´Hi wali, yes quite possible that I misunderstood - may god grant us all a clear & correct understanding and forgive our mistakes. With the physical movement , we have trained some silat where the movements definitely are connected to religious practise - some movements following arabic alphabet , some following a pattern of numerology - from the outside they dont seem to have any relevance to a " Martial Application " but they are used amongst other things for example to " seal " the Gelanggang , for collecting , storing and distributing energy or to shield or redirect something. in my opinion physical movement itself IS connected to faith - for believers God is giving you power to move , for non believers it is a set of muscular contractions utilising energy from air & food - there is a big difference. peace sulaiman
This is my point. You don't NEED to associate the physical movement if you don't want to, as aethists can do the physical movements as well as anyone else. The Spiritual aspect takes the physical movements onto another level, but aren't essential to perform them. Also, this wouldn't make the movements part of a specific religion.
no you dont need to associate the physical movements with any higher meaning , but then your silat is empty -the movement of a robot. In ractual fact there is always a connection /association with a spiritual centre / reality , but performing a movement in a state of heedlessness you will be unaware of this and will not benefit or understand the reality of silat - which as you know is more than a set of physical movements / exercises. Muslims do not seperate the Physical and the Spiritual, this is a product of a rationalistic / dualistic type of thinking that we suffer from in our secular western culture . Allah Almightyis the ZAHIR and the BATIN . We are composed of physical & spiritual united together and until the time of our death they do not seperate, thus every physical movement, from the blinking of an eyelid to the throwing of a punch is connected to a spiritual power source - God gave you the power to perform that movement and wrote it for you - we are responsible for our intention when performing it. Are we in a state of remembrance of God , how he is the cause or are we in a state of heedlessness - attributing it to ourselves or accident ?
I think that we have an issue with terminology and meaning to our words, so we will agree to disagree. Welcome to the Forum by the way...
thanks wali, very nice to be part of a forum like this - I think some of my friends are training with you & hope to visit you all one day . peace
Peace and God's Blessing be upon you all reading this post, Thank you Brother for reminding us of this truth. Praise be to Allah that you have deep faith. In Sunda there is a popular saying, silat without sholat is evil, sholat without silat is weak. Sayidina Ali was a pesilat skilled in many arts that I believe Hang Tuah tried to emulate and I feel that you might be trying to be guided by the same inspiration. From your words it is apparent that I can trust you and your silat is true silat (not the best). Any silat that claims to be the best is lying and dishonouring adab and adat. Orang tak tau adat! Please post more thoughts on Islam and silat. I for one, as a muslim pesilat, feel that we as the inheritors of the art of taking people's heads off, are in a strategic position to bring forward the true definition of jihad which is an ethic of non-violence and not a desparate death-wish depicted by news media today. Pendekar, please open a thread to attempt to take the meaning of jihad back from the twisting it has gone through in the world's media. Rahayu, Kiai Carita.
