Allowable to pray to Allah to punish the cruel
I have learned something new about Islam. It is allowable to pray to Allah to punish those who had been cruel to them. According to the Malaysia Ulama Association president Datuk Sheikh Abdul Halim Abdul Kadir it is allowed on one condition. “However, they have to establish that cruelty had actually occured. There are several steps involved in making the prayer.We must pray to soften the heart, give advice or take other forms of action to seek justice from Allah.”
Prayer is the last resort of the disenfranchised
The whole matter appeared in the Straits Times on Saturday. It happened on November 27 when PAS spiritual 
leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat had urged Kelantanese to pray for the destruction of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak if the federal government refused to pay oil royalty. There is of course federal and party politics involved in this matter of oil revenue and compassionate payment. You cannot blame the Kelantanese for feeling their rights have been trodden over. You can almost feel the frustration and powerlessness. This has led to the last resort of the disenfrachised: a call to prayer for God to execute justice.
Prayer, curses and imprecatory psalms
We understand prayer to be to ask for the well being and blessings of those prayed for. But what do we make of prayers that request malice and harm on those being prayed for? Are they prayers for justice from God? Or are they are simply called curses? To me they are curses.
The Psalmist was capable of inspiring us into heavenly worship with his prayers. However on occasions we do read with embarrassment prayers that we will never hear in public prayer in church. They are called imprecatory psalms and prayers. Here are a few of them:
* Psalm 55:15 – Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.
* Psalm 58:6 – O God, break the teeth in their mouths.
* Psalm 69:28 – May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
* Psalm 109:9 – May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
* Psalm 137:9 – How blessed will be the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Expressions of trust and avenues for personal healing
Looks like Nik Abdul Aziz may not be alone in his anger and frustration and powerlessness. Many psalms were composed out of great suffering and injustice and powerlessness. They were not prayers for personal revenge but for justice from God. They were expressions of trust in God to uphold justice in the world. We do not use these in public prayers but they are a valid way to help express our suppressed anger and frustration at enemies more powerful than us. They can be therapeutic, a way to drain the poison of hate from our soul. Even as we use them to help us express honestly the anger we feel, the Spirit works to heal us of our hurts, pain and anger and bring peace and forgiveness in our hearts.
I fear it probably will not have a similar therapeutic effect for the Kelantanese pious. Prayers like that can also increase, deepen and feed the hatred for the government ministers. Words do have creative power; and when several hundred thousands are rallied to pray for the demise of the prime minister and the cabinet, until they have bloated stomachs (pecah perut), well you wonder what kind of power is unleashed. I don’t like it.
Christian attitude towards enemies
As Christians we can have enemies who cast spells, hexes, and curses on us, but the Bible tells us that as spiritual descendants of Abraham, those who curse us will find the curses bouncing back onto them (Genesis 12:3). Jesus Christ calls us to bless those who curse us, and to love and pray for those who are our enemies.
.
In the Old Testament, we read of David and others asking God to punish their enemies.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. After all, He died for them too.
But if we read those Old Testament passages figuratively, whereby the Israelites were asked to totally destroy the previous inhabitants of the Promised Land including women and children, then the New Testament equivalent of enemies for us today are what the devil brings such as poverty and sicknesses. It is okay for us to pray against, or even curse, that financial debt or that cancer that the devil tries to put upon God’s people.
I think the Bible is and always a multi-faceted *collection* of books. That’s a given nature of the canon.
Therefore there are multi-facets to many issues in this sacred collection.
Jesus cursed the fig tree in Mark 11. If the fig tree represents or symbolizes the unfruitful people, then in effect, that means Jesus was cursing a certain group of people.
Paul in 1 Cor 16.22 call a curse upon those who do not love the Lord.
While I think we can abhor the manners of cursing but to extract such abhorrence consistently from the Bible is still a case yet to be made.
Kenny,
I think Niz Aziz’s curse is as much as the as how you describe Christian’s manner “They were not prayers for personal revenge but for justice from God. They were expressions of trust in God to uphold justice in the world.”
The royalty deserved by the state of Kelantan was not being paid. That’s injustice.
And given Nik Aziz who live a modest life, as every in Kelantan knows, he probably was not pocketing the royalty into his own wallet but for the development and welfare of the people of that state.
I think when he made that public prayer, he was not that different with Christians, at least in the early church up till the Church Fathers who still practiced ‘anathema’ on their enemies.
Hi Malcolm and Sze Zeng,
What do you guys make of these “curse” verses in the NT:
• Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
• Matthew 26:23-24 And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
• 1 Corinthians 16:22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
• Galatians 1:8-9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
• Galatians 5:12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
• 2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
• Revelation 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Kenny,
They look like curses to me.
Chinese have figured out human nature – a duality – ying-yang. Retribution and love are are of the same coin.
Moral humans do commit immoral acts and can justify them in as many expedient ways as they are stars in the universe.
Jesus was, is and will be impossible to emulate as long as we are earth bound.
Comoted Christians will die trying?
Ok guys,
I was kinda frustrated recently, me wife who’s in the service lines for home uphostlery had to contend with some obnoxious rich clients (someone in the 20-30millionaire bracket)…..my wife is the quiet and introverted type but to make her cry is something i can’t tahan man….client is so “bully” type cos she’s OLD and very well off living in a huge mansion in Botanical area (looks like a mini version of white house from afar).
I have never done this before, but in my cry out to the Lord last night while celebrating chanukah at a friend’s church, some of the messianic songs they sung had things like (the Lord defeat my enemies, etc, etc).
I can’t help but come against the spirit behind that person and “cuss” out that person’s name as well in anger! pure anger man……
How dah Pst…..i know we’re supposed to blessed those who curse us? but this i can’t take lying down man….buay tahan! not all Super rich people are like that but i tell you, until u see them? sometimes u just feel like doing something to them man! $%#@!