Take the Snake's Precious Skin and Leave the Rest

Assalammualaikum.

There's a saying in Malay, "buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih" which literally means "leave the dirty one, and take the clear one". But i found another saying in English, with almost similar meaning, "Take the Snake's Precious Skin and Leave the Rest".

I hv been thinking of this Malay proverb for a long time.
And is amused by the big implications of it in life and also the great wisdom behind this simple proverb.

To take only the good ones and leave the bad ones is exactly what we should do in life.
Nobody deserves to be our role model in this world except our beloved prophet.

My previous post on Dr M must have made some of the readers to think that i'm a huge fan of his therefore i'm pro government.
But, that's not the case.
I admired Dr M for his contribution to the nation, his 22 years of serving the country has been proved to be the most successful period of Malaysia.
Malaysia became known with a lot of projects; KLCC, KLIA, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Malaysia evolved from an agricultural based country to an industrialised country. And, he is a doctor.

So, sholdnt i be taking that good quality of his?
Or should i shut all his contribution to the country because (ppl claim) that he did nasty things during his reign?
I dont even know if he really did nasty things so i'm not in the position to claim that.
Of course i'm not saying that he didnt do anything bad at all.
From what I read from his blog, he complained a lot about the government administration during Pak Lah's reign but these things that he complained abt has been there even during is time in the office as the PM. I'm not sure why isn't he doing anything abt it but complaining abt it when it is under other people's responsibility.
So, whatever it is, let's take the good side of him and leave the rest.

Same goes for western civilisation (if it can be called civilisation. Some of them are still barbarians. Watch WWF for a solid proof).
My previous post on the difference between western and eastern teachings revealed my opinion on how bad western teachings are.
But really, it is not only that.
Not ALL western teachings are bad as well as not all eastern teachings are good.
Not ALL the westerners should be blamed for the bad things many westerners did neither can all easterners be praised for the good things some easterners did.

I watched "Night at The Museum 2" with my family last week and my mother mentioned that the western countries had their civilisation for not even 500 years but they are having a lot of heroes.
They brought and praised and tell good stories abt their prominent figures and made it as if the world is full of good western heroes.
Franklin Roosevelt took office less than 100 years ago, same goes for Theodore Roosevelt, most of their heroes for example Amelia Earheart, Wright Brothers, Alexander G. Bell, and a lot other scientists made their breakthrough less than 100 years ago, or perhaps 150 years ago the most.
Yet, the westerners are praising, bringing their names up as if they had started their contribution 1000 years ago.

At the same time, the easterners (my mother was actually specifically talking abt the condition in Malaysia) tried to bring down anyone who dared to speak up and make changes.
We have always oppressed those who stood up, that's why we are not progressing much. We should not be jealous when other people is having the limelight. We should be a supportive nation, not an-always-finding-people's-mistake nation.

So i'd say that keeping prominent figures "alive" in people's heart is a good value of the westerners that i can take.

In the process of making her research in children literature, my mother found out that some of the children storybooks writers do not have clean and healthy background. Some of them killed themselves, some have depression, some have mental illness but it's not their bad side that have been made public, it's their contribution, the stories that they wrote had been made public. I dont think we should reject their artwork because they did badly in their lives. I think we should take the good things from them and leave the rest.

Islam has taught me not to talk bad abt other ppl.
And to think good things abt others.
And not to listen to news from uncertain sources.
And not to engage in any conversation that might lead to fitnah (false accusations).
And most important, Islam taught me to hate what the person did, than hating the person himself.

That means, (I'm taking Dr M as an example) if somebody came to me and told me that Dr M just abused his power to get rid of one of his colleagues, i should not be believing the story until the case is being justified and truth has been revealed. I shd be thinking good things abt him unless it is obvious that he's doing a wrong thing. eg: If i see him drinking in bar (which i did not) i should not jump to the conclusion that he's drinking alcohol but rather think that he's drinking carbonated drinks or any other drinks than alcohol unless, i really see him pouring the alcohol into his glass. I should also not engage myself to any pointless conversation that discuss only abt his bad behaviours for the sake of gossipping.

And lastly, i should also not hate him if i found out that he did bad things, instead i shd be hating his bad behaviors, not the person.
Why?
Because in Islam, there's a thing called repentance.
And if he repented after doing the bad thing, that means the reason for me hating him is no longer there.
But if i were to hate him as a person, even if he repented, he is still the Dr M whom i shd be hating because i'm hating the person, not the attitude.

That brings me back to Michael Jackson.
As the world know, he was accused and was brought to trial for a few children sex abuse cases.
I'm not sure whether he did that or not but, even if he did, i'm supposed to only hate that attitude of his. I'm not supposed to hate him, and go against him for everything he does.

And, he reverted to Islam.

What does that mean?
That means his sins were forgiven.
Even the woman who killed Saidina Hamzah and took out his heart and eat it, a woman called Hindun bt Atabah who was in the "List to be Killed" when Rasulullah SAW entered Makkah in the year 8H was given freedom and forgiveness because she accepted Islam.
Not only her, Ikrimah b. Abu Jahal and Abdullah b. Saad were also forgiven because they accepted Islam.

The sole reason is a person's sins made during his@her pre-Islam period are cancelled off once he@she accepted Islam.
Means the revert is now clean of sins, like a baby.
And is only responsible for the sins made after the conversion.



So, wont MJ's sins being cancelled off?
Who are we to say that he still sins, and do not deserve our forgiveness when he acquired Almighty God's?

-AkMaR-
http://akmarr90.blogspot.com