Our eccentric ex-president, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, recently made a thought-provoking statement in response to the current debate about the death penalty here. The gist of his statement was that from the point of view of humanism, the death penalty is wrong, but from the point of view of religion, it is necessary.
Does this mean that religion and humanism contradict each other on this point? When a contradiction like this happens what should a Muslim do? Should (s)he surrender her humanity to the collectively imagined "Will of God" and chose the path religion appears to lead, even though it contradicts her natural, human instincts? Or should (s)he do like the advice of Indonesian Shia and Sufi thinker Jalaludin Rakhmat, that always in times of doubt a Muslim should put humane morals (ahlak) before religious law (fikh)?
clipped from: www.thejakartapost.com