Topik 19: Al-Baqaroh 12 & Manfaat Kamus

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillah kita sudah sampai pada Al-Baqaroh ayat 11. Terakhir kita "terhenti" di ayat ini kan (lihat topik 16). Cukup panjang kita bahas ayat 11 ini sampai ke Topik 18. Kali ini kita mencoba baranjak maju ke ayat selanjutnya, yaitu ayat 12.

Kita cuplik ayat 12 ini:




Kita coba terjemahkan:

الا - alaa : ingatlah (dihafalkan saja)
ان - inna : sesungguhnya (akan dibahas dalam bab Harf Inna)
هم - hum : mereka
هم - hum : mereka (sebagai fa'il/pelaku)--> dibaca humu, karena setelahnya ada AL
المفسدون - al mufsiduuna : orang-orang yang berbuat kerusakan (fa'il)
و - wa : dan (terkadang bisa berarti tetapi)
لكن - la kinna : akan tetapi (akan kita bahas dalam bab Harf Inna)
لا - laa : tidak
يشعرون : mereka senantiasa (sedang) menyadari

Ingatlah, sesungguhnya mereka(lah) orang-orang yang berbuat kerusakan, akan tetapi tidak(lah) mereka (sedang) menyadari(nya).

Kita coba bahas ya.

Ada satu kata kerja (fi'il) dalam ayat ini yaitu : يشعرون - yas'uruuna : mereka sedang menyadari. Sisanya adalah isim dan harf. Isim yang menarik untuk dibahas adalah المفسدون - al mufsiduuna, dalam bentuk ma'rifah (spesifik), jika kita buang alif-lam menjadi مفسدون - mufsiduuna, dalam bentuk nakiroh (umum).

Oke kita bahas dua topik itu saja ya... Baiklah:

Kata يشعرون

Lihat pelajaran-pelajaran sebelumnya. Kita dihadapkan dengan kata kerja. Bagaimana tahunya dong mas? Sebenarnya sudah diajarkan dalam topik yang lalu, tapi tidak ada salahnya diulang disini. Oke tandanya bahwa dia itu kata kerja:
1. Dia diawali ya diakhiri waw nun.( يـ ... ون )
2. Ingat kembali bila ada pasangan YA, WAW, NUN itu merupakan ciri yang kuat dari fi'il mudhori' (KKS)
3. Arti dari KKS yang ada YA, WAW, NUN itu : mereka sedang ... kata-kerja
4. Jika kita buang YA, WAW, NUN, maka akan lahir kata kerja aslinya.

Kita elaborasi sedikit teknik ini:
Kata يشعرون kalau kita buang YA, WAW, NUN, maka tersisa شعر - sy 'u ru . Tinggal tiga kata: SYIN, 'AIN, RA.

Beberapa waktu yang lalu ada yang email ke alamat yahoo saya, menanyakan bagaimana caranya kita tahu harokat suatu huruf. Misal kita dikasih 3 huruf, arab gundul, شعر , nah bagaimana cara membacanya?

Oke kita bisa dapatkan banyak kemungkinan:
SYA 'A RA
SYA 'A RI
SYA 'A RU

SYA 'I RA
SYA 'I RI
SYA 'I RU

dst, banyak sekali kemungkinannya. Akan tetapi yang umum adalah biasanya (mayoritas) kata kerja asli yang terdiri dari tiga huruf itu harokatnya fathah semua, sehingga yang kita gunakan adalah:

شعر - sya 'a ra

untuk kepastian harokat tersebut kita perlu kamus (periksa di kamus). Di kamus akan ada entri berikut

شعر - يشعر : sya'a ra (KKL) - yas 'u ru (KKS) yang bisa berarti:
1. bersyair
2. menyadari / mengetahui

Maka kita pilih yang lebih tepat arti yang no. 2.

Disini dapat kita lihat arti pentingnya kamus bahasa Arab:
Jika kita sudah dapat akar kata (3 huruf) seperti SYIN 'AIN RA diatas, maka kita bisa mencari tahu 3 hal:
1. Kita bisa tahu apa KKL (Kata Kerja Lampau / fi'il madhy)
2. Kita bisa tahu apa KKS (Kata Kerja Sedang / fi'il mudhori')
3. Kita bisa tahu harokat untuk KKL dan KKS nya

Kembali lagi ke kasus diatas, kata يشعرون dalam Al-Baqaroh 12, jika kita pecah:
شعر - sya 'a ra : dia telah mengetahui
يشعر - yas 'u ru : dia sedang mengetahui
يشعرون - yas 'u ruu na : mereka sedang mengetahui

Oke mudah-mudahan jelas ya pren...

Sekarang kita masuk ke topik selanjutnya yaitu:

Kata al-mufsiduuna المفسدون

Kata al-mufsiduuna, ini adalah kata benda. Why? Jawabannya telah dijelaskan di topik-topik yang lalu, tapi kita ulangi saja disini ya:

1. Adanya huruf alif dan lam, ciri kata benda
2. Jikapun alif lam dibuang maka tinggal مفسدون - mufsiduuna, maka adanya MIM ... WAW NUN, maka ini ciri kata benda orang

Oke sekarang kita coba urai lagi...

Kata مفسدون - mufsiduuna, apa akar katanya?

Oke berikut kita coba teknik mencari akar kata untuk kata al-mufsiduun diatas:

Pertama-tama adanya MIM ... WAW NUN, berarti ciri dari kata benda orang, yang bisa berarti orang yang ...kata-kerja.

Oke kalau kita buang MIM, YA, NUN maka akan tersisa huruf FA SIN DAL.

فسد , sekali lagi, setelah proses pembuangan sebagian huruf kita tidak bisa langsung menentukan harokat masing-masing huruf bisa: fasada, fasadi, fasadu, fasuda, dst.

Lalu mana yang harus dipilih? Ini menjadi satu persoalan. Persoalan ke dua adalah, apakah akar kata al-mufsiduuna itu FASADA atau AFSADA? Loh apa lagi nih... bingung... biar gak bingung, Insya Allah temukan jawabannya dalam topik berikut, kita akan bahas mengenai topik DSK (Dhommah, Sukun, Kasroh), yang mana pola ini banyak sekali kita temui dalam al-Quran. Sebagai bocoran saja untuk topik depan, kata kerja asli (yang terdiri dari tiga huruf) dalam bahasa arab mempunyai 12 bentuk turunan. Yang umum adalah 8 bentuk. Bentuk yang sangat sering muncul dalam Al-Quran adalah bentuk turunan I.

Contoh kata kerja berikut:
nazala: turun
anzala: menurunkan (bentuk turunan I)

Nah bentuk turunan I ini yang Insya Allah kita akan pelajari. Kita akan mencari tahu apakah kata yang dipakai dalam Al-Baqarah 12 ini (dalam mufsiduun) itu:

fasada
afsada (bentuk turunan I).

Insya Allah.

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is one of the leading Islamic scholars living today. He is an expert in the fields of Islamic Jurisprudence, Economics, Hadith and Tasawwuf. Born in Deoband in 1362H(1943 CE), he graduated par excellence form Dars e Nizami at Darul Uloom, Karachi, Pakistan. Then he specialized in Islamic Jurisprudence under the guidance of his eminent father, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the

Teach People Good

Abu Umama reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,"Allah and His angels and the people of the heavens and the earth, even the ants in their rocks and the fish, pray for blessings on those who teach people good." [at-Tirmidhi]

You Know You've Been in Dubai Too Long When...

...the Government announces another amnesty for illegal residents. This is the third amnesty during our time here. They seem to be happening about every five years. There are two reasons for people being here illegally

1) They entered the country without any kind of visa, in which case they deserve everything they get, and

2) They had some kind of visa, but it expired and, for whatever reason, they did not leave.

We know lots of people who were caught in situation 2. The policy has always been that once your visa has expired, you are liable to a fine of Dhs 100 per day of your overstay. This very quickly builds up into a fine that nobody in this situation can pay. For example, say you had a job, but you were dismissed or the company closed down. Your residence visa gets cancelled. You have 30 days in which to leave the country. But you have bankrupted yourself to get here and you really do not want to leave just now. So you bust your guts trying to find a job. You have some good interviews and a couple of verbal offers. But you have to wait for those offers to turn into written offers.

This will always take time because the owner of the company or whoever is responsible is too busy/out of the country/too lazy. Your deadline comes and goes. You are taking a flyer, but you feel it is justified because very soon you will have a job offer, and that will turn into a job, and everything will be fine. Except, when the person responsible for making your written offer finally gets down to it, he decides he doesn't want you at salary xx,xxx per month, he's giving the job to the tea-boy at xxx per month. Now you are trapped. You have virtually no money, and you are already on day 15 of your overstay. You now have no choice but to hang on until you do get a job.

You (well maybe not you, but I) hear all kinds of stories about people who have surrendered themselves to the authorities. Of people (typically Asians) who are fined the full Dhs 100 per day for their entire overstay period, and are accommodated at HH's pleasure until they deign to pay the amount. Which of course they do not have, an so they languish in jail until somebody pays their fine or they get pardoned as part of a Ramadan clean-out. And others (typically westerners, but I'm not saying there's any racial bias here) who just get fined an admin fee and are able to sort themselves out for about Dhs 1,000.

I know of one Brit who had overstayed for about 15 years. He took advantage of the last amnesty, and the Immigration officials all wanted signed copies of his documents because they had never seen such an extreme case!

The daily fine policy has exactly the opposite effect to what it should have. You very quickly reach a point of no return, not out of malice, and not deliberately; but very quickly you find yourslef so deep in the mire that you cannot even dream about how you might get out of it. It forces people not to come forward and try to get their status sorted out. It discourages employers from hiring people with an overstay problem. It actually causes many more problems than it solves. And it makes it necessary to hold an amnesty every five years.

Topik 18: Tolonglah!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Kita masih akan lanjutkan mengenai topik Fi'il Amr (Kata Kerja Perintah). Pada topik sebelumnya telah kita bahas 6 langkah mudah membentuk Fi'il Amr. Masih ingat kan? Gak ingat juga gak apa... Hehe... Topik kali ini akan kita lanjutkan lagi, pendalaman 6 langkah tsb.

Kita akan beri 2 contoh: yaitu menolong - nashoro نَصَرَ dan mempelajari/belajar - 'allama علّم

Contoh 1: نصر

Kita latih lagi 6 langkah tsb:
Langkah 1. KKL menolong --> NASHARA نصر
Langkah 2. KKS menolong --> YANSHURU ينصُرُ
Langkah 3. Buang YA --> NSHURU نْصُرُ
Langkah 4. Harokat akhir matikan --> NSHUR نصُرْ
Langkah 5. Harokat NUN sukun --> tambahkan alif --> Kemungkinan UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR
Langkah 6. Pilih UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR.

Kita berhenti sejenak disini. Kita dihadapkan dengan 3 pilihan. Dalam topik 18 ini, langkah ke 6 kita pertajam sbb:
6.1 Jika KKL terdiri dari 4 huruf, huruf pertama alif fathah, maka alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) berharokat Fathah (lihat contoh AFSID : RUSAKLAH, pada topik 17).
6.2 Jika KKL bukan termasuk jenis 6.1, maka harokat Alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) adalah:
- kasroh jika huruf KKS sebelum terakhir fathah atau kasrah
- dhommah jika huruf KKS sebelum terakhir dhommah

Wuih... mangkin puyeng aje nih ane... Bang... Tenang... Tenang... Kita akan beri 2 contoh untuk memudahkan (kelihatannya saja rumit, tapi kalau dilatih dengan contoh Insya Allah gak seserem yang dibayangkan)... Oke kembali kita ke topik NASHARO. Kita sudah sampai pada langkah ke 5, dengan memberikan pilihan: UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR.

Mari kita terapkan rumus 6.1 dan 6.2

6.1 KKL dari MENOLONG adalah NASHARA نصر . KKL adalah 3 huruf. Sehingga rumus 6.1 ini tidak berlaku, karena rumus ini hanya berlaku untuk KKL 4 huruf, huruf pertama adalah alif berharokat fathah. Kalau demikian lanjut ke 6.2

6.2 KKL bukan termasuk jenis 6.1, maka kita tinggal melihat harokat huruf sebelum akhir dari KKSnya. Okeh... KKS dari NASHARO adalah YANSHURU, huruf terakhir dari ينصرadalah RO, huruf sebelum akhir adalah SHOD. ينصُر. Harokat SHOD apa???? Harokat SHOD dhommah ( ُ ). Jika dhommah, maka alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) juga berharikat dhommah. Sehingga menjadi انصر UNSHUR (bukan INSHUR, atau ANSHUR).

Jadi kita ringkas:
نصر - NASHARO : (dia telah) menolong --> KKL
ينصر - YANSHURU : (dia sedang) menolong --> KKS
لا تنصر - LA TANSHUR : (hai kamu) jangan menolong ! --> Perintah larangan
انصر - UNSHUR : (hai kamu) MENOLONGLAH! --> fi'il amer (PERINTAH)

Gimana Mas, jelas kan? Hmmm... rada ribet ya... Ya, namanya belajar, musti kudu bersusah-susah dikit. Jurus yang saya berikan ini sudah yang dipermudah loh... Bisa-bisa kalau Mas belajar dengan ustadz lain, rumus yang diberikan lebih susah hehe... Atau malah disuruh gapalin rumus?

Okeh... kita masuk ke contoh 2: 'ALLAMA (mempelajari/belajar)

Kita ulangi 6 langkah diatas.
1. KKL : 'ALLAMA علم
2. KKS : YU'ALLIMU يعلم
3. Buang YA: 'ALLIMU علِّمُ
4. Harokat akhir matikan: 'ALLIM علمْ
5. Harokat huruf awal, yaitu harokat 'AIN fathah, berarti rumus 5 tidak berlaku
6. Karena rumus 5 tidak berlaku maka rumus 6 juga tidak berlaku

Kesimpulan:
علّم - 'allama: (dia telah) memperlajari/belajar --> KKL
يعلم - yu'allimu: (dia sedang) belajar --> KKS
لا تعلم - laa tu'allim: (hai kamu) jangan belajar --> Kata kerja perintah larangan
علّم - 'allim (berhenti sampai langkah 4 diatas) : (hai kamu) Belajarlah! --> Fi'il amr.

Demikian dua contoh telah diberikan untuk mempertajam teknik menentukan fi'il amr. Insya Allah untuk contoh-contoh yang lain akan kita lanjutkan.

An Odd Encounter

It was around 8:20 pm when I left my house to get in my car to go to the gym. As I closed the gate behind me, I looked about the street before hopping into my car and reversing into the street from the pavement. Just as I was about to put the car in drive, a car approaches me from the left and flashes its light. It was a modest white car with a Saudi license plate. Many Saudis like coming to Kuwait or any easily accessible neighboring country for that matter, as a chance for many them to flee the strictures of their Wahhabi state.

I paused as the Saudi man, the only person in the car and the driver, came out to walk towards me. He appeared to be a youth in his mid 20s. I stepped out of my car and met him. I expected him to ask for directions or the house of so and so, but instead he started talking to me as if he knew me. He quickly picked up that I’m not a Kuwaiti from lack of use of the dialect. I asked him who he was looking for, but it turned out he was looking for me.

He said he wanted to ask me something but I didn’t catch at the time what he said was the reason for his hesitation as I didn’t know the Arabic verb he was using at the time. However, I looked up the word later and he was saying that he wasn’t sure if he could advance his proposal with me. After beating around the bush and telling him to just ask me what was in his mind. I wondered what it could be. Was it something illicit? He said that he is from the Saudi Kingdom and his father was sick at which point he made an indication to his stomach. He said he needed some help and wondered if I could be of some assistance.

I found this to be a very odd request. The young man was neatly dressed in the typical national dress of the dishdasha and associated headgear. He had a thin moustache and was polite. His car was modest, but there was nothing about him to indicate a lack of material goods or poverty. So I couldn’t understand why he was in essence begging me for money. I quickly replied that I was sorry and could not help him.

He then uttered a few sentences praising America and how he would like to travel there because the atmosphere or situation there is good. After that we departed and I continued to the gym. I wondered if his father was really sick why he would be coming to Kuwait to beg for money. Saudi Arabia has hospitals and a fairly decent health care system. But at the same time, I felt it was more likely to be a ploy or scam to perhaps obtain money for drugs.

Popper, Sapir, and international auxiliary languages

I've been reading some of Karl Popper's work lately, and found it quite interesting (and clearly written, which one doesn't always expect of philosophers.) Both his political and his scientific writings are dominated by the same important theme: no one can get closer to the truth without being willing to put their beliefs to the test, and the more different people doing the testing, the less likely they are to overlook a flaw in the idea. Thus dictatorship and censorship - in any power structure, governmental or academic - are not just bad, but intrinsically prone to get worse results. I noticed that he took this view to have implications for language policy too:

The adoption of rationalism implies, moreover, that there is a common medium of communication, a common language of reason; it establishes something like a moral obligation towards that language, the obligation to keep up standards of clarity and to use it in such a way that it can retain its function as a vehicle of argument. That is to say, to use it plainly; to use it as an instrument of rational communication, of significant information, rather than as a means of 'self-expression', as the vicious romantic jargon of most of our educationists has it. (It is characteristic of the modern romantic hysteria that it combines Hegelian collectivism concerning 'reason' with an excessive individualism concerning 'emotions': thus the emphasis on language as a means of self-expression instead of a means of communication.) (Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies vol. II: Hegel and Marx, Routledge 1945/2003, p. 264)

While this quote is mainly about how you should use a given language, rather than which language to use, it clearly suggests the desirability of some international language, and Sapir's idea of how such a language should be built happens to be rather Popperian in spirit:

It [the international auxiliary language] must, ideally, be as superior to any accepted language as the mathematical method of expressing quantities and relations between quantities is to the more lumbering means of expressing these quantities and relations in verbal form. This is, undoubtedly, an ideal which can never be reached, but ideals are not meant to be reached; they simply indicate the direction of movement. (p. 51)... National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical enquiry... (p.60) Intelligent men should not allow themselves to become international language doctrinaires. They should do all they can to keep the problem experimental, welcoming criticism at every point and trusting to the gradual emergence of an international language that is a fit medium for the modern spirit. (p. 64, Edward Sapir, "International Auxiliary Language" in Culture, Language, and Personality, Berkeley: University of California)

So it is all the more ironic to find that Popper's paragraph continues with this:

And it implies the recognition that mankind is united by the fact that our different mother tongues, in so far as they are rational, can be translated into one another. It recognizes the unity of human reason.

This seems to imply that linguistic diversity is worthless: if something is rational, it can be explained in any language, and if it can't be explained to me in my language, it must be irrational. I rather suspect that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was partly intended as a rebuttal to this sort of argument. If your language tends to blind you to the differences in logical form between sentences with superficially identical structures (his example in the very essay quoted above is the perfective/imperfective distinction in English) and makes it easy to spot the differences between ones with different structures, then the ideal auxiliary language should allow you to express logical form as unambiguously as possible; and to be able to make a language free of your own linguistic biases and blind spots, you will have to carefully study many languages of as many different types as possible.

Of course, that begs the question: is there such a thing as an overall better language, or is that whole approach misconceived? Algebraic notation is unquestionably superior to English for describing physical laws, but it's not a very effective way to make a grocery list. In practice, people use different languages, and different technical vocabularies embedded in the same language, for different purposes.