Majority, if not all, of\nus may concur that by and large the political scenario in Malaysia during the\npast four decades has never been calm for more than five years. Somewhat\nunprecedented and shocking however was the recent leak of a scandalous video,\nwith its related confession and political repercussions. Whatever the purpose\nof the disclosure is, it is clear that whoever was initially in possession of\nsuch confidential knowledge was also in possession of power and influence over\nthose involved in the scandal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Politics aside, and as\nthe adage has it, knowledge is power. One\u2019s power over the object which one\nknows depends primarily on the extent and depth of one\u2019s knowledge of it. The\nmore complete and perfect one\u2019s knowledge is, the more dominant and rooted becomes\none\u2019s power. However, no human being, let alone the other creatures, is omniscient;\nhence, none of them is omnipotent. In fact, to the real believers among\nMuslims, Allah alone is All-Knowing and All-Powerful .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The power arising from\nknowledge very much pertains to the secret of the known previously covered up\nand kept hidden but later exposed wide to the person in possession of the knowledge.\nAs such, the process and outcome related to knowledge are almost always\ndescribed in words which convey the ideas of \u201cremoval of the veil or\ncover\u201d or \u201crendering something\nclear\u201d such as kashf<\/em>, inkish\u0101f<\/em>, tajall\u012b<\/em>,\ndiscovery, disclosure, unveiling, revelation, and the like. Depending on the nature\nand reality of the secret revealed, anyone who gets to know about a secret has indeed\nbeen endowed with some power over the owner of the secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, too often neglected\nalong with the revealing of such secret and the emerging power that accompanies\nsuch revelation, are the ensuing trust and responsibility to not only have just\nattitude but also take just action towards the secret and the original owner of\nthe secret. For true believers, such trust and responsibility is indeed the\nessence of ethics and morality regarding which anyone getting to know the\nsecret shall be held accountable on the Day of Judgement and Retribution (yawm\nal-din<\/em>; yawm al-hisab<\/em>). Bearing this in mind, it may thus be better on\nsome occasions that certain secrets are left forever hidden and one\u2019s ignorance\nof them is more preferable, if not obligatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lamentably, for far too\nlong already, politics has been held to be the arts of gaining power over\nothers and once successful, of remaining in power. With such a predominant\noutlook, seldom are power and mastery emphasised as matters that pertain first\nand foremost to one\u2019s self. In fact, often has self-knowledge been considered\nby many of us to be easy, trivial or already fully taken care of. Is this really\nthe case? Is it true that the multilayer veil which encloses and covers our self\u2019s\ninnermost secrets is quality-wise easy to uncover and hence our self something\neasy to govern? If so, why does each of us from time to time experience moments\nof regret over what should have been undertaken at a prior reasonable moment but\nunfortunately not done? We, for instance, consciously pronounced words that are\nnot supposed to be which we later regret. If indeed we are powerful enough to\nmanage ourselves at all times—including our will, tongues and mouths, how could\nsuch regrets occur later in life? We also, too often, take a particular action\nin all consciousness but which when eventually looked back on is in reality hardly\nreasonable! <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the intellectual and\nethical tradition of Islam, self-knowledge as well as self-mastery is\nparamount. In fact, one’s self-knowledge should manifest itself in practical\nand operational form in one\u2019s self-control culminating thus in one\u2019s moral integrity\nand just personality, which in the aforementioned tradition is held to be the\nbasis and root of economics and politics, the two disciplines of study pertaining\nto man as social beings and members of a community. The importance of this\nknowledge is increasingly evident in the midst of the hustle and bustle and\ndesire by various parties to seize or defend power over others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tension and dilemma\npertaining to one\u2019s own self as aforesaid clearly implies that even within\nourselves, there are infightings, as if two souls are struggling to dominate\neach other. The outcomes of such infightings are too numerous to outline but\nsuffice it to say that generally they can be manifested in behaviours and\noutward actions, be they right or wrong, or they can be concealed within the self\nas acts of the heart, be they good or evil. Hence it is the main mission of the\nProphets and Messengers as well as those genuine scholars who inherit the formers\u2019\nmandate to guide human beings in their selves\u2019 endless, inner struggle of\nmaking the right choices as well as living a good life that leads to the\nultimate well-being and happiness. In fact, as stressed by the last in the line\nof the Messengers of Allah, Muhammad (p.b.u.h.): \u201cVerily I am sent to complete and perfect noble character (makarim\nal-akhlaq<\/em>)!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Majority, if not all, of us may concur that by and large the political scenario in Malaysia during the past four decades has never been calm for more than five years. Somewhat unprecedented and shocking however was the recent leak of a scandalous video, with its related confession and political repercussions. Whatever the purpose of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}