Surat Pembaca : Money In The Name Of Religion

Folks, please hire a stone sculptor and ask him or her to carve these words in stone “No money no religion”. Here is a letter from a reader :

I am really concerned on the growing number of village idiots who claim to 'know' Islam, but instead their actions bring back Islam to the age of jahiliyyah.

There are so many 'Islamic champions', but in essence they're willing to sell the deen for profit.

Would like to share with you my previous working experience with a new tele-communications company called '*****fone'. They claim to be the 1st Shariah compliant telecommunications company in the world.

(The shariah compliancy certificate was awarded by ZI Shariah of Zaid Ibrahim).

In essence, they are an MVNO telco company. Jual prepaid airtime lah. Sama macam Celcom, Maxis, Digi, TuneTalk, etc.

What I learned from my stint at 'shariah compliant' *****fone:

1) The management is currently headed by non-Muslims (The CEO is a guy called Goh Keng Peong, while every other department is headed by Chinese/Indians)

2) The main shareholders of the company are Kuwaiti syiahs (from the Al-Say**h family)

3) *****fone claimed that for every call their customer makes, a portion of the revenue will be donated to charities. It was never done.

4) Promises to customers were never met. (Too many examples to list down)

5) Shariah compliancy certification is easily bought

6) Their network backbone is Maxis, not the most shariah compliant telco

The company is a sham, but mostly their customers are the Taliban types. (Fanatic to Islam, but not based on Quran.) These customers were getting ripped off while thinking that they are doing a service to Islam. How unfortunate for them.

(Btw, you may check out *****fone at www.*****fone.my and www.facebook.com/*****fone.)

Anyways, I have left the company as it was eating into my conscience. (Tipu orang is not my cup of tea.) I have also discovered many other types of 'Islamic' companies who were really into profits, while wearing Islamic masks. Selling the deen apparently brings in millions of ringgit into their pockets. And their network is really huge.

Thanks again for your tireless efforts of championing Islam based on the Quran.

Sincerely

Folks, for a thousand years now, Islam has been hijacked by the money hungry people. They are using the name of Islam, Allah and the Rasul to cheat the people of their money.

This is not unique to Islam alone. All “religions” exist because of money. No money no religion. The more rules they can throw up the more money they can make. Halal certification, shariah compliant this, shariah compliant that, kursus kahwin, tabung jihad, tabung Palestin take money from the people – in the name of “religion”.

In the Quran what did Allah tell the Rasul about teaching the good message and about taking money from people for teaching them Islam? Here it is :

25:56 We have sent you as a deliverer of good news, as well as a warner.

25:57 Say, "I do not ask you for any money. All I seek is to help you find the right path to your Lord, if this is what you choose."

So if the Prophet taught people about halal food, did he ask people for money? Of course not. The Quran tells him clearly to say, “I do not ask you for any money”.

Similarly if the Prophet conducted kursus kahwin or spoke about shariah compliancy he did not take money from the people for all this. That would have been the sunnah of the Prophet – DO NOT TAKE money from the people, especially in the name of Allah and Islam.

Here is the Quran again :

[47:36] This worldly life is no more than play and vanity. But if you believe and lead a righteous life, He will reward you, without asking you for any money.

If we lead righteous lives, we will be rewarded without having to pay money to the religious gurus or pay money for religious services.

This means that all these religious services as well as religious products that require money are not following the Quran. They are anti-Quran. And since the Prophet’s sunnah must follow the Quran, they are also anti Prophet. Taking money from the people in the name of Islam is a no no in the Quran.

But we have thousands if not millions of religious people who have to cari makan from religion. The ceramah speakers get money, the religious gurus get money, kismis ajaib makes money, air jampi also costs money (derma ikhlas).

They can even using shariah compliant telcos to fool the gullible Muslims. Lets see the comment again :

“The company is a sham, but mostly their customers are the Taliban types. (Fanatic to Islam, but not based on Quran.) These customers were getting ripped off while thinking that they are doing a service to Islam. How unfortunate for them”

If we are silly enough to allow people to rip us off, the smart beggars will rip us off. Shariah compliant prepaid, kursus kahwin, halal certification, kismis ajaib, air jampi are just mechanisms that make money in the name of “religion”. Unfortunately there is a sucker born every minute.

But what can we do? This is where the Gomen must stop encouraging the manufacture of these money grabbing religious gurus. Or the Gomen must set up special training courses where these gurus can be retrained in other more useful skills that are economically more beneficial to the people and the ummah.

All human beings need to make money to survive, to live well and even to get rich. This is not a crime. The doctor will cure the sick to make his money. The mechanic will repair your car to make money. The doctor must constantly upgrade and improve his medical knowledge to keep his patients. The same with the car mechanic - he must keep up with the latest car models.

But what will the "religious guru" do to make money ? (which he should not in the first place - according to the Quran above)?

He will sell kismis ajaib, shariah compliancy, halal certification, kursus kahwin and this and that. And how does he keep up with the competition? "My ajaib is better than your ajaib", "my halal is more halal than yours", "my shariah compliancy is better than yours" etc.

People also do not know that the 'mengumpat' culture was common among the sekolah pondok. The guru sekolah pondok would mengumpat each other's sekolah as a scare tactic to discourage people from registering with rival sekolah pondok. Why? Safeguarding market share lah.

25:56 We have sent you as a deliverer of good news, as well as a warner.

25:57 Say, "I do not ask you for any money. All I seek is to help you find the right path to your Lord, if this is what you choose."