Khayalan

Prediksi para pemikir, antropolog dan sosiolog sekelas Comte, Freud, Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Darwin yang menyatakan bahwa agama akan ditinggalkan para pengikutnya ternyata tidak terbukti kebenarannya, justru diawal abad 20 geliat keagamaan semakin terasa dengan munculnya berbagai jurnal studi agama, berdirinya rumah ibadah dan makin kuatnya ketergantungan manusia pada simbol keagamaan. Hal ini semakin menggilas prediksi ‘dunia sekular’ sebagai cadangan tunggal yang diramalkan para pemikir Barat awal abad 19. Pandangan tersebut bermula dari berbagai macam penemuan ilmiah yang selalu mematahkan dokrin-doktrin agama (baca: kristen). Semakin mereka menemukan penemuan baru, semakin berkurang otentitas dogma gereja dan kitab sucinya. Maka terjadilah bentrok antar teolog dan saintis kala itu, yang tak lepas dari kekerasan fisik yang berdarah-darah. Galileo Galilei dan Bruno merupakan bukti ril dari kebiadaban tirani para ‘wakil tuhan’ masa itu. Hal inilah yang membangkitkan semangat anti gereja dikalangan masyarakat, khususnya para saintis. Anggapan bahwa agama dan Tuhan hanyalah khayalan semakin kuat menggema dalam berbagai ruang ilmiah. Inilah cikal bakal sebuah aliran yang kemudian menamakan diri mereka sebagai ateis.

Namun semangat anti-Tuhan dan agama para saintis-ateis seakan tenggelam dengan gairah keagamaan yang muncul. Nama-nama agamawan kembali muncul menggantikan tokoh idola sekular abad 19 dan awal 20. sebut saja nama Khomaeni, Desmond Tutu, Paus Yohanes Paulus, Bunda Theresa, Dalai Lama dan masih banyak kaum agamawan yang muncul menggeser ide-ide sekularistik ateis.

Kebangkitan agama sudah hampir lima dekade, dan para ateis juga sudah tenggelam dalam keputus asaan. Tapi diawali dengan runtuhnya WTC di AS oleh ‘wakil Tuhan’, bom di Spanyol, Bali, peledakan di Inggris, bom bunuh diri di Pakistan yang juga merupakan tanggung jawab yang di klaim oleh ‘orang-orang yang beriman’, polemik berkepanjangan umat kristiani di Irlandia seakan memberikan amunisi baru yang dahsyat buat para atheis untuk menghantam Tuhan dan agama. Seakan mereka berteriak “inilah ajaran agama! Inilah anjuran Tuhan! Menghancurkan setiap inchi garis kemanusiaan!” mereka bersorak gembira, sekularisme bangkit lagi! Atheisme belum mati! Bukan darwin yang mengancam eksistensi kemanusiaan dan peradaban, tapi agamalah yang merusaknya. Darwin tak pernah menyuruh untuk membunuh, agamalah yang dengan lantang meneriakkan aroma kematian dengan bumbu kekejaman. Agama bangkit bukan untuk perdamaian, tapi pertikaian dan kematian.

Inilah fenomena kontemporer, bahwa faham sekular-ateis semakin menemukan jalan mulusnya menuju singgasana globalisasi. Muculnya para ateis semisal Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens dan Daniel C. Dennett dalam berbagai acara talk show di berbagai media, menunjukkan geliat baru neo-darwinisme ini. Belum lagi buku-buku mereka menghiasi rak-rak best seller diberbagai toko buku di dunia, sebut saja The End of Faithnya Harris (2005) God Delusionnya Dawkins (2006) Breaking the Spell karya Dennet (2006) dan karya Hitchens The God is Not Great (2007) kesemuanya langsung ludes dipasaran. Banyak dari para pembacanya yang dengan yakin akhirnya menyatakan bahwa mereka adalah ateis pengikut dawkins dan kawan-kawan.

Dawkins dalam bukunya God Delusion, menolak keberadaan Tuhan. Ia berangkat dari bukti-bukti ilmiah yang ditemukannya. Dawkins adalah seorang ahli biologi evolusioner dan pengikut setia Darwinisme. Baginya sangat jelas bahwa bukti-bukti ilmiah menunjukkan ketiadaan Tuhan. Yang dia maksud dengan “Tuhan” bukanlah Tuhan seperti yang digambarkan religious saintists semisal Einstein dan pengikut Deisme lainnya (Tuhan ada namun tidak melakukan apa-apa, Dia hanya mencipta lalu meningalkannya), tapi Tuhan personal yang disembah sebagian besar pengikut agama, khususnya Yahudi, Kristen, dan Islam. Dalam bukunya tersebut ia juga memberikan 6 argumen kenapa kita harus yakin dengan ketiadaan Tuhan. (Dawkins, 2006, hal: 111-159)

Dawkins yang juga diamini pengikut setianya meneror agama dan Tuhan dengan bertubi-tubi. Mereka hendak mengusir Tuhan dan agama jauh dari lingkungan kemanusiaan dan peradaban. Agama selalu dengan seenaknya mendaku penemuan-penemuan ilmiah sebagai ilmu Ilahi yang sudah termaktub dalam kitab suci, tanpa mau mencari kebenarannya. Klaim atas validitas eternal kitab suci ini menambah geram kaum ateis. Ditambah dengan the worship of gaps (penyembahan celah; ejekan Dawkins terhadap kaum kreasionis yang selalu memasukkan unsur Tuhan dalam celah yang belum bisa di temukan oleh nalar ilmiah (Dawkins, 2006, hal: 125-134)) yang diusung oleh kaum agamawan. Hal tersebut bukan menguatkan argumen wujud Tuhan, justru nantinya akan semakin menguatkan argumen kaum ateis. Karena semakin celah-celah tersebut tertutup dengan penemuan ilmiah yang rasionil akan semakin sempit pula ruang lingkup tuhan didalamnya, bahkan akan hilang sama sekali.

Gambaran fenomena diatas merupakan pertarungan pemikiran kontemporer yang terjadi antara kaum ateis penolak Tuhan dan agamawan. Memang mayoritas agama dan dogma kitab suci yang mereka tentang adalah ajaran kristen dimana mereka berinteraksi langsung dengannya sejak kecil, sedangkan Islam dan agama Timur lainnya mereka pelajari dengan kacamata antropologis-sosioligis. Namun justru hal ini yang amat berbahaya. Karena dalam memahami Islam dengan metode demikian bisa membawa kesalah fahaman yang fatal. Hal ini akan semakin parah, karena arus globalisasi yang kuat merupakan sebuah keniscayaan yang kita akui bersama merupakan penyalur berbagai macam aliran pemikiran dan kebudayaan terhadap dunia global yang nantinya akan merasuk secara perlahan dalam pemikiran umat Islam tanpa sadar.

Argumen-argumen Dawkins dalam The God Delusion telah menohok ulu hati agamawan Barat maupun Timur. Sebagai umat Islam, kita harus menerima kenyataan bahwa banyak dari ulama kita yang hanya wait and see terhadap penelitian ilmiah dan kemudian mencari ayat al-Qur’an dan kemudian mencocokkan dengannya. Kemudian sibuk menulis buku dan artikel menunjukkan bukti ayat-ayat al Qur’an yang sesuai dengan penemuan tersebut.

Sungguh ironis apabila umat Islam dangan kesempurnaan ajarannya yang merupakan nilai final dari semua agama sebelumnya tidak melaksanakan ajarannya. Puluhan ayat yang memerintahkan manusia untuk berfikir, menelaah alam, makhluk dan lainnya hanya sekedar buah bibir bacaan umatnya tanpa ada bentuk implimentasi praktis. Kita tidak sadar bahwa penemuan ilmiah yang ada nilainya relatif, sebagai konsekwensinya apabila dikemudian hari ada penemuan yang mematahkan argumen awal dengan bukti ilmiah yang memadai, maka argumen awal akan gugur. Apabila kita hanya sekedar mencari titik temu antara penemuan ilmiah dengan ayat-ayat al-Qur’an, itu sama saja menghukumi relativisme al Qur’an. Sudah saatnya umat Islam sadar dan bangkit dari tidur panjangnya. Segala kesempurnaan ajaran agama harus digunakan dengan maksimal. Bukannya berhenti pada ayat-ayat teertentu dan kemudian menafsirkannya secara kaku dan rigid yang akhirnya melahirkan berbagai kekerasan dan kekejaman atas nama agama.

Disini saya kira pentingnya rekonstruksi ide Islamisasi Ilmu yang pernah digulirkan oleh Al Attas dan Faruqi. Sehingga pemahaman umat akan berbagai ilmu dan pengetahuan selalu berlandaskan framework Islam. Sehingga tidak mudah terombang ambing oleh samudara logika relativisme ilmiah. Dan kejayaan sains Islam bisa terwujud tanpa harus meyakini bahwa Tuhan hanya sekedar khayalan manusia yang pesimis dan fatalis.

Allah Knows Best

Albi 100708, 16:30

'Sembahyang'; Identitas Umat Beragama

Oleh: Alfina HM

Agama merupakan landasan setiap umat manusia, termaktub dalam kisah panjang bagaimana sebenarnya manusia itu membutuhkan sesuatu yang supreme-power untuk bersandar dan menyerahkan diri. Tak lepas dari itu, setiap agama pasti memiliki ritual dan ibadah yang berbeda dan bermacam-macam. Karena ritual merupakan bagian pokok dari suatu agama. Dengan kata lain ia disebut juga sebagai tata cara keagamaan. Secara garis besar dapat kita simpulkan bahwa orang yang beribadah atau melakukan ritual tertentu berarti ia adalah penganut agama tersebut, maka segala praktek keagamaan seperti 'sembahyang' adalah sebuah identitas bagi setiap umat beragama.

Agama Hindu memiliki keyakinan terhadap banyak Tuhan (dewa-dewa) yang harus mereka sembah, seperti Brahma, Wisnu, Siwa dll. Begitu juga dengan agama Budha yang mengabdikan dirinya dalam ritual-ritual agama seperti yoga untuk mencapai nirvana. Umat Yahudi melakukan sembahyang atau doa selama beberapa kali dalam sehari (sekharit, Mincha, ma'ariv), puasa dll sebagai ritual mereka. Tak ketinggalan dengan umat Kristen yang biasa melakukan ibadah mereka setiap hari minggu seperti Eucharist yang mereka percayai sebagai seremonial suci, serta masih banyak sakramen lainnya. Lalu bagaimana dengan ritual umat Islam yang terangkum dalam lima rukum Islam, misalnya salat? Kenapa seorang muslim harus salat dan apa untungnya meninggalkan salat? Bukankah masih banyak ibadah lainnya yang berpahala seperti bersedekah, membantu orang lain dll?

Salat merupakan suatu ibadah memuliakan Allah Swt yang menjadi tanda rasa syukur kaum muslimin sebagai seorang hamba dengan gerakan dan bacaan yang telah diatur khusus oleh Nabi Muhammad Saw dengan ketentuan Al-Quran dan Sunnah. Salat sendiri sudah ada dan telah dilakukan oleh umat-umat terdahulu, seperti perintah salat kepada Nabi Ibrahim dan anak cucunya, Nabi Syu'aib, Nabi Musa, dan kepada Nabi Isa Alaihim Assalam. Pernyataan tersebut juga dibenarkan oleh kisah-kisah yang ada dalam Kitab Perjanjian Lama (Taurat) dan Perjanjian Baru (Injil) yang menceritakan bagaimana Nabi-nabi terdahulu melakukan salat (beribadah kepada Allah Swt). Berikut isi Perjanjian Lama dalam kitab keluaran (Exodus) 34:8 "Masuklah, marilah kita sujud menyembah, berlutut dihadapan Tuhan yang menjadikan kita". Dalam Perjanjian Baru dikatakan dalam surat Markus 14:35 "Ia maju sedikit, merebahkan diri ke tanah dan berdoa supaya sekiranya mungkin, saat itu lalu dari pada-Nya". Dengan demikian maka jelas bagi umat Islam bahwa salat sudah menjadi tradisi dan ajaran yang baku bagi semua Nabi dan Rasul Allah beserta para pengikutnya sepanjang jalan, Allah Swt telah berfirman: "Sebagai ketentuan Allah (sunnatullah) yang telah berlaku sejak dahulu, kamu sekalipun tidak akan menemukan perubahan bagi ketentuan Allah itu" (Q.S: Al-Fath: 23)

Dalam Islam salat merupakan salah satu rukun Islam, dimana agama akan kokoh berdiri diatasnya. Salat juga merupakan pengabdian (ketundukan) yang mencakup fisik, mental dan spiritual seorang muslim kepada Allah Swt yang diawali dengan mengucapkan Takbir (Allahu Akbar) meyakini bahwa Allah Swt Maha Besar dan diakhiri dengan salam. Begitu pentingnya salat bagi seorang muslim telah berulang kali Allah tegaskan dalam firman-Nya, bahwa hukum yang berlaku bukanlah 'semau' hamba-Nya, akan tetapi sudah ditetapkan dan tidak bisa ditawar lagi.

               Allah Swt memberikan keutamaan mengerjakan Salat dengan perintah untuk selalu menjaganya karena

semua amal saleh akan dibalas dengan surga kelak, dimana kita akan tinggal selamanya. Allah Swt berfirman: 

"Sesungguhnya beruntunglah orang-orang yang beriman (yaitu) orang-orang yang khusuk dalam sembahyangnya"

(Q.S: Al-Mukminun 1-2) 

Wallahu a’alam

Hindu rituals and ceremonies in contemporary Bali and its impact on muslim society (a research proposal)

By: Alfina Hidayah HM

Preface
According to Concise Oxford English dictionary the term 'Hinduism' means a major religious and cultural tradition of the Indian subcontinent, including belief in reincarnation and the worship of a large pantheon of deities.[1] This religion develops and expands to a number of countries in the world, and Indonesia is one of them where Hinduism has existed and continues to survive with other religious communities.
The expansion of Hindu in Indonesia started when the native people of the archipelago went to India for trade; the Indians reciprocated in the beginning of first millennium. As more and more Indians started settling in the archipelago, their influence started increasing. Over the islands; so much so that many Hindu kingdoms were founded in Java and have affected the Indonesian society and its customs.[2]
After the advent of Islam in the 11th century, the religion and beliefs of a majority of the people became Islam which continues to this day. However, one notice that even with the gradual downfall of the Hindu kingdoms one can still find their strong and perhaps increasing influence in the environment and community in contemporary Indonesia. Most of them inhabit the Hindu island of Bali, where the entire population is Hindu with an approximate percentage of 93% of the settled citizens.
Hinduism in Bali Indonesia has many rituals which have influence the society particularly the Muslims’ society. Since their ancestors were adherent of Animism who believed in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe. Subsequently the Hindus of Indonesia also adopted the animistic as well as their original beliefs and practices. Unfortunately, traditional Javanese Muslims also practice those rituals of Animism and Hindu. These kinds are a mixture of religion and indigenous cultures.

Introductory Statement
The project will undertake to answer the questions “what is the impact of Hindu rituals and practices upon the Muslim community of Bali. These questions are:
1. How do Hindu kingdoms develop and rule the ancient archipelago in the history of Indonesia? (development of ancient Hindu in Indonesia)
2. The classical Hindu in Indonesia is a mixture of Hindu and Buddha as a single religion, why?
3. When we look at the contemporary Indonesia, we will find that Hindu make an effort to revive as one religion and separate from Buddhism, this revival what they called by Parisada Hindu Dharma. What are their aims for that?
4. What are their rituals which still present until today?
5. Bali is known as gods island (Devata Island), is Hindu and its rituals the main reason that promote Bali into well-known and became rich tourism island today?
6. Why is a Balinese Hindu more concerned with the rituals and art than beliefs, laws etc?
7. What is the impact of Hindu rituals on the society especially upon the Muslims?
8. Why the Muslims adopt and adapt the Hindu rituals? What are their purposes?
9. What is our position and statement as Muslims concerning this issue?

Methodology of Research
This project will try to answer the above questions through a historical study and a brief introduction of Hinduism in Indonesia all over its various periods. Secondly will mention some of their main rituals and ceremonies practices in detail to understand which are related to and adopted by Muslims. Finally I will come up to the contemporary issues between Hindu and Islam which relate to this topic followed by approaching to the conclusion that being a Muslim what we are going to do then.

Outline

I divided my topic as below:
ü A brief introduction to the historical background of Hinduism in Indonesian Archipelago
ü Chapter one: The rituals and ceremonies
ü Chapter two: Its impact on Muslim society
ü Conclusion
ü References

Some references arranged for project

Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Eleventh edition)
Hinduism in Indonesia-wikipedia, the free Encyclopaedia

Radhakrishnan, S. The Hindu Dharma. (International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 33, No. 1, (Oct., 1922), pp. 1-22). The University of Chicago Press

Schiller, Anne. An "Old" Religion in "New Order" Indonesia: Notes on Ethnicity and Religious Affiliation. (Sociology of Religion, Vol. 57, No. 4, (Winter, 1996), pp. 409-417). Association for the Sociology of Religion, Inc.

Shihab, Alwi. Membendung Arus, Respons gerakan Muhammadiyah terhadap penetrasi misi Kristen di Indonesia. (The Muhammadiyah movement and its controversy with Christian mission in Indonesia). Mizan, Bandung Indonesia, 1998

Shihab, Alwi. Islam Sufistik. Mizan, Bandung-Indonesia, 2001.

Van der Kroef, Justus M. The Hinduization of Indonesia Reconsidered (The Far Eastern Quarterly), Vol. 11, No. 1, (Nov., 1951), pp. 17-30. Association for Asian Studies.

[1] Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Eleventh edition).
[2] Shihab, Alwi. Membendung Arus, Respons gerakan Muhammadiyah terhadap penetrasi misi Kristen di Indonesia. (The Muhammadiyah movement and its controversy with Christian mission in Indonesia). Mizan, Bandung Indonesia, 1998. P.1.

Can romance novel be a type of Islamic literature?

Question
Can romance novel be a type of Islamic literature?

A. Introduction
In the Eickelman and Anderson, 1999, in the Muslim World, Maimuna Huq wrote that how romance novel can be a suggestion and a message that implied moral and ethic. She begin her writing with the reaction of Bangladeshi toward the controversial novel lajja written by Bangladeshi feminist-secularist writer Tasleema Nasreen, it seemed to demonstrate the growing strength of Islamic “fundamentalism” in Bangladesh. Further, she explain that some enjoy reading her works and some “fundamentalists” write novel themselves-romantic ones with hard cover as “secularly” and provocatively illustrated as Nasreen’s, a style and language as contemporary as hers, and plots equally laden with the suffering of women in an unjust society, paradoxically, the producers and readers of these novels consider them “Islamic” works, so do not deem them objectionable. It shows us how the “symbolic Islam” and all product that come from “fundamentalists” has already so-called taken for granted. It is similar to Charles Lindholm research about Muslim daily life, he said that before the coming of anthropology to understand Islam and Muslim daily life, the rural tribal Muslim only bothered about using the Sheikh to resolve their conflict and took the authority of religion for granted. She added that most scholars of Bangladesh attribute the recent and unexpected growth in Islamic activism to “internal” effort to the state and “external” efforts of Middle Eastern countries. It shows us how it related to Olivier Roy description about the interventions of “islamist” or “neo-fundamentalist” in spreading secularization within Islam (Roy 2002: 25-57)
Huq’s article on new media in the Muslim world (here, she take Bangladesh as her object) identifies that romance novel as a form of media products that are consumed by the Bengali middle classes. She identifies how “islamist” writers and publisher have in the past written about piety and ritual related themes while increasingly more and more of this literature is changing its form. She shows how a lot of the new publications are written in the genre of romance novels with implied on moral messages.

B. Mas’ala Texts, Biographies, Booklets and Novels
Mas’ala texts provide detailed and specific information on how to benefit from Qur’anic verses in various aspects of life-health, intellectual ability, socio-economic well being, family affairs, and the attainment of greater virtue or sawab for success in the Life After Death. Most of Islamic literature produced between 1971-1975 focused on mas’ala. The books enjoy wide popularity, although both Islamic and secular activists tend to look down on them.
Mas’ala text play a significant role in shaping public consciousness of Islam by encouraging a ritual-based piety in readers. The content of the books spreads quickly by words of mouth, especially in the densely packed middle class and lower middle class neighborhoods, foregrounding Islam and the Qur’an in daily practice, even if the text do not encourage explanations. More like handbooks than discursive formations, Mas’ala texts appeal to a majority of the madrassa-educated.
Lacking in secular modalities for meaningful renderings of sacred phenomena, mas’ala texts fail to engage a majority of the modern-educated, who are reluctant to perceive a text as authoritative and interesting simply because it’s full of Qur’anic verses and a text as authoritative and interesting simply because it’s full of Qur’anic verses and hadith. While the newer mas’ala texts respond to shifting criteria for persuasiveness more effectively than older ones, they do not compete well with more recent booklets and novel in attracting reader in society with rising levels of modern/secular higher education, especially readers from influential circle.
Like mas’ala texts, biographies are an old literary form, one that constituted a very popular category of Muslim Bengali literature during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They are one of the few types of Islamic literature available in general bookstores, probably because of their apolitical nature, easy-read style, and suitability for both adult and children. The texts are primarily stored at stores affiliated with Islamists groups and located around group headquarters or mosques that tend to be Islamists strongholds, such us Kantaban Mosque in Dhaka.
One example of the new biographies is Sirate Ibnu Hisham, translated from Arabic into Bangla by Akram Farooq and first published in 1988, this biography of the prophet Muhammad is much longer and of a more “authoritative” or “serious” appearance than most popular biographies. Another biography is Rasulullah Biplabi Jiban (The Revolutionary Life of the Messenger of Allah).
Booklet started to appear in noticeable numbers in 1970s. As far as the basic nature of their contents is concerned, of course they can be traced to “social” and “political” works of 19th and early 20th century punthi literature. current booklets are cheap and readable because they adhere closely to colloquial Bangla and treat specific issue. The production of most mas’ala and traditional biographical texts is not directly connected to Islamic activism, but most authors, publishers, and readers of booklets are affiliated with various Islamic groups.
While some Islamists do not accept novel as “Islamic” literature, according to Huq, some Islamic publishers see novels becoming the most popular form of Islamic writing in the near future. Most importantly, added Huq, perhaps these novels bridge the gap between the type of romantic novels written by Nasreen, who advocate transcendence of all social mores and attack religious values, and normative Islamic literature, which is preoccupied with reaffirming Islamic principles, purifying society, and decrying the moral depravity of various Bengali cultural practices.
Among more contemporary Islamic novels are series of paperback thriller such as Thypoon and Saimoom, which closely resemble secular series like Masud Rana and Western in both writing and appearance style. Most important, stressed Huq, romantic fiction, as a popular performative genre and emblem, is a powerful pathway to the heart of the national imagination. Speaking in general term, Huq added, madrassa students tend to read romantic novels by Islam-orientd writers; Bengale-medium students read novels by secularly oriented writers.
Reading between the lines in such novels where Islam barely perceptible, one could perhaps see in them certain implicit Islamic messages, such as the ill of extra-marital sexual relations and of free mixing, and the need to uproot prostitution. However, such views are also fully consonant with popular Bengali cultural ideology. Instead of relying on Islam for legitimizing a particular social value, as early generations of Islamists in the region tended to do, contemporary Islamic novelist draw on the authority of popular notions of “cultural decency”.(Huq, 1999:134-151)

C. Conclusion
It remains difficult to define “Islamic” literature, especially since there is little consensus among readers: Islamic is a volatile signifier. But looking on several kinds of Islamic literature tell us several things.
First, mas’ala texts, biographies and booklets exemplify an “objectification” of the Muslim consciousness-codification, principles, citation from the Qur’an and hadith, and recognizable forms of authority.
Second, novel depict a different type of objectification: Islam is objectified not through apparent systematicity, coherence, organization, and the positing of clear-cut difference but through the openness of cultural symbols and shared local notions, the presence of Islamic element like premarital romance, the voicelessness of religious authority, and the absence of particularity.
Third, variety in Islamic literature, even within a specific category such as the novel, reflects a pluralistic view of Islam.
Forth, types of literature such as thrillers and romantic novels indicate attempts to talk about religion in ways that undercut either “secularist” or “fundamentalist” approach to Islam.
Fifth, closeness in form between secular and Islamic writing styles, as is evident in the novel, reflects complex interactions between formal, secular, higher education and informal religious training, especially in the case of writers affiliated with the politic Islam.
Sixth, while the recent varieties of Islamic literature do not have massive audiences, they are often aimed at and read by those from the prestigious circle of upwardly mobile professionals, the powerful communities of high school, college and university students, and the influential associations of small and big businessman. (Huq, 1999:152-155)
Last, Maimuna Huq thesis is related –implicitly- to sociological theory of Lindholm and Roy as we mention above, and according to Huq, romance novels can be assumed as a type of Islamic literature. Because, a lot of the new publications are written in the genre of romance novels with implied on moral messages and of course religious doctrine of daily life.

Is secularization a sociological process initiated by the Muslim encounter with and migration to the West?

Question

Is secularization a sociological process initiated by the Muslim encounter with and migration to the West?

Answer

A. Introduction

More than twenty years after the success of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the wave of Islamic radicalism that has engulfed the Middle East since the late 1970s is taking a different course. The mainstream Islamist movements have shifted from the struggle for a supranational Muslim community into a kind of Islamo-nationalism: they want to be fully recognized as legitimate actors on the domestic political scene, and have largely given up the supranational agenda that was part of their ideology, said Roy[1] On the other hand, the policy of conservative re-Islamization implemented by many states, even secular ones, in order to undercut the Islamist opposition and to regain some religious legitimacy has backfired. It has produced a new brand of Islamic fundamentalism, ideologically conservative but at times politically radical. This neo-fundamentalism is largely de-linked from states’ policy and strategy. At first glance it is less politically minded than the Islamist movements—less concerned with defining what a true Islamic State should be than with the implementation of shariat (Islamic law). Though the movement is basically a socio-cultural phenomenon, it has also produced an extremist expression which is embodied in loose peripheral networks, such as the organization Al Qaida, headed by Osama bin Laden, responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Consequently, international Islamic terrorism has shifted from state-sponsored actions or actions against domestic targets toward a de-territorialized, supranational and largely uprooted activism. Nevertheless the strategic impact of these new movements is limited by the very fact that they have such scarce roots in the states’ domestic politics. However, this is not the case in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are now the hotbed of contemporary Islamic fundamentalism.

According to Roy[2] the relationship of Muslims to Islam is reshaped by globalization, westernization and the impact of living as minority. The issue is not theological contents of Islamic religion, but the way believers refer to this corpus to adapt and explain their behaviors in a context where religion has lost its social authority. Roy didn’t consider it to be a different Islam. The corpus, the basic tenets and rituals, the pillars of the faith are absolutely consistent with the learned tradition of theological and legal knowledge. Moreover, certain forms of globalization of Islam are explicitly fundamentalists by stressing the need to return to a ‘pure’ Islam, that of the salaf, the pious ancestors. Global Muslims, said Roy, either Muslim who settled permanently in non Muslim countries (mainly in the West), or Muslims who try to distance themselves from a given Muslim culture and so stress their belonging to a universal ummah, whether in purely quietist way or through political action.[3]

B. Neo-Fundamentalism and Secularization

“Islamism” is the brand of modern political Islamic fundamentalism which claims to recreate a true Islamic society, not simply by imposing the shariat, but by establishing first an Islamic state through political action. Islamists see Islam not as a mere religion, but as a political ideology which should be integrated into all aspects of society (politics, law, economy, social justice, foreign policy, etc.). The traditional idea of Islam as an all-encompassing religion is extended to the complexity of a modern society. In fact they acknowledge the modernity of the society in terms of education, technology, changes in family structure, and so forth. The movement’s founding fathers are Hassan Al Banna (1906–1949), Abul Ala Maududi, and, among the Shi’as, Baqer al Sadr, Ali Shariati and Ruhollah Khomeyni. They had a great impact among educated youth with a secular background, including women. They had less success among traditional ulamas. To Islamists, the Islamic State should unite the ummah as much as possible, not being restricted to a specific nation. Such a state attempts to recreate the golden age of the first decades of Islam and supersede tribal, ethnic and national divides, whose resilience is attributed to the believers’ abandonment of the true tenets of Islam or to colonial policy. These movements according to Roy[4] are not necessarily violent, even if, by definition, they are not democratic: the Pakistani Jama’at Islami and the Turkish Refah Party (now fazilet) as well as most of the Muslim Brothers groups have remained inside a legal framework, except where they were prevented from taking political action, as was the case in Syria, for instance.

In fact, this new brand of supranational neo-fundamentalism is more a product of contemporary globalization than of the Islamic past. Using two international languages (English and Arabic), traveling easily by air, studying, training and working in many different countries, communicating through the Internet and cellular phones, they think of themselves as “Muslims” and not as citizens of a specific country. They are often uprooted, more or less voluntarily (many are Palestinian refugees from 1948, and not from Gaza or the West Bank; bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship; many others belong to migrant families who move from one country to the next to find jobs or education). It is probably a paradox of globalization to gear together modern supranational networks and traditional, even archaic, infra-state forms of relationships (tribalism, for instance, or religious schools’ networks). Even the very sectarian form of their religious beliefs and attitudes make the neo-fundamentalists look like other sects spreading all over the planet.

C. Conclusion

“Islamism” is the brand of modern political Islamic fundamentalism which claims to recreate a true Islamic society, not simply by imposing the shariat, but by establishing first an Islamic state through political action.

The state the Islamist parties are challenging is not an abstract state, but rather one that is more or less rooted in history and is part of a strategic landscape. The Islamist parties themselves are the product of a given political culture and society. Despite their claim of being supranational, most of the Islamist movements have been shaped by national particularities.

This “nationalization” of Islamism is apparent in most countries of the Middle East.

However, the mainstream Islamist movements, while consolidating a stable constituency inside their own country, are losing their appeal beyond their borders.

Three elements characterize these groups (well embodied by the Taliban/Osama bin Laden coalition).

First, they combine political and militant jihad against the West with a very conservative definition of Islam, closer to the tenets of Saudi Wahhabism than to the official ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The second point is that these movements are supra-national. A quick look at the bulk of bin Laden’s militants killed or arrested between 1993 and 2001 show that they are mainly uprooted, western educated, having broken with their family as well as country of origin.

Third, while Islamists do adapt to the nation-state, neo-fundamentalists embody the crisis of the nation-state, squeezed between infra-state solidarities and globalization. The state level is bypassed and ignored.

[1] www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi/query=oliver

[2] Roy, Olivier, 2004, Globalised Islam the Search for New Ummah, p ix-x

[3] In this field Roy has successfully describe globalization within Muslims and Islam; unfortunately, he is too west-minded in his opinions, like other orientalists before him.

[4] Roy, Olivier, 2004, p 1-2, 22-23

TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEFINITION OF RELIGION

Question

Should a religion be defined according to belief, ritual or their lived experience in everyday life?

Answer

TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEFINITION OF RELIGION

A. Introduction

Religion has already for a long period been a topic of anthropological study. It is Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832 - 1917), who is considered as the founding father of the anthropological study of religion. He saw religion as a way to understand the unexplainable (Stanley Tambiah 1990: 43). Nowadays the phenomena religion is seen as a cultural universal. But the concept religion certainly is not. In the nineteenth century French encyclopedias introduced the concept, that etymological can be traced back to the Latin `religare´, meaning to tie back. The anthropologists, in contrast with for instance theologians, do not ask whether there is divine truth in religion, but looks at the content of the religion. The view on religion is very well typified by the definitions used for the concept. Max Weber refused to define religion and didn’t take religion seriously (Bryan Turner 1974: 177) and that might indeed be the wisest thing to do. But I will take some anthropological definitions.

B. Definitions of Religion

In classical anthropology the definitions tend to focus on religion in `traditional´ societies. In this they put emphasis on the interaction with supernatural entities[1] Although subject of debate, religion in my view is very well possible without any supernatural beings, as Durkheim has debated in the case of Buddhism. The most important point of Durkheim is that religion can be seen as something sacred or as he puts it:

a unified set of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, - beliefs and practices which unite [into] one single moral community, all those who adhere to them(Durkheim 1995: xxxiv)[2] In Durkheim’s view, it is the authority and beliefs of a society that make things sacred or nonsacred (in his terminology, profane). Religion is consequently best understood neither as the result of supernatural revelation (although Durkheim recognizes that this may be a personal view held by the member of a religion), nor as an illusion or set of mistaken ideas (which might be the viewpoint of a skeptical outsider who does not accept the religious beliefs). Rather, religion is best understood as the power of a society to make things sacred or profane in the lives of its individual members. According to Durkheim, the social and religious power of sacredness are one and the same, since to hold something sacred is to demonstrate one’s commitment to and respect for the authority of one’s tradition.

What also is worth noting is that he takes religion as being both believe and practice. Furthermore Durkheim sees religion specific as something collective, while magic would be typified by individual practice. With his emphasis on a community as the basis of religion, that what often is referred to as shamanism would for instance not be considered a religion.

Another definition is by Sir Edward Taylor[3] He defines religion as “the belief in Spiritual Being”. Taylor’s treatment of religion is remarkably different from Robertson Smith’s sociological treatment of it in religion of the semites (1899). Smith sees totemism as the earliest manifestation of religion, in which the religion of the group or clan dominates individuals, and in which rite precedes belief, Taylor’s conception of religion put belief before rite, and saw its original basis in individual psychology. And from these basic premises he built up his scheme in evolutionary terms. Thus lower natural religion was transformed into higher revealed religion, distinguished by morality and ethics.

Taylor systematically built up other progressions: from the belief in souls to belief in spirit after death. By means of these progressions tylor constructed his (hypothetical) developmental scheme from animism to polytheism to monotheism, the last being the highest form.

Another definition is by Clifford Geertz. He defines religion as

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic (Geertz 1985: 4).[4] A little remark I can not keep to myself is that implicitly Geertz suggest that the religious experience is not true (an aura of factuality, it seems to be realistic), while in my view anthropologists shouldn't do any pronouncement about its truth, but need to be able to see it as the truth of the people studied. Like Durkheim who states: All [religions] are true in their own fashion. It is the task of the anthropologist to understand these fashions. As a critical point to Geertz´ definition that it lacks specificity. It wouldn't contain a directly observable, formal characteristic which is universally applicable as a means of identifying the religious. So it doesn't leave the anthropologist much to study, as I would interpret it. Hereafter they define religion themselves as:

All explicit and implicit notions and ideas, accepted as true, which relate to a reality which cannot be verified empirically (van Baal & van Beek 1985: 3)[5] So I must have misinterpreted their critics because here Geertz' symbols, moods, motivations and conceptions have been reduced to only notions and ideas. But there is also a similarity between the two definitions. In contrast with Durkheim and Tylor, both Geertz and van Baal & van Beek take non-empirically perceivable objects (notions and ideas; a system) as the core of religion instead of also having an eye for the practice. To me it seems to be this aspect can not be lacking in a definition, especially one of social scientists. Not only what is believed but also what is done marks the difference between religions. Some people might refer to their religion as mainly being the actions they are taking while others might emphasis the beliefs. So a definition should at least leave it open whether believe or action is taken as the core of the religion. In my point of view an anthropological definition of phenomena should somehow give a handle.

In other hand, Malinowski sharply separated off science from religion. Science was a “profane” activity, while religion grouped with magic belonged to the “sacred” domain. (Staley Tambiah 1990: 67)

This demarcation is basically opposed to Taylor’s scheme, which grouped magic with science as “pseudo-science”. Malinowski characterization of “science” was both simpliciticand generous when he actually credited the Trobianders with the possession of scientific knowledge (Stanley Tambiah 1990:67-68).

C. Conclusion

Above this a definition in my point of view should embrace the dimensions in which religion is expressed. A lot of times it is these dimensions that are referred to as religion. Further essential to me seems the relation with something spiritual, in the broadest sense, being a quality of a human individual or an entity on its own. So summing up a definition in the line of the given arguments should have eye for the cognitive as well as the per formative nature of religion. It should somehow incorporate the dimensions in which it is expressed and take awareness of the fact that it has something to do with the spiritual. With these ingredients one comes to something like:

A set of beliefs and/or actions to regulate and approach reality, expressed in: (a) doctrine, (b) philosophy, (c) myth, (d) symbol (e) ethic, (f) ritual, (g) matter, (h) experience and (i) social organization, in some way related to spiritual qualities, phenomena or entities.

In my point of view, to accentuate a point made before, religion is not something that can be studied, at least not by social scientist. It can only see expressions of religion, or to be more precise - but maybe a little confusing - the way it sees a human expression as the expression of what she refers to as religion. So only the expressions, of which certainly a limited number are included in the definition, can be studied. The point of it refers to as religion is that sometimes, because religion is not empirically perceptible, it is not clear whether an expression is religious. The field of ethics can supply us with a good example of this. The Moslems are forbidden to talk about bad things occurring in the Holy Book. One could look at this as a religious ethic: you should not talk about the bad things, but in the way described it maybe has more significance to look at it as socio-political ethic. For the sake of the Qur’an as a Source, there should be given a good image to the outside world, and there doesn't seem to be much religious about that.

This example shows that religion is very much intermingled with secular life. Religion is next to striving for spiritual goals also used for all kind of worldly goals. "Elementary" forms of religion are focused on mundane, worldly concerns: health, rainmaking, prosperity or as Weber puts it: "religious or magical behaviour or thinking must not be set apart from the range of everyday purposive conduct, particularly since even the ends of religious and magical acts are predominantly economic" (Sociology of religion 1965: 1)

[1] Guido Verboom, 2006, Religion, http://mongoluls.net/mongolian-religion/religiondef.shtml

[2] Emile Durkheim,1995, The Elementary Forms of Religious life, translator’s introduction, (trans.) Karen Field

[3] Stanley Tambiah, 1990, Religion, Magic, Science and the Scope of Nationality, p: 47-48

[4] Geertz, C.1985. Religion as a cultural system. Anthropological approaches to the study of religion. M. Banton. London, Tavistock: XLIII, 176. Cited in Guido Verboom, op. cit.

[5] Baal, J. v. and W. E. A. v. Beek, 1985. Symbols for communication an introduction to the anthropological study of religion. Cited in Guido Verboom, op. cit.

DEDUCTION

Deduction is the process of figuring things out that are necessary true, provided that the assumption we start with, called the premises, are true. Geometry is based on deductive thinking. So are all those word problems you had to do in math class.

Aristotle provided a famous example of a kind of deduction that he called a syllogism. It consists of three statements: two premises and a conclusion.

Here is Aristotle’s syllogism about Socrates:

All men are mortal

Socrates is a man

Socrates is mortal

From the two premises, we can deduce the conclusion for certain.

As Aristotle himself noticed, the conclusion is only certain if the premises in fact true. If all men aren’t mortal, or if Socrates is not a man, then the conclusion that Socrates is mortal may be false.

As you’ll see later in chapter 7, Aristotle developed a whole philosophical system –including epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics- largely with the help of syllogism that assured him that his ideas were logically consistent. And, for the most part, his ideas are logically consistent. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make them all true. Many of Aristotle’s premises can be shown to be false.

Even so, Aristotle’s thinking has been extremely influential; partly because he has helped other philosophers focus on the logical consistency of their ideas. Deduction is the best way to expand what we already know. If we can be sure of our premises and the meaning of the words we use, it leads to reliable information.

INDUCTION

Another important logical process is induction –a way of making generalizations about things-. Induction, like deduction, moves from premises to conclusions. But unlike deduction, induction leads to conclusions that may not be true even if the premises are true. Inductive conclusions are only probable, not certain.

For example, if we want to know what color crows can be and we go out and find a good number of crows and all of them are black; it’s a pretty good bet that all crows are black. But can we be sure? Even seeing a million black crows doesn’t mean for certain that there isn’t a crow out there somewhere that is lime green. The best we can do is say that all crows are probably black.

Induction is, in some ways, less certain than deduction, but induction can do a lot that deduction can’t. Induction for example, can help generate hypotheses. A hypothesis is a generalization that we think might be true, but that might not actually be true.