لنستخرج كنوزا من المعرفة و الإبداع و العلم و الأفكار
The downfall of Islamic civilization also witnesses the rise of Western civilization that dominated other civilizations from every angle. However, the rise of that civilization does not merely bring an impressive advancement in science and technology, instead behind the
greediness to build a civilization, they also heightened the humanity crisis happening nowadays. History indicated that the Western civilization built its civilization through oppression, tyranny and threat to humanity which happened in more sophisticated manner. They produced advancement in science and technology that puts humans’ minds in a huge confusions and disorder (Ahmad in Bahari & Ibrahim, 2009). The consequences of this decline inIslamic civilization is the emergence of numerous Islah and tajdid figures to purify the understanding and the practice of Islam as a universal religion as well as to return the glory of Islamic civilization. It turned out that their presence has given a new breath and enlighten the Islamic world which was always been overwhelmed with decadence and weaknesses in the past. This is in accordance with Allah SWT commandment:
“Let there arise from among you a band of people who should invite to righteousness, enjoin good and forbid evil; such are the ones who shall be successful,”
(Surah Ali Imran 3:104)
Among the renewal aspect which always being the attention of Islah notables is to revive the spirit and understanding of the religion among the Muslims in a pure form and free from any kind of bidaah (innovations in religious matters) which is misleading, khurafat (superstitions) and abuse.
The command of islah according to Islamic perspective generally calls for comprehensive repair that covers repair from the aspect of aqidah, ibadah, akhlaq, economy, politics and others (Ahmad in Zalilah Bahari & Siti Suhafzan Sh. Ibrahim, 2009, pp. 4-5).
Al-Zarqani mentioned in his book, "Manahil al-'Irfan" a few shapes or methods of islahand its executions. Amongst them are:
1. Islah al-aqa'id (restoration of creed), by guiding the people to the reality of life and death as well as the things in between under the scope of iman (believers’ faith) towards Allah SWT, His Angels, His messengers and the Judgement Day.
2. Islah al-'ibadah (restoration of obedience), by guiding the humans towards something that purifies their souls, straightens their desires, and provides benefits to others be it an individual or a group
3. Islah al-akhlaq (restoration of ethics), by guiding the humans towards the goodness in themselves and protecting them from things that can bring humiliation to them without the element of exaggeration or otherwise.
4. Islah al-ijtima' (restoratiom of the community), by guiding humans to become a unified community and removing ta'asub(extreme obsession towards something) as well as eliminating the differences that divide the Muslims.
5. Islah as-siyasah (political reform) oral-hukmi ad-dauli (administration laws), by upholding justice in absolute manner, prioritizing the similarities of humans, being fair, being trustworthy, fulfilling promises, not practicing favoritism and full with love; far from oppression, betrayal, lie and deceptions (Abdurrahman, 2015).
Therefore, we found out that the matter which always being highlighted by islah figures is the importance for the Muslims to return to al-Qur’an and Sunnah and hold firmly on the true Islamic teachings. They made effort to correct the confusions of the people that said Islam is only for spiritual and obedience aspects (Rahim in Hamat et al., 2004). They also made effort to rectify the Muslims understandings towards Islam which has been polluted with jahiliyyah elements and foreign elements that deviated from the syariat of Islam. The Muslims’ distance from al-Qur’an and al-Sunnah that should be their guidance is a sign of diminishing strength of Islamic civilization (Mohamed, 2015).
As an example, Badiuzzaman Said Nursi (1399H/1979M) has struggled through Rasail al-Nurto restore the Muslims faith towards Islam within the Turks secular community. Badiuzzaman Said Nursiis an Islamic figure in the transformation era between the Ottoman Empire and Turkey under Kemal Ataturk that witnessed the fall of Ottoman Empire and caliphate systems and how on this Islamic base, emerged the Republic of Turkey, a country that adopted a secular ideology. Observations on the situations at that time made him saw that the understanding and appreciation of faith is the best way to save the Muslims from the problems they were facing (Mohamad Zaidin Mohamad, 2015)
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