“What is justice? Giving water to trees. What is\ninjustice? To give water to thorns. Justice is (consists in) bestowing a bounty\nin its proper place, not on every root that will absorb water. What is\ninjustice? To bestow (it) in an improper place that can only be a source of\ncalamity. Bestow the bounty of God on the spirit and reason, not on the\n(carnal) nature full of disease and complications.” – Jalal ad-Din\nMuhammad Rumi (d. 1273)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The metaphor given by this great luminary can also be\nextended to the contemporary context in the following way: justice is giving\ndue support, morally and financially, to those deeply rooted in knowledge and\nwisdom who aim to educate our spirit and reason; and injustice is giving\nsupport to those individuals and initiatives which perpetuates the bestial\ninclination of mankind \u2013 the root cause of our multifaceted challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are at the crossroads of history: either the Muslim\nworld takes ownership of its civilizational trajectory, or we will allow myopic\nforces to continue to wreak havoc on the world, in addition to the myriad of\nforces who package for us a sentiment of the future we are to embrace \u2013\ncorporate interests or international bodies \u2013 influencing our policies,\nblueprints and development plans which neglects the more profound civilizational\nconsiderations such as the quality of our intellectual, spiritual, and cultural\nlives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, as the honourable custodian of the Muslim\nand Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem, His Majesty King Abdullah II of\nthe Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan states in his last Op-Ed piece (28 April 2020\nin Washington Post), “Many are optimistic we will simply rebuild after this\npandemic. But rebuilding is not enough. We should focus instead on creating\nsomething new, something better.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Majesty King Abdullah II also mentioned in the\nsame article that, \u201cWe need to reconfigure international institutions and build\nnew ones where needed. We need to create and sustain new organizations that\ndraw on the skills and resources of different sectors, across national\nboundaries\u2026 Threats do not come in silos, and the solutions cannot be in\nsilos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the West, it is worthwhile to observe that there\nare efforts that do not limit solutions to the grand challenges of our time\nonly in the framework of UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals, such as the Future\nof Humanity Institute at Oxford University, Centre for the Study of Existential\nRisk at the University of Cambridge, Future of Life Institute, Foundational\nQuestions Institute, and others that look to develop long-term solutions to the\ngrand challenges that is faced by human civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Muslim World must be mindful that millions of US\ndollars must have already been invested by certain parties to advance the\noutlook on life with an agenda of civilization that marginalizes or neglects\nthe question of Divine order that pervades reality or the affirmation of\nspiritual realities in their considerations. Such entities assume their own\npoint of view (albeit a reductionist one) in terms of reality of the universe\n(cosmology), of human nature (psychology), of knowledge (epistemology), and of\nexistence (ontology) \u2013 which the Muslims have their own substantial\nunderstanding of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The worrying thing is that, to this writer\u2019s\nknowledge, no Muslim-majority countries have invested and concentrated energy\non this long-term scenario. Will the Muslim world simply follow the desires and\nways of thinking of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Klaus Schwab or Yuval Harari when\ngiven the opportunity due to their wealth and influence in the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Dr. Ingrid Mattson mentioned in her talk at the\nHikma Forum 2020 event on 27 December 2020: \u201cWe can\u2019t be na\u00efve; there are\neconomic and political bodies that have great influence and enforcing\ndevelopment models that are contrary to this [more holistic] approach [of the\nMuslims].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against this backdrop, Malaysia and the Muslim world\nis in dire need of an overarching direction, framework and vision to propel the\nMuslims to new heights and a new civilizational reality amidst the global\ndisruption caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Failure to do so will continue to see the trend of\nuncritical imitation of the perspectives of Western civilisation and narrow\noutlook in framing our future, instead of the more discerning, farsighted, and\nuniversal outlook approach in charting our civilizational future \u2013 something\nthat Professor Dr Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas has called for since the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is encouraging indeed, to see His Majesty Sultan\nNazrin Shah of Malaysia articulating a philosophy of economy and development\nmore rooted in our worldview and civilization in his past speeches at the\nKhazanah Megatrends Forum, an approach which remains absent in the formulation\nof many of the Muslim world\u2019s blueprints and development plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, this is an opportune time for Muslim rulers,\nleaders, and scholars to jump on the bandwagon which seeks to move away from a\nfragmented and piecemeal approach in solving the grand challenges of our time\ntowards a more integrated, systemic solutions informed by the Muslims\u2019 real\nunderstanding of psychology, cosmology, and ontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rulers and leaders of the Muslim world may want to\nconsider establishing a special council for the future of Muslims led by\nindividuals of foresight, intelligence and integrity like His Majesty King\nAbdullah II of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and a select group of thinkers\nyoung and old, which would strengthen the voices of the Muslim collective\nglobally on the stance of the Muslim world to the question of civilizational trajectory,\nsystemic solutions, and collective future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the establishment of such a council or platform,\nthe Muslim monarchs, scholars, thinkers and leaders would be in a better\nposition to make more informed opinions and judgements on long-term civilizational\nmatters which certain forces are taking onto their own hands, influenced by\neither personal, political, or business interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat is justice? Giving water to trees. What is injustice? To give water to thorns. Justice is (consists in) bestowing a bounty in its proper place, not on every root that will absorb water. What is injustice? To bestow (it) in an improper place that can only be a source of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"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-28695","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\/28695","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\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}