In a statement posted on his Facebook page today, PAS central committee member Nasrudin Hassan recalls an advice given by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

The PAS leader said he had met Hadi to brief him on the general public’s view of PAS, especially on Hadi himself who has been seen as adamant in tabling the Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, also known as Act 355.

Nasrudin said he had collected the various responses from Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp groups as well as from conventional media sources.

Many had claimed that PAS has been duped by Umno-BN and that PAS will join Umno. Others had also expressed their full support for the tabling of the Private Member’s Bill, said Nasrudin.

Hadi, Nasrudin said, was calm after listening to him prattling on about the various responses.

“The party president only said one sentence – ‘you should read the Quran and not Facebook’.”

He said Hadi’s response showed that he was not interested to respond to the scorn and cynical criticisms made on Facebook and wanted to instead focus on his struggles.

A week later, during a religious class session before a PAS central committee meeting was held, others had also raised the same kind of responses made by social media practitioners.

Hadi had again stressed that they should all read the Quran and not Facebook only.

“Read the Quran, the Quran has no fake accounts; it is the truth and the word of Allah,” Hadi was quoted as saying.

Citing chapter al-Maidah verse 49, Hadi pointed out how Allah had made it compulsory for His laws to be implemented.

“If there are those against Islam and they don’t understand Islam, don’t follow them!” Hadi had stressed.

“We read Facebook and people there say many things. Most of them are fake accounts created to attack PAS. They want to create the perception that we are wrong, that we are weak and stupid.

“Some expressed their concern that PAS will be duped when we want to implement Allah’s commands (but) if we read the Quran, Allah has answered these concerns,” Hadi said.

The answer will not be found if one were to read Facebook, he had added.

Citing chapter al-Anfaal verse 62, Hadi said Allah will protect them against those who have ulterior motives.

“(So) read the Quran! Don’t just read Facebook,” Hadi had stressed again, said Nasrudin.