Ucapan Syaikh Ali Jumaah Mengenai konsep "Common Word" dalam Islam

    Sudah 4 bulan saya tidak menghantar apa-apa post. Saya menulis tp “gerakhati” menghalang jari menekan “publish post”. Tapi hari ini saya terjumpa transcript ucapan Syaikh Ali Jumaah di University Cambridge pada 12 Oct 2008 membicarakan tentang كَلِمَة سَوَاء (common word) yang pernah saya tulis diblog ini. Kepada yang boleh memahami bahasa arab, maka audio ucapannya boleh di download disini.

    Ucapannya ada diselang seli dengan terjemahan dalam english. Transkrip ucapannya yang ada disini secara umumnya sama dengan terjemahan secara langsung dari penterjemah ketika ucapan berlangsung. Kecuali ada kesilapan (yg saya perasan lah..) terjemahan transkrip (bukan kesilapan terjemahan pada sessi ucapan) yang tidak disengajakan.

   Saya paste di sini trankrip asal (boleh tgk sndiri) dan betulkan pada terjemahan al-kammiah dari quality kepada quantity. Lain-lain Masya Allah, terjemahan memang best. Generally, selama saya pernah mendengar khutbah-khutbah syaikh Ali, ini lah misi yang dibawa olehnya ke serata dunia. Mengajak manusia kepada common word ini telah bertahun-tahun saya dengar tetapi saya tetap tidak jemu kerana setiap kali dia berucap pasti ada refreshment dalam setiap ucapannya. Islam kan begitu. Sejak zaman nabi, yang kita ajak hanya satu. Tauhid...tauhid...tauhid. Sudah 14 kurun islam mengajak kepada tauhid. Kepada yang tidak menerima Islam maka kita nyatakan 

فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُولُوا اِشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ
Saksikanlah bahawa kami adalah orang-orang Islam. 

Between Mercy and Mercy - man's relationship with God
Shaykh Ali Gomaa,
Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt

This is a transcript of a talk (listen to the audio) given by Shaykh Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt, at Churchill College, Cambridge University on 12 October 2008 at a gathering organized by the Radical Middle Way in partnership with the Cambridge University Islamic Society.

In the name of God the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. 
I greet you all with the greeting of Islam; Peace be with you all. 
I would like to share with you a few words in this noble gathering of ours. 

I would like to present you with some statistics from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The Qur’an has roughly 6000 verses – 6236 according to the narration and the variance of Hafs. 300 of those verses address matters of law (fiqh) – roughly 5%. 

And in matters of hadith, we have about 60,000 hadiths in all their grades of strength and weakness. From those, 2000 speak to matters of law (fiqh). 

This means that about 3% of the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) speak to matters of law. So the rest of the Qur’an, the rest of the Hadith, what do they speak to? 
They speak to matters of etiquette. And these matters of etiquette and manners, in the realm of the Shariah, are connected with theology. 
This means that 97% of our religion is etiquette and manners which are related to matters of faith. 

At the top of the matters of faith and theology is the concept of the oneness of God (tawheed). And at the top of the list of values, are the values of compassion and mercy.

We say in the beginning of each verse in the Qur’an, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” 

The concept of mercy is repeated twice. 

God has many different attributes - there are attributes of greatness (jalal) and there are those of beauty (jamal). It is very possible for Allah to begin the chapters of the Qur’an with an attribute of this and an attribute of that. For e.g. “In the name of God, the Avenger, the Compassionate.” 

But God says, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” 
So this means that man’s relationship with God is between Mercy and Mercy. 

There is a hadith attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) where he says, the merciful ones receive mercy from the Merciful, exalted be He. Show mercy on earth and you will receive Mercy from the One in Heaven. In this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is telling us to show mercy to those on earth. 

So mercy is the basis for etiquette and manners in Islam, and what is borne out of this concept is the attribute and manner of love. 

This hadith, the hadith of mercy, is the first hadith students learn from their teachers. This has been the tradition from generation to generation. It is therefore, considered the first hadith. 

This is our Qur’an, and this is the way of our Prophet (peace be upon him), and this is our religion. 

When we speak with others, we speak about the manners and etiquette that are linked with our faith because this is the foundation upon which our religion is built and this is the common ground between others and us. 

Speak to them about this 95% or 97% of our religion. 

This is what drove us to write this document, A Common Word. It is based on love of God and love of neighbor. We have to remember that this is the basis of our religion. That is why this is a good method of correcting some of the misconceptions people have about Islam. 
And it clarifies to ourselves who we are and who we are to the world. 

Today, we are talking about the middle way, and this word wasatiyya, the middle way, in the Qur’an has a very gentle and subtle meaning. 

Allah says, We have created you a middle way so you can be a witness unto mankind and the Prophet (peace be upon him) can be a witness unto you. 

Some of the scholars say regarding this word, wasat, that it is the pinnacle of the mountain. As you ascend the mountain and then descend, the pinnacle is right in the middle. 
And while we are at the top of mountain, we can see everyone and everyone can see us. 

Another word used in this verse "shuhada" – witness, is a strange word because it encompasses the word "shahid" – which means the one seen and one who is seeing. So it is a strange word that brings both these concepts together. It indicates interaction between you and others. 
And in the last part of the verse, where the Prophet (peace be upon him) is referred to – it means he is our example. Allah said in the Qur’an, in the Prophet is an example for you. 

So this idea of witnessing, of being a witness, has a very deep civilization meaning. 

We have to understand that we are a people of an open religion; we have no secrets. Our relationship with others is based on this good example. This is what is meant by love of God and love of neighbor. 

This is something that Muslims say in a Muslim context, amongst Muslims, and it is also what Muslims say where they live among others. Whoever disputes this and wants to close Islam to others – they do not understand real Islam. 

A Common Word is a long-term strategy for Muslims living in the 21st century. It does not create a veil between the Creator and creation. 

We do not dispute or argue with God that he has created differences amongst people – we do what He and his Prophet (peace be upon him) command us to do. The Prophet is the one who said, Narrate from me even if it may be one verse. 

Muslims do not need to be concerned about quantity (transkrip asal "quality"), as much as they need to be concerned with high quality. 

When Muslims entered the Middle East, and then entered Egypt, they were there for 100 years and only 5% of the population was Muslim. After 250 years, the percentage increased to 25% largely due to growing families and inter-marrying. After 450 years, 75% of the population became Muslim. After 750 years, the percentage of Muslims was 94-97%. 

So the Muslims entered into these regions without destroying populations. And they didn’t occupy lands and take its natural resources and give it to the Hijaz, which was the capital of the Muslim world at that time. 

They didn’t pollute their history with racism. There is no other nation on earth, in history, that made slaves their rulers. 

Today, the whole world rules us. 

And it leaves this 95% of our Islam that we have forgotten in ourselves. 

We have to return to this Prophetic model in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) was an embodiment of righteousness and manners on earth. Allah says, verily we have created you upon a vast character. 

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, the Archangel Gabriel kept reminding me of my neighbor to the extent that I thought he would inherit from me. 
The Prophet (peace be upon him) has given us a program of change, on how we can change our lives for the better. 

He said, begin with yourself and then with those close to you. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, Will you see the small error in the person in front of you and forget the huge error in yourself? 

So we should return to the Prophetic model and begin with ourselves in this change, and open our arms to others the way our religion calls for. 

Imam ar-Razi said that the entire world is from the nation of the Prophet (peace be upon him) - either they are from the nation of people who have accepted the call or they are those to whom the call is being given to. 

An open heart was the basis for constructing this document and this initiative, A Common Word. 

And we do not say this just because we understand the world we live in today but it is also because we know our religion and understand it. 

Thank you very much. Peace be unto you.

Tamat transkrip ucapan syaikh Ali Jumaah.

Abu Abbas Lutfi

Manyal, Kaherah