The Power of Sacrifice in Building Islam at UII

Syaefudin Ali Akhmad, M.Sc-Wadek FK UII

One of the famous Javanese proverbs is jer basuki mawa bea which can be interpreted as struggle must require sacrifice (cost). Sacrifice does not only mean money but can also mean property other than money, throne, weapons, women, family and souls. Sacrifices were also made continuously, not for a moment or just for a moment like fireworks. Look at UII's founders who fought and sacrificed continuously. The weight of their sacrifice is truly extraordinary so that it can still be enjoyed to this day at the age of 71st UII. Like throwing stones, their sacrifice is like throwing large stones with great energy in a pond which is capable of spreading waves of water all over the edge of the pool. The question is whether we are able to make sacrifices for Islam at UII that can be felt by the generation of UII 70 years to come in the 2100s. Is it possible that our names will still be remembered as the shalihin and sidiqin groups as pioneers of goodness and builders of benefit at UII or in this country. For human civilization, the sacrifice of the Prophet of the End Times (N.Muhammad) is the biggest sacrifice whose effect reaches the last people in the episode of human civilization.

Ibn Khladun has divided that every 100 years there will definitely appear 4 groups of people, namely 1) the pioneer group, 2) the builder group, 3) the connoisseur group and 4) the ignorant group. The first and second groups are the groups that make the most sacrifices in shaping and educating society, while the third and fourth groups make the least sacrifices and struggles. The third and fourth groups actually cause the most damage rather than repairs. The first group and the second group chose again "forward fearlessly defending what is right" with all their sacrifices while the third and fourth groups preferred the song "Here happy there happy everywhere my heart is happy". Turmoil usually occurs when there are more third and fourth groups in a community, causing the first and second generations to emerge again.

Learning from the stories of the Prophets and Companions, when they became a group of pioneers of goodness with the title "assabiquunal awwalun", they were also ready to pay their respective sacrifices in the form of wealth, honor, body and soul and family. Arriving at the condition when the sacrifice of the Prophet and Companions was at the level desired by Allah, then Allah destroyed evil or tyranny. Reflecting on their story, it is only natural that the torture, defeat in war or the suffering they have experienced has not brought nusrotullah even though Allah sees and knows it all. Why did Allah not help him when Bilal was tortured, even though Allah knew that Bilal was tortured not for stealing or corruption, but only because he believed in Allah and his Messenger. At that time, truth could not defeat falsehood. The type and dose of sacrifice must indeed reach a certain level in order to be helped by Allah swt. Sacrificing is also not just making sacrifices because the wrong victim will only cause regret and misunderstanding. There is no sacrifice, of course there will never be a struggle and without sacrifice you will never understand the meaning of struggle. Likewise, if there is less sacrifice, the results are clearly not optimal.

From the stories of our friends, we can take 3 kinds of sacrifices, namely the sacrifice of Abu Bakr, the sacrifice of Kholid bin Walid and the sacrifice of Hasan RA Abu Bakar who made all-out sacrifices for religion, which were always unwilling when religion was reduced. Abu Bakr's principle is very well known for his statement "Ayanqusshoddiin wa ana hayyi" will religion decrease while I am still alive. Abu Bakr's type of sacrifice is fitting for pioneering characters. The next sacrifice was the sacrifice of Kholid bin Walid's best friend when Umar suddenly replaced his position as warlord, so Kholid graciously accepted it without any objection at all. Friends of Kholid do not feel that they are masters and do not feel that they have contributed much and do not feel that they have sacrificed a lot for Islam. The last type is the type of sacrifice of Ali RA who was willing to sacrifice in a situation of civil war and was full of slander with Muawiyah RA to accept tahkim or arbitration in order to prevent more victims even though he was on the right side. Sometimes sacrificing by succumbing is the consequence of struggle.

Sacrifice is a direct effect of the demands of decision making. If you have chosen UII, you must be willing to sacrifice for Islam and the development of education at UII. In the 10 principles of the modern world economy the first lesson is decision making which is summarized in the proverb "nothing is free in this world" meaning that when we want to get something, we have to sacrifice something else. For example, when someone chooses to study, then that person has lost the opportunity to do other things such as playing futsal, cycling or traveling. Other activities that cannot be carried out when a person is studying are referred to as costs. The process of exchanging costs for the choices we make is called trade off. Trade off what the community faces is efficiency, meaning that the community gets optimal results from the scarce resources that exist. The essence of equity is the distribution of results that are equitable from these scarce resources to all components of the academic community at UII. Finally, the highest tradeoff is to sacrifice the world, what we love in order to achieve the pleasure of Allah, as the word of Allah SWT in QS Ali Imron 92 Lan tanalul birra hatta tunfiqu mimma tuhibbun "every time you will not achieve perfect goodness so you spend/sacrifice what you love†. Infak or alms is a way of sacrifice in achieving perfect happiness. By contemplating this verse it means that we are criticized when given a choice between a car or heaven, so we answer heaven but strangely the sacrifice to get a car is more heroic than to get heaven. So heaven's choice requires sacrifice that gives power to persistently fight for it.

Hopefully we can sacrifice what we love by giving alms such as food, money, cars, status, position and reducing gadget hobbies for work efficiency and avoiding misallocation. In this way, of course, we will quickly achieve the true glory of UII. Let's make sacrifices for Islam at UII by fulfilling Allah's call at Ulil Albab when the time has come. The accumulation of sacrifices from all parties will reach the level or level of sacrifice desired by Allah SWT. May Allah always bless UII ameen. Wibowo/SAA