Learn From Satan

 

Learn From Satan

A friend told about his surprise at Prof.'s answer. Quraish Shihab when asked by a student related to whether we as Muslims can take knowledge from orientalists. This friend said, " He (Prof. Quraish Shihab) replied, "what do you think if the devil teaches you a good thing, will you follow it? The student who asked the question was silent while thinking and made an analogy with the answer to fit the question.

Finally he concluded that let alone the orientalists, even with the devil if he teaches a virtue we are allowed to follow him.

The short illustration above reminds us of a hadith narrated by Imam Bukhari in his Sahih book . The story tells the story of a thief who infiltrated a zakat granary prepared for Muslims in the month of Ramadan.

For two nights in a row the thief carried out his action, stealing the food ingredients contained in the barn which that night happened to be guarded by the Companions of Abu Hurairah. Abu Hurairah managed to catch him, but when he was about to report it to the Prophet, the thief argued that he had to do this to meet the needs of his starving family and he promised not to do it again.

But on the third night, he again committed theft like the previous nights. Again, his actions were discovered by Abu Hurairah and he would firmly and mercilessly bring the thief to the Messenger of Allah. Unexpectedly, suddenly the thief said that he would teach a sentence which if a Muslim were to read it before going to bed, Allah would guard him until morning.

Abu Hurairah was interested in the talk of the thief and asked what sentence he wanted to teach. Then he said, " Read the verse of the chair before going to bed, surely Allah will protect you from Satan's disturbances until the morning ."

A few moments later the thief disappeared somewhere. Abu Hurairah's companions related the incident to the Prophet. The Prophet replied that the thief was a demon disguised as a human. The Messenger of Allah also added that what he taught Sabahat Abu Hurairah was true but he had succeeded in tricking Abu Hurairah by stealing some food items that were supposed to be given to those in need. That is the devil, behind his error there is a sliver of knowledge that may be practiced by humans as long as the contents are appropriate and do not conflict with the teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith.

In addition to these facts, we also find some Islamic scholars who openly take knowledge from non-Muslims. History mentions that during the Abbasid Daula there was a process of massive scientific transformation in Islam, especially during the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. He founded the bayt al-hikmah, a special institution that functions as a means of translating Greek philosophy books – most of which are non-Muslim authors – into Arabic so that they are studied and utilized as much as possible for the glory of Islam. al-Farabi, a famous Muslim philosopher in the 3rd century Hijri is said to have also had teachers from non-Muslims.

Imam al-Tirmidhi in his book Sunan al-Tirmidhi also narrates a hadith sourced from Zaid ibn Thabit where he was once ordered by the Messenger of God to learn the Syriac language which is none other than the language of the Jews -non-Muslims-. Of course, Zaid ibn Thabit learned the language from them directly, because logically if the Muslims already mastered it, then the Messenger of God no longer needed to order Zaid to learn it specifically as the messenger of the Messenger of God in establishing communication with the Jews.

Thus, it can be concluded that the truth can essentially be obtained from any source, including non-Muslims, orientalists or even demons as contained in the above narration. Truth does not look at old or young, poor or rich, lay or pious.

As long as the information is in accordance with the teachings of Islam, the Qur'an and Hadith, then it is the truth that can be applied in order to advance Islam and the Muslims. Perhaps a principle like this at the same time can be an alternative to Amir Syakib Arselan's question in the title of his book Why are Muslims Backing Down and Other People Moving Forward?

As a closing of this paper, the author would like to cite an expression from Ibn Rushd –a Muslim philosopher in the 6th century Hijri – in his book Fashl al-Maqal which reveals that it is impossible for a human being to master knowledge thoroughly. Each has advantages that are not shared by the others, both in the religious sciences and research-based general sciences.

Ibn Rushd asserted that if the knowledge of the previous people (whether Muslim or not) is in accordance with the concepts of truth then we can accept that knowledge, while if that knowledge is contrary to the rules of truth that exist (in the Qur'an) and Hadith) then we should reject that knowledge and be careful in learning it. Allahu A'lam .