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PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu was walking on cloud nine after the success of his Stadium Merdeka rally. He had pulled off something big and his supporters claimed the event had raised his profile in PAS.

Mat Sabu, as he is known by all and sundry, is aware that not everyone in PAS thinks highly of him because he lacks the religious credentials demanded of top PAS leaders. He knows that party members call him Raja Lawak (king of laughs) but they would have to take him more seriously after this.

But the bubble burst on Sunday night when news trickled out that the Syura Council of Ulama, the partys highest decision-making body, had ruled that the word Allah is sacred to Islam and cannot be used to describe God in any non-Muslim religious books.

The Syura Council said the kalimah Allah could not be used as the translation for the word God from any other language.

The Syura Council overturned what Mat Sabu along with his partys two top leaders, Mursyidul Am Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, had been telling the media just days earlier that non-Muslims can use the term Allah as long as they do not misuse it against Islam.

Mat Sabus stand even won praise from Dr Paul Tan, the controversial Catholic Bishop who has raised many an eyebrow with remarks that have made him sound more like a politician than a man of the cloth.

But Mat Sabu has since done a U-turn, saying that my stand is the same as the Syura Council; and the Bishop who has been waltzing with PAS is now dancing solo.

Everyone in PAS has fallen in line because the Syura Council is the most powerful body in PAS and the decision was pushed by the partys leading scholar in usuluddin (Islamic faith) Datuk Dr Haron Din. He is the sort who speaks softly but carries a big stick, and he has used the stick to great effect.

It was an embarrassing blow to Hadi and Nik Aziz because they are big names.

Dr Haron had been deeply disturbed by the compromises made on the kalimah Allah issue since 2010. Everyone has noticed how he has scaled back on political activities in the party but he has held his tongue.

Read more from the original source:
At odds over sacred word