The Wedding Season

Hujung tahun ini saya boleh gelarkan sebagai musim perkahwinan bagi menggantikan musim tengkujuh yang bakal tiba. Sahabat-sahabat sekeliling saya mula menempah kata nama ‘suami’ dan ‘isteri’ hujung tahun ini. Dan ada yang lebih awal serta sudah lahirkan cahaya mata. Di rumah sewa saya sahaja sudah tiga orang mendirikan rumah tangga. Hujung tahun ini 2 orang, Sdr. Dzulkhairi dan Sdr. Yusri. Tahun depan beberapa orang lagi, yang memungkinkan rumah banglo tepi sungai ini ditutup. Tahniah saya ucapkan pada mereka. Moga jalani hidup yang bahagia sehingga ke akhirat dan lahirkan cahaya mata bermanfaat. Pokok yang baik, yang dikahwinkan dengan pokok yang baik juga oleh ‘petani’ yang mahir, maka sudah tentu akan melahirkan tunas baru yang lebih baik. Buahnya juga akan lebih ranum berbanding kedua-dua pokok tadi. Harapnya begitulah kesudahannya. Ibarat firman Allah dalam surah Ibrahim ayat 24-25 berkenaan kalimah yang baik seperti sebatang pohon yang baik, yang pangkalnya (akar tunjangnya) tetap teguh, dan cabang pucuknya menjulang ke langit. Para mufassirin mentafsirkan kalimah tersebut sebagai tauhid atau Islam. Pasangan yang disemai dengan didikan dan pengamalan Islam insyaAllah melahirkan zuriat yang dua kali ganda sifat baiknya. Itu pun jika disemai dengan baik oleh baja yang subur bukan baja tiruan yang mampu membinasakan tunas tersebut lebih awal. Elakkan juga serangga-serangga yang ingin memakan tunas baru tersebut, musim sekarang musim yang penuh ‘penyakit’ dan banyak pengacau. Jika dibiarkan tunas ini mungkin boleh bermutasi.

Namun dalam masa yang sama, bukan semua madu dibawa lebah. Bahkan kadang-kadang lebah tak terjumpa bunga, sama ada bunga menutup kelopaknya atau si bunga masih teragak-agak tidak puas untuk terus mekar. Saya sentiasa mendengar desiran sayap (keluhan) lebah-lebah ini. Apa yang saya mampu lakukan ialah cuba ke taman bunga dan cari bunga-bunga yang belum dipetik. Itu sahaja usaha yang boleh saya lakukan setakat ini. Itu belum diceritakan bagaimana sukarnya ingin mendapatkan lebah-lebah yang pastinya berbisa untuk dibawa ke taman bunga yang sangat luas. Kadang-kadang si lebah rambang mata kerana sangkaannya hanya dia sahaja berada di taman tersebut. Ini anologi yang mungkin hanya saya sahaja fahami.

Kepada yang belum memilih pasangan gunakanlah sabda Nabi SAW sebagai panduan bukan alasan. “Janganlah kamu kahwini wanita kerana kecantikan mereka, kerana kemungkinan kecantikan itu akan menghancurkan mereka sendiri. Dan janganlah kamu kahwini kerana harta mereka, kerana mungkin harta itu menyebabkan mereka derhaka. Tetapi kahwinilah mereka atas dasar agama. Sesungguhnya hamba yang berkulit hitam, tetapi beragama adalah lebih baik”-(riwayat Ibnu Majah). Mudahan sahabat-sahabat saya ini mampu melahirkan mujahid-mujahidah yang ramai, menjadi sebatang pohon rimbun yang merimbuni pokok-pokok kecil di bawahnya, bersabar dengan sinaran matahari yang memancarinya terlebih dahulu dan menapis air hujan yang lebat menjadi titisan untuk dihidangkan pada tumbuhan dibawahnya. Umat yang ramai lagi bermanfaat inilah yang dibanggakan Rasulullah, bukan dengan banyaknya buih-buih pantai yang mudah musnah dengan hanya ditiup angin. “Kahwinilah wanita yang bersifat penyayang dan boleh melahirkan anak, sesungguhnya aku berbangga dengan bilangan kamu yang ramai”-(riwayat An-Nasa’i). Dan saya terpaksa terus menghitung nota-nota kaki dan bibliografi ketika ramai sahabat sedang menghitung hari, tidur didampingi buku-buku hapak perpustakaan ketika sahabat yang lain selesa didampingi isteri tercinta. Manusia punyai pelbagai jalan, terpulang jalan mana yang dirasainya selesa, asalkan jalan tersebut mempunyai tanda jalan yang betul (bukan kabur-kabur, diconteng atau tiada langsung). Rezeki Allah di mana-mana selagi daun maut masih didahannya.

PEMIKIRAN HOLISTIK

Ketika mana saya menatap skrin laptop ini, tergambar di benak saya bahawa di sebalik laptop yang sudah 3 tahun saya gunakan ini ia mempunyai banyak ceritanya yang tersembunyi. Ia bukan sekadar selonggok komponen elektronik dengan litarnya yang berserabut tetapi terkandung idea, inovasi dan keringat manusia. Logam yang ada hasil usaha pelombong yang habiskan hidup dengan pekerjaan sukar itu. Begitu juga dengan komponennya yang lain, semuanya bermula dari bahan mentah yang pelbagai, melalui pelbagai proses yang panjang sehingga dapat dinamakannya sebagai sebuah komputer riba. Begitu juga dengan idea penciptaannya. Ada yang mengatakan ianya dimulakan oleh seorang lelaki Inggeris bernama Charles Babbage yang digelar the Father of Computer. Ataupun oleh Alan Turing yang mencipta ‘electric computer’, dan mungkin sahaja jurutera warga Jerman bernama Konrad Zuse yang mencipta Z3 yang dikawal sepenuhnya oleh digit-digit elektromekanikal. Namun semua itu tidak akan dapat dicipta tanpa sumbangan teknologi China semasa bangsa Eropah masih hidup secara nomad antara tahun 2600BC dan 300BC dengan teknologi abaskus yang digunakan oleh peniaga. Begitu juga dengan perkara yang lain sama ada ia dalam bentuk fizikal atau abstrak. Pemikiran yang dimulakan dengan kaedah ini melatih kita untuk melihat sesuatu perkara secara holistik, menyeluruh dan bersifat realiti. Ia sudah ditunjukkan oleh Islam. Ayat-ayat Allah SWT memerintahkan manusia bukan sekadar menggunakan segala kemudahan alam yang diberikan, tetapi meneliti setiap penciptaan tersebut. Ayat al-Quran bukan sekadar untuk ditilawahkan, dibaca malam Jumaat atau dikhatamkan sewaktu Ramadhan sahaja tetapi ditadabbur, sehingga insan yang membaca ayat Allah SWT itu mampu melihat apa yang terdapat disebalik huruf-huruf arab tersebut. Melihat al-Quran secara holistik bukan bermaksud dengan membaca kesemua ayat-ayat dari 30 surah tetapi dengan mengetahui isi yang disampaikan dan memahami hikmah yang terselit. Firman Allah SWT yang menyebut sekiranya dibaca ayat-ayat Allah SWT maka iman seseorang itu akan bertambah adalah hasil penelitian yang holistik. Dan minda dapat dikembangkan sekiranya kefahaman tersebut diamalkan pula dalam kehidupan. Pemikiran holistik menemukan kita dengan paradigma Islam yang sebenar. (Sekadar meminjam istilah Thomas Kuhn: paradigma ialah kerangka yang digunakan untuk memahami dunia sebenarnya. (Konsep paradigma sains beliau sangat menarik untuk diteliti)). Apa yang kita lihat akan dipadankan dengan pola yang tersimpan dalam minda kita. Sekiranya paradigma yang kita pegang itu benar maka kefahaman kita juga akan benar. Ia mengajar kita berfikiran rasional, memahami falasi dan bersikap kritis. Seorang isteri yang rajin mengemas dari satu segi dilihat kerana peribadinya yang rajin dan bertanggungjawab, namun dari segi yang lain mungkin rajin mengemas kerana akan ada tetamu datang ke rumah. Ia bergantung kepada sejauh mana proses penilaian kita, sama ada melihatnya dari sudut yang luas atau sempit. Jadi bagaimana kita menilai orang yang berada di sekeliling kita, persahabatan yang kita jalin, pasangan yang dinikahi, pekerjaan yang diceburi dan sumbangan yang diberi? Berikan jawapan anda dengan pemikiran yang holistik.

The meaning and concept of philosophy in Islam

By Seyyed Hossein Nasr

In the light of the Qur'an and Hadith in both of which the term hikmah has been used,1 Muslim authorities belonging to different schools of thought have sought over the ages to define the meaning of hikmah as well as falsafah, a term which entered Arabic through the Greek translations of the second/eighth and third/ninth centuries. On the one hand what is called philosophy in English must be sought in the context of Islamic civilization not only in the various schools of Islamic philosophy but also in schools bearing other names, especially kalam, ma`rifah, usul al-fiqh as well as the awa'il sciences, not to speak of such subjects as grammar and history which developed particular branches of philosophy. On the other hand each school of thought sought to define what is meant by hikmah or falsafah according to its own perspective and this question has remained an important concern of various schools of Islamic thought especially as far as the schools of Islamic philosophy are concerned.

During Islamic history, the terms used for Islamic philosophy as well as the debates between the philosophers, the theologians and sometimes the Sufis as to the meaning of these terms varied to some extent from one period to another but not completely. Hikmah and falsafah continued to be used while such terms as al-hikmat al-ilahiyyah and alhikmat al-muta`aliyah gained new meaning and usage in later centuries of Islamic history, especially in the school of Mulla Sadra. The term over which there was the greatest debate was hikmah, which was claimed by the Sufis and mutakallimun as well as the philosophers, all appealing to such Hadith as "The acquisition of hikmah is incumbent upon you and the good resides in hikmah."2 Some Sufis such as Tirmidhi were called hakim and Ibn Arabi refers to the wisdom which has been unveiled through each manifestation of the logos as hikmah as seen in the very title of his masterpiece Fusus al-hikam,3 while many mutakallimun such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi claimed that kalam and not falsafah was hikmah,4 Ibn Khaldun confirming this view in calling the later kalam (kalam al-muta'akhkhirin) philosophy or hikmah.5

Our discussion in this chapter is concerned, however, primarily with the Islamic philosophers’ understanding of the definition and meaning of the concept of philosophy and the terms hikmah and falsafah.6 This understanding includes of course what the Greeks had comprehended by the term philosophia and many of the definitions from Greek sources which were to find their way into Arabic sometimes with only slight modifications. Some of the definitions of Greek origin most common among Islamic philosophers are as follows:7
1 Philosophy (al falsafah) is the knowledge of all existing things qua existents (ashya' al-maujudah bi ma hiya maujudah).8
2 Philosophy is knowledge of divine and human matters.
3 Philosophy is taking refuge in death, that is, love of death.
4 Philosophy is becoming God-like to the extent of human ability.
5 It [philosophy] is the art (sind'ah) of arts and the science (ilm) of sciences.
6 Philosophy is predilection for hikmah.

The Islamic philosophers meditated upon these definitions of falsafah which they inherited from ancient sources and which they identified with the Qur'anic term hikmah believing the origin of hikmah to be divine. The first of the Islamic philosophers, Abu Ya`qub al-Kindi wrote in his On First Philosophy, “Philosophy is the knowledge of the reality of things within people's possibility, because the philosopher's end in theoretical knowledge is to gain truth and in practical knowledge to behave in accordance with truth.”9 Al-Farabi, while accepting this definition, added the distinction between philosophy based on certainty (al-yaqiniyyah) hence demonstration and philosophy based on opinion (al-maznunah),10 hence dialectic and sophistry, and insisted that philosophy was the mother of the sciences and dealt with everything that exists.11

Ibn Sina again accepted these earlier definitions while making certain precisions of his own. In his `Uyun al-hikmah he says “Al-hikmah [which he uses as being the same as philosophy] is the perfection of the human soul through conceptualization [tasawwur] of things and judgment [tasdiq] of theoretical and practical realities to the measure of human ability."12 But, he went further in later life to distinguish between Peripatetic philosophy and what he called "Oriental philosophy" (al-hikmat almashriqi’yah) which was not based on ratiocination alone but included realized knowledge and which set the stage for the hikmat al-ishraq of Suhrawardi.13 Ibn Sina’s foremost student Bahmanyar meanwhile identified falsafah closely with the study of existents as Ibn Sina had done in his Peripatetic works such as the Shifa’ repeating the Aristotelian dictum that philosophy is the study of existents qua existents. Bahmanyar wrote in the introduction to his Tahlil, "The aim of the philosophical sciences is knowledge of existents." 14

Isma'ili and Hermetico-Pythagorean thought, which paralleled in development the better-known Peripatetic philosophy but with a different philosophical perspective, nevertheless gave definitions of philosophy not far removed from those of the Peripatetics, emphasizing perhaps even more the relation between the theoretical aspect of philosophy and its practical dimension, between thinking philosophically and leading a virtuous life. This nexus, which is to be seen in all schools of earlier Islamic philosophy, became even more evident from Suhrawardi onward and the hakim came to be seen throughout Islamic society not as someone who could only discuss mental concepts in a clever manner but as one who also lived according to the wisdom which he knew theoretically. The modern Western idea of the philosopher never developed in the Islamic world and the ideal stated by the Ikhwan al-Safa' who lived in the fourth/ tenth century and who were contemporary with Ibn Sina was to echo ever more loudly over the ages wherever Islamic philosophy was cultivated. The Ikhwan wrote, "The beginning of philosophy (falsafah) is the love of the sciences, its middle knowledge of the realities of existents to the measure of human ability and its end words and deeds in accordance with knowledge."15

With Suhrawardi we enter not only a new period but also another realm of Islamic philosophy. The founder of a new intellectual perspective in Islam, Suhrawardi used the term hikmat al-ishraq rather than falsafat al-ishraq for both the title of his philosophical masterpiece and the school which he inaugurated. The ardent student of Suhrawardi and the translator of Hikmat al-ishraq into French, Henry Corbin, employed the term theosophie rather than philosophy to translate into French the term hikmah as understood by Suhrawardi and later sages such as Mulla Sadra, and we have also rendered al-hikmat al-muta aliyah of Mulla Sadra into English as "transcendent theosophy"t6 and have sympathy for Corbin's translation of the term. There is of course the partly justified argument that in recent times the term "theosophy" has gained pejorative connotations in European languages, especially English, and has become associated with occultism and pseudo-esoterism. And yet the term philosophy also suffers from limitations imposed upon it by those who have practised it during the past few centuries. If Hobbes, Hume and Ayer are philosophers, then those whom Suhrawardi calls hukama' are not philosophers and vice versa. The narrowing of the meaning of philosophy, the divorce between philosophy and spiritual practice in the West and especially the reduction of philosophy to either rationalism or .empiricism necessitate making a distinction between the meaning given to hikmah by a Suhrawardi or Mulla Sadra and the purely mental activity called philosophy in certain circles in* the West today. The use of the term theosophy to render this later understanding of the term hikmah is based on the older and time-honoured meaning of this term in European intellectual history as associated with such figures as Jakob Bohme and not as the term became used in the late thirteenth/nineteenth century by some British occultists. Be that as it may, it is important to emphasize the understanding that Suhrawardi and all later Islamic philosophers have of hikmah as primarily al-hikmat al-ildhiyyah (literally divine wisdom or theosophia) which must be realized within one's whole being and not only mentally. Suhrawardi saw this hikmah as being present also in ancient Greece before the advent of Aristotelian rationalism and identifies hikmah with coming out of one's body and ascending to the world of lights, as did Plato.17 Similar ideas are to be found throughout his works, and he insisted that the highest level of hikmah requires both the perfection of the theoretical faculty and the purification of the soul.'8

With Mulla Sadra, one finds not only a synthesis of various earlier schools of Islamic thought but also a synthesis of the earlier views concerning the meaning of the term and concept philosophy. At the beginning of the Asfar he writes, repeating verbatim and summarizing some of the earlier definitions, "falsafah is the perfecting of the human soul to the extent of human ability through the knowledge of the essential reality of things as they are in themselves and through judgment concerning their existence established upon demonstration and not derived from opinion or through imitation". 19 And in al-Shawdhid al-rububiyyah he adds, "[through bikmah] man becomes an intelligible world resembling the objective world and similar to the order of universal existence" 2°

In the first book of the Air dealing with being, Mulla Sadra discusses extensively the various definitions of hikmah, emphasizing not only theoretical knowledge and "becoming an intelligible world reflecting the objective intelligible world" but also detachment from passions and purification of the soul from its material defilements or what the Islamic philosophers call tajarrud or catharsis.21 Mull! Sadra accepts the meaning of hikmah as understood by Suhrawardi and then expands the meaning of falsafah to include the dimension of illumination and realization implied by the ishrdgi and also Sufi understanding of the term. For him as for his contemporaries, as well as most of his successors, falsafah or philosophy was seen as the supreme science of ultimately divine origin, derived from "the niche of prophecy" and the hukama' as the most perfect of human beings standing in rank only below the prophets and Imams.22

This conception of philosophy as dealing with the discovering of the truth concerning the nature of things and combining mental knowledge with the purification and perfection of one's being has lasted to this day wherever the tradition of Islamic philosophy has continued and is in fact embodied in the very being of the most eminent representatives of the Islamic philosophical tradition to this day. Such fourteenth/twentiethcentury masters as Mirth Ahmad Ashtiyani, the author of Ndmayi rahbardn-i dmuzish-i kitdb-i takwin ("Treatise of the Guides to the Teaching of the Book of Creation"); Sayyid Muhammad Kazim `Ansar, author of many treatises including Wahdat al-wujud ("The Transcendent Unity of Being"); Mahdi Ilahi Qumsha'i, author of Hikmat-i ildhi khwdss wa amm ("Philosophy/Theosophy - General and Particular") and Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, author of numerous treatises especially Usul--i falsafa -yi ri dlixm ("Principles of the Philosophy of Realism") all wrote of the definition of philosophy along lines mentioned above and lived accordingly. Both their works and their lives were testimony not only to over a millennium of concern by Islamic philosophers as to the meaning of the concept and the term philosophy but also to the significance of the Islamic definition of philosophy as that reality which transforms both the mind and the soul and which is ultimately never separated from spiritual purity and ultimately sanctity that the .very term hikmah implies in the Islamic context.

NOTES

1 For the use of hikmah in the Qur'an and Hadith see S. H. Nasr, "The Qur'an and ,Hadith as Source and Inspiration of Islamic Philosophy", Chapter 2 below.
2 Alayka bilhikmah fa inna'l--khayr f 1-hikmah.
3 See Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi, The Wisdom of the Prophets, trans. T. Burckhardt, trans. from French A. Culme-Seymour (Salisbury, 1975), pp. 1-3 of Burckhardt's introduction; and M. Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints - Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn Arabi, trans. S. L. Sherrard (Cambridge, 1993): 47-8.
4 See S. H. Nasr, "Fakhr al-Din Razi", in M. M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, 1 (Wiesbaden, 1963): 645-8.
5 'Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji, the eleventh/seventeenth-century student of Mulla Sadra who was however more of a theologian than a philosopher, writes in his kalami text Gawhar-murdd, "Since it has become known that in acquiring the divine sciences and other intellectual matters the intellect has complete independence, and does not need to rely in these matters upon the Shari `ah and the proof of certain principles concerning the essence of beings in such a way as to be in accord with the objective world through intellectual demonstrations and reasoning ... the path of the hukamd, the science acquired through this means is called in the vocabulary of scholars hikmah. And of necessity it will be in accord with the true Shari `ah for the truth of the Shari`ah is realized objectively through intellectual demonstration" (Gawhar-murad (Tehran, 1377): 17-18). Although speaking as a theologian, Lahiji is admitting in this text that hikmab should be used for the intellectual activity of the philosophers and not the mutakallimun, demonstrating the shift in position in the understanding of this term since the time of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. There is considerable secondary material on this subject in Arabic as well as in European languages. See Abd al-Halim Maimed, al- Tafkir al fahaft f:l islAm (Cairo, 1964): 163-71; Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, Tamhid li-ta'rikh al falsafat alislamiyyah (Cairo, 1959), chapter 3: 48ff.; G. C. Anawati, "Philosophie medievale en terre d'Islam", Melanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales du Caire, 5 (1958): 175-236; and S. H. Nasr, "The Meaning and Role of 'Philosophy' in Islam", Studia Islamica, 37 (1973): 57-80.
7. See Christel Hein, Definition and Einleitung der Philosophie - Von der spdtantiken Einleitungsliteratur zur arabischen Enzyklopddie (Bern and New York, 1985): 86.
8 This is repeated with only a small alteration by al-Farabi in his al Jam' bayn ra ay al-hakimayn. According to Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, al-Farabi even wrote a treatise entitled Concerning the Word Philosophy' (Kalam fr ism al falsafah) although some have doubted that this was an independent work.
9. See S. Strouma, AlFarabi and Maimonides on the Christian Philosophical Tradition", Der Islam, 68(2) (1991): 264; and Aristoteles - Werk and Wirkung, 2, ed. J. Weisner (Berlin, 1987). Quoted in Ahmed Fouad El-Ehwany, "Al-Kindi", in M. M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, 1 (1963): 424.
10 Kitab al-Huruf, ed. M. Mahdi (Beirut, 1969): 153-7.
11 KitAb jam' bayn ra ay al-hakimayn (Hyderabad, 1968): 36-7.
12 Fontes sapientiae (Uyun al-bikmah), ed. Abdurrahman Badawi (Cairo, 1954):16.
13 On Ibn Sina's "Oriental philosophy" see Chapter 17 below.
14 Kitab al-Ta{xil ed. M. Mutahhari (Tehran, 1970): 3.
15 Rasail 1 (Cairo, 1928): 23.
16 See S. H. Nasr, The Transcendent Theosophy of Sadr al-Din Shirdzi (Tehran, 1977).
17 See his Tawihdi, in H. Corbin (ed.) Oeuvres philosophiques et mystiques, 1 (Tehran, 1976): 112-13.
18 See S. H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (Delmar, 1975): 63-4.
19 Al Asfar al-arba ah, ed. Allamah Tabataba i (Tehran, 1967): 20.
20 Mulla Sadra, al-ShawAhid al-rububiyyah, ed. S. J. Ashtiyani (Mashhad, 1967).
21 See the Introduction of the Asfar.
22 Muhammad Khwajawi, Lawami' al-arifrn (Tehran, 1987): 18ff., where many quotations from the different works of Mulla Sadra on the relation between authentic hikmah and revelation and the spiritual power and sanctity of the Imams (waldyah) are cited.

Tahyul dan Mitos

Stesen televisyen sekarang sedang berlumba-lumba menjadi yang terbanyak menayangkan drama atau filem tahyul, misteri dan mistik. Tokey-tokey syarikat penerbitan dari Indonesia menerima durian runtuh apabila drama-drama mereka diimport secara besar-besaran dan berterusan ke Malaysia. Ditayangkan bermula tengah hari hingga ke petang hampir setiap hari dan ada kalanya sehingga larut malam. Pengarah-pengarah filem tanah air pula berebut-rebut merangka cerita-cerita seram dan komedi selepas era cinta remaja pada tahun 90-an merosot. Apa yang menyebabkan televisyen sekarang berebut menayangkan drama-drama sebegini? Syarikat televisyen yang mengejar keuntungan dan berebut rating tertinggi penonton tidak akan membeli drama atau filem sebegini jika ia tidak mendapat sambutan penonton. Dari sini timbul satu lagi persoalan. Adakah penerimaan besar-besaran dan berterusan terhadap konsep drama/filem sebegini mempersembahkan tahap kesedaran intelektual masyarakat Melayu di Malaysia. Jika tayangan televisyen boleh dijadikan indikator mudah maka ringkasnya tahap kesedaran masyarakat adalah di tahap membimbangkan, tiada perkembangan bahkan mungkin makin mundur ke belakang.

Ada yang mengatakan ini kesan globalisasi. Antara aspek-aspek globalisasi ialah ekonomi, teknologi, penggunaan bahasa, pemikiran dan pengetahuan, serta kebudayaan. Jadi, adakah kesan yang berlaku sekarang mungkin kesan teknologi serta kebudayaan global? Sebelum itu adalah penting untuk diketahui bahawa globalisasi sebenarnya bukan perkara baru tetapi baru dipromosikan oleh dunia setelah segala pasarannya telah kukuh bertunjang di serata dunia ini. Ia telahpun bermula sejak bermulanya penggunaan mata wang moden yang membolehkan manusia berinteraksi secara bebas di antara satu sama lain; bermulanya sistem perbankan sehingga pendepositan dan pengkreditan dapat dilakukan di mana sahaja; bermulanya undang-undang Hammurabi yang menjadi dasar perundangan dunia kini; bermulanya pasaran saham dan sebagainya. Oleh itu, tidak tepat untuk menyalahkan globalisasi dalam hal ini.

Ini kerana ia hanya berlaku di sini. Limpahan drama sebegini menyebabkan timbulnya rencana atau dokumentari yang mengkaji hal ini seperti Seekers, Misteri Nusantara dan lain-lain. Apa manfaat yang didapati dari tayangan ini ? Fenomena di Malaysia ini berlaku sebaliknya di Barat. Projek drama dan filem di Barat memasuki tahap baru apabila ia kini bukan sekadar ditayangkan di seluruh pawagam dan kaca TV seluruh dunia tetapi dianggap sebagai sumber dan medium ilmu (menurut pandangan mereka). Sebagai contoh ilmu-ilmu magik dalam filem sekual Harry Potter dari novel J.K Rowling menjadi subjek pengajian di universiti, bahasa pertuturan bangsa Elf dalam tiga filem mega the Lord of the Rings dijadikan topik kajian linguistik, tema-tema tertentu drama Star Trek dijadikan kajian dalam bidang agama manakala pengajian politik dan isu semasa dirangka di sebuah fakulti berdasarkan episod-episod dalam siri kartun The Simpsons. Dalam masa yang sama program Sesame Street, Blues Clues dan banyak lagi menjadi kelas tidak rasmi untuk rujukan pelajar sekolah rendah. (Sila rujuk buku The Tipping Point karya Malcolm Gladwell, yang mengulas bagaimana dua program ini mampu mencapai kejayaan yang sangat tinggi hanya dengan sedikit sentuhan).

Perkembangan fenomena ini atau boleh dikatakan penguncupan dalam keintelektualan masyarakat kini memerlukan satu usaha bersepadu untuk diselesaikan. Di kala masyarakat bergelumang kembali dengan ketahyulan, mereka juga secara berterusan dihasut dengan banyak lagi elemen-elemen negatif dunia hiburan. Penyelidikan-penyelidikan yang dibuat oleh para pakar psikologi dari serata dunia, umpamanya Leonard Eron dan L. Rowell Huesman dari Universiti Illinois, Amerika Syarikat membentangkan bahawa kanak-kanak yang banyak menonton adegan ganas di televisyen atau melalui VCD ketika berusia 8 tahun lebih berkecenderungan melakukan jenayah ganas atau terlibat dengan penderaan kanak-kanak atau pasangan ketika berusia 30 tahun kerana didapati golongan ini selalunya mengalami perubahan mental.

Gejala ini berlaku tidak lain kerana kekosongan jiwa masyarakat dari aspek kerohanian dan ilmu tentang Tuhan (ma’rifatullah). Kekosongan ini diisi dengan kehendak hawa nafsu seperti hiburan yang mengasyikkan. al-Farabi mengatakan kewujudan tertinggi dan Maha Sempurna ialah Allah SWT. Lantas ilmu tentang Allah SWT itu adalah ilmu yang paling tinggi dan sempurna. Sekiranya ilmu tertinggi ini diletakkan di tempat yang paling bawah dan digantikan dengan ‘ilmu’ yang bukan bertaraf ilmu, maka secara langsung juga kedudukan mereka yang berpegang kepada ilmu tersebut kekal dalam kesesatan dan kehinaan. Sama ada ia disedari atau tidak.

Kaum asli di Nicaragua percaya untuk mengelakkan terjadinya letusan gunung berapi di kawasan mereka, seorang perempuan cantik perlu dicampakkan ke lohong gunung berapi tersebut. Namun Muslim di Malaysia tidak mempercayai sekiranya 100 perempuan cantik lagi seksi dibiarkan berkeliaran (sebagai anologi) maka azab yang lebih kuat boleh berlaku berbanding letusan tersebut. Manakah yang lebih mulia, percaya kepada tahyul kerana kejahilan atau menyokong kemungkaran kerana mahu asyik dengan kelalaian?