should now be on disseminating the idea of unity rather than focussing our effort at venerating Tan Sri Ainuddin as a person.
Disseminating ideas and not venerating personalities
We are not building an institution to demonise Tan Sri Ainuddin but an institution could be built in his name if it is meant to disseminate his ideas which are for the good of the Ummah.
It is only within this context can we support an organisation in the name of Iqbal, Al Ghazali or Ibnu Qaldun. It is the ideas of Iqbal and Ibnu Qaldun and others like them, which should be juxtaposed against other ideas in the melting pot which is moulding the unity of the Muslim Ummah.
Do not glorify individuals
But such institution should not be promoted merely to glorify an individual or the nation from which the individual arises. For such effort, which might not necessarily be very damaging, is certainly irrelevant if not entertaining.
The greatness of the individual, at any one period within a civilisation, should be measured by the relevance of the ideas of the individual, at that point of time, to the good of the Muslim Ummah.
Scholars became institutions
Much as one would like to assert that Islamic education at its apogee is centred around scholars who became institutions, it must be remembered that, much as, such assumptions are useful to the scholars in the old civilization or even contribute to the development of that civilization.
But one should be brave enough to look into such assumptions for the reasons of the collapse of the Muslim civilization and the prevailing conflicts within the present age.
Such job cannot be done from within that organisation which intends to perpetuate its existence.
Such institutions, dependent on individuals, are no different from failing public corporations in Malaysia, Europe and the United States, which operate at the whims and fancies of their captains, who have lost their sense of proportion and priorities.
We should therefore be careful in assessing and positioning individuals and organizations if unity is the objective that we strive for.
Role of individual and organisation
Looking at the roles of individuals from outside or within organisations, let us look at two American individuals and one American organisation.
Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker is a management guru. He had written more books about management that he had ever practised.
Alfred Sloan
Alfred Sloan is a management genius. He was responsible in initiating the build up of General Motors into an industrial giant. Because of his ability as a manager, he was asked to write a book on how he built General Motors into such a giant company in order that other managers could emulate his performance.
So he wrote and the title of his book was “My Years With General Motors”. It became a text book for corporate America and a bestseller. But subsequently, American management went into a mess. Sloan’s book was a failure although Sloan’s work was a success.
Character – reason for success
On analysing the book, Peter Drucker said that the reason for the failure of those managers who were inspired by Alfred Sloan’s book was the non-inclusion of the character and motivation of Alfred Sloan as a reason for General Motors’ management success.
In other words, a good writer on management is not necessarily a good manager in practice and a good performing manager need not be a good writer on management.
But both managers and writers are necessary.
Idea and methodology
It is however more necessary, for the success of an organisation to have the correct idea implemented with the right methodology.
As this is a changing world, it is necessary not to peg an idea and a methodology to any non-divine human personality. For then, we will be tied by the neck and will be floating up and down, in a turbulent gush of flood water, suffocated when the flood water rises and choked when the flood water subsides, as the ropes around our neck are tied to the tombstone of our buried scholar, in a graveyard near the river.
Muslims, young and old, must therefore be selective in their readings, as the road to hell is often paved with good intentions.
Science and technology
This is the first year in which IIUM confers degrees in medicine. It is another milestone. Let us hope that our Kulliyyah of Medicine, together with our Kulliyyah of Science and Engineering, will grow and catch up in its production of quality graduates as other Kulliyyahs do.
In the government’s effort to bring more science and technology subjects into our university, the Honourable Prime Minister Y.A.B. Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, in his letter dated 12th July 2002, in reply to my letter dated 30th June 2002 has agreed to the establishment of a Department of Oceanography and Marine Science in a branch campus of IIUM in Langkawi.
Talking about science in relation to Muslims, I have the following quotes for us to ponder.
The Nobel Prize winner in physics Professor Mohammed Abdus Salam wrote:
There is no question but today, of all civilisations on this planet, science is weakest in the lands of Islam. The dangers of this weakness cannot be over-emphasized since honourable survival of a society depends directly on its strength in science and technology in the condition of the present age.
Professor Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy wrote the following:
No longer is science, as in the splendid court of Harun Al Rashid and Ma’mun, simply entertainment for enlightened princes or a subject of polemics between scholars. Instead, it has become the very means by which, for better or worse, the entire human civilisation is being irreversibly transformed.
Do not overdo
However, in our effort to give credit to science, we must not overdo as in the case of J.W.N. Sullivan who wrote:
The belief that nature is orderly is not yet universal. Savages, we are told, live in a completely capricious universe and we still find congregations praying for rain although they would hesitate, probably, to pray that the sun might stand still. That is because astronomy is a more developed science than meteorology.
In this statement, Sullivan assumes that the savages were already learning astronomy.
Low in science and low in moral
Our graduating students have a great role to play. While Muslims are still comparatively backward in science and technology all over the world, we are also slacking and sliding down, in our adherence to the Islamic moral values and practices which should really be this university’s forte.
Let us hope that graduates, as future parents, will take science and mathematics very seriously.
Money and economics
The Federal Reserve Bank of America was formed in 1913. The power to make money was transferred by Congress, from the government to the private banking sector. It is controlled by the Jews.
In 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were formed. The World Bank and the IMF are funded, mainly, by the Federal Reserve Bank.
The IMF, the World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank controlled money and therefore, the economy of the world. Therefore, the money and economies of the world are controlled by the Jews.
What happens to those who oppose them?
Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Al Malik Faisal and Pope John Paul I went to their grave after interfering or attempting to interfere with the world’s monetary and banking system. They were assassinated by bullets and poison.
In the case of Richard Nixon, he removed the gold backing to the US dollar in 1971. He antagonised the Bretton Woods system. He was brought down by the Watergate scandal after an attempt on his life failed.
Malaysia, specifically Dr. Mahathir, too have annoyed the bankers, just as Richard Nixon did, by opposing the IMF and therefore the Bretton Woods system. He is also talking about the Islamic gold dinar, just as Al Malik Faisal was talking about the Petro dollar.
We are still asking about the pressure behind Mahathir’s tears. If Muslims are to succeed in the future world economy, we must be conscious of the obstacles and we must find ways of overcoming them.
We must make full use of our natural resources. That is where our economic strength lies. From there, we can accelerate our industrialisation effort.
Media and information
When Lord Balfour, the Foreign Minister of Britain, visited the United States in 1917, he promised the bankers in the United States that Britain will recognise the Zionist movement if the United States of America would assist Britain by entering the First World War.
The American public was at that time against America going to war.
After the visit of Lord Balfour, in the same year 1917, the American bankers called a meeting of prominent media editors to persuade them to make the American public support American entry into the war, which the public then opposed.
More than 20 major newspapers were then bought over by the bankers. As a result of subsequent media manipulation, America eventually entered the war. Zionism was immediately recognised by Britain as promised resulting in the creation of the state of Israel, which is now terrorising the Palestinians and is the cause of the present problems of the world.
Muslims must constantly be aware of anti-Islamic propaganda and manipulated menus, which are being served through the media.
On the anniversary of the September 11th tragedy, in a seminar at this university, I reiterated the importance of Muslims becoming good people, God fearing and full of wisdom in our action.
Wisdom of the Ruler of Sharjah
I remember vividly what His Royal Highness, the ruler of Sharjah of United Arab Emirates, told me over dinner, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur after he received his Phd degree from our university. He suggested that our students perform a play for the education of all Muslims.
In this play, a machine is made available which can predict our future as Muslims. The machine will tell you as to what will happen to the Muslims after you have fed into it all the activities which are currently and popularly performed by Muslims.
Bad Muslim
If the Muslims make known to the machine that they enjoy zina in their sexual life, they approvingly encourage riba in the their financial dealings, they cheat in their business operation, they have no respects for their parents and their elders, they mistreat and ignore the plight of the orphans and the poor, they neglect their prayers and all the other fardhu ain, they abhor reading and learning despite the command of the Quran, and they do many other disgusting things, then they will see the machine shaking and rattling more and more as the feedbacks are inserted into it.
After the machine is fully fed with these activities of the Muslims of the world, then the machine will be heated and smoke will come out of the machine and the machine will print out these words:
‘The Israelis will occupy Masjidil Haram’
Good Muslim
On the other hand, when the machine is fed with pieces of information of the ibadah and all the correct things done by Muslims, approved and not in contradiction with the teachings of Islam, then the machine will hum in approval, and a big smile will appear on the machine’s front.
Prayers, fasting, zakat, charity, looking after elders, the poor and orphans, etc.
At the end of it, all these words appear on the face of the machine:
‘The Israelis will hand over Masjidil Aqsa to the Muslims and they will quit from Palestine’
Wabillahi Taufiq Assalaamu’alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh.
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