Islamic discourse in RI literature

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