ISLAM, MASALAH ETIKA BANGSA, DAN RASA KEADILAN
Oleh : Nurcholish Madjid
Event Artikel : "Temu Kaji Ilmiah Budaya Islam Maluku," Ambon, 29 Januari 1994
Diupdated pada: Kamis 12 April 2001

Muqaddimah

Perkembangan Kepulauan Maluku mempunyai jalinan yang sangat erat dengan perkembangan Islam di Asia Tenggara. Sebagai "Kepulauan Rempah-rempah" (Spice Islands) yang legendaris, Maluku menyimpan daya tarik luar biasa bagi para pedagang pra zaman moderen. Jauh sebelum orang-orang Eropa, para pedagang Muslim telah mengenal dengan baik daerah Maluku. Mereka menjadi makmur berkat perdagangan hasil bumi Maluku yang mereka bawa ke negeri-negeri Islam, di anak-benua India dan di Timur Tengah. Bangsa-bangsa Barat berdatangan ke kepulauan itu adalah karena daya tarik hasil bumi itu, khususnya rempah-rempah. Lebih dari itu, perjalanan Christopher Columbus yang kemudian menemukan "Dunia Baru" Amerika, itupun pada mulanya didorong oleh keinginan mencari jalan langsung ke Kepulauan Maluku.

Columbus sendiri tidak berhasil menemukan Maluku. Tetapi karena ia tidak mau dikatakan gagal, maka tidak saja secara keliru ia menamakan penghuni asli benua Amerika "Orang India", malah ia juga memberi nama "lada" (pepper) untuk bumbu apa saja yang terasa pedas, seperti cabe (chili), padahal bukan lada, karena di Amerika saat itu memang tidak ada lada. Yang berhasil mencapai Maluku ialah bangsa Portugis (1512), kemudian bangsa-bangsa Barat lainnya, sepert Spanyol, Belanda dan Inggris.

Sebelum orang-orang Eropa itu datang, orang-orang Muslim telah terlebih dahulu menguasai Maluku. Kesultanan-kesultanan Ternate dan Tidore dikenal dalam sejarah sebagai pusat-pusat kekuasaan Islam yang berpengaruh saat itu. Orang-orang Portugis menjalin kerjasama dengan para sultan untuk menguasai perdagangan rempah-rempah, kemudian disusul perebutan antara orang-orang Eropa sendiri yang akhirnya dimenangkan oleh Belanda. Bangsa yang kemudian menjajah seluruh Nusantara itu datang di Maluku pada tahun 1599, dan setelah berhasil menguasai Maluku mereka menjadi kaya karena monopoli perdagangan rempah-rempah. Begitu berlangsung terus di zaman penjajahan, sampai akhirnya pada ujung abad ke 18 perdagangan rempah-rempah menjadi surut, dan Maluku khususnya dan Indonesia Bagian Timur dalam ekonomi menjadi daerah pinggiran yang agak terlantar.

Kini perhatian nasional mulai diarahkan ke Maluku lagi. Atas dasar ide prinsipil tentang pemerataan, negara kita telah meletakkan rencana pembangunan Indonesia Bagian Timur. Berkaitan dengan pembangunan inilah kita dapat berbicara tentang Islam dan Budaya Maluku dengan usaha pembangunan nasional.


Masalah Akhlaq

Slogan "tinggal landas" kini telah menjadi bagian dari perbendaharaan politik pembangunan kita. Di balik jargon itu terkandung keinginan, malah tekad, untuk membangun negara dan bangsa sedemikian rupa sehingga ia memiliki dinamika pertumbuhan dan perkembangan yang lestari, mandiri dan aman sentosa. Diambil dari metafor pada gerak pesawat terbang, sesungguhnya "tinggal landas" adalah saat yang masih memerlukan "tenaga maksimal" mesin pesawat untuk mendorong ke atas badan pesawat dan muatannya, setelah tenaga maksimal itu digunakan untuk sekencang-kencangnya meluncurkan pesawat di landasan pacu (runway). Karena itu sesungguhnya "Era Tinggal Landas" bukanlah masa kita sudah lepas dari keharusan bekerja keras. Mungkin keharusan kerja keras itu baru dapat dikendorkan sedikit jika kita telah mencapai ketinggian tertentu, dan - pinjam lagi dari metafor gerak pesawart udara - kita memasuki fase "cruising" (terbang datar pada kecepatan dan ketinggian maksimal).

Salah satu yang amat diperlukan dalam era tinggal landas itu, dan juga sebenarnya dalam semua era pembangunan, ialah akhlaq atau moral. Di sini kita dibenarkan untuk mengharap kemungkinan peranan ajaran Islam secara lebih besar dan kuat. Selain timbul dari kesadaran keimanan seorang yang "kebetulan" beragama Islam, harapan kepada peranan Islam itu juga berdasarkan kenyataan sederhana, yaitu bahwa sebagian besar bangsa Indonesia, sekitar 90 persen, adalah orang-orang Muslim. Maka wajar jika Islam dipandang mempunyai pengaruh paling besar dan kuat dalam wawasan etis dan moral bangsa. Dari sinilah kita terdorong untuk melihat diri sendiri dengan jujur, melalui penanyaan diri: Benarkah bangsa Indonesia, khususnya umat Islamnya sendiri, telah dijiwai dan dibimbing oleh akhlaq yang mulia? Sudahkah umat Islam memenuhi penegasan Nabi s.a.w. bahwa beliau diutus "hanyalah untuk menyempurnakan berbagai keluhuran akhlaq"

Kita sering membanggakan diri sebagai "Bangsa Timur" (dengan konotasi berbudaya tinggi dan sopan) atau "bangsa yang religius" (yang tentunya juga berarti bangsa yang berakhlaq tinggi). Tetapi dengan jujur kita harus mengakui bahwa kebanggaan di atas itu sering kosong belaka. Mungkin sekali kita memang bangsa yang sopan dan ramah. Banyak orang asing yang membawa pulang kesan baik dan positif demikian itu. Tetapi hal itu tampaknya terbatas hanya kepada bidang-bidang pergaulan perorangan sehari-hari. Meskipun ini juga penting, namun bukanlah hal yang sangat sentral.

Di sisi lain, banyak dari mereka yang membawa kenangan ke negerinya betapa bangsa kita adalah bangsa yang "korup". Mereka memperhatikan dan mengalami, bagaimana "pungli" terjumpai di mana-mana, dan bagaimana pula tindakan-tindakan yang di negerinya sudah cukup merupakan skandal, di negeri kita dianggap biasa saja. Misalnya, memberikan katabelece kepada anak sendiri, keluarga atau teman untuk suatu keperluan bisnis, seperti pernah melilit dan menodai nama baik Presiden Ronald Reagan dari Amerika Serikat. Pengertian tentang "conflict of interest" di negeri kita masih sedemikian lemahnya atau mungkin malah tidak ada, sehingga dalam praktek-praktek bisinis dan kegiatan ekonomi lainnya - atau kegiatan pembagian rejeki - banyak terjadi hal-hal tidak wajar yang ikut menumbuhkan gejala ketidakadilan dan ketidakmerataan sosial. Kepincangan dalam kemampuan ekonomi yang sekarang ini sangat menggejala di tanah air kita sebagian disebabkan oleh kesalahan kita sendiri yang tidak teguh berpegang kepada ukuran-ukuran moral dan akhlaq sebagaimana dikehendaki oleh ajaran agama. Tentu saja ada sebab-sebab yang lain, yang dapat kita bahas dalam kesempatan lain yang relevan. Namun jelas bahwa kesalahan tidak seluruhnya dapat ditimpakan kepada pihak-pihak tertentu yang "kebetulan" mengetahui kelemahan moral kita dan menggunakannya untuk kepentingan kita sendiri. Maka dalam tinjauan hubungan sebab-akibat, mereka itu hanyalah "akibat", sedangkan "sebab"-nya ada pada kita. Dan karena kita diajari untuk berani mengatakan yang benar meskipun pahit, kita harus berani merasakan pahit-getirnya koreksi terhadap diri sendiri, sebelum melakukan koreksi kepada orang lain. Sebab sepahit-pahit mengatakan suatu kebenaran yang bersifat korektif kepada orang lain, masih tetap jauh lebih pahit menyadari dan mengatakan suatu kebenaran yang bersifat korektif kepada diri sendiri. Itulah sebabnya Nabi mengajarkan dalam sebuah hadits yang cukup terkenal, "Sungguh beruntung orang yang sibuk dengan kesalahan dirinya sendiri, bukan dengan kesalahan orang lain"

Akhlaq ini mutlak pentingnya, karena merupakan sendiri atau landasan ketahanan suatu bangsa menghadapi pancaroba. Tanpa akhlaq yang baik, suatu bangsa akan binasa. Sebuah syair dalam Bahasa Arab sering dikutip orang, menerangkan masalah ini:

Sesungguhnya bangsa-bangsa itu tegak selama akhlaqnya,
bila mereka rusak akhlaqnya, maka rusak-binasa pulalah mereka.


Masalah Keadilan

Dari banyak ketentuan keakhlaqan yang paling menentukan bertahan atau hancurnya suatu bangsa ialah akhlaq keadilan. Menurut al-Qur'an (55:7-8), keadilan adalah prinsip yang merupakan hukum seluruh jagad raya. Oleh karenanya, melanggar keadilan adalah melanggar hukum kosmis, dan dosa ketidakadilan akan mempunyai dampak kehancuran tatanan masyarakat manusia. Hal ini tidak peduli, apakah masyarakat itu (secara formal) terdiri dari masyarakat yang beragama atau tidak, seperti bangsa kita ini. Suatu ungkapan hikmah yang dikutip Ibn Taymiyah dalam kitabnya al-Amr bi 'l-Ma'r–f wa al-Nahy 'an al-Munkar, (Buraidah, Saudi Arabia, 1989/1409, h. 64), menegaskan demikian:

(Sesungguhnya Allah menegakkan kekuasaan yang adil sekalipun kafir, dan tidak menegakkan yang zalim meskipun Muslim)

(Dunia bertahan bersama keadilan dan kekafiran, tetapi tidak bertahan dengan kezaliman dan Islam)

Al-Qur'an pun (47:38) menegaskan prinsip yang sama, yaitu bahwa jika ajaran dan seruan-Nya kepada umat Islam menegakkan keadilan, khususnya keadilan sosial berupa usaha pemerataan dan peringanan penderitaan kaum yang tak berpunya, maka Allah akan membinasakan umat itu untuk diganti dengan umat yang lain, yang secara moral dan etika tidak seperti mereka. Dan dalam al-Qur'an pula (17:16) kita dapatkan ancaman Allah untuk membinasakan suatu negeri jika di negeri itu tidak lagi ada rasa keadilan, dengan indikasi leluasanya orang yang hidup mewah dan tidak peduli dengan keadaan masyarakat sekelilingnya yang kurang beruntung.

Wallahu a'lam


19 The most important study of Islam in Malaysia (i.e., Malay archipelago--NM) is Clifford Geertz' Religion of Java (Glencoe, 1960); it deals with the twentieth century, and with inner Java in particular, but much in it throws light on what happened earlier and is relevant to other parts of the archipelago. Unfortunately, its general high excellence is marred by a major systematic error: influenced by the polemics of a certain school of modern Shari'ah-minded Muslims, Geertz identifies 'Islam' only with what that school of modernists happens to approve, and ascribes everything else to an aboriginal or a Hindu-Buddhist background, gratuitously labeling much of the Muslim religious life in Java 'Hindu'. He identifies a long series of phenomena, virtually universal to Islam and sometimes found even in the Qur'an itself, as un-Islamic; and hence his interpretation of the Islamic past as well as of some recent anti-Islamic reactions is highly misleading. His error has at least three roots. When he refers to the archipelago having long been cut off from 'the centers of orthodoxy at Mecca and Cairo', the irrelevant inclusion of Cairo betrays a modern source of Geertz' bias. We must suspect also the urge of many colonialists to minimize their subjects' ties with a disturbingly world-wide Islam (a tendency found also among French colonialists in the Maghrib); and finally his anthropological techniques of investigation, looking to a functional analysis of a culture in momentary cross-section without serious regard to the historical dimension. Other writers have recognized better the Islamic character even in inner-Javanese religion: C. A. O. van Nieuwenhuijze, Aspects of Islam in Post-Colonial Indonesia (The Hague, 1959), but Geertz stands out in the field. For one who knows Islam, his comprehensive data-despite his intention-show how very little has survived from the Hindu past even in inner Java and raise the question why the triumph of Islam was so complete. (Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, 3 volumes [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), vol. 2, p. 551, footnote).

70 Yaitu, sebagaimana terungkap dalam sebuah pengakuan yang cukup jujur dalam sebuah buku tentang negeri kita:

Indonesia is one of the few countries where Islam didn't supplant the existing religion purely by military conquest. Its appeal was first and foremost psychological. Radically egalitarian and possessing a scientific spirit, when Islam first arrived in these islands it was a forceful revolutionary concept that freed the common man from his Hindu feudal bondage. Until Islam arrived, he lived in a land where the king was an absolute monarch who could take away his land and even his wife at whim. Islam, on the other hand, taught that all men in Allah's eyes are made of the same clay, that no man shall be set apart as superior. There were no mysterious sacraments or initiation rites, nor was there a priest class. With its direct and personal relationship between man and God, Islam possessed great simplicity. Everyone could talk to Allah.... Islam is ideally suited to an island nation; it is a traders' religion which stresses the virtues of prosperity and hard work. It allows for high individual initiative and freedom of movement in order to take advantage of trade opportunities everywhere. The religion is tied to no locality and God can be worshipped anywhere, even on the deck of a ship. It was (and is) an easy religion to join. All that was needed was a simple declaration of faith, the shahadat..... It compelled a man to bathe and to keep clean, encouraged him to travel out to see the world (to Mecca), and, in short, exerted a democratizing, modernizing, civilizing influence over the peoples of the archipelago. (Al Hickey, Complete Guide to Indonesia [Singapore: Simon and Schuster Asia, 1990], pp. 8-9).


21 Tetapi Ghazali secara keseluruhan tetap seorang penganut Aristoteles dalam Logika. Dalam bukunya Qistas ia mengetengahkan beberapa argumen al-Qur'an dalam bentuk pemikiran Aristoteles, namun melupakan sebuah Surat dalam al-Qur'an yang dikenal dengan Surat al-Qur'an, yang disitu ada proposisi bahwa pembalasan akibat pendustaan kepada para Nabi terbukti lewat metode penyebutan satu persatu contoh-contoh sejarah. Adalah kaum Ishraqi dan Ibn Taymiyah yang melakukan penyanggahan sistematis Logika Yunani. Ab– Bakr al-Razi barangkali merupakan yang pertama menyanggah teori dasar Aristoteles, dan dalm zaman kita sanggahannya itu, yang dipahami sebagai benar-benar suatu semangat induktif, telah dirumuskan kembali oleh John Stuart Mill. Ibn ?azm, dalam bukunya tentang lingkup logika, menekankan persepsi inderawi sebagai suatu sumber ilmu; dan Ibn Taymiyah, dalam bukunya tentang sanggahan terhadap logika, menjelskan bahwa induksi adalah satu-satunya bentuk argumen yang dapat dihandlkan. Jadi lahirlah metode observasi dan eksperimen. Tidak merupakan sekedar perkara teoretis. (Muhmmad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Lahore: Muhammad Ashraf, 1960), h. 129.

22 The way for a revival of trade, and subsequently of science, was celared by the Islamic conquest. By 613 A.D., when Muhammad first began to preach his new revelations, the once mighty Byzantine empire was an empty husk, holding no sway over the outlying territory of Arabia. Unlike Jesus, Muhammad stepped into a virtual political vacuum in which he was able to put his ideas of social justice (probably influenced by Monophysite doctrine) into immediate practice.

Those ideas of justice, based on the grievances of the merchants and tradesmen of the empire, restricted the depredations of tax gatherers and usurers, glorified fair dealing and trade, and created a sacred social obligation to devote a part of all wealth to social welfare - to help the impoverished believer. The morality of Islam seemed so obviously superior to that of the still ravenous and decayed empire that it won adherents with brushfire speed. By the time of his death in 632, Muhammad had unified the squabbling Arab tribes, and within ten years, Muslim armies fanned out to crush imperial troops, seizing Syria in 636, Iraq the following year, and then Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Muslims were greeted everywhere as liberators by the empire's alienated population, who had been rebelling, led by Monophysite and other anti-imperial groups. The new rulers slashed taxes by one thord or one half and a slow recovery of trade and prosperity began throughout the Mediterrannean.

Within this came a gradual revival of support for science. By around 800, when the center of Muslim rule shifted to Iran, Muslim scholars, often working together with Monophysite and other Christian colleagues, were busy absorbing what remained of the ancient learning of the Greeks, as well as borrowing from India. But the Arabs did not merely pass on ancient knowledge. During the height of Arabic civilization aroud the year 1000, while Western Europe was still crawling out of the Dark Ages, they formulated for the first time the modern scientific method.

The most important person in this breakthrough was Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Al-Hazen. Primarily in the field of optics, he went beyond John Philoponous and all reliance on the speculative method of ancient natural philosophy. He started from systematic, repeated experiments, which were arranged to yield quantitative measurements, and from these he developed hypotheses expressed in mathematical form. These were inspired guesses as the physical relationships underlying various sets of measurements. If a hypothesis was seen to fit the measurements, further experiments were devised to see if the proposed relationship could accurately predict new measurements.

Here are the basic ideas of the scientific method. Science begins from systematic observation and measurement, but it does not stop there, like a mere collector of information about nature. The creative act is to generalize from the data, to hypothesize a possible physical process and describe the process in mathematical terms. Mathematics describes a relationship observed in nature, rather than claiming to be the underlying reality (as in Platonism or in conventional cosmology today). Finally the hypothesis is judged not on its intrinsic logic or by debate, but solely by its ability to accurately predict further measurements. (Eric J. Lerner, The Big Bang Never Happened, New York, Vintage Books, 1992, hh. 91-92).

23 As Columbus was uncertain whether he was to across new savages or old civilizations, he loaded his ships with cheap merchandise to relieve aborigines of their gold, but also took on board one Louis de Torres - "who had been a Jew and knew Hebrew and Chaldean and a little Arabic" - in case he met a "grand khan." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1969, s.v. Columbus, Christopher).

24 For centuries Genoese and Venetian merchants in the India trade maintained a monopoly over Europe's pepper supply, and it was partly to break that monopoly that mariner Vasco da Gama of Portugal rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 to open a new sea route to the Orient. Christopher Columbus had had much the mase purpose when six years earlier he sailed westward from Spain, hoping to find yet another route to Asia. He came upon the Americas instead.
So anxious were Columbus and succeeding explorers to associate these new lands with the Orient that they blithely gave the name "pepper" to all the hot spices they found in the Americas - such as ground cayenne and chili - despite their dissimilarity to the true Asian varieties. But the "peppers" of the New World were no substitute for the real thing, and by the 16th century Holland was fiercely contending with Portugal for control of the Spice Islands of Indonesia. (James Polly, edit., Stories Behind Everyday Things, Pleasantville, N.Y., 1980, h. 248).

25 Islam-Bond--(H. J. Benda)

Islam has been the siginificant bond of unity among the various peoples of the Indonesian archipelago. The orthodox Islamic scribes and teachers (kyahi and `ulama), scatered in thousands of vilages (of Java and Sumatra in particular), have benn the traditional spiritual leaders of the Indonesian peasants and often his only link with the world of Islam beyond the confines of his community. Muslim education has for decades reached huyndreds of Indonesians to whom a more modern, Western style of schooling was ianccessible. Harry J. Benda, Continuity and Change in Southeast Asia, Yale University, Southeast Asian Studies Monograph Series No. 18, New Haven, 1972, p. 38).

26 Islam-Legitimation--(Harsja)

The core of religion is faith, belief. Religion gives the believer meaning to life and provide the means to deal with the problematic nature of man, such as questions pertaining to birth, happiness, suffering, and death. It is therefore only natural that religion is also a source of legitimation for leadership. The faithful will accept the dictates of religion, including the values and norms, which give the right to certain individuals to act on behalf of others. Religion is, in fact, one of the most basic sources of legitimation in countris where population are very religiously oriented, and undeniable fact which some individuals unscrupulously and ruthlessly exploit for their own personal gains. I make this last remark not because other sources of legitimation are not exploited in the same manner - far from it: it seems to be one of he hard facts that a great number of individuals estabish leadership position for their own selfish reasons by utilizing whaetever source of legitimation they access to - but because religion encompasses the highest moral values of society so that the contrast between the ideal good and stark reality becomes very striking. (Harsja W. Bahtiar, "The Function of some Institutional Arrangements in the Formation of the Indonesian Nation," Berita Antropologi, Jakarta: Universits Indonesia, FSUI, terbitan khusus No. 2, 1972, pp. 56-57).

27 Education--Colonial:

Between 1860 and 1880, in the surge of liberal movement in Holland, the Dutch in the Netherlands Indies attempted to provide education for all people. This period saw the first real educational system. One type of school was offered for all ranks--rudimentary training in the vernacular, with Dutch taught as a subject. This second attempt was doomed also to at least partial failure. The schools were, in the one hand, too elaborate for the needs of the lower classes; and on the other, too simple to satisfy the aristocratic groups. In addition, the system was very expensive--too expensive, since the Islands were in a period of financial depression. (Edwin R. Embree, et. al., Island India Goes to School, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1934, p. 41).

28 Education--Ethical Policy:

When in 1901 the Netherlands government adopted the Ethical Policy toward Indonesia, the colonial authorities began to provide for more public services, including schools. For children of the nonelite, the Dutch provided textbooks, and teachers were sent to villages that were willing to set up and equip school facilities. The desa, or village school, offered three years of reading, arithmatic, writing, and basic hygine, taught in local language. Some vocational training was added in 1915, and at that time 2-year courses in agriculture, village teacher training, and skills like woodworking, metalworking, and construction were provided, all taught in local language. (John W. Henderson, et. al., Area Handbook for Indonesia, Washington D.C.: The American University, 1970, pp. 190-191.


29 The cloves of the Northern Moluccas and the nutmegs of the central islands were a focus of early Asian trade long before Europeans started their search for the legendary "Spice Islands." In the 16th century Ternate and Tidore, tiny islands off the west coast of Halmahera, were the seats of rival sultanates, each controlling part of the spice production. The Portuguese arrived in 1512 and made an alliance with the sultan of Ternate. There was a prolonged conflict between Portugal and Spain over control of the islands. The Dutch came in 1599, soon gained predominance in the south (Amboina, Banda) and gradually eliminated the rivals, including the English.... The Dutch earned large profits, but by the end of the 18th century the spice trade had greatly diminished and the Moluccas became an economic backwater. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1969, s.v. "Moluccas").

10 Science, ever since the time of the Arabs, has had two functions: (1) to enable us to know things, and (2) to enable us to do things. The Greeks, with the exception of Archimedes, were only interested in the first of these. They had much curiosity about the world, but, since civilized people lived comfortably on slave labour, they had no interest in technique. (Bertrand Russel, The Impact of Science on Society [London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1985], h. 29).

11 In science, the Arabs outdistanced the Greeks. Greek civilization was, in essence, a lush garden full of beautiful flowers that bore little fruit. It was a civilization rich in philosophy and literature, but poor in techniques and technology. Thus it was the historic task of the Arabs and the Islamic Jews to break through this Greek scientific cul-de-sac, to stumble upon new paths of science - to invent the concepts of zero, the minus sign, irrational numbers, to lay foundations for the new science of chemistry - ideas which paved the path to the modern scientific world via the minds of post-Renaissance European intellectuals. (Max I. Dimont, The Indestructible Jews [New York: New American Library, 1973], h. 184).