Recently, I came across a lot of fiqh problems expressed by many which are frequently encountered in our daily lives. Coincidentally, I also met people who are experts (or at least experienced) on the matters of fiqh and have differing opinions on it. After listening to them and trying to solve the problem I slowly began to understand the importance of having teachers when it comes to imparting knowledge, particularly the ones concerning faith.
As quoted in Yoda's words, "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master, and an apprentice".
In order to embrace a knowledge, we need to be fully prepared and feel responsible of acquiring it. There are certain knowledge which are not just give-and-take, but more of 'analysing' and 'synthesising'. This is something in which I lack of.
When we understand a knowledge, we should not quickly be judgemental by saying that it is the only correct knowledge or it is the wrong one. We should embrace it, analise it, make comparisons with works from other people. The Imams in the old days did not fully accept or discard one solution over another. They only provide possibilities in which we need to analise and understand ourselves. The solutions may be different depending on the social and geographical context. Like our ustaz here once said, "Mazhab is a choice, an alternative, not something that we should adhere". And a teacher can help us to make the choice.
We tend to favour one mazhab over another. He further explains that the reason why we adopt Shafie in our country is because it would be easy for us in terms of standardisation. Furthermore, historically we have been using the same mazhab. Thus, it would make easy for everyone to refer to. However, when we are in a different situation, say, we are performing the Haj, we cannot adopt Shafie per se. We need to consider other schools of thought as well. That is when we need a teacher to advise us what we can do and how we should do it.
However, we must also not be judgemental on our teachers. Just like mazhabs and other knowledge, we need to analise and understand before completely accepting or rejecting the opinion of our teachers. We respect them for being our teachers, but we must also respect the knowledge that they are imparting, so we need to treat the knowledge carefully. People who follow their teachers bluntly are those in the end becoming terrorists, or extremist, spreading the ideology that are sometimes not intended by their teachers. They may have the knowledge, but they may not fully understand it. That is why we need to be careful. Teachers are there to guide us, but they are not there to make us become them.
Just an interesting thing to note every founder of his school of thought was once an apprentice to one another. However, not all of the principles were adopted from their teacher.
Scholars in the Golden Age of Islam often critisize and quote one another, so that they can get the facts right. Even so, no one is truly correct everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So long as they referred back to the original sources and did not deviate from them.
If Yoda believes there are always two, Muslims also believe that there are always two 'original sources' that they need to constantly refer to:
Always two there are. No more, no less. Al Quran , and As Sunnah.
Wallahu a'lam.
A very interesting video to share while I'm working on my dissertation.
Excerpt from JSOnline:
The folks at the Wisconsin Tourism Federation, a 30-year-old tourism lobbying coalition based in Sun Prairie, couldn't possibly have predicted how the Internet would change the lingo.
While its abbreviation, WTF, was fairly innocuous a few decades ago, it means something entirely different these days.
That meaning - a phrase that can't be printed in a family newspaper, even though kids all over the country are texting it on a regular basis - isn't what anyone in tourism wants potential visitors to associate with Wisconsin.
So the name has been changed to protect our innocence. It's now the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin - an easy acronym switch that avoids any uncomfortable, ambiguous meanings. However, the URL www.witourismfederation.org, remains the same.
"We didn't want it to detract from our mission," said Julia Hertel, spokeswoman for TFW. The name change was voted on in July, but Hertel said the organization didn't make the switch on its Web site until recently.
"We thought we would go with the times," she said.
A blog called Your Logo Makes Me Barf pointed out the crude translation of the acronym in July, and the Journal Sentinel noted it in the Hubbub blog the same day, and again on Sept. 25.
If you think these kinds of branding issues are trivial, think again. On Tuesday, the change was news overseas.
Yesterday morning I was shocked to hear that my ex-roomate's mother passed away. It is not long before all of us are returning to Malaysia. He decided not to go back.
Takziah is different from 'tahniah'. We often have the misconception that by saying 'takziah' to someone, it would be enough. Takziah itself is an act of condolence, not a wish. Takziah is what we do to comfort our brothers and sisters, to share grief, and to do whatever it takes to help the one who is at loss. We pray for the best for them.
But it doesn't really matter if we are sincere in our wish. The person knows our intent. God knows our intent.
Unto Him we shall return. It is a reminder to myself of what I would do and feel it it happens to me. And what if, at this minute, my life is taken away. I have done so many bad deeds in this world and I don't know if I can face the afterlife. Pray that we shall all be at peace in this world and in the Hereafter.
Say:"The death from which you flee will truly overtake you; then you will be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that you did!" (Jumu'ah: 8).
I pray that she will be among those will be among those who are loved by God. Be strong my brother. Verily, to Allah belongs what
He has taken, and to Him belongs what He has given. For everything He has
set a term. Al-fatihah.
It wasn't until I entered college that I learned to use this word. We used to call it 'surau' -a typical name for a place of worship which is smaller than a mosque. The name of the building may be different, but its function remains the same.
Recently, I heard a lot of people talking about musolla and mosques only having "Quran" and "Yasin" in Malaysia. They compared it with the West as they always have Quran and Hadith stacked on the shelves. Then I questioned myself, "is this really true?"
I am not sure about other places in Malaysia, but in my place that certainly does not happen. I agree that "Yasin" books are abundant in musollas, suraus and mosques due to its significance in several rituals. But this does not mean that the suraus, musollas and mosques do not have books on Sirah Rasulullah/hadith. It's probably because we are used to be given "Yasin" for granted that we forgot about other books that's available there. When a ritual takes place, people would pass around the "Yasin" to everyone in the compound. So, we don't really have to work hard to get one. When that happens, we could care less about other things that has been provided in the shelves.
But that's just probably a theory. There might be truth behind the missing Sirah and hadith. But from where I am living, I haven't come across a musolla/mosque with no books on Hadith. I slowly learned and became interested in Sirah Nabawiyyah when I was browsing the books in the musolla. Even the surau in schools do have books on that. They are usually placed in the shelves.
People not reading the hadith? Think again. There are people who do make use of the hadith in the musolla. But they wouldn't be reciting it like the Quran. That is why we may sometimes see this phenomena as not as popular as Quran and Yasin recitation. But I have to agree upon one thing, the numbers of people who reads it frequently are lesser than those who read the Quran.
But so long as the knowledge of Quran and Hadith is passed on, it doesn't matter how they are presented. Some people may opt to read and recite, while others may opt to listen, memorize and discuss. But this tradition must go on. Wallahu'alam.
