Nota Kaki

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Alas, the predicted calamity descended upon me. It is not a self-fulfilling prophecy for that refers to desirable outcomes only. What is studied is a science, as it yields predictable outcomes. It is not natural but rather supernatural, not physical but metaphysical. In good and bad times, I worship the same God. Of course, when thus arrives the advice from Senegal, I can only say hasbunallah wa ni’mal wakeel.

Akal… bukanlah gadget mainan. Yang diucapkan ialah membunuh nafsu, bukan bunuh jasad! Mereka bicara tentang jasmani, saya pula ruhai! Tapi apakan daya, sudah terlanjur kata.

This business that I have come to undertake and which has remained incomplete is no joke.

By hook or by crook, my ego will be crushed. That was the promise.

I could have taken the easy way by slaying it myself. But too stubborn, I am. It is still as big as ever.

What I have experienced lately has been very unpleasant. A warning, it seems, of the inevitability that the ego has to be crushed. Whether I like it or not. Things will be taken away from me until what is left is, I predict, nothing but al-Haqq.

Hold tight!

Ahmad al-Ghazali memetik sebuah hadith qudsi dalam kitabnya al-Tajrid fi Kalimat al-Tauhid,

“I was a treasure unknown but wanted to be known, so I created creation and made Myself known; they then knew Me”

Pengarah kepada ISITA yang bakal menjadi client webdevelopment saya, Sani Umar, kini memulakan kajiannya terhadap intelektual awam Sufi Tijaniyah dari Nigeria, iaitu Shaykh Sharif Ibrahim Saleh melalui geran penyelidikan dari Carnegie Corp. Thesis beliau bertajuk “Pragmatism and Pluralism in the Traditional Islamic Thought of al-Shaykh Ibrahim Saleh of Nigeria”.

Intelektual Tijaniyah tersebut pertama kali saya kedengaran dalam sebuah artikel jurnal bertajuk The Takfir Debate yang mencoretkan latar pembelaan wirid Tijaniyah angkara polemik yang ditimbulkan antara lainnya oleh salafi modernis tajaan Saudi, Abubakar Gumi. Dalam makalah tersebut, Ibrahim Saleh mengambil langkah yang lebih accomodating dalam membela wirid Tijaniyah sedangkan seorang lagi Ibrahim, iaitu Ibrahim Sidi dari Sudan mendesak Ibrahim Saleh supaya tidak berkompromi.

Tahun lepas, saya berkesempatan bertemu Shaykh ini di sebuah persidangan bertempat di Fez anjuran kementerian awqaf kesultanan Maghribi. Beliau memberi beberapa ucapan, khususnya tentang kaitan Tariqat Tijaniyah dengan Mazhab Maliki dalam menjejak langkah Nur Muhammad. Pun begitu, saya tidak berjaya mengikuti hujahnya hingga habis atas sebab penyampaiannya dalam bahasa Arab.

Pada masa sama, sahabat karib yang menumpangkan saya ketika di Senegal baru-baru ini juga sedang menyiapkan tesis berkaitan wacana jaringan ulama Tijaniyah dari keluarga Cisse dan Niasse.

Tambah mengiurkan, November nanti ISITA bakal menganjurkan persidangan Islam di Afrika dengan menjemput sarjana-sarjana Afrikanis utama seperti Sidi Buch.

Shaykh Nuh’s Reliance of the Traveller has proved an indispensable reference for so many reasons. From page 1105 of his book, I have here reproduced his concise biography of Al-Hajj Umar al-Futi Tal:

(al-Hajj) ‘Umar Tal is ‘Umar ibn Sa’id ibn ‘Uthman, al-Futi al-Turi al-Kidiwi, born in Halwar, near Podor in the Gidi district of northern Senegal in 1794. A Tijani sheikh of impressive education, intellect, and remarkable organizational talents, he conducted jihad against French troops and pagan indigenous peoples in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali from 1852 to 1864. He first studied Arabic and Islamic subjects with his father, and by the time he left home to study elsewhere, had not only memorized the Koran, but also the two Sahihs of Bukhari and Muslim. He taught the Sacred Sciences in Satina for about twelve years, during which period he joined the Tijani tariqa, a new order founded only thirteen years before his birth which was then spreading through West Africa from Mauritania. He first took the way from Sheikh ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Ahmad al-Naqil, but in less than two years decided to perform the hajj, and made his way eastward across Africa to the Hijaz, where he fulfilled the pilgrimage and completed his training in the tariqa with the Moroccan sheikh Muhammad al-Ghali al-Tijani.. He stayed with the latter for three years in Medina before being authorized as an independent sheikh. After performing hajj again, he returned first to Cairo, where he authored a Koranic commentary, and then set off in 1830 for West Africa. Enroute, he stopped for a series of residences in various cities, among them Sokoto, Nigeria, where he remained six years with Muhammad Bello, the son of the Fulani mujahid ‘Uthman ibn Fodi, writing and acquiring the firsthand military and administrative expertise that he was later to use in his jihad in West Africa, the plans for which he was beginning to formulate in his mind. Returning to his homeland after twenty years, he recruited many to the Tijani tariqa, which he marshalled for the purposes of jihad. In his military campaign, which are too numerous to record in detail here, he fought occasional skirmishes with the French, but his main efforts were directed at spreading Islam eastward by fighting the pagan Bambara people of Karta and Segu, which he did with considerable success at the head of an army that at its peak numbered some thirty thousand men. His force was well disciplined and applied Islamic law, as for example at the surrender of Karta, where ‘Umar ordered the indigenous idols he brought out to be smashed at his own hands with an iron mace. His opinions paralleled those of Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi and Muhammad ‘Ali Sanusi on many issues, and he admired the writings of Sheikh ‘Abd al-Wahhab Sha’rani. He died in Ghoro, Mali, in 1280/1864 after an escape from being besieged in Hamdallahi during an unsuccessful bid to take Masina (Muslim Brotherhoods, 68-98).

See also Wright’s (Shaykh Hassan Cisse’s disciple) article here

My reading choice of late have been on personal and spiritual topics. I have a feelign this will be my latest fad. I remember I liked reading books on aqidah and akhlaq back in secondary school such as Mauizatul Mukminin and Sifat 20, some of the books I read twice or even three times over for lack of other books to read (well OK, I confess to have also read Fathi Yakan’s Mengapa Saya Menganut Agama Islam? at this time as well). As I got out of school, I delved into popular science (especially cosmology), spurred by reading Unified Theory of Existence and participating in Hypography Forum. In America, as I got more into the on-campus intellectual activities, my interest shifted into the social sciences, first of which was political science, then sociology and eventually anthropology. At the same time I was also keen on history, which became my fad until this summer.

So going back to what I said, my latest fad right now is on adab, mysticism and psychology. These topics have been somewhat of a serious preoccupation of mine for many years, but not until I returned from my summer ‘uzlah’ have I gained renewed interest in this. Much of my past years’ vigor in pursuing my intellectual curiosities have not taken me far. I am reminded of the hadith, “Whoever increases in knowledge and does not increase in guidance, only increases in distance from God.” I feel a clear sense of direction now as to my destination in the distant future despite present uncertainties. There are intellectual questions I had pursued in the past that in fact were delusions of the dunya.

Here I want to list down a few books I’ve flipped through the past weeks for my own record as well as to inform all my stalkers out there (there’s not many, but I know there are a few of you hehe):

Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism - This is an anthology of select chapters from the works of various classical sufi authors including al-Qushayri, al-Ghazali and Suhrawardi. The chapters selected concern thoughts on the meaning of ma’rifat and ‘ilm.

The Niche of Light (Mishkat al-Anwar) - Al-Ghazali’s treatise on the Qur’anic verse of light. The syllogisms are a bit convoluted but I plan to exert full effort to penetrate the depth of al-Ghazali’s thought here the next time I give it a read.

The Beginning of Guidance (Bidayat al-Hidayah) - Another of Al-Ghazali’s popular works, which I consider absolutely essential for any aspiring scholar or activist to read. Very direct, practical and hands-on advice to us all. I say to you all, read this book, over and over and over and over. Again and again and again. Make sure you plant it deep inside, or you will be in sorrow for eternity.

Sufi Essays - By Seyyed Hossein Nasr. An enjoyable book to read. Note that if you search in my older posts, I have some negative comments on him.

The Ring of the Dove - Of Ibn Hazm’s. Must admit, I was surprised Ibn Hazm authored such a book. The translator, the famous orientalist AJ Arberry, inserts a subtitle “On the art and practise of Arab love”. If in addition to him that I consider also Ibn Arabi, I am realizing that the literalists of Andalusia are really of a different breed…

seperti diungkapkan dalam posting sebelum ini, saya cuba menyiapkan beberapa projek website untuk mencari nafkah. saja saya letakkan link website yg sedanag disiapkan ini supaya masuk dalam index google search

laman syarikat dr eissa

I have not been active blogging. Haven’t been active writing anywhere, for that matter. None at all since I got back from West Africa. And now I find myself very rusty to start writing again.

HOWEVER, I have been flipping through various books lately. Kept myself busy with numerous activities of tarbiyah/ta’dib nature. The summer travels burned my wallet, so I’ve also been busy with several website projects to refill my bank account.

Kakiblog and all my other sites on this same server was recently hacked, likely due to an outdated Joomla! installation I had in one of my directories. Speaking of Kakiblog, I do not have the energy nor interest to sustain it. Likewise with my other group blog, Ansarullah.

But no, somewhow during the most interesting and tumultuous of times, I have lost much interest in American politics and economy. I did not register to vote for the elections this time around as I did in the previous mid-term elections. Don’t ask me why, too many things are going on in my life right now.

1. Majlis Diskusi / Muzakarah / Forum Bersama Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Alawi Al Maliki, di Bilik Sri Seremban, Dewan Majlis
Perbandaran Seremban, pada tarikh 10 Oktober 2008, (Jumaat ), bermula jam 7.00 malam. Diskusi ini akan membincangkan kitab Mafahim Yajibu an Tusahhah. Tempat adalah terhad kepada 150 peserta yang pertama sahaja. Sila hubungi pihak Yayasan Sofa untuk ” booking “. Kertaskerja dan buku-buku akan dibekalkan secara percuma, InsyaAllah.

2. Majlis Hol Besar-Besaran al Marhum Sayyid Muhammad bin Alawi Al Maliki dan Majlis Aidil Fitri Yayasan Sofa, di Kompleks Yayasan
Sofa, 71350 Kota, pada tarikh 11 Oktober 2008 ( Sabtu ), bermula dengan Jamuan HariRaya, ( Lemang, Rendang, Satay, Nasi Impit…..) pada jam 4.30 petang hingga 10 malam. Penceramah Undangan Dato’ Syed Omar Al Aidarus ( Terengganu ) , Habib Hassan Al Attas ( Singapura ) dan Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Alawi Al Maliki Al Hasani ( Mekah ) serta bacaan Qasidah dan Maulid Ad Daibaie

3. Majlis Wacana Pemikiran Prof. Dr. Sayyid Muhammad bin Alawi al Maliki Al Hasani akan diadakan pada 12 Oktober 2008 ( Ahad ). Jam 8.00 pagi - 1 tghari di Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan , Kuala Lumpur anjuran JAWI bersama ABIM / Yayasan Sofa . Penceramah Undangan Dato’ Syed Omar Al Aidarus ( Terengganu ) , Habib Hassan Al Attas dan Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Alawi Al Maliki Al Hasani ( Mekah )

Muslimin / Muslimat dijemput hadir beramai-ramai

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