Ya ayyuhallazi nakafaru..

 بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Kaafir.

Whats kafir and what’s kufur? Kafir means to hide.

Kafir is the person who demonstrates kufurs action. In other words, kufur is the action that kafirs do. Either way, both carry the meaning to have rejected faith and Allah, although they don’t necessarily point to solely non-muslims.

Al-Quran promotes kafir for those who compel to turn to Allah but suppress it and who are ungrateful.For example in the surah Al-Bayyinah. Ahlul Kitab is described to be the kaafirun (disbelievers), although they have their books and they believe in them. They quarrel when the truth reveals. Does that mean their books suddenly becomes false? Well, (a) as time goes by, they become falsified. (b) the truth in their books already mentioned to follow the truth that there will be another prophet  coming to deliver the truth…to follow or not to follow? (c) they become stingy and arrogant because they want to hold the truth by what they’ve already known of. That’s pretty normal in human behavior. It’s in pertinence of the agama nenek moyang. That’s why when the disbelievers have run out of ideas to mock Rasulullahu alayhiwassalam e.g. the majnun, false poet, wicked wizard, they went on warning others that he was going to wreck poeple's household, he wanted to cause chaos and split families.  

So, the da’wah that we do, is da’wah ilallah, da’wah to Allah. Not da’wah to Islam in general terms so to speak because some of them are already Muslim. Malay Muslim or Muslim Malay? Am I a Muslim who happened to be Malay or am I a Malay who so happened to be Muslim? Nevertheless, it is the condition of the heart, for which we can never know for real. We may notify them through actions, as how Al-Quran has manifested them but those who are, are not for us to judge. 

Astaghfirullah. It got me thinking of Asiah radiallahuanha. 

So, speaking fo which, is it the condition of the heart or the mind? We say that the brain does the thinking.You’re thinking what you’re saying. Well let’s see it. The fact of the matter is that, we have a dichotomization of ideologies between Western and Islamic thinking. Not to put them VS us, our realities of times and space have just been interpreted differently.

Western

Mind – Intellect       

Heart- Emotion

Islam

Mind - Rational Intellect    

Heart – Intuituve Intellect

I once asked my favorite prof, Prof Lawrence who used to teach me psychology. If brain does all the thinking based on experience, pre-conceptual and what is learned, does instinct mean anything? He said, instinct doesn’t exist. Subhanallah. Allah indeed is the most wise and knows what we do not. So, I found the explanation by Prof Omer Muzaffar, really enlightening. Now I’m more clear than ever. I could’ve given my 2 cents on it in philosophy class when we talked about THE Self, between the west and east. Alhamdulillah.

Sehat akar pokoknya, sehat lah pokok tu keseluruhan.

In summary:
Heart- Place which we know Allah
Soul- Who we are
Spirit- The tool in which we love Allah
Aql- That what we know

 

There are many things we don’t, can’t and won’t know other from Alif Lam Mim. We can give so many reasons why we believe God exists, although not necessarily proving it. When we become dumbstruck over something and come to a dead end while explaining something, only then we’d admit that God exists. Why does a mother love her children? She has no clear reason why. “Carrying them in my tummy for 9 months” isn’t the exact reason. They are moms who don’t love their kids as much. Sometime a father loves his children more or just equally. Try this.

Now we have to redefine “Love”? Basically Allah gives the connection. Period. We all witness the fitrah. 

This brings to the question, of predestination and freewill. In surah al-baqarah, ayah 6 and 7,“Indeed, those who disbelieve - it is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them - they will not believe. Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing, and over their vision is a veil. And for them is a great punishment.”

The question that arises, “I make choice to reject, so Allah seals?” or “Allah seals, so I reject?” It’s important that we reflect back to His attributes. Allah leads/guides but Allah also wills/decides.

In this case, both are true. The ayah that I quite like a bit, 2:186, “If My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I respond to those who call Me, so let them respond Me, and believe in Me, so that they may be guided”. But we often hear, “Allah guides who He wills” too in the Quran. Take an example of an unborn child who died in labor. Before he even knew what freewill is, Allah has chosen him (predestination) to return to Him.

To understand the rest of the world, see it as pre-destination so that we won’t fall into the trick of judging people.

My perspective upon myself is that everything is done by freewill.

My perspective upon others is that what happens to them is predestination. I can’t control their hearts.

Another example, A mocks B. B can look at it in two ways. Either A is foolish (freewill done by A – tendency to respond negatively) or A is sent by Allah to test B (predestination upon A – tendency to respond positively). Astaghfirullah..wa syukrillah. 

Freewill is definitely by choice. The key point that needs highlighting is, on a practical level, if a community believes in predestination, the scholar needs to preach them freewill. And vice versa.So, labeling people as kafiruun, is not in our hand. The most important moment of your live is the end of it. It could be that they a day before they die, they take their shahadah whose innocence would be like a new born baby. It could also be that become we kafirs one day before we die, nauzubillah himinzalik.

Ya Muqallibal qulub, thabit qalbi a'la dinik. 

p/s: notes from my santai Al-Quran class with Prof Omer Muzaffar organized by Iqra' Foundation.