mencari makna dalam kata...

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Assalamualaikum warahmatullah

kita sering mendapati acapkali kita membaca buku buku anatomi ataupun fisiologi, terutama sekali tentang sistem peredaran darah manusia , akan kelihatan nama nama ini terpampang di depan mata , William Harvey, Stephen Hales, Galen etc  adalah nama nama dicanang beduk, it isokay , tak juga salah.
Tetapi apakah kredit asal diberikan kepada penemu ? atau ini tidak menjadi soal kerana yg penting ilmu perlu disebarkan dan itu adalah jariah y  cukup apabila diketahui oleh Al - HAKIM, yg Maha Bijaksana. Walau apa pun, sumbangan tamadun Islam atau cendekiawan, sarjana  Islam dalam pelbagai bidang telah mampu dan berjaya  meletakkan batu asas pada beberapa konsep penting. Dan dalam menerapkan konsep konsep ini - penggunaan terma atau daftar istilah yang tepat amatlah penting.

ini bukan enteng.


Sumbangan tamadun Islam dalam kerangka ilmu memang tidak dapat disangkal dan ini dapat diperhatikan dalam petikan artikel di bawah.

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“On The Importance of Definition: Greek Struggles and Islam’s Emphasis on the Proper Places of Things”
by Akhrun bin Musa (RZS-CASIS Alumni)

[This entry is a selected summary of the 5th RZS-CASIS Saturday Night Lecture (CSNL) given by Prof.Dr. Wan Mohd Nor on 21 November 2020]

the original link :
https://www.utm.my/casis/blog/2020/12/19/on-the-importance-of-definition-greek-struggles-and-islams-emphasis-on-the-proper-places-of-things/?fbclid=IwAR0jZQS99QoZdy7Dt0dCF7kg8e1fSlD2MezYhfsqFJuPzJwBrlLtMt9U7lY



In the previous session, Prof. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud has elaborated at length on the definition of knowledge and its sources, its relationship with contemporary challenges and how our understanding of knowledge can help us to solve our contemporary problems as well as our personal and society issues at large. In order to preserve knowledge, the significance of defining the key terms in the worldview of Islam is of important precondition.



Al-Attas throughout his life emphasized on the important and the problem of definition by clarifying the key concepts pertaining to the Muslim world and the west, which at once reflect the important of truth, wisdom, and right knowledge in Islam.

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Prof. Wan began with the chapter on ‘definition’ from the 10 volume work on Encyclopedia of Philosophy (EOP). According to the author, the first person in the history of western philosophy which seem to be emphasizing the important of defining key terms and concepts was attributed to Socrates.

Unfortunately, even Socrates himself was not explained about criteria of his definition. Prof Wan Said;

” What is the meaning of virtue or piety for example?

Socrates as reported by Plato answered by saying that the kind of answer, he expected to his question was on the general idea which makes all pious things to be pious. But according to those who study Platonic Dialogue pertaining to Socrates say that Socrates never gave the criteria of the standard that he meant to reflect a pious idea and practice. He asked questions and demands standards but he himself doesn’t explain what standard does he meant or expects?”

In the history of Philosophy according to the author, from the beginning until now, there are three general trends regarding definition.(1)

One is the essentialist theory, which mean that something should be defined based on its essence. It is a descriptive definition that convey knowledge through knowledge of that thing. However, some have questioned on how do we know the truth about something? Who are we to say this is the true knowledge about something?

Therefore, there is another group attributed to people like Socrates, Plato, Aristotles, the Christian, the Jews, the Muslim, and people of religion in general who post linguistic definition of definition.

They understand definition to be mere utility, on how we use a particular language to explain what we mean. Its usage depends on the term selected from a particular language and that there is no essence to anything, constantly relative to how one plays and use that language.

But there is another group who opposes the previous two groups, whom deny the importance of language called the prescriptivist. Their prescription theory of definition is about how we prescribe something to it. For them, definition does not give any knowledge and is purely arbitrary.

After criticising all these three major theories of definition by showing its advantages as well as its disadvantages, the author brings out another theory of definition which seems to answer the question posed by the three earlier schools of thought pertaining to the theory of definition. For them, definition should not merely be based on language nor essence, instead, it is based on what we want to achieve by it, its context presented, and the action we want for the people is accepted.

Then the author brings Aristotle’s rule for evaluating definitions by referring to his book Topica as follows;

(1) A definition should give the essence or nature of the thing defined, rather than its accidental properties. – this is what Muslim scholar as well as Prof al-Attas would agree on.

(2) A definition should give the genus and differentia of the thing defined. – which also we would agree on.

(3) One should not define by synonyms.

(4) A definition should be concise. – also, generally true and we would agree on this despite some definition might require extra explanation. But how concise the conciseness might still need for clarifications.

(5) One should not define by metaphors. – In Islam however metaphor is sometimes useful to give general reflections pertaining to truth of something

(6) One should not define something by negative terms or by correlative terms (thus, one should not define north as the opposite of south, or parent as a person with one or more children). – this one might also be opposed by some scholar. Prof al-Attas himself when tried to define Happiness used its contrast, which is tragedy.

Throughout history, people tend to use these six criterias as the general guidelines to define an object of knowledge.

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Conflict of Definitions in Greek and Christian Tradition

St. Augustine said that whatever the Greek philosopher whom very influential and brilliant  like Socrates, Plato and Aristotles were doing, as al-Attas also said, reflects some truth coming from religion revealed. Perhaps the religion that came to the Jewish prophet thousands of years before have reached the Mediterranean Basin, but because they did not follow a particular revealed religion, therefore they missed many major things.(2)

Augustine mentioned, for example the question of the nature of reality. In the history of philosophy, they talk about Thales, the first Greek thinker to define what this world consists of. Later on, his  student and their subsequent students (the likes of Anaximander, Anaxagoras and Diogenes) continued with the attempt and discovery of the nature of reality which ended up differing from one other.

Thales for example who lived in 600 years B.C. said that the fundamental principle of reality is one, and that particular ‘one’ which consists everything in nature, is water. His student Anaximander however takes the opposites line denying the fact that there is one single reality which consists of everything. He said that there is multiplicity of realities, infinite in number and not singular as proposed by his teacher.

The student of Anaximander, Anaximenes however go back to the opinion of Thales saying that reality is one but instead of water, he proposed rather the air.

“Anaximander left as his successor his disciple Anaximenes, who attributed all the causes of things to an infinite air. He neither denied nor ignored the existence of gods, but so far from believing that the air was made by them, he held, on the contrary, that they sprang from the air”

Then there is another important student of Anaximenes by the name of Anaxagoras, again differed with his teacher. He said that there are many principles of reality again, not one, but different from the teacher Anaximander by saying that this multiplicity in reality is controlled by one divine mind, which is God. He now brought God as the main ‘architect’ in producing multiple realities of the universe.

But his colleague which is also a student of Anaximenes, Diogenes also posited a divine mind in the construction of reality but rather than having infinite reality he returns to one single reality again that is ‘air’.

The purpose of St. Augustine bringing these dialogues up according to Prof. Wan is to show that no matter how brilliant the Greek thinkers, they tend to differ even those in their line of student-teacher-student relationship. St. Augustine who is a Christian has profoundly showed the differences between all these Greek thinkers due to their lack of capability to come to an agreement on the definition of somethings.

After the Greek, then comes the Romans who throughout history has created Great Civilizations. One of the greatest and the most prolific Roman thinker, philosopher, and writers among them was Marcus Varro who lived 100 years BC and died around 27-year B.C. Augustine quoting him on the nature of happiness  and on the nature of good and evil which lead man to either happiness or misery. According to Varro, if we want to think of the meaning of all these any many other things, there is a possibility of more than 288 sect represent different interpretations which may disagree to one another.

“That Varro has made out that two hundred and eighty-eight different sects of philosophy might be formed by the various opinions regarding the supreme good”

Augustine were writing this thing to show the superiority of Christian Worldview although he admitted, despite Christian worldview for him, is based on revelation, yet there are contradictions between the Hebrew Bible with what they called the Septuagint Bible, the translation of Hebrew Bible by 70 writers into Greek which became the language of the new testament. However Augustine quite ‘cleverly’ explained the contradictions in terms of some facts and ideas between the original, the Hebrew Bible which was compiled few hundred years BC and translated few hundred years later into Greek – He said that the writers of the Hebrew Bible were inspired by God and so were the writers and the translators of the Bible into Greek, they were also inspired by God. Therefore, although there seems to be contradictions between these two Bibles, they are considered by Augustine as equally correct. Meaning that Christians should not use reason to try to explain the contradictions, but are to accept them as they are.

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Greek Thinkers and The Prophetic Teaching





Prof. al-Attas in his book Prolegomena (3), particularly on the Chapter on Happiness elaborated on the Aristotelian concept of tragedy, happiness and ethics and how these Greek thinkers were benefitting from the revelation (to the prophet) floating in the ancient world.


In the 5th century when Augustine wrote The City of God, he did mentioned clearly how Plato, for example despite learning from the best teacher of his time, was not satisfied and brought him to later proposed a different theory which differed from his teacher, Socrates. During his time in Egypt, he later was reported to have discussed with the followers of Prophet Jeremiah – which was regarded by the Jews as their prophet. Jeremiah lived many centuries after Prophet Musa (Moses), Prophet Daud (David)  and and Prophet Sulaiman (Soloman).


According to Augustine also, Plato were discussing with the Egyptians who know Greek due to his ignorance of their language therefore, he couldn’t read their book. Furthermore at that time, Hebrew Bible were not yet translated into Greek. Its translation was done only in the middle third century B.C. which was around 200 to 300 hundred years after Plato. It means when he was in Egypt there was no translation yet from Hebrew into Greek of the old testament yet the ideas were already discussed in Greek language by Egyptian (scholars) since Greek language is one of the prominent languages in Egypt and Syria as well.


From Egypt, according to St. Augustine, Plato went to Syria and studied under many teachers there as well. It proofs that the early Christian as early as Augustine showing evidences that Greek Thinkers were benefited from the ideas of the Hebrew Prophet. And for us, despite no accepting Jeremiah as a Prophet not named in the Qur’ān but we knew that Prophet Daud, Ibrahim, Sulaiman , Musa were all existing in that same region, in Egypt and Syria.


The idea of prophetic teaching in the thought of Greek thinkers may also be found in Ṭabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Books of The Categories of Nations) by Saʿid al-Andalusi(4) where he elaborated on the knowledge culture in various nations such as Egypt, Persia, India, the Babylonians, the Romans, and the Greeks.(5)

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On the Chapter of Science in Greece, he talks about how Empedocles, among the prominent Greek philosophers who died around 430 B.C. was said to have studied philosophy with Luqmān al-Ḥākim in Shams.

According to Saʿid al-Andalusi, also there is another prominent Greek philosopher, Pythagoras who came long after Empedocles and has studied philosophy in Egypt under the disciples of Prophet Sulaiman. According to Saʿid, these disciples of Prophet Sulaiman left Palestine to live in Egypt where there they taught scholars including Pythagoras.



Prof. Wan said that the point Saʿid al-Andalusi want to raise here is the fact that for humanity, we are supposed to have knowledge of the right and wrong, knowledge of what will make us happy in this world and the hereafter, therefor we must be able to know things in its definitive state. That is what Prof al-Attas has done also in all his works where he always clearly defines all they key terms and concepts used in his works. In fact, it was the first objective of the educational institute that he built 40 years ago, that is to clarify key terms and concepts. Without the right definition and meaning of things, whatever things we do will not be properly explained, evaluated, judged, and estimated.

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Knowledge and meaning
Prof. al-Attas define knowledge epistemologically by emphasizing the process of receiving it, which is “the arrival of meaning into the soul as well as the arrival of the soul towards meaning.” But ontologically speaking, knowledge are units of meanings that arrives in the soul.
But the next question then is, what is meaning?

Prof. Wan explained that meaning is the recognition of the proper places in the system in relation with other key terms and concepts in that system. In the Islamic sense the right meaning is that we know the proper places of things in the system definitively such that we will acknowledge and recognize Allah in the order of being and existence.

The meaning of something in Islam might be differ from the non-Islamic meaning because some meanings are considered such only when there is no God involved in the conceptual scheme. What is Islamic is when something that is meaningful must finally be connected to God, recognizing the proper place of Allah as the Lord of the Worlds. This is why Professor al-Attas impressed upon us on the importance of “true knowledge” – although by definition, knowledge in itself should be true to be considered as one. False knowledge masquerading   as knowledge are due to the construction of meaning by man’s reason unverified by revelation of its truth.



What then does he meant by place?



He identifies six level of place in the the Muslim mind.

1. Objective place– refers to something external to ourselves, exist in the external world, in the ḥaqīqī existence or the real existence outside our mind.
2. Sensible Existence – which internal to our mind; includes dream, vision, and illusion
3. Imiginary Place (khayālī) – which is the existence of objects of sensible existence in the imagination when they are absent from human perception.
4. Intellectual (ʿaqli) existence – which consists abstract concept in the human mind
5. Analogous (shibhī) existence – which is constituted by things which do not exist in any of the levels above but which do exist as something else resembling the things in a certain respect, or analogous to them.
6.There is another level that the rational truth called a supra-rational or transcendental level of existence experience by prophet and Saint of God and men of discernment who are deeply rooted in knowledge.
Unfortunately, in modern understanding when people talk about place, it is only confined to the external world and perhaps in the intellectual world but not in the transcendental world of existence. They may include imaginary or the analogous world but they deny entirely the existence of another place, the transcendental world of existence.

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Definition in Islam
Prof. Wan then justified why Islam put so much emphasis on the importance of definition. He said that it is due to fulfilment of our purpose in this world, to acquire knowledge. This was the same reason to why our scholars in the past studied the Greeks, its relevance are reflected in the Quran and Hadith that it exemplified the need to understand what is around you clearly.

Though not all definition is essential, some of them are linguistic and that was why Prof. al-Attas was very concerned with semantic terms. In Islam, definition is also contextual because when we define something, we impel people to act or to think in a particular manner. Hence, it is not just a matter of words or languages but also about transforming people’s spiritual and ethical dimension to its natural state (fitrah).


For example, when we define the word Islām. We do not just simply define its linguistic meaning but by referring to the five pillars (ʼarkān) of ʼIslām. Therefore, when we define the word Islam it impels people to profess their faith (shahādah), to perform prayer, to pay Alms, fasting during Ramaḍān and to perform the Pilgrimage. The same thing when we define the word Imān, ʼIḥsān, Nifāq and so on.



Prof. Wan insisted that this is the proof that Muslims are not merely theorizing about definition, it was done so that we can live morally and spiritually based on the right and proper definition, with certainty. And this was also why Augustine, for example, in his writings about the Greek philosophers said, even though Socrates, Plato, Aristotle as well as Epodacle and Pythagoras all understood the idea of one God, but when it comes to worshipping, they made a mistake by worshipping the God of Multiplicity.

Despite intellectually they have come to the understanding of a single Supreme Good as God (for Plato) or the Prime Mover is God (for Aristotle), and yet they failed to understand how to worship these God(s). That is why Augustine claimed rather very satisfyingly as he believes Christianity is higher than the Greeks. He was convinced that the Greek’s failure was due to not receiving revelation.


The way of approaching an object of knowledge in Islam is through the affirmation of Divine Unity (Tawhid) in reality, the Tawḥidic Method.
We do not isolate the types of definition such as linguistic, essential or prescriptivist, but the entirety of it, depending on the object we are trying to define and what we want people to do with it. All of which its proper places in reality is based on very clear revealed text of the Qur’ān and Ḥadīth; forming the basis of our worldview.


As he was concluding the lecture, Prof. Wan reminded us that definition of meaning as a recognition of the proper place of a thing in a system; and how this ‘thing’ is related to other ‘thing’ in that system. From here you can deduce that the place is not just external and spatial, but also internal and essential. Then he defines for example ‘Justice’ as a condition where things are in its proper places and ‘wisdom’ is the knowledge of the proper places of things. Meanwhile Adab is the right action based on knowledge. Therefore, we can see here the connection of knowledge-meaning-wisdom and justice, are all connected with each other within a system.


Therefore when we talk about Adab as what education (Ta’dib) is in Islam, it is a recognition and acknowledgement of the right and proper places of things in the system such that it leads us to recognizes and acknowledge Allah in the order of being and existence.

(1) Raziel Abelson , “Definition” in Encyclopedia of Philosophy ed. Donald M. Borchert, 2nd Edition ed., vol. 2 (MacMillan Reference USA, 2006), 664 – 677.
(2) Saint Augustine, The City of God (New York The Modern Library, 2000).
(3) Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas, Prolegomena To The Metaphisics Of Islam – An Exposition Of The Fhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/16vv7hgzwuw16cd/Prolegomena-to-the-Metaphysics-of-Islam.pdf?dl=0undamental Elements Of The Worldview Of Islam (Kuala Lumpur ISTAC, 2001).
(4) Saʿid al-Andalusi, Ṭabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Books of The Categories of Nations) trans. Semaʿan I. Salem and Alok Kumar ( United States of America: University of Texas Press, Austin, 1991).
(5) For more discussion on Greek Intellectual Tradition, read Adi Setia “The Genesis of Greek Intellectuality in Islam and Western Historiographies of Science: A Comparative Overview”, Journal AFKāR, 2009 bil. 10 (61-82).
Final CSNL will be on the 19th December 2020 via Zoom, click here to register. To read the previous summaries of the 10th RZS-CASIS Saturday Night Lecture Series:
July 2020 “Arriving at the Problem of Knowledge”
August 2020 “Knowledge and Islamic Creed in the Context of Contemporary Challenges”
September 2020 “The Past and Present Attitudes Towards Possibilities of Knowledge”
October 2020 “Significance of Defining Key Terms in Islam”

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“Significance of Defining Key Terms in Islam”
by shajar233 | Nov 19, 2020 | Saturday Night Lecture | 0 comments

original link:
https://www.utm.my/casis/blog/20 ... key-terms-in-islam/

by Nik Syazwan Nik Ab. Wahab (RZS-CASIS PhD Candidate)

[This entry is a selected summary and reflection of the RZS-CASIS Saturday Night Lecture (CSNL) given by Prof. Wan Mohd Nor on 17th October 2020.]

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Continuing from previous lecture, Prof. Wan began the 4th Instalment of the Saturday Night Lecture 10th Series by referring to an introduction of the sub-chapter entitled Definitions of Knowledge from Chapter Two of his book; The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, as follows;

“ To define (taḥdid) something or an object of knowledge is to be involved in a precise intellectual effort which is greatly appreciated in Islam by all schools of thought with very rare exceptions among individual scholars. Even in these exceptional cases, the opposition has been not on the importance of defining terms and concepts as such, but more on the over-emphasis of logic as the only discipline for such purpose.[1] Al-Attas has pointed out that one of the key indications of the bankrupt state of modernist Muslim intellectualism, due to their blatant undermining of the great intellectual and spiritual works of the past, is the lost of science of proper definition, which was a major characteristic and achievement of the Islamic intellectual tradition.”[2]

In overview, refering to the above introduction, there are several important key-terms according to worldview of Islām and its’ definitions, as per expounded by Prof al-Attas, were discussed in the this particular lecture by Prof. Wan, namely human (insān), development (islāh), happiness (sa’adah), religion (Dīn al-Islām), God (Allah) and knowledge (‘ilm).

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In the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Wan reminded the audience that of Muslims have always denounced the attitude reflected upon a group of people that denies the possibility of arriving at true and certainty of knowledge; and this group were known as the Sophists (Sūfasṭā’iyyah), which he lucidly elucidated in the previous lecture. Some of these ideas were unequivocally echoed of the Muslim modernists today.

This influential Muslim modernist movement, which is largely influenced by a secular worldview developed by the West, ultimately de-emphasizing the importance of true meaning and definitions of key-terms that were heralded by the Muslim scientific tradition for thousands of years, thus resulting a detrimental impact to the Muslim society today; we no longer acquired the ability to define key-terms and concepts according to our own worldview, which ultimately leads to confusion and error in knowledge.


Also agreed by Prof al-Attas, Edward Said has argued Samuel Huntington’s idea in his well-known book entitled Clash of Civilization by proposing his own idea of Clash of Definitions instead. The actual conflict between civilization, according to Said, lies within the definition that reflects truth and reality which considered as the fundamental element in a civilization. Later in the lecture, Prof. Wan also quoted Yuval Noah Harari whom wrote about Data-ism as form of new religion in one of his bestselling popular science book Homo Deus; A Brief History of Tomorrow, which he speculated of how big data combining both biological and algorithmic data able to determine truth in the near future. According to Prof. al-Attas, the ability to give a precise definition of a term also means to establish the truth (ḥaqq) and limit (ḥādd) to itself.


To define (taḥdid) as practiced by Prof. al-Attas is beyond intellectual and academic life, but also physical, spiritual, ethical and civilizational.

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Prof. Wan further illustrated an example of ‘man’ today is defined in narrow and understate definition such as homo-politicus or homo-economicus, thus unfortunately causing men to dedicate and enslave his life to only in both or even worse; either or.
On the other hand, to merely overstate ‘man’ as children of God can also cause great confusion and error in the relationship between man and God.
Therefore, Prof. al-Attas deliberately defined ‘man’ (insān) as rational-animal (al-ḥayawān al-nātīq), which he later refined the term animal (ḥayawān) in his later book On Justice and Nature of Man as not just a beastly creature but animated, living creature that possesses ability to articulate ideas rationally, especially the articulation of the message of Allah Himself, as is epitomized by the Prophet s.a.w.
“…The term ‘animal’ can be taken to refer to an organized being infused with a vital spirit, yet it is generally understood to refer to ‘beast’. In order to distinguish man from beast, we prefer to translate the term ḥayawān in our definition of man not as ‘animal’, but as ‘living being’…Thus our definition of man as al-ḥayawān al-nātīq , the living  being that speaks.” [3]

Prof. Wan further dismissed the idea of neither Homo-sapiens nor Homo-erectus are accepted as Banī Adam in Islām.  Both are separate and different species altogether. Banī Adam is both khalifah and servant of Allah at the same time and to misunderstand this is unjust and led to corruption of meaning.

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Unappreciative of the intellectual tradition of the past, the modernist Muslim tend to belittle the terminology developed in the past for instance the term ‘development’ or  in Malay, ’pembangunan’ which is loosely defined and associated ‘to build buildings’ or ‘membangunkan bangunan’; and thus concluded that by not building or construct buildings and monuments, we are not considered a fully developed civilization.
Few other definitions highlighted by Prof. Wan that are loosely associated and poorly defined as development is ‘progress’ or moving forward (taqaddum), as if we neither cannot look back into the past nor remain seated to contemplate; ‘change’ (tashayyun/taghyīr), as if we have to change all aspects of life including religion; ‘growth’ (tanmīyyah), as if we must always have physical and economical growth to be fully develop as a nation.

In his book Pembangunan di Malaysia; Ke Arah Satu Kefahaman yang Lebih Sempurna, Prof. Wan suggested that the term īslah should be the core foundation of physical development of the Muslim world. Any good, wholesome and beneficial actions (‘amāl sālih) that bring justice and balance to physical, spiritual, ecological and ethical aspects of livelihood. Without the correct understanding of the term and conception of development completely according the worldview of Islām, any so called ‘development’ will only lead to injustice, imbalance and corruption (fasād), leaving the sole progressing purpose of development is to arrive at a restricted ‘good life’ or happiness in the material sense.

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Happiness according to the West, cannot be essentially defined, thus reduced to only measurable and empirical characteristics such as GDP growth per capita, public health, public education etc.
Void of any spiritual content, these narrow measurable and empirical outcomes have since uncritically adopted by most modernist Muslim today. On contrary, Prof. al-Attas in his book The Meaning and Experience of Happiness in Islam, and later became a chapter in his magnum opus Prolegomena to The Metaphysic of Islam, has made it very clear that happiness (sa’ādah) is essentially and fundamentally spiritual and ethical, as follows;

“Happiness according to the perspective of Islām as expressed by the term sa’ādah, and it relates to two dimensions of existence; to the hereafter (ukhrawiyyah) and to the present world (dunyawiyyah). The contrary of sa’ādah is shaqāwah, which conveys the meaning of great misfortune and misery in general. With respect to the hereafter sa’ādah refers to the ultimate happiness, which everlasting felicity and bliss, the highest being the Vision of God, promised to those who in worldly life have lived in willing submission and conscious and knowing obedience of God’s commands and prohibitions.” [4]


Prof. Wan further illustrated that the prophets of God, especially Muhammad PBUH are the prime examples of attaining sa’ādah in both dimensions of existence.


Prof. Wan explained that the essence of Islam as a religion have both of practical (Arkānul Imān) and theoretical (Arkānul Islam) principles as inseparable aspects. The polemic of the usage of the name Allah [5], that can be avoided if we really understand the true definition and correct application of God’s proper name and know how He describes Himself in the Qur’ān.

Allah’s attributes can never be the same with other religion’s conception of God. Due to the nature of the modern pluralistic reality of today, confusion of meaning of language and its key-terms can be more detrimental to the Muslim in comparative to the Muslim in the past.

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Due to its’ limitless nature as explained by Prof. al-Attas, ‘knowledge’ is not possible to be defined by limit (ḥadd) but by characteristic (rasm) guided and derived from the Qur’ān. Epistemologically, there are two aspects of knowledge; the arrival (ḥuṣūl) of meaning (ma’nā) of a thing or an object of knowledge in the soul of the subject; and simultaneously, from the fact that the subject or the seeker of knowledge is an active agent, knowledge is the soul’s arrival (wuṣūl)  of soul at the meaning of that thing or the object of knowledge.


Thus, our great Muslim luminaries in the past understood the importance in preserving the meanings of key terms in the Qur’ān due to the finality of the Prophetic mission. The critical nature of this reality has led to the compilation or creation of great dictionaries of key terminologies. For instances the compilation of Compendium of Definitions (Kitāb al-Ta’rifah) by one of the greatest theologian (mutakallimūn) Abdul al-Qahir al-Jurjani in the 10th  century; the voluminous Tongue of Arab (Lisān al-‘Arab) by Ibn Manẓūr in the 13th century; and Kashshāf Istīlah al-Funūn by al-Tahānawī the later 18th century.

Prof. Wan concluded his lecture by reminding us again that among of Prof. Al-Attas’ objectives of the establishment of ISTAC (1987 – 2002) was to clarify the key concepts in Islam and at the same time to also understand key concepts developed by the West;[6] ultimately to avoid error and confusion thus fall into fundamental fallacies, just like some of the modernist Muslims did in our time.[7] Confusion and error in defining key-terms can also led us to make non-essential matters become essential, thus steer the ummah into the abyss of petty squabbles.

[1] Rosenthal, Knowledge Triumphant, p. 46. For a good preliminary discussion on the position of definition among some prominent Muslim scholars such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Farid and Ibn Taymiyyah, see Zainal Abidin, The Problem of Definition in Islamic Logic: A Study of Abu al-Naja al-Farid’s Kasr al-Mantiq in Comparison with Ibn Taymiyyah’s Kitab al-Radd ‘ala al-Mantiqiyyin. (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC Master Theses Series Vol.1, 1997).
[2] Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC,1998), 97. Citing Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’ Concept of Education in Islam, 1 -13.
[3] Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, On Justice and the Nature of Man, (Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2016), 31.
[4] Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (Johor: UTM Press, 2014 reprinted from 1995), 91.
[5] A controversy that occurred in Malaysia back in 2007 on the usage of the name Allah in Christian communities translated in the Malay Bibles to refer to their God. Refer to this book for a clearer view of the issue, Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad (ed.) Controversy Over the Term “Allah” in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, IKIM Press, 2013). Or, individual articles are also available, see  “Heresy Arises From Words Wrongly Used” by Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas and Mohd Sani Badron published on 20th February 2008; Mohd Zaidi bin Ismail “Understanding the “Allah” Controversy” on 9th January 2010 ; Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad “The Allah Controversy Rearticulated” published on 19th February 2013.
[6] Refer to Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud. The Beacon on the Crest of the Hill: A Brief History and Philosophy of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1991).
[7] An example of petty squabbles: They conjectured that Djīnn as micro-organism species and Malāikat as some kind of natural forces by extracting the framework of Muhammad Abduh; Ahmad N. Amir, Abdi O. Shuriye and  Ahmad F. Ismail in “Muhammad Abduh’s Scientific Views in the Qur’an” International Journal of Asian Social Science 2(11):2034-2044.

mbhcsf

To read the previous summaries of the 10th RZS-CASIS Saturday Night Lecture Series:
July 2020 “Arriving at the Problem of Knowledge”  
August 2020 “Knowledge and Islamic Creed in the Context of Contemporary Challenges”
September 2020 “The Past and Present Attitudes Towards Possibilities of Knowledge”

https://www.utm.my/casis/blog/20 ... key-terms-in-islam/

semoga bermanfaat.

mbhcsf

“The Arabs had a great influence on the West, and Europe, in its civilization, is indebted to the Arabs. Indeed, the Arabs were no less influential to the West than they were to the East. This influence on the West could be perceived only by imagining the state in which Europe was before civilization was brought to it. During the 9th and 10th centuries, when Arab civilization in Spain was very bright, the centers of culture in the West were no more than towers inhabited by brutal seniors proud of being unlettered. Meanwhile, the most knowledgeable among the Christians were from the poor, ignorant monks who stayed in their churches to submissively erase the valuable books of the ancients to have enough scrolls to transcribe the books of worship.”
“The Arabs had no sooner completed their conquest of Spain than they began to carry out the message of civilization in it. Within less than a century, they were able to cultivate dead land, build up ruined cities, construct magnificent buildings and establish trade connections with other nations. Then, they devoted themselves to the study of sciences and arts, translation of  Greek and Latin books into Arabic and foundation of  universities that remained the only cultural refuge in Europe for a long time.”
“Few are the nations that excelled the Arabs in civility. No nation has ever achieved the greatest number of inventions within the shortest time as the Arabs did. In fact, the Arabs established one of the strongest religions which prevailed in the world and whose influence is still more vital than that of any other religion. Politically, they founded one of the greatest states known in history and civilized Europe culturally and morally. Few are the ethnic groups which rose and declined like the Arabs. No ethnos like the Arabs could be fit for a living example of the influence of the factors lying behind the foundation, magnificence and decline of states.”
Gustave Le Bon, The World of Islamic Civilisation.

https://www.facebook.com/khalif.muammar

MenteriWanita

Salam,

Apa yang saya respek dgn mat salleh, walaupun mereka berak tak cebuk mereka sangat sayangkan sejarah mereka, tempat2 sejarah mereka pelihara untuk tatapan orang2 muda, buku sejarah mereka dinilaitinggikan & selalu diupdate serta dibincangkan, sejarawan mereka berjaya merakyatakan ilmu2 sejarah, sehingga boleh ditulis dlm bentuk santai, muzium mereka banyak input2 & sgt moden, mesra pengunjung yang berbilang bangsa & usia.

Berbanding kita muslim sedunia, banyak tempat sejarah dijarah demi pembangunan & wang ringgit contoh di Arab, di tempat kita sendiri, nama tempat tinggalan penjajah masih wujud & takut2 nak tukar, sangat menjauhkan orang muda dari sejarah kita yang sebenar. Muzium rosak, tak berinput, kuno, pengurusan lemah, sejarawan kita lebih gemar mengejar PHD untuk diri sendiri, ilmu di diam kan & gagal dirakyatkan.

Mat salleh mengeluarkan begitu banyak wang utk mengeluarkan kapal2 karam zaman dulu, demi membangkitkan semangat anak2 muda mereka, melihat betapa hebatnya moyang2 mereka, bukti kapal didepan mata, lebih tinggi nilai dari wang berjuta2 yang dilabur demi sejarah tersayang. Serius mereka memancu anak muda untuk menyambung legasi hebat bangsa & moyang2 mereka,

Harap di masa akan datang kerajaan muslim akan lebih menitikberatkan sejarah2 yang ada.