Short Treatise for Newly Wed Couple
Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim. (HR) Sunan Ibn Mājah 224
For some muslim in worker class who is about to enter the marriage phase, they seek knowledge regarding their religion, they want to seek the best partner that will accompany for the rest of their life, the notion of mirror as the kind of quality of partner they are about to get already engraved, thus the enthusiasm seeking the knowledge in every possible way every week is a must, for some every day. They cultivate themselves in a situation where they don’t want to miss opportunity to learn, the topic range about Aqidah, Akhlak, Pre-Marriage, Fiqh the list may go on to any given topic that masjid could provide that aim for large audience to attend. Their conscious is to get the best of knowledge they can as redemption from the past. At this point, nothing should stop them from getting their knowledge increased.
Though the learning method of lecturing, involving themselves in Islamic organization, making event is not entirely the sole method on increasing knowledge, and not an essence on what it is becoming a muslim like other that has to go through ‘pesantren’. As the learning curve is not about finishing a book or one field in particular but thematically random. As time goes by, they find the righteous spouse coming from their new environment, holding a ceremony, keeping connection with friends they acquired along with the journey, the learning curve is going downhill, they lost the means to stay in seeking knowledge path. As mundane task kept occupy them in daily basis whether in household or work environment. Little time given to any activity that provide them nutritive knowledge that keep them alive in the first place, they got the illusion that their part to seek knowledge is no longer the way as it was. But people should be aware that the older they get, the more challenge they encounter thus seeking knowledge become more relevant as they are obliged to answer, navigate and living model for their member of family.
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The order of learning is really up to the people in the masjid, not the teacher. In other case of Islamic organization the curriculum is being given to muslim that just relearning his religion, seeking catchy title and enormous audience that doesn’t actually benefit aside from habituation of being in the masjid seeking knowledge. This phenomenon that can be summarized in one word. Lost of authority. According to imam Zarnuji in his work Taalim Mutaalim, student should give their choice to learn to the teacher, only through his knowledge and wisdom then the student may enter the field of knowledge and learn to the furthest that the student’s capacity able to do so. Though it may not be a fair comparison, one is working full time and the latter is studying full time, but the idea of giving himself to teacher on what to study is the relevant. And that what makes them keep on going to study regardless of the status they earn whether in family or work environment.
Muslim should engage in knowledge seeking in daily basis, in any level of intensity but the most important things is to learn with teacher, read along with primary book and have a peer to discuss what has been taught in the class also to learn independently. Nowadays, people tend to spend more time in their phone specifically in social media. So there is wild idea that watching through the phone is replacing the relationship between teacher and student. Give them the faintest idea that they have master the topic, and arising of content creator that bring Islamic topic somehow make people give authority to them and that is another form of loss of authority. So as muslim living in digital age, that supposed to give convenience regarding the flow of information spreading across people, actually the thing that hinder them in achieving true knowledge. Because knowledge reside in qalb of the teacher, it only transmitted to student if the teacher allow them to be. So for students to be prepared receiving knowledge from the teachers there must be some condition which is sincerity, steadfastness and time. As knowledge doesn’t set apart from the person that acquired it, the personality and habit also being a part of the knowledge given to the students though it does not eliminate the objectivity.
So knowledge is not something that is casually achieved, just because we attend to some class does not mean we understand it, even if we understand it, doesn’t mean it correspond to what teacher designated to. Learning should take place everywhere and anytime, but in constraint time and space and the amount of responsibility gradually increased along with age, we should only focus on what is deemed necessity according to what the condition demand, which is ilm hal(condition), if the kids about to enter puberty then they should learn how to pray shalat, what is obligatory, permissible and nullify the prayer. All things considered that the obligatory upon the person according to his situation demanded to be learnt. The knowledge about religion is not only about ritual but also the theoretical part like aqidah, kalam, ushul fiqh, history and so on. As we learn for years, what obligated must not be considered done, like learning basic of arithmetic and no further development must be made as we grow old. But knowledge about religion gives depth, despite learning for years, some may get the understanding not coincide in that time but unfolded in the future if the learning still continues, it may not give expansion and mastery but it will give another dimension like sincerity, steadfastness, tawakkal, ridha and other step till reaching Allah.
So for newly-wed couple they must come to an agreement where they should teach each other, gives environment to study fardh ain knowledge, learning to compromise to mundane task and keep studying. It’s not gonna be easy but it is keep increasing the soul’s capacity what is deemed impossible may be felt possible once it’s done. Accepting that each other may not start in religious study in same level, but they must be able to assess their level of understanding and area that is urgent to be filled. So in future, they should be able to pass on the chain of understanding to next generation without gap like they experienced before and the awareness to keep studying already engraved and does not stop when the marriage happen
