[Kisah dulu-dulu] Debat Islam Liberal dan Konservatif dari Perspektif Sejarah Islam

Nota: Ini adalah bahagian kedua posting saya mengenai Liberal Islam vs Conservative. Sebelum posting ini ditulis, ada pihak di kalangan professional muda di dalam Promuda yang menyimpulkan bahawa Sikap Konservatif adalah punca kepada kejumudan Ummah (Conservativeness leads to the stagnation of the Ummah). Dalam posting ini saya menjelaskan bahawa bertentangan dengan fahaman `so called liberalist' ini, Islam tidak jatuh kerana umat Islam bersikap `konservatif', tetapi dalam kes Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, sikap konservatif ini yang membolehkan umat Islam menawan Jurusalem. Sebenarnya apa yang hendak saya gambarkan dalam posting ini adalah, pertama, jangan menyamakan sikap konservatif itu dengan salah tafsir atau pemikiran jumud. Kedua, bukan soal konservatif atau liberal yang menyebabkan Empayar Islam berkembang pesat atau runtuh, tetapi faktor perpaduan ummah, keamanan dan penguasaan ilmu pengetahuan serta penciptaan. 

From:  "penjejak badai" <badai2001@h...>
Date:  Mon Dec 3, 2001  12:41 pm
Subject:  LiberalIslam vs Conservative Pt2

Dear all,

Let us look back at the history of Islamic Empire.

The prophet, Muhammad SAW passed away on 8th June 632. The success of the empire/nation continued under the two Caliphs Abu Bakar (RA) and Omar (RA). During the first six year of Caliph Usman's (RA) leadership, the nation still progressed very well until disturbance took place during the 2nd half of Caliph Usman's leadership. This continued till Caliph Ali's reign. After that Muawiyah (the first ruler of Umaiyah Empire had to deal with rebellion, factions and also outside threat from the Roman Empire. 4 of his successors faced the same problem but later able to unite the Muslim ummah. This struggle took place from the year 660 to 705.


Later during the ruling of next successors from 705-724, Muslim started to excell back. Under the leadership of Caliph Umar Abd Aziz (year 717-720), Muslim experienced peace, and were able to develop and progress well. During that time science, chemistry and medicine started to be taught and developed at the mosque as centre of learning. Imam Hanafi and Imam Malik, two authotirities in fiqh lived during this time.


After that Muslim faced another downfall, and Abbassiah Government took over from Umaiyah. It was only during the ruling of Caliphs al-Mahdi (775-785) Harun al-Rasyid (786-809) and al-Makmum (813-833) Islamic Empire started to rise and shine again. They were able to maintain peace and therefore they were able to spend more time to develop the society and nation. The peak of the development took place during Caliph al-Makmum ruling. Besides trading and construction of beautiful city, other contributions were 1. Initiation of knowledge 2. publication of books 3. Translation of knowledge from foreign and other civilisations into Arabic, or from Arab world into foreign languages.


Islamic Knowledge also has developed very rapidly and systematically during this period. Tafsir (Interpretation of al-Quran), Hadith (collection, compilation of the prophet words and actions)- the 6 authorities in this field Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tarmizi, Qazwini and Nisai lived during this time. Fiqh - Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik lived during this period, and Imam Syafie and Hanbali started their own schools of thought during this period. Translation - Jabir bin Hayan, known in Europe as Geber. Hunain bin Ishak (a doctor and philosopher) translated books on philosophy, astronomy, medicine, mathematics. Medicine - al-Razi, Ibnu Sina. Astronomi, algebra - al-Khawarismi, Physics - al-Razi, Jabir bin Hayyan, Philosophy - al-Kindi, al-Farabi etc.


Then after that it faced another downfall again until the time of Al-Hakam II (961-967) the ruler of Umaiyah Government in Spain, Salahuddin al-Ayyubi(1169-1192) the ruler of Ayyubiah in Egypt, Sultan Murad II (1421-1451) the ruler of Usmaniah in Tukey. If we read the full history, the factor of the downfall of Islamic Empire was not 100% due to conservativeness. In fact Salahuddin al-Ayyubi won the Crusade War due to their `conservativeness'. 


Conservative, liberal, lax and extremisme need to be defined carefully before we jump into conclusion of what lead to the stagnation of the Muslim progress. 


By detailing down the history, we could see that after Rasulullah SAW passed away there was a gap of nearly 100 years before the Muslim revived. It faced downfall and revived again after nearly 100 years later. It progressed at the best rate 200 years after the prophet passed away.


During this time these people were `conservative', 4 authorities in Fiqh lived during this period, 6 authorities in Hadis also lived during this period. How could we jumped into conclusion that, Islamic Empire faced downfall due to conservativeness, when we hardly define what `conservative' actually means?

I'll reveal further in my next posting.

tun