The Path to Self-Enlightenment
Humans often blame each other easily when there are big problems and tragedies in their lives. Apologia is a primitive human form following Darwinian law, struggle for life.
A man.\'s biggest problem lies in himself. "The humans are the first living species in the biosphere that have the power to destroy the universe and consequently annihilate themselves," wrote Arnold Toynbee.
Humans are the actor in achieving success, peace and progress of civilization. On the other hand, war, chaos and the downfall of man stems from their own doing. Natural disasters and environmental damage are partly caused by the dirty hands of humans.
Humans often blame each other easily when there are big problems and tragedies in their lives. Apologia is a primitive human form following Darwinian law, struggle for life. The character of homo homini lupus in Hobbes.\' political logic also starts from human ambitions that are endless greed to each other.
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However, human nature is actually good (godly), so, those who are arrogant become agnostic and atheistic. Although the animal nature grows in his passions, the divine soul (fithrah) in him becomes the source of the power of the mind and the soul that guides people to understand the truth, goodness and knowledge in their life.
A believer must capitalize on this divine gift, among other things, through fasting during Ramadan, so that the sacred nature will thrive and be meaningful for life, and be free from all pandemics.
The power of nature, common sense and conscience that makes humans God.\'s best creatures (fi-ahsan at-taqwim). A believer must capitalize on this divine gift, among other things, through fasting during Ramadan, so that the sacred nature will thrive and be meaningful for life, and be free from all pandemics.
Natural soul
Idul Fitri is "the day of breaking the fast". Fasting is a special worship that contains a process of self-sublimation (riyadhah ruhiyah) for every Muslim who performs it to achieve the best quality of takwa (piety) (Surah Al-Baqarah: 183).
Takwa is the spiritual peak of a believer whose innate spirit is straight to God, while producing a righteous life for himself and his environment that emits grace for the universe.
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Humans by virtue of Allah have two potentials in themselves, namely the soul of al-taqwa which tends to goodness and the soul of al-fuzara which tends to evil (QS Asy-Shams: 7-8).
The soul of piety is the soul of hanif that is holy, upright, clean and authentic which always brings goodness, peace, order, togetherness, compassion, progress and all the virtues in life.
On the other hand, the fuzara soul is an anarchistic soul that tends to lead people to sin, ugliness, enmity, noise and humiliation.
A godly person is a whole human whose life is driven by a holy soul so that he lives on the right path and does not slip in the wrong way. When he is wrong, he quickly repents instead of covering up the mistake with another mistake.
The tempest of life starts from the habit of accumulating these mistakes so that we are controlled by the “devil.\'s regime". He who purifies the clean soul will prosper and he who defiles it will be ruined (Surah Asy-Shams: 9-10).
Imam Al-Ghazali divided human nature into two elements, namely the physical body (al-jism) and the soul (al-nafs). The human soul itself consists of three elements, namely the nature of the plans (al-nafs al-nabatiyah), the nature of the animal which relies on instinct (al-nafs al-ha-yawaniyat) and the mind which is controlled by the ratio and the heart (al-nafs al-nathiq).
The nature of the human tends to physical, sensual and worldly things. On the other hand, it is reluctant to reach into the spiritual world that is metaphysical, sublime and primary as the main human being.
By fasting, the holy soul is nourished and actualized into a manifest, while being vaccinated against all the viruses of fuzara (evil) lust that are lodged in oneself.
It is important for a believer to understand the condition of his soul (ma.\'rifat an-nafs) in order to be able to guide and direct him to the highest dignity. By fasting, the holy soul is nourished and actualized into a manifest, while being vaccinated against all the viruses of fuzara (evil) lust that are lodged in oneself.
That is the true way and the nature of fasting that goes beyond the verbal law in the ritual of abstaining from food, drinking and fulfillment of biological desires so that humans will not become an intelligent robot made by factories, a modular person resulting from liberal pragmatism education or even a ferocious fox like Machiavelli.
Successful fasting, according to Al-Ghazali, is to achieve special proficiency (khawas al-khusus), which is able to conquer the physical tendencies of the physical body and the primitive soul in the plants and animals towards a natural spirit that animates one.\'s mind as a noble human being.
This is the phase of human life that moves from the realm of sharia which is completely physical to the peak of the nature and knowledge which is multi-dimensional spiritual and crosses the boundaries of the life of the believers who are themselves enlightened and simultaneously enlightening the civilization of the universal life.
Self-transformation
The chronic disease of man is arrogance. Humans are proud of themselves because they feel the most powerful (Surah Al-.\'Alaq: 6-7). The power of authorities and material goods often makes people feel super and forget about their existence.
According to the words of the Prophet, arrogance often leads people to reject the truth and humiliate the dignity of others.
It then results in chaos in the form of arbitrariness, deviance, conspiracy, corruption, crime, violence, enmity, terror and all forms of destruction on the face of the earth or fasad fil-ardl. According to the words of the Prophet, arrogance often leads people to reject the truth and humiliate the dignity of others.
A believer who succeeds in fasting becomes a humble figure and can spread all the virtues that bless the universe (Surah Ar-Ra.\'du: 107).
Believers - to borrow Berger.\'s view (1967) - must make their religion function as the sacred canopy (sacred protective terrace) or nomos (creating the order of life) which makes humans free from chaos or anomies that are chaotic and full of deviations. When all forms of chaos are still around believers and religions, the teachings of God have not yet manifested in their lives.
Post-Ramadan and Idul Fitri, Muslims should be able to confirm to the real world whether the various rituals of Islamic worship today have truly functioned as integrative forces that build nomos in the lives of individuals, families, communities, nations and universal humanity.
On the other hand, being religious should not be used as a sacred tool to create hatred, enmity, intolerance, division, violence and noise that results in chaos in life and political lust and dynasty in the name of divine values. This is especially so when the world is currently experiencing disruption, which has resulted in dehumanization in almost all aspects of life.
In the metaphysical realm, the faith of every Muslim is faced with the challenges of life which, according to Herman Kahn, are controlled by a "sensation culture" that defies material, momentary pleasures and justifies any means.
This sensation culture reduces humans to Homo sapiens (hayawan al-nathiq) who have noble character, are intelligent and knowledgeable and become the main actor in building civilization. In this crucial situation, it is necessary to reenlighten the human mind whose soul is connected to the Divine Essence while at the same time creating a humanization and equality that processes authentic humanization, liberation and transcendence.
The clear thinking of contemporary historian Yuval Noah Harari was important when writing Sapiens (2011) and Homo Deus (2016). Harari warned of the “end of Homo sapiens" phenomenon. In this century, the human genus Sapiens has crossed the threshold of natural selection capability.
However, it is truly ironic, human life is increasingly absurd when we don’t know "What do we want?"
That process was replaced by intelligent design produced by the science-technology revolution, which resulted in Homo Deus, aka a god-level human who relied on artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic engineering. However, it is truly ironic, human life is increasingly absurd when we don’t know "What do we want?"
Harari is more extreme in writing, when Homo sapiens was incarnated as "Animal who became God", there was a massive increase in his power which was able to reduce hunger, plague and war.
However, ironically, humans are never satisfied and do not know what they want, and don’t know what the purpose of power is. The historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem questioned it. "Is there anything more dangerous than the goddess who is disgruntled, irresponsible, and does not know what she wants?"
At this point, Idul Fitri with the fasting and a series of Ramadan worship for every Muslim can be used as a path of self-enlightenment that revives human nature in living an authentic life to achieve the happiness of a true life in this world and the hereafter.
There might be misunderstandings and misdirection of the life path that has been chosen so far. This is the momentum to turn on the metaphysical anchor of the faith of every Muslim in the midst of the current waves of change that are full of disruption.
A path of self-transformation to rediscover the true and straight nature of life based on divine values. Free yourself from all chaos to nomos by living meaningfully and spread grace on the earth!
Haedar Nashir, the chairman of Muhammadiyah
(This article was translated Hendarsyah Tarmizi).