Author: Faisal Tehrani"Andai kota itu peradaban, rumah kami adalah
budaya, dan menurut ibu, tiang serinya adalah agama."
translation: If civilisation is a city, then our home
is culture, and according to mother, its main pillar is religion.
The prose above greets you at the beginning of every chapter in the latest work by Faisal Tehrani.
Faisal Tehrani is noted as a thinking author. One
local English magazine hailed him as one of Malaysia's Most Outstanding Individuals in 2005, describing him as "one of the rare ideologists in Malay literature". And having heard of his credentials and read his
blog several times in the last couple of years, I decided to give his works a try.
Mind you, this is the first Malay novel I've read in a very long time. I usually approach Malay novels with some skepticism, seeing as how the few I've read before seem to be merely a tame translation of Mills & Boon romances, which seems wholly inappropriate in a Malaysian (Malay?) setting. And the multi-syllable Malay words and 'bahasa bunga-bunga' make the reading longer and more difficult for me - heck, I'm an engineer, I may be longwinded myself but give it to me straight to the point. No wonder I always go for the discussion/debate topics in Karangan BM.
'Tuhan Manusia' is first of all surprisingly devoid of the traits above. According to one
review, "Take away the 'only just' plot, add a few footnotes and a bibliography, and you would've a formidable collection of essays, each demanding the reader digest it separately." I did find it engaging and easy enough to read the first time, though I will probably come back to revisit the novel and properly dwell on the issues brought up in the book. There were a lot of ideological and philosophical terms - pluralism, secularism, name any 'ism' and the word makes an appearance - but it was presented in a manner more palatable than 'Sophie's World'.
Anyway, back to the point of this so-called review. The author himself stated that this is probably his most ambitious work to date. And he tackles a most sensitive but extremely important issue affecting the Muslim world generally and Islam in Malaysia specifically: apostasy.
The protagonist is a teenaged Ali Taqi, pondering the fate of his brother Talha who has renounced Islam for Christianity. Ali Taqi strives to understand why and how his brother becomes an apostate. Eventually he strikes a stand against pluralism, which he believes to be one of the ideologies used to perpetrate apostacy among Muslims.
'Tuhan Manusia' is basically a 'How To Combat Apostasy' manual. His characters are role-players, examples of how to behave and how to deal with the issue. Even as the parents, the ustaz and a bus driver educates Ali Taqi, so is the author actually informing the reader of his proposed strategy. In writing this book, Faisal Tehrani has actually pitted himself against the "manusia yang tidak kenal diri ini pula, hah, menjadi seniman, mereka bikin filem, menulis novel malahan mementaskan teater maka makin ramai orang jahil yang rosak dan terus rosak..." - Ch. 20, pg 322.
Obviously a lot of research has been put into writing this book, with a large number of references to the Qur'an and Sunnah, as well as Sufism. As Ali Taqi himself stated to his mualaf friend Tse, "Hujah ilmiah dan akhlak yang menambatlah senjata sebenar Islam. Begitulah Islam disebarkan." Ch. 17, pg 247
If ever it was the intention of the author to do so, it certainly succeeded in sparking an interest in philosophy as much as Ali Taqi himself thirsts for it. My only regret is that, unlike the novel's main character, I am no longer a remaja lepasan SPM but a 31-year-old with only 9 years of youth left inside me. But it's never too late to start, right?
My only grouch about the book is its epilogue. Ali Taqi going back to his roots after an illustrious career as a philosopher is fine, but to have his daughter marry Tse's son, and the children's names similar to some of his former mentors is a bit - well, too much like the epilogue from Harry Potter. Fortunately he didn't go so dar as to marry Zehra.
Some more quotable quotes from the book:
"Masyarakat secara fitrah adalah pengikut kebenaran. Akan ada yang setia kepada kebatilan bukan kerana kebatilan itu kebenaran. Tetapi lebih kerana antara jambak keadilan itu, engkau cuba selitkan bunga kebenaran. Dan ini namanya fitnah.
Dan dalam keadaan serba fitnah siapa yang akan selamat? Ada, ada yang akan selamat, orang yang sesuai dengan takdir Ilahi. Dan percaya dengan keMahabijaksanaan Allah, orang jenis ini yang akan cuba menemukan kebenaran, dan bila dapat, mereka akan menggenggamnya dengan kemas..." Ch. 16, pg 241
