By abiding to the examples and Sunnah (prophetic traditions) taught by the Prophet s.a.w, morality among the Muslim adolescents should be evident. But, the morality scenario is worsened. It is posited that awareness and appreciation of the Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w among the Muslim adolescents is low.
Therefore, this research aims at assessing the level of awareness and appreciation of the exemplariness of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w among the Muslim adolescents in Selangor which will further lead to determine the factors contributing to it. For the purpose of this research, 767 respondents from three different district schools representing rural, suburban and urban areas were selected to answer structured questionnaires.
This structured questionnaire comprised of mainly, ‘uswah’/exemplariness of the Prophet s.a.w., the practice of the Sunnah and the appreciation the respondents have towards the Sunnah. The data acquired from the questionnaire have been be analyzed using SPSS to determine the relevant factors leading to the scenario. This research found that the respondents are not aware of the exemplariness of the Prophet s.a.w, the practice of the Sunnah is limited to the family surrounding and the practice of the Sunnah is poorly associated with appreciation towards it.
Introduction
Looking in the efforts of appreciating the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW through writings and official occasions in Malaysia, it is apparent that the efforts are substantial. For example, number of biographies of the Prophet Muhamamd SAW and writings on his SAW profound characters and attributes are abundant and multidimensional. Even celebrations on maulid al-Rasul are celebrated significantly throughout the country.
Compilations of Prophetic narrations are also unexhausted and what more with the vast translation works done on them both typically and digitally. Evidencing with these facts, supposedly the practice of the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW simultaneously should be enliven together with the narrations made on him SAW are being appreciated. Unfortunately, the scenarios are not moving in conformity.
The fact that moral decadence among Muslim adolescents became worsened is one concrete proof to support the assumption. In the effect of the situation described above, it is indispensable for researchers to find out the loopholes that can help restore the linkages of the two matters, i.e. the efforts to elevate the awareness and appreciation of the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW and the level of immorality among the adolescents.
To further deepen the understanding on the level of application of the Prophetic Sunnah, it is also vital to investigate the reasons underlying such applications or practices. Since only by way of truly understanding the spirit of the Sunnah, one will be able to abide the nowadays moral challenges.
Literature Review
Studies on awareness and attitudes are among the favorite type of research in the field of social science. Its being frequently used has made the exact definition of awareness been left undetermined. Nevertheless, the term of awareness is perpetually accompanied with the level of knowledge, as seen the studies of Aadam T. Aris (2012), Joyce K.H. Nga (2010) and Indrani R. Halady, 2010), or with certain level of engagement in the practice (Faisal Talib, 2012), or recognition and assigning oneself to the subject matter (Gudmundur Aevar Oddsson, 2010), or understanding and perception (Diana Bowman, 2007), or exposure to subject without in-depth knowledge (Donna Morrison, 2012) or even relating awareness to the fact of knowing the existence of the subject matter, differentiating it from knowledge (Akinniyi A. Adeleke, 2012).
A research was also conducted to investigate a level of awareness by asking the respondents to rate their performance as to prove their level of awareness towards their physical activities, and this was even validated with heart rate monitors and accelerometers (Stef P.J. Kremers, 2008). Appreciation on the other hand brings along a different dimension. Superficially the term appreciate denotes liking and preferability. In Alain d’Astous (2007), he enjoined the meaning of appreciation with favoritism, attachment, probability to recommend to others, high rated, love and pleasure.
Besides that, Fagley (2012) in Adler and Fagley (2005) defined appreciation as acknowledging meaning and value of something – an event, a person, a behavior, an object – and feeling a positive emotional connection to it. This according to him involves eight aspects, namely the aspect of “have” focus, awe feeling, ritual engagement, “present moment”/ “here and now” focus, self/social comparison, gratitude, loss/adversity and interpersonal aspects.
Thus, for the purpose of the current research, the level awareness focused would be the level of knowledge, and in term of its application in the structured questionnaire used, it also conveys a level of recognition, that is the level of recognition of the respondents towards the position or roles played by the Prophet SAW. On the other hand, the level of appreciation here would be applied as mentioned by Fagley (2012), the acknowledgment of the value of the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW through the practice of the Sunnah and the understanding underlying the practice.
This understanding will further be phrased as spiritual embodiment since the true understanding would be the understanding of the spirit of the Sunnah which is to replicate the practice of Allah’s Messenger, Muhammad SAW who is the best model of human beings. Science of Sunnah or Fiqh al-Sunnah is an established field of study (Kevin Reinhart, 2010). It comprises of the commentaries, biographical dictionaries, terminologies, facticity, specificity or the study is basically on two essential elements namely, the report (matan) and the lines of transmission (isnad). Sunnah itself is a reporting on the words, acts and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Each Sunnah as recorded as hadith was reported by certain lines of transmission which eventually canonized in the greatest canonical Six Books of Hadith, the two sound (sahih) works of al-Bukhari and Muslim or famously called as the dual or Sahihayn, containing both legal and morality aspects (Abdul Karim Ali, 2004) (FauziDeraman, 2011). This immediate research nevertheless is not one particularly concerns with the science of Sunnah. In fact, there are two types of Islamic research: Research on Islamic principles, rules and rulings, and Research addressing Muslims and Muslim society.
Thus, this research falls under the latter type with linkage to the former, i.e. one of the major sources of Islamic law, Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. Prophet Muhammad SAW has been honoured by Allah Taala with Uswah Hasanah (role model) position. Allah SWT said: “In God’s Messenger you have a good model…”[Surah Al-Ahzab 33:21] This verse undoubtedly pointed out that the Prophet Muhammad SAW is the role model for Muslims.
Being part of Surah al-Ahzab, it entails the example shown by the Prophet Muhammad SAW during the severely testing times, i.e. the event of Muslim, newly built Muslim community, facing the confederated forces. It was at the time when Muslim confronted allied forces of Jews, Quraysh, Ghatafan (Fizarah and Ashja’ clans), when the numbers of enemy was 10,000 armies while the Muslim only 3,000 armies. The whole surah portrayed severe danger and terror among the Muslims, experiencing days of siege together with the emergence of hypocrisy and cowardice faces hiding behind the name of Islam.
Amidst all the worry, fear and stress, Allah SWT mentioned about the attitude of the Prophet SAW who remained being the hope, confidence and reassurance of the Muslims (Sayyid Qutb, 2006)(Salahuddin, 2009). “In God’s Messenger you have a good model for everyone who looks with hope to God and the Last Day, and always remember God”.
This verse later strengthened by other verses like ‘And you are surely on an excellent standard of character” [Surah al-Qalam, 68:4], ‘Those are the people whom Allah has guided. So, it is their guidance that you should follow..”, [Surah al-`An`am, 6:90], “Surely, you are on straight guidance” [Surah al-Hajj, 22:67], “So trust in Allah. Surely, you are on a clear truth” [Surah al-Naml:79], “So, hold fast to which has been revealed to you. Surely, you are on a straight path” [Surah al-Zukhruf, 43:43] and supported by numerous Prophetic narrations or hadith.
These also further supported by compliments made by Allah towards the characters of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, for example, in “Surely, there has come to you, form your midst, a Messenger who feels it is very hard on him when you face a hardship, who is very anxious for your welfare, and for the believers, he is very kind, very merciful” [Surah al-Taubah, 9:128] and “So (O Prophet), it is through mercy from Allah that you are gentle to them. Has you been rough and hard-hearted, they would have dispersed around you. So, pardon them and seek forgiveness for them..”[Surah al-Imran, 3:159], which simultaneously serve as concrete evidences of his SAW prophecy (Ahmad Abdul Aziz, 2006).
The closely related research on the appreciation of Sunnah of the Prophet SAW is those related to Islamic ethics. Studies on Islamic ethics among Muslim adolescents have been conducted from Malaysian education system perspective, for example position of a teacher who appreciated the ethics of the Prophet SAW, as the role model for the students (Zaharah Hussin, 2005). Study on ethics among students also was carried out by Azhar Ahmad (2005) which found that appreciation of Islamic ethics among students of secondary schools on compulsory religious obligation is very low, while findings by Baharom Mohamad (2008) proved that understanding Islamic education subject’s curriculum has no significant effect on appreciation of good values among the students.
Aswati Hamzah (2007) also conducted a research on adolescents ethics, where the samples were Malay students and she observed that appreciation of Islamic ethics are influenced by three matters, i.e. age, propensities of attitudes and adherence to the Malay social standard. It also distinguished certain types of secondary schools from others on the level of Islamic ethics appreciation. These studies however focused on Islamic ethics derived both from al-Quran and al-Sunnah, not specifically on the appreciation level of Prophetic Sunnah.
Some researchers also highlighted the appreciation of Islamic ethics by examining respondents’ level of religiosity. Despite the outstanding number of studies on the level of religiosity among adolescents (Krauss, 2006), attempts to study specifically of the practice of Sunnah have been scant. One study was carried out though to explore the factors influencing students understanding and practices of the Prophetic Sunnah (Mashitah Sabdin, 2010) but simply from the students’ perspectives.
The study nevertheless significantly identified the factors, among others, students’ attitudes, subject syllabus and parent’s roles. Unfortunately, when the study attempted to investigate the level of practice, it didn’t pursue for the real engagement of the students in Sunnah practice, but merely providing the students’ understanding on the indispensability of Sunnah practice in daily life. In our opinion, the level of religiosity is not an adequate proof of appreciation, but mere awareness or level of knowledge.
A specific research on Sunnah practices would be one done by Bhasah Abu Bakar (2011). Although the Sunnah practices was not as thorough as suggested in our research, it showed that there is a continuous effects of learning the Sunnah, together with its appreciation, among the primary schools students up to the level when they entered into secondary schools. Still, this research also did not put any emphasis on spiritual embodiment of each practice of the Prophetic Sunnah as suggested in the immediate research.
In term of spiritual embodiment of Sunnah practice, so far no specific study has been conducted except for it is supplementary to certain major studies on religious practice and it is inclusive in their questionnaire. For example in the study by Mohd Zaid (2002), when it was focusing on the daily prayer of the respondents, it also additionally recognized that the practice of nafl prayer (recommendable prayer) is high among the respondents and this is resulting from their own initiative, which the researcher believe, the level of spiritual embodiment is also high.
Methodology
This study is based on exploratory research. This is to investigate the level of awareness and appreciation of Muslim adolescents in Selangor towards the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. It is based on purposive samples in which the respondents selected are Muslim adolescents in Selangor. These respondents are secondary school students from two different educational stream, the conventional stream and religious stream.
The former is represented by Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (SAAS) Kuala Selangor, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kelana Jaya and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist ACS, Klang while the latter is represented by Sekolah Menengah Agama Jeram (SMAJ), Sekolah Agama Menengah Tinggi Hisamuddin (SAMTH) and Sekolah Agama Menengah Tengku Ampuan Jemaah (SAMTAJ). These schools were purposively selected to represent rural, suburban and urban districts respectively. The respondents include students from Form 1 up to Form 5 and the total number is 767 respondents.
Organized by WorldConferences.net 1099 to the practice and spiritual embodiment attached to the respective practice of the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W. Finally Part D, it comprised of an open ended question to identify the person who mostly influence the Muslim adolescents nowadays. All the information obtained was then analyzed using SPSS.
Findings
The above table identified that there are three items on Main Stream students’ awareness towards the Prophet SAW uswah 5% level of significance. They are the Prophet SAW is important in their lives (0.010), the Prophet SAW is an imam (0.009) and the Prophet SAW as a head of family (0.000). The awareness of the Islamic schools’ students towards the Prophet SAW uswah at 5% level of significance are the Prophet SAW is important in Islam (0.000) as well as in their lives (0.000) and the Prophet SAW is a imam (0.038).
Practice Analysis
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was also conducted to observe the significant level in each domain. It indicates that Prophet SAW sunnah in education, ibadah, neighbourhood and family domain are practiced by the Muslim adolescents at 5% level of significance. The average reading of sunnah in family domain has a slight difference from the average reading of sunnah in ibadah domain.
Whereas, sunnah of the Prophet SAW in the education and neighbourhood domain that indicate level of significance > 0.005 are; they lied when desperate (0.053), they used right leg when entering toilet (0.670), they usually use fork and spoon during eating (0.230), they took revenge when they lost in sport’s activity (0.173) and they throw rubbish into the river (0.123).
Therefore, the scope of practice of the Sunnah of the Prophet is very high when it has been habituated in the family. When the Sunnah is related to education, like reading and furthering study, the practice of the Sunnah is low when it relate to education system. As a result, it can be concluded in the perspective of education, the Muslim adolescents do not find the linkage of the Sunnah with their education and the Sunnah is quite alien to the education system.
Appreciation Analysis
As pointed out beforehand, the term ‘appreciation’ denotes liking and preferability (Oxford, 2010). Although the term is rarely used for the practice of Sunnah, two researches did show some particulars on it. Thus, the level of appreciation here would be applied as the liking, preferability and acknowledgment of the value of the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW through the practice of the Sunnah and the understanding underlying the practice.
This understanding will further be phrased as spiritual embodiment since the true understanding would be the understanding of the spirit of the Sunnah which is to replicate the practice of Allah’s Messenger, Muhammad SAW who is the best model of human beings. This research tested the spiritual embodiment level in two perspectives. First is the perspective of liking and preferability which is tested through frequent practice and attachment, and second is the perspective of the practice accompanied with the understanding that the particular practice is to replicate the act of the Prophet S.A.W.
In the perspective of education, it shows that there is some practices of the Sunnah were done to replicate the act of the Prophet S.A.W. In item “I tell lies when desperate vs I do not like to lie because it is not the Prophet’s character”, it shows a negative correlation, indicating lying is avoided by the respondents because they try to replicate the act of the Prophet S.A.W, and this further supported by the fact that there is no correlation between “I tell lies when desperate” and ‘Teacher always advise me to speak of the truth”. Appreciation on the hadith of the Prophet S.A.W and the respondents’ ambition to further study further strengthen the previous finding.
Nevertheless, the respondents do not find the act of entering toilet with their right foots as an act they do to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W. Thus, these findings point out that some of the practices of Prophet SAW sunnah in education construct were practiced to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W. and some were not.
It shows that parents play a very crucial role in influencing their adolescent children in appreciating the Prophet SAW sunnah. There is a significant positive relationship (r = 0.2680, p < 0.01) between own self and their appreciation, and school and Muslim adolescent’s appreciation (r = 0.2609, p < 0.01) at 1% level of significance. It shows that the Muslims’ adolescent themselves appreciate the Prophet SAW sunnah and school also play roles in influencing students in appreciating the Prophet SAW sunnah. Nevertheless, there is almost no relationship (r = 0.0321, p > 0.05) between others such as signboard and Muslim adolescent’s spiritual embodiment at 5% level of significance. It shows that others such as signboard did not influence students in appreciating the Prophet SAW sunnah.
Conclusion
This research includes respondents from of two different educational streams from three different localities. The respondents were found to be those with moderate knowledge pertaining to hadith and fluent ability to recite al-Quran. They are respondents are those whose upbringings were in family with high and moderate monthly income. In term of their awareness towards the uswah of the Prophet S.A.W, it has been identified that there are some exemplariness of the Prophet S.A.W which the Muslim adolescents are not aware of. This is further tested through their demographic background differences: type of schools, gender and monthly household income.
Overall of this part, it was discovered that the Muslim adolescents are not aware of the Prophet S.A.W as a judge, a teacher and a political leader. In term of their practice of the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W, it was found that the practices in family domain are the highest compared to other construct while practices of the Sunnah within education construct is the lowest. This implies that the scope of practice of the Sunnah of the Prophet is very synonym to the Muslim adolescents when the Sunnah are those related to family or family relationship or the practice of the Sunnah is high when it has been habituated by the family. When the Sunnah is related to education, like reading and furthering study, the practice of the Sunnah is low or the practice of the Sunnah is low when is habituated by the education system.
As a result, it can be concluded in the perspective of education, the Muslim adolescents do not find the linkage of the Sunnah with their education and the Sunnah is quite alien to the education system. On the appreciation analysis, the findings showed that the Muslim adolescents appreciate the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W but when further test has been conducted, it has been explored that even though the Muslim adolescents are attached to the Sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W., their underlying factor of appreciation is not because of the attachment they have towards the Prophet S.A.W but the attachment they have towards other persons, especially family and peer group. The final part of the research thus strengthened the earlier findings on the persons who influence the Muslim adolescents mostly.
It was found that, parents (both mother and father) influence significantly in the life of the Muslim adolescents, overshadowing the significance of the Prophet S.A.W.
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