Islamic discourse in RI literature

Sastra dan Budaya Islam Nusantara, Dialektika Antarsistem Nilai (Indonesia's Islamic Literature and Culture, Inter-Value-System Dialectics); By Ahmad Tohari, D. Zawawi Imron, Faruk, et al.; SMF Adab IAIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, April 1998; x + 134pp

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's modern literature deals with a lot of religious problems. Usually, there are three ways in which these problems are dealt with, as indicated by the works of noted authors here. First, questioning religious teaching practices (Surau Kami [The Collapse of Our Prayer House], a novel by A.A. Navis); second, creating and exposing problems on the basis of religious teaching (Nyanyi Sunyi [Silent Songs], a collection of poems by Amir Hamzah); and third, using religious life as a setting (Tenggelamnya Kapal van der Wijck [The Sinking of van der Wijck's Ship], a romance by Hamka).

When literature deals with religious problems, there is often a sort of tug-of-war between dogmatic and normative religious teachings, and imaginative and creative freedoms in literature, especially with respect to interpretation. A short story entitled Langit Makin Mendung (The Sky is Getting Darker), by Ki Panji Kusmin, is a good example of how a literary work stirred controversy among Moslems.

However, in one respect, literature and religion share one thing in common: humans. Literature reflects human life at a particular time, while religion is concerned with man. In fact, it is only natural, if not important, that religious problems creep into literary works. The same is also true of regional literature in Indonesia.

This book has, as its point of departure, the fact that the diverse opinions about Islamic literature are yet to find something in common. There is an opinion that Islamic literature must be oriented to tauhid (faith in the Oneness of God) and aimed at transcendental things.

In this way, there is ample room for the growth of Sufism- influenced literature. As the essence in a literary creation is the search and the realization of oneself, every writer is free to choose his aesthetic and creative domain and his discourse. In this way, the tendency of Islam-inspired literature must be responded to properly as part of creative freedom and the search and expression of oneself.

Criticism against this view argues that Islamic literature with the tendency of Sufism is expressive and irrational in nature and, therefore, would dim critical power in Islamic scientific search. The right thing to introduce, the critics argue, would be what is known as progressive Islamic literature, the kind of literature that brings with it spiritual enlightenment and leads to necessary reform in society.

It is alleged that Sufism brings with it kejumudan (rigidity) among Moslems and will give birth only to followers, not initiators or pioneers.

Much earlier, there was even a more basic criticism about the term Islamic literature itself. It was said that the relationship between literature and Islam was actually problematic. The term Islamic literature is biased in that it is imbued with the spirit of orientalism. In the case of Indonesia's regional literature, the discourse on Islamic literature has long been produced and distributed by orientalists.

This book is a collection of a number of papers presented in a national seminar on Indonesia's Literary Archaeology and Islamic Culture, held by the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta last year.

Writers Ahmad Tohari and D. Zawawi Imron dwell on the same theme, namely the literature of pesantren (Moslem boarding schools). According to Tohari, the propagators of Islam have made use of literature as a medium to disseminate the teaching of history, laws and mysticism, especially of the Sufi school. Tohari is corroborated by Imron with his data that a sunan (holy man who first brought Islam to Java) was a creator who invariably introduced changes and reform. Sunan Kalijaga and Sunan Giri, for example, created Dhandanggula and Asmaradhana (Javanese) poetry respectively. Both discuss faith, the tauhid.

Another contributor, Faruk, quotes scholar Edward Said's statement that the bias of Western colonialism, as found in the point of view of the orientalists, is unavoidable. Therefore, it is necessary to review the orientalists' discourses by critically reading their works or establishing a new perspective in our understanding of literary works considered to be Islamic.

Simuh, a doctor of Islamic mysticism and Javanese spiritualism, opines that Islamic elements were tapped and utilized to enrich and promote the treasury of old Javanese literature, prior to the introduction of Islam in Java. Islamic- Kejawen literature was the domain of writers belonging to Javanese nobility and was developed within the palaces of Javanese-Islamic sultanates such as Mataram, Cirebon and Banten. So the most prominent characteristic in Islamic-Kejawen literature is that it is imbued with political and mystic content.

This book, at least, has demonstrated that efforts have been made to trace back the so far unpopular treasury of Indonesia's Islamic literature and culture, particularly in the context of contemporary Indonesian literature.

-- Binhad Nurrohmat