Muhammadiyah lags behind in producing Islamic thinkers

Muhammadiyah lags behind in producing Islamic thinkers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's largest Muslim social
organizations, is falling behind when it comes to producing new
Islamic thinkers, says a prominent Muslim scholar.

Dawam Rahardjo said Muhammadiyah concentrated too much on the
concept of amar ma'ruf, nahi mungkar (do good deeds and abandon
bad ones), rather than producing new Islamic thinkers.

The group had also focused too much of its attention on
promoting the well-being of its followers, through the
establishment of schools, universities, hospitals, orphanages and
cooperatives, he said.

This came at the expense of teaching Islamic traditions and
Arabic, both essential for ulama (Islamic scholars) and kyai
(Islamic teachers), he said in his lecture titled "Muhammadiyah
and the Growth of Islamic Thought in Indonesia" presented on
Friday night.

Muhammadiyah is the second largest Islamic group in Indonesia
after Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Established in 1912 in Yogyakarta, it expanded largely in
urban areas in Java and Sumatra and became regarded as a force of
renewal and modernization in the Islamic community.

In contrast, Nahdlatul Ulama, founded in 1926, focused on
preserving Islamic traditions. NU is popular in rural Java. One
of its most famous contemporary thinkers is former president
Abdurrahman Wahid.

Islamic scholar Nurcholish Madjid, who was present at the
lecture, agreed with Dawam, saying that Muhammadiyah could no
longer claim to be a force of renewal.

Dawam said Muhammadiyah had produced many intellectuals and
professionals, but not Islamic thinkers in the real sense of the
term.

"Young people are studying science rather than classical
Islam. As a result, they have failed to grasp the strong currents
now found in Islamic thought," he said.

He conceded that even Nahdlatul Ulama, with its strong
tradition embedded in pesantren (boarding schools), was better
prepared in dealing with the changes.

Nahdlatul Ulama made a big leap into the "post-traditionalist
era", combining Islamic tradition with left-wing thought and
liberalism, Dawam said.

Muhammadiyah, he added, could well emulate Nahdlatul Ulama by
establishing Islamic study centers.

Muhammadiyah must start developing a more positive attitude
toward tradition, be it Islamic, Western or indigenous.

It must also develop foreign language centers, which teach not
only Arabic but other foreign languages widely used in the
Islamic world as well as the rest of the world.

Dawam proposed that Muhammadiyah develop ideas based on
relations between religion and the state, between Islam and
democracy, between divine revelation and science, between Islamic
and Western cultures and about pluralism governing relations
between religious communities.

Muhammadiyah's Hall of fame

Past:
Ahmad Dahlan,
Mas Mansyur,
A.R. Sutan Mansyur,
Ki Bagus Hadikusumo,
Djarnawi Hadikusumo,
Syeh Abdul Karim Amrullah,
Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah,
Abdul Malik Ahmad,
Zainal Abidin Ahmad,
A.R. Baswedan,
Azhar Ahmad Basir,
M. Yunus Anis.

Present:
Ahmad Syafii Ma'arif,
Malik Fadjar,
Haedar Nasir,
Dawam Rahardjo.