Intelek Dalam Mengenal Tuhan (The Function of Human Intellect in Knowing God)

• Main Author: Baharudin Ahmad
• Published: Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaaan (ASWARA) 2017
• Subjects: KEY WORDS: Intellect; Islamic Art; Spirituality; Sufi-saints; Art and its function.
• Online Access: http://ddms.usim.edu.my:80/jspui/handle/123456789/14917

ABSTRAK Even though God cannot be known as He is in Himself, He can be known to the extent that He allows man to know Him. God can be known through His messages and through the human faculty of intellect. This has been described by many Sufi saints of the past and men of art and literature. This paper discusses the human intellectual aspects in the fields of art and literature among Muslim saints and Sufis, especially in the 12 and 13 centuries through the works of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi, ibn Sina and others who have conveyed the message of love, beauty and the function of the arts in conveying the intellectual messages of human relationship with God, human vision and his yearning for truth, reality and sagacity in searching for the meaning of creation, human destiny and spiritual satisfaction for which he is created to be who he is. This paper will include various expressions made by the Sufi saints of the past as well as quotes from contemporary scholars who are specializing in the fields of Sufism, Islamic and Sufi Literature, Islamic Art and other related fields of knowledge. Special attention is given to literature and literary works of the above mentioned figures as the representatives of the art expressions in Islamic tradition. Comparison will also be made with intellectuals of other religious traditions in the past in order to clarify the universal aspect of knowledge especially the inner dimension of knowledge in the arts of literature and its relationships with spirituality.