Science of Pillars of Islam: Obligation to Study the Path

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Tomb of our noble father, prophet Abraham a.s - Hebron

We return to this science because it is very very important yet crucial. It is obligatory for every Muslim to study about their own path. Those who neglect it will be sinful. This is the order of the path as what has been generally mentioned by noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w: "Getting the knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim."

Other than that, it is obligatory for every Muslim to ma'arifatullah. What is this term means? It means knowing Allah or the God. Learning about His characteristics which bring everyone to confidence. It has been explained in the Zubad: "Early obligatory on human-being is to know their Lord as possible as they can."

Another explanation from the sermon of Habeeb Tahir bin Hussain mentions: "Be known to you dear brothers and sisters. Indeed the root and branches of religion is to know whom should we direct our worship to before we perform acts of worship. And that is the fact of the testimony of faith."

It is almost similar to an officer who works with the employer or his boss. The employer gives him his wages for the job. When he do his task, he should also know what is his job about, its rule and regulation and its specification. The Lord is our Boss. He gave us sustenance which is His grace in term of air for us to breath, minerals in the earth for us to stay sustainable (one of my current institution getik's mottos is sustainability, lol), natural resources, and etc for creatures to do a job for Him which is to worship Him and to glorify Him. 

If we know the interpretations of the testimony of faith, we should also know the Lord. And everyone should also aware about the jazam on the rightful with evidence which is rational with evidences and their explanations.

Definition of Jazam

This is the definition according to the science of usool. It means the strong faith or the faith without doubt. According to today's terminology, it means a firm faith, strong with a basis and without any compromise. Jazam also means unanimous and final decision. 

Division of Jazams 

Division of jazams refer to four types of people regarding their attitude toward their knowledge and sciences regarding the path. I am not sure how to clearly explain about these but one needs to ask their teachers and clerics regarding these terms. Find the right ones and not those who are like the 'scriptures on the donkey' although they look like a cleric. In certain creed science books, the terms are quite ambiguous because of the language style used are backward. We have to update those kitabs in term of language style too. Using simple words and checking compatible terms especially in modern languages such as modern English and according to the field such as the law.

1. Ma'arifa 

Ma'arifa refers to a person who knows and realize that he knows about these particular sciences. He is a specialist in his field of knowledge and is not stingy with his knowledge. Instead he shares it with others since he knows the obligation and his responsibility to spread the knowledge or science about the Lord in the society who needs it. This person does not associate his knowledge with money or materialism. He only teaches it for His sake and not to make a living. This is the type of human which refers to past imams that we learned about some of them in our schools or in our fellow brothers' and sisters' sites. The Lord says in glorious Quran surah al-Baqara verse 41 which means: "...never change My verses with lower price, and only to Me should you be dependent!!!" This type of person is represented by minority of people in the earth.    

2. Taqlid Shaheed

A person who knows but he does not realize that he knows about the Lord. Maybe he knows that he is aware about the Lord, but due to few problems he does not know how to use his knowledge and could not spreading it widely. There are few factors or reasons which lead to these such as occupied, financial problem, didn't given the chance by people or environment around. But if given the chance, having sufficient financial support and his worldly occupation being loosen up that he could benefit society with the wisdom and knowledge that he posses.   

3. Jahel Murakkab

I always heard this term, hahaha. In Malay it is used to mean bodoh nak mampos but the definition according to the science is slightly different if without the twice word. This is actually a tasawwuf science term but not many are aware about this and using it even in daily speeches without knowing the definition. It refers to double ignorance. He is ignorant and aware that he is ignorant. He is humble with his ignorance and asking others who are more knowledgeable than him. This kind of person always attend the sciences lecture in masjids. He is easy to accept advises, listening to others and is open toward criticism on his ignorance. This kind of person needs to only learn more and his ignorance will shy away. 

4. Taqlid Bateel

This refers to an ignorant person who is not aware that he is ignorant. If he has an assumption, he would treat it as his faith without checking it with others who are more knowledgeable than him. It also refers to a civilian who is ignorant and refuses to accept his ignorance or stupidity. Noble prophet Jesus a.s mentions this as ahmaq or in rudimentary word means stupid! Many tasawwuf specialists use the word Jahel Murakkab twice to refer to this type of person since he is ignorant in term that he has no knowledge in certain science and he is ignorant because of his attitude. In the easiest way to explain this, he is stupid but he thinks that he is a smarty ass. This type of person is in the majority of society in the world and they could easily being influenced by rumors or fake news like what we always read in comments in youtube or other sites by those who call themselves as anti-Islam or Western civilization ass-wipers. It is not only unique to these people but there are also these kind of people in Muslim society as well as other society in the world. Those fanatics are in this group of person. Sorry for some rude words as it is easier to explain in street way of talking, haha.

Closing

Next time insha Allah we would learn about the definition of daleel or evidence according to our path sciences. There are also definitions for taqlid, fanaticism and taqlid bateel/jahel murakkab twice. When we look around, watching TV programs like forum in Western medias, accusations of political parties on each other, quarrels between Muslim denominations or movements and etc... We could see all of these and compare it what we get from this division of jazams.     

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!  

Salat: Concentration in Prayers I

Assalaamu'alaikum wa Rahmatullah!
Notes from the lecture of Ustad Yeop Sa'idin 

All praises belongs only to Allah 'Azza wa Jalla, Lord of the Universe. Praising Allah, the King of kings... O our Lord, open up for us Your Wisdom and gather for us from the bountiful of Your blessings. O the One who is Merciful full of Blessings! 

Our title today is about tama'ninah in salat. It means that our body stays still according to the pillars of fi'lee (acts) where it consists of i'tidal (bowing) and tama'ninah. 

Tama'ninah means that we stay still in our salaat while chanting glory be to Allah. Tama'ninah in this sense means, concentration and tranquility. There is a narration about Rabi' bin Haitham while he was performing his salaat. Rabi' bin Haitham is an example of a salafi or the earliest followers of the prophet s.a.w. While he was performing his salaat, there came a thief and stealing his horse. People around who witnessed the incident cursed the thief. Rabi' said that he saw the thief and he realized that he untied the rope which ties his horse. People around asked: "then why don't you stop your salaat and chase after him????!"

This incident has shown us that salaat is among important things for these people. Rabi' bin Haitham said that his salaat and prayers is more important than his horse. He can just stop his salaat if there are urgent things coming up like nature calls but he said that his horse is not as urgent as his obedience to the God. He can stop his salaat and chase after the thief but he refused to. He wanted to concentrate on his salaat and prayers because he had made his promise in the iftitah (opening) prayer in salaat: "I turn up my face only to You who creates the heavens and earth..." thus he must not go against his promise in prayers. 

We must strive hard to concentrate in our salaat due to that He prepares us the place of torment which is the Unfortunate Hell and losing focus in prayers is a sin (surah al-Ma'un). The God knows that we are able to concentrate because if we have no capability to do that, why did He asks us to do it? Let us check surah al-Mu'minun verses 1-9. Who are the ones achieving success in the world and the hereafter? It says that indeed the ones who are successful among the faithful servants males and females are the ones who concentrate in prayers and salaat.

The first source for us to achieve concentration in salaat and prayers is that we must take a good care on our food sources. They must be halal (legal) and no doubtfulness in it. We need to be careful with something which looks physically legal but it brings doubt because doubtfulness will lead us to prohibition or haram. Sometimes prohibited stuffs could look like the legal ones. Our noble prophet peace be upon him said, many people care less about doubtful stuffs and it is not good for heart purification. How could we concentrate in salaat with doubtful stuffs that we take? Through salaat and heart purification, we will gain the success in the world and the hereafter.

We pray and supplicate to Allah for us to be given goodness in the world and the hereafter, being saved from the torment of the hell. We can concentrate in our salaat. Our Lord gives us only one heart. If we have two hearts, then it would not be wrong if we think of many things while performing salaat which leads us to lack of focus to Him.  

There was an incident of another salafi brother of the past who prayed in an orchard and he saw birds in the orchard flying here and there. He was astonished with those birds and careless in his salaat. He had forgotten that he was in salaat, so he lament himself after he realized that. He sold out his orchard for charity because he had done a great sin. These people had reached the level faith where they feel so sinful although the error is only in one salaat. 

We aren't yet at that level of faithful servants. But we still need to strive hard so that we won't be careless in our salaat and prayers. At least we could imagine the letters of the divine revelation in the salaat, since we might not all understand Arabic because it is not our mother tongue or daily language. This is a jihad or an effort on our selves. It means that we have efforts to perform something diligently to please the Lord and not being an irresponsible servant of the Lord. We are not only performing salaat according to the thirteen pillars of salaat but also with our heart and soul facing Him. 

If jihad is about to kill others with swords or bombs, then we would have to bomb or kill ourselves because we are careless in salaat, hahaha. What a crazy notion. I hope cable medias could stop this nonsense sense on jihad or at least learn Arabic. Don't show that Western civilization are of the people who are lazy in pretext of academics because many people respect Western civilization especially after the establishment of the European Union. 

The same should also goes to the States. It is among the champion of humanity where many had fled to the States due to the messy situation in the Europe in the past. No need to be a Muslim to understand Arabic. It is among ancient dialects of Semitic world like Hebrew and Aramaic.

The meaning of certain words in these languages would be broadly translated. English only began as a rough tongue of barbaric Germanic and Scandinavian tribes in British Island around the 6th C while Arabic had been around the world since BCE with ancient Arabian tribes who were the nomadic people of the Middle East descended from Shem the son of Noah.

Umar bin al-Khattab may Allah be pleased with him had also cried while performing salaat until his beard becomes wet because of his tears. Abu Bakar may Allah be pleased with him can still concentrate in salaat while the house is burned down in a fire. He could feel the burning of hell fire if he runs away without completing his salaat and turning his face away from Him while in obedience.  

Allah 'Azza wa Jalla would at least would prevent us from the torment if we have the efforts because He knows that we have the effort to concentrate although the concentration is not coming. Honorable Imam al-Ghazali had said that keeping the salaat means that performing the salaat in term of the physical acts of salaat and concentration in salaat with care. 

There are 13 physical acts of salaat. We can check it in furu'uddin or the branches of the path. For example our forehead should not being covered with our scull cap since our neck should be lower (for male), or else our salaat wouldn't be complete. Because a physical part of salaat which is prostration is not complete. There are 7 parts of prostration which are the forehead, palms, knees, and six fingers at our feet.     

to be continued...