The coolness of eyes (qurrata a’yunin)

Dear brothers and sisters rahimakumullah,

In Surah Al-Furqaan of the Qur’an, Allah SWT teaches us a very beautiful supplication, du’aa, that He wants us to ask Him with. He says:

“wal ladzeena yaquluuna rabbanaa hablanaa min azwaajinaa wa dzurriyyaatinaa qurrata a’yunin, waj’alnaa lil muttaqeena imamaa..”

which approximately translates:

“ …and those who say:  O, our Master, grant us from our spouses and our children ‘the coolness of eyes’ and make us leaders over those who are righteous, pious, and fearful”.

So here we are taught to ask Allah SWT to turn our spouse and our children to ‘the coolness of our eyes’. And this expression, qurrata a’yun or the coolness of eyes is the expression that I’d like to share with you in this khutbah, inshaallah.

Dear brothers and sister, rahimakumullah,

We need to take a little bit deeper look so as to appreciate what Allah SWT is saying, when He teaches us to ask Him turn our families into the coolness of our eyes. What does that mean, anyway? What does that mean for your eyes to become cool? To better understand this phrase, let us travel to pre-Islamic Arabia. The Arabs used to use expressions among each other, and then Allah SWT uses those expressions in the Quran, including this one, qurrata a’yun. Related to this, the Arabs of that time had two things to say, either somebody’s eyes have become cool or they have become warm. To give it some context, one of the worst curses an Arab would say against somebody else was “May Allah make his eyes warm, adkhanallahu ‘ainahu”. This is one of the worst curses that they uttered. In English this is equivalent to say, may he suffer the worst kind of sorrow and sadness and depression, or may he shed tears of sorrow. The exact opposite of this expression is of course when he said may your eyes become cool, may you shed the tears of joy. So qurrata a’yun is used to express tears of joy. This is one thing.

There is another thing about qurrata a’yun. The Arabs used to travel in the deserts, and frequently they were hit by storm during the travel. Allah SWT created the camels, their vehicle, in a special way that its eyelids actually have a screen that trap sands and don’t let it touch the eye. It drops it down and the camel doesn’t even have to blink, subhanallah. But its rider doesn’t have this security system. In the middle of a sand storm, he could only cover up his face but his eyes were being pounded time and again by the sand. And he couldn’t even cover his eyes because it would cause him to lose his direction. So if finally he found a cave for some refuge, when he finally got in there he would say poetically, “my eyes have finally become cool, “qorrata ‘ainayya”. What that expresses is that he finally finds refuge from the storm.

So, as far as ancient Arab is concerned, two things have to do with coolness of the eyes. The first one is about shedding tears of joy, being so happy that you move to tears, and secondly, it’s about finding refuge, finding some kind of safety. Now with this ayaat Allah teaches us to ask Him, to make our spouse and our children a means of coolness of our eyes. What does that mean? That means that we should be so happy with our spouse, the husband should be so happy with the wife and vice versa, the wife should be very happy with the husband. The parents should be so happy with the children, that upon just seeing them they are moved to tears of happiness. They should be that happy with their family.

It also means that the outside world when you go to work, when you go out for earning your living, or for your education, or for whatever reason, the outside world is like a storm. But when you come home, you finally find your refuge; you meet with the coolness of your eyes when you enter the house.

Dear brothers and sisters, this I believe is a particularly relevant du’a for us today but also an ironic du’aa, because for many people today, muslim or non-muslim, the storm now is not outside the house. But rather, rhe storm is inside the house. People cool their eyes not inside their house but outside the home. They come home, and yelling and screaming begin but when they go out they smile in happiness. So dear brothers and sisters, we seek protection to Allah SWT from this situation, and ask Him, may He turn our family to the coolness of our eyes. Ameen.

Dear brohters and sister, ghafarakumullah,

This expression ‘the coolness of eyes’, also appears in other places in the Quran. The Qur’an narrates that ‘Asiah, the wife of Fir’aun, was one of the women who had a very problematic relationship, because she married the worst kind of man that ever lived. The Qur’an even testifies that she at least suffered from psychological abuse, which might be even worse than physical abuse, and she found no place to run. She could not report the domestic abuse to the authority obviously, because her husband was the government himself. So much so that the only place she could turn to was Allah SWT, and she said radhiyallahu anha: “wa najjinee min fir’auna wa ‘amalihi, rescue me (O, Lord) from Fir’aun and the things that he does” (QS At Tahrim). So she’s clearly in a kind of storm that made her eyes warm. And when one day she saw baby Musa AS washed up in the river, she picked him up, and said: “qurratu ‘ainil-lii wa lak”, may this baby become the coolness of my eyes and yours, referring to Fir’aun her husband.

Coolness for her eyes, because after finding herself in a very depressing situation, the rest of her life was there to warm her eyes, now she finally found the coolness of her eyes, she finally found a refuge, an escape. But the baby was also the coolness of Fir’aun’s eyes. Fir’aun was a genocidal maniac, he had been killing babies for years in Egypt, and the presence of baby Musa AS in his circle was enough to calm down his madness. This was a special quality that Allah SWT gave to Musa AS, and He said “wa alqaitu ‘alayka mahabbatan minnii” I have thrown upon you a special love, mahabbah, from Me.

Allah SWT even made baby Musa AS as the coolness of eyes for his original mother. Allah arranged a strategy to reintroduce Musa AS with his mother, a mother who had to put her baby in the water so to save him from slaughter. You can surely imagine the feeling of a mother when she was putting her baby into the water. Her eyes surely became “warm” because of this. So when Allah SWT reintroduced Musa AS with this woman, his real mother, He said using the same expression: faraja’naaka ilaa ummik, kaitaqarra ‘ainuhaa wa laa tahzan, so We returned you to your mother so her eyes could become cool. She cried a tear of joy. Now inshaallah we begin to appreciate how deep and powerful this expression is: qurrata a’yun.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Beloved Nabi Muhammad SAW also said this powerful expression in a hadith. But before we go to the hadith, we need to realize one thing about the noble messengers of Allah SWT. Each one of them, may peace be upon them all, had to converse in two ways. One way was with his people, inviting them to the Truth, and the other way was with Allah SWT. Conversing with his people was not at all an easy task. It’s full of challenges. Apart from acceptance of some of his people, in many more cases he must face multiple times of rejection and tons and tons of insults.

All of you are respectable people, and of course we do not enjoy being insulted and ridiculed. When you’re among you’re co-workers for example, you expect to be treated with respect. But imagine if one of your colleagues comes up to you and starts cursing you out and your family, and accuses you and calls you a liar, and all kinds of bad names. How would you feel? What would happen to you? You would shut down mentally! Because when bad words are used against respectable people, they hurt them a lot. They wear down on them, the words burn them. This also happened with the noble messengers of Allah SWT. So when they communicate with their people their eyes necessarily became warm. Moreover, they had to speak to the same people, their own nation, time and again. But when they communicate with Allah SWT, it is there that their eyes became cool again.

Provided this context, now we could understand that Nabi Muhammad SAW said in a hadith: “ju’ilat qurratu ‘ainayya fis-shalaah” the coolness of my eyes is placed in shalat, meaning when I (SAW) converse with my Lord in shalah, my eyes become cool, I shed tears of joy, I regain my strength, I revitalize and re-energize. And with this renewed strength he came back to his people again SAW, talked to them again, invited them to the Truth tirelessly, and this consequently made his eyes warm again. And what he came back to was the shalah, he re-energized again with shalah. So the shalah is the refuge of the Messenger SAW from the strom. Compare this with the previous story of a mother who had her baby back in her arm after she lost him, and Allah says that her eyes have now become cool. Nabi SAW perceived that same coolness of the eyes when he made shalaat.

Brothers and sisters, let us compare that shalaah with your shalaah and my shalaah, and ask: what has happened since then? Perhaps for some of us, and particularly for myself, shalaah has become an obstacle in our day and a kind of hampering our schedule. No more happiness and tears of joy out of it. Our minds are even sometimes still with our work when we’re making shalaah. Now alhamdulillah we’re reminded that our shalah is supposed to be something that helps us. And it’s supposed to be something that cools our eyes, ju’ilat qurratu ‘ainayya fis-shalah. That’s what shalah is supposed to be.

May Allah SWT give us an appreciation of the legacy of all His messengers, particularly of the sunnah of the Messenger SAW, and especially of shalaah. May Allah SWT give us the coolness of our eyes in our spouses and children. Rabbana hablana min azwajinaa wa dzurriyyaatinaa qurrata a’yunin. Waj’alnaa lil muttaqiina imaamaa. Barakallahu li wa lakum.

Tatanan Dunia Ya’juj & Ma’juj (1)

Dalam Al Quran hanya ada 2 tempat dimana Ya’juj & Ma’juj disebutkan secara eksplisit: Surah Al-Kahfi 94 dan Al-Anbiyaa’ 95-96. Dalam Hadith (Shahih Muslim), Rasulullah SAW menyebutkan (dilepaskannya) bangsa Ya’juj & Ma’juj sebagai salah satu dari 10 tanda-tanda (besar) telah amat dekatnya Hari Kiamat. Disebutkan juga dalam sebuah Hadith Qudsi (Sahih Muslim) bahwa Allah telah memberikan kepada bangsa Ya’juj & Ma’juj kekuatan yang luar biasa, yang tidak ada siapapun di muka bumi ini yang bisa menghancurkannya, selain dari Allah SWT sendiri. Sebuah Hadith Qudsi yang lain (Shahih Muslim) menyebutkan bahwa Nabi Adam AS kelak akan diperintahkan Allah SWT untuk memisahkan anak-anak keturunannya yang akan dimasukkan ke neraka dan ke surga, dengan perbandingan 999 ke neraka dan 1 ke surga. Nabi SAW bersabda (dalam Hadith ini) bahwa 999 dari tiap 1000 itu adalah dari (mereka yang berafiliasi, menjadi segolongan) dengan kaum Ya’juj dan Ma’juj, sedangkan yang 1 dari tiap 1000 itu adalah orang-orang yang (benar-benar) Muslim. Dikandung maksud bahwa sebagian besar manusia akan diseret dan terseret masuk ke dalam golongan Ya’juj & Ma’juj sehingga jumlah orang yg benar-benar beriman hanya tinggal 1 dari tiap 1000 orang.

Secara bahasa, ya’juj wa ma’juj dapat diartikan sebagai “mereka yang membakar (ya’juj, bentuk aktif) namun mereka sendiri juga terbakar (ma’juj, bentuk pasif)”. Di antara poin-poin penting di dalam QS Al Kahfi 94 terdapat sifat yang paling menonjol dari bangsa yang disifati (dinamai berdasarkan sifatnya) oleh Allah sebagai Ya’juj & Ma’juj ini, yaitu: “mufsiduuna fi al-ardh“, pembuat “fasaad” di muka bumi. “Fasaad” adalah upaya pengrusakan dan penghancuran hidup dan kehidupan manusia, termasuk kehidupan akhiratnya, yang dilakukan secara terencana dan hati-hati (deliberate) serta sistematis. Dalam ayat ini tidak disebutkan kerusakan macam apa yang mereka perbuat, oleh karena itu diambil pengertian sesuai sifat dalam nama mereka, yaitu bahwa mereka melancarkan “segala jenis fasaad“. Ada berapa jenis “fasaad“? Al-Quran menyebutkan ada 7 macam fasaad. Secara ringkas, ketujuh macam fasaad tersebut adalah:

(1) Fasaad genosida, pembunuhan massal, peperangan, pertumpahan darah (misal: Al-Baqarah 30),

(2) Fasaad pertanian & tanam-tanaman, merusak tanaman pangan dan hasil-hasil pertanian, termasuk rekayasa genetika untuk memasukkan  racun-racun tertentu ke dalam benih (misal: Al-Baqarah 205),

(3) Fasaad terhadap anak keturunan,  sistem reproduksi manusia (misal: Al Baqarah 205),

(4) Fasaad ekonomi & perdagangan, sistem ekonomi & keuangan ribawi, sistem moneter yang tidak memiliki nilai intrinsik (misal: Al-A’raf 85),

(5) Fasaad sodomi, pengakuan, penerimaan dan praktek-praktek homoseksual & gay (misal: Al-Ankabut 29-30),

(6) Fasaad terhadap tali silaturahmi keluarga (misal: Al Baqarah 27),

(7) Fasaad terhadap agama, liberalisasi & reinterpretasi agama disesuaikan dengan nilai-nilai kekinian yang berkembang di masyarakat (alias mengikuti hawa nafsu) (misal: Al-Baqarah 27).

Apakah semua ini sudah/sedang terjadi di hadapan kita? Bisakah kita merasakannya?

Dalam Surat Al Anbiya 95-96 disebutkan bahwa ada “sebuah kota” (qaryatin) yang telah dihancurkan oleh Allah dan penduduknya diusir dari kota itu, dan mereka tidak akan bisa kembali untuk menguasai kota itu lagi…. sampai suatu saat (mereka akan bisa menguasai kota itu kembali), yaitu ketika Ya’juj & Ma’juj telah dilepaskan dan telah “turun dari setiap tempat yang tinggi dan menyebar ke segala penjuru” (min kulli hadabi yansiluun). Dengan kata lain, Ya’juj & Ma’juj akan dilepaskan dan mereka akan bekerja keras (sesuai sifatnya & kekuatannya yang hebat) hingga mereka bisa mendomimasi dunia dengan hegemoni dan kekuasaan globalnya. Setelah itu, mereka akan bekerja untuk merebut kembali dan merestorasi “kota” itu, melindunginya & menjaganya, dan meluncurkan program-program dan kampanye bagi “orang-orang yang dahulu terusir” dari “kota” itu, untuk kembali tinggal di dalamnya dan menguasainya sendiri. Pertanyaannya, “kota” manakah yang dimaksud? “orang-orang yang diusir” itu siapa? apakah mereka sudah kembali ke “kota” itu?

Dari puluhan hadith shahih tentang Ya’juj & Ma’juj, ternyata hanya ada satu buah hadith (Shahih Muslim) yang menyebutkan atau menghubungkan Ya’juj dan Ma’juj dengan suatu kota tertentu. Dan hanya ada satu kota yang disebut di dalamnya. Penyebutannya pun sangat eksplisit, yaitu: Baitul Maqdis (Jerusalem, di Palestina). Maka dari sini bisa disimpulkan bahwa “kota” itu adalah Jerusalem. Data politik dan sejarah juga mendukung kesimpulan ini. Dalam sejarah, Kitab Tauraat (kitab Rasul-Rasul) menyebutkan dengan jelas bahwa Allah menghancurkan Jerusalem karena kedurhakaan penghuninya kepadaNya, dan mengusir penghuninya waktu itu (Bangsa Yahudi, 2000 tahun yang lalu) keluar dari kota itu dan mereka hidup berpencar-pencar di tanah-tanah bangsa lain. Mereka dilarang untuk kembali ke Jerusalem, dan bahkan tidak boleh mendirikan negara sendiri, meski pada tanah-tanah yang tidak bertuan. Sebagian ummat Yahudi, terutama dari kalangan orthodox (misal Rabbi Yisroel Weiss, Jurubicara Yahudi Orthodox Neutrei Karta), mengakui adanya perintah pengusiran oleh Tuhan. Bahkan mereka meyakini bahwa hingga kini mereka masih berada dalam masa pembuangan (exile) itu. Mereka berkeyakinan bahwa kelak Tuhan sendirilah yang akan mengirim Sang Penolong (Messiah) untuk mereka tanpa perlu ada intervensi dari manusia. Yang harus dilakukan adalah tetap berada di pengasingan, beriman, bertaubat, dan berbuat baik. Mereka menentang pendirian kembali Negara Israel oleh gerakan politik Zionis.

Data politik juga secara jelas menunjukkan bahwa setelah Perang Dunia I usai, Inggris (superpower masa itu) bekerja keras demi terwujudnya kembali negara Israel sebagai negara kaum Yahudi (lihat Deklarasi Balfour). Apa motivasi Inggris, yang notebene adalah Negara sekuler, sehingga ia mau bekerja keras mewujudkan cita-cita “relijius” bangsa Yahudi: berdirinya kembali Negara Israel (sebagaimana dahulu pernah mencapai zaman keemasan di bawah Raja Dawud AS & Sulaiman AS)? Pada kenyataannya, tahun 1948 negara itu terbentuk kembali, setelah 2000 yang lalu dihancurkan oleh Allah. Restorasi paksa Israel  sudah terjadi. Jutaan warga Yahudi yang dahulu terpencar-pencar di seluruh penjuru dunia telah dipanggil “pulang”. Kini, Amerika Serikat (superpower saat ini) pun sangat terlihat jelas sekali dalam upayanya memproteksi, mempertahankan habis-habisan, dan memberikan bantuan ekonomi besar-besaran kepada Israel. Dari segi finansial saja, misalnya. Situs (film dokumenter) www.occupation101.com melansir data bahwa total dana USAID sejak tahun 1949 hingga 1996 yang diberikan kepada Negara Israel yang hanya berpenduduk 5.8 juta jiwa sudah mencapai 62,5 milyar dollar. Jumlah ini sama dengan total dana bantuan USAID yang diberikan kepada benua Afrika dan Amerika Selatan (total penduduk 1,05 milyar jiwa) pada kurun waktu yang sama. Dalam forum internasional di PBB sudah mafhum diketahui bahwa Amerika Serikat selalu menggunakan hak vetonya untuk menggagalkan resolusi-resolusi yang dipandang merugikan Israel. Aneh sekali bukan? Analisis politik macam apa yang bisa menjelaskan fakta-fakta aneh ini secara rasional? Mungkin memang tidak bisa dijelaskan secara rasional, kecuali jika kita mau kembali kepada Al Quran, terutama Surat Al Anbiyaa 95-96 di atas.

Maka kesimpulannya sangat jelas: (1) kota itu adalah Jerusalem. (2) Orang-orang terusir itu adalah bangsa Yahudi, dan mereka sudah kembali ke kota itu! Dan kesimpulan lain yang lebih penting lagi: (3) superpower yang mengupayakan restorasi ini bisa terjadi, yang secara de-facto menguasai tatanan dunia saat ini tak lain dan tak bukan adalah Ya’juj & Ma’juj!

Perlu ditegaskan di sini bahwa analisis ini tidak difokuskan pada level individu/pribadi, namun pada level “polity” (suatu unit politik yang terdiri atas sekumpulan pribadi/individu yang terikat oleh kesamaan tujuan politik tertentu, bukan kesamaan ciri fisik/biologis/ginekologis). Dengan demikian, kita tidak perlu terjebak pada kesimpulan bahwa setiap individu yang tinggal/berada di dalam wilayah geografis yang kebetulan sama dengan polity ini adalah Ya’juj & Ma’juj. Namun polity ini memiliki “policy” yang sangat khas, yang semua orang di seluruh dunia bisa mengamatinya dengan terang benderang. Allah SWT sendiri yang berkenan meng-highlight policy ini dan memberi petunjuk kepada kita bahwa polity tersebut adalah kaum Ya’juj & Ma’juj.

Maka merujuk pada sabda Nabi tentang 10 tanda-tanda dekatnya Hari Kiamat di atas, satu lagi tanda besar akan dekatnya kiamat sudah wujud! Sesuai sifat yang melekat pada namanya, Ya’juj & Ma’juj akan dengan gencar berupaya menyeragamkan seluruh umat manusia sehingga menyerupai/menjadi segolongan dengan mereka (globalisasi), melibas semua rintangan & halangan, serta orang-orang yang berupaya menghalangi mereka dan menyelamatkan (iman) masyarakat. Maka jika kita ridha dan bahkan menjadi sekutu, pendukung, dan bagian dari tatanan dunia yang diusung oleh mereka dengan seluruh nilai-nilainya yang tiada lain adalah “fasaad” yang dibungkus dengan kata-kata yang indah (misal: humanisme, pluralisme, materialisme, liberalisme, dsb.), maka amat besar kemungkinannya kita akan menjadi anggota dari 999/1000 bagian (hadith di atas). Keridhaan, penerimaan dan keberpihakan, kita atas mereka bisa jadi cukup bagi Allah untuk menggolongkan kita dalam golongan mereka, karena kriterianya adalah: “man tasyabbaha bi qoumin fa huwa minhum” (HR Abu Dawud). Barang siapa yang menyerupai, ridha, condong, kepada suatu kaum, maka ia adalah bagian dari kaum itu.

So, sekali lagi, saudaraku sekalian rahima kumullah… “Selamat datang di Tatanan Dunia Ya’juj & Ma’juj” (dan waspadalah….!)….

Wallahu a’lam.

insya Allah bersambung…

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