Siapakah yang layak bercakap?

Dah bertahun2 rasanya saya berniat nak tulis pasal benda ni, tapi belum tergerak jari nak type isinya. But today I decided it is time.

Just over a month ago, when I entered one of the form 5 classes where I taught Chemistry, I immediately noticed that they mispelled 'ballighnaa' in الَلهمَ بلَغنا رمضان, by putting a ya between the lam and ghain on the whiteboard. So I said there's no such thing as 'balliighnaa', it's 'ballighnaa'. The boys looked at me as if to say "who is this joker who's trying to tell us we got our Arabic wrong?" So I explained it from the root word and how it became fi'lul-amri etc. 150% dubious of what I was saying, they replied that budak Thanawi (kelas yang belajar subjek2 agama tambahan) yang ajar. Note that I personally have no respect for the hypocritical Thanawi students in that school, as in class, no communication is allowed between boys and girls dan jarak antara meja lelaki dan perempuan sedepa, yet out of hours, they can sms/call their girlfriends/boyfriends without shame and can stare at young female teachers with no problem (as if cikgu bukan perempuan ajnabi). So I said he (the student) must be mistaken. Now for the students in that class, boys particularly, this was an unbearable accusation. So they added that Pak Arab yang ajar (Pak Arab refers to several male teachers imported from Egypt to teach Arabic). Now there were two possibilities - either budak Thanawi tu tersalah salin/ajar kat orang lain, or Pak Arab TERsilap tulis. After all, just because our native language is Malay, tak semestinya kita akan tulis dengan ejaan dan tatabahasa betul all the time. And I personally know that many Egyptian Arabs do not have a good grasp of fushah (remember the immigration officer who thought I was speaking Malay?). But I coudn't say that they (Pak Arab) might have accidentally and carelessly mispelled it without realising it, for that would be blasphemy. So I decided not to pursue the case.

And this is not the first time. Dulu di Manchester, ada seorang 'alim ulama' yang bersekolah di sekolah agama terkemuka, berjanggut dan pernah belajar Bahasa Arab di Mesir pada waktu cuti summer. I have total respect for him sebab dia memang budak baik, but sometimes (sometimes!), he miswrote some ayat Quran or hadith or their translations. He never minded when I told him that he wrote it wrong and would proceed to fix it, so all was well. But there were some occassions when I found others copying the miswritten ayat or hadith, so I would correct them. People would immediately raise their eyebrows and say, "but so-and-so taught me/wrote it". So how could it be possible that this girl who goes around dressed unreligiously, mingles shamelessly and appears as an airheaded bimbo have more thiqqah than a well-mannered and austere 'ustaz'? I obviously gave up after a few tries.

So my question is, how do we decide who is allowed to give their opinions on religious issues? Adakah hanya orang yang berkelulusan agama sahaja yang dibenarkan memberi pendapat? Is there a physical appearance issue, i.e. orang berjubah dan bertudung besar pastilah lebih mengetahui tentang agama berbanding perempuan bertudung kecik dan clad in jeans. Or is it more of a gender bias, where what a man says carries more weight than a woman's voice?

Kalau hanya orang yang ada academic qualifications sahaja yang layak, maka Pak Lah yang ada degree in Islamic Studies (or something of that sort) jauh lebih layak bercakap compared to many of us yang hanya belajar agama skit2 sampai sekolah menengah.

Atau hanya orang yang physically show signs that they are pious and devout can have a say? I thought that was part of the issue until a friend of mine yang bertudung besar kena hentam by a male senior of hers in a public email. I can't remember the details of the discussion/debate, but this guy (note, he was one of those 'born again Muslims', kinda like nouveau riche) said something about some ulama', which my friend replied to with some corrections. This senior was obviously irated by the opinion of a girl who was a few youngers than him, as he probably felt that with all the research and reading that he had done, no one could possibly know more than him. My friend biarkan aje senior tu cakap things like "jangan ingat belajar agama dan bahasa Arab sikit dah boleh bagi pendapat!". She felt there was no point in arguing with someone so jumud, despite the fact that she was probably the most religiously educated in her particular community, with a strong religious family background, studying not just regular religious studies, but the more complicated ones like tawheed, seerah etc (in Arabic!) and also had at least 10 chapters of the Quran in her heart.

So is it due to the fact that she was a girl, and girls, not matter how much religion they study, are supposed to have less comprehension of religion compared to men? If you recall, Ummul-mu'mineen Aishah r.a. was a source of reference for many male sahaabah, so I do not understand why in this day and age, where women are given more educational opportunities, a woman's opinion is not taken seriously.

In my opinion, religion should not be something that is left exclusive to those who are officially qualified alone. And yet at the same time, in order to protect the sanctity of the deen, discussions and opinions should be given a lot of thought and research before being put out. Islam is the middle way, so finding a balance between those two extremes should give us an answer.