Islam: Jalan Pertengahan Shaykh Abdalhaqq

Bewley
http://www.mezquitadegranada.com/articles/islam-the-middle-way/?lang=en

30 August, 2016

Kita temukan di dalam Kitab Allah di awal ayat 143 Surat al-Baqara sebuah kalimat yang
artinya: Dan demikian Kami telah menjadikan kamu (umat Islam), umat pertengahan satu
ummatan wasata. Mufasir besar Al Quran, al-Qurtubi, bersama banyak mufasir lainnya,
berkata bahwa kata wasata, pertengahan, bermakna adil dan seimbang, mengambil jalan
pertengahan di antara dua ekstrim, tidak mengurangi dan tidak berlebihan. Dan di Sahih Bukhari
kita jumpai hadith dimana Rasulallah sallallahu alayhi wasalam bersabda yang artinya:
selalulah mengambil sebuah jalan tengah, sederhana, biasa dimana dengannya engkau mencapai
tujuanmu. Dan beliau sallallahu alayhi wasalam menekankan ini dalam kejadian terkenal
dimana beliau sallallahu alayhi wasalam berbicara kepada tiga Sahabatnya, yang satu salat
sepanjang malam, yang satunya sawm setiap hari dan yang satu lagi tidak mau menikah. Beliau
sallallahu alayhi wasalam berkata kepada mereka, Lihatlah aku. Aku lebih takut dan lebih
bertaqwa kepada Allah daripada kalian semua dan aku sawm dan berbuka, aku salat dan
beristirahat dan aku menikahi wanita-wanita. Setiap yang tidak menyukai sunnahku tidak
bersamaku. Menjadi sangat jelas bahwa dalam segala hal yang beliau sallallahu alayhi wasalam
lakukan bahwa beliau sallallahu alayhi wasalam adalah yang paling setimbang dan sederhana di
antara manusia dan di setiap keadaan anak memilih jalan yang pertengahan bagi dirinya sendiri
dan mengajak semua yang bersamanya melakukan perihal yang sama. Saya telah memulainya
dengan kembali kepada akar sumber-sumber Islam tentang hal ini Kitab wa Sunna itu sendiri
untuk menunjukkan bahwa Islam menurut arti sebenarnya tidaklah ekstrim, dan bahwa
ekstrimisme tidak memiliki tempat apapun dalam perihal Deen Allah ini.
Ini adalah keadaannya sepanjang sejarah Islam dan seringkali hadir melalui telah ditunjukkan
penampakan secara serasi, di bawah pemerintahan Islam, terhadap berbagai kepercayaankepercayaan dan bentuk-bentuk kebudayaan lain di berbagai tempat di dunia selama berabad-

abad untuk menunjukkan tanpa kesangsian bahwa itulah keadaan normal/biasanya dari berbagai
urusan dimana pun dan kapan pun Islam diwujudkan secara benar dan menyeluruh. Ini berbeda
jelas dengan apa yang telah terjadi di tempat-tempat itu setelah pemerintahan Islam digantikan
dengan sistem politik yang lain. Hal ini telah diterangkan dengan sangat baiknya oleh salah
seorang ulama besar Islam yang ironisnya dia adalah yang diakui sebagai pelopor oleh
khalayak yang bisa disebut sebagai para ekstrimis murid terkemuka Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn alQayyim, yang berkata, Tak ada sesuatu pun dari yang telah diperintahkan Allah untuk kita
lakukan melainkan bahwa setan mendatangi kita dalam salah satu dari dua jalan apakah
mengajak kita untuk mengurangi dan meninggalkannya, atau mengajak kita untuk berlebihan
padanya. Deen Allah terletak di pertengahan antara mereka yang meninggalkan amal dan mereka
yang ekstrim dan berlebihan. Ini serupa sebuah lembah di antara dua gunung, petunjuk di antara
dua sumber kekeliruan, sebuah jalan terpuji di antara dua jalan yang tercela.
Saya merinci perihal ini diawal pembicaraan saya karena dua alas an. Yang pertama untuk
memutus hubungan perilaku-perilaku yang nyatanya ekstrim yang akan saya bahas kemudian
dari Islam dan yang kedua, sama pentingnya, untuk menyatakan tanpa keraguan bahwa setiap
perilaku yang sebenarnya berada dalam batasan pelaksanaan Islam yang sahih tidak bias disebut
sebagai ekstrim. Ini perlu disampaikan karena kata ekstrimisme sedang disebarluaskan di
mana-mana di waktu ini dalam hubungannya dengan Islam, sedemikian rupa sehingga perilaku
biasa yang sudah umum, yang telah menjadi tradisi Muslim sering kali dinilai non-muslim
sebagai ekstrim. Dalam sebuah kasus di Inggris, sebagai contoh, seorang perawat Muslim muda
yang sebelumnya tidak memakai tudung lalu mulai memakainya dilaporkan karena harena itu
sebagai menunjukkan kecenderungan-kecenderungan ekstrim dan menjalani interogasi ketat oleh
pihak intelejen. Sebuah contoh lain
adalah sebuah sekolah di Inggris yang pelajarnya 90%
Muslim. Poster-poster kaligrafi bahasa Arab digantungkan di beberapa dindingnya dan itu dinilai
oleh penyelia pemerintah sebagai sebuah tanda ekstremisme.
Yang benar adalah adanya suatu kejahilan yang disesalkan di pihak sebagian besar non-muslim
tentang apa yang biasa dilakukan dan diyakini oleh Muslimin pada umumnya, bahkan kondisi ini
pun terjadi pada khalayak, yang selayaknya bisa memperoleh informasi lebih baik. Kondisi ini
menjadikan begitu mudahnya mengarahkan tuduhan ekstrimisme kepada Muslimin yang
sebenarnya sekedar melakukan tidak lebih dari dasar-dasar keyakinan deen mereka, namun yang
nampak bagi non-muslim pada umumnya bahwa Muslimin adalah ekstrimis. Sebagai contoh
kebanyakan dari kita menghabiskan total satu setengah jam dalam melaksanakan salat lima
waktu dalam sehari dan lebih banyak lagi yang menghabiskan lebih banyak waktu dari itu. Bagi
sebagian besar mereka yang tak beragama dari masyarakat besar kita yang sekuler ini, hal itu
tampak sebagai suatu yang berlebih-lebihan bahwa waktu sebanyak itu disisihkan untuk
beribadah setiap hari. Bagi seorang Muslim ini hal benar-benar biasa/normal. Dan kita baru saja
melewati akhir Ramadhan. Bagi kebanyakan orang perihal untuk tidak makan dan minum selama
sembilan belas jam atau sekitar itu selama satu bulan penuh benar-benar tidak bisa dimengerti.
Namun bermilyar Muslimin semua umur menjalaninya dengan penuh kepercayaan dan
memperoleh manfaat besar darinya. Hanya saja itu memang terlihat ekstrim bagi banyak orang di
hari ini.

Ini sebetulnya bukan suatu masalah jika saja bukan karena adanya fakta bahwa pemerintah kita
berbicara tentang ancaman ekstremisme dan menyatakan kesungguhan tekad mereka untuk
mengalahkan ekstrimisme berapa pun biayanya. Hanya saja, karena ekstrimisme tak pernah
dengan jelas didefinisikan, maka label ini, seperti yang kita lihat, dengan mudahnya ditempelkan
label ekstrimis kepada Muslimin umumnya yang berperilaku tak lebih dari sekedar menjalani
kehidupannya sehari-hari. Bagaimana mungkin mereka yang non-muslim mengerti apakah yang
disebut sebagai ekstrimis dan bukan ekstrimis dalam Islam itu? Banyak pria Muslimin yang
berjanggut panjang dan banyak wanita Muslim menutupi kepala mereka. Seperti telah saya
katakan, hal ini kadang kala dilihat sebagai ekstremisme. Suatu hari saya berada di sebuah
pesawat dalam perjalanan pulang dari sini (Granada) ke London dengan beberapa pria berkulit
gelap dan berjanggut yang ngobrol satu sama lain dalam bahasa Punjabi. Lalu sekelompok
penumpang mengeluh bahwa mereka tidak ingin terbang bersama mereka itu dan akhirnya
mereka itu diturunkan oleh polisi Spanyol. Mereka itu, tentu saja, hanyalah sekelompok Muslim
Inggris yang sedang berlibur, namun mereka dipandang sebagai ektrimis yang berbahaya.
Peristiwa seperti itu berulang lagi beberapa waktu ini ketika seorang pemuda Muslim secara
tidak adil diturunkan dari pesawat atas perintah seorang penumpang histeris karena
mengucapkan inshaallah pada seseorang di teleponnya. Tidak, tuduhan ekstrimisme ini
memiliki pengaruh-pengaruh langsung yang nyata dan segera bagi Muslimin awam yang terus
bertambah dan taat aturan.
The point I am getting at by all of this is that by turning a totally undefined extremism, directly
tied to Islam, into the public enemy number one of this time, there is a very real danger of all
Muslims being labeled extremists. This is something that affects both Muslims and nonMuslims. When a Birmingham Muslim mother of three was asked about a speech the British
Prime Minister gave about extremism last year she said, I have a question for David Cameron:
does he think its OK to be a practising Muslim? The idea of extremist Islam has not really been
defined. I am a practising Muslim and follow the way of Islam; does that mean I fall into it? Her
enquiry asks this question on behalf of millions of other Muslims. And regarding the perception
of non-muslims about this we need go no further than a recent British government report which
says that public perception of Islam is conditioned by: Lack of understanding of Islam
insensitive use of language and perceptions of Islam and an ill- informed assumption that Islams
teachings are inherently extremist. Media coverage of extremist fringe groups increases this
So why, when Islam is by definition non- extremist and categorically a balanced middle way, is it
so now so easy to accuse ordinary Muslims of being extremist. What has happened is that in the
last fifty years or so the fulcrum of what is balanced human behaviour has shifted dramatically.
Up until beyond half way through the last century the moral landscape of the vast majority of the
human race was, as it had been for centuries, firmly based on attitudes largely derived from
Divinely revealed texts. My grandparents, for instance, who were by no means prudish or
moralistic or religious, would have been far more at home in the moral world inhabited by the
vast majority of Muslims than that advocated by the liberal orthodoxy of 2016. In fact they
would see several things that are now propagated as normal balanced human behaviour as
extreme deviance. The fact is that what is now considered normal by many of the general run of
21st Century people was very far from being viewed as median and balanced even as little as
half a century ago.

No, balance and moderation in human behaviour lie in holding to the Sunna of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasalam not in adopting what is now being sold to us by politicians and the
media as moderation. We must ignore their definitions and forget trying to please them. They
will never be pleased with us until we have completely abandoned our deen. And we must
instead focus on pleasing our Lord and living within His parameters, clearly laid out for us in the
example of the first community. That is our middle way; that is the middle way. And the way of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam and his Companions radhiallahu anhum, is a broad
highway, allowing great diversity and difference of opinion, from the strict adherence to the
letter of the law of Ibn Umar, to the ijtihad and broad interpretation of Ibn Abbas, from the rigour
of Umar ibn al-Khattab to the gentleness of Abu Bakr. All of them fell within the balanced
middle way that is Islam. And this brings us to what was said by Ibn al-Qayyim that I quoted
earlier: that the true extremists are those Shaytan misguides into abandoning the deen or going to
excess in it.
The abandoners of the deen, who are definitely extremists in the eyes of ordinary Muslims, are
certainly not seen as such by the moral arbiters of this time, in fact they are viewed as liberated
representatives of the present orthodoxy, applauded upholders of the enlightened, amoral ethos of
the world today, where virtually any discrimination at all on any grounds is condemned as
wrong. What is now considered balanced and moderate Islam in the eyes of many non-muslims
and an unfortunately increasing number of people who consider themselves to be Muslims is
nothing but the opposite extreme, tafrit, abandonment of action and deen; Islam as a set of vague
principles, not a set of clear legal parameters so-called Muslims who differ from their fellow
citizens only by name and certain cultural practices.
The other extreme, however those who go to violent excess in the name of Islam are seen as
extremists by both Muslims and non-muslims alike. And to look at these deviant people, I would
like to borrow freely from a khutba my son Shaykh Habib delivered on the subject. I feel
justified in doing this because of an exchange I had with our beloved shaykh when I saw him in
Cape Town in April. Shaykh Habib had come up in the conversation and I said to Shaykh
Abdalqadir that he says what I would like to say but says it better. Like a flash came the shaykhs
verbal riposte: No, he says what you should say but you would say it worse! Among other
things this showed me that our shaykh is definitely well on the road to recovery!
Shaykh Habib said that the extremists such as al-Qaida, ISIS and those influenced by them,
limit the scope of the deen and place it inside the narrowest of parameters. They turn the deen
from something organic and alive and make it into something black and white, something not
found in real life but just in the pages of their books and the rigid contours of their inflexible
minds. Everything and anything they learn of the deen is divorced from circumstance and
removed from its historical context and the global and social realities of our time. Their literalist
interpretations, lacking both knowledge and wisdom, are simply transplanted into their own lives
and environments. They are like an untrained heart surgeon who cuts the heart from one body,
but has no concept of how to keep it alive and insert it and attach it to the body of the person who
needs it. So all he ends up doing is killing them completely.
And that is what we see with ISIS and their ilk. The true implementation of the Quranic ayats
they wrongly use to justify their appalling crimes is to be found in the actions of the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wasalam not in the rigid confines of their own minds. What did the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasalam do when he entered Makka? Did he kill all those idolaters who had
fought against him and opposed him for the previous twenty years and driven him out of Makka?
No, instead he granted them unconditional amnesty. He knew that Allahs words were to be read
and understood in conjunction with the Divine instruction: Fight in the Way of Allah against
those who fight you, but do not go beyond the limits. Allah does not love those who go beyond
the limits. There are limits and those limits are known from the example of the Prophet and his
Companions. It is to them that the Muslims must look for guidance.
These extremists have taken certain ayats out of context and have insisted upon their literalist
unrestricted interpretation of them, a mindset not uncommon in this age of excessive information
and insufficient knowledge. There are a whole host of internet alims whose studies of the deen
are limited to an unguided, uncontextualised reading of texts and treatises. They are aided and
abetted in their task of perverting Islam by the liberal and neo- conservative media in which the
values and truths of the deen are continually being attacked and criticised. Because of this many
psychologically vulnerable young Muslims are seduced by an extremist ideology that in reality
owes virtually nothing to authentic Islamic knowledge, certainly not to that balanced, middle
way, which has always been the true path of Islam. The extremists leave the true deen and create
a new deen with new parameters, venturing into uncharted areas that are far removed from the
Sunna of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam, and making a mockery of the great tradition of
genuine Islamic teaching that has been preserved and kept alive for us throughout the centuries
by the great awliya and ulama of every generation.
Although the extremists at both end of the spectrum always come up with specious fiqhi
justifications for the positions they take, the root cause of what they do in every case is in reality
to be found in psychological imbalance not religious doctrine. Many who abandon the deen by
compromising to an unacceptable extent with kufr do so out of a desire to give unchecked free
rein to their physical appetites. Others do so out of an overwhelming wish to conform to
dominant social norms; in other words it is concern for what other people think of them rather
than what is pleasing to Allah and his Messenger that dominates their beings. Those who go to
the other extreme and adopt the path of violence are very often people with a frail sense of their
own identity and act as they do out of the need for self-aggrandisement. Others take that path in
order to indulge deep-seated impulses of aggression and cruelty.
The only cure for these serious imbalances lies in people integrating the whole deen into their
lives, more specifically in consciously including the element of ihsan into their implementation
of it. It is essential for all Muslims to make purification of the heart an integral element of the
daily practice of their deen, for them to take on the path of tasawwuf. Imam al-Ghazali
confirmed that it was obligatory for every Muslim to do this and Shaykh Shadhili said that
failure to do so would lead to dying in a state of grave wrong action without realising it. The
behaviour of all these extremist groups certainly bears that out. As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasalam told us in a seminal hadith: In the body there is a lump of flesh. If it is healthy the
whole body is healthy; if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted. It is the heart. So if the
heart is right there can be no question of the unbalanced attitudes that lead to extremist
behaviour. And if there is extremist behaviour it must mean that the heart of the perpetrator is not
right. The business of tasawwuf is precisely to set the heart right.

This is not the time or place to talk at length about tasawwuf. In fact it always seems ironic to me
that so much has been said and written about a matter whose reality can no more be described in
words than, say, the taste of honey. You can be as eloquent as you like about it but in the end only
the actual experience of tasting it will let you know what it really is. One thing, however, as
Shaykh Abdalqadir has made clear to us again and again in recent times, is that the reality of
tasawwuf always appears outwardly in the form of elevated behaviour. In one definition we find:
Tasawwuf kulluhu adab tasawwuf is all about good behaviour. Another says that the real
meaning of tasawwuf is: Noble behaviour shown by noble people in a noble moment. Ibn alFarid said:
It refines the character of its companions and by it those who lack resolve are guided to resolve.
Someone whose hand did not know how to give becomes magnanimous,
and someone unforgiving becomes forbearing when enraged.
Explaining this verse Shaykh Ibn Ajiba said: Evil character is replaced by good character and
laziness is replaced with energy and vigour. Avarice and miserliness are replaced by generosity
and open-handedness. Anger, rancour, rashness, and violence are transformed into forbearance,
sound heartedness, tranquillity, deliberateness and gravity. Fear, anxiety and dismay are changed
into courage, certainty and independence from everything but Allah. Doubt and confusion are
transformed into certainty and calm. Excessive management and choice are changed to
contentment, submission and serenity under the blows of fate. Pride and love of elevation, rank
and leadership are replaced by humility, peace of mind, love of obscurity. Love of this world,
greed and improbity are replaced by doing without, contentment and scrupulousness. Wealth is
with Allah rather than anything other than Him. Esteem for the wealthy and forming alliances
with them are replaced by turning away from them and making do without them; and boasting
about connection with them is replaced by being satisfied by ones knowledge of Allah. Disdain
and disparagement of the poor is replaced by exalting and elevating them, and being near to them
and love for them.
In other words all those dangerous defects of the nafs that find their disastrously negative
expression in extremism are transformed by tasawwuf into at worst harmless foibles and at best
actively positive characteristics. The thing is that these qualities of character engendered by the
practice of tasawwuf, by the active implementation of all three elements that make up the deen of
Allah, are in no way abstract. They have an immediate and dynamic effect in and on the lives of
all who embody them and come into contact with them. Imam Sulami listed just some of the
ways this happens:
They bring joy to the lives of their companions and meet their needs in every way they can.
They overlook injustices which they themselves suffer but are resolute in seeking justice for
other people.
They avoid finding fault with their companions and overlook any mistakes they make.
They are slow to take offence and are very careful not to cause it.

 They are rigorous with themselves regarding the practice of their own deen but are careful not
to impose the same rigour on their companions.
They are generous and open handed.
They are easy-going with their companions.
They permit their companions to use their things as if they were their own.
They are hospitable and invite people to eat with them.
They make sure that their friends and neighbours have what they need.
They are satisfied with little for themselves but desire a lot for others.
They are always truthful.
They keep their word and protect what is entrusted to their safekeeping.
They love to share in the joy of their companions.
They think little of themselves and their own good actions.
They seek good company and avoid bad company like the plague.
This is the true picture of Islam in action and it is a million miles away from the crazed atrocities
perpetrated in the name of Islam by the extremists of ISIS and al-Qaida and their criminal
followers. It is by the extent to which we embody these qualities, or our failure to do so, that our
implementation of Allahs deen must be measured. We are brought back time and time again to
the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam: I was only sent to perfect noble qualities of
character. Of course it goes without saying that we must live within the broad legal parameters
mapped out for us so clearly in the Book and Sunna, but it is through our interaction with one
another and with the society that surrounds us that our deen is expressed and transmitted. We
must never lose sight of the fact that Allah only created us to worship Him; that the sole purpose
of our existence on this earth is to worship our Creator; that and that alone is what our deen is all
about. The noble qualities of character spoken of by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam play a
vital part in that worship, are an integral aspect of it. They are in essence a reflection of the
Divine Names and Attributes, the very means by which the Light of Allah is made available to
other human beings. This is really what we have to offer to our fellow human beings. This is the
real outward manifestation of the truly balanced middle way that is Islam.
Allah tells us in Surat ar-Rahman:
He erected heaven and established the balance so do not transgress the balance. 55:7-8

The balance has been transgressed. The world we live in is in a state of dangerous imbalance.
States of natural balance have been disastrously overstepped in every sphere of human activity
and behaviour. The only possibility of restoring balance lies, as Muslims, in our hands.
Allah bears witness that there is no god but Him as do the angels, and the people of knowledge,
upholding the just balance. There is no god but Him, the Almighty, the All-wise. The deen in the
sight of Allah is Islam. 3:18-19