My comment is about the practice of Islam in Indonesia and what I perceive as a potential improvement to it.
I have not written to this paper before and I'm not an active writer or a political person. But now I feel like saying something.
I am a God-fearing Muslim. I claim to have completely submitted my body, mind, soul and wealth to God.
The success of Indonesia's Islamic community to carry out the religion is really a matter for God to judge, not me.
I am grateful to God that the scriptures and historical notes of Islam are available with translations here. Theoretically speaking, Indonesians can be saved if they want to be.
However, Indonesia's Islamic community is not carrying out God's commands in the most efficient way possible. Among a number of simple and powerful changes available today, the one I wish to recommend is that prayers be conducted in the Indonesian language throughout the country.
I hope that this change will occur in due course, though only God knows if that will happen. I think that it would really help things if it did.
This proposal would immediately lift up Indonesia as a country. It is also in accordance with the will of God. Verse 4, chapter 14 of the Koran, among other verses, explain God's will is to provide mankind with guidance through revelation.
My argument is that effectiveness and efficiency are godly, especially when it comes to communication.
Objectors may suggest that maintaining the purity of the scriptures is also godly, and I would agree with them.
However, to keep a scripture pure, you need only good religious clergy, a library, and some scholars in major and regional cities who would maintain knowledge of classical Arabic and other liturgical matters.
I think that while the Indonesian faithful persist in praying in Arabic, they will (a) persist in easily forgetting to carry out the injunctions of prayer in daily life; and (b) persist in spending a huge amount of time studying Arabic for little real reason, especially during childhood and their teenage years, while they could be studying something else.
I think the major religions are all quite capable of doing great things for mankind, and for the communities and nations that follow their doctrines.
SEBASTIAN REED
Bogor, West Java
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