( Imagining The
Role of Islamic Teaching on The Contemporary Isues Challenges)
by : Asep Risyana
I.
Preface
In
the name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah The Cherisher
and sustainer the world. And I pray to Allah (Glory be to Him, and He is
High) to bless Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the family
of Muhammad, and I also pray to Allah to bless the Khulafâ al-Rasyidîn, and the
companions, as well as the followers and the followers of the followers untill
the Day of Judgment.
First
of all let me begin by saying how hapy I am be able to accept an invitation of
the Moslem Students Association as an institution that interest in development
and aducation of young Moslem student both intellectual and Islamic character
building. For me, it was a great honor
and also as a big challenge, because I have to talk about the universality of
Islam and it’s integrality in the contemporary issues that encourages and push the
Moslem people to find the best and good solution wich basically rooted from the
Islamic Theaching. As a moslem’s student I see that these organizations are now
growing, and are becoming culturally significant. I am sure they play a very
important role in three ways. Most importantly, in turning the hearts of good
Moslems toward God. At more human level to be able to afford the possibility for
Moslem from various school (madzhab) to have an understanding discourse
among themselves, and the third to represent the views of Moslems on Islamic
boarding school (pesantren) where there is so much need to understand
what is going on the other side of the world.
Now
today, before I elucidating my paper I shall limit my discourse on the Islamic
teaching and it’s contribute on contemporary issues, wich it will be summarized
on the following discourse :
- Islamic concept on the unity of faith and reason.
- Whar can Islam contribute.
II. Islamic Concept on the Unity of
Faith and Reason
One of the reason why Islam is
considered by many as lacking in universal values is its alleged outdated view
or anti-science attitude. Such a view has been planted by an erroneous
education in West as pointed our by the Vatican
document quoted above. Another importand reason lies in the fact that for the
so-called modernist, rejection of religion it self or the separation of it from
science is the absolute condition sine qua non of progress.1
As
far as the Moslem are concerned, it is the right of the Cristian West to insist
on bifurcation, namely, the separation between the holy and the secular and as
between the church and the state and between religion and science. But the
Cristian do not have the right to dispense judgment on the other beliefs or to
impose their concept on the other religions.2
Moslem
agree with Einstein that science without religion is blind but religion without
science is lame. Religion is needed to establish the ultimate purpose or
meaning of science and technology. At the seme time, it is science and
technology; wich are able to produce the means to achieve that purpose. In
other words, religion provides the meaning of life, while science and
technology provide the means of life.
Futher,
Moslem agree with Einstein that the mission of the scientist is to pursue the truth.
The search for such truth can only be pursued by man an woman who are imbued
with the spirit of truthfulness. Such a spirit can only be born from a
religious environment. To such a scientist, the ultimate truth as revelaled by
religion could best be understood through the application reason. The scientist
is then someone who abides by “reason-with-faith”. This is precisely what Islam
teaches. As pointed out in the Qur’an, “ Verily, those who fear God among His
servant are those who are rich in knowledge.3
The
twinity between faith and reason, religion and science, is stressed many times
in the Qur’an. In fact, the Qur’an is addressed simultaneously to : (1) those
who belive; (2)those who understand and use their thinking faculty; and (3)
those who reflect. Muhammad himself has called upon his followers “to pursue
knowledge is a duty for man and woman “He exhorted Muslims” to go as far as China
There
were indeed certain periods in history, of wich the middle Ages wa a good example,
where the religious authority placed a hindrance on free pursuit of science and
knowledge. Those times where often referred to as the “Dark Ages”. But such a
name cannot be applied to that part of Europe
under Moslem rule. Sanchec-Albornoz made the following observation.
One must rather
bear in mind that side by side with a Europe
languishing in misery and decay, there existed resplendent civilization of
Moslem Spain. The leaders of Arab studies in Spain St. Thomas
What
Islam contributed to Europe of the middle Ages
wa to reintroduces the light of science in a world, wich was dominated by a
religious dogma that rejected the pursuit of scientific truth. Today when
modern society seems to be dominated by scientisme, what can Islam contribute
to again restore the unity between faith and reason ?, if the world is now
welcoming a new era of the centrality of religion, what will be the
contribution if Islam ?.
III. What can Islam Contribute
[*] This short paper presented at Leadership
Basic Training Program that held by
Muslim Students Association (Itihâd al-Thâlibîn) District of Gununghalu
and Rongga, on 17 of April 2010.
1 Arifin Bey, Beyond
Civilizational Dialogue : A
Multicultural Symsbiosis in the Service of World Politics, Jakarta
2
Maurice Bucaile, The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, Nort American
Trust Pulication, Indianapolis
4 Haidar Bammate, Muslim
Contribution to Civilization, The Crescent Publication, Takoma Park, Md,
20012, 1962, p.12
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