Recently, I read a news piece that says the Chief Minister of Pahang has chastised Sanusi for his derogatory remark in insinuating that “apek seluar pendek” will soon become teachers in mosques if Anwar’s “liberal” Islam is to be allowed. Sanusi, I assume, was referring to the Howard Lee incident of quoting a Qur’anic Verse in parliament.

In this article, I do not intend to also chastise Sanusi, as he is a well-known individual who thrives on being a loud mouth, a kurang ajar person, and an all-round mulut celupar or foul-mouthed person. His characters seem to be accepted not only by PAS leadership; he is also very popular among the Malays who go to mosque five times a day.

In this article, I wish to deal only with two issues; firstly, how low PAS has become morally from the Days of Reformasi and how Muslim-Malays don’t even know their own religion of Islam when it comes to the severity of the sin of denigrating others.

During the Days of Reformasi in 1999, I joined PAS as a lifetime member. I had never had any intention of joining any political party because as a civil servant, it was a bit of a problem in terms of disciplinary actions. In Malaysia, civil servants with SPM certificate and diploma can not only join but also hold important party positions, while degree graduates can only be a member if permission is granted.

I was following the jailing of Anwar in every scrap of news I could get before the popularizing of the internet and the arrival of social media. At the news stand I would wait impatiently for the Asia Week journal or Times or PAS’s Tamaddun magazine. But the twice-weekly Harakah was my main solace and news source and I would be the first to buy the newspaper as the bundle came from the delivery vans.

Harakah’s circulation jumped from 60,000 to 350,000 during the Reformasi days. All the main newspapers like Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, The Star and New Straits Times were fit only for picking up dog poo in terms of their unprofessional and compromising reporting. Names like “Utusan Meloya” and “Berita Hairan” were the jokes of the time.

Mahathir was concerned about Harakah’s popularity and so, he sternly reminded all civil servants and Malaysians that Harakah’s circulation was meant only for members and that non-members were ineligible to possess it. So, I joined PAS-lah at the “recommendation” of Dr. M. I think that PAS membership drive grew a hundred-fold since Dr. M’s statement.

From 1999 to 2016, for those 17 years, if you were to walk up to me and say a PAS top leader said that non-Muslims are like animals, non-Muslims are easily corruptible and that all Chinese are Apek seluar pendek, I would have told you off and tell you to re-look and see if you are actually talking about Umno leaders! Umno leaders are famous for derogatory remarks on DAP and also PAS members and leaders.

But now, when I read news about derogatory remarks to non-Muslims, automatically my mind would attribute it to either Sanusi or PAS, or both. Usually, it’s both. What is sad is that both PAS members and most Malay Muslims do not understand the seriousness of the sin related to derogatory remarks made to others, including non-Muslims. I learned this aspect of Islamic morality from none other than one of the most celebrated scholars and spiritual teachers, Imam Al-Ghazali.

Al-Ghazali lived a life of scholarship to the point of attaining the highest academic office at a very young age. He also retired young and lived an isolated life of appreciating and then writing about Sufi-like acts that is in line with the Shari’ah ways, unlike many at that time who disregarded prayers, fasting and other important practices and beliefs of Islam.

Al-Ghazali compiled his writing in several voluminous books Al-Ihya Ulumuddin or “The Revival of the Religious Sciences,” Ihya meaning revival of life or resurrecting the soul. In one of my favorite chapters, he outlines the Sins or Destructiveness of Speech. In an Indonesian translation of the work, I read all the 20 “sins” of speeches like slander, gossip, telling lies and derogatory name calling. In the opening chapter, Al-Ghazali quoted a hadith where the Prophet Muhammad had reminded Muslims that their tongues could drag them to Hell. This was supposed to mean that whatever one says in this world can lead to a lifetime of suffering in Hell.

Malay-Muslims don’t even know their own religion of Islam when it comes to the severity of the sin of denigrating others.

Now, the problem with most Malays and other Muslims is that they would always understand the sins of spoken words as “not a big deal” and can be “covered” by extra prayers or pilgrimage or sadaqah. Most Malays and Muslims failed miserably to understand that a sin to another person like making jokes about him or her or gossiping untruths about another requires forgiveness by that person as the victim in this world. If not, that person has a right to ask for retribution in the court of Allah. No amount of money, pilgrimage or good deeds can ever erase the sin of any speech that was intended to make fun of another person deliberately and with malice.

Al-Ghazali gave an excellent example of the sin of name-calling like Apek seluar pendek. Al-Ghazali explains that the Prophet would give an affectionate name to Ali as Abu Turab or the father of dust when he found him sleeping in the mosque with dust from the desert covering his body. Ali loved that name and so it was ok to call him that. Similarly, the Prophet gave a name to an important companion or sahabah as the Father of Cats or Abu Huraira as he was fond of cats. Abu Huraira was one of the companions who narrated a great number of hadiths after the passing of the Prophet. Thus, the rule was to not make fun of a person or a whole race unless that person or that race was okay with it.

An Umno member once used to brand Chinese as Cina babi while another former Umno minister who now has a popular podcast called rakyat, like my wife, who went to Bersih rally, as “beruk-beruk.” I am sure no Chinese like to be called Cina babi or Apek seluar pendek. I am sure Indians would not accept the derogatory name of kaki todi. And certainly, no rakyat who went to Bersih rally would approve of a kurang ajar former minister in referring to the citizens of this country as monkeys.

Islam seems to be the topmost important matter to many Muslims. Islam is more important than not having food on the table, not having money for their children’s education, and more important than not having a clean air to breathe. But the strange thing is, Malays don’t understand their own religion and the major sins of speech like calling derogatory names. Malays support those like Sanusi and Hadi for committing the great sins of calling non-Muslims with derogatory names.

I have never heard any mufti chastising any Umno or PAS politicians using derogatory names on non-Muslims and even the rakyat. Perhaps these religious officers also feel that calling bad names on others is a “small” sin.

As a Muslim, I learn from the Prophet to respect everyone and to provide dignity to all, even to foul-mouthed Muslims like Hadi and Sanusi.

It hurts me deeply when so many of my brethren in faith love our religion but support strongly those who flout the very morality that the religion professes. Malays, it seems, prefer to learn from Melayu like Sanusi and Hadi and not from spiritual teachers like Al-Ghazali or directly from the Prophet Muhammad himself as recorded in the many compilations of sahih or “authentic” hadiths.

The more the Malays support Islam, the more it seems they are signing their own destruction, both in this world and the next…all because of their ignorant speeches in life, social media, and in their hearts.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)