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Book
Review
Title
of the Book : Living Islam East and West (215 pages)
Element
Books Limited, England, 1989.
Author
: Sheikh Fadhlalla Haeri
Reviewed
by : Tunku Emir Farhan, 1127493 Sect.18
This book actually is
one of the collections made by Sheikh Fadhlalla in unravelling the secret path
of knowing true meaning of Islam and the best path that a Muslim can achieve
his main objective in this worldly life. Either the Muslim can finally
successfully attain the love of Allah and remains in His approval (redha) or he
just could feel lost and end up with failure and evilness. The author put the
title as Living Islam as to emphasize the necessity of requiring the true actions
in several aspects of life in Islam so that Islam can nourish in the way of
aiming Allah as the priority. Islam itself has its own definition that need to
be realised by actions not just by words.
Based on the whole book
written by the author, Sheikh Fadhlalla has raised the issue in layers of
contextual reality which are in the aspect of the recovery of spiritual values,
remembrance of Allah, living the real Islam, the spiritual nature of man and
lastly the meaning of life and death.
According to him, the problems that occur nowadays especially in every Muslim
country is that because of they are Muslims only by name but not Muslims by
heart and action. The problems such as factions and people at odds with one
another not happen only in the Muslim countries but also in many other
Buddhist, Christian countries or any countries that has no religion at all. He
said the main thing that affects those problems is they are not living in this
life for Allah and for the next life they do not remember death.
The author argues that
we are all created as one self as stated by the Quran “We have created you from one self” (4:1). According to him, ‘self’
here means the attributes, feelings and experienced which all of us share. For
example, we all know the meaning of fear, pain, love, hate, insecurity and
hunger. But as a global community, we
change our way because of our different habits, languages, and cultures.
“Islam, meaning
‘submission’ is complete understanding and unification with the reality of
existence. We are actually already unified with that reality, but we do not
know it because we see separation and boundaries.”(pg 1) Thus, he raised the
point that Islam by definition requires us to go back to our original fitrah.
By understanding Islam, we could certainly overcome the current division of our
ummah and build up again the unity among us despite of all differences. But
very mind that it could not only consolidate the Muslim to Muslim relationship
but also Muslim to non-Muslim relationship by respecting each other and by
understanding ourselves that in common.
Thus, to him if the
Muslims truly understand the real meaning of Islam and can show the Quran and
the way of Muhammad to people all over the world in a digestible form, then
they will have provided a great service. As in Quran it says, ‘A mercy for all
the worlds’ (21:107) that refers to Islam that had been brought by Prophet
Muhammad PBUH as the therapy of all mankind.
In this world also as
he said, to be satisfied and feeling successful in life the man should has the
feeling of ‘shukr’ in his heart. Shukr (gratefulness) is when his heart
contained and content. Hence, once he has that feeling, he will find himself
increase. Based on the ayah, ‘If you are
grateful, I would certainly give to you more’ (14:7).
“Suppose a child wants
a bicycle, the desire for the bicycle is an agitation which vanishes as soon as
he receives the object. His state becomes one of complete contentment. The
state of contentment is good for us because within it our energies are
preserved and we are whole.” (pg 11) Another interesting
point from him is about the basic nature of human being. Human tends to not
just stay still with what he has at present as once he got satisfactions then
he may stop from what he was seeking, and change his mind to move to something
else. As example, one has tired wants to sleep but then one has enough rest
wants to get up. Hungry man will find food to fill his stomach but after getting
full then he wants to stop eating. Meaning that, there must be some limitations
that a man can satisfy himself and he will find that he has to find another
thing to do for his next desire in order for him to satisfy his life by not
just making one thing for the whole time. This can be called as equilibrium of
life.
“The Arabic term is
fitri (primal). This is our nature. We are always looking for something else.
This process does not cease as whenever one obtains satisfactions or
tranquillity from that which one was seeking, the mind by its nature moves to
something else.” (pg134) He next proposed that the equilibrium is based on
three aspects which are mental, physical and intellectual. He also questioned
about either the equilibrium could be possible or not if one of those three
aspects is disturbed. According to him, the possibility is depend on to which
our spirit drives us and it can be generally described as the happiness. He
added, mathematically we could say the level of happiness is equal to the
desires satisfied over desires unsatisfied. So that, if the desires satisfied
is increase and the desires unsatisfied lowering, then we may presume that the
person is achieving his happiness. Then, he asked how to achieve that possibly.
To him, the happiness
and equilibrium can be possible if we submit totally to that Reality which
encompasses all realities, both relative and subjective. We need to get really
deep inside and submitting to it without expectations. He said that from that
unified state then another process emerges which offers us the means of being
secure in this life. He referred the state to the sha’riah, the corpus of divine law which provides us with a
mechanism for established equilibrium and process.
“Allah’s creation is
based on love. If we experience trouble and disagreement it is because we do
not know the proper behaviour. I have come to assert that the proper behaviour
is the Muhammadi way. Having access to the Prophet Muhammad makes it easier for
us to behave in a manner that will bring us success.” (pg 201) The author
stated that the factor of making a man feels suffer in his life is not because
of Allah wants him to suffer but the problems are within our own selves.
Moreover, he urged the
people to examine themselves on how they are created, how well their eyes work,
how tremendously our brains and nervous system function. Yet he said we are
taking for granted as we cannot see how incredible there are. This is because
we are in Ghaflah, which means
distraction. Distractions come from the Shaytan that delude us from seeing the
real path and reality. He claimed that the people simply become unaware because
they lack of Dhikr (remembrance)
towards their Creator as in Quran states “Now
surely by Allah’s remembrance are the hearts set at rest”. (13:8) Certainly,
it is by remembrance upon Allah that the hearts will find calm.
So, he concluded that
this life is a ‘preparation’ for the next as we have been brought here from the
non-time to prepare ourselves spiritually for the Hereafter (the non-time).
While death is inviting us to keep remember our Creator as we will love to do
remembrance of death. Thus, he said the true Muslim is actually a lover of
remembrance of death and is afraid of ignorance not death.
Comment
Honestly, I do love the
way how the author of this book (Sheikh Fadhlalla Haeri) describes the ideas in
many forms of contextual explanation where we could see how he put the ideas or
issues in the context that make the readers become easier to understand. On the
other hand, examples given for certain issues are enormous. Furthermore, the
issues brought in this book are great to be thought of as they bring us
especially as Muslims to think in different ways of describing the major
problems regarding the community as a whole. He emphasizes the objective of
life that many people nowadays reluctant to make Allah as their aim of
everything in this life and lack of remembrance towards the God and the
Prophet. The people also to his mind are unaware about the real meaning of
Islam and its role as the Mercy for all the worlds.
TUNKU EMIR FARHAN. TEF_SR
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