KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 — Kelantan’s controversial hudud law is man-made and not the word of Allah, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said today when questioning Muslims’ fear of disputing the state’s Islamic penal code.
The former de facto law minister added that Muslims appeared reluctant to voice their opposition to the law as they could not differentiate between hudud in the Quran and the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment 1993 that was drawn up by PAS leaders.
He also said that while hudud law originates from the Quran, its practice was from medieval times and of questionable relevance in the modern age.
“The Kelantan Enactment involved man-made law, as does the current controversy. Why are Muslims paralysed when dealing with the tricks of PAS?” he wrote on his blog, zaid.my, today.
While acknowledging that hudud is mentioned in the Quran, Zaid argued that some of contents the Muslim holy text was specific to the medieval times when the message was revealed to Muslims.
“As such, we have to use our heads and our brains, which have been given to us by Allah, to decipher and use the messages properly.”
Zaid, who was involved in challenging Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code Enactment in the Federal Court 14 years ago, further said that many of the punishments prescribed by hudud predate Islam and were not Islamic in and of themselves.
These included the acts of amputations and stoning, which he said had already been in use by the Arabs in the Age of Jahiliyyah, along with the concept of “diyya” or blood money, which was utilised due the absence of organised law enforcement or court systems.
He further argued that the harsh punishments in hudud had to be included in the Quran as it would otherwise be incomplete without taking note of them, but said that these no longer have a place in modern society that has since evolved.
“We in Malaysia must govern ourselves by the rules and norms of the 21st century. Why is it so difficult for 21st century Muslims in this almost-developed country to see this?” he asked.
PAS in Kelantan is renewing its attempt to enforce hudud in the state, and is convening a special assembly sitting next Monday is meant to table and pass amendments to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II.
The move is in preparation for PAS’s plan to table in Parliament a private member’s bill to amend the Federal Constitution, which would subsequently allow Kelantan to implement hudud law in the state.
In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy. Punishments for the crimes are severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning.
