Monday, December 10, 2007

Religious and Cultural Biases

The anti-Pancasila discourses actually come from religious and cultural biases. Islam is a pure religion that also gives rise to various cultures, so later Islamic culture and Muslims cultures emerge. Islamic culture is influenced by Islamic teachings, while some Muslim cultures come from Islamic teachings and others come from other cultures, which may in contradiction with Islamic teachings themselves. Culture is concepts, ideas, and beliefs held by the community for a long time and guiding their behaviours in meeting their life necessities.

There is a principle that is easily remembered in this respect, that religion of Islam is pure in terms of mahdlah (directly oriented to God such as fasting) religious services, and that basically religious rites are forbidden except those which are ordered, meanwhile in terms of culture, mu’amalah, basically all societal cultures are allowed, except those which are forbidden (al ashlu fi al `adapt wa al mu`amalah al ibahah hatta takun dall fi buthlanihi). Therefore, in terms of (pure) religon, no creativity allowed for ummah, but in terms of culture, all cultures are indeed areas of creativity. State, sciences (including religious sciences), Pancasila, and constitution are parts of culture. Similarly, Islamic parties, Islamic societal organisations are products of culture. Even the concept of khalifah is a part of Islamic culture, so that character of khulafa rasyidin is different from those of khilafah of Bani Umaayyah and Abbasiyah. Islamic countries may have forms of kingdoms, republics, dynasties, and constitutional kingdoms, depending on the territorial conditions and creativity of the ummahs. Anti-Pancasila ideology is not an Islamic expression; its position is same as that of Communism that is also anti-Pancasila, those ideologies are parts of culture.

Avenues to the Truth
The truth isn’t always clearly seen like the sun, but it can exist in a far and hidden place so that to approach it we should pass the narrow alleys or climb steep hills. A book named Climbing to Allah which is translated form a book titled Madarij as Salikin, written by a famous salaf ulama, Ibn al Qayyim al Jauzy (691-751 Hijriyya, indicates a relation and distance between small and low man with The Most High God as The Source of Truth, so that man has to climb if he wants to approach Him. Result of the climbing can be that the climber becomes a person close to God (min al muqarrabin), or even unite with Him in existence (wahdah al wujud) or only look as if he unites with God (wahdat as Syuhud). His approaching Allah can be seen as a manifestation of man’s awareness to fulfil His call or can be understood as man disposition to approach like a fire that always move upward (taraqqi) since man, as believed by the concept of al Isyraqi, comes from God so that he has divine characters and always eager to long to return to Him.

According to al Jauzi, the spirit of climbing to Allah is within man’s comprehension on God as indicated in surah al Fatihah al Fatihah Iyyaka na`budu wa iyyaka nasta`in (only You we worship and only you we ask help to). Concentration and dependence with feelings of hope and worry) on Allah stimulate man to travel a long distance to meet Allah beloved, missed, and afraid of. Maulana Syekh Yusuf illustrates three avenues that can be passed in the travel, first, conventional avenues by following shariah routes (thariqah al Akhyar/thariqah as syar`i), second, avenue of zikr (thariqah ahl az Zikr), and, three, avenues that are full of difficulties (method of hurting oneself thariqah mujahidat as syaqaa). The long and climbing avenue is not easily passed, so that there are some stations (maqamats) as stairways (madarij) of achievement of the musafirin (travellers).

The long road to Allah is not an easy-straight avenue but it is full of obstacles and traps. Activists of various movements (harakah) mainly those who become victims of repressive rulers are often entrapped by so many misleading traps so that actually they should be seen as mujahidin but we may perceive them as criminals. The distance to the truth is so long that sufis formulate maqamats or stations, from station of tawbah to station of ridla, or maa’rifat or mahabbah. The hardest station for Muslims in general is the first station, the station of tawbah. The true tawbah (tawbah Nasuha) should fulfil three elements, which are (a) regretting the mistakes done in the past, (b) promising not to do the mistakes again, and (c) really not doing the mistakes again. The first two elements are relatively easy, but the third elements often become a hard obstacle for the person who wants to repent so that he can never pass the station.