Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Man experiences ups and downs in his life, he is sometimes happy but at other times he is sad. Sometimes he is lucky, while other times he is unlucky. He is healthy sometimes and sick at other times. Among man's happiness is getting help when he is in troubles, getting easiness when he is in difficulties, and visited by his relatives and friends when he is sick. Visiting a sick person is a good deed that will be greatly rewarded by Allah.

Rasulullah once said a sentence whose meaning is:
"When one visits a sick person or visit a friend having a same religion, then a call (from Allah) is heard: 'you are a kind-hearted man, your going is good, and you have been building your own palace in the heaven'." (Hadith of Muslim)

In visiting a sick person, Islam gives us following guidance as follow:
1. Pray for the sick person that he will get healthy back soon, when visiting him. A prayer exemplified by Messenger of Allah is "La ba`sa `alaika, tahu run insyaa Allah".

The meaning is "don't be worry about your sickness, insya Allah (because of your sickness) you will be a person who are cleaned from sins. (Hadith of bukhari)

2. Place right hand on the sick person's forehead by praying:
Allahumma rabbun na si, azhib al ba`sa, wa asyfi anta as Sya fi, la syifa a illa syifa uka syifa an la yugha diru saqaman.

The meaning is: O Allah, God who created man, please eliminate his sickness, O Allah please heal him/her, since You're the Most Healer, no healing without healing from You, a healing which doesn't leave any sickness (Hadith of Bukhari).

2. Don't visit a sick person in a too-long time, since it may be disturbing the sick person or his family

3 . The visitations should be done repeatedly if the sick person wishes them, so that he will feel that others pay him attention.

4. Ask the sick person to be patient and ridla (acquiesced) to decisions and fate of Allah. Give him/her hope that he will probably recover his/her health and remind him not to be hopeless and not to hope to die soon, although his/her sickness may be so heavy. The Messenger of Allah once said "Don't any one of you hope to die soon because of a disaster happening to him."

However, if dead is indeed the best condition in this case, it is recommended that we pray as follow:
Allahumma ahyini ma ka nat al haya tu khairan li wa tawaffani iza ka nat al wafa tu khairan li.

The meaning is: O Allah, let me still alive if live is indeed better for me, or please let me die, if die is indeed better for me (muttafaq 'alaih)
6. It is a sunna for the sick person to recall the good deeds that he/she has already done. This is to encourage the sick person to confirm his husnuzzon (positive thinking) to Allah. In addition, he should also remember the hikmah of his sickness as gift of Allah to erase his sins, to increase his rewards, and to elevate his position.

7. It is recommended that the sick person increases his zikr to Allah and that he doesn't forget to declare testament/will to his family, especially regarding debt matters, things that are amanat (mandate) of others, or declare to bequeath parts of his property to the way of Allah.
Read More

Tahajjud (al hujud) itself in the perspective of lughawi means to sleep. Meanwhile, the meaning of the term "tahajjud prayer" is a sunnat prayer done after sleeping at night. Unlike istikharah prayer and hajat prayer whose communication materials with Allah are already definitive, tahajjud prayer is done not because of any conceptualised wish, but it is a prayer that really has a function as a media for approaching Allah, taqarrub ilallah. Tahajjud prayer is a time in which a slave wants to express his longing, devotion, intimacy to God, The Creator. Tahajjud prayer is a forum between two lovers, a longing mukmin, with Allah (The Beneficent). Therefore, ethically tahajjud prayer is done while others sleeping soundly and not done together (in a jamaah) so that the atmosphere between the two isn't disturbed.

In the tahajjud prayer, a lover may cry, laugh, complain, and unite his love. Tahajjud prayer is really is a plus (nafilah) of a slave's obedience to his God. Other prayers have definitive amounts of rakaats, while tahajjud prayer may be done in accordance the necessity of the person doing it, depending on the person uniting his love, depending on how long his longing to meet his lover is met. Tahajjud prayer may be done in 2, 20, or 100 rakaats, depending on its level of intimacy (al inbisath wa al âuns). In the tahajjud prayer a mukmin may travel crossing the border between this world and the unlimited spiritual world, in what may be called the mikraj of a mukmin.

Journey to the spiritual world
Journey here means that one is departing in searching for something, but in this case also means returning to the original place. In the first meaning, one is more influenced by his wish, while in the second, one is more influenced by his belief. Invisible world means the area that can't be seen. Things can't be seen since they are blocked by space and time or blocked by different dimensions. The invisible world is the world behind the visible world. The visible world can be detected by technology, while the invisible world can be detected only spiritual tools. Dream world, barzakh world (the world in the grave) and the day-after world are invisible worlds. Peak of the invisibilities is the Most Invisible, Allah.
We can travel to the dream world, we can even arrange a kind of "teleconference" in this dream world, but the travel can't be confirmed except by the one experiencing it. There are two kinds of dreams, ruâya al haqq and adhghotsu ahlam. The first is guaranteed to be right and has a kind of reason, while the second kind has no reason and doesn't cause any belief. Spiritual travelling may lead us to the destination, but we also can mislead in it. Therefore, a musafir (traveller) should equip himself with map and compass and a guide (mursyid) if required. Artists, shaman, philosophers, and mutadayyin can be these spiritual travellers.

Returning to the blessing of Allah
Returning refers to original place, therefore returning to the blessing of Allah (to die) means return to one's original place, in the lap of Allah, the Merciful. The phrase "returning to the blessing of Allah" is inspired by the sentence "inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji`un", verily we are belong to Allah and we will go back to Him. However, there are some people intentionally program their lives to go back to him, while some others never program their lives and then feel shocked when suddenly "drawn from the circulation" or die.

Why we returning to the blessing of Allah?
The concept of returning comes from the concept of creation. There are two theories explaining how mankind is created, which is al faidh (endowment) theory and isyraqi (shining) theory. According to the first theory, man is an endowment and blessing of Allah. Allah has abundant blessings, one of them is mankind. Furthermore, there are men themselves have different doses of affections. The peaking power of blessing in mankind causes a longing to return to the blessing of Allah.

Meanwhile, according to the second theory, man is the shining of light (nur) of Allah. Therefore, in man there is a power of truth light that can't lie, we call it nurani. As a creation of The Most Perfect God, man is tajalli (manifestation) of blessing of Allah. Therefore, Allah is the Holy and there are aspects of holiness in man. Allah is the Beneficent and the Merciful, so that there is affection in man. Allah is the Most Great, so that in man the trait of overly proud (takabbur) sometimes emerges. Essentially, all traits of Allah (the Most Perfect) show their traces imperfectly in man He creates.

Like the sun heat that always tries to return to its original heat up there, consciously or unconsciously man often longs to return to his original light, Allah. The programmed journey of returning is called taqarrub ilallah, approaching Allah.

Three Ways of Returning
If we realise that we have to return to God, then we have to consider the route map, which route to pass: shortcuts, highway, or alternative road.

1. Highway. Highway is an ordinary, conventional road whose direction and traffics are clear, so we don't need any guide. This kind of highway in the science of tassawuf is called thoriqat al akhyar (the road of good persons) or also may be called thariqat as syar`i (the shariah road).

2. Shortcut. Shortcut here means a not-complicated road, it may be shorter that the highway but it takes an extra power. This kind of road in tassawuf is called thariqat ahl az zikr, the road of master of zikr. The master of zikr's way of thinking is similar to political way of thinking. If we want to quickly arrive to destination, then we have to own access to political rulers or to be perceived as political supporters. If we want to pass crowd of PDI mass safely, just shout "Long live Megawati, then we will pass them safely. If we want to pass crowd of PKS mass, just shout "Long live Adang Dani, then we will pass the crowd safely. If we want to pass crowd of PKB mass, just shout "Long live Gus Dur", and we will pass safely, and so on. However, the real ruler of this world is Allah, then if we want to be safe in approaching Him, just do zikr uttering His names, then we will be safe.

3. Alternative road. This road is usually farther, but we can see many beautiful sights during the trip. Some people wouldn't mind to pass the alternative road. Although it is far and hard, but they feel happy passing it. According to the science of tassawuf this road is called mujahadat as syaqa, a road full of difficulties. They who choose this road are ashamed of sleeping in the bed, eating delicious foods, wearing luxury clothes, travelling by planes since they feel that they don't sufficiently thank to God who had given them feet and other things. They do hajj by riding bicycles or by walking. In essential, they choose the hard ways but they enjoy them.

Climbing Stairway to Approach Allah
The word "climbing" here refers to a position, that man is low and Allah is the Most High, therefore man has to climb to approach Him. Position of Allah is so high and so far so that we can't approach Him only through one trip. We have climb through stairs or through stations or maqamats. The stations are

1. Station of Tawbah with three tickets we have to buy:
a. Ticket of repentance
b. Ticket of promise
c. Ticket of proof
After buying these three tickets, we will find the second station:

2. Station of Zuhud; with requirements:
a. Keep away from material world
b. Live a simple life
c. Don't be seduced by world delight and material delight
After passing station Zuhud, we will pass the following station, which is

3. Station of Wara` with a characteristic that here we keep away for syubhat (doubtful) things.
Then we will the next station:

4. Station of Faqr, with characteristics
a. low level of basic necessities
b. don't ask for anything except as necessary
c. don't ask for a thing although we don't have it

5. Station of Patience (Sabar)
a. Patient in doing religious services
b. Patient in facing disasters
c. Patient in doing obligations
Patience here is tolerating by not complaining or upset:
- in facing trials and obstacles
- for a certain period
-in order to achieve a goal

6. Station of Tawakkal
Here we:
a. Completely surrender to God's will
b. Do not necessities (materials) for the future
c. Feel sufficient about things that are available at present
d. Feel restful although don't have much things
e. If we have something, we feel that other may need it more

7. Big Station for al Muqarrabin
After passing through the stairway of stations (maqamat), we will arrive at the last station of the journey that contain of ma'ridat, ridlaa, and love. Those who have achieved this stage are categorised as persons who are near to Allah (al muqarrabin). The three conditions only can be known through spiritual experiences.
Ridla means happy and satisfied about any thing given by God, so that person who is ridla always be cheerful and bright.

Ma'rifat means familiar with someone, not only knowing him/her.
Love. If we are familiar with someone, we may be in love with him/her. If we love someone, everything coming from the beloved one will always make us happy.
When climbing, a mutasawwif feels fear God and worries about Him, but after get closer to Him, he feels that Allah is not a God who tends to be angry to His slaves, but a God who loves and cares about His slaves. Therefore, his fear disappears and instead of it, his love feeling to God emerges. In the station of Ridla, his love to God is burning in his heart, at that time a mutasawuf arrives at the station of live, and he becomes a sufi.

Characteristics of his love are
1. Obeying God and hating any attitude against Him
2. Surrendering himself to God the Beloved One
3. Empty his heart from anything else that the Beloved One.

In the highest level, the sufis unite with God, like mentioned in the following conditions:
Ittihad, man succeeds in achieving the highest level so that he unites with his God, after experiencing fana dan baqa

Hulul, God chooses His selected servants in whom He manifests His divine traits or characteristics. In tassawuf, terms "nasut" and "lahut" are known. Nasut is divine traits, while lahut is humane traits. God has nasut and lahut, meanwhile man has lahut and nasut. Al Hallaj and Syekh Siti Jenar once experienced the hulul. Allah Hall once said "I am the Truth (ana al Haqq) or I am Allah. Sufis who has achieved this level are called insan kamil, the perfect persons.

This level is also called wahdatul wujud or wahdatus syuhud. The first terms means uniting in existence, while the second terms means they (God and man) seem as if they are in union but in fact they are not.
Read More

Ibn Khaldun who lived various places in Tunis, Granada, and Egypt (1332-1406) is often called one of persons who built the basics of Sociology. Although the fourteenth century is named the century of Neo-Hambalisme in which Ibn Taimiyyah and his disciples made sure the victory of Neo Hambalism against scholastic theology and philosophy and Muslim intellectuals began to become dim, Ibn Khaldun-and Mullah Shadra-was the exception. Mulla Shadra was very influential in the East, while Ibny Khaldun possessed major influence in the West. The scientist who was once offered by Timur Lengk to live in his palace was not only rich in his scientific ideas, but also was also rich in public (and legal) experiences. That kind of richness caused Ibn Khaldun's theories of historical philosophy and political sociology were practical or earthly. Strong basics of his knowledge in geography, politics, and culture caused him to understand the sunatullah of changes in society, so that he accepted monarchic political system as a natural thing.

One of Ibn Khaldun's theories is very interested if it is used in analysing Indonesian history. In his Muqadimmah (Introduction), Ibn Khaldun proposed following five stages of a country's life: (1) stage of consolidation in which the country's authority based on democracy is supported by the society (`ashabiyyah), (2) stage of tyranny, (3) stage of misusing the country's authority for the sake of the ruler's interests, (4) stage of safeguarding in which various threats emerges and the ruler regards critical groups as enemies, and (5) stage of collapse in which the ruling system no longer functions.

In Ibn Khaldun's opinion, those stages cause three generations to emerge: (1) Developing Generation that with all of their simplicity and sincere solidarity obey authority of the power they support (2) Enjoying Generation, those who are economically and politically benefited in the power system. They aren't sensitive to the interests of the nation and the country any longer. (3) Generation who doesn't care about their own country. They can do anything they like without considering their country's fate. If a nation/country has reached this stage, then collapse of the country as a sunnatullah will possibly happen immediately, and according to Ibn Khaldun this process will happen for about one century.

An interesting thing happening in Indonesia as a nation in the perspective of the theory of Ibn Khaldun mentioned above is that the three generations are now existing in the same time after only about a half decade of independence. At present we still can see a lot of people representing the 45 generation which can be categorised as the first category. The megacase of corruption, collusion, and nepotism in Pertamina, Bank Bali case, and architects of various social riots in various areas, and so on are indicators of existences of the second and third generations.

Ibn Khaldun, like Rousseau, believes that a society that was originally good or at least neutral can be damaged by civilisation. In nomadic condition, a society tends to be male, wealthy, and aggressive. It is the established urban civilisation that causes it to be sluggish, passive, and languid, provoking invasion(s) causing the society to fall into a prey. It is very interested to find out that at this time the Indonesian societies can be categorised into five groups in terms of advancement (1) societies living in ultra modern condition in big cities (2) modern societies, (3) traditional societies in rural areas, (4) backward societies such as alienated tribes, (5) societies "living in stone age" like those living in certain rural areas in West Irian. We can imagine how social orders of those Indonesian societies will be damaged if they have to receive uniform global culture packages through electronic media.

Indonesians appreciate Ibn Khaldun among other by name two universities after him: Jakarta University of Ibnu Khaldun and Bogor University of Ibnu Khaldun. Although Indonesians often find difficulties in national leadership successions, there is an excellent example of leadership succession in Bogor University of Ibn Khaldun. Since the head of the university position was held by AM Saifuddin, the leader positions are not longer "sacral" but totally functional. Position exchanges from rector of university to dean or assistant rector and vice versa happen systematically and without any psychological burden. Rais Ahmad who was previously the rector of the university without any psychological burden became the assistant rector of the university in the next period. However, the example provided by Ibn Khaldun university is indeed less spectacular that case of Khalid bin Walid, who knightly accepted the decision of Khalifah Umar bin Khattab degrading him from the commander position he held before to become an usual soldier.
Read More

Since love is original condition (fitrah) of the heart then the love feeling grows together with the function of the heart as a psychological instrument. Some people become adult (falling in love in this case) quickly, but most of them are normal in terms of love feeling, while some others grows lately. In an 8-10 year person, vaguely love feeling to the opposite sex begins to appear although it was often denied. In the first period of puberty (15-17 year), love feeling often emerges and looks for object. A teenager/child in puberty ages who haven't found another person in the opposite sex as his/her love object will get restless from time to time. It doesn't mean, however, that when the teenager finds his love object his/her heart will be restful, since love in the puberty time is like a flaring fire or rolling waves. Puberty love is burning but not established yet, so it is easily broken and changed with another love object. It is beautiful, seducing, but also flaring. It is very rare that pubertal love leads to a marriage.

After the first puberty, in age of 21-25, the love feeling emerges usually is an established feeling. It may emerge because of the first sight, or because of daily interactions.

Love at the First Sight
Love at the first sight is usually triggered by the meeting of certain elements of attraction and certain tastes. The attraction may be coming from the whole figure of someone, or from his deadly glance, his charming smile, his sweet voice, or his very impressing distinctive behaviour. In this case, these distinctive or unique attractions meet a person with distinctive taste. Love can't be scientifically analysed since love isn't part of any science, but it is a part of feeling.
It is difficult to explain the sweetness of sugar as much as it is difficult to analyse the thundering of love. One who has felt the sweetness of sugar, although he can't explain it scientifically, but the sweetness of sugar becomes a haqqul yaqin (very strong belief) which can't be broken by any argument saying that sugar isn't sweet. Likewise, one who has felt the sweetness love will not listen to judgements of others that are based on various analyses.

Love at the first sight is usually sincere, pure, and not sex-connoted. Meanwhile, attractions of chapped-lips, sleek forehead, hip, breast, calves, and so on usually do not cause love at the first sight, but are merely sexual attractions.

Love through Intensive Interaction
Love also can grow because of long communications, for example love between two students attending lectures together, two partners at work, two persons coming from a same distant area, two friends with same problems, or even between a master's son and his servant. Two persons previously hating each other after a long interaction may become love each other. Why? Long interaction, mainly interaction among those facing same or similar problems will show the true characters a person, whether the person is understanding, honest, loyal, or not. Daily living for a long time will change cognitive recognition into affective recognition so that if a person is already known as a charming person then comfort, cheerfulness, and tranquillity will felt during together with him/her. On the contrary, feelings of losing and loneliness will emerge if two persons in love with each other have to separate, and if they have to wait any longer, a missing feeling will disturb them. This psychological process cause in their hearts the beauty of feeling and imagine of hopeful future will probably be created in each of them. Love also may emerge between two persons who often write letters, phone, or chat through the Internet with each other although they haven't met with each other since voices and expression of words may penetrate hearts and cause love to grow.

Inspiration of Love
Love also can grow through inspiration. Inspiration here means an idea suddenly and strongly implanted in the heart. Such an inspiration can be preceded by meetings, by introduction of various ideas through readings, or by dreams. A girl can suddenly fall in love with a leader after seeing him makes a speech, and after it the leader can't disappear from her heart, dominating all of her feelings, at nights he becomes her dreams, at days he becomes her remembrances. There may be a reader who often read a book or novel of a writer. The reader actually had read his books, interested in and admiring his writings. Then at a time her feeling suddenly becomes love, love to the writer, although she hasn't met him.

Inspiration also can come from dreams. According to an interpretation of Al Quran, once upon a time Zulaikha, a daughter of a Yemen governor was planned to marry to a princess, but she refused the plan since she had dreamed of marrying a food affairs minister of a Pharaoh kingdom in Egypt. She was so charmed by the figure the Egyptian minister at her dream. His father accepted the idea and went to Egypt to meet a minister of food affairs. The minister welcomed the dream of the beautiful girl of Yemen. However, Zulaikha was surprised knowing that her to-be husband was so different with the one she had met at her dream.

The minister she had seen in her dream was handsome and very young, while the minister who would marry him was an old widower. Feeling ashamed, Zulaikhan didn't dare to refuse to marry him, then she indeed married him and later was brought to Egypt as a minister's wife. Years gone by but they didn't have any child yet. Once upon a time when they were travelling, they found a child named Yusuf who had been thrown into a well and even sold as a slave by his brothers. Zulaikha advised her husband to buy the slave and to treat him as an adopted child. Life went on and Yusuf grew as a handsome teenager taken care by Zulaikha. Zulaikha passionately interested in the very charming Yusuf, let also her husband had already very old.
Zulaikha's seductions were not successful, but according to the interpretation later Yusuf was imprisoned to protect good reputation of the minister's wife. After he had been imprisoned for years, the truth revealed itself.

Yusuf was declared to be not guilty, and Zulaikha admitted that she had been stuck on him. In brief, later Zulaikha's husband passed away. The king noticed that Yusuf had an extraordinary intelligence, so that he was later appointed to replace Zulaikha's husband as minister. Later, since Yusuf actually was also in love with Zulaikha, they married with each other. After Yusuf really becoming her husband, Zulaikha said, "This is the man I had seen in my dream when I was still a girl". Hence, Zulaikha's love had been inspired when Yusuf was still a child and Zulaikha hadn't known him.
Read More