Mengenal Dr. Jasser Auda, Imam al-Ghazali di Modern Era

 

Mengenal Dr. Jasser Auda, Imam al-Ghazali di Modern Era

For contemporary Islamic law scholars, the name Jasser Auda is definitely familiar. He is a Muslim intellectual who is on the rise. His works were not only appreciated in the Middle East, but also discussed by Western scientists, especially Americans.

Jasser was born in Cairo in 1966. His youth was spent studying religion at the al-Azhar Mosque from 1983 to 1992. While studying at al-Azhar, he studied at Cairo University majoring in communication science. He worked on this communication science until he earned an MSc (Master of Science) degree at the same campus.

After earning the title, this admirer of Von Bartanlanffy moved to Canada to continue his doctoral studies. This time he chose a slightly different concentration than before, namely systems analysis.

Systems analysis is actually a new discipline popularized by Bartanlanffy and Lazlo. Bartanlanffy himself was originally a biologist. Through this science he noticed that the human organs were interrelated with each other. For example, when someone has a heart disease, it doesn't mean that the cause is only damage to the heart, but it could be because there are other organs or cells that are damaged, which affects the performance of the heart.

This kind of thinking model was developed by Bartanlanffy to become an established theory, which can be applied in physics, administration, management, and even Islamic law. In the context of Islamic law, Jasser is the first scientist to develop a systems approach to analyze the problems of Islamic law.

Prof. Amin Abdullah said what Jasser did was unthinkable before. On another occasion, Amin Abdullah predicted Jasser as an intellectual who has the potential to dialogue with the paradigms of 'ulumuddin, al-fikrul Islami, and Dirasah Islamiyah.

This is no exaggeration, because after mastering systems philosophy, Jasser studied Islamic law very seriously: he began his bachelor's and master's studies in Islamic law at the Islamic University of America, then continued his doctorate in the same field at the University of Wales, England.

Yusuf al-Qardhawi, Thaha Jabir al-Alwani, Hasan Turabi, and Isma'il Sadiq al-'Adawi were among the figures who influenced Jasser Auda's Islamic legal thought. They are known as intellectuals who often echo the renewal of Islamic law, not only in the realm of fiqh, but also ushul fiqh.

Judging from his educational background, it appears that Jasser not only mastered religious knowledge, but also studied general knowledge. Safvet Halilovic, Professor of Tafsir and Anthropology of the Qur'an at Zenica University, said that Jasser is a contemporary Muslim intellectual who is broad-minded, has deep knowledge of Islam, and understands the contemporary reality of Muslims well.

Contributions Jasser Auda    

Jasser has made a major contribution in reforming the methodology of Islamic law. One of his inspiring works is Maqashid al-Shari'ah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach. In this book, Jasser tries to discuss three sciences at once: maqashid al-shari'ah, ushul fiqh, and system philosophy. These three knowledges were previously separate and disconnected from each other.

Interestingly, Jasser was able to make it a single unit and integrated with each other. What he did was not much different from al-Ghazali's attempt to adopt the science of logic to improve the methodology of Islamic law.

According to Jasser Auda, a legal expert must be literate in the development of science. Because with that the results of ijtihad issued by a fiqh expert can be relevant to his time. Islamic law will not be productive and relevant if viewed from one perspective only. All relevant disciplines need to be involved to read Islamic law.

He said that legal changes were influenced by changes in the worldview of fiqh experts. That is, the wider the insight of a legal expert, the deeper and more comprehensive his understanding of Islamic law will be. For him, Islamic law (read: fiqh) is cognitive in nature, it is a product of thought, not revelation. Therefore, it is not impossible for people today to revamp traditional Islamic law, including its methodology.

In reading the text, what needs to be considered according to Jasser is the substance of the text (maqashid), not its formal form (textual meaning). It is important to pay attention to the textual meaning only for cases of worship, while for cases of mu'amalah and public law, the substance of the text is prioritized over the formal legality.

Therefore, Jasser rejects the implementation of hudud in a democratic country. This is because the form of punishment in a democratic country, such as Indonesia, does not conflict with the basic principles of the Shari'a, which is to equally guarantee justice.