Thursday, December 22, 2011

[Kisah dulu-dulu] Perdebatan mengenai `Islam Liberal vs Konservatif'

[Nota: Bagi memahami konteks tulisan ini, saya ingin menjelaskan bahawa posting ini ditulis selepas tragedi 9/11. Ketika itu Islam diserang hebat dan terdapat profesional muda Melayu yang menjadi keliru akibat serangan-serangan ini. Pada ketika itu lahir sekumpulan profesional Melayu yang cuba mentafsirkan Islam tanpa menggunakan kaedah yang diwariskan oleh para ulama muktabar, sebaliknya menggunakan reasoning/logik akal yang berlandaskan kefahaman mereka yang terbatas mengenai konteks dan asbab-ul nuzul hukum dan perintah Allah swt. Terdapat sejumlah profesional muda yang terpengaruh dengan pemikiran `the so called liberalist' ini, seterusnya menjadi keliru dan akhirnya menggunakan semula hujah yang hampir serupa pendekatan dan nadanya dalam perbahasan-perbahasan di dalam promuda_circle. Salah satu perdebatan yang panas ketika itu adalah mengenai Liberal Islam dan Conservative.]  



From:  "penjejak badai"
Date:  Mon Dec 3, 2001  12:41 pm
Subject:  Liberal Islam vs Conservative Pt1

Dear all, an interesting subject to be discussed...

When a doctor (medical officer or general practicioner) concludes a 
diagnosis on a patient, the one who could provide the 2nd opinion, must be a 
person who possesses similar authority or higher (of that). That person must be a doctor 
also. Should both of them are not sure, then they would refer the case to a 
physician, who has higher authority to further examine the patient. If he 
thought that an operation is needed, then he will pass the case to a 
surgeon. Once passed, any opinion or decision made on the best procedures 
will be discussed among the surgeon without interference from the physician. 
Same goes when a person is brought to Emergency Room. The fate of the 
patient, will be decided by the person who hold the highest authority in the 
ER, who are the ER specialists. No one will interfere.


In the above scenario, we learn that every faculty of knowledge has its own 
authority, who handles research, decision making, cases and other related matters. 
We respect that, and as a lay person, in most occassions we treat them as 
experts in their field.


But why, in the institution of cleric (ulama), we treat the matter 
differently? And some dare enough to ask the muslim ummah to take the role 
of interpreting Islam from ulama....... Do we treat this person as 
liberalist or do we treat this person as an extreme at the other end?


To every muslim, Islam is not a religion of worshipping god only. It is also not 
a religion of rituals and prayers only. It is not human made and not 
derived from human philosophy. To every muslim, Islam is a way of life. It 
touches every corners of human affairs with his God, other humans, and also the 
universe. It covers the field of faith, ethics, ibadah and muamalah, which 
describes the regulation of all human affairs, including social, economy, 
science, constitution, international affairs. It is a complex faculty on its 
own, and of course not everyone could be regarded as authority or specialist 
in this faculty of knowledge.


The search for truth according to Islam is not based on the largest vote 
that you get, as what you see in `Who wants to be a Millionaire' proggramme. 
It must be based on these sources according to its merit and superiority. It 
must be first referred to al-Quran, then al-hadith, then ijma' (cleric 
consensus), qiyas (logical deduction from the quran and hadith), maslahah 
mursalah (public welfare neither commended or prohibited in any Islamic 
source) or istihsan (acceptance of a rule because of its superior equity in 
comparison with an establish law).


If we see that it is really ridiculous to ask any person to take the 
role of a professionally trained doctor, then we would also admit that it is 
ridiculous for a person to ask the ummah to take the role of interpreting 
Islam from the ulama.


I am not saying, whatever decree (fatwa) that comes out from a person of that 
authority is 100% accurate. Same goes with all the diagnosis and prognosis 
made by a doctor. It is not 100% accurate. But this people learn 
systematically from basic to the highest level of learning, tested literally 
and practically, practice practically their knowledge, and some of them even 
specialize in certain fields and worth to be respected as authority in their 
fields.


I would see that there are people who repeat the attempt of Zahiriyah 
(literalist) school centuries ago. The only different is that, the older 
version of Zahiriyah interpret Islam with little fundemental knowledge of 
Islam but the newer version interpret Islam without fundemental knowledge of 
Islam and under the influence of western values and philosophy.


I do not have much time now, but I would discuss further this topic in my 
next posting.


tun



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