Eco-Sufism in Ahmad Tohari's Selected Literary Works

ECO-SUFISM IN AHMAD TOHARI’S SELECTED LITERARY WORKS

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M. Hum) Degree in English Language Studies

Anies Rohidayah 146332018

GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a long journey for me to finally finish this thesis. The writing process of this thesis has not only enriched my academic experience but also deepened my personal reflection over the work of God’s hand in the cosmic web. This journey will not be accomplished without the support and assistance of the thoughtful individuals whom I appreciate deeply.

My sincere gratitude goes to my thesis supervisor, Father Patrisius Mutiara

Andalas, S.J., S.TD., for his advice, and encouragement during the completion of my thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to the board of examiners of my thesis:

Ibu Novita Dewi M.S., M.A.(Hons), Ph.D., Bapak Paulus Sarwoto, M.A., Ph.D., and

Ibu A.B. Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D. for their critical review and suggestion to enhance my thesis. I would also like to express my appreciation to all lecturers of English

Language Studies. I treasure their inspiring and passionate lectures throughout my study time. I would also like to appreciate the thoughtful discussion and supportive friendship of the Literature class 2014.

My deepest gratitude goes to the very best friend of mine, my husband Dede, for his love, support, and understanding; and to our precious Ariendra for the happiness and energy boost. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved late mother whose bravery and unconditional love give me the strength to face any circumstances of life God has designed for me.

Notwithstanding all of the above support for this thesis, any flaws and inaccuracies are solely my own.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii THESIS DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE...... iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY...... iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS...... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vii ABSTRACT...... ix ABSTRAK...... x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background ...... 1 B. Research Method ...... 11 C. Research Question ...... 12 D. Goal and Significance of the Study ...... 12 E. Chapters Outline ...... 13

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 14 A. Review of Related Theories ...... 14 1. Ecocriticism...... 14 2. Sufism...... 17 3. Eco-Sufism ...... 23 B. Review on Related Studies ...... 27 C. Theoretical Framework...... 35

CHAPTER III ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ECO- SUFISM ...... 37 A. Ecological Problems Depicted in Tohari’s Selected Works ...... 38 1. Drought ...... 38 2. Flood...... 40 3. Annihilation of Species ...... 42 4. Illegal Logging and Forest Destruction ...... 44 5. Unsustainable Construction ...... 46 B. The Causes of Ecological Problems in Ahmad Tohari’s Selected Works...... 48 1. Secularized Modernization...... 48 2. Greed, Corruption and Abuse of Power ...... 61 Concluding Remark ...... 74

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CHAPTER IV THE SPIRITUALITY OF SUFISM: AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION FOR ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS ...... 76 A. Tawba (Repentance) ...... 77 B. Wara’ (Reticence)...... 80 C. Zuhd (Renunciation) ...... 82 D. Faqr (Poverty) ...... 85 E. Mahabba (Love) ...... 89 F. Uzlah (Seclusion) ...... 92 Concluding Remark ...... 95

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ...... 97

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 104

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ABSTRACT

Anies Rohidayah. 2017. Eco-Sufism in Ahmad Tohari’s Selected Literary Works. Yogyakarta: English Language Study, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University

Embarking from the concerns about the increasingly aggrieved earth caused by irresponsible deeds of human beings, this study explores the ecological theme in Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, The Dancer (a trilogy which consists of Notes for Momma, A Shooting Star at Dawn, and The Rainbow’s Arc), Orang-orang Proyek, and Karyamin’s Smile through the perspective of Eco-Sufism. Eco-Sufism is an amalgamation of ecocriticism and Sufism. This combination suits the character of Tohari’s works which accentuate the depiction of nature and the dissemination of moral teaching, particularly Islamic values. This study aims to reveal the way eco- Sufism sees the ecological problems in Tohari’s selected works and the offered solution regarding the problems reflected in the works. This study employs library research to collect the data that are in the form of words, phrases, and sentences. Eco-Sufism concept by Seyyed Hossein Nasr is mainly used to accommodate the analysis of the collected data. In addition, descriptive analytical technique is applied to present the result of the analysis. Accordingly, two questions are formulated. The first is how the ecological problems in Ahmad Tohari’s selected literary works are seen through the perspective of eco- Sufism and the second is what values of eco-Sufism are offered as the solution of ecological problems reflected in those work. This study finds that the ecological problems described in Tohari’s works are rooted in the inharmonious relationship between human beings and the Creator. The ignorance of God's signs in the universe leads modern humans divorce religion from science and technology. As a result, the modernization process is conducted in secular way. In the perspective of Nasr, the materialistic spirit attached to the secularized modernization triggers the greed for money and possession which make human beings justify any means to achieve the wealth, including corruption and abuse of power. Human beings have betrayed God's mandate as a khalifa/vicegerent who is assigned to keep the harmony and balance of earth life. They harm the nature and disturb the habitats of the living inhabitants. Further in his narratives, Tohari also offers solutions to the salvation of nature through the spirituality of Sufism reflected in his created characters and on the way he writes his narratives. The spirituality of Sufism found in his works are tawba, wara', zuhd, faqr, mahabbah, and uzlah. Through the spirituality of Sufism, the harmonious life between humankind, God and nature can be restored.

Keywords: eco-sufism, Sufism, ecological problem, vicegerency, Ahmad Tohari

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ABSTRAK Anies Rohidayah. 2017. Eco-Sufism in Ahmad Tohari’s Selected Literary Works. Yogyakarta: Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Berangkat dari keprihatinan terhadap bumi yang semakin menderita akibat ulah manusia yang tidak bertanggungjawab, penelitian ini mengekplorasi tema ekologis pada karya Ahmad Tohari yaitu Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, The Dancer (trilogi Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk yang terdiri dari Catatan buat Emak, Lintang Kemukus Dini Hari, dan Jantera Bianglala), Orang-orang Proyek, dan Karyamin’s Smile dalam pandangan eko-sufisme. Eko-sufisme adalah sebuah kajian perpaduan dari teori ekokritik dan Sufisme. Perpaduan teori ini merupakan hal yang tepat untuk meneliti karya-karya Tohari yang kental dengan penggambaran unsur alam dan penyebaran ajaran moral, khususnya nilai-nilai keislaman. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan bagaimana eko-sufisme melihat permasalahan ekologi dan solusi yang ditawarkan untuk mengatasi permasalah tersebut pada karya-karya terpilih dari Tohari. Penelitian ini menerapkan metode kajian pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data dalam bentuk kata, frasa, dan kalimat. Konsep eko-sufisme dari Seyyed Hossein Nasr banyak digunakan dalam melakukan analisa pada data yang terkumpul. Selanjutnya hasil dari analisa disampaikan dengan teknik deskriptif-analitis. Penelitian ini mengajukan dua rumusan masalah. Yang pertama adalah bagaimana permasalahan ekologi dalam karya sastra terpilih Ahmad Tohari dilihat melalui sudut pandang eko- sufisme dan yang kedua adalah nilai eko-sufisme apa yang ditawarkan dalam karya- karya tersebut terkait solusi permasalahan ekologi yang ada. Penelitian ini mengungkap bahwa permasalahan ekologi yang digambarkan oleh Tohari dalam karya-karyanya bermuara pada melemahnya hubungan antara manusia dengan Sang Pencipta. Sikap abai terhadap tanda-tanda kekuasaan Tuhan yang ada di alam semesta ini membuat manusia modern menceraikan agama dari ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi. Sebagai akibatnya, arus modernisasi yang terjadi berjalan secara sekuler. Dalam perspektif Nasr, paham materialisme yang melekat pada arus modernisasi yang sekuler ini menghidupkan sifat tamak akan harta yang membuat manusia menghalalkan berbagai cara untuk mendapatkannya, termasuk korupsi dan penyalahgunaan kekuasaan. Manusia telah mengkhianati amanah Tuhan sebagai khalifah di muka bumi yang seharusnya menjaga dan merawat keseimbangan kehidupan di bumi. Sebaliknya, mereka justru melakukan perusakan terhadap alam. Lebih lanjut dalam karya-karyanya, Ahmad Tohari juga menawarkan solusi bagi penyelamatan alam melalui spiritualitas sufisme yang tersirat pada tokoh-tokoh yang dia ciptakan serta pada caranya penulisan narasi. Spiritualitas sufisme yang terdapat pada karya-karyanya adalah taubat, wara’, zuhud, faqir, mahabbah, dan uzlah. Melalui spiritualitas sufisme ini harmonisasi dengan Tuhan dan alam dapat dirajut kembali.

Kata Kunci: eko-sufisme, sufisme, kerusakan alam, khalifah, Ahmad Tohari

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Paruk seems reluctant to live. This village is isolated. The desolation is worsened by an extreme drought that hit this area from time to time. Paddy fields turn into gray-colored plain; the soil is cracked; everywhere in this area is arid and dusty.

The drought is so severe that skinny children have to pee over a cassava tree in order to pull the finger-sized cassava to be their meal. Draught has been blamed as the main culprit of the corps failure and ugly fate of people in dukuh Paruk. People consider

Paruk as the worst place to live; even they connote the place as backwardness. This small bleak village of Paruk is the central background of Ahmad Tohari’s masterpiece Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (1982), or translated into English by Rene T A.

Lysloff as The Dancer.

The condition of the fictional village of Paruk above is, in fact, far better than what recently occurred in Somalia and other parts of African horn including Ethiopia,

Sudan, and Kenya. The drought on those areas has caused severe famine. BBC reported on March 4th, 2017 that in Somalia more than 100 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours only in a single region1, other six millions human lives face acute food insecurity, and animal carcasses become a common sight. Drought is indeed getting worse from time to time around this globe. According to The National

1 “Somalia drought: More than 100 die from hunger in one region”. BBCNews, 4 March 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39166746, accessed 20 April 2017.

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Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Indonesia suffers from the worst drought in the past five years in 2015.2 It covers 80% of Indonesia’s territory. In addition, The Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) adds that 16 provinces covering 102 cities in Indonesia by the end of July 2015 was deficit of water.3

Indonesia, which ranks second in the world deforestation after Brazil, has lost its forest approximately 2 million ha every year due to logging, mining, forest fire and forest conversion4. Thus, it is not surprising that Indonesian National Board for

Disaster Management (BNPB) also reported that 2016 hit the record of number of disaster in Indonesia; 92% were hydro-meteorological type of disaster such as flood, drought, and landslides. Besides serving as home for millions of organisms, green lung of the world, and balance keeper of the environment, forest also determines the quantity and quality of ground water. Ministry of Environment and Forestry Republic of Indonesia released a report that in 2015 the water quality in all regions in Indonesia is polluted, most of them are highly polluted5. The impact of deforestation and environmental damage becomes more real.

The concern over water supply for the future generation has also led the farmers of Kendeng, Central Java, to fight against the construction of cement factory

2 Arya Dipa, “Indonesia Suffer Worst Drought Five Years.“ The Jakarta Post, 10 July 2015, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/07/10/indonesia-suffer-worst-drought-five-years-2015- agency.html, accessed 30 November 2015. 3Disaster Management Center Dompet Dhuafa. Drought in Indonesia 2015. Situation Report. Banten: Dompet Dhuafa, 2015. 4 FWI/GFW. Keadaan Hutan Indonesia. Bogor , Indonesia: Forest Watch Indonesia and Washington D.C.: Global Forest Watch. 2001. 5 Report of the Director General of Pollution Control and Environmental Damage 2015

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in their area. They argue that the surrounding karst hill where the factory is planned is the source of water in the regency and the damage of the reservoir and the nature in general are too high to put in a risk. They staged a series of rally to protest the cement factory and did not show any sign of surrender even when they have to march for hundreds of kilometers and lost a member who died during the rally. What is shown by the people of Kendeng is a deep concern for environmental sustainability for future generation against industrialization. In fact, modernization and industrialization are the main culprit of environmental damage.

Humans race develop technology to ease their lives. Unfortunately, most of the invented technology is not befriended with the environment. A small example is that 27,000 trees are cut down every day to serve people with the comfort of toilet paper6 whereas tree serves as the habitat of other living beings such as insects, birds, and small plants. It means that cutting down one single tree could ruin thousands of lives. Another example is the use of pesticide to produce better farming products which at the same time has killed other living organism for its dangerous chemical substance. Deforestation, chemical pollution, industrial waste spillage, and other side effects of industrialization which aim to benefit human agenda have endangered other living beings habitat and threatened the biodiversity. Human’s greed and arrogance over nature have ignited a silent suicidal bomb.

6 Noelle Robbins, “Flushing Forests”. World Watch Magazine May/June 2010. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6403, accessed 9 Agustus 2017.

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Lynn White in his famous essay, The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, argues that the environmental crisis is rooted in the Judeo-Christian’s belief which legitimates the domination of humankind over nature7. This leads to the anthropocentric attitude which sees human being is rightful to exploit nature for their profit. Because of this attitude, the concern over sustainability of nature is cast aside.

In line but slightly different from White’s argument, Seyyed Hosein Nasr also believes that religion has influential contribution towards environmental crisis8. He points out that, in Islamic belief, human as the vicegerent of God on Earth has misused the authority trusted to them. They secularize the technology and desacralize the nature for their selfish benefit. The price of the comfort of modernity developed by the avarice and arrogance of human being with their technology is the degradation of the nature. This suicidal act should be ended to create a more habitable place to live in. In Nasr’s opinion, bringing the values of religion back to life will help people to save the environment.

Facing the issue of environmental crises, religious institution does not want to be left behind in the attempt to prevent the environment from destruction. In 1986, five major religions in the worlds (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and

Judaism) declared The Assisi Declaration, a commitment of each religion to help save the nature.9 Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’ to criticize the consumerism and

7 Lynn White Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, in The Ecocriticism Readers: Landmark in Literary Ecology, eds. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996), pp. 3-14. 8 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed.William C. Chittick (Indiana: World Wisdom, 2007), p. 29. 9 Alliance of Religion and Conservation. The Assisi Declaration in 1986.

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irresponsible development which lead to environmental degradation and global warming; and to ask people to unite in order to preserve the environment from destruction10. Muslim scholars also promote Eco-Islam and Green Muslim11 to respond to the catastrophe which haunts human being if there is no attempt to heal the wounded Mother Earth.

People should be aware that the only livable planet where we live is in danger.

Unfortunately, the awareness over this situation is not (yet) as high as the damages which are made. Cheryll Glotfelty puts it nicely in her introduction to The

Ecocriticism Readers: Landmark in Literary Ecology, a critique towards the ignorance of ecology in the area of social studies as below.

You would quickly discern that race, class and gender were the hot topics of the late twentieth century, but you would never know that the earth’s life support systems were under stress. Indeed, you might never know that there was an earth at all.12

It implies that there is a vital problem faced by society apart from the issue of race, class, and gender which lose from our sight, namely ecological problem. In fact, this problem is threating people from all races, classes, and genders.

10 Pope Francis, Encyclical letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common Home, (Vatican: Vatican Press, 2015) http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica- laudato-si.html, accessed on February 2016. 11 Colin, “Eco-Islam: Javanese Madrassahs Leading the Way”. Inside Islam. 16 December 2010. http://insideislam.wisc.edu/2010/12/eco-islam-javanese-madrassahs-leading-the-way, accessed 30 December 2015. 12 Cheryll Glotfelty, Introduction, in The Ecocriticism Readers: Landmark in Literary Ecology, eds. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996), p. xvi.

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Ecological problem does not only become the concern of the field of science or environmental studies per se, other fields like social and humanities studies should also put their attention to this matter. Although these studies do not directly engage with reforestation or waste management, social and humanities studies can contribute to raise the awareness and, according to historian Donald Worster, “can help with the understanding”13. Literary studies also take part by shaping people’s mind through unfolding the values, meanings, and point of views of literary works in the perspective of environmental issues. However, studies regarding this topic are not

(yet) numerous.

In Indonesia, literary study which focuses on ecological problem is still rare.

Novita Dewi mentions that the limited number of the study is due to the limited literary works which explore the ecological issue.14 Themes of nature, in fact, appear a lot in literary works but the discussion on environmental problem is not as many as the discussion of other subjects. The portrayal of the nature mainly serves as the setting of place or setting of time in the story, thus the discussion over the issues of ecology in a deeper analysis than simply description of the setting is a tough work to do. Among the few literary works which concern about ecology, criticism over the destruction of the nature becomes the main agenda.

Ahmad Tohari is one of Indonesian authors who densely exposes the subject of nature and environment on his works. Although the portrayal of the nature in Tohari’s

13 C. Glotfelty, p. xxi. 14 Novita Dewi, "Manusia dan Lingkungan dalam Cerpen Indonesia Kontemporer: Analisis Ekokritik Cerpen Pilihan Kompas." Litera, 14. 2 (2015): 378.

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narratives seem to serve only as the background or setting of the story, a thorough reading on his works may unravel a deeper meaning behind the description of the nature. Maman S. Mahayana argues that the vivid portrayal of the environment in

Tohari’s works becomes the strength of his works along with the metaphor and irony which are delivered in simple and direct style.15 Nevertheless, beyond those simplicity and modesty lies a serious philosophical thought. It is, indeed, Tohari’s style that he inserts powerful messages behind his seemingly simple style. Thus, this study intends to scrutinize his narratives to reveal the ecological issues raised by

Tohari in his works.

Tohari’s strength in portraying the nature in his works has frequently been praised by scholars in their studies. However, research which focuses on the issue of ecology is still rare. Doing research on Tohari’s works, the issue of feminism and patriarchy, 1965 anti-communism tragedy, and social concern are the most popular ones.

Religion and Islamic values also interest some researchers to conduct research on Tohari’s narratives. His literary works indeed have strong religious values which are implicitly and explicitly described throughout his narratives. Tohari’s family and educational background contribute to this matter. He was raised in a pesantren established by his parents. This setting undoubtedly explains why his religious conviction is reflected through the stories he delivered. In one interview with team of

15 Maman Mahayana, Foreword. Karyamin's Smile. Ahmad Tohari (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 7.

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Indonesia Goes to Frankfurt16, Tohari expresses clearly that Islamic values underlie his works.

The novel The Dancer is often described as the “most representative novel of Indonesia”. I don’t know why people say that. Maybe it’s like when people abroad ask: “You’re a Muslim, right?” “Yes, I’m a Muslim,” I say. “But then why isn’t there anything about Islam in your novels?” “Well, because you have a misconception, just as my own Muslim people do. It’s presumed that Islam is about fasting (only), going on the hajj pilgrimage (only), having the name Muhammad (only) or Ahmad (only), for example. But it’s not like that. This novel, The Dancer, is very Islamic, in a Sufi way.17 Tohari’s statement implies that in writing his works he inserts Islamic values but not in the blatant ways. He delivers the values through characters and dialogues within the stories in “Sufi way”. Meaning that what he delivers is the soul of Islamic values, as Sufi is known as a path taken to achieve truest meaning and the purest relation with God. It is not necessary for Tohari to describe Islam in physical ways because the truest meaning can only be achieved by heart, thus he chooses to deliver the Islamic values in Sufi way.

In Indonesian literature, the name of Ahmad Tohari is taken into account.

Tohari’s master piece, the trilogy of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (consist of Catatan buat

Emak (1982), Lintang Kemukus Dini Hari (1985), dan Jantera Bianglala (1986)), has taken him to be in the same par as Umar Kayam, Putu Wijaya, or even Pramoedya

16 Indonesia Goes to Frankfrut is the committee for the preparation of Indonesia to be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015. Frankfurt Book Fair is claimed to be the largest, the oldest and most influential event of its kind in the world. Ahmad Tohari is one of the auithor invited to join the program. 17 Ilham DS, Extraordinary Literary Strength in the Locality of “Indonesia-ness” and Islamicity: A Talk with Ahmad Tohari (2) Indonesia Goes to Frankfurt Team. 30 September 2015. http://www.indonesiagoesfrankfurt.net/extraordinary-literary-strength-in-the-locality-of-indonesia- ness-and-islamicity-a-talk-with-ahmad-tohari-2/?lang=en, accessed 18 October 2015.

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Ananta Toer.18 This SEA Write Awardee has his trilogy translated into English,

Germany, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese. Furthermore, the trilogy has also been adapted in two movies i.e. Sang Penari (2011) and Darah dan Mahkota Ronggeng

(1983). Numerous researches have also been conducted on the novel, not only by

Indonesian but by foreign scholars as well.

Besides the trilogy of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, Tohari’s other works are also worth celebrated. His novel Kubah (1980) won an award from Yayasan Buku Utama in 1980. Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak (1986) won an award in the Jakarta Art Foundation

Writing Competition in 1979. Tohari also won the Golden Windmill award from radio Nederlands Wereldomroep in 1975 for his short story, “The List of favors for

Sanwirya”. Recently, he received the Rancage Literary Prize, an award given to the people who have significant contribution to the local language and literature, for his extraordinary strength on the local color of Indonesia, especially Javanese culture.

Embarking from Tohari’s revelation that he has written his narrative in Sufi way and in order to make a contribution to the awareness of ecological issues through literary criticism, this study looks upon the issues of ecology through the viewpoint of

Sufism values. This study is distinct from other existing studies on Tohari’s literary works as it juxtaposes two exceptional strengths of Tohari’s narratives that are the depiction of nature and the religious philosophical thought inserted within the writings.

18 Ali Imron AM, “Ahmad Tohari dan Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk: Eksistensinya dalam Jagat Sastra Indonesia.” Proses Kreatif dalam Trilogi Novel Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (Surakarta: Taman Budaya Jawa Tengah, 2006), p.1.

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Eco-Sufism guides this study to achieve its objectives. Eco-Sufism in this study is understood as a concept which views the ecological awareness and the spiritual consciousness as interrelated entities. It sees nature as the verse and sacred creation of the Divine. The way human beings treat the nature is the reflection of the way they comprehend the existence of God. Inharmonious relationship with God leads to the desacralization of His creation which resulted in the destruction of nature. On the contrary, the awareness that nature is a sacred creation of God will make human beings treat the nature fondly as it is a way that can lead them to reach God. This concept is procured from Suwito and mainly from Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Nasr might not use the term of eco-Sufism but his view on the relationship between nature and

God is a significant contribution to construct the theoretical framework of this study.

The term eco-Sufism is taken from Suwito’s study on the Islamic communities which implements the ecological-based of Islamic mysticism in its relationship with the effort of ecological preservation. However, different from Suwito’s study which put community as the object of study; in this thesis the concept of eco-Sufism is applied to literary works.

The application of eco-Sufism in literary criticism is a new challenge since this theory is mainly employed in the study of theology or philosophy. This study tries to answer the challenge by applying this concept to examine Tohari’s literary works.

This study does not only scrutinize Tohari’s most acclaimed novel, Ronggeng Dukuh

Paruk or The Dancer, but it also observes his other narratives, namely Di Kaki Bukit

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Cibalak, Orang-orang Proyek (2002), and a collection of short stories in Karyamin’s

Smile (1989).

B. Research Method

This study employs library research to collect the data; those data are then analyzed using an analytical descriptive method. The works of Tohari which will serve as the major data source of the study are Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, The Dancer,

Orang-orang Proyek, and Karyamin’s Smile. Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak and Orang- orang Proyek are in the form of novel; The Dancer is the English version of

Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk trilogy which consists of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, Lintang

Kemukus Dini Hari, and Jantera Bianglala; while Karyamin’s Smile is the English translated version of a collection of short stories entitled Senyum Karyamin. The

Indonesian version of The Dancer and Karyamin’s Smile will also be used in order to consult if there is any cultural gap in the process of translation. Those four works are chosen among other Tohari’s novels because they expose more description of ecological issues which are related to the theme being discussed in this study.

Furthermore, some related essays, articles, and journals regarding the literary works and the topic of this study are also considered in order to enrich the discussion.

To analyze the data, the concept of eco-Sufism guides this study. Thus, the gathered data of the ecological issues exposed by Tohari in The Dancer, Karyamin’s

Smile, Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, and Orang-orang Proyek will be discussed from the

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perspective of the amalgamation of Ecocriticism and Sufism in an analytical way and presented in a descriptive manner.

C. Research Question

Considering the formerly stated background, this study formulates the research questions as follows:

1. How are the ecological problems reflected in Ahmad Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit

Cibalak, The Dancer, Orang-orang Proyek, and Karyamin’s Smile seen

through the perspective of eco-Sufism?

2. What are the eco-Sufism values offered in Ahmad Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit

Cibalak, The Dancer, Orang-orang Proyek, and Karyamin’s Smile regarding

the solution of the ecological problems?

D. Goal and Significance of the Study

This study brings out the issue of ecology on Indonesian literature of Tohari’s selected works in order to promote the awareness of ecological problem through literary criticism. Furthermore, it also digs the Sufism values in Tohari’s works which densely utter the Indonesian local color. In line with Tohari’s argument that locality in literary work becomes an extraordinary strength19, this research is expected, in some ways, to promote Indonesian literature to speak louder in world literature

19 Ilham DS, Extraordinary Literary Strength in the Locality of “Indonesia-ness” and Islamicity: A Talk with Ahmad Tohari (2) Indonesia Goes to Frankfurt Team. 30 September 2015. http://www.indonesiagoesfrankfurt.net/extraordinary-literary-strength-in-the-locality-of-indonesia- ness-and-islamicity-a-talk-with-ahmad-tohari-2/?lang=en, accessed in 18 October 2015

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because one main problem for national literature to enter the realm of world literature is due to the accessibility of the work and its criticism in English. Thus, the fact that this research explores ecological issues in Indonesian literature with strong depiction of local color adds the value of this research.

E. Chapters Outline

In order to deliver the thesis in a systematic way, it is divided into five chapters.

Chapter One explains the background of the study, the formulation of the problems, the significance of the study and the outline of the chapters. Chapter Two provides the reviews of existing related studies and reviews of related theories used in this study. Chapter Three and Chapter Four provide the discussion to answer the questions stated in the formulation of the problems. Chapter Three discusses the ecological problems reflected in Ahmad Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, The Dancer,

Orang-orang Proyek, and Karyamin’s Smile through the point of view of eco-Sufism, while Chapter Four analyzes the eco-Sufism values offered in those works regarding the solution of the ecological problems. Finally, Chapter Five enfolds this thesis with a conclusion and recommendation of the study.

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter I has served the introduction of the study which comprises the background of the study, the formulation of the problems, the significance of the study and the outline of the chapters. Meanwhile, this Chapter II consists of three sub-chapters. The first sub-chapter is the review of related theories used in this study.

It covers three sections. Firstly, it explains the theory on Ecocriticism, followed by the theory of Sufism and the theory on Eco-Sufism. The second sub-chapter provides reviews of existing related studies. The studies reviewed are those which concern with Tohari’s works, especially the studies that emphasize on religious aspects and ecological elements, and other studies related to Islamic perspective on ecology. The final sub-chapter is the theoretical framework of the study.

A. Review of Related Theories

1. Ecocriticism

Cheryl Glotfelty simply defines ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment”20. The term “ecocriticism” itself was coined by William Rueckert in his essay Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism (1978), referring to “the application of ecology and ecological concept in the study of literature”21. Some scholars also employ the terms such as

20 C. Glotfelty, p. xviii. 21 C. Glotfelty, p.xx.

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Green Cultural Studies, Environmental Literary Studies, or Ecopoetics for the similar area of study but the term “ecocriticism” is likely more preferable and used wider that makes it the umbrella term for literary study which concerns with the issues of environment.

Ecocriticism begins to sprout in 1970s but only in 1990 that it had recognition as official discipline within the study of literature. Previously, the studies concerning ecological issues were scatteredly published under different categorization because there was no organized movement for the ecological/environmental-focused of literary study. Furthermore, ecocriticism is characteristically an interdisciplinary study. It brings knowledge from different areas of study to analyze one certain thing.

Thus, ecocritics need to engage with a wide range of disciplines such as biology, history, anthropology, ethics and religious study, philosophy, sociology and science studies to scrutinize environmental issues on a literary work.

Working with ecocriticism, a scholar needs to switch the perspective on seeing things. The tendency of analyzing everything from self-centered human perspective is pushed away and it is needed to consider nature on its own term.

Nature became the main agenda and concern of the study. In fact, this ecologically oriented criticism blooms as a response to the critical ecological issues of the day.

Buell argues that ecocriticism must be “conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis”22. Thus, this study intends to reveal that a literary text with

22 Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination (Cambridge MA & London: Harvard UP, 1995), p. 430.

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ecological concern is able to play some parts in solving the ecological issues of the day.

Since its emergence, ecocriticism has undergone some developments. Buell divides the development into two waves. The first wave of ecocriticism focuses on the depiction of nature in the literary works. The scope of the study is in the local or bioregional level with the emphasis on the self-nature relation and forms of literary imagination. Some studies that belong to the first wave ecocriticism are the studies of

Wordsworth poems, Thoreau’s attachment to Walden Pond as depicted in Walden, the concern of John Clare towards the vanishing landscape of early nineteenth- century in Northamtonshire, and John Muir’s sense of wilderness of rural Wisconsin.

While the second wave shows the interest in the urban and eco-justice revisionist.

Thus, the second one is more socio-centric as it deals with collective experience rather than individual. The area also grows broader into global or planetary level. The study on Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring to show the dangerous impact of chemical substance and to make a political movement against it is the example. The second wave takes the discussion into a higher degree. However, the division between first and second wave is not always clear, they may intersect one another.

As a new developing theory, ecocriticism still tries to find its fittest shape. It challenges the scholars to cultivate a wide range of perspectives and possibilities concerning the environmental issues. Amalgamation with other branch of theories is something unavoidable. As Greg Garrard implies in Ecocriticism the New Critical

Idiom that ecocriticism need to adapt and adopt other theories to engage a stronger

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position in literary studies23, the study of this thesis practices a hybridized reading between ecocrititcism and Sufism to understand the ecological issues on Ahmad

Tohari’s selected works from the perspective of Sufism.

2. Sufism

Defining Sufism is a simple yet complicated task at the same time. Thousand definitions of Sufism have been made24. It occurs due to the fact that Sufism is a personal experience of the Sufis in reaching the union with God, therefore different definitions of Sufism exist from different perspectives. Western scholars often refer

Sufism as Islamic mysticism. In Arabic it is known as tasawwuf. It is believed that both terms are derived from the word ‘sufi’. The people who embrace Sufism are also called as Sufi. The word sufi itself has several etymology theories. Some scholars argue that it comes from the word suf which means “wool”. Wool is associated with simple woolen cloak wore by ascetics in the pre-Islamic era and in the early period of

Islam. Others believe that it is derived from the word safa which means “purity”, emphasizing the act of purifying the heart to reach the union with God. There is also another theory which argues that it comes from the word suffah, or porch. The sincere companion of Muhammad used to sit on the porch of his house to perform some dhikr (remembrance of God). It is even suggested that the word sufi might derive from Greek sophos, means wisdom. However, most scholars prefer to go with the suf or wool interpretation. Sufism is performed in the first time by the inner circle of

23 Greg Garrard, Ecocriticism (London and New York: Routledge, 2012), pp.175-176. 24 Syamsun Ni'am, Tasawuf Studies, Pengantar Belajar Tasawuf (Yogyakarta: Ar-Ruz Media, 2014), , p. 24.

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Prophet Muhammad MPBUH companion who performed pure teaching of Islam.

They were the early pious Muslim who inclined to asceticism and wore woolen garment which symbolized voluntary poverty and repudiation of the world with all its pleasure.

Shahram Pazoki mentions that Sufism is:

infinite resignation to the point that one sees nothing but God with the vision of the heart, to the point that all other beings are seen as mere shadows of the Divine, until the state is reached in which “There is no being but God,” and “There is nothing but Him.”25

In order to reach to that point, one should disengage his life from the worldly temptation. It is to live the life in a modest and humble way as what the Prophet

Muhammad MPBUH has exemplified. Sufi emphasizes on purification. In this way, a

Sufi can reach for God and unite with Him.

Meanwhile, a prominent early Sufi Abu’l-Hasan al-Nuri states that:

“Sufism is not rituals and forms and is not bodies of knowledge, not doctrines, not ideas, not theories. But it is impeccable manner, the manner of the lover in the presence of the Beloved.”26 In line with al-Nuri’s statement, Ibn al-Jala defines Sufism as “a reality without a form.”27 Here, both al-Nuri and al-Jala emphasize that Sufism is an essence.

Everything that is attached to it is just ornamentation because what is essential is the intimacy between a Sufi and God. In order to attain such relationship, al-Nuri

25 Shahram Pazoki, The Sufi Path: An Introduction to the Ni‘matullahi Sultan ‘Alishahi Order (Tehran: Haqiqat Publications, 2002), p.7 26 Pir Zia Inayat Khan, “What is Sufism?”. The Power of Love, A Sufi Conference. Omega Institute, New York. 14 Oct. 2005. p. 2. 27 Eric Geoffroy, Introduction to Sufism, The Inner Path of Islam (Indiana: World Wisdom, Inc., 2010), p.1.

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characterizes a Sufi as “the one who possesses nothing and is possessed by nothing.”28 Again, it is underlined that dis-engagement with worldly temptation is important so a Sufi can reach the beauty of the intimacy with God.

Despite the various definitions of Sufism defined by different scholars, a similar line can be drawn upon them. All of them imply the following things: withdrawal from worldly temptation, purifying the heart, and intimacy/unity with

God.

Sufism is a spiritual journey to unite with God. Along that journey a Sufi will progress through several maqamat (stations) and experience several ahwal (states).

Maqamat is attained through spiritual discipline. By adhering the stations, a Sufi will be blessed to experience the states. While reaching the stations require effort and guidance from a mentor, the states are spiritual feeling freely granted by God as divine gift. According to al-Sarraj29, the stations along the Sufi paths are as follows:

1. Repentance (tawbat): returning to God from one’s sinful to obtain divine

mercy30

2. Reticence (wara’): cautious way not to be presumptuous in any way in God’s

presence31

3. Renunciation (zuhd): simplicity of life as an expression of deep trust in God

who supplies all needs32

28 Pir Zia Inayat Khan, p. 3. 29 Farida Khanam, Sufism: An Introduction (New Delhi: Goodword Books, 2009), p. 202. 30 John Renard, The A to Z of Sufism (Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2009), p. 199. 31 Renard, p. 201.

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4. Poverty (faqr): in this case means as spiritual poverty, a vacare Deo,

emptiness for God33. A Sufi should feel that he possess nothing and is not

possesed by anything.

5. Endurance (sabr): an attitude of perfect willingness to endure whatever God

sends34

6. Trust (tawakkul): having total reliance on God.35

7. Contentment (rida): Satisfied with whatever God has given36

Meanwhile the states granted by God to a Sufi are meditation (muraqaba), nearness (qurb), love (mahabbah), fear (khawf), hope (rija), longing (shauq), intimacy (uns), tranquility (itminan), contemplation (mushahada), and certainty

(yaqin).

The origin of Sufism can be traced to the personality and way of life exemplified by Prophet Muhammad PBUH. The Prophet’s companions and followers try to live the way he is. They make Al-Qur’an and Hadith as their guidebooks. The early Muslim ascetics conduct an extremely simple life and avoid luxury so that their heart is pure, therefore they can gain the beauty of connecting themselves with God.

However, they do not consider themselves as Sufi; it is in the later development that the term Sufi is attached to people who perform such way of life.

32 Renard, p. 38. 33 Geoffroy, p. 78. 34 Renard, p. 182. 35 Renard, p. 242. 36 Renard, p. 200.

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Islam, the religion brings by Prophet Muhammad PBUH, grows and expands from Arab to Persia, northern of Africa and finally around the world. Unfortunately, in some regions the success of Islamic reign is not followed by humble and modest way of life as exemplified by the Prophet. The rulers live in lavish way. Sufism, then, become a silent protest and develops into a bigger movement. In Persia it gives birth to several prominent figures of Sufi such as Hasan al-Basri.

However, after his era, Sufism develops further and turns into a mystic movement which focuses only in unity of an individual and God37, closes the eyes to shariah. In its progress, this movement spreads all over the world, reaches other parts of Asia and African continent. Sufism, then, blends with the local mysticism and yields a wide range of Sufism orders such as Christi Order, Qadri Order, Naqshbandi

Order, etc. It also creates what is called as intoxicated or drunken Sufi who are characterized by the celebration of unity with God through poetry, dance, music, and other forms of arts. Jalaluddin Rumi and Mansur al-Hallaj are some of the prominent figures of intoxicated Sufism. Meanwhile, standing on the opposite side is the Sober

Sufi. They manifest the love to God through obedience and worship. Sober Sufism tends to attract intellectuals. Junayd and Ghazali are the example. They vigorously study the religion and bring it to the scholarly jurisdiction. Furthermore, the development of Sufi leads to the formation of universal Sufism in which anyone from different religious and cultural background can practice this way of life. However,

37 Simuh. Sufisme Jawa (Yogyakarta: Narasi, 2016), pp. 46-47.

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this study stands on the position that the practice of Sufism is based on and follows

Islamic teaching.

The practice of Islam consists of three stages namely Islam (submission),

Iman (faith), and Ihsan (Awareness of God’ presence). James Fadiman explains it as follows:

Islam is the complete surrender of the individual to God’s will and total acceptance of the teaching of the Koran. Iman is the inner aspect of Islam. Ihsan means “to act beautifully”. It is generally explained as “to worship God as if you see Him”. (Fadiman, p.10)

According to the above explanation, Sufism lays on the stage of Ihsan. Thus, to embrace Sufism, one should embrace Islam first.

Islam, according to the division made by Sufi, has two aspects i.e. outward

(exoterism) and inward (esoterism). The outward aspect is called as shariah. It is a precept of Islamic law. It provides foundation and guidance to live appropriately in the world. The inward aspect is called as tariqah or the spiritual path. The practice of

Sufism refers to this stage. Together, both aspects lead to haqiqah, the Truth.

Beyond haqiqah lies ma’rifah or Gnosis. Ma’rifah is the state of attunement with

God and with Truth38. A great Sufi sage, Ibn Arabi illustrates that at the level of shariah, there is “yours and mine”. It means that the law assures individual rights and ethical relations between people. At the level of tariqah, “mine is yours and yours is mine”. At the level of haqiqah, there is “no mine, no yours”. Sufis should realize that everything is from God, that people are just the caretakers who possess nothing.

38 James Fadiman, Essential Sufism (New Jersey: Castle Books, 1997), p. 13.

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Finally at the level of ma’rifah, there is “no me, no you”. The Sufi who reaches this level has realized that all is God and not a single thing is separated from God. Hence, in Sufi way, nature is seen as the representation of God, which should be treated with mahabbah, the way a Sufi loves God.

Sacdi, a Persian poet pours his love to nature as “I love the cosmos, for the cosmos is from God”. The love for the God is shown by the love for nature. Serving the nature is serving the God; committing crime to nature is committing crime to

God. This kind of attitude raises the ecological consciousness for Sufis. Nature, in

Sufism tradition, acts as 1) proof of God’s greatness; 2) medium to show gratefulness and to be closer to God: 3) source of wisdom; 4) source of beauty; and 5) source of life necessity.39

In response to the ecological crisis in the last several decades, there is a development of “eco-sufism”. The term is derived from the world ‘ecology’ and

‘Sufism’. This is an attempt to preserve and to maintain the ecology using the Sufism values. In this way, preserving and maintaining the ecology are regarded as the act of devotion to God and the expression of the love to God.

3. Eco-Sufism

The escalated awareness on the issue of ecological crises in the last two decades has attracted various elements to respond to it. Scholars throw discussions

39 Suwito NS, Eko-Sufisme Konsep, Strategi, dan Dampak (Purwokerto: STAIN Press, 2011), p.44.

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under different perspectives, including the perspective of religion. The phenomenal essay from a historian Lynn White entitled The Historical Root of Our Ecological

Crises ignites the spark of the discussion of ecological issue on the perspective of religion. He claims that Christianity as the major cause of ecological problems40.

Christianity, or more broadly Judeo-Christian tradition, views that nature is prepared by God for human sake. Human is the master of the nature. Thus, it legitimates human beings to exploits the nature for the advance of science and technology as the expression of Judeo-Christian worldview. Putting the blame on the interpretation of

God’s text done by the western medieval Christian, he proposes in his essay to reconsider the greener Christian view as practiced by Saint Francis Assisi41.

White’s essay has received various critiques such as one from Rigby who question White’s claim on Western Christian tradition as the prime source of the ecological crises as according to her the West does not own ‘the monopoly on ecological errancy’42. However, the study of this thesis is in agreement with White on the point that religion has a dominant influence on human view over nature and

Western tradition has a large contribution to the destruction of nature. He mentions,

“Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious.”43

40 White, pp. 3-14. 41 Saint Francis of Asisi is known as the patron saint of ecology. He praised all creatures as brothers and sisters under God. He is renowend for his love, simplicity, and practice of poverty. 42 Kate Rigby, "Ecocriticism" in Introducing Criticism at the 21st Century, ed. Wolfreys and Julian (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2002), pp. 151-178. 43 White in Glotfelty, p 14.

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Several months before the infamous White’s essay is published, a Muslim scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, is said to predate White’s view on the ecological issues44. Although his essay does not get the attention as White had, they share several similar conceptions that Western modernity through its secularized science and technology is the source of the ecological crisis. Nasr also argues that the ecological problems that threaten the world are rooted to the inharmonious relationship between human being and God. For the sake of modernity enhancement, nature is desacralized. It loses its sacred values and only seen as commodity to fulfill the greed of the anthropocentric modern man who are driven by material needs.

Therefore, to solve the ecological disaster the main attempt is to restore the harmonious relationship between human and God.

Islam provides Sharia to its believers to guide their life; this divine law covers every aspects of life including the relationship between human being and nature.

Muslim ulamas formulate what is called as fiqh al-bi’ah (Islamic Environmental

Law). It is the practical guidebook on how Islam views nature. Seyyed Hossein Nasr brings it further into a more mystical-philosophical level. He lays Sufism as the groundwork to resolve the environmental issues. Schwencke mentions that the core of thought of Nasr as follows.

“This emphasizes the sacred quality of nature, the inherent balance and orderliness of the universe at all levels of existence, and the significance of mankind in this grand divine scheme. Man holds great responsibilities in maintaining the inner balance within the soul, the

44 AM Schwencke, Globalized Eco-Islam, A Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism. Survey Report. (Leiden: Leiden University, 2012), p.10.

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balance with the divine and the outer balance with nature. Human spiritual self-development is seen as a crucial component of the environmental teaching. By developing the virtues of moderation, discipline and restraint a renewed sense of the sacred will make humanity more receptive to the earth‘s plight and on a more pragmatic level, will curb the greed that is fueling our consumer societies”45

Although he does not label his concept as eco-sufism, his concept on the relation between ecology and Sufism is cited a lot in the discussion of eco-Sufism. In correspondence with Nasr’s concept on the necessity of keeping the balance between human’s spirituality, the Divine, and nature, Suwito uses the term ‘eco-Sufism’ to define the relationship between those three elements. He argues that having harmonious interaction with nature as a sacred thing will be able to take a person to achieve spiritual awareness.46 In this way, nature serves as the medium to reach God.

In addition, nature is also considered as the source of sacred knowledge which can only be read with pure heart. Using the heart to treat the nature with care is an act that shows the love to God, while destroying the nature close the door to unify with God.

In Islam, humans beings are created as the vicegerent of God on earth

(khalifah) but at the same time also serve as abdillah (servant of God). Being a vicegerent means that human beings possess the rights and authority to represent God on earth, including making use of nature, while as the servant of God means that they should devote their acts of servitude to God, do whatever He tells and leave everything He forbids. Thus, the way human beings explore the nature should be done side by side with protecting it and nurturing it. Unfortunately, the delinquent

45 Schwke, p. 11. 46 Suwito NS, p.47.

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behaviors of human beings fail them to carry out the trusteeship. Al-Quran has already mentioned it as the cause of nature destruction.

Mischief has appeared on land and sea because the meed that the hand of man has earned, that God may give them the taste of some of their deeds’, in order that they may turn back from evil.47

As mentioned by Nasr, which is also congruent with White’s suggestion, the key to heal the ailing environment is harmonious living in the spirit of religion.

Practicing the spirituality of Sufi tradition could be considered as an alternative solution. Through the concept of mahabbah/ love, for instance, the love for God is developed wider by loving the nature as nature is the manifestation of God’s love.

Another example is the practice of zuhd/ renunciation. Zuhd connotes with simplicity of life, thus excessive exploitation of nature can be avoided by applying this spirituality way. Practicing the spirituality of Sufi tradition may bring human back from evil and prevent the self-destruction bomb from exploding.

B. Review on Related Studies

This study is conducted to unfold Ahmad Tohari’s works on the perspective of eco-Sufism. The uniqueness of Ahmad Tohari’s style and themes on his novels and short stories has attracted scholars and students to discuss them. The most discussed themes of Tohari’s works are related to gender injustice and patriarchal ideology on the trilogy of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk. Nancy Cooper in her study Tohari’s Trilogy:

47 Al-Quran. Ar-Rum:41. Translated by Shahih International. 2017.

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Passages of Power and Time in Java discussed the gender transformation from indigenous subsistence lifestyle into a more modern existence linked to global politics under the influence of Javanese culture through the character of Srintil. She mentioned that Ahmad Tohari’s novels are his ‘literary dakwah’48. Although she did not discuss it further, her claim that Tohari’s novels is his form of dakwah49 has been an agreement with the theme of this study that Tohari’s novels bring religious spirit covered in the ronggeng life of the hamlet of Paruk.

Similar point is also expressed by Mugijatna in his paper “Inclusive Islam in

Ahmad Tohari’s Novels”. He scrutinized the trilogy of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk and two other Tohari’s novels i.e. Kubah and Lingkar Tanah Lingkar Air. In the discussion, he concluded that those novels are the manifestation of Tohari’s point of view of Islam. It strengthens the idea that Ahmad Tohari’s works are densely filled with Islamic values although some of them are not obviously expressed.

Another study which took Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk as the object of study along with Dewi Linggasari’s Ronggeng and SW. Warsito’s Karti Kledek Ngrajek by

Yulianeta examined the representation of ronggeng on those three novels. The study suggested that there is a shifting of value of ronggeng from a sacred form of dance into a profane one. It turns from “keillahian” (Godly) into “kebirahian”

(lasciviously)50. The female position in society is strongly formed by how the

48 Nancy Cooper,” Tohari's Trilogy: Passages of Power and Time in Java." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 35. 3 (Oct., 2004): 535. 49 Dakwah is the teaching and spreading the message of Islam. 50 Yulianeta. "Representasi Ronggeng dalam Tiga Novel Indonesia." Bahasa & Sastra, 14 .1 (2014): 91

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patriarchal system wants them. The shifting of value of ronggeng, as an artifact of culture, is a reflection of the change in the society which borne it. Thus, the change of the ronggeng from Godly into lasciviously signifies the religious transgression in the society. This religious transgression, according to Nasr, subsequently affects the society on how they see and threat the nature. People desacralize nature and turn it into object to satisfy their lascivious materialistic greed.

Ahmad Tohari’s literary works have also attracted scholars to unveil the themes which surround the 1965-1966 anti-communism events. Alle G Hoekma mentioned that among the similar genre of novel which talked about the aforementioned event, only Tohari who put a major role of religion in narrating the event51. Anna-Greta Nilsson Hoadley discussed Ahmad Tohari’s works along with other writers such as Umar Kayam, Ashadi Siregar, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, NH.

Dini, and Putu Wijaya in her concise book Indonesian Literature vs. New Order

Orthodoxy (The Aftermath of 1965-1966). The book reveals that the 1965-1966 events were more available on fiction works rather than the non-fiction one52. It implies that the form of fiction can act as an effective media to transfer knowledge, information, and even ideology than non-fiction form. This point might answer the doubt of several ecologists about what can literary texts do to solve the ecological problems. The uniqueness of the stylistics and semiotics style chosen by Tohari might transmit his mission to reach the audience in a better way. Ali Imron’s research on

51 Alle G. Hoekema, "The Contribution of Indonesian Novels, Short sotries, and Poetry towards Tolerance as to The G-30-s Trauma." Gema Teologi 39.2 (2015): 241 52 Anna-Greta Nilsson Hoadley, Indonesian Literature vs New Order Orthodoxy, The Aftermath of 1965-1966 (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2005)

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Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk agreed to it. He explained that Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk is a multidimensional text. Javanese philosophical wisdom inter-textualized with Islamic values is the re-actualization of tasawuf teaching and cultural dakwah.53

A more Islamic discussion on Ahmad Tohari works was conducted by M.

Raqib. In his doctoral dissertation entitled Kontekstualisasi Filsafat dan Profetik pada Karya Ahmad Tohari, he mentions that Tohari’s works consist of transcendental values. Several points of his studies which support the issue being discussed in this study are 1) the awareness on the beauty of the nature should lead people to be grateful by nurturing it and protecting it, 2) the irresponsible exploitation of nature is a form of satanic deeds, 3) disintegration between individual and nature shows a divorce with God, 4) the novels implant the important meaning of being religious and befriended with nature. Even though Raqib talked about the relationship between religion and nature and even mentioned that theologically a good abdillah (God’s servant) is one who can unite with God, he only discusses the broad relation without revealing further into the spirituality of Sufism as his study focuses more on the philosophical and prophetic values of Tohari’s novel for education. Thus, this study will dig deeper the issue of nature and religion, particularly Sufism.

Almost all studies conducted on Ahmad Tohari’s works mention that the works is thickly filled with vivid description of nature, both pretty and ugly.

However, study which focuses on that theme is rarely found compared to the theme

53 Ali Imron, Kajian Stilistika Perspektif Kritik Holistik: Analisis Trilogi Novel Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk Karya Ahmad Tohari ( Solo: Sebelas Maret University Press, 2010)

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of patriarchal injustice and anti-communism. One of the studies focusing on the environment of Tohari’s works is Hartono’s “Representasi Lingkungan Hidup Dalam

Trilogi Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk Karya Ahmad Tohari”. Hartono in his paper examines the depiction of nature in Tohari’s trilogy. He explained that the representation of nature is not only found on the setting of place but also on the character. For instance, the name for the main character of the novel, Srintil, is taken from the name of the tasteful variety of local tobacco.54 Although Hartono focused his study in explaining the environment of the novels, he went no further than simply describing the environment as the setting of the story which according to Arne Naess belongs to shallow ecology. His study is anthropocentric in nature. The study of this thesis will be different from Hartono’s that it embraces a deeper philosophical thought to discuss the novels. This study considers the value of nature as the representation of God which should be kept harmoniously with human live.

Most of the existing studies on Tohari’s narratives above discuss Ronggeng

Dukuh Paruk because that work is indeed the most analyzed work among his works.

The topic of religious values or that Tohari’s works represent his interest in spreading the religious values is implied by the aforementioned studies and even become the focus of some studies. It reflects that Tohari’s works is thick with religious values. A study by Imron mentions that Tohari’s novel is the re-actualization of tassawuf teaching. However, in what way that the tassawuf/ Sufism values are represented in

54 Hartono,“Representasi Lingkungan Hidup dalam Trilogi Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk Karya Ahmad Tohari” Proceeding of International Conference on Literature: of Literature and Earth, eds. Wiyatmi, Else Liliani, Dwi Budiyanto (Yogyakarta: HISKI UNY, 2016), p. 2417.

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the work is not discussed further. Meanwhile, from the various topic discussed in those studies, researches which focus on ecology is limited although the issue is mentioned in some of the studies. Regarding those matters, this study tries to fill what is left by the previous studies by putting not only the issue of ecology but also Sufism as the main focus of the study to observe several literary works by Tohari.

This study employs Sufism to view the ecological issue on Tohari’s literary works. In the meantime, a study which employs the amalgamation of ecology and religion on a literary work is rarely found. The study of eco-Sufism in Indonesia goes as far as in the philosophical or theological studies. One of them is a thesis dissertation by Suwito NS which is published into a book entitled Eko-Sufism:

Konsep, Strategi, dan Dampak. In his research, he claims that eco-Sufism is a new concept of Sufism which is based on ecology. According to this concept, the spiritual awareness is gained through understanding the meaning of human’s interaction with nature. Furthermore, Sufism is understood as a process of takhalli (to empty), tahalli

(to fill), and tajalli (to manifest). In his study Suwito applied eco-Sufism to study the habit developed by Jamaah Ilmu Giri and Jamaah Aolia Panggang to preserve environment by conducting the values of Sufism. Conserving the nature is seen as religious act. For example, planting a tree is a form of religious alms as it can provide oxygen for the surrounding, offer shady place to rest, absorb the ground water, etc.

This research concludes that eco-Sufism is an alternative approach for environmental conservation. Suwito’s study is very useful for this thesis in shaping the concept of eco-Sufism to scrutinize Tohari’s narratives. Some differences may occur due to the

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differences in the object of study in which in Suwito’s study the object is communities while in this thesis the object is literary works.

Another study with the similar nuance as Suwito is done by Bambang

Irawan’s “Kearifan Ekologis dalam Perspektif Sufi”. Irawan in his paper proposes the

Sufism values to be implemented in the attempt of natural environment conservation.

Human being is the agent of God who is responsible to preserve all God’s creatures.

Sufism emphasizes the deep love for God. In order to show the love, a Sufi should love all of His creatures. The teaching of Sufism that promotes a humble life will prevent human being from their greed to exploit the environment which will lead to the natural preservation. The Sufism approach applied in Irawan’s study is valuable to give some perspectives for this study.

Furthermore, a study by Bahar Davary entitled Islam and Ecology: Southeast

Asia, Adat, and the Essence of Keramat has been an example of the study of Islam and ecology in the area of culture. Juxtaposing Nasr and White views over nature and religion, Bavary focused her research on the Minagkabau’s adat of keramat. The culture of Minangkabau is a decent example of a culture which is shaped by nature, not the vice versa. She concluded that religious criticism and the similar model of study of it can help to mend the problem of attitude that cause the earth and all that lies within it suffered.

Meanwhile a study by Mohammad Hashim Kamali entitled The Environment in Islam, environmental Care in Islam: A Qur’anic Perspective and Sayed Sikandar

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Shah Haneef’s Principles of Environmental Law in Islam will contribute to the understanding of Islamic Environmental Law which is included in the Sharia realm.

This Sharia is important to lay the basic understanding before moving forward to

Sufism which lies in the realm of Tariqa. Those studies explain that Islam has described in Quran and Hadith how the relationship between human, animal, plant, and earth should be. Furthermore, the role of human being as the vicegerent of God has obliged them to maintain the environment as well, besides using them to fulfill their need. Haneef sees that the responsibility to restore the environmental problem lay on humanity as a whole for it is a “collective obligation” especially for Muslim55.

In addition, Kamali highlighted the violation of the vicegereent with the mandate given by spreading mischief and fasad (corruption) on earth, extravagance and waste, and infliction of harm.56

This study is conducted to unveil Ahmad Tohari’s works on the issue of ecology from the perspective of Sufism or termed as eco-Sufism. From the related studies available, there has not been found that such approach was employed to discuss any literary works. This approach is commonly employed in the area of theological or philosophical studies. Thus, this study tries to draw the approach to the area of literature. As inferred by the review of the related study on Tohari’s narratives, the major interests of the existing studies are the topic of patriarchal injustice, social issues and the 1965-1966 events. Although many of them claimed

55 Sayed Sikandar Shah Haneef, "Environmental Law in Islam." Arab Law Quartely (2002), p 253 56 Mohammad Hashim Kamali, "The Environment in Islam, Environmental Care in Islam: A Quranic Perspective." The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought The 15th General Conference. (Amman: The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2010), p. 2

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that Tohari’s works have a thick depiction of nature and religious element as well, studies focusing on those topics were not as many as the previously mentioned ones, moreover on the combination of those two topics. Thus, this study takes the challenge to investigate the issue of nature and religion in the area of literature by employing eco-Sufism as the approach to examine Tohari’s literary works.

C. Theoretical Framework

Eco-Sufism will serve as the main theoretical framework in this study. To investigate the ecological issues in Tohari’s works this study refers to the concept of eco-Sufism offered by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In his perspective, the main cause of the ecological destruction is the divorce between science and religion. The inharmonious relationship between human beings and God influences the attitude of the human beings in treating the nature. This concept will particularly assist this study to answer the first question formulated in chapter one. Accordingly, the ecological issues reflected on Tohari’s narratives will be seen in its correlation with the deterioration of human beings with the religious values in the advancement of science and technology. In addition, the concept of Islamic Environmental Law (fiqh al-bi’ah) will also support the analysis to answer the first question.

Furthermore, in order to investigate the Sufism values offered by Tohari’s narratives regarding the solution of the ecological problems as asked by the second question, this study will apply the concept of spirituality of Sufism. This concept is

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derived from theory of the station (maqamat) and the state (ahwal) in Sufism formulated by Sufis such as imam al-Ghazali and al-Sarraj. The spirituality of Sufism which is previously only discussed on its practice between human being and God, it is now applied wider in this thesis by considering the nature as one of the aspects in performing the spirituality. In this way, this study performs the practice of Sufism in the realm of ecology. Finally, this study sees the correlation between the result of the first and the second question.

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CHAPTER III ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ECO-SUFISM

The previous chapter provided brief explanation on the theory of ecocriticism and Sufism which are combined together to form a theory of eco-Sufism. This perspective sees the issues of ecology through the point of view of Sufism. In addition, the chapter also reviewed the related studies that have been conducted prior to this study to provide better insight in conducting the study.

This chapter aims to unveil the ecological issues explored by Tohari in his works. Despite the serene and nostalgic ambience of nature exposed in his novels, dreadful pictures of environment issues were shadowing his stories as well. First of all, this chapter discusses the ecological problems exist in Tohari’s selected works.

Next, the discussion is taken further to see from the perspective of Eco-Sufism regarding the causes of those problems. The notion from Nasr will serve as the main light in the discussion. Nasr claims that the core problem of the environmental crisis laid on the spiritual crisis of human kind. The flawed worldview of modern paradigm has eliminated the awareness of spiritual dimension of humanity and nature.

According to the data collected from Tohari’s narration, the causes of the ecological problems are rooted in the secularized modernization and the violation of vicegerency in the form of greed, corruption, and power abuse.

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A. Ecological Problems Depicted in Tohari’s Selected Works

In order to understand the perspective of Eco-Sufism towards the ecological problems in Tohari’s literary works, a thorough look over the ecological problems itself needs to be conducted in the first place. The issues of ecological found in the novels are severe drought, flood, annihilation of species, illegal logging and deforestation, and unsustainable construction. Below is the further discussion over those issues.

1. Drought

The depiction of severe drought welcomes the reader to enter the narration of

Tohari’s trilogy The Dancer. Tohari introduces the readers to Paruk, the central setting of his trilogy as a desolate hamlet which undergoes poverty, hunger, and bleakness.

A pair of herons sailed high in the sky, supported by the slightest breeze. Without once beating their wings, they floated in the air for hours. Their calls were strident, long mournful laments. Water. The herons had flown hundreds of kilometers in search of water, even a puddle. For an eternity they yearned for a muddy bank where the might find sustenance: frogs, fish, shrimp, possibly a few water insects. But the drought is far from over. Thousands of hectares of wet rice fields surrounding the village of Paruk had been bone dry for seven months. The herons would not find any water, not even a pool a foot wide. Entire paddy fields had been transformed into dry, gray-colored palins. Grassy plants had all withered and died. The only spot of green here and there were cactus-like kerokot that appeared in the fields only during a drought, nature’s sacrifice to the sundry forms of locusts and crickets.57

57 Ahmad Tohari, The Dancer, trans. Rene TA Lysoff (Jakarta: The Lontar Foundation, 2003), p.1. All sebsequent quotations to this work, abbreviated TD, will be used in this article with pagination only.

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A vivaciously gloomy illustration of nature as the impact of severe drought has been well depicted by Tohari as a welcome greeting to Paruk. A pair of herons who had flown hundreds of kilometers will only find disappointment as they landed in that village because the place has been suffered from drought for seven months and still continue for several months to come as “the drought is far from over”. All vegetation died except a “cactus-like plant kerokot”. If the drought remains for a long period ahead, surely nothing will be left. The animal, like the herons that went through hundreds of kilometers of journey to get water and food to survive will find it hard to stay alive. Meanwhile, humankind will probably manage to live longer but in severe situation. The severe drought undergone by Paruk has caused its people difficult to find food to eat.

Tohari portrays another depiction of draught in “Minem Gave Birth to A Baby” a short story included in Karyamin’s Smile. He describes in the background of the story the situation of the nature as follow.

The Sun that had been baking the hill for almost four whole months climed up to the top of the sky. Its rays turned all woods dry and withered. The banana leaves turned limp. The reeds turned gray All the grass kept their last drop of water inside the roots under the ground.58

The drought forces Minem to give birth to a tiny and weak premature baby as the result of an accident when she fetched water from a neighboring village. This seven months pregnant girl has to do so since the nearby spring is dry. This situation shows that woman becomes the most affected side of the degradation of the nature.

Minem feels the need to fetch water by herself although the spring is far away from

58 Ahmad Tohari, “Minem Gave Birth to A Baby” in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), pp. 27-28

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her house while her husband lazily stays at home because as a woman in patriarchal society she is the one who is responsible to cook and wash, the activities which require the availability of water. Because of that reason, she has to undergo more suffering by not having proper treatment for her pregnant situation.

The draught does not only dry the spring and the well, but it also slowly kills the vegetation. No more green is seen in the area. Minem who has to give birth in such situation is the representation of the miserable life as the impact of the destroyed ecology which causes the draught. This situation puts woman as the second victim of the destruction of nature after the nature itself.

Indonesia which lies in the equator line is known to have two seasons i.e. dry season and rainy season. It is roughly classified that the rainy season occurs in

October to march, while the dry season is in April to September. It means that generally each season takes place for six months. However, in the case of drought in

Paruk the situation has been occurred for more than six months and is still going on.

It can be classified as disaster. Draught has several causes. One of them is the low level of rain. Rain is influenced by perspiration. If the perspiration level is low, the chance for rainy season to come is small. In addition, drought can also be caused by the amount of groundwater contained by the area. The absorption of groundwater depends on the type of the soil and more importantly the vegetation surrounding the area.

2. Flood

Besides drought, Tohari has also mentioned other environmental issues in his narratives namely floods. Flood was mentioned in a short story entitled “Well That’s

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Jakarta”. The last part of the story implies that flood is a common thing in Jakarta.

Although, flood is a ‘natural’ phenomenon in Jakarta, it should not be accepted as natural occurrence. When an area is likely to suffer from flood regularly, control and anticipation attempt should be made. Constructing proper protective structures as well as reconsidering bad habit changing are some of the ways so that flood does not become a routine.

Flood makes another appearance in Orang-Orang Proyek. After a heavy rain poured down for three days, Cibawor River, the site where a bridge construction project is taken place, could not resist the flood to come.

Cibawor is flushed with a heavy muddy flood carrying all sorts of garbage like rubber sandals, plastic bottles, from banana stems to mahogany. 59

The flood occurs due to the inability of the river to intercept and to retain the water debit that is caused by the heavy rainfall. Although it only lasts for several hours and does not cause any serious damage, a serious intention should be paid regarding the garbage it carried with. After the flood stops, the waste remains, including non-degradable waste such as plastic and rubber. It implies that Cibawor

River is used by people to dump their waste. The accumulation of waste thrown to the river has caused constriction thus the river could not accommodate the water in larger amount. Furthermore, the non-biodegradable material which takes hundreds of years to degrade will pollute the soil and the water and worsen their quality. The polluted

59 Ahmad Tohari, Orang-orang Proyek (Yogyakarta: Penerbit Jendela, 2002), p.1. All sebsequent quotations to this work, abbreviated OOP, will be used in this article with pagination only.

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water and soil harms other living creatures that live on the river or depend their lives on it.

3. Annihilation of Species

Ahmad Tohari in his narratives exposes numerous local vegetation and animals which are rarely found in today’s daily life. Heron, Srigunting, Kerokot, Puyengan bush, Surabanglus cassava, Angsana tree are some of the species he mentions in the stories. The use of those species spices up the illustration of the nature to get more ambience of village he often uses as setting of the stories. It may also serve as his inclination to locality. However, through the stories, Tohari also expresses his concern over the disappearance of several species which used to color the tranquility of village life in the past. This concern was mostly narrated in the novel Di Kaki

Bukit Cibalak.

Now the tunnel under the puyengan grass disappears, it changes into a footpath. There was no sound of buffalos anymore because they had been transported to the city, to be processed into meat or dog food. In the vicinity of Cibalak hill, tractors have replaced the power of buffalo to plow the farm. Kucica birds that have passed through the foothills have been forced to move to the bushes in the border between Bukit Cibalak and Tanggir village.60

The passage above signifies that one of the local vegetation species i.e.

Puyengan bush has disappeared from Cibalak hill. As the result, Kucica birds which used to live in the bush are forcedly expelled from the area. The existence of every component in a habitat is interconnected. An annihilation of certain component

60 Ahmad Tohari, Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama. 2014), p.7. All sebsequent quotations to this work, abbreviated DKBC, will be used in this article with pagination only.

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endangers the balance of the ecosystem. Besides the disappearance of Kucica birds because of the vanishing of the Puyengan bush, Tohari’s short story entitled

“Kenthus” also depicts a problem caused by imbalance ecosystem. A massive attack of rats to the villagers’ rice field has forced them to hunt the rats down.61 The outgrown numbers of rat has several possible causes, one of them is the annihilation of its predator i.e. snake. The disappearance of the predator let the rats grow in enormous number which eventually threat the villagers’ rice field. Because most people fear of snake, it becomes a habit that they will kill this creature every time they see the animal. Snakes are also hunt for their skin to make things like wallet, shoes, or belt; for their venom to make the anti-venom for snake bite; or to be sold as pet.

In addition, water buffalos are also vanished from neighborhood in Cibalak.

The villagers were accustomed to exploit the animals’ power to cultivate the farm. As their power is no longer needed, and replaced by machined, the animals are transported to the city to be slaughtered to serve the need of meat and pet’s food.

Another passage that indicates annihilation of species is shown below.

In the past, black and long-tailed Srigunting birds will appear. Usually the birds fly between Randu trees and just landed when they caught a Laron or grasshopper in their beak. Such season is Srigunting’s favorite time to show off their distinct chirps. They often fly only a few spans from the farmers who are planting their crops. However, the Srigunting has long been extinct from the Bukit Cibalak region. The birds were caught and put in glass boxes as a display. Their freedom has been stolen by irresponsible people. (DKCB, 8-9)

61 Ahmad Tohari. “Kenthus” in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 82.

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It is the extinction of species of Srigunting bird which is described by the paragraph above. They are caught and caged. Their freedoms to soar above the sky and to sing their beautiful melody are deprived. The economical motives become the main reason. People hunt the birds and sell them as a home decoration or exhibition.

The life and freedom of the birds has no values in the hand of those people who exchange them for a small amount of money. No more of the species twittering in the open space, the stage is now given to the hum and roar of machine. Nature has to sacrifice the beauty of the Srigunting and Kucica as well as the exotic of buffalo mooing and Puyengan bush for the sake of human need for modernity.

4. Illegal Logging and Forest Destruction

Illegal logging and forest destruction were also mentioned by Tohari in his literary works. This problem is clearly depicted by Tohari in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak.

In the early nineteenth century the Dutch planted teak wood from the foot to the top of Cibalak. The place is protected strictly. There is barely a theft during that era. The ancestors of the Tanggir people could enjoy fresh and cold water that runs through the year. The novel mentions that the Pacific War changed the greenness of Bukit

Cibalak. The Japanese wanted to build a battleship from teakwood. They cut down the wood grown by the Dutch. Actually the woods that the Japanese cut were not in a great quantity, but the consequences were extraordinary. When the war was over people got a new lesson, "If the Japanese cut down the Jati wood, why did not we".

The results were decent too. People started to cut down the trees to build houses and to make furniture. Exploiting the hills then became part of their lives. In the early

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1965 some politicians taught the people to burn down the wood to prevent the political fugitive to hide in that area. As results, the mighty nature unavoidably dies.

There is only a lump of limestone and rocks there. Cibalak restores to the condition when it was just emerged from the ocean floor millions of years ago. No plants, no animals, no water. (DKCB, 69)

The issue of illegal logging is also depicted by Tohari in a short story entitled

“Surabanglus”. “Surabanglus” tells a story about two characters who are on the run from the forest patrol. They are trying to steal woods from a protected forest.62

Similar to people of Tanggir who exploit Cibalak hill without any attempt to replant the trees, a wood thief will only think about the benefit from the stolen wood without considering the sustainability of the ecology.

Tohari strengthens the idea of the tendency of modern people who destroy the nature without considering its sustainability in the “Sutabawor’s Feast” like the following.

“It is easy to cut a tree. Nowadays young people often cut the trees here and everywhere but they refuse to plant a new ones”, the reliable news source quoted the words of Sutabawor’s father-in-law.63

Indeed, cutting a tree is so much easier that planting a tree. It takes more than ten years for a tree to grow big and tall but it only takes few hours to cut it down.

Even when people replant a tree after cutting it down, it will take years for the tree to

62 Ahmad Tohari. “Surabanglus” in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 38. 63 Ahmad Tohari. “Sutabawor’s Feast”. in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 66.

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replace the one that has been cut down. Therefore, when people refuse to replant the tree, there will be nothing left for the next generation.

It is widely known that forest plays important role in the ecosystem. Some of the main roles of forest are: 1) providing oxygen and the absorbing carbon, 2) providing habitat for numerous species of animals and trees, 3) providing clean water,

4) protecting watershed and reducing the amount of erosion.64 The trees that grow in the wood can absorb water which makes the groundwater stay in the area where the tree grows, that is why it is easy to find water in the area. Thus, after the trees are gone from Cibalak hill the area turns into arid limestone and neither animals nor trees were found as they lost their habitat. This ecological problem of forest destruction could be the source of other three issues previously mentioned i.e. drought, flood, and species extinction. When there is no tree, no groundwater is conserved, and then there comes the drought. When there is no tree, there is no buffer for rainfall, and then there comes the flood. When there is no tree and water there is no habitat for animal, then they extinct.

5. Unsustainable Construction

The last point of environmental problems mentioned in Tohari’s literary works is the unsustainable construction. It is mostly exposed in Orang-orang Proyek.

The short story tells about a bridge which is being reconstructed to connect the area across the Cibawor River. However, the corruptions of the construction fund in

64 “deforestation”. http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/deforestation/importance_forests/, accessed on 17 November 2017

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almost all level of government and developer system have resulted in the low quality of the bridge construction. Only a year after it is built, the bridge is broken and closed. The problem of the poor quality and unsustainable construction is not only that the building can no longer be used; other issues are also hindered beyond the broken bridge of Cibawor.

The first issue is the waste of energy. The energy to construct the building does not only come from the construction workers. The construction process needs the electricity and fuel to run the machinery whereas the source of electricity and fuel came from nature. A waste of that energy is an indirect destruction over nature.

The second issue is the waste of construction materials. When the bridge was left unused, the raw materials to construct the bridge were exploited from nature for vain. The cement, iron bars, wire, asphalt, stone, and sand have undergone a long process of production which consumes abundant use of energy as well. The wasteful use of those materials is an improvidence use of energy. Furthermore, the vehicle to transport those materials to the construction site would add carbon emission to the atmosphere. Carbon emission is the major cause of global warming.

Although the problem caused by the unsustainable construction may not be directly felt, a huge waste of energy and material is a ravage of natural resources.

Mother Nature has been sacrificed in vain.

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B. The Causes of Ecological Problems in Ahmad Tohari’s Selected Works

This sub-chapter discusses the causes of the ecological problems reflected in

Tohari’s selected works on the perspective of eco-Sufism. Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak serves as the main work to be investigated to answer the research question. However, other novels i.e. The Dancer, Karyamin’s Smile, and Orang-orang Proyek also contribute crucial roles in the discussion of the study. All of the novels complete and support each other in order to build a comprehensive discussion. Under the perspective of Eco-Sufism, the study finds that there are two major aspects that can be blamed as the trigger of the ecological problems in Tohari’s selected works. They are secularized modernization and the violation of vicegerency in the form of greed, corruption, and abuse of power.

1. Secularized Modernization

The shifting of traditional society into the modern one begins to sprout in

Tanggir, an area on the foot the Cibalak Hill which serves as the main background of

Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak. The modernization process is marked by the changing of farming method from human-powered into machine-powered and from rural into urban-oriented life style. Tohari portrays the phenomenon in the passage below.

Around Cibalak, the power of buffalo has been replaced by hand tractors.... people who used to work with plows, then change their jobs. Pak Danu, for example, who was admired for his plow skills, is now working for Akiat. He is responsible to weigh cassava dregs. His salary was the food he ate on the day plus a little money. Two of

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Danu's daughters were brought by brokers to Jakarta, four hundred kilometers away from Tanggir, working as a housekeeper. (DKCB, 6)

Previously the cultivation of the field applies traditional method using the cattle such as buffalo to plow its soil. As the new technology is invented, some people start to leave the traditional way and switch into the modern one by the use of tractor.

Comparing the use of plow and tractor from the perspective of nature, plowing is more nature-friendly because it does not need the non-renewable fuel energy and does not contribute to worsen the pollution. On the contrary, from the perspective of modern life, the use of tractor is more effective in cultivating the land to produce more outcomes. Because of that reason people start to use tractor instead of traditional plow.

The shifting from man power to machine power holds a significant impact to the life of the villagers. Pak Danu is one of them. He is once adored by his neighbors because of his skill to use buffalo in cultivating the land. Nevertheless, he is now downgraded. People no longer need his service. As a result, he has to throw away his pride as a skillful plowman and become a weigher of cassava dregs with a pitiful salary. Tohari pathetically illustrates the downfall of Pak Danu as the representative of villager who suffers from the impact of modernization. From an adored person, he now has to deal with dregs, a substance which has no value, just like him.

Furthermore, his daughters are taken to the city to work as a maid. This provides another evident that the village can no longer capable of giving job for its people.

This also puts women as the adjoining victim resulted from the modernization in the village. When the machine was not much to use in the farm, they could just work in

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the farm without pressure. Nevertheless, now they have to work as a maid in the city where the possibility for bad treatment from their superior mostlikely to occur.

Urbanization is one of the impacts of modernization. City offers gleaming attractions for people from countryside to come. The main reason for people to migrate to the urban area is to look for money and the industrial life of the city provides numerous jobs for them. Many of those people spend their energy struggling hard to survive in the new setting with little interest in anything else, including for the environment. Beforehand, in the village, they live harmoniously with nature; they nurture the nature. When they are uprooted from that harmony; their tender care for nature fades away. The village lacks of manpower to cultivate the field as everybody prefer to work in the city. The investor will buy the field and turn it into resorts, shops, or other income generating sites. As the field which used to be the habitat of certain vegetation and animal are gone, the animal and plant also disappeared. The city will also suffer from the overpopulation and pollution produced by the dwellers.

The exchange process of the land can also occur vice versa. Some land owners willingly sell their assets to support their struggle for modern look. People also sell their fields, stocks, and palm trees to finance their lavish life of modern house and fancy vehicle without knowing that those possessions, considering the sustainability of the environment and future investment, are in fact worth beyond a house or a car.

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There is a common phenomenon that townspeople buy the field in the village to develop them into housing or business area as the price of the land is relatively cheaper in the village than in the city. When the number of the field declines, the water absorption region shrinks. The specieses that rely their lives on the field as their habitat would disappear as well. As a result, a threat of water shortage and extinction of certain species become more real. Not to mention the increasing number of vehicle and human activities involving machinery would contribute to the raising of carbon emission which leads to the global warming. The short-sighted people of

Tanggir who live around the hill count only the economic value of the nature richness of the hill. The sacred values of nature are eliminated.

Tohari criticizes the aforementioned way of life. Through the character of

Pambudi, he argues that the modern look equipped with advanced stuffs does not always represent the advance thought of the villagers.

He argues that we may not assume the ability of the people in the village to consume expensive and luxurious goods prove that the village is a developed one. The numbers of motorcycles, cars, TVs, or other valuable things are not the sign of an absolute progress in the village. Many people can have expensive things because they have sold their rice fields, buffalo, or coconut trees. Many villagers can build luxurious houses, but the rice fields get narrower, even run out completely. (DKCB, 149)

The change of the way of life brings a significant consequence to nature.

Exchanging the green area with modern possession means that the remedy for harmonious life is exchanged with the thing that might destroy the harmony. The area which reserves water, produces oxygen, and provides habitat for various species

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declines while the number of motorcycle, car, and television which consume enormous amount of energy and contribute to the pollution increases. This imbalance condition accelerates the destruction of the ecology.

Furthermore, the rampant consumerism will lead to hedonistic lifestyle which focuses on the fulfilling of worldly pleasure but ignoring the world itself, moreover the hereafter. The empathy and care for nature are subsided. In a scene of his novel,

Tohari illustrates the keen of the villagers towards new shiny things made of plastic and rubber. They turn their preference from nature-based material items to fabricated utensils. As the result, those substance pile up in their surrounding soil whereas plastic and rubber take a lengthy of time to decay.

This above situation is slightly reflected in Tohari’s short stories in Karyamin’s

Smile entitled “Blokeng” where a pile of garbage is a common sight in a market. The garbage is the result of modern human activities which tend to use non-biodegradable materials in almost everything in their lives. The biodegradable garbage from the market such as rotten vegetable or fruits may decay in about two weeks but plastic bags, tins, or glasses which are commonly used in market activities need more than

80 years to decay. Thus, the amount of garbage in the landfill will only decrease without any sign of decline if the use of non-biodegradable materials in daily activities keeps on going. Furthermore, those materials contain toxic chemical substance. Surely, it endangers the ecology.

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The consumerism behavior has huge impacts on environment. The high demand of the society over a product needs to be fulfilled by taking the resource from the nature and somehow returning it to nature in the form of the waste and pollution. The higher the demand is, the more the nature is exploited and the more the waste and pollution are produced. Nature loses its sacred value and is seen only from its material values.

The consumptive way of life of the people in the whole world, particularly the third world countries, is the result of the ploy of the capitalists to market their products. The continuous bombardment of advertisement to promote a product slowly scrapes the humble lifestyle of the villagers. It has made the people to start to believe the new concept brought by the advertisement. The simple-minded villagers are the easy target of this market strategy.

During his trip to Balai Desa (Village center), Jirah was the most talkative. Firstly she told me about her experience using the latest shampoo. Then she tells about the soap that contains of olive oil. She does not have to feel stupid though she does not know what olive is. The most important thing is that she can imitate advertisers' words on radio or television on those products. (DKCB, 9)

Jirah is the representation of the simple-minded people scattered everywhere in the country. Those kinds of people are easily influenced by what are presented in the media. They believe that following the latest trend will turn them into modern people.

Getting in touch with something that is foreign will boost their pride. Jirah feels so proud because she is the first among her friends to use the latest product that contains olive oil, something that is foreign to them.

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Sometimes they would also sacrifice their primary needs in order to own trivial but modern stuffs, as exemplified in the passage below.

We have let traders to manipulate the innocent society and turn them into obedient and fanatical consumers. The evident could be observed in the situation where a poor peasant feels very proud to buy an auto mosquito spray oil drug for a thousand rupiah, while his wife and children eat nasi oyek. (DKCB, 150)

Modernization, according to Encyclopedia Britannica is a formation from traditional, rural, agrarian society to a secular, urban, industrial society65. The West leads the development of industry in the world. The advanced of their industry has forced them to find the market to sell their products. The less developed countries are the prospective marketing target. The main aim in distributing their invented products is, of course, to gain financial profit. The perspective of the society who claimed themselves as modern society considers money and material possessions as the most substantial matter.

The divorce between science and religion, according to Nasr, is the core cause of nature destruction66. This point of view can be traced to the modern West67. They cut off the science from the Divine Source, which in fact governs everything. Nature is desacralized. They failed to see that nature is the sign of God, the ego of modern man prefers to see nature as the material source to fulfill their consumptive greed of

65 "modernization." Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. CD-ROM. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. 66 Sayyed Hossein Nasr, The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed.William C. Chittick (Indiana: World Wisdom, 2007), p.151-152. 67 The term “West” here refers to the European Christian countries in the medieval era and grow larger to European ancestral countries such as United States of America.

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worldly enjoyment. Furthermore, with this point of view, modern people tend to ignore the humanity aspect attached to human being. Thus, modern people become what is called as homo homini lupus.68 The existence of the modern people who blindly pursue for material profit endangers the life of other human beings. The poor farmer above is the example of the victim of that modern people.

The West which led the advancement of technology, spread its influence, along with its view on elimination of religion’s importance in life, and gradually grinds down the values of tradition in the society. The shifting of values is depicted more by

Tohari in The Dancer. The sight of traditional man trying to transform themselves into modern man is seen in the passage below.

... symptoms of this social change had penetrated even the most remote areas. Srintil didn't understand that the increasing number of radios in Dawuan or the arrival of Jakarta officials to build a dam were just early signs of the social upheaval taking place around her. The nation's doors, at first closed to outside economic assistance and most foreign cultural influences, were now being thrown wide open. National values, formulated according to passionate ideas regarding sovereignty and the preservation of culture and tradition, had subsided after a violent struggle with modernity. And time and again, reason was being disregarded. (TD, 361)

Modernization reaches every part of the world, including the isolated hamlet of

Paruk. The influence of western modern values does not show its face directly to the villagers. It happens as the country decides to open its politics and economical life to

Western influence.

68 Homo homini lupus is a Latin proverb which means "A man is a wolf to another man,"

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The Dancer is set between two major era of Indonesian political life, the Old

Order and the New Order. During the Old Order led by President Soekarno,

Indonesia was anti-America and anti-western69, Soekarno established Guided

Democracy political system and proposed nationalism, religion, and communist

(nasakom) as the spirit of the government. During this era, Indonesia was relatively closed to foreign influence but China. It was in the New Order Era that western influence, more importantly USA, struck the country.

Under the administration of Soeharto, Indonesia was widely open for foreign investment. The economic policy of New Order era was strongly supported by the US and other western countries.70 Besides the irrigation system which is built in Dawuan in The Dancer, Tohari also described another construction that was funded by foreign capital in Orang-Orang Proyek i.e. the construction of a bridge in Cibawor River.

Indeed, Indonesia during this era is financially dependent on foreign investment.

Through this cooperation, the secular western modern culture bit by bit alters the national values which brace the culture and tradition. As the result, the values of tradition which, as Nasr argues, is based on transcendent origin is pushed away.

Nasr creates a sharp and rigid distinction between modern and tradition. The tradition here is not in the sense of custom, habit, or inherited patterns of life and thought but rather “tradition is of sacred and divine origin and includes the continuity

69 Fritjof Tichelman, Social Evolution in Indonesia (Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1980), p. 240. 70 Usha Mahajani, ” Indonesia's New Order and The Diplomacy of Aid”. Australian Outlook 21:2, 220, 20 March 2008, DOI: 10.1080/10357716708444276. Accessed 12 September 2017.

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and transmission of that sacred message over time”71. In this way, tradition indicates all form of thought art and culture that are mold by those messages; it remains tightly knotted to the Transcendent Origin and can also lead back to it. Modern, on the other side, “is cut off from the Transcendent, from the immutable principle which in reality governs all things”72. For Nasr, modern is synonymous with secular. The modern man “feels home on earth, earth is not considered as virgin nature which is itself an echo of paradise, but as an artificial world created by Promethean man himself”.

Modern man loses the sense of the sacred. He is drowned in transience worldly life and becomes a slave to his greed, surrender to which he considers to be freedom.

Meanwhile, the traditional man, in Nasr perspective,” lives in a world which has both an Origin and a Center. He lives in full awareness of the origin which contains his own perfection and whole primordial purity and wholeness he seeks to emulate, recapture, and transmit.”73

The traditional perspective which sees the sacredness of the nature faded away.

This de-sacralization of nature has erase God from nature. The awareness that there is a bigger entity above everything withered and the conscience which enable human being to perceive the Truth was shut down. Divine entity, the sacredness of nature, and conscience were no longer having a place in the heart of secularized modernization.

71 Joseph Lumbard, “Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Tradition and Modernity”, in Tradition and Modernity: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, ed. David Marshall (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. 2013), p. 178. 72 Lumbard, p. 179. 73 Lumbard, p. 179.

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The modern western influence gradually impenetrates the nation. Firstly, it is seen in the big city. The life style and behavior of the city dwellers are the imitation of those in the West. As the villagers look up to the city dwellers, they imitate the style and attitude of the city dwellers as occurred in Tohari’s narratives.

Contacts between the villagers and the visiting city dwellers became intensive especially among the younger workers and local adolescents. As a result, city values began to influence the established, rural one. The young people of Dawuan began to imitate the style, conduct, and dress of the workers the also imitated the Jakartan dialect spoken by many of the project employees. (TD, 403)

The villagers copycat the people from the city for they want to be looked sophisticated or simply because what the city dwellers bring something new to the villagers so they want to be just like them. Everything the city dwellers perform is a great thing and needs to be followed, like the way the rest of the world see the West.

Sometimes, they do not need thoughtful reason to do so, as long as they can be looked sophisticated and up to date.

In addition, Tohari mentions the shifting values of the villagers due to modernization in “The Bright House”, a short story in Karyamin’s Smile. The gleaming of artificial worldly pleasure has made people fail to see the true beauty because the detachment to nature slowly shut the conscience down. People are overexcited with the new installment of electricity in a village that they pay no more attention to the beauty offered by the moonbeam or to the incident suffered by three people who died strickened by the electricity. Their sense of empathy to others grows

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weaker. Everybody in the village is thrilled by the electricity installment except one man.

My father didn't like electricity. He believed that electricity would make us use all lights excessively. If he used up all the lights while he was alive, my father was very worried that there would be no more lights for him in the next realm.74

The father in the story believed in the Hereafter and he spends more attention to the next realm than the present one. It is not that he abhorred the advanced of the technology but it is on the point that the concern for the Hereafter should come first before the present life. The phenomenon above is in match with Nasr’s statement below.

If the nature of man is to seek and reach the sacred, then we are now living in the dark ages based upon metaphysical ignorance no matter how much we illuminate our cities at night with electricity.75

The world which is full of light has darkened the soul of the people. Modernization creates earthly creatures who only care for himself. The ignorance to the presence of

God in nature has made them fail to see the sacredness of the nature.

Although modernization connotes with secularism, basically, Islam, as the core of Sufism, does not oppose the development of science and technology at all. In fact,

Islam supports the advance of science and technology. The holy book of Qur’an mentions that

74 Ahmad Tohari, “The Bright House”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p .76. 75 Lumbard, p.180.

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Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge by degrees, and Allah is acquainted with what you do.76

The verse above implies that people with knowledge will be granted a higher position before Him, thus seeking advance in science and knowledge are strongly advised.

However, that notion is proceed by the statement of belief. Faith in God should come first before seeking for knowledge. Even it should be the foundation of knowledge exploration. Islam also encourages people to make living and enjoy the life in the world as stated by the verse below.

But seek, with that (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of legal enjoyment in this world, and do good as Allah done good to you. And seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who commit great crimes and sins, oppressors, tyrants, mischief-makers, corrupt)77

The advance of technology to ease human life is not a sin at all and even God reminds human beings to enjoy their portion of legal enjoyment. What should be noted here are that the worldly pleasure to enjoy should be legal according to Islamic

Sharia and that people should only take their portion. By taking only their portion means that people should not try to chase all the enjoyment the world might offers as that action might take away other people’s portion to get the enjoyment or violate the rights of other creature and nature to live harmoniously in this world. In addition, as the order to search for investment for Hereafter comes before the cue to search for worldly enjoyment, the first is more important to seek than the late one.

76 Al Quran. Al-Mujadilah: 11. Trans. by Shahih International. 2017. 77 Al Quran. Al-Qasas: 77. Trans. by Shahih International. 2017.

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There is also an important note delivered by the verse above that in the process of cultivating the nature resources to fulfill the need, people is prohibited to harm the nature. Even though Islam encourages people to develop science and technology and to search for worldly delight, those matters should be done in the foundation of faith in God and comes after the intention for the life of the hereafter. Achmad Baiquni states that Quran encourages people to develop science in order to understand more about the greatness of God,78 therefore human being will not be arrogant before other

God’s creations and commit mischief in God’s land. Unfortunately, most of modern people place the worldly pleasure above everything.

Nature is the price people have to pay to satisfy the lavish life in the modern age. When science and technology have divorced from religion, nature is desacralized. The secularization of nature directed to the “mechanization of the scientific world view”79. Nature is only considered as commodity for industry. As the consequence, it is raped to satiate the artificial worldly pleasure of modern people, thus its sustainability is rarely considered.

2. Greed, Corruption and Abuse of Power

Cibalak hills was once green with rich vegetation and was lively with various animals however after enduring a massive exploitation it turned into lump of arid limestone and rock with no living beings left. The nearby residents have raped the hills, taken everything they could take for their benefit. Cibalak has given them lives

78Achmad Baiquni, Al-Quran, Ilmu Pengetahuan dan Teknologi (Yogyakarta: Dana Bakti Wakaf, 1994), p.21. 79 Nasr, p.14

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but they do not appreciate what Cibalak has done to them. Instead of maintaining good relationship with the hill by keeping them green, they squeeze Cibalak dry and ditch it away. The previous subchapter has explained the result of that act i.e. the extinction of certain birds and bushes from the area around the hill and the disappearance of water spring.

Tohari describes the greed over money in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak unconcealed, not as in The Dancer in which he directly shifts into animal imagery to conceal the sensual scene. Through the figure of Lurah Dirga, the head of the village, and his crony, Tohari represents an example of people who are corrupt and abuse their power to gain wealth. Pambudi, the protagonist of the novel, finds out Lurah Dirga’s slyness in using the village fund for his personal advantage. Instead of covering it up, Lurah

Dirga blatantly asks Pambudi to join him in his action.

"First of all, let me tell you that this is an opportunity to make a big profit. Let us work together. ... We will not pay 2,000, but 1,000 for one tree. So if the government's compensation arrives, we're the owner. While we are waiting, we cut down the coconut trees we have paid for. Imagine, the constructor who is building the bridge Kali Benda is willing to pay 2,500 for one. Wow, Pambudi, is not that good?” (DKCB, 28)

Possessing the power to manage the village, Lurah Dirga takes the chance to deceive the people to collect money for him. He slashes 50 % of the government’s subsidy to the people whose coconut trees were being cut down for a bridge project and he would even get more from the project contractor. With the power he owns, he could manipulate the fund without the knowledge of the villagers. He has Poyo as his

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crony to back his cunning actions and Poyo, too, gains fortune from his service to

Lurah Dirga.

He worked with the Lurah, for example, to increase the shrinkage number to gain tons of rice. Or they conspire with the rice middlemen in determining the selling price of the cooperative rice barn. In this way, they will benefit tens of thousands of rupiahs, because they can put their own sales price at will, and from the rice middleman they get some kind of commission. Pambudi knows, it is not hard to do so because the body of Koperasi is unattended. (DKCB, 18)

Poyo has done numerous corruptive missions with Lurah Dirga to raise more money for them. With no one supervises their work; they could operate their deeds freely. Moreover, that the Tanggir people were simple-minded ones, Lurah Dirga and

Poyo could do it more easily. Hunger for money can never be satisfied, thus every time corruptive persons get a chance to make money, they would take action to make personal benefit from that chance. Committing this deed, they would not consider the loss suffered by other people, not even any empathy for their misery. Their heart and conscience were blocked as they were blinded by money. Thus, when a poor widow of Tanggir asked for loan to get a medication as she was severely ill, Lurah Dirga light-heartedly reject her just because she is poor and may not able to pay the debt.

He does not realize that the money he managed is actually people’s money and that he is appointed as the patron of the people whose job is to take care of his people.

It seems that corruption becomes the habit of the community leader in Tanggir.

Every time there is a chance to take benefit from a project; they let themselves use the situation to thicken their wallets.

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“The construction of the new elementary school in Tanggir, for example, can be used as a research tool to identify who and how the ruler in the village performs. The construction cost of 4.35 million is written on a large board in the yard. But people who are not too smart can say that the value of the building will not be more than two million.” (DKCB, 152).

The evil deed of the leader in Tanggir is so obvious that even common people would notice the act. However, the huge fondness of money has wiped the feeling of shame from their face.

It seems that Tohari is keen on portraying the dark side of construction projects in his narratives. In The Dancer Tohari also inserts the evil behind a construction project. Bajus, the project manager of the on-going dam project near Srintil’s village lured her as if he would make her his wife; instead he uses her to bribe his boss in order to win a tender of other construction project. Bajus’ desire for a big profit he could get from another project has sacrificed Srintil’s life. Srintil who has just got a second chance to live properly as a human being after her unjust imprisonment because of political turmoil is stricken harder. The incident drags her into the nadir point of her life. Bajus’ action to win the tender infers that a contractor would do any means to win a project. Conceivably, Tohari intends to show that various projects to build the country’s infrastructure are full of dirty acts driven by greediness which put other people to bear the consequences.

Greed for money was described even bolder by Tohari in Orang-orang Proyek.

Tohari expresses that the fund for the bridge construction project has been corrupted from the top level to the lowest one.

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This project, which is financed by foreign loaned funds and will be a burden on the community, is regarded as one’s private property. Kabul knows how the project treasurer is obliged to spend money for the ruling political party activities.... not to mention the civilian or the military person, also the members of the parliament who likes to ask for pocket money to the project treasurer if they want to go on vacation. And it turned out that the villagers were also naughty. …..besides bribing coolies to get some cement, nails or wire design, they also ask for iron pieces. (OOP, 29) As the ones who have power, they (in this context refers to government and politicians) consider the loaned fund which is imposed on people as their private belonging. The money which is intended to improve public welfare is robbed by various actors. The parliament members, who have given a trust to represent people and to fight for their rights and welfare, steal people’s money instead. Military person whose job is to safeguard people extort money from public fund. Seeing the

‘honorable’ people do those things, the lower construction workers and the villagers do not want to be left behind. As they do not have the access to the money, they steal the construction materials instead. They forget that the construction fund is a loan from foreign countries which would be the responsibility of their predecessor to pay the debt. Unfortunately, these generations would not get any benefit from the loan or even inherit the constructed building. Tohari compares those people with termite.

The project is built by “termites” who like stones, cements, irons, let alone money. Obviously, this will finally construct artificial bridges, but the costs to build such thing burdening the people can be used to build two real bridges that meet the quality standards. (OOP, 88)

Termite is an insect that eat wood. Living in a colony, they can destroy wood promptly and cause severe structural damage to construction. So as the ‘termites’ of the construction project who are greedily eaten up everything, their action can be

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invisible but the damage they caused is obviously seen. Because of those ‘termites’ people have to endure a higher price of unqualified bridge. As their thought are only filled with the way to benefit themselves from the project, public welfare which should be the major aim of the project was ignored, not to mention that their action is also morally and spiritually wrong.

There is a sense of disappointment when realizing what is meant by Pak Tarya and realizing the number of project leaks that supposedly up to 30 to 40 percent. Primitive, selfish, greedy. That's the root of the problem? (OOP, 21)

In the passage above, Tohari affirms that the root of the corruption which inflicts huge financial loss was greed. People who follow their greed have fallen back to the primitive behavior of human development. Tohari connotes greedy people who dedicate their life only to fulfill their ravenousness over money with undeveloped people whose instinct was only to satisfy their hunger. The advanced of technology and the level of education, in some way, ironically, fails to advance the manner and conscience of human being. In fact, people who live in moderation and simple technology have developed their conscience into a higher level.80 Further, Tohari presents another thing to consider.

...because the project fund is improperly allocated to the construction plan, thousands of elementary School buildings, terminal and market are carelessly constructed and very short-lived; bridges, weirs or reservoirs have to be repaired even though only a few years inaugurated. (OOP, 181)

80 Fawaz Al-Batawy, ”Siapa yang Sesungguhnya Primitif? Mereka atau Kalian?” in Mojok. http://mojok.co/fawaz -al-batawy/esai/ Siapa-yang- Sesungguhnya -Primitif? -Mereka- atau –Kalian/11 October 2016, accessed on 2 November 2017

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Cibawor bridge construction project is only one of the pictures of thousands government projects in the country. It shows how massive the corruption in the country is. And again, the helpless people who would bear the great loss, not to mention the ecological impact the earth must suffered due to the unsustainable construction.

The pictures offered by Tohari represent the corruption reality in the country.

Transparency International, an international corruption watch organization, released the latest Perceptive Corruption Index which placed Indonesia in the 90th position out of 176 countries in the world81, not a position to be proud of. José Ugaz, Chair of

Transparency International, mention that

In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity.”82

His statement shows that even there is greater corruptive action rooted by human greed which caused misery to other fellow humankind in this world. Greed itself, according to Islamic teaching, is the result of hubbud dunya or too much love for the world and the fear of poverty. Dalkijo, Kabul’s boss in Orang-orang Proyek, is described by Tohari as a person who fits the criteria. Dalkijo is a son of a poor village farmer who was able to elevate his fate to be a wealthy man. As a revenge for his childhood unfortunate condition, he lives his life lavishly. He always changes his vehicle with the latest trends and spoils his family with expensive lifestyle. To pay

81 Transparency International. https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016#table 25 January 2017, accessed on 16 November 2017 82 ibid

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that luxurious lifestyle he plays with the project fund so that he could generate more money illicitly. Playing with project fund like what has been done by Dalkijo can harm the people. Due to the unstoppable corruptive acts, the available fund could not afford to buy qualified materials to build the construction.

As an engineer, Kabul knows the consequences of all these crooked games. As an engineer, Kabul knows the consequences of all these crooked games. Qualities of the buildings are at bet, then the innocent people will definitely bear the bad consequences. (OOP, 32)

Cibawor Bridge, the construction site told in the story, only last for less than a year. The impact of this kind of unsustainable construction bring serious problem to the environment as described in the previous sub-chapter. According to Tohari, people like Dalkijo are “extremely rich, consumptive, greedy, and sometimes blatantly shows a heartless attitude to the poor” (OOP, 193)

Tohari satirically criticizes the similar corruptive elite and aristocracy in

“Sutabawor’s Feast”. It is told in the story that there is a mantra which says that a

Jengkol tree refuses to cover the burial plot of the end days’ aristocrats.83 Jengkol is known as a smelly food. Even this tree which connotes with bad smell rejects to cover the burial plot of those high rank persons with stinky behaviors.

`Imam Ghazzali in Ihya ulum-id-din mentioned one of the danger of wealth is that it can never satisfy anyone.84. In accordance to that, Prophet Muhammad

MPBUH said that: “Had the son of Adam had two mountains full of gold he would

83 Ahmad Tohari. “Sutabawor’s Feast”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), pp. 68-71 84 Imam Ghazzali, Ihya Ulum-id-din Vol 4, trans. Fazl-ul-Karim. (Karachi: Darul-Ishaat. 1993), p. 175

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have surely searches for a third. His belly cannot be filled up except with earth.”85

Those who are blinded by greed will always crave for more wealth. People like

Dalkijo, Lurah Dirja, and Bajus can never be able to satisfy their greed, thus they will use any means to feed the greed. The consideration of harming anyone or anything through their actions will not be included in their list. Bajus with his evil intention traps Srithil as bait to win a tender causing her mentally insane. Lurah Dirja without any feeling of guilt use the public fund to finance his own political agenda and private extravagance life whereas in front of him, many Tanggir people whom he should protect live in misery. In addition, Dalkijo flagrantly buying fancy vehicle and enjoying lavish lifestyle with the money that should be allocated fully to build public service construction. He is unashamed knowing that the building entrusted to him in its construction does not last long. On the contrary, he is happy because it means that there is another project for him to play with.

The gleaming of worldly comfort and pleasure has blinded their heart. It makes them fail to see God’s light as according to Sufism only with pure heart one can perceive God’s light and unite with Him. Their hearts are filled with evil intention and their hands are full of the dirt of mischiefs. Surely, people who conduct mischief have disobeyed his position as ‘abd Allah, the servant of God who should obey His commands and laws. They can only bring destruction on earth. Dalkijo, timber thieves of Tanggir, and the likes do not aware that the impact of their greed is not simply the loss of financial matter but it is far beyond it. The sustainability of the

85 Imam Ghazzali, p.175

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environment is at stake. Nasr considers those kinds of people as the most dangerous creature. He said that “nothing is more dangerous for the natural environment than the practice of vicegerency by a humanity which no longer accepts to be God’s servant.”86 Possessing power over others, those who do not aware his position as

God’s servant will refuse to believe that there is another bigger entity beyond them.

Therefore they tend to abuse the power to smoothen their own agenda and let welfare of other people and sustainability of nature be the price to pay.

In other parts of his works, however, Tohari portrays that the abuse of the trust as khalifah is not only performed by higher rank people with their corruptive deed.

Common people perform this abuse as well.

"... so far I think the villagers are innocent, clean, do not have any desire to other people's goods." "He-he-he ... it was in the past Mas Kabul. Now is different, today the villagers consider, for example, taking asphalt from the side of the road is an ordinary matter. If they are caught, they will buy cigarettes for the foreman. Done. Or, they will not feel guilty about cutting Jati wood on state plantation because they know a lot of hedgerows. So if your coolies steal cement and the villagers become their distributors, what's so weird? " (OOP, p.20)

Unlawful behavior is done by common villagers who used to be honest and modest people. They bribe the foreman so that their action could be done smoothly.

The foreman who is given a task to guard the government asset violate his duty as a guardian, instead he endangers the thing that he protects. As time to time more people conduct this unlawful action, they do not consider it as unlawful anymore. The inability to sense the feeling of guilt kills the conscience which spiritually connected

86 Sayyed Hossein Nasr, Islam and the Environmental Crisis. MAAS J. Islamic Science 6 (1990): 39.

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to God. This is why, then, people desacralize the nature because they only see the material values of it. Without considering its sustainability, people sneak into the woods, cut down the teak woods, and make money from them.

Interestingly, Ahmad Tohari mentions the theft in the protected woods several times in different novel. Besides mentioning it in Orang-orang Proyek, he also portrays it in “Kenthus”, a wood thief who has ever been caught by the supervisor because of stealing wood from a protected forest. In addition, in “Surabanglus”,

Tohari describes a pair of thieves who bribe the supervisor to let them enter the forest87. In fact, the supervisor intentionally does it so that he can gain money from the thieves. He, who was assigned to guard the forest, let people destroy it. In

Indonesian proverbs, this act is described as “pagar makan tanaman” (Lit. fence eats the plants that grow in it). He destroys things that are entrusted to him. Furthermore,

Tohari described it as well in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak as expressed in the following.

The new Lurah (the village head) is also expected to cover up the people whose job is to steal newly planted Angsana wood on the government land. (DKCB, 13)

The passage above infers that some villagers make the stealing of woods from the protected forest as an occupation. They make it as main income generator for their living. In this way, the things in the forest are seen as economical object, thus they do not even care if the trees they steal were young growth trees. In logging industry, there is a law and qualification in cutting down trees. The age of the trees, their size,

87 Ahmad Tohari, “Surabanglus”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 38

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the length of the area, and their preservation are rigidly controlled by law. A forest is protected for reasons. It is to conserve biodiversity, landscapes and specific natural elements88. Furthermore, forest can help recharging groundwater and preventing flood and landslide. The act of illegal logging as seen above will worsen the deforestation crisis faced by the world. The unlawful action of illegal logging besides disturbing the biodiversity, it can cause flood, landslide, and drought. In addition, the villagers wish for a leader who can support their deeds which means that they want an unjust leader. When the leader and the people hand in hand to make mischief of earth, a threat of calamity is unavoidable.

Furthermore, in another narrative Tohari shows the abuse of power by human being to other God’s creatures just because they feel superior toward them. Two short stories in Karyamin’s Smile show severe animal exploitations by human being. The first story is entitled “His Final Blink”. In this narrative Tohari depicts the death of a water buffalo because the animal is brutally whipped and forced to wear restraining rope which create a severe wound that finally kills him.

“Come on! Giddy-up! Giddy up!”, masgepuk screamed. His left hand shook the plow. His right hand was waving the whip around. Cepon remained motionless. Masgepuk screamed louder. He tugged the restraining rope as hard as he could. His whip slashed Cepon’s mercilessly adding extra dripping from Cepon’s nostrils creating red stain on the mud.89

88 “Protected Forest”. Forest Europe. http://foresteurope.org/protected-forests/ Accessed on 17 November 2017 89 Ahmad Tohari, “His Final Blink”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 42.

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The water buffalo is forced to wear restraining rope and whipped in order to make him tamer and could be exploited to plow the field. Through the story, Tohari implies that humans’ exploitation and fierce treatment to animals to fulfill their needs lead to the loss of the animal’s life.

Meanwhile, in a “The People across the River”, Tohari presents an issue of cockfighting. Cockfighting game is usually accompanied with a betting game. People bet for the life of God Almighty’s creature for money. In the natural environment, animals sometimes fight over food, mate, or territory but in the cockfighting game (or other animal fighting game), the animals are forced to fight to entertain human beings. The animals have no choice but to fight or die. They have wounded or even died for nothing but human’s pleasures on seeing them bleed to die.

In Islamic view, Adam, the archetypal man, was appointed as the first khalifah, the vicegerent of God on Earth. Given that privilege, he has the authority to explore it but he is also assigned a responsibility to keep and protect the harmonious balance of its inhabitants, both the nature and his fellow human. Subsequently, each of his predecessors inherits this trusteeship. Unfortunately, many of them only execute the first task and ignore the second. The shining temptation that the world offered ignites their greed over money and justifies any means to get it, including corruption and abuse of power. As a result, the exploration of the earth turns into exploitation of the earth and the confined conscience paralyzed the empathy and care for others. They violate the divine trust to maintain the harmony on earth and instead, they destroy it.

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Concluding Remark

This chapter discusses the environmental problems and their causes in Ahmad

Tohari’s selected works on the perspective of eco-Sufism. As mentioned in the previous chapter, eco-Sufism is a spectacle to observe the environmental issues from

Sufism point of view. The study on Tohari’s The Dancer, Karyamin’s Smile, Orang- orang Proyek, and Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak reveals that several kinds of environmental problems exists in the novels namely drought, flood, annihilation of species, illegal logging and deforestation, and unsustainable construction. Employing eco-Sufism to scrutinize the works, secularized modernization and violation of vicegerency (in the form of greed, corruption, and abuse of power) are to be blamed as the main trigger of the problems. All of them are the impact of the inharmonious relationship between human being and their Creator.

The divorce between science and religion has desacralized the nature. Nature is treated harshly; people squeezed it to dry to make it the capital to support the modernization. The modernization process that disengages God from its development started in the West. The global domination of Western economic helps the spread of the secular lifestyle. This secular modern lifestyle influence almost all parts of the world, including remote villages which often serve as the background of Tohari’s narratives. In those villages, Tohari portrays the influence of modernization which slowly changes the social system in the village like Paruk, Cibalak, and Cibawor, including the villagers’ attitude towards nature.

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The spirit of materialism brought by modernization which put money and possessions as the most important things in life trigger the greed of the once-innocent villagers in Tohari’s story. This deification of worldly pleasure is against the spirit of

Sufism which, on the contrary, tries to stay away from the temptation the world offer in order to find the truest bliss i.e. unity with God. Therefore, the greed eventually leads them to commit the unlawful act of corruption and abuse of power in order to make them wealthy. As a result, not only the powerless people become the victims of their deeds, nature also suffered because of their mischief.

In portraying the ecological problems in his narratives, Tohari laments the fate that has to be undergone by nature because of human deed. This tone is seen in the way he describe the drought and its consequences, the disappearance of exoticism of nature offered by local animals and vegetation, and the vanishing of the woods.

However, the tone turns into anger when he talks about the reluctance of the young generation to nurture the nature as reflected in “Sutabawor’s Feast”. The anger gets even more intense when he describes the shamelessness of the honorable people whose actions only bring misery to the oppressed victims, i.e. nature, the poor, and woman. In response to the analysis in this chapter, the next chapter provides the discussion on how the nature can be healed according to the perspective of eco-

Sufism offered in Tohari’s selected works.

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CHAPTER IV THE SPIRITUALITY OF SUFISM: AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION FOR ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

The previous chapter of this study has revealed that according to Eco-Sufism, the ecological problems in Ahmad Tohari’s works are caused by the secularized modernization and violation of vicegerency in the form of greed, corruption, and abuse of power. The existing ecological problems in his works are drought, flood, annihilation of species, illegal logging and deforestation, and unsustainable construction. Secular modernization and violation of vicegerency are the impact of the ultimate causes of ecological problems in the perspective of eco-Sufism i.e. the inharmonious relationship between human being and God. Nasr, in accordance with

White, argued that the fundamental way to fix the environmental problems is to fix the relationship with God.

This chapter serves the discussion on the spiritualisms of Sufism which are offered by Ahmad Tohari in his narratives to overcome the environmental problems.

Sufism is a path taken by people who intends to find the truest bliss of intimate relationship with God. Along this journey, a Sufi will go through some spiritual experiences. This study promotes the spirituality of Sufism to help the recovery and the sustainability of the nature. The Sufism spirituality that can be drawn from his narratives are tawba, wara, zuhud, faqir, mahabbah, and uzlah.

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A. Tawba (Repentance)

Tawba is the first station to enter the path of Sufism. Renard defines tawba or repentance as “a kind of conversion to God from one’s sinfulness to seek divine forgiveness”90. The act of tawba is mostly found in Tohari’s The Dancer.

The study finds that there are three repentance actions presented in the novel.

Rasus is the first portrayal of the person who performs this action. Rasus, a young boy from Paruk - a village that did not understand the concept of sin and virtue-, moves out from the village because of his conflicted heart against Sritil being a ronggeng. Only when he is leaving Paruk that he learns about the meaning of sin and public ethics. He learns that the custom of his village such as sleeping with other people’s wife or swearing rude word are considered as immoral attitude by the community.

Along with the broadened horizon he experiences, Rasus, then, converts to be a believer. He embraced Islam to be his religion. He finally find what he said as

“something I had long been searching for: a sense of harmony within the larger scheme of things” (TD, 450). Since then he often contemplates his being in relation to the higher entity who creates the universe. He also conducts the prayer regularly.

A long contemplation takes him to the realization that the misery suffered by

Dukuh Paruk is due to the sinful behavior done by its villager as he mentioned below.

By itself, ronggeng would not be wrong if it were in line with the larger scheme of things. However the ronggeng tradition that had developed in Paruk was one that exploited primitive desire. And because of that, it did not enjoy God's mercy. (TD, 451)

90 Renard, p. 199.

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The tradition of ronggeng itself is not sinful act. What makes it not right is that the tradition is followed by the action and behavior which is morally, and religiously, wrong. Ronggeng practiced by the people of Paruk is the manifestation of sexual desire such as the tradition of bukak klambu (the highest bidder win the virginity of the ronggeng), gowok (a ronggeng teaches young boy to have sex), and other exploitation of the ronggeng for sexual purpose. People of Paruk consider this tradition as their pride, whereas from the perspective of religion, it is totally wrong.

Therefore, Rasus considers that God does not bless the village because the villagers commit deeds against His rules. He feels the urge to fix this situation, which is why he finally decides to resign from the army and returns to his small village. This is the implementation of Rasus’s tawba that is converting from what is bad to what is good and striving to do good things. He yearns that his village would find God’s light.

I prayed. I prayed for Paruk and for its people to be able to emerge from the darkness of their ignorance. Weeping, I begged God to give Srintil strength and to restore to her humanity. (TD, 445)

In the prayer, Rasus also dedicates his prayer to Srintil who is suffered from mental illness. What should be noticed here is the digression of the translation which simplifies the word ‘memanusia dan memakhluk’ into “humanity”. The difference matters for this study because the word ‘memakhluk’ holds an important meaning in the Sufism discourse. The word ‘makhluk’ is derived from Arabic language which means the creation. It is the antonym of Khalik or The Creator. Tohari is aware that

‘manusia’ and ‘makhluk’ have different sense. ‘Manusia’ is human being but

‘makhluk’ is a human being who is aware of his position as the creature made by

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God. In this sense, by being a makhluk, a human being would obey the command of

God and leave His prohibition.

Repentance can also be defined as turning away from something bad. Although

Tohari did not mention directly in the novel that Srintil embraces religion, essentially she conducts the repentance. As admitted to Lysoff, Tohari defines the process of

Srintil giving up her ronggeng career as an Islamic process.91 She turns away from being a ronggeng and makes up her mind to live her life as a normal woman. She decides to leave the sinful profession to follow her natural tendency as a woman.

Similarly, Rasus and Srintil’s ancestor, Ki Secamenggala, practices the repentance as well. In the end of his career as a villainous criminal, he is aware that the most essential matter that people are searching for is spiritual peace. For him, people can reach this state through the natural tendency toward cooperation and harmony.

Paruk only taught me about social cooperation and harmony, skills rooted in common courtesy. It may be that these themes were the final wishes of my ancestor Ki Secamenggala. He was, of course, known as bromocorah, a career criminal, but in his last days he realized that the natural tendency toward cooperation and harmony was far more important for spiritual peace than violence. (TD, 453)

Ki Secamenggala’s introspective thought about his life reflects the concept of Sufism.

Spiritual peace is what the Sufis chase after, the peaceful state when they are connected to God. Harmonious relationship with the surrounding, other people and

91 Rene TA Lysoff , Afterword. The Dancer. Ahmad Tohari. Trans. Rene TA Lysoff (Jakarta: The Lontar Foundation, 2003), p. 458.

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nature, may bring someone to feel the existence God. These kinds of person believe that God is behind each and every phenomenon in the nature.

By doing tawba or repentance, it means that the person admits that there is a

Divine entity who rules everything. This is what is called as tawhid. Tohari reflects this attitude in “The Lists of Favour for Sanwirya” that “God had commanded the mangosteen branches to hold Sanwirya’s body before he hit the hard ground.”92

Everything occurs under His will, therefore they will treat the nature with love and care as nature is the reflection of God’s love to His creatures. Thus, tawba is one of the most important spiritualism points in sustaining the environment because the awareness of God existence leads people to turn away from bad behavior and start to spread kindness to other God’s creatures. It is the opening door to build the harmonious relationship with God as suggested by the eco-Sufism perspective.

B. Wara’ (Reticence)

Wara’ is a cautious attitude not to be presumptuous in any way in God’s presence. In this way, people owning the attitude of wara will behave carefully so they will not violate God’s rule.93

Pambudi, the main character of Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, commits this action when he finally decides to resign from the village cooperative institution. He finds out that the institution is full of corruptive people. He is even invited to slice the budgeting cake together with them. Becoming aware of the situation in his

92 Tohari, Ahmad. “The Lists of Favour for Sanwirya”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 20 93 Renard, p. 201.

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workplace, he makes up his mind to leave the job. His faith of God prevents him from committing a sinful act of corruption. For Pambudi, the blessing of God is more important than wealth.

Tohari reflects the attitude of wara’ on his other novel Orang-orang Proyek. It is a general knowledge that the fund of construction project is a delicious meal for the corruptive rats. Many individuals from the upper to lower level who are involved in the project commit various unlawful act of corruption as explained in the previous chapter. Kabul as the manager of the construction project is in fact has a big chance to participate in that evil act. However, as he was raised by modest farmer parents who live their life in a humble and honest way, Kabul inherits those attitudes and rejects to take advantage of the project fund in any sinful ways (OOP, 85). He is aware that

God always watches what is done by His creature. His wara’ attitude is shown further in his reaction of facing the people who ask for donation to aid the construction of a mosque in the nearby village.

“But wait a second. Because of its holiness, the mosque must be constructed orderly and based on etiquette. The available materials here are bought for bridge construction, not for the mosque. Thus, all the materials will be used to build the bridge first. As the construction finished, the rest of the materials could be allocated to build the mosque. (OOP, 178)

Tohari through the character of Kabul emphasizes the attitude of wara’.

Everything should be done appropriately according to God’s law. Something good should be made of good things. He argues that it is wrong to achieve a goal in an improper way although the intention is noble. Accordingly, it is improper to accomplish a comfortable life by exploiting other creatures, to harm nature for human

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selfish satisfaction. Furthermore, the attitude of wara’ makes Kabul respects others because in the essence people are nothing compared to God’s power.

Kabul responds to Martasantang case gently. He keeps caring and respects others; and far from any inferior feeling when elevating dignity of others, as parawira did. Parawira will be ashamed if they place themselves more important than other people. (OOP, 172)

Although Kabul is considered to have higher social level compared to Martasantang, he pays some respect to him and does not assume that Martasantang is lower than him. He practices the Islamic value that everyone is equal before God. Owning the character of wara’ prevents him from being an arrogant individual. In this way, people who are wara’ will respect other God’s creatures because they do not consider that they are higher than others. In addition, by practicing the spirituality of wara’ people will do their best attempt to do what the Merciful God asks human being to do, spreading goodness and love to others. Accordingly, the feeling of superior towards others can be avoided. Domination and exploitation over nature and other creatures can also be shunned.

C. Zuhd (Renunciation)

Zuhd is simplicity of life as an expression of deep trust in God who supplies all needs.94 Zuhd is closely related to Faqr or poverty which is discussed in the sub- chapter below. By implementing the attitude of zuhd, people will only spend for what they need, not to indulge what they want. This attitude can be seen in Tohari’s character of Mbok Ralem from the story of Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak. Mbok Ralem used

94 Renard, p. 38.

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to live in a simple way in her village under the Cibalak Hill. When she undergoes the medication to treat her cancer, with the help of Pambudi, she receives donations from various parties in the form of money and gifts. The donation exceeds her need for the medication. However, when she recovers and about to return to her village she refuses to receive the remaining donation since she already gets what she needs that is medication for her illness. Furthermore, she wears again her old clothes and goes barefoot although she is given new clothes and footwear by those who pity her. Mbok

Ralem feels more comfortable to be herself, a village woman with a humble lifestyle, because that is all she needs. Money and fancy things do not tempt her.

Tohari presents the Sufism spirituality of Zuhd in several other narratives. In

The ‘Lists of Favour for Sanwirya’, a short story from the in Karyamin’s Smile compilation, Tohari once more depicts a character of a village woman who practices the zuhd way of life. It is the wife of Sanwirya who refuses the help from his husband’s mates to get her a loan to support her family as her husband is severely ill.

Her reaction of the plan reflects the attitude of zuhd.

Is that why you plan to get us a loan from the village barn and the middleman? Oh, dear God. Don't do that really, don’t. We won't be better off with those loans. We never have any problem with hunger!95

Her reaction implies that she and her family do not mind to live without wealth than to live comfortably but with debt. Sanwirya’s wife practice of zuhd is in line with

Seils interpretation that zuhd is the ability of the heart to resist the desire for

95 Tohari, Ahmad. “The Lists of Favour for Sanwirya”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), p. 26.

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something that is not owned.96 Her family does not have the fortune but she feels fine with what they are. She does not have the desire to have the loan –the money which does not really belong to her- because eventually debt will only cause bigger problems.

In addition, through the character of Pak Tarya, an old wise man in Orang- orang Proyek, Tohari also reflects his believe that “not all desire must be indulged.

(OOP, 23).”97 Having lived his life to an old age, he draws that wisdom from his experience as following the desire is a journey without end. People who chase for wealth or power will always crave for more and more.

Materialistic lifestyle which views a success by wealth and possession has made people try in any way to own it in order to climb the social status and to be considered as successful. Getting loans is the easiest way. People frequently put up their land as the collateral for the loan. Even some of them have to give up their land to support the lifestyle. Other people who could not afford the lifestyle but also could not resist the desire to own luxurious possessions often commit unlawful deeds in order to satisfy their need as exemplified by Tohari’s character explained in the previous chapter. Meanwhile, satisfying the desire for materialistic lifestyle is an endless job, thus people who could not resist the desire will never find a peace.

Tohari offers his zuhd vision in the passage below.

“Mas Kabul, Ki Hajar Dewantara once mentioned this. Choose one between these two conditions: crying while riding a motorbike or

96 Michael A Seils, Terbakar Cinta Tuhan (Bandung: Mizan, 2004), p. 266.

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humming while shouldering dhawet. Ki Hajar implicitly suggests the second condition. Living in a simple way while improving our sensitivity creates a tranquil life. Compare to first situation. That is to live wealthy but agitated because of greediness..... but now many people prefer the second condition.”(OOP, 250)

Without a peaceful mind, people will not able to sharpen their feeling to feel the presence of God. The disability to have a connection with God will lead people to live in a secular way. As discussed in the previous chapter, the secular way of life according to eco-Sufism is a threat to ecology.

The Sufism spirituality of zuhd is one way to prevent the degradation of the nature. The high consumerism rate demand a high need of raw material taken from nature. By living humbly, the consumerism rate will decrease. As the result of the decline of the rate, the exploitation of the nature can be reduced.

D. Faqr (Poverty)

It is interesting to notice that most of Tohari’s narratives surround the lives of the poor people. He portrays the life of poor people of Tanggir in Di Kaki Bukit

Cibalak, poor and isolated village of Paruk in The Dancer, the coolies and the workers encircled the construction project of Orang-orang Proyek, simple and humble characters in Karyamin’s Smile, and more poor and oppressed characters in his other narratives as well. Certainly, Tohari has a deep concern towards poor people.

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In a Cultural Speech held by Nahdatul Ulama in 2014, Tohari reveals that his intention in voicing the poor in his novels is to defend God98. Further, he explains that it does not mean that God is powerless that need to be defended but what are needed to be defended is his messages and “addresses”. The message of God given to human being, as what Tohari believed, is to disseminate love to the whole universe.

Furthermore, as the weak human being will not be able to reach the Absolute God

Himself, with his compassion He gives the “addresses” to reach Him through the poor and the oppressed. Literature can act as a mean to promote the messages, for this reason Tohari uses literature to voice the life of the God’s addresses. This is the way

Tohari defends God and helps others to reach God.

Poor people who are being patient over their situation have a high position in

Islam. Such people have some virtues which sometimes are not owned by others.

Tohari sees these and portrays them in the character of Karyamin. His life is so difficult that he is more familiar with hunger than having meals inside his stomach but Karyamin stays patient with his situation. It is reflected by his smile in responding his fate. The miserable circumstance does not make him selfishly think about his own life; instead he cultivates the sense of empathy and sympathy for others.

The heron swooped down fast with a loud squeak. Karyamin no longer hated the birds because he realized the busy bird must have been looking for something to feed its kids in a nest somewhere Karyamin imagined that tiny little herons were cuddling up in a nest, in some hole on a

98 Ahmad Tohari, Membela dengan Sastra. https://alif.id/read/ahmad-tohari/membela-dengan-sastra- b204566p/. Jakarta, 28 Maret 2014. Accessed 2 November 2017.

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protected cliff. The wind blew. The leaves of the hardwood tree flew around and some of them fell to the surface of the river. The wind always pushed those leaves against the current. “So you really don’t want to eat, Min? Saidah asked when she saw Karyamin stood up. “No. If you can’t stand seeing me hungry, I can’t bear seeing you bankrupt because of my debts and my friends’ debts.”99

Deciding to go home as he could not concentrate to accomplish his work because of his starvation, on his way home, Karyamin is offered meal by Saidah, the food staller, however he rejects it because he already has some debts with her. Saidah is probably as poor as Karyamin, however she still offers him meal that can be paid later because she pities him. On the other side, Karyamin rejects it because he feels bad for her that he and his friends have not paid their debt to her that now she cannot sell much. Both Karyamin and Saidah are poor people, though Karyamin needs the food and Saidah needs the money, they do not want to disadvantage each other. Being poor makes them feel more and care more about each other. Poverty cultivates the sense of empathy to others.

Karyamin’s empathy is not only felt to his humankind but it goes further to other God’s creation. Instead of hating the heron that almost hit him and made him fell from the riverbank, he appreciates the bird as it might be in the similar situation as his. He put his situation to what might be endured by the bird. Tohari through the character of Karyamin delivers the message that all God’s creations are equal and love should be spread to all of them equally.

99 Ahmad Tohari, “Karyamin’s Smile”, in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana, trans. Rosemary Kesauly (Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), pp. 15-16.

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Faqr is generally understood as poverty, the condition of not having money or possessions. However, it should be noted that by being in the state of faqr does not mean Sufis should not own a thing. They may have possessions or wealth but their hearts are not attached to those possessions. In the terminology of Sufism, faqr is the situation where people do not need anything but God.100 A love for the world will not be able to unite with the love for God, thus the Sufis leave the first to attain the second. In the state of faqr, people will be able to sense the presence of God in a better way because their hearts are free from dirt of greed and desire for the love for other things but God. Their feeling and sense grow stronger which enable them to empathize and to sympathize others better.

Furthermore, through his narratives such as “Blokeng”, “Wangon-Jatilawang”, and “The Beggar and Shalawat Badar”, Tohari sends the message that God takes care of his creatures. The holy Quran mentions that “And there is no creature on earth but that upon is its provision”.101 It means that God guarantees the sustenance to every single creature on the earth. Thus, Blokeng –a mentally disabled homeless woman who lives in the garbage pile in a market- in “Blokeng”, Sulam –a mentally disabled man who walk to and fro between Wangon and Jatilawang- in “Wangon-

Jatilawangng”, and a beggar who always recite praise to God and the Prophet in “The

Beggar and The Shalawat Badar” are also have their lives guaranteed by God despite their condition. Thus people should not be worry too much about life by greedily and shamelessly chasing wealth in this momentary life in the world.

100 Purna Siswa, Jejak Sufi (Kediri: Lirboyo Press, 2011), p. 76. 101 Al Quran, Hud:6, Trans. by Shahih International. 2017

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In addition, in “The Beggar and the Shalawat Badar” the beggar is the only passenger of the bus that undergoes a terrible accident who is safe without any bruise at all while the other passengers died or severely injured102. The narrator of the story who is also badly injured indicates that the beggar is saved by God because he always recites the Shalawat. It implies that at the end it is only God that can save people, not their belongings. What is more from Tohari’s narratives is that through the character of the poor people Tohari invites the reader to take a closer look to lives of the poor in order to make the readers pay more empathy to them and to learn from them.

Practicing the Sufism spirituality of faqr is a blessing for nature. First of all, the detachment to the worldly desire prevents people to spend what are offered by nature greedily. Secondly, the ability to sympathize and empathize others will make them respect and care for the nature as exemplified by Karyamin above. With this ability they are not capable to hurt and destroy nature as they see nature as the representation of God’s existence that should also be treated with love and care.

E. Mahabba (Love)

Mahabba is simply understood as love. The way Tohari writes his narratives express his love of nature. Without any fondness for nature, it is impossible for him to describe it in a vivid and detail way in his narratives. Various species of animals and plants appears in the background of the stories he made. Kerokot, Puyengan,

102 Ahmad Tohari, “The Beggar and the Shalawat Badar” in Karyamin’s Smile, ed. Maman Mahayana. Trans. Rosemary Kesauly ( Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2015), pp 104-105.

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Surabanglus, Angsana, Jengkol, Pelus fish, Kedasih bird are only small parts of the species he has mentioned in his novels. In The Dancer alone he mentions 38 kinds of birds and poultry, 21 kinds of insects, 15 kinds of mammal, 10 kinds of reptiles, 15 other kind of animals and 48 varieties of vegetation.103 It is numerous amounts which reflect his avid interest of nature. Many of the animals and plants he has mentioned in the novels are probably rarely found in today’s environment, thus Tohari reserves them in his novels to keep them alive.

Tohari believes that human being is sent to earth to disseminate love to all. His belief is reflected on the attitude of his created character in his narratives. The nature loving character is shown through Pak Tarya in Orang-orang Proyek. Tohari portrays a scene in his novel that shows how human should treat other creatures.

A Tawes hits and takes ten minutes to make the fish completely surrender to the fish hook. Once Pak Tarya gets the fish by his net, he observes it and then releases the fish back to the river "your belly bulge contains thousands of eggs." (OOP, 14)

In the next scene, Pak Tarya does a similar action.

as a fish hits his fishing rod. He rolls it gracefully and finds a Putihan fish nailed to the fish hook. Pak Tarya frees the fish from the hook, then release it back into the water. "You're still too small, next year I will get you back." (OOP, 19)

What Pak Tarya did is the way how human being should explore nature. God has provided human being the nature to be explored to advance their living, yet this action should be done vis-a-vis with the protection of the nature. The passage above describes Pak Tarya’s activity of fishing. This is an action of taking benefit from

103 Hartono, p. 2417.

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nature for human’s life. In doing so, several considerations must be taken. In the first scene, Pak Tarya releases the fish because it carries thousands of eggs. The fish is considerably big that actually he could enjoy more from it; however his awareness on the preservation of the nature prevents him from taking it away which will save the probable life of thousands of fishes.

Similarly in the next scene he releases the putihan fish as the fish is too young to be consumed. He only takes the selected fishes to be brought home. Pak Tarya practices the selective fishing to sustain the life of the fishes on the river. Though he takes the benefit from the nature but he also shows his love to it.

Selective fishing as what is done by Pak Tarya is one way to maintain the sustainability of the nature. This attitude prevents the extinction of species as it gives the chance for mother fish to breed its species and gives the young a chance to live.

Similarly in the exploitation of the forest, a selective logging should also be conducted according to the established regulation to decrease the deforestation.

Although there is a debate on the effectiveness of selective logging in sustaining the forest104, this way is far better than the inconsiderate logging practiced by illegal logging which tends to cut down everything with no attempt to sustain the forest.

In Sufism, God is the Beloved and the Lover. Nature is the manifestation of

God’s love. He provides it for human being to meet their needs. Being aware about the presence of God in nature leads human being to treat the nature with love, thus it

104 Sist Plinio et.al. “The Impacts of Selective Logging: Questionable Conclusions”. BioScience 62: 9 (2012): 786.

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prevents them from doing any harm to nature. Furthermore, Sufism considers that love is the power that can bring man to God. Rumi explains the development of love that will lead human to God take place as follow:

1) through the development of the emotional, cordial love for all the beautiful and harmonious in the world; 2) through active, sacrificial love-service to people; 3) and then — through extending this love to all manifestations of the world without discriminating between them; the Sufis say: “If you make a distinction between things originating from God — you are not man of spiritual Path. If you think that a diamond can ennoble you and a stone lowers you, then God is not with you” 4) such developed love for all elements of the Creation is redirected then to the Creator — and man begins to see that, according to Rumi, “the Beloved is present in everything”105

The practice of mahabba will bring Sufis to maintain the beauty and the harmony of the world. They will express the love for God by caring for others. They will also see all God’s creations as equal since all originate from Him and He presents in all his creations. Tohari exemplifies the practice of mahabba through his narratives. He emphasizes the harmony between man and nature; he greets the poor; he also brings the nature alive in his narratives. All of them are the manifestation of the message of God given to human being i.e. to disseminate love to the whole universe and what are in it.

F. Uzlah (Seclusion)

Uzlah is seclusion or solitude for spiritual retreat. It is defined further as withdrawing the heart from the boisterous mind of worldly business. Several forms of

105 Jalaluddin Rumi, The Mathnawi. Vol. 1-8. Leiden, 1925-1940. http://www.beautyislam.org/practices_of_sufism.html>, Accessed 20 November 2017

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uzlah have been shown by Tohari in his novels. First of all, it is the decision of Ki

Secamenggala, the ancestor of people of Paruk in The Dancer, to retire from his villainous criminal career in the isolated place as he finally comes to a conclusion that spiritual peace is a substantial matter in life (TD, 435). He has lived his life to search for wealth by creating damage and harm to others, however he never feels satisfied with anything he owns. He finally finds peace by isolating himself from the rest of the world and harmonizing himself with nature. This is the wisdom value he bequeaths to his descendant.

Secondly, through the character of Pak Tarya, an old man who often spends his days fishing in the river, Tohari emphasizes the important role of uzlah to attain spiritual peace. While playing with his flute in the serenity of Cibawor River he experiences the feeling as below.

He transcends from his consciousness and feels the presence of the wisdom of the universe. Wisdom that he finds it difficult to explain, yet it is calming and comforting. (OOP, 4)

Blending himself with the tranquility of Cibawor River, Pak Tarya can withdraw himself from the worldly matters which grant him peacefulness of mind.

Building the harmony with the nature enables human being to feel the presence of

God in each and every occurrence in the universe. Indeed, Tohari often inserts the wisdom of nature as the sign of the greatness of God in his narratives as exemplified by the passage taken from The Dancer below.

The lingering hot weather had dried all the seeds months before. The boll of the kapok plant grew black as its shell broke up into three sections.

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With the gusting breeze, minute tufts of cotton were scattered, drifting in the wind. Each tiny cotton wisp held a ripe seed, eager to germinate wherever it landed on the earth. Such was the wisdom of nature, ensuring that no new kapok shrub grew too close to its parent plant. (TD, 4)

Only by a meditation with a clear mind that people can extract the nature wisdom in the kapok seeds blow by the wind. The readers of Tohari’s literary works will find several similar contemplative description of nature in many of his works. In fact, his preference of presenting thick atmosphere of village picturesque itself is a form of uzlah. Moreover, in his real life Tohari commit an uzlah as well by deciding to move to his small village in Tinggarjaya, a small town in Central Java, from the hectic life in the capital city of Jakarta.

Uzlah enables people to contemplate their behavior and to read the God’s verses unfolded in the nature. This will ignite the awareness on the Greatness of God through His creations. Uzlah leads the heart to develop the love for God and to be aware of His love to His creations. Attaining this feeling of love, people will treat the manifestation of their Lover and Beloved fondly. Thus, this world can be saved from the destruction.

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Concluding Remark

According to Eco-Sufism, the core cause of ecological problems lay on the inharmonious relationship between humankind and God. Accordingly, the way to solve the problems is by maintaining the harmonious relationship with God through the spirit of religion. Eco-Sufism considers nature as the shadow of God. His love is manifested in the way He creates the nature as the source of wisdom and beauty and the source of life necessities for all of His creatures. The faith in the presence of God in nature is manifested in the way human being treats nature.

The previous chapter has revealed that there are two factors that have caused the ecological problems depicted in Ahmad Tohari’s selected literary works namely secularized modernization and violation of vicegerency in the form of greed, corruption and abuse of power. This chapter discusses the alternative solution to overcome the problems according to the perspective of Eco-Sufism offered by

Tohari’s narratives. The study found that the spirituality of Sufism in the form of tawba, wara’, zuhd, faqr, mahabbah, and uzlah were reflected in Tohari’s narratives.

Tawba is the act of turning away from bad to good, thus this is the first path should be taken to fix the inharmonious relationship with God. Wara, zuhd and faqr possess the nature of leaving the worldly temptation to be able to unite with God, thus those spiritualities could prevent people from greed and any deeds of fulfilling it such as corruption and abuse of power. Mahabbah is the manifestation of the love of God, while uzlah is one of the ways to reach the love. Mahabbah and uzlah could sharpen the heart to help people feel the presence of God in the nature. Being aware of the presence of God could encounter the creed of secularism.

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Although the spiritualities of Sufism are found in all of Tohari’s novel being scrutinized in this study, Orang-orang Proyek is the one which dominates the reflection of the spiritualities. Wara, zuhd, mahabbah, and uzlah are clearly found in the novel through the character of Kabul and Pak Tarya. Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak focused more on wara and zuhd, while tawba is particularly found in The Dancer.

Furthermore, the spirit of faqr, uzlah, and mahabbah overlay all Tohari’s narratives through the way he addresses the poor and nature in his narratives.

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

This chapter is dedicated to elaborate the significant points of the study that has been discussed in the previous chapters. This study observes the ecological issues in

Ahmad Tohari’s Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, The Dancer, Orang-orang Proyek, and

Karyamin’s Smile. The issues of ecology start to steal the stage on the literary criticism in the last two decades. The escalated awareness on the ecological crisis that threatens the earth has led activists and scholars to contribute their thoughts and actions to save this only livable place in this universe from catastrophe.

This study offers another alternative in seeing the issue of ecology that is through the perspective of eco-Sufism. The eco-Sufism approach is applied to

Tohari’s works because most of his works are wrapped in a vivid portrayal of nature and rich values of religious morality. Tohari accentuates the harmonious unity of living with nature. Some studies have been conducted to discuss the nature in

Tohari’s work and likewise to derive the religious values out of them. This study brings those subjects together to reveals the ecological problems in Tohari’s works, their causes, and the offered solution to overcome the problems. Accordingly two questions have been formulated to be answered by this study. The first question is how the ecological problems that are reflected in Ahmad Tohari’s selected literary works are seen through the perspective of eco-Sufism and the second is what the eco-

Sufism values are offered in those works regarding the solution of the ecological

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problems. Those two research questions meet their answer in Chapter III and Chapter

IV.

Chapter III provides the discussion of the first research question. Regarding that question, this study finds that there are five major ecological problems depicted in the novels being scrutinized. Despite the serene and nostalgic ambience of nature exposed in Tohari’s narratives, it turns out that dreadful pictures of ecological issues are shadowing his stories as well. They are drought, flood, forest destruction and illegal logging, annihilation of species, and unsustainable construction. The aforementioned ecological problems are caused by human activities.

The portrayal of drought appears vividly in the setting of The Dancer. It is also depicted in rich details by Tohari in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak and in several short stories in Karyamin’s Smile. Meanwhile, flood is mentioned in Orang-orang Proyek and a short story in Karyamin’s Smile entitled ‘Well, It’s Jakarta’. Tohari also infers a problem of waste attached to the flood in both stories. Tohari portrays the phenomenon of wood theft in a protected forest in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, Orang- orang Proyek and in several stories in Karyamin’s Smile. The protection of the forest is not without reasons. Protection of a forest with a legal system is needed due to the issue of conservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem balance. Furthermore, a forest has a significant role in preserving the ground water, providing oxygen, and preventing soil erosion. Annihilation of species is mainly described in Di Kaki Bukit

Cibalak as the direct effect of modernity that forced the conversion of agriculture land into road and building to accommodate the modernization current. Finally, the

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last ecological problem mentioned in this study is unsustainable construction. This issue is depicted particularly in Orang-orang Proyek. Unsustainable construction surely ignores the Environmental Impact Assessment.106 If a building does not meet the requirement of the Environmental Impact Assessment, it brings threat to the environment. This study points out that the unsustainable construction in Orang- orang Proyek contributes a serious damage to the environment due to the waste of energy and the waste of building materials, not to mention its contribution to the release of carbon emission during the construction which triggers the global warming.

This study highlights that the abovementioned ecological problems are rooted in the poor relationship between human beings and God. Eco-Sufism believes that the harmony between human beings and God holds a significant role in the sustainability of the nature. In addition, human being was sent to earth as khalifah or vicegerent of

God, the representative of God on earth who is given a task to maintain the balance and harmony of life. They may take what the nature has offered to live their life well but at the same time they are also responsible to protect and to take care of the nature.

The problems arise when human beings feel superior over nature and ignore the existence of God.

This study reveals two major points that trigger the ecological problems in

Tohari’s works. Firstly, the ecological problems appear as the result of the secularized modernization. Modern people divorce religion from science, as the result religious values are absent in the development of technology. Tohari portrays the

106 AMDAL (Analisa Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan)

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powerful spread of the secularized modernization spirit that reaches even the remote village such as Paruk in The Dancer. In Tohari’s narratives, the modernization changes the social system in the society. People try to keep up with the modernization and they become consumptive creatures. The high rate of consumerism demands a high amount of raw materials taken from the nature. The exploitation of the nature is unavoidable. The chemical and non-biodegradable waste pollutes the nature. Modern people desacralize the nature and count it only from its material value. They fail to see God in the nature. It is mentioned further in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak that modernization leads villagers to migrate to the city which offers more gleaming temptation of modern life. The field in the village is neglected or conversed into modern construction to meet the demand of the modernization. Accordingly, the balance of the ecosystem and the harmony in the nature are ruined. The secularized modernization may not directly ruin the nature, but the secularized values attached to it influence the attitude of people towards nature. This reason leads to the second cause to occur.

The second cause of the ecological problems in Tohari’s narratives according to

Eco-Sufism perspective is violation of vicegerency in the form of greed, corruption, and abuse of power. The materialistic spirit that connotes with secularized modernization creates a Promethean man 107 who cares only for the worldly pleasure.

This attitude ignites the greed which burns their consciences. Tohari portrays the

107 Nasr creates the terms of Promethean man to describe a wordly man who chases the glory on earth and rebels the Heaven. It is derived from the Greek mythology of Prometheus. It is the opposite of Pontificial man, taken from the word ‘pontiff’, which symbolizes the bridge between heaven and earth.

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greedy creatures in the characters of Lurah Dirga in Di Kaki Bukit Cibalak, Dalkijo in

Orang-orang Proyek, and Bajus in The Dancer. Those greedy persons chase the money and possession by any means. They create suffering to other human kind and create destruction to the nature. The exemplified characters above also possess power because of their status in the society. Unfortunately, they use their authority as a mean to satisfy their greed by committing corruption and deceiving other people.

They violate not only the trust of other people but also the status of vicegerent given by God. Greed, corruption, and abuse of power in this case are inseparable. The spirit of materialism brought by secular modernization transforms people to be greedy creatures. To fulfill the greed, they commit the evil deed of corruption and make use the power they own to gain personal benefits. Furthermore, massive exploitation of nature in order to fulfill human needs for comfortable life is a real terror for all God’s creations on Earth. The anthropocentric exploitation of nature ignores the right to life of other God’s creations. It is true that nature has its own way to keeps its balance but the excessive intrusion of human being violates the balance. This is where the ecological tragedy starts to take place.

Chapter IV of this study discusses the offered solution regarding the ecological problems in Tohari’s selected works. As the ecological problems appear due to the inharmonious relationship between human being and God, the core solution of the problems is to return to God. Sufism is a path to reach the unity with God. This study on Tohari’s works under the lens of eco-Sufism promotes the spirituality of Sufism to resolve the problems of ecology. This study finds out that Tohari’s narratives suggest

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the spirituality of Sufism namely tawba, wara’, zuhd, faqr, mahabbah, and uzlah. It is now the time for the spirituality of Sufism to be translated into larger than simply formal religious ritual. It can be drawn further into the attitudes for the sake of ecological conservation. Tawba is the first door to enter God’s mercy. Wara’, zuhd, and faqr have the characteristic of leaving the worldly pleasure in order to get closer to God, while mahabbah and uzlah help people to feel the presence of God in the nature which makes people respect the sacredness of the nature and treat it with love as it is the representation of God’s love. The application of wara’, zuhd, and faqr prevents people from being greedy and committing any form of mischief which follow it. Mahabbah and uzlah could encounter the creed of secularism brought by modernization.

In relation to Sufism as the process of takhalli (to empty), tahalli (to fill), and tajalli (to manifest)108, tawba can be considered as takhalli process in which the heart is cleansed from the evil intention; afterward the clean heart is filled with virtuous spirituality of wara’, zuhd, faqr, mahabbah and uzlah in the process of tahalli.

Finally, the tajalli process is reflected by the manifestation of the second process to the preservation of nature as shown, for example, in the way Pak Tarya releases the fishes in Orang-orang Proyek and the cancellation of tree cutting in “Sutabawor’s

Feast”.

This study is only one alternative in cultivating the rich values of Tohari’s narratives. This study acknowledges that Tohari’s writings have a significant concern

108 Suwito NS, p. 41.

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to poverty. Tohari believes that the poor and the nature are the “address”109 of God that should be defended. However, this thesis could not discuss the issue in more thoroughly as it focus more on the relation of nature and religion. Thus, a further research can be conducted to observe the relation between the poor and the nature in

Tohari’s narratives.

William Rueckert in Literature and Ecology proposes the analogy of the flow of energy that never disappears but transform into different form to explain the flow of energy of a literary work110. He considers a literary work as a stored energy. The activity of reading, teaching, and critical discourse of a literary work release the stored energy into human community and can be transformed into social actions. In this way, readers, teachers, and critics act as mediator between literature and nature.

This study is expected to transform the energy stored in Tohari’s narratives into the spirit of the conservation of nature. It is intended as a contribution to respond to the ecological problems which threaten the sustainability of the earth. A simple energy releases from reading this thesis is an awareness of caring the nature as it is part of the faith to God. A teacher can also considers Tohari’s narratives that serve as the object of this study to be a reading material for the students to raise their awareness on the ecological problems as this thesis suggests a unique approach in seeing the ecological problems in the narratives. Thus, the energy from the literary works will keep flowing and create a change.

109 Ahmad Tohari, “Membela dengan Sastra”. Alif.id. https://alif.id/read/ahmad-tohari/membela- dengan-sastra-b204566p/. 30 September 2017. Accessed 2 November 2017 110 William Rueckert, "Literature and Ecology" in The Ecocriticism Readers: Landmark in Literary Ecology, eds. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996), pp. 108-109.

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