Jejak Online

Newsletter LEAD Cohort 9

Al Razi's Limit of Willingness

Chandra Wirman, Consultant, Jakarta

Al Razi decided that God never creates world due to any force, the infinity of God unable him to have his own willingness. Other form of infinity created by God is life. The other one is matter. Matter is infinite; it cannot be created or vanished, known as the first law of energy, except to the willing of God. These three infinities are interacting one another; only infinity of God is not dependent to others.

How life interact with matter. In fact, life is foolish; life loves matter so it thought that it would obtain its happiness through the infinity of matter. But matter refuse, matter never expecting of being dependable to life for its happiness. Here then God involves, God helps life in a way that the world that He created will bring happiness to the living life. God also creates intelligent into life so life realize that happiness to matter is not the real happiness.

Al-Razi shows us that human being happiness is the happiness of life, life is a part of God that is integrated in a creature called human. God involves in human happiness by creating infinite matter blended with the purity of His life.

Then how can human identify his or her willingness, how can life create his happiness by fulfilling his needs to matter that can be felt, and in the mean time the purity of God life in his body also knocking on his feeling of happiness of human life.

So what is exactly happiness?

Palgunadi Setiawan, one of senior officer of a big company in Indonesia at the time, once invited us to have a discussion, right in the middle of economical crisis by the beginning of 1998. For me, he said, two pieces of fried banana and a glass of sweet tea will be enough for my lunch. Some of us were getting confused. Oh, maybe this gentleman is on diet … but he continued, the important thing is how we define enough lunch for ourselves. For him, it was not necessary a bowl of rice but only two pieces of fried banana. Two pieces of fried banana and a glass of sweet tea are parts of infinity of matter to fulfill the passionate of life and the limit of enough for having lunch is the intelligent part which also as an involvement from God to the human living life.

It is very interesting to say that human cannot be happy without having enough matter in his life. But the most difficult for living human is what kind of enough that will bring happiness.

Enough in daily living is not exceeding and also not lacking. One delightful cooking can be tasted as delightful as all ingredients a mixed and blend in a certain portion. Of course some people like it salty, sweet, hot or other way our tongue enjoy the food. But still, we cannot pour a handful of salt for a plate of fried rice, or a plate of fried rice without any salt at all. There is a certain limit should be obeyed to have an enjoyable fried rice. The salt must not exceed a quarter of teaspoon but also cannot be less than the tip of teaspoon. In relation to that, we will have the upper limit as well as the lower limit, and the amount of salt needed will somewhere in between those two limits. Exceeding upper limit will make my tongue bite, and less than the lower limit making it un-tasteful.

In Al-Tibb al-Ruhani and Al-shirat al-Falsafiyyah, Al-Razi underlined these limits. There two limits in life, upper limit and lower limit (it is originated from the thought of Aristotle, his great teacher in philosophy). The upper limit is the limit that cannot be exceeded. This limit is shown by way of gaining happiness, as the way of fulfilling passion of life is implemented by means of unjust and unreasonable way of doing, it will be the upper limit of human. The upper limit is designated by human intelligent, only human (and society) can value, which activity is considered unjust, what kind of willing against ethics and norms.

The lower limit is when the body can receive some amount of nutrients which enough to prevent it from getting ill and fabric which enough to protect skin from weather. Less than that, life in human body will find difficulties to have his happiness. Lower limit is limit where essential needs from human being to matter. Lower limit is the limit where the most important needs for proper living in health and decent is underlined.

Human will live in decency if he is in between the upper limit and the lower limit. So where is happiness ? happiness according Al-Razi is the coming of life back from what is previously removed from something not good. As a man walking away from a shade shelter onto the heat of sunshine and then he is back to the shade. That's happiness.

So happiness of life is way of placing His holy life inside human body from deterioration and at the time living the life, it stays within limits of life and fulfill its intellectual willing.

Since life is a part of purity of God inside human, it is then the happiness of life will depend on the sky, the metaphor of God. This kind of happiness is translated as spiritualism. It is not easy fro someone to describe the characteristic of happiness from the sky, not as easy as upper and lower limit from Al-Razi. But it is necessary, if the relationship between human lives with God is not ideal, it will be difficult for us to get happiness even if the life is living within the limits it created.

Happiness on earth

Human is ordered to conquer and manage earth, but if we translated it literally by annexation and colonialism, intellectually life will refuse, except if there is a translation of values in society. Human activities as individual as well as society are tend to look for happiness of matter, in fact happiness from matter will exceed God interference upon life of human. In fulfilling their needs and passions, human start to break the principles of justice.

Then the problem is how to re-positioning concepts of human willingness in getting their happiness and to have an equal balance between happiness of life and spiritual. If only we can set limits that are ethically acceptable and we implement them by awareness to justice of each other, it may create no friction in life. If only we balance happiness of matter with happiness of spiritual-intellectual, we may not have to worry about famine in one part of the world and over-richness on the other .