Kadang view harus diluruskandengan amal dan perbnuatan dan aktifitas, view negatif bukan cermian citra kita?
Mengapa aku hasud, bukankah itu juga kegilaan, waktu yang diambil m engapa karena diskriminasi karena ketidak adilan, karena aku menjadi miskin?
Ataukah ego, bagaimana teori itu muncul? Kapan aku bisa salat khusu, mengapa aku tidak ingin, mengapa dengan manusia, aku penyendiri dan asik dengan sndiirian, mengapa dalam real seperti gagap,
Apakah dnegan banyak kesibukan aku melupakan tuhan,
Bacalah dengan nama tuhan-mu!
Ibn Hazm was born into a notable family - his grand father Sa'id and his father Ahmad both held high positions in the court of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham II[5]- and professed a Persian genealogy.[6] However scholars believe that Iberian converts adopted such genealogies to better identify with the Arabs and favor evidence that points to an Christian Iberian family background hailing from Manta Lisham (near Sevilla).
bn Hazm (7 November 994–15 August 1064[1] 456 AH[2]) in full Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm (Arabic :أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم) - sometimes with al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī as well[3] was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, litterateur, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present-day Spain.[4] He was a leading proponent of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works of which only 40 still survive, covering a range of topics such as jurisprudence, logic, history, ethics, comparative religion, and theology, as well as the The Ring of the Dove, on the art of lov
During the 'Abbasid Caliphate (A.H. 132/ C.E. 750 - A.H. 656/ C.E. 1258), the golden age of Islamic literature, many schools elaborated their major works of medieval Islamic thought. Shi‘ism has particularly influenced the destiny of Islam in the political and, even more so, the philosophical domain. Isma‘ilism belongs to the Shi‘ite mainstream of Islam. From the beginning, Islam was divided mainly into two groups: the Sunnites and the Shi‘ites. The Sunnites believe that Prophet Muhammad did not explicitly name a Successor after his death. The Shi‘ites affirm, on the contrary, that Muhammad explicitly designated ‘Ali as the first Imam (divine Guide) and his direct descendants as successors. According to Muslim tenets, Muhammad was the last Prophet, the one who closed the Prophetic cycle. The Shi‘ites maintain that humanity still needs a spiritual Guide, therefore the cycle of Prophecy must be succeeded by the cycle of Imama. The prerogative of the Imam is to give the right interpretation of the Qur'an and to gradually reveal its esoteric meaning.
Al-Shahrastani was certainly not an Ash'arite theologian, as has often been argued, even if he borrows some basic concepts shared commonly by various Muslim thinkers. Al-Shahrastani is a difficult person to evaluate because he juggled many different philosophical and theological vocabularies. He was a clever thinker, demonstrated by the intricacies of many traditions and the Shi‘ite notion of the Guide found in his thoughts. Al-Shahrastani had many reasons to speak somewhat allegorically. He was a very subtle author who often spoke indirectly by means of symbols. He preferred his own personal vocabulary to the traditional one. For this reason, his position is hard to determine. It may well be that ideological considerations led him to speak indirectly; he perhaps assumed those familiar with the symbols would be able to unravel his elusive ideas. For all these reasons, many scholars who have studied al-Shahrastani were misled concerning his religious identity.
The richness and originality of al-Shahrastani's philosophical and theological thought is manifested in his major works. The Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal (The Book of Sects and Creeds), a monumental work, presents the doctrinal points of view of all the religions and philosophies which existed up to his time. The Nihayat al-aqdam fi 'ilm al-kalam (The End of Steps in the Science of Theology) presents different theological discussions and shows the limits of Muslim theology (kalam). The Majlis is a discourse, written during the mature period of his life, delivered to a Twelver Shi‘ite audience. The Musara‘at al-Falasifa (The Struggle with Philosophers) criticizes Avicenna’s doctrines by emphasizing some peculiar Isma‘ili arguments on the division of beings. The Mafatih al-Asrar wa-masabih al-abrar (The Keys of the Mysteries and the Lamps of the Righteous) introduces the Qur’an and gives a complete commentary of the first two chapters of the Qur’an.
As opposed to Ash'arites, al-Shahrastani presents a gradation in the creation (khalq). He gives a definition of the Prophetic Impeccability (‘Isma) opposed to the Ash‘arite tradition, maintaining that it subsists in the Prophet as part of his real nature. As did al-Ghazzali, al-Shahrastani harshly criticizes Avicenna's Necessary Being who knows the universal but not the particular. Al-Shahrastani, particularly in the Musara‘a al-Falasifa, has an Isma‘ili conception of the Originator (Mubdi‘) beyond Being and non-Being. He argues convincingly for the existence of Divine Attributes, but he does not ascribe them directly to God. True worship means Tawhid - declaring the Unicity of God. This includes the negation of all attributes which humans give to God, the Ultimate One who is totally transcendent. God is Unknowable, Indefinable, Unattainable, and above human comprehension.
As for the theory of creation, in the Nihaya, al-Shahrastani insists that God is the only Creator and the only Agent. He also develops a different interpretation of ex-nihilo creation which does not mean creation out of nothing, but creation made only by God. (al-Shahrastani, 1934: 18-9) But in the Majlis and the Mafatih al-Asrar, the angels play a dominant role in the physical creation. (al-Shahrastani, 1998: 82; 1989, vol. I: 109 verso line 24 to 110 recto line 1) His theory of the Divine Word (Kalima) has a convincing Isma'ili imprint; for example, his hierarchy of angels and Divine Words (Kalimat ) are conceived as being the causes of spiritual beings. Al-Shahrastani in the Nihaya writes:
"that his [Divine] Command (Amr) is pre-existent and his multiple Kalimat are eternal. By his Command, Kalimat become the manifestation of it. Spiritual beings are the manifestation of Kalimat and bodies are the manifestation of spiritual beings. The Ibda' (Origination beyond time and space) and khalq (physical creation) become manifested [respectively in] spiritual beings and bodies. As for Kalimat and letters (huruf), they are eternal and pre-existent. Since his Command is not similar to our command, his Kalimat and his letters are not similar to our Kalimat . Since letters are elements of Kalimat which are the causes of spiritual beings who govern corporeal beings; all existence subsists in the Kalimat Allah preserved in his Command." (al-Shahrastani, 1934: 316)
In the Majlis, al-Shahrastani divides the creation into two worlds: the spiritual world (i.e. the world of the Origination of spirits (Ibda'-i arwah)) in an achieved (mafrugh) state) and the world of physical creation (khalq) in becoming (musta'naf). He shares an Isma‘ili cosmology in which God has built his religion in the image of creation.
The conception of Prophecy developed in the Nihaya is closer to that of Isma'ilis and Falasifa (Islamic philosophers) than to Ash‘arites, because al-Shahrastani establishes a logical link between miracles and Prophetic Impeccability (‘Isma). For al-Shahrastani, the proof of veracity (sidq) of the Prophet is intrinsic to his nature and is related to his Impeccability. (Al-Shahrastani, 1934: 444-5) He develops the concept of cyclical time explicitly in the Milal, the Majlis, and the Mafatih and implicitly in the Nihaya. In the Majlis, his understanding of the dynamic evolution of humanity is similar to Isma‘ilism, in which each Prophet opens a new cycle. Al-Shahrastani recovers the mythical Qur'anic story of Moses and the Servant of God inspired by Al-Risala al-Mudhhiba of al-qadi al-Nu‘man (d. A.H. 363 / C.E. 974).
Al-Shahrastani was an able and learned man of great personal charm. The real nature of his thought is best referred to by the term theosophy, in the older sense of "divine wisdom". However, al-Shahrastani was certainly not totally against theology or philosophy, even if he was very harsh against the theologians and the philosophers. As he explained in the Majlis, in order to remain on the right path, one must preserve a perfect equilibrium between intellect ('aql) and audition (sam‘). A philosopher or a theologian must use his intellect until he reaches the rational limit. Beyond this limit, he must listen to the teaching of Prophets and Imams.
His works reflect a complex interweaving of intellectual strands, and his thought is a synthesis of this fruitful historical period. In his conception of God, Creation, Prophecy, and Imama, al Shahrastani adopted many doctrinal elements that are reconcilable with Nizari Isma'ilism. The necessity of a Guide, belonging both to the spiritual and the physical world, is primordial in his scheme since the Imam is manifested in this physical world.
Danish-Pazhuh, Muhammad Taqi
1346HS/1968 "Da'i al-du‘at Taj al-din-i Shahrastana." Nama-yi astan-i quds 7: 77-80
1347HS/1969 "Da'i al-du‘at Taj al-din-i Shahrastana." Nama-yi astan-i quds 8: 61-71.
Gimaret, Daniel, Monnot, Guy and Jolivet, Jean
1986-1993 Livre des religions et des sectes. 2 vols. Belgium (Peeters): UNESCO.
Jolivet, Jean
2000 "AL-SHAHRASTÂNÎ critique d'Avicenne Dans la Lutte contre les philosophes (quelques aspects)," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 10: 275-292.
Madelung, Wilferd
1976 "Ash-Shahrastanis Streitschrift gegen Avicenna und ihre Widerlegung durch Nasir ad-din at.-Tusi." Akten des VII. Kongresses für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft, Abhandlungen der Akademie des Wissenschaften in Göttingen 98: 250-9.
Monnot, Guy
1983-84 "Islam: exégèse coranique." Annuaire de l'École Pratique des Hautes Études 92: 305-15.
1986-1987 "Islam: exégèse coranique." Annuaire de l'École Pratique des Hautes Études 95: 253-59.
1987-1988 "Islam: exégèse coranique." Annuaire de l'École Pratique des Hautes Études 96: 237-43.
1996 "Shahrastani." Encyclopédie de l'islam 9: 220-22.
1999 Book review of La pensée philosophique et théologique de Shahrastani (m. 548/1153) by Diane Steigerwald in Bulletin critique des annales islamologiques 15: 79-81.
2001 Book review of Majlis-i maktub-i Shahrastani-i mun'aqid dar Khwarazm. Ed. Muhammad Rida R. Jalali Na'ini and translated into French by Diane Steigerwald in Majlis: Discours sur l’ordre et la création. Sainte-Foy (Québec): Les Presses de l’Université Laval in Bulletin critique des annales islamologiques 17.
Na'ini, Jalali
1343HS/1964 Sharh-i Hal wa Athar-i Hujjat al-Haqq Abu al-Fath Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karim b. Ahmad Shahrastani.
al-Nu'man, Abu Hanifa
1956 Al-Risala al-Mudhhiba. In Khams Rasa'il Isma'iliyya. Ed. ‘Arif Tamir,
Al-Shahrastani, Abu al-Fath Ibn 'Abd al-Karim
1850 Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal. Trans. Theodor Haarbrücker in Religionspartheien und Philosophen-Schulen. Vol. 1 Halles.
1923 Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal. Ed. William Cureton in Books of Religions and Philosophical Sects. 2 vols.
1934 Nihayat al-Aqdam fi 'Ilm al-Kalam. Ed. and partially trans. Alfred Guillaume in The Summa Philosophiae of Shahrastani.
1366-1375/1947-1955 Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal. Ed. Muhammad Fath Allah Badran, 2 vols.
1396/1976 Musara'at al-Falasifa. Ed. Suhayr M. Mukhtar.
1989 Mafatih al-Asrar wa-masabih al-abrar.
1998 Majlis-i maktub-i Shahrastani-i mun'aqid dar Khwarazm. Ed. Muhammad Rida R. Jalali Na'ini and translated into French by Diane Steigerwald in Majlis: Discours sur l’ordre et la création. Sainte-Foy (Québec): Les Presses de l’Université Laval.
2001 Musara'at al-Falasifa. Ed. and translated by Wilferd Madelung and Toby Mayer in Struggling with the Philosopher: A Refutation of Avicenna's Metaphysics. London: I.B. Tauris.
Steigerwald, Diana
1995 "L'Ordre (Amr) et la création (khalq) chez Shahrastani." Folia Orientalia 31: 163-75.
1996 "The Divine Word (Kalima) in Shahrastani's Majlis." Studies in Religio
Al-Shahrastānī was an influential historian of religions and a heresiographer. He was one of the pioneers in developing a scientific approach to the study of religions. Al-Shahrastānī' distinguished himself by his desire to describe in the most objective way the universal religious history of humanity. He was wrongly recognized as an "Ash‘arite" theologian; this is why some scholars such as Muhammad Ridā Jalālī Nā’īnī, Muhammad Taqī Dānish-Pazhūh, Wilferd Madelung, Jean Jolivet, and Guy Monnot firmly believe that he was an Ismā‘īlī who was practicing taqiyya (religious dissimulation) since Ismā‘īlis were persecuted during that time. (For an extensive discussion of al-Shahrastānī's identity as Ash‘arite or Ismā‘īlī, cf. Steigerwald, 1997: 298-307.)
Very few things are known about al-Shahrastānī's life. He was born in A.H. 479/ C.E. 1086 in the town of
Ya Allah, Jangan biarkan kami sekejappun mengandalkan hanya kepada diri sendiri
Ummu Salamah kemudian berbalik lagi sambil menangis dan Rasullah melihatnya sekaligus bertanya mengapa menangis. Ummu Salamah menjawab, “ayah dan ibuku yang akan menjadi tebusanmu, sejahtera atasmu wahai Rasulullah ! bagaimana mungkin saya tidak menangis?
Engkau yang memilili kedudukan yang mulia di sisi Allah engkau memiliki sesuaatu yang agung yang tidak akan dicabut lagi oleh Allah swt dan Engkau juga meminta agar sekejapun jangan dibiarkan engkau hanya mengandalkan diri sendiri, Rasulullah saw kemudian menasihatinya, Hai Ummau salamah! Siapakah yang akan menjamin masa depanku? Ya Allah Yunus bin Mata ketika ia terlalu mengandalkan diri sendiri akhirnya terjadilah apa yang terjadi padanya.”
Mengandalkan diri sendiri, why?
Kenapa t idak tegak menutup telepon, apakah tidak etis, tidakkan etis kalau kita tidak mau diganggu, tidak mau menjawab, tidak mau menyapa, tidak mau emmbalas sms, tidak karenaa orang itu memitan k orang itu menyuruh! Kita harus mendengarkan!
Kita tidak enak menjauhi orang yang dekat duduk, tidak enak, tidak etis, apakah etis itu?
Mencari ilmu adalah sebuah aktifitas yang inward atau outward? Akhlak,
Selain ayat-ayat yang telah disebutkan di atas, ada pula ayat-ayat lain yang menunjukkan universalitas dakwah Islam itu. Di antaranya adalah firman Allah Ta'ala:
Dan Alquran ini diwahyukan kepadaku supaya dengan dia aku memberi peringatan kepadamu dan keada orang-orang yang sampai Alquran ini kepadanya (QS. al An'am [6]: 19)
Alquran itu tidak lain hanyalah peringatan bagi seluruh alam (bangsa) (QS. al Qalam [68]: 52)
Sesungguhnya Alquran itu adalah peringatan bagi seluruh alam (QS. Shad [38]: 87)
Sesungguhnya neraka (Saqar) itu adalah salah satu bencana yang amat besar, sebagai ancaman bagi manusia (QS. al Muddatstsir [74]: 35-36)
Dari sejarah, kita mengetahui bahwa banyak di antara para penyembah berhala, orang-orang Yahudi, dan Nasrani, yang masuk Islam. Begitu pula sekelompok orang dari bangsa non-Arab, seperti Salman dari Persia, Sahib dari Romawi, Bilal dari Etiopia, dan lain-lain.
Saya kira belajar dan mendidik itu sudah kodrat, megnapa harus meujuk kepada la-quran lagi? Apakah benar belajr sudah kodrat ? apa yagn menjadai bagian dan luar bagian manusia. Tujuan untuk mengubah, nah disini kalau kita melihat tujuan kita mungkin terperangah, karena tidak mudah mengubah itu? Sehat, jiwa, raga, fisik, mental, intelektual,
Mengubah diri, apakah anda yakin mansia bisa berubah? Apa yang berubah? Kulit kita bisa berubah, kalau anda menggosk wajah, wajah anda akan merah seprti buah delima,
Jadi proses yang tidak mengubah menambah pengatahuan, itu bukan proses penddikan orietasni tujuan dan proses, karena goal itu adalah evaluasi.
Menentuka kuatlitas umat bangsa, pendidkan + kebodohan+kemiskinan=
Coba and abuktika relevasni kebodohan dengan kemiskinan?
Prophethood or Prophecy?
In the Islamic worldview, prophecy is different from prophethood. Prophecy is not a sufficient condition for a person to become a prophet. Prophecy is seen as a gift that God bestows on certain prophets. In addition, in the broader sense of the word, if taken to mean "foretelling the future", this gift can be bestowed to a limited degree by God on people who are not prophets.
Some people may be familiar with experiences of seeing events in their dreams which later come true in real life. This is one minor form of prophecy. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once said that "The phenomenon of a believer seeing dreams come true is equivalent to 1/46th of prophethood" (Bukhari).
As is related in the Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad experienced this phenomenon of prophecy before he started receiving Qur'anic revelation. He would have vivid dreams that would come true.
In addition to this kind of prophecy, prophets can also be given information by God foretelling future events. This applies to many prophets, including Prophet Muhammad and other prophets mentioned in the Old Testament. For example, in the Qur'an, some verses foretelling a future event were revealed before the event happened.
In this sense, although Muslims do not reject the notion of prophecy, they do not overemphasize it as the key aspect of prophethood. In Islam, prophecy is not seen as a test of prophethood.
Prophethood and Ingenuity
Islam teaches that the nature of prophets as intelligent and wise people is consistent with their role as prophets. As well as receiving revelation, prophets should be able to communicate with people and help them understand the wisdom of the revelation and lead them through their lives. In this sense, wisdom and intelligence are natural criteria for prophets. God chooses prophets not only for their piety and character, but also for their ability to convey the message.
Some skeptics claim that although they do not believe in prophets, the people believed by some to be prophets were merely geniuses. They explain phenomena such as the revelations prophets have as a result of this genius.
However, in Islam this idea is objectionable with respect to all prophets. Islam teaches that one of the main reasons humanity needs prophets is that there are certain types of information, largely related to the unseen, that are not available through the normal sources of knowledge such as science. Information such as the reality of the afterlife, for example, can not be determined by science or any other normal source of knowledge. Therefore, no matter how intelligent or farsighted people may be, this is knowledge that they can not arrive at on their own, and need direct communication from God.
In addition, the claim that prophets were merely geniuses would automatically label even the great prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace be upon them all) as liars. These people insisted that the message they were conveying was a direct revelation from God and was not a product of their own thinking or intelligence. Therefore, to say that the explanation of the various phenomena related to prophecy was ingenuity would be t
PROPHETHOOD IN ISLAM
WAMY Series on Islam No. 7
The concept of prophethood is found in the three great monotheistic
religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In Islam, however, it
has a special status and significance.
According to Islam, Allah created man to worship Him and to lead a
virtuous life based on His teachings and guidance. But how can man
know and fulfill his role and the purpose of his existence if he does
not receive clear and practical instructions of what Allah wants him
to do? The existence of prophethood, by which Allah sent a prophet
to every nation to reveal His message in terms that the people could
understand, has answered this question most effectively
One might ask: How were the prophets chosen and which individuals
were so honored?
Prophethood is Allah's blessing and a favor that is bestowed on an
individual chosen by Him to convey His message. From studying the
lives of the prophets that have appeared, we notice several
characteristics:
1. He is the best person in his community as regards morality
and intellectual ability This is necessary, for a prophets life serves as
a model for his followers. His personality should not drive people
away from his message, but rather inspire them to accept it and to
transform their own lives. After receiving the message, he is
infallible on all matters dealing with the revelation. Although he
might commit some small mistakes, but not in any matter that
concerns the revelation, he cannot commit a sin.
2. He is supported by miracles, which derive from the power
and permission of Allah and not of the prophet himself, to prove that
he is not an impostor. Such miracles are direct challenges to the
powers that be, for they do not follow the rules laid down by the
experts in the affected field or activity By way of illustration, let us
review some of the miracles recorded in the Old Testament, the New
testament, and the Qur'an.
Moses' Egyptian contemporaries excelled in magic. Thus his major
miracle was to defeat the best magicians that the society could offer.
Jesus' contemporaries were skilled physicians, and so he raised the
dead and cured those suffering from incurable diseases.
Muhammad's contemporaries were known for their eloquence and
magnificent poetry. Therefore Muhammad's major miracle was the
Qur'an, which no poet could imitate or surpass, despite their repeated
and vigorous efforts to do so.
All previous miracles were limited to a specific people living at a
specific time. This is not the case with the Qur'an, however, for this
miracle is universal and everlasting. Although previous generations
actually witnessed it, all future generations w 11 continue to witness
its miraculous nature in term of its style, content, and spiritual
impact and message. This ability of the Qur'an to rise above the
limits imposed by time and space on all other miracles proves its
divine origin.
3. Every prophet states clearly that what he receives comes
from Allah and that it is for the well-being of humanity. He confirms
what was revealed previously and what may be revealed by a future
prophet, for his task is to convey the message entrusted to him by
Allah. Thus the revealed message is always the same in essence and
purpose-it cannot deviate from prior or future revelations.
Prophets are necessary for conveying God's instructions and guidance
to mankind. Without this knowledge, we would be unable to answer
the fundamental questions of our existence: Why were we created?
What happens after death? Is there an afterlife? Are we accountable
for our actions? Is there any future reward or punishment for what
we do? What about Allah, His angels, heaven, and hell? Each of these
questions, and all others, are answered in the revelation brought by
the prophet. But in order for his community to believe and accept
them, the prophet must be brought by individuals who have attained
a position of trust and respect among their people. This is why he
must be morally and intellectual superior to his contemporaries.
Based on this understanding, Muslims reject some of the stones
found in the Old Testament concerning the prophets. For example:
the prophet
when drunk, or the prophet David sending one of his military leaders
to his death so that he could marry his wife. it is inconceivable to
Muslims that a prophet of Allah could do such things.
Prophets are also miraculously supported by God and instructed by
Him to affirm the continuity of His message. In brief, the divine
revelation consists of the following information:
a) A clear concept of God, His attributes and creation, and what
should and should not be ascribed to Him.
b) A clear idea about the unseen world, angels and jinn (spirits),
paradise and hell.
c) Why has God created us? What does He want from us? Will we be
rewarded (or punished) for obeying (or disobeying) Him?
d) A clear explanation of how to order our societies according to His
will. This involves the implementation of a law that, when applied
correctly and honestly, will bring about a happy and ideal society.
As we have seen in the above discussion, there is no substitute for
prophets. Despite the tremendous and impressive advancements of
modern science, even it cannot provide authentic information about
the supernatural world or provide guidance. Its very nature, which is
too materialistic and limited, precludes it from serving this purpose.
Mystic experience is also unsuitable, for it is too subjective and,
frequently, too misleading.
Now one might ask: How many prophets has Allah sent to humanity?
Although we cannot answer this question definitively, some Muslim
scholars place the number at two hundred forty thousand. We are
only sure of what is clearly mentioned in the Qur'an: God has sent
one or more messengers to each nation, for He would not be just if he
were to hold a nation to account for its actions w shout first
informing its people of what is allowed and what is not. The Qur'an
mentions twenty-five prophets by name (i.e., Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, and Muhammad, who are considered the greatest of all the
prophets) and indicates that there were others not known to
Muhammad.
Muslims are required to believe in and to respect all of the
messengers of Allah without exception. Since all the prophets come
from the same God and for the same purpose-to lead humanity to
Allah-belief in them all is essential and logical. If some are accepted
and others are rejected, it is due to the individual's
misunderstanding of the prophet's role or of racial (or other) bias.
The Muslims are unique in considering belief in all of the prophets of
God to be an article of faith. The Jews reject Jesus Christ and
Muhammad; the Christians reject Muhammad and, in reality, reject
Moses because they do not abide by his laws. The Muslims accept
them all as messengers of God who brought guidance to mankind.
However, this acceptance is characterized with a degree of caution,
for the Qur'an and the Prophet states the revelation conveyed by
those prophets has been distorted and corrupted by those who
received it. We read in the Qur'an:
Say (O Muslims), we believe in Allah and that which is revealed
to us and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael,
and Isaac and Jacob, and their children, and that which Moses
and Jesus received and that the prophets received from their
Lord. We maize no distinction between any of them and unto
Him we have surrendered. (2:136)
The Qur'an tells the Muslims that this is the true and impartial belief.
If other nations share this belief, it means that they are on the right
track. If they do not share this belief, it means that they are
following their own whims and biases. The Qur'an says:
And if they believe in what you believe, then are they rightly
guided. But if they turn away, then they are in disunity, and
Allah will suffice you against them. He is the Hearer; the
Knower: This is Gods religion and Who is better than God in
religion? (2:137-38)
There are two important points that need to be clarified about the
roles of Jesus and Muhammad, as they are usually misunderstood
and distorted. In the case of Jesus, the Qur'an rejects completely the
Christian assertion of his divinity and his status of the "son" of God. It
also states that the unusual circumstances of his birth-without a
father-does not make him a "son" of God, for if this logic were
followed to its logical conclusion, Adam, who had no father and no
mother, would be greater than Jesus, for: Truly the likeness of Jesus,
in God's sight, is as Adam's likeness; He created him of dust, then said
unto him, "Be," and he was (3:59).
Like other prophets, Jesus performed miracles: he raised the dead
and cured the blind and the lepers. He also made it perfectly clear
that these miracles were done by God, not by him. But his message
was distorted, because;it was not recorded in his presence and under
his direction, but only about one hundred years after his death.
According to the Qur'an, Jesus was sent to the children of
confirm the Torah of Moses and to bring glad tidings of a final
messenger who would come after him:
And when Jesus son of Mary said, Children of
indeed the Messenger to you, confirming the Torah that is
before me, and giving good tidings of a Messenger who shall
come after me, whose name shall be the praised one. (61:6)
(the underlined portion is the translation of Ahmad, which is also a
name of the Prophet Muhammad).
However, the majority of the Jews rejected his ministry and plotted
against his life. The Qur'anic account of his death differs from the one
found in the New Testament: he was not killed or crucified, but
rather was raised to heaven by God. It is also implied that Jesus will
return one day and that all of the Christians and Jews will believe in
him before he dies. This is also supported by authentic sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad, the last prophet of God, was born in Makkah in the sixth
century CE. Until the age of forty, he was known as a man of
excellent character and cultured manners. These characteristics
earned for him the nickname of al-Amin (The Trustworthy). There
were no prior indications that Allah had chosen him to be His last
messenger. Once he was entrusted with this task, however, he began
calling his idol-worshipping people to Islam. The revelation was
recorded during his lifetime in writing and in the memory of his
followers. The care taken to preserve each revelation as it was
transmitted by the Prophet ensured that it would reach future
generations in an uncorrupted form. As Allah has stated that the
Qur'an would be preserved accurately, it is the source of divine
guidance for all time, and the Prophet Muhammad is His fi
Prophethood is not unknown to heavenly revealed religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. In Islam, however, it has a special status and significance.
According to Islam, Allah created man for a noble purpose: to worship Him and lead a virtuous life based on His teachings and guidance. How would man know his role and purpose of his existence unless he received clear and practical instructions of what Allah wants him to do? Here comes the need for prophethood. Thus Allah had chosen from every nation a prophet or more to covey His Message to people.
One might ask: How were the prophets chosen and who were entitled to this great honor?
Prophethood is Allah's blessing and favor that He may bestow on whom He wills. However, from surveying the various messengers throughout history, three features of a prophet may be recognized:
- He is the best in his community morally and intellectually. This is necessary because a prophet's life serves as a model for his followers. His personality should attract people to accept his message rather than drive them away by his imperfect character. After receiving the message he is infallible. That is, he would not commit any sin. He might make some minor mistakes which are usually corrected by revelation.
- He is supported by miracles to prove that he is not an impostor. Those miracles are granted by the power and permission of God and are usually in the field in which his people excel and are recognized as superiors. We might illustrate this by quoting the major miracles of the three prophets of the major world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moses' contemporaries were excellent in magic. So his major miracle was to defeat the best magicians of
- Every prophet states clearly that what he receives is not of his own but from God for the well-being of mankind. He also confirms what was revealed before him and what may be revealed after him. A prophet does this to show that he is simply conveying the message which is entrusted to him by the One True God of all people in all ages. So the message is one in essence and for the same purpose. Therefore, it should not deviate from what was revealed before him or what might come after him.
Prophets are necessary for conveying God's instructions and guidance to mankind. We have no way of knowing why we were created. What will happen to us after death? Is there any life after death? Are we accountable for our actions? In other words, is there any reward or punishment for our deeds in this life? These and so many other questions about God, angels, paradise, hell, etc. can not be answered without revelation from the Creator and Knower of the unseen. Those answers must be authentic and must be brought by individuals whom we trust and respect. That is why, messengers are the select of their societies in terms of moral conduct and intellectual ability.
Hence, the slanderous Biblical stories about some of the great prophets are not accepted by Muslims. For example,
The prophets are also miraculously supported by God and instructed by Him to affirm the continuity of the message.
The content of the prophets' message to mankind can be summarized as follows:
- Clear concept about God: His attributes, His creation, what should and should not be ascribed to Him.
- Clear idea about the unseen world, the angels, jinn (spirits),
- Why has God created us? What does He want from us and what is the reward or punishment for obeying or disobeying Him?
- How to run our societies according to His will? That is, clear instructions and laws that, when applied correctly and honestly, will result in a happy and ideal society.
It is clear from the above discussion that there is no substitute for prophets. Even today with the advancement of science, the only authentic source of information about the supernatural world is revelation. Guidance can be obtained neither from science nor from mystic experience. The first is too materialistic and too limited; the second is too subjective and frequently too misleading.
Now one might ask: How many prophets has God sent to humanity? We do not know for sure. Some Muslim scholars have suggested 240 thousand prophets. We are only sure of what is clearly mentioned in the Quran, that is, God has sent a messenger (or more) to every nation. That is because it is one of God's principles that He will never call a people to account unless He has made clear to them what to do and what not to do. The Quran mentions the names of 25 prophets and indicates that there have been others who were not mentioned to the Prophet Mohammed. These 25 include Noah, the man of the
An outstanding aspect of the Islamic belief in prophethood is that Muslims believe in and respect all the messengers of God with no exceptions. Since all the prophets came from the same One God, for the same purpose - to lead mankind to God - belief in them all is essential and logical; accepting some and rejecting others has to be based on misconceptions of the prophets' role or racial bias. The Muslims are the only people in the world who consider the belief in all the prophets of God an article of faith. Thus the Jews reject Jesus Christ and Muhammad; the Christians reject Muhammad and in reality reject Moses because they do not abide by his laws. The Muslims accept them all as messengers of God who brought guidance to mankind. However, the revelation which those prophets brought from God has been tampered with in one way or the other. The belief in all the messengers of God is enjoined on the Muslims by the Quran.
"Say (O Muslims): we believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and their children, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered."
(2:136)
The Quran continues in the following verses to instruct the Muslims that this is the true and impartial belief. If other nations believe in the same, they are following their own whims and biases and God will take care of them. Thus we read:
"And if they believe in what you believe, then they are rightly guided. But if they turn away, then they are in disunity, and Allah will suffice you against them. He is the Hearer, the Knower. This is God's religion and Who is better than God in religion?"
(2:137-38)
There are, at least, two important points related to prophethood that need to be clarified. These points concern the roles of Jesus and Muhammad as prophets who are usually misunderstood.
The Quranic account of Jesus emphatically rejects the concept of his 'Divinity' and 'Divine Sonship' and presents him as one of the great prophets of God. The Quran makes it clear that the birth of Jesus without a father does not make him son of God and mentions in this respect Adam who was created by God without a father and mother:
"Truly the likeness of Jesus, in God's sight, is as Adam's likeness; He created him of dust, then said He unto him, 'Be', and he was."
(3:59)
Like other prophets Jesus also performed miracles. For example, he raised the dead and cured the blind and lepers, but while showing these miracles he always made it clear that it was all from God. Actually the misconceptions about the personality and mission of Jesus found a way among his followers because the Divine message that he preached was not recorded during his presence in the world, rather it was recorded after a lapse of about hundred years. According to the Quran he was sent to the children of
"And when Jesus son of Mary said, 'Children of Israel, I am indeed the Messenger to you, confirming the Torah that is before me, and giving good tidings of a Messenger who shall come after me, whose name shall be the PRAISED ONE."
(61:6) (The capitalized portion is the translation of Ahmad which is Prophet Muhammed's name.)
However, the majority of the Jews rejected his ministry. They plotted against his life and in their opinion crucified him. But the Quran refutes this opinion and says that they neither killed him nor crucified him, rather he was raised up to God. There is a verse in the Quran, which implies that Jesus will come back and all the Christians and Jews believe in him before he dies. This is also supported by authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
The last prophet of God, Muhammad, was born in
Thus the Quran that is found today is the same that was revealed to him; not a syllable of it has been altered as God Himself has guaranteed its preservation. This Quran claims to be the book of guidance for the whole humanity for all times, and mentions Muhammad as the last Prophet of God.
Bukan saja tapi ibadah itu nikmat dan karena itu
Rasulullah berkata, kepada
Salat adalah penyejuk mata Muhammad
Aisyah meriwayatkan, “Rasulullah suka berbicara dengan kami dan kami juga suka berbicara dengannya, hanya saja ketika tiba waktu salat beliau seolah-olah tidak mengenal kami dan kami juga tidak mengenalnya.’
Muhammad bercerita kepada Abu Dzar tentang kerinduannya kepada salat seperti yang lapar merindukan makanan, atau yang haus menginginkan minuman. Kata beliau, “Yang lapar akan kenyang dengan makanan dan yang haus akan puas dengan minuman tapi saya tidak pernah puas dengan salat.’
Ia sangat menyukai salat dua rakaat di tengah malam dari dunia dan segala isinya.
Ia memberi wejangan kepada seseorang yang meminta ditunjuki cara agar bisa merasakan manisnya ibadah, dengan kata-kata demikian, « Seorang muslim yang untuk pertama kalinya melihat seorang perempuan tapi kemudian ia memalingkatan penglihatannya maka Allah swt akan menganugerahkan kecintaan kepada ibadah yang dirasakan oleh hatinya
Apa itu mendidik dan mengajar ? ayat-ayat tarbiyah
Maka meng tidakkah mereka mempherhatin unta bagaiana diciptakan
Langit-langit bagiamaan ditinggikan
Dan gunung-guung bagiaaman diekgan dan bui bagiaaman dihamparkan?
Bacalah dnegan nama tuhan yang menciptakan
Dia telah menciptakan manusia dari segumpal darah
Bacana dan tuhanmula yang mahamulia
Uyang mengajar manusia dengan pena???
Pikiran adalah real dan nyta, berarti aku tidak ingin, uang mengapa takut kehilangan uang? Megnapau harus perfek denga managemen uang? Aku terkuasai uang atau uang menguasai ku, imajinasi uang,
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Kebangkitan ekonomi
Al-Qur'an merupakan firman Allah yang selanjutnya dijadikan pedoman hidup (way of life) kaum muslim yang tidak ada lagi keraguan di dalamnya. Di dalamnya terkandung ajaran-ajaran pokok (prinsip dasar) menyangkut segala aspek kehidupan manusia yang selanjutnya dapat dikembangkan sesuai dengan nalar masing-masing bangsa dan kapanpun masanya dan hadir secara fungsional memecahkan problem kemanusiaan. Salah satu permasalah yang tidak sepi dari perbincangan umat adalah masalah pendidikan.
Dalam al-Qur'an sendiri telah memberi isyarat bahwa permasalahan pendidikan sangat penting, jika al-Qur'an dikaji lebih mendalam maka kita akan menemukan beberapa prinsip dasar pendidikan, yang selanjutnya bisa kita jadikan inspirasi untuk dikembangkan dalam rangka membangun pendidikan yang bermutu.
Untuk mengkaji aspek pendidikan dalam al-Qur'an maka makalah ini sengaja dibuat, dalam makalah ini penulis hanya memaparkan tentang pengertian pendidikan, istilah-istilah pendidikan dalam al-Qur'an, hakikat dan prinsip dasar, serta analisis problem di dunia pendidikan Islam terutama di Indonesia, bagaimana konsep ideal pendidikan Islam? dan bagaimana realitas pendidikan Islam di Indonesia? serta bagaimana mewujudkan pendidikan Islam yang bermutu?
Pengertian Konsep Pendidikan dalam Al-qur’an
Istilah pendidikan bisa ditemukan dalam al-Qur'an dengan istilah ‘at-Tarbiyah’, ‘at-Ta’lim’, dan ‘at-Tadhib’, tetapi lebih banyak kita temukan dengan ungkapan kata ‘rabbi’, kata at-Tarbiyah adalah bentuk masdar dari fi’il madhi rabba , yang mempunyai pengertian yang sama dengan kata ‘rabb’ yang berarti nama Allah. Dalam al-Qur'an tidak ditemukan kata ‘at-Tarbiyah’, tetapi ada istilah yang senada dengan itu yaitu; ar-rabb, rabbayani, murabbi, rabbiyun, rabbani. Sebaiknya dalam hadis digunakan istilah rabbani. Semua fonem tersebut mempunyai konotasi makna yang berbeda-beda.
Beberapa ahli tafsir berbeda pendapat dalam mengartikan kat-kata diatas. Sebagaimana dikutip dari Ahmad Tafsir bahwa pendidikan merupakan arti dari kata ‘Tarbiyah’ kata tersebut berasal dari tiga kata yaitu; rabba-yarbu yang bertambah, tumbuh, dan ‘rabbiya- yarbaa’ berarti menjadi besar, serta ‘rabba-yarubbu’ yang berarti memperbaiki, menguasai urusan, menuntun, menjaga, memelihara.
Konferensi pendidikan Islam yang pertama tahun 1977 ternyata tidak berhasil menyusun definisi pendidikan yang dapat disepakati, hal ini dikarenakan; 1) banyaknya jenis kegiatan yang dapat disebut sebagai kegiatan pendidikan, 2) luasnya aspek yang dikaji oleh pendidikan .
Para ahli memberikan definisi at-Tarbiyah, bila diidentikan dengan ‘arrab’ sebagai berikut;
1) Menurut al-Qurtubi, bahwa; arti ‘ar-rabb adalah pemilik, tua, Maha memperbaiki, Yang Maha pengatur, Yang Maha mengubah, dan Yang Maha menunaikan
2) Menurut louis al-Ma’luf, ar-rabb berarti tuan, pemilik, memperbaiki, perawatan, tambah dan mengumpulkan .
3) Menurut Fahrur Razi, ar-rabb merupakan fonem yang seakar dengan al-Tarbiyah, yang mempunyai arti at-Tanwiyah (pertumbuhan dan perkembangan) .
4) Al-Jauhari memberi arti at-Tarbiyah, rabban dan rabba dengan memberi makan, memelihara dan mengasuh.
5) Kata dasar ar-rabb, yang mempunyai arti yang luas antara lain; memilki, menguasai, mengatur, memelihara, memberi makan, menumbuhkan, mengembangkan dan berarti pula mendidik.
Apabila pendidikan Islam di identikan dengan at-ta’lim, para ahli memberikan pengertian sebagai berikut;
(a) Abdul Fattah Jalal, mendefinisikan at-ta’lim sebagai proses pemberian pengetahuan, pemahaman, pengertian, tanggung jawab, dan penanaman amanah, sehingga penyucian atau pembersihan manusia dari segala kotoran dan menjadikan diri manusia berada dalam kondisi yang memungkinkan untuk menerima al-hikmah serta mempelajari apa yang bermanfaat baginya dan yang tidak diketahuinya . At-ata’lim menyangkut aspek pengetahuan dan keterampilan yang dibutuhkan seseorang dalam hidup serta pedoman prilaku yang baik. At-ta’lim merupakan proses yang terus menerus diusahakan semenjak dilahirkan, sebab menusia dilahirkan tidak mengetahui apa-apa, tetapi dia dibekali dengan berbagai potensi yang mempersiapkannya untuk meraih dan memahami ilmu pengetahuan serta memanfaatkanya dalam kehidupan.
(b) Munurut Rasyid Ridho, at-ta’lim adalah proses transmisi berbagai ilmu pengetahuan pada jiwa individu tanpa adanya batasan dan ketentuan tertentu . Definisi ini berpijak pada firman Allah al-Baqoroh ayat 31 tentang allama Allah kepada Nabi Adam as, sedangkan proses tranmisi dilakukan secara bertahap sebagaimana Adam menyaksikan dan menganalisis asma-asma yang diajarkan Allah kepadanya. Dari penjelasan ini disimpulkan bahwa pengertian at-ta’lim lebih luas/lebih umum sifatnya daripada istilah at-tarbiyah yang khusus berlaku pada anak-anak. Hal ini karena at-ta’lim mencakup fase bayi, anak-anak, remaja, dan orang dewasa, sedangkan at-tarbiyah, khusus pendidikan dan pengajaran fase bayi dan anak-anak.
(c) Sayed Muhammad an Naquid al-Atas, mengartikan at-ta’lim disinonimkan dengan pengajaran tanpa adanya pengenalan secara mendasar, namun bila at-ta’lim disinonimkan dengan at-tarbiyah, at-ta’lim mempunyai arti pengenalan tempat segala sesuatu dalam sebuah system .
Menurutnya ada hal yang membedakan antara at-tarbiyah dengan at-ta’lim, yaitu raung lingkup at-ta’lim lebih umum daripada at-tarbiyah, karena at-tarbiyah tidak mencakup segi pengetahuan dan hanya mengacu pada kondisi eksistensial dan juga at-tarbiyah merupakan terjemahan dari bahasa latin education, yang keduanya mengacu kepada segala sesuatu yang bersifat fisik-mental, tetapi sumbernya bukan dari wahyu.
Pengunaan at-ta’dib, menurut Naquib al-Attas lebih cocok untuk digunakan dalam pendidikan Islam, konsep inilah yang diajarkan oleh Rasul. At-ta’dib berarti pengenalan, pengakuan yang secara berangsur-angsur ditanamkan kepada manusia tentang tempat-tempat yang tepat dari segala sesuatu dalam tatanan penciptaan sedimikian rupa, sehingga membimbing kearah pengenalan dan pengakuan kekuasaan dan keagungan Tuhan dalam tatanan wujud dan keberadaanya .
Kata ‘addaba’ yang juga berarti mendidik dan kata ‘ta’dib’ yang berarti pendidikan adalah diambil dari hadits Nabi “Tuhanku telah mendidikku dan dengan demikian menjadikan pendidikanku yang terbaik” .
(d) Menurut Muhammad Athiyah al-Abrasy, pengertian at-ta’lim berbeda dengan pendapat diatas, beliau mengatakan bahwa; at-ta’lim lebih khusus dibandingkan dengan at-tarbiyah, karena at-ta’lim hanya merupakan upaya menyiapkan individu dengan mengacu pada aspek-aspek tertentu saja, sedangkan at-tarbiyah mencakuip keseluruhan aspek-aspek pendidikan .
Masih lagi pengertian pendidikan Islam dari berbagai tokoh pemikir Islam, tetapi cukuplah pendapat diatas untuk mewakili pemahaman kita tentang konsep pendidikan Islam (al-Qur'an ). Konsep filosofis pendidikan Islam adalah bersumber dari hablum min Allah (hubungan dengan Allah) dan hablum min al-nas (hubungan dengan sesama manusia) dan hablum min al-alam (hubungan dengan manusia dengan alam sekitas) yang selanjutnya berkembang ke berbagai teori yang ada seperti sekarang ini. Inprirasi dasar yaitu berasal dari al-Qur'an.
Tujuan Pendidikan Islam
Tujuan adalah suatu yang diharapakan tercapai setelah sesuatu kegiatan selesai atau tujuan adalah cita, yakni suasana ideal itu nampak yang ingin diwujudkan. Dalam tujuan pendidikan, suasana ideal itu tampak pada tujuan akhir (ultimate aims of education)
Adapun tujuan pendidikan adalah perubahan yang diharapkan pada subjek didik setelah mengalamai proses pendidikan, baik pada tingkah laku individu dan kehidupan pribadinya maupun kehidupan masyarakat dan alam sekitarnya dimana individu hidup, selain sebagai arah atau petunjuk dalam pelaksanaan pendidikan, juga berfungsi sebagai pengontrol maupun mengevaluasi keberhasilan proses pendidikan.
Sebagai pendidikan yang nota benenya Islam, maka tentunya dalam merumuskan tujuan harus selaras dengan syari’at Islam. Adapun rumusan tujuan pendidikan Islam yang disampaikan beberapa tokoh adalah;
1) Ahmad D Marimba; tujuan pendidikan Islam adalah; identiuk dengan tujuan hidup orang muslim. Tujuan hidup manusia munurut Islam adalah untuk menjadi hamba allah. Hal ini mengandung implikasi kepercayaan dan penyerahan diri kepada-Nya .
2) Dr. Ali Ashraf; ‘tujuan akhir pendidikan Islam adalah manusia yang menyerahkan diri secara mutlak kepada Allah pada tingkat individu, masyarakat dan kemanusiaan pada umunya” .
3) Muhammad Athiyah al-Abrasy. “the fist and highest goal of Islamic is moral refinment and spiritual, training” (tujuan pertama dan tertinggi dari pendidikan Islam adalah kehalusan budi pekerti dan pendidikan jiwa)”
4) Syahminan Zaini; “Tujuan Pendidikan Islam adalah membentuk manusia yang berjasmani kuat dan sehat dan trampil, berotak cerdas dan berilmua banyak, berhati tunduk kepada Allah serta mempunyai semangat kerja yang hebat, disiplin yang tinggi dan berpendirian teguh”.
Dari berbagai pendapat tentang tujuan pendidikan Islam diatas, dapat disimpulkan bahwa tujuan pendidikan Islam adalah membentuk manusia yang sehat jasmani dan rohani serta moral yang tinggi, untuk mencapai kebahagiaan dunia dan akherat, baik sebagai makhluk individu maupun sebagai anggota masyarakat.
Hakekat Pendidikan dalam al-Qur'an
Hakekat/nilai merupakan esensi yang melekat pada sesuatu yang sangat berarti bagi kehidupan manusia. Nilai bersifat praktis dan efektif dalam jiwa dan tindakan manusia dan melembaga secara objektif didalam masyrakat. Nilai ini merupakan suatu realita yang sah sebagai suatu cita-cita yang benar dan berlawanan dengan cita-cita palsu yang bersifat khayal .
Dari beberapa pengertian diatas bisa ditarik kesimpulan bahwa pengertian pendidikan Islam adalah; proses transformasi dan internalisasi ilmu pengetahuan dan nilai-nilai Islam pada peserta didik melalui penumbuhan dan pengembangan potensi fitrahnya untuk mencapai keseimbangan dan kesempurnaan hidup dalam segala aspeknya. Sehingga dapat dijabarkan pada enam pokok pikiran hakekat pendidikan Islam yaitu;
1) Proses tranformasi dan internalisasi, yaitu upaya pendidikan Isla harus dilakukan secara berangsur-angsur, berjenjang dan Istiqomah, penanaman nilai/ilmu, pengarahan, pengajaran dan pembimbingan kepada anak didik dilakukan secara terencana, sistematis dan terstuktur dengan menggunakan pola, pendekatan dan metode/sistem tertentu.
2) Kecintaan kepada Ilmu pengetahuan, yaitu upaya yang diarahkan pada pemberian dan pengahayatan, pengamalan ilmu pengetahuan. Ilmu pengetahuan yang dimaksud adalah pengetahuan yang bercirikhas Islam, dengan disandarkan kepada peran dia sebagai khalifah fil ardhi dengan pola hubungan dengan Allah (hablum min Allah), sesama manusia (hablum minannas) dan hubungan dengan alam sekitas (hablum min al-alam).
3) Nilai-nilai Islam, maksudnya adalah nilai-nilai yang terkandung dalam praktek pendidikan harus mengandung nilai Insaniah dan Ilahiyah. Yaitu: a) nilai yang bersumber dari sifat-sifat Allah sebanyak 99 yang tertuang dalam “al Asmaul Husna” yakni nama-nama yang indah yang sebenarnya karakter idealitas manusia yang selanjutnya disebut fitrah, inilah yang harus dikembangkan. b) Nilai yang bersumber dari hukum-hukum Allah, yang selanjutnya di dialogkan pada nilai insaniah. Nilai ini merupakan nilai yang terpancar dari daya cipta, rasa dan karsa manusia yang tumbuh sesuai dengan kebutuhan manusia.
4) Pada diri peserta didik, maksudnya pendidikan ini diberikian kepada peserta didik yang mempunyai potensi-potensi rohani. Potensi ini memmungkinkan manusia untuk dididik dan selanjutnya juga bisa mendidik.
5) Melalui pertumbuhan dan pengembangan potensi fitrahnya, tugas pokok pendidikan Islam adalah menumbuhkan, mengembangkan, memelihara, dan menjaga potensi manusia, sehingga tercipta dan terbentuklah kualitas generasi Islam yang cerdas, kreatif dan produktif.
6) Menciptakan keseimbangan dan kesempurnaan hidup, dengan kata lain ‘insan kamil’ yaitu manusia yang mampu mengoptimalkan potensinya dan mampu menyeimbangkan kebutuhan jasmani dan rohani, dunia dan akherat. Proses pendidikan yang telah dijalani menjadikan peserta didik bahagia dan sejahtera, berpredikat khalifah fil ardhi.
Prinsip diatas adalah pikiran idealitas pendidikan Islam terutama di
Prinsip-Prinsip Pendidikan Islam
Kata ‘prinsip’ adalah akar kata dari principia yang diartikan sebagai permualaan, yang dengan suatu cara tertentu melahirkan hal-hal lain, yang keberadaannya tergantung dari pemula itu’ . jadi kalau berbicara mengenai prinsip pendidikan Islam, maka pelaksanaan pendidikan ini telah digariskan oleh prinsip atau konsep dalam ajaran Islam. Prinsip-prinsip tersebut adalah;
a) Pendidikan Islam sebagai suatu proses pengembangan diri; Manusia adalah makhluk paedagogik, yaitu makhluk Allah yang dapat dididik dan dapat mendidik. Potensi itu ada dengan adanya pemberian Allah berupa akal-pikiran, perasaan, nurani, yang akan dijalani manusia baik sebgai makhluk individu maupun sebagai makhluk yang bermasarakat. Potensi yang besar tidak akan bisa kita manfaatkan jika kita tidak berusaha untuk mengaktifkan, mengembangkan dan melatihnya. Hal itu membutuhkan sebuah proses yang akan memakan waktu, tenaga bahkan biaya, tetapi mengingat potensi yang luar biasa yang kita akan raih hal itu tidak ada artinya apa-apa. Jadi pendidikan adalah proses untuk mengembangakan potensi diri.
b) Pendidikan Islam; pendidikan yang bebas; Kebebasan yang dimaksud adalah kebebasan berkehendak dan berbuat yang diberikan Allah kepada manusia, kebebasan ini tentunya terikat dengan hukum syara’. Kebebasan disini berarti manusia bebas memilih prosesnya masing-masing dari prinsip ini seorang pendidik tidak bisa memaksa anak didik untuk menentukan pilihan yang harus dijalani anak didik. Pendidik hanya mengarahkan kemana potensi yang dominan yang bisa dikembangkan oleh peserta didik tersebut.
c) Pendidikan Islam penuh dengan nilai insaniah dan ilahiyah; Agama Islam adalah sumber akhlak, kedudukan akhlak sangatlah penting sebagai pelengkap dalam menjalankan fungsi kemanusiaan di bumi. Pendidikan merupakan proses pembinaan akhlak pada jiwa. Meletakkan nilai-nilai moral pada anak didik harus diutamakan. Nilai-nilai ketuhanan harus dikedepankan, pendidikan Islam haruslah memperhatikan pendidikan akhlak atau nilai dalam setiap pelajaran dari tingkat dasar sampai tingkat tertinggi dan mengutamakan fadhilah dan sendi moral yang sempurna .
d) Prinsip Keseimbangan hidup; Dalam pendidikan Islam prinsip keseimbangan meliputi;
i. Keseimbangan antara kehidupan dunia dan akhirat
ii. Keseimbangan antara kebutuhan jasmanai dan rohani
iii. Keseimbangan antara kepentingan individu dan sosial
iv. Keseimbangan antara ilmu pengetahuan dan amal
Prinsip ini telah ditegaskan dalam al-Qur'an (Al-Qashas;77); ‘ dan carilah pada apa yang telah dianugrahkan kepadamau (kebahagiaan) negeri akhirat, dan jaganlah kamu melupakan kebahagiaan dari kenikmatan duniawi dan berbuat baiklah (kepada orang lain) sebagaimana Allah telah berbuat baik kepadamu…’
e) Prinsip persamaan; Kesempatan belajar dalam Islam sama antara laki-laki dan perempuan, oleh karena itu kewajiban untuk menuntut ilmu juga sama. Sistem pendidikan tidak mengenal perbedaan dan tidak membeda-bedakan latar belakang orang itu jika dia mau menuntut ilmu. Semua punya potensi yang sama untuk di didik dan punya kesempatan yang sama untuk memproses diri dalam pendidikan.
f) Prinsip seumur hidup, sepanjang masa; Pendidikan yang dianjurkan tidak mengenal batas waktu, tidak mengenal umur. Seumur hidup manusia harunya terdidik, mulai dari lahir sampai ke liang lahat. Seluruh kehidupan kita digunakan sebagai proses pendidikan, sebagai proses untuk menjadi hamba yang baik, menjadi insan kamil.
g) Prinsip diri; Orang telah kehilangan kepercayaan kepada diri sendiri. Sebenarnya sudah mati sebeluhm mereka hidup, sebab tidak bisa melihat dunia dengan potensi panca indranya sendiri. Manusia adalah makhluk yang sempurna dengan berbekal akal, perasaan yang bisa dikembangkan. dengan inilah harkat manusia lebih tinggi di banding makhluk lainya. Atau bahkan karena akalnyapun manusia bisa unggul dari manusia satu dengan manusia lainya.
Hal diatas merupakan konsep pendidikan Islam yang ideal, tetapi bagaimana realitas pendidikan Islam sekarang? Problem pendidikan Nasional kita tidak bisa di anggap pemasalahan yang ringan, prestasi pendidikan kita jauh tertinggal dari bangsa-bangsa lain. Ketertinggalan pembanganan pendidikan
Paradigma Pendidikan Islam dan Pengembangannya
Bertolak dari asumsi bahwa life is education and education is life dalam arti pendidikan merupakan persoalan hidup dan kehidupan, dan seluruh proses hidup dan kehidupan manusia adalah proses pendidikan maka pendidikan Islam pada dasarnya hendak mengembangkan pandangan hidup Islami, yang diharapakan tercermin dalam sikap hidup dan keterampilan hidup orang Islam. Namun pertanyaan selanjutnya; apa saja aspek-aspek kehidupan itu? Jawaban pertanyaan ini setidaknya muncul bebarapa paradigma pengembangan pendidikan Islam yaitu: pertama; paradigma Formisme; kedua; paradigma mekanisme dan ketiga paradigma organisme .
Pertama; paradigma Formisme; dalam paradigma ini aspek kehidupan dipandang dengan sangat sederhana, dan kata kuncinya adalah dikotomi atau distrit. Segala sesuatu hanya dilihat dari dua sisi yang berlawanan seperti; laki-laki dan perempuan, STAIN/IAIN dan Non STAIN/IAIN, madrasah dan non Madrasah, pendidkan keagamaan dan non keagamaan, demikian seterusnya, pandangan ini berlanjut pada cara memandang aspek kehidupan dunia dan akherat. Kehidupan jasmani dan rohani sehingga pendidikan Islam hanya dietakkan pada kehidupan akherat saja atau kehidupan rohani saja. Oleh kerena itu pengembangannya (PAI) hanya berkisar pada aspek kehidupan ukhrawi yang terpisah dengan kehidupan duniawi, pendidikan (agama) Islam hanya berkutat mengurusi persoalan ritual dan priritual, sementara kehidupan sosial ekonomi politik, ilmu pengetahuan, teknologi dan lainya dianggap sebagai bidang duniawi yang menjadi bidang garap pendidikan umum. Istilah pendidikan agama dan pendidakan umum sebenarnya muncul dari paradigma formisme tersebut.
Kedua; paradigma mekanisme, paradigma ini memandang kehidupan terdiri atas berbagai aspek, dan pendidikan dipandang sebagai penanaman dan pengembangan seperangkat nilai kehidupan, yang terdiri atas nilai agama, nilai individu, nilai sosial, nila politik, nilai ekonomi, nilai rasional dan sebagainya.sebagai impliksinya, pengembangan pendidikan Islam tersebut bergantung pada kemauan, kemampuan, dan political-will dari para pembinaya dan sekalius pimpinan dari lembaga tersebut. Terutama dlam membangun kerjasama dengan mata pelajaran/kuliah lain. Hubungan antara pendidikan agama dengan beberapa metapelajaran dapat bersifat horisontal lateral (Indipendent), lateral-sekuensial, atau bahkan vertikal linear.
Ketiga paradigma organisme, paradigma ini memandang bahwa Islam adalah kesatuan atau sebagai sistem (yang terdiri atas berbagai komponen) yang berusaha mengembangkan pandangan/semangat hidup (weltanschanauung) Islam, yang dima nifestasikan pada sikap hidup dan keterampilan hidup yang Islami.melalui upaya ini maka sistem pendidikan Islam diharapkan dapat diintegrasikan nilai-nilai Ilmu pengetahuan, ilmu agama dan etik, serta mampu melahirkan manusia-manusia yang menguasai ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi, memilki pematangan profesional, dan sekaligus hidup dalam nilai-nilai agama.
Dari ketiga paradigma diatas, berkembang pemahaman ditengah masyarakat yang cengderung lebih memilih lembaga pendidikan umum dari pada lembaga Islam, karena pertimbangan kualitas lembaga Islam yang setingkat dibawah lembaga pendidikan umum, hal ini perlu di sikapi dengan positif dengan semangat memajukan lembaga pendidikan agama Islam.
Dalam khazanah pemikiran pendidikan Islam, pada umumnya para ulama berpendapat bahwa tujuan akhir pendidikan Islam adalah ”untuk beribadah kepada Allah SWT” Kalau dalam sistem pendidikan nasional, pendidikan diarahkan untuk mengembangkan manusia seutuhnya, yaitu manusia yang beriman dan bertaqwa, maka dalam konteks pendidikan Islam justru harus lebih dari itu, dalam arti, pendidikan Islam bukan sekedar diarahkan untuk mengembangkan manusia yang beriman dan bertaqwa, tetapi justru berusaha mengembangkan manusia menjadi Imam/pemimpin bagi orang beriman dan bertaqwa (waj’alna li al-muttaqina imaama) .
Untuk memahami profil imam/pemimpin bagi orang yang bertaqwa, maka kita perlu mengkaji makna takwa itu sendiri. Inti dari makna takwa ada dua macam yaitu; itba’ syariatillah (mengikuti ajaran Allah yang tertuang dalam al-qur’an dan Hadits) dan sekaligus itiba’ sunnatullah (mengikuti aturan-aturan Allah, yang berlalu di alam ini), orang yang itiba’ sunnatullah adaalah orang-orang yang memiliki keluasan ilmu dan kematangan profesionalisme sesuai dengan bidang keahliannya. Imam bagi orang-orang yang bertaqwa, artinya disamping dia sebagai orang yang memiki profil sebagai itba’ syaria’tillah sekaligus itba’ sunnahtilah, juga mampu menjadi pemimpin, penggerak, pendorong, inovator dan teladang bagi orang-orang yang bertaqwa
Menyadari bahwa pendidikan, sebagaimana dinyatakan oleh salah seorang ahli pendidikan, Christoper J. Lucas, adalah sebagai basis penyimpanan kekuatan yang luar biasa. Yakni memiliki akses ke seluruh aspek kehidupan, memberi informasi yang paling berharga mengenai pegangan hidup di masa depan serta membantu generasi dalam mempersiapkan kebutuhan esensialnya dalam menghadapi perubahan, maka ke depan reorientasi pendidikan Islam perlu diarahkan pada pemberian ruang gerak yang seluas-luasnya pada fungsi esensial dari pendidikan . Dengan demikian lembaga pendidikan Islam tidak sekedar mendapatkan pengakuan peran kualitatif, melainkan yang lebih penting lagi adalah untuk merebut pengakuan kualitatif dari masyarakat atau pemerintah
Ini memang merupakan suatu pekerjaan yang besar yang perlu mendapat dukungan dari segenap unsur dan kelompok baik dari penyelenggara maupun pemikir pendidikan. Akan tetapi apapun perubahan yang ingin diraih, kebijakan-kebijakan dalam pengembangan pendidikan Islam perlu mengakomodasi tiga kepentingan , yaitu:
Pertama, kebijakan itu harus memberi ruang tumbuh bagi aspirasi umat Islam, yakni menjadikan lembaga pendidikan Islam sebagai wahana untuk membina ruh atau praktek hidup yang Islami.
Kedua, kebijakan yang ditempuh harus lebih memperjelas dan memperkukuh keberadaan Lembaga Pendidikan Islam sebagai ajang pembinaan masyarakat sehingga mampu melahirkan generasi yang cerdas, berpengetahuan, berkepribadian serta produktif sederajat dengan sistem sekolah. Ini dimaksudkan agar Lembaga Pendidikan Islam sanggup mengantarkan peserta didik menguasai dasar-dasar pengetahuan secara memadai, baik dalam bidang bahasa, matematika, fisika, kimia, biologi, ilmu pengetahuan sosial dan pengetahuan kewarganegaraan serta sebagai tempat pengemblengan diri untuk menumbuhkan kreativitas seni, mengembangkan keterampilan dan etos kerja.
Ketiga, kebijakan yang dijalankan hendaknya harus bisa dan mampu merespon tuntutan-tuntutan masa depan. Untuk itu Lembaga Pendidikan Islam seyogyanya diarahkan untuk melahirkan sumber daya manusia memiliki kesiapan memasuki era globalisasi, era industrialisasi dan era informasi. Serta menjadi tumpuan dalam memperbaiki bangsa ini.
Membangun Pendidikan Yang Bermutu
Lembaga pendidikan Islam harus ditata kembali sehingga program pendidikannya berorientasi pada pencapaian dan penguasaan kompetensi tertentu, oleh karena itu lembaga pendidikan Islam harus mempunyai sifat; (a) Multiprogram dan multistrata dan berorientasi pada tujuan perpektif dan kebutuhan deskriptif, (b) setiap program disusun dengan menggunakan prinsip pemaduan kompetitif kognitif, afektif, dan “akhlak” (c) Diversifikasi program ditata sesuai dengan kebutuhan yang nyata di dalam masyrakat yang berorientasi pada penampilan perilaku anak didik yang mempunyai rasa tanggung jawab .
Disamping madrasah kita mengenal PTI (Perguruan Tinggi Islam) Sebagai salah satu bagian dari Lembaga Pendidikan Islam dan juga sekaligus sebagai center model bagi lembaga-lembaga pendidikan Islam di bawahnya, perguruan tinggi Islam(PTI) juga perlu melakukan introspeksi dengan merenungkan kembali apa yang sebe¬narnya mereka cari dengan mendirikan PTI itu (popula¬ritas, uang, pekerjaan, dakwah, penyiapan generasi muda muslim, daripada nganggur, atau yang lain). PTI perlu kembali ke khittah atau mencari kembali khittah nya yang hilang.
PTI perlu merumuskan misi, tujuan, dan visinya di masa depan. Berdasarkan rumusan misi, tujuan, dan visi ke masa depan itu, PTI perlu melakukan pembenah¬an pembenahan terhadap komponen komponen pendi¬dikannya, seperti kurikulum, dosen, proses belajar meng¬ajar, fasilitas belajar, manajemen pendidikan, dan ling¬kungan belajar. Kurikulum PTI perlu diusahakan agar relevan, efektif, efisien, dan luwes dengan fokus sasaran yang jelas dan dapat diukur. Relevan artinya sesuai de¬ngan kebutuhan masyarakat; efektif artinya ada bekas¬nya (dampaknya) bagi pengetahuan dan keterampilan mahasiswa; efisien artinya tujuan itu dicapai dengan penggunaan waktu, dana, dan tenaga yang sehemat mungkin; dan luwes dalam arti mudah disesuaikan de¬ngan kebutuhan mahasiswa dan masyarakat. Kurikulum yang luwes akan memungkinkan mahasiswa, dengan latar belakang yang berbeda beda, untuk mencapai tuju¬an kurikuler yang ditetapkan. Kualitas dosen juga perlu ditingkatkan, baik di bidang penguasaan ilmu, keteram¬pilan mengajar, maupun cara mengevaluasi hasil kuliah. Kualitas dosen ini penting karena merekalah ujung tom¬bak di ruang belajar dan the man behind the gun yang menentukan kualitas layanan pendidikan di PTI.
Banyak diantara Lembaga Pendidikan Islam itu yang tidak berorientasi pada kebutuhan masyarakat sehingga banyak lulusannya tidak dapat dimanfaatkan oleh masyarakat sesuai dengan ijazahnya dan berkompeten dibidangnya. Koordinasi di kalangan Lembaga Pendidikan Islam juga amat lemah, padahal mereka mempunyai ciri dan tujuan yang sama. Di antara Lembaga Pendidikan Islam itu memang ada yang mempunyai jaringan/koordinasi satu sama lain, tetapi lebih banyak lagi yang berdiri sendiri-sendiri dan tak terkoordinasi. Akibatnya secara kuantitatif Lembaga Pendidikan Islam memang banyak tetapi kecil-kecil dan tak berarti. Jika dilihat dari segi kualitasnya, hanya sedikit diantara mereka yang dapat dibanggakan.
Tampak betapa besar arti penting dan strategis pendidikan. Pendidikan dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan, kemampuan, dan keterampilan seseorang, sehingga ia menjadi lebih produktif dan karena itu dapat meningkatkan penghasilan secara memadai untuk kemudian mendorong peningkatan kesejahteraan yang akhirnya akan berpengaruh pula terhadap peningkatan derajat kesehatan dan gizi (nutrisi). meningkatkan mutu dan standar hidup, sebab pendidikan membuat individu dan masyarakat lebih terpelajar sehingga secara sosial menjadi lebih kuat.
Dengan memperhatikan berbagai masalah itu, maka perhatian utama harus dipusatkan pada usaha memperbaiki kinerja pendidikan mulai dari pendidikan yag terrendah sampai ke jengjang perguruan tinggi. Untuk itu, perlu dilakukan langkah-langkah strategis.
Pertama, menciptakan lingkungan yang kondusif bagi pembelajaran, yang bisa ditempuh melalui (i) perbaikan kurikulum yang kandungan materinya dapat menstimulasi siswa untuk meningkatkan kemampuan membaca-menulis, berhitung, dan keterampilan memecahkan masalah; (ii) menyediakan sumber-sumber pembelajaran secara memadai seperti peralatan dan buku pelajaran serta buku bacaan lainnya; (iii) menambah jumlah jam pelajaran untuk mata pelajaran pokok seperti matematik, IPA, dan bahasa; (iv) menciptakan suasana pembelajaran (metode) di kelas yang menarik, pemanfaatan media, dan merencanakan materi pelajaran secara baik.
Kedua, meningkatkan mutu guru/dosen, yang bisa ditempuh dengan cara (i) melaksanakan pre-service training bagi guru yang dikonsentrasikan pada penguasaan materi, pengembangan kemampuan mengajar, dan pemahaman serta penguasaan metodologi pengajaran, (ii) memberdayakan dan memotivasi guru dengan cara meningkatkan kesejahteraan dan memberi jaminan pengembangan karier, serta (iii) menciptakan lingkungan kerja yang kondusif.
Ketiga, menata/membenahi manajemen pendidikan yang dapat ditempuh melalui (i) restrukturisasi organisasi untuk menentukan batasan kewenangan antara pemerintah pusat, pemerintah daerah, dan sekolah bahkan sekolah semestinya diberikan kewenangan yang lebih besar (isu desentralisasi) agar dapat mengelola kegiatan belajar-mengajar secara lebih efektif dan efisien, (ii) membangun sistem informasi yang baik melalui riset, monitoring, dan pengumpulan data berkaitan dengan evollment, input, dan pembiayaan pendidikan, serta (iii) meningkatkan kemampuan manajerial dengan membuka peluang mengembangkan profesionalisme dan meningkatkan insentif, memperjelas peluang pengembangan karier bagi staf manajemen, dan memantapkan sistem untuk memudahkan penilaian kinerja penyelenggaraan pendidikan
Disadari, pendidikan merupakan masalah krusial dan kompleks, yang perlu ditangani bersama antara pemerintah dan masyarakat. Salah satu persoalan krusial adalah keterbatasan kemampuan (pemerintah) dalam menyediakan anggaran yang memadai, guna mendukung usaha membangun pendidikan yang bermutu. Dalam hal ini harus diakui, kontribusi masyarakat sangat besar melalui partisipasi mereka dalam penyelenggaraan pendidikan secara mandiri (swadaya). Partisipasi masyarakat itu, secara finansial, berarti telah membantu pemerintah menanggung atau menyediakan dana pendidikan. Berkat partisipasi masyarakat, beban pemerintah menjadi berkurang.
Selain perlu mendapat dukungan anggaran secara memadai, ikhtiar membangun pendidikan bermutu juga harus didukung perangkat sistem yang baik. Menurut studi Bank Dunia (1999) ada tiga pilar utama yang menopang sistem pendidikan yang baik, (i) akses, (ii) kualitas, dan (iii) dukungan.
Berkaitan dengan masalah akses mengandaikan terbukanya kesempatan bagi tiap orang untuk mendapatkan pendidikan yang layak. Masalah akses mencakup tiga hal: (1) kesiapan murid untuk belajar di sekolah yang mensyaratkan (i) terpenuhinya gizi, tingkat kesehatan yang baik, dan tersedianya gedung sekolah tempat belajar yang cukup, (ii) adanya dukungan orangtua dan keluarga, (iii) lingkungan belajar yang mendukung (kondusif); (2) lingkungan pembelajaran di sekolah yang mensyaratkan (i) kepemimpinan kepala sekolah yang memahami masalah pendidikan, (ii) kejelasan tujuan dan harapan pelaksanaan pendidikan, (iii) terbukanya peluang untuk memperoleh fasilitas; dan (3) kesempatan dan peluang bagi semua pihak yang mensyaratkan (i) adanya pemerataan pada semua jenjang pendidikan, (ii) diberikannya kesempatan bagi anak-anak kurang mampu (secara ekonomi) dan anak-anak penyandang cacat (disable), (iii) tersedianya sumber-sumber pembelajaran: peralatan dan buku pelajaran secara memadai.
Adapun masalah kualitas berhubungan dengan tiga hal. (1) kurikulum yang relevan yang mensyaratkan (i) memenuhi sejumlah kompetensi guna menjawab tuntutan dan tantangan arus globalisasi, (ii) berkontribusi pada pembangunan sosial dan kesejahteraan masyarakat, dan (iii) bersifat lentur dan adaptif terhadap perubahan; (2) dukungan kepada staf yang ditandai (i) memberi pelatihan menurut bidang studi dengan melakukan pembaruan secara reguler, (ii) memberi gaji memadai dan membuka peluang pengembangan karier profesional; dan (3) proses belajar mengajar yang baik yang ditandai (i) tercapainya materi yang menjadi sasaran pembelajaran, (ii) materi yang diberikan relevan dengan kebutuhan di masyarakat, (iii) berorientasi pada hasil dan out-put, (iv) monitoring dengan kualitas yang terjaga secara ketat dan terjamin dengan baik.
Mengenai masalah dukungan berkaitan dengan tiga hal. (1) pemerintahan yang baik yang mensyaratkan (i) kejelasan tanggung jawab dan pertanggungjawaban, (ii) adanya analisis kebijakan dan kapasitas perencanaan, (iii) desentralisasi pengambilan keputusan; (2) tersedianya sumber daya yang meliputi (i) pengaturan dan pengelolaan atas kontribusi/partisipasi swasta, (ii) pengaturan alokasi dana publik, (iii) kontrol terhadap pemanfaatan sumber daya secara efektif dan efisien; dan (3) sistem evaluasi yang mensyaratkan (i) adanya sistem informasi yang baik, serta (ii) monitoring dan umpan-balik guna meningkatkan kualitas perencanaan di masa datang.
Banyak pelajaran yang bisa kita petik dari al-Qur'an. Semakin kita kaji sepertinya semakin luas dan besar kandungannya. al-Qur'an mengajarkan konsep/prinsip dasar yang harus kita kaji dan kembangkan sendiri. Nantinya al-Qur'an akan hadir secara fungsional untuk menjawab problem keummatan termasuk di dunia pendidikan Islam khususnya di
Demikianlah, kita semua menginsyafi, pendidikan merupakan persoalan strategis bagi sebuah bangsa. Pendidikan bukan saja penting bagi upaya melahirkan individu dan masyarakat yang terpelajar, tetapi juga untuk membangun generasi baru yang siap menghadapi tantangan masa depan. Selain itu, pendidikan juga menjadi bekal utama sebagai persiapan memasuki kompetisi global, sebuah persaingan antarbangsa yang demikian ketat dan berpengaruh terhadap semua dimensi kehidupan: ekonomi, politik, sosial, dan budaya. Pada akhirnya pendidikan juga akan menentukan kualitas sebuah bangsa, serta berpengaruh signifikan dalam mendorong proses transformasi sosial menuju kehidupan yang maju, modern, dan bermartabat.
Wallahu a'lam bi showab.
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PREFACE
THE Arabs carrying Islam westwards to the Atlantic Ocean first set foot on Spanish soil during July 710 the leader of the raid, which was to prove the forerunner of long Moslem occupation of the Iberian Peninsula, was named Tarif, and the promontory on which he landed commemorates his exploit by being called to this day Tarifa. The main invasion followed a year later; Tariq Ibn Ziyad, a Berber by birth, brought over from the African side of the narrows a comparatively small army which sufficed to overthrow Roderick the Visigoth and to supplant the Cross by the Crescent; he gave his name to that famous Rock of Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq, the Mountain of Tariq), which has been disputed by so many conquerors down the ages, and over which the British flag has fluttered since the early years of the eighteenth century.
When Ibn Hazm, the author of the book here translated, was born on 7 November 994, Islam had been established in
Abu Muhammad `Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Sa'id Ibn' Hazm, to give our author his full name-for the Arabs call a man first after his son, secondly by his own name, and thirdly after his father and his ancestors-belonged to a notable family converted from Christianity several generations before. His father was a high official in the service of al-Mansur, regent of Hisham II, and of his son al-Muzaffar; al-Mansur and al-Muzaffar were members of the Banu 'Amir who had succeeded in arrogating to themselves all the power and privileges of the Caliphate but its name. Being the son of such a man, to whom he always refers as " the late vizier ", Ibn Hazm enjoyed a happy though secluded childhood, and the advantages of an excellent education; he tells us that most of his early teachers were women. The fall of the Banu 'Amir led soon after to the dismissal and house-arrest of their faithful minister, who died four years later on 22 June 1012. The Umaiyads were now near their end;
Ibn Hazm's first refuge after his flight from Cordova was
The Ring of the Dove was Ibn Hazm's only experiment in the field of elegant literature; for he was primarily interested in theology and law, on which he wrote voluminously. Its survival hangs upon the tenuous thread of a single manuscript, itself in fact an epitome rather than a complete transcription of the original. This precious codex, which is dated Rajab 738 of the Mohammedan reckoning, or February 1338 of the Christian era, is preserved in the fine
The present writer is profoundly indebted to the labors of these his distinguished predecessors, which have illuminated most of the obscurities that disfigured Petrof's text. He has been eclectic, he hopes judiciously, in his interpretations of those not infrequent passages where scholars have been in conflict; and he has taken into his translation a few emendations of his own. He feels reasonably confident, though by no means complacent, that all but a very small number of cruxes have now been resolved.
The extremely interesting and learned introduction with which Nykl prefaced his meritorious but inelegant and somewhat unsatisfactory rendering disposes of the necessity of covering the same ground again; in brief, that most widely-read and humane scholar has discussed the relationship between The Ring of the Dove and the writings of the Troubadours, a subject which he has studied further in his excellent Hispano-Arabic Poetry (Baltimore, 194,6). My own intentions are in any case more modest; I have aimed at making an accurate and, I trust, tolerably readable translation for the perusal of the general public, and not so much for the consideration of experts. I do not propose therefore to adventure into the perilous arena of comparative literature, and shall confine the remainder of these brief comments to a discursive appreciation of the contents of Ibn Hazm's book.
Arabic literature, which is exceedingly extensive in bulk, does not abound in books of the sort that modern taste finds readable. The explanation of this paradox is fairly obvious. Before the advent of Islam the Arabs appear to have had no tradition of writing and reading, and their literary instinct was satisfied by the composition of poetry and proverbial sayings, all transmitted by word of mouth. The fast book to be compiled in
Contact with other peoples presently made the Arabs aware of the existence of other literatures. The Persians introduced them to the idea of adab, a term most difficult to translate; broadly speaking, adab is a form of prose composition whose primary purpose is not religious but secular, and which is intended not merely for instruction but also for enjoyment. It was the Persians who taught the Arabs to appreciate and to write elegant prose; they also initiated their rude conquerors into the pleasures of amusing fiction, and encouraged them to amorous adventures. From the Greeks the Arabs learned science and philosophy, the art and the delight of discussion and dialectic. Persians and Greeks together persuaded the austere and somewhat joyless Arabs that concubinage could be an Tsthetic and' intellectual as well as a physical pleasure. They taught them many other things besides, but these are not relevant to the present subject. Many of these lessons were naturally rejected with horror by the strictly religious, but they left their impress on Arabic literature.
The Arabs had certainly known and appreciated the joys of the flesh, long before Islam persuaded them that these were inferior to the delights of the spirit. So the poets inform us; and it is significant that poets were the heroes of the numerous desert romances, which now passed into wide circulation. Islam made it increasingly difficult for the situation to develop in which boy meets girl. Love became a complicated and dangerous exploit; though marriage was of course never difficult; the romantic drama acquired its stock characters and conventional scenes. Moreover the puritanical spirit of Islam, making a virtue out of social necessity, discovered as much satisfaction in the quest as in the conquest. The idealization of a sort of. Platonic love, in which the lover never achieved union with the beloved, inspired much of the finest poetry of the Arabs; it supplied the mystics with a favourite theme of meditation, when they substituted the Divine for the human object of the most powerful of man's natural passions.
In The Ring of the Dove we find these various tendencies and influences meeting together, to form a perfect blend of sacred learning and profane delectation. Ibn Hazm never lets us forget that he is a Moslem, with a reverence for and an expert knowledge of the traditional-Moslem values and sciences. He freely illustrates his discourse with quotations from the Koran, and the Traditions of the Prophet, these latter supported by all the paraphernalia of what the Arabs called `ilm al-hadith, those chains of transmission " which are considered to guarantee the authenticity of the sayings put into Mohammed's mouth. He contrives to keep the discussion on a high moral level, though he occasionally takes a plunge into more dangerous depths; he rounds off his book with a pair of erudite and ethically irreproachable chapters (though even these contain a shocking anecdote or two) which he hoped would conciliate even the most austere spirit. At the same time he tells his stories, many of them autobiographical, in polished prose, embellished with extracts from his I own poetry; which would have been considerably s more extensive, had they not been drastically pruned by the copyist. In order that he may escape the charge of amusing without instructing, he binds his scattered narratives together with connecting links of theoretical discussion, in which he betrays his acquaintance with Greek philosophy-and we have yet to appreciate the full extent of Plato's influence on the Arabs-and organizes the whole material into a systematic pattern. He has written not a collection of tales, but a book.
Ibn Hazm's prose, judged by the canons of adab accepted in his day, is of a very high quality; it is learned without becoming frigid, rhetorical without being bombastic, fluent without degenerating into flatulence. His poetry, of which he appears to have had a considerable conceit, is in truth very mediocre, and we need shed few tears over its cavalier treatment at the hands of the scribe; nevertheless it is not wholly lacking in merit, and if in translation it comes out somewhat pedestrian and humdrum-and the fault is not entirely the translator's-yet for all that it succeeds to some extent in fulfilling the author's purpose of varying the pitch and pattern of his composition. The book as a whole is a book in our understanding of the word, and as such belongs to the very rare category of Arabic book which merits translation exactly as it stands.
For the sad but plain truth is that extremely few Arabic books translate well. Apart from that passion for the display of traditional religious learning which animated most Arab writers and recommended them to their fellows but inevitably set up a barrier between them and the outside world, grammar and philology were also held to be indispensable weapons in the armory of the ambitious author. The Arabs were fiercely proud of the complexities of "their syntax and the opulence of their vocabulary where learning conflicted with taste, learning generally won the day. Ibn Hazm is therefore surprisingly free of pedantry; it is doubtful whether any other Arab writer so well qualified as he would have resisted, as he does in one striking passage, the temptation to enumerate all that earlier scholars had said on the derivation of the Arabic word for " passion ". Yet Ibn Hazm was after all only human, and therefore indulges occasionally in poetic images drawn from the technicalities of grammar and syntax or from the obscurities of scholasticism. As a mirror to the society in which he was brought up he is almost uniquely valuable.
I have tried to translate as faithfully as possible, given the difficulties posed by the task of rendering a Semitic into an Aryan idiom. I do not think that the prose parts of this version need too much apology; but something ought certainly to be said on behalf of the pieces in metre and rhyme. The first thing to repeat and this is quite honestly not a case of an indifferent workman blaming his tools-is that Ibn Hazm was not a great poet; and as every translator is aware, there is no more baffling labour than to endeavor to do justice to the mediocre; the result is bound to be mediocre at best, and at worst it may be intolerable. If the translator possesses a sufficient degree of technical dexterity in versifying, he usually finds that indifferent verse is easier to stomach -when put into metre and rhyme than when dissected into strips of prose. And since his original for his part said what he had to say in rhyme and metre, it seems, at least to my way of thinking, that the interpreter should take the same trouble, for there is always the off-chance that he may occasionally produce something memorable. Those modern critics who decry the tradition, established in our own literature over several centuries, of rendering classical poetry into the traditional forms of English verse, have yet to prove, so far at least as Arabic is concerned, that their alternative solution of the problem is either theoretically more sound, or in practice, more successful.
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE
In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate
THUS spoke Abu Muhammad, God forgive him:
No better beginning can there be for my book than that I should praise Almighty God as He is worthy, and pray for His blessings upon Mohammed His servant and messenger in particular, and upon all His prophets in general.
And next-may God preserve us and you from bewilderment, and may He not burden us with more than we can bear; may He of His goodly aid decree for us a guide to lead us into obedience of His Will, and bestow on us of His assistance some means that will draw us away and turn us from all offences against His commandments! May He not hand us over to our own weak resolves and feeble powers, the frailty of our physical frame and the confusion of our opinions, our evil choice, our little discretion, the corruption of our passions! Your letter came down to me from the city of
In the aforesaid letter you expressed ideas exceeding what I was accustomed to find in your other communications. Then on your arrival you revealed your intention plainly to me, and informed me of your views with that frankness which has always characterized our relations, that habit of sharing with me your every sweetness and bitterness, your every private thought and public profession. In this you were led by true affection, the which I doubly reciprocate, desiring no other recompense but to receive a like return. It was upon this theme that I composed the following verses in a long poem addressed to 'Ubaid Allah Ibn `Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Mughira, great-grandson of the Caliph al-Nasir (God have mercy upon him!), who was a dear friend of mine.
The passions most men boast them of
Are like a desert's noontide haze:
I love thee with a constant love
Unwithering through all my days.
This fondness I profess for thee
Is pure, and in my heart I bear
True love's inscription plain to see,
And all its tale is written there.
Had any passion, thine beside,
At any time my soul possessed,
I would have torn my worthless hide
And plucked that alien from my breast.
There is no other prize I seek:
Thy love is my desire sincere:
Only upon this theme I speak
To capture thy complacent ear.
This if I win, the earth's expanse,
And all mankind, are but as dust,
Yea, the wide world's inhabitants
Are flies that crawl upon its crust.
You charged me--may God exalt you! -to compose for you an essay describing Love, wherein I should set forth its various meanings, its causes and accidents, and what happens in it and to it, after the way of truth, neither adding anything nor embroidering anything, but only setting down exactly what I have to tell according to the manner of its occurrence, and mentioning all to the full extent of my recollection and the limit of my capacity. I have accordingly hastened to fulfill your desire; though but for the wish to comply with your commission I would never have undertaken it at all, being too poverty-stricken to attempt so great a task. Indeed it behoves us rather, considering the brief duration of our lives, not to expend them save upon those enterprises which we may hope will secure for us a spacious destination and. a fair homecoming upon the morrow. Yet it is true that Cadi Humam Ibn Ahmad has informed me on the authority of Yahya Ibn Malik, who had it from ` A'idh upon a chain of authority mounting to Abu 'l-Darda', that the latter said, "Recreate your souls with a little vanity, that it may the better aid them to hold fast to the truth." A righteous and well-approved father of the faith declared, " The man who has never known how to comport himself as a cavalier will never know how to be truly god fearing." The Prophet is reported to have said, " Rest your souls from time to time: they are apt to rust, in the same way that steel rusts."
In performing this task with which you have charged me I must perforce relate such things as I 'have personally witnessed, or what I have discovered by diligent research, or matters communicated to me by reliable informants of my own times. Pray excuse me if I sometimes do no more than hint at the names of the heroes, of my anecdotes, and do not mention them more explicitly; this is due either to some shame which I do not hold it permissible to uncover, or in order to protect a loving friend or an illustrious man. It will suffice me to name only those the naming of whom does no harm, and whose mention brings no opprobrium either upon ourselves or them; either because the affair is so notorious that concealment and the avoidance of clear specification will do the party concerned no good, or for the simple reason that the person being reported on is quite content that his story should be made public, and by no means disapproves of its being bandied about.
I shall be quoting in this essay verses which I have composed myself upon my own observations. Do not take it amiss, my friend, or whoever else may happen to see this volume, that I am here following the fashion of those who always quote themselves in their stories; such is the way of men who affect the writing of poetry. Moreover my friends make me shy to write about their adventures after their own private ways and habits; so I have been satisfied to mention here only what has occurred to me, within the terms of reference you have prescribed, in every case attributing the incident to myself. I have kept in this book to the bounds set by you, limiting myself to things which I have either seen with my own eyes, or I am convinced are true as deriving from trustworthy reporters. Spare me those tales of Bedouins, and of lovers long ago! Their ways were not our ways, and the stories told of them are too numerous in any case. It is not my practice to wear out anybody's riding-beast but my own; I am not one of those who deck themselves up in borrowed plumes.
In all this I ask God's forgiveness and succour; there is no Lord beside Him.
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PRELIMINARY EXCURSUS
I HAVE divided this treatise into thirty chapters. Of these, ten are concerned with the root-principles of Love, the first being the immediately following chapter on the Signs of Love. After this comes a chapter on Those who have fallen in Love while Asleep; then a chapter on Those who have fallen in Love through a Description; next a chapter on Those who have fallen in Love at First Sight; a chapter on Those whose Love has only become True after Long Association; a chapter on Allusion by Words; a chapter on Hinting with the Eyes; a chapter on Correspondence; and lastly (of these first ten) a chapter on the Messenger.
The second section of the book comprises twelve chapters on the accidents of Love, and its praiseworthy and blameworthy attributes. (Here I should remark in parenthesis that Love is in fact an accident, and as such cannot properly be said itself to be susceptible to accidents; Love is an attribute, and attributes may riot be further qualified. I am therefore speaking metaphorically in discussing Love's accidents and attributes, putting the attribute itself in the place of the thing qualified thereby. When we say and feel that one accident is greater or smaller, more beautiful or uglier in reality than another accident, according to our apprehension of that reality, we recognize that accidents differ from each other, in terms of excess or deficiency, in respect only of their visible and knowable essence; there is no question of numerical quantity or physical partition being relevant to them, seeing that they do not occupy any space.) This section is made up first of a chapter on the Helping Friend, then a chapter on Union, then a chapter on Concealing the Secret, and after that chapters on Revealing and Divulging the Secret, on Compliance, and on Opposition; a chapter on Those who have fallen in Love with a certain Quality and thereafter have not loved any other different to it; and chapters on Fidelity, on Betrayal, on Wasting Away, and on Death.
In the third part of the essay there are six chapters on the misfortunes which enter into Love. These chapters deal respectively with the Reproacher, the Spy, the Slanderer, Breaking Off, Separation, and Forgetting. Two of these six chapters are matched each with a corresponding chapter (of those already mentioned) on an opposite subject: the chapter on the Reproacher is paired with the, chapter on the Helping Friend, and the chapter on Breaking Off complements the chapter on
Finally come two chapters to terminate the discourse a chapter discussing the Vileness of Sinning, and a chapter on the Virtue of Continence. I have planned the matter thus so that the conclusion of our exposition and the end of our discussion may be an exhortation to obedience to Almighty God, and a recommendation to do good and to eschew evil; which last commandment is indeed a duty imposed upon all believers.
Notwithstanding all, this, in setting out certain of these chapters we have in fact varied the order apportioned in the course of this opening chapter of the treatise. We have arranged them serially from the beginning to the conclusion of the story according to there due right of precedence, their gradations, and their actuality, proceeding methodically from the first degree to the last. We have also placed each pair of opposites side by side; as a result, the proper sequence has been departed from in a few chapters. I ask God's help again.
My actual disposition of the material is therefore as follows. I have placed first and foremost this chapter in the middle of which we now are; it comprises the preliminary excursus, the division of the chapters, and a discourse on the Nature of Love. This is followed by the chapter on the Signs of Love; then the chapter on Those who have fallen in Love through a Description; then the chapter on Those who have fallen in Love at First Sight; then the chapter on Those who have only fallen in Love after Long Association; then the chapter on Those who have fallen in Love with a certain Quality and thereafter have not loved any other different to it; then the chapter on Allusion by Words; then the chapter on Hinting with the Eyes; then the chapter on Correspondence ; then the chapter on the Messenger ; then the chapter on Concealing the Secret; then the chapter on Divulging the Secret; then the chapter on Compliance; then the chapter on Opposition; then the chapter on the Reproacher; then the chapter on the Helpful Brother; then the chapter on the Spy; then the chapter on the Slanderer; then the chapter on Union; then the chapter on Breaking Off ; then the chapter on Fidelity; then the chapter on Betrayal then the chapter on Separation; then the chapter on Contentment; then the chapter on Wasting Away; then the chapter on Forgetting; then the chapter on Death; then the chapter on the Vileness of Sinning; and lastly the chapter on the Virtue of Continence.
Of the Nature of Love
Of Love--may God exalt you! -the first part is jesting, and the last part is right earnestness. So majestic are its divers aspects, they are too subtle to be described; their reality can only be apprehended by personal experience. Love is neither disapproved by Religion, nor prohibited by the Law; for every heart is in God's hands.
Many rightly guided caliphs and orthodox imams have been lovers. Of those who have lived in our beloved Andalusia I may mention `Abd al-Rahman Ibn Mu'awiya, the lover of Da`ja; al-Hakam Ibn Hisham; `Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Hakam, whose passion for Tarub the mother of his son `Abd Allah is more famous among men than the very sun itself; Muhammad Ibn `Abd al-Rahman, well-known admirer of Ghizlan who bore him 'Uthman, al-Qasim and al-Mutarrif; and Al-Hakam al-Mustansir, adorer of Subh mother of Hisham al-Mu'aiyad Billah, who refused to interest himself in any other child but hers.
Such instances are extremely numerous; and but for the rightful claims of our rulers upon the respect of all Moslems, so that we ought to recount concerning them only such stories as illustrate martial resolution and the propagation of the faith-and their amours were after all conducted in the privacy of their palaces and in the bosom of their families, so that it would not be at all seemly to report on them-but for this I would certainly have introduced not a few anecdotes illustrating their part in the love-business. As for their men of State and pillars of Empire, their tender romances are indeed innumerable; the most recent instance being the affair we were witnessing only yesterday between al-Muzaffar `Abd al-Malik Ibn Abi 'Amir and Wahid the cheese monger's daughter, a grand passion which so transported that great nobleman that he actually married the girl; she was subsequently ` inherited' by the-grand--vizier `Abd Allah Ibn Maslama after the fall of the `Amirids; and when `Abd Allah in his turn was put to death, she became the consort of a Berber chieftain. I was told of a similar instance too by Abu 'l-`Aish Ibn Maimun al-Qurashi al-Husaini: Nizar Ibn Ma` add, ruler of Egypt, would not look upon his son Mansur Ibn Nizar his successor on the throne, the one who claimed to be a god-for quite a time after he was born, so as to spare the feelings of a certain 'slave-girl with whom he was deeply in love; yet he had no other male issue but this child to inherit his kingdom and keep his memory green.
Of the saints and learned doctors of the faith who lived in past ages and times long ago, some there are whose love lyrics are sufficient testimony to their passion, so that they require no further notice. It will be enough to mention only one name: 'Ubaid Allah Ibn `Abd Allah' Ibn 'Utba Ibn Masud was famous for his tender verses, and he, as we remember, was one of the celebrated Seven Jurists of Medina. As for Ibn `Abbas, a single sentence once uttered by him amply dispenses with any need for further quotation; he pronounced the weighty judgment, " This man was slain by love: there is therefore no case for blood wit or retaliation."
Concerning the nature of Love men have held various and divergent opinions, which they have debated at great length. For my part I consider Love as a conjunction between scattered parts of souls that have become divided in this physical universe, a union effected within the substance of their original sublime element. I do not share the view advanced by Muhammad Ibn Dawud-God have mercy on his soul! -who followed certain philosophers in declaring that spirits are segmented spheres; rather do I suppose an affinity of their vital forces in the supernal world, which is their everlasting home, and a close approximation in the manner of their constitution. We know the secret of commingling and separation in created things to be simply a process of union and disassociation; every form always cries out for its corresponding form; like is ever at rest with like. Congeneity has a perceptible effect and a visible influence; repulsion of opposites, accord between similar, attractions of like for like these are facts taking place all round us. How much more then should the same factors operate within the soul, whose world is pure and etherial, whose substance is volatile and perfectly poised, whose constituent principle is so disposed as to be intensely sensitive to harmony, inclination, yearning, aversion, passionate desire and antipathy. All this is common knowledge it is immediately observable in the moods which successively control every man, and to which we all accommodate ourselves successfully. Allah Himself says, "It is He that created you of one soul, and fashioned thereof its spouse, that he might find repose in her" (Koran VII I8g). Be it noted that the reason God assigns for man's reposing in woman is that she was made out of him.
If the cause of Love were physical beauty, the consequence would be that no body defective in any shape or form would attract admiration; yet we know of many a man actually preferring the inferior article, though well aware that another is superior, and quite unable to turn his heart away from it. Again, if Love were due to a harmony of characters, no man would love a person who was not of like purpose and in concord with him. We therefore conclude that Love is something within the soul itself.
Sometimes, it is true, Love comes as a result of a definite cause outside the soul, but then it passes away when the cause itself disappears: one who is fond of you because of a certain circumstance will turn his back on you when that motive no longer exists. I have made this point in the verses, which follow.
My love for thee shall aye endure
As now, most perfect and most pure;
It brooks no increase, no decline,
Since it's complete, and wholly thine.
I cannot any cause discover,
Except my will, to be thy lover,
And boldly challenge any man
To name another, if he can.
For sure, when any thing we see
Of its own self sole cause to be,
That being, being of that thing,
Lives ever undiminishing
But when we find its origin
Is other than the thing it's in,
Our losing that which made it be
Annihilates it instantly.
This statement is confirmed by the fact that Love, as we know, is of various kinds. The noblest sort, of Love is that which exists between persons who love each other in God either because of an identical zeal for the righteous work upon which they are engaged, or as the result of a harmony in sectarian belief and principles, or by virtue of a common possession of some noble knowledge. Next to this is the love, which springs from kinship; then the love of familiarity and the sharing of identical aims; the love of comradeship and acquaintance; the love, which is rooted in a benevolent regard for one's fellow; the love that results from coveting the loved one's worldly elevation; the love that is based upon a shared secret which both must conceal; love for the sake of getting enjoyment and satisfying desire; and passionate love, that has no other cause but that union of souls to which we have referred above.
All these varieties of Love come to an end when their causes disappear, and increase or diminish with them; they are intensified according to the degree of their proximity, and grow languid as their causes draw further and further away. The only exception. is the Love of true passion, which has the mastery of the soul: this is the love, which passes not away save with death. You will find a man far advanced in years, who swears that he has forgotten love entirely; yet when you remind him of it, he calls that love back to mind, and is rejoiced; he is filled with youthful desire; his old emotion returns to him; his yearning is mightily stirred. In none of the other sorts of love does anything like this happen: that mental preoccupation, that derangement of the reason, that melancholia, that transformation of settled temperaments, and alteration of natural dispositions, that moodiness, that sighing, and all the other, symptoms of profound agitation which accompany assionate love.
All this proves that true Love is a spiritual approbation, a fusion of souls. It may be objected, that if Love were as I have described, it would be exactly equal in both the parties concerned, since the two parts would be partners in the act of union and the share of each would be the same. To this I reply, that the objection is indeed well-founded; but the soul of the man who loves not one who loves him is beset on all sides by various accidents which occlude, and veils that encompass it about, those earthy temperaments which now overlay it, so that his soul does not sense that part which was united with it before it came to occupy its present lodging-place. Had his soul been liberated from these restrictions, the two would have been equal in their experience of union and love. As for the lover, his soul is indeed free and aware of where that other is that shared with it in ancient proximity; his soul is ever seeking for the other, striving after it, searching it out, yearning to encounter it again, drawing it to itself if might be as a magnet draws the iron.
The essential force of the magnet, when in contact with the essential force of the iron, is not so strong or so refined as to seek out after the iron, for all that the iron is of the self-same kind and element; it is the force of the iron, by virtue of its natural strength, that reaches out after its kind' and is drawn towards it. Movement always takes place from the side of the more powerful. The force of the iron, when left to itself and not prevented by any restriction, seeks out what- resembles itself and with single-minded devotion, so to speak, hastens towards it; this it does naturally and necessarily, not out of free choice and set purpose. When you hold back the iron in your hand it is no longer attracted to the magnet, because the force it possesses is not sufficient to overcome the stronger force holding it back. When the particles of iron are numerous, one group of these is fully occupied with the other and all are adequately satisfied by their own kind, and do not care to seek after that small portion of their forces standing at a distance from them. When the mass of the magnet is large, however, and its forces are a match for all the forces lying within the iron's mass, the iron reverts to its accustomed nature.
Similarly the fire which is latent in the flint, in spite of the force belonging to fire to unite and to summon together its scattered parts wherever they may be, does not in fact issue from the flint until the latter is struck. When the two masses press and rub closely against each other, the fire is liberated; otherwise it remains latent within the flint, and does not show or manifest itself at all.
My theory is further proved by the fact that you will never find two persons in love with one another without there being some likeness and agreement of natural attributes between them. This condition must definitely obtain, even if only to a small degree; the more numerous the resemblances, the greater will be their congeneity and the firmer their affection. It is only necessary to look for this, and you will see it quite plainly on all hands. The Messenger of Allah confirmed the matter when he said, " Spirits are regimented battalions those which know one another associate familiarly together, while those which do not know one another remain at variance." A saint is reported as having stated, " The spirits of believers know one another."
For the same reason Hippocrates was not distressed when he was told of a man deficient in virtue who was in love with him. The matter being remarked upon, he said, " He would not have fallen in love with me if I had not accorded with him in some aspect of my character." Plato relates how a certain king threw him in prison unjustly, and he did not cease to argue his case until he proved his innocence, and the king realised that he had been unjust to him. The minister who had charged himself with conveying Plato's words to the monarch exclaimed, " O king, it has now become evident to you that he is innocent; what more lies between you and him? " The king answered, " Upon my life, I have nothing against him, except that I feel within myself an inexplicable disgust with him." The minister reported this saying to Plato. The latter remarked, continuing his story, " So I was obliged to search within my soul and my character for something resembling his soul and his character, which might be a point of correspondence between us. I considered his character, and observed that he loved equity and hated injustice. I diagnosed the same disposition within myself; and no sooner did I set this point of agreement into motion and confront his soul with this characteristic which he possessed in common with me, than he gave orders for my release." Plato relates that the king then said to his minister, " All the antipathy against him that I formerly felt within me has now been dissolved."
As for what causes Love in most cases to choose a beautiful form to light upon, it is evident that the soul itself being beautiful, it is affected by all beautiful things, and has a yearning for perfect symmetrical images whenever it sees any such image, it fixes itself upon it; then, if it discerns behind that image something of its own kind, it becomes united and true love is established. If however the soul does not discover anything of its own kind behind the image, its affection goes no further than the form, and remains mere carnal desire. Indeed, physical forms have a wonderful faculty of drawing together the scattered parts of men's souls.
I have read in the first book of the Pentateuch how the Prophet Jacob, during the days when he was watching his uncle Laban's sheep, to be a dowry for his uncle's daughter, entered into an engagement with Laban that he should share with him the offspring of the flock; all the lambs that were of a single colour would belong to Jacob, while every lamb born with a white blaze was to fall to Laban. Now Jacob would lay hold of the tree branches and strip off the bark of a half, and leave the other half as they were; then he cast all into the water whither the sheep came down to drink. He would contrive to send the pregnant ewes down to drink at that time; and they would give birth in due course half to single-coloured lambs, and half to lambs marked with a blaze
It is also related that a certain physiognomies had brought before him a black child, whose parents were both white. He examined his features, and saw that the infant undoubtedly belonged to the pair; then he desired to be acquainted with the place where the parents had lain down together. He was brought into the house where their marriage-bed was, and observed facing the woman's field of vision the picture of a black man painted on the wall. He at once remarked to the father, " It is on account of this picture that you have had such a son born to you."
The poets of the scholastics frequently touch on this theme in their compositions, addressing the external object of the vision as though it were an inner concept of the mind. The subject is very common in the poetry of al-Nazzam Ibrahim Ibn Saiyar and of other scholastics; I myself have treated the topic in the verses, which follow.
No other cause of victory
There is, when we defeat the foe,
No other reason that we flee
Before their onset, as I know,
But that the souls of all mankind
In urgently unanimity,
O pearl in human hearts enshrined!
Strive to possess themselves of thee.
And so, where're thou dost precede,
None following lags far behind,
But with thy mounting light to lead
All see the way, and triumph find.
But when to rearward thou dost stand
The warriors emulate thy deed,
And, answering their hearts' command,
Wheel round to join thee with all speed.
I have another poem on the same subject.
Say, art thou of the angels' sphere,
Or sharest thou our human kind?
My dazzled judgment sees not clear;
Bewilderment defeats my mind.'
The vision of my outward eye
A human shape descries in thee;
When inward reason I apply,
I know thy form is heavenly.
Then blessed be God, Who did design
His creatures so symmetrical,
And fashioned thee a light to shine
In natural beauty over all.
Thou the primeval Spirit art,
As I undoubtingly believe,
Which an affinity of heart
Made our souls worthy to receive.
No other proof do we possess
To argue thy mortality,
But that thy visual loveliness
Impinges on our eyes, to see.
Did we not view thy essence clear
Within -this world of space and time,
We would declare in faith sincere
Thou art pure Reason, true, sublime!
One of my friends has called another poem of mine, from which the next extract comes, " The Imaginative Perception ".
All opposites, as thou dost see,
In him subsist combined;
Then how shall such variety
Of Meanings be defined?
O wondrous body that dost lie
Beyond dimensions' range!
O accident, that shalt not die,
Exempt from chance and change!
Thou cuttest through the tangled thread
Of scholars' argument,
And makest, in thy light thus shed,
The truth self-evident.
Precisely the same thing is to be found in the case of Hatred: you will see two persons hating one another for no basic cause or reason whatsoever, but simply because the one has .a wholly irrational antipathy for the other.
Love-may God exalt you! -is in truth a baffling ailment, and its remedy is in strict accord with the degree to which it is treated; it is a delightful malady, a most desirable sickness. Whoever is free of it likes not to be immune, and whoever is struck down by it yearns not to recover. Love represents as glamorous that which a man formerly disdained, and renders easy for him that which he hitherto found hard; so that it even transforms established temperaments and inborn dispositions, as shall be set forth briefly in its own appropriate chapter, God willing.
Among my acquaintances I once knew a youth who was bogged down in love and stuck fast in its toils passion had grievously affected him, sickness had worn 1-dm out. Yet his soul found no comfort in praying to Almighty God to remove his afflictions; his tongue was not loosed in any petition for deliverance. His only prayer was to be united with and to be possessed of the one he loved, despite the enormity of his sufferings and the long protraction of his cares. (What is one to think of the sick man who desires not to be rid of his sickness?). One day I was seated with him, and felt so distressed at the visible evidence of his miserable condition, his head cast down, his staring eyes, that I said to him (among other things), " May Allah grant you relief! " I at once observed in his face the marks of strong displeasure with what I had said. It was with such a situation in mind that I composed the follow verses, part of a long poem.
O rare delight, these pains that break
My heart, dear hope, for thy sweet sake!
Through all the days, in all my woe,
I will not ever let thee go.
If any man should dare to say,
" Thou shalt forget his love one day"
The only answer I will give
Is an eternal negative?
What I have described is all the exact opposite of what Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Qasim Ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi once told me in reference to his own case. ( He is the man better known as al-Shabanisi, a descendant of Imam Hisham Ibn `Abd al-Rahman Ibn Mu'awiya.) He declared that he had never loved anyone, never grieved to be separated from any friend, and never in all his life transgressed the limits of association and comradeship to penetrate the bounds of love and passionate affection.
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THE SIGNS OF LOVE
LOVE has certain signs, which the intelligent man quickly detects, and the shrewd man readily recognizes. Of these the first is the brooding gaze: the eye is the wide gateway of the soul, the scrutinizer of its secrets, conveying its most private thoughts, and giving expression to its deepest-hid feelings. You will see the lover gazing at the beloved unblinkingly; his eyes follow the loved one's every movement, withdrawing as he withdraws, inclining as he inclines, just as the chameleon's stare shifts with the shifting of the sun. I have written a poem on this topic, from which the following may be quoted.
My eye no other place of rest
Discovers, save with thee;
Men say the lodestone is possessed
Of a like property.
To right or left it doth pursue
Thy movements up or down,
As adjectives in grammar do
Accord them with their noun.
The lover will direct his conversation to the beloved, even when he purports however earnestly to address another: the affectation is apparent to anyone with eyes to see. When the loved one speaks, the lover listens with rapt attention to his every word; he marvels at everything the beloved says, however extraordinary and absurd his observations may be; he believes him implicitly even when he is clearly lying, agrees with him though he is obviously in the wrong, testifies on his behalf for all that he may be unjust, follows after him however he may proceed and whatever line of argument he may adopt. The lover hurries to the spot where the beloved is at the moment, endeavors to sit as near him as possible sidles up close to him, lays aside all occupations that might oblige him to leave his company, makes light of any matter however weighty that would demand his parting from him, is very slow to move when he takes his leave of him. I have put this somewhere into verse.
No captive for the gallows bound
With more reluctance quits his cell
Than I thy presence, in profound
Regret to say farewell.
But when, my darling, comes the time
That we may be together, I
Run swiftly as the moon doth climb
The ramparts of the sky.
At last, alas! That sweet delight
Must end anew; I, lingering yet,
Turn slowly, as from heaven's height
The fixed stars creep to set.
Other signs of love are that sudden confusion and excitement betrayed by the lover when he unexpectedly sees the one he loves coming upon him unawares, that agitation which overmasters him on beholding someone who resembles his beloved or, on hearing his name suddenly pronounced. This I have put into verse, as the following extract indicates.
Whene'er my ranging eyes descry
A person clad in red,
My heart is split with agony
And sore discomforted.
His roguish glance, as I conclude,
Has shed such human blood
That now his garments are imbrued
All saffron from the flood.
A man in love will give prodigally to the limit of his capacity, in a way that formerly he would have refused; as if he were the one receiving the donation, he the one whose happiness is the object in view; all this in order that he may show off his good points, and make himself desirable. How often has the miser opened his purse strings, the scowler relaxed his frown, the coward leapt heroically into the fray, the clod suddenly become sharp-witted, the boor turned into the perfect gentleman, the stinker transformed himself into the elegant dandy, the sloucher smartened up, the decrepit recaptured his lost youth, the godly gone wild, the self-respecting kicked over the traces-and all because of love!
All these signs are to be observed even before the fire of Love is properly kindled, ere its conflagration truly bursts forth, its blaze waxes fierce, its flames leap up. But when the fire really takes a hold and is firmly established, then you will see the secret whispering, the unconcealed turning away from all present but the beloved. I have some verses in which I have contrived to bring together many of these signs, and will now quote from these.
I love to hear when men converse
And in the midst his name rehearse;
The air I breathe seems redolent
That moment with the amber's scent,
But when he speaketh, I give ear
Unto no other sitting near,
But lean to catch delightedly
His pretty talk and coquetry,
Nor yet, though my companion there
The Prince of All the Faithful were,
Permit my mind to be removed
On his account from my beloved.
And if, through dire compulsion, I
Stand up at last to say good-bye,
Still glancing fondly at my sweet
I stumble, as on wounded feet;
My eyes upon his features play
The while my body drifts away,
As one the billows tumble o'er
Yet gazes, drowning, on the shore.
When I recall how distant he
Now is, I choke in sorrow's sea,
Weary as one who sinks, to expire
In some deep bog, or raging fire.
Yet, if thou sayest, " Canst thou still
Aspire to heaven? " " That I will ",
I answer boldly, " and I know
The stairs that to its summit go! "
Other outward signs and tokens of love are the following, which are apparent to all having eyes in their heads: abundant and exceeding cheerfulness at finding oneself with the beloved in a narrow space, and a corresponding depression on being together in a wide expanse; to engage in a playful tug-of-war for anything the one or the other lays hold of; much clandestine winking; leaning sideways and supporting oneself against the object of one's affection; endeavoring to touch his hand, and whatever other part of his body one can reach, while engaged in conversation ; and drinking the remainder of what the beloved has left in his cup, seeking out the very spot against which his lips were pressed.
There are also contrary signs that occur according to casual provocations and accidental incitements, and a variety of motivating causes and stimulating thoughts. Opposites are of course likes, in reality; when things reach the limit of contrariety, and stand at the furthest bounds of divergence, they come to resemble one another. This is decreed by God's omnipotent power, in a manner that baffles entirely the human imagination. Thus, when ice is pressed a long time in the hand, it finally produces the same effect as fire. We find that extreme joy and extreme sorrow kill equally; excessive and violent laughter sends the tears coursing from the eyes. It is a very common phenomenon in the world about us. Similarly with lovers: when they love each other with an equal ardour, and their mutual affection is intensely strong, they will turn against one another without any valid reason, each purposely contradicting the other in whatever he may say; they quarrel violently over the smallest things, each picking up every word that the other lets fall and willfully misinterpreting it. All these devices are aimed at testing and proving what each is seeking in the other.
Now the difference between this sham, and real aversion and contrariness born of deep-seated hatred and inveterate contention, is that lovers are very quickly reconciled after their disputes. You will see a pair of lovers seeming to have reached the extreme limit of contrariety, to the point that you would reckon not to be mended even in the instance of a person of most tranquil spirit, wholly exempt from rancour, save after a long interval, and wholly irreparable in the case of a quarrelsome man; yet in next to no time you will observe them to have become the best of friends once more; silenced are those mutual reproaches, vanished that disharmony; forthwith they are laughing again and playfully sporting together. The same scene may be enacted several times at a single session. When you see a pair of lovers behaving in such a fashion, let no doubt enter your mind, no uncertainty invade your thoughts; you may be sure without hesitation, and convinced as by an unshakable certainty, that there lies between them a deep and hidden secret-the secret of true love. Take this then for a sure test, a universally valid experiment: it is the product only of an equal partnership in love, and a true concord of hearts. I myself have observed it frequently.
Another sign is when you find the lover almost entreating to hear the loved one's name pronounced, taking an extreme delight in speaking about him, so that the subject is a positive obsession with him; nothing so much rejoices him, and he is not in the least restrained by the fear that someone listening may realise what he is about, and someone present will understand his true motives. Love for a thing renders you blind and deaf. If the lover could so contrive, that in the place where he happens to be there should be no talk of anything but his beloved, he would never leave that spot for any other in the whole world.
It can happen that a man sincerely affected by love will start to eat his meal with an excellent appetite; yet the instant the recollection of his loved one is excited, the food sticks in his throat and chokes his gullet. It is the same if he is drinking, or talking he begins to converse with you gaily enough, and then all at once he is invaded by a chance thought of his dear one. You will notice the change in his manner of speaking, the instantaneous failure of his conversational powers; the sure signs are his long silences, the way he stares at the ground, his extreme taciturnity. One moment he is all smiles, lightly gesticulating; the next, and he has become completely boxed up, sluggish, distrait, rigid, too weary to utter a single word, irritated by the most innocent question.
Love's signs also include a fondness for solitude and a pleasure in being alone, as well as a wasting of the body not accompanied by any fever or ache preventing free activity and liberty of movement. The walk is also an unerring indication and never-deceiving sign of an inward lassitude of spirit. Sleeplessness too is a common affliction of lovers; the poets have described this condition frequently, relating how they watch the stars, and giving an account of the night's interminable length. I too have some verses on this topic, in which I also touch on the guarding of Love's secret, and mention the signs from which it may be prognosticated.
The clouds, when they my tears discerned,
A lesson from my weeping learned
And covered all the parched domain
With deluges of flooding rain.
And has the night because of thee
Now come to share my misery,
Or will it succour bring, perchance,
To this my weary vigilance?
For if the shadows of the night
Will ne'er disperse, and turn to light,
Until my eyes, pressed down by woes,
At last in weary slumber close;
I do not think that any way
Remains, to lead me back to day,
But still augmenting sleeplessness
My every moment shall oppress.
And now dark clouds o'erspread the
And hide the starlight from my eyes,
Concealing from my anxious gaze
The comfort of their fitful blaze.
Such inward torment of the mind,
Thee loving, dearest heart, I find,
Surmise alone can fully guess
And advertize my soul's distress.
Another poem of mine-I quote an extract-deals with the same notion.
I am the shepherd of the skies,
Deputed to preserve
The planets as they sink and rise,
The stars that do not swerve.
Those, as they swing their lamps above
Our earth, by night possessed,
Are like the kindled fires of love
Within my darkling breast.
Or I am now the gardener
Of some green mead, methinks,
And through the grasses, here and there,
A white narcissus winks.
Were Ptolemy alive to-day,
And did he know of me,
" Thou art the maestro ", he would say,
" Of all astronomy! "
A thing is sometimes mentioned on account of that which causes it to occur. In the verses I have just cited, I have compared two pairs of things with each other in one and the same stanza, the second of the poem beginning " Those, as they swing their lamps above this is considered very unusual in poetry. However, I can also quote an even more perfect example of virtuosity from my own works-the likening of three, and even four pairs of things in a single stanza; both these feats have been accomplished in the piece here following.
Still yearning, and disquieted,
Still sleepless tossing on his bed,
Wits drunken and disorderly
With the coarse wine of calumny;
He shows to thee in one brief hour
Marvels defeating reason's power
Now hostile, now the friend sincere,
Now running off, now pressing near
As if this passion, this reproof,
To be complacent, or aloof,
Were stars conjoining, or in flight,
Fortune's benevolence, or spite.
After so long refusal, he
Took pity on my love, and me,
And I, who envied others' chance,
Am target now for envy's glance.
Together in a garden gay
With bloom we passed our happy day,
The while the bright and whispering flowers
Gave thanks to God for morning's showers
As if the matin rains, indeed,
The clouds, and that sweet-scented mead,
Were dropping tears, and eyes bedewed,
And cheeks with roses all imbued.
Let none find fault with me or object to my use of the term "conjoining ", for those who have knowledge of the stars speak of the meeting of two stars in a single degree as a " conjunction ".
I have not yet exhausted my repertoire, but can cite a still more perfect example, the likening of five pairs of things in a single stanza, as in my next quotation.
She sat there privily with me,
And wine besides, to make us three,
While night profound o'ershadowing
Stretched out its long and stealthy wing.
A damsel fair-I would prefer
To die, than not live close with her;
And is it such a dreadful crime
To wish to live this little time?
It was as if myself, and she,
The cup, the wine, the obscurity,
Were earth, and raindrops, and pearls set
Upon a thread, and gold, and jet.
That is a point beyond which it is impossible for anyone to go; neither prosody nor the structure of words will tolerate more than five comparisons in the same stanza.
Trepidation overtakes lovers in two situations. The first is when the lover hopes to meet the beloved, and then some obstacle intervenes to prevent it. I know a man whose loved one had promised to visit hi; thereafter I never saw him but that he was coming and going the whole time, quite unable to be still or to remain in one place; now he would advance, anon he would retire; joy had made him positively nimble and spritely, though formerly he was exceedingly grave and sedate. I have some verses on the subject of awaiting the visit of the beloved.
I waited still, until night came
Upon me, hoping yet
To meet thee, O my quest, and aim
On which my heart is set!
Then I, who never any day
Despaired, though long the night,
At last to dark despair gave way
When dark o'ercame my light.
Moreover I a proof will cite
That cannot tell a lie;
The like such problems solve aright
As reason else defy:
To wit, if thou shouldst ever deign
One night to visit me,
No longer darkness would remain,
But light eternally.
The second cause of trepidation is when a quarrel breaks out between the loving couple, in the course of which reproaches fly about, the true grounds whereof only a detailed explanation can make clear. Then the lover's agitation becomes violent indeed, and continues until the matter comes completely into the open; when either the burden under which he has been struggling is lifted, if he has cause to hope for forgiveness, or his trepidation converts into sorrow and despair, if he is fearful that the beloved will thenceforward banish him. The lover may however submit humbly to the loved one's cruelty, as shall be expounded hereafter in its proper context, God willing.
Among the accidents of Love may be mentioned an extreme impatience under affliction, such a paroxysm of emotion as completely overwhelms the lover and leaves him speechless, as when he sees his beloved turning from him in undisguised aversion. I have a line or two referring to this.
Fair fortitude imprisoned lies,
And tears flow freely from the eyes.
Another sign of Love is that you will see the lover loving his beloved's kith and kin and the intimate ones of his household, to such an extent that they are
Kenapa ragu memprint, ? mengeluarkan suara kerasa dan bericrca
Mengapa ada semacam perasaan,
Karena tidak suka di bawah?
nearer and dearer to him than his own folk, himself, and all his familiar friends. Weeping is a well-known sign of Love; except that men differ very greatly from one another in this particular. Some are ready weepers; their tear-ducts are always overflowing, and their eyes respond immediately to their emotions, the tears rolling down at a moment's notice. Others are dry-eyed and barren of tears; to this category I myself belong. This is the result of my habit of eating frankincense to abate the palpitation from which I have suffered since childhood. I will be afflicted by some shocking blow, and at once feel my heart to be splitting and breaking into fragments; I have a choking sensation in my heart more bitter than colocynth, that prevents me from getting my words out properly, and sometimes well nigh suffocates me. My eyes therefore respond to my feelings but rarely, and then my tears are exceedingly sparse.
Writing the above paragraph has put me in mind of a certain day when I, with my companion Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, was bidding farewell to our dear friend Abu `Amin Muhammad Ibn 'Amir (God have him in His mercy!) prior to his departure for the East on that journey after which we were never to see him again. Abu Bakr, as he said good-bye, began to weep, and cited the following verses to illustrate his grief.
When thou on Wasit field didst lie
Felled to the dust, what eye
Grudged its last tears on thee to shed,
Was dry indeed and dead.
The stanza is taken from an elegy on Yazid Ibn `Umar Ibn Hubaira (God have mercy on his soul!). We were standing on the seashore at
The heart that shed not, still the Stoic,
Its fortitude heroic,
When thou wast gone, and it alone
That heart was made of stone!
I also have an ode, composed before reaching puberty, in which I follow the usual conventions observed by those who treat this theme; I will quote the opening lines.
The sign of sorrow is a flame
That strikes the heart, and burns the same,
As too the tears that freely go
Adown the cheeks in ceaseless flow.
For when the man by Love possessed
Conceals the secret of his breast,
His tears the guarded truth betray
And bare it to the light of day.
So, when the tear-ducts overfill
The eyelids, and their torrent spill,
Be sure, if thou observant art,
Love's painful sickness rends that heart.
It will happen in Love that the lovers have evil thoughts of one another; each suspects every word the partner utters, and misconstrues it willfully; which is the origin of those reproaches which lovers often level each against each. I have an acquaintance who is normally the most unsuspicious man in the world, extremely broad-minded, possessed of great patience and untold tolerance, indulgent to a fault; yet when he is in love, he cannot endure the slightest thing between him and the object of his affection; let the least difference arise between them, and he will forthwith utter all kinds of reproaches and give voice to every manner of mistrust. I have put this situation into verse.
I have a dark, suspicious mind,
And nothing negligible find
Thou doest; despicable they,
Who do despise Love's least affray-!
They will not see, until too late,
The roots of rupture and of hate,
Forgetting, to their own despite,
A spark may set a town alight.
Things of the greatest moment in
The humblest origins begin;
Witness the date-tree, hugely grown
To heaven from a little stone.
You will see the lover, when unsure of the constancy of his loved one's feelings for him, perpetually on his guard in a way that he never troubled to be before; he polishes his language, he refines his gestures and his glances, particularly if he has the misfortune and mischance to be in love with one given to making unjust accusations, or of a quarrelsome disposition.
Another sign of Love is the way the lover pays attention to the beloved; remembering everything that falls from his lips; searching out all the news about him, so that nothing small or great that happens to him may escape his knowledge; in short, following closely his every movement. Upon my life, sometimes you will see a complete dolt under these circumstances become most keen, a careless fellow turn exceedingly quick-witted.
I was seated one day at
OF FALLING IN LOVE WHILE ASLEEP
EVERY love affair must necessarily have some original cause. I shall now begin with the most unlikely of all causes of love, so that the discourse may proceed in due order, starting as ever with the simplest and easiest example. Love indeed is sometimes caused by things so strange, that but for having myself observed them I would not have mentioned them at all.
Now here is an instance from my own experience. One day I visited our friend Abu '1-Sari 'Ammar Ibn Ziyad, the freedman of al-Mu'aiyad, and found him deep in thought and much preoccupied. I asked him what was amiss; for a while he refused to explain, but then he said, "An extraordinary thing has happened to me, the like of which I have never heard." "What is that? I enquired. " Last night ", he answered, " I saw in a dream a young maiden, and on awaking I found that I had completely lost my heart to her, and that I was madly in love with her. Now I am in the most difficult straits possible, with this passion I have conceived for her." He continued cast down and afflicted for more than a month; nothing would cheer him up, so profound was his emotion. At last I scolded him, saying, " It is a vast mistake to occupy your soul with something unreal, and to attach your fantasy to a non-existent being. Do you know who she is? " " No, by Allah! " he replied. " Really ", I went on, " you have very little judgment, --and your discretion must be affected, if you axe actually in love with a person whom you have never seen, someone moreover who was never created and does not exist in the world at all. If you had fallen for one of those pictures they paint on the walls of the public baths, I would have found it easier to excuse you." So I continued, until at last by making a great effort he forgot his trouble. Now my opinion is that his case is to be explained as a pure fantasy of the mind, a nightmare illusion, and falls into the category of wishful thinking and mental hallucination. I have expressed this situation actually in verse.
Ah, would I knew who she might be,
And how she walked by night!
Was she the moon that shone on me,
The sun's uprising light?
A mere conjecture of the mind
By cogitation wrought?
An image that the soul designed,
Revealed to me by thought?
A picture that my spirit drew,
My hopes to realize,
And that my sight imagined to
Perceive in fleshly guise?
Or was she nothing of all these,
But just an accident
Contrived for me by Fate's decrees
With murderous intent?
OF FALLING IN LOVE THROUGH A DESCRIPTION
ONE of the strangest origins of passion is when a man falls in love through merely hearing the description of the other party, without ever having set eyes on the beloved. In such a case he will progress through all the accustomed stages of love; there will be the sending to and fro of messengers; the exchange of letters, the anxiety, the deep emotion, the sleeplessness; and all this without actual sight of the object of affection. Stories, descriptions of beautiful qualities, and the reporting of news about the fair one have a manifest effect on the soul; to hear a girl's voice singing behind a wall may well move the heart to love, and preoccupy the mind.
All this has occurred to more than one man. In my opinion, however, such a love is a tumbledown building without any foundations. If a man's thoughts are absorbed by passionate regard for one whom he has never seen, the inevitable result is that whenever he is alone with his own reflections, he will represent to himself a purely imaginary picture of the person whose identity he keeps constantly before his mind; no other being than this takes shape in his fantasy; he is completely carried away by his imagination, and visualizes and dreams of her only. Then, if some day he actually sees the object of his fanciful passion, either his love is confirmed, or it is wholly nullified. Both these alternatives have actually happened and been known.
This kind of romance usually takes place between veiled ladies of guarded palaces and aristocratic households and their male kinsfolk; the love of women is more stable in these cases than that of men, because women are weak creatures and their natures swiftly respond to this sort of attraction, which easily masters them completely. I have described this type of love in verse.
O thou who chidest me
Because my heart has been
Entranced by passion utterly
For one I have not seen
Thou dost exaggerate
In all that thou dost speak
Upon my passion, and dost state
My love is poor and weak.
For say: what do men know
Of Paradise above,
Save they have heard that it is so
And what they hear they love?
I also have some lines on the theme of admiring the beauty of a singing voice, without ever having seen the singer.
Love's soldiery assailed mine ear
And now do occupy
My heart; their triumph doth appear
In my submissive eye.
In the lines which follow I describe the situation of truth belying conjecture, when the lover actually claps eyes on his beloved.
They spoke in glowing terms of thee,
But when at last I chanced to see
That they described, at once I knew
Their words were nonsense and untrue.
Such is the drum: in origin
'Tis nothing but an empty skin,
But when the drummer beats its hide
A man is scared, and terrified!
I have also stated the converse case.
So, too, the stories men recite
To picture the supreme delight
Of Paradise, fall short by far
Of those its actual pleasures are.
These conditions also obtain in the relations between friends and comrades, as I shall show in a personal reminiscence. There was once a strong bond of affection between myself and a member of a noble family; we corresponded frequently, but had never set eyes on one another. Then Allah granted me the boon of meeting him; and but a few days elapsed when a violent aversion and strong antipathy arose between us, that has continued uninterruptedly down to to the present day. I have put this incident into verse, and will quote a line or two.
Thou didst convert my loving dream
To loathing, and to hate extreme
So copyists have oft times slipped
And quite transformed a manuscript
The opposite transpired in the case of my relations with Abu `Amin Ibn Abi `Amin (God keep him in His mercy!). Once I truly detested him, and he fully reciprocated my feelings; this was before I had seen .him, and he me. The root of the matter was a slanderous report, which had been carried to each of us about the other, aggravated by an aversion existing between our respective fathers that sprung from their mutual rivalry in the race for preferment at Court and worldly promotion. Then Allah so ordained that we should come together; thereafter he became my dearest friend, and I his likewise, until the day that death parted us. The following verses were written by me to commemorate this friendship.
He was a brother, whom I gained
By meeting, and thereby obtained
A truly noble treasure;
His friendship was not wished by me,
And I supposed his company
Would yield me little pleasure
But he, who was my erstwhile foe,
Became my friend, he, whom I so
Abhorred, my heart's sweet rapture;
And having ever sought to fly
From meeting him, thereafter I
Sought ever him to capture.
As for Abu Shakir 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad al-Qabri, he was my friend for a long while before I ever saw him; then we met, and our love was confirmed; and it has continued without interruption right down to the present time.
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