Thursday, March 31, 2011

Blog ini adalah...


" لو كانت الدنيا تعدل عند الله جناح بعوضة ما سقى كافراً منها شربة ماء
"Sekiranya dunia ini ada nilai di sisi Allah menyamai sebelah kepak nyamuk , Dia pasti tidak memberi minuman kepada orang kafir walau seteguk air "
           
Blog ini adalah “kepak nyamuk” kerana asas penulisannya ialah berkenaan perkara-perkara dunia. Tetapi, perbincangannya tidak terhenti dalam perkara-perkara dunia kerana penulisnya adalah…

“Seorang musafir tua yang ingin menukarkan kepak nyamuk miliknya menjadi permata yang lebih bernilai daripada dunia...”

Bagaimana ingin menukar sebelah kepak nyamuk yang tiada harga menjadi permata yang nilainya melebihi dunia dan segala isinya? Kita bayangkan situasi-situasi berikut:

Situasi 1:         Ahmad sedang membina sebuah rumah yang akan didudukinya bersama keluarga. Pada rumah tersebut, dia membuat beberapa tingkap. Apabila ditanya kenapa dia membina tingkap pada rumahnya, dia jawab: Supaya udara dan angin masuk ke dalam rumah.

Situasi 2:         Ahmad sedang membina sebuah rumah yang akan didudukinya bersama keluarga. Pada rumah tersebut, dia membuat beberapa tingkap. Apabila ditanya kenapa dia membina tingkap pada rumahnya, dia jawab: Supaya suara azan dapat didengarinya dan ahli keluarganya, dan setelah mendengar azan, ahli keluarga lelaki dapat ke masjid solat berjemaah dan ahli keluarga perempuan dapat solat pada awal waktu.

Pada Situasi 1, apa yang akan diperolehi oleh Ahmad hanyalah udara dan angin yang masuk melalui tingkap rumahnya.

Walau bagaimanapun, pada situasi 2, Ahmad akan memperolehi pahala setiap kali tingkap yang dibina membantu keluarganya dalam amalan solat, dan juga angin dan udara yang masuk ke dalam rumahnya…

Apa perbezaannya? Niat; dan juga amalan yang lahir daripada niat tersebut.

Jika seorang doktor/jurutera/guru/peniaga melakukan tugasnya sebagai seorang doktor/jurutera/guru/peniaga untuk mendapatkan sedikit* wang bagi menampung kehidupannya dan keluarga, maka sekadar itulah yang dimilikinya.


Tetapi, jika melakukan tugas mereka supaya dia dapat membawa pesakitnya/orang-orang yang berurusan dengannya/ pelajar-pelajarnya/pelanggannya kepada mendekati Allah, maka mereka akan mendapat ganjaran Akhirat tanpa sedikit pun mengurangkan gaji mereka sebagai seorang doktor/jurutera/guru/peniaga.

Blog ini adalah “kepak nyamuk” kerana permulaan penulisannya ialah berkenaan perkara-perkara dunia. Tetapi, perbincangannya tidak terhenti dalam perkara-perkara dunia kerana niat penulisnya adalah supaya dirinya, dan sesiapa sahaja yang membaca penulisannya akan berusaha mendekati Dia Yang Maha Esa…






*Berapa banyak pun harta dunia ini tetap kuantitinya sedikit berbanding kesenangan Akhirat.

Friday, March 25, 2011

History of Philosophy




If we ignore the accumulated wisdom, insight, and experience of those who lived before us and look only ahead as if we could live by more innovation, we will stagnate. Some might think that how we can be stagnate while all the sciences, technologies and innovations are rapidly developing. Yes, the science, technologies and innovations are rapidly developing but we are stagnating in civilization, because the foundation of every civilization is philosophy.
Before we go any further, let us travel back in time where Greek Philosophers had started the Ancient Greek Civilizations. During Greek Civilizations, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are among the people who seek to understand and explain the nature of life and reality. Aspect of metaphysic is the basic questions. They study physics to explain metaphysics. Aristotle has been quoted as saying, “The study of truth requires a study of causes.” The beauty and perfectness of physical world, the miracle of life and creature, the amazing creation of mankind had created an intense outburst of feelings to know who The Creator is, as normal people would feel when they see the painting of Mona Lisa and wonder who the painter is. The movement of the sun, the moon and the stars are calculated, eclipse are studied, life and creature are observed, universe are explored, to understand the Creator, and to understand the meaning of life until the year 323 BC Ancient Greek had reached their highest prosperity and produced amazing civilization.
After the civilization of ancient Greek, rise the Islamic civilizations from the land of Arabs “The 8th and 9th century caliphs of Muslim, Harun ar-Rashid and his son Abdullah al-Mamun are especially renowned for their encouragement of intellectual pursuits and for the splendor of their courts. During their reigns scholars were invited to the court to debate various topics, and translations were made from Greek, Persian, and Syriac works.” (Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005). Among the masterpiece that was translated into Arabic is Elementa Stoixia Euklid, Almages Balamius, Conis Sections Appolonius, Intrucdotio Aritmeticae Nikomakhus, Organin Aristotle and Arithmeticae Diofantus. These works are the preliminary of mathematical knowledge in Islamic Civilization. Knowledge from Greek Civilizations had been studied by Muslim scholars such as Al-Kindi, Geber (Jabir ibnu Hayyan) and Al-Khwarizmi. They restructured and filtered the knowledge scientifically, critically and meaningfully in various subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematic, medical, and optic, thus producing the knowledge we now know as science and technology, WITHOUT separating it from metaphysics. Science research is parallel to Islamic teachings of monotheism. The more and deeper Muslim scholars studied and investigated about the miracle and amazing of science and technologies will lead to stronger faith to the Oneness God.
Around AD105, Chinese invented paper. Muslim community started to learn the technology of paper and it became the most important industry in Baghdad during the 9th century. The earliest paper industry in Europe only started in year 1277 by a factory in Fabriano, Italy. After that, another paper factory was opened in Troyes, France, followed by Nuremberg, German. Paper and printing industrial had opened a new door to Europe to receive knowledge from Islamic Civilization in 15th century. Agriculture, architecture, sea navigation, chemistry, weapons, and many more technologies were brought to Europe, then, starting the era of European Renaissance. The reality of European Renaissance was brought from Islamic Civilization cannot be erased from history. In agriculture, words like ‘rice’(aruzz), ‘cotton’(qatn), ‘lemon’(laimun), ‘sugar’(sukkar), ‘alfalfa’(alfasfasah) came from Arabic words. The beauty of Islamic architecture in Palace of Alhambra and the Cordoba’s Mosque was spread through all over Europe. The journal of Al-Biruni states that Muslim navigator had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in year 956 proved that Columbus is not the first person to reach America. Even Columbus himself said that he found bearded man who knelt for 5 times prayer a day. The name of Hawaii was originated from Arabic word, Al-Hawa which means ‘nice air breeze’. The terms ‘ether’(athir),  ‘alcohol’(al-kuhl) and ‘alkaline’(al-qali) are also from Arabic words and still being used till today in chemistry. Montgomery Watt, a European writer state that “Because Europe was reacting against Islam, it belittled the influence of Muslims and exaggerated its dependence on its Greek and Roman heritage. So today an important task for us is to correct this false emphasis and to acknowledge fully our debts to the Arabs and Islamic world.” Not only knowledge had influenced European Renaissance but also the concept of metaphysics from Islamic civilizations had caused Paracelsus, Philippus Auroleus, a Swiss physician and chemists to reduce the gap between science and their religion by producing Priest Scientist and Priest Physician. Doctors should have wisdom and ethics are one of the important foundations in medical. Curing patient is not only curing their physical body but also curing their soul.
In 16th century, Mechanism doctrine in Europe is the beginning of separating science and metaphysics. Supporters of this doctrine like Descartes and Newton still believe in God but they had limited the power of God only in creating, but not controlling the creation. Development of this doctrine had brought scientists far from faith in God. Until 19th century, a complete separation between the creation of nature and God by Charles Darwin through his modern evolutionary theory had changed the world. Science is only in the aspect of quantitative and being used as proof of the inexistence of God. Without the belief in God, the principle of ‘Survival of the fittest’ and ‘The stronger will defeat the weak’ like hungry lions will tear and eat the antelope had started to spread. With this principle, Hitler of the Germany Nazi and Karl Marx of the Communist had began their political agenda. Portuguese, Dutch, France, England and Spain were competing to conquer the lands from all over the world.
Malaysia is also one of the countries that had been colonized by British and Portuguese. When Malaysia achieved independence in 1957, science curriculum in Malaysia was derived from western doctrine of mechanism and evolutionism which was separated from aspects of spiritual and metaphysics. There are no discussions about metaphysics, even to mention the word ‘God’ is almost impossible in schools and universities during teaching and learning process of science subjects. As a result, the world in 20th century is full of people without faith in God. The rich did not help the poor, economy had been monopolized, and politics are only to fulfill the lust on oneself and not to fulfill the need of others, teachers in schools have no sincerity in delivering knowledge, students did not feel guilty of cheating during exam, knowledge are not respected, everything had been done for money and luxury, because it has no relation with God.

References:

Mat Rofa Ismail. (2006). Falsafah Sains: Pendekatan Kualitatif. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Microsoft Encarta Reference Library DVD. (2005). Article on Caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Microsoft Corporation.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Setiap Amal Bermula Dengan Niat


Diriwayatkan daripada 'Umar bin Khattab r.a. berkata : Aku pernah mendengar Rasulullah S.A.W.  bersabda: " Sesungguhnya setiap amalan itu bergantung kepada niat, dan setiap orang hanya memperolehi apa yang ia niatkan. Barangsiapa yang hijrahnya kerana Allah dan RasulNya maka hijrahnya itu kepada Allah dan RasulNya. Dan barangsiapa yang hijrahnya kerana dunia yang akan ia memperolehinya atau kerana perempuan yang ingin dinikahinya, maka hijrahnya itu kepada apa yang dihijrahkan kepadanya. "
[Riwayat Bukhari dan Muslim]

Berdasarkan hadith di atas, "ikhlas" adalah perkara yang penting dalam setiap amalan. Apa yang dimaksudkan dengan "Ikhlas" ?

Ikhlas ialah melakukan sesuatu atau meninggalkan sesuatu semata-mata kerana Allah. Ada orang melihat atau tiada orang melihat, kita tetap melakukan amalan tersebut.

Ikhlas ini adalah rahsia Allah. Tiada siapa boleh menentukan seseorang itu ikhlas atau tidak dalam amalannya. Kadang-kadang, individu yang sedang beramal itupun tidak tahu sama ada dia ikhlas atau tidak.

Ada juga yang berpendapat sehingga Malaikat pun tidak tahu amalan individu tertentu ikhlas atau tidak; Malaikat hanya bertugas membawa amalan tersebut kepada Allah dan hanya Dia yang Maha Mengetahui sama ada amalan tersebut ikhlas atau tidak.

Namun begitu, seseorang yang ikhlas akan istaqamah dalam amalannya. Sama ada dilihat orang atau tidak, dia tetap istiqamah dengan amalannya. Kerana amal tersebut bukan untuk manusia, tetapi semata-mata untuk Pencipta.

Maka, perkaitannya dengan entry pertama blog ini ialah untuk menegaskan bahawa sekiranya blog ini ditulis dengan ikhlas, ialah bukanlah bertujuan untuk menarik manusia membacanya, menyukainya atau membencinya...

Tapi semata-mata untuk kendapat keredhaan Allah...

Dan sekiranya blog ini benar-benar ikhlas...ia akan istaqamah.