Thursday, July 26, 2007

Man is a social being and a unique individual at the same time. As a social being, a man needs other men to actualise himself. Without other men, a man can’t be a man. What a man will be also depends on with whom he is socialising. Social interactions in a society give rise to social norms that are values agreed on by the society as goodness. According to ethics, those norms are called social ethics, while science of akhlaq calls those social norms al ma’ruf that are things socially known by the society as goodness. In accordance with the wide scope of human interactions, ethics has some branches, such as social ethics, political ethics, business ethics, medicine ethics, and so on. All those are guidances on what should do and what should not do in each field. Since ethics has mind or culture as its sources, all of its branches only regulate order of values in horizontal relations among men.

Meanwhile, akhlaq has universal values of divine revelations as its sources; its scope includes horizontal relations among men and between men and their environment and vertical relations between man and his God. In detail, man’s akhlaq in the perspective of vertical and horizontal relations consists of:

A. MAN’S AKHLAQ TO OTHERS
1. Akhlaq to Prophets
God gives his guidance to man in four levels that are (1) instinct, (2) the five senses, (3) mind, and (4) revelation. The first and the second guidances are also given to animals, in addition to man. The second guidance, mind, are the thing that makes human different from animals. With his mind, man can solve problems so that man is able to plan, to evaluate, and arrange things. Although man has physical limitations, for example he can’t fly like a bird and he can’t dive like a fish, with his mind, man can compensate those weaknesses. With technology he creates, man is able to rule the earth and its atmosphere for fulfilling his life necessities.
In addition to understanding technical things, man with his mind can distinguish between good things and bad things, between things ethically should be done and things should not be done.

Therefore, man has responsibilities for his behaviours, both to his society as a social system and to his God in the day after. Mind, however, can’t determine universal truth, since everyone has a different capacity of mind. Truth perceived by the mind is highly relative, since man is influenced by subjective things so that he can’t achieve the true happiness if he only uses his mind. Mind only can find truth but doesn’t determine it. To complete His blessings, God gives man the fourth guidance, revelation. Revelation is the universal truth submitted by God to guide man in achieving the true happiness. In accordance with man’s ability in absorbing information, God sent Prophets and Messengers as revelation-bringers and models of how to live rightly at the same time.

In Christianity, Jesus is called a living revelation, while in Islam, Prophet Muhammad is regarded as manifestation of the truth values of revelation of Al Quran (kana khuluquhu al Qur'an) and model for human (uswah hasanah). Prophets are God’s messengers sent to human societies. There are some prophets sent to a certain community in a certain period of time, while there is also a prophet sent to guide human in all periods of time. According to Islam, Prophet Muhammad, as the closing or the latest prophet, has teachings for all human beings until the end of time. Basically, there is no inconsistency or contradiction between revelations brought by earlier prophets and revelations brought by later prophets since all of them has the same source (min manba'in wahid).

Manifestations of man’s akhlaq to prophets will be mentioned. When a prophet still lives, ethically and rationally people in his period, in welcoming appearance of a God’s messenger, should accept, respect, and believe him. Al Quran mentions that a believer should believe a prophet (Q: 7: 157), do not reject him (Q: 3:184), do not speak loud to him, be courteous (Q: 49: 2), do not hurt his feeling (Q: 33; 53), and don’t kill him (Q: 3: 21). Furthermore, man is ordered to love and defend him and follow his sunnah.

After a prophet had passed away, a believer’s behaviour to him should be:

(a) Following his sunnah. Sunnah has a wider meaning than that of hadith. Prophet’s sunnah consists of daily behaviours modelled by him when he does religious services, becomes the head of his family, becomes the head of his country, becomes someone’s friend, becomes a citizen, becomes a commander at war, and so on. It is often debated that whether the prophet’s sunnah that should be followed is limited on his behaviours as a messenger or also including his behaviours as a “basyar”, an ordinary man. According to majority (jumhur) of ulamas, all behaviours of prophet Muhammad, when he does his tasks as a messenger and as an ordinary man, is a sunnah that should be followed, since even his behaviours as an ordinary man is enlightened (guided) by revelation so that there is nothing of his behaviours is blameworthy. Critiques of the orientalists on Prophet Muhammad’s behaviours—on polygamy, for example, are not accurate in general since their analyses are not comprehensive.

(b) Loving him. Manifestation of loving a prophet among others are following his sunnah, reading shalawat for him, giving one’s children and grandchildren names having something to with him, and putting emphasis on following his sunnah than on following other things. Shalawah is ma’tsurah prayer, a prayer taught by the prophet and even is commanded in Al Quran. For Prophet Muhammad himself as a ma’sum (holy) messenger, his followers’ prayers actually do not give any effect. Shalawat is more a necessity of one uttering it since he/she hopes for the prophet’s syafaat (intercession) in the day after. Meanwhile, commemorating maulid (birthday) of the prophet is more a part of culture and social necessity of Islamic community, it is not based on his recommendatio