Let's go deeper into the meaning of Rahmah or Rahamim

In Malaysia, nearly everything can be politicised.

When Mahdzir Ibrahim, linked to former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad's party Gerakan Tanah Air claimed that the concept 'Rahmah' currently used by Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim government originated from Dr Mahathir himself, another writer, Hafiz Hassan wrote to claim that Rahmah is a Quranic concept.

Mahdzir's argument is not even worth rebutting, but I have the tendency to agree with Hafiz, except to say that the concept is not entirely Quranic.

Allow me to enlighten all of us here since I am also a student of Hebrew, Greek and to some extent Jawi.

The Quran only came about in the later part of the seventh century. The Old Testament in its written Hebrew form was already there for a few thousand years.

The Hebrew word (רַחֲמִים) in the Old Testament is therefore very close to the Arabic word “ra ha mim” (رحم). It is no coincidence that the pronunciation of both words is exactly the same, since both Arabic and Hebrew are cousin languages within the Semitic group.

Translated it means ‘compassion, mercy,’ and because the root word (רחם) means a woman’s ‘womb’, it can also mean ‘brotherhood, brotherly feeling, of those born from the same womb.’

An example of us is in Proverbs 12:10 which you do not need to worry about except to pay attention to that one word (רחם) which is translated as ‘mercy’:

”יוֹדֵעַ צַדִּיק נֶפֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּוֹ וְרַחֲמֵי רְשָׁעִים אַכְזָרִי׃“

The English translation is: “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”

With this, I end by saying, it is not the argument of who came out with the concept of ‘rahmah’ because it is, in itself, a divine concept.

All of us, born from the same womb of Eve, are after all one human race and we have, therefore, to show compassion not only to our human kind, but also, where possible, to the animals.

What does this tell us about the number of street people and stray animals that we have in our community? Where is the compassion when dogs and humans are treated without human compassion that God expects of us?

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