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.