The Loss of Adab

As to internal causes of the dilemma in which we find ourselves, the basic problems can be reduced to a single evident crisis which I would simply call the loss of adab. I am here referring to the loss of discipline—the discipline of body, mind, and soul; the discipline that assures the recognition and acknowledgment of one's proper place in relation to one's self, society, and community; the recognition and acknowledgment of one's proper place in relation to one's physical intellectual, and spiritual capacities and potentials; of recognizing and acknowledging the fact that knowledge and being are ordered hierarchically.

Since adab refers to recognition and acknowledgment of the right and proper place, station, and condition in life and to self-discipline in positive and willing participation in enacting one's role in accordance with that recognition and acknowledgment [Vygotsky's ZPD], its occurrence in one and in society as a whole reflects the condition of justice.

Loss of adab implies loss of justice, which in turn betrays confusion in knowledge. In respect of the society and community, the confusion in the knowledge of Islam and the Islamic worldview creates the condition which enables false leaders to emerge and thrive, causing the condition of injustice. They perpetuate this condition since it ensures the continued emergence of leaders like them to replace them after they are gone, thus perpetuating their domination over the affairs of the community [112].
~Malaysia's Emeritus Professor Al ’Attas

This assessment, especially the last few lines, concurs with Lobaczewski’s exhaustive description of political evil [10], the result of sedulous and deliberate consensus formation of public opinion (Kant’s hated common sense). An entire culture or sect can be enmeshed in the duplicity of its practiced system of injustice and thereby become a politically mandated system of evil. An example is Wall Street's secular control of Congress or Malays whose piously draped promises are customarily never fulfilled. Oriental lies demand the appearance of good intention at the moment of agreement. The practice is so widespread the phrase 'Insha’Allah’ (God Willing) indicates nothing is expected unless God actually does it.

I, therefore, propose that when a child wakens to Insha’Allah people (cultures, sects, and parties: especially parents, teachers, and near relatives), an irresolvable liminal conflict begins between professed faith and values and the child's inherent search for her/his position in relation to truth, identity, and purpose (fitrah & adab), which translates to relevance. Pretense then trumps fitrah only to rob or invert the child's search for peace, security, meaning, and identity. It also misplaces trust. As Professor Al ’Attas said:

Acknowledgment of one's proper place in relation to one's physical, intellectual, and spiritual capacities and potentials; the recognition and acknowledgment of the fact that knowledge and being are ordered hierarchically.

                                 COMING SOON