This is the real question which needs to be addressed, not the question of whether or not the syari’ah court has jurisdiction over non-Muslims. Let us settle the issue of what it takes to be a Muslim, rather than occupy ourselves with the business of converting others to what appears to be a great number of us do not understand.
First and foremost, the call to Islam is a willing and conscious submission to Allah. It is what one chooses for one self. It cannot be forced upon anybody. The fundamental elements of Islam are premised on Revelation, reason and language. Islamization refers to a conscious effort towards creating a good and proper Muslim through the process of education. This education reflects the two essential aspects of man, namely reason and language. This fact will become evident when we examine the first pillar of Islam upon which all other religious obligations depend.
The first pillar of Islam is the testimony couched in what is referred to as the ‘kalimah shahadah’, namely to profess the act of bearing witness. It reads: “I bear witness that there is no God that deserves to be worshipped but Allah, and that Muhammad is His messenger.”
Even though every convert is required to utter these word as a declaration of his or her conversion to Islam, in reality one does not become a Muslim merely by uttering it. What matters is the act of witnessing itself because the person who bears witness may be sincere, lying, or is ignorant. Only the testimony of a truthful witness is accepted. The testimony of a liar, who in his heart denies what is being uttered, and the ignorant who does not know the implications of his own utterance, are invalid. The one who is deemed ignorant includes minors and one who is mentally retarded by virtue of their immature faculties of comprehension and recognition.
The words ‘ilah’, ‘Allah’, and ‘Rasulullah’ convey significant meaning. When uttered in the form of a testimony, a recognition of truth and commitment to a certain way of life is being made. It is thus imperative that the one testifying understands the meanings and implications of his utterance. It means there must be certain degree of consciousness, that the person recognizes and submits to God consciously and willingly in accordance with the religion of Islam. The Qur’an clearly mentions that God does not accept one who desires other than Islam as his religion. It means that whosoever ‘converts’ to Islam not for the sake of submitting to the will of God according to the religion of Islam is not truly a Muslim. Yet, this is apparently what is happening in our country of late; ‘to convert’ to Islam in order to marry a Muslim, and ‘to leave’ Islam when the marriage fails. The truth is the person has never been a Muslim consciously and willingly. As such he or she has been coerced to convert in order to legalize marriage. To be blunt, the real intention is not concerned with religion but with marriage.
The emphasis on will and consciousness, when talking about Islam, assumes knowledge to be of paramount prerequisite. Knowledge is the property of reason (‘aql). Without reason there can be no true knowledge, and without true knowledge it is not possible to convert to Islam willingly and consciously. We are reminded of the saying of the Prophet: “no religion (din) to one who has no reason (‘aql)”.
Furthermore, we may argue that all religious obligations like prayer and fasting necessitates reason as the required condition of the obligation. Now if we take ‘to be a Muslim’ as an obligation, then reason should also be an essential condition. As such, because a child’s faculties of reason are still immature, it cannot be burdened with the responsibility.
Hence, what is the point of using the courts ‘to convert’ a child, and separate it from his or her non-Muslim mother? It should be clear by now that one does not become a Muslim by changing one’s name to Muhammad or Abdullah, nor by changing the status of religion in the registration office, what more if it is done by someone else. Perhaps the converted parent is worried that his or her child may be raised in an ‘unislamic’ environment resulting in him or her being a non-Muslim adult. That fear is actually baseless, and it contradicts the parent’s own experience.
A child is a child, and naturally has a strong emotional bond with its mother. As the child matures, it may make a conscious, willing decision concerning religion to adopt. To separate a child from its mother is indeed a cruel act, and is unjust from the point of view of Islam, let alone to claim that one is doing so in the name of Islam.
To leave the child in the care of its non-Muslim parent does not make the child an infidel. If Islam is defined as a willing and conscious act of submission, its antithesis, unbelief (kufr) points to a denial of consciousness, a refusal to submit, or to submit grudgingly. The cause of unbelief, as exemplified by the devil according to the Qur’an, is arrogance. One’s refusal to open one’s eyes, ears, and heart to the message of Islam without knowing what is being rejected is unbelief. The refusal to accept Islam after knowing its truth is an even greater form of unbelief because it assumes arrogance, and a refusal to submit to truth consciously. Are wenow saying that children who have yet to mature are arrogant and devilish?
Islam is not to be made the desperate handmaiden of any political party in dire need of support and membership at all costs. Islam is God’s gift of mercy to mankind. Accepting and recognizing this gift does not make God greater for He is not in need of anything. Similarly by refusing it does not make Him a lesser God. Islam is not a religion for fools. Using the mechanism of the judiciary to ‘Islamize’ people, or to prevent them from leaving Islam is totally absurd. All it achieves is to unjustly potray all Muslims as ignorant fools, and as a result of association, Islam becomes the victim. Imagine what the non-Muslim community in general will understand of Islam. They will conclude that Islam is a cruel religion which seeks to separate a parent from his or her children. As a result, Islam will be put on trial. And this is already happening.