RENCANA PELAKSANAAN PEMBELAJARAN
(RPP)
Nama Sekolah : SMP/ MTS
Mata Pelajaran : Bahasa Inggris
Kelas/ Semester : I/ I
Standar Kompetensi :Mamahami teks fungsional dan esay pendek sederhana berbentuk deskriptif dan recount yang berkaitan dengan lingkungan sekitar.
Kompetensi Dasar :Membaca nyaring bermakna teks tulis fungsional dan esay sederhana berbentuk deskriptif dan recount pendek dan sederhana dan ucapan, tekanan dan intonasi yang berterima yang berkaitan dengan lingkungan sekitar.
Indikator :Merespon makna dalam teks tulis fungsional pendek sederhana secara akurat, lancar dan berterima dengan lingkungan sekitar.
Jenis teks : Teks fungsional pendek
Tema : Radio
Aspek/ Skill : Membaca (Reading)
Alokasi waktu : 2 x 40 menit
1. Tujuan pembelajaran
Pada akhir pembelajaran siswa dapat:
- Mengungkapkan makna dalam teks fungsional pendek
- Menemukan informasi dari teks yang berkaitan dengan My school
- Menemukan ciri kebahasaan
- Menemukan makna dan kata tertentu dalam teks
2. Materi pembelajaran
a. Teks fungsional pendek dengan menjawab pertanyaan
contoh :
1. What is the use of the radio?
2. Do all radios use electricity to operate?
3. What is the most modern radio?
4. What is the first step in operating radio?
5. What must we do if we want to turn off the radio?
b. Kosa kata terkait tema
- Entertainment : Hiburan
- Turn on : Menyalakan
- Rotate : Memutarkan
- Knob : Tombol
- Extend : Memperpanjang
- Adjust : Menyetel / Membetulkan
- Clockwise : Menurut jalan jam
3. Metode/ Teknik : Three phase technique
4. Langkah-langkah kegiatan
a. Kegiatan pendahuluan
- Menanyakan keadaan siswa
- Menentukan makna dan menggunakannya dalam kalimat
- Menjawab pertanyaan terkait tema
b. Kegiatan inti
- Menjawab pertanyaan yang ada dalam teks
- Mendengarkan teks fungsional pendek
- Menentukan makna dan menggunakannya dalam kalimat
c. Kegiatan penutup
- Menanyakan kesulitan siswa dalam memahami teks
- Menyimpulkan materi
5. Sumber belajar
a. Buku teks yang relevan
b. Lembaran copyan dari buku teks
c. Perpustakan etc.
6. Penilaian
1. Teknik : Lisan
2. Bentuk : Pertanyaan lisan
3. Instrument : Contoh teks fungsional pendek
4. Pedoman penilaian :
- Tiap nomor benar diberi skor 5
- Skor maksimal : 8 x 5 = 40
- Nilai maksimal : 10
- Nilai siswa = Skor perolehan x 10
Skor maksimal
Kamis, 21 Mei 2009
Metodologi Research
Metodologi Penelitian
PEDOMAN PEMBUATAN
RANCANGAN PENELITIAN
Secara akademik umumnya dibedakan antara proposal dan rancangan penelitian (research design). Jika dalam proposal hanya memuat pokok-pokok pikiran, maka dalam research design sudah memuat seluruh elemen-elemen pokok yang harus ada dalam rancangan penelitian yang diuraikan secara detail. Dengan demikian research design merupakan semacam cetak biru (blue print), yang jika dibaca oleh siapapun, sudah dapat dimengerti apa yang akan diteliti dan bagaimana cara penelitian itu dilakukan.
Sementara beberapa elemen yang harus ada dalam research design antara lain:
1. Judul
2. Latarbelakang Masalah.
3. Rumusan Masalah
4. Tujuan Penelitian
5. Kegunaan Peenelitian
6. Hipotesa
7. Tinjauan Pustaka/ Kerangka Teori
8. Pengumpulan Data yang meliputi: Masalah Sampel, Instrument, Pemilihan lokasi dan sebagainya
9. Analisa Data
Di bawah ini akan diuraikan secara singkat dari masing-masing elemen di atas, mudah-mudahan ada manfaatnya.
1. Judul Penelitian
Pada prinsipnya judul penelitian harus jelas, ringkas dan mencerminkan masalah apa yang akan diteliti. Dalam membuat judul penelitian hendaknya jangan terlalu luas cakupannya atau sebaliknya terlalu sempit. Jika penelitian yang dilakukan bentuknya survai (kuantitatif) maka dalam judul harus jelas penempatan posisi independent variable dan dependent variablenya. Demikian juga dalam penelitian kualitatif. Judul penelitian jangan bersifat simbolik, terlalu abstrak atau mungkin puitis. Misalnya judul “Golok dan Tasbih”, meskipun maksudnya adalah relasi sosial antara Kyai dan Jawara, tetapi judul semacam ini, disamping terlalu simplistik juga terlalu luas. Lebih dari itu judul tersebut, juga, tidak jelas mana yang menjadi independent variable dan mana dependent variable-nya.
Judul yang baik, jika penelitian itu kuantitatif, selain memperlihatkan korelasi antara variable secara jelas, juga, mencerminkan arah penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Misalnya,
“Pengaruh pendidikan orangtua dan tingkat pendapatan keluarga terhadap kenakalan remaja: Studi kasus pada Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Anak Negara di Kabupaten Sukamaju”.
Di sini yang menjadi independent variable adalah pendidikan dan tingkat pendapatan orang tua, sedangkan dependent variable-nya adalah kenakalan remaja. Meskipun judul semacam ini, juga kurang terlalu problematik, tetapi, paling tidak telah memperlihatkan kejelasan posisi antar variable, disamping cukup mencerminkan masalah yang akan diteliti.
Demikian juga judul penelitian jangan terlalu sempit. Misalnya,
“Pengaruh Profesionalitas Guru terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa Kelas Satu Madrasah Aliyah Negeri di Sukamaju”.
Judul semacam ini disamping terlalu sempit cakupannya, juga tidak problematik sebagai bahan penelitian. Tanpa penelitian pun sudah diketahui bahwa profesionalitas guru akan memiliki pengaruh atas hasil belajar siswa. Jadi, dalam pembuatan judul, selain harus diperhatikan scopenya, yang lebih penting adalah apakah judul telah mencerminkan masalah yang membutuhkan penelitian.
2. Latar Belakang Masalah.
Meskipun tidak ada rumusan baku bagaimana latarbelakang penelitian harus dibuat, namun isi pokok dari latarbelakang adalah membangun argumen: mengapa penelitian itu penting untuk dilakukan. Tentu saja arti “penting” di sini bukan menurut pengertian peneliti yang subyektif, tetapi harus dilihat dari kepentingan yang lebih luas dan obyektif. Misalnya, dari segi akademik mungkin akan melahirkan teori baru dan/atau membatalkan teori lama. Sedangkan dari kepentingan yang lebih pragmatik akan dapat memecahkan masalah (problem solving) yang sedang dihadapi masyarakat, misalnya. Dengan demikian masalah penelitian bukan hanya bermula dari sensitifitas peneliti terhadap fenomena sosial yang ada, tetapi juga, adanya kesenjangan fakta sosial yang ingin diketahui atau dipecahkan. Yang jelas masalah penelitian bukan semata-mata didasarkan interest peneliti yang subyektif.
Dalam membangun argumen mengapa penelitian itu perlu dilakukan bisa saja terinspirasi oleh hasil penelitian orang lain, data-data statistik, hasil bacaan jurnal penelitian, studi pustaka, pengamatan yang menceritakan terjadinya kesenjangan antara yang “seharusnya” (das sollen) dengan fakta-fakta sosial “yang ada” (das sein), misalnya. Yang terpenting, sekali lagi, latarbelakang hendaknya berisikan argumentasi mengapa penelitian itu perlu dilakukan. Yang harus dihindari dalam menyusun latarbelakang adalah membangun alasan-alasan yang tidak konsisten atau tidak relevan. Misalnya, kita mau meneliti tentang kerugian orang merokok baik ditinjau dari segi kesehatan (tingginya angka penyakit kanker paru-paru) maupun kerugian ekonomi (biaya yang harus dikeluarkan setiap harinya). Namun yang dikemukakan dalam membangun alasan itu, justru tentang durasi iklan rokok di TV atau data-data statistik tentang kontribusi pembayaran pajak pabrik rokok terhadap PAD. Meskipun argumen itu kelihatannya berkaitan dengan masalah yang akan kita teliti, tetapi jelas tidak relevan dengan masalah yang akan kita teliti. Karena argumen yang kita bangun justru lebih berkaitan dengan keuntungan merokok. Misalnya laba station TV akibat iklan dan pembayaran pajak yang diterima negara dan bukan tentang kerugiannya seperti jumlah kematian perokok akibat kanker paru-paru tiap tahunnya atau jumlah uang yang harus dikeluarkan, jika seseorang menghisap dua bungkus Ji Sam soe, misalnya. Jadi, di sini selain dibutuhkan cara meyakinkan tentang arti pentingnya mengapa penelitian itu menarik untuk dilakukan, juga, perlu adanya konsistensi terhadap fokus yang akan diteliti untuk menghindari uraian yang melebar kemana-mana.
Hal lain yang seringkali ditemui dalam latar belakang adalah memuat hal-hal yang tidak relevan dan bersifat normatif. Misalnya, mau meneliti masalah konflik etnis di Kalimantan Barat, yang dimuat dalam latarbelakang UUD 1945 dengan pasal-pasalnya, atau ayat-ayat al-Qur’an. Sedangkan persoalan yang berkaitan dengan masalah konflik sosial dan kebutuhan untuk memecahkannya justru tidak digambarkan.
Masalah lain yang secara teknis biasanya disampaikan dalam latar belakang adalah apakah penelitian yang akan dilakukan dimungkinkan untuk dilaksanakan: baik dari segi dana, waktu, tenaga dan sebagainya. Bisa saja problem penelitian yang dikemukakan sangat menarik tetapi dari segi waktu dan biaya tidak mungkin dilaksanakan.
Untuk memberi gambaran yang agak konkrit tentang contoh proposal yang baik: di bawah ini saya kutip sebuah Research Design (RD) yang dibuat oleh Tim Pusat Penelitian Pembangunan Pedesaan dan Kawasan-Universitas Gadjah Mada (1997) yang berjudul: “Perilaku Kekerasan Kolektif: Kondisi dan Pemicu” yang dilakukan di delapan tempat (Kalimantan Barat, Timor Timor (sebelum merdeka), Tasikmalaya, Banjarmasin, Sampang, situbondo dan Pelalongan).1
Paling tidak ada tiga point yang ditekankan dalam latar belakang RD itu: Pertama, mengungkapkan data berbagai kasus kerusuhan di Indonesia mulai Januari 1995 s/d Juni 1997 yang mencapai 20 kekerasan kolektif di berbagai daerah: Kedua, mengemukakan penjelasan (komentar) yang muncul dalam masyarakat seperti: Pertama, bahwa kerusuhan itu bersfat SARA; kedua, akar permasalahan kerusuhan itu akibat kesenjangan sosial-ekonomi dan kesenjangan distrubusi pembangunan Orba: Ketiga, akibat perubahan sosial yang cepat yang tidak diikuti pengembangan proses dan mekanisme politik dan ekonomi yang adil dan keempat, adanya dugaan bahwa kerusuhaan itu sekedar ekses dari pertikaian politik antar-elite Jakarta yang menemukan salurannya dalam politik lokal. Ketiga, membangun anggapan dasar bahwa apapun eksplanasi yang diajukan, argumen itu harus memungkinkan pemilahan antara kondisi (condition) dari pemicu (precipitation).
Menurut tim, analisis yang teliti tentang fenomena yang rumit itu menuntut dilakukannya faktor-faktor penyebab yang berfungsi mempersiapkan kondisi sosial, kultural, psikologi, ekonomi dan politik bagi munculnya ketidakpuasan, kekecewaan, frustasi, dan membedakannya dari faktor-faktor pemicu berujud kejadian yang sebenarnya sekedar meletupkan ketidakpuasan itu menjadi kerusuhan masal.
Jadi argumentasi yang dibangun, diluar menyajikan data statistik tentang berbagai jenis kerusahan masal sepanjang tahun 1995-1997 dan mengungkapkan dugaan orang atas sebab-musabab atas terjadinya kerusuhaan itu (yang tentu saja masih membutuhkan pembuktian dalam penelitian), juga, yang terpenting, mereka menawarkan pendekatan yang lebih rinci dan holistik. Mulai dari perlunya memisahkan antara kondisi (condition) dari pemicu (precipitation), sampai pada pendekatan multi-perspektif (psikologi, cultural, sosial, politik dan ekonomi).
Dengan kata lain dari seluruh argumen yang disajikan (data statistik tentang kerusuhan, anggapan orang lain tetang sebab-musabab kerusuhan massal itu dan tawaran pendekatan yang akan digunakan): intinya hanya ingin menyampaikan pesan bahwa penelitian itu penting untuk dilakukan.
3. Perumusan Masalah
Rumusan masalah pada dasarnya sangat berkaitan dengan tujuan dan sifat penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Artinya perumusan masalah sangat tergantung dengan tujuan penelitian yang hendak dicapai dan jenis penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Sementara bentuk perumusan masalah dapat berupa pertanyaan atau berbentuk peryataan. Jika tujuan penelitian itu bersifat deskriptif (to describe), misalnya, maka bentuk pertanyaannya biasanya dirumuskan dengan pertanyaan “apakah” (what), tetapi jika jenis penelitiannya bersifat eksplanasi (to explain), maka perumusan masalahnya biasanya didahului oleh pertanyaan “mengapa” (why) atau sejauhmana (how). Tentu saja kententuan ini bukan rumus matematis. Apa yang dikemukakan dalam rumusan masalah sebenarnya berupa pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang ingin ditemukan jawabannya dalam penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Sementara hal-hal yang dapat dipilih sebagai masalah antara lain: kontribusi terhadap khasanah ilmu pengetahuan; menindaklanjuti temuan-temuan sebelumnya; dan mencari jawaban dari (sesuatu) masalah dan sebagainya. Dan yang lebih penting pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang dikemukakan dalam perumusan masalah minimal harus menyatakan hubungan antar dua gejala, apa yang akan diteliti harus dapat ditiliti secara empiris dan dikemukakan secara eksplisit.
Sebenarnya ada beberapa prinsip perumusan masalah yang lazim digunakan dalam penelitian kualitatif seperti dirumuskan Moleong (1998)3:
Pertama, fungsi perumusan masalah pada dasarnya sekedar untuk arahan, bimbingan, atau acuan untuk menemukan masalah yang sebenarnya. Sedangkan masalah yang sebenarnya baru mungkin ditemukan ketika peneliti sudah mulai melakukan pengumpulan data.
Kedua, jika penelitian yang dilakukan bukan memverifikasi teori (kuantitatif), melainkan upaya untuk menemukan teori subtanstif (kualitatif), maka masalah yang dirumuskan akan berfungsi sebagai patokan untuk analisa data atau menjadi hipotesa kerja.
Ketiga, rumusan masalah mungkin akan terdiri dari dua faktor atau lebih. Ada beberapa hal yang perlu dipertimbangkan pada waktu merumuskan masalah: (1) adanya dua faktor atau lebih: (2) faktor-faktor itu dihubungkan dalam suatu hubungan yang logis atau bermakna (3) hasil menghubungkan itu mungkin berupa pertanyaan yang membutuhkan jawaban atau membutuhkan pemecahan masalah. Inilah yang biasanya disebut sebagai tujuan penelitian.
Keempat, dalam upaya untuk membatasi studi dalam perumusan masalah harus konsisten dengan paradigma yang digunakan.
Kelima, rumusan masalah yang dibangun harus jelas dan tegas.
Keenam, rumusan masalah: (1) dapat berbentuk deskriptif atau tanpa pertanyaan penelitian; (2) dapat secara langsung menghubungkan faktor-faktor hubungan logis dan bermakna: (3) secara gabungan antara bentuk diskriptif (pernyataan) dan pertanyaan.
Ketujuh, unsur lain yang biasanya berkaitan erat dengan perumusan masalah adalah “latarbelakang masalah”, “tujuan penelitian” dan “metode penelitian”.
Meskipun tidak ada acuan baku apakah latarbelakang masalah harus dipisahkan atau digabung dengan rumusan masalah: atau rumusan masalah harus dipisah atau digabung dengan tujuan penelitian dan seterusnya, tetapi yang paling lazim, antara latarbelakang masalah, perumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan metode penelitian adalah dipisahkan. Kedelapan, untuk mempertajam perumusan masalah diperlukan hasil kajian pustaka yang relevan. Kesembilan, dalam merumuskan masalah sebaiknya mempertimbangkan faktor bahasa dalam pengertian siapa yang dibidik sebagai pembacanya.
Kembali pada contoh penelitian UGM. Setelah membangun argumentasi tentang perlunya pendekatan yang holistik, diharapkan memperoleh pemahaman yang cukup menyeluruh tentang modus resolusi konflik yang dapat menjangkau penyebab utama persoalan tersebut. Dari sini ada tiga masalah penelitian yang dirumuskan:
Pertama, bagaimana karakteristik dan ragam dari tindak kekekerasan yang terjadi dalam masyarakat? Apa kaitannya dengan tindak kekerasan yang mewarnai kerusuhan massal itu ?
Kedua, mengapa tindak kekerasan dan kerusuhan massal itu terjadi ? Kondisi-kondisi apa yang menyebabkannya? Apakah hal itu disebabkan adanya kekecewaan, ketidakpuasan, frustasi, sinisme dan ketidakpercayaan terhadap lembaga-lembaga publik yang meluas dalam masyarakat? Apa hubungan antara meluasnya kekecewaan dalam masyarakat dengan kondisi-kondisi tersebut diatas?
Ketiga, mengapa dan bagaimana kondisi-kondisi itu muncul? Apa kaitannya dengan strategi pembangunan yang dijalankan oleh Orde Baru?
Dari perumusan masalah yang dibuat nampak bahwa penelitian ini bukan sekedar dimaksudkan untuk mengambarkan (to describe) kasus kerusuhan yang diteliti, tetapi juga, ingin menjelaskan (to explain) sebab-musabab kerusuhan massal itu. Sehingga jenis pertanyaan “apa” (what), mengapa (why) dan sejauhmana (how) sejauhmana, telah menjadi pertanyaan-pertanyaan (magic) yang digunakan dalam merumuskan masalah.
4. Tujuan Penelitian
Seperti dikemukakan diatas bahwa antara rumusan masalah dan tujuan penelitian idealnya merupakan satu kesatuan. Seperti diketahui ada beberapa tujuan penelitian yang biasanya digunakan dalam ilmu social: to explore, jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk penjelajahan: to describe, jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk menggambarkan realitas sosial: To explain, jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk menjelaskan (hubungan sebab-akibat) atau membuktikan suatu teori tertentu: to understand: jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk memahami realitas yang akan diteliti: to predict, jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk meramalkan dst. Yang paling penting dalam tujuan penelitian adalah mengemukakan secara jelas apa yang ingin dicapai dalam penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Baik dari kepentingan pragmatik (problem solving) maupun dalam kepentingan akademik (kemungkinan ditemukannya bangunan konsep atau teori). Semua itu akan sangat tergantung pada jenis penelitian yang akan dilakukan: apakah penelitian akademik, penelitian kebijakan, penelitian aksi atau penelitian jenis lainnya.
Biasanya yang sering ditemukan dalam research design adalah ketidakkonsistenan antara rumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan kesimpulan. Seringkali kesimpulan yang dimuat sama sekali tidak ada hubungannya dengan tujuan yang telah dirumuskan. Karena itu yang perlu dilihat secara cermat dan teliti adalah apakah antara rumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan kesimpulan sudah terjadi konsistensi dan koherensi.
Kembali saya kutip tujuan penelitian yang diulakukan UGM (1997) sebagai berikut:
Partama, menemukan “benang-merah” yang menghubungkan beberapa tipe kerusuhan sosial tersebut, yaitu menemukan kondisi yang mendasari munculnya perilaku kekerasan kolektif itu.
Kedua, mengusulkan kebijakan publik guna membenahi kondisi demi mencegah berulangnya kejadian tersebut.
Di sini terlihat bahwa tujuan penelitian berkaitan atau satu-kesatuan dengan rumusan masalahnya. Meskipun kegunaan penelitiannya dijadikan satu dengan tujuan penelitiannya. Sementara tujuan pertama yang dirumuskan jauh lebih sederhana dibandingkan tujuan kedua yang ingin dilakukan (problem solving) yaitu mencegah berulangnya kerusuhan.
5. Kegunaan Hasil Penelitian
Kegunaan penelitian sebenarnya lebih diperuntukkan untuk menjawab kebutuhan yang lebih pragmatik daripada kebutuhan akademik. Karena itu rumusan yang dikemukakan, jika penelitian itu akan menjanjikan rekomendasi, maka rumusannya harus menyakinkan dan berhasil-guna seperti yang telah ditawarkan dalam tujuan penelitian. Dalam banyak kasus antara tujuan dan kegunaan penelitian tidak jarang dijadikan satu, seperti yang kita saksikan dalam penelitian UGM, meskipun umumnya dipisahkan.
6. Tinjauan Pustaka/ Kerangka Teori/Kerangka Pemikiran
Tinjauan pustaka pada dasarnya berisi kajian literatur yang relevan dengan penelitian yang akan dilakukan dan kegunaannya untuk menunjang rencana penelitian yang diajukan. Sementara kerangka teori merupakan masalah yang paling pokok dalam sebuah penelitian. Dengan penelitian peneliti dapat menemukan teori baru atau sekedar membuktikan kebenaran teori lama.
Dalam penelitian eksplanasi sangat jelas jika sebuah hipotesa itu terbukti dengan cara verifikasi dan/atau falsifikasi yang terus menerus, maka posisinya bisa naik menjadi theory, middle theory, atau mungkin malah menjadi grand theory. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kualitatif (grounded), posisi teori bukan untuk diuji tetapi sekedar untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan realitas sosial yang akan diteliti.
Misalnya, mengapa masalah agama dan etnis merupakan ikatan sub-primordial yang paling sensitif dalam provokasi politik dan konflik sosial. Jika tujuan kita melakukan penelitian adalah untuk memahami, maka di sini jelas tidak ada verifikasi teori. Posisi teori hanya dimanfaatkan untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan gejala sosial yang ada. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kuantitatif (survei) yang bersifat eksplanasi atau prediksi maka posisi teori sudah sangat jelas. Dengan demikian cukup jelas bahwa rumusan penelitian merupakan satu-kesatuan dengan tujuan penelitian, sedangkan tujuan penelitian akan sangat menentukan jenis teori yang akan digunakan. Jika tujuan penelitian hanya mendiskripsikan realitas sosial, maka posisi teori hanyalah diposisikan untuk memahami atau menafsirkan temuan-temuan lapangan. Sebaliknya jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk eksplanasi, maka posisi teori untuk verifikasi (pembuktian teori).
Dalam posisi ini teori didefinisikan; pertama, merupakan serangkaian proposisi antar konsep-konsep yang saling berhubungan. Kedua, menerangkan secara sistematis suatu fenomena sosial dengan cara menentukan hubungan antar konsep dan bagaimana bentuk hubungannya (Effendi, 1989:37).
Misalnya, kita akan meneliti gejala bunuh diri yang sangat marak di Gunung Kidul, Propinsi DIY, dengan menggunakan teori bunuh dirinya Emile Durkheim, yang mengatakan adanya hubungan antara kohesi sosial dengan pemahaman keagamaan. Menurut temuan Durkheim orang Protestan atau orang yang sendirian ternyata lebih mudah melakukan bunuh diri dibandingkan orang Katolik dan orang yang sudah berkeluarga. Alasannya hirarkhi gereja yang ketat dalam agama Katolik dan keterikatan orang yang sudah berkeluarga, membuat kohesi sosial lebih kuat dibandingkan agama Protestan dan orang yang sendirian yang ikatan sosialnya lebih longgar. Namun ternyata orang-orang yang banyak bunuh diri di Wonosari, Gunung Kidul, Yogjakarta, itu malah orang-orang Katolik atau Islam yang sudah berkeluarga, misalnya. Jadi disini uji teori telah dilakukan, termasuk mencari jawab atas tidak berlakunya teori Durkheim dan kemungkinan pengaruh variable lain.
Sementara fungsi teori sebagai prediksi, misalnya, telah ditemukan sebuah hitungan bahwa dalam situasi krisis ekonomi yang sekarang ini setiap pertumbuhan negatif 1 persen akan ada 400.000 orang yang menganggur. Dengan demikian jika sekarang pertumbuhan ekonomi kita terkontraksi 15 %, paling tidak akan ada 6 juta angkatan kerja baru yang menganggur. Di sini posisi teori sebagai peramal realitas sosial sangatlah jelas.
Yang biasanya agak membingungkan bagi peneliti, ketika harus meletakkan posisi teori sebagai alat untuk memahami atau menafsirkan realitas sosial, yang umumnya dikerjakan dalam penelitian kualitatif. Misalnya, mengapa etnis Minang itu lebih memiliki bakat kewirausahaan dibandingkan etnis lain. Apakah hal ini berkaitan dengan sistem kekerabatan yang matrilineal: dimana laki-laki secara kultural memiliki posisi yang lemah, khususnya dalam hal waris, atau ada faktor lain. Sehingga seorang laik-laki akan dianggap “cacat” secara kebudayaan jika mereka tidak merantau guna mempertegas identitas diri. Dengan kata lain merantau bukanlah sekedar upaya mencari kehidupan yang lebih baik, tetapi juga, merupakan tugas kebudayaan. Namun, mengapa keberhasilan suku ini cenderung ada plafonnya (sulit menjadi pengusaha besar) dibandingkan etnik Cina. Lalu kita menggunakan teori Max Weber tentang afinitas antara kesadaran keagamaan (sekte Calvin) dengan tingkah laku ekonomi, misalnya. Disini jelas posisi teori bukan untuk diverifikasi tetapi sebagai usaha pemahaman (verstehen) atas realitas yang ada.
Dengan demikian dalam bentuk penelitian apapun, dalam tahap tertentu, penggunaan teori tetap diperlukan. Hanya saja biasanya yang masih membingungkan dalam penyusunan research design, dimanakah teori itu harus diletakkan; apakah sebagai penjelas dalam arti verifikasi teori atau sekedar untuk membantu memahami gejala sosial yang ada. Dengan demikian posisi teori pada dasarnya sangat ditentukan oleh tujuan penelitiannya. Jika dalam penelitian itu antara lain untuk menguji hipotesa, maka jelas bahwa posisi teori adalah sebagai alat pembuktian. Sebaliknya jika penelitian itu bersifat deskriptif maka posisi teori untuk membantu mengkategorisasikan data atau memahami fenomena sosial yang ada. Yang paling sering ditemui, meskipun teori sudah disusun sedemikian rupa, tetapi teori ternyata tidak dibunyikan dalam analisa. Seolah-olah bab teori menjadi bagian yang terpisah sama sekali dengan temuan lapangan.
Kembali pada contoh penelitian yang dilakukan UGM, rupanya mereka telah menyatukan antara tinjauan pustaka dengan kerangka teori. Meskipun dalam upaya menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang telah dirumuskan, dalam pembahasannya dipilah dalam dua bagian. Pertama, yang berkaitan dengan konseptualisasi tentang kekerasan (violence): dan kedua, tentang teori-teori yang mencoba menjelaskan teori tersebut.
Dalam mendifinisikan apa yang dimaksud dengan kekerasan, misalnya, tim ini, menggunakan definisi Ted Robert Gurr yang memusatkan pada “polical violence” dan juga, definisi Johan Galtung, yang memilah kekerasan langsung (violence as action) dengan kekerasaan tidak langsung yang built in dalam struktur (violence as structure). Dengan pengembangkan pikiran Galtung, mengembangkan konseptualisasi tentang kekerasaan yang tidak hanya dilakukan oleh masyarakat, tetapi juga, yang dilakukan penyelenggara negara dan pengendali kapital. Jadi, kekerasan politik bisa berlangsung dalam tiga aras: negara, struktur sosial, dan personal atau komunitas.
Kemudian untuk menerangkan jenis kerusahaan yang memungkinkan melibatkan masalah etnisitas seperti di Kalimantan Barat dan Irian Jaya, tim, menggunakan teori “etho-nationalism”, baik yang beraliran primordialist maupun instrumentalist. Bagi aliran primordialist beranggapan bahwa banyak gerakan politik berbasis suku yang menekankan nasionalisme etnik. Dan ini merupakan tradisi kultural yang didasarkan pada identitas etnik primordial. Motivasi utama tindakan politik mereka adalah memelihara identitas kultural. Sebaliknya, menurut etno-nationalism “instrumentalist” menafsirkan isyu etnisitas itu sekedar sebagai “an exercise in boundary maintenance” (Willian A Douglas (1993) dan berasumsi bahwa gerakan komunal merupakan respon dari perlakukan diskriminasi (pilih-kasih). Dengan kata lain penggunaan simbol-simbol etnik pada dasarnya didasarkan pada alasan praktis, yaitu sebagai sarana efektif untuk menimbulkan dukungan emosional.
Berikutnya setelah melakukan kritik terhadap teori Gurr tentang “deprivasi relatif” dan “ethno-nasinalis” yang instrumentalist melalui pandangan Charles Tilly (1978), yang mengatakan bahwa “kekerasan politik itu terjadi bukan karena ekspresi emosional masyarakat tetapi merupakan tindakan rasional atau tindakan instrumental untuk mencapai kepentingan politik tertentu. Ringkasnya kekerasan politik adalah hasil kalkulasi politik.”
Seterusnya untuk mencari penjelasan tentang faktor-faktor yang dianggap menentukan intensitas kekecewaan dan potensial dalam melakukan tindakan politik bagi kelompok minoritas, juga menggunakan teori Gurr, sedangkan tentang penguatan identitas dan kohesi kelompok, tim menggunakan konseptualisasi Peter Blau, mengenai struktur pemilahan social (social cleavages) dalam masyarakat.
Yang ingin ditunjukkan di sini adalah setiap variable yang akan dicari jawaban nya dalam penelitian telah dicarikan landasan teorinya; guna untuk membantu memahami data yang ditemukan atau membantu hipotesa kerja yang telah dibangun.
7. Hipotesa
Sebagaimana kita ketahui bahwa masalah hipotesa memegang peran sentral dalam setiap penelitian ilmu sosial, baik yang menggunakan metode kuantitatif maupun metode kualitatif. Menurut Young, seperti dikutip Melly G. Tan (1983:37) peranan hipotesa dalam penelitian ilmu sosial dapat diperinci sebagai berikut : (1) memberikan tujuan yang tegas bagi penelitian; (2) membantu dalam menentukan arah yang harus ditempuh, dalam pembatasan ruang lingkup penelitian dengan memilih fakta-fakta yang menjadi pokok penelitian dan menentukan fakta-fakta yang relevan; (3) menghindarkan suatu penelitian yang tidak terarah dan tidak bertujuan.
Sementara dari segi jenisnya hipotesa itu pada dasarnya ada dua. Pertama, hipotesa penguji. Kedua, hipotesa kerja. Jika hipotesa penguji lebih merupakan instrumen teori untuk diuji kebenarannya secara empiris: apakah hipotesa itu ditolak atau diterima, maka dalam hipotesa kerja tidak ada pembuktian atau pengujian empiris. Hipotesa kerja merupakan rumusan atau tanggapan mengenai arah penelitian dan bukan mengenai hasil penelitian.
Dalam penelitian kuantitatif hipotesa pada dasarnya merupakan hasil deduksi dari teori atau preposisi, yang lebih spesifik sehingga lebih siap untuk diuji secara empiris. Misalnya kita ingin menjelaskan mengapa perilaku agresif lebih menonjol pada suatu lingkungan masyarakat tertentu jika dibandingkan dengan masyarakat lainnya. Untuk menjelaskan gejala itu kita membutuhkan teori agresif yang salah satu preposisinya menyatakan bahwa frustasi menyebabkan tindakan agresif. Tentu saja proposisi semacam ini masih membutuhkan hipotesa yang lebih rinci, misalnya tindakan agresif lebih tinggi pada kelompok masyarakat yang memiliki tingkat kepadatan penduduk yang tinggi daripada tingkat kepadatan penduduk yang lebih rendah’ (Effendi, 1989:43). Di sini sangat jelas bahwa hipotesa dalam penelitian kuantitatif adalah untuk memverifikasi teori.
Dalam penelitian kualitatif hipotesa (kerja) lebih merupakan semacam petunjuk jalan, yang bisa disusun sebelum dan/atau ketika penelitian itu sedang berlangsung. Tujuannya bukan untuk diverifikasi melainkan untuk dijadikan pedoman kerja, yang setiap saat bisa berubah jika ada temuan-temuan yang berbeda dengan asumsi semula. Jadi dalam penelitian kualitatif hipotesa bisa dipungut dijalan.
Kembali pada penelitian UGM, dalam menjawab mengapa terjadi kekerasan seperti kerusuhan, dalam penelitian itu telah dikembangkan hipotesa kerja bahwa “kekerasan politik pada aras komunitas itu terjadi karena adanya perasaan frustasi yang mendalam dan meluas di kalangan masyarakat. Terutama dalam “relative deprivation”, yaitu ketidaksesuaian antara “value expectation” masyarakat (yaitu harapan akan barang-barang atau kondisi hidup yang mereka yakini sebagai hak) dengan “value capability” mereka (yaitu barang-barang atau kondisi yang mungkin mereka peroleh atau kemampuan sistem untuk memungkinkan orang memperoleh barang-barang dan kondisi yang mereka inginkan). Kondisi inilah yang menimbulkan frustasi. Dengan demikian jika intensitas kekecewaan itui semakin tinggi dan menyentuh berbagai lapisan, termasuk kaum elit, maka kekerasan yang muncul akan semakin meluas dan dalam bentuk yang lebih canggih (Gurr, 1970:3-9). Dari teori Gurr ini kemudiaan diperas menjadi hipotesa yang lebih rinci bahwa “kekecewaan masyarakat terhadap deprevasi dan perlakuan yang tidak adil merupakan motif utama tindak kekerasan politik seperti kerusuhan”.
Apa yang ingin saya sampaikan disini, dengan panjang lebar mengutip penelitian UGM tersebut adalah: Pertama, hipotesa kerja pada dasarnya dapat diturunkan dari hasil kajian pustaka atau hasil penelitian orang lain. Kedua, setiap variable atau lebih tepatnya hubungan antar variable yang akan dicari penjelasannya perlu landasan teoritik yang mapan. Meskipun posisinya untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan realitas dan bukan untuk diverifikasi. Ketiga, dalam kasus penelitian UGM yang kualitatif itu, terlihat bahwa setiap pertanyaan penelitian yang berkaitan dengan kekerasan, selalu dilandasi oleh kerangka teoritik yang jelas: kekerasan politik (Ted Robert Gurr), psikologis (Johan Galtung), ikatan primordialist (William A Douglas), struktur pemilahan social (Peter Blau) dan sebagainya. Keempat, dari seluruh kerangka teoritik yang dikutib, seluruhnya berfungsi untuk membantu mencari penjelasan terhadap masalah yang diteliti (ingat posisi teori dalam penelitian kualitatif).
8. Sampel
Sebagaimana diketahui bahwa dalam penelitian survei ada prinsip keterwakilan (representativeness) atau probilitas dalam generalisasi hasil-hasil temuan, sehingga masalah sampel sangat penting. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kualitatif karena tidak ada prinsip keterwakilan, maka masalah jumlah sampel tidak menjadi fokus utama. Sebagai konsekuensinya tidak ada prinsip generalisasi atau prediksi. Dalam penelitian kualitatif yang sering dilakukan dalam bentuk studi kasus, tidak ada kesimpulan yang dapat digeneralisasikan. Ia hanya berlaku dalam kasus yang diteliti saja.
Dengan demikian jika dalam penelitian kuantitatif masalah jumlah sampel menjadi ukuran pokok untuk menentukan validitas hasil penelitian yang dilakukan, maka dalam penelitian kualitatif yang krusial adalah tingkat kedalamannya. Karena itu tidak mengherankan jika dalam penelitian kuantitatif yang menjadi instrumen utama adalah kuesioner maka dalam penelitian kualitatif yang menjadi alat utamanya adalah peneliti itu sendiri.
Karenanya jika penelitian yang dilakukan bentuknya survei, maka dalam research design juga sudah harus dikemukakan secara jelas bagaimana teknik pengambilan sampel akan dilakukan termasuk besarnya sampel serta alasan-alasannya. Misalnya, jika menggunakan sampel acak stratifikasi proporsional atau sampel acak stratifikasi tidak proposional atau mungkin sample klaster, semuanya harus dijelaskan yang disertai oleh alasan-alasan atas pilihan itu.
9. Instrumen
Seperti dijelaskan diatas bahwa instrumen pokok dalam penelitian kuantitatif adalah kuestioner, sedangkan dalam penelelitian kualitatif adalah peneliti itu sendiri. Oleh karena itu dalam research design sudah harus disertakan kuestionernya. Sayangnya karena terbatasnya tempat tentang bagaimana tehnik membuat kuestioner yang baik tidak dapat diuraikan disini. Namun yang jelas dalam kuestioner harus ada variabel yang akan diukur termasuk penurunan indikatornya harus konsisten dengan hipotesa dan tujuan yang telah dirumuskan. Demikian juga untuk penelitian kualitatif harus sudah disertakan cheklistnya dan pedoman wawancara meskipun wawancara yang akan dilakukan tak berstruktur.
10. Pemilihan Lokasi:
Satu hal yang seringkali dianggap sepele dan diabaikan dalam pembuatan research design adalah masalah penetapan lokasi penelitian. Penetapan lokasi penelitian tentu saja harus disesuaikan dengan masalah penelitian yang akan digarap dan bukan atas dasar pertimbangan pragmatis yang kurang relevan dengan problem atau pertanyaan penelitian yang akan dicari. Misalnya, karena dekat rumah, atau malah meneliti di kampus sendiri dan sebagainya. Kalau saja pemilihan lokasi dilakukan secara sengaja (purposive), semuanya harus tetap didasarkan pada pertimbangan-pertimbangan ilmiah daripada pertimbangan pragmatis. Meskipun tidak ada larang untuk memilih lokasi dekat daerah asal, tempat kelahiran dan sebagainya, tetapi pertimbangannya tentu bukan untuk mencari kemudahan akomodasi tetapi lebih pada kebutuhan problem penelitian yang akan dilakukan itu sendiri.
11. Analisa Data
Untuk analisa data penelitian kuantitatif sebenarnya sangatlah sederhana. Apalagi sekarang sudah ada program SPSS. Kita tinggal memasukkan data dan mengolah menurut keinginan kita. Apakah kita akan menggunakan analisa sederhana seperti chisquare, product moment, regresi dan sebagainya sangat tergantung pada kebutuhan dan tujuan penelitian kita. Tetapi semua rencana analisa itu harus disebutkan dalam research design. Sedangkan pada penelitian kualitatif teknik analisa datanya jauh lebih rumit dan harus memiliki konsistensi dengan metodologi yang digunakan. Misalnya jika kita menggunakan metodelogi fenomenologi maka analisa data yang digunakan juga harus konsisten. Atau jika kita melakukan penelitian teks sastra dengan menggunakan analisanya strukturalisme Levi Strauss, maka kita harus menggunakan analisa yang konsisten atas prinsip-prinsip yang dikembangkan Strauss dan seterusnya.
Dalam analisa penelitian kualitatif, misalnya, dengan menggunakan analysis interactive model yang dikembangkan Miles dan Haberman (1987) seperti mulai data collection and timing, data display, data reduction and analysis, hingga conclution: atau, dengan menggunakan 12 langkahnya Spartley7 dalam studi etnografi8 dsb. Disamping itu dalam research design juga perlu disertakan adalah rincian budget, time table, expected outcomes or benefits, problems and limitation.
Disarikan dari: Prof. Anas S. Machfudz, APU, Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI)
PEDOMAN PEMBUATAN
RANCANGAN PENELITIAN
Secara akademik umumnya dibedakan antara proposal dan rancangan penelitian (research design). Jika dalam proposal hanya memuat pokok-pokok pikiran, maka dalam research design sudah memuat seluruh elemen-elemen pokok yang harus ada dalam rancangan penelitian yang diuraikan secara detail. Dengan demikian research design merupakan semacam cetak biru (blue print), yang jika dibaca oleh siapapun, sudah dapat dimengerti apa yang akan diteliti dan bagaimana cara penelitian itu dilakukan.
Sementara beberapa elemen yang harus ada dalam research design antara lain:
1. Judul
2. Latarbelakang Masalah.
3. Rumusan Masalah
4. Tujuan Penelitian
5. Kegunaan Peenelitian
6. Hipotesa
7. Tinjauan Pustaka/ Kerangka Teori
8. Pengumpulan Data yang meliputi: Masalah Sampel, Instrument, Pemilihan lokasi dan sebagainya
9. Analisa Data
Di bawah ini akan diuraikan secara singkat dari masing-masing elemen di atas, mudah-mudahan ada manfaatnya.
1. Judul Penelitian
Pada prinsipnya judul penelitian harus jelas, ringkas dan mencerminkan masalah apa yang akan diteliti. Dalam membuat judul penelitian hendaknya jangan terlalu luas cakupannya atau sebaliknya terlalu sempit. Jika penelitian yang dilakukan bentuknya survai (kuantitatif) maka dalam judul harus jelas penempatan posisi independent variable dan dependent variablenya. Demikian juga dalam penelitian kualitatif. Judul penelitian jangan bersifat simbolik, terlalu abstrak atau mungkin puitis. Misalnya judul “Golok dan Tasbih”, meskipun maksudnya adalah relasi sosial antara Kyai dan Jawara, tetapi judul semacam ini, disamping terlalu simplistik juga terlalu luas. Lebih dari itu judul tersebut, juga, tidak jelas mana yang menjadi independent variable dan mana dependent variable-nya.
Judul yang baik, jika penelitian itu kuantitatif, selain memperlihatkan korelasi antara variable secara jelas, juga, mencerminkan arah penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Misalnya,
“Pengaruh pendidikan orangtua dan tingkat pendapatan keluarga terhadap kenakalan remaja: Studi kasus pada Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Anak Negara di Kabupaten Sukamaju”.
Di sini yang menjadi independent variable adalah pendidikan dan tingkat pendapatan orang tua, sedangkan dependent variable-nya adalah kenakalan remaja. Meskipun judul semacam ini, juga kurang terlalu problematik, tetapi, paling tidak telah memperlihatkan kejelasan posisi antar variable, disamping cukup mencerminkan masalah yang akan diteliti.
Demikian juga judul penelitian jangan terlalu sempit. Misalnya,
“Pengaruh Profesionalitas Guru terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa Kelas Satu Madrasah Aliyah Negeri di Sukamaju”.
Judul semacam ini disamping terlalu sempit cakupannya, juga tidak problematik sebagai bahan penelitian. Tanpa penelitian pun sudah diketahui bahwa profesionalitas guru akan memiliki pengaruh atas hasil belajar siswa. Jadi, dalam pembuatan judul, selain harus diperhatikan scopenya, yang lebih penting adalah apakah judul telah mencerminkan masalah yang membutuhkan penelitian.
2. Latar Belakang Masalah.
Meskipun tidak ada rumusan baku bagaimana latarbelakang penelitian harus dibuat, namun isi pokok dari latarbelakang adalah membangun argumen: mengapa penelitian itu penting untuk dilakukan. Tentu saja arti “penting” di sini bukan menurut pengertian peneliti yang subyektif, tetapi harus dilihat dari kepentingan yang lebih luas dan obyektif. Misalnya, dari segi akademik mungkin akan melahirkan teori baru dan/atau membatalkan teori lama. Sedangkan dari kepentingan yang lebih pragmatik akan dapat memecahkan masalah (problem solving) yang sedang dihadapi masyarakat, misalnya. Dengan demikian masalah penelitian bukan hanya bermula dari sensitifitas peneliti terhadap fenomena sosial yang ada, tetapi juga, adanya kesenjangan fakta sosial yang ingin diketahui atau dipecahkan. Yang jelas masalah penelitian bukan semata-mata didasarkan interest peneliti yang subyektif.
Dalam membangun argumen mengapa penelitian itu perlu dilakukan bisa saja terinspirasi oleh hasil penelitian orang lain, data-data statistik, hasil bacaan jurnal penelitian, studi pustaka, pengamatan yang menceritakan terjadinya kesenjangan antara yang “seharusnya” (das sollen) dengan fakta-fakta sosial “yang ada” (das sein), misalnya. Yang terpenting, sekali lagi, latarbelakang hendaknya berisikan argumentasi mengapa penelitian itu perlu dilakukan. Yang harus dihindari dalam menyusun latarbelakang adalah membangun alasan-alasan yang tidak konsisten atau tidak relevan. Misalnya, kita mau meneliti tentang kerugian orang merokok baik ditinjau dari segi kesehatan (tingginya angka penyakit kanker paru-paru) maupun kerugian ekonomi (biaya yang harus dikeluarkan setiap harinya). Namun yang dikemukakan dalam membangun alasan itu, justru tentang durasi iklan rokok di TV atau data-data statistik tentang kontribusi pembayaran pajak pabrik rokok terhadap PAD. Meskipun argumen itu kelihatannya berkaitan dengan masalah yang akan kita teliti, tetapi jelas tidak relevan dengan masalah yang akan kita teliti. Karena argumen yang kita bangun justru lebih berkaitan dengan keuntungan merokok. Misalnya laba station TV akibat iklan dan pembayaran pajak yang diterima negara dan bukan tentang kerugiannya seperti jumlah kematian perokok akibat kanker paru-paru tiap tahunnya atau jumlah uang yang harus dikeluarkan, jika seseorang menghisap dua bungkus Ji Sam soe, misalnya. Jadi, di sini selain dibutuhkan cara meyakinkan tentang arti pentingnya mengapa penelitian itu menarik untuk dilakukan, juga, perlu adanya konsistensi terhadap fokus yang akan diteliti untuk menghindari uraian yang melebar kemana-mana.
Hal lain yang seringkali ditemui dalam latar belakang adalah memuat hal-hal yang tidak relevan dan bersifat normatif. Misalnya, mau meneliti masalah konflik etnis di Kalimantan Barat, yang dimuat dalam latarbelakang UUD 1945 dengan pasal-pasalnya, atau ayat-ayat al-Qur’an. Sedangkan persoalan yang berkaitan dengan masalah konflik sosial dan kebutuhan untuk memecahkannya justru tidak digambarkan.
Masalah lain yang secara teknis biasanya disampaikan dalam latar belakang adalah apakah penelitian yang akan dilakukan dimungkinkan untuk dilaksanakan: baik dari segi dana, waktu, tenaga dan sebagainya. Bisa saja problem penelitian yang dikemukakan sangat menarik tetapi dari segi waktu dan biaya tidak mungkin dilaksanakan.
Untuk memberi gambaran yang agak konkrit tentang contoh proposal yang baik: di bawah ini saya kutip sebuah Research Design (RD) yang dibuat oleh Tim Pusat Penelitian Pembangunan Pedesaan dan Kawasan-Universitas Gadjah Mada (1997) yang berjudul: “Perilaku Kekerasan Kolektif: Kondisi dan Pemicu” yang dilakukan di delapan tempat (Kalimantan Barat, Timor Timor (sebelum merdeka), Tasikmalaya, Banjarmasin, Sampang, situbondo dan Pelalongan).1
Paling tidak ada tiga point yang ditekankan dalam latar belakang RD itu: Pertama, mengungkapkan data berbagai kasus kerusuhan di Indonesia mulai Januari 1995 s/d Juni 1997 yang mencapai 20 kekerasan kolektif di berbagai daerah: Kedua, mengemukakan penjelasan (komentar) yang muncul dalam masyarakat seperti: Pertama, bahwa kerusuhan itu bersfat SARA; kedua, akar permasalahan kerusuhan itu akibat kesenjangan sosial-ekonomi dan kesenjangan distrubusi pembangunan Orba: Ketiga, akibat perubahan sosial yang cepat yang tidak diikuti pengembangan proses dan mekanisme politik dan ekonomi yang adil dan keempat, adanya dugaan bahwa kerusuhaan itu sekedar ekses dari pertikaian politik antar-elite Jakarta yang menemukan salurannya dalam politik lokal. Ketiga, membangun anggapan dasar bahwa apapun eksplanasi yang diajukan, argumen itu harus memungkinkan pemilahan antara kondisi (condition) dari pemicu (precipitation).
Menurut tim, analisis yang teliti tentang fenomena yang rumit itu menuntut dilakukannya faktor-faktor penyebab yang berfungsi mempersiapkan kondisi sosial, kultural, psikologi, ekonomi dan politik bagi munculnya ketidakpuasan, kekecewaan, frustasi, dan membedakannya dari faktor-faktor pemicu berujud kejadian yang sebenarnya sekedar meletupkan ketidakpuasan itu menjadi kerusuhan masal.
Jadi argumentasi yang dibangun, diluar menyajikan data statistik tentang berbagai jenis kerusahan masal sepanjang tahun 1995-1997 dan mengungkapkan dugaan orang atas sebab-musabab atas terjadinya kerusuhaan itu (yang tentu saja masih membutuhkan pembuktian dalam penelitian), juga, yang terpenting, mereka menawarkan pendekatan yang lebih rinci dan holistik. Mulai dari perlunya memisahkan antara kondisi (condition) dari pemicu (precipitation), sampai pada pendekatan multi-perspektif (psikologi, cultural, sosial, politik dan ekonomi).
Dengan kata lain dari seluruh argumen yang disajikan (data statistik tentang kerusuhan, anggapan orang lain tetang sebab-musabab kerusuhan massal itu dan tawaran pendekatan yang akan digunakan): intinya hanya ingin menyampaikan pesan bahwa penelitian itu penting untuk dilakukan.
3. Perumusan Masalah
Rumusan masalah pada dasarnya sangat berkaitan dengan tujuan dan sifat penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Artinya perumusan masalah sangat tergantung dengan tujuan penelitian yang hendak dicapai dan jenis penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Sementara bentuk perumusan masalah dapat berupa pertanyaan atau berbentuk peryataan. Jika tujuan penelitian itu bersifat deskriptif (to describe), misalnya, maka bentuk pertanyaannya biasanya dirumuskan dengan pertanyaan “apakah” (what), tetapi jika jenis penelitiannya bersifat eksplanasi (to explain), maka perumusan masalahnya biasanya didahului oleh pertanyaan “mengapa” (why) atau sejauhmana (how). Tentu saja kententuan ini bukan rumus matematis. Apa yang dikemukakan dalam rumusan masalah sebenarnya berupa pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang ingin ditemukan jawabannya dalam penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Sementara hal-hal yang dapat dipilih sebagai masalah antara lain: kontribusi terhadap khasanah ilmu pengetahuan; menindaklanjuti temuan-temuan sebelumnya; dan mencari jawaban dari (sesuatu) masalah dan sebagainya. Dan yang lebih penting pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang dikemukakan dalam perumusan masalah minimal harus menyatakan hubungan antar dua gejala, apa yang akan diteliti harus dapat ditiliti secara empiris dan dikemukakan secara eksplisit.
Sebenarnya ada beberapa prinsip perumusan masalah yang lazim digunakan dalam penelitian kualitatif seperti dirumuskan Moleong (1998)3:
Pertama, fungsi perumusan masalah pada dasarnya sekedar untuk arahan, bimbingan, atau acuan untuk menemukan masalah yang sebenarnya. Sedangkan masalah yang sebenarnya baru mungkin ditemukan ketika peneliti sudah mulai melakukan pengumpulan data.
Kedua, jika penelitian yang dilakukan bukan memverifikasi teori (kuantitatif), melainkan upaya untuk menemukan teori subtanstif (kualitatif), maka masalah yang dirumuskan akan berfungsi sebagai patokan untuk analisa data atau menjadi hipotesa kerja.
Ketiga, rumusan masalah mungkin akan terdiri dari dua faktor atau lebih. Ada beberapa hal yang perlu dipertimbangkan pada waktu merumuskan masalah: (1) adanya dua faktor atau lebih: (2) faktor-faktor itu dihubungkan dalam suatu hubungan yang logis atau bermakna (3) hasil menghubungkan itu mungkin berupa pertanyaan yang membutuhkan jawaban atau membutuhkan pemecahan masalah. Inilah yang biasanya disebut sebagai tujuan penelitian.
Keempat, dalam upaya untuk membatasi studi dalam perumusan masalah harus konsisten dengan paradigma yang digunakan.
Kelima, rumusan masalah yang dibangun harus jelas dan tegas.
Keenam, rumusan masalah: (1) dapat berbentuk deskriptif atau tanpa pertanyaan penelitian; (2) dapat secara langsung menghubungkan faktor-faktor hubungan logis dan bermakna: (3) secara gabungan antara bentuk diskriptif (pernyataan) dan pertanyaan.
Ketujuh, unsur lain yang biasanya berkaitan erat dengan perumusan masalah adalah “latarbelakang masalah”, “tujuan penelitian” dan “metode penelitian”.
Meskipun tidak ada acuan baku apakah latarbelakang masalah harus dipisahkan atau digabung dengan rumusan masalah: atau rumusan masalah harus dipisah atau digabung dengan tujuan penelitian dan seterusnya, tetapi yang paling lazim, antara latarbelakang masalah, perumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan metode penelitian adalah dipisahkan. Kedelapan, untuk mempertajam perumusan masalah diperlukan hasil kajian pustaka yang relevan. Kesembilan, dalam merumuskan masalah sebaiknya mempertimbangkan faktor bahasa dalam pengertian siapa yang dibidik sebagai pembacanya.
Kembali pada contoh penelitian UGM. Setelah membangun argumentasi tentang perlunya pendekatan yang holistik, diharapkan memperoleh pemahaman yang cukup menyeluruh tentang modus resolusi konflik yang dapat menjangkau penyebab utama persoalan tersebut. Dari sini ada tiga masalah penelitian yang dirumuskan:
Pertama, bagaimana karakteristik dan ragam dari tindak kekekerasan yang terjadi dalam masyarakat? Apa kaitannya dengan tindak kekerasan yang mewarnai kerusuhan massal itu ?
Kedua, mengapa tindak kekerasan dan kerusuhan massal itu terjadi ? Kondisi-kondisi apa yang menyebabkannya? Apakah hal itu disebabkan adanya kekecewaan, ketidakpuasan, frustasi, sinisme dan ketidakpercayaan terhadap lembaga-lembaga publik yang meluas dalam masyarakat? Apa hubungan antara meluasnya kekecewaan dalam masyarakat dengan kondisi-kondisi tersebut diatas?
Ketiga, mengapa dan bagaimana kondisi-kondisi itu muncul? Apa kaitannya dengan strategi pembangunan yang dijalankan oleh Orde Baru?
Dari perumusan masalah yang dibuat nampak bahwa penelitian ini bukan sekedar dimaksudkan untuk mengambarkan (to describe) kasus kerusuhan yang diteliti, tetapi juga, ingin menjelaskan (to explain) sebab-musabab kerusuhan massal itu. Sehingga jenis pertanyaan “apa” (what), mengapa (why) dan sejauhmana (how) sejauhmana, telah menjadi pertanyaan-pertanyaan (magic) yang digunakan dalam merumuskan masalah.
4. Tujuan Penelitian
Seperti dikemukakan diatas bahwa antara rumusan masalah dan tujuan penelitian idealnya merupakan satu kesatuan. Seperti diketahui ada beberapa tujuan penelitian yang biasanya digunakan dalam ilmu social: to explore, jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk penjelajahan: to describe, jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk menggambarkan realitas sosial: To explain, jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk menjelaskan (hubungan sebab-akibat) atau membuktikan suatu teori tertentu: to understand: jika tujuan penelitiannya hanya untuk memahami realitas yang akan diteliti: to predict, jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk meramalkan dst. Yang paling penting dalam tujuan penelitian adalah mengemukakan secara jelas apa yang ingin dicapai dalam penelitian yang akan dilakukan. Baik dari kepentingan pragmatik (problem solving) maupun dalam kepentingan akademik (kemungkinan ditemukannya bangunan konsep atau teori). Semua itu akan sangat tergantung pada jenis penelitian yang akan dilakukan: apakah penelitian akademik, penelitian kebijakan, penelitian aksi atau penelitian jenis lainnya.
Biasanya yang sering ditemukan dalam research design adalah ketidakkonsistenan antara rumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan kesimpulan. Seringkali kesimpulan yang dimuat sama sekali tidak ada hubungannya dengan tujuan yang telah dirumuskan. Karena itu yang perlu dilihat secara cermat dan teliti adalah apakah antara rumusan masalah, tujuan penelitian dan kesimpulan sudah terjadi konsistensi dan koherensi.
Kembali saya kutip tujuan penelitian yang diulakukan UGM (1997) sebagai berikut:
Partama, menemukan “benang-merah” yang menghubungkan beberapa tipe kerusuhan sosial tersebut, yaitu menemukan kondisi yang mendasari munculnya perilaku kekerasan kolektif itu.
Kedua, mengusulkan kebijakan publik guna membenahi kondisi demi mencegah berulangnya kejadian tersebut.
Di sini terlihat bahwa tujuan penelitian berkaitan atau satu-kesatuan dengan rumusan masalahnya. Meskipun kegunaan penelitiannya dijadikan satu dengan tujuan penelitiannya. Sementara tujuan pertama yang dirumuskan jauh lebih sederhana dibandingkan tujuan kedua yang ingin dilakukan (problem solving) yaitu mencegah berulangnya kerusuhan.
5. Kegunaan Hasil Penelitian
Kegunaan penelitian sebenarnya lebih diperuntukkan untuk menjawab kebutuhan yang lebih pragmatik daripada kebutuhan akademik. Karena itu rumusan yang dikemukakan, jika penelitian itu akan menjanjikan rekomendasi, maka rumusannya harus menyakinkan dan berhasil-guna seperti yang telah ditawarkan dalam tujuan penelitian. Dalam banyak kasus antara tujuan dan kegunaan penelitian tidak jarang dijadikan satu, seperti yang kita saksikan dalam penelitian UGM, meskipun umumnya dipisahkan.
6. Tinjauan Pustaka/ Kerangka Teori/Kerangka Pemikiran
Tinjauan pustaka pada dasarnya berisi kajian literatur yang relevan dengan penelitian yang akan dilakukan dan kegunaannya untuk menunjang rencana penelitian yang diajukan. Sementara kerangka teori merupakan masalah yang paling pokok dalam sebuah penelitian. Dengan penelitian peneliti dapat menemukan teori baru atau sekedar membuktikan kebenaran teori lama.
Dalam penelitian eksplanasi sangat jelas jika sebuah hipotesa itu terbukti dengan cara verifikasi dan/atau falsifikasi yang terus menerus, maka posisinya bisa naik menjadi theory, middle theory, atau mungkin malah menjadi grand theory. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kualitatif (grounded), posisi teori bukan untuk diuji tetapi sekedar untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan realitas sosial yang akan diteliti.
Misalnya, mengapa masalah agama dan etnis merupakan ikatan sub-primordial yang paling sensitif dalam provokasi politik dan konflik sosial. Jika tujuan kita melakukan penelitian adalah untuk memahami, maka di sini jelas tidak ada verifikasi teori. Posisi teori hanya dimanfaatkan untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan gejala sosial yang ada. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kuantitatif (survei) yang bersifat eksplanasi atau prediksi maka posisi teori sudah sangat jelas. Dengan demikian cukup jelas bahwa rumusan penelitian merupakan satu-kesatuan dengan tujuan penelitian, sedangkan tujuan penelitian akan sangat menentukan jenis teori yang akan digunakan. Jika tujuan penelitian hanya mendiskripsikan realitas sosial, maka posisi teori hanyalah diposisikan untuk memahami atau menafsirkan temuan-temuan lapangan. Sebaliknya jika tujuan penelitiannya untuk eksplanasi, maka posisi teori untuk verifikasi (pembuktian teori).
Dalam posisi ini teori didefinisikan; pertama, merupakan serangkaian proposisi antar konsep-konsep yang saling berhubungan. Kedua, menerangkan secara sistematis suatu fenomena sosial dengan cara menentukan hubungan antar konsep dan bagaimana bentuk hubungannya (Effendi, 1989:37).
Misalnya, kita akan meneliti gejala bunuh diri yang sangat marak di Gunung Kidul, Propinsi DIY, dengan menggunakan teori bunuh dirinya Emile Durkheim, yang mengatakan adanya hubungan antara kohesi sosial dengan pemahaman keagamaan. Menurut temuan Durkheim orang Protestan atau orang yang sendirian ternyata lebih mudah melakukan bunuh diri dibandingkan orang Katolik dan orang yang sudah berkeluarga. Alasannya hirarkhi gereja yang ketat dalam agama Katolik dan keterikatan orang yang sudah berkeluarga, membuat kohesi sosial lebih kuat dibandingkan agama Protestan dan orang yang sendirian yang ikatan sosialnya lebih longgar. Namun ternyata orang-orang yang banyak bunuh diri di Wonosari, Gunung Kidul, Yogjakarta, itu malah orang-orang Katolik atau Islam yang sudah berkeluarga, misalnya. Jadi disini uji teori telah dilakukan, termasuk mencari jawab atas tidak berlakunya teori Durkheim dan kemungkinan pengaruh variable lain.
Sementara fungsi teori sebagai prediksi, misalnya, telah ditemukan sebuah hitungan bahwa dalam situasi krisis ekonomi yang sekarang ini setiap pertumbuhan negatif 1 persen akan ada 400.000 orang yang menganggur. Dengan demikian jika sekarang pertumbuhan ekonomi kita terkontraksi 15 %, paling tidak akan ada 6 juta angkatan kerja baru yang menganggur. Di sini posisi teori sebagai peramal realitas sosial sangatlah jelas.
Yang biasanya agak membingungkan bagi peneliti, ketika harus meletakkan posisi teori sebagai alat untuk memahami atau menafsirkan realitas sosial, yang umumnya dikerjakan dalam penelitian kualitatif. Misalnya, mengapa etnis Minang itu lebih memiliki bakat kewirausahaan dibandingkan etnis lain. Apakah hal ini berkaitan dengan sistem kekerabatan yang matrilineal: dimana laki-laki secara kultural memiliki posisi yang lemah, khususnya dalam hal waris, atau ada faktor lain. Sehingga seorang laik-laki akan dianggap “cacat” secara kebudayaan jika mereka tidak merantau guna mempertegas identitas diri. Dengan kata lain merantau bukanlah sekedar upaya mencari kehidupan yang lebih baik, tetapi juga, merupakan tugas kebudayaan. Namun, mengapa keberhasilan suku ini cenderung ada plafonnya (sulit menjadi pengusaha besar) dibandingkan etnik Cina. Lalu kita menggunakan teori Max Weber tentang afinitas antara kesadaran keagamaan (sekte Calvin) dengan tingkah laku ekonomi, misalnya. Disini jelas posisi teori bukan untuk diverifikasi tetapi sebagai usaha pemahaman (verstehen) atas realitas yang ada.
Dengan demikian dalam bentuk penelitian apapun, dalam tahap tertentu, penggunaan teori tetap diperlukan. Hanya saja biasanya yang masih membingungkan dalam penyusunan research design, dimanakah teori itu harus diletakkan; apakah sebagai penjelas dalam arti verifikasi teori atau sekedar untuk membantu memahami gejala sosial yang ada. Dengan demikian posisi teori pada dasarnya sangat ditentukan oleh tujuan penelitiannya. Jika dalam penelitian itu antara lain untuk menguji hipotesa, maka jelas bahwa posisi teori adalah sebagai alat pembuktian. Sebaliknya jika penelitian itu bersifat deskriptif maka posisi teori untuk membantu mengkategorisasikan data atau memahami fenomena sosial yang ada. Yang paling sering ditemui, meskipun teori sudah disusun sedemikian rupa, tetapi teori ternyata tidak dibunyikan dalam analisa. Seolah-olah bab teori menjadi bagian yang terpisah sama sekali dengan temuan lapangan.
Kembali pada contoh penelitian yang dilakukan UGM, rupanya mereka telah menyatukan antara tinjauan pustaka dengan kerangka teori. Meskipun dalam upaya menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang telah dirumuskan, dalam pembahasannya dipilah dalam dua bagian. Pertama, yang berkaitan dengan konseptualisasi tentang kekerasan (violence): dan kedua, tentang teori-teori yang mencoba menjelaskan teori tersebut.
Dalam mendifinisikan apa yang dimaksud dengan kekerasan, misalnya, tim ini, menggunakan definisi Ted Robert Gurr yang memusatkan pada “polical violence” dan juga, definisi Johan Galtung, yang memilah kekerasan langsung (violence as action) dengan kekerasaan tidak langsung yang built in dalam struktur (violence as structure). Dengan pengembangkan pikiran Galtung, mengembangkan konseptualisasi tentang kekerasaan yang tidak hanya dilakukan oleh masyarakat, tetapi juga, yang dilakukan penyelenggara negara dan pengendali kapital. Jadi, kekerasan politik bisa berlangsung dalam tiga aras: negara, struktur sosial, dan personal atau komunitas.
Kemudian untuk menerangkan jenis kerusahaan yang memungkinkan melibatkan masalah etnisitas seperti di Kalimantan Barat dan Irian Jaya, tim, menggunakan teori “etho-nationalism”, baik yang beraliran primordialist maupun instrumentalist. Bagi aliran primordialist beranggapan bahwa banyak gerakan politik berbasis suku yang menekankan nasionalisme etnik. Dan ini merupakan tradisi kultural yang didasarkan pada identitas etnik primordial. Motivasi utama tindakan politik mereka adalah memelihara identitas kultural. Sebaliknya, menurut etno-nationalism “instrumentalist” menafsirkan isyu etnisitas itu sekedar sebagai “an exercise in boundary maintenance” (Willian A Douglas (1993) dan berasumsi bahwa gerakan komunal merupakan respon dari perlakukan diskriminasi (pilih-kasih). Dengan kata lain penggunaan simbol-simbol etnik pada dasarnya didasarkan pada alasan praktis, yaitu sebagai sarana efektif untuk menimbulkan dukungan emosional.
Berikutnya setelah melakukan kritik terhadap teori Gurr tentang “deprivasi relatif” dan “ethno-nasinalis” yang instrumentalist melalui pandangan Charles Tilly (1978), yang mengatakan bahwa “kekerasan politik itu terjadi bukan karena ekspresi emosional masyarakat tetapi merupakan tindakan rasional atau tindakan instrumental untuk mencapai kepentingan politik tertentu. Ringkasnya kekerasan politik adalah hasil kalkulasi politik.”
Seterusnya untuk mencari penjelasan tentang faktor-faktor yang dianggap menentukan intensitas kekecewaan dan potensial dalam melakukan tindakan politik bagi kelompok minoritas, juga menggunakan teori Gurr, sedangkan tentang penguatan identitas dan kohesi kelompok, tim menggunakan konseptualisasi Peter Blau, mengenai struktur pemilahan social (social cleavages) dalam masyarakat.
Yang ingin ditunjukkan di sini adalah setiap variable yang akan dicari jawaban nya dalam penelitian telah dicarikan landasan teorinya; guna untuk membantu memahami data yang ditemukan atau membantu hipotesa kerja yang telah dibangun.
7. Hipotesa
Sebagaimana kita ketahui bahwa masalah hipotesa memegang peran sentral dalam setiap penelitian ilmu sosial, baik yang menggunakan metode kuantitatif maupun metode kualitatif. Menurut Young, seperti dikutip Melly G. Tan (1983:37) peranan hipotesa dalam penelitian ilmu sosial dapat diperinci sebagai berikut : (1) memberikan tujuan yang tegas bagi penelitian; (2) membantu dalam menentukan arah yang harus ditempuh, dalam pembatasan ruang lingkup penelitian dengan memilih fakta-fakta yang menjadi pokok penelitian dan menentukan fakta-fakta yang relevan; (3) menghindarkan suatu penelitian yang tidak terarah dan tidak bertujuan.
Sementara dari segi jenisnya hipotesa itu pada dasarnya ada dua. Pertama, hipotesa penguji. Kedua, hipotesa kerja. Jika hipotesa penguji lebih merupakan instrumen teori untuk diuji kebenarannya secara empiris: apakah hipotesa itu ditolak atau diterima, maka dalam hipotesa kerja tidak ada pembuktian atau pengujian empiris. Hipotesa kerja merupakan rumusan atau tanggapan mengenai arah penelitian dan bukan mengenai hasil penelitian.
Dalam penelitian kuantitatif hipotesa pada dasarnya merupakan hasil deduksi dari teori atau preposisi, yang lebih spesifik sehingga lebih siap untuk diuji secara empiris. Misalnya kita ingin menjelaskan mengapa perilaku agresif lebih menonjol pada suatu lingkungan masyarakat tertentu jika dibandingkan dengan masyarakat lainnya. Untuk menjelaskan gejala itu kita membutuhkan teori agresif yang salah satu preposisinya menyatakan bahwa frustasi menyebabkan tindakan agresif. Tentu saja proposisi semacam ini masih membutuhkan hipotesa yang lebih rinci, misalnya tindakan agresif lebih tinggi pada kelompok masyarakat yang memiliki tingkat kepadatan penduduk yang tinggi daripada tingkat kepadatan penduduk yang lebih rendah’ (Effendi, 1989:43). Di sini sangat jelas bahwa hipotesa dalam penelitian kuantitatif adalah untuk memverifikasi teori.
Dalam penelitian kualitatif hipotesa (kerja) lebih merupakan semacam petunjuk jalan, yang bisa disusun sebelum dan/atau ketika penelitian itu sedang berlangsung. Tujuannya bukan untuk diverifikasi melainkan untuk dijadikan pedoman kerja, yang setiap saat bisa berubah jika ada temuan-temuan yang berbeda dengan asumsi semula. Jadi dalam penelitian kualitatif hipotesa bisa dipungut dijalan.
Kembali pada penelitian UGM, dalam menjawab mengapa terjadi kekerasan seperti kerusuhan, dalam penelitian itu telah dikembangkan hipotesa kerja bahwa “kekerasan politik pada aras komunitas itu terjadi karena adanya perasaan frustasi yang mendalam dan meluas di kalangan masyarakat. Terutama dalam “relative deprivation”, yaitu ketidaksesuaian antara “value expectation” masyarakat (yaitu harapan akan barang-barang atau kondisi hidup yang mereka yakini sebagai hak) dengan “value capability” mereka (yaitu barang-barang atau kondisi yang mungkin mereka peroleh atau kemampuan sistem untuk memungkinkan orang memperoleh barang-barang dan kondisi yang mereka inginkan). Kondisi inilah yang menimbulkan frustasi. Dengan demikian jika intensitas kekecewaan itui semakin tinggi dan menyentuh berbagai lapisan, termasuk kaum elit, maka kekerasan yang muncul akan semakin meluas dan dalam bentuk yang lebih canggih (Gurr, 1970:3-9). Dari teori Gurr ini kemudiaan diperas menjadi hipotesa yang lebih rinci bahwa “kekecewaan masyarakat terhadap deprevasi dan perlakuan yang tidak adil merupakan motif utama tindak kekerasan politik seperti kerusuhan”.
Apa yang ingin saya sampaikan disini, dengan panjang lebar mengutip penelitian UGM tersebut adalah: Pertama, hipotesa kerja pada dasarnya dapat diturunkan dari hasil kajian pustaka atau hasil penelitian orang lain. Kedua, setiap variable atau lebih tepatnya hubungan antar variable yang akan dicari penjelasannya perlu landasan teoritik yang mapan. Meskipun posisinya untuk membantu memahami atau menafsirkan realitas dan bukan untuk diverifikasi. Ketiga, dalam kasus penelitian UGM yang kualitatif itu, terlihat bahwa setiap pertanyaan penelitian yang berkaitan dengan kekerasan, selalu dilandasi oleh kerangka teoritik yang jelas: kekerasan politik (Ted Robert Gurr), psikologis (Johan Galtung), ikatan primordialist (William A Douglas), struktur pemilahan social (Peter Blau) dan sebagainya. Keempat, dari seluruh kerangka teoritik yang dikutib, seluruhnya berfungsi untuk membantu mencari penjelasan terhadap masalah yang diteliti (ingat posisi teori dalam penelitian kualitatif).
8. Sampel
Sebagaimana diketahui bahwa dalam penelitian survei ada prinsip keterwakilan (representativeness) atau probilitas dalam generalisasi hasil-hasil temuan, sehingga masalah sampel sangat penting. Sebaliknya dalam penelitian kualitatif karena tidak ada prinsip keterwakilan, maka masalah jumlah sampel tidak menjadi fokus utama. Sebagai konsekuensinya tidak ada prinsip generalisasi atau prediksi. Dalam penelitian kualitatif yang sering dilakukan dalam bentuk studi kasus, tidak ada kesimpulan yang dapat digeneralisasikan. Ia hanya berlaku dalam kasus yang diteliti saja.
Dengan demikian jika dalam penelitian kuantitatif masalah jumlah sampel menjadi ukuran pokok untuk menentukan validitas hasil penelitian yang dilakukan, maka dalam penelitian kualitatif yang krusial adalah tingkat kedalamannya. Karena itu tidak mengherankan jika dalam penelitian kuantitatif yang menjadi instrumen utama adalah kuesioner maka dalam penelitian kualitatif yang menjadi alat utamanya adalah peneliti itu sendiri.
Karenanya jika penelitian yang dilakukan bentuknya survei, maka dalam research design juga sudah harus dikemukakan secara jelas bagaimana teknik pengambilan sampel akan dilakukan termasuk besarnya sampel serta alasan-alasannya. Misalnya, jika menggunakan sampel acak stratifikasi proporsional atau sampel acak stratifikasi tidak proposional atau mungkin sample klaster, semuanya harus dijelaskan yang disertai oleh alasan-alasan atas pilihan itu.
9. Instrumen
Seperti dijelaskan diatas bahwa instrumen pokok dalam penelitian kuantitatif adalah kuestioner, sedangkan dalam penelelitian kualitatif adalah peneliti itu sendiri. Oleh karena itu dalam research design sudah harus disertakan kuestionernya. Sayangnya karena terbatasnya tempat tentang bagaimana tehnik membuat kuestioner yang baik tidak dapat diuraikan disini. Namun yang jelas dalam kuestioner harus ada variabel yang akan diukur termasuk penurunan indikatornya harus konsisten dengan hipotesa dan tujuan yang telah dirumuskan. Demikian juga untuk penelitian kualitatif harus sudah disertakan cheklistnya dan pedoman wawancara meskipun wawancara yang akan dilakukan tak berstruktur.
10. Pemilihan Lokasi:
Satu hal yang seringkali dianggap sepele dan diabaikan dalam pembuatan research design adalah masalah penetapan lokasi penelitian. Penetapan lokasi penelitian tentu saja harus disesuaikan dengan masalah penelitian yang akan digarap dan bukan atas dasar pertimbangan pragmatis yang kurang relevan dengan problem atau pertanyaan penelitian yang akan dicari. Misalnya, karena dekat rumah, atau malah meneliti di kampus sendiri dan sebagainya. Kalau saja pemilihan lokasi dilakukan secara sengaja (purposive), semuanya harus tetap didasarkan pada pertimbangan-pertimbangan ilmiah daripada pertimbangan pragmatis. Meskipun tidak ada larang untuk memilih lokasi dekat daerah asal, tempat kelahiran dan sebagainya, tetapi pertimbangannya tentu bukan untuk mencari kemudahan akomodasi tetapi lebih pada kebutuhan problem penelitian yang akan dilakukan itu sendiri.
11. Analisa Data
Untuk analisa data penelitian kuantitatif sebenarnya sangatlah sederhana. Apalagi sekarang sudah ada program SPSS. Kita tinggal memasukkan data dan mengolah menurut keinginan kita. Apakah kita akan menggunakan analisa sederhana seperti chisquare, product moment, regresi dan sebagainya sangat tergantung pada kebutuhan dan tujuan penelitian kita. Tetapi semua rencana analisa itu harus disebutkan dalam research design. Sedangkan pada penelitian kualitatif teknik analisa datanya jauh lebih rumit dan harus memiliki konsistensi dengan metodologi yang digunakan. Misalnya jika kita menggunakan metodelogi fenomenologi maka analisa data yang digunakan juga harus konsisten. Atau jika kita melakukan penelitian teks sastra dengan menggunakan analisanya strukturalisme Levi Strauss, maka kita harus menggunakan analisa yang konsisten atas prinsip-prinsip yang dikembangkan Strauss dan seterusnya.
Dalam analisa penelitian kualitatif, misalnya, dengan menggunakan analysis interactive model yang dikembangkan Miles dan Haberman (1987) seperti mulai data collection and timing, data display, data reduction and analysis, hingga conclution: atau, dengan menggunakan 12 langkahnya Spartley7 dalam studi etnografi8 dsb. Disamping itu dalam research design juga perlu disertakan adalah rincian budget, time table, expected outcomes or benefits, problems and limitation.
Disarikan dari: Prof. Anas S. Machfudz, APU, Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI)
Procedure text
Name : RUHAENI
Reg. Num : 06430568
Faculty Program : Tarbiyah/ PBI-D/ VI
HOW TO TRANSFER MONEY?
Materials:
- Bank
- Bank service
- Transfer slip
- Money
- Computer
- Waiting room
Steps:
- Enter
- Fill
- Wait
- Give
- Deal
Arranges:
- Firstly Enter Bank
- And than fill transfer slip
- After that wait a queue in waiting room
- Finally deal the transfer money
Reg. Num : 06430568
Faculty Program : Tarbiyah/ PBI-D/ VI
HOW TO TRANSFER MONEY?
Materials:
- Bank
- Bank service
- Transfer slip
- Money
- Computer
- Waiting room
Steps:
- Enter
- Fill
- Wait
- Give
- Deal
Arranges:
- Firstly Enter Bank
- And than fill transfer slip
- After that wait a queue in waiting room
- Finally deal the transfer money
Abu Yazid and al-Hallaj
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The first Tasawuf began from regular practices, are being doing with war againts deviation from the true principles of religion or mujahadah, from beleved of mystcs were doing by society, or from religion teaching about God, it interested tried done meditation by the head of religion. Are being looking for met God or got revelation (wahyu) direct from God or dzat mystics.
After they succeed got ma’rifah and revelation, they tried arranged teaching or their tasawuf falsafi with result of their concepts teaching or changed with other concepts teaching. Such as developing of tasawuf, wich are began from act of zuhud, one of them built by Ibrahim Ibn Adam and Rabiah al-Adawiyah.
Present emerge one of great tasawuf thinking is Mansur al-Hallaj and Abu Yazid al-Bustami. Falsafi thingking emerged after many sufi got ma’rifat grade. And than tried going to aspects of Islamic teaching from their mysticsm. So that concepts such as ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud, wushul are emerged.
So, for the next chapter, the I would like to describe both of sufi above and their concepts of sufism, with the aim all of readers know and understand from this paper.
CHAPTER II
ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI AND AL-HALLAJ
A. ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI
A. 1. The Biography of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bayazid Bastami (Persian بايزيد بسطامى ), also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, (804-874 CE) was a Persian Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.
The name Bastami means "from the city of Bastam". Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian who converted to Islam. His Grandfather had three sons, Adam, Tayfur and 'Ali. All of them were ascetics. Abayazid was born to Tayfur.
When Bayazid died, he was over seventy years old. Before he died, someone asked him his age. He said: I am four years old. For seventy years I was veiled. I got rid of my veils only four years ago.”
He died in 874CE and is buried either in the city of Bistam in north central Iran, or in Semnan, Iran. Bayazid lived a century before Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar Neishapouri has mentioned in his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya that Bayazid had spoken about the personality and state of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani with his disciples while passing from the village of Kharaqan, almost 100 years before the birth of Shaikh Abul Hassan. Bayazid Bastami had great influence on Sufi mysticism and is considered to be one of the important early teachers of Sufi Islam.
A. 2. The Tasawuf Teaching of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bastami's predecessor Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri (d. CE 859) had formulated the doctrine of ma'rifa (gnosis), presenting a system which helped the murid (initiate) and the shaykh (guide) to communicate. Bayazid Bastami took this another step and emphasized the importance of ecstasy, referred to in his words as drunkenness (sukr or wajd), a means of annihilation in the Divine Presence. Before him, Sufism was mainly based on piety and obedience and he played a major role in placing the concept of divine love at the core of Sufism.
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Fana (Arabic: فناء extinction, annihilation) Through a series of stages (maqamat) and subjective experiences (ahwal), this process of absorbation develops until complete annihilation of the self (fana) takes place and the person becomes al-insanul-kamil, the "perfect man". It is the disintegration of a person's narrow self-concept, social self- and limited intellect (feeling like a drop of water aware of being part of the ocean). The stage is also called Fana fit tawheed ("extinction with the unity"), and Fana fil Haq (Extinction in the reality).
The main of his teaching is Fana’ and baqa’. He defined fana’, As etymology, Fana’ from the word faniya, its mean disappear or annihilate. As termynology of tasawuf, fana’ was meaning as morals condition of the glorious.
R. A. Nicholson said that fana’ is the complement and consummation of death to self (fana’), is everlasting life in God (baqa’). To pass away from self (fana’) is to realize that does not exist and that nothing exist except God (tauhid). The highest stage of fana is reached when even the consciousness of having attained fana disappears. This is what the Sufis call "the passing-away of passing-away" (fana al-fana). The mystic is now wrapped in contemplation of the divine essence.
Since it is a state of complete annihilation of carnal self, absorbation or intoxication in God, the pilgrim is unable to participate in worldly affairs, he is made to pass into another state known as Fana-al-Fana (forgetfulness of annihilation). It is a sort of oblivion of unconsciousness. Since two negatives make one positive, the pilgrim at this stage regains his individuality as he was when he started the journey. The only difference is that in the beginning he was self-conscious, but after having reposed in the Divine Being, he regains that sort of individuality which is God-consciousness or absorbation in God. This state is known as Baqa-bi-Allah — living or subsisting with God. (Alhaj W.B.S. Rabbani, Gems of Sufi Gnosticism)
Last of many sufi defined about fana’ as fana’ from the activity of soul morals or the condition lost from bad morals.
Al-Tusi defined fana’ is human lost from their views of act, because Allah wish it from him.
Al-Qusyairi defined fana’ is human who showing the great of their competences in abnormal condition, so he was fana’ from all creation (makhluk) activity.
DR. Ibrahim Basyuni defined fana’ is spiritual condition wich felt losting from nature, therefore with him self without losting from human being morals self.
Abu Yazid achived to fana’ after he leaved from his desires except to God. He said that fana’ as losting his realized (al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs) till he unrealized his organism as human, his realize met with wishing of God (irodah), does not meet with his organism as reality. Abu Yazid described his experience when he was dream, about the way to get fana’, one a night he being dream and saying:
يا خدا كيف الطريق اليك؟ فقال دع نفسك و تعالى
And he ever said word fana’ from one of his saying:
اعرفه حتى فنيت ثم عرفت به فحييت
The process of annihilation from him self (fana’) can not be seperated from baqa’. It’s mean, if the process of annihilation human morals from the result of annihilation, so the next will be emerged the true of human morals. Many sufistics teaching established that fana’ and baqa’ are must be combined.
Baqa’ (البقاء) (Arabic: بقاء بالله eternal life in union with God), the word baqiya, it is mean to remain, to persevere. Terminologically, it is mean to remain good morals toward God. This is the state where man comes back to his existence and God appoints him to guide the humans. This is a state in which the individual is part of the world, but unconcerned about his or her rewards or position in it. This doctrine is further explained in an authentic tradition of the prophet which states that God said:
And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks
There is another verse from Qur'an , that is used to explain this concept.
We (Allah) are nearer to him (man) than his jugular vein.(50:6)
When Sufis have come out of the Fana fillah state and enter Baqa billah, many of them have produced works of unsurpassed glory, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and music.
Al-Qusyairi said that fana’ and baqa’ are can not be seperated, are must be combined, as he said:” human who leave bad morals, so he was being fana’ from his desires. With that condition, human being in baqa’…human who really zuhud from the world, so he was being in his desires and lso being in baqa’ with sincere in his inabah.
There are sufistics teaching wich established combination between fana’ and baqa’:
من فني عن جهله فى الموافقات
من فني عن المخالفات بقي فى الموافقات
من فني عن الأوصاف المذمومة بالأوصاف المحمودة
من فني عن اوصافه بقي باوصاف الحق
When processing of fana’, many sufi are tried looking for al-dana ‘an al-nafs, it’s mean that passing from al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs, so the all condition of realized are annihilated except the real of organism.
Abu Yazid is one of sufi’s who was passing “ma’rifah”, after he got fana’ and baqa’ than he felt unity of being or Ittihad.
Harun Nasution explained ittihad is one part of gradation when sufi felt one in God or unity of being , gradation that who lovers can be felt with God.
As etymology, ittihad mean unitive stave. In sufism dictionary, it’s mean the unity between God and human meing. Ibrahim Madkur defined that ittihad is the higher class wich able be got on the way of human soul.
A. R. al-Badlawi defined that ittihad is the changable of lead role between God and sufi.
Abu Yazid defined that ittihad is “tafrid fana’ fi al-tauhid” the combination between God and sufi without going anything. When he felt fana’, so he should be going to leave his organism and going toward God, depend on his syatahahat:
لست أتعجب من حبى لك فأنا عبد فقير, و لكنى أتعجب من حبك لى وانت ملك قدير.
When he was being ittihad, he said:
قال : يا أبا يزيد انهم كلهم خلقى غيرك فقلت: فأنت أنا و أنا أنت.
He continued in his saying:
فانقطع المناجة فصار الكلمة واحدة و صار الكل بالكل واحد. فقال لى: ياأنت, فقلت به: ياأنا, فقال لى: أنت الفرد. قلت: أنالفرد. قال لى: أنت أنت, قلت: أناأنا.
He ever said when after prayer shubuh:
انى أناالله لااله الا أنا فاعبدنى.
When someone passed Abu Yazid house and he knocked the door, Abu Yazid was asking “who did you looking for? That person answered: “Abu Yazid”, so Abu Yazid said: “go a head from thim house, only Allah The Lord God”.
All above Abu Yazid saying were giving impresson that he was syirk toward God, because of that, on sufi’s history there was caught and jailed by council because of their saying, that made awam person confussed.
B. AL-HALLAJ
B. 1. Biography of Al-Hallaj
Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: منصور الحلاج - Mansūr al-Hallāj; Persian: منصور حلاج - Mansūr-e Hallāj; full name Abū al-Mughīth Husayn Mansūr al-Hallāj) (c. 858 - March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation.
He was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Makkah, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Makkah. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both.
His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin , Arabic (كتاب الطواسين) or Ta Sin al Azal, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3).
B. 2. The Teaching Tasawuf of al-Hallaj
Among other Sufis, al-Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Arabic: أنا الحق Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth", which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God," and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, ما في جبتي إلا الله Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God."
It's possible that there was a confussion due to translation in the controversy over "I am the Truth". The word for God in Persian is khoda, and the word for self is khod. Hallaj might have meant a play on "I am God" and "I am self" to suggest "God is the self" or the idea that God is from within the self or God is within us.
The famous of part one of al-Hallaj tasawuf teaching are al-Hulul, wahdat as-Syuhud those were being developed by Ibn ‘Araby is wihdat al-wujud. He admited, that he ever felt in unity with God. Hulul teaching is teaching was tought by al-Hallaj. According to tasawuf teaching, he ever said:
أريد ان لا أريد
أنا لا أريد من الله الا الله.
When he was being got ittihad, from his queer saying is:
سبحانى سبحانى ما اعظم شأنى
Hulul from the word hall-yahull-hulûl, it is mean stop or silent. According to al-Hallaj philosophy sufism that hulûl is the experience spiritual of a sufi till he felt near with God, and thah he choosed for taking place and assume a form it. Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity. He said that in organism human being there is the character of God, that he used nuqil on verses:
و اذ قلنا للملائكة اسجدوا للآدم فسجدوا الا ابليس أبى و استكبر و كان من الكافرين (البقرة : ۳۵).
Al-Hallaj comprehend that in human there is oneness of God, because before He create the creation, God show him self and also He loves with his character (dzat) self, that love can not be characteristic, it the reason that wujud and from reasons present.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost. As in his syathahat:
أنا سر الحق مالحق أنا # بل أنا حق ففرق بيننا
After unity doctrin developed, emerge doctrin of wahdat al-wujud. This philosophy was brought by Muhy al-Din Ibn al-Arabi. In this philosophy, nasut of al-Hallaj changed by al-Khalaq (human being) and lahut (God). Because of his syathahat he death, with his story “He wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness." (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross" (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his execution a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his death "was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhid (the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:"What is love?". He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)...".
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSES
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost.
The character hulul Allah on Isa is fundamental and permanent. And than the character of hulul Allah on al-Hallaj is non-permanent; spiritual and emotional were compelled; non-fundamental. Al-Hallaj doesn’t became and declared that he was God , except his shathahat on the condition unrealized. Al-Hallaj doesn’t lost his moarl a value. Other than tazkiyat al-nafs is the way to purify soul on the process of maqâmât till he felt near toward God and being in al-fanâ’ 'an al-nafs. Out put from tazkiyat al-nafs is lahut human being became purified, till he could received hulul from nâsût of God.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY
After sufi passing ma’rifah process, they tried up to higher level, it mean that they felt unity toward God, it was mean by ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud and Isyraq. So those are would going to tasawuf philosophy.
On the process of unity between human being and God, there are two concepts; human being and God. Those teaching are fana’ and baqa’, both are were bought by Abu Yazid and continued with ittihad doctrin. He defined ittihad “tafrid fana fi al-tawheed”.
Al-Hallaj is the famous sufi, that he brought tasawuf philosophy about “al-Hulul” Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity.
INTRODUCTION
The first Tasawuf began from regular practices, are being doing with war againts deviation from the true principles of religion or mujahadah, from beleved of mystcs were doing by society, or from religion teaching about God, it interested tried done meditation by the head of religion. Are being looking for met God or got revelation (wahyu) direct from God or dzat mystics.
After they succeed got ma’rifah and revelation, they tried arranged teaching or their tasawuf falsafi with result of their concepts teaching or changed with other concepts teaching. Such as developing of tasawuf, wich are began from act of zuhud, one of them built by Ibrahim Ibn Adam and Rabiah al-Adawiyah.
Present emerge one of great tasawuf thinking is Mansur al-Hallaj and Abu Yazid al-Bustami. Falsafi thingking emerged after many sufi got ma’rifat grade. And than tried going to aspects of Islamic teaching from their mysticsm. So that concepts such as ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud, wushul are emerged.
So, for the next chapter, the I would like to describe both of sufi above and their concepts of sufism, with the aim all of readers know and understand from this paper.
CHAPTER II
ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI AND AL-HALLAJ
A. ABU YAZID AL-BUSTAMI
A. 1. The Biography of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bayazid Bastami (Persian بايزيد بسطامى ), also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, (804-874 CE) was a Persian Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.
The name Bastami means "from the city of Bastam". Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian who converted to Islam. His Grandfather had three sons, Adam, Tayfur and 'Ali. All of them were ascetics. Abayazid was born to Tayfur.
When Bayazid died, he was over seventy years old. Before he died, someone asked him his age. He said: I am four years old. For seventy years I was veiled. I got rid of my veils only four years ago.”
He died in 874CE and is buried either in the city of Bistam in north central Iran, or in Semnan, Iran. Bayazid lived a century before Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar Neishapouri has mentioned in his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya that Bayazid had spoken about the personality and state of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani with his disciples while passing from the village of Kharaqan, almost 100 years before the birth of Shaikh Abul Hassan. Bayazid Bastami had great influence on Sufi mysticism and is considered to be one of the important early teachers of Sufi Islam.
A. 2. The Tasawuf Teaching of Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Bastami's predecessor Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri (d. CE 859) had formulated the doctrine of ma'rifa (gnosis), presenting a system which helped the murid (initiate) and the shaykh (guide) to communicate. Bayazid Bastami took this another step and emphasized the importance of ecstasy, referred to in his words as drunkenness (sukr or wajd), a means of annihilation in the Divine Presence. Before him, Sufism was mainly based on piety and obedience and he played a major role in placing the concept of divine love at the core of Sufism.
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Fana (Arabic: فناء extinction, annihilation) Through a series of stages (maqamat) and subjective experiences (ahwal), this process of absorbation develops until complete annihilation of the self (fana) takes place and the person becomes al-insanul-kamil, the "perfect man". It is the disintegration of a person's narrow self-concept, social self- and limited intellect (feeling like a drop of water aware of being part of the ocean). The stage is also called Fana fit tawheed ("extinction with the unity"), and Fana fil Haq (Extinction in the reality).
The main of his teaching is Fana’ and baqa’. He defined fana’, As etymology, Fana’ from the word faniya, its mean disappear or annihilate. As termynology of tasawuf, fana’ was meaning as morals condition of the glorious.
R. A. Nicholson said that fana’ is the complement and consummation of death to self (fana’), is everlasting life in God (baqa’). To pass away from self (fana’) is to realize that does not exist and that nothing exist except God (tauhid). The highest stage of fana is reached when even the consciousness of having attained fana disappears. This is what the Sufis call "the passing-away of passing-away" (fana al-fana). The mystic is now wrapped in contemplation of the divine essence.
Since it is a state of complete annihilation of carnal self, absorbation or intoxication in God, the pilgrim is unable to participate in worldly affairs, he is made to pass into another state known as Fana-al-Fana (forgetfulness of annihilation). It is a sort of oblivion of unconsciousness. Since two negatives make one positive, the pilgrim at this stage regains his individuality as he was when he started the journey. The only difference is that in the beginning he was self-conscious, but after having reposed in the Divine Being, he regains that sort of individuality which is God-consciousness or absorbation in God. This state is known as Baqa-bi-Allah — living or subsisting with God. (Alhaj W.B.S. Rabbani, Gems of Sufi Gnosticism)
Last of many sufi defined about fana’ as fana’ from the activity of soul morals or the condition lost from bad morals.
Al-Tusi defined fana’ is human lost from their views of act, because Allah wish it from him.
Al-Qusyairi defined fana’ is human who showing the great of their competences in abnormal condition, so he was fana’ from all creation (makhluk) activity.
DR. Ibrahim Basyuni defined fana’ is spiritual condition wich felt losting from nature, therefore with him self without losting from human being morals self.
Abu Yazid achived to fana’ after he leaved from his desires except to God. He said that fana’ as losting his realized (al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs) till he unrealized his organism as human, his realize met with wishing of God (irodah), does not meet with his organism as reality. Abu Yazid described his experience when he was dream, about the way to get fana’, one a night he being dream and saying:
يا خدا كيف الطريق اليك؟ فقال دع نفسك و تعالى
And he ever said word fana’ from one of his saying:
اعرفه حتى فنيت ثم عرفت به فحييت
The process of annihilation from him self (fana’) can not be seperated from baqa’. It’s mean, if the process of annihilation human morals from the result of annihilation, so the next will be emerged the true of human morals. Many sufistics teaching established that fana’ and baqa’ are must be combined.
Baqa’ (البقاء) (Arabic: بقاء بالله eternal life in union with God), the word baqiya, it is mean to remain, to persevere. Terminologically, it is mean to remain good morals toward God. This is the state where man comes back to his existence and God appoints him to guide the humans. This is a state in which the individual is part of the world, but unconcerned about his or her rewards or position in it. This doctrine is further explained in an authentic tradition of the prophet which states that God said:
And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks
There is another verse from Qur'an , that is used to explain this concept.
We (Allah) are nearer to him (man) than his jugular vein.(50:6)
When Sufis have come out of the Fana fillah state and enter Baqa billah, many of them have produced works of unsurpassed glory, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and music.
Al-Qusyairi said that fana’ and baqa’ are can not be seperated, are must be combined, as he said:” human who leave bad morals, so he was being fana’ from his desires. With that condition, human being in baqa’…human who really zuhud from the world, so he was being in his desires and lso being in baqa’ with sincere in his inabah.
There are sufistics teaching wich established combination between fana’ and baqa’:
من فني عن جهله فى الموافقات
من فني عن المخالفات بقي فى الموافقات
من فني عن الأوصاف المذمومة بالأوصاف المحمودة
من فني عن اوصافه بقي باوصاف الحق
When processing of fana’, many sufi are tried looking for al-dana ‘an al-nafs, it’s mean that passing from al-fana’ ‘an al-nafs, so the all condition of realized are annihilated except the real of organism.
Abu Yazid is one of sufi’s who was passing “ma’rifah”, after he got fana’ and baqa’ than he felt unity of being or Ittihad.
Harun Nasution explained ittihad is one part of gradation when sufi felt one in God or unity of being , gradation that who lovers can be felt with God.
As etymology, ittihad mean unitive stave. In sufism dictionary, it’s mean the unity between God and human meing. Ibrahim Madkur defined that ittihad is the higher class wich able be got on the way of human soul.
A. R. al-Badlawi defined that ittihad is the changable of lead role between God and sufi.
Abu Yazid defined that ittihad is “tafrid fana’ fi al-tauhid” the combination between God and sufi without going anything. When he felt fana’, so he should be going to leave his organism and going toward God, depend on his syatahahat:
لست أتعجب من حبى لك فأنا عبد فقير, و لكنى أتعجب من حبك لى وانت ملك قدير.
When he was being ittihad, he said:
قال : يا أبا يزيد انهم كلهم خلقى غيرك فقلت: فأنت أنا و أنا أنت.
He continued in his saying:
فانقطع المناجة فصار الكلمة واحدة و صار الكل بالكل واحد. فقال لى: ياأنت, فقلت به: ياأنا, فقال لى: أنت الفرد. قلت: أنالفرد. قال لى: أنت أنت, قلت: أناأنا.
He ever said when after prayer shubuh:
انى أناالله لااله الا أنا فاعبدنى.
When someone passed Abu Yazid house and he knocked the door, Abu Yazid was asking “who did you looking for? That person answered: “Abu Yazid”, so Abu Yazid said: “go a head from thim house, only Allah The Lord God”.
All above Abu Yazid saying were giving impresson that he was syirk toward God, because of that, on sufi’s history there was caught and jailed by council because of their saying, that made awam person confussed.
B. AL-HALLAJ
B. 1. Biography of Al-Hallaj
Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: منصور الحلاج - Mansūr al-Hallāj; Persian: منصور حلاج - Mansūr-e Hallāj; full name Abū al-Mughīth Husayn Mansūr al-Hallāj) (c. 858 - March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation.
He was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means "cotton-carder" in Arabic). Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Makkah, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Makkah. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.
During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both.
His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin , Arabic (كتاب الطواسين) or Ta Sin al Azal, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3).
B. 2. The Teaching Tasawuf of al-Hallaj
Among other Sufis, al-Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Arabic: أنا الحق Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth", which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God," and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, ما في جبتي إلا الله Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh "There is nothing in my cloak but God."
It's possible that there was a confussion due to translation in the controversy over "I am the Truth". The word for God in Persian is khoda, and the word for self is khod. Hallaj might have meant a play on "I am God" and "I am self" to suggest "God is the self" or the idea that God is from within the self or God is within us.
The famous of part one of al-Hallaj tasawuf teaching are al-Hulul, wahdat as-Syuhud those were being developed by Ibn ‘Araby is wihdat al-wujud. He admited, that he ever felt in unity with God. Hulul teaching is teaching was tought by al-Hallaj. According to tasawuf teaching, he ever said:
أريد ان لا أريد
أنا لا أريد من الله الا الله.
When he was being got ittihad, from his queer saying is:
سبحانى سبحانى ما اعظم شأنى
Hulul from the word hall-yahull-hulûl, it is mean stop or silent. According to al-Hallaj philosophy sufism that hulûl is the experience spiritual of a sufi till he felt near with God, and thah he choosed for taking place and assume a form it. Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity. He said that in organism human being there is the character of God, that he used nuqil on verses:
و اذ قلنا للملائكة اسجدوا للآدم فسجدوا الا ابليس أبى و استكبر و كان من الكافرين (البقرة : ۳۵).
Al-Hallaj comprehend that in human there is oneness of God, because before He create the creation, God show him self and also He loves with his character (dzat) self, that love can not be characteristic, it the reason that wujud and from reasons present.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost. As in his syathahat:
أنا سر الحق مالحق أنا # بل أنا حق ففرق بيننا
After unity doctrin developed, emerge doctrin of wahdat al-wujud. This philosophy was brought by Muhy al-Din Ibn al-Arabi. In this philosophy, nasut of al-Hallaj changed by al-Khalaq (human being) and lahut (God). Because of his syathahat he death, with his story “He wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, saying that "what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness." (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die "in the supreme confession of the cross" (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his execution a redemptive significance, believing as he did that his death "was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhid (the oneness) of both." (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a "'crypto-Christian' for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way." (Mason, 25). His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:"What is love?". He answers: "You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: "I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I don't want to look pale-faced (as of fear)...".
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSES
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
Al-Hallaj took hulul theory from christiany that Allah choosed the body of Isa prophet, occupied, and assume a form toward Isa child of Maryam. Isa prophet became God, because moral value had lost.
The character hulul Allah on Isa is fundamental and permanent. And than the character of hulul Allah on al-Hallaj is non-permanent; spiritual and emotional were compelled; non-fundamental. Al-Hallaj doesn’t became and declared that he was God , except his shathahat on the condition unrealized. Al-Hallaj doesn’t lost his moarl a value. Other than tazkiyat al-nafs is the way to purify soul on the process of maqâmât till he felt near toward God and being in al-fanâ’ 'an al-nafs. Out put from tazkiyat al-nafs is lahut human being became purified, till he could received hulul from nâsût of God.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY
After sufi passing ma’rifah process, they tried up to higher level, it mean that they felt unity toward God, it was mean by ittihad, hulul, wahdat al-wujud and Isyraq. So those are would going to tasawuf philosophy.
On the process of unity between human being and God, there are two concepts; human being and God. Those teaching are fana’ and baqa’, both are were bought by Abu Yazid and continued with ittihad doctrin. He defined ittihad “tafrid fana fi al-tawheed”.
Al-Hallaj is the famous sufi, that he brought tasawuf philosophy about “al-Hulul” Hulul concepts based on theory of lahut and nasut. Lâhût from the word ilah, it’s mean God. Lahut is the characteristics of devinity. Nasut from the word nas, it’s mean human being, nasut it’s mean the characteristics of humanity.
Tasawuf Falsafi about Ibnu 'Araby and Al-Jilli
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra, described in the Qur'an and similar to the concept of Buddha nature. In this state nothing one does defies God, and all is undertaken by the single motivation of love of God. A secondary consequence of this is that the seeker may be led to abandon all notions of dualism or multiplicity, including a conception of an individual self, and to realize the Divine Unity.
In its early stages of development Sufism effectively referred to nothing more than the internalization of Islam. According to one perspective, it is directly from the Qur’an, constantly recited, meditated, and experienced, that Sufism proceeded, in its origin and its development. Others have held that Sufism is the strict emulation of the way of Muhammad, through which the heart's connection to the Divine is strengthened.
From the traditional Sufi point of view, the esoteric teachings of Sufism were transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad to those who had the capacity to acquire the direct experiential gnosis of God, which was passed on from teacher to student through the centuries. Bayazid Bastami was among the first theorists of Sufism; he concerned himself with fanā and baqā, the state of annihilating the self in the presence of the divine, accompanied by clarity concerning worldly phenomena derived from that perspective.
After passing Hallaj and Bayazid way in the divine God, will be continued by Ibn ‘Araby, described wahdat al-wujud and Al-Jilli, described insan kamil. Those subject will be explained in the next chapter.
CHAPTER II
TASAWUF FALSAFI
Tasawuf Falsafi is the Sufism that the combination teaching between mistics perspective and rational perspective, it is different than Tasawuf akhlaki, tasawuf akhlaki is used terminology of philosophy and also from many teaching were influence by beach formers.
At-Tafzani viewed that tasawuf falsafi is emerged since 6 century ago, although the formers were famous after. The cdombination between tasawuf ans philosophy are the reason that tasawuf teaching combined with outside of philosophy from Islam. Such as Greece, Persian, India and also Christiany, although of them, the tasawuf teaching is not lost from the original tasawuf teaching.
The signs of tasawuf falasafi are:
1. the indistinct teaching because of terms understanding by them, which are tasawquf teaching as this.
2. tasawuf falsafi can not be viewed as philosophy because the way of teaching are depend on feeling (dzauq).
There are formers of tasawuf falsafi: Ibn ‘Araby, Al-Jilli, Ibn Sabi’in, and Ibn Masarrah. For this chapter would be specialized explanation of Ibn ‘Araby and Al-Jilli.
A. IBN ‘ARABY
A. 1. The Biography
Ibn 'Arabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (July 28, 1165 - November 10, 1240) was an Arab Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-`Arabī al-Hāṭimī al-Ṭā'ī (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي).
Ibn Arabi [[Ramadan (calendar 560 AH/July 28, 1165 CE, and his family moved to Seville when he was eight years old. In 1200 CE, at the age of thirty-five, he left Iberia for good, intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived in Mecca for some three years, where he began writing his Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204, he left Mecca for Anatolia with Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq, whose son Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qunawī (1210-1274) would be his most influential disciple.
In 1223, he settled in Damascus, where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. He died at the age of 76 on 22 Rabi' II 638 AH/November 10, 1240CE, and his tomb in Damascus is still an important place of pilgrimage.
A vastly prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabī is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as Waḥdat al-Wujūd (literally Unity of Being), though he did not use this term in his writings. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realising that potential and becoming the perfect or complete man (al-insān al-kāmil).
Some 800 works are attributed to Ibn 'Arabā, although only some have been authenticated. Recent research suggests that over 100 of his works have survived in manuscript form, although most printed versions have not yet been critically edited and include many errors.
A. 2. His Teaching Of Tasawuf Falsafi
The main notable ideas of Ibn ‘Araby is about wahdat al-Wujud. The terminology of wahdat al-Wujud is from Ibn Taimiyah, that Ibn ‘Araby used this way. Ibn Taimiyah viewed that wahdat al-wujud is the equality between God and world. He viewed that the human being who believed it, they said that wujud is one and must be had by khaliq, and mumkin al-wujud is must be had by makhluq. They said that world shape is same as shape God. Nor differences from both.
From this sense, Ibn taimiyah viewed that the main teaching of Ibn ‘Araby is only from aspect of tasybih, he was not analyze from aspect tanzih. Nor different from both. Although there were differences between khaliq and shapes, both are see from the five senses and limited ratio in catching of true substances in unity it was correlate from Ibn ‘araby saying:
سبحان من أظهر الأشياء و هو عينها.
Ibn ‘Araby viewed that sense of world is sense of god, and God is the true of the world. Nor different, as qadim (khaliq) with new and one truth other or حدث (Makhluq). That statement sauited with his poem:
العبد رب و الرب عبد # ياليت شعوري
ان قلت عبد فذاك رب # أو قلت رب أنى يكلف.
Also he described in his poem, that wujud God as wujud world, and wujud God together with wujud world. Or it is mean pantheisme in west term:
فالحق خلق الوجه فاعتبروا # وليس خاقا بذاك الوجه فاذكروا
من يدر ماقلت لهم تخذل بصيرته # و ليس يدريه الا من له بصر
جمع و فرق فان العين واحد # و هي الكثيرة لا تبقى و لا تذر.
Wahdat al-wujud is unity of existence, this understanding is continous from hulul. This teaching was brought by Muhyidin Ibn ‘Araby.
J. Spencer Triminghan said that wahdat al-wujud is all things pre-exist and ideas in knowledge of God, whence they emanate and whither they ultimately return.
According to Concise encyclopaedia of Arabic Civilization the Arab East, wahdat al-wujud is unity of being is sublime union between the eternal essence or God with universe, His creation.
Also according to Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics, wahdat al-wujud is the unity of being hold that reality is one, that all apparent multiplicity is a mode of unity, and that the phenomenal is the ontward manifestation of the real.
Ibn ‘Araby changed nasut as khalq, than lahut as haqq. Both are two aspects in every things. Also both are can be ‘ard and jauhar.
R. A. Nicholson said in his book of the mystics of Islam, according to Ibn ‘Araby, the eternal and the phenomenal are two complementary aspects of the One, each of which is necessary to the other. The creatures are the external manifestation of the Creator, and man is God’s consciousness (sirr) as revealed in Creation.
Also R. A. Nicholson said:
But since owing to the limitations of his mind, can not think all objects of thought smultaneasly, and therefore expresses only a part of the divine consciousness, he is not entitled to say Ana ‘l-Haqq “I am God”. He is a reality, but not the Reality. We shall see that other Sufis Jalaludin Rami, for example_ in their ecstatis moments, at any rate, ignore this rather subtle distinction.
Ibn ‘Araby viewed that this phenomenal is mazhar from His names and His qualities, according to fushus al-hikam, Ibn “araby explain it in his poem:
و مالوجه الا واحد غيره # اذا أنت اعددت المرايا تعددا
Also to emphasize his argue, he used hadits qudsi:
كنت كنزا مخفيا فأحببت أن اعرف فخلفقت الخلق فبه عرفونى.
Other he took from verse:
ليس كمثله شيئ و هو السميع البصير.
From that verse, it mean that this verse has dualistis, tasybih and tanzih.
After concept wahdat al-wujud, from Ibn ‘Araby emerge concept Nur Muhammadiyah and wahdat al-adyan.
There are steps that sufi must be passed from:
- Tajalli
- Tanazul, dzat Allah from phenomenal of ma’ani to phenomenal of ta’ayyunal. The phenomena of arwah mujarrad.
- Tanazul, in realities of nafsiah.
- Tanazul, God in material idea but is not reality material (mitsal) or (khayal).
- The phenomena of material.
This world can not be separated from hakikat muhammadiyah. Ibn ‘Araby refused from the statement cretio ex nihilio. He said that nur muhammadiyah is the source of emanation. He ever that nur muhammadiyah can be Quthb and ruh al-khatam.
B. AL-JILLI
B. 1. The Biography
Abd al-Karim al-Jilli was born near Baghdad. A descendent of the great saint and founder of the Qadiri dervish order. ‘Abd al-Qadiral-Jailani, little has been few discovered about his life, save a few glimpses of spiritual autobiography revealed in hid writings, but it is known that he traveled in India and then lived for a time in the Yemen. He produced more than twenty books of which Universal man (al-Insan kamil) is the most celebrated. His teaching follows that of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Araby of which it can be regarded as a systematic exposition, though expressed in a manner which is uniquely his own.
B. 2. His Teaching of Tasawuf
The main teaching of al-Jilli is insan kamil. He viewed that insane kamil is nuskhah or copy of God, as he said in hadits:
خاق الله ادم على صورة الرحمن.
God has qualities, also the Adam has qualities. As he took the example from Adam creation, Adam was create by God as insan kamil because in Adam there was in the names and qualities God.
Also Al-Jilli said other example, that God can not see Him self without shape Adam. Because adm as the mirror of God. It is Appropriate with this verse:
انا عرضنا الأمانة على السموات والأرض و الجبال فأبين أن يحملنها و أشفقن منها و حملها الانسان انه كان ظلوما جهولا (الأحزاب : ۷۲).
Also he said that every person able have al-kamal by al-Quwwah and al-Fi’il. He said that insane kamil as aflak al-wujud.
Titus Burckhardt Translated from the French by Angela Culme-Seymour abut universal man, and the main explanation is about ‘Abd al-Karim Jili and his Sufism.
Universal Man is an exposition of the appearances of Absolute Being as Essence, Names, Qualities and Divinity, and of the corresponding contemplative states in the path of Union.
This is far from being merely a theoretical matter. Jili writes: 'I will mention of all that only that which happened to me on my own journey to God; moreover, I recount nothing in this book, neither of myself nor of another, without my having tested it at the time when I travelled in God by the path of intuition and direct vision.'
Know that by 'essence' (adh-dhat) one means, in a general manner, that to which the Names (al-asma) and the Qualities (as-sifat) are attached by their principle (fi 'ayniha), and not by their (contingent) existence (fi wujudihah). Every Name and every quality attaches itself to a subjacent reality which, itself, is its essence.
As for existence (al-wujud), it has two degrees; it is the pure Being, in so far as Essence of Creator (al-bari), or the existence attained by nothingness, in so far as the relative essence of creatures.
By 'Essence of God' (dhat Allah) - exalted may He be! one means God Himself, that is to say That by which He is; God subsists in fact by Himself, and it is to this Divine Aseity (al-Huwiyah) that the Names of (Perfection) and the (Universal) Qualities essentially belong. One conceives, then, the Essence through every form (of idea) which flows logically from one of the meanings which It implies; I mean that every Quality which results from one of His attributes really belongs to Him; it is to the Essence - to its Being - that every Name implying an idea of perfection (kamal) is connected; now, the sum of the perfections includes infinity and therefore the impossibility to embrace It by intelligence, from which there results, on the one hand, that It is unknowable, and on the other that even that may be known, since it is impossible to be ignorant of it.
Have I learnt all, globally and distinctly,
Of Thine Essence, O Thou, in whom all Qualities are united?
Or is Thy Face too sublime for Thy Nature to be grasped?
I understand then that His Essence cannot be understood.
Far be it from Thee that anyone may fathom Thee, and far be it from Thee
That anyone ignore Thee, - Oh perplexity!
Know that the Essence of God The Supreme is the mystery (ghayb) of the Unity(al-ahadiyah) which every symbol expresses in a certain respect, without it being able to express It under many other respects. One conceives It then not by some rational idea, any more than one understands It by some conventional allusion (isharah); for one understands a thing only by virtue of a relation, which assigns to it a position, or by a negation, hence by its contrary; but, there is not, in all existence, a single relation which 'situates' the Essence, nor a single assignation which applies to It, consequently nothing that can deny It and nothing which is contrary to It. It is, for language, as if It did not exist, and in this respect It refuses human understanding. He who speaks becomes dumb before the Divine Essence, and he who is agitated becomes immobile; he who sees is dazzled. It is too noble to be conceived by the intelligences... It is too elevated for thoughts to grasp It. Its primordial foundation (kunh) is attained by no sentence of the science, nor by any silence that stills it; no limit, however fine and incommensurable it may be, embraces It.
The Holy Bird flew in the unlimited expanse of this empty atmosphere, exalting God by his totality in the air of the Supreme sphere; then he was ravished to the outside of existences and transpierced the Names and the Qualities by realisation (tahqiq) and direct vision ('iyan); then he glided around the zenith of non-existence (al-adam) after having traversed the expanses of becoming and of that which is before time (al-huduth wa-l-qidam); then he found Him necessarily, He Whose existence is not subject to doubt and Whose absence is by no means hidden. And when he wanted to return to the created world, he asked that a sign of recognition should be given him; and it was written on the wing of the dove: "Verily, oh Thou, talisman, who art neither quiddity nor name, nor shadow, nor contour, nor a spirit, nor body, nor quality, nor designation, nor sign, - to Thee belongs existence and non-existence (al-wujud wa-l-adam), and to Thee the becoming and that which is before time; - Thou art non-existent as Essence, existent in Thy Person (an-nafs), known by Thy grace, absent according to the species: Thou art as if Thou created only metaphors and as if Thou wert only as a manner of speech; Thou art the evidence of Thyself by the spontaneity of Thy language; I have just found Thee Living, Knowing, Willing, Mighty, Speaking, Listening and Seeing; I have embraced Beauty (al-jamal) and I have been transpierced by the Majesty (al-jalal); I have fathomed through Thyself the modes of the Infinite (al-kamal); as for that of which Thou hast drawn in affirming the existence of another than Thyself, it is not there, but Thy resplendent Beauty is perfect; and to whom are these words addressed, is it to Thee, is it to Me? O Thou who art absent there, we have found Thee here!"
Then there was written on the wing of the green bird, with the pen of ink of red sulphur (al-kibrit al-ahmar): In Truth, the Grandeur (al-azamah) is fire, the Science (al-ilm) is water and the Strength (al-quwwah) is air and the Wisdom (al-hikmah) is earth, elements through which is realised our Unique Essence (al jawhar al fard). There are two dimensions of this essence, of which the first is the non-beginning (al-azal) and the second the without-end (al-abad), and the two designations, of which the first is God (al-Haqq) and the second the creature (al-khalq), and two attributions, of which the first is eternity (al-qidam) and the second the becoming (al-huduth), and two names, of which the first is the Lord (ar-rabb) and the second the servant (al-'abd). It has two faces: the first is apparent (zahir), this is the world (dunya) and the second is interior (batin), this is the beyond (al-ukhra); and it has two principles (hukm): the first is the necessity (al-wujub) and the second the possibility (al-imkan); and it has two relationships: according to the first, it is absent for itself and existent for that which is other than itself, and according to the second, it is absent for that which is other than itself and existent for itself. There are two understandings of it (m'arifah), the first concerns primarily its necessary affirmation, then its negation; the second concerns firstly its negation, then its necessary affirmation. Its conception implies a point of error; for there are, in the symbols deviations and in the allusions misappropriations of their sense: Prudence to Thee, oh bird, in safekeeping this writing that another may not read it!"
And the bird did not cease to soar in the spheres, living in death, imperishable in annihilation; at last, spreading his wings he looked around, turned this way and that, but he saw nothing come out of its own self, nor go towards a nature which was foreign to its own; that the bird plunged into the ocean, that he came out again, that he drank of it, that he became drunk or that he desired still more, none but he spoke and nothing of him was missing. 'Absolute perfection' has become the expression which is applied really to him, for he does not grasp the limits of one of his Qualities; the Names of the Essence and the Divine Qualities belong to him by virtue of a real assimilation; there are no reins which govern it by the law of adequacy and of contradiction, he enjoys fully the possibilities inherent to his Qualities, and yet there is nothing which belongs to him entirely in its individual form; he possesses all the liberty to evolve in his place and his world and he is at the same time limited by his stations. He sees the perfection of his full moon really in his soul and he is mentally incapable because of the eclipse of his sun; he is ignorant of the thing while knowing it and he changes place while remaining in one place; the world the most intimately contained in his knowledge is that which he can prove the least; the most remote people on his road are the closest to him; his letter (harf) is not read and its meaning is not understood, is not seen...
Al-Jilli described, there are maqam that the Sufis must be passed it:
1. Islam, it’s based on five rukn, also the sufi must be understand and more felt.
2. Faith, believe to God and doing the basic of Islam
3. As-Shalah, the sufi get to higher level in worship with khauf and raja’ till get to nuqtah ilahiyah.
4. Ihsan, the sufi get to level of atsar names and God qualities, with istiqomah, inabah, zuhud, tawakal, ridha and ikhlas.
5. Syahadah, the sufi would be get level irodah which given by mahabbah toward God without anything.
6. Shiddiqiyah, the sufi get level hakikat ma’rifah after passing ilm al-yaqin, ‘ain al-yaqin and haqq al-yaqin. And also the can cath the ghaib and sirr of God till realize him self.
7. Qurbah, maqam that sufi maybe can be change his shape in the names and qualities of God.
A. The Meaning of Tasawuf and Irfani
Sufism (Arabic تصوف) is generally understood (تصوف) to be inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as sufi though some adherents, صوفى of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals of the sufi tradition. Another name used for the sufi seeker is dervish.
Classical sufi scholars have defined Sufism as “a science whose objective is the operation of heart and turning it away from all else but God.” Alternatively, in the words of the renowned Darqawi sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, “a science through which one can know how to travel into purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.
Etimology, Dargah aala Hazrat in Bareily India the lexical root of sufi is variously traced to صوف suf wool, referring either to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, or possibly to صفا safa “purity. The two were combined by al-Rudhabari who said, the sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.
Asy-Syekh Muhammed Amin allKurd said:
التصوف هو علم يعرف به احوال النفس محمودها و مذمومها و كيفية تطهيرها من المذموم منها و تحليتها بالاتصاف بمحمودها و كيفية السلوك و السير الى الله تعالى و الفرار اليه.
Imam Al-Ghazali describes Abu Bakar Al-Kataany view, said:
التصوف خلق فمن زاد عليك بلخلق زاد عليك بالتصوف فالعباد اجابت نفوسهم الى لأعمال لأنهم يسلكون الى بعض الأخلاق لكونهم سلكوا بنور الايمان.
Also according to his book Raudatu Thalibin, Al-Ghazali said that Sufism is eating with has allowed, follow to morals, doing and command of prophet or his tradition. His Sufism teaching is base on holy Qur’an and prophet sunnit, and who doesn’t memorize the content of al-Qur’an and doesn’t write hadith, don’t to follow his teaching.
After I learned definitions of Sufism above I’d like to define of Sufism, is one’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one’s sense of self as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.
The meaning of tasawuf and irfan are used as synonym in Islamic world. We see from academic that irfan from the word urafa but every looking it from social mean to mutasawwifah. Different view from Imam Khomeni Qs, he viewed that irfan is relate to ma’rifat irfani. But tasawuf related to sair suluk (riyadha).
All sufi are urafa (jamak from arif) are they got the ontology of true knowledge. Knowledge is which makrifat nafs than got to makrifat rabb “man ‘arafa nafsahu fa qad ‘arafa rabbahu”.
As etymology irfan from Arabic language, it’s mean cognition and understanding. As terminology, according to Bergson intuition or irfan is vehicle to catch freedom and directly.
B. Tasawuf Irfani
According to me that Tasawuf Irfani is one tasawuf to know about God after passing ma’rifat. So that here, I would like give some main character who has big effect in this area learning. She was Rabia al-Adawiya.
a. The biography of Rabia Adawiya
She was born between 95 and 99 Hijri in Basra, Iraq. Much of her early life is narrated by Farid al-Din Attar. Many spiritual stories are associated with her and it is sometimes difficult to separate reality from legend. These tradition come from Farid al-Din Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources. Rabia herself did not leave any written works.
She was the forth daughter of her family and therefore named Rabia, meaning “fourth”. She was born free in poor but respected family.
According to Farid al-Din Attar, Rabia’s parents were so poor that there was no oil in house to light a lamp, nor a cioth even to wrap her with. Her mother asked her husband to borrow some oil from a neighbor, he had resolved in his life never to ask for anything from anyone except the Creator. He pretended to go to the neighbor’s door and returned home empty-handed.
In the night Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him “Your newly born daughter is a favorite of the Lord , and shall lead many Muslims to the right path. You should approach the Amir of Basra and present him with a letter in which should be written this message. You offer Durood to the Holy Prophet one hundred times every night and four hundred times every Thursday night. However, since fou failed to observe the rule last Thursday, as a penalty you must pay the bearer four hundred dinars.
Rabia’s father got up and went straight to the Amir with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. The Amir was delighted on receiving the message, knowing that he was in the eyes of prophet. He distributed 1000 dinars to the poor and joyously paid 400 dinars to Rabia’s father to come to him whenever he required anything, as the Amir would benefit very much by the visit of such a soul dear to the Lord.
After the death of her father a famine overtook Basra and Rabia parted from her sisters. Legend has it that she was accompanying a caravan, which fell into the hands of robbers. The chief of the robbers took Rabia captive, and sold her in the market as a slave. The new master of Rabia used to take hard service from her.
She would pass the whole right in prayer, after she had finished her household jobs. She spent many of her days observing fast.
Once the master of the house got up in the middle of the night, and was attracted by the pathetic voice in which Rabia was praying to the Lord. She was entreating in these terms: “Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O loght of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave of a human being?”.
At once the master felt that it was sacrilegious to keep such a saint in this service. He decided to serve her instead. In the morning he called her and told her his decision; he would serve her and she should dwell there as the mistress of the house. If she insted on leaving the house he was willing to free her from bondage.
She told him that she was willing to leave the house to carry on her worship in solitude. There are 23 masters granted and she left the house.
Rabia was in her early to mid eighties. When she died having followed the mystic way to the end. She believed she was continually united with her beloved. As she told her Sufi friends, “My beloved is always with me”. She died in Jerussalem vol 3, p. 10. col 1 who quotes Ibn Khalikan as his source.
b. The Doctrines of her tasawuf
Rabia binti Ismail al-Adawiya was famous by Rabiatul Adawiyah, she was big one Sufi in the time of Tabi’in Sufi’s (followers). She was pious and piety people, she often fast and worship to God, she has female members.
Before Hassan Basri built syuhud grade are khauf and raja’, know upgrade by Rabiatul Adawiya to divine love. The statement of her is true love more higher than khauf and raja’. Because true love has not hope for nothing only God.
She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God’s own sake, not out of fear … as earlier Sufis had done. She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already excepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise. For she saw such self interst as unworthy of God’s servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils…ie.hindrances to the vision of God Himself.
In her famous poems, she said about her syuhud only to God, for God, not to God because of hoping. She said that paradise and hell are the second problem after love, because love was big a luxury and unmeasured.
Her love divided into two grade;
1. love for missing, miss toward God because God had given life till she could mention God’s names.
2. Love because God has right and ready to receive her is love because testimonials of beautiful God (jamal) and biggest (jalal) whose opened hijab for her, and the aim from her is musyahadah with heart (qalb).
She described from her statement about her worship:
ﻤﺎﻋﺑﺪﺗﻪﺨﻮﻔﺎﻤﻦﻧﺎﺭﻩﻭﻻﻄﻤﻌﺎﻔﻰﺠﻧﺗﻪﻔﺎﻜﻭﻦﻜﺎﻷﺠﻴﺭﺍﻟﺴﻭﺀﻋﺒﺪﺗﻪﺤﺑﺎﻟﻪﻭﺷﻭﻗﺎﺇﻟﻴﻪ
Its mean from her paryer “ O Allah, if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise but if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.
CHAPTER III
ANALYSES
Islamic science source there are three: 1. wahyu/al-Qur’an (alwahy), 2. aql (reason, demonstration method, al-burhan), 3. Isyraq/alirfan (al-Mukasyafah, al-musyahadah). Irfani philosophy/tasawuf (al-Qur’an and al-Isyraq) is philosophy that uses fower of intuisi and wahyu (al-Qur’an) to look for truth of something. They always say it with ma’rifah. The ontology of irfani philosophy is something can not be seen by pentameter of indra, I mean the obyek of irfani philosophy is abstract of thing, and can not be to see material of something. The epistemology of irfani is intuitif, I mean experience of mystique (ilm al-huduri_ and al-Qur’an).
She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God’s own sake, not out of fear … as earlier Sufis had done. She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already excepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise. For she saw such self interst as unworthy of God’s servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils…ie.hindrances to the vision of God Himself.
CHAPTER IV
SUMMARY
Every sufi has different way to success their tasawuf to get higher grade with propose to feel with beauty God, Began from time of sufi’s life from prophet self, friends (shohabat), followers (tabi’in), also from century to century. Finally they arrived till maqamat and higher of maqamat.
From this topic the main explanation is from Rabia al-Adawiyah, she is the first women who introduced about tasawuf, and he way to get God is from mahabbah. All of her worhip are depend on mahabbah, because with love she can catch God.
INTRODUCTION
The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra, described in the Qur'an and similar to the concept of Buddha nature. In this state nothing one does defies God, and all is undertaken by the single motivation of love of God. A secondary consequence of this is that the seeker may be led to abandon all notions of dualism or multiplicity, including a conception of an individual self, and to realize the Divine Unity.
In its early stages of development Sufism effectively referred to nothing more than the internalization of Islam. According to one perspective, it is directly from the Qur’an, constantly recited, meditated, and experienced, that Sufism proceeded, in its origin and its development. Others have held that Sufism is the strict emulation of the way of Muhammad, through which the heart's connection to the Divine is strengthened.
From the traditional Sufi point of view, the esoteric teachings of Sufism were transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad to those who had the capacity to acquire the direct experiential gnosis of God, which was passed on from teacher to student through the centuries. Bayazid Bastami was among the first theorists of Sufism; he concerned himself with fanā and baqā, the state of annihilating the self in the presence of the divine, accompanied by clarity concerning worldly phenomena derived from that perspective.
After passing Hallaj and Bayazid way in the divine God, will be continued by Ibn ‘Araby, described wahdat al-wujud and Al-Jilli, described insan kamil. Those subject will be explained in the next chapter.
CHAPTER II
TASAWUF FALSAFI
Tasawuf Falsafi is the Sufism that the combination teaching between mistics perspective and rational perspective, it is different than Tasawuf akhlaki, tasawuf akhlaki is used terminology of philosophy and also from many teaching were influence by beach formers.
At-Tafzani viewed that tasawuf falsafi is emerged since 6 century ago, although the formers were famous after. The cdombination between tasawuf ans philosophy are the reason that tasawuf teaching combined with outside of philosophy from Islam. Such as Greece, Persian, India and also Christiany, although of them, the tasawuf teaching is not lost from the original tasawuf teaching.
The signs of tasawuf falasafi are:
1. the indistinct teaching because of terms understanding by them, which are tasawquf teaching as this.
2. tasawuf falsafi can not be viewed as philosophy because the way of teaching are depend on feeling (dzauq).
There are formers of tasawuf falsafi: Ibn ‘Araby, Al-Jilli, Ibn Sabi’in, and Ibn Masarrah. For this chapter would be specialized explanation of Ibn ‘Araby and Al-Jilli.
A. IBN ‘ARABY
A. 1. The Biography
Ibn 'Arabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (July 28, 1165 - November 10, 1240) was an Arab Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-`Arabī al-Hāṭimī al-Ṭā'ī (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي).
Ibn Arabi [[Ramadan (calendar 560 AH/July 28, 1165 CE, and his family moved to Seville when he was eight years old. In 1200 CE, at the age of thirty-five, he left Iberia for good, intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived in Mecca for some three years, where he began writing his Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204, he left Mecca for Anatolia with Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq, whose son Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qunawī (1210-1274) would be his most influential disciple.
In 1223, he settled in Damascus, where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. He died at the age of 76 on 22 Rabi' II 638 AH/November 10, 1240CE, and his tomb in Damascus is still an important place of pilgrimage.
A vastly prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabī is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as Waḥdat al-Wujūd (literally Unity of Being), though he did not use this term in his writings. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realising that potential and becoming the perfect or complete man (al-insān al-kāmil).
Some 800 works are attributed to Ibn 'Arabā, although only some have been authenticated. Recent research suggests that over 100 of his works have survived in manuscript form, although most printed versions have not yet been critically edited and include many errors.
A. 2. His Teaching Of Tasawuf Falsafi
The main notable ideas of Ibn ‘Araby is about wahdat al-Wujud. The terminology of wahdat al-Wujud is from Ibn Taimiyah, that Ibn ‘Araby used this way. Ibn Taimiyah viewed that wahdat al-wujud is the equality between God and world. He viewed that the human being who believed it, they said that wujud is one and must be had by khaliq, and mumkin al-wujud is must be had by makhluq. They said that world shape is same as shape God. Nor differences from both.
From this sense, Ibn taimiyah viewed that the main teaching of Ibn ‘Araby is only from aspect of tasybih, he was not analyze from aspect tanzih. Nor different from both. Although there were differences between khaliq and shapes, both are see from the five senses and limited ratio in catching of true substances in unity it was correlate from Ibn ‘araby saying:
سبحان من أظهر الأشياء و هو عينها.
Ibn ‘Araby viewed that sense of world is sense of god, and God is the true of the world. Nor different, as qadim (khaliq) with new and one truth other or حدث (Makhluq). That statement sauited with his poem:
العبد رب و الرب عبد # ياليت شعوري
ان قلت عبد فذاك رب # أو قلت رب أنى يكلف.
Also he described in his poem, that wujud God as wujud world, and wujud God together with wujud world. Or it is mean pantheisme in west term:
فالحق خلق الوجه فاعتبروا # وليس خاقا بذاك الوجه فاذكروا
من يدر ماقلت لهم تخذل بصيرته # و ليس يدريه الا من له بصر
جمع و فرق فان العين واحد # و هي الكثيرة لا تبقى و لا تذر.
Wahdat al-wujud is unity of existence, this understanding is continous from hulul. This teaching was brought by Muhyidin Ibn ‘Araby.
J. Spencer Triminghan said that wahdat al-wujud is all things pre-exist and ideas in knowledge of God, whence they emanate and whither they ultimately return.
According to Concise encyclopaedia of Arabic Civilization the Arab East, wahdat al-wujud is unity of being is sublime union between the eternal essence or God with universe, His creation.
Also according to Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics, wahdat al-wujud is the unity of being hold that reality is one, that all apparent multiplicity is a mode of unity, and that the phenomenal is the ontward manifestation of the real.
Ibn ‘Araby changed nasut as khalq, than lahut as haqq. Both are two aspects in every things. Also both are can be ‘ard and jauhar.
R. A. Nicholson said in his book of the mystics of Islam, according to Ibn ‘Araby, the eternal and the phenomenal are two complementary aspects of the One, each of which is necessary to the other. The creatures are the external manifestation of the Creator, and man is God’s consciousness (sirr) as revealed in Creation.
Also R. A. Nicholson said:
But since owing to the limitations of his mind, can not think all objects of thought smultaneasly, and therefore expresses only a part of the divine consciousness, he is not entitled to say Ana ‘l-Haqq “I am God”. He is a reality, but not the Reality. We shall see that other Sufis Jalaludin Rami, for example_ in their ecstatis moments, at any rate, ignore this rather subtle distinction.
Ibn ‘Araby viewed that this phenomenal is mazhar from His names and His qualities, according to fushus al-hikam, Ibn “araby explain it in his poem:
و مالوجه الا واحد غيره # اذا أنت اعددت المرايا تعددا
Also to emphasize his argue, he used hadits qudsi:
كنت كنزا مخفيا فأحببت أن اعرف فخلفقت الخلق فبه عرفونى.
Other he took from verse:
ليس كمثله شيئ و هو السميع البصير.
From that verse, it mean that this verse has dualistis, tasybih and tanzih.
After concept wahdat al-wujud, from Ibn ‘Araby emerge concept Nur Muhammadiyah and wahdat al-adyan.
There are steps that sufi must be passed from:
- Tajalli
- Tanazul, dzat Allah from phenomenal of ma’ani to phenomenal of ta’ayyunal. The phenomena of arwah mujarrad.
- Tanazul, in realities of nafsiah.
- Tanazul, God in material idea but is not reality material (mitsal) or (khayal).
- The phenomena of material.
This world can not be separated from hakikat muhammadiyah. Ibn ‘Araby refused from the statement cretio ex nihilio. He said that nur muhammadiyah is the source of emanation. He ever that nur muhammadiyah can be Quthb and ruh al-khatam.
B. AL-JILLI
B. 1. The Biography
Abd al-Karim al-Jilli was born near Baghdad. A descendent of the great saint and founder of the Qadiri dervish order. ‘Abd al-Qadiral-Jailani, little has been few discovered about his life, save a few glimpses of spiritual autobiography revealed in hid writings, but it is known that he traveled in India and then lived for a time in the Yemen. He produced more than twenty books of which Universal man (al-Insan kamil) is the most celebrated. His teaching follows that of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Araby of which it can be regarded as a systematic exposition, though expressed in a manner which is uniquely his own.
B. 2. His Teaching of Tasawuf
The main teaching of al-Jilli is insan kamil. He viewed that insane kamil is nuskhah or copy of God, as he said in hadits:
خاق الله ادم على صورة الرحمن.
God has qualities, also the Adam has qualities. As he took the example from Adam creation, Adam was create by God as insan kamil because in Adam there was in the names and qualities God.
Also Al-Jilli said other example, that God can not see Him self without shape Adam. Because adm as the mirror of God. It is Appropriate with this verse:
انا عرضنا الأمانة على السموات والأرض و الجبال فأبين أن يحملنها و أشفقن منها و حملها الانسان انه كان ظلوما جهولا (الأحزاب : ۷۲).
Also he said that every person able have al-kamal by al-Quwwah and al-Fi’il. He said that insane kamil as aflak al-wujud.
Titus Burckhardt Translated from the French by Angela Culme-Seymour abut universal man, and the main explanation is about ‘Abd al-Karim Jili and his Sufism.
Universal Man is an exposition of the appearances of Absolute Being as Essence, Names, Qualities and Divinity, and of the corresponding contemplative states in the path of Union.
This is far from being merely a theoretical matter. Jili writes: 'I will mention of all that only that which happened to me on my own journey to God; moreover, I recount nothing in this book, neither of myself nor of another, without my having tested it at the time when I travelled in God by the path of intuition and direct vision.'
Know that by 'essence' (adh-dhat) one means, in a general manner, that to which the Names (al-asma) and the Qualities (as-sifat) are attached by their principle (fi 'ayniha), and not by their (contingent) existence (fi wujudihah). Every Name and every quality attaches itself to a subjacent reality which, itself, is its essence.
As for existence (al-wujud), it has two degrees; it is the pure Being, in so far as Essence of Creator (al-bari), or the existence attained by nothingness, in so far as the relative essence of creatures.
By 'Essence of God' (dhat Allah) - exalted may He be! one means God Himself, that is to say That by which He is; God subsists in fact by Himself, and it is to this Divine Aseity (al-Huwiyah) that the Names of (Perfection) and the (Universal) Qualities essentially belong. One conceives, then, the Essence through every form (of idea) which flows logically from one of the meanings which It implies; I mean that every Quality which results from one of His attributes really belongs to Him; it is to the Essence - to its Being - that every Name implying an idea of perfection (kamal) is connected; now, the sum of the perfections includes infinity and therefore the impossibility to embrace It by intelligence, from which there results, on the one hand, that It is unknowable, and on the other that even that may be known, since it is impossible to be ignorant of it.
Have I learnt all, globally and distinctly,
Of Thine Essence, O Thou, in whom all Qualities are united?
Or is Thy Face too sublime for Thy Nature to be grasped?
I understand then that His Essence cannot be understood.
Far be it from Thee that anyone may fathom Thee, and far be it from Thee
That anyone ignore Thee, - Oh perplexity!
Know that the Essence of God The Supreme is the mystery (ghayb) of the Unity(al-ahadiyah) which every symbol expresses in a certain respect, without it being able to express It under many other respects. One conceives It then not by some rational idea, any more than one understands It by some conventional allusion (isharah); for one understands a thing only by virtue of a relation, which assigns to it a position, or by a negation, hence by its contrary; but, there is not, in all existence, a single relation which 'situates' the Essence, nor a single assignation which applies to It, consequently nothing that can deny It and nothing which is contrary to It. It is, for language, as if It did not exist, and in this respect It refuses human understanding. He who speaks becomes dumb before the Divine Essence, and he who is agitated becomes immobile; he who sees is dazzled. It is too noble to be conceived by the intelligences... It is too elevated for thoughts to grasp It. Its primordial foundation (kunh) is attained by no sentence of the science, nor by any silence that stills it; no limit, however fine and incommensurable it may be, embraces It.
The Holy Bird flew in the unlimited expanse of this empty atmosphere, exalting God by his totality in the air of the Supreme sphere; then he was ravished to the outside of existences and transpierced the Names and the Qualities by realisation (tahqiq) and direct vision ('iyan); then he glided around the zenith of non-existence (al-adam) after having traversed the expanses of becoming and of that which is before time (al-huduth wa-l-qidam); then he found Him necessarily, He Whose existence is not subject to doubt and Whose absence is by no means hidden. And when he wanted to return to the created world, he asked that a sign of recognition should be given him; and it was written on the wing of the dove: "Verily, oh Thou, talisman, who art neither quiddity nor name, nor shadow, nor contour, nor a spirit, nor body, nor quality, nor designation, nor sign, - to Thee belongs existence and non-existence (al-wujud wa-l-adam), and to Thee the becoming and that which is before time; - Thou art non-existent as Essence, existent in Thy Person (an-nafs), known by Thy grace, absent according to the species: Thou art as if Thou created only metaphors and as if Thou wert only as a manner of speech; Thou art the evidence of Thyself by the spontaneity of Thy language; I have just found Thee Living, Knowing, Willing, Mighty, Speaking, Listening and Seeing; I have embraced Beauty (al-jamal) and I have been transpierced by the Majesty (al-jalal); I have fathomed through Thyself the modes of the Infinite (al-kamal); as for that of which Thou hast drawn in affirming the existence of another than Thyself, it is not there, but Thy resplendent Beauty is perfect; and to whom are these words addressed, is it to Thee, is it to Me? O Thou who art absent there, we have found Thee here!"
Then there was written on the wing of the green bird, with the pen of ink of red sulphur (al-kibrit al-ahmar): In Truth, the Grandeur (al-azamah) is fire, the Science (al-ilm) is water and the Strength (al-quwwah) is air and the Wisdom (al-hikmah) is earth, elements through which is realised our Unique Essence (al jawhar al fard). There are two dimensions of this essence, of which the first is the non-beginning (al-azal) and the second the without-end (al-abad), and the two designations, of which the first is God (al-Haqq) and the second the creature (al-khalq), and two attributions, of which the first is eternity (al-qidam) and the second the becoming (al-huduth), and two names, of which the first is the Lord (ar-rabb) and the second the servant (al-'abd). It has two faces: the first is apparent (zahir), this is the world (dunya) and the second is interior (batin), this is the beyond (al-ukhra); and it has two principles (hukm): the first is the necessity (al-wujub) and the second the possibility (al-imkan); and it has two relationships: according to the first, it is absent for itself and existent for that which is other than itself, and according to the second, it is absent for that which is other than itself and existent for itself. There are two understandings of it (m'arifah), the first concerns primarily its necessary affirmation, then its negation; the second concerns firstly its negation, then its necessary affirmation. Its conception implies a point of error; for there are, in the symbols deviations and in the allusions misappropriations of their sense: Prudence to Thee, oh bird, in safekeeping this writing that another may not read it!"
And the bird did not cease to soar in the spheres, living in death, imperishable in annihilation; at last, spreading his wings he looked around, turned this way and that, but he saw nothing come out of its own self, nor go towards a nature which was foreign to its own; that the bird plunged into the ocean, that he came out again, that he drank of it, that he became drunk or that he desired still more, none but he spoke and nothing of him was missing. 'Absolute perfection' has become the expression which is applied really to him, for he does not grasp the limits of one of his Qualities; the Names of the Essence and the Divine Qualities belong to him by virtue of a real assimilation; there are no reins which govern it by the law of adequacy and of contradiction, he enjoys fully the possibilities inherent to his Qualities, and yet there is nothing which belongs to him entirely in its individual form; he possesses all the liberty to evolve in his place and his world and he is at the same time limited by his stations. He sees the perfection of his full moon really in his soul and he is mentally incapable because of the eclipse of his sun; he is ignorant of the thing while knowing it and he changes place while remaining in one place; the world the most intimately contained in his knowledge is that which he can prove the least; the most remote people on his road are the closest to him; his letter (harf) is not read and its meaning is not understood, is not seen...
Al-Jilli described, there are maqam that the Sufis must be passed it:
1. Islam, it’s based on five rukn, also the sufi must be understand and more felt.
2. Faith, believe to God and doing the basic of Islam
3. As-Shalah, the sufi get to higher level in worship with khauf and raja’ till get to nuqtah ilahiyah.
4. Ihsan, the sufi get to level of atsar names and God qualities, with istiqomah, inabah, zuhud, tawakal, ridha and ikhlas.
5. Syahadah, the sufi would be get level irodah which given by mahabbah toward God without anything.
6. Shiddiqiyah, the sufi get level hakikat ma’rifah after passing ilm al-yaqin, ‘ain al-yaqin and haqq al-yaqin. And also the can cath the ghaib and sirr of God till realize him self.
7. Qurbah, maqam that sufi maybe can be change his shape in the names and qualities of God.
A. The Meaning of Tasawuf and Irfani
Sufism (Arabic تصوف) is generally understood (تصوف) to be inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as sufi though some adherents, صوفى of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals of the sufi tradition. Another name used for the sufi seeker is dervish.
Classical sufi scholars have defined Sufism as “a science whose objective is the operation of heart and turning it away from all else but God.” Alternatively, in the words of the renowned Darqawi sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, “a science through which one can know how to travel into purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.
Etimology, Dargah aala Hazrat in Bareily India the lexical root of sufi is variously traced to صوف suf wool, referring either to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, or possibly to صفا safa “purity. The two were combined by al-Rudhabari who said, the sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.
Asy-Syekh Muhammed Amin allKurd said:
التصوف هو علم يعرف به احوال النفس محمودها و مذمومها و كيفية تطهيرها من المذموم منها و تحليتها بالاتصاف بمحمودها و كيفية السلوك و السير الى الله تعالى و الفرار اليه.
Imam Al-Ghazali describes Abu Bakar Al-Kataany view, said:
التصوف خلق فمن زاد عليك بلخلق زاد عليك بالتصوف فالعباد اجابت نفوسهم الى لأعمال لأنهم يسلكون الى بعض الأخلاق لكونهم سلكوا بنور الايمان.
Also according to his book Raudatu Thalibin, Al-Ghazali said that Sufism is eating with has allowed, follow to morals, doing and command of prophet or his tradition. His Sufism teaching is base on holy Qur’an and prophet sunnit, and who doesn’t memorize the content of al-Qur’an and doesn’t write hadith, don’t to follow his teaching.
After I learned definitions of Sufism above I’d like to define of Sufism, is one’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one’s sense of self as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.
The meaning of tasawuf and irfan are used as synonym in Islamic world. We see from academic that irfan from the word urafa but every looking it from social mean to mutasawwifah. Different view from Imam Khomeni Qs, he viewed that irfan is relate to ma’rifat irfani. But tasawuf related to sair suluk (riyadha).
All sufi are urafa (jamak from arif) are they got the ontology of true knowledge. Knowledge is which makrifat nafs than got to makrifat rabb “man ‘arafa nafsahu fa qad ‘arafa rabbahu”.
As etymology irfan from Arabic language, it’s mean cognition and understanding. As terminology, according to Bergson intuition or irfan is vehicle to catch freedom and directly.
B. Tasawuf Irfani
According to me that Tasawuf Irfani is one tasawuf to know about God after passing ma’rifat. So that here, I would like give some main character who has big effect in this area learning. She was Rabia al-Adawiya.
a. The biography of Rabia Adawiya
She was born between 95 and 99 Hijri in Basra, Iraq. Much of her early life is narrated by Farid al-Din Attar. Many spiritual stories are associated with her and it is sometimes difficult to separate reality from legend. These tradition come from Farid al-Din Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources. Rabia herself did not leave any written works.
She was the forth daughter of her family and therefore named Rabia, meaning “fourth”. She was born free in poor but respected family.
According to Farid al-Din Attar, Rabia’s parents were so poor that there was no oil in house to light a lamp, nor a cioth even to wrap her with. Her mother asked her husband to borrow some oil from a neighbor, he had resolved in his life never to ask for anything from anyone except the Creator. He pretended to go to the neighbor’s door and returned home empty-handed.
In the night Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him “Your newly born daughter is a favorite of the Lord , and shall lead many Muslims to the right path. You should approach the Amir of Basra and present him with a letter in which should be written this message. You offer Durood to the Holy Prophet one hundred times every night and four hundred times every Thursday night. However, since fou failed to observe the rule last Thursday, as a penalty you must pay the bearer four hundred dinars.
Rabia’s father got up and went straight to the Amir with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. The Amir was delighted on receiving the message, knowing that he was in the eyes of prophet. He distributed 1000 dinars to the poor and joyously paid 400 dinars to Rabia’s father to come to him whenever he required anything, as the Amir would benefit very much by the visit of such a soul dear to the Lord.
After the death of her father a famine overtook Basra and Rabia parted from her sisters. Legend has it that she was accompanying a caravan, which fell into the hands of robbers. The chief of the robbers took Rabia captive, and sold her in the market as a slave. The new master of Rabia used to take hard service from her.
She would pass the whole right in prayer, after she had finished her household jobs. She spent many of her days observing fast.
Once the master of the house got up in the middle of the night, and was attracted by the pathetic voice in which Rabia was praying to the Lord. She was entreating in these terms: “Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O loght of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave of a human being?”.
At once the master felt that it was sacrilegious to keep such a saint in this service. He decided to serve her instead. In the morning he called her and told her his decision; he would serve her and she should dwell there as the mistress of the house. If she insted on leaving the house he was willing to free her from bondage.
She told him that she was willing to leave the house to carry on her worship in solitude. There are 23 masters granted and she left the house.
Rabia was in her early to mid eighties. When she died having followed the mystic way to the end. She believed she was continually united with her beloved. As she told her Sufi friends, “My beloved is always with me”. She died in Jerussalem vol 3, p. 10. col 1 who quotes Ibn Khalikan as his source.
b. The Doctrines of her tasawuf
Rabia binti Ismail al-Adawiya was famous by Rabiatul Adawiyah, she was big one Sufi in the time of Tabi’in Sufi’s (followers). She was pious and piety people, she often fast and worship to God, she has female members.
Before Hassan Basri built syuhud grade are khauf and raja’, know upgrade by Rabiatul Adawiya to divine love. The statement of her is true love more higher than khauf and raja’. Because true love has not hope for nothing only God.
She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God’s own sake, not out of fear … as earlier Sufis had done. She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already excepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise. For she saw such self interst as unworthy of God’s servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils…ie.hindrances to the vision of God Himself.
In her famous poems, she said about her syuhud only to God, for God, not to God because of hoping. She said that paradise and hell are the second problem after love, because love was big a luxury and unmeasured.
Her love divided into two grade;
1. love for missing, miss toward God because God had given life till she could mention God’s names.
2. Love because God has right and ready to receive her is love because testimonials of beautiful God (jamal) and biggest (jalal) whose opened hijab for her, and the aim from her is musyahadah with heart (qalb).
She described from her statement about her worship:
ﻤﺎﻋﺑﺪﺗﻪﺨﻮﻔﺎﻤﻦﻧﺎﺭﻩﻭﻻﻄﻤﻌﺎﻔﻰﺠﻧﺗﻪﻔﺎﻜﻭﻦﻜﺎﻷﺠﻴﺭﺍﻟﺴﻭﺀﻋﺒﺪﺗﻪﺤﺑﺎﻟﻪﻭﺷﻭﻗﺎﺇﻟﻴﻪ
Its mean from her paryer “ O Allah, if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise but if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.
CHAPTER III
ANALYSES
Islamic science source there are three: 1. wahyu/al-Qur’an (alwahy), 2. aql (reason, demonstration method, al-burhan), 3. Isyraq/alirfan (al-Mukasyafah, al-musyahadah). Irfani philosophy/tasawuf (al-Qur’an and al-Isyraq) is philosophy that uses fower of intuisi and wahyu (al-Qur’an) to look for truth of something. They always say it with ma’rifah. The ontology of irfani philosophy is something can not be seen by pentameter of indra, I mean the obyek of irfani philosophy is abstract of thing, and can not be to see material of something. The epistemology of irfani is intuitif, I mean experience of mystique (ilm al-huduri_ and al-Qur’an).
She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God’s own sake, not out of fear … as earlier Sufis had done. She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already excepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise. For she saw such self interst as unworthy of God’s servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils…ie.hindrances to the vision of God Himself.
CHAPTER IV
SUMMARY
Every sufi has different way to success their tasawuf to get higher grade with propose to feel with beauty God, Began from time of sufi’s life from prophet self, friends (shohabat), followers (tabi’in), also from century to century. Finally they arrived till maqamat and higher of maqamat.
From this topic the main explanation is from Rabia al-Adawiyah, she is the first women who introduced about tasawuf, and he way to get God is from mahabbah. All of her worhip are depend on mahabbah, because with love she can catch God.
The beginners of English language
10 Tips on How to Learn a New Language
contributed by David Davis
There are many reasons why it is beneficial and interesting to learn a new language. For example, many people who choose to emigrate for financial reasons would find it very difficult to make the most of their move if they cannot speak the language because they would not be able to get a job. Other people may simply have an interest in linguistics and the differences between languages, so they choose to learn foreign languages for this reason. There are also many social reasons for learning a language. For instance, if you have foreign friends or family or maybe even to communicate with someone in secret! However one of the most important reasons to learn a language is to broaden your mind and to make yourself more accustomed to other cultures.
Here are some tips for learning a new language and different strategies that can be used:
1. It is very important that you try to study the language every day. In order to make yourself more accustomed to the language you need to expose yourself to it. However, try not to overload your brain. Try to take breaks every ten minutes or so and only study for an hour to an hour and a half a day.
2. Certain languages have different genders for different nouns so it is very important to learn the genders when you are learning the noun. For example in German:
die Tür {the door} feminine
der Tisch {the table} masculine
das Hund {the dog} neutral
If you do not learn the genders with the noun, it is more difficult to understand and apply the grammar of the language.
3. In order to build up your vocabulary a good idea would be to read a lot of books. Look up the words that you do not understand, write them down and maybe even the next day, take a few of these words and try to learn them. However, its important to have a good dictionary because many words can have a lot of different meanings.
4. A good tip is to have a phrase book or vocabulary book and any time you come across a word that you do not understand, you can write it into its proper section. Eg noun, verb adjective etc. This way, it makes the words a lot easier to learn and to look up. learn them. However, its important to have a good dictionary because many words can have a lot of different meanings.
5. You need to be very careful of 'false friends'. Some words may seem similar in your own language but they may have a totally different meaning in the language you are learning. For example:
German: Rat (council) English: rat
bald (soon) bald
French: warning (advertisement) warning
allure (speed) allure
6. Try not to translate word or sentences literally. A literal translation often does not convey the actual translation of the original text. Do not be afraid if your translation is not literal to the original text because every language expresses its meanings in different ways.
7. If you study the language in the country where it is spoken you will more than likely experience a rapid improvement not only in your vocabulary, grammar and speaking skills but also in your confidence because you will become immersed in the language. You will also get to experience the true culture of the country, the food that they eat and the way of life of the people. Many English speaking students choose to give grinds in the country of their target language because it not only helps them with learning the language by speaking to their tutees but it is also an excellent way to make friends.
8. Try to speak as much as possible- you can even practice by speaking to yourself! Pronunciation is very important so that people can understand you, so practice as much as you can.
9. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. If you can get your main point across, that is the most important thing. If you are having a conversation with someone and you come across a word that you do not know how to say, try to explain it in a different form. For example, if you do not know how to say 'pen' you could say 'the object that you write with'.
10. The most important thing is to try to have fun and to make the most of learning a new language. By incorporating grammar into riddles and jokes it can make it a lot more interesting and fun when learning a language.
The Psychological Factor
contributed by Gabrielle Guichard
When it comes about learning a foreign language, many people wonder if they will be able to memorize enough vocabulary. But this question never occurs about their mother tongue. And yet, it was a foreign language; nevertheless, among all the questions that new parents ask, no doctor has ever heard: "Will my baby be able to learn my language?" Be honest. Do you know all the words of your mother tongue? The answer is: "no". New words, and new ways of using old words, appear every day. Twenty years ago, who would have been able to understand such a sentence: "Click here to download your digital book"? Nobody. You never stop acquiring new vocabulary and you never know how long you will be needing it. Do you still use "tomagotchi"?
When you don't know the exact name of a thing, you don't hesitate to call it "whatsit". Why do you think foreigners do otherwise? (The French word for whatsit is machin. That's a good start! You already know the word that can virtually replace any other!)
Sometimes, you have the word on the tip of your tongue... and it sticks there! But you do know this phenomenon and don't think that it is due to a bad memory. You should not give this phenomenon more importance in the language you are learning than in your mother tongue. You need to learn only 2000 or so basic French words to be able to create any paraphrase you need. You can't avoid some work in order to learn these essential words and all the more if you want to learn quickly. Before you contemplate to buy a learn-in-a-breeze method, be sure it is right for you. It is not as wise as it is said to rely on a method based upon mnemotechnics. The first words seem very easy lo learn; so, you buy the method; and you discover quickly, though too late, that a dozen words later, it is all the more difficult to learn a new word that you have also to learn the trick to memorize it.
What is the Hardest Language to Learn?
contributed by Ron Tichenor
Did you ever wonder 'what is the hardest language to learn?' If you have ever spent time studying a foreign language, you may have thought at one point that you had chosen the most difficult language to learn. But is that just temporary frustration talking, or is there really one language that is harder to learn than all the others?
There are lots of factors that make a language hard or easy to learn. The most important is what your native language is - the language you grew up speaking. This will have the greatest impact on how you learn languages. Other factors are - learning a new alphabet or writing system, new grammar rules and strange new sounds to make.
It's really a combination of actual characteristics of a language and your own personal experience. But if the majority of people agree that one language is hardest to learn, then it probably is. I take a survey on my website and the vast majority of people seem to choose the hardest language based on what their native language is. Although many who speak English as a second language choose it as the most difficult language, it is not the most popular choice.
English is my native language and I have an opinion on where English stands in relation to other languages. I think that English is an easy language to learn to speak badly but a difficult language to speak well. I also think that writing English properly is very difficult and that is where people have the most difficulty with English. But I also don't think that English is the most difficult language. There are lots of better candidates for that.
The overwhelming favorite for most people is Chinese. There are two main reasons for this. It's not the grammar because Chinese grammar is actually quite easy. It's the tones. The same word can be said in four different tones and have four different meanings. That's just Mandarin Chinese. In some other dialects (like Cantonese) there can be up to nine distinctly different tones! This makes this language very difficult for someone to learn if it is not their native language.
The other reason Chinese is so difficult is the traditional writing system that is still widely in use. There is a different symbol for every word! This makes even a basic vocabulary of a few thousand words very difficult to learn to read and write.
There are other candidates for the Most Difficult Language to Learn such as Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Navajo and many others. what do you think? Fill out the Hardest Language to Learn Survey and get a chance at a free giveaway of a language learning product!
Ron is a long-time language enthusiast, exploring Spanish, French, Swedish, Cornish, Esperanto and others. Learn more about studying a language on your own at Language Learning Advisor This guide for self-study language learners has reviews and recommendations of language learning methods and products, links to online learning resources, learning tips to maximize your study time and effectiveness and articles on language learning.
When Is The Best Time To Start
Learning A Foreign Language?
contributed by Sue Copas
This is an often asked question and generally the standard answer is that the optimum age for learning a language is between 3 to 7 years of age, but is this necessarily so?
There can be no doubt that children tend to pick up on information much faster than adults do and that a child of primary school age, having picked up the basics of a language will appear to be more confident and have a better knowledge of the language than an adult who has been studying for a comparable time. Let us examine the type of knowledge accumulated by both types of student though and see whether the younger student is really any better.
The younger student will probably have been given a few nouns to learn each week in order to expand his vocabulary and will also probably have been given an insight into simple verb structures. The medium of communicating this knowledge is most likely to be working through simple story like passages, translating them in a group and by repetition, a great breadth of knowledge of complete structured sentences will have been gained.
The adult learner will probably in a similar manner be given a list of nouns to learn complete with their gender specific definite and indefinite articles. Although in English grammar, the definite and indefinite articles (a & the) are not gender nor number specific, they are in many foreign languages and this will probably be easier for them to comprehend than for a child. The adult student will spend time working through verb conjugations and verb tenses during their studies; once again, this generally difficult subject for most learners, will be somewhat easier for an adult than for a 5 year old student. This structured knowledge of the workings of foreign grammar will then be combined with the same story like passages as put to the younger students, but a much deeper knowledge of grammar and workings of a language will be inherent in the adult's progress.
So what in actual fact is the net outcome of a comparison of the progress of these two groups of students? Basically one would be hard put to quantify whether one group was better than the other; the younger group would generally be more fluent, confident and have a wider breadth of knowledge, on the other hand, adult learners would almost have a deeper and more grammatical knowledge of any given language.
If we look to real world examples we can perhaps find some analogous corroboration of the point made above; if we take a language translation service in London they have general translators as well as technical translators. The general translators, whilst being fully qualified and more than competent, can be fairly young and recently qualified. The technical translators, however, will be fully qualified in a language but also hold some sort of technical qualification, or have worked in a specialist field for a number of years. They will be somewhat older than the general translators and will have used their advantage in age and experience to accumulate a depth of knowledge.
This is perhaps a somewhat loose analogy, but I believe it still demonstrates the point that the learning process taken up at different ages produces different types of final result, ultimately none really being superior to another.
Why You Should Learn to
Speak a Foreign Language
contributed by Larry M. Lynch
There is a multitude of reasons for wanting to speak the lingua franca of another people; travel, business, education, matrimony, retirement, personal pleasure, even family or friends among many others.
Indeed it's no small feat to habla Español, parlez Francais, or sprechenze Deutsch, but the prestige, financial gains, personal satisfaction and even peer envy that can accompany this easily-nurtured skill, can be supremely rewarding. If you're not already an ex-pat, don't start packing your bags just yet though, you've got a little "work" to do first.
If you're already an ex-pat, then learning or improving your communicative skills in a foreign language may be a moot point. There you are, one of the millions of "escapees" from the USA, UK or other country, now surrounded by new horizons, vistas, culture, everyday life and a foreign language you need to master as quickly and adeptly as possible out of necessity.
Perhaps you'd like to study abroad; Fashion Design or the Culinary Arts in Paris with French as the medium of communication. Learning Renaissance Art in Milan or Rome would certainly be enriched by your fluency in Italian. Delving into Architecture or beer-brewing in Germany will be far more rewarding if you integrate into their society using your best German.
If you want to immerse yourself into Anthropology or Mayan Culture in the Yucatan, Mayan or Nahuatl would serve you even better than Spanish might. You could also simply double up and learn both languages. (Yes, you most certainly can!)
Exploring the mysteries of Oriental Antiquities, culture or martial arts in the Yellow River Valley of China requires at least some communicative skills in one of the dialects of Chinese, don't you think?
Acquiring knowledge of ancient and modern agricultural techniques or perhaps the secrets of Yoga in the vast stretches of exotic India will be far more enriching with one of the local dialects of the country flowing like honey from your tongue.
Would you like to learn Karate, Judo or the art of making Sushi in Japan? Do you think knowing how to speak Japanese might make things easier?
You might be thinking of honing your Tango dancing skills in Buenos Aires, or improving your Salsa steps in Cuba or Colombia, then Spanish could pave the way to your progress. The list could go on and on, but just think how the "right" foreign language could not only make it all very possible, but expand and deepen your quest as well.
But, you're thinking, how can you, with limited time, resources and perhaps even more limited patience, make any decent headway in a reasonably short time? You may well ask, "Can I indeed, at my age, really develop good communicative skills in a new tongue?"
Yes, you can and you will if you'll use some of my "quick tricks" for heightening your language–learning experience and incorporating your prospective new language into your present everyday life.
contributed by David Davis
There are many reasons why it is beneficial and interesting to learn a new language. For example, many people who choose to emigrate for financial reasons would find it very difficult to make the most of their move if they cannot speak the language because they would not be able to get a job. Other people may simply have an interest in linguistics and the differences between languages, so they choose to learn foreign languages for this reason. There are also many social reasons for learning a language. For instance, if you have foreign friends or family or maybe even to communicate with someone in secret! However one of the most important reasons to learn a language is to broaden your mind and to make yourself more accustomed to other cultures.
Here are some tips for learning a new language and different strategies that can be used:
1. It is very important that you try to study the language every day. In order to make yourself more accustomed to the language you need to expose yourself to it. However, try not to overload your brain. Try to take breaks every ten minutes or so and only study for an hour to an hour and a half a day.
2. Certain languages have different genders for different nouns so it is very important to learn the genders when you are learning the noun. For example in German:
die Tür {the door} feminine
der Tisch {the table} masculine
das Hund {the dog} neutral
If you do not learn the genders with the noun, it is more difficult to understand and apply the grammar of the language.
3. In order to build up your vocabulary a good idea would be to read a lot of books. Look up the words that you do not understand, write them down and maybe even the next day, take a few of these words and try to learn them. However, its important to have a good dictionary because many words can have a lot of different meanings.
4. A good tip is to have a phrase book or vocabulary book and any time you come across a word that you do not understand, you can write it into its proper section. Eg noun, verb adjective etc. This way, it makes the words a lot easier to learn and to look up. learn them. However, its important to have a good dictionary because many words can have a lot of different meanings.
5. You need to be very careful of 'false friends'. Some words may seem similar in your own language but they may have a totally different meaning in the language you are learning. For example:
German: Rat (council) English: rat
bald (soon) bald
French: warning (advertisement) warning
allure (speed) allure
6. Try not to translate word or sentences literally. A literal translation often does not convey the actual translation of the original text. Do not be afraid if your translation is not literal to the original text because every language expresses its meanings in different ways.
7. If you study the language in the country where it is spoken you will more than likely experience a rapid improvement not only in your vocabulary, grammar and speaking skills but also in your confidence because you will become immersed in the language. You will also get to experience the true culture of the country, the food that they eat and the way of life of the people. Many English speaking students choose to give grinds in the country of their target language because it not only helps them with learning the language by speaking to their tutees but it is also an excellent way to make friends.
8. Try to speak as much as possible- you can even practice by speaking to yourself! Pronunciation is very important so that people can understand you, so practice as much as you can.
9. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. If you can get your main point across, that is the most important thing. If you are having a conversation with someone and you come across a word that you do not know how to say, try to explain it in a different form. For example, if you do not know how to say 'pen' you could say 'the object that you write with'.
10. The most important thing is to try to have fun and to make the most of learning a new language. By incorporating grammar into riddles and jokes it can make it a lot more interesting and fun when learning a language.
The Psychological Factor
contributed by Gabrielle Guichard
When it comes about learning a foreign language, many people wonder if they will be able to memorize enough vocabulary. But this question never occurs about their mother tongue. And yet, it was a foreign language; nevertheless, among all the questions that new parents ask, no doctor has ever heard: "Will my baby be able to learn my language?" Be honest. Do you know all the words of your mother tongue? The answer is: "no". New words, and new ways of using old words, appear every day. Twenty years ago, who would have been able to understand such a sentence: "Click here to download your digital book"? Nobody. You never stop acquiring new vocabulary and you never know how long you will be needing it. Do you still use "tomagotchi"?
When you don't know the exact name of a thing, you don't hesitate to call it "whatsit". Why do you think foreigners do otherwise? (The French word for whatsit is machin. That's a good start! You already know the word that can virtually replace any other!)
Sometimes, you have the word on the tip of your tongue... and it sticks there! But you do know this phenomenon and don't think that it is due to a bad memory. You should not give this phenomenon more importance in the language you are learning than in your mother tongue. You need to learn only 2000 or so basic French words to be able to create any paraphrase you need. You can't avoid some work in order to learn these essential words and all the more if you want to learn quickly. Before you contemplate to buy a learn-in-a-breeze method, be sure it is right for you. It is not as wise as it is said to rely on a method based upon mnemotechnics. The first words seem very easy lo learn; so, you buy the method; and you discover quickly, though too late, that a dozen words later, it is all the more difficult to learn a new word that you have also to learn the trick to memorize it.
What is the Hardest Language to Learn?
contributed by Ron Tichenor
Did you ever wonder 'what is the hardest language to learn?' If you have ever spent time studying a foreign language, you may have thought at one point that you had chosen the most difficult language to learn. But is that just temporary frustration talking, or is there really one language that is harder to learn than all the others?
There are lots of factors that make a language hard or easy to learn. The most important is what your native language is - the language you grew up speaking. This will have the greatest impact on how you learn languages. Other factors are - learning a new alphabet or writing system, new grammar rules and strange new sounds to make.
It's really a combination of actual characteristics of a language and your own personal experience. But if the majority of people agree that one language is hardest to learn, then it probably is. I take a survey on my website and the vast majority of people seem to choose the hardest language based on what their native language is. Although many who speak English as a second language choose it as the most difficult language, it is not the most popular choice.
English is my native language and I have an opinion on where English stands in relation to other languages. I think that English is an easy language to learn to speak badly but a difficult language to speak well. I also think that writing English properly is very difficult and that is where people have the most difficulty with English. But I also don't think that English is the most difficult language. There are lots of better candidates for that.
The overwhelming favorite for most people is Chinese. There are two main reasons for this. It's not the grammar because Chinese grammar is actually quite easy. It's the tones. The same word can be said in four different tones and have four different meanings. That's just Mandarin Chinese. In some other dialects (like Cantonese) there can be up to nine distinctly different tones! This makes this language very difficult for someone to learn if it is not their native language.
The other reason Chinese is so difficult is the traditional writing system that is still widely in use. There is a different symbol for every word! This makes even a basic vocabulary of a few thousand words very difficult to learn to read and write.
There are other candidates for the Most Difficult Language to Learn such as Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Navajo and many others. what do you think? Fill out the Hardest Language to Learn Survey and get a chance at a free giveaway of a language learning product!
Ron is a long-time language enthusiast, exploring Spanish, French, Swedish, Cornish, Esperanto and others. Learn more about studying a language on your own at Language Learning Advisor This guide for self-study language learners has reviews and recommendations of language learning methods and products, links to online learning resources, learning tips to maximize your study time and effectiveness and articles on language learning.
When Is The Best Time To Start
Learning A Foreign Language?
contributed by Sue Copas
This is an often asked question and generally the standard answer is that the optimum age for learning a language is between 3 to 7 years of age, but is this necessarily so?
There can be no doubt that children tend to pick up on information much faster than adults do and that a child of primary school age, having picked up the basics of a language will appear to be more confident and have a better knowledge of the language than an adult who has been studying for a comparable time. Let us examine the type of knowledge accumulated by both types of student though and see whether the younger student is really any better.
The younger student will probably have been given a few nouns to learn each week in order to expand his vocabulary and will also probably have been given an insight into simple verb structures. The medium of communicating this knowledge is most likely to be working through simple story like passages, translating them in a group and by repetition, a great breadth of knowledge of complete structured sentences will have been gained.
The adult learner will probably in a similar manner be given a list of nouns to learn complete with their gender specific definite and indefinite articles. Although in English grammar, the definite and indefinite articles (a & the) are not gender nor number specific, they are in many foreign languages and this will probably be easier for them to comprehend than for a child. The adult student will spend time working through verb conjugations and verb tenses during their studies; once again, this generally difficult subject for most learners, will be somewhat easier for an adult than for a 5 year old student. This structured knowledge of the workings of foreign grammar will then be combined with the same story like passages as put to the younger students, but a much deeper knowledge of grammar and workings of a language will be inherent in the adult's progress.
So what in actual fact is the net outcome of a comparison of the progress of these two groups of students? Basically one would be hard put to quantify whether one group was better than the other; the younger group would generally be more fluent, confident and have a wider breadth of knowledge, on the other hand, adult learners would almost have a deeper and more grammatical knowledge of any given language.
If we look to real world examples we can perhaps find some analogous corroboration of the point made above; if we take a language translation service in London they have general translators as well as technical translators. The general translators, whilst being fully qualified and more than competent, can be fairly young and recently qualified. The technical translators, however, will be fully qualified in a language but also hold some sort of technical qualification, or have worked in a specialist field for a number of years. They will be somewhat older than the general translators and will have used their advantage in age and experience to accumulate a depth of knowledge.
This is perhaps a somewhat loose analogy, but I believe it still demonstrates the point that the learning process taken up at different ages produces different types of final result, ultimately none really being superior to another.
Why You Should Learn to
Speak a Foreign Language
contributed by Larry M. Lynch
There is a multitude of reasons for wanting to speak the lingua franca of another people; travel, business, education, matrimony, retirement, personal pleasure, even family or friends among many others.
Indeed it's no small feat to habla Español, parlez Francais, or sprechenze Deutsch, but the prestige, financial gains, personal satisfaction and even peer envy that can accompany this easily-nurtured skill, can be supremely rewarding. If you're not already an ex-pat, don't start packing your bags just yet though, you've got a little "work" to do first.
If you're already an ex-pat, then learning or improving your communicative skills in a foreign language may be a moot point. There you are, one of the millions of "escapees" from the USA, UK or other country, now surrounded by new horizons, vistas, culture, everyday life and a foreign language you need to master as quickly and adeptly as possible out of necessity.
Perhaps you'd like to study abroad; Fashion Design or the Culinary Arts in Paris with French as the medium of communication. Learning Renaissance Art in Milan or Rome would certainly be enriched by your fluency in Italian. Delving into Architecture or beer-brewing in Germany will be far more rewarding if you integrate into their society using your best German.
If you want to immerse yourself into Anthropology or Mayan Culture in the Yucatan, Mayan or Nahuatl would serve you even better than Spanish might. You could also simply double up and learn both languages. (Yes, you most certainly can!)
Exploring the mysteries of Oriental Antiquities, culture or martial arts in the Yellow River Valley of China requires at least some communicative skills in one of the dialects of Chinese, don't you think?
Acquiring knowledge of ancient and modern agricultural techniques or perhaps the secrets of Yoga in the vast stretches of exotic India will be far more enriching with one of the local dialects of the country flowing like honey from your tongue.
Would you like to learn Karate, Judo or the art of making Sushi in Japan? Do you think knowing how to speak Japanese might make things easier?
You might be thinking of honing your Tango dancing skills in Buenos Aires, or improving your Salsa steps in Cuba or Colombia, then Spanish could pave the way to your progress. The list could go on and on, but just think how the "right" foreign language could not only make it all very possible, but expand and deepen your quest as well.
But, you're thinking, how can you, with limited time, resources and perhaps even more limited patience, make any decent headway in a reasonably short time? You may well ask, "Can I indeed, at my age, really develop good communicative skills in a new tongue?"
Yes, you can and you will if you'll use some of my "quick tricks" for heightening your language–learning experience and incorporating your prospective new language into your present everyday life.
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