About Ghaib

Do you believe in ghost? Have you ever seen ghost? You’re so lucky if you can’t see but it, but believe that ghost, or whatever it is called with,is really exist. That is called “faith”. You believe in something even though you never see or feel it with your five senses. That is called ghaib (Arabic). Ghaib is something invisible. Ghaib is also mean absence. The most frequently question from “the West” is ‘how do we can prove that something ghaib is really exist, if it can’t be proved/seen?

The main idea from this writing began when I felt that my death is near. It is may because I have listened too many mystical stories, which is often there with a someone’s death (especially unpredictable death, such as accidental death, murderer, amongst other), like a ‘sign’ of coming of the death. This premonition of death can’t be divided from Nusantara’s culture.

What I got a couple months ago was that premonition. Due to that, I felt scared when driving my motorcycle. The Final Destination movie influenced me so much, paranoid was on me, I can’t let my attention remiss from anything around me. Finally, this fear became foolishness, as well as enlightenment, because I don’t have any reason at all for fear. The death can takes us, anytime, even in our pleasant house which have protect us from wind, cold, rain and hot sun.

Suddenly, I imagined the ceiling of my house: it seemed fine, nothing wrong. Anyway, I couldn’t see-through the 4 millimeters plafond. There could be some fragile woods, and could fell down on me. I’m dead!

I got one important lesson: death could be happened anywhere and anytime. Beside that, I got a lesson about ghaib too. From my imagination about ‘fragile building construction’ that couldn’t be seen by naked eye, I concluded that there are so many things in this world we can’t see. Its number maybe as much as the visible things, maybe much more. From that conclusion, I’ve got one more conclusion that anything we can’t see (invisible) doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. This is the essence of ghaib concept in Islam (as long as I know).

So, in this position, I find no any reason to not believe in ghosts or whatever it is called, only because they are invisible (we can’t see). Like I said, there are so many invisible things in this world, and we can’t be separated with those. If God gives human an ability to see every ghaib thing, undoubtedly they will die. They will not dare to leave the house, they will even not dare to stay in the house, and the probabilities of death are always threatening them (us?). They will see some fragile building foundation and it will collapse soon; they will see electrical problems which be able to cause fire or even killing us directly; they will see gas leak and will be exploded soon; they will see aides aegypti while sucking our blood; they will see a car that will hit them; and millions more ghaib things. They are only going to die, not because of death itself, but rather because of knowing those horrible things.

This view helps me in understanding Derrida’s words that,”Western thought is structured by dichotomies, that is, by pairs of concepts that appear to be opposites of each other, such as presence/absence, identity/difference or speech/writing.” For Derrida, Western thought is more concerned to precense over absence. In other word, Western thought believe more in something visible than something invisible.

That’s why faith is in the top position in Islam. We can’t see not only God and Angels, but also the future. Our life today, is ghaib one day before. We can’t see the future, but it doesn’t mean the future doesn’t exist. We are living together with millions of ghaib things. So, believe it…

Nowhere, 09/02/2012.

Inspired by:

- Final Destination the movie

- Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, 1998.

- The ceiling and the plafond