with Shaykh Afifi al-Akiti

With Dr Afifi, Dr Ahmad, Lukman, Nash, Jahanger and the Malabar Imams

I count myself lucky to be with Shyakh Dr Afifi Al-Akiti on Wed 15 apr 2009. I rushed back home from camp and then to Malabar for maulid and a short talk by Dr Afifi. After Malabar, we rushed to Ba’alwie since Dr Afifi was already an invited guest of Habib Hassan. He is a very learned scholar who studied under many illustrious teachers, including Shaykh Yahya Fadani.

A more detailed bio on him can be found here: http://resources.theology.ox.ac.uk/staff.phtml?lecturer_code=aalakiti
His various articles here: http://www.abc.se/~m9783/maa/index.html

Prior to this, I’ve heard of him and his works; and the instant I hear him speak, I was like admiration all over. He speaks with a great deal of zeal and passion on religion, and being a very well trained and learned faqih as he is, he is able to explain issues in fiqh in very technical terms, sometimes even foreign to the ordinary muslim. I count myself as one who is mesmerized and lost when he discussed, guess what? solat tarawih.

A Malaysian, graduated from Oxford and is now a lecturer at one of the universities in London, Dr afifi never lost his Malay and Nusantara background. This was evident when he related to us something ‘homecoming’ about the Malay-Nusantara way of reciting the folk-lore, traditional salawat; how much it reminded us of our childhood etc. He never made secret that he is Malay and Malaysian, though he mentioned something’prophetic’ about the name Malay is English as being similar to Malaise and hence, God Forbid, MALAS.

At Malabar also, he shared with us Imam Syafi’e’s 6 keys to becoming a good student.

I Cant remember all, will need to replay the recording, but intelligence, thirst for knowledge and the keeping company of one’s teacher are all components of the objective.

At Ba’alwie, Dr Afifi discussed about how the Grandfather of the Holy Prophet s.a.w. made maulid for Nabi s.a.w. right after his birth.

In the qasidah: Salla alaikallahu Ya ‘Adnaani…Ya Mustafa Ya saffwatar Rahmanii

Abdul Mutallib, a hanif, was narrated to have said:
Alhamdulillahil ladzii ‘athoni, hadzal ghulamat thoiyibal ardaani.

Praise be to Allah who has given me, this child, good in character.
Ardaani is also about akhlaq.

And just just now, this same qasidah was played by the Naqshabandi Ensemble at Simply Islam, during the talk by Shaykh Yahya Rhodus, Shyakh Khalil Moore and Ust Iqbal. Yet another blessed majlis that certainly increased our motivation to love Nabi s.a.w more and more! Met my JC classmate, Zamir, and his twin brother Zakir there, nice to meet them. And if I was not mistaken, I saw Ust Nasiruddin also.

Anyways, back to Wednesday night at Ba’alwie. Dr Afifi even highlighted that there is some attraction in the way the Nasantarans rendered the salawats; he highlighted that even the legendary P Ramlee made use of the Nusantaran-salawat tunes for “Achik-achik, bukak pintu, Nana balek hai pukul satu” adapted from “Ya Rasulallah, salaamun ‘alaik, Ya Rafi ‘asyani wad daraji’” Subhanallah. Met my teacher who taught me Tasawwur Islam, Shaykh Abdul Halim at Ba’alwie also.

Then, we had a closed door session with Dr Afifi in the Imam room at Ba’alwie. That was when Dr shed light on some very interesting issues, like why Arab was the language medium for Allah’s Quran. It is not because of Nahu, Grammar, for Latin has a more complicated Grammar. Nor is it Balaghah, Greek has a more complicated system, rather it is because of Ilm Bayan where words in Arabic can carry vast meanings. Suitable for the Quran which must have a vast ocean of meanings. We see Sufi shaykhs, time and time again, coming up with new tafsirs that make sense and touch the heart. Masyaallah.

Dr also discussed why Tarawih 20 rakaat is established and why Tarawih 8 rakaat is a new thing; not endorsed by old scholars from both Sunni and Shia schools.

Evidence he gave was multi-pronged. I could only be amazed and tercengang, first just by the language-approach itself, Tarawih, a plural, cannot be 8 rakaat. Dr taught us to see Tarawih as a set of 4 rakaats with 2 salams, so minimum rakaat would be 3x4=12, but 20 is established. The long rest in only considered after every fourth rakaat, though tarawih is done 2 by 2…

As for 8 rakaat, the hadith that mentioned so does not refer to tarawih, probably other nawafil like tahajjud, and we know Nabi s.a.w. does a lot of nawafil.

That and more Dr Afifi discussed…I really look forward in the future to the next time he speaks. Meanwhile, go read his articles!