Maumoon versus Quran translation

Composing a dhivehi translation of the Quran was one of the earnest vows made by Maumoon during the early days of his presidency. Many had been desperately and monotonously waiting for it, when it was finally out in 2008, after about 30 years to the promise. The reason for it to happen in 2008 was obvious, though Maumoon tried to justify it otherwise by saying that it was a critical scholarly job, which required extreme care and repetitive checking.

So, according to him, the Quran was translated by qualified people, with extreme care and it was checked for errors, mistakes making them to take about 30 years for the whole job.

In spite of the extremely careful work they have done, number of problems have been noticed from some translations. It started with literary problems, further revealing that verses of different surahs were mixed up, some verses were repeated whereas others were missing. It is possible that many more such mistakes can be there in other translations at the hands of public and everyone may not be able to notify such mistakes.

If a translation has misplaced verses, repeated verses, missing verses, can it be a translation anymore? I think it will be a new or a modified version of the original book, not a translation. What a mess? May be 30 years is even far less for Maumoon to do it.

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What have the police been investigating for all these months?

Was it a story of a fornicator that Hilath Rasheed wrote on his blog? Was it a story of a fornicator that Aazima Shukoor talked about on 13th September 2009, during her party’s gathering? Was it a story of a fornicator that caught the major headlines of the local news papers months ago? I thought it was a story of a concubine that circulated at lightning speed across the country, carrying ‘astonishment’ and ‘joy’ with it as it’s related to Islam.

Despite the different ideas, articles, sayings made and written on this story, I was indifferently and curiously waiting to know the result of final investigation by the police. Alas, according to an article on Haveeru, 24th December 2009, police has never tried to know whether the 16 year old girl involved in this case was a concubine or not. Rather they are taking it as a case of fornication and sexual abuse by Ahmed Jihad, 22, who is currently her husband or claims to be her husband.

Where are we now? What was the nitty-gritty of the matter? Why didn’t police investigate the case that created the chaos? Where is the lady who talked to the doctor or Hilath? Where is the man who had the girl as a concubine? Doesn’t he deserve a punishment? If there never exists a concubine, what is all this fuss about? Should we call this ‘freedom of speech’?

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What ‘freedom’ or ‘rights’ are we talking about?

Courtesy: The American Culture

Have u heard about Terri Schiavo, the American who spent 15 years in a vegetative state, whose case was heard in Florida courts for more than 20 times before she was ‘allowed’ to die on euthanasia or mercy-killing on 31st March 2005. How about the Italian woman, Eliuna Englaro, whose 17 years of stay in a coma brought a constitutional battle to the predominantly Catholic country when Berlusconi’s government objected the Italy’s top court decree to give Englaro a mercy-killing. Englaro died naturally on 9th February 2009. Many countries have been experiencing political and legal battles on matters of euthanasia. Still euthanasia is illegal and a criminal act in most of the countries.

In secular countries like Italy, where many claim to have the right and the freedom to choose your own life, where many claim is the staunch of freedom of conscience, where many claim to be a strong symbol of freedom of thought, where many choose human reasoning over faith, still seems to struggle over those rights or freedom they are talking about. What do you think is the reason?

Man made constitutions, laws, codes and regulations initially emerge in accordance with culture, belief and ethics of the society or country and would go on changing as these ingredients change. Italy, which was once the spiritual hub of the Catholic Christians has been changed to a place of Atheists and Agnostics. But when people are subjected with questions of bioethics concerning the relationship between faith and reason, still some find it difficult to stick to the notion of freedom. People follow different beliefs and religions not because they don’t know what freedom is, they find safety and contentment in what they are following. Now if you are to live among such a group of people don’t you think that you should respect and abide by their rules and regulations as long as you don’t commit a crime and go against your belief? If you think you have your own right to choose your way of life, who are you tell others how they should live?

So, why can’t you leave alone some 300,000 people who belong to a same religion, culture and race to decide their own way of life? What makes you to think that they should legalise same sex marriages, churches and temples? Why don’t you call upon the rights and freedom of the two Australian ladies, Davina and Beck Storer who travelled to Canada in June 2009 to get married because same sex marriages are not officially recognised in Australia? Don’t you think it would be more rewarding to call for the rights of more than 20 million people rather than trying on some 300,000 people? Why don’t you go along with the evolutionary psychologist Randy Thornhill and the anthropologist Craig Palmer who claim that rape is a natural act, an evolutionary adaptation, a biological phenomenon used by men to spread their genes, so excessive force shouldn’t be used to stop raping as it may decrease the chance of the victim getting pregnant? If you are done with human rights, why don’t you support the organization, ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) who claim that fish do have rights? Do you think you will ever be allowed to have absolute freedom by any constitution?

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Don’t we have a better way to get rid of the expatriate workers?

According to the related government records, the numbers of expatriate workers in Maldives are increasing day by day. Despite the business benefits derived from the foreign workers we are left in a kind of dilemma due to the number of rising social problems created by them which include different sorts of crimes and transmission of communicable diseases such as AIDS. Government just toddles over the matter having difficulties of putting an effective regulation into action.

Out of the many students following different certificate level courses, diploma courses and degree courses in male’, few manages to get a satisfactory stipend or a pocket money and some goes on blaming the government for their shortcomings. Like many students in some foreign countries do, why don’t Maldivians think of having some casual or temporary work along with the studies? Doesn’t this strategy sound integral for our community? Can’t this be a remedy for at least few social problems by the foreign workers and by our youth?

As far as I am concerned, the main obstacle that stands against this idea is our ‘lifestyle’ or ‘culture’. Growth, development and prosperity of a society are more or less determined by its cultural values. Likewise the moral values, traditions, beliefs and general laws that govern the behaviour of the people in a society are mostly determined by the type of culture in that society. In our culture we don’t see a college student working as a waiter or waitress or a delivery person. Why is that? Aren’t there opportunities for such works? Can’t the students spare some time for such works? No, none of these are the reasons. Only that we have a culture or etiquette that makes us to think that such works are so low class which should only be carried out by foreigners. You would be a degraded ‘bangaalhee’ if you ever dreamed of doing such a work in Maldivian culture. Don’t you think this is the main reason why many of us are so reluctant in grabbing such a work though the pocket money is far less to meet the expenses, though some have nothing to do other than wandering around the roads?

It’s high time that we change these cultural values that no longer fulfil any purpose and bring any good. Why don’t we take and copy that part of the western culture that has some genuine benefit and potential to our future. I strongly believe that this would be a good way to get rid of some expatriate workers and bring back those youth who wander from the right path due to lack of work.

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Patriotism or Extremism

How many of you have watched the series ‘Desperate Housewives’? If you have watched few episodes even, just recall the character of Bree. She always wants to keep things neat and tidy. At whatever the expense or how hard she has to work, she always tries to keep her routine and maintain the order. She becomes fussy even to notice a tiny speck of dust or a smudge. And she expects others to be like that. By doing so she has gone extreme. So, even good habits can be changed into bad habits when they are taken to an ultimate. Though look positive, we need to be careful about our behaviour. Too much of anything is not good.

Imagine how we have behaved in supporting our national football team during the last SAAF championship. During the days of the competition, for many of us, nothing seemed to be more important than making some fun in the name of supporting our national team. Whenever we win, whenever we score, we are given the freedom above all traffic laws and regulations. You were free to have a ride on your motorbike with whole your family members on it. You were free to shout and call whatever comes to your mind at any pitch through megaphones. No consideration was paid to the old and sick who are unable to withstand the pandemonium. But still we proudly call it, ‘patriotism’.

Although the country is struck by a great economic depression, where many are just left to live from hand to mouth, nobody seemed to know and remind others of the situation we are in. Rather we were caught by the spell of the media and people who has taken things to an ultimate. We were urged to spend or more appropriately to waste money in the name of patriotism. In a society where large number of youth is just wandering around the roads looking for a chance to create some havoc, do you think its patriotism that we have experienced from them.

Senior government officials and about 25 parliament members attended the final match at Bangladesh leaving the Parliament at a halt. May be these political figures took to their heels just to get caught by the public to show how patriotic they are. If they are really patriotic and loyal to us and our country don’t you think they have things much better and important to do? How many bills or legal codes that are directly or indirectly related to our basic needs or harmony of the society are pending to get passed or legalised?

I would rather call it extremism, not patriotism. I know many of you would find it hard to agree with me. If so when would you call it extremism? If too much of anything is not good, sure there would be extremism in patriotism too.

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