Ayat-Ayat Cinta: Sebuah Dekonstruksi yang Cerdas dan Menawan

Brilliant! Film Ayat-Ayat Cinta ini sungguh sarat pesan moral, yang disuguhkan dengan paduan gambar dan suara yang ciamik, dan puisi yang indah dan filosofis.

Pesan moralnya berkisar pada agama dan sosial, dan menyentuh hampir semua ranah: dari persoalan pacaran dalam Islam, studi Islam, ketidakadilan, cinta dan patah hati, kekerasan dalam rumah tangga, hubungan Islam and the West, konsep perempuan dalam Islam, purdah, hubungan Islam-Kristen, sampai poligami dalam Islam! Sulit untuk mengungkapkan dalam satu kata mengenai pesan2 ini. Tapi yang saya kira sangat kuat adalah dekonstruksi.

Dekonstruksi dalam banyak hal: misalnya tentang perempuan yang berhijab, tentang ta'aruf, poligami (whether you are pro or con), sakralitas orang Arab dan bahasa Arab. Nulis surat cinta dan diari juga pake bahasa arab.. hehe. Duh, jadi ingat masa2 di pesantren dan kuliah dulu.

Tentang hijab, yang didekontruksi adalah pandangan bahwa orang yang memakai hijab itu berpikiran fundamentalis dan anti barat. Nah di film ini digambarkan sebaliknya. Ta'aruf (perkenalan) yang bagi sebagian kalangan dikesankan sangat Islami, di film ini justru dipertanyakan dengan memperlihatkan masalah2 yang timbul akibat pasangan yang menikah hanya dengan taaruf yang dengan cara hanya melihat muka saja. Mitos sakralitas orang Arab dihilangkan dengan penggambaran kekerasan dalam rumah tangga. Poligami --walaupun digambarkan dilakukan karena alasan 'darurat' dan sangat masuk akal-- diperlihatkan bahwa sulit sekali untuk memberi keadilan. Dan film juga akhirnya diakhiri dengan 'hilangnya' satu istri dan menjadi pernikahan monogami tentunya.

Sebagai sebuah film, tentu banyak juga kekurangannya. Setidaknya film ini membuat suasana bioskop hingar bingar dan sangat multi kultur, berbeda dari biasanya. Karena ibu-ibu pengajian tidak mau ketinggalan untuk ikut nonton. Bravo untuk Habiburrahman El-Syirazi, penulis novel, dan Hanung Bramantyo, sutradara Ayat-ayat Cinta.

Dibawah ini link untuk nonton filmnya bagi yang kesulitan untuk nonton di bioskop dan nyari DVD nya. (Minta perpustakaan supaya beli novel dan DVD nya ya). Tapi sebelumnya saya ingatkan. Beware: its addictive!

ham must not separate our friendship

Memang, kayaknya lucu ya. Tapi ini serius sekali, tanpa saya perlu refer ke cerita2 dari milis tetangga tentang anak2 Indonesia di Melbourne yang beda agama dan bertemu di satu sekolah, terus 'selek' gara2 ham ini, sampai2 orang tua dipanggil ke sekolah...

Nah, lagi-lagi ini kelihatannya akibat tidak tuntasnya pengajaran agama bagi anak-anak. Dan kelihatannya bukan hanya fenomena dari masyarakat Muslim Indonesia, tapi dari komunitas Muslim lain di Melbourne. Setelah saya korek2, Elka dan Farhan cerita kalau ada beberapa teman2 mereka (kelihatannya imigran dari Timur Tengah dan Afrika) yang suka 'kampanye' bahwa "Muslim tidak makan pork, cuma orang Kristen yang makan ham..." dst. Itu memang realitas, tapi kemudian anak2 ini mengarah ke pembedaan identitas agama untuk melihat seseorang itu baik atau tidak, atau bisa dijadikan teman. Misalnya, "si C makan ham, si D enggak, jadi saya main sama si D aja." Sampai2 mereka bingung kok yang mengajar bahasa Arab (bahasa Qur'an) di sekolah itu orang Kristen, mereka pikir semua orang Arab itu Muslim.

Dengan pertanyaan sederhana saya bilang "so what? memangnya kenapa kalau si C makan ham," "memangnya kenapa kalau si D itu agamanya Kristen?" Kita Muslim memang tidak makan ham, tapi bukan berarti kita memusuhi orang yang makan ham atau orang yang berbeda keyakinan dengan kita. Kita sangat yakin dengan Islam, dan begitu pula orang lain yakin dengan agama mereka. Ya sudah, itulah realitas sosial. Toh dulu beberapa kerabat Nabi Muhammad (termasuk ayahnya) tidak menjadi Muslim. Jadilah kami sekitar dua mingguan selalu berdiskusi tentang pork, ham, dan realitas agama2 di dunia.

Isu ham ini berawal dari wacana halal haram yang ditangkap anak-anak secara praktikal. Well, anak2 yang kritis itu sulit menerima begitu saja penjelasan bahwa katanya daging babi itu mengandung cacing pita atau babi itu jorok; jawaban yang tidak kontekstual yang dengan mudah disanggah. Jangankan kita, para fuqaha (ahli hukum), mufassir (ahli tafsir) dan filosuf juga belum bisa memberi jawaban rasional memuaskan terhadap larangan makan daging babi ini. Toh persoalan kepercayaan kan tidak semua bisa atau perlu dirasionalkan.

Uniknya isu babi dan halal haram santer pada zaman modern. Dan tentu saja santer di tempat2 Muslim menjadi minoritas. Dulu, Nabi Muhammad sering datang ke undangan makan komunitas non-Muslim. Artinya, beliau setidaknya menikmati makanan disana. Hadis riwayat Muslim dari Abu Hurairah mengatakan bahwa Nabi tidak pernah komen tentang makanan kalau dia diundang; beliau makan makanan yang disukainya, dan membiarkan makanan yang tidak disukainya. "Mu'amalah ma'a nas" nya luar biasa baiknya! [Gak ada clash of civilization!]

Dalam kitab-kitab fiqih klasik, tidak ada satu chapter atau topik tersendiri mengenai halal-haram. Dalam usul fiqh, para fuqaha membagi hukum suatu perkerjaan itu ada lima: fardhu/wajib, sunnah (dianjurkan), mubah (diperbolehkan), makruh (tidak dianjurkan/tidak disukai), dan haram (dilarang). Wacana halal-haram itu dibahas dalam fiqh mu'amalah (masalah sosial), diantaranya kitab at'imah (bab makanan). Nah sekarang fiqh halal-haram ini jadi komoditi, diantaranya ekonomi, sampai menjadi identitas sosial. Seorang teman yang tinggal di Singapura bertutur, kalau sekarang banyak pertemanan yang berakhir di depan pintu restoran. Atau acara makan2 di kantor urung gara2 tidak ada kesepakatan di restoran mana...

Setidaknya kata2 Farhan cukup menentramkan hati: "mummy, a friend of mine eats ham, but I dont care, I still play with him because he is a nice person."

A Recipe for Friendship

I was touched by Elkana's beautiful recipe below. It was published in the Moreland Primary School's newsletter. I am sure you've had one such recipe of your own. (Don't ask why I am so sure. Easy, its because you've read this posting). I posted it just because I thought you would love to try this one.
























PS: Please send along your cooking to my family and me.

"if my dad came and chopped off my..."

Santai dulu, ini bukan tentang pembunuhan. Ini cerita nyata tentang kurang tepatnya pengajaran agama kepada anak-anak. Gini ceritanya. Sepulang pengajian, teman ngajinya Elka dan Farhan, bercerita tentang makna Idul Adha kepada ibunya. Dasar anaknya cerdas, ia bisa lancar bertutur tentang kisah Nabi Ibrahim-Ismail yang kita semua sudah hafal di luar kepala. Setelah itu ia menyimpulkan makna Idul Adha kira-kira begini. "So, for example, if my dad came and chopped off my hands because of Allah, it is okay, because we have to obey what Allah asked us to do...right mum?"

Kontan si ibu kaget bukan kepalang, seperti kebakaran kompor! Kesimpulan letterlijk-nya sih gak salah dari sisi logika. Tapi, konteksnya sulit untuk bisa diterima. Apalagi jaman kayak gene banyak orang yang melakukan violence yang katanya karena perintah Tuhan. Padahal Islam itu agama kedamaian. Gak nyambung kan? Nah, bad luck-nya, kok ya doktrin violence itu yang malah nyangkut di kepala anak-anak ketika memahami salah satu perayaan terbesar dalam Islam?

Kontekstualisasi Idul Adha
Ajaran tentang Idul Adha menjadi disalah-pahami jika hanya terfokus pada cerita Ibrahim-Ismail saja. Terang aja cerita itu dengan mudah masuk di hati anak-anak, tapi sayangnya dengan kesimpulan yang tidak tepat karena dijelaskan secara abstrak. Untung di Australi pemotongan binatang kurban dilakukan di rumah pemotongan hewan. Kalau seandainya dipotong di tempat publik dan juga ditonton oleh anak-anak, wuih tambah melekatlah cerita "potong memotong karena perintah Tuhan" itu dalam image anak-anak.

Tujuan cerita "potong memotong" itu adalah untuk mengubah ritual mengorbankan manusia yang dilakukan dengan cara melanggar hak kemanusiaan, menjadi kegiatan mengikhlaskan memberi hewan untuk disembelih demi kemaslahatan manusia. Qurban dalam bahasa Arab yang berarti kedekatan kepada Tuhan (keikhlasan) bisa dijelaskan menjadi ajaran tentang kedermawanan sosial, tentang memberi, membantu sesama. Misalnya memberi makanan kepada mereka yang tidak mampu, mengikhlaskan waktu bermain untuk membantu adik dan teman, atau membantu membereskan mainan. Dan banyak hal-hal sejenis yang lebih kontekstual dan realistis dalam dunia anak-anak yang bisa dijadikan contoh.

Mengajarkan anak-anak tentang agama bukan sesuatu yang mudah. Apalagi untuk anak-anak yang cerdas dan kritis di tempat di mana Muslim menjadi minoritas, atau di masyarakat yang sangat heterogen dalam beragama. Hikmahnya? Sejak itu, saya rajin ikut ngajar ngaji anak-anak. hehe.

Those who are crazy about Star Wars

Farhan's 7th Birthday

See the video uploaded in YouTube below.



Moreland Primary School, Melbourne, 31 October 2007.

Is Funwalk really Fun?

Yes, it was so fun because we walked at the Albert Park together with our friends. The funwalk was held by the Consulate General of Republic Indonesia and the Scout Victoria on 21st of October 2007.




Smiling with Lord Mayor John So (Mayor of Melbourne), Riana, Lima sekawan (Rifqi, Farhan, Safira, Anugrah and Elkana), Amir and Amel.




Elkana (in Cub's uniform), Safira, Anugrah and Farhan (in Joey's uniform).

Wendy, Amel, Rifqi, Riana, Anugrah, Elkana, Safira, Buster (puppy), and Farhan.

Farhan in his Joey uniform

Elka's 8th Birthday

Moreland Primary School, Melbourne, 22 July 2007.

Farhan's 6th Birthday

Moreland Primary School, Melbourne, 31 October 2006.

Let's read books!

Amir documented the way Elkana and Farhan read a book. However, when they knew they became overacted. Below is the movie, which is upload in youtube.

Excellent Documentary of Darunajah

I was so delight to watch a documentary film about Darunnajah, an Islamic boarding school located in South Jakarta, produced by DN production. Its a true history of Darunnajah. I studied and stayed in the pondok for 6 years. I feel lucky that I was educated there. Herewith I put the link to the film which is published in the youtube.

Reading Week

In the end of August, the Moreland Primary School held a reading week, together with other schools in Victoria. Five students, including Elkana, were asked to perform.

There was also a video shows made by the school staff who asking children about books they like. (Unfortunately I could not link the video here). It is a wonderful video. It does teach children on how easy it is to make a film and it appreciates our children views on books. It was educative and entertaining video!

Weldone!

Mount Beauty Holiday

Last August, we went for a holiday in the Mount Beauty. It was awesome holiday for us and for om Ali who joined us. Its like the name, Mount Beauty is very beautiful. It is located in Tawonga South, Alpine area, about 4,5 driving to Northeast of Melbourne. We visited and spent the night at my professor's house, which is about about half an hour to the Falls Creek, one of the best winter sport resort.

We were so grateful with the generosity, courtesy, and warm welcome of the professor and his wife. We really felt at home. They brought us to a georgeous park with its serene and rainbow color lake. We did very 'merepotkan' them who provided us with not only a beautiful dinner, but also beautiful breakfast and lunch! We enjoyed the food and we learned much about table manner...

We enjoyed the visit to Falls Creek snow resort; enjoyed the "visit" of groups of kanggaroos which always having "morning and afternoon tea" at a small pond in the garden of the house; enjoyed rainbow colored birds which always having breakfast and luch in the porch of the house; and enjoyed sitting behind the fireplace.

One thing that I would never found in any other holiday is that I had very fruitful discussion about my thesis chapter. I got additional data from the professor's library too!

Farhan named the Mount Beauty area as "the land of Mountains". When we left the house for Melbourne, Elkana waved our very nice host until far away and happily said "see you next year!" Ups...!

Thousand thanks Margareth and Merle...

Taekwondo and getting confidence

In general, Taekwondo is very good to improve both Elkana and Farhan confidence at school. Since Elkana and Farhan joined taekwondo, I never heard bad stories such as Farhan falls down, Farhan is bullied by someone, Farhan gets hurt, Elkana was hit by someone, or Elkana get bullied. Another good thing is that both Elkana and Farhan never use their taekwondo to hurt someone. They totally understand that taekwondo is a self-defence sport.

Therefore we encouraged both Elkana and Farhan to join the Hall's Taekwondo club championship which was held in August 2007. We were very proud that Farhan won one gold medal and one an appreciation medal. Elkana also did very well and brought home three gold medals!

Joining a good taekwondo club is really expensive for our small family. However, we believed that getting confidence is much much more important for our young gentlemen. We cant buy confidence, can we?

elkana's emails

I am very happy to see Elkana's progress in writing emails. Looking at three emails he sent me in 2007 and 2005, I can see his improvement in his way of thinking, his English, and his ability to use internet.

Below email is written by Elkana with the help of Amir. It was sent in March 2005 when I was doing my research in Leiden, the Netherlands. In this email he did not use any English word. He also remembered very well his uncles, aunties and nieces.















The email below was sent to me in September 2005, also with the help of Amir. I was in Indonesia doing my fieldwork. In this email Elka only used few English and he still remembered his uncles and aunties in Indonesia.

This last email is written last month when elkana 8 years old. He wrote the letter himself from his email account.

Weldone Elkana!

A sweet email from Elkana

High Achievement Recognition Award

We are so proud that both Elkana and Farhan got these awards. Each of them was the only one chosen from their classes to get the award. Elka's writing is excellent. Farhan's maths is up one level from his grade one standard level. Both Elka and Farhan are very good in maths. They are very --Australian says-- beautiful children; they always listen to others, work hard, help others, and do proper hings. Congratulations!

Akhlaq subject in the Primary school reports

I was very happy to recieve both Elkana's and Farhan's school reports from their teachers at the Moreland Primary School. They are excellent. For three years I have appreciated they way school reports are presented. Its mostly qualitative reports with particularly details on five aspects, personal qualities and work habits, integrated studies, LOTE (Language Other Than English), Visual arts, and Library. All aspects are written thoroughly with rating codes B for Beginning, D for Developing, C for Consolidating, E for Established, and N for Not Covered, and with explanation standard level according to the Victorian Curriculum and Standard Framework (CSF). Each one of these aspects explains what student has learned and the student's achievement. The last two pages are general achievement presented in both semi quantitative and qualitative ones. The general achievement presents a rating (A, B, C, D, E) and comparison of students achievement (child's achievement 12 month ago, child's achievement this year, child's progress since last year, and the expected level of achievement) in in five learning areas: English, Personal qualities and work habits, Mathematics, Information and Communications Technology, and Health and Physical Education. The most part I like is the end of the report namely what my child has achieved, what areas to improve in the future learning, what the school will do to support my child, and what parents can do at home to help my child's progress.

After reading thoroughly Elka's and Farhan's reports I remember how poor my school reports were. One semester report was presented only in one page where all of subjects were rated by numbers from one to nine. How can students were judged only by these numbers coming mostly from formal exams which were mostly corrupted? Akhlaq which was regarded as the most important things for students to behave was reported in number from five to nine; five meant you were anak nakal (bad and naughty child) and nine meant you were anak baik sekali. Its so poor. Morality is socially and culturally very important according to Indonesians. However, there is no creative and academic ways to describe anak baik. I did not remember how I learned the akhlaq subject at public schools. There was not any particular subject to learn. My teacher said that the report is taken from a daily observation of akhlaq of the student. I learned the akhlaq subject from madrasah ibtidaiya (islamic primary schools), that I went in the afternoon, and then madrasah tsanawiyah and aliyah (Islamic secondary schools). I have to memorize hadith (prophets traditions) regarding good behaviour which was very abstract. Well, Indonesian culture highly appreciates akhlaq mostly in slogan and symbolic matters related to religious do's and dont's.

Indeed there is no akhlaq subject at Victorian public schools. However, interestingly they have details and thorough explanations on what is regarded as anak baik and akhlaq. It is written in the whole first page of school reports entitles Personal Qualities and Work Habit. The school explains the importance of this area as follows "at Moreland Primary School we aim to provide all children with the foundations for success which will provide them with social, emotional and behavioural well-being in school, work and in the future". The general achievement is divided into four, Confidence (having an "I can do it" attitude), Getting Along (working well with my class mates), Organisation (setting goals and managing times), and Persistence (trying had and not giving up), each of these has few items. In the Getting Along for example students are reported in few items: (1) works cooperatively in a group, (2) Is tolerant and sensitive to other people's feeling, (3) Is polite and well mannered, (4) works without interrupting others, (5) follows school and classroom rulers, and (6) demonstrates responsible and acceptable behaviour. They are all valued as S (starting to do this), U (usually does this), A (always does this) and L (leads and helps other students). In addition, the teacher explains the achivement of personal qualities and work habit in few sentences. Here I quoted Farhan's ones:

"Farhan is a quiet and serious student who applies himself to learning with great concentration. He is always polite and considerate towards others. Farhan is a capable students who is developing progressively well. He is more organized and has started to use his time well. He is slowly gaining confidence and learning express his ideas and sharing them with his peers. Farhan always demonstrates responsible and acceptable behavious. He is always polite and well mannered. He has demonstrated improvement in many areas this half of the year and it will be interesting to watch his development in the second half."

Looking to these akhlaq reports, how can people judge that Australia is an immoral society? In fact the society puts emphasis on morality, but presented without judgment and any specific religious precepts. They do have high standard morality with respecting freedoms and differences.

Farhan's performance at the school assembly

Almost every Monday, Elkana and Farhan's school hold an assembly. The assembly is informal, informative, presented in a communicative way, and fun! Students sit on carpet according to their classroom (not their grade). Teachers stand or sit surrounding the students. Some parents sit on chairs and banks surrounding the hall to see the assembly.

In this assembly Farhan and his friends from grade one and two were doing performance. I was so happy to see Farhan introducing what his class was going to perform. He was so confident. Farhan and his friends were singing and dancing, helped by their teachers. It was funny song about counting ducks. They were laughing during the performance. They got big applause from other students, teachers and parents. Weldone Farhan and all grades one and two!

Here in Victoria, assembly is something that students very much enjoy at school, which is far different from what it is in Indonesian schools...

Sekolah tanpa peng-kelasan

Ini foto guru-guru SD Moreland yang sedang tampil pada acara akhir tahun di sekolah. Iya, mereka pake pita warna-warni, joget di depan anak-anak (kayak poco-poco lah kalau di Indonesia) dengan ceria dan apa adanya. Kenapa tidak? toh yang penting adalah kreativitas dan having fun, disamping bagaimana bisa menghibur dan mengajak orang tua dan murid untuk having fun juga.

Acara akhir tahun adalah acara yang spesial. Setiap kelas (hampir semua murid) diberi kesempatan untuk tampil. Tapi persiapan dilakukan dengan tidak neko-neko. Tidak perlu spanduk besar dan backdrop yang ada tulisan tentang acara, tidak perlu latihan berbulan-bulan yang menyita waktu belajar, dan tidak perlu pakaian khusus yang harus dibeli dengan mengeluarkan uang, tak perlu sewa kursi banyak karena anak-anak cukup duduk di karpet, dan tak perlu iuran untuk konsumsi karena masing-masing membawa bekal piknik. Karya murid-murid selama ini dikeluarkan dan dijadikan hiasan sekaligus pameran hasil karya. Acaranya bisa dibilang sederhana, tapi sangat meriah dan informal. Benar-benar "dari kita untuk kita" begitu.

Penampilan drama pun tidak perlu menghafal. Semuanya tidak dibuat-buat atau dipaksakan supaya terlihat meriah dan bagus. Sesekali terlihat acara tidak teratur, tapi itulah kekuatannya. Untuk apa pura-pura rapih dan baik kalau hanya untuk ditonton sesaat saja? Di sekolah yang penting adalah substansi pembelajaran, bukan simbol-simbol dan formalitas. Maka tidak heran jika sama sekali tidak ada pembuatan rangking murid terpandai. Tidak ada juara-juara-an. Tapi apresiasi terhadap prestasi itu sangat tinggi. Pembagian kelas dari kelas satu sampai enam pun dibuat samar. Dalam satu ruang, seorang guru kelas (plus asistan) mengajar 20 murid yang terdiri dari dua grade (kelas) yang berbeda: misalnya kelas prep dan 1, kelas 1 dan 2, kelas 3 dan 4, serta 5 dan 6.

Tidak hanya pengkelasan fisik yang blur, pengkelasan guru dan murid yang berlebihan pun tidak ada. Hubungan guru dan murid sangat cair. Murid sangat hormat kepada gurunya walaupun mereka memanggil nama guru mereka langsung tanpa embel-embel mrs atau mr. Murid akrab dan tidak takut kepada guru, walaupun guru juga sering memberi hukuman bagi murid yang nakal. Makanya para guru juga tidak perlu jaim dihadapan murid dan orang tua.

Tentu saja tidak ada ujian nasional yang perlu dana besar dan bikin murid stres dan belajar kilat (jadi lupanya juga kilat). Ujian tetap ada, tapi dilakukan biasa saja, tanpa nomor ujian dan hampir ada test setiap minggu (misalnya tes membaca dan tes matematika). Hasil ujian juga bukan satu-satunya penilaian. Karena penilaian di kelas itu lebih banyak kualitatif, bukan kuantitatif. Hal ini sangat jauh dari budaya ujian di Indonesia yang malah mengajarkan budaya nyontek, budaya korup, dan budaya jalan pintas. Tidak heran jika sertifikat dan gelar menjadi tujuan belajar.... Kalau hasilnya negatif, kenapa ya sistem peng-kelasan formal itu termasuk ujian nasional masih tetap diberlakukan ya?