Monday, December 10, 2007

Introduction to Stories from Underground: Forbidden Jihad.

Every Muslim has to believe that source of Islam is Al Quran and that Al Quran is a teaching of truth coming from the Most Truth God. Doubting the truth of Al Quran is a form of human stupidity since Al Quran revealed to the earth as a guidance for taqwa (pious) people is a holy book in which no doubt about its truth (la roiba fihi). Al Quran is the perfect truth coming from the Most Perfect God.Avenues to the Truth (1)
Introduction to Stories from Underground: Forbidden Jihad.

The problem that the man that has to absorb the perfect truth is not a perfect creature. Man is a creature who has limitations, even spiritual/psychological tools of man (mind, heart, and conscience) used to apprehend the truth are also unique, so that every person can have different perceptions on the same object, influenced by different ways of thinking, or different psychological situations. Therefore, truth based on man’s perceptions also depends on perspectives used. We possibly know following terms, “mathematical truth”, “logical truth”, “philosophical truth”, “social truth”, and “sufistic truth”. Logical truth can still be divided further since there are mathematical logic, social logic, and heavenly logic. We can try to understand religion based on logical, philosophical, social, and spiritual approaches, with very different outputs. It is not the religion as the object that is different, but the perceptions resulted because of the different approaches.

Truth Levels of Religion
In history of Indonesia’s politics, the implementation of Pancasila as the only foundation had caused continuous conflicts between Islamic organisations and the government, since some of the Islamic societal organisations regarded the implementation of principles Pancasila is a violation on religious beliefs. Some accidents sometime happened in which some Muslim students refused to participate in flag ceremonies, since they regarded giving salutation to a red-and-white flag is a syirik (polytheistic) action. We can see a remnant of this implementation of Pancasila as the only foundation in Indonesia in the case of Abu Bakar Basyir. In fact, the problem arose because of different perceptions; at what level a religion should be regarded as an absolute religion and at what level a religion regarded as not having absolute role. Based on perspective mentioned above, religion can be understood in five levels as follow:

1. Religion of Islam as meant by Allah
When we say that Islam is complete, perfect, holy, high, and nothing exceeds it (al Islamu ya`lu wa la yu`la `alaih), what we really mean by Islam at that level is the teaching of Islam as meant by Alllah himself. At this level, perfect and absolute truth of Islam is contained in the truth of Al Quran’s revelations. At this level, Islam is a concept of teachings contained in the holy book, not according to ulamas, nor according to what written in the books. The statement that Islam is perfect is completely right in this context.

2 Religion of Islam as exemplified by Prophet Muhammad
The concept of Islam is completely perfect and comes from the Most Perfect God. Then man who has to understand it, however, is not a perfect creature, since he has to try to perceive what he see or listen. Between the perfection of Islam and imperfection of man there is a wide gap. Therefore, man often has wrong perception and misunderstands religious teachings. In order to comprehend the perfect truth of Al Quran, examples are required. Muhammad as the messenger of God is an example of the truth of Al Quran, so it is said in a hadith that the Prophet’s akhlaq is Al Quran (kana khuluquhu al Qurân). As an exemplar of Islam, Nabi never did a significant mistake, since he was always under guidance of Allah. Whenever he did a mistake, he was then corrected immediately through Gabriel angel. Correction given to the Prophet is mentioned in Al Quran: 66:1. Therefore, the religion of Islam as exemplified by Prophet Muhammad is also absolutely right. If Al Quran is a theory, then Prophet Muhammad’s behaviours are the practice. In Islamic legal system, the Prophet’s hadith in some cases serve as the explanation of Al Quran, but in other cases serve to establish certain law, complementing Al Quran.

3. The religion of Islam as understood by the Prophet’s companions (shahabahs)
Prophet Muhammad gave examples on how to live rightly under the guidance of Al Quran’s revelations. The people living during his life (called the Prophet’s shahabahs) saw and imitated Prophet Muhammad’s behaviours. The shahabahs, however, had different abilities as ordinary men in perceiving examples given by Prophet Muhammad. Some of them were highly intelligent, while some other were intelligent and less intelligent. In terms of opportunities, some shahabahs were very closed to him, near or together with him almost everyday or every time, while others only met him for a while everyday, some other shahabahs only met him only once a week. Their different frequencies in meeting the Prophet made abilities of shahabahs in understanding the Prophet’s behaviours were also different. Some only imitated his behaviours, but people like Umar bin Chattab, for example, didn’t only imitate what they’ve seen from him but also comprehended the essences of the Messenger’s behaviours. Therefore, in various things Umar often had opinions different from those of others. At this level, religion of Islam is comprehension on the main sources, Al Quran and hadith. The shahabahs tried to understand Al Quran and to understand what exemplified by the Prophet.

Those different comprehensions create not-absolute truth. Religion of Islam at this level has truth that is not absolute, but since they were more closed to the Prophet and motivated by their love to him, comprehension’s of the shahabahs on Islam were more close to the truth. The importance of love of Allah and His prophet was appreciated by the Prophet by saying that “my shahabahs are like stars, you may seek obtain directions from any star” (ashabi ka an nujum, biayyi iqtadaitum ihtadaitum).

4. Religion of Islam as understood by ulamas
After all shahabahs and tabiin has passed away, we only have ulamas to be referred in terms of religious affairs. The ulamas understood Islam not directly from Prophet Muhammad or from his shahabahs, but from Al Quran and hadith and from religious traditions existing in the Islamic community. Therefore, the two sources were interpreted in one way or another. Some ulamas tended to be rationalistic, while some others tended to follow traditions. All opinions resulted from those interpretation also had possibilities to be wrong or right, and the opinions themselves were different and various. Therefore, in the period of early ulamas, various religious mazhabs (schools of thought) were born. In terms of fiqh, there were mazhabs Syafii, Hambali, Hanafi and Maliki, for example. These mazhabs also emerged in other disciplines. Like the shahabahs, some ulamas tended to be philosophy-oriented, while others tended to be tradition-oriented. Ulamas lived in big cities such as Bagdad and Basrah tend to think rationally. They developed method for comprehending religion (usul fiqh) by using a logical approach. They did ijtihad by proposing logical arguments (dalil ‘aqly) in accordance with many demands of big cities (metropolises) in which new problems arose everyday, requiring dynamic responds. Meanwhile, ulamas living in agrarian cities tended to follow religious traditions adopted for a long time ago by subordinating logical arguments. In disciples of fiqh and tafsir (interpretation), these two main groups, the rational ahl ar raâyi ulama group and traditional ahl al atsar ulama group, were evident.

At this level, the process of comprehending religion (Islam) not only developed in terms of law (fiqh), but also in terms of theology (kalam or tawhid), tassawuf, and philosophy. Since the process of comprehending religion (Islam) was interpretative, no absolute truth there. Ulamas even always ended their opinions or beliefs by saying that only Allah knows which opinions were the correct ones, Wallahu a`lamu bis sawab. As noted in the history, sciences in this period developed very rapidly, and at that time almost seven centuries of world history was almost identical with Islamic history, and at the same period, the western world was still in the dark period.

5. Religion of Islam as a tradition of Islamic community
As time goes on, not all Muslims have the opportunity to study Islam from its main sources, Al Quran and hadith, but through religious teachers who having different scientific standards. A lot of people in the past embraced Islam only because their parents or people around them had embraced Islam. At that time, religious comprehension of the community tended to be traditional. Tradition of Islamic communities didn’t always manifest the correct Islamic teachings. It is not impossible that traditions of Islamic communities were in contradiction with the Islamic teachings themselves. Therefore, Muslims should observe traditions critically, good traditions may be maintained, while traditions in contradiction with Islam should be eliminated.