|
kita melayu...mmg yahudi sis
klu rajin bacala ![](static/image/smiley/default/lol.gif)
I was amused and a littlecurious reading a blog which was forwarded by a friend. Writing with a catchy title, “Who Are Malaysand What Is Their Origin…We Are Feared By The Jews,” the blog states that theMalays are originated from the ten lost tribes of Israel.
The blogger, who does not reveal his name or identify and write in Malaylanguage, says that, Malays mean hill people, from Mala or Malai, which meanshill (or mountain). And that they aredescended from Abraham (Prophet Ibrahim) through Keturah.
The origin for the word Malayhas been a matter of contention. A fewtheories have been put forward, but that it comes from the word Mala/Malai isnews to me. That the Malays are supposedlydescended from Abraham through Keturah, however, is not new. I have heard of it before.
The first time I heard about the idea that the Malays are descended fromAbraham through Keturah was two decades ago, from one University professor whosuggested the same. This Universityprofessor said that these descendants of Abraham had fled their birthplace andlived for a time in a hill to the north of India. The hill is known as Himalaya, the “highlandof the Malays.”
Though curious, I did not pursue the matter. Since I did not maintain the relationshipwith that University professor, the matter stopped there, until a few days ago;that is, when a piece of an article in the blog pejuangbangsa31 came to my attention. (1)
But pejuangbangsa31 is apparentlynot the reader of history. There are toomany “historical” errors in his writing. For instance, he says Malays are descended from Keturah, the third wifeof Abraham, but he also says that Malays are descended from one of the alleged tenlost tribes of Israel, through the line of Menasseh, the son of Joseph.
Now, if we learn Biblical history (or perhaps Biblical story), then weknow that Abraham is the father of many nations. He was the father of Ishmaelite Arabs throughhis oldest son, Ishmael, whose illustrious descendant was our very own Prophet,Muhammad bin Abdullah. He was also thefather of the Israelites, through his grandson, Jacob, also known asIsrael. He was also the father of manynations or tribes now extinct or assimilated with other nations.
One of these assimilated tribes is known as the people of Madyan. We know about Madyan because it is mentionedin the Quran. Allah sent Prophet Shuaibto them. The Bible also mentions aboutthis tribe, especially in the story of Moses (Prophet Musa), when he fled Egypthaving accidentally killed one of the Egyptians in his effort to help one ofhis own people, the Israelites.
In Madyan, Moses lived with an elderly called Jethro, tended his flocksand married one of his daughters, Zipporah. The Muslim scholars identify this Jethro as the Prophet Shuaib, and hisdaughter, Zipporah, as the wife of Prophet Musa, Safura.
As for the name Madyan (or Midian), it was referred to one of the sonsof Abraham, whose name was Madyan. Hismother was Keturah, the third wife of Abraham, whom Abraham married after Sarahdied.
Now, if the Malays were truly descended from one of ten lost tribes ofIsrael, through the line of Menasseh, the son of Joseph (Nabi Yusuf), in whatway can they be descended from Keturah? The name Israelites, or Bani Israel in the Quranic lingo, is referred tothe children of Israel. Israel, whosegiven name is Jacob, is the son of Isaac (Nabi Ishak), the son of Abraham,through his first wife, Sarah.
Keturah is not the Matriarch for the Israelites. Their Matriarch is Sarah, the first wife ofAbraham. Or perhaps more properly, theirmatriarchs are the four wives of Jacob.
Pejuangbangsa31 probably cannot be faulted for his error. He is writing a socio-political blog, not ablog on history. His entry on the originof Malay appears to be a cut and paste from somewhere else.
After doing a little search, I found a site which contains a lot ofideas mentioned by pejuangbangsa31. The blog is known as mistisfiles. This sitedelves in mysteries, conspiracy theories, extraterrestrial matters, paranormalactivities or something like that. Though I don’t normally indulge in such matters, I find the blog ratherinteresting and spent a few hours reading some of the entries.
Mistisfiles does not rush to the conclusion like pejuangbangsa31, but the site is full of conjectures, though I mustadmit that whoever is authoring the blog, he or she must have read history quitea bit.(2)
Reading the mistisfiles (ormystical files in English), I am quite amused to learn that this young girl,Keturah, whom Abraham married, was not from the Middle East, but actually from theFar East. In his twilight years, Abrahamhad travelled from Canaan (current Israel and Palestine) to somewhere inancient Cambodia and married this girl. Through that marriage, they were given six sons. One of them was Madyan.
We have to bear in mind that Abraham married Keturah after the death ofSarah. According to the Bible, Sarahlived up to 127 years, and Abraham was about ten years older than Sarah. Abraham used to travel far and wide, butmostly around Middle Eastern region. Whether he traveled to a far away and unknown land during his time,about 4,000 years ago, would be anyone’s guess.
Biblical story also narrates that when Abraham died, he was buried inHebron (al Khalil in Arabic), which is currently in Israel. We can assume that either he came back fromthe Far East, or his dead body was carried thousands of miles to be buried inhis chosen place. Islamic traditionsalso relate that he frequently visited his son Ishmael in Makkah. The Bible meanwhile suggests that he spenthis old age in Canaan.
Mistisfiles, however, does not try to reconcile this mystery.
There is also amusing hypothesis about the people of Madyan. According to mistisfiles, Madyan was actually the ancient Media.
If you read conventional history, Media was a Persian Civilization thatflourished around 700 or 800 BC, that is, about 2,700 or 2,800 years ago. It was located somewhere in the NorthwesternIran.
The location of Madyan that we know, that is, the place of refuge forProphet Moses, as per Biblical story, and the country of Prophet Shuaib, asmentioned in the Quran, however, was located in the Northwestern Arabia, to theEast of Sinai Peninsula, and Southwest of Jordan. It was not in the Northwestern Iran, as Mediawas.
If we try to make sense of the Biblical story against the story of mistisfiles, we can see thefollowings. The story of Moses tookplace sometime around 1,300 BC. Therewas no Media Civilization at that time. Supposethe people of Madyan were truly the ones creating the Civilization of Media,then these people must have migrated from Northwestern Arabia to NorthwesternIran, about a thousand miles to the north.
This is not impossible, but highly improbable. What makes it more improbable is that theMedia people, being of Iranian stock, were considered to be Japhetic, while thepeople of Madyan, being the descendants of Abraham, were Semitic. Japhetic and Semitic people are referred tothe descendants of Noah (Prophet Nuh). Japhetic from the line of Japheth, the third son of the Prophet Noah, whileSemitic from the line of Shem, the second son.
Biblical story does tell us that Abraham and his descendants travelledquite a bit, but mostly in the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt). Mistisfiles,however, seems to suggest that the descendants of Abraham through Keturah notonly travelled a great deal, but they somehow travelled in a somewhatmysterious manner.
First, they were born in the Far East, somewhere in the ancient Cambodia,because this was where Abraham met and married Keturah. This took place about 4,000 years ago. Then one of Keturah tribes, Madyan, must havetravelled west and resided in Northwestern Arabia. This region was thereafter known as the landof Madyan. Moses came to them about 600or 700 years after their forefather, Madyan, was born. Next, they travelled northeast to the Northof Iran.
About 600 or so years after the chance meeting between Moses, thedescendant of Israel (Prophet Jacob), and Shuaib, the descendant of Madyan, weheard about these “people of Madyan” forming a civilization, the ancientPersian civilization of Media. Finally,they must have gone to South East Asia (their place of origin, assuming theancient Cambodia was in South East Asia), and the Pacific Islands. In these regions, they also formed one empireafter another. Their last great empirewas the Empire of Malacca.
As a Malay, I would love to believe all that, but at the moment, I havemore questions than answers. It turnsout that this theory on Malays owing their origin from Keturah and the losttribe of Israel is gaining currency. Pejuangbangsa31 and mistisfiles are not the only ones writing about it.
It also turns out that some African people likewise believe that theywere descended from Keturah. The Bahai people,too, believe that their founder was the descendant of Keturah. Every nation appears to have the desire to bedescended from this great Patriarch, Abraham the Prophet.
The Jews have hijacked their right to be descended from Abraham throughhis first wife, Sarah. Their claim is toostrong to be rejected since they have ancient scriptures to throw to ourface. The Arabs too have hijacked theirright to be descended from Abraham through his second wife, Hagar. Their claim too is too strong to be rejectedsince Prophet Muhammad, who is an Arab, says that he was descended fromAbraham through Ishmael.
We are left, therefore, with Abraham’s more obscure wife, Keturah.
If it can make us feel good, we can still claim to be the descendants ofAbraham, but we have to choose only one: either we were descended throughKeturah, or through Sarah. We cannot oweour origin to the Lost Tribe of Israel through Menasseh and yet descend fromKeturah. That would show our totalignorance of ancient history.
I don’t know whether you find all these exciting, or confusing. But you may wonder why the Jews fear us theMalays, as pejuangbangsa31 says? It turns out that the current Jews in Israelwere descended from the “bad apple” among the Israelites. They were descended from, or the followersof, the bad Samiri who influenced the Israelites to worship the Golden Calfwhen Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandment.
We are the good guys, because we came from Menasseh, the line of ProphetJoseph. From this line, some other Malaybloggers theorize, will appear Imam Mahdi who will crush the Jews.
Unfortunately we don’t know when that is going to take place. In the meantime, we can only satisfyourselves watching the Israelis (as oppose to Israelites) crushing our brothersand sisters in Palestine.
Notes:
(1) http://pejuangbangsa31.blogspot.com/2011/12/siapa-melayu-dan-asal-usul-melayu-kita.html
(2) http://www.mistisfiles.blogspot.com/2009/03/alter-terahsia-bangsa-melayu-iv.html
|
|