Menganalisa Kejatuhan Khilafah Abbasiyah dan Kaitan dengan Politik umat Islam kini
Oleh:
Abu ‘Amrullah Muhammad ADIS El-Merbawiy
1. Pendahuluan
Memilih dan menganalisa kejatuhan Khilafah Abbasiyah adalah suatu studi yang sangat penting, kerana ianya menjelaskan kejatuhan dari the Rennaisance of Muslim Nations, yang sudah barang pasti menyentuh beberapa sudut yang terbaik dan urusan kritikal serta dasar di dalam peradaban umat ini telah pun diabaikan. Sesuai dengan fikrah Jamaah yang mengunjurkan RJ 2 – RJ 4 dengan mengkaji pengalaman dahulu dan terkini, maka pengalaman keruntuhan umat terdahulu wajib ditela’ah agar umat Islam tidak jatuh di dalam satu lubang dua kali.
Suka juga ditarik perhatian bahawa piawaian kemajuan dan keruntuhan yang manakah ingin kita ketengahkan sebagai buah bicara kita pada hari ini. Teringat saya kepada kata-kata al-Imam Malik r.ah., seperti :
لا يصلح هذه الأمة إلا بما صلح به أولها
Maksudnya : “Tidak akan dapat dipulihkan lagi keadaan umat ini, melainkan dengan cara gaya bagaimanakah umat terdahulu (Generasi Rasulullah saw dan para sahabat) itu dipulihkan.”
Maka dalam mengkaji kelemahan umat Islam, mereka akan bakal menemukan muhasabah yang sangat berharga guna untuk membangunkan kembali umat ini di masa hadapan. Justru fasa di zaman kegemilangan Rasulullah saw dan khulfa’ ar-Raasyidin itu disentuh sebagai permbayang kepada kegemilnagan Umat Islam yang telah hilang dari umat ini mengakibatkan mereka tidak berdaya lagi mereka mebangunkannya semula.
2. Pencapaian Kenabian di dalam Tamadun Manusia
Piawaian Pemerintahan Kenabian – qiyadatu an-nabawiyyah dan Khulafa’ur-Raasyidin dan ciri-ciri kecemerlangan
Bentuk Kekuasaan di zaman Nabi saw dapat dilihat di dalam unjuran-unjuran berikut;
2.1 Mandat politik yang datang dari bai‘at ‘Aqabah satu dan dua adalah tapak terdirinya PENGERTIAN Politik yang BESAR dan inay menjadi teras kepada penubuhan “NEGARA ISLAM PERTAMA”. Kita lihat kandungan Bai‘ah kedua : “Pengakuan perwakilan Madinah untuk beriman kepada Allah swt, Rasul saw, taat setia kepada baginda, bersedia mempertahankan Islam dan Rasul saw, serta sedia berperang memeprtahankan marwah dan kesucian Islam” (Seerah, Ibn Hisham, Syarh raudh al-unuf, Jil.1/274-8:1914; karya Dr. Marzuki Mahmud, DBP: hal.3/1994)
Penerusan mandat politik ini diteruskan di kalangan ketua negara terdiri dari sahabat Rasulillah saw iaitu para Khulafaa’ ar-Raasyideen yang dikenali sebagai “bai‘ah”. Ianya masih berjalan di kalangan kerajaan Umayyah seperti contoh Yazid menghantar utusan kepada sayyidina Hussain untuk mendapatkan ba‘ah, lalu gagal. Kesannya Sayyidina Hussain dibunuh oleh panglima Yazid.
Di dalam Sistem Demokrasi mandat diperolehi dari “peti undi” atau “mandat presiden” seperti yang dibuat oleh Amerika Syarikat. Hakikatnya mandat sangat perlu di dalam kestabilan politik dan penerusan kerajaan samada di dalam Islam atau Demokrasi. Bezanya di dalam Islam mandat dari manusia adalah AMANAH agar dilaksanakan ketentuan Allah swt dan SyariatNya yang adil kepada semua manusia. (Dalam hadis al-Qudsi Allah swt menjelaskan: “Sesungguhnya Aku mengaharamkan sebarang kezaliman ke atas diriKu” – Arb.(إني حرمت الظلم على نفسي ). Manakla Demokrasi pula mendapat mandat manusia untuk dilaksanakan terhadap manusia juga. Tidak ada bentuk kaitan dengan keagamaan seperti yang terdapat di dalam perlembagaan Amerika Syarikat.
Bukti Amerika Syarikat bukan sebuah negara Demokrasi Kristian ialah :
George Washington, the Father of our country, and John Adams (Second President of the USA) CLEARLY stated in the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli: "The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.”
G.W. rarely attended church and instead followed a popular 18th century philosophy called Deism—a Star Wars-esque philosophy that believed in a cosmic energy or big-ass universal "Force." The dictionary says that Deism is "a system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation," that had nothing to do with Christian principles.
In fact, it was President Jefferson himself who first wrote (to a Baptist church group in 1802), "The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between Church and State." Therefore, when Jefferson talked about “Nature’s God,” the “Creator” and “divine Providence ” in the Declaration that he wrote, he was being a hippie and referring to a general cosmic energy - not the Christian God.
America is not a Christian nation. Period. Our Constitution derived from the post-Christian Enlightenment values of reason and truth...never from the paranoid yammerings of that otherwise compassionate cult leader who fucking died in the Middle Eastern desert 3000 years ago.
Sehingga Amerika Syarikat itu pun mengambil cara bai ‘ah Umat Islam untuk memilih presiden mereka. Kemudian setelah mendapat mandat penuh, beliau akan melantik barisan kabinet mereka dari parti pemerintah.
2.2 Masyarakat Kuasa Politik adalah ahlu Yathrib terhadap masa depan Islam dan bertanggung jawab untuk menghadapi sebarang kemungkinan dilancarkan ke atas Muhammad saw dan Islam. Menerima tawaran Perwakilan Yathrib ini adalah menjelaskan abjektif dan misi Rsulullah saw bersedia terhadap sebarang perseteruan musuh ke atas Islam yang di bawanya dan keutuhan masyarakat yang bakal dibina baginda saw, sekali pun terpaksa mengahdapi PEPERANGAN. Kerja-kerja ini sering dilakukan oleh mana-mana masyarakat yang bersistematik untuk mencapai hasrat Islam dan penegakkan Masyarakat serta Ummah Islam yang juga boleh dikenali sebagai Masyarakat berpolitik. (Dr. Muhammad Taha Badawi, furudh ilmiyyah fi tafsir ‘alaqat al-harb wa as-salaam, Universiti Beirut, hal.9/1974 ) (Arb., al-khilafah huwa iaqaamutu al-deen wa siyaasatu al-dunya bihi – kekhalifahan itu bahawa engkau menegakkan agama Islam – al-deen, dan pengurusan umat dan kerja-kerja duniawi dengan berpandukan agama tersebut).
2.3 Perlembagaan dan Perundangan Ilahi seperti yang terdapat di dalam sahifah madaniyyah – the first written constitution in the world – pandangan Muhammad Hamidullah. Inilah menjadi undang-undang tubuh negara Umat Islam di zaman baginda saw dan di semua zaman umat Islam sehinga hari kiamat. Ketetapan ini hampir ijmak (sepakat), walau pun ada pandangan yang mengatakan tidak mesti Perundangan Islam (Islamic Constitution) dilaksanakan asalkan kebanyakan objektif amalan Islam dapat berkuatkuasa dan berjalan di negara-negara umat Islam akan diterima sebagai sebuah Negara Islam. (Inilah pandangan yang tidak dapat didamaikan antara umat Islam). Demi langkah perpaduan, umat Islam WAJIB berusaha untuk menerima dan merealisasikan takrif yang hampir Ijmak tersebut - kerana ianya adalah Dasar Penting bagi sesebuah Negara Islam pastilah Perundangan Islam itu menjadi undang-undang tubuh Negara – heretherto that the Islamic Constitution ought to be the supreme law of Muslim Lands. Other provisions are accordingly have to be meaningfully based on the universal approaches which were suited to all human kind from Islamic perspectives..
Perkara inilah tidak boleh menjadi pertikaian di dalam sesebuah negara Umat Islam, samada aliran mazhab apa pun mereka Syiah, Sunnah, Salafiah, Wahabiah, Sufiah dan sebagainya jika wujud kelompok-kelompok Islam yang masih menjaga Syariat dan dua kalimah syahadat serta tidak melakukan perkara-perkara yang mengeluarkan mereka dari Islam secara terang dan nyata. (adis’s review)
2.4 Rasulullah saw andalah Institusi Pemerintahan Tertinggi, bagindalah menguasai “seluruh bidang kuasa Perundangan (Constitutional), Kehakiman (Judiciary) dan Perlaksanaan (Executive)” (Anuar Rifaie, al-Islaam fi hadharathihi wa nudzumihi, cet.11. hal. 70/1982; Dr. Marzuki Mahmud, DBP, hal.4/1994). Inilah kekuatan nubuwwah yang pada manusia biasa tidak boleh dilakukan kerana ketiadaan sifat SIDQU, AMANAH dan FATONAH baginda. Justru sejarah mengajar kita, bila ketiga-ketiga ini dipegang serentak oleh Presiden atau ketua Negara ia akan cenderung menjadi DIKTATOR. Sekalipun demikian Rasulullah saw paling banyak melakukan “SYURAA” dan memberikan kebebasan penuh mengikut keadilan ilmu pengetahuan kehakiman serta perundangan. Lihatlah kes pengadilan sayyidina ‘Ali karramallahu wajhah terhadap kecurian baju besinya oleh seorang Yahudi kepada Qaadhi Syurayk dan juga kebebasan Muadz ibn Jabal memutuskan hukum hakam Islam dengan Ijtihadnya diakui dan diterima baik oleh Rasulullah saw.
2.5 Negara di Zaman Rasulullah saw adalah sebuah Institusi dan Sistem yang rapi gabungan daripada wahyu dan perlaksanaan pengurusan manusia oleh Kenabian Muhammad saw. Perlaksanaannya adalah merupakan terjemahan “Ksempurnaan Sistem Islam yang terdiri dari Aqidah, Syariat, Ibadah dan Sistem pengurusan serta pentadbiran bernegara (Nizam al-Idaariy li al-hukuumah).” Maka kepada kita umat Islam Rasulullah saw begitu jelas telah mengasaskan kaedah-kaedah bagi sebuiah negara yang bersistem dan cukup sempurna. Kesemuanya berdasrkan keperluan masyarakat manusia dan perlaksanaan wahyu Ilahi yang diturunkan, serta mencukupi kepentingan umum yang difikirkan oleh Rasulullah saw. (Zafir al-Qaasimiy, Nidzaam al-hukmi fi al-syariat wa at-tarikh, Jil.1: hal. 46-7/1974; Dr. Marzuki Mahmud, ibid., hal.5/1994)
2. Mengapakah Khilafah Abbasiyah?
3. Zaman Pemerintahan Abbasiyah;
3.1 Ciri-ciri Kegemilangan Abbasiyah
3.2 Ciri-ciri Keruntuhnan Abbasiyyah**
1. Suasana politik dan sosial yang tidak stabil di dunia Islam ketika itu. Pemerintah sibuk dengan peperangan dan hal-ehwal politik dan tidak mengambil berat dengan keilmuan dan para ulamak. Kegemilangan Khilafah ’Abbasiyah dengan fokus kepada keilmuan di zaman al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid, al-Makmun dan al-Mutawakkil. Selepas mereka fokus kepada penjagaan kuasa dan pemerintahan serta proksi dari kalangan Buwayhid syiah dan Seljuk dan Barmakiy Turkey. Begitu juga dengan kerajaan Idris al-Aghlabiy dan Ibrahim al-Aghlabiy yang memohon dari khlifah Harun ar-Rashid untuk mentadbir utara Afrika. Begitu juga dengan Kerajaan Fatimiyah di Mesir melaksanakan polisi Syiah sehingga menyumbangkan keunggulan Madinah az-Zahra dan Universiti al-Azhar.
2. Negara-negara Islam telah menjadi lemah kerana cenderung untuk memerdekakan diri dari Khalifah Abbasiyah di Pusat dan mereka menghadapai masalah tersendiri- di negara masing-masing ( Muluk at-tawa‘if) dari sudut politik pemerintahan. Fitnah kekuasaan diuji Allah swt agar menyaringkan manusia yang menggunakan kuasa untuk Islam dan kepentigan Allah swt dan RasulNya sahaja. Jika gagal menggunakan kuasa ini, gagallah empayer Islam dan umatnya dan jika berjaya dengan ujian ini berjayalah serumpun umat Islam dan bukan Islam berkat mengikuti ajaran Allah swt sebenar.
3. Semangat kemerdekaan diri dan boleh bercanggahan dengan para alim ulamak, kerana hal ini telah mekunturkan hurmat dan pegangan hujjah di kalangan ulamak. Ulamak pun terpaksa mengikut Ideologi negara dan tidak lagi mengikuti prinsip-prinsip Islam hakiki kerana tekanan, kuasa politik dan kerjaya dan sebagainya. (Fadilah Sarnap, Perundangan Islam: Sejarah Perkembangan, sumber dan mazhabnya, hal.319-20/1998)
4. Sistem pemerintahan Abbasiyah tidak mengambil bentuk Syura yang asal seperti yang dilaksanakan oleh Rasulullah saw dan khulafak ar-Raasyidin. Mengutamakan keluarga Bani Hashim bin Abdul Manaf bin Qusay. Mereka ini moyang kepada baginda saw, ‘Abbas bin Abdul Mutalib dan Ali bin Abi Talib. Sekalipun atas nama keluarga Nabi saw Abbas atau Alawiyin, namun sistem memperthankan kaum dan puak adalah suatu bentuk “kembali balik kepada ‘Asabiyyah” yang telah diperangi oleh Rasulullah saw dan Islam. – Asas fanatik puak yang munkar itu ialah bahawa kamu membantu kaum kamu di atas prinsip kebatilan bukan berdasarkan keadilan dan persamaan Islam. (Mohd Rashad Shamsuddin, Khulafaa’ Raasyidun dan Daulah Islamiah, hal.432-3/2000)
Bagaimana pun jika ada justifikasinya kekeluargaan (nepotisma) di dalam politik, namun prinsip kesejagatan dan keadilan Islam, tanpa melihat terhadap ras dan keturunan adalah DASAR PERKAUMAN ISLAM yang unggul iaitu kemuliaan berdasarkan ketaqwaan, bukan keturunan. Inilah pertikaian antara Sunni dan Syiah yang tak pernah selesai. Kembalilah kepada prinsip keagamaan Islam dan prinsip bernegara yang asal di dalam Islam serta berpandukan keilmuan dan ketinggian ketaqwaan menjadi piawaian unggul di daam Islam.
5. Akar umbi kewujudan Khilafah ’Abbasiyah adalah dengan rampasan kuasa kerajaan Umawiyah dari tangan Marwan bin Muhammad di Kufah pada129 Hijrah/ Jun 747 Masihi oleh Abu ’Abbas as-Saffah dan Abu Jaafar al-Mansur. Pada tahun 132 Hijrah/750 masihi Abu Abbas mengisytiharkan diri sebagai khalifah Abbasiyyah pertama. Kesan dari itu, akan ada kerajaan yang tidak mengiktiraf khilafah Abbasiyah dari kalangan keluarga Umawiyah yang menubuhkan kerajaan di Utara Afrika dan memasuki Sepanyol oleh Abdul Rahman bin Muawiyah al-Dakhiliy yang dibantu oleh Tariq bin Ziyad dan Musa bin Nusayr. Sepanyol dan Andalusia dikuasai oleh kerajaan Umawiyah yang terpencil. Keleamahamnya adalah kedua-dua kerajaan ini bukanlah bersatu dengan kekuasaan dan kenegaraan Islam, malah wujud suatu persaingan kuasa yang tidak dapat dipandang ringan.
6. Kerajaan Turkey al-Seljuk berasal dari seorang panglima Saljuk bin Duqaq suku kaum Oghuz* lahir di Turkistan berhampiran dengan Laut Kaspian pada 282 Hijrah. Mengambil alih kuasa dari al-Malik ar-Rahim al-Buwaihid oleh panglima tentera Abbasiyah Torghul Beg pada 447Hijrah/1055 Masihi dan menawan Anatolia pada tahun 504 Hijrah/1071 Masihi. Kerajaan ini bertahan selama 150 tahun kerana sangat kuat berpegang kepada iktikad Ahli sunnah wal jama’ah.
Turkey seljuk sempat membangunkan semula kegemilangan kerajaan Abbasiyah dengan menigkatkan kemajuan ilmu di bidang sains, kaji selidik prubatan, filosofi dan kesusateraan yang diadunkan dengan tradisi budaya Farsi menjadikan Baghdad sekali lagi menjadi tumpuan.
Akibat pelanggaran Tartar oleh Hulagu pada 656 Hijrah/1258 Masihi maka khalifah Abbasiyyah Abdullah al-Musta’sim tumbang dan sekaligus kerjaan kesultanan Seljuk berakhir dengan kemusnahan dahsyat seluruh tinggalan khazanah ilmu dan perpustakaan warisan di zaman kegemilangan Abbasiyah.
4. Kaitan Perbandingan ciri-ciri keruntuhan Tamadun Umat Islam moden – al- inhiyar wa al-istihlaak qiyaadati al-ummah al-ma ‘aasirah.
4.1 Rumusan al- Banna merumuskan beberapa faktor jatuh bangun kerajaan dan kekuasaan Islam. Faktor-faktor ini sangat relevan dengan kelemahan dan kejatuhan umat Islam. Antaranya ;
a. Percakaran politik dan sikap fanatik selain perebutan kuasa dan pagkat. Firman Allah swt bermaksud: ”..jangalah kamu berbantah bantahan jika tidak nescaya kamu menjadi lemah.” (al-Anfal, 46)
b. Perselisihan di dalam asas agama dan mazhab serta salah faham dan peyimpangan yang berlaku di dalam agama Islam. Rasulullah saw bersbda yang bermaksud :”Sesuatu bangsa tidak akan sesat setelah mereka menrima hidayah yang mereka amalkan melainkan apabilamereka mula berdebat.” (al-hadith)
c. Tenggelam di dalam bentuk kemewahan dan kesenangan dunia dan mereka gagal di dalam ujian tersebut. Firman Allah swt bermaksud: ” dan apabila kamu ingin membinasakan sesuatu penduduk di sesebuah negeri, kami perintahkan kepada mereka (terlebih dahulu) orang-orang yang melampau dengan kemewahan di antara mereka (agar mereka kembali taat).” (al-Israa’, 16)
d. Kepimpinan yang bersikap buruk, dan kausa yang diberikan kepada yang tidak berkemampuan. Firman Allah swt :” wahai orang-orang beriman, janganlah kamu mengambil orang-orang yang bukan dari kalangan kamu – menjadi orang dalam (orang kepercayaan).” (Aali-’Imran, 118)
e. Mengabaikan ilmu-ilmu yang berbentuk praktikal dan ilmu-ilmu mengurus keduniaan sebagai faktor mengimarahkannya dengan amanah Allah swt. Friman Allah swt: ”Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad) perhatikan dan fikirkanlah apa yang ada di langit dan apa yang ada di bumi..” (Yunus, 101)
f. Kelekaan pemerintah dengan kuasa yang dimiliki, terpdaya dengan kuasa yang ada serta lupa melihat perkembangan masyarakat lain. Firman Allah swt : ” Dan segungghnya kami jadikan untuk neraka jahanam itu banyak dari kalangan jin dan manusia yang mereka memiliki hati, tetapi tidak memahami dengannya...” (al-A ’raaf, 179)
g. Tertipu dengan helah musuh yang bijak memujuk dan memperdayakan umat Islam. Terpesona dengan usaha-usaha musuh Allah swt. Firman Allah swt :”Wahai orang-orang beriman jika kanu taat akan sesuatu puak dari kalangan orng-orang (Yahudi dan Nasarani), yang diberikan kitab itu, nescaya merek akan mengembalikan kamu menjadi orang-orang kafir sesudah kamu beriman,” (Aali-’Imraan, 100)
h. Kelemahan faktor Aqidah yang akan membawa kepada kepincangan akhlak yang teruk. Firman Allah swt bermaksud:” Wahai orang-orang beriman jika kamu taat kepada orang-orang kafir, nescaya mereka kan menolak kamu kembali kepada kekufuran, dan menjadilah kamu orang-orang yang rugi.” (Aali- ’Imraan, 149)
5. Membentuk langkah kebangkitan ummah masakini.
Al-Imam al-Banna mencadangkan tiga fasa utama yang perlu dilakukan oleh penggerak Dakwah di dalam mengislahkan negara umat Islam:
5.1 Fasa penerangan (marhalat ta‘rif)
Memberikan penerangan tentang kandungan gagasan penglibatan politik Dakwah ini kepada masyarakat. Antara ciri-ciri fasa ini ialah:
a. Menjelaskan fikrah Islamiah yang benar kepada
masyarakat
b. Penerangan yang giat mengenai Jamaah
c. Meransang peranan ulamak di dalam penglibatan politik
d. Meletakkan beberapa polisi yang mengawal segala tindakan di dalam fasa ini
5.2 Fasa Pembentukan (takwin)
Dalam fasa ini berlaku proses pemilihan anggota yang aktif dan penubuhan beberapa institusi. Antara ciri-ciri fasa ini ialah:
a. Menubuhkan unit-unit yang memberikan tumpuan
kepada aspek perlembagaan
b. Menubuhkan unit-unit yang memberikan tumpuan
kepada aspek undang-undang
c. Menyediakan program pemulihan (pengislahan) yang
bersepadu.
d. Memebrikan kritikan yangbernas kepada isu-isu semasa dan mencadangkan yang lebih relevan kepada ketuanan Islam
5.3 Fasa Perlaksanaan (tanfeez)
Fasa ini adalah gerakan Dakwah berjuang untuk meletakkan agendanya di dalam bentuk perlaksanaan penglibatan politik yang berkesan kepada pembentukan pandangan dan penghayatan umum – public oppinion and practices:
a. Penglibatan dengan Majlis Perwakilan Rakyat
b. Terlibat di dalan gerakan-gerakan massa
c. Desakan perlaksanaan reformasi dan pembaharuan ke
arah menangkan Islam dioertingkatkan dari masa ke
semasa.
Sekian dari:
Abu Amrullah Muhammad ADIS el-Merbawiy
Majlis Dauroh Siyasiah JIM Pulau Pinang
Budi Penyayang
Kepala Batas PP
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Shari'ah, Christianity and Democracy
The influence of Shari'a in Muslim society
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The Anatomy of Islam
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The word 'religion' in Western usage falls short of the totality of Islam as a comprehensive system influencing all aspects of life, individual as well as communal. The total address of Islam to its followers is called the Shari'a, and it is only arbitrary to divide the Shari'a into the three compartments of (ritual) Worship, Moral Code and Legal System, since these are closely interrelated and integrated. What is moral for the individual constitutes the norm for communal morality; and moralities do not live in a legal vacuum. The inner self (conscience and intentions) and the outer self (deeds and observable behavior) should be in harmony and not conflict, and the system of worship prepares the individual to attain this reality of Islam. Anything less is fraudulent and counterfeit.
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A- General Outlay - The Shari'a The Sources of The Shari'a
The primary source of the Shari'a is of course the Quran, the literal word of God. The Quran deals with a full range of issues ranging from the establishment of the creed (chapters I, II, and III) to defining the absolute moral standards and codes of permissible and impermissible behavior. It delineates the articles of worship, and lays down the framework of a comprehensive legal system relating to family law, economic rules, penal code, social conduct, treaties, ethics of war and peace, pattern of government (the Shura is considered the Islamic forerunner of democracy), human rights, relations with other nations and other religions, inheritance, (Zakat) taxation, etc., so that it is true to say that there is hardly an affair of life that lacks some reference in the Quran. Yet the ultimate and final rules in the Quran pertain only to the issues of Creed (Aqeeda) and Worship (Ibadat), whereas the third area of law and other human interaction (Moamalat) is, with a limited number of exceptions, covered with general and flexible guidelines. The constants of the Shari'a in Moamalat are therefore limited, which allowed the science of Jurisprudence (derivation of rulings) to arise and flourish, accommodating various schools of thought and amassing over the centuries a wealth of opinions that suited various places and times and proved that the Shari'a is neither static nor exhaustible.
The second source of the Shari'a is the Sunna (Tradition) of prophet Mohammad in what he ordered, forbade, did or acknowledged in his capacity as prophet. The Sunna sometimes explains the Quran, illustrates it, details some generalities and complements it in some areas. The sciences of Sunna especially the process of authentication of the sayings of the prophet are perhaps the most exact branch in the science of history in general. The tracing of the chain of reporters and witnesses and, above all, making sure that a reported Sunna conflicts neither with the Quran nor with established fact and common sense establish the Sunna as a science of precision.
The third source of the Shari'a operates when an issue is not specifically settled by the Quran or the Sunna. Analogy is resorted to through a process of deductive reasoning that equates a new issue with one already decided by the Quran and/or Sunna. "Ijtihad" is the term indicating the utilization of available evidence (religious, scientific, statistical, social) to think out the best course to be taken provided it does not conflict with the Quran or Sunna or the goals of the Shari'a that will shortly be presented. The Shari'a therefore is not a rigid set of rules to be copied and applied any time any place, and allows for human ingenuity to address changeable situations by progressive legislation. During the evolution of the science of Jurisprudence certain juridical rules were established to enable derivation of new rulings. Examples of these are "Necessities overrule prohibitions" For example, pig meat is unlawful to eat, but if it is the only food available for a traveler lost in the desert, it becomes permissible as long as necessary. Other rules include "The choice of the lesser of two evils if both cannot be avoided", "Public interest to take priority over private interest", "Harm is to be removed" etc. The overall rule, given no conflict with the Quran and Sunna, is "Wherever welfare goes, there goes the statue of God."
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B. Goals Of The Shari'a
The supreme goal of the Shari'a is the welfare of the people in this world and in the hereafter. Broadly speaking, the needs of the community are classified into dire necessities, ordinary necessities and complementary needs (that make life more enjoyable), in this order of significance. Topping the list is the first category which comprises the widely known "Five Aims of the Shari'a" whose objective is the preservation and protection of: (1) Life, (2) Mind, (3) Religion, (4) Ownership and possessions, and (5) Procreation and preservation of the species. Each of these is divided into sets and branching subsets until seemingly small details are reached, and each is serviced by appropriate moral and/or legal rulings. Resisting all temptation to step into the deep waters of this immense subject, we can glean the essential ideas from each category to hopefully clarify the picture.
1. Life
This includes the right to life and the duty to protect it. It entails the prohibition of killing and defines the permissible exceptions such as legitimate war or judiciary sentence. To seek treatment when ill and to avoid ill health by avoiding whatever leads to it are Islamic duties, hence the dietary rules, encouragement of physical fitness by exercise, the laws of cleanliness of person, home, street, and environment. The principles of quarantine were established when Mohammad instructed: "If there is pestilence in a city don't go in if you are out or get out of it if you are already in." Encouraging agriculture is commendable. Teachings of prophet Mohammad include a) If the Day of Judgment comes and you have in your hand a shoot to implant, hurry and implant it if you can, b) Whoever cultivates a land will be rewarded for every soul eating from its harvest, even birds and animals, and even a thief who steals from it, c) No trees should be cut or burnt as a means of warfare. Ecological awareness and respecting the environment are mandated (The water cycle is described in the Quran and its conservation and nonpollution is ordered by Mohammad. 'No bird or animal is to be killed except for food' is one of his instructions, as is kindness to animals and refraining from overburdening them.) One of the impressive teachings of Mohammad is: "God has not created an illness without creating a cure for it.. some already known and some are not", an impetus for continuing the search.
2. Mind
The mind is the hallmark of a human being. It is our instrument to know good and evil and to explore nature within and around us. Thinking, pondering and reflection are religious duties, and the Quran condemns those who were given minds but do not use them. Freedom of thought and expression are basic human rights. The pursuit of knowledge is not only a right but also a duty in Islam. Scientific research, in juridical jargon, is called "the revealing of God's tradition in His creation" and is a duty on those who are able to do it. Censorship over the mind is rejected, and no human being can claim authority over another in this respect. The first word ever of the Quran is "Read" and the Quran says "They are not equal those who have knowledge and those who haven't, nor are light and darkness equal." "Of His servants the learned heed Him most", the Quran says. Not only from censorship should the mind be protected but also from repression, fear, anxiety and stress. Anything that numbs or kills the mind is abhorrent, hence the consumption of alcohol and drugs are absolutely prohibited in Islam, not even in social proportions!
3. Religion
Many authors give religion first place, but obviously without the integrity of life and mind religious tasks become superfluous. Freedom of religion and worship is a basic human right, and we don't mean to Muslims only. It is against Islam to coerce anyone to embrace it, and the Quran says: "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256) Houses of worship should be built. When Muslims are attacked on account of their religion they have the right and duty of defense.
4. Ownership and Possessions
The right of ownership is inviolable and there is no objection or limit on the amassing of wealth provided it is secured by lawful ways. Unlawful ways of collecting wealth are delineated, including usury, cheating and fraud, stealing, monopoly, etc. The rights of capital are coupled with its duties including taxation and contribution commensurate with the needs of society. The Zakat tax is mandatory and roughly equals 2.5% of money hoarded over the span of one year, with other formulas for earnings from agriculture, animal husbandry, real estate or industry. Every individual is the joint responsibility of the whole community and no one can behave like an isolated island. Rules of commercial dealings and exchanges are delineated.
5. Procreation and Offspring
Authentic marriage through a solemnized and documented marriage contract is the only legitimate way of pairing off to form a family and beget children. Purity of lineage and the right to know with certainty one's parents and one's progeny is a must. The Shari'a spells out certain relations that make the marriage of a couple impermissible. The mutual rights and duties between spouses, and between parents and children are detailed. Sustaining the family is the obligation of the husband, whereas the financial contribution of the wife is her option. Extramarital (including premarital) sex is sinful, and may also become a legal offense if witnessed by four witnesses. Family laws and the laws of inheritance are detailed. Family planning (natural or medical) is permitted but not if it entails the killing of a life (abortion). Women have the right of independent individual ownership, the right of inheritance, the right of education and the right to work as compatible with the integrity of the family. Men and women are equal, and obligations (and prohibitions) of Islam apply to them equally. The pursuit of fertility and treatment of infertility is legitimate but only as admissible by the Shari'a. The fetus has the right to life, inheritance and reception of a will or an endorsement. Breast feeding is encouraged, optimally for two years. Western style adoption is censored but fosterage or endorsement is encouraged as a charity, devoid of the lie of claiming true sonhood or daughterhood. The child is told the truth about his/her origin. After growing up, if that child proposes to marry a biological child of the family, the proposal cannot be denied on the basis that they are brother and sister, since in reality they are not.
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C. Church And State
It was a wise decision for Europe to separate church and state. The near monopoly of the early church over all aspects of life had no basis in Christianity as taught by Jesus. Its power to obstruct freedom of thought and scientific progress is reflected in many well known historical examples. Later on, America followed the same line for the same reason, as well as to avoid one faith having a heavy hand over the others and thus interfering with freedom of religion. Many of the early immigrants to America were in fact fleeing the religious intolerance and persecution that afflicted European Christianity.
As we perceive it, the separation of church and state is consistent with the essential ideals of Christianity for its primary purpose was to purify the human soul and ennoble the human character, but not to pursue the organization of the state. Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world. When asked whether to pay taxes to the Roman Empire he took a coin with Caesar's engraving on it and said: "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Muslims in the United States, like all others, appreciate the idea of pluralism that ensures the freedom of religion for all without bigotry or persecution, which as a matter of fact coincides with the Islamic teachings in this respect.
Perhaps it is timely here to express a reservation felt by many Muslims, Christians and Jews in America and the West. They feel that the principle of separation of church and state has been wrongly exploited, and manipulated to exclude the heeding of God in the daily life of people in an attempt to cast away His universal values of morality and human decency. The debate "Is God dead" has been raging in American media over the past three decades, that influenced many attitudes. Many of those who believe that God is not dead, have ceased to acknowledge His authority to tell us what to do with our lives, as individuals and as a nation. Calls for moral behavior or against pronography and licentiousness and other social ailments are often accused of violating the separation of church and state. The slogans "One nation under God" and "In God we trust" are becoming hollower by the day, and if things continue moving in the same direction, we anticipate that constitutional amendments to delete them will be implemented before long.
A universal reaction in the West when people hear that Muslims in Islamic countries want to be ruled by the Islamic laws, is one of disapproval and dismay. Conditioned by European history that led to separation of church and state, they automatically abhor the idea and translate it as a regression to dark ages where Europe toiled under the repressive authority of the church. This conclusion is not correct, because the two situations are not the same. When we study the case of Islam, we find that the principle of separating church and state is obviously inapplicable. Whereas in Christianity there is no state, in Islam there is no church, which makes it impossible to project one situation on the other. Although there is scholarship, there is no clergy in Islam, nor an institution of priesthood. The fact that some graduates of Islamic studies in some Islamic countries wear a special outfit is not a religious requirement and does not really make them priests or raise them any degree above the rest of the Muslims. It did not exist at the onset or early times of Islam and is a rather late phenomenon as society recognized special garbs for special groups like the military and police uniform or the white coat of the doctor. Religious knowledge and studying are open, and interpretation is not the monopoly of certain group, although of course scholastic specialization is considered and respected but not sanctified. Nor is it part of Islam that those religious scholars should conduct the government, for obviously they lack the technical expertise in the various divisions of the executive branches. Office should be held upon personal qualification and posts are open to both Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.
Reviewing the goals of the Shari'a even at the level of the brief bird's eye view we gave here, it is obvious that their implementation goes beyond the area of individual behavior into the realm of government. The Shari'a, the constitution, is the source of legislation and the foundation from which laws are to be derived. Although secularism in Christian societies is not incompatible with Christianity, the same cannot be said about Islam, for this would entail ignoring, inactivating or replacing much of the dictates of the Quran and Sunna, contradicting the basic creed of Islam. Appreciation of these facts should clarify the fact that what is agreeable to Christian societies might not be so to Muslim societies, each within the freedom of religion and the right to self-determination. Neither Islamic nor Christian nations should impose their views on one another, but unfortunately this is not the case as the West, unilaterally, seems to be bent on preventing Muslims from self-rule in accordance with their own religion. It supports both secular dictatorship or dictatorships that identify themselves as Islamic but are abysmal on human rights, basic freedoms of men and women, and government by the people for the people, the hallmarks of real Islamic government. As a matter of fact there is hardly any state now that can qualify to be the perfect representation of the Islamic state. Whenever sound democratic process is about to lead to the victory of an Islamic party, a paradoxical and embarrassing alliance between the major democracies and the reigning dictatorships immediately intervenes to abort the attempt without considering giving it the chance to prove or disprove itself. Alas! The democracies are more keen on the status quo than they are on democracy itself.
One of the charges leveled against the demand of Islamic nations to be ruled by Islamic laws pertains to the status of Christian and Jewish minorities who are citizens of those countries. This objection is being played upon and blown up by both media and politics although in reality it has no standing whatsoever. It is a sparsely known fact that the Islamic system, uniquely, leaves it to Christian and Jewish communities to run their affairs of a legal nature in accordance with the guidelines of their own religions. Such issues, however, are few, and pertain to family issues (marriage, divorce, inheritance, and the like). Otherwise, with neither conflict with their Books nor alternative therein, the minorities will not be wronged to stand equal with the majority before the law the majority claims (out of religious conviction) in keeping with sound democratic principles.
We will not be completely honest, however, without voicing a few remarks and apprehensions about the question of implementing the Shari'a. In various instances we see it has been relegated to the realm of sloganism and emotionalism. Some overenthusiastic youth have transformed it to a confrontation with followers of other religions. The Shari'a, however, requires them to behave in a completely opposite way, aiming at dissipating fears and alleviating anxieties and exhibiting the ethics of good citizenship in a practical way, a task we know that mainstream Muslims and the great majority of Islamic movements are actively pursuing although with hardly any coverage in the media or in professional political circles in the West.
Islamic political parties that decide on the democratic option are also in need of a word of advice here. Although they wage the electoral battle under the attractive banner of Islam, they should also present the electorate with the detailed programs they have prepared to realize the goals of the Shari'a. The word 'Islam' is not a magic word that will solve the complex economic, social and political problems that burden their countries. Intense technical and specialist studies should be made to work within the Shari'a towards appropriate solutions. Prospectively, those who opt for democracy are required by Islam to be honest to their declarations, and not commit the treachery of exploiting democratic rhetoric until they are in power, and then it is gone with the wind. The worst case scenario is for some Islamic parties to ride over democracy to power, then fail to deliver their promises, then refuse to acknowledge their failure erroneously thinking that their personal failure will be ascribed to failure of Islam, and so they deny the nation its right to remove them by rigging or abolishing the following elections, and then, alas, it is just another dictatorship!
Islamic parties are yet to be tested on that, and it is unfair to prejudge them without trial. Their adversaries, however, who hold to power against the will of their people, have been proven a failure and it behooves the major democracies of the world not to support them. If Islamic parties ever come to power, we advise them not to do the same, for it is not only Islamic laws that are needed, but above all, Islamic character and integrity as well.
Some famous examples who claim, even boast, that they rule by the Shari'a are in our opinion lacking in honesty or in knowledge about the Shari'a or in both. Reducing the Shari'a to a selected few items of its penal code without regard to its total context is a big fraud. Meting harsh punishment on petty crimes without any attempt at addressing the massive corruption in the ruling circles or their greedy exploitation of the nation's resources in total absence of accountability can never pass as Islamic. In Islam the ruler is accountable to the nation, and is considered its servant and not its master. Besides, the Shari'a is to be implemented from beginning to end and not from end to beginning. Islam curbs crime by three defense lines: the cultivation of Islamic conscience (education and guidance), the prevention of the causes that might lead to crime (social and economic), and then comes legal punishment; in that sequence. And then, the law knows no ceiling. It is against Islam to judge the commoners and the enfeebled and let the nobility get away with violations.
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D. Democracy
The question is quite often posed these days whether Islam is compatible with democracy. It is striking to note that those who say it is not are such a heterogeneous group, they hardly share anything else. Just as groups of Islamic intelligentsia at the turn of the century were fascinated by the West to such a degree that they called for the adoption of the good as well as the bad in the Western experience, the present time witnesses such disillusionment with the moral decline and the political injustices of the West that many reject, by way of reaction, all that is Western, including democracy. Secular dictators of Islamic countries, of course, abhor democracy by virtue of being dictators and have vested interest in featuring democracy to their Muslim masses as un-Islamic. Dictators who wear Islamic garb and claim to be Islamic also propagate the view that democracy is alien to the Islamic faith and have in their retinue and payroll religious scholars that are willing to play that Machiavellian role.
Traditional adversaries of Islam in the West, both in the media and political circles, are also relentlessly bent on featuring Islam as an anti-democratic religion that has no room for democratic values. The aim of course is to further alienate Islam from the psyche of the Western public opinion, making it both possible and palatable to demonize Muslims in a way that facilitates the acceptability by public opinion of the harsh ways and unjust positions by their governments towards Muslims. They often raise up the issue of the lack of democracy in the majority of Islamic countries. What they do not mention is that the only effective support of the dictators against the democratic aspiration of their peoples in the Middle East is provided by the Western democracies.
It is perhaps not feasible to compare the Islamic system that came into being early in the seventh century with the democratic institutions of the West, that began to evolve many centuries later, and as we see them today. Nor are the Western democratic systems an exact replica of one another but simply share the principle and ideology of democracy. The Quran (fourteen centuries ago) spelled out explicitly the principle of "Shura", which means that issues are to be decided by joint deliberation and consultation. The practical applications of this principle in the earliest days of Islam (the time of the prophet and his immediate successors) qualify it to be considered the forerunner of democracy. Only in his capacity as prophet was Mohammad to be obeyed without reserve, but outside the area of conveying and explaining religion as he received it from God, Mohammad himself made it clear that he was an ordinary human being who could not foretell the future or claim to have more knowledge over ordinary people in their respective areas of artisanship or trade. On the eve of the battle of 'Badr', the first and historically the most significant military encounter between Islam and the Arab alliance of idolaters, the prophet drew a military plan entailing deployment of his meagre troops in a certain fashion. But then one of his followers would ask him "Is this positioning revelation from God so that we have to abide by it without question, or is it an opinion of strategy and plan?" When Mohammad answered that it was indeed the latter, his companion gave his sincere criticism and offered an alternate plan which the prophet accepted and adopted; the outcome was a resounding victory.
Years later, the enemies dispatched a large army to attack the Muslims in Madinah. It was Mohammad's opinion to remain at Madinah and meet the enemy there, but discussions revealed that the majority preferred to march out and make battle with the enemy at Mount Uhud well outside Madinah. Mohammad yielded to the majority opinion in compliance with the principle of Shura. Muslims achieved an initial victory until the battalion of archers positioned at the mountain top thought that the battle was over and rolled down to join the chase, disobeying clear orders the prophet had given them earlier never to leave their positions no matter whether it was victory or defeat. This caught the eye of Khaled ben el Waleed (a military genius leading a cavalry regiment of the enemies) who took a stealth circle to the mountain top and rolled down on the Muslim infantry so upsetting the balance that the best the Muslims could do was a graceful retreat after incurring heavy losses.
Although there was fault twice on part of the Muslims, Quran was shortly revealed addressing Mohammad "And it was of the mercy of God that you dealt gently with them (your followers): had you been harsh or thick of heart they would have dispersed from around you. So pardon them and ask (God) for their forgiveness and maintain Shura with them." (3:159) This Shura is to pervade all walks of life at all levels, even to the detail mentioned in the Quran that the decision to wean a suckling infant should be taken by mutual shura and consent of both parents.
When the prophet died it meant the conclusion of the prophethood, but he had to be succeeded by a head of state. This was done in a meeting in open debate, with more than one contender, until Abu Bakr the closest companion to the prophet, was chosen by consensus to be first caliph. On that occasion, established Islamic principle was reiterated and emphasized, foremost of all by the caliph himself, the significant rules in which are: 1- The post is filled by the mandate of the people (Abu Bakr immediately proceeded to seek the opinion of others who were not in the meeting to make sure they concurred). 2- The appointment was conditioned (obey me as long as I obey God - the caliph declared). 3- The right of the people to give the mandate is coupled with their right to withdraw it (Abu Bakr declared that if he went wrong then the people owed him no obedience). 4- The ruler was the nation's employee, hired by them to fulfil the duties of his office (seeing that Abu Bakr in his earliest few days pursued the management of his business to make his living, the people imposed on him to take a salary equal to the earnings of an average Muslim, neither rich nor poor, in lieu of working full time). 5- The head of state was no hostage to the elite or nobility or interest groups. His words were: "The weak amongst you is strong with me until I secure what is due to him, and the strong amongst you is week with me until I take from him what is due on him."
In short, it looks like the antithesis of what we see in the majority of Islamic countries nowadays. We have no doubt that if things evolved in the same direction ever since, as the Islamic empire expanded and the Islamic civilization developed in maturity and sophistication, that the Muslims would have achieved a form of government that endorses the best in modern day democracies while free from their shortcomings. Things went on in a very promising manner for sometime. The second caliph (Omar) further alerted the nation of its duty to support him when right but to correct him if wrong, to which a man answered, "If you go wrong we will correct you even by our swords." The caliph's comment was, "You are no good if you don't say it, and we are no good if we don't accept it."
Unfortunately the trend was broken in one of the saddest, if not the saddest, incidents in Islamic history. Caliph Uthman had to face a rebellion accusing him of nepotism and was assassinated. Caliph Ali was a cousin of the prophet, his son-in-law, and a very beloved person to him. He also possessed outstanding personal merits, and when he was chosen for caliph, the notables and masses poured in to give allegiance. However, the governor of Syria (now part of the Islamic empire) refused to give the pledge and eventually marched towards Madinah at the head of a large army. The apparent pretext was on how to deal with the assassins of the late caliph, who was a relative of Moawya, the governor of Syria (both from the Umayyad tribe) and who demanded direct revenge rather than resort to lengthy due process. On the battlefield the victory was Ali's, but Moawya was a resourceful man, and in his camp were some very cunning men so he could secure a tricky arbitration. Some disgruntled people targeted both for assassination but only succeeded in killing Ali. The nation was shocked, but after negotiations Hassan, Ali's son and successor, consented to yield authority to Moawya to avoid further bloodshed and gave his allegiance.
A short while later Moawya, well entrenched in authority, shocked the nation again by forcing from them a pledge to his son, Yazid, as successor after him, resorting to the technique of punishment and reward. Hussein, the second son of Ali, headed a revolution against Yazid (both Moawiya and Hassan had died). The inhabitants of Iraq had promised Hussein their support, but under the trickery and brutality of the central government they deserted him. Rather than flee or capitulate, Hussein and seventy loyal followers faced Yazid's army of several hundred thousand soldiers and bravely fought to their death at Karbala. This proved much later to have been the first nail in the coffin of the Umayyad dynasty which reigned for some two centuries.
This was also the birth of Shiism as a movement, hard-liners who called themselves the proponents of Ali (the Arabic word is the Shi'a of Ali), that actually started as a political dissidence but where it is not possible to separate politics from religion since the strive for justice is a religious dictate. As time went on Shiism took the form of an Islamic sect, centered around the belief that eligibility to the caliphate should belong to Ali then consecutively to his progeny (eldest son in succession). They acquired many secondary views as they broke into several sects, the major being the Twelver Shiites who believe that the twelfth of the successors (Imams), who mysteriously disappeared as a child, will come back one day as the awaited Mahdi and reign in justice. The Shiites constitute some ten per cent of the Muslims, the remainder are traditionally called the Sunni's. The Shiites tend to hold a grudge against the Sunnis for early acquiescence to the unjust authority, but all believe in the one Quran and the prophethood of Mohammad. It is a palpable fact that the Sunni's also hold the same sympathies and sentiments towards Ali and his sons, Hassan and Hussein, and their households. Every year the Shiites commemorate the Battle of Karbala and the martyrdom of Hussein, many of them slashing themselves in mourning and in remorse that their forebears deserted Hussein at the critical moment.
And now enough for history even though I tried to make it extremely brief and back to the issue of democracy. That sad historical episode was the precedent for transfer of power from hand to hand not by the pledge of the nation but by sword and gold. This seemed to plague the history of Muslims ever since. Despots always could find scholars to rationalize while others stood in opposition and paid with their lives or freedom. Things went well when the caliph was good and went bad when the caliph was bad, which was more often than not. In either case the authority of the people and their rights over the ruler were eroded. Islamic civilization, however, flourished because there were people who believed it was a religious duty to seek knowledge, to excel in science and establish civilization. Government encouraged them in all aspects but left little room for writings on the rights of the people versus the ruler and means of controlling him. Given the genius of Islamic civilization in all walks of knowledge writings on the constitutional rights of the nation were powerful and marvelous but scant.
To our Muslim brethren who convulse and contort against democracy, we would like to say that democracy was never one of the ailments of the Muslim nation, but always the affliction was despotism and dictatorship. We would be blind if our history fails to reveal to us this fact. To those who accuse Islam of being intolerant to democracy, we say you are wrong, but there is a major difference. In a Western democracy God can be vetoed or outvoted if His opponents can muster a majority vote. Under Islam the constitution is based on the Shari'a so any legislation that conflicts with it will be unconstitutional. Within that context the democratic process takes its course one hundred per cent. The contemporary Islamic resurgence is beyond the widely publicized images of inflammatory extremism or violent expression or despotic secular or religious (!!) governments. A broad enlightened and quiet mainstream has discovered the realities of the religion and awakened to the lessons of history. It is not fueled by hollow sloganism. After all, Islamic scholars have decreed for a long time that a non-Islamic state that observes justice is better than an Islamic state riddled with tyranny and injustice.
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About Islam and Muslims
Reference:
2.http://web.archive.org/web/20011031171244/www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/law/antmy.htm
1.http://web.archive.org/web/20011201235458/http://imtcsamba.hct.ac.ae/nursing/Nursing/Law&Ethics.html
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The Anatomy of Islam
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The word 'religion' in Western usage falls short of the totality of Islam as a comprehensive system influencing all aspects of life, individual as well as communal. The total address of Islam to its followers is called the Shari'a, and it is only arbitrary to divide the Shari'a into the three compartments of (ritual) Worship, Moral Code and Legal System, since these are closely interrelated and integrated. What is moral for the individual constitutes the norm for communal morality; and moralities do not live in a legal vacuum. The inner self (conscience and intentions) and the outer self (deeds and observable behavior) should be in harmony and not conflict, and the system of worship prepares the individual to attain this reality of Islam. Anything less is fraudulent and counterfeit.
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A- General Outlay - The Shari'a The Sources of The Shari'a
The primary source of the Shari'a is of course the Quran, the literal word of God. The Quran deals with a full range of issues ranging from the establishment of the creed (chapters I, II, and III) to defining the absolute moral standards and codes of permissible and impermissible behavior. It delineates the articles of worship, and lays down the framework of a comprehensive legal system relating to family law, economic rules, penal code, social conduct, treaties, ethics of war and peace, pattern of government (the Shura is considered the Islamic forerunner of democracy), human rights, relations with other nations and other religions, inheritance, (Zakat) taxation, etc., so that it is true to say that there is hardly an affair of life that lacks some reference in the Quran. Yet the ultimate and final rules in the Quran pertain only to the issues of Creed (Aqeeda) and Worship (Ibadat), whereas the third area of law and other human interaction (Moamalat) is, with a limited number of exceptions, covered with general and flexible guidelines. The constants of the Shari'a in Moamalat are therefore limited, which allowed the science of Jurisprudence (derivation of rulings) to arise and flourish, accommodating various schools of thought and amassing over the centuries a wealth of opinions that suited various places and times and proved that the Shari'a is neither static nor exhaustible.
The second source of the Shari'a is the Sunna (Tradition) of prophet Mohammad in what he ordered, forbade, did or acknowledged in his capacity as prophet. The Sunna sometimes explains the Quran, illustrates it, details some generalities and complements it in some areas. The sciences of Sunna especially the process of authentication of the sayings of the prophet are perhaps the most exact branch in the science of history in general. The tracing of the chain of reporters and witnesses and, above all, making sure that a reported Sunna conflicts neither with the Quran nor with established fact and common sense establish the Sunna as a science of precision.
The third source of the Shari'a operates when an issue is not specifically settled by the Quran or the Sunna. Analogy is resorted to through a process of deductive reasoning that equates a new issue with one already decided by the Quran and/or Sunna. "Ijtihad" is the term indicating the utilization of available evidence (religious, scientific, statistical, social) to think out the best course to be taken provided it does not conflict with the Quran or Sunna or the goals of the Shari'a that will shortly be presented. The Shari'a therefore is not a rigid set of rules to be copied and applied any time any place, and allows for human ingenuity to address changeable situations by progressive legislation. During the evolution of the science of Jurisprudence certain juridical rules were established to enable derivation of new rulings. Examples of these are "Necessities overrule prohibitions" For example, pig meat is unlawful to eat, but if it is the only food available for a traveler lost in the desert, it becomes permissible as long as necessary. Other rules include "The choice of the lesser of two evils if both cannot be avoided", "Public interest to take priority over private interest", "Harm is to be removed" etc. The overall rule, given no conflict with the Quran and Sunna, is "Wherever welfare goes, there goes the statue of God."
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B. Goals Of The Shari'a
The supreme goal of the Shari'a is the welfare of the people in this world and in the hereafter. Broadly speaking, the needs of the community are classified into dire necessities, ordinary necessities and complementary needs (that make life more enjoyable), in this order of significance. Topping the list is the first category which comprises the widely known "Five Aims of the Shari'a" whose objective is the preservation and protection of: (1) Life, (2) Mind, (3) Religion, (4) Ownership and possessions, and (5) Procreation and preservation of the species. Each of these is divided into sets and branching subsets until seemingly small details are reached, and each is serviced by appropriate moral and/or legal rulings. Resisting all temptation to step into the deep waters of this immense subject, we can glean the essential ideas from each category to hopefully clarify the picture.
1. Life
This includes the right to life and the duty to protect it. It entails the prohibition of killing and defines the permissible exceptions such as legitimate war or judiciary sentence. To seek treatment when ill and to avoid ill health by avoiding whatever leads to it are Islamic duties, hence the dietary rules, encouragement of physical fitness by exercise, the laws of cleanliness of person, home, street, and environment. The principles of quarantine were established when Mohammad instructed: "If there is pestilence in a city don't go in if you are out or get out of it if you are already in." Encouraging agriculture is commendable. Teachings of prophet Mohammad include a) If the Day of Judgment comes and you have in your hand a shoot to implant, hurry and implant it if you can, b) Whoever cultivates a land will be rewarded for every soul eating from its harvest, even birds and animals, and even a thief who steals from it, c) No trees should be cut or burnt as a means of warfare. Ecological awareness and respecting the environment are mandated (The water cycle is described in the Quran and its conservation and nonpollution is ordered by Mohammad. 'No bird or animal is to be killed except for food' is one of his instructions, as is kindness to animals and refraining from overburdening them.) One of the impressive teachings of Mohammad is: "God has not created an illness without creating a cure for it.. some already known and some are not", an impetus for continuing the search.
2. Mind
The mind is the hallmark of a human being. It is our instrument to know good and evil and to explore nature within and around us. Thinking, pondering and reflection are religious duties, and the Quran condemns those who were given minds but do not use them. Freedom of thought and expression are basic human rights. The pursuit of knowledge is not only a right but also a duty in Islam. Scientific research, in juridical jargon, is called "the revealing of God's tradition in His creation" and is a duty on those who are able to do it. Censorship over the mind is rejected, and no human being can claim authority over another in this respect. The first word ever of the Quran is "Read" and the Quran says "They are not equal those who have knowledge and those who haven't, nor are light and darkness equal." "Of His servants the learned heed Him most", the Quran says. Not only from censorship should the mind be protected but also from repression, fear, anxiety and stress. Anything that numbs or kills the mind is abhorrent, hence the consumption of alcohol and drugs are absolutely prohibited in Islam, not even in social proportions!
3. Religion
Many authors give religion first place, but obviously without the integrity of life and mind religious tasks become superfluous. Freedom of religion and worship is a basic human right, and we don't mean to Muslims only. It is against Islam to coerce anyone to embrace it, and the Quran says: "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256) Houses of worship should be built. When Muslims are attacked on account of their religion they have the right and duty of defense.
4. Ownership and Possessions
The right of ownership is inviolable and there is no objection or limit on the amassing of wealth provided it is secured by lawful ways. Unlawful ways of collecting wealth are delineated, including usury, cheating and fraud, stealing, monopoly, etc. The rights of capital are coupled with its duties including taxation and contribution commensurate with the needs of society. The Zakat tax is mandatory and roughly equals 2.5% of money hoarded over the span of one year, with other formulas for earnings from agriculture, animal husbandry, real estate or industry. Every individual is the joint responsibility of the whole community and no one can behave like an isolated island. Rules of commercial dealings and exchanges are delineated.
5. Procreation and Offspring
Authentic marriage through a solemnized and documented marriage contract is the only legitimate way of pairing off to form a family and beget children. Purity of lineage and the right to know with certainty one's parents and one's progeny is a must. The Shari'a spells out certain relations that make the marriage of a couple impermissible. The mutual rights and duties between spouses, and between parents and children are detailed. Sustaining the family is the obligation of the husband, whereas the financial contribution of the wife is her option. Extramarital (including premarital) sex is sinful, and may also become a legal offense if witnessed by four witnesses. Family laws and the laws of inheritance are detailed. Family planning (natural or medical) is permitted but not if it entails the killing of a life (abortion). Women have the right of independent individual ownership, the right of inheritance, the right of education and the right to work as compatible with the integrity of the family. Men and women are equal, and obligations (and prohibitions) of Islam apply to them equally. The pursuit of fertility and treatment of infertility is legitimate but only as admissible by the Shari'a. The fetus has the right to life, inheritance and reception of a will or an endorsement. Breast feeding is encouraged, optimally for two years. Western style adoption is censored but fosterage or endorsement is encouraged as a charity, devoid of the lie of claiming true sonhood or daughterhood. The child is told the truth about his/her origin. After growing up, if that child proposes to marry a biological child of the family, the proposal cannot be denied on the basis that they are brother and sister, since in reality they are not.
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C. Church And State
It was a wise decision for Europe to separate church and state. The near monopoly of the early church over all aspects of life had no basis in Christianity as taught by Jesus. Its power to obstruct freedom of thought and scientific progress is reflected in many well known historical examples. Later on, America followed the same line for the same reason, as well as to avoid one faith having a heavy hand over the others and thus interfering with freedom of religion. Many of the early immigrants to America were in fact fleeing the religious intolerance and persecution that afflicted European Christianity.
As we perceive it, the separation of church and state is consistent with the essential ideals of Christianity for its primary purpose was to purify the human soul and ennoble the human character, but not to pursue the organization of the state. Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world. When asked whether to pay taxes to the Roman Empire he took a coin with Caesar's engraving on it and said: "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Muslims in the United States, like all others, appreciate the idea of pluralism that ensures the freedom of religion for all without bigotry or persecution, which as a matter of fact coincides with the Islamic teachings in this respect.
Perhaps it is timely here to express a reservation felt by many Muslims, Christians and Jews in America and the West. They feel that the principle of separation of church and state has been wrongly exploited, and manipulated to exclude the heeding of God in the daily life of people in an attempt to cast away His universal values of morality and human decency. The debate "Is God dead" has been raging in American media over the past three decades, that influenced many attitudes. Many of those who believe that God is not dead, have ceased to acknowledge His authority to tell us what to do with our lives, as individuals and as a nation. Calls for moral behavior or against pronography and licentiousness and other social ailments are often accused of violating the separation of church and state. The slogans "One nation under God" and "In God we trust" are becoming hollower by the day, and if things continue moving in the same direction, we anticipate that constitutional amendments to delete them will be implemented before long.
A universal reaction in the West when people hear that Muslims in Islamic countries want to be ruled by the Islamic laws, is one of disapproval and dismay. Conditioned by European history that led to separation of church and state, they automatically abhor the idea and translate it as a regression to dark ages where Europe toiled under the repressive authority of the church. This conclusion is not correct, because the two situations are not the same. When we study the case of Islam, we find that the principle of separating church and state is obviously inapplicable. Whereas in Christianity there is no state, in Islam there is no church, which makes it impossible to project one situation on the other. Although there is scholarship, there is no clergy in Islam, nor an institution of priesthood. The fact that some graduates of Islamic studies in some Islamic countries wear a special outfit is not a religious requirement and does not really make them priests or raise them any degree above the rest of the Muslims. It did not exist at the onset or early times of Islam and is a rather late phenomenon as society recognized special garbs for special groups like the military and police uniform or the white coat of the doctor. Religious knowledge and studying are open, and interpretation is not the monopoly of certain group, although of course scholastic specialization is considered and respected but not sanctified. Nor is it part of Islam that those religious scholars should conduct the government, for obviously they lack the technical expertise in the various divisions of the executive branches. Office should be held upon personal qualification and posts are open to both Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.
Reviewing the goals of the Shari'a even at the level of the brief bird's eye view we gave here, it is obvious that their implementation goes beyond the area of individual behavior into the realm of government. The Shari'a, the constitution, is the source of legislation and the foundation from which laws are to be derived. Although secularism in Christian societies is not incompatible with Christianity, the same cannot be said about Islam, for this would entail ignoring, inactivating or replacing much of the dictates of the Quran and Sunna, contradicting the basic creed of Islam. Appreciation of these facts should clarify the fact that what is agreeable to Christian societies might not be so to Muslim societies, each within the freedom of religion and the right to self-determination. Neither Islamic nor Christian nations should impose their views on one another, but unfortunately this is not the case as the West, unilaterally, seems to be bent on preventing Muslims from self-rule in accordance with their own religion. It supports both secular dictatorship or dictatorships that identify themselves as Islamic but are abysmal on human rights, basic freedoms of men and women, and government by the people for the people, the hallmarks of real Islamic government. As a matter of fact there is hardly any state now that can qualify to be the perfect representation of the Islamic state. Whenever sound democratic process is about to lead to the victory of an Islamic party, a paradoxical and embarrassing alliance between the major democracies and the reigning dictatorships immediately intervenes to abort the attempt without considering giving it the chance to prove or disprove itself. Alas! The democracies are more keen on the status quo than they are on democracy itself.
One of the charges leveled against the demand of Islamic nations to be ruled by Islamic laws pertains to the status of Christian and Jewish minorities who are citizens of those countries. This objection is being played upon and blown up by both media and politics although in reality it has no standing whatsoever. It is a sparsely known fact that the Islamic system, uniquely, leaves it to Christian and Jewish communities to run their affairs of a legal nature in accordance with the guidelines of their own religions. Such issues, however, are few, and pertain to family issues (marriage, divorce, inheritance, and the like). Otherwise, with neither conflict with their Books nor alternative therein, the minorities will not be wronged to stand equal with the majority before the law the majority claims (out of religious conviction) in keeping with sound democratic principles.
We will not be completely honest, however, without voicing a few remarks and apprehensions about the question of implementing the Shari'a. In various instances we see it has been relegated to the realm of sloganism and emotionalism. Some overenthusiastic youth have transformed it to a confrontation with followers of other religions. The Shari'a, however, requires them to behave in a completely opposite way, aiming at dissipating fears and alleviating anxieties and exhibiting the ethics of good citizenship in a practical way, a task we know that mainstream Muslims and the great majority of Islamic movements are actively pursuing although with hardly any coverage in the media or in professional political circles in the West.
Islamic political parties that decide on the democratic option are also in need of a word of advice here. Although they wage the electoral battle under the attractive banner of Islam, they should also present the electorate with the detailed programs they have prepared to realize the goals of the Shari'a. The word 'Islam' is not a magic word that will solve the complex economic, social and political problems that burden their countries. Intense technical and specialist studies should be made to work within the Shari'a towards appropriate solutions. Prospectively, those who opt for democracy are required by Islam to be honest to their declarations, and not commit the treachery of exploiting democratic rhetoric until they are in power, and then it is gone with the wind. The worst case scenario is for some Islamic parties to ride over democracy to power, then fail to deliver their promises, then refuse to acknowledge their failure erroneously thinking that their personal failure will be ascribed to failure of Islam, and so they deny the nation its right to remove them by rigging or abolishing the following elections, and then, alas, it is just another dictatorship!
Islamic parties are yet to be tested on that, and it is unfair to prejudge them without trial. Their adversaries, however, who hold to power against the will of their people, have been proven a failure and it behooves the major democracies of the world not to support them. If Islamic parties ever come to power, we advise them not to do the same, for it is not only Islamic laws that are needed, but above all, Islamic character and integrity as well.
Some famous examples who claim, even boast, that they rule by the Shari'a are in our opinion lacking in honesty or in knowledge about the Shari'a or in both. Reducing the Shari'a to a selected few items of its penal code without regard to its total context is a big fraud. Meting harsh punishment on petty crimes without any attempt at addressing the massive corruption in the ruling circles or their greedy exploitation of the nation's resources in total absence of accountability can never pass as Islamic. In Islam the ruler is accountable to the nation, and is considered its servant and not its master. Besides, the Shari'a is to be implemented from beginning to end and not from end to beginning. Islam curbs crime by three defense lines: the cultivation of Islamic conscience (education and guidance), the prevention of the causes that might lead to crime (social and economic), and then comes legal punishment; in that sequence. And then, the law knows no ceiling. It is against Islam to judge the commoners and the enfeebled and let the nobility get away with violations.
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D. Democracy
The question is quite often posed these days whether Islam is compatible with democracy. It is striking to note that those who say it is not are such a heterogeneous group, they hardly share anything else. Just as groups of Islamic intelligentsia at the turn of the century were fascinated by the West to such a degree that they called for the adoption of the good as well as the bad in the Western experience, the present time witnesses such disillusionment with the moral decline and the political injustices of the West that many reject, by way of reaction, all that is Western, including democracy. Secular dictators of Islamic countries, of course, abhor democracy by virtue of being dictators and have vested interest in featuring democracy to their Muslim masses as un-Islamic. Dictators who wear Islamic garb and claim to be Islamic also propagate the view that democracy is alien to the Islamic faith and have in their retinue and payroll religious scholars that are willing to play that Machiavellian role.
Traditional adversaries of Islam in the West, both in the media and political circles, are also relentlessly bent on featuring Islam as an anti-democratic religion that has no room for democratic values. The aim of course is to further alienate Islam from the psyche of the Western public opinion, making it both possible and palatable to demonize Muslims in a way that facilitates the acceptability by public opinion of the harsh ways and unjust positions by their governments towards Muslims. They often raise up the issue of the lack of democracy in the majority of Islamic countries. What they do not mention is that the only effective support of the dictators against the democratic aspiration of their peoples in the Middle East is provided by the Western democracies.
It is perhaps not feasible to compare the Islamic system that came into being early in the seventh century with the democratic institutions of the West, that began to evolve many centuries later, and as we see them today. Nor are the Western democratic systems an exact replica of one another but simply share the principle and ideology of democracy. The Quran (fourteen centuries ago) spelled out explicitly the principle of "Shura", which means that issues are to be decided by joint deliberation and consultation. The practical applications of this principle in the earliest days of Islam (the time of the prophet and his immediate successors) qualify it to be considered the forerunner of democracy. Only in his capacity as prophet was Mohammad to be obeyed without reserve, but outside the area of conveying and explaining religion as he received it from God, Mohammad himself made it clear that he was an ordinary human being who could not foretell the future or claim to have more knowledge over ordinary people in their respective areas of artisanship or trade. On the eve of the battle of 'Badr', the first and historically the most significant military encounter between Islam and the Arab alliance of idolaters, the prophet drew a military plan entailing deployment of his meagre troops in a certain fashion. But then one of his followers would ask him "Is this positioning revelation from God so that we have to abide by it without question, or is it an opinion of strategy and plan?" When Mohammad answered that it was indeed the latter, his companion gave his sincere criticism and offered an alternate plan which the prophet accepted and adopted; the outcome was a resounding victory.
Years later, the enemies dispatched a large army to attack the Muslims in Madinah. It was Mohammad's opinion to remain at Madinah and meet the enemy there, but discussions revealed that the majority preferred to march out and make battle with the enemy at Mount Uhud well outside Madinah. Mohammad yielded to the majority opinion in compliance with the principle of Shura. Muslims achieved an initial victory until the battalion of archers positioned at the mountain top thought that the battle was over and rolled down to join the chase, disobeying clear orders the prophet had given them earlier never to leave their positions no matter whether it was victory or defeat. This caught the eye of Khaled ben el Waleed (a military genius leading a cavalry regiment of the enemies) who took a stealth circle to the mountain top and rolled down on the Muslim infantry so upsetting the balance that the best the Muslims could do was a graceful retreat after incurring heavy losses.
Although there was fault twice on part of the Muslims, Quran was shortly revealed addressing Mohammad "And it was of the mercy of God that you dealt gently with them (your followers): had you been harsh or thick of heart they would have dispersed from around you. So pardon them and ask (God) for their forgiveness and maintain Shura with them." (3:159) This Shura is to pervade all walks of life at all levels, even to the detail mentioned in the Quran that the decision to wean a suckling infant should be taken by mutual shura and consent of both parents.
When the prophet died it meant the conclusion of the prophethood, but he had to be succeeded by a head of state. This was done in a meeting in open debate, with more than one contender, until Abu Bakr the closest companion to the prophet, was chosen by consensus to be first caliph. On that occasion, established Islamic principle was reiterated and emphasized, foremost of all by the caliph himself, the significant rules in which are: 1- The post is filled by the mandate of the people (Abu Bakr immediately proceeded to seek the opinion of others who were not in the meeting to make sure they concurred). 2- The appointment was conditioned (obey me as long as I obey God - the caliph declared). 3- The right of the people to give the mandate is coupled with their right to withdraw it (Abu Bakr declared that if he went wrong then the people owed him no obedience). 4- The ruler was the nation's employee, hired by them to fulfil the duties of his office (seeing that Abu Bakr in his earliest few days pursued the management of his business to make his living, the people imposed on him to take a salary equal to the earnings of an average Muslim, neither rich nor poor, in lieu of working full time). 5- The head of state was no hostage to the elite or nobility or interest groups. His words were: "The weak amongst you is strong with me until I secure what is due to him, and the strong amongst you is week with me until I take from him what is due on him."
In short, it looks like the antithesis of what we see in the majority of Islamic countries nowadays. We have no doubt that if things evolved in the same direction ever since, as the Islamic empire expanded and the Islamic civilization developed in maturity and sophistication, that the Muslims would have achieved a form of government that endorses the best in modern day democracies while free from their shortcomings. Things went on in a very promising manner for sometime. The second caliph (Omar) further alerted the nation of its duty to support him when right but to correct him if wrong, to which a man answered, "If you go wrong we will correct you even by our swords." The caliph's comment was, "You are no good if you don't say it, and we are no good if we don't accept it."
Unfortunately the trend was broken in one of the saddest, if not the saddest, incidents in Islamic history. Caliph Uthman had to face a rebellion accusing him of nepotism and was assassinated. Caliph Ali was a cousin of the prophet, his son-in-law, and a very beloved person to him. He also possessed outstanding personal merits, and when he was chosen for caliph, the notables and masses poured in to give allegiance. However, the governor of Syria (now part of the Islamic empire) refused to give the pledge and eventually marched towards Madinah at the head of a large army. The apparent pretext was on how to deal with the assassins of the late caliph, who was a relative of Moawya, the governor of Syria (both from the Umayyad tribe) and who demanded direct revenge rather than resort to lengthy due process. On the battlefield the victory was Ali's, but Moawya was a resourceful man, and in his camp were some very cunning men so he could secure a tricky arbitration. Some disgruntled people targeted both for assassination but only succeeded in killing Ali. The nation was shocked, but after negotiations Hassan, Ali's son and successor, consented to yield authority to Moawya to avoid further bloodshed and gave his allegiance.
A short while later Moawya, well entrenched in authority, shocked the nation again by forcing from them a pledge to his son, Yazid, as successor after him, resorting to the technique of punishment and reward. Hussein, the second son of Ali, headed a revolution against Yazid (both Moawiya and Hassan had died). The inhabitants of Iraq had promised Hussein their support, but under the trickery and brutality of the central government they deserted him. Rather than flee or capitulate, Hussein and seventy loyal followers faced Yazid's army of several hundred thousand soldiers and bravely fought to their death at Karbala. This proved much later to have been the first nail in the coffin of the Umayyad dynasty which reigned for some two centuries.
This was also the birth of Shiism as a movement, hard-liners who called themselves the proponents of Ali (the Arabic word is the Shi'a of Ali), that actually started as a political dissidence but where it is not possible to separate politics from religion since the strive for justice is a religious dictate. As time went on Shiism took the form of an Islamic sect, centered around the belief that eligibility to the caliphate should belong to Ali then consecutively to his progeny (eldest son in succession). They acquired many secondary views as they broke into several sects, the major being the Twelver Shiites who believe that the twelfth of the successors (Imams), who mysteriously disappeared as a child, will come back one day as the awaited Mahdi and reign in justice. The Shiites constitute some ten per cent of the Muslims, the remainder are traditionally called the Sunni's. The Shiites tend to hold a grudge against the Sunnis for early acquiescence to the unjust authority, but all believe in the one Quran and the prophethood of Mohammad. It is a palpable fact that the Sunni's also hold the same sympathies and sentiments towards Ali and his sons, Hassan and Hussein, and their households. Every year the Shiites commemorate the Battle of Karbala and the martyrdom of Hussein, many of them slashing themselves in mourning and in remorse that their forebears deserted Hussein at the critical moment.
And now enough for history even though I tried to make it extremely brief and back to the issue of democracy. That sad historical episode was the precedent for transfer of power from hand to hand not by the pledge of the nation but by sword and gold. This seemed to plague the history of Muslims ever since. Despots always could find scholars to rationalize while others stood in opposition and paid with their lives or freedom. Things went well when the caliph was good and went bad when the caliph was bad, which was more often than not. In either case the authority of the people and their rights over the ruler were eroded. Islamic civilization, however, flourished because there were people who believed it was a religious duty to seek knowledge, to excel in science and establish civilization. Government encouraged them in all aspects but left little room for writings on the rights of the people versus the ruler and means of controlling him. Given the genius of Islamic civilization in all walks of knowledge writings on the constitutional rights of the nation were powerful and marvelous but scant.
To our Muslim brethren who convulse and contort against democracy, we would like to say that democracy was never one of the ailments of the Muslim nation, but always the affliction was despotism and dictatorship. We would be blind if our history fails to reveal to us this fact. To those who accuse Islam of being intolerant to democracy, we say you are wrong, but there is a major difference. In a Western democracy God can be vetoed or outvoted if His opponents can muster a majority vote. Under Islam the constitution is based on the Shari'a so any legislation that conflicts with it will be unconstitutional. Within that context the democratic process takes its course one hundred per cent. The contemporary Islamic resurgence is beyond the widely publicized images of inflammatory extremism or violent expression or despotic secular or religious (!!) governments. A broad enlightened and quiet mainstream has discovered the realities of the religion and awakened to the lessons of history. It is not fueled by hollow sloganism. After all, Islamic scholars have decreed for a long time that a non-Islamic state that observes justice is better than an Islamic state riddled with tyranny and injustice.
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About Islam and Muslims
Reference:
2.http://web.archive.org/web/20011031171244/www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/law/antmy.htm
1.http://web.archive.org/web/20011201235458/http://imtcsamba.hct.ac.ae/nursing/Nursing/Law&Ethics.html
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Pemergian Rustam A Sani : AL-FAATIHAH
Assalamauaikum warahmatullah,
Sekalung AL-FAATIHAH..
buat al-marhum yang berbahagia Saudara Rustam A Sani.
Tulisan mu sangat menyentuh dan merobah sikap, jiwa dan arah tuju manusia.
Semangatmu sejitu ayahanda pejuang agama, bangsa dan tanah air,
Ya Allah swt, terimalah hambaMu ini kembali ke sisiMu,
dengan rahmat penuh kasih dalam amal soleh terpilih,
bariskanlah beliau di kalangan mujahidin,
solihin dan hasuna ulaa'ika rafeeqa.
perkukuhkanlah diri kami sebagai penerus perjuangan beliau,
agar bumi ini berterusan mendapat sinar "keberkatan, keredhaan dan penjagaanMu Ya Allah swt".
Ameen Ya Rabba al-'Aalameen.
Arau
PERLIS DARUS SUNNAH
April 23, 2008 11:23 AM
Reference:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1245102280826089707&postID=6886684875120420510
Sekalung AL-FAATIHAH..
buat al-marhum yang berbahagia Saudara Rustam A Sani.
Tulisan mu sangat menyentuh dan merobah sikap, jiwa dan arah tuju manusia.
Semangatmu sejitu ayahanda pejuang agama, bangsa dan tanah air,
Ya Allah swt, terimalah hambaMu ini kembali ke sisiMu,
dengan rahmat penuh kasih dalam amal soleh terpilih,
bariskanlah beliau di kalangan mujahidin,
solihin dan hasuna ulaa'ika rafeeqa.
perkukuhkanlah diri kami sebagai penerus perjuangan beliau,
agar bumi ini berterusan mendapat sinar "keberkatan, keredhaan dan penjagaanMu Ya Allah swt".
Ameen Ya Rabba al-'Aalameen.
Arau
PERLIS DARUS SUNNAH
April 23, 2008 11:23 AM
Reference:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1245102280826089707&postID=6886684875120420510
Monday, April 21, 2008
US and ISRAEL Strike Iran
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Amerika dan Israel akan serang Iran bulan ini?
WASINGTON, 4 April: Badan perisikan Rusia dan akhbar Arab Saudi melaporkan, Amerika dan Israel akan menyerang infrastruktor nukleur Iran dalam masa terdekat, katanya April ini juga.
Hasrat Amerika dan Israel ini semakin terserlah dengan tambahan dua armada kapal pengangkut pesawat Amerika Syarikat iaitu USS Stennis dan USS Eisinhower ke Teluk Parsi merupakan tambahan kepada kekuatan empat buah armada yang sudah bersedia kini iaitu USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagen, Enterprise dan kapal pengangkut berkuasa nuklear Nimitz.
Malahan operasi-operasi sulit dan khas sudah pun bermula di sempadan-sempadan dan jauh ke dalam wilayah Iran. Dilaporkan di media bahawa Israel mendapatkan kebenaran untuk jet-jet pejuangnya melintasi ruang udara negara teluk berkenaan untuk menyerang inftrastruktur nuklear Iran juga hangat diperkatakan.
Yang kini menjadi tanda tanya ialah BILAKAH TARIKH SERANGAN AKAN DILAKUKAN?
Menurut satu laporan Sabtu lepas, para komander perang Amerika telah bersedia untuk menyerang wilayah Iran mulai awal April tetapi bilakah masa sebenar serangan hendak dibuat tertakluk kepada arahan dari pemimpin politik Amerika.
Posted by Siasah at 8:53 PM
Reference:
http://siasahdaily.blogspot.com/2008/04/amerika-dan-israel-akan-serang-iran.html?showComment=1208831880000#c1876230612175588432
Amerika dan Israel akan serang Iran bulan ini?
WASINGTON, 4 April: Badan perisikan Rusia dan akhbar Arab Saudi melaporkan, Amerika dan Israel akan menyerang infrastruktor nukleur Iran dalam masa terdekat, katanya April ini juga.
Hasrat Amerika dan Israel ini semakin terserlah dengan tambahan dua armada kapal pengangkut pesawat Amerika Syarikat iaitu USS Stennis dan USS Eisinhower ke Teluk Parsi merupakan tambahan kepada kekuatan empat buah armada yang sudah bersedia kini iaitu USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagen, Enterprise dan kapal pengangkut berkuasa nuklear Nimitz.
Malahan operasi-operasi sulit dan khas sudah pun bermula di sempadan-sempadan dan jauh ke dalam wilayah Iran. Dilaporkan di media bahawa Israel mendapatkan kebenaran untuk jet-jet pejuangnya melintasi ruang udara negara teluk berkenaan untuk menyerang inftrastruktur nuklear Iran juga hangat diperkatakan.
Yang kini menjadi tanda tanya ialah BILAKAH TARIKH SERANGAN AKAN DILAKUKAN?
Menurut satu laporan Sabtu lepas, para komander perang Amerika telah bersedia untuk menyerang wilayah Iran mulai awal April tetapi bilakah masa sebenar serangan hendak dibuat tertakluk kepada arahan dari pemimpin politik Amerika.
Posted by Siasah at 8:53 PM
Reference:
http://siasahdaily.blogspot.com/2008/04/amerika-dan-israel-akan-serang-iran.html?showComment=1208831880000#c1876230612175588432
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Shari'ah : The Way of Justice
Dear readers; either Muslim or Non-Muslim. We are trying to pick up the most valuable article from the respective author Prof. Dr. Khurram Murad and hopping that we are getting closer and closer in order to apprehend the Nature of Shari'ah Islamiah. Have a very nice reading upon it. TQ - Abu Muhammad el-Merbawiy.
SHARIAH: THE WAY OF JUSTICE
By: Khurram Murad
INTRODUCTION
Adroitly manipulated exposure to the imagery of a whip cracking on a naked back and a veil enshrouding a woman’s face has led many to believe that the Shari’ah , the divine code of Muslim conduct, is in reality no more than a collection of values and practices that are primitive, uncivilized and barbaric. What to a Muslim is the object of his longing and endeavour has been very subtly projected as a relic from the dark ages which enslaves the woman and inflicts punishments on the criminal which are cruel, inhuman and degrading.
The Qur’an most certainly does prescribe corporal punishment for certain serious social crimes and it does lay down the principle of retribution, or qisas; it is very emphatic, too, about the crucial role of the family in human society and therefore insists on assigning different well-defined roles to men and women; and it does lay down many other regulations and laws and expects Muslims to obey the eternally valid injunctions of God and His Prophet.
But will these and similar provisions of the Shari’ah really plunge society back into darkness? Are they inhuman and barbaric? Are they an indicator of Islam’s inability to keep pace with the demands of human progress? The issues need to be examined seriously to determine the place and valued of the Shari’ah and its provisions in the ultimate order of human civilization and happiness. The need for this examination is especially acute in the view of the dogmatic position adopted by the West on these questions. A host of Western writers have said it, and the media continue to harp on the same theme: unless Islam is prepared to relent on these and other legal provisions of the Shari’ah, there can and will be no accommodation; only a continuation of Western rejection of Islam. Such vehemence makes one wonder whether the loud chorus about the Shari’ah, and such of its specific provisions as pertain to women and punishment, is in all cases the result of genuine misunderstanding and moral indignation, or whether the issue is merely being used by some as a whipping-boy to settle scores with Islam old and new.
No apologies or excuses are needed to explain away or make acceptable to the West what has been so clearly laid down by the Qur’an and the Prophet in this regard and what has been so consistently accepted and adhered to by Muslims. There should be no place in dialogue with the West for such tortuous, self-deprecating arguments as: polygamy is permitted, but the conditions of justice attached to it makes it effectively prohibited. Or: Corporal punishment is prescribed but hedged in with such unworkable requirements of evidence that it is virtually impossible to carry it out. Or, at least, it cannot be carried out unless an "ideal" just society is established, when it will in any case become unnecessary.
Why those who advance this specious logic should think that God would lay down things which were impossible to practice is not made clear. As if He does not know how to say what He means, and say it clearly! Such excuses are unfair to the Qur’an and the Prophet, and an affront to their wisdom, and at the same time illogical and implausible to the unconvinced.
TOWARDS BETTER UNDERSTANDING
I do not intend to convince everyone, for this is humanly impossible; nor offer excuses, for they are neither necessary nor convincing. What I therefore wish to attempt is to discuss the place of justice in the Shari’ah and the basis and nature of the provisions regarding women and criminal punishment in a way that may at lest generate understanding and tolerance, if not agreement. It should be recognised that the discussion here can be only brief and general, and perhaps will not do full justice to Islam’s position on important and complex issues like the place of women in Muslim society.
SHARI’AH: THE TRUE EMBODIMENT OF JUSTICE
Specific provisions of the Shari’ah can be properly understood only in the context of its total scheme its conceptual basis, primary objectives and goals and overall framework.
CONCEPTUAL BASIS
Shari’ah literally means way to water the source of all life and signifies the way to God, as given by God. It is the Way which encompasses the totality of man’s life. Being God-given, the Shari’ah is the manifestation of His infinite mercy. It is thus also the only true embodiment of, and the best way to, justice.
THE SOURCE OF JUSTICE
Man’s quest for justice without recourse to divine help, and failure to find it, is the most persistent and tragic theme of human history. For justice, an ideal deeply cherished, ardently desired and ceaselessly pursued by mankind from the very first day of its existence on this planet, can never be truly conceptualised nor practiced unless it is rooted in the belief in One God.
He, the infinitely Merciful and Absolutely Just, has created everything with a purpose and in perfect harmony and balance. He has also guided every creation so that it fulfils that purpose. The whole universe and all creation is sustained on this foundation. Justice for man, therefore, as for everything else in creation, lies in obeying God by doing what He has laid down as right and avoiding what He has laid down as wrong. It is only God who can establish in the intricate network of interrelationships and roles, mutual rights and obligations and consequent rewards and punishments on the basis of absolute standards of justice. That is the reason divine guidance is frequently called the Balance in the Qur’an (al-Rahman 55: 1 - 9). All other sources of knowledge and modes of determination, whether scientific enquiry, pure reason or empiricism, suffer from one deficiency or another, being rooted in human imperfection.
JUSTICE: THE SUPREME PURPOSE
Justice is the supreme purpose and ruling spirit of the Shari’ah. It provides the framework for the entire corpus of Islam, shaping and moulding its beautiful configurations. The paramount purpose for which the Prophets were sent and struggled all their lives was to guide man to achieve justice.
We sent our messengers with clear signs, and sent down with them the Book and the Balance so that men may conduct themselves with justice (al-Hadid 57:25)
This is also the very ideal for which the community of Islam, the Ummah, exists as a separate entity. Thus We made you a just community, that you be witnesses to mankind (al-Baqarah 2:143). And again: O Believers, be you upholders of justice, witnessing for God alone (al-Nisa’ 4:135).
Indeed, no conception of Islam and Muslim should be possible without justice. Justice, in Islam, lends meaning and colour to all human endaevours, both on an individual level and as a societal ideal, extending from now into eternity. It servers as the ultimate criterion for the internal ordering of the soul and the external regulation of relationships. The Qur’an repeatedly emphasises that Zulm wrongdoing has absolutely no place in Islam.
ULTIMATE CRITERION OF JUSTICE
The Shari’ah itself is therefore the ultimate criterion of justice and mercy, and cannot and ought not to be measured against changing human standards.
And perfect are the words of your Lord in truthfulness, and in justice; His words cannot be changed; He is the All-hearing, All-knowing (al-An’am 6:116).
Having been given by God, through the last of His prophets, and, therefore, for all time to come, it could not be otherwise.
Changes in human understanding, progress in standards of civilization, which is considered to be linear in time, and advances in technology are all supposed to generate genuine pressures on the Shari’ah to change or to give up those parts which do not seem to rhyme with the late twentieth century time. But what has really changed? Has man changed? Essential human nature, its motives and drives, its emotions and desires have remained virtually unchanged throughout the ages.
Technology has certainly advanced and some ways of looking at the world have altered but no new definitions of concepts like cruelty, civilized, justice, equality have emerged to command universal adherence. Man’s lusts and fears, hopes and anxieties, loves and hates, aspirations, yearnings and longings remain what they have always been. Similarly, the idea that something which evolves later in time is necessarily superior to that which preceded it is also untenable. The only absolute and universal criteria can be those given by God, the All-knowing, whose words are above any change.
OBJECTIVES AND FRAMEWORK
PLACE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
The overall scheme of the Shari’ah and its various specific provisions are largely determined by the way Islam resolves the perennial question of tension between the individual and society and the fundamental and crucial role it assigns to the family.
The concept of the individual and the emphasis on his achievement is not the product of modern Western thought, as many people have tried to make the world believe. The individual has always been the cornerstone in Islam’s total scheme and plan of justice, though in a way fundamentally different from the Western concept. His status and achievement neither depend upon nor can be measured by the standards of consumption. In the sight of God, real human progress is moral, not material; its real measure is possible in the life Hereafter, not in this world.
This theme is so patently obvious and prominent in the Qur’an that it requires no substantiation. On the Day of Judgement, it will be individuals in their personal capacities, and not groups and societies, who will be held fully responsible and accountable for what they have done in their earthly lives. Everyone of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection, all alone (Maryam 19:95). And: “Now you have come to Us, alone, just as We created you the first time! “(al-An’am 6:94).
This is because it is the individual who has been given free will, a moral sense and the knowledge of right and wrong. It is therefore also important that he should be fully enabled to achieve his purpose and realise his potential. This seems to be the primary thread running through the entire fabric of the Shari’ah. His life, person, freedom, possessions and honour are sacred and inviolable: no human being, not even the most powerful ruler, has the right, privilege or authority, unless acting in accordance with the law of God, to take anyone’s life, harm anyone physically, take away their possessions or violate their honour.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIETY
Having said that, it is important to recognise that the individual lives in a society without which he can neither survive nor find fulfillment. Social order and its good are not separate from or in conflict with individual good. Both should stand together fused and harmonious, co-operating and assisting in the service of their One God. Both are inter-dependent and in equilibrium. Both have their well-defined functions and orbits to follow. “It behooves not the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. Each floats in its orbit” (Yasin 36:40). Also the balance is provided by divine guidance in the tensions between various components oh human life between the individual and society, between man and woman. The congregational nature of all forms of worships whether prayers, charity, fasting or pilgrimage and great stress on the formation of the Ummah as an integrated whole amply reflect Islam’s concern for society and its employment as a means of the individual’s development, purification and self-realization.
THE FAMILY
The family is the most fundamental unit in the total scheme of social order in Islam. It enjoys the highest status and the most prestige. It is the fount of the human race, its culture, society and civilization. Procreation is made possible because of sexualisation and it is institutionalised in the family. Similarly the family achives the development of the individual and his transition into society.
The family is a divinely inspired institution in the sense that it came into existence with the creation of man. “O Mankind, remain conscious of your duty to your Lord, who created you of a single soul; and, of like nature, created its mate; and from the pair of them created and spread many men and women (al-Nisa’ 4:1). A man and woman, only because they are different and yet complementary, are capable of forming the unity of family, which is essential for the fulfillment of the individual and the realization of the common good. The family is thus the cradle of the individual and the cornerstone of society.
The family is Islam cultivates and strengthens faith in One God. It preserves and communicates values and culture. It provides a stable environment for the development and fulfillment of the individual and enriches the lives of all its members, providing each the caring and sharing which he or she needs.
However, like any other social institution, the family can survive only if the roles within it are clearly differentiated and strictly followed.
As only women are capable of bearing children, even if no other differences between men and women are accepted, Islam assigns to the female the primary responsibility for home and family; while man is assigned the primary responsibility for life outside the home. Every institution needs a head and the role of head of the family and responsibility for its economic support also devolve on the male. Despite this primary division, men have the duty to share household burdens and women are not debarred from roles outside the home. And within the home, the woman shares the power and responsibilities of the head of the family, and may even become one if circumstances so require.
NATURAL SEQUELS
It therefore follows that any act which vitiates against the individual or which tends to weaken or isrupt the social order, especially the family, is no less a serious crime than, say, high treason against the state. The Shari`ah has accordingly made every possible arrangement to ensure, within the constraints of human limitations and imperfections, that the individual is not hampered in seeking in his fulfillment and carrying out the purpose of his creation; that the two pillars of the family, man and woman, continue to participate in and strengthen the family in accordance with the roles assigned to them; and that the social fabric is not damaged by any single person’s vandalism.
The role assigned to both man and women by the Shari’ah and the arrangements it makes to protect and reinforce these roles, can only be appreciated in the above perspective. Similarly, the severe penalties for extra-marital sex, theft, libel and drinking, and the prescription of requital, or qisas for murder and physical injury, must be seen in the context of this overall scheme of life.
WOMAN
ROLES WITHIN THE FAMILY
The social roles assigned by the Shariah to man and woman within the family emanate from one simple but profound reality: the two are biologically and sexually different; only the woman can bear children. Other important psychological, physical and social differences follow from this. But even if, for the sake of argument, these other genuine difference are dismissed as having been socially caused, the reality of this biological and sexual difference is impossible t deny.
Obviously the role of bearing children is one that the woman can neither shirk nor transfer, unless the ear of test-tube babies is ushered in or mankind decides to extinguish itself. Sex difference, reproduction, role of differentiation, sexual morality, survival of the family, healthy child development and the health and strength of society are closely inter-linked and mutually dependent phenomena, in which sex-based role differentiation is the key to the stability of the entire system. If it is abandoned, the whole chain will snap: sexual morality will collapse, personality disorder will be rampant, anarchy and chaos will the order of the day. In short, the family will vanish.
There is no convincing case however for saying that role differentiation is socially caused; on the contrary, the cumulative weight of all evidence, whether from pre-history or history, indicates unmistakably that every society has chosen to do things the same way, even the contemporary West, which is so vociferous in professing equality of the sexes. No society is on record which has ever progressed without placing woman in full charge of the home.
DIFFERENT BUT NOT INFERIOR
Hence the principle in the Shari'ah: the woman's place is in the home. However, it is very important to note that to be different is NOT to be inferior. Islam attaches no stigma to being a woman; there is no inferior nature, no myth of Fall and no responsibility for original sin. To bear and rear children is no disgrace either. To rule over and manage the kingdom of home - that haven of human happiness and progress - is no mean achievement. Home and children can be degrading and a burden only in a society which chooses to make them so. In Islam, domesticity is not a devalued sphere of human life, nor is home in any way inferior to public life.
Indeed, the very epithet 'confined to the four walls of the home' is absurd to a Muslim, as the home in Islam, far from being a place to be looked down upon with contempt, is more important and sacred than even a parliament building or a university, and certainly more prestigious, creative and rewarding than the shop floor or secretarial desk, where two thirds of 'emancipated' women finally end up working.
EQUALITY, NOT SIMILARITY
Equality is one of those human yearnings which usually elude definitions. Its translation into roles, rules and norms has always been subjective. Unfortunately, it is being used by modern feminists as a slogan in their campaign to erase all role differentiation. It is being used, too, as a smokescreen from behind which to direct the barrage of attacks against the Shari'ah for its various provisions regarding women.
That equality is a profound human urge and a genuine human ideal is beyond doubt. What is equally true and obvious is that equality of role does not necessarily mean similarity of role. Once equality is confused with similarity, the only possible conclusion is: 'A truly equal two-sexed society is unimaginable'. Ending role differentiation is bound to have catastrophic consequences as already noted, for the interlinked phenomena of sexual morality, the family, reproduction, child-rearing, personality development and society, as is already evident in the West. Even such an apparently relatively minor phenomenon as the spread of contraceptive techniques has been profoundly instrumental in promoting extra-marital sex, changing sex values, upsetting and confusing roles, disrupting the family and devaluing child-rearing and home life. Population control may have been achieved but a glaring questing mark over the final destiny of the human race has appeared.
Islam recognizes the obvious differences between man and woman and shapes their social roles accordingly, but it lays no less emphasis on the similarity of their essential natures as human beings and on their right to equality of opportunity to find fulfillment through their roles in this world and, finally and more importantly, in the eyes of their God in the life hereafter. According to the Shari'ah, man and woman are equal as human beings and have an equal number of mutual obligations and rights. The family unit has the man as its head, for no institution can survive without a head,; but this is no way makes the woman unequal to man. She is not obligated even to take her husband's name and lose her identity. Her share in inheritance is one-half of the male share, but she is under no obligation to make any financial contribution to the maintenance of the family.
Many specific provisions of the Shari'ah regarding the rights and obligations of women, their conduct and behaviour, their dress and segregation, marriage and divorce laws and work outside the home can be better understood in this light. But, what is equally important to bear in mind is that some of the prevalent practices in the Muslim societies today, that have come into vogue as a result of centuries of decadence and stagnation as well as un-Islamic influences, should not be used to understand and judge Islam.
SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE
Sex, in Islam is not a taboo to feel guilty about. It is a natural and creative urge, a God-given gift. But the bond of marriage must be tied before enjoying the pleasures of sex, which are the rewards for the responsibilities that the man and woman bear in rearing a family; these joys lighten the burden and cement and bind the relationship. To seek sex outside the limits set by God is a sin, to seek it within these limits is therefore an act of worship.
If sex inside and outside marriage were equally legitimate or easily available, the sacred institution of the family would be gradually destroyed. Islam therefore not only completely prohibits all forms of sexual deviation and pre and extra-marital sex; it arranges to make them highly inaccessible and also severely punishable. Hence the regulations about covering various parts of the body and the social mixing of the sexes.
POLYGAMY
Polygamy is permitted by the Qur'an; though it is not enjoined, as some people apparently believed. Justice is enjoined, as far as is humanly possible, otherwise one should remain monogamous. Thus, disadvantages of a polygamous marriage are recognized, but not to the extent of prohibiting it legally. This legal provision can be properly understood only in the context of Islam's position on two important issues, as already explained.
Firstly, that the family is the cornerstone of human society and any extra-marital sex is completely prohibited. Married life is the most desirable way of life - Islam wants a woman to be a wife and never a mistress. Both man and woman have to make some sacrifice to make a success of family life.
Secondly, Islam's law is for all times to come and should therefore, as far as is practical, cater for all possible social and individual situations. Legal provision, like a total ban on divorce or polygamy may indeed result in far more serious consequences than they may solve. Even in countries where polygamy is illegal, it may be argued, monogamy is fairly rare, so sex outside marriage is considered as polygamy, as it should be.
It is left to the societies and individuals , within the freedoms and prohibitions laid down by Islam, to regulate their conduct as they may desire. What is important to note is that it takes a woman, in addition to a man, to make a polygamous marriage; for no marriage in Islam can never take place without her consent. And the first wife can also claim a divorce if she cannot live with the situation. Hence it is entirely within the power of individuals virtually to eliminate polygamy without recourse to law.
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
Women's consent is an essential legal condition for marriage in Islam. If such consent is not being obtained in Muslim societies today, the problem is a result of social circumstances, not of the legal provisions of the Shari'ah. The situation must change once the Shari'ah is implemented.
It is certainly simple in theory for a man to divorce his wife in Islam. But it is found to be very difficult for him to do so in practice; the very low rate of divorce is enough to prove this. Indeed, the power to divorce is more of a responsibility to save the marriage. Among the things permitted by God, divorce is the most disliked by him, said the Prophet. On the other hand, while the woman cannot pronounce divorce like the man, it is not difficult for her to obtain one, even on the ground of her husband's physical appearance not being to her liking.
WORK OUTSIDE THE HOME
To preserve the role differentiation and to retain the incentives for strengthening the family, Islam discourages women from working outside the home. This discouragement in no way prejudices a woman's right to own property, to conduct business, to receive and impart education, to engage in cultural and creative activities, and even take up job when necessary. Yet to ask woman to work outside the home is indeed to make her unequal; it is to ask her to take on the enormous stress of doing two jobs.
The urge to work is only natural, but work as the center of life is one product of a society which is consumption-oriented and where status depends on earning capacity. Women work today, not only through economic necessity, but because they are under other subtle pressures; accusations of wasting their talents on 'degrading' domestic chores, lack of status, boredom and isolation. In Islam, as we have already noted, the whole orientation of the individual and society is radically different. Work is still very important, but the real goal in life is to please God.
PUNISHMENTS
Punishments have always been considered an integral part of the concept of justice. Indeed, a common man would find it hard to think of justice as something very different or separate from rewarding or punishing people according to how well or badly they observe the body of the mutual rights and obligations obtaining in their society. But if the concept of punishment is universal, the controversies surrounding it are nonetheless intense. We shall now look at some basic Islamic principles concerning punishments.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
Man is responsible for his actions: this simple truth provides the whole basis for the justification of punishment. For, to fulfil the purpose of this creation, he has been granted the freedom to choose and act, and the moral sense to distinguish between right and wrong. Responsibility goes with knowledge and freedom. Punishment cannot therefore be meted out to anyone for someone else’s actions, for acts intended but not performed or for acts done under duress or while not of sound mind. Everyone must be equal before the law and their guilt must be established by the due process of justice.
REPENTANCE AND PUNISHMENT
Punishment in Islam has nothing to do with the notions of atonement, expiation or wiping away of sin. A crime is essentially an act of injustice to one’s own self, a sin against God. It can be wiped away only by God, and that He does when a person turns to Him, truly repentant and seeking forgiveness. Between man and God, therefore, the total emphasis is on repentance, and punishment can be no substitute for it. But a crime is also an act against the social order and in this sphere mere repentance cannot be a substitute for punishment which is a means of protecting and strengthening the society.
PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE
It is important to note that there is no concept in Islam of the punishment being exactly and justly proportional to the crime. Absolute and truly proportional justice would require the exact and complete evaluation of such complex factors as intentions and motives, the surrounding circumstances, the causes and repercussions- factors which human judges must consider but cannot evaluate fully and which only God, in the new moral order to be set up in the life after death, can measure. Islamic punishments are not therefore to be judged on the scales of proportional and full retribution. They are however laid down by the Being who is infinitely Merciful and Wise, and are therefore more suitable for the particular crimes than what can be prescribed by any human legislatures or judges.
PART OF A WHOLE
Most importantly, punishments are only a part of a vastly larger integrated whole. They can neither be properly understood, nor successfully or justifiably implemented in isolation. First, law is not the main, or even major, vehicle in the total framework for the reinforcement of morality; it is the individual’s belief, his God-consciousness and taqwa, - that inherent and innate quality which makes him want to refrain from what displeases God and do what pleases Him. Second, justice is a positive ideal which permeates and dominates the entire community life; it is not merely an institutionalized means of inflicting punishment. Third, and consequently, a whole environment is established where to do right is encouraged, facilitated and found easy and to do wrong is discouraged, inhibited and found difficult. All men and women are enjoined, as their foremost duty, to aid, exhort and commend each other to do good and to avoid evil.
FUNCTIONAL NATURE
Penalties in Islam are more of a functional nature, to regulate and deter. God has laid down a body of mutual rights and obligations which are the true embodiment of justice. He has also laid down certain bounds and limits to be observed and maintained for this very purpose. If men and nations desire to move in peace and safety on the highways of life, they must stick to the traffic lanes demarcated for them and observe all the signposts erected along their routes. If they do not, they not only put themselves in danger, but endanger others. They therefore naturally make themselves liable to penalties not in vengeful retribution but to regulate the orderly exchanges in man’s life in accordance with justice.
It is a significant contribution of Islam that these penalties are called hudud (boundaries) and not punishments: they are liabilities incurred as a result of crossing the boundary set by God. An important consequence of these hudud having been laid down by God, and not by man, is that it is beyond human authority to reduce or supercede them out of a sense of mercy greater than that of God; nor can a tyrant or autocrat add to them out of a greater sense of strict justice. For no one can be more merciful or wiser or more just than God himself.
Another important function which these punishments serve is educative, and thus preventive and deterrent. The Qur’ran alludes to this aspect when it describes them as exemplary punishment from God (al-Ma’idah 5:38). Punishments are thus designed to keep the sense of justice alive in the community by a public repudiation of the acts violating the limits set by God. They are expected to build up in the society a deep feeling of abhorrence for transgression against fellow human beings, and therefore against God - a transgression which, according to the Qur’an, is the root cause of all disorders and corruption in human life.
RETRIBUTION - QISAS
Apart from punishments for transgressions like extra-marital sex, theft, libel and drinking, the Qur’an also provides for the principle of qisas retribution. When a person causes physical injury or harm to a fellow human being, Islam gives the injured party the right of equal requital the well-known principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This procedure is persistently labeled by critics as primitive and uncivilized. In the Islamic view of history, it is worth pointing out, what is primitive has never been necessarily uncivilized. The first man was given all necessary knowledge and guidance, and though he may have been technologically backward compared to the twentieth century, he definitely was not humanly backward.
Uncivilized is what man thinks and does in deviating from the divine order.
In the eyes of the Qur’an in retribution (qisas) lies the source of life for you. The reasons are obvious. First, the right of retribution belongs to individuals, not society or the state; this simple shift in responsibility results in a profound and far reaching change in the whole system of implementing justice. The state does not have to intervene every time two human beings are involved in a dispute. Thus, instead of starting an irreversible process of trial and punishment, it leaves the ground open for settlement between individuals, without interference by impersonal bureaucratic machinery, though under no circumstances can the individual take the law into his own hands.
The injured person in his turn may forgo his right to retribution by forgiving, or may agree to accept a monetary or token recompense instead. The Quran, in fact, highly recommends the act of forgiving. Thus, under qisas punishment is avoidable without burdening the executive or judiciary with the dilemma of whether to exercise mercy. As against a court which must act according to law once a case is brought before it, an individual is free to act as he wishes. Justice has to be blind, but an individual may take circumstances into account, and suspend judgement in the hope of being forgiven by God in the hereafter. Very few realize hat the principle of qisas even allows capital punishment to be avoided.
MERCY AND LENIENCY
Having prescribed punishments and imposed strict and meticulous, though not impossible, conditions of evidence, Islam has built in a whole range of principles and precepts which reflect not a frenzied desire to flog and stone but a compassionate urge to avoid and eschew. Islam does not allow either the state or individuals to spy upon people unless well-founded suspicion exists that a crime is being committed or a fellow human being’s rights or interests are in jeopardy. Nor is it obligatory to report every crime. Where possible, settlements outside court are preferred. The punishment is swiftly over; the guilty man and his family do not have to live with the kind of lengthy public stigma that they would have had to endure in the case of a prison sentence at the end of a trial. The imposition of divinely prescribed hudud enhance, and not diminish, the individual’s dignity and stature in society and before God.
ALLEGED CRUELTY
As to the alleged cruelty of physical penalties, one wonders if to deprive a man of his freedom -- his most precious and valuable possession and his right to act and continue to make moral choices , to live with his family, to work and support them is not more cruel. Indeed, a prison term can inflict untold misery on innocent people whose lives are intertwined with the life of the prisoner. Prison becomes a school for hardening criminal behavior and a breeding ground for recidivism. Why should it be considered more cruel for a man found drug trafficking to be given ten lashes than to be sent to languish in prison for, say, ten years.
REFORM SYNDROME
Why does Islam want to punish and not reform? The question is fallacious, for in Islam every institution of society is value oriented and owes a responsibility towards the moral development of every person from the cradle to the grave. Reform is therefore a pre-crime responsibility and not a post-crime syndrome and nightmare. Islam makes every effort to ensure that inducement to commit crime is minimal. Once the crime is committed, the best place for reform is in the family and in society, where a criminal is to live after punishment, and not in a prison where every inmate is a criminal; unless of course a society considers itself to be more corrupt and less competent to effect reform than a jail! Against this, the modern, enlightened approach is to provide every inducement to crime by building a society based on conspicuous consumption; to make society, education and every other institution value free and then to try to reform a criminal by segregating him and keeping him in a prison.
PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
Sentences in Islam are certainly harsh, but still more strict and severe are the procedures laid down to be observed before a man may be convinced. These procedures are modeled on the paradigm of the Day of Judgement, when even God, though he is All-knowing, and Just, will not punish anybody unless He establishes his guilt. To let nine criminals go free is preferable to convicting one innocent man, said the Prophet.
CONCLUSION
The Shari’ah is an integrated homogenous whole. Once one understands its basic concepts, objectives and framework, one cannot but conclude that it is capable of creating the most human and just society, a peace and blessing for mankind. Difficulties only arise when critics try to measure the ocean of divine knowledge, wisdom and justice with their own thimble of pedestrian criteria and standards.
Today’s Muslim societies are not model societies they are infested with ills and evils yet the comparatively stable family life, absence of delinquency, low crime rates, much greater freedom from drugs and alcoholism, warmth of brotherhood, generosity and mutual aid and help all these are the legacies of that divinely given code of life, the way to Justice, which once they used to adhere to, and yearn to have the change to return to the Shari’ah.
(typing by abujihad 1999 )
Reference:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020220065413/www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Articles/shariah/shariah.html
SHARIAH: THE WAY OF JUSTICE
By: Khurram Murad
INTRODUCTION
Adroitly manipulated exposure to the imagery of a whip cracking on a naked back and a veil enshrouding a woman’s face has led many to believe that the Shari’ah , the divine code of Muslim conduct, is in reality no more than a collection of values and practices that are primitive, uncivilized and barbaric. What to a Muslim is the object of his longing and endeavour has been very subtly projected as a relic from the dark ages which enslaves the woman and inflicts punishments on the criminal which are cruel, inhuman and degrading.
The Qur’an most certainly does prescribe corporal punishment for certain serious social crimes and it does lay down the principle of retribution, or qisas; it is very emphatic, too, about the crucial role of the family in human society and therefore insists on assigning different well-defined roles to men and women; and it does lay down many other regulations and laws and expects Muslims to obey the eternally valid injunctions of God and His Prophet.
But will these and similar provisions of the Shari’ah really plunge society back into darkness? Are they inhuman and barbaric? Are they an indicator of Islam’s inability to keep pace with the demands of human progress? The issues need to be examined seriously to determine the place and valued of the Shari’ah and its provisions in the ultimate order of human civilization and happiness. The need for this examination is especially acute in the view of the dogmatic position adopted by the West on these questions. A host of Western writers have said it, and the media continue to harp on the same theme: unless Islam is prepared to relent on these and other legal provisions of the Shari’ah, there can and will be no accommodation; only a continuation of Western rejection of Islam. Such vehemence makes one wonder whether the loud chorus about the Shari’ah, and such of its specific provisions as pertain to women and punishment, is in all cases the result of genuine misunderstanding and moral indignation, or whether the issue is merely being used by some as a whipping-boy to settle scores with Islam old and new.
No apologies or excuses are needed to explain away or make acceptable to the West what has been so clearly laid down by the Qur’an and the Prophet in this regard and what has been so consistently accepted and adhered to by Muslims. There should be no place in dialogue with the West for such tortuous, self-deprecating arguments as: polygamy is permitted, but the conditions of justice attached to it makes it effectively prohibited. Or: Corporal punishment is prescribed but hedged in with such unworkable requirements of evidence that it is virtually impossible to carry it out. Or, at least, it cannot be carried out unless an "ideal" just society is established, when it will in any case become unnecessary.
Why those who advance this specious logic should think that God would lay down things which were impossible to practice is not made clear. As if He does not know how to say what He means, and say it clearly! Such excuses are unfair to the Qur’an and the Prophet, and an affront to their wisdom, and at the same time illogical and implausible to the unconvinced.
TOWARDS BETTER UNDERSTANDING
I do not intend to convince everyone, for this is humanly impossible; nor offer excuses, for they are neither necessary nor convincing. What I therefore wish to attempt is to discuss the place of justice in the Shari’ah and the basis and nature of the provisions regarding women and criminal punishment in a way that may at lest generate understanding and tolerance, if not agreement. It should be recognised that the discussion here can be only brief and general, and perhaps will not do full justice to Islam’s position on important and complex issues like the place of women in Muslim society.
SHARI’AH: THE TRUE EMBODIMENT OF JUSTICE
Specific provisions of the Shari’ah can be properly understood only in the context of its total scheme its conceptual basis, primary objectives and goals and overall framework.
CONCEPTUAL BASIS
Shari’ah literally means way to water the source of all life and signifies the way to God, as given by God. It is the Way which encompasses the totality of man’s life. Being God-given, the Shari’ah is the manifestation of His infinite mercy. It is thus also the only true embodiment of, and the best way to, justice.
THE SOURCE OF JUSTICE
Man’s quest for justice without recourse to divine help, and failure to find it, is the most persistent and tragic theme of human history. For justice, an ideal deeply cherished, ardently desired and ceaselessly pursued by mankind from the very first day of its existence on this planet, can never be truly conceptualised nor practiced unless it is rooted in the belief in One God.
He, the infinitely Merciful and Absolutely Just, has created everything with a purpose and in perfect harmony and balance. He has also guided every creation so that it fulfils that purpose. The whole universe and all creation is sustained on this foundation. Justice for man, therefore, as for everything else in creation, lies in obeying God by doing what He has laid down as right and avoiding what He has laid down as wrong. It is only God who can establish in the intricate network of interrelationships and roles, mutual rights and obligations and consequent rewards and punishments on the basis of absolute standards of justice. That is the reason divine guidance is frequently called the Balance in the Qur’an (al-Rahman 55: 1 - 9). All other sources of knowledge and modes of determination, whether scientific enquiry, pure reason or empiricism, suffer from one deficiency or another, being rooted in human imperfection.
JUSTICE: THE SUPREME PURPOSE
Justice is the supreme purpose and ruling spirit of the Shari’ah. It provides the framework for the entire corpus of Islam, shaping and moulding its beautiful configurations. The paramount purpose for which the Prophets were sent and struggled all their lives was to guide man to achieve justice.
We sent our messengers with clear signs, and sent down with them the Book and the Balance so that men may conduct themselves with justice (al-Hadid 57:25)
This is also the very ideal for which the community of Islam, the Ummah, exists as a separate entity. Thus We made you a just community, that you be witnesses to mankind (al-Baqarah 2:143). And again: O Believers, be you upholders of justice, witnessing for God alone (al-Nisa’ 4:135).
Indeed, no conception of Islam and Muslim should be possible without justice. Justice, in Islam, lends meaning and colour to all human endaevours, both on an individual level and as a societal ideal, extending from now into eternity. It servers as the ultimate criterion for the internal ordering of the soul and the external regulation of relationships. The Qur’an repeatedly emphasises that Zulm wrongdoing has absolutely no place in Islam.
ULTIMATE CRITERION OF JUSTICE
The Shari’ah itself is therefore the ultimate criterion of justice and mercy, and cannot and ought not to be measured against changing human standards.
And perfect are the words of your Lord in truthfulness, and in justice; His words cannot be changed; He is the All-hearing, All-knowing (al-An’am 6:116).
Having been given by God, through the last of His prophets, and, therefore, for all time to come, it could not be otherwise.
Changes in human understanding, progress in standards of civilization, which is considered to be linear in time, and advances in technology are all supposed to generate genuine pressures on the Shari’ah to change or to give up those parts which do not seem to rhyme with the late twentieth century time. But what has really changed? Has man changed? Essential human nature, its motives and drives, its emotions and desires have remained virtually unchanged throughout the ages.
Technology has certainly advanced and some ways of looking at the world have altered but no new definitions of concepts like cruelty, civilized, justice, equality have emerged to command universal adherence. Man’s lusts and fears, hopes and anxieties, loves and hates, aspirations, yearnings and longings remain what they have always been. Similarly, the idea that something which evolves later in time is necessarily superior to that which preceded it is also untenable. The only absolute and universal criteria can be those given by God, the All-knowing, whose words are above any change.
OBJECTIVES AND FRAMEWORK
PLACE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
The overall scheme of the Shari’ah and its various specific provisions are largely determined by the way Islam resolves the perennial question of tension between the individual and society and the fundamental and crucial role it assigns to the family.
The concept of the individual and the emphasis on his achievement is not the product of modern Western thought, as many people have tried to make the world believe. The individual has always been the cornerstone in Islam’s total scheme and plan of justice, though in a way fundamentally different from the Western concept. His status and achievement neither depend upon nor can be measured by the standards of consumption. In the sight of God, real human progress is moral, not material; its real measure is possible in the life Hereafter, not in this world.
This theme is so patently obvious and prominent in the Qur’an that it requires no substantiation. On the Day of Judgement, it will be individuals in their personal capacities, and not groups and societies, who will be held fully responsible and accountable for what they have done in their earthly lives. Everyone of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection, all alone (Maryam 19:95). And: “Now you have come to Us, alone, just as We created you the first time! “(al-An’am 6:94).
This is because it is the individual who has been given free will, a moral sense and the knowledge of right and wrong. It is therefore also important that he should be fully enabled to achieve his purpose and realise his potential. This seems to be the primary thread running through the entire fabric of the Shari’ah. His life, person, freedom, possessions and honour are sacred and inviolable: no human being, not even the most powerful ruler, has the right, privilege or authority, unless acting in accordance with the law of God, to take anyone’s life, harm anyone physically, take away their possessions or violate their honour.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIETY
Having said that, it is important to recognise that the individual lives in a society without which he can neither survive nor find fulfillment. Social order and its good are not separate from or in conflict with individual good. Both should stand together fused and harmonious, co-operating and assisting in the service of their One God. Both are inter-dependent and in equilibrium. Both have their well-defined functions and orbits to follow. “It behooves not the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. Each floats in its orbit” (Yasin 36:40). Also the balance is provided by divine guidance in the tensions between various components oh human life between the individual and society, between man and woman. The congregational nature of all forms of worships whether prayers, charity, fasting or pilgrimage and great stress on the formation of the Ummah as an integrated whole amply reflect Islam’s concern for society and its employment as a means of the individual’s development, purification and self-realization.
THE FAMILY
The family is the most fundamental unit in the total scheme of social order in Islam. It enjoys the highest status and the most prestige. It is the fount of the human race, its culture, society and civilization. Procreation is made possible because of sexualisation and it is institutionalised in the family. Similarly the family achives the development of the individual and his transition into society.
The family is a divinely inspired institution in the sense that it came into existence with the creation of man. “O Mankind, remain conscious of your duty to your Lord, who created you of a single soul; and, of like nature, created its mate; and from the pair of them created and spread many men and women (al-Nisa’ 4:1). A man and woman, only because they are different and yet complementary, are capable of forming the unity of family, which is essential for the fulfillment of the individual and the realization of the common good. The family is thus the cradle of the individual and the cornerstone of society.
The family is Islam cultivates and strengthens faith in One God. It preserves and communicates values and culture. It provides a stable environment for the development and fulfillment of the individual and enriches the lives of all its members, providing each the caring and sharing which he or she needs.
However, like any other social institution, the family can survive only if the roles within it are clearly differentiated and strictly followed.
As only women are capable of bearing children, even if no other differences between men and women are accepted, Islam assigns to the female the primary responsibility for home and family; while man is assigned the primary responsibility for life outside the home. Every institution needs a head and the role of head of the family and responsibility for its economic support also devolve on the male. Despite this primary division, men have the duty to share household burdens and women are not debarred from roles outside the home. And within the home, the woman shares the power and responsibilities of the head of the family, and may even become one if circumstances so require.
NATURAL SEQUELS
It therefore follows that any act which vitiates against the individual or which tends to weaken or isrupt the social order, especially the family, is no less a serious crime than, say, high treason against the state. The Shari`ah has accordingly made every possible arrangement to ensure, within the constraints of human limitations and imperfections, that the individual is not hampered in seeking in his fulfillment and carrying out the purpose of his creation; that the two pillars of the family, man and woman, continue to participate in and strengthen the family in accordance with the roles assigned to them; and that the social fabric is not damaged by any single person’s vandalism.
The role assigned to both man and women by the Shari’ah and the arrangements it makes to protect and reinforce these roles, can only be appreciated in the above perspective. Similarly, the severe penalties for extra-marital sex, theft, libel and drinking, and the prescription of requital, or qisas for murder and physical injury, must be seen in the context of this overall scheme of life.
WOMAN
ROLES WITHIN THE FAMILY
The social roles assigned by the Shariah to man and woman within the family emanate from one simple but profound reality: the two are biologically and sexually different; only the woman can bear children. Other important psychological, physical and social differences follow from this. But even if, for the sake of argument, these other genuine difference are dismissed as having been socially caused, the reality of this biological and sexual difference is impossible t deny.
Obviously the role of bearing children is one that the woman can neither shirk nor transfer, unless the ear of test-tube babies is ushered in or mankind decides to extinguish itself. Sex difference, reproduction, role of differentiation, sexual morality, survival of the family, healthy child development and the health and strength of society are closely inter-linked and mutually dependent phenomena, in which sex-based role differentiation is the key to the stability of the entire system. If it is abandoned, the whole chain will snap: sexual morality will collapse, personality disorder will be rampant, anarchy and chaos will the order of the day. In short, the family will vanish.
There is no convincing case however for saying that role differentiation is socially caused; on the contrary, the cumulative weight of all evidence, whether from pre-history or history, indicates unmistakably that every society has chosen to do things the same way, even the contemporary West, which is so vociferous in professing equality of the sexes. No society is on record which has ever progressed without placing woman in full charge of the home.
DIFFERENT BUT NOT INFERIOR
Hence the principle in the Shari'ah: the woman's place is in the home. However, it is very important to note that to be different is NOT to be inferior. Islam attaches no stigma to being a woman; there is no inferior nature, no myth of Fall and no responsibility for original sin. To bear and rear children is no disgrace either. To rule over and manage the kingdom of home - that haven of human happiness and progress - is no mean achievement. Home and children can be degrading and a burden only in a society which chooses to make them so. In Islam, domesticity is not a devalued sphere of human life, nor is home in any way inferior to public life.
Indeed, the very epithet 'confined to the four walls of the home' is absurd to a Muslim, as the home in Islam, far from being a place to be looked down upon with contempt, is more important and sacred than even a parliament building or a university, and certainly more prestigious, creative and rewarding than the shop floor or secretarial desk, where two thirds of 'emancipated' women finally end up working.
EQUALITY, NOT SIMILARITY
Equality is one of those human yearnings which usually elude definitions. Its translation into roles, rules and norms has always been subjective. Unfortunately, it is being used by modern feminists as a slogan in their campaign to erase all role differentiation. It is being used, too, as a smokescreen from behind which to direct the barrage of attacks against the Shari'ah for its various provisions regarding women.
That equality is a profound human urge and a genuine human ideal is beyond doubt. What is equally true and obvious is that equality of role does not necessarily mean similarity of role. Once equality is confused with similarity, the only possible conclusion is: 'A truly equal two-sexed society is unimaginable'. Ending role differentiation is bound to have catastrophic consequences as already noted, for the interlinked phenomena of sexual morality, the family, reproduction, child-rearing, personality development and society, as is already evident in the West. Even such an apparently relatively minor phenomenon as the spread of contraceptive techniques has been profoundly instrumental in promoting extra-marital sex, changing sex values, upsetting and confusing roles, disrupting the family and devaluing child-rearing and home life. Population control may have been achieved but a glaring questing mark over the final destiny of the human race has appeared.
Islam recognizes the obvious differences between man and woman and shapes their social roles accordingly, but it lays no less emphasis on the similarity of their essential natures as human beings and on their right to equality of opportunity to find fulfillment through their roles in this world and, finally and more importantly, in the eyes of their God in the life hereafter. According to the Shari'ah, man and woman are equal as human beings and have an equal number of mutual obligations and rights. The family unit has the man as its head, for no institution can survive without a head,; but this is no way makes the woman unequal to man. She is not obligated even to take her husband's name and lose her identity. Her share in inheritance is one-half of the male share, but she is under no obligation to make any financial contribution to the maintenance of the family.
Many specific provisions of the Shari'ah regarding the rights and obligations of women, their conduct and behaviour, their dress and segregation, marriage and divorce laws and work outside the home can be better understood in this light. But, what is equally important to bear in mind is that some of the prevalent practices in the Muslim societies today, that have come into vogue as a result of centuries of decadence and stagnation as well as un-Islamic influences, should not be used to understand and judge Islam.
SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE
Sex, in Islam is not a taboo to feel guilty about. It is a natural and creative urge, a God-given gift. But the bond of marriage must be tied before enjoying the pleasures of sex, which are the rewards for the responsibilities that the man and woman bear in rearing a family; these joys lighten the burden and cement and bind the relationship. To seek sex outside the limits set by God is a sin, to seek it within these limits is therefore an act of worship.
If sex inside and outside marriage were equally legitimate or easily available, the sacred institution of the family would be gradually destroyed. Islam therefore not only completely prohibits all forms of sexual deviation and pre and extra-marital sex; it arranges to make them highly inaccessible and also severely punishable. Hence the regulations about covering various parts of the body and the social mixing of the sexes.
POLYGAMY
Polygamy is permitted by the Qur'an; though it is not enjoined, as some people apparently believed. Justice is enjoined, as far as is humanly possible, otherwise one should remain monogamous. Thus, disadvantages of a polygamous marriage are recognized, but not to the extent of prohibiting it legally. This legal provision can be properly understood only in the context of Islam's position on two important issues, as already explained.
Firstly, that the family is the cornerstone of human society and any extra-marital sex is completely prohibited. Married life is the most desirable way of life - Islam wants a woman to be a wife and never a mistress. Both man and woman have to make some sacrifice to make a success of family life.
Secondly, Islam's law is for all times to come and should therefore, as far as is practical, cater for all possible social and individual situations. Legal provision, like a total ban on divorce or polygamy may indeed result in far more serious consequences than they may solve. Even in countries where polygamy is illegal, it may be argued, monogamy is fairly rare, so sex outside marriage is considered as polygamy, as it should be.
It is left to the societies and individuals , within the freedoms and prohibitions laid down by Islam, to regulate their conduct as they may desire. What is important to note is that it takes a woman, in addition to a man, to make a polygamous marriage; for no marriage in Islam can never take place without her consent. And the first wife can also claim a divorce if she cannot live with the situation. Hence it is entirely within the power of individuals virtually to eliminate polygamy without recourse to law.
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
Women's consent is an essential legal condition for marriage in Islam. If such consent is not being obtained in Muslim societies today, the problem is a result of social circumstances, not of the legal provisions of the Shari'ah. The situation must change once the Shari'ah is implemented.
It is certainly simple in theory for a man to divorce his wife in Islam. But it is found to be very difficult for him to do so in practice; the very low rate of divorce is enough to prove this. Indeed, the power to divorce is more of a responsibility to save the marriage. Among the things permitted by God, divorce is the most disliked by him, said the Prophet. On the other hand, while the woman cannot pronounce divorce like the man, it is not difficult for her to obtain one, even on the ground of her husband's physical appearance not being to her liking.
WORK OUTSIDE THE HOME
To preserve the role differentiation and to retain the incentives for strengthening the family, Islam discourages women from working outside the home. This discouragement in no way prejudices a woman's right to own property, to conduct business, to receive and impart education, to engage in cultural and creative activities, and even take up job when necessary. Yet to ask woman to work outside the home is indeed to make her unequal; it is to ask her to take on the enormous stress of doing two jobs.
The urge to work is only natural, but work as the center of life is one product of a society which is consumption-oriented and where status depends on earning capacity. Women work today, not only through economic necessity, but because they are under other subtle pressures; accusations of wasting their talents on 'degrading' domestic chores, lack of status, boredom and isolation. In Islam, as we have already noted, the whole orientation of the individual and society is radically different. Work is still very important, but the real goal in life is to please God.
PUNISHMENTS
Punishments have always been considered an integral part of the concept of justice. Indeed, a common man would find it hard to think of justice as something very different or separate from rewarding or punishing people according to how well or badly they observe the body of the mutual rights and obligations obtaining in their society. But if the concept of punishment is universal, the controversies surrounding it are nonetheless intense. We shall now look at some basic Islamic principles concerning punishments.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
Man is responsible for his actions: this simple truth provides the whole basis for the justification of punishment. For, to fulfil the purpose of this creation, he has been granted the freedom to choose and act, and the moral sense to distinguish between right and wrong. Responsibility goes with knowledge and freedom. Punishment cannot therefore be meted out to anyone for someone else’s actions, for acts intended but not performed or for acts done under duress or while not of sound mind. Everyone must be equal before the law and their guilt must be established by the due process of justice.
REPENTANCE AND PUNISHMENT
Punishment in Islam has nothing to do with the notions of atonement, expiation or wiping away of sin. A crime is essentially an act of injustice to one’s own self, a sin against God. It can be wiped away only by God, and that He does when a person turns to Him, truly repentant and seeking forgiveness. Between man and God, therefore, the total emphasis is on repentance, and punishment can be no substitute for it. But a crime is also an act against the social order and in this sphere mere repentance cannot be a substitute for punishment which is a means of protecting and strengthening the society.
PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE
It is important to note that there is no concept in Islam of the punishment being exactly and justly proportional to the crime. Absolute and truly proportional justice would require the exact and complete evaluation of such complex factors as intentions and motives, the surrounding circumstances, the causes and repercussions- factors which human judges must consider but cannot evaluate fully and which only God, in the new moral order to be set up in the life after death, can measure. Islamic punishments are not therefore to be judged on the scales of proportional and full retribution. They are however laid down by the Being who is infinitely Merciful and Wise, and are therefore more suitable for the particular crimes than what can be prescribed by any human legislatures or judges.
PART OF A WHOLE
Most importantly, punishments are only a part of a vastly larger integrated whole. They can neither be properly understood, nor successfully or justifiably implemented in isolation. First, law is not the main, or even major, vehicle in the total framework for the reinforcement of morality; it is the individual’s belief, his God-consciousness and taqwa, - that inherent and innate quality which makes him want to refrain from what displeases God and do what pleases Him. Second, justice is a positive ideal which permeates and dominates the entire community life; it is not merely an institutionalized means of inflicting punishment. Third, and consequently, a whole environment is established where to do right is encouraged, facilitated and found easy and to do wrong is discouraged, inhibited and found difficult. All men and women are enjoined, as their foremost duty, to aid, exhort and commend each other to do good and to avoid evil.
FUNCTIONAL NATURE
Penalties in Islam are more of a functional nature, to regulate and deter. God has laid down a body of mutual rights and obligations which are the true embodiment of justice. He has also laid down certain bounds and limits to be observed and maintained for this very purpose. If men and nations desire to move in peace and safety on the highways of life, they must stick to the traffic lanes demarcated for them and observe all the signposts erected along their routes. If they do not, they not only put themselves in danger, but endanger others. They therefore naturally make themselves liable to penalties not in vengeful retribution but to regulate the orderly exchanges in man’s life in accordance with justice.
It is a significant contribution of Islam that these penalties are called hudud (boundaries) and not punishments: they are liabilities incurred as a result of crossing the boundary set by God. An important consequence of these hudud having been laid down by God, and not by man, is that it is beyond human authority to reduce or supercede them out of a sense of mercy greater than that of God; nor can a tyrant or autocrat add to them out of a greater sense of strict justice. For no one can be more merciful or wiser or more just than God himself.
Another important function which these punishments serve is educative, and thus preventive and deterrent. The Qur’ran alludes to this aspect when it describes them as exemplary punishment from God (al-Ma’idah 5:38). Punishments are thus designed to keep the sense of justice alive in the community by a public repudiation of the acts violating the limits set by God. They are expected to build up in the society a deep feeling of abhorrence for transgression against fellow human beings, and therefore against God - a transgression which, according to the Qur’an, is the root cause of all disorders and corruption in human life.
RETRIBUTION - QISAS
Apart from punishments for transgressions like extra-marital sex, theft, libel and drinking, the Qur’an also provides for the principle of qisas retribution. When a person causes physical injury or harm to a fellow human being, Islam gives the injured party the right of equal requital the well-known principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This procedure is persistently labeled by critics as primitive and uncivilized. In the Islamic view of history, it is worth pointing out, what is primitive has never been necessarily uncivilized. The first man was given all necessary knowledge and guidance, and though he may have been technologically backward compared to the twentieth century, he definitely was not humanly backward.
Uncivilized is what man thinks and does in deviating from the divine order.
In the eyes of the Qur’an in retribution (qisas) lies the source of life for you. The reasons are obvious. First, the right of retribution belongs to individuals, not society or the state; this simple shift in responsibility results in a profound and far reaching change in the whole system of implementing justice. The state does not have to intervene every time two human beings are involved in a dispute. Thus, instead of starting an irreversible process of trial and punishment, it leaves the ground open for settlement between individuals, without interference by impersonal bureaucratic machinery, though under no circumstances can the individual take the law into his own hands.
The injured person in his turn may forgo his right to retribution by forgiving, or may agree to accept a monetary or token recompense instead. The Quran, in fact, highly recommends the act of forgiving. Thus, under qisas punishment is avoidable without burdening the executive or judiciary with the dilemma of whether to exercise mercy. As against a court which must act according to law once a case is brought before it, an individual is free to act as he wishes. Justice has to be blind, but an individual may take circumstances into account, and suspend judgement in the hope of being forgiven by God in the hereafter. Very few realize hat the principle of qisas even allows capital punishment to be avoided.
MERCY AND LENIENCY
Having prescribed punishments and imposed strict and meticulous, though not impossible, conditions of evidence, Islam has built in a whole range of principles and precepts which reflect not a frenzied desire to flog and stone but a compassionate urge to avoid and eschew. Islam does not allow either the state or individuals to spy upon people unless well-founded suspicion exists that a crime is being committed or a fellow human being’s rights or interests are in jeopardy. Nor is it obligatory to report every crime. Where possible, settlements outside court are preferred. The punishment is swiftly over; the guilty man and his family do not have to live with the kind of lengthy public stigma that they would have had to endure in the case of a prison sentence at the end of a trial. The imposition of divinely prescribed hudud enhance, and not diminish, the individual’s dignity and stature in society and before God.
ALLEGED CRUELTY
As to the alleged cruelty of physical penalties, one wonders if to deprive a man of his freedom -- his most precious and valuable possession and his right to act and continue to make moral choices , to live with his family, to work and support them is not more cruel. Indeed, a prison term can inflict untold misery on innocent people whose lives are intertwined with the life of the prisoner. Prison becomes a school for hardening criminal behavior and a breeding ground for recidivism. Why should it be considered more cruel for a man found drug trafficking to be given ten lashes than to be sent to languish in prison for, say, ten years.
REFORM SYNDROME
Why does Islam want to punish and not reform? The question is fallacious, for in Islam every institution of society is value oriented and owes a responsibility towards the moral development of every person from the cradle to the grave. Reform is therefore a pre-crime responsibility and not a post-crime syndrome and nightmare. Islam makes every effort to ensure that inducement to commit crime is minimal. Once the crime is committed, the best place for reform is in the family and in society, where a criminal is to live after punishment, and not in a prison where every inmate is a criminal; unless of course a society considers itself to be more corrupt and less competent to effect reform than a jail! Against this, the modern, enlightened approach is to provide every inducement to crime by building a society based on conspicuous consumption; to make society, education and every other institution value free and then to try to reform a criminal by segregating him and keeping him in a prison.
PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
Sentences in Islam are certainly harsh, but still more strict and severe are the procedures laid down to be observed before a man may be convinced. These procedures are modeled on the paradigm of the Day of Judgement, when even God, though he is All-knowing, and Just, will not punish anybody unless He establishes his guilt. To let nine criminals go free is preferable to convicting one innocent man, said the Prophet.
CONCLUSION
The Shari’ah is an integrated homogenous whole. Once one understands its basic concepts, objectives and framework, one cannot but conclude that it is capable of creating the most human and just society, a peace and blessing for mankind. Difficulties only arise when critics try to measure the ocean of divine knowledge, wisdom and justice with their own thimble of pedestrian criteria and standards.
Today’s Muslim societies are not model societies they are infested with ills and evils yet the comparatively stable family life, absence of delinquency, low crime rates, much greater freedom from drugs and alcoholism, warmth of brotherhood, generosity and mutual aid and help all these are the legacies of that divinely given code of life, the way to Justice, which once they used to adhere to, and yearn to have the change to return to the Shari’ah.
(typing by abujihad 1999 )
Reference:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020220065413/www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Articles/shariah/shariah.html
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Persoalan Cinta : Persiapan Bayt Muslim
PERCINTAAN DAN PERSOALANNYA SERTA PERSEDIAAN MELANGKAH KE ALAM RUMAH TANGGA
(Al-‘Isyqu wa al-Hubbu wa Ahwaaluhuma nahwa Isti‘daad Bayt al-Muslim)
Oleh:
Abu Muhammad ADIS el-Merbawiy
Pendahuluan
1. Pengalaman cinta menurut kehendak Islam – Kaedah Percintaan seorang Muslim
2. Persediaan lelaki & Perempuan Muslim ke arah pembinaan keluarga bahagia
3. Nikmat Percintaan selepas perkahwinan
4. Membina keyakinan diri setelah gagal bercinta.
______________________
1. Cinta Mengikut Pendekatan Islam
1.1 Hadith baginda saw yang bermaksud :“Sentiasa hambaKu itu melakukan ketaatan dan amal ibadat sehingga Aku menyintainya dan dia menyintaiKu. Maka ketika kecintaanKu melimpahinya adalah telingaKu yang dia mendengar denganNya, mataKu yang dia melihat denganNya, hidungKu yang dia menghidu denganNya, tanganKu yang dia merasa denganNya dan kakiKu yang dia berjalan dengannya. Dan sekiranya ia meminta sesuatu dariKu nescaya akan dimakbulkan permohonannya.”
Fakta Cinta dari Allah swt (CAS):
a. Allah swt pemilik cinta mutlak ke atas makhluknya dengan pemilikan seratus peratus, dengan kata lain kecintaan yang sempurna dan tidak akan ketandusan dan berkurangan. (huwa al-Rahman al-Rahim, al-Ghafuur al-Waduud)
b. Alam raya dan seluruh isinya dijadikan dengan penuh kecintaan, agar makhluk manusia dan jinn mengenal Allah swt seperti dinyatakanNya di dalam hadith Qudsi melalui baginda saw : “Inni kanzun makhfiyyun, wa uhibbu an ‘u‘rifa. Fa khalaqtu al-khalqa, fa ‘urifa.” Maksudnya : “Sesungguhnya Aku (Allah swt) adalah Khazanah kekayaan yang tersembunyi, Aku cinta sekali untuk dikenali orang. Maka Aku jadikan makhluk semuanya, (dengan penzahiran kekuasaanKu dan kebesaranKu padanya) Aku akhirnya dikenal pasti (Ma‘rifatiLlah).”
c. Semua kecintaan yang dilimpahkan di muka bumi adalah satu bahagian dari cinta Allah swt yang sempurna itu (1%). Dengan cinta itulah semua perasaan kasih dan sayang melibatkan manusia dan haiwan akan dikongsikan bersama. Maka antara nama-nama Allah swt ialah al-Rahim al-Wadud, maka untuk mendapatkanNya wajib memohon dengan ikhlas sebagai seorang hamba yang serba kekurangan dan hina, agar ia memperolehi cinta Tuhan yang maha Agung. Dengannya insya Allah swt, dia akan menjadi manusia Agung dengan Cinta Tuhan.
d. Sehubungan dengan itu, Manusia yang pernah mendapat cinta Allah swt, termasuklah para Nabi dan para Rasul sepanjang zaman, para wali Allah swt seperti di dalam hadith (1.1) di atas, di mana mereka yang tidak akan merasa takut dan dukacita, kerana Allah swt. Tokoh besar di dalam memiliki cinta Allah swt ialah Sayyidah Ruhullah Rabee‘ah al-‘Adawiyyah, sezaman dengan Hassan al-Basri al-Sufiy. Berikut kata cinta beliau yang terpahat untuk umat menilainya yang bermaksud :
“Ya Allah ya Tuhanku jika aku beribadah kepadaMu hanya tamakkan syurgaMu, haramkanlah aku dari memasukinya, dan jika aku beribadah kepadaMu kerana takutkan azab nerakaMu, sila engkau campakkanlah aku ke dalamnya, tetapi jika aku beribadat kepadaMu hanya untuk mencapai cintaMu Ya Alllah swt, maka janganlah engkau tolak satu-satunya harapan dan tujuanku ini.”
e. Melihat sejarah cinta di dalam agama Islam, ianya begitu agung dan suci serta termahal di antara cinta yang manusia perjudikan dan jualbelikan di dunia ini. Cinta dirosakkan oleh Hawa nafsu (al-hawaa), syaitan (al-syayaateen) dan kemusyrikan serta keangkuhan (al-baghyu wal-istikbaar) mereka yang berpaling (wa al-istidbaar) dari cinta Allah swt. Apabila cinta tidak lagi dari Allah swt dan bukan kerana Allah swt, hilanglah kehebatannya, kedinamikannya dan keuntungan dunia akhirat yang bakal diraih oleh manusia. Kesengsaraan dan kegelisahan serta kecelakaan maksiat akan mengambil tempat. Rugilah manusia selama-lamanya di dunia dan di akhirat. [hadha huwa al-khusraan al-mubin – inilah satu kerugian yang sangat ketara]
1.2 Hadith baginda saw bermaksud :“tidak beriman (sempurna iman) seseorang itu kecuali ia mencintai saudaranya seperti mana ia menyintai dirinya sendiri.”
Fakta Cinta Muslim sesama mereka (CSM);
a. Kecintaan dan kasih sayang Muslim sesama Muslim adalah di atas paksi persaudaraan kerana Islam dan kerana Allah swt (ikhwah fiLlah). Maka persaudaraan ini diukur dengan diri kita sendiri. Sesuatu yang kita suka dan benci berlaku ke atas diri kita, maka seumpama itulah jua kita lakukan ke atas diri saudara kita seIslam dan seIman kepada Allah swt. Hasilnya tidak akan berlaku kemaksiatan jika ikatan kasih dalam bentuk Ikhwan Muslimin ini dilakukan, kerananya mustahil persaudaraan kerana Allah swt membawa kepada Zina lelaki- perempuan, penyalahgunaan kebebasan pergaulan, mengambil kesempatan ke atas kelemahan lelaki dan wanita lain dan sebagainya.
b. Cinta dari Allah swt adalah semurni perasaan, tidak terlintas unsur-unsur rendah, seperti syahwat dan kebinatangan berlaku antara manusia. Kecintaan ini mengarahkan kepada ta‘abbudiyah – jiwa pengabdian diri bersama-sama kepada Allah swt di dalam satu kumpulan, gerakan dan jamaah. Cinta Allah swt tidak akan membawa pencinta ke arah maksiat dan neraka. Inilah neraca pemisah – Standard of Indicators or Matrices, yang memisahkan cinta kerana Allah swt dan cinta kerana hawa nafsu. Cinta kerana Allah swt berlaku di kalangan golongan berilmu pengetahuan dan beragama serta beriman, serta beramal dengan amalan soleh. Manakala golongan yang jahil agama, selalu melakukan pendurhakaan dan hanyut dalam gelombang maksiat setiap ketika diharamkan Allah swt mendapatkan cintaNya, KECUALI mereka bertaubat dan kembali taat kepadaNya.
1.3 Hadith baginda saw bermaksud :“perumpamaan orang mukmin di dalam konteks kemesraan mereka (tawaaddihim), berkasih sayang mereka (tarahumihim) dan saling bergantung (ta‘aatufihim), samalah seperti satu jasad; Jika salah satu jasad sakit menderita, maka akan turut mengadu sakit anggota jasad yang lain dengan berjaga malam dan demam (bi al-sahri wa al-humma).”
Di dalam konteks kebajikan dan berkasih sayang inilah, semangat pembelaan kepada yang dicintai sangat tinggi. Umat Islam bukan sahaja empathy, malah menghayati dan merasai kegembiraan dan penderitaan rakan-rakan dan kekasih kita, tak kira siapa mereka itu. Hakikat ini mencetuskan pengorbanan dan pemberian keutamaan kepada kekasih kita, al-‘Ieethar di dalam Islam.
2. Persediaan ke Arah Pembinaan Keluarga Bahagia
2.1 Firman Allah swt : “Wahai golongan beriman, jagalah dirimu dan ahli keluargamu dari menjadi penghuni neraka.”
a. Persiapan yang paling asas ialah mempersiapkan diri untuk bertanggung jawab kepada fungsi masing-masing di dalam rumah tangga; isteri bertanggung jawab kepada suami, bukan lagi bapa. Manakala suami bertanggung jawab ke atas isteri dan keluarga induknya terutama ibubapa mereka.
b. Persiapkan bekalan kewangan mencukupi (di dalam hadith al-Baa’a), atau pekerjaan atau jaminan kewangan dalam bentuk tenaga, sihat tubuh badan boleh menghasilkan pendapatan, serta tempat berteduh.Termasuklah menghadirkan mahar.
c. Persiapan ilmu kekeluargaan dan fiqh Islam li al-Munakahat, wa ahwal al-talaaq wa la-hadonah dan sebagainya. Asas untuk mendidik diri, keluarga dan generasi berdasarkan keperluan agama Islam dan pembangunan semasa.
d. Perlu juga bersiap sedia dengan kemahiran mengatasi masalah dan konflik rumahtangga secara Islam atau secara ilmu pengetahuan, agar tidak membawa kepada perceraian. Menempatkan diri di dalam masyarakat dan jamaah Islam, di mana segala usaha pendidikan generasi disalurkan kepada kepentingan masyarakat, negara dan Negara Islam.
e. Elakkan permulaan pemilihan jodoh lagi dari melakukan perkara-perkara sumbang agama, fasa pernikahan yang munkar tidak menepati sunnah Rasulullah saw i.e. mahar menyukarkan pihak lelaki sehingga tertahan lama perkahwinan, majlis perkahwinan yang membazir dan boros serta menaja kemaksiatan dengan majlis pendedahan aurat, minuman keras, hiburan melalaikan dll. Inilah urusan yang wajar dijaga kerana ikatan perkahwinan itu adalah “dengan kalimah Allah swt”, maka amatlah tidak wajar memasukkan perkara-perkara yang bercanggah dengan agama sewaktu majlis perkahwinan atau selepasnya.
f. Doakan keberkatan dan kekal penjodohan Tuhan sehingga akhir hayat, dan semoga menghasilkan zuriat yang soleh, mampu menyambung perjuangan nabi Muhammd saw, demi menegakkan agama Allah swt sepanjang zaman. Al-Ulamaa’u warathatu al-‘anbiyaa’i.
2.2 Hadith nabi saw: “Apabila berkahwin seseorang Muslim itu, maka telah sempurnalah separuh dari urusan agama mereka, maka sempurnakahlah sebahagian lagi itu dengan meningkatkan Taqwa.”
a. Nabi Muhammad saw sangat seronok dengan umatnya berkahwin di usia muda, dan para peria akan mengambil gadis (bikir), kerana baginda mahu remaja Muslim cepat bertanggung jawab, matang dan lekas mengenali tugas mereka fi sabilillah. Mereka dengan mudah dapat disatukan di bawah satu tujuan demi kepentingan agama Allah swt. Umat Islam hidup bukan untuk berpoya-poya, bahkan mereka punyai tugas mendakwahkan dan mempertahan Islam di dalam diri umat Islam dan mendakwahkannya kepada non-Muslim, agar tercapai hasrat–menjadi saksi ke atas umat lain (syuhadaa’ ‘ala al-naas).
b. Pasangan Muslim dan Muslimah berusaha meningkatkan amalan mereka agar dapat menempatkan diri di barisan yang al-sabiqun fi al-khayraat, dalam menyahut seruan jihad dan perjuangan menguasai segala bidang ilmu dan teknologi semasa. Mereka juga berlumba-lumba meningkatkan ibadat wajib dan sunat mereka agar dapat menerima kejayaan dari Allah swt kerana telah memenuhi pra-syarat kejayaan dan kemenangan dari Allah swt (al-falah).
c. Selalu manusia mengharapkan kebahagiaan, tetapi mereka jahil mengenai apakah yang perlu dilakukan unruk mencapai kejayaan dan bahagia tersebut. Bahagia adalah kerja hati dan jiwa insan. Kedua-duanya terkesan dengan ketundukan dan semangat Ubudiah kepada Allah swt, semakin banyak kita memperhambakan diri kepada Allah swt di dalam rumatangga kita, semakin lebat dan melimpah kebahagiaan itu kepada kita. Kepuasan hakiki, adalah kepuasan ruhi insan yang telah mendapat segala raisin-atau bekalan asasi dan ekstra pengabdian diri kepada Allah swt di dalam setiap urusan dan amal duniawi, akhirnya telah ditukarkan kepada amal ukhrawi. Berkat pahala dan kebajikan kerana Allah swt yang melimpah ruah itulah, Allah swt anugerahkan rasa bahagia dengan taat kepadaNya dan kesengsaraan dengan mendurhakai Allah swt.
3. Nikmat Percintaan selepas perkahwinan (CSK)
3.1 Firman Allah swt : “….dan di antara tanda-tanda kebesaran Allah swt itu, bahawa ia menjadikan kamu berpasang-pasangan agar dapat merasa tenang dengan mereka (litaskunuu ilayha)….Dan Allah swt jadikan kepada kamu Mawaddat dan Rahmat.”
Hadith baginda saw :“Sebaik-baik nikmat keseronokan dunia ialah dengan memiliki “Wanita Solehah”. Di dalam Hadith yang lain :“ Nikmat sedekah makanan dan harta ialah apabila digunakan dan di makan oleh lelaki yang soleh.”
Firman Allah swt : “Wanita-wanita yang baik (solehah) adalah untuk lelaki yang baik (soleh), Lelaki yang baik adalah untuk wanita yang baik.” (Surah al-Nuur, ayat 26)
*Faedah mengeratkan cinta selepas perkahwinan;
Hadith Baginda saw :“Ya ma‘syara al-shabaab!, man istataa ‘a minkum al-baa’a, fal yatazawwaj, fa innahu aghadh li al-basori wa ahsonu li al-farji, wa man lam yastati‘, fa ‘alayhi bi al-shaumi fa innahu lahu wijaa’un.” [muttafaqun ‘alayhi]
- Penutup pandangan (aghadhu li al-basar), menjadi perisai kemaluan (ahsonu li al-farji) atau puasa pendinding zina (wijaa’un).
Hadith baginda saw :“idha tazawwaja al- ‘abdu faqad istakmala nishfa deenihi, fal yattaqiLlah fi al-nishfi al-baaqi.” [Rawaahu al-Bayhaqiy]
- Sempurna separuh agama Islam, maka sempurnakan selebihnya perkahwinan itu dengan ketaqwaan (melaksanakan amalan soleh, meningkatkan ibdah dan keimanan) – [yazdaadu ieemaanan ma‘a ieemaanihihim]
Rasulullah saw pernah menasihati ‘Akkaaf ibn Wadaa‘ah :
ألك زوجة يا عكاف ؟ قال : لا، قال: ولا جارية؟ قال : لا، وأنت صحيح موسر؟ قال: نعم الحمد لله ، فأنت إذن إخوان الشيطان ،إن كنت من رهبان النصارى ، فألحق بهم ، وإن كنت منا فإصنع كما نصنع ، فإ، من سنتي النكاح ، شراركم عزّابكم ، وإنّ أراذل موتكم عزّابكم ، ويحك يا عكلف تزوج!، فقال عكاف يا رسول الله لآ أتزوج حتى تتزوجني من شئت ، فقال صلعم : زوجتك على إسم الله والبركة الكريمة بنت كلثوم الخميران ،
[Hadith riwayat Ahmad, Ibnu abi Syaibah dan Ibnu ‘Abdul al-Barr]
- Perkahwinan adalah Sunnah RasuliLah saw, mengelakkan jadi rakan Syaitan, kawan-kawan Rahib Kristian, elakkan dari menjadi sejahat-jahat manusia pembujang, dan elakkan dari menjadi sehina-hina manusia ketika mati bujang.
Hadith Rasulillah saw :“tunkahu al-mar’atu liarba‘in: limaaliha, wa lihasabiha, walijamaaliha, wa lidieehiha. Fa idzfar bidhati al-din taribat yadaka.” [Rawahu al-Bukhariy wa Muslim]
- Nikmat wanita beragama memudahkan urusan anda (taribat yadaka), dan akan hidup bahagia (keagamaan adalah urusan Ilahi, dengan asbabnyalah manusia dapat kebahagiaan dari Allah swt). Mafhum dari hadith nabi saw juga, Tiga nikmat yang terbesar itu ialah Hati yang bersyukur kepada Allah swt, Lidah yang berzikir kepadaNya dan wanita solehah yang menjadi teman hidup atau isterinya.
Amaran kepada mereka yang tertarik dengan rupa paras cantik dan handsome sahaja:
Hadith Rasulillah saw :“iyyakum wa Hadhraa’a al-Dimani, Qaaluu : wa maa Hadhraa’u al-Dimani? Yaa Rasulallah?. Qaala: al-mar’atu al-hasunaa’u fi al-manbati al-suu’.”
[Riwayat Dar al-Qutniy, al-‘Askariy dan Ibnu ‘Adiy]
Maksudnya:“Awasilah kamu dari ‘tumbuhan menghijau di tempat yang kotor’!.Para sahabat bertanya : apakah dia yang tumbuh menghijau di tempat yang kotor itu?. Jawab baginda saw: Wanita yang cantik dari lubuk (lingkungan) yang jahat (rosak).”
3.2 Ketiadaan ragu dan bimbang dalam memiliki pasangan. Mutlak menjadi hak masing-masing. Ketika inilah rasa kasih dan sayang dinikmati tanpa gangguan dan dirasakan sepenuhnya. Hilanglah rasa curiga, kerana cinta telah dibuktikan dan kesetiaan telah ditunaikan. Allah swt menamakan suasana ini dengan al-sakeenah – suatu ketenangan yang sangat mendamaikan manusia, al-mawaddat – suasana keintiman dan kemesraan eksklusif (rasa dimiliki antara satu sama lain – self belonging and truthful) dan al-latieef atau al-ulfah – Pasangan telah dapat di jinakkan dari terlepas bebas dengan orang lain, perasaan tak ingin berpisah dan penuh rindu dendam.
Di dalam keadaan kebahagiaan inilah timbul rasa al-Rahmat – belas kasihan kepada pasangan, tidak rela mereka berduka dan bersedih, dan jika terpaksa memikul kesusahan terasa kesusahan milik bersama, dan ketika menikmati kesenangan ianya mestilah dikongsikan bersama. Tiada rahsia dan helah antara pasangan, melainkan semuanya telus, ikhlas dan saling menghurmati serta memuliakan. (sebelum perkahwinan, perasaan ini dibaluti atau diselubungi hubungan yang tidak jelas, janggal, terasing dan banyak persoalan) Jelas sekali dapat dirasai, emosi dan rasa kasih ini terasa hebat dari yang Maha tinggi, Allah swt huwa al-Rahman wa al-Rahim.
Firman Allah swt :“….dan di antara tanda-tanda kebesaran Allah swt itu, bahawa ia menjadikan kamu berpasang-pasangan agar dapat merasa tenang dengan mereka (litaskunu ilayha)….Dan Allah swt jadikan kepada kamu Mawaddat dan Rahmat.”
3.3 Kelebihan cinta selepas kahwin (CSK) ialah bebas dari perasaan syahwani kotor dari urusan syaitan dan tidak rasional berhawa nafsu. Antaranya kegelojohan seksual dan tingkah laku memaksa kasih, mengugut, beri kata dua, kegelisahan, tertekan (tension) dan berada di persimpangan (confuse) setengah pihak dengan pihak lain. CSK memandu dan membimbing manusia rasional dan beremosi stabil, inilah suasana menuju kematangan dan kesabaran dan bertimbang rasa kepada pasangan. Jika tidak dapat membezakan keintiman Kasih Sebelum Kahwin KSK dengan CSK, ia membawa bahaya. Pasangan yang sangat mengharapkan kepanasan dan kehangatan ‘Cinta’ KSK di dalam rumahtangga, sedangkan wanita lebih cepat menyesuaikan diri dengan kematangan CSK, maka pihak lelaki menjadi pendesak, intollerate, kerana masih menginginkan ‘cinta’ yang dirasuk syaitan ketika fasa KSK. Secara waras, terimalah bahawa CSK adalah suatu yang mantap, dinamik, sederhana dan sangat matang. Musuh CSK ialah ketidakmatangan pasangan, jahil komunikasi antara keluarga dan kekurangan Ilmu Islam dalam keluarga serta kemahiran kekeluargaan (parenting skills).
3.4 CSK diharapkan membahawa kebahagiaan di dunia dan akhirat. Ianya akan kekal abadi sehingga ke syurga, kerana Allah swt memberikan peluang kepada isteri solehan dan suami yang soleh bertemu di syurga di mana isterilah yang akan menjadi ketua bidadari di syuga, keayuan mereka belipat kali ganda dengan yang mereka miliki di dunia.
4. Bangkit Selepas Gagal Percintaan (SGC)
4.1 Di dalam Islam tidak ada istilah kegagalan bercinta, Cinta tidak boleh gagal, cuma jodoh bukan milik kita atau manusia. Sesiapa bercinta ia akan berjaya di sisi Allah swt dan di dunia, kerana cinta suatu tenaga dinamik, yang mampu melakukan kerja-kerja yang mengkagumkan, pasti tidak pernah patah semangat jika cinta itu masih ada di dalam jiwa manusia. Itulah cinta suatu power dan energy yang datang dari al-Rahman, al-Rahim, al-Latief, al-Waduud dan al-Muhibb dari Allah swt yang tidak akan padam jika diizinkan Allah swt kita memilikinya. Maka sekiranya seseorang Muslim atau Muslimah bercinta, maka dia akan menjadi manusia yang super dan hebat kerana ia akan melakukan segala-gala dengan penuh kasih, cinta dan rela. Semangat jihad dan berkorban serta berjuang untuk sesuatu tujuan, di dalam Islam mestilah untuk Allah swt dan RasulNya demi melihat Islam agamanya berkembang maju menjadi anutan agama majoriti manusia. Apa sahaja yang disentuh dan diusahakan Muslim dengan penuh cinta, akan cemerlang. Kebencian dan kelemahan diri sahaja akan menghalang cinta dari mendapat hasilnya.
4.2 Frustrated – bukan kegagalan cinta, tetapi kelemahan jiwa yang tidak bergantung dengan Allah swt dan tidak memahami cinta Tuhan swt dengan telus dan hakiki, serta tidak faham dan pasti tentang Qadha’ dan Qadar baik dari Allah swt. Allah swt telah menyedarkan kita bahawa ilmu kita manusia sedikit cuma, tidak mampulah kita menduga Ilmu Ilahi yang sangat luas, penuh berhikmah, tidak pernah menzalimi dengan keputusanNya sekalipun menyalahi kehendak dan hasrat manusia. Jelaskan dan tenteramkan hati kita dengan firman Allah swt: [‘asaa an tuhibbu syai’an wahuwa syarrun lakum, wa ‘asaa an takrahu syai’an wahuwa khayrun lakum.] Tidak tecapai kasih dan rindu dendam kita, tidak bermakna musnahlah diri dan alam raya ini. Tidak ada lagi peluang dan harapan untuk mendapat gantinya yang lebih baik. Sebenarnya kegagalan cinta yang diperbesar-besarkan adalah ilusi, mainan gelojoh, dan tidak membuat pertimbangan wajar dengan Allah swt. Dia Maha mengetahui, Mintalah dan mengadulah kepada yang Maha mengetahui dan mampu menggantikan dengan yang lebih baik dari kekasih kita yang telah hilang, demi kebahagiaan hambaNya yang selalu mengadu dan bersama Allah swt di dalam bahagia dan derita.
Rujukan berkaitan:
1. Abu Mohd Jibril Abdul Rahman, Lelaki Soleh: Martabat di antara Perwatakan dan Sifat-Sifatnya, Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Al-Ansar, 1990
3. Ali Abdul Halim Mahmud, Fiqh al-Ukhuwwah fi al-Islam, terj: Hawin Murtadho & SalafuddinAbu Sayid, Merajut Benang Ukhuwwah Islamiah, Solo: Era Intermedia, 2000.
2. Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Raudhah al-Mihibbin wa Nuzhaht al-Musytaqqin terj: Kathur Suhardi, Cinta dan Rindu Menurut al-Quran dan al-Sunnah, Batu Caves: Albaz Publishing & Distribution Sdn Bhd, 1997
(Al-‘Isyqu wa al-Hubbu wa Ahwaaluhuma nahwa Isti‘daad Bayt al-Muslim)
Oleh:
Abu Muhammad ADIS el-Merbawiy
Pendahuluan
1. Pengalaman cinta menurut kehendak Islam – Kaedah Percintaan seorang Muslim
2. Persediaan lelaki & Perempuan Muslim ke arah pembinaan keluarga bahagia
3. Nikmat Percintaan selepas perkahwinan
4. Membina keyakinan diri setelah gagal bercinta.
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1. Cinta Mengikut Pendekatan Islam
1.1 Hadith baginda saw yang bermaksud :“Sentiasa hambaKu itu melakukan ketaatan dan amal ibadat sehingga Aku menyintainya dan dia menyintaiKu. Maka ketika kecintaanKu melimpahinya adalah telingaKu yang dia mendengar denganNya, mataKu yang dia melihat denganNya, hidungKu yang dia menghidu denganNya, tanganKu yang dia merasa denganNya dan kakiKu yang dia berjalan dengannya. Dan sekiranya ia meminta sesuatu dariKu nescaya akan dimakbulkan permohonannya.”
Fakta Cinta dari Allah swt (CAS):
a. Allah swt pemilik cinta mutlak ke atas makhluknya dengan pemilikan seratus peratus, dengan kata lain kecintaan yang sempurna dan tidak akan ketandusan dan berkurangan. (huwa al-Rahman al-Rahim, al-Ghafuur al-Waduud)
b. Alam raya dan seluruh isinya dijadikan dengan penuh kecintaan, agar makhluk manusia dan jinn mengenal Allah swt seperti dinyatakanNya di dalam hadith Qudsi melalui baginda saw : “Inni kanzun makhfiyyun, wa uhibbu an ‘u‘rifa. Fa khalaqtu al-khalqa, fa ‘urifa.” Maksudnya : “Sesungguhnya Aku (Allah swt) adalah Khazanah kekayaan yang tersembunyi, Aku cinta sekali untuk dikenali orang. Maka Aku jadikan makhluk semuanya, (dengan penzahiran kekuasaanKu dan kebesaranKu padanya) Aku akhirnya dikenal pasti (Ma‘rifatiLlah).”
c. Semua kecintaan yang dilimpahkan di muka bumi adalah satu bahagian dari cinta Allah swt yang sempurna itu (1%). Dengan cinta itulah semua perasaan kasih dan sayang melibatkan manusia dan haiwan akan dikongsikan bersama. Maka antara nama-nama Allah swt ialah al-Rahim al-Wadud, maka untuk mendapatkanNya wajib memohon dengan ikhlas sebagai seorang hamba yang serba kekurangan dan hina, agar ia memperolehi cinta Tuhan yang maha Agung. Dengannya insya Allah swt, dia akan menjadi manusia Agung dengan Cinta Tuhan.
d. Sehubungan dengan itu, Manusia yang pernah mendapat cinta Allah swt, termasuklah para Nabi dan para Rasul sepanjang zaman, para wali Allah swt seperti di dalam hadith (1.1) di atas, di mana mereka yang tidak akan merasa takut dan dukacita, kerana Allah swt. Tokoh besar di dalam memiliki cinta Allah swt ialah Sayyidah Ruhullah Rabee‘ah al-‘Adawiyyah, sezaman dengan Hassan al-Basri al-Sufiy. Berikut kata cinta beliau yang terpahat untuk umat menilainya yang bermaksud :
“Ya Allah ya Tuhanku jika aku beribadah kepadaMu hanya tamakkan syurgaMu, haramkanlah aku dari memasukinya, dan jika aku beribadah kepadaMu kerana takutkan azab nerakaMu, sila engkau campakkanlah aku ke dalamnya, tetapi jika aku beribadat kepadaMu hanya untuk mencapai cintaMu Ya Alllah swt, maka janganlah engkau tolak satu-satunya harapan dan tujuanku ini.”
e. Melihat sejarah cinta di dalam agama Islam, ianya begitu agung dan suci serta termahal di antara cinta yang manusia perjudikan dan jualbelikan di dunia ini. Cinta dirosakkan oleh Hawa nafsu (al-hawaa), syaitan (al-syayaateen) dan kemusyrikan serta keangkuhan (al-baghyu wal-istikbaar) mereka yang berpaling (wa al-istidbaar) dari cinta Allah swt. Apabila cinta tidak lagi dari Allah swt dan bukan kerana Allah swt, hilanglah kehebatannya, kedinamikannya dan keuntungan dunia akhirat yang bakal diraih oleh manusia. Kesengsaraan dan kegelisahan serta kecelakaan maksiat akan mengambil tempat. Rugilah manusia selama-lamanya di dunia dan di akhirat. [hadha huwa al-khusraan al-mubin – inilah satu kerugian yang sangat ketara]
1.2 Hadith baginda saw bermaksud :“tidak beriman (sempurna iman) seseorang itu kecuali ia mencintai saudaranya seperti mana ia menyintai dirinya sendiri.”
Fakta Cinta Muslim sesama mereka (CSM);
a. Kecintaan dan kasih sayang Muslim sesama Muslim adalah di atas paksi persaudaraan kerana Islam dan kerana Allah swt (ikhwah fiLlah). Maka persaudaraan ini diukur dengan diri kita sendiri. Sesuatu yang kita suka dan benci berlaku ke atas diri kita, maka seumpama itulah jua kita lakukan ke atas diri saudara kita seIslam dan seIman kepada Allah swt. Hasilnya tidak akan berlaku kemaksiatan jika ikatan kasih dalam bentuk Ikhwan Muslimin ini dilakukan, kerananya mustahil persaudaraan kerana Allah swt membawa kepada Zina lelaki- perempuan, penyalahgunaan kebebasan pergaulan, mengambil kesempatan ke atas kelemahan lelaki dan wanita lain dan sebagainya.
b. Cinta dari Allah swt adalah semurni perasaan, tidak terlintas unsur-unsur rendah, seperti syahwat dan kebinatangan berlaku antara manusia. Kecintaan ini mengarahkan kepada ta‘abbudiyah – jiwa pengabdian diri bersama-sama kepada Allah swt di dalam satu kumpulan, gerakan dan jamaah. Cinta Allah swt tidak akan membawa pencinta ke arah maksiat dan neraka. Inilah neraca pemisah – Standard of Indicators or Matrices, yang memisahkan cinta kerana Allah swt dan cinta kerana hawa nafsu. Cinta kerana Allah swt berlaku di kalangan golongan berilmu pengetahuan dan beragama serta beriman, serta beramal dengan amalan soleh. Manakala golongan yang jahil agama, selalu melakukan pendurhakaan dan hanyut dalam gelombang maksiat setiap ketika diharamkan Allah swt mendapatkan cintaNya, KECUALI mereka bertaubat dan kembali taat kepadaNya.
1.3 Hadith baginda saw bermaksud :“perumpamaan orang mukmin di dalam konteks kemesraan mereka (tawaaddihim), berkasih sayang mereka (tarahumihim) dan saling bergantung (ta‘aatufihim), samalah seperti satu jasad; Jika salah satu jasad sakit menderita, maka akan turut mengadu sakit anggota jasad yang lain dengan berjaga malam dan demam (bi al-sahri wa al-humma).”
Di dalam konteks kebajikan dan berkasih sayang inilah, semangat pembelaan kepada yang dicintai sangat tinggi. Umat Islam bukan sahaja empathy, malah menghayati dan merasai kegembiraan dan penderitaan rakan-rakan dan kekasih kita, tak kira siapa mereka itu. Hakikat ini mencetuskan pengorbanan dan pemberian keutamaan kepada kekasih kita, al-‘Ieethar di dalam Islam.
2. Persediaan ke Arah Pembinaan Keluarga Bahagia
2.1 Firman Allah swt : “Wahai golongan beriman, jagalah dirimu dan ahli keluargamu dari menjadi penghuni neraka.”
a. Persiapan yang paling asas ialah mempersiapkan diri untuk bertanggung jawab kepada fungsi masing-masing di dalam rumah tangga; isteri bertanggung jawab kepada suami, bukan lagi bapa. Manakala suami bertanggung jawab ke atas isteri dan keluarga induknya terutama ibubapa mereka.
b. Persiapkan bekalan kewangan mencukupi (di dalam hadith al-Baa’a), atau pekerjaan atau jaminan kewangan dalam bentuk tenaga, sihat tubuh badan boleh menghasilkan pendapatan, serta tempat berteduh.Termasuklah menghadirkan mahar.
c. Persiapan ilmu kekeluargaan dan fiqh Islam li al-Munakahat, wa ahwal al-talaaq wa la-hadonah dan sebagainya. Asas untuk mendidik diri, keluarga dan generasi berdasarkan keperluan agama Islam dan pembangunan semasa.
d. Perlu juga bersiap sedia dengan kemahiran mengatasi masalah dan konflik rumahtangga secara Islam atau secara ilmu pengetahuan, agar tidak membawa kepada perceraian. Menempatkan diri di dalam masyarakat dan jamaah Islam, di mana segala usaha pendidikan generasi disalurkan kepada kepentingan masyarakat, negara dan Negara Islam.
e. Elakkan permulaan pemilihan jodoh lagi dari melakukan perkara-perkara sumbang agama, fasa pernikahan yang munkar tidak menepati sunnah Rasulullah saw i.e. mahar menyukarkan pihak lelaki sehingga tertahan lama perkahwinan, majlis perkahwinan yang membazir dan boros serta menaja kemaksiatan dengan majlis pendedahan aurat, minuman keras, hiburan melalaikan dll. Inilah urusan yang wajar dijaga kerana ikatan perkahwinan itu adalah “dengan kalimah Allah swt”, maka amatlah tidak wajar memasukkan perkara-perkara yang bercanggah dengan agama sewaktu majlis perkahwinan atau selepasnya.
f. Doakan keberkatan dan kekal penjodohan Tuhan sehingga akhir hayat, dan semoga menghasilkan zuriat yang soleh, mampu menyambung perjuangan nabi Muhammd saw, demi menegakkan agama Allah swt sepanjang zaman. Al-Ulamaa’u warathatu al-‘anbiyaa’i.
2.2 Hadith nabi saw: “Apabila berkahwin seseorang Muslim itu, maka telah sempurnalah separuh dari urusan agama mereka, maka sempurnakahlah sebahagian lagi itu dengan meningkatkan Taqwa.”
a. Nabi Muhammad saw sangat seronok dengan umatnya berkahwin di usia muda, dan para peria akan mengambil gadis (bikir), kerana baginda mahu remaja Muslim cepat bertanggung jawab, matang dan lekas mengenali tugas mereka fi sabilillah. Mereka dengan mudah dapat disatukan di bawah satu tujuan demi kepentingan agama Allah swt. Umat Islam hidup bukan untuk berpoya-poya, bahkan mereka punyai tugas mendakwahkan dan mempertahan Islam di dalam diri umat Islam dan mendakwahkannya kepada non-Muslim, agar tercapai hasrat–menjadi saksi ke atas umat lain (syuhadaa’ ‘ala al-naas).
b. Pasangan Muslim dan Muslimah berusaha meningkatkan amalan mereka agar dapat menempatkan diri di barisan yang al-sabiqun fi al-khayraat, dalam menyahut seruan jihad dan perjuangan menguasai segala bidang ilmu dan teknologi semasa. Mereka juga berlumba-lumba meningkatkan ibadat wajib dan sunat mereka agar dapat menerima kejayaan dari Allah swt kerana telah memenuhi pra-syarat kejayaan dan kemenangan dari Allah swt (al-falah).
c. Selalu manusia mengharapkan kebahagiaan, tetapi mereka jahil mengenai apakah yang perlu dilakukan unruk mencapai kejayaan dan bahagia tersebut. Bahagia adalah kerja hati dan jiwa insan. Kedua-duanya terkesan dengan ketundukan dan semangat Ubudiah kepada Allah swt, semakin banyak kita memperhambakan diri kepada Allah swt di dalam rumatangga kita, semakin lebat dan melimpah kebahagiaan itu kepada kita. Kepuasan hakiki, adalah kepuasan ruhi insan yang telah mendapat segala raisin-atau bekalan asasi dan ekstra pengabdian diri kepada Allah swt di dalam setiap urusan dan amal duniawi, akhirnya telah ditukarkan kepada amal ukhrawi. Berkat pahala dan kebajikan kerana Allah swt yang melimpah ruah itulah, Allah swt anugerahkan rasa bahagia dengan taat kepadaNya dan kesengsaraan dengan mendurhakai Allah swt.
3. Nikmat Percintaan selepas perkahwinan (CSK)
3.1 Firman Allah swt : “….dan di antara tanda-tanda kebesaran Allah swt itu, bahawa ia menjadikan kamu berpasang-pasangan agar dapat merasa tenang dengan mereka (litaskunuu ilayha)….Dan Allah swt jadikan kepada kamu Mawaddat dan Rahmat.”
Hadith baginda saw :“Sebaik-baik nikmat keseronokan dunia ialah dengan memiliki “Wanita Solehah”. Di dalam Hadith yang lain :“ Nikmat sedekah makanan dan harta ialah apabila digunakan dan di makan oleh lelaki yang soleh.”
Firman Allah swt : “Wanita-wanita yang baik (solehah) adalah untuk lelaki yang baik (soleh), Lelaki yang baik adalah untuk wanita yang baik.” (Surah al-Nuur, ayat 26)
*Faedah mengeratkan cinta selepas perkahwinan;
Hadith Baginda saw :“Ya ma‘syara al-shabaab!, man istataa ‘a minkum al-baa’a, fal yatazawwaj, fa innahu aghadh li al-basori wa ahsonu li al-farji, wa man lam yastati‘, fa ‘alayhi bi al-shaumi fa innahu lahu wijaa’un.” [muttafaqun ‘alayhi]
- Penutup pandangan (aghadhu li al-basar), menjadi perisai kemaluan (ahsonu li al-farji) atau puasa pendinding zina (wijaa’un).
Hadith baginda saw :“idha tazawwaja al- ‘abdu faqad istakmala nishfa deenihi, fal yattaqiLlah fi al-nishfi al-baaqi.” [Rawaahu al-Bayhaqiy]
- Sempurna separuh agama Islam, maka sempurnakan selebihnya perkahwinan itu dengan ketaqwaan (melaksanakan amalan soleh, meningkatkan ibdah dan keimanan) – [yazdaadu ieemaanan ma‘a ieemaanihihim]
Rasulullah saw pernah menasihati ‘Akkaaf ibn Wadaa‘ah :
ألك زوجة يا عكاف ؟ قال : لا، قال: ولا جارية؟ قال : لا، وأنت صحيح موسر؟ قال: نعم الحمد لله ، فأنت إذن إخوان الشيطان ،إن كنت من رهبان النصارى ، فألحق بهم ، وإن كنت منا فإصنع كما نصنع ، فإ، من سنتي النكاح ، شراركم عزّابكم ، وإنّ أراذل موتكم عزّابكم ، ويحك يا عكلف تزوج!، فقال عكاف يا رسول الله لآ أتزوج حتى تتزوجني من شئت ، فقال صلعم : زوجتك على إسم الله والبركة الكريمة بنت كلثوم الخميران ،
[Hadith riwayat Ahmad, Ibnu abi Syaibah dan Ibnu ‘Abdul al-Barr]
- Perkahwinan adalah Sunnah RasuliLah saw, mengelakkan jadi rakan Syaitan, kawan-kawan Rahib Kristian, elakkan dari menjadi sejahat-jahat manusia pembujang, dan elakkan dari menjadi sehina-hina manusia ketika mati bujang.
Hadith Rasulillah saw :“tunkahu al-mar’atu liarba‘in: limaaliha, wa lihasabiha, walijamaaliha, wa lidieehiha. Fa idzfar bidhati al-din taribat yadaka.” [Rawahu al-Bukhariy wa Muslim]
- Nikmat wanita beragama memudahkan urusan anda (taribat yadaka), dan akan hidup bahagia (keagamaan adalah urusan Ilahi, dengan asbabnyalah manusia dapat kebahagiaan dari Allah swt). Mafhum dari hadith nabi saw juga, Tiga nikmat yang terbesar itu ialah Hati yang bersyukur kepada Allah swt, Lidah yang berzikir kepadaNya dan wanita solehah yang menjadi teman hidup atau isterinya.
Amaran kepada mereka yang tertarik dengan rupa paras cantik dan handsome sahaja:
Hadith Rasulillah saw :“iyyakum wa Hadhraa’a al-Dimani, Qaaluu : wa maa Hadhraa’u al-Dimani? Yaa Rasulallah?. Qaala: al-mar’atu al-hasunaa’u fi al-manbati al-suu’.”
[Riwayat Dar al-Qutniy, al-‘Askariy dan Ibnu ‘Adiy]
Maksudnya:“Awasilah kamu dari ‘tumbuhan menghijau di tempat yang kotor’!.Para sahabat bertanya : apakah dia yang tumbuh menghijau di tempat yang kotor itu?. Jawab baginda saw: Wanita yang cantik dari lubuk (lingkungan) yang jahat (rosak).”
3.2 Ketiadaan ragu dan bimbang dalam memiliki pasangan. Mutlak menjadi hak masing-masing. Ketika inilah rasa kasih dan sayang dinikmati tanpa gangguan dan dirasakan sepenuhnya. Hilanglah rasa curiga, kerana cinta telah dibuktikan dan kesetiaan telah ditunaikan. Allah swt menamakan suasana ini dengan al-sakeenah – suatu ketenangan yang sangat mendamaikan manusia, al-mawaddat – suasana keintiman dan kemesraan eksklusif (rasa dimiliki antara satu sama lain – self belonging and truthful) dan al-latieef atau al-ulfah – Pasangan telah dapat di jinakkan dari terlepas bebas dengan orang lain, perasaan tak ingin berpisah dan penuh rindu dendam.
Di dalam keadaan kebahagiaan inilah timbul rasa al-Rahmat – belas kasihan kepada pasangan, tidak rela mereka berduka dan bersedih, dan jika terpaksa memikul kesusahan terasa kesusahan milik bersama, dan ketika menikmati kesenangan ianya mestilah dikongsikan bersama. Tiada rahsia dan helah antara pasangan, melainkan semuanya telus, ikhlas dan saling menghurmati serta memuliakan. (sebelum perkahwinan, perasaan ini dibaluti atau diselubungi hubungan yang tidak jelas, janggal, terasing dan banyak persoalan) Jelas sekali dapat dirasai, emosi dan rasa kasih ini terasa hebat dari yang Maha tinggi, Allah swt huwa al-Rahman wa al-Rahim.
Firman Allah swt :“….dan di antara tanda-tanda kebesaran Allah swt itu, bahawa ia menjadikan kamu berpasang-pasangan agar dapat merasa tenang dengan mereka (litaskunu ilayha)….Dan Allah swt jadikan kepada kamu Mawaddat dan Rahmat.”
3.3 Kelebihan cinta selepas kahwin (CSK) ialah bebas dari perasaan syahwani kotor dari urusan syaitan dan tidak rasional berhawa nafsu. Antaranya kegelojohan seksual dan tingkah laku memaksa kasih, mengugut, beri kata dua, kegelisahan, tertekan (tension) dan berada di persimpangan (confuse) setengah pihak dengan pihak lain. CSK memandu dan membimbing manusia rasional dan beremosi stabil, inilah suasana menuju kematangan dan kesabaran dan bertimbang rasa kepada pasangan. Jika tidak dapat membezakan keintiman Kasih Sebelum Kahwin KSK dengan CSK, ia membawa bahaya. Pasangan yang sangat mengharapkan kepanasan dan kehangatan ‘Cinta’ KSK di dalam rumahtangga, sedangkan wanita lebih cepat menyesuaikan diri dengan kematangan CSK, maka pihak lelaki menjadi pendesak, intollerate, kerana masih menginginkan ‘cinta’ yang dirasuk syaitan ketika fasa KSK. Secara waras, terimalah bahawa CSK adalah suatu yang mantap, dinamik, sederhana dan sangat matang. Musuh CSK ialah ketidakmatangan pasangan, jahil komunikasi antara keluarga dan kekurangan Ilmu Islam dalam keluarga serta kemahiran kekeluargaan (parenting skills).
3.4 CSK diharapkan membahawa kebahagiaan di dunia dan akhirat. Ianya akan kekal abadi sehingga ke syurga, kerana Allah swt memberikan peluang kepada isteri solehan dan suami yang soleh bertemu di syurga di mana isterilah yang akan menjadi ketua bidadari di syuga, keayuan mereka belipat kali ganda dengan yang mereka miliki di dunia.
4. Bangkit Selepas Gagal Percintaan (SGC)
4.1 Di dalam Islam tidak ada istilah kegagalan bercinta, Cinta tidak boleh gagal, cuma jodoh bukan milik kita atau manusia. Sesiapa bercinta ia akan berjaya di sisi Allah swt dan di dunia, kerana cinta suatu tenaga dinamik, yang mampu melakukan kerja-kerja yang mengkagumkan, pasti tidak pernah patah semangat jika cinta itu masih ada di dalam jiwa manusia. Itulah cinta suatu power dan energy yang datang dari al-Rahman, al-Rahim, al-Latief, al-Waduud dan al-Muhibb dari Allah swt yang tidak akan padam jika diizinkan Allah swt kita memilikinya. Maka sekiranya seseorang Muslim atau Muslimah bercinta, maka dia akan menjadi manusia yang super dan hebat kerana ia akan melakukan segala-gala dengan penuh kasih, cinta dan rela. Semangat jihad dan berkorban serta berjuang untuk sesuatu tujuan, di dalam Islam mestilah untuk Allah swt dan RasulNya demi melihat Islam agamanya berkembang maju menjadi anutan agama majoriti manusia. Apa sahaja yang disentuh dan diusahakan Muslim dengan penuh cinta, akan cemerlang. Kebencian dan kelemahan diri sahaja akan menghalang cinta dari mendapat hasilnya.
4.2 Frustrated – bukan kegagalan cinta, tetapi kelemahan jiwa yang tidak bergantung dengan Allah swt dan tidak memahami cinta Tuhan swt dengan telus dan hakiki, serta tidak faham dan pasti tentang Qadha’ dan Qadar baik dari Allah swt. Allah swt telah menyedarkan kita bahawa ilmu kita manusia sedikit cuma, tidak mampulah kita menduga Ilmu Ilahi yang sangat luas, penuh berhikmah, tidak pernah menzalimi dengan keputusanNya sekalipun menyalahi kehendak dan hasrat manusia. Jelaskan dan tenteramkan hati kita dengan firman Allah swt: [‘asaa an tuhibbu syai’an wahuwa syarrun lakum, wa ‘asaa an takrahu syai’an wahuwa khayrun lakum.] Tidak tecapai kasih dan rindu dendam kita, tidak bermakna musnahlah diri dan alam raya ini. Tidak ada lagi peluang dan harapan untuk mendapat gantinya yang lebih baik. Sebenarnya kegagalan cinta yang diperbesar-besarkan adalah ilusi, mainan gelojoh, dan tidak membuat pertimbangan wajar dengan Allah swt. Dia Maha mengetahui, Mintalah dan mengadulah kepada yang Maha mengetahui dan mampu menggantikan dengan yang lebih baik dari kekasih kita yang telah hilang, demi kebahagiaan hambaNya yang selalu mengadu dan bersama Allah swt di dalam bahagia dan derita.
Rujukan berkaitan:
1. Abu Mohd Jibril Abdul Rahman, Lelaki Soleh: Martabat di antara Perwatakan dan Sifat-Sifatnya, Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Al-Ansar, 1990
3. Ali Abdul Halim Mahmud, Fiqh al-Ukhuwwah fi al-Islam, terj: Hawin Murtadho & SalafuddinAbu Sayid, Merajut Benang Ukhuwwah Islamiah, Solo: Era Intermedia, 2000.
2. Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Raudhah al-Mihibbin wa Nuzhaht al-Musytaqqin terj: Kathur Suhardi, Cinta dan Rindu Menurut al-Quran dan al-Sunnah, Batu Caves: Albaz Publishing & Distribution Sdn Bhd, 1997
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