Exploring the Challenges and Implications of Atheism for Religious Society in Malaysia

Atheism is an ideology that rejects the existence of God and has gained increasing prominence in societies globally, including Malaysia. Atheism significantly challenges the religious orientation of Malaysian society. Specifically, atheism challenges spiritual and ethical foundations, unity, and cultural heritage linked to religious beliefs. Understanding these challenges is vital to formulate proactive measures, education, and informed dialogue to mitigate the negative impact of atheism on Malaysian society. This study explored the effects of atheism on Malaysian religious society via library research analysis. Scholarly articles, books, and reputable online resources on religious and atheism underwent content analysis, which yielded five key findings. Firstly, atheism leads to the loss of spiritual guidance and morality. Secondly, atheism potentially erodes ethical values and societal norms, and subsequently reduces social trust and cohesion. Thirdly, atheism contributes to moral relativism and ethical ambiguity, which potentially undermines established moral frameworks and social norms. Fourthly, atheism can weaken community cohesion. Lastly, atheism threatens religious institutions and practices. Additionally, the absence of the role of God might undermine the cultural and heritage importance of religion. This study presented critical insights on the negative societal effects of atheism. By exploring the potential consequences of atheism on social cohesion, moral foundations, and existential perspectives, this study highlighted the need for religious education as part of atheism prevention and rehabilitation

Critical Investigation on the Pandemic from the Islamic Perspective

Since the emergence of the global challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, its impact could be widely viewed in various human society aspects, such as education, business trading and also social interaction limit. Apart from many discussions on the pandemic from a wide range of such perspectives, scholarly attention is still rarely mainly in trying to elaborate the critical overview from an Islamic perspective following theological, historical, and sociological points of view. In this paper, the critical elaboration of the pandemic has been widely discussed by analysing the contents of sacred scriptures and responses from an Islamic point of view. The literature was critically conducted from religious sources such as the Qur’an and Hadith, and also related contemporary works. The finding reveals that the pandemic has been given full attention as stated in the Qur’an and narrated in Hadith by taking a lesson from pandemics and strategically battling the pandemic. The following attentions were addressed in order to strengthen the Muslim community and society in order to support the health protocols arranged by the local and international health organizations. The value is that religion’s clear comprehension could give continued support to encourage the Muslim community especially and general society at large in the attempts to battle the spreading pandemic

A Comparative Study on the Notion of Dialogue in Islam and Buddhism

Interfaith dialogue is a vital tool for promoting understanding and cooperation between different religious communities. This article presents a comparative study of the Islamic and Buddhist perspectives on interfaith dialogue. Drawing on primary sources from both religions, this study explores the theological foundations of interfaith dialogue and the practical strategies employed by Muslims and Buddhists in promoting interfaith understanding. The similarities and differences between the two religions’ approaches to interfaith dialogue are analysed, examining how their respective beliefs, practices, and histories shape their attitudes towards religious diversity. The research design is qualitative using library research by emphasizing content analysis on Islam and Buddhism scripture. The results show that Islamic paradigms of interreligious dialogue is da’wah (propagation, invitation or introducing Islam) that rooted from Tawḥīd, in contrast Buddhism, promotes on liberation from human suffering which rooted Bhavana and mindfulness. The study contributes to the principle of interfaith dialogue and provides insights into the potential of interfaith relation for sustaining harmony, peace, and mutual respect in diverse societies. Studies suggest the understanding of each fundamental to encourage Muslim and Buddhists scholars to produce comprehensive interreligious dialogue, theologically and philosophically

Intercultural Theology in the Multicultural Context of Muslim-Buddhist Relation in Malaysia: History, Identity, and Issues

Relationship-oriented questions have always been at the crossroads of ethnoreligious identity, religious freedom, religious conversion, religious prejudice, and religious pluralism throughout Muslim-Buddhist co-existence in the sixth century within the Malay Archipelago. Other faiths could be freely practised except for propagation towards Muslim communities with Islam being the religion of the federation. This study aimed to explore Muslim-Buddhist relation types and the issues underpinning the following themes: history, identity, and concerns. Content and thematic analysis as well discourse analysis were utilised as the study method for data collection and evaluation. Resultantly, the Muslim-Buddhist interaction pattern in Malaysia has occurred (culturally and religiously) from the early establishment of both religious communities. This relation, which has shifted in ethnoreligious orientation at every interaction level, opens more avenues and complexities requiring holistic management

THE PRACTICES AND APPROACHES OF INTERFAITH DIALOGUE AT LEICESTER, UK

The diversity of human is one of the God's. With the diversity, people from different religions, ethnics, and cultures can live together and sharing the good values. However, it can only be achieved with dialogue which is perceived as the best mechanism to build mutual understanding and respect with each other. In the context of Leicester, which located in the East Midlands of England, the practices of interfaith dialogue are implemented successfully till today. There are a lot of organizations and people who are involved and organizing interfaith dialogue activities with different approaches. This article will discuss about the practices and approaches of interfaith dialogue in Leicester. The method used in this research was qualitative, which included literature review, observation and participation, and particularly interviews with fifteen people who represented interfaith organization and religious community in Leicester. The findings show the practices of interfaith dialogue have been organized with different types of approaches. In addition, it can be deliberated as a good model of interfaith dialogue particularly for those who want to involve in these activities

Buddhism according to Modern Muslim Exegetes

This paper offers preliminary notes on Buddhism in modern Muslim exegesis with an emphasis on Tafsir al-Qasimi by Muhammad Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (1866–1914) and al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qurʾan by Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaʾi (1892-1981). The research adopts a qualitative design using content analysis to collect the data. In this paper two main questions regarding both exegetes will be explored. The first question concerns the sources of both scholars for their information about Buddhism by including the discussion in their exegesis. The second question concerns the methodology they used to discuss Buddhism in the Qurʾan since this has not been done by any classical exegetes nor among the most modern exegetes. Studies have found that the approach of the two exegetes is different from both the classical and modern exegetes because their work also contains resources from the fields of comparative religion and the history of religion to make their work relevant in the current context and reliable to be referred to by any parties. The author concludes that both al-Qasimi and Tabatabaʾi used analysis (taḥlil) in discussing verses related to the position of the Buddha

Sejarah dialog antara agama di Malaysia

Pembudayaan amalan dialog antara agama dalam tamadun Alam Melayu bermula sejak kurun ke-2 dan menjadi signifikan pada kurun ke-15 melalui aktiviti perdagangan yang menghasilkan interaksi antara masyarakat. Pada peringkat awal, amalan dialog yang berlangsung adalah berbentuk Dialog Kehidupan dan pembudayaannya masih berlangsung hingga ke hari ini dalam pelbagai bentuk. Justeru, artikel ini membincangkan sejarah amalan dialog antara agama di Malaysia. Reka bentuk kajian ini bersifat kualitatif dengan menggunakan kajian kepustakaan dan pendekatan sejarah. Dapatan mendapati bahawa amalan dialog di Malaysia telah bermula sejak kurun ke-18 melalui aktiviti perdagangan dan harian masyarakat. Ketika ini bentuk amalan dialog bersifat tidak formal. Manakala pasca kemerdekaan, amalan dialog yang dibudayakan dalam bentuk yang lebih formal melalui penubuhan Pure Life Society, terkubur rentetan Peristiwa 13 Mei 1969. Usaha untuk membudayakan amalan dialog kembali aktif khususnya pasca 1970 oleh beberapa NGO sebagai tindak balas daripada gelombang Islamisasi yang melanda negara ini

Refleksi al-Ghazali dalam dialog antara agama

Memahami dan menguasai pemikiran dan sumber rujukan rakan dialog merupakan antara pendekatan terbaik dalam berdialog. Hal ini supaya topik dialog berlaku secara ilmiah seterusnya mencapai objektif dialog. Artikel ini membincangkan kerangka dialog antara agama Imam al-Ghazali (m. 1111M) dalam dialog antara agama. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan analisis kandungan terhadap karya-karya agung Imam al-Ghazali yang membincangkan perihal agama lain, khususnya penganut Kristian dalam kitab al-Radd al-jamīlli ilāhiyyatʿĪsā bi-ṣarīḥ al-Injīl. Kajian mendapati, terdapat tiga pendekatan Imam al-Ghazali dalam berdialog, iaitu secara perdebatan, perbandingan teologi dan apologetik. Melalui pendekatan ini, al-Ghazali terlebih dahulu mengenal pasti isu utama yang menjadi perbezaan antara doktrin Islam dan Kristian, iaitu ketuhanan Isa. Seterusnya beliau membuat perbandingan teologi dengan menafsirkan semula teks tersebut berpandukan teks lain dalam Injil dan al-Qur’an. Al-Ghazali turut menggunakan unsur rasional dalam mengkritik kelemahan doktrin Kristian. Kajian mencadangkan penggunaan pendekatan dialog al-Ghazali digunakan dalam konteks dialog teologi bagi mengenal pasti titik pertemuan dan perbezaan antara penganut agama secara objektif dan kritis

Contributions of Islamic Civilization to The Mathematics Development

The development of Islamic civilization goes hand in hand with physical and spiritual development. This development can be highlighted since the beginning of the golden age of Islam that witnessed the development of knowledge by Muslims scholars in various disciplines, including mathematics. The discourse in mathematical science only involves numbers, letters, and formulas. Muslims scholars took them as instruments to manifest the greatest of God. This paper investigates the contributions of Muslim scholars in Mathematics. The method of this study is qualitative through literature review. The resulting study found that the Quran became a source of inspiration to Muslim scholars in mathematics that form the branch of knowledge such as number theory, arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. This paper also promotes Islamization of Knowledge and its necessity to solve current Muslim world’s educational problems

Revert daie : lived experiences of Indian preachers in Malaysia

Preachers are people who deliver Islamic message or speech to the communities around them. This is because the agenda of preaching has been inherent in a Muslim and preaching is also one of the duties of the previous prophets. In Malaysia, the participation of non-Malay preachers such as Indian and Chinese preachers in delivering preaching is constantly growing from time to time. Furthermore, the involvement of Indian Muslims in the arena of preaching still receives less attention in academic studies, although it is undeniable that they also play a role in developing da'wah in Malaysia. It can be seen, most academic studies focus more on aspects of converts such as the welfare of converts, the management of converts to the Indian community and others. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the true story of four Indian preachers in the context of their experiences before embracing Islam and their involvement in preaching. The methodology of this study is qualitative and involves the collection of data in the field. The results of the study found that their strength as Indian Muslim preachers was influenced by three elements, (i) their life and experience before embracing Islam, (ii) their exposure in the diversity of knowledge and, (iii) the external support that makes them have their own approach and principles in delivering da'wah