Bravo Azmi!

The Star 6th October 2011

When I wrote in Between A Rock And A Hard Place that I believed that even a sizeable number of Malays were not themselves eager about hudud laws but that they for one obvious reason or another dared not speak out about Pas's proposal to implement hudud laws, I did not reckon with Azmi Sharom.

Azmi Sharom is a law lecturer in a local university and a columnist for The Star newspaper.

In his October 6th column for the newspaper entitled "Right to question hudud law" he wrote:

"But if you are going to introduce something into the public sphere, something that will affect the lives of the citizens, I don't care if the source of what you are introducing is divine (empahsis mine), it jolly well better be questioned,"

Further on he wrote:

"This has been my problem with any religion-based law making, the idea that simply because it is divine in origin means it can't be questioned. In a democracy, if we can't question the laws that affect our lives, then it is not a democracy."

Brave words coming from a Malay and a Muslim.

May I add my ignorant view that as far as the Koran is concerned, there is no mention of hudud. Only in the hadith, the sayings and practices of the prophets was hudud mentioned.

May I also add my ignorant view that the Koran is supposed to be complete and contains all that is and that a Muslim is not supposed to add anything to or subtract anything from it.

So, in this ignorant view of mine, can hudud be said to be divine?

Correct me if I am wrong.