Feeling a bit down and frustrated, I was desperate for some hobnobbing. So I grabbed the phone.
Could you please hook me to room 114?
Kring.. kring..
Hello?
Yes, Pak Ayoub, this is me [kaki bangku]. Assalamualaikum. Do you need any help?
Yes I do actually, my … supermarket … groceries … take me …. (*abriged for privacy reasons)
[Hurah! Just what I need to get over some personal frustrations!]
[...so we're outside in the calm summer night...]
So Pak Ayoub what do you think of the book Cultural Atlas of Islam?
It’s a very useful book. There’s a lot of information in it. But it needs to be updated. These reference-type books get outdated quickly.
Honestly I don’t like it. The information is not presented very well. I especially don’t like his chapter on Tasawwuf. In it he basically lumped together everything that was folk practice and backward with Sufism. I have major disagreement with this as I think Sufism is a science that has its principles and rules. He mistook sufism for syncretism. And how can sufism be backwards when it was the agent of 18th century social movements. How can he scapegoat sufism as the reason for the Ummah’s downfall after the Abbasid?
Yes he doesn’t like Sufism. It’s very unfortunate. In the contemporary Muslim world the tragedy of most Muslim intellectuals is that they are nationalists. Faruqi was caught up in his notion of Urubiya. [me: didn't he drop that for Ummatism?] In the 18th and 19th century Sufis played a crucial role. Arabic language and culture was preserved despite the colonial onslaught during this time primarily through the work of the sufis. The ummah did not go through a total decline, there were some flourishing of arts and architecture in the 18th and 19th century. And the decline is mainly due to the disintegration of the ummah into the Ottomans, Moghul and Safavid whereas before there was a unified Caliphate. The philosophical Sufis have also been at the forefront of intellectualism in Islam.
[... and there we were at Bloom.... ]
Sayang! You’re here. Thank you for bringing him over, [Kaki bangku].
No problem. It was my pleasure.
I will talk with you some more.
OK, bye!