Anak Alam

<mso]> < —[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 < —[if gte mso 9]> < ![endif]--> <" alt="" border="0" />—[if —[endif]—>On 2nd of September, the Malaysian tabloid, Kosmo, reported the existence of a tariqah group in Kampung Damai, Kuantan which purportedly practised Tariqah Samaniah. However, the practise run in direct contrast to many Islamic rules, for example, its followers are absolve from the obligation to pray.

The report is very much welcome to warn people of deviant groups, however they also need to run parallel article to explain and help people understand Tariqah Samaniyah, whose name has been tarnished by the existence of several deviant groups that exist even during the time of the Great Master, Syeikh Imaduddin Muhammad Saman.

In today’s Kosmo (5th Dec), the paper runs an article which I have pasted below. It is accompanied by a picture of Pak Teh, one of the tariqah’s current leaders. Except from a quote of Pak Teh assuring people of the uprightness of Syeikh Muhammad Saman and the tariqah, there is not much information that could be gleaned from it to better picture the tariqah. But, at least, this is better than nothing:

"PENGKALAN HULU - Jemaah Tarikat Samaniah tidak mengajar pengikutnya menghalalkan solat batin atau meninggalkan sembahyang lima waktu.

Menurut Penaung Jemaah Tarikat Samaniah, Datuk Abdul Latif Abdul Rahman, amalan yang diperturunkan oleh pengasas tarikat tersebut, Allahyarham Muhammad Saman Kati tidak pernah mengandungi unsur sedemikian.

"Tarikat Samaniah mendapat kelulusan Majlis Fatwa Negeri Perak selain ia pernah dibentang dan dibincangkan pada Seminar Tasauf Islam anjuran Bahagian Hal Ehwal Islam, Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia di Kuala Lumpur pada 1985 lalu.

"Malahan apa yang saya amalkan selama ini tidak pernah menyentuh soal menghalalkan solat batin dan tidak pula mengamalkan apa-apa ajaran lain yang menyalahi hukum Syarak," jelas beliau ketika ditemui Kosmo! di kompleks Pondok Pak Teh yang diasaskannya di Kampung Kuak Hulu di sini semalam.

Beliau menjelaskan kekeliruan yang timbul dalam keterangan gambar yang disiarkan Kosmo! pada 2 September lalu yang menyatakan pengikut tarikat tersebut menghalalkan solat batin.

Beliau yang juga ahli Majlis Fatwa Negeri Perak memberitahu, sepanjang hayatnya, Muhammad Saman sering memperingat dan menekankan kepada pengamal tarikat tersebut mengenai kepentingan ilmu-ilmu tauhid dan fikah.

"Tujuan tarikat ialah membolehkan pengamalnya memperingati Allah pada setiap masa dan bukannya memperoleh kedudukan, pangkat atau selainnya sama ada di dunia atau di akhirat,’’ katanya.

Namun beliau tidak menolak kemungkinan ada pengamal yang tidak memahami sepenuhnya ilmu tarikat Samaniah dan terpesong.

Sebagai penaung, beliau sentiasa memantau pusat utama ajaran tarikat Samaniah iaitu di Madrasah Islamiah, Batu 4 1/2, Kampung Pasir, Kamunting kira-kira 120 kilometer dari sini.

"Meskipun saya jarang ke sana, saya akan terus ikut perkembangan ahli kerana tidak mahu ajaran ini disalah tafsir,’’ katanya."

Watching the daily reports in local TV, one could not help feeling envious to the pilgrims who manage to make it this year to Arabia. Under the white, welcoming teants, they appear very excited; faces brighten up when interviewed, full of hope and expectation.

It is at times like this that I will remember an old Malay song learnt when I was 8 years old:

Tibalah masa 10 Dhul Hijjah

Pembawa kenangan yang sangat indah

Sejarah pusaka amanah wahidah

Ajaran Ibrahim dari Tuhannya.

    ......................

Semasa berkumpul di padang Arafah

Setiap tingkat atas dan bawah

Wajah mereka berseri indah

Demi menyahut seruan Allah

     ................

Setiap tahun di bumi Mina

Tumpahlah darah merah kesumba

Untuk mengenang perpaduan cinta

Ibrahim dan Ismail pada Tuhannya.

A different sport.

Syeikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller once said, "Qasidah is not a spectator sport."

What he meant was that the true objective of qasidah is not ‘to perform’ and ‘be seen.’ Rather, everyone presence should get involved by singing together.

Indeed, the essential element of the occasion of singing that influences the form, beauty and success of a qasidah is the variability and instability of the audience.

God-inspired wealth.

Qasidah is highly prized in civilised society in the past. Poets often had a patron, a royal or richman, who protect and reward them for their works.

By and large, a qasidah involves a self-conscious and deliberate process, undertaken by a society (or properly, by a class of specialists more or less authorized by the society), of settingdown, dealing with, and passing on works of recognized importance in its cultural, intellectual, and spiritual life.

In traditional society, some qasidah that are rich in spiritual values can enjoy the status of "sacred scriptures" as is is believed that these works are ‘written, dictated, or inspired by God himself’, though through the agent of accomplished poets and masyaikh (Masters).

When such a poem or qasidah is entangled with religion, the process of its making and ‘performance’ follows a course largely determined by pious interests.

Recreation of the soul.

Society, however, could alternatively eye a qasidah-recital or singing session as something that is predominantly secular or profane.

What determine this are the manners of the leading qasidah singers, the behaviour of the audience and the nature of its content.

It is therefore important that a qasidah session should aim to provide not only recreation for the body and mind, but also for the soul.

Qasidah as tarbiyyah.

Writers and singers are both du’at – callers to the Path. They are bound by some kind of ethics because both art forms carries responsibilities. True artists, therefore, are well-disciplined people with clear vision.

Their followers, admirers and audience are to share (and to be educated with) this civilised order, discipline and tradition.

Eliminating arrogance and self-importance.

Qasidah educates its participants not just through its advice-rich couplets.

In some circles, reciting qasidah is accompanied by vigorous bodily movement. Like the meters of the couplets, the movements are also rhythmic and follows certain rules.

In one circle that I used to frequent, we had to make a complete human-ring first, with hands wrapped to the shoulders of the person sitting next to us. I had to time my movement with the movement of my neighbours. It was difficult at first try, but soon we were able to move in unison. I even felt as if our hearts beat simultaneously.

The syeikh who lead us then told me that the qasidah was not ‘the’ lesson. It was actually the timing of the movement. His rational was that as everyone had to consider the movement of the person in the circle, the singing exercise turned into a spiritual training, one in which the ananiyyah (ke’aku’an or self-importance) nature in the heart is weakened. It is no longer "Me! Me!" but "Us! Us!"

Unity in diversity.

In traditional qasidah circles, no two performances are the same.

The singers follow a general tempo of a song, perhaps inherited from the previous teacher, but they are not restricted to keep it that way forever. They could introduce additional couplets or omit others, or change the whole tempo of a song.

The lead singer is wholly responsible; he dictates each single moment of the tradition. The tradition therefore allows and rejoices in multiformity.

Multitude of ideas, differences in ways of doing things, and changes in need and perspective are learnt to be tolerated.

Tarbiyyah tool.

In our information age, k-economy society, and thumb generation, information lies at a simple click of a mouse, a touch on the pad or a press on the green button. This has created a society that feels it knows and controls everything.

A well-informed society is good, but the old adage ‘al-ilmu fi as-sudur laysa fi as-sutur’ remains. Being a constentious reader does always guarantee being civilised or knowledgable. After all, the place of a knowledge is in the heart, and true guidance is only in the presence of a teacher.

A challenge for usrah group these days is in the prevalence of self-importance and arrogance occurring from the false perception of being knowledgable. The arrogants turns away from discipline, from humility and from tolerance.

Sing to wisdom-based education.

Through a qasidah, a lead singer could capture the attention of his audience via unintrusive means. By learning to render authority and decision into his hands, they will begin to think in his terms, and emulate his manners. In the hand of a crafty naqib, qasidah singing becomes a powerful instrument to effect change in the behaviour and mindset of his followers.

Hence, sing people, the soft, gentle tune of wise education.

Please savour the temporary release of 15 pictures taken at the tomb of the Companion Sayyidina Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas. Words will come later, but by then this entry may have been made private again, insya-Allah.

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LOOKING

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You are looking for it,
it is beyond you,
but it is with you at the same time.

You search,
and you look –
and you know what you are looking for –
and in that looking is a peace,
a contentment –
to know that one is looking,
looking beyond and yet within at the same time.

It is in your looking that you have finally found
the cry and the joy,
and what joy it is –
who can understand this despair?
Me? You? The cat?

The cat watches you look,
and it looks in the direction that you look.
It wonders,
is this some kind of madness
or is it in fact why we are here,
all of us,
looking,
beyond and within,
at the same time.

[Poem by Atif Imtiaz @ Deenport.com]

A poem of great importance to a friend’s father, whose work with wood widely respected. May Allah bless father and son. This poem is from the one translated by Ezra Pound – up to the 99th verse only. Complete version is at the Anglo-Saxon website.