Islam, Peace, and Hope [1]

Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim

“Indeed there is in the body a piece of flesh which if it is sound then the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupt then the whole body is corrupt. Indeed, it is the heart.”

(Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

THE IMPORTANCE OF AQIDAH

Growing up as a Muslim doesn’t guarantee that you’ll grow up as a true believer. At least, that’s what I felt for most part of my life. Religion has been rooted in our society for so long that it is then (sadly) easily treated merely as one of building element in our culture. A guidance that supposed to govern all spheres in our lives, now has turned into ritualistic routines with barely heart attachment to it. We do shalat, zakah (mostly fitrah only?), and fasting solely to discharge obligation in order to avoid Hellfire or to conform with the norm (?). We neglect the basic question of whether we truly believe that Hellfire exists? Or to the deeper question of whether God exist? If it does, who is God? What is His path (religion)?

Please don’t rush to discharge these questions. They are real. I had them all at several points in the past, but I kept delaying to dig the answer for various reasons. I believe that this search of the true path is not exclusive to myself. We have heard the story of Ibrahim ‘alaihissallam when he was questioning who is his One and Only God? Islam is a religion that encourages the use of ‘aql (intellect) to observe the evidences He provides all around us. Doesn’t that also what the Qur’an challenge us to do? To think, to reflect, to ponder upon the ayah of Allah (includes His kauniyah ayah).

All I am saying is: when someone doesn’t have a right and solid understanding of Aqidah, it is easy to lose sight of the Deen (religion). It is inevitable that religion will be confined to private matters, e.g. we use Islamic law to guide us on ‘ibadah, marriage, death ceremony, but not on how we should behave entirely. No wonder, we sometimes see religiosity does not reflected on people’s behavior (Naudzubillah). Oh, well, how could we even bother to use it as our worldview* to guide all our actions when we don’t even aware of the concept of Aqidah??

As a child, raising up in a traditional Javanese family who lived in a small village, I remembered studying 6 pillars of imaan, 5 pillars of Islam, and fiqh on ‘ibadah (I didn’t even know that the name was fiqh back then!), but unfortunately it was not sufficient to nail down the principle of Aqidah as my ultimate point of view. I matured up as many of us do, bearing the dichotomy of guidance: conventional paradigm to guide my rational-professional life and religion saved to the ibadah realm. I HONESTLY DID NOT REALISE WE NEED TO SEE THIS WORLD IN A CERTAIN WORLDVIEW/ PERSPECTIVE. Of course, this is not true to all community. To say the least, it was valid to my local community where I was raised. Or to the very least, it holds true to myself.