The Jinn and the Statistician

"A very businesslike paperboy knocked on the door of a house," Swara began the story after saying Basmalah and greeting with Salaam, "and when an old woman answered, he demanded, 'You haven’t paid for your paper all month. Pay up right now or you’re off the route, and you’ll be hearing from our collection agency.'

The woman looked around her yard and calmly answered, 'O son ... I’ve paid you every week, in much the same way you deliver my newspaper. Look. There’s a payment envelope in the bushes to the left, one in the bushes to the right, one up in the gutter of the porch, and one in the hole in my living room window.'"

"And the next day," Swara continued, "Frog visited Toad's house, to fulfill, the story he had told.

'Once upon a time, in a country, where after a Reformation, it was agreed upon them, that their Head of State—and he was equipped with weapons and all kinds of devices, that were expected to help him to carry out his duties—apart from running and managing the government with a limited term of office, was also the guardian and custodian of the good moral values. But unfortunately, among the state civil apparatus—of couse not all of them, who should work for the progress and prosperity of the people, on one hand, emerged—a kind of moral decandency—a term—along with the related words hedonist and hedonistic—derived from the Greek word hedone, 'pleasure.' On the other hand, there was such thing so-called violence or pain, unfolded. Usually, the two appear together, or one of the two, comes first..

When speaking about the birth of Hedonism, Kurt Lampe told us a Cyrenaic parable, 'If we are to believe Xenophon [of Athens], Socrates did not entirely approve of Aristippus of Cyrene. Xenophon and Aristippus were both among the crowd of young men who passed their leisure time with Socrates. However, Xenophon felt that he and Socrates agreed on the importance of self-control, which was the foundation of responsible management of one’s body, soul, household, relationships, and polis. By contrast, he narrates how Socrates 'had noticed that one of his companions [i.e., Aristippus] was rather self-indulgent' with regard to food, drink, sex, sleep, cold, heat, and hard work. So Socrates tries to show Aristippus the error of his ways. His admonishment concludes by recalling the wisdom of the poets Hesiod and Epicharmus, who concur that sweat and suffering are the price of all good things. He then paraphrases Prodicus’s story about 'the choice of Heracles,' in which the hero is confronted with two allegorical figures. The figure of Vice promises every sort of pleasure without effort, while Virtue reiterates that there is no happiness without exertion. Socrates does not tell us which choice Heracles made, but we all know he chose the path of suffering and glorious virtue. The question is, which choice did Aristippus make?

Xenophon’s way of presenting Aristippus leads most readers to conclude that he chose the path of easy pleasure. Of course, this is not a reliable account of the historical Aristippus’s thoughts. It is a fiction colored by Xenophon’s opinions of Aristippus and Socrates and his own conceptions of virtue, vice, pleasure, and happiness. But it is a useful parable for thinking about the impetus behind the philosophical movement Aristippus started. That movement is called 'Cyrenaic' after Cyrene, the polis in North Africa where most of the movement’s participants were born. Although the Cyrenaics do not associate pleasure with vice, Xenophon is right to represent Cyrenaic philosophy as the choice of pleasure. The Cyrenaics reflectively affirm their intuitive attraction to pleasure and commit themselves to working through this decision’s life-shaping consequences.

here are two aspects of this hedonism, in the eyes of Lampe. First, many of the Cyrenaics’ fundamental beliefs and arguments revolve around pleasure and pain. In particular, they all agree that either bodily or mental pleasure is the greatest and most certain intrinsic good. We might call this, formal hedonism. Second, they actually indulge in all sorts of everyday pleasures such as food and sex. In other words, notwithstanding disagreements among members of the movement, in general it is not by sober parsimony or self-restraint that they attempt to live pleasantly. In this, they differ (at least in degree) from many formal hedonists, including their competitors and eventual successors, the Epicureans. We might call this everyday hedonism.

In fact we can plausibly think of Cyrenaic philosophy as the first attempt in the European tradition, to formalize everyday hedonism with increasingly systematic theories. The Cyrenaics were obviously not the first to claim that pleasure is a good thing; indeed, pleasure’s supposedly universal appeal is the foundation of their reflective choice. Nor were they the first thinkers to grant pleasure an important theoretical position. It seems that Democritus, for example, gave both 'pleasure' (hēdonē) and 'delight' (terpsis) thematic prominence in his ethical writings. Moreover, among Aristippus’s approximate contemporaries were Eudoxus of Cnidus, who elaborated his hedonism within Plato’s Academy, and the lamentably shadowy Polyarchus, 'The Voluptuary' of Syracuse. But the Cyrenaic tradition clearly involves a much more sustained investigation of hedonism than any of these. It is thus, with some justice that the Cyrenaics have sometimes been represented as the originators of the tradition of philosophical hedonism in Europe.

It was also mentioned, there was a statistician, while driving his Rubicon Jeep—don't ask where he gained it, and don't ask why suddenly a middle-aged woman, who is known to get angry when she's at work, on social media, was recorded (or purposely recorded?) washing a car, and according to the netizens, the road tax hasn't been paid—along the highway, something caught his attention. But before I move on, you may ask, why choose statistics in this context?

In fact, information is beautiful, and so are Statistics. Statistics is the most exciting of disciplines. A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may work as employees or as statistical consultants. David John Hand, a British statistician, tells us, 'One good working definition of statistics might be that it is the technology of extracting meaning from data. However, no definition is perfect. In particular, this definition makes no reference to chance and probability, which are the mainstays of many applications of statistics. So another working definition might be that it is the technology of handling uncertainty. Yet other definitions, or more precise definitions, might put more emphasis on the roles that statistics plays. Thus we might say that statistics is the key discipline for predicting the future or for making inferences about the unknown, or for producing convenient summaries of data. Taken together these definitions broadly cover the essence of the discipline, though different applications will provide very different manifestations. For example, decision-making, forecasting, real-time monitoring, fraud detection, census enumeration, and analysis of gene sequences are all applications of statistics, and yet may require very different methods and tools. One thing to note about these definitions is that I have deliberately chosen the word ‘technology’ rather than science. A technology is the application of science and its discoveries, and that is what statistics is: the application of our understanding of how to extract information from data, and our understanding of uncertainty. Nevertheless, statistics is sometimes referred to as a science. Indeed, one of the most stimulating statistical journals is called just that: Statistical Science.'

But the word ‘statistics,’ in David Hand's view, also has another meaning: it is the plural of ‘statistic’. A statistic is a numerical fact or summary. For example, a summary of the data describing some population: perhaps its size, the birth rate, or the crime rate. So, what we are talking, in one sense, it is about individual numerical facts. But in a very real sense, it is about much more than that. It is about how to collect, manipulate, analyse, and deduce things from those numerical facts. It is about the technology itself. I'm not intending to present tables of number, but rather to emphasize the importance of how businesses make decisions, of how astronomers discover new types of stars, of how medical researchers identify the genes associated with a particular disease, of how banks decide whether or not to give someone a credit card, of how insurance companies decide on the cost of a premium, of how to construct spam filters which prevent obscene advertisements reaching your email inbox, and so on and on.

No aspect of modern life is untouched by statistics. Modern medicine is built on it: for example, the randomized controlled trial has been described as ‘one of the simplest, most powerful, and revolutionary tools of research’. Understanding the processes by which plagues spread prevent them from decimating humanity. Effective government hinges on careful statistical analysis of data describing the economy and society: perhaps that is an argument for insisting that all those in government should take mandatory statistics courses. Farmers, food technologists, and supermarkets all implicitly use statistics to decide what to grow, how to process it, and how to package and distribute it. Hydrologists decide how high to build flood defences by analysing meteorological statistics. Engineers building computer systems use the statistics of reliability to ensure that they do not crash too often. Air traffic control systems are built on complex statistical models, working in real time. Although you may not recognize it, statistical ideas and tools are hidden in just about every aspect of modern life.

The remark that there are ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’, has been variously attributed to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli, among others. There is much suspicion of statistics, says David Hand. We might also wonder if there is an element of fear of the discipline. It is certainly true that the statistician often plays the role of someone who must exercise caution, possibly even being the bearer of bad news. Statisticians working in research environments, for example in medical schools or social contexts, may well have to explain that the data are inadequate to answer a particular question, or simply that the answer is not what the researcher wanted to hear. That may be unfortunate from the researcher’s perspective, but it is a little unfair then to blame the statistical messenger.

In many cases, suspicion is generated by those who selectively choose statistics. If there is more than one way to summarize a set of data, all looking at slightly different aspects, then different people can choose to emphasize different summaries. A particular example is in crime statistics. In Britain, David Hand gives an example, perhaps the most important source of crime statistics is the British Crime Survey. This estimates the level of crime by directly asking a sample of people of which crimes they have been victims over the past year. In contrast, the Recorded Crime Statistics series includes all offences notifiable to the Home Office which have been recorded by the police. By definition, this excludes certain minor offences. More importantly, of course, it excludes crimes which are not reported to the police in the first place. With such differences, it is no wonder that the figures can differ between the two sets of statistics, even to the extent that certain categories of crime may appear to be decreasing over time according to one set of figures but increasing according to the other.

The crime statistics figures also illustrate another potential cause of suspicion of statistics, says David Hand. When a particular measure is used as an indicator of the performance of a system, people may choose to target that measure, improving its value but at the cost of other aspects of the system. The chosen measure then improves disproportionately, and becomes useless as a measure of performance of the system. For example, the police could reduce the rate of shoplifting by focusing all their resources on it, at the cost of allowing other kinds of crime to rise. As a result, the rate of shoplifting becomes useless as an indicator of crime rate. This phenomenon has been termed ‘Goodhart’s law’, named after Charles Goodhart, a former Chief Adviser to the Bank of England.

The point to all this is that the problem lies not with the statistics per se, but with the use made of those statistics, and the misunderstanding of how the statistics are produced and what they really mean. Perhaps it is perfectly natural to be suspicious of things we do not understand. The solution is to dispel that lack of understanding.

And so, something shiny, down there, by the creek, stirred the statistician's mind, turning his car off the highway. Once there, he scrambled out of his Jeep, crouched down, removed his Tom Cruise resemblance sunglasses in Maverick, slipped it into his shirt pocket, and then picked up the shiny object. A small bottle the size of the palm of his hand, and that's 'çesm-i bülbül,' the nightingale's eye.

He watched it for a moment, and immediately did as the Scientist and the General had done. He held the bottle under the river flow, turning it round and round. The glass became blue, threaded with opaque white canes, cobalt-blue, darkly bright, gleaming and wonderful. He turned it and turned it, rubbing the tenacious mud with thumbs and fingers, and suddenly it stopper, a faint glassy grinding, suddenly flew out of the neck of the flask and fell, tinkling but unbroken, on the edge of the creek, over the pebbles. And out of the bottle in his hands came a swarming, an exhalation, a fast-moving dark stain which made a high-pitched buzzing sound and smelled of woodsmoke, of cinnamon, of sulphur, of something that might have been incense, of something that was not leather, but was? The dark cloud gathered and turned and flew in a great paisley or comma, out of the bottle. I am seeing things, he thought, and found an enormous toe, then a foot with five toes as high as he was. He followed that form, from the bottom up, starting from the feet, knees, thighs, abdomen, chest, and head. Standing there, a man who put his hands on his hips. Like Superman, but this one was baldhead.

Without hesitation, the Statistician said, 'You must be the Jinn.' And before the jinn replied, he interrupted, 'You will offer me three wishes with terms and conditions. Right?'

The jinn said, 'Yes!' and before he could speak again, the Statistician cut him off, 'I need you to confess something!'

'What's that!' asked the Jinn.

'You are the Jin in Sir Richard Francis Burton's One Thousand and One Nights, right?' the statistician asked back.

'You should admit, you are not an Arabian Djinn, but merely an adaptation of Persian Jinn mythology, right?' said the statistician.

'Yes, I admit it. But that's not the point, now I'm waiting for you to tell me your wishes,' said the Jinn.

'Indeed, I do have wishes, but let me tell you a story,

'There was once an Emperor who loved his hair above everything else, and happy. But there was a secret, hidden by the emperor, that he actually, totally bald. No one knew it, because he wore wigs. Of course, there were imperial hairdresser and barber, but not to serve the Emperor, but to the members of the imperial family.

One day, a traveling salesman, offered him some 'Magic Hair Potion.' The Emperor bought it and began to rub it on his head, every day. And a few days later, he asked his trusted advisor if it was working well or not. Out of fear, the two trusted advisors—of their resemblance to one another, the Emperor called one of them, Eleven, and the other, Twelve—told the emperor, that the potion worked very well, even the hair on his head grew fast and thick. They lied so much, they even believed to their own lies. The Emperor was surpised, and said, ''Call the barber and stylist, I want them to cut and style my new hair!'

So, they came as the Emperor's ordered. At first, they were confused, but Eleven and Twelve gave hinted that they had to please the Emperor, or else their heads would be at stake. They told the Emperor that his hair was very thick and easy to style, and they moved their hands as if they were trimming and styling the Emperor's hair. The Emperor was satisfied, and decided, 'Prepare for a parade, I will walk the streets and show off my new hair.' And all the Emperor's men, couldn't say anything but, 'As you wish, sire!'

Then the streets were lined with hundreds of people who oohed! and aahed! over the emperor’s invisible new hair—for none of them wanted to admit it. Suddenly, a little boy’s shrill voice rose over the applause of the crowd. 'But the emperor's has no hair!' the child shouted. 'He has no hair at all, a.k.a baldhead!' Suddenly there was a stunned silence and the little boy found that hundreds of pairs of eyes were staring at him. Then someone sniggered… someone else tried to stifle a giggle… another person guffawed and snorted… and the whole crowd burst out into uncontrollable peals of laughter. They talked to each other, 'We don't need the Emperor's new hair ... we need an Emperor with new mind!'

'And now,' said the jinn, 'give me your wish!'

But the statistician smiled and said, 'I have only one wish, and the wish is 'I want you' and you alone!'

'It's impossible!' replied the jinn.

Calmly, the Statistician showed the bottle on his right hand, and the stopper on his left hand, 'With me or ... without me!' said he started to move the stopper into the bottle.

'Okay ... okay! I give up!' said the Jinn.

'Now you follow me, and obey me!' And so, the Statistician spurred his Jeep followed by the Jinn, to a town where the people would vote for a mayor. The jin was chanting,

There is no political solution

To our troubled evolution

Have no faith in constitution

There is no bloody revolution

We are spirits in the material world

Our so-called leaders speak

With words, they try to jail ya

They subjugate the meek

But it's the rhetoric of failure

We are spirits in the material world

Where does the answer lie?

Living from day to day

If it's something we can't buy

There must be another way

We are spirits in the material world *)

'Frog ended the story by saying, 'That's all Toad!'"

Swara concluded with a breaking news, 'There will be 8 stadiums funded by FIFA in a city at Borneo. And the football commentators reacted, 'They're going to dupe you!' And Allah know best."

Citations & References:
- Kurt Lampe, The Birth of Hedonism, Princeton University Press
- David J. Hand, Statistics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press
*) "Spirits in the Material World" written by Gordon Summers

Bahasa

The Jinn and the General

"In a lecture to a group of Korean officers, an American general, a deputy commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, took two or three minutes to tell his favorite joke, " said Swara when she arrived, after greeting with Basmalah and Salaam.

"His interpreter, then quickly translated the joke, using only seven or eight words. Everyone immediately burst into hearty laughter. After the lecture the General asked the interpreter how he had been able to retell such a relatively long joke so quickly.

'Well, sir,' the Korean interpreter replied, 'I didn't think everyone would get the point, so I said, 'The general has just told a joke. Everyone will please laugh,'"

"And so, the next day," Swara carried on, "Frog came to Toad's house, telling him the next story.

'It was said, when men and women hurtled through the air on metal wings—of a state owned enterprise that is on the verge of bankruptcy, and all similar companies, will continue to be sold; when they rode on a creeping iron—of the never ending cost, and of the debts that continued to swell; when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea—not to learn the speech of whales and the songs of the dolphins—looking for something that could be kept on explored ; when they were digging lands, clearing forests—building a new city; when an innocent was attempted to be proven guilty—vice versa; when hunger and thirst were unsatisfied—anything, whatever it was, everything's devoured; when there was a man who was largely irrelevant, and therefore happy.

It was said also, there was a man, riding a white horse. He was not the 'Lone Ranger', cause he was not wearing a mask. Not anyway, he's a 'Lucky Luke', who shoots faster than his shadow, because the one who shoot faster than his shadow was a corruptor—in this context, who stole money faster than his shadow, and released from prison, faster than his shadow and all of our shadows. He named his horse as Jack Frost—a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. Sometimes is depicted as a sprite-like character, appearing as a sinister mischief-maker or as a hero, and also, used to depicted as a United States major-general during the American Civil War. Is it the reason why he—the man I'm talking about—named his horse Jack Frost? Who knows, but some says, 'the horse is a mirror of your emotions.'

And so, he rode Jack Frost down to a creek. He dismounted, took hold of the reins, and led Jack Frost down to the river bank. Suddenly he saw something shiny, dark blue. He approached the object, a tiny bottle. He squatted down and picked it up, some of it, covered in river mud.

He held the bottle under the river flow, turning it round and round. The glass became blue, threaded with opaque white canes, cobalt-blue, darkly bright, gleaming and wonderful. He turned it and turned it, rubbing the tenacious mud with thumbs and fingers, and suddenly it stopper, a faint glassy grinding, suddenly flew out of the neck of the flask and fell, tinkling but unbroken, on the edge of the creek, over the pebbles. And out of the bottle in his hands came a swarming, an exhalation, a fast-moving dark stain which made a high-pitched buzzing sound and smelled of woodsmoke, of cinnamon, of sulphur, of something that might have been incense, of something that was not leather, but was? The dark cloud gathered and turned and flew in a great paisley or comma, out of the bottle. I am seeing things, he thought, and found an enormous toe, then a foot with five toes as high as he was.

He followed that form, from the bottom up, starting from the feet, knees, thighs, abdomen, chest, and head. Standing there, a man who folded his arms, over his chest. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming. Because, according to Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, 'Man also produces symbols unconsciously and spontaneously, in the form of dreams. Man can see, hear, touch , and taste ; but how far he sees, how well he hears, what his touch tells him, and what he tastes, depend upon the number and quality of his senses. These limit his perception of the world around him. By using scientific instruments, he can partly compensate for the deficiencies of his senses. For example, he can extend the range of his vision by binoculars or of his hearing by electrical amplification. But the most elaborate apparatus cannot do more than bring distant or small objects within range of his eyes, or make faint sounds more audible. No matter what instruments he uses, at some point he reaches the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.

There are, moreover, in Dr. Jung's view, unconscious aspects of our perception of reality. The first is the fact that even when our senses react to real phenomena, sights, and sounds, they are somehow translated from the realm of reality into that of the mind . Within the mind, they become psychic events, whose ultimate nature is unknowable (for the psyche cannot know its own psychical substance). Thus every experience contains an indefinite number of unknown factors, not to speak of the fact that every concrete object is always unknown in certain respects, because we cannot know the ultimate nature of matter itself.

Then there are certain events of which we have not consciously taken note; they have remained, so to speak, below the threshold of consciousness. They have happened, but they have been absorbed subliminally, without our conscious knowledge. We can become aware of such happenings only in a moment of intuition or by a process of profound thought that leads to a later realization that they must have happened; and though we may have originally ignored their emotional and vital importance, it later wells up from the unconscious as a sort of afterthought.

What we call the 'psyche' is by no means identical with our consciousness and its contents. Whoever denies the existence of the unconscious, in Dr. Jung's view, is in fact assuming that our present knowledge of the psyche is total. And this belief is clearly just as false as the assumption that we know all there is to be known about the natural universe. Our psyche is part of nature, and its enigma is as limitless. Thus we cannot define either the psyche or nature. We can merely state what we believe them to be and describe, as best we can, how they function. Quite apart, therefore, from the evidence that medical research has accumulated, there are strong grounds of logic for rejecting statements like 'There is no unconscious.' Those who say such things, merely express an age-old 'misoneism'—a fear of the new and the unknown.'

Dreaming or not, he didn't want to pinch his skin, there's nothing wrong with saying hello, a figure he could guess was the Jinn. 'I don't suppose you speak English.’ said he, 'Français? Deutsch? Español? Português? Latin?’ he hesitated. The jinn looked at him, 'I learn faster!' The Jinn was now, immediately, a half times as large as he was. ‘I am beholden to you,’ said the jinn, ‘for this release. I am empowered, indeed required, to grant you three wishes on that account. If there is anything you desire.’ The Jinn's speech, now was better than when talking to the scientist.

‘Are there limits,’ he asked, ‘to what I may wish for?’ and he recalled Aladdin and the Wonder Lamp.

'There are laws of the praeternatural within which we work, all of us, which cannot be broken,' said the jinn. 'You may not, for instance, wish to have all your wishes granted in perpetuity. Three is three, a number of power. You may not wish for eternal life, for it is your nature to be mortal, as it is mine to be immortal.'

'And if I don't have a wish, what will happen to you?' asked the man. 'So I'm not completely free, I even have to go back into that cursed nightingale's bottle,' replied the jinn, hoping the horse rider would proclaiming his wishes. 'But, why you have no wish? Could you describe it, for an instance, in a story?'

Well now, the horse rider, had no story. He was a general, who rode a horse, without needing an escort, all he knew merely war tactics. But to tell a story? Yeap, he was good enough. Then he thought some tactics, something came up, without hesitated, he began a story,

Along time ago, when men believed that Jupiter was the king of gods, who resided on Olympus—told by Charles Perrault—there lived a poor woodcutter, Harry, who found life very hard. Indeed, he had to work for very little reward, and although he was young and happily married there were moments when he wished he were dead and buried.

One day while he was working he was once again bemoaning his fate. 'Some men,' he said, 'have only to say what they want, and they get it immediately, their every wish fulfilled. But it has done me no good to wish for anything, for the gods are deaf to my prayers.'

As he said this, there was a huge thunderclap, and Jupiter appeared before him, wielding his mighty thunderbolts. The poor man was overcome with fear and threw himself on the ground.

'My lord,' he said, 'do not listen to what I said; do not pay any attention to my wishes, but please stop thundering!'

'Do not be afraid,' answered Jupiter, 'I have heard your complaint, and have come here to show you how great a wrong you do me. Hark! I who am the sovereign lord of this world, promise to grant the first three wishes you make, whatever they may be. Think well about what things will bring you joy and prosperity, and as your happiness is at stake, take your time.'

He soon reached his cottage where he threw down his bundle and said to his wife, 'Here I am, Fanny. Make up the fire and set the table and don’t hold back. We are wealthy, Fanny, wealthy for ever more. We have only to wish for whatever we desire.'

He told her the story of what had happened that day. Fanny, who had a quick and active mind, immediately thought of many ways in which their fortune could be advanced, but she approved of her husband’s decision to act with care and caution.

'It would be a pity,' she said, 'to spoil our chances through impatience. We should sleep on it, and wish no wishes until tomorrow.

'That is well said,' answered Harry. 'Meanwhile, fetch a bottle of our best wine, and we shall drink to our good fortune.'

Fanny brought a bottle from the store behind the wood pile, and Harry made himself comfortable, leaning back in his chair with his toes towards the fire and his goblet in his hand.

'What fine glowing embers!' he said, 'and what a fine fire for toasting! I wish we had a black pudding to toast.'

Having said this—whether lying or not—Jupiter withdrew and ascended to Olympus. As for the woodcutter, he happily tied his bundle of sticks and, throwing it over his shoulder, set out for his home. His heart was so light that it seemed that his load was also light, and his thoughts were happy as he strode along. Many a wish came into his mind, but he was determined to seek the advice of his wife, a young woman of good sense.

He had hardly spoken these words when his wife saw, to her great astonishment, a long black pudding coming out from a corner of the hearth, winding and wriggling its way towards her. She cried out in fear, and then again in dismay, when she realised that this strange occurrence was due to the wish so rashly and foolishly uttered by her husband.

'Whattt!' she said to him, 'When you can ask for a kingdom, for gold, pearls, rubies, rich garments and untold wealth, is this the time to set your mind on black puddings?!'

'No,' answered the man, 'it was thoughtless, and a sad mistake, but now I shall be on my guard, and shall do better next time.'

'What does it mean?' asked the jinn.

'Be careful what you wish for,' replied the general while looking for something and picking it up after founding it.

The general stood and said, 'What if you grant all my wishes, jinn?

'Then I will be free as I will,' replied the jinn.

'Then what about me?'

'You've had what you want, but remember, nothing is everlasting in men's life,' replied the jinn.

The general hold the stopper and said, 'You know jinn, that I'm the one who believe something being 'free' are not actually free. Forgive me!' Instantly the jinn was surprised, 'No, don't!' and the jinn was sucked into the bottle. Instantly, the general closed the bottle, and threw it into the creek, then he said to his horse, 'Come Jack, we'll find something more meaningful.'

As he mounted his horse, the man hummed—for the jinn—followed by nodding Jack Frost,

Bila yang tertulis untukku adalah yang terbaik untukmu

[If what is written for me is the best for you]

'Kan kujadikan kau kenangan yang terindah dalam hidupku

[I'll make you the most beautiful memory in my life]

Namun takkan mudah bagiku, meninggalkan jejak hidupmu

[But it won't be easy for me, to leave traces of your life]

Yang t'lah terukir abadi, sebagai kenangan yang terindah *)

[Which has been engraved eternally, as the most beautiful memories]

'I'll tell you the rest, tomorrow!' said Frog to Toad."

Swara concluded with, "And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Carl Gustav Jung, Man and his Symbols, Anchor Press
- Harry Clarke [illustrator], Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Gill & Macmillan
*) "Kenangan Terindah" written by Irfan Aulia

Bahasa

The Jinn and the Scientist

"Two friends were discussing a mutual acquaintance," said Swara when she came, after saying Basmalah and Salaam.

"'I don’t think the woman really antisocial,' said one.

'Nah,' said the other. 'She just despises humans.'"

Swara then went on, "Man uses the spoken or written word to express the meaning of what he wants to convey. His language is full of symbols, but he also often employs signs or images that are not strictly descriptive. Some are—according to Carl Jung—mere abbreviations or strings of initials, such as UN, UNICEF, or UNESCO; others are familiar trade marks, the names of patent medicines, badges, or insignia.

Although these are meaningless in themselves, they have acquired a recognizable meaning through common usage or deliberate intent. Such things are not symbols. They are signs, and they do no more than denote the objects to which they are attached.

What we call a symbol, according to Jung, is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning. It implies something vague, unknown, or hidden from us. Many Cretan monuments, for instance, are marked with the design of the double adze. This is an object that we know, but we do not know its symbolic implications.

A word or an image, according to Jung, is symbolic when it implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning. It has a wider 'unconscious' aspect that is never precisely defined or fully explained. Nor can one hope to define or explain it. As the mind explores the symbol, it is led to ideas that lie beyond the grasp of reason.

Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully comprehend. This is one reason why most of all religions employ symbolic language or images. Whereas in prose, something beautiful, or it is suppose that there is a beauty in it, is personified in a feminine form. Justice, for example, was actually something beautiful, so it was depicted as a goddess, Lady Justice, originated from Justitia, in Roman mythology, or Themis, the Greek goddess of justice. Kwan Im, as a symbol of affection, is depicted as a feminine form. Early Arabs, who loved poetry in their association, often referred to the noun 'al-Shams' (the sun) as femina.  Isn't Sunset and Sunrise beautiful? Earth, in Sanskrit, depicted as Prithvi, a goddes.  And we all know, all the beauty that exists on Earth. However, sometimes the use of symbols can be misleading."

"And one day," said Swara, "Frog took a visit to his friend's house, Toad. Toad was peeling off the sticker on the back of his car. And when he saw Frog coming, he rushed to close it. Frog called out, 'What are you doing Toad?'

'Nothing!' Toad replied, 'just peeling this sticker out of my car.'

'Let me see!' and without Toad noticing, Frog opened the cover, and the sticker that had been torn off, partially read, 'MADE IN CH'

'What is this Toad?' asked Frog. 'Nothing!' said Toad. 'I just want to rebrand my car.' Then he took another sticker, and hurriedly put it on. Frog watched, and a few moments later, he said, 'You installed it in a hurry Toad, look...!'

Toad looked at the sticker he had put on, and it read, 'MADE IN CHINDONESIA.'

'Ah never mind!' said Toad, 'do you know why I don't like to cook?'

'I don't know,' said Frog.

'Because it takes longer than eating it,' said Toad.

'It's your problem Toad,' Frog responded, 'today, everybody enjoys cooking. Even though it's enough just to see the process, it's still feeling good.'

A Few moments later, they were sitting at veranda. Frog said, 'Toad, would you like to hear a story?'

'Yes, I'd like to,' Toad responded.

Then Frog started his story,

'In a country where their founding-parents agreed to embrace democratic government system, its Head of the State, was busy. But it was surprising, because even though he looked busy, his whole work was messed up. Apparently, he was busy endorsing products that didn't sell well. His people was neglected. As a result, if you want to talk about prosperity, according to a ballad singer, you don't need to talk about it, 'because prosperity is only for Mr. So-and-so's dog.' The people have no choice but finding their own way, took care of themselves. Many people, from scientists to generals, were all unemployed. All the employment opportunies had been filled by people from far far away land. In politics, there were only two choices, to become the government's buzzer or the opposition——prison doors was always welcomed for the latter..

I observed, that there were three men, or rather, three kind of men, a scientist, a general and a statistician, was still confused with the choices. They'd like to explore the country, to find something more meaningful.

Let me tell you about the scientist. With his classic Harley, he drove, on and on, until he reached a town. He parked his bike at a little shop. He walked in, and saw the narrow walls were entirely hung with pots, pans, lamps, bottles, leather objects, old tools whose purpose was unguessable, chased daggers and hunting knives, shadow-puppets made of skin, perfume flasks, curling tongs. He poked about on a bench and found a bottle, a very dusty bottle amongst an apparently unsorted pile of new, or probably old things. It was a flask with a high neck, that fitted comfortably into the palms of her hands, and had a glass stopper like a miniature dome. The whole was dark, with a regular whirling pattern of white stripes moving round it.

‘What is this?’ he asked the shop owner, an old woman. She took the flask from him, and rubbed at the dust with a finger. ‘I’m not an expert in glass,’ she said. ‘It could be çesm-i bülbül. Or it could be fairly recent Venetian glass. 'çesm-i bülbül' means nightingale’s eye. There was a famous Turkish glass workshop at Incirköy-round about 1845, I think–made this famous Turkish glass, with this spiral pattern of opaque blue and white stripes, or red sometimes, I think. I don’t know why it is called eye of the nightingale. Perhaps nightingales have eyes that are transparent and opaque. In rural Turkey, they wre obsessed with nightingales. Their poetry is full of nightingales. Before pollution, before television, everyone came out and walked along the Bosphorus and in all the gardens, to hear the first nightingales of the year. It was very beautiful. Like the Japanese and the cherry blossom. A whole people, walking quietly in the spring weather, listening.’

'I must have this,' said the scientist. Then the nightingale’s-eye bottle was wrapped in scarlet tissue. He walked out from the store and gone with his Harley to find a motel.

At the hotel, he took a shower, then threw his body on the bed. However, a few moments later, he remembered the nightingale's bottle. He took it out of its wrappings—it was really very dusty, almost clay-encrusted—and carried it into the bathroom, where he turned on the mixer-tap in the basin, made the water warm, blood-heat, and held the bottle under the jet, turning it round and round. The glass became blue, threaded with opaque white canes, cobalt-blue, darkly bright, gleaming and wonderful. He turned it and turned it, rubbing the tenacious dust-spots with thumbs and fingers, and suddenly it gave a kind of warm leap in his hand, like a frog, like a still-beating heart in the hands of a surgeon. But the stopper, a faint glassy grinding, suddenly flew out of the neck of the flask and fell, tinkling but unbroken, into the basin. And out of the bottle in his hands came a swarming, an exhalation, a fast-moving dark stain which made a high-pitched buzzing sound and smelled of woodsmoke, of cinnamon, of sulphur, of something that might have been incense, of something that was not leather, but was? The dark cloud gathered and turned and flew in a great paisley or comma, out of the bathroom. I am seeing things, he thought, following, and found he could not follow, for the bathroom door was blocked by what he slowly made out to be an enormous foot, a foot with five toes as high as he was. 

The foot began to change shape. It was now the size of a large armchair. He came out and saw the djinn, who now took up half his large room, curled round on himself like a snake, with his huge head and shoulders pushing against the ceiling, his arms stretched round inside two walls, and his feet and body wound over his bed and trailing into the room. He seemed to be wearing a green silk tunic, not too clean, and not long enough, for he could see the complex heap of his private parts in the very centre of his rosy bed. Behind him was a great expanse of shimmering many-coloured feathers, peacock feathers, parrot feathers, feathers from birds of Paradise, which appeared to be part of a cloak that appeared to be part of him, but was not wings that sprouted in any conventional way from shoulder-blade or spine. His face was huge, oval, and completely hairless. He had huge bruised-green oval eyelids over eyes sea-green flecked with malachite. He had high cheekbones and an imperious hooked nose, and his mouth was wide and sculpted like Egyptian pharaohs’.

'I don't suppose you speak English.’ said he, 'Français? Deutsch? Español? Português? Latin?’ he hesitated. The jinn looked at him, 'I learn faster!' The Jinn was now curled on his bed, only one and a half times as large as he was. ‘I am beholden to you,’ said the jinn, ‘for this release. I am empowered, indeed required, to grant you three wishes on that account. If there is anything you desire.’

‘Are there limits,’ asked the scientist, ‘to what I may wish for?’ and he recalled Aladdin and the Wonder Lamp.

'There are laws of the praeternatural within which we work, all of us, which cannot be broken,' said the jinn. 'You may not, for instance, wish to have all your wishes granted in perpetuity. Three is three, a number of power. You may not wish for eternal life, for it is your nature to be mortal, as it is mine to be immortal.'

'And if I don't have a wish, what will happen to you?' asked the scientist. 'So I'm not completely free, I even have to go back into that cursed nightingale's bottle,' replied the jinn, hoping the scientist would proclaiming his wishes. 'But, why you have no wish? Could you describe it, for an instance, in a story?'

Well now, the scientist had no story. He was a scientist, right? All he knew were the real things. A story? He was not good enough. Then he thought and thought, and suddenly, something came up, without hesitated, he began a story,

'There was once a young sailor who had nothing but his courage and his bright eyes—but those were very bright—and the strength the gods gave him, which was sufficient.

He was not a good match for any girl in the village, for he was thought to be rash as well as poor, but the young girls liked to see him go by, you can believe, and they liked most particularly to see him dance, with his long, long legs and his clever feet and his laughing mouth.

And most of all one girl liked to see him, who was the miller’s daughter, beautiful and stately and proud, with three deep velvet ribbons to her skirt, who would by no means let him see that she liked to see him, but looked sideways with glimpy eyes, when he was not watching. And so did many another. It is always so. Some are looked at, and some may whistle for an admiring glance till the devil pounces on them, for so the holy spirit makes, crooked or straight, and naught to be done about it.

He came and went, the young man, for it was the long voyages he was drawn to, he went with the whales over the edge of the world and down to where the sea boils and the great fish move under it like drowned islands and the mermaids sing with their mirrors and their green scales and their winding hair, if tales are to be believed. He was first up the mast and sharpest with the harpoon but he made no money, for the profit was all the master’s, and so he came and went.

And when he came he sat in the square and told of what he had seen, and they all listened. And the miller’s daughter came, all clean and proud and proper, and he saw her listening at the edge and said he would bring her a silk ribbon from the East, if she liked. And she would not say if she liked, yes or no, but he saw that she would.

And he went again, and had the ribbon from a silk-merchant’s daughter in one of those countries where the women are golden with hair like black silk, but they like to see a man dance with long, long legs, and clever feet and a laughing mouth. And he told the silk-merchant’s daughter he would come again and brought back the ribbon, all laid up in a perfumed paper, and at the next village dance he gave it to the miller’s daughter and said, ‘Here is your ribbon.’

And her heart banged in her side, you may believe, but she mastered it, and asked coolly how much she was to pay him for it. It was a lovely ribbon, a rainbow-coloured silk ribbon, such as had never been seen in these parts.

And he was very angry at this insult to his gift, and said she must pay what it had cost her from whom he had it. And she said, ‘What was that?’ And he said, ‘Sleepless nights till I come again.’ And she said, ‘The price is too high.’ And he said, ‘The price is set, you must pay.’

And she paid, you may believe, for he saw how it was with her, and a man hurt in his pride will take what he may, and he took, for she had seen him dance, and she was all twisted and turned in her mind and herself by his pride and his dancing. Everything had a price, but bot at level of human dignity.'

'Wait!' said the jinn, 'I do not charge for all the wishes that, if you wish, I will grant. It's free!'

The scientist was silent, he then packed up and checked out of the motel, then spurred his Harley toward a creek. The jinn still continued to follow and kept asking about his wishes.

On the bank of the river, the scientist stopped his Harley and said, 'What if you grant all my wishes, jinn?

'Then I will be free as I will,' replied the jinn.

'Then what about me?'

'You've had what you want, but remember, nothing is mortal in men's life,' replied the jinn.

The scientist took a nightingale eye bottle out of his jacket pocket, opened the lid and said, 'You know jinn, that I am the one who doesn't believe the free shirt on Buy One Get One offer. Well, they are free, but they aren't free. Forgive me!' Instantly the jinn was surprised, 'No, don't!' and the jinn was sucked into the bottle. Instantly, the scientist closed the bottle, throwing it into the river, he said, 'Adios jinn! I will not trade my wishes for your promises,' then he raced his Harley, looking for something more meaningful.'

'Frog commented, 'Yeah, you may have a good life, but you achieved these by going through bad days. Everything you have or accomplished has a cost you have paid, or are paying, or will pay. Nothing is free.'

Then Frog said, 'Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the General.'"

"It's time to go,' said Swara, then she'd gone by chanting, 

Time stands still

Beauty in all she is

I will be brave

I will not let anything take away

What's standing in front of me

Every breath, every hour has come to this

One step closer *)

"And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Carl Gustav Jung, Man and his Symbols, Anchor Press
- A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Vintage
*) "A Thousand Years" written by Christina Perri & David Hodges

Bahasa

Human Nature & Interpersonal Relations : Islamic Perspective (2)

"The Basis of Brotherhood, organized the Muslim Society," Swara carried on, "Brotherhood means love, respect, sincerity, is organized on the basis of sympathy and mercy for those who share the belief. Thus, it is imperative that Muslim Society should have and maintain sound social relations. The Qur’an categorises the relationship among Muslims as that of fraternity [the state or feeling of friendship and mutual support within a group],

اِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُوْنَ اِخْوَةٌ

[innamal mu'minuuna ikhwatun]

'The believers are but a single brotherhood ....' [QS. Al-Hujurat (49):10]

Although this statement is brief, it suffices to underscore the basis, depth and importance of mutual relations.

History bears testimony to the fact that Allah’s Messengers have reorganised human society afresh on the basis of eternal values of goodness, virtue and justice. They invited mankind to the perennial teachings emanating from the Divine Call and organised those who responded positively to that call under a new, unifying banner. Those who had once been divided into groups, tribes and other partisan camps and who were after each other’s blood, life and honour, turned into the best and most trusted of friends, thanks to that unifying message.

Their union culminated in the emergence of a new, powerful community, whose members, men and women, were kind and affectionate towards each other. They created history afresh and laid the foundation for a new civilisation. The Qur’an underscores this truth in its characteristically beautiful style,

وَاعْتَصِمُوْا بِحَبْلِ اللّٰهِ جَمِيْعًا وَّلَا تَفَرَّقُوْا ۖوَاذْكُرُوْا نِعْمَتَ اللّٰهِ عَلَيْكُمْ اِذْ كُنْتُمْ اَعْدَاۤءً فَاَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوْبِكُمْ فَاَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهٖٓ اِخْوَانًاۚ وَكُنْتُمْ عَلٰى شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ فَاَنْقَذَكُمْ مِّنْهَا ۗ كَذٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللّٰهُ لَكُمْ اٰيٰتِهٖ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُوْنَ

'And hold firmly to the rope[Referring either to His covenant or the Qur’an] of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allāh upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allāh make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.' [QS. Ali-‘Imran (3):103]

The real and lasting unifying force is holding to the rope of Allah, the Creator, and keeping up the covenant with Him.

This ideal of collective life in Islam is not merely some outward manifestation of unity. It seeks to weld the hearts of believers into unison. Islam transcends any legalistic notion of unity. The fact is that it infuses unity and fraternity into the very fabric of all believers. For it places a premium on the unity of faith and ideology, of sharing values and vision of man, society and destiny. It unites believers on the plank of their aspirations, their objectives and their innermost feelings and emotions. Of course, it unites them outwardly as well.

However, more importantly, it unites them intrinsically as part of a single, unified community and fraternity. It goes without saying that real unity can be achieved only if people are united both outwardly and inwardly. Any artificial device cannot hold people together for long. For hearts reeking with hostility and rancour cannot come close. Symbolic gestures of unity cannot produce any genuine cohesion or singleness of purpose. Rather, a coalition prompted by selfish ends ultimately leads to chaos and disintegration. Legal ties alone cannot ensure genuine, abiding companionship. This explains why Islam bases the collective life of believers on the principles of faith, love and self-sacrifice. Relations based on these values have a rock-solid foundation, capable of weathering all storms.

Thus, society established on these ideals promotes mutual cooperation as against a life of social conflict and survival of the fittest. Every member of society helps and assists others. No one is allowed to fend for himself as is the case in a society based on the premise of 'every man for himself and the devil takes the hindmost.'

On the contrary, a vision of a society based on Islamic values is characterised by a commonality of interest and mutual help, support and succour for one another. Those lagging behind are encouraged to move forward. It trains the members of such a community to face problems together.

It is imperative for believers to assimilate thoroughly these fundamental values and principles, which lie at the core of social relations in Islam. Indeed, they should utilise their energies for strengthening such cordial relations.

On the one hand, mutual relations between believers are based on sharing a faith or a life ideology. For all Muslims are devoted to the same goal. Faith permeates their thoughts and actions. On the other hand, it is not merely a formal, legalistic tie. This bond is characterised by its depth, and overflowing love. This is why it is exemplified by the tie of brotherhood. Fraternity expresses best the essence of this ideological relationship. In Islam one’s whole life has a social dimension, except for a very tiny part of private existence, the entire length and breadth of one’s life represents a network of human relationships: family, community, society and humanity. Islam, therefore, instructs believers in developing and maintaining social relations, fulfilling what has been described as Huquq al-‘Ibad (mutual rights and duties in respect of humans). Furthermore, it directs that these be studded with justice and equity which help construct a particular society, culture and civilisation. Islam prescribes a comprehensive code of conduct, enabling everyone to perform their obligations. This binds believers together into perfect unity and solidarity. Their mutual relations should be like the one found among brothers. This is both the prerequisite of faith and part of human nature and is endorsed by commonsense and reason.

No change can be brought about without the emergence of an organised and powerful group. And such a group is formed only when its members are fully united. They are expected to be unified like a solid rock in striving in an organised manner for their objective, described in the Quran as,

كَاَنَّهُمْ بُنْيَانٌ مَّرْصُوْصٌ

'... as though they are bun'yaanun marsuus (a [single] structure joined firmly).' [QS. As-Saf (61):4]

The group should not let any divisive tendency raise its head. For proper organisation alone is the key to success.

Cordial relations among Muslims are set out as an essential condition for Muslims, in accomplishing an Islamic social change. It is specifically mentioned that those professing Islam should give up everything in preference for their faith, devote themselves heart and soul to their faith and display mutual love and friendship,

اِنَّ الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا وَهَاجَرُوْا وَجَاهَدُوْا بِاَمْوَالِهِمْ وَاَنْفُسِهِمْ فِيْ سَبِيْلِ اللّٰهِ وَالَّذِيْنَ اٰوَوْا وَّنَصَرُوْٓا اُولٰۤىِٕكَ بَعْضُهُمْ اَوْلِيَاۤءُ بَعْضٍۗ وَالَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا وَلَمْ يُهَاجِرُوْا مَا لَكُمْ مِّنْ وَّلَايَتِهِمْ مِّنْ شَيْءٍ حَتّٰى يُهَاجِرُوْاۚ وَاِنِ اسْتَنْصَرُوْكُمْ فِى الدِّيْنِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ النَّصْرُ اِلَّا عَلٰى قَوْمٍۢ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُمْ مِّيْثَاقٌۗ وَاللّٰهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُوْنَ بَصِيْرٌ

'Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang beriman, berhijrah, dan berjihad dengan harta dan jiwanya pada jalan Allah, serta orang-orang yang memberikan tempat kediaman dan memberi pertolongan (kepada Muhajirin), mereka itu sebagiannya merupakan pelindung318) bagi sebagian yang lain. Orang-orang yang beriman tetapi belum berhijrah, maka tidak ada kewajiban sedikit pun atas kamu untuk melindungi mereka sehingga mereka berhijrah. (Akan tetapi,) jika mereka meminta pertolongan kepadamu dalam (urusan pembelaan) agama (Islam), wajib atas kamu memberikan pertolongan, kecuali dalam menghadapi kaum yang telah terikat perjanjian antara kamu dengan mereka. Allah Maha Melihat apa yang kamu kerjakan.' [QS. Al-Anfal (8):72]

While pointing to the organisation and resources of unbelievers, the Qur’an observes that if Muslims do not develop such fraternity, their aspiration to cause a universal Islamic transformation, premised on justice and God-consciousness, will never come true.

Islam has prescribed a particular standard of mutual for maintaining and sustaining them. By following this code one can come up to the standard prescribed by Islam. So, in Islam, there are some traits regarded as adorable qualities, and there are detestable traits.

The first and foremost trait is sincerity. Nasihah is the term employed in Hadith corpus which delineates, in a very comprehensive fashion, the concept of sincerity. The Prophet (ﷺ) defined,

الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ

'The din [religion;faith] is nasihah [advice, sincerity].' [Sahih Muslim]

It is specifically mentioned that one should be sincere towards the whole Muslim community. Mutual relations between Muslims should be free from insincerity. One should always work for the welfare of others and try to do good for them. One should not let any harm touch others. All of one’s efforts should be directed towards helping others. One criteria of this is that one should prefer for others what one likes for oneself. For one does not harm oneself. On the contrary, one always strives to seek maximum benefit for oneself. Nor is one ever reconciled to foregoing what is due to one. One freely spends one’s time and money on something which benefits one. So, a righteous Muslim does not put up with any harm for others. Nor does he tolerate any disrespect towards him. Rather, he gives him maximum allowance. These connotations of nasihah should adorn one’s conduct. Accordingly, one prefers for others what one chooses for oneself. The Prophet (ﷺ) speaks of this as a prerequisite of faith. He (ﷺ) said,

لا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ

'None of you will have faith till he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he likes for himself.” [Muttafaqun Alayhi]

Sincerity also features in the mutual obligations of Muslims. This attribute of sincerity is very broad in its range and has many implications for character building.

Another trait, is Sacrifice, represented by one’s giving preference to others in what one likes most for oneself. Sacrificing one’s interests for others’ welfare is a valuable virtue. A devout Muslim acts sincerely towards fellow Muslims. He defers his own needs in order to help others. If one learns to appreciate the taste and interests of others, one succeeds in fostering healthy and pleasant social relations.

Another manifestation of the spirit of sacrifice is in financial matters. One may be leading a difficult life yet may accord priority to the needs of others. Sacrifice consists in being content with something inferior while giving what is better to a fellow Muslim.

Justice is one of the adorable traits. If a Muslim assimilates the following two essential features of good conduct, he will not face unhappy social relations. Rather, he will enjoy cordial relations. These qualities are being just and doing good. Allah laid down the command,

'اِنَّ اللّٰهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْاِحْسَانِ وَاِيْتَاۤئِ ذِى الْقُرْبٰى وَيَنْهٰى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاۤءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُوْنَ

'Indeed, Allāh orders justice and good conduct and giving [help] to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.' [QS. An-Nahl (16):90]

The imperative nature of this directive is worth-considering. The concept of justice has the following two components: striking balance and moderation in mutual relations and granting everyone his/her due. Justice also demands that one’s moral, social, economic, legal, political, cultural and religious rights be granted to one in all honesty. If one seeks to avenge the wrong done to one, one should restrict oneself to the measure of injustice done. Whoever exceeds this limit commits an injustice.

The next feature is ihsan which is a degree higher than that of justice. Ihsan is of greater importance than justice in social relations. While justice serves as the basis of cordial relations, ihsan adds to their beauty and excellence. If justice keeps out hostility in relations, doing good enriches their quality and sweetness. No relationship can be established on measuring constantly whether one has fulfilled one’s obligations. One should not be very particular about one’s own rights, with a view to ensuring that one gets all that is one’s due. Rather, one should be ever-ready to do favours for others. A strictly business-like relationship may work. However, this would be lacking in mutual love, gratitude, sacrifice, sincerity and warmth, which are so important in life. Doing good stands for excellent conduct, generous dealings, a sympathetic attitude, good manners, forgiveness and making allowances. One should be prepared to accept less than one’s due and give others more than what they deserve.

Another equally important characteristic is mercy [in wide ranging term], which is known by many other names as well. Allah employs the term rahmah (mercy) in the context of setting forth mutual relations among Muslims. Mercy may be explained with reference to tender feelings and emotions, as a result of which one displays the utmost love, warmth, affection and kindness towards one’s brethren. One cannot even think of hurting others. Mercy endears one to everyone and draws people irresistibly towards the merciful.

Another characteristic is forgiveness, includes many features, apart from the fundamental sense of overlooking others’ lapses. It also covers self-restraint, patience and forbearance. As two persons foster a relationship, it is natural that they may do something which may cause unpleasantness, bitterness, pain and torment to the other party. It naturally angers them and they may legitimately seek revenge for it. However, the love permeating their relationship will help them overcome their anger. They will be so broad in their outlook as to restrain their anger, which will, in turn, prevent any retaliation. In this way, they would rather exercise self-restraint and forgive one another.

Recognising someone’s value and worth is the last characteristic which one is required to understand in order to appreciate the significance of relationships. If one knows their true worth, one will attaches more value to relationships. In this respect, one is then never reconciled to severing his ties in any event.

There are some instructions are obligatory, while others are recommended as desirable acts, to promote better relations and for helping to develop mutual love among Muslims so that they become like the fingers of one’s hand.

A person’s most important asset is his honour and he cannot tolerate any attack on his honour and dignity. Muslims are accordingly asked not to dishonour their fellow Muslims. By the same token, they are urged to defend one another’s honour. If a Muslim is being criticised or slandered, it is the duty of those present to defend the honour of the victim. One should feel as much offended by this attack as one would feel if attacked oneself. If one feels assured that one’s honour will be defended by fellow Muslims even in one’s absence, then one has overflowing love for such others and will take them as his genuine friends and protectors.

A Muslim owes many obligations to fellow Muslims such as help in solving their financial problems, resolving their worries and meeting their needs. One is not legally bound to do so. However, one may do so by way of doing good to fellow Muslims. One of the important ways to help is to offer financial aid. Every indigent person owns a share in the bounty of wealth granted by Allah to affluent ones.

Apart from helping fellow Muslims and treating them well, it is part of good social relations to share someone’s sorrow. One should also feel the pain that afflicts others. Muslims are likened to a body, of which each part shares the same experience of pain.

It is the duty of a Muslim to keep an eye on the deeds and conduct of fellow Muslims and to try to help them to stay on the straight path. If a Muslim is seen deviating, he should be given good advice and counselling. The performance of this duty, however, often gives rise to unpleasant situations. Nonetheless, if one has firm conviction that the abiding success is only of the Hereafter and that every Muslim should assist his brother in gaining this success, there will not be any bitterness. For accountability in this life is much easier than interrogation in the Hereafter. We should be grateful to he who draws attention to our lapses. We should also, however, observe certain etiquette in criticising and counselling others. It is important that this should be done with the utmost sincerity and love, so that it promotes mutual love and understanding. In such situations we should see our critics as our benefactors.

One of the manifestations of love for others is that one loves to have the company of those for whom one has regard and affection. Visits enhance one’s love for one’s fellow Muslims and, furthermore, it brings people closer together. Love demands that one should see one’s brother as often as possible. If the Shari‘ah norms are followed, then this greatly improves social relations. These social visits should not be an occasion to abuse, slander or hurt others.

The emphasis on social visits and the promise of immense rewards are in view of the consideration that love increases with prolonged relations. One needs the help and advice of sincere friends during meetings with one’s friends. If one does so with a view to pleasing Allah and in remembrance of Him, even one’s social relations will play an important role in the development of one’s good conduct.

So, one should try one’s best to maintain social relations with other Muslims. One form of social visit especially recommended in Islam is that of visiting the sick. A sick person stands in need of others’ help and sympathy due to his physical and psychological condition. One’s sympathy and service is of great value to him. Visiting the sick contributes much to strengthening social relations. Visiting the sick is just one form of helping those in distress. Other ways of helping include sharing his anxieties and serving him. To be sure, there is a great reward accruing from helping others.

Since a Muslim has love for a fellow Muslim, it is natural that this should be expressed. It helps promote better mutual understanding. It also avoids any action on the part of either of them which could lead to bitterness in future. For avoiding any discord it is therefore essential that their mutual love not be concealed. Rather, it should be expressed, otherwise if someone expresses his love while the other ignores him, this causes misunderstanding and is bound to sow the seeds of mistrust and distance.

Besides treating someone well, cordial visits are the most effective means for promoting social relations. Nonetheless, at such visits there should be no incidence of rude talk, reproaching, criticising, or ridiculing others. The visit should be characterised by a display of the utmost love. But one should take care that there is no harshness, indifference or carelessness that can mar a meeting.

And it is an obligation to greet a Muslim in the prescribed manner. On the one hand it illustrates one’s feelings towards that person and on the other, it is indicative of one’s sincere wishes for him. Out of love for one’s brother one should supplicate for him and thus express one’s feelings for him. Greetings can only enhance mutual love, provided they are performed with conscious effort. For greetings signify one’s sincere wish for the other person’s welfare.

After Salam another gesture of expressing one’s affection for someone is by shaking hands with him. This practice was also recommended by the Prophet (ﷺ). Shaking hands complements and manifests the spirit of Salam. Muslims should shake hands with one another, praise Allah and seek His forgiveness so that they may attain salvation.

It is human psychology that people like to be addressed with respect. The more lovingly one is addressed, the more one is moved. Muslims should not display any stinginess in calling people with love and affection. Rather, they should make a point of addressing others in such terms as are expressive of their emotions.

As part of sincere relations one should take a keen interest in the personal matters of one’s brothers. One should enquire after their welfare and express a keen interest in them. This persuades them of one’s sincerity and strengthens the bond of fraternity. Knowledge of another’s personal details promotes close relations.

An effective means of expressing one’s love and sincerity for others and for strengthening social relations is to give gifts. While speaking highly of someone is an oral tribute which greatly pleases the recipient, material gifts also bring people closer to one another. Exchanging gifts facilitates mutual love and affection, it also removes bitterness, if any. Gifts should not be beyond one’s means. One should not hesitate to give a present for the simple reason that it is inexpensive. What binds people together is not the value of a gift, but the sincerity and love permeating it. Gifts should be accepted with gratitude. Gifts should be reciprocated and should not necessarily be of the same value. Rather, one should give according to one’s means. It was the Prophet’s practice both to give and receive gifts. Perfume was often the Prophet’s favourite gift. Perhaps now-adays one may give a good book as a present.

However, there are conditions in which it is not permissible to exchange gifts, among others : if in return for committing an act of usury; a judge is forbidden to accept a present offered to him, in order to maintain his dignity as a judge; among the prohibited gifts are those given to witnesses in courts of law in return for their testimony; gifts are those offered to a man hired by the authorities to meet people’s needs; gifts offered in return for relinquishing one of Allah’s rights or for accepting what is potentially unlawful or abuse of authority.  The principle is '... and cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.' [QS. Al-Ma'idah (5):2].

Expressing one’s gratitude to someone is a proper way of indicating one’s love. Sharing food and inviting people to meals are examples of one’s love and sincerity towards one another. At meal times people are relaxed and talk freely. When one is invited to a meal one feels thankful and appreciates that one’s host holds one in high esteem. Such feelings obviously strengthen social relations.

Pray for one another to seeks Allah’s forgiveness for his brother and prays for his welfare, in their absence or presence, this infuses great love and affection. When a person observes that his brother is praying to Allah for him, he is bound to be moved. If a supplication is made for someone in their presence, it convinces them of one’s sincerity and love. It is aimed at seeking Allah’s mercy, hence, this supplication is a practical step towards this end. If a supplication is made with pointed reference to someone having one in their thoughts, it is likely to have a greater effect. It is the obligation that a Muslim owes to a fellow Muslim, whereby he supplicates for the other’s forgiveness and for improving mutual relations. Such supplication also fosters relations.

Finally as concluding remarks, mutual love, fraternity, affection and adoration are the fruits of faith. Rather, they are its prerequisites. The more one is devoted to the cause of Islam, the stronger the ties of brotherhood one will have with fellow Muslims. They share each other’s pain and suffering and cheer at each other’s happiness. Coupled with mercy and sincerity, which is prompted by faith, these social relations reach their highest point. Such a bond stimulates a community with dynamism, warmth and vibrancy which guarantees its all-round success. These blessings accrue when all the above conditions are met. We should, therefore, bear in mind the teachings imparted by Allah and His Messenger. Of course, nothing can be accomplished without Allah’s support. It is a special divine favour to enjoy cordial relations. So, besides taking the above steps, one should fervently supplicate to Allah to infuse love and remove discord, '

رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِاِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِيْنَ سَبَقُوْنَا بِالْاِيْمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِيْ قُلُوْبِنَا غِلًّا لِّلَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا رَبَّنَآ اِنَّكَ رَءُوْفٌ رَّحِيْمٌ

'Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith and put not in our hearts [any] resentment toward those who have believed. Our Lord, indeed You are Kind and Merciful.' [QS. Al-Hashr (59):10]"

"It's time to go," said Swara, "but I want to leave with a joke, 'A tourist traveled through the thickest jungles in Central America and came across an ancient Mayan temple. He asked the tour guide for details of the structure. The guide informed him that archaeologists were excavating and still finding great treasures. The tourist then asked how old the temple was.

'This temple is 1,504 years old,' replied the guide.

Impressed at this accurate dating, the tourist questioned how there could be such a precise date.

'Oh, that’s simple,' replied the guide. 'The archaeologists said the temple was 1,500 years old, and that was four years ago.'"

"And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Yasien Mohamed, Fitra: The Islamic Concept of Human Nature, Ta-Ha
- Mary E. Clark, In Search of Human Nature, Routledge
- Khurram Murad, Interpersonal Relations : An Islamic Perspective, The Islamic Foundation
- Ira M. Lapidus & Francis Robinson, Cambridge Illustrated History : Islamic World, Cambridge University Press
[Part 1]

Bahasa

Human Nature & Interpersonal Relations : Islamic Perspective (1)

"When Justice is served, all of us, would find rest," said Swara after greeting with Basmalah and Salaam. "On the contrary, when we saw injustice, we felt something caused us worry, fear or terror, even distrust. That's normal, because it's Human Nature."

"Modern man is always searching his soul," Swara went on, "because he is alienated from its sources of nourishment—from Allah, from the creations, and from traditions—from the sources which make him aware of his innate spiritual nature, his Fitrah.

Within his spiritual nature lies the deep, universal moral intuition that human beings are creatures of Allah to be respected. A return to his soul or his spiritual nature, will require of him to return to its sources of nourishment. He will then rediscover the origin of his moral intuitions which is his innate spiritual nature or Fitrah. By so doing he will come to know his Creator, for ‘he who knows his self, knows his Lord.'

Our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) said,

كُلُّ مَوْلُودٍ يُولَدُ عَلَى الْفِطْرَةِ، فَأَبَوَاهُ يُهَوِّدَانِهِ أَوْ يُنَصِّرَانِهِ أَوْ يُمَجِّسَانِهِ، كَمَثَلِ الْبَهِيمَةِ تُنْتَجُ الْبَهِيمَةَ، هَلْ تَرَى فِيهَا جَدْعَاءَ

'Every new-born child is born in a state of fitrah. Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal is born intact. Do you observe any among them that are maimed (at birth)?’ [Sahih al-Bukhari]

In another hadith, the Prophet (ﷺ) said,

‏ لَيْسَ مِنْ مَوْلُودٍ يُولَدُ إِلاَّ عَلَى هَذِهِ الْفِطْرَةِ حَتَّى يُعَبِّرَ عَنْهُ لِسَانُهُ

'No child is born except with this fitrah until his tongue expresses it.' [Sahih Muslim]

From the linguistic meaning, he word fitrah comes from the Arabic, fa-ta-ra, the verbal noun being fatrun. The root action means, he clave, split, slit, rent or cracked it.

The second form, fattara (hu) (verbal noun taftir), denotes repetition, muchness and frequency of the root action which means, whar we saw, he clave, split, slit, rent or cracked it.

Fitrah—according to Yasien Mohamed—having the same meaning as tatfun, linguistically means an inborn natural disposition. The term fitrah, literally means, creation; the causing a thing to exist for the first time; and the natural constitution with which a child is created in his mother’s womb.

In the context of the hadith, according to Abu Haytham, Fitrah means to be born either prosperous or unprosperous [in relation to the soul]: ‘And if his parents are Jews, they make him a Jew, with respect to his worldly situation; [i.e. with respect to inheritance, etc.] and if Christians, they make him a Christian, with respect to that situation; and if Magians, they make him a Magian, with respect to that situation; his situation is the same as that of his parents until his tongue speaks for him; but if he dies before his attaining to the age when sexual maturity begins to show itself, he dies in a state of conformity to his preceding natural constitution, with which he was created in his mother’s womb.’

So, what then the implication? That parents have a great influence on the way a person views himself/herself and the world. In addition, friends and social circumstances, are also very influential, the Prophet (ﷺ) said,

الرَّجُلُ عَلَى دِينِ خَلِيلِهِ فَلْيَنْظُرْ أَحَدُكُمْ مَنْ يُخَالِلُ

'A man is upon the religion of his best friend, so let one of you look at whom he befriends.' [Sunan al-Tirmidhī; Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Nawawi]

Man is distinguished from the rest of the creation because he has been endowed with aql (intellect) and iradah (free-will). The intellect enables him to discern right from wrong and the will enables him to choose between right and wrong. He can use these faculties to complement his fitrah and to please Allah or to be untrue toit and displease Allah. The choice is his.

Man is responsible for his actions and accountable to Allah for every atom of right and wrong that he does. It is this sense of accountability that guides man to act in accordance with the Divine will. It empowers him to struggle against the wrong-doing of his lower self (nafs) as well as the negative influences of the social circumstances. The central hadith makes plain that it is the social circumstances after the birth of the child that causes the individual to diverge from fitrah. Hence if someone follows an aberrant path it is not because of any innate wrong within his nature, but because of the emergence of the lower self or nafs after birth, and negative effects in the social circumstances.

Since many infants are born with gross physical deformities, the maiming referred to in this hadith is not meant in the physical sense; it means that all children are born spiritually pure, in a state of Fitrah. The reference to animals born intact in the central hadith should be viewed as an analogy to illustrate the parallel spiritual wholeness of children at birth.

So, the central hadithsuggests that circumstantial (i.e. parental and other social) influences cause man to change and become alienated from his Fitrah. However, Allah says,

لَا تَبْدِيْلَ لِخَلْقِ اللّٰهِ

'... No change should there be in the creation of Allah ..." [QS. Ar-Rum (30):30]

This verse suggests that fitrah is a universal unchanging given of the human constitution.

Fitrah is an Islamic conception of Human Nature. Fitrah relates to man’s innate reality, but it also means something for his beliefs, values and attitudes to life, his world-view and his interaction with his environment. Fitrah cannot be viewed in isolation from man’s mind, conduct and institutions in the phenomenal world.

If so, then how do the essential link between fitrah and the metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, psychological and legal aspects of man’s existence?

Now lets examine the Metaphysical implications. The ideal point of departure for an understanding of fitrah, is the metaphysical principle that underlies the concept. Man is a ‘central being’ in the world because he has been honoured with the vicegerency of Allah on earth [khilafatullah). To qualify him for this position, he was taught the ‘names’ of all things, which means as well that he was given power and dominion over them. All creatures reflect some aspect of the Divine, but man, in his full nature as the ‘manifestation of His names and qualities’, is the only being that can reflect all the Divine names and attributes. The centrality of man’s being and existence is a fact, a given, an unchangeable reality which man must accept. However, his right to dominate over the earth as khalifah, is justified only if he remains in perfect submission to Allah, the absolute Master of nature. In addition to the function of khalifah, man was given the quality of being 'abd, a slave, the state of being in perfect submission to Allah.

Man is always in need of Divine Revelation and grace from Allah. Man may not take heed of the Divine Revelation which reminds him of his primordial nature. Although he may deviate from the dictates of his nature, which is a manifestation of the names and attributes, yet he cannot fully escape from what he is, and his essential nature must manifest itself on the periphery. No matter what man attempts to do in life, be it removed from the demands of his fitrah or in accordance with them, he cannot escape the spiritual nature of his being.

Man is born with the inborn inclination to believe in and worship Allah. The central and primary motive is manifested unconsciously. It is man’s duty to become conscious of this primary motivating force, that influences his behaviour. Even if man is outwardly inclined to worship idols, or a person, or a political system, he is still motivated by this inner drive to know Allah. The only difference is that while the believer knows that he is motivated to know Allah, the unbeliever does not. It is in this sense that the central nature of man manifests itself on the periphery.

The primordial character of man’s nature is affirmed by reference to the covenant between man in his pre-existential state and Allah. Allah says,

وَاِذْ اَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنْۢ بَنِيْٓ اٰدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُوْرِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَاَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلٰٓى اَنْفُسِهِمْۚ اَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْۗ قَالُوْا بَلٰىۛ شَهِدْنَا ۛ

'And [mention] when your Rabb took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], 'Alastu birabbikum?' They said, 'Balaa, shahidnaa' ....' [QS. Al-A'raf (7):172]

In this affirmation, lies the secret of man’s destiny, for man, above all the creation, accepted the burden of trust,

اِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْاَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالْاَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَاَبَيْنَ اَنْ يَّحْمِلْنَهَا وَاَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْاِنْسَانُۗ اِنَّهٗ كَانَ ظَلُوْمًا جَهُوْلًاۙ

'Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was zaluuman jahuulan [unjust and ignorant (coveting its reward while forgetting the penalty for failure to keep his commitment)].' [QS. Al-Ahzab (33):72]

This acceptance of the trust is precisely the acceptance of the vicegerency of Allah on earth. This trust also implies the acceptance of freedom, and of responsibilities to both Allah and His creation. The rights and responsibilities of man are clearly defined by Islam.This is because Islam means submission to Allah. It is necessary for man to live in submission to Him, for it will ultimately save him from all deviations and spiritual abnormalities, and bring him back to his original state, his state of fitrah or the state of submission to the One, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So, in terms of the metaphysical principle of tawhid, man’s return to his original state of fitrah can be done by accepting and affirming the Shahadah. [And indeed, man had affirmed it, long before with, 'Balaa, shahidnaa.']

At the heart of man’s inclination to recognise and worship the One God is the spirit (ruh) which Allah has breathed into man, qualifying him for the noblestatus of khalifahor vicegerent of Allah on earth. This role, He entrusted to man because of his potential superiority over the rest of creation. It is the Spirit which Allah breathed into man that enables him to enjoy a greater affinity to God than the rest of creation. Man alone is able to imbue himself with the attributes of Allah, albeit in a limited sense. The soul (ruh) is the very essence of human nature. The reality of fitrah implies the reality of the soul which is predisposed to the recognition of and submission to the One, Allah. The realisation of the fitrah means the reunion of the self (nafs) with the human soul (ruh). It is man’s responsibility to realise his essential spiritual nature, for in this realisation lies the knowledge of Allah, as suggested by the saying,

مَنْ عَرَفَ نَفْسَهُ فَقَدْ عَرَفَ رَبَّهُ

[man 'arafa nafsaahu faqad 'arafa rabbahu]

‘He who knows himself, knows his Lord’

[Al-Allamah Al-Fairuz Abadi said that this is not a prophetic hadith even though most people consider it a hadith from Rasulullah (ﷺ). Imam Al-Suyuthi argues that this hadith is not authentic. Shaykh Al-Albani is of the opinion that this hadith has no origin. Ibn Taymiyyah said that this hadith is Mawdhoo. Al-Zarkashi said, 'Ibn Al-Sam'ani mentioned that it was spoken by Yahya ibn Mu'adh Ar-Razi.' Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi (830–871 CE) was a Muslim Sufi who taught in Central Asia. One of the first to teach Sufism in masajid, he left a number of books and sayings. He was a disciple of Ibn Karram and renowned for his perseverance in worship and his great scrupulousness in matters of religion.]

The highest level of spiritual development is referred to in the Qur’an as an-nafs al-mutma’innah ‘the self made tranquil’, when man’s entire being is in total harmony with his fitrah and when the principle of tawhid is manifested in his total submission to Allah.

And what about the epistemological implications of Fitrah? Based on Knowledge, since man’s innate inclination is to worship Allah and to obey His commands, it follows that the Islamic way of life is best suited to his nature and is essential for his inner peace and happiness.

Guidance for the Islamic way of life is communicated in its final form in the Qur’anic revelation. Allah would not be known to man as god if He had not endowed man with the faculties by means of which he is able to understand Divine Revelation or the organs of spiritual perception with which he may recognise his Creator. Apart from revelation as an objective source of knowledge and guidance, Allah has given man the organ of cognition, known as the heart (qalb), which is the locus of the intellect (aql). This organ enables man to comprehend the highest source of knowledge, namely, Divine Revelation, and to perceive at the highest level of human perception. Man is capable of perception from the lowest sensory perception to the highest spiritual perception. The Lowest level of knowledge in the hierarchy of knowledge is the sensory level. Even the Greek philosophers are in agreement that the senses are doubtful media for the acquisition of knowledge. A higher level of knowledge is acquired through reason, but reason itself depends upon recollections based on sensory impressions; and this limitation of reason is affirmed by the perspectivistic nature of philosophic thought throughout the ages.

There are three levels of human perception: the first level is sensory perception. Its perceptual process are sight, hearing, and smell, etc; with the medium of eyes, ears and other senses. The second level is rational perception. Its perceptual process are cognition, reasoning, and insight, etc; with the medium of aql (brain and mind). The third level is spiritual perception. Its perceptual process are intuition (firasah), intellection, and inspiration, etc; with the medium of aql and qalb. Aql is capable of both spiritual and intellectual perception, and that the mind is associated with intellectual perception of a discursive nature. The mind is capable of reasoning which is a projection of the aql on the mental plane. A distinction is made between reason, which is an expression of the mind, and intellection, which is an expression of aql.

The objectives of each of these levels of perception are associated with certain levels of knowledge and of reality. Through the senses, we acquire knowledge of the physical environment, e.g. knowledge of the biosphere. Through the mind, we acquire analytical and synthetic knowledge, knowledge acquired through reasoning alone, which includes knowledge of metaphysical and abstract phenomena, e.g. the concept of justice, or the concept of God. The knowledge of the intellect involves the experience of spiritual realities, e.g. elevation of the self, or attaining the presence of Allah. All these levels of knowledge are ‘true’ and ‘real’. Truth-falsehood is a scale on which all perceptions of all our faculties may find a place. While Islamic epistemology recognises all these levels of perception and realities as constituting legitimate knowledge, it further recognises a hierarchy of knowledge, the lowest level being the level of sensoiy perception, and the highest level being spiritual perception.

A clear distinction should be made between reason and intellect. Reason is limited to the function of analysis and logic. This will lead to the realisation of the Islamic teaching of unity (tawhid) if it functions normally. The role of revelation is to remove the impediments which prevent the intellect from functioning in a wholesome manner. Reason is only a reflection of intellect. It should be made subservient to intellect. Reason, in its subservience to aql and revelation, will serve as a positive instrument in guiding man in his journey from multiplicity to unity.

Man is able to use objective revelation to bring the subjective intellect into operation. The intellect can be operationalised through a wholesome employment of reason submissive to both the intellect and revelation. In this way, reason may occasionally cause ‘intellection’. We say ‘occasionally’, for man cannot always produce intellection. And this intellection is not a consequence of man’s efforts alone; everything depends on Divine grace and mercy. Intellection is ‘heart-knowledge’ rather than discursive reasoning. The individual is able to see with the eye of the heart (ayn al-qalb). He has knowledge, with certainty, of spiritual realities. This does not mean that the individual has, at this stage, reached full integration between the lower and higher nafs, for good intent precedes this movement towards intellect. Man’s psyche [nafs), his will, and reason must conform to Divine Revelation for intellect to be fully functional or reach its full potential.

Man’s worship of his Creator is not confined to belief and formal prayer to Allah, but includes ethical conduct as well—we're going to talk about the ethical implications of fitrah. Allah instructs and prohibits in matters relating to food and drink, marital relationships, social justice, etc. Man’s true nature is one of intrinsic goodness, and so he is expected to conform to the Divine laws that will guide him to good conduct. This in turn will strengthen his original nature and make him more inclined towards values demanded of his nature. Islam is designed : to develop a mental state with n man which will make the values of truth, honesty, brotherly feelings, etc. dear to his heart and the opposite qualities, dishonesty, hypocricy, etc. abhorrent to him. When, in the Qur’an, Allah addresses the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ), He, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, says,

وَلٰكِنَّ اللّٰهَ حَبَّبَ اِلَيْكُمُ الْاِيْمَانَ وَزَيَّنَهٗ فِيْ قُلُوْبِكُمْ وَكَرَّهَ اِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَالْفُسُوْقَ وَالْعِصْيَانَ ۗ اُولٰۤىِٕكَ هُمُ الرّٰشِدُوْنَۙ

'... But Allah has endeared faith to you, making it appealing in your hearts. And He has made disbelief, rebelliousness, and disobedience detestable to you. Those are the ones rightly guided.' [QS. Al-Hujurat (49):7]

Moral excellence is a characteristic of human nature. We are easily able to recognise a morally excellent person and endeavour to emulate him or to attain a high moral standard ourselves. The reason for this easy recognition of and endeavour towards moral excellence is fitrah. Socrates was right in holding that all men possess a capacity for recognising moral excellence. We do occasionally recognise those things which are ultimately valuable when we are brought into contact with them, although we do not always recognise them, and often take things to be valuable which are not.

Virtue, or knowledge of the right, may be considered both inborn and acquired. It is not inborn in the sense that it is the conscious possession of the child at birth, but in the sense that it is an inborn quality of the soul. Man’s self develops and grows as a result of the learning that takes place in the environment, but, man’s inborn inclination to do good may be directed towards mistaken ends. He may even err by taking for good that which really is not. Man may be born good, but he is also created imperfect and weak. He needs Divine Guidance, not to be perfect, but to live in harmony with his nature and to be happy. Revelation guides man to the way of gratitude. His nature requires that he believes in Allah, and that he be grateful to Him and love Him.

The psychological or psychical implications of fitrah are associated with the nafs. Since the emotions and desires form an integral part of the nafs of man, the psychological implications are directly related to its emotional dimensions. Both the emotional and the psychological dimensions of man have positive as well as negative tendencies. If man’s emotions are controlled and directed to higher spiritual ends, then his psychical nature is disciplined. Although the biological constitution of man is completely different from his psychological constitution, the former nevertheless serves as an instrument for the drives of the psyche. The self must be trained so that it may be integrated with the spirit.The lower level of the nafs must be transformed into a positive, spiritually higher state so that the individual may be liberated from bondage to the lower nafs, for it tends towards gratification of the biological and emotional needs of the individual and away from the service of Allah.

As for the legal implications of Fitrah, that all of humankind know the universal message of tawheed in their fitrah, making them responsible for acknowledging Allah and His Oneness. Obedience to the Shari'ah, however, is only required of those who have received the message of Islam. Islamic law is distinguished from contemporary human law by virtue of Its Divine origin. The foundations and the primary sources of sharicah are the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Within the fixed parameters determined by the principles of these sources provision is made for the amendment, diversification and development of the sharicah in space and time in terms of the dynamic principles of Ijtihad. Ijtihad comprises the secondary sources of Islamic law, viz. qiyas (analogical reasoning) and ijma' (consensus). Those who, by virtue of their knowledge, competence and fearful obedience of Allah, are qualified to engage in Ijtihad are known as Mujtahidin. The four sunni Muslim Imams who codified Islamic law are examples of such men.

Din al-Islam is Din al-Fitrah, the Divinely prescribed way of life which accords fully with both the physical and spiritual human constitutions. Din al-Islam is the Way perfected for man by Allah Himself, exalted is He; and the shari'ah, the Islamic code of law, also accords with fitrah. Divine Law is the framework within which man can both exercise and regulate his free will in accordance with the Divine Will and in harmony with his fitrah. Man is not accountable for an arbitrary, uncodified or codified, human centred law conveniently attributed to God, but rather for a fully structured, absolute and immutable set of laws from Allah for man, and for the benefit of man.

Three embryological terms for early human development are presented in the Quran and substantiated by Hadith; these are 'Nutfah, 'refers to the gametes (male and female) and the zygote, however the latter comes in a special term a nutfah amshaj, in the context of genetic uniqueness [QS. Al-Insaan (76):1-2]; 'Alaqah' refers to zygote and its subsequent developmental stages required for implantation; and 'Mudghah', refers to the somite stage. In terms of human accountability, there are four stages: no accountability, no legal accountability, accountable to parents and elders only, and fully legally accountable. Legal capacity is proportional to the mental capacity of the individual as well as his capacity for free-will. Islamic law and the degree of responsibility necessary for the individual’s adherence to that law are directly linked to the particular stage of the individual’s growth. Human accountability is governed these phases provided that a person is sane and fully conscious of his actions.

Let's divide the life of a human being into two broad phases. The first phase is referred to in Islamic terminology as ahliyat al-wujub (the person has no reponsibilities, only rights) and the second phase as ahliyat al-ada’ (the person becomes responsible for discharging duties). Each phase is further subdivided into two substages. Islamic law governs these four stages by a very meticulously defined set of laws.

The first stage begins when the ruh enters the developing foetus and it ends at childbirth. At this stage, prior to childbirth, the organism is accorded human status. The foetus in the womb of the mother is referred to as naqis (incomplete), but when it is born it becomes kamil (complete). At this stage, immediately after childbirth, the human being is not held responsible for anything. However, society is held responsiblefor his welfare. For example, the prenatal organism is legally entitled to inherit, but this is not applicable when the child dies; the parents or wards are held responsible for apportioning to the unborn child his rightful share of his inheritance. Also, the mother has a major responsibility towards the child in that she is not permitted to consume anything that would harm the foetus, e.g. injurious drugs.

The second stage begins at birth and lasts until the age of approximately seven, which most jurists regard as the age of discernment (sinn at-tamyiz). From the beginning of the first until the end of the second stage, the child is not considered to be legally accountable to any being although he is subject to parental guidance and accountable to them as parents. The end of the second stage also marks the end of the first phase, ahliyat al-wujub, at the age of seven years. Up to this age he is categorised as kamil, complete, but has not been responsible for his actions nor was he expected to conform to the shari'ah.

Formal practice of the shari'ah begins at the age of discernment. The third stage, which is from seven to fifteen years of age approximately, begins when the individual attains the age of discernment. From the age of seven up to ten years parents are encouraged to use persuasion (verbal coercion), but between the ages of ten to fifteen years physical force is recommended. Parents are expected to urge their children to perform the prayer from the age of seven, according to a Prophetic tradition, and to beat them [which does not injure, does not break the skin, or does not break bones or teeth. Hits on the back or shoulders and the like. Avoid hitting the face because it is forbidden to hit the face. The spanking should not be more than ten times, the purpose is solely for education and do not show punishment unless it is necessary to explain this because there was a lot of resistance from children or many people neglected to pray, or the like] if they fail to perform it after the age of ten.

From the age of seven until the age of sexual maturity, the child is expected to pray and will be ewarded by Allah for his good deeds, but will not be punished in the next life if he does not practise the shari'ah. At this stage the child is only partially responsible, i.e. he is responsible for obeying the commands of his parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to encourage the child to pray, but he is not accountable to Allah if he does not comply with this duty.

The human being attains full responsibility in the fourth stage which begins with the age of sexual maturity (bulugh) and lasts until death. At this stage man becomes responsible for practising all the laws of the Shari'ah. Sexual maturity is determined by physical signs such as ejaculation of semen, the growth of the beard, pubic hair and hair under the armpits, and the breaking of the voice, in the case of the male; and the menstrual period, the swelling of the breasts, the growth of pubic hair and hair under the armpit, in the case of the female. If no physical signs of sexual maturity are observed, then the age of fifteen lunar years is regarded as the maximum age for maturity (bulugh), according to some scholars and eighteen according to some others.

After the attainment of bulugh, the young adult, himself or herself, becomes completely responsible for obeying Divine injunctions, for which he/she will be rewarded, and also for breaking such laws, for which he/she is now liable to be punished by Allah.

Although it becomes compulsory for a Muslim child to conform to the shari'ah at bulugh, this does not necessarily mean that he is regarded as intellectually mature. Certain restrictions upon the actions of those who despite being sexually mature, are nevertheless intellectually immature, exist in the shari'ah Since intellectual maturity is vital for the administration of, for example, financial affairs, the shari'ah restricts the freedom of an intellectually immature person.

The importance of this distinction between sexual and intellectual maturity may be illustrated by means of an example concerning the problem of inheritance. A wealthy man dies, leaving all his wealth to his seven year old son. The child becomes sexually mature at the age of twelve which makes him spiritually responsible for conforming to the shari'ah. He is, however, not financially responsible, for he has not yet attained sufficient intellectual maturity to administer his own affairs. The age of bulugh is not necessarily equivalent to the age of intellectual maturity.

Since the mental faculty of intellect (aql) is the basic criterion of taklif [the imposition of an obligation on someone], the Law concerns itself with the factors which affect the sanity and capacity of the individual. There are six natural impediments which exempt an individual from complete responsibility in shariah: insanity, mental retardation, unconsciousness, sickness, old age and death. These impediments are beyond the control of the individual, but there are other impediments which are intiated by man himself and lead him to violate the shari'ah. If a person becomes, for example, intoxicated by the consumption of alcohol and as a result is not able to perform the five daily prayers, then he is guilty of wilfully breaking the law, for which there is no exemption.

So, from an Islamic perspective, religion is not seen from the 'reward and punishment', but through its process, an essential process in the actualization of Fitrah. Similarly, all the branches of the Shari'ah, help to guide and direct the believer’s 'aql and iradah, towards the fulfilment of his ultimate goal in life—the actualisation of his Fitrah.'"

Then Swara said, "Next session, we'll talk about interpersonal relations in an Islamic perspective, but throughout this session, we've talked quite seriously about Fitrah, let's closed this session with a joke, 'A man was watching a football game, when his wife returned from the mall, loaded down with bags.

'I thought you were just going window-shopping,' he said.

'Yes,' replied his wife, 'I bought the curtains for the kitchen window, but I got a few things that match them: a can opener, coffee maker, blender, teapot, apron, napkin, frying pan, cooking spoons, soup ladle, ....' And until the football game was over, his wife had not done mentioning them, one by one."

[Part 2]

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