Sunday, December 31, 2006

Eid Mubarak!!

Three Final Year Lads with Without-A-Year Chap

Friends Along South Circular Road After Prayer in Dublin Mosque


Tahun ni, saya bersolat sunat 'Idul Adha di Dublin Mosque.Di kalangan masyarakat Melayu, sambutan Raya Haji sangat kurang meriah jika dibandingkan dengan 'Idhul Fitr.Di Dublin juga, sambutan Raya Haji baik di kalangan masyarakat Melayu atau Muslim bukan Melayu tidaklah semeriah Raya Puasa.Guru BM saya di Kolej MARA Banting pernah memberikan alasan,

" 'Idhul Fitr lagi seronok untuk disambut, sebab gembira posa dah habis!!"

Walau bagaimanapun, hakikat sebenar adalah jauh berbeza.Tingkatan sambutan Raya Haji sebenarnya lebih tinggi jika dinilai dari neraca syara'.Pada Hari Raya Puasa kita cuma disunnahkan untuk memperbanyakkan takbir, tahlil dan tahmid selama sehari sahaja.Namun, untuk perayaan Raya Haji kita disunnahkan untuk melakukannya selama 4 hari termasuk pada hari-hari Tasyri'.Di tanahair, sambutan Raya Haji lebih meriah di negeri-negeri Pantai Timur tetapi dianggap sedikit enteng di negeri-negeri Pantai Barat.

Senario berbeza dapat disaksikan di negara-negara Arab, mungkin kerana lokasinya agak hampir dengan Makkah dan Madinah.Aura kemeriahan suasana haji mempengaruhi gelombang sambutan di sana.Suasana sambutan Raya Haji jauh lebih meriah.Pada saat-saat begini tiba-tiba saya teringatkan kenangan manis menziarahi dua Tanah Suci pada musim panas yang lepas. Terasa sedikit kehilangan dan terkilan kerana tidak dapat menghabiskan lebih banyak masa di sana.Ditambah pula dengan beberapa kenangan pahit melihat nasib beberapa tempat bersejarah yang telah dimusnahkan secara sistematik dan beransur-ansur oleh Dinasti Saudi.Mungkin itulah sebab saya masih belum pernah memperkatakan tentang pengalaman saya di sana.

Apapun, marilah kita mengubah budaya kita dalam menghayati falsafah haji dan prinsip pengorbanan yang tersembunyi dalam kisah Nabi Ibrahim dan anakandanya Ismail.Antara huraian mengenai falsafah haji yang paling saya minati ialah buku karangan pemikir Islam terkemuka dari Iran, Dr Ali Shariati.Anda boleh menghadam tulisan-tulisan beliau di sini.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006


"Encik, berapa harga buku ini?"
Aku bertanya kepada pegawai di IRCICA yang asalnya dahulu Yildiz Sarayi, pusat pentadbiran dan istana khalifah Uthamniyyah yang terakhir, Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

"Ohh, buku ini ada 2 jilid, satu jilid berharga 60 USD"

Aku mengerut-ngerutkan dahi.Kalau dua jilid,harganya sudah lebih 120 USD iaitu hampir 240 juta lira.Poket aku sebenarnya sudah kering sejak kembali dari berkelana di Konya dan Urfa.

Pegawai di IRCICA itu hanya tersenyum.Mungkin dia memahami situasi aku.Buku yang disunting oleh bekas Pengarah IRCICA, Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu itu sangat bernilai.Buku itu adalah himpunan ulasan-ulasan sejarah Turki Uthmaniyyah yang ditulis sendiri oleh sejarawan Turki.Selama ini, kebanyakan sumber sejarah yang aku tatapi hanyalah dari kaca mata orientalis.Sejarah yang ditulis oleh peribumi Turki pula hampir kesemuanya dalam bahasa Turki moden.Oleh itu, aku bertekad untuk membeli juga buku tersebut.

"Adakah awak seorang pelajar?Di mana awak menuntut?" tanya pegawai itu lagi.

"Saya menuntut di Ireland, tapi datang ke sini untuk menziarahi sahabat-sahabat di CerrahPasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University.Saya agak berminat untuk mendalami sejarah Daulah Uthmaniyyah.Saya rasa pusat ini mempunyai sumber yang baik tentang sejarah Uthmaniyyah."

Pegawai itu tersenyum lagi.

"Baiklah, harga asal untuk satu jilid sahaja sudah 60USD.Tetapi tidak mengapa, awak bayarlah 20USD.Dan ambillah kedua-dua jilid yang ada.Asalkan awak memanfaatkan buku ini, itu sudah menjadi modal yang berbaloi untuk pusat ini."

Aku bersyukur.Impian untuk memiliki buku yang bernilai ini akhirnya tercapai.Moga Allah membalas kebaikan pegawai-pegawai IRCICA yang cukup dedikasi dalam memelihara pengetahuan dan warisan sejarah Bani Uthman.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Fatih

Maqam Huma Hatun, ibu Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih.Di sebalik kejayaan seorang lelaki, ada ibu yang mendıdık dan membesarkannya.Harıjadi Huma Hatun turut dıraıkan sebagaı tarıkh memperıngatı penawanan Istanbul


Maqam Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih, Penakluk Constantınople.Nabı Muhammad membayangkan bandar ını akan jatuh ke tangan sebaık-baık raja dan sebaık-baık tentera.Inılah maqam sebaık-baık sultan






Saturday, December 16, 2006


Ney:Sufi Musical İnstrument




Ahmad Ozhan Consert: From the Heart of Mawlana in Konya










Semaa: Celebratıng Unıty wıth God




Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Salam Mawlana



I am drunk with the love of Thee,


Not with wine, or opium;


I am mad; dost Thou look to see


In a madman decorum?


A hundred torrents rise


From the surge my soul within;


The heavens in glad surprise


Stand still to behold me spin.


Mawlana Rumi

Konya, Central Anatolia

Saturday, December 09, 2006

CerrahPaşa

Saya sekarang dı Istanbul.Tınggal bersama-sama sahabat-sahabat Turki saya yang menuntut dı CerrahPaşa Medıcal Faculty, Istanbul Universıty.Baru balık darı menzıarahı Masjıd Fatih dan maqbarah Muhammad Al-Fatıh yang mengepalaı tentera Uthmanıyyah menawan Constantınople.Kalau berkesempatan, saya akan post perkara-perkara menarık yang saya temuı dı sını.Bagaımanapun, saya terpaksa ke ınternet cafe yang talıannya begıtu lembap dan huruf-huruf pada keyboard pula sangat berbeza.Sehari dua lagı, mungkın saya akan terus berkelana ke Bursa atau Konya.Doakan keselamatan saya dı sını

Monday, December 04, 2006

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, announced that he shall not take an oath of office on Bible. He shall to do so on the Bible of Islam, the Qur'an.I wonder what will be the reaction of US citizen.

Mintak-mintak bukan macam mamat ni

Friday, December 01, 2006

Mat Saleh 'Alim

Pertama kali bersua muka dengan Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad (SAHM) di luar Walton Theatre, Trinity College, aku terpaksa mendongak sedikit.Tinggi juga orangnya.Wajahnya kelihatan serius.Mungkin kerana kepenatan kerana dibawa (dipaksa) berjalan-jalan sekitar kota Dublin oleh Umar dan kawan-kawan.Namun, dia tersenyum bila aku menghulurkan tangan.Cepat-cepat aku mengucup tangannya.Dia agak tergamam sedikit dan cepat-cepat menarik tangannya kembali.Mungkin dia berasa segan dihormati dengan sedemikian rupa.

Berdasarkan tahap keilmuannya dan jasa-jasanya terhadap perkembangan Islam di dunia Eropah, tidak keterlaluan jika dia dihormati sebegitu.SAHM merupakan antara orang 'alim yang begitu disegani bukan sekadar di UK atau di Eropah, malahan turut dikenali di kalangan para masyaikh di negara-negara Timur Tengah. Di dunia ini, antara universiti yang paling tua dan berprestij ialah al-Azhar, Oxford dan Cambridge. Keistimewaan SAHM ialah beliau pernah menuntut di ketiga-tiga universiti tersebut! Beliau merupakan pengasas dan penggerak IHSAN, satu organisasi yang berperanan mengumpulkan kesemua hadith-hadith dan manuskrip-manuskrip hadith di seluruh dunia.Visi dan misi IHSAN yang diilhamkan bersama oleh SAHM dan beberapa ilmuan hadith lain sebenarnya sangat besar.IHSAN merupakan platform untuk pengumpulan semua hadith yang terdapat pada kitab-kitab hadith di atas muka bumi ini.Hadith-hadith yang dikumpulkan akan disalin dalam versi digital, diindeks dan dicatat secara rapi jalan periwayatan, pengijazahan, status dan sebagainya. Cita-cita SAHM ialah untuk melengkapkan satu ensiklopedia hadith yang boleh dimanfaatkan oleh generasi Islam yang akan datang.Melalui database hadith ini, rujukan terhadap hadith termasuk status dan sumbernya dapat disemak dalam sekelip mata.Khabarnya beberapa kitab-kitab hadith yang muktabar telah siap dalam edisi digital termasuk Sunan Sittah, Sunan Baihaqi, Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, Musnad Humaydi, Sunan Daruqutni, Sunan Darimi, Shamail Tirmidzi dan Tuhfah al-Ashraf al-Mizzi. Ratusan ilmuan hadith dari pelbagai institusi pengajian tinggi Islam terlibat secara langsung dengan usaha murni ini.Mudah-mudahan Allah SWT akan memberkati usaha ulama-ulama ini yang sedang berusaha melindungi sumber agama Islam yang kedua terpenting ini daripada pencemaran dan kekaburan.Ameen ya Rabb!!

Pertemuan dengan SAHM kali ini sangat istimewa.Sebelum lecture beliau bermula, beliau mengambil kesempatan untuk bertemu dengan pimpinan dan aktivis Islam di Dublin. Walaupun aku bukanlah pemimpin mana-mana organisasi Islam di Ireland, Bro Umar dari FOSIS bersungguh-sungguh mengundangku ke sesi tersebut.Mungkin sebagai membalas jasa aku yang memberikan tutorial bahasa Arab di rumah Ashraf tempoh hari!


SAHM pada muqaddimahnya menyentuh tentang mentaliti pendakwah-pendakwah Islam sepanjang zaman.Beliau memberikan contoh binaan-binaan masjid yang dibina ketika zaman permulaan dakwah Islam. Masjid-masjid di Jawa, China, Balkan bahkan di Melaka mempunyai identiti yang unik.Mengapa?Kerana semua masjid-masjid berkenaan seperti Masjid Demak dan Masjid Agung Xi'An di China mempunyai identiti tempatan. Masjid Demak misalnya sarat dengan seni binaan Jawa zaman Majapahit.

Di Xi'An pula, masjidnya tidak ubah seperti pagoda!Masjid-masjid yang dibina ini tidak punya kubah-kubah bulat mahupun menara yang tinggi-tinggi seperti di mana-mana negara Arab.Apa yang cuba disampaikan oleh SAHM ialah pendakwah-pendakwah Islam pada zaman dahulu sebenarnya sangat memahami pemikiran, budaya,adat dan identiti penduduk tempatan.Kedatangan mereka bukanlah untuk mengubah identiti masyarakat setempat secara radikal.Di Jawa misalnya, kebudayaan mereka masih tebal dengan animisme dan kepercayaan Hindu.Islah dan dakwah mahupun tajdid bukanlah proses yang radikal ataupun tergesa-gesa.Bahkan pendakwah-pendakwah dahulu seperti Wali Songo di kepulauan Jawa begitu memahami uslub dakwah yang diwarisi daripada Rasulullah SAW yang sensitif dengan kefahaman masyarakat setempat. Di kalangan Wali Songo misalnya, mereka sendiri menggunakan nama baru bila berhadapan dengan masyarakat, meskipun nama asal mereka rata-ratanya dalam bahasa Arab.Sunan Ampel misalnya bernama Raden Rahmat. Penggunaan nama Jawa beliau adalah untuk menunjukkan kebersamaan beliau dengan masyarakat setempat, satu methodologi yang cukup berkesan dalam lapangan dakwah.Masjid Demak yang dibina oleh Wali Songo ini misalnya mempunyai senibina Jawa yang sama dengan senibina tempatan pada zaman tersebut.Secara tidak langsung, method dakwah yang digunakan oleh Wali Songo ini mendekatkan hati penduduk tempatan dengan mereka.Adat-adat mereka yang tidak bercanggah dengan Islam tidak pernah disentuh.Malahan jika ada yang baik ia akan diteruskan tanpa halangan.Contoh terdekat ialah wayang kulit yang asalnya mempunyai boneka-boneka menyerupai manusia.Kisah-kisah yang diceritakan oleh tukang-tukang karut biasanya berkisar tentang epik Ramayana dan Mahabrata Hindu.Wayang kulit meruapakan salah satu sumber hiburan masyarakat ketika itu.Oleh itu, adalah tidak bijak jika Wali Songo mengambil pendekatan untuk membid'ahkan, mensyirikkan ataupun melabelkan budaya sebegini dengan label yang keras-keras sehingga menjauhkan manusia daripada Islam.Sebaliknya, para pendakwah ini mengubah bentuk persembahan wayang kulit.Karektor dalam wayang kulit 'dicacatkan' sedikit supaya tidak menyerupai manusia sempurna dan plot penceritaannya digubah supaya tidak lagi berkiblatkan kandungan kitab-kitab epik Hindu.Ini antara kebijaksaan dakwah yang seharusnya dicontohi.

SAHM turut membandingkan sikap dan approach dakwah sebegini dengan sesetengah pendakwah yang ada sekarang.Menurut beliau, ramai pendakwah terutama di dunia Barat ini kurang memahami aspirasi dan kebudayaan penduduk setempat.Lebih malang lagi terdapat segolongan daripada mereka yang mempunyai kefahaman yang kabur tentang konsep bid'ah dan sebagainya.Hasilnya, mereka terlalu cepat menghukum amalan-amalan tertentu masyarakat yang sebenarnya boleh diterima dalam Islam.Tidak kurang juga golongan yang mendakwa mereka sebagai pendokong Sunnah dan pembawa aspirasi Golongan Salaf-as-Soleh.Tetapi berbahasa Inggeris pun masih gagal meskipun sudah tinggal bertahun-tahun di sini. Apa yang terbentuk ialah satu komuniti yang tidak pernah melakukan reach out terhadap non-Muslim yang berpotensi untuk menerima Islam.Orang Islam yang berhijrah ke UK, kekal dengan kefahaman dan budaya mereka lantas membina tembok besar daripada masyarakat setempat.Tiada usaha dakwah dan tiada kesungguhan untuk menyampaikan mesej Islam.Yang tinggal cumalah pandangan hina dan negatif mereka terhadap non-Muslim di UK atau Ireland.

Perkara sebegini tidak seharusnya berlaku.Komuniti Islam tidak kira samada yang menetap atau bermukim di benua ini untuk bekerja ataupun belajar punya tanggungjawab untuk menyampaikan risalah suci sekadar kemampuan mereka. Mengambil posisi dalam politik bukanlah agenda utama umat Islam di Eropah buat masa sekarang.Umat Islam di sini lebih memerlukan usaha dakwah dan pendidikan yang sistematik dari sumber-sumber yang sahih. Bukan daripada golongan pelampau ataupun liberal.

Dalam masa yang sama SAHM menyatakan kekesalan terhadap reaksi umat Islam yang keterlaluan terhadap sesuatu isu.Contohnya dalam isu karikatur Denmark dan kenyataan Pope mengenai Islam.Tunjuk perasaan atau demonstrasi menurut beliau, bukanlah cara yang paling baik kerana masyarakat bukan Islam di sini tidak begitu ambil pusing tentang mana-mana demonstrasi.Pendidikan dan peningkatan kefahaman Islam adalah satu-satunya cara untuk mengubah persepsi masyarakat bukan Islam terhadap agama kita.

Beberapa jam bersama beliau bagaikan beberapa minit.Aneh sekali, seorang yang dilahirkan Muslim seperti aku kini belajar dengan seorang British yang dahulunya beragama Kristian. Belajar tentang Islam dan dakwah.Yang lebih aneh, belajar tentang kebudayaan dan sejarah Nusantara daripada seorang mat saleh seperti Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad


At last, he is back from Istanbul!
Here is his programme in Dublin:






Venue:Walton Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Date: 18th November 2006
Time:5-7 pm



Abdal Hakim Murad graduated from Cambridge University with a double-first in Arabic in 1983. He then lived in Cairo for three years, studying Islam under traditional teachers at Al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities in the world. He went on to reside for three years in Jeddah, where he administered a commercial translation office and maintained close contact with Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad and other ulama from Hadramaut, Yemen.

In 1989, Shaikh Abdal Hakim returned to England and spent two years at the University of London learning Turkish and Farsi. Since 1992 he has been a doctoral student at Oxford University, specializing in the religious life of the early Ottoman Empire. He is currently Secretary of the Muslim Academic Trust (London) and Director of the Sunna Project at the Centre of Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge University, which issues the first-ever scholarly Arabic editions of the major Hadith collections.

Shaikh Abdal Hakim is the translator of a number of works, including two volumes from Imam al-Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din. He gives durus and halaqas from time to time and taught the works of Imam al-Ghazali at the Winter 1995 Deen Intensive Program in New Haven, CT. He appears frequently on BBC Radio and writes occasionally for a number of publications, including The Independent; Q-News International, Britain's premier Muslim Magazine; and Seasons, the semiacademic journal of Zaytuna Institute.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Naguib Mahfouz


My talk…comes in a language unknown to many of you but [that language] is the real winner of the prize. It is, therefore, appropriate that its melodies should float for the first time into your oasis of culture and civilization. I have great hopes that this will not be the last time, either, and that literary writers of my nation will have the pleasure of sitting with full merit among your international writers, who have spread the fragrance of joy and wisdom in this grief-ridden world of ours.

“I was told by a foreign correspondent in Cairo that the moment my name was mentioned in connection with the prize, silence fell, and many wondered who I was. Permit me, then, to present myself in as objective a manner as is humanly possible. I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history formed a happy marriage. The first of these, 7000 years old, is the pharaonic civilization; the second, 1400 years old, is the Islamic one…. As for Islamic civilization, I will not talk about its call for the establishment of a union of all humankind under the guardianship of the Creator, based on freedom, equality and forgiveness….

I will, instead, introduce that civilization in a moving, dramatic situation summarizing one of its most conspicuous traits. In one victorious battle against Byzantium it gave back its prisoners of war in return for a number of books of the ancient Greek heritage in philosophy, medicine and mathematics. This is a testimony of value for the human spirit in its demand for knowledge, even though the demander was a believer in God and what was demanded was the fruit of a pagan civilization.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, you may be wondering: This man coming from the Third World, how did he find the peace of mind to write stories? … Fortunately, art is generous and sympathetic. In the same way that it dwells with the happy ones it does not desert the wretched. It offers both alike the convenient means for expressing what swells up in their bosom.

“In this decisive moment in the history of civilization it is inconceivable and unacceptable that the moans of Mankind should die out in the void. There is no doubt that Mankind has at last come of age, and our era carries the expectations of entente…. The human mind now assumes the task of eliminating all causes of destruction and annihilation. And just as scientists exert themselves to cleanse the environment of industrial pollution, intellectuals ought to exert themselves to cleanse humanity of moral pollution. It is both our right and our duty to demand of the great leaders in the civilized countries, as well as of their economists, to effect a real leap that would place them in the focus of the age.

“In the olden times every leader worked for the good of his own nation alone. The others were considered adversaries, or subjects of exploitation…. Today, this view needs to be changed from its very source. Today the greatness of a civilized leader ought to be measured by the universality of his vision and his sense of responsibility toward all humankind. The developed world and the Third World are but one family. Each human being bears responsibility toward it to the degree that he has obtained knowledge, wisdom and civilization. I would not be exceeding the limits of my duty if I told [the leaders] in the name of the Third World: Be not spectators to our miseries…. We have had enough of words. Now is the time for action.”

Read the memoir of Naguib Mahfouz here

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Deen Intensive II Audio

After few months, those who were 'crippled' from attending DID II can now download and listen to the lecture by our teacher, Ustaz Mohammad Fauzi Hadrami. The lectures available are on Syafi'i Fiqh, Tasawwuf and Islamic Parenting.The corpora used were:

1)Tarbiyatus Shibyan by Imam al-Ramli
2)Wasiyya of Imam Haddad by Imam Habib Abdallah 'Alawi al-Haddad
3)Safinah Najah by Shaykh Abdullah bin Saad bin Sumair al - Hadrami

Click here to download and listen

Ramadan in Istanbul



Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad once again wrote about his experience in Istanbul during Ramadan. Ramadan has left but the memories were commemorated in this wonderful piece.I just couldn't wait for my next ziarah to Istanbul.Ahmet, Sekdas and Celaladdin are waiting for me in Turkey.May Allah bless my trip in December and make me pass my exams!!

"Sabah prayer at the mosque of Eyüp is the most popular worship experience in the city; but arrive even at two in the morning on the 27th, and you will find it hard to squeeze beyond the leather curtains into the mosque interior. Here, more than anywhere else in the City, the Turks are feasting, and feasting again, on the Qur’an."


"Like a benign watchful presence, behind the five-hundred year old plane tree planted by the Conqueror’s own hand in the mosque court, lies the grave of the Companion Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, which, of the hundreds of active pilgrimage sites in the City, remains the greatest magnet for visitors. The space is ablaze with a turquoise glow, supplied by the Iznik tiles, which are among the most precious ceramic masterpieces in the world. Close beside it is the I‘tikaf chamber built for Princess Adile, who spent her Ramadans here a century ago, before being buried among the royal tombs nearby. Outside lie the graves of warlike pashas, sayyids, and ulema, including Ebussuud Efendi, the great
tafsir scholar, and reviver of the Shari‘a in the time of Sultan Suleyman. Here too are the sainted ladies, and then great madrasas and tekkes, beyond the stone stairs where a new Sultan, visiting the mosque for his coronation, would descend from his horse, to walk the remainder of Enthronement Road humbly on foot. In his palace, the Sultan alone could ride; at Eyüp, he too was required to dismount."

"As Urdu-speakers well know, prayers in a language where everything happens before the verb have tremendous dramatic impact: ‘And our sins, in this and earlier months, against You and other members of our nation, Our Lord, forgive! And the affairs of the Muslims here and in the world, Our Lord, set right! And to the soul of Sultan Ahmet, Our Lord, grant rest!’"

Read the article here.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Masa iftar dan majlis tadarrus Quran anjuran PPIMI lepas, aku sempat berbual dengan seorang 'tetamu kehormat' majlis itu.Namanya Father Kieran yang tinggal di Leeson Park berdekatan Malaysia Hall. Memandangkan budak-budak Dublin lain sedang sibuk menghadap nasi tandoori Pakcik Yusof, aku cuba sedaya upaya untuk melayan pertanyaan-pertanyaan Father Kieran. Kami sama-sama mempunyai minat mendalam terhadap voluntary work ataupun relief work terutamanya di kawasan pedalaman. Rupa-rupanya Father Kieran sudah lama berkelana untuk missionary work beliau di Afrika.Bila ditanya;

"How long have you been in Africa for missionary work there?"

"Ahh... not that long. Just couple of years to help the needy in Nigeria.There's plenty of Muslims out there.They are all nice."

"I see.So, how long have you been there?I guess 2, 3 years probably?"

"Hmmm...about 10 years"

"Ten years????"

SENYAP

Nak dihantar berkhidmat ke kawasan pedalaman di Malaysia oleh Kementerian Kesihatan pun, ramai antara kita yang merungut.Inikan pula kerja-kerja dakwah.Padanlah agama Kristian berkembang pesat di Afrika. Subur kerana penganut-penganutnya yang jujur dan komited terhadap seruan agama mereka.Tiada secalit pun sikap materialistik.Alangkah baiknya kalau sikap altruism begini tertanam pada jiwa anak-anak muda dan para daie kita.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Letter to Benedict XVI



"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Byzantine Emporer Manuel II

This is some of the remarks of Pope during his lecture at the University of Regensburg on Sept. 12, 2006. In a spirit of goodwill, 38 Muslims scholars from around the globe joined to send a letter to respond to speech made by His Holiness Pope Benedict. Among scholars that signed the letter are, Shaykh Ali Jumu‘ah (the Grand Mufti of Egypt), Shakyh Abdullah bin Bayyah (former Vice President of Mauritania, and leading religious scholar), and Shaykh Sa‘id Ramadan Al-Buti (from Syria), in addition to the Grand Muftis of Russia, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Istanbul, Uzbekistan, and Oman, as well as leading figures from the Shi‘a community such as Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri of Iran. The letter was also signed by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan and by Muslim scholars in the West such as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf from California, Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Professor Tim Winter of the University of Cambridge.

The letter tackles the main substantive issues raised in his treatment of a debate between the medieval Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an “educated Persian”, including reason and faith; forced conversion; “jihad” vs. “holy war”; and the relationship between Christianity and Islam.The letter is now published by Islamica Magazine. Read here.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Risalah Mu'awanah:Imam Haddad on Fasting



Increase your good works, especially in Ramadan, for the reward of a supererogatory act performed during it equals that of an obligatory act performed at any other time. Ramadan is also a time when good works are rendered easy and one has much more energy for them than during any other month. This is because the soul, lazy when it: comes to good works, is then imprisoned by hunger and thirst, the devils who hinder it are shackled, the gates of the Fire are shut, the gates of the Garden are open, and the herald calls every night at God's command: 'O you who wish for goodness, hasten! And O you who wish for evil, halt!'

You should work only for the hereafter in this noble month, and embark on something worldly only when absolutely necessary. Arrange your life before Ramadan in a manner which will render you free for worship when it arrives. Be intent on devotions and approach God more surely, especially during the last ten days. If you are able not to leave the mosque, except when strictly necessary, during those last ten days then do so. Be careful to perform the Tarawih prayers during every Ramadan night. In some places it is nowadays the custom to make them so short that sometimes some of the obligatory elements of the prayer are omitted, let alone the sunnas. It is well known that our predecessors read the whole Qur'an during this prayer, reciting a part each night so as to complete it on one of the last nights of the month. If you are able to follow suit then this is a great gain; if you are not, then the least that you can do is to observe the obligatory elements of the prayer and its proprieties.

Watch carefully for the Night of Destiny [Laylat'ul-Qadr], which is better than a thousand months. It is the blessed night in which all affairs are wisely decided. The one to whom it is unveiled sees the blazing lights, the open doors of heaven, and the angels ascending and descending, and may witness the whole of creation prostrating before God, its Creator.

Most scholars are of the opinion that it is in the last ten nights of Ramadan, and is more likely to fall in the odd numbered ones. A certain gnostic witnessed it on the night of the seventeenth, and this was also the opinion of al-Hasan al-Basri. Some scholars have said that it is the first night of Ramadan, and a number of great scholars have said that it is not fixed but shifts its position each Ramadan. They have said that the secret wisdom underlying this is that the believer should devote himself completely to God during every night of this month in the hope of coinciding with that night which has been kept obscure from him. And God knows best.

Hasten to break your fast as soon as you are certain that the sun has set. Delay suhur long as you do not fear the break of dawn. Feed those who fast at the time when they break it, even if with some dates or a draught of water, for the one who feeds another at the time of breaking the fast receives as much reward as he without this diminishing the other's reward in any way. Strive never to break your fast nor to feed anyone else at such a time except with lawful food. Do not eat much, take whatever lawful food is present ' and do not prefer that which is tasty, for the purpose of fasting is to subdue one's lustful appetite, and eating a large quantity of delicious food will on the contrary arouse and strengthen it.

Fast on the days on which the Law encourages you to fast, such as the day of Arafat for those who are not participating n the pilgrimage, the ninth and tenth [‘Ashura] of Muharram, and the six days of Shawwal, starting with the second day of the Feast, for this is the more effective discipline for the soul. Fast three days in each month, for these equal a perpetual fast. It is better if these are the White Days, for the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, never omitted to fast them whether he was at home or traveling. Fast often, especially in times of special merit such as the Inviolable Months, and noble days such as Mondays and Thursdays. Know that fasting is the pillar of discipline and the basis of striving. It has been said that fasting constitutes half of fortitude. The Messenger of God, may blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'God the Exalted has said: "All good deeds of the son of Adam are multiplied ten to seven hundredfold, except fasting, for it is Mine, and I shall reward a man for it, for he has left his appetite, his food and drink for My sake!"' 'The one who fasts has two joys, one when breaking his fast, the other when meeting his Lord.' And; 'The odour of the fasting man’s mouth is more fragrant to God than that of musk.' God says the truth and He guides to the way. [XXXIII:4]

Taken from: Al-Haddad, Abdallah Ibn Alawi. The Book of Assistance. 2st ed. Trans. Mostafa Al-Badawi. London: The Quilliam Press, 1998.

PUISI 2006

Tahun ini tak berkesempatan untuk ber'PUISI' memandangkan saya akan berziarah ke bumi Bani Osman Disember ini.Ini promo PUISI tahun ini.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

... Rise from under the rubble
Like a flower of almond in April.
Get over your sorrows,
For revolution grows in the womb of grief!
Rise in honor of the forests.
Rise in honor of the rivers.
Rise in honor of humankind.
Rise, O Beirut!
(Nizar Qabbani on 'Beirut: The Queen of the World')

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Abdassamad Clarke is the translator of a number of classical works,
including "The History of the Khalifahs Who Took the Right Way", based
on Imam Jalaluddin As-Suyuti's "Tārķkh Al-Khulafā". It is a classical
text presenting some of the most authentic traditions regarding the
first four caliphs of Islam, the integrity and wisdom they displayed
in their governance, and their contributions to that body of practice
which is known to us as the Sunnah. Other books translated or written
by Abdassamad include, "A Madinan View on the Sunnah", "The Clear
Victory", "Year of the Elephant", "Drops from an Ocean" and Ibn Abi
Zayd al-Qayrawāni's manual on Maliki fiqh "Kitāb al-Jāmi'".

Sunday, June 11, 2006

A Gift For the Sincere

Habib Abdullah bin Hussain bin Tahir al'Alawi is a great Sufi and Saint from Hadramawt Valley.For centuries, Ihya' Ulumuddin is crowned as the 'king' of all tasawwuf texts.However, the work of Hujjatul Islam Imam Ghazali is considered quite lengthy.Later generation of scholars, like Imam Habib Abdullah bin Alawi al-Haddad took the effort to compile the knowledge of Ihya into a simpler text.The Silsilah of Imam Haddad is a 10-volume set of works of Imam Haddad that were considered as the summary of Ihya.The famous Nasaih Diniyya is included in the Silsilah.

Imam Haddad was not the only one who had laid effort to summarize the knowledge of Ihya. Other scholar like Abdul Wahab Sha'rani (d:973H/2565M) from Qalqanshada, Egypt who was a Shafi'i scholar and prolific writer in Sufism had written a few set of works on tasawwuf. His style is nonetheless the same with Imam Ghazali in the sense of showing the unity between law (fiqh) and the way (tariqah). I used to hear that Ustaz Fauzi mentioned that his works, just like Imam Haddad are the summary of Ihya's content. Among Abdul Wahab Sha'rani's works that still remained popular today is Lata'if al-Minan wa al-Akhlaq (Subtleties of Gifts and Character) and Lawaqih al-Anwar al-Qudsiyya (The Fecundating Sacred Illimunations).

However, the work of Habib Abdullah bin Hussain bin Tahir al-'Alawi is even more mesmerizing.He concluded the whole theme of Ihya' Ulumuddin into poetry. The nazam were written by chapters and all of them are the abridgement of Ghazali's Ihya.

And today, we had the opportunity to learn the most important chapter of all from Hidayatul Siddiq of Habib Abdullah bin Tahir.The chapter on preserving the heart.Delivered by the most qualified teacher who used to sit with various scholars and saints. May Allah benefit us through Sidi Abdul Aziz Ahmed!

So discipline heart, O my brother!
By leaving every transgression

And attribute it to hunger
And minimal appeasement

Minimal speech
And abandonment of sleep

And rejection of lusts
Neglect and dissension

And taking care of the senses
Of hearing and touch

And live with presence of mind
And remembrance and gratitude

Until you reach annihilation
And you see no second one (Al-Mawt)!

Saturday, May 27, 2006

There has been a miscommunication about the material that will be covered during Sidi Abdul Aziz's visit to Dublin.He'll be covering a section of Hidiyatul Siddiq on The Heart ( a poem by Abdullah bin Hussain binTahir as yet untranslated).In previous posting, I mentioned that he will be covering a chapter from the book 'Miftahul Jannah'.

Hoping to see bright faces of the seekers of knowledge tomorrow.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Dalam Ribuan Mimpi Gelisah

Kesedihan

ada kalanya dirasakan
tiada berhujung tiada berpangkal

siang terasa terlalu singkat
dan malam ditarik-tarik memanjang
dalam ribuan mimpi gelisah
gunung tiba-tiba jadi lebih tinggi
dan hutan semakin menebal
di sungai air tidak lagi mengalir
langit diliputi gumpalan awan merah
bulan telah ditelan ular
dan bintang-bintang ketakutan
tiada apapun kulihat dalam kegelapan ini

di manakah matari?
aku merindui sinarmu

Said Zahari 1968

Entah kenapa hati saya begitu terusik dengan bait-bait puisi karangan Said Zahari di atas. Mungkin kerana saya berasa agak dekat dengan karya dan penulisan beliau. Bagi anak-anak muda Malaysia generasi Akademi Fantasia, Malaysian Idol (Beauty Sandha?) dan sebagainya, tidak mungkin mereka mengenali Pak Said, bekas wartawan Utusan yang terlibat aktif dalam mogok Utusan tahun 1961. Pak Said dan rakan-rakan seperjuangannya yang lain memprotes pengambil-alihan Utusan Melayu oleh parti pemerintah waktu itu (siapa lagi?) yang disifatkannya sebagai cubaan 'menutup ruang bersuara dan berfikir' bagi orang-orang Melayu.Utusan zaman tersebut menjadi suara bagi orang-orang Melayu terutamanya bagi kelas bawahan Melayu. Tindakan untuk menguasai Utusan adalah langkah untuk memudahkan UMNO memasakkan polisi-polisi partinya dalam kepala masyarakat Melayu.Hakikatnya, akhbar seperti Utusan sudahpun mati 45 tahun dahulu. Utusan yang ada sekarang cumalah alat propaganda golongan tertentu yang langsung tidak menyumbang ke arah budaya berfikir dan menilai.

Pak Said bukan sahaja berhadapan dengan kerenah orang politik di Tanah Melayu. Semasa krisis Utusan berlarutan, beliau kembali ke Singapura. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ketika itu dengan segera mengharamkan Said Zahari daripada pulang ke Tanah Melayu. Di Singapura, nasib beliau juga tidak begitu baik. Dalam Operation Cold Storage oleh Lee Kuan Yew, beliau dikaitkan dengan anasir komunis dan dipenjara tanpa dibicarakan. Walhal, asas perjuangan beliau bukanlah idealogi komunisme atau sosialisme. Beliau cuma anti-imperialisme, anti-colonialisme dan anti kepada pemimpin barua Anglo-Saxon seperti Lee Kuan Yew.Padahnya, selama 17 tahun, isteri dan anak-anak beliau dipisahkan secara kejam oleh regim Lee Kuan Yew.Pak Said bila menggambarkan Lee Kuan Yew selalu menyebutnya sebagai vicious, arrogant and ruthless. Malang sungguh bangsa Melayu(pemimpin Melayu?) melepaskan tanah Singapura kepada Kuan Yew dan anak-anaknya.

Buku kedua Pak Said, Dalam Ribuan Mimpi Gelisah merupakan nukilan Pak Said sebagai sanjungan terhadap pengorbanan isterinya yang tercinta, Puan Salamah Wahab yang gigih meneruskan kehidupan membesarkan anak-anak tanpa ketiadaan si suami. Khabarnya buku ini merupakan buku kedua daripada trilogi memoir politik Pak Said.


Puan Salamah ketika menyoroti rentetan penahanan Pak Said menggambarkan bagaimana dia cuba ditenangkan oleh ASP Hashim, SB Polis Singapura yang mengatakan,


"Puan jangan sedih. Kami cuma akan tahan Encik Said sekejap sahaja......".

Namun, kenyataan tersebut tidak menjadi.Pak Said ditahan tanpa bicara selama 17 tahun!!

Buku pertama Pak Said, Meniti Lautan Gelora telah saya khatami beberapa tahun dahulu.Seingat saya, waktu itu saya dalam proses akhir melengkapkan diploma IB di Kolej Mara Banting.Di Banting, kami perlu menghasilkan satu extended essay dalam mana-mana subjek.Saya memilih untuk membuat EE dalam subjek Sastera Melayu. Secara tidak langsung, ini membuatkan saya terpaksa ke Pusat Dokumentasi DBP untuk mencari bahan-bahan sastera bagi menyiapkan EE saya. Waktu itu, saya ternampak buku pertama Pak Said yang berjudul Meniti Lautan Gelora itu. Terus saya membeli dan membacanya dari kulit ke kulit dengan penuh asyik. Catatan memoir seseorang yang pernah hidup sebelum dan selepas kemerdekaan adalah catatan yang tidak ternilai.Masakan tidak, tokoh seperti Said Zaharilah yang sama-sama berjuang menuntut kemerdekaan dan mewarnai erti kemerdekaan itu sendiri.Banyak sekali fakta-fakta tentang kemerdekaan yang 'dibetulkan' semula oleh Pak Said.Hakikatnya, coretan sejarah yang terdapat di buku-buku teks sejarah di sekolah-sekolah di Malaysia telah dikaburi dan dinodai. Jika dibaca, kita cuma akan melihat Parti Perikatan sahaja sebagai wira segala-galanya dalam kemerdekaan. Bahkan sebenarnya banyak sumbangan tokoh-tokoh lain yang langsung tidak diendahkan.

Antara catatan Pak Said yang paling menarik ialah sebab keengganannya menyertai UMNO yang diasaskan oleh Datuk Onn Jaafar. Pernah pada satu majlis makan malam, Pak Said mengatakan bahawa UMNO bukanlah parti pertama yang menghidupkan tuntutan kemerdekaan. Slogan parti ini sebagai respon terhadap Malayan Union cumalah laungan
'HIDUP MELAYU!!' yang emosi dan tiada ruh.Parti ini baru terhegeh-hegah menyeru dan menuntut kemerdekaan setelah tokoh-tokoh lain seperti Ibrahim Yaacob daripada Kesatuan Melayu Muda melaung-laungkan tuntutan 'MERDEKA!!'. British ternyata tidak senang dengan parti-parti selain Perikatan yang tidak mahu berkompromi soal kemerdekaan. Itu sebabnya pemimpin-pemimpin KMM, API ditangkap lalu disumbat dalam penjara sementara tokoh-tokoh Perikatan cuma 'runding-runding' sahaja dengan British. Akhirnya, yang mendapat nama dan sanjungan hanyalah tokoh-tokoh yang menjadi 'badut suruhan' British sahaja.

Betulkah perspektif sejarah negara kita?Entahlah.....

Apapun, tidak sabar sungguh untuk pulang ke tanahair bagi mendapatkan memoir Pak Said ini

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Sidi Abdul Aziz Ahmad



Sukacita dimaklumkan bersempena Deen Intensive II yg akan berlangsung akhir bulan ini, warga Dublin akan menerima seorang tetamu istimewa dari Glasgow, Scotland. Beliau bukanlah sebarangan tetamu.Seorang mahaguru dan Sheikh terbilang yang mungkin tidak begitu dikenali di kalangan kita.Namun, di kalangan 'circle' masyarakat Islam di UK, nama beliau cukup tersohor terutama di bahagian utara UK.

Tokoh yg dimaksudkan ialah Sidi Abdul Aziz Ahmad Fredericks, seorang ulama UK yg akan bertandang ke Dublin demi untuk bersua muka dengan pelajar-pelajar Malaysia yang menghadiri program DID II. Ini merupakan lawatan balas Sidi AA setelah kami menziarahi beliau di Scotland tahun lepas bersama Ustaz Fauzi.Beliau akan berada di sini mulai 9 Jun hingga 11 Jun.Sesi pengajian bersama beliau akan diadakan pada hujung minggu tersebut dan huraian yg akan disampaikan ialah petikan daripada kitab Miftahul Jannah (Key to the Garden) karangan Habib Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad.

Sedikit mengenai latar belakang beliau.Beliau dilahirkan di Nottingham dan profesyen beliau adalah sebagai seorang guru bahasa Inggeris.Berbekalkan kelayakan tersebut, beliau berkhidmat di merata-rata negara di Timur Tengah dan berguru dengan sebilangan ulama-ulama terbilang yang hidup pada waktu tersebut. Antara guru-guru beliau yang terkemuka adalah seperti Habib Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad di Jeddah yang juga merupakan guru kepada Sheikh Hamza Yusuf (Zaytuna Institute) dan Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad (Cambridge University).Guru-guru lain termasuklah Sharif Khitami, ulama besar mazhab Shafi'i di Kenya, Sheikh Mahmud Ghalal, ulama Al-Azhar di Mesir, Abul-Qasim bin Zein, ulama Tunisia dan sebilangan lagi ulama-ulama besar di Hijaz, Yaman, Turki, Mesir, Syria serta Tunisia.Jika diikutkan, kedudukan beliau adalah setara dengan ulama-ulama terkenal di dunia Barat lain seperti Hamza Yusuf, Abdal Hakim Murad, Imam Zaid Shakir dan lain-lain. Namun, beliau agak 'low-profile' dan ini menjadikan beliau agak tidak dikenali di kalangan pelajar-pelajar Malaysia di UK, apatah lagi di Ireland.

Beliau kini mempunyai sebuah sekolah Islam di Glasgow dan sangat aktif dalam bidang dakwah di UK dan di negara-negara Eropah lain.Beliau mempunyai halaqah mingguan di Glasgow yang membicarakan Hadith 40 Imam Nawawi serta bergiat dalam program-program berkala di UK. Di samping itu, beliau sangat aktif menterjemah dan mengedit karya-karya klasik Islam seperti teks Risalah Jamiah dalam fiqh Shafi'i, Risala-an Nur (Badiuzzaman Said Nursi) dan lain-lain.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

ADAB & TA’DIB

ADAB & TA’DIB: MASALAH DALAMAN KAUM MUSLIMIN DAN
BEBERAPA ISU PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

Oleh: Mohd. Sani Badron

A. PENGENALAN

1. Keadaan umat Islam 200 tahun terakhir ini sangat-sangat buruk: kemelut ilmu; kegawatan iman; dan penghinaan oleh Penjajah Barat yang memperhambakan dan memecahbelahkan umat melalui 'senjata' pemikiran sekular seperti konsep-konsep kenegaraan, politik, pendidikan dan ilmu.

2. Ilmuwan dari aliran Islam berjasa menyedarkan umat supaya jangan bertempiaran sebaliknya percaya kepada kebolehan diri sendiri dan Islam, ada optimisme. Walau bagaimanapun, ramai yang tersilap besar dengan mengkritik para ilmuwan agung Islam silam dan tradisi pemikiran mereka.


3. Keadaan buruk ini — dan kesilapan besar dalam menyelesaikannya – dinamakan oleh Prof. Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas sebagai dilema: keadaan yang amat sukar dan sulit, lagi genting dan membingungkan.

4. Menurut beliau, punca kepada dilema tersebut datang dari 2 jurusan: luaran dan dalaman. Punca luarannya adalah PERTEMBUNGAN BERSEJARAH OLEH BARAT dalam agama (penciptaan Kristian pada awal Zaman Pertengahan), ketenteraan (Peperangan Salib, Reconquista, dll pada akhir Zaman Pertengahan) dan ilmu (zaman moden dan pasca-moden).


B. KEKELIRUAN ILMU, KERUNTUHAN ADAB, KEPEMIMPINAN PALSU

1. Ramai terkeliru mengenai masalah sebenar umat dan punca-puncanya. Ada yang menyalahkan madhhab-madhhab Islam sebagai membekukan kreativiti dan pemikiran umat. Ada pula yang menyalahkan Tasauf dan tarikat sebagai sebab kemerosotan umat Islam.

2. Ramai juga yang menganggap penyelewengan pemerintahan politik (dan kepimpinan yang selainnya) sebagai masalah terbesar. Ia cuba diatasi dengan merebut kuasa politik dalam masyarakat dan negara. Bagaimanapun, menurut Prof. al-Attas, penyelewengan kepemimpinan, sungguhpun benar, hanyalah masalah yang bersifat luaran yang sebenarnya membayangkan punca-punca masalah yang lebih dalam lagi mengakar.

3. Menurut Prof. al-Attas, punca dalaman kegentingan umat kini adalah KERUNTUHAN ADAB (loss of discipline).

4. Silap faham makna ADAB yang dibataskan kepada sopan-santun kepada orang-orang atau etiquette jamuan santapan sahaja.

5. Makna sebenar ADAB: right action, "perlakuan yang tepat," "perilaku yang betul," "pengamalan yang benar," "perbuatan yang baik" dalam sebarang keadaan – pemaduan antara ilmu dan amal, pengetahuan dan perbuatan, teori dan praktis, pengenalan dan pengakuan.

6. Contoh-contoh ADAB (untuk satu gambaran menyeluruh):

i. kepada diri sendiri: diri kehaiwanan berserah untuk dikawal oleh diri akliah
ii. kepada sesama manusia: keluarga dan anggota keluarga: ibu-bapa dan orang-orang tua; guru, kawan-kawan, masyarakat, pemimpin
iii. kepada bahasa: perkataan; ayat, rangkap kata, prosa, puisi - persuratan
iv. kepada alam tabii dan persekitarannya: pokok dan batu, gunung dan bukit, sungai, lembah dan tasik, haiwan dan habitatnya
v. kepada tempat kediaman dan alat perabotnya: alat perkakasan dan hiasan
vi. kepada warna, rupabentuk dan bunyi: seni lukis dan seni bunyi-bunyian
vii. kepada ilmu: pembahagian ilmu, ilmu aqli diseimbangkan dengan ilmu naqli, ilmu fardu 'ayn diseimbangkan dengan ilmu fardu kifayah

dan seterusnya...

7. Krisis alam sekitar; pencemaran udara, air, sungai dan lembah; penggondolan hutan belantara dan bukit-bukau; kepupusan spesies tumbuh-tumbuhan dan haiwan; bangunan-bangunan tanpa jatidiri Islam; kecelaruan jalan raya dan tempat tinggal; kegawatan bahasa, kesusasteraan dan kemelut seni; masalah-masalah besar rumahtangga; dan, ketidakbahagiaan diri – kesemuanya membayangkan KERUNTUHAN ADAB. Justeru itu juga aib umat Islam—yang sepatutnya menjadi umat terbaik (khayr ummah, ummah wasat)—yang telah sekian lama dipermalukan dan mendapat tamparan hebat dalam setiap urusan antarabangsa.

8. Adab membayangkan adanya KEADILAN (iaitu MENEMPATKAN SESUATU PADA TEMPATNYA YANG SEBENAR); keruntuhan adab membayangkan keruntuhan keadilan; keruntuhan keadilan pula membayangkan KEKELIRUAN ILMU-ILMU KEISLAMAN.

9. [1] KEKELIRUAN ILMU dan [2] KERUNTUHAN ADAB menyebabkan para pemimpin yang hakiki tidak lagi dikenal, diakui dan diiktiraf. Ini menjelmakan [3] PEMIMPIN YANG TIDAK MEMPUNYAI KELAYAKAN dari segi akhlak, akal dan rohaniah. Pemimpin-pemimpin sebegini—untuk mengekalkan kuasa mereka—akan meneruskan kekeliruan ilmu dalam masyarakat, keruntuhan adab dan penghasilan pimpinan pelapis sepertinya. Ketiga-tiga punca itu saling berkaitan dan berturutan (vicious circle): satu lingkaran yang rumit lagi tiada hujung pangkalnya.

10. Walaubagaimanapun, antara ketiga-tiganya, sebab yang utama adalah KEKELIRUAN ILMU. Untuk mengatasinya dan memutuskan vicious circle tersebut, pertama sekali harus diselesaikan masalah KERUNTUHAN ADAB terhadap ilmu-ilmu lslam, ilmuwan-ilmuwannya dan institusi-institusinya seperti madhhab-madhhab yang berkewibawaan.

11. Contoh al-Qur'an al-Karim – Sumber Ilmu; tetapi hanya boleh disentuh secara beradab, iaitu setelah bersuci daripada hadas.

12. Adab terhadap ilmu-ilmu keislaman:-

i. menghormati keagungannya, bersikap tawaduk dan rendah diri;
ii. tidak bersikap melulu, menganggapnya sembarangan, terbuka kepada semua orang, tanpa mengira niat, kemampuan dan kelengkapan akliah, rohaniah dan akhlak;
iii. mengenal dan mengakui kewibawaan ilmiah para ilmuwan dengan martabat dan darjatnya masing-masing sejajar dengan ilmu, kebijaksanaan (hikmah) dan kecemerlangan mutu pengabdian terhadap Tuhan (ihsan), berpuncak pada Rasulullah s.a.w.: iaitu dengan bersikap tawaduk, hormat, merendah diri, kasih, ikhlas dan insaf menerima pentafsiran dan penjelasan ilmu mereka.


C. MASALAH PENYAMARATAAN TARAF KEWIBAWAAN ILMU

1. Antara ciri keruntuhan adab terhadap ilmu keislaman: menyamaratakan taraf semua orang: sesiapa sahaja sama-sama boleh memberikan pandangan yang melibatkan ilmu, termasuk yang tiada atau kurang berkewibawaan.

2. Kritikan dan gugatan ilmuwan moden—tanpa benar-benar menguasai—terhadap tradisi (madhhab) dan para ilmuwan silam, seperti al-Shafi’i, al-Ash'ari, al-Ghazali; malahan terhadap ajaran-ajaran Tasauf dan para awliya'nya.

3. Sebenarnya, walaupun semua manusia sama sejenis, darjat mereka berbeza-beza. Kemuliaan di sisi Allah sejajar dengan ketaqwaan masing-masing: daya akalnya, kecemerlangan mutu pengabdian dirinya kepada Allah dan pengalaman rohaniahnya.

4. Kiasan: lilin-lilin yang diperbuat daripada lemak yg sama, kesemuanya mengeluarkan api. Tetapi, masing-masingnya berbeza panjang pendek, besar atau kecil, berbeza-beza warna dan rupa; bahkan berlainan kebesaran nyala dan cahayanya, yang merupakan ukuran penilaiannya masing-masing.

5. Teladan: Kisah Nabi Adam. Malaikat melihat ruhnya, lalu sujud kepadanya --> bukan menyembahnya, bahkan taat kepada Allah. Iblis hanya melihat lempung (tanah liat), lalu enggan sujud --> kufurkan Allah.

6. Aplikasi faham martabat dan darjat kepada mereka yang berkewibawaan ilmu:-

i. para Anbia dan Mursalin yang dimohori oleh Rasulullah s.a.w.
ii. para awliya' Allah
iii. para mujtahid dan ilmuwan yang agung
dan seterusnya…

[Walau bagaimanapun, lslam menafikan sistem darjat palsu rekaan manusia seperti Brahmanisme; kepaderian; atau bangsa pilihan (Yahudi, Nazisme)]

7. Antara akibat daripada penyamarataan autoriti, di mana semua orang boleh memberikan pendapat berkenaan ilmu:-

i. al-Qur'an disamakan dengan buku-buku lain: boleh ditafsirkan sendiri, ditafsirkan mengikut kehendak zaman moden (Barat), menggunakan metodologi-metodologi Barat, seperti hermeneutik, feminisme, dsbg.

ii. Islam disamakan dengan agama-agama lain: semuanya baik dan benar.

iii. Rasulullah s.a.w. disamakan dengan para Rasul dan Nabi yang lain, dan disamakan dengan manusia lain: hujah "qul innama ana bashar mithlukum" – sirah Nabi dipisahkan daripada mukjizatnya.

iv. Para Sahabat Nabi juga disamakan dengan manusia lain.

v. ilmu agama tentang Kebenaran dan Hakikat disamakan dengan ilmu pengetahuan biasa.

vi. pemimpin masyarakat yang layak disamakan dengan yang tidak dan kurang.

vii. kehidupan akhirat disamakan dengan kehidupan duniawi.

sedangkan kesemuanya ada nilai yang berbeza peringkat-peringkatnya


D. ILMUWAN PALSU DAN PEMERINTAH PALSU

1. Al-Qur'an dan al-Sunnah adalah sumber para Imam merumuskan panduan-panduan kehidupan (usul). Berdasarkan kepada garis-garis panduan inilah huraian-huraian yang selanjutnya ditambah dan dimajukan oleh para pakar sehingga berkembang dan terbinanya madhhab.

2. Kalau dibandingkan kehidupan dan karya-karya mereka, para ilmuwan yang suka mengkritik ulama silam dan madhhab sebenarnya adalah lemah ilmu: tiada daya ijtihad, kehalusan penyelidikan, ketajaman fikiran, kedalaman pandangan batin dan sifat amanah seperti para ulama silam itu.

3. Sebaliknya, ulama palsu hanya gemar bertelingkah, tidak putus-putus bertentang faham (malahan sebahagiannya kafir-mengkafir) dalam perkara-perkara remeh.

4. Mereka asyik menekankan perbezaan-perbezaan dalam dan antara mazhab, dan membataskan ilmu pada fiqh semata-mata.

5. Ramai para pemerintah politik yang turut gemarkan peperangan yang berpanjangan, merosakkan umat, menimbulkan kekacauan besar. Contoh: Timurlane tidak menakluk Rusia dan China tetapi menjajah Parsi, Turki, Mesir.


E. PENYAMARATAAN ILMU FARDU ‘AYN DAN FARDU KIFAYAH

1. Ilmu fardu ‘ayn bersumberkan Wahyu, ilmu fardu kifayah bersumberkan akal fikiran.

2. Ilmu fardu 'ayn ilmu panduan (kehidupan), ilmu fardu kifayah ilmu alat.

3. Sepatutnya, sistem pendidikan Islam sentiasa seimbang antara ilmu fardu 'ayn dengan ilmu fardu kifayah dalam setiap peringkat.

4. Ibarat dua mata yang seimbang memiliki satu pandangan yang jitu.

5. Ketidakseimbangan ilmu fardu 'ayn dengan fardu kifayah menyebabkan ilmu fardu 'ayn terbantut pada peringkat kanak-kanak, tidak bertambah, tidak berkembang; sebaliknya ilmu fardu kifayah di sepanjang hayat bertambah berkali-kali ganda, terus-terusan berkembang. Ini melahirkan pemimpin masyarakat yang lemah keislamannya lagi berbahaya. Ini juga menyebabkan Islam tampak sebagai gagal menyahut tantangan zaman sehingga ditanggapi sebagai tidak relevan dengan pembangunan dan kemajuan masyarakat.

6. Penyamarataan ilmu menyebabkan metodologi rasional (ilmu fardu kifayah) dikenakan kepada ilmu fardu 'ayn.

7. Penyamarataan ilmu akhirnya menyebabkan yang fardu kifayah dilebihkan daripada yang fardu 'ayn.

8. Keseimbangan ilmu fardu kifayah dan fardu 'ayn mampu melahirkan pandangan hidup Islam yang bermakna, pendidikan Islam yang tertib, dam seterusnya Muslimin yang cemerlang dan serba-sedia untuk menegakkan negara Islam dan ummah yang kukuh.


F. SEKULARIS MENYADUR METODOLOGI, HASIL PEMIKIRAN DAN AMALAN BARAT

1. Golongan terpelajar—pemimpin dalam tiap sektor masyarakat--memahami Islam dengan sangat minima, tidak sepadan dengan kedudukan sosialnya yang sangat strategik, telah menerimapakai metodologi, hasil pemikiran dan amalan Barat.

2. Contohnya kekeliruan mengenai konsep KEBEBASAN (seperti hak-hak asasi, kesamaan antara semua manusia dan toleransi), NILAI-NILAI dan KEBAIKAN, KEBAHAGIAAN, PERUBAHAN SOSIAL, PEMBANGUNAN MASYARAKAT dan KEMAJUAN NEGARA. Konsep-konsep ini biasanya difahami dalam semangat kebudayaan Barat yang berteraskan ideologi-ideologi SEKULAR (seperti EVOLUSIONISME, SOSIALISME, DEMOKRASI), DUALISME, HUMANISME dan TRAGEDI. Semua ini mencerminkan kekeliruan mengenai faham KETUHANAN, WAHYU, ALAM SEMESTA, INSAN, ILMU, AGAMA, dan seterusnya.

3. Berlaku dalam bidang falsafah, antropologi, sosiologi, linguistik, psikologi dan pedagogi.

4. Polisi-polisi Negara dan dasar-dasar masyarakat lazimnya adalah saduran Barat.

5. Golongan ini malas dari segi akal dan ilmu, kurang kreativiti, tidak mampu berijtihad. Mereka membiarkan para pemikir Barat mengenalpasti dan memikirkan sesuatu isu, dan mencadangkan penyelesaiannya; lalu mereka ambil, disesuai dan diselaraskan dengan Islam secara longgar. Begitu juga dalam amalan-amalan pendidikan, ekonomi, kewangan, undang-undang, dll.

6. Sepatutnya, kita memahami al-Qur'an dan al-Sunnah, dan khazanah ilmu yang menghuraikan ajarannya oleh para mujtahid silam; dan kemudian mengemukakan konsep-konsep kita sendiri dengan penuh kreativiti dan originaliti.

7. Pemutusan umat daripada sumber-sumber asli dan hasil-hasil tulen ilmiah Islam, yang metodologi dan konsepnya hanya boleh difahami dengan persiapan akliah, rohaniah dan kebahasaan Islam khasnya bahasa al-Qur'an dan al-Sunnah.

8. Ibarat anak yang kurang ajar menutup telinga daripada nasihat ayahnya yang baik dan bijaksana, tekun mendengar pendapat orang asing.

9. Ibarat hamba Barat— mengekor sahaja—masyarakat perpinggiran yang asing dan berpecah belah.

10. Contoh di Alam Melayu: proses pemisahan bahasa Melayu daripada al-Qur'an – perumian telah memutuskannya daripada pemikiran dan tamadun Islam lampau.

11. Ibarat wakil Barat, ancaman luaran telah menjadi tantangan dalaman; ibarat dar al-harb telah menjelajah dar al-Islam; umpama musuh dalam selimut; umpama musang berbulu ayam.


G. TASAUF, TARIQAT DAN KEMUNDURAN UMAT

1. Dalam abad ke-13 umat Islam mengalami huru-hara dan malapetaka dalam bentuk gelombang Perang Salib (melawan seluruh bangsa Eropah), dan Peperangan dengan Bangsa Gasar Tartar dan Mongol; di samping perang-perang saudara sesama kaum Muslimin yang lain.

2. Tariqat tasauf mula diperkenalkan demi mengukuhkan iman dan akhlak, memantapkan tamadun Islam dengan kesusasteraan yang amat agung, indah dan berseni.

3. Tasauf adalah dimensi dalaman Islam: pendalaman shari'ah melibatkan keikhlasan dan kebenaran; pengabdian dirinya yang cemerlang; ibadat berserta cahaya pengenalan akliah dan pengertian rohaniah mengenai pelbagai hakikat (maratib al-haqa’iq al-wujudiyyah), iaitu sumber adab sejati; asasnya keyakinan atau hikmah ilahiyyah atau al-'ilm al-ladunniy atau 'ilmu wahbi.

4. Peristilahan, konsep-konsep, huraian-huraian, dan amalan-amalan Tasauf yang tulen datang daripada al-Quran dan al-Sunnah.

5. Para penghurai dan pengamal Tasauf yang tulen adalah para awliya’.

6. Mulai abad ke- 15, keruntuhan adab menyusup dalam tarikat Tasauf: kejahilan, salahfaham, salahkena, salahamal. Timbulnya pelbagai kekeliruan, kerosakan, keterlaluan, penyelewengan dari lslam.

7. Harus dibezakan dengan sejelas-jelasnya antara yang benar dan yang palsu, dan salahkan yang palsu. Jangan membersihkan Islam dari noda-noda kekotoran (tasauf) hingga merosakkan agama—ibarat menggunakan sabun pembersih yang berlebihan atau salah jenis—hingga timbul kemerosotan dalam amalan-amalan Islam seperti zikir, muraqabah, mushahadah, dan salat sunat; hingga timbul kesangsian terhadap kebenaran dan kejujuran imam mujtahidin, ulama yang benar dan para awliya’ yang memimpin kita.

8. Kiasan: Anak murid dengan Gurunya mengenai titik-titik hitam di tembok.

H. MAKNA TA'DIB

1. Ta'dib, atau Pengadaban, yakni pendidikan Islam, dari peringkat tinggi, menengah hingga rendah, dari ilmu fardu 'ayn hingga ilmu fardu kifayah, mencerminkan manusia dan hakikat dirinya.

2. Makna Ta'dib (Pendidikan lslam): proses dan usaha bagi menyerapkan, memupuk dan menjelmakan adab pada diri manusia. Ia melibatkan:

i. mendisiplinkan diri akliah dan rohaniah
ii. memperoleh ciri-ciri akliah dan rohaniah yang cemerlang (mahmudah)
iii. melaksanakan perbuatan yang betul lagi tepat, bukan yang salah dan silap
iv. memelihara diri daripada kesalahan dalam ilmu dan daripada aib
v. mengenali dan mengakui 'tempat' yang betul dan tepat bagi segala sesuatu
vi. kaedah mengetahui hingga terzahir keadilan (iaitu keadaan berada dalam tempat yang betul dan tepat)
vii. cerminan keadilan yang tergambar dalam hikmah


I. APLIKASI TA’DIB: ILMU-ILMU FARDU 'AYN

1. Perlu ada keseimbangan pengajaran ilmu fardu 'ayn dan ilmu fardu kifayah dalam setiap peringkat: taman asuhan, sekolah rendah, sekolah menengah, maktab, universiti, sewaktu bekerja, dan seterusnya selepas bersara.

2. Silap faham makna ilmu fardu 'ayn:-

i. dari segi kandungan: terbatas dan habis setakat belajar membaca al-Qur'an, hadis 40, hukum-hakam sembahyang, puasa, zakat dan haji, dan sifat 20, iaitu mengenai asas agama secara yang paling mudah

ii. dari segi peringkat: terbatas, statik dan habis setakat peringkat kanak-kanak, setakat tadika, sekolah rendah agama dan satu matapelajaran sekolah menengah. Hampir-hampir tiada di peringkat institusi-institusi pengajian tinggi dan tiada sesudah universiti (ketika bekerja). Selepas bersara???

3. Makna sebenar ilmu fardu 'ayn adalah dinamik dan tidak statik: -

i. i’tiqad atau simpulan kepercayaan dan keyakinan hati dan pembenarannya (ithbat) secara tetap, kekal, kukuh dan tidak berubah-ubah di dalam diri mengenai perkara-perkara asas dalam Agama Islam yang terkandung dalam makna dua kalimah shahadah – berkembang menurut getaran, goncangan, kerisauan, kebimbangan, kekhuatiran dan keraguan hati terhadap perkara-perkara tersebut – sama ada berpunca dari tabiat, watak, perangai atau pembawaan sendiri atau pengaruh masyarakat – perkara-perkara yang direka-reka dalam akidah dan kemunkaran akidah seperti anti-hadith dan mencela sahabat - seperti sekularisasi sebagai program falsafah, kebudayaan dunia Barat dan seterusnya

ii. perbuatan yang wajib dilaksanakan – berkembang mengikut masa – kiasan sembahyang lima waktu, puasa ramadan, zakat harta, haji dan seterusnya – semakin lama seseorang itu hidup, semakin berkembanglah ruanglingkup ilmu-ilmu fardu 'aynnya –

iii. perkara yang wajib ditinggalkan - berkembang menurut keadaan seseorang yang berbeza-beza antara satu sama lain - contohnya bisu, buta, orang ulu berbanding dengan orang yang sempuma - apa yang terlepas daripada kita, tidaklah diwajibkan mempelajarinya; apa yang tidak terlepas daripada kita, wajiblah mempelajarinya - seperti makan-minum, pakaian, hubungan lelaki perempuan, dan seterusnya

iv. keinginan, kesukaan, bisikan-bisikan musuh dan langkah malaikat kebiasaannya manusia tidak terlepas dari panggilan kejahatan, riya', dengki dan sifat-sifat tercela yang selainnya - ilmu sifat-sifat yang membinasakan diri yang perlu - definisi dan batasnya, sebab-sebabnya, tanda-tandanya dan cara mengubatinya

v. risalah – syurga, neraka, kebangkitan dari kubur, pengumpulan di padang mahsyar, azab kubur

4. Panduan al-Imam al-Ghazzali dalam Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din: Setiap hamba Allah dalam perkembangan hal-ehwalnya, siangnya dan malamnya, adalah tidak terlepas dari kejadian-kejadian dan susulan terhadap kejadian-kejadian tersebut yang berkaitan dengan ibadahnya dan mu'amalahnya secara terus menerus. Maka lazimkanlah bertanya tentang kejadian-kejadian yang jarang terjadi dan wajiblah bersegera mempelajari apa yang biasanya terjadi dalam waktu dekat

5. Menurut al-Khawarizmi dalam Mubid al-Humum wa Mufid al-‘Ulum, ilmu fardu 'ayn wajib ke atas semua manusia:-

a. masyarakat awam atau golongan terpilih,
b. pemerintah atau menteri,
c. yang merdeka atau hamba,
d. yang tua dan yang muda,
dan seterusnya....

contohnya,
syarat-syarat mu'amalah bagi seorang peniaga
hukum-hakam perkahwinan (pertunangan, pernikahan, beranak-pinak) bagi seorang yang berumahtangga
hukum-hakam pemerintahan dan kepemimpinan bagi seseorang pemerintah seperti hak-hak dan cara-cara memenuhi hak-hak rakyat, syarat-syarat siasah dan politik
perniagaan yang diharamkan dan terma-terma yang batal bagi seseorang peniaga


J. APLIKASI TA'DIB: ILMU-ILMU FARDU KIFAYAH

1. Ilmu-ilmu bukan-Shari'ah yang terpuji yang tidak dapat dikesampingkan dalam menegakkan urusan duniawi. Jelasnya ilmu-ilmu kemanusiaan, sains tabii, sains gunaan, teknologi, perbandingan agama, kebudayaan dan tamadun Barat, ilmu-ilmu bahasa, sejarah dan seterusnya lagi.

2. Ilmu-ilmu Shari'ah (yang terpuji) yang menegakkan urusan duniawi. Iaitu, dengan perantaraan bahasa al-Qur'an dan al-Sunnah sebagai sumber, ratusan peraturan dan hukum-hakam untuk mentadbir dan memandu kehidupan masyarakat Islam yang telah diperundangkan oleh Allah Ta'ala dalam urusan jual-beli dan perdagangan, hidup-mati dan harta pewarisan, nikah-kahwin dan perceraian, jenayah dan ketatanegaraan, dan seterusnya.


K. TAJUK-TAJUK YANG BERKAITAN

1. Keutamaan umat Islam sekarang bukanlah bertelagah mengenai isu-isu remeh-temeh kemadhhaban atau fiqh atau hukum-hakam.

2. Setelah mengetahui yang paling asas tentang Islam, keutamaan kita—dalam dunia yang sedang dikuasai oleh kebudayaan Barat—adalah untuk memahami, di antaranya, Pandangan Islam mengenai Hakikat, Kebenaran dan Kehidupan; Islam sebagai Faham Agama (al-Din) dan Asas Akhlak; Kedudukan Wahyu (al-Qur'an dan al-Sunnah) dalam Islam; Allah: Diri, Nama-Nama dan Af'al-Nya (al-Tawhid); Alam Semesta sebagai Ayat Allah; Faham Ilmu dan Pembudayaannya; Cabaran Kebudayaan Barat @ Masalah Luaran Kaum Muslimin: Agama, Ketenteraan, Ilmu; Masalah Dalaman Kaum Muslimin: Ilmu, Adab, Kepimpinan; Penyahbaratan dan Pengislaman Ilmu dan Bahasa; Pengadaban (al-Ta'dib) sebagai Faham Pendidikan dalam Islam termasuk Faham Universiti (kulliyyah-jami'ah); Bahaya Sekularisasi dan Ancamannya terhadap Alam Tabii, Politik dan Nilai; Bahasa Islam sebagai Cermin Pandangan Hidupnya; Hakikat dan Sifat Insan; Faham Akhlak, Konsep Kebebasan (Ikhtiyar) dan Hak Asasi; Makna dan Pengalaman Kebahagiaan (al-Sa’adah); Islam dan Perubahan Hebat Sejarah Dunia Barat dan Alam Melayu; Pengaruh dan Kesan Islam dalam Kebudayaan Melayu: Pemikiran, Bahasa, Persuratan; Faham Perubahan, Pembangunan dan Kemajuan (Change, Development, Progress); Masyarakat Madani: Islamic Civil Society.

RUJUKAN (PROF. AL-ATTAS DAN PROF. WAN)

Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, "Kata Pengantar: Konsep Baru mengenai Renchana serta Chara-Gaya Penelitian Ilmiah Pengkajian Bahasa, Kesusasteraan dan Kebudayaan Melayu di Jabatan Bahasa dan Kesusasteraan Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia," Jabatan Bahasa dan Kesusasteraan Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Jabatan Bahasa dan Kesusasteraan Melayu, UKM, 1972.

_____, Risalah untuk Kaum Muslimin. Kuala Lumpur: manuskrip yang belum diterbitkan, Februari, 1973.

_____, "The Muslim Dilemma," dan "The Dewesternization of Knowledge," bab IV dan V dalam karya beliau Islam and Secularism. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1978; edisi kedua dengan Kata Pengantar Baru, ISTAC, 1993; atau dalam karya beliau yang lain Islam, Secularism and the Philosophy of the Future. London: Mansell, 1985.

_____, The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework for an Islamic Philosophy of Education. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1980. Juga diterbitkan sebagai bab VI dalam Islam, Secularism and the Philosophy of the Future (lihat di atas).

_____, "Address of Acceptance of Appointment to the al-Ghazali Chair of Islamic Thought." Dalam Commemorative Volume on the Conferment of the Ghazali Chair of Islamic Thought on Prof. Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas. Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1994. Terj. "Menghadapi Cabaran Sekularisme." oleh Dr. Baharuddin Ahmad. Dewan Masyarakat, Mac 1994, mss. 14-16, 23.

Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: An Exposition of the Original Concept of Islamization. Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1998.


RUJUKAN LAIN

Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, "Faysal al-Tafriqah," Majmu’at al-Rasa'il al-Imam al-Ghazzali, 7 jil. dlm. 1. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah. t.t. 3:75-99.

Ahmad Ibn al-Naqib al-Misri, 'Umdat al-Salik wa 'Uddat al-Nasik: Reliance of the Traveller. teks, huraian and lampiran ed. dan ter . Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Maryland: Amana, ed. kedua 1994.

Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, mukhtasar jil. I-VI oleh D.C. Sornervell. New York: Oxford University Press, 1947.

Denis Gril, "Adab and Revelation or One of the Foundations of the Hermeneutics of Ibn 'Arabi," dalam Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi: A Commemorative Volume. Ed. Stephen Hirtenstein and Michael Tiernan. Dorset: Element, 1993, mss. 228-63.

Edward G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia. terbitan pertama oleh Unwin, 1902. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928.

Mahmud Mahmud al-Ghurab, al-Fiqh 'inda 'l-Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyi 'l-Din Ibn al 'Arabi. Damshiq: Matba'at Nadir, 1981, Edisi kedua 1993.

Muhyi 'l-Din b. Sharaf al-Nawawi, Al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1996.

Al-Sayyid Murtada al-Zabidi, Ithaf al-Sadah al-Muttaqin bi Sharh Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, 1989.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Come! Let us all be friends for once,
Let us make life easy on us,
Let us be lovers and loved ones,
The earth shall be left to no one!

Yunus Emre
Anatolia

Friday, March 31, 2006

Mufti of Egypt

The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr Ali Jum'aa a.k.a Dr Ali Ghom'aa


An interview with Dr Ali Ghom'aa, maybe one of the best living faqih of Egypt. I met him during my visit to Cairo 2 years ago when he was delivering khutbah in Mosque of Sultan Hassan.Wonderful man and he speaks English better than myself.
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By Amina Elbendary in Ahram Magazine

These are difficult and confusing times to be a Muslim.

You talk to Muslims from all walks of life and they tell you: the days of glory are long gone, these are times of strife, and at best of challenge. You listen to people in the West talk of Islam and you're scared. What is this religion that makes people want to kill? What is this archaic system of thought that makes people so backward? Just last month the Nobel prize for literature went to the Trinidad-born British novelist V S Naipaul, who argues vehemently -- among other things -- that Islam is just not fit for the modern world.

Indeed, it sometimes seems that Islam has been hijacked by powers from both ends of an imaginary intellectual spectrum and that reduce it to violence (jihad?) and discrimination against women (hijab?). Whether staunchly Orientalist and anti-Muslim or staunchly fanatic and puritan, these two poles offer a confusing and scary (if unbelievably simplistic) picture of a rich cultural and religious tradition that goes back 15 centuries.

In the midst of this confusion, compounded by international political developments, there have been shy efforts in the Middle East and in the West to (re)define just what Islam is. Others, in apparently more traditional settings, have gone on doing what their predecessors have been doing for centuries. They teach, they preach, they write, they live their lives and call themselves Muslims. Others call them ulama.

There is -- naturally -- a certain aura about Al- Azhar, and a certain majesty. It was a Thursday morning when we went and were guided quite quickly to "Doctor Ali's lesson." It could have been a scene out of the middle ages. Al-Maqrizi could have written this. Across the spotless white marble we entered the doctor's riwaq (gallery). The lesson was already underway, Sheikh Ali Gomaa sitting with his legs up, knees bent, on a large traditional chair, his back to a wall and his students around him in a semi-circle, a halaqa, the men closer to him, the women discreetly at the back. They came in different colours, the students, in different costumes, from various corners of the globe, extremely young and middle-aged, traditionally-dressed, Westernised, you name it. We took our places amongst the women, at the back -- of course. All around the riwaq are bookcases laden with hard-backed volumes of the canons of jurisprudence. This was a lesson in economics, out of Al-Suyuti.

Ali Gomaa is professor of usul al-fiqh (the four canons of Islamic jurisprudence -- Qur'an, Sunna, qiyas or analogy, and ijma' or consensus) at the Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar University. He is also the khatib (orator) of the Sultan Hassan Mosque. His is not a name that is often mentioned in the press or on television; he's not one of the "popular media ulama," but he too has his sermons recorded on tape, and the Friday prayers at Sultan Hassan have their regulars.

For the inevitable introduction, one had to move out of the women's circle and encroach on the men's. Despite the flagrant trespass, I was completely ignored for a good while. And then suddenly he turned, impatiently it seemed, and asked what it was I wanted. I was from Al-Ahram Weekly? The Profile? "Sit down here on this chair, my child," he said and turned back to the students, who gathered around him asking him last-minute questions and favours. I preferred the ground, thank you.

A middle-aged woman with a little boy pushed her way through. "I want to ask him to help me get the boy into hospital."

Suddenly, the sheikh's mobile phone rang: the Nokia melody. And we were whisked back to the 21st.

And now to business, follow me, my child. Follow him we did, into his rooms off the riwaq, two offices and a sitting room carpeted quite modestly with the mass-produced red carpet now common to most mosques, several cushions thrown around to sit on and an ugly glass table with a mini-fridge on top. Nothing else: quite bare, this room. But there were windows on Al-Azhar street. And there was light.

How does one approach a man of God? Certainly with reverence. Remember not to extend your hand to shake his (I was forewarned). Dress modestly. I came prepared with a headscarf, notebook and tape recorder.

But he is hardly what one would expect of an 'alim.

He does not dress like one; no turban, no quftan; just one of those sporty summery cotton suits, at one time the emblem of the loyal government employee, blue, with a checked shirt underneath. Head bare, silver grey beard fashionably trimmed. Turko- Mongol traces in the face.

And he doesn't talk like the religious scholars on television. Except for the occasional "ya bunayyati," he talks in colloquial Arabic -- even with his students.

Could he please sit there, to let God's light fall on his face? Randa inquired quite respectfully. "What is this business of 'God's light? God's light is everywhere. Why don't you just speak directly? You want to take good photographs. Wait until we're done and then we'll go into my office and you can get better photos there. I've done a little photography myself, you see. You won't like any of those photographs. What you will like is the one you will take in the office." Smile.

Sheikh Ali GomaaSheikh Ali Gomaa is quite well-known in scholarly circles. He has authored more than 20 books. But they're too difficult and specialised for the lay reader, he tells me dismissively. He is the general editor of the Encyclopaedia of Hadith launched just last month as part of the Sunna Project of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, a mega project aimed at documenting and publishing all works related to Muslim Sunna.

Yet unlike many ulama, Ali Gomaa did not enter the religious establishment in boyhood. He studied at the Faculty of Commerce, obtaining his BA from Ain Shams University in 1973. He then enrolled at the University of Al-Azhar, obtaining a BA in 1979, an MA in 1985 and a PhD in Shari'a and law in 1988. So why the change of course? What urges a man in this day and age to become an 'alim? Was it a family tradition?

"No, my father was actually a lawyer. But I was very influenced by him. I learnt a lot from him. I used to watch him analyse cases and prepare his briefs. I used to watch him stand up for what is right, unafraid of the powers that be. He used to address police officers and judges quite confidently. They were different times. He was also an avid reader, and our library at home was well-stocked. I've learnt to love reading from him. I read everything. My own library takes up three flats, I have more than 30,000 volumes in it."

But did he receive a particular calling? Why did he change paths? Which of his roles does he prefer: teacher, preacher or scholar? He quite cleverly avoids that. "It is not only a matter of choice. It is God who guides you, God who decides. The important thing is always to work hard and do your best at whatever you do, and pray to God to help you succeed."

The seminal Encyclopaedia of Hadith is his latest scholarly achievement. An ongoing project, it so far includes the seven major collections of hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Mohamed), and is also available on CD-Rom. This modern technology makes cross-references and links between hadiths infinitely easier. The documentation of hadith, and indeed hadith scholarship itself, is one of the achievements of classical Islam. But why an Encyclopaedia of Hadith now? Are modern ulama attempting to reinvent the wheel? Hasn't all this been done before?

"We lost it," Gomaa states emphatically. "We lost the methodology, and we are in dire need of it in Muslim thought now. We are not trying to rejuvenate a history that is archaic; we are trying to rejuvenate a paradigm. This paradigm consists of a holistic vision of the universe that includes humanity and animal kind. A Muslim deals with reality, he deals with this door you see here, realising it too worships God; he deals with natural resources respectfully while other cultures are only beginning to think of protecting the environment. He deals with animals respectfully as well, so that a woman who locked up a cat will go to hell because she dealt with the universe violently, while a prostitute who saved a dog from thirst will go to paradise. What beauty! This is the foundation of a whole man, a man who has a certain understanding of the universe."

All through our encounter the sheikh fingered his long, striking prayer beads. They stand out, they are not subdued or traditional beads. Well, he concedes almost shyly, they're modelled after Sheikh Abdel- Qader Al-Jilani's, which he saw in Brunei. They are made of boxwood, which he bought in Saudi Arabia and had made into beads according to this elaborate design, here in Cairo. It is a very tough kind of wood, he explains, used in making handmills. His beads have multiple counters, so that he can actually count to a hundred million prayers on them! Sometimes it takes him a week to finish a round, sometimes less.

But Muslims are now often perceived as violent people, their views archaic and out of this world. So who is this generic Muslim he is after, really? And how is he to deal with the modern world?

"Ever since the time of the Prophet they have been fighting us. This is nothing new, and the clash is not new... I mean the West, the Moscow- Washington axis, has been fighting the Tangier- Jakarta axis ever since the Prophet was sent and is still doing so today. We, on this axis of Tangier- Jakarta/Ghana-Fergana, now referred to as the South, mind our own business; but the other axis, the North, has been fighting us across ages.

"When we entered the countries [during the Arab Muslim conquests of the Middle East in the seventh century], ya bunayyati, we didn't force anyone into anything... We intermarried, and marriage means making a family and complete assimilation. Marriage is not about conflict but about affection, serenity and mercy. We didn't kill the native populations as they did in Australia and America, nor did we set up inquisition courts as they did in Spain, nor did we force anyone to convert to our religion.

"They, on the other hand (and we play dumb and ask 'who's they?'), they stole our children, enslaved them and humiliated them and wouldn't apologise in Durban. They set up inquisition courts and forced Muslims to abandon their religion and tortured them to death in Spain and expelled them. Look at racial discrimination: until today, Anglo-Saxons are the ones controlling those established democracies. Not one black [political leader] has risen, nor will one; no woman has ruled America, nor will one. Something basic is crying out here, saying: these people are good, and these people are evil.

"See, the Muslim is he whose sources of knowledge are both revelation and existence. There is God's visible book, this universe we live in; and God's written book, the mushaf: a major book and a minor book and both are from God. And a Muslim is ordered to read two readings: 'Read; In the name of thy Lord who createth, Createth man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who teacheth by the pen, Teacheth man that which he knew not' (The Clot, 96:1-5) -- a reading in the visible book and a reading in the written book.

"You see, a non-Muslim reads only one reading, in God's visible book only, the universe. He does not see a God behind this universe, and when a God is recognised He is seen as detached from this world and man does what he wants: laissez faire, laissez passer. I say no: Laissez faire laissez passer is theirs, not ours. As a Muslim I say listen to the Shari'a, see what God is ordering you to do, see what is good for this universe and do it."

A Muslim's way out of the principal historical predicament passes through rejuvenation of the Muslim paradigm, Gomaa explains. That will only happen through a return to both books of Islam, the visible and the written. The real predicament is that Muslims today are the products of a cultural attack "that has kept us away from the book and from understanding it. Anyone who reads it and understands it will find the first words to be: 'In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate' -- not in the name of God the Merciful the Vengeful, by the way, or in the name of God the Vengeful the Almighty. God is Merciful and Compassionate, as well as Vengeful and Almighty, but God chose two of his names of beauty, rather than two of his names of power, to begin the Qur'an. It is as if God is telling us stay beautiful, keeping power and vengeance for Himself. And even this is out of His mercy; to teach people lessons, so as not to do evil or harm others."

There was quite a crowd at Sultan Hassan for last Friday's prayers, the first of Ramadan. Many came in families, babies and all. There was a noisy air of celebration, especially as the children went on with their games around the open-air ablutions fountain in the middle of the mosque, unmindful of sermon and prayers, the mosque almost an extension of home. Afterwards people gathered to buy recorded tapes of previous sermons. "Last week's khutba was very good, you must get it," a kind gentleman advised. "Has Sheikh Ali shaved his beard this week?" a young boy asked his father.

At the mosque he dresses in the traditional garb. Last Friday's khutba outlined a programme for Ramadan: how a Muslim should spend this holy month. This is a month of prayer, and of charity. The market is stagnant, the sheikh reminded the believers; you need to spend money to enliven it, so spend money on charity. And it is a month of maintaining family contacts, and of mercy; have mercy on each other. It is Muslims who do evil unto themselves and each other, he admonished -- not "others." Particularly pertinent words in light of the ongoing turmoil.

The khutba naturally ended in prayers, the believers chanting after the sheikh from the four iwans of Sultan Hassan, crying "Aamin," their voices moving from one side of the building to the other like the waves of a calm sea. "God grant victory to the mujahidin everywhere... God grant victory to Muslims everywhere... God, we seek your protection from their evil... God, You who are the most Merciful, have mercy on us... God, make our hearts steadfast in faith... God, do not let our calamity be in our religion, do not let this life be our sole concern or all we own... God, You who are the most Merciful,, have mercy on us, You who are the Saviour save us. God, You who are the most Merciful, answer our prayers." Words that have been repeated for centuries, and yet still have poignant relevance today.

"A Muslim today is the product of a [Westernised] education that comes from England and the US," he laments. "Such an education doesn't teach us that the whole universe worships God; it doesn't teach us the hadith that if a Muslim has a budding plant in his hands when the day of judgement comes, let him plant it first. Where did this beauty go? After you teach [a young Muslim] nonsense -- that there is nothing beyond this world, nothing except conflict, and that man is by nature violent, that there is conflict between civilisations, conflict between man and the gods as in Greek mythology, and you deprive him of 'the Merciful, the Compassionate' -- after this sort of indoctrination, a boy is lost between ideas he just doesn't understand, he approaches the books haphazardly and finds that God says 'faqtulu al-mushrikin haythu wagadtumuhum (slay the idolaters wherever ye find them)' (Al-Tawba 9:5) But who is the mushrik, the polytheist? He really doesn't know. Anybody could be a mushrik and so he shoots just anybody."

Muslims today are confused, he insists, because they are brought up according to contradicting doctrines and philosophies. When Muslims were raised according to the truths of Islam, they were civilised people, they were productive. "Now Muslims are lost between two worlds and confused, not knowing what to belong to. There is no consistency between their faith and the governing systems and regimes they live under: educationally, legally, socially, and even politically. The public order Muslims live within is all taken from non-Muslim sources. There is a contradiction here. We need to restore a Muslim public order. This abnormal situation we are in, in terms of terrorism and violence, is something foreign to Muslims and it is the result of this lack of consistency. We need to understand and reinstate the Muslim paradigm and it is for this that we edit books like the Encyclopaedia. It is the duty of each Muslim, wherever he belongs, to work towards living a life consistent with Islam. But unfortunately the powers that be everywhere are afraid of Islam. Others do not trust this paradigm; they think it is too idealistic."

So obviously an individual Muslim needs a helping hand to extricate himself from this modern predicament. He needs someone to guide him, to show him the way to approach God and His books. But who? "Myself," the sheikh says instinctively, reassuringly (himself being the enlightened man of God), but also, perhaps, too confidently.

In addition to his traditional scholarly training, you can tell that his interests are wide. He reads a lot in philosophy, economics and literature. He's quite interested in carpets, he appreciates a good carpet, and semi-precious stones. He's also quite interested in Arabic calligraphy. His handwriting is respectable, yes, but not amazing -- or so he tells me. But he is interested in calligraphy as an art and in its philosophical aspects. Arabic calligraphy is so beautiful, he explains. The most beautiful Arabic script is that used in King Fouad's 1921 mushaf, the writing of the late Sheikh Mohamed Khalaf El- Husseini. And it is this script that was developed into a digitalised typeface for the Encyclopaedia. It is very important that Islamic books be well- produced and attractive. He appreciates beauty, God's work, around him.

And he's travelled widely, from Japan to the United States. Travel is quite important. Contact with people from various cultural backgrounds and trying to explain and spread the message of Islam: this was an important part of Sheikh Ali Gomaa's career. "It changes one's outlook. You see different peoples living differently. One learns a lot in trying to reformulate one's message of Islam to reach different audiences. There are different levels of discourse. I had to deal with African tribes, for example. And their women were half-naked. These are their customs and way of life. You can't just go in there and attack these customs. You learn to reformulate your message so as to make people love God." He also travels frequently to the United States, where one of his daughters lives with her family. The son-in-law is an American, but quite a practicing Muslim, quite a nice chap, we are told. Will things be more difficult for Muslims in America now? "No, no, they can't. They can't undermine the very fundamentals of freedom and equality on which the US is built."

It is perhaps telling that Sheikh Ali Gomaa's curriculum vitae starts with the familiar information name, address, certificates, positions, publications and so on. And then the final section lists his ijazas, like any traditional 'alim. Four ulama have particularly influenced his learning and education: his professor of hadith, Abdallah El-Saddiq El- Ghumari, his professor of usul al-fiqh; Mohamed Abul-Nur Zuhair, his professor of Shafi'i jurisprudence; Gad El-Rabb Ramadan and Sheikh El- Husseini Youssef El-Sheikh.

He himself, like many a contemporary Muslim, is also a product of more than one world. But unlike many others, he seems to have navigated and negotiated a way out of the modern predicament, to be living a modern life consistent with the teachings of Islam. "God doesn't change what is within people until they change what is within themselves. We must each change ourselves. Start with yourself. Start today. Do not confuse yourself, start living your life according to the tenets of Islam," he advises earnestly.

But do we not already?

God knows best...