TARIKAT, SYARIAT, HAKIKAT DAN MAKRIFAT

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June 1, 2012 by mthago

TARIKAT

Tarikat means the path or the road that one must take in order to reach Allah. The path or the road must be the path or the road taken by our Prophet Muhammad saw. There is only one path or road taken by our Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions in order to reach Allah. There is only one path to reach Allah and there are no other paths other than the path taken by our Prophet Muhammad saw to reach Allah. Some says that our destination is the same, but there are many ways or paths to reach our destination. As for an example, our destination is Kuala Lumpur but there are many roads to reach Kuala Lumpur. The argument sounds logical but it is a very misleading argument. First, we cannot compare Kuala Lumpur with Allah and the path or Tarikat to reach Allah with the roads to reach Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is a place in the world and certainly, there are many ways to reach Kuala Lumpur. One can reach Kuala Lumpur either by air, road or railway. There are also many roads to reach Kuala Lumpur. Although the literal meaning of Tarikat is road or path but it is not the same as the Tarikat or path to reach Allah. Allah is the creator of the world and the universe. We cannot compare the path to reach Allah with the path to reach Kuala Lumpur. In order to reach Kuala Lumpur we need to use roads but we cannot use the same analogy to reach Allah. In order to reach Allah we need to use good actions. Good actions are the path or road to reach Allah. Allah does not love the worldly things but Allah love good actions. With worldly things, we cannot reach Allah but we can only reach Allah with good actions. Good actions that bring us closer to Allah are the Tarikat to reach Allah. Good actions that bring us closer to Allah must be the mother of all good actions that will give birth to all other good actions.

Allah says in the Quran with the approximate meaning; “Say, Muhammad (means to tell to all your people) that this is my path (Tarikat) to call peoples to Allah with firm believe and determination and this is my path and the path of those who follows me” (Surah Yusuf: 108). Tarikat or path is the good actions that will bring us closer to Allah and whoever does the good action will be able to perform all other good actions. In the above verse, it is specifically mentioned by Allah that the path to reach Allah is by doing the work of calling peoples to Allah. The work of calling peoples to Allah must be the mother of all good actions and by doing the work of calling peoples to Allah in the way done by our Prophet Muhammad saw, our iman will be increased. When our iman has increased to the level Allah wants, we will be able to do all other good actions. The work of calling peoples to Allah with firm believe and determination is the same as the work to fulfill the right of the first order of Allah. The first order of Allah is to recite; “I bear witness there is no God except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” and with the recitation of this Great Kalimah there is an obligation or right to be performed. What is the right of the recitation of this Great Kalimah? When someone recites the Great Kalimah, a great responsibility goes along with the recitation of the Great Kalimah. It is the same as someone who has recited the Kalimah Nikah has the responsibility to look after the needs of his wife. Similarly, upon the utterance of the Great Kalimah; “I bear witness there is no God except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”, there is a responsibility towards Allah. Fulfilling the responsibility towards Allah means to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah. The right of this Great Kalimah is to enjoin Good and to forbid Evils(amar makruf nahi mungkar) and it is the same as the work to call peoples to Allah. Good means to recite the Great Kalimah and to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah, and Evil means not to recite the Great Kalimah and not to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah.

There are many Tarikat groups in this world and all of them are not doing the amal of calling peoples to Allah but instead are doing the amal of remembering of Allah or zikir or any other amals. They have wrongly understood the meaning of Tarikat as mention in the Quran. In the Quran, it is specifically mention; “Say Muhammad (to your umah), this is my Tarikat (path), to call peoples to Allah with firm believe and determination and this is my Tarikat and the Tarikat of those who follows me”. Allah does not mention in the Quran that the Tarikat of Prophet Muhammad and his followers is to remember Allah (doing zikir using tasbih) but Allah mention in the Quran that the Tarikat that should be followed by Muhammad and his followers is to call peoples to Allah. The amal of calling peoples to Allah means the non-Muslims must be invited by Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah; “There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah” and to the Muslims who have recited the Great Kalimah must be invited to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah. Many Tarikat groups in this world including Jemaah Tabligh are not following the Quran. Jemaah Tabligh is one of the deviated Tarikat groups that have millions of followers in all over the world. Jemaah Tabligh is able to recruit many followers as compared to other Tarikat group, because they invite Muslims in such a very vigorous way to join their Tarikat group. In any localities that Jemaah Tabligh visited, they will form groups to visit Muslims from house to house in the localities and invite Muslims to come to the mosque and listen to their lecture or ‘bayan’. The purpose of their lectures is to vigorously invite the Muslims who sit in their lecture to join their Tarikat group by asking them to spend times with them, either for 3 days, 40 days or 4 months. Jemaah Tabligh thinks, to invite Muslims to go out for 3 days or 40 days and 4 months is the same as to call them to Allah as mention in the Quran. Jemaah Tabligh does not know what it means by “to call peoples to Allah” as mention in the Quran. What it means “to call peoples to Allah” is to invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah and to the Muslims to remind them about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and to invite Muslims to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah.

SYARIAT

Muslims have to do the work of calling peoples to Allah (which is the Tarikat of Prophet Muhammad saw and those who follows him) in accordance with thesyariat or ways of Prophet Muhammad saw. Prophet Muhammad saw went out to the streets of Mecca, to the houses and shops of the peoples in Mecca and call them to Allah instead of collecting them in the mosques and giving lectures or bayan to them. Instead of asking the peoples to come to him, Prophet Muhammad saw himself went out of the mosque, visit the peoples, and call them to Allah. Prophet Muhammad saw did the work of calling peoples to Allah with firm belief and determination and he spend time daily to call the peoples to Allah. In Mecca, Prophet Muhammad saw will spend time from early morning until late in the evening to call peoples to Allah. What did Prophet Muhammad saw call them to? Prophet Muhammad saw call the peoples of Mecca to recite the Great Kalimah. Did Prophet Muhammad saw call them to spend times for 3 days, 40 days, and 4 months and did Prophet Muhammad saw call only certain selected group of peoples in Mecca to Allah? The answer is no. Prophet Muhammad saw call everybody in Mecca to Allah. He spared no one including the Jews and the Christians. His method of calling peoples to Allah is ummumiat and notkhususiat. Ummumiat means to call everyone regardless of their social status, race, religion and languages to Allah and khususiat means to call only selected group of peoples to Allah. Many Muslims scholars are in the opinion, by them giving lectures in the mosques they are also calling peoples to Allah. Although they may be calling peoples to Allah by giving lectures in the mosques but they are not calling the peoples to Allah in according to the syariat of Prophet Muhammad saw. The Muslims scholars who are habituated in giving lectures in the mosques should go out of the mosques and meet the peoples, irrespective whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims and call them to Allah. Prophet Muhammad saw did not call the peoples to Allah by ways of giving lecture in the mosques as done by Jemaah Tabligh and other Muslims scholars but Prophet Muhammad saw went to the peoples, meet them individually and occasionally in a group and call them to Allah. What it means by calling them to Allah? It is not to call them to the mosques or to spend times for 3 days, 40 days and 4 months but to invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah or to remind Muslims about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and to invite them to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah. It is also the syariat or the ways of Prophet Muhammad saw to invite the peoples towards Allah with good character, even to those who did harm to him.

When we do the work of calling the peoples (which include both non-Muslims and Muslims) to Allah, it means, we are following the Tarikat of Muhammad saw and with syariat of Prophet Muhammad saw. Most Tarikat groups including Jemaah Tabligh are not calling all the peoples to Allah. Most Tarikat groups only work on Muslims and their aim is not to call the Muslims to Allah but to call the Muslims to join their group. They are not calling the Muslims to Allah, because they do not remind the Muslims about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and they do not invite the Muslims to do the work of fulfilling the right of the Great Kalimah. Most Tarikat groups including Jemaah Tabligh are not following the Tarikat of Prophet Muhammad saw because they call the Muslims to join their Tarikat group and they do not invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah. Most Tarikat groups including Jemaah Tabligh are not following the syariat of Prophet Muhammad saw and as a result, their iman do not increase. It is only when the Muslims do the Tarikat of Prophet Muhammad saw with the syariat of Prophet Muhammad saw their iman will increase. When the iman of Muslims have increased and reached the level that Allah wants, only then, they will become believers or known in Malay as “orang beriman”. A person is known as believers or “orang beriman” only when he or she has acquired the level of iman as required by Allah. All Muslims who have not acquired the level of iman as required by Allah are known as a person who has entered Islam or in Malay“orang Islam” but not as believers. A person who is a believer can acquire the Hakikat of good amals or good actions. A person who is a believer is able to do all the amals that are obligatory or fardh and leaves all the amals that areforbidden or haram.

HAKIKAT

What is Hakikat? Hakikat means something real. A plastic flower is not a real flower. Plastic flowers may look like real flowers but plastic flowers do not give any smell. Plastic flowers cannot give the smell of a flower because it is only a fake flower. A fake flowers may have the name of a flower, appearance of a flower but do not have the Hakikat or reality of a flower which give smell. Real flowers have the name of a flower, appearance of a flower and the Hakikat of a flower, which gives smell. Fake amals or actions may have the name of the amal, the appearance of the amal but not the Hakikat of the amal or action. A person may perform a fake solat. It may look to others that he or she is making solat but in reality, he or she is only performing a fake solat. A fake solat will not have Hakikat. Solat with no Hakikat will not be able to prevent the doer of the solat from doing bad deeds (mungkar). As true flowers have smell, similarly true solat has the ability to prevent the doer from committing bad deeds. When solat cannot prevent the doer of the solat, from wrong doings, it means the solat must be a fake solat. A fake solat is a solat without Hakikat. Solat without Hakikat is solat without correct iman. Solat without correct iman will not have sincerity, ihsan and ihtisab. Allah will not be pleased with the doer of fake amals or actions. Doer of fake amals will not obtain the Makrifatullah or the love of Allah. Only the doer of true amals becomes the lover of Allah and only the lover of Allah know Allah or obtain the Makrifatullah.

MAKRIFAT

When the Tarikat of Prophet Muhammad saw is done with the Syariat of Prophet Muhammad saw, Allah will give us the Hakikat of iman. With the Hakikat of iman we will obtain the Hakikat of amals or actions. With the Hakikat of iman and the Hakikat of actions or amals, we will obtain Makrifatullah or the love of Allah. A person who obtains the love of Allah will becomes the lover of Allah. A lover of Allah will know at anytime what is the order of Allah that Allah loves most and Allah will gives the lovers of Allah the ability to do the order the way Allah is pleased. When a person has obtained Makrifatullah, he has obtained the love of Allah and when a person has obtained the love of Allah, he has obtained the true religion of Allah, as often said in Malay; ” Awal agama mengenal Allah” or Deen begins in a person when that person knows Allah.

Prof. Dr. Nasoha Saabin
June 2012
Dean of Faculty of Optometry
International University College of Technology Twintech
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia