Ulumuna

231-258

Authors: Jajang A. Rohmana

The spread of Islam in the Archipelago was closely tied to the roles of Sufi ulama. The circulation of Sufi work in Nusantara proves a strong connection between this region and the Middle East. In West Java, a number of these work expose Sufi teachings in the form of Sundanese Sufi literature, such as the work by Haji Hasan Mustafa. He is considered the greatest Sundanese poet whose work features strong influences of wahdat al-wujud. This paper aims to examine Sundanese Sufism expressed in Mustafa’s work of Asmarandana Ngagurit Kaburu Burit. This study shows that this work contains Sufi’s path that explores the self and its encounters with Supreme Being and the self’s diffusion, where there is no longer existence except the One. Mustafa called his Sufi poetry imperfect suluk because it was written in late afternoon. His work reveals local Sufi accommodation to wah}dat al-wujud in Sundanese language and culture.

275-302

Authors: Ade Fakih Kurniawan

This article aims to examine the wujūdiyyah teaching of ‘Abd al-Lāh bin ‘Abd al-Qahhār al-Bantanī in his Mashāhid al-Nāsik fī Maqāmāt al-Sālik. Although he was a great ulama in the period of Sultan Abū al-Na╣r ‘Ārif Shifā’ Zayn al-‘Āshiqīn—the ruler of Banten Sultanate in the eighteenth century—his name was rarely mentioned in the history of Banten. The Sultan asked him to write a book on wujūdiyyah that especially deals with tajalliyāt. The polemics over wujūdiyyah in Banten is different from those of Aceh. In Banten, there is no information whether the Sultan banned or considered the adherents of wujūdiyyah teaching as infidel (unbeliever). Regarding tajalliyāt, al-Bantani explains it in relation to the tajallī phases of God over the realm that he divides into four: ‘ālam ilāhī, ‘ālam jabarūt, ‘ālam malakūt and ‘ālam nāsūt. His concept about these worlds is different from al-Burhanpurī’s Martabat Tujuh and from those of H{amzah Fan╣ūrī, al-Jīlī as well as Ibn ‘Arabī.

323-346

Authors: Munawir Haris

Human beings are mysterious. Although various studies about humans have been conducted, they fail to totally comprehend them. Therefore, studies about humans are always interesting topics, especially if they attempt to reveal non-physical aspects of humans. One way to look at this neglected aspect is to study spiritual dimensions of humans. Base on their explorations to the Qur’an and hadith, Muslim scholars propose a theory of three cosmos: macrocosmos, microcosmos and metacosmos. Macrocosmos represents the Universe. Microcosmos is human beings and metacosmos is concerned with Allah. These are three cosmologies that Muslims have to find from the scriptural texts so they can understand the central role of human beings in preserving balanced relationships among these three worlds. The Qur’an, for example, gives allegories and signs that Muslims must explore their deep meanings to gain wisdom and get closer to the Creator.

359-386

Authors: Sulaiman Al-Kumayi

This article examines the concept of shakh-i manevi and hizmet that are introduced by contemporary Turk Sufi ulama Muhammad Fethullah Gulen. Through this concept, Gulen attempts to encourage personal spirituality to transform gradually into collective personality. By this he means that this process should involve relevant parts of sufi teaching and integrate them directly into a community. This effort envisions a prototype of idealized community that hizmet should uphold. In this community, the followers of his movement work hand in hand to offer social services to the people regardless of their backgrounds.

421-440

Authors: Lalu Supriadi

Al-Gazālī plays an important role in purifying Sufism and directing it into the right path of Islam. Prior to his time, many people misunderstood Sufism. While some of them were concerned only with sufi theories but lost its practices, some others simply practiced Sufism without sufficient knowledge. In his time, where splits of religious sects and disintegration spread among Muslims, he emerged to offer his notion that integrates Sufi concepts of intuition, knowledge and spiritual path to achieve the highest objective of happiness. He himself reached these sufi paths through several stages in his life and spirituality. Meanwhile Ibn Taymiyya acknowledges the validity of experimental sufi but encourages a method of external examination, namely the basic teachings of Islam, to examine the validity of Sufism. According to him, Sufism is a form of religious expressions that must be built on the Qur’an and Sunna and has to refer to the practices of the Companions.