Failasuf Chi-Town

My goal for this upcoming Ramadan is to have a solid grasp of classical Arabic so I can understand the Imam’s recitation in tarawih and in my personal tilawah. I had a disappointing Ramadan (iman-wise) two years ago where I realized all the Quran read did not lead to tangible hidayah (guidance). Note I said ‘tangible’ for certainly Allah guides whom He pleases, and it is my heart that is unreceptive and ungrateful to His blessings.

My Arabic at that point was built on a jumble of random lessons in informal halaqas, sitting in Arabic classes in college, and at the IIIT internship. I didn’t take any of it seriously enough and besides, it was mostly conversational Arabic rather than classic Quranic Arabic.

Then, for the months leading up to last year’s Ramadan, I resolved to work on my comprehension of Quranic Arabic. The first teacher I went to taught me Arabic the traditional way. I was taught to memorize the sarf tables arithmetically. The text was called wafiya, composed by Maulana Muhammad Meeran. I got past the 3-letter verbs, including all the past tense, present/future tense, commands, negations as well as the 6 patterns of 3-letter verbs. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed and gave up altogether when I started memorizing the 3+1, +2, and +3 verbs. There was about 18 different 3+ letter patterns for each verb form!

Anyway, another teacher I went to taught me much differently. He would work on my vocabulary, going through a word-by-word translation of Surah Baqarah alternating with grammar lessons. We didn’t do sarf as he thought I had understood enough of it for the time being from the previous teacher. His lessons captivated me since I was directly engaging with verses of the Quran. My study with him ended when I went back to Malaysia for Ramadan. It was an improvement over last year’s Ramadan — I was picking up many words in tarawih and personal tilawah but I was still far off my target. Oh well, hopefully I will make it to next Ramadan, insha Allah, more prepared.

Since then unfortunately, I failed to sort out my free time properly and was totally consumed by worldly affairs. Before long, it was already the month of Rajab and I have less than two months to work on my Arabic. So I stumbled upon another Quranic Arabic teacher. This time, it wasn’t one-on-one, but rather a large class. His teaching style is somewhat of a combination of my first and second teacher’s method. It was very cerebral, with lots of grammar and verb drills. He liked to use easy-to-memorize formulas and shortcuts for understanding grammar rules. He disliked terminologies altogether, jokingly saying “it will not increase your iman”. To me, his class was somewhat of a revision of my previous lessons and mainly benefited me in its rigorous grammar analysis drills.

I had to stop those lessons as my boss noticed my work productivity dropped. So I’m studying on my own now, although still having all three teachers a phone call away, as well as a few others who have taught me fiqh and aqidah. Now there is less than a month before Ramadan and I will give it my best shot. In the future though, I hope to one day finish my sarf which I had barely gone into, as I believe sarf will open up a lot of doors to building vocabulary and understanding word structures. And if I can find a good traditional teacher (online, even), I would love to go through the matn of Ajrumiyyah, Qatrun Nada and Alfiyyah. Or, in the case of an Indo-Pak teacher, it would be Hidayatun Nahw.

For the time being, I am using Quranic Language Made Easy (Iffath Hasan), Understandingquran.com, Madinaharabic.com, and corpus.quran.com

Semalam, saya singgah rumah Dr Irfan, pakar tafsir berusia 80+ tahun. Topik perbincangan untuk malam itu ialah surah Az-Zariyat.

Saya mula kenal beliau ketika di IIIT dahulu. Bilik hotel beliau berdekatan saya. Jadi selalunya saya diminta untuk menaip nota persediaan untuk kesemua presentation beliau di IIIT. Peribadinya sangat mulia. Seorang yang ceria, rendah diri dan kadang-kadang kelakar dan goofy. Paling menarik, beliau amat tegas menjaga solat lima waktu sebaik masuk waktu dan begitu juga cara dibesarkan anak-anak, cucu cicit beliau yang berjumlah puluhan, tak terkira saya.

Beliau dilihat sebagai tokoh pembangkit wacana Qurani di Chicago, malahan seluruh dunia, dengan mengasaskan Persatuan Kefahaman Quran (AQU). Keseluruhan keluarga beliau terlibat aktif. Isterinya dianggap ibu bagi generasi umat Islam di sini sejak 2-3 kurun. Generasi anak, cucu cicit beliau kesemuanya dibina atas semangat ini. Sebagai ahli falsafah, kupasan beliau tentunya membuatkan saya berfikir mendalam, meski gaya penyampaian yang agak berbelit.

Pendekatan beliau, sepertimana lain-lain tokoh wacana Nazmul Quran, ialah untuk melihat ayat-ayat Quran dari sudut aturannya dalam kitab Al-Quran. Ini sedikit berlainan dengan pendekatan tradisi di mana ayat-ayat Quran diambil secara piecemeal dalam konteks asbabul nuzul. Antara yang terawal mengetengahkan pendekatan Nazm ini ialah Al-Zamakhshari dan Al-Razi. Kemudiannya Al-Biqa’i. Dan seterusnya kepada tokoh-tokoh nazm kurun ke-20 seperti Farahi dan Islahi.

Selamat pun pulang ke Chicago dari MSACZ bertempat di Cleveland, OH. Dalam MSACZ yang ketiga pernah saya hadir ini, saya tampil sebagai penjual buku. Dua minggu akan datang, akan ke Atlanta pula untuk MSAEZ.

Jumlah peserta amat sedikit, 250 sahaja. Saya ingat sebelum ini di Milwaukee dan Dearborn, jumlah peserta lebih 500. Tapi alhamdulillah jualan buku tidak mengecewakan. Dapat juga sedikit net profit.

Ketika kawasan bazaar kekosongan, sempat juga saya masuk curi dengar kebanyakan sesi utama yang berlangsung. Kesemua penceramah ada kelebihan masing-masing. Saya terkesan dengan beberapa pesanan Sh Ninowy, seorang ulama hadith dan tasawwuf yang namanya semakin naik akhir-akhir ini. Beliau mengingatkan kami sebagai penuntut ilmu bahawa tanda seseorang itu semakin tambah ilmunya ialah dia semakin merendah diri.

Dr Omar Klobo mengulas tema conference tentang syurga. Bagi golongan tertindas seperti di Palestin, mereka perlu diingatkan dengan syurga sebagai pengukuh keimanan dan kesabaran derita neraka di dunia. Tapi bagi kita di Amerika, kita menikmati syurga dunia yang aman, selamat dan maju. Oleh itu kita perlu diingatkan akan azab neraka Jahannam jika kita mengkufuri nikmat yang ada. Seperkara lagi ialah persoalan ‘Urf. Apakah boleh kita beri alasan ‘urf dalam dunia global di mana adat tempatan dipadam oleh kuasa budaya yang dominan?

Saudara AR Murphy dan Sh Nasir Jangda mengupas topik cinta. Pesan AR, kita jangan sekali-kali melakukannya dengan cara yang haram, takut kelak tertutup pintu yang halal untuk menikmatinya. Sh Jangda menyebutkan bahawa kriteria terpenting untuk cari pasangan ialah keperibadian, dan termasuk dalam keperibadian itu ialah agamanya sebagai penentu. Sebagai imam masjid besar di Dallas, beliau lihat punca masal ah pasangan setiap kali ialah keperibadian yang tak serasi.

Saudara Wasim, guru tajweed di Bayyinah, membacakan ayat Quran tentang peristiwa Iblis enggan sujud pada Adam kerana beranggapan dia yang diperbuat dari api itu lebih tinggi darjatnya dari Adam AS (tanah). Ini menunjukkan teknik nombor 1 Iblis ialah merasionalkan perbuatan kufur. Subhanallah, sebelum Sr Wasim membaca ayat ini, hati saya bertanya pada Allah untuk berikan saya jawapan kenapa seorang guru saya tak malu berdusta depan saya. Dan itulah jawapan yang saya dapat.

Ketika di meja buku, seorang berbual dengan seorang pelanggan yang datang dari Vandy. Beliau tanya saya ni orang melayu kah, kerana di Vandy beliau kenal ramai orang Melayu. Beliau terus bertanya lagi, kenal tak Anas dan Azreena. Saya tentulah kenal, “Anas itu idola saya. Apa yang dia lakukan 3 tahun dahulu masih belum mampu saya lakukan hingga sekarang.” Jawab beliau, “Oh memang, mereka berdua itu lagenda MSAV!”

Saya senaraikan 5 buku terlaris:

1. Quranic Language Made Easy

2. Terjemahan Quran oleh M.A.S. Abdel Haleem

3. Stories of the Prophet by Ibn Kathir

4. Women Around the Messenger

5. The Sealed Nectar

Lain-lain buku laris ialah The Creed of Al-Tahawi (terj. Hamza Yusuf), Fortress of the Muslim (Hisnul Muslim), Invocations and Supplications (Al-Ghazali), Radical Reform (Tariq Ramadan) dan Muhammad: Man and Prophet (Adil Salahi).

Sekian dahulu. Mungkin bersambung, mungkin tidak.

Here’s an interview with Barrie Wilson, author of the recently released book How Jesus Became Christian. This book elucidates and further probes deeper into my assertion about the need for building on the legacy of Sh Deedat.

To be authentic, it has to be relevant! It has to relate with the lay person. It has to inspire the masses. It cannot be an ivory tower exercise!

The great sufi scholars of old were always with the masses. Their dhikr gatherings and sermons were attended by entire villages. They inspired and transformed the masses. They did not build castles and forts to isolate themselves! They did not exclusively write for the elite.

The book Bimbingan Mukminin was my life and soul since I was 15. And that’s a book derived from Imam Ghazali’s magnum opus, the Ihya. Today’s aspiring Ghazalians write books accessible to perhaps only 1 percent of the population. How can they be compared?

It is true that we need to produce works to challenge the western worldview. Yet that should not be a primary occupation of the movers and shakers of society. If you fail to explain an idea in a simple manner, that means you have not understood that idea yourself. You cannot be authentic without being relevant!

I am slacking off a lot lately. I’m too easy on myself that I wonder when I can attain the level of discipline to apply this hadith about being overly harsh on one’s self:

“Do not be very strict on yourselves for then Allah will be strict upon you. Verily, a people were strict upon themselves so Allah was strict upon them. It is the remnants of those people in the hermitages and monasteries. [Then he quoted the verse,] ‘But the monasticism which they invented for themselves, We did not prescribe for them.’” (Abu Dawud and Abu Yala)