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Farrah Diebaa Rashid Ali Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang diebaali@yahoo.com ABSTRACT
Everyman is a play written by anonymous Dutch rhetorician during medieval English. This play highlighted the journey that one has to face when death approaches. As this play was written in a Christian-dominant western society, much of its arguments coincide with the teaching and belief of the Christian. In this paper, the author tried to unlock the keys that concealed the similarities shared by Christianity and Islam. Among the six keys discussed in this paper are:- (1) Concept of death, (2) Gods judgment, (3) indebtedness, (4) knowledge, (5) repentance and (6) nature of man. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that regardless of ones religion and culture Everyman is indeed representing everyman in this world.
1.0 Introduction
Everyman is the only play from English medieval time which has survived in written form. It has been translated from Dutch into English and has been part of European theatrical tradition ever since. It is the most celebrated morality play written by anonymous Dutch Rederijikers (rhetorician) which was encouraged and supported by the chambers of rhetoric a group interested in instilling morality, piety, and culture in their communities through drama. This play highlights the journey that everyman in this world shall undertake. It reminds everyman of what will happen if he does not repent or confess his sins and the consequences of lack of good deeds (Coldeway and Streitberger, 2001). As the aim of this paper is to look at Everyman from an Islamic perspective, it is important to identify the messages the play is trying to put forward. Thematically, this play is about death and how man should behave in this world from the point of view of Christianity and it is very much alike to what the Muslims believe. Therefore, differences that might exist between the two were neither highlighted nor discussed. In order for man to be able to see the similarities between the Muslim and Christians concept of life and death as forwarded in this play, he should first be able to differentiate between a reliable and a non-reliable source of knowledge. He should accept that Al-Quran is a book of Allah, and Prophet Muhammad never lied in his saying. Nevertheless, Al Quran and Sunnah are not the ultimate source of knowledge and truth, as Al-Nasafi says the causes for knowledge for created beings are three: the sound senses, true report and reason. The senses are five: hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch; by each sense, information is given about (the class of objects) for which it is appointed. (Al-Nasafi, trasn 1994).
One of the easiest ways to obtain knowledge through senses is by reading. However, the process does not end with reading only; one should be able to react either positively or negatively to the newly acquired knowledge. And it is really important that the first part of this process should not be omitted, as one should first read and understand the content of the books before jumping into any conclusion. However, in today society, most people pretend to be a scholar by forwarding comment and openly criticize others however without first knowing the truth which is written in those books. Unfortunately, many Muslim are one of them. It is distressing to note that because of their lack of interest in acquiring varieties of knowledge, these people are unable to see the similarities between concepts or ideas. They are overwhelmed with the differences as there are easier to be identified. Even though, these differences what made man a unique individual, most of the time it causes disunity, hatred, and misunderstanding between men. Therefore, this paper will focus on the similarities instead of the differences between the Islamic and Christian concepts of life and death as has been forwarded in the play. However, in choosing from a vast selection of knowledge, Muslim particularly should be able to choose which knowledge should be first learnt prior to another; and this is known as priority of knowledge. Priority of knowledge means that one should first learn and understand the Islamic fundamental knowledge or what is known as Fard Ayn. Nevertheless, Fard Kifayah is a must, and the whole society is answerable to Allah if none of the members of the society possessed such knowledge. Even so, Muslim should not use this priority of knowledge as escapism for not learning other knowledge outside the Islamic umbrella. Muslim should constantly remember that all knowledge come from Allah and it is the responsibilities of all individuals to acquire it and act accordingly in response to it; practice the good things and avoid the negative acts. And ones decision of what is right or wrong should be based on Quran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). The later parts of this paper will further discussed on the concept of life and death as forwarded in the play from an Islamic perspective. These concepts will be discussed under six sub heading which are; concept of death in Islam, Allahs judgment is based on how one spends their life, concept of indebtedness in Islam, concept of knowledge, concept of repentance and the forgetfulness nature of man.
4.0 The concept of indebtedness in Islam Good Deed is the most important character in this play as he is the one who directed
Everyman to confession and knowledge which enable Everyman to free himself from sins. In addition, Good Deed is the only one who is willing to accompanied Everyman in his journey of death. The reason why Good Deed has been given a lot of attention in this play is because the Christians believe that God owns everything on earth including mans life. As the Christians believe that human was born with the sins of forefather, it is their duty to perform good deeds in order to pay back their debt to god and in order to free themselves from the sins of forefather. And this is quite similar to the concept of indebtedness forwarded by Syed Naquib Al-Attas except the part that Muslims are not born with the sins of his forefather. In Islam, it is important to highlight the relationship between the understanding of the concept of indebtedness and performing good deeds. In surah Mukminun verses 12 until 14, Allah mentions the stages of human creation; starting from clay molded into shapes, drop of sperms, changes into zygote, than it grows up and become a fetus. Out of this fetus, Allah has developed bones and clothed the bones with flesh. Finally, Allah completed it by determined it to be male or female. Clearly from this verse, we are convinced that we owed Allah for our existence Whom has created us in the best way ( A-Tin: 4). In Surah Al-Araf, verse 172 ; all human being has affirmed to Allah that He is our Lord who cherishes and sustains us. During alam al-ruh, there are five things which have been appointed by Allah for us which are our life, our sustenance, our tomb, our marriage, and our happiness or misery. And these are added to the list of things that we are indebted to Allah.
However, the word marifah is not mentioned in the Quran, but the root word arafa is mention in seventy one verses of the Quran among which are: They recognize the flavors of Gods; then they deny them; and most of them are (creatures) ungrateful (An-Nahl:83) Thou will see their eyes overflowing with tears for they recognize the truth (Al-Maidah:83) Based on these two verses, Al-Imam Al-Asfahani said that the Quranic definition of Maruf and knowledge is: The perception of something as exist in reading with contemplation thinking on its trace and consequences Knowledge in Islam is divided into two categories which are absolute and perfect knowledge and secondly, relative and limited knowledge or as Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas named it as Gods knowledge and knowledge of man about God, religion, the world, things sensible and intelligible, spiritual knowledge and wisdom. The first category of knowledge which is the absolute and perfect knowledge or Gods knowledge has been forwarded in the play in the first scene where God tells Death that it is time for Everyman to return to Him. This type of knowledge refers to the knowledge of Allah who possessed knowledge of everything and His knowledge is absolute and perfect. On the other
8.0 Conclusion
In discussing a piece of literature originated from the land where Christianity conquers, it does not mean that we as a Muslim should draw a definite conclusion that it is highly secular or unIslamic. The Muslim communities do not need another narrow minded person who refused to look at the similarities between the two bodies of knowledge by focusing only at the differences. The Muslim world needs Muslim who is objective; who is able to see both similarities and differences based on a complete understanding of a subject. It does not mean all that come from the west or other religions are bad. It is depend on how we interpret and give it an appropriate meaning based on Quran and Sunnah .
References
Abdullah Muhammad Zin (1991) Islamic Dawah (Mission) The Definition, Conception & Foundation. Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Antara. Al-Nasafi, al-Aqaid al-Nasaffiyah in Islamic Creeds: A selection, trans. W. M. Watt. Edinburgh. Ayub, Hassan.( n.a ) Islamic Belief. Delhi: Hindustan Publication. Coldeway, John. C. and Streitberger W.R. (2001). Drama - Classical to Contemporary. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas (1985) Islam, Secularism and the Philosophy of the Future. New York: Mansell Publishing Limited. Fethi Jamaa Ahmed (2000) Class Notes for Basic Themes of Quran. IIUM Matriculation Centre.
Quranic References
The Holy Quran Text and Translation (Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1994), Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust. Al Quran dan Terjemahan (head by R.H.A Soenarjo S.H.(1971), Jakarta: