Sometimes it is pointless to keep on trying to make my point to Shalu that the lighting of the ‘Kuttuvilakku’ is not merely a ‘cultural’ thingy but an important Hindu act of worship of the Hindu deities.
So yours truly did a Yahoo Search and came up with this excellent proof of my saying that what Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak and Dato Seri Rais Yatim did at the previous Deeparaya stint is an act of Shirik towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala.
Click on the picture above to see a bigger version . Click here to see for yourself the website.
Another link shows the significance of the kuttuvilakku as an important Hindu religious symbol.
I leave it to you the readers to decide as to whether I am wrong in my findings as per my earlier post about agreeing with the Ulamaks of Malaysia not to associate religious practices with social events such as coming up with the ‘idiotic’ Kongsiraya this and that!
We did not have any problems all these while in attending festive celebrations of the various faiths and races since the days of yore!
The coining of the phrase is the work of the former Minister of Information. It is he who is responsible for the advent of this unnecessary cause of concern for Muslims who value their purity of faith and adherence to the rules and guidelines of Aqeedah as a true Muslim.
It is up to the government to stop using such an outrageous term that speaks of mixing the religious celebrations. What has JAKIM done about this ?
No one’s stopping anyone from going to have a good feast and chit chat with friends and neighbours from various faiths and cultures.
Just stop committing these acts of Shirik to Allah SWT in the false pretences of muhibbah by getting the ignorants to carry out such acts that are part and parcel of another’s faith practices.
I rest my case. 🙂
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saar,
The picture shows the yogi lighting the urvilakk to mark the start of the ceromony. It is not part of the “Hindu Religon” ritual.
With this logic, in few days, you will say wearing or presenting flower garland too is shrk, since Hindus offer flower garlands to their Gods every day. Is that so saar?
Let look at Malay muslim community. Nikkah, as we all know is a religous ritual. Most (if not all) nikkah ceremony, has “Bunga Manggar” which you stick to a half papaya (or something like that) on a stick of some sort. Is this bunga manggar a religous symbol? I am asking this because, you can see bunga manggar in nikkah ceremony which is a religous symbol.
What about the pouring of “air mawar” during burial of the dead? Is that a religous ritual?
It is normal that religous ceremony usually contain some cultural rituals too in every community.
What the Himalayan acedemy wrote is true. For some the light from the Kuthvilakk “awaken” the divine light within him/her (whatever the hell that means). But it is not religous symbol. You can see urvilakk only in Hindu temples here in Malaysia, because it is the cultural symbols of the “Hindu Race”(We, of the Indian Sub Continent). Since most of Malaysian are non-Indian unless he/she is hindu by religon, you do not see urvilakk in other religous buildings.
It is not so in India. A lot of churches and even mosques (Expecially in southern part, since we are not fanatic about being an Arab or Anggresi Sahibs) have and light urvilakk.
There was one such fanatic in my hometown by the name of Maulavi Soopy Tangal. He was an MP and he made some noises about Abdul Kalam lighting urvilakk in some government ceremony (YEs, we light urvilakk in non hindu-ceremony). It was a cheap shot to create a Hindu-Muslim fraction. People know it. And then he (The Mana-Konthan Maulavi) is MP no more. Bear in mind that my hometown is a Muslim Majority.
I can understand your points that in India, the Kuttuvilakku or ‘urvilakk’ as you call it might be also found in the churches and mosques as you say in South India.
I don’t doubt that it might be so because I have heard from many sources that Muslims in India especially in Tamilnadu do all sorts of ‘khurafat’ things in the name of religious practices.
This however does not negate my contention that the lighting of the kuttuvilakku or urvilak is part and parcel of Hindu religious practices in the temples, does it?
Lots of Indian Muslims commit many practices that originate from Hindu practices especially in the erecting of numerous ‘durghas’ in the name of false awliya’s, etc.
I am not surprised to learn of them using the same type of oil lamps there in India as you have shared.
The Malays here in Malaysia used to be Hindus before the coming of Islam.
Many of their cultural and traditional practices do originate from the Hindu tradition and religious practices.
The adat Melayu reeks of traditional Hindu practices such as ‘menyembah duli’, bersanding, menepong tawar, and other practices which continue to be practiced by those who don’t bother about keeping true to Islamic rules and guidelines.
You can read about these adats in detail from the link here :
http://members.tripod.com/onnjadi/artikel2.html
Thanks for the update.
First of all, I would like to congratulate and thank you on being the first conservative Muslim blogger (that I’ve found, anyway) to present a reasonable and plausible argument on why the ulamas don’t approve of Kongsi-Raya.
Not that I agree with the reasoning. And I hope to present, God willing, my reasons why.
To me the most important that governs any actions of any Muslim is intention (i.e. niat). I am sure that you would agree with this assessment.
As Shalu has pointed out, the object is basically a very elaborate candle. Yes, it is used in Hindu religious rites. But more pertinent is the fact that culturally, the lighting up of the urvilakk symbolizes the beginning of an endeavor.
If taken in this context, if there is no niat in lighting up the urvalikk other than to officiate the beginning of an event, how is it that the act can be construed as leading to syirik?
The answer, is of course, IF we associate the urvalikk with a specific religion (i.e. Hinduism), believe that the only use for it can only be in the context of Hinduism and nothing else.
As a Muslim, I of course, do not associate a candlestick with anything divine. The urvalikk is first and foremost a candlestick; a very elaborate one, but a candlestick nonetheless.
If one were to adopt your reasoning, on the other hand, then the use of candles and candlesticks of any sort would also bring a Muslim one step closer down the heinous path of syirik.
The same goes for other cultural adoptions such as the bunga manggar, as Shalu as also pointed out, or even the Malay language itself, much of which has its origins in Sanskrit, which is used extensively in ancient Hindu religious text.
And for that matter (this example is exaggerated, but for good reason), the use of the letters “T” (or “t”) and “X” (or “x”) would then also bring us closer to syirik since they resemble the crucifix, the most sacred symbol in Christianity. In the last sentence alone, I would then have come closer to syirik 22 times!!
Which brings us back to my original point: niat.
Only God and Rais Yatim will ever know what Rais’ niat was when he lit up the urvalikk.
So, the question comes back to this: where does the association of objects, letters of the alphabet, etc., with things profane to Islam stop? And who makes the decision?
Further: do we abdicate our common sense and intelligence to what the ulamas have to say, and only what the ulamas opine?
Or do we, as Muslims, take heed to what God has decreed in the Quran [Surah 3 Verse 7]:
“He sent down to you this scripture, containing straightforward verses – which constitute the essence of the scripture – as well as multiple-meaning or allegorical verses. Those who harbor doubts in their hearts will pursue the multiple-meaning verses to create confusion, and to extricate a certain meaning. None knows the true meaning thereof except GOD and those well founded in knowledge. They say, “We BELIEVE in this – all of it comes from our Lord.” Only those who possess INTELLIGENCE will take heed.”
The importance of INTELLIGENCE, logic and common sense are mentioned many, many times in the Quran. This, to me, indicates its importance. And INTELLIGENCE, not the abdication of it to certain people, is the true path to righteousness, in my humble opinion.
In the end, God knows best.
So, there. My lengthy reasoning of why niat is important, superceding any arbitrary symbology we may want to associate with things we think of as abhorrant, AND why we should not simply follow the words/opinions of others (regardless of how high an esteem we hold for them) while foregoing one’s own God-given intelligence.
With that, I wish you PEACE.
Umm Kulthum bint ‘Uqbah, may Allah be pleased with her, reported:
I heard Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), as saying: He is not a liar who tries to bring reconciliation among people and speaks good (in order to avert dispute), or conveys good.
Hadith number in Sahih Muslim [Arabic only]: 4717
http://hadith.al-islam.com/bayan/display.asp?Lang=eng&ID=1503
The hadith above conveys the injunction that we need to use our God given intelligence and acquired knowledge to correct whatever wrong is being perpetrated before us and advice our fellow mankind especially our fellow Muslims not to commit wrongful actions that if left uncorrected will lead to more serious transgressions.
We have our own sense of intelligence and knowledge but we should not simply disregard the opinions of the ulamaks.
I agree with you that at times, we need to differ with the ulamaks when their findings or fatwas are out of line or too extreme in their findings about any one matter.
The niyyat of those who clearly commit an act that is clearly following the religious practices of another such as the two ministers going along with lighting of such lamps which constitute Hindu religious practices is absolutely a matter that only Allah SWT knows but their actions bring them into fitnah.
The ministers maybe learned worldwise but as far as their religious commonsense leaves much to be wondered.
Then again, as fellow Muslims, we are enjoined to have ‘good faith’ @ berbaik sangka upon them and thus I seriously pray that Allah SWT will guide them not to repeat such mistakes in the future.
Thank you for sharing your views.
I recall reading about a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alihi Wassallam that in the Last Days (present times) the Ummah would be following the ways of the Kuffar in their actions and mannerisms bit by bit as the parable of the black ant travelling in the pitch dark night.
The Muslims of today have proved the hadith to be true as today, many Muslims do not hold true to the rules and guidelines of true Islam.
I will follow up on this and publish here an article highlighting all the fitnah being carried out by today’s ‘Muslims’fulfilling the above mentioned hadith, Insyaallah.
32. ULAMAKS ARE IGNORED
Meaning:
Related by Sahl bin Saad as-Saaidi r.a. who said: Rasulullah s.a.w spoke; ‘Ya Allah! Do not let me see the day and I pray that you (the Sahabah)do not live to witness the ulamaks being ignored and gentlemen are no longer respected.
Their hearts(the transgressors) are like the fasiqs @ treacherous whereas their speech is very smooth in their deceptions.
Hadith Riwayat Ahmad
Explanation:
In these times , the Ulamaks are no longer being respected as foretold by the Greatest Messenger of Allah SWT.
People do not feel any sense of respect towards the Ulamaks and they don’t care about the Ulamaks opinions and Fatwas.
Society is alienated from the Ulamaks.
They no longer approach the Ulamak for guidance.
The rulers do not ask the Ulamaks opinions anymore before carrying out any actions and impose harsh laws as they please.
The worst of society are elected to supervise over religious affairs and the religious departments are deaf, dumb and mute and do nothing much to stop the rot in society!
Those who are given the responsibility to protect the people from harm end up playing the people to suit their vile purposes.
They twist and turn and manipulate religious edicts and shariah laws to validate the rulers atrocities against the welfare of the people.
They are smooth talkers and orators who dupe the masses into believing all is well when in reality , society is slowly but surely heading towards social ruin and mayhem.
Muslims are no longer practicing their faith as Allah SWT and the Messenger SAW has revealed Islam for them.
Beautiful masjids are erected everywhere but they are dead of the Islamic spiritual life and enmity exists in the administrations of these mosques fulfilling the hadiths of the Prophet SAW about the signs of the Last Days.
O Muslims, be aware of all these signs taking place as foretold by Rasulullah SAW!