Idul Fitri, Our Words and Us
Idul Fitri is the sacred moment of transforming our personal piety, which we have trained for a full month, into a public force for good. One implementation is ensuring the presence of social cohesiveness.
For me, one major sign that our fasting is accepted by Allah is our ability to “restrain” our words and be careful in our speech. Idul Fitri is the sacred moment of transforming our personal piety, which we have trained for a full month, into a public force for good. One implementation is ensuring the presence of social cohesiveness. Egoistic desires fade away and are replaced with a spirit of collectiveness.
Such a message is important to be contemplated in these years of politics, when people are polarized. The pro and antigovernment camps seem to have rejected each other. More than just using abusive words on social media, on some occasions they have also resorted to persecution and physical violence.
Car-free days that should have been a space for communal joy suddenly turned into a murky space of political campaigns. Crowds no longer blend together but are separated merely by T-shirts adorned with different slogans. A war of hashtags, between #2019gantipresiden (#2019replacepresident) and #2019tetapjokowi (#2019stilljokowi), becomes increasingly worrying.
The innocent names of animals are even used in abusive name-calling between the groups. Despite God’s strict prohibition of calling our fellow men bad names, wa la tanabazu bil alqab, we often feel satisfied in hurling pejoratives such as kecebong (tadpole) and kampret (microbat) at our friends.
Polarization
I believe that a subversion of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is being perfectly applied on social media. It is not that humans are evolved from apes — it is that humans are slowly metamorphosing into apes, or into kecebong and kampret.
The story of Leviathan is a great political theory. The chromosomes of animals and men have switched places. Social media algorithms have reinforced polarization, especially with their unfriend or unfollow mechanisms. Men and women of the same political and religious views flock together — and those across the aisle are considered heathens. Those having different views are bullied for eternity.
Netizens are increasingly isolated in ecosystems of informational cocoons as an effect of what is called the “cyber ghetto”.
In some cases, apart from words, memes that stray far from the Eastern sense of politeness are also used. On social media, “truth” is not about facts, data accuracy and the suitability of statements to reality — but is instead tethered to the political interests that dominated the minds of all political supporters.
Seemingly no religious education is necessary for one to become a preacher. You just need to tap your fingers on your cell phone to share news articles you deem important without fact-checking it first. Fake preachers such as these are more popular than real ones, anyway.
In the post-truth era, communication is all about creating a fuss instead of inciting deeper thinking, provoking instead of reflecting, chaos instead of calmness and speed instead of patience. We talk a lot but our words have no meaning.
This overabundance of meaningless words and thunderous sermons only serve to display primitive behavior that triggers outdated ideological warfare and identity sentimentalism. In the end, the words of God are sold off in the hunt for electoral votes.
Such polarization is not only the fruit of our carelessness in using social media. It goes beyond the discourse regarding the good and bad sides of social media.
Daryna Grechyna’s research paper “On the Determinants of Political Polarization” as quoted by Kompas (9/5/2018) exposed 10 socio-historical and economic factors that determine polarization in a society, namely gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the income gap, globalization, government spending, media independence, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, belief, democracy, population density and geography.
Grechyna said belief and income gap were the two strongest determiners of political polarization.
Returning to holiness
This is the main reason why our prophets, including Jesus Christ, Siddharta Gautama, Moses, David and Muhammad, were never reckless in using their words. Their sanctity was preserved in their words. The choice was to say the right thing or remain silent. Frugality in speech was among their main teachings.
The effects of fasting in these God-chosen men were strongly reflected in their use of words.
Minal aidin means returning to a public space of civility. Wal faizin means a sense of joy spread upon the vital elan of glorifying humanity, which is focused on amanah (honesty), tabligh (transparency), shidiq (truthfulness) and fathanah (intellect). Therefore, Idul Fitri on 1 Syawal becomes a day of victory.
It is a victory of love and a celebration of collective joy. As Prophet Muhammad said, “Love everything on Earth and you will receive love from the heavens.”
Upon being slandered and being urged to answer who the father of the boy she was carrying was, Mary remained quiet. She let baby Jesus answer for her. God used Jesus’ voice to give an answer. The Holy Spirit in the form of the light of Muhammad was placed on the “baby”. Kullu mauludin yuladu alal-fithrah (Every child is born pure on Earth).
A “baby” symbolizes a person that is pure, sincere and beloved by all, whose cries brings pure joy to the parents and all family members. Fasting brings the religious mandate that all of us return to the pureness of this baby. This is only possible if we are careful with our words.
This moment of returning is formulated in our Idul FItri greeting. We return to our social, political, economic and cultural origins sterilized from a limbo of interests except for the interest of doing the greater good.
In the context of nationhood, a “baby” is a metaphor for a state anchored upon politics of citizenship. This is politics focused upon the ethos of mutual assistance (Soekarno), sovereign education (Hatta), total independence of the people (Tan Malaka) and a righteous life (Syahrir). Politics turn multiculturalism into the oxygen that unites our awareness in the life of the nation.
A ruptured bond
The bombings before Ramadhan should have been a reminder not only for the government but also for the people that religious radicalism is not just a figment of the imagination. Instead, it is something real that happens directly in front of us.
They do not play around. They have prepared methods to achieve their goals, including abusing religious teachings to satisfy their primordial political fantasies. They are fighting for the Middle Age’s political ideals when religion was mixed with state affairs and God was used as a weapon to legitimize violence. We must be aware of this and avoid this.
If we are not careful, we will become victims ourselves — including our fathers, mothers, children and other family members, so long as we fulfill their criteria of “heathens”. The Jakarta State Administrative Court’s (PTUN) rejection of a plea from banned organization Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) should serve as political momentum of mainstreaming Pancasila values. We must believe that Pancasila is a relevant ideology for a diverse Indonesia.
Idul Fitri in this political year must be an opportunity for a total reflection that proper religiosity must involve a positive power of spreading love to the universe. Idul Fitri must be used to repair our ruptured bonds of nationhood. Eid Mubarak. Let us forgive one another for our physical and emotional wrongdoings.
Asep Salahudin, Deputy rector I, Latifah Mubarokiyah Institute of Islamic Studies (IAILM), Suryalaya Islamic Boarding School, Tasikmalaya