The First Muslim Guerrilla Leader

O mountains of Gounib,
O soldiers of Shamyl,
Shamyl's citadel was full of warriors,

Yet it has fallen, fallen forever ...

I'm reading a book that I bought almost a year ago. As you can see from the old, classic photo above, it's all about a Caucasian warrior who lived in the 18th century. Imam Shamil Daghestani, a Muslim scholar, a Sufi, saint and the Shaykh of Naqshabandi Tariqa of Caucasus who promulgated Shari'ah and eradicated Jahili customs from Daghestan. Apart from that, he yielded his sword against Russian bayonets.

Reading the book by Muhammad Hamid is just like reading an epic story .An epic story of faith in God and a legacy that every Muslims cherish, to be retold from generation to generation. It is enough to say that the Sufi movement, especially in Caucasus post-Ottoman period in the eighteenth century was not a Muslim cult that busied themselves merely chanting their zikr or awrad. Their struggle, refusing to concede and kowtow to slavery is indeed worth reading. A great book, written to tell us a great story of Muslims struggle in Caucasus.

Spending two, three days on this book is way much better than attending BTN course, isn't it?

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha!

Moga mendapat Haji yang mabrur bagi yang melaksanakan ibadah Haji tahun ini.

Yang tidak mengerjakan Haji, semoga ibadah korban yang dilaksanakan diterima oleh Allah SWT.

Hidayah As-Salikin

Off day di Port Dickson, sangat membosankan. Kadangkala aku balik ke KL, kadangkala termanggu sendiri di sini. Memandangkan aku meyimpan banyak khazanah buku yang dibeli semasa ceramah Shaykh Fuad Kamaluddin dan semasa di KL, aku bertekad untuk menghabiskan kesemua buku-buku tersebut. Kali ini aku 'menyemak' kembali kitab yang pernah aku belajar semasa Deen Intensive Dublin 2005. Inilah kitab yang sangat banyak 'barakah' dan manfaatnya. Kalau dulu di Dublin, kami bertalaqqi kitab induknya, Bidayatul Hidayah, kali ini aku cuba menghadam syarahannya oleh Shaykh Abdul Samad Falimbani, ulama Patani yang pernah gigih berjihad dengan pena dan senjata menentang kerajaan Siam. Beliau meninggal sekitar tahun 1246H/1830M. Untuk membaca biografi beliau, sila rujuk tulisan Allahyarham Ustaz Wan Saghir di sini.

Secara jujurnya, meskipun kitab ini dianggap kitab permulaan atau 'basic kit' untuk penuntut dan salikin, aku merasakan untuk beramal dengannya adalah satu perkara yang cukup mencabar. Jika seseorang Muslim berjaya mengamalkan seratus peratus perkara yang dihuraikan dalam kitab ini, dia boleh dianggap sebagai sebaik-baik manusia!

Kitab yang asalnya ditulis dalam tulisan Jawi dengan dialek Patani telahpun diterjemah dalam tulisan Rumi oleh Ustaz Ahmad Fahmi Zamzam an-Nadwi al-Maliki(HafizahUllah). Kitab yang beliau edit ini boleh dianggap baik dan boleh difahami, meskipun ada sesetengah transliterasinya agak janggal dan memerlukan penelitian untuk difahami.

Nasihat-nasihat yang dinukilkan oleh Imam Ghazali meskipun sudah ratusan tahun, jika direnungi masih banyak yang relevan hingga ke hari ini. Contohnya;

" Barangsiapa yang bercampur akan orang yang baru belajar ilmu fiqih pada masa ini nescaya ghalib atas tabiatnya itu berbantah-bantah pada bicara masalah ilmu dan mencela akan perkataan orang dan susah atasnya diam, kerana menjatuhkan kepadanya oleh orang alim yang jahat itu bahawa yang demikian itu yaitu menjadi kelebihan dan kemegahan dan bahawa kuasa atas mendirikan dalil dan kuasa atas membantahi perkataan orang. Dan kuasa atas menjawab perkataan orang itu yang dapat kepujiaan dengan dia, maka hendaklah kau lari dari mereka itu seperti lari dari harimau.."

Maksudnya, jangan terlalu bergaul dengan ulama fiqh semata-mata yang terlalu fokus terhadap masalah-masalah fiqh sahaja lantas gemar menggunakan ilmu mereka untuk menjatuhkan pendapat lawan dan mencetuskan polemik. Bahkan perbalahan idea dan pendapat dijadikan platform untuk menonjolkan kelebihan ilmu dan hujah masing-masing. Bukankah ini yang berlaku pada zaman ini?

Mudah-mudahan dengan keberkatan bulan Zulhijjah ini, kita diberikan kekuatan oleh Allah SWT untuk beramal dengan kandungan kitab yang penuh 'barakah' ini.

Ahli-Ahli PAS sila baca

'Bai'ah' according to Islamic jurisprudence

Hashim Kamali

THE current debate over oath-taking and its combination with divorce and pledge of political allegiance (bai'ah) has caused concern among Muslims to know Islam's own viewpoint on the issue.

The facts remain unclear but continued media coverage of the "oath of loyalty" linked to Pas representatives to divorce their wives (talak tiga) if they jump or quit the party has invoked public disapproval of this manner of oath-taking and its negative impact on the sanctity of marriage.

This is also a reliable indicator of Islam's outlook on this matter and may well provide the basis for a juridical consensus of our learned scholars to proscribe and denounce the oath-taking at issue.

Taking an oath proper (yamin) is permitted, according to the directive of a hadith, but in the name only of God and His revealed speech, the Quran.

Muslims are also cautioned not to debase God's illustrious name in frivolous oath-taking (Q.2:224). An oath may thus be taken for a valid reason, to show earnestness to observe or avoid a certain conduct in the future, or ascertain the truth of a past event, such as of witnesses before a court.

Oath-taking to divorce one's wife is basically ultra vires, but the jurists admitted it as a form of oath due to its continued practice among Muslims of a pre-Islamic usage that survived the advent of Islam. Muslim jurists consider this, not as yamin proper, but something of compromised validity they named as half.

Yet it became moot whether taking an oath on a contingent divorce was an oath proper, or a suspended divorce (talaq ta'liq). Since the oath in question is not in God's name, it is oath in a figurative sense (majazi) only. Muslim jurists have, however, disagreed over the juridical consequences of such an oath.

The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence have held that a suspended divorce takes place when its condition materialises, regardless as to whether it was taken by way of an oath, or a suspended divorce for its own sake. This conclusion is based on a hadith simply declaring that "Muslims are bound by their stipulations". A suspended divorce consequently occurs as pronounced in the first place.

The Zahiri and Shia schools have held that a suspended divorce, be it in the form of an oath or otherwise, does not occur ab initio, due mainly to the existence of doubt over its underlying intent: did he actually mean to divorce his wife or merely to show earnestness in respect of another purpose?

Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328 CE) and his disciple, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, have held that if the suspended divorce was taken by way of an oath only, even when its contingent event materialises, divorce does not occur, but the oath-taker is liable to an expiation (kaffarah) that consists of giving charity or fasting. Ibn Qayyim agrees but holds that no expiation is required.

However, if the suspended divorce is pronounced for its own sake, not combining with an oath, then it does take place whenever its contingent event materialises.

The hadith which declares that "divorce is the worst of all permissible things in the eyes of God" implies that all divorce is reprehensible (makruh).

A suspended divorce, when intended, is worse in the sense that it puts the marriage, which the Quran characterises as a solemn covenant (mithaqan ghaliz) in a state of insecurity and suspense (Q.4:21).

Although essentially a civilian contract concluded between two willing parties, marriage in Islam has a devotional (ta'abbudi) aspect that sets it apart from other contracts.

There is disagreement between the Hanafi and Syafii schools over the interpretation of a Quranic verse authorising women who attain intellectual maturity (rushd) to manage their own property transactions (Q:4:6).

The Hanafis drew the conclusion that if an adult woman is authorised to conclude financial contracts, she can, by analogy, also contract herself into marriage without the intervention of a guardian (wali).

The Syafii's retort that marriage is not like other financial contracts as it involves family relations, hence the analogy at issue is discrepant (qiyas ma'al-fariq), which is void, and the presence of wali is a requirement of marriage even of adult women.

These interpretations remain unresolved to this day. A message one can draw from this may be that marriage and divorce should not be mixed up with other transactions, including party-political matters.

A bai'ah fortified by a suspended divorce is also unprecedented in that it consists of an unconditional pledge of loyalty, which the early Muslims took to support the Prophet in the propagation of Islam and counted as an act of merit (Q.48:10).

The Prophet also took bai'ah from women, as the Quran recounts that "they avoid shirk (associating other deities with God), committing theft, adultery, infanticide, slander..." (Q:60:12).

Following the spread of Islam in Arabia and beyond, bai'ah lost its theological application and took a predominantly political character.

In the constitutional theory of caliphate that Muslim jurists subsequently formulated, bai'ah became a requirement of valid election to the caliphal office.

This was not conditional, however, nor has there been any bai'ah in our history to combine with a suspended divorce. A bai'ah in our times is the rough equivalent of a vote. Just as a vote is unconditional, so is the bai'ah.

A vote in a parliamentary or presidential election cannot take a condition to say, for instance, that "I vote for you provided that you do such and such". A condition of this kind would render the election inconclusive. This can also be said of bai'ah.

The alleged bai'ah-cum-suspended divorce that the media has reported of Pas representatives is unprecedented and amounts to a bid'ah (pernicious innovation), which calls for renunciation and avoidance.

The writer is founding chairman and CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia.

Asri Charged

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18, 2009) : Former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was today charged in the Gombak Timur Lower Syariah Court with teaching matters related to the religion of Islam without "tauliah" (authorisation) from Selangor Islamic Religious Council.

(L-R)Former Perlis MB Datuk Seri Shahidan Kasim talk with Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin at Gombak Timur Syariah Court today.

Mohd Asri @ Abu Talib, 38, who is currently a Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer, denied committing the alleged offence in a house in Taman Sri Ukay Ampang, Gombak, between 8.10pm and 9.45pm on Nov 1.

The charge carries a maximum RM3,000 fine or two years jail upon conviction.

Syariah judge Wan Mahyuddin Wan Mohamad granted RM3,000 bail with two sureties and set Jan 5 for a hearing. Asri, who was clad in a black blazer and songkok, posted bail.

When the case commenced at 9.15am in a packed court room, the charge was read out to Asri who said: "I plead not guilty, claim trial."

Selangor Syarie chief prosecutor Abdul Shukor Abdul Hamid applied for the case to be transferred to the Syariah High Court saying that a supporting affidavit was filed on Nov 12, stating the grounds for the transfer.

He said the application for the transfer was made through power vested under the laws to the Syariah chief prosecutor.

He said the case involved application of law and procedures that required views and accurate interpretations by an experienced judge and that the case received wide coverage involving an influential person.

However, Asri's lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman said the accused was only informed in the morning and that they had no opportunity to file a reply.

She also objected to the charge, saying it did not specify or had details for them to prepare a defence.

"It's blur. What is the meaning of teaching aspects related to religion of Islam without 'tauliah'?" she asked.

Zulkifli Noordin

Another lawyer Jamal Mohd Lokman Sulaiman, who is also representing Asri, argued that the supporting affidavit was filed on Nov 12 when the charge was only presented this morning.

He said the Lower Syariah Court judge was qualified to hear the case and if the case was tried in a Lower Syariah Court, the accused could appeal to the Syariah High Court and the Syariah Appeal Court.

"The fact that the accused is an influential person is irrelevent," he added.

Wan Mahyuddin then rejected the prosecution's application for transfer saying the prosecution had failed to state reasonable grounds.

He reasoned that a transfer to the High Court could only be allowed if the prosecution had reasonable grounds.

"Public interest is important and not individual interest," he said, adding that the case should be speeded up as a transfer would cause delays and delays could prejudice the accused.

"The grounds that he is influential is unreasonable for the case to be transferred to the Syariah High Court. The prosecution can have complete trust in this court to handle the case.

"In this court's view, the prosecution must be consistent, not referring to individual involvement. The accused being known to the public will not affect the delivery of justice," he said.

Wan Mahyuddin said hearing of the case in the lower court would also allow the accused to appeal to the Syariah High Court and Syariah Appeal Court.

Former Perlis Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin and Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir were also in the court premises.