RKUD 3132

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF TASAWWUF

ARTICLE REVIEW:

“The Importance of Tasawuf Practice in the Life of Modern Society”

NAME SYAHRUL AIMAN BIN SHUAZRIN

MATRIC 2014349

SECTION 1

INSTRUCTOR DR ASMA BINTI MUHAMMAD UTHMAN EL-

MUHAMMADY
The title of this article is talking on on “The Importance of Tasawuf Practice in the Life of
Modern Society” (International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 11, No. 10,
October 2020, pp74-79). The article was written by six authors who are Nozira Salleh,
Faudzinaim Badaruddin, Rosmawati Rasit, Mohd. Haidhar Kamarzaman as Corresponding
Author, Indriaty Ismail, and Ahmad Yunus Mohd. Nor. The main idea of this article that
highlighted by the authors are the definition of tasawwuf, described about the modern society
and its problem, the factors of the problems, tasawwuf and solution method which are tazkiyat
al-nafs, ihsan, and also zuhud. So, I will make a summary about this article first so that we can
better understand what the author wants to try to convey.

In the beginning of this article, they highlighted the definition of tasawwuf. They take
one of the definitions from Dbp dictionary which is defines the Sufism as a teaching (effort,
way) to know and come closer to the true God. The word is also derived from the word ṣafwā,
however the word is difficult to say in Arabic, thus it has been modified to ṣūfī, which implies
cleaning the heart and soul towards Allah. Thus, the meaning of sufism from the viewpoint of
language is viewed from the root of the word, where all variations of view regarding it have
seen a similar definition that is spiritual. Sufism, according to some experts' perspectives, is a
technique or means of guiding individuals to draw themselves closer to God via the practice of
soul purification in order to develop good morality and execute virtuous actions of worship.
Next, the authors explained what happened in modern society and its problem. According to
the authors, they think the modern society right now, and Malaysia in specifically, is faced with
a variety of troubling concerns or social illnesses. The are so many really bad problems occur
in our country and all of these issues have revealed that Malaysian society is currently suffering
from a real serious condition, and more active measures are needed to minimise the rate of such
social problems. The writer focuses on common problems in Malaysia such as child abuse that
can terrible infringement of a child's opportunity to grow up healthy. These unpleasant
behaviours are the result of a variety of circumstances, including the youngster disagreement
with his guardians or parents. Then, domestic violence is another common social issue
nowadays and women are the most common victims of violence. Furthermore, in certain large
cities such as Kuala Lumpur, behaviours such as unrestricted sexuality can also have negative
consequences such as abortion. Many variables can be linked to this access to sex activity,
including parental carelessness in addressing the issue despite their knowing, and unrestricted
relationship among teenagers.
 In addition, the authors mentioned about the factors of all those problems. One of the
factors is because of outside ideologies such as secularism, liberalism, and others which have
controlled the society, leading them far from an understanding of religion in their life. These
ideologies have had a severe influence on the spiritual and mental growth of Muslims in Islam
and their spirits are becoming more lifeless, and they are drifting far away from religion.
Another factor is always reliance on money. For them, money represents their faith in happiness
and good success, and in the view of some, it may replace God, and also, they think for those
have a large amount of wealth and properties in a community are better human beings. The
worse things are, it will make them a materialistic which is pushes people to the desire of
materialism and luxury in their lives. Thus, when anyone place their money and possessions
above all else in life, the requirements of the soul are abandoned, making it simpler for them to
endure from numerous social issues and illnesses. Other than that, the availability of many
advanced technology devices is viewed as one of the reasons for society today to experience a
variety of social illnesses. The mass media is considered as a big factor to today's young moral
degradation because of the occurrence of television shows that are primarily focused with
excitement rather than information. Likewise, with many websites such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and YouTube, a diversity of positive and harmful content is easily accessible and
available. So, from the authors view, Sufism is viewed as the ideal technique for awakening
the black heart and reconnecting it to Allah in order to fix this problem.

After the authors of this article mentioned all of the factors, they come with the
tasawwuf and solution methods regarding all those factors and problems. Today's societal
issues are caused by members of society's lack of respect for spiritual principles, which are
contrary to the Qur'an and Sunnah. The soul will be satisfied if it is fed spiritual sustenance
such as understanding oneself and its creator, performing good actions for Allah SWT,
performing out every rule of Allah, and rejecting all of Allah SWT's prohibited. Therefore,
using the framework of knowledge and practise of Sufism to cleanse the soul in order to move
closer to Allah while also cleansing and eliminating all unethical behaviours is considered as a
complete and sustainable process. In current life, mysticism presents different methods and
methods for resolving the spiritual problems of modern people who has deviated from Islam's
genuine way. From my view, Sufism will teach and develop the potential aspects of the human
spirit and physique. Besides, this knowledge and practise, which encompasses ideal spiritual
values, must be introduced and implemented to society because it would avoid dangerous
things since that thinks that the objective and determination in life are only due to Allah SWT.
 Next, according to the authors in this article, there are some ways and goals in Sufism
that modern society should follow. Among them are purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs),
ihsan, and zuhud. The purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs) is one of the primary and
important ways in the appreciation of Sufism which is said to be capable of restoring and
developing spirituality as well as dealing with societal difficulties. It is also important to know
that purifying should be accompanied by attempts to develop and decorate oneself with
excellent characteristics. For your information, there are two key approaches are used in the
purifying process are the first way is called as takahalli, which is a continuous endeavour to
fix and eliminate any negative traits and the second way is called as tahalli, which is an
initiative to replacing negative traits with positive traits. We know that although the procedure
of purifying the soul is tough since it battles something invisible, even though it is present in
the human body, it is not impossible to achieve. Its success is dependent on a person's faith and
integrity. Thus, a person who understands Sufism by always practising tazkiyat al-nafs or soul
purification in his life would usually shield himself from any vices or sins. While ihsan is the
procedure of soul cleansing can also be performed out at a level of kaifiyah known as ihsan, or
trust and understanding that Allah always observes what a human being accomplishes. The
major component that is defined ihsan is in a Muslim's prayers since they must be conducted
perfectly both visibly and internally. It means that, the prayer completed should reach the stage
of ihsan which is expressed as 'you must worship Allah as you can see him, if you do not see
it, then believe that Allah forever watches you. Another thing that can gratitude of Sufism is
asceticism or we called as zuhud. Zuhud is a basic life philosophy which is don't exaggerate
and don't love the earth so much that you neglect about the hereafter. According to Iman Al-
Ghazali, he defined asceticism as "the actions of one who rejects something desired to get
something more valuable." As a result, if every Muslim follows this trait, there will be no more
difficulties with robbery, stealing, robbing, and other negative activities. On the other side,
Allah SWT will bless our life and the people around will respect us.

As my overall view with the results and conclusion of the article, I strongly agree with
the article written by the six authors since the outcome of the article is reasonably clear and
easy to recognize what the paper was describing. The conclusion is also important and
appropriate, and I can all agree on it. What I can see and understand from the conclusion of
this article is based on the value of Sufism, which may be practised by all groups, the science
of Sufism is regarded as the finest technique to achieve human perfection in Islam. We can see
that there are some approaches by Sufi which are tazkiyat al-nafs, ihsan and zuhud as revealed
in the whole framework of methodology which can ensure success in the regeneration of the
human spirit while also forming a lasting identity. It is clear that Sufism's worth must be taught
to the community so that it can be practised in daily life. As a result, it is critical for today's
society to incorporate Sufism as one of the continuing methods of living in order to cleanse
oneself of any filthy tendencies while also developing excellent attributes in ourselves and
community.

In fact, every article has strengths and weaknesses that we can see from the content. As
a result, there are several benefits to learning about the significance of tasawuf practise in
modern culture. One of the writers' strengths is that they convey vital information with detailed
and realistic supporting data regarding how Sufism is seen as the foundation of worship
excellence and may be used to develop ourselves. Next, the superb writing of this essay by six
authors makes the issue simpler and easier to comprehend for the readers. For example, after
reading this essay, I have a good understanding of what is going on in modern society right
now, as well as how to fix the problem. Even though this article has many strengths, I'd like to
focus on some of its flaws. One of the weaknesses that I see is that this essay lacks investigation
and relies solely on facts. Furthermore, the writers make no use of any images that may
captivate and make it simpler for the reader to understand. Because this essay primarily focuses
on writing facts, readers may become bored. As a solution to these flaws, the writers might
employ quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to obtain a more in-depth picture
of the community about the topic. Other than that, with the tabulation of data such as bar charts,
flow charts, pie charts and so on can attract readers' interest.